hottest cars on the market

I love my 1991 Ford Escort. Its name is Pocket (PieceOfCrapKissingElvesThrice). That’s all I have to say right now. I love my car. My car is simple. My car is plain. But my car has personality. I think sometimes my car is a reflection of myself. The two of us are very close….

Morality and godliness: The two are not entirely separate

I have a friend I met last year at a leadership summit in D.C. last summer. We have kept in touch on and off since, but I am subscribed to his blog. His latest post provoked me to comment and clear some things up. Here is his entry: 

My moral inability.

moral (adj.)
Conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior; virtuous

I feel like something may have happened that I have no business about or have any reason to be suspicious about. And yet, it bugs me. It seems as if a friend has done something and as if they did it to purposefully hurt me. And as I thought about it on the way home, I wondered about whether it was right.

I have a friend who believes in a god that humans cannot understand. To be honest, hes one of my best friends and we discuss religion A LOT. We talk about how corrupt christianity is (which it is) and how that corruption drives people from the church. My friend makes me see a lot of things that I otherwise would have forever been completely oblivious to.

He keeps me honest.

Tonight, after hanging out with a bunch of my christian friends, I realize that my near-athiest friend has better morals than the others.

He has morals.

As a christian, I am called to do things that go against what my body tells me is right. And Ive gone against what Im called to do. I struggle everyday with things like vanity and lust. I seem to have lost my morals somewhere way in the back.

But as I drove back into town from the middle of podunk, I realized that I dont need morals.

Morals arent important because Im not called to have morals. God doesnt say have morals and do what is right.

God says be good and follow the laws of the land as long as they are godly. God says do what I command.

Im called to be Godly.

So I decided on my way into town that I dont like morals. They drive a person to do what is right. Not to do what God has commanded.

And those are indeed two seperate things.

Here is the comment I posted on his blog:

I enjoy reading your blog, but I have plenty to comment about today’s entry.

Christianity is not corrupt. Christianity is everything we believe in, not the execution by the believers. The only thing corrupt is the fact that we still choose to sin, and some keep it from others until their hypocrisy is exposed to the public, the church, and nonbelievers such as your friend.

About your friend, you say he believes in a god that humans cannot understand. In that, he is not far off because our God, GOD, is far beyond comprehension and forces us all to trust and believe with the faith of a child. Your friend is nowhere near being an atheist. If he were, morality would be nonexistant. Atheists cannnot have morals because they have no Higher Power to which they are held accountable. They can only have opinions and there are no absolutes.

And finally, about morality, I can understand your point on it being separated from godliness. But the Bible commands to stay away from immorality, which confines to a moral standard: God’s standard. You may think your body wants you to be vain and lustful, but it’s all a part of human nature. In no moral plane is vanity and lust an upright characteristic. Our human nature is designed to feel a right and a wrong; we choose where to lean. That instinctive morality is all a part of being creatures of God; we are given a choice.

Just a quick example: You see something nice in your neighbor’s yard. By taking it, you are overcome with a feeling of guilt. This is so even with a nonbeliever; the guilt is the instinctive moral feeling. Some people just choose the wrong, and after doing it many times, they are overwhelmed with a certain feeling that the right is not an absolute. There is a vacancy, and that vacancy is a lack of moral standard, and the emptiness of belief and trust in the Higher Power.

You’ve chosen to be godly. That’s admirable. But because it is also in good moral standards, those two are not entirely separate. Moral standards are God’s standards. Our postmodern generation has skewed lines of morality and stands in a state of no absolutes.

Watch Stars Wars Episode III when they confess to there being no absolutes. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, but it’s the perfect line to describe our society.

Nice to hear from you,
Craig

my ex-girlfriend is a rock star

It’s been an entire week since my last post. At the moment, I’m not sure whether I’m happy, unsettlingly content, or just too confused to even want to figure it out. This time last week I was preparing myself to say goodbye. My execution was far from flawless and I did it so terribly I’m not even sure any of it made sense. I penned a letter of my “last words” as a farewell if she weren’t to get back in touch with me after last night. Things needed to end on my part before anything of a friendship either progressed or halted. I couldn’t be a heartbroken friend trying to salvage what used to be; neither could things end completely without my consent. Though I’m afraid my letter sounded too much like I didn’t want to speak to her again mixed with my reluctancy of ending things on my behalf. She told me she would call when she had the chance. I’m not going to dial her number unless she calls me back or unless I have to tell her something of dire importance before the weekend.

