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Bill Sergott
Green Bay, WI
God IS. i am defined by that.
Interests: God, theology, football, Green Bay Packers, baseball, music, movies, reading, writing, beer, food, philosophy, cheese, wine, hiking, fishing, gaming, parties
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Hey Josh, thanks for your insightful comments. I agree with you in terms of your reading of Thoreau. He definitely ends up in wisdom bringing hope and an answer to our desperation. I don't necessarily resonate with his belief that building a Utopia, isolated from all society and culture, is necessarily the route to wisdom, but I do like where he takes it.
At the same time, I wanted to say that I was simply making a point, digging down to the core of our beings. I think, at the core, we are all desperate and hungry. We acutely feel our separation from our Maker, and we long for that reconnection. Moral, selfless behavior and the activities of human depravity are not even on the same playing field in terms of values, mental health, and the condition of one's soul. I'm making the point (leading into a lot of other points) that we work, sin, celebrate, eat, sleep, grow addictions, become liberated from addictions, perform acts of altruism, hurt others, have sex, and worship God all out of a core place of desperation. I assign no value to that at this point in the conversation. There is right or wrong thinking and acting. I believe that the desperation of our souls exists a priori and value neutral to the outworking of value-laden behavior. Does that make sense?
Thanks, again, for reading and commenting!
Search Me and Know My Heart
One of my readers and friends had an excellent comment and question about my post from earlier in the week. Gerard is always extremely insightful, and a bit prophetic, as his question leads right into the part of this issue that I wanted to address next: Morality. I spent quite a bit of time ...
On Faith and Resignation
Posted Aug 31, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Search Me and Know My Heart
Posted Aug 24, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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I am now going to do "5 Simple Steps to Completely Fix All of Our Internal Drives and Live Happily Ever After".
Maybe I'll just call it, "Your Best Life Now". That title is much easier to handle.
Thanks, Freshly Pressed writer! ;)
Lives of Quiet Desperation
Desperation. We have all felt it, haven't we? It is the sense that something isn't right. Something crucial is missing, though we know not what. Thoreau, in his philosophical masterpiece, Walden, said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Like rats in a Skinner Box, we run the ma...
Thanks! And thank you for reading!
Lives of Quiet Desperation
Desperation. We have all felt it, haven't we? It is the sense that something isn't right. Something crucial is missing, though we know not what. Thoreau, in his philosophical masterpiece, Walden, said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Like rats in a Skinner Box, we run the ma...
Excellent question and thoughts, Gerard, as always! I am just starting to chew on all of this, but here's where I am at with it so far:
No, I am not advocating or working out of a sense of moral relativism. I am focusing directly on the question of instinctual drives - almost animalistic in nature. When studying human behavior, we always look at motive, and we foolishly believe that we can discern some neat explanation for why one chooses to save people and another chooses to kill. We look at upbringing, learned habits, educational level, race, values, faith system, and all other socioeconomic factors. We say things like, "Ah, well, that kid was bullied, so of course he brought a gun to school and shot all of his classmates." "See, that's what happens when a child is not parented well."
It's strange, don't you think, that when they interview friends and family of people like Dahmer, they say that the killer was kind, friendly, quiet, etc. People are always shocked. We never interview the friends and family of heroes, seeking an explanation for motive. Why did they do such an incredible act of goodness? I am sure that, if we did, we would hear some stories of how much of a selfish jerk the hero was for most of their life.
I think we are such a convoluted mess of factors, that it is impossible to figure out why we do what we do. I think, in order to truly find our humanity, we need to go to the core of what makes us biologically human. There is a hunger and a drive that we all share. I am poking right at that core place of passion and fire. It makes us eat, pray, and love, in the spirit of Julia Roberts. One person responds in violence, and another in selfless love. Today. Tomorrow, they may respond completely differently. Our desire for neat, moral answers and tied-up-with-a-bow motivations comes from that same place. Suspending judgment as to behavior, what does that core place (the heart? the soul?) look like?
Lives of Quiet Desperation
Desperation. We have all felt it, haven't we? It is the sense that something isn't right. Something crucial is missing, though we know not what. Thoreau, in his philosophical masterpiece, Walden, said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Like rats in a Skinner Box, we run the ma...
Lives of Quiet Desperation
Posted Aug 21, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Bill Sergott is now following Xenogirl

Aug 16, 2012
Bill Sergott is now following Blondjoke

Aug 16, 2012
Hmmm...yes, yes yes. I am in sober agreement with your assessment of the inner critic. That voice screams SO much louder than all of the affirming and supportive voices. It brings one down to earth in a hurry. Weeding out the word Perfect definitely helps. My new bar is one of integrity. Am I being truthful in this piece of writing with myself and my readers? Am I playing games with my writing to induce a response or make people like me by presenting a false self? If I can truly say that I accurately communicated an honest piece of my heart, then my inner critic can have no foothold. Anyway, hang in there, Xeno. You expose that inner critic for the little bully it is, and you will begin to win those battles.
