Feb 10 2009

Grad Essay Finished!

Published by Shane under Uncategorized

I just realized I forgot to announce that my Grad Essay is finally finished!  I got the word at the end of January… and if I can get off my butt and submit my request for participation in the grad ceremonies I will be in my cap and gown for April 17 to get my long-anticipated Master of Arts in Christian Studies from Canadian Baptist Seminary.

Expect my proposal to be replaced with the test of the actual finished essay.  I will also be finally changing the header graphic - no more intensive research for a while for me!  On to everything else… like licensure.  That would be the next study challenge.

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Feb 10 2009

EatJesus.com and Self-Feeding Christians

Published by Shane under Deepness, Spirit

I connected with a church planter out in Chicago, who is a bit of a marketing whiz.  He has built a website called “Eat Jesus.com” where church planters and church leaders contribute articles based on the theme of how to be “self-feeding” Christians.  I have been asked to contribute articles there, and I am excited to be involved.  Check it out - subscribe, and learn.

It’s a great idea - too many Christians these days only eat “pablum” - spoon-fed Scripture by their pastor every Sunday, with a midweek snack, maybe, if they are involved in some kind of small group or larger group like Young Adults or Youth or Singles or Young Marrieds or Old Timers or MOPS or Men’s Ministry or Women’s Ministry… you get the picture.

Tell me: how healthy are you if you are only fed a bowl of pablum twice a week?  You’d be pretty anemic and starving to death.  Tell me: how often do you need to be eating physical food to nourish your physical body?  Twice?  Three times a day?  More?  Now tell me - if God made our physical bodies to need food regularly - like multiple times a day, how healthy will we be spiritually, if we only feed  spiritually twice a week? Now you get the idea of how important it is that we as Christians become self-feeding.  Our pastors cannot feed us as often as we need to be spiritually healthy.  If we are wondering why our spiritual life seems barren or fruitless, we need look no further than our feeding habits.  A starving, emaciated faith does not produce much fruit.

Jesus said in John 6:53-58, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.   Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.   Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.   This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” He is speaking about spiritual nourishment.  It doesn’t get plainer than that.  Eatjesus.com and live.

(Crossposted to Planting on Faith)

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Jan 23 2009

Could I be more Shocked?

Published by Shane under Family

What a day yesterday.

I left work, knowing that my wife was going for an ultrasound.  An unexpected pregnancy was suspected by the midwives as being “molar” which means it could just be a bunch of undifferentiated cells reproducing a baby-like rates.  They’re bad because they can be cancerous.  Think D&C, then chemotherapy, and you get the state of mind my wife and I were in.

At the same time, just before I left, the biggest single sale I have ever made at work called… to cancel.  He said it was because his car had been totalled by a garage who was supposed to repair it.  I actually believe him, as his was the most airtight sale I have ever made - he even had his wife approve the sale with him explaining it to her before we closed it.  Anyway, he expects to have his finances re-sorted in a month or so and expects to do it then.

Two punches.

I went home with a pretty heavy heart.  I wait for my wife to come home from the ultrasound.  She says they had to check twice - there was something odd.

ultrasound

But they figured out what it was.

Twins.

I could be upset, shocked, unnerved, fearful, desperate, any number of things right now.  We hadn’t closed the door to another child, but we didn’t expect two at once!  I certainly have no idea how in the biggest recession to hit real estate since 1929, I am going to make ends meet with my job, which sells software to realtors.  But God’s got to have a plan, because I sure don’t.  And I am so curious to see what it is.

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Jan 09 2009

Do We Need to Bother With Marriage Anymore?

Published by Shane under Amuse Me, Deepness

One thing I really like about work is my co-workers.  They are incredibly intelligent, thoughtful people and they love to talk about serious things.  They don’t shy away from anything.  A heart like mine that loves to debate looks forward to coming to work with such people.  Though I have to say we often have very different opinions, we do often agree as well, on some surprising issues.

Yesterday, the subject of the day was the necessity of marriage.  Our little cubicle world split down the middle - on the one side were three married people, and on the other were three unmarried people (although two of the three are in serious, long-term relationships).  We talked about the purpose of marriage - the public declaration of commitment, the element of involving the community in holding you accountable for your marriage, the saying of vows to establish security not just for the man and woman but also for any children that come of the relationship.

Now, myself, my view of marriage is in the context of my faith - but yet the concept of marriage is a universal one.  Every culture, every religion has a tradition around the exclusive bonding of man to woman and vice versa, for life.  Yet, today, that is being questioned.  Is it necessary to be “married”?  Is not a commitment more meaningful if it is made in private with nobody else’s input factoring in?

