Ok. I have a little time now to write. That race yesterday was pretty cool. I was not sure what to expect due to the fact that I don't remember even watching a live race. I have been wanting to do a race quite badly since I started jogging a few months back and this was the weekend to do it. I would have prefered to start with something a little less intimidating but all that was available in close proximity to Rockford was the last race in a series of trail runs at Rock Cut and it was a 20k. I figured I would treat it like I had planned on treating my first race, a race against myself. I knew this would be a true test of my will to keep going, due to the fact I have only run more than 5 miles a total of times in my life. This is 12.4 miles on a muddy icy trail, but at least there is scenery along the way.

Pre-race:
I end up circling the park a bit, trying to find where the start of the race is and eventually I do find it. I got registered and my number, etc 30 minutes to the start of the race. Starting to get a nervous stomach and pee for the 10th time in the past 2 hours. I am looking around at all of the people running this and they all look to be in rediculous shape. The guy that parked next to me in the lot looks like he could run an Ultramarathon without a problem. I reassure myself that I can finish. I go back to my car to grab my waist pack and fill my water bottle with Gatoraide. Apply a bit of Aquaphor knowing that even though it is not a long race it might turn into one for me. I am sure most runners know what Aquaphor is but for everyone else, its for chaffing. I didn't think about bringing bandaids which I am regretting today(chaffing of the nips).

So with 5 minutes to the race start I head back to the registration area where the starting line is located. I meet a guy from Naperville who ran this race last year and was telling me about getting passed by old people while in the back of my mind I know I will be there in an hour or so. His name is Derik, he is in the National Guard. The thing I remember the most about him is the huge safety glasses he was wearing. I thought "how wierd", but not 2 minutes into the race I understood why he was wearing them. Can you say flying branches? While the pack of racers had not thinned out yet there were people crowding the trail, the people on the outside pushing branches out of the way and trying to dodge the ones from the people in front of them(me being one of those people). I told Derik that this was my first race ever and he said half laughing, "your kidding right, not even a 5k?" I knew I was going to be in for the pain from that moment on. What added salt to the wound was the next part of our conversation, about the hydration situation along the race. "Not much" was his answer. I thought: "note to self, buy a camelback"

Miles 1 - 4:
It seems that not only did Derik and I forget that the race was starting in a matter of seconds, as did the race official. The race started with everyone yelling "go... go... go..." and we were off. I kept up with Derik and the other guy we were talking to for perhaps an 1/8th of a mile before I forced myself to slow down a bit. I didn't want to burn myself out(it ended up not mattering later anyway). So miles 1 through 3 involved a lot of running on unfamiliar mountain bike trails, and an occasional word with those running by me. Occasionally a younger woman would run by and I would do my best to speed up to stay with her pace like I was some sort of wild animal that had something to prove. I guess running just brings out the beast in me. Either way, it kept one's mind off the run for 20 to 30 minutes. At mile 4 we crossed the main roads that goes into the park from IL-173. On the other side of the road a 5 gallon cooler is sitting on a picnic table with cups strewin all around it. When I got to the cooler it was empty! Well....I got about a 1/2 of a cupful of water. I felt like drinking 20 cups of water though. I continued through the area we were entering which happened to be an area that I had never been through. It was a prairie restoration area. I came upon the end of the field and the path went into a number of pine trees for around a 100 yards. The miles were just not going as fast as I thought they would. It felt like I was running 1 hour miles!

5-8

I came out of the woods onto another area that I did not recognise. It was another prairie in which I could see people around a 1/4 mile ahead running along the parimeter of the forest. This is the point where every 10 minutes I would get really bogged down mentally. I forced myself to smile and look around a bit and comment how beautiful it was out and how lucky I was to be doing this. The good feelings stayed for a little while, then I would get bogged down again. And I would repeat the process. We kind of turned back into the woods and I noticed that I had not seen any of the trail markers(pink pie plates attached to wooden stakes with arrows on them) in the past 10 minutes. I hear a "HELLO?!?" ahead. A woman that looked to be in her mid 30's was standing on the trail and seemed to notice that there was a lack of pie plates as well. I figured we should keep going either way. A few others caught up to us(at least I heard them). We came around a bend in the trail and there was a nice 3' muddy hill to get up. I was coming up behind the same woman that thought we were lost and I was going to help her but she looked like an independant woman and she did it herself before I could even offer to help. I came up on mile 7 and I had been out of Gatoraide for the past 2 miles. I wasn't particularly thirsty(which I knew was a bad sign), and the signs of dehydration started immediately after I thought of water. My inner quads were starting to cramp a bit and I knew it would soon get worse. I remember the horror of a trip to Colorado and getting cramps in my legs so bad that I collapsed on the trail 100 yards from camp and couldn't move for 30 minutes. I figured I should keep moving because either I want to get as close to a road as possible or maybe I can run the cramps out. I grabbed a granola bar from my pack and tried to eat it dry mouthed while running. I don't know how people like Dean K. can do things like eat pizza and drink coffee while running.

