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Struggle: Embrace the Suck

Working out sucks.

Eating healthy is no fun.

Keeping a good sleep schedule is just too difficult.

Getting to church every Sunday is just not gonna happen.

I’m sore. I’m tired. I just want to eat cookies and watch Netflix in bed.

Sound familiar? Like I’ve said, humans – like water and electricity – will always take the path of least resistance. Couple that with our inability to delay gratification at all (exercise will help me feel good later, but that donut will make me feel good now), and it’s no wonder the average American is more sedentary and overweight than ever.

Continue reading → Struggle: Embrace the Suck
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Consistency: Are you in it for the long haul?

There’s a lot of talk going around about habits, goals, and bettering ourselves.

I’ve heard a lot of buzz about the concept of getting 1% better. If you get just 1% better every day, then but the end of the year you’ll have perfected whatever it is you’re trying to do.

The book Atomic Habits by James Clear (which is on my to-read list) encourages us to develop habits instead of setting goals. By doing so, we subtly change our own identity – how we see ourselves and present ourselves to others. You aren’t just going for runs every so often. You are a runner.

What it all comes down to is consistency. Nothing will become a habit if you aren’t consistent. You won’t reach your goals without putting in the work day in and day out. You aren’t in it for the short-term results (which you probably won’t see on a day to day basis). You’re in it for the month over month, year over year progress toward becoming the person you truly want to be.

Continue reading → Consistency: Are you in it for the long haul?
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Thoughts on Faith

In one of my classes, Advanced Intro to the Old Testament, we are assigned to read through the entire Old Testament in one semester. It’s going to be a challenge, but I hope to keep up with it.

In reading through the Pentateuch, Torah, Law, whatever you want to call it, I noticed something. Several things, actually, but I will only touch on one right now:

We live in an age of postmodernism, which is really just a pendulum swing away from modernism. During the age of modernism, the western world became obsessed with proof. Everything we could “know” for sure was that which the sciences could measure, test, observe, reproduce, record, i.e. “prove.” This was troublesome when it came to the existence of God. Since science could not “prove” God, He must not exist. Then we saw a response in the area of “Christian scientists” who pushed for the science of intelligent design to be added to the curriculum in schools across America. The idea is that if we could offer enough evidence for the existence of a Creator, then pagans everywhere would repent of their folly and turn to faith in Yahweh.

I don’t know how many times you, like I, have thought something along the lines of: If I could only have lived during the time of Jesus to see his miracles, then I would have no problem believing. If I could just see, then I would believe.

But is true, genuine belief really a product of sight? Just because something is observable by the senses, does that make it any more believable? Think about it.

Jesus was constantly asked for a “sign” to “prove” that He was who He claimed to be. John records seven of these signs, all of which were observed by multiple witnesses – they saw, smelled, felt, heard, and even tasted of these signs. But was this “proof” enough? Of course not. And it still isn’t.

And consider the post-exodus nation of Israel in the wilderness. Yahweh, the Creator, revealed His presence to the entire nation in the “grand theophany” at Sinai. But was that enough for them? No. Nothing was ever enough “proof,” at least not enough to convince them that they should follow Him completely. We see the constant pattern of God creating (the world, the nation of Israel, etc.), His creation falling away, His presence being taken away, then reconciling His creation to Himself. It’s an endless cycle. It happened in the beginning, it happened in the Exodus, during the Judges and prophets, during the time of Jesus, and it happens today.

So my question is, does sight really produce belief? My answer, and the answer found thorughout scriptures, is a resounding “NO!” There are some exceptions, of course, found in these stories. For “Doubting Thomas”, seeing and feeling were enough proof for Him. But the fact remains that no matter how much evidence, or “proof”, we offer for the existence and/or power of God, there are going to be some who simply do not, cannot, or will not believe.

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” -John 20:29

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” -Hebrews 11:1

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Of Boats and Falcons




Edfu Temple:
I doubt you have ever heard of this temple before, yet it is one of the best-preserved of the ancient world’s temple. The temple is dedicated to the falcon-headed god Horus, who is the god of protection and healing. According to Egyptian mythology, Horus battled with Set, the evil brother of Osiris, (the name for “Satan” was derived from “Set”). During this epic grudge match, Set gouged out one of Horus’ eyes, and since then (for some reason), the “Eye of Horus” has been a symbol of protection and healing. Displaying the Eye was believed to safegaurd against evil spirits and the like. This temple is also home to one of the best-preserved statues of Horus in falcon form.

