I went to an Intervarsity meeting yesterday. The IV group at UNH meets on thursday nights, and because of band rehearsal I haven't had a chance to go. We read the second half of Mark 1, "manuscript style", where they just give you a page of text with the verse numbers removed. It is something I have only ever heard of Intervarsity doing. Must be some kind of centralized training.
Here are two things I gleaned from the study:
Mark 1:35-37:
"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he[Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, 'Everyone is looking for you.'"
I think that is fantastic foreshadowing for the next 2,000 years of history.
There are two ways to spin that.
1: Everyone is looking for Jesus.
2: Jesus' disciples keep trying to find Jesus and then telling him, "everyone is looking for you".
But Jesus keeps leaving and going to a solitary place to pray. These other people did not look for Jesus, his disciples did. Perhaps we too much have the mindset that everyone is looking for Jesus, when in fact, everyone is not, and it is the job of the disciples to tend to the ministry.
A little bit later in Mark 1, Jesus heals a leper. It's really pretty neat, because after he heals the man, Jesus instructs him to tell no one what happened, but to "go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for proof to them."(Mark 1:44)
Don't tell anyone that Jesus healed you, but follow the law that Moses wrote concerning leprosy. (Which is in Leviticus 14)
I think that we have forgotten some of this.
People who are not christians need proof of what Jesus does in our lives, whether it's curing leprosy or just some emotional healing. We need to show them proof in their terms.
Creating christian radio stations and an entire genre of books called "Religious Inspiraton" doesn't quite cut it. Heck, there's a whole section of Barnes and Noble for "Christian Fiction". What the junk is that?
Far too often, instead of showing people proof for Jesus on the terms of the law, christians show them the proof for Jesus by being lunatics.
Gay marriage is a terrific subject for this. Instead of being reasonable and showing the world that Jesus can heal broken families, the Church has for a large part fought a losing political battle that has alienated millions of people. The Church's definition of Marriage is not political. It is religious. Have marriage ceremonies in the Church. But for crying out loud, let gay people have hospital visiting rights.
Nonchristians do not appreciate you bringing your religious beliefs into politics, especially when it appears to impede the progress of social justice, which is something that Jesus particularly cared about.
Bring the world some proof on their own terms, within their "law".
Friday, February 24, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Complicated Explanations
The most profound quote I heard this week was from my stage lighting teacher. He's an old guy who has clearly done theater for his entire life, stagecraft and lighting and all that drudgery. "I remember working 62 hour days." Technical theater indeed.
But he was going over some terminology in class and had this to say:
"When you don't really understand something, you can only explain it in complicated ways."
That is to say, when you really understand something, you can explain it easily, and could write the Simple Wikipedia article about it. But when you don't understand something and someone asks you to explain it, you find yourself BSing some sort of answer that sounds like you know what you're talking about.
Example, I could probably explain calculus to a middle school student, because everything I've done in school for 4 years has been based on calculus. I could not, however, explain to you Spanish grammar. I could probably fake it because i long ago studied latin, but I really know nothing about spanish.
This observation is important to me because it really makes sense of so many "complicated" things in the world.
Economics, politics, theology, non-newtonian physics, the history of ancient cultures, global warming, global hunger, the weather. These things appear very complicated. There are all sorts of scientists dedicated to studying them, writing textbooks about them, debating the importance of different theories.
But the bottom line is, no one really knows how the economy works.
And that is dangerous for two reasons: One, lots of people have successfully convinced politicians that they do, in fact, know how the economy works. And Two, because of this, people/government try to control the economy based on their inaccurate models that don't really work. But this regulation is complicated because that is the only way people know how to explain the economy. The result is things like housing bubbles, debt crises, and inflation.
How about theology?
There are disgustingly long books written about theology. You can devote your entire life to just studying a single religion, and you would never even know what the guy down the street believes. Theology is complicated because it is invented by people to describe things that we don't actually understand. Think about the Romans. They had hundreds of gods, all responsible for little things in daily life, and the result was a ridiculously complicated set of social observances to make sure you didn't offend any deity.
Now, there is nothing wrong with studying complicated things. But I believe that there are far too many people out there who talk like they know more than they do.
As an engineering student, I am surrounded by other students who think they understand how transistors work, but really, no one knows for sure why electrons behave the way they do.
This is one of the coolest things about Jesus. He said simple things. Short sentences. Little stories. Because He actually understood what was going on, so He could put it in simple terms. And christians have been complicating it ever since.
But he was going over some terminology in class and had this to say:
"When you don't really understand something, you can only explain it in complicated ways."
That is to say, when you really understand something, you can explain it easily, and could write the Simple Wikipedia article about it. But when you don't understand something and someone asks you to explain it, you find yourself BSing some sort of answer that sounds like you know what you're talking about.
Example, I could probably explain calculus to a middle school student, because everything I've done in school for 4 years has been based on calculus. I could not, however, explain to you Spanish grammar. I could probably fake it because i long ago studied latin, but I really know nothing about spanish.
This observation is important to me because it really makes sense of so many "complicated" things in the world.
Economics, politics, theology, non-newtonian physics, the history of ancient cultures, global warming, global hunger, the weather. These things appear very complicated. There are all sorts of scientists dedicated to studying them, writing textbooks about them, debating the importance of different theories.
But the bottom line is, no one really knows how the economy works.
And that is dangerous for two reasons: One, lots of people have successfully convinced politicians that they do, in fact, know how the economy works. And Two, because of this, people/government try to control the economy based on their inaccurate models that don't really work. But this regulation is complicated because that is the only way people know how to explain the economy. The result is things like housing bubbles, debt crises, and inflation.
How about theology?
There are disgustingly long books written about theology. You can devote your entire life to just studying a single religion, and you would never even know what the guy down the street believes. Theology is complicated because it is invented by people to describe things that we don't actually understand. Think about the Romans. They had hundreds of gods, all responsible for little things in daily life, and the result was a ridiculously complicated set of social observances to make sure you didn't offend any deity.
Now, there is nothing wrong with studying complicated things. But I believe that there are far too many people out there who talk like they know more than they do.
As an engineering student, I am surrounded by other students who think they understand how transistors work, but really, no one knows for sure why electrons behave the way they do.
This is one of the coolest things about Jesus. He said simple things. Short sentences. Little stories. Because He actually understood what was going on, so He could put it in simple terms. And christians have been complicating it ever since.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
One million workers
I love this time of year because its when big companies publish fancy, good looking reports about how great they are. Apple routinely toots their own horn over their environmental record and their labor policies.
Here's a quote that caught my eye:
"Apple-designed training programs have educated more than one million supply chain employees about local laws, their rights as workers, occupational health and safety, and Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct."
(from http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/reports.html)
Apple has literally Hundreds of factories in China working to produce your glass-coated consumer products. Imagine if instead of outsourcing all of that mindless labor, Apple opened a manufacturing plant in America?
There are certainly a million highschool dropout Americans who could benefit from a solid manufacturing job. Apple is really about the only American company that has enough financial resources to do something like that. And they don't, simply because everyone wants cheap electronics.
Instead, we're fueling economies that are at odds with us, putting the nail in our own coffin by being a lazy society that doesn't particularly want to work for a living.
Here's a quote that caught my eye:
"Apple-designed training programs have educated more than one million supply chain employees about local laws, their rights as workers, occupational health and safety, and Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct."
(from http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/reports.html)
Apple has literally Hundreds of factories in China working to produce your glass-coated consumer products. Imagine if instead of outsourcing all of that mindless labor, Apple opened a manufacturing plant in America?
There are certainly a million highschool dropout Americans who could benefit from a solid manufacturing job. Apple is really about the only American company that has enough financial resources to do something like that. And they don't, simply because everyone wants cheap electronics.
Instead, we're fueling economies that are at odds with us, putting the nail in our own coffin by being a lazy society that doesn't particularly want to work for a living.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Postmodernist
My family is all musicians.
My mom is a classically trained violist. My dad plays so many instruments that I don't even know what they all are. My brother plays piano. I play bass. My family has also always been involved in church music.
So a few weeks ago my dad brought home a book by a church worship leader called "Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement". The author is a former rock musician who transitioned several evangelical and baptist churches from "traditional" style services to "contemporary" styled services. The big differences being organ music and hymns vs. CCM rock-style music.
In his book, he maintains that CCM is generally a bad thing and urges churches to retread and go back to holding traditional services. He has a number of arguments, most that don't make sense to me, but my family has had some pretty neat discussions about it.
What we all seem to agree on is this:
The author associates ALL rock music with bad things that don't belong in church services, and he believes that the music- driven beats that virtually everyone enjoys listening to, is inseparable from evil, lustful desires.
As a musician, I am mostly taken aback by this claim.
Music is a wonderful thing, and, to quote Jack Black, "Rock is not the devil's work, it's magical and RAD."
My family decided that the author of the book has a personal issue with rock music: in his mind, he cannot separate it from immoral things, even if many other people have no problem with it. The problem with that is he seems to believe that people the world over are being influenced by rock music for worse.
One claim he made to support this is that rock music was born out of rebellion.
Which it very likely was.
But my mom, who has a masters degree in music education and seems to know all sorts of things about music history made the point that all art movements are born out of rebellion to the movement that preceded it.
So yes rock music is rebellious. But the romantic movement was rebellious against the classical period, which was rebellious against the baroque period, all the way back to forever. Each generation throws off the customs of the generation before it. It's just the way human society seems to work.
The deeper thing at work here is Modernism verses postmodernism.
The author appears to have grown up in the 70s, when Rock music was really taking off.
My dad grew up in the 60s, and made an off-hand remark about how ever since the 60s, music has been junk. Now i'm no psychologist or philosopher, but it seems to me that everyone loves the music they grew up with. My dad loves music from the 60s and earlier, and it can't just be coincidence that it's the music that was around when he was growing up. Old people listen to old music. Everyone knows that.
But the time period when my dad was growing up is considered to be part of the modernist movement. Like all philosophical and artistic movements, modernists revolted against the styles and thinking of their parents and grandparent's generations.
But the age we're in now is considered Postmodern. To quote the first sentence in the wikipedia article, "Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth."
That is to say, postmodernists reject the idea of objective truth, whereas modernists embraced it.
"Truth" to a Modernist is absolute; it is the way things are.
"Truth" to a postmodernist is all in our heads; it's how we perceive the way things are.
The author of that book is modernist; he believes in objective truth.
I am a child of postmodernism. That means that INSTINCTIVELY, I believe that the author, as a modernist, believes that his truth is the only truth.
It's different ways of looking at the same thing, and arriving at a completely different conclusion.
Growing up in church, I never believed that truth was relative. That's absurd. Truth is out there, it's fact, and it exists.
But as i've grown older, my ideas about truth have changed. I haven't ever studied postmodernism but maybe the people who label our society know what they're talking about. I still believe in absolute truth. I'm a Christian and I believe that Jesus taught Truth with a capital T.
But i've also realized that absolute truth isn't nearly as important as church people make it out to be. Because our society is postmodern. Truth isn't objective in our culture. Truth to each person on the planet is completely different, because each person perceives the world completely differently. And PEOPLE, it turns out, are more important than anything else on the earth.
Especially in an age where your insurance premiums are determined by an algorithm and not a friendly lady over the telephone, people out in the world are becoming more and more in need of being understood by other people.
Jesus's ministry was all about the people he taught.
If we don't try to understand people, if we don't realize that the truth we think is right isn't the same truth that everyone else thinks is right, we will be completely useless to help those people.
And that's why I have a personal aversion to CCM; not the style of music, but the Industry. Making music for other christians isn't inherently bad, but it encourages us to ignore the entire world. That's absolutely not what being a christian is all about.
My mom is a classically trained violist. My dad plays so many instruments that I don't even know what they all are. My brother plays piano. I play bass. My family has also always been involved in church music.
So a few weeks ago my dad brought home a book by a church worship leader called "Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement". The author is a former rock musician who transitioned several evangelical and baptist churches from "traditional" style services to "contemporary" styled services. The big differences being organ music and hymns vs. CCM rock-style music.
In his book, he maintains that CCM is generally a bad thing and urges churches to retread and go back to holding traditional services. He has a number of arguments, most that don't make sense to me, but my family has had some pretty neat discussions about it.
What we all seem to agree on is this:
The author associates ALL rock music with bad things that don't belong in church services, and he believes that the music- driven beats that virtually everyone enjoys listening to, is inseparable from evil, lustful desires.
As a musician, I am mostly taken aback by this claim.
Music is a wonderful thing, and, to quote Jack Black, "Rock is not the devil's work, it's magical and RAD."
My family decided that the author of the book has a personal issue with rock music: in his mind, he cannot separate it from immoral things, even if many other people have no problem with it. The problem with that is he seems to believe that people the world over are being influenced by rock music for worse.
One claim he made to support this is that rock music was born out of rebellion.
Which it very likely was.
But my mom, who has a masters degree in music education and seems to know all sorts of things about music history made the point that all art movements are born out of rebellion to the movement that preceded it.
So yes rock music is rebellious. But the romantic movement was rebellious against the classical period, which was rebellious against the baroque period, all the way back to forever. Each generation throws off the customs of the generation before it. It's just the way human society seems to work.
The deeper thing at work here is Modernism verses postmodernism.
The author appears to have grown up in the 70s, when Rock music was really taking off.
My dad grew up in the 60s, and made an off-hand remark about how ever since the 60s, music has been junk. Now i'm no psychologist or philosopher, but it seems to me that everyone loves the music they grew up with. My dad loves music from the 60s and earlier, and it can't just be coincidence that it's the music that was around when he was growing up. Old people listen to old music. Everyone knows that.
But the time period when my dad was growing up is considered to be part of the modernist movement. Like all philosophical and artistic movements, modernists revolted against the styles and thinking of their parents and grandparent's generations.
But the age we're in now is considered Postmodern. To quote the first sentence in the wikipedia article, "Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth."
That is to say, postmodernists reject the idea of objective truth, whereas modernists embraced it.
"Truth" to a Modernist is absolute; it is the way things are.
"Truth" to a postmodernist is all in our heads; it's how we perceive the way things are.
The author of that book is modernist; he believes in objective truth.
I am a child of postmodernism. That means that INSTINCTIVELY, I believe that the author, as a modernist, believes that his truth is the only truth.
It's different ways of looking at the same thing, and arriving at a completely different conclusion.
Growing up in church, I never believed that truth was relative. That's absurd. Truth is out there, it's fact, and it exists.
But as i've grown older, my ideas about truth have changed. I haven't ever studied postmodernism but maybe the people who label our society know what they're talking about. I still believe in absolute truth. I'm a Christian and I believe that Jesus taught Truth with a capital T.
But i've also realized that absolute truth isn't nearly as important as church people make it out to be. Because our society is postmodern. Truth isn't objective in our culture. Truth to each person on the planet is completely different, because each person perceives the world completely differently. And PEOPLE, it turns out, are more important than anything else on the earth.
Especially in an age where your insurance premiums are determined by an algorithm and not a friendly lady over the telephone, people out in the world are becoming more and more in need of being understood by other people.
Jesus's ministry was all about the people he taught.
If we don't try to understand people, if we don't realize that the truth we think is right isn't the same truth that everyone else thinks is right, we will be completely useless to help those people.
And that's why I have a personal aversion to CCM; not the style of music, but the Industry. Making music for other christians isn't inherently bad, but it encourages us to ignore the entire world. That's absolutely not what being a christian is all about.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Us vs them
"One of the things that the Church has to understand about people... The lost world, they're not the enemy. Its not us vs. them."
-Perry Noble
If I can't think of any other reason to not like christian radio, that's it right there.
-Perry Noble
If I can't think of any other reason to not like christian radio, that's it right there.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Indispensable Man
The following was in the "drafts" section of my blog. I didn't even know I had a "drafts", apparently I never posted this:
I must have reached that point where i'm realizing how smart my parents actually are.
Over this thanksgiving break my dad shared some apparently Rickover-era "shipyard wisdom" with me. Being a '90s child, I googled it and there is a poem by one Saxon N. White Kessinger, and this is the stanza that my dad quoted to me:
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
But the problem is that when you pull out your hand, it is wet. There is no indispensable man, but that's not the point. The point is the sticky nature of human relationships. We all wear pieces of each other everywhere we go and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
I must have reached that point where i'm realizing how smart my parents actually are.
