I guess I've been a bit of a blogger lately.
There has been a lot going on...and I feel like writing about it.
First off, I have noticed something. I've noticed that in a lot of Christian culture, we do this thing. "Oh, we need to learn to hear God." or, "Oh, we've been so sinful." or, "Ohhhh, that we would seek His face."
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with seeing the need for improvement in our walks with God...that's totally good. Seriously. And maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of a "prophetic worship song" called "We have been Prodigals."
Maybe I'm not looking at the big picture, and maybe there is stuff going on that I don't know about behind that song, but I am pretty sure that a lot of people aren't as bad as they think. Maybe it's comparison syndrome. I don't know--but I sure do that a lot. "Man, this guy is so full of the Word. I need to get into the Word." Or, "Oh man, that guy's new song is totally what God wants to say right now. I need to seek God and write a song like that." Maybe, though, God wanted THAT guy to write that song. And God always wants us to grow in our knowledge of His word, but I think that having an "I-need-to-be-as-much-as-this-person" kind of attitude is the wrong one.
I have come to the realization (or well, God has shown me, along with my church, we're learning this as a family) that our approach, if we want to be successful in understanding what the Bible has to say, has to be that of a son/daughter. We are ALREADY loved, affirmed, accepted, supported by family, all that stuff that our human souls so desperately need, that's ALREADY provided. I lost my train of thought, time for bed....

Do you care to know what gets me worked up more than a lot of things? It is, in fact, the reason I am studying psychology in college right now.
I have a buddy who I work with that I constantly feel like I'm on thin ice with. I have always felt like this guy keeps my life under a microscope and so any time I screw up, he knows it and if I ever try to give him advice or tell him I think he should do something, he began to throw those mistakes back at me. Now, don't get me wrong, we're cool right now...but I just hate the fact that if he comments on my facebook status saying "ridiculous" I can't tell if he's serious or if he's just being silly. And I wish my life wasn't such a big deal to this guy. Everything's a big deal--at least it was--if I couldn't hang out, it was always "Dude, why?" and when I said it was to hang out with my family, he would always say that I was his family and that I "never spend time with him."
It has always been difficult thinking about my friendship with him after thinking about some of my friendships at church...(oh yeah, this guy will tell you he's a Christian, I'm not trying to take away from that, but...) because, let's make a situation.
After church, a friend asks me if I want to go see a movie. "Not today man, I can't really afford it." "Okay man, that's cool!"
After work, this friend asks me if I want to see a movie. "Nah man, I really can't afford it." "Oh my gosh...you have 4,000 dollars in the bank. You're so selfish man. You never hang out."

Granted, a lot of this has changed. I have confronted him and sparks flew, and that's part of why its so weird now. I want to be his friend, and I love the guy to death. He's a special guy. He has his issues like anyone, but I like him, but I don't want to give the impression like I have no other friends or family (another thing I have told him.)

Anyway, I don't know why I really brought that up, but I did...

I'm a Steelers fan. I like a lot of teams, actually, but when it comes down, I'm a Steelers fan. The Steelers are a very hated team. So somehow, I get crap about them.
The thing that keeps me from being really passionate about sports is all of the pride. Pride of the players as well as the pride of the fans. The fans are worse though--they are bragging on something they don't and can't control. I know a lot of Bengals fans--one in particular is very hating of the Steelers. This year was a bit rough given that the Steelers lost both contests with the Bengals.
Now, what I'm getting at here is that the thing that goes hand in hand with pride in sports is disrespect. It's like, keep your hate. I don't want to hear about how great you think your team is and how crappy you think my team is. That's what I really don't like. And I'm as bad as any about hating teams, because I could list a few that make me red in the face. But I do my best to not rub in losses, or even mention them, because I know that not all sports fans are competitive (I'm not, for one) and you're likely to irritate someone like that.
I think that's all...