Friday, October 28, 2011

Judgement Day for Bacteria

Living in China for several years, I picked up some little friends. Munchkins in my tummy.  All of us have tons of different bacteria living in our stomach, some good, some bad. But eat enough street food in China and you'll probably get an extra dose of the bad variety.  That's what I've got in there right now. I can tell because these particular bacteria in my stomach get nutrients from my food and emit gas during the night. This bloats my stomach uncomfortably before I wake up, which generally gives me nightmares.  It's been going on for at least a year.  But now that I'm living in America again, I'm hopeful my stomach bacteria will eventually sort itself out.  If not--antibiotics time.  A rush of chemicals wiping out hordes of bacteria in a violent apocalypse.

You know, I got to thinking: what if I was one of those bacteria?  Think how many generations of bacteria have come and gone--maybe thousands of generations.  It's only been a year or two of my life, and I just haven't felt it's the right time yet to go to a doctor.  If I was one of those bacteria, I'd probably be thinking: we've been living like this for generations and generations since we can remember!  There's no judgment coming.  In fact, there's probably not even a Daniel!  Just this stomach universe, that's all there is.

They have another think coming.  I'm real, and I'm unhappy with them if they don't balance back out. In my world little time has passed, and the right time is almost here for the eradication of these selfish and harmful bacteria. If only I had the ability of God to pluck out the good bacteria and save them until the antibiotics have passed through and left a clean new stomach.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Christian Thoughts and Poem about Homosexuality

Several years ago a Christian actor friend of mine was struggling with homosexual desires which he didn't want to have. Now, I think homosexual desires can be perfectly natural, in the same way it is perfectly natural to want multiple sexual partners besides your wife. However, according to almost any ethical system, being natural in and of itself doesn't make an action moral. But at least, if you struggle with homosexual urges, whether occasionally or often, the Bible doesn't condemn you for these natural urges--but it does guide us in how we deal with them. I don't know that I have ever had these urges, though I'm not sure. But it's quite possible Jesus experienced these urges (and many others) during his life, but handled them in accordance with the word and will of his Father.

"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin."

                                                                             -Hebrews 4:15

All things presumably means all things. So first of all this a blow against homophobia, because homosexual urges are a naturally occuring phenomenon which Jesus may have even felt at times. But a major point of Christianity is that we cannot simply follow our animal natures, we must follow Jesus, die to ourselves, and live in the power of a new heavenly lifestyle.

I wrote this several years ago for an actor friend of mine who had been surfing homosexual porn and felt ashamed of it.

There Will Be a Day

 
There will be a day,
When the evil Iago who lays snares for you
Will be chained by fierce angels
And tossed none-too-gently in the lake of sulfur fire

There will be a day
When your Director will be revealed in all His masculinity
Yes, the chief Actor will appear for the curtain call
All the audience rising in silence and awe,
Then slowly applauding in a standing ovation for fourteen days.
At last raising his scarred hand to calm the sea of people
He will call his understudy to the front, His special actor, you

And then, yes, there will be a day
When each of your sins will be shouted from the rooftops
All your pride, hetero- and homo-sexual lusts, idolatry, selfishness, yes, all
Will be megaphoned over the vast audience

And there will be a day
When the children of God will drop their fears and pretenses
And in sobs of love, men and women, children and grandfathers
Will kneel around you, hands on you, arms around you
Your eternal family at last accepting you
In your fears and sins with you, not against you,
Each begging God on your behalf.

There will be a day
When the tightened skin and the twisted masks relax
And peace washes over your stretched features like waves washing a sand castle away
Leaving only smooth beach sand for a child's feet

And there will be a day
When you've reached the other side of the river
And all the hundred lies
That coiled over you like fat black pythons
Biting and hanging off you
They'll drop away in the burning river
And you'll come out on the other side
Like smoking gold
Transfigured in a robe of white
A god at last because of His love--
The masculine spirit he made you to be.

On that day
You will stand like an assured old lion
You will roar with a deep rumble that shakes the trees
And you will be enfolded at last in the arms of your Father.