One Year

today is friday.

today is the 19th day of december, 2008.

today also marks the 1 year anniversary of my blog. i know that sounds sort of lame and petty, but i really can’t believe i’ve been posting my thoughts and nonsense on here for a year. yesterday i went back and re-read nearly all my previous posts (i had some time on my hands). i will say this, i’m glad that i’ve been consistent with my topics and emotions. allow me to explain. do you ever say something that you really feel like you mean, only to look back a few days or weeks later and immediately feel like a fool for admitting those thoughts crossed your mind for even a second? i’ve been there…i was that guy. the guy who opened his mouth and verbal garbage just flew out. but i’ve seen consistency in these posts…i’ve seen honestly…and there’s a reason behind all of that. there is Truth in each of those posts.

i’ve seen (and read) myself grow greatly over the past 365 days, but i know the heart never changed… the passion never shifted. it has focus. it may have been challenged over and over again…but then again, what’s the point in believing in something if you’re not willing to fight for it….to Fuel the Fire…

VII

7. You shall not commit adultery.

here is another of those "appears easier on the surface that it really is" Commandments. according to the wikipedia, adultery is defined as "the voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not his or her spouse." pretty cut and dry there.

naturally, The Bible takes this simple restriction and digs down quite a bit deeper. Matthew 5: 27-30 reads: "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." i think that defination might be a bit more in depth and specific versus the wikipedia version.

but how difficult is this to do? how has our culture taken this idea of adultery and glorified it? turn on the tv, what do you see? rich women and yard boys having an affair on desperate housewives. flip on grey's anatomy and what happens? married men 'playing' doctor with other married women. i'm picking on women's tv shows right now for a reason...because i think that hollywood has long glamorized the male aspect of adultery, so now they're trying to play 'catch-up' if you will for all the programs steered toward a mostly female audience.

men, we have it far too easy to be tempted in our television culture. flip on any football game and what do they show before a commercial break? nearly nude cheerleaders smiling and waving at the camera in 40 degree weather. then, once they commercials are upon us, what is there to greet us? why, beer commercials with everyone's 'ideal' mate. hey, she even drinks your favorite brew, who wouldn't want to be with her, right!? television shows are rendered toward this exact vice.

remember mtv's reality show, "the real world"? now, i know the show is still on the air, but i say remember in the past tense because the reality of that show ended several years ago. back in the day, the housemates had to have 'real' lives...jobs, school, family, etc. but the producers 'got smart' and realized that sex sells. so, they dropped anyone who had a real job, morals or ambition and installed a stocked liquor bar and hot tub in every real world house since. talk about a recipe for adulterious disaster!

television, magazines, the internet...they're all crawing with displays just like this... which bleed over into reality, our malls, our schools, our community. how difficult would it be to cut all these things out of our lives...these things that are put in place to tempt us, to trip us up? if you removed all these barriers, what would be left? the good stuff! of course, even when you look up Christian song lyrics and guitar chords online, what's there to greet you? why, it's half naked women on the sponsor sidebar with the caption "click here for more". is nothing safe anymore?

by the way ladies...like the picture of david beckham with the tattoo VII up above? remember, he's married...be careful not to slip!

VIII

8. You shall not steal.

wow…i’m not sure i want to do this whole ’10 Commandments and what they mean for me” thing anymore. no stealing…i totally broke that one this morning! now, don’t worry, i didn’t rob a bank or anything, but i’m not sure if the monetary value really comes into play on this one. The Commandment doesn’t say “You shall not steal anything valued over $5,000”, or “You shall not steal from family, only major corporations”…it says “You shall not steal”. period.

how many times do we try to justify this one too? there’s always a loophole to be found in our own minds if we contemplate on it long enough.

just today, only a couple hours ago, i stole something, two things actually. See, i ran in a marathon last month, and part of the package is that the event organizer has photographers situated all along the route to snap photos of everyone. then, they email you a link taking you to a website full photos of you (or in this case, me). now, each of the pictures are copyrighted and are not allowed to be downloaded. i tried several ways to get around their technology and at least print out a couple on my own printer, but apparently they are smarter than i am. after all, that’s how they ‘get’ you. one 5”x7” print is $16.95…with that, the question arises, who’s stealing from whom!?