One thing that became clear is that people marrying in the past for the wrong reasons has built up this resistance.  Because some people have been “forced” to marry against their will, either by parents or sometimes church (sadly), or community, or peer pressure, it has come to be viewed by some as negative.  Because there is this connotation of coercion we rebel instinctively against it.  If it could be perceived as forced then it must be eschewed.  This seems to me to be faulty.  Just because some people misuse or misunderstand a tradition is not the best reason to ignore it.

Is a commitment made in private more meaninful, somehow stronger?  I think that depends on your view of mankind in general, and yourself in particular.  If you view yourself as complete, moral, and truthful; if you view yourself as one who does not change or waver in your commitments; if you view yourself as such a complete individual that you do not need others’ guidance or support, then I would have to agree.  If such a man or woman existed, they could truly pull off marriage without the “marriage” as most cultures know it.  But the reason that marriage is universal is because deep in our hearts, we all know just how inconstant, changeable, and prone to stupid decisions we are.  The Bible calls this “sin” and calls it universal.

Knowing that humanity is prone to all these things, the process of marriage in its basic characteristics becomes common sense.  It becomes a reward for all those participating in it.  For the man and woman involved, there is real security, knowing that someone is not just saying what you want to hear to get what they want.   There is a foundation of trust, knowing that you and your partner share the same respect for and values of a lifelong commitment to each other.  This commitment insulates the marriage against challenges and gives you a foundation to lean on in those tough times, like the classic vows “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health”.

Some people think such language is onerous, or burdensome.  They want the freedom to be able to get out if they don’t like it, or if they “fall out of love”.  If they seriously feel that way, then they aren’t in love.  Love is the selfless giving of oneself for another.  If you’re thinking of yourself, you are not in love, and you wrong your partner if that is how you feel.  They may not feel that way, and if they knew you did, they likely would not be interested in any kind of long-term relationship.

Following from that I think is the real root of most people’s objections to marriage.  It’s not that they have a problem with the institution itself.  It is that they don’t believe it is even possible to succeed at it anymore.  Why try if it is doomed to fail?  Any conversation about marriage inevitably features someone bringing up “50% of marriages fail, so why bother?”  As I said in that conversation yesterday, this is a statistic that gives a very false impression - a futile impression that reinforces negative predispositions.  The real statistics show that if you take all marriages - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, then that statistic is true.  But if you look in more depth, the chances drop big time.  First, the old “50%” number is old.  In the USA, divorce rates peaked in the 80’s around 50%, but that number has dropped down to the high 30’s now.  Second, all kinds of background indicators, including education, income, and family of origin can be significant in decreasing your chance of divorcing.  For myself, because I had a child after I was married (as opposed to before), go to church, my parents are not divorced, I have some college, and I make more than 50k a year, statistically I am 95% less likely to get divorced - to say nothing of my own personal convictions.  But even further, the per captia divorce statistic is skewed because people who divorce are statistically much more likely to be serial divorcees.  If you have 100 couples who marry, and only 20 get divorced but each remarries 3 times that is 60 divorces for 100 couples - a 60% divorce rate, despite only 20% actually getting divorced.  You can see how looking at that statistic in isolation would make you think marriage is doomed, despite 4 out of 5 people having successful marriages.

Some declare that marriage is a waste of time because it is doomed to fail (see above) and it is expensive, so it is better not to marry at all and “save money”.  Again, the statistics work against this argument.  Common-law separation is not less expensive, and breakups without marriage are not less acrimonious.  Lawyers cost the same whether you are married or not.  In fact, it is worse, especially for women, because the breakup will not be divided as evenly as in marriage law.

But that is just the statistical reason.  Then there is our culture, which continuously reinforces through media and entertainment the commonplace nature of infidelity.  We have social scientists telling us all men are apes, and are designed to seek out multiple partners, and women should simply accept it.   We are told that “falling out of love” is a valid reason to abandon somebody.

I think, deep down, we feel unlovable - we feel that nobody could possibly love us forever, or stay with us no matter what.  So we settle, we make peace with this “reality” and allow others to simply use us.  A temporary fix, a salve, to get us through until something better comes along.  We accept the platitude that we want to hear, “Really honey.  I don’t need to marry you to love you forever…” but the truth is that without marriage, common-law relationships break up at an exponentially higher rate.  The odds against a couple going the distance without getting married are 5 times as high as those who marry.  The rates of violence and spousal abuse are significantly higher.   It is not reasonable to contend that because marriages break up we shouldn’t get married, when cohabitation is so much less stable.  If we truly seek stability and safety in our relationships, we should be seeking marriage, and not settling for less.  If we’re settling, it’s because of this deep-seated insecurity about our own value and impatience that one will come along and marry us.

