Good Italian Sandwich Shop

Here’s a random anecdote from my life, as this is a random blog it demands one. If you’re ever in New Haven Connecticut and want a bite to eat I strongly suggest going to “Liuzzi Cheese.” It is, as I described to a friend, Italian sandwich and specialty shop heaven. It’s run by an Italian family that goes back to the 1800’s, and has homemade classics like Sfogliatella, Arancini, homemade pastas, canolis, and much more. They also sell specialty goods imported from Italy. I’ve been to a few specialty shops and have been disappointed with the quality but to me this seems like the real deal. Anyways, if you’re in the area I suggest stopping in and getting a sandwich or plate of pasta, they have a website too, http://www.liuzzicheese.com/.

New Look

For the time being this will be the new look of "Tay Tay's Random Blog." While the new templates are interesting I do miss the old design quite a bit but it is unfortunatley impossible to change, so here is the template I chose. I'll be changing the colors once I have time to, and maybe even add a picture as the background although I feel that may be too distracting.

Certainty vs. Stability

This is one of those really funny stories that I just have to write about. Not funny in the sense of humorous but funny in that you step back and say “wow what a coincidence”. My last post was about faith and the difference between certainty and belief, I can be certain in something but faith requires belief in the absence of that certainty. So, I was reading from St. Augustine’s Confessions, and came across the part where Augustine describes the beginnings of his conversion. Essentially the first half describes Augustine’s youth and then his introduction to Christianity but his misgivings about it, but in book VIII he writes “My desire was not to be more certain of [God] but to be more stable in [God]” After reading that it just clicked, I took a step back and said to myself “wow, he actually said that and this is the idea I’ve been thinking about for the past few months.” In addition it is also a bit of an elaboration on C.S. Lewis’ idea about controlling out emotions. The real keys to faith are not in taking the in initial leap and believing at first, it’s continuing to believe, and that is what Augustine prays for. God could give us all certainty but once a storm comes in our lives those facts will mean nothing if there is no stability in God. For a while I’ve been writing about this “faith journey” but the thing I’ve realized lately is that there is no set amount to faith, no increments to count it by there is now way to for me to look back and say “well I may not be where I want to but I have twice the faith I had a year ago.” Faith is simply holding on to what we believe and never letting go; it’s belief despite our unbelief, and taking the second step after the first.

Faith and Spiders

Once I was remarking to my father that a certain college offered no campus ministry at all, and he replied that they think they’re “too smart for God.” I’ve found that this is a pretty common idea, it seems that nowadays we all want facts, we’ve got a wealth of information on the internet and we like to use it. We check Web MD to see what ails us, the weather channel to see how likely it is that it is going to rain, all this said are we “too smart” for God? No, absolutely not and actually we can be too foolish. I was foolish and still am in a way and we all are, I wanted the facts and thought I had them and replaced faith with certainty. Jesus said all we need was a mustard seed of faith and I couldn’t muster that. Instead I wanted to know, which is admirable but it won’t make me believe. I can spin off tons of facts that point to God, I can write about archeology and how the Bible is completely accurate, or physics and say how finely tuned our universe is, mathematics to point to the complexity of the world, biology to the intricate nature of the human anatomy, the list goes on and on. But it won’t replace faith and faith requires belief. I am deathly afraid of spiders, I don’t know what it is but I cannot stand to see something with eight legs spinning a web and moving around in my house. While I know that it is unlikely a spider will bite me, and depending on the species even more unlikely I will be harmed by a bite, I still am terrified. That is a case where my belief overcomes the facts. It is the same with faith, facts, equations, and graphs can change my mind but not my heart, and that is what matters. Am I saying that faith should be blind, or uneducated? No, I’m saying that the problem today isn’t that we’re “too smart” for God, we’re just too blind, afraid of stepping out of our comfort zone. Faith is tough, but we don’t need a lot which is a good thing, if I can believe in something and hold on to it despite my changing moods and fears of letting go, then that is what really matters. The only thing is that I’ll never know the truth if I don’t take the first step.

Notice

I've been thinking about changing the look of my blog since blogger now gives me the opportunity to upload my own photo as the background so if you go on to the blog some day and see that it changed don't worry it's still the same random blog that's been up since 2008. Also I am open to suggestions for a background image if you have one.

Hidden Blessings

Ever have one of those terrible days that you later find out were really a blessing? I just had one last Saturday during a baseball game. I play in a fall recreational league and in the first game of the season I was playing shortstop, not my usual position but I can hold my own. The first ball hit to me was pretty routine, would have been a one hopper into the glove and easily thrown to first for the out. Instead the ball hit a pebble or divot in the field because it shot up and hit me right above my eye. I finished the inning but left and went to the emergency room only to find I had a mild concussion (already counted on that) and a sinus fracture that will leave me out of baseball for a month. This was a terrible experience but here are a few hidden blessings, first the fracture was on my eyebrow, a few centimeters lower and there goes my sight in my right eye and my chances of playing baseball. Next because it hit the sinus bone which is really a sort of cavity there was minimal disturbance to the brain. Also there was no bleeding, which is uncommon, which means not health complications, and lastly I do not need surgery. It’s events like this that make me stand in awe and say “Wow, God must have been watching out for me!” While often things don’t always go our way and the ball easily could have hit my eye, it’s just one of those many blessings that we often look over in our daily lives.

Sox Update

For what it’s worth the last series win versus the Rays is the first series win the Sox have had against that team since May when they swept them. Despite that they are still out of the race (imagine where they could be if they didn’t choke in the last Rays series).

