God's Gender

Oh no. I'm going to get in trouble with this one. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, it's one in the morning after all.

So this is something that I've been thinking about for, well, years to be honest with you. I am sure that all of us have heard the term "God the Father". I'm also sure we've heard plenty of people shaking things up (read that with sarcasm please) by calling God "her" or referring to God as a woman.

Can I throw my hat into the ring? Let's get one thing out of the way: Jesus has a gender. Jesus has a gender because Jesus has a body. He had to be a man (unfortunately) because cultures past and present would not have listened if he were a woman, blah blah. Trust me, men and women are one hundred percent equal in God's eyes. But the main point here is that yes, Jesus has a gender because Jesus has a body.

When I was a little boy, I would make fun of the girls in Sunday School and say that since we are made in God's image, and "boys were made first, the God is totally a boy, duh." Other people, Christians and non Christians alike tend to image God the Father as male, or at least assume that Christians see God as a male. Please allow me to address this.

Can you imagine God walking around? Does he have a beard? A mustache? Some killer biceps? Does he enjoy knitting or playing football? Or maybe the other way around: Is God beautiful? What shade of lipstick does she prefer? Does she prefer dresses or skirts? Is this sounding ridiculous to anyone else? Are we, as people, so ignorant that we believe that that God has some form of biological gender?

That's absurd. It's stupid. It's closed-minded and silly. I think that some people get hung up on the term "God the Father". Yes, it is powerful, it is true, but don't limit the semantics of it. People tend to freak out if anyone ever says "God the Mother," but you know what? Read scripture, it's true too. The truth of the matter is that God is not just the perfect father, God is not just the perfect mother, what it really comes down to is that God is the perfect parent.

God created both man and woman in his image. God contains perfect masculine attributes (whatever those are) and perfect feminine attributes (whatever those are. I don't even pretend to have those answers guys.) Let us not get hung up on the idea that God is one half of anything. He understands us, man, woman, and anyone else because God can relate, God can understand, and because God created us. Don't be afraid or offended if God is referred to as "He" or even "She" unless the speaker honestly believes that something as grand as GOD is limited to physical plumbing. If that's ever the case, well smile and nod to yourself. You know better.

A Model of Masculinity

So I've been thinking a lot about masculinity lately. That sounds weird.

Well I'm too lazy to hit the delete key so I'm rolling with it. I think that masculinity is mostly defined by character, you know. Wisdom and the ability to make good choices. An education doesn't hurt either. (Okay, so let me clear this up. I think that having these traits improves upon masculinity. How's that? Does that sound better? So those things are not masculinity in themselves, but having those traits... well I'm about to repeat myself. I hope that's better.) So to sum up, masculinity is really just Atticus Finch. Or Gregory Peck. One and the same. Oh, and John Adams. He was a man's man.

Anyway, I did something that I felt was pretty masculine today. No, it wasn't breaking a moose's neck with my bare hands, though I've done that before.

I fixed a bike!

My friend gave me an old busted up bike for free ninety-nine, and I took it home and looked it over with my roommate Brian. We snapped the rusted chain off with sheer brute strength. We found and adjusted the problems with amazing mechanical dexterity. The next day I found replacement parts and brought them home. And so, spending most of the afternoon on it, we created my new bicycle. It works fantastically!

It is very pretty and red. It felt so good riding it today, knowing that I didn't have some pro fix it, that my friend and I went at it on our own. That I was actually riding the fruit of my labor. I set out to do something and get my hands dirty, and benefited greatly. It is my new favorite thing! I take this space to formally thank Tori, for giving it to me, Steven, for buying the parts with me, and Brian for helping me put it all together.

My bike, she has a name, but you have to ask me what it is in person. Maybe I'll put a picture or two up tomorrow!

Next on my masculinity to-do list is learn to ride a horse, preferably a bareback mustang. Then declare myself an independent nation.

Sometimes, these things are best expressed by others

I'm not sure about you, but every once and a while I'm not sure how I "feel." It's not an: "I don't know how I feel about that" kid of thing, like I really just don't know how to describe it even to myself sometimes. Do you ever have that happen to you? It's not even a bad thing! It's not some odd melancholy that stops me in my tracks or anything like that. There are something that are simply hard to describe or explain.

This is where I find music to be absolutely essential in my life. How do I feel right now? I can't explain it, even to myself, but this song feels right at this moment:

I have called your name
I've an idea placed in your mind
To be a better man.
I've made a crown for you,
Put it in your room.
When the bridegroom comes,
There will be noise, there will be glad,
And a perfect bed.

Rest in my arms. Sleep in my bed.
There's a design to what I did and said.

Help me out!

Help! I have to write this big old long story and I am kind of super stuck. I'll leave this space blank, that way you can fill it out with some pretty cool ideas.

















Yay!

From Sea To Shining Sea!

So I think I blog a lot more when I'm here in Virginia. There are just so many zany differences out here!

Virginia, as it happens, is on the East Coast, and is also in what many consider "the south." I, as it happens, originate from the West Coast, mostly California and Seattle. Out here things are old. Well as old as they get in the U.S. Colonial towns, Civil War cemeteries, etc. 

Last night, I watched No Country for Old Men with my family. I've been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy on top of that. The thing is, his stories, that movie is awfully "American." It American in the same way the wild west is American, adventure in a harsh landscape, horses, guns, all that jazz. But it is such a different "American" than this colonial feel. 

I have very little to say. Only that there is such a fascinating, interesting diverse palate of what is American, in culture and ideals. Powdered wigs to cowboy hats, I guess.

I'm going to go fire my pistol in the air and sing the star spangled banner.