Archive - April, 2009

Okay, your pastor has great sex with his wife. So what?

April 28, 2009 in Religion with 6 Comments

As a Christian, I’m acutely aware of the fact that people think we don’t have any fun. It’s a reputation we’ve inherited from our Puritan ancestors, and extends all the way through our 1950’s style churches. What, with their vehement opposition to things like dancing, boys and girls swimming together, and rated ‘R’ movies, they’ve cemented an image of good little Christian boys and girls who would never dream of anything but Sunday School and after-school prayer sessions.

In recent years, the modern Christian community has taken great pains toward trying to repaint this image. We’ve gotten tattoos. We’ve played rock music in our worship services. And we’ve even talked about how great sex is (between a husband and a wife, of course). All this, and more, has been done with the hopes of communicating that Christians aren’t “fuddy dud-ies,” and that being a Christian doesn’t mean giving up all the cool, fun things you used to do. And while it is true that being a Christian doesn’t mean replacing all activities with bible study, I had a thought today that we’ve been wasting our time trying to communicate this message. Continue Reading…

I Think I've Been Lying To Myself

April 19, 2009 in Life with 1 Comment

I saw myself in the mirror the other day, and I’ve been trying to cope with it ever since. There was this angle that I saw, made by the mirror of the medicine cabinet showing onto the bathroom mirror. You know the angle I’m talking about. It’s the one you try to avoid when taking pictures, because it’s not flattering. I didn’t like what I saw. But instead of going on with what I was doing, or turning some other way to reinforce my mental image of myself, I sat and stared at it for a while. I tried to burn the image into my mind. I did this because I think that’s the real me. I don’t mean the holistic me, but the physical me. And I wanted to try and change my mental to picture to be that image.

It caused some concern, because it’s not the way I picture myself. And to believe that I look differently than I’ve been picturing myself, means that I’ve made myself believe a lie. And in fooling myself, I’ve allowed some things to happen that I wanted to pretend were otherwise. This kind of thinking lead me to similar areas of concern. What if all the things I’ve thought I was talented at, I’m not actually that good at them. Not that I’m terrible, but maybe I am terrible, or just mediocre at best. What if I am just a poor or mediocre guitarist, song writer, or singer. What if I’m just a poor or mediocre artist or designer. What if I’m just a poor or mediocre teacher or preacher. What if in all these areas that I’ve prided myself in having some kind of skill, I’m not really that talented.

I’ve always wanted to think of myself as extraordinary, as possessing the great talent to do great things. But of all of a sudden, I’m worried that I’m just average at best at all of them.