Thankfulness Post #6

       If you know me well, this post will probably come as a surprise. I'm thankful today for some anime shows which have been, over the past two years my main source of entertainment. An important life principle is, "think before you act." Sometimes it may be necessary to do something just for the purpose of enjoying oneself. Even in that scenario one should think about what is the best option for things you can do to enjoy yourself. These tv shows have helped me relax, enjoy myself and taught me  alot of cool things besides. 

Code Geass, make sure you double check than check again to make sure you watch season 1 before you watch season 2. I made that terrible mistake from laziness and I hope no one makes it again. 

      The three highlighted here are not ranked in any order and I don't endorse them for general viewing....particularly for kids. I've been very surprised at how adult alot of the material is and from what I understand these three are fairly tame when it comes to Anime as a whole. So I do not recommend Anime for casual viewing. However these three shows have shown beauty more beautiful, evil more repulsive and love more virtuous than any entertainment I've watched. Some episodes will make one wants to cry, others will leave one depressed and sad. It's a fascinating experiance to have, something like life on fastforward. Life in which unexpected, unplanned bad things can happen and these isn't necessarily a happily ever after ending. Yet an undercurrent of hope, purpose, truth remains so that even in the midst of chaos life cans till go on and peace can be found. 

Darker than Black was the first anime I was very fortunate. In my ignorance I stumbled on a gem and have treasured it in my heart since than. 

The three shows have each centered around conflict between the main character and a super powerful organization. Questions like, "in a corrupt system is it better to reform from the inside or destroy from the outside?", "If I can't win should I still fight for the right thing?" "If other people get hurt or killed because of my mistake what am I supposed to do?" "Is revenge worth pursuing?" These questions and many others drive the characters actions and often help me to answer similar questions from my own life. 

Currently I'm watching Fullmetal Alchemist, it is probably the most famous anime ever created. Thus far it deserves it's reputation.

Disclaimer, watching anime is primarily a means of entertainment. These shows do not compare to reading a good book, prayer or good conversations. Don't replace reading a book about virtue with watching an anime to learn something about virtue. It won't work and you won't enjoy the anime very much either.

Thankfulness Post #5

I'm thankful for alot of things today. All having to do with the baking of a certain batch of cookies. Some years ago I was exposed to a cookie like no other. It was epic and cheesy and berryie and big. So after long years of searching for the recipe I found it and made them and am thankful for them. Below are the pictures. 

Stage 1. Kitchen is clean. 

Stage 2. Take out more utensils and ingredients than you'll need. 

Stage 3. Add vanilla to cover up the bad taste of everything else. 

Stage 5. I skipped stage four because it's not really important. Stage 5 is to form batter into little bowls. 

Stage 6. Drink a three liter of cheap ginger ale. 

Stage 7. Take a close up.

Stage 8. Bake them for 15 minutes longer than the recipe said to bake them for. 

Stage 9. Double the guards and the bar the gates because as soon as your done the hordes of hungry cookie monsters will descend and devour your delicious culinary masterpiece. 

The author does not endorse or take any responsibility for the 9 step method of cookie production described above. I hope you have enjoyed this post and will comment below. 

Thankfulness Post #4

Today Nathan, Sarah and I recreated the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Within the world of Age of Empires we transported our armies across the Atlantic and bested the superior numbers of marauding savages. Seriously, Age of Empires is awesome and my favorite video game of all time. It is one of the few video games that I look back on and don't regret playing. Come play it with me sometime and if your not already good at it I will teach you. It's great fun and a good history lesson as well. 

           

Thankfulness Post #3

Everyone knows your not supposed to judge a book by it's cover or a person by their exterior. Everyone also knows that when it comes to having a good conversation, having one with a beautiful person is more fun than having one with a troll. Obviously the having of a good conversation is the most important part but to simply ignore the cover, or the exterior is to deny a large part of what makes that person themselves or that book the way it is. This train of thought brings me to my thankfulness post #3 idea. Today I"m thankful for mugs and their different exteriors. 

This is my classic mug, good for guests or people of unknown emotional status. 

When I want to feel smart I go for one of the families 4.0 mugs. 

Next comes the smaller more artistic creative mug used for drinking the same amount of coffee in more cups so it seems like your drinking less. 

Than is the monstrosity sometimes called "bottomless". Typically used for all-nighters this unseemingly character adds a strength to one's coffee that an average mug would crack under. 

Last and best is my personal favorite. Like the wounded solider who will not give up this faithful servant to my coffee addiction never fails to put me in a good mood. Despite being chipped, cracked and handleless I can rely on this mug to serve me well and faithfully despite long hours and an unpaid pension. 

There you have it. Remember to appreciate the little things and if you are consistently in a bad mood consider making a mug change to something more encouraging. If you tell me, "well I don't use mugs at all because I don't drink tea or coffee" Well you can start there. If your not having a good conversation, it doesn't matter whether your talking to a troll or a beautiful person the interaction will probably be a waste. So start with the tea or coffee and than find the mug suited to your needs. 

