Confessions of a Geek

DISCLAIMER: If you came looking for something to encourage you on your faith journey, this post probably won't be it. If you came looking for someone to laugh it, this is your lucky day. I'm taking a break from the usual today in order to love life.

Last night, I confirmed to myself what I have known all along. I AM A GEEK! My wife gave me two of the coolest toys ever. The first was a Darth Tater (Mr. Potato Head dressed as Darth Vader). The second was a Jedi light sabre training game. It has a little camera/sensor you mount on top of the tv and a play sabre you hold while fighting bad guys and going thru training exercises on the screen. I waited all day Christmas to get a chance to play it while my kids played with their new video game or I set up all their other toys. Honestly, I was hoping to get them involved in something else so I wouldn't have to share.

I finally got to play. And I did terrible. Couldn't get past stage 1 of my training. To add insult to injury, I finally let my oldest son play and he cruised right along to stage 2. Then I let my six-year old play and it was really quite funny to watch him jump all over the living room. BUT, he too cruised right along to stage 2. Humility is too mild a word to describe what I was feeling. This must be how it feels when you realize your teenage son could kick your butt in a fight and he knows it too. He just doesn't out of respect.

I resisted the urge to play. I nursed my ego all evening. "I think I need to recalibrate the settings for my player" was my excuse. I finally gave in. Once the boys were in bed and asleep, I gave it one more try. For the record, recalibration actually helped. I finished the evening just a hair's breadth from completing stage two. I can now proudly say I am once again better than my 8 1/2 year old and my 6 year old sons. If only my father could see me now.

But that's not what makes me a geek. As I was playing, I found myself speaking to myself as if Master Yoda was coaching me. At one point, I found myself slipping into scenes from the movies. Before I realized what was happening, I was fighting with the light sabre in my right hand while holding up my left, using the force to knock back my enemies. During this display of geekness, my wife sat on the couch, watching, wishing she was video taping the whole affair, and generally making fun of me. That's ok. She can laugh if she wants to. She'll thank me the next time we are attacked by battle drones or some punk gang of Sith wannabe's.

BTW, my kids wanted to watch Episode I the other night. That gave me an excuse to watch the other five when we were done. I managed to get II & III in over the weekend. Maybe I can get Episode IV in tonight.

Gotta go now. I have a training date with Anakin.

A Christmas Wish

Merry Christmas!

May it be filled with the joy, life, light, hope, peace, and love it was intended to bring.

And I hope your faith journey take you places like that everyday :-)

Survivor Part 2 - Beauty that lasts

Ok, here's my second set of thoughts from watching the Survivor finale Sunday night. Imagine how you would look if you spent 39 days on a remote island or in a remote jungle without any basic facilities like showers, running water in general, toilets, etc. Well, that's how these people look too. My wife is so glad we don't have smell-o-vision yet.

WARNING: The next paragraph or two may come off as chauvinistic, sexist, and just plain ol' male drivel. However, read through it and you will see a wonderful recovery at the end.

Every season there are one or two women on the show who try to use their feminine charms to get them through the game. They are usually quite attractive in every sense of the word. The other women often recognize this. The males usually do too, but only if they are over the age of thirty and know they really don't stand a chance with these women. BTW, the attractive women usually target the under thirty set anyway.

Now for the recovery. Remember the fact that there are no facilities of any type. That includes make-up. I am always amazed at how different most of the women look on the finale show. They have had showers, done their hair, and put on make-up. The guys usually don't look much different with the exception of maybe a shave. And almost always, we (the missus and I) agree that we liked the physical appearance of the women on the island/jungle better. It's not that they are not attractive with make-up and done hair, you just get used to how someone looks and that's how you like them.

OK, maybe that not's a recovery in your mind, but I know I'm no chauvinist. Just ask my wife. She'll tell you that I find her the most attractive when she feels she is at her worst.

Faith journey connections - where are they? The real rewards of a faith journey come when you are in the trenches, getting dirty, struggling with life, and when you generally feel like you are at your least attractive, at least in terms of your faith journey. When you come out of those struggles with new understanding, that "natural beauty" shines through and people take notice. When we put on our best face and pretend this is how we always are, it may look good, but it doesn't last. I prefer natural, honest beauty (and faith).

Just a Thought.

Statistics, Schmatistics

Did you hear the good news today? According to a recent study, 95% of all people have engaged in premarital sex. This includes women. Glad to hear that, who else would all those men been engaging with? It also includes people going back to the 1940's. The whole point of the story was to say that we as a society have not been as chaste historically at we would like to believe. It is also being used as "evidence" to discredit abstinence only education.

