2 Kings 9:1-3 reads as such:
"The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, 'This is what the Lord says: I anount you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!""
Back in the day, Elisha was like this wicked awesome prophet. And it so happened that other prophets that we might assume to be his pupils hung out with him.
Imagine him sending one of his eager pupils on this 'mission', the same way a research professor gets a grad student to do all the menial tasks for their experiments.
And reflect on how odd a request that is.
"hey dude. tuck your cloak in (i'm guessing this entails an air of swiftness), and take this bottle. run up to an army commander, dump oil on him, tell him that he's the king of israel, and then run away. fast."
the story goes on.
After this guy finds Jehu, anoints him king, and runs away, Jehu went back to his buddies:
"When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this madman come to you?"
"You know the man and the sort of things he says," Jehu replied.
"that's not true!" they said. "tell us."
Jehu said, "Here is what he told me: 'This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.'"
They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!"
I think that the officer's judgment of the prophet being a 'madman' was justified. That's pretty much the only sane way to react when some guy runs up to your friend and proclaims him king of Israel.
But here's the kicker: they believed him.
The writers of 2 Kings doesn't record any conversations between Jehu and his friends trying to convince them that yeah, he was king of Israel. In fact, it seems like Jehu was a little embarrassed that he was randomly selected as the next king.
Instead, the commanders spread out their cloaks and proclaimed him king.
That would be kind of like a band of University professors proclaiming Al Gore to be the President of the United States.
But only if those professors believed enough in Al Gore to assassinate obama and proclaim gore the president. Except assassinating people for power and believing in al gore are mutually exclusive. So ignore that.
HERE was my point:
At first glance, the unnamed prophet was said to be a "babbling madman", but no one disputed his authority.
Kind of like how John the Baptist ate wild honey and wore clothes made out of camel hair, like a freaky hippy, but was regarded by his contemporaries as a prophet and and inspiration.
Kind of like how Jesus healed crippled people on saturday (oh no! not saturday!) and had to wake up extra-early in order to get away from people.
The "things of God" often times are presented to us in ways that appear completely ridiculous. As if God is a crazy eccentric old guy. But it's our job to roll with that, presuming we use discretion and don't assume that everything nutty is divine.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
On Falling Trees
When a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?
People have always asked that, and quite frankly, I never understood why.
The next time someone says it, here's how i'll counter:
"If a tree falls on the side of the road, and nobody hears it, but it takes out your power for 4 days, does anyone care if it made any sound? no sir. You're just ticked at that tree because you know PSNH won't get their trucks to your house until halfway through next week."
I don't think i've ever been without power for so long because, and it presents an interesting juxtaposition.
I woke up friday morning to no electricity and no final day of school before midterms. I then sat around until 3:00 when my dad turned on the generator. At that point I took a shower and drove to a friend's house who didnt' lose power. I didn't return until 11:00. Saturday was the same drill. Woke up, showered, left, and came home at 8:00.
What was so striking is how little there is to do when there's no power.
Literally all you can do is sit around in the dark.
Weirder still is how different life can be just a block away. For people who didn't lose power, its as if they lived in Utah, where the only way they know about any "state of emergency" is though CNN telling them that 300,000 people in New Hampshire have no electricity.
Meanwhile, though, my parents have kerosene lamps going and are freaking out about food in the refrigerator. Its like, two completely different worlds, right next to each other.
Apostle Peter referred to his fellow christians as "strangers in the world", "aliens", and in the kjv, "peculiar people".
In 1 Peter 1:13, he said, "therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."
Here's what I take away from this:
There is a distinct difference between christians and nonchristians.
This whole weekend, as soon as i stepped into my house, i realized that there was absolutely nothing to do. And when i went to someone else's house, it was as if everything was normal.
But when i was sitting around with nothing to do, i realized that, 150 years ago, that's how everyone lived. There was no electricity, no modern conveniences.
We complain and yell and whine when our power goes off, and sit around with "nothing to do", but clearly they had ways of filling their time up in the 1850s... just ask the Amish.
That's how nonbelievers should see our lives.
They should look at us and say, "woah man. all this time i thought life was awesome, but now i look around and theres nothing to do."
They should be asking us to hang out because they're "bored".
We never have to sit around in metaphysical darkness when the "power" goes out. No matter what happens to us, we still have our best friend at our side.
That's totally way more awesome than not having running water.
People have always asked that, and quite frankly, I never understood why.
The next time someone says it, here's how i'll counter:
"If a tree falls on the side of the road, and nobody hears it, but it takes out your power for 4 days, does anyone care if it made any sound? no sir. You're just ticked at that tree because you know PSNH won't get their trucks to your house until halfway through next week."
I don't think i've ever been without power for so long because, and it presents an interesting juxtaposition.
I woke up friday morning to no electricity and no final day of school before midterms. I then sat around until 3:00 when my dad turned on the generator. At that point I took a shower and drove to a friend's house who didnt' lose power. I didn't return until 11:00. Saturday was the same drill. Woke up, showered, left, and came home at 8:00.
What was so striking is how little there is to do when there's no power.
Literally all you can do is sit around in the dark.
Weirder still is how different life can be just a block away. For people who didn't lose power, its as if they lived in Utah, where the only way they know about any "state of emergency" is though CNN telling them that 300,000 people in New Hampshire have no electricity.
Meanwhile, though, my parents have kerosene lamps going and are freaking out about food in the refrigerator. Its like, two completely different worlds, right next to each other.
Apostle Peter referred to his fellow christians as "strangers in the world", "aliens", and in the kjv, "peculiar people".
In 1 Peter 1:13, he said, "therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."
Here's what I take away from this:
There is a distinct difference between christians and nonchristians.
This whole weekend, as soon as i stepped into my house, i realized that there was absolutely nothing to do. And when i went to someone else's house, it was as if everything was normal.
But when i was sitting around with nothing to do, i realized that, 150 years ago, that's how everyone lived. There was no electricity, no modern conveniences.
We complain and yell and whine when our power goes off, and sit around with "nothing to do", but clearly they had ways of filling their time up in the 1850s... just ask the Amish.
That's how nonbelievers should see our lives.
They should look at us and say, "woah man. all this time i thought life was awesome, but now i look around and theres nothing to do."
They should be asking us to hang out because they're "bored".
We never have to sit around in metaphysical darkness when the "power" goes out. No matter what happens to us, we still have our best friend at our side.
That's totally way more awesome than not having running water.
Friday, November 28, 2008
On Finitness
Teenagers are often a good topic to talk about because they present a concentrated form of Humanity.
By the time we're teenagers, we've figure out everything that we can get away with, but we haven't learned what we shouldn't do. We know what we're capable of, but don't have the wisdom to live responsibly.
Case study: Teenage girls who get their first job.
I know a bunch of girls who work after school or on the weekends.
Baggers at Market Basket make well above minimum wage, and they typically make more than $50 per week.
Now, with gas prices so excellently low, $50 is way more than it takes to fill up a gas tank for a week, even with the ridiculous amount of "let's go to the mall!" and "i'll drive" that they do.
So what do you spend all your money on?
Well, the answer is obvious, right?
clothes and shoes!
Lets buy 3 pairs of shoes that, in 6 months, either won't fit, will be worn out, or will be out of style. Then we'll buy one of everything in Hollister, and pick up $15 worth of pretzel bites on the way out.
When we get home, we'll make sure our parents get us a nice semi dress that we'll never wear again, and then spend the whole afternoon talking to cute boys instead of doing our homework/chores/etc.
Then we'll watch some completely unredeeming tv and yell at our parents for asking where we've been all day.
Do you get my drift?
good.
Now on to other things.
I read about a guy in the old testament a few months ago, and i've been wanting to write about it ever since, but couldn't seem to make it fit anywhere.
But i think now i have it.
During the reign of King David in Jerusalem, there was a really smart guy that David would seek advice from.
His name was Ahithophel.
2 Samuel 16:23 states that "In those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God."
Essentially, this guy knew what he was talking about.
Now, at one point, one of David's sons, Absalom, got on this power trip and ran his dad outta town. Whilst he was trying to commandeer the throne, he asked Ahithophel to give him his advice.
One such tidbit of advice was concerning the best way to ensure he would stay on the throne:
"I would choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. I would attack him while he is weary and weak. I would strike him with terror, and then all the people with him will flee. I would strike down only the king and bring all the people back to you. The death of the man you seek will mean the return of all; all the people will be unharmed."
Now there was another advice-giver in town.
His name was Hushai, and he was still loyal to David.
Hushai said something completely different:
"The advice Ahithophel has given is not good at this time. You know your father and his men; they are fighters, and as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. Besides, your father is an experienced fighter; he will not spend the night with the troops. Even now, he is hidden in a cave or some other place. If he should attack your troops first, whoever hears about it will say, 'there has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.' Then even the bravest soldier, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a fighter and that those with him are brave. "
Anyway, Absalom decided to do what Hushai said, which meant that David knew what was coming for him and was able to beat him.
Meanwhile, we read in 2 Samuel 17:23:
"When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his house in order and then hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father's tomb."
and that's all we know about this dude Ahithophel.
What do Ahithophel and teen girls have in common?
They're both excellent examples of one of the human conditions: Finitness.
As people, we're incredibly good at living "in the moment".
we know how to procrastinate, how to enjoy minutes right now, and how to eat candy.
We're notoriously bad about thinking ahead in time, about thinking about consequences, and more importantly, about heeding those consequences and actually doing what we're supposed to.
My biology teacher has, if anything, increased my belief in creationism.
When we were studying enzymes, she constantly said, "this enzyme is designed for this substrate" and "when the wrong substrate binds to the enzyme, the intended substrate can't bind"
Like, shouldn't she have been saying "this enzyme by chance happens to break down this particular substrate" and "when this substrate binds to the enzyme instead, nothing happens and the other substrate can't break down"?
The theories and teachings that we've developed through science are inherently finite. That's why we're still trying to figure the world out: because not everything makes sense to us.
We have been unable to grasp the way the world works.
We have an incredibly difficult job realizing the way the human race fits in to the rest of the universe.
And individually, we are unable to see the "big picture".
we're finite.
And sadly, far too often we don't give the big picture any consideration.
We live as if the little piece of reality that is the present is all there is, and it gets the better of us down the road.
bummer.
By the time we're teenagers, we've figure out everything that we can get away with, but we haven't learned what we shouldn't do. We know what we're capable of, but don't have the wisdom to live responsibly.
Case study: Teenage girls who get their first job.
I know a bunch of girls who work after school or on the weekends.
Baggers at Market Basket make well above minimum wage, and they typically make more than $50 per week.
Now, with gas prices so excellently low, $50 is way more than it takes to fill up a gas tank for a week, even with the ridiculous amount of "let's go to the mall!" and "i'll drive" that they do.
So what do you spend all your money on?
Well, the answer is obvious, right?
clothes and shoes!
Lets buy 3 pairs of shoes that, in 6 months, either won't fit, will be worn out, or will be out of style. Then we'll buy one of everything in Hollister, and pick up $15 worth of pretzel bites on the way out.
When we get home, we'll make sure our parents get us a nice semi dress that we'll never wear again, and then spend the whole afternoon talking to cute boys instead of doing our homework/chores/etc.
Then we'll watch some completely unredeeming tv and yell at our parents for asking where we've been all day.
Do you get my drift?
good.
Now on to other things.
I read about a guy in the old testament a few months ago, and i've been wanting to write about it ever since, but couldn't seem to make it fit anywhere.
But i think now i have it.
During the reign of King David in Jerusalem, there was a really smart guy that David would seek advice from.
His name was Ahithophel.
2 Samuel 16:23 states that "In those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God."
Essentially, this guy knew what he was talking about.
Now, at one point, one of David's sons, Absalom, got on this power trip and ran his dad outta town. Whilst he was trying to commandeer the throne, he asked Ahithophel to give him his advice.
One such tidbit of advice was concerning the best way to ensure he would stay on the throne:
"I would choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. I would attack him while he is weary and weak. I would strike him with terror, and then all the people with him will flee. I would strike down only the king and bring all the people back to you. The death of the man you seek will mean the return of all; all the people will be unharmed."
Now there was another advice-giver in town.
His name was Hushai, and he was still loyal to David.
Hushai said something completely different:
"The advice Ahithophel has given is not good at this time. You know your father and his men; they are fighters, and as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. Besides, your father is an experienced fighter; he will not spend the night with the troops. Even now, he is hidden in a cave or some other place. If he should attack your troops first, whoever hears about it will say, 'there has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.' Then even the bravest soldier, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a fighter and that those with him are brave. "
Anyway, Absalom decided to do what Hushai said, which meant that David knew what was coming for him and was able to beat him.
Meanwhile, we read in 2 Samuel 17:23:
"When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his house in order and then hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father's tomb."
and that's all we know about this dude Ahithophel.
What do Ahithophel and teen girls have in common?
They're both excellent examples of one of the human conditions: Finitness.
As people, we're incredibly good at living "in the moment".
we know how to procrastinate, how to enjoy minutes right now, and how to eat candy.
We're notoriously bad about thinking ahead in time, about thinking about consequences, and more importantly, about heeding those consequences and actually doing what we're supposed to.
My biology teacher has, if anything, increased my belief in creationism.
When we were studying enzymes, she constantly said, "this enzyme is designed for this substrate" and "when the wrong substrate binds to the enzyme, the intended substrate can't bind"
Like, shouldn't she have been saying "this enzyme by chance happens to break down this particular substrate" and "when this substrate binds to the enzyme instead, nothing happens and the other substrate can't break down"?
The theories and teachings that we've developed through science are inherently finite. That's why we're still trying to figure the world out: because not everything makes sense to us.
We have been unable to grasp the way the world works.
We have an incredibly difficult job realizing the way the human race fits in to the rest of the universe.
And individually, we are unable to see the "big picture".
we're finite.
And sadly, far too often we don't give the big picture any consideration.
We live as if the little piece of reality that is the present is all there is, and it gets the better of us down the road.
bummer.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
On Thanksgiving
I just got home from DEC's "thanksgiving eve" service.
They rearranged all the chairs in the sanctuary so they all faced inwardly, and then they passed a mic around the room for people to give a short story of what they're thankful for and why.
At the end, the worship pastor lead communion, and he said something that stuck with me:
"Thanksgiving is like the one holiday that America hasn't caught on to yet. Just a day of worship."
And if you think about it, it's entirely true.
The most obvious example is that thanksgiving is completely left out of everyone's decoration closet- stores jump from Halloween to Christmas on November 1st.
Also strikingly absent is that it doesn't have its own "season".
there's a "Christmas Season", an "Easter Season", a "Veterans Day" season...
but no "thanksgiving season".
Thanksgiving has, wonderfully, been allowed to remain exactly what it is.
Possibly because it isn't a big catholic holiday that everyone celebrated in the 1700s (George Washington created our national holiday), we are given a few days off from work and school, and just allowed to gather as families and whatnot, and be thankful for what we have.
For Christians, that means thanking God and remembering that he made the ultimate sacrifice for our own lives.
I think that thanksgiving is my new favorite holiday.
Not that i ever had a favorite holiday before, but now i'll have an answer for when people ask me.
And this is because its the one time when everyone around our country, no matter their political convictions, economic situations, or religious beliefs, find it in themselves to, for one weekend, have the attitude that we're all supposed to carry every day.
That's why i like thanksgiving.
Because its one time where everyone in the world has the right idea.
They rearranged all the chairs in the sanctuary so they all faced inwardly, and then they passed a mic around the room for people to give a short story of what they're thankful for and why.
At the end, the worship pastor lead communion, and he said something that stuck with me:
"Thanksgiving is like the one holiday that America hasn't caught on to yet. Just a day of worship."
And if you think about it, it's entirely true.
