Sure, God Plays Dice

Here are some more thoughts on the whole “love, faith, and hope” triangle from 1 Corinthians 13. Something hit me the other day that was probably pretty obvious to some, but new to me. That or I just never thought of it before. Anyways, I digress. As I was walking my dog I thought that there is something love, hope, and faith all have in common. They all involve risk. To have faith risks being wrong, to have hope risks being let down, and to love risks both loss and being unloved. Now, why, out of these is love the greatest? Well, because love is hard. It is hard to love when you know that you’re taking a big risk. C.S. Lewis wrote something along the lines of this, that when you put yourself out there, even for an animal, you risk being hurt. There are times when I have lost those I loved; I remember getting to know and love my great uncle and making a strong effort to really know him, but unfortunately he died after having a stroke. So why then do I put myself out there, why risk being hurt? Well, what happens if you don’t? Could you imagine a life where you never took a chance to show love or kindness to anyone out of fear they would leave you? You have to take a chance! Imagine the chance God takes on us. He gives us free will to do whatever we want and looking at my life I know I hurt Him more than I should. The thing about love is that it is a choice, and that, I think, is why Paul thinks it is so important. No matter what you believe you always have faith, and hope is fundamental, there is no one who is truly hopeless. Yet love is a choice that has to be made. You can either go out into the world and take a risk by showing love to those around you or retreat inside your shell. God took a huge risk in loving us, and to gratify the risk He took by loving Him, we must learn to love each other.

The Rapture!?!?

Today’s date is May 25, 2011. I think it is safe to say that the predictions of the rapture on May 21 were wrong. Here’s the thing, why are there so many predictions about the world ending/ the coming of the rapture? Looking in the Bible you would see that predicting the end of the world is the LAST thing you should be doing, mainly because it is a waste of time. First off Jesus says in Matthew 24:23 “At that time if anyone says to you ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.” Later on in verse 36 Jesus says “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Looking at this what are we to do? It seems every year someone comes along saying the world is going to end, and of course they’ve always been wrong. It seems to me that far too often we focus more on predicting that the world is going to end, instead of preparing for when it does. Let’s say I was banking on the world ending in 2013 (just when the Sox were locked up for the next few years), well if I thought the world would end in two years I wouldn’t really care much about how I lived now, I’d worry about it later. But for all I know I could pass away next week. What’s my point; it’s that when you count on a deadline to “tie up your loose ends” you end up hurting yourself. Instead of focusing on when the world may or may not end, I focus on living every day as if it were my last. I make the most of every opportunity and conversation given to me. I make friends, seek forgiveness, and take risks; all while living a godly life. Instead of focusing on when the end may come I prepare for it so if it comes in my lifetime I will be ready to say “well you gave me this life and I made the most of it.” Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25 where a man went on a trip and gave his servants money to spend, he came back unexpectedly and two of the servants put it to good use, but one didn’t. If even Jesus doesn’t know when the world will end then I want to put my life to good use.

Red Sox Report

After a 15-5 win and 24-20 record the Sox are suddenly looking like the team we thought they were in early March. The pitching has come around, the offense has been great, and the defense has been awesome. What can you say the Sox are dominating and Boston fans are loving it. The offense to be feared has really taken hold and I especially love the combination of Ellsbury and Gonzalez. Out of all the players acquired Adrian Gonzalez has to be the best, and the biggest impact on the team. Seriously, with Ellsbury leading off the game with a single, stealing second, with Gonzo at the plate that’s run number one right there. Can I hear the chants for MVP yet, or perhaps Triple Crown. While it might be early Gonzalez is definitely something special. Seeing him make the adjustments against CC Sabathia in the Yankee series to come back in his 3^rd at bat and hit a homerun to right; yet also have tremendous power to left – it’s a beautiful thing. I stand by my early predictions, Gonzo will have a .320 average or higher, maybe as high as .340 if he gets on a hot streak, 35+ homeruns, and 120+ RBI’s (Ellsbury helps him a lot with this). Gonzo is something special and so are the Red Sox, watch them to be a force in the AL East come September. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention Josh Beckett who is looking BETTER than his 2007 form? What else can you say, he’s been infallible and that will be key down the stretch. Well that’s the Red Sox report, they go to their throwback jerseys tonight looking for win #25 and the lead in the AL East, it certainly is a good time to be a Boston fan.

