Happy Birthday!

Sorry it's late cause his birthday was yesterday 08/08/09, anyway he turned 7.

New Archiving System

As you can see I am archiving my posts a little differently, instead of archiving them weekly I am archiving them monthly to save space on my blog. Don't worry, if there is an old post you like it is still there but it is bunched with all the others in the same month instead of the same week. I test this out for a short while to see how it works out, so far I kindof like it.

Why Does God Step Back?

I had a thought, now I could be wrong but this is just a thought I had. I think one of the reason’s God took a few steps back from my life is not only to help me grow but to teach me that this is what it feels like to have Him out of my life, it’s like God was saying “Hey Tay Tay, wake up! This is where you’ll be headed if you keep on sinning! This is what a life without Me looks like!” If I am right I thank God for His grace and mercy to show me how awful life is without His presence in my life, and maybe that is part of the growth. Think, when God takes a step back we learn to trust Him and have truer faith in Him; we learn to thrive on real belief and not just a “religious feeling”. Then we learn what life without Him looks and feels like and we choose Him and His will for us when we come back. A life without God is a terrible way to live; I think God wanted me to see that before my sin took me there. When God steps back it’s not that He doesn’t love us, it’s because He loves us that He does; He could baby us all our lives and give us the spirituality of a new believer, or have us grow and truly know who He is and have a lasting relationship with Him. Like I said before faith is not true faith until it is tested, when a storm comes only the strongest will get through it and that is true faith.

Some Jumbled Thoughts

I am amazed and humbled by faith. I wish I knew what else to say but that is all that comes out. I’ve been going on this journey for a few months now and I just realized it never ends, faith is not an object we can obtain, it’s not a measured amount it’s not like “I’ll trade this for five pieces of faith, or five dollars of faith…” Jesus told us we needed a mustard seed sized faith to say “Hey faith is faith, if you believe you’re there!” I wish I could describe exactly what I went through to get where I am, I wish I had all the answers to my questions (which I don’t) but I can say this, I believe in God and love Him for not forgetting me. I may have a down turn, who knows next week I could be back where I started but I do know this, there is more to the world, there is more to life than just living day after day, complex questions can only have complex answers. I’ll reel off all my thoughts in a series of posts later. One thing I used to think was “Okay once I get out of this ‘problem’ I’ll get back to ‘normal’ posts.” One thing I never got is this, faith is a part of life meaning it’s a journey, it is in times of despair that we grow to be more like God (C.S. Lewis writes about this in “The Screwtape Letters”), one more thing true faith is only built after it is tested. I can believe whatever I want but until it is tested and proven strong it will not hold through my life, this is why emotion never sustains us. Sorry if my thought process is, in simplest terms “whack” I’m really tired and I’ve got a ton on my mind, I’ll write individual posts about each thought I had, and then see where God takes me.

Comments on the Game

The Red Sox are a disappointment, and currently are not much fun to watch.

What Are We To Do?

One issue that had hindered my faith in the past was a common one, why are there so many religions in the world? In my English class we read books about many different cultures, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, secular it really struck me how people were so strong, so sure of a different belief; I guess you could say I wondered why do they believe in that as strongly as I believe in this? Well this problem grew until it prevented me from truly believing like I had in the past. Well I decided to do some research I read up on the major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, my research came up with some surprising facts. One thing we forget (especially those who say all the religions are true) is that these five religions are amazingly different. Islam believes in an impersonal harsh god who is not as Christians call, a fatherly figure. Hinduism and Buddhism believe in an impersonal god who is not really in a specific place but more in each of us and the world, they also believe that one can believe in as many gods as they desire. They also say that there is no such thing as sin, and in order to become enlightened we must distance ourselves from suffering. Judaism and Christianity believe in a loving God who is righteous, perfect, personal, and a judge. Christianity takes the extra step to say that He loves us and desires us so much He sent His son to save us. What stands out the most is this, we live in a world that is good, we love each other, we (try to) adhere to a moral law that is not our own, but there is something horribly wrong with the world, one look at the news will prove that. Every day we here of good people suffering and bad people living relatively happy lives, but why? Christianity gives us a look at the world as it is: good gone bad. It tells us of a loving creator a fatherly God (why would we love each other so much if our creator didn’t love?) who created a good world and lost it to the devil. Christianity, I believe, gives us the most accurate image of our world and history. I know I wrote about how logic/ reason can’t be the sole reason to believe but I find looking at what we have sure does help a lot.

Trade Deadline

First off today is a special day because I have been on the internet for (about) one year, so happy birthday to my blog. Second, all the festivities aside, here we are after the trade deadline, with three new players: V. Martinez, C. Kotchman, and B. Anderson hopefully these players will impact the Red Sox for the better. Martinez (I think) will start tonight at 1st and Youk will start at 3rd; the Sox are 1 ½ games behind the Yankees so hopefully they can continue winning and the Yanks will keep losing. Also the Sox have a 1 ½ game lead over the Rangers in the Wild Card, it’s a little close but with the way the teams are both playing the Sox will hopefully keep that lead.