8-12.4

The granola bar boosted my energy at mile 8, but I was having to stop every 10 minutes to massage out the cramps in my legs and calves. I was back in the woods running and a woman in her mid-40's was running towards me on the old logging road that the trail was crossing. She stated that she was using the bathroom. She was telling me about the club that put the race on The Rockford Road Runners and how they are a crazy bunch of people. I told her that I would definately fit in then. We had a little more small talk for about a 1/2 a mile, but I knew that I was slowing her down and she eventually did get past me. I felt like I was in a dream with lots and lots of pain. An older fellow came up behind me. He had an British accent. He stated that he got lost and had actually ran an extra 1.5 miles. I had to stop and walk because of cramps again and they were actually getting worse each time I stopped running it hurt worse so I was down to a hobble. I ended up passing the British guy 10 minutes later(the only person I actually passed in the whole race). I was in familiar area now. Very hilly and very fun on a MTB, not so much on foot. I came around a corner to a very steep hill with a thick climbing rope attached to a tree at the top. With 1 mile left I knew that even if I had to walk I would make it across that finish line. With 500 yards left in the race the guy parked next to me in the lot came up behind me and asked if I wanted to do it again. I remarked "yeah, lets take another lap" the last leg was up a hill and I sprinted to beat the guy whom I thought was one of those crazy people that could run the whole course in less than 2 hours. I did end up beating him as well as quite a few others. Final time 2:59:30. Not good, but at least it is not a DNF.

Post race:

A bit of chili and a little stretching and I head back to the truch to guzzle down 2 litters of Gatoraide. In the end would I do it again? Oh yes....

I ran my first race today. It was the last race in the Rock Cut Trail series. I didn't know what to expect or if I could even finish the race. It was a 20k trail race. I knew it would be tough, as I had not run that far before in my life. It truly would be a test of will to finish. I didn't expect the trails to be as muddy as they were. Logan, Kurt, and I had just been mountain biking out there on Tuesday and it was mostly snow and ice which equalled not fun with street slicks on the bike. By the way I bent the frame on my bike that day(somehow) and will have to purchase a new one soon.

I would love to go into detail about the race, maybe at a later time though. I am just too exhausted to talk about it. Plus, I should get back to work.

Tony Delpra had a good word today at the POP meeting.

Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed [a] in a mother's womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.

-Ecclesiastes 11: 1-6

This really spoke to me today. I went confession yesterday and one of the big issues that I have found is dealing with an individual that seems extremely distraught over the recent problems with the Catholic Church and the War in Iraq, and every other thing that is going on in the world. I want to defend the Church but do not want to go about it in the wrong way. I have found myself mostly listening to what the person has to say and trying to understand where he is coming from. It is hard to have conversations with him because he is so negative about everything, which can in a sense transfer to me in which I start to get negative.

Where the scripture comes in is great. "Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie." Awesome. What great imagery. It means don't worry about the things you cannot control, or your moment to be what you were created for may pass you by. Letting things that you can't control or do anything about pulls you away from reality in the here and now. The war in Iraq, Church scandals, world hunger, etc... You can't do a damn thing about them besides keep your own life right by praying and doing good when the opportunity knocks (or even looking for opportunities). If you waste your time being consumed by all of the tragedies and unfairness all you are doing is adding to it by not doing your own part, which makes you just as bad.

One mistake by and individual or even years worth of going down the wrong path then eventually finding your way back to God and seeking forgiveness is infinately better than a whole life spent upset and doing nothing but complain about how bad things are in the world.