One of the most intriguing things about this temple is that archaeologists discovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian ark. There are also reliefs on the wall depicting the priests of Horus carrying the Ark in the same manner as the Levitical Priests were commanded: poles slid through rings on the sides of the ark, carried over the shoulders. This ark (and presumably all Egyptian gods had an ark) was designed like one of the Egyptian sun-boats, only scaled down. Its long, slender hull carried a shrine in the middle in which would be placed an idol of the god along with a set of the 14 Egyptian commandments (and possibly other “relics” of sorts). It would not be too far-fetched to assume that when God told Moses to build him an Ark of the Covenant for him and the 10 Commandments that Moses would have built something very similar to the Egyptian ark (and not some sort of box or treasure chest).

We also learned at Edfu that the Egytians believed the ground to be holy wherever their gods were. No one was alowed to wear sandals inside the temple, and the priests would transport the ark barefoot. The only exception to this was in times of war, when everyone needed to be prepared for fight or flight. This Egyptian practice manifests itself in the stories in Exodus as well. First, God told Moses to remove his sandals for he was standing on Holy Ground. Second, God commanded the Hebrews to partake of the Passover (a holy feast) with their sandals strapped so they would be ready to flee.

It was about this point in the trip that the entire story of Joseph through Moses started to really click. I began to realize just how much of a connection the Hebrews would have had to the culture and religion of Egypt. Regardless of this, God used what they knew in order to establish his covenant with them. He had no problem taking something from one culture and using it to his glory. This is one reason I know that God is awesome.

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Faith building in the land of Egypt

It’s incredible how much can happen in 8 days. The land of Egypt is so rich, so saturated with history and stories that it would be nearly impossible to take it all in, even with decades of study. Our tour guide, Osman, (who is one of the best men I have ever met) is by far also one of the best tour guides in all of Egypt. He is professional Egyptologist, tour guide, hieroglyphics teacher, and Biblical historian. Not only did he take us around to all the famous sites, but at each one he did his best to tie in all the geography, temples, etc. to the stories in the Bible. I never realized just how much Egypt had to do with the development of Judaism and ultimately Christianity.

I would like to start my summary of our trip by recording some of the things I learned that my Sunday school teachers never knew:

– The pyramids were seen by Abraham, Joseph (and his entire family), Moses, and Jesus

– There is technically more than one Temple. When Judea was overrun and many Jews taken captive and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, many Jews escaped to Egypt and built a full-scale replica of the Temple, complete with priests and a sacrificial altar. In fact, a second full-scale replica was built on an island in the Nile called Elephantine Island (which archeologists are excavating right now). What’s more, the Egyptians built a temple of their own called the Temple of Philae which is based off of those other two replicas of Solomon’s Temple.

– The Ark of the Covenant probably wasn’t a big box. It would have been shaped like a small boat with a shrine area in the middle and two cheribum on either end. (I will post a picture later) How do we know this? Because in the Egyptian temples (which included a “Holy of Holies” where the god was and only the high priest could enter) the god was kept in an “Ark” which was a small boat with two long poles on either side which the priests used to carry the ark. Also, the 14 Commandments of Egypt were kept on display inside the ark. Moses, growing up around the main temple complex in Luxor, would have seen this ark taken out of the temple on many occasions.

– When the Israelites were encamped around Sinai and built a golden calf, it was most likely a representation of the goddess Hathor, one of the main goddesses worshiped in the time of their enslavement.

– The Egyptians had a god in their pantheon named Set, who was the god of chaos, evil, and the wilderness. From the name of Set, the Jews derived the name for Satan.

– The Egyptian priests made a practice of removing their sandals when they were inside the Temple, which was considered “holy ground”. God told Moses to remove his sandals, for he was standing on holy ground.

– The only exception to this practice of removing their sandals was during a time of war, when every man had to be prepared for fight of flight. God told the Israelites on the night of the Passover to keep their sandals on as they ate the meal, for they were getting ready to run. Paul told Christians in Ephesians 6 to keep our shoes on, which is the preparation of the gospel of peace, during a time of spiritual warfare.

– Early Christians made it a practice to use pagan symbols as their own symbols of the faith. For instance, they ancient Egyptians used a symbol called an ankh, which was the “key of life” carried by all the god, representing the Nile river. It looks like a cross with a circle on the top. Early Christians in Egypt used this symbol as their own to represent the life which we have in Christ.

OK, I’ll stop here for now. There’s more I could talk about, but I’ll leave that until the actual trip summary. I wanted to go ahead and write this stuff down before I forgot about it. All of this goes to show that God, in His infinite wisdom, has no problem with reaching people on their level. He used the things which the Israelites knew. He met them where they were and showed them the way to himself. Our God truly is an awesome God.