Over this thanksgiving break my dad shared some apparently Rickover-era "shipyard wisdom" with me. Being a '90s child, I googled it and there is a poem by one Saxon N. White Kessinger, and this is the stanza that my dad quoted to me:
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
But the problem is that when you pull out your hand, it is wet. There is no indispensable man, but that's not the point. The point is the sticky nature of human relationships. We all wear pieces of each other everywhere we go and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Friday, October 21, 2011
On What Sort Of Greeting
Luke 1:26-30
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'"
This is from the Christmas Story. I think its tremendous that Mary was staring at an Angel, and she had to sit there and try to figure out what the junk was going on. Because seriously, how often to angles show up and announce to you that you're pregnant? It's happened once.
I think we spend a lot of time trying to discern "what sort of greeting" God's giving us. Every time I face a major life decision, I spend hours "trying to discern". I think it might be endemic to evangelical christianity. We teach ourselves that we need to listen to God. You tell someone, "i'm thinking about studying abroad", and all they say back to you is, "Pray about it. Listen to God."
That's more or less a useless answer, obviously I asked for your advice because I wanted your advice, not a canned response that's just going to paralyze me with inaction.
How do we get over the trying to discern part? Mary didn't have to understand what was going on. For all we know, she didn't know what was happening until after Jesus rose from the dead. Somewhere along the way, like His disciples, she must have thrown in the towel on trying to discern and just let Jesus reveal himself to her.
How do we do that?
How do we let go of trying to understand the universe? And how do we let go of always trying to figure out what sort of greeting this is?
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.'"
This is from the Christmas Story. I think its tremendous that Mary was staring at an Angel, and she had to sit there and try to figure out what the junk was going on. Because seriously, how often to angles show up and announce to you that you're pregnant? It's happened once.
I think we spend a lot of time trying to discern "what sort of greeting" God's giving us. Every time I face a major life decision, I spend hours "trying to discern". I think it might be endemic to evangelical christianity. We teach ourselves that we need to listen to God. You tell someone, "i'm thinking about studying abroad", and all they say back to you is, "Pray about it. Listen to God."
That's more or less a useless answer, obviously I asked for your advice because I wanted your advice, not a canned response that's just going to paralyze me with inaction.
How do we get over the trying to discern part? Mary didn't have to understand what was going on. For all we know, she didn't know what was happening until after Jesus rose from the dead. Somewhere along the way, like His disciples, she must have thrown in the towel on trying to discern and just let Jesus reveal himself to her.
How do we do that?
How do we let go of trying to understand the universe? And how do we let go of always trying to figure out what sort of greeting this is?
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Retreat
Matthew 15:21:
"And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon."
...this passage introduces the story where a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to help her daughter. Jesus tells her no, that he's only there to help the Jews, and she answers, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." And Jesus heals her daughter.
What struck me is that Jesus Withdrew to an area where non-Jewish people lived. The way its written makes it look like Jesus decided he needed a break from religious people. He Withdrew. He went somewhere else. He got away from there, and went to go hangout with people who didn't try to make him fit into their religious box. And if you knew that everyone around you wanted to kill you, you would probably do the same thing...
We make religion into a huge deal here in America. We play politics off of it, we get into family feuds over it, we allow it to steer our choices and dictate which brands of toilet paper we boycott or not.
Jesus had to withdraw from religious people.
Can't blame non-christians for not liking something that even Jesus couldn't deal with.
"And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon."
...this passage introduces the story where a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to help her daughter. Jesus tells her no, that he's only there to help the Jews, and she answers, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." And Jesus heals her daughter.
What struck me is that Jesus Withdrew to an area where non-Jewish people lived. The way its written makes it look like Jesus decided he needed a break from religious people. He Withdrew. He went somewhere else. He got away from there, and went to go hangout with people who didn't try to make him fit into their religious box. And if you knew that everyone around you wanted to kill you, you would probably do the same thing...
We make religion into a huge deal here in America. We play politics off of it, we get into family feuds over it, we allow it to steer our choices and dictate which brands of toilet paper we boycott or not.
Jesus had to withdraw from religious people.
Can't blame non-christians for not liking something that even Jesus couldn't deal with.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
study
an hour ago i found a love note that was hidden for me to find, dated over 4 years ago.
how am i supposed to concentrate on BJT amplifiers?
how am i supposed to concentrate on BJT amplifiers?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
What's a libertarian?
I'm pretty sick of bipartisan politics.
The Left wants to tax business owners and wealthy people, and then give money and aid to poor people.
The Right only contains those people who are wealthy and business owners, so they naturally oppose this.
The only problem with the Left's ideals is that they aren't fair, and they essentially amount to Robin Hood and certainly close in on socialism.
The Left will stand there and yell at you all day about how the Right isn't fair.
Look, if you were wealthy, you wouldn't want to have a 30% tax, either. That's just plain ridiculous, and it discourages anyone from actually wanting to succeed.
The Left then turns around and tries to convince you that you can make life better for millions of people by giving them jobs in the government doing literally nothing for a paycheck. Funded by the Right, those people who were blessed enough to make it to your higher tax brackets.
I'm sorry that you don't like capitalism. I hear that China is nice. Go move there and enjoy the good life.
Now, are corporations greedy? Absolutely. That's the whole reason they exist. Public companies exist for the sole purpose of making money.
The problem is that we've built society around a lie, the idea that stocks go up and jobs are added every year. That's simply false. The stock market isn't supposed to go up every year. It's supposed to go up and down. We've built companies, markets, jobs, families, and government on the assumption that bear markets are a terrible, rare catastrophe. Then we try to force reality into that lie, creating bubbles and then crying when they burst.
Stop electing politicians that promise to make you richer. For the love, can we just find someone who wants to have a sustainable government? I don't even care if its big or small or in between. I just want it to be sustainable. Like, on a balanced budget. After we fix that, we can worry about greedy people and lazy people. Or we can forget about them, because its the people in between who have been hurt the most.
Or maybe Apple can build an assembly plant in the USA. that would literally solve 1/2 of the problems we have, and it would prevent the government from spending billions on an ambiguous "jobs" act that claims to give americans jobs by spending america's money. Preposterous.
The Left wants to tax business owners and wealthy people, and then give money and aid to poor people.
The Right only contains those people who are wealthy and business owners, so they naturally oppose this.
The only problem with the Left's ideals is that they aren't fair, and they essentially amount to Robin Hood and certainly close in on socialism.
The Left will stand there and yell at you all day about how the Right isn't fair.
Look, if you were wealthy, you wouldn't want to have a 30% tax, either. That's just plain ridiculous, and it discourages anyone from actually wanting to succeed.
The Left then turns around and tries to convince you that you can make life better for millions of people by giving them jobs in the government doing literally nothing for a paycheck. Funded by the Right, those people who were blessed enough to make it to your higher tax brackets.
I'm sorry that you don't like capitalism. I hear that China is nice. Go move there and enjoy the good life.
Now, are corporations greedy? Absolutely. That's the whole reason they exist. Public companies exist for the sole purpose of making money.
The problem is that we've built society around a lie, the idea that stocks go up and jobs are added every year. That's simply false. The stock market isn't supposed to go up every year. It's supposed to go up and down. We've built companies, markets, jobs, families, and government on the assumption that bear markets are a terrible, rare catastrophe. Then we try to force reality into that lie, creating bubbles and then crying when they burst.
Stop electing politicians that promise to make you richer. For the love, can we just find someone who wants to have a sustainable government? I don't even care if its big or small or in between. I just want it to be sustainable. Like, on a balanced budget. After we fix that, we can worry about greedy people and lazy people. Or we can forget about them, because its the people in between who have been hurt the most.
Or maybe Apple can build an assembly plant in the USA. that would literally solve 1/2 of the problems we have, and it would prevent the government from spending billions on an ambiguous "jobs" act that claims to give americans jobs by spending america's money. Preposterous.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Zelda
Remember the bosses in the Zelda games? Like the baddies in those caves. They swung stuff or shot stuff at you, and you hopefully made it through the dungeon with full hearts so you could shoot your sword of power or whatever at them. You would have to wait for them to be done with their routine of deathly killing, and for just a moment, you could take a break from running away, shoot at them, and then go back to playing defense. Invariably you would get hit, and then you would have to either use special whatnots or just melee attack the thing, swinging your sword with no regard to how much you got hurt back.
But mostly, you avoided the boss's attacks.
That's the closest simile I can make to being an EE student.
At the end, I've been told, there is a princess.
But mostly, you avoided the boss's attacks.
That's the closest simile I can make to being an EE student.
At the end, I've been told, there is a princess.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
This isn't my english homework.
I don't talk much about things that go on in my life, mostly because I don't think much about things that go on in my life. But I'm starting to grow weary of just taking life as it comes. I want to accomplish something, and in order to do that, I have to figure out how to organize my thoughts, organize what I stand for, organize who I am.
I'm listening to Rob Bell right now. He's almost as funny as Francis Chan and Judah Smith. Why do so many people have issues with him? Also as far as I can tell, he's the among the most thoughtful speakers in the christian community.
But that's unrelated.
Over NNED Summer Camp this year, I sketched out a word in my notebook.
Parable.
I remembered a note in the ESV study bible for Psalm 78:2 (I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark saying from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.)
The note says, "Parable and dark sayings are the tools of wisdom teachers, and require imagination to unlock their meaning."
If you've ever read the Gospels, you know that Jesus taught in Parables a few times. He pretty much never just went out and told people (crowds) something. He always did it with a story.
I've heard sermons preached about parables before.
Almost all the time, the pastor will talk about a parable like a story with a one-to-one correspondence to something about Jesus. But that's not the impression I get from the term "dark saying". In fact, I have never ever seen the word Parable described as a "Dark Saying". I think that's an awesome perspective of them.
These things that Jesus taught about weren't just a nursery rhyme like we reduce them to in sunday school or a trite lyric from a christian song. The words Jesus spoke in parables contain the absolute truth about reality. Nothing underscores this better than a dark saying. Like this is important stuff, the very fabric of the universe. That verse in Psalms and the ESV note imply that the truth in Jesus' words is locked up in meaning. I don't think that Jesus' parables were just a metaphor for the afterlife. I think that they contain truth that can't be expressed any other way. Like how you can only store hydrofluoric acid in a plastic container, some truths need to be contained in a dark saying.
I think that's one area that the modern Church has neglected.
Evangelism has been a booming business since the 200s.
We talk a whole lot about Jesus, and that's great.
But I don't think we spend enough time saying what Jesus said.
Obviously it was important enough for him to say it. We probably should, too.
I think that Movies are the modern-day parable.
Sadly, so many of them are created for the sole purpose of consumption.
People pay for movies, so people make movies to make money.
They are selling a story. The best ones make the moviegoer think. Usually they leave a happy cathartic feeling at the end. But few movies successfully tell a parable of truth, a dark saying of old, something that really, truly introduces people to reality as it really is.
For some reason, christian subculture hasn't embraced the idea that you can't tell someone something that they don't want to know. They will just ignore it or reject it or explain it away. Even if its true. Even if its the gospel. The vast majority of people I know do not want to hear someone talk about the bible. That is boring and sober. In order to get truth inside of someone, it has to go in sideways, through a dark saying, a parable, a movie, a carefully constructed discography, anything that isn't direct. It has to dwell in them unnoticed in order to survive.
If we diverted any small percent of the resources that the church spends on ineffective ministry strategies into getting truth inside of people without them rejecting it, we wouldn't have to spend billions of dollars sending food to starving people, because starving people wouldn't exist.
But I don't want to talk about food, food is one of the most broken, messed up things in America.
I'm listening to Rob Bell right now. He's almost as funny as Francis Chan and Judah Smith. Why do so many people have issues with him? Also as far as I can tell, he's the among the most thoughtful speakers in the christian community.
But that's unrelated.
Over NNED Summer Camp this year, I sketched out a word in my notebook.
Parable.
I remembered a note in the ESV study bible for Psalm 78:2 (I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark saying from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.)
The note says, "Parable and dark sayings are the tools of wisdom teachers, and require imagination to unlock their meaning."
If you've ever read the Gospels, you know that Jesus taught in Parables a few times. He pretty much never just went out and told people (crowds) something. He always did it with a story.
I've heard sermons preached about parables before.
Almost all the time, the pastor will talk about a parable like a story with a one-to-one correspondence to something about Jesus. But that's not the impression I get from the term "dark saying". In fact, I have never ever seen the word Parable described as a "Dark Saying". I think that's an awesome perspective of them.
These things that Jesus taught about weren't just a nursery rhyme like we reduce them to in sunday school or a trite lyric from a christian song. The words Jesus spoke in parables contain the absolute truth about reality. Nothing underscores this better than a dark saying. Like this is important stuff, the very fabric of the universe. That verse in Psalms and the ESV note imply that the truth in Jesus' words is locked up in meaning. I don't think that Jesus' parables were just a metaphor for the afterlife. I think that they contain truth that can't be expressed any other way. Like how you can only store hydrofluoric acid in a plastic container, some truths need to be contained in a dark saying.
I think that's one area that the modern Church has neglected.
Evangelism has been a booming business since the 200s.
We talk a whole lot about Jesus, and that's great.
But I don't think we spend enough time saying what Jesus said.
Obviously it was important enough for him to say it. We probably should, too.
I think that Movies are the modern-day parable.
Sadly, so many of them are created for the sole purpose of consumption.
People pay for movies, so people make movies to make money.
They are selling a story. The best ones make the moviegoer think. Usually they leave a happy cathartic feeling at the end. But few movies successfully tell a parable of truth, a dark saying of old, something that really, truly introduces people to reality as it really is.
For some reason, christian subculture hasn't embraced the idea that you can't tell someone something that they don't want to know. They will just ignore it or reject it or explain it away. Even if its true. Even if its the gospel. The vast majority of people I know do not want to hear someone talk about the bible. That is boring and sober. In order to get truth inside of someone, it has to go in sideways, through a dark saying, a parable, a movie, a carefully constructed discography, anything that isn't direct. It has to dwell in them unnoticed in order to survive.
If we diverted any small percent of the resources that the church spends on ineffective ministry strategies into getting truth inside of people without them rejecting it, we wouldn't have to spend billions of dollars sending food to starving people, because starving people wouldn't exist.
But I don't want to talk about food, food is one of the most broken, messed up things in America.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Where this is going
I love stories. I love "serial dramas" because they take years and years to tell a story and by the end, there are millions of people watching every move on screen.
I also love some of the new advertising techniques that are getting people completely absorbed into a whole made-up world, uncovering minute details and telling the story as its made.
I think its absolutely incredible that there are artists who spend their entire careers telling a single story. We live in a world where FAST and NOW and SHORT and CHEAP are important action-words. We have musicians or singers releasing a new album each year while touring nonstop. Production lead-times on movies and TV shows have been reduced substantially since years past. And the result is more and more quick projects that consumers will buy over and over again.
I want to spend my life telling one story. Whether it's creating one to tell others or just living my reality, I want it to be one story, unified from beginning to end.
I also love some of the new advertising techniques that are getting people completely absorbed into a whole made-up world, uncovering minute details and telling the story as its made.
I think its absolutely incredible that there are artists who spend their entire careers telling a single story. We live in a world where FAST and NOW and SHORT and CHEAP are important action-words. We have musicians or singers releasing a new album each year while touring nonstop. Production lead-times on movies and TV shows have been reduced substantially since years past. And the result is more and more quick projects that consumers will buy over and over again.
I want to spend my life telling one story. Whether it's creating one to tell others or just living my reality, I want it to be one story, unified from beginning to end.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Rumor
There's a line in the Bible about the end times that there will be "Wars and Rumors of Wars".
I always wondered what a "war rumor" is.
Here in modern times, we always know about wars. Thanks to the televised and internet-driven media, we as consumers can be there with the fighting right as it's happening. We know about the war we are fighting in the middle east. We can turn on a screen and watch it.
But will there be a time when great America is harboring secrets and rumors about wars?
