So sometime today I have to go get tested for mono. I was really beat for a good part of yesterday, and I went to bed around 11ish, maybe fell asleep somewhere between 11 and 11:30, and I looked at my clock after 7 this morning, and thought I’ll just nap for a bit and then get up for class, next thing I know it is well after 9 and I am late for class, so I say screw it. Then I look at the clock again, and it is 10:30, so I say screw it again, and decide I’m down for the count today. This means I slept for 10 to 11 hours last night, and I’m still tired. So that sucks. I’m going to try to get to work today, and maybe to McKill-me for a mono test. I really hope I’m just exhausted and don’t actually have mono, because I don’t know if I can afford to have mono since no one I know can turn my homework in, and I have lab classes that I have to go to. This really has the possibility of being devastating to my grades if I even am out for a week, especially since in the next two weeks I have tests in two classes. Oh well, maybe if I can focus I can study and do homework between naps.
I usually don’t like Lent, I hate giving stuff up for no better reason then it is tradition. I think it is a stupid tradition, and whenever I have given something up for Lent is has made no difference in my life as far as anything spiritual happening, all it does is make me want whatever I gave up that much more. Also, I think people just randomly assign what they are going to give up a lot. I know a lot of people who give up chocolate or cheese or something that they really like for no better reason then they like it a lot. This seems silly to me, shouldn’t you ask God what he wants you to give up, and not just randomly pick something. So because of this, and the fact that I know a lot of people who don’t consider themselves good Christians who still give up stuff for lent, I have often decided to abstain from this silly tradition. So when people ask me what I gave up (like it was any of their business in the first place) I say “I’m giving up giving things up” and they usually chuckle or think I’m stupid, either way I don’t care. Dirk went so far as to harass me about it yesterday and told me that it is stupid to always say stuff like that, and I promptly told him that I could give a rats ass what he thought about me giving stuff up. Mainly peoples responses to my answer annoy me no matter what. Even if I were to give something up, it’s none of your business what it is, so why do people feel the need to cram this down my throat like they are some kind of super Christan cuz they are fasting one day a week for 6 weeks. Big deal, hooray for you, now leave me the hell alone so I can do my own thing, and keep it to myself. I really hate to be told what I “should” be doing by other Christians, I think that just makes people sound pompous and hypocritical, and I really think that if you find yourself constantly telling people what they “should” be doing then you need to re-examine what you are doing because you are in close danger of heading toward hypocrite-ville….especially about something silly like giving stuff up for lent.
Now, with my concerns about Lent voiced, I will say that doing a fasting campaign for 40 days to help with raising money for a new building makes a whole lot more sense. I have a purpose behind giving stuff up, I’m seeking to know Gods heart more so I can be a part of accomplishing something well beyond the normal means of the church. That makes sense, and like I said about Lent, I’m seeking what I need to fast while this campaign is going on, and I think I got an idea, but I don’t really feel like sharing because I’m tired of the “what are you giving up” question, so don’t ask me, and I’ll try not to ask you. Also, I think there is power in corporate submission to God’s will by fasting. I think that taking time to focus on God instead of doing the stuff that you gave up is a good thing. I really do believe that this will help with raising this money, and it will help people to let God decide what they can give for our new Building of Hope instead of them deciding what they can afford to give.
The last thing I’m going to write is another one of those tests, you can click the link and it will take you to the test, and my brief thoughts on it if you want, but this is already too long, so I’m going to crop it here.
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So this listed that I could be a politician, which I think is entirely possible, but Lauren always tells me that I would be a really bad politician. But I am a good liar, I can smile even when I don’t feel like it, and I am pretty good at telling people what they want to hear, so I’m pretty sure I could hold some office somewhere if I wanted to. Other then that the other stuff sounds good, again I am and probably always will be an ENTP, so I’m fairly familiar with the jobs that I am susposed to be able to do, and I think I could probably do most of them pretty well if need be, but I would only enjoy a select few of them. Anyway, enough for now, I must get dressed and prepare for work.
Beyond_Eden says
I agree with you about lent. It’s no one’s business if/what u give up. if they’re telling u you have to or you should, they’re being hypocritical. If they’re telling u what they’re giving up or doing or fasting, then they are nullifying their sacrifice by gaining pride from men. it says in Matthew 6:16-18 that if only ur father in heaven knows u are fasting u will recieve a large reward and it actually condemns SEVERAL times in the book of matthew people who are not humble. bragging about what u give up makes u akin to the pharisees whose good deeds were nullified by their boastful muddied hearts.
Bottom line, i agree no one should force you to give something up for lent, nor should it even be a topic of conversation in my opinion.
Chris says
What a sticky subject. I think it has more to do with what’s in one’s heart than just – always talking about it is unacceptable – . Were I to give something up for Lent or the 40DoPaF I’d want someone to be encouraging me along the way and I would do the same. Especially for the 40DoPaF since it is a community building effort. Anyway if its personal for some people then keeping it personal is cool. Everyone is different and its the heart that counts, not the letter.
Chris says
Hehe. I thought I’d clarify as I’m not trying to flame 🙂 You are right about people who brag about fasting, that they lose their reward. That’s what I was getting at anyway, the intent is key.
harambee78 says
So, what’s sillier: doing something just because it is tradition, or dismissing something just because it is tradition?
