Worship and Our Fellow Man

Track with me on this (it is a developing string of thoughts) and let me know what you think.

A)
1)We are made to worship
2) We worship things we see *perversion of true worship*
3) We assign to them divine status
4) These things fall short and break under the pressure of the worship
B)
1) We are made to have worth
2) When we find worth, we can become worshiped *perversion of true validation*
3) When we are worshiped, we can denounce it, or acknowledge it
4) We will crack under the pressure of being worshiped and help to perfection
C)
1) We are made in God's image
2) We are made to worship God
3) Perversion of worship leads to us worshiping things that could replace God
4) Therefore, we worship each other

Orthogonal Photography

So on flickr, my name is | Orthogonal Photography |. It's pretty hip right? With the lines on the sides and stuff, it's totally neat? Maybe it's just my pathetic attempt at trying to be cool. It's ok if it's a pathetic failure. Shoot, I've even worked on developing some sort of image to show it (seen above) in neat graphic form. None are really awesome, but the one up there is kinda neat in my opinion.

So why Orthogonal? I mean, what does that have to do with anything? Ok, so my reasons are a few fold. First, I wanted a word that described me and my goals in multiple ways. The word orthogonal describes two vectors that when multiplied, they create a zero vector. It also is another way to say perpendicular. So that's my first reason. It reflects on my nerdy side. by being a big nerdy word for lines that cross at 90 degrees (or a line that crosses a point...they're orthogonal to each other too). The second reason is that 90 degree thing. It means they're not going in the same direction. This is how I want my life to be seen. I want to be orthogonal to the world and instead following the way of Christ. This isn't to say that the way of Christ isn't anything like the world. They cross paths, but they're different enough, that his way of sacrifice is pretty different than the way of the world. Finally, I want the world to describe the photos that I take. I want to learn to take truly unique photos that show the world from a completely different perspective than we see it daily. This ends of being a form of worship for me, using God's world that is there as my subject. I think there's a lot of work to be done there, but it is a strong goal of mine. I'm sure there are other ways I could use the orthogonal term to mean something else. Perhaps it means I want to reflect the glory of God not right back up at God, but rather into the plane of this world. I'm still thinking about it, but I love the idea of where it can go without being super cheesy (perhaps it is too late for that).

A New Season

(Not my Picture)

So today marks Ash Wednesday. Regardless of your faith tradition, this can still be considered an important day in my mind. This day starts the Lenten season which brings us right up against Holy Week and Easter. This 40 day long season of fasting is analogous to Jesus' own 40 days in the desert. While we aren't going to be in the desert, we can foster a spirit of fasting similar to that of a spiritual desert. This is a time period that will be great to use to focus on God and his providence. Now the idea of fasting may seem sad to some, but it is clearly laid out in the history of our churches that times of fasting come before feasting (Easter in this case). As well, Jesus said there would be a time that he would not be there and his followers would fast. That is now...

So, what are you fasting from? Or how are you preparing for the Glorious Resurrection of our Savior King Jesus.

Can You Tell Where My Mind Is?

It is finals week here at the U of I (I'm 1/4 done), but all I'm doing is California Dreamin'. I've got myself a ticket to the Rose Bowl, friends to drive across the country with, and an itch to get out of Illinois for a bit. I will be at the very stadium shown above in exactly 3 weeks. I'm super excited to see my Illini in their first bowl game since the Sugar Bowl. Oh, I remember that game. It still leaves a sick taste in my mouth and definitely helps me to want to be the biggest OSU fan I can be.

As for other thoughts.....I was mulling over the idea of worship the other day.
Many times in Christian culture, phrases such as, "man I had a really good worship time," or, "man, that worship was really encouraging for me," or "I really needed that time of worship," come up. Not that these things are bad. Not at all. I'm glad worship is encouraging to us. But is that the point of worship? I'm pretty confident that worship is for the glorification of God. I do believe that the joy I get out of worship should primarily come from knowing that my King is being glorified. I think any other element is secondary. I know God can encourage me through worship, but am I truly honoring him in that time. I think that is most important. So the next time you enter into musical worship, think about what the time is for. Even if you don't feel like worshiping, but acknowledging the presence of the King, you are doing him honor.

The other thought I had came from Josh Wondra. We were conversing and the words prayer and charity came into a sentence together. I guess for me I've never heard them used together. It seems totally natural that they would go together, but it struck me regardless. I think in the church culture I've been in, I've never heard it articulated in that way before. Sure we're supposed to pray for others, sure we need prayer warriors, but many times we pray for our own situation or things directly involving us. When I think of prayer as charity for the greater good, I leap and think how exciting that can be to help others with God's direct connection. Maybe we need to look into this more and really consider it a beautiful way to serve when we don't feel like it. I know I need to.

PS: Can you tell what I do when I don't want to study?