ten commandments

many Christians cry and complain because the government won't allow us to put up the ten commandments in public schools. but what's the reasoning behind this? what does it mean for high school Christians?

the birth of a nation
let's go back to the beginning of our government. our founding fathers escaped away from an oppressive government to set up their own government. they were Christians and founded this nation believing in God. they also realized that they weren't the only ones being oppressed by their governments for their religion. they decided to keep church and state separate so that no one in this nation would feel the need to escape like they did. freedom of religion was also established because they didn't want to force people to be Christians. they wanted a land of freedom.

judges' decision
skip forward to modern times. many courts including the supreme court have ruled that the ten commandments in public schools is unconstitutional. their thinking behind this is that public schools are run by the government. if religious icons are placed inside public schools, then it means that the government supports them thus violating separation of church and state. private schools can still post whatever they want because they are not run by the government. the judges didn't do this because they hate Christians, they did it because it's the way our nation was founded.

work-around
to be able to post the ten commandments on the wall of a public school there are two choices: forfeit our freedom of religion and abide by a state religion (and hope that it's a doctrine of Christianity that is Biblically sound) OR give equal wall space to all religions including islam and satan worshippers. the problem with the first is the existance of so many religions in this country. many religious sects and groups would (and already have) resort to violence to promote their religion and destroy any others. no religion would be able to simply claim a majority thus resulting in many unhappy citizens and an oppressive government. bad idea. the second choice would not work either because of the same reason. if the ten commandments were allowed on the wall, then many other religions would put their beliefs on the wall. the ten commandments would be engulfed by the multitude of other religions, and the wall becomes a competition among religions to get the students' attention and draw them to a particular religion. i realize that this is essentially what quad-chalking and flyer hanging is on a college campus. the difference is that posters on high school wall involves overturning a major supreme court decision. this would draw national attention to the situation and many religions would jump at the opportunity to influence young minds with their religion. on college campuses, no one has complained loud enough so it is still permitted, though on a smaller, lesser-known level.

high school challenge
this should not be a problem but a challenge. this gives high school Christians opportunity to live their Christian lives louder rather than pointing to the poster on the wall and telling someone to live by that. quad-chalking and flyers on college campuses do not intend to convert people to Christianity alone, but they open doors for confused people to have someone to talk to about it and a Bible to turn to for answers. is it helpful for college Christians? yes. is it necessary to spread the Gospel? no. high school Christians have a high calling to live their lives by example because they don't have other ways to open doors to unbelievers.

so what?
so let's pray for high school Christians to let their lights shine, because our prayers and God's grace are the only help they get to share their faith with their classmates and teachers. what does this mean to us Christians who are past high school? if high school Christians who are generally young in their faith have a calling that high, where does that leave us older Christians who are in college or working? we each need to examine ourselves and find our own callings. God has a plan for each of us and it's not to sit back and let high school Christians or campus flyers do all the work. we each have our own work to do, but let's not forget to support the work of our fellow Christians.

these are just my thoughts on the subject. i'd love to hear comments, criticism, etc.

you can run, but you can't hide

so i've had this webcam for a while now and i haven't really noticed any strange occurences. until lately. i've had this one person who will open my blog and keep it open for many hours per day. i thought that kind of strange especially since i didn't recognize the ip address. well, i used a few different methods of tracking down the ip address and it turns out that their isp is in madrid spain and that's as far as i got. so this is to my spanish watcher:

i know you're watching me. i hope you are only watching me for good reasons. who are you?
sé que usted me está mirando. espero que usted me esté mirando solamente por buenas razones. ¿quiénes son usted?

my spanish isn't too good, in fact it's almost non-existant since i took french in high school and college, but i hope the translation is good enough. i've also noticed a repeat watcher from the law building on the university of illinois campus using computer 211. luke has also confirmed this user on his blog as well. you can choose to remain anonymous, but i'm curious as to who you are. anyhoo, anonymous or not, you're all still free to continue watching me as much as you'd like, but don't be too shy to identify yourself either.

untitled

remember when i said how much God is teaching me? well, it's been less than a week and it seems my whole world has changed. i don't want to go into any detail on my blog, but i'll set up a scenario for you:

i'm on top of a spiritual mountain. i can't see any other mountains higher than me. i'm feeling great! then i decide to look down at my feet and i see that i'm not on the mountain anymore, but a cloud and it's starting to dissipate. as i'm watching, it disappears altogether and i fall into a deep, deep valley. i sit and cry about my wounds for awhile, but then i see another mountain. it's higher and steeper than the one i was just on. do i climb the mountain i was just on because the new one looks hard or do i try this new mountain anyway? i choose the new one because i don't want to fall off that cloud again. i pick myself up and start climbing and soon i've already climbed higher than the previous mountain and i still have much farther to go. i can't even see the peak, but the thought of it excites me. looking back, i can see that i was on that other mountain for a reason: to fall and be broken in the valley. without being in that valley, i would not have seen the bigger mountain. this has truly been a fantastical adventure.

well, well, well

it's been awhile since i've updated, but that's because there's really not much to talk about. i'll tell you what i can...

work: work has been crazy! i put in 39 hours last week! i still don't get paid until the 22nd due to a paperwork/nessie glitch. with the brand new computer science building, you'd think this university would have some better software to run things. banner and nessie are just sore spots with most university employees. anyhoo, it's been pretty easy working here and decent hours. even with a full week last week, i still enjoy working here. i haven't heard anything about adding tuesday/thursday nights yet so i still get those free. i don't know if we will because it's really starting to slow down. we have nine spots available for each testing session and there was only one person this morning and only two people this afternoon. sloooow.

career search: i've been pretty busy with work and extracurricular stuff so i haven't had much time for this recently. although, last night i got on monster.com and careerbuilder.com and looked around. i sent out a bunch of resumes, mostly to companies in denver and phoenix. i'll try to send some more out tonight during the evening session (i work till nine). so that's going pretty well.

friends & fun: most of you have probably read erin's post about snowboarding up at granite peak. we all helped teach erin, and i don't know about travis or jaclyn, but i know i got a few wounds from it. then near the end, i hit the biggest jump i have ever hit. the kind you have to be going reeeeally fast to be able to hit the landing. well, i hit it twice and i wasn't going fast enough either time so i wrecked on the table top but only after i was about ten feet in the air. pretty sweet. then neal came down to visit the next weekend for the illinois game (shocking loss!) and the super bowl. good times, good times. and tomorrow, caleb and garrison are coming to visit through sunday (although i'm going home on sunday too).

spiritual: God has been amazing recently. i moved my devotions to mornings since i don't usually have to work mornings. He's been teaching me so much about trust and contentment. the only way to be truly content is to trust. there are always things or people i may not like or get along with, but God has his purpose for me in that place. it's especially important to me now that i'm looking for a job, most likely in a larger city away from all my friends and family. i just pray and trust that God will lead me where He wants me.

well, look at that. i did have a lot to say. i'm sure i could come up with more, but this is long enough for now.

caleb

check out caleb's sweet new webcam! my influence is spreading yet again!