Talent is useless without righteousness.
You are not better than anyone else. Nor are you worse.
Character= influence.
Just a few quick lines from Fame is Infamy. It is a very unconventiona book, since it is composed of short stories, parables, poems, and some lists of truths and lies. Basically all of these things are challenging what the reader, me in this case, believes about purpose or fame. Some of it is pretty funny and/or entertaining, but there are definitely a lot of serious questions and thoughts.
All of the quotes above definitely apply to me. There are some things from the quotes that I can apply to my life, and there are things I see in other people that I most certainly don't want to copy. I have talked a bit before about people's egos, and how it bothers me when people are just flat out amazed with themselves. Let me be clear, I enjoy audacious joking, pretending that I am freakin awesome. And I do like myself, I have a healthy confidence, but I definitely don't have the ego that I joke about. So it really gets on my nerves when people legitimately believe that they are just that cool. It is even worse when they have talent, but lack righteousness. When they have talent, but think they are better than others and treat people like it too. These people have no influence because they have no character. It all ties together.
So those are my thoughts on other people. I will admit that these are things that I need to watch in myself though. As much as I think I have a healthy level of confidence, I have to make sure to keep it in check so that confidence doesn't get misdirected into pride. For example, I like to be a well rounded person, trying to be at least decently versed in academics, athletics, music, religious ideas. So while I am not by any means amazing at any of those factors, I am fine at all of them, so I can get pretty pleased with myself for the whole picture. Which in itself is not bad i believe, as long as I am still working to improve, realizing I am not perfect. The problem comes if and when I start to think this accumulation of moderate talents makes me better than someone else. I would never act on a thought like that, openly acting like I am better than someone, but I may have a thought just out of the blue like "I cant think of anything that they are better than me at," or maybe they just don't look like someone interesting to me. I wouldn't be openly mean or arrogant to them, but I may not talk to them, or keep conversation to a minimum. It is a selfish attitude that says that they can't offer me anything, so I won't bother with them. I think it sounds like a far more severe situation on this blog than what I usually deal with, but it is something that I need to watch out for and pray about.
Even with moderate talents, I need to use them in a righteous manner.
I think I have even referenced this song before, but the song Beggars by Thrice is such a good song for this subject. A few quotes from that song:
As you lie in your bed, does the thought haunt your head that you're really, rather small?
All you big shots that swagger and stride with conceit, did you devise how your frame would be formed?
Can you hear what’s been said?
Can you see now that everything’s grace after all?
If there’s one thing I know in this life: we are beggars all.
Wow that blog turned out really serious. Oh well, I hope you still enjoyed it.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Concert-ing it up
Alright another week down.
Its amazing how quickly I have adjusted to being like, 'yeah whatever I've been here for a while, it's just life as normal.' Also, I don't feel disconnected from my bros really, like we still talk or at least text frequently. I know it has only been two weeks, but you know what I mean.
The drive to Portland is not bad at all from here. It took me like 40 minutes each way to get to the concert last night, which was like inner city ish. So I can easily make it to some more concerts, although I would like someone to go with for blindside next week. We will see. I am thinking when Mars Hill starts up their Portland branch in January I will have to go there at least once. I just saw a video of the place they bought and it looks sweet. It's in an...interesting neighborhood though.
So I went by myself to the Brian "Head" Welch, Project 86, Spoken, The Wedding, and I Am Empire concert. Unlike probably all of you reading, I had actually heard of all of those bands, though I am really only a fan of Welch and Proj. The place it was at was pretty cool, but the tour date wasnt set til a few weeks ago, so the show didnt get as much publicity as it could have. Hence, there was almost no one there for the first two bands. Maybe 50 people in all, with about 12 to fifteen up in front by the stage. Now I am not much of a moshing guy, usually far too chill for that kind of thing, but I kind of got pulled into it this time because i was standing by the stage, and the lead singer from the wedding decided to hop down from the stage and walk around the floor to get people pumped up. Well, in a series of events, he ended up dumping his water bottle out on me. Then the small group up front spent the next 3 or so songs moshing with the lead singer. It was a pretty unique experience, and also pretty much awesome. After the Wedding finished, he even gave me a free t shirt for letting him dump water on me, so I won't complain about a free shirt.
Project 86 can put on a show. Well, Andrew Schwab can put on a show, because I think Steven Dail is gone and Randy was sick, so the Proj that I know only had Schwab left. A bunch of guys yelling along to the wondrous music, and then breaking into moshing is pretty entertaining. Brian Welch was also fun to watch, but he isn't quite as crazy as Proj in terms of excitement and just the general pace of the performance. Welch was very similar to when I saw them in the Tri, but I dont really remember the bass and drum solos. Those were crazy.
Oh well, enough about the concert. I bought Andrew Schwab's newest book, Fame is Infamy, at the show, and I can already tell I am going to enjoy it. Basically it is about looking for what our purpose is, and seeing how weird it is that our culture tells us that purpose and success is found in recognition and fame. Or at least that is a good portion of it. Redefining how we look at purpose. And it is all written in a very readable way, so I am looking forward to this book.
Little update, didnt really get anywhere in the church search today. I went to Grace Baptist and a guy that speaks apparently like once a month or something was speaking, and he was super boring. But the guy I heard last time is the guy that usually preaches. I am leaning towards not Southside because I think it is important, at least at this point in my life, to have people my age at my church. You know, people to relate to. Prayer for direction is still always appreciated.
That is enough for tonight.
Its amazing how quickly I have adjusted to being like, 'yeah whatever I've been here for a while, it's just life as normal.' Also, I don't feel disconnected from my bros really, like we still talk or at least text frequently. I know it has only been two weeks, but you know what I mean.
The drive to Portland is not bad at all from here. It took me like 40 minutes each way to get to the concert last night, which was like inner city ish. So I can easily make it to some more concerts, although I would like someone to go with for blindside next week. We will see. I am thinking when Mars Hill starts up their Portland branch in January I will have to go there at least once. I just saw a video of the place they bought and it looks sweet. It's in an...interesting neighborhood though.
So I went by myself to the Brian "Head" Welch, Project 86, Spoken, The Wedding, and I Am Empire concert. Unlike probably all of you reading, I had actually heard of all of those bands, though I am really only a fan of Welch and Proj. The place it was at was pretty cool, but the tour date wasnt set til a few weeks ago, so the show didnt get as much publicity as it could have. Hence, there was almost no one there for the first two bands. Maybe 50 people in all, with about 12 to fifteen up in front by the stage. Now I am not much of a moshing guy, usually far too chill for that kind of thing, but I kind of got pulled into it this time because i was standing by the stage, and the lead singer from the wedding decided to hop down from the stage and walk around the floor to get people pumped up. Well, in a series of events, he ended up dumping his water bottle out on me. Then the small group up front spent the next 3 or so songs moshing with the lead singer. It was a pretty unique experience, and also pretty much awesome. After the Wedding finished, he even gave me a free t shirt for letting him dump water on me, so I won't complain about a free shirt.
Project 86 can put on a show. Well, Andrew Schwab can put on a show, because I think Steven Dail is gone and Randy was sick, so the Proj that I know only had Schwab left. A bunch of guys yelling along to the wondrous music, and then breaking into moshing is pretty entertaining. Brian Welch was also fun to watch, but he isn't quite as crazy as Proj in terms of excitement and just the general pace of the performance. Welch was very similar to when I saw them in the Tri, but I dont really remember the bass and drum solos. Those were crazy.
Oh well, enough about the concert. I bought Andrew Schwab's newest book, Fame is Infamy, at the show, and I can already tell I am going to enjoy it. Basically it is about looking for what our purpose is, and seeing how weird it is that our culture tells us that purpose and success is found in recognition and fame. Or at least that is a good portion of it. Redefining how we look at purpose. And it is all written in a very readable way, so I am looking forward to this book.
Little update, didnt really get anywhere in the church search today. I went to Grace Baptist and a guy that speaks apparently like once a month or something was speaking, and he was super boring. But the guy I heard last time is the guy that usually preaches. I am leaning towards not Southside because I think it is important, at least at this point in my life, to have people my age at my church. You know, people to relate to. Prayer for direction is still always appreciated.
That is enough for tonight.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Praise and Church Decisions
Okay first week of college is down, it was pretty good, and I have some thoughts to share. First off, I don't understand why my classes havent been giving me homework. I am no going to complain, but I know the classes I have are generally pretty strong on homework. But what ends up happening when I have no work is I end up bored because everyone else does have work. It's a vicious cycle.
I think it has been really cool to see people's faith around here. Obviously they make you go to chapel some, but what is really striking is the spontaneous or optional events. I'll give two examples. First was the last night of Orientation, there was a campus worship session that a lot of people went to, and what hit me was how genuine the student worship was. It wasn't like at a Liberty chapel where there are like 20 people singing and 80 just standing there. This was like 500 people genuinely praising God, which was amazing to see. The second example, which actually happened tonight, was an informal worship session in my dorms lounge. Even though the event was posted about 2 hours prior, we ended up with 20 to 30 people from the dorm worshipping for about an hour. Very cool to experience.
Basketball is still going, and I just love playing. It is so intense, you have to be on your toes all the time and I love it. It is so exciting to go all out, and play good competition. Most of the guys are pretty encouraging, telling me to take my shots and stuff like that. Like I've said, I absolutely love the concept of improving and working hard, so if I get burned or make a mistake in the game, obviously I'm not very pleased, but I can look at it as something to learn from.
Weights have been going too, hopefully I can put in a little more time for them this week, I feel like I cut a workout or two a bit short last week. I kind of want the coach to assign workout partners already so I can have someone to spot me on bench.
I'm enjoying meeting a bunch of new people, but sometimes I like don't hear peoples names, so I find myself listening for people to address them so that I can get it. Oh well, a lot of the people are pretty chill, even if some of the groups have different dynamics than I am used to.
Lastly for tonight, I went to Southside this week. It was a minuscule church. There were like 30, 40 people there max. The pastor was cool, if I went there I could get into music immediately, and some of the other people were really nice and inviting too. Like I went to lunch with the pastors family and another guy. It was really relaxed, but it raises some questions in my mind for choosing churches. They were so inviting, I feel like I should go back, but it just might not be the right fit, because there really werent many college age people there at all, and the pastor wasn't quite as good as Grace Baptist. So I really need some prayer for making the right decision on a church. Maybe there is another church to try, but I don't think that is what God is telling me. I keep thinking about a few things. One is C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters where Lewis talks about not being a connoisseur of churches, which I am not doing, but after that he says that God sticks us in places where we might not like every aspect of the church, but we are there for a reason to grow us and others. Then there is a combination of a guy that spoke at new Vintage and Mark Driscoll. The guy from New Vintage said something like God puts us where he wants us(same as Lewis) and Driscoll made a comment about how God places people around us to grow us and form relationships with us. Sometimes we just aren't looking for it. All the thoughts are similar, but they very much tie in to choosing a home church, so any prayer is welcome.
I think it has been really cool to see people's faith around here. Obviously they make you go to chapel some, but what is really striking is the spontaneous or optional events. I'll give two examples. First was the last night of Orientation, there was a campus worship session that a lot of people went to, and what hit me was how genuine the student worship was. It wasn't like at a Liberty chapel where there are like 20 people singing and 80 just standing there. This was like 500 people genuinely praising God, which was amazing to see. The second example, which actually happened tonight, was an informal worship session in my dorms lounge. Even though the event was posted about 2 hours prior, we ended up with 20 to 30 people from the dorm worshipping for about an hour. Very cool to experience.
Basketball is still going, and I just love playing. It is so intense, you have to be on your toes all the time and I love it. It is so exciting to go all out, and play good competition. Most of the guys are pretty encouraging, telling me to take my shots and stuff like that. Like I've said, I absolutely love the concept of improving and working hard, so if I get burned or make a mistake in the game, obviously I'm not very pleased, but I can look at it as something to learn from.
Weights have been going too, hopefully I can put in a little more time for them this week, I feel like I cut a workout or two a bit short last week. I kind of want the coach to assign workout partners already so I can have someone to spot me on bench.
I'm enjoying meeting a bunch of new people, but sometimes I like don't hear peoples names, so I find myself listening for people to address them so that I can get it. Oh well, a lot of the people are pretty chill, even if some of the groups have different dynamics than I am used to.
Lastly for tonight, I went to Southside this week. It was a minuscule church. There were like 30, 40 people there max. The pastor was cool, if I went there I could get into music immediately, and some of the other people were really nice and inviting too. Like I went to lunch with the pastors family and another guy. It was really relaxed, but it raises some questions in my mind for choosing churches. They were so inviting, I feel like I should go back, but it just might not be the right fit, because there really werent many college age people there at all, and the pastor wasn't quite as good as Grace Baptist. So I really need some prayer for making the right decision on a church. Maybe there is another church to try, but I don't think that is what God is telling me. I keep thinking about a few things. One is C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters where Lewis talks about not being a connoisseur of churches, which I am not doing, but after that he says that God sticks us in places where we might not like every aspect of the church, but we are there for a reason to grow us and others. Then there is a combination of a guy that spoke at new Vintage and Mark Driscoll. The guy from New Vintage said something like God puts us where he wants us(same as Lewis) and Driscoll made a comment about how God places people around us to grow us and form relationships with us. Sometimes we just aren't looking for it. All the thoughts are similar, but they very much tie in to choosing a home church, so any prayer is welcome.
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