Eschatology, Eggs, and Love

Hey All,

I woke up Sunday and thought about two things: that between It’s The End Of The World As We Know It and Losing My Religion I bet REM noticed a spike in iTunes downloads this weekend and I thought about Harold Camping and the folks who bought into his May 21^st prophecy. Having beliefs shattered, no matter how far fetched those beliefs are, hurts. They went way out on a limb and that sucker snapped on them. Believing in something so much that you’ve orientated your life around them, to accommodate them, and then to have those beliefs prove unfounded and misguided is certainly cause for some serious introspection.

What do we do when a belief, hope, or dream is proved false, unrealistic, or misguided? Do we overreact and walk away from all of our beliefs, hopes, and dreams? Do we hold on even tighter to the ones that haven’t failed yet? For me it helps to hold onto these things with an open hand rather than a fist. I’m sure there are some unchanging and constant truths but my beliefs are not necessarily those truths. I’ve been wrong a lot. Here are a few of my favorites:

I’ve been baptized so not sinning will be easy now.

Obama will be different than other presidents.

The Kingdom of God and America are one in the same.

There is a Santa.

Drinking helps me cope with problems.

My heart is too hard for God to save me.

I remember the beliefs I had and pray for those folks. I read interviews with the folks here and I hope that they will be able to pick up the pieces of their houses built on eschatological sand and move to locations with more solid ground. That maybe this moment of brokenness will prove to be the moment when God broke through. That they were able to see the how some of these beliefs were distracting them from the life God has for them right now.

Prophecy and Eschatology are dicey things. The certainty that comes with an emphasis on tangible dates and events is an amazing high. The dizzying sense of relief that can accompany the notion of the Almighty hitting a reset button or handing out easy exits to the messes we’ve made of our lives is sweet. The idea of a magic bullet or cure all is tempting. I want total control or no control at all whichever gets me out of the pain I’m in right now. The belief in those things has typically left me burnt, jaded, emotionally hung-over, and spiritually cold. This brings me to eggs.

When I was in middle school the Incredible, Edible, Egg commercial was on all the time. I grew up believing that eggs were good for me, unless of course the eggs represented my brain on drugs…any way eggs were good for me until high school then all this research came out and said that eggs raised cholesterol and were to be avoided. Then in my 20’s these same health professionals came back and said egg whites were okay. That it was the yolks of the eggs that were the cause of heart exploding cholesterol. Now there are studies saying that cholesterol may not be as bad for us as we were told and that eggs are okay again. I’ve had the goal post regarding eggs moved so many times over the last 20 years that I’ve given up listening. You know what hasn’t changed: eat right and exercise. That simple concept hasn’t changed once. Through all the fad diets, new research, exciting developments in fat vacuuming, and tummy staples eat right and exercise has been constant. Sure, health risks are still present. No amount of exercise will erase genetics. But, if I eat right and exercise I’ll probably be okay. This brings me back to prophecy and eschatology.

There are armies of talking heads and oceans of spilled ink on the who, what, when, where, and how of the world ending. Every year the National Enquire unleashes new prophecies and predictions. Entire forests have been decimated in the back and forth quarreling and hand wringing in the wake of the Left Behind series. The health community’s stance on eggs in contrast to the entire hubbub over prophecies and eschatology seems as constant as 2+2=4.

What I’m left with, in light of these eschatological adventures in missing the point, is that regardless of what happened on May 21^st, regardless of what happens in the next five minutes, is that while here Jesus called us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” To me this is the spiritual equivalent of “Eat right, and Exercise.” If I try to love God and love neighbors as myself regardless of outside factors I’ll be okay.

Have a good one,

Carl

Greetings, Reasons, and Expectation Management

Hey All,

Welcome to Misfit Missives. The reason for this blog is to explore matters of faith, scripture, and beliefs as I see them through the lenses of my varying contexts and to engage with others in a dialogue. Let’s begin with why Misfit Missives?

Misfit is a label that I identify with very much. Merriam-Webster defines a misfit as a person who is poorly adapted to a situation or environment. Misfit is a word that by it’s very meaning conjures up an us vs. them framework. If I am a misfit in one situation or environment then that must mean there are those who do “fit” in said situation or environment and I’m not one of them. This also means that those who do fit that situation or environment are then misfits in my situation or environment. At any given moment in some shape or form we’re all misfits. Now I don’t mean that in a warm fuzzy feel good way. “Hey, we’re all misfits here! Let’s hug!” No, to be a misfit is to recognize the space in between any given situation or environment and make a choice as to which situation or environment you’re going to be a misfit of and that’s not easy. For example, to be a Christian, to strive to follow Christ, for my allegiance to lie with the kingdom of God, means that there are situations and environments that I will be a misfit in and that gets messy.

Since it’s going to get messy I’d like to make clear right up front that anything I post on this blog will be from my vantage point as informed by my contexts. The idea and notion of an All Encompassing Truth is not something that I perceive to be within the grasps of humans. At best we catch glimpses, flashes, glimmers of truth through a dim and dirty glass. What will be contained here will be my thoughts, experiences, hopes, and notions of those flashes as seen by me through my rather smudged glass. These are my thoughts not the thoughts. Anything you post here I will take to be your thoughts not the thoughts.

Missive, again according to the good folks at Merriam-Webster, is a written communication. These posts will be written in letter form so as to encourage dialogue. While I’m certain that the vast majority of them will go out largely unnoticed, like old broadcasts of I Love Lucy drifting through space, it is my hope to begin an exchange with readers who are so inclined.

However, I’m not interested in debate. It has been my experience that when I debate I lose sight of trying to understand where another human is coming from and instead focus on defending and fortifying my own positions. I will try my best not to engage in that sort of communication here. If debate is what you are hoping for I would encourage you to seek another forum. This being the internet there is no shortage of outlets for such communication. I would like this to be a safe place for questions and exploration. The guiding principle for feedback and dialogue will be seeking to understand one another rather than being understood by one another. Any comments left in the feedback that I find to be counterproductive to this goal will not be posted.

So, welcome to Misfit Missives. Let’s see where this takes us.

Have a good one,

Carl