The Here And Now

I had my mind blown the other day while reading for my Philosophy class. I was reading some of Hegel's work, and he basically asked what is now? What is here?

If I define those words according to dictionary.com, “here” is in this place, this spot, locally. That makes sense, except if you ask Hagel. Hagel argued that here is a tree. Therefore, the definition of here is the tree. This gets confusing when tomorrow, here is a house. Here is Three Hills Alberta (that is where I am, writing this post). Therefore, when someone in South Korea refers to “here”, he obviously means Three Hills. But he really means South Korea. Then someone in the UK refers to “here” and doesn’t mean Three Hills or South Korea, but the UK! We often use that word, “here” to make an objective truth. “Here is your keys that you lost they are here, you cannot argue that, it is an objective truth.” But I just proved that “here” can mean anywhere!

The same goes for “now”. dictionary.com defines “now” as at the present time or moment, but now is 7:05 on a tuesday night. No wait, now is 7:06. No wait, now is 7:07. Get my drift? Now is a constantly changing thing. It cannot be pinned down as one moment, because that moment instantly slips into the past. Now exists for sure, but it is a subjective being as its definition has now changed to 7:08.

For you, it might be 12 noon in the year 2035 and your domestic robot is reading this to you while you sunbathe on the planet mars,. It is still now and here. Both those words have changed, but they are still the same. Make sense?

Pastors Are Human Too

Last week my church had a meeting. It was your usual church AGM, they discussed a variety of things about the future of the church.

But the sermon that morning was anything but normal.

The pastor came up onto the stage and started off with “over the last year, I’ve taken the blame for a lot of things. It seems that anything that goes wrong is my fault. Even when it isn’t”.

Off the bat this made me tense. Being a pastor is not the easiest job in the world. They don’t just work on Sundays, they work everyday. During the week, they have to prepare their next sermon, usually they also counsel people, answer questions people have about their last sermon, and take care of the church. Most smaller churches like the one I attend don’t have many people working full time on site, so the pastor is also the janitor and maintenance guy. Often there are community organisations who will borrow the church gym or the church sanctuary; the pastor has to make sure that nothing goes wrong there. Churches are public buildings, which means they have to be inspected every now and then. Guess who has to arrange inspection, meet the inspector, and show the inspector around, then take the inspectors report and deal with it? The pastor. They have to do all this at the same time. Then when Saturday comes, they might not be in the office, but they’re still working. They have to preach tomorrow. You don’t really think that they’re not going to be going over their sermons to make sure that everything is A-OK? I don’t know about you, but I get cold sweats the day before I have to give an oral presentation in front of my class of thirty. How do you think the pastor feels about giving an hour or more long sermon in front of a congregation of over 100?

So don’t blame the pastor when something goes wrong, he has enough on his plate. Why don’t you fix it instead? I’m sure the pastor would appreciate it.

He went on to explain that a lot of the criticism has come to him from third or even fourth hand information. This means that people have been talking behind his back.

Again, this made me even more tense. I’ve had people talk behind my back before, it made me furious when I found out. If you have anything to say about me, say it to my face. I can handle it. The same goes for your pastor. If you have something against him, say it to his face. He can handle it. In fact, it might help him fix the problem or ensure it never happens again. And if your pastor thinks you’re misguided, he can explain it to you. The world advances only when dialogue and the sharing of ideas happens.

He then went on to list some of the things that people were saying against him; most of them were fairly run of the mill, too long, too short, boring, over-stimulating etc. There was one that stuck out to me: too much scripture. I know it’s not new, I’m sure many pastors have heard it before, but this was the first time I’ve heard it, and it made me mad…

“All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching” (2 Timothy 3:16). A sermon cannot be wishy washy jazz made up by the pastor using the facebook post of his 13 year old niece twice removed as an authoritative source. (Now I’m not saying that he can’t use the post to illustrate a point, but he can’t use her words to replace scripture.) Ultimately, he is preaching about God. He is trying to get the truth about God across to his audience. Who is the greatest authority on God? God. As I said above, scripture is God breathed, therefore it is the ultimate earthly authority on God. Pastors should use it as much as possible.

