New Fresh Finally

I want to be excited about God and life-ishness. I say that “ishness” part because if I said "life" I feel like I would be making reference to like fifty things when what I mean is maybe only one or two things. These being something like the parts of existence that perpetuate good, beauty, health, positive living. Okay that was four things. I want to be excited because I know so strongly and truly that the Creator that Abraham believed in is so much greater than what I know, the rules I hold to. Culturally people are afraid of many things but few as great as death. And religious figures and gods of sorts promise many things but none that I know of promise freedom from this fear, not only freedom from the fear but from the thing itself. I want to be excited to the remarkable, daring level that things such as suffering and pain do not rend it asunder, to put it poetically.

So I have been watching a show called The Woodwright’s Shop. I like it. A man by the interesting name of Roy Underhill is the main person behind it. He has a great number of uncommon hand tools. He also has many unheard of devices that have been beautifully invented to aid in very specific wood working tasks. One such tool is meant to cut square or any other shaped holes in wood. I think that many of these items were created in the early days of manufacturing and rejected for something that did the work faster. I like these old remnants. I think that they are beautiful. Sometimes it seems that cultures reject beautiful things for cheap, convenient, quick, disposable things. That is not an anti-technology statement it is a pro-beauty in the everyday statement.

Well I sincerely appreciate anyone who is reading this. I means that after so many silent days you still checked back here to see if there was anything new. Thank you. I overwhelmingly appreciate one such reader, my wife. Thank You.

Loving with Your Pocketbook

I came here all ready to talk about the problems of loving through buying people things. As I have begun to think about it more I realize I must understand that the problems that I was about to lay out are from buying in excess rather than balance.
The specific case that started my musing is people who seem to only be able to show love by buying things. In this case, so many things are purchased that it is not longer enjoyable. What often comes with the excess of items, is a pressure to keep the items out of fear of offending the one who gave it. (As I side, I think that one of the ways that I would most want someone to show love for me is to seek the kingdom of heaven.)
What made me reassess my negative feelings was the thought that maybe people in general should show love to neighbors and strangers more through buying things.

Loving with Your Pocketbook

I came here all ready to talk about the problems of loving through buying people things. As I have begun to think about it more I realize I must understand that the problems that I was about to lay out are from buying in excess rather than balance.
The specific case that started my musing is people who seem to only be able to show love by buying things. In this case, so many things are purchased that it is not longer enjoyable. What often comes with the excess of items, is a pressure to keep the items out of fear of offending the one who gave it. (As I side, I think that one of the ways that I would most want someone to show love for me is to seek the kingdom of heaven.)
What made me reassess my negative feelings was the thought that maybe people in general should show love to neighbors and strangers more through buying things.

I had a thought

I had a thought while I was reading Psalm 121. It says "the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." I was wondering why some one would be afraid of the sun or moon harming them. I can see that the sun may give you skin cancer but what could the moon do? I don't know why this Psalm says this.

I was thinking, however, that perhaps people were afraid of sun or moon gods that their neighbors believed in. Well, it gave me the idea that I should not be afraid of other people's gods. The things that people devote themselves to, "gods", that often I am afraid of are success, prestige or being someone, the ability to have physical needs met. I know that people in the culture around me "worship these gods". I get afraid that I need to submit to these things as they do to have a "good life".

I wonder if this is not almost an exact correlation to the ancient nation of Israel. Israel was surrounded by people who worshiped other gods. If I am correct, these gods were meant to ensure life-things: being successful, health, the meeting of physical needs. I can imagine that it would be easy to feel pressure to also worship these gods. No wonder God was like, worship only me. Maybe it wasn't just a jealousy thing but maybe God was trying to save Israel from extra work and stress of worship all of the gods, because He was all they needed. Not to mention that the other gods could not do anything.

Dude, I need, really need to stop being afraid of the false gods of the people around me. I need to stop feeling pressure to devote myself to anything other than God.

Authority

I heard an argument in high school. It said that however many billions of people believe that buddha is god. How can multiple billions of people be wrong? I think that the point where this argument has traction is the idea that we all feel, see, and sense relatively the same things, how is it that we don’t all agree? I can seem to make sense that the majority must be right.

The problem with this argument is that it assumes that the only way that people come to believe something is by experience and reason. The truth is that people come to believe in things like buddha by authority also. In many cases large amounts of people believe in something almost entirely on authority and only a little bit on experience and reason. Some may have an experience and then have a set of beliefs that are based on the authority of the one experience, i. e. an epiphany.

A good example of how much people act based on authority is tradition. The trends of history have very strong holds on peoples beliefs and actions. Billions of people could be believing based on part tradition, part experience, and part peer influence.

Appeal of the Unknown

I do know that often the unknown is scary for people. But I was thinking about how the unknown is sometimes used to make something seem amazing. I first thought about this when I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia. C. S. Lewis is very talented at making things seem amazing. He describes the inside of the earth and tells of living jewels. He doesn’t describe in great detail all about the living jewels. He creates the idea of it. If I try to tell someone else about it I can’t make it sound as cool. I think this is because what is cool is unknown. This is why the Narnia movies weren’t that cool. Take Aslan for example, C. S. Lewis can say something like, “Aslan was as big as small elephant, and his mane was like gold with light flowing from it.” But when a person tries to pin down the unknown of what that looks like it will always diminish.

Another example is an anime called Rurouni Kenshin. The main character is a swordsmen. The story doesn’t introduce him as an amazing character. He is a humble wanderer. But everyone knows that he is a legendary fighter that no one can beat. The story doesn’t give much information about his past except in glimpses. The unknown aspect makes it so enticing. I find that my imagination spins a much more exciting tale than the story portrays.

The First

I was reading about the book of Genesis. The part that I was reading talked about how Cain murdered and then was afraid of being murdered. He acted wrongly toward one but wanted protection against being treated as he had treated another.

So he was fearing something that he started. I was trying to think of something that I had started that I was then afraid of. I imagined being a kid and doing something out of impulse and then being afraid because I didn’t know what I was doing. Once a kid was yelling in my ear. I wanted him to stop and I was angry that he did that. I punched him in the stomach. I just meant to do it lightly, as a warning. But he started crying. It made me scared. We were in fifth grade. Sometime in high school the kid brought it up. I totally didn’t know that I would start something so big. I wonder if Cain had a notion of what was going to happen.

Also think about how he was the first murderer. If no one had been killed or died yet, I don’t think that I would know what it was. He knew that dying existed but did he know what it would look like and how much violence it would require? Did he say to himself I am going to kill him? If not, it shows how much tangible evil can come from some seemingly small evil impulses.