Sunday, March 14, 2010
Back Again
Back from the dead? Perhaps. We'll see. The wife has begun a blog on Tumblr, so maybe I'll attempt to blog yet again.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Latest Musings
Serious, not so serious...we'll see where this goes. I call it as I see it.
I finished Into the Wild this past weekend. I really enjoyed it. Again, the whole solitude thing still intrigues me. Granted, I too get cabin fever after awhile but there really is something about being by yourself that draws me. The psyche of Chris McCandless was also strange, and his will persistent. The guy was stubborn, and was not deterred by setbacks. He made it from Atlanta to the Alaska range in two years time. Great book. Lots of good stuff in there about survival and the story behind Chris's travels.
Racheal and I watched Music Within Saturday night. Dang, Wheels, great movie. It made me think of good times. Some of the best years of my life, spent in a relationship very similar to that seen in the movie. I truely enjoyed it man, but moreso, I enjoyed spending 3 years of my life in the same room as you. I won't ever forget it.
I read in Hebrews yesterday about how Jesus provides all we need to please Him. Depending on the translation:
THE MESSAGE
"...Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead, Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah."
NIV
"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever."
The rest of the big ones read similar to NIV. Anyway, it's amazing how Christ sets things in front of us. Equips us. Get's the ball rolling on things. It's not about our ability to decide, deal, act, etc. It's our God-given ability to percieve. To percieve Christ as soverign and in control. When we die to our own managment and lack of trust, some awesomet things can happen, but, how do you get there. When someone says "just trust the Lord" sometimes I wonder 'what does that even mean?' or 'how can I PRACTICALLY exercise this discipline?' Truely an intriguing question. How do you will your conciousness to 'trust'? What does that even mean? How does one go about reaching the 'end' of themselves, driving them to no other way but to bow in broken dependence on Jesus? On the sometimes sullen journal pages of introspection I've sometimes had no idea what to do with the Scripture and council I'm attempting to digest and process. I hear "do this...don't do that...think like this...don't worry about that." Recently I've come to the point of such confusion, exhaustion, and anguish to have only one response to it all: 'show me how'.
A part of that response is perhaps the weak man in me only wanting what Larry Crabb would call 'recipe', a formula by which to live and solve problems allowing me to retreat once more to the comfortable shelter where weakness lives and manages life quite nicely in such a small hut. But perhaps the 'show me how' tag is also (hopefully moreso) a step into darkness, to piggyback Crabb once more. Maybe it's the state of confusion that allows us to take that step into darkness...where there's no light, only the voice of Jesus. By uttering 'show me how' I'm asking, pleading with Jesus to guide me, help me make sense of it, and walk me through the darkness. This seems to illustrate a life where comfort is out the window. Not an easy choice to make, versus the far easier choice of retreating to manage little spheres where I've got it all figured out. Bowling. Selfishly, if my ego needs a little boost, I can always bowl. Because I'm good at it. I know the game. On the flipside, some experiences at my job have made me feel about an inch tall. Like my skull is filled with nothing but the space between my ears. It's then when it's most difficult to 'trust' that God is soverign over such a painful experience. It takes everything not to retreat in moments like that.
It's all utter chaos as Crabb might say, a chaos that yields the only helpful response...life abondoned to Christ.
This was a fun, stream-of-concious post. No answers, just questions.
I finished Into the Wild this past weekend. I really enjoyed it. Again, the whole solitude thing still intrigues me. Granted, I too get cabin fever after awhile but there really is something about being by yourself that draws me. The psyche of Chris McCandless was also strange, and his will persistent. The guy was stubborn, and was not deterred by setbacks. He made it from Atlanta to the Alaska range in two years time. Great book. Lots of good stuff in there about survival and the story behind Chris's travels.
Racheal and I watched Music Within Saturday night. Dang, Wheels, great movie. It made me think of good times. Some of the best years of my life, spent in a relationship very similar to that seen in the movie. I truely enjoyed it man, but moreso, I enjoyed spending 3 years of my life in the same room as you. I won't ever forget it.
I read in Hebrews yesterday about how Jesus provides all we need to please Him. Depending on the translation:
THE MESSAGE
"...Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead, Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah."
NIV
"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever."
The rest of the big ones read similar to NIV. Anyway, it's amazing how Christ sets things in front of us. Equips us. Get's the ball rolling on things. It's not about our ability to decide, deal, act, etc. It's our God-given ability to percieve. To percieve Christ as soverign and in control. When we die to our own managment and lack of trust, some awesomet things can happen, but, how do you get there. When someone says "just trust the Lord" sometimes I wonder 'what does that even mean?' or 'how can I PRACTICALLY exercise this discipline?' Truely an intriguing question. How do you will your conciousness to 'trust'? What does that even mean? How does one go about reaching the 'end' of themselves, driving them to no other way but to bow in broken dependence on Jesus? On the sometimes sullen journal pages of introspection I've sometimes had no idea what to do with the Scripture and council I'm attempting to digest and process. I hear "do this...don't do that...think like this...don't worry about that." Recently I've come to the point of such confusion, exhaustion, and anguish to have only one response to it all: 'show me how'.
