Well, here I am...

Truth is, I never thought I'd be blogging.

I'm a fairly techno-geek kind of guy. I went to school for electronics and computers and had a lot of fun with it. I've ripped apart and rebuilt computers just for the fun of it. Installing and reinstalling Operating Systems, or software I will probably never use sounds like a good Saturday night. I even use Ubuntu Linux on my laptop, and usually can't restrain myself to wait until the next release version until I install it.

On top of this, I'm also an amateur writer. I've been a writer since I was nine (albeit my writing has much improved since that first one page story). I've written, privately, four novellas (or was it five), dozens of short stories, scores of papers on various subjects, and reams of poetry. None of it published, of course; I never thought it was good enough for that, and getting your work published takes a lot of luck and no small miracles. But I did write, and continue to write, all of these things.

You'd think blogging would be the logical outcome of these pursuits. Nope. Never really crossed my mind. I never bothered to look into it. For being such a techno-geek, I don't even know how to create a web page.

What started this blog was a series of notes I had written and posted on Facebook for those friends that could see them. Mostly it was just me ranting, or waxing philosophical, but I generally got a good response. One of my friends suggested that I start a blog, so... ta-da! Here it is.

Over the next few days, I'm going to re-release those original notes here starting with the first today. After that... who knows. So, here's my first Ramble:

A Ramble about Truth
Originally Published as a Facebook Note March 26, 2009

Have you ever come across something that disagrees with what you believe? It's a dumb question. Of course you have. Everyone has. Does it ever get to the point of threatening what you believe? Did you choose to outright reject it? Embrace it and overturn your belief? Or did you really wrestle with it and allow your faith to be strengthened and expanded without losing it all together?

For those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ, what is it that we are actually staking that faith on? A lot of times, i don't think we actually know, especially not at first. Or somewhere along the way of theological indoctrination, we forget what it was first based on.

I think in some ways that's what happened to me. When God first called me to come to Him, He called me as a Father to His long lost son. For me He became a Father to this fatherless person. I didn't know anything about the trinity. I didn't know really anything about man, sin, or salvation. All I know is that He wanted to fill that place for me, and He initiated that relationship, adopting this fatherless, somewhat unwanted and misunderstood, orphan, as I seemed. Later on I went through and became indoctrinated as to what it was I was supposed to believe and place my faith in, and then learned that I had done it all wrong. Bible School went further to make sure that I was properly saved, sealed, and delivered, according to the rules someone laid down somewhere, the right way.

And then I was thrown away, or at least it felt that way, by that particular line of theology. They no longer had any use for me, and I was left adrift and disillusioned wondering what I had done. I was then shown kindness by a different Church theology. And so I began to study that, and seemingly correct where I had been wrong before. But they placed limits on how useful I could be to God, supposedly, and I didn't get from Him that those limits applied. And so I began the study of yet another set of theologies.

I'm being deliberately vague, although those who know my history know what I'm talking about, and those that don't may relate by filling in the blanks with their own experiences. Because in all of it, God has taught me that no matter how fine tuned and supposedly accurate or even Biblical a theological structure may be, it really doesn't matter.

What matters is Him. What matters is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born, lived, taught, died, resurrected, and ascended two thousand years ago. There's enough evidence, direct and circumstantial to confirm even the most skeptical of skeptics. The Man was a real person in real history. When we say we're going to place our faith in Jesus Christ, then our faith needs to be grounded on these facts. When we say we're going to follow Him, then we need to sit down and study what He said and actually practice it. This is the whole idea of being a student, it's to learn from your teacher and be able to reproduce the practice which was taught in a real world setting. Jesus Christ and everything about Him needs to be one of the primary anchors of our faith if not the primary anchor.

I see these as the anchors of my faith: the reality of Jesus Christ, my own personal experience and relationship with God (relationship is a two way street by the way), the fact of my vows to follow Him and my public commitment to do so by being baptized.

As for the rest of the theological wasteland we like to ramble around in... honestly, what difference does it make? How does it affect my practice of compassion and mercy as Jesus taught if I accept a six day creation or theistic evolution? We're here. We weren't there when it happened. Get over it. How does it help me to not judge and to forgive if I am vehemently pre-trib, mid trib, or post trib? The end will come whether we like it or not. He said so, and He didn't say when.

We get so worked up over so many theological minutiae that we actually violate what He taught in defending our own little beliefs. And when a set of data arrives that contradicts those little beliefs, we fall apart and lose our faith, or get angry and bash our brothers and sisters. I can't tell you how many times someone has questioned my salvation because I wore black clerics and a white collar. And yet those clothes symbolized my absolute devotion and service to our Lord.

I recently translated in Matthew where the Pharisees were upset with Jesus' students over violating the tradition of the elders by eating with unwashed hands. He fired right back and accused them of violating the commandment of God because of one of there traditions. We are doing the same thing and transgressing the direct order and instruction of Jesus Christ when we place our own version of "Truth"
above compassion, love, and mercy upon our fellow brothers and sisters who profess faith in Him. And we blaspheme and shame Him to those who are outside the faith when we do this. Why would anyone want to be a "Christian" when we don't even follow Christ?

I'm ranting. I know. I want to see the Church restored to what He taught, and what He intended. That's not going to happend until we lose the theological baggage, our own "truth", and actually follow the One who is Truth. Our own "truth" is just another form of judgement and condemnation of others, "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong." It's narcissism dressed up in Sunday best, and it's self-centered at it's very core. Truth is Compassion and Mercy on the level that Jesus Christ taught and lived, praying for His enemies and forgiving them even as they were crucifying Him. This is Truth. This is the Faith. This is the example our Teacher set for us, His final and most important lesson before death.