On Knowledge

If you knew everything, would you be happy? I used to think so. I wanted omniscience. I wanted to bask in the truth and the absolute. I wanted to know the answers to all the whos, whats, wheres, whens, and whys. I took pride in the knowledge I already possessed, so if my knowledge became infinite, certainly I would be all the more satisfied. Such were my thoughts. I have been of the mind for a few years now, that to know is not to understand or to appreciate. To know is simply to acknowledge and nothing more. In my Biology class at John Brown University, we’ve recently been covering some rather large issues. Evolution, the age of the earth, the order of the sequence of creation events in Genesis, etc. In the ongoing world debate, people who believe in God and profess Christianity seem to want to side with scripture. They become literalists in their views regarding these topics, while Christian scientists tend to side with the research they’ve done. At the end of the day, it seems that these people have begun to argue their points for the sake of being right, rather than to further the kingdom of God. They choose their side, and become vehement advocates of whatever that side is trying to sell, just so they don’t end up wrong. The example that has been set here for future generations of Christians has evoked nausea within me. Therefore, I have decided that none of it matters. I don’t know how old the earth is and I don’t care. There is ample evidence for several theories and you know, they just don’t matter to me. I can profess whatever I want in this life; whatever I believe to be true and right, but if I do it for myself and not for God, then what exactly is the point? I already know a lot of things, but there are infinitely more that I don’t know. And isn’t that beautiful? Think about it. You know a whole lot of things, even if you don’t feel like you do. But that’s boring, knowing things. I have found that it is much more interesting to not know. That’s where faith comes in, no? I think I much prefer that. There’s mystery and adventure there, and the potential for growth.

Go love someone today. But don’t make it about you. Make it about them.

-Alyssa

February Fourteenth

I hate Valentine’s day. Not because I am a feminist, not because I hate pink with a vengeance, and not because I have the mindset of a hipster in that I inherently avoid conformity. I hate Valentine’s day for two main reasons:

1. I puts pressure on people to show love to someone or to be loved by someone.

2. It was meant to be commemorative of Saint Valentine, and now it’s about chocolate and hearts.

First of all, if you love someone, you should show it YEAR ROUND and not just on your anniversary, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day. I know, easier said than done, right? Regardless, Valentine’s Day has been put on a pedestal as a day that husbands/boyfriends better not screw up or their significant other will poison their coffee the next morning. If Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about showing love, WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THAT, I ask you? If someone screws up in a relationship, ESPECIALLY if their intentions were good, what kind of love rejects them for their failure? It would seem that the world has gone COMPLETELY MAD. This so called “holiday” has made love about material things and turned acts of love into trophies that we can show to all of our friends. It becomes less about mutual affection and more about what we get from the other person. i.e. HOW DESIRABLE THEY MAKE US LOOK TO EVERYONE ELSE.

And then there’s the UNFOUNDED IDEA that there is something desperately wrong with you if you are single. (Yes, I just began a sentence with “and”. Get over yourselves, grammar Nazis ) This has been slowly integrated into the psyche of the western populace, and IT’S NOT OK. Being single can be lonely at times, but for the most part, there is an INVIGORATING FREEDOM. Maybe that doesn’t sound as good to you as being with someone, but think about it. People who are single can make drop of the hat decisions without consulting their significant other. They can have as many pets as they want, they can buy whatever they want, etc. Obviously some people go overboard with this, (CAT LADIES & HOARDERS) but that gets into moderation which is another story altogether. I’ve heard that love is very hard to define, but I’ll take a crack at it.

Dictionary.com defines love as “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.”

Urbandictionary.com says love is “the most spectacular,indescribable, deep euphoric feeling.”