Ultimately, as my pastor said, God chooses weak vessels to give to the church. Your pastor is human. He is not God. Love him, care for him, and remember that he is doing his best.

Grow Up!

I’m in college now. Technically speaking, I’m an adult. Everyone says that because of that I should start acting like my age. But what does that mean?

Should I start reading complicated books that look extremely dry? I already do that in class…

Should I stop doing “childish things”? Define “childish things”. Does that mean not having a temper tantrum every time something doesn’t go my way? I don’t do that. Does that mean I’m a grown up?

In a way I think that does. But we need to be careful when we say that; being a grown up sometimes starts to mean you can’t act like a little kid every now and then.

If I were to stop acting like a little kid, I would probably go insane. Being silly, having fun, doing things that are kinda stupid is the best part of life.

I was crazy excited when when my roommate bought almost a kilo of raw cookie dough. I wasn’t going to cook any, I was just going to eat it as is. Just like when I was four.

When I make waffles at the continental breakfast, I still clean out the leftover batter from the little cup and eat that right away.

I went outside the other day to play in the snow with some friends. We made snow angels, then found a massive snow drift and started tunneling into it. Sure, one collapsed on me, but that made it even more fun.

I will willingly make an ice cream sundae with brownies and the whole nine yards. Even in winter.

Sledding with just a cardboard box and a garbage bag is also great childish fun that I will willingly do at the drop of a hat. Does all this mean I haven’t grown up? Or does it mean that I grew up well?

Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.

Snow Days

As I write this, there is a whole bunch of snow falling outside my window.

It’s windy, the snow drifts are building up, and some of the cars have snow built up all the way to their bumpers.

There were a few students trying to push a car out of the snow earlier, and there are some massive snowballs that a few students rolled outside the dorms.

I went out earlier just wearing a hoodie, and I was freezing! It’s extremely cold with this wind. A jacket is a must.

I’m listening to Walking in a Winter Wonderland, thinking bout papers that are coming up and wondering what I’ll do tonight.

I love this kind of day. Quiet with nothing to do but read and listen to music.

I have a tendency to try to work crazy hard, so I think God is trying to tell me to take it easy.

So I will. At least today.

Slow Down, You're Going Too Fast...

On Sunday we had an Australian (already awesome!) from MAF (that sweetens the deal even more!) come and visit to give a talk about MAF’s vision for the future with an emphasis on their modifications to the recruitment regime (you can probably guess why).

I’ve felt God calling me to fly for MAF for quite a few years now, so hearing that I might get to fly with them as soon as I graduate kinda got me excited.

I know, it’s good to be excited about your dreams, if you don’t have something to live for, you won’t live for anything, yada yada yada…

That sounds good in theory, but I haven’t even started ground school yet, let alone flying to the level that MAF would require! (Though I’ve gotten good on my flight simulator…) All this excitement makes it hard for me to focus on my classes, I just go off daydreaming (which isn’t hard for me to do at the best of times) and then miss the important parts of my lesson.

That’s not good for a student who has to have a certain minimum GPA to get to the airport in the first place…

SO, moral of the story, yes it’s good to pursue your calling, but for crying out loud, only do it when it won’t interfere with your calling.

What's the Catch?

Earlier this week, I went to Calgary with a bunch of people from the college to serve hot chocolate on the street. What happened has got me thinking.

Well, lots of things happened, but one thing happened constantly; this is the conversation that seemed to happen constantly as if on a broken record:

Hi there! Would you like a hot chocolate?

How much?

Free!

What’s the catch?

There isn’t a catch!

I’m not interested

That happened so often, it was ridiculous! And I started thinking how that seems to be the same thing people say about Christianity.

What’s the catch?

I don’t know if you would call it a catch, but I guess in a sense we do have to do something…

We have to be totally devoted. God doesn’t want half of you. He wants all of you. He doesn’t want lukewarm, He wants hot.

