About a Boy

I watched About a Boy over the weekend; it was pretty funny but actually a bit meaningful as well - especially on the issue of loneliness and relationships. Here's part of the script:

H is Hugh Grant. K is the kid.

H: I heard you were about to commit social suicide, so I dropped by.

K: My accompanist left!

H: Brilliant. You don't have to do it.

K: I can't do that.

H: Yeah, you can. Just tell them: Artistic differences. You can't work without him. He had a drug problem.

K: My mum wants me to sing it. It'll make her happy.

H: Look, mate, nothing you do can make your mum happy, all right? Not in the long term. She has to do that for herself. What I'm saying is, the important thing is to make yourself feel happy.

K: I've tried just making myself happy. She's tried making herself happy. It doesn't work. You need other people to make you happy.

H: But that's just it. If other people can make you happy then they can also make you unhappy.

Being in relationship with someone means they can make you happy, but that also leaves you vulnerable to them hurting you. From God's perspective, his gracious creation of us actually means, I think, that he makes himself vulnerable to hurt. Because God loves us, we can make him happy or unhappy with the way we live. When I think about my own life... I don't know why he thought it was worth it...

I cant do this anymore...

I failed a 15% test pretty badly today.. probably 5/15

Then had a group meeting for an assignment; had no idea what was happening.

Reminds me of.. every other semester I've ever had

Sunday..

Today was ok.. I had to teach Sunday School which was partly why I was so down yesterday. But in God's grace it worked out well; the lesson ran quite well.. I played some basketball in the arvo.

But when I got to Church I just felt like leaving straight away. I dont quite know why now but it felt really clear to me at the time. I just feel like I need people to talk to so much but I don't want to be so needy. I thought things would be better now but its just much much worse. I just want to get back to normal as quickly as possible but its just not possible.

X

Right now is probably the lowest point I've experienced maybe in my entire life

Don't know how I'm going to face church tomorrow..

I hope theres no point even lower than this one

PDL

"God won't ask about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him?"

Rick Warren should read 1 John. Perferably using the same translation.

Dreadfully Depressed...

sometimes you think things are getting better...but they're not


things just seem to be getting worse, especially when other things go wrong as well

thinking..

A wise Christian brother once said to me that theres always two sides to every argument, and especially given that Christian theology is full of tensions, we need to think of both sides of an argument in order to better understand Biblical truth, to see where the tensions are, and to understand where the other person (the one you disagree with) is coming from.

Its been great recently thinking through some issues and talking with people about them. 3 that I have been thinking about are (a) social justice, (b) singleness, (c) women teaching. Its easy to assume the evangelical conservative position and find reasons to justify your position, but its very beneficial to try and justify the opposite position.

Trying to think from both sides of the issue, these are some of the questions in my mind..

(a)
- in what ways is evangelism more important than social action, in what ways is it equally important?
- what should individuals do, and what should the church corporately do, and how should it differ? (I can't believe how many hours I've spent thinking about Matt 5:16.. cough. its all someone's fault)
- what about politically charged issues, and where it isnt clear what the bible says on the issue like.. the Middle East Conflict (I see it as being extremely unjust, and want to tell everyone how ridiculous America's pro-Israel stance is, but many Christians would disagree with me, and non-Christians might not want to listen to me tell them the gospel if they disagree with my politics..)

(b)
- why is it ok to be single in the NT. Is it because (1) in light of the importance of new creation work, marriage is now less important? (2) given the new creation marriage between Christ and the Church, we don't need to get married? (3) the Spirit gives us a fuller experience of God so that the relational desire for a spouse is no longer there. (I think 1 Cor and Eph suggests (1) and (2) are true. Interestingly if (1) is true, how can people say that old and new creation work are equally important..)


(c)
- I found a good paper on this issue by Simon Manchester here.
- I'm still trying to find good reasons why people argue that women should be able to teach and have authority over a man. Very BAD arguments come from Galatians and Judges. Moderately bad (i think) arguments come from Acts and 1 Cor. The worse arguments come from human wisdom.

These are just my thoughts and not really my final positions on anything.