The most obvious example is that thanksgiving is completely left out of everyone's decoration closet- stores jump from Halloween to Christmas on November 1st.
Also strikingly absent is that it doesn't have its own "season".
there's a "Christmas Season", an "Easter Season", a "Veterans Day" season...
but no "thanksgiving season".
Thanksgiving has, wonderfully, been allowed to remain exactly what it is.
Possibly because it isn't a big catholic holiday that everyone celebrated in the 1700s (George Washington created our national holiday), we are given a few days off from work and school, and just allowed to gather as families and whatnot, and be thankful for what we have.
For Christians, that means thanking God and remembering that he made the ultimate sacrifice for our own lives.
I think that thanksgiving is my new favorite holiday.
Not that i ever had a favorite holiday before, but now i'll have an answer for when people ask me.
And this is because its the one time when everyone around our country, no matter their political convictions, economic situations, or religious beliefs, find it in themselves to, for one weekend, have the attitude that we're all supposed to carry every day.
That's why i like thanksgiving.
Because its one time where everyone in the world has the right idea.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
On people, part two
Yesterday I wrote down my thoughts on how people treat other people.
It is my firm belief that one of the predominant traits of humanity is selfishness.
Not selfishness in the blatant sense, but in the sense that it takes effort on our parts to think about others.
I'll give you two examples of this. The first one is simple: Xenon headlights.
Some of you may have heard me talk about xenon headlights before. Usually i rant about them after i've had to drive alone on some back roads in the pouring rain whilst struggling with the defroster.
Xenon headlamps are a great idea: you increase the color temperature of your headlights, which brings the spectrum much closer to natural light, while actually being brighter, which increases visibility dramatically.
That is, visibility for you, the driver.
Not for me, the car on the other side of the road who is temporarily blinder by your might-as-well-be-hibeams headlights.
See: by installing expensive headlights, we make our lives better while making other people uncomfortable/miserable. Obviously we don't think about this when we get the nice headlamps. But as far as i'm concerned, that's exactly the point: Humans aren't programed to think of others by default.
I'm going to give a second example, which is much more abstract.
Bear with me.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a nonprofit organization started by none other than Lance Armstrong shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Through it and its associated organizations, such as Livestrong, it raises money to help cancer patients and to raise awareness about the incurable disease.
A noble cause. Lance Armstrong has proven himself to be an influence in our society by being more than just an athlete.
But here's the problem I have: all those little yellow bracelets.
Why weren't they manufactured BEFORE Lance Armstrong had cancer?
This is nothing at all against Mr. Armstrong.
This is a gripe with our human mindset.
There are thousands of organizations out there like Livestrong that help people.
Except a vast majority of them were started by people who have been through the same troubles as the people the organizations help.
Here's my question to you:
Why can't we start organizations to help people without first experiencing what they feel?
Why did it take getting cancer to make Lance Armstrong start his foundation?
Why is it that the parents of children with obscure, incurable diseases are always the ones trying to find the answers?
Why couldn't Lance Armstrong have sat down one day, pre-cancer, and say, "i think i'm going to start a foundation to raise money for cancer research."?
This is what i'm talking about.
All you have to do is listen to teenage girls for a little while: they are completely uninterested in their friends until they say, "my dog died last night", and then it's all, "awww, my dog died 2 years ago and i cried for 3 weeks!!!"
People in general have a hard time with empathy.
We find it difficult to think about the every day struggles of anyone other than ourselves.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
"Let no debt be outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." [Romans 13:8-10]
This is one thing i believe we can all do.
It's not that hard to love each other.
It is my firm belief that one of the predominant traits of humanity is selfishness.
Not selfishness in the blatant sense, but in the sense that it takes effort on our parts to think about others.
I'll give you two examples of this. The first one is simple: Xenon headlights.
Some of you may have heard me talk about xenon headlights before. Usually i rant about them after i've had to drive alone on some back roads in the pouring rain whilst struggling with the defroster.
Xenon headlamps are a great idea: you increase the color temperature of your headlights, which brings the spectrum much closer to natural light, while actually being brighter, which increases visibility dramatically.
That is, visibility for you, the driver.
Not for me, the car on the other side of the road who is temporarily blinder by your might-as-well-be-hibeams headlights.
See: by installing expensive headlights, we make our lives better while making other people uncomfortable/miserable. Obviously we don't think about this when we get the nice headlamps. But as far as i'm concerned, that's exactly the point: Humans aren't programed to think of others by default.
I'm going to give a second example, which is much more abstract.
Bear with me.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a nonprofit organization started by none other than Lance Armstrong shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Through it and its associated organizations, such as Livestrong, it raises money to help cancer patients and to raise awareness about the incurable disease.
A noble cause. Lance Armstrong has proven himself to be an influence in our society by being more than just an athlete.
But here's the problem I have: all those little yellow bracelets.
Why weren't they manufactured BEFORE Lance Armstrong had cancer?
This is nothing at all against Mr. Armstrong.
This is a gripe with our human mindset.
There are thousands of organizations out there like Livestrong that help people.
Except a vast majority of them were started by people who have been through the same troubles as the people the organizations help.
Here's my question to you:
Why can't we start organizations to help people without first experiencing what they feel?
Why did it take getting cancer to make Lance Armstrong start his foundation?
Why is it that the parents of children with obscure, incurable diseases are always the ones trying to find the answers?
Why couldn't Lance Armstrong have sat down one day, pre-cancer, and say, "i think i'm going to start a foundation to raise money for cancer research."?
This is what i'm talking about.
All you have to do is listen to teenage girls for a little while: they are completely uninterested in their friends until they say, "my dog died last night", and then it's all, "awww, my dog died 2 years ago and i cried for 3 weeks!!!"
People in general have a hard time with empathy.
We find it difficult to think about the every day struggles of anyone other than ourselves.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
"Let no debt be outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." [Romans 13:8-10]
This is one thing i believe we can all do.
It's not that hard to love each other.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
On people, part one
A lot has been said about what people do in their cars while driving. People have talked about witnessing commuters shaving, eating full-course meals, and reading newspapers while in traffic. This fascinates me. Not that people are so desperately deprived of time for these things, but that they are put on display for everyone to see.
Ever since i was little, i've imagined that there is a bubble around every car on the highway. As we drift past vehicles in the other lanes, for a brief moment we are traveling on the same road at the same speed, in the same place at the same time. I always glance at that person in the other car, not to be nosy, but to see if they glance back: to see if they are just as interested in my life as I am in theirs. For that short time, your lives are connected, and that glance is all the communication you will ever have with that person. In the age of facebook, where a mere acquaintance can be labeled as a "friend" and remembered forever, this is a powerful concept. You only have a few seconds to meet this person, and only a few seconds to realize that their life isn't that different than your own. They, too have much too much to do and much too little time to do it in. They, too, are overwhelmed with thoughts and plans.
Here in America, we are famous for busying ourselves. Employers in Britain are required to give their workers 20 days of paid vacation time per year; the average in America is half that. We like to complicate our lives and stretch ourselves too thin.
We worry about our lives a whole lot.
But hardly ever do we worry about people.
I'm not talking about people you know well, or even only vaguely know. Everyone cares about their friends. But to a certain extent, that's just the same as caring about ourselves: our friends are part of our lives. Caring about them is, in effect, caring about ourselves. Never do we think about the lives of others- those people we pass on the highway, those people who we don't know, and whose lives couldn't possibly affect our own. After a few seconds, their life is once again unimportant to us. We go on with our day as normal, unaware of the condition of that individual. This is something that I would like to unsubscribe to.
Ever since i was little, i've imagined that there is a bubble around every car on the highway. As we drift past vehicles in the other lanes, for a brief moment we are traveling on the same road at the same speed, in the same place at the same time. I always glance at that person in the other car, not to be nosy, but to see if they glance back: to see if they are just as interested in my life as I am in theirs. For that short time, your lives are connected, and that glance is all the communication you will ever have with that person. In the age of facebook, where a mere acquaintance can be labeled as a "friend" and remembered forever, this is a powerful concept. You only have a few seconds to meet this person, and only a few seconds to realize that their life isn't that different than your own. They, too have much too much to do and much too little time to do it in. They, too, are overwhelmed with thoughts and plans.
Here in America, we are famous for busying ourselves. Employers in Britain are required to give their workers 20 days of paid vacation time per year; the average in America is half that. We like to complicate our lives and stretch ourselves too thin.
We worry about our lives a whole lot.
But hardly ever do we worry about people.
I'm not talking about people you know well, or even only vaguely know. Everyone cares about their friends. But to a certain extent, that's just the same as caring about ourselves: our friends are part of our lives. Caring about them is, in effect, caring about ourselves. Never do we think about the lives of others- those people we pass on the highway, those people who we don't know, and whose lives couldn't possibly affect our own. After a few seconds, their life is once again unimportant to us. We go on with our day as normal, unaware of the condition of that individual. This is something that I would like to unsubscribe to.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
On Twelve Hours
Today was an incredible day.
My parents are out of town until tomorrow afternoon, and as such i've had to take care of myself.
There was also a sectional youth rally in Tilton today, which we were going to take a bus to from the church:
The day started at effectively 11:00. That was after i'd fully woken up, taken the dog out, fed him, took a shower, etc.
I ate some pizza, finished glueing my speakers back together after re-foaming the surrounds, listened to the recording of last night's uturn, and did a little lazing around until about 2:00.
2:00 found at Somersworth's pumpkin fest.
Here's how that went:
I parked the car, walked around for about 5 minutes, then left again.
As I was leaving downtown somersworth, i decided that i didn't want to, or have reason, to go straight home.
So I spent half an hour or so perusing the backroads of somersworth, enjoying some alone time.
I thought, "how nice is this to just drive around?"
Little did i know what would come later.
After i got home, I did a little housekeeping on my music library, and started re-syncing my mp3 player.
While that was going on, i vacuumed the car, put the speaker box back together, and tried it out. I was pretty excited to leave for the sectional youth rally at 4:10.
Except my mp3 player wasn't done syncing, so i waited for it.
And waited.
And waited.
4:20 rolled by, and it wasn't done.
So i pulled the plug and drove to barrington.
The bus was supposed to leave at 4:30, so i hurried along, only to have to wait for forever for traffic on route 125.
I get to the church at 4:35, and the Indonesian's are like, "they just left!!"
So, using the amazing power of cell phones, i find out that the bus is not far away, except now i'd have to drive to tilton my meself.
I spent the next 45 minutes or so on and off the phone getting directions on where to go- and all the time trying to catch up with the group. At one point, we used the mile markers on the highway to see that we were only 4 miles apart. But the whole time, i never saw them.
I watched the oil temp gauge hit the halfway mark as i was going down the highway as fast as reasonably achievable in a ford taurus.
I got to the tilton church about a minute after them, and then the rally got underway.
The message that the preacher gave was about standing up for what's right.
At the end there was an altar call, and i sat in my chair for the whole time thinking.
I like going up at altar calls, except sometimes i have a hard time thinking about what to go for. I spent the entire time trying to figure out a reason to stand up.
And then, when it was too late and everything was over, i figured it out:
At one point, the preacher mentioned something that seemed a little off-topic to his sermon.
He said that we need to be "A" students.
Not students in the academic sense, but students to God.
And sitting there, i thought about school.
I thought about how i don't get all As in my classes, and i thought about why.
I spend most of my days on "autopilot".
One time, my bass teacher got frustrated with me during a lesson.
We were playing a song with a cd, and i didn't have the notes memorized.
He said, "you're just reacting to the song. Try to anticipate what comes next."
That's exactly how i am in school.
I just go through my day reacting to what my teachers say, to what homework is, to what i'm supposed to be learning.
I just kind of scrape by under the radar.
And as i was thinking about this, i noticed that it's how i live my life, too.
I just kind of react to life.
I've been a christian all my life, and i kind of just do what feels natural to me, which is usually the right thing to do.
But it doesn't change the fact that its all just reactions.
I decided that i want to live in anticipation of what comes next, not waiting to see it first.
I want to live deliberately, thinking about everything i do.
I was hoping to be able to follow the bus home.
But that didn't happen because they left before i could eat my food at mcDonalds, and i also had to get gas.
I put $20 in at $2.99/gallon.
After spending a good half hour trying to decide how to go home, we figured i'd just backtrack the way i came.
So what if it was 10:00 out and had no idea where i was?
I seem to be doing a lot of blind driving lately, not really knowing how i'm going to get someplace.
Anyway, I got on the highway and discovered that i was completely alone.
There were no cars ahead of me, and no cars behind me.
I turned off the radio and started talking to God.
And i quickly felt like an idiot for thinking to myself, "its weird being lost and alone somewhere you've never been before"
I wasn't alone, i just finally had a chance to have one-on-one time, undistracted, with the greatest friend in the world.
At first, it was kind of weird.
I started thinking about being alone on a highway-seriously, no one was around.
I even thought about putting the car in neutral and seeing how long it would take to coast from a stop from 70mph.
But i didn't.
By the time i hit Route 9, though, it was different.
The road is curvey. I road the Epsom traffic circle a few times around for the fun of it.
It felt like the northwood countryside was almost a big playground that i was frolicking around in with my best friend.
It was like, "hang out time".
By the time i made it to barrington, it was 11:00 PM.
I rolled down all the windows and turned the heat on full blast.
Of those 12 hours, i spent 1/4 of my day in the car by myself.
And in that time, i realized how great it is that i can be alone without being alone.
And i decided to live my life deliberately.
I want to ride my bike to church tomorrow.
Let's see if i can wake up at 6.
My parents are out of town until tomorrow afternoon, and as such i've had to take care of myself.
There was also a sectional youth rally in Tilton today, which we were going to take a bus to from the church:
The day started at effectively 11:00. That was after i'd fully woken up, taken the dog out, fed him, took a shower, etc.
I ate some pizza, finished glueing my speakers back together after re-foaming the surrounds, listened to the recording of last night's uturn, and did a little lazing around until about 2:00.
2:00 found at Somersworth's pumpkin fest.
Here's how that went:
I parked the car, walked around for about 5 minutes, then left again.
As I was leaving downtown somersworth, i decided that i didn't want to, or have reason, to go straight home.
So I spent half an hour or so perusing the backroads of somersworth, enjoying some alone time.
I thought, "how nice is this to just drive around?"
Little did i know what would come later.
After i got home, I did a little housekeeping on my music library, and started re-syncing my mp3 player.
While that was going on, i vacuumed the car, put the speaker box back together, and tried it out. I was pretty excited to leave for the sectional youth rally at 4:10.
Except my mp3 player wasn't done syncing, so i waited for it.
And waited.
And waited.
4:20 rolled by, and it wasn't done.
So i pulled the plug and drove to barrington.
The bus was supposed to leave at 4:30, so i hurried along, only to have to wait for forever for traffic on route 125.
I get to the church at 4:35, and the Indonesian's are like, "they just left!!"
So, using the amazing power of cell phones, i find out that the bus is not far away, except now i'd have to drive to tilton my meself.
I spent the next 45 minutes or so on and off the phone getting directions on where to go- and all the time trying to catch up with the group. At one point, we used the mile markers on the highway to see that we were only 4 miles apart. But the whole time, i never saw them.
I watched the oil temp gauge hit the halfway mark as i was going down the highway as fast as reasonably achievable in a ford taurus.
I got to the tilton church about a minute after them, and then the rally got underway.
The message that the preacher gave was about standing up for what's right.
At the end there was an altar call, and i sat in my chair for the whole time thinking.
I like going up at altar calls, except sometimes i have a hard time thinking about what to go for. I spent the entire time trying to figure out a reason to stand up.
And then, when it was too late and everything was over, i figured it out:
At one point, the preacher mentioned something that seemed a little off-topic to his sermon.
He said that we need to be "A" students.
