Assassins Creed: Revelations comes out today...which means I won't be getting it for a couple months

This blog is one of those rare entities where the title of my blog pretty much says what I want the whole blog to say.  And if you want to leave right now, I wouldn't blame you.  You've probably spent minutes, if not hours, reading my posts before only to arrive at the end with your neck involuntarily spasming and contracting your face into your desk.  So leave now if you must.  I won't hold it against you.  You'll just miss out on the chance to win free money.

Now that I have you hooked, I'm going to tell you that there actually is no chance at winning free money.  But hahaha- you're hooked!  You can't just leave now!  You'd look/feel foolish.  So even though you'll keep reading until the end with slightly blushing cheeks and an increasingly complex plan for vengeance, by the time you reach the end of this I'll most likely be washing my hair in another country.  Also, you'll notice that I've managed to stretch a blog that admittedly was summarized in the title into two whole paragraphs. 

(I just wanted a chance to show a picture of pre-meltingly hot Patrick McDreamy Pants)

But let's get down to some business. Because I do actually have something I would consider to be relevant commentary on the thesis I proposed in my title.

Yes, the new Assassins Creed game (Revelations) comes out today and I want it- bad.  In fact, on my Wishpot wish list, I gave it the highest desire ranking I could-  I neeeed it!  I've played through the first three games (although Assassins Creed: Revelations is not Assassins Creed IV...it's more like II.III), and could conceivably never own another (non-Assassins Creed) game for the rest of my life.  They're amazing.


The Assassins Creed games are basically every dudes fantasy set a few hundred years in the past.  Your whole job is to climb up buildings, kick butt, mess with the local police force, and sometimes kill bad guys.  You have an almost unlimited means of income.  You can rent women.  At any given time, you'll have a pistol, two hidden daggers, a sword, a knife, some vials of poison, and several throwing blades on your person.  You are always in peak physical fitness and you can traipse around the city wearing robes and armor.  In other words, this is exactly the kind of stuff we used to play when we were kids, except our weapons were sticks and women were still the enemy (cooties are much like a weaponized Krippen virus back then).  I don't need to buy any more video games ever...that is, until they make a new Assassins Creed game.
 

I'm mostly joking when I say this, but that's pretty much what capitalism is built on- the production and consumption of things that we don't really need.  And the people that make these things (and the people that market them) are very, VERY good at their jobs.  Sure, I don't need this game at all in a technical sense, and I definitely need things like toilet paper, gasoline, and a place to live much more than I need to roam around virtual Constantinople in the 1500s. I know these things in my head.  I know the the games $59.99 price tag will go down considerably after a few months, and I'll be able to play the same game but for cheaper (while also having a home where I can wipe my bum with the toilet paper I drove to the store to buy).

But that didn't stop me from having to basically strap myself to a chair and take myself offline over the past week as my mind kept trying to figure out some way, any way, to get my hands on that game on the day it came out.  "How much cushion do we have in the checking account?  How much remaining balance is on that credit card?  How much could I get if I sold this game or that book or those children?  Hey, I could order from here and open a new account...".  Even though I rationally understand that the ability to wait will give us added financial stability while saving money in the long run, my brain was still trying to convince me to just go ahead and get the game already.  Thanks a lot, brain.

Please understand, I'm not looking for sympathy (maybe a little) or a handout (although I wouldn't give it back)- I'm just relaying the ridiculous struggle that I'm sure millions of Americans go through when their favorite book/movie/game/toy is released to stores.  Somehow, whether from our parents or our friends or commercials or our own humanity (or a combination of the above), we get roped into the capitalist mindset and struggle to suppress immediate gratification for trivia even though the practical situational reality should work just fine to ensure that we focus our energies on the bottom parts of the hierarchy.  You know, just things like FOOD.  WATER.  SHELTER.


Capitalism doesn't want to hear that noise though, so they created credit cards.  And while things have changed in recent years to make things less unfair for credit card users (including not having college kids sitting around giving out free t-shirts for signing up for your first credit card), that doesn't change the reality for myself and millions of Americans. 

