Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

Thanks, Greg, for something to do. Makes me realize how little I have really read. Never read this one, but the description is kind of funny, fairly accurate, and completely unrelated to the questions I was asked. Huh.

You’re Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word “paradox” for millions of people.
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at the Blue Pyramid.

I’m sure you are aware of what this guys is famous for - and it ain’t football.

Anyways, in an effort to salvage his reputation, he is sounding very repentant in public.

”Through this situation, I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God,” said Vick, 27. “I think that’s the right thing.”

That’s wonderful. I truly hope Jesus does make him into a new man.

However, he’s not off to a good start.

“I offer my deepest apologies to everyone,” the Atlanta Falcons quarterback said after pleading guilty in a Virginia federal court to animal cruelty charges. “And I will redeem myself. I have to.”

Come on man. Didn’t your pastor tell you that you can’t redeem yourself? This whole “Christian” thing kind of hinges on someone else doing the work of redemption for you. If you don’t get that, then you haven’t “found” Jesus at all.

I picked up a book, “Relational Leadership” by Walter Wright for a course I am taking this fall, and 7 pages in, it already has me absolutely riveted.
Not in a page-turning bodice-ripper fashion, but in a “I can see this book changing my life” fashion.

I have read a number of books this year, some mundane (like Harry Potter) and some for educational purposes. Some have been scholarly, some have been dead opposite. But this one is fascinating.

I have never reccommended a book after 7 pages before. There you go. I may take it back once I am done, but in the meantime…

I want to be a loser!

Heh. Those of you who are more sarcastic may claim I have already achieved my aim.

No, I mean weight.

Actually, I’ve already done pretty good. Since January I am down about 10 pounds. Nothing but eating habit changes have accomplished that. However, I have stabilized.

I have a new incentive though. Cheryl and I signed up for life insurance yesterday (I must be old or responsible or something), and the guy told us that if I got my weight down to 212, I’d be “preferred” and would save 10 bucks a month on the insurance.

That’s about 15 pounds folks. And I have until their nurse comes to visit to pull it off.

This one’s going to have to be about the exercise. I am going to be more careful about portion control, but I think I need to ramp up the action to accomplish it in the time I have.

I am imposing on my workmate’s twice daily walks to get out of my seat a bit. It may cost me a sale or two, but things are pretty slow so I am not too worried.

I am going to do a prayer walk for an hour a week, maybe I will turn it into a prayer jog.

I am going to rope one of my friends who is an on-and-off marathon runner to run with me at least once a week too I think. This should all be steps in the right direction. If you have any more ideas (that don’t cost money or will take too much time away from my wife and kids) I am open to them!

An article over at Boundless addresses the startling revelation that in a study of religion, sex and young people in America, it was revealed that Evangelical teens actually lose their virginity slightly earlier than the average for teens in general. This is surprising given that the Evangelical Christian community is one that seems to focus a lot harder than other groups to teach their kids abstinence until marriage. It was this group that started stuff like “true love waits“, chastity rings, and such.

The article talks a lot about how never before have we expected young people to “control themselves” for so long before marriage. It is a valid point - the average age of marriage has stretched substantially, by an average of 5 years longer since 1970. However, in the whole article, it fails to address the central point of the statistic - the age of losing your virginity.

It is irrelevant that the average age of marriage for boys these days is 27, if they are losing their virginity at 16. If your goal is to prevent premarital sex, then you need to figure out what is going on in youth groups, in Sunday school that is failing to communicate to these teens that sex before marriage is wrong. Whatever we’re doing as a community is not working, and statistically speaking, actually seems to be encouraging it, if these statistics are accurate.

A sex-saturated culture is part of the problem, I have no doubt. That we should become a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9) with respect to how our children court and marry, I definitely concur. But dang, I think we need to do some serious thinking about how we are discipling our young people. I was just hearing the other day that most people in Evangelical churches make their decision for Christ before they are 20. I have long maintained that getting a decision for Christ should not be the goal though - the great commission says to make disciples, not get people to pray a prayer.

