Seymour Rambles

Yes indeed, that is a gourd you are looking at, and it has great significance this week along with this guy:

This may sound weird to some, but this week is called “Wild West Week” for the wing that I am living on.  Along with Wild West Week we play a game called “Melon and Gourd.”  This game involves a melon and gourd (obviously) and turns into a campus wide game of tag.  Let me explain:

Our RA’s start out with the items, one has the melon, the other has the gourd.  Sunday night at 10pm we gather in our lounge to have the rules laid out for us:

1 - If you drop the melon or the gourd and it breaks, you must take a bite.
2 - You are safe if you are inside or touching a door handle (must be attached to the building)
3- If you are tagged in the backpack, clothing, etc., it still counts
4 - You must enter chapel on Friday between 9:40 and 10:00am
5 - If you end up with the melon or the gourd after 10:00am, you must eat a bite

Sounds pretty simple right?  Well let me explain a situation so you can get a visual image in your head.  Before I exit the building for breakfast, I hold onto the door handle and lean out as far as I can peeking around the corner and scouring the landscape trying to see if someone is waiting to ambush me.  I see that it is clear and I quickly sprint away from the door, away from the blind corners of the building, and away from the bushes that are close by to make sure that I am in the open - it’s clear.  I pass other people on the sidewalk and I look like I am tweaking on crack because I can’t stop looking over my shoulder and walking in a crooked line.

I constantly ask people “Hey, did you see anyone standing around with an odd shaped fruit in their hand over there?”  Most of the time they laugh and move on because they have no idea what I am talking about (once again, I look and sound like I am a crack addict).  As I near the Dining Hall I see a planter box that could easily be used as a hiding spot.  I immediately shifted to the right going extra wide to see the other side without being close - it’s clear.  It is now 7:25am and a walk that takes me 2 minutes on a normal day has now taken me 5, and I am half way there.

I continued in my wide pattern sweeping to the right and decide to go into another residence hall that is at least 100 yards away, but it is attached to the Dining commons so once I make it to the door handle, I am safe.  With my head still moving like a bobble head doll, I proceed to walk to the door.  Other people who I don’t know are in front of me on the sidewalk and I use them for cover.  Once I am about 20 feet away from the door I sprint, completely freaking the people in front of me out and they briskly step to the side.  BAM!  My hand touches the handle and I am safe, it is now 7:30am, I haven’t even had to cross campus yet and I am a paranoid freak.

Every single guy on my wing experiences this same thing whenever they have class, go to eat, or just step outside of the dorm- and it’s only Monday.  I will be posting up some funny stories about this week but for now enjoy the video from a few years ago and laugh at college traditions.

I have been reading through the gospels for my New Testament class this semester and I am right in the middle of John.  Tonight I was reading John 9 which is a chapter about Jesus healing a man who was born blind.

To briefly summarize, Jesus and his disciples pass by this guy and they ask him whether it was his parents fault or his fault that he ended up blind.  Jesus replied “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  Jesus then goes on to spit into the dirt to make mud, and then he rubs it in the man’s eyes.  He instructs the man to go wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam and he was healed.  HE WAS HEALED!

Word spread fast and people were debating whether he was being possessed by a demon, a prophet, or the Son of Man.  The Jews brought the blind man in to talk to him about what happened for the second time and he again testified to the power of Jesus saying “I have told you already, and you would not listen.  Why do you want to hear it again?  do you also want to become his disciples?”

They still did not believe that Jesus was the Son of Man so they continued to question the man who was healed.  “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

They were STILL doubting that Jesus was the Son of God.

Once again, the blind man rebuked their claims by saying “…Never since the world began has it been heart that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  The Jews then cast him out of the temple.

The Jews saw a man who was born blind be healed with mud that was made from spit, and still did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God.  I cannot help but consider myself a Jew.

Doubt is something that my life is riddled with.  Little things, big things, and all the in between things, leave room for doubt.  I have been healed of wounds left deep inside my heart because someone prayed over me.  I have been ridden of so many doubts in my life that were dragging me down because someone prayed over me.  I have seen healing in other people’s lives because they were prayed over.  I have seen lives changed by the Holy Spirit - drug addicts turning their lives around for Christ.  I have heard of stories about a group of people praying over someone who is sick and they are healed instantly.  Thousands of things I have witnessed and heard about God moving all around my life, and I still doubt.

I still have that reserve in my mind that says “Wait, was this just an emotional deal?”  Or “Yeah I bet God can heal that person, but I just don’t think that I could pray and make it happen.”  Why so much doubt?

Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  So what about the things I have seen?  How in the world am I supposed to believe I have any faith if I can’t even believe the things I have seen?

Dang I am just blown away at how much of a sheep I am.  I now fully understand why Jesus calls his followers (us) sheep - we are DUMB!  We have such little faith. We put Jesus in a box and tuck him away so we feel safe around him.

I am excited to discover faith.  I am excited to start trying to believe the things that I have seen and run with them full speed.  I am excited that the Lord is laying this on my heart so that others may do the same.  May we move forward with faith, with joy, and with bold confidence that our Lord is working in this very moment.

Are you encouraged?

