Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

Life is kind of like a hill.

I was given a picture this morning of a man working like crazy getting up a hill. There were many others going up the hill and he enjoyed the fact that they were with other people trying to get up the hill too. There was this great light on the hill, too beautiful for words, and they all wanted to get there.

Most hills aren’t smooth gradual things but bumpy lumpy things. They have ups and downs, but mostly ups. The man started up a new path at one point. It looked a little more interesting than the other paths to him.

The people nearest him tried to shout him down from the new path. “You can’t go there, that’s just not right!” But he kept going. He was still making progress, up, but was leaving behind the crowd. He knew they cared about him, but he was still going up wasn’t he? That seemed to be the most important thing. Still, it nagged at him that they didn’t support him in his new direction, or even come with him.

Finally, a crest was reached. He reached it alone, and thought he should feel triumph, but success had lost its flavour, and there was nobody around to celebrate with him. His thoughts kept taking his eyes back over his right shoulder. He couldn’t take his mind off the people who shouted at him when he started up this path. He had forgotten that at the top there was supposed to be light.

Being at a crest, he thought to himself that the only way left now was down. He didn’t really want to go that way, but it was easier than climbing. So he started down the back side of the crest.

The hill was still there though. The crest was but a shoulder. He didn’t see that the hill kept going up to the left, because of the distraction of looking over his shoulder, to the right.

After going down the mountain for a while, he encountered an old friend. The goofball that the friend was, he tried an old trick. “Hey, look over there!” Strangely enough, it worked. The guy looked left, and saw the hill again. And the light at the top, that was so attractive before - he had forgotten how beautiful it was. He knew where he had to go now.

He turned left.

My good friend Ruth recently had it out with some “hyper calvinists” over in some facebook group and her account of the debate is educational. Sadly, some Christians are open-minded, and some are not. Some will not brook their opinion to be contradicted. It is unfortunate.

At any rate, here is my first attempt to codify my view on the whole calvinist/arminianist debate.

I hold what I term a “perspectivist” view of God’s sovereignty, versus man’s will when dealing with the mechanism that salvation is effected. What I mean by this is that ultimately, I am convinced that God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. I do not think this is possible without having complete control over creation from beginning to end. It doesn’t make sense to me that God can see all ends and accomplish his will without actually being in control. This fits with what Calvinism stands for, so far.

However, the question that Arminians ask is a valid one: how can we be held responsible for our sin if we don’t have free will? That’s not fair! (I hope fair means just, otherwise where in the Bible does it say God is fair?) An Arminian friend of mine drew a mocking thought picture of salvation being a hole in a glass wall. The unbeliever wants to be saved, but keeps whacking his head against the glass, looking for the hole, and it is only God who permits him to find it.

We all know God isn’t capricious like the thought picture suggests. So how does this work itself out? Are we given free will or not? Continue Reading »

Coming into the holiday season questions start being asked - what are we doing for the holidays?

For once, the answer is nothing. And that’s a good thing. The last two years running we’ve been on the road for the holidays, I think our kids are forgetting what Christmas is like at home (and one of them hasn’t had a Christmas morning at home since he was 1!)

Many think that Christmas is a time for family, friends, and relaxation. Some think that family, friends and relaxation are mutually exclusive terms. Myself, I love it, I love the whole thing. But I do understand that some people are much more stressed by entertaining than I am.

What really disturbs me though is that Christmas is not really about those things. It’s about something completely different. It is about the arrival of the Son of God. It is about a person whose life’s purpose was to give others life, by enduring the punishment for their crimes. As such, I don’t know, I am starting to think that Christmas should only be for family, friends, and relaxation second. Its first purpose should be to give glory to God for his gift.

I heard once about a family who doesn’t have relatives and friends over for dinner on Christmas day. Instead, they go out and invite somebody homeless, hopeless, or in need into their home for Christmas dinner. They sit down with them, break bread with them, feed them, learn about them and their story. In so doing, I believe that they were really honoring the one who came to earth 2000 years ago. I aspire to that. To share my Christmas with those who need it most.

I hope you think of one way to share your Christmas too. May you be a light in dark places this Christmas.