well, i was informed by a coworker that they have computer programs you can download that will allow you to cut and past copyrighted online images and save them for personal use. so, what does jeff do? why, download the previously mentioned program, of course…and much to my amazement, it works! so, i go to the link, select a couple of the pictures, click a couple buttons, and presto, the images are now saved to my hard drive…to print, to share, whatever!

less than 2 hours later, i decide to continue my quest on The 10 Commandments…and what stares me right in the face…the next Commandment…good ‘ol #8, “You shall not steal”. awesome! of all days…i’ve only been trying to download these pictures for about 3 weeks now..and wouldn’t you know it, on the day i’m successful, there’s 4 little words looking me back in the face. isn’t it funny how God works sometimes!? well, to celebrate my stupidity, i’ve included one of those ‘stolen’ pictures to the left…

enjoy my sin!

IX

9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

in other words, do not lie. how’s that one working out? and what about those little ‘white lies’ we all tell to protect someone else… are those allowable? after all, we're saying something; perhaps just a slight stretch the truth; to protect someone else. that’s an act of love, right!? how can showing love to someone be a sin?

i like throwing in one of our cultures favorite little sins with this also, do not gossip. think about that one for a minute. there are entire television programs and magazines dedicated to this. gossip has become a way of life for so many of us. a friend tells you a secret in confidence…is that secret safe from others ears? in a time of instant communication (text messaging, im, facebook, etc.) how quickly does something meant for your ears only turn into an over-developed drama played out amongst your entire email address book?

some people go as far as to make lying and gossip an art form to be perfected. our world is full of these falsehoods. another reason we are called to be in the world but not of the world.

A Compendium of Classy Conversation Starters - Volume I

seeing how today is friday, i figured i'd take a stab at the lighter side of thought and mind. the holidays are a wonderful time to get to know people, or to catch up with relatives and friends you haven't seen in a while. the following are a few 'old stand-by' conversation starters that always seem to work out for me when i'm in a jam. try these out and let me know how it goes. i guarantee great success!


1. you know, you'd really make a great cow!


2. my dog has a great sense of smell. let me show you what i mean...

3. oh my gosh, are you pregnant?

4. i'd love to see you in a cat woman costume!

5. that's where we did it...

6. the night i peed on kyle...

X

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

covet: to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another. if you type the word 'covet' into a google search, you will get over 2.6 million matches: covet/consumerism, covet online casino games, covet luxury brands, even covet sarah jessica parker. we have so many things around us to 'covet'...so how do we not?

your friend gets a new flat screen plasma tv, you want one... your brother buys a new house, you're ready to add on to yours and install hardwood flooring... your colleague finds out she's pregnant, you think it's time to try also. we covet things all the time.

what happens when you finally let go of those things you think you need, those things you 'must have', and put something else in its place? what do you discover you really need? what are you missing? how do you gain it? what do you covet?

Symptom vs. Root

over 2 years ago, katy starting having severe pains in her abdomen. after several trips to specialists, emergency room visits and countless x-rays and sonograms, the doctors determined it was her gall bladder causing all the pain and instructed her to have it removed. so, katy had her gall bladder removed, and with that, the pain was removed too, right?

wrong! now, don’t get me wrong, she was in pain and her gall bladder was damaged…but by removing it, the doctors only removed a symptom, not the problem itself. had the doctors sat down long enough to ask katy more about her previous health history, they might have realized that her pains ran deeper than a single organ. katy has scoliosis, and thanks to that incorrect curvature of her spine, it causes her nerves to send ‘incorrect’ signals to other places in her body. so, the solution of her gall bladder was through her back. only once her back is healed will her pains in other parts of her body recede.

i’ve seen this sort of treatment in my own life too. i have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, so what does my doctor tell me to do? why, take blood pressure and cholesterol medications, of course! again, they address the symptom of the problem and not the root itself. what are the causes of this problem? unhealthy eating, lack of exercise, family history?

and this is not to pick solely on doctors…so many of us are guilty of this. we seem to fixate on an issue, only to discover that once we’ve solved the riddle, the issue is still there, staring us in the face (or doubling us over in pain).

how often do we focus on symptoms of a problem rather than the problem itself?