Aaaaaargh!

Yes, as the (capitalized) title suggests, I am unhappy and frustrated. This is because people are frequently stupid.

Let me tell you about someone I know. We'll call him Timmy, because Timmy is not his name.

Timmy lives in a Christian home. He goes to church and hears about Jesus, Heaven, Hell, etc. frequently. He believes in God and all that goes with this belief. Or at least, that's what he says if you ask him directly.

But look at the evidence. He lives entirely in the pursuit of fulfilling his desires. He's full of rudeness, anger, bitterness and everything that makes him not fun to be around. A good way of summing him up would be this: Timmy lives in the Moment, for the Moment, and is constantly searching for a way to make the Moment more intensely pleasurable.

I don't understand this mindset at all. How can a person believe in God and the eternity that goes with Him, and still live for the Moment--for what's happening here and now.

It's like this:

Imagine Alaska. Alaska is a cold place for most of the year, but for a few months, the weather turns beautiful, and hovers at a constant comfortable. This is how the seasons work: cold, warm, cold.

Now imagine the people of Alaska. Personally, if I lived in a cold place, I would want warm clothes, a warm house, and a really nice guitar (I'd like that last one anywhere I lived). So here you are in your warm clothes and warm house, playing your nice guitar, and you realize that the weather is warm.

"Hallelujah!" you say. "It isn't cold today!"

In excitement and jubilee, you put on shorts and flip-flops, and burn your jackets and fur coats. Then you knock down your warm house, and sit outside in the grass to play your nice guitar. Then the winter comes. The temperature drops well below zero, and then where are you? Frozen solid.

That's what Timmy is--and many others are--doing right now. This life is a season. It's a moment. It's a vapor. Nothing. In God's eyes, your life is shorter than a yard to Usain Bolt. So why, Timmy, do you insist on doing so many dumb things in this life? Don't you get it?

In eternity, there is no measurement of time, because there is no way to measure infinity. I can't even put it into words. Please, stop for a moment and think about it.

And then change.

since when...

Since when did it become cool to stop using correct punctuation and/or capitalization? For example, most "cool" people use lowercase i instead of uppercase I. Or they forget to capitalize the beginning of a sentence. Or don't capitalize their titles. Yes, I have, at times (such as in this post), done the same thing, but I think it's time things changed around here.

From this day forward, I will strive to use correct punctuation, spelling and capitalization. This is my solemn promise.

Something Interesting

Read this. You will be astonished and amazed.

Mr. Obama

You may have heard about some guy named Barrack Obama recently. In case you haven't, he's running for president right now. I agree with just about nothing that he says. I think he's probably a communist, and he is going to be the worst president that America has ever had.

So this prompts a question. How can I remain loyal to both this country and my God?

In Matthew 22, Jesus is tested by the Pharisees. They ask him basically the same question. They ask "is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" He responds that we should give to the government what is theirs, and give to God what is His. Also in other places we are instructed to respect authority and the laws of our country.

So if I disagree with everything said by our country's leader, is it morally right to support him through my loyalty?

Jesus, who was kind of an expert on morality, said yes. But this is no simple yes--it's not exactly "support everything your leader does."

Remember, we as Christians are not of this world. We belong to the Kingdom of God. However, we still live here, and so we still have to function in this place. If I decided to stop paying taxes so that my support doesn't go to a failed government, I'll probably go to jail.

We have to obey the law as a matter of survival, but we still have to place God and His Kingdom first.

I haven't signed out this way in a long time, but,

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell