Thoughts.

Boatswain’s Log September 26/27^th.

 

Well. It is currently 1:41AM on Saturday, this feels like I am in college still.

 

Why am I up so late you ask? Well, let’s start at the beginning.

 

I went to Spanish class today and had my last class with Gabbi. She is a great teacher who is at the same very entertaining. So far all my teachers have been great. It was wonderful to have so much more practice with the subjunctive…I hope we get more. We listened to this song that was pretty snazzy. It’s hard to explain, but there was this line about “que gane el quiero en la gurra de puedo”. That means roughly “may desire win the war of possibility”. I was all about that. I think that we can do mostly anything we want, it just takes us believing more in the desire than what may or may not seem possible. Think about it. Parents tell their kids that they can be whatever they want. Mine did. I believed them. I still do. Never doubted it for a second. In essence that line was a “Go for it” sort of statement. I dunno, I thought you might like it too.

 

So after class I went to get pizza…by myself. I had thought that friend Nikki and I were going to go get food and hang out, but apparently there was a bit of a mix up. She thought that we had rescheduled the trip to the zoo for next week and so we weren’t doing anything today. I didn’t really catch the “not hanging out today” memo. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. However, later I had confirmation that she wasn’t trying to ditch me. So no worries.

 

Today at 2pm we had our “spiritual journey” time. It was really pretty great. What it was turned out to be was listening to roughly 3 minutes (more for some people) of talking about the things they should know about what had made them who they were. It was really fascinating to get an idea of everyone’s story, to be honest it helped explain a lot of things. It really helped me to A) hear from everyone about their lives and B) be able to understand them a bit better. It was interesting to hear some people from the South talk about their frustration with legalistic churches and more fascinating to think about the amount of great things that people described as coming from friends who weren’t Christian. That really got me thinking.

 

I have seen God in people who aren’t Christian, so have other Christians. I can list people off, but really I have seen a whole lot of very Jesus-esque things in some really good friends of our family who aren’t Christian. I think that a whole lot of pluralism I talked about yesterday stems from the idea that we don’t want to exclude these people from the Kingdom of God. At the same time I think that my statement yesterday came from interacting with pluralistic ideas on a very intellectually frustrated level. However, I don’t think that that approach is the best way to describe why we should desire to share the truth of Jesus.

 

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Christianity is not a series of things to be believed. Really it’s not. It’s not a checklist. It’s about a relationship with the being who created you and loves you more than anyone ever could. This being loves you in an absolutely unconditional sense as you are, and wants to make you more than you are at the same time. It’s really almost too good to be true (but it is) that the One who created us all wants us to have a relationship with him and also wants that relationship to pour over into relationships with others to the extent that the world is changed. The reality we are called to seek is the best possible reality here on earth and in the world to come and we seek it through a being who makes it possible. I could give you biblical context that really make a clear idea of what I am talking about, you ask me. I think that’s more than enough to give this truth that we cling to a sense of not badgering people into something, I guess it becomes more of loving them until they see God in you and then ask you why you are so different. That love isn’t just to “convert” people, it is because people deserve to experience the love of God that we know and because they are worth loving because God loves them. I guess all that to say, we don’t relinquish truth, but nor are we called to throw bibles at people and expect them to want a relationship with Christ. Still, there is some element of how do we as Christians evangelize that needs to be discussed. Another time though.

 

Anyhow, after my thought process occurred and I listened to folks, we ate pizza and hung out. It was easier to hang out after having heard everyone. Side note: During the break we had for snacks my friend Ryan from Tennessee and I decided that since it was raining so hard we ought to go run around in it in our underwear. It just seemed like a good idea. We got really wet (that was why we went in underwear and not clothes) and it was really refreshing. To be honest I think people were jealous. I got home and had to explain to my family why I had a pair of wet underwear in my hand. My host mom responded with “que barbariadad” (what barbarity!) and my brothers laughed. It was funny. I guess that is what I get for having lived in the dorms at school for three years and having worked at camp so long…I do silly things with great ease.

 

After I got home I took a strategic nap to try and sleep off a headache I received. I evaded bean-allergy related migraines for about a month…I think they caught me today. I ended up needing 2 ibuprofens and an Excedrin to conquer it. Sigh. Stupid thunderstorms. They happen everyday. The thunder interrupts people and shakes houses. Also it reminds me of how big God is, to an almost scary degree.

 

The strategic nap was so that I could go dancing with a group of folks tonight at Castro’s Discotecha. We got the shaft from a cabbie on the way there who charged too much for the ride and when we got there I figured out a few things. Firstly, dancing in Latin America isn’t quite as much fun as I thought it would be. It’s very form based and not really that enjoyable. I think I enjoy dancing to hiphop more, there’s way more room to make up your own moves and enjoy yourself. It gets old doing the same thing over and over to music that isn’t great. We danced for awhile and I noticed the second thing. Some of the Tico folks on the floor sucked as much as me. That was encouraging. Some were way better and smooth though.

 

After dancing got boring, we went and did Karoke. I sang Michael Jackson’s “Will you be there” and failed to hit the high notes…as usual. I had fun though. The only hypothetically frustrating thing is when one might be around people who choose to disregard the thing they signed that says they won’t do certain things. If that actually happens…Now, it’s not my job to police others. Thankfully I am done being a PA. Still though. I wonder what happened to the idea of a person’s word meaning something. People will say that Jesus isn’t about rules, true. Jesus isn’t a legalist, however I do think Jesus is about honesty and integrity. I think Jesus wants people to do what they say they are going to do. It sucks not doing certain things that I am of age to do because of the contract I have signed, but at the same time that contract doesn’t kill me. In fact I think there is value in it. Some people get pissed about it not being biblical and whatnot, but as my friend Paula Green pointed out “Neither are speed limits, but we’re okay with those”. Just doing what the contract says has value because people see you as someone to whom their word means something.

 

Anyhow, after being surrounded by cigarette smoke and not having fun I came home and chose to blog before bed. My strategic nap made me not tired. It’s now 2:30AM.

 

Last thing. I really started to miss Christmas time. Not the presents, just the people, the music, the lights, and the weather that makes people wear jackets. I am tired of being sweaty after 15 minutes of being outside. I am still pumped to be here, but I think being here really does remind me of how much I like the pacific Northwest. Especially the climate. Bed time now. Keep it real.