Not students in the academic sense, but students to God.
And sitting there, i thought about school.
I thought about how i don't get all As in my classes, and i thought about why.
I spend most of my days on "autopilot".
One time, my bass teacher got frustrated with me during a lesson.
We were playing a song with a cd, and i didn't have the notes memorized.
He said, "you're just reacting to the song. Try to anticipate what comes next."
That's exactly how i am in school.
I just go through my day reacting to what my teachers say, to what homework is, to what i'm supposed to be learning.
I just kind of scrape by under the radar.
And as i was thinking about this, i noticed that it's how i live my life, too.
I just kind of react to life.
I've been a christian all my life, and i kind of just do what feels natural to me, which is usually the right thing to do.
But it doesn't change the fact that its all just reactions.
I decided that i want to live in anticipation of what comes next, not waiting to see it first.
I want to live deliberately, thinking about everything i do.
I was hoping to be able to follow the bus home.
But that didn't happen because they left before i could eat my food at mcDonalds, and i also had to get gas.
I put $20 in at $2.99/gallon.
After spending a good half hour trying to decide how to go home, we figured i'd just backtrack the way i came.
So what if it was 10:00 out and had no idea where i was?
I seem to be doing a lot of blind driving lately, not really knowing how i'm going to get someplace.
Anyway, I got on the highway and discovered that i was completely alone.
There were no cars ahead of me, and no cars behind me.
I turned off the radio and started talking to God.
And i quickly felt like an idiot for thinking to myself, "its weird being lost and alone somewhere you've never been before"
I wasn't alone, i just finally had a chance to have one-on-one time, undistracted, with the greatest friend in the world.
At first, it was kind of weird.
I started thinking about being alone on a highway-seriously, no one was around.
I even thought about putting the car in neutral and seeing how long it would take to coast from a stop from 70mph.
But i didn't.
By the time i hit Route 9, though, it was different.
The road is curvey. I road the Epsom traffic circle a few times around for the fun of it.
It felt like the northwood countryside was almost a big playground that i was frolicking around in with my best friend.
It was like, "hang out time".
By the time i made it to barrington, it was 11:00 PM.
I rolled down all the windows and turned the heat on full blast.
Of those 12 hours, i spent 1/4 of my day in the car by myself.
And in that time, i realized how great it is that i can be alone without being alone.
And i decided to live my life deliberately.
I want to ride my bike to church tomorrow.
Let's see if i can wake up at 6.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
On Repayment
Western culture, specifically that of America, can be described in a number of ways.
For example, our diet is high in simple sugars and processed foodstuffs, with nutrients added as an afterthought which makes us fat.
We have pride in our free market allowing anyone with enough determination to get whatever he so desires, be it fame, fortune, or early retirement.
And we are also marked by our independence; self-reliance, if you will.
The emphasis on "self" is everywhere in our world.
just watch an Axe or alcohol commercial and you get a feel for the self-centeredness that we are encouraged to employ in our everyday thoughts and actions.
The religious leaders around the year 40 AD were some of the most self-centered men of the time. They would jump at any opportunity to promote themselves or flout their greatness. They announced their generosity as loudly and obnoxiously as they could so that the general populace was aware of their giving.
But one day, Jesus was having dinner at the house of one of these religious leaders.
To their snobbish behavior, he told his host and the other guests this:
"When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." [luke 3:12-14]
It's a shame we don't know what Jesus' voice sounded like when he said this, but I imagine he had an air of sarcasm when he noted that their friends could pay them back.
He is suggesting that it is bad to be repaid for inviting people to hour houses- that we should avoid doing things that put others in debt to us, and on top of that, to purposefully bless people who can't bless us back.
In our world of high-powered business and sociopaths, people are often seen as having "good character" if they tend to do things mutually. That is, "i'll help you out, and you can help me out later on." rather than first asking for money for a deed or service. But we are told here to take it a step further.
We are told to only give to those who can't give back, who aren't capable of helping us out down the road.
After all, what does mankind benefit if everything is done for a fee?
It's just another example of investing in eternity, which is looking more and more appealing every day with the $700 billion bailout going on and such.
For example, our diet is high in simple sugars and processed foodstuffs, with nutrients added as an afterthought which makes us fat.
We have pride in our free market allowing anyone with enough determination to get whatever he so desires, be it fame, fortune, or early retirement.
And we are also marked by our independence; self-reliance, if you will.
The emphasis on "self" is everywhere in our world.
just watch an Axe or alcohol commercial and you get a feel for the self-centeredness that we are encouraged to employ in our everyday thoughts and actions.
The religious leaders around the year 40 AD were some of the most self-centered men of the time. They would jump at any opportunity to promote themselves or flout their greatness. They announced their generosity as loudly and obnoxiously as they could so that the general populace was aware of their giving.
But one day, Jesus was having dinner at the house of one of these religious leaders.
To their snobbish behavior, he told his host and the other guests this:
"When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." [luke 3:12-14]
It's a shame we don't know what Jesus' voice sounded like when he said this, but I imagine he had an air of sarcasm when he noted that their friends could pay them back.
He is suggesting that it is bad to be repaid for inviting people to hour houses- that we should avoid doing things that put others in debt to us, and on top of that, to purposefully bless people who can't bless us back.
In our world of high-powered business and sociopaths, people are often seen as having "good character" if they tend to do things mutually. That is, "i'll help you out, and you can help me out later on." rather than first asking for money for a deed or service. But we are told here to take it a step further.
We are told to only give to those who can't give back, who aren't capable of helping us out down the road.
After all, what does mankind benefit if everything is done for a fee?
It's just another example of investing in eternity, which is looking more and more appealing every day with the $700 billion bailout going on and such.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
On Third John
3 John is a small book near the back of the bible.
It is so small, in fact, that no one ever bothered to chop it up into chapters.
Contained within its 14 verses is a message of encouragement to a man, Gaius, who John was proud of for being so hospitable to christian travelers.
He also warns about another guy, Diotrephes, who made himself a church leader and goes about his job haughtily; he likes to run the show.
But was i was reading it last night, one verse stood out to me.
I looked all over for a commentary on it, but i didn't find a single one.
so i'm going to make my own.
3 John 1:11 states: "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."
Now, sure, this statement seems pretty logical.
Don't do bad things, do good things instead.
But here is where, when i read a single sentence, i sat up and had to think for a while:
"Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."
Think about the elegant simplicity of that message.
We are surrounded by a world that is entrenched in evil and evildoings.
And in the midst of that, John tells us that anyone who has 'seen' God is incapable of doing evil.
Perhaps not physically incapable, but unwilling enough to make it to that point.
He's saying that God is so good, anyone who still does evil hasn't seen what he can do; his love; his devotion; his grace.
This is a tremendously encouraging idea.
It implies that all we need to do is be a light to people, to show them what God's love can really do, and anyone who truly understands it will want to have nothing to do with how they used to live their life.
It is so small, in fact, that no one ever bothered to chop it up into chapters.
Contained within its 14 verses is a message of encouragement to a man, Gaius, who John was proud of for being so hospitable to christian travelers.
He also warns about another guy, Diotrephes, who made himself a church leader and goes about his job haughtily; he likes to run the show.
But was i was reading it last night, one verse stood out to me.
I looked all over for a commentary on it, but i didn't find a single one.
so i'm going to make my own.
3 John 1:11 states: "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."
Now, sure, this statement seems pretty logical.
Don't do bad things, do good things instead.
But here is where, when i read a single sentence, i sat up and had to think for a while:
"Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."
Think about the elegant simplicity of that message.
We are surrounded by a world that is entrenched in evil and evildoings.
And in the midst of that, John tells us that anyone who has 'seen' God is incapable of doing evil.
Perhaps not physically incapable, but unwilling enough to make it to that point.
He's saying that God is so good, anyone who still does evil hasn't seen what he can do; his love; his devotion; his grace.
This is a tremendously encouraging idea.
It implies that all we need to do is be a light to people, to show them what God's love can really do, and anyone who truly understands it will want to have nothing to do with how they used to live their life.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
On The Second Time I Saw Batman: Dark Night
Last weekend i saw batman again with some people.
After i saw it the first time, i wrote a blog about how Bruce Wayne uses his money for a useful purpose.
After seeing it a second time, i focused more on a couple of ideals presented by Christopher Nolan.
One thing that i've always tried to incorporate into my life is what the Joker lives by: that everyone always has a plan, and we're always happy when things go the way we expect them to. But that's boring and old.
He said to "introduce a little anarchy", but that's quite overkill, thank you very much.
I rather like removing myself from the box people put me in and showing them that i didn't fit in the first place.
And i've always liked not having a plan.
-------
One other thing that was said by Alfred i think was that the city of Gotham needed "more than a hero".
They didn't need someone who would follow the rules of "right" and "wrong".
They needed someone who would put an end to their problems for good, even if it meant doing things in a way that was frowned upon and that made him a Vigilante.
Paul wrote to Timothy once about how people would act in the "last days":
"They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." [2 timothy 3:6-7]
That pretty well describes the situation in Gotham.
It also describes the situation in modern society.
And, coincidentally, the last part, "Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth", also pertains to the attitude of Jewish leaders in Jesus' time.
They constantly wanted knowledge. They debated on a scholarly level.
But when Jesus came around, they were oblivious to what was standing before them.
In Romans 10, Paul says:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Chris is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."
Paul said that Christ was "the end of the law".
He voided the Jewish law; made it obsolete.
And the religious leaders didn't realize this.
See, Jesus was way over their heads.
They were completely unprepared for what he was bringing.
He didn't play by the religious rules.
Just like how Gotham wasn't ready for Batman- he didn't play by the rules either.
Coincidentally, the only real opponent Batman has is the Joker-
A man who's entire existence is based off of anarchy and destruction.
Much like someone else we all know.
My point here is simple:
Batman and Jesus were both unrestrained by the law of the time.
They didn't play by the rules because they had a purpose far, far above them.
And most people of the time didn't recognize this.
After i saw it the first time, i wrote a blog about how Bruce Wayne uses his money for a useful purpose.
After seeing it a second time, i focused more on a couple of ideals presented by Christopher Nolan.
One thing that i've always tried to incorporate into my life is what the Joker lives by: that everyone always has a plan, and we're always happy when things go the way we expect them to. But that's boring and old.
He said to "introduce a little anarchy", but that's quite overkill, thank you very much.
I rather like removing myself from the box people put me in and showing them that i didn't fit in the first place.
And i've always liked not having a plan.
-------
One other thing that was said by Alfred i think was that the city of Gotham needed "more than a hero".
They didn't need someone who would follow the rules of "right" and "wrong".
They needed someone who would put an end to their problems for good, even if it meant doing things in a way that was frowned upon and that made him a Vigilante.
Paul wrote to Timothy once about how people would act in the "last days":
"They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." [2 timothy 3:6-7]
That pretty well describes the situation in Gotham.
It also describes the situation in modern society.
And, coincidentally, the last part, "Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth", also pertains to the attitude of Jewish leaders in Jesus' time.
They constantly wanted knowledge. They debated on a scholarly level.
But when Jesus came around, they were oblivious to what was standing before them.
In Romans 10, Paul says:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Chris is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."
Paul said that Christ was "the end of the law".
He voided the Jewish law; made it obsolete.
And the religious leaders didn't realize this.
See, Jesus was way over their heads.
They were completely unprepared for what he was bringing.
He didn't play by the religious rules.
Just like how Gotham wasn't ready for Batman- he didn't play by the rules either.
Coincidentally, the only real opponent Batman has is the Joker-
A man who's entire existence is based off of anarchy and destruction.
Much like someone else we all know.
My point here is simple:
Batman and Jesus were both unrestrained by the law of the time.
They didn't play by the rules because they had a purpose far, far above them.
And most people of the time didn't recognize this.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
On Responsibility
So last week we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights in Rochester, NY, while we helped my brother move back into college.
One of the first things i noticed when we got to the room was a little envelope on the table.
Here is a picture of it.
If the people seen on the streets of Rochester are any clue to demographics, Patty is probably a middle-aged single mother struggling to make ends meet.
And she has, by signature, claimed to be here to clean up my life's messes.
Or at least, whatever mess i make of that particular hotel room.
Let me tell you a story.
I've told it here before.
In Luke 16, Jesus told his disciples about a rich man and his servant.
This particular servant was in charge of managing the rich guy's money.
However, the servant had not been a good manager and had wasted his master's money.
So Rich Guy gives the notice that the servant is going to be fired.
Knowing that he is not going to survive well in the world of toilsome labor, the servant has to drum up a way to creek by after he's let go from the firm.
So he goes around to his soon-to-be-former master's debtors- the people that owe him money- and changes all their bills.
He knows that he's going to be fired, so he has nothing left to lose.
Now his master will be even more angry at him, BUT he'll have made friends and collected favors from people in the town.
That way, when he's in need, he only has to remind someone, "i gave you half your money back", and he's good for a few months.
Now, here's what happened:
"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." [luke 16:8&9]
Jesus is proposing that, since the wealth of this world is temporary after all, why not use it for something useful?
We can bless the people around us, and what we lose on earth is made up for many times over in heaven.
But He goes on to say:
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?"
We have responsibilities here.
In the grand scheme of things, there isn't a housekeeper who will gladly pick up our messes in exchange for some measly tips.
We have to be able to act in a way that is trustworthy to God, so that when we're done in our hotel room, we have a real place to stay.
One of the first things i noticed when we got to the room was a little envelope on the table.
Here is a picture of it.
If the people seen on the streets of Rochester are any clue to demographics, Patty is probably a middle-aged single mother struggling to make ends meet.
And she has, by signature, claimed to be here to clean up my life's messes.
Or at least, whatever mess i make of that particular hotel room.
Let me tell you a story.
I've told it here before.
In Luke 16, Jesus told his disciples about a rich man and his servant.
This particular servant was in charge of managing the rich guy's money.
However, the servant had not been a good manager and had wasted his master's money.
So Rich Guy gives the notice that the servant is going to be fired.
Knowing that he is not going to survive well in the world of toilsome labor, the servant has to drum up a way to creek by after he's let go from the firm.
So he goes around to his soon-to-be-former master's debtors- the people that owe him money- and changes all their bills.
He knows that he's going to be fired, so he has nothing left to lose.
Now his master will be even more angry at him, BUT he'll have made friends and collected favors from people in the town.
That way, when he's in need, he only has to remind someone, "i gave you half your money back", and he's good for a few months.
Now, here's what happened:
"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." [luke 16:8&9]
Jesus is proposing that, since the wealth of this world is temporary after all, why not use it for something useful?
We can bless the people around us, and what we lose on earth is made up for many times over in heaven.
But He goes on to say:
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?"
We have responsibilities here.
In the grand scheme of things, there isn't a housekeeper who will gladly pick up our messes in exchange for some measly tips.
We have to be able to act in a way that is trustworthy to God, so that when we're done in our hotel room, we have a real place to stay.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
More NY Recap
Yesterday i was too ridiculously tired to make a blog post, and i'm completely pooped today, too.
so i dont know how interesting this one will be.
Yesterday and today both consisted of dragging all around the city of Rochester, NY getting junk for my brother's second year at college.
We ate at a pretty good bbq place for lunch yesterday.
except the $7 sandwich i got was just big enough to make me more hungry.
I haven't had any time to do my homework cause i've been dragged around nonstop, and right now i'm rather miserable with a nasty headache and intense desire to pass out.
In my own life, i have discovered another justification for not moving away for college:
Currently, im at my aunt's house.
She lives about 10 minutes away from where my dad's family grew up in Schenectady, NY.
While we were going to the pizza place that has made my dad's favorite pizza since he was in highschool, he was driving around his old neighborhood... we looked at the house he grew up in, to which he remarked, "our house was really that small?"
