Luke 12

I've been thinking lately about all the stuff we have.

Now that I've crossed a life-threshold, and am at some point to start a family, the inevitable discussions arise - buying a house ("Now's a great time!", they say), life insurance, health insurance (uuggggghhhh), retirement, the future. And as I consider these things, the money, the stuff and planning and worry it entails, I wonder what the point is. I mean, we have one -only one - directive:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

And that has nothing to do with preparing for the future. In fact, Christ guarantees that He has taken care of it [vs. 22-34].

So then I think about how Christians - the Church, the light of the world - live such safe, comfortable lives. Many Christians insist it is wise to invest, to save, to buy a house, to pay off debt, to vote, to give ten percent [no more], to plan retirement. And I doubt that wisdom. It's not a necessary draw on our attention and resources. Not when the fate of eternal souls rides on a terminator between brilliant light and everlasting darkness. Not when the Church is the source of that light.

¹⁶And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. ¹⁷He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'

¹⁸"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

²⁰"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

²¹"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Toeless

I love socks, but I also love flats. They don't usually go well together, because the socks show between the pants and the shoes and I look like the Wicked Witch of the West. But then there was Rachel. She got me socks to remedy that problem.

On the triumph of Grace

Let us now avoid poetic locution and speak plainly: on Sunday I witnessed a great event, one for which I have little to say. For there are those that know the power of what I have seen, and need no description; and there are those who do not, and for whom no eloquence of speech will suffice.

Let me only lay down a bit of history: my dad was married for eight years after my mom, and I rarely got along with my old step-mother - we were polite at best, and at worst I was convinced she was the wicked step-mother of fairy tales. Whose fault that all was rests equally upon many shoulders, but the point is this:

My grandmother (my dad's mom) told me last week she'd heard Carolyn had been saved and was getting baptized. And that's that.

Five Days

I spent all Sunday afternoon playing The Sims.

I went to my grandma's on Monday and Tuesday to choose a pattern and fabric for a quilt.

I watched Hero again on Wednesday.

I worked late on Thursday in the (let us pray jinx-proof) hope that I might leave early on Friday. I really wanted to write something, but my brain hurts. And, I found an exciting band. It's Christian Celtic punk. Flatfoot 56

I am going to work early tomorrow.

At work, I have been accused of being in a bad mood for three days now, all because Dan is not here. They're exaggerating. Mostly.

My Lobster

When I was younger I always thought that there was a sort of top-secret rite of passage that all girls go through to become a woman. She learns things about men and about being a wife and mom, and being woman in general, and only ever talks about it to other women. No girl hears of it until it is her time.


Now, I cannot speak of it, but if it does exist, I know that it would most certainly include that episode of Friends that talks about finding one's lobster... It's like an inside joke that all females get (once they've been initiated) and very few men do. Except maybe Darrin.

The Immature and Impractical Roots of Progress

The English recently decided to revisit a decision they made twenty years ago not to invest in an astronaut training program. At the time, they didn't see the point. Now, however, they fear that they will be left behind.

And so I was thinking recently about the English and American desires for expansion and exploration, but being very different cultures, even from soon after their sundering, I realized those desires spring from very different sources.

The English have sought new lands, throughout their history, for practical and pragmatic reasons - tea, sugar cane, slaves, world dominance.

Americans, however, pursue the unknown merely for its own sake. Space exploration? Why? It is unlikely that we will find anything that it will be cost-effective to develop. So then, one must take note that the greatest state in the world, the one who leads the way in so many actions (good and bad) always does so out of its own poorly thought through and pointless quests for discovery.

That's all I have to say.

Those Evil Intellectuals

I have noticed a curiosity among Americans that both intigues and irritates me... there seems to be a general disregard for, distrust of, and even animosity toward those whom we might call "intellectuals." Take, for example, the last presidential race - Americans, in general, were intimidated and put off by the (albeit uptight and removed) rational, intelligent candidate. And much earlier, a large reason the prior president won was because he hid his intellect, and appealed to the "common man."

Or, to draw upon a less controversial example, the questionable heroic nature of a character such as Batman - the thinker. We do not wholly believe that he is good, because his strength lies not in what we can see, but in what only he knows - his own mind.


Now, I must ask, why does the common man have to be uneducated and ignorant? Why is it not a matter of pride among Americans to have knowledge for its own sake? Why are those with "book smarts" treated with disdain, as if their expertise is useless or pointless?