The Price Of Receiving

{ November 22, 2009 @ 1:40 am } · { Theology }
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I had coffee with a couple friends this morning.  Normally I don’t drink coffee.  Love the smell, hate the taste.  But Austin’s Coffee has a pretty commendable Latte.  Also, I’m normally not a morning person, but I had good company, and being the brilliant people they are, we ended up having a really good conversation.  One of the things we discussed was regarding giving and receiving.  Here are my thoughts:

I think people in our culture generally do 2 things: Take (or earn) and/or they might also give.  Rarely do we see true receiving going on.  Our culture is so programmed to earn what we have (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing); it’s part of being a society built on capitalism.  A recent (in the last couple decades) trend has to do with the realization that we’ve gotten good at earning, and maybe even realize that we have much, much more than we need.  This leads to giving.  I think this is an absolutely wonderful trend; I blogged about it a couple of weeks ago.  What I think is so difficult, largely because of our cultural training, is to receive something that is truly free.

My friend recounted a time where he was giving away fast passes at a theme park.  People could not believe, or accept, that what he was doing was giving them something truly free.  We’ve been programmed to always ask “what does it really cost”.  It might not cost money, but it might cost time or effort in some other area.  Or at the very least, it’s being paid for by an advertising budget somewhere and we’re obligated to at least look at it.  Part of our confirmation curriculum is for each group to participate is some sort of mission project.  One group gave out free car washes.  People were blown away that the cost of the car-wash was nil.  If people asked they would tell them where they went to church, but it was never pushed on them.

What makes it so hard to receive?  I believe it has to do with pride.  To receive something freely given requires us to sacrifice our pride and admit that we are in need, that we aren’t completely self-sustaining, that we aren’t “an island”.  For those of us who have set our whole self-worth system on our pride, this is devastating.  This is the same reason why Jesus says that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  It’s not that there’s something fundamentally wrong with money, or being wealthy; it’s that, generally, for those people, the cost of their pride is too high a price to pay to receive the most wonderful, truly-free gift ever: eternal life!

Make Me A Sandwich

{ November 16, 2009 @ 10:33 pm } · { Entertainment, Technology }
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This…is…hilarious…

awesome…

Über Nerd

{ November 12, 2009 @ 1:52 am } · { Technology }
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I know this is Über nerdish, but regarding IPv6 addresses:

  • 128 bit address space. In other words theoretically there are 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses available. This means there are approximately 6.67 * 10^27 IPv6 addresses per square meter on our planet.

If you understand that you already know how hilarious that is.

Brian Regan Moment

{ November 10, 2009 @ 7:04 pm } · { Entertainment }
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I had an actual real life Brian Regam moment today.  I was at Arby’s,I feel my pocket vibrate,  this strange number is calling my phone.  Here’s a rundown of the conversation (names and numbers have been changed to protect the innocent.  Area codes are the real area codes though)

Me: hello?
Person: Is Rachel there?
Me: Uh, sorry you must have the wrong number
Person: Is this 407-323-7897?
Me: I don’t know how you ended up calling me, my number is 239-343-8765.  You weren’t even close, were you holding the phone upside down or something?
Person: Oh, sorry, bye bye
::click::

Pretty great huh?  I didn’t even have to make up a fake number for the person, it truly wasn’t even close, not even the same area code!  It’s probably something like a routing error in a computer somewhere, but I’d like to think that it was the universe giving me a Brian Regan moment because it loves me.

No Free Lunches

{ November 6, 2009 @ 2:24 am } · { Theology }
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When I was first entering into my upper level classes in engineering my professor the first day said this one thing that has stuck with me since then.  He said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”.  I think it’s true in every case, except one, but I’ll get to that.

Balance is the name of the game.  Basically, he said that everything has a trade-off and everything requires balance.  He was talking about materials, so, for instance, if you make a material stronger ya might end up making it more brittle.  Trade-off.  You gain in one are by giving up in another. It’s all about figuring out how much you truly need in one area and figure out how to work it based on what you can give up in other areas.

I think this transfers to our lives and talking about God too.  We need to have a balanced life.  We need to have fun and enjoy life, but we also need to give up things we enjoy once in a while to help people.  God usually doesn’t call us (most of the time, anyways) to give all our money to missions, but at the same time we can’t keep it all for ourselves.  It’s a constant wrestling that needs to happen in our lives.

The most dangerous thing in the Christian life is to “err on the side of caution”.  As soon as you think there’s somewhere you can always run to when you aren’t sure, that’s going to become your default and consequently your downfall.  We can never abandon active discernment for mindless obedience.  Sometimes we need to rely on faith even in the face of not understanding, but God doesn’t call us to a blind faith.

Your thoughts?

The exception to the lunch rule:  Grace/love.  This concept is the exception to the rule because it is free.  Something that’s built in about love and grace is the pleasure that the giver receives in being selfless.  It makes absolutely no sense, and I think it’s why artists and poets are always trying to reinvent was to better describe it.  How can one derive fulfillment by giving in such a way that they receive nothing tangible in return.  Things of God are most astonishing.

SHH! In The Lie-Bary

{ November 5, 2009 @ 12:20 pm } · { Technology }
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We have this great library space here at the church.  I wonder how many of the attenders know that we even have one, of if they do, where it is?  My thought is that we get a server that hosts a library catalog and hook it up to our church website.  That way, anyone from our church will have an easier time accessing the library and deciding if they want to make a trip down to the church to get a book.  Also, potential further-down-the-road idea…get a few churches in the area to be on the same system so each church can contribute and all will have access to a wider assortment of materials!  I amaze myself at my own genius sometimes.

So my idea, I’ve got an extra computer I want to get rid of that would work perfectly for a server.  I’m thinking some sort of linux, maybe kubuntu running apache, mysql, php, ssh and then some yet to be named library system.

Potential Systems so far:
http://obiblio.sourceforge.net/
http://koha.org/
http://www.open-ils.org/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmylibrary/
http://www.verussolutions.biz/web/
http://www.emilda.org/

Anyone have any expertise in this area? Suggestions?

2 Conflicting Natures

{ November 4, 2009 @ 3:21 pm } · { Life Theories, Theology }
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This topic has never been quite clear.  I’ve thought about and studied it for many years, and as close as I sometimes think I am to getting it nailed down it eludes me.  That said, I’ma take another stab at it!

So we have the concept of sin.  Now, to begin with, I believe that people (especially the church) have such a small view of what sin truly is.  Most people believe that sin means you go out and do something that’s a sin, such as hating your neighbor, promiscuous sex, or even murder.  Those are bad things to be sure, but I would call those symptoms of sin, not the sin itself.  Sin, in the true sense is a big, holistic, “this is the direction of my entire life” type thing.  It has to do with the general direction your life is headed.  It’s the holistic decision of your life to denounce God as Lord and set yourself up as Lord of your own life.  It might take detours and turn around for a bit, but overall it’s headed one direction.  Much like I-4 is an east-west highway, but through Orlando it runs north-south.  That is to say that individual decisions might go against the overall direction of your life.

Now, there are sort of two part to us: our body and our soul.  CS Lewis said “I don’t have a soul.  I am a soul, I have a body”.  LOVE it!  Good man you were Lewis.  With this understanding we have two things that are deciding our actions in this world.  If someone sins (and everybody does), in other-words, chooses to go the way of sin (again not simply one act, but the direction of the life), then they are headed to death, because only in God is life found.  When the soul makes a decision to turn away from God, then the physical act is carried out by the corresponding body and we see a symptom of sin; what people generally call sin.  This then sets the body on course to die as well.  And this will go on until they reach their physical death.  Their soul is sinful, their body is sinful, therefore the general of their life will be sinful (or away from God).

An aside: Would our physical bodies die if our soul never chose to sin?  I dunno, but I heard of a program on Discovery channel one time that there is no gene for aging.  There are processes in our bodies that describe how we are to be formed and grow up, but there is nothing that describes how we age, or how we go through the process of degenerating.  It’s as if we weren’t meant to show sings of age, says the scientists on this program (interesting, and they don’t claim to be Christians).

Now, when someone, who has been a slave to sin, chooses Jesus as their savior, their soul is then reborn; it is no longer of the sinful nature.  Now we have a conflict within the person, a war, two conflicting interests.  Paul describes the struggle in him best in Romans 7:14-25.

Generally, the value sets look something like this.  With a sinful nature our priorities are first to ourselves, so we get priorities something like: 1) Care about myself 2) care about things I like 3) care about people I like.  With a righteous (or regenerated) nature we get priorities something like: 1) Care about God 2) Care about the people God likes (everyone) 3) Care about myself.  And sometimes those priorities can be the same thing.  So it’s a shift from being self-focused to being God-focused.  Sometimes as a person of the sinful nature, there might come a time when you care about someone (not in your priority list) selflessly.  Usually, that happens when there’s not a conflict with your priorities (ie: you don’t have to give up buying a 60″ plasma TV to go to another country to build a well).  But again, sometimes you have that stretch of I-4 that goes through Orlando, and go against your nature.

With the person with the regenerated nature the problem comes when the soul wants to do something but the body disagrees.  Paul said it this way:

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

That’s why the Christian keeps on sinning even though they are of a righteous nature.

