Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12: 1 – 2
It would be so easy to conform to the pattern of this world, wouldn't it? To just go with the flow, to not stand out. It's strange to think that in many parts of our country that being a follower of Christ is somewhat the "norm". While here in the San Francisco Bay Area we really are viewed as the "enemy". I'm amazed at how whenever I see something in the media that addresses the apparent "intolerance" of followers of a particular faith it's the Christians that they target. What about Muslims? They disagree with the same lifestyles and “choice” issues as Christians, but you don't see them being targeted in the news... that wouldn't be politically correct, now would it?
I have been a punk-rock fan since my high school years. I like music with raw energy and lots of emotion. I have never outgrown my love of the music, and have always appreciated the fact that “punk” is a state of mind, not just a music style... it's about thinking for yourself... not going along with what everyone else is doing, so as to blend in and "keep the peace". I know that many punks would think that my being a follower of Christ would mean that i was not in any way like them... but i know that living here in San Francisco, where the “norm” is to be anti-Christian, ultra-liberal and expected to publicly boo and hiss anyone who claims to be a Believer... i am indeed a punk.
And let's not confuse being a Christian with being a Republican, ok? I believe that the Republican party will eventually lose it's grasp on the Believers in this country. They are beating a dead horse with the gay marriage and pro-life/pro-choice debates. They have used these issues to control the votes of Believers for a long time, but Believers today (at least those that i know) are concerned with many more issues than just these two political hot buttons. We need to address poverty, homelessness, lack of proper help for the mentally ill, AIDS/HIV, the insane costs of health care and the fact that this country will use it's military to help fill the pockets of the most wealthy of it's citizens... (if we REALLY believed in saving other countries from themselves we would be in DARFUR, Sudan right now).
So, this all started with a posting i did to our blog at work, but i had some things i needed vent and that is not the place to do it... i have kept this blog because i knew at some point that i would eventually want to post my thoughts, but how often i get around to it we will just have to wait and see...