A part of that response is perhaps the weak man in me only wanting what Larry Crabb would call 'recipe', a formula by which to live and solve problems allowing me to retreat once more to the comfortable shelter where weakness lives and manages life quite nicely in such a small hut. But perhaps the 'show me how' tag is also (hopefully moreso) a step into darkness, to piggyback Crabb once more. Maybe it's the state of confusion that allows us to take that step into darkness...where there's no light, only the voice of Jesus. By uttering 'show me how' I'm asking, pleading with Jesus to guide me, help me make sense of it, and walk me through the darkness. This seems to illustrate a life where comfort is out the window. Not an easy choice to make, versus the far easier choice of retreating to manage little spheres where I've got it all figured out. Bowling. Selfishly, if my ego needs a little boost, I can always bowl. Because I'm good at it. I know the game. On the flipside, some experiences at my job have made me feel about an inch tall. Like my skull is filled with nothing but the space between my ears. It's then when it's most difficult to 'trust' that God is soverign over such a painful experience. It takes everything not to retreat in moments like that.
It's all utter chaos as Crabb might say, a chaos that yields the only helpful response...life abondoned to Christ.
This was a fun, stream-of-concious post. No answers, just questions.
Friday, February 27, 2009
25 Albums that changed my life!
Think of 25(ish) albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that musically shaped your world.
This is fun!!!
A Thorn for Every Heart - Things Aren't So Beautiful Now
Acceptance - Phantoms
Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal
Anberlin - Cities
Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead
As Cities Burn - Son I Loved You At Your Darkest
August Burns Red - Thrill Seeker
Copeland - In Motion
David Crowder Band - A Collision (or 3+4=7)
Emery - The Weak's End
Emery - The Question
Falling Up - Crashings
Jamisonparker - Sleepwalker
Mae - The Everglow
Mae - Singularity
MuteMath - Reset EP
Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Saosin - Saosin
Showbread - No Sir, Nihlism is not Practical
Terminal - How the Lonely Keep
The Academy Is... - Almost Here
The Used - In Love and Death
Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety
Underoath - Define the Great Line
Vedera - The Weight of an Empty Room
This is fun!!!
A Thorn for Every Heart - Things Aren't So Beautiful Now
Acceptance - Phantoms
Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal
Anberlin - Cities
Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead
As Cities Burn - Son I Loved You At Your Darkest
August Burns Red - Thrill Seeker
Copeland - In Motion
David Crowder Band - A Collision (or 3+4=7)
Emery - The Weak's End
Emery - The Question
Falling Up - Crashings
Jamisonparker - Sleepwalker
Mae - The Everglow
Mae - Singularity
MuteMath - Reset EP
Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Saosin - Saosin
Showbread - No Sir, Nihlism is not Practical
Terminal - How the Lonely Keep
The Academy Is... - Almost Here
The Used - In Love and Death
Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety
Underoath - Define the Great Line
Vedera - The Weight of an Empty Room
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Into the Wild, Into your Heart
I began reading 'Into the Wild' last night. I made it roughly 30 pages, and I think I'm hooked already. A story of a man who drops everything and enters into the snow-laden wilderness of Alaska. There's something about survival stories that stirs me. I've always liked them, even down to tuning into 'Survivor Man' or 'Man vs Wild' on the Discovery Channel whenever I see either on.
I don't know if it's the idea of isolation that intrigues me, as I'm naturally introverted and enjoy a healthy dose of solitude. I like to think of Christ's desire to remove himself from things and pray alone. The New Testament explains that Jesus often withdrew to isolated locations to be by himself.
There's something about solitude that appeals to me. Not as a means of escape, because I love being with my wife Racheal and around friends, but more as a place of rest. A place of peace. A chance to take a breath. For me, solitude in any form is a time to clear my head. A time to pray, reflect, and be in one-on-one community with the Lord. A time to face the reality of our heart and subconscious...which might not be a pretty site on a given day.
I can't wait to finish Into the Wild and learn more about Chris McCandless and why he did what he did. I don't think his reason for isolating himself was rooted much in spiritual reasoning, but I'm thoroughly intrigued!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
New(again)
Once upon a time, I started this blog. It had been awhile since I regularly posted on Xanga, because well, Facebook killed with it's Note feature. Fair enough. I think what happened was, I got the urge to blog one day and started this. You can see it was almost a year and a half ago and I never posted on it. I think a lot of that had to with being in a long distance dating relationship with my wife. At the time of the first/previous/only post of this blog, I had been dating Racheal for about 24 hours. I just never made it back to www.jeffburnett.blogspot.com. Which is good in a way, because I gave nearly 100% of my attention to my relationship, which is now a marrage. But things have settled down a little now. We're married, living happily in Starkville and both working. With the 40 hour work week routines, it's easier to have some downtime. Even aside from all that, I kind of miss blogging. I enjoyed posting regularly, just writing my thoughts, processing life on the screen, hearing others' reactions. It's theraputic, really. I was reading through some of my old Xanga posts and remembering old times. Maybe that's the source of this inclination to post. Either way, I read blogs of my peers a lot and enjoy it, so maybe it's time to return the sentiment.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
New
So through setting up a blog much more user friendly than the long-deceased Xanga, perhaps my blogging habits will pick up again. Stay tuned.
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