lost

Okay, So I'm a Lostite. Really. I am loving the show more and more with every episode. One of the noted things I enjoy is the fact that there is an under current of theological reflection through it all.

Obviously, per the title of this blog, I like that.

But yesterday's episode left me with a few thoughts I couldn't wait to decide what they could potentially mean.

The first is with the dilemma between The Man in Black (we will call Esau) and the man Jacob. Now, both comment and discuss things with Richard, the human on the island.

Esau and Jacob play a good cop/ bad cop game, where Esau protrays himself as the good, the just, the one wanting to help and Jacob is painted (and to some degree performs) the role of bad cop, beating up Richard.

Then ther eis the part I like--Richard's violent baptism, and the critical discussion of choice. The idea that destiny has been played out in this show--its a concept even theologians argue over. But instead the discussion of choice--the realization that there is inately in us created a good, the reality that we buy into this lie that we will always sin, always choose evil, is a lie from the diablo.

I know that its short, and its really because I've been at work since 7am, and its now 11pm. But I wanted to share.

And if you dont watch Lost, you should try to get into it. I'd love to do an adult series over the theological implications of each episode....it would be AWESOME.

hot yoga and spiritual awakening

So...I sometimes wonder if I am crazy, seeking God in other forms of meditation, especially those that place your body in strain.

Yesterday I participated in Bikram Yoga for the second time. The main thing for me is--I can't hear someone talking, telling me what to do and feel comfortable. I feel like I am being given directions, and failing miserably at accomplishing them. I guess, the biggest frustration si just the unknown.

Anyways, in the midst of taking directions I just sat down, and tried to focus on something while sitting in the hot room. The postures I am sure help, but my mind was in a whirlwind. Somehow between walkign in with only one worry or care, I sat there flooded with about 15 different concerns on my mind, none of them going away, and all of them making me dizzy.

Now, I am not going to say that I know really anything about Bikram Yoga, but I am told after your 3rd session in a row, you begin to be more at ease. I haed a panic attack. Seriously.

I didn't have a spititual awakening as I sat there with the sweat dripping from me, pooling at my feet, but I did have a spiritual frightening. I began to think of all the people involved in my worries, my cares. It was utterly fantastic to have time to think, but it also brought a lot of pain to the surface of my thoughts.

I realized some people are truly heinous, seeking evil means to an evil plot, without a care for how they get there. I still think this is a product of the "entitlement" generation, but I am realizing more and more that the tntitelment generation is not the teens today, but rather their parents. Those teens that you encounter that feel entitlement are only fed this lie through their parent's teaching, actions, and words. So, in the end, the entitlement of the teenagers is only because they have been modeled it by their parents.

The second thing I realized is this: people do not care what you bring to the table. They only care how to remove you from it if they are part of the entitlement generation and if you stand in their way for something--and it doesn't have to be a greater thing on the other side.

So, if anyone is interested in hot yoga, I do plan to go back. Just as soon as I learn these positions without having to watch others and I can do them without the sweat dripping from my body. And the swirl of emotions in my head.

"intellectual ministry"

currently i am serving as an "intellectual minister" (see dr. namsoon kang)

i work as a teacher, and i do actually love it. the students are just as crazy as any youth group, and their dreams are just as big.

recently, one of my students who I taught last year asked me if I had an opinion on "ecclesia" beyond "the church". I was able to do a quick word study, respond to her quickly, and I realized something in it: my students teach me more.

The intellectual ministry I feel I am called to, is because they also hold the intellectual ministry call--to push their teachers further.

non-ministry related, but pertinent....

when i grow up, and age into my early 40s....will Justin Timberlake and NSync do a reunion comparable to the New Kids on the Block? Will my generation reward Christina Aguilera the same way we reward Madonna or Janet Jackson?

Ministry...of the un-ordained

Today in class I was asked if I was from a tradition that requires a call to participate in ministry. And all I wanted to do was correct the statement.

By being Christian we are called to ministry. The call to ordainment is different than this phrase.

I look at my students and wonder what they are working towards--do they recognize the call to ministry that they each have?

It took me 5 semesters of school, and three years of youth ministry to define my call to ministry, but I heard the call since being a Christian. It is not something separate, but one and the same.

It is the priesthood of all believers. I am a minister of Christ's love and grace, just as the next Christian. I have been called to minister this. I am not ordained, nor will I ever take on that role. But, I am called. And I do have a ministry.

I simply hope that people, especially at the seminary level, recognize that all people are called to ministry...and that ministry does not require ordainment.

theology of divinity schools

Often, I find my studies trapped in the theology of my professors. Sadly, they try hard to balance their own theology with various "remnant" writers, however, often times I wonder if this is merely done through a book review used to keep the professor's tenure or if it is done actually because the professor holds these remnants theology as similar to their own.

the religious reality of God (teaching youth to love God)

i will not lie- i am scared beyond anything of teaching Christian Spirituality to a bunch of 12th graders in the spring.

it may be a subject i have studied for 2.5 years, but it is a subject that i feel i have yet to even tap the ice on. i haven't even gotten a hole to drop a fishing line through, and i am supposed to educate students on how to develop and reach the depths of God.

it may seem silly, but my goal is to educate 20+ students on how to reach the depths of God, deeper than i can, and yet my fear is the fact that i don't reach deep enough to model.