Class Tragedies

       I think that the main thing I learned from creating our own tragedies is how many dark truths there are in Christianity.  Christians screw up all the time even though we are supposed to be the example for others.  Specifically when writing my group's story, I realized how much I do think that God can fix everything when I mess it up.  I do not have extreme problems like an abortion to deal with, but I definitely forget that God is in control sometimes.  

       In the story that talked about the shelter, I think that it seemed the most realistic problem that would happen to a Christian around our age.  I think that as Christians, we sometimes think of ourselves as being better than everyone or that we have better morals, but when we let this self righteousness take over, we turn people away from God's love instead of towards it.  

        Also, in the story about the married couple with the runaway son, I definitely learned how we can act one way in front of one person and be totally different with another.  Like I said before, Christians screw up.  We are so far from perfect, and everyone just expects us to be a certain way.  The most important thing I think we need to remember is that we are representing God and our faith in the way we treat each other.  I think that one of the darkest parts of Christianity is not acting the way we tell everyone else to. How can we expect others to follow our example and want to know God if all they see are two-faced people who claim to believe one thing but do not follow through?

         Even though this exercise was meant to help us understand dramatic structure, I think that it also taught us some of the hard things that we face as Christians and the wrong way to deal with those situations.  As depressing as it was to concentrate on sadness for that long, I think that it was a really good way to help us learn more about our faith and how hard it is sometimes.

Senior Quote

"Sing like you know the words, dance like no one's watching, and love like it's never going to hurt." -Anonymous

Evangelizing the Text: Oedipus Rex

      First of all, from Oedipus we can see that humans are not in control of their own lives.  In the story, it was the gods or Fate that controlled people.  In reality, God is in control.  Even though we have free will in our decisions, God still has control over what happens in our lives and what we decide.  He already has a plan for our lives.

       Another theme in this story is that sin cannot go unpunished.  Oedipus had to face the consequences of killing his father and marrying his mother by leaving the city he was once king of.  When we sin, it separates us from God because of His holiness.  However, Christ died to cleanse us of those sins.  Christ took the punishment for us so that we do not have to spend eternity in Hell, but someone did have to be punished for our imperfection.

        Also, as seen from this story, we choose to sin.  Even though it was "the prophecy's fault" that Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, he had a chance to stop that and so did his parents.  Instead of facing what could happen in the future, Jocasta, Oedipus's mother and wife, sent the baby with a shepherd to be put on a hill to die.  By being willing to kill her own child, the prophecy eventually came true as a consequence for her action.  Then, when Oedipus met King Laius on the road, he did not have to kill him.  As a result of his pride and bad temper, he killed his own father trying to escape the very crime he committed.  He chose to kill that man in the coach even though he could have walked away.  We do the same thing even as Christians.  Even though we may not always realize it, we choose to sin.  I don't have to be angry at someone.  I could let it go, but as humans we are flawed and instead of doing what we know is right, we stay mad and in doing so we are "murdering."  We choose to be mad or lie or talk bad about someone.  We know when we sin, and even though we know it is wrong, we still choose to do it.