
I’ve gotten bored with the swiping on dating apps; with the deciphering of what ‘spiritual’ means in a nearly post-secular culture. Oh, you’re tired of materialism? And I don’t mean the type of materialism that fills your closet with shoes, but the type that says
This is all there is.
If it’s matter, it exists;
if it isn’t, it doesn’t.
You fill your life with the essence of spirituality because there is some sort of profound longing that points you to God…or a god. Pick your deity. Or just put a dollar in the slot and be surprised by whichever divine entity emerges from the infinite vending machine. Take your last breath, cross your fingers, and pray for blue raspberry.
I’ve been there, upon the questioning precipice of existence. You’re standing on a thin shelf, don’t step too heavily like my upstairs neighbors. It’ll shatter.
You’d be an atheist if only you had the guts…and didn’t have the desires.
It’s our desires that draw us to God…and from Him.
We’re caught in the paradox of seeing through a mirror dimly…but we are still seeing. That’s the mystery.
What truth there is to know, let us speak it.
Let us know it.
Keep the word on your lips
and your ear to the ground.
The fat is rendering and soon we will either have soap or a bomb.
Clean, destroy, or both.
The gospel is that you pick up your cross and suffer…but you’re also washed and clean.
The Glycerin Gospel.
Fight Church
I’m looking for perfection in an app. I didn’t come up with these standards I’m seeking (eternally), they were handed to me.
How many degrees from perfect are you? And can you sum it up in a bio and five photos while I make my split-second decision?
I’m over these dating apps and the inherent dread that accompanies them. I’m over the inherited measures of perfection, and the tailing angset (as Kierkegaard would say). I want to believe that man can be free, but the concept is too weighty and the potential is too promising to bear.
This kid once told me that he was reading Camus (he pronounced it “Camuss” lol) and believes he can be free. I’d like to believe you, Camuss Kid. I wish we could undo the binding trauma of 9/11 and the collective tragedy of, well, everything else, and be free. Especially from advertising and Disney movie endings.
I once read that Big Brother isn’t monitoring us anymore; he’s just entertaining us to death. Because if our brains are turning to mush before a TV screen, BB doesn’t even need to watch us. Same could be said of the satan and the church — an entertained Christian is a harmless one.
We need more poet preachers.
We need more creative people in the church.
Those who create model the first thing we learn about God (that He’s creative).
Therefore, creativity is inherently a violent onslaught against evil.
Let us speak true words into the universe, the way God spoke creation into being.
Let us look at, say, the Pillars of Creation, and tell them to dance.
Let us delete every app on our phone and look one another in the eye.
e
Brother Ethan, don’t stress. God will bring her along when you are ready. Keep serving Him, keep listening to Him and (just like Jacob and was it Leah… or Rachel?) He will bring it to pass.
Hi Ethan! Fellow older (32 isn’t old, what am I saying… but still) Christian single here. What you wrote reminded me of this amazing podcast I listened to a bit ago! The whole episode is great but it talks about “the satanic lullaby” that the western church is under (and that was in 2008)! Our comfort and possessions and lack of actually having to decide and say what we believe keep us lulled to sleep!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/23-the-underground-church-in-the-middle-east/id1466667116?i=1000517869016
As always, thanks for your words.
Great creativity lots of humans out here feeling the same things. Encouraging and thought provoking thx ethan