The Relationships Equation

You read these christian books on relationships, and it's obvious how they work... every time the same: meet someone you get on with, learn about God and each other, find that every path in both of your lives is going the same way, find that it is only natural to get to know their parents, find that you get on with everyone they get on with, find that neither of you have never even fancied anyone, you propose after being persuaded into it by their dad, and on the wedding night somehow miraculously you begin to find them sexually attractive, and every other girl in the world looks repulsive?! Isn't that how it happens.

I reckon that with a few months work i (as an engineer) could write down a set of non-linear differential equations which solve these relationships issues once for all!

But i still wonder about one thing... what is that random factor? why is that perfect girl perfect for only you? why is the 'best' and prettiest christian girl in the world not even attractive in your eyes? Why do you have lustful thoughts for the girl you care about the most?

What is this thing they call love? Its not what 1 corinthians 13 refers to, else i'm in love with tons of people! I dont know, but i know its more than those weird girls magazines talk about.

Maybe i'll have to couple the equations and make each of them in matrix form? or maybe not even euler, einstien, newton, navier and stokes could have found an answer?

God's sense of Humour

Is joking a sin? well the obvious answer is no! We all know it's good to have a laugh, and laughing is good for the soul according to proverbs. Except that proverbs also says that we should guard our mouths, think before we speak, never say anything that is untrue. James then chimes in and says that we should aviod slandering anyone and the bible says many times that we shouldnt lie.

Disobeying these commands can be a very good way to get people to laugh, even if we do it from the nicest intentions. Yet there doesnt seem to be anywhere in the Bible that joking around is commended... there's a fair amout of irony in the words of the prophets, but not exactly jokes, and the only time that God is refered to as laughing is in Psalm 2... not exactly a joke either. Maybe the Puritans were right in saying that God doesnt want us to be laughing and joking around? Maybe 'fun' is just for the less spiritual people?

I think this raises a massive question of how we can spot sin... what is sin really? laughing is not a sin. Joking is not a sin. Why not? I was chatting to a mate at uni at about 3.30 on sunday morning, and found myself saying something that made sense!!! (must be from God then)

Stuff that we do can never be evil... stuff is not evil, people are but stuff isnt. Stuff doesnt have a spiritual dimension to be evil. The stuff that we do can only be evil when taken in respect to our relationship with God. Take murder for example: murder is not in itself evil, it is the disrespect (leading to the killing) of something baring the image of God which is evil, because it is disrepectful to God. This seems to make sense of Jesus statement about: 'if any of you are angry with someone then you are guilty'.

Cant the whole range of commandments be summerised into love God, and love you neighbour? (matt 22) Can you do anything pleasing to God without faith in him? (Heb 11v6) What does God really want from us? (micah 6v6-8) He wants us to live our lives with faith in him, not doing a witch-hunt in our lives to determine things that we do which are accidentally sinful. He wants us to live in love, the love modelled by Jesus at the Cross, a sacrificial love which pervades every relationship we're in.

Jude tells us to build ourselves up by faith, not in trying to find ways we can become more rightous. Jude tells us to keep ourselves in God's love, not try to find a way into it! Joking is not a sin, we should watch our hearts... if its out of a desire for people to like me, or to make other people feel small, maybe then it becomes sinful.