I had a chance to hear Scott Hahn speak this weekend. I'm not entirely sure how to describe the experience, but here's a scattering of thoughts I've had.
Christianese: I've often been reminded - either in teachings or by blank stares - how Christians have their own vocabulary. Frighteningly, Christians sometimes don't even know what their words mean. It's like a physics major saying "Clearly derivative of acceleration with respect to time is velocity" and then drawing a blank when asked what velocity is. This weekend, I definitely walked with a list of vocabulary to figure out. It's my fault for showing up at an event intended for the Catholic faithful, but I was surprised at how different the vocabulary was.
The Presence (experience) of God: After about four and a half hours of lecture, I finally realized that the way Scott Hahn talks about the experience of the presence of God in the Eucharist is paralleled in the way I perceive the dwelling of the Holy Spirit inside of Christians: He is God inside us. There is so much depth and amazement in that simple statement, the idea of a holy being choosing to dwell inside of me. < /mystic > Perhaps because of that viewpoint, or perhaps because of something else, I just don't get the emphasis on the Eucharist. The focal point seems foreign and unnecessary. I suspect there's a underlying views that I'm just missing.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Honestly Now...
For those of you who like links, here a few...
- A few neat thoughts on Damaged Goods.
- A lighthearted paraphrase of Leviticus for modern dinner manners (found via Ochuk).
- A nifty way of dealing with the Greek Bible text, or at least the best I've found so far (thanks Dan).
Meanwhile, I've been thinking about my voting preferences and honesty.
Honesty? Well, that was this week's sermon.
Voting preference? I've been pondering variants of this problem...
Candidate A is a typical politician who moderately supports my important views on key issues (e.g. budget policy, abortion, Iraq). Candidate B is a politician who openly disagrees with many of my core issues, but has an unusual reputation for honesty. He outlines significant policy changes he wants to make on these issues, but also promises limit his reforms to these proposals and not pursue more radical changes.
Given the deciding vote, who do I vote for?
It's a challenging question, because of how it distills the challenge of honesty: Do I prefer a leader who says he agrees with me but leads who-knows-where, or one who openly leads toward a known outcome that I disagree with?
Or put another way, how much do I value honesty in leaders who don't agree with me? Am I willing to vote for them? If not, do I those who disagree with me politically to have the character to do so? If neither I nor my opponents will, then we're stuck in the current cycle of distrust and anger. I've effectively said that my positions are more important than trustworthiness, and that until I can assure that my positions will be represented, I won't vote on issues of character.
And if I won't vote on issues of character, why do I expect leaders with character to be elected?
- A few neat thoughts on Damaged Goods.
- A lighthearted paraphrase of Leviticus for modern dinner manners (found via Ochuk).
- A nifty way of dealing with the Greek Bible text, or at least the best I've found so far (thanks Dan).
Meanwhile, I've been thinking about my voting preferences and honesty.
Honesty? Well, that was this week's sermon.
Voting preference? I've been pondering variants of this problem...
Candidate A is a typical politician who moderately supports my important views on key issues (e.g. budget policy, abortion, Iraq). Candidate B is a politician who openly disagrees with many of my core issues, but has an unusual reputation for honesty. He outlines significant policy changes he wants to make on these issues, but also promises limit his reforms to these proposals and not pursue more radical changes.
Given the deciding vote, who do I vote for?
It's a challenging question, because of how it distills the challenge of honesty: Do I prefer a leader who says he agrees with me but leads who-knows-where, or one who openly leads toward a known outcome that I disagree with?
Or put another way, how much do I value honesty in leaders who don't agree with me? Am I willing to vote for them? If not, do I those who disagree with me politically to have the character to do so? If neither I nor my opponents will, then we're stuck in the current cycle of distrust and anger. I've effectively said that my positions are more important than trustworthiness, and that until I can assure that my positions will be represented, I won't vote on issues of character.
And if I won't vote on issues of character, why do I expect leaders with character to be elected?
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Sowing and Reaping
Recently I was helping a friend's daughter learn GIMP (aka almost Photoshop). I feel old since film photography is foreign to her. The topic came up because I was trying to explain why darkening and lightening tools were called 'burn' and 'dodge'. Anyway, the moment along with some other interactions has me thinking about this:
On the other hand, I remember my dad constantly teaching me "Go after the ball" in soccer. When I played soccer as a child, we often had balls in the middle of nowhere with me and someone from the other team running after the ball. Usually it was clear who would get to the ball first. The temptation is for whoever is going to be second to the ball to just give up and let the first player have it. But that's lousy game strategy.