Tim Challies wrote a very touching piece on his anniversary. I think he’d want to know that he has inspired at least one other man to love and good deeds.

I love to reminisce about our wedding. I really do. I know that sometimes it seems like I focus on the silly things that the “wedding planner”/ordained minister said during our vows, but the truth is I still look back on that month in Hawai’i as perhaps the most magical time of my entire life.

Do you remember how much I was on about moving there? I still would, in a heartbeat. Why? Yeah the place is pretty, and warm, but you should recall that I am passionate about two things: exploring and winter. Both of those would be virtually impossible there. I’d give those up, my love, to spend the rest of my life on my honeymoon with you. That’s how I see it.

It amazes me how it seems like God just created that window in time for us. So many people I see getting married are rushed, hurried, stressed, working at their jobs right up to the day before the wedding, and back at work again within days. I am grateful that God gave us something timeless, something akin to those old traditions where a man and a woman were to have a serious amount of time together. To learn about each other in those intimate ways reserved only for those who have committed their lives to each other. But more than that, to learn in a way to live together, away from pressures of life and family and work. The honeyed moon - 28 days together. We had that - for some reason my summer job did not last as long as I’d hoped, which freed me to spend the entire month there with you.

The sunsets, the luaus, the volcano crawl, Haleakala at dawn (despite your chill - next time I am bringing some HEAVY blankets for you, my dear), the waterfall, the kayaks, the rope swing, the pools, the drive on that bumpy road that would have voided the rental insurance, the marlin trip (next time we take gravol before we board!), every moment, even the moments of discomfort I would gladly relive with you today. That is why I love Hawai’i. Because I love you. Happy 9th, Cheryl. I can’t wait until next year.

Do we HAVE to take the kids???

I’ve been trying really hard not to talk about my birthday this year.

It’s not that I feel like I’ve grown up or something. I was raised that the birthday is the one day a year a person gets to be special, gets celebrated by their friends and family. It is a key way to show people you care for them.

Sadly, not everyone agrees. Some people get all hung up on the celebration itself - that they are “too old” for a party - like it is undignified. I think self-esteem issues may be in play there.

Others don’t want to be reminded of their age. I think society’s shift to dishonoring maturity and celebrating immaturity is partly to blame for that.

Myself, I love celebrating birthdays with people. I love any day we can name special. Special occasions are special. If I had my druthers, I would ensure that we have guests and presents and decorations for every birthday I know.

But, because not everyone feels the same as me, and because I don’t want to seem like an egocentric prick, I am trying to downplay it.

But I still wish I had a party. Party on my blog! You’re all invited! Woo hoo!

UPDATE: She did in fact throw a secret surprise party for me, complete with a BC Lions ice cream cake. It was the best birthday I’ve had in years.

I was sitting on the bumper of my truck yesterday, talking to one of my carpool buddies. I think he brought up exorcism because of a news story he heard that day. We talked for a bit about what purpose it serves Satan to try things like possession and supernatural attacks. I know for myself, I find that any time he tries something obvious it just affirms my faith in God. My friend’s reply was that he agreed, it just affirms his faith too, so then the logical question is, if it drives us to our saviour and not away, what is Satan up to?

It occurred to me at that point that it is an attack on those whose faith is weak. I think there is a certain threshold of faith, or perhaps, maybe an attack on those who have an intellectual appreciation for the existence of God but no personal relationship with Jesus, where an attack like this might be effective. In those people, their faith is vulnerable to being overwhelmed by fear. 1 John 4:18 speaks to this:

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. “

What occurred to me is that this could very well be the origin of religion on earth. The first humans to not have a personal relationship with God were attacked by Satan. Instead of running to their safety in the love of God, (which they may have believed was not true because of their sin), they attempted to appease Satan and his minions. Thus began religion - the attempts of man to appease the capricious powers that would do them harm, instead of accepting the love and protection of the one who created them in love, they turn their back on that love and try to buy off those who would harm them.

