Roman Thoughts

I'm in my classroom drinking my coffee... so, so good coffee.

I had a couple of things on my mind. I often think about religion and philosophy, so that's one of the things. I'm not sure if anyone reads this, and I'll say sorry to them if they don't like it. Maybe I shouldn't apologize. It's just me. This is what I think about, and I shouldn't have to apologize for who I am--unless I'm hurting someone. I don't think I'm hurting anyone.

Okay. I'm almost done with Romans. I plan on reading the gospels next. Romans has been an interesting read for me though. Today I read chapters 15 and 16--so, I guess I am done with Romans.

A few things struck me today. Paul was talking about building people up, and advised not to think about pleasing yourself. I thought that was good. A confirmation bias for me. I have always thought it to be better to serve others, and to forget about yourself, maybe even to a fault. I'm not bragging either, I have always felt that way. I'm shy. I tend to not stick up for myself. I've learned that it's good to advocate for myself more than I do, but I also realize that it's good to look out for others, too. In chapter 15 Paul talks about this a little.

I also highlighted a part of verse 8 where it's mentioned that "Christ became a servant". I want to think about this today. The idea of God is really hard for me to think about. I try my hardest to use logic and reason to understand and to describe the world around me. God doesn't fit. This is where I'm learning to have faith. I know it would be easy to just have no faith. Life would be good. I wouldn't have this burden. I call it a burden because it's hard for me to have faith. Yet I continue to try. I have some faith. And it's worth it to keep trying. I read things like this in the Bible where Christ became a servant. Gods don't become servants, they're served. This makes sense to me, and it makes sense to me because it doesn't make sense. I'll explain.

People look out for themselves. The people that look out for themselves seem to be very successful. I guess I don't have data on this. But, I wouldn't expect a person who has a lot of power and money to be a person who didn't look out for himself over others at some point. Money and power are good motivators. People want them. They'll work hard for them, and they'll have to consider themselves over others at some point. I don't think you can get around this. So, Christ became a servant. Looking at others over himself, even to the point of death. Christians are then instructed to do the same. This doesn't make sense. There's a bigger reward. A better reward than power or money. I'm not sure what those things are, and I think we can experience some of those things now. I think peace, relationships, laughter, love, and joy are some of those things. I'm still trying to figure this out. But, this is what I feel right now.

The other thing I noticed was when Paul was thanking people at the end, he mentioned a lot of women that were working with him. This is encouraging to me because I grew up thinking a certain way about what woman can do in the church. Lead was not one of those things I observed very often. I think there's a lot in the bible about women leadership that's ignored, or breezed over.

The other thing I was thinking about was pseudoscience. I might have to cut this short because the bell is about to ring. But, I'm starting to see people buy into pseudoscience a lot more. GMOs, essential oils, global warming, and chemicals are a few things people don't seem to know much about. Natural isn't always good, chemicals aren't always bad. GMOs can be good and can save lives, essential oils smell nice, but aren't better than scientifically tested medicine. Global warming is real, humans are causing it. Evolution is real.

Okay, I rushed through that thought. I'd like to concentrate more on that later. Maybe in our next podcast.