I don't think this is a moral issue or something where it makes me (and people like me) somehow 'inferior' to others.  The system was created to exploit us!  I'm frustrated that the Occupy Wall Street dividing line seems to be between hippie socialists and stoic Great Depression survivors.  Many on the stoic side say , "If I want something I just save for it.  I don't live past my means".  Which is, by all accounts, outstanding.  I commend you.  That doesn't give you the right to look down on the rest of us, but I commend you.

Unfortunately, that's not everybody.  And it isn't that I want a bailout, or a do-over.  I made mistakes- I know that, I own them, and have no problem paying back the money that I borrowed against my future to pay for the present. That's my role in all this.  I may not have completely understood the ramifications, but I at least knew that I'd have to pay this money back.

The system is still screwed up though.  It's designed around people like me.  Without people like me, it falls apart.  So they use crazy powerful science to manipulate our feelings, emotions, thinking and get us to desire things that we don't really need (or even want)...and then they give us the means to purchase those things even when we don't have the means.  That's why I'm generally for the Occupy movement.  The system is designed to keep the masses suppressed and immobilized while a select few hold onto the resources and power in our society.

But I'm getting slightly off topic.  I honestly didn't mean to turn this into anti-capitalist propaganda.  I actually was hoping primarily to talk about how I'm refocusing my other blog.  You know, the Sojourn Boulevard one?  What am I talking about- of course you remember.  Pretend like I didn't even question.

I'm pretty much turning it into my own little on-line journal/diary/what have you about Ezio's escapades through late 15th-early 16th century Italy.  There's three games (as well as some novels and a wiki), so I should have lots of info for plenty of shenanigans to keep me busy.  I will miss the Darth Vader/Dr. Manhattan/Ezio roomie situation (and possibly one day will bring it back), but in the end I just don't have the chops to pull it off right now.  Not that I have the chops to pull of most of what I write, but hey, what do you expect?  Don't look for it anytime soon necessarily- I've actually taken it offline for the time being- because I'm trying to focus more on seriousy type stuff.  But I just wanted to let you, the faithful reader, be in the know before the know gets known.  Ya know?

So now- aren't you glad you finished reading this post?  Please, don't answer that.

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Fantasy Football post, except it morphs into something quite different

Well, after a long summer of 'he said, she said' and legal mumbo-jumbo, back-and-forth, football season is nigh upon us. And so I am starting the preparations for Fantasy Football: Season 3.

I'm feeling ambiguously torn.

Make no mistake- I do enjoy Fantasy Football...well, at least I enjoy the aftermath. I am somewhat of a numbers junkie, which means that Fantasy Football is somewhat of an opiate to me. I also have a weird fetish about picking up the pieces of my ridiculous obsession and parading them around on my blog. It soothes the masochist in my soul, I guess.

But the actual 17 week process is often painful. It's painful because of how much of myself I pour into it. And it's a ridiculous amount, compared to how much I should actually care. I'm not a player. Or a coach. Or an owner. Or a spouse of one of those people. I'm not even really a fan- at least, in the fat-guy-wearing-no-shirt-in-Green-Bay-in-December definition of fan.

Which can be considered either healthy or unhealthy, I guess

Competition is something that is written on the pages of my Y chromosome- but it's not actually me competing. It's me pretending to compete. I sit there on Sundays, watching other dudes compete, checking box scores and submitting myself to crappy football because I happened to spend a 12th round draft choice on Seattle's kicker and I'm losing by 6 points.

I'm probably a couple years away from looking like this guy (warning- it's not a pretty picture).

Haven't I been over this before (answer- yes)? Isn't the definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results? So why do I keep coming back? Why keep playing?

It's because I'm American.

