Interview with Donald Miller.

I was the guest on a radio show recently that was broadcast on a secular station, one of those conservative shows that paints Democrats as terrorists. The interviewer asked what I thought about homosexuals who were trying to take over the country. I confess I was taken aback. I hadn't realized that homosexuals were trying to take over the country.
"Which homosexuals are trying to take over the country?" I asked.
"You know," the interviewer began, "the ones who want to take over Congress and the Senate."
I paused for a while. "Well," I said, "I've never met those guys and I don't know who they are. The only homosexuals I've ever met are very kind people, some of whom have been beat up and spit on and harassed and, in fact, feel threatened by the religious right." Think about it. If you watch CNN all day and see extreme Muslims in the Middle East declaring war on America because they see us as immoral, and then you read the paper the next day to find the same exact words spoken by evangelical leaders against the culture here in America, you'd be pretty scared. I've never heard of a homosexual group trying to take over the world, or for that matter the House or Senate, but I can point you to about fifty evangelical organizations who are trying to do exactly that. I don't know why. In my opinion, we should just tell people about Jesus, not try to build some kind of temporary moral civilization here on earth. If you want that, move to Salt Lake City. "And what is the name of the homosexual group that is trying to take over America?" I asked the host, somewhat angry at his ignorant misuse of war rhetoric.
"Well, I hear about them all the time," he said, rather frustrated with me.
"If you hear about them all the time, what is the name of the organization?"
"Well, I don't know right now. But they are there."
"Can I list for you ten or so Christian organizations who are working to try to get more Christians in the House and the Senate?" I said to the host.
"Listen, I get your point," he said.
"But I don't think you do. Here is my position: As a Christian, I believe that Jesus wants to reach out to people who are lost and, yes, immoral-immoral just like you and I are immoral; and declaring war against them and stirring up your listeners to the point of anger and giving them the feeling that thier country, their families, and their lifestyles are being threatened is only hurting what Jesus is trying to do. This isn't rocket science. If you declare war on somebody, you have to either handcuff them or kill them. That's the only way to win. But if you want them to be forgiven by Christ, if you want them to live eternally in heaven with Jesus, then you have to love them. The choice is yours and my suspicion is you will be held responsible by God, a Judge who will know your motives. So go ahead and declare war in the name of a conservative agenda, but don't do it in the name of God. That's what militant Muslims are doing in the Middle East, and we don't want that here."

This was something that showed me the conservative movement from an angle previously unavailabe to me. Not that I think those political people are evil or anything but there really are other things we can be spending our energy on!

God/Sex...

I was just thinking how God, Sex, Relationships and Religion are in every way intertwined. Think about the relationships we have with everyone we come in contact with. Whether that's a friend or the person we love, or think we love. We all in most cases, one way or another are in it for what WE can get from it. There is the rare occasion to where we're in it for the right reasons, but most the time that's not the case. We want to get so much from that person, we want them to want us, we want them to serve us, we want them to have sex with us, WE WANT, and no matter how much we do, at the end of the day it's really about what we're gonna get out of the relationship. We also start doing those things for that person in hopes of getting things in return. What we want in our eyes, is sometimes measured by how much we've put in. This is a HUGE problem that has got to be the reason for so many bad and failed relationships. We are not in love with that person. We're in love with the gifts, instead of the giver behind the gifts. Is being served by the one your with a great thing? Sure it is. Is having sex with the one your with (in the right setting) a great thing? Sure it is. God designed all of it. But is that what it's about?

What has been missed (that we're all guilty of) is the fact that any gift any friend or any lover can ever offer has got to be secondary to knowing and loving them for who they are, and for who their not, not for what they can give. We're stripping them of who they are, by taking from them their God given gifts. We're sending an unintentional message that unless they give to us what we want, then they alone are not enough. I mean think about it, whenever we go about living this out in our relationships with other people, we are finding a temporary fix to an endless cycle.

Without getting off the subject, whenever we do anything in life, we are trying to fill a void that we are all created with that needs filling, whether that's doing drugs, drinking in excess, spending money, killing yourself with food, sex, playing sports, going camping, whatever it is that we use to fix that void that we all have. The problem is that when we do that in everyday life with everyday things, we are still empty when it's over. I mean I can go out right now and get drunk and have a wonderful time, but when it's over, I'm empty all over again. I can go out and find someone to have sex with or have sex with someone I love and it will be very nice at the time, but when it's over, there I am all empty again trying to find something to fill it again. What happens with sex, drugs, drinking, food, and every other thing that offers us a fix, is when we do get it, it does temporarily fix us, but then we're left empty again and again and so we just continue to go out and live out the endless cycle of getting temporary fixes. Its with every relationship we have.

