Confusion – Not Just Among the Faithful, But Also Within the Disciples?

Observing a known story line from a different perspective can bring about some thoughts I hadn’t heretofore considered. My bride began watching season five of The Chosen last Sunday night. I’ve seen most of the previous episodes and have enjoyed the story telling and capturing the biblical narrative into what I believe will be a six-season TV series. As far as I can tell, the writers and directors have done a pretty good job at portraying the storyline from Jesus’ birth, his life and ministry. And now the story is at the last supper. What’s obvious, and I’m a little surprised that I hadn’t pick up on this earlier, is apparently how little the disciples had previously understood what Jesus was saying and doing. The disciples have all along been confused and not fully grasping all the things they’re being told over the previous three years. Yet, this lack of understanding seemed especially pointed in this most recent episode. The implied meanings as to the coming crucifixion and resurrection baffled the disciples. Jesus was speaking in parables and incorporating various figures of speech and metaphors. Something clicked as to the confusion of the disciples and their lack of understanding during the last supper. It was sort of eye opening. And frustrating.

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The Will of God Will Never Take You Where the Grace of God Will Not Protect You

(Revisiting my most popular post)

This is the title to one of my first posts after starting this blog. I questioned some thoughts that a blogger named Nicole had shared on her blog which now appears to be an Etsy website (NicoleLeeArtistry). Over the years, this post and the questions received in the comments section garnered the most views over anything else I’ve written – and by a significant margin. Which begs the question, why? How has this post become so popular on my MMM site? When I wrote it, I was starting to question various beliefs and tenants of my Christian faith. Yet, even as a devout Evangelical Christian in preceding years, I never believed that God had a specific and perfect will for each believer. Most around me seemed to accept how it was that God would lay before each believer a scroll and that as the believer matured in their faith, God would reveal more of himself and the specificity as to the direction God wanted an individual to move.

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Aug 13th, 1974 Texans Are a Hearty Bunch – and Have to Be Throughout Boot Camp

From just about the first moment I entered Tracen Alameda in August of 1974, it was obvious that anyone from Texas would ultimately have a bigger hill to climb in getting to the end of boot camp than everyone else. Insult upon insult was thrust upon anyone admitting they were from Texas. Guys had to do extra pushups just because they were from Texas. For reasons I’ve never understood, Texans drew more attention from the Company Commander than non-Texans. The first time I saw the movie Full Metal Jacket, I howled out loud as senior drill instructor GySgt Hartman berated some poor recruit after learning he’s from Texas, “Holy dogshit! Did you know that the only difference between a Texan and a five-gallon bucket of shit is the bucket?”

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Aug 11th, 1974 – On Command, Spread Your Cheeks!

Everyone experienced various ‘moments’ during boot camp whether physically demanding, frustrating and maddening or others laugh-out-loud funny. We were a couple days into boot camp (Company Echo/98) when the company was taken to the medical building for additional medical exams. Everyone filled out the necessary medical forms. We were then lined up around the outer perimeter of a large room in just our skivvies. A doctor came by and looked into everyone’s eyes, ears and nose. He also flexed hand and arm joints and then listened to our heart and lungs. The usual drill for a medical exam.

The next command caught most everyone by surprise, “Company, drop your drawers!” I gathered that the Coast Guard wanted to ensure that no one had “back-door” fissures or hernias. The next order was, “Company, about face.” And this was followed by, “Company, bend over, now!” As the doctor moved down the line, each person was subsequently ordered to, “Spread your cheeks.” The guy next to me apparently didn’t realize that the doc was going to check the bung hole. When ordered to spread his cheeks, this recruit, who was undoubtably qualified for a leadership position in X-ray company, placed his index fingers into his mouth and pulled his lips apart. One of the doctor’s aides shouted out, “No, you f**king moron, spread your frigg’n butt cheeks!” I could hardly contain myself. I knew I’d get reprimanded for laughing. Nevertheless, many of us who were aware of what had just happened snickered just about uncontrollably for the next 20mins. After this part of the exam, we were ordered to dress and were moved on to the next phase of the medical exams.

Throughout the next nine weeks I tried to figure out just who this guy was. However, given that we were all stressed, sleep deprived, confused, and looking the same in our newly shaved heads and Coast Guard dungarees, I never found out who this comedic genius was. But (pun intended) this little moment has lasted a lifetime, and I still laugh about it to this day.

