Part 2

Yesterday I was talking about a big question that comes up due to John 1:1-5. Why, if we must die to ourselves to enter Christ, would anyone want to enter Christ? If everyone in the world were to become Christ, that would be the end of individuality, right?

Well, not really. The question is somewhat flawed, as I will explain. First of all, let's be consistent. Let's continue to refer to Jesus as the light, and us as the darkness. When He illuminates us, we cease to exist. This is how the question came up in first place, but I have to admit that the premise is all because of a mistake.

I said that we are the darkness. This isn't quite true. We are in the darkness. For my initial purpose, this didn't matter. However, because this question came about, I must correct myself. Regardless, the question still remains from other sources. When God looks at us, for example, what He sees is Jesus.

To explain why th question is flawed, I will use a simile. Imagine that there is a world with an atmosphere so thick with clouds that only the tiniest amount of light can enter. The people on this world can only barely see, and so of course no one can clearly see what other people look like. They have never seen a bright light, however, and so they don't know how poorly they can see.

Then, one day, a hole breaks through the clouds, and full sunlight shines down. One curious darkness-dweller steps into this beam of brightness. Several others follow behind him. When they look at each other, they are shocked to find that they all look nearly identical. They quickly return to the darkness, where they have their own faces again. The light, they decide, just makes everyone look the same.

They thought they all looked the same, but this is because their eyes had not adjusted to the light. If they had stayed for a little longer, they would have discovered that the light clarified their features. Jesus, in the same way, clarifies our lives. When I entered into Christ, I became more myself than I was before.

But we have been living in the darkness of the world. We believe that individuality is acting unlike other people, and Christianity seems to destroy that by forcing everyone to live by a single code of laws. What we don't realize is that it gives us boundaries in which to create ourselves. God's laws are like the structure of a building. We have a sturdy, well-tested frame, but beyond that, the architecture is up to us.

That's all I have to say.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

John 1

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

This is the first five verses of the first chapter of the gospel of John. There's a lot of fascinating stuff in these verses, but I want to talk about the last verse (The lights shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it). Other versions say that the darkness "has not put [the light] out."

The light shines in the darkness. The light is Jesus. The Word mentioned earlier in the first two verses is also Jesus. These verses describe Him as being the Word, the Light and the Creator of life. These are all important attributes. Because He is the Word, He is entirely truthful. Because He is the Creator, well. . .He created us.

Because He is the light, he shows us the way we need to go. In Psalm 119, it states that God is a light to our path. The darkness is the world--us, the people that He gives light to. The darkness us the world, and it is an undeniable fact that we are humans, and therefore a part of this world.

Darkness is the absence of light. The world, therefore, being darkness, is the absence of God. God is absent from us.

Here I will make an assumption. Most of you currently reading this are Christians, because otherwise the repeated mention of "God" and "Jesus" would probably have sent you running to a less theological page. So, from this point forward I am going to be speaking to those who are Christians, and have been "saved," to use church-words.

For a person to be saved, Jesus has to enter him. This means that the Light is coming into the darkness. If darkness is the absence of light, and light enters it, what is the darkness? Nothing. The darkness is destroyed. In the same way, we are destroyed the moment Jesus enters into us. Darkness cannot fathom light, because the moment it conceives of the idea, it's gone. To glimpse light would be suicidal to darkness.

When Paul said that anyone in Christ is a new creation, he was being very literal. The moment Jesus comes into us, we cease to exist.

This is a somewhat frightening thought. We either cease to exist, or we go to hell when we die. Those are our options. We will still exist, yes, but not as ourselves. So why would anyone ever want to be brought into the light with Jesus?

That question will be answered either tomorrow or later today. I'm going to go eat something. I hope that something is food.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Tortoise and the Hare

Long ago, in a land far away (from my current location, anyway), there was a man named Aesop. He told a lot of stories that had nothing to do with reality, and included a less than subtle message about how people should be good. These stories were called fables.

One of the most famous of these is called the Tortoise and the Hare. I'm going to retell it (not, of course, that I wish to show myself a better storyteller than Aesop. This is not my intention, nor is it my intention to prove myself wiser. This might be the results anyway, but if so it is not my fault.)

Long ago, in a land far away, there was a tortoise. This tortoise was named Tortoise. He was the slowest and weakest of all the animals in the world. A hare, who happened to be named Hare, was constantly making fun of Tortoise's slowness. You see, Hare was the fastest.

One day, Tortoise got sick of this. "I'm sick of this," he said to Hare. "I challenge you to a race."

After the laughs died down, everyone realized that Tortoise was serious. An awkward silence settled over those present. Hare stared at Tortoise with a confused grin. "Well, okay," he said.

So everyone immediately placed all their money on the victory of Hare, except for one wise old man. This wise old man slowly sized up the odds, then quietly muttered something to himself. "Slow and steady wins the race." He was nearly drowning in wisdom.

Tortoise and Hare lined up at a large, imposing baobob tree. Tortoise suggested that their destination be another tree about a hundred yards away. "No, how about that one?" Hare said, pointing to one on the distant horizon.

"Okay," Tortoise said with a shrug. The possum named Possum shouted "Go!" The race was off.

Tortoise began to slowly plod along the path. Hare watched him go for a few seconds, then scratched his armpit and started running. Hare, as the fastest of all creatures, rapidly passed by Tortoise. He then preceded just as rapidly to reach the baobob tree on the distant horizon. Everyone cheered as he burst across the finish line.

Everyone was happy, except for the Tortoise and one wise old man.

Moral: Aesop was a little out of touch.

I think this story more adequately describes life as we know it. The losers lose and the winners win. God, however, tells a different story. He says that the first place champions will be nothing, and the losers will rule the world. He, however, is not out of touch with life. Aesop was eventually thrown off a cliff. God is still running the universe, and will continue in this infinitely.

