Tag You're It

As I find myself in a new year, 2008, I can't help but think about how much time has passed by me. I am 27 now, and I finally think I am beginning to just now start to fathom (not understand) the massive force known as Time. Time is such a tricky thing, because you always wish you had more of it, and no matter how much of it you have at your disposal, it never seems to be enough. It so easy to waste it, and you never know how much of it you have left.

I recently have encountered from an up-close distance the bitter reality of time being up. It might be regarded as morbid to think of your life ending, but in all honesty, you never know how much time you have left. And the truth is, each and every one of us has an unknown amount of time left, some more than others...

A few months ago, I watched as a man made a poor choice while driving late one evening, and I saw his time on earth expire. He was young, in his early 30's, and I am sure that he had no idea that his clock was about to hit zero. If a person ever did/does think about the way they are going to die, I couldn't have imagined that this guy would have ever thought that he would die by trying to pass my car and a semi truck at 3 AM on a back road.

It all seemed so cheap.

Never had I viewed time in such a quick summation of life and death than in that moment. I couldn't help but think about the friends & family that this guy had, or the people he knew. I couldn't help but think of the things that troubled his daily life, his successes, his failures, his epic triumphant life moments, and his lowest despairs... Or the impact that he had or didn't have on the people around him. And what did they culminate to? His time was up. He didn't know it, but his hourglass had run out.

As some of you know, and any close friend of mine could tell you, I am addicted to the tv show LOST. Its no secret really, I am quite hooked. One of the main driving plot points of that show is the thought of destiny. Destiny is extremely thought provoking for me, hence my love for the show. To me, destiny & time are intertwined in a perfect harmony, so much so, it is absolutely mind blowing to think about the marriage of the two.

I believe and have believed for a very long time, that everything happens for a reason. The people that come in and out of your life, and the time that they do is for a reason. The good things & the bad things that happen to you, the when & the how... the timing of each major & minor event, all play into the over arching "destiny" of your life. The jobs we take, the jobs we quit, the people we love, the heartbreaks we experience, the swell times, and the lowest of lows all play into this thing called your life.... the hyphen of time you live between your day of birth and your day of death.

I guess its taken me 27 years here to realize the impact one has in the world. We each have a set amount of time, and its about time that I started using what time I have left. I guess this is my public service announcement to the online world simply stating that my goal is to live each day as if it were the last day I'll spend on earth. I want to live my life in such a way, that I won't need tomorrow to correct the mistakes of today. I want more meaning out of each thing I do & say. I want to help others live their lives with more meaning, and I want to impact those around me as much as I want to allow myself to be impacted.

Its a wonder really, to think about the mysterious ways people come into your life and how all things come together. The mangled web of people around you can become a rather overwhelming thought when you start trying to piece together how, when and why certain people are in your life.... not to mention how their web of people in their life intertwines with yours and why. Also, when you start looking at your life on a linear scale you start to see the times when various people came in and went back out of your life, and it all becomes quite beautiful. Time & destiny, God's overarching plan for your life is such a beautiful complex organism ever evolving, often seeming extremely chaotic, and certainly feeling at times to be completely random, but it is throughly known & well mapped out by your Maker, your Architect.

I loved the game of tag as a child. Running around recklessly, chasing your friends in the yard, you seem to have zero cares in the world. The truth is, as we grow older the game doesn't end, it just takes on a new form. Instead of playing a game of passing around a mysterious "it", it is a new game of passing on words of wisdom, of comfort, of help, or of harsh words, of bitterness.... and the list goes on and on. We all impact everyone in our lives in some way or another.... for the good, or for the bad. Its these "invisible tags" that drive us into the people we become and are. Some we will impact more than others, but when our time is up, the things that will be remembered most by those who are still here, is how we were towards them, the impact we made in their lives. People that go down in history books are almost always people that have impacted those around them in either a good way or a bad.

You can either make your mark in this world, for the brief time you are here, by being all you can be to those around you, and going down in history as one who loved, showed compassion, gave to those in need, imparted words of wisdom, helped those in times of trouble, etc. etc, or by choosing to ignore the time you are given, piss it all away & be remember for the life of despair you brought upon yourself & others.... or worse yet, be completely forgotten.

