There is scuffling noise on the rooftop

So, I think that raccoons life either in the tree next to my window, on the roof above me, or in the attic. They make scuffling noises and scamper about. I wish I had the motivation to poison them. Only when I’m tired though. Mostly I guess I think about them as obnoxious housemates. They make a racket, they run around, they stare creepily at me from the tree outside my window….Okay, so not as much as I would like to assume.

I have been running on not enough sleep for several days at this point and it is starting to catch up to me. Today was the first time that I told the animals on the roof/attic/tree to “shut the hell up.” I think that when you start assuming even in part that animals can really hear and understand you…it’s time for bed. Also, if they were really housemates I would have been much more polite. Really though. I hope they’re not offended.

Some inspiration.

There’s this wonderful website that I have visited since high school when my friend John showed it to me. I have showed it to some of you and you hated it, others of you have loved it, and still there are those of you who just don’t know…it is for you that I decided to put this up. I think it is quite funny.

http://www.explodingdog.com/title/whatwillhappennext.html

Behold the boldness of my silly mistakes.

2 things you should know. 

1) I got lost on the Seattle Metro Bus system today. I planned on riding the number 17 to James Street Downtown, but missed it when the bus lady mumbled james street and then wound up waiting very patiently for the bus to turn around. So patiently and unsuspectingly I might add, that when the bus finally stopped and I realized the extent of the fool I had been…I was in White Center. I then got off the bus chatted with a man from Honduras, took a different bus back to downtown. I was inwardly fuming for a large part of the afternoon. I spent about 2 hours in a bus and it was a hellish and irritating experience. I was late for my appointment (it actually didn’t even happen), I was frustrated, and what’s more …it was completely my fault. Damn.

Incidentally, I did a few things that may have redeemed my time. I called my sister. That was cool. I also talked to the man there in White Center. He was nice. It’s fun to speak spanish with strangers. On my way back to town I got a text message from my friend Curran remarking on the course of my day that it was “full of Jesus”. I suppose that’s true. Even when I was on a bus hating life Jesus was there. Sometimes you get these little memos at the end of a long day and you don’t know quite how to apply it. Nonetheless, it was a day full of Jesus. Aren’t they all?

2) I accidentally poked myself in the eye the other day while I was drying off with a towel. It hurt. 

I hope that the profundity of the dumbness that I experienced within the past 4 days taught you something about humanity. It might not have. What it says to me though is that Jesus is at work even in the midst of stupid decisions, misplaced patience, and pointless bus rides. 

In fact those little things are just the things that are stupid and negative. We often tend to characterize our days (at least I do) by the bad things. What about the good things? I had dinner with great friends. I had a great conversation with my friend Lindsey. I talked to my sister. I got exercise. I wrote a clever essay (mostly there was this one paragraph that I was way into). I went to class and had fun dialogue about the philosophical weakness of the argument behind classical liberalism (i.e. Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations) as well as the role of corporate responsibility. These were fun things.

I even took a power nap. Kudos goes out to Ed smyth.

When does the car slow down? Graduation? Wait…

So lately I have been feeling like I am in a whirlwind of doing stuff. I get up I go to class and then I do other things. Some of them are very good things. However, I am beat at the end of the day. Maybe today was not the best representation of how tired I will be every day. Especially considering that I went running with Ben Troop today. Whatever the case may be, I am getting worn out.

I would write more, but I am in a grumpy mood. Tired I guess. I doubt y’all want to read grumpy Chauncey ramblings and I don’t really want to write them. I just wanted to make sure that I keep the habit of doing this blog. I realized lately that the things I want in life involve me making little choices everyday. If I want to have a better relationship with Jesus the things I do to move towards that happen in the moments of each day I have. If I want to be better at Spanish I need to make sure I have time each day to practice keeping my ear up by listening to news. You get the idea. 

Thus the blog. I want to be able to keep writing. It may not always be fun to read, but I really enjoy it. So, that coupled with this idea of little choices being the foundation of bigger things means that I am telling you all this despite the fact that I want to go to bed. I guess I’ll go to bed now.

I had these other posts to put up…but, naaah.