Powerful Human Condition

{ November 3, 2009 @ 1:57 am } · { Life Theories, Theology }
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So there are two books (secular, not Christian) that I believe flirt with ideas of some of the deepest truth I’ve heard without actually hearing it outright: Harry Potter and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  There are all kinds of things that go on in both series, but I believe that if someone really, honestly makes a true effort to create a “universe” in which to set their story, that they will still in fact be using the logic and the reason of our own, and in some sense will be describing the deep things of the inner workings of our own universe; namely the heart of God.  The best part is that through these stories people accept these truths (and people who otherwise would not).

In these two stories, I think there is some deep reasoning about the human condition.  It’s taken for granted that the human race (or all of the universe) is screwed up and in need of saving.  With this unstated assumption at the core of the stories, the authors begin to describe a deep problem with the human condition.  I believe this to be the manifestation of the original sin: pride.  Otherwise put, the desire to rule and hold power of our own.

In Harry Potter, after reasoning that his own selfishness disqualifies him from rightfully owning the Hallows, Dumbeldore tells Harry:

You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death.  He accepts he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.

Sounds a bit like the work of our Savior!  The true “master of death” was the one who would seize the power to conquer death not for himself to live, but that other may live because of his own death!

The second quote comes from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  At one point they are searching for the true ruler of the Galaxy, because the “President” is, in actuality, nothing more than a figurehead.  The read governing power comes from another.

One of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.  To Summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.  To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.  To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

Again, we find that the problem is the temptation when people are in reach of power.  This stems directly from the original sin of Adam and Eve.  To state it again: the desire to rule instead of God.  In other words: pride.

I think, if we become adept enough at the craft, we can use these tools of entertainment to talk to people about the truth of the Gospel.  That humans are screwed up, but one God-become-man came to seize the power as the master of death for the express purpose of liberating us from death!

 

 

Muh Sweet Tooth

{ October 30, 2009 @ 12:14 am } · { Life Theories }
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Why is it that things that are bad for you taste so good and the stuff that’s good for you tastes so bad?  Shouldn’t it be that the fuel that a mechanism most needs should be the most satisfying to that mechanism.  What’s up with that G-man?

 

 

Fairytales

{ October 28, 2009 @ 11:43 pm } · { Entertainment, Life Theories, Theology }
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On a whim I recorded Sara Bareilles live show on Palladia (cool channel, btw).  I knew the one song on the radio “Love Song” which I was kinda tired of, but a friend (Barry) recommended her music so I listened.  Wow, talented girl.  She write a lot of love and relationship, mostly broken versions of both.  So the lyrics are pretty deep, music, rhythms, melodies, harmonies all amazing, but mostly I think I’m most impressed by her passion for her music.  Anyways, there was a particular song that I really like and that I think has a particular poignant parallel to a truth in Christianity.

Here are the lyrics for the song “Fairytales”:

Cinderella’s on her bedroom floor
She’s got a crush on the guy at the liquor store
Cause Mr. Charming don’t come home anymore
And she forgets why she came here
Sleeping Beauty’s in a foul mood
For shame she says
None for you dear prince, i’m tired today
I’d rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming

Cause i don’t care for you fairytales
You’re so worried bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing

Snow White is doing dishes again cause
What else can you do
With seven itty-bitty men?
Sends them to bed and calls up a friend
Says will you meet me at midnight?
The tall blonde lets out a cry of despair says
Would have cut it myself if i knew men could climb hair
I’ll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows

Cause i don’t care for you fairytales
You’re so worried bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing

Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom
Man made up a story said that i should believe him
Go and tell your white knight that he’s handsome in hindsight
But i don’t want the next best thing
So i sing and hold my head down and i break these walls round me
Can’t take no more of your fairytale love

Cause i don’t care for you fairytales
You’re so worried bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing
I don’t care
I don’t care
Worry bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting spent the whole life being graded on the sanctity of patience and a dumb
Appreciation
But the story needs some mending and a better happy ending
Cause i don’t want the next best thing
No no i don’t want the next best thing

Listen to the song on youtube.  The truth in the song is that so often in this life we accept the best that there is for right now, that’s available through our own means, as crappy as it might be and we miss out on the fullness of life that’s available through the mercy and forgiveness of Christ.

If we would base our self-worth and life mission on Christ instead of things temporary, like our abilities, our possessions and even our relationships we would find that even when these things fail us we will still be filled with a sense of purpose and hope and feel a sense of completion.  Not that everything will be easy to take or that bad things won’t ever get us down, but the “joy that surpasses all understanding” will be present with us, even in the bowels of despair that we are so good at getting ourselves into.

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