Semper Paratus

Gen 3:16 Is an Incomplete Verse

This particular verse has bothered me for quite some time. I don’t know for sure, but as I read the verse, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Adam and Eve were already parents living the grand life in the Garden of Eden. And on the day of judgement, God says to the woman, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.” I can only surmise that prior to the eating of the apple, childbirth was no big deal. In a like manner, I can only surmise that there may have been the occasional morning sniffles or some other such maladies. No big deal, right? But anymore, and especially over the past week as I’ve been dealing with another terrible cold/flu, I’m pretty certain that God must have had an ace up his sleeve as to the punishment handed when kicking the original inhabitants out of the Garden of Eden by way the common cold. Yeah, the typical coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing headaches, fatigue and fever. Hopefully I have only a few more days of this punishment for A & E’s exhibiting a sinful nature. And I seem to get at least two of these things each year – one in the summer and one in the winter. What were you thinking, Eve? Apples aren’t all that good anyway unless one incorporates cinnamon and sugar with a top and bottom crust. Not sure why I hadn’t thought of Gen 3:16 as an incomplete verse before now. But there it is. I’m convinced that the early scribes must themselves been dealing with colds and were not at their best when writing down this verse. My $0.02 – and I’m sticking to it!

Aug 9th, 1974 – What the F**k Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I’d enlisted in the Coast Guard and was now deeply entrenched into this little excursion called boot camp. I was so lost and confused during those first days. And exhausted. How had I come to make the biggest mistake of my young life? I felt clueless and couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Always running from point-A to point-B. Countless pushups. Constantly getting yelled at. Experiencing the wrath of the BM1 Beecham, the Echo/98 Company Commander, whose face often seemed positioned just in front of me. I didn’t dare look the CC directly in the eyes as he loudly berated me, told what a maggot I was, how I was not worth the pay rate of a seaman recruit. I wondered whether I had potential to call myself a Coast Guardsman?

Shortly after being merged from forming company into the Echo/98 company, and just after lights-out following another long, overwhelming and stressful day, this beautiful sounding tenor voice started singing, “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay, Oh I believe, in yesterday. Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be, there’s a shadow hanging over me. Oh, I believe in yesterday.” After finishing that Beatles tune, one could have heard a pin drop in the barracks. There was no rustling about, no tossing or turning. Everyone was perfectly still in their racks. I didn’t understand it, but for the first time in a week I sensed some semblance of normalcy. I had tears in my eyes as this acapella tenor voice filled the room. Each night thereafter there would be another song just after lights-out. I’m sure the CC knew what was going on. Yet he allowed each night’s singing for reasons I’ll never understand.

Nevertheless, I’ve sometimes heard people talk about the power of music. During those nine weeks, I certainly experienced it. And it was wonderful. Many thanks, Seaman Recruit Renny Dozier, for helping me get through a tough time.

Semper Paratus

Aug 7th, 1974 – Who Knew I Was Colorblind? Not me!

  • Growing up in Tucson, AZ, it only made sense that I would enlist in the Coast Guard as a naive 19 year old in 1974. I took a battery of tests and qualified for most of the MOS (main occupational specialist) jobs. A small detail, however, was learning through the medical exams that I have a significant color perception deficiency. I can see primary colors well enough. And I never realized this all through high school. As is, I struggle to differentiate similar colors next to each other or see colors at all in low light. As such, that color deficiency precluded me from being considered for fields such as electronics or navigation. So, for the most part, that left administration type jobs. And so I was offered a guaranteed Radioman School after completing basic training. In all, those 4yrs were spent in completing bootcamp and Radioman A-School before being stationed for varying lengths of time at a radio station on Guam, Cape Cod Air Station and the Coast Guard Cutters Basswood (Guam), Duane (Portland ME) and Sherman (Boston MA). I am proud of my service as a radioman – or more accurately, a “dit-jockey” (aka a Morse code operator). I eventually attained the rank of petty officer 2nd class (E5). This page is intended to detail some of those experiences which have been carried forth through all these years and have helped shape me into the man I am today. Semper Paratus!

‘Complex’ Theology – Is It Imaginary?

I recently spoke with someone espousing an Open Theistic perspective. I’m likely more inclined to accept Open Theism. But that’s a different discussion. As we spoke, I indicated how my “faith-disconnects” and subsequent deconstruction from Christian faith are in part due to so many different conclusions being derived from the same source material – aka the Bible. I asked, ‘How can learned and well-meaning people reading the same source material (the Bible) not coalesce around a common faith and set of beliefs?’

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