When something has been done for hundreds of years, it of course should be questioned periodically to test its authenticity. On the other hand, things don’t become a part of a centuries old tradition without real, hardcore value.
Tradition is nothing but democracy stretched through time. It allows the dead to have a vote – claiming that it isn’t just the current generation that counts, but those that have gone before it as well. So, when something is part of tradition and I can’t find value in it, chances are the problem is with me and not with millions of other Christians who just happen to be dead. That’s my take on it anyway.
BigCat says
See the thing is, I don’t dismiss this because it is a tradition, I’m dismissing it because it has never taken a serious meaning in my life, and I haven’t seen how it will. But I am open to gaining meaning at some point in my life because God can assign it meaning. But I don’t think dead people get a vote in my life. People that I never knew, people that I never had touch my life, and people that blindly follow the rules that an theo-aristocracy created for them when they never had a say in it. Authenticity in terms of tradition is a personal thing, not a coorperate one. I don’t question tradition so that other people can come beside me and join in by claiming that this is non-biblical and should be completely blown from the record books…I am no Luther, but I do need to decide if it is important for my life, and if God is working through this stuff.
Also, I don’t, in any way think that tradition is any more important than what an individual ascribes to it. This is because there are traditions that don’t have hardcore value that are given far to much importance, because a Pope somewhere down the line decided it was important. There is documented cases where many things were woven into the fabric of modern christianity just because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Christianity was never ment to be a static thing, locked in tradition. All my Catholic friends can disagree with me and that is fine, because for them tradition is important, they take solace in the thousands and millions of dead christians before them going through the same motions they are. I’m more of a person who wishes to blaze the new trail, not bogged down with a backpack full of traditions that don’t do anything but slow me down. Maybe it is a personal problem that I need to deal with, but the trend is to toss of the old, the extra-biblical and seek where the holy spirit is leading us, not the spirit of the dead gone before…that was their time, this is ours. That is my take on it…..also, please comment on my blog, not on LJ, just so I can have it for my personal records to look back on, and to back up when I want to save this stuff. Thanks for the input tho.
harambee78 says
Sorry, one more thing. How do traditions gain personal value in our lives? Growing up, my parents made me go to church, though I probably wouldn’t have chosen to do that on my own. I didn’t understand why I had to do it. But eventually, after doing it over and over again and trying to understand why THEY thought it was so important, it began to be important to me as well. The same thing with communion and singing worship songs. There are songs I’ve had to sing a dozen times before it had any real meaning to me.
The point? Appreciating any tradition begins with blind obedience. You have to engage tradition before it will gain any meaning to you. You have to fast through lent before you’ll have a personal stake in it and be able to learn from it.
BigCat says
So, while I would have to agree that something doesn’t gain significance without doing it first, I will say that fasting through lent growing up gave me no satisfaction and no signifance what-so-ever and I learned nothing except that I should discover my own way of doing things, but things can gain sigifcance if God gives them signifance. It’s more like you do something because God tells you to, versus someone else telling you too, which is exactly what you are doing by blindly following traditions.
Appreciating God to the fullest beings with blind obediance, but blind obediance to temples built by man only gives us stock in the things of man. If God assigns significance to something once it doesn’t not mean it will always be meaningful for another person.
Also, while you make a good point about growing up and not understanding things that your parents had you do, you are not taking into account the fact that as we grow up we don’t need to have our parents telling us what is best for us, after a certain point it is God’s job to do that….not the ancient Catholic church, not the modern church we attend, but God. I’m not saying that sometimes direction doesn’t come from God through the church, just that those things have to be examined for personal relavance…hence why this lent I will be giving something up, but more for the building campaign then the fact it is lent.
I ask myself questions like “what good is this going to do for me, for the people around me, the church or my spiritual life” then I pray about it, and see what comes of it. If God says, “hey you need to fast in the literal sense of the word, or just give something specific up (or fast from it)” then I do it as best I can. Or in the reference of our building campaign, I recognize the significance of cooperate prayer and fasting, so I see how it is going to be good for the people around me, and I acknowledge that I might get something from it too, so it is already in the “go for it category” then I pray about what God wants me to give up, and then away I go…I’m not doing just out of blind obedience of the leadership of my church, but because I believe in the vision of the leadership and means by which they plan to accomplish this. Anyway, that is long…but an interesting side note about my personality type (ENTP) is that we typically have a lot of trouble doing anything traditional, and will challenge any convention…that is my life..that is part of how I know I have and will be for the forseeable future and ENTP.
harambee78 says
Valerie (the one from Chris and Dirk’s smallgroup) and I have decided that you need to read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. I was going to be cute and post the Dewey Decimal numbers where you could find a copy in the university library, but I just checked and all five copies are checked out. 96 years old and people still can’t put that book down….I’d lend you my own, but the spine is held together with scotch tape and what may be very old gum. I bought it new about six years ago.
BigCat says
I was planning on reading the book at some point because I know a bunch of people who really liked it, and Lauren borrowed it from Jeff not so long ago and really liked it. I might give it a shot after I finsh the 8 other books I have locked up in my queue at the moment….man it will be nice to graduate and finally get to read again.