To Say or Not To Say.... That is the Questions!

So its been over a week since my last post and I apologize if you have been checking this blog every day for a new post ha. But over these past weeks I got to ponder what to write about. A month or so ago at the Christian Student Union (CSU) we had a guest come in discuss their view on homosexuality. If two people of the same sex are "In Love" then she believed that it homosexuality wasn't a sin and they should be allowed to get married. Many people in the audience did not have the same views as she did, and had strong Biblical evidence to back up their claim against her claim. Many people believed that homosexuality is a sin. They became anxious and began to debate with the woman on her views and Biblical evidence that homosexuality isn't a sin. Many people in the audience felt compelled to correct the woman in her theology. I, having debated this subject with friends over the past 5 years, sat back and wasn't compelled to speak up and correct the lady. Afterwards many people asked of my opinion on the matter and unlike most people I didn't feel compelled to attack the woman on her views. I was content to sit back and listen to what she had to say, but the Bible does talk about correcting people who speak of false teachings. 2 Timothy 3:16 states,

"All Scripture is God-breathes and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."

This made me wonder. When should I speak up and correct someones beliefs and when should I sit back and listen to what someone has to say? I am not really sure to be honest. As Christians we are called to respect others, but we are also called to correct people when they are not speaking the truth. James 1:19 says

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be Quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry"

So when does correcting someone cross the line of disrespecting someone? This question has continued to trouble me and I haven't found a clear cut answer, but over spring break my mother gave some good advice. She stated that "We should correct someones teachings, be it theology or belief, if they know better, and should listen to peoples beliefs and sit back when they don't." This really made me think. How often do I do that? That woman speaking at the CSU has been apart of the church for a long time and I would have to agree that correcting here views was appropriate, but so often Christians, including myself, interrupt people's arguments in a disrespectful way. Many people have not studied the Bible in depth and it would be wrong for Christian to correct their argument before listening and talking to them in a respectful way.

To conclude, I still don't know when to listen versus attacking and correcting, but I believe my mom has a good rule of thumb to consider.

Can't Touch This!

Texting and Driving—Powerful Video

Texting and Driving—Powerful Video

My grandfather sent me a link to this video in an e-mail. Its definitely worth watching and sharing with you. If you would like to read the blog where my grandfather found I'll put the link below. And if you are having trouble getting the video to go to full screen, click on the actual video and it will take you to You Tube and then you can watch it full screen there.

http://www.caryschmidt.com/

Stress ahhhh!

STRESSED OUT!!! Man has it been a crazy few weeks. It seems that this semester is like 100000000000000000 times as busy compared to last semester. Haha well its not that bad but this week has just so busy! So that made me wonder. What does a "Wise" person do to deal with the stress of being busy?

So I  decided to go to the Bible for an answer. As I debated about which verse to choose I stumbled upon Jeremiah 6:16 which is in the Old Testament. It states

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls"

At first I read this and was like "What are you talking about?" It doesn't really answer anything. It raises more questions than answers. "What crossroads?" "What paths?" "Who do I ask?' At first it didn't help me at all, but before I started looking for another verse I thought about it a little more. I began to read over what I wrote on the 1st of Feb. and realized that is the answer!

I began to think about what Jesus is saying in Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.......and you will find rest for your souls." 

I love how both verse state "you WILL find rest". It doesn't say "you may" or "you probably will" find rest but "You Will find rest." Its a promise that is being made from God and its a promise I forget to take up every day. I forget that all I have to do is walk down the path of life with Jesus and I Will find rest. How awesome is that promise? 

So tonight I am gonna to follow through with Jesus's Promise. 

(Four heads are better than two. Me and my Brother messing with Photo Booth on my Apple)

This weekend I got a ride back to Newport News and surprised my family. After a stressful week of tests, papers, and quizzes it was nice to go home and relax. My family is awesome and have been very blessed to have them. Both of my grandparents live 5 minutes away form my house, so as a kid I always got to see them. I love them very much, and Saturday I got to visit them again. 

The entire day I went around to their houses and visited with them for a few hours each. It was so refreshing to talk to them. It may seem weird to think that talking to my grandparents was refreshing but it was. Just getting to visit and talk to them about my college experience and hearing all of their life experiences relieved a lot of the stress from last week. This struck me because I didn't think talking to my family would "relive stress" ha. I knew getting away from school and chillin in my house would relieve help but surprisingly my stress was relieved by visiting and talking to my family. 

I began to think about this as I drove back to JMU. I never realized the importance of family. When I would think of stories of wisdom, there is a one story that always comes to mind. It starts with a very knowledgeable man who decides to travel around the world to seek for a teacher that can tell him the meaning of life. He ends up climbing this huge mountain and after talking with the teacher finds that the meaning of life is all around him that there was no need to climb all the way to the top of a mountain to find it. There are many variations of that story and I just did a very very rough and brief summary of it, but I feel it has a lot of truth. We don't need to go to the top of mountains to find wisdom, its right there under our noses. Its with our family. We can learn so much by just talking with our family and listening about their past experiences. What a weekend!

Here is at least on of the many versions of the story I summarized. http://www.thinkers.net/forum/showthread.php?s=53a6bef91a0051165cd3b563696b0bcc&t=938

Random Picture of me racing Toilet Bowls at Church. Yes Toilet Bowls!!

