transparency at the risk of heresy.

I think it's very interesting how we are always open and honest when it's easy. As soon as hard times blow in the door we find it easier to put on the mask of Christianity and pretend that everything is fine and dandy. Our actions are the very reason many people think that Christians are fake and hypocritical. Which in many cases, this is absolutely true. We sign our names beneath the Joel Osteen brand of Christianity, which in all actuality life is not always as pleasant as chocolates and Christmas presents.

C.S. Lewis is really inspiring me to re-think stereo typical Christianity. His honesty and questioning regarding his faith is making me really re-assess my thinking. I was always raised to think that doubt was bad and the only reason doubt arises is because of a lack of faith. So whenever the ugly face of doubt would rise out of my restless spirit, i would simply strike it's head like a gofer in the arcade. I pushed questions away and merely accepted the answers i was spoon fed over and over again. Lewis has shown me that even the most well respected thinks and theologians deal with doubt. And his thoughts in response to that doubt borders on down right heresy. (i.e. "If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God.)

I think honesty is very important. All of us need to practice opening ourselves up to the idea that sometimes it's perfectly fine to have doubts. Doubt is not the absence of faith but instead the fertilizer that grows our faith.

"it's only after we loose everything, that we are free to do anything." - Tyler Durden

God will never leave us or forsake us, even when we feel like he does.

random, thoughts and reflection.

I am writing this blog from the comfort of my home in Gainesville, Florida. My band, Paint Me Irrational, had a show this evening. We had a lovely time and a very good turn out. We played three new songs, and four not so new songs. Why you do you fellow bloggers need to know this? Well i guess you don't really, but i wanted to write it anyways.

Mondays class was a frightfully good time. My group discussed the Irresistible Revolution, Intercessory Prayer and The Road. We talked about the importance of marinating our prayers rather than microwaving them. We also discussed the importance of making sure we keep apathy in check. The road led our discussion down a very different "road." This is the story of a father and son and their quest for survival.

Talking with peers about anything is a great way to dig deeper into texts. It also allows you to decipher literature through another persons eyes.

these have been my random thoughts and reflections.

happy endings only happen in disney movies.

The story "Happy Endings" perfectly personifies love and death. The author of this work of fiction was very creative in her way of presenting the different options. She made me feel like she was selling houses. For Example, One of the "houses" had a good for nothing unfaithful man, an abused woman/hopeless romantic, a visit to a restaurant and a bottle of pills. Each option that she presents ultimately ends in death. She makes each story however happy or unpleasant seem dismal and pointless since it always inevitably ends in death.

The author expresses many different views on love. Some of the views seem like dollar menu love, the kind of love that can be bought, sold and traded in for an ice-cream. When i read stories like this i think of God's love and how mind blowing it really is. All of the stories examples of love seem extremely selfish, when love is truly meant to be the most self-less thing.

I believe that "Happy Endings" is a great reminder of what love is and what it is not.

music is literature with a melody.

The other day, in class, we listened to a piece of music that told the story of a man who wasn't capable of doing any good. Frankie was an extremely jealous woman who suspected her lover of infidelity. She goes to a bar, jumps to the conclusion that the trust-worthing bartender is an honest man and then decides to shoot her lover, Johnny, multiple times to punish him for hugging his mistress Nellie Bly. Johnny was buried and the end of the song concludes that there is no good in man. I believe that stories are sometimes best told when thrown onto a melody and arranged in a song. Although the last verse of this song stated that it had no moral i think a moral can be found in the last rhyming couplet of each stanza,"He was her man, but he done her wrong."

If you mess with a woman, you may end up dead.

introduction to myself.

I remember it like it was 15 years ago. My mother would place me on her lap and read me the ridiculous rhyming rants of Dr. Sues. The most recent thing I read was "A Christmas Carol." The most significant thing I've ever read would have to be the Bible. It is the only book i have ever read that can be read a thousand times and still have an impact on my life. Literature is an great median to reach people and convey thoughts and opinions. In some ways literature can be labeled garbage and placed respectfully in the trash, such as tabloids and certain news magazines that will remain nameless on this blog.