Sometimes I feel like New Year's resolutions are such a jaded idea. I used to hate listening to people talk about their New Year's resolutions. Have you ever heard anyone talk about how they followed through with their resolution from the year before?
In my mind, people who committed to resolutions were kind of superficial. Here's what I mean. I always thought that people who were constantly making New Year's resolution usually weren't setting very lofty goals for themselves. The whole lose 20 pounds resolution never seemed to be a great goal to me. So, you lose 20 pounds. Does that mean you have to keep it off? What if you lose 5 pounds four times throughout the year and you gain it back every time. Does that count?
Anyway, I've started to understand the importance of setting goals. The older I get the more I realize that a life without little milestones can sometimes become a life that lacks direction. So, New Year's resolutions are important because they are milestones. However, I think that the way we choose to formulate those milestones is important.
We can lose 20 pounds, but is that going to make our lives more meaningful and fulfilling? I like the ideas of goals, but they cannot be completely shallow. If losing 20 pounds is transformed into eating healthier than that seems like a good way to jump start your year. You can stop smoking, but what are you going to replace it with? These kinds of decisions require that we think them out.
A recent column in Relevant Magazine, one of my favorites, mentioned an article by Huffington Post writer Gretchen Rubin. Ms. Rubin decided to pick up a New Year's habit made popular by her sister. He sister places a one word blurb on her resolution and uses it throughout the year. This way it is easy to remember and it doesn't have to be a precise goal. Instead, it becomes more of a motif for her year. It sounded like a great idea so I decided to give it a try.
This year I'm choosing two resoltuions. My first blurb will be GREEN. GREEN reminds me that their are tons of used things out there that are beautiful and useful. I've spent the past 7 months shopping in thrifts stores as a way to save and to remember that so many of the clothes we buy are tainted by slave wages that so many third world workers are paid to make them at a tenth of their cost.
My second theme is SOAR. I have always wanted to travel and see new things. However, I've yet to step foot on a plane or train for that matter. I have a cousin in New York and every year we discuss the possibility of me coming up for a visit. I never seem to follow through. SOAR reminds me to make my life an adventure. I'm too old to have never been anywhere and I think God really loves the idea of us broadening our horizons.
I hope you come to see, as I have, that New Year's resolutions are not a superficial idea. Realize that this is a chance for you to live a better life by changing the way you live for the better. Good luck and let me know what you come up with.
- Blake Trent
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Social Justice...
I've been reading through the Book of Exodus over the past few months. The Bible Is rich with stories and history that we can only appreciate as we move through it ourselves. Many of us know that Joseph was outcast to Egypt by his brothers and that he later became the second in command of the entire nation. And that he saved Egypt from a famine while also allowing God ti reconcile his anger and frustration with his brothers.
This is where Exodus begins. After Joseph's family, Hebrews, Moved to be with him in Egypt they multiplied. They grew rapidly and eventually we find out that they were enslaved and abused. Now, Moses comes along. I'll skip the story that was popularized by Disney and point out that Moses helped top lead the Israelites out of Egypt and out of Slavery.
However, I think that something bigger happened just after the exodus. Exodus is define as a going out of or a departure from something. The departure from Egypt is the most obvious part of this book, but the book doesn't end there. It goes on and it is after their departure from Egypt that God chooses to teach the Israelites to depart from their old way of life.
In the 22nd and 23rd chapters of Exodus The Lord gives instruction to Moses and the Israelites. he tells them,
"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt."
"If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him."
Paraphrasing, " If you have a servant free him after he has served you for six years. You know what it's like to be a slave don't do the same things that we done to you."
"If you borrow your friend's donkey and it dies buy him a new one."
Put differently, God was saying "this is about community and getting away from empire." Living a life a life that is socially responsible is part of what followers of The Way are supposed to do. do lie, don't cheat, and if you do mess up try speak out and try to fix it. If you break something replace it because it's not about you. It's bigger than that. God didn't want these former slaves to remain as a captives to their old lives. And He doesn't want you to either.
Live responsibly. Take care of the people that surround you. Take care of the earth. It's not yours it's His. If you mess up be honest. If you break it fix it. Exodus is bigger than the end of physical slavery. It's about living a life that doesn't bind us. It's about living freely with one another.
- Blake Trent
This is where Exodus begins. After Joseph's family, Hebrews, Moved to be with him in Egypt they multiplied. They grew rapidly and eventually we find out that they were enslaved and abused. Now, Moses comes along. I'll skip the story that was popularized by Disney and point out that Moses helped top lead the Israelites out of Egypt and out of Slavery.
However, I think that something bigger happened just after the exodus. Exodus is define as a going out of or a departure from something. The departure from Egypt is the most obvious part of this book, but the book doesn't end there. It goes on and it is after their departure from Egypt that God chooses to teach the Israelites to depart from their old way of life.
In the 22nd and 23rd chapters of Exodus The Lord gives instruction to Moses and the Israelites. he tells them,
"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt."