A couple days ago we had the first snowfall of winter, but it melted off very quickly.  Today we are supposed to double that, and by the weekend, the forecast is for a high temperature below freezing and more snow.  It looks like winter has arrived on the south coast.

Interesting that this is the second year in a row that we have had suck low temperatures and significant snow before November is out.  It is amazing to me as South America reports the coldest winter in decades, Antarctic glacier growth is setting records, (hat tip to Gateway Pundit) and despite all evidence to the contrary, global warming fanatics are still harping on the panic of the world dissolving into a puddle of goo from too much C02.

But enough about that.  My kids are thrilled with the snow.  So am I.  I didn’t much like 6 months of winter up in Edmonton, but 2 weeks of winter (the pattern in 8 of the last 10 years down here on the coast) is pathetic.  I need seasons.  Plus the snow really puts me in the mood for Christmas.

This is the second last Monday I have off. It’s been an interesting semester. My wife got asked to teach again in the fall, but her parents moved so they weren’t around to watch the kids while she was at work. So, I made some arrangements with my boss and took a combination of vacation days and extra weekend shifts, and I’ve had every Monday off since September. It has been very good. I’ve had a chance to be with the boys a lot more, spending quality time with them and having adventures with them. The downside is I haven’t had as much opportunity to work and at a sales job, working more means more money. But, this season is almost at an end. I am looking forward to actually using vacation days for a vacation.

One of the things I have been working on today has been my blogs. I have managed to complete the salvage of my other blog, and it will be shortly appearing under its rightful name again. I wanted to move all my blogs off the old host, and I will be posting a rant about their evilness so I can direct any other hapless webizens away from using their services. Once I have terminated service with them. The other thing that was delaying the project was shortly before I began to transfer my blogs to a new host, my blogs were hacked. I don’t know what kind of lifeless twit would hack a blogger, especially one as inconsequential as myself. But whatever. I should change my passwords to something less hackable I suppose.

The other thing I have been working on today is bread. Yeah, every few weeks I receive a dose of culinary inspiration, and today that has made itself known in the form of a desire for hot bread. I went to Cobs Bread in the mall the other day to get some buns, and if there is one thing I am coming to enjoy it is fresh baked bread. Here’s hoping it turns out. 45 minutes from now it goes into the oven.

To any and all regular readers, I am stepping out of character a bit… some coarse language may be following.

Greg, I know you hate, and I mean hate unsolicited advice.

Problem is I’m a sympathetic bastard, and it’s one of my worst failings. Probably why we’ve spent half our lives insulting each other and the other half being friends. (Rough estimates…)

I just wanted to share something with you that I’ve been learning, and danged if it hasn’t helped get my life moving in a semblance of a direction.

It’s called personal discipline.

I know, I’ve said it. The wolfsbane of the lycanthropy of our youth. I am well aware that we may both dissolve into a puddle, leaving nothing but a hat behind (ok, enough allusions). But this stuff works.

Heh. You thought I was going to say God, didn’t you? Well, that too, but one thing at a time eh?

But dude, the way I see your life (at 2000 km distance, so bear with me if I am completely off base), you have your own priorities, but those priorities are mostly to do with hobbies. Gads, wouldn’t we all love to be paid for doing what we love? But here’s the nasty bit of business. Those who make a living off the crap you and I enjoy are dedicated. They are focused. They let nothing stand in the way of accomplishing their tasks.

I hate to say it, friend, but you aren’t. Even to your hobbies.

The way I see it, you’ve got two choices right now.

1. Piss your life away in dead end jobs like Chapters, Radio Shack, etc. Do what you hate, and descend into a well of depression because your life is gone and you never even did anything you really wanted (well, except for that trip to Ireland… I’m still a bit jealous of that. Been thinking long and hard about how that might be my next trip, but probably not for a couple of years… </digression>).
2. Sacrifice. Yeah, that thing they talked about in the Sword of Truth books. You want to write? Get some dirty, filthy, crapola industry job and drop the apartment. Throw everything into storage, and go bust your hump in Fort Mac or wherever ass-end of nowhere they want to send you for more money than you’ve ever seen in one place. Do that (and stay off the drugs, because trust me they will be everywhere up there) for 6 months. Take up a hobby while you’re up there - I don’t know what. Pump Iron. Learn to play guitar. Something that requires boring repitition but builds a skill and teaches you not to give up. Then come back to the Chuk, pay off your debts, take the remainder of your savings, and live off that for 6 months. Dedicate yourself to writing. Do nothing but that for 8 hours a day (or more if you’re up for it), like a job. I’ll bet my ‘06 Flame Red Dodge Ram you’ll be published. And on your way. I think you can do it, chum.

