Next Monday...is that the Monday in 3 days or...

Someone got me started at lunch today.

The Transportation group at work (of which I am a part) went out for lunch together today to an excellent Vietnamese place in the north end.  We all had the daily noodle bowl special which was fantastic.  As we’re waiting for the food my boss mentions that we’re going to have a meeting next Monday for the whole group.

My immediate question was, “Next Monday…is that the Monday in 3 days or…”

Which has become a completely valid question!

I would love to meet the guy who decided to start the whole thing where next no longer means the next, but the one after the next.  But you know what?  People only think this is ok when dealing with days of the week.

You don’t hear anyone saying, “take the next right” when giving directions and actually meaning they are supposed to turn at the second road they come to.  No, this means that you turn right onto the first road you come to on the right side.

Just imagine you’re standing in line at the bank.  You wait until everyone in front of you is taken care of and you are now standing at the front of the line.  The next teller to be available will call you up.  What does that mean?  Does that mean that first teller to become available will have to wait with no customer so that the second teller who becomes available will serve you?  No.  What if someone cuts in front of you right at the last minute?  You indignantly exclaim, “Hey!  I was next in line.”  Does that mean that the person who cut in line was actually entitled to do that seeing as how you were only next in line which means there should have been someone in front of you?  No.

But, many people out there (carefully not mentioning any names…) think that if I say the meeting is next Monday that means it will be held in 10 days, not 3.  “Oh, no, you don’t understand, if I had meant the meeting was in 3 days I would have said this Monday not next Monday.  Didn’t you get the memo?  We changed the meaning of next while you were gone - but only in certain situations like when referring to days of the week.”  /said in a drippingly condescending voice

No.  You don’t get to change the meaning of a word arbitrarily like that.  What I find most disturbing about this is that the word next has now become vague.  It requires an additional question.  For clarity sake the second question needs to be asked.  Who are you talking to - someone who uses next properly (meaning next) or someone who uses the ridiculous improper form of next (meaning the one after the next)?  You can’t not ask the second question.  You might show up at the wrong time.  If it is for something important (the flight leaves next Monday, the funeral is next Saturday, you will be killed by lethal injection next Wednesday) you can’t just leave it up to chance.

So, back to our lunchtime conversation.  My boss immediately knew where I was going with my question and answered quite good naturedly that it was the Monday in 3 days.  He took it in stride.  He may have been familiar with the whole confusion inherent in the question…

Our decline into apathy

I was reading some more of The Tangible Kingdom the other night and I came across an interesting viewpoint.  The author suggested that we are overcoming a difficulty we've been struggling with for 1700 years!  The culprit: Constantine!  (I always knew that guy was no good!)  If our goal is to become an incarnational community like we see described in Acts, one of the biggest hurdles for us to overcome is the acceptance of our faith into the core of the culture.  .....what??  That doesn't make a whole lot of sense until we see where the author is taking it.

The early church was not accepted by the culture.  They were on the fringe.  They were struggling for acceptance.  They didn't have buildings or paid leaders.  They were martyred and persecuted which caused them to scatter. 

Then, 300 AD, along comes Constantine who converts to Christianity.  All of a sudden, the state is sponsoring the construction of meeting places, there are paid leaders for the church (Constantine appointed the first pope), the Edict of Milan comes down and nobody is getting killed for their faith anymore (officially anyway).

Result: The desperation disappears.  On one hand we've got a bunch of people living on the edge.  They are trying to survive.  Their faith is real for them because it could mean their lives - that is nothing you really want to fool around with.  People could look at these Christians and see folk who really lived what they preached.  They were looking after the widows, the orphans, and each other.  This was a community where, once you belonged, you had a purpose.  These guys were meeting regularly to discuss the apostles teaching, fellowshipping with each other, eating together and praying together.  This was attractive.

On the other hand you have a bunch of people joining up to the cause because it is the official religion of the state.  Well, the emperor is a Christian, I want to kiss his ass so, yeah, I'm a Christian too.  Are the pews comfy?  Then yeah, I could come sit there for a while on Sunday morning.  No big deal.  Easy to join, easy to not-join.  This was apathy.

The other hand is how the world sees us today.

With the acceptance of Christianity it is far too easy to be a part time Christian.  You don’t need to be making radical decisions.  You don’t need to be relying on God daily to keep your family safe.  You don’t need to support widows or orphans – the state has programs for that stuff – you don’t even need to think about them at all really - in fact, we recommend that you don't, it'll just bring you down.  Now all of a sudden you've got a chasm between the paid staff in the church and the lay people.  Back in the early church it was your neighbour the plumber that was the church leader, and he was only the leader because last week the officials caught the previous leader and knocked him off!  Next week you might be the leader!

