Side-Quests and Preparation

Today I took a walk out to the beach...well, out to an overlook very close to the beach.  There is a trail system near my apartment that goes through wooded dunes.  As I was hiking in the woods I found a section with signs that said "Private Property".  I chose to skim off the trail and walk alongside the not so visible barrier for a while and eventually found a different section of trail. I then hiked for a while in area that I have been on and came to the overlook.

Life has a lot of times like this. Sometimes the journey doesn't take us where we want or expect to go.  That is the case for me.  Other times we get sidetracked and have different side quests.  Another place we see these quests is in video games, particularly in RPGs.  I remember when my neighbor and I would play Final Fantasy 7 during our middle school or high school days.  I don't ever remember all the sidequests but I remember a lot happening and the amazing length of the game.  I had not done a whole lot with RPGs so this was new and strange to me, but cool and fun as well.  Sometimes you would do a quest to get a better weapon or to level up.  Other times you just walk around looking for battles to learn about your new weapon or your new team-mate. 

Right now my family is in a side-quest situation.  After a fire in our house we are living in an apartment complex which is very new to us until our new house is built.  I call this a side-quest because it is a temporary thing for us. 

David, before becoming King, had some side-quests.  He was living in Philistine territory for a while because of King Saul's threats against him.  During this time he had to figure out how to survive and convince the Philistines to let him hide among them.  He did this by doing raids, but he never let Achish (king of the Philistines) know the truth of where he was raiding.  I doubt that this is where he ever wanted to be.  As much of a warrior as David was, I don't know if he enjoyed raiding towns and killing the inhabitants.    You can read about his time there in 1 Samuel 27-30.

But this time did a few things.  He prepared the area for Israel to expand its territory, something that happened under his leadership after he became King of Israel.  God often uses these side-quests to prepare us for stuff.  They might start with painful events such as our fire or they might be an adventure planned for in advance, such as a short term mission trip. 

So tell us, on the Facebook page or here on Blogspot, what side-quests have you been on and how were you trained and prepared for other things through them?

Promises

Greetings.  Sorry I have not kept up with this during Lent as well as I said I would.  I definitely need to keep up with it  more!

That brings something to mind.  Broken promises.  I obviously did not do well on my promise to blog weekly during Lent. Normally I keep my commitments, but I do have dark spots where I have not done well at this.  Then there are the times when I do something for a little while and then stop or when I keep putting it off and eventually someone else does it.

I've been watching Chuck on Netflix for months now and I recently watched an episode from season four where Sarah has to seek help from her dad.  He comes into her life with a lot of failure.  As a professional conman, he had frequently chosen not to be there for her while she was growing up and did go to jail.  During the episode she and Chuck had been conned by a woman pretending to be a wedding coordinator.  The woman had taken all their wedding funds and run off with them.  Then, she goes to seek advice from the only conman she knew well, her father.  Later on in the episode he comes to LA to help her and chuck out with a mission General Beckman had told them to ignore.  They never got their money back, but at the end they get a nice surprise.  Before leaving, Sarah's dad leaves them thousands of dollars to use to pay for the wedding.

The bible takes this issue very seriously.  Jesus said we should never take an oath.  That we should simply say "Yes" or "No."  This encouragement is repeated by his brother in the Book of James.

I'll try to do better at blogging regularly.  What will you do?

Identity

Who are you?  I am not asking how you view yourself or what you think your identity is, but who are you really?  Why do we love the characters we love?  For many it is that they know who they are.  The Doctor knows exactly who he is.  Sure, he still finds limits he didn't realize he had (or does not admit that he has).  But he never questions who he is.  Think about the difference in Clark in "Man of Steel".  He begins not knowing who he is.  He knows he has powers but he doesn't know exactly why.  Many of the flashbacks really are about him finding his identity.

When Loki is talking with his adopted mother in "Thor:The Dark World" she comments that he is "so perceptive about everyone but yourself".  Have you ever felt like that?  Do you see who everyone else is?

Right now identity is a big deal.  Many people are finding their identity in so many things.  Nerds try to find it in our hobbies and in our community.  But should our identity be in what we do?  I think for many of us it is not just in the hobbies themselves, but in the persona equated with the community around it.  We enjoy the community so much that we think our identity is all in this just because we enjoy this and feel safe there.

Genesis says that God looked at the first human he created and said "It is very good."  Then, later, after man fell, after many tried to gain something which could make him more like God, this same God stayed with us.  He loved us enough to send His son into the world to experience death on a cross solely to save us.  So, who are you?  Don't lie about it.  Be honest. 

Your identity is not in your hobbies or your actions or your relationships.  You might be tempted to think that it is in your sins and faults.  Although I encourage you to be honest in these, God sees much more in you! 

You are a child of God.  Simple as that.  As Kalel came from Jorel and the Doctor came from Gallifrey, we come from GOD!  Find yourself in Him. 

Theory about an MCU Character

Normally I do not talk only about fandom here on Nerd Chapel.  I like to keep Jesus in the front as He has been amazingly good to me.  Today I had a fun idea that I wanted to share with you.

I just had a thought about casting for an Marvel Cinematic Universe roll that I think is amazing but might be a bit unconventional and I would love to hear your opinion about this.  This is just a theory and may be fully wrong, so take this with a grain of salt. 

A few things we know about the MCU:

1.  Many new properties are being talked about, including Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and multiple others. 
2.  We know that they are willing to take many episodes on Agents of SHIELD to build up to a comic book character (take Deathlock as an instance).
3.  We know that they have a lot of time to lay ground work in Agents of SHIELD for phase 3 as well as for Avengers: The Age of Ultron.

