Struggling with the Power of Prayer.
Have you ever felt that conflict inside you where you believe that God can do anything, but that he can’t?
And then someone tells you that you are a bad Christian because you have that conflict and you don’t “Have enough faith?”
B.S.
This is reality people. Anyone who says otherwise are lying to themselves and to you. I can totally at once believe that Jesus is Lord of the Universe, as well as my personal Saviour and friend, (to use a myriad of Christianese jargon) and I can also not believe that things will change. Simple as that.
And you believe it, too.
To work through this, to move, ultimately, to hope, I’m trying to concentrate on a few things:
Thomas is known as the doubter, because of John 20:
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
But no one ever remembers this line, from John 11. Jesus is heading back to Judea, where it is quite possible that he will be killed (he doesn’t -not yet anyway):
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Thomas is the first one ready to die for Jesus. No one remembers that one. He didn’t bring the show like Peter; he just decided that he was going all the way with Jesus.
Also,
In Acts 12, Peter miraculously escapes prison and goes to a house of people that are praying for his release. When he shows up, people don’t even believe that’s its him, that this must be his angel. (whatever that means)
They were praying precisely for what happened, and didn’t believe it when it did happen.
Finally, one of the most profound prayers in the Bible, found in Mark 9:24:
I believe; help my unbelief.
Jesus had just told the man that he (Jesus) could do all for those who believe. That was his answer. Jesus healed his boy – even revived him from the dead.
If Jesus will do that for that man, with that prayer, I can come with the same prayer and the same hope.
Hope is a tough thing to focus on, but I’m trying.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on September 27, 2009 at 10:01 pm, filed under Christianity, Life, Spiritual Disciplines and tagged Bible, faith, hope, Jesus, Prayer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Creatively spent.
I think I’m starting to understand why I stop blogging for good amounts of time, and it lies mainly in that I spend my creative energies in other, more immediate contexts.
The problem with Biblical Studies, is that you have to always be thinking creatively and out of the box – or just read A LOT. Today I finished a presentation where I espoused the History-of-Religions view of the evolution of Monotheism from the El accounts from the partriarchal stories to Trinitarianism. Before that, I wrote a paper on my own interpretation of Genesis 2:25. Next week I have to write a paper on the use of extra-biblical apocalyptic literature in 1-2 Peter and how it affects exegesis. I still have to come up with a topic for my Acts paper, and I have another paper on why we should use the Septuagint, instead of the Masoretic text, as our primary Christian OT text.
Outside of the classroom, we just finished Airbands, where I artfully rendered Dashboard Confessional’s This Bitter Pill in full emo glory, solo-wise. My co-DM and I are trying to finish our D&D Campaign before the end of the semester, at which point I need to start building a new character for the summer.
So really, I don’t have much to say, not because I’m busy, but because I’m creatively spent. I’ve used up all that energy elsewhere, so that when I have the time to write something, I indulge myself on the creative energies of others, such Battlestar Galactica, Transformers, or the current Bionicle storyline. Nerdy? yes. Relaxing? definitely.
Well there’s 260 words for you to read. Hopefully I’ll have something pertinent to say soon.
As an aside, I cannot get this song out of my head:
And now you can’t either.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on March 16, 2009 at 10:04 pm, filed under Blog, Life, School and tagged Blog, creativity, meta-blogging, School. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
A Pretty Lady
It’s clear that I have a God that loves me dearly.
I know this because he brought me her:
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh!”
- Adam’s first words seeing Eve
WK
This entry was written by , posted on February 13, 2009 at 11:28 pm, filed under Life and tagged Life, Love, Wife, Will Kinchlea. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
In Quarantine
So my wife Christine works at a Retirement Home in the area. She loves it. I love that she loves it. She loves that I love that she loves it. I lo…well you get the idea. It’s a really great fit for her.
Sadly, on occasion, bad things can happen at work that affects us at home. More specifically, one bad thing has happened. Christine called me from work on Tuesday (2 days ago), saying that her workplace was in an unconfirmed outbreak. She was taking as many precautions as possible, and despite being the receptionist, was pretty much running the show, as many of the managers were sick. The virus was very contagious however, and she eventually go it anyway. This meant that, the minute I stepped into my home, I was going to have to stay away from school for a few days. This was kind of a bummer, but hey, free day off, right?
I’m not sick yet. But here’s the worst of it. Well, that IS the worst of it. Christine has exhausted herself out, but I’ve got this creeping neurosis that, like attending Lepers on a Leper colony, it’s only a matter of time.
Scary. Hopefully I won’t get sick, but we’ll see.
As Tom Petty said,
Waaaaaiitin is the haaaardest part.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on February 5, 2009 at 1:32 pm, filed under Life and tagged Life, sickness. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Transformers: Why Memory may be better than Reality.
Transformers. One of my greatest loves.
While I was a little too young for the very first iteration of Transformers toys and cartoon by Hasbro, I was around for the first round of re-runs of the show, as well as 2nd Generation (buffs of the original). I owned A LOT of transformers: 1st waves, 2nd waves, MicroMasters, Terrorcons, the Gestalts (Superion, Predaking), even the non-transforming Headmasters. When I was in Grade 8, having only been able to remember parts of the 1986 animated blockbuster movie, Transformers: The Movie, my friend Chris and I acquired our first copy of it for our own, and watched it a lot. I loved them, and they loved me.
The Greatest Story Ever Told...oh wait.
Ok, that last part is a bit over the top, but I say this all for a purpose I’ll get to in a minute
In the last few years, I’ve been getting my hands on the original cartoon’s DVD boxed sets, with the obvious intention of watching them. Was I in for a surprise! Transformers, the first cartoon, is brutal. The plot has more holes than Swiss, the voice acting is blasé at best, and the animation is re-hashed at every possible point. Like He-Man (though not THAT bad), it was a cartoon designed to push toys on stupid kids. The movie, in point of fact, was actually designed to introduce an entire new line of toys, as well as to give a semblance of why they won’t make any more Ironhide toys. Luckily, despite the first 2 seasons, that movie is still AWESOME, and the subsequent seasons had a lot more to do with storylines, with plausible introductions to new toys..er..Characters, superceding season 1 and 2′s piece of cinematographic mastery (“Hey Reflector, get over here! Yes Sir!” *Cue Reflector, done)
My point is, sometimes memory is better than reality. But, sadly, we can’t live in memory, only in reality. So take it as it is, and enjoy some really bad cartoons.
And check out Teletraan-1, the Transformers Wiki.
And the new cartoon is actually great.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 26, 2009 at 8:47 am, filed under Life and tagged memory, Nostalgia, transformers. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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