I don't know if Kurt Cobain was prophet or pusher when he (allegedly) uttered the immortal phrase 'Here we are now, entertain us'. I say allegedly because, if you listen to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', you're not really sure he's saying anything at all. It's just too bad he overdosed before he learned how to speak Human.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately...how much time I spend doing stuff just to entertain myself. I read books. I play video games. I listen to music. I play games. I check my smart phone. I watch movies. I check my smart phone again. There is so much frivolity in my actions, in my thoughts. But I don't really do anything about it- because I'm American. And I don't have to. There are entire sectors of our economy that do nothing but cater to my childish indulgences. And other parts of the economy that are dedicated to filling my brain with subliminal messages about more childish indulgences.

I actually wanted the lock-out to drag on into the season. I was really hoping that there would be no NFL this season. I wanted one less thing to have to worry about occupying my entertainment palette. Obviously this is a selfish thought- I know that there are people's livelihoods that depend on football (and no, I'm not talking about the athletes or the owners- I'm talking about the guys that work for minimum/near-minimum wage doing the dirty work), but it was a thought there was there.

And the worst part of all is, I'm a perpetuator of the system! I give it power, I cause it to be, I am the reason for its existence (me and people like me).

I wanted football to be dead because our country has a problem. And that problem is that we live in a society that exists on fluff. Think back to early civilizations- or even a few hundred years ago. There was no Netflix to peruse. There wasn't time for repeating Angry Birds levels just to get a higher score. They didn't have the energy to spend most of their time on luxury. They were too busy getting chased by dinosaurs.

Based on actual events

I just wonder if human beings were meant to have this much downtime. Aren't we better suited to hunt and gather? Are our brains supposed to have access to this much entertainment and comfort? In pursuit of our own assuagement, do we misuse brain cells that could be used for more important things?

Technology has afforded us many amazing advances. Having witnessed two childbirths, I can honestly say I am glad that I didn't have to put on my Michael Landon hat and be 'all hands on deck' for that whole process.

Actually, you can include the pants and shirt in that statement as well

I was perfectly content to run down to the snack bar and grab an ice cream cone and chocolate milk. And Lord knows how much more difficult it would be for me to include all these snazzy pictures and hyperlinks in my blog if I had to transmit it by telegraph.

So even though I rail against technology, I am not at a point where I am ready to completely give it up. After I post this blog, I'll still have a PS3. I'll still have a smart phone. I'll still mindlessly surf the internet, and I'll still play Fantasy Football. Not all technology is bad, and even video games, blogs, and smart phones have their place.

The truth is- I'm just complaining. Because that's the American way.

Pics:
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Care for the day...but what of our future?

Let me just start off by saying that I love capitalism. I love the free market. Globalism? Huge fan, pleased to meet ya. Internet, technology, having entire segments of the economy devoted strictly to my entertainment- can't complain (although I still find time to do so). Life has never been this easy.

And so obviously I'm writing about why it all seems wrong to me.

The other day, I had a realization of sorts. I've spent the past 5-6 years (with some time off in there) having some sort of direct care work as my primary means of financially supporting my family (other than student loans....eek!). Basically, I have been receiving financial reimbursement (essential for continuing on with life as I've known it) for spending time with other people's children. So in exchange for my time that I'm not spending with my own children, I have helped raise other people's children. So that I can "make it"- whatever "it" means.

What an odd concept. I don't mean to deride daycare- it's necessary for some people so that they can keep the jobs that provide them food and shelter. Lord knows we've had to tap into the Babysitter Pool so often our figurative toes are shriveled up like prunes. But it's frustrating that this economic system that I admittedly am very fond of is responsible for destroying human existence.

Wait, what? That's right. I said it. Boom. Human life the way that God/nature intended it has passed through the digestive tract and now only contains bits and pieces of its former glory.

I think if we were to try and look this a little objectively, we'd acknowledge that we're probably supposed to be a little more like Tarzan and a little less like Wall-E. Instead, we live in an economic system that has distorted the human existence. We are no longer a part of an ecosystem that is symbiotic, but rather we have become the parasites. Except that we have completely bypassed consumption for survival and gone straight on to consumption for the sake thereof.

Sometimes I wish that technology as we know it had never developed. I wish that I was a menial laborer in a small clan somewhere in a rustic setting. I wish that I was playing some sort of simple game with my children instead of finding a new show on Netflix or teaching them how to play Angry Birds. Actually, it'd be pretty cool to play real life Angry Birds, now that I think about it. Using a sling shot to shoot birds at various wooden structures? That's amazing! Oh, someone's at the door. Look, it's PETA. Fudge.

I know that there's probably a degree of 'old days nostalgia' in my wishful thinking. Life wasn't easy back in ye olden days. Life expectancy was shorter. The chances that your children would die before they hit five years old was so much higher that it's a wonder that any children lived past five years old. Not to mention the dinosaurs and lack of oxygen in the atmosphere and the poop on the streets and...okay, I better stop before I convince myself that it's much better to have access to heating, indoor plumbing, and home entertainment centers.

I hate to beat a dead horse (actually, I don't condone the beating of any dead animal. I don't need anymore PETA involvement) but I look at the upheaval in the Middle East, and the crisis in Japan, and I wonder just what the heck I would do if something like that happened here. I have virtually zero survival skills. I exist on food that is packaged for me, preparing it thanks to the instructions that it comes with. I have never hunted, and I'm not sure that I could gut/skin a deer without passing out from wussyness. Shoot, I can't even make a fire without some matches, kerosene, and a weeks worth of the New York Times. I can live in the conditions that have been created for me to live in- but if those conditions are removed, I am effed.

A while back, I touched on the idea of overpopulation (an idea that I still mean with all of my heart to address with empiricism)- and I think that for me, overpopulation has more to do with this style of life that we've created than it does with the number of people that our planet currently houses. Sure, the planet could probably be fine with the number of people that it currently houses- we just need to drastically overhaul how we do everything.

And isn't that what this whole Washington budget/government shutdown thing is about? We have a finite amount of resources that we're trying to allocate, and there isn't enough money to go around, and so there needs to be sweeping changes made, except no one is willing to make the changes because it means a drastic overhaul of how things are done. That's why I believe that overpopulation is a problem- because we are, by and large, unwilling to cut out the things in our society that contribute nothing to our survival other than comfort and pleasure. At least our descent into hell comes on a shiny new roller coaster!

Can somebody just throw a bucket of water at my face (only the water is secretly some sort of acid that melts things)? What a world, what a world indeed.

I'm not trying wax doomsdayical here. After all, the events unfolding in our world today do that well enough without the humble musings of this tiny blogger. But I feel like I am the little pig who tries to keep safe from the big, bad wolf by building his straw house on the sand. Eventually, the whole thing is going to come crashing down and I'm just left there with a goofy grin on my face and a hungry wolf all up in my grill. I have hope for this world, I really do. But right now, it just seems like a fools hope.

Separation of church and life

Note: This blog was birthed from a conversation we had with some friends on New Year's Eve. Alcohol was not involved- but the Wii and pizza rolls were, so I cannot be held responsible for the ideas therein. Blame Tortinos and Nintendo.

One of the core tenants of Christianity is our oneness with Christ. Galatians 3:26-28 says "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile...slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (NIV). And in John 17:20-21 (also NIV), Jesus is recorded as saying "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me".

I have been chewing on this concept in bits and pieces over the past couple months. Now, I don't really think I'm inventing the wheel here- but like any good blogger with thoughts on his mind and a keypad at his fingertips, I'm gonna put it out there and act like it's the greatest thing since canned bread.

As I mentioned, we had some friends over on New Years eve. We kind of started talking about the development of a sort of independence in our spiritual lives- how we were coming to a point where the church was an asset in this, as opposed to an end-all-be-all. While conversing, I was reminded of something that a wise man once told me in regards to prayer- I hadn't been (in my mind) diligent about praying for something. He asked me if I had thought about it, and I replied that I had. He told me that I had prayed about it. It wasn't until our convo on New Years, though, that the implication of that idea really hit me. If I am in Christ, my very thoughts are prayers. (Or at least, can be. I really hope a lot of the drivel that goes on in my mind doesn't make it past the gatekeeper).

