This website exists to give you as close a glimpse into my life and thoughts that the Internet can provide. As you may have imagined, my name is Jacob Perez. My life is defined by three statements: Following God. Seeking truth. Loving others. Since our human mind/reasoning has been conditioned to associate one’s identity with his/her work, let me start with “what I do” – we’ll get to bashing social constructs/identities soon enough in my blog.
At the time of writing this, I am nearing the age of 25, and I am a restaurant manager in Walnut Creek. Before this, I was an Outreach Coordinator and Worship Leader for San Francisco City Impact, an inner-city ministry that assists the homeless and less fortunate of that community. I have also been a youth pastor at a local church “plant” (term for a new church, for those grabbing the dictionary), and helping out occasionally lead worship for that church. I am also a freelance web/graphic designer/marketer, Twitter-holic and history buff.
I attend a local community college full-time and intend to transfer to Cal Berkeley shortly to double major in Philosophy and Religious Studies with the hopes of later pursuing a JD with a concurrent Master’s Degree at a law school. My musical scope includes guitar playing (still learning), singing (still practicing) and songwriting (still trying); I may have played the saxophone in junior high.
That’s what I do and have done. Who I AM is what I’m passionate about…
Following God
I have a strong desire to figure out all of who God is before I meet Him one day. I know this will be an impossible task; nevertheless, I tirelessly contemplate who He is (not just to me, but) in the universe. It’s quite an amazing thing to hear myself say that I “have faith” in God, often as simply as one would say they “have stock” in a certain business venture or corporation. Though we are taught that we have a “measure” of faith, I am convinced we cannot measure numerically our faith-value.
With this understanding of how infinite our faith becomes when it is placed in something (someOne) we cannot see or ever meet, we are challenged by our intellect to “find” the fingerprints of God all over creation. This produces one of two reactions. The first is rejection. Some will not be able to bridge the mind-gap of believing and seeing. They conclude that there are no fingerprints to be found of God, and anything we can’t explain does not suggest divinity but rather an immaturity of our collective brain power to explain the unknown. The other reaction (and the one that I choose) acknowledges the gap between believing and seeing and celebrates the tension between what we know in our hearts and what we doubt in our brains. This leads to a euphoric celebration of life, where everything (even suffering) can be viewed through the eyes of faith and the fingerprints of God become ever present to our senses.
This may be viewed as dillusional, childish (I prefer child-like) or even dangerous. Nonetheless, I believe in God. I believe that Jesus is God. And I follow Him.
Seeking Truth
There are certain things we have been taught from childhood (about society, culture, races, humanity… perhaps, even God?) that are simply wrong. There are not multiple truths (ie what’s right for me may not be right for you), but there is only one truth (ie what’s right is not determined by me or you, it is always right regardless of us). This being understood, what if what we accepted as truth was really falsehood? How would we handle it? Would we become angry? Could we accept it? Would it change our faith? Would it change our deeds?
Imagine I were to say that the Bible conclusively shows that God used evolution to design the earth. How many Christians can you name would actually entertain that idea with an open mind, without feeling as though they have lost something morally by doing so? Chances are, there are few to none to be named. We are afraid to seek truth because it may shake the foundations of our comfort. My desire is to shock my intellect with the possibilities of a shattered worldview. Therefore, I consider myself an eclectic Christian. With Jesus as both the foundation and boundary of my faith, I have the freedom to search and draw from all of Christian history, traditions, methods, and doctrines to fully complete and enrich my faith. In short, I don’t just draw from one source, one preacher, one denomination, one movement, one “stream;” rather, I find God in all that He finds Himself in.
Beyond that, I read and seek truth from secular sources. The Bible cries out that a person who concludes there is no God is a fool; I would say that the Christian who in turn concludes that the fools are fools of the brain instead of the heart is a fool of the lowest caliber. We can learn so much from what others in the world have taught about the way the world works, including how to best incarnationally speak to culture (more on “being” Jesus to the world in my blog) by reading what culture has produced.
Loving Others
This is the one work that supersedes conviction, for without work, faith is dead. My life is to be spent emptying myself out for others – where that leads me has already been determined, what that brings humanity is yet to be seen. To fight for those who cannot fight for themselves may be the most challenging/rewarding calling to answer. I cannot explain reasonably the compassion that fills my heart for others. This is not a degrading or self-serving emotion – this is an attribute I cannot escape!
I’m all about finding new ways to reach out to people, new endeavors (Christian or otherwise) to help expand the common grace for all creatures of this planet. As a Christian, I am confident that like Abraham in the Bible, my blessing is not just for myself, not just for my Christian family, not just for a church, but for the WHOLE world, even the non-Christians who will never accept the message of Jesus.
This can radically change the way we view others. Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself – who’s your neighbor? Do you consider your pastor to be your neighbor? Would you consider a Muslim to be your neighbor? Who is Christianity’s neighbor?
Furthermore, what ought you to do with your neighbors? Do you fight wars with them? Do you say bad things about them?
Or don’t you invite a neighbor to your home, go over to their place, celebrate their birthdays, be there in times of their need? Don’t you pray for your neighbor?
When was the last time you prayed for your enemy?
Who, when they pray for the salvation of “lost people,” prays for Osama Bin-Ladin, the modern day Saul?
I’ll conclude there :) I pray that what I wrote was grace-filled, Biblical, and God-glorifying. If there were parts that offended you, perhaps you won’t like my blog; if you’re brain is hurting by the end of this, then maybe small doses of my blog will be just what you need to get through the day; if something struck your heart to say, “Yea, that kind of makes sense;” then welcome aboard, it’s going to be a fun ride!
-Jacob
PS, I don’t really believe that the Bible conclusively proves that God used evolution; I’m only 65% convinced that it does and 100% convinced that it doesn’t matter either way.
PPS, The Apostle Paul killed Christians for leisure and pay before he became a Christian. He was a terrorist-turned-convert virtually overnight and helped shape the Christian faith forever. His name was Saul before he became a Christian… Just a thought: would we accept bin-Ladin if he become a professing Christian like the church in the Bible accepted Saul?