So, what do you think?  Can we blame Constantine for all of this?  Should we get a posse together and round him up, ask him a few questions, rough him up a bit maybe?  Or should we applaud his efforts in giving Christianity legitimacy?  After all, how could he possibly have foreseen that a by-product of legitimizing Christianity would be increased apathy?  It is a good question and an interesting perspective…

I'm not that bright...don't tell anyone...

So, today I'm walking around in Walmart, killing time, so of course I go over to the electronics department.  Where else am I going to go to kill time?  We've been talking about getting a wall mount for the TV...ok, so I go check those out.  There are a few there that I think would work pretty good, but they don't have the one in that I would get - they just have the display model which they won't sell me.  It is going to cost about $100.

Yesterday I spent $440 buying a 12 month Leisure Pass for the city.  This gets me into all of the public swimming pools, gyms, etc.  (I should mention here that my wellness allowance from work pays $200 of that 'cause I work for the best company ever) ("Be well John Spartan" - I had to add that.  Every time I think of my company's wellness allowance it reminds me of Demolition Man)  But still, it cost me $240.  I bought one in 2008 that I didn't even use for more than a couple months before I quit going.  Oh, right, this time is going to be better...

The day before that I spent $20 buying something that I'm not even going to mention on here since it is one of the stupidest things I have ever spent $20 on and I don't need to give you all amunition to give me a hard time - you do it enough already.

So on the way home from work today I'm thinking about the TV wall mount again.  Bummed out that they didn't have one in stock so I could buy it right away.  All of a sudden it hits me - why am I so controlled by things that I want to buy?  My emotions, my thoughts - I'm obsessed with stuff...things.

My poor wife does the finances in our house.  She does her best to rein me in, and get this, I have the nerve to be upset with her about it sometimes.  "Why won't she let me spend all our money on buying stuff?  It's my money too isn't it?"  /pouting while I scuff my toe in the dirt...

I have got a never ending list of stuff that I want.  I will never be able to buy everything I want on that list.  Every time, without fail, I buy something from the list, the next thing jumps to the top and a couple days later I am trying to hatch some sort of plan for why I should buy it.  "Oh, that's right, we need X now so much.  X is going to make our lives so much easier.  Are we really making it without X right now?  Yeah, we are, but you know what?  Everything has changed since yesterday when we were doing fine without X but we really needed Y - now we have Y and we are going to be screwed if we don't get X too."  Sheesh, I am so pathetic.

Here is something else I thought of: I go to Walmart to kill time.  I also do this sometimes at Future Shop, Home Depot...  I must be an idiot.  You know, I thought I was pretty bright.  Not one of the brightest, but pretty bright.  I made it through school, got my professional designation - I must be pretty bright to have done that.  Nope, not really.  Somehow I must have managed to fool everyone because really I am an idiot.  Why don't I just bring Elise and Jackson to a soother store and tell them they can't have any...and don't touch anything either.  "Oooo, look Jackson, this soother has an ipod dock, how have you been managing without that on your soother up until now?  Sorry, can't have it."  /crying children...  Of course I'm going to buy stuff if I wander around where all the stuff is!!!!!

Anyway, now that I have identified the problem I'm sure it will be simple to correct this behaviour.  I mean...I am an engineer...problem solving is what we do best...

Lest we forget...

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Jude 24 & 25

Free Music Downloads

This is something I struggle with quite a bit.  I love listening to good music so much.  One of my favorite things to do is to put on my new 7.1 circumaural headphones that my excellent wife got me for my birthday and just zone out for an hour or two listening to music at the computer.  There is very little music that I don't listen to.  Recently I've been listening to a lot of Kaskade and Deadmau5.  Check out my profile for a list of music and artists I listen to.

Downloading music for free is like a dream come true.  I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want.  I'm listening to music on the radio while I drive home from work, all of a sudden Deadmau5's Ghosts N Stuff comes on and I crank it.  Inner monologue: "I should download this when I get home.  This song is so wicked"  That's right, I say wicked a lot in my inner monologue.  But wait...there's the alarm...and...WAKE UP - YOU'RE DREAMING!

*I would have put an exclamation point after each sentence for the rest of this post, but I feared the repetition would have caused it to loose some of it's potency.*

The reason downloading music for free seems like a dream come true is that you're dreaming if you think it has come true - ethically anyway - does anyone still bother with ethics?  I am not talking about downloading music from itunes or some other site where you purchase music.  I have had some of my Christian friends argue with me about this!  "Downloading music is ok because the artists are making so much money anyway, they really don't need the extra $X from that one CD."  "It really isn't illegal in Canada if you are just "sharing" files."  "Everyone's doing it, what difference am I going to make?"

I don't care what the law says in this regard.  If you are taking something for free from another person who created it and intended for it to be purchased, you are stealing.  You are stealing their livelihood.  How is this so hard to understand?  It doesn't matter if they are as rich as Bill Gates, if you download a copy of Microsoft Office without paying for it, you stole it - they didn't spend years staying up late writing the software out of the goodness of their hearts.  Do you think that Universal Studios spends billions each year making movies without some intention of making that money back somehow?  If I grab your wallet and start "sharing" your money with everyone, you're going to want to sit down and have a talk with me about that.

Be honest with yourself.  You want to do it, so you justify it.

Everyone knows that unless it is freeware there is some expectation from the author to be reimbursed for your enjoyment of their product.  Do you really think they did it just for you?  If I was to run into someone who would respond to me that they knew they were stealing but that they didn't mind being a thief, I think our conversation would be over.  There would be nothing for me to say.  I wouldn't agree with them, and my opinion of them would be in the dirt, but the conversation would have nowhere to go.  It is people's justification of the whole process that starts to make my temperature rise.  Especially people who call themselves Christians - there is no excuse for that.  None!  If you have come up with an excellent excuse for downloading free music which makes my previous one word, gramatically incorrect, sentence obsolete please leave a comment telling me all about it - I would love to start downloading music for free.

My Masochistic Tendencies...

I have recently been thinking a lot about the motivations I have to pursue a relationship with God.  They leave me unsatisfied.

You see, very often I find myself feeling guilty about not reading my Bible enough, not praying enough, not knowing where a particular passage of scripture is or not knowing what the Bible has to say about this or that.  Other times I will think about heaven and hell - what will they be like?  If we really can't imagine how awesome heaven will be and how nasty hell will be this is pretty serious.  I can imagine a lot (I think).  Translation: I'm pretty sure I don't want to be spending a week in hell much less eternity.

So here I have two motivations: guilt and fear.  How many relationships have worked out for you in the past that were based on those two premises?  Were they satisfying?

What God wants from me is a relationship based on love.  Where this breaks down is I have such a hard time realizing God's love for me.  I have not tuned myself properly to recognize where God is at work around me, so He is relegated to more of a figure to be seen far off than someone who is working in my life today.  Does God love me?  This becomes difficult to answer affirmatively if I am not regularly experiencing Him in my life.

God becomes real to me in my life when I start looking for Him.  When I am listening to God, He will show me where He is working.  When I am pursuing that relationship with Him I can start to see that He is in my life waiting for my attention.  He's got a lot more patience than I do that's for sure.  When I finally have this relationship in the right standing I find I have a desire to read my Bible enough, and to pray enough.  I don't have the guilt motivator anymore at that point, and the fear is gone too.

The crazy thing is, I feel so much more at peace within myself when I have this working properly in my life.  Why is it so hard for me to keep this up?  It's like I'm a masochist or something.  Well, not really, I've just got too much stuff blocking my vision...that is a whole new topic...

What does Oldnag mean in German?

I have been mulling over creating a blog for some time now.  So, seeing as how I google everything... "how to start a blog".  Up comes blogger, I create a google account and all that.  Then I am asked to create a url for the blog and you can imagine my surprise - someone else is using the name Oldnag!  I have been using this name for close to 20 years now and I have never run across anyone using this name.  OUTRAGE!  The nerve!  Some guy writing a blog in German no less.  How does he come across the name Oldnag?  Is Oldnag actually a German word?  It probably means awesome dude in German and I've been using it all this time without knowing...

The purpose of my blog: I have got opinions about tons of stuff.  I can not figure out how everyone else in the world has survived up to now without knowing my opinions.  Frankly, it is a mystery to me.  I don't want the greater public to have to go one day more living their bleak, lost lives wondering what I might have to say about a certain subject.  Remedy: blog.

Now to think of something interesting to write...  Wouldn't you know it, the one time I need to go on an interesting rant about something and I come up empty handed.  Fear not - this never lasts long for me.  I plan to have completely ridiculous posts interspersed with thoughtful posts.  Is anyone going to be interested in that?  I would be surprised...pleasantly :)