But you need the discipline. Seriously.

BTW, I bought that truck new, because I learned this skill. The skill of sticking out the crap.

Do it man. I want to read your novel.

Busted my butt last night until 11pm working on a page and a half of a paper. I basically rewrote the entire subject of the paper, realizing that my old subject was inadequate too broad stupid.

Then I taught the last lesson of my series at church. I had some paper but sent it to Phil for vetting on Thursday. Unbeknownst to myself, he never received it. I got to church this morning, completely without material. Good thing I prayed my butt off all the way to church. In my humble opinion, this was the best class I taught in the series. Without materials, without props. With the two people I expected not to be there, there, and on fire to throw all kinds of hot potatoes into my lap. If you know what I mean. I had to try to control their attempts to dominate the class with their own asides and agendas, carrying on about how things were done in the Assemblies of God in Australia. I didn’t completely succeed, but I still felt like I communicated what I needed to, disseminated the content I wanted to, didn’t completely lose it, and didn’t get defensive. All in all, it feels like a victory.

I was watching Quarterlife Part 1 (same actress who played the cousin of one of the dudes in LonelyGirl15) - which by the way looks pretty well done and professional. It spurred me to think about blogging for a second. Which is why I am writing now. Doesn’t take much to find my muse.

Ah heck. I had a thought but it’s gone now.

To finish that paper now… but wait. This was good. This partially wrote my journal entry for this week. That’s good - I have to write a summation of my journals for this Thursday.

Joy of joys, I am working on a Saturday.

I do need the money, but sadly, nobody is buying.  It’s Thanksgiving weekend in the States, and everyone is out doing the shopping or spending time with family, not interested in investing in software.

On the bright side, this should give me some time to work on the paper that is due next week - the big paper for my second-last seminary class.  I have one more course to go, then I just have to write a 60 page grad essay and finis!

The paper is going to be on mentoring, and I have some books, but I think I am going to need some journal articles too, so I’ll be seeing what I can pull out of the article libraries I can get to on the net.

I know all this is fascinating to you, but hey.  It’s where I am at.  I’ll post something interesting later.

I wonder how many blog posts I’ve put up reintroducing myself?

I’ve finished putting categories to every single post in this blog, which took a few days.  I’ve also changed the theme, and this one has a lot of neat little details that are improved.  I hope to one day wrote something profound enough to warrant a digg or two - if you like what I wrote, feel free to digg it at the bottom.

Some things that I was coy with before (in re-reading my old posts, there were a couple of things I was not clear about), we are expecting, it will unless God is pulling an elaborate prank on us, another boy making 4.  Due February 4th.  Last summer, we were on the cusp of adopting a young girl, from a failing international adoption.  We thought that the parents would be reasonable, but they were not, and wound up giving her up to another family.  We wish the poor child well.  It was heart-wrenching sharing our home with her for a month, only to see her go elsewhere.

A quik life update: I am almost finished my 3rd from last course to complete my Master’s degree in Christian Studies.  I don’t plan to take a course in January, to get my feet back under me.  I do have a bit to do in terms of working on discipleship programs for our new church.  That will keep me busy.  Plus the new baby coming… there will be plenty to keep me amused.  But before then, there is Christmas coming.  This will be our first Christmas at our house in 3 years.

Back to profundity later.

I’ve decided to import all the old material I used to have in my “The High Places” blog.  A lot of it was political in nature, but what the heck.  A lot of it wasn’t.

One of the new features of this blog is the tagging system - I had that set up on the old iteration but it never worked right and I was forced to wipe them all out.  So from here on out tags will be operational.

Going to nose around and see if I can even track down the blog entries I had from my “Lefthanded Right” blog too.  That was even more political, but if I can get it in, that will stretch my archives back 4 years!  Wow.  Hard to believe I’ve been doing this that long…