But what is the positive case for marriage?  The statistics for the positive effects of marriage on personal mental and physical health are numerous.  The statistics for the mental and physical health of children of marriage are numerous.  The odds of truly having a partner for life are much much greater.  The public acknowledgement of your relationship builds trust and intimacy between both partners.  The involvement of friends and family in the marriage gives you hearts and minds to lean on, to turn to, to be counselled by when times are tough.  If nobody was involved in your wedding, nobody is invested in it either.

I am not saying all weddings need to be big, lavish affairs.  That’s another favorite argument of those who don’t view it as necessary - it is too big and expensive.  Of course, it is merely a cop-out as everybody knows it is not necessary to “do it big”.  If marriage is really important to you, then you will find a way.  If it is not important to you, you will allow such excuses to stand in the way.  But I hope that with this essay, you will find that marriage is a little more important than you previously thought.  Be encouraged!  Marriage is alive and well, and a lot more satisfying than popular culture likes to portray.

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Jan 07 2009

Guitar Hero VS Guitar Praise

Published by Shane under Geekery, Just Wrong

Argh. It really annoys me when companies make cheap knockoffs of popular products to market to “Christians”.

Let me set a context. We picked up Guitar Hero: World Tour on Boxing Day. My wife and I had been introduced to it while visiting my in-laws before Christmas, and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, the costumes you could choose for your “character” had some racy options, but they were your choice - it was not like you were being forced to have your character dress scantily.

The other thing was the selection of tracks. Typical rock music. It took a significant amount of gameplay before I encountered a track that was seriously objectionable (Ozzie Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley” if you must know). Otherwise, typical rock tracks.

Then I read that there is this “Christian” version - Guitar Praise.

I just went to the website, and I was not impressed.  Yeah, they have all Christian music, which is fine, but the graphics look dumb and it looks considerably less slick and enjoyable when compared to Guitar Hero.  It’s less of everything, but ooooh…. it’s got Christian music in it!

I am sorry.  I wish Guitar Hero would just make a music pack of Christian singles.  I’d buy it in a second, but I am not going to go out and buy Guitar Praise.  Same goes for Country.  I’d like to be able to pick my music, not have to buy a separate “guitar” and game for each genre.

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Dec 16 2008

Ancient High Technology - Food For Thought

Published by Shane under Amuse Me, Deepness, History

Solomon once wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun.

Ever wonder just how true that really is?

Check out Cracked’s compilation of completely unexplained archaeological finds.  Warning: if you don’t like reading foul language, don’t go to cracked.com.  But if you can overlook the language, check out these six unexplained archaeological finds - like batteries from ancient Mesopotamia.  A clockwork atronomical device from Greece.  Complex pipe networks in backwater, uninhabited, ancient China.

Myself, I look at these and I see something that logically fits with the Biblical account.  Just after the flood, God himself marvelled at human ingenuity, and had to confuse language to keep humanity from too much pride.  It makes perfect sense to me that from creation onward, the capabilities, strength and health of humanity have been progressively decreasing, in keeping with the second law of thermodynamics.  It makes perfect sense that mankind has had highly technological moments in the past, but been brought low.  And all these treasures are directly in keeping with that.

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Nov 19 2008

Bringing Back the Mammoth

Published by Shane under Amuse Me, Geekery

I think this whole idea of cloning a mammoth from DNA remains is exceedingly cool.

I’d love to see it happen.  It would be like Jurassic Park but without people getting eaten.

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Nov 13 2008

A Little Christmas Video - Sleigh Ride by Relient K

Published by Shane under Amuse Me

Check it out.  A little bit of fun without overdosing on the “seasonal”.


Relient K - Sleigh Ride from gotee on Vimeo.

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Nov 04 2008

Something to Consider as Americans Elect a President

Published by Shane under Political, Spirit

I was reading in Isaiah this morning.  This verse stuck out at me as needing consideration on this, a very important day for the whole world as the United States of America elects a new president.

For all of you out there who, like me, looks forward to a time when people aren’t left with a choice between the lesser of two evils, consider this hope to come, from Isaiah 32:1-5:

1Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,
and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4The heart of the hasty will understand and know,
and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
5 The fool will no more be called noble,
nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.

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Oct 04 2008

I Love This Commercial…

Published by Shane under Uncategorized

It’s from the Discovery Channel, I saw it last night while watching the streaming feed of the Lions game. the kids love it too.

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