My paper turned into a blog. At least I don't have to cite.

Like I said: I'm in the middle of writing a paper and got tired of having to cite, and give proof, and argue my opinion in a way that makes me sound smarter (or is it more arrogant?) than I actually am. Thus I decided to head for the ol' bloggo instead. Where anything goes. Almost. Okay, at least you just have to take my word for it, no footnotes, no Chicago, no nothing. It's a nice break!

The paper I've been plugging away at (in the same cafe for 6 hours) asks whether or not it is okay for Christians to be police officers. I've come to a some riveting conclusions:

Yes.

No.

and Sometimes.


Yowza.Thankfully I was blessed by finding a great book that has helped me articulate this in a way that makes enough sense!

The big thing that I've noticed while writing this dang thing is that it really, REALLY doesn't matter what the best scholars say about how Christians should make decisions in their walk. It's nice to have centuries of insight available, and I like Bonhoeffer as much as the next person, but when it comes to praxis none of it matters.
My main argument in the paper focuses on policing in light of the Gospel: It seeks restoration, peace, and is rooted in fostering community before patrolling it. True and just policing is very grassroots in my opinion, and is all about being an agent of social change. Therefore, yes, a Christian can definitely be a police officer.
But what about the violence? (say the pacifists)
Well, it's unavoidable. Like any sin, there's nothing we can do about it. It exists in the world, and though we are conquerors in Christ--it's still there. Crime prevention programs work, but only go so far, and one day the Christian police officer might need to employ violence to intervene. Does that mean Christians shouldn't be police officers? No. Maybe?
Sometimes...a believer's personal conviction before the Lord says "No", and that's okay too (can I get an Amen from the Anabaptists!). Romans 14 goes over all that, and it makes sense. If the Lord says no, don't do it. And if you do it anyway, it's sin. But, maybe just watch out about assuming that He's going to say that for everyone. Each believer has their own relationship with the Lord, and needs to be faithful to what He's shown them, first and foremost.
Personally, I sit comfortably on the fence on a lot of issues--including this policing thing, just war versus pacifism, Calvinism versus everybody else, etc.
Why? Because ultimately, it is the Lord who decides and the Lord who teaches. I'm always challenged by people who hold vastly different convictions than my own. But frankly, it's all too easy to take that challenge as an attack. Let's just put it out there: Christians come in all sorts. We're allowed to have different opinions and convictions! As much as it causes divisions (over 600 official ones...) I believe that our differences in opinion simply speak to a complex, unexplainable God who is truly beyond our conception.
Hug a pacifist today, and commend a Christian police officer  :) They're both holding on to difficult convictions to live out; and in essence, both are right.



And speaking of Bonhoeffer...I've decided to spend the month of December trying to understand Christmas. This book will be one of my tools! I want to understand why it is we celebrate the way we do, and how in the world we so easily lose sight of the reality of what it meant for God to become man and dwell among us.  I'll probably do some blogging on it, so stay tuned! Despite what this picture says, you can't click to look inside...sorry to disappoint. Follow the link I posted below instead :)

http://www.amazon.com/God-Is-Manger-Reflections-Christmas/dp/0664238874


PS, Happy first day of Advent!

 

Bold as Love

WE'RE MARRIED! HOORAY! The whole thing went off without a hitch and now Josh and I are in the process of tackling work, school, and adjusting to this HUGE change in our lives. We've been learning a lot, and if someone asks us, "How is married life?" they usually get that as an answer! Seriously, it's the most wonderful, challenging, frustrating, self-exposing, joyful thing God has ever led me into. Naturally, this comes along with a few thoughts on the matter and there is one in particular I think is worth sharing today :) So here goes.

Getting married is a partnership. Two people, coming together  and becoming one is the single most complete partnership imaginable. Now, as far as I know, this comes along with a few presuppositions. For example, that both people love each other—of course not making reference to infatuation because that’s an altogether different concept. Instead, the love they share, I've heard, is an I-Got-Your-Back Love. There's nothing else like it. An unfailing love. An altogether, completely committed love. A deep, a wide, a long, a high love. Like the love of Christ, because of Christ, through Christ.