I'd say that ever since the transition from Colonial militias to the Department of Defense, we have kept war out of the eye of the general public. Sure, the public is aware of it and is involved, but people who aren't actually in the armed forces don't have a clue what's going on besides what we watch on TV. Our country has around 80 submarines in the ocean and no american citizen knows what they are doing at any given time. We don't know what all the air force's fighter jets are doing. We don't know where infantry units are heading.
It's safe to say that War breeds Secrets.
Successful war demands successful secrets. That's why there is wartime propaganda and its why we don't know what the military is doing or where they're planning on going tomorrow.
John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, compared Nations to Individuals. He noted that one of the problems with leading a state is that there is no individual who is more suited to judge a nation than any other individual, hence the need for democracy. But there is much more than that.
In Daniel 10:20, Daniel has a vision of a messenger.
"He replied, 'Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and after that the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece will come. Meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prince. I have been standing beside Michael to support and strengthen him since the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede.)'"
Now, ignoring all the prophesy things, it is absolutely incredible to think that Nations have Spirits.
Not only do they have spirits, but they have names and they fight each other. Other Bible translations call them just "princes" or Angels, but there are spiritual beings that represent the nations on our Earth.
Nations are alive. Not just as a collection of people. They are living. They have personality. They fight. Just like you and me.
I believe that one of the big problems with politics today is that we have lost this realization. Politicians and business executives treat countries as a line separating two groups of people that is crossed very easily by the internet. But these nations are individuals. We have ignored that they have spiritual underpinnings and as a result we have mistreated them.
I think that will probably change soon.
I always wondered what a "war rumor" is.
Here in modern times, we always know about wars. Thanks to the televised and internet-driven media, we as consumers can be there with the fighting right as it's happening. We know about the war we are fighting in the middle east. We can turn on a screen and watch it.
But will there be a time when great America is harboring secrets and rumors about wars?
I'd say that ever since the transition from Colonial militias to the Department of Defense, we have kept war out of the eye of the general public. Sure, the public is aware of it and is involved, but people who aren't actually in the armed forces don't have a clue what's going on besides what we watch on TV. Our country has around 80 submarines in the ocean and no american citizen knows what they are doing at any given time. We don't know what all the air force's fighter jets are doing. We don't know where infantry units are heading.
It's safe to say that War breeds Secrets.
Successful war demands successful secrets. That's why there is wartime propaganda and its why we don't know what the military is doing or where they're planning on going tomorrow.
John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers, compared Nations to Individuals. He noted that one of the problems with leading a state is that there is no individual who is more suited to judge a nation than any other individual, hence the need for democracy. But there is much more than that.
In Daniel 10:20, Daniel has a vision of a messenger.
"He replied, 'Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and after that the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece will come. Meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prince. I have been standing beside Michael to support and strengthen him since the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede.)'"
Now, ignoring all the prophesy things, it is absolutely incredible to think that Nations have Spirits.
Not only do they have spirits, but they have names and they fight each other. Other Bible translations call them just "princes" or Angels, but there are spiritual beings that represent the nations on our Earth.
Nations are alive. Not just as a collection of people. They are living. They have personality. They fight. Just like you and me.
I believe that one of the big problems with politics today is that we have lost this realization. Politicians and business executives treat countries as a line separating two groups of people that is crossed very easily by the internet. But these nations are individuals. We have ignored that they have spiritual underpinnings and as a result we have mistreated them.
I think that will probably change soon.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
150
This is the 150th post on this blog.
Don't go reading all the ones you missed.
Or do.
I listened to a podcast today where someone said the average tenure of a church Technical Director was 18 months. This is the same lie stat that they say about full time youth pastors.
People always talk about how miserable and lonely ministry is.
I don't think ministry is miserable or lonely.
Here's what I think the issue is.
Tech directors and youth pastors both work for "senior pastors".
Now i've never been a pastor, and don't have any plans on being a pastor.
But at the moment, I have plenty of friends who are in bible school because they feel called to be a pastor.
Here's my question:
What in heck are the odds that everyone who is called to pastor a church or preach are also gifted with excellent management skills?
I'm learning a lot about management this summer.
The managers I see every day spend about 2/3 of their time putting out fires, and the remaining 1/3 trying to stay connected with their personnel.
Even if you are a senior pastor who is also a great manager, if you're a preacher you should be spending your time being a good preacher. Or if you're a councilor you should be counseling. If there is time left over to properly run a church and manage your staff, you are probably cheating something somewhere.
Jesus Preached and taught.
He let other guys deal with the logistics.
I think the "average tenure" of ministry positions is so low because too many pastors don't realize when they should let other people be in charge of things.
I'll be impressed when I see a church with an excellent main communicator who doesn't also pretend to run the whole show. But that's a book, not a blog post.
Don't go reading all the ones you missed.
Or do.
I listened to a podcast today where someone said the average tenure of a church Technical Director was 18 months. This is the same lie stat that they say about full time youth pastors.
People always talk about how miserable and lonely ministry is.
I don't think ministry is miserable or lonely.
Here's what I think the issue is.
Tech directors and youth pastors both work for "senior pastors".
Now i've never been a pastor, and don't have any plans on being a pastor.
But at the moment, I have plenty of friends who are in bible school because they feel called to be a pastor.
Here's my question:
What in heck are the odds that everyone who is called to pastor a church or preach are also gifted with excellent management skills?
I'm learning a lot about management this summer.
The managers I see every day spend about 2/3 of their time putting out fires, and the remaining 1/3 trying to stay connected with their personnel.
Even if you are a senior pastor who is also a great manager, if you're a preacher you should be spending your time being a good preacher. Or if you're a councilor you should be counseling. If there is time left over to properly run a church and manage your staff, you are probably cheating something somewhere.
Jesus Preached and taught.
He let other guys deal with the logistics.
I think the "average tenure" of ministry positions is so low because too many pastors don't realize when they should let other people be in charge of things.
I'll be impressed when I see a church with an excellent main communicator who doesn't also pretend to run the whole show. But that's a book, not a blog post.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Piano
A long time ago, a family from our church moved out west. I don't remember where they moved or why they moved, but since they moved from new hampshire, any of the 48 states to the left are all "out west" to me.
They gave our family a spinet piano that has been in our dining room ever since.
I quit piano lessons when I was in 3rd grade, something that I regret now. But it has meant that I hardly ever touch the piano in the dining room.
Every now and then, when no one else is home, I noodle around on it. But that's the extent of my experience playing piano.
With that said, I have just experienced something that every person reading this needs to experience.
Find a piano sometime when no one is around. I suggest a big room. There are few things in the World of Man-Made-Things that I love more dearly than enormous empty rooms.
Play a single note up high.
For your sake right now, just imagine it.
Its just a note.
A single, solitary note that has almost no effect.
It has a brief life, but no matter how hard you play that high note, it quickly dies away.
But then you have to try using the sustain pedal.
When you hold down the sustain pedal, you unlock every string in the piano and allow them all to move freely. When you hold down the pedal and play the exact same note, you get something amazing and pretty unnerving.
Instead of just quickly dying out, that note causes every string to make noise. It literally effects everything around it. That same note now lasts almost forever. Even after the initial note has faded, the entire piano keeps talking and talking and talking. Its chilling to listen to.
I'm just a little bit obsessed with how I don't know the name of any of my great-great grandfathers. After 4 generations, I have no idea who those people were. But they set in motion a chain of events that caused me to be born, in the process causing God only knows how many other things to happen on this earth.
Usually in our heads, we think about our actions like a single note on a piano. We go about our lives as a string of isolated incidents. But the reality is that everything impacts everything.
Everything we do that comes in contact with the rest of Humanity reverberates like a note on a piano.
Our actions die out quickly. We live and die. But the results and consequences of even the little things last for a really, really long time.
They gave our family a spinet piano that has been in our dining room ever since.
I quit piano lessons when I was in 3rd grade, something that I regret now. But it has meant that I hardly ever touch the piano in the dining room.
Every now and then, when no one else is home, I noodle around on it. But that's the extent of my experience playing piano.
With that said, I have just experienced something that every person reading this needs to experience.
Find a piano sometime when no one is around. I suggest a big room. There are few things in the World of Man-Made-Things that I love more dearly than enormous empty rooms.
Play a single note up high.
For your sake right now, just imagine it.
Its just a note.
A single, solitary note that has almost no effect.
It has a brief life, but no matter how hard you play that high note, it quickly dies away.
But then you have to try using the sustain pedal.
When you hold down the sustain pedal, you unlock every string in the piano and allow them all to move freely. When you hold down the pedal and play the exact same note, you get something amazing and pretty unnerving.
Instead of just quickly dying out, that note causes every string to make noise. It literally effects everything around it. That same note now lasts almost forever. Even after the initial note has faded, the entire piano keeps talking and talking and talking. Its chilling to listen to.
I'm just a little bit obsessed with how I don't know the name of any of my great-great grandfathers. After 4 generations, I have no idea who those people were. But they set in motion a chain of events that caused me to be born, in the process causing God only knows how many other things to happen on this earth.
Usually in our heads, we think about our actions like a single note on a piano. We go about our lives as a string of isolated incidents. But the reality is that everything impacts everything.
Everything we do that comes in contact with the rest of Humanity reverberates like a note on a piano.
Our actions die out quickly. We live and die. But the results and consequences of even the little things last for a really, really long time.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Mending Wall
There is a Robert Frost poem that we read in highschool english class. "Mending Wall". I don't remember what year we read it, or what we discussed about it or the conclusions we came to about it. But I will always remember that we read it, and the proverbial line that "Good fences make good neighbors", that Frost may or may not have been telling us not to believe.
I'm not one to examine myself much. It's not something that I have ever left time in my day for me to do. I hate when people talk about "love languages" and Meyers-Briggs personality tests and junk like that because from what I can tell, if you're an adult, you should already know what makes you tick, what your personality is like, and whether you like hugs or getting gifts more. None of that is quantified, because by golly there is no human way to quantify your brain. So instead, we have to use subjective words to describe ourselves, which isn't really useful.
But one thing that I have noticed about me is that I really, really can't stand walls.
Walls are something that you jump over.
Walls are something that you knock over.
Walls are something that you can watch as they slowly fall apart over time.
We all spend our childhood within the confines of the walls that adults put around us.
Usually for our "protection" or "own benefit" but even if most kids can't see the "real" benefit of these walls, most if not all can see that they are just a wall.
Not even a real wall.
A metaphorical one.
Walls inside your head are easier to jump over than a wall made out of rocks.
So I did a lot of that when I was growing up.
And today, when people put a wall in front of me, my first reaction is to break it.
Every time.
It usually takes a great deal of effort for me to decide to let it be.
Maybe i'm just combative. I'd like to think of myself as never being content with status quo.
Yesterday morning, I watched Dean Kamen tell about 70 extraordinary highschool seniors to chase after their dreams and that if people who care about you try to hold you back, it probably means that you found something that needs to be done.
Easy words for an incredibly successful person to say to a bunch of kids who have never experienced failure. But hey. He's on to something.
I'm not one to examine myself much. It's not something that I have ever left time in my day for me to do. I hate when people talk about "love languages" and Meyers-Briggs personality tests and junk like that because from what I can tell, if you're an adult, you should already know what makes you tick, what your personality is like, and whether you like hugs or getting gifts more. None of that is quantified, because by golly there is no human way to quantify your brain. So instead, we have to use subjective words to describe ourselves, which isn't really useful.
But one thing that I have noticed about me is that I really, really can't stand walls.
Walls are something that you jump over.
Walls are something that you knock over.
Walls are something that you can watch as they slowly fall apart over time.
We all spend our childhood within the confines of the walls that adults put around us.
Usually for our "protection" or "own benefit" but even if most kids can't see the "real" benefit of these walls, most if not all can see that they are just a wall.
Not even a real wall.
A metaphorical one.
Walls inside your head are easier to jump over than a wall made out of rocks.
So I did a lot of that when I was growing up.
And today, when people put a wall in front of me, my first reaction is to break it.
Every time.
It usually takes a great deal of effort for me to decide to let it be.
Maybe i'm just combative. I'd like to think of myself as never being content with status quo.
Yesterday morning, I watched Dean Kamen tell about 70 extraordinary highschool seniors to chase after their dreams and that if people who care about you try to hold you back, it probably means that you found something that needs to be done.
Easy words for an incredibly successful person to say to a bunch of kids who have never experienced failure. But hey. He's on to something.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
emotional
yesterday, I ate breakfast at 7:30, took a final at 8, wasted a lot of time, and 12 hours later found myself at a place that desperately tried to be home almost 2 years ago. I laughed, I stared, I played Angry Birds, I ate ice cream, I watched laundry, I met new people, I climbed an insane staircase to a bell tower full of bird poo and bat skeletons, sat on a roof, searched in the dark for a place to put my feet, found out that I could have shared an apartment with a 12 foot Pepsi sign, and tried to sleep at 4:30 am. Today I ate breakfast at 10 and then put food on plates for a room full of homeless people, each one with a story screaming to be told and understood, and used to change the lives of others.
then I was gifted lunch from Chipotle.
tomorrow, reality returns with its usual unforgiving, trips-you-down-the-stairs ways.
i think.
i thought i knew which was the dream and which was the staring at the ceiling with your head on a pillow, but I suppose i really don't. and perhaps I never will.
maybe its all a dream, and you wake up when you're 65 and realize you slept through your alarm and you're going to be late for school, once again, and you graduate with the most number of tardy marks in the senior class.
i need to understand how to use multivariable calculus to describe engineering probability models before 8:00 monday morning.
then I was gifted lunch from Chipotle.
tomorrow, reality returns with its usual unforgiving, trips-you-down-the-stairs ways.
i think.
i thought i knew which was the dream and which was the staring at the ceiling with your head on a pillow, but I suppose i really don't. and perhaps I never will.
maybe its all a dream, and you wake up when you're 65 and realize you slept through your alarm and you're going to be late for school, once again, and you graduate with the most number of tardy marks in the senior class.
i need to understand how to use multivariable calculus to describe engineering probability models before 8:00 monday morning.
Friday, May 13, 2011
before i forget
if there's anything I have learned as an engineering student so far, it is that you can't solve a problem by looking at the problem. you have to look past the problem to the other side and see the answer. the solution is what connects the two together. Engineering doesn't care much for the answer, you usually already know what that is (for instance, better life for all). It's the solution, the substance that allows us to reach the answer, that is elusive.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Magical
This past saturday I spent the morning waiting for the Comcast guy to show up at the Strand Theater to install internet. After 5 hours and a no-show, I at least got to spend the time with my best friend. Also changed the marquee, which is exciting because people always stop and ask what's going on or tell their children to watch out for that guy struggling with the ladder.
More importantly, i caught the saturday performances of Berwick's dance shows this year. Even disregarding how awesome it is to walk into a building and immediately have people running up to you asking how your life has been or having people you don't remember meeting start talking to you, i love watching production happen. Especially in a place where i spent hours upon hours trying to make musicals and dance shows happen as smoothly as possible from a lights/sound/video perspective, tech booths feel like home to me. I could do technical theater for the rest of my life and enjoy every minute of it. Watching stressed-out performers and producers and stage managers fight and yell and pour their passions into something that everyone has to share, that is more magical than an iPad.
More importantly, i caught the saturday performances of Berwick's dance shows this year. Even disregarding how awesome it is to walk into a building and immediately have people running up to you asking how your life has been or having people you don't remember meeting start talking to you, i love watching production happen. Especially in a place where i spent hours upon hours trying to make musicals and dance shows happen as smoothly as possible from a lights/sound/video perspective, tech booths feel like home to me. I could do technical theater for the rest of my life and enjoy every minute of it. Watching stressed-out performers and producers and stage managers fight and yell and pour their passions into something that everyone has to share, that is more magical than an iPad.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Million Miles
I've been reading Donald Miller's blog for a while now. Awesome stuff. He's giving away copies of his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
Get it and read it!
What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.
Get it and read it!
What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
On Smell
I just read through Jonah.
Chapter 1, Verse 17 reads:
"And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." (ESV)
Jonah then goes on to say a 9 verse prayer from inside the fish.
