Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Creation of some sort

Okay so for those of you who don't know, I am writing a book.  These are just some reflections about what I have been learning through the process of writing a book. I am reading a book about writing a book, yeah I know, but its helpful. Actually its very insightful, and sometimes really makes me think about what I want my writing to be. Today while I was praying, I realized how writing a book is a lot like my relationship with God.   While writing this book, I have brainstormed, typed out several chapters just trying to get words on the page without sometimes really caring about how it presents. Through reading this book, I have realized that the ideas the author presents, make you realize that when you just write words on the page, you are not really putting thought behind the story, not making it your own. This is something I feel happens in my prayer life sometimes. There are many times, when I just speak words and am not really putting meaning behind them. I feel like I am just going through the motions, putting the words there that I think God wants to hear, sometimes even right down to telling people I am going to pray for them, and then thinking BUT are you really? That was something that hit me hard the other day, that I want to give people my word, and if I say I will pray for them, then that is what I intend to do. Another reason while writing a book is similar to my relationship with Christ, is this, when you write, you go through several rough drafts, have some very difficult situations that might cause writers' bloc and other things, very similar to our every day walks. See God has created us to be these perfect people, crafted and unique, BUT God himself knows that this is not something that is going to happen right from the start. There are rough drafts, times of writers bloc, and times when things just seem to be going so well. When writing a book, there are many times, when I just want to write a chapter and be done with it, but I know that something I need to do is figure out how to make this the best it can be, and really that is what God is trying to do through me. However, if I can push through with writing, not knowing what will happen, there could be reward at the end. Something to say, look what I went through and the book at the end is greater than the writing that was put into it. I think this is what my relationship with God is like. If I can push through, strive and continue to run the race that was marked before me, then there is reward at the end. Something so much greater than the times I struggled through this life, and greater than the words that may or may not have gotten put on the page. A reward that WILL BE THERE, and will last longer than my book might be on a shelf.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

We are the people

While I don’t agree with the parts of the episode that were sac-religious, I do think there were many things that happened in last night’s Glee episode that hold true to our everyday life. Wether we like it or not, we are faced with these people in our lives everyday. It just another way that God has created all of us to be different. 
Finn: Throughout the episode, Finn was convinced that because he was praying to a toasted cheese, that he had a direct line to God. “While God works in mysterious ways, I don’t think he is working through a grilled cheese.” There were certain things that Finn did that made him believe he was praying to a god, and things happened and his prayers kinda got answered. Sometimes things happen, and while we think that it might be an answer to prayer, sometimes it just the way something worked out. After receiving the news that God was necessarily speaking to Finn through his sandwich, Finn was crushed and was singing about loosing his religion. We have people in our lives who put everything they have into “religion” and when they find out they are praying to something that doesn’t really answer prayer, they are faced to question wether there really is a God. 
Kurt: Most of the episode revolved around Kurt finding out that his dad was suffering from a heart attack and might never wake up. While I don’t agree that Kurt was made to be gay, I do understand his point of view. Kurt, when faced with his fellow glee members is broken because he doesn’t know how a god who created him to be gay would create people to pick on him for being gay, and take away the one person in his life who really supported him no matter how hard it would have been for his father. Kurt was in a dark place, battling loosing his father, and while his friends were being supportive, was just struggling with where in his life he could find comfort right now. His father laying on what could be his bedside was the only thing that mattered. His friend gave him something to hold onto while he may not believe in God, that’ s okay some people don’t, but he needed to find something he could believe in. He chose to believe in his father,and their relationship. Again we have those people in our lives, who the last person they want to turn to is God, they think that God did this to them, God caused this hurt, pain, whatever it is, so why should they pray to him. While sometimes are intentions for helping people are good, there are times when we are trying to put people in a place that they just aren’t ready for. For Kurt, it took him realizing that the people actually cared about him, and they were going to at least pray for his dad, even if Kurt didn’t want that to happen. 
Then there are people like Sue’s sister, who is mentally handicapped. Sue spent most of her life questioning why this happened to her sister and it left her feeling I’m guessing broken, alone, resentful, and other emotions as well. When Sue went and spoke with her sister, her sister said, “God doesn’t make mistakes.” Her sister was content with the life that God had given her to lead and really all her sister could do was try and convince Sue that it wasn’t God punishing her sister. 
While we don’t know/may never know why God makes people the way they are, or allows certain things to happen, there is something we are all supposed to do. That is be the example that the woman sitting next to Kurt in Church was. She didn’t care if he was gay, all she knew was that Kurt was hurting, and no matter how deep his pain or frustrations, all he wanted was just to feel some comfort. He didn’t know if that meant he was going to find it in God, his friends, or a stranger, but that woman didn’t just let an opportunity go by. No matter what she might have been dealing with, or wether kurt was okay with any of this, the woman did what we are all supposed to do. Be Christ to those who we encounter everyday. 
We all have different ways of expressing our hurt, emotions, fears and different methods of believing what we believe. Yes some people don’t believe in God, “but we all need to believe in something. Something that we can’t taste, see, smell or touch.” 
Its not our jobs as followers of Christ to deny those who don’t worship, practice or believe the same things we do. We have to remember that we are just supposed to be the best examples of Christ to the world that we can be, and let God change people. 
Everyday, in one way or another, we are going to run into the Kurts, Finns, Sues’ and every other type of personality, and no matter how hard we try we might not be able to make a difference. Sometimes that just happens. But for those people who are Kurt, Finn, or Sue that doesn’t mean we stop loving them, but we stop trying to make them something they might not be ready for.