What's up guys! So I've gotten a pretty decent amount of traffic coming through social media accounts these past couple weeks and if you haven't noticed, everything kind of ends up leading you back to this blog. So I'd like to give you guys some clarity concerning my goals for this blog and the purpose that I wish it to serve. The primary purpose for this blog is for readers and supporters to be updated on the status of my South Africa trip. However the secondary purpose is to give readers and supporters insights to my life and my philosophical/spiritual beliefs. While this secondary purpose may or may not interest you, I would like my readers to know that there will be many more posts regarding my beliefs and philosophy compared to updates for my trip for the time being. This most likely will change as time draws nearer to my date of departure (June 27). The second thing I would like to clarify is that the posts which do give insights into my spiritual life are NOT NECESSARILY TARGETED TOWARDS CHRISTIANS. While I am very happy that my writings provide encouragement and insight for the members of the church I will have you know that for the purposes of this blog I do not represent the Catholic church or the Anglican or Protestant church. I simply represent an individual with "faith like potatoes". I hope that the number of Atheists and Muslims and Mormons and anyone from anywhere far precedes the number of Christians who read this blog. Yes I am Christian, which means yes many of my philosophical ramblings will often consist of thoughts derived from my biblical studies. However, many people including myself would argue that the best selling book of all time(The Bible) is a great source of information for moral values which have been skewed over the course of time, regardless of any of the claims about who Jesus or God is(I plan on further analyzing this concept in the future). Anyways, I just wanted to clarify to my non-christian followers who read my last entry and thought that it was just a bunch of religious nonsense that not every post will resemble that format. I encourage you to keep reading my work and to keep updated on the status of my South Africa trip. As for my Christian followers this post is by no means discouraging you from reading my blog. Especially if you wish to be updated with information about my trip. However please caution yourself because if you are expecting me to always write about how awesome Christians are then you are mistaken. If you are Christian and you are too proud to have your faults pointed out and your beliefs challenged then stop reading right now, close this tab and go watch tv. But if you are Christian and you are ready to challenge yourself, if you're ready to drop everything and get up and sprint towards God(Hebrews 12:1) in order to grow in your spiritual walk then subscribe to this blog right now. Because I plan to challenge you. I intend to reveal imperfections and sins in the Christian church and in our Christian lives; myself included.
Anyways now that I've cleared that up, check out my funding page! Most of you have probably seen it already via social media but for those of you who have discovered this blog by chance(or divine intervention ;)) have not yet seen it. So here it is http://gogetfunding.com/project/send-roman-to-south-africa.
Thank you all for your support, please continue to support by sharing my funding page, sharing my video, sharing this blog, following me on social media, or just telling your friends :). I recently created a twitter page literally like yesterday so I have no followers haha so follow me and give me a shoutout. Thanks, you guys are awesome and i commend you if you've read all the way until this point. Because I probably would have gotten lazy and watched a YouTube video or something. Like this one:
So I've been doing this thing lately where I write down the characteristics of love (1 Corinthians 13) one by one and once I feel that I have embraced the characteristic then I move on to the next one. For those of you not familiar with this passage here is a list of the characteristics of love described in the bible in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Love is patient, kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices in truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Anyways, today I began my "love does not envy" section which is obviously a very hard one for all of us. And when I think of this love characteristic and try to find it in my own life my eyes are opened to how truly hypocritical I am. I mean just last night I broke down while having a conversation with my parents about less privileged people around the world and how Americans are extremely selfish and ignorant of things happening around the world. Even today when "social justice" is supposedly a trend in our generation. I want to make a major difference by going to Africa or adopting kids or sending them money while deep down I am still envious of people who are better off than me. And I dont even mean better off in wealth. It could be anything; I am often envious of popularity or position. We as Americans really do not realize that sending money or sponsoring a child is not the answer to solving the problems of the world. Although it does help, our heart is much more important than our actions. Most would agree that America is the leading example of the world as far as technological advancement and society in general which means that everything we put in our everyday life is seen by the rest of the world. America's impact on the world does not come from the few charitable souls that decide they want to give a little spare cash. America's impact on the world comes from the example that we set with American philosophy. What I'm saying here is by no means calling out America, only myself. In my own life my goal is to love God and love others. Regardless of religion the second half of that goal is a good virtue for anyone to have. And by living an envious life, or even worse by subconsciously living an envious life I am missing the big picture of what I need to do in order to help these malnourished orphans, these young girls sold for sex, these boys forced to kill their families. This is the sole definition of hypocrisy and I am humbled yet excited to really dig deep and embrace this idea that "love does not envy".
I apologize that this post was kind of all over the place, this is a very emotional subject for me and it was difficult to organize my thoughts in a manner which made sense but I did my best. If you disagree with anything I have said or would like clarity please feel free to email or comment.
p.s. On a lighter note, check out this funny youtube video. It is hilarious in my opinion and deserves to go viral...
