Getting to the Point.

I just got ripped off by Bank of America.  Again.  If I can offer one piece of advice to everyone out there, it would be this: Do not bank with Bank of America.  Anyone but them.  This blog isn't about the ripping off, so I won't go into detail... ask me in person sometime and I'll disclose the full details of the rip off.

So what is this blog about, exactly?  Glad you asked.  In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is sitting on a mountain and teaching the multitudes of people who had followed Him "from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan."  The people had just witnessed Jesus heal many people of their lifelong disabilities and crippling diseases, preaching in synagogs with the words of the prophets dripping from his tongue.  He is the Messiah - the Promised One sent by God to free the Jews from Roman occupation.  The Conquering King, who will rise up and strike down Caesar and the oppressors.

So in light of that, Jesus sits down with hundreds and hundreds of eager Jews who are ready to hear him give a Braveheart-style sermon.  And this is what He says; 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, 

      for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are those who mourn, 
      for they will be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek, 
      for they will inherit the earth. 
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
      for they will be filled. 
Blessed are the merciful, 
      for they will be shown mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart, 
      for they will see God. 
Blessed are the peacemakers, 
      for they will be called sons of God. 
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, 
      for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Not exactly a 'down-by-a-touchdown-with-one-minute-left-in-the-fourth' speech.  Yet when I came home today after having been frustrated almost to the point of straight-up yelling in the face of the Bank of America branch manager, it wasn't a Coach Carter speech or a Mel Gibson monologue that reminded me of who I am.

I love reading about Jesus because the more I do, the more I see that the punches kept on rolling with Him.  Everyone expected Him, the Messiah, to kick some serious Roman butt and take back the land of Israel so that the Jews could finally know rest and live in God's kingdom.  Yet Jesus goes not to the leaders or to the popular 'celebrities' or to the intellectuals.  He doesn't go to the White House or the Pentagon or the G8.  He goes to the bums on the street.  The prostitutes, the embezzlers.  The average Joes, the rejects.

Okay, but You're still going to take things over, right Son of God?  You're forming an elite fighting force of God's warriors to attack, right?

Then He preaches to love your enemies, to walk an extra mile with your oppressors, to give your cloak to someone suing you for your shirt.  He gives us a third path, not of violence nor of apathy.  A scandalous, nigh impossible path where we walk by Spirt and Truth to enact change impossible through retaliation or indifference.

Yes yes yes, but when do we get to the whole 'taking back God's land' part?  When do we get to live in communion with God after having crushed His enemies?

Finally, to top it all off, Jesus gets Himself killed.  And not just killed, but beaten and thrashed and stripped of all dignity and spit on and then nailed to a tree.  And then He dies, slowly, between two thieves.  Murdered in cold blood.

What?!  What happened to the righting of the wrongs?  The crushing of injustice?  The healing of disease?  What happened, Messiah?  I thought You would save us...

*                *                *                *

I think what concerned me most before I came to follow Christ was a simple question: What is the point of my life?  Going through high school, I thought about this a lot.

Why did I get good grades?

To get into a good college.

Why?

To get a good degree.

Why?  

To get a good job, of course.

...But why?

To get a lot of money.

Why?

Well... so I can afford to buy the newest iPod and send my kids to college and own a nice house and pay the bills and go on good vacations and... and...

Why?

I followed this train of thought, asking why I wanted what I wanted.  I came to the conclusion that my objective in life - the point of my life - was to be happy.  So I had my answer:

I exist to make myself happy.

And I hated that answer.  It seemed so... empty.  Pointless.  The point of my life was pointless.  Luckily (or unluckily, I suppose,) it was easy to think about other things and forget my findings.  I could focus on a Geometry test or a book report or the upcoming wrestling match against *gulp* Trinity Perkins.  So life was fine, because I could easily avoid thinking about the pointless point of my life.

I suppose I could live my life helping others, though.  I could get that good job to give more to charities and educate my kids to go do great things and love my wife and treat her like a queen.  I could help others out of financial situations and maybe even serve in the Peace Corps!

But where does that leave me when I die?  Even if I spend a life helping others out, there would still be skeletons in my closet.  I would still have wronged more people than I could count.  I probably would have stolen - if not a priceless piece of art, then gum from a store.  I still would have made people's lives miserable - fired bad employees, cut people off in traffic while flipping the bird, made fun of people I didn't agree with, talked down to people who offended me.

Even if my heart was weighed after my death, good deeds versus bad ones, the "bad" side would break the scale.  We get so used to doing wrong that a lot of the time we don't even realize we're doing it.

