Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day! 

Today is such a strange “holiday." It's a day to commemorate the mysterious number known as pi. 3.14, except it's not 3.14. It's 3.14159265, but actually, it's more, much more. It's an endless number, an infinite string of digits, never ending, never repeating, never falling into a pattern. The number of calculated digits of pi currently stands at 202.11229 trillion. That's an incomprehensible number of digits, yet, it's no closer to the full truth of the number than 3.14.

Pi is not only mysterious for its infinite nature, it is also an incredibly important number in our world. It is found in, and plays an integral role in, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics, astronomy, statistics, and biology. It's part of things like heartbeats, circadian rhythm, breathing cycles, and even the stripes on zebras. It even helps us understand DNA.

Carlsbad Caverns & Surface Level Faith

This past weekend we made the trip down to Carlsbad Caverns. I had been there before, when I was a little kid, but it was a totally different experience going now, as an adult. The Caverns are AMAZING! They are truly mesmerizing, breathtaking, and whatever other incredible description you can think of.

We went in the Natural Entrance, which is a giant hole going down into the ground, with a path zig-zagging down as far as your eye can see. As you hike down that path it's truly indescribable the feeling of standing in this massive cavern, understanding you are beneath the earth, looking up to see the hole you entered through, the only source of natural light, slowly getting smaller and smaller above/behind you and countless miles of caverns beneath/ahead of you.

Rain for Rain (The Small Gifts)

Yesterday we got to, once again, celebrate the official addition of Rain into our family, only this time it was with a big shindig, lots of food, and close to 100 people. It was so much fun! Now, we were sort of expecting that number of people, we invited them after all, but it was still just awesome to see everyone there, gathered together, celebrating with us. The love and support that our family has is truly amazing. From family, friends, church, we are surrounded by people who care about us, and those at the party were not all of our family, friends, church and people who love and care about us by any means. It was just a really neat experience to see everyone together, to see people smiling and laughing, to see the kids playing. It was great.

So, we expected people, but we didn't expect all the gifts and cards. It was amazing, the pile of gifts and cards that we received. People were coming up and asking me where to put gifts, and I had to just make something up because I wasn't planning on that at all. We got lots of awesome gifts for all 3 of the kids: Play-Doh, Towels, Learning Games, Flashlight Friends, and lots more, but there was one gift that really stood out for me, and it was one that I didn't recognize at first.

I'm Adopted!

On Monday, Manda and I had the incredible experience of finally getting to adopt our little girl! She's been a part of our family for almost two years, but on Monday it became official/legal, her name matching ours her birth certificate indicating we are her family. For us, she has been our child for two years, but now she also is in the eyes of the rest of the world.

It was an amazing, emotional, exciting, nerve-wracking experience. It was so cool to see the joy on Mallory's face as she realized she no longer had to be concerned that someone was going to try and take Rain out of our home. It was awesome to see the smile and goofiness coming from Rain as she half sang "I'm adopted!" It was amazing to see 25+ people filing into the courtroom to support and celebrate with us.

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

♫ Yes, Jesus Loves Me ♫

So many people have sung this simple children's tune countless times, both as children and as adults, and being that it is a children's song it is often easy to forget, or simply not look at, how profound and deep it is. Have you ever taken the time to examine this one, 4-word, phrase? I hadn't really, but it struck me yesterday, as we were singing this line in our Easter service, that is is truly a remarkable phrase. Let me show you.

When Midas Touches Poop

Last night I was sitting in my backyard thinking, thinking about how amazing and mind-blowingly awesome it is that God loves me because really I truly don't deserve it, am not worthy of it. In fact, none of us are, yet He loves us and is invested in our lives nonetheless. Suddenly I got this thought, and I wouldn't really say it's the deepest theological thought I've ever had, but it seemed pretty significant to me, so I'm sharing it.

I am utterly, completely unworthy and valueless. In fact, the thing that came to mind to compare to was the dog poop in the corner of the yard. Like the dog poop, I am filthy, disgusting, trash that has no value or worth and is good for nothing, but to be thrown away or buried. However, another thought crossed my mind, and that was that somehow, I am no longer that. Somehow, though everything about my inherent nature is valueless and stinks, I am not, no longer, that worthless piece of dog poop. I am indescribably valuable, so valuable, in fact, that while I was not worthy to utter the name of God, He inscribed my name upon His palm! (Isaiah 49:16) 

The Medium may Change, The Message Stays the Same

I have heard this phrase, or something similar, a lot in a lot of different situations, usually talking about how how the church introduces new methods and mechanisms of sharing God's Word. However, I was thinking about it the other day in a different light. If you look at the news today you will be assaulted with story after story of violence, murder, hatred, immorality, sexuality, destruction, darkness, evil... It's crazy and overwhelming and it can feel like the world is falling very rapidly towards its destruction and death. It is easy to look at the world today and say we are getting so much worse day after day, year after year. I've made this assertion, I believe. While it may be true that our society is on a downfall, or that certain countries or groups are "getting worse," the more I think about it it seems that in the grand scheme of things, we are no worse than any other time.

I was thinking about the world in the time of Christ and something dawned on me. Society during that time was full of all of the same things that we are full of today. There was widespread hatred and racism permeating society. Destruction, sensless violence and murder were normal occurances. Homosexuality, sexual promescuity, adultry and prostitution were commonplace and widely accepted. Drunkenness, drug use, theft, pride, and idolatry: every single one of these were rampant in society. People participated in them. This is obvious from reading history and from the fact that the Bible addresses them all. People during that time faced the same struggles and participated in the same evils that we do today. People during that time looked at their world and talked about how it was on the downfall and how things were really bad, just as we do today.

#EndOfTheWorldConfession

So today marks the long awaited day that the world is supposed to end, or at least so says some people who apparently misunderstood the Mayan calendar. Anyways, it's been a highly anticipated day for a long time, and guess what...Nothing seems to be happening. Is anyone surprised? Hopefully not really. I know that for me personally I didn't really believe that anything was going to happen today, but I must admit, there is a part of me that was kinda hoping for something.

I've said it before, "I want to live in a post-apocalyptic world. I want there to be some sort of societal collapse, and humanity to have to 'start over' in a sense." I think this is why I like the shows Revolution and Falling Skies. And, that is why I was slightly hoping that something happen today.

Here's my questions though:

1. Does anyone else secretly hope for something like this, or am I the only crazy one?
2. Why would I want something like this?

Thanksgiving IN ALL Circumstances

With Thanksgiving approaching I thought it fitting to write a little bit about giving thanks, but not necessarily in the traditional way. When November rolls around people suddenly get incredibly thankful. You hear people talking about all the things they are thankful for, and Facebook timelines are full of "Day 1: I am thankful for..., Day 2: I am thankful for..., etc..." It won't take you too long to come across all the traditional stuff either: Family, Friends, Jobs, Church, Pets, Homes, Possessions, etc... Almost everyone is thankful for these things in one way or another and post about them. I too, am thankful for all of these things.

However, this month, God has been revealing to me, in several ways, that in addition to all of the obvious blessings in my life, I need to be thankful for the not so obvious blessings, for the way that God works through the hard and difficult times, for what He accomplishes in the midst of agony.

"Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Vampires & Zombies | Suicide & Blood

In honor of Halloween I am going to be writing a bit about zombies and vampires. Now, I traditionally despise Halloween with a passion. I didn't want to have anything to do with it whatsoever: No Trick-or-Treating, no handing out candy, no decorations, no dressing up, I didn't even like church "Fall Festivals." My opinion has changed a little bit, which is a topic for another blog, but for today I am going to fall into the theme of the day embrace zombies and vampires, but not in the traditional way.

A couple years ago I wrote a couple Buzz posts (Do you remember Google Buzz?). Here's what they said.

What if I said you were a vampire, evil & dead to the core & your 1 hope for life, the thing you crave most, blood that's innocent and pure?

 

Would you call me crazy if I said that, in order to live, you must drown, you're a zombie, walking dead, & your 1 hope for life is suicide?

When it Rains it Pours

"When it rains it pours."

Everyone knows this phrase, has heard it, and probably used it. Basically, it means that nothing ever comes in small doses. If one thing is gonna go wrong, 10 things are going to go wrong. It's just the way it is, and recently this has proven to be incredibly true in my life. However, it is not necessarily proving true in the traditional meaning of the phrase.

Rain can be both negative and positive. Rain is life giving, refreshing, cooling. It is necessary for life. It is beautiful. It results in splashing in puddles, kissing/dancing in the rain, it adds life and color to plants and flowers. There are so many amazing, fun, beautiful aspects of rain, and I personally love a good rain storm!

Rain can be damaging as well. Too much rain can cause flooding, death, destruction of homes and landscapes. There are also many other dangerous thing that are associated with heavy rain, lightning, tornadoes, high winds, are all usually accompanied by rain. There are a lot of people who don't like the rain, especially lots of it. It makes everything damp and dark.

Value in Human Life? Part II

Ok, so a couple days ago I posed the question: Does human life have intrinsic value? I talked a lot about the entertainment that humanity has received from human injury/death throughout history, and how that seems to indicate that human life does not intrinsically have any value, but I also said that I disagreed, that I believe human life does have intrinsic value. So today, I'm gonna talk about why I believe this.

To begin, if human life, truly has no intrinsic value, than life is valued on its accomplishments/failures, contributions to/detractions from society/the world, what it does, or possible even what it has the potential to do, but that last one's moving more into granting intrinsic value. So naturally, we would determine a value of a life by examining it, and that value could change. Most likely, value would be highest during the peak of ones life, and life would be considered less valuable in the beginning, when it is unproven and unsure, and at the end, when the usefulness is winding down. Based on these assumptions, there could be a case made that the value of life is dependent on what it does. We see things like abortion and geronticide in the world, and strong arguments are made for all sorts of mass killings of "useless" drains on society. Whether, this is dependent on age, societal status, race, intelligence, health, etc... there have been plenty of proponents of this way of thinking throughout society, and while they may have logical arguments, they are viewed by most as deranged or evil or something like that. That seems to indicate to me that human life must have some sort of intrinsic value, because if not, why does the loss of life in those "drains" on society upset the general populace so much?

It's Time To Fight

As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything, "a time for war," and I think that we are entering into a time to fight.

Let me explain what I mean...

In today's society, everyone is incredibly concerned with peace, with not offending anyone, with being "politically correct," whether on a personal, public, business, or international level. It seems like that is all anyone cares about, and it is a big concern. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge war advocate, despite what this post is gonna sound like, and I want there to be peace as much as anyone else. Afterall, God tells us in Romans 12:18 "If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone." However, I think there is something incredibly dangerous in pursuing peace above all else, especially the way so many in the world define peace.

As I said before, people in the world today are so incredibly easily offended that in order for us to "live at peace with everyone" we have to tiptoe around, keep all of our beliefs, convictions, opinions, thoughts, etc... to ourselves, and apologize profusely anytime something you say or do happens to upset someone else because they don't agree with it. We are living in an age of relativity where everything is right and valid except for the belief that not everything is right and valid. If you happen to disagree that every belief is correct then your belief is not only incorrect (which fundamentally makes no sense), but you are labeled as an ignorant bigot full of hate and detrimental to society and progress. This is a dangerous world to be living in, but what is even more dangerous is that so many people buy into it hook, line and sinker, and so many people who should be fighting it, are allowing themselves to be conformed to the patterns pf the world we live in.

A Fairytale Life

Fairytales, in some fashion, have been around in virtually every culture since the beginning of time. We are fascinated with them, with the fanciful elements, the larger than life events, the extra evil villains, the super passionate romances, basically all the stuff that makes a fairytale and fairytale. Often, fairytales end with a "Happily Ever After," but not always.

For some reason (which I am going to guess at here), people are obsessed with fairytales. We love (or hate) them, but so much of what we do is based on them. They are the subject of countless movies, books, television shows, songs, etc... Disney has built a massive worldwide company, and it is largely around fairytales of some form.

While fairytales can be fun, fanciful stories, inspiring the imagination, and, especially today, leaving us feeling all warm and fuzzy, there are a lot of people who have a negative outlook on fairytales because they portray an unrealistic view of life, of love. I have heard the argument that fairytales (and that concept of idealized life, idealized relationships) are detrimental because they instill unrealistic expectations within people that leave them depressed or constantly searching because life isn't actually the way it is in the fairytale. No man is a Prince in Shining Armor. No woman is the perfect Princess. Good and Evil are not always so clear cut. Best of Intentions do not always work out. There is rarely a "Happily Ever After."

Crazy Christians

Christians really are pretty crazy. The stuff they believe, and the stuff they do (if they truly live their beliefs) is really crazy. So let's start by defining "crazy."

"senseless; impractical; totally unsound"
"intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited"
"very enamored or infatuated"

I was thinking about it recently, and many aspects and truths of Christianity are seemingly crazy. I can understand why there are so many people who genuinely don't get it, and genuinely think that Christians are nuts. I mean, seriously, while Christianity is sound, and can be proven logically, a lot of the truths seem illogical and insane until they are experienced.

Fight or Flight

FEAR

I've been thinking about this a lot in the last couple weeks. It seems to be popping up in various forms all around me, and God has been revealing some pretty cool things to me about it, so I thought I would share.

Fear is a very natural and very powerful emotion. In fact, I would argue that fear is potentially the most powerful emotion (potentially, because I believe love can potentially be the most powerful emotion, but these two are at odds with each other and only one can reign in your life). We have all experienced fear in some form or fashion in our lives. Sometimes this comes in the form of being scared of the dark, or clowns, or dogs, or spiders, or whatever. If I asked you to share what you are afraid of everyone would have a whole list of things, and most likely it would be filled with these sorts of things. Then there is fear of heights, crowds, public speaking, small spaces, things of that nature. Your list may be filled with several of these as well. Finally, there is fear of things like failure, rejection, shame, being alone, death, etc... Every one of us has these fears as well, but most often they will not make your list of things you are afraid of. They are very personal fears, and they have the capability to determine the direction of your life.

Fear has one extremely powerful attribute. It is capable of paralyzing. You've heard the expression "frozen with fear," and this is exactly what fear does. It freezes us, as least for a moment. This is obvious from life, from movies, etc... How many times do you see yourself or someone else get afraid and just freeze, or curl up, or hide, but you don't move. You get quite and still. You see this in the Bible as well.

Peter, after Jesus called him out onto the water, became afraid of the water, and instead of continuing to walk toward Christ. He froze and began to sink. Later, after Christ was arrested, Peter, who was brash and zealous by nature, became frozen with fear, hiding, and refusing to even admit that he knew Jesus. In the Old Testament you see the Israelites become fearful of the people in the Promise Land, and that fear caused them to stop following God, to stop moving forward, and resulted in them, literally, walking in circles for 40 years.

Fear paralyzes, but the natural response to fear is the complete opposite. This post is entitled "Fight or Flight." I'm sure you do, but in case you don't know, that is the body's natural response to fear. We are flooded with adrenaline, and we are prepared to either fight the danger that is scaring us or flee from it and protect ourselves. Either way, out bodies overcome fear by preparing us for action. What's interesting is that we can all see this with certain fears, such as if someone is attacking you, a tree limb is suddenly falling above you, someone is in a car accident, even with fears like bugs and dogs, but the concept is true for all fears.

Fear is overcome by action. When Peter began to sink, he reached out for Christ. He moved toward Him and was saved. In response to Peter's three denials of Jesus, Jesus, three times, called him to action "feed my lambs," "take care of my sheep," "feed my sheep." And, the Israelites, after 40 years, emerged from their fear induced wandering to widespread action, entering the land God promised and fighting those they were once afraid of.

How many times in our lives do we let fear paralyze us, and I'm talking about that last set of fears, the personal ones. How many times are we afraid of failure so we never try, afraid of being hurt so we refuse to love or open ourselves up, afraid of rejection or ridicule so we don't share God's love with those around us? I've seen it in my life many times. I let fear dictate what I will (or really what I won't) do, and many times it is something that God is calling me to do, but I don't because I let fear reign instead. But, just like fight or flight, living in that state of fear is not good for anyone, and the only way to break out of it is to act, and often that action is to do the very thing your are afraid of. Face your fear.

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God told Joshua, on many occasions, "Be strong and courageous." Courage, interestingly, is not necessarily being free of fear, but it is acting and pushing on in spite of fear. So be courageous.

Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the two most powerful emotions that I see are fear and love.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment." -- 2 Timothy 1:7

"There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear..." -- 1 John 4:18a  

God makes it clear in Scripture that we are not meant to be fearful. He has not designed us with a spirit of fearfulness. Rather, we are given a spirit of love, and where there is perfect love (Christ), fear is driven out. This gives new meaning to "with God all things are possible." With God (perfect love) all things are possible because He drives out fear, which paralyzes us, and invites us to action with Him.