But here’s the thing, if you’ve accepted that Jesus died on the cross in your place, wouldn’t it follow logically that you would be willing to give everything?

If the God described in the Bible exists, and everything the Bible say about Him is true, how is it that we who believe this don’t live like it, giving everything?

You see, there is a catch: God doesn’t ask for anything, but if you truly understand and accept what He did, there is nothing that you should want to hold back.

You see, there is no catch: God doesn’t ask for anything, but if you truly understand and accept what He did, there is nothing that you should want to hold back.

Did I just contradict myself? I don’t think I did. Think about it.

Lot's Of Work To Do

I’m having difficulties keeping up with everything I’m doing right now.

I know, I’m only taking two and a quarter classes right now, but  have the two full classes four times a week. This means that I have to get the assigned work done immediately. I can’t really spread it out over two days. This creates the four hour reading sessions like the one I posted about in my last post, and also means assignments come in thick and fast.

I really don’t mind these intense workloads. I really don’t, but they do mean that I don’t have a whole lot of time to socialise with my friends, or to have time for adventures. Of course, all that means is that there isn’t a whole lot of things happening that I can post on this blog. I will continue posting, but there won’t always be ground-breaking things to say.

Though I still have entertaining things to talk about.

One of the things that we have to do for our aviation training is learning what to do when things don’t go as planned. On of these things that don’t go as planned is, of course, crashing in the middle of no where.

So we spend a week learning about wilderness survival.

We try to replicate the worst possible conditions, which means in the middle of no where, in winter, with minimal food for a few days.

From what I understand, we will go to a camp west of here where we will spend a day or two learning how to make shelters, fire, etc, then we go off to the middle of no where, and have to survive for five days with only one change of clothes, a sleeping bag, therma rest, and not much food. I’m not to worried, I just need to buy the necessary clothes to stay warm, but not everyone is in the same boat.

This is gonna be fun. I can’t wait.

Plato's Republic

I am taking a class on western philosophy this term. I was assigned to read Plato’s Republic. I didn’t actually have to read the whole thing, but it still took me four hours. I had to do a précis of my readings. I have included it here along with some extra.

Which is better, justice, or injustice? It is difficult to decide, one must use the analogy of a city. To function well, a city needs people to do a variety of things. These specialized workers need to have someone in power to rule them. These rulers are verified by their ability to hold to their beliefs  and in so doing, we have a city. The first thing to find in our city is wisdom. The city is run by rulers who know what is good, and rule accordingly. Secondly, courage is found in the guardians who are trained to know what to fear and what not to fear. They cannot lose this and will not fear in battle. Thirdly, we must find moderation. This is found again in the ruling powers who know what is good, and implement it on lesser who know only pleasure, but they recognize that what their rulers suggest is good, and obey it willingly. Finally, we must find justice. Justice is easy to find if we know where to look. It is found in the people who do their work that they know and not the work of others that they do not know. What is interesting, is that if a man is being treated justly, he will be unjust to satisfy his cold, hunger, or thirst. But if he is being treated unjustly, he will endure his cold, hunger and thirst so as to be just. Therefore, justice breed injustice while injustice breeds justice. However, once one has experienced justice, he can obey nothing else and wants to bring those in the grips of injustice into justice.

So where does this leave us? Which is better, Justice, or injustice? Plato (or Socrates, we’re not sure) argued (though I didn’t understand the arguments) that justice is better. I disagree. Based off his arguments that I have summed up above, injustice is better. If justice breeds injustice, the presence of justice would be damaging in the long term. If justice reigns, the many will be unjust while the few will be just. On the other side of the coin, if injustice breeds justice, the presence of injustice would be damaging in the short term, but beneficial in the long term. Though the many would suffer, they would learn the meaning of a just life. The few would be unjust, but the many would be just.

Furthermore, those who live in a just world want to relieve those in the unjust world, but cannot and thus feels unfulfilled whereas those living in injustice do not.

So, bring on the tyrannical dictators!

(Before I receive a landslide of hate-mail, please note that this is meant to be ironic. I don’t mean what I’m saying.)