*              *                *                *

So when I read in the Bible about Jesus and what He preached, I was intrigued to say the least.  He promised a life full of hardships, persecution, rejection, and bad days.  A life spent denying what comes naturally and clinging to a God who we have not seen.  A life where the least become the greatest, where the meek inherit the earth, where you find your life when you lose it.

This was so utterly different from the "get a 6-pack of abs or girls won't want to have sex with you" message of the world that I wanted to know more.  It was different, it was beautiful, and it was dang confusing.  Seriously, what does all that mean?  Will the meek literally inherit the earth?  How do I find my life by losing it?

After a while of researching the Bible and the claims made by Jesus, I decided that the life He described was the life I wanted to live.  Even if I didn't fully understand and even if it was weird, I wanted what He described.  I wanted to leave what I knew - to leave a life full of wanting to be something I'm not, full of trying so hard to get something I don't need, full of experimenting with a hundred different things just to be happy - and take the alternate route.

I wanted a life where no matter how many time a bank steals my money and then asks for more of my money to balance out what they stole, I know that there are more important things to get mad at.  I wanted a life full of mystery and love and community and adventure.  A life where I cannot simply run away from my problems.  A life where I get to wait for my girl and not have to worry about the latest fashions or the coolest hairstyles to find her.  A life where I don't need anything that can be taken away from me.  A life spent glorifying the only One who is worthy of it, through sacrificing my comforts and advantages to help others.

And that is the life I'm trying my hardest to live.

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

The Argument.

The other night I watched the movie "Thank You For Smoking" on TV.  I had seen it a long time ago, but I didn't remember much about it.  I came to the conclusion that I really enjoy the film.  It centers around Nick Naylor, the chief spokesperson for the cigarette industry in America.  Although exceedingly cocky, I like Nick's attitude throughout the film.  He realizes that everyone has something they do well.  As Nick puts it, "Michael Jordan plays ball.  Charles Manson kills people.  I talk.  Everyone has a talent."

There's one scene in particular that's got me thinking recently.  Nick is helping his son do homework when the following conversation takes place; (ignore the different font and colors... I was too lazy to re-type it so I just copy/pasted it off a website.)

Joey Naylor: ...so what happens when you're wrong? 
Nick Naylor: Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong. 
Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right... 
Nick Naylor: Well, if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong. 
Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong? 
Nick Naylor: OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say... 
Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is. 
Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you? 
Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other. 
Nick Naylor: Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it? 
Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need. 
Nick Naylor: Well, I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom and choice when it comes to our ice-cream.  And that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty. 
Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about 
Nick Naylor: Ah! But that's what I'm talking about. 
Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best... 
Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right. 
Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me 
Nick Naylor: But I'm not after you. I'm after them [gestures to the crowd].

This conversation sums the movie up quite nicely, in my opinion.  It's a satire mixed with the right amount of truth to make it subtly hilarious.  However, I'm not trying to review the movie here.  I'm making a point, so I'd better get to it.

The first thing Nick's conversation with Joey reminded me of were those Dell and Mac computer ads.  Sounds strange, no?  But hear me out.  When Nick makes the claim, "I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right," it screamed of the computer commercials.  The Dell commercials try to prove that Mac buyers are wrong, while the Mac computers try to prove that Dell buyers are wrong.  Nothing actually gets solved and no value is derived from the statements.  Except that the other guys are wrong.

Taking this to a macro level, I can see echos of it throughout our society.  Port-of-Subs sandwiches are pretty good, but if Subway can prove that PoS is wrong, then Subway is right.  UNR isn't the greatest school out there, but if CCU is wrong, then UNR is right.  Iraqi people are people just like you and I, but if they are wrong* then America is right.

It's strange to see how much we use this logically defunct mindset in our everyday lives.  It's even stranger** to think of a life void of it.  I don't think we would get so hung up on the little stuff, y'know?  Maybe we would stop caring about what country someone is from to or what car they drive or what band they like and just enjoy who they are.  Maybe we wouldn't feel such an urge to steal or kill or trash talk if we realized this.  I think that Nick, in a different scene in the movie, offers a strong counterpoint to this argument.  When talking to an elementary school class about smoking, he exhorts them to "stop acting like sheep... and find out for yourselves."

Stop taking other people's word for it and find out for yourself!  If the government says that someone is a threat, maybe we should see if it is credible advice.***  Instead of not liking Mac computers or Port of Subs sandwiches or different colleges or other races because of what someone tells us, maybe we should find out for ourselves.

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

*Whether the grounds for this claim are based on skin color, culture, religion, or whatever.  The minute Iraqis become wrong and Americans become right, we suddenly find ourselves with the privilege of dictating to them how they should live.

**And a tad inspiring.

***Take this with a grain of salt.  Obviously if someone has a bomb strapped to them, they can readily be considered a threat.  But even then we still have to decide how to deal with said threat...