If we ever try to have a relationship with God its the same thing. We take God for everything we can. "We are in it for the sex" if you will. It's what WE can get from church, what we can get whether that be good health, good finances, forgiveness, heaven, you name it, its what we can get out of having a relationship from Him. Forget the incredible awesomeness of God, and the crazy amount of love He has for us, we want we want we want. We go to church on sunday and it "feels good", but then we leave and we're still empty. It's a relationship, not a religion, but since we live our life raping everyone of who they are to get something, we do the same thing to God. We are not in it to love him and for who He is, we're in it to get what we can out of the deal.

So here we are, on this earth with something that God has put in our lives, and all we can do is take take take to fill it up. We must change how we do things, we must change how we go about having a relationship with people, but most importantly God. We have got to start looking deep into the heart of God, into the hearts of the people we love so that we start loving the One behind the gifts, instead of the gifts it self.

Ironically we look everywhere for all this happiness, but the greatest happiness is being able to wake up in the morning and know without a doubt, that you love someone, or you love God for everything they are, good and bad, and you can actually spend time with them, without expecting anything in return. When we're there, when we can start loving people for everything they are, good and bad, we can finally say we know what it means to love, and to LOVE big..

Thanks for reading my blog, don't think for 1 second that I have this all figured out, I'm journeying through this just like everyone else in the world, I just wanted to write down my thoughts, and to possibly shed some light on a problem that not too many of us know the fix for.

Until next time,

your wanna be writer,
SB

What's the difference?

This blog is not intended to confuse anyone but to possibly help answer some questions to a problem that all of us face or in most cases are facing right now.

What's religion and what's the difference between all the religions out there. Is there a difference between Islam and Christianity? Judaism and Buddhism? Hinduism and Scientology? I mean think about it.. Those are just a few I could come up with. Whatever it is we believe in, most of us will sale out for it to the point we would die for it if we had to. Not in all cases, but the Muslims die for their faith everyday. The Christians die for theirs. The Jews for theirs and the Buddhist theirs and the Hindus theirs.. What's the difference? Is there a difference? If so Why?

Any and every religion sells you a "formula" that will make you a better follower of whatever religion it may be. It's like there is something you have to do to be a better follower, whether that be some type of service, whether you stop eating curtain foods, stop smoking, stop drinking. The list goes on and on. You go to a meeting either on Saturday or Sunday or maybe another day in the week. Sometimes we may even find a religion and then there are all different types of ways within that religion. Take Christianity for example. Some Christians believe you should go to church 3 times a week while others believe only once is necessary. Some think your music should be with no drums and others believe it should be a rock concert. Some put a lot of attention on dressing up and others don't. They still care but it's just a different style. Which one is better? Does it matter? If so then what makes one right and the other wrong?

With so many Christians one of the biggest things is taking a stance against abortion, gay rights, democrats, people that go to "one of those churches" that talk about nothing but love. I mean really it is a stance against anyone that does not believe in the same stuff they do. They even take that stance to the point of hate. You should do this and say this and never disagree with this or that or what this person says, or your not a good "christian". I mean what is that? It's another formula. It's a "how to" so you can be a better follower and look better in the eyes of those people you go to church with.

Religion gives us hope. Whatever one we follow it gives us hope. Hope for something better than this hellish life we sometimes live. We have a void and it needs filling and we'll do whatever it takes to fill it. Lets take Islam for example. I mean the Muslim faith does not tell you to blow yourself up, but some of them actually think that it does and so they do so at the cost of so many others. I hate the things that have been done because of their beliefs, but think about it this way. They would not blow themselves up if they did not really think something great was going to come from it. I mean there are "christians" all over the world that have killed innocent people for the cause of their faith. People killing abortion doctors or blowing up one of their offices in a way to make a stance for their faith. A christians beating the crap out of a gay person because "God hates them". People just randomly killing or beating up people because "Jesus told them to". They actually think that He told them to and so how are they any different than a certain group of Muslims that blow up buildings, or subways or whatever?

There is no difference. How are they any different than the "christian" church that shakes their heads every time someone that's different from them walks by? How is that different?!?! How is the hate of a certain radical group of Muslims any different than the hate of a certain radical group of christians? I'm not just talking about the ones that blow up abortion clinics or beat up gay people. I'm also talking about the ones that "don't care" about the lives of these people that hate them because of their faith. I'm also talking about the ones that turn their nose up to people that don't dress in a way or act in a way "they" feel is honoring to God.