1 Corninthians 13 states:

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Ok. Maybe adding the Bible verse was a bit cliché, but if I’m being honest, it’s one of my favorite verses so I’m keeping it. Anyway, it is an excellent description of what REAL LOVE is. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better one. Even with all of these lovely definitions, I still haven’t  scratched the surface of the nature of love. The truth is, I don’t think love can be defined. It’s different for everyone who experiences it, but one thing stays the same; IT MAKES US BETTER PEOPLE. Not good people, just better people, because finally we are more worried about someone else’s happiness RATHER THAN OUR OWN.

Spirit Inebriation. Wait, WHAT?

As an EXTREMELY rational individual, I would like to point something out.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to experience a high by “smoking the Holy Spirit”.

Where in the HELL would ANYONE get such an outrageously STUPID idea? As much as I really don’t want to believe that Christians are SO DESPERATE to feel physical pleasure that they could even ENTERTAIN the notion, there is evidence all over the internet that ENTIRE CHURCHES are on board with this absolute LOAD OF GARBAGE. There are videos on YouTube featuring metro-sexual hipsters with disgusting beards holding imaginary joints in their hands and toking the air saying that they’re actually INHALING the Holy Spirit. But if they truly believe they’re smoking Jesus, WHY WOULDN’T IT WORK? Oh, yeah. BECAUSE GOD IS NOT A DRUG OR EVEN A PHYSICAL BEING AT ALL. Sure, he was physical in the early first century, but HE DIED in case you neo-hippies didn’t get the memo. You know, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you had FORGOTTEN that part, because you are all so completely WASTED from the other drugs you’re doing to mask the fact that JESUS IS UN- SMOKABLE that you simply CANNOT HANDLE REALITY. Some would argue that, because I haven’t tried to smoke Jesus, I can’t make the call that it’s impossible. As full of scientific reasoning and logic as that may be, (Great job on remembering the fundamentals of 6th grade science by the way. I’M SO FREAKING PROUD OF YOU) a purely scientific mindset can depreciate one’s view of the world. In order to FULLY and ACCURATELY assess something, one must remember common sense, which is something you people who believe in spirit inebriation evidently DO NOT POSSESS. I would also like to add that even if you COULD smoke Jesus, would you REALLY rather do that then have a relationship with Him? If your answer is yes, then CONGRATULATIONS. That takes the CAKE for the most THOUGHTLESS ANSWER IN THE UNIVERSE.

I wish you all TERRIFYING TRIPS as you continue with your “spirit abuse” and a HEAVY dose of reality along with them. May your showers forever be that annoying temperature between hot and cold that EVERYBODY HATES, and may that spot in the middle of your backs that no one can reach be FOREVER ITCHY.

-Alyssa

All Moved In!

So, all of my stuff is now located in a small, STRANGE little room that only smells good because we bought an air freshener. This air freshener is particularly fascinating because the sent is called ANGEL WHISPERS. Tell me, do YOU know what angel whispers smell like? I definitely didn’t. I guess I’m not as PRIVILEGED as the people who created this air freshener, because they OBVIOUSLY have had angels whisper sweet nothings into their ears. I should probably stop bashing my air freshener considering it is the sole reason that my closet now smells like a ROSE instead of a homeless man. ANYWAY, I started my classes yesterday. I am taking remedial algebra due to my ATROCIOUS score on the math section of the ACT.  Unfortunately for me, it was only one point below the minimum score I could receive to be exempt from remediation. Little does the board of education know that they are punishing me for my superb test taking skills. I purposely diverted my focus from the math section of the ACT in order to be more successful on the sections that I actually excel at. For example, EVERY OTHER SECTION. I am also taking Intro to Psychology, Visual Art Foundation, Old Testament Survey, and a class called The Boy Who Lived: Exploring Themes of Redemption in Harry Potter. OH, YES. My teacher for THAT class actually made chocolate frogs for us. Oh, AND she invited us all to her HOUSE to watch the last movie when it comes out on DVD. But it’s all for Jesus, right? Of COURSE!

God Bless, and may all your children become SUPER mathletes!

-Alyssa