You are What You Worship

For the record, I missed Saturday because I actually had no credit. Internet access is prepaid here, and I had used up my data before Saturday. How legit is that? Very.


2 Kings 17:15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.

It is one thing to live as I see fit, and still come out at the end having preserved the basic substance of life, i.e. identity and purpose. Quite another matter arises if I should realize the emptiness of all my efforts in that respect. That is to say, it would be a sad day indeed to find out that my source of identity and purpose is empty like an abandoned, leaky cistern.

...and they followed vanity.

Just as grave as missing this fundamental need to worship, worshipping in vain affects the innermost layers of existence itself. When two people spend much time together, friends or roommates for instance, they begin to adopt each others behavioral patterns, even to the extent that they breathe with similar rhythms when asleep. Worship has the same effects on the worshipper. I derive a large sense of personal value from my object of worship. If my object of worship is of actual worth comparable or greater to that which I ascribe to it/him/her/them, then I wager that I would maintain a higher sense of self-worth. If I decide worship something/someone that is not actually worthy or the worth I give, negative effects are a result. This is because worship is impossible without relationship. If I am to worship authentically, I must get closer to my object of worship relationally. There is no other way. As I come closer, our rhythms, whatever they may be, will become increasingly similar. So you see this line of reasoning: if my god (for what we worship, we have deified to the best of our understanding) is not really worthy of worship, then I become more "hollow," so to speak, until giving my all matches the actual worth of my obect of worship. The opposite is true for a truly worthy deity; I rather become fulfilled, and even more completely so with the deepening relationship.

...and they followed vanity, and became vain.

The point: Worship only what is most worthy. Anything less, and you will destroy yourself.

posted from Bloggeroid

Networking Trouble.... Shoot.

Community: I NEED IT.

So, instead of griping (learned that word in 7th grade!), I will go and find it. First ping pong table I come across, someone is goin' down!

Maybe it is "Shirls'" fault that I even use that word, but at this point, I realize the truth of her words even more. Last year I wrote that it had taken 4 months from the time I arrived in country to realize that I needed to find some sort of outlet. That was when a friend of mine started taking me out, the times my family travelled down to the capital. At the 6-month mark, I supposed that I should start finding or creating some networks in the local area, here around Nkwanta. Well, this is the 8^th month.

I am trying to find my way into the mainstream young adult culture, but feel instead like I have found myself in a tributary leading to some large, ambiguous pot. I know who I am, mind you, just not where I would be going should I join the twenty-somethings in this town. Maybe I am timid in part, because I do not know how to engage people, given my own hesitation coupled with the obvious barriers that exist. Part, too, is due to the avenues through which I have been trying to connect to others.

I have come to find out that the youth leaders here are not connected. Period. I have found three. Finding others, even as I here that there are roughly 45 congregations in the area, is like catching up with a longtime friend after an extended absence, for hours on end; it is a laudable management of time, but you feel the effort you have expended afterward, nonetheless. I will have to do more grunt work, as it were, than I once thought. I have not done much grunt work, really. I was just hoping against hope (Is that the saying? Why would anyone want to do such a thing??) that I could develop a network easily and move here and there within a relatively short time.

What do I wanna do? Develop genuine relationships, so that I can chill with a group of people at a local _anything_. Work comes as part of the territory but, though I am passionate about what I am doing here, I am still feeling imbalanced overall. I just want to be able to recharge somewhere where peers (plural, mind you) know me, and I them. That is not too much to ask; I know that much. Is it too much to find, though?

This feels more stream-of-consciousness than usual. Thanks for putting up with it, if indeed you have.


One last, unrelated truth: Nigeria won the CAF African Cup of Nations. Not Ghana, but I suppose it will have to do.

And Pope Benedict XVI has resigned; the first time a pope has done so in 717 years.  He will now have time to read books and pray, according to some news sources.  As per others, he intends to join a convent.  Thoughts on a pope from Latin America?  How about Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana?

I am through now.  Live in Love.

posted from Bloggeroid