Midnight Moments

(Previously posted on my facebook page; with some slight changes) I had an interesting revelation while flushing my toilet (yes, while flushing my toilet). I usually don’t have to clean my toilet bowl very often; maybe once every month or month and half. It had been probably longer than that since the last time I cleaned it, with being gone and busy with work, babysitting, and classes. As I flushed my toilet, I noticed the toilet bowl was quite filthy; and I mean FILTHY! It was a disturbing realization for two reasons; (1) because I live alone, I knew the filth was all mine and (2) this meant I had to actually buckle down and clean it! To supplement my income (working barely 10 hours a week at a daycare doesn’t exactly pay the bills) I babysit/nanny and clean houses here and there. I never used to enjoy cleaning when I was living with my parents mostly because I never really needed to clean much outside my room and the downstairs bathroom that I used. My mom would occasionally gu...

In "Who's Afraid of Postmodernism", James K. A. Smith breaks down some commonly miscontrued "bumper sticker" views of Postmodern thinkers Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault and puts them in their proper contexts to help believers understand how postermodernism can actually help revitalize the Church. One of the "bumper stickers" Smith seeks to recontextualize for us is Jean-Francois Lyotard's claim that "Postmoderism is incredulity towards metanarratives". This statement seems, on the surface, to reject the Biblical narrative as being a source of reliable truth, but Smith breaks down Lyotard's thought process to show that storytelling is at the core of all belief systems. The issue is whether or not the story can be validated in itself or needs outside validation to be counted as sound. The "metanarrative" is such that is relies on something outside itself (another narrative) in order to be validated. The Bible, therefore, is no...

It's been a few days since my last blog-- I've been brainstorming and researching for a book idea, which I may be posting a preview of sometime soon. As I was doing my devotions today and reading through the book of Luke, I made an interesting parallel. I was reading the story of the feeding of the 5,000. Let me give you the recap: Jesus has just finished teaching 5,000 people (this only counts the men; there were more people than this if you count women and children). He ask His disciples an impossible task, "You twelve...feed those 5,000 plus people." All that was available was a little boy's lunch of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. I can imagine the disciples were a little confused, if not also irritated at Jesus' audacity, but then something amazing happens. The little boy, probably realizing the impossibility of feeding so many people with his lunch, willingly hands it over. Then Jesus blesses it and miraculously the food keeps multiplying enough to feed EV...