"If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him."
Paraphrasing, " If you have a servant free him after he has served you for six years. You know what it's like to be a slave don't do the same things that we done to you."
"If you borrow your friend's donkey and it dies buy him a new one."
Put differently, God was saying "this is about community and getting away from empire." Living a life a life that is socially responsible is part of what followers of The Way are supposed to do. do lie, don't cheat, and if you do mess up try speak out and try to fix it. If you break something replace it because it's not about you. It's bigger than that. God didn't want these former slaves to remain as a captives to their old lives. And He doesn't want you to either.
Live responsibly. Take care of the people that surround you. Take care of the earth. It's not yours it's His. If you mess up be honest. If you break it fix it. Exodus is bigger than the end of physical slavery. It's about living a life that doesn't bind us. It's about living freely with one another.
- Blake Trent
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Car Battery
The movie Inception just released on DVD. So, I rented it and I watched it. I'm a film nut. Film has the ability to weave a multitude of ideas together and tell a story at the same time. That is why you can watch certain movies over and over again and every time you'll find something new.
Anyway, I watched Inception. The movie was everything the commercials and critics said it would be, but I saw something a little different. In the midst of the movie there was one piece of dialogue that seemed to stick with me. As Tom Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio's character, is searching for a way to change his target's dreams he and his team begin to debate how they should go about implanting an idea in the host dreamers subconscious.
As you you would guess planting an idea in someone's subconscious is very difficult. This leads to a discussion between DiCaprio and one of his team members named Eames. Eames suggests that the idea should be based on negativity and that it should be centered around the host dreamers disfunctional relationship with his father. However, Dicaprio's character rebuts Eames by saying, "No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."
This is the part that sounded pretty Jesus-like to me. It is true that positive emotion is more powerful than any form of negativity. If you don't believe me look at the non-violent protests of Gandhi or the Civil Rights Movement. The idea that love is bigger that hate has the ability to change lives and it forces us to reconcile not only with ourselves, but with God. That is why this part of the movie stuck with me. "We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."
Catharsis is an idea that was founded by Aristotle. Simply put, catharsis is a cleansing process that restores our spirit. And we all crave to be reconciled with our past and our mistakes. That is why this piece of dialogue is so powerful. God seeks to reconcile us and it is through His Son, but it won't stand if it is through negativity. We cannot reconcile anything with an angry heart.
That is why I don't believe in breaking people down. There are a lot of churches and ministries that will tell you that you're a terrible person. They'll tell you don't deserve God because you're so messed up and dirty. And I'll agree that we are all unworthy of a perfect God, but He wants us still.
That is why Jesus is such an enigma. God's people are broken and nasty, but He still wants to be reconciled with us. He wants to renew us so much that He sent perfection to be beaten and murdered in the hopes that we might find catharsis with Him.
You are not what the world has led you to believe you are. God desires to be in communion with you and that is because He loves you. True reconciliation starts with the positivity of God's love because "positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time."
- Blake Trent
Anyway, I watched Inception. The movie was everything the commercials and critics said it would be, but I saw something a little different. In the midst of the movie there was one piece of dialogue that seemed to stick with me. As Tom Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio's character, is searching for a way to change his target's dreams he and his team begin to debate how they should go about implanting an idea in the host dreamers subconscious.
As you you would guess planting an idea in someone's subconscious is very difficult. This leads to a discussion between DiCaprio and one of his team members named Eames. Eames suggests that the idea should be based on negativity and that it should be centered around the host dreamers disfunctional relationship with his father. However, Dicaprio's character rebuts Eames by saying, "No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."
This is the part that sounded pretty Jesus-like to me. It is true that positive emotion is more powerful than any form of negativity. If you don't believe me look at the non-violent protests of Gandhi or the Civil Rights Movement. The idea that love is bigger that hate has the ability to change lives and it forces us to reconcile not only with ourselves, but with God. That is why this part of the movie stuck with me. "We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis."
Catharsis is an idea that was founded by Aristotle. Simply put, catharsis is a cleansing process that restores our spirit. And we all crave to be reconciled with our past and our mistakes. That is why this piece of dialogue is so powerful. God seeks to reconcile us and it is through His Son, but it won't stand if it is through negativity. We cannot reconcile anything with an angry heart.
That is why I don't believe in breaking people down. There are a lot of churches and ministries that will tell you that you're a terrible person. They'll tell you don't deserve God because you're so messed up and dirty. And I'll agree that we are all unworthy of a perfect God, but He wants us still.
That is why Jesus is such an enigma. God's people are broken and nasty, but He still wants to be reconciled with us. He wants to renew us so much that He sent perfection to be beaten and murdered in the hopes that we might find catharsis with Him.
You are not what the world has led you to believe you are. God desires to be in communion with you and that is because He loves you. True reconciliation starts with the positivity of God's love because "positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time."
- Blake Trent
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