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One Immortal To Another
I Cannot Measure Your Worth
Created on 2004-02-05 11:53:19 (#2119507), last updated 2009-10-25
1,019 comments received, 1,839 comments posted
Plus Account [Gift]
453 Journal Entries, 376 Tags, 15 Memories, 50+ ScrapBook Files, 0 Virtual Gifts, 15 Userpics
Basic Info| Name: | Jake |
|---|---|
| Birthdate: | 1985-06-17 |
| Location: | Georgia, United States |
BioI'm Jake. I love Jesus because he loves me. I'm trying to love you like Jesus loves you and me. I'm trying to stop loving myself more than everything else.
I'm twenty-four years old. I am a medic in the US Army. However, I've come to the conclusion that the wars of this country are immoral. So, I'm applying for non-combatant status, so that I can spend the rest of my enlistment entirely focused on objective medical aid. My long trial of coming to this conclusion is glimpsed at in posts under the tag "Conscientious Objection."
I love the arts. I read and write the most. But I also listen to music quite often, as well as play, some (guitar and piano, though I've been hard-pressed to play either for the last year or so). I'd also like to get into composition and music technology. I enjoy sketching, and hope to take college courses in fine arts, if the Lord lets me return to college as I plan to. I miss acting in high school, college, and the local community. Those were great times... but they always took up so much of my schedule (alas for the brevity of life!) I like to watch local theatre. I love good documentaries (there are untold hours of free, quality documentaries on PBS's NOVA's website). But I find the programs of the History Channel utterly unsatisfying, save on the topic of the american military (and I don't have much fascination for that department.) I love films of epic meaning, especially when they are given an epic setting. I have fun dancing, albeit with no seriousness whatsoever. All original songs and poems I post are under the tag "Poetry & Lyrics."
I consider the video game an art form, and find an incomparable story-experience in the role-playing genre. I am slowly, steadily designed such a game, which I hope will set a higher standard for character development & interconnectedness, plot customization, theological exploration, world culture incorporation, extent of soundtrack, gameplay diversity, and overall (time-consuming) commitment to quality. I have no problem with taking decades to create such a game. I may post some of my concepts and developments, in time.
I am a christian who studies and is awe-struck by the diversity of belief within this one, ancient, nearly worldwide faith. And yet I am astounded that so many of us allow these lesser differences to hinder the unity that comes to us so directly from our great, common Source. At times it makes me (and the whole world) wonder if Jesus truly is so precious to save and life-changing to follow, after all. But I insist that Christ will bring us into a unity as intimate as that he shares with the Father. So I consider the ecumenical work of uniting sincere christians one of my highest callings. An essential element of that calling is, of course, empathetic and uncompromising study of differing christian beliefs and practices.
Besides pursuing a professional-level depth of study of my own religion, Christianity, I hope to learn considerable amounts about other religions, religion itself (as a broad entity), and the one, temporal, vague, compromising, world religion that seems to result from modern coexistence. Hopefully, this will involve all kinds of long-term travel around the world, to the homelands of the various worldviews.
The intensive study of Native America is also important to me. I feel greatly indebted to the elder residents of this land, whose blood I can still hear crying from the land. I intend to answer that call, in some small way, for now, by researching and recovering their history and way of life. I am very interested in relief work for the remnant of the first nations, as well as unneeded, by greatly deserved tribute.
You can probably guess that I am interesting in becoming a professor of religion. But before I teach college courses I need to get through them myself! So I'm planning on a bachelor's of music, a master's of divinity, and a doctorate of philosophy. I'll probably be about 40 by the time all the formal education is said and done.
I love deepening my knowledge base (science, culture, history, etc.), developing a broad set of skills (communication, languages, medicine, computers, etc.), and becoming more naturally ascetic (environmentalism meets self-discipline).
I love to play Ultimate Frisbee and Brisketball (Ultimate meets football). Lifting weights is a blast when I have the time/ facilities. I used to run for high school, and will always enjoy it. One day, if I ever get out of the army, I'd like to join a community running group. I'd like to learn how to swim well. I enjoy biking too, so I'll have to do a triathlon eventually.
At the end of the day, people are all that really matter to me (God being the ultimate person concerned, in case that made any theists flinch.) I love meeting new people online. The internet is a gift from God!
There's more that rises in the morning than the sun
More that shines in the night than just the moon
There's more than this fire here that keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room ♫
-Rich Mullins
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh, and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are ♫
-Coldplay
As critics scorn the thoughts and works of mortal man
My eyes are drawn to You in awe once again ♫
-Jars of Clay
The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
I am caught between the promise
And the things I know ♫
-Sara Groves
"If you but love God you may do as you incline."