I also met her mother for the “first” time, and saw her dad again. I had spoken to her mother the day we left the instiute only because she left her dress in the lobby and her mother had come back in to use the restroom. She was very nice and I enjoyed speaking to her intermittingly during her daughter’s concert. It seemed so strange to speak to her as if I were going to see her again with the uncertainty that my ties with this family may now be severed.

This has all been quite difficult for me. At the same time I care for this girl, not hearing from her but twice in a span of three weeks had somewhat helped me recover from heartbreak. I want to stay as friends, yet that choice is hers, and that’s where I have to leave it. Maybe if she doesn’t call I’ll let her know if I’m dropping by one day in case she still hasn’t made up her mind. I don’t think things will ever be the same, but being able to preserve our friendship through this would be admirable from any perspective.

Her band put on quite a show. How fittingly so it being their “farewell” concert before the lead guitarist heads off to college. However troubling these past few weeks have been, I can still say I dated the lead singer of an underground-coffeehouse-teabar sensation of a band. Truth be told though, she has an amazing voice and her talent far outshines that of the other members.

I was glad to see her last night. Still, I’m not sure if it was closure. All of this has been a blessing, yet I don’t want anything to work out. Then again, I don’t want things to not work out. I really don’t want anything at this point. I just pray that God will do with this whatever He wants to do. Because if nothing happens, He’s done enough in this already.

on sayonaras, adieus, and untimely farewells

Earlier today, I pondered upon the fact that I’ve never once in my life had to say goodbye. Actually, I’ve probably have had to say goodbye, but I just never knew how. When I moved last year, I just packed up and left home, only telling one or two people that I was on my way to South Carolina, but promised to stay in touch instead of severing ties.

Maybe it’s just that I don’t want to face closure. Most of the friends I have lost in the past decided one day that they would never speak to me again and our ways of communication were no more. Now I’m confronting the fear of ending things for good. I’m not sure how to do it. I’m not even sure I can.

Sure, this time a month ago, I was absolutely crazy about this girl. It was hard to fathom that any other girl could exist and race the tracks of my mind she inhabited. And then before I knew what was happening, it was all over, and no matter what I could do, everything I thought I had was slipping away. I still have our memories. Other than that, it seems things have passed and now is the time to move on.

How am I supposed to say goodbye? I thought I could still be there as a friend, to be there for her spiritually where no one else was. Now that at times I’ve felt that she was ignoring me and only returning my calls once a week, it seems like the best scenario is a farewell. In my first relationship, it seemed the highs and lows were experienced in 10 days. I guess the greatest lesson I must learn from all of this is one from which I’ve been running all my life: I must say goodbye for good.

I still care about her. I think about her everyday, but now I see it in a different light. We must take our separate paths. I can only be there to support her in prayer. Maybe one day we’ll meet again. As for now, I’m preparing for another big step in an already monumental summer.

wisdom: my double-edged sword

Although this is my first time blogging on this site, I will make a transition from my Myspace at this moment to say that my pinky toe is doing quite better…

Unfortunately, I found out this morning my wisdom teeth are going to be removed this Friday. We tried to schedule it as soon as we could this morning on account of school starting next Thursday, and my slot was picked for Friday morning to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I’m a pretty tough guy when it comes to the physical aspect of things, but not being able to associate with other people might be the only thing that brings me to tears.

All this brings me to question if losing my wisdom teeth will bring a new era upon my life. Sure, I’ve experienced enough this summer to be able to stock wisdom in a myriad of silos, but what kind of outlook can I have when my mouth, in which I take so much pride, is going to be sore beyond measure? I love my teeth, my smile, and my voice; hopefully, I can love them all the same when I experience unnatural male mood swings Friday afternoon.

Wisdom shouldn’t be taken for granted. However, when wisdom is extracted, will wisdom still be fresh from my tongue, abundant, yet able to divert attention from myself? By no means do I claim to be wise; in some ways I still feel like a simple guy who loves Jesus and respects people. But what can this Friday possibly bring to the table? A new outlook? A fresh start? Or more knowledge gained while I sit around miserably holding my mouth?

Maybe I should stop asking so many questions and save the world with a smile.