You Know You Have a Good MSN Name When....

This is the second conversation that it has inspired. Again, slightly edited. This time I gave myself bold. My blog, my thoughts.

Matt D says:
I thought about giving up coffee for lent
Matt D says:
then I laughed at myself and poured another mug
GoAT says:
hah.
GoAT says:
***** gave up ****.
GoAT says:
except on Sundays.
Matt D says:
yeah well
Matt D says:
if ***** can give up ****
Matt D says:
**** can definitely giveup *****
GoAT says:
I just find that people give up things for lent that they really should've given up a long time ago already. They just want to use lent as an excuse to better themselves.
GoAT says:
Not to identify with the suffering of Christ.
Matt D says:
hahahaha I heard a thing on the radio about people giving up sex for lnet
GoAT says:
yeah, I know a guy that gave up premarital sex for lent.
GoAT says:
I don't know any married couples that have given up sex for lent. I think that would be difficult.
GoAT says:
unless your sex life is really bad, ha!
Matt D says:
wow thats soo amazing of him .... lame
Matt D says:
hahaha are you kidding, I could never give up sex .... once Im married
Matt D says:
I'd have to be like , ok i am moving far far away until easter
Matt D says:
then I will be back
GoAT says:
It depends. I know that there's biblical basis for temporarily giving up sex for spiritual purposes. So, say the marriage is having a rough time, you give up sex and replace it with fasting (from sex) and praying.
GoAT says:
Sure, it would be hard, but it is not about your physical pleasure, you know?
GoAT says:
It's about physical displeasure.. to identify with Christ...
GoAT says:
and boy, does our culture need a little of that.
Matt D says:
hmmm is it actualy displeasure though
Matt D says:
I can see if sex becomes a routine and has lost its erotic nature yes forsure
GoAT says:
Is what actually displeasure? Not having sex?
Matt D says:
giving up something to "better" a relationship with Christ
Matt D says:
to the world, yeah giving up something you like is displeasure
GoAT says:
yes yes! It is physical displeasure, right? I mean, there's a huge argument for giving up the physical things being spiritually benefical, or spiritually pleasurable, right? I mean, look at history's examples of asceticism.
GoAT says:
so yes, in one sense it is displeasure, but in another it is pleasure.
GoAT says:
but, of course, this is where we run into the risk of gnosticism.
Matt D says:
yes, that is what I was attempting to put into words
Matt D says:
isn'ts that kind of dualistic though? or maybe Im wrong
GoAT says:
good! that's exactly what I was saying about gnosticism. The seperation of the body and the soul, of which our culture (espceially men) are very guilty.
GoAT says:
I think it ought to be a fundemental Christian belief, and I think there's scriptural support for this, to say that our bodies and our souls are linked (hence no sexual immorality, abstience from food sacrificed to idols, etc. take care of body stuff)

Lent Rant - An MSN Conversation

I changed my MSN name to "I gave up lent for lent" and a friend commented on it. This was my reply, to which I thought "Hey, I should blog about this", but I'm writing an overdue paper on baptism so I figure I'd just post the slightly censored conversation on here.

brad | 41-23-6 | says:
love it. gave up lent for lent, that's awesome
GoAT says:
lol
GoAT says:
you like that?
GoAT says:
you can use it next year, but this year I have it copywritten.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
hahaha
GoAT says:
Yeah.. this year when Lent was coming around I was thinking if I was going to do anything for lent. Lent eventually came and I didn't choose anything, so I just didn't really care.
GoAT says:
Then I kept hearing all these people who gave up things that they should NORMALLY give up that they gave up for lent.. like sugar, premarital sex (seriously), j-walking, just stuff new years resolutions.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
that was the same for me
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
oh i know
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
stupid
GoAT says:
So I decided to go on strike against lent, and that's when I got this idea.
GoAT says:
I mean, the classic/historical/orthodox view of lent is awesome. It's not "pick something you wanna change about yourself and pretend to suffer with Jesus while you're doing it".
GoAT says:
I mean, if you pick something GOOD, something where you really suffer, awesome. I'm all for giving up media (like, all of it, not just movies on weeknights), or giving up lunch, or something truly painful, because that's sort of the point. replace that time with Jesus time. Identify with suffering as much as we in the North American culture can.
GoAT says:
And I know ***** THINKS he's suffering by *** ******** ******, and maybe he is, but really he was ****** too much ***** before Lent started anyways.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
its true
GoAT says:
but I like the orthodox view of lent.. where the whole church decides to suffer together, where they have rules and regulations to guide people in their lent.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
it's like me giving up NHL hockey
GoAT says:
so much more communal.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
that would actually really suck
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
well
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
i guess
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
media
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
your right
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
all of media
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
hrm
GoAT says:
hah. there. that's my lent rant.
GoAT says:
free of charge
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
it's a good rant indeed
GoAT says:
thanks
GoAT says:
i've been practcing.
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
haha
GoAT says:
practicing*
brad | 41-23-6 | says:
alan, you are delightful
GoAT says:
thank you sir.

Life. A General Update.

