The Inifiniteness of God

This is probably a bit heady and I definitely don't have the theological training to back what I'm about to dig into.

Let's take the fact that God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. These three aspects are dependent upon each other in my eyes. Knowing everything is not possible without being ever present. Ever present includes space and time. Knowledge is required to wield power; and, with great power comes great responsibility. Thanks Uncle Ben. I'm gonna stop my digression there. With the omnipresence spanning time and implying eternalness, I want to focus on the omnipotence.

There are still sects of the faith that do not recognized that Christ was both fully God and fully human. People are baptized in the Name (singular) of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is a slew of scriptural cross-references that make the assertion, Christ is the Word made flesh, and in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God. If Christ is the Word and the Word is God, guess what? Christ is God. Despite the Bible's outright declaration, people are just driven to go against the grain. I've heard the argument that you can't have 200% of something in a single item. I would argue that with money, not gambling, but a metaphor. Take the US dollar, for us it will only be worth a dollar, 100% of it's value. This is the physical representation. Then take into account the global market, depending on where that dollar goes it can actually be valued at 10x it's original worth. This would be the spiritual representation. One item physically, but carrying 200%(and higher) of worthiness. In Christ's case, a human body containing the spirit of infinite worth. I will go ahead and acknowledge this is not the greatest metaphor. Yes, the value of a dollar fluctuates and can actually be less than it's worth dependent on the market it is in. But if you get the point, thank you and let's move on.

Now, how can a human body contain the fullness of God? I can't see how people that can recognize that God is omnipotent but He can't put that power into a human body. All powerful and able to do ANYTHING, but putting the omnipotence and omniscience into a human body is off limits. The idea that the human body and mind can't hold the fullness of God makes sense. God even states that to Moses before revealing himself on the mountainside. (Exodus 33: 19-23) The important part is that God reached out his hands and braced Moses. God used his power to brace a human body for his prescience and maintained His omnipotence. So if God can brace the human body from the outside, doesn't it make sense He can brace it internally as well? How do we explain Mary's ability to carry God in the womb? My mind is blown when encountering people that want to limit God. Our minds can accept the idea of an all-powerful being but still limit it to fit our physical reality.

I hope that made sense.

My Strange Dreams

It was a splendid trip to France, though I can't remember any of the activities. Jess and I went with both of our families and everyone was full of chatter on the plane ride home. On the plane I had my GPS out on my tray and the kid in the seat next to me was keeping occupied with it. I recognize the kid and his family, they attend the same church as me and Jess. The GPS display was going through updates for every holiday. Red and pink with heart shaped icons for Valentine's Day, green with shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, you get the idea. We disembark in an airport just outside the France and Spain border. The terminal is more like a mall crossed with an amusement park. Tons of shops, a food court, security checkpoints and a large play area for kids. There is a vague memory of being chased through the mall by some type of security. Jess and I are going down an escalator as I realize I left my GPS and we'll need it to get home. There is a huge crowd behind us and I'm forced to ride the escalator down and as I turn around to go back up on the one next to me I see both escalators are down escalators. Around the escalator are the escalators to go back up. They are in the kids playground area.

The playground is animal themed and all the play equipment is plush and shaped like triple sized versions of the animals. I can't get to the escalators, they are on the other side of a barrier. I try to climb the chain link fence that bends back as I near the top, it can't carry my weight. I start to panic as the fence peels back and I start to turn upside down and see a giant plush giraffe head craning out of the adjacent wall. I let loose of the fence and reach for the giraffe's antlers, as my weight hit's the giant plushie it's neck slowly bends. I hear the popping of stitches and look down, the giant plush turtle looks like a nice place to land, I let go. *PLOP* As quick as I smack down I'm up and running towards an exit, somehow my fall put me on the second level I was trying to reach. I run out in Parisian streets, fall leaves on the ground and a few left on the trees. I'm in a park of some sort, naked, and running towards my goal. I become self-conciouse but that is quickly pushed aside as I look around to others not just naked, but actively exposing themselves. I see a family on picnic, the kids all enjoy their food as the parents engage in very passionate sex and quite openly. This takes most of the qualms of my naked sprint away. As my head is turned taking in all the nakedness I run into something as icky feeling as a spiderweb, but as dense as a tarp and colored a very dark black. It wraps my body and covers me much like a trench coat.

I'm still running and as my vision returns I'm no longer in the park but in the median of a major highway. I'm thankful for my new covering and for some reason start to run on all fours to run faster. A white Escalade comes up on the curb next to me. I chalk it up to distraction, but then notice the driver staring me down, I stop for him to pass me but he throws the vehicle in reverse to run me over. I jump and land on the rear passenger corner of the Escalade, crouched in my best Spider Man crouch. The driver opens the sunroof and begins to shoot at me. I'm looking dead down the barrel and still dodging the bullets. I grab the gun an the driver starts to laugh until I twist the gun and start to bend his trigger finger backwards. I feel someone pushing me off the SUV and to my left the driver has a teenage counterpart trying to detach me from the vehicle. I take control of the weapon and it's out of bullets, in a last ditch effort to get rid of me the driver floors the gas and we drive off the right side of the road. We tear into the tall skinny pines, a seemingly bottomless pit below, as we fall breaking through thousands of branches. I stay crouched on the roof of the Escalade, taking in the fall, the driver starts to mock me and I'm in no mood for it. I say, "Fine, see ya." and jump from the roof. The Escalade falls with the sounds of screaming and I rocket upwards back to the ground we left.

I stand and look around, no more cars on the interstate, just empty roadway. Grass has begun to sprout through the cracks in the asphalt. My black tarp trench coat is now a heavy black fur, much like Sirius Black's coat in Order of the Phoenix (the movie). I walk along the highway and find a shelter on the side of the road. It's full of books, stacked in every direction, even used to create furniture. Things get a little unclear at this point. I know that a guy who appears homeless approaches me, bearded and in tattered clothes, he rants about some approaching doom. Doom may be a bit overboard, but I know that I don't need to be where I am anymore...that's when I wake up. and I really wanted to know about what he was warning me.

I didn't eat anything too late, didn't eat any strange combinations...oh well. My dreams make about as much sense as this picture.

A little to-do-list.

Alright, here it is. Aside from my weekend honey-do list (which consists of: relax, sleep, take out trash and empty dishwasher), here is my current year-to-do list:

- Become a homeowner and stop renting
- Continue laughing every time I say, hear and read the word "homeowner"
- Finish "Uprising" by Erwin McMannus
- Finish "Everything Must Change" by Brian McLaren
- Finish "The Fire Wolves" by Tim Lebbon
- Sell $9000 worth of artwork
- Own a Canon 50D w/ 75-300mm lens (Paid for by said artwork)
- Take Jess to Disney World in Orlando, FL. (Also paid for in similar manner)
- Take a cruise (Possibly with our friends Ryan and Katy)
- Make AT LEAST one journal entry a week with content deeper than the day's happenings
- Compliment someone everyday, IN PERSON
- Take the PRAXIS II art exams (Been saying this one for the past year and a half :\ )
- Get accepted to a masters in education program (UNC-Chapel Hill, UNCG, or A&T?)
- Get funding for said program
- Cook one new recipe a month from my Mario Batalli cookbook (Who wants some Italian?)
- Read a little Shakespeare everyday (It's so hard to focus when bored or constantly checking the dictionary.)
- Dedicate 1 hr daily to prayer, reading, and journaling
- Frame and matte my own artwork
- Get re-involved with The Quest Center

...really, that's about all I can think of now. I know that in the midst of all that there is also a ton of time to be shared with my wife, our families and friends, and even some time to sleep in and be lazy. Really, there are some ideas more grandiose I've pondered...but really, I wouldn't trade any moment with Jess or our loved ones for that. I may just have to get one of my empty journals/sketch pads and start writing things down as they come to mind. All ideas from practical to fantastical will find a home there. The next trick may be to make sure that I don't JUST write these things, but to actually DO them. I'm putting this out for my loyal friends (and any random strangers) to hold me accountable.