Monday, March 24, 2008

Spontenaity

I have a fear that if I plan and schedule my life and my activities, I will become a captive to my schedule and continually be bound against my will by my own doing. The theory being that I am happiest when I am doing the thing that at that moment I am most inclined to do, and therefore that the best course of action is to avoid planning at all costs, living each moment by my greatest inclination. This theory I have found experientially, intellectually, and scripturally to be foolishness, yet I find myself clinging to it with my fingernails and teeth, while true happiness, effectiveness, and productivity drift by unachieved. The happiness and joy that come from discipline: from denying myself the whim of the moment when it is in conflict with my deliberate and considered intent, is the result of the training of my instantaneous desires. If I wish to be able to desire what it is that I know that I want to do, then I must first put my other, short-sighted desires to death. I must not fulfill any momentary whim except that which is in line with my goals. If I do this, no longer will my desires grow up in contradiction to my goals. My actions will not be a wild patch of brambles, producing bird-eaten berries here and there, but a cultivated field, producing row upon row of fruitful delight. Oh, that I would walk in this manner with regard to time management, finances, Bible study and prayer, to meeting the needs of my friends and family! How delightful it would be to excel at these things! I would be a fool to believe that I would not think the tasks worth doing; that I would not find joy in them. And yet that is my fear. I pray that it may be so. That I would not look in the mirror, and the next moment forget what it is that I saw. Only by walking in the Spirit can I put to death the deeds of the flesh. I pride myself in self-reliance, but that pride must give way to the humble realization that of myself I can do nothing: it is only through Christ: through my connection to the True Vine; only as I yield to His Spirit who lives within me, that I can do what I really want to do.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Here's my game-specific friend code: 4081-5381-9862 Here's my console friend code: 7223-6170-5929-0831 What are yours?

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Etymology Rant

I'm sick of seeing the term "Peace Offering" used to mean a gift given in order to placate. Peace offerings are given in celebration of an existing peace. On a related note, Best Buy is making a $10 million Guilt offering to customers who bought HD DVD players from them before Toshiba's format-war-ending announcement in the form of $50 gift cards.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Two Sermons

A while ago, I gave a talk on the Passover as a God's love letter to sinners. You can find my notes here (or here to download in a zip file). The JPEG images are scans of each page. I include them because my notes were more than what I typed up: they include some pictures that I looked up on the Internet to illustrate some concepts, and pages from an online concordance. I also underlined a few things and made other miscellaneous notes and scribbles. More recently, I gave another talk about Christians and government. You can find my notes here. I would appreciate your comments.