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I checked my calendar yesterday and realized that Wednesday (tomorrow) is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. I had not noticed the days slipping by so quickly; and so, where we are, at the start of the first time of waiting, watching and preparation in the Church’s calendar. READ MORE »
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Happy Valentines’ Day
It’s sort of silly, but out of all the romantic gush and love stuff I’ve read (and have been subjected to) the one that leaves the most impact with me comes from a quirky video game RPG called Earthbound.
In one area of the game known as the Dusty Dunes Desert, while making my way from one plot point to the next, I bumped into a single white pixel that didn’t seem to be part of the background graphics. Being young and curious and already enjoying myself with this game, I figured I’d “talk” to it.
White Sesame: I heard that the black sesame I used to love is somewhere in this desert. If you see him, please tell him that I still love him.
Well, not quite a “mood whiplash” but it was a little sombering given that the game was definitely more light-hearted and happy. So I kept making my way through this desert when about an hour later I saw a single black pixel on the screen. I figured what could be the harm in wrapping up this “side quest”.
Where I thought I’d get another goofy counterpoint that would have been more in line with the rest of the game, I got the following:
Black Sesame: Why would you feel like talking to a tiny black sesame like me. I wanna apologize to the white sesame that I hurt before If I could just see her. What? The white sesame still… loves me?! *cries*
I guess I’m a sap. After digesting what I’d just read I had to put down my controller and go have a good cry for about 10 minutes. Here, couched in the middle of a strange RPG for the Super Nintendo was a love story that couldn’t have been more that 4 lines long that moved me to tears.
So even with my theological background, my knowledge of the science and the sociological origins and results of “love” whenever I think of true love, the story of the two Sesames of Earthbound is still one of the first examples that is brought to mind.
And it to this day, it still makes me cry.
Some updates
Some time ago a found a list of 100 topics to draw. Well, I’ve decided to use it for writing subjects instead to get my creative juices flowing for 2012.
I’ll be making it a habit to write 5 or 6 times a week, randomly from that list, for the next few months or so.
It’s a new year, time for new opportunities and new beginnings. So time, again, to get into gear and to make most of the days now and into the future.
Welcome to Modern Evangelicalism
More than enough evidence (some think) of the intellectual, moral and theological hole which has become American evangelical Christianity…
It’s no wonder people decide to become Catholics.
Seriously though, it’s a humor blog run by a Christian poking fun of all the religious stupity that Christians and nonChristians do. Enjoy.
What a day!
I like to start out my days/weeks/months with lists, and I’m sure you’ll see many more of these things from me on this blog. Back to the point, here’s what I had to do today to at least “feel” productive
- Get my annual credit report (majorly depressing, but motivating at the same time)
- Write a letter to my dad explaining the wisdom of buying rental property in town right now
- Catch up with my Bible reading plan
- Find a client’s email (something I’d been putting off)
- Hook up my printer
I did manage to get them all done, and then some. Of course, given how oddly focused and unfocused I can be sometimes, I completely forgot to bathe earlier.
My parents are the sorts that see getting out of bed after 9 as a sign of laziness, and showering in the afternoon as indicative of sloth. Now, as far as I can tell, it’s merely the act that one is rising after 9 or bathing after 12, not any of the attitudes that could be energizing those actions. But I guess that’s a failure of the human condition.
We’re always taught to look on the outside, and with good reason, ones external actions have the most effect on others, that we sometimes just toss away any sort of effort to examine a person’s motivations and attitudes, to try to get to the heart of their own story.
Jesus did say that out of a person’s heart comes everything that defiles, and that you can tell a tree by its fruit, so there is a rationale for being so keen on what we see and experience directly. But he also was known to his contemporaries as a “friend of sinners,” a drunk and a glutton as well; observations that came only with looking at the outside without bothering to see His story.
That is a constant frustration being here with my parents again. But I guess it’s more impetus for me to get going and make the most of these opportunities I’ve been scouting out as well.
Faithful Fridays – Three Links for the Thoughtful, Thrifty and Thorough Christian
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth, take care of it, harness its potential and use its resources for your benefit.”
