On the Road

Well, after a day in Arkansas, we've finally got our full load and we're rolling down I-24, headed to Amberland! God has been protecting us from a lot of trouble and stupidity so far - others' as well as our own, I must admit.

Last year, I had six other guys with me. This year, there are 16 of us! There are several degrees of separation between all of our belief systems, but everybody definitely agrees on at least one thing, and that's this: maybe we should just all be nice to other people.

I wonder sometimes if that's enough.

I fully believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I fully believe that there are eternal consequences for the choices we make in life. I fully believe that Christ offers those who follow after Him a unique look into the Life that we were created for.

But I also believe that God wants as many people to experience His fullness as possible. James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Just a few verses later, 2:8 says "If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, ' Love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing right."

So is God necessarily a part of either of those? Can you love others as yourself without loving God?

What about I John 4:7, which says that "...everyone who loves is born of God and knows God"?

Is loving others enough?

Now, don't worry, I haven't forgotten the words of Christ in Matthew 22. I still firmly believe that our first responsiblity is to Love God. We all know we're not perfect at it, but we do know that He forgives us, right?

So what if God's grace is so big that He's willing to forgive people who deny His very existence, so long as they Love Others?

What if His grace is so big that He's willing to forgive people who call Him by a different name?

Jesus asked that the Father forgive those who crucified Him, saying that they did not know what they were doing. What if that's how it's supposed to be forever?

I still believe - completely - in the exclusive Way, Truth and Life revealed in Jesus Christ. I also believe that He has asked me to tell others about Him.

But what if that whole loving others thing really is the whole point?

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Perfect Strangers

I'm passing through some nameless stretch of Texan I-30. Zoogma's "Jerry Diesel" is playing. My friend Ali tells me he might like Zoogma more than Perpetual Groove. This is his first exposure to Zoogma. His first exposure to Perpetual Groove was yesterday.

The reason I'm listening to music on I-30 with Ali is that he's driving me and Corwin to Amberland, and we'll be picking up more people along the way.

The crazy thing about Ali driving is that it solves SO many problems we were facing in our trip to Amberland. We started the week off one seat in the red on getting everybody to the festival. Now, not only do we have that seat open, we actually have enough room to take one less vehicle than we originally planned.

I have to admit that I felt a little weird asking God to give us what basically winds up being a free ride to the show, but I gotta tell you... The Big Guy DELIVERED.

I have a pretty strong feeling that Ali is the first of many HUGE things God is gonna throw my way this weekend...

AMBERLAND! WOO!

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Countdown to Amberland: Everything Changes

Hi!

It is not Wednesday!  Again!

So here's the deal...  I'm technically homeless right now.  I am staying with the wonderful and generous Elliott family, and this is the first chance I've really had to sit down at a computer in over a week.  I'm not even using my own computer; my computer is still living in the Gibbons' garage, along with most of my clothes and all of the comics and movies I brought with me to Texas.

Life in Arlington is frenetic, kinetic, and copacetic.

But I am definitely in the right place.

God is moving so many things in my life, teaching me so much, showing me so many people who need His Love in their lives...  I stop and think about what my life was like a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago...  and I'm just blown away.

If the imminent high school graduate version of myself from 10 years ago saw my life today, he wouldn't believe it, understand it, or recognize it.  I think and feel like a completely different person.  I believe that the difference is for the better, and I certainly hope God agrees.  I would say He does, since He's been showing me non-stop what it's like to have Him not only in my life, but as my life.  It's...  it's crazy.  It's awesome.  It's crazy awesome.

I really wish I had time to tell you about everything that's been going on here.  I wish I could even begin to write down everything that has happened in the past week.  That alone would be enough to take up the rest of my day.

I wish I could tell you everything about the adventures Corwin and I have had talking to Metra, helping Tamera move, playing Munchkin with Steven, Cody, and Lindsay, experiencing the thrill of cheap beer with Randy, spending as much time as we possibly can with Chino, sharing Back to the Future with Nate...

