The Cultural Christian

I started to re-read Romans today, as the last time I read it through was quite a while ago. It really is a fantastic book, laden with different facts, ideas, etc. As I read today, this passage really stuck out to me...

For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God's Spirit. Whoever has this kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.

-Romans 2:28-29, NLT

Now, I'd be willing to guess, if Paul were alive today, and writing his Epistle to the Americans, it might go something like this

For you are not a true Christian just because you were born of Christian parents or because you have gone through the Christian ceremony of baptism. No, a true Christian is one whose heart is right with God. And true baptism is not an immersion in water, but a change of heart produced by immersion in God's Spirit. Whoever has this kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.

-American 2:28-29, speculative

I know I can be guilty of just assuming that if I call myself a Christian, that it works as a cover all for me and my life sometimes. Perhaps I need to check and make sure that my life, as well as my heart, are in line with God. I think this is good advice for a nation that calls itself Christian and goes to church because it is 'what we do.' Let us change our hearts...

Sports and such

Well, MLB has passed a big event in the season. The trade deadline. This season has been one of the more active in my memory, with many big named players changing cities, leagues, and looking to either help a contender or rot in obscurity.

This intense trade pattern started with the Milwaukee Brewers picking up C.C. Sabathia from the Indians, who promptly changed his name to CC Sabathia. The Cubs counter punched with the pick up of high risk, high reward pitcher, Rich Harden, from Oakland. Both pitchers have performed very well for their respective new teams. Harden has an ERA for the Cubs hovering around 1, and has had around 9 strikeouts per start. Sabathia pitched 3 complete game wins. More on this little gem of a story later.

The trade deadline then came upon us today, and big names were flying across the map. Mark Teixeira went from Atlanta to the best team in the majors, the Angels. Pudge Rodriguez traveled from Detriot to New York and the Yankees, Ken Griffey Jr. left longtime home Cincinatti to go to Chicago and the Sox, and Manny Ramirez went coast to coast to the Dodgers from the Red Sox. These are all big name trades that definitely help to redraw some lines in baseball. I'd watch for all these teams to push for their division leads even stronger and to hold them as well.

Back to the Cubs and Brewers. CC came to Milwaukee to help get a struggling Brew Crew over the hump to the playoffs. And it looked that way, until the Cubs came into Miller Park, and forced a no decision out of CC and beat the Brewers in the first game of a four game series. This led to more beating by Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, and Rich Harden, who finally got the run support to help his low ERA actually win a game. The Cubs swept the second place Brewers today and depending on how Saint Louis does in Atlanta today, they could drop to third in the division. Pretty great time to be a Cubs fan. Let's hope this momentum flows for a while.


On to more awful matters. Brett Favre. I know, if you watch sports, you're tired of it, and if you don't, you just don't care. But, being a Pack fan, I have an opinion. Here is what I told a buddy of mine today.

I think Ted Thompson is a dirt bag who wants to help Ted win and Green Bay be Ted's team. If all the things I see are true, he has tried to bribe a legend to sit on the couch, rather than trying to win right now. The NFL doesn't work on risks of winning now vs. maybe winning later. You try to win now, even if that means your handpicked QB (Rodgers) leaves after the season. You drafted Brohm for a reason, didn't you? I think Favre was forced into retirement, just like I think he was being forced out for the last 3 season. I haven't liked Ted Thompson, even though we were 13-3. That says more for McCarthy and Favre and the D than Thompson. We have signed like 3 free agents in 3 seasons. The biggest was Charles Woodson (which was good), but Moss was available twice. It is frustrating. I wish they would take Brett back and let their be a QB competition. If they think Aaron is so good, let him win his position. And if you don't want him back, send him away in a trade, and I hope that team does very well..VERY WELL, even if Chicago. I have a loyalty to a franchise, not Ted Thompson

That should be enough to get my thoughts out there. AND SERIOUSLY...a 20 million dollar bribe to not play. You really must be desperate to not be embarassed Ted Thompson. But by trying to cover your own butt, you are becoming a very shady character. Oh, and yes Brett did retire. But would Microsoft turn down Bill Gates for his replacement since he has retired. NO! They'd find a way to fit him in. Obviously this is a bit different, as you can only have one starting QB, but think about it. Brett gives you the best chance to win, and he wants to come back.

Anyway, I hadn't written about sports in a while, but this is what I have been seeing.

Climate Change or Scare Mongering?