He also found his old gradeschool, which appears to have been converted into an office complex, as well as his little league field.
He named off stores that haven't existed in a decade, some of which are still empty buildings in the dying town that used to be a bustle from General Electric's presence.
He rattled off the names of kids he grew up with- most of them ending with, "then we got into a fight and i never talked to him again"
In short, this is what i've decided.
I don't want to find myself in 30 years, driving down the streets of Dover and Somersworth, trying to remember all the times of my youth, recalling places i used to hang out with my friends.
I don't want to have fragments of memories, pieces of my life, attached to someplace that i no longer live in.
I don't want to move someplace new and have to make new friends, pushing my old ones out of my head to make room.
My life is pretty good right now; i don't need to escape to a new part of the country.
I don't like nostalgia.
Not because i don't like remembering the past- its good to go back sometimes and remember what life was like.
But sometimes it shouldn't exist in the first place.
The same way you should never have nostalgia about an ex-wife, i don't want to have nostalgia about where i used to live and the people i used to know.
Sure, you can point out all the flaws in my reasoning, but this makes sense to me.
I have a bunch more to talk about, but im gonna save it for sometime when i can think straight.
Like tomorrow or saturday night or something.
so i dont know how interesting this one will be.
Yesterday and today both consisted of dragging all around the city of Rochester, NY getting junk for my brother's second year at college.
We ate at a pretty good bbq place for lunch yesterday.
except the $7 sandwich i got was just big enough to make me more hungry.
I haven't had any time to do my homework cause i've been dragged around nonstop, and right now i'm rather miserable with a nasty headache and intense desire to pass out.
In my own life, i have discovered another justification for not moving away for college:
Currently, im at my aunt's house.
She lives about 10 minutes away from where my dad's family grew up in Schenectady, NY.
While we were going to the pizza place that has made my dad's favorite pizza since he was in highschool, he was driving around his old neighborhood... we looked at the house he grew up in, to which he remarked, "our house was really that small?"
He also found his old gradeschool, which appears to have been converted into an office complex, as well as his little league field.
He named off stores that haven't existed in a decade, some of which are still empty buildings in the dying town that used to be a bustle from General Electric's presence.
He rattled off the names of kids he grew up with- most of them ending with, "then we got into a fight and i never talked to him again"
In short, this is what i've decided.
I don't want to find myself in 30 years, driving down the streets of Dover and Somersworth, trying to remember all the times of my youth, recalling places i used to hang out with my friends.
I don't want to have fragments of memories, pieces of my life, attached to someplace that i no longer live in.
I don't want to move someplace new and have to make new friends, pushing my old ones out of my head to make room.
My life is pretty good right now; i don't need to escape to a new part of the country.
I don't like nostalgia.
Not because i don't like remembering the past- its good to go back sometimes and remember what life was like.
But sometimes it shouldn't exist in the first place.
The same way you should never have nostalgia about an ex-wife, i don't want to have nostalgia about where i used to live and the people i used to know.
Sure, you can point out all the flaws in my reasoning, but this makes sense to me.
I have a bunch more to talk about, but im gonna save it for sometime when i can think straight.
Like tomorrow or saturday night or something.
Monday, August 18, 2008
A Positive New York Blog
Since Freshman year, when i got a myspace account, i've documented every trip to the state of New York that my family has taken.
This consists of mostly the sad ramblings of a teenager stuck on Long Island in the confines of his grandmother's lonely-old-lady house.
This generally entails much talk of the latest unreasonable work that must be done during the already painful "vacation".
However, with my brother going to college in Rochester, NY, there is a new kind of New York Trip to document&183;
Though still family road trips, which are amongst the least favored of all activities, Rochester happens to be on the "good side" of the Empire State.
Long Island, where my grandma lives, is a veritable snob-fest.
We read a book in English class last year called The Great Gatsby, which fictionally documents a middle-class young man's experiences with the Rich and Famous in the vicinity.
The Island is only a few miles from Manhattan, and as such has a rather dense population.
Trees are few and far in between; the landscape is more-or-less grey from everything being paved.
Rochester, on the other hand, is in Upstate New York, only a couple-hour-drive from Buffalo, and a day trip's distance from Niagra.
Up and Downstate new york couldn't really be much different.
The swelter of Long Island gives way to the picturesque landscape of New England autumn, with gorgeous trees and temperate climate.
People are courteous on the streets unless you venture into the slums of the city.
But New York is still New York.
Not being at my Grandma's doesn't make up for the fact that i'm currently typing whilst crammed on the larger side of the 60/40 seats in my dad's Extended Cab F-150.
I'm leaning on two pillows to cover up the harsh protrusions of the door handle and windowframes, and in order to change my position I have to pull myself up from a hook on the seat.
Lack of Amenities aside, the good part about roadtrips in general is still here: being in a car.
8 hours is a long time, but nothing beats watching the road go by at 80 miles per hour for thinking, atrophying, and justifying long naps.
Besides bringing Dave all his junk for the year (dave flew up a couple days ago), my parents are making me do interviews at my brother's school and then at RPI, which is in Troy.
But i dont think i want to go to either school.
I'd rather just stick around home, where Uturn is going to grow, and where Kindle is going to get better at writing songs.
At the same time, i could let all the growing happen while i'm in college, and then just come back after i graduate.
But that doesn't seem like a good plan to me.
Trying to decipher the future seems pretty useless.
If i were to ask any adult right now if they had any inkling that they'd be where they are when they were deciding on college, i'd get a "no way, kid" answer.
I have absolutely no idea where i'll be, who i'll depend on, who'll depend on me, or what i'll be doing to support those dependencies in 5 years.
5 years and i'll be completely done with school.
I'll be entering the workforce as an eager wage-earner.
I'll be searching for a cheap apartment.
I just hope that i'll be where i'm supposed to be.
Anyway, my point was that driving makes me think.
Actually, movement in general makes me think.
When i talk on the phone i pace in circles.
It helps me to concentrate when my surroundings aren't constant.
But being on the road always lends itself to me thinking of the future and progression.
It makes me want to go out and lead my life, to get on with it.
To make an impact, to make a difference.
I want to go places, and not just physically.
I had a sheet of paper last year that i found this morning whilst rooting through my backpack.
On it i had written a bunch of thoughts that had come to me at random times, with intents to write blogs on some of them.
Almost the whole first side of the page was about roads.
One line read:
"Let's drag race down the straight and narrow"
Our walk with God is often paralleled with a road or path.
Jesus described this as the "narrow gate" which leads to a straight path that is difficult to stay on.
But i think that we can be competitive in our relationship with Jesus.
By that i mean that, as Christians, we can-and should- push each other to grow.
Beyond "accountability partners", which seems to entail keeping each other in check, almost passively, i'm talking about actively pushing each other, the same way you push each other on a sports team to work harder and longer.
Just like how people drag race each other on highways to get to the destination faster.
This consists of mostly the sad ramblings of a teenager stuck on Long Island in the confines of his grandmother's lonely-old-lady house.
This generally entails much talk of the latest unreasonable work that must be done during the already painful "vacation".
However, with my brother going to college in Rochester, NY, there is a new kind of New York Trip to document&183;
Though still family road trips, which are amongst the least favored of all activities, Rochester happens to be on the "good side" of the Empire State.
Long Island, where my grandma lives, is a veritable snob-fest.
We read a book in English class last year called The Great Gatsby, which fictionally documents a middle-class young man's experiences with the Rich and Famous in the vicinity.
The Island is only a few miles from Manhattan, and as such has a rather dense population.
Trees are few and far in between; the landscape is more-or-less grey from everything being paved.
Rochester, on the other hand, is in Upstate New York, only a couple-hour-drive from Buffalo, and a day trip's distance from Niagra.
Up and Downstate new york couldn't really be much different.
The swelter of Long Island gives way to the picturesque landscape of New England autumn, with gorgeous trees and temperate climate.
People are courteous on the streets unless you venture into the slums of the city.
But New York is still New York.
Not being at my Grandma's doesn't make up for the fact that i'm currently typing whilst crammed on the larger side of the 60/40 seats in my dad's Extended Cab F-150.
I'm leaning on two pillows to cover up the harsh protrusions of the door handle and windowframes, and in order to change my position I have to pull myself up from a hook on the seat.
Lack of Amenities aside, the good part about roadtrips in general is still here: being in a car.
8 hours is a long time, but nothing beats watching the road go by at 80 miles per hour for thinking, atrophying, and justifying long naps.
Besides bringing Dave all his junk for the year (dave flew up a couple days ago), my parents are making me do interviews at my brother's school and then at RPI, which is in Troy.
But i dont think i want to go to either school.
I'd rather just stick around home, where Uturn is going to grow, and where Kindle is going to get better at writing songs.
At the same time, i could let all the growing happen while i'm in college, and then just come back after i graduate.
But that doesn't seem like a good plan to me.
Trying to decipher the future seems pretty useless.
If i were to ask any adult right now if they had any inkling that they'd be where they are when they were deciding on college, i'd get a "no way, kid" answer.
I have absolutely no idea where i'll be, who i'll depend on, who'll depend on me, or what i'll be doing to support those dependencies in 5 years.
5 years and i'll be completely done with school.
I'll be entering the workforce as an eager wage-earner.
I'll be searching for a cheap apartment.
I just hope that i'll be where i'm supposed to be.
Anyway, my point was that driving makes me think.
Actually, movement in general makes me think.
When i talk on the phone i pace in circles.
It helps me to concentrate when my surroundings aren't constant.
But being on the road always lends itself to me thinking of the future and progression.
It makes me want to go out and lead my life, to get on with it.
To make an impact, to make a difference.
I want to go places, and not just physically.
I had a sheet of paper last year that i found this morning whilst rooting through my backpack.
On it i had written a bunch of thoughts that had come to me at random times, with intents to write blogs on some of them.
Almost the whole first side of the page was about roads.
One line read:
"Let's drag race down the straight and narrow"
Our walk with God is often paralleled with a road or path.
Jesus described this as the "narrow gate" which leads to a straight path that is difficult to stay on.
But i think that we can be competitive in our relationship with Jesus.
By that i mean that, as Christians, we can-and should- push each other to grow.
Beyond "accountability partners", which seems to entail keeping each other in check, almost passively, i'm talking about actively pushing each other, the same way you push each other on a sports team to work harder and longer.
Just like how people drag race each other on highways to get to the destination faster.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
On Treasures
There's a MuteMath song that we've played at uturn a few times now.
It's called "You are Mine", and the first verse reads as such:
Everyone has their obsession
Consuming thoughts, consuming time
They hold high their prized possession
That defines the meaning of their lives
Now, being as how MuteMath filed a lawsuit with Warner Records a few years ago because they were being marketed as a christian band, it's not really clear if Paul Meany is talking about God or a girl.
BUT, we sing it as a worship song.
Anyway, the point of the song is that every person has something/s in their life that is a complete obsession-so much so that it determines how they act, how they carry out their life, and how they think and reason.
For many people, we can call that thing a relationship with some person or a group of people.
For many near-hopeless americans, it's money.
Others, even, spend their entire lives in the "Pursuit of Happiness", the elusive and tantalizing ideal brought forth in the Declaration of Independence.
Plenty of people are obsessed with things.
Here's some examples:
Beer Cans
Lawn Mowers
Children
Jesus had some good words to say about obsession:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21
The things we value most are tied into our emotions, our thoughts, and our actions.
When we value lawnmowers, we start collecting them and let them sit in our yard.
But when we value our place in heaven and our relationship with God, we start living in a Christ-like manner. We love each other. We witness to people. We plant churches.
Andy's neighbor is a moron.
We don't have to be.
It's called "You are Mine", and the first verse reads as such:
Everyone has their obsession
Consuming thoughts, consuming time
They hold high their prized possession
That defines the meaning of their lives
Now, being as how MuteMath filed a lawsuit with Warner Records a few years ago because they were being marketed as a christian band, it's not really clear if Paul Meany is talking about God or a girl.
BUT, we sing it as a worship song.
Anyway, the point of the song is that every person has something/s in their life that is a complete obsession-so much so that it determines how they act, how they carry out their life, and how they think and reason.
For many people, we can call that thing a relationship with some person or a group of people.
For many near-hopeless americans, it's money.
Others, even, spend their entire lives in the "Pursuit of Happiness", the elusive and tantalizing ideal brought forth in the Declaration of Independence.
Plenty of people are obsessed with things.
Here's some examples:
Beer Cans
Lawn Mowers
Children
Jesus had some good words to say about obsession:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21
The things we value most are tied into our emotions, our thoughts, and our actions.
When we value lawnmowers, we start collecting them and let them sit in our yard.
But when we value our place in heaven and our relationship with God, we start living in a Christ-like manner. We love each other. We witness to people. We plant churches.
Andy's neighbor is a moron.
We don't have to be.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
On Batman and Video Games
Human society has been creating paradoxes for centuries.
In fact, one could argue that it is a paradox for us to live in organized society; just read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
Perhaps one of the more recent additions to Humanity's ever-growing paradoxical activities is the creation of the MMORPG.
Most of you in my age bracket will instantly think of Runescape with horrified nostalgia.
The MMORPG has taken human interaction and removed the human aspect of it.
You walk/fly around a completely virtual world with countless other people doing the same things.
You never see people face-to-face, but you talk to them and interact in the game.
Games have changed the way humans interact with each other; they have a negative impact on how we communicate in person, but a positive impact on how we organize and collaborate.
But what i find most interesting about MMORPGs is the time and energy that people are willing to commit to them.
Millions of Americans spend hours per day making money and building skills in WOW.
People in Korea have DIED from playing games nonstop.
That's an investment of 100% of their life.
That means that building their character in the game was more important than building their lives in real life.
It's disturbing.
But as much as there's counseling for game addictions and people willing to spend hundreds of dollars on in-game items, literally BILLIONS of people are walking around life exactly like those Koreans who refuse to eat or drink anything other than pizza and red bull.
We think it's ridiculous that people spend so much time in fake, man-made universes.
But we spend all our time in the world.
"Real Life" isn't as real as people think it is.
Check out the great words of King Solomon:
"What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." [Ecclesiastes 1:3-9, NIV]
Do the last few sentences seem familiar?
There are a couple million people playing WOW right now, and they're all doing the same exact thing.
Sure, they go about it in different ways, but they all have similar objectives and go through similar steps.
There isn't a whole lot of room for innovation; not a lot of room to do something new- you just follow the rules of the game.
That's how life is, too.
You go through the motions: get an education, get a job, make money, get married, start a family, keep trying to make money, die, pass the torch on to your kids...
Not a whole lot else happens.
From Solomon's perspective, the whole thing is kind of a drag.
Why even bother with life?
Bother because theres a whole lot more out there to live for than ourselves.
In Batman: Dark Night, they do a good job of portraying how ridiculously rich Bruce Wayne is.
But what makes Bruce Wayne different from everyone else is how he uses his money.
All the mobsters only want money to have it; its all greed.
Bruce uses his money to fight evil and bring peace to Gotham.
Having money wasn't important to him.
It was only a tool used for a higher purpose.
Likewise, the things of the world shouldn't mean anything to us.
We should have as much invested in this place as a kid playing a video game.
Because the only use the things of the world are to us are as a tool to save the lost; what else is there to do with yourself?
In Isaiah 55:1&2, God says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
The important part of life has nothing to do with what we have or don't have.
You can be a homeless bum and still be better off than people who have it all.
And like Bruce Wayne, why spend effort on useless junk?
spend it on what actually makes a difference.
In fact, one could argue that it is a paradox for us to live in organized society; just read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
Perhaps one of the more recent additions to Humanity's ever-growing paradoxical activities is the creation of the MMORPG.
Most of you in my age bracket will instantly think of Runescape with horrified nostalgia.
