Last week school started. Last week school officially began whoopin’ my bee-hind. 

My goal is to finish my biology degree (extremely difficult for me) and to pursue grad school for a career as a Physician Assistant. I feel God leading my in a very specific direction within that career, but as for now I’m just gonna take it one step at a time.

I love this site - always have and always will. As for now, though, I have to prioritize. Anatomy & Physiology, Organic Chemistry I and II, Microbiology, Cell Biology, Calc, Stats, etc are requiring much more time and effort from me than I’m used to putting into school. As a result, starting today my posts on FriendlyChristian.com will be limited. My initial thought was to close down shop. Although that may eventually happen, for now I’ll leave the site open and perhaps make a short post from time to time. God willing, eventually I’ll return to FC as a fully committed blogger. We’ll see.

As I’ve tried my best to do with this site, I want to invest all of me into the vision that God gives me. For now, that vision is to become the best darn PA that I can.

Thank you all soooooo much for all you’ve done. You guys have influenced thousands upon thousands of readers. Most importantly (for me), you’ve played a very important role in my life. And for that, I’m forever grateful.

Want to stay in touch? Add me as a friend on Facebook or Follow me on Twitter.

Shalom,
Bill

ps - hov, feel free to continue posting

Popularity: 59% [?]

I want to try an experiment.  Mike spoke about spirituality last week last week and about how it is difficult to explain and understand.  I see spirituality as a connection to something greater that yourself, a way of being more that just the one human mind in your head.  This experiment requires a little creativity on my part and some expenditure of effort on the part of the reader.  Please bear with me.

Imagine that you’re in a rowing boat on a lake.

It’s summer, early in the morning.  The sun is barely breaking through the landscape and long, tiger stripes of shadow punctuate the light.  The rays warm your skin as you drift serenely through them.  The shadows are cool but not chilly as you pass through the slices of day and night in the early dawn.  You can hear the clear, sharp, clean sound of birds singing.  There’s no background susurrus of daytime sounds yet, just the birds and the soft slosh of mini waves as they push against the sides of the boat.

You reach over the side and the shock of cold water kisses your skin.  The bob of the lake rolling beneath the boat plays across your knuckles.  A chilly rhythm of water.  Languidly you pull your arm back enjoying the hint of an ache in your fingers.  Holding out your hand, you close your eyes and feel the cling of water resist the gentle pull of gravity as the liquid finds pathways across your skin.  They fluidly build themselves into droplets and, when heavy enough, they fall.  Each drop taps. Tap.  A new sound in the arena.

Now, right on that tap - stop.  Stop imagining.  Here is the real game.  This is the thing that is overlooked while being obvious and frightening at the same time:  the lake in my head, the same lake I was imagining.  That lake has become the lake in your head.  It doesn’t matter that you never know me, or never know anything about me.  In a thousand years after I’m dead, if language can carry this message forward it won’t matter.  Think carefully on this, beyond the obvious sense to the huge and amazing miracle hidden inside.  The lake in my head has become the lake in your head.

Behind the one hundred and ninety words that make up my description there is some kind of flow.  A stream of pure conception.  Something with no mass, no matter, no gravity and beyond time itself.  A stream of consciousness that can only be seen if we choose to look beyond the words, beyond the meaning and into the process itself.  Look at it at just the right angle and you’ll see my imaginary lake becoming yours.  We have made a connection that might be described as spiritual.  Maybe but not yet.  For that we need to go a little further.

Next try to visualise all those streams of human interaction.  All those communication links where imagination is passed from one mind to another.  Linking in and out and between people.  Not just the lake in the description but every concept, every idea that is shared and transformed and shared again.  Every text, every picture, each bar of music, every spoken word, knowing look, smile or tear.  Streams through casual contact, shared memories, witnessed events, past and future touching, cause meeting effect in billions of different ways.  Try to imagine this immense latticework of lakes and flowing streams, grasp a sense of it’s vastness and awesome complexity. The reach of this is nearly infinite and yet it remains rich with every experience that humanity has chosen to share.  This waterway of conceptual paradise mixing all information, all identities, all societies and selves forever and beyond time and space.  More than any single mind can hope to grasp.

Spirituality for me is when I catch a glimpse of that vast connectivity.  Some might call it God but for me it just doesn’t have words that are adequate.  It is my hope that this experiment has let you share it with me, even if just for a moment.  Let me know what you think.

Back to Secular humanism next week.

Popularity: 56% [?]

The Nicaraguan church that we worked with had concrete floors, plastic lawn chairs for seating, oscillating fans as an a/c substitute, and a garden hose tied to a sink as a source of running water. 

As the worship band warmed up on stage before the Thursday night service, naturally, my expectations were low.

…

The worship band was, and I exaggerate not, louder than any concert that I’ve ever been to. Literally. I almost had to sit down a few times. 

The music was CRANKIN. I looked around…nobody was putting on a show. These people who had nothing were singing out to God…eyes closed…hands raised…giving thanks…praising…joyful.

I wonder what Mr. “church music should only consist of a piano and a hymn book that smells like moth balls” would have thought about this experience.

Popularity: 97% [?]

I served the people of Nicaragua on a team of 22 individuals. We were an interesting group to say the least. Take all of our baggage and throw it into a barrel. Reach in and you might find…

• rape
• verbal abuse
• physical abuse
• abortion
• molestation
• homosexuality
• drug addition
• alcohol abuse
• abandonment
• divorce
• death of parents
• death of best friends
• anxiety
• depression
• promiscuity

It’s incredible how God can take a group of beat-down and busted-up nobodies and bring them together for the glory of his kingdom.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Can Should a Christian listen to secular music? - the debate will never die. Rather than trying to convince you one way or another, how about a quick list of some great songs from each classification?