So here's how the world works: everyone gets about seventy to eighty years to show his colors. Then, when that time is up, God decides whether that person has bright enough colors to make it into the ruling class. (Arrogance and apathy towards the lowly, by the way, are not the kind of thing He wants.)

I hope you enjoyed this new revision of The Tortoise and the Hare.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the depressing (but not depressed) writer

The Flood

It is commonly believed among Christian communities that, at some point in history, God caused a flood to cover the entire world. Everyone on earth was killed--with the exception of a man named Noah--because they were evil. Noah, Noah's wife, and his three sons survived because they built an enormous boat.

I'm going to add a little to that story. First of all, the flood came because of water pouring from the sky in the form of rain. This is commonly accepted by those who believe in the flood in the first place. But this has deeper meaning. Preceding the day of the flood, it had never rained before. Noah had never seen rain before. Also, at this time, the world consisted of a single, massive continent which is referred to as "Pangea." The flood broke this apart into the continents as we now know them. Noah lived in about the center of this continent.

So Noah had never seen rain before. He'd also never seen an expanse of standing water. Water came up from the ground in a fine mist, which gave life to the plants. So maybe, at the best, he had seen a puddle.

I would speculate that Noah rarely even looked at the sky. Because the globe was surrounded by a giant ice canopy (which compressed the atmosphere to create the enormous plants and insects found fossilized today), and so the light of the sun would be dispersed such that it wouldn't seem to be a single ball of light. If Noah ever looked up, he probably saw nothing of interest.

So when God said "Build an ark, it's going to rain," that's the equivalent of Him saying today "build a jugrin, it's going to bezhrull."

Noah had no clue what was going to happen, but he did what God told him. That's the first point.

Here's the second: As most people know, God left a symbol that He would never flood the earth again. This is what we now call a rainbow. But He also left another symbol, which is not actually one He mentioned but one which is there just the same.

The rain is a symbol, just like the rainbow. Whenever you see a rainbow, remember that God will never flood the world again. When it rains, remember that He can.

God is going to keep His promise. But He doesn't have to. He can destroy us all, if He wants to. He can flood the world again, and the best we could do is tread water as long as we can. He can destroy every human being on the planet with a thought.

But He doesn't. He continues to be patient--infinitely so. So next time you think that God is being unfair, or just allowing evil to run rampant, remember the flood and the mercy he has shown us by not doing it again.

God is love, and love is merciful. He will give grace to anyone who asks--and this will be needed by all, because the world will be destroyed again. But this time it will be by fire, instead. I hope these dark thoughts have brightened your day.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Color

Color is light. Light is not color. In fact, even though color is light, the two things have opposite purposes. While light assists vision tremendously (without it there would even be vision), color can hinder it just as easily. The whole purpose of paint is to hinder vision. If a wall has a big stain on it, just paint over the stain and it vanishes. Though the stain is still there, it can't be seen. The color hinders sight.

Color is much like religion. Light is like Jesus. Religion is an aspect of Christianity, much like color is an aspect of light. Religion will logically follow from Christianity, like color comes with light. The problem is that sometimes people try to make religion the whole thing. Religion without Jesus is like color without light--which is the same as darkness.

Jesus can't jut be integrated into religion. He has to be more than the sculpted figure on the cross or the man on the poster holding a lamb/child/little dog. He is everything. So when we attempt to do anything in any church, no matter how good it may sound, but Jesus is not behind it, the result will be inevitable. It will end with a fight and a division.

So church leaders: keep Jesus central. For all of you who are not church leadership: keep Jesus central. For those who don't even know who Jesus is: find out.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell.

Today

Today is the only day that can be changed. Yesterday is permanent, and tomorrow doesn't really exists. Because it hasn't happened yet, tomorrow is just a figment of the imagination. So the great Today is the only thing that matters.

However, Today is strongly influenced by yesterday. Most of the things done Today are because of what happened yesterday. The rest are in preparation for Tomorrow. This doesn't make sense. Why does it work that way? I can't answer, because I live completely in the moment. But for one of you living in a moment that isn't this one, please tell me. Why are you worried about what you can't change? By worrying, you can't change a single hair on your head.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Prayer

Yesterday I mentioned (briefly) the miracle of prayer. I believe I devoted the second half of a sentence to it. Today, things are different. Today, I’m going to spend a whole post talking about it.

Prayer is a thing that we think very little about. Most Christians pray on occasion, usually when they want something, but don’t think about what it actually is. In an earlier post, I devoted a lot of words to praying, but I never said what exactly it is.

Prayer is a form of communication. It’s the spiritual equivalent of the phone, except that you can only call one person using prayer. That person (God) is always listening, and you don’t need any kind of phone to talk to him. It’s as simple to use as vocal cords, with one principal difference. Prayer is anything but natural, entirely unlike talking.

God is infinitely patient, and will listen to anything you have to say. Again, this is completely unlike the phone. To prove my point, let’s do an experiment.

Go pick up the phone, and dial the number of someone you know well. It doesn’t matter who—just call someone. Begin the conversation like you normally would, and then ask for some money. Or ask for something else. Whatever it is that you want. Now, come back and report your findings.

Most likely, the discussion did not go well from there. God is not like that. God will keep on listening to whatever you have to say to Him. That’s part of the miracle.

The other part of the miracle is that we can talk to Him at all. We humans are obsessed with our senses. We rarely rise above them to grasp at our potential. God doesn’t have any potential—He could be no greater than He already is. That’s why we capitalize the word “He” in reference to God.

Prayer is an incredible miracle. Prayer is the natural talking to the supernatural, and not even bringing the dead to life could be so amazing.

So, do more miracles more often. It’s good for you.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell