Hurt

I have always found certain song lyrics fascinating. I think that a regular feature on this blog will be an analysis of songs and what they may or not mean.

Starting with “hurt”. This song was originally performed by Nine Inch Nails, and later covered (famously) by Johnny Cash as his final hit before dying. Every time I hear this song, it draws me in and leaves me contemplating life and what we make of it.

If you have never heard this song give it a listen. I have included the Johnny Cash version because the original Nine Inch Nails version has questionable language in it.

Here are the lyrics in case you missed something.

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar's chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

There is something about someone like Johnny Cash (or Trent Reznor) reflecting on the extremes in their lives that dwarfs the drama in our own lives.

A needle tearing a hole may not call to mind an old familiar sting for me, but I can certainly relate with the feeling of wanting to know that I am still real. It is easy to get into what we like to refer to as a rut in life. We start pursuing (on a daily basis) the means to maintain whatever lifestyle we have decided we must have. Whatever ambitious motivations may have driven us in our youth are buried beneath a pile of paperwork that we stare at from 9-6. The routine of waking, working, eating and sleeping again slowly whispers us into a quiet submission to the fact that our ‘empire’ has become a quite dull and unimaginative kingdom.

Do you ever wish you could start again?

Does God offer a magic reset button? Is it possible to start again?

When you find yourself at the end of your rope, when you have nowhere else to go, what options do you have available to you?

Where do you go when you realize that the life you have put together for yourself is not exactly what you imagined?

Please leave your thoughts here!

What Does God Think About Cruelty to Animals?

What does God think about cruelty to animals? I love dogs, and I hate to see things like this. What does God think about a self-proclaimed artist allowing one of His precious creations to starve to death while chained up? Is there any validity to the argument that we should be more concerned about the injustices done to humanity than the death of one dog? Is there any chance that God could possibly shed his favor on someone who could take another life in his hands in this way. Does God consider this art?

I am so disgusted by this that I absolutely had to post it here and ask anyone reading this to follow the link below and make your feelings known. Also, please leave your comments here.

Please visit this site and weigh in.

What do you think God thinks about this. Comment below.

Thank you.

Need a good laugh?

What makes God laugh? How does God keep heaven from getting boring? I mean, here on earth, we have comedies, we have jokes and comedians who tell them, and we have these outrageous situations that befall us or those close to us that (if we allow them to) make us laugh. But what does God find funny? Does God have a sense of humor? Is God a totally unemotional deity with no interest in human dealings? What do you think?

What do I find funny?

TV shows: "The Office", "Family Guy", "The Simpsons", "Seinfeld", "Arrested Development"
Movies: "Tommy Boy", "The Simpsons Movie", "Anchorman"

Life: Don't get me started... actually, do. I can't think of anything right now. I guess I just don't know you well enough yet. Get the conversation going will ya?

Leave a comment.... cmon, itll be fun!

What does God think about Hells Kitchen?

Have you seen this new show Hell’s Kitchen? How about the spin-off Kitchen Nightmares? They both feature famed chef Gordon Ramsay. This foul-mouthed, purveyor of fine dining spends time on these nationally syndicated shows demonstrating better ways to prepare meals.

Gordon has a trademark style that keeps his contestants and guests on their toes. His confidence in his trade gives him the poise to belittle the sub par offerings of those around him. I am not at all sure if there is anyone in the cooking world that could go head to head with him without breaking a sweat.

So, what does God think about this arrogant chef? What does He think about these edgy shows? Does He approve? Disapprove? Where does all this fall in the scheme of things?

Let’s look at three aspects of our hot-tempered chef and his shows. As I already mentioned, Chef Ramsay is arrogant. It should also be noted that he lives by his convictions. Finally,

Chef Ramsay is arrogant, lives by his convictions, and is painfully belittling to many of the people around him.

I think most people that consider themselves religious would immediately infer that God dislikes Mr. Ramsay (at best) and quite possibly believe that He hates him. This would of course be based on the arrogance thing. Proverbs says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, so how could God not oppose someone as arrogant as this?

On the other hand, how can you pass judgment on someone who stands by his convictions so passionately? Gordon consistently demonstrates that what he says he believes is how he acts, and he apparently holds himself to the same standards that he expects from others. Does this add any weight to the issue?

As a result of this unique cocktail of traits – arrogance, confidence, passion, conviction – he tends to belittle those around him. The brutality with which he inflicts these attacks can almost always guarantee a flinch among the audience at home. How can someone this cruel be anything other than appalling to God?

What does God think?

Anyone who spends anytime on this blog will soon learn that all questions regarding people will have a very similar response. The question of how God feels about any person can always be answered with, “He loves them”. Period. Whether the person in question is me, you or the most angry, vindictive person you know, the answer is always that He loves them. That being said, this would be an awfully boring blog, if every person that came under the gun so to speak was let off with a generic, “He loves them”. So what are God’s feelings on this one?

I believe that God is far more complex than we could ever comprehend. As such, His thoughts on anything would be impossible to catalog. However, I think it is safe to say that He loves the spunk and creativity of this powerful, passionate chef. The fact that people are improved by his rough nature probably brings a bit of a smile to the face of God. However, it is quite likely that he is disappointed with the way that the special skills and talents that He so generously gave this man are not being accredited to Him. Anytime we think that we are great on our own merit, we carve a distance between ourselves and the one who made us. I believe this makes Him sad.

Conclusion:

God loves Gordon Ramsay. He designed him and gave him some amazing gifts and talents. It is however sad that the relationship between God and His creation Gordon seems to be in disrepair.

What Does God Think About This Blog?

So many things to talk about, what to start with? Let us start with the thing that will most likely be the most oft asked question. What does God think about people who claim to speak for Him? This I suppose will be somewhat redundant of earlier posts about religion, but still probably needs to be penned. Or typed anyway!

As it seems that I will be undertaking the task of revealing God’s opinion about various things, I should talk about what I think that God thinks about people who talk about what He thinks about!

It is my strong belief that God makes himself known through his creation. You can’t look at the world around us and not see the design behind it all. If the manner in which the all-powerful One chooses to reveal Himself is through His creation, why shouldn’t I take my place alongside the rest of creation in declaring the wonders of the one who created me?

For the record, I believe that no man can know the thoughts or intents of God. However, we can discover a great deal about His character and nature, and certainly guess at what He thinks about. In stark contrast of all the bad things said and done, “in the name of God”, I hope to buck the trend and create a place where open discussion can take place with the ultimate goal of revealing God.

(Re) Focusing

After starting this blog, I realized that I needed a better understanding of what I was doing. So I started a few other blogs. Pretty generic stuff. Some of my favorite pictures from people. A rant about bad drivers. A rebuttal to an anti-Mary Kay site. You can check them out if you would like, and I will probably still give them some attention as I still need an outlet for my opinions. However, the more time I spent creating and nurturing these facets of things that are important to me, the more I realized that the one thing that is most important to me is talking about what I think God wants to say to the world.

I changed the layout of the site because as I was trying to reread what I wrote previously, and realized that the headache I was getting was not as a result of my particular style of writing (I wrote it, I should be able to appreciate the styling of my own writing I think!) but rather because reading white text on a sea of black is draining. Sorry!

My renewed interest is due in part (if not fully) to my new (e)friend Scam. He has a blog that exposes various scams. Updated daily (sometimes several times in one day), this site is ALWAYS a good read! Educational and entertaining! If you suspect something is a scam, hoax or in general just a little shady, be sure and check out his site. If he hasn’t already tackled the question you have, shoot him an email, and you will most likely see your subject within a few days! One of the things that I most appreciate about this blogger is his open mind and willingness to concede that his opinion may not be the most accurate. Please enjoi! (I go by Jon on that site so if you do stop in, tell him Jon sent you!)

So, in the interest of keeping myself sane, I am going to combine my other “pursuits” into this blog. I will still give some attention to the other blogs, but this one will get the better chunk of my attention. It will be a bit of a smorgasbord of themes, ideas and thoughts, but all with the focus of looking at things from God’s point of view!

Thanks to all my visitors so far, and I hope you enjoi the ride as we endeavor to discover what (if anything) God thinks about!

What Does God Think About the Virginia Tech Killings?

Well this is obviously going to be a hot one. It also will likely get lost in the shuffle of everyone else who wants to comment on this situation. Nonetheless, it needs to be discussed. When something so tragic happens, it falls into the category of "things that we as humans need to talk about". Yes, I just invented that category, and no I have no idea what it is a category of. So you can classify everyone as either needing to talk about it or not needing to talk about it. Most of the ones that don't need to talk about it, also probably fall into the category of people that think no-one should talk about it and we should just forget it ever happened. If you are one of the latter, why are you reading this post? I submit that most of the people that want to just leave it behind us, are the ones that really need to talk about it but the thought of doing that is just to painful.