Friends, pay close attention in the coming days to those in your life, and the opportunities to impact one another. Leave a legacy to be remembered for ages to come. Touch those around you, while allowing others in your life to help grow and develop you. I know I will.

If you are still reading this blog, I hope that it has at the very least provoked you to evaluate your remaining time on earth, and the very most, forces you to live towards completing your legacy. Thank you for letting me impact you, now its your turn to go out and do the same.

Tag you're it.

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FINDING HARMONY

Finding Harmony in the Third Millenium:
A look at the role between science and religion

Skeptics continue to nourish the belief that science and learning will banish religion, but this notion has never seemed so futile as today.
E.O. Wilson
the future of humanity depends on the way these two most powerful forces in history [science and religion] settle into relationship with each other.
Alfred North Whitehead
How does the future of religion look when we take into account both what social analysts tell usand what the eyes of faith register?
Huston Smith
Because science has given us unforeseen power over nature, and human beings do not have the wisdom and virtue to keep from using that power for private gains that work against the common good, science is no longer seen as the messiah that will save us.
Huston Smith

As Western Christianity attempts to reassert a leading public voice in the new millennium, one cannot help but predict some final showdown of science versus religion. We must hope, instead, that this new century will usher in a better harmony of the two disciplines, rather than a dedication to one while rejecting the other. Huston Smith reiterates this need in Why Religion Matters, when describing many of the avenues that lead to truth, and the problem of relying on science alone as the only reliable method of finding truth. Smith not only addresses mans primal need for the infinite and eternal, but also discusses the decaying ability of science to answer the questions and fill the longings of modern man in relation to such issues. Smith examines some of the areas where science and religion experience their most infamous tensions, and while he works to discredit the claims of evolution and modern philosophers like Karl Marx, he does not bother to give answers to the major contradictions between religion and science concerning spirit and matter, happy endings, meaning, etc. When speaking about mystical experiences, Smith doesnt offer up the possibility that reverence and awe are objective values that we consciously ascribe to nature rather than human sentiment exceeding no farther than the human consciousness extends. Where Smith cannot fully commit to the Biblical worldview and its absolute authority, Lewis picks up and helps us to understand the how and why of Smiths overarching tenets.

The book Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis is an articulate look at the effects of scientific conquest from his perspective inside a traditional religious worldview. Lewis portrays the absurdity of a world without objective values and predicts the catastrophe of a society in which mans pervasive conquest over nature finally becomes mans surrender to natures most primal and selfish urges. Lewis unfolds our progressive mastery of new technology and the false sense of power it has given modern man. He also talks about how men have abused the powers that science and technology has given them, because of a lack of the moral virtues of a value-based system.

Although Lewis gave an accurate portrayal of where mans desire to rule over nature would eventually lead him, he was not able in his lifetime to see the debunking of reason and scientism, which Smith describes in detail. Smith explains how scientism, higher education, media and law have all been interwoven to create a tunnel that cuts off any possibility of finding truth outside of the scientific method.

The implication and correlation between these two authors is that whether our society rejects objective value or not, it is still the guiding system that controls our daily lives. However, as we begin to lose interest in the false claims of evolution and reject the commitment to science as our only avenue to what is real, we will begin to bring individual progress, which is the hallmark of the traditional worldview, as well as societal progress, which is the cry of the postmodern worldview. As people of faith, we believe that God is able to meet the needs of every new generation and that he brings the destiny of all humanity about in his perfect timing and order. This is therefore our opportunity to train and equip believers in the West to handle the challenges of defending the faith in the third millennium by being absolute in what we believe, model and duplicate through church programs and individual discipleship. Just as the Bible says of Jesus, that of the increase of his rule and kingdom there will be no end, we must expect that an era of destiny is about to open in which believers will be interactive in society to see his kingdom revealed here on earth.

In his chapter on discerning the signs of the times, Smith declares that we cannot achieve the kingdom of heaven on earth by simply revamping social institutions, because the arrival of the kingdom will be in proportion to its arrival in human hearts. Smith warns of attempts to conform all of society to any particular ideology and thus lead to totalitarianism, and explains that while social action is important, it must be coupled with the understanding that progress in it depends upon the progress of the inward war of individuals.

