Cold Day

It's a cold day today. It's like 40ºF outside right now. It's mid April. What the heck? Overall it's just been a strange day. I drank a Moose Drool beer last night and I woke up this morning with kind-of a hang over. My head felt stuffy. My body felt weak. And I was just overall tired. It could have been the beer. It could have been that I need some rest.

<This week has been weighing on me. Senseless tragedies like the Boston bombing. The reminder that our government is pretty much broken. Tons of snow in Denver in April. Super windy and cold here. Floods and supper cell storms in mid-Missouri. Giant fertilizer plan explosions in Texas. Earthquakes in the Middle East...

What's going on? We're reminded of how screwed we are as humans every day. Am I crazy for looking for hope in Jesus Christ? One of my favorite musicians of all time thinks so. Mike Herrera from MxPx talked about his loss of religion in an interview I read last night. Here is the link to the interview I read.  He talked about how he was brought up in a church and attended youth group and that's the only reason he believed in the Christian religion. I've been there. Why do I believe? I was brought up in a country that encourages Christianity. It I were born in Turkey I would probably be Muslim. Or if I were born in India I would be Hindu. Or if I were born in China I'd probably be Buddhist  If I were born on Utah I'd probably be Mormon. You get the point.  So what makes my God special?  What makes my choice the right one? Believe me, I wrestle with that idea all the time. Then I stop. I look up.  I think about our vast universe.  I think about the complexity of the human body. I think about all of what I don't know. This doesn't prove Jesus Christ is God. The universe doesn't prove God. My love for my son and wife doesn't prove God. Music doesn't prove God. Evil in this world doesn't prove God. Historical writings don't prove God. Can God be proven?  No. Because God can't be proven does not mean that he doesn't exist though.

I remember listening to Stephen Hawking and listening to him explain the origins of the universe.  Incredible. All I could think about is how amazing the first moments of existence must have been. Even Hawking admitted that he wanted to look at a supreme creator for the acting force behind our universe's beginning.  He doesn't believe a creator to be behind it, but his mind pointed to a creator for a moment.

Every day I have questions.  Every day I'm thankful that I have hope in Christ. I'm thankful that I was created with a mind that questions things. And I think God wants us to question his existence.  Blind faith is useless. We're brought up as Christians, but when you're old enough, think for yourself! Don't believe in something just because your parents believe it.

Today I read in Jeremiah about the Israelites and how they "whored" themselves about with other religions. They completely turned their backs on God. God expressed his feelings in the book. He expressed his anger. He expressed his love and his willingness to forgive.  Then I read in Luke about Jesus and how he taught us to love our enemies.  He showed this love by healing the ear of the chief priest's servant. A person who was arresting him to have him tried and eventually killed. Jesus showed love to that man.

Well, that's about all I want to talk about that. I still have a headache. It's still cold here. Evil still exists. Humans are still hateful. Just last night I was talking to a man on the phone for work. The man said I sounded like a nice man. Then he asked me if I was Caucasian  For whatever reason I answered his irrelevant  question as "yes". I'm not Caucasian  I'm Latino  I'm New Mexican.  I'm a darkey, Yo! After I answered he proceeded to tell me the most horrible, racist joke. I felt like my brain had been raped with hate.  I couldn't stop thinking about how terrible it was how this man said nasty things about a person only because of his race. This isn't new to humans, though. Racism is ugly and it is has been in existence since history has recorded.

So, pushing forward. It's Thursday. I hope it warms up. I hope this weekend brings joy.