Facebook Farmville Fail

I am currently sitting in the computer lab in the library working on a paper. Upon glancing up from my work, I look across the room to a girl sitting in the computer lab, headphones in, playing Farmville on Facebook. Sometimes I have no difficulty at all remembering why I left that crap.

Of Broken Arms Pt. II

I'll begin with the explanation. I was not at TVR the week that it happened, but at a Group Workcamp in Lexington, NC, which is supposedly the barbecue capital, but the general consensus of the group was that good ole SC barbecue is easily better. The town did feature a number of cast iron pigs, in different poses and painted, which was quite entertaining.

Well, on Thursday afternoon of the week, I was playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee with some people from the camp and from my youth group. Maybe 15 minutes into us playing, I collided with my brother as we were both going for a pass. Here is a basic diagram of what happened, with a few adjustments:



As you can see, I was running one way and my brother was running in the other direction, in the air after a jump. Unfortunately, my arm was between us when I was unable to move out of the way. And because I was only wearing a shield on my right arm, just like the picture, well:

Boom pop crack wallakazaam. You saw the picture.

Bill Clinton=Theologian. Not.

Fact: Politicians should not attempt to be theologians. At least not to political ends.

Upon reading this article by Bill Clinton, I wanted to punch myself in the face because that would have been less painful than reading it.

Not that some of what he says about the "Values Voters" and 'Religious Right" isn't partially true, but the mishandling of scripture and a complete apathy toward the real meaning of Christianity makes for very poor theology.

Content Slaves

How often are we as people content in our slavery? Sin is enslaves. Anyone who disagrees is fooling himself.

One would think that we would rebel against the rule of something over us, as we often do against God. But yet, we remain under the much more malicious influence and directive of sin.

Very often we are as Jonathan Edwards points out:

"The corrupt hearts of men naturally incline to stupidity and senselessness before God comes with the awakening influences of his Spirit. They are quiet and secure. They have no true comfort and hope, and yet they are quiet; they are at ease. They are in miserable slavery, and yet seek not a remedy. They say, as the children of Israel did in Egypt to Moses, "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians."

This verse comes from Exodus 14, as the Egyptians were bearing down upon Israel, with their backs against the sea, they turned accusingly at Moses with the words "Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" [Ex. 14:12]

So often we, or at least I, am like this. As soon as the going gets tough spiritually, as soon as it's not all pie and ice cream pursuing God, I'm tempted to imitate the Israelites' inclination. To think [and genuinely believe, as our actions indicate] that a deliverance from evil tyranny would be as simply as dessert is at best, foolish.

So then, the struggle is not to have victory or deliverance from sin; Christ has provided that: "Who will deliver me!? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Rom. 7:21-25] The struggle becomes to continue to rest in the redemption and deliverance he has graciously provided.

In conclusion, it's a choice between two masters: do you want to be a slave to sin, a malicious, unforgiving and eternally destructive master, or does God, the benevolent, gracious and eternally constructive master sound more appealing?

A Small Part of the Body

You know how sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak to us and tell us to say something to someone that will speak to them where they're at in their life right now, with a positive impact, because it was just what they need to hear.?

Well, I think that I have the ability to say something to someone that will speak to them where they're at in their life right now, and effectively hurt them because whatever I said was just the right stupid thing they didn't need to hear.

I like to think of myself as a very quick witted, funny guy.

Well tonight, my quick wit got me into a not so fun situation where I hurt someone I care deeply for. Yeah, go ahead and slap me please.

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness." [James 3:5-6]

In Conclusion

This spring break has been an almost complete waste of time.

I have done next to nothing productive, with the exception of writing a letter and reading maybe a few pages of meaningful material.

Other than that, the few times I've spent with friends have made this week feel only slightly less than a waste.

Over 7 daggum days and nothing done. Not even a good amount of rest.

Now I've got a headache.

And I've no one to blame but myself.

A Vast, Dark, Damp Cloud

From a letter to a dear friend, written this wee hour in the morning:

Alas, I feel like the last year of my life has had this vast, dark, damp cloud bearing over it, barring me from any sight of God's glory, and therefore depriving me of any heartfelt joy.

Consequently, I have turned to other sources of less than remedial light or "glory." Because I know better, I have become the very epitome of Paul in Romans 7: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

I feel like I sound like a broken record.

The Daily Me

Found this interesting article by Nicholas Kristof via The Curator:

When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about.

Nicholas Negroponte of M.I.T. has called this emerging news product The Daily Me. And if that’s the trend, God save us from ourselves.

That’s because there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber.

I know it's dang easier to solidify your own opinion, and I'll be the first to admit that I do it a good bit...but when it comes right down to it, the best way to become a better more solid whatever you are is to hear the best daggum argument the other side has.

I Know

Sort of along the lines of my last post, I was told tonight that I know what I need to do, and that I know what I need to do better and more often and clearer than most people do. And yet, I fail to do it, or I choose to do just the opposite, or I just chilax and don't take any initiative on it. I know I'm being really daggum ambiguous right now, so I apologize for that.

Take the example of sin: I'm like the daggum foolish son that Soloman is speaking to in Proverbs. "STAY FRIGGIN' AWAY FROM THE FRIGGIN' HARLOT'S FRIGGIN' HOUSE. DON'T EVEN GO NEAR HER STREET, DON'T WALK BY IT."

The street isn't even that good when compared to the path God has set apart for me.

Advice

I have come to the conclusion throughout the last few months of my existence that I am a dispenser of great, Biblical and often wise advice, but I often either ignore the advice I have just dispensed, or I do something equally as foolish as that which I was trying to help people avoid through the advice I give.

So call me a fool. Seriously. Do it.

Gone Like Frank Sinatra

Except he's dead. I don't plan on dying tonight.

The deed is done. You are now reading the blog entry of an individual who is no longer in possession of a Facebook account.

It was amazing how hard Facebook tries to keep you on there. First, they list several friends who 'will miss you.' Congrats to Aubrey, Jeff, Miles, Josh and Kayla for being those friends. I thought that was legit, at least I didn't get the four or five people who I was friends with who I haven't actually met.

Then, they ask you to list the reason why you want to deactivate your account, and whenever you pick a choice, they have some link that would dissuade you from leaving if you followed it's instructions. Everything from "I spend too much time on here" to "I don't find Facebook useful." Ridiculous.

Then they have you give a longer explanation. I drilled them at this point. I hope the poor soul who is assigned my paragraph can feel the rancor in my words.

Finally, they require you to complete one of those safety check word twisted images, I guess to make sure you're not deactivating someone else's account. Whatever.

So now, I'm gone. We'll see if I can use this to my advantage.