Man, this week has been extremely busy. For some reason all my teachers decided to have all their tests and quizzes during the same week—but I’ll survive. It did not help that I went on a snowboarding trip to Canaan Valley in West Virginia this past weekend! Needless to say I had not time to study. It snowed the first day we where there so the conditions were perfect for snowboarding. I went on the trip with my church from my hometown-Newport News. 

To be completely honest, I agreed to go for the sole fact that I would get to snowboard, but my youth pastor had a different idea. He planned a worship service for the group to attend every night after we had been out on the slopes. When I heard that I was not too excited. I just wanted to go snowboarding and relax afterward. I did not understand why we couldn't just go on a "fun trip.”

Our first worship service was Friday night, so I led worship and then my youth pastor talked for about 30 minutes to a bunch of middle and high schoolers about ancient stories found in the Old Testament. In my opinion the talk was awful. For thirty minutes he went in circles about old kings meeting God on the mountaintop. I felt that he should had been preaching the Gospel instead of some boring stories from the Old Testament.  None of the youth seemed to be engaged in what he was talking about and it was just plan boring.

After the worship service was over, I went back to my room and just thought about how useless the evening had been. In my room I had two younger guys and we were supposed to spend some time reading from the bible and reflect how it applied to worship. I didn’t particularly like the subject we had learned about earlier in the night, so I suggested we look over a passage in Matthew. Matthew 11:28-30 says:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

Because we had been snowboarding all day and we were exhausted, I felt like the students would find this passage extremely relevant. I felt that the guys could use this verse while they where out on the mountain, and told them that if they felt like they were tired, to think about Jesus and pray a quick prayer for rest and comfort.  I knew it wasn't the best "devotion" time but I felt like it was short, sweet, and to the point—a lot easier than remembering all the ancient kings that were talked about earlier in the night from and how that would apply to our lives.

Sunday morning came around before I knew it, but before we left we had to go to one more worship service. Like Friday night, I wasn't excited about it, but I was in for a surprise. The talk turned out to be on Matthew 11:28-30! The very topic I had shared with the guys Friday night! And it had a very clear-cut point! We talked about how all the stories in the Old Testament told of how people went to God for rest and comfort, and now, because of Jesus Christ, we can do the same thing. This really blew my mind. What were the chances that our little devotion on the first night would be the exact verse we would discuss in our last worship at Canaan Valley.

The entire weekend I felt as though the kids were not going to hear anything about the Gospel and what Jesus has to offer. Ha, I never thought I would be excited to be wrong. God really showed me how little faith I had in him. I thought he was going to let the entire trip go without the kids hearing about Jesus. 

 It’s amazing how little I know. My faith in God was really tested during this trip. God used that weekend to help me grow though the experience and I have learned first hand that God is always in control. 

They Say

The idea of wisdom has been contemplated for a very long time. Great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle have taken the thought of wisdom very seriously. The question they attempt to answer is what makes someone wise. 

In an article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy they stated that the topic of wisdom hasn't received much attention for the "contemporary" world. They gave multiple examples of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle and their thoughts on wisdom. Plato argues that a person of wisdom doesn't believe they are wise. Socrates might argue that one has wisdom once they have attained actual knowledge. But basically this article is stating that many people have different opinions on wisdom. 

The definition from Dictionary.com "the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is trueor right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacit ,discernment, or insight." so this leaves a very broad interpretation. 

Many agree that there is wisdom but argue how to attain it. I only touched on a few views that people have on wisdom, but I think an article from Psychology Today puts it   in a good perspective. "..wisdom is hard to pin down, but people generally recognize it when they encounter it."

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wisdom/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/wisdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wisdom

Wax on Wax off

So when I think of a person with Wisdom, the first thing that comes to mind is a person who doesn't talk much. I think of a person who is engaged in conversations but does more listening then talking, and when he does speak he makes an important statement. Kind of reminds me a little of the Mr. Miyagi in the 1984 Karate Kid.

But what do you think of when your asked to picture a "wise person"? In my opinion, James, in the New Testament of the Bible,  explains an important characteristic of wisdom. In James Chapter 1:19-21 he writes, 

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

I love this verse and really take it to heart. But where is James coming from? James is arguing many of the practical aspects of Christianity and how one should live their life as a Christ follower. This is a letter directed toward the Christians.  This letter was written around 48 AD. and Christians were being persecuted for following Jesus so they even had a reason to become angry. People were believing that it was ok to quickly become angry. But James says no,  "Anger does not bring about a righteous life..." he is expressing what true faith and true wisdom is all about. 

I believe James is right. My favorite part in this scripture is "...quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry..." James states that we must "listen", and I love that. I believe in todays society we want to get our point across right away and never consider what other people are saying. So obtaining wisdom starts with listening. Then James says we need to be "slow to speak, and slow to become angry..." The interesting part here is that James never states that we should NEVER speak or NEVER become angry but rather SLOW to speak and become angry. James roconises that there are times were we should get angry and we should speak our mind. I take that to heart. It is great advice! 

So in a way James kind of supports my view of a "wise person". In Karate Kid Mr. Miyagi seemed quiet and dint speak a lot. He chose his words wisely and didn't let his emotions get the best of him. 

What do you think?  What comes to mind when you think of someone wise and do you think James is right?