Alika is a Sub Category
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Yesterday while having my morning constitutional I had an epiphany. This was a profound moment that I know was God ordained. While sitting on my porcelain throne I thought about discovering who I am. You know about my purpose, what does it mean to be Alika Polanco. Then I thought about my titles and things that depict who I am. I am sure if you ask yourself who you are you might say things like athlete, leader, christian, husband, mother, father, friend. All things that are good but is that really who we are? Are those things the sum total of our existence. I have come to the realization that I am not these things. I am not even Alika. You see we see ourselves at the top of a list with many subcatagories of descriptions but as God does with all things he wants to turn that all upside down. Because really first of all I am a follower and a child of the Almighty God. And even my name is a sub catergory but often I live upside down and let other things go first before me being a child of God. Not even pens work well upside down but for some reason I insist on letting the menial, temporary, finite things in life define me and control me when truly I was meant for something more than ordinary, more than temporary. So the question for you and I today is, are you a sub category of the eternal living God or is he your sub category? Isn’t it is better to let the eternal run the temporal?

4:48 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Whos chain are you pulling?
Category: Religion and Philosophy

So I can't really claim that this is an original thought but then again who can? I was talking to my friend about spending habits and how Christmas is right around the corner and that means that people, including myself, will be buying things they don't really need or even want necissarily. Universal Remotes that put the toilet seat down and Astronaught diapers, so you dont have to stop for the kids on long drives, will be flying off the shelves. Americans will spend an estimated 450 billion dollars on the holiday season! Rediculous a little bit? Just maybe. The real issue is that where does that money come from. We spend money like it doesnt effect anyone else. As my mother so wisely quoted the age old quilociolism said to me "money doesnt grow on trees." When one person aquires a bit of wealth it came from somewhere. As I talked to this friend of mine he said money can always be trailed to someone somewhere. It got me to thinking of the ridiculous wealth that resides in the USA. No time in the history of the world has such poverty lived in contrast to such wealth. So the real question that you have to ask yourself as the rich is, who chain are you pulling? Maybe when you buy a daimond neckalace it was mined by a 5 year old child, who lives off a steady diet of brown brown. Or maybe you buy a sweatshirt from target that was made in a sweatshop by a woman who cant find any source of income to feed her children accept in a small dark room packed with others in the same position, forced to work for pennies a day. Be careful what you buy, be careful how you spend, because nothing is spent or bought without a price.

Currently listening : August and Everything After By Counting Crows Release date: 14 September, 1993

3:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Jumping Hurtles
Current mood: determined
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I realized today that many bad things hard things have been happening to me all at once. Isn't that always the way? Well maybe they aren't hard things but definitely complicated. You know I was thinking about it and it reminds me of jumping hurdles. Hurdles is the easiest sport in the world... As long as you stand still. You don't have to worry about tripping over stupid hurdles as long as you stand still. But at the same time the faster you run and the longer your stride the harder jumping hurdles becomes. I have found this exactly the same in my walk with God. It was wierd when I was at bible college just studying studying studying I felt like it was so easy to move forward. But the thing was I had no ministry I was self diluted I believed I was running a race and jumping hurdles but in reality I was standing still. Life has changed becuase I see ministry but now I feel like it is hurdle after hurdle and each hurdle gets harder and more tiring and each fall rubs me a little more raw. But now I see the hurdles for what they really are A MOVEMENT!!

10:37 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Still not a citizen
Current mood: jubilant
Category: Religion and Philosophy

So at what point did I choose my citizenship? I don't recall when I was born but I am pretty sure that  when I was born the doctor didnt smack my fuzzy newborn behind and say "Alika Samuel Polanco would you like to become a citizen of the United States of America?" Nor was my birth followed by me putting my right hand over my heart reciting the pledge of ellegance. I dont even think I knew I had hands yet much less be able to decipher the cultural, economic, and spiritual commitment I was making. You see even though I had no idea what I was doing when I was born I somehow I automatically began living the "American Dream." As of late I have decided that I am no longer an American Citizen. I feel as though I was spiritually shanghaid into a belief system that is completely contrary to that of my true citizenship. As a citizen of heaven, and as a child of God, I am forced to revoke my American citizenship daily. It is often a constant battle for me not to spend $3.87 on a cup of soul consuming starbucks.(a bit dramatized but you get my point) It is also a constant battle for me not to dissasociate myself from the poor and needy that are right outside my door. You see because I was raised in a country that is not my own I am constant coflinct; two nations are at war within me. The real question is who wins today? Does love win or do I?

