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Archive - November, 2009

The Only Thing You Need You Already Have

November 22, 2009 in GODSTUFF with 8 Comments

Today I was not the person I want to be.  Come to think of it, I wasn’t that person yesterday either.  I’m tired.  I haven’t been feeling well.  Every time I try to sleep, some noise in the house wakes me up, and God forbid that the maker of the noise should be someone in my family, or she is sure to find herself on the receiving end of something she almost certainly does not deserve.  I have been downright insufferable, like a two year old who gets so tired he cannot sleep, cannot be kind, cannot relax, cannot take directions, and cannot accept the love of those who just want him to be well.  Lately I dread the thought of moving, or trying to accomplish anything.  I simply cannot stand myself.  At least my family can go in the other room and close the door.  I have tried that, but no matter where I go there I am, and I continue to strongly dislike the company.

I cannot accept what I need most.  I get in these funks and I push people away.  I’ll bet I’m not the only one.  Most of us are blessed to be surrounded by people who care about us and just want us well, and most of us get into these dark spaces where instead of receiving that love, we reject it.  We prefer, for some sick reason, our tension and anger and darkness.  God help me that I am such a person, that I have times where I willfully retreat into darkness and illusion instead of allowing those I love to keep me grounded in the truth.  The truth is simply that I am loved.  I am loved more than my wife and children can express to me, and I mean more to them than I even understand.  I am the recipient of the most abundant grace and yet, in the times when I need it most, I cower in shadows, refusing to be loved, even going out of my way to be unlovable.

This is my deepest problem.  It is the deepest problem of nearly all human beings.  We are in various forms of rebellion and refusal to accept our true identity as the ones who are dearly loved of God.

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Top 10 of the week

November 16, 2009 in MISCELLANY with 0 Comments

Here are this past week’s most read posts.

10. Will non-Christians be saved?

9. Count me in with the crooks and whores

8. About

7. Making the Spiritual World Real

6. Suicide=Hell?

5. Need a counselor?

4. When Religion Kills

3. Is Jesus the only way to God?

2. Responsible TO or Responsible FOR?

1. Being Daddy

What is it with Mac people?

November 16, 2009 in MISCELLANY with 4 Comments

MichaelHyatt

I just tried to upgrade Microsoft Office. It crashed my Mac. I used to be a fan of Microsoft.

Twitter / Home

Above is a recent Tweet from Michael Hyatt who runs one of my favorite blogs at http://michaelhyatt.com.  First of all, I’m no Microsoft fan-boy by any stretch of the imagination.  Last year I put Linux (first Kubuntu, then Ubuntu) on all my PC’s and would be running it now, except the software I use most often cannot be run on Linux.  Having said that, this Tweet struck me as odd, yet typical of a Mac user.  It seems with Mac users, crashes and other computer issues are always Microsoft’s fault!

In this case, we have Microsoft software and an Apple computer.  A problem arises.  Blame goes to: MICROSOFT!  Yet when I talk to Mac users and tell them about a computer problem I have had, they nearly always tell me I should get a Mac, as if it MUST be the hardware.  As if that problem would NEVER have happened on a Mac.

I’m perfectly open to the idea that perhaps in Hyatt’s case, the problem really was the software.  Hyatt writes a lot on productivity and seems to know his way around a computer, so perhaps he really knows this is the problem.  But the Tweet still embodies what I generally see in the Mac community, which is resistance to admitting that Apple hardware might be responsible for a problem.

Just once I’d love to come across a post on the Internet saying, “My Mac is broken – AGAIN!!”  You know it happens.  By the law of averages, it has to.  It makes you wonder if when you buy a Mac, you sign a legal agreement stating that you will never post anything negative about Apple.  Or say it to anyone in private with the shades drawn.  Or even think it.

The other interesting thing in Hyatt’s post is that he used to be a fan of Microsoft.  The only Microsoft fan you’ll find among most Mac users is a reformed one – the kind that used to be.

To end this post and put it in perspective, I love the cult-like atmosphere Apple engenders among its users.  If you have read Jim Collins’ Good to Great, you know this is something great companies do, creating feverish enthusiasm and devotion around everything they do.  This in itself is a big part of the Mac vibe.  Still, I can’t help but await eagerly a Tweet one day from a Mac user that says, “I just tried to upgrade to Microsoft Office.  It crashed my Mac.  I  used to be a fan of Apple.”

When hell freezes over.

 

 

Update from Hyatt:

MichaelHyatt

I rebooted my computer and installed Microsoft Office 12.2.3. It worked “as advertised” this time. All is well.

When Religion Kills

November 12, 2009 in GODSTUFF with 6 Comments

The New Testament says,

Romans 8:6 (NCV)
6If people’s thinking is controlled by the sinful self, there is death. But if their thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace.

This cannot be any other way, and is the definitive test for whether or not a person is centered in God, whether we apply it to the Islamic militant, the one constantly seeking his own promotion, the non-believer trying to be a “good person,” or the average person who professes Christianity.  That is where I am probably most qualified to give an opinion.   

I do not think most Christians are living in anything like life and peace.  I see many who are so rigid in their understanding of God that they are filled with anger, perhaps even hatred toward, those who disagree with them.  I see many others who may not be angry or rigid, but are filled with and largely motivated by fear that their own understanding of God has brought upon them.  They falsely think they simply have not progressed far enough yet.  The truth is that the seed of fear is present in their understanding of God from the beginning and further progression will lead only to more fear.  What is needed is an overhaul.  I see many other Christians who live in constant chaos, making bad choice after bad choice, and experiencing all the horrific consequences this will bring into the lives of all who live this way, religious or otherwise.

It is safe to say that religion often brings death, and it does this by getting people focused even more dramatically on themselves after conversion than they ever were before.  Ego is tricky, and just when we think we have killed it by converting to this or that religion, it slips into that very religion and poisons it.  Thus we might find ourselves feeling prideful over how humble we are becoming, or thinking of ourselves as very different, after all, from the pagans who live around us, taking on a them vs. us mentality.  But God is one, and the more we truly know God, the less fracture there will be in ourselves, and the less different we will see ourselves as being from others.  Ego and self-interest can, and often does, work its way into the practice of religion and when that happens, religion becomes just one more of the channels we follow to get what we want – only now we perceive that we do it with the blessing of God.

All religion that leaves out the reality of gradual, daily, inward transformation (as contrasted with merely acting in certain ways) will lead to death because it leaves us bound either to dead legalism and rule-following (fundamentalism), or to our own lost selves who appealed to religion in the first place to escape our deadness and lostness (liberalism).

I have very little regard for religion, including Christianity, which is every bit as powerless in itself as any other religion.  It takes great effort to clear away the gunk that has accumulated over it and find in it the clear, refreshing, life of God.  The best spiritual writing and direction does exactly this. 

Seeking graphics help

November 7, 2009 in MISCELLANY with 2 Comments

I’m not much of a graphics guy.  I’d like to have some kind of picture to put with each post, but don’t really know where the sources of good pics are (you can tell I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel when I’m putting up pictures of me), and actually don’t have time to do pics in addition to writing the blog content.  I’d be open to anyone who might be willing to suggest pics for me for my posts.  I make $0.00/day writing this blog so there’s no money in it, but if anyone has an interest in graphics and would like the site to look better, I’d welcome some ideas!

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