I just finished a book that is now one of my favorites. The title of the book is "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an all-night runner" by Dean Karnazes. The book is an autobiography of this guy who runs ultramarathons (100 mile marathons). Throughout much of the book I found parallels of why he runs. He does runs these remarkable distances and one of the reasons is because he wants to see if he can. He doesn't do these things to compete with other people, it is a competition against his own mind and body. I see many of the things I do much like this. I keep piling up more and more work, school, and stress to see how far I can push it.

Another part of my life that has been missing is adventure. I think that is another huge motivator that has kept me running. Just getting out of the house and running around town a little bit keeps life interesting. It gives me time to clear my head and many times think about everything. I even pray at times(not just that I get to the top of the next hill).

On another note, I had started to run again to get back into shape, bring some adventure into my life, and challenge myself. This book was a good motivator to make me keep up with it.

I have never been one of those individuals that follows what is going on in Hollywood. Whenever some starts talking about what is going on in one of the celebrities lives I often respond to them, "I don't know this person, never will, so why should I care?" Being a celebrity, wanting to be a celebrity, and following celebrity gossip seems very depressing to me. I bring all of this up because someone told me that Brittany Spears shaved her head a couple days ago. Now I remember a few years back when there were a lot of parents worried about the influence she had on their daughters. There was a lot of concern over pre-teens and teens a like dressing immodestly. I actually saw some of this going on, and thought where are these girl's parents? I looked at an article of what happened Britney Spears Back in Rehab, which also goes into the other things going on in her life. I think that now is the best time to show the pre-teen and teen girls Brittany Spears. Not for gossip, but for a warning of where bad choices can get you. Money and Celebrity cannot save you from the types of problems that everyone else deals with. This beautiful girl had what society says we should want; money, power, being "somebody", etc. And now she is in the middle of a horrible divorce(with 2 kids in the middle of it all), a shaved head, in rehab(again), and her career is over. So I think it would be a good idea to show our young people that LIFE IS REAL, even for those who we think are untouchable.

I had a hard time sleeping last night. I fell asleep for an hour or so but had a dream about what it means to be a man. I know how my mind got on that subject, I just don't know why I couldn't get it off my mind. Chris and I were talking about what it means to be a man, in specific earning one's keep. Also, finding purpose in life. I finally gave up fighting the thoughts so I mentally compiled a list.

1. A man defends those weaker than them.
2. A man set a good example for those younger than them.
3. A man respects women at all times.
4. A man makes sacrifices for his family.
5. A man leads his family in the right direction.
6. A man works for his keep. He finds purpose for his life.
7. A man seeks wisdom from his elders.
8. A man looks people in the eye when he is talking to them.
9. A man uses self control when making decisions.
10. A man knows his limits. He respects his limits, by admitting them.
11. A man apologizes when he wrongs another. He admits when he is wrong.
12. A man shows courage under adversity.

I am sure I could think of more. Anyone have anything to add?

The Sprit of Wrath was on me today. I don't want to give the specific example of why I know this, but in a few situations I was focusing on other's faults and comparing my own life to them. Well I guess I can use this as an example because this is where it all started. For school today I was participating in a discusion over the Medicaid/Medicare(federal/state medical programs) problem, and how to resolve it. As a pseudo-ex-retail pharmacy technician I see all kinds of abuse of the Medicaid system. Individuals who are able to work, but choose not to because they can get a free ride on the State is the easiest example. It is too easy to get bothered by these type of situations, but with God's grace I was soon able to look past it and get on with life while I was working with these people. I don't want to give the impression that every person that is on Medicare/Medicaid is abusing it either. Most individuals (95%) really need it.

It is funny how I can get off into the thinking about how other's need to be doing this or that. I know that everyone does it, but that doesn't really help me realize what I am doing is wrong. I find it especially easy to get into this line of thought and even speech at work. Much of this can be easily seen by these two paraphrases: 1) "Take the plank out of your own eye before you attempt removing the splinter out of your neighbor's." 2) "Don't judge a man until you have walked in his shoes for a day."

So anyway, back to the Spirit of Wrath. I asked God in my prayer time today to cast this spirit back to hell and it is gone. Afterwards opened up the bible to psalm 103 and read versus 1-5. I think it meshes well with what I need to do after refocusing back to God and what he wants from me.