Genesis 1.28 paraphrased
Things like commerce and economics, art and science, technology and agriculture are all expressions of human creativity and resourcefulness. Traits like these in us that reflect God and who He is. When those who bear God’s Image get together with other Image Bearers, the result is civilization, ingenuity and a variety of ideas. It’s because we have dominion over Creation that we can do this. In fact, it’s pretty much expected that people do this.
Of course, fallenness and sin come in and contaminate everything and all we’re left with are poor, distorted reflections even in the best of human achievement. I fully expect that in the New Earth, without the obstacles that sin and death present to advancement, we’ll fully see the fullest and eternal fruits of all human civilizations in ever expanding and ever deepening ways all centered on the glory of Jesus Christ.
Reading
It seems that my sleep schedule has been normalizing in recent days. But, at the same time, I’m almost always completely tired by late afternoon. It’s like I’m being forced away from my night owl inclinations, wretched into a direction of daytime activity, that while not bad in itself, is not really welcome either. Oh well, I’ll deal with it.
This morning, I was listening to the radio and the speaker was making a point that because we’ve moved away from words (“typology” he put it), favoring a quick succession of flashing images, like that of television or the internet, we as a cultural have largely stopped thinking, and have stopped thinking for ourselves. A good texts draws out the best of human cognitive abilities – critical thinking, idea synthesis, comparing and contrasting ideas, and a lot more. He brought up the point that only two hundred years ago, it was not not unheard of for presidential debates in the United States to last six or eight hours. Eight hours of back and forth discussion on the issues that the audience would not just sit through, but actually listen and participate all the way through. Nowadays, it’s difficult to even imagine a debate lasting more than two hours.
I have noticed that my own attention span has been steadily declining since my college days. I like the disciple of concentration and focus, but I seem to have swallowed the pill, so to speak, and joined with the flow. Perhaps that’s why I want to fall in love again with books. The internet introduced the world to huge amounts of information, more than we can absorb or process in any real fashion. I think it’s time we try to step back and learn to read again. Not merely, the short “sound bytes” of information that’s thrown at us every time we click a link, but real, in depth reading that forces us to flex our mental capacities and to think. Not just snacking on articles or the blog buffet, but spending time in enjoying a full meal of literature – fiction and non fiction.
So to that end, I think I’ll start diving into some of the books I got for Christmas. It should be enlightening if nothing else. I don’t expect to regain my focus overnight, but every little step counts.
Faithful Fridays – Intro to Calvinism
I’m in a very small minority.
Not only am I, Arthur Vinson, an African American, I am very much a Calvinist – though I suppose the nuances of my person theology and belief are more Reformed than strictly Calvinist. Then again, one of the charges that I’ve heard pitted against Reformed thought is that it and its practicioners are “too logical,” so I suppose I should work against the stereotype by not over thinking every little detail.
Of course, why does this put me in a minority? Christians with a heritage resulting from the African slave trade tend toward more Charismatic and Pentecostal branches of Christian tradition, branches that grew out of the theologies of John Wesley and the Methodist church. These systems of theology are the polar opposite of Calvinist thought. Now, let me go on record for saying that love Wesley very much, but I’ve never seen his objections answered in a way that makes much sense to me in the context of Scripture. The South is also somewhat sparse in its offerings of explicitly Reformed churches (though I’m happy to say that I have found that there are plenty of Christian bodies that implicitly Calvinistic.) READ MORE »
Ten Gifts for the New Year
Happy New Year! Since my first hours of the first day of 2012 were rather fun and full, I’m hoping the rest of the year follows suit.
I have a tradition of “giving gifts” to myself for the new year instead of making resolutions. Why “give gifts”? Well, I had a friend some years back who explained that instead of setting a hard fast resolution every year, he found it much more motivating to give a gift, even if that gift is to oneself. A resolution can tower over you ready to smack you down with guilt if (or when) you fail to follow through. A gift may have the same expectations for you, but is understanding if things don’t come together exactly right. It’s a gift after all, something that should be happily received instead of fearfully undertaken.
