An Excerpt

A year ago I was in Lebanon. I read a bit in my journal and thought it was kinda funny so I am posting an excerpt from the journal I kept while I was there. The following entry is from 12/16.

I couldn't sleep past 4 a.m. - that sucked. This morning was good - I went up to the roof and saw Dan, Adam, Judd, Ricky Martin, and Josh Willis all hanging out w/the cold wind blowing our faces off. It was nice to see the sun begin to come up over the mountains but I went inside - it was too cold. My PHX blood hasn't adjusted yet.
Yesterday we drove down - that was quite an adventure. The Mediterranean Sea was awesome, but we didn't go swimming (we got our feet wet instead). The restaurant was decent, I had a chicken "burrito." The exhaust from the van made me want to puke and punch my mom (not really, but it was pretty bad).
At the checkpoint we were stopped for about an hour because of some confusion. The problem was that the guards wanted to give us the ok, but they were fighting over who got to give the Americans a "Yes." We didn't know that, so we were in the van praying a lot that everything would be fine, and we were right. God was with us. He still is.
We're chilling in the main room right now waiting for some people to come fix the cabinets. Oh yeah, right before the checkpoint we went through a city where they had a tribute to martyrs on their streetlights. 4 of them were involved with 9/11.
Much Love,
Austin
P.S.
What little I did sleep gave me a dream. I was Spiderman.

I found the end particularly funny.

On Capital Punishment

A great friend of mine sent me a paper he wrote on capital punishment. He's for it, I'm not. Here's what I wrote back to him.

I like what you said about how capital punishment seems inconsistent with "Jesus' ethic of forgiveness and redemption." I believe it is inconsistent, and if something is inconsistent with God's life on earth, it has no place in ours. Jesus exemplified love, sacrifice and forgiveness that we cannot completely follow because of sin, but killing each other, even when processed through a fair and legal system, is taking a step backwards, not to mention the fact that it undermines everything Jesus stood against. We are to burn for justice, and, as far as I understand Jesus' life, justice doesn't kill (Jesus told Peter about that).
As Christians, we are to look at everyone as they are: created by God to worship Him. This is what I find inconsistent about the death penalty: we have no right kill what God has given such lofty purpose in life. Unless they're cats. They're tasty.
And concerning the money it costs to house, clothe, feed, etc. the prisoners: we should kill old people. They cost money and take up countless man hours to keep alive just so they can do what, die? Or how about generally unhealthy people? The mentally and physically handicapped? Paris Hilton? You can't put a dollar sign next to a human life.
God is the only one who gives life, we should allow Him to take it away.