Currently listening : In Between Dreams By Jack Johnson Release date: 01 March, 2005

2:33 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

killing a pharisee
Current mood: rejuvenated
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Where does spiritual formation begin? Why does it always seem to be that it is so hard to keep it going or forming or whatever it is supposed to be doing? How do I know what I am supposed to do to keep it going? I have been searching for answers to these questions since I started my walk with Christ. I remember when it first began and it was a dark cold night in my repulsively mildewed bathroom at home after sneaking in the window from a social gathering of my blatantly hedonistic friends. As I recollect I was staring in the mirror looking at how I had... well placed a burger and fries that I had eaten earlier that day with a lot of things that I don't really remember eating all over my nice new white dress shirt. Also as another choice repercusion of the rediculous ammount of other substances that seemed to be rushing through my bloodstream I looked emaciated and sickly I am sure that I would be described in a crossword puzzle as "a five letter word meaning death warmed over." This was the place of my repentance, not at a Billy Graham Crusade, or at an enfullgent Hume Lake Christian Camps meeting with a loving counselor, no it was in my own ilustriously disgusting dirty bathroom that I realized the only person who was near me was Jesus and I was so far from him. Looking back at this memory I know exactly where my spiritual formation began.It began when I realized I was the living dead. I looked like it, I felt like it, and from my choice of that drinks that night I definitelly smelled like it. You see when I look around me everyday I see the living dead everywhere. Not like the creepy kid from the sixth sense, no, I see dead people living out there lives racing from meeting to meeting trying to be all that they can be. But what they don't realize is that they are dead. Sometimes I forget that I am dead and I try to live my life right racing from meeting to meeting using my righteous builiding blocks. I try reading my bible, praying, singing worship songs, and as I use my building blocks of righteousness to build my way to God. This is not how it should be, you see even though I try and try and try it does no good because I am still only a dead man trying to live. But if I am truly seeking God I must die to myself and allow him to live in me. Everyday I have to look at myself in the mirror and think back to that distainful lonely night when I saw myself for who I really was and then remind myself "Alika, you are dead." This may sound morbid and despondent to the casuall reader but I don't believe that that is so. I don't speak of death for death's sake, I speak of death for life's sake, for Christ's sake. And I would ask you the same thing I asked myself this mornign while brushing my teeth "have you died today?"

"have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

- Jesus 

Currently listening : Is This Thing On? By RedCloud Release date: 21 April, 2002

6:26 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Patriotic Duty
Current mood: restless
Category: Religion and Philosophy

So I love America. I was thinking about the idea of capitalism my country's chosen form of drive for a democratic republican government and this is a great way to motivate a country. The ultimate driver for every person in the entire world, STUFF! Not just any stuff but stuff that we don't need. I have found myself many a time at buffet line in the school cafateria taking much more than I need or could even eat and in nordtrom's rack buying jeans when I already have 4 pairs at home. So I have proved myself as a patriot! My patriotic duty is to buy things that I don't need because if I ceased to do so our entire form of government would fall. I find myself watching T.V. and seeing commercials that continually try to convince me that I will be fulfilled by things that I don't need or even want. Commercials have tied the idea that my spiritual fulfillment and my patriotic duty is to buy more stuff. I have definitely found myself in this mindset and it is tragic. If I truly believe that Jesus is all I need and I say that he is truly and ultimately the satisfier of my soul than why do I buy it? I must not be a citizen of America I must be a citizen of heaven. I must not live by an earthly economy but rather an economy of divine grace. I should instead find my patriotic duty when I am caring for the poor for orphans and for widows. I must forfit the American dream and trade it for a cross. A atrociously beautiful cross that brings death and also brings life.

