Man's Insignificance?

Today a friend of mine on Facebook pointed out that today was Benjamin Franklin's birthday as well as being Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and wondered why we don't celebrate Benjamin Franklin as we do Martin Luther King, Jr. One person commented that Benjamin Franklin was (my paraphrasing) a womanizer and alcoholic so he wasn't really "deserving" of his own day, America's founding fathers were simply in the right place at the right time so they didn't really deserve our respect, and the comments went on and on from there. Essentially this person's platform was that man is flawed and thus undeserving of respect/admiration/honor, and only God is deserving of our respect/admiration/honor for the outcomes He brings about through us.

In my opinion, this is a very flawed point of view. If this was the case, if man and his actions are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, God wouldn't have put a single person's name in the Bible. God called Abraham His friend, called David a man after His own heart, calls us His sons and daughters; He loves us and doesn't want to devalue or marginalize what we have done for Him. For example, in the parable of the talents, the servants that did well were told to "enter into the joy of your Lord" - God is joyful when we are obedient to Him. I believe there's a big difference between respect/honor/admiration and worship. I don't hold Franklin, any of the forefathers, great spiritual leaders, or anyone in a place of worship. I might hold them in high regard for their accomplishments, but I would never worship them.

I believe God created a place for honor in our humanity. He said we will be given crowns in heaven (that we will cast at His feet). He instructs us to honor our father and mother and to respect the elderly. He killed 42 children with bears for making fun of Elijah. But as the example of Nebuchadnezzar and the golden idol show, man is not to be worshiped; that is a place reserved for God. So although man is flawed, I believe there is absolutely no issue with holding a person in a place of admiration for whatever reason you think them to be worthy, but when it comes to worship, our ultimate love, devotion, and praise belong to Jesus. Thoughts?

[NOTE] I can throw in some Bible verses to back up my statements, but I'm about to go to bed, so I'll add them later if someone needs to see them.

Final Goodbye

Blue,
I'm sorry I couldn't be there when you passed away. I'm sorry you had to go the way you did. You were a great friend to me for years. You were a beautiful cat. It saddens me to think that your beauty is now being hidden under the ground for nobody else to see. There won't be any more pictures, any more tail flaps, shoulder rides, hugs, pets, nothing. I'm having a hard time dealing with that. I've cried for almost two days now. Even though you were "just" an animal, you were a big part of my life and meant a lot to me, even though I've been mostly away from you for five years now. I'll always remember you and you will continue to be a part of my life in memories and pictures. I don't know if God has a place in heaven for pets, but if He does, you surely belong there. I thank God that He brought you into my family and that we had so many years together as friends. I love you and I miss you buddy. Goodbye friend.

Quickie

Reading Eugene Peterson...the below is lightly paraphrased:
"We don't get Jesus on our terms. Jesus and the salvation He embodies are not consumer items. Jesus provides both context and content for our salvation. None of us provides the content for our own salvation; it is given to us. Jesus gives it to us."

This reminded me of Ephesians 2:8 & 9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast.

There's a lot of thoughts you can derive from this. I need to go to bed so I won't go any deeper. Something good to think about though.

Resolutions

For some reason the first thing that popped in my head when I typed that title was The Supertones' song "Resolution". Classic. You might be able to hear it here. Or just Google "oc supertones resolution" it and it should be the first thing that pops up.

I've never really been one to make New Year's resolutions, my opinion has always been that they're just a silly tradition that everyone talks about but nobody really follows through with. At this time in my life, however, I do recognize that there are deficiencies to address and opportunities to take advantage of, and I haven't been doing that. It's way too easy to get lulled into the rhythm of wake-work-wind down-sleep-repeat x 5, weekend, start all over again. Following this pattern of the ordinary isn't going to get me anywhere except for where I am now. If I don't fix what's broken and seize what's possible, I'll be looking back 30/40/50 years down the road thinking, "what if..." I need to make the most of life now because zoning out in the ordinary/comfortable is going to be the death of me. Here we are:

1. Spend time daily in prayer/reading scripture.
I fail hard at this right now. Throughout this past year I've gone through phases where I do spend that time daily, at least reading. I reap the benefits of a sense of greater closeness with God, more joy, more peace, more love for other people, more patience...everything you can imagine that's good. But then distractions get ahold of me and I start to fulfill what the carnal self desires instead of what the spirit desires, and I am soon back where I began. I need God in my life daily, so I will start waking up at 5:30 every morning to spend at least 30 minutes reading/praying/meditating.

2. Lose weight by eating healther and working out.
From 15 - 25 I weighed about 185 pounds. Ever since cancer struck, I have been gaining fairly quickly. In the year that's passed since my last treatment I've put at least 40 pounds on. My plan is to work out at least 3 times a week, for at least 15 minutes or until I'm winded and have a sweat going.

3. Play more guitar.
I haven't played a whole lot of guitar lately at all. I still have the skills, I just don't use them. It's hard to have a desire to play when you don't have people/a band to play with. I can at least start thinking up music and recording that. I'd like to spend time at least once weekly playing. If a need arises at church for a guitarist, then that's great, but regardless of that, I need to play and continue to develop my talent. Even though I'm not what I would call "good", and probably won't ever be a Paul Gilbert or John Petrucci, there's still an expressiveness that comes with playing that makes me feel better.

4. Develop at least one Android application.
My dream is to develop THE killer Android app that everyone buys, make tons of money off of it, pay everything off here then move down to the Caribbean. The whole Caribbean thing is kind of a joke, but it would indeed be nice to have another source of income. If I have the time and talent available to do it, why not do it? Not only could this have financial benefits, but learning benefits as well. There is a book called "Hello Android" that goes through all of the basics of Android development to provide a foundation to start from. I already have a foundation in Java, so if I can also get the Android foundation built, I'm good to go. As soon as I get a copy of that book (will check the bookstore this week), I'll start on this.

5. Contribute to open source.
I've been using and loving Ubuntu for over four years now, and I've always wanted to contribute by writing some code, but didn't know where to get in at. I now have an idea for something I can contribute. I frequently find myself needing to resize pictures to a smaller size, but I've never had a really good tool to do this. I'd like to write something in Java that accepts one or more pictures, offer multiple options for how to do the resize, and spit out the resized files. Although I'm more of a C/Perl guy at heart, Java would ensure maximum cross-platform compatibility between Linux, Windows, and Mac (IF Jobs doesn't get his way and kills off Java on the Mac platform). Hopefully I can get started on this soon. I just need to find out if there are any good image manipulation libraries in Java, and if not, how to start writing them myself.

6. Veg less, learn more, do more.
This ties in strongly to all of the previous points. Many days I come home from work not feeling like doing anything, so...I don't do anything. This stops now. I will FORCE myself to do something. I can't let opportunities slip by or problems fester while I get my "wind-down time" every night. It's just being lazy. Sure, I need down time once in a while, but not every night.

So that pretty much sums it all up. For me, this won't be a walk in the park. It will require a fundamental change of life, of mind, and of will. It will be hard. But pushing forward through the difficulty to be a better person will be well worth it. I'm hoping that in 2012 I can look back at this post and check each piece off, reflect on how it has shaped me into who I am a year later, and what new challenges/goals are out there that I can strive for in another new year.