I had a busy day today. I got home at 7:30am and fell asleep at 8am. I woke up for a meeting with the people in my Learning Team from school to finish up a project that is due on Monday. I wasn't much of a help(I was groggy). We finished up the meeting at 12pm and I tried to go back to sleep for another hour. I woke up again at 1:45pm and drove Matt and I over to the Luther Center where we helped a coworker move her aunt's furniture to a different floor of the building. I was glad to be able to serve someone for a change, rather than serving myself.

After Matt and I were done at the Luther Center we drove over to St. Pete's to go to confession. An interesting thing was mentioned by the priest. I told him about how we were starting a christian men's household and how we were running into problems that seemed to get in the way an awful lot. The priest said that we were definitely under spiritual attack which is to be expected when people try to create good things like a men's household. We will have to discuss this during our next meeting(hopefully on Monday).

Matt I went over to CJ and Amy's for dinner. It was nice to catch up with them and get a well balanced meal in. After the meal other people from the POP started to show up for the adult meeting. I mentioned the Montana trip to some of the other people in the branch and it looks like they would be interested. woo hoo!

Back on thirds for the weekend.

I came to the realization today that I am not where I want to be spiritually. It really is crazy the way that I get all excited and into my prayer life then gradually stop. I finally realize that I am off the path after a month or so and repeat the process. I think the flaw that keeps me in this cycle is everything else in my life is very much the same. With school, I will be into it for the first 3 weeks and then just become lazy the the next 2, then play catchup on the last. Weird. Anyways, I am going to have to figure out a way to combat this mentality if I am going to change.

I have decided to start investing more of my money. I tend to spend frivolously at times, so making my money less accessible will help me combat this. I am trying out some EFT's for the first year or two I think, the rest I will keep in a money market account. I think I will burn my plans for buying another house for a couple years due to how bad the housing market is at this point. I read in two different articles that 1. the housing market hit it's peak. and 2. you can get a lot more back on your investment investing in the market than investing in property right now. Plus, I find investing to be kind of fun in a stress outlet sort of way.

My health care organization's class is wrapping up this Monday! I can't wait to get into a different class. This one was starting to get on my nerves. I liked the people I was working with, but there was a lot of work and some of it involved PowerPoint presentations(yuck!).

Back on thirds for the weekend.

I came to the realization today that I am not where I want to be spiritually. It really is crazy the way that I get all excited and into my prayer life then gradually stop. I finally realize that I am off the path after a month or so and repeat the process. I think the flaw that keeps me in this cycle is everything else in my life is very much the same. With school, I will be into it for the first 3 weeks and then just become lazy the the next 2, then play catchup on the last. Weird. Anyways, I am going to have to figure out a way to combat this mentality if I am going to change.

I have decided to start investing more of my money. I tend to spend frivolously at times, so making my money less accessible will help me combat this. I am trying out some EFT's for the first year or two I think, the rest I will keep in a money market account. I think I will burn my plans for buying another house for a couple years due to how bad the housing market is at this point. I read in two different articles that 1. the housing market hit it's peak. and 2. you can get a lot more back on your investment investing in the market than investing in property right now. Plus, I find investing to be kind of fun in a stress outlet sort of way.

My health care organization's class is wrapping up this Monday! I can't wait to get into a different class. This one was starting to get on my nerves. I liked the people I was working with, but there was a lot of work and some of it involved PowerPoint presentations(yuck!).

I was reminded about the trip to Glacier National Park this week, so I figured I should start a post about it. The only person that is positive that he can go as of today is me. We have a list of possibles Justin W., Eric J., Matt D., Sarah B., Greg W. and some of Justin's friends from South Bend. I am not sure Justin can go anymore due to getting a new job a month ago. We will have to see. I was able to pull enough strings to get out of school and work over June 29th to July 10th which was a complete miracle. If no one is able to go, I will do the trip myself, because I am not going to waste my only vacation time sitting around Rockford.

My initial plan was to split the trip up into 2 smaller trips in different parts of the park, but I have changed my mind. I would like to check out Lake Isabel. It considered a really strenuous hike. It is 30 miles total, 4000 feet of elevation gain, a mile of switchbacks, etc.

Here are a few links.
http://hikerchef.blogspot.com/2006/06/glacier-hiking.html
http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_national_park/mt/hik_gla4.htm

More to come later.

It feels like there is too much to mention right now, so I will just go down the mental list I have right now.