The MMORPG has taken human interaction and removed the human aspect of it.
You walk/fly around a completely virtual world with countless other people doing the same things.
You never see people face-to-face, but you talk to them and interact in the game.
Games have changed the way humans interact with each other; they have a negative impact on how we communicate in person, but a positive impact on how we organize and collaborate.
But what i find most interesting about MMORPGs is the time and energy that people are willing to commit to them.
Millions of Americans spend hours per day making money and building skills in WOW.
People in Korea have DIED from playing games nonstop.
That's an investment of 100% of their life.
That means that building their character in the game was more important than building their lives in real life.
It's disturbing.
But as much as there's counseling for game addictions and people willing to spend hundreds of dollars on in-game items, literally BILLIONS of people are walking around life exactly like those Koreans who refuse to eat or drink anything other than pizza and red bull.
We think it's ridiculous that people spend so much time in fake, man-made universes.
But we spend all our time in the world.
"Real Life" isn't as real as people think it is.
Check out the great words of King Solomon:
"What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." [Ecclesiastes 1:3-9, NIV]
Do the last few sentences seem familiar?
There are a couple million people playing WOW right now, and they're all doing the same exact thing.
Sure, they go about it in different ways, but they all have similar objectives and go through similar steps.
There isn't a whole lot of room for innovation; not a lot of room to do something new- you just follow the rules of the game.
That's how life is, too.
You go through the motions: get an education, get a job, make money, get married, start a family, keep trying to make money, die, pass the torch on to your kids...
Not a whole lot else happens.
From Solomon's perspective, the whole thing is kind of a drag.
Why even bother with life?
Bother because theres a whole lot more out there to live for than ourselves.
In Batman: Dark Night, they do a good job of portraying how ridiculously rich Bruce Wayne is.
But what makes Bruce Wayne different from everyone else is how he uses his money.
All the mobsters only want money to have it; its all greed.
Bruce uses his money to fight evil and bring peace to Gotham.
Having money wasn't important to him.
It was only a tool used for a higher purpose.
Likewise, the things of the world shouldn't mean anything to us.
We should have as much invested in this place as a kid playing a video game.
Because the only use the things of the world are to us are as a tool to save the lost; what else is there to do with yourself?
In Isaiah 55:1&2, God says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."
The important part of life has nothing to do with what we have or don't have.
You can be a homeless bum and still be better off than people who have it all.
And like Bruce Wayne, why spend effort on useless junk?
spend it on what actually makes a difference.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
On Multitasking
New York has a law that you can't talk on a cell phone while you're driving unless you have a headset.
Presumably, this is to ensure that drivers keep both hands on the wheel.
But there was some study conducted about phone use, and that when you're talking on the phone to someone, your brain functions differently than if you were talking to them in person. This is because you don't have the facial expressions and such that come with face-time, so your brain has to interpolate them.
Oddly enough, this is the same part of your brain that you need for driving.
In short, using your cell phone makes you less able to concentrate on driving.
But we all knew that.
Have you ever been in a car with someone who is a sucker for yard sales?
They drive by a lawn and slow down so they can get a glimpse of the goods; if it's worth it, they stop by and get a closer look.
Or maybe even just driving by a countryside, and you look out the window at the scenery.
You maybe slow down a little bit, get more relaxed, and don't worry about the road so much.
Here's something else you should know:
People say all the time that "life is a journey; the destination isn't so much important as the experience of getting there" or somesuch to that idea.
I've always had an issue with people who say that.
Because to me, life is more than a journey.
Life has a purpose; a point.
We are driving on a road that is about a lot more than pretty scenery.
When we refer to Jesus' way as the "straight and narrow", i can't help but think about those driving distractions that i mentioned a few lines up; cell phones, yard sales, pretty flowers, traffic... it takes our mind off the road.
And when you're not paying full attention to the road, you can trip up a little.
Maybe you find yourself drifting out of the lane, or slowing down.
That's not something that should happen to our walks with God.
But it feels like in (cliche alert) today's world, we are bombarded with distractions.
TV, computers, friends and family, the mere constant tug of society.
I equate that all to your phone ringing in the car, or an accident in another lane that draws your attention away from in front of you.
We have such a hard time staying focused on the road, which is straight anyway.
Straight is the easiest direction to drive in, but i know i find myself turning all the times... making turns that shouldn't exist.
Getting myself lost on the (cliche again) road of life.
I had a lot more to write that actually made sense and didn't just spit out random cliches that everyone already knows, i just can't remember it right now... if we can manage to keep ourselves un-distracted for a little bit, we could just gun it down the highway instead of plodding around the slow lane.
I want to go as fast as i can because the Father is at the end of the road.
I know it's called a "walk", but walking feels too slow.
Presumably, this is to ensure that drivers keep both hands on the wheel.
But there was some study conducted about phone use, and that when you're talking on the phone to someone, your brain functions differently than if you were talking to them in person. This is because you don't have the facial expressions and such that come with face-time, so your brain has to interpolate them.
Oddly enough, this is the same part of your brain that you need for driving.
In short, using your cell phone makes you less able to concentrate on driving.
But we all knew that.
Have you ever been in a car with someone who is a sucker for yard sales?
They drive by a lawn and slow down so they can get a glimpse of the goods; if it's worth it, they stop by and get a closer look.
Or maybe even just driving by a countryside, and you look out the window at the scenery.
You maybe slow down a little bit, get more relaxed, and don't worry about the road so much.
Here's something else you should know:
People say all the time that "life is a journey; the destination isn't so much important as the experience of getting there" or somesuch to that idea.
I've always had an issue with people who say that.
Because to me, life is more than a journey.
Life has a purpose; a point.
We are driving on a road that is about a lot more than pretty scenery.
When we refer to Jesus' way as the "straight and narrow", i can't help but think about those driving distractions that i mentioned a few lines up; cell phones, yard sales, pretty flowers, traffic... it takes our mind off the road.
And when you're not paying full attention to the road, you can trip up a little.
Maybe you find yourself drifting out of the lane, or slowing down.
That's not something that should happen to our walks with God.
But it feels like in (cliche alert) today's world, we are bombarded with distractions.
TV, computers, friends and family, the mere constant tug of society.
I equate that all to your phone ringing in the car, or an accident in another lane that draws your attention away from in front of you.
We have such a hard time staying focused on the road, which is straight anyway.
Straight is the easiest direction to drive in, but i know i find myself turning all the times... making turns that shouldn't exist.
Getting myself lost on the (cliche again) road of life.
I had a lot more to write that actually made sense and didn't just spit out random cliches that everyone already knows, i just can't remember it right now... if we can manage to keep ourselves un-distracted for a little bit, we could just gun it down the highway instead of plodding around the slow lane.
I want to go as fast as i can because the Father is at the end of the road.
I know it's called a "walk", but walking feels too slow.
Friday, July 11, 2008
On Grace and Perhaps Better Perspective
So I now, officially, have a "favorite parable".
I was reading through Matthew when i was in new york a week and a half ago, and i settled on this one for a while.
And then a few days ago i couldn't stop thinking about practical uses of it for witnessing or teaching, or telling teenagers that they're morons.
It's the beginning of Matthew 20, and it reads as such, in the NIV; Jesus is talking:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius (a typical day's wages) for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them,
'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to drumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
'But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Ir are you envious because I am generous?'
So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
The key part here is when the owner tells the worker, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you."
There is a line from a Relient K song that reads, "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair".
The vineyard owner had grace towards the workers that he hired later in the day; he didn't have to pay them a full day's wages, as the only people he had a contract with were those who would work for 12 hours.
But rather than pay them what might have been fair, he opted to pay them more. Perhaps he figured that, them being unemployed, they could use some spare change. He was generous.
Now, the people who he hired fairly weren't happy with that.
The figured that they were getting jipped out of money since they had done 11 more hours of work than some of the others, and gotten payed the same way.
Jesus' message here calls for a change in perspective.
The workers were upset because they were only thinking about what they should have gotten, instead of what the others could have gotten.
If they had paused for a moment and realized that the owner was being generous to the other men, rather than skimping on themselves, the situation would have made more sense.
The parable ends with the line that, "the last will be first and the first will be last."
The last being the one-hour workers vs. the 12-hour workers- but in the end, we're all equals anyway.
Think about that though.
One little shift in perspective, and it goes from, "you skimped out on us!" to, "you blessed someone else".
One little change in perspective and the perceived attitude goes from disdain to grace.
That's a big difference.
From now on, i'm going to use this parable when someone asks me about my opinion on abortion or the death penalty.
to me, abortion isn't a question of whether or not you're killing a human being; rather, it's a question of our right to choose who lives or dies.
A mother who says, "the baby is more important than I am" and who is willing to take on all the problems that might come her way, be it financial or health, is showing that she isn't interested in her own problems; isn't like the first workers. Rather, she is showing that she needs grace in order to get by- the attitude that Jesus wants us to have, and perhaps the attitude of the one-hour workers.
Likewise, for the death penalty.
It isn't a question of whether or not someone deserves death- i believe that there are absolutely cases where someone deserves to die.
But who are we, fellow and equal human beings, to decided the fate of another?
We are all equals. The vineyard owner showd us that. Some of us just need more grace than others.
I was reading through Matthew when i was in new york a week and a half ago, and i settled on this one for a while.
And then a few days ago i couldn't stop thinking about practical uses of it for witnessing or teaching, or telling teenagers that they're morons.
It's the beginning of Matthew 20, and it reads as such, in the NIV; Jesus is talking:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius (a typical day's wages) for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them,
'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to drumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
'But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Ir are you envious because I am generous?'
So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
The key part here is when the owner tells the worker, "Friend, I am not being unfair to you."
There is a line from a Relient K song that reads, "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair".
The vineyard owner had grace towards the workers that he hired later in the day; he didn't have to pay them a full day's wages, as the only people he had a contract with were those who would work for 12 hours.
But rather than pay them what might have been fair, he opted to pay them more. Perhaps he figured that, them being unemployed, they could use some spare change. He was generous.
Now, the people who he hired fairly weren't happy with that.
The figured that they were getting jipped out of money since they had done 11 more hours of work than some of the others, and gotten payed the same way.
Jesus' message here calls for a change in perspective.
The workers were upset because they were only thinking about what they should have gotten, instead of what the others could have gotten.
If they had paused for a moment and realized that the owner was being generous to the other men, rather than skimping on themselves, the situation would have made more sense.
The parable ends with the line that, "the last will be first and the first will be last."
The last being the one-hour workers vs. the 12-hour workers- but in the end, we're all equals anyway.
Think about that though.
One little shift in perspective, and it goes from, "you skimped out on us!" to, "you blessed someone else".
One little change in perspective and the perceived attitude goes from disdain to grace.
That's a big difference.
From now on, i'm going to use this parable when someone asks me about my opinion on abortion or the death penalty.
to me, abortion isn't a question of whether or not you're killing a human being; rather, it's a question of our right to choose who lives or dies.
A mother who says, "the baby is more important than I am" and who is willing to take on all the problems that might come her way, be it financial or health, is showing that she isn't interested in her own problems; isn't like the first workers. Rather, she is showing that she needs grace in order to get by- the attitude that Jesus wants us to have, and perhaps the attitude of the one-hour workers.
Likewise, for the death penalty.
It isn't a question of whether or not someone deserves death- i believe that there are absolutely cases where someone deserves to die.
But who are we, fellow and equal human beings, to decided the fate of another?
We are all equals. The vineyard owner showd us that. Some of us just need more grace than others.
Friday, June 20, 2008
On Being Blessed
I was reading a psalm last night.
It's Psalm 128:
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
who walk in his ways.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your hosue;
your sons will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bledd you from Zion
all the days of your life;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
and may you live to see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel. [NIV]
Think about the imagry that this psalm uses to describe a blessed person:
"Your wife wil lbe like a fruitful vine...your sons will be like olive shoots..."
no, im not referring to the agricultural imagry.
The blessed people in this psalm have prosperity. It even says so, "the prosperity of Jerusalem."
The blessed people live to be grandparents.
Job.
Everyone knows Job, even people who don't know anything about the Bible.
Job is the guy who got everything taken away, but since he had a good attitude and remained faithful to the lord, got everything back twofold.
And then he wrote it all down in prose.
Job 42:12+13 state:
"The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen (2k oxes) and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and thee daughters."
That's a lot of animals for one man.
He was blessed with tons and tons of stuff.
There's another Bible character that everyone knows about: King Solomon, the wisest king that ever lived.
Heres one of the things that he had to say about stuff:
"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun."
[Ecclesiastes 2:10+11]
In the Old Testament times, people were blessed who had lots of stuff.
In modern society, people are also considered "blessed" or "lucky" if they have sweet stuff.
People who make a lot of money and have a cool house and a cool car and not annoying kids are the envy of everyone.
But Jesus said something rather counter-culture.
He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
[matthew 5:3-12]
The people in old-thymey jerusalem say riches and equated it with blessing.
But Jesus said the opposite.
He said that the people who are meek, who are mourning, who are poor in spirit, and who are persecuted and who have things said about them that are false- these people are blessed.
Normally, when you come across someone being beat up, you don't say, "hey man, you're blessed!".
No, you say, "that's not cool" and then if you're smart, you help the guy out.
Jesus and the disciples in the early church made a clear distinction in terms of blessing.
Everyone in the early church was poor- people gave up all of their money.
In fact, there's an account of a couple who died because they lied and DIDN"T give everything they could to the church.
These people weren't "blessed" as olden-time israelites might have thought it.
They had nothing on the earth.
Solomon also said, "The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."[5:12]
There's no reason to accumulate wealth on the earth; we're all going to die anyway, and theres no point after that.
Rather, we're supposed to put all our energy into the Great Commission- because that's what matters after we die.
I guess what im trying to say is that Jesus gave us a new outlook on "riches" and "blessing".
Before, they were based on material items, wealth, how many children you had, and how old you lived.
But now, its based on something more important and less tangible.
It's Psalm 128:
Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
who walk in his ways.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your hosue;
your sons will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bledd you from Zion
all the days of your life;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
and may you live to see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel. [NIV]
Think about the imagry that this psalm uses to describe a blessed person:
"Your wife wil lbe like a fruitful vine...your sons will be like olive shoots..."
no, im not referring to the agricultural imagry.
The blessed people in this psalm have prosperity. It even says so, "the prosperity of Jerusalem."
The blessed people live to be grandparents.
Job.
Everyone knows Job, even people who don't know anything about the Bible.
Job is the guy who got everything taken away, but since he had a good attitude and remained faithful to the lord, got everything back twofold.
And then he wrote it all down in prose.
Job 42:12+13 state:
"The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen (2k oxes) and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and thee daughters."
That's a lot of animals for one man.
He was blessed with tons and tons of stuff.
There's another Bible character that everyone knows about: King Solomon, the wisest king that ever lived.
Heres one of the things that he had to say about stuff:
"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun."
[Ecclesiastes 2:10+11]
In the Old Testament times, people were blessed who had lots of stuff.
In modern society, people are also considered "blessed" or "lucky" if they have sweet stuff.
People who make a lot of money and have a cool house and a cool car and not annoying kids are the envy of everyone.
But Jesus said something rather counter-culture.
He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
[matthew 5:3-12]
The people in old-thymey jerusalem say riches and equated it with blessing.
But Jesus said the opposite.
He said that the people who are meek, who are mourning, who are poor in spirit, and who are persecuted and who have things said about them that are false- these people are blessed.
Normally, when you come across someone being beat up, you don't say, "hey man, you're blessed!".
No, you say, "that's not cool" and then if you're smart, you help the guy out.
Jesus and the disciples in the early church made a clear distinction in terms of blessing.
Everyone in the early church was poor- people gave up all of their money.
In fact, there's an account of a couple who died because they lied and DIDN"T give everything they could to the church.