I don't know what to think of this. Ninety-five percent sounds pretty high. Is this an agenda driven report? Most likely so. But if it's true, if it's accurate, now what? My first thought is this - If a gazillion people do a stupid thing it's still a stupid thing. Having premarital sex is not a stupid thing, but I do think it is an unwise thing. Just because everyone else MIGHT be doing it doesn't mean you have to.

On a deeper level, the debate about all things related to Christian morality will rage for a few days before drifting off into irrelevancy, waiting for the next heat-of-the-moment piece of fuel. People will try to determine what was meant by "premarital sex" and how far is too far before you cross that line. High schoolers, college-aged, and young adults will be the most common participants in this discussion. There will even be the "what about engaged couples" debate. I know this will happen because I used to take part in every one of them when I was a high schooler, college-aged, young adult, and engaged person. The church will shake its head, wring its hands, and cry out in despair and frustration at the declining mores of society and general loss of its young people.

OR, the debates will take place. High schoolers, college students, young adults, and engaged couples will ask the questions. And those of us on a faith journey will answer with this question - What is the place of sex on your faith journey? That's really what's it all about. It's not about looking for loopholes, special permission, or adjusting the meaning to fit cultural dynamics. You can say the same about gambling, slavery, abortion, drinking, smoking, divorce, racism, wealth, greed, war, poverty . . . any issue you would like.

Where do we find the answers? You find them in community with other people on a faith journey. That's not what you thought I was going to say is it? You know, 95% of people asked would have said "the Bible."

When you gather your community around you to determine what place _______ has on a faith journey, make sure your community is made up of people actually on a faith journey. You can't just assemble the people around you who will tell you what you want to hear. If your community is a faith journey community, you will get your answer. The answer will come from their experience, the traditional perspective on the issue, their reasoning, and yes, even the Bible. I don't want you to "go to the Bible" by yourself because a committee of one is pretty easy to convince.

The really cool part of finding answers in community like this is that God, the author of all faith journeys, is usually right in the midst, guiding this part of everyone's journey. He really is one you want to please anyway, isn't it? Isn't a faith journey supposed to lead you to Him?

By the way, 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999 % of the world's population won't care how you answer the question. But there is One who always will.

Survivor Part 1 - Power, Bitterness, & Games

One of my favorite shows to watch is Survivor. I don't watch a lot of tv, but this one show I will not miss. We tape it every week. In fact, it's a date for the missus and me. We can count on the other person stopping so we can watch it together.

I'm writing while watching the finale. Before I finish writing, the winner will be named and someone will win $1 million. (BTW, it was Yul, the tall Korean?? guy) One thing I always find ridiculous in watching the finale is how bitter the losers, uh . . er. . .I mean the jury is. There is always a group of people who were outwitted, outplayed, just plain outsmarted that cry like a bunch of babies. They inevitably ask the final players questions that demonstrate that they, the jury, now have the power.

The premise of the game is to outwit, outsmart, outplay your competitors. I'm not condoning dishonesty or weak ethics in life, but the bottom line is THIS IS A GAME! I'm willing to bet my 401K that those who are the most bitter would have done the same things had they been given the opportunity. They never got the chance because they did not play as well.

This is a blog about finding connections in what happens in our ordinary lives to what God wants to do in our lives. It's all about our faith journeys. On our faith journeys, there will be a lot of times where we are in the losers seat. Life will not be fair. People around you will take advantage of you and they will use you.

When this happens, we get to choose how we will respond. We don't have to like it, but bitterness is not the answer. Power has nothing to do with how you control others or how you have been controlled. Power can only be used against us when we give it to others. Our response is the real indicator.

What's any of this got to do with our faith journeys? Jesus, whose birth we celebrate this month, modeled real power. Jesus, the son of God, gave it all up to take on human form. Not only did he take on human form, but he obeyed the limits of that form, even unto death. Death couldn't hold him, which is why we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, commonly called Easter. And in the end, his name was made greatest of all. That is real power.

We too can experience that kind of power by entering into a faith journey and losing our self in Christ. Life's experiences will bring moment of potential bitterness. It helps to know that we are on a journey and this is not our final destination. Besides, we are told to count it all joy when trials and troubles come our way. Just like on Survivor, it's how you play right up to the end that determines whether or not you win. Only the prize is worth a lot more than $1 million.

Putting it all on the line

Humility has been my watch word and song this week. There are lots of reasons why, but I'm only going to tell you about one. I joined an online writers group this week. If you've read my profile, you know I aspire to publish a speculative fiction novel one day. BTW, "speculative fiction" is a new term I've picked up in the last few weeks. It is essentially sci-fi/fantasy, but that's not important, at least not here, not today.

On this online forum I've joined, aspiring writers can submit the first 13 lines of their work to receive feedback by folks who at least sound like they know what they are talking about. I spent the first week reading all the other stuff that had been submitted and their critiques. Boy, was I intimidated. I could see the reasoning behind every criticism and suggestion AFTER I read every criticism and suggestion. When I compared these submissions to my own work I thought, "I'll never get published."

I swallowed my pride and my nerves this morning and submitted my first thirteen lines. I received two immediate feedbacks, one not so nice. I wonder if I will ever make it. I submitted a revision and am waiting for the wrath to come.

This whole process is a lot like a faith journey. No really, it is. Most of us want to be something greater and we sincerely try. In private, where nobody knows. If we put it all out there where others can see and evaluate it, somebody's gonna eventually give us some corrective and instructive feedback. We don't always want to hear it. Sometimes we become so defeated after receiving it that we stop altogether.

We should see those opportunities as growth opportunities. We should be thankful that someone is willing to help push us along on our faith journeys. We should never give up, retreat, or just hide. That's not a journey - that's a bus stop. Does it require humility? Yes. Does it bring great reward? Yes. Is it worth it? You know the answer.

slowing down

Life happened this weekend, so it kept me from posting on Monday. Today, I've got so many things floating thru my mind that I dug into the archives of some unposted thoughts, looking for something I could post. Here's an unposted and edited thought from a couple months ago that seems appropriate right now.

I'm noticed something about myself lately. I'm slowing down more often. Not just when I'm unwinding, but in general. On the road between home and the office, the speed limit is 55 mph. But I regularly only drive about 45, rarely ever above 50. It becomes really obvious when the cars begin to line up behind me, right on my bumper, edging across the yellow line and looking for a chance to pass me. Luckily it's only four miles because the folks behind me are not all equally patient.

My taste in music seems to be changing. I still enjoy rock & roll with hard driving guitars, urban contemporary with a good bass line, and the occassional feel good pop song. I find myself gravitating towards things a little softer and more on the "easy listening" side. When I do get a chance to sample the latest rock, pop, or R&B, I found myself struggling to make out some of the lyrics. Maybe it's the ear-piercing volume at which I used to enjoy my music that now makes it difficult to hear the lyrics properly. I recently read where someone is marketing higher pitch ringtones to teens because adult ears do not hear them as well.

As I made my 47 mph drive home while listening to the soft easy rhythms of my music, I had a horrifying thought. "I"m getting OLD!!!" I don't mind the benefits of age like increased wisdom. I have even welcomed my gray hair because people tend to take to you more seriously with a little gray. I just don't want to become one of those people I always made fun of.

But I do want to slow down. In fact, my family already has several important changes planned for 2007 to assist in that. And I fully expect them to work. We're looking forward to more time together and a recapturing of the higher ideals we have for our family.

Other parts of my life I want to speed up - like the growth of my IRA's. ;-) Or the good fruit from the things I do. I look at the faith journeys of those around me and for those whose lives in which I have some influence, I look forward to seeing some parts of their journeys speeding up. Well, maybe not speeding up, just moving along at a good pace. I know that if I slow down and really evaluate what's important, I will see others speed up because of how it changes our interactions together. I'm sure I will focus more on what's really important in our relationships. I'm sure it will increase the amount of grace that operates between us. That sounds like a good thing.

I guess life in the slow lane isn't so bad. Just a thought.

Remember when . .

Words will always come back to find us. Hopefully we say enough good things in our lives that those things we wish had never said won't find their way back home as often. This morning, I was searching through some old files looking for something to spark a blog entry. I came across an article I put in a church newsletter a couple of years ago. I remember writing that column, hoping to provide some encouragement, cast a little vision, and stir up some positive change for the people in the church. When the year ended, things were worse than when it began.

I've reread that particular article several times in the years since first writing it. Every time my thoughts were, "How could I have been so wrong?" or "I guess that didn't work." As I read that same column this morning, I was filled with hope and satisfaction. Why? Because wonderful things are happening at that church. I keep hearing stories about all the great things occurring there. All the things I had hoped that article would spur are taking place.

I'm not saying I deserve credit for this wonderful change that's taking place. I'm just saying it's nice to see some of it happening. That newsletter article wasn't the only time I referenced some of those ideas. I had a lot of one-on-one conversations with people about those ideas in the months after that. Whether those changes are the fruit of some seed I planted I don't really know. But I'd like to think they are.

This week, look at your faith journey. Think back and remember when someone said something to you, or did something for you and over time it had a positive impact on you. How can you do the same thing for someone else in your life? What can you continually say and do that will positively affect the faith journey of someone else so that one day they will say, "Remember when you said . . . "

I hope that one day, your words come back to find you. And I hope your pleased with what they did while they were gone. Just a thought.