Top Five.

Top Five songs:

5. "Beautiful," by Phil Wickham

4. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham

3. "Jesus" by Page France

2. "Twenty-Four" by Switchfoot

1. "The Fox, The Crow, and The Cookie" by Mewithoutyou

Top Five most annoying things:

5. Pre-dated merchandise.  I went into the store the other day and saw the "2010 Road Atlas."  (It's June of 2009, in case you were wondering)

4. Misplaced apostrophe's.  Just because word's have an "s" at the end doesn't mean you should add an apostrophe

3. The weather in Nevada

2. Huge trucks that skirt puddles.  Seriously, your truck is fourteen feel tall.  It can handle it

1. The cost of education

Top Five favorite things

5. The electric guitar riff in the chorus of the song "Majesty," by Delirious (I dunno, it just sends shivers down my spine

4. CCU.  I can't wait to go back

3. Education (a part of CCU, I know, but it still gets its own slot)

2. Community

1. Forgiveness

Top Five books

5. "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller (an oldie but a goodie)

4. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith

3. "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper

2. "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne

1. "1 John," by the apostle John.  I realize it's more of a letter, but humor me

Top Five wants

5. Warm weather

4. To see the stars.  I know this sounds fruity, but I haven't seen them clearly in a long time

3. A car

2. To see the world

1. $10,000 in cash (not gunna lie)

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

Current Events.

I came to the conclusion the other day that my plans have changed both dramatically and frequently within the past couple of weeks.  Some of you are up-to-date on the changes while others are still sitting on the edge of your seats, ears poised to hear the precious information.*

Regardless, allow me to divulge the details of the current events of my life:

My original plan was to return to Nevada in early May, continue employment with the Incline Village Fire Crew, stay here for the summer, and then head back to CCU in mid-August.  Simple, straight-forward.  Those were the days.

Things began to get complicated when the fire crew royally screwed me over.  They called me on April 1st (after we had previously talked in February about me being fine coming in on May 10th,) and said that I needed to be tested out** by April 8th.  Given the timing and money situation, it was impossible for me to leave school and hop on a plane for Reno.  They said they'd put me on the waiting list, said I'd be the first on it.  Last I heard, two guys have quit since the crew started in May.  Still no phone call.  And they refuse to return my calls.  Excellent.

My altered plan was then to return to Nevada anyway and immediately seek employment.  This plan changed relatively quickly when I received a job offer as well as a free place to stay over the summer in Denver.  Deciding to stick with the assurance of employment in CO rather than risk it in NV, I opted to stay in the city.  I started work the Monday after school got out with Environment Colorado and was there for two weeks.  I didn't really like the work, though it was an incredible learning experience.  I met some really awesome people there, so it was a total bummer to tell them I wasn't too into canvassing.  I just couldn't put up with the schedule*** and the people we canvassed.  I met some sweet people out there, but a lot of them were mega-jerks.  On the bright side, I've gained a whole new respect for anyone who goes door-to-door, and I've also decided that I will not change the world through canvassing.  I'll have to try something else out until I hit the nail on the head.

After I left my job with Environment CO, I spent a week hanging out in Denver with friends.  I body-surfed some Platte River rapids, drummed on 16th street, watched the sun come up over the city from Red Rocks Amphitheater, and even started planning for the upcoming semester.  At the end of that week, I flew home to see Sarah's graduation.  It was kinda weird, being as my kid sister graduated and all, but I also realized that it was my first time ever watching a DHS graduation from the audience standpoint... I was in the band for three of them and then walked for the fourth.

My week in Nevada was awesome.  I caught up with a lot of friends and family, biked around Reno, rode a Ducati Monster, and even dispelled some rumors that I had dropped out of college and was living on the streets.****  I flew out of Reno on Sunday afternoon and was picked up from the airport by Scooter and Camo, two of my friends from CCU.

You see, since my second plan was to stay here in Denver, my dad had arranged a round-trip plane ticket to Nevada and back.  Hence the short visit to Nevada followed by a stint back in Denver followed by more Nevadaction.

So right now I am in Denver until Saturday morning, at which time I will grab what little belongings I have left and ride off on my motorcycle for Nevada.  I've secured a job back at Baskin Robbins (what a tangled web we weave) so I'll start there on Monday and work through the summer until mid-August when I'll return to CCU for another exciting year!

So there you have it.  The past month or so of my life laid out for any ol' internet surfer to browse.

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

*Or, more likely, were driving and thought for an instant, "I wonder whatever happened to that Daniel fellow?"

