3/30/04
Mood: Melancholy
Music: She’s on Fire, Train
Another day, another day done. At this rate, I’ll be 65 before I can blink again. Ah well. I did what needed to be done today…went to chapel at school, which ended up being a ministry fair, with booths from various organizations that do prison ministry, inner city ministry, etc, etc. It was good. I walked around for a few minutes, just taking it all in. Stuff like that always kind of makes me wonder if I wouldn’t be better served doing something like that than trying to help suburban and rural people in my denomination. In some ways, I think being a missionary or a chaplain is simpler than trying to pastor a bunch of people. People who are in churches are stubborn, hard to convince, obstinate. People out in the field are usually at least willing to hear you out, and the lines of who your friends are and who are those trying to stop you are clearer. I don’t know. It always makes me reevaluate. That’s never bad, it keeps me on top of where I’m standing. It’s just more thinking. I try to keep that down as much as I can, usually with limited success.
Apparently, (*winks at Quid*) there are some folks who have issues with suburban Christians. I’m not really in a position to answer their charges, nor am I going to say they’re wrong. I don’t know enough about the environment Quid describes (I’ve never lived from that perspective for more than a week or so at a time.) to comment. My only question would be to try to understand the logic. While anyone with an ounce of sense knows that painting a house isn’t going to change things significantly, I have a hard time understanding logically how people, however ignorant, trying to help is worse than the people who don’t attempt anything at all. The people you’re bashing, Summer, are people who have jobs and families. They work 40 hour weeks, and spend their only vacation time every year trying to help in the only tangible ways they can. The rest of the year, they do food drives, and give their money to the church so that it can be given to organizations who do know how to help. I have a hard time slandering those folks, even if they don’t know that the time they spend (apparently) isn’t really helping. And, as is my habit, when the church gets bashed, is to ask how much information the basher has about the people who are trying to help. It’s not as though they are attempting to be a nuisance, or flaunt their ignorance. They’re well-intentioned people who don’t know another way. Simply bashing them isn’t going to help them figure out ways to be helpful the next time they attempt it.
I got an IM today from a friend who told me that a friend’s little brother got killed in Iraq yesterday. I was the guy’s cadet for two years in high school. He used to talk about wanted to be a Navy SEAL all the time. And now he’s gone. That takes the count to 2 for me. Not at all good. *shakes head* I hate war. I hate that it starts. And I hate that so many thing this is just. It might be a fight for freedom, but not everyone wants what we want for them. Yeah, definately not good. The guy was my little brother’s age. I think he was married and even had a small child, though I’m not sure about that stuff. And just like that, he’s gone. It’s a tragedy, that’s what it is. And people wondered why I was against this war. I wish all the Warhawks had been the first ones off the troop transports. It would be interesting to see how they would feel about war when it was their friends and compatriots getting shot up.
*sigh*
In the end, it won’t bring Sean back. And that’s the only thing that would help.
Tomorrow, I’m going to get up early, and I’m going to go to class. Then I’m going to visit some older folks accompanied by my pastor/mentor. It should be fun. They’re from Wisconsin too, so there’s always something we can talk about. My grandma (the one who passed a couple of years ago) worked at the same factory as this gentleman, so there is also that to talk about. It should be alright.
I’m going to get going. I’ll catch you all later.