Counter Culture

After many weeks of preparation, my podcast is finally off the ground. Focusing on the “hottest topics of the day”, we discuss life and culture with a humorous spin. And a sound guy who has a hard time keeping quiet.

http://tannerkrenzvarietyh.blip.tv/#781615 is the site, Counter Culture is the (current) name. If you’re curious as to why my posting has been sparse, you should go check it out. Now that this beast is finally out of the pipes, I ’spose I have some writing to do, yes?

A Testimony of Christ

I hope we all remember the true meaning of Easter this weekend. I know there are baskets to fill and eggs to hide, dinner to prepare and church to attend (in some cases for the first time since Christmas). In the middle of all the hustle and bustle, just like Christmas, please don’t forget the real reason behind the holiday. It’s far more important than we remember or even realize.

I know Jesus Christ lives. I know that He suffered and died for us, and tomorrow (according to our calendar) it will have been another year since He was resurrected. Since He broke the chains of death and of this world. He dedicated his life to serving us. To serving you. He gave up all the fun he might have had, the childhood dreams he might have pursued, and the respect he might have had. He gave up money and home. He gave up his life. He sacrificed everything he had and everything He could have obtained for us. I know it. I can feel it resonating within me.

I know he lives and loves us. I know that the events we have commemorated this past week and will commemorate tomorrow are the most important events that have ever happened and will ever happen in the history of this earth. I want to serve Him. I want to emulate Him. I want to do my best to model my life after His. I am not strong enough yet, and in fact I am very weak, but I hope to be strong enough one day. I want to have the strength to sacrifice everything I have to further God’s work. There is no greater calling; there is no greater blessing.

I know he loves us, and that cares about each of us individually. He knows us by name. He wants to help us through all of our trials in life, if only we let Him in. Ask and ye shall receive, knock and ye shall enter. This is all for us. Every aspect of it. They call Charity the Pure Love of Christ because that’s exactly what Christ’s actions were. They were selfless.

As I go about this week, I will try to live worthy of these sacrifices. I will try to make them worthwhile on my part. I don’t want His sacrifice to be wasted on me. I know that God still speaks to us through his prophets, and that through his gospel we can be saved from death and Hell. I know his hand has blessed the gospel in the face of adversity, and has fortified it against Satan in the eternal war of souls. I know that the true church is again on the earth, and that Christ is at it’s head.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Try To Understand

“People don’t talk that way”
“No, but they think that way”

Well I talk that way, and I can write this way. You just have to be paying attention.

Kate Chopin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau wrote that way. It’s most unfortunate that by and large, no one seems to really understand what they were writing. They see only what they want to see, and then they rally behind it and use it to trumpet their own cause. People do that a lot.

The English language is a very inexact thing. It can’t quite properly convey what we’re thinking or feeling to others by itself. But those authors who can use common experiences, symbolism, and imagery to craft a true work of art can, if the reader is paying attention, speak as close to universal truth as is possible without the direct aid of God. You just have to listen to what’s being said.

I wish my own weak words could convey what I feel and what I think right now. Some day they might, if all goes well. Alas, I am no warrior-poet. I am no Shakespeare. I am no Chopin. But please, study these unworthy characters of mine. Try to understand.

We all want to be understood in this great search that is humanity. Sometimes we’re looking for the answer. Sometimes we have the answer. But sometimes, we just want the comfort of knowing that somewhere out there…someone else is searching too.