Life and its financial whoas...

Lately, I have been attacked on all sides by financial issues. I just found out recently that I have a 1400 dollar repair to make on my car. I also must make payments toward my parents since they bought my car for me which is about six thousand dollars. I also want to start up a DJing business on the side which is going to be more money for gear to do weddings, parties, clubs, and dances. In the mean time, I am working my butt off to pay everything. I am supposed to be moving out in about a year from my parents casa. I am excited but at the same time kind of frightened. I am excited by the fact that I will hopefully have some rad roommates who can help me make rent and that I will be able to hang out with. I would love to be able to have friends stay over and hang out whenever. I would love to have a place where my friends can just come over and feel at home. The downside to having your own place is the responsibility and bills that come along with it. You really have to maintain your house and keep it in pristine condition. Although everything has been happening all at once, I feel like I am moving in a good direction. I am learning a lot about life very quickly and becoming more knowledgeable(sp?) about how to deal with those situations when they arise. What bothers me is when I see so many of my friends who have been handed a lot in life. They don't have to worry about having enough money for their bills or food. Mother and father will always come to their rescue. When parents do that to their children, it isn't teaching them life lessons. A wonderful analogy of this scenario would be if you saw a child inside a round, inflatable tire in a swimming pool. If you saw them ten or fifteen years later in the same floating device, you would find it absurd too. You would ask yourself, "Why haven't they learned how to swim on their own?". Parents have to let their children stumble before they can walk steadily. If you think about it, their early decisions will help them to transition as a responsible adult and know that they must make better decisions. I appreciate my parents for doing enough to not let me take my life for granted. I am very blessed to have a really good automobile and to have my college taken care of so I can have a better life for myself and my future family. I am very fortunate to have parents who want me to be able to function and transition into a well-adjusted young adult.

What the church is missing..

I have been very fortunate in being part of an amazing church community known as The River. Ever since I started going to the services, I have really felt what God wants me to do in my life. I feel as though I have finally found a church that understands what God is doing and how he wants to use us in everyday life. Never before have I felt like I was part of a church community in my life. After that brief introduction which was borderline rabbit trail, I feel like the church is missing their calling to be a community. Many churches can welcome you with a "How ya doin' this mornin' brother?" and you respond with "Well, I just lost my job, I have rent due next week, I just lost my grandmother, and times are really tough for my family". A likely response might be "Well brother, we can praise the Lord and pray for ya". Praying is an awesome thing but I think we are missing the point when we don't do the obvious things to help a brother or sister out. We need to be there for our brothers and sisters. We need to help them if they need financial help, give them shelter if they need it, put clothes on them if they need it, and give them food if they are hungry. The church today gets so self-centered because we are self-centered. We will agree with Bono that they need to do something about AIDS in Africa but will we actually do anything besides agree and say yes all the time. If everyone put as much time and energy into how much they think about themselves and placed it on less fortunate individuals, we would see the world radically change. People are so set in their ways. The reason I can rant and rave about this is because I go through this same junk. When I see something on TV or on the street, I automatically think "Man, I would kill for that car" or "Geez, I wish I had a cell phone like his". We drool and spend so much time envying others who have "stuff" when we just need to look at ourselves and understand that we have everything we need. I was thinking about how funny it is that most people who think they are poor really have no clue. If you are able to scrape up enough change to go drive down to a McDonalds or some other fast food joint, you have so much more money than most people around the world. I guess the moral to my blog is that we need a change in our hearts to change this world. The world can be a much better place if we took our eyes of our problems and dilemmas and focused on others. We would see the church transform if the people would take on the mindset of Christ in giving and caring for others.  

Have Christians completely missed the point?

By the title of my blog, you might be thinking "What is wrong with being a Christian?" or "What is wrong with Christianity?". There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a Christian. I am a Christian myself but I feel that many of my brothers and sisters have completely missed the point in the teachings of Jesus. Jesus says to love your neighbor but we still have discrimination against women, we have intolerance against those with different sexual lifestyles, we have thoughts of racism pulsing through our veins when we see someone of a different skin color. I recently began listening to a preacher by the name of Rob Bell. Many people who are more accustomed to the fundamentalist teachings are absolutely appalled by the points that he makes. I was on Youtube the other day watching a NOOMA video that he made. The video basically expressed that maybe the bull horn approach isn't really working. Rob was referring to those who preach on the street corners and inform everyone "You are going to Hell! Repent!". First of all, who are they and what gives them the right to tell someone else what their eternal destination will be. If anything, I feel that approach is leading more people astray from Jesus rather than drawing people unto God. The fundamentalists have this notion that if you aren't telling someone to "turn or burn", you are denying them of the truth.I wish people would just stop with the scare tactics and love one another. There are times when I wonder if Jesus looks down upon us and says "They aren't acting any different from the Pharisees". In case you aren't familiar with the Pharisees, they were the religious people of the time who did not agree with what Jesus was preaching. The Pharisees were responsible for the capture of Jesus which led to His crucifixion. They didn't understand the significance of who Christ was but knew he was a powerful force in leading people in his teachings. I was talking with a good friend of mine who is working on his masters in divinity at Vanderbilt. He was telling me as he met people of different religions that most of them thought that Jesus was a good teacher and was very effective in what He did. Can you imagine a Christian saying that Muhammad had good teachings? We can be so arrogant in thinking that we are so much better than those of other religions and cultures. It just makes me sick that we constantly cause division because we think we are better or "have it right".  I guess the main point I am getting at is that we should be accepting of those who are different. Love others no matter what they have done or who they are. This is what Christ did and expects us to do as we live for Him.