The role of violence in the life of a believer

Now that I've cleared my throat by venting about that stupid little complaint, I thought I'd move on to something a tad bit more weighty. I'm relatively certain that God does not ordain the use of going postal about Starbucks' corporate policy and the like, but I genuinely have to confess a bit of mixed thoughts and feelings in regard to knowing when, how, where, and so on we, as followers of Christ, should use violence. I want to start by saying that ultimately there are countless situations that simply require the leading of the Holy Spirit in the moment to truly know what to do, and I realize that. This is not meant to be an exhaustive look into when to use violence, what degree of violence to use, and when to simply turn the other cheek and restrain ourselves. I just want to spark a conversation about this from some voices that I respect and who may come from differing perspectives on this question. I hope we all learn from each other, and that we all temper our hearing and our writing with a genuine desire to speak and hear from the Holy Spirit about this. His "views" are the only ones that ultimately matter.

I think it would be a good idea to limit this discussion to personal behavior and not principles guiding government policy. I am not suggesting that these two are not inextricably linked, but there are extremely important differences that I fear will be glossed over if we lump the two together into one discussion about this. I promise to make that a subject of future discussion, however.

Some examples of situations are walking into a situation where it is clear someone is about to do harm to another unless you intervene. I think that most would agree that some use of force in that situation would be, not only allowable, but we would be guilty of sin to turn away or do nothing. What about the Christian soldier who is faced with an unbelievably daunting tasking of sorting out who to shoot or not to shoot on a daily and even hourly basis? Husbands and fathers are to protect their families, but do we have any freedom to act preemptively in that capacity? I think it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. I believe he once said, "one would do anthing to wrest away control of a car if a madman were behind the wheel of a car," (big time paraphrase) but he supposedly also struggled with this decision after the fact in his conscience.

I have gone through some crazy extremes through the years about this. I can remember when I was young and thinking that I could not be a policeman or soldier because of the turning the other cheek thing. If anything, I may have gotten to the other extreme in the last several years, and I want to examine this more closely. There are a lot of angles and things that I could go on and continue to talk about, but this blog post even more than others in the past is really more about the dialogue that I hope will follow. So without further ado, please share your thoughts about this area.

Thanks,
Dennis.

Star Wars and Starbucks........

Just thought I'd get back into the typing groove with a teensy lil rant.........
Why is it that we can invent a microscope that can zoom in on something a millionth the size of one of my few remaining hair folicles with crystal clarity and a space craft that can be sent to the outer edges of our solar system so we can spy on all the Plutonians, but Starbucks and all her little brothers and sisters in the coffee bidness can't seem to come up with a to go cup with a lid that doesn't leak steaming hot brown liquid on me! I'm convinced it is a conspiracy designed to make us all buy their reusable go cups.

More pics O' Ella

Ella Pictures

8 pounds, 14 ounces.... 20 and 3/4 inches......brown hair, blue eyes just like her beautiful mommy




















(Drum roll..........................................) Heeeeeeere's Ella!

Quote of the week...

"Time to start cleaning the shotgun."
-my first words when I found out Ella was a girl

Daniella Ann--aka Ella

Brothers and sisters, ladies and gents, and all you other folks. Let us put aside our passionate chit chat for the time being and enjoy the introduction of Daniella Ann to this world. Myndall and I would like to express very sincere gratefulness to all of our friends and family. We know that we are blessed by the shower of love we have received from all of you in these past several months.

As I sit here typing and knowing that in less than seventeen hours I will get to see and hold my beautiful daughter, it is hard to really express the myriad of things going through my mind. I cannot express them all, but I will share a few of my thoughts. I think of all the weeks and months of physical challenges that Myndall has faced. I suppose I look forward to the time when I can actually interact with her with words and walk and run with her to all kinds of places. I want to enjoy the next couple of years when she will soak in everything like a sponge. I want to pour our love into that sponge with kisses and caring and holding and sitting, just the three of us, enjoying. I know there will be stress and sleep deprivation ahead, and I know that I probably don't really realize how much, but that is an incredibly small price to pay to be entrusted with a priceless gift from God. I am sobered by this thought.

I suppose one of the things that I love about our soon to arrive princess is the fact that she is a mystery. She is the personification of one of my personal favorite aspects of this life. She is a wave to be ridden. I must discover her daily because she is the ultimate unfolding story. What is to come. I do not know because Ella is who Ella is. I honestly live for these kinds of creations of God. I love you sweet Ella. Your mommy and I love you and will see you soon.....pictures will follow soon, I hope.