Turning Away from The Abyss
I have started at least 20 new posts in the last two months, and none of them have seen the light of day. I didn't like the way they sounded or felt. One of them smelled like soup. I had a thousand or more reasons for rejecting each one. The core problem was that none of them were perfect, ...
I love what you said about job vs. vocation. I read this great book called "Quitter", and it was all about not jettisoning your day job, until you are fully prepared to pursue your dream. There was some great stuff in that book, but I think it's a balance. I am one who will keep looking for day jobs, pouring out all of my resources in that pursuit. I will keep doing that, thinking, "I will pursue my dreams and calling, as soon as I accomplish x in my day job. I'll be secure enough then." That is the thinking that kept me from going for my PhD right after my undergrad. It has kept me doing stuff that was "kind of close" to my dream without actually forcing me to invest or take risks. It is a very careful balancing act and is different, I think, for each person. Good stuff!
Turning Away from The Abyss
I have started at least 20 new posts in the last two months, and none of them have seen the light of day. I didn't like the way they sounded or felt. One of them smelled like soup. I had a thousand or more reasons for rejecting each one. The core problem was that none of them were perfect, ...
Turning Away from The Abyss
Posted Aug 16, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Gone Fishing
Hello! Well, I am arranging some things to be able to start some exciting new ventures and directions. This is requiring me to do some rebranding and refocusing of blog and writing work. I'll explain all of that at the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I have been... Continue reading
Posted Aug 9, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Guest Post: My Own Declaration of Independence
Hello Everyone! Today I am guest posting over at SmartRelationships.org. I wrote an article for Independence Day about living true Freedom and Independence in all of our intentional relationships. Please read and pass along to your friends. And, while you're there, check out all of the great content and resources... Continue reading
Posted Jul 2, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Out of Context
So.... I have actually written 4 different blog posts this week, each one continuing my train of thought on the subject of God, God's promises, and our identity. All 4 of them were hitting the 3K-4K word count, and I wasn't anywhere close to completing the thought in any of... Continue reading
Posted May 24, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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HAHA! I love what you said about God's stack of brains. Brilliant! Why do we think, when God gives us gifts, that God is always cruel enough to make us give them up? God wants us to surrender them. Die to clinging to them. But that is very different than sacrificing gifts and leaving them unused. I seem to remember something in some holy text about God no longer being interested in our burnt offerings... I also remember reading something about being LIVING sacrifices. Great stuff, Chris. Thanks for sharing!
Turning My Back On The Promised Land
The Promised Land I arrived, and I discovered that it was all that was promised! I had moved to Seattle, and the city, itself, is everything it was billed to be. The church community at the Shoreline Vineyard was absolutely amazing. For me, it is truly a land flowing with milk and honey. N...
Well...That Could've Gone More Smoothly
Posted May 16, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Turning My Back On The Promised Land
Posted May 14, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Oh! That's What You Meant!
Posted Mar 27, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Yep! I love this. Brilliantly stated, Chris.
A Sinner in the Hands of Mercy
I think the very quick, knee-jerk response to suffering for us, myself included, is to compare ourselves to Job. We are just good folks, minding our own business, and then God sends the devil after us for some undeserved torture. "Have you considered my servant (insert your own name here)?" ...
When Did We Become So Weak?
Posted Mar 22, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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I like what you had to say here, Chris. There seems to be something in the process or journey through the darkness and brokenness that is, in itself, redemptive. Even if it ends in death and loss, that death and loss is temporal at best. It is not, in effect, "The End". It becomes, then, a new beginning. I'm not sure it is a "lesson" in Job, as much as it is a symbolic and important metaphysical truth. There is no real tragedy in Christ. God, by God's very being, renders actual as-the-final-note-of-the-story loss to be impossible. Great stuff!
A Sinner in the Hands of Mercy
I think the very quick, knee-jerk response to suffering for us, myself included, is to compare ourselves to Job. We are just good folks, minding our own business, and then God sends the devil after us for some undeserved torture. "Have you considered my servant (insert your own name here)?" ...
A Sinner in the Hands of Mercy
Posted Mar 19, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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Like a Child
Posted Mar 14, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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An Appeal - With a New Update
NOTE: Hello everyone! Teresa and I want to thank all of you for your kindness and care. We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support. It looks very promising! We are fairly sure that I will be able to pay my rent this weekend. Your kindness was amazing!... Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2012 at Heresy of the Month
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