st. augustine on "jersey shore"

I have a confession to make (pun partially intended)--I've watched an episode or four of that stupid show.  I watched it sort of condescendingly, mocking their stupidity but sometimes getting too involved.  I remember at one point actually feeling sorry for a character who got stood up on a date.  "I grieved with them," as St. Augustine would say.

People often think that trashy entertainment is a new phenomenon, when in reality it has likely existed since the beginning of man.  If art is a form of expression, vile art came into existence when the first vile person figured out how to expose his interior filth.  In Augustine's time, this sort of "art" and "entertainment" was substantially worse than it is nowadays, where it was enjoyable to watch two men fight to the death.  But the public of the 4th century also took great interest in filthy fiction, as they do today:

Stage plays also captivated me, with their sights full of the images of my own miseries: fuel for my own fire. . . .  But let us beware of uncleanness, O my soul, under the protection of my God, the God of our fathers, who is to be praised and exalted--let us beware of uncleanness. I have not yet ceased to have compassion. But in those days in the theaters I sympathized with lovers when they sinfully enjoyed one another, although this was done fictitiously in the play. And when they lost one another, I grieved with them, as if pitying them, and yet had delight in both grief and pity. Nowadays I feel much more pity for one who delights in his wickedness than for one who counts himself unfortunate because he fails to obtain some harmful pleasure or suffers the loss of some miserable felicity.  

--St. Augustine's Confessions (Book III, Chapter 4)

Let us beware of uncleanness.

selective tolerance

I am sick of all the inconsistent drivel being pushed in mainstream media lately.

Put simply, much of the mainstream media strongly endorses the ground zero mosque as a Constitutional right that must be upheld. Simultaneously, the media strongly condemns another person exercising a similar freedom under the same Constitution.  I'm talking about the crazy pastor from Florida who thought it would be a good idea to publicly burn a pile of Qu'ran's and thinks he will live to tell about it.

A clear example of this is Jon Stewart's position on the issues. ((http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-8-2010/weekend-at-burnies)) Tonight, Stewart implied that the two were comically unrelated. Of course he has to, or else he'd seem like an inconsistent fool. But the truth is there is no explanation as to why one action should be tolerated and one shouldn't. Since the Ground Zero Mosque was framed as a legal, Constitutional rights issue and sensitivity was thrown under the bus, why isn't the Qu'ran-burning story framed in the same way?

I suspect the reason they are framed differently is so that two different positions can be taken without being blatantly contradictory.

I am not here to say which is right and which is wrong. But you can't be selectively tolerant and still hold any credibility. Pick a philosophy, and stick with it, Stewart.

change in the air

fall is my favorite season. i think it's the change in the weather and my wardrobe that makes it feel more serious. the youthful, happy go lucky summer is past us and now it's time to get down to business.

a change is in the air. and not the obama kind.

nonconformity

at first
we start off innocent and pure
optimistic and good-hearted
expecting the best from all
understanding only good

then
we get mistreated, disappointed
we get cynical, bitter
we expect evil from others
purity becomes hard to find

and finally
if we're not careful
we become one of them

long-lasting

there's something special about consistency, quality, and durability. not just with things, but with men.

new perspective

you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ.

it is said that i am free. it is said that i have all. but why don't i feel this way? why am i not connected to this power source? why do i choose to fulfill my needs from other weaker sources?

i know, from my own personal experience, that God has so much to offer, more than i can even imagine. yet for some reason i turn away. i look at my past mistakes and i dwell on them more than is healthy. i blame myself for failures without considering that maybe God has a better plan. and He does, if i let Him.

people so concerned about networking. i know x, i know y. y is the head of z and supervises 100 people. he's my linkedin contact. i have 500+ contacts on that site. i'm connected.

what if i was connected to the maker? what if I had all the connections i needed by having just the right one? what if the answer was in that one connection, and i'm ignoring it for all the other ones?

keep it simple

God loves the simple. as complicated as everything around me is, God wants me to remain as simple and pure as possible. simple, clear, pure, unadulterated water is all i need to be...not the complex formulas that produce sugary and fake liquids.

a simple look back to how it used to be is all i need. simplicity, purity. it's so difficult when the whole world wants to inject its own venomous ideas into every little thing i do.

nothing is pure or simple here. everything is just overly complex by design, made to entrap you. casinos built like dark mazes, shopping malls built to isolate you and entrap you. credit cards and interest rates and loans made to suck you into the system with no chance of freedom. it's the way of the future...there is no way out...but love finds a way...

complexity is our new enemy. simplicity our only hope.

overcoming the world

John 16:33

overcoming the world is not ruling it, or being on top of the food chain, or survival of the fittest. overcoming the world is having that ability, and choosing to decline it. overcoming the world is being spit on, and choosing to take the high road rather than give him what's coming. overcoming the world is being tempted with everything the world has to offer but declining it all for eternity.

the most selfish thing you can do

Happiness = consume less, give more.