Thankfulness Post #2

     In our modern age of cheap literature produced with minimal effort or thought it is all too common for reading to be merely a means to escape reality. Good fiction literature, does not necessarily represent reality as it appears to the reader but it should open up the reader to a deeper reality than what his own life circumstances force him to interact with everyday. Today I'm thankful for Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy who have captivated me time and again and brought me to worlds away from the world I live in. I'm grateful to them because all the time I spent in the worlds they created only helped me better understand the world I had to come back to whenever I put away their books. 

I'll buy their books simply because they are written by them which I don't do for many authors. 

They are two of the greatest Russian authors and perhaps of the greatest authors ever to put pen to paper. For them putting pen to paper was not an expression. Just imagine for a moment writing, by hand, in a legible script, books hundreds and hundreds of pages long. The forearms of these men must have been like iron and their wrists like steel. 

Currently I'm reading Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky and thoroughly enjoying it. 

  The story, The Three Questions is particularly person for me. I heard it the first time in story tape form when I eight. The story teller was fantastic and the last lines are etchedd into my mind. I hope forever they will stay there forever. The three questions are, 1. What is the right time for every action? 2. Who are the most important people? 3. What is the most important thing to do? The story concludes and the hermit in answer to the three questions says, "Remember than there is only one time that is important, now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. We can do nothing about yesterday and what happens tomorrow depends on what you do now. The most important person is the man who your with. For you will never know if you'll ever have a chance to help another person and to do that person good is our most important business because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life." 

    

Thankfulness Post #1

The holidays are such an exciting time it's easy to get confused and swept up in a big emotional tide of holiday cheer. Sadly this unrestrained tide leaves alot of people out of breadth, confused and disoriented. In the midst of all the expectations, traditions, family obligations and pressure to give people stuff it seems that people lose track of what the holidays are really all about. Figure out what the holidays actually mean to you. Don't sit around and let the spirit of the season control you. Let it motivate and empower but you should be behind the wheel, not the social norms or expectations that you've grown up with. 

I consider Thanksgiving to be about recognizing all the things which have been accomplished since last year that I couldn't have accomplished on my own. It's a time to think back, reflect, thank God or relevant individuals and be proud of the progress that has occurred. This process for me takes more than just one day. So today I'm starting a series of posts about the things I'm thankful for. My list is not in any order other than the order in which I think things up. 

Today I was extremely grateful for a Monday without work. I work on average three days a week and because working is based on unpredictable variables like the weather, the mood of my boss, and the specific contract my boss has, my three work days may fall anywhere within the week. My favorite is working Tuesday Wednesday and Friday. I might get that this week. My days off are really nice and I'm thankful for them. 

I get to sit at my desk and read my books and write my letters....

and drink tea from a cool cup. I do believe that in a mysterious unscientific sense that the epicness of one's tea utensils increases the taste of the tea itself.

I get to read cool books like Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov

and another, How To Read A Book.

 And there you have it. Come back tomorrow and maybe I'll have gotten hold of a better camera so you can actually see something other than fuzz in my pictures. 

Some Thoughts About A Relationship With God.

If relationship with God is a beautiful country. This essay is an attempt to zoom out and see an aerial view of the landscape.   It is very easy to get focused on the specific wood or field that we as an individual are walking through. We get focused on what we are going through and forget that we can see only a small part of a larger country. So we’re going to think and try to understand what a relationship with God is all about. It’s always a good idea, when you are trying to understand something is to ask, is this something the goal I’m trying to achieve or the way I’m going to achieve my goal. The ends ares results and the means are the way we achieve results.

  As I’ve thought more about relationship with God, it seems that such a relationship is not merely a means nor is it an end but it is both. Each time we reach the “end” that end merely becomes a means for an end still further along. I think of it as a great spiral ascending into eternity. God has been in relationship with Himself since eternity past and will continue for all eternity future. He created us within space and time for numerous reasons, some we know, some are beyond us. We have the choice to join in that spiral and ascend into eternity with God.This sort of journey is different from the way we are used to thinking. Normally we think of means and ends in finite terms. Like a number line. Imagine number 10 being the goal we’re striving for. To reach that goal we use the other numbers, 9+1=10, 8+2=10 7+3=10 ect.. and we can come up with dozens of ways with which to reach the number ten. However once we've reached 10 we have accomplished our goal and we need another goal. God is not something that can be reached in the same way. He can be reached but not completed. Like the process of becoming a good musician or artist. A person may legitimately be an artist but that doesn’t mean they are done with art. They may have walked half a mile into a world that very few people every walk more than a few steps into but that doesn’t mean they have conquered that world. Our relationship with God is not something we complete. It is something we use to achieve a greater relationship with God. A never ending cycle of growing. This cycle is shown all the virtues. God desires us to be humble, to be kind, to be gentle, to be loving. These are things you don’t ever really get. You can always become a more gentle person and even when on the scale of humility you surpass everybody else you are not done with humility. All the commands of |God are wrapped up in our relationship with Him. It doesn’t really matter the vocabulary I use. If I pursue biblical, Orthodox, humility than I will develop my relationship with God. Conversely if I pursue a biblical Orthodox relationship with God I will become a more humble person. It doesn't matter so much which good thing you pursue because all virtues are of God and in discovering a virtue you’ll find God who will than teach you all other virtues.

