Discipleship Experiment- Rod

When Chad decided in mid-October to do the whole Discipleship Experiment thing, I promised I would join him.

Please see the updates for his series: here &, here, as well as here &, here.

Obviously, Chad and I are two different persons in completely different situations in our lives right now but I thought it would still be beneficial to keep up with at least a few commitments, things to add and subtract in my journey with the Lord.

Additions:

1. Try to begin the day at least by reading the My Daily Bread Devotional & the recommended chapters for that day. I have found that usually when I do this, even though a good day is never guaranteed (sorry prosperity preachers), I will be able to at least be able to take on whatever challenge lays ahead because I know that there is a bigger story than mine own (sorry emerging church).

2. I would like to dedicate at least 1 day out of the week for reading/finishing books.  I believe the title, Monastic Mondays has a nice ring to it. It shouldn’t be that difficult to pick up and finish Rob Bell or Don Miller. They are quite easy reads. I may start with a more difficult text like Edward Said‘s Orientalism and make my way down the totem pole (sorry, I am still going to remain a little elitist).

3. I would like to dedicate 1 day out of the week to clean; I am sort of like t.v.’s Merlin. I like to leave stuff lying around just because. But I know and realize, that guests could come in at any moment and I don’t want to scare any of them away.

4.  I plan to start grocery shopping primarily at Aldi food store. It is probably the best and most affordable grocery store around. Who cares about name brands? The food all tastes the same most of the time anyhow. Plus, Aldi offers much more healthier selections.

5. Last but not least, and I have already begun working on this. I am going to try to be more positive / less critical of popular forms of black culture. If this includes injecting more hip hop and blaxploitation into my life, so be it. And you can forget  about it, Joel. I’ll watch Tyler Perry, but I will never accept him as a cultural leader.  I have a few Olivia Butler novels to read (black science fiction from the 70s & 80s) as well as Booker T. Washington‘s Up From Slavery, which I am excited about). I guess I made the mistake of reading too much W.E.B. DuBois in undergrad, wanting to be a perfectionist and all. Sigh. I’ll still sip the Aaron McGruder kool-aid.

Subtractions:

1.  Television. I have made the decision to eliminate several television shows from my life, especially since I am getting turned off by their politics. I will still watch Red Eye on Fox News, CNN Newsroom, SyFy‘s Merlin & Warehouse 13, and NBC’s Community, but other than that everything else is trash, including ESPN Sportscenter!

2. Political Openness. Politically, I feel I am at a crossroads. I know what I do not believe, and even though I try to be as “civil” as possible, instead, I would like to eliminate any residue “political inhospitality” within me. It has been going on three years since a massive injustice was done by a few persons, and I have gotten over it; I just need some time to own up to my feelings and be more open and honest about them, once I learn to articulate them.

3. Procrastination. Okay, laugh out loud at this one. But I would like to start not waiting for the absolute last second to complete projects.

Related articles

• Quote of the Day (On Discipleship) (diglot.wordpress.com)

RodtRDH

Formerly known as Rod of Alexandria, Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter Preacher of Hope | Black Scholar of Patristics | Writer for Nonviolent Politics. Destroyer of Trolls. It must be that angry puppy.

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