We are still in Beta.

Spider Webs are like problems. With a Spider Web you can’t see it until you’ve run into it, and immediately you look like a freak. As soon as you run into that web your whole walk is out of control. You run through it and people off in the distance think “what is wrong with that person”. None of them can see this web; unless you tell them about it, and then they might not believe you. That’s how problems are. You usually can’t see a problem until its hit you, and if you see it before it hits you then you have to beat it back with a stick. This also makes you look funny. Either way people think you look funny. People usually don’t understand (see) your problems unless you tell them, and even then they don’t always believe you. Once you get tangled in a problem it’s stuck with you for a long time. You can try and get it out, but you don’t know the extent of it. You don’t know were it ends. Thus my conclusion ends. Problems are like Spider webs. Oh and the fact that Spiders, Spider Webs and problems are all disgusting!

So you might remember this post I had a while back about Spider Webs being like problems. Personally I still think it is one of my greatest thoughts ever. Well basically I thought of more to it. So here it is.

I was recently outside; by recently I mean 3 minutes ago. While outside I ran into a spider web. So it gave me a few ideas. When I ran into it guess what my immediate reaction was? It was to jump back and claw at myself trying to get it off. In doing so I potentially could have caused more harm than good. My next impulse was to pick up the nearest thing I could use to beat down the rest of the spider webs with. This is much like life. You run into a problem and your first impulse is to try and pull back and get out of it; to late it’s stuck. Then you claw at yourself trying to get rid of it, which could potentially make it worse, or cause other problems. Next you pick up a beating stick, so as to face any other problems coming your way. See you automatically assume that there will be more problems. I picked up that whacker thinking, “where one is, there has to be more”. We assume the worst, like life is out to get us. So what can we take from this? That we need to calm down, not hurt ourselves in our problems, and be prepared before we hit the first one. Expect them to be there, and then you won’t be surprised. Life will have problems you can’t do anything about it. So just live the best you can, and make the best of all situations. No need to worry excessively, me worrying about the spider webs in my house and yard has never accomplished anything; that stick on the other hand, has.

How can you rate friends? How can you honestly say that you like one friend more than another? Personally I can’t. That is why I hate the friend feature on Myspace. I can’t stand having to rate my friends. Putting them in an order. Yes I might be closer to one friend than another. I might know one better, but that doesn’t mean I like them more. It just means I get more chances to hang out with them. Personally I don’t think God would agree with this system. I don’t think Jesus would rate friends. In fact I know he wouldn’t. Jesus never had favorites. Yes he hung out with certain people more (his disciples) but that didn’t mean he liked them better did it? No he loved everyone the same. Therefore I strongly dislike this feature on Myspace, and in general. I don’t have a “best friend”. I have about 3 friends I know I can tell anything, but that doesn’t mean they are my “best” friends. Though I know it is nice to be called a best friend. Then again all my friends are best friends, just in different ways. So… if anybody knows a way to make your friend box not show up on Myspace, please inform me. It would make you  my “best” friend. Just kidding.

So my cousin Aubrianne recently started a blog. It really is pretty good, though mine is definitely better. . . . . ok maybe I’m just jealous because she can write deep, meaningful cool and humorous posts, and I can’t. Mine are usually lame, or just deep and insightful, but boring. Plus I don’t have a spell checker! Anyway. It’s interesting reading her blog because my friends say that it is just like mine, and that she is just like me only female. This makes me laugh because we have been told before that we look like siblings but I never would have guessed we think alike. It’s also interesting because my mom always says I’m like her dad, my uncle Ken. Something to do with God, Jesus, Philosophy, Bibles, and Churches. I really don’t know. So now that Aubrianne has a blog, I guess there is pressure to keep mine updated, and good. The Aublog also makes me happy because when I read her posts theycan give me insight on what to write and just make me laugh. Oh and it boosts my site rating. The more links that head to my site, the higher the rating! BOY-YAH! So go check hers out, and comment, it makes us bloggers feel loved!
http://www.aubrianne.blogspot.com

Today was Day of Dance. It was very fun but hard. I was sore before I started the class because yesterday we had a guest artist in Level 3 dance, now I’m even more sore. I had a great time and learned a few things, not just about dance. I thought of this great analogy. So the first class was “contact improv” basically a lot of partner work with leaning on the other person. It was interesting because the harder you leaned on the other person, the more they leaned back and the easier it became. See this relates to life in a very real way. The closer of a relationship I have with someone, the more I tell them, and the more they tell me, the easier and better our relationship becomes. Now with all this leaning, and telling it also becomes more risky, or dangerous. If my partner in dance is leaning all the way on me and I let go, pow! They could get hurt. It is the same in real life. If I tell my friend a lot of personal things that I haven’t told many people and they go tell someone else what I said, pow! I am going to get hurt. So I realize that with both of these trust is the main issue. You have to trust others in all that you do. The great thing is that I always have someone I can trust and lean on, his name is Jesus. He will never let me fall, he will never tell my secrets, and he will always be there for me. What a friend eh?

Recently I have been hearing a lot of quotes that really apply to life well. I think they are very true and the way they are said are amazing. So here they are, I will explain why I like below.
From “The Glass Menagerie”

“Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse.”
Tom speaking to Amanda, his mother

“You are the only young man I know of who ignores the fact that the future
becomes the present, the present the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don’t plan for it!”
Amanda speaking to Tom, her son.

“All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be.”
Amanda speaking to Laura, her daughter.

From a website with jokes

“The Patricia Principal: The more you’ve been trying to attract the attention of a particular man, the more likely it is that you’ll run into him when you’re sweaty, short of sleep, without makeup, wearing house-painting clothes, with your hair in a bandana.”

