Seeing in Black & White

I have always seen thing in black and white. No I am not color blind but what i mean i tend to view things as being either one way or the other with little or no middle ground. I think part of this is just the way God has wired my mind. I am really good with math and sciences so I tend to think very straight forward. Something is either right or wrong and being close doesn't count. 

This way of thinking sometimes can make things difficult. I think this is the reason that things like writing papers are so hard for me. I never know when I'm done. There is no formula to follow so that when you have completed steps one two and three you are done and you make an 'A'. There are no definite lines that say this is what is right and this is what is wrong. I get frustrated a lot writing papers because I never know when it is good enough. I could keep working and tweaking forever and never get it "right".

There are a lot of times where I think that this black and white view of things may be making me too close minded. Maybe it is keeping me confined in a box and I need to step out of it and view things in a new way. But this isn't to say there are not definant right and wrongs. That truth is decided by God. But maybe there are somethings that can be subjective and I just am to closed minded to realize it. 

This probably doesn't make any sense but it is just what was going through my head.

This has been an awesome weekend. It started out going to Civitan's Infromal. This was one of the most fun dances I have ever been to. There was a band instead of a DJ so it wasnt just rap music. It was a lot of fun to dance to. They played music like Sweet Caroline, My Girl, Don't stop believing. I had a great time and I think my date did too. It was also great because we got pinned and I am now a Civitan active.

Then yesterday, I took my friend Will to my grandparents farm to go hunting. We left around lunch time and drove an hour and half to their house which is outside of Laurel. I let will hunt out of the shooting house which over looked a green field. I walked across the road and sat on a fence line looking over a bottom that had a lot of greenery in the pasture. I saw about ten deer over the course of the afternoon. A few of the doe were big enough to take but I decided to let them walk and just give Will a chance to kill something.

About dark I heard several shots. As I was walking back to the house Will called me and said he had killed a deer. I got in the mule and drove over to where he was. He had actually shot two deer with out knowing it. They were both four points and one of them was a really good size. We cleaned them last night and then today cooked some steaks. It was some good eatin!

Prioirities

Priorities are a hard thing to put in order. It seems like the things that you least want to do are always the things that need to be at the top of your priority list. School has never really been a priority for me. In all honesty pretty much my only motivation for doing school work is that I was expected to. So anytime I had any other option than doing school I would put off school work till the last minute.

This problem of priorities has gotten even worse as I have come to college. There is always something fun to do. I know that is hard to believe at a place like MC where it seems like so often there just isn't anything to do. But there is always something more appealing than homework. But I come to that point every week where I have to force myself to sit down and do the assignment just because I have to.

The same problem arises when I am trying to do a devotion. I know I should do it but there are so many times when I just don't want to. But in this case I feel bad for forcing myself to do it because I feel like I should be wanting to be in God's word. At these times I have to remember that my relationship with God is not based on how I feel. Sometimes I just have to sit down and do the devotion trusting God that he will teach me no matter how I feel if I will just make the effort to seek him.

So this has been an interesting past 24 hours. Last night after the halloween party my friend asked me to help him change a flat tire on his car. Easy, right? Just get the spare, jack up the car, unscrew the lug nuts, switch tires and put the lug nuts back on and your done. NOT! After we spent 5 minutes figuring out how to get the spare tire off we got all the lug nuts off the wheel and then the wheel wouldn't come off. We tried everything. Pulling, kicking hitting, spinning. It would budge. So finally at about 2:30 in the morning we gave up.

So I set my alarm for 8:30 so I could wake up and go to the farm and plant food plots for deer season. Well at 11:45 I woke up and realized my alarm had not gone off. So I left at noon and drove an hour and half to the farm and started working. And as always something on the farm wouldn't work right. The disc was digging in deep enough so I was basically just scrapping up grass. Finally I went over the plots enough times to at least get seed in. 

Then I went to clean out our shooting house where an owl had made a nest earlier in the year. As I opened the trap door I heard a hissing noise. The only thing that I could think of was somehow a snake had gotten up in the house. So I scaled the outside of the frame and looked in through the window. In the corner were three baby owls. "GREAT!" I thought. Now on top of everything else animals are living in my deer stand. After beating on the walls and floor for a few minutes trying to scare them out, I realized it was useless because the owls probably couldn't fly yet.

In the end everything turned out ok. I got the plots seeded. My friend told me he got his tire fixed. So, everything said and done it was a good weekend. I still don't know what I am gonna do about those owls. But oh well. They better enjoy my hospitality while they can but they better be out by opening day of deer season. haha

Old and New: Tradition and Revision - Post #4

I have always been what most people would call traditional old fashioned. I feel like you need to ask a girl's father's permission before you date her, you need to stand up when you shake someone's, and you always need to say yes sir and yes ma'am. Ok well maybe those are more of just respect. But it goes further than just traditional values. My favorite TV shows are Andy Griffith, Hogans Heroes, Get Smart and The Beverly Hillbillies. Most of my Favorite movies are old western movies. I love singing out of the hymnal and love the hear the Christmas Story out of the King James Version. I listen to 60's and 70's Oldies but I love country music cause it talks about the good ol' simple times. 