And through it all...  God is awesome.

Amberland is this weekend.

I am ready.  God has shown me so many sparks that just need a little fanning to turn into full roaring flames.  There are so many people that I cannot wait to see and be with - laughing, singing, dancing...

I'm performing a wedding.  So that's a thing.

I really expect communion this year to be another world-shaker.  Last year, I met some folks who I am so very much looking forward to seeing again.  It has been too long since I have shared the body of Christ with my fellow disciples in the PGroove fold.  Bread will be broken, wine will be shared, tears will be shed, spirits will be restored.

God is going to change lives this weekend.

God Bless Amberland.

BLOG STUFF UPDATE:
So, uhhh...  This has been fun.

The previous post was my first late post since I started this blog at the end of 2009.  This is the second.  It's been more than a week since my last post.  My time is not what it was.

So things are changing here.  The blog is still going, but there's absolutely no schedule to it now.  Sorry. I know a lot of you had your entire weeks built around me, but we've all got to make transitions in life and I think this will be good for us both.

Wait, why does that sound like a break up?

Sorry.

Anyway - I just do not have the time at my disposal anymore to write what I've been writing.  So expect shorter posts...  but hopefully a bit more frequently.  As always, the goal of this is not just to say what I want to say, but to hear what you have to say back.  I'm hoping this new schedule will encourage more discussion.  I dunno.  We'll see.

I love you all.  Thanks for reading.  See you soon.

Countdown to Amberland: A Moment of Your Time

Hours fly
Flowers die.
New days,
New ways,
Pass by.
Love Stays
- - -
Time is
Too Slow for those who Wait,
Too Swift for those who Fear,
Too Long for those who Grieve,
Too Short for those who Rejoice;
But for those who Love,
Time is Not.

 - "Inscription for Katrina's Sundial" by Henry Van Dyke

One of the more mind-boggling parts of an understanding of the nature of God is an understanding of a Being that exists completely outside of Time.

Go watch this video - it will take about 11 minutes, but my post is short this week, so it'll all balance out.

God, being Eternal, sees the fullness of what we experience as Time.  Our perception of Time is limited to one specific: now.  Now is all we have.

But God has forever. 

Being temporal creatures - mortal, often all too aware of the brevity of our duration here - we are immersed in a constant stream of imagery and proverbs that remind us that Time is not ours to control, and that we are powerless to cease its march.

And so we are driven to use each moment to its fullest!  "Time is Money!"  We know that our Time is valuable, and we are so  aware of its value that a lot of us are adamantly opposed to the idea of sacrificing our Time.

And it's not that we won't give up our Time to help those in need - it's just that we want to know when that need will hit so we can put it in the schedule.

But let's be honest - how many of us get upset when church runs long?

What if we started giving God the moment?

What if we all decided to give God right now instead of later?

What if we let go of our schedules just enough that we let God take control?

Will it be different?  Will it be new?  Will it be hectic?

Yes, yes, and yes.

But it will also be awesome, powerful, and endlessly renewing.

This is the first post I've had since I started the blog that didn't make it in before midnight on Wednesday.  God changed my schedule.  It was totally worth a late post.

There are so many things about Christianity that are so simple to say but so difficult to do.  I realize this, and it creates something of a disconnect in my mind.  I can tell you what to do, but I can't even begin to tell you how to do it.  Ask God, He'll help.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

- James 4:13-17

Your Time is not yours.  Nothing is yours.  You're only using it.  Giving up everything for God means giving up everything.  It means giving up control, giving up understanding, and giving up what we want.

God only asks for everything.

But isn't trading your Time for His Eternity worth it?

COUNTDOWN TO AMBERLAND UPDATE:

Well...  It's 2 weeks away now, and I'm just about fit to burst with excitement.

I had an interview the other day for a job at Lone Star Comics here in Arlington.  Should know something about that soon, so please be praying for that.

I also have fancy letterheads and business cards now.  If you think your church would like to get a letter from me on my fancy letterhead, shoot me an address.