These people weren't "blessed" as olden-time israelites might have thought it.
They had nothing on the earth.
Solomon also said, "The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."[5:12]
There's no reason to accumulate wealth on the earth; we're all going to die anyway, and theres no point after that.
Rather, we're supposed to put all our energy into the Great Commission- because that's what matters after we die.
I guess what im trying to say is that Jesus gave us a new outlook on "riches" and "blessing".
Before, they were based on material items, wealth, how many children you had, and how old you lived.
But now, its based on something more important and less tangible.
Monday, June 16, 2008
On Good Attitude
Often times its difficult for us to keep good attitudes when we're frustrated or in a tough situation.
Every now and then i get this feeling (it happened a lot in the last quarter of this past school year) that the whole world is conspiring against me. I feel like the walls are caving in and there's no escape. Like when i have 4 hours of homework, was late to school every day that week, and have about 80 assorted things to remember concerning people/places/tech crew/etc.
Other times, we can find ourselves in situations involving people.
Like this one time with David in 2 Samuel 16:5-13.
"As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"
Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."
But the king said, "Wheat do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?'"
David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."
So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself."
David was passing through a town and all of a sudden some crazy dude started throwing dirt at him.
Instead of having his head cut off, David showed an incredible amount of rationality.
First of all, its not like the guy was any real threat to the King. He had his bodyguards and such, probably a whole army behind him, and this one guy wasn't about to harm the king.
David also exhibited some perspective:
at the time, he was facing off against his own son for his thrown. His son wanted to kill him; why blame the random dude for wanting to kill him also?
So David takes the passive approach: he ignores the guy.
He trudges on.
He gets to where he intended to go, perhaps with a little more excitement than otherwise.
I know plenty of people who, were they in this situation, would have blown up in the guy's face and gone nuts.
Who was he to question the king?
Surely killing off this nuisance could have been justified.
But David probably just chuckled a little bit and kept on walking.
That's pretty sweet.
Every now and then i get this feeling (it happened a lot in the last quarter of this past school year) that the whole world is conspiring against me. I feel like the walls are caving in and there's no escape. Like when i have 4 hours of homework, was late to school every day that week, and have about 80 assorted things to remember concerning people/places/tech crew/etc.
Other times, we can find ourselves in situations involving people.
Like this one time with David in 2 Samuel 16:5-13.
"As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"
Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."
But the king said, "Wheat do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?'"
David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."
So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself."
David was passing through a town and all of a sudden some crazy dude started throwing dirt at him.
Instead of having his head cut off, David showed an incredible amount of rationality.
First of all, its not like the guy was any real threat to the King. He had his bodyguards and such, probably a whole army behind him, and this one guy wasn't about to harm the king.
David also exhibited some perspective:
at the time, he was facing off against his own son for his thrown. His son wanted to kill him; why blame the random dude for wanting to kill him also?
So David takes the passive approach: he ignores the guy.
He trudges on.
He gets to where he intended to go, perhaps with a little more excitement than otherwise.
I know plenty of people who, were they in this situation, would have blown up in the guy's face and gone nuts.
Who was he to question the king?
Surely killing off this nuisance could have been justified.
But David probably just chuckled a little bit and kept on walking.
That's pretty sweet.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
On going off to War
On going off to War I saw Narnia 2 last weekend with a bunch of people... it was pretty good, better than the first.
My brother said that they changed a lot of things from the books, but i haven't read them all so i couldn't tell.
One thing that did stick with me, though, was the scene when Peter challenges the bad leader guy to a fight to the death to buy time from the imminent attack.
the idea of a "fight to the death" hinged on tradition that the humans had that Peter was able to take advantage of.
Czech it out:
2 Samuel 11:1, NIV
"In the sping, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem."
The people in Narnia had wartime traditions.
Now adays, we have "rules" for war; we have certain ways that we deal with POWs, we have certain courtesies that we follow.
And in Bible times, there was a specific time of year that they went to war with each other.
Like, that totally blows my mind.
In the spring, its the time when the flowers bloom and the bugs start biting you.
In the winter, snow falls.
And at some point, there was a time when you went off to kill the countries next to you.
like, think about that.
In order to get a tradition of "going off to war" at a certain time, you've got to fight for years and years.
The human race has been fighting for so long, that it's a tradition.
Just like Easter.
Every year at Easter time, we celebrate Easter.
Every year at wartime, we celebrate killing each other.
People tend to have a hard time getting along with each other.
Back in olden thymes, they fought over land and money.
Now adays, we fight over leaders and potential threats.
But on a level closer to home, we fight with our friends and family over stupid things.
Generally drama starts over a simple disagreement.
Instead of just getting over the fact that two people don't agree on something or someone (cough) they decide to go at each other's throats.
we should stop it.
we should stop having a tradition of fighting with each other.
and we should just all get along.....
My brother said that they changed a lot of things from the books, but i haven't read them all so i couldn't tell.
One thing that did stick with me, though, was the scene when Peter challenges the bad leader guy to a fight to the death to buy time from the imminent attack.
the idea of a "fight to the death" hinged on tradition that the humans had that Peter was able to take advantage of.
Czech it out:
2 Samuel 11:1, NIV
"In the sping, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem."
The people in Narnia had wartime traditions.
Now adays, we have "rules" for war; we have certain ways that we deal with POWs, we have certain courtesies that we follow.
And in Bible times, there was a specific time of year that they went to war with each other.
Like, that totally blows my mind.
In the spring, its the time when the flowers bloom and the bugs start biting you.
In the winter, snow falls.
And at some point, there was a time when you went off to kill the countries next to you.
like, think about that.
In order to get a tradition of "going off to war" at a certain time, you've got to fight for years and years.
The human race has been fighting for so long, that it's a tradition.
Just like Easter.
Every year at Easter time, we celebrate Easter.
Every year at wartime, we celebrate killing each other.
People tend to have a hard time getting along with each other.
Back in olden thymes, they fought over land and money.
Now adays, we fight over leaders and potential threats.
But on a level closer to home, we fight with our friends and family over stupid things.
Generally drama starts over a simple disagreement.
Instead of just getting over the fact that two people don't agree on something or someone (cough) they decide to go at each other's throats.
we should stop it.
we should stop having a tradition of fighting with each other.
and we should just all get along.....
Monday, May 26, 2008
On Fighting Bravely
Theres a neat little story in 2 Samuel 10.
I'm going to type it out here, and you should probably read it.
It takes place during the reign of King David over Isreal, and documents the defeat of a people called the Ammonites:
In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. David thought, "I will show kindness to Hanun son if Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?" So Hanun seized David's men, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away.
[2 Samuel 10:1-4, NIV]
-Now, first of all, David had perfectly good intentions.
He just wanted to show his respects to the new Ammonite king after his dad died.
But the advisers to the king were morons and deceived the king- theres a lot more you could probably say about that.
Secondly, eww gross. How much would it stink to have someone cut a hole in your pants where your bum is?
anyway, continuing on:
When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, "Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back."
When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench in David's nostrils, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
[10:5-6]
-So David was a pretty cool king, and saved his messengers the humiliation of having to show themselves with their beards cut off (beards were a big deal back then). Props to him on that.
The other thing is, wouldn't you think the smart thing for the Ammonites to do would have been to apologize?
Like, they knew they screwed up, and they should have been like, "oh man, my bad, have some money or servants or something, and don't hate us".
Instead, they pulled one of the dumbest Foreign Relations mistakes possible and mobilized to attack. "Maybe if we kill them, they'll forget that we're morons"
...yeah. not happening.
On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight."
[10:7-12]
The story wraps up with everyone running away from the Israelite armies, and the Ammonites pretty much getting owned.
But my point here is that last statement.
"The Lord will do what is good in his sight."
In the book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day that pastor Nate gave to the uturn leaders/student leaders, i just read a chapter that was all about changing our prayers to what God wants instead of what we want.
Soooo many times in life, we have an idea of what we think we want.
A car, a job, a house, a girlfriend... so we pray for a car or a job or a house or a girlfriend or something else like that.
But for all we know, God might not want you to have what you think you should have.
He could have an entirely different plan for you.
And who wants to be praying for something against God's will?
no one.
That's why Joab's mindset is so good.
He wasn't concerned so much with, "OH EM GEE WE HAVE TO KILL THEMS AMMONITES ENEMIESSSS" as much as he was concerned with, "Fight bravely and God will have his way."
It's like he's saying, "Buckle down and do your Best, and everything will go the way God wants it to go."
It didn't matter to Joab if they were outnumbered or outsmarted or anything like that.
He knew that no matter what, all he had to do was his best, and God would pull through no matter what that meant.
That's pretty cool.
I'm going to type it out here, and you should probably read it.
It takes place during the reign of King David over Isreal, and documents the defeat of a people called the Ammonites:
In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. David thought, "I will show kindness to Hanun son if Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites, the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn't David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?" So Hanun seized David's men, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away.
[2 Samuel 10:1-4, NIV]
-Now, first of all, David had perfectly good intentions.
He just wanted to show his respects to the new Ammonite king after his dad died.
But the advisers to the king were morons and deceived the king- theres a lot more you could probably say about that.
Secondly, eww gross. How much would it stink to have someone cut a hole in your pants where your bum is?
anyway, continuing on:
When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, "Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back."
When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench in David's nostrils, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
[10:5-6]
-So David was a pretty cool king, and saved his messengers the humiliation of having to show themselves with their beards cut off (beards were a big deal back then). Props to him on that.
The other thing is, wouldn't you think the smart thing for the Ammonites to do would have been to apologize?
Like, they knew they screwed up, and they should have been like, "oh man, my bad, have some money or servants or something, and don't hate us".
Instead, they pulled one of the dumbest Foreign Relations mistakes possible and mobilized to attack. "Maybe if we kill them, they'll forget that we're morons"
...yeah. not happening.
On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. Joab said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight."
[10:7-12]
The story wraps up with everyone running away from the Israelite armies, and the Ammonites pretty much getting owned.
But my point here is that last statement.
"The Lord will do what is good in his sight."
In the book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day that pastor Nate gave to the uturn leaders/student leaders, i just read a chapter that was all about changing our prayers to what God wants instead of what we want.
Soooo many times in life, we have an idea of what we think we want.
A car, a job, a house, a girlfriend... so we pray for a car or a job or a house or a girlfriend or something else like that.
But for all we know, God might not want you to have what you think you should have.
He could have an entirely different plan for you.
And who wants to be praying for something against God's will?
no one.
That's why Joab's mindset is so good.
He wasn't concerned so much with, "OH EM GEE WE HAVE TO KILL THEMS AMMONITES ENEMIESSSS" as much as he was concerned with, "Fight bravely and God will have his way."
It's like he's saying, "Buckle down and do your Best, and everything will go the way God wants it to go."
It didn't matter to Joab if they were outnumbered or outsmarted or anything like that.
He knew that no matter what, all he had to do was his best, and God would pull through no matter what that meant.
That's pretty cool.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
On Walking Alone
This blog is a few months in coming.
There's a Dunkin Donuts down the road from my school, and a popular after-school activity involves walking and/or driving there to get some eatables so we're not hungry until 5:00.
I've frequenced this walk by myself numerous times; one time, i got thinking about it.
I enjoy walking alone.
When my parents started letting me drive myself places, i rather liked being alone in the car.
I'll tell you why.
Tuesday night I was watching the music video for Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
i know, i know... laugh.
Everything that avril lavigne writes makes me want to throw up.
Like, its too catchy, the lyrics are stupid, and just in general... eww.
BUT.
This is the only song that's tolerable.
Because:
a) its got a thoughtful message
b) the bassline has one really cool harmony near the end
c) it made me think
anyway, watch the video.
then come back here and finish reading.
Alright.
So the video details a bunch of friends who go crash a mall.
They act like complete idiots.
For all we know, they live in rochester new hampshire.
So think about that for a moment.
What would you do if you went to the mall alone?
answer: you'd go shopping.
not shopping as a sport; that's something you do with friends.
When you go shopping, you actually buy things you need.
Consider a concert:
You go to a show alone, you go for the band.
But there's a subtlety that gets factored in when you go with friends;
you are no longer there just for the music.
Who pays $40+ to see a band if there's no one to share the experience with?
And that's exactly it.
You do things with friends for the experience.
Now go back and watch the video and listen to the words.
She's talking about how a guy (or possibly people in general) puts on a show for all his/our friends; he's not genuine like he is when he's alone.
The modifying factor here being other people.
So here's my point.
Humans are social creatures.
When you go to a show or the mall with friends, you're no longer there for the mall or a band. you're there for your friends.
Essentially, your focus switches; it goes from shopping or watching a band to hanging out with your friends.
Are you seeing what i'm saying?
When you go somewhere with your friends, you don't even think about where you're going; your destination isn't important.
What's important is the people you're with, and what you're doing with them.
When you go somewhere alone, you're more concerned with your destination; that's all there is to think about.
As a matter of fact, most of the time, what exactly you're doing is entirely unimportant.
You say, "lets hang out", and after you're hanging out, you figure out something to do.
So what's my point?
Think about your life.
Then think about your life without your friends, work, school, and other various distractions.
What's your focus?
Are we really doing anything except hanging out with friends and performing menial labor?
One of the first lines in that song is, "lay back, its all been done before".
And really, just about everything has been done before. (Unless you're an engineer)
So are we doing anything else besides re-tracing the steps of countless years of civilization before us? People have been hanging out with friends since before last names existed.
So yes, there is a way to do what's never been done before.
Most importantly for us as individuals is to have our focus on God all the time.
That's 100% an individual, personal relationship.
Sure, theres things like fellowship ("koinonia"), youth group, church, etc which we do together. But when you go home at night before you go to bed, we're talking about one-on-one with God.
That's something you have to do alone.
That's why i like walking and driving alone.
When there's no one around, you can let your mind wander, and you find out pretty quickly what your focus is on.
If you're hungry, you think about food.
If you're lonely, you think about other people.
Or maybe you start talking to your savior; maybe you start singing to him; maybe you dance around a little bit.
That's a good focus to have.
I found this verse highlighted in my bible:
"I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man in concerned about the Lord's affairs- how he can please the Lord. But a marriend man is concerned about the affairs of this world- how he can please his wife- and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world- how she can please her husband."
-1 Corinthians 7:32-34
If you take that out of context of marriage, you can apply that verse to what i'm saying here. Paul wanted the people of Corinth to be unconcerned with this world, because he wanted their full focus to be on God.
There's a Dunkin Donuts down the road from my school, and a popular after-school activity involves walking and/or driving there to get some eatables so we're not hungry until 5:00.
I've frequenced this walk by myself numerous times; one time, i got thinking about it.
I enjoy walking alone.
When my parents started letting me drive myself places, i rather liked being alone in the car.
I'll tell you why.
Tuesday night I was watching the music video for Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
i know, i know... laugh.
Everything that avril lavigne writes makes me want to throw up.
Like, its too catchy, the lyrics are stupid, and just in general... eww.
BUT.
This is the only song that's tolerable.
Because:
a) its got a thoughtful message
b) the bassline has one really cool harmony near the end
c) it made me think
anyway, watch the video.
then come back here and finish reading.
Alright.
So the video details a bunch of friends who go crash a mall.
They act like complete idiots.
For all we know, they live in rochester new hampshire.
So think about that for a moment.
What would you do if you went to the mall alone?
answer: you'd go shopping.
not shopping as a sport; that's something you do with friends.
When you go shopping, you actually buy things you need.
Consider a concert:
You go to a show alone, you go for the band.
But there's a subtlety that gets factored in when you go with friends;
you are no longer there just for the music.
Who pays $40+ to see a band if there's no one to share the experience with?
And that's exactly it.
You do things with friends for the experience.
Now go back and watch the video and listen to the words.
