Dad came home today. He is feeling good, his scar looks good, and he is getting around the house really well. Even having a pretty easy time going up and down the stairs.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the way the one year Bible is laid out, and I think it might be good to combine old testament and new readings every day. This will mean more reading since I was going to read it front to back and only read a few chapters a night, but it might make the reading better through some of the boring stuff in the old testament and some of the repetitive stuff in Paul’s epistles.
Also, Dirk got me thinking about materialism more last night, which I had already been thinking about a little because I was reading about monastic orders in my church history book. I think that I like having stuff a little too much. Sometimes it becomes a focus in my life over what good things I can do with the stuff for other people. I like entertaining people, and entertaining myself. Now I personally think that being materialistic is about placing the value of the things you have and want over the value of people and your relationship with God. I’m not a man of extremes. And I think that holding the tension between the charsimatic and conservative evangelical has become an important part of my life, and finding that balance in other things is also important. Having nice things and not valuing that stuff above the things that are actually important in life (people and loving God) is some of that tension. There is a lot of stuff that I think it is important to find a balance in. I’ve been studying more free will ideas too lately, and I’ve come to the conclusion that to think that Arminianism is the extreme opposite of calvinism is folley. James Harmens attempted to correct what he saw as flaws in an extremist doctorine that he had originally accepted, and created a middle ground between the idea the the universe is floating free of any meddling from God and the idea that God moves us around like puppets playing out a cosmic scene for his enjoyment. I was drawn to re-read some things written last year on the messageboard and I realized that there is some misconceptions held about calivinism by some and arminianism by others, and I thougth that to be interesting. The reason I bring this up is because reacting in an extreme nature to anything (whether it be a practical application of something…like materialism, or just a theoretical assumption about the Bible like calvin makes) screams agianst my being. I know that much of Christianity is about taking an extreme position, but when not directly called to it seems to distance me unnecessiarily from non-christians and thus minimizes my ability to witness in many ways. Monks are a good exmple of this. The first monks lived alone…hermits who were of the utmost faith, but who ignored the call to community in the Bible, and thus became powerful witnesses to some of the faith, but to others just appeared as crazies. I think that God blesses us with material things for the sole purpose of allowing us to bless others with that, including the church. I do think that God does sometimes call people to rid themselves of their possesions, and the monks/priests/and anyone else who does take a vow of poverty feels that is what God is calling us to do. But just dumping all of my stuff at once would seem extreme to me. More of being willing to give my unnecessary possesions to someone who needed it more is what I see as avoiding materialism. This is because just selling those things would cause me to have means to buy more crap and fall back into the same trap that God is attempting to deliver from. I think I’m going to itemize some of my stuff and see what I wouldn’t be willing to give away for free if God asked me to. Then I’m gonna spend some time praying about how important those things should be too me…..because I don’t have the resources to replace my things that I need, but God does, and I need to learn to trust that.
That went on way too long, but anyway, I’ll stop now.
Thank you, and Goodnight.
Janine says
I am SUPER excited to hear that your dad is recovering so well! Yay, God! 😀 You are definitely missed around these parts. I am excited for all of us small groupers to reunite! lol
HEY! This seems to be a rampant topic (materialism) – you should talk to Jason and get his thoughts. He’s been downsizing too.
Rob says
You have to face the fact that it is materialism that drives the world’s economy nowadays. Whether you like it or not, luxury is not a luxury anymore. It’s routine. Go down the list of things you don’t need yet live with: A computer, television, cable, dvds, cds, couches, beds, lots of clothes, a car, an mp3 player, posters, comics, software, hardware, and on and on and on. How many of those things would you actually give up? My guess is very few. There is no hermetic way of life anymore. The only thing that comes close is living a minimalist lifestyle.
I guess I believe that there is more to me than just what I have. And I would like to think that God is more willing to look at the person than how much stuff we all have. I agree that materialism is more of defining yourself by your possessions. But for most of us, it’s just stuff. And I don’t think that’s harmful.
Ben says
I agree with you that materialism is what drives the world, and I don’t think it is entirely a good thing. I do think God looks past how much stuff you have to who you are, but I think what you do, or are willing to do with that stuff does define part of who we are. The problem is that we know a lot of people in our little circle who don’t have a problem with materialism, not a serious one anyway, but I would be willing to venture that most of america is way more materialistic then what is healthy in terms of what Chritianity lays out for us. I think, that just retaking an inventory and reminding myself every once in a while that it is just junk is probably a good idea, just so I don’t get too caught up in coveting my own crap.