Okay, we've established a working definition of true love. Good.

Now, what else makes up a marriage partnership? At least, what have I recently discovered about it?

It takes individualism.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not talking about the definition of individualism that the world perpetuates; not an aspiration towards a go-it-alone life, dependent on oneself, strongheaded and proud. Nope, not that. I’m talking about individualism of, well... the individual themselves--lonesomeness in the sense that I think God meant when Christ left His disciples to be by Himself with the Father.

What I mean is if one truly wants to experience the deepest joys and purposes of a God-given partnership, one must go up on the mountain—alone—to seek His face. This doesn’t mean abandoning the partnership, but taking time out within it to be intentionally lonesome. And only in that aloneness with God can we even be able to know the other person in the deepest, truest sense. If it is the same God working in both of our hearts, who made us, who is shaping us into the people He intends for us to be, then we only get to know that person better by delving deeper into the vastness of who God is.  

Check out 3:15-6:00 for my earlier reference. John rants on about his struggles with love in the middle of a phenomenal cover of Jimi Hendix's Bold as Love. Enjoy :) 

Bold as Love-John Mayer

A bit of an intro.

 I put off writing a blog for a really long time. I sort of flirted with the idea for about a year or so; word processing my thoughts and saving them for when I finally got around to it. After running out of reasons to put this off, without further ado, here it goes! These are the thoughts, rants, ideas, and free-form prose (maybe) that often come to mind and that I seek to share with whoever is willing to read them.

I guess the way to start this would be to give you a little background about who exactly is behind this. My name is Katie Martin (Kerrison), I am primarily a Christian, secondly a student of Christianity in pursuit of a degree from the University of Waterloo. I am originally from Mississauga, Ontario and grew up in what I can only describe as an amazing, loving, non-Christian, religious-ish, home with parents and a brother whom I love dearly. We almost never agree on matters of faith but that has never affected us more than my fundamental desire for them to know Jesus—to really know Jesus—and to experience the love and truth found only in Him. Even if we disagree, they’re still the best, hands down.

 I also have this great husband named Josh. We met at UW last year and got married on September 2^nd of this year.

He works two jobs : a restaurant line cook/dishwasher/sometimes the only cook there because they didn’t hire a new one for a long time, and as a support worker with adults with developmental disabilities. He makes me proud (the good kind) every day, and takes on the role of best friend better than I could have ever imagined. 

Apart from studying, I do in fact work. I teach horseback riding lessons and do secretarial things for a lesson barn/trail riding facility in Waterloo—probably one of the most flexible, lowest paying jobs I’ve worked since high school but every time I quit I find my way back. There’s reasons for that, I just often ignore them because I get fed up with standing in the cold, smelling like poop, and yelling at children to sit up taller or else they’re going to hit the dirt. It’s really quite a good job.

Last summer I took a position as an assistant camp director for a church in Hamilton and was living there with a wonderful couple who allowed me to camp out in their home and eat their food for two months. For free. Just saying, but God’s provision is never what we expect but is always entirely what we need. Just wanted to mention that.

Camp itself has always been a huge part of my life. I came to know Jesus at camp, I came back to know Jesus at camp, and I’ve been working out what it means to love Jesus and follow Him—through camp. I firmly believe that God uses summer camp ministries to show His infinite love to children and youth in out of the ordinary ways. Camp takes kids out of their day to day context and exposes them to and intense dose of Kingdom community in the span of a week. On our end of things (in camp ministry) that means we have to be following Christ ourselves and actually be living out the Kingdom of God in camp ministry. But that’s another whole post in and of itself, me thinks. I’ll get to that later.

So all in all, I really feel that God has been pushing me to start keeping this blog. It’s not at all about sharing what’s going on in my life, but about what He’s doing in it. If Christ is my life, than I consequently have none without Him. So when I write and reflect on this life I’m living—it’s hopefully gonna be all about Him.