My Top Secular Songs

• Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam
• 80’s Music (the higher the hair the better)
• Anything Zeppelin
• Vindicated - Dashboard Confessional
• One and Pride - U2
• 90’s Grunge (Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, STP, Smashing Pumpkins, etc)
• Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
• Ms. Jackson - Outkast
• You Enjoy Myself - Phish
• Informer - Snow (don’t judge, you love it too)

Honorable Mentions: Incubus, Live, Queen, Radiohead, Muse, 
Guilty pleasures: Deftones, Tupac, Biggie, Flogging Molly, Metallica, Motley Crue, Pantera, Primus, etc<

My Top Christian Songs

• Albertine - Brooke Fraser (see this post)
• Tomalo - Hillsong (Spanish version of Take It All)
• Mighty To Save - Hillsong
• You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
• Sweep Me Away - Charlie Hall
• Lifesong - Casting Crowns (anything Casting Crowns)
• Old School dc Talk (Luv Is a Verb, Nu Thang, etc)
• Studying Politics - Emery
• Every New Day - Five Iron Frenzy
• Many Relient K songs
• I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever - Delirious?

Honorable Mentions: Lecrae, Newsboys, old POD, KJ 52, Chris Sligh

If you’re really interested in finding out if it’s ok for a Christian to listen to secular music, pray about it. Surely God will reveal himself to you. Another good resource is this list from Greg Surratt: Is It Ok For A Christian To Masturbate?

How about you? Fav Christian/Secular songs?

Popularity: 61% [?]

Believe it or not, there are people in the world who have significantly less “stuff” than we do. They don’t have an iPod, they don’t have a car, and they don’t have a pair of Crocs…

yet they are happy.

There is mud on their shoes. Their shower water is cold. Their “wardrobe” consists of 2 shirts and a pair of shorts. But it’s ok - all is good!

I’ve found that a lot of my “happiness” comes from my “stuff.” I like stuff. I like to have a lot of stuff. I like gadgets, gizmos, and doohickies. When I don’t have my stuff, I tend to be cranky.

I’d love to get to a place where I can be joyful regardless of circumstance.

PS - I turn 29 today. There’s not a whole lot of joy to be found in that :-/

Popularity: 44% [?]

I spent August 8-August 17 serving the people of Managua, Nicaragua. My next 10 posts will be somehow related to my experiences.

As I type on my Mac and move the cursor with my wireless mouse, my dogs sleep on my king size bed and my laundry dries in my electric drier. The air in my beachside apartment is kept at a comfortable 72 degrees by my central air conditioning system and I am safely locked inside. I am stuffed from the gigantic hamburger that I recently devoured.

Elsewhere in the world, a person is hungry. She is sweaty, greasy, hungry, tired, broke, depressed, and alone. Her house is made of scraps of wood and metal. There are no doors and insects and wild animals are free to roam her shelter. Blood, sweat, and tears earn her wage of 2 dollars a day.

Now that I have seen I am responsible

Those are the lyrics from a song called Albertine by Brooke Fraser. How true her statement is. I have been burdened and have assumed a responsibility: the world is hurting and I have been blessed beyond belief with resources to help.

How dare I complain about my cozy life? How dare I wish I had more? How dare I sit idle? 

Popularity: 34% [?]

Four weeks ago I wrote about false assumptions and how Christians suffered in the past because of them just as atheists suffer today. Atheism doesn’t have a philosophy or principles to counter these false assumptions any more than it has a philosophy or principles to deserve them. Secular humanism does put forward a set of positive traits and promotes a world view. These are:

1. Need to test beliefs
2. Reason, evidence, scientific method
3. Fulfillment, growth, creativity
4. Search for truth
5. This life
6. Ethics
7. Building a better world

The search for truth is something that both secular humanists and those who belong to one theistic group or another can appreciate. Secular humanists, I think, take a slightly different stance to it though. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 35% [?]

Bill asked me this question:

If you were to die and find out that God DOES exist, do you think you’d go to heaven or hell?

A few years ago I came to the conclusion that if such a thing as hell existed in the universe of an all-powerful all-knowing Being who is all-good and all-compassionate, that all-powerful Being would do something to prevent any human going there. Because even the thought of any human being tortured forever would literally be hell to that all-powerful all-knowing all-good and all-compassionate Being. Even when I’m frustrated with my kids I don’t wish eternal torture on them. And obviously I’m not all-good and all-compassionate although I try not to be a complete jerk.

If the universe is being run by a sadistic monster, maybe a lot of people including me will find themselves in hell.

Actually I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it either way. I have no control over who runs the universe. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 33% [?]

Three weeks ago I wrote about false assumptions and how Christians suffered in the past because of them just as atheists suffer today. Atheism doesn’t have a philosophy or principles to counter these false assumptions any more than it has a philosophy or principles to deserve them. Secular humanism does put forward a set of positive traits and promotes a world view. These are:

1. Need to test beliefs
2. Reason, evidence, scientific method
3. Fulfillment, growth, creativity
4. Search for truth
5. This life
6. Ethics
7. Building a better world

This week I wish to discuss why secular humanists value fulfilment, growth and creativity in life. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 31% [?]