glory.

I am guilty, as are so many Christians today of missing the theological significance of the “glory” of our God. It seems that it is often construed as nothing more than a sort of greatness that elicits praise and adoration. This, while certainly being true of our God, fails to recognize the manner in which His greatness has been established and proclaimed throughout the Old Testament.
As I come to understand that God’s glory is rooted in who He is as not only a being of great importance but in fact as the Supreme being in the universe I am led to the idea of what it means to “fear the Lord.” The shear awesomeness of God is both dangerous and good at the same time. This is illustrated in Ezekiel when the “glory of the Lord” departs from the temple and later returns.
Further deepening this idea of “glory” is that YHWH has no equal. Indeed, YHWH has no one mortal or divine that can challenge Him. He is without rival in the cosmos. When He is challenged, like when the Philistines placed the ark (representative of His glory) in front of their god Dagon, He exercises His superior power causing Dagon to topple over and bow before Him.
This is the God that we serve; a terrible, powerful, dangerous, jealous God that demands our allegiance and our worship. And yet in the midst of all that “heavy”, “holy”, and “harsh” glory we also come in humble adoration to glory Him who while able to dominate, instead bowed low and was born a babe in a manger and who humbled himself unto an incapacitating death on a cross.

alexander is dead.

alas, alexander the mallard, the faithful heart and soul of my truck is dead.

named after the late alexander fenson, the mallard duck faithfully accompanied me on many cross country journeys. he is still affixed to the dash of the s-10 and has been recorded saying that he will go down with his ship. no has had the heart to persuade him that the s-10 was not a 'ship.'

sometime within the next month the s-10 is slated for the junkyard, barring purchase by another party.

R.I.P. alexander. you will be missed.

a rant.

everyone needs to vent sometimes. sometimes to someone in particular and sometimes to no one at all. this is mine.

the holidays are over and i find myself once again clawing at mud to make enough money to live off of - much less keep up with my student loans. i was hoping i mattered more to *** *** than to be slashed after the holidays, but alas such a hope was not to be realized. not that i blame them. i've been thinking for months that they lose money by staffing too many people. well, the holidays are over and now i'm supposed to live off of one shift a week. i should probably be checking out monster.com instead of blogging. except that then i would only get further depressed by the number of opportunities that i lack education or experience for.

and yet, somehow i have survived since august below the poverty line. who would've guessed? me, a hard working, white, middle class american with a college education living well below what our government considers the poverty line. its almost amusing. and to think that if i was born into a different socio-ethnic group i could be on my way through a graduate program with no expense to myself. or to think that an employer might favor me because i would 'diversify' his company. am i not individual or unique enough as i am? i mean, anyone who knows me can testify that my ideologies and interests are as diverse as the next guys. do you know anyone else who double majored in lifetime fitness and historical theology? i was the first in the history of my school to do so. and yet, here i am struggling to survive.

i am not usually the type for this kind of verbal spillage. but occasionally everyone gets frustrated by reality as it is. but, i must add that through this my church and my family have come through for me when i needed it most. and that is how things should be. and for that i can be exceedingly thankful.