It is awfully easy for even Christians to fall into this trap. It is in our nature I think, to assume that we have done something unforgiveable. I think because, in our experience, we can conceive of being wronged to the point of refusing to forgive. That is our tendency to assume that God is limited by our limitations. This is why we need to pray, read our Bibles, and meditate on who God is so much. We fail when we forget how limitless, how faithful, and how loving God really is. This will keep us from thinking we need to appease God, or worse, try to appease Satan to get him to leave us alone.

Just something to think about today. Rest in God’s love today. And don’t try to buy off Satan - he won’t be bought off.

A couple of ex-Egyptian Coptic Christians made a mistake.

They returned to Egypt.

Now they have been tossed in the clink for insulting Islam on a website (Middle East Christian Association) they were employed with in Canada.

Yes, this is that grand thing, free speech in action in Islamic Africa.

And the world wonders why Christians are fleeing Islamic nations in droves.

Copts living abroad, especially those in North America, have tended to be more hostile towards Muslims and towards the Egyptian government than Copts living inside Egypt.

Umm… do you wonder why? Perhaps it is because of stuff like this, and this and this? It is hard when facing dhimmitude and Sharia law to speak out.

Hmm… one thing I didn’t do in that previous post, I wanted to discuss some of the subject matter that I thought was instructive.

The story centers around a homeschooled girl, Bree, who is part of a mysterious religion. Over time it becomes clear that this religion is not really a religion, but a front for a nefarious secret organization. However, the early part of the plot centers around the conflict between her beliefs and her only friend, who doesn’t buy it.

In reading as much news as I do, I am pretty sensitive as to how various religions are portrayed in media. I wish to differentiate between her mysterious “religion” and my own.

1. Hers is based on secret knowledge. She has a “helper” who is supposed to prepare her for a “ceremony” but nobody is allowed to tell her what is even involved in the “ceremony”. Her parents are not even allowed to attend the “ceremony”. This is the primary difference between Christianity and a cult. A cult keeps secrets. Nothing about true Christianity is a secret. You can find out anything about anything yourself - it is all there in every single Bible that you can get anywhere. Even if you get different english translations, 98% of the material is the same, and the 2% that is different does not affect any of the major theological areas that all of Christianity shares. If someone tries to let you in on a religious “secret”, they are lying. This lie is as old as time. Genesis 3 contains the first example of this as Satan tells Eve that God has a “Secret” that he is keeping from them.
2. Christianity doesn’t have any nonpublic ceremonies. Ask any of them. Baptism is public. Marriage is public. Church services are public. Name it - it’s public.
3. There is no secret organization behind Christianity, no matter what the “DaVinci Code” implied. Nobody hid the body - Roman soldiers knew exactly what was at stake, and knew that they faced being crucified had they fallen asleep on the job. Nobody who knew for sure that Jesus was dead and had not risen would have voluntarily stepped into the abuse and eventual martyrdom that resulted from claiming that Jesus was God. Claiming what they did to authorities in Jerusalem meant ostracism from their families, and amounted to the death penalty from religious authorities. They all went in different directions, and as far as the historical record goes, all but one of the twelve were killed for saying that Jesus lives.

Another interesting thing I noticed about the series was the focus on hope, and the futility of most pastimes that are common to teens these days. Examples - when Daniel is driven into an alcoholic depression, the others rally to get him out of it. When Sarah goes off on a rant about how emotional ties suck and she prefers sexual pleasure without strings, her sister Taylor explains that Sarah is being affected very negatively by their parents’ divorce and infighting, featuring their dalliances with much younger partners. It is made clear that had their parents still been married and loving, she would most likely hold more realistic and less self-destructive views towards love and sex.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the series was that it didn’t fall in the simplistic trap of resorting to foul language and sex. In the whole season there is only one incident of implied sex, and I recall all of two f-bombs. In 250+ episodes, that makes this series pristine even compared to “rated” television! It also I think speaks to the reality that you don’t need to sink to the lowest common denominator in terms of morality for people to be right well entertained. One can only hope that Hollywood and TV pays attention to this - I am getting sick and tired of the only “critically acclaimed” series and movies featuring ever more blue language and sex.