-Augustine
"The world starves for grace."
-Phillip Yancey
"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love least."
-Dorothy Day
"To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be."
-Dostoevsky
"Perhaps the greatest weakness within Christian theology is its reluctance to recognize that most models are complimentary, rather than mutually exclusive."
-Alister McGrath
"The glory of God is man, fully alive."
-Irenaeus
"All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride."
-Sophocles
"Assured that the Lord can use our failures as well as our successes, we can be free to learn, free to hear criticism, and free to grow, for we know that the reign of God neither rises nor falls with our labors."
-James Moorhead
"There are no strangers!"
-Thomas Merton
"O God, make the bad people good, and the good people nice."
-an English girl
"But some preferred death to slavery and imprisonment."
-Daklugie, Nednhi
"The willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God or man."
-Mahatma Gandhi
"Wonder, rather than doubt, is the root of all knowledge."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"What is the matter that you don't speak to me? Why don't you look at me and smile at me? I am a man. I have the same feet, legs, and hands, and the sun looks down on me a complete man. I want you to look and smile at me."
-Geronimo
"O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God."
-Richard III (Shakespeare)
"The circumstances of our life are different, but the reality of our hearts is the same. If I were in his place, would I act any differently than him? I have no idea. At least I know that I should need friends who loved me unreservedly just as I am, with all my weaknesses, and who would trust me without judging me."
-Paul Tournier
"A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness."
-Simone Well
"I think writes like John Updike and Walker Percy, who have strong Christian sensibilities, may choose a sexual affair as a symbol of grace in their novels. They are speaking the language our culture understands: grace as a rumor, not as a doctrine."
-Philip Yancey
"The road to the sacred leads through the secular."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"It is a terrible thing, I found, to be grateful and have no one to thank, to be awed and have no one to worship."
-Philip Yancey
"Our heart are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you."
-Augustine
"Christ accepts us as we are, but when he accepts us, we cannot remain as we are."
-Walter Trobisch
We really cannot stay... the colours... the colours of the door... ♫
-Iona
I will hide in hopeful caverns deeper than the Earth
I will fly the wings of faith beyond the Space
For love out-long this double-headed affair of Time
Just a little christ 'fore the first-warm Face
I'm twenty-four years old. I am a medic in the US Army. However, I've come to the conclusion that the wars of this country are immoral. So, I'm applying for non-combatant status, so that I can spend the rest of my enlistment entirely focused on objective medical aid. My long trial of coming to this conclusion is glimpsed at in posts under the tag "Conscientious Objection."
I love the arts. I read and write the most. But I also listen to music quite often, as well as play, some (guitar and piano, though I've been hard-pressed to play either for the last year or so). I'd also like to get into composition and music technology. I enjoy sketching, and hope to take college courses in fine arts, if the Lord lets me return to college as I plan to. I miss acting in high school, college, and the local community. Those were great times... but they always took up so much of my schedule (alas for the brevity of life!) I like to watch local theatre. I love good documentaries (there are untold hours of free, quality documentaries on PBS's NOVA's website). But I find the programs of the History Channel utterly unsatisfying, save on the topic of the american military (and I don't have much fascination for that department.) I love films of epic meaning, especially when they are given an epic setting. I have fun dancing, albeit with no seriousness whatsoever. All original songs and poems I post are under the tag "Poetry & Lyrics."
I consider the video game an art form, and find an incomparable story-experience in the role-playing genre. I am slowly, steadily designed such a game, which I hope will set a higher standard for character development & interconnectedness, plot customization, theological exploration, world culture incorporation, extent of soundtrack, gameplay diversity, and overall (time-consuming) commitment to quality. I have no problem with taking decades to create such a game. I may post some of my concepts and developments, in time.
I am a christian who studies and is awe-struck by the diversity of belief within this one, ancient, nearly worldwide faith. And yet I am astounded that so many of us allow these lesser differences to hinder the unity that comes to us so directly from our great, common Source. At times it makes me (and the whole world) wonder if Jesus truly is so precious to save and life-changing to follow, after all. But I insist that Christ will bring us into a unity as intimate as that he shares with the Father. So I consider the ecumenical work of uniting sincere christians one of my highest callings. An essential element of that calling is, of course, empathetic and uncompromising study of differing christian beliefs and practices.