One of the answers that Smith provides is that science must share the knowledge project equitably with other ways of knowingnotably the ways of God-seekers. Lewis holds to the traditional systems closely while admitting that some criticism, some removal of contradictions, even some real development, is required. Lewis does go on to require that the process of development must come from within, as the spirit itself demands, but cannot be postmodern in style, attacks against value based systems which would destroy the bases of our criticism while destroying the thing we are criticizing.

If believers are more interested in being trained to manage the business of the kingdom, than being trained to teach, promote and defend the basic truths of the gospel, we will continue to face insults of ignorance and foolishness by the intellectual society. We must work to bring back metaphysics and the supernatural in the arena of philosophy. We must be prepared to offer people a realistic worldview that does not just push out the scientific, but transcends it. We must teach lay church people an authentic religion that de-centers the ego and doesnt pander to their worldly desires, so that the scientific community and the young educated can see that religion is not just materialistic answers, escapism or a crutch for the weak-minded. We must show people the connection between the spiritual and natural worlds by reconnecting our values to knowledge of the scientific world. If scientism closes the lid over the box that were standing in and locks it, Christianity must be the key-holders, standing ready to throw the lid open to the great outdoors.

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ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

Are you familiar with the newer cars that have a GPS navigation system in them? For instance, the new Lexus, and most of the old ones, have a system installed in the dash which you tell where you want to go, and it will give you exact directions on how to get there. It speaks out loud giving you the proper direction, the places to avoid, and the best possible route to travel. Should you make a wrong turn or miss an exit, it will instantly re-route you to get you to your destination.

God works in very interesting ways. If you pay close enough attention, you can start to see Him and how He is working in the most random of things. Recently, God used this GPS navigation system to rock my world.

As you know, you are alive and living. You are on the journey of life, traveling down a road, to a final destination. Now you may not have a clue where your headed or know what street you are even on, but you must recognize that your still being alive, forces you on this journey. You can't stop the car and get off the ride. Everyone is headed somewhere.

As any road tripper knows, on a trip to a destination you are going to pass things that may appear very much alluring and enticing. Should you choose to veer off course and make a stop, it will slow your pursuits of your destination. IT WILL COST YOU. Or if you should miss a turn, pass an exit, or try to take an alternative path, you will notice that time will be lost, and it will take even longer to get to your destination. IT WILL COST YOU. Each and every one of us, can now understand our individual journey, our own individual alluring exits along the way, and our mistakes in wrong turns.

God has really brought to light the understanding of His truths in His word. Full well, now seeing the word picture of being on a life journey, you will start to see the correlation amongst this visual and Gods truth in His Word.

Proverbs 3:5-6 states, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

I started to realize that God's purpose for my life, His path, and His final destination for my life, is exactly the journey and path I need to be on. His way is the best route, the best path to avoid major harmful pitfalls. As I start to travel closer to the destination set out before me, I start to see the path laid out before me. I see my past mistakes and my past pit stops and I start to realize that my way was the long way, the hard way. The amazing thing is that God can use my wrong decisions to continue to guide me, and like the GPS system, when I miss a turn, or pass an exit, He re-routes me. Because of my mistakes, the journey will be a harder and will take a longer time, but the amazing thing is that when I yield to Gods will, He makes my paths straight again. My travels amongst a winding road of ups and downs, turns into the straight and narrow.

Have you ever seen the movie "Big Fish"? Well, not to spoil it for you if you haven't, but the main character is on a journey as well. On his travels, he encounters all sorts of distractions, to include one major stop along his journey in the small town of Spectra. The town of Spectra is full of people that throw their shoes to the trees, b/c they never plan on leaving, never continuing on their journey to their destination. The main character encounters a famous poet in that small town who has been there for years, and after some conversation learns that this poet has been working on what he calls his masterpiece work. He has been working on since his arrival in Spectra, some 9 or 10 years before. He is much obliged to read what he had so far, which read something like this, "The grass is green, the sky is blue, I love Spectra." You see he could no longer even see what his original destination was. His entire world was now consumed by the exit he got off at on his life journey.