“The most selfish thing you can do is to help other people.”

content

I think few things make God happier than an attitude of resilient faith, hope, and joy, when all seems lost.

Perfect peace.

priorities and hypocrisies

You can tell a lot about a person by examining his priorities; it speaks a great deal if a man puts his own pleasure over the needs of others. The same goes with countries as a whole.

The Super Bowl ad controversy highlights the twisted priorities in this country. Click here for a very well-written article articulating the problem.

Most people who are against abortion are against it because they consider it murder. But I think the problem goes much deeper than (merely) taking a life. The death of the fetus is the fruit of the evil, but at its root it is not murder. The root of it is the backwardness our priorities as a people. We have placed our own pleasures--our sexual freedom--above that of another human life. We have placed sexual liberation beyond the reach of personal responsibility. At its core, it is selfishness and lack of personal accountability fueled by lustful passion and justified by "privacy" & "freedom".

The hypocrisy of the whole thing is even more enraging. A classic "bleeding heart liberal" makes it his life purpose to fight for the rights of the underprivileged and those without a voice. But for some reason, that heart doesn't bleed for unborn children--those who literally don't have a voice. The same liberal will fight strenuously with all passion for 1st Amendment free speech, yet when that speech is in disagreement with his ideals, it is "inappropriate" and "tasteless".

This isn't an issue of right v. left politics--this is an issue of our country's moral priorities, which every day seem to be giving in to selfish desires.

attacked for loosing chains

History has a way of repeating itself, changing only slightly so that the unwary won't notice.

In the book of Acts, we encounter a slave girl who makes a profit for her masters by fortune-telling. St. Paul runs into this demon-possessed slave girl and finds her constantly praising him. Annoyed, he orders the demon to leave her--a good thing, except she loses her fortune-telling ability. The masters, realizing that their profits were vanishing, take the missionaries to the authorities. They basically accuse St. Paul and Silas of teaching "customs which are not lawful", a totally irrelevant attack. The masters pretend like they actually care about the unlawful customs, when in reality they're just upset that they're losing profits.

I couldn't help but think of corporate America when I read this today. Almost every successful corporation uses the power of the media in an attempt to enslave us to something--a product, an image, our own desires. As long as we become enslaved to something, we generate profits. We have value. As soon as we break free from our materialistic slavery, our profit-producing value ceases. When God steps in to break us free, He gets attacked--for totally irrelevant reasons.

It's interesting to note how the masters turn to the law to justify their anger at St. Paul and Silas. Yet it's painfully obvious that they couldn't care less about the law. The only reason they use the law as an argument against the apostles is because it's the only way they could justify being angry at such a good thing--a girl freed from slavery to her demons. They use the law not because they believe it is moral or just, but because it temporarily aligns with their own corrupt motives.

Isn't it amazing (and sad) how relevant this is today?

sit down

An interesting command to a hungry crowd of people:

Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish." So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

Before we can be fed by the word of the Lord, we need to obey, sit down at His feet, and be fed.

water, wine, and obedience

When Jesus turned the water into wine, he showed the world that he can make something flavorful out of something tasteless--something from nothing. The water with no taste can be turned into wine--not just mediocre wine served at the end of the feast, but the good stuff.

There's just one catch--before we can let Him transform us into the good wine, we must do what His mother told the servants at the wedding:

"Whatever He says to you, do it."

If only we could hear that "still, small voice" once again...

concealment

One of the oldest questions for those struggling to believe in God is why God concealed Himself. If so many people are questioning God's very existence, why doesn't God simply reveal himself manifestly to everyone, so that no question remains?

I was thinking about this, and then I thought of this quote:

"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."

I am by no means going to answer my initial question definitively, but perhaps one reason God chooses to conceal himself is to truly test our character. If we had the feeling that someone is constantly watching our shoulder, perhaps we wouldn't do some of the things we choose to do (this applies to believing Christians as well). And we know that love forced is no love at all...