She's talking about how a guy (or possibly people in general) puts on a show for all his/our friends; he's not genuine like he is when he's alone.
The modifying factor here being other people.
So here's my point.
Humans are social creatures.
When you go to a show or the mall with friends, you're no longer there for the mall or a band. you're there for your friends.
Essentially, your focus switches; it goes from shopping or watching a band to hanging out with your friends.
Are you seeing what i'm saying?
When you go somewhere with your friends, you don't even think about where you're going; your destination isn't important.
What's important is the people you're with, and what you're doing with them.
When you go somewhere alone, you're more concerned with your destination; that's all there is to think about.
As a matter of fact, most of the time, what exactly you're doing is entirely unimportant.
You say, "lets hang out", and after you're hanging out, you figure out something to do.
So what's my point?
Think about your life.
Then think about your life without your friends, work, school, and other various distractions.
What's your focus?
Are we really doing anything except hanging out with friends and performing menial labor?
One of the first lines in that song is, "lay back, its all been done before".
And really, just about everything has been done before. (Unless you're an engineer)
So are we doing anything else besides re-tracing the steps of countless years of civilization before us? People have been hanging out with friends since before last names existed.
So yes, there is a way to do what's never been done before.
Most importantly for us as individuals is to have our focus on God all the time.
That's 100% an individual, personal relationship.
Sure, theres things like fellowship ("koinonia"), youth group, church, etc which we do together. But when you go home at night before you go to bed, we're talking about one-on-one with God.
That's something you have to do alone.
That's why i like walking and driving alone.
When there's no one around, you can let your mind wander, and you find out pretty quickly what your focus is on.
If you're hungry, you think about food.
If you're lonely, you think about other people.
Or maybe you start talking to your savior; maybe you start singing to him; maybe you dance around a little bit.
That's a good focus to have.
I found this verse highlighted in my bible:
"I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man in concerned about the Lord's affairs- how he can please the Lord. But a marriend man is concerned about the affairs of this world- how he can please his wife- and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world- how she can please her husband."
-1 Corinthians 7:32-34
If you take that out of context of marriage, you can apply that verse to what i'm saying here. Paul wanted the people of Corinth to be unconcerned with this world, because he wanted their full focus to be on God.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
On Forrest Gump
So honestly, i'm not sure if i've begun to repeat myself in these blogs... im pretty sure i've written about what i'm about to write about before, perhaps several times... but this is what was running through my head last night, so this is what i'm committing to. And i'm suddenly quite sick. So i'm not going to spend much time deliberating.
Anyway, last night i watched the last 2/3 of Forrest Gump.
It ranks amongst my favorite movies, mostly because i've always dreamed of being insanely rich on accident and not caring about money one bit.
But one of my favorite parts of the movie is when he starts running.
He says he doesn't know why he started running. He just figured he'd run to the end of the road; then he just never stopped.
He ran for like 3 years or something ridiculous.
To quote the movie, "When i was tired, i slept. When i was hungry, I ate."
Now, clearly the movie writers didn't bother figuring out HOW or WHERE he slept and ate.
But that image stays with me: a guy running, with nothing on his back, nothing in his hands, just some dirty Nikes and a mass following.
Something that i've always wanted to do is to take a trip somewhere far away, and bring nothing but a wallet. Recently when i've gone places like my grandmother's house or youth convention, i've done as much as i can to pack as little as possible.
There's just something that strikes me about being completely unprepared, on purpose.
Even though Forrest Gump is fake, there's something inspiring about him. Everything he needed was right there in front of him, except a razor and scissors to cut his hair. He didn't need his mansion or anything like that to get by. He was entirely self-dependent.
Now society values self-dependency.
In history class this year, the theme has been "The American Identity", and one of the key parts of the "American Identity" is the Self-Made Man. Think Benjamin Franklin, or Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, etc. We look up to people who have made it to their perch in society on their own strength, without being pulled along by those ahead of them.
Consider the image i made below:
This would be a continuum of self-dependency verses dependency on others.
Note that most of us probably fall around the middle.
Society, and most people in general, consider the far right side to be the most ideal place to be, whereas we lump hobos (not necessarily their fault), moochers, and 23 year olds who live with their moms on the far left.
Now, why are you bothering to read about what you already know?
Try to stay with me here.
In Luke 12:33&34, Jesus is in the process of telling his disciples not to worry about their lives, that God will take care of them: "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."[NIV]
There comes that image of Forrest Gump again, running without anything but the clothes on his back. Jesus also said, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." (Luke 12:22)
Bill Gates and Benjamin Franklin were self-dependent. But God doesn't want us to be self-dependent.
God doesn't want us to be model citizens that society looks up to. God has something more epic planned for us.
Consider this second diagram:
Our first diagram was one-dimensional; it had a left and a right.
But God ads a second dimension to this little outlook.
God says be neither dependent on others or your own strength.
Rather, be dependent on the one who has infinite strength, infinite ability, and will provide everything we need. Rely on something way bigger and way higher than what there is here on the earth.
Forrest Gump never did that, but he sure did become a fishing boat captain...
Anyway, last night i watched the last 2/3 of Forrest Gump.
It ranks amongst my favorite movies, mostly because i've always dreamed of being insanely rich on accident and not caring about money one bit.
But one of my favorite parts of the movie is when he starts running.
He says he doesn't know why he started running. He just figured he'd run to the end of the road; then he just never stopped.
He ran for like 3 years or something ridiculous.
To quote the movie, "When i was tired, i slept. When i was hungry, I ate."
Now, clearly the movie writers didn't bother figuring out HOW or WHERE he slept and ate.
But that image stays with me: a guy running, with nothing on his back, nothing in his hands, just some dirty Nikes and a mass following.
Something that i've always wanted to do is to take a trip somewhere far away, and bring nothing but a wallet. Recently when i've gone places like my grandmother's house or youth convention, i've done as much as i can to pack as little as possible.
There's just something that strikes me about being completely unprepared, on purpose.
Even though Forrest Gump is fake, there's something inspiring about him. Everything he needed was right there in front of him, except a razor and scissors to cut his hair. He didn't need his mansion or anything like that to get by. He was entirely self-dependent.
Now society values self-dependency.
In history class this year, the theme has been "The American Identity", and one of the key parts of the "American Identity" is the Self-Made Man. Think Benjamin Franklin, or Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, etc. We look up to people who have made it to their perch in society on their own strength, without being pulled along by those ahead of them.
Consider the image i made below:
This would be a continuum of self-dependency verses dependency on others.
Note that most of us probably fall around the middle.
Society, and most people in general, consider the far right side to be the most ideal place to be, whereas we lump hobos (not necessarily their fault), moochers, and 23 year olds who live with their moms on the far left.
Now, why are you bothering to read about what you already know?
Try to stay with me here.
In Luke 12:33&34, Jesus is in the process of telling his disciples not to worry about their lives, that God will take care of them: "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."[NIV]
There comes that image of Forrest Gump again, running without anything but the clothes on his back. Jesus also said, "I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." (Luke 12:22)
Bill Gates and Benjamin Franklin were self-dependent. But God doesn't want us to be self-dependent.
God doesn't want us to be model citizens that society looks up to. God has something more epic planned for us.
Consider this second diagram:
Our first diagram was one-dimensional; it had a left and a right.
But God ads a second dimension to this little outlook.
God says be neither dependent on others or your own strength.
Rather, be dependent on the one who has infinite strength, infinite ability, and will provide everything we need. Rely on something way bigger and way higher than what there is here on the earth.
Forrest Gump never did that, but he sure did become a fishing boat captain...
Monday, May 5, 2008
On the Allegory of the Cave
Anyone who's ever taken a philosophy course or read any books about philosophy is probably familiar with one of the oldest, most famous thought experiments.
Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, came up with what is known as the "Allegory of the Cave".
Essentially, here's what Plato suggested:
Suppose there's a cave. In this cave, a prisoners have been chained against a wall since childhood; they can't move their limbs, they are only able to look at a blank wall, and these conditions are all that they know.
The entrance of the cave is behind them, as well as some puppeteers. Shadows of the puppets are projected onto the wall from the sunlight, and the prisoners watch these shadows. When a puppeteer speaks, his voice bounces off the wall and it appears that the shadow is talking.
They live their life by looking at the shadows moving about. This is all that they know.
Now, Plato suggested a number of things about these prisoners.
Suppose, for instance, one of the prisoners was unchained and forced to turn around.
Immediately, he will be blinded by the direct sunlight that he has never seen. In his blinded state, when he sees the puppets, they will seem less real than the shadows that he has seen all his life.
After his eyes adjust to the light, the former prisoner would, understandably, want nothing to do with the cave.
He'd be able to experience life as it actually is, rather than by looking at shadows on a wall.
BUT, suppose he goes back to free his friends.
When he walks into the cave, his friends will see his shadow and will just suppose that he's part of their false reality.
Obviously, no form of explanation would be able to convince the prisoners of how lame and pathetic their life is. They would have to get up and turn around and go through exactly the same process that the original person had to go through before they understood.
Now, there's plenty of different interpretations of the allegory.
Platos' interpretation dealt with education.
But we can make our interpretation as well.
In Luke 10:21, Jesus says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for this was your good pleasure."
There's a lot of different philosophies and teachings out there in the world today.
People invent new religions every day.
But when it comes down to it, the vast majority of people are just looking at a wall with shadows dancing across it.
They try to interpret what they see.
They think they understand what's going on.
But in Isaiah 6:9-10, God says, "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing but never perceiving.'
Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
We can say that the allegory of the cave is analogous to people's general inability to understand the world as it actually is, to how it was designed, and to how we're supposed to live. And we can try to make people turn around and see life for what it really is.
make sense?
Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, came up with what is known as the "Allegory of the Cave".
Essentially, here's what Plato suggested:
Suppose there's a cave. In this cave, a prisoners have been chained against a wall since childhood; they can't move their limbs, they are only able to look at a blank wall, and these conditions are all that they know.
The entrance of the cave is behind them, as well as some puppeteers. Shadows of the puppets are projected onto the wall from the sunlight, and the prisoners watch these shadows. When a puppeteer speaks, his voice bounces off the wall and it appears that the shadow is talking.
They live their life by looking at the shadows moving about. This is all that they know.
Now, Plato suggested a number of things about these prisoners.
Suppose, for instance, one of the prisoners was unchained and forced to turn around.
Immediately, he will be blinded by the direct sunlight that he has never seen. In his blinded state, when he sees the puppets, they will seem less real than the shadows that he has seen all his life.
After his eyes adjust to the light, the former prisoner would, understandably, want nothing to do with the cave.
He'd be able to experience life as it actually is, rather than by looking at shadows on a wall.
BUT, suppose he goes back to free his friends.
When he walks into the cave, his friends will see his shadow and will just suppose that he's part of their false reality.
Obviously, no form of explanation would be able to convince the prisoners of how lame and pathetic their life is. They would have to get up and turn around and go through exactly the same process that the original person had to go through before they understood.
Now, there's plenty of different interpretations of the allegory.
Platos' interpretation dealt with education.
But we can make our interpretation as well.
In Luke 10:21, Jesus says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for this was your good pleasure."
There's a lot of different philosophies and teachings out there in the world today.
People invent new religions every day.
But when it comes down to it, the vast majority of people are just looking at a wall with shadows dancing across it.
They try to interpret what they see.
They think they understand what's going on.
But in Isaiah 6:9-10, God says, "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing but never perceiving.'
Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
We can say that the allegory of the cave is analogous to people's general inability to understand the world as it actually is, to how it was designed, and to how we're supposed to live. And we can try to make people turn around and see life for what it really is.
make sense?
Sunday, April 27, 2008
On Social Norm
Freshman year i went to somersworth high school.
i learned a lot that year.
More than anything, i was able to put into perspective how "regular" teenagers see themselves, their surroundings, their friends... it was really my first time being able to watch people go about their lives around me.
One thing you begin to realize when you watch teenagers in action is that most of them are absolutely stupid.
The numbers for kids who drink on a monthly basis are pretty high... suggesting that a majority of teenagers think it's alright to go partying once in a while. And why not, right? Their parents probably did the same thing when they were kids, and don't see anything wrong with living a little. Heck, if you live in rochester, a whole boatload of parents still do dumb things.
Sometimes, just for fun, i like to imagine some of the adults i know as teenagers... but that's a completely different story.
Anyway, at somersworth, and most schools, the "popular" kids are always the ones who do the craziest stuff. They're the ones who aren't afraid to take risks for the sake of saying, "i did that... yes i did". But as a teenager, most of the "risks" we're talking about aren't the same risks that they told us to take on the 8th grade team-building ropes course. You know, all that stuff about "stepping out of your comfort zone" and the like. Those aren't the healthy risks that teenagers take. The risks that popular kids take are the ones like, "how many people can sit on the driver's seat at the same time before i can't reach the steering wheel anymore?" and random other stuff that i'm too exhausted right now to think up.
You have people who end up going to every party that anyone ever tells them about, because they have nothing else to do and because it makes them known around. People see the kid and go, "man, he goes to every party... i wish my parents were that dumb/i wish i didn't have a life/i wish i didn't care about my grades like he doesn't"
And eventually, you have a whole highschool full of kids who look up to people who do stupid stuff. And once again, we're not talking stupid as in, "think i can break through the ice on the salmon falls river?", we're talking stupid as in, "let's go find new drugs to try"
king David had something to say on that... psalm 52 says:
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!" [1-4, NIV]
Anyone in highschool can tell you that there is this social norm of bragging about the worldly things people have done. Be it girls, drugs, or assorted traffic violations, people see it as an accomplishment.
But it's not.
And people generally figure that out a few years after they graduate college and settle down... but hey, everyone does it, right?
what a shame.
i learned a lot that year.
More than anything, i was able to put into perspective how "regular" teenagers see themselves, their surroundings, their friends... it was really my first time being able to watch people go about their lives around me.
One thing you begin to realize when you watch teenagers in action is that most of them are absolutely stupid.
The numbers for kids who drink on a monthly basis are pretty high... suggesting that a majority of teenagers think it's alright to go partying once in a while. And why not, right? Their parents probably did the same thing when they were kids, and don't see anything wrong with living a little. Heck, if you live in rochester, a whole boatload of parents still do dumb things.
Sometimes, just for fun, i like to imagine some of the adults i know as teenagers... but that's a completely different story.
Anyway, at somersworth, and most schools, the "popular" kids are always the ones who do the craziest stuff. They're the ones who aren't afraid to take risks for the sake of saying, "i did that... yes i did". But as a teenager, most of the "risks" we're talking about aren't the same risks that they told us to take on the 8th grade team-building ropes course. You know, all that stuff about "stepping out of your comfort zone" and the like. Those aren't the healthy risks that teenagers take. The risks that popular kids take are the ones like, "how many people can sit on the driver's seat at the same time before i can't reach the steering wheel anymore?" and random other stuff that i'm too exhausted right now to think up.
You have people who end up going to every party that anyone ever tells them about, because they have nothing else to do and because it makes them known around. People see the kid and go, "man, he goes to every party... i wish my parents were that dumb/i wish i didn't have a life/i wish i didn't care about my grades like he doesn't"
And eventually, you have a whole highschool full of kids who look up to people who do stupid stuff. And once again, we're not talking stupid as in, "think i can break through the ice on the salmon falls river?", we're talking stupid as in, "let's go find new drugs to try"
king David had something to say on that... psalm 52 says:
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!" [1-4, NIV]
Anyone in highschool can tell you that there is this social norm of bragging about the worldly things people have done. Be it girls, drugs, or assorted traffic violations, people see it as an accomplishment.
But it's not.
And people generally figure that out a few years after they graduate college and settle down... but hey, everyone does it, right?
what a shame.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
On Landfills
Landfills pretty much sum-up human existence.