More Thoughts on Love

Well I’ve been doing more thinking about love and 1 Corinthians 13 (love is the most important right?).  One thing that really gets me is when Pail writes in the beginning of the chapter, verses 1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Sorry for the big chunk, but it’s key. Now I don’t know about you, but this really hits me hard. Now I don’t have the gifts of tongues or prophecy and I like to think I have strong faith and have a gift of giving. One thing I do know (at least I’m told) is that I’m good at writing, especially about the Bible. But here’s the thing, if I do not live my life with love and write with love, then you might as well ignore all my posts. If I don’t have love then my writing is no better than gibberish! That’s a shocking and though provoking statement. I never really thought much about love until recently. Love can most clearly be seen in your actions and attitude. How do you react to disappointment, hurt, anger, or difficulty? Do you snap at the next person next to you, or do you act with grace and kindness. While it’s easy to say you love someone it’s hard to show it. So where do I get love (and make my posts worth reading)? Well the only source of perfect love is God, He is love after all. Through God we can love others the way we should, which is the way He does. To not love is to reject God and ignore His word in the Bible. The Bible isn’t just a history book, it is a love letter. God’s love towards His creation is written down for all to read, you just have to read it. More thoughts on love are bound to come; these are just some things on my mind. If I do not have love, it doesn’t matter how much faith, hope, or good deeds I have, I am nothing.

Why I Believe

Well for those who thought I was done writing about faith, here’s one more post to add to the numerous already written. I was talking with a few people the other day on the subject of whether or not we believe in Heaven. I chose to listen more than talk, but one interesting phrase came out. One of the people described Heaven as “insurance.” That is, you’re not sure if it exists but you hope it does so you say it does so you’re covered. That made me thinks a lot, why do I believe? Here’s why I didn’t talk in that conversation, for one I needed time to organize my thoughts, and second when I did I found out that (and you’ll hate me for this) I don’t know. Yes, I do not know why I believe, I just do. Following my series of blog posts on faith I find that it was a long journey, partly intellectual, but really it just came up on me. For some reason, whether you buy it or not, I just started believing again. It’s not like I stopped believing completely, I just lost faith. I found myself struggling to comprehend God and the miraculous; realizing that I didn’t know for sure threw me into a panic. Then I had the realization that that’s what faith is: believing in the absence of certainty, and before you claim this is a “cop out” remember that whether or not you believe in God you have faith in your beliefs. Simply put I believe because God has revealed himself to me throughout my life, a process difficult to explain mainly because it is entirely personal. I love to read and love sports, I found God through baseball and various books that “happened” to fall into my lap; any more than that I cannot say. So if I am ever asked why I believe in Heaven this is what I shall say, “I don’t know, I just do and in time perhaps you may too.”

Summer of Tay Tay

So for Seinfeld fans out there who remember the “Summer of George” here’s my proposal for a “Summer of Tay Tay.” As I face the onward approach of adulthood and the real world here’s a lighthearted list of things I would like to do this summer before I begin my studies at Holy Cross.


1) Play the piano more, I’ve got a few ragtime songs and a book of original Charlie Brown songs, here we go.

2) Here’s a no brainer, blog more.

3) Cook more; I’ve got too many cookbooks and too few favorite recipes.

4) Swim ¾ of a mile, maybe 1 mile if I’m up to it.

5) Grow closer to God in a real way, and let it show in my writing and actions.

6) Read my Bible more, I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit lately.

7) See Pirates 4.

8) Read a book start to finish (Jerry says “I’ve always wanted to do that!”)

9) Give back to my community

10) Never forget to take in the simple joys of everyday life.


Well there it is, one week until my summer begins, hopefully I can get this list and more done, and seriously I’ll try to blog a lot more.

Throw the First Stone?

This is a bit of a follow up on an earlier post, but I feel that it is much more relevant now than ever. Today my youth pastor challenged me a bit with a bit of an extreme example to get my attention. Today he was talking about the recent assassination of Osama Bin Laden and wanted to hear my thoughts on it. Initially I thought about saying how the political and historical benefits of … but then I realized something about him, and any enemy I have, they along with me are a creation of God and in the same boat. Now, Osama Bin Laden was a terrible man who did terrible things and it’s good he’s gone, don’t get me wrong anyone as evil as him shouldn’t be allowed to continue in his evil, but who am I personally to claim the final judgment on his life. Is not that God’s job? While Osama may be terribly evil, I am not perfect either. To go even farther, compared to God, let’s say we set Mother Theresa and Osama Bin Laden on a scale of goodness, well looking at that stacked up to God Mother Theresa wouldn’t come even close. But that’s the problem with comparing ourselves to others, we start getting the impression that while we are not perfect, at least we’re not as bad as Joe Schmo over there. The thing I loved most about the AP exams was that they were graded on a curve, that conceivable I could get 60% of the questions correct and a perfect score. Why is this? Because compared to others I did pretty well, sure some genius got an 80%, but a majority got 50% so my 60% looks a lot better. Well guess what, God doesn’t grade on a curve; when perfection is the standard there is no “Hey, at least I did better than him.” That’s why salvation is so necessary because we are all in need of it. Now, how is this related to loving our enemies? It’s that compared to God I am no better and have no right in making final judgments on their lives because I am in no position to do so. Without the grace of God I am no better than the most wicked man on earth, and even with it I still fall short. In Ezekiel God says 18:32 “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone…” all I can say is if God doesn’t, then why should I if I deserve the same fate?