Yesterday at restoration church, a certain someone's office smelled pretty terrible. Chris said, "i think someone put poop in here." and he wasn't joking.
After looking around for a while, he found what was making the smell. A white paper bag that at one point had someone's lunch in it. I believe he accurately attributed it to chris tower. It was in the trash can. Now, you could smell this thing from the hallway. It was strong.
When we leaned over the trash can, it became difficult to take a breath.
And when chris picked up the bag and brought it to his nose, he choked, i'm pretty sure he teared up, and he quickly put it down.
No doubt about it. A 5 day (possibly plus a few weeks) old sandwich can smell pretty horrible.
Lets suppose that whatever fish Jonah was in had a stomach about the size of chris's office.
Fish, or wales, or whatever you have here, eat more than a sandwich from Calef's every day.
Raw fish, on its own, isn't really the best smelling stuff.
Imagine what stomach bile, half digested carcasses, and potentially other animals probably the same size of Jonah would smell like all mixed together.
With no fresh air.
For 3 days and 3 nights.
It was difficult for me to concentrate in that office, because there was the constant nagging of foul odor.
I couldn't have lasted a few minutes with my face next to that sandwich bag.
Jonah prayed for 9 verses, thanking God that he was in the fish.
If you can read through that without being completely taken aback, you simply don't understand it.
None of us have ever been swallowed whole by a whale.
But then again, most of the times, we don't thank God for the smelly situations we are in, either.
Chapter 1, Verse 17 reads:
"And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." (ESV)
Jonah then goes on to say a 9 verse prayer from inside the fish.
Yesterday at restoration church, a certain someone's office smelled pretty terrible. Chris said, "i think someone put poop in here." and he wasn't joking.
After looking around for a while, he found what was making the smell. A white paper bag that at one point had someone's lunch in it. I believe he accurately attributed it to chris tower. It was in the trash can. Now, you could smell this thing from the hallway. It was strong.
When we leaned over the trash can, it became difficult to take a breath.
And when chris picked up the bag and brought it to his nose, he choked, i'm pretty sure he teared up, and he quickly put it down.
No doubt about it. A 5 day (possibly plus a few weeks) old sandwich can smell pretty horrible.
Lets suppose that whatever fish Jonah was in had a stomach about the size of chris's office.
Fish, or wales, or whatever you have here, eat more than a sandwich from Calef's every day.
Raw fish, on its own, isn't really the best smelling stuff.
Imagine what stomach bile, half digested carcasses, and potentially other animals probably the same size of Jonah would smell like all mixed together.
With no fresh air.
For 3 days and 3 nights.
It was difficult for me to concentrate in that office, because there was the constant nagging of foul odor.
I couldn't have lasted a few minutes with my face next to that sandwich bag.
Jonah prayed for 9 verses, thanking God that he was in the fish.
If you can read through that without being completely taken aback, you simply don't understand it.
None of us have ever been swallowed whole by a whale.
But then again, most of the times, we don't thank God for the smelly situations we are in, either.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Shoes
There are a few decisions that I made in Highschool that I'm proud of. One of them was running cross country.
You hear sports analogies a lot. High profile coaches from all sorts of sports teams in all sorts of leagues routinely take the "motivational speaker" track. People can relate to sports, and sports can relate to life. But Running is different.
Most sports require a combination of Teamwork, Athletic Ability, and Strategy. We like this because it makes us feel good that we can apply a similar formula to things like the workplace, or family life, or whatnot. But distance running has nothing to do with teamwork. It has very little strategy. Success in running is being both the most athletic person, and the person most able to push himself far beyond the point of giving/throwing up.
Does this lend itself to good motivational speaking?
It should. Unlike just about every other sport, running is not learned or taught. There is no official rulebook. There is just your feet. It is a part of us. Everyone is a runner. We are born with it. Something so fundamental to our bodies ought to have many things to teach us about ourselves.
I got new shoes this weekend. In highschool I started wearing "last season's" shoes as my everyday beaters, and its a habit that I continue. Modern running trainers are one of the most noticeable types of shoes. They are all made out of mesh, they are usually reflective, and they always have an enormous heel cushion. They are built for utility. That heel cushion is designed to absorb impact and help reduce injury from the constant pounding that running puts on your body. They are great.
They are also lousy to run races with.
In fact, a great deal of runners run races with "flats", if not spikes. Flats are still mesh and reflective, but instead of a heel cushion they have a thin piece of rubber under your foot. They can hurt your feet. They can damage your body. But they make you run faster, because they are light and don't absorb energy that you should be using to run with.
During cross country season in highschool, race days were pretty much the best day of the week. On a training day, you would spend 2 hours running as much as you can, constantly wondering why you were putting yourself through so much misery. You would try to eat healthily, since you wanted to be in shape for races. In fact, large lunches made practice super-ultra miserable, so you learned to only eat just enough to not be hungry.
But on a race day, you could eat more lunch because races were later in the day. We got to ride on a bus for an hour or three and relax, do nothing, and enjoy our afternoon. Then you would race for 20 minutes, whereby you put everything out of your mind and do what you trained to do. Then you eat as many cookies as you could possibly hold in your stomach, drink as much vitamin water as you had fit in your bag, and enjoy the ride home.
Race Day is a party.
Except race day is absolutely meaningless if you never put the effort into training.
On Race Day, how good your feet and knees feel is not a concern because running fast is the only concern.
But training is grueling, and precautions have to be taken to ensure that training doesn't interfere with racing.
On Race Day, you need to replenish the hundreds of Calories you burn during a race.
But during training, you need to eat a balanced diet.
Everything in life has a preparation stage and an action stage. You prepare for your career by training in school. If you don't work hard in school, you might not have what it takes to be the top of your field. You prepare for your marriage by maintaining good character and living with purpose, not by listening to Avril Lavigne lyrics. By all accounts, training days are more difficult than race days. But when it comes down to it, the race is the only thing that matters.
You hear sports analogies a lot. High profile coaches from all sorts of sports teams in all sorts of leagues routinely take the "motivational speaker" track. People can relate to sports, and sports can relate to life. But Running is different.
Most sports require a combination of Teamwork, Athletic Ability, and Strategy. We like this because it makes us feel good that we can apply a similar formula to things like the workplace, or family life, or whatnot. But distance running has nothing to do with teamwork. It has very little strategy. Success in running is being both the most athletic person, and the person most able to push himself far beyond the point of giving/throwing up.
Does this lend itself to good motivational speaking?
It should. Unlike just about every other sport, running is not learned or taught. There is no official rulebook. There is just your feet. It is a part of us. Everyone is a runner. We are born with it. Something so fundamental to our bodies ought to have many things to teach us about ourselves.
I got new shoes this weekend. In highschool I started wearing "last season's" shoes as my everyday beaters, and its a habit that I continue. Modern running trainers are one of the most noticeable types of shoes. They are all made out of mesh, they are usually reflective, and they always have an enormous heel cushion. They are built for utility. That heel cushion is designed to absorb impact and help reduce injury from the constant pounding that running puts on your body. They are great.
They are also lousy to run races with.
In fact, a great deal of runners run races with "flats", if not spikes. Flats are still mesh and reflective, but instead of a heel cushion they have a thin piece of rubber under your foot. They can hurt your feet. They can damage your body. But they make you run faster, because they are light and don't absorb energy that you should be using to run with.
During cross country season in highschool, race days were pretty much the best day of the week. On a training day, you would spend 2 hours running as much as you can, constantly wondering why you were putting yourself through so much misery. You would try to eat healthily, since you wanted to be in shape for races. In fact, large lunches made practice super-ultra miserable, so you learned to only eat just enough to not be hungry.
But on a race day, you could eat more lunch because races were later in the day. We got to ride on a bus for an hour or three and relax, do nothing, and enjoy our afternoon. Then you would race for 20 minutes, whereby you put everything out of your mind and do what you trained to do. Then you eat as many cookies as you could possibly hold in your stomach, drink as much vitamin water as you had fit in your bag, and enjoy the ride home.
Race Day is a party.
Except race day is absolutely meaningless if you never put the effort into training.
On Race Day, how good your feet and knees feel is not a concern because running fast is the only concern.
But training is grueling, and precautions have to be taken to ensure that training doesn't interfere with racing.
On Race Day, you need to replenish the hundreds of Calories you burn during a race.
But during training, you need to eat a balanced diet.
Everything in life has a preparation stage and an action stage. You prepare for your career by training in school. If you don't work hard in school, you might not have what it takes to be the top of your field. You prepare for your marriage by maintaining good character and living with purpose, not by listening to Avril Lavigne lyrics. By all accounts, training days are more difficult than race days. But when it comes down to it, the race is the only thing that matters.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Torn
currently cleaning my room, which means going through the plastic tubs that hold my life as it was one year ago, preserved as if time was at a standstill.
I'm very sentimental. As i'm looking at a bulletin from Terra Nova church, I realize that I hardly remember anything about it, and that I may never in my life go there again.
Having transferred schools feels a lot like having an ex girlfriend who is now married. Its as if my life is divided up into pieces of a timeline that roughly fit together, but are in no way related to each other, and can never be re-visited. I am literally burying my past, inside a filing cabinet, just in case I ever need the warranty papers for my computer.
I'm very sentimental. As i'm looking at a bulletin from Terra Nova church, I realize that I hardly remember anything about it, and that I may never in my life go there again.
Having transferred schools feels a lot like having an ex girlfriend who is now married. Its as if my life is divided up into pieces of a timeline that roughly fit together, but are in no way related to each other, and can never be re-visited. I am literally burying my past, inside a filing cabinet, just in case I ever need the warranty papers for my computer.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Annual Report
My church released its annual report this week, and I've read through it.
First let me say: I love my church. With all of me.
According to the numbers, it looks like my church spent about 7% of its total budget on "missions" this past year.
Most of that was out of the separate, not-tithes "mission fund".
Which means that we spent 93% of the church's total resources on ourselves, and we relegate most of that missions money to the extra offering that people are asked to make.
In perspective, our church spent almost as much money on our mortgage payment as we spent on all "missions" for the year.
From my experience reading about the Church in America, this isn't a problem with my local church. It's a problem with The Church as a whole. If our money is where our mouth is, then we're saying that the 20-years-ago purchase of a wooden building is almost as important as spreading the Gospel.
I'm uncomfortable.
I want you to be uncomfortable, too.
First let me say: I love my church. With all of me.
According to the numbers, it looks like my church spent about 7% of its total budget on "missions" this past year.
Most of that was out of the separate, not-tithes "mission fund".
Which means that we spent 93% of the church's total resources on ourselves, and we relegate most of that missions money to the extra offering that people are asked to make.
In perspective, our church spent almost as much money on our mortgage payment as we spent on all "missions" for the year.
From my experience reading about the Church in America, this isn't a problem with my local church. It's a problem with The Church as a whole. If our money is where our mouth is, then we're saying that the 20-years-ago purchase of a wooden building is almost as important as spreading the Gospel.
I'm uncomfortable.
I want you to be uncomfortable, too.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New
2010 is gone.
In 2010, for the first time, I made a New Years Resolution.
It was to read the Bible cover to cover Four times, in Four different english translations.
I almost realized this goal. Over the past 365 days, I read the entire NLT, AMP, and MSG versions. And I'm exactly 2/3 of the way through the ESV study bible I started in October. It turns out that It's really hard to read a study bible cover to cover, especially in 3 months. And especially when you're busy. I made barely any progress in the past 2 weeks, due to having an irregular schedule and spending 57 hours at church last week, and about 20 hours at church this past tuesday and wednesday. Hopefully by the end of January I'll be done with 2010's goal.
And then I will move on to my goal for 2011:
Over the course of 2010, every time i read a bible verse that interrupted me, made me think, stopped my train of thought, i wrote it down. This year my plan is to re-read all those notes i took, and make sense of them on an individual basis. Maybe I will try to make sense of them on a collective basis too. But no promises. If i stay consistent, there will be more than enough material for 2 blog posts each week.
In 2010, for the first time, I made a New Years Resolution.
It was to read the Bible cover to cover Four times, in Four different english translations.
I almost realized this goal. Over the past 365 days, I read the entire NLT, AMP, and MSG versions. And I'm exactly 2/3 of the way through the ESV study bible I started in October. It turns out that It's really hard to read a study bible cover to cover, especially in 3 months. And especially when you're busy. I made barely any progress in the past 2 weeks, due to having an irregular schedule and spending 57 hours at church last week, and about 20 hours at church this past tuesday and wednesday. Hopefully by the end of January I'll be done with 2010's goal.
And then I will move on to my goal for 2011:
Over the course of 2010, every time i read a bible verse that interrupted me, made me think, stopped my train of thought, i wrote it down. This year my plan is to re-read all those notes i took, and make sense of them on an individual basis. Maybe I will try to make sense of them on a collective basis too. But no promises. If i stay consistent, there will be more than enough material for 2 blog posts each week.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
theology?
I sent this as a text message to myself in July. I just realized that i never actually posted it.
sometimes it feels like the church is losing influence. in the changing culture that we live in, people don't necessarily want to have anything to do with Jesus. What they want is answers. I think that very few people actually believe that this is it, that we live and die and then there's nothing else to it. So i think there has go to be something wrong with the way we're presenting the gospel. In Acts, they reported having thousands of people being converted at a time. We have the same basic message that they had back then. But even huge, enormous churches in America get excited about just a few hundred salvations in a weekend. What is it that we're lacking? The world we live in is trying desperately to pretend that it isn't lonely. I think thats a key. For more and more people, the world is doing a good job pulling the wool over their eyes. We have fancy toys these days that take our mind off of reality. We have more drugs that we can medicate ourselves with. We have relationships, friends, family, maybe a happy marriage here and there.
But the reality is that none of those things can ever change the fact that everything you and i have ever experienced in this life has been flawed. Everything we have ever seen and felt has been seen and felt removed from our Creator.
The world is lonely. Not the kind of lonely that you feel when you don't have a girlfriend or when you first go to college or your parents leave you home alone for the first time. The world is lonely in a deep, tangible way, lonely in a way that we sometimes don't notice because we have never not felt it. Because the world does not offer us God, our creator and dad, the only one we can have a perfect relationship with. The only one who can make us not lonely. People don't realize that. And maybe that's on us because we don't do a good enough job telling people. It might have been easier converting Jews to Christians 2000 years ago because Jews already had half the story. They were waiting for Jesus for hundreds of years, and the Early Church just had to convince them that Jesus was who he said he was.
We face a different challenge now, where people have no idea what to believe or where to start. Back then, their challenge was to complete a theology. Our challenge starts with defining what theology is. Not too many churches that i've been in do that.
sometimes it feels like the church is losing influence. in the changing culture that we live in, people don't necessarily want to have anything to do with Jesus. What they want is answers. I think that very few people actually believe that this is it, that we live and die and then there's nothing else to it. So i think there has go to be something wrong with the way we're presenting the gospel. In Acts, they reported having thousands of people being converted at a time. We have the same basic message that they had back then. But even huge, enormous churches in America get excited about just a few hundred salvations in a weekend. What is it that we're lacking? The world we live in is trying desperately to pretend that it isn't lonely. I think thats a key. For more and more people, the world is doing a good job pulling the wool over their eyes. We have fancy toys these days that take our mind off of reality. We have more drugs that we can medicate ourselves with. We have relationships, friends, family, maybe a happy marriage here and there.
But the reality is that none of those things can ever change the fact that everything you and i have ever experienced in this life has been flawed. Everything we have ever seen and felt has been seen and felt removed from our Creator.
The world is lonely. Not the kind of lonely that you feel when you don't have a girlfriend or when you first go to college or your parents leave you home alone for the first time. The world is lonely in a deep, tangible way, lonely in a way that we sometimes don't notice because we have never not felt it. Because the world does not offer us God, our creator and dad, the only one we can have a perfect relationship with. The only one who can make us not lonely. People don't realize that. And maybe that's on us because we don't do a good enough job telling people. It might have been easier converting Jews to Christians 2000 years ago because Jews already had half the story. They were waiting for Jesus for hundreds of years, and the Early Church just had to convince them that Jesus was who he said he was.
