We're in for it.
When Jesus was being crucified, and was walking down the road with Simon of Cyrene carrying his cross, a crowed was following him, along with women who were crying.
He said to them:
"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then:
'They will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!''
For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
[Luke 23:28-31, quote from Hosea 10:8, NIV]
The women in Luke were crying because Jesus was about to be put to death.
They might have been followers of him, but then again they might not have been.
And notably, he was crucified by the religious leaders of the time; these were the people that the Jews revered. And here they are, the (puppet) government, killing our savior.
Jesus told them not to cry for him; rather to cry for themselves and their children.
Why?
Roman times were decent.
True, the romans took over every country they could dump a couple infantry units into. But the Romans knew [or maybe, had known] how to run a government.
With Roman times came roads, sanitation, cleanliness, order... more-or-less peace...
Times were pretty good.
And when the Roman empire fell, the Western world was thrown into darkness.
(cough, the dark ages, cough.)
Emphasis: the Western World. As in, Europe.
China? Japan? Baghdad?
All perfectly fine. Thriving, even.
While Europe was trying to remember how to wear shoes, the part of the world that wasn't ruled by the Roman Empire was just dandy.
Cut to: modern times.
We have: GPS, Fiber-Optics, cell phones, the internet, full government regulations on the electromagnetic spectrum...
Ask anyone and they'll tell you that "global economy" is a pretty big deal.
America's economy is fully and 100% dependent the likes of China, Japan, Taiwan, etc.
When a little chunk of Serbia breaks off and calls itself Kosovo, the news is instantaneous, and everyone's buzzing about it.
In Roman times, Japan wouldn't have had reason to care about that.
See, nothing can happen in today's world that wouldn't be world-wide.
If one super-power crumbles, the whole world will be set askew.
And all you have to do is take a peek at Revelation to realize what kind of skewing will be going on.
I'm sure that governments will be doing plenty of stuff that will cause people to weep. Incompetence galore. Craziness.
Just ask Luke- the women will be wishing that they never had children.
That time is coming soon... and we better be ready.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
On How It’s All About The Heart
Ch-ch-check it out.
Ezekiel 14:2+3
"Then the word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?'"
When Ezekiel wrote that, God was talking about the elders who worshiped idols, and then dared to go to Ezekiel, God's profit, for advice. Obviously, God was not okay with this, and went on to tell Ezekiel that he would turn those people into examples for others not to idolize.
However, reading that passage, the word that seems to poke its head out above the rest is "heart".
He said idols, in their hearts.
When i think of the word "idol", i usually think of some creepy Mayan figurine or something, or them little statues that the Romans used to keep in their houses.
Other people think of Brad Pitt or some hottie like Stephen Hawking.
But that's not necessarily what God meant when he was talking to Ezekiel.
He meant -anything- that we invest our heart in that isn't Him.
So, the usual: money, jobs, celebrities, and ourselves... all can become idols.
That's not good.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."[Mtt. 5:21, NIV]
The anger there that Jesus equates to murder is something that you harbor in your heart.
So is the Lust that he talks about in Mtt. 5:27...
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
This is how religion turns into a bad thing:
People [take the religious leaders of Ezekiel's time, and Jesus' time, for example] follow religion because they have to, or because it's expected of them, or because they're all caught up in it. But as soon as it turns into empty motions (going to church every sunday, standing like a mummy for half an hour, falling asleep for another half hour, and then going home), you're better off not going to church at all.
This is one of the reasons that Martin Luther got himself excommunicated.
After reading the actual Bible, Luther decided that God doesn't care so much about your outward actions as he cares about your heart.
Granted, actions betray the heart (you can't go murder someone and then try to say it wasn't the will of your heart), but by the same token, you can't expect God to take a fake lifestyle as the real thing.
Learn from the religious leaders of Ezekiel's time. They screwed up 2,600 years ago so we don't have to.
Ezekiel 14:2+3
"Then the word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?'"
When Ezekiel wrote that, God was talking about the elders who worshiped idols, and then dared to go to Ezekiel, God's profit, for advice. Obviously, God was not okay with this, and went on to tell Ezekiel that he would turn those people into examples for others not to idolize.
However, reading that passage, the word that seems to poke its head out above the rest is "heart".
He said idols, in their hearts.
When i think of the word "idol", i usually think of some creepy Mayan figurine or something, or them little statues that the Romans used to keep in their houses.
Other people think of Brad Pitt or some hottie like Stephen Hawking.
But that's not necessarily what God meant when he was talking to Ezekiel.
He meant -anything- that we invest our heart in that isn't Him.
So, the usual: money, jobs, celebrities, and ourselves... all can become idols.
That's not good.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."[Mtt. 5:21, NIV]
The anger there that Jesus equates to murder is something that you harbor in your heart.
So is the Lust that he talks about in Mtt. 5:27...
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
This is how religion turns into a bad thing:
People [take the religious leaders of Ezekiel's time, and Jesus' time, for example] follow religion because they have to, or because it's expected of them, or because they're all caught up in it. But as soon as it turns into empty motions (going to church every sunday, standing like a mummy for half an hour, falling asleep for another half hour, and then going home), you're better off not going to church at all.
This is one of the reasons that Martin Luther got himself excommunicated.
After reading the actual Bible, Luther decided that God doesn't care so much about your outward actions as he cares about your heart.
Granted, actions betray the heart (you can't go murder someone and then try to say it wasn't the will of your heart), but by the same token, you can't expect God to take a fake lifestyle as the real thing.
Learn from the religious leaders of Ezekiel's time. They screwed up 2,600 years ago so we don't have to.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
On Hypocrisy, or, Conflict of Morals
I present you with a couple of pictures.
these are pictures from the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider.
The LHC has been the source of major buzz in the scientific community for the past few years.
What is it?
It's a particle accelerator.
In fact, it's the biggest and most powerful ever made.
What does it do?
It smashes itsy-bitsy pieces of matter together at ridiculous speeds.
As it begins operation in May, particle physicists hope that it will reveal the existence of the theoretical Higgs Boson particle, which is supposed to provide the identity of mass.
Think about that.
What is mass?
most people define it as a measurement of weight, which technically is incorrect; weight is a measure of gravity's pull on mass.
Mass is essentially how much stuff you have.
well, what is that stuff, and how come we can measure it?
exactly.
we have literally thousands of scientists working on these types of questions.
the LHC might also answer many a question about gravity... which is one of those things that most people don't even think about.
look at it another way:
Scientists know that Physics is wrong.
This May, they might actually find out what is wrong with it.
This is big news.
How big?
The LHC occupies a circular tunnel roughly 16 and a half miles long, in Geneva, straddling the border between France and Switzerland.
At regular intervals, there are massive detector units (that big red thing in the second picture) that see what's going on inside that blue pipe.
This gigantic machine has cost roughly 3 Billion dollars.
No where online could i find a number of how much energy it will consume.
However, i do know that it uses a multitude of superconducting magnets- requiring near-absolute zero temperatures.
And the energy required to keep just that is enormous.
Now, the LHC presents the scientific community with the ability to do things that were previously impossible.
As such, we really have no idea what will happen the moment it gets activated.
Among the possibilities for disaster include the creation of miniature black holes that could devour our planet, and the production of Strangelets that could consume our earth.
To break that down, we (yes, the US chipped in) paid 3 billion dollars for a machine that saps enormous swaths of energy, and could potentially destroy our existence.
What we stand to gain is an improved understanding of how the universe works.
AKA, nothing.
Seriously, this stuff makes me sick.
The scientific community is insanely giddy over this thing.
And after we figure out about the Higgs particle, it will be close to worthless.
And i guarantee you, we have nothing to gain from learning what mass is.
Like, there's nothing you can do with it.
"oh, we know that there's a particle that makes matter have mass."
And like, after our society goes the way of the Roman Empire, NO ONE WILL CARE.
BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NO ONE LEFT TO CARE.
people, there are serious, pressing matters in the world.
the ENERGY CRISIS.
GLOBAL WARMING.
THE GREAT COMMISSION.
The scientific community once again presents itself as hypocrites.
These people are the ones pushing the hardest about global warming, and responsible economics, and free trade, and they're the ones obliterating resources for useless gains.
You'd think they'd spend their money on pressing matters.
You'd think they wouldn't want to contribute to global warming and energy dependence.
But instead, they've chosen to ignore their own ethics and ideals in favor of this big particle accelerator.
Why do we still use 100-year-old light bulb technology?
Why aren't we all using Induction stoves?
And seriously, WHY ARE WE STILL BUYING OIL FROM OUR POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ENEMIES?
Maybe if people spent as much money solving important problems, there wouldn't be as many problems left to solve.
it's insane.
it's like, everyone in Western Society drank the cool-aid.
Isaiah 65 states:
"The Lord says,
'I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.
I said, 'Here I am, here I am!' to a nation that did not call on me name.
All day long i opened my arms to a rebellious people.
But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.'" [NLT]
God wants everyone to run to him; to realize the dumbness of their routine lives, shape up, and start living for something.
As it stands, popular belief, especially in hard-left New England, is about as ready to do that as they are to admit that the LHC isn't worth its pricetag or one-and-counting fatality rate.
And that's why we need to show them what it's like to let go of all that and run to our savior.
these are pictures from the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider.
The LHC has been the source of major buzz in the scientific community for the past few years.
What is it?
It's a particle accelerator.
In fact, it's the biggest and most powerful ever made.
What does it do?
It smashes itsy-bitsy pieces of matter together at ridiculous speeds.
As it begins operation in May, particle physicists hope that it will reveal the existence of the theoretical Higgs Boson particle, which is supposed to provide the identity of mass.
Think about that.
What is mass?
most people define it as a measurement of weight, which technically is incorrect; weight is a measure of gravity's pull on mass.
Mass is essentially how much stuff you have.
well, what is that stuff, and how come we can measure it?
exactly.
we have literally thousands of scientists working on these types of questions.
the LHC might also answer many a question about gravity... which is one of those things that most people don't even think about.
look at it another way:
Scientists know that Physics is wrong.
This May, they might actually find out what is wrong with it.
This is big news.
How big?
The LHC occupies a circular tunnel roughly 16 and a half miles long, in Geneva, straddling the border between France and Switzerland.
At regular intervals, there are massive detector units (that big red thing in the second picture) that see what's going on inside that blue pipe.
This gigantic machine has cost roughly 3 Billion dollars.
No where online could i find a number of how much energy it will consume.
However, i do know that it uses a multitude of superconducting magnets- requiring near-absolute zero temperatures.
And the energy required to keep just that is enormous.
Now, the LHC presents the scientific community with the ability to do things that were previously impossible.
As such, we really have no idea what will happen the moment it gets activated.
Among the possibilities for disaster include the creation of miniature black holes that could devour our planet, and the production of Strangelets that could consume our earth.
To break that down, we (yes, the US chipped in) paid 3 billion dollars for a machine that saps enormous swaths of energy, and could potentially destroy our existence.
What we stand to gain is an improved understanding of how the universe works.
AKA, nothing.
Seriously, this stuff makes me sick.
The scientific community is insanely giddy over this thing.
And after we figure out about the Higgs particle, it will be close to worthless.
And i guarantee you, we have nothing to gain from learning what mass is.
Like, there's nothing you can do with it.
"oh, we know that there's a particle that makes matter have mass."
And like, after our society goes the way of the Roman Empire, NO ONE WILL CARE.
BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NO ONE LEFT TO CARE.
people, there are serious, pressing matters in the world.
the ENERGY CRISIS.
GLOBAL WARMING.
THE GREAT COMMISSION.
The scientific community once again presents itself as hypocrites.
These people are the ones pushing the hardest about global warming, and responsible economics, and free trade, and they're the ones obliterating resources for useless gains.
You'd think they'd spend their money on pressing matters.
You'd think they wouldn't want to contribute to global warming and energy dependence.
But instead, they've chosen to ignore their own ethics and ideals in favor of this big particle accelerator.
Why do we still use 100-year-old light bulb technology?
Why aren't we all using Induction stoves?
And seriously, WHY ARE WE STILL BUYING OIL FROM OUR POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ENEMIES?
Maybe if people spent as much money solving important problems, there wouldn't be as many problems left to solve.
it's insane.
it's like, everyone in Western Society drank the cool-aid.
Isaiah 65 states:
"The Lord says,
'I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.
I said, 'Here I am, here I am!' to a nation that did not call on me name.
All day long i opened my arms to a rebellious people.
But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.'" [NLT]
God wants everyone to run to him; to realize the dumbness of their routine lives, shape up, and start living for something.
As it stands, popular belief, especially in hard-left New England, is about as ready to do that as they are to admit that the LHC isn't worth its pricetag or one-and-counting fatality rate.
And that's why we need to show them what it's like to let go of all that and run to our savior.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
On Poetry
In my english class we're reading a short story by Stephen Crane, called "Maggie, girl of the streets".
its pretty depressing, but well-written.
