There are only two possibilities for what ultimately gives authority to one man over another man.

It is either:

1) Corruptible, flawed, subjective, manipulative, self-serving human power...

or

2) Perfect, loving, all-encompassing, fair, righteous and Holy authority from God.

One power coerces, the other acts out of love.

What a pain to suffer!

In His character, God alone is the absolute expression of love that is never separated from holiness. God cannot be at the same time holy and unloving or loving and unholy. In turning our backs upon Him, we lose the source of defining love, live with the pain of unholiness and suffering remains an enigma- leaving our blemished characters in search of a moral law and our finite minds crying out for an answer. Which of us does not hurt when we see pure love abused and despised? Our hearts reveal a hunger for a love that is pure, and in this world we have lost both definitions because we have denied their source.

-Ravi Zacharias from Cries of the Heart.

Pain and suffering outside of a loving God has no hope. Pain and suffering outside of a loving God has no greater meaning. Pain and suffering outside of a loving God has no purpose.

I cannot find any way out of this reality. Can you? Please let me know if you do.

Pain and suffering exist. There is no way to escape the reality of it. Even for those of us humans who feel that life is meaningless, who are numb and broken... that condition comes most likely out of unresolved pain and suffering.

Animals experience pain and suffering. But unlike humans they do not question the greater purpose, meaning, context, morality or justice of the pain or suffering in question. Whether we like to admit it or not, I think all of us struggle to make sense of the utter despair our world is in.

Holiness...or as described to a child 'pure and perfet goodness.'

Again, as complex and enormous the issue is. The old sunday school lesson turns out to once again be true. Understood by children, contemplated by wisemen... "God is good, he loves you, you can trust him."

What I would like to add is "even when you don't yet understand his ways."

Really, what other choice is there? Either a good God, delusion or despair. This is not to say we trust because we have no other choice, but more so to recognize that when it comes to God he is always by a very large infinite margin, simply just the best choice. Like it or not :)

Be thankful. It is the only proper response...

This is not something I consider very often, but I think it is really of enormous importance.

In and of myself, apart from all others, I have no rights.

By yourself, like me, you have no rights to anything. Maybe you 'feel' like you do, or you 'think' that you should... but even wishing something relies on things outside of ourselves.

What have you done by yourself? What have you done without the aid of others? What have you made, done or thought that did not begin with or depend on another being? The frightening and real answer is absolutely nothing.

This has enormous implications.

I cannot speak for the entire world of course, but I will speak of the parts of the world that I was born in or have visited. From what I have seen we humans are frequently, consistently, and fairly deserving of the following descriptions: ungrateful, arrogant, selfish, undeserving sense of entitlement, spoiled, rude, over inflated ego, undeserving, prideful, very prideful, extremely prideful, foolish, self-worshiping, vain, ignorant, entirely misplaced with who we should thank on a minute by minute basis.

Your right to safety, freedom, voting, speaking your mind...all of that is dependent on the blood and sweat of men and women before you who helped build society.

Your health, however good or poor, your development both mind, body and spirit...all directly dependent on the friends and family who nurtured you as a infant.

Your very life. What right in and of yourself do you have when it comes to your life? Did you yourself give yourself Life? You may be able to choose what you do with your life, you may be able to squander it, waste it, end it...but you have no right in and of yourself.

Do we not realize! Do we sincerely think so great of ourselves that we think that the gifts, abilities and understanding that we have comes from no one? How is it that we are so deluded and overly confident of ourselves that we for even a second think that we are the masters of ourselves?

Of course you may choose to do with your life as you please, most of us are not slaves in bondage...but what right do you have in and of yourself? None. Every good thing, literally every good thing in life is undeserved, and MUST be considered a gift. The very ability to give or receive love, the very ability to even perceive or experience pleasure is a gift! Nature does not love you, evolution cares not for you, chance cannot even consider you.

Let me simplify it: Every good and precious thing comes from God. Is a gift.

