Tag

From Jason

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag 

I was in the ROTC program as a freshman in high school.  Gym was a completely miserable experience for me as a skinny, uncoordinated, uncompetitive kid in middle school.  So when I was told that ROTC was a physical education credit, and I would never have to take a gym class ever again, I thought this was a no-brainer.  This was not quite as bad as you would think.  There was very little macho competition, most everyone in the class was as nerdy or nerdier than I was, and my dad was very proud to see one of his sons wearing a navy uniform (which I looked really lame in).

I kissed my wife within three hours of meeting her for the first time (Take that Josh Harris!).  I was 18 years old, but she was only 15. 

My favorite band of all time might be Pedro The Lion.  I especially like the album, It's Hard to Find a Friend.  You can check out videos of the main song writer here. 

One time in January, after not smoking for a long time, I bought a pack of cigarettes and started chain smoking on the cold two hour drive from my parents house back to Bowling Green.  After about five or six cigarettes in a row, I became sick to my stomach.  I tried to pull over at the last minute, but it was too late.  I threw up all over my steering wheel, and in my lap.  My car smelled like puke for the next three months, and it was just too cold to have the windows down for very long.  I didn't smoke for about a year after that happened. 

My brother and I considered spray painting the words "date rape" on the side of the girls gone wild bus when it came to town a couple of times.  After discussing it and deciding that we would be theologically justified (maybe, maybe not) to do the deed, the jerks didn't come back to town anymore.  Maybe this was God sparing me from having to spend the night in jail. 

I wish that United Statesians (myself included) did not drive cars, but got by almost completely on riding bikes, trolleys, and trains.

I don't actually have a lot of friends who blog, and most of the blogs I read are written by people who don't know I exist, so I am going to create a dream team of sorts for my tag list.  These are the people I think should start blogs and respond to this tag.  

1.  Jeremy - my brother, and occasional partner in talking about committing crime

2.  Wes - anything Wes says is funny, whether he means it to be or not.  He is honestly one of my consistently favorite people.

3.  Bevin - my young South African friend in Bowling Green

4.  Jake - seriously, you could at least post your photography or something for my viewing pleasure

... and I only have four people on my dream team, but none of them actually even have blogs, so who cares?

it's cool to hate

I think I might have learned to hate when I was in high school.  Elementary school is not really a time where you run into a lot of social hierarchy.  There is some, but it is below the surface, and there are generally only a few kids here and there that are truly outcasts (God be with these individuals, wherever they are today).  In middle school, however, all the hierarchy comes to a head.  I didn’t feel it too much in 6^th grade, but in 7^th grade, it hit me like a punch in the gut.  Suddenly, there it was:  cool kids, uncool kids, cheerleaders, football players, skateboarders, preppies, freaks, poor white trash, gang bangers, untouchables.

But I didn’t hate anyone yet, and no one was really my enemy.  The reason for this is not because I was popular, in fact, far from it, but because I was unsure of my social standing at this point.  I still had dreams, as I think many do when first confronted with the social hierarchy, of climbing the ladder and being popular.  Looking back on this is laughable.  If you were to follow me around during my middle school years, you would know that every day was proof that I was not cool enough, witty enough, or smart enough to ever get very high on the ladder. 

By the time high school rolled around, I was jaded and bitter.  I knew my place, and I knew it wasn’t really going to change in the next four years.  It’s around this time that I really learned to hate.  I hated the whole system, and the people who enforced it.  I hated people who topped the social hierarchy, and did their best to keep others in their respective places.  I hated social climbers, willing to step on others in order get a higher place, I hated teachers who seemed to reinforce the hierarchy, and at times, appeared to down right enjoy it.  I hated school spirit, football games, and pep rallies.  Most of all, I hated seeing people get picked on, almost as much as I hated being picked on. 

Allow me to clarify for a moment.  Some of this anger was probably holy.  Some of the anger was simply anger about injustice, and dehumanization.  Such things should make us angry, and we should feel no need to hide that or apologize for it.  Instead, we should make every effort to confront those who would oppress, or exploit others, while comforting those who have fallen victim to predators and systems of injustice.  What was going on in my youth, however, was not all holy.  In fact, the majority of my anger led to sin, specifically self-destruction, and the destruction of others. 

Let’s fast forward.  I’m almost twenty-five years old now.  Jesus saved me from self-destruction almost eight years ago, and he continues to show me the difference between his hate of injustice, and sinning in anger.  But I still have my doubts that I have completely made my peace with high school.  I must confess that even my desire to work at a high school is in hopes of making it a safer, less miserable place for students who feel the weight of the system.  I still find myself thanking God that I don’t have to attend the pep rallies, and irritated at teachers who “loved high school so much they wanted to come back and teach at one.”  I still get angry at all the homophobic things that were said, and are still said.  I still feel my heart pushed towards hate from time to time.  But I hear God saying “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”

Where there's a will, there's a way

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.

Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

Let us all be extremely cautious in assuming that God's will, or plan conforms to our own, and let us be weary of any leader who does not share that caution.  

Johnson, Gene. "Palin: Iraq war 'a task from God'." Yahoo News. 3 Sep. 2008. Yahoo. 6 Sep. 2008 .