In class today we looked at a couple (as in two) poems by the same author.
they are both short.
The first is titled, "A Man Said To The Universe":
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replioed the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
The second is titled, "I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon", and goes as such:
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never--"
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.
I should need to, but i'll explain the poems.
The first is on Man's plea to the universe.
People cry out to the stars all the time.
they want to be recognized by the world.
They want acknowledgment of their existance.
But does the universe care?
how can it? it's just a collection of stars and planets and giant rocks hurtling around through emptiness.
Cold, dark, sterile.
The other poem is on ignorance, for the most part.
Liken it to a dog chasing its own tail.
Futile, yes. Obvious, perhaps.
But the man refuses to accept that he cannot reach the horizon, which is in fact, an imaginary line representing the curvature of the earth.
Since the earth is more or less spherical, that line moves away from you at the exact same speed that you move toward it.
Here's some more poetry.
Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you-
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
[NIV]
The universe doesn't give a crap about you.
crying out to it doesn't do you a thing.
If anything, it makes you look stupid.
But God cares.
As the psalmist points out, he watches over us, both now and "forevermore".
Think about that.
The universe doesn't even care that we exist.
But God watches us intently- the way a child might watch an HO scale train run around and around its tracks, setting it straight when it gets derailed.
So crying out to Him might prove useful.
Even better, don't bother crying out to Him.
just trust that He's gonna guide you right on to where you need to be.
As for chasing after the horizon... don't be ignorant.
Don't try to reach goals that aren't possible to reach.
And don't find yourself believing in things that are obviously ridiculous.
Try to see reason.
Stephen Crane spent a lot of his life observing life in the slums of new york, and essentially surrounding himself with despair.
He died of tuberculosis when he was 28, in the year 1900.
What a bummer... i kinda liked the guy.
its pretty depressing, but well-written.
In class today we looked at a couple (as in two) poems by the same author.
they are both short.
The first is titled, "A Man Said To The Universe":
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replioed the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
The second is titled, "I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon", and goes as such:
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never--"
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.
I should need to, but i'll explain the poems.
The first is on Man's plea to the universe.
People cry out to the stars all the time.
they want to be recognized by the world.
They want acknowledgment of their existance.
But does the universe care?
how can it? it's just a collection of stars and planets and giant rocks hurtling around through emptiness.
Cold, dark, sterile.
The other poem is on ignorance, for the most part.
Liken it to a dog chasing its own tail.
Futile, yes. Obvious, perhaps.
But the man refuses to accept that he cannot reach the horizon, which is in fact, an imaginary line representing the curvature of the earth.
Since the earth is more or less spherical, that line moves away from you at the exact same speed that you move toward it.
Here's some more poetry.
Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you-
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
[NIV]
The universe doesn't give a crap about you.
crying out to it doesn't do you a thing.
If anything, it makes you look stupid.
But God cares.
As the psalmist points out, he watches over us, both now and "forevermore".
Think about that.
The universe doesn't even care that we exist.
But God watches us intently- the way a child might watch an HO scale train run around and around its tracks, setting it straight when it gets derailed.
So crying out to Him might prove useful.
Even better, don't bother crying out to Him.
just trust that He's gonna guide you right on to where you need to be.
As for chasing after the horizon... don't be ignorant.
Don't try to reach goals that aren't possible to reach.
And don't find yourself believing in things that are obviously ridiculous.
Try to see reason.
Stephen Crane spent a lot of his life observing life in the slums of new york, and essentially surrounding himself with despair.
He died of tuberculosis when he was 28, in the year 1900.
What a bummer... i kinda liked the guy.
Monday, February 18, 2008
On The Lunchroom Dilemma
Today we're going to be talking about a parable that confused me for a long time.
It's in Luke.
I'm quoting NIV.
Lk. 16:1-15
"Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to bed- I know what I'll do so that, when i lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
"'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
"The he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
"'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
"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.
"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?
"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
The pharisees, who lived money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."
What i could never understand about this passage is why, after the manager acted even more dishonestly (remember, he's getting fired for wasting the guy's possessions in the first place), the master commends the guy.
Why would Jesus be telling his disciples to be dishonest with money?
The definition that the NIV translators must have had in mind for the word "shrewd" must have been "clever".
What throws me is the next paragraph, when he talks about being dishonest with what's been given to you.
Wasn't that guy dishonest with what was given to him?
Why is he then a good example of how to live?
Jesus isn't telling his disciples to be dishonest.
He's telling them to take advantage of what they can.
I guess the opening of the parable, the part about where he was dishonest, applies to us being trustworthy. But the part about us gaining friends with money applies to the second part.
This guy had the ability to give away a considerable amount of money, and he did to gain advantage, and to plan ahead for when he'd need the favors returned.
That's what Jesus wants us to do.
He wants us to plan ahead... but not for when we get fired.
He wants us to plan ahead for eternal life.
Even your social studies teaching will tell you that money is fleeting, and not to spend your time chasing after it.
Bill Gates is an example of a shrewd person.
He never chased after money... it just kind of fell into his lap.
In giant, uncountable sums.
And for the most part, he's used it pretty wisely.
Sure, his house is ridiculously extravagant, but he's not a greedy person, he's fighting aids, and hasn't bought any countries yet.
But if i were Bill Gates, i'd spend it all.
Not on stupid things.
On things that will matter in the long run.
We're supposed to use our resources for God's work, not our own idiot whims.
After all, whims are pretty fleeting.
The next thing i want to focus on is the very last line i quoted:
"What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."
Jesus is talking here to the religious leaders, about money.
But the line applies to more than just money.
When i went to Somersworth freshman year, the most intimidating thing for me for the first 3 months or so, was the Cafetorium.
AKA, the lunchroom.
I didn't know anyone, so i went out of my way to get to lunch early and get a table all by myself.
And not eat anything.
Eventually, people started to try to get me to be social.
They'd sit with me, let me drink their chocolate milk, and ask awkward questions.
I kept to myself pretty much the whole time.
Now, when i went back to berwick the next year, i knew some people.
But the crew that was the most outgoing was kids from exeter that i didn't know very well.
They got to know me a little bit, and they were pretty cool.
One of the most notable thing about them is that they never dont have a good time.
Anything turns into a joke.
Lunch is a lot more natural when you're around people you know, who are outgoing, who laugh at stuff you do.
I don't sit there this year.
I don't really sit with anyone anymore.
Sometimes i sit with sophomores, sometimes i sit with random people, and sometimes i just dont go to lunch.
This is partly because the other table is too crowded.
But its also for another reason.
When you spend 7 hours a day with people, you get to know their personality.
You might not get to know what their dog's name is, or how often they get their hair cut, but you get a good feeling for what they value and what they hold as important.
So the question then becomes, what do your friends value?
Because like it or not, it doesn't take long for you and your friends to value the same things.
If you went around a lunchroom at most highschools, and listened in on conversations, you probably wouldn't hear a lot of what God values. You'd get more of the "detestable in his sight" stuff.
Get your values on track.
Get your friends to do the same thing... or, get different friends.
Be shrewed in what you have at your disposal.
It's in Luke.
I'm quoting NIV.
Lk. 16:1-15
"Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to bed- I know what I'll do so that, when i lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
"'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
"The he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
"'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
"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.
"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?
"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
The pharisees, who lived money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."
What i could never understand about this passage is why, after the manager acted even more dishonestly (remember, he's getting fired for wasting the guy's possessions in the first place), the master commends the guy.
Why would Jesus be telling his disciples to be dishonest with money?
The definition that the NIV translators must have had in mind for the word "shrewd" must have been "clever".
What throws me is the next paragraph, when he talks about being dishonest with what's been given to you.
Wasn't that guy dishonest with what was given to him?
Why is he then a good example of how to live?
Jesus isn't telling his disciples to be dishonest.
He's telling them to take advantage of what they can.
I guess the opening of the parable, the part about where he was dishonest, applies to us being trustworthy. But the part about us gaining friends with money applies to the second part.
This guy had the ability to give away a considerable amount of money, and he did to gain advantage, and to plan ahead for when he'd need the favors returned.
That's what Jesus wants us to do.
He wants us to plan ahead... but not for when we get fired.
He wants us to plan ahead for eternal life.
Even your social studies teaching will tell you that money is fleeting, and not to spend your time chasing after it.
Bill Gates is an example of a shrewd person.
He never chased after money... it just kind of fell into his lap.
In giant, uncountable sums.
And for the most part, he's used it pretty wisely.
Sure, his house is ridiculously extravagant, but he's not a greedy person, he's fighting aids, and hasn't bought any countries yet.
But if i were Bill Gates, i'd spend it all.
Not on stupid things.
On things that will matter in the long run.
We're supposed to use our resources for God's work, not our own idiot whims.
After all, whims are pretty fleeting.
The next thing i want to focus on is the very last line i quoted:
"What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."
Jesus is talking here to the religious leaders, about money.
But the line applies to more than just money.
When i went to Somersworth freshman year, the most intimidating thing for me for the first 3 months or so, was the Cafetorium.
AKA, the lunchroom.
I didn't know anyone, so i went out of my way to get to lunch early and get a table all by myself.
And not eat anything.
Eventually, people started to try to get me to be social.
They'd sit with me, let me drink their chocolate milk, and ask awkward questions.
I kept to myself pretty much the whole time.
Now, when i went back to berwick the next year, i knew some people.
But the crew that was the most outgoing was kids from exeter that i didn't know very well.
They got to know me a little bit, and they were pretty cool.
One of the most notable thing about them is that they never dont have a good time.
Anything turns into a joke.
Lunch is a lot more natural when you're around people you know, who are outgoing, who laugh at stuff you do.
I don't sit there this year.
I don't really sit with anyone anymore.
Sometimes i sit with sophomores, sometimes i sit with random people, and sometimes i just dont go to lunch.
This is partly because the other table is too crowded.
But its also for another reason.
When you spend 7 hours a day with people, you get to know their personality.
You might not get to know what their dog's name is, or how often they get their hair cut, but you get a good feeling for what they value and what they hold as important.
So the question then becomes, what do your friends value?
Because like it or not, it doesn't take long for you and your friends to value the same things.
If you went around a lunchroom at most highschools, and listened in on conversations, you probably wouldn't hear a lot of what God values. You'd get more of the "detestable in his sight" stuff.
Get your values on track.
Get your friends to do the same thing... or, get different friends.
Be shrewed in what you have at your disposal.
Friday, February 15, 2008
On The Matrix
This blog's been distilling since a few weeks ago, when i talked to a kid at my school.
I said, "hey, whats up?"
and he said, "Wit, i haven't talked to you in a while... i hear you've become religious... that's cool."
That hit me hard.
In a bad way.
It was a wake-up call.
I've gone to a pentecostal church for my entire life.
How come people at my school don't know i'm a christian?
So i was going to write a blog about that.
until a few days ago.
I turned on AMC.
It was the Matrix.
I love the matrix; it's one of my favorite movies of all time.
So naturally i watched it all... and something struck me as incredible.
The Wachowski brothers, the guys that wrote the film, made one of the most influential "cyber-punk" dystopia films of all time.
But they certainly weren't trying to make an excellent inspirational film for christians.
For those of you who don't know the Matrix too well, haven't seen it, or were utterly confused by it, here's a rundown:
A computer programmer nicknamed Neo is active in the hacker underground.
His entire life, he's had this weird sensation: he knew that there was something wrong.
There was something more to the world than what he knew.
In the hacker subculture, there's word running around of a so-called "matrix".
It's only a buzzword, and in fact, no one actually knows what it is, except for the elusive Morpheus, who is one of the greatest hacker guys of all time.
Neo finds a way to meet this guy.
And what happens is mind blowing.
Neo wakes up bald and naked on a ship hovering in an underground sewer system.
The year is 2200.
Morpheus explains to Neo that, along with the rest of the population, he had been living inside a computer simulation; in reality, they were inside a farm.
A human farm, that used people for energy to power the Machine society.
The Matrix was a false reality that was designed to hide what was actually going on.
There was something much, much bigger than what Neo knew; there was the whole world.
Morpheus took the wool out from over his eyes.
Now, coincidentally, Neo is the only person that can save the world.
Him and the rest of the rebellion members can insert themselves back into the matrix, so that they can interact with it and try to get more people to join their cause.
except Neo is different.
When Neo is inside the Matrix, he isn't bound to its rules.
He can bend them, and even break them.
He can fly, dodge bullets, stop time, and walk through walls.
But before he figured out how he could do all that, he had to realize that the Matrix wasn't real; none of it existed. By focusing on that fact, he could do anything.
The only thing that could stop him was Agent Smith.
Agent Smith is a program on the matrix that is omnipotent.
He can do anything he wants.
He has infinite power, and can make a whole army of himself on a whim.