I'm still going to school. Columbia Bible College, to be precise. This semester I am taking:
Biblical Preaching
New Testament Theology
Timothy and Titus
Rock, Faith, and Pop Culture
Environmental Issues.

This semester I learned how to create a "sermonic sentence" by reducing a biblical text to one key idea the author was trying to get across. I also am going to learn how to teach for 35 minutes a biblical text to a class. I learned about liberal scholars, and their views on the divinity of Christ. I listened to music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, including The Who and Pink Floyd. I learned that "environmental" has an 'n' before the 'm'.

I am still dating Lori Kuepfer. She just got back from a week long (10 days..?) trip to New Mexico to go caving with the Outdoor Leadership program. She had an excellent time and a wonderful adventure. Coming back the wheel on their van/bus fell off and her return was delayed, which saddened me and her as well. We wished to be reunited. It is odd when you become so used to someone being there that you're life completely changes when they're not. I was single again for a number of days, which was an odd sensation. Lori really didn't like it. This summer is going to be interesting.

This one time, I wrote a blog where I bolded certain words, and italics others. If you read just the bold words, they spell a sentence. If you read just the italics, they spell another sentence. I thought it was quite brilliant, and I hoped someone would catch on. They didn't. It is a lot of work, and I gave up on doing it more than once, but it may come again some day.

This weekend I will be taking Lori back to my house in Kelowna for the first and last time. My parents just sold the place, and are going to be making an offer on a house in Summerland. They'll be moving sometime in May. I won't be back in Kelowna after this weekend. That's an odd sensation, but one that is so far distant that it is merely a tickle on the back of my brain. It is not yet real, and it won't be until I see the new house, live in it, and a significant period of time elapses. Then, perhaps, I will recognize that the room I grew up in is now inspiring a younger generation. The tree I climbed will have smaller hands on its branches, and the driveway I walked will welcome new shoes. So this weekend I'm going to show Lori who I was, for years. Perhaps that will help her understand who I am now, and who I will become. I will show her my elementary school, and where my friends used to live. I will show her my former place of employment, and my high school. I will introduce her to my friends, and she will become a part of my past, in the hopes that she will continue to be a part of my future.

This summer I'm hoping to enroll in "Suicide Hebrew"; six credits in six weeks. I hope to fly to Ontario to visit Lori. I hope to work at Camp Qwanoes on Vancouver Island. I hope to live my life with integrity. I hope to finish this semester strong. I hope to return to CBC refreshed, full of questions about how my summertime ministry interacted with the theology taught by my professors in blank rooms. I hope that I will earn enough money to be able to afford to eat next year. Next month. Next week. I hope I blog more often, I hope I get more work done, and I hope I stop staying up so late at night, because I'm so tired in the morning. I hope I start enacting the changes I've wanted to see done for so long now. I hope I stop being so lazy. I hope I can break the addiction to CounterStrike, even though I love it dearly.

Obsure Reference to a Bob Dylan Song

Tonight I was reading over my old blog entries. A blog that a friend had written reminded me of something that I had written in the past, so I went searching for it. While I was unsuccessful in finding that particular entry (if it even exists) I instead got the chance to re-read what I had written two years ago. It doesn't seem like I've been blogging for that long, but apparently I have.

I wrote better then, not to mention more consistently.

I found a number of themes that arose in my numerous blogs. One was cynicism and sarcasm, which pervaded every entry with startling force. It is not like all my entries were "woo is me" emo rants, far from it. Some of my blogs were laced with hope for the future. Others were filled with observations of the world's hidden beauty. I don't know how much I've changed in this fashion. I believe that in the past couple of years I've become more knowledgeable about the world, how it works, and humanities relationships with each other. This information hasn't managed to stifle my scathing rebuke of current social conditions. At the same time, this information has also provided me with a wonder for the world only matched by the first time that I saw a butterfly take flight.

Another theme was women, and oh my.. the times they are a changin'.

A lot changes when you go from being single to being in a committed exclusive relationship. I suppose my entry called "My War on Dating" wasn't as "victorious" as George W's war on terror. No, instead my whole viewpoint towards women has changed. I don't know what it was then, and I don't know what it is now. Perhaps one day I'll sit and attempt to sort out in my head exactly who I believe Lori to be, but that question is so huge that I can't comprehend the implications while procrastinating writing yet another paper.

One thing that hasn't changed is my thoughts on the eyes of a woman. I wrote once, "Anyways, throughout my years I have met many an eye, some blue, some brown, some green. I hope my wife's eyes will someday be more beautiful than any I have ever seen". That much is still true for me. To be perfectly honest (and that is what blogs are for, some would argue) Lori's eyes are the most beautiful I've ever seen. It is not because of their particular pattern (though magnificent) or their color (sometimes brown, sometimes green, depending on the lighting/the color of her shirt/how drunk I am). I'd say it is mostly because of the way that they look at me. When she looks into my eyes she knows me for who I am, and she's willing to keep looking there because she sees something beautiful. Sometimes for the life of me I cannot figure out what that is, but I trust that what she sees truly exists, and for that reason alone I can love her.