At first glance this may be discouraging. It may appear that I’m describing an endless eternity of doing hard things to make God happy. Imagine forever having to do stuff God wants. If imagining that is unpleasant, the problem is not with God or with how He created us. The trouble is that what we want is not the same as what God wants. If we wanted the same thing as God the prospect of being in an eternal relationship with Him wouldn't be sad...it would be awesome. But it is sad or not very exciting for some of us. If I write a list of all the things I would like to do. Than write a list of all the things God would like me to do. The lists would look very different. Jesus says….

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Loving God changes the list of things I want to do into a list identical into the things God wants me to do. How do I love God if I don’t love him yet? Love is many things. Jesus commands three types of love. Mental love, soul love and heart love. The mind represents understanding. To Love God with our mind means we understand what it is He wants from us and how to do it. To love God with our soul is to desire His glory and His pleasure. To love God with our heart is to like Him. To like Him, to like doing His work. When we love God with our hearts we’ll honestly enjoy life. Our minds and souls are necessary for obeying God the heart is required for us to enjoy it.   

So the relationship we should have with God is characterized by three types of love. Love of the mind, love of the soul and love of the heart. Understanding this is important. Now we know we have something to pursue, we have a vision of that first three steps on the eternal spiral.

How do we now proceed? This part is simple but difficult. It’s often the case within Christianity that it’s not complicated just hard. This is the case here. What is important is to find the virtue most practical and use that as the foundation for your relationship with God. If you are lazy develop diligence. If you are proud develop humility. Use the tools God gave us to get to know Him. God created the church, He left us the scriptures, He allows us to talk with Him. These three things are enough to get anyone to love God with their heart mind and soul.

1. God doesn’t command us to do anything we can’t do.

2. God’s given us tools to accomplish His commands that we can’t do on our own.

3. God commands us to love Him with every part of our being.

4. If you don’t love God right now, there must exist tools that will help you to love Him.

This concludes my long rambling train of thought which originated at the station of frustration at the common misunderstanding associated with the term, "relationship with God". Good day. 

Quick Notes About Prayer

Prayer is like food. Here is how, 

1. It's more important to eat than it is how you eat. If a person is not praying at all, they need to start praying rather than puttering around waiting to figure out exactly which method is correct. 

2. How you eat will determine how healthy you are, whether you eat or don't eat will determine whether you live or die. A life without prayer will produce a person trying to function without their main tool that helps them live. Can a person live without prayer? Yes. Can a Christian glorify God and become what God created them to be without prayer? No. 

3. Eating is meant to be done differently depending on the circumstances. Prayer has many different forms and types.Sometimes it's hard to know what sort of prayer is proper or appropriate. "Do I kneel?" "Do I say Lord or Father?" "Do I ask God for things or tell Him to do what He thinks is best?" "Does God get bored when I ask Him for the same thing over and over again?" "What if someone asks me to pray for something totally stupid?" Questions like these are easier to answer the more we pray. 

4. Eating is just one ingredient in a mixture meant to create a healthy body. Prayer, study of truth (god's word, philosophy, theology, Church History, Catechism ect.., and the process of applying Christian principles are similar to food, drink and exercise. Without a balance of the three it is easy to become weak and sickly. 

5. Often the fastest most efficient way of knowing something is good, is tasting it. Prayer, I think is 10 % theory 90 % practice. You only need a few basic principles in order to start praying. Reading all the books about prayer doesn't guarantee being good at it. The people who are good at prayer are generally the one's who do it the most. 
. 

Two more thoughts on prayer. 

1. The only requirement necessary for praying is honesty. Don't lie to God it's just a waste of your time and His. Honestly seeking God regardless of posture or vocabulary a good thing and will produce godliness within a person. 

2. Reverence comes second after honesty. I understand sometimes a person just has to vent and bubble over for a little bit emotionally with God. But when we've cooled off a little, talking to God sensibly and quietly will help us hear when He responds. If all were doing is telling God things and asking Him for stuff, we'll rarely if ever have a conversation with Him. I do mean an actual two way conversation where you say something and God responds. It can happen. 




So now we do this simple like the AT&T commercial. 

I. Which is better, prayer or not prayer? 
Answer: Prayer
II. What makes a conversation go better, deception or honesty? 
Answer: honesty
III. What makes for a good relationship, talking to a person regularly or just asking them for help when you need them? 
Answer: talking to God regularly. 


It's not complicated, if God made us to be in relationship with Him, He's given us everything we need to have that relationship. Let's get down on our knees and use the tools he's given us to become what He created us to be. If you don't agree with this post, pray about it and comment with what you don't like.