Working at Kanakuk Colorado (now Camp Kivu) for the past few summers as well as being a camper there for two summers, I am no stranger to this thing our Christian Sub-culture calls a “Spiritual High.”  It usually happens when someone goes to camp, experiences a life changing moment through the Holy Spirit intervening and then they are super bummed to go home and lose it.  This “high” is also known to be extremely emotional and temporary; so how do we move on after an experience like this?  I don’t have the absolute answer, but I do have a thought about it.

I am a huge fan of Hillsong not because of their music, but their lyrics. “And this is my prayer in the harvest, when favor and providence flow.  I know I’m filled to be emptied again, the seed I’ve received I will sow.” Bingo.

The seed I’ve received I will sow.  Yes!  When our lives are changed by the Holy Spirit and we are set free from the guilt or wounds that are in our lives, let us rejoice and experience the feeling of Joy!  God doesn’t shun emotion, he wants us to feel his joy!  It is after this joy has faded away and the reality of our lives has set back in where we need to make a choice.

We can either choose to get bummed out and want to be back where this “high” happened, or we can use what was revealed to us and apply it to life, right now.  I often hear campers say “I wish I could be back at camp, life would just be so good all the time and I could experience Jesus so much more.”  Now, I completely agree, but not to the point where I lose focus on where I am.

I think God gives us these moments to be encouraged and sow his good work in our life into others.  I think He wants us to remember those moments and realize that others need His grace and His love just as much as we do.  I think that we need to take the seed we have been given it and sow it while we can because yes, we will be emptied again.

Remember, if you disagree, please e-mail me at cmooreboards@gmail.com.  I am just a college student trying to voice some of the thoughts that are in my brain.  Over and out.

Chase Moore, C.Moore, Seymour - rambling.

I know we have all seen the bags and t-shirts that have bold print on them and say LOVE IS THE MOVEMENT.  Well, I think differently.  Love is not “the” movement at all.  Love is something that everyone is buying into because it is a great idea and it sounds like it can change the world (and it can, but we will get to that later).  Just because you buy a t-shirt or an overpriced cotton bag doesn’t mean you are changing anything but the balance in your bank account.  Harsh?

There is something to be said about the “Social Justice Movement” that is happening within our culture, and I am thankful beyond words that those around the world who cannot speak for themselves are being spoken for.  I am also extremely excited to see so many organizations sprouting up to make a difference.  Toms, To Write Love On Her Arms, ONE, Charity:Water, Livestrong, etc., etc., I could go on forever.

Most of these organizations require nothing more than for you to purchase a product or donate to their project.  This is perfect for anyone who wants to make a difference but doesn’t want to do a thing.  Did you read that correctly?  This is perfect for anyone who wants to make a difference but doesn’t want to do a thing.  And I am guilty.

I am guilty of apathy in my effort to get out and make this world a better place.  I own two pairs of Toms, my family sponsors a child in Africa, and I have donated money to an organization who installs water wells in villages all over the world, but I personally didn’t do a thing. I should have just bought a cup of coffee and a muffin because all of the money that I put forth to help others is just a temporary fix.

Love isn’t the movement because people have used it to take the place of Jesus.  If $5 can feed a child for a year imagine what Jesus can do for the rest of eternity!  We have to remember that Jesus is the movement, and because of him we should be overflowing with love for the rest of the world.  We also have to remember that what these people need is much more than food, shoes, water, or a house, but they need eternal life.  They need the grace of Christ to flood them and free them from their guilt and shame.  They need the joy that only the Holy Spirit can give them.  They need the hope that their lives are changed forever, and they are set free.

Don’t get me wrong, giving to these organizations isn’t bad!!! I encourage you all to find ways that you think are effective for you to help others out any way you can.  I would also encourage you to truly seek out what you feel is right along the lines of social justice.  What I am really trying to say here is that we cannot let our social justice “love is the movement” mindset be a copout for sharing eternal life with our world.

Jesus is where our heart should focus, the rest will be a direct result of that, even if it is just buying an overpriced cotton bag.

John 13:34-35 says this: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, ou also are to love one another.  By this ALL people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - This is how the world will know we are disciples of Christ!

Thankful for: A God who is love, who is just, and who is working NOW!

I cannot stand when I am forced to learn something that isn’t applicable to my life now, in a little while, or in the future.  Although I can think in abstract forms and express creativity in certain ways, I still like to think along the linear route.  I learn by watching someone do a task, explain it along the way, and then turning it over to me to try myself.  I have to be able to apply what I learned and actually use the information to find it relevant in my brain.

Example:  At 8am, four days a week, I sit in a class called “Art As Experience.”  I was excited because the word “Experience” meant that I could possibly get to be a part of something that is happening or get to make my own experience using art - but I was wrong.  The class should be titled “Art History,” because that’s all it is.  Early Gothic architecture, pre, early, and high renaissance, and anything else that absolutely stinks.  There is no practical application to knowing whether Cimabouie did his depiction of the fall of man using oil on wood or plaster….IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!

End of rant.  Anyways, I really need classes that I can learn something in, study it, and then go and use it.  Thank goodness I am a film major, almost every single class I take has a practical application.

If you are a teacher of any kind, please keep students like myself in mind when you make your lesson plans.  Some of us just need to see that what we are learning is relevant and can be used for something…..just something.