The point is that it appears that there is no difference. It appears that way because it's all still hate!! It's freakin hate, and whether we're killing physically or mentally it's all still hate and it's all still wrong, and it all still makes our Creator equally sick of such things. Hate is hate!! Whether we're physically killing people in the name of ali, or mentally killing people in the name of our religion or our church. It was not said and written that you were to only Love people if they practice the same religious beliefs as you. It simply said to LOVE. It also said to Love your enemies. It says that "Love is patient", and "Love is kind". It says that "Love is not proud" and it is "not rude". It goes on to say that "Love is not easily angered" and that "it keeps no record of wrongs". Does it not seem a little strange that all of that is in the absolute complete opposite of this country we now live in and of the average church we now go to? Well it's not strange, it's sad, and that's why our country / church / world is going to HELL in a hand basket faster than it ever has before!! There is to much hate and not enough LOVE. There is no gray area. You either Love or you hate. HE said "your either with Me or against Me", and so if HE was Love and not hate, then that means we're either love or we're hate. "Your either with Me or against Me"..

So my question is.. What's the difference?? What are we doing and why? Is religion just something to give us hope and a reason to pat ourselves on the back? Is there something more than just religion? Has the Real thing been lost within a religion bearing it's Name? Is religion just another tool of evil to get us to be passionate about nothing and to take our eyes of Love? Think about it, comment on this blog. Let's see if we cannot look and see and understand for ourselves instead of what just mere men have been saying for so long because of their traditions or degrees, and find out what in the heck is going on with us and this life with so many different religions that offer no Love..

Thanks,
SB

Religion is Killing Us

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Life

Life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be Lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath:

I'll tell you how the sun rose A ribbon at a time...

It's a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn't matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly, and soon the credits will roll and all your friends will fold out of your funeral and drive back to their homes in cold and still and silence. And they will make a fire and pour some wine and think about how you once were ... and feel a kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be.

So soon you will be in the part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn it's ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward it's closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the settings and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out wouldn't it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will need to change.


Donald Miller - Through Painted Deserts....

Adventure

adventure is just beginning
adventure is a lot of fun
adventure is a way of life
adventure is growing
adventure is changing
adventure is unique
adventure is here
adventure is the trip
adventure is a step along the way
adventure is roaring
adventure is your heritage
adventure is no day at the beach
adventure is waiting for you
adventure is about to grow up
adventure is where you find it
adventure is essential
adventure is there life up there?
adventure is in your blood
adventure is something wild
adventure is the responsible acceptance of risk
adventure is adventure
adventure is that you do not need money
adventure is out there
adventure is what you make it
adventure is in a unique position to promote well being.

I think that the problem with so many people in the world today including myself is that we have become so domesticated and civilized in the way we live and think that we just don't have any time left for adventure. We may have even forgotten what it means to be adventuress. We like our little safe and comortable places and are to freakin scared to get out of that little comfort zone and take a risk. It's not about being immature and never growing up, it's just about saying, "I'm gonna live this Life with a capital "L" and the heck with "safe". No one great in my eyes has ever chosen the "safe" way in Life and so it must not happen here either".. It's about refusing to get comfortable with where you are, and always striving for something more.. So grab any aventure you come across with full force, and whatever happens, happens..

But then again this is just my opinion and thoughts, but it's also my blog, so until next time..
SB

Hero.

Little Mikey D was in the one class
Who everyday got brutally harassed
This went on for years
'till he decided that never again
Would he shed another tear
So he walked through the door
Grabbed the 4.4 out of his father's dresser drawer
And said I can't take life no more
And like that life can be lost

But this ain't even about that
All of us just sat back
And watch it happen
Thinkin' it's not my responsibility
To solve a problem that isn't even about me
This is our problem
This is just one of the daily scenarios
Which we choose to close our eyes
Instead of doing the right thing
If we make a choice
And be the voice
For those who won't speak up for themselves
How many lives would be saved, changed, and rearranged
Now it's our time to pick a side
So don't keep walking by
Not wanna intervene
'Cause you just wanna exist and never be seen
So let's wake up
Change the world
Our time is now

You could be a hero
Heroes do what's right
You could be a hero
You might save a life
If you could be a hero, you could join the fight
For what's right, for what's right