More thoughts

Due to the overwhelming positive response to my latest entry...I will now be starting every blog with a "Moment with Tim." Today will be the first of many

Moment with Tim #1: We live next to a garage where carpenters work. Were not quite sure what their official hours of business are...as they seem to always be there...from dawn till dusk. Regardless, we have adjusted to noises associated with their business...and are unaffected by the noise they make. However, several nights ago...at around 7:00 am, I was completely asleep...until out of nowhere, I am awoken by Tim...literally JUMPING out of his bed (the top bunk) and running out of the room and down the hall. After a few seconds...he re-enters the room, slightly out of breath and says, "Don't worry, it's only the carpenters!" and then hops back into bed. When i asked him about this later on...he explained that he had heard the carpenters, and had thought someone was breaking into our house......?

I will now continue with my blog

The book im reading (Jesus for President) takes a very unique look at how we, as Christians are called to be set apart from the rest of the world. The book looks at what the Bible says, breaks it down, and then uses that as a lens through which we are to view social justice.

Some of the stuff they talk about I had thought about before...but I had never looked at it through a Christian lens. Stuff like, becoming more environmentally aware, being aware of where we get our food from, where we get our clothes from etc etc. And then, it talks about war...which should be an unbelievable concept for us.

Basically the entire new testiment talks about how christians are supposed to live for God. We tend to only focus on how God has saved us and set us apart to be with Him in heaven later on...and this belief that we are beyond this world and simply doing our time, waiting to get to heaven, is incredibly dangerous By focusing simply on our eventual salvation, and ignoring what God's purpose for our lives actually is...we can justify just about anything from littering to genocide. But now, after looking through this book and the Bible and listening to people talk about our roll as Christians...I can only conclude that our purpose in the world is Peace.

But here is where it gets hard for me, because in order to live in peace....I have to figure out how to make peace with my friends, my family, my enemies, the environment, and God and many many other ppl and things....and just by living in North America and paying taxes and buying clothes and buying food and basically just living...I am hurtin and exploiting someone...somewhere..and thus not living out my call as a Christian.

And then theres the whole issue of war and pacifism. I could never justify killing another human being...but the fact that there is a nation in this world that kills in the name of God...my God...the God of this world....is incredibly disturbing. The fact that the Church does nothing to stop it...and in fact, in times, encourages it...should make anyone a little uncomfortable.

"Having found the atomic bomb, we have used it. We shall continue to use it. ... It is an awful responsibility which has come to us. We thank God that it has come to us instead of to our enemies and we pray that he may guide us to use it in his ways and for his purposes."
-Harry Truman, August 9, 1945