Monday, November 10, 2014

Why? (Is It Really a Dangerous Question?)

There are some things in life that we will never understand.  So it's better to just let things be and not ask the question, "Why?" But is that really always the case?  I completely understand the belief behind this line of thinking and I certainly see why people believe there's harm in asking, "Why did this happen?" (or something along those lines).  Some people would say that this is one of the "most dangerous" questions we can ask, especially as Christians.  That's right; a lot of Christians believe asking "why?" will lead you to a road of doubt in God.  They'll "quote" (see what I did there?) verses like, "We hear only in part and see only in part." or "Gods ways are higher than ours.  That's why this [blank] happened." or "You can't please God without faith.  So don't ask why."  Sure you can find all these thoughts/verses in the bible but is "why?" a question we can't handle?  Is "why?" a question God can't handle?

First of all, God is a "big boy" I think He can handle anything thrown at Him.  Second, I think a lot of us have been looking at this all wrong.  Many times to not ask "why?" means to bottle it up inside and not deal with the issue.  When is that ever healthy in life personally?  When is that ever healthy in a relationship?  When we bottle things up, they tend to eventually explode causing more damage than they should have. 

To the people who vehemently adhere to the life motto of "Never ask God 'Why' because it's not faith.  That's not what a healthy relationship looks like"  I would like to point out the following:


"WHY do You stand afar off, O LORD? WHY do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?" Psalm 10:1
"My God, my God, WHY have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning." Psalm 22:1

"WHY do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and our oppression?" Psalm 44:24 

"O LORD, WHY do You reject my soul? WHY do You hide Your face from me?" Psalm 88:14   In my opinion, I don't think we can always get to the, "I said to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.'" (Psalm 16:2) without first allowing ourselves the "why", the grief.  I'm not foolish enough to believe that every single "why" in life will be answered.  Believe me, I have plenty of "why's" about things that just seem so unjust, so terrible.  But I think God can handle them.  And I and my relationship with God will come out on the other side better for not bottling things up.  I hope this helped you even a little bit.  Life is really difficult at times and unanswered questions don't help.  But I believe life WILL get better!  Life WILL get good!  We WILL see it!   

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Confession Time

For those of you who don't like to do the archaic activity called reading, you may click here and watch the video version of Confession Time on my YouTube channel.

And for those of you who insist on doing something that even the Neanderthal was smart enough to avoid, READ ON!

I thought it would be fun to do posts like this from time to time:  Confess a few things about myself that may or may not be embarrassing.  I mean it's supposed to feel good when you get things off your chest right?

Confession #1

Stand in awe of my photoshop skillz
Oh whovians... I must confess and apologize but I do NOT like Dr. Who.  So many people I know hyped this show up and I was so excited when I sat down in front of my TV, waiting patiently for Netflix to load.  And then... I never made it beyond the first two episodes.  I just didn't get why so many people were obsessed with it.  It was so... Boring?  I really, really wanted to like this show but I wasn't going to force myself to enjoy something I didn't find entertaining.  In fairness most whovians later told me that the entire first season is something you have to force yourself to watch but... Yeah that's not going to happen with me.  Again I'm sorry!


Confession #2

I'm sooo boooooootiffuull!
 Now for some... embarrassment.  I saw the Hannah Montana movie in the theater... TWICE.  I know what you're thinking, "Well he has three daughters so that's really not surprising that he 'had' to see it..." and yes it's true my girls did beg me to take them to see the movie.  But the second time I saw it I was... by myself... Yup I was alone.  Oh the looks I got.  I was the only guy in the theater of course.  Just me, a tattooed, pierced, large man, and a bunch of little girls with their moms.  The stares I got were so funny to me.  Why did I go see the Hannah Montana movie a second time?  I don't know... it's not like I've seen every single episode and owned it on DVD and have all the Hannah Montana albums..................................

Confession #3

I'm feeling the love for sure.
This one is a big one.  It goes all the way back to the days of summer-camp.  There was this extremely cute girl there and the moment I saw her I was like this!  The only problem was I could never work up the courage to actually say "Hi" to this girl.  By the end of summer-camp it seemed like everyone had a new boyfriend or girlfriend so I was like, "Well.... I met a girl too."  Yup I totally told people that me and the cute girl of my dreams were now together.  To make it even sadder, I never knew her name so I totally made one up.  I got pretty deep into this lie too.  I would even fake phone calls with her so people would think we were dating.  Oh my goodness, so, so, so sad!  Fast forward to a year later and I'm once again back at summer-camp.  I've had a entire year to work up the courage to talk to this beauty.  I see her from a distance and then make my way to her.  In my mind I'm thinking, "We'll talk and she'll fall in love instantly!"  When I finally got over to her she was talking to a friend.  Let's just say that after I overheard how she was gossiping and judging other people, she came across extremely stuck up and I was no longer interested in her one bit.  So because of this and because I had lied to such an extent, I then created a tragic break up story of how she broke my poor heart!  So...  I'm sorry to any family members that still thought Audry was real!  LOL HA!


So I'm supposed to feel better now, right?  Right?  Hope this gave you a laugh!