First, sometimes the first player slacks and doesn't run fast enough, so if the second player is going after the ball hard enough, sometimes he'll get there first. Secondly, the first player has to make a faster decision when he gets to the ball if someone else is going to challenge him for it. It's harder to make a smart decision quickly under pressure. When one doesn't put the pressure on, the player can leisurely survey the field and make a solid pass. With pressure, mistakes happen, or at least sub-optimal plays.
Hustle pays dividends in life too. Not always, but often. And it's hard to learn hustle as young professional. It's a little scary to me that if my dad hadn't taught me when I was young, learning it now might be very, very challenging. I've been wondering how many other life skills I learned from my parents that I'm not even aware of...and how many life skills others are trying to learn now that I take for granted.
Sow an act...reap a habit;More, I've been thinking about how appreciative I am (or at least ought to be) of so many of the habits my parents imparted to me. It's hard to make a choice in a radically different way than the way I've made the last hundred choices. In fact, it's scary how often my choices are self-reinforcing. I don't like calling strangers, so I avoid tasks which require to me call strangers, so I tend to be stiff and nervous on the few times I do call strangers, which reinforces that I don't like calling strangers.
Sow a habit...reap a character;
Sow a character...reap a destiny.
-- George Dana Boardman
On the other hand, I remember my dad constantly teaching me "Go after the ball" in soccer. When I played soccer as a child, we often had balls in the middle of nowhere with me and someone from the other team running after the ball. Usually it was clear who would get to the ball first. The temptation is for whoever is going to be second to the ball to just give up and let the first player have it. But that's lousy game strategy.
First, sometimes the first player slacks and doesn't run fast enough, so if the second player is going after the ball hard enough, sometimes he'll get there first. Secondly, the first player has to make a faster decision when he gets to the ball if someone else is going to challenge him for it. It's harder to make a smart decision quickly under pressure. When one doesn't put the pressure on, the player can leisurely survey the field and make a solid pass. With pressure, mistakes happen, or at least sub-optimal plays.
Hustle pays dividends in life too. Not always, but often. And it's hard to learn hustle as young professional. It's a little scary to me that if my dad hadn't taught me when I was young, learning it now might be very, very challenging. I've been wondering how many other life skills I learned from my parents that I'm not even aware of...and how many life skills others are trying to learn now that I take for granted.
Friday, February 02, 2007
8 Hours
Story time. And a little bit of philosophizing about character decay over time.
A friend of mine (okay, several friends of mine) is looking for a new job. It's gotten me thinking about a couple summers I spent in Florida as part of a leadership training program. The program was 10 weeks. We worked during the day (~40 hours / wk) and spent 4 or 5 evenings a week at various church or training activities. The program fees were like $1500 (including room board and food budget), so it was possible to make a small profit over the summer, especially if kind souls helped with the program fees.
Of course, not all of us were lucky enough to have jobs awaiting us when we arrived in Florida. For us, the training program helped us out by giving us a job: Looking for a job, eight hours a day. Lately I've been reflecting on the days I spent looking for a job that summer. I'm still amazed at how many resumes, phone calls, and applications (picked up, filled out, and delivered) can be done over eight hours.
I'm not sure I've ever been that dedicated to a job search since then. I've also been wondering whether or not I'd put that much effort into the search if I lost my job tomorrow - I don't know if I have the self-control for that, or the humility to let my friends nag me over that goal. Alright, who am I kidding, my friends will harass me anyway; I might as well let it be productive for me.
A friend of mine (okay, several friends of mine) is looking for a new job. It's gotten me thinking about a couple summers I spent in Florida as part of a leadership training program. The program was 10 weeks. We worked during the day (~40 hours / wk) and spent 4 or 5 evenings a week at various church or training activities. The program fees were like $1500 (including room board and food budget), so it was possible to make a small profit over the summer, especially if kind souls helped with the program fees.
Of course, not all of us were lucky enough to have jobs awaiting us when we arrived in Florida. For us, the training program helped us out by giving us a job: Looking for a job, eight hours a day. Lately I've been reflecting on the days I spent looking for a job that summer. I'm still amazed at how many resumes, phone calls, and applications (picked up, filled out, and delivered) can be done over eight hours.
I'm not sure I've ever been that dedicated to a job search since then. I've also been wondering whether or not I'd put that much effort into the search if I lost my job tomorrow - I don't know if I have the self-control for that, or the humility to let my friends nag me over that goal. Alright, who am I kidding, my friends will harass me anyway; I might as well let it be productive for me.
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