I'm sure there'd be a lot more things worth saying if it weren't 2:00 AM.

Countdown to Amberland: The Relativity of Absolutes

Does Absolute Truth exist, or is all truth relative?

I'm afraid this is a loaded question, but since it's rhetorical, who cares?

If we say that absolutes do not exist and that all truth is relative, then we have come to a paradox of meaning. If all truth is relative, then the truth that "all truth is relative" is also relative, therefore allowing absolutes. However, if all truth but "all truth is relative" is relative, then "all truth is relative" is an absolute, which renders "all truth is relative" necessarily false.

I hope you at least know that I completely believe in Absolute Truth, and - as a direct result of that belief - I also believe in Absolute Morality.

I believe that there is a standardized, codified, and bona fide way that everybody should live their lives, and I believe that the adherence to that Morality is of inexpressible benefit to your eternal soul. Deviation is not encouraged.

Are you ready? Here it comes!

Good.

Good Morality. That's it. That's the thing. That is all you've got to worry about. Be Good.

It isn't a hard concept, as much as everybody in the world is trying to tell you that it is, but please, do not listen to them, they are selling you a load of crap because they have an agenda. I am giving you gold, but I will admit that I have an agenda as well: my agenda is that you have gold.

If I just ended the post right here, I know it wouldn't be very long at all before someone dropped the "But Aaron, who are you to say what is 'good'? After all, everyone's definition of 'good' changes from--'"

And I'm just gonna cut off the faucet there because the water's runnin' brown anyway.

That is a load of poop and everybody knows it. (I really hope you're picking up the doo-doo metaphors here. I'm trying to drive a point home.)

You know what Good is. I know what Good is. Everybody who has ever experienced a single regret for the slightest of pain they have ever caused another person knows what Good is.

And then everybody chooses - in greatly varying degrees - to ignore it.

Some people are taught to ignore it, yes... And I doubt that God's mercy extends very far to those who teach others to hate and steal and cheat and ruin and destroy... But Good makes itself known in each of us at some point in our lives, and all of us know what is Good and what is Bad to varying degrees.

At the very least, we can all - and I mean all - agree that "I don't want bad stuff to happen to me" is a constant, right? Isn't that true of everybody everywhere everywhen no matter what religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation, whatever in the whatever of whatever?

So we at least know that we don't want other people to hurt us. So it doesn't take too long for most of us to be aware that we have the potential to hurt other people, which we know we don't want to happen to us...

We know what Good is - whether we can really express it or not - because we know what we want to happen to us. We know what Bad is - whether we really agree on all of what that looks like or not - because we know what we don't want to happen to us.

It doesn't take much to connect the dots from there.

But I am not so dense as to say that the discussion ends here.

There is Absolute Truth, there is Absolute Morality...

But there are relative positions between people and those Absolutes, so, guess what! There's relative morality within the realm of Absolute Morality!

In all things we must be Good.

So what do you do with a homeless guy who asks you for some money, openly admitting that it's so he can get drunk?

What would be Good for that guy?

Well, I'd say rehab, a good shower, shave, haircut, place to live, life skills, new wardrobe, an impressive résumé, a can-do-attitude, and a couple of acts of Congress would be Good for him...

But if it takes a few bucks for a 40 of cheap suds so he can get over the DTs and maybe sleep a full night for the first time in a month... Would that be Good for him, too?

(I don't know, just so you know.)

And this brings me to why I think God is necessary.

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.

- James 2:8

I think James is right. I think that if you really manage to Love everybody on this planet the way you love yourself, you got nothin' to worry about.

But I also think that's impossible for us to do on our own.

I think that we are already so behind on what it is to actually be Good to other people that we need some help. I think we need supernatural help, in fact. That's how behind we are - we are so behind that we cannot possibly pull ourselves up by our secular humanist bootstraps and become a peaceful global society; we must rely solely on the direct intervention of God.

And that's why I think there are actually two parts to the Absolute Morality: Love God, Love Others.