He has a weakness, though.
Where Neo can break the rules of the system, Agent Smith must follow them.
And while Agent Smith is bound to the Matrix, Neo can leave and go back to reality, with Morpheus and the rest of the rebel movement.
Now i'll bet you that out of all the people that have seen that movie, 85% of them have said, "I wish i was Neo."
After all, Neo is like the ultimate hero.
But the best part?
WE ARE NEO.
don't you get it?
The Matrix is real.
We're in it.
This world?
Sure, if i cut off my arm, i don't have an arm anymore.
But there's so much more to life than this measly, smelly planet.
There's a whole planet full of people sitting in tanks, being mulched for energy to feed the Devil.
That's Agent Smith.
He has full reign over the earth.
Except he's also bound to it.
And guess what?
We aren't.
Not only that, but we can break the rules of the earth.
In Matthew 21:21-22, After Jesus totally owned a fig tree, he said, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." [NIV]
Paul Meaney said it a different way: "With a word we can drown a mountain"
See??
We're Neo.
With Faith, we aren't confined to the boundaries set on the Earth, because God can do anything.
I think that theres no reason Christianity shouldn't appeal to people who play games like D&D, or spend their lives with their noses in sci-fi books.
You don't need to pretend to be part of a rebel cause that's trying to uproot a force that's destroying humanity.
We already are.
We're a band of rebels, huddled in a ship with fingers trembling over an EMP-blast trigger, because the Machines are attacking us.
We're Neo, going head-on with the Agents, and with a little bit of belief, we can take down anything.
We're Morpheus and Trinity, recruiting new members to the cause, showing people that the wool has been over their eyes their entire life.
And one day, Jesus is coming back.
The enemy will be defeated.
Everyone will realize that they had no idea what reality really is.
Go watch the Matrix.
Monday, February 11, 2008
On Childness
I live on a dirt road.
As someone from Somersworth once said, "It's depressing".
It isn't really depressing, but when it rained, and i got off the bus and had to walk 700 feet to get home, it was rather dreary. (Mind the Gap.)
Anyway, since i've lived here since i was 3, i've grown up with potholes in my daily life.
Probably the most annoying thing about living on a dirt road is when you come home from long road trips, and you have to pee really really bad, its like, "yay, i can pee... oh crap, we have to go over the road first."
Then for 45 seconds you get this horrendous jarring sensation that comes with driving over potholes.
Then you can finally go pee.
It's more strenuous than it sounds, trust me.
There's something else about potholes in a dirt road, though.
When it rains, you get these great mud puddles.
Their not really mud puddles, per se, but they're puddles filled with muddy water.
As a kid, i can remember wanting to go outside when it rained an jump around in those mud puddles.
My mom would generally say "no."
[flash forward]
Sometimes, at the end of the day, when i curl up in my bed to go to sleep, i feel like a little kid who just spent the day playing in mud puddles.
Like i went outside when it was raining and got all dirty and nasty, after my mom told me not to, and now i need a bath.
Sometimes, i feel like i need a bath.
Not a tangible bath to wash off mud; an intangible bath to clean off intangible mud.
Stupid stuff that i do throughout the day.
Idiot things like not doing my homework and having to stay up until 4 to get it done... i should be able to do my homework every night and get 8 hours of sleep.
I end up at the end of the day with this feeling of having like mud caked on to me that i need to get rid of.
I feel like i need to wash all of that off, and be clean and fresh and bubbly.
And not smelly.
Or grubby.
kthx.
As someone from Somersworth once said, "It's depressing".
It isn't really depressing, but when it rained, and i got off the bus and had to walk 700 feet to get home, it was rather dreary. (Mind the Gap.)
Anyway, since i've lived here since i was 3, i've grown up with potholes in my daily life.
Probably the most annoying thing about living on a dirt road is when you come home from long road trips, and you have to pee really really bad, its like, "yay, i can pee... oh crap, we have to go over the road first."
Then for 45 seconds you get this horrendous jarring sensation that comes with driving over potholes.
Then you can finally go pee.
It's more strenuous than it sounds, trust me.
There's something else about potholes in a dirt road, though.
When it rains, you get these great mud puddles.
Their not really mud puddles, per se, but they're puddles filled with muddy water.
As a kid, i can remember wanting to go outside when it rained an jump around in those mud puddles.
My mom would generally say "no."
[flash forward]
Sometimes, at the end of the day, when i curl up in my bed to go to sleep, i feel like a little kid who just spent the day playing in mud puddles.
Like i went outside when it was raining and got all dirty and nasty, after my mom told me not to, and now i need a bath.
Sometimes, i feel like i need a bath.
Not a tangible bath to wash off mud; an intangible bath to clean off intangible mud.
Stupid stuff that i do throughout the day.
Idiot things like not doing my homework and having to stay up until 4 to get it done... i should be able to do my homework every night and get 8 hours of sleep.
I end up at the end of the day with this feeling of having like mud caked on to me that i need to get rid of.
I feel like i need to wash all of that off, and be clean and fresh and bubbly.
And not smelly.
Or grubby.
kthx.
Monday, February 4, 2008
On the Obvious
I jotted this down in study hall today.
King Solomon was supposedly the greatest kind that ever lived. When he had first started his rule, God came to him in a dream and said that he would give Solomon whatever he asked for. [1 Kings 3:4-15]. When Solomon merely asked for the ability to be a good ruler, God gave him wisdom beyond what anyone else had ever, or will ever, have.
Solomon was a wise man.
Now then, in Ecclesiastes 1:6, Solomon states, "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course." [NIV]
Solomon is of course talking about the futility of trying to do anything on the earth-everything you do will eventually be washed away just like Incan history.
But there's something really cool here.
Solomon specifically uses the words, "...to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes..."
Does anyone else notice something about his wording?
why yes.
you there, in the back.
THE EARTH IS ROUND.
So if Solomon knows that the Earth is round, how come it took western Europe all the way until Christopher Columbus before they realized it wasn't flat?
how does that make sense?
Easy.
People are completely irrational.
Seriously, in the 1300s, people honestly thought that if you sailed far enough, you'd fall off the face of the earth- like in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Now adays (and in Solomon's days), we know this to be ridiculous. But 700 years ago, it was perfectly accepted.
It's really easy to sit here and make fun of Humanity's past blunders.
Slavery, Woman's Rights (what a blunder that turned out to be...), Lobotomies, putting radon in water and calling it healthy, eating phosphorous, pleather pants, and huffing paint are all excellent examples of things that are blatantly dumb, yet many people thought nothing of.
Example: Education.
For the past decade, teaching curricula[curriculums] have made breakthroughs in how they teach teenagers. We realize that you can't force a teenager to learn when he doesn't want to... so naturally the strategy is in making highschoolers want to learn.
Any teenager could tell you that. But before post-modern times, there was this thing that we now call "traditional" education. You know, you expect the kids to listen to teachers and learn and get good grades.
How about oil?
No one ever cared about foreign oil until it got expensive, and now its too late- our economy is 100% dependent on the Middle East. Scary? yes.
Preventable?
not anymore.
We should have been smarter than to base our whole transportation network on the presumption that oil would always be available.
How about pollution?
Global Warming was a joke until Al Gore got some graphs... and then it was hilarious.
Then the ice caps started melting and people realized that there's no more glaciers in Glacier National Park.
Now people are going nuts about it; carbon credits are traded publicly between companies, and hundreds of billions of dollars are frantically being spent trying to remedy the problem.
Maybe next time, we can think before we release trillions of pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Enron, the Great Depression, the titanic sinking, coal mines collapsing and cities burning from coal slag, the Love Canal, the Bell Telephone trustbusters... these are all things that happened because people didn't bother to be rational about them.
Dumping toxic waste next to a residential community will cause members of that community to die from toxic waste.
Crashing headlong into an iceberg will sink your ship.
Stealing countless amounts of money from stockholders will get you in jail.
These are simple concepts.
The earth is round.
But as a society, isn't it naive to think that there aren't modern incarnations of these things?
When asked, most people would say that they're glad they live in today- look at how much we know! and look at how many mistakes humanity has made. But what about the mistakes that we are currently making?
Drugs, abortion, and gay marriage are all hot topics in today's political world.
Plenty of people are in favor of legalizing pot, having abortions, and gay marriage.
What they don't realize is that these things are just as irrational and wrong as believing that the earth is flat.
We should try to be more like Solomon... wise.
King Solomon was supposedly the greatest kind that ever lived. When he had first started his rule, God came to him in a dream and said that he would give Solomon whatever he asked for. [1 Kings 3:4-15]. When Solomon merely asked for the ability to be a good ruler, God gave him wisdom beyond what anyone else had ever, or will ever, have.
Solomon was a wise man.
Now then, in Ecclesiastes 1:6, Solomon states, "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course." [NIV]
Solomon is of course talking about the futility of trying to do anything on the earth-everything you do will eventually be washed away just like Incan history.
But there's something really cool here.
Solomon specifically uses the words, "...to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes..."
Does anyone else notice something about his wording?
why yes.
you there, in the back.
THE EARTH IS ROUND.
So if Solomon knows that the Earth is round, how come it took western Europe all the way until Christopher Columbus before they realized it wasn't flat?
how does that make sense?
Easy.
People are completely irrational.
Seriously, in the 1300s, people honestly thought that if you sailed far enough, you'd fall off the face of the earth- like in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Now adays (and in Solomon's days), we know this to be ridiculous. But 700 years ago, it was perfectly accepted.
It's really easy to sit here and make fun of Humanity's past blunders.
Slavery, Woman's Rights (what a blunder that turned out to be...), Lobotomies, putting radon in water and calling it healthy, eating phosphorous, pleather pants, and huffing paint are all excellent examples of things that are blatantly dumb, yet many people thought nothing of.
Example: Education.
For the past decade, teaching curricula[curriculums] have made breakthroughs in how they teach teenagers. We realize that you can't force a teenager to learn when he doesn't want to... so naturally the strategy is in making highschoolers want to learn.
Any teenager could tell you that. But before post-modern times, there was this thing that we now call "traditional" education. You know, you expect the kids to listen to teachers and learn and get good grades.
How about oil?
No one ever cared about foreign oil until it got expensive, and now its too late- our economy is 100% dependent on the Middle East. Scary? yes.
Preventable?
not anymore.
We should have been smarter than to base our whole transportation network on the presumption that oil would always be available.
How about pollution?
Global Warming was a joke until Al Gore got some graphs... and then it was hilarious.
Then the ice caps started melting and people realized that there's no more glaciers in Glacier National Park.
Now people are going nuts about it; carbon credits are traded publicly between companies, and hundreds of billions of dollars are frantically being spent trying to remedy the problem.
Maybe next time, we can think before we release trillions of pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Enron, the Great Depression, the titanic sinking, coal mines collapsing and cities burning from coal slag, the Love Canal, the Bell Telephone trustbusters... these are all things that happened because people didn't bother to be rational about them.
Dumping toxic waste next to a residential community will cause members of that community to die from toxic waste.
Crashing headlong into an iceberg will sink your ship.
Stealing countless amounts of money from stockholders will get you in jail.
These are simple concepts.
The earth is round.
But as a society, isn't it naive to think that there aren't modern incarnations of these things?
When asked, most people would say that they're glad they live in today- look at how much we know! and look at how many mistakes humanity has made. But what about the mistakes that we are currently making?
Drugs, abortion, and gay marriage are all hot topics in today's political world.
Plenty of people are in favor of legalizing pot, having abortions, and gay marriage.
What they don't realize is that these things are just as irrational and wrong as believing that the earth is flat.
We should try to be more like Solomon... wise.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
On Disposable Society
America.
For 60 years, we have been number 1.
The most powerful nation in the world.
The most influential country.
We invented modern society.
Boy, did we screw up.
You hear it talked about all over the place... we have entered a period hallmarked in part by "disposable" things. It started with little things.
The original?
Probably Gillette razors.
I think i've written about them before, but, King C. Gillette followed the business philosophy that a successful product is one that is purchased over and over again.
We buy a razor, and we buy new blades every few months.
We throw the old ones away.
Light bulbs are another great example.
We buy a light bulb, it stays lit for ~500 hours of use, and then we toss it.
The World's supply of Tungsten is dwindling... because we use light bulbs.
You can buy a brand new Hyundai Accent for $10,775.
At that price, you can use it for 6 years, and when it starts to fall apart, you can junk it for a new one. Disposable Cars.
Computers... another excellent example.
People buy computers (laptop in particular) and say, "woah mang, this thing is sooo fast!!"
Then apple rolls out the next iMac in a month, and the first thing you do is start complaining about how slow your computer is.
So you get a new one, and junk/ebay the old one.
We live in disposable society.
TV repair men are hardly ever seen anymore.
We don't pay people to fix our TVs. It's cheaper to just buy a new one.
And that's the thing.