**This means successfully passing the pack test and drug test.

***I was definitely the "absentee roommate" for those two weeks.  I left before everyone woke up and went to bed as everyone was just getting into the "let's do stuff" mood.  Though I did enjoy riding the bus downtown everyday.

****Gotta love Dayton...

A Piece of My Mind: "How Then Shall We Live?"

One of my favorite things to do in Denver is hang out downtown.  The 16th Street Mall is a great place to do just that.  I sometimes spend hours on 16h Street with nothing but my longboard, a pen and paper, and my iPod.*  During one of my visits to the Mall, I was longboarding through the parking lot of an office building when I saw a sign in one of the lower level windows.

The sign read; "Those who can, do.  Those who can't, blog."

I had a good chuckle or two about the sign as I made tight figure-eights around two manhole covers.  To be completely truthful, my first reaction was an angered sort of defense - I bet whoever owns that sign doesn't really do anything anyway.  Realizing at once what a dangerous mindset that was, I put an end to it and instead focused on what caused that reaction within me.

I think it was a Divine Echo.  A God-incidence.  Call it whatever you like, as I've heard several names for it (those were just two,) but basically it's God trying to tell me something that I'm a little bit scared to embrace.**  This all stems from my philosophy on life, a philosophy that Professor DeVore helped me to develop.  Here's some back-background;

In Philosophical Inquiry this semester, Prof. DeVore was constantly challenging us with this question: "How then shall we live?"  You see, Professor DeVore was a firm believer (and I am as well) that philosophy, theology, and really whatever else you study is useless unless you satisfactorily answer that question.  You believe in Jesus, the risen Son of God?  How then shall we live?  You think justice is important?  How then shall we live?  Otherwise, our ideas remain in our own heads and are not reflected in our actions.

I have been applying this question to my thoughts a lot recently, and God has been using it in tremendous ways.  I believe that we, as individual, everyday people, hold the creative capacity and knowledge to change our world.  The mindset of "Oh, well I'm just one in a million" is a crippling lie that tricks people into resigning themselves to a meaningless life.  I'm one in a million, so how I act can't possibly be of any consequence.  I'm one in a million, so what I think doesn't matter.

Wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  What we do, what we say, how we live our lives, matters.  It all matters.  Mother Theresa wasn't a doctoral professor, a possessor of incredible knowledge - yet she changed the word.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't a multimillionaire - yet he changed the world.  It really only takes us normal, "Everyday Joes" to step up and live a life different from the 9 to 5, Monday through Friday lives so prevalent in our culture.

Now then, back to the God-incidence.  I really think the Man Upstairs is sending me a message here: Practice what you preach.  My philosophy is one of making a difference, changing this world in a way that brings about more peace, more love, more joy, and more glory to God.  So how then shall I live?  For this philosophy is nothing but a dream unless I start living it.

As Marianne Williamson said, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?  You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of God that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others."

And who knows?  Maybe by me - one single everyday person - living my life with this philosophy, I can give others the inspiration they need to live theirs in a similar manner.  And the newly liberated can give permission to more.  And more.  Until this whole world is turned upside-down, and people no longer sit back and complain about how things are and how they should be, but rather roll up their sleeves and live like they believe in their dreams.

I'm reading the book "The Irresistible Revolution" by a guy named Shane Claiborne.  In it, Claiborne is talking about a comic strip he once read; "Two guys are talking to each other, and one guy says he has a question for God.  He wants to ask God why He allows all this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world.  And his friend says, 'Well, why don't you ask?'  The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared.  When his friend asks why, he mutters, 'I'm scared God will ask me the same question.'"

Claiborne goes on to talk about how we the Church are God's hands, feet, mouth, and ears in this world.  When I read that paragraph, I stopped for a second and drew a deep breath.  Take a minute and think about it.  We have the capability to stop all of the injustice in the world.  All of it.  We could use our money not for iPods but for food for the starving.  We could stop buying cars we can't afford and instead make sure everyone on the planet has clean water.  We could cease to purchase $200 pairs of shoes and instead provide healthcare for anyone who needs it.  We could.

Think about it!  It gets me so fired up to come to that realization.

A skeptic will say, "Daniel, we can't honestly expect everyone to buy into that.  People will always be greedy, so that's a pipe dream."  To this I reply: Just because we can't change everything doesn't mean we shouldn't change anything.  Make a difference.  Snap out of the lies and ruts that the rest of the world have fallen into.  Do something worthwhile.***

How then shall we live?

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

*I sometimes even wear clothes.

**And by "a little bit scared" I actually mean "completely petrified."

***Or, I suppose, you could always just find a nice house in a nice neighborhood, get a nice car and maybe a nice dog.  Spend your paychecks getting the latest trends and technology, and die a quiet death in bed in the suburbs.  What a waste.