Obviously this isn't something new under the sun- in fact, this very idea has been spoken in probably every church that I've been to. But the real, practical life application has been taken a little while to sink in.

So during this renaissance of thought in regard to the role of the church in our lives, I have been processing the role of capitalism within our society, particularly in regards to the church and its role in our lives. How the attitudes and practices that are ingrained in us through our economic system can subtly infiltrate other areas of our lives. It's a lot of scattered thoughts, ideas, and musings. Really at this point, my goal for this blog is to reach the end with a fairly cohesive and somewhat coherent post. Anything above that is gravy, really.

Let's start by defining what the church is. Nowadays, we associate the word church primarily with the place we go on Sundays. The early church was a horse of a different color.

Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer....All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts...

This is the biblical "early church". Back then, the church was not just a building, or a social institution, or an organization. It was a group of people that were not only totally devoted to a cause- they were totally devoted to each other. Simply put, the church was the people- and the people were a family.

Fast forward to today, and the church looks...different. I mean, yeah, a lot of things look very different- technological advances and improvements in hygiene can do that for you. But the structure of the church looks really different. It is not so much a collection of people whose lives are interwoven- it's more like a patchwork quilt.

How does capitalism come into this picture? Patience, my young Padawans.

For those that aren't 100% sure what capitalism is, I will tell you. According to The Truth, capitalism is "an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit; decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are made by private actors in the free market; profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses, and wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies" (I took the whole thing from the page I hyperlinked...but in case you don't click it, it's from Wikipedia).

So there are some key concepts that I want to tie into some areas where I feel that we have deviated from the early church.

1) Wages are paid to workers employed by businesses and companies
In a capitalist society, the primary way in which most of us acquire resources to live is through the trade of our time for currency. Laymen's terms- time=money. Aside from rendering most of us unable to survive apart from our socially created occupations (including yours truly), it ingrains in us the idea that in order to get something, we have to give it- a principle of fair exchange.

It is in this environment (or market) that a church is forced to compete- people live in a world where they have to gauge the cost-efficiency of whatever purchase or activity they wish to participate in. So in that manner, a church has to format itself to this mindset. They are competing against other weekend activities.

Now different churches will combat this in different ways- some may have modern music, some may really cool technology, amongst other things. But most churches will definitely have their service packed into a finite period of time, and set up some sort of schedule to ensure that finite period of time is adhered to. A service is broken up into various activities- worship, prayer, offering, sermon- many will have additions of some sort, but the general look is the same. The goal is to pack as much spirituality into that time period as possible to reach the most people. I would posit that like businesses, most churches are not really worried about the outliers- the 'Christmas/Easter' crowd or the Fired Up bunch- it's the middle section, the people on the fringe so to speak, that make or break it. So the church has to make sure that for these people, the bang is proportionately bigger than the buck.

I'm not trying to say that all churches intentionally try and do this, and I'm not saying that these activities do not have spiritual significance. But look at the early church. Those people were there because they wanted to be there. They loved God, they loved their cohort- to the point where they sold everything they had! Nowadays, we come together on Sunday mornings (and maybe a couple times during the week), and maybe talk to some people sometimes. But for the most part, we aren't being the church- we're doing church. We are living separate lives that sometimes intersect, but aren't really bound together by anything of substance.

2) Means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit
To control the means of production is to control power. If I am able to dictate the terms of the production of some item- I have power over that item. I can decide who gets it, how much they get, and how much they are going to give me for it. Obviously in economics, the laws of supply and demand will temper that power to a degree- it doesn't matter how much power over an item that I have if no one actually wants it. But what about the church?

Now this will probably be a touchy subject, and I will attempt to navigate it with the same degree of care that Anakin Skywalker did when he was in the pod race. Actually, probably more care than that. Since he almost killed himself.