I had been pondering on a few things lately, namely things like the nature of salvation and the fact that Dr.Spina called me “Mr.Protestant” in class the other day. Nonetheless, at the end of the day I decided that I was in way too far over my head discussing the nature of salvation and telling you that Dr.Spina called me “Mr.Protestant” only took a few seconds. So, I decided to forgo the writing of two separate blogs and just do an impromptu sesh (session).

I think that sometimes we really wonder if we can know if we’re saved or not. Some people say no. Other people say yes. I think that saying “no.” isn’t being really realistic with the very scripture we have. I think that there are definately places where the Apostle Paul is sure that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

At the same time though, let’s be honest, while we don’t save ourselves we are to participate in our salvation. I heard this described by a local pastor recently. He described a relationship with God as a marriage. In a marriage not every day is smashingly awesome. There are some days where you’re at each others’ throats, but nonetheless you wake up the next day and bring what you’ve got to the table. You keep doing this. For your entire life. It’s somewhat like that with God. We are in relationship with God, it takes effort. Every day. The fact that we put out effort in participating is what I think Jesus meant when He said to “abide” in Him. We aren’t perfect, and in fact our walk on this side of the resurrection will not be that way. Fact. 

However, to assume that we aren’t saved because our relationship with Jesus is messy and has ups and downs involving us being unfaithful does not mean that we need to worry about not being able to be in relationship with God. When you love someone, do you hold their mistakes against them? Or do you forgive them? See? I think God is the same way. 

The scripture present us with a tension. Example: the book of John tells us that Jesus chose us, but we’re also supposed to abide in Him. In Matthew we have a strong memo that people who do great miracles have the possibility of not even being known by God and that people who don’t show compassion to the “least of these” have issues come the judgement day. I think that the whole of the canon seems to reflect this too. I didn’t quote the verses, so maybe you don’t believe me, but I assure you it’s there.

It seems like the Scripture assumes that our relationship with the Lord will spill over into our lives and interactions with other people, which is a good assumption for it to make. However, we can’t be perfect, nor can we feed every hungry person, and God forgives us for our mistakes (in fact He already has). Yet, if every person is someone for whom Christ died can we use this as an excuse not to love them in a very this-world sense? Isn’t it already assumed that as Christians this is something we at the very least take seriously? When I write things like this it convicts me. I guess that helps me see things and be honest with you, and possibly lets us into this notion of “abiding” it seems like our abiding in Christ is shown through our actions and our heart. 

K. So other things now. I went to portland Oregon this weekend and saw my freshman year PA. I got to see the sights. I went to Cannon Beach and made a fire. I went to the biggest bookstore in the world and bought 30$ worth of spanish literature. I hung out with my friend brent and his girlfriend mami (who is japanese…from Japan). I learned how to say my name is Chauncey and I am from Seattle. Cool huh? Yeah. I thought so. I had a great weekend and I got lots of HW done on the train. Now it’s time for some more of it.

One last thing, I talked with my friend Ryan on the phone for about an hour and a half. His perspectives on life were really great. Honestly, it is so very helpful to talk with someone who had just graduated a few years ago about life in the Senior year. I know that the end of college is coming. I wore a shirt and shorts without a jacket tonight and wasn’t cold…Spring is here, and therein…graduation. Add a wistful/nostalgic feeling here for effect. Ryan helped me to see something though. I think that in the end, it will be okay. In fact I think it will be really good to graduate.

God willing, if you miss me next year you can just come visit me wherever I am. Have a good day.

Another day. Another day of too much time in the Library

I spent 5 hours in the library today. Lots of those hours were spent writing a paper for Dr.Spina. I wanted it to be good, but maybe it will suck. It seemed good, but by the end of 5 hours I had no idea if it was good or not.

I played out in the sun before the library. I went on a run to gasworks park, played catch in the sun, and chatted (shout out to Lindsey Goff) with friends. It was a full day.