If you live in America, and you pay attention to the news, you've probably heard of a little thing called global warming. And if you're a decade or two older than me, you've probably heard about global cooling. Scientific speculation about the human influence on the world has been far spread. We've had plenty of incorrect guesswork about how things will turn out in the coming years, and yet we continue to be so sure of ourselves in how science will go. One of the biggest problems in my mind with the global warming scare is the assumed correlations between CO2 and temperature of the earth. In science, we're always making simplifying assumptions or bold predictions and hoping that they line up as correct. Then, when our theories don't pan out, we are all of a sudden dealing with ways to justify our original theory with newer ones.

This Bloomberg article speaks of a new theory that the oceans will cool us for a while until global warming strikes up again. And of course we KNOW global warming is occurring because we have the highest temperatures on record. I mean, let's not forget that we don't have temperature records for thousands of years back, and shoot, if you believe in the 5 billion year old earth, we're missing out on a LOT of history. Who are we to say that we know the cycles of our planet? What makes us and our short 120 year max time here able to know it all? I believe God made a far more complex and robust planet than we could totally screw up.

Now, is this to say I think we can do whatever and it will be fine? No. What I am saying is that I believe science makes a lot of bold predictions about things we shouldn't worry about. I mean, remember when Deep Impact and Armageddon (speaking of, the Christian Armageddon, rather than the movie, is referred to on wikipedia as "in Christian mythology" (my emphasis). Oh what perspective brings to the table) came out? I'm pretty sure everybody was sure we'd be hit by a meteor as a planet by now. And it hasn't happened yet. Sure it COULD, but we can't prevent it from possibly happening. Now Al Gore has used similar action movie footage to create a stir. I mean SURE, the planet could be getting warmer, but is it our doing? What if what we're doing actually will eventually lead to global cooling or suffocation or nuclear war?

I believe that we need not worry about global warming itself, but I do believe that we need to be good stewards of the world we have been given. This means that we should be watching how we pollute, and in a holistic way. I mean seriously, have you considered that electric cars are just taking electricity made by coal power plants (just as nasty pollution in the air)? The 'green' movement is a good thing, but the way we go about it is paramount. And let's not worry so much about the temperature, but instead about things like the amount of visibility in our cities and beyond, the quality of our drinking water, and the health of our planet as a whole.

Late Night of Study

This semester has been a pretty lonely school semester. My classes have been predominantly studied for by myself. Not that this is a big deal, but it makes me sad that I haven't made a huge effort to study with people or get to know my classmates too much. Now I know the semester isn't over, but that isn't I guess what I'm thinking about right now.

It is 1:30 in the morning on Monday and I'm studying my butt off. I've got a hw due tomorrow that I really don't even know how to approach. I guess I have ideas, but I don't know. But where is my mind? Talking to my sister on AIM about theology. What does that mean?

Does it mean that I am just finding that as a way to procrastinate or avoid my school work?
Does it mean that I just prefer to talk about God and how he has moved and is moving?
Does it mean that I should already commit to doing ministry?
Does it mean engineering is a hobby or that theological discussion is a hobby?


I guess these are big questions for me as they are going to help determine my direction in my life. These issues have come up a lot lately and I really would hope to have it settled tomorrow (read: hope = unrealistically hope). Instead, I have a lot of options before me in about 9 months. I will be graduating then, so I guess I'm pregnant with the rest of my life now. It's got a standard gestation period and now is the time that I really need to research what it'll be like to take care of it once it pops out.

Could I be doing some form of engineering discipline in a place where they don't have that but need it to establish infrastructure?
Could I be using my engineering knowledge to teach high schoolers in an inner city area because they need education in technical disciplines as much as rich suburbanites do?
Could I be learning how to council people through their struggles?
Could I be coaching sports and doing sports ministry?
Could I be doing support raising for campus missions work?
Could I be working in an engineering job in Colorado, Northwest, any other place and being involved in a church while ministering to my co-workers?
Could I be working in engineering in Champaign and doing campus missions on the side?

Yea, and that's only a list of options that come to me at this moment. I'm positive there must be others. So instead of dwell on this, I shall go to bed, and hit the grindstone early in the morning, while counting down the days to my second trimester.

And even thinking about that, I guess I kinda do have trimesters set up

End of Spring 08
Summer 08
Fall 08

Each will be different in nature, and each will help me to determine stuff about me and my future...I hope

Good night (or good morning I suppose)

A Tom Brady Fantasy

Check out this ridiculous article on ESPN.com about the what could've beens of Tom Brady's career. He definitely got lucky with that Bledsoe injury...

PS, I love the hilarity of the last link in the article...