IT'S CHEAPER TO BUY A NEW ONE THAN TO KEEP THE OLD ONE.
is there something wrong with this?
i think so.
There is a dual element to this phenomenon.
The first part is the money.
But there's the second part.
SAT scores are curved in such a way so that 500 always falls on the average score.
The College Board actually slides grades up so that the average will be 500.
Over the years, average scores have technically gone down.
What does that mean?
Americans are getting dumber.
In the same ammount of time, our obsession with media, entertainment, and networking has skyrocketed.
We don't spend a lot of time learning how our world works anymore.
We spend our time fussing over things that are completely meaningless.
The result?
BestBuy can get away with charging $160 to put a wireless router in your house.
Auto shops charge $101 per HOUR to work on your car.
It is more expensive to get your TV fixed then to buy a new one. (already mentioned)
What does it come down to?
We're so lazy, we'd rather pay someone to do something, than do it ourselves.
We're so cheap, we'd rather rope off hundreds of acres of land to dump our crap in, then bother to make re-usable products.
What does it come down to?
One word: Mindset.
We have this "slouchy" mindset.
We complain that american companies outsource all the labor... but people in India and the Philippines are willing to do more work for less pay.
If americans were willing to do more work for less pay, there wouldn't be outsourcing.
And if business owners weren't greedy, or if consumers didn't demand lower prices, there wouldn't be a reason to in the first place.
It's because of our lazy, slouchy, pass-the-buck mindset and attitude towards work.
There are people who sit on the couch all day, in their mom's house, complaining about not having a job.
HELLO!!
if you want a job, GET ONE.
go outside and DO SOMETHING.
We are americans.
We have more freedom than any people in history.
We can do anything we want.
Anyone can get rich, you just have to be willing to figure out how.
But we'd rather sit on our couch and complain about how bad the world is.
It's disgusting.
One plea:
Fix It.
Stop spending all your time on myspace.
Don't watch TV for 4 hours a day.
Get a job.
Grow in faith.
Get into ministry.
Set yourself into motion so you're not standing around doing nothing.
Go to uturn.
For 60 years, we have been number 1.
The most powerful nation in the world.
The most influential country.
We invented modern society.
Boy, did we screw up.
You hear it talked about all over the place... we have entered a period hallmarked in part by "disposable" things. It started with little things.
The original?
Probably Gillette razors.
I think i've written about them before, but, King C. Gillette followed the business philosophy that a successful product is one that is purchased over and over again.
We buy a razor, and we buy new blades every few months.
We throw the old ones away.
Light bulbs are another great example.
We buy a light bulb, it stays lit for ~500 hours of use, and then we toss it.
The World's supply of Tungsten is dwindling... because we use light bulbs.
You can buy a brand new Hyundai Accent for $10,775.
At that price, you can use it for 6 years, and when it starts to fall apart, you can junk it for a new one. Disposable Cars.
Computers... another excellent example.
People buy computers (laptop in particular) and say, "woah mang, this thing is sooo fast!!"
Then apple rolls out the next iMac in a month, and the first thing you do is start complaining about how slow your computer is.
So you get a new one, and junk/ebay the old one.
We live in disposable society.
TV repair men are hardly ever seen anymore.
We don't pay people to fix our TVs. It's cheaper to just buy a new one.
And that's the thing.
IT'S CHEAPER TO BUY A NEW ONE THAN TO KEEP THE OLD ONE.
is there something wrong with this?
i think so.
There is a dual element to this phenomenon.
The first part is the money.
But there's the second part.
SAT scores are curved in such a way so that 500 always falls on the average score.
The College Board actually slides grades up so that the average will be 500.
Over the years, average scores have technically gone down.
What does that mean?
Americans are getting dumber.
In the same ammount of time, our obsession with media, entertainment, and networking has skyrocketed.
We don't spend a lot of time learning how our world works anymore.
We spend our time fussing over things that are completely meaningless.
The result?
BestBuy can get away with charging $160 to put a wireless router in your house.
Auto shops charge $101 per HOUR to work on your car.
It is more expensive to get your TV fixed then to buy a new one. (already mentioned)
What does it come down to?
We're so lazy, we'd rather pay someone to do something, than do it ourselves.
We're so cheap, we'd rather rope off hundreds of acres of land to dump our crap in, then bother to make re-usable products.
What does it come down to?
One word: Mindset.
We have this "slouchy" mindset.
We complain that american companies outsource all the labor... but people in India and the Philippines are willing to do more work for less pay.
If americans were willing to do more work for less pay, there wouldn't be outsourcing.
And if business owners weren't greedy, or if consumers didn't demand lower prices, there wouldn't be a reason to in the first place.
It's because of our lazy, slouchy, pass-the-buck mindset and attitude towards work.
There are people who sit on the couch all day, in their mom's house, complaining about not having a job.
HELLO!!
if you want a job, GET ONE.
go outside and DO SOMETHING.
We are americans.
We have more freedom than any people in history.
We can do anything we want.
Anyone can get rich, you just have to be willing to figure out how.
But we'd rather sit on our couch and complain about how bad the world is.
It's disgusting.
One plea:
Fix It.
Stop spending all your time on myspace.
Don't watch TV for 4 hours a day.
Get a job.
Grow in faith.
Get into ministry.
Set yourself into motion so you're not standing around doing nothing.
Go to uturn.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
On Taking Advantage of What We’ve Been Given
Hey all.
so i was reading my Bible last night, and my eyes fell upon Isaiah 39.
Verses 5-8 read:
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, said the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
"The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime." [NIV]
Its easy to read that and think nothing of it.
But read the last line, Hezekiah's quote, again.
"The word of the Lord you have spoken is good... there will be peace and security in my lifetime."
The king of Judah had just been told that everything he owned, and that his fathers had build up and saved, was going to be carried off to Babylon.
Realize that at this point in time, Babylon wasn't a particularly strong power- they were being ruled by the Assyrians.
Imagine if some crazy hippy dude walked up to you and said, "hey mannn... ya know, someday, everything your family owns is going to be carried off to the canadian edge of Maine..."
you probably wouldn't say, "this is good, my dear friend."
See, Hezekiah was glad that there would be "peace and security" while he was still alive.
That's all he was concerned about.
Now flash forward like 3,500 years.
here we are. We are more or less in peace.
sure, we have a war over where Hezekiah was a few millennia ago, but over here, we're at peace. No one's family estates are being trucked over to Maine by hicks with Fords.
Most people wouldn't argue the fact that we have "peace and security".
Now see, Hezekiah was a really good king. He worked hard to make his people stop being retarded got them all to worship God and such... and it shows how grateful he was for Peace and Security... He didn't even think twice when Isaiah told him all his stuff (which he was proud of, i'm sure) was going to be taken. All that mattered was that, until the end of his reign, there would be peace.
A Roman poet known as Horace famously wrote, "Carpe Diem", which translates into English loosely as "Seize the Day".
I think Hezekiah would agree to that sentiment.
He was thankful for what he was given- and look at what we've been given: Americans have more stuff than anyone in history.
So we should try to make the most of it.
We should work with what we've been given and take advantage of the peace and security that we have, to make the most impact that we can.
so i was reading my Bible last night, and my eyes fell upon Isaiah 39.
Verses 5-8 read:
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, said the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
"The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime." [NIV]
Its easy to read that and think nothing of it.
But read the last line, Hezekiah's quote, again.
"The word of the Lord you have spoken is good... there will be peace and security in my lifetime."
The king of Judah had just been told that everything he owned, and that his fathers had build up and saved, was going to be carried off to Babylon.
Realize that at this point in time, Babylon wasn't a particularly strong power- they were being ruled by the Assyrians.
Imagine if some crazy hippy dude walked up to you and said, "hey mannn... ya know, someday, everything your family owns is going to be carried off to the canadian edge of Maine..."
you probably wouldn't say, "this is good, my dear friend."
See, Hezekiah was glad that there would be "peace and security" while he was still alive.
That's all he was concerned about.
Now flash forward like 3,500 years.
here we are. We are more or less in peace.
sure, we have a war over where Hezekiah was a few millennia ago, but over here, we're at peace. No one's family estates are being trucked over to Maine by hicks with Fords.
Most people wouldn't argue the fact that we have "peace and security".
Now see, Hezekiah was a really good king. He worked hard to make his people stop being retarded got them all to worship God and such... and it shows how grateful he was for Peace and Security... He didn't even think twice when Isaiah told him all his stuff (which he was proud of, i'm sure) was going to be taken. All that mattered was that, until the end of his reign, there would be peace.
A Roman poet known as Horace famously wrote, "Carpe Diem", which translates into English loosely as "Seize the Day".
I think Hezekiah would agree to that sentiment.
He was thankful for what he was given- and look at what we've been given: Americans have more stuff than anyone in history.
So we should try to make the most of it.
We should work with what we've been given and take advantage of the peace and security that we have, to make the most impact that we can.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
"I-Glasses"
So we all know the term, "rose-colored glasses", right?
When someone makes a situation seem less severe, or nicer than it really is, we say that they're looking through these metaphysical "rose-colored glasses".
Something that has been bothering me lately is sort of an artifact of these "glasses".
They say that there are many sides to every story.
The problem with that is that each of those sides comes from a different person.
In reality, there's only one side to a story: what actually happened.
All these subset "sides" is merely an opinion that can change dramatically based on who you ask.
This can be seen very easily with highschool drama.
Take any situation you may be familiar with.
Every involved party will have its own story, with the facts skewed in one way or another.
And something you will notice about this:
Every person's story is crafted in a way that lifts up that person.
Nothing is ever that person's fault, or he's the victim, or did something really nice or good, or whatever.
This is probably a natural human thing; everyone pretty much does it to a degree.
In essence, we have a natural tendency to look at our lives through glasses tinted with a shade of "me".
If you looked through glasses with red lenses, everything would appear red.
So looking through glasses with us-colored lenses, everything appears to be our "color";
maybe you could call this self-centered-ness.
Regardless, i'd call them "i-glasses".
If you look at a bunch of your friend's myspace pages, there's a trend towards using the word "genuine" in the "who i'd like to meet" section.
And it's true; everyone likes people who are genuine.
But are we, ourselves, genuine?
I'm sure we all know people with this tendency to stretch stories to fit themselves.
But we should strive really hard to not be like that- look at life through glasses colored in the opposite of yourself.
Be genuine to your friends and family, and don't be petty.
Go out of your way for other people, and try to make yourself unimportant to yourself.
When someone makes a situation seem less severe, or nicer than it really is, we say that they're looking through these metaphysical "rose-colored glasses".
Something that has been bothering me lately is sort of an artifact of these "glasses".
They say that there are many sides to every story.
The problem with that is that each of those sides comes from a different person.
In reality, there's only one side to a story: what actually happened.
All these subset "sides" is merely an opinion that can change dramatically based on who you ask.
This can be seen very easily with highschool drama.
Take any situation you may be familiar with.
Every involved party will have its own story, with the facts skewed in one way or another.
And something you will notice about this:
Every person's story is crafted in a way that lifts up that person.
Nothing is ever that person's fault, or he's the victim, or did something really nice or good, or whatever.
This is probably a natural human thing; everyone pretty much does it to a degree.
In essence, we have a natural tendency to look at our lives through glasses tinted with a shade of "me".
If you looked through glasses with red lenses, everything would appear red.
So looking through glasses with us-colored lenses, everything appears to be our "color";
maybe you could call this self-centered-ness.
Regardless, i'd call them "i-glasses".
If you look at a bunch of your friend's myspace pages, there's a trend towards using the word "genuine" in the "who i'd like to meet" section.
And it's true; everyone likes people who are genuine.
But are we, ourselves, genuine?
I'm sure we all know people with this tendency to stretch stories to fit themselves.
But we should strive really hard to not be like that- look at life through glasses colored in the opposite of yourself.
Be genuine to your friends and family, and don't be petty.
Go out of your way for other people, and try to make yourself unimportant to yourself.
Monday, December 10, 2007
You can’t beat the system, because there isn’t one.
[Before you start reading, here's a neato disclaimer:
when i started writing this, i didn't know where i was gonna go with it.
for that reason, the begining and the end aren't really congruent. so bear with it. i apologize.]
cheating.
It starts in elementary school, when you break the rules of a friendly game of tag at recess.
pandemonium ensues as you try to justify your act to the other kids on the playground... "i didn't know! i slipped!"
but everyone knows you're just insecure, or your parents beat you, or something like that.
middle school:
you get the latest half-crappy pc game, and the second thing you do is head to gameFAQs to find cheat codes.
But you don't have friends, so you can't play any multiplayer CIV4 or anything... you just end up playing single player mode. And when you use cheats, all you end up doing is make the game not fun anymore.
Way to go, you just wasted $40 on a game that used to be awsome, until you made it boring.
As we progress onto highschool, this style of thinking gets sophisticated.