We face a different challenge now, where people have no idea what to believe or where to start. Back then, their challenge was to complete a theology. Our challenge starts with defining what theology is. Not too many churches that i've been in do that.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Roads
Went on a roadtrip a few weeks ago to New York city to experience Hillsong NYC's opening extravaganza.
It was awesome.
I drove on the way there. Didn't stop once.
Highways absolutely mess me up.
When you're on an interstate, all you see is the road that you're on. At 70mph, you're always looking almost a quarter mile ahead of you. With the exception of passing through (over) big cities, there's usually a wall or trees on either side of you.
Your world consists of your car, and the line that is the road that you are on.
Eventually, when you exit the highway, you look around and realize just how far away you are from where you started. Hundreds of miles. A journey of several days 150 years ago. Several weeks if you were on foot.
Technology has come to a point where "travel" is no longer a Grand Adventure like it might have been when our great grandparents were young.
It is now an inconvenience- we measure the distance away from places in "minutes". We groan when we find out our friend's birthday party is "an hour away" and think about the precious gas money slipping away from us.
Before cars were invented, that would have been a great excuse to take a Holiday, go on an adventure with friends, travel to see people you hardly ever see.
On the route between my home and Barrington NH, there's an overpass that goes over local Route 16. Tebbetts Road. Right before you hit that bridge, there's a street sign next to someone's driveway: "Old Tebbetts Road". If you slow down enough, you can see that the trees on the other side of that driveway are thinner brush than the woods of the surrounding area.
The view from Google Maps makes it even clearer: Tebbetts Road is not where it used to be.
Sometime when they turned "Route 16" into a highway, they had to move Tebbetts Road. It probably made local residents unhappy. Or at the very least, Frazzled.
In fact, whenever they decided to cut down a 150 mile stripe of woodland and pour asphalt over the ground, people must have been frazzled.
We love highways. Roads in general. Without them, we would be confined to our local towns, and Somersworth would have to bring back the Trolly line that it used to operate.
But then you think about the millions of people who have been displaced by them.
"Sorry sir, you are going to have to move your house so people can go on family vacations. You have no choice."
Sounds wonderful.
These are all the things that you don't notice when you're driving on a highway.
You don't notice all the people who live literally a hundred feet from where you're driving at breakneck speed, down that line of black tar, staring at the car in front of you. You don't notice the neighborhoods, the businesses, the people.
Let alone the nature.
Me and Karen Mawikere visited the Rochester Toll Plaza a few weeks ago.
Here's how it went: Drove into what could easily be any random business's parking lot. Walked into the woods for maybe a hundred feet. Stepped over a low fence. Looked up and BAM, there's a toll booth. Cars everywhere. Cars on their way home from work. Cars full of people not liking to pay tolls. Just driving, a part of their daily routine. With absolutely no idea that they were just moments away from a parking lot in Gonic, from what could only have once been a christmas tree farm, from a ministorage place, from everything else that you don't notice when you're on a highway.
Think about all the local things that there are in your town. Parks. Local stores. That Gorge in Troy. People "driving through" on the highway that is no more than ten minutes from your house go by in a matter of seconds, and miss everything completely.
We have turned towns into white words on 8-foot tall green signs. Maybe with an arrow. Maybe with a "miles to" number.
Just one more thing that I'm unhappy about.
It was awesome.
I drove on the way there. Didn't stop once.
Highways absolutely mess me up.
When you're on an interstate, all you see is the road that you're on. At 70mph, you're always looking almost a quarter mile ahead of you. With the exception of passing through (over) big cities, there's usually a wall or trees on either side of you.
Your world consists of your car, and the line that is the road that you are on.
Eventually, when you exit the highway, you look around and realize just how far away you are from where you started. Hundreds of miles. A journey of several days 150 years ago. Several weeks if you were on foot.
Technology has come to a point where "travel" is no longer a Grand Adventure like it might have been when our great grandparents were young.
It is now an inconvenience- we measure the distance away from places in "minutes". We groan when we find out our friend's birthday party is "an hour away" and think about the precious gas money slipping away from us.
Before cars were invented, that would have been a great excuse to take a Holiday, go on an adventure with friends, travel to see people you hardly ever see.
On the route between my home and Barrington NH, there's an overpass that goes over local Route 16. Tebbetts Road. Right before you hit that bridge, there's a street sign next to someone's driveway: "Old Tebbetts Road". If you slow down enough, you can see that the trees on the other side of that driveway are thinner brush than the woods of the surrounding area.
The view from Google Maps makes it even clearer: Tebbetts Road is not where it used to be.
Sometime when they turned "Route 16" into a highway, they had to move Tebbetts Road. It probably made local residents unhappy. Or at the very least, Frazzled.
In fact, whenever they decided to cut down a 150 mile stripe of woodland and pour asphalt over the ground, people must have been frazzled.
We love highways. Roads in general. Without them, we would be confined to our local towns, and Somersworth would have to bring back the Trolly line that it used to operate.
But then you think about the millions of people who have been displaced by them.
"Sorry sir, you are going to have to move your house so people can go on family vacations. You have no choice."
Sounds wonderful.
These are all the things that you don't notice when you're driving on a highway.
You don't notice all the people who live literally a hundred feet from where you're driving at breakneck speed, down that line of black tar, staring at the car in front of you. You don't notice the neighborhoods, the businesses, the people.
Let alone the nature.
Me and Karen Mawikere visited the Rochester Toll Plaza a few weeks ago.
Here's how it went: Drove into what could easily be any random business's parking lot. Walked into the woods for maybe a hundred feet. Stepped over a low fence. Looked up and BAM, there's a toll booth. Cars everywhere. Cars on their way home from work. Cars full of people not liking to pay tolls. Just driving, a part of their daily routine. With absolutely no idea that they were just moments away from a parking lot in Gonic, from what could only have once been a christmas tree farm, from a ministorage place, from everything else that you don't notice when you're on a highway.
Think about all the local things that there are in your town. Parks. Local stores. That Gorge in Troy. People "driving through" on the highway that is no more than ten minutes from your house go by in a matter of seconds, and miss everything completely.
We have turned towns into white words on 8-foot tall green signs. Maybe with an arrow. Maybe with a "miles to" number.
Just one more thing that I'm unhappy about.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Climate Change
There's a lot of hype these days around global warming. I heard the other day that the last major incandescent light bulb factory is shutting down. Apparently, our government has mandated that everyone switches to CFLs in their homes. I don't understand why this is, since CFLs have a much more detrimental effect on the environment than regular light bulbs, requiring more energy to manufacture and causing plenty of problems when not recycled.
Pay attention:
None of you care about global warming. None of you care about the environment as a whole. In fact, pretty much no one on earth cares. Not enough for it to matter.
Because if you did care, you wouldn't be reading this.
In fact, you wouldn't have a facebook account. You wouldn't own a computer. You would live in a log cabin, maybe on Walden Pond, and might spend your free time telling everyone you can about how absolutely horrific the internet is for the environment by simply existing.
"Green" is a marketing term that companies use to get you to buy their stuff. Apple, in all their talk about making environmentally friendly products, doesn't care about the environment. Maybe they recognize that its smart business to try to make a smaller impact on the natural environment, but if they actually cared about the earth, they would just stop manufacturing computers.
See what i'm getting at? No one actually cares about the earth.
Not enough to actually change how we do life around here.
One thing that is true is that there are plenty of fans of global warming.
You know, it seems like everyone in america wants to be "green". That's no surprise, seeing as how "green" products like CFLs are marketed as energy saving, which is identical to money-saving. No one has to "sell" the green movement, it literally buys itself.
But its also so phony. No amount of "reducing our carbon footprint" can ever save the planet. You can reduce and reduce but you will never eliminate it. And as long as a carbon footprint exists, we're destroying the earth.
And you don't care.
Jesus also has a lot of fans. The Bible is the number one top selling book of all time. But just like global warming, not a whole lot of people seem to actually try to work out in their own lives what Jesus was all about. Like, literally, being a Christian means trying to live like Jesus. I'd say that in general, most christians are pretty bad at that because in general, i don't see a whole lot of Christians even trying to heal sick people or even walk on water. Not as a part of their daily lives. Plenty of people, though, enjoy showing up to church, wear christian t-shirts, and listen to christian music. You know, things that fans do.
And its probably for the same reason most people buy CFL light bulbs yet still drive cars.
Its easy to be part of a movement. We're wired to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to participate in a mob. It's a different story to live completely radically.
Pay attention:
None of you care about global warming. None of you care about the environment as a whole. In fact, pretty much no one on earth cares. Not enough for it to matter.
Because if you did care, you wouldn't be reading this.
In fact, you wouldn't have a facebook account. You wouldn't own a computer. You would live in a log cabin, maybe on Walden Pond, and might spend your free time telling everyone you can about how absolutely horrific the internet is for the environment by simply existing.
"Green" is a marketing term that companies use to get you to buy their stuff. Apple, in all their talk about making environmentally friendly products, doesn't care about the environment. Maybe they recognize that its smart business to try to make a smaller impact on the natural environment, but if they actually cared about the earth, they would just stop manufacturing computers.
See what i'm getting at? No one actually cares about the earth.
Not enough to actually change how we do life around here.
One thing that is true is that there are plenty of fans of global warming.
You know, it seems like everyone in america wants to be "green". That's no surprise, seeing as how "green" products like CFLs are marketed as energy saving, which is identical to money-saving. No one has to "sell" the green movement, it literally buys itself.
But its also so phony. No amount of "reducing our carbon footprint" can ever save the planet. You can reduce and reduce but you will never eliminate it. And as long as a carbon footprint exists, we're destroying the earth.
And you don't care.
Jesus also has a lot of fans. The Bible is the number one top selling book of all time. But just like global warming, not a whole lot of people seem to actually try to work out in their own lives what Jesus was all about. Like, literally, being a Christian means trying to live like Jesus. I'd say that in general, most christians are pretty bad at that because in general, i don't see a whole lot of Christians even trying to heal sick people or even walk on water. Not as a part of their daily lives. Plenty of people, though, enjoy showing up to church, wear christian t-shirts, and listen to christian music. You know, things that fans do.
And its probably for the same reason most people buy CFL light bulbs yet still drive cars.
Its easy to be part of a movement. We're wired to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to participate in a mob. It's a different story to live completely radically.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
true inspiration
Inception was one of those movies that kept me smiling almost the entire time.
Not because it was particularly well made. I have a few peeves with the plot, relating mostly to how none of it actually made sense to me and how they couldn't bother to do math for us (if 5 minutes is an hour then 10 hours gets you 5 days > 2 months > a little less than 2 years).
But i was smiling more because of how relateable it is.
Now i really have no idea if the rest of you ever feel this way but i have a disturbingly loose grip on reality.
I, every day in my life, feel like I'm lost.
Not lost in a dream. Not lost on a road, but lost in general.
Not lost in a particularly bad sense. Just like I have no idea where I am.
Usually when i have "work" to do to keep me busy, this is not an issue.
But by golly, an almost 3 hour movie is a great place to think.
Here's one way that I often feel lost: My memory, for the most part, only works when other people are talking about things that happened to me.
It doesn't take much for me to stand back and wonder how I got "here".
I can look around and recognize where I am, and I can know where I've been, but sometimes none of it has any meaning.
This has happened to me on almost every math test I've ever taken:
I look at the page, see some numbers and some funny symbols, and have no idea what to do with it. Like, I probably know how to solve a first order linear differential equation. But it takes quite a bit of effort for me to make sense of what the heck that writing on the paper means. Lost. Very lost.
Another subject that the movie vamped on a bit was Inspiration.
Like, what does it actually take to create an original idea?
They mentioned always knowing when someone else thought of something.
They also covered that feeling you get when you're not actually creating, but "discovering". You know, that musician-architect-designer feeling where the piece reveals itself. It is so incredibly sketchy to me, but i absolutely know the feeling.
That, to me, hits at the very core of what it means to be alive.
A biologist will tell us that in a way, we're not all that different from a tree. We're related- we're both "alive", and made up of the same general materials.
But a tree can't create.
Is creation even possible?
If we don't have souls, then we're just biological engines, reacting to our surroundings, responding to inputs. How can a universe-wide chemical reaction make anything new? Let alone ideas?
I wrestle with the concept that the moment you just spent reading what i am right now writing is GONE. FOREVER.
Yes, you have a memory of it. If you didn't, you wouldn't be able to look at words on a screen and connect them to the language that gives them meaning. But the actual moment, the infinitely small piece of reality, is gone forever.
And that's why I struggle with the knowledge that every day, literally millions of hours of reality in America get used up watching tv. yelling at children. yelling at parents. Checking facebook. Picking at zits.
LIKE HELLO, THOSE MOMENTS ARE GONE FOREVER, WE COULD HAVE USED THEM BETTER.
Growing up, i've always had this unshakable notion that i could be anything that i want to be. This is difficult for me because i really do want to be and do everything. I want to be rich, I want to develop world-changing innovations, I want to drive a UPS truck, I want to be the CEO of general motors, I want to be an engineer, I want to be a toshiba authorized service person, I want to work on an oil platform, I want to be in the navy, I want to be a researcher, I want to be an IT guy, I want to get a degree from Yale, I want to work at a church. the list really does go on and on.
And I don't want to have to choose.
And so I'm lost. I don't understand how people get stuck with careers that bring them no joy. I don't even understand how people can pick careers.
This is not a dream that we can realize and wake up from. It is very, very real.
I forgot, i was originally going to write about inspiration.
I think I need a kick.
Not because it was particularly well made. I have a few peeves with the plot, relating mostly to how none of it actually made sense to me and how they couldn't bother to do math for us (if 5 minutes is an hour then 10 hours gets you 5 days > 2 months > a little less than 2 years).
But i was smiling more because of how relateable it is.
Now i really have no idea if the rest of you ever feel this way but i have a disturbingly loose grip on reality.
I, every day in my life, feel like I'm lost.
Not lost in a dream. Not lost on a road, but lost in general.
Not lost in a particularly bad sense. Just like I have no idea where I am.
Usually when i have "work" to do to keep me busy, this is not an issue.
But by golly, an almost 3 hour movie is a great place to think.
Here's one way that I often feel lost: My memory, for the most part, only works when other people are talking about things that happened to me.
It doesn't take much for me to stand back and wonder how I got "here".
I can look around and recognize where I am, and I can know where I've been, but sometimes none of it has any meaning.
This has happened to me on almost every math test I've ever taken:
I look at the page, see some numbers and some funny symbols, and have no idea what to do with it. Like, I probably know how to solve a first order linear differential equation. But it takes quite a bit of effort for me to make sense of what the heck that writing on the paper means. Lost. Very lost.
Another subject that the movie vamped on a bit was Inspiration.
Like, what does it actually take to create an original idea?
They mentioned always knowing when someone else thought of something.
They also covered that feeling you get when you're not actually creating, but "discovering". You know, that musician-architect-designer feeling where the piece reveals itself. It is so incredibly sketchy to me, but i absolutely know the feeling.
That, to me, hits at the very core of what it means to be alive.
A biologist will tell us that in a way, we're not all that different from a tree. We're related- we're both "alive", and made up of the same general materials.
But a tree can't create.
Is creation even possible?
If we don't have souls, then we're just biological engines, reacting to our surroundings, responding to inputs. How can a universe-wide chemical reaction make anything new? Let alone ideas?
I wrestle with the concept that the moment you just spent reading what i am right now writing is GONE. FOREVER.
Yes, you have a memory of it. If you didn't, you wouldn't be able to look at words on a screen and connect them to the language that gives them meaning. But the actual moment, the infinitely small piece of reality, is gone forever.
And that's why I struggle with the knowledge that every day, literally millions of hours of reality in America get used up watching tv. yelling at children. yelling at parents. Checking facebook. Picking at zits.
LIKE HELLO, THOSE MOMENTS ARE GONE FOREVER, WE COULD HAVE USED THEM BETTER.
Growing up, i've always had this unshakable notion that i could be anything that i want to be. This is difficult for me because i really do want to be and do everything. I want to be rich, I want to develop world-changing innovations, I want to drive a UPS truck, I want to be the CEO of general motors, I want to be an engineer, I want to be a toshiba authorized service person, I want to work on an oil platform, I want to be in the navy, I want to be a researcher, I want to be an IT guy, I want to get a degree from Yale, I want to work at a church. the list really does go on and on.