From our science text book

“By Analogy, consider yourself. You are who you are, but your behavior changes depending upon whom you are with.”

I get multiple things from these, mainly that they are true and hit hard. Such as the first. It is so true about men. In today’s society a man is not allowed to be a man. He is forced to go work in an office, or warehouse, and his heart yearns to do more. He wants to be a man, he wants to climb mountains, fight dragons, save princesses, but he can’t. Men are also told to stuff their feelings, no crying, no whining, and in general be nice. Don’t show anything. Women want men to be “nice guys” but they want to be real men, adventurous, dangerous, and exciting.

The second quote is true also. Don’t procrastinate. Plan for you future, or it will plan for you. You can’t let life pass you by, you need a vision.

The 3rd one is a part of life that I wish wasn’t so true. Not every single pretty girl is a trap, but most of them are. Almost all of them wear clothes, act and talk like they are just there to lure a man in. It is quite sad really. The media has a lot to do with it, woman dress like objects, and want to be treated like them, or so it seems because of the way they act.

The 4th quote is not necessarily true, but it might feel like it. The problem is that this is really you. When you aren’t dressed up and nice looking, that is the real you. When a person can love you at 7am and your sleepy, with messy hair, pajamas and bad breath, that is real love.

The last quote, I was surprised to read in my science textbook. It is the perfect analogy for acids and bases. It is very true with humans. I am who I am, but if I’m hanging with my parents compared to my friends I will act different.

Do you have a vision? A vision is power, a purpose, a goal. At Church we were talking about why people go to church. I realized that one reason why people don’t go to church is because it lacks a vision, or it has the wrong version. As Pete Greig says “The vision is JESUS–obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.” Now if a church doesn’t have a vision that is Jesus, or centered around Jesus, they have nothing. They will go nowhere and influence no one. What about you? Do you have a vision? I have a vision, the vision to influence as many people as I can for Christ. To live like Jesus would. I have dreams about things. An open church were art is loved and accepted and done by all members. I would love to start a church specifically more centered around dance. Rather than having pews, there would be an open dance floor and it would be surrounded by couches. Then on days we weren’t using the church we would let other bands come in and rock! It would be perfect. That is just part of my dream. I have others. Currently my main vision is as simple as “Live for Jesus, uncaring about what others think” Or something to that extent. I just need to work on that vision and keep it in my focus. Get a vision, focus on it, live for it.

I was saved.

What does that make you think? Probably “from what?” and then you start guessing, a fire, a car crash, from drowing, from a murderer, from death…… what? You want to know. Well I was saved from death. From hell. From eternal seperation from God. Now tell me, why do you shut off your brain when I say that? If I was to say “Jesus saved me” or “Jesus saves” why do you automatically associate it with something other than what it is? Why don’t you imaginee a knight in shining armor, or a superhero, or a soldier, cop, fireman, or true hero? You automatically start thinking in the brainwashed ways of the church. Let’s give some examples of this “brain washing”

So we will start with a simple one

-Noah’s Ark

Tell me, what is it in this story that makes it seem pleasent for Children? Why do we tell kids about this story? Is it appropriate? I don’t think so. God kills EVERYBODY, and ALL the animals, except for what can fit on one boat. Now tell me that’s not gruesome. What rating do you think that would get if it was a movie? I can tell you it wouldn’t be G. There would be lots of screaming, crying, drowing and probably lots of people killing each other. It would be terrible. Let’s move on.

-Joseph and his multi-colored coat.

Here is another nice story, we have a 17 year old boy named Josheph. SEVENTEEN! It all starts with him telling his dad about how his brothers aren’t doing what’s right. His brothers start to hate him. His father then gives him a beautiful coat. His brothers really hate him. Joseph starts telling them dreams he has about them bowing to him. They really really hate him. Josephs dad sends him a while later out to find out how his brothers are doing. He gets there and they plot to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they say “let’s kill him”. His brother Reuben tells them it’s a bad idea. He tells them to throw him into a cistern (well) “Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father” they listen, throw him in and start to eat. While eating along comes a group of people from another country. So Judah asks “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?” he then proceeds to talk them into selling Joseph so they can get loaded with cash. Why kill him when they can sell him? Reuben goes back to rescue him, he’s gone. His brothers dip Josephs coat in blood and lie to their father saying he was killed by a wild animal. …. doesen’t sound G to me so far. What do you think? Later in the story he’s a servant in the hous of a rich official of the Pharaoh. The rich officials wife starts to pressure Joseph to have sex with her. He refuses. She pressures him everyday. One day he goes to the house and no one else is there but her, she tries to get him to sleep with her, and he flees but leaves his coat. She lies to her husband and says Joseph tried to rape her. Joseph finds himself in jail. ……. you getting all this?

Now this is what I mean by brainwashing. We tell Children these stories and cut out the detail. The sex, violence, jail, mass death, anything we don’t like we cut. The story of Joseph would be rated R if it was a hollywood movie. It would probably do great in theaters for those reasons. People would pay to go for the hot guy playing Joseph, for the violence, for the sex and its very ineresting and powerfull story. Now why don’t we believe it like that? Why don’t we take it at face value? Why don’t we read “Jesus saves” as “Jesus is my hero who rescued me from the worst thing ever?” it’s wonderfull. Jesus had the biggest fight of life and won, he won for us. Accept the fact! Jesus saved you. He loves you and would rescue you from anything.

A final note.
Give to God your problems, he will handle them. He saved you and will save you again. He wants to resuce you. Let him.

The story of Joseph is in Genesis 37 and 39, anything in “___”’s are from the NIV version of the Bible.