I know this person who I am trying to become on at least “I like seeing you.” basis with. This person has a philosophy of friendship that states that friendship is complicated and needs time to develop. I appreciate and respect that…but gosh, it makes me feel like a chump whose actions are constantly being evaluated on a scale of friendship-worthiness. I was in a contrary mood today like I am a lot of times and I looked at myself from without and realized that I just sounded like an asshole. Hopefully it doesn’t seem that way all the time…Either way, I don’t do well with first impressions. Hopefully this person gives me time. It quite honestly bewilders me a bit when people look at me with strangely skeptical eyes. I really do my best to be myself as much as I can. Sometimes who I am is a rude, oafish lout who doesn’t appreciate people enough…Sigh.

I’m really tired. I’m going to bed.

The return of that bright shiny orb that hides behind the drab greyness of the sky.

Yep. The sun came back today. I went outside for several hours and noticed several things that I will tell you:

Thing 1) I enjoy reading books that have to do with philosophy and theology. I don’t get bored. The implications for my day seem to expand and let me tell you, when I read a good explication of sin (like I did today) boyhowdy am I pumped that God through Jesus is reconciling Himself to us. Anyhow, that could be the summary of my reading today. Lots of good things to think about.

Thing B) I don’t get much done when I read/study with friends who are girls. It’s just the way it is. When you go to read books with friend who is a dude, you typically read books. That’s why you told him you were going to read books/study beforehand. When there are girls you end up chatting and talking for a good while before and during the studying. No one seems to be flustered by this (I wasn’t). Friends appeared, I was in a park on a bench reading. Enjoying good company is far better than being all awkwardly distant from it on a bench by yourself. Sometimes sacrifices in the area of efficiency have to be made to enjoy life.

Thing C.5) My skin is really reactive to sunlight. I am significantly darker than I was this morning. I forgot that. I put that down as a “neato” for today. If I had a chart that graphed out the neato factor…it would be a useless venture in time-mismanagement.

The other day I (with the help of Sarah Schooley) discovered the 5th category of the word cute. Last year in a odd mood I decided to think about all the possible ways that girls use the word cute. They use it a lot. I came up with four: Cute baby/puppy, cute shoes, cute boy, sarcastic cute. If you think about all those you can tell in your head that there are subtle differences among them. They have to do with the emphasis they put on the words.

Sarcastic cute is the sort of cute with which you (being a girl) would mock your friend’s apparrel.

Cute puppy accompanies the high pitched “awww” that girls use to interact with fluffy animals and new born babies.

Cute shoes show girls that their friends approve of their clothes in that their wardrobe decisions in some sense expand on their attractiveness. Either by sheer ability to combine colors, or the way in which a particular article of clothing accentuates something. You find a similar thing with guys. Only we don’t say cute. we say “rad, tight, sick, smooth, bomb,” or a variety of other words that state our affirmation of the way in which another guy looks somehow tougher, more badass, or generally more ready to fight bears than he may have been before he decided to wear/use/carry whatever it may be.

Cute boy has its own completely tone. It generally provokes redness in the cheeks, unabashed agreement, or indignation in females.

Anyhow, the fifth category of cute is “old people cute”. Old people I discovered use cute in a way that is completely different than the aforementioned cutes. It is used as thought they are trying to express that something exists and is of vague interest. Whatever it is is liked, but just enough to merit a cute. It’s cute, they appreciate it, but they don’t go into further detail. All the other cutes seem to spill over into longer conversations or the haphazard assortment of pleased “oooh, Look at his paws!” that comes with cute puppy.

You may or may not be pumped about this discovery, but hopefully the exploration of it here helped you think a bit more about the mindblowing complexity of the human being. Especially the female sort.

In other news , let’s see here… I am coming to realize that I have issues with things just being what they are. For example: life is boring sometimes. Even the most fantastic situation can become humdrum. The irritating thing for me is when that happens with the Lord. I guess part of me feels like time with Jesus should be this whirlwind of adventure all the time. However, when I think about the disciples I remember something. They were with Jesus for 3 years. That’s over a thousand days. I wonder if all of those days were incredibly fun/exciting or if on some of those days they just walked to Jerusalem in a group and didn’t do much.

Maybe this is a problem of my societal upbringing, maybe it’s just me, but I guess I am always jonesing for the Holy Spirit to be so present that miracles happen all the time…but perhaps it might be better if I learned what it meant to let things be what they are.

My friend Stephen and I talked about this the other day in regard to marriage. It will probably be boring sometimes. Stephen and I realized that sometimes even hanging out with friends is boring. We ate lunch and then played video games, after which I took a nap while he was downstairs watching basketball, when I woke up we ate stew and then played more video games. It was good. Yet, it was not the most fun I have ever had. Maybe that’s a testament to my friendship with Stephen that we can be friends who don’t do much.

Perhaps I have the problem of making life with Jesus into something that I expect to be fun and mindblowing everyday. It seems that there are days in which you just get to be in your relationship with the Triune God. I guess that’s not a bad thing.

A Theology of the Gray Areas?

Hey. So it’s been a bit. Things have gotten all crazy-like. This is the summary:

1) New class schedule. The bulk of my classes now dwell in the realm of Tuesday/Thursday. Thus after three and 2/3 years of college, I have one last change to get used to before the towel gets thrown in. It’s on its way.

2) General beginning of the quarter disembodied floaty feelings. I go to school and have new classes, but also spent the first part of the quarter feeling strangely out of place following break. It was as though I wasn’t ready to jump into the last lap on the race that has been college and the new Schedule allowed me for a time to wallow in that. No more though.

3) Out of the habit. I like blogging a lot. I just need to start doing it more.

In the overarching sense of things I am taking super awesome classes, using more abbreviated words than I thought possible, and trying to “suck the marrow out of life” to the fullest extent that I can through participating in the Holy Spirit’s work. Game on life.

A few silly things that I’ve seen/heard before I launch into the idea in the subject line. Some of them contain cursing. Be prepared to shield yourself from the reality of the people I see and interact with if you feel it necessary.

I was walking today with my friend Erendira along the canal and a classic “bro” and his friend aka “dawg” walked by us. This is how their conversation went (or at least the part we heard).

Bro: It was fuckin’ sweet dawg.

Dawg: yeah?

Bro: It was the plushest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.

That was it. Erin and I laughed. She asked, “I wonder if people think about what they say after they say it?” Mostly I think that bro did not. It brought me back to the days of high school in which I thought it hilarious to begin sentences with the F-word. It was great fun. Now, thankfully, while it may be funny I am learning that things that hilarity is not the thing that justifies actions I make. Keyword: Learning. I don’t use the F-word much at all, just to tell you this story really….

Another thing that I thought about in response to bro’s conversation was what could he have been discussing? He said “plush”. When people use that word, I think of really nice furniture. It strikes me as odd that bro would be so hardcore with his verbage regarding a super-pimp couch or something of the like. Honestly. The context of the word plush with cursing circumfixed around it for those of us who don’t hear cursing all that much serves only to emphasize the plushness of that thing he was discussing. This is either the world’s best and most comfortable piece of furniture or he is an incredibly inarticulate expressor of key things in his life.

I’m sure people might have said the same about me in years gone by, maybe even today. Nonetheless, somethings just need to be mentioned.

Another thing that I should tell you about is the absolute awesomeness of Dr.Frank Spina. The man is incredible. I have Biblical Theology with him from 6-8:30PM twice a week and it rocks. I am learning about the history of biblical interpretation from all the way back in the 1700’s until presently from a man whose intellect intimidates me. I’m no fool, but it’s nice to realize that among some people there is simply such a great gulf of wisdom and knowledge that all you can do is try to speak and be ready to be reminded that you may just be 22 talking with a man who has been interacting with the bible and Christianity for over twice your age. Seriously. I take notes on the coolest and most academically fun things I have in a long time. You might not like it, but I am finding myself to be someone who likes spending 6 hours in a library working on a sweet paper for bible classes. I have no idea where this madness will end….maybe I’ll get to be the next Frank Spina.

A thought that we learned: As a Christian I don’t believe that we can treat the bible as a historian would. A historian cannot discuss God’s work in history reconciling man to Himself through Jesus Christ. A historian can only talk about people who believed that God was doing this, and what they did. The historian cannot talk about God’s work bluntly. The bible as we learned, is about God. It’s not about us. If we take the bible as a narrative, the story is about God’s interaction with humanity/Israel…not the other way around. Key point: God initiates and we respond. Therefore, if we’re looking at the bible through a lens of cause and effect historical interaction we will miss the point because we cannot learn to see the text for what it really is. Some historical analysis is useful, but I don’t think we can sell out to it when we approach the text. Honestly, it fails to give the text the complexity that is due it.

Another idea. What are we saying when we say we are Christians? At a basic level of belief it means that we believe the witness of the apostles that they had with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. As Dr.Spina put it it’s somewhat the same idea of how people believe that Australia exists. There’s nothing wrond with it. I like it a lot. The bible was written as the church (and synagogue) formed, thus I think that we’ve got to be real about where our faith comes from. We believe the witness of the apostles to the reality of God. This is where I think we get the phrase “apostolic witness”.

The bible gives us definitive backing in this, but at some level the faith to which we adhere does in fact lie outside the text in the realm of the real world. A world in which God either really interacted with man through Israel and Jesus Christ or a world in which He didn’t. I believe He did. Therein, being a part of the one holy catholic (with a small c, meaning whole) apostolic tradition I as a member of the body of Christ affirm that the bible has authority in being an anchoring force (among other things) in the foundations of the reality of God made manifest through interaction with the world through Israel and Jesus Christ.

It’s interesting how these ideas develop over time. Boyhowdy do I love this stuff. High five to Jesus for blessing me with good learning.

On to the topic on which I started the blog. Here’s the idea I wanted to jaw about. Maybe you’ll hate it. That’s fine with me. Maybe you’ll love it. Great. Give me your thoughts as they come I suppose. Here’s the thing:

I think that sometimes we interact with the biblical text in a manner that presupposes a black and white reality of all things biblical. For starters let me say that there are somethings that are rightfully thought of this way. The resurrection for example is one of these things. It’s black and white. It either happened or it did not. I believe it did. You can believe it didn’t, which I would say is silly. You don’t get to live in the inbetween zone.

On the otherhand, there are things that people like to try and make black and white that are not. Take for instance salvation. Some people on the basis of the biblical text  make it a firm statement that God has chosen some and rejected others. Some are destined to damnation and others to eternal life. This belief states that God chose this at the beginning of time. A calvinistic perspective. Other people say that people have all the say in this. God made salvation open to us and we are the ones who choose or reject God. Who is right? Well…neither. The biblical text has a great number of verses that would support either side. People who believe these things aren’t just pulling this out of their butts, it comes from a definitively honest look at scripture and the reality of some verses (more often than not at the expense of others). Some verses are given more authority than others. Sometimes we are led to assume that credibility to one of these choices can be possibly given based on a mere scale of the verses included. “My 5 verses beat your 3.” As though the bible were made of parts that can be separated from the whole and weighed for their corresponding value to a particular doctrine by some “objective” standard.

When we look at the text on this issue, and assuming that there are verses supporting both sides, should we not be forced into a position that acknoweldges them all? Should we discount the words of Jesus because Paul said X? Should we discount the words of Paul because of something that occurs in the Old Testament? Do biblical perspectives that display different ideas regarding man’s interaction with God force us to choose one and reject the other? Sometimes, perhaps they do. But I think too often we are quick to stand on firm cement of our own biblical interpretation so that we can stand somewhere we can grasp rather than stand on the rock of God’s truth that may indeed be hard to get and even more complicated than we can comprehend?

I think that sometimes we take the bible to be something that is easy to understand. That everyone can read the bible and walk away understanding exactly what to believe about everything. There are things that are clear as ice. Like I mentioned. Yet, there are also things that are not. What does it look like to let the text speak for itself in its entirety and at the same time view our own sinfulness as often times being manifest in our own interpretations of the texts? Maybe it means relying on more things than just the text. Maybe it means reading the text in community, with creeds, through the Holy Spirit and letting God do in theology what we are so  happily cliche to grant Him room to do in life. That being “working in mysterious ways.”

Do the mysterious ways of the Righteous One merit our presumtuous and arrogant assertions that we will immediately grasp what He does? Or rather does the reality of God force us to allow room for a theological perspective that allows shades of gray in some areas in the face of His overwhelming complexity and largeness?

Your thoughts?