And I don't want to have to choose.
And so I'm lost. I don't understand how people get stuck with careers that bring them no joy. I don't even understand how people can pick careers.
This is not a dream that we can realize and wake up from. It is very, very real.
I forgot, i was originally going to write about inspiration.
I think I need a kick.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
On Camp
Yesterday I got back from this summer's NNED camp. Our church brought a handful of teenagers and me and josh were on rec staff, which means that josh got to tell people how to play games and gave teams points while I spent every day with a video camera and every night editing footage. I've never not been a camper at a camp before. The perspective is pretty good.
My favorite part of the whole trip was watching the pieces come together. Here you have 30 or so individual staff members, all from different churches, half of which were college kids from Valley Forge on the band, and a guest speaker who you've never met before, and in the time between dinner on sunday night to lunch time monday afternoon, you have to all get on the same page and make a weeklong summer camp that actually works.
And it actually works.
Because even though you've never met half of those people before, let alone collaborated with them on anything, you are all already on the same page. Everyone was there for the same purpose, to see lives transformed.
Its encouraging to me that individuals from different backgrounds can have enough in common to get that done.
My favorite part of the whole trip was watching the pieces come together. Here you have 30 or so individual staff members, all from different churches, half of which were college kids from Valley Forge on the band, and a guest speaker who you've never met before, and in the time between dinner on sunday night to lunch time monday afternoon, you have to all get on the same page and make a weeklong summer camp that actually works.
And it actually works.
Because even though you've never met half of those people before, let alone collaborated with them on anything, you are all already on the same page. Everyone was there for the same purpose, to see lives transformed.
Its encouraging to me that individuals from different backgrounds can have enough in common to get that done.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Half
Summer is half over.
This year of 2010 is half over.
I've read the entire Bible through twice so far. I've started a third time with the Message Remix 2.0. I love it. Its easy to read and challenges everything you've ever thought about the Book.
All of it flew by.
So far this summer has been nonexistant.
I started working 50 hours a week over two jobs. I'm making enough to pay off a little more than half my student loan from this past year. All of my personal belongings are still in plastic bins scattered around the house. I've been keeping my clean clothes in a laundry basket in the middle of my room. The last time I picked up my bass was 2 weeks ago. Most days i open my laptop for about half an hour to keep current on facebook before going to bed. I don't know where i'm living yet this school year. I hate paying five dollars a day for gas to go to work. I hate paying maine taxes and social security that will not exist by the time i can retire. Often i fall asleep in my chair at 10pm and wake up at 3. My alarm is set for 430am. I leave for work at 530 when i'm not late. This past week i started running a mile and a half in the morning. I think it makes me less tired during the day. 4 days of the week I don't get home until after 9, which is already past when bedtime should be.
I'm not looking forward to school. I have never in my life looked forward to school. Starting over trying to connect with people i've never met before is a real challenge for me. Especially considering the hit-or-miss personality i seem to have. But somehow I managed to only sign up for 15 credits, and I only have one class on tuesdays, in the late afternoon. For once i never have anything earlier than 10am.
I have not read anything other than the bible since winter break. I have a growing stack of books that i need to go through, some that i was excited to read 8 months ago. I have a growing list of books that i want to read but can't justify buying without first getting through some of the ones that i already have.
Got the new hillsong cd last week. They always all sound the same until you've listened to it over and over and over again.
I still really want prescription sunglasses. But I haven't found a pair of anything that looks good on me. I also have been unable to find any place that sells columbia eyewear, and I could really use a new pair of actually good regular glasses.
I've also always wanted a pair of kangaROOs shoes. That company stopped making shoes in April. I'm torn. Combined with the puma outlet store being closed for who knows how long, and i just now bought my first pair of new shoes since this time last year. Asics. blue. On sale. Just like every year for the past 4.
Last week i wrote a 21-text long text to myself so i could remember a thought that i wanted to blog about. I just re-read it and its depressing, so i probably won't post it. I wonder if its actually possible to measure progress.
This year of 2010 is half over.
I've read the entire Bible through twice so far. I've started a third time with the Message Remix 2.0. I love it. Its easy to read and challenges everything you've ever thought about the Book.
All of it flew by.
So far this summer has been nonexistant.
I started working 50 hours a week over two jobs. I'm making enough to pay off a little more than half my student loan from this past year. All of my personal belongings are still in plastic bins scattered around the house. I've been keeping my clean clothes in a laundry basket in the middle of my room. The last time I picked up my bass was 2 weeks ago. Most days i open my laptop for about half an hour to keep current on facebook before going to bed. I don't know where i'm living yet this school year. I hate paying five dollars a day for gas to go to work. I hate paying maine taxes and social security that will not exist by the time i can retire. Often i fall asleep in my chair at 10pm and wake up at 3. My alarm is set for 430am. I leave for work at 530 when i'm not late. This past week i started running a mile and a half in the morning. I think it makes me less tired during the day. 4 days of the week I don't get home until after 9, which is already past when bedtime should be.
I'm not looking forward to school. I have never in my life looked forward to school. Starting over trying to connect with people i've never met before is a real challenge for me. Especially considering the hit-or-miss personality i seem to have. But somehow I managed to only sign up for 15 credits, and I only have one class on tuesdays, in the late afternoon. For once i never have anything earlier than 10am.
I have not read anything other than the bible since winter break. I have a growing stack of books that i need to go through, some that i was excited to read 8 months ago. I have a growing list of books that i want to read but can't justify buying without first getting through some of the ones that i already have.
Got the new hillsong cd last week. They always all sound the same until you've listened to it over and over and over again.
I still really want prescription sunglasses. But I haven't found a pair of anything that looks good on me. I also have been unable to find any place that sells columbia eyewear, and I could really use a new pair of actually good regular glasses.
I've also always wanted a pair of kangaROOs shoes. That company stopped making shoes in April. I'm torn. Combined with the puma outlet store being closed for who knows how long, and i just now bought my first pair of new shoes since this time last year. Asics. blue. On sale. Just like every year for the past 4.
Last week i wrote a 21-text long text to myself so i could remember a thought that i wanted to blog about. I just re-read it and its depressing, so i probably won't post it. I wonder if its actually possible to measure progress.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
On Adventure
For the first time since 8th grade I've been watching tv regularly- one show, mondays at 8pm. Adventure Time. Amazing. The most creativity in television in a long time. And hilarious. And animated. The main character will go out of his way to make sure he seizes upon every single opportunity he has for an "adventure". It usually involves "bad guys" and new invented words for 'awesome'.
As the semester wraps up, i've been presented with several opportunities for adventure. There's three in particular that have been "big decisions" for me.
One is whether or not to sacrifice the first week of summer vacation, when i could be relaxing and preparing for sl8, for the intervarsity retreat going on up at saranac lake.
Increasing the bracket is the summer internship i got offered for which would be a full time job all summer long. Again, i've been struggling with the notion of all my time this summer disappearing. Not really a fan.
Lastly would be where I'm going to college for the rest of my degree.
And the conclusion I think i've come to on all three fronts is for adventure.
I keep thinking back to the only book i finished reading in 2009. Go read it. Its worth it. Fact is, i really really like being comfortable. It takes work for me to go do something different and unknown.
So i'm going to the IV trip, even though i didn't really want to. I'm taking the summer internship even though i still don't really want to. And i'm thinking about transferring to unh.
The way i'm feeling about it is that RPI was last year's adventure. I didn't really want to go to RPI. I was set to go to unh and stay home. But most of the reason i decided to come here was that I could, and it would be a waste to not walk through a door that swings open on its own. I've been here for 2 semesters. I've gotten comfortable. I'm not sure how i feel about that. RPI is a system that's easy to learn. School is easy, you just have to figure out the motions. But i feel like i've accomplished nothing here. I have nothing to show for my 2 semesters in nerdopolis. And i don't know if that's pushing me to leave quicker or calling me to stay. Either way, life is an adventure and its a complete shame to not make the absolute most of it and chase what God is throwing at us.
As the semester wraps up, i've been presented with several opportunities for adventure. There's three in particular that have been "big decisions" for me.
One is whether or not to sacrifice the first week of summer vacation, when i could be relaxing and preparing for sl8, for the intervarsity retreat going on up at saranac lake.
Increasing the bracket is the summer internship i got offered for which would be a full time job all summer long. Again, i've been struggling with the notion of all my time this summer disappearing. Not really a fan.
Lastly would be where I'm going to college for the rest of my degree.
And the conclusion I think i've come to on all three fronts is for adventure.
I keep thinking back to the only book i finished reading in 2009. Go read it. Its worth it. Fact is, i really really like being comfortable. It takes work for me to go do something different and unknown.
So i'm going to the IV trip, even though i didn't really want to. I'm taking the summer internship even though i still don't really want to. And i'm thinking about transferring to unh.
The way i'm feeling about it is that RPI was last year's adventure. I didn't really want to go to RPI. I was set to go to unh and stay home. But most of the reason i decided to come here was that I could, and it would be a waste to not walk through a door that swings open on its own. I've been here for 2 semesters. I've gotten comfortable. I'm not sure how i feel about that. RPI is a system that's easy to learn. School is easy, you just have to figure out the motions. But i feel like i've accomplished nothing here. I have nothing to show for my 2 semesters in nerdopolis. And i don't know if that's pushing me to leave quicker or calling me to stay. Either way, life is an adventure and its a complete shame to not make the absolute most of it and chase what God is throwing at us.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
On Wonder
Yesterday in between classes i stopped for a few minutes to watch a dump truck empty out some dumpsters.
I was watching from a second floor balcony and got to watch the truck crush the trash inside. Very cool. As an engineering student and as someone who has always been fascinated with big machines, i got a kick outta it.
There's a lot of money, work, and planning that goes into designing and building something that we think of as trivial. Everyone's seen a garbage truck. But they really are impressive bits of engineering. Teams and teams of people worked on that truck, from the fluids guys that designed the hydrolics to the automotive engineers that got drivable.
I can appreciate that. Money, work, effort, and it pays off in real ways.
As I was leaving and walking going to my next class, a squirrel scurried by, looking for food. Squirrels are also everywhere, just like garbage trucks. We've all seen them. Students at RPI are quite familiar with their personalities and the way they act. I don't know anyone around here who hasn't stopped to watch a squirrel at some point.
They are also quite fascinating.
They're small. They're also much, much more complicated than a garbage truck.
I feel like, yeah engineering is vitally important to humanity and all that jazz. But when i look at the results of the very best that humanity has done, it is simply not comparable to what God has already put before us. I also read an excellent line from Perry Noble yesterday: "Disney created a mouse…GOD created the Grand Canyon…HE HAS THE TRUMP CARD!"
That totally sums up everything i was thinking then and there.
Unrelated: Last night i listened through what might be my favorite album of all time. I don't know why, but after all the worship music i've listened to, that one still feels very close to me. It could be because its the first hillsong album i owned. Or because of the memories of learning the songs on it after youth convention that year. Or because its one of the few albums that i've sat down with my bass, and played along from start to finish. Or maybe its just very good worship music to begin with. Its good stuff. Left me feeling nostalgic and warm-fuzzy for the future at the same time.
Also, in wonder of the ridiculous thing we live in called life. What an insane, unimaginable concept.
I was watching from a second floor balcony and got to watch the truck crush the trash inside. Very cool. As an engineering student and as someone who has always been fascinated with big machines, i got a kick outta it.
There's a lot of money, work, and planning that goes into designing and building something that we think of as trivial. Everyone's seen a garbage truck. But they really are impressive bits of engineering. Teams and teams of people worked on that truck, from the fluids guys that designed the hydrolics to the automotive engineers that got drivable.
I can appreciate that. Money, work, effort, and it pays off in real ways.
As I was leaving and walking going to my next class, a squirrel scurried by, looking for food. Squirrels are also everywhere, just like garbage trucks. We've all seen them. Students at RPI are quite familiar with their personalities and the way they act. I don't know anyone around here who hasn't stopped to watch a squirrel at some point.
They are also quite fascinating.
They're small. They're also much, much more complicated than a garbage truck.
I feel like, yeah engineering is vitally important to humanity and all that jazz. But when i look at the results of the very best that humanity has done, it is simply not comparable to what God has already put before us. I also read an excellent line from Perry Noble yesterday: "Disney created a mouse…GOD created the Grand Canyon…HE HAS THE TRUMP CARD!"
That totally sums up everything i was thinking then and there.
Unrelated: Last night i listened through what might be my favorite album of all time. I don't know why, but after all the worship music i've listened to, that one still feels very close to me. It could be because its the first hillsong album i owned. Or because of the memories of learning the songs on it after youth convention that year. Or because its one of the few albums that i've sat down with my bass, and played along from start to finish. Or maybe its just very good worship music to begin with. Its good stuff. Left me feeling nostalgic and warm-fuzzy for the future at the same time.
Also, in wonder of the ridiculous thing we live in called life. What an insane, unimaginable concept.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Action-y
Last wednesday was a pretty different day. It marked the end of a work-intensive few days, and i found myself suddenly without anything important to do. So as I was eating lunch in Commons I ate with some other RCA kids and we got to talking. A certain person kept asking probing questions about me. Not really useful questions. But then again, maybe there are no useful questions. I feel like every question I answered was more frustrating because sometimes, you can't learn much about a person by asking them very specific questions.
Oddly enough, I ate dinner later that day in a different dining hall with a different few RCA friends. Completely different story. We started talking about Bible translations. We cracked out a laptop and started reading the awesomeness of the Message:Remix. I then ended up forcing them to watch videos from church services. I was really excited. I love showing people how much more awesome church can be than what they are used to.
I think the two people I was with for dinner gleaned a lot more about me during the shorter time I had with them than the group I ate lunch with. They saw what I was interested in, what I spend my time doing, where my heart is. And they didn't ask me any questions.
Analytical people bother me. RPI is full of analytical people for some reason. It stresses me out. Why can't we just appreciate what we're a part of without tearing it apart, analyzing it, and graduating with an engineering degree? Ick.
Oddly enough, I ate dinner later that day in a different dining hall with a different few RCA friends. Completely different story. We started talking about Bible translations. We cracked out a laptop and started reading the awesomeness of the Message:Remix. I then ended up forcing them to watch videos from church services. I was really excited. I love showing people how much more awesome church can be than what they are used to.
I think the two people I was with for dinner gleaned a lot more about me during the shorter time I had with them than the group I ate lunch with. They saw what I was interested in, what I spend my time doing, where my heart is. And they didn't ask me any questions.
Analytical people bother me. RPI is full of analytical people for some reason. It stresses me out. Why can't we just appreciate what we're a part of without tearing it apart, analyzing it, and graduating with an engineering degree? Ick.
Friday, April 16, 2010
t-shirt lesson
sometime around winter break, i went around telling people that I was going to start wearing solid color american apparel t-shirts. The main reason for this was that i have a profuse sweating problem to the point where all my t-shirts get really disgusting pitstains after a little while. I love t-shirts. If i wasn't poor, i would collect them. There's something that i really really like about wearing art. Except that i end up buying shirts and then ruining them. So i figure, why not just wear $5.50 shirts and not be sad when they start looking nasty.
So here's what i did.
I started telling everyone i know that i was gonna wear solid color shirts.
Then i bought some.
I got 6.
I only really wear 4 of them, since i'm not bold enough to wear bright pink or purple around people i might want to make a good first impression on.
I have enough shirts where i only wash them every 2 weeks. In any given 2 weeks, 4/14 days i wear a solid color shirt without anything printed on it.
That's less than a third of the time.
But strangely enough, people mention it to me, often enough for it to be memorable.
things like, "i can't picture you not wearing a solid color shirt"
or on the 10/14 days, "woah! you're not wearing a solid color shirt!"
I seem to have created a bit of a reputation for non-printed t-shirts.
I don't wear them most of the time. I only have 6 to begin with. But the reputation is there.
I think there's something to be learned from this.