The household had a well needed meeting last week. The three of us determined that we are not living up to the standards we need to in relation to what we want the household to represent. We all had little peeves with each other that we were not talking about, so we finally got to get those out in the open and taken care of. One of the biggest issues that we talked about was the fact that we are not doing anything to build our friendships. Much of the time spent is in front of the TV so we all unanimously decided to get rid of the cable. The thing is, since we made the decision to get rid of the cable I have barely had time to use it or cancel it. Which brings me onto the next subject...

I have been working nights for the past 2 weeks. I can't complain too much about it, because I like it. The only part that I don't like is the lack of sleep. On days I work I tend to sleep 3 to 4 hours so on the 3rd and 4th day I work I am a zombie. I blew up at Chris and Matt this morning because the lack of sleep is making me cranky. I got out of work late this morning due to a delta result on a baby's hemogram which ended up being an analytical error on the part of whoever ran the specimen a few days ago. In layman's terms, the results I was getting today did not correspond to the results from 2 days ago. So I finally got into bed at 815AM and had just fallen asleep when my phone rings. It is Carl, and his truck is stuck in some one's driveway(I don't want to get into that story), and he wants to know if I have a chain that he can use to pull him out. YARRRRR!!!!! ERIC NEED SLEEPP!!! It is one of those situations where you really really really don't want to, but you know that it is what God wants you to do. So I got dressed and drive down to 4th st. and get to where he is and his rear wheels have dug deep into the ground where his truck is at. So I jump in and back it up an couple inches and gun it out of the divots! Thank Jesus it only took 10 minutes to get him out.

So 9:30AM I am setting my alarm for 11:30am so that I can make it to 12:30 mass so I don't miss any of the Superbowl later. Ahh...sleep... Then the alarm goes off at 11:30am and I decide that 2 hours just won't cut it. So I change it to 2pm. Then 5 minutes after this I hear the shop vac going in the living room! It is going for like 10 minutes then goes off. I fall asleep then 5 minutes later music comes on! So I get up get dressed and declare my dislike of their choice of activities with some choice words, which by the way I should probably apologize for the way I described my displeasure. So I get up later on and try to go to Mass at 5pm (after the game has already started), once again another sacrifice that I really don't want to make. I come to find out it is canceled, so I go to the party.

The major reason for loss of sleep other than work would have to be school. This Heath care organizations class started out easy, but now it getting rough at the end. I did a 17 page paper last week and have another 7 page paper and 25 slide presentation due today which I am no where near finishing. I originally picked up this MHA degree program because of all the excess time I was wasting, now I am begging for an hour to just relax. I can't even find time to run.

On the subject of running, my dad wanted to sign up for the Indy mini-marathon. I agreed that I would like to do it as well since I just started to get back into running to help me quit smoking(2 weeks, 0 cigarettes so far). I am getting to where I need to be to start training for a 5k, but have to find the time to do the training first.

How is that for an update?

I have been neglecting to update my blog again. I am working 3rd shift again (9pm to 7:30am). I got 4 hours of sleep yesterday in between shifts. I can't wait until I am done this morning. I think I could sleep a good 10 to 12 hours. I applied for a day shift position that came open a couple weeks ago and I am praying that I get it.

I got a message on Myspace the other day from a very unexpected person. She is an ex-girlfriend with whom I lost touch with for a good 5 years. Nothing really to talk about, just how you doing whats new with your life type of stuff.

School is getting a little rough. My learning team meets biweekly on yahoo messenger and plans our assignments. These people are at least 10 years older than I, and many of the subjects they are talking about when referring to Health care makes my head spin. Meh, I guess I will survive.

Well, back to work.

I have heard many people talk about it, even some songs about it. I am talking about moving away from God. It is so stupid too, I see myself doing it and I don't make the effort to get back on track until finally when life gets really bad I do something about it. The main problem I have is not having a daily prayer time. It is sad because it only take 15 to 30 minutes.

It's been a while since I gave any updates. Lots of stuff going on lately. Kurt has been home for the past few weeks. We have been partying too much. I can tell that I have been going back down the wrong road again, so I am going to work at getting back to where I was last month.

More to come soon, I need to get back to work!