Nothing shows our society's hypocrisy and blatant neglect for what we depend on more than a several-mile-long mound of dirt hiding everything we don't want.
I'm sure the concept of the landfill came about at a time when it actually worked; you have poop, foodscraps, and other early-human-type waste that you don't want to carry around with you, so you leave it lying around, or bury it in the ground so you don't have to deal with the smell. Over the years it either biodegrades and ends up fertilizing a tree, or fossilizes and becomes the subject of archiological debate for several decades.
However, ever since, say, the industrial revolution, landfills have stopped working.
All of a sudden we're dumping harmful, concentrated chemicals into the ground. Our excuse? Because it costs too much money to dispose of them in a way that's environmentally sound.
So we bury it and let future generations deal with it.
New York City disposes of 11,000 TONS of garbage... EVERY DAY.
It takes 9 miles of semi trailors to haul this trash away from the city... 550 trucks.
And where do they go?
Well, obviously there isn't a landfill in NYC. They go to, you know... VIRGINIA, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey... these 550 trucks travel up to 300 miles (and back again) EVERY DAY just to get rid of New York's garbage.
Do you know how ridiculous that is?
As evidenced there, we go to great lengths to bury our trash; to put it out of sight and then eventually built baseball fields on it or use it to heat UNH.
I'm surprised you don't hear more environmental groups making noise about landfills... probably because few people have come up with better solutions. The gist of it is, though, the earth is at the end of its ability to support our waste, let alone our resource demands.
What is my point?
The fact that we have a glorious industry of curb-workers, spikey steamroller operators, semi-drivers, and corporate management dedicated to hiding away what we don't want. If we pay Waste Management to deal with our waste, we don't have to think about it.
Think about that.
Landfills are an excuse for our garbage. We can't see it anymore, so it's no longer our problem. In terms of daily life, most people don't give a thought to the amount of garbage that they use.
...almost as if we forget it exists.....
For centuries, Science has made a point about objectivity.
You need to have proof, hard evidence, etc in order to make any grounded scientific claim.
But just because you can't make a legitimate scientific claim doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.
An alien could walk the surface of the earth and not see any open landfills, and he might come to the conclusion that humans don't throw away our waste, because we hide it so well. Little would he know that we bury millions of tons of it every week.
That alien would be ignorant of the environmental disaster that our society is.
Can you think of anything else that we can't see, and therefore doesn't exist?
of course you can!
In Romans 6:23, Paul says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."[NIV]
That's right... death!
from what?
Sin!
Our society does an excellent job of pretending that sin doesn't exist.
Nay, we glorify it!
We pretend that it doesn't have any consequences, because, well, we can't exactly see it. It's not particularly tangible.
That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, however.
It just means that it's easy for us, as a society, to forget that it's there. It's easy for people to ignore the Truth and live as if New York City isn't spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to prevent itself from drowning in its own waste.
Maybe its time for people to take environmental action.
Maybe its time for people to wake up, stop being ignorant, and lose the hypocrisy.
Nothing shows our society's hypocrisy and blatant neglect for what we depend on more than a several-mile-long mound of dirt hiding everything we don't want.
I'm sure the concept of the landfill came about at a time when it actually worked; you have poop, foodscraps, and other early-human-type waste that you don't want to carry around with you, so you leave it lying around, or bury it in the ground so you don't have to deal with the smell. Over the years it either biodegrades and ends up fertilizing a tree, or fossilizes and becomes the subject of archiological debate for several decades.
However, ever since, say, the industrial revolution, landfills have stopped working.
All of a sudden we're dumping harmful, concentrated chemicals into the ground. Our excuse? Because it costs too much money to dispose of them in a way that's environmentally sound.
So we bury it and let future generations deal with it.
New York City disposes of 11,000 TONS of garbage... EVERY DAY.
It takes 9 miles of semi trailors to haul this trash away from the city... 550 trucks.
And where do they go?
Well, obviously there isn't a landfill in NYC. They go to, you know... VIRGINIA, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey... these 550 trucks travel up to 300 miles (and back again) EVERY DAY just to get rid of New York's garbage.
Do you know how ridiculous that is?
As evidenced there, we go to great lengths to bury our trash; to put it out of sight and then eventually built baseball fields on it or use it to heat UNH.
I'm surprised you don't hear more environmental groups making noise about landfills... probably because few people have come up with better solutions. The gist of it is, though, the earth is at the end of its ability to support our waste, let alone our resource demands.
What is my point?
The fact that we have a glorious industry of curb-workers, spikey steamroller operators, semi-drivers, and corporate management dedicated to hiding away what we don't want. If we pay Waste Management to deal with our waste, we don't have to think about it.
Think about that.
Landfills are an excuse for our garbage. We can't see it anymore, so it's no longer our problem. In terms of daily life, most people don't give a thought to the amount of garbage that they use.
...almost as if we forget it exists.....
For centuries, Science has made a point about objectivity.
You need to have proof, hard evidence, etc in order to make any grounded scientific claim.
But just because you can't make a legitimate scientific claim doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.
An alien could walk the surface of the earth and not see any open landfills, and he might come to the conclusion that humans don't throw away our waste, because we hide it so well. Little would he know that we bury millions of tons of it every week.
That alien would be ignorant of the environmental disaster that our society is.
Can you think of anything else that we can't see, and therefore doesn't exist?
of course you can!
In Romans 6:23, Paul says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."[NIV]
That's right... death!
from what?
Sin!
Our society does an excellent job of pretending that sin doesn't exist.
Nay, we glorify it!
We pretend that it doesn't have any consequences, because, well, we can't exactly see it. It's not particularly tangible.
That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, however.
It just means that it's easy for us, as a society, to forget that it's there. It's easy for people to ignore the Truth and live as if New York City isn't spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to prevent itself from drowning in its own waste.
Maybe its time for people to take environmental action.
Maybe its time for people to wake up, stop being ignorant, and lose the hypocrisy.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
On Mediocrity
My Latin teacher today went off on a bit of a tangent during class.
We are beginning to delve into the land of straight translating, as we have gotten to the end of our book's grammar and vocab lessons.
My teacher told us a story:
when he was a teenager, he played baseball, and one day he had been invited to a league all-star game. He was set to be starting pitcher, and had to get to the field 45 minutes before the game started.
Before he could leave the house, however, he had to finish his chores, which included washing the dishes after dinner. So he scrubbed the pots and plates and other such eating utilities and was on his way out the door, when his dad called him back inside:
"you need to do the dishes."
my teacher was taken off guard, seeing as how he had just done the dishes.
His dad proceeded to wipe his finger along the inside of a pot and showed him that it was not thoroughly clean. "wash the pots," he said.
So he did.
three more times, before his dad was satisfied.
By the time his dad let him leave, he had wasted a good 20 minutes or so washing the pots, angry, and his coach was ticked. He wasn't allowed to pitch.
Upset, he confronted his dad at the end of the game.
All his dad said was, "wash the pots right the first time, and you won't have to do it again."
A good story.
He led this on to a soliloquy on mediocrity.
It's easy to be mediocre.
Most people in America strive for it; the struggle to be unnoticed in a crowd, the desire to not stand out. Americans, teenagers especially, have a tenancy to surround themselves with a buffer. We don't want to be the best, and we certainly don't want to be the worst.
The problem with this is that, sure, anyone can be mediocre.
But being mediocre doesn't impress anyone.
It won't get you a sweet job, won't lead to a high quality of life, and will guarantee that you'll never rise to the top.
But that's okay, right?
why should we want to rise to the top?
Before Jesus left his disciples for good, he told them this; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20, NIV]
This is known as the Great Commission.
It's what Jesus charged christians with before going back into heaven.
Let me tell yah... no one is going to make disciples of all the nations by being mediocre.
In Titus 3:1, Paul said, "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."
Does that sound like someone who's mediocre?
absolutely not.
That sounds like someone who would stand out in a crowd as someone who's going to rise to the top. You'll go far in life by being obedient, being ready to do whatever is good, and not slandering... being considerate and showing humility to everyone. That's not mediocre. That's exceptional.
And what better to be exceptional about than that Great Commission that we've been charged with?
Let's not be mediocre.
Let's show the world that we want to stand out- for good, for excellence, and for Jesus.
We are beginning to delve into the land of straight translating, as we have gotten to the end of our book's grammar and vocab lessons.
My teacher told us a story:
when he was a teenager, he played baseball, and one day he had been invited to a league all-star game. He was set to be starting pitcher, and had to get to the field 45 minutes before the game started.
Before he could leave the house, however, he had to finish his chores, which included washing the dishes after dinner. So he scrubbed the pots and plates and other such eating utilities and was on his way out the door, when his dad called him back inside:
"you need to do the dishes."
my teacher was taken off guard, seeing as how he had just done the dishes.
His dad proceeded to wipe his finger along the inside of a pot and showed him that it was not thoroughly clean. "wash the pots," he said.
So he did.
three more times, before his dad was satisfied.
By the time his dad let him leave, he had wasted a good 20 minutes or so washing the pots, angry, and his coach was ticked. He wasn't allowed to pitch.
Upset, he confronted his dad at the end of the game.
All his dad said was, "wash the pots right the first time, and you won't have to do it again."
A good story.
He led this on to a soliloquy on mediocrity.
It's easy to be mediocre.
Most people in America strive for it; the struggle to be unnoticed in a crowd, the desire to not stand out. Americans, teenagers especially, have a tenancy to surround themselves with a buffer. We don't want to be the best, and we certainly don't want to be the worst.
The problem with this is that, sure, anyone can be mediocre.
But being mediocre doesn't impress anyone.
It won't get you a sweet job, won't lead to a high quality of life, and will guarantee that you'll never rise to the top.
But that's okay, right?
why should we want to rise to the top?
Before Jesus left his disciples for good, he told them this; "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [Matthew 28:18-20, NIV]
This is known as the Great Commission.
It's what Jesus charged christians with before going back into heaven.
Let me tell yah... no one is going to make disciples of all the nations by being mediocre.
In Titus 3:1, Paul said, "Remind the people to be subject to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."
Does that sound like someone who's mediocre?
absolutely not.
That sounds like someone who would stand out in a crowd as someone who's going to rise to the top. You'll go far in life by being obedient, being ready to do whatever is good, and not slandering... being considerate and showing humility to everyone. That's not mediocre. That's exceptional.
And what better to be exceptional about than that Great Commission that we've been charged with?
Let's not be mediocre.
Let's show the world that we want to stand out- for good, for excellence, and for Jesus.
Monday, April 14, 2008
On Serving
Every summer for school we have summer reading books. Usually there's one required book, and then a selection of books that you have to choose from for others.
This past year, the required reading was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In the book, Quinn suggests that humans society is on its way to destruction. Not because the world is living wrong or because of corruption, but rather because human society shouldn't exist.
The idea is that our ancestors (think: african tribes before europe divided it up like a pie) lived in harmony with nature, following the natural laws of only taking what you need to survive, letting death run its course, etc.
Then he re-interpreted Genesis to be the point where humankind ceased being hunter-gatherers, and became agrarian (farmers). When this happened, we stopped being at one with nature because we started doing things like hoarding food, cheating death with medicine, reproducing wildly due to our ability to grow surplus food... eventually we built society, and now we ravage the earth's natural resources and are on our way to oblivion.
Now, i liked some of the issues Daniel Quinn brought attention to, but his whole extrapolation is more-or-less ridiculous.
I don't think that humans were ever "in harmony" with nature, other than in the garden of Eden. And i don't think that, under our societal coverings, we're anything remotely like our animal friends.
See, i was thinking a little bit, and i think that one thing that separates us from them wild animals is this: The need to Serve.
You could change the name to the need to have a purpose. But i like the need to serve better.
Think about it. Everyone serves something.
Slaves serve their masters.
Peasants served their dukes and earls by working their land to the bone.
Communists serve the state.
Workaholics serve their jobs.
Students serve their schoolwork.
Americans serve themselves.
Perhaps the only people who don't serve anything are the 20-somethings who still live with their moms and have no jobs, and whose entire existence consists of getting up at 1:30 and watching old episodes of Lost until they get tired, and then going back to bed again.
And that's just depressing.
See... people without purpose get depressed. They get restless... they find that they have a need to find that purpose and go serve something.
That's what separates us from dogs and cats and 3-toed sloths.
Sure, you might say that dogs "serve" their masters.
But that's not true; dogs are only capable of existing.
They might have emotions, they might be capable of reasoning, but they still only follow their instinct. Which is to survive.
When you train a dog, you teach to its instinct. It learns to do things that get it doggie treats or pats on the head, because food and interaction are part of existence; part of survival. So it does what its trained to do, because of the natural instinct to survive.
Humans, on the other hand, are more than capable of going against that natural instinct.
We have all sorts of eccentric millionaires that break the mold on purpose; we insist on living in new england and canada and alaska even though it goes entirely against the natural instinct to not be freezing cold in the winter. Birds migrate; we don't.
What i'm trying to say here, is that we're different from animals; one of the ways that we differ is in this need to serve.
And that's one of the reasons why Christians are, generally, happier, more content, and more at peace than nonchristians. We have a purpose; we have someone to serve who is infinitely larger and more important than anything on the earth.
This past year, the required reading was Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In the book, Quinn suggests that humans society is on its way to destruction. Not because the world is living wrong or because of corruption, but rather because human society shouldn't exist.
The idea is that our ancestors (think: african tribes before europe divided it up like a pie) lived in harmony with nature, following the natural laws of only taking what you need to survive, letting death run its course, etc.
Then he re-interpreted Genesis to be the point where humankind ceased being hunter-gatherers, and became agrarian (farmers). When this happened, we stopped being at one with nature because we started doing things like hoarding food, cheating death with medicine, reproducing wildly due to our ability to grow surplus food... eventually we built society, and now we ravage the earth's natural resources and are on our way to oblivion.
Now, i liked some of the issues Daniel Quinn brought attention to, but his whole extrapolation is more-or-less ridiculous.
I don't think that humans were ever "in harmony" with nature, other than in the garden of Eden. And i don't think that, under our societal coverings, we're anything remotely like our animal friends.
See, i was thinking a little bit, and i think that one thing that separates us from them wild animals is this: The need to Serve.
You could change the name to the need to have a purpose. But i like the need to serve better.
Think about it. Everyone serves something.
Slaves serve their masters.
Peasants served their dukes and earls by working their land to the bone.
Communists serve the state.
Workaholics serve their jobs.
Students serve their schoolwork.
Americans serve themselves.
Perhaps the only people who don't serve anything are the 20-somethings who still live with their moms and have no jobs, and whose entire existence consists of getting up at 1:30 and watching old episodes of Lost until they get tired, and then going back to bed again.
And that's just depressing.
See... people without purpose get depressed. They get restless... they find that they have a need to find that purpose and go serve something.
That's what separates us from dogs and cats and 3-toed sloths.
Sure, you might say that dogs "serve" their masters.
But that's not true; dogs are only capable of existing.
They might have emotions, they might be capable of reasoning, but they still only follow their instinct. Which is to survive.
When you train a dog, you teach to its instinct. It learns to do things that get it doggie treats or pats on the head, because food and interaction are part of existence; part of survival. So it does what its trained to do, because of the natural instinct to survive.
Humans, on the other hand, are more than capable of going against that natural instinct.
We have all sorts of eccentric millionaires that break the mold on purpose; we insist on living in new england and canada and alaska even though it goes entirely against the natural instinct to not be freezing cold in the winter. Birds migrate; we don't.
What i'm trying to say here, is that we're different from animals; one of the ways that we differ is in this need to serve.
And that's one of the reasons why Christians are, generally, happier, more content, and more at peace than nonchristians. We have a purpose; we have someone to serve who is infinitely larger and more important than anything on the earth.
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