All of this got me to thinking. Why do I like the traditional way of doing things so much. Mostly I think thats just me and me personality and to some extent that is the way my Dad is and I want to be like him and maybe even its just that it is what I grew up around. But then again I think part of it is that I don't really want things to change. I like it the way I have always known things to have been and I don't really care for something new. And tradition doesn't just apply to tv shows and music, it applies to the way I think.

I have kinda got to thinking about this a lot, that is about change vs tradition. I think sometimes people, maybe even me, are traditional for the sake just of being traditional. They don't want to interrupt the comfortable flow of things. But then also I think maybe some people just want change just for the sake of being different. I think is important to find a balance between these two. There are deffinantly some things in tradition that don't need to abandoned. But maybe I need to open my eyes a little more and see that there are new ideas and ways thinking out there that are good but I have just cast aside because it is not what I have always known. Now certainly and idea new or old needs to be held in account against the Truth of God. But God may be trying to teach me something new, and I'm not listening cause its new and I don't to get away from what I am comfortable with. Makes you think doesn't it?

Now none of that is to say any of the stuff that I talked about in the first paragraph is gonna change. Thats just who I am and I like it that way. And I'm stubborn as a mule bent for the barn so good luck trying to change that! Haha

Dreams

Post #3 (even though its late)

So my first 2 post were serious so I figured it was time for something light hearted.

So the other night I had LNTC (late night taco bell craving). I rushed over to taco bell and discovered a new amazing deal, the Big Bell Box, complete with one supreme burrito, one crunch wrap supreme, one volcano taco, and a pack of cinnamon twist. Let me just point out where else can you get enough food to make you sick for under $6. So anyway back to my story. I came back to my room and devoured my dinner while watching a western movie. Now this was my first time to eat the volcano taco. Now they put like hallucinogens or something in the sauce on that thing, because when I went to bed I had the weirdest dream in history.

I began by being thrown into the midst of a battle which involved mythical creatures similar to the ones from Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. We had an epic battle with giants and minotaurs and everything you could imagine. I then was transported to my church ( which is undergoing construction). Amidst the construction I found a nuclear science lab which I was not allowed to tell anybody about. Someone discovered it though and a fight ensued with one of our pastors giving a rousing speech about the defeat of the anti-christ or something like that.

This story has two lessons/thought provokers. Numero Uno: Don't eat Volcano Tacos right before bed. #2: Have you wondered where dreams come from. Like where does your head come up with the scenarios like the ones afore mentioned (i just used afore mentioned in a realistic context...sweet) You know in the Bible, God spoke to people through dreams. Ever wonder why he doesnt do that anymore? Ever think that it would be easier if God just told us straight up what he wanted us to do like he did in the Old Testament. Just an interesting thought to ponder after an extremely goofey story.

#2

I just started a new job this week. I am working as a sales representative with Vector Marketing. My job is to show CUTCO kitchen cutlery and tools to customers. I am really excited about this job. It has flexible hours, which will be good for me because I can set my own hours and work around classes. The job is also very well paying with plenty of opportunities for promotions. I hope this job will really help me with my communication skills, so this should be good job experience for me.

            On to other things. Today I went to see my granddad up in Yazoo City. I had a lot of fun visiting with him.  I enjoy talking with him when I go up there. He always tells me the most interesting stories about his life. Most of them are about growing up in the depression and working in the farm equipment business. Once we were talking and the story started with him getting on a bus headed for Mississippi State to go to school and the story ended three hours later with him retiring from Mississippi Chemical Corporation. Most people would get bored after a story that long, but I rarely do. I love these visits and think my granddad really enjoys me coming to, because I think he gets lonely some time.

            Tomorrow I am going to the farm. I am going to try to do some appointments for my job while I am there. But I am going to be able to see a lot of my family while I am there. I really enjoy our farm. It is one of my favorite places to go. Everytime I am there I think about how much I wish I could live and work on a farm. Everything seems so much simpler when you are in the country or in a small town. I love working hard outside so I would really enjoy to work on a farm.  

Well that’s it for this week. 

#1

Over the past year, God has really opened my eyes to some very new ways of thinking. I have always been a very traditional person, ascribing myself to very conservative points of view, and always being very apprehensive about the acceptance of new ideas. At first I was very skeptical of such ideas because at first glance many of them appeared to be contradictory to everything I had been taught with up to that point.

Once such concept was that truth can be found in other places besides the bible. I first came across this idea while reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell for a discipleship group at my home church. Upon first reading this I was taken aback by the preposterous idea that some one would suggest that truth could be found in other places besides the Holy, infallible, Word of God. However, after really examining what the author intended by this idea, I began to see his point. What Bell was trying to convey is that everything has been created by God and that we can find truth in God’s creation. An example that was suggested by one of our group members was that there may be a message in certain music that may not necessarily be “Christian Music” but the message may be non the less something true, such as “love your neighbor” or “help your brother in need” etc. (Let me interject here that I believe we still need to really examine whether or not the idea we are looking at really is truth by comparing it with the teachings of Scripture.)

This idea that truth can be found elsewhere than scripture is also found in Holmes “The Idea of a Christian College”, where he states that “All truth is God’s truth.” Holmes is pointing at this same idea that truth, wherever it be found, can point to God.

Again, in all this we still must be very careful that the idea’s we examine are TRUE, meaning they line up with the teachings of Jesus Christ and are devoted to the Glory of His name.