Starting Over

OK, let's try this again. 

My first attempt at a blog was nothing more than the irritated ravings of one who had had enough of the election. Now that it is over I thought I would take this seriously. I've been thinking about what my blog should be about.

Should it be out my family? Nah, too obvious. I've seen a great many of those recently and they seem tired and boring-unless you are the guy writing it. Then it is just a journal. Which is cool in its own right, but probably something that shouldn't be read until you die. Isn't that what journals are all about-chronicaling the events of ones life in a book and then someone finding them after your dead to realize that you're not really the person everyone thought you were. 

So, what's next; politics? Seriuosly, if you can't find Huffington Post or Politico or even CNN you don't need to be on the internet. Political blogs are a dime a dozen. It's actually crazy. There are more political bloggers than there is news. If you go to Google and search the blogs for a political theme the results are astronomical. There is no way I could compete on that grand a scale.

So, what to write about? I'm only a recruiter for a regional bank, so I want have any financial knowledge to impart. I could talk about recruiting techniques, but again, I think there are a couple of blogs/sites out there already doing this by way more experience people than I. 

So, I think I'm going to create a blog that is my thoughts. This is not a journal in the true sense-that I'm chronicaling my life events, but instead a collection of impressions of the events of the day. So, if I were to start this right now I might talk about the economic bail-out, or the Detroit 3 drubbing, or Obama as the president-elect. But not about how it affects me; rather, it would be my musings on the events and how I feel about them, my questions surrounding them, how they relate to my family and if I agree or disagree. 

In turn, what I hope is that people will start to tune it, will want to listen to what is going on in my head-because I'm sure there are similar thoughts, and some will have their own answers and opinions that might help me formulate my own, and in the end a community will be born that will discuss the events of today. But let me be clear: a discussion board this is not. The hope is that instead of just wasted words on a webpage out of millions this will become a place of answers. A place people will come after the have digested the days news and will instead come to talk about how it affects us all and how to remedy it. 

In the end, I don't know if this will be successful. I'm less than optimistic. I have no clue how to go about promoting a blog, but I guess I will learn. Of course, if you read this and you have an opinion on how to make this successful, then let's hear it. Perhaps that is the first event of the day: How to have a successful Blog amongst all the others? 

Paradox

I’ve recently read a lot of articles, blogs and post stating that a certain tax plan proposed by a certain candidate has all the makings of a Socialist platform, because it will “spread the wealth around”. Of most concern to me is that this message is being promulgated by a party, that in all due respect, garners the most attention (and donations) from conservative Christians. My reason for concern is that is seems to be antithetical to the preaching’s of Christ. (In the hopes of preventing any misrepresentations I have included the entire excerpt from the New International Version (NIV) Bible):

Luke, Chapter 19 
18A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'[b]" 21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said. 22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?" 27Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." 28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!" 29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

My struggle comes with the comments of what I consider to be good, upstanding Christians making disparaging remarks about their fellow man and countering the Teacher of their faith. In the parable before this, Christ talks about children.

Luke, Chapter 19 

15People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

If a child were to read the first parable and relate that directly to today’s situation, what would they say? Children have a very unique perspective on the world: right and wrong. That doesn’t mean they always do right, but they know the difference and it is simple. Which is what Jesus was talking about in the latter example: We must take these truths as simply as a child or we will never enter Paradise.

How can Christians be at odds with their beliefs? If anything, shouldn’t the more liberal party be the one that eschews the teachings of Jesus for their own worldly beliefs? Please understand, these are rhetorical question. There is no right answer, so please don’t post. All I ask is that people think before they act.

Thanks

-JeepRover