Because of the spiritual nature of church, and the enormous implications of spirituality in the lives of many people, the church is given a significant amount of power right from the onset. While many people can obtain or be given power for different reasons, there is one person who is granted a degree of power and respect simply for the title that he has- the pastor.

Now, I have been very blessed to know some great pastors- men that love God and are very approachable human beings. I don't think ill of any of them, and they've all played a huge role in my development as a young man and as a Christian. I don't believe that any of them tried to abuse their position.

However, the power of their platform is that we allow them to speak on God's behalf. And that is an immense amount of power for someone to have. Like I said, I don't know any of my pastors that have willingly abused this power. I'm 100% confident that they believe they were specifically called by God to do this ministry. And I don't disagree with them or disbelieve them- I'm just throwing out thoughts here.

It is an interesting offshoot of the modern church set-up- fallible human beings, just like me, responsible for leading the spiritual lives and growth of numbers of other fallible human beings. I know there are many biblical-based spiritual gifts that tie into the pastoral position as we know it. And I know that even the early church was still involved with the local religious establishment. I just think that the church now is set up to be more of a spoon-feeding institution as opposed to an empowering one.

What I mean is that the church now is not an open forum. There is no real place for discussion. This is a setting where one person comes to preach and the rest come to listen. Can you see how that might be a little problematic? This is not an environment that fosters deep thinking and open questioning. This is an environment that says "I am the Pastor. I hear from God. Therefore, the words that I give to you are words from God". And if you have paid any attention at all to events in, say, the Middle East- you know that one of the quickest way to a volatile situation is to question or doubt another person's "God card".

Pastors aren't the only ones that are granted a portion of power. The worship leader (side tangent- why does worship almost always involve music in churches today? Are there no other ways to worship?) also wields power- music is a huge emotional conduit, and the right songs or musical mood can make all the difference in a person's worship experience. Hey, I love worship music- as a drummer, I find it to be an amazing outlet to express my worship and praise. And I really enjoy the magic of being able to share that experience with other musicians.

But I do struggle at times with the knowledge that because of the power of the medium (music)- that realistically, I can help manipulate the mood by which drums or cymbals I use, or the dynamics of build-ups. As musicians, we have a type of power, and we have to be very careful of how we use that power.

Of course, there is political power as well. All you need is a couple Bible verses- in or out of context- and a cause, and you have a pretty well united block of voters. And you know what? I was there. That was me, sitting in the pews, listening to messages and sermons and such, allowing my world view to be shaped by what others were saying. I used to vote for candidates strictly by what their policy was on abortion. In 2004, I voted for George W. Bush because he opposed gay marriage. Seriously- that was the issue for me. And I've heard many other preachers and speakers tell congregations what God considers to be the most important issues in the political climate. That's serious power.

I don't want to say that the early church was perfect- but it's pretty obvious to me that power wasn't really an issue. Yes, there were apostles, and they devoted themselves to their teaching- but it seems to me that they processed it together, as a unified social group, as opposed to just sitting there and soaking these words in as a collection of individuals.

3) Profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses
Ah yes- the "haves" versus the "have nots". An age old struggle in humanity, and unfortunately one that rears its ugly head in churches today. Because of the spiritual nature of the power at play, cliques can arise with devastating consequences.

How do you get to be a "have" in the church? How do you get to be in the clique? You invest in the business- that is, you are ultra-involved. Go to all the services. Do the activities. Listen to the messages and say the amens at the right times. Interact with the right people. Say the right things. Put your best spiritual foot forward at all times.

Of course...if you're a "have-not", and you have an understanding of what the church is supposed to be like, and you're not really feeling it- where do you turn? Because Christianity is so dependent on the subjective religious experiences of its adherents in the broader scope of a supposedly objective framework, it can be very frustrating when your beliefs or ideas do not fit in with those accepted by those on the inside.

Again, I can't say that the early church would solve all the problems and make everyone feel like a hero. But look at the description- these people sold all they had, gave to everyone who had need. They hung out every day. Every. Day. They broke bread together. This doesn't strike me as the type of people that would take a laissez faire approach to those that felt like they were falling out of the group.




