Hiccups

I have had the hiccups for about thirty days now and needless to say I am tired of having them.

Perhaps you too have had the hiccups for an extended period of time? Perhaps you too have felt like there are a number of things that are going on that keep you from breathing as you normally do. 

The thing about hiccups is that there is little I can do to remedy the situation other than follow some wife's tales which generally involve me choked on water or consuming large amounts of peanut butter. Neither of options are really helpful to help with the hiccups that interrupt life.

Hiccups keep me from writing. When I am not writing then I get distracted. When I am distracted I feel stressed. When I am stressed my chest is restricted and when that happens I get the hiccups.

All I can do it wait and hope for the breath to come again to restore the rhythm I so desperately seek after.

UPDATE* - I received a number of comments about actually having the chest spasms we call the hiccups. Just to be a bit clear, I never had these hiccups. I was too coy with my metaphor I suppose and it lead to believing that I have been plagued with a month worths of spasms. I am talking about feeling like distractions and interruptions are a regular thing the past month and I am ready for this phase to pass.

To those who gave me a good word on my medical condition, thank you. I know in the future I will be well taken care of in the event of chronic chest spams. 

Pre-bloggin notebook - thoughts of a 19 year old

Recently I came across an old notebook that I had when I was in college. I wrote a number of things on these pages at a time in my life when I really began to read the bible. Below are a few of those thoughts of my pre-blogging years: circa 2000.

LGBT:
Within a redwood forest there grows a pine tree. Does that mean the pine tree has a wrong "orientation" or is it just a natural growth of creation?

Early Process Theology before I knew what it was:
Perfect love is love that is able to change in order to meet the beloved where they are. God love perfectly, therefore God constantly changes.

Revelation:
Popular interpretation of Revelation tells that evil is defeated by God by making Christ a warrior, thus making power the ultimate thing in the world - not love. Rather Revelation is really a story about how evil is beaten by love and not power.

Submission to God:
When we submit to the rules of soccer we can have endless freedom within the game. However, if we make the rules up as we go, as a child would, then the game sucks and no one has any fun. Submission to God is a sign of maturity not of weakness, it is the only way to live in love with others.

Patience:
Not everyone is ready when you are. You must learn to be patient to know people may not need to know what I know or how I come to know it.

Exclusive claims of Christianity:
When the gospel of Mark tells us the curtain between the holy of holies was torn at the death of Jesus, that was symbolically marking the end of God as exclusively mediated by priests. Why then do some Christians think God is exclusively mediated by Christianity? Didn't Jesus die for that?

Liturgy and Creeds:
The point of liturgical words and creeds are not about intellectual content. These words serve the function of creating thin places. The point is to let the drone of these words that we know by heart, to become thin places.

Image of God:
Why is it insufficient to simply understand God to be forgiving and compassionate, who is also not punitive?

Beginning my Jesus year(s)

It is said that Jesus began his public ministry at the age of thirty. He lived for 1-3 more years (depending on which Gospel you read) and he changed the world.

Today is my thirtieth birthday. Today marks the beginning of my "Jesus years" in which I know I will not change the world and it is humbling to see how much I do not know and how much wisdom Jesus had.

A friend of mine once said to me when I was in a state of feeling like I had to change the whole world, "Jason, the Good News is we have a messiah. The bad news to you right now is that you are not him."

Indeed. I am just thirty.

How Millennial Are You - Survey

In case you have not seen this over your coming and goings but Pew Research Center has this little survey you can take to "determine" how millennial you are.

Like all surveys this can be taken with a grain of salt as well as speak to some generalities about current culture.  

If you find yourself at odds with these 'young whipper snappers' or do not understand those who were born after 1981, then this might be something to consider looking at.

Additionally, this might be great to take (there are only 14 questions) and see just how much you align with millennial thought/culture.

I was born in 1982 and thus find myself a little bit in both the Gen X and Millennial groups.  My score of an 88 however reflects a much stronger leaning toward Millennial culture.  Below is a screen shot of my answers and results so that I can reference them in the future.  (Note this screenshot is modified so to fit better.)