I think that this story rings true for many of us in our lives. Often times we find ourselves taking a wrong turn, or getting off at an enticing exit, and begin to feel stuck in our wrong choice. We begin to hold mistakes & prior things that happened to us on the journey before at such high regard, that our vision becomes clouded as to where the final destination is. Before long, we remain off course for so long that we start to build houses & hotels which not only provide a false sense of security for ourselves, but allows others to see our off ramp exit and be enticed to stop along their path. What God wants us to learn in this, is that we are not bound by our past mistakes, no longer falling slave to the entrapping of our wrong decisions. We should not be stuck where we got off course, but it is easy to walk away from that off ramp exit and get back on our way. I am reminded that when Christ died for me, He set me free from the chains that I think bind me.

The bible states, "...if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." It always seems like I am constantly being reminded of my downfalls, wrong turns, & mistakes. But I am reminded, that He has freed us from the bondage of the things that I think is binding me and holding me to a place that I never intended to stop at. Whether it is events that have taken place to me, or just poor choices of my own decisions, I am not stuck on those off ramps. We need to go get back on the road and begin to pursue the destination that God has set before us. Pressing on, forgetting what is behind, and looking onward to what lays ahead. As we trust in the Lord and acknowledge Him with our entire heart, all the while not trusting in our own understanding of the road set out before us, He will make straight our paths. A path that He sets up for us is going to be the best route, the best way around, the only wise choice.

By choosing God's path over our own, we simply save ourselves from the pain, trouble, and hassles that come along with taking the wrong road rather than the right one.

I hope and trust that this was beneficial to you, as I know it has been to me. And remember, to look for God in all things, even in the GPS in your car. ;)

NOW GET BACK ON THE ROAD.

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HORSES & CHARIOTS - The downfall of today.

HORSES & CHARIOTS
The downfall of today.

'It is easy to persuade papists to lean on priests and saints, on old rags and painted pictures -- on any idol; but it is hard to get a Protestant to trust in the living God.' -William Arnot, 1858

I am constantly being reminded of the fast-paced, in your face, get outta my way world we live in. Things today are simply built for speed. We build fast planes, cars, subways, and trains to get people to their destinations quicker. Fast food restaurants which make processed 'food' available at a rapid rate to allow for minimal time consumption. PDAs run ramped on the World Wide Web receiving emails at 749832 gigawatts a second to allow the user to be up to date on the latest news, weather, or stock reports. Supermarkets and post offices boast of 'No Wait' with the new check-out-yourself systems. Technology is moving us right along into the future faster than we even realize. Heck, IPODs are advancing so quickly they make IROBOT look less like a movie and more like a documentary film from the future.

There is no denying the fact that we live in that future. You know, the time that all those sci-fi movies from the 70s and 80s portrayed ever-so inaccurately. I doubt that any filmmaker could have imagine that some 30 years from then, that there would be a contraption that would allow you to communicate via phone & email, take pictures, play music, monitor your heart rate, keep your calendar schedule, remind you of appointments, keep all your contact information for friends and clients, and surf the endless world wide web. And as if that wasnt enough, it also has games on it in case you get bored with the other half a million features. Top all of that off with the fact that its virtual weightless and owned by millions of people. Whew! Didnt see that coming. Not sure what Im talking about? Check out www.apple.com they really do some amazing things. Nonetheless, we are driven by scrupulous amounts of technological toys.

It wasnt until this summer, at a summer camp I was leading worship at, that I realized a truth that Ive read in Scripture a myriad of times. It comes out of Psalms 20.

1May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
3May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices!
Selah
4May he grant you your heart's desire
and fulfill all your plans!
5May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!
6Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
7Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
8They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
9O LORD, save the king!
May he answer us when we call.

I could make this blog a short novel, discussing each verse and its relevance in our lives today, but Ill refrain for your reading sake. Ill just focus on verses 7 & 8. Like a suddenly shocked child in an unannounced game of peek-a-boo, this verse hit me like a ton of bricks.

7Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
8They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

So quickly Ill give you some background information to help this make more sense. King David wrote the Psalms, as of which, Im sure you are well aware of. During his days, things were a lot like today. War happened, famine happened, real stuff happened to real people. Except in his day, kings went to war; they just didnt send their people off to fight the battle. So you can imagine his state of mind, 'Always Prepared'. Its kind of like the boy scouts motto. He was always ready to do business with anyone that wanted a piece. He had problems to worry about just like you and me. Even the greatest of men may be much in trouble. His crown, his head, nor the grace in his heart could make him free of it.

This Psalm was written as an anthem that the people would shout and sing as a prayer when the king would go out to battle. It was a song of victory and of safety. It was not just a nice custom on their part, as when we gather on New Year's Eve to sing 'Auld Lang Syne' and fill our hearts with nostalgia. It was a genuine prayer, an expression of their faith, a song of trust in the power of the living God who would keep the king and his armies in the midst of desperate battle.

So now that you know what this chapter speaks to, youll better understand why verses 7 & 8 floored me on the ride back to the 8th grade bunk house where I was barely sleeping.

For many years I have relied on my talent, my ability, my know-how, my will to do & create. Many times, often unbeknownst, I would find myself trusting in me, not in the Christ in me. As I rode in the back of the pick up truck that night, I started thinking why Kind David would have compared horses and chariots to places of trust or security. Then I started to think about the wars in that day. I really had to pull back to high school history class for that. During those times, countries had no guns, battleships, planes, or GPS. They had horses & chariots. For them, their strength, security, and focus was on what they thought that could tangibly control. I was beginning to see why David would place such a material object in focus view of such an issue like trust. David was a song writer. He took things around him and made them pliable with his words. He made matters of trust equate to things that people really placed weight on, whether they realized it or not.

So this really got me thinking. What does the world of this day trust in? Money, cars, cell phones, internet, countries, armies, etc. you get the point. Pretty much all of the afore mentioned in paragraphs one and two. You can fill in the blank with whatever suits your fancy. The fact of the matter is we are a very trusting people. We might not realize it, but try doing without some of things you filled in that blank with. You trust in it, or it itself. This world functions off of trust. What do you think faith is? Youve already exercised faith hundreds of times today, you just dont think about it. If youve drove a car, you had faith in the brakes. If youve sat in a chair, you had faith that it would hold you. Even reading this article proves your faith in your computer to work and function as you believe it should.

That being said, O what a revelation it was to me, when God told me that I had been making my talents and gifts into my own modern day horse and chariot. Taking a God-given gift and elevating higher than allowing God to work. I was trying to rely on my own strength and as verse 8 so eloquently says, 'They collapse and fall' And they do. And they did.

A great friend of mine recently told me that, 'If your talent outweighs your character, youre worthless.' Im pretty sure I was on that fast track. Worried and concerned about what I could do with my gifts, rather than yielding them. By striking down my horse and my chariot, I am allowing my character to be developed. Allowing it to grow in the fashion in which God has designed.

Know that 'Vain is the confidence of all wickedness'.

Lets dont stop there.King David doesnt stop there. He continues on in the later half of verse 7 to say that although the rest of the world around him was placing their trust in false hope, he would trust first and foremost in the Lord. Here his faith is duly noted. The quite, confident expression of a man, a king, who has learned where the true power lies, the only source of power in the world. He stands up and says, I refuse to trust in anything secondary, but I will solely trust in the Lord my God. What a statement! To boldly proclaim his undeniable trust in God and God alone. He goes on to say later in the latter section of verse 8, that trusting in God alone cause him to rise and stand upright. As we trust in Christ solely as our source of hope, strength, & life, then and only then will be able to rise and stand uprightly in the knowledge of the truth.

I find it often easy to coast through the days and weeks of life. I find myself getting lost amongst the fast moving world around me, lost in things that collapse and fall. Am I placing my trust in faltering things, in material goods, in my own skills? (I john 2:17)Or am I focusing and placing my sole trust on Christ and Christ alone? I long for it be said of me that my sole trust, my one hope is Christ alone, that others may trust in _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (whatever) but Will Hill trust in the Lord. I too pray that that is/becomes your hearts desire.

Thanks for reading my blog. The only question left for you is.

Whats your horse and chariot look like?

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