What is God calling you to do in your life that maybe you are afraid of? What have you been frozen from doing because of some fear? Take the time today to ask God to drive out that fear and to help you to act in His love! 

*If you want to read a good fiction book that deals with fear and love. I suggest Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee.

 

Is Life Worth Living?

Over the weekend we saw a play at The Adobe Theater entitled, "Is Life Worth Living?" It was a good play, a comedy, and yet quite depressing at the same time. The basic gist of the play is that an acting group comes into a small quiet town in Ireland and puts on these serious plays that tackle deep/dark issues, which in turn reveal all the problems and issues in the town that no one acknowledged where there. They compare it to moving a stone in a grassy field and revealing all the creepy crawlers, worms and bugs. As a result of this, people start going nuts, killing themselves, killing others, all because they start to realize how messed up everyone is, and they start to ask the question "Is Life Worth Living?" and for many, the answer is "No." The play ends with the town kicking the acting group out before the cause more problems, and replacing them with a circus, where people can go and simply enjoy life. They relate it to putting the stone back over the worms and bugs. It is meant to be a happy ending, but I think it was one of the most depressing parts of the play. You see, everyone's eyes were opened to the fact that they had problems, that deep down they didn't find any purpose or meaning in life to validate continuing to live, and rather than seeking some answer or trying to fix what was wrong, they pulled the wool over their eyes again, plastered on a fake smile, buried their doubts and fears, and went to the circus.

This was an interesting play because it touched on a topic that so many people struggle with. Is life worth living? What's the point? It's so sad that so many people truly cannot answer this question, and w/o an answer, what is to keep them from ending their lives? This is something that people have struggled with since the beginning of time. In Ecclesiastes 1: we see Solomon say, "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind." This was Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, and he questioned whether there was any purpose or meaning to life, if it was worth living.

So I ask you, is life worth living? What do you think? If you say it is, why? What makes life worth living? What gives life meaning and purpose? This is a philosophical question, but a vitally important one. I recently heard a story of a man who had lost his wife, job, career, and because of it, because of the loss and the shame, he killed himself. He had asked someone close to him if he could give him some direction, some meaning, and this person told him he didn't know. This lack of hope, lack of meaning, lack of worth, resulted in absolute loss of life, which is devastating.

Some say family and friends give life meaning. Some say love. Some say helping others. Some say their jobs. Some say possessions/toys. Some say a purpose or cause to work for. Here's the problem though. All of those things can be taken away. If all of those things are taken away and you are stripped bare, what gives your life meaning. What makes life worth living? What makes it more than futility?

Solomon said that everything is futile, and for 12 chapters he goes on about how literally everything anyone does is meaningless, but in the final verses he comes to this conclusion: "When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity."  It all boils down to this. Is life worth living? Absolutely, but it's not worth living because of love, family, friends, pets, causes, jobs, money, possessions, health, helping others, etc... Those are all benefits of living, but they are not what makes life worth it. Life is worth it because God created you. He created your life and loves you. Our goal, our purpose should be to honor, love, and obey Him, and in and through that we find meaning and worth in life. Paul stated in Acts 17 "From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 For in Him we live and move and exist..."

In and of ourselves we are messed up. We have worms and bugs crawling beneath the surface, hidden by the makeup of a circus clown, but no matter how much laughter and enjoyment we use to cover up our problems, to place the rock over our issues, they are still there, and will eat us alive from the inside out until we are nothing more than a hollow shell that is easily shattered. We have nothing left inside, and in that place, life is not worth living. However, God supplies us with hope, with purpose, with meaning, with worth. He removes the rock over our lives, exposes all of our nasty worms and bugs, and rather than cover them back up, he gets rid of them. He removes the rock and allows that filth to be replaced with grass, flowers, life. We are emptied, but are not hollow shells, we are filled with His life and our worth is not found in the fleeting pleasures of this life, in the circus, but our worth is found in Christ! In Him we LIVE and MOVE and EXIST! He is LIFE and He gives us that life, and in and through Him, life is definitely worth living!