The moment we realize this. Is the same moment we are thankful, is the same moment we realize His love for us, is the same moment we realize our brokenness, is the same moment we realize we are made in his image, is the moment we realize that we are not alone, is the moment we begin to understand the purpose and meaning of Life.

Nothing comes from nothing. Perception of beauty, ability to love, imagination, creativity, awe, wonder, inspiration, music, art, poetry, stories, hope, kindness, gentleness, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, JOY...all good thing...they come from someone who gives them to us.

You are not your own, you are His. And he loves you.

Evil, suffering, pain...they have their answer...but only after God is given credit for Life. Otherwise to blame Him, is appearing like a child kicking at the curb for tripping him up.

Are you delusional? Are you decieved?

After spending most of my free time reading/searching/researching/thinking about belief... I am still very curious about what we belive.

Yes, I know, I just used the name of my blog in my blog entry :) Cool right?

Seriously though, I find it disconcerting how different my conclusions are from so many incredibly talented and intellectually gifted people. What is comforting and mind opening however is how many talented and intellectually gifted people I do find myself in agreement with.

The intellectual world is clearly divided. Many of the intellectual elite claim complete honesty and say there is no God. Many of the intellectual elite claim complete honesty and say there is a God. The battle lines are drawn and redrawn throughout history and most of us 'normals' are left confused and frustrated as they argue...occasionaly like adults, mostly like kids :)

A beautiful revelation has come across my path however that puts my heart at rest. The truth, the real Truth is unchanged by the passions and convictions of mere mortals. Only God has ever fully understood it, and only God has ever had control of it. Thankfully he is unchanging. That means what he set in place, he has not changed. God is not fickle like us, he knows what he is doing from point A to Infinity. He doesn't say "Opps, didn't see that coming."

God is not unknowable. God is knowable, because he wants you to know him. God is the one putting in the vast majority of the effort, believe me this is always the case. My steps of faith are increasing less and less 'blind' as of late. It is much more my opening my eyes to see the truth, and saying to myself 'okay God, I admit it, you are definitely not, not there."

Many arguably over educated people (or undereducated depending on how you look at it) have asked me how I became so delusional. The question can be asked both ways. In previous blog entries I have just began to scratch the surface of why atheism is to me incredibly inconsistent with reality. You've got to figure it out for yourself though, you need to know why you believe what you believe. Too many of us are wrong on purpose, right by accident, wrong by accident or both wrong and right but unaware of why and which one.

What do you believe?

Are you delusional? Are you decieved? Or do you just not want to hear it?

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
-Winston Churchill

You are not ordinary, neither is the guy who cut you off.

When you die...

Not if. When.

When you die, what follows will either be a shameful tradgedy or the conclusion of a beauitful reconciliation.

I suppose I should mention the third option, because some people actually do believe it exists. *no offence*

The third option is that there is no immaterial. We are not imago dei, we are imago matter...or when everything is said and done imago nothing.

I am watching a man right now, on the very final leg of his physcial existence...spending all his precious time watching televsion.

My observation is not from a loathing, critical spirit...it comes from a belief that he is so much more than he appears. Despite his weakend, corpse like physical presence... I believe he is really so much more.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner--no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.

Words from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis.

Do you think that perhaps at times you see other people as mere cattle on the road? Blocking you on your road to real happiness and success? Are people often in the way of your life, delaying your journey and keeping you from your destination?

I will admit that I often feel this way. I forget that every man, woman and child is a dearly loved by God. I forget just as often that I am dearly loved by God.

We are here to Love God, to know his Love for us, and to Love one another through his Love for Us.

Anything outside of this... to me is at best a scent of what we were made to do, and why we exist.

Don't kid yourself. If you are anything like the average North American, since you first opened your eyes as a baby, your understanding of what the meaning of life is, has been shaped and transformed by the things you watch.

TV, movies, books, magazines, paintings, plays, performances etc. The Arts (media as well of course) shape us and teach us.

What are they teaching us? You should ask this question.

What's really real?