Bad at bio?
Tape the answers to the test onto the inside label of your waterbottle, so you can read them through the other side!
Predictable Spanish vocab quiz using your own lined paper?
Use an un-extended mechanical pencil tip to pre-etch the words into the paper, then come quiz time just trace 'em.
My mom was talking to another music teacher tody, whose son got suspended at Noble.
he called a classmate a "bad name".
what does he get?
-doesn't have to go to 5:30 AM hokey practice.
-gets to sit in a room and listen to his iPod and watch movies on a kid's laptop instead of going to class
-he can't go to lunch, so they deliver it to him, for free, dessert included.
the teacher of his class didn't report him; the kid he was mean to didn't report him; some random kid did.
Bottom line?
Make fun of people; they get you 3 days of government-funded awsome.
In The Matrix, Neo, Morpheus, and company have to beat the system of the Matrix to save the city Zion from the machines...
In highschool, kids are constantly skirting the rules to get what they want without punishment.
These are the kids who have that smug little "haha" face when they "win", and you just wanna deck 'em. yeah, those ones.
now, here's a shocker.
That style of thinking doesn't get you anywhere.
incredible, isn't it?
In Ecclesiastes 9:2 [NIV], Solomon says, "All share a common destiny- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not."
[oddly enough, my NKJ bible doesn't have that entire sentence]
anyway, the point is this: everyone dies.
whether or not you believe the Bible is true, you can't deny that statement.
Bill Gates and I will both be dead; when we're both in the ground, he'll be no different to me. All his money, and all that he's done, have to stay here on Earth, remaining with those who are still alive.
Now.
How was that relevant?
here:
People "beat the system" on things like tests, games, curfew, you name it.
Why can't you apply that style of thinking apply to life as a whole?
Sure, after you graduate you can still beat the system. You can lie at work to get around boring meetings, scam people on ebay, the list goes on and on. But life!
You can't cheat Life.
Really, people have tried.
It can't be done.
No matter how much cheating you've done in life, you still die.
There is no elixir of life that makes you life forever.
Sure, you could be a centi-billionaire. That might get you REMEMBERED forever.
But a memory is only around as long as people are there to carry it on.
The cold, hard fact is that Life isn't a "system".
you can't beat it.
there's no loopholes.
no cheat codes.
you die.
Now, i'm sure you're sitting here, possibly angry with me.
You're thinking, "why did i just read all of that? it's common sense; everyone knows you can't not die."
Right!
of course you knew it.
Now think about it.
You can't beat life.
You have to play by the rules.
What are the rules?
simple.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Oh!
and, Love your neighbor as yourself.
see what i'm getting at?
of course you do, you're an educated american!
So what happens if you don't play by the rules?
well, simple.
you die.
And when you do play by the rules, you die...
and live forever.
In a nutshell:
You could cheat thoughout life... but that's dumb!
Because while "playing by the rules" won't get you unearned riches, long drug-enduced stupors, and such, it WILL get you eternal life.
Think about it.
One of these decisions makes sense.
when i started writing this, i didn't know where i was gonna go with it.
for that reason, the begining and the end aren't really congruent. so bear with it. i apologize.]
cheating.
It starts in elementary school, when you break the rules of a friendly game of tag at recess.
pandemonium ensues as you try to justify your act to the other kids on the playground... "i didn't know! i slipped!"
but everyone knows you're just insecure, or your parents beat you, or something like that.
middle school:
you get the latest half-crappy pc game, and the second thing you do is head to gameFAQs to find cheat codes.
But you don't have friends, so you can't play any multiplayer CIV4 or anything... you just end up playing single player mode. And when you use cheats, all you end up doing is make the game not fun anymore.
Way to go, you just wasted $40 on a game that used to be awsome, until you made it boring.
As we progress onto highschool, this style of thinking gets sophisticated.
Bad at bio?
Tape the answers to the test onto the inside label of your waterbottle, so you can read them through the other side!
Predictable Spanish vocab quiz using your own lined paper?
Use an un-extended mechanical pencil tip to pre-etch the words into the paper, then come quiz time just trace 'em.
My mom was talking to another music teacher tody, whose son got suspended at Noble.
he called a classmate a "bad name".
what does he get?
-doesn't have to go to 5:30 AM hokey practice.
-gets to sit in a room and listen to his iPod and watch movies on a kid's laptop instead of going to class
-he can't go to lunch, so they deliver it to him, for free, dessert included.
the teacher of his class didn't report him; the kid he was mean to didn't report him; some random kid did.
Bottom line?
Make fun of people; they get you 3 days of government-funded awsome.
In The Matrix, Neo, Morpheus, and company have to beat the system of the Matrix to save the city Zion from the machines...
In highschool, kids are constantly skirting the rules to get what they want without punishment.
These are the kids who have that smug little "haha" face when they "win", and you just wanna deck 'em. yeah, those ones.
now, here's a shocker.
That style of thinking doesn't get you anywhere.
incredible, isn't it?
In Ecclesiastes 9:2 [NIV], Solomon says, "All share a common destiny- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not."
[oddly enough, my NKJ bible doesn't have that entire sentence]
anyway, the point is this: everyone dies.
whether or not you believe the Bible is true, you can't deny that statement.
Bill Gates and I will both be dead; when we're both in the ground, he'll be no different to me. All his money, and all that he's done, have to stay here on Earth, remaining with those who are still alive.
Now.
How was that relevant?
here:
People "beat the system" on things like tests, games, curfew, you name it.
Why can't you apply that style of thinking apply to life as a whole?
Sure, after you graduate you can still beat the system. You can lie at work to get around boring meetings, scam people on ebay, the list goes on and on. But life!
You can't cheat Life.
Really, people have tried.
It can't be done.
No matter how much cheating you've done in life, you still die.
There is no elixir of life that makes you life forever.
Sure, you could be a centi-billionaire. That might get you REMEMBERED forever.
But a memory is only around as long as people are there to carry it on.
The cold, hard fact is that Life isn't a "system".
you can't beat it.
there's no loopholes.
no cheat codes.
you die.
Now, i'm sure you're sitting here, possibly angry with me.
You're thinking, "why did i just read all of that? it's common sense; everyone knows you can't not die."
Right!
of course you knew it.
Now think about it.
You can't beat life.
You have to play by the rules.
What are the rules?
simple.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Oh!
and, Love your neighbor as yourself.
see what i'm getting at?
of course you do, you're an educated american!
So what happens if you don't play by the rules?
well, simple.
you die.
And when you do play by the rules, you die...
and live forever.
In a nutshell:
You could cheat thoughout life... but that's dumb!
Because while "playing by the rules" won't get you unearned riches, long drug-enduced stupors, and such, it WILL get you eternal life.
Think about it.
One of these decisions makes sense.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
on sudden realization
mkay.
So theres this song by The Almost (which is the drummer from underoath). We listened to it at minicamp a bunch. It's titled, "dirty and left out"... and theres this one line that reads as such: "Jesus, Jesus... There's something about your name... Master, Savior, Jesus".
Listening to the song on my own after Saralena got me the cd, there was something powerful about that line.
Let's take a time warp to last Saturday.
The cross country team is on the way to northwestern Connecticut for the NEPSTA race. It's a 5 and a half hour bus ride... so we spend an entire day's worth of time in a bus to run for 20 minutes.
Irony aside, someone brought the 3rd Lord of the Rings movie. So we watched it.
During the movie, Gandalf rides with Pippen to Minas Tirith, the City of Kings.
For all of you who only watched the movies for Orlando, it's the big white city on the cliff where the final battle takes place.
For the past forever many years, there has been no king there; it has been ruled by a caretaker. That's unimportant to my point, but, i figured i'd bring more context in.
Anywho, the caretaker's son happened to be Boromir, who was the first and only person to die in the Fellowship (he died from like 30 orc arrows at the begining). Gandalf had been hoping that the caretaker didn't know that his son was dead. But, as he walked into the throneroom, it became quite clear. The caretaker was striken with mourning, and complete bitterness towards Gandalf.
Sensing his grief, and feeling that he was partially to blame, Pippen takes a knee to the caretaker and says, "I offer you my service, such as it is, in payment of this debt."
Ans so the caretaker takes him up on his offer, and he becomes a servant to the caretaker; he bound himself to this guy on his own free will.
Thence forth, he had to do whatever the caretaker wanted him to do. Which included singing while he ate.
Anyway, that's the scene i thought of when i heard the song.
We have made Jesus our master.
And in a literal, but not physical way, we have pledged to be his servants; to do what he asks.
If Pippen had decided to back out on his oath, he prolly would have been killed on the spot.
If we back out on our oath, Jesus waits for us to turn back to him.
But the point is, think about that scene. Picture yourself taking a knee to Jesus and pledging Him your loyal service.
Then realize how amazing he is, and that we've been given a mission to fulfill.
And remember that line, "There's something about your name..."
So theres this song by The Almost (which is the drummer from underoath). We listened to it at minicamp a bunch. It's titled, "dirty and left out"... and theres this one line that reads as such: "Jesus, Jesus... There's something about your name... Master, Savior, Jesus".
Listening to the song on my own after Saralena got me the cd, there was something powerful about that line.
Let's take a time warp to last Saturday.
The cross country team is on the way to northwestern Connecticut for the NEPSTA race. It's a 5 and a half hour bus ride... so we spend an entire day's worth of time in a bus to run for 20 minutes.
Irony aside, someone brought the 3rd Lord of the Rings movie. So we watched it.
During the movie, Gandalf rides with Pippen to Minas Tirith, the City of Kings.
For all of you who only watched the movies for Orlando, it's the big white city on the cliff where the final battle takes place.
For the past forever many years, there has been no king there; it has been ruled by a caretaker. That's unimportant to my point, but, i figured i'd bring more context in.
Anywho, the caretaker's son happened to be Boromir, who was the first and only person to die in the Fellowship (he died from like 30 orc arrows at the begining). Gandalf had been hoping that the caretaker didn't know that his son was dead. But, as he walked into the throneroom, it became quite clear. The caretaker was striken with mourning, and complete bitterness towards Gandalf.
Sensing his grief, and feeling that he was partially to blame, Pippen takes a knee to the caretaker and says, "I offer you my service, such as it is, in payment of this debt."
Ans so the caretaker takes him up on his offer, and he becomes a servant to the caretaker; he bound himself to this guy on his own free will.
Thence forth, he had to do whatever the caretaker wanted him to do. Which included singing while he ate.
Anyway, that's the scene i thought of when i heard the song.
We have made Jesus our master.
And in a literal, but not physical way, we have pledged to be his servants; to do what he asks.
If Pippen had decided to back out on his oath, he prolly would have been killed on the spot.
If we back out on our oath, Jesus waits for us to turn back to him.
But the point is, think about that scene. Picture yourself taking a knee to Jesus and pledging Him your loyal service.
Then realize how amazing he is, and that we've been given a mission to fulfill.
And remember that line, "There's something about your name..."
Monday, July 23, 2007
On Harry Potter
J.K.Rowling has created a phenomenon.
She has opened the doors to the industry of making little plastic figurines of book characters.
Even Disney made Halloween Town after harry potter.
Whether it is through her creative writing style, character formulation, or the fact that we've spent too much time reading 6 books already to stop before its over, she has made sure that anyone who reads her books will feel a very real connection to them.
I just started reading the last harry potter book a few weeks ago, cause i never read it.
number 6.
my grandma bought me the last one on preorder and it arrived friday i think.
i read the last page.
cheeky.
Ive been reading the book a little at a time, at night, before bed, before reading my bible. [as awkward as that looks right now...]
anyway, i just closed the book when Dumbledoor gets killed by Snape.
I wanted to punch something.
How could harry be stuck immobilized while he watched his greatest hero die?
I wanted to fly to britain and throttle Rowling for being so cruel to her readers.
Then i calmed down again.
I thought about how difficult it would be for Harry to find the Horcruxes on his own.
I thought about how Dumbledoor was one of the most powerful wizards alive.
I thought about how all of his experience and knowledge of old magic and memories and stuff were lost forever.
Then i came to my senses.
I brushed my teeth.
I looked at the mirror in disbelief.
J.K.Rowling has conceived a story that has drawn people like me into it, to relate to her characters. She has created an ultimate battle between good and evil.
She has made a 7-book, prolly around 5,000 page epic documenting the struggle.
And most convenient for my purposes right now...
she set it all in present times.
HAH!
and you all thought this was about Harry Potter!
...anyway.
Rowling made a book.
She took Evil, or perhaps "Dark Arts", and personified them as Lord Voldemort.
Then she immersed society in them, to the point where people's emotions are rocked by events in her book.
wait.
J.K.Rowling has more money than the Queen of England.
We spend billions of our money for her books, the movies, and the clever marketing of rubberized plastic actions figures.
Daniel Radcliffe now does shirtless modeling shots.
Many lives have been affected by her books.
let me clarify:
We spend billions of dollars supporting a FICTIONAL book written by some lady originally on napkins on a train.
FICTIONAL.
NOT REAL.
STORY.
BOOK.
LORD VOLDEMORT.
DOES ANYONE REALIZE THAT WE HAVE OUR OWN, V E R Y R E A L BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL SURFACING, IN OUR OWN, V E R Y R E A L REALITY?
jeeze people.
stop buying books.
start sending money to missionaries, to Speed the Light, to your Church...
start getting people saved, start using your resources for REALITY instead of a memorizing fantasy that's eating up your time and money.
Use your time for God, use your money for God, and realize that the Devil is a much bigger opponent than Tom Riddle.
And then go find those Horcruxes.
She has opened the doors to the industry of making little plastic figurines of book characters.
Even Disney made Halloween Town after harry potter.
Whether it is through her creative writing style, character formulation, or the fact that we've spent too much time reading 6 books already to stop before its over, she has made sure that anyone who reads her books will feel a very real connection to them.
I just started reading the last harry potter book a few weeks ago, cause i never read it.
number 6.
my grandma bought me the last one on preorder and it arrived friday i think.
i read the last page.
cheeky.
Ive been reading the book a little at a time, at night, before bed, before reading my bible. [as awkward as that looks right now...]
anyway, i just closed the book when Dumbledoor gets killed by Snape.
I wanted to punch something.
How could harry be stuck immobilized while he watched his greatest hero die?
I wanted to fly to britain and throttle Rowling for being so cruel to her readers.
Then i calmed down again.
I thought about how difficult it would be for Harry to find the Horcruxes on his own.
I thought about how Dumbledoor was one of the most powerful wizards alive.
I thought about how all of his experience and knowledge of old magic and memories and stuff were lost forever.
Then i came to my senses.
I brushed my teeth.
I looked at the mirror in disbelief.
J.K.Rowling has conceived a story that has drawn people like me into it, to relate to her characters. She has created an ultimate battle between good and evil.
She has made a 7-book, prolly around 5,000 page epic documenting the struggle.
And most convenient for my purposes right now...
she set it all in present times.
HAH!
and you all thought this was about Harry Potter!
...anyway.
Rowling made a book.
She took Evil, or perhaps "Dark Arts", and personified them as Lord Voldemort.
Then she immersed society in them, to the point where people's emotions are rocked by events in her book.
wait.
J.K.Rowling has more money than the Queen of England.
We spend billions of our money for her books, the movies, and the clever marketing of rubberized plastic actions figures.
Daniel Radcliffe now does shirtless modeling shots.
Many lives have been affected by her books.
let me clarify:
We spend billions of dollars supporting a FICTIONAL book written by some lady originally on napkins on a train.
FICTIONAL.
NOT REAL.
STORY.
BOOK.
LORD VOLDEMORT.
DOES ANYONE REALIZE THAT WE HAVE OUR OWN, V E R Y R E A L BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL SURFACING, IN OUR OWN, V E R Y R E A L REALITY?
jeeze people.
stop buying books.
start sending money to missionaries, to Speed the Light, to your Church...
start getting people saved, start using your resources for REALITY instead of a memorizing fantasy that's eating up your time and money.
Use your time for God, use your money for God, and realize that the Devil is a much bigger opponent than Tom Riddle.
And then go find those Horcruxes.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
on dependance
i totally forgot to write this blog when i originally thought to, around monday.
but anyway...
Last sunday at DEC the worship leader, Chris Clough (who by the way is pretty awesome... just like every other chris i know) had the whole church do this thing.
In front of every seat there was a little piece of paper that said, "Depend on Me" on it.
He told everyone to take it and whatever's troubling you, or whatever you have uncertainty about, fears, doubts, etc, and write it on the back of the paper.
Then we folded them so we could read the "depend on me" part.
The point of the exercise was to remind us that no matter what the problem is, no matter what's bothering you or going on in your life, no matter how big or small, we can all Depend on God for it.
This is the guy that created the universe, and set into motion each of our lives, knows how its gonna end, and could tell you everything you've ever done-- the least we can do is trust Him with our petty problems. If you live for God and trust that he'll take care of you, you dont have to worry about much of anything... "let the world worry about the world" and such.
food for thought.
but anyway...
Last sunday at DEC the worship leader, Chris Clough (who by the way is pretty awesome... just like every other chris i know) had the whole church do this thing.
In front of every seat there was a little piece of paper that said, "Depend on Me" on it.
He told everyone to take it and whatever's troubling you, or whatever you have uncertainty about, fears, doubts, etc, and write it on the back of the paper.
Then we folded them so we could read the "depend on me" part.
The point of the exercise was to remind us that no matter what the problem is, no matter what's bothering you or going on in your life, no matter how big or small, we can all Depend on God for it.
This is the guy that created the universe, and set into motion each of our lives, knows how its gonna end, and could tell you everything you've ever done-- the least we can do is trust Him with our petty problems. If you live for God and trust that he'll take care of you, you dont have to worry about much of anything... "let the world worry about the world" and such.
food for thought.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
sunburn
we all got sunburns at the uturn carwash on saturday.
mine is especially bad on the left side of my neck, because i stood with my left to the sun for about an hour holding a sign.
this is mostly bad because it's exactly where my bass strap rubs against my neck, on top of a bug bite in the same spot, so it better heal fast or im gonna be miserable during the launch party.
anyway, yeah. sunburns.
they're always a bummer:
you go out in the sun, overestimate your sunscreen (or your manliness), and you end up burnt.
but wait.
just a liiiiiiiittle less sun and you would have had a nice tan, right?
everyone loves getting tan, except people like stephen hawkings who is like allergic to it or something.
tans: they make you look better, they make you think your skin is healthier, they make you look like you dont
spend all your time indoors, basically, they're good.
but burns are bad.
its interesting how the same thing (the sun) can both tan, and burn. good and bad.
okay, now you're thinking, "he's either retarded, or is trying to go somewhere with this.".
well, yes, and yes.
when you get a really bad sunburn, your skin starts to peel.
especially noses for some reason.
your nose always peels, and every time you brush against it you end up with little pieces of skin all over your hand or something, and you think to yourself, "man, im so ugly."
then the best part: when your skin peels all off, you're left with a nice layer of white, new, fresh skin underneath.
emphasis of new and fresh.
im gonna do a stretch here and try to link the sun with pressure, trials, struggles, adversities, and lame-o team-building activities commonly found at ropes courses.
if you get enough pressure/adversities to get outside your comfort zone [think: going outside], you grow. [you get a tan]
but if you get too much crap piled on top of you, you burn. when that happens, too often we think, "ow", and put on that nasty smelling moisturizing lotion that mom's had in the closet for 15 years. then we go back out into the sun and get more burned.
but i think sometimes, you have to just let it peel.
let the new skin come out, put on more sunscreen, and face your adversities with a new wind/vigor/perspective/outlook/motivational catchphrase.
and i think that's what im gonna try to do.
mine is especially bad on the left side of my neck, because i stood with my left to the sun for about an hour holding a sign.
this is mostly bad because it's exactly where my bass strap rubs against my neck, on top of a bug bite in the same spot, so it better heal fast or im gonna be miserable during the launch party.
anyway, yeah. sunburns.
they're always a bummer:
you go out in the sun, overestimate your sunscreen (or your manliness), and you end up burnt.
but wait.
just a liiiiiiiittle less sun and you would have had a nice tan, right?
everyone loves getting tan, except people like stephen hawkings who is like allergic to it or something.
tans: they make you look better, they make you think your skin is healthier, they make you look like you dont
spend all your time indoors, basically, they're good.
but burns are bad.
its interesting how the same thing (the sun) can both tan, and burn. good and bad.
okay, now you're thinking, "he's either retarded, or is trying to go somewhere with this.".
well, yes, and yes.
when you get a really bad sunburn, your skin starts to peel.
especially noses for some reason.
your nose always peels, and every time you brush against it you end up with little pieces of skin all over your hand or something, and you think to yourself, "man, im so ugly."
then the best part: when your skin peels all off, you're left with a nice layer of white, new, fresh skin underneath.
emphasis of new and fresh.
im gonna do a stretch here and try to link the sun with pressure, trials, struggles, adversities, and lame-o team-building activities commonly found at ropes courses.
if you get enough pressure/adversities to get outside your comfort zone [think: going outside], you grow. [you get a tan]
but if you get too much crap piled on top of you, you burn. when that happens, too often we think, "ow", and put on that nasty smelling moisturizing lotion that mom's had in the closet for 15 years. then we go back out into the sun and get more burned.
but i think sometimes, you have to just let it peel.
let the new skin come out, put on more sunscreen, and face your adversities with a new wind/vigor/perspective/outlook/motivational catchphrase.
and i think that's what im gonna try to do.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
on highschool
i was reading one of those lame bulletin stories that people repost all the time.
It was supposed to be this cute love-story type thing, except it was full of idiot spelling mistakes and generally lacked any style at all. reading it was a pain to the eyes.
But anyway, it talked about this highschool guy who was on the football team, and was dying of cancer.
Right before he died, he was allowed to play in the championship football game for his school and they won and blah blah, his last words were the following:
"I told you this was my dream to win the championship.. to be in the big game.. to die on this feild.. I made history."
now... obviously this isn't real.
but, i want to point something out to you.
this character's seemingly SOLE dream was to win the championship. not only that, but he thought he made history.
IDIOT.
the sad part about this story?
it reflects on that SO MANY teenagers dont know what they should be living for.
Recall Napoleon Dynamite, and Napoleon's uncle.
yeah, the dude that kept video taping himself throwing a football and getting hurt.
he talked about how if they hadn't blown their -highschool football championship-, he would have been pro or something.
now, direct yourself to your nearest yearbook.
sometimes, i hear people (girls, they're always girls) talk about Prom.
They talk about how it was such an amazing night, how they'll remember it for the rest of their lives, blah blah blah, "i felt like a princess"... and most of you people went to/will go to prom with someone who wont end up your husband or wife.
and want to know something else?
PROM ISN'T THE GREATEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE.
in fact, it will be/was probably among the most lame.
why do we in america put so much emphasis on highschool, what we do in highschool, dances in highschool, highschool sports, and prom?
it's totally ridiculous.
Face it. the 4 years we spend in highschool shouldn't have THAT a dramatic impact on your life for the next 25 years.
Sure, we should make good memories, grow as much as we can, and learn everything we need to, but come on!
One day, you'll have a career, which will occupy most of your time.
Your highschool friends begin to fade away the very moment you set foot on a college campus.
sports teams really shouldn't mean anything to you after you graduate. Sure, we can be fans of our city's highschool sports, but why would you spend the rest of your life thinking about how well you could have done? its over. get used to it.
i dont know, it just bugs me that american youth spends so much effort turning highschool into what they think will be the most fun years of their lives.
It was supposed to be this cute love-story type thing, except it was full of idiot spelling mistakes and generally lacked any style at all. reading it was a pain to the eyes.
But anyway, it talked about this highschool guy who was on the football team, and was dying of cancer.
Right before he died, he was allowed to play in the championship football game for his school and they won and blah blah, his last words were the following:
"I told you this was my dream to win the championship.. to be in the big game.. to die on this feild.. I made history."
now... obviously this isn't real.
but, i want to point something out to you.
this character's seemingly SOLE dream was to win the championship. not only that, but he thought he made history.
IDIOT.
the sad part about this story?
it reflects on that SO MANY teenagers dont know what they should be living for.
Recall Napoleon Dynamite, and Napoleon's uncle.
yeah, the dude that kept video taping himself throwing a football and getting hurt.
he talked about how if they hadn't blown their -highschool football championship-, he would have been pro or something.
now, direct yourself to your nearest yearbook.
sometimes, i hear people (girls, they're always girls) talk about Prom.
They talk about how it was such an amazing night, how they'll remember it for the rest of their lives, blah blah blah, "i felt like a princess"... and most of you people went to/will go to prom with someone who wont end up your husband or wife.
and want to know something else?
PROM ISN'T THE GREATEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE.
in fact, it will be/was probably among the most lame.
why do we in america put so much emphasis on highschool, what we do in highschool, dances in highschool, highschool sports, and prom?
it's totally ridiculous.
Face it. the 4 years we spend in highschool shouldn't have THAT a dramatic impact on your life for the next 25 years.
Sure, we should make good memories, grow as much as we can, and learn everything we need to, but come on!
One day, you'll have a career, which will occupy most of your time.
Your highschool friends begin to fade away the very moment you set foot on a college campus.
sports teams really shouldn't mean anything to you after you graduate. Sure, we can be fans of our city's highschool sports, but why would you spend the rest of your life thinking about how well you could have done? its over. get used to it.
i dont know, it just bugs me that american youth spends so much effort turning highschool into what they think will be the most fun years of their lives.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
my dog doesn't sit down to take a dump.
Evolution says that traits that help a species survive are the ones that are kept, and thus are the ones that contribute to evolution.
When my dog goes outside and needs to take a dump, he doesn't find a nice comfy place in some bushes and make sure he has enough privacy.
Instead, he finds a patch of ground, does a weird little squat thing, and starts pumping chunks of poo out his bum, while walking around.
Now. My dog is a domesticated animal.
He doesn't have to worry about predators coming and killing him and eating his babies.
But wild animals... they do.
They always talk about those human things that weren't humans, but weren't apes, like Neandrathols or whatever.
They were supposedly hairy short people things that walked on two legs.
I'm sure they had predators, just like animals do. Them cheetahs and lions and 3-toed sloths can do some major damage.
Did "early humans" have to sit down to take a dump?
Cause im pretty sure that if i was a Puma, and i wanted a tasty Prehistoric People Dinner, i'd go after 'em while they were on the can.
Even if they didn't have porcelain back then, they could have dug holes in the ground next to a tree or something.
And what about girls peeing sitting down?
They must have been easy targets at the dawn of human civilization.
It just doesn't make sense that we'd win the "survival of the fittest" thing with having to sit down to poop.
i dunno man.
When my dog goes outside and needs to take a dump, he doesn't find a nice comfy place in some bushes and make sure he has enough privacy.
Instead, he finds a patch of ground, does a weird little squat thing, and starts pumping chunks of poo out his bum, while walking around.
Now. My dog is a domesticated animal.
He doesn't have to worry about predators coming and killing him and eating his babies.
But wild animals... they do.
They always talk about those human things that weren't humans, but weren't apes, like Neandrathols or whatever.
They were supposedly hairy short people things that walked on two legs.
I'm sure they had predators, just like animals do. Them cheetahs and lions and 3-toed sloths can do some major damage.
Did "early humans" have to sit down to take a dump?
Cause im pretty sure that if i was a Puma, and i wanted a tasty Prehistoric People Dinner, i'd go after 'em while they were on the can.
Even if they didn't have porcelain back then, they could have dug holes in the ground next to a tree or something.
And what about girls peeing sitting down?
They must have been easy targets at the dawn of human civilization.
It just doesn't make sense that we'd win the "survival of the fittest" thing with having to sit down to poop.
i dunno man.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
hark! you make me sick.
The Bible is a wonderful book.
Today, i would like to point you all to John 15:18-19. I'll be quoting in NIV.
[Jesus Speaking]"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but i have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
Now, i know that theres a million different ways to interperate passages from the bible, and for each of those theres another denomination. But what i get out of this is that it should be a wakeup call. Does the world hate you?
If it doesn't, should it?
Teenagers have a really bad problem of always needing to fit in; We're not just an age group in America, but America's teenagers function under a Mob Mentality. That is to say, teenagers work as a collective.
You see things like myspace--almost every teenager in america has one. Fasion, popular words or phrases, whether or not its cool to call someone a fag-- thats all decided by the group.
When one idea starts in a highschool in San Fransisco, it spreads in a matter of weeks all the way here to New England.
So naturally, we have a need to fit in.
In my mind, what Jesus is telling us, is that we cant fit in.
A christian teenager who spends all his time trying to fit in, is going to have to shirk the responsibilities of following Christ at some point.
Sure, we can be cool. People should look at you, and think, "woah, that kids differemt."
What's that great verse thats in the MuteMath song?
oh yeah. Peculiar People.
Different.
So dont fit in.
Dont think you have to do all the crap your friends are doing.
Go against the grain.
And stop making me sick.
Today, i would like to point you all to John 15:18-19. I'll be quoting in NIV.
[Jesus Speaking]"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but i have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
Now, i know that theres a million different ways to interperate passages from the bible, and for each of those theres another denomination. But what i get out of this is that it should be a wakeup call. Does the world hate you?
If it doesn't, should it?
Teenagers have a really bad problem of always needing to fit in; We're not just an age group in America, but America's teenagers function under a Mob Mentality. That is to say, teenagers work as a collective.
You see things like myspace--almost every teenager in america has one. Fasion, popular words or phrases, whether or not its cool to call someone a fag-- thats all decided by the group.
When one idea starts in a highschool in San Fransisco, it spreads in a matter of weeks all the way here to New England.
So naturally, we have a need to fit in.
In my mind, what Jesus is telling us, is that we cant fit in.
A christian teenager who spends all his time trying to fit in, is going to have to shirk the responsibilities of following Christ at some point.
Sure, we can be cool. People should look at you, and think, "woah, that kids differemt."
What's that great verse thats in the MuteMath song?
oh yeah. Peculiar People.
Different.
So dont fit in.
Dont think you have to do all the crap your friends are doing.
Go against the grain.
And stop making me sick.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
on modern science
Thesis Statement:
Modern practices of science have taught humanity that it's okay to be ignorant, as long as you can justify it.
Science. Since the renneisance, Science has been about using a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning to arrive at new conclusions, new ideas, and new ways to do things.
Now, what's wrong with this, you say?
nothing, of course. We're advancing society and the human race through logical thinking.
So i was at school today, and we were talking about the differences between agnostics and atheists. We decided that an Agnostic person doesn't believe in God, but will let you prove it to you.
One of my favorite teachers ever said, "i'm an atheist. you can prove God to me, but i'll still know you're wrong."
the topic devolved into how "God cant exist because God is supposed to be compassionate, but he lets all sorts of people die all the time, and since i would help those people if i were God, it makes me better than him, therefore he cant exist. And dont even start with that original sin crap."
People rag on Christians all the time because, probably out of the fact that we know we're right and have a passion for spreading the Gospel, we're always trying to get people to believe what we do. They call us ignorant.
But by that very statement about being more compassionate than God, you might as well take a tattooist's pen and tattoo "Ignorant" on your forehead permanently.
Or if you're a three stooges fan, you might even opt to go for "Ignoramus".
You see, Mr. Knight, you basically just told me that you know nothing about God, the bible, or christianity as a whole. You really just know that you dont like what I believe, even though you dont know what it is.
We've gotten rid of God through science with PERFECTLY logical statements like that. "god cant exist because blah blah". And it makes sense, yeah.
But if you think about it, it PROVES that the one true God isn't anything that a human could have made up; everything humans do is logical. We only do something if it makes sense to us.
If a human had made up God, He would have made more sense, like the Greek gods, who behaved exactly like humans do, just with mythical powers.
at the same time, God makes perfect sense.
Why are people all over the world dieing?
its not God's fault, obviously. God is faultless.
If we go back to the fact that humans brought the entire world's pain and suffering on ourselves, and knowingly disobeyed God, what's his motive to save us anyway?
We screwed up. He isn't obligated to rescue us from our messes.
Yet he showed compassion by sending his son, his SON, to us, let us kill him, and through that we're saved from an eternaty of suffering.
logical?
no.
compassionate?
absolutely!!
You say you would get rid of all the suffering in the world?
Scenario: A man walks into Wal-Mart with a loaded AK-47, yells at everyone to get down, and then shoots everything he sees.
Suffering? Of course. People would die.
How would you prevent this, if you were God?
To me, what would make the most sense would be to make the crazy guy with the gun not so crazy.
how do you do this?
hmmm....
how about you show the ultimate sign of compassion by sending your son to die for the mr. assault rifle in everyone, and if we're smart enough to figure it out, we can accept reality, ask for forgiveness, and then realize how easy it is to not shell out a few grand on military surpluss weapons.
You cant apply the same rules of deductive reasoning from science to God.
when you can come up with proof that he doesn't exist, without any of your lame logic holes, i'll believe you. maybe.
i'll probably come back to this later after i realize how incoherant it is.
Modern practices of science have taught humanity that it's okay to be ignorant, as long as you can justify it.
Science. Since the renneisance, Science has been about using a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning to arrive at new conclusions, new ideas, and new ways to do things.
Now, what's wrong with this, you say?
nothing, of course. We're advancing society and the human race through logical thinking.
So i was at school today, and we were talking about the differences between agnostics and atheists. We decided that an Agnostic person doesn't believe in God, but will let you prove it to you.
One of my favorite teachers ever said, "i'm an atheist. you can prove God to me, but i'll still know you're wrong."
the topic devolved into how "God cant exist because God is supposed to be compassionate, but he lets all sorts of people die all the time, and since i would help those people if i were God, it makes me better than him, therefore he cant exist. And dont even start with that original sin crap."
People rag on Christians all the time because, probably out of the fact that we know we're right and have a passion for spreading the Gospel, we're always trying to get people to believe what we do. They call us ignorant.
But by that very statement about being more compassionate than God, you might as well take a tattooist's pen and tattoo "Ignorant" on your forehead permanently.
Or if you're a three stooges fan, you might even opt to go for "Ignoramus".
You see, Mr. Knight, you basically just told me that you know nothing about God, the bible, or christianity as a whole. You really just know that you dont like what I believe, even though you dont know what it is.
We've gotten rid of God through science with PERFECTLY logical statements like that. "god cant exist because blah blah". And it makes sense, yeah.
But if you think about it, it PROVES that the one true God isn't anything that a human could have made up; everything humans do is logical. We only do something if it makes sense to us.
If a human had made up God, He would have made more sense, like the Greek gods, who behaved exactly like humans do, just with mythical powers.
at the same time, God makes perfect sense.
Why are people all over the world dieing?
its not God's fault, obviously. God is faultless.
If we go back to the fact that humans brought the entire world's pain and suffering on ourselves, and knowingly disobeyed God, what's his motive to save us anyway?
We screwed up. He isn't obligated to rescue us from our messes.
Yet he showed compassion by sending his son, his SON, to us, let us kill him, and through that we're saved from an eternaty of suffering.
logical?
no.
compassionate?
absolutely!!
You say you would get rid of all the suffering in the world?
Scenario: A man walks into Wal-Mart with a loaded AK-47, yells at everyone to get down, and then shoots everything he sees.
Suffering? Of course. People would die.
How would you prevent this, if you were God?
To me, what would make the most sense would be to make the crazy guy with the gun not so crazy.
how do you do this?
hmmm....
how about you show the ultimate sign of compassion by sending your son to die for the mr. assault rifle in everyone, and if we're smart enough to figure it out, we can accept reality, ask for forgiveness, and then realize how easy it is to not shell out a few grand on military surpluss weapons.
You cant apply the same rules of deductive reasoning from science to God.
when you can come up with proof that he doesn't exist, without any of your lame logic holes, i'll believe you. maybe.
i'll probably come back to this later after i realize how incoherant it is.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
on pharmecuticals
one of those "hot topics" in the world these days is pharmecuticals. and i have absoutely no idea if i spelled that correctly.
but in my latest sudden urge to write a blog, i'm going to throw my own ideas on the table.
First of all, ask any left wing politician or the latest scientists, and they'll tell you straight up that modern medicine is the best its ever been, and that we're saving millions of lives through advanced knowledge of diseases and better treatment options.
my take: this is a complete load of crap.
while we certainly appear to be able to treat ailments better than ever before, it is by no means the result of better understanding of anything. Truth be told, we're just throwing so much money at the problem, that we can afford more trial-and-error than ever before, so we are able to get it right easier.
lets look at one of the most popular anti-depressant drugs in history: Prozac.
This stuff's main ingreadient is this junk called Fluxotine. It's been around since the '80s, and it's company, Eli Lilly, claims that it's helped over 50 million people.
Before i continue, allow me to give my own testimonial of the drug.
last year, this creepy phyciatrist guy put me on prozac. Not because i was depressed, he just seemed to think it would help me somehow. err...
okay... so we get it, and i start taking the stuff. a few weeks in, and, nothing's happened. so he doubles my dosage.
woo.
i was on this stuff from around may until the end of july. and it didn't do anything. i stopped taking it, and wow, i didn't notice any change.
now we go back to why he perscribed it, and the answer is....... for no reason whatsoever. Doctors perscribe stuff like prozac as if it's a "cure-all", not just for depression patients, but also for anorexia and such.
there have been countless "cure-all" drugs on the market before. Take, for example, COCAIN. Sigmund Froyd got himself addicted to it during the height of it's LEGAL popularity in the 20's. It helped everything from anorexia, depression, stomach aches, you name it. The only problem is that once you got addicted it it, obvously, you were stuck on it. and it got pricey after a while.
Of course, people finally figured this out, and it became illigal.
good.
now, back to prozac.
I'm not saying it's dangerous like coke is, but, its idiotic to treat anything like a cure-all drug.
Let's switch gears.
direct your attention to http://www.prozac.com/how_prozac/how_it_works.jsp?reqNavId=2.2
this is Prozac's official page on "how it works".
take note of how many times they use words such as "appear", "seems", and "may". just by reading their very official sounding language, you get the impression that WE DONT KNOW HOW IT WORKS. and no, we dont.
we just know that it seems to increase serritonin levels, and through testing, we know that an imbalance of serritonin seems to be a cause of depression.
and of course, treating serritonin imbalances doesn't actually cure depression, it just makes the symptoms go away.
HELLO?!
we're not making millions of people actually BETTER, we're just treating their symptoms.
King C. Gillette, guy who invented Gillette razors, had an ingenious buisiness strategy that revolved around William Painter's Crown Cork bottle cap with the idea that a Successful Invention is one that has to be purchased over and over again.
over and over again, does that remind you of all them brown translucent medicine bottles?
The pharmecutical industry is enourmous, and they get you hooked on drugs that, even though they've been through hundreds of animal and human tests, we dont even know why or how they work.
and they get you to buy them month after month!
to all you left-wing, "i have FAITH in modern medicine!!" idiots: Go Die in a Hole.
the end.
goodbye.
wit, out!
but in my latest sudden urge to write a blog, i'm going to throw my own ideas on the table.
First of all, ask any left wing politician or the latest scientists, and they'll tell you straight up that modern medicine is the best its ever been, and that we're saving millions of lives through advanced knowledge of diseases and better treatment options.
my take: this is a complete load of crap.
while we certainly appear to be able to treat ailments better than ever before, it is by no means the result of better understanding of anything. Truth be told, we're just throwing so much money at the problem, that we can afford more trial-and-error than ever before, so we are able to get it right easier.
lets look at one of the most popular anti-depressant drugs in history: Prozac.
This stuff's main ingreadient is this junk called Fluxotine. It's been around since the '80s, and it's company, Eli Lilly, claims that it's helped over 50 million people.
Before i continue, allow me to give my own testimonial of the drug.
last year, this creepy phyciatrist guy put me on prozac. Not because i was depressed, he just seemed to think it would help me somehow. err...
okay... so we get it, and i start taking the stuff. a few weeks in, and, nothing's happened. so he doubles my dosage.
woo.
i was on this stuff from around may until the end of july. and it didn't do anything. i stopped taking it, and wow, i didn't notice any change.
now we go back to why he perscribed it, and the answer is....... for no reason whatsoever. Doctors perscribe stuff like prozac as if it's a "cure-all", not just for depression patients, but also for anorexia and such.
there have been countless "cure-all" drugs on the market before. Take, for example, COCAIN. Sigmund Froyd got himself addicted to it during the height of it's LEGAL popularity in the 20's. It helped everything from anorexia, depression, stomach aches, you name it. The only problem is that once you got addicted it it, obvously, you were stuck on it. and it got pricey after a while.
Of course, people finally figured this out, and it became illigal.
good.
now, back to prozac.
I'm not saying it's dangerous like coke is, but, its idiotic to treat anything like a cure-all drug.
Let's switch gears.
direct your attention to http://www.prozac.com/how_prozac/how_it_works.jsp?reqNavId=2.2
this is Prozac's official page on "how it works".
take note of how many times they use words such as "appear", "seems", and "may". just by reading their very official sounding language, you get the impression that WE DONT KNOW HOW IT WORKS. and no, we dont.
we just know that it seems to increase serritonin levels, and through testing, we know that an imbalance of serritonin seems to be a cause of depression.
and of course, treating serritonin imbalances doesn't actually cure depression, it just makes the symptoms go away.
HELLO?!
we're not making millions of people actually BETTER, we're just treating their symptoms.
King C. Gillette, guy who invented Gillette razors, had an ingenious buisiness strategy that revolved around William Painter's Crown Cork bottle cap with the idea that a Successful Invention is one that has to be purchased over and over again.
over and over again, does that remind you of all them brown translucent medicine bottles?
The pharmecutical industry is enourmous, and they get you hooked on drugs that, even though they've been through hundreds of animal and human tests, we dont even know why or how they work.
and they get you to buy them month after month!
to all you left-wing, "i have FAITH in modern medicine!!" idiots: Go Die in a Hole.
the end.
goodbye.
wit, out!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Ecclesiastes 11:5
first off, i want everyone to know that Ecclesiastes is officially my favorite book.
maybe i'm depressing, but it's cool the way king solomon puts everything in perspective.
and for the record: that guy had a lot of time on his hands.
anyway, i didn't really have any thought to this blog, other than to point out ecclesiastes 11:5.
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. (NIV)
my point?
with all our science and technology today, we still don't really know how the body forms. we just know what it looks like at various stages of developments.
and we still cannot understand the work of God.
it just isn't something that the human mind can grasp.
maybe i'm depressing, but it's cool the way king solomon puts everything in perspective.
and for the record: that guy had a lot of time on his hands.
anyway, i didn't really have any thought to this blog, other than to point out ecclesiastes 11:5.
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. (NIV)
my point?
with all our science and technology today, we still don't really know how the body forms. we just know what it looks like at various stages of developments.
and we still cannot understand the work of God.
it just isn't something that the human mind can grasp.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Camp
The old is gone, I give it all away.
By Your blood, I am saved
the new has come, I'll never be the same.
that song really hit me hard.
that is all.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
What is the world comming to?
Ok. first, i just wanna say that i'm no theologan, nor do i have any idea what i'm talking about.
k then. Anyone can tell you, and if you don't listen to anyone, just look around for yourself, that the world is doing downhill. People are killing each other, drugs are everywhere, and no one cares about their fellow man. Basically, everyone now adays is a selfish retard.
For the past 30 years or something, people have been trying to figure out why this is happening. The issues are getting steadily worse. No longer in America can a 12-year old do what they might do in the 50's. Youth in the '50's did dangerous things like play with toxic chemicals, launch off home-made rockets, play with high voltage electricity, and actually touch mercury in science class (luucky!).
The main reason why you can't do fun stuff anymore as a kid is because people found out that its not good for your health. But the other reasons are mainly because of people who like to sue people for no reason. Its like the people who sue mc. donnalds because the coffee is hot, or that idiot lady who put a guy's finger in her Wendy's chille so that she could sue the company, and cost the buisiness some 32 million bucks.
This here is a prime example of these selfish retards i mentioned earlier. No one cares about other people, the environment, the law, or anything other than themselves. If they wanna do drugs, they do drugs. If they wanna go kill someone, they go kill someone.
So why this deterioration of caring? why is apathy such a hot thing now adays? Well, if you ask me, Science can take some of the blame.
In order for me to explain this, let me go into detail about just what science *is*.
Ever since Isaac Newton, Science has been a refined, methodical practice. The idea is that you use what you know as fact, use evidence that you gather, and come up with new ideas, which can later be turned into fact. See, by nature, scientists are the ultimate skeptics.Nothing is true until it is proven.
For the past few centuries, Scientists have been doing their best to debunk religion. And a lot of their debunking has worked. As a result, more and more people are giving up the idea of religion, and turning into aethiests, or just not thinking about anything to do with theology.
So with many ideas and practices that people have studied for a few thousthand years given skeptisism from science, people are becoming more and more in favor of there not being anything out there other than what science can prove.There is one big problem with this, however.
Different people think different things about religion. One common consensus is that religion, whether purposful or not, has done a great job of keeping order. Whether it was the Greeks who feared that if they stepped out of line, the gods would crush them, or Catholicism, where simply the structure of the church keeps people organized, religion has played a big part in the order of civilization.
So now science comes along and decides that religion can't be correct unless you can prove it with physical evidence. So people stop beleiving in religion.
With religion starting to fade away, so does the order and structure that it brings with it. With no order, and nothing to beleive in except what the scientists decide to say is true, people have no reason *not* to go around killing people. After all, since there's no life after death, you might as well enjoy life, right?
yeah. sure. whatever man.
i most likely missed by several million miles on this one, but its just what i was thinking on my ride home from Church. :D?!
k then. Anyone can tell you, and if you don't listen to anyone, just look around for yourself, that the world is doing downhill. People are killing each other, drugs are everywhere, and no one cares about their fellow man. Basically, everyone now adays is a selfish retard.
For the past 30 years or something, people have been trying to figure out why this is happening. The issues are getting steadily worse. No longer in America can a 12-year old do what they might do in the 50's. Youth in the '50's did dangerous things like play with toxic chemicals, launch off home-made rockets, play with high voltage electricity, and actually touch mercury in science class (luucky!).
The main reason why you can't do fun stuff anymore as a kid is because people found out that its not good for your health. But the other reasons are mainly because of people who like to sue people for no reason. Its like the people who sue mc. donnalds because the coffee is hot, or that idiot lady who put a guy's finger in her Wendy's chille so that she could sue the company, and cost the buisiness some 32 million bucks.
This here is a prime example of these selfish retards i mentioned earlier. No one cares about other people, the environment, the law, or anything other than themselves. If they wanna do drugs, they do drugs. If they wanna go kill someone, they go kill someone.
So why this deterioration of caring? why is apathy such a hot thing now adays? Well, if you ask me, Science can take some of the blame.
In order for me to explain this, let me go into detail about just what science *is*.
Ever since Isaac Newton, Science has been a refined, methodical practice. The idea is that you use what you know as fact, use evidence that you gather, and come up with new ideas, which can later be turned into fact. See, by nature, scientists are the ultimate skeptics.Nothing is true until it is proven.
For the past few centuries, Scientists have been doing their best to debunk religion. And a lot of their debunking has worked. As a result, more and more people are giving up the idea of religion, and turning into aethiests, or just not thinking about anything to do with theology.
So with many ideas and practices that people have studied for a few thousthand years given skeptisism from science, people are becoming more and more in favor of there not being anything out there other than what science can prove.There is one big problem with this, however.
Different people think different things about religion. One common consensus is that religion, whether purposful or not, has done a great job of keeping order. Whether it was the Greeks who feared that if they stepped out of line, the gods would crush them, or Catholicism, where simply the structure of the church keeps people organized, religion has played a big part in the order of civilization.
So now science comes along and decides that religion can't be correct unless you can prove it with physical evidence. So people stop beleiving in religion.
With religion starting to fade away, so does the order and structure that it brings with it. With no order, and nothing to beleive in except what the scientists decide to say is true, people have no reason *not* to go around killing people. After all, since there's no life after death, you might as well enjoy life, right?
yeah. sure. whatever man.
i most likely missed by several million miles on this one, but its just what i was thinking on my ride home from Church. :D?!
Monday, January 9, 2006
Guess What Everyone?!
ok. so here goes.
As i was getting onto the bus this morning to go to school, as usual i said "good morning" to the bus driver. (yeah, i know, i'm a total drip.) anyway, for some reason, i said it louder than a hoarse whisper, and i thought i heared a hint of cheer in my voice. this is odd, as i usually don't have much cheer, even if i'm cheery.
So as i'm sitting down, i started thinking, as i always do, as the bus continued on it's route.
And then it hit me, like the way Orlando Bloom hit those orcs with his arrows in the LOTR movies:
I'm happy.
At first, it didn't seem right. What teenager in his right mind would sit down and think to himself that he's actually happy? but after a while, i realized that surely it must be true.
I think it's interesting that if you ask most teenagers today if they're happy, they'll probably tell you, "yeah, i'm happy", although they're really not.
The part that i find interesting is that many kids have nothing to be unhappy about. Granted, especially in a place like somersworth where 50% or so of the kids are comming from broken homes and are on drugs half the time, many people *do* have something to be unhappy about. But a lot of times we'll look at a situation, and if we're not especially happy, the immidiate reaction is that you're unhappy. Its as if we've pushed contentedness off the map.
Anyway, whether or not i'm right about anything, i'd just like to point out that the one thing i have going for me is that i'm happy. and not depressed.
As i was getting onto the bus this morning to go to school, as usual i said "good morning" to the bus driver. (yeah, i know, i'm a total drip.) anyway, for some reason, i said it louder than a hoarse whisper, and i thought i heared a hint of cheer in my voice. this is odd, as i usually don't have much cheer, even if i'm cheery.
So as i'm sitting down, i started thinking, as i always do, as the bus continued on it's route.
And then it hit me, like the way Orlando Bloom hit those orcs with his arrows in the LOTR movies:
I'm happy.
At first, it didn't seem right. What teenager in his right mind would sit down and think to himself that he's actually happy? but after a while, i realized that surely it must be true.
I think it's interesting that if you ask most teenagers today if they're happy, they'll probably tell you, "yeah, i'm happy", although they're really not.
The part that i find interesting is that many kids have nothing to be unhappy about. Granted, especially in a place like somersworth where 50% or so of the kids are comming from broken homes and are on drugs half the time, many people *do* have something to be unhappy about. But a lot of times we'll look at a situation, and if we're not especially happy, the immidiate reaction is that you're unhappy. Its as if we've pushed contentedness off the map.
Anyway, whether or not i'm right about anything, i'd just like to point out that the one thing i have going for me is that i'm happy. and not depressed.
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