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him

I wrote this 3 years ago around Easter. I meant to post it yesterday, but couldn't access it on my phone for some reason, so here it is, a day late, but it's still close enough to Easter. Plus, it's true no matter what time of year it is.

These words were made famous by Friedrich Nietzsche*, but I am sure he was not the first to think or utter them. Close to 2000 years ago there were many with these words on their minds and mouths. Some were screaming them in total joy; others were whispering them in disbelief, shock, and horror, and still others were weeping them in mourning, but, just like Nietzsche*, all were wrong.

2000 years ago in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, a common punishment of the time, for heresy. There was something different about this death. Jesus was killed for claiming to be God, but the fact was that He was the Son of God, Jesus was God, God was dead, and all the forces of darkness and evil were thrilled, but they were wrong.

While Jesus died as a sacrifice for us. He did not stay dead, and no one killed Him. There has been controversy since He was crucified about who killed Him. Some blame the Jews, others blame the Romans, and Satan took pride in thinking he had slain his arch enemy, but the fact, again, is that no one killed God. He went willingly to the cross and laid himself out to die because He loves us, and in that one ultimate sacrifice, He saved us all eternally.

So when Nietzsche* says, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him," he, along with everyone else who ever has or ever will think or speak these words, is wrong.

God died (in an act of ultimate sacfricial love). He rose from the dead and remains alive today. He laid down His own life. No one took it from Him.

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" -- 1 Corinthians 15:54b-55

*For all you philosophical people out there, I know that Nietzsche was not necessarily talking about the physical and literal death of God, but about the symbolic death of God through the death and dissolving of religion and morals. While this is somewhat true, true religion, that which God accepts and is in, is not what Nietzsche or most people view it has. It has nothing to do with ritual or tradition.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -- James 1:27

This type of religion is not dead because the author and creator of it is not dead.

Happy Easter!

R.I.P. (For real this time)

So I realized today that my post yesterday may have been somewhat callous as it was entitled R.I.P. and was a joke about my car dying, when, in fact, there was a tragic school shooting in Ohio yesterday in which 3 kids, as of now, were killed.

So, I just wanted to take this time to offer my condolences to the families of those who were killed, and say that I am praying for them, for all of the students at the school, and for the student who comitted the shooting, as well as his family.

I may never understand why things like this happen, and it is so tragic when it does, but regardless of whetehr or not we understand the darkness in this world, I know that there is a light that pierces through the thickest darkness, that light is Jesus. He is hope, peace, comfort, and salvation when everything else is falling away.

Fat Tuesday

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, a day to indulge before Lent, 40 days of fasting. I've never really participated in either of these events, Mardi Gras or Lent, but I find it interesting that they are so closely tied together. Today is a day of revelry and partying, embracing everything from fatty foods to alcohol to sex. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with throwing a party and having a good time. Unfortunately, there is a lot wrong with many of the activities that take place along with the parties and celebrations on Mardi Gras. What I find so confusing about this celebration is the fact that it is so closely connected with Lent, with a time of fasting and worshipping God. So many people in the world give up something for Lent, and tomorrow marks the beginning of that with people placing ashes on their foreheads to mark mourning and repentance to God for their sins and faults. Now, what seems odd to me is why have a day in which you purposefully indulge in everything that you will then repent of the next day?

People are messed up, and people screw up all the time, but as a Christian, Christ has freed us from sin and given us salvation. The freedom does not mean that we can now indulge in whatever we want, whenever we want, because all we have to do is repent and everything will be ok. Repent, afterall, doesn't mean to say, "I'm sorry." It means a turning of the heart, true remorse over your actions and a desire and commitment to change. If you repent and fast for 40 days, but all the time knowing that the next year you will indulge again, this is not true repentance.

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." -- Galatians 5:13

"Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" -- Romans 6:1-2

I find it so sad that the parties and celebrations revolve around the fact that people are indulging in .. whatever. Essentially, it is a celebration of the sin in our lives, and almost a mourning over the fact that it will be going away for the next 40 days. Instead of throwing a party as a last hurrah for our sin, as Christians, we should be throwing a party every day in celebration of the freedom and salvation we have in Christ, not mourning or missing the old life that we gave up, and not using our freedom as an opportunity to sin more, but using it as an opportunity to love those around us! So today, instead of showering others with beads, shower those around you love.

God Bless!