Things have been crazy lately. I started the night shift on monday night. Kinda weird going to sleep as the sun is coming up. It is a definate change in schedule. I am just glad that it will only last 3 weeks.
In other news, I started school last monday. I am shooting for my Masters in Healthcare Administration at University of Phoenix online. So far it has been taking up a lot of my time trying to find information and figuring out the online class thing. There is a lot of writing involved, which I don't really mind. The formatting of the papers is what takes so long.

I was thinking about doing a caving trip here over New Years weekend. Justin says he has some people interested. Originally I had planned on going to Eagle Cave in Wisconsin, but I think it would be a better idea to go to the cave that we visited when Justin and I were Boy Scouts. We will have to get in touch with Dave Torma here this week to get maps and all of that info though. If you are interested let me know.

Lots of stuff going on currently. Seems like a lot of people around me are having all kinds of problems. I can't go into detail with them(for the sake of all their privacy). I was talking to my dad about all of it and he gave me a lot of insight on "spreading oneself too thin." As a lot of people have told me, one of my "gifts" is that I love to help people whether it be with something that requires physical labor or just to listen to someone who is having a bad day. Lately though it seems that I have been going a little overboard with it. I am so happy that I can be their for everyone, but it is coming to the point where it is downright depressing.

Another revelation that I had in the past few weeks is that my "helper" attitude can actually hurt people in the long run. In a few cases I have found that helping out a buddy with money issues (buying dinner, or buying the drinks at the bar) has in a way made him comfortable with me doing that. Therefore there is not as much of a drive for him to really pursue a job as hard as he should be. This type of situation has been occuring in a lot of relationships that I have. Of course this is not going to change my attitude toward generosity, I just need to learn to be more careful when using it.

Chris moved in yesterday. His dad dropped by today to drop off some of his stuff. We got into a conversation about outdoors trips (canoeing, backpacking, etc.) He reminded me about caving. There is a place called Eagle Cave in Wisconsin that I wanna check out sometime this winter. I have not been caving since I was 10 so it should be a fun trip. Gotta call Justin W. and tell him that he is going caving with us this winter. That's right tell you Justin!! Not ask.

Ah a new day another hard earned dollar. This weekend was a bear. I worked at Sweed's 6am to 2:30 pm and Walgreen's from 4pm to 12:30am. I got home at 1am last night and ate toast and some frozen diced potatoes. Matt and I really need to grocery shopping. I think we might wait a couple more days though, it isn't so bad that we are just taking random things that shouldn't be mixed together yet. Things like red beans, fresh garlic, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and bamboo shoots. Mmm...casarole.

Thought I might share some pictures of random trips and such on my Photobucket account. Enjoy! Eric's pictures

Christ said "Be either hot or cold. If you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth." I hope I quoted that right. But you can understand either way. If you were to see some guy harrassing a woman you would have 3 general choices. Join in(evil), do nothing(evil), or speak up and tell him to stop(good). Well suppose the guy didn't stop when you tried to intervene. Suppose he started to physically assult her, and you would have to physically assult him to get him off. Would you say, "no I shouldn't intervene." I don't think Christ would let that fly. When someone called upon Christ for help he gave them what they needed. Christ was no pacifist. I think it is a matter of giving of oneself for the sake of another completely goes against pacifism.
Pacifism sounds cowardly to me. The definition of a pacifist: "a person who believes in pacifism or is opposed to war or to violence of any kind." (found at Dictionary.com) If Christ was opposed to violence of any kind, he would have ran away from being beaten, whipped, spit on, and Death on a cross.
I don't like violence it is evil. I don't like war either. I do think that there is such a thing as justifiable reasons for going to war. In defense of those weaker than us is the biggest one on my list. Of course this is going to spark some fire and we are going to go into all this "crap" about why we went to this war that we are stuck in right now. So I will just say this. When we have a country that is so diversified, there can't be just one single reason for going to war. Freeing Iraqis from that tyrant, and ending his own miniture holocaust of his own people, creating a perminant vacancy in all of his rape rooms, and the torture of men women and children, etc. Setting up a democratic government there. Finding the terrorists and bringing them to justice. Not having to fight the war on terror in our country. There are probably many many other reasons as well.

I think that Christ's message(when partaining to the treatment of others) was to give of ourselves for the sake of others just like he did. There was more than one reason behind this though. First, as a way to spread his message to others by acting as the Body of Christ. To give of ourselves is to know him better. Second, turning the other cheek pertains you as an individual. When you "turn the other cheek", you show your attacker who Christ is.