Create The Noise. Change Your World.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. - Jesus  

Hello Everyone.

 It has been a long time since the last alt.noise article was posted, and I want to give my apologies to you, the readers. Life is full of unexpected situations and we can define ourselves by the choices we make in them.

I am fully recovered from the cold that beat me up since the last time I wrote an article. There have also been several other major impacts in my life that has affected my thinking and philosophy on this blog.

Lost Opportunity

 Did you know that there are countless times in your day that you are connecting with God?

Yes, I am talking about as if they are allready happening. Yesterday, you were in connection with God.. Whether you knew it or not.

Every moment of our lives, we are connected with God. I don’t mean it in the way that we are all God and God is everything, but like you always have a cell phone turned on and connected with God’s cell phone. Our problem is that we just don’t realize it. We make such a big deal out of finding the right way to reconnect with God: the right prayer or the right environment. We try so hard that we end up getting burnt out on “getting right with God”, but it is not our job to reconnect with God. God has allready done it.

Last week, I wrote the article The Interconnections of Religion. It is about how our experiences seem to suggest that all religions are the same. My reflections about the issue showed this wasn’t true. Instead, they have interconnected truths from which we have similar experiences from different religions.

Yet, this still left us with two questions… Which is the right religion and how do we find these interconnected truths?

Errors in Searching For The Interconnected Truths

These questions are misleading.  They have an error because they don’t let us see the bigger picture. No religion is completely right and it’ll be pointless to search for all the right interconnected truths. We couldn’t live with all the time it would take to accomplish this daunting task.

This is a continuation in a blog conversation with Albert Foong from Urbanmonk.net.

 It finally happened to me. I’ve heard stories about them, but never been confronted by one. Maybe I look too innocent. Actually, they probably know that I’m going to burn.

I was jogging by the lake as I always do in the evenings. Sweat was pouring down my face (I must’ve gone at least a quarter mile) and I noticed a guy in front of me. He was leaning against his bike and talking with someone who seemed annoyed. She was sweating. He wasn’t.  It just so happened that when I began to jog by him, he was ready to start a conversation with me. He handed me a pamphlet from the 70’s with two men shaking hands and asked me a question.

Have you confessed lately? Went into a booth and told another individual who couldn’t see you, everything that you have done wrong? I haven’t. I never have. The faith tradition that I follow doesn’t believe in it. They say that you don’t need any person to forgive your sins, but God. Therefore, Go straight to God.

I both agree and disagree. Theologically, we do not need a mediator between us and God. We can go directly to Him with our prayers. On the other hand, we also need to confess our mistakes to other individuals. He or she might not be wearing a black suit with a white collar, but he could be. Every time we do something that hurts another individual does hurt God. We do need to confess to him, but we also hinder the growth of our community.

“I’m going to keep holding on..

holding on to you”

I don’t know how many of you are writers out there and understand my predicament, but I am stuck. I’ve written the above lyrics as a chorus, but I can’t come up with any other words for the song. The music is finished with melody, chords and rhythm, but I can’t or won’t write the verses. I know what the song is about and I love the concept. Maybe this is the problem. I love the chorus so much that I am putting the writer’s block on myself.

Everything Becomes a Burden

If you have read any of my blog posts from this past week, then you know the story of my friend Darius and what he is going through right now. It is  a hard period of life for him. I try to be strong and listen when he needs me, but it is tough. All I want to do is drop to my knees and cry.

Everyone Goes Through It

We all go through hard times in our lives. Days where we catch every red light and little chance to catch up with work. Every conversation turns into a frustrating obligation. These things are difficult, but life is harder than this. I’ve had one friend commit suicide, another die of cancer, another die in a car accident and now one has brain cancer. I am 24 and I allready know of several couples whom are divorcing.

I admit it. I’m a lazy father when it comes to spiritual practices such as praying. Its not that I think praying is a waste of time, life just flies by and another day is over without praying.  I suppose there are some young families out there that have a solid prayer life, but I haven’t found many. From my experience, nearly every young family whom started marriage by routinely praying has since ceased.

No, I’m not going on a pessimistic rant about the death of family in America. My wife and I fall into the category of a spiritual shallow family. We had higher hopes. I am actually optimistic about the potential of the family in America. Unlike the generations that have come before us, we realize that we need the help of someone larger than us.

Do you know the first thing that Jesus said in the gospel of John?

If you were like me a week ago then you would probably say, “no”. It is not a hobby of mine to collect random facts about the Bible and I don’t think many of us really have the time for it. This factoid is different. I actually came across it on accident and was blown away by it. “What are you looking for?” is Jesus’ first sentence. Not really profound, you think? Read it again.

The Context

I enjoy going to historical and cultural landmarks and meeting the people whom call the area home. There is something exciting about the experience. Its an adventure. You can feel that something bigger than us is working in the world. I get this pull sometimes when I listen to a gifted speaker or band at church. Special conversations with close friends are an excellent way to arouse these existential emotions. I’ve never felt them while doing the dishes.

After all, they are just a feeling. They are the same as every other  feeling. Sometimes it is beneficial and other times it can be a distraction. Hunger is an excellent reminder that we need to get something in our bellies, but it is not present every time we need to eat. In order to stay healthy, it is suggested that we actually eat before the feeling of hunger arrives.  This way we don’t depend on the feeling and overeat.