It’s very much like the law and the gospel now that I think about it. Of course, that is a whole other set of blog posts.
So what do I plan on giving myself this year? In no particular order…
A bookshelf. Within the first two or three weeks of 2012, I want to compile a book list. What I plan on doing is starting with my Amazon wishlist and going through my own set of books, both fiction and nonfiction, until I have about fifty books. The year 2012 will be one full of words as I’ll be trying to read about one book every week. It’s been said that who a person is consists of the people he’s met and the books he’s read.
A printing press. Whether or not I have a widespread readership, I am a writer. However, I do want to be able to finally see my words in print and on sale. It’s one of many longstanding goals that I’ve not followed through with yet. But even though getting published is “easy” – self-publishing is all the rage apparently – I want to be a quality writer. Even if I get a novel written in a week, just how good would that be? So wrapped up in this gift is the expectation that I need to get more skilled in writing, to learn more about the industry and to seek out help with marketing. In other words, putting myself to task on many objectives that already have reached.
A weight set. I’ve always been embarrassed with my fascination with bodybuilding as a hobby, so this particular gift, starting weight training, will perhaps be more difficult to accept. It’s been a full 18 years I first resolved to start working out, not just for health reasons either, but that I want to look better as well. I’m tired of being so skinny and not having much bodily strength. The discipline involved with all athletic pursuits is very inspiring, and I would hope that I could learn more about myself while trying to mold myself into something better.
Real estate. Though not a part of the American dream per se, house ownership has been used to represent the fulfillment of the dream. I want to buy a house to rent out, learning the details of the real estate industry as a way of starting the first steps toward long-term goal of mine: intentional community. The additional income and the new skills that would come with learning how to maintain the property would definitely be an advantage.
Text books. Yes, more books. But these books represent my push toward self-study in 2012. I’m going to pick up my Latin studies again. However, I also need to put together a list of other academic fields to self study. Also in this gift is the expectation that I will tangibly begin formal Christian training.
Typewriter. I’m a writer, of course. But the best way to be a better writer is to actually write. Unfortunately that’s been something I’ve been slacking on for reasons both legitimate and not. The gift is for at least 500 to 750 words daily, in addition to blogging three to four times a week. I already have no less than three personal projects that need work on that should have already been keeping my fingers and my muse busy for months.
Bible and Scripture commentaries. Simply, I want to get to know God better, and I’ve let this particular relationship, the most important relationship, slip in recent months. It’s more than just theological knowledge and orthodoxy, but connecting with my spiritual community, learning to love and serve them, and learning to be loved by God through them.
Ferret cage. This would be an actual gift to myself as well as a figurative one. It’s been so many years since I’ve had pets and I’d feel so happy to be able to take care of rats and ferrets again. Of course, this gift does mean more than just the animals, but the infrastructure to take care of them. So if I want to have pets this year, I’ll need to scout out a good veterinarian as well as have the income to support medical care costs and food, as well as the capacity to deal with the daily sort of expenses in time and energy that pets require.
Greenhouse. Productivity in all things that I attempt is, of course, a great gift to receive and an even better one to use. Procrastination steals time away from the more important tasks in life.
Lion and Doggy plushies. I’ve found myself becoming more and more of a coward in recent years. Even though I may have convictions that I feel strongly about, I don’t have the wherewithal to make them known, or to do things that would make a stand one way or another. In other words, making whatever convictions I say to have somewhat hypocritical at best. Even though I do like rats and ferrets, the lion and the dog have been symbols of courage and loyalty for a long while. To banish cowardice, you need to engage with love. Love will do difficult things for the good of the loved one if it has to. Courage and loyalty are simply love made manifest in ways that oppose cowardice.
When compiling this list, I managed to see a common theme of “dedication” or discipline. This year, I plan on persevering where I’ve allowed myself to drop the ball earlier. It’s just a matter of seeing what I can do differently, what I can do to follow through, and what I can do to hold fast when I don’t want to.
