Best Laid Plans...

Warning you in advance: this one's gonna be a two parter. The first part will make some points, wonder about some things, and possibly meander a little bit. The second part will be a bit more cohesive, and will be more of an application. As always: I remind you that this is simply my opinion. It's just the way I think. I could very well be speaking out of my ass. It's hard to say for sure, 'cuz the words are being translated through my fingers to the keyboard, and while I think I'm thinking them, it's entirely possible that it's just my ass that is thinking them... =)

Now, I've been meaning to write the ka-blog for awhile... Hm... "ka-blog..." Sounds klingon... Anywho! It's kind of the blog I've been itching to write the most because it's very central to my way of thinking and how I view life. Now, some of you might have a better idea than others what I'm talking about when I start talking about ka, and some of you might not know what I'm talking about even once I finish talking about it, but... my idea of "ka" is basically a concoction of some observations I've made, some borrowed ideas from a famous writer of horror and fantasy fiction, the things I believe about God, and some creative deductions that have come as a result of all that. I tell you all this not because this blog is about ka (at least not directly anyway), but because the second part of this two-part blog is the ka-blog. The first part is essentially set-up...

And while I was getting around to writing these blogs soon anyway, what compelled me to go ahead and make them the focus of my very next blog has largely to do with my brother. He wrote a blog a couple weeks ago that I didn't see before it was deleted, but can guess at what it was about thanks to my incredible powers of deduction... Anyway, THAT blog in turn led to him writing another one about God's so-called plans (to feel well-informed, you might want to take a moment to go read Nate's blog... Go ahead; I'll wait...), and that blog got me thinking about a number of things, including the ka-blog, which is essentially all about how I think God enacts His plan in our lives. And since I couldn't just comment to his blog like a normal person, and even though he and Clay seemed to have worked out what he thinks, what he meant, and why he thinks/meant it in his comments, I still want to go on about what I think.

I'll start with the part that Nathan's blog got me to thinking about that is aside from (though applicable to) what I already thought about ka and/or God's Plan. This is the part of the blog where I'm just going to muse about something without necessarily having a point to my musings...

I never really thought about the idea of God changing His mind before... I don't know why. I think maybe it's just because I'm a member of a church which believes that God perfected His Word about two thousand years ago, and has had no need to change it since then, meaning that He hasn't changed his mind about anything in quite a little while. But according to the Bible, there was a point in history when God seemed arguably a little wishy-washy about His Creation. He made man, decided there should be more, and added woman. Man and woman kind of sucked at the obeying, and God kicked them out of Eden. There are a number of times when He came to regret having made stupid people, and decided to wipe them out, one of those times actually wiping out everyone save Noah and his family...

For some reason, despite wording that specifically said that God changed His mind about something, I never really stopped to think about God actually doing such a thing. The way I saw it, God is omniscient, and is so from a place of perspective where He could (at least if He wanted to, I suppose) sit back and view the entire course of humanity from beginning to end, being that He exists on a plane beyond time and space, which I think we can determine to be true because Heaven is supposed to be eternal, and while I suppose that could be defined more simply as ever-lasting, which might imply a beginning with no end, I've always looked at it as eternal as in: beyond the existence of time as a factor. I've always viewed time itself as another part of God's creation, and I tend to think that this idea is supported by the Bible, since the passing of time, day and night, took a whole Day for Him to Create...

It's possible that I'm losing perspective, and making no sense... Fortunately for me, like I said, this part of the blog is really just about musing, and I don't have to have a point. And I could be wrong. About any part of it, or all of it. I don't know. But these are the things I think about...

Anyway, at the idea of God changing His mind, I'm inclined to take one of two different opinions on that, and at this point, I honestly don't know which one I buy into... Either 1) God really did always know what He was doing, knew already how man would screw things up, but allows things to happen as they do because they must, and the description of God changing his mind has more to do with our ability to understand that then it has to do with God making an actual change in Himself (this arguably touches on my Balloon Theory, which we'll eventually get to...), or 2) Maybe God COULD view the world from an eternal standpoint, but chose in the beginning to get right down into the dirt of it, from which perspective, He may have had a change of heart from time to time, but has since taken a step back and now views the world from an eternal perspective...

I think the second one probably fits better with how the church of Christ perceives it, although to me, the second option opens up more questions, in that it means that God COULD change His mind about something; there's precedent to prove it. I think others would probably disagree with me on this, but to me, if God has changed his mind about us before, He could again, which just opens up all sorts of questions in me about the "perfect" nature of the Bible... which also gets into my Balloon Theory... that's coming; I promise... But I've always been more of a mind for the first idea, that the language of the Bible has more to do with how we've changed than that God has... that its worded for our limited understanding, perhaps...

I don't know... I don't know what to think about that. It's pretty complicated stuff. It takes me to the furthest reaches of my reasoning ability, and not to boast (especially if I'm self-deluded here in my abilities), but I kinda think I have some pretty good reasoning skills in the existential and theological arenas as it is.

Anyway, that's some of the more creative thoughts that were inspired by my brother's blog. In my next blog, entitled "... Of God and Men," I'll get into the specifics of how I actually think God works in our lives, and how that applies to his Plan. One other thing before I go, though...

I also don't believe that there is one specific person out there who is the perfect romantic match for another one single person. Interestingly, I do believe in "soul mates," in that some people seem to interlock so perfectly (in mind and spirit) it's like puzzle pieces fitting together, BUT I don't believe that these people often make the best romantic pairs (though sometimes maybe). I think that there are any number of people out there who a person can MAKE their romantic soul-mate, though, and personally, I think that this is a much more romantic idea than those two Ones magically finding each other and falling in love anyway. Sure, the fairytale romance is a nice idea; it's sweet and easy, and I get wanting it. But oh so much more romantic (at least in my opinion) is the idea that a person chooses to love you. I'd take someone who chose to love me every morning upon waking over a so-called "happily ever after" any day.

BUT... (there's always a but...) I also believe that God gives us opportunities. I believe that there are people in my life that are there because God wanted them in my life. I also believe there are people who are not in my life that are not there because I missed the opportunity when God presented it or because I let them slip away. I believe that. I believe it with all my heart... But that's all part of the ka-theory, actually, SO until next time...