Moving on, if it must be discussed, and thoughts and feelings must be expressed, than for my part this is tragic. How painful an event like this is. Painful to those involved. The victims obviously, their loved ones and even casual acquaintances for that matter. The gunman, whether you consider him a victim, a heartless killer or both, has both experienced and caused a great deal of pain. Painful for the outside observers. So many of us that are "affected" by this tragedy have no connection to anyone involved at all. Nonetheless, it is painful for us to see life lost in such a sudden, unexpected manner and in such large quantity. And finally, painful for all of humanity when such a tragic occurence spurs and brings out the worst in certain subsets of society. YouTube and other social media sites are instantly flooded with opinions and vulgar expressions more disturbing than the impetus that set them off.

As if it isn't hard enought to process the thoughts and feelings brought on by this tragedy there comes the accusations against the character and nature of God. Almost immediately there is an internal struggle to understand why God would allow this to happen. To add to the dilemma, opportunistic doubters see this as an ideal time to forward the case for an absent Deity. "If God were real, this could not have possibly happened" they seem to scream from every athiestic outlet. So in the midst of all this chaos, what does God think about the situation. If given the opportunity what would He say to those affected by the recent events and inevitable barage of follow up. What does He think about Seung-Hui Cho, his victims, and the loved ones hurt by his actions? What does He think about the autorities who are being blamed for this tragedy? What does He think about all the opportunistic vultures preying on this tragedy to advance their own opinions and agendas?

First of all, Bible teaches that God loves all of His creation. This extends to everyone involved. Period. In the Bible, Matthew 18:14 quotes Jesus as talking about a little child said "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." God sees all people as His children. He created each of us including Seung-Hui Cho. He gives us the opportunity to turn our hearts to Him and recognize Him as our creator and reason for existing. There is of course a consequence for not coming to this realization. This is not an appropriate venue to talk about that though. For more details about this subject, please follow the following link. What Does God Think About? The important thing is that God did not WANT this to happen. When He created Cho, He designed Him with talents and desires and a purpose that would have testified to the greatness of God's design. However, God does not force any of us to follow the path that He lays out for us. Once we stray from the plan, there is no guarantee where we will end up. Just like when I give someone directions to my house. If they follow those directions, they will get here. If they decide that some of the turns are too dificult or they could get here quicker if they take a shortcut (good luck in LA) than I can no longer guarantee that they will get here at all.

So somewhere and for some reason, Cho went off track. He left the designated route that God had planned for him. Most of us do this. In fact we all have. Going back to the Bible, Isaiah talking about Jesus long before He was born said,
"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
God did not want for this to happen, He wasn't powerless to stop it, He simply loves us so much that He is willing to allow us to make our own decisions and live with the consequences. We are also told in the Bible that God makes himself known to all of us in one way or another and we are all given the decision to make... Embrace God or Reject Him? I don't know Cho, I don't claim to know what his life was like. Anyone with a tv or internet connection can tell that he carried a lot of pain. Regardless of the fact that I know nothing more about him than the majority of the population, I am confident that God made himself known to this young man and gave him the opportunity to exchange his pain for the acceptance and love that only God can offer. Several times, Cho references Jesus as either his motivation or his tormentor (hard to tell for sure) I believe that he says "Jesus enjoys crucifying me" and that he did this to be like Jesus, "dying to inspire generations of weak and defenseless people" It is sad that the purest and most selfless act of all time (Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising back to life) could be compared to one of the most blatantly selfish acts of current events (the mass murder of innocent lives) is ironically tragic.

Is Seung-Hui Cho in hell right now? Is he suffering for the pain he caused? These are questions that cannot be answered by me. They are between him and his Creator. Jesus gave His life so that none of us would have to die separated from God. However, if we choose to reject God while we are alive, He has no choice but to give us what we have asked for... eternity separated from Him. While that may sound acceptable to anyone who would prefer not to believe in Him, it is actually a very scary thing to consider. Consider this. If God does exist, and it is His presence moving in and among those loyal to Him that keeps the attrocities like these from occuring more frequently. What would happen if that presence were gone and the only thing left governing you and the people around you was each persons selfish agenda for their life. Do you really think that business ethics has any place in a world where God is not a part of the picture? Do you really think that there would be LESS corruption and LESS hatred and anger without God? Do all of the problems in this world really even have a chance of being as a result of all these God-believers? To suppose that is insane. Doesn't it seem more likely that without people holding themselves and others up to a moral compass based on the instructions of the One that created them, there would be MORE problems? I will leave you with that thought.

In the meantime, know that God is intensely interested in your life and would like nothing more than to show you how much He loves you. He is only waiting for the opportunity to do so. Only you can create that opportunity. He will never force Himself on you.

David Shepherd