Dry clothes = better than wet ones

Wet boardshorts chafe. I know. Every week I wear boardshirts on Sunday from about noon until 6:30. I am in and out of the water. Then I walk places. In general every week I find myself waddling around camp by about 6 because my legs are chafed from wet boardshorts rubbing about. I put on dry clothes awhile ago and I just wanted to say how good it feels. 

There are oodles of white caps on the lake right now. White caps are the things that happen when there’s enough wind to have fun while sailing. I love white caps. They relax me and make me think about how cool Jesus is. 

I had fun conversation on the dock today about my views on nonviolence and war. I’ve blogged about it before and I won’t beat you over the head with things I’ve already said, but to review lets just say I don’t think you can ever “love your neighbor as yourself” while killing him. Ever. 

One of my lifeguards tried to say that this was something where “people just have different opinions” and not to be obtuse, but Jesus has the same opinion I do. Read the gospels. Look at the first 300 years of church history. Read Paul. Think about martyrs who died instead of joining the roman army. I think we have to draw the line here. Christians don’t kill other people.

I don’t understand how the church in the United States has become so broken that we raise our children to believe that following Jesus while killing people is a possibility. It isn’t. It may have been in the past, but after Christ it’s not a divinely supported action. We are called to love others to Jesus. We are called to see victory in terms of eternity. Victory isn’t measured by how comfortable, safe, or militarily powerful we are. Victory is found in Christ. 

It may be that because of our “Christian nation” ’s foreign policy we may have done more to hinder people finding Jesus that to show people that He loves them. The victory that we may someday claim on the field of battle may leave us without victory where it matters. I wish this was something that people were taught in church. The sort of thing I am espousing here could and would get me fired in many churches. It could and probably does piss a lot of people off. They say “pacifism doesn’t solve problems”. I disagree. I would encourage them to consider the problems armed intervention create.

I don’t have time to get long winded. Carry on.