That it doesn't take nearly as much work as some people think it does to build a reputation for yourself. All it takes is communication and some action. But mostly communication. The important part is any action at all. It doesn't need to be grandiose or extravagant or all-consuming. It just needs to be enough to show that you follow through with what you tell people you are going to do.
I could be wrong on this, but it seems to be what happened with my t-shirts.
So here's what i did.
I started telling everyone i know that i was gonna wear solid color shirts.
Then i bought some.
I got 6.
I only really wear 4 of them, since i'm not bold enough to wear bright pink or purple around people i might want to make a good first impression on.
I have enough shirts where i only wash them every 2 weeks. In any given 2 weeks, 4/14 days i wear a solid color shirt without anything printed on it.
That's less than a third of the time.
But strangely enough, people mention it to me, often enough for it to be memorable.
things like, "i can't picture you not wearing a solid color shirt"
or on the 10/14 days, "woah! you're not wearing a solid color shirt!"
I seem to have created a bit of a reputation for non-printed t-shirts.
I don't wear them most of the time. I only have 6 to begin with. But the reputation is there.
I think there's something to be learned from this.
That it doesn't take nearly as much work as some people think it does to build a reputation for yourself. All it takes is communication and some action. But mostly communication. The important part is any action at all. It doesn't need to be grandiose or extravagant or all-consuming. It just needs to be enough to show that you follow through with what you tell people you are going to do.
I could be wrong on this, but it seems to be what happened with my t-shirts.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
On Excellence
Excellence is always lacking.
Not in the sense that it is unachievable, since excellence in a mostly relative term.
But no one will ever tell you, "nah don't worry about it, we have enough excellence."
Joseph gave us a great example of excellence in action in Genesis 41.
The Pharaoh of Egypt, of whom Joseph has been a prisoner for more than 2 years, has a dream. It freaks him out so he calls all of his officials together to see if any of them can tell him what it means. No one can, but his cup bearer remembers that there's this guy named Joseph in the dungeon.
"I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I have heard that when you hear about a dream you can interpret it." (Pharaoh)
Joseph replies in 41:16, "It is beyond my power to do this, but God can tell you what it means and set you at ease."
So they go over the dream and Joseph interprets it.
"This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased." [41:28-31]
Cool. Surplus. Famine. Thanks Joseph. Thanks Joseph's God.
but what comes next is cooler.
"Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh's storehouses. Store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise this famine will destroy the land." [41:33-36]
pharaoh didn't ask for advice.
he had all sorts of royal advice-givers and planners and such who were in charge of telling pharaoh what's what. All Joseph needed to do was mention seven years of surplus and seven years of famine. Then he was free to go back to his dungeon and be sad.
Instead, he followed up on his interpretation. He thought up a good idea on how to deal with the situation, and it was good enough (or God enough) to get him hired up as the chief adviser in charge of everything except for sitting on the throne.
I believe that we are called to exceed expectations and break barriers of "good enough".
Not in the sense that it is unachievable, since excellence in a mostly relative term.
But no one will ever tell you, "nah don't worry about it, we have enough excellence."
Joseph gave us a great example of excellence in action in Genesis 41.
The Pharaoh of Egypt, of whom Joseph has been a prisoner for more than 2 years, has a dream. It freaks him out so he calls all of his officials together to see if any of them can tell him what it means. No one can, but his cup bearer remembers that there's this guy named Joseph in the dungeon.
"I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I have heard that when you hear about a dream you can interpret it." (Pharaoh)
Joseph replies in 41:16, "It is beyond my power to do this, but God can tell you what it means and set you at ease."
So they go over the dream and Joseph interprets it.
"This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased." [41:28-31]
Cool. Surplus. Famine. Thanks Joseph. Thanks Joseph's God.
but what comes next is cooler.
"Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh's storehouses. Store it away, and guard it so there will be food in the cities. That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise this famine will destroy the land." [41:33-36]
pharaoh didn't ask for advice.
he had all sorts of royal advice-givers and planners and such who were in charge of telling pharaoh what's what. All Joseph needed to do was mention seven years of surplus and seven years of famine. Then he was free to go back to his dungeon and be sad.
Instead, he followed up on his interpretation. He thought up a good idea on how to deal with the situation, and it was good enough (or God enough) to get him hired up as the chief adviser in charge of everything except for sitting on the throne.
I believe that we are called to exceed expectations and break barriers of "good enough".
Friday, April 2, 2010
Another Pet Peeve
Going on right now is Air1's spring pledge drive.
That means they play much less music and do much more harassing to convince people to give them money.
I would be alright with supporting them if they were a radio station.
But what bothers me is how they're talking about how they have 5 pastors "on staff" and "on call". Phone pastors. Not a fan.
I put my radio at air1 so i can listen to music.
Not so i have the option of calling a pastor i've never met so i can tell him my problems.
Counseling, support, growth, that's all what the Local Church is for. Not radio stations.
I don't want to listen to a parachurch ministry. I'm glad you think you're making a difference, but i'm not into that. Play music. Do nothing else. Be good at what you claim to do and don't stretch yourself into what you shouldn't be doing.
Kinda like churches with "libraries" and thrift shops.
There's no need for that. Get your books at a bookstore. Steal your clothes at walmart.
That is all.
That means they play much less music and do much more harassing to convince people to give them money.
I would be alright with supporting them if they were a radio station.
But what bothers me is how they're talking about how they have 5 pastors "on staff" and "on call". Phone pastors. Not a fan.
I put my radio at air1 so i can listen to music.
Not so i have the option of calling a pastor i've never met so i can tell him my problems.
Counseling, support, growth, that's all what the Local Church is for. Not radio stations.
I don't want to listen to a parachurch ministry. I'm glad you think you're making a difference, but i'm not into that. Play music. Do nothing else. Be good at what you claim to do and don't stretch yourself into what you shouldn't be doing.
Kinda like churches with "libraries" and thrift shops.
There's no need for that. Get your books at a bookstore. Steal your clothes at walmart.
That is all.
A Complaint
Last night i finished reading through the entire Bible in 90 days.
Today i'm starting reading through the entire Bible in 90 days.
On January 1st I decided to read from the New Living Translation, since i've had a NLT bible for a few years and have never really read from it.
Now i have.
I don't mind it as much as i used to.
Today I'm starting through with the Amplified bible.
The amplified is a little scarier. The language isn't as nice.
At some point this week, i also have to get around to looking at the notes i took in the past 3 months.
One thing that bothers me is how difficult it is to find a 90-day Bible reading plan.
The internet is full of "one-year bible" plans, but i'm struggling to find even the original list that I used last time.
This is ridiculous.
Christianity is supposed to be based entirely on the bible.
With the sheer amount of marketing done in the "Christian" industry with music and books and other consumer nonsense, you'd think someone would encourage people to actually get to know what they say they're living for. Come on. A year?
In a year's time, I've gone from an overstressed highschool student wanting to get out of "here" into an overstressed college student wanting desperately to get out of "here".
Seriously though, a lot has changed in a year's time.
...if my life can change dramatically in less time than it takes to understand what my life is all about, i'm not in a good place.
So that's my complaint.
That christians don't read the bible enough, and aren't demanding that people help them read and understand it completely.
Frustrating.
Today i'm starting reading through the entire Bible in 90 days.
On January 1st I decided to read from the New Living Translation, since i've had a NLT bible for a few years and have never really read from it.
Now i have.
I don't mind it as much as i used to.
Today I'm starting through with the Amplified bible.
The amplified is a little scarier. The language isn't as nice.
At some point this week, i also have to get around to looking at the notes i took in the past 3 months.
One thing that bothers me is how difficult it is to find a 90-day Bible reading plan.
The internet is full of "one-year bible" plans, but i'm struggling to find even the original list that I used last time.
This is ridiculous.
Christianity is supposed to be based entirely on the bible.
With the sheer amount of marketing done in the "Christian" industry with music and books and other consumer nonsense, you'd think someone would encourage people to actually get to know what they say they're living for. Come on. A year?
In a year's time, I've gone from an overstressed highschool student wanting to get out of "here" into an overstressed college student wanting desperately to get out of "here".
Seriously though, a lot has changed in a year's time.
...if my life can change dramatically in less time than it takes to understand what my life is all about, i'm not in a good place.
So that's my complaint.
That christians don't read the bible enough, and aren't demanding that people help them read and understand it completely.
Frustrating.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
On Apple
Go to Apple's website. As of this writing, you'll be greeted by a full-page spread of the iPad, along with a line describing it as "Magical and Revolutionary".
This has been bothering me for a while.
A little while ago, Apple released the "Magic Mouse", which replaced the already single-button apple mouse (or the however many button 'mighty mouse') with a touch-sensitive surface.
I watched the speech where Steve Jobs revealed the iPad, months ago.
He stood up there and called it "Magical".
Like, not even joking. It was as if he was calling it, "awesome".
Except he called it Magical.
Magic doesn't exist.
But what does exist, is a famous quote from Sir Arthur C. Clark, the writer of 2001, A Space Odyssey: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
And everyone knows that science fiction writers are always right.
But the quote is pretty accurate. Think back to things like electricity, magnetism, the first computers... as far as anyone in the general public was concerned, it might as well have been magic.
But for a company, especially one as in-the-limelight as Apple Computer, to actually assert that their product is Magical is entirely nutty.
Maybe they're trying to be cute.
I'm sure Apple doesn't actually believe their product to be magical.
They probably know that their latest offering will work magic with their stock prices, but there's nothing unexplainable about it.
Here's what I don't like.
Even with the recession and people remember how to be thrifty, we're still a completely consumer-entrenched culture. Companies aren't even trying to sell us their stuff anymore- they don't have to, we buy it anyway. Advertising dollars are literally spent for the sake of selling brands and corporate identities rather than the products that merely carry those identities into peoples' homes.
And you know, i'm sure Apple payed out a pretty penny for that slogan. Have our minds become so numb that a company has to yell "LOOK AT OUR MAGICAL PRODUCT" in order for us to be interested?
Its insanity. I don't like being treated like a consumer.
RPI tried to convince the class of 2013 that we were gonna "Change the world".
Whatever that means.
I'd rather go around yelling at people, "LOOK AT MY MIRACULOUS JESUS" than buy an iPad that claims to have magic.
This has been bothering me for a while.
A little while ago, Apple released the "Magic Mouse", which replaced the already single-button apple mouse (or the however many button 'mighty mouse') with a touch-sensitive surface.
I watched the speech where Steve Jobs revealed the iPad, months ago.
He stood up there and called it "Magical".
Like, not even joking. It was as if he was calling it, "awesome".
Except he called it Magical.
Magic doesn't exist.
But what does exist, is a famous quote from Sir Arthur C. Clark, the writer of 2001, A Space Odyssey: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
And everyone knows that science fiction writers are always right.
But the quote is pretty accurate. Think back to things like electricity, magnetism, the first computers... as far as anyone in the general public was concerned, it might as well have been magic.
But for a company, especially one as in-the-limelight as Apple Computer, to actually assert that their product is Magical is entirely nutty.
Maybe they're trying to be cute.
I'm sure Apple doesn't actually believe their product to be magical.
They probably know that their latest offering will work magic with their stock prices, but there's nothing unexplainable about it.
Here's what I don't like.
Even with the recession and people remember how to be thrifty, we're still a completely consumer-entrenched culture. Companies aren't even trying to sell us their stuff anymore- they don't have to, we buy it anyway. Advertising dollars are literally spent for the sake of selling brands and corporate identities rather than the products that merely carry those identities into peoples' homes.
And you know, i'm sure Apple payed out a pretty penny for that slogan. Have our minds become so numb that a company has to yell "LOOK AT OUR MAGICAL PRODUCT" in order for us to be interested?
Its insanity. I don't like being treated like a consumer.
RPI tried to convince the class of 2013 that we were gonna "Change the world".
Whatever that means.
I'd rather go around yelling at people, "LOOK AT MY MIRACULOUS JESUS" than buy an iPad that claims to have magic.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
On 1000 Years
There's a bible verse that causes a fair amount of disunity between different schools of thought- in 2 Peter 3:8 Peter says, "...A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day."
There are people who use that concept to justify "old-earth" vs. "new-earth", saying that the 6 "days" in Genesis could have been millennia.
But that isn't really important at all.
What I think a lot of people miss is the other half of that statement- that a day is like a thousand years.
I don't know about you, but a thousand years is a long time. Think about everything that's happened in the world since the year 1010. Its essentially all of modern history. There are people who spend their lives devoted to studying a single decade; there's a whole lot of stuff that goes on in a thousand years, and I think you and me probably have no grasp on the size of that scale.
Now think about what you did yesterday. You could probably make a list of events that happened. Pretty boring. Pretty lame.
Christians usually hold that God "Has a plan for each of us". I'm not really sure where the Bible says that, but i believe it to be true. I think that there's no reason why God doesn't plan out our days for us, how we're going to interact with each other, the way that the weather influences us, the wind blowing on our faces.
Imagine if God put the detail of a thousand years into each single day of our lives.
He is familiar with every micro-second that goes down. From your life-changing decisions to how hungry the dust mites inside your pillow are.
What we think about as another mostly boring day is actually jam-packed with everything you could find in a thousand years.
I think we should try a little harder to appreciate that.
There are people who use that concept to justify "old-earth" vs. "new-earth", saying that the 6 "days" in Genesis could have been millennia.
But that isn't really important at all.
What I think a lot of people miss is the other half of that statement- that a day is like a thousand years.
I don't know about you, but a thousand years is a long time. Think about everything that's happened in the world since the year 1010. Its essentially all of modern history. There are people who spend their lives devoted to studying a single decade; there's a whole lot of stuff that goes on in a thousand years, and I think you and me probably have no grasp on the size of that scale.
Now think about what you did yesterday. You could probably make a list of events that happened. Pretty boring. Pretty lame.
Christians usually hold that God "Has a plan for each of us". I'm not really sure where the Bible says that, but i believe it to be true. I think that there's no reason why God doesn't plan out our days for us, how we're going to interact with each other, the way that the weather influences us, the wind blowing on our faces.
Imagine if God put the detail of a thousand years into each single day of our lives.
He is familiar with every micro-second that goes down. From your life-changing decisions to how hungry the dust mites inside your pillow are.
What we think about as another mostly boring day is actually jam-packed with everything you could find in a thousand years.
I think we should try a little harder to appreciate that.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
On CCM
If you asked me to make a list of the things that i dislike about college, somewhere towards the top would be, "no car."
I love driving. I made my brother let me drive the entire way back from a conference in PA over winter break. 2 stops, not counting getting pulled over. It was wonderful.
Part of not having a car is not having a radio.
And part of not having a radio is not having Air1.
...Which makes vacations nicer, actually. Because the time in between my breaks gives the station a chance to change a few songs in the line-up. I come back and there's something different, which is excellent, because it lessens my view of the radio as a song-destroying consumer machine that cashes in on christian subculture.
There's always one or two songs that are just really annoying. Usually its because they are overplayed, but there is a certain example I want to harp on. It's "God shaped Hole" by Plumb. It's not only overplayed and annoying to begin with, but fundamentally distressing. The chorus goes, "There's a God-shaped hole in all of ussss". I couldn't disagree more.
The idea of the song, of course, is that we're all missing something- God- and that He fits right into us and makes us complete. That's about as theologically sound as jello is concrete.
I think a better comparison might be to think of ourselves as Ground Zero after 9/11. A giant heap of burning rubble responsible for hundreds of deaths. It will be 12 years later when the replacement building is finished. That's a long time, and a lot of complicated mess to deal with. But ultimately, One World Trade Center will be a much better, taller, nicer looking place to be.
There's no "god-shaped hole" in anyone. Just a smoldering mound of junk. It takes us to recognize that and realize that we can cash in the insurance and get the Best instead. Simple in concept, often times difficult in practice.
I love driving. I made my brother let me drive the entire way back from a conference in PA over winter break. 2 stops, not counting getting pulled over. It was wonderful.
Part of not having a car is not having a radio.
And part of not having a radio is not having Air1.
...Which makes vacations nicer, actually. Because the time in between my breaks gives the station a chance to change a few songs in the line-up. I come back and there's something different, which is excellent, because it lessens my view of the radio as a song-destroying consumer machine that cashes in on christian subculture.
