godwho's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twins Last night, I was watching "Real Estate Confidential" while I worked out. It was crazy. These people needed to move from a condo to a house because they were getting ready to have a kid. They had found a house they liked well under their budget, but when they were shown a much larger house that barely squeaked in under the budget, they forgot all about the perfectly fine house they'd liked twenty minutes previously and signed a purchase agreement on the second property, not entirely sure exactly how much it was going to cost after they added some upgrades they wanted. In the end, they were a little under budget structurally so they were able to spend a proscribed amount at the design studio. The tally ended up being ten thousand dollars above what they'd budgeted, but in the end the Realtor talked them into keeping what they'd picked. The segment closed with her saying, "I'm so glad they went ahead and stretched a little with their budget, because they really deserve a nice house." If I hadn't been exhausted from the exercise, I'm pretty sure it would have made me physically ill. That got me to thinking about how indulgent we are with ourselves, how selfish and unable to tell ourselves "no" or recognize that someone or something else might be more important than our immediate perceived needs and wants. The sad part is that, in this respect, Christians don't look any different from the rest of society. And we should. Christians like to pick their "hot button" sins like abortion and homosexuality. On those items, we'll picket, lobby congress, say hateful and ungodly things to people we haven't bothered to get to know or love. But when it comes to being "sanctified," which is just a fancy word for setting ourselves apart for God's use, we... aren't. There is a Christian radio station near us that is not listener-supported. Consequently, they have advertising, and lots of it. According to their website, among their advertisers are: eHarmony, Manufacturers Auto Leasing, and Highland Park Plastic Surgery. When I'm in the car and one of the plastic surgery commercials come on, I cringe and change it before my child can hear anything and become tainted. Usually it's a woman saying something like, "I just wasn't feeling good about how I looked at all, and Dr. Sharpknife changed my life." Now, I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't have elective cosmetic surgery, I'm just... well, I'm almost saying that. If one has been burned or disfigured in an accident, I can understand "fixing" a few things. But, for the most part, I think we have better things to worry about than the fact that our (okay, my) boobs are nearly on a horizontal plane with our belly buttons. "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." They don't mention that in the commercials. "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." My advice is that if you are a Christian woman who has a few thousand dollars and feel like crap about yourself, go on a mission trip to India and see how you feel when you get back. And I realize Christians who are single might want to marry; but the eHarmony commercials preach the false gospel that if you can just find someone compatible enough with you, it's all going to be good. Marriage is about commitment and responsibility a lot more than it is about romance and commonality. That's not a romantic notion, but it's true. God is the only one who can fulfill a person's every need, and creating dissatisfaction with the blessing of a season of singleness is counter-productive to letting God do what he wants to do with someone before they find "an everlasting love." Then the leasing commercial I heard most recently starts with, "Okay, let's get this straight: You're going to pay me $30,000 for a new car, you're going to drive it around for five or six years, and when you bring it back, I'm going to pay you $3000 for it. And that's a good deal?" I cannot even tell you what I yelled at my dash board after that one. Why spend $30k on a vehicle when you can get one for $12k? Why drive it for five years when most cars today will last a couple of decades? It's assumed that everyone is getting an upper-end sedan or SUV, and that we have to have new new every time we turn around. Maybe that's what most people do. But is it good stewardship? And is it any better stewardship of our resources to have perpetual car payments (even if the lease payments ARE "50% lower" than the standard loan repays) just for the sake of obtaining a shiny thing every three years? Just because Joe Boss or whoever does that, why do Christians follow the herd? There are SO many things we just do by auto-pilot, so that we look like everyone else except for the fact that everyone else isn't standing out in front of Planned Parenthood with a pornographic picture of a bloody baby. We treat marriage with the same laxity as the majority of society. We treat kids like a liability the same. We assume we "deserve" retirement like everyone else does. We are not a "holy priesthood." We're completely alike in every way, except that we're not tolerant to a select few very overt things that I'm guessing looking at makes us feel a lot better about ourselves and our own shortcomings. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" 9:32 a.m. - 2007-09-05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *sigh* This from a "Christian" legal action website: "...out of New Jersey. I will post more information about this outrage later in the week. Needless to say, when the information first came to my attention I was outraged, as I am sure you will be as well. It appears that in Burlington Township in New Jersey, the School District conducted a mock hostage taking. Taking precautions over school violence is certainly important. However, this particular school district decided that in their mock hostage taking, the group that engaged in the activity was right-wing religious fundamentalists. In fact, allegedly the group came in and took students hostage because one of the members of the organization's daughter was suspended for praying before the school day. "No other group in America would tolerate this kind of hostility. The School District's mock hostage taking program targeting Christians as the perpetrators is outrageous. I've instructed our staff to commence the preparation of a legal demand letter that will be sent to school officials in the next few days." They are, of course, taking their cue from the Scripture in which Jesus, as He's being scourged despite his complete innocence -- an innocence recognized by the Roman governor in charge of ordering the beating -- declares, "This unwarranted hostility is outrageous! I plan to fire off a very strongly-worded letter demanding a formal apology!" GOOD GRIEF. Okay, let's draw a parallel here... something to which I can relate personally. Let's say that someone calls me a fatty. "Hey, Fatty!" this person says. There are several options: 1) The person is just a mean idiot. SO. If the person responsible for organizing the roll-playing is just a bigoted moron, what the heck point (or satisfaction) is there in forcing an insincere apology? Who benefits from that? If Christians acted completely against this type, then the scenario would seem ridiculous enough that it would be obvious that this wasn't realistic at all, and no one would need to be offended. If we're borderline or if the coordinator felt he had some legitimate reason to worry that Christians might conceivably barge in and demand their "rights" (or a WRITTEN APOLOGY, and I don't care how many kids I have to shoot to get it! It's for the LORD!), then what harm does it do to CALM DOWN and review our unreasonably strong reaction of offense to what we see as an infringement on our collective character? Romans 12 says: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone... 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." I don't see anything there about demanding an apology from your enemy. How many people is this winning for the Kingdom of God? Rrright. Zero. 10:22 p.m. - 2007-04-03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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