Tag Archive
for Christianity
Tagged as: Christianity, Life, Read-It, Seen-Around
Oct
30
While I am happy about the fact that I have become someone who questions a lot of what I hear, I readily admit that we all need to live using assumptions. We do not check every fact each and every time otherwise we would go insane! We sit on chairs without checking that the legs will support our weight (although sometimes the chair unfortunately does not support our weight). We figure that our car engine is going to work even though we don’t check it before turning it on everyday. Staplers have staples, light switches will turn on lights, and our e-mail is accessible. These assumptions are slight and imperceptible things that we do. When the assumption does not hold, it is quickly discarded to handle the exceptional case.
But then there assumptions that have a more costly result. When you and your teammate assume that the other is going to catch the fly ball, you could lose the game. Perhaps you and another drive make an assumption that the other is going to get out of the way and an accident occurs. At work, if no definitive statement is made about who is to carry out a task then all involved will think that the other is doing it. Or in the tragedy of Kitty Genovese everyone assumes that someone else will do the right thing. Or infinitely increasing in the depth of tragedy, what happens to someone who assumes that scientists and public opinion are correct enough that Jesus is not the answer?
Let us not assume! Especially when it comes to the important things. Else we are complicit in the outcome, whatever that might be.
Tagged as: Christianity, Life, Seen-Around
Sep
24
I enjoy a board (or sometimes card or tile) game just as much as anyone else. They are good clean fun that often test particular skills and attributes. There are games like scrabble and speed scrabble, which test your vocabulary and literacy; chess, which tests your planning capabilities; and Nertz, which tests speed and awareness.
While I enjoy the games, I do not always enjoy the people that play the games. I mean what is up with people that take games too seriously? Games are fun, and I will play as hard as I can. But it is never appealing when things get out of hand.
In particular there are some games that I cannot stand playing with other people because they tend to get much too involved in them. Settlers of Catan is one of those games. Since so much of the game is the relationships between the players in the game, it is extremely susceptible to antagonism, back-stabbing, and bitterness. All lovely attributes. It is an excellent game if you want to see the ugly in people, that’s for sure. People cannot help but reveal themselves a little bit when it gets competitive.
I will always remember a friend that I knew who was willing to give up a game (in that case basketball) because he was enticed to behave badly while playing. He thought that there were more important things in the world, namely his Christianity, so he gave it up. Admirable and encountered far too little nowadays.
Tagged as: Christianity, Life, life in code, Seen-Around
Aug
21
Marriage_Dating.py
too_long = 730 # days, which is 2 years
while you.engaged == False:
# What state are you in?
if you.dating == False:
days_dating = 0
if you.find('PERSON')
you.dating = True
other_person = person_of_opposite_sex()
else:
days_dating += 1
# Date day, hooray!
if you.have('DATE'):
# Here's the juice
if dating.purpose == 'MARRIAGE':
result = you.go('DATE', 'INTERESTING', other_person)
if days_dating >= too_long:
you.dating = False
else:
result = you.go('DATE', 'BORING', other_person)
# Process the result of the date
if result == 'WELL':
pass # Just keep on going on those dates!
elif result == 'ENGAGED':
you.engaged = True
else:
you.dating = False
# Every other day of your (obviously) interesting life
else:
you.go('WORK')
you.go('HOME')
you.go('WEDDING')
other_person.go('WEDDING')
you.married = True
other_person.married = True
you.celebrate()
other_person.celebrate()
README
Here’s some help for understanding this snippet of Python programming code. While you are unmarried, you are either dating someone or you are not. If you’re not dating and happen to find someone that you want to date, then lucky you! The next categorization is you are either actively pursuing marriage or you are not. If you are, I think that you should want to go on interesting dates.
Life isn’t dinner and a movie. Life is crazy and uncertain. It’s hard and difficult. Don’t you want to see how the person that you might spend the rest of your life with reacts? When they’re fording a river, do they get angry and upset with you? When you’re lost in the wilderness, do they get upset and frustrated? When you get frustrated with them, do they snap back? Find the worst in the person. Look for it as hard as you possibly can. Because if you can handle the worst, then you can definitely handle the best.
If you aren’t as actively pursuing marriage then enjoy your dinner and movie.
And if you’re not dating then good luck with being on your own and all of the issues entailed in CT’s The Case For Early Marriage.
Tagged as: Christianity, Rant, Seen-Around
May
13
People enjoy their modern lives where things are the way that they are. They have always been that way. Changes disrupt that happy life. Even trying to dig beyond the surface reveals things that they are loathe to consider.
Take meat for example. While there are vegans who abolish all animal products from their life, there are still a great number of people that do not. They are happy to go to a chop house and order a nice big steak. Many people that I know would opt for a simmering and perfectly cooked as a last meal. How many of them would be shocked to see the cow butchered to produce said steak? I know that it would be quite a sight to behold myself. But many people who would eat a well-cooked steak in a heartbeat would turn away equally fast from seeing how that steak came to be. And yet, that is all part of the process. It is no less true than the steak that sits in front of them in a fancy restaurant.
Moving a step in the more offensive category, what about abortion? Depending on whose statistics you believe, there is probably about half of the population that thinks that abortion is just fine and dandy. And how many of those people do you think would be willing to see what actually happens during an abortion? Just ask groups like Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a Christian pro-life activism group that aims to educate high school and college students, about what they encounter when they go out. With their huge graphic displays, they offend people because it brings to light things that they don’t want to see. I have read articles about them getting into heated shouting matches and even getting arrested. Arrested for free speech?! In our enlightened society?!
People who are pro-abortion like to think of themselves as pro-choice. They’re about the ability to choose something. That’s freedom! But when things start to ge a little more real than that, I am sure that they will be some of the first to avert their eyes. They will get heated because they will have to face the reality, which is ugly to them.
People love their nice packaged lives. They enjoy that everything is so nice and prepared for them. Abstractions are so much easier than the real thing. Get a grip people, there’s definitely more to things than what you want.
Tagged as: Christianity, Exercise, Personal
Apr
27
Finishing a marathon is pretty good right? Well what about finishing it and getting to help a worthy cause? That is even better! I was talking with a friend today, and she suggested that it would be a good idea to raise money for a charity since I have been doing all of this training already. After I thought about it, I realized that it made a lot of sense. People seem to be willing to help out since they can see that it is something that I would care about.
I looked at a number of very worthy charities before I decided that I wanted to be a part of Team World Vision.
From their website:
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian charity organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
If you are interested in joining with me to donate to a worthy cause, please visit my fundraising page:
Derek’s fundraising page