Love my Enemies?

Love my enemies; you have got to be kidding right? Oh, you’re not…okay. That is a common (sometimes my reaction) to part of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5 :44 “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” I wrote a post a while back about the greatest commandment which is of course love God above all else but also love your neighbor as yourself. Now I can sometimes have trouble with that I mean if a person, not even an enemy, lies to me or tricks me or insults me it’s tough to love them even a little bit, so the question is how do we do this? We can’t write off everything people do to us, if someone double-crosses me am I just to sit down and say “Oh well I am supposed to love them and do nothing.” Of course not because that is not how we treat ourselves. I would assume everyone treats themselves well I mean who wouldn’t, and C.S. Lewis makes an interesting point about that. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that while we all love ourselves that doesn’t mean we accept or even like the things we do, there are plenty of times where I do something I know is bad and feel terrible and dislike myself for doing it, but that doesn’t stop me from taking good care of myself and praying that God will help me be a better person. When someone does something wrong we aren’t to accept it, but we aren’t to yell at them either. What we should do is treat them as ourselves which means acknowledge that what they did was wrong, but still pray that they will learn from their mistakes. What did Jesus say on the cross “Oh their not sinning at all” or “Father please forgive them” He called them out in their sin by saying they needed forgiveness but he didn’t hold it against them entirely instead he prayed on their behalf.

Choices

I was talking with my father about a particular verse that troubled the both of us, and after sleeping on it (and thinking) here is my take. The passage comes from Hebrews 5 and 6 but the key verse is 6:4-6 “It is impossible for those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace.” Now I don’t know about you but my initial reaction to this was ‘Wow, let’s slow down a bit and rewind’ I mean this is pretty troubling but here are thoughts. The way I see it it’s similar to saying “Well if that can’t save him nothing will”, if the grace of God cannot bring us out of our sin then nothing else will no sermon or message, nothing will help us. Also if we turn away from the salvation God brings that’s it there’s nothing else God has for us other than the sacrifice from His son Jesus. Well that answer was okay, but when you read farther to verses 9-12 “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case – things accompanying salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show the same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” So it comes back to the question my father and I asked, does God stop forgiving us? The answer no, Jesus’ sacrifice ensures that we are forgiven, or as C.S. Lewis puts it, made right with God. On the other hand if after being saved I give in to my sin again and refuse to change, well if salvation is based on believing, and repentance is a sign of belief, then it shows I don’t truly believe in or trust in God. It’s a tough sounding passage but it’s message is clear throughout the Bible God loves us immensely and forgives us, but we can’t continue living in sin, at some time or another we have to make a choice.

Who's Hungry?

I mentioned I was reading the confessions of St. Augustine and was shocked by it. I didn’t read it for my own personal reading, I read it for school stuff, but one thing that really shocked me is that you could read it and say “wow this is actually relevant.” Augustine goes through the same issues people go through today especially young adults. He gives in to peer pressure, struggles with shoplifting, and suffers from loneliness. After years of searching for the right thing, hobby, or person he finds God and reflects through the whole retelling of his life how he wished he could do it over, how he felt he was wasting time that could have been filled with meaning. My church has been finishing up a series on the Sermon on the Mount and a Bible study I attend is also reading the same thing, mainly the Beatitudes. One verse especially stands out to me, it is Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” Now I’ve read the Sermon on the Mount, but recently this has been on my mind, what does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness, I think Augustine provides the answer. The book was written well after Augustine became a Christian so he adds comments throughout remarking on his past, and one thing that stands out is that he really knows and loves God, the whole book reads like a conversation, a prayer. I want to be a good person, hey we all do, but how often do I hunger, do I desire to be good so much that it literally consumes me until I fulfill it. How often do I desire to achieve righteousness? The Sermon on the Mount is a tough message; many try to say “Oh Jesus couldn’t have possible meant that.” But here’s what I think, I think the point Jesus is trying to make is this, if you want Him go get Him, if you’re hungry for God fulfill that desire but do so whole heartedly and put in the effort.

Key Words

Here is my final post on what the Bible has to say about money. In my first two posts I wrote about what the Bible says about the poor, now I will write what the Bible says about the wealthy. A lot of people say that money is evil by misquoting 1 Timothy “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Two key words here “love” and “a”. The common phrase is “money is the root of all evil” but that simply is not true. It is the love of money that is wrong, as is the love of anything. The clearest example is the encounter between Jesus and the rich man where Jesus tells him to go sell all he has to enter the kingdom of Heaven. I wrote about this a while ago but a summary is that Jesus didn’t really mean that we all must sell all we have to be with Him, he was asking the man if he trusted Him. The rich man found security in his wealth (as we all do at one time or another) and Jesus was asking him if he trusted God enough to take care of him. If I put all my security in how much money I have I am bound to become disappointed, the financial crisis that is still going shows that. People are still without jobs, people that five years ago were probably doing fine are now out of work that is how quickly money fades. But the strength and grace that God gives us never fades, it never depreciates or loses value, you can’t spend it all or lose it in the stock market, we’ll always have it. In the end the love of money seems almost foolish, to endlessly chase something that can be taken away so easily instead of chasing God who never leaves. The last point is the word “a”, it’s not just the love of money that can lead to evil and distance from God, the love of anything can. If I love my job, baseball, the Red Sox, or anything more than God then it also separates us from God and becomes an idol. There are a lot of things in the world that I like, but we can’t find ourselves loving them.