Those are the only two things you have to do, but you absolutely have to do those things. Those are the things you are here to do. If you aren't doing one part of it, you're not doing the whole thing.

It is only by Loving God that you can understand what Love really is. Once you understand God's Love for you, you can understand God's Love for Others, and then you, Loving God, can begin to properly Love Others.

And not only is Loving God necessary to understand how to Love Others, Loving Others is the means by which you express your Love for God.

You can't do B without A, and you aren't doing A unless you also do B.

So does Absolute Morality mean that there are some things that are just wrong? I believe so.

But the beauty of Absolute Morality and Absolute Truth is that they can both be summed up in one thing: Absolute Love.

God Loves you the way that only God can Love you - Absolutely. Unconditionally. Limitlessly. Never failing, never questioning, never shrinking, never weary, never hesitant.

If you can equate yourself with God and say that you honestly Love everyone with the same unflinching boundlessness, then I congratulate you. But I am pretty sure we've all screwed up a few times. I'm pretty sure we've all done things that we know are Bad.

So why the confusion?

Why do people insist that morality is relative and that there are no absolutes?

Don't we all know what's really Good deep down? Don't we all, way deep down, really know what's Bad?

Could the idea that morality is relative be simply a clever ploy on the part of the armies of darkness to trick us into thinking we don't really have to worry about it? That we're good enough as it is? That we really don't have to try much harder, even though we all still know that's crap?

Does the world seem like we're in a good place? Does it seem like relative morality has allowed us to settle our differences peaceably?

Or can we maybe, hopefully, prayerfully be approaching a time when humanity as a whole realizes that the only thing we have to do to make this place completely awesome for everybody is not put ourselves first?

Love God. Love Others.

That's it.

That's all there is to it.

But you can't do one without the other, and if you're not doing both, you're missing the point anyway.

If you are sent to the store to buy a gallon of milk but just drive to the store and back, did you do what you were sent to do? Does that count? Are you going to get credit for "trying"?

The thing about that homeless guy is that it's hard to decide between what's best for him in the moment and what's best for him in the long run, especially when he might not survive to see the long run if the moment isn't taken care of.

But the thing about God - the amazing thing about God - is that when you're actually doing it, when you're really Loving Him by Loving Others and Loving Others because you Love Him, He helps.

Just try it. See what happens. See what happens to you. See what happens to the people around you. See what happens to the whole world.

COUNTDOWN TO AMBERLAND UPDATE:

Hey, I'm gonna be doing this for the rest of May, so here's what's up: at the end of May, I'm going to Amberland, which is turning into this nexus-of-all-realities type event in a lot of people's lives. There are entire destinies that hang in the balance at Amberland, it seems, and that is, frankly, awesome.

If you didn't know yet, I'm performing a wedding - my first - at Amberland. I only know the couple through the Perpetual Groove crowd. It's an incredible honor, and I feel that this wedding is an exclamation point to what is promising to be an incredible weekend.

But the other significance of Amberland is that it'll be my first time back to Tennessee as a Facebook-official Texan. I would like all of you to know what is going on in my life, but I realize that time does not always permit us to see each other.

So here's an update:

It's been about three weeks now since I laid in a bed.

I've been staying with the wonderful Foster family, who have provided me a place to sleep the entire time I've been here so far. The couch is sleeping me as well as any 4-star hotel room ever could. The generosity of this family, especially in a time of an especially hard loss, has been overwhelming. They have welcomed me in as another son, as a brother, as a friend... I thank God for the Fosters, and I would thank you to thank Him for them, too.

Every day is an adventure. Every day is an explosion of God's work in me. I am starting to understand more of what John means at the end of his gospel when he says that "the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." The whole internet does not have room for the stuff I could write if I had the infinite time it would take me to write it. It's incredible. My head doesn't stop spinning from the last one before God throws another lightning bolt of Love and Wisdom my way. Things just keep happening. Oh, my God, my God... How Awesome.

Amberland is a mere 22 days away. I am already nearing my critical meltdown stage in excitement. It will be good.