Faith is...

I heard a quote on the radio today. I don't know who it was, but when I turned on the radio after leaving Home Depot this morning, there was a preacher who said "Faith is believing God's word and acting upon it, no matter how you feel." I just thought that was a really good definition. Faith involves a whole lot more than belief (check out the book of James if you don't believe me), so acting upon God's word is necessary to faith. In addition, I like how the preacher added the "no matter how you feel" part, because faith has nothing to do with our emotions. Sure, we are influenced by our emotions at specific times, and the Spirit uses those emotions to speak to us, but just because we're having a bad day doesn't mean our faith is less, and just because we're having a good day doesn't mean our faith is more. Chew on that for a little while.

Nothing Spectacular

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. Life has been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. A couple weeks ago I ended up spending about 60 hours at work, so the last thing I wanted to do in my free time was sit down and think and write a blog. Last week, however, I hadn't blogged because Sarah (my wife) and I were on VACATION! We went to visit our friends Will and Diana in Surfside Beach, SC. It was great to just go relax and do nothing for a few days. Will and Diana don't feel the need to babysit us while we're in town visiting them, so for the most part they went about their regular routines, while Sarah and I spent our mornings at the beach and our afternoons relaxing or shopping at the Tanger outlet. We also go to go play putt-putt Monday night with them, which is something we both enjoy doing (even though neither of us is very good, and we lost). Last Friday we also took the opportunity to go hiking at White Water Falls in North Carolina. It was great fun. It's been a long time since Sarah and I went hiking together. I loved it, and I know she did too.

As a break from reading intellectually and spiritually thought-provoking books, I've started reading the Harry Potter books, by J.K. Rowling. I've read through the first three (which are the short ones) and now I'm in the middle of The Goblet of Fire. It's pretty cool to go back and read them after watching the movies, which I really like, although I wish I had read them first. There are a lot of little things in the movies that you would never notice had you not read the books. Of course, like all book-to-movie edits, a lot of things are changed, and the books are definitely better.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to say for now. Hopefully soon I'll have some life-altering epiphany for you to read about.

I've Been Tagged

So, my wife, Sarah, tagged me.
Here we go!

Four Jobs: Lifeguard at Awanita Valley, Sales Associate at Lowes, Cashier at Home Depot, & Student Ministry Intern/Facilities Director at CRCC

Four Places I've Lived: Summerville, Tigerville, Mauldin, & Greenville, SC

Four TV Shows: Numb3rs, Big Brother, Property Ladder, & How I Met Your Mother

Four Favorite Foods: Chicken Casserole, Louisiana Sirloin (from O'Charley's), Grilled Cheese Sandwich, & AmeriCone Dream (Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream)

Four Places I'd Rather Be: Folly Beach SC with Sarah, Surfside Beach SC with Sarah, Blue Ridge Mountains (home of Awanita Valley) with Sarah, & Conyers, GA (where Sarah has never been, but I want her to come with me)

Four Movies: Lord of the Rings (I watch them as one movie), Harry Potter movies, Newsies, & Cinderella Man

Four People I'm Tagging: James Walker Thompson IV, Dustin Hughes, Rich Butler, & JonPaul Watson

The Irresistaible Revolution

This weekend I read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. That's a big deal to me because I read very slowly because I transpose letters and words. However, I was able to read through this whole book in 3 days (between work time and time with Sarah). This blog isn't going to be my thoughts about Shane Claiborne's thoughts, but I wanted to share a few quotes from the book: some are Shane's and some are one's which he quoted (Shane's thoughts are attributed to SC for Shane Claiborne, not South Carolina or Santa Clause).

Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world. - Ammon Hennacy

My goal is to speak the truth in love. There are a lot of people speaking the truth with no love, and there are a lot of people talking about love without much truth. - SC

I was marked by an overconsumptive but malnourished spirituality, suffocated by Christianity but thirsty for God. -SC

It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that scare me, but the parts I do understand. - Mark Twain

In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises. - Mother Teresa

The true atheist is the one who denies God's image in "the least of these." - Dorothy Day

We are not called to be successful but to be faithful. - Mother Teresa

Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in a long the way. - SC

Many spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom. - SC

We've got to unite ourselves as one body. Because Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back for a bride, not a harem. - "one gospel preacher"

What the world really needs is not more churches but a Church. - SC

We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, but we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor. - Dorothy Day

The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.

Starve Mammon with your love. - early Christian

Too often we do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it. - SC

Course he isn't safe. But he's good. - CS Lewis (from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, in reference to Aslan the Lion)

Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society. - Jacques Ellul

We are all murderers and adulterers and terrorists. And we are all precious. - SC

In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face, and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hands. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile. - Henri Nouwen

We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts, and that is a dangerous thing. - SC

Grace is contagious, just like violence. - SC

Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down with our capacity to suffer. One day we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory. - Dr. Martin Luther King

The only thing harder than hatred is love. The only thing harder than war is peace. The only thing that takes more work, tears, and sweat than division is reconciliation. But what more beautiful things could we devote our lives to? - SC

The signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish...but never the chameleon. - Kaj Munk

People will be more comfortable around a domesticated Jesus than the Lion of Judah. - SC

God's kingdom grows smaller and smaller as it takes over the world. - SC

If the devil can't steal your soul, he'll just keep you busy doing meaningless church work. - an older charismatic woman

The person who loves their dream of community with destroy community (even if their intentions are ever so earnest), but the person who loves those around them will create community. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In fact, Jesus and the disciples would probably get in a lot of trouble in most fancy churches. They'd probably be turning water fountains into wine fountains, inviting kids to swim in baptistries, ripping holes in the roofs when the crippled can't get in the doors, flipping over the cash registers in the bookstores--at which point a trustee would scold Jesus and ask, "Jesus!?!? What, were you born in a barn?" And Jesus would nod. - SC

The early prophets would say that a church that spends millions of dollars on buildings while her children are starving is guilty of murder. - SC

If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the hungry, then we are guilty of heresy. - SC

The Church is a whore, but she's my mother. - St. Augustine

The church is like Noah's ark. It stinks, but if you get our, you'll drown. - a pastor

Hope this catches your interest. Now go buy the book.