There's always one or two songs that are just really annoying. Usually its because they are overplayed, but there is a certain example I want to harp on. It's "God shaped Hole" by Plumb. It's not only overplayed and annoying to begin with, but fundamentally distressing. The chorus goes, "There's a God-shaped hole in all of ussss". I couldn't disagree more.
The idea of the song, of course, is that we're all missing something- God- and that He fits right into us and makes us complete. That's about as theologically sound as jello is concrete.
I think a better comparison might be to think of ourselves as Ground Zero after 9/11. A giant heap of burning rubble responsible for hundreds of deaths. It will be 12 years later when the replacement building is finished. That's a long time, and a lot of complicated mess to deal with. But ultimately, One World Trade Center will be a much better, taller, nicer looking place to be.
There's no "god-shaped hole" in anyone. Just a smoldering mound of junk. It takes us to recognize that and realize that we can cash in the insurance and get the Best instead. Simple in concept, often times difficult in practice.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
On Unleash
This weekend was absolutely the best 3 days of my life. Actually, it wasn't even the weekend. But that's okay. Went to Unleash at Newspring church in Anderson, SC. It was an 18 hour each way road trip with my favorite people in the whole world.
Newspring's campus is amazing. Perry Noble, their pastor, has talked a lot about how the church ought to be the most creative place on the planet, and that secular organizations should be looking at the church and asking, "how can we do that?" instead of the other way around. His church is an excellent example of that concept at work. Original architecture and definitely a contender for the most creative kids ministry ever conceived. The church bleeds excellence. From the 600 volunteers at the conference to the 109 staff members that pour their hearts into their ministries.
The conference was divided up into 4 teaching blocks, 2 main sessions taught by the Man Perry Noble and then 2 break out sessions ran by staff members on various topics. As valuable as the teaching time was the space in between, some of it occupied with the free chick-fil-a lunch but the rest with literally being able to wonder around everywhere and absorbing absolutely everything possible.
I'm not going to lie, my face literally started twitching from smiling.
Worship was unbelievable. Newspring is the first church i've been to where i was satisfied with the way the audio was mixed. They had not-too-huge line arrays but lots and lots of subs. And with a D-Show for both FoH and monitor world, everything about everything screamed that they mean business.
We stopped by Elevation Church's main building in North Carolina on the way back. Their graphic arts guy was bomb enough to give us an impromptu full-on tour of the place. Looking back on it, the contrast between Elevation and Newspring might be the most awesome part of the trip. Newspring is an example of a church with a 13.7 million dollar annual budget, with a very deep bucket of resources and some 15,000 total attenders.
Elevation on the other hand, just turned 4 years old and have 1/3 of the members. They have a lot less staff members and have focused a lot of their attention on stretching everything they have as far as possible. Their facility was impressive in its own right, not for how huge it is or for nice equipment, but for how they've utilized what they have. Example, their graphic designer is one guy. Newspring has a team of 9 full time employees complete with an internal 2-week turnaround on all requested work. I saw more graphic arts in the 45 minutes that we were in Elevation than the 10 hours that we spend at Newspring church. He also gave us all t-shirts. That's sweet.
But what do you care?
Sound and Light guys, as well as musicians, are completely obsessed with gear. All of them. You can go up to a sound technician after any show and start asking questions and he will all of a sudden turn into a kid in a candy store talking about his own equipment. Its part of his job to love that. Its part of his job to know exactly how it all works together and seamlessly to produce what you paid money to see. There was no shortage of that enthusiasm at Newspring.
But on the car ride back home, I realized that over the past year or so, i've started to become pretty much church obsessed. I watch church services online. The last time I missed a sunday morning was when I was 12 years old. I love talking about church. I love hearing about church. I loved our 36 hours worth of being on the road for a one day conference about church.
If the symmetric property applies to occupation, then something becomes glaringly obvious.
Newspring's campus is amazing. Perry Noble, their pastor, has talked a lot about how the church ought to be the most creative place on the planet, and that secular organizations should be looking at the church and asking, "how can we do that?" instead of the other way around. His church is an excellent example of that concept at work. Original architecture and definitely a contender for the most creative kids ministry ever conceived. The church bleeds excellence. From the 600 volunteers at the conference to the 109 staff members that pour their hearts into their ministries.
The conference was divided up into 4 teaching blocks, 2 main sessions taught by the Man Perry Noble and then 2 break out sessions ran by staff members on various topics. As valuable as the teaching time was the space in between, some of it occupied with the free chick-fil-a lunch but the rest with literally being able to wonder around everywhere and absorbing absolutely everything possible.
I'm not going to lie, my face literally started twitching from smiling.
Worship was unbelievable. Newspring is the first church i've been to where i was satisfied with the way the audio was mixed. They had not-too-huge line arrays but lots and lots of subs. And with a D-Show for both FoH and monitor world, everything about everything screamed that they mean business.
We stopped by Elevation Church's main building in North Carolina on the way back. Their graphic arts guy was bomb enough to give us an impromptu full-on tour of the place. Looking back on it, the contrast between Elevation and Newspring might be the most awesome part of the trip. Newspring is an example of a church with a 13.7 million dollar annual budget, with a very deep bucket of resources and some 15,000 total attenders.
Elevation on the other hand, just turned 4 years old and have 1/3 of the members. They have a lot less staff members and have focused a lot of their attention on stretching everything they have as far as possible. Their facility was impressive in its own right, not for how huge it is or for nice equipment, but for how they've utilized what they have. Example, their graphic designer is one guy. Newspring has a team of 9 full time employees complete with an internal 2-week turnaround on all requested work. I saw more graphic arts in the 45 minutes that we were in Elevation than the 10 hours that we spend at Newspring church. He also gave us all t-shirts. That's sweet.
But what do you care?
Sound and Light guys, as well as musicians, are completely obsessed with gear. All of them. You can go up to a sound technician after any show and start asking questions and he will all of a sudden turn into a kid in a candy store talking about his own equipment. Its part of his job to love that. Its part of his job to know exactly how it all works together and seamlessly to produce what you paid money to see. There was no shortage of that enthusiasm at Newspring.
But on the car ride back home, I realized that over the past year or so, i've started to become pretty much church obsessed. I watch church services online. The last time I missed a sunday morning was when I was 12 years old. I love talking about church. I love hearing about church. I loved our 36 hours worth of being on the road for a one day conference about church.
If the symmetric property applies to occupation, then something becomes glaringly obvious.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
On a pile of Dirt
I finally had a free moment to pick up Praise Habit again. I read a page before i had to put it down and think about how good it is. Here he's talking about Psalm 1.
"And to live in ways that twist and distort His creation brings death. Real death. Not just the redundant (none of us are getting out of here alive) burring of corpses, but the walking around kind that tastes of dust rather than the Maker's exhale of love. It is repulsive. It doesn't hold together. It is not the genesis-shape imagined for a human.
...Our cultural conditioning of Western nationalistic Christianity typically sends us headlong into pharisaical discussions of R-rated movies and cussing and drinking and smoking and the dangers of associating with heathen who do any of the previously mentioned activities. I am familiar with a copious quantity of people who do not participate in any of these activities yet walk around lifeless, as dead and intriguing as a pile of dirt."
I can remember sitting around as a younger child, being completely terrified of dying. I think we all have moments when we realize that we cannot, as humans in human bodies, comprehend death. Because you can't imagine yourself not existing. That's why Heaven is such an excellent thing. But as much as we're afraid of it, so many people really are dead. And more serious of a death than being physically dead.
That's what's incredible. People are walking around, breathing air and drinking water, and they're more dead than some of the people in your local cemetery. Literally, more dead. That isn't symbolism. People are literally dead. And we need to do something about that.
"And to live in ways that twist and distort His creation brings death. Real death. Not just the redundant (none of us are getting out of here alive) burring of corpses, but the walking around kind that tastes of dust rather than the Maker's exhale of love. It is repulsive. It doesn't hold together. It is not the genesis-shape imagined for a human.
...Our cultural conditioning of Western nationalistic Christianity typically sends us headlong into pharisaical discussions of R-rated movies and cussing and drinking and smoking and the dangers of associating with heathen who do any of the previously mentioned activities. I am familiar with a copious quantity of people who do not participate in any of these activities yet walk around lifeless, as dead and intriguing as a pile of dirt."
I can remember sitting around as a younger child, being completely terrified of dying. I think we all have moments when we realize that we cannot, as humans in human bodies, comprehend death. Because you can't imagine yourself not existing. That's why Heaven is such an excellent thing. But as much as we're afraid of it, so many people really are dead. And more serious of a death than being physically dead.
That's what's incredible. People are walking around, breathing air and drinking water, and they're more dead than some of the people in your local cemetery. Literally, more dead. That isn't symbolism. People are literally dead. And we need to do something about that.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
On the Elderly
Old people are really cool. A good majority of them somewhere along the way stop caring about what people think about them, accept the fact that they're old, and are completely okay with saying everything that comes to their mind, with no censorship.
It's adorable.
The RCA worship band, accompanied by some of Russel Sage's gals and later by other kids from RCA played a set of 5 hymns at a nursing home yesterday.
I've never liked hymns.
I've also never liked nursing homes- as cool as old people are, i get a bit apprehensive when i'm surrounded by them on all sides.
But don't get me wrong, I liked playing. It was a good night, disregarding the lamp that I knocked over with my bass case, shattering a glass tabletop.
But what I couldn't get out of my head was this:
In 20 years, the people living in nursing homes will not want to have college students come to them playing hymns. The old people in nursing homes 20 years from now will be former Dead-Heads. Baby boomers. Unchurched and apathetic.
In fact, I think we were assuming a lot by playing hymns and praying at a nursing home. If it weren't for the fact that nursing home residents will welcome any kind of entertainment you throw at them, i would have expected someone to mention something. Buddy Holly may have been more their style.
But it underlined to me the growing rift between Christians and society.
For example, in the 1200s, the Church was the only thing holding western society together. By the 1800s there were plenty of people who had decided that it wasn't for them. Since world war II, it feels like american culture has been rapidly splitting away from the Church. And in response to that, we have created "Christian Subculture", the horrifying, impact-reducing, relevance-decreasing bombshelter that christians in churches the world over are encouraged to hide away in.
Don't get me wrong. Worship music is awesome. Its almost entirely the only thing i've listened to while in college- Hillsong and David Crowder. And christian bands in general are cool. But the rift between our separate cultures is too big for comfort. We've made ourselves freaks, uneducated and insensitive to the people around us.
I wish there were more bands like Switchfoot.
Jon Foreman writes songs from the perspective of a christian that force people to think, without being a part of that rift. Like you can actually address issues of faith without dragging people inside of the bomb shelter and talking about how nice the stuffy air is and how great the canned peas taste. I like that. I wish more people would do that. Paul took the Gospel to all the corners of the known world. We sit on it and spend our creativity presenting it to ourselves over and over again rather than bringing it to people who need it.
Do me a favor. If you're reading this on facebook, like it. I have no way of knowing how many people actually read these things.
It's adorable.
The RCA worship band, accompanied by some of Russel Sage's gals and later by other kids from RCA played a set of 5 hymns at a nursing home yesterday.
I've never liked hymns.
I've also never liked nursing homes- as cool as old people are, i get a bit apprehensive when i'm surrounded by them on all sides.
But don't get me wrong, I liked playing. It was a good night, disregarding the lamp that I knocked over with my bass case, shattering a glass tabletop.
But what I couldn't get out of my head was this:
In 20 years, the people living in nursing homes will not want to have college students come to them playing hymns. The old people in nursing homes 20 years from now will be former Dead-Heads. Baby boomers. Unchurched and apathetic.
In fact, I think we were assuming a lot by playing hymns and praying at a nursing home. If it weren't for the fact that nursing home residents will welcome any kind of entertainment you throw at them, i would have expected someone to mention something. Buddy Holly may have been more their style.
But it underlined to me the growing rift between Christians and society.
For example, in the 1200s, the Church was the only thing holding western society together. By the 1800s there were plenty of people who had decided that it wasn't for them. Since world war II, it feels like american culture has been rapidly splitting away from the Church. And in response to that, we have created "Christian Subculture", the horrifying, impact-reducing, relevance-decreasing bombshelter that christians in churches the world over are encouraged to hide away in.
Don't get me wrong. Worship music is awesome. Its almost entirely the only thing i've listened to while in college- Hillsong and David Crowder. And christian bands in general are cool. But the rift between our separate cultures is too big for comfort. We've made ourselves freaks, uneducated and insensitive to the people around us.
I wish there were more bands like Switchfoot.
Jon Foreman writes songs from the perspective of a christian that force people to think, without being a part of that rift. Like you can actually address issues of faith without dragging people inside of the bomb shelter and talking about how nice the stuffy air is and how great the canned peas taste. I like that. I wish more people would do that. Paul took the Gospel to all the corners of the known world. We sit on it and spend our creativity presenting it to ourselves over and over again rather than bringing it to people who need it.
Do me a favor. If you're reading this on facebook, like it. I have no way of knowing how many people actually read these things.
Friday, February 12, 2010
On Unused
I went to EMPAC today to get a ticket for a show tomorrow. For those of you tuning in not on the RPI campus, EMPAC is the 220 million dollar building that is very cool and very unused. They tell us that they do research there, but then again, the RPI student union has to pay RPI for ice time for RPI's Div1 hocky team on RPI's own ice.
But here's the deal. The northern wall of EMPAC is 7 stories of glass showing a really cool staircase that goes from the bottom of the building to the top. The top is where the Box Office is, where you get tickets.
Except the box office is really just a wrap-around stainless steel desk.
And there's only one guy working it.
Empac is 7 stories of about 22,000 square feet.
You can walk around in the building all day, and unless there's a show going on, the only person that you'll ever see is that box office guy, staring at his iMac indefinitely.
EMPAC has employees. I'm going to guess maybe 10 or so full time workers.
They have really nice offices in the back. They're the guys that are in charge of programming, getting artists into the place, administrative and creative work.
But you walk inside the building, and there's simply an overwhelming sense of Space. Like you're surrounded by open-ness, you can look out the enormous window at Troy, everything is blue slate, glass, and stainless steel.
But it feels abandoned. Because there are no people in it that aren't shut away behind their locked suites in their nice offices.
I feel like the church has a lot of similarities to this.
Jesus paid much more than 220 million dollars for the church. He died. The guys that wrote the New Testament, most of them died for the church. Centuries of Saints died for the church.
But what are we doing with it?
Paying a single person to sit in the entree way waiting for a few sparse people to come buy tickets? Locking our pastors away in offices while we have theaters and auditoriums full of unused space? (think figuratively, not literally)
The Church is the greatest organization on the planet. We could at least do more than EMPAC with the resources we've been given.
But here's the deal. The northern wall of EMPAC is 7 stories of glass showing a really cool staircase that goes from the bottom of the building to the top. The top is where the Box Office is, where you get tickets.
Except the box office is really just a wrap-around stainless steel desk.
And there's only one guy working it.
Empac is 7 stories of about 22,000 square feet.
You can walk around in the building all day, and unless there's a show going on, the only person that you'll ever see is that box office guy, staring at his iMac indefinitely.
EMPAC has employees. I'm going to guess maybe 10 or so full time workers.
They have really nice offices in the back. They're the guys that are in charge of programming, getting artists into the place, administrative and creative work.
But you walk inside the building, and there's simply an overwhelming sense of Space. Like you're surrounded by open-ness, you can look out the enormous window at Troy, everything is blue slate, glass, and stainless steel.
But it feels abandoned. Because there are no people in it that aren't shut away behind their locked suites in their nice offices.
I feel like the church has a lot of similarities to this.
Jesus paid much more than 220 million dollars for the church. He died. The guys that wrote the New Testament, most of them died for the church. Centuries of Saints died for the church.
But what are we doing with it?
Paying a single person to sit in the entree way waiting for a few sparse people to come buy tickets? Locking our pastors away in offices while we have theaters and auditoriums full of unused space? (think figuratively, not literally)
The Church is the greatest organization on the planet. We could at least do more than EMPAC with the resources we've been given.
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