Besides pursuing a professional-level depth of study of my own religion, Christianity, I hope to learn considerable amounts about other religions, religion itself (as a broad entity), and the one, temporal, vague, compromising, world religion that seems to result from modern coexistence. Hopefully, this will involve all kinds of long-term travel around the world, to the homelands of the various worldviews.
The intensive study of Native America is also important to me. I feel greatly indebted to the elder residents of this land, whose blood I can still hear crying from the land. I intend to answer that call, in some small way, for now, by researching and recovering their history and way of life. I am very interested in relief work for the remnant of the first nations, as well as unneeded, by greatly deserved tribute.
You can probably guess that I am interesting in becoming a professor of religion. But before I teach college courses I need to get through them myself! So I'm planning on a bachelor's of music, a master's of divinity, and a doctorate of philosophy. I'll probably be about 40 by the time all the formal education is said and done.
I love deepening my knowledge base (science, culture, history, etc.), developing a broad set of skills (communication, languages, medicine, computers, etc.), and becoming more naturally ascetic (environmentalism meets self-discipline).
I love to play Ultimate Frisbee and Brisketball (Ultimate meets football). Lifting weights is a blast when I have the time/ facilities. I used to run for high school, and will always enjoy it. One day, if I ever get out of the army, I'd like to join a community running group. I'd like to learn how to swim well. I enjoy biking too, so I'll have to do a triathlon eventually.
At the end of the day, people are all that really matter to me (God being the ultimate person concerned, in case that made any theists flinch.) I love meeting new people online. The internet is a gift from God!
There's more that rises in the morning than the sun
More that shines in the night than just the moon
There's more than this fire here that keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room ♫
-Rich Mullins
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh, and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are ♫
-Coldplay
As critics scorn the thoughts and works of mortal man
My eyes are drawn to You in awe once again ♫
-Jars of Clay
The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
I am caught between the promise
And the things I know ♫
-Sara Groves
"If you but love God you may do as you incline."
-Augustine
"The world starves for grace."
-Phillip Yancey
"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love least."
-Dorothy Day
"To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be."
-Dostoevsky
"Perhaps the greatest weakness within Christian theology is its reluctance to recognize that most models are complimentary, rather than mutually exclusive."
-Alister McGrath
"The glory of God is man, fully alive."
-Irenaeus
"All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride."
-Sophocles
"Assured that the Lord can use our failures as well as our successes, we can be free to learn, free to hear criticism, and free to grow, for we know that the reign of God neither rises nor falls with our labors."
-James Moorhead
"There are no strangers!"
-Thomas Merton
"O God, make the bad people good, and the good people nice."
-an English girl
"But some preferred death to slavery and imprisonment."
-Daklugie, Nednhi
"The willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God or man."
-Mahatma Gandhi
"Wonder, rather than doubt, is the root of all knowledge."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"What is the matter that you don't speak to me? Why don't you look at me and smile at me? I am a man. I have the same feet, legs, and hands, and the sun looks down on me a complete man. I want you to look and smile at me."
-Geronimo
"O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God."
-Richard III (Shakespeare)
"The circumstances of our life are different, but the reality of our hearts is the same. If I were in his place, would I act any differently than him? I have no idea. At least I know that I should need friends who loved me unreservedly just as I am, with all my weaknesses, and who would trust me without judging me."
-Paul Tournier
"A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness."
-Simone Well
"I think writes like John Updike and Walker Percy, who have strong Christian sensibilities, may choose a sexual affair as a symbol of grace in their novels. They are speaking the language our culture understands: grace as a rumor, not as a doctrine."
-Philip Yancey
"The road to the sacred leads through the secular."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
"It is a terrible thing, I found, to be grateful and have no one to thank, to be awed and have no one to worship."
-Philip Yancey
"Our heart are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you."
-Augustine
"Christ accepts us as we are, but when he accepts us, we cannot remain as we are."
-Walter Trobisch
We really cannot stay... the colours... the colours of the door... ♫
-Iona
I will hide in hopeful caverns deeper than the Earth
I will fly the wings of faith beyond the Space
For love out-long this double-headed affair of Time
Just a little christ 'fore the first-warm Face
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Schools:
Goldsmith Elementary School - Louisville, KY (1991 - 1995)Whl Wells Elementary School - Plano, TX (1995 - 1996)
Schimelpfenig Middle School - Plano, TX (1996 - 1998)
North Oldham Middle School - Goshen, KY (1998 - 1999)
Oldham County High School - Buckner, KY (1999 - 2003)
Eastern Kentucky University - Richmond, KY (2004)
Boyce College - Louisville, KY (2004 - 2005)
Jefferson Community and Technical College - Louisville, KY (2007)
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