Currently listening : Legend (New Packaging) By Bob Marley & The Wailers Release date: 21 May, 2002

11:37 AM - 5 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Finding God in Buddhism
Current mood: loved
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Nope I'm not a heretic. I have been studying buddhism and finding many truths of God. Buddhism is amazingly seductive to me because it is a passionate attempt kill off the desires of emperical self. Unfortunately the most convincing lies are the ones that are half true. "He(Christ) must increase, I must decrease." John 3:30. There is no decrease in us without an increase of him. You see Buddhism traps the zen master in himself. They strive and meditate to destroy desire and to be without a desire for self and think about it so much that ultimately all he or she sees is themselves. That is the ultimate goal of becoming a Buddah is to see oneself perfectly as in a mirror without a fleck of interfering chaff. Much like Christians wish to see themselves perfect but the only difference is they wish to die to self without any help. We as humans can only truly achieve the death of self through an assisted suicide that only comes through dieing with Christ. Only then will we be raised with him also. We must have an assisted suicide or we will not die and we most definitely will not live.

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." - Romans 6:8

"I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" - John 10:10

Currently listening : The Lone Flower By Sackcloth Fashion Release date: 24 July, 2003

8:28 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Tricks
Current mood: full

The thought of this next one is a simple one but I love the idea. I was reading D.L. Moody and he simply said this "Satan never told us that we were sinners." Thats it! The ultimat trick not one of a blatant lie but rather of omission. He wishes only to diminish our longing for the freedom we can only find in Christ. And when we are no longer sinners but choose to be made righteous and justified by Christ then he will never stop reminding us of our sins. Realizing this makes my FREEDOM seem so much sweeter. I end with this, Sam said it to me the best I have ever heard it when I asked her "What is freedom in Christ?" her reply to me was this "It is freedom from who we are, Freedom from who we have always been before."

"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin"        

-Romans 6:6

Currently listening : The Very Best of the Spinners By The Spinners Release date: 20 April, 1993

4:55 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Words
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy

This is kind of an ironic blog. I have been thinking about it and what good are words. They only serve as limitations, impersonal and unrelated concrete pieces that hope to convey abstract thoughts. One can easily realize this by looking at the Bible. What makes the words of the Bible so special? Everyword in an English Bible has been used a thousand times in other great and not so great works. It is not the words of the Bible that make it amazing and lifechanging truth, no it is the inspirer. I love the word not because of the words written but because of they are the thoughts of who wrote it. The imortal imperishable creator decided to reveal himself to the mortal perishable creation through the only means which we could understand. He has not limited himself by describing himself in scripture but rather made us crave more. This may sound like heresy to some but I believe that the Bible is just the beginning to theology. If Romans 1:20 is true than his "attributes" are screamed out and his glory is found in all creation, whether one listens or not. So I end with this meet God in everything. If scripture is only words on a page and not bafflingly wonderful abstract ideas all you have become is a fake mystic. A fake mystic.

Currently listening : The Police - Greatest Hits By The Police Release date: 30 June, 1998

2:54 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Death and Dying
Current mood: determined
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The easiest thing for me to do is die. From the moment I was born I was dieing. Sounds really morbid but its true. 10 out of 10 people die. So therefore it is easiest for me to give up. This is why I strive and fight for life because of impending doom and despair. Death surrounds me and tries to choke me out but I say no. The life that Christ himself has placed in me and has called me to, will break through as glorious day. As the darkness of this world is cast away by the power of Christ like the sunrise over the earth I know that this is the glorious life that I am called to. One word sums it all up FREEDOM!

"For this perishable must put on the imperishable and this is the mortal must put on immortality, but when this perishable has put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality. Then will come around the saying that is written, "DEATH SWALLOWED UP in victory. OH DEATH WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? OH DEATH WHERE IS YOUR STING?"                                                       - 1 Cor 15:53-55

Currently listening : Carry Away By Shane Barnard Release date: 22 April, 2003

10:39 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment