Lofland bLOG

#               0       No error
#               1       Usage error
#               2       Attempt to apply a patch that’s already been applied
#               3       Effective UID is not root
#               4       Attempt to save original files failed
#               5       pkgadd failed
#               6       Patch is obsoleted
#               7       Invalid package directory
#               8       Attempting to patch a package that is not installed
#               9       Cannot access /usr/sbin/pkgadd (client problem)
#               10      Package validation errors
#               11      Error adding patch to root template
#               12      Patch script terminated due to signal
#               13      Symbolic link included in patch
#               14      NOT USED
#               15      The prepatch script had a return code other than 0.
#               16      The postpatch script had a return code other than 0.
#               17      Mismatch of the -d option between a previous patch
#                       install and the current one.
#               18      Not enough space in the file systems that are targets
#                       of the patch.
#               19      $SOFTINFO/INST_RELEASE file not found
#               20      A direct instance patch was required but not found
#               21      The required patches have not been installed on the manager
#               22      A progressive instance patch was required but not found
#               23      A restricted patch is already applied to the package
#               24      An incompatible patch is applied
#               25      A required patch is not applied
#               26      The user specified backout data can’t be found
#               27      The relative directory supplied can’t be found
#               28      A pkginfo file is corrupt or missing
#               29      Bad patch ID format
#               30      Dryrun failure(s)
#               31      Path given for -C option is invalid
#               32      Must be running Solaris 2.6 or greater
#               33      Bad formatted patch file or patch file not found
#               34      The appropriate kernel jumbo patch needs to be installed
#               35      Later revision already installed

The question of when does life begin and end is very important for both the abortion debate, and the end of life issues brought up with people for whom others have to decide when the person is alive versus when the body is just on auto-pilot.

So when things like this come up, they really make me do some thinking.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/29/israel.deadmansperm.ap/index.html

“I am ten years old . . . my father died fourteen years ago . . . he never met my mother . . . he was a virgin when he died.” [blink]

I wonder if Victor Frankenstein would have been in favor of abortion or euthanasia?

Many people just avoid the weird questions that come up as we find out just how much control God did give us over life, by labeling all “mucking about” as “evil,” however, this seems like sticking one’s head in the sand. Things like frozen embryos and human cloning should cause us to ask deep questions about who and what we are.

We claim to have a spiritual birthright that sets us apart from the animals, but if man can reproduce himself in a test tube, then just when is it that the “eternal spirit” comes to inahabit the being? Do we produce this also, by some chemical process or does God “step in” and plant something at some given moment in time and space? If so, when does this happen, and by what means is this “spiritual component” “attached?” If we take someone and freeze them for 40 million years, is their spirit frozen too? What happens to all of the frozen embryos when Christ returns to earth?

Before you answer, reference your answers with some scripture.

God does not reveal everything to us, and sometimes I think we get indignant about things based on our sensibilities, and not on God’s word. Opinions are fine, but just be careful not to lash out at people or label them “evil” just because you don’t think their socks coordinate properly with their scientific research. Ethics is an important topic, but “unethical” and “evil” are not the same thing. One is mostly pragmatic, while the other is most dogmatic. Make sure your dogma is based on clear scriptural teaching, and leave the rest to just the facts.

Posted 1/29/2007 10:58 PM

6 Comments:

Things like frozen embryos and human cloning should cause us to ask deep questions about who and what we are.

True.

I think the biggest offense of the “non-pro-life” voice these days is that issues of morality are avoided altogether. Those who raise doubts about stem-cell research in embryos are labeled “anti-science.” When congress opposes partial-birth abortion, they get chided to leave such decisions to doctors–as if the only issues involved are scientific-mechanical ones, and that law and morality have nothing to do with it.

In other words, the deep questions about who and what we are are not really welcome in the public arena. What does it mean to be human? Who wants to discuss such things. Let the scientists take care of it.

And for persuading the public? Let’s stick to marketing tactics encapsulated in nine-second sound bites.

And when does life begin?

We shouldn’t make that an easy question, but I have yet to hear a reasonable answer proposed except conception. (Please enlighten me if you’ve heard a better idea.)

As far as Scripture - well, the Bible treats unborn children as persons, so we can’t make birth the demarcation. Beyond that, I don’t think the Bible spells out an answer for us.

But just reasoning about it from that point–between conception and birth, when is there a day that the embryo becomes essentially different than the day before? Is there a particular point in time when the baby starts to be able to feel pain? To have emotions? To experience an awareness of mother and father (relationships)? All these things may be profound aspects of person-hood, but when is the moment that the line is crossed?

But the difference between sperm plus egg and the embryo is one of essence, not degree–even while the embryo remains one cell only. In terms of information the physical person is all there. Where is the spirit? I don’t know. But the body is basically what it’s going to be minus time to be realized according to the DNA that’s already there.

I know I’m in over my head in terms of the science. But I just have not heard a scientist address this matter with a different answer–without disregarding human-ness altogether.

If you want a good answer for this (I mean really good), read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. It doesn’t address details about bio-ethics, but it sure wipes out a lot of dead-end fallacies that cloud the debate. It will also make your brain a bit sore.
Posted 1/30/2007 7:19 PM by jonathan_camenisch

I’ll try to respond

As for public discussion of morality. I totally disagree. I hear ethics discussed in Washington all the time. Most people who hate Bush hate him on moral grounds. Even the desire to raise minimum wage is a moral issue, as are the issues with immigration. How about the war in Iraq?

I think the real problem is that the Christians have taken such a hard line approach that there is no room for discussion. We are so obstinate that we cannot even be talked to. It is the emotions we have to take out, not the moral issues. I have not talked to a liberal pro-choice person yet that was not willing to honestly discuss the moral implications of abortion. Remember, some of these liberals chain themselves to trees to save the earth, so they are not unwilling to discuss moral causes. (It is hard to chain yourself to someone else’s unborn child.) Anyway, I can go on, but I disagree with you there. I think that moral issues are brought up in Washington all the time. There are ethical and moral concerns with all things that deal with unborn children, but we have to be willing to discuss it, rather than just stand on our “anything that is fertilized is sacred” box and yell.

In short, remember that there are two sides, and both have moral and ethical underpinnings.

>>And for persuading the public? Let’s stick to marketing tactics encapsulated in nine-second sound bites.

Both sides are certainly guilty of that.

>>And when does life begin?
>>We shouldn’t make that an easy question, but I have yet to hear a reasonable answer proposed except conception. (Please enlighten me if you’ve heard a better idea.)

Why is “conception” reasonable? That is more what I am getting at. I am not sure it is reasonable. If it is, then there should be, well, a reason.

>>As far as Scripture - well, the Bible treats unborn children as persons, so we can’t make birth the demarcation. Beyond that, I don’t think the Bible spells out an answer for us.

Exactly, and so we should be careful when we say we are standing on the Bible, when maybe we are really out on the flyleaf.

>>But just reasoning about it from that point–between conception and birth, when is there a day that the embryo becomes essentially different than the day before? Is there a particular point in time when the baby starts to be able to feel pain? To have emotions? To experience an awareness of mother and father (relationships)? All these things may be profound aspects of person-hood, but when is the moment that the line is crossed?

Well, mice feel pain, but I set mouse traps. Dogs seem to have emotions, but we put them down when we don’t want them. Dogs are aware of relationships too, as are geese, but we shoot them.

You see, you can’t just use arbitrary standards like that. It used to be easy to say that certain things “made us human,” but when science can both show us these things in animals, as well as show us the chemical seat of these things in ourselves, they become more mechanical processes than “spirit.” We don’t really know what the spirit is. So much of what used to be attributed to the spirit is now controlled by Prozac.

>>But the difference between sperm plus egg and the embryo is one of essence, not degree–even while the embryo remains one cell only. In terms of information the physical person is all there. Where is the spirit? I don’t know. But the body is basically what it’s going to be minus time to be realized according to the DNA that’s already there.

Just wait until we can download the DNA onto your IPod and inject it into any other random cell and produce another person. Then what will we say?

The problem is that as science explains more and more, we find ourselves having to push further and further into the unknown with our reasons. As I posted before, it a possibility to just take a hard line and avoid the debate, but I think that is sticking our heads in the sand.

Religion has always used the unknown to point to God, but as more and more is known, we might need to give up on that bad habit.

>>If you want a good answer for this (I mean really good), read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. It doesn’t address details about bio-ethics, but it sure wipes out a lot of dead-end fallacies that cloud the debate. It will also make your brain a bit sore.

I will have to look into that. I have great respect for C.S. Lewis.
Posted 2/2/2007 12:56 PM by ThinkingOnTheEdge

Okay, ya pulled me into it… I am perhaps playing devil’s advocate, but only, I believe, in fairness.

>>I think the real problem is that the Christians have taken such a hard line approach that there is no room for discussion. We are so obstinate that we cannot even be talked to. It is the emotions we have to take out, not the moral issues. I have not talked to a liberal pro-choice person yet that was not willing to honestly discuss the moral implications of abortion. Remember, some of these liberals chain themselves to trees to save the earth, so they are not unwilling to discuss moral causes. (It is hard to chain yourself to someone else’s unborn child.) Anyway, I can go on, but I disagree with you there. I think that moral issues are brought up in Washington all the time. There are ethical and moral concerns with all things that deal with unborn children, but we have to be willing to discuss it, rather than just stand on our “anything that is fertilized is sacred” box and yell.

I actually think much of the problem with the “Christian right” attitude on issues such as this is that they SEPARATE the emotional traumas our society is creating (and which, IMO it IS the church’s place to minister to) from the ethical questions they are so ready to go fight for. Why is it that hundreds will line the streets for a “Life Rally” but the pregnancy resource center (which MUST exist for the prolife message not to legitimately be accused of being outright brutal) is underfunded and run down. If the legal side of the issue were “fixed”, would the church be in any state (spiritually, ethically, emotionally, financially, etc.) to address the issue of a million unwanted children and their desparate mothers each year? If not, shouldn’t be fix that first, and speak with moral credibility?

>>>>And when does life begin?
>>>>We shouldn’t make that an easy question, but I have yet to hear a reasonable answer proposed except conception. (Please enlighten me if you’ve heard a better idea.)

Which raises a fascinating aspect of the Calvinism debate, since Christ referred to “new birth”, but not, as I recall, a new conception…

>>Why is “conception” reasonable? That is more what I am getting at. I am not sure it is reasonable. If it is, then there should be, well, a reason.

Reason seems to me a questionable starting point for ethics, but I’ll hear you out…

>>>>As far as Scripture - well, the Bible treats unborn children as persons, so we can’t make birth the demarcation. Beyond that, I don’t think the Bible spells out an answer for us.

I’d suggest this be revisited from a moe devil’s advocate point of view. I’m not saying it doesn’t, just that some of the examples I’ve heard were pretty contrived…

>>Exactly, and so we should be careful when we say we are standing on the Bible, when maybe we are really out on the flyleaf.

YUP!!!

>>>>But just reasoning about it from that point–between conception and birth, when is there a day that the embryo becomes essentially different than the day before? Is there a particular point in time when the baby starts to be able to feel pain? To have emotions? To experience an awareness of mother and father (relationships)? All these things may be profound aspects of person-hood, but when is the moment that the line is crossed?

>>Well, mice feel pain, but I set mouse traps. Dogs seem to have emotions, but we put them down when we don’t want them. Dogs are aware of relationships too, as are geese, but we shoot them.

Short of a person having memories of their time in the womb (which really weirds me out right now…), I’m not sure we (as human beings) only becoming aware of those faculties can really PROVE what an unborn child experiences. Breathing fluid to us is thought painful, yet they live on it for 9 months… Just what does a video of an unborn’s facial expression really prove? ? ? (Other than what we take it to mean?)

>>You see, you can’t just use arbitrary standards like that. It used to be easy to say that certain things “made us human,” but when science can both show us these things in animals, as well as show us the chemical seat of these things in ourselves, they become more mechanical processes than “spirit.” We don’t really know what the spirit is. So much of what used to be attributed to the spirit is now controlled by Prozac.

Or, is it possible that Prozac effectively blocks the spirit from its control on the body (just as arsenic can, only the effect lasts longer, and is more permanent)?
Posted 2/6/2007 3:18 PM by Krash2Fly

LOL. I love the arsenic to Prozac analogy. I will have to give that more thought. I think that is the best thing to come out of this thread thus far!

Seriously, that is really deep. It might deserve its own post.
Posted 2/7/2007 12:27 AM by ThinkingOnTheEdge

So really, those sisters in “Arsenic & Old Lace” were just using a drug to treat depression/loneliness. And their cure was complete!
Posted 2/7/2007 11:55 PM by ThoughtForFood

Not sure where this came from:

So after Eons of technological, scientific, and general growth human kind
is creating life, exploring the multi/omni/universe, and doing things that
most of us currently can only dream of in our wildest fantasies.

We found God, of course he was never really that well hidden, and he's
been happily walking with us all along.

One day we turn to him and say: "We discovered everything, we don't need
you any more."

So god says: "Oh? Well if thats true then why not create life the same way
I did?"

Confident in our abilities as nearly transcended beings we pick up a clump
of dirt and prepare to spit into it when God stops us, and says: "Get your
own dirt."

I am going somewhere in my thoughts that I express here, it is just that, well, I often find myself off in the bushes somewhere. I look around and don’t find anyone anywhere near me. So I have to really do some digging to see if I am just way off of the path, or if the path is just a lot less traveled than I realized. At the same time, I don’t need a lot of people yelling at me, telling me I am crazy. I already know that. It does help, though, to have someone point out just why I am where I am at.

Honestly, I don’t think I fully subscribe to “Solo Deo Gloria” (did I write that right?).

I don’t think that all of ungodliness around us does not speak to who we are, and who our maker is. The world is full of hundreds of religions, but they do seem to break down into several major ones. What do these religions say about us? About God?

Why are we the ones, and why is the Bible the guide?

I am not even convinced that God’s purpose and/or methods have been consistent from the start of our time until now.

I’m also not convinced that God does, or at least, that He always has understood us completely.

What is God’s nature? What is the nature of love? What is love?

Perhaps Christ really did “save” all of mankind? Is it possible that His death on the cross did cleanse every last human of his sin, past, present and future, at that moment?

Perhaps the issue of forgiveness of sins is moot, because it has been done. We have it, all of humanity, and it is over with.

Perhaps that is why God no longer punishes sin outright on the earth, because He no longer sees it.

Then, the issue of individual personal “salvation” would not be an issue of receiving God’s forgiveness, but of having a personal relationship with Him.

In short, God wanted to have a relationship with us, but He couldn’t because of our sin. So Jesus died in order to cover the sin of the entire world. Now that is done, we are all free to have a relationship with Him.

So then, the question is not, are we forgiven, but does He know us? Those who do, spend eternity with Christ, heaven, those who do not, spend eternity in, well, the same place they do now, apart from God.

I know, I know, try reading my Bible a little and see that this is all very un-scriptural. Or maybe it is just beyond what the Bible reveals? As in, “possible,” but not stated. That, too, is really not acceptable either.

Am I really to love God as a little child? As a baby? Well, my little Rebecca loves me this way. When she sees my face, she smiles and wiggles with glee. When I walk out of the room, she screams.

I can scream.
Posted 1/23/2007 4:23 PM

2 Comments:

“To the Mystery”
Michael Card

When the Father longed to show
The love He wanted us to know
He sent His only Son and so
Became a holy embryo

Chorus
That is the Mystery
More than you can see
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees

A fiction as fantastic and wild
A mother made by her own child
A hopeless babe who cried
Was God Incarnate and man deified

Chorus

Because the fall did devastate
Creator must now recreate
So to take our sin
Was made like us so we could be like him

Michael Card deals well with mysterious ponderings.
Posted 1/28/2007 10:51 PM by novisigothsorkangaroos

I like it. Food for thought….
Posted 1/29/2007 12:15 AM by madhatterb78

Currently Watching Charlotte’s Web (Full Screen Edition) (Cartoon version)

I wrote a post a while back about evolution vs. creation. One point that I brought up was that Christians fear that if we allow for some form of evolution, it drains away the value of humanity and of individual human life. Something like this:

“If I am just the accidental chance result of random natural causes, then my life is meaningless, and there is no moral standard by which I am to be governed.”

In other words, whether a teenager believes that he is evolved or created has a great deal to do with his or her self worth and his or her likelihood to engage in self destructive behavior.

I once saw a really good bumper sticker that said, “Drive carefully, 90% of all people are caused by accidents!” I had to laugh out loud, and I still laugh when I think about it. It calls us to task for the way we talk about things like childbirth. I mean, really, is anyone truly an accident? Car wrecks are an accident, but people having sex is not.

The complete freedom that God has given us over the birth process really does call into question how much whether the first man and woman were evolved or created either 40 million or 10 thousand years ago really matters. I mean, honestly, at this point, any two fertile human beings can come together and make a person.

I read recently about a twenty-four year old woman that was brought into a hospital to give birth. The thing was, she was mentally retarded from birth. She had the mind of a two month old. She could not recognize people, she could not control her own movements, quite frankly, she was barely aware of her own existence! Obviously her pregnancy was the result of abuse by some caregiver, but her pregnancy was not discovered until she was about seven months along, so they had no idea who had done it.

How do you suppose the child of this woman will feel about his or her “creation?” Oh, sure you could make up flowery ideas about how God worked great miracles to bring him about, but honestly, my guess is that at the age of 14, after being bounced from one emotionally abusive foster home to another for all of his or her life, she will look at the circumstances of her birth and life and determine that she was a colossal accident. The result of the chance meeting of a morally bankrupt human being with a mentally failed human being. One failure compounded upon another to produce yet another failure. Origin does not logically, or, just as importantly, emotionally, impute value in this case.

So, quite honestly, I think it is pointless to tie the evolution debate to abortion. Sorry Ken Ham, but however the first man and woman got to be here, ever since then there has been a lot of chance, and even sin involved in the formation of subsequent human beings.

Yes, human life has great value in all forms, like diamonds, but a human life isn’t like a diamond. If you bury a diamond in a pile of manure, and then start hosing it all down, eventually you will find the diamond, pure and sparkling, just as good as new. The manure will not harm the diamond, it is not permeable. Human life is more like wood or paper. We absorb what we are exposed to, and it enhances or degrades us. At some point a human life can become indistinguishable from its surroundings. It cannot be separated from the slime it is encased in, much less cleaned up by human means.

When Christ came to this earth, it was full of ruined people, just like now. Christ gave us a way for people to be made pure again.

You see, the value in a human life really does not rest on its origin, but on its destination. A human life is not valuable because of how it came to be, but because of what it may become. Honestly, practical life really is that way. Money is valuable not because of how much time we spent earning it, but because of what it can be used to buy. So is life. A life is valuable because of Christ. Without Christ, we are without hope.

Whether we were individually created by a loving God for an eternal purpose, or whether we are all just a colossal accident, what make us special is our capacity for Christ. Whether we came from God or not, we can all go to God, and that is something more precious and more durable than diamonds.
Posted 1/21/2007 12:29 PM

1 Comment:

Yeah…but if we weren’t created by God we wouldn’t have His breath of life, and no souls. So even if our existence seems random or pointless, regardless of our worldview, we only have that value (that capacity for Christ) if we were created. That’s where it could be valuable to discuss creation/evolution with regards to abortion.
Posted 1/22/2007 1:42 PM by madhatterb78

Currently Listening to Live the Life by Michael W. Smith track Missing Person

Ever feel like you are just passing the time, shooting the breeze, when you really ought to be doing something like really big and really important before this whole thing called life rushes past you?

Maybe it is just harder to feel “on fire for God” when you aren’t being an idiot.

All of the people that I used to think were crazy have pretty much disappeared, and all of the people that I used to think were normal have gone crazy, and all of the people that I used to think were weird have gone normal on me.

“Perfectly normal human beings . . . you know what stinkers they are!”

I know I thought they were weird before, but normal is worse. Of course, it is hard to be anything but normal these days, because everyone is trying to be different. So just trying to be different makes you normal. “Counter-culture” IS culture, and the “emerging church” is becoming “the church” and soon we’ll have to have an unmerging church, or submerging church or something like that just so we can get out of this stinking normal thing.

To come to the point. Being a whacked out fundamentalist stinks, but at least it is different. Going from that to just “doing what everyone else is doing” is kind of a let down. I mean, yeah, it is cool at first to listen to cool music, wear shorts, talk to members of the opposite sex, and just generally not think God hates you 24×7. However, after a while, you just become one of the crowd. Most of the other “wild and crazy” things you can do are just what everyone else is doing. At least being a whacked out fundamentalist got you some strange looks. Listening to punk rock, having green hair and getting your body pierced don’t even attract a sneer anymore.

So what sets us apart? Before we were set apart as Christians by all of the things we didn’t do. We figured out real quick (or real slowly) that that was stupid, but then we just kind of melted into the crowd. So what sets us apart as Christians, or even as the people of God?

Then again, maybe it is just pride that seeks to “be different” and “stand out in the crowd.” Certainly a lot of us found pride in standing out in the crowd for our convictions.

Anyway, it still stinks that all of my weird fundy friends are just going normal. Some of them even think they are being “crazy” but they are just acting like normal people their age. How terribly boring.

Remember, “normal” is just a setting on your dryer.
Posted 1/11/2007 8:07 AM

4 Comments:

Venturing into the land of “ThinkingOnTheEdge”…what a good read! I’ll have to work my way back through the old posts.
Posted 1/11/2007 2:51 PM by jonathan_camenisch

As someone said so profoundly on their blog “I was uncool before it was cool to be uncool”.
Posted 1/12/2007 8:48 AM by Krash2Fly

Ah, you can still get some pleasure from “being crazy” if you go to a Baptist church. But yeah, you pretty well hit the nail on the head with this one. Normal is boring. So I think that what we should have that nobody else does, is an awesome relationship with God. That’s not exactly normal, sadly enough, and certainly not boring =).
Posted 1/12/2007 8:54 AM by madhatterb78

Yeah, I don’t have ABS either…keeps driving a lot more exciting up here in the north I’d done some sliding in parking lots before, usually on purpose, and often in reverse (it takes some thought to break only the back wheels loose when you have front-wheel drive), so I did know how to enjoy it, after I realized there wasn’t anything to hit and I couldn’t pull out of it.
Posted 1/19/2007 4:27 PM by madhatterb78

Currently Reading Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado

Never mind kneeling behind a pew. From now on I’m just posting my prayer requests on Xanga! Maybe it is like Moses told God that if He killed the children of Israel, people would think He couldn’t bring them into the promised land. Maybe when I post publicly that I need help, God’s reputation is on the line to come up with an answer?

Maybe God just loves me.

Anyway, shortly after my last post, I started being bombarded by answers.

First, I emailed a good friend about what motivated him at work, and he had some very sound advice. Nothing new, but rather old stuff that is good. I will summarize what he said:

Paul spoke of his death in the terms of being “poured out as a drink offering.”

What Paul said of his death, I want to characterize my life each day - to be a living sacrifice. Whether I live or die, feast or famine, enjoy my work or loathe it, have success or failure; I want to do it unto the Lord - with an intensity that corresponds to His great worth.

And I don’t think it matters if that is conveyed to other people. I just want God to look upon me and receive my worship. He can handle the collateral effects.

So when turns into drudgery, or I feel unmotivated, I count that as a special opportunity to worship God a different way.

I also count that as an opportunity to “suffer for righteousness sake.” Maybe that’s a stretch; I know it’s not at all like being flogged or having your intestines pulled out because of Christ. However, I look at it as my little opportunity to suffer *the right way* - not necessarily suffer a lot. If I suffer for disobedience there’s no honor in that, but if I suffer for obeying God, that’s a privilege.

Now he is not promoting “suffering on purpose,” but if I am 100% sure that where I am right now is where God has put me (and if I am honest with myself, I am sure of that right now), then if I suffer, I do it for Him, right? Even lack of “fulfillment” can be suffering.

I wasn’t fully satisfied with this answer at first, but I talked to my wife about it after I read it. What frustrated me is that I know if my heart is truly in my work, I do good work, and if it isn’t, then my work is mediocre. I can’t just put my heart into something by an act of my will any more than I can stop being afraid by an act of my will. Hmm, but didn’t God spend a lot of scripture telling people to “fear not?”

She pointed out Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Now, doesn’t “heartily” mean “put your heart into it?” Then, before I could protest too much, she pointed out that a lot of the people he was writing to were slaves! Hmm, well, I certainly can’t say my work is as bad as slavery!

So that really got me thinking. Perhaps my feelings of heartlessness in my work are due to simply failing to do it “unto God” with my whole heart. In other words, get up, go to work, and serve my employer as unto God. Wow, you know, I think I can do that.

Now, realize, I think here God is pouring out some grace, because I don’t think you can just “put this on,” but the words rang true to me, and I feel it.

So now I have this fire burning in me, “Yeah, I’ll work for the Lord.”

Then that evening my wife and I walk into the library, and sitting on the shelf, right in front of me, like turned sideways on a display rack, is this book by Max Lucado called “Cure for the Common Life.” I pick it up, and sure enough, it is a book about finding your calling in life, and finding fulfillment in your work! Wow God! Needless to say, I checked it out.

Then on Sunday morning John preached about not worrying about “what should I do,” but rather about being the right person. Psalms 1 says that if we are the right person, then God will lead us, and we will prosper. Funny, I’ve always considered Psalm 1 my life verse, because I feel God does prosper me as I follow Him.

So there it is, 1 2 3:

1. DO pour myself into my work, as unto God. As my worship and sacrifice to Him. He does see it, and He is pleased with me when I do my work as unto Him, even if it seems meaningless and even if it goes unnoticed, I can go home at the end of the day feeling good about myself if I know I did my work as a sacrifice, with all of my heart, to God Himself.

2. DO search out what other things God may be calling me to in the future through my desires,

3. BUT, don’t focus as much on “what will I do” (don’t toil and spin), but on God and delighting in Him, and the rest will fall into place in His perfect time. In other words, if I am seeking God, I can’t miss it, and in the mean time, I might as well enjoy life as it comes.

Wow God!

Now, I won’t say “It is working!” yet, because honestly, it is only Tuesday evening. Catch me in a few weeks and see if it is for real.

P.S. Also, if you are going to use music to get in touch with your feelings, may I suggest URGE? $9.95 per month for all the music you want, very cool!

P.P.S. I really dislike “feel a loathing for” (I’ll have to post about cats sometime in the future) Max Lucado’s writing style. Always have. However, the book is really good, and it is an easy read.

Currently Listening to Jammed! by Phil Keaggy

Is my life meant to be split up into pieces?

When I am home, I feel alive and free and joy. Life is good.

When I sit in this chair at work, I feel lost, alone and pointless.

I feel like the animals that Abraham split apart down the center into two pieces when he made the covenant with God . . . namely . . . that feeling wold be . . . dead.

Maybe it is just part of the fall, that we must endure futility.

Sometimes I wonder if my feelings are stronger than the reality, but then I look at myself. Here is what I do in the office that convinces me that I’m not putting my heart into it:

* I put off the daily tasks of my job as long as possible.
* I figure out how to put the least effort into any request I get.
* I escape from my office through the radio (news of a real world out there) and music (people actually feeling an emotion about something).
* I can’t even think when I get up in the morning why it is that I need to get into the office on time.

I have skills, and I can be very good at my job, but I find myself suddenly losing interest in the skill of my own hands. It is a strange feeling. Like a man who has been a carpenter for a decade suddenly sitting down, and looking at his hands, and realizing that he has no pleasure in their skill or in the products that he creates.

What I crave is to:

* Help people
* Innovate
* Discover

Maybe this is simply the sacrifice that must be made for those I live for. Maybe this is just the curse that we all live under. Maybe I’m just a malcontent.
Posted 1/5/2007 10:44 AM

2 Comments:

dude dont worry im with you. on the office part I have no clue but on the part about helping peple and discovering it is so true. not one day goes by that I dont think hey how bout I find something new to do for today instead of doing the same old stupid work thing. your not alone man. lol
chris
Posted 1/6/2007 7:18 PM by mynameischrisandimbored

Ya sure nailed it, Christen! I know EXACTLY the feelings you described. I go online an work for the same reasons you go to the radio and music (like right now…)
Why do we calling it making a living, when it isn’t?
Posted 1/8/2007 1:01 PM by Krash2Fly

Currently Listening to Awake by Josh Groban

I have really been enjoying a song on the latest Josh Groban CD called “You Are Loved” It is really a powerful song. I imagine God singing it to me.

A favorite line is:

“if silence keeps you, I will break it for you”

I am afraid I really long for God to break the silence of the past 2000 years. I imagine the sky splitting as God breaks the silence and speaks to us.

On the other hand, I feel ungrateful for feeling this way, because I know that Christ Himself was God’s breaking of the silence. Christ is God’s Word to us.

I still long to hear God speak to the planet. I wonder when I cry because I can’t hear God, if He is also crying because we can’t hear Him? What is it that stops Him from speaking out and making Himself more known to us?

Ah well, here I sit, listing to and watching the “AT&T/Bell South Merger Celebration Town Hall” meeting webcast. Do you know that group applause sounds really terrible when digitally compressed? Maybe that is why UTube videos are not “filmed before a live studio audience.” It is funny how similar large corporate meetings are to large church meetings. Same sutes (no I can’t spell it any better than I can wear them), same conservative ties, same gray haired guys going on about something or the other, and the same periodic group applause. Wow, these guys look familiar. I can see how “Christian Conservative” gets mixed up with “Corporate America.” They even use the same clinches, and use strange terminology and put words together in ways that sound fancy, but don’t really mean very much. Both are just as boring too.

Gosh, I am such a hippie aren’t I? I watch this and think, “What the heck am I doing here?” Oh yeah, I’m making money. “It’s a living.” as they say. I really do want to do something where I help people every day, and the bottom line of my organization’s purpose is something more laudable than “shareholder value.”

Or maybe I’m just a malcontent.

God, is this discontentment and longing for something more meaningful to do with 40 hours a week from you, or am I just failing to be as grateful (and I am grateful for the money) to you as I should be for what you are providing for me?

Please do break the silence for me!

Posted 1/4/2007 12:22 PM

1 Comment:

Wow … I can relate. Have you ever wondered if Satan delays God’s messages, like he did with Daniel?
Posted 1/5/2007 12:10 PM by madhatterb78

Since this nitwit is so set on maintaining old testament law about things like the borders of Israel, do we also get to stone him if he is a false prophet?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/02/robertson.predictions.ap/index.html

Future prophecy really hasn’t been part of the New Testament church. In the Old Testament, it was quite common, however, the penalty for false prophecy was death, so people didn’t just rattle off silly comments at random like this.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”
You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

“relatively good” doesn’t cut it!

Interestingly, the penalty for false prophecy is the same as for adultery, prostitution, rape, incest and sodomy. So we can simply apply any judgment that old Patty wants to levy on any of those in this list to him, since he has put himself into the same boat with them.

Matthew 7:2: For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

If what this man passes off is Christianity, then I am a Buddhist
Posted 1/3/2007 11:00 AM

2 Comments:

I thought that would get you to post.
Posted 1/3/2007 11:36 AM by ThoughtForFood

It the classic words of Martin Luther in the old b/w movie on his life “The Lord deliver me from my enemies… AND FROM MY FRIENDS!”
Posted 1/4/2007 7:49 AM by Krash2Fly