Now, one of the surprises in the Agents of SHIELD that all the Whedonites loved was the casting of Ron Glass as a doctor in SHIELD ranks.  Ron played "Shepard Booker" on Firefly/Serenity, a character who became a mentor figure on the show.

SPOILER:

In the most recent episode of Agents of SHIELD Dr. Strange got name-dropped by Simmons while calling for help in taking care of Skye, but later she mentioned not Strange but Streiton (Ron Glass) while reporting to Agent Coulson.

WHAT IF......

the name "Dr. Strange" is a nickname or codename amongst SHIELD science staff for Dr. Streiton, who is played by Ron Glass and Ron Glass is actually cast as Dr. Strange?! 

To my knowledge this would be a different route than anyone is expecting.  I think it could work.  We have seen how frustrated Streiton is with medical technology and SHIELD's use of it from his conversation with Coulson a few episodes ago.  Maybe this is the beginning of his interest in other possibilities for helping people.  And he was involved with "T.A.H.I.T.I. the Magical Place". 

What do you guys think?  Am I off on this?  Do you like this idea or hate it or just not care?

Humility

I am currently in a series with my church and growth group that is a read through of the prophets of the Old Testament.  This is not an easy series.  The prophets had a job that was rough, sometimes very bizarre, and did not always include an easy message.

God is constantly bringing conviction in these books.  He is saying "This is wrong.  There is no justice in that.  I will bring destruction..."  But then there are the breaks.  When He talks about restoration and promises to save a remnant and bring healing to His people.

You know how we like to pick and choose what we think about or what we focus on?  Imagine what it must have been like for these prophets.  They were surrounded with constant reminders of the worst of humanity as they tried to bring God's message of Justice through to the people.  I wonder how hard it was for them, especially when they had to do strange things.  I feel for Hosea as he went back to a wife who was constantly cheating on him.  I wonder how Isaiah felt as God told him to spend 3 years naked just to make a point.  They didn't get to choose how they spread their message or what their message said.  They just had to do it.

Right now our world is in a world of hurt.  It is so easy to see where others are wrong without seeing our own sins.  We each get so upset about the difficulties we feel we are faced with that we don't see what the other person is facing.

Did you know that there are people out there dying and being put in prison for what they believe in or for their lifestyle?  Did you know that there are millions of people currently being held in slavery?  One thing that I've noticed reading through Isaiah is that God finds sins in everyone.  He brings judgement on all people, regardless of their nationality, sexual orientation, religion, or whatever else. 

We know that Christ has fulfilled a provision of grace and even gone as far as to be a substitution for us on the Cross, if we will simply believe in Him, accept Him, and walk in repentance.  Instead of getting proud of ourselves as we know "right from wrong" by reading His word, let us also be honest about our own sins and change. Let us live with grace, neither supporting the sins of others nor treating them like dirt.  Healing this world starts with humble repentance as well as help to others.

Spiderman, Drugs, Truth and Love

Today I contemplated something that happened in the comic book industry many years ago in the 1970s.  The government approached Stan Lee about writing a Spiderman comic that educated youth about the dangers of drugs and joined in the battle against such evils.  At that time the Comics Code forbade any mention of drugs.  The Code refused to give its approval for the comic because it mentioned drugs, despite the message that taking them was wrong and dangerous. So what did Stan Lee and Marvel do?  They published Spiderman #96 without the approval of the Code simply by not putting the Code's Seal of Approval on the cover.  This was so effective in the fight against drugs, that it led to a change in the Comics Code.  I honestly believe that they got so focused on their strategies, that they forgot their overall mission, which was to oversee the Comics Industry so that the entertainment found in it was healthy and family friendly.  Isn't a warning about drugs important for health?  Doesn't a comic provide a great chance for parents and kids to talk about these issues?

This makes me wonder about how we do things in the Church.  How often do we get so focused on strategies or truth that we actually fail in expressing the grace and love of Christ?  Do we need to call sin by its real name of sin?  Absolutely!  But we also need to do so in a way which is loving and grace filled.  Yet sometimes we go the opposite direction.  We are scared of pointing sin out but keep trying to express a sentimental love around that doesn't challenge people to grow in Christ.

Jesus was never afraid to call people out about sin.  He told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more" and he kicked out the merchants who were taking advantage of travelers to the temple with high prices.  Yet despite this he was called a "friend of sinners".  He never backed down from calling sin what it is but had amazing relationships with everyone around Him.  This sometimes can be a little confusing, but Jesus is always there to help us.  He has thousands of years of experience in doing this so learning from Him is certainly a great idea.

Luke, Vader, and Love

Love "...holds no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."  1 Corinthians 13

So yesterday I watched Star Wars Episode VI, Return of the Jedi.  I recently picked up the blue-ray set of the full saga and had this last one to watch.

I find the issue of Luke confronting Vader interesting.  It seems Yoda thought confronting him meant fighting/killing him.  Luke did not take to that.  He looked for any bit of goodness in his father and in the end he found it; even though it meant Luke had to approach death to find it, he found it.  Saving Luke's life may not have been much compared to the years of killing and hunting Jedi, but it was a beginning.

Whether or not someone pursues righteousness is their choice and the reality is that people do not always make that choice.  Paul was not asking us to be ignorant or naive.  Simply to know that we should look for the best in people.  How can you do that today?