So what do these thoughts all mean? Am I saying that we should tear down the church buildings and sell our homes and go live with other people that sold their homes? Yes. I mean no. I mean....I don't know what I mean.

I am not talking about dismantling organized religion- I believe that churches have uses, particularly in the organization of humanitarian efforts and things like that. Because of the leadership hierarchy and organization structure of a church, they can move much faster in organizing aid to Haiti, for example, than can a loose group of people. And I do think that todays church can serve as an excellent supplement to the body of Christ as a whole.

Besides, the early church still met at the temple every day, and were immersed in the teaching of the apostles. I do believe that there is a need to have organized teaching of the Bible- it's a pretty big book, after all.

But I think it's very important that we look at the role of the church in our lives- are the people more important- or the institution? I'm not even just talking about the physical building- I mean, churches themselves will tell you that it's not about the location- but unfortunately, I feel that the church today falls short of teaching us the appropriate alternative.

Here's where I bring back that whole concept of being one with Christ. You remember, don't you? All the way up at the top of the page. The....first paragraph? The one that led off this whole shebang and then promptly fell off the radar? Yeah. Yeah! That's the one!

Because of our position as being one with Christ, we don't have to go somewhere to do this spiritual thing- it's wherever we are. We take it with us at all times. When the Bible says that they will know we are Christians by our love, I don't think it was talking about anything the American church is. I believe that it's talking about the acts of love that the early church showed to each other.

Human beings are social creatures, and people just want to belong- there is security when we are in a group, knowing that there is someone out there who has our back. The early church sold their own belongings for the benefit of others. They were intricately involved in each others lives- a cycle of self-perpetuating unity.

So how do we integrate that into our very busy 21st century lives? I think a good place to start is by putting away pretenses and just letting people get involved in the nitty gritty details of us. We are all people that have blemishes and imperfections- but we try to move forward in our spiritual growth by putting our best foot forward. There is no time to be broken. The show must go on. We can't rely on our churches to take us into this realm of unity- we have to take a step of faith and initiate the effort.

A practical way that we have walked this out is to have people over when your house is messy. This was a big step for Sara and I- we used to work very hard when we knew we were having people over to get the house as clean as we possibly could. But that's not being real with people- that's us, controlling the situation, wearing our happy face, and allowing others to see the side of us that we want to have seen.

But come on- how often do we actually keep our house clean and spotless- especially with toddlers? Not very often. And so gradually we started to relax on this. Now, we do try to make sure there is a semblance of order, and I do feel a little self-conscious about clutter when we have visitors. You know what though? This is us- this is our life- and if you want to be a part of it (which we would like you to, since we're having you over) then you have to be able and willing to look past our faults and flaws and to see us for the human beings that we are, and the greatness we are trying to achieve.

This is where I think the church fails to teach us how to be the church- because to be the church, you have to be a human being. You have to be able to love, unconditionally, as Christ loves. And right now, I don't believe that we taught that- not in its fullness, anyways. It wasn't until I entered into the social work program that I feel I learned how to be a human being. I learned how to separate the parts of a person that would reduce them to a label or category and appreciate them for the human being that they are.

How do we "be" humans? Short of entering into the Social Work program at NMU...I can't tell you a checklist. Here's something you can do, though. Find someone that represents a demographic that you hold predjudice against. Maybe it's skin color, or political/religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. Whatever the label, find someone with that label, and try to get to know them. Not to win their souls, or to bring them into the fold- but just get to know them. Humble yourself. Listen to them. Learn what it is to be them. What makes them who they are. Let them set the agenda. We are one in Christ, right? So we shouldn't have to worry about what to say or what to do or what to condemn. If we are cultivating our relationships (both with God and other people) then we can just 'be', and out of our being will come the fruit of love and sacrifice that came with the early church package.

I now sit and await my pending excommunication. Or becoming a saint. Whichever comes first.