Things Change (or maybe not)

Things change, people change, friends change, organizations change, times change,
...and we move on. 
Or maybe things stay pretty much the same and we change,
...and move on.

Sometimes I wonder about that.
How much have I changed?
How much have I held on to while the world around me changed?
Do I try to fit in where I no longer do?
Or do I accept the changes (whether changes in me or others) and move on (or remain still, as the case may be)?

It's just a weird contemplation of how we interact with each other for seemingly brief moments in time and then continue on separate paths. I like it when some of those paths intersect farther down the road and we get to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances. Technology has helped us to remain in contact with people even though our life paths have diverged greatly.
It is a little strange when you find yourself wanting to keep in contact with someone that is content to move on without that connection. I'm sure that works both ways.
And that's okay.

Today looks like another beautiful day in the Ozarks. 
It will be sunny and hot with the heat index topping 100.
I need to send a couple of cigars to one of those old friends that I am happy to have reconnected with in recent years (thanks to technology). I haven't decided if I'll do bike night tonight. I'll probably skip the trip into Springfield for Barchurch. I may just end up on the deck with a cigar and a drink and a book.
I think I'll prep for a Friday morning trip to the recycling center followed by some kayak time on the James River.

I hope that life is grand along your path today. Perhaps it will intersect with an old friend or two. Or maybe you'll find a new friend.

John

Things that make you go, "Hmmm..." (in the Bible)

I haven't kept up with the thinking-about-the-Bible posts, but I have been thinking about some of the weird stuff found in its pages. Before I continue with weird stuff from Genesis, what are some of the weird things that you've read or heard about from the Bible or from the Bible lessons you've been taught?
To be fair, much of the stuff I just accepted as a kid or even as a learning adult. You make this assumption that the people teaching know what they're talking about, but really they just know what somebody else that didn't know jack shit taught them. 
Conservative Christians are in this culture (emphasis on cult) that doesn't allow for questioning the content or counters questions with some "That's just what I've been taught," bullshit.

In Genesis 6 we find that the sons of God see that the daughters of men are pretty hot and decided to rape them at will. The offspring are basically giants and things on earth are going to hell in a hand-basket. This apparently catches our omnipotent and omniscient God by surprise. God regrets ever having created man and decides to wipe out humanity. Not being much of an animal rights activist, killing all the wildlife is just collateral damage, but God decides to preserve each species by saving a few to reproduce and repopulate the earth. 
God finds one family of humans that aren't totally corrupt and uses them to accomplish the goal of saving the animals and restarting the human population, as well. Man, talk about your shallow gene pool! 

The whole idea of spiritual beings taking on human form and raping women to birth some kind of super beings that corrupt the earth is bizarre enough without the part about God tossing up his hands and destroying all of (well, most of) creation. 
Seriously, wouldn't you scrap the whole thing and start over--new heaven, new earth, new beings. I'd probably skip the snake part of creation and I'd reconsider that idea of putting knowledge and eternal life in fruit trees, for sure!
And yet conservative literalists will insist that it happened just so and the universe is only a few thousand years old, science be damned!

I guess the thing I don't get is this--
If you are going to make up a creation story, wouldn't you come up with something better than a bumbling god that doesn't know what he's doing and can't keep control of his cosmic experiment?
If you ask me, this whole Judeo/Christian Old Testament is pretty much a power grab for control of humanity. It makes a base that's difficult to overcome with the idea of a New Testament savior. 

Reconciling evangelical deconstruction is difficult at best. Trying to figure out the stories of a book that are obviously not infallible nor inerrant is torture for a mere layperson like me.

What makes you pause and go "Hmmm...?"
Maybe we can figure some of it out together.

John

As a follower of Jesus, I...

I had lunch with an old friend last week. He is perhaps the only person from my former life as an evangelist that I've kept in contact with. He does struggle with many of the things that I once did and I definitely feel his pain, ...and his love for the people that he ministers to and deals with on a regular basis.

At some point during our conversation I responded to something he said with, "As a follower of Jesus, I..."
I don't remember what we were talking about at the time. I do remember his response to that beginning of my response.
He said, "10 years ago, did you ever think that you would have to come up with something other than Christian to describe yourself and your beliefs?"

In truth, it was probably about 10 years ago that I did start to refer to myself as a follower of Jesus rather than a Christian. It's likely true that many of my former evangelical friends wouldn't even refer to me as a Christian today. I suppose that's okay.

It is a little weird that I've had a couple of recent contacts about preaching or doing gospel magic shows. I went ahead and declined the opportunities after thanking the people for thinking of me. They obviously haven't heard of my heresy and I wouldn't want to get them in trouble or put them in the position of having to find a last minute replacement for their day/event.
This place of self growth and self learning is a better fit for me. 

Part of that self growth is in allowing others to be where I was and hoping that they will see some of the inconsistencies of what they say they believe and what Jesus actually teaches. So many New Testament preachers/teachers also rely heavily on the teachings of Paul, except for that part about bearing one another's burdens. If we are truly bearing the burdens of our brothers and sisters, we cannot sit by while they are suffering injustices. We have to be compelled to fight against the oppressors of other followers of Jesus.
I'm not sure I'm doing a very good job of that; certainly not good enough to judge somebody else over what they are or aren't doing.

Just sharing some of the thoughts in my head today.
Have a grand day and be kind.

John

Be Careful. There are People Out There.

It looks like it is going to be a people-ly week.

1)  It is my week for on-call Chaplain duty at Mercy Aurora
2)  Monday--Short Zoom meeting for the pre-Council meeting briefing (sounds better than the pre-Council meeting meeting, but it's a church thing, so...)
3)  Tuesday--Small group dinner
4)  Wednesday--Church Council meeting
5)  Thursday--Barchurch or Bike Night. I might need to exercise the stay-at-home-and-smoke-a-cigar option at this point.
6)  No plans yet (maybe a hospital visit). I'm really hoping for a no people kind of day.

Green County (Springfield MO area) has made the CDC's covid hot spot list. Being SWMO and all, there will be very little indoor masking going on in spite of the recommendation for it. I think most of us (in the area) know somebody that has had (or has) a lingering case of covid recently. If I do decide on a Thursday night activity--Barchurch indoors in Green County vs Bike Night outdoors outside of Green County--hmmm...

We are slowly slipping back into the dining out more often habit. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse that we live just far enough away from civilization to make going out a little less attractive. Sometimes it's just easier to stay home and fix something. Other times it's worth the drive not to. 
Eating well at home should be more of a thing for us. We are both good cooks. We both like a variety of foods. We're pretty good about sharing the cooking/cleaning duties. We generally have the ingredients to put on a decent meal. Sometimes we're just lazy...and privileged enough that we can decide to eat out.
sigh

Time to go see some people.
Ugh.

John

Beach Body

Yeah, I don't have one.
But I am taking the body I have to the beach.
Hopefully, I'll be taking a little less of a body to the beach.
Two months. That's how long I have to get beach ready.

I'm really not that vain.
I would go to the beach today with the body I have and I would enjoy myself. But since I just booked us on flights to Puerto Vallarta, I think I'll take advantage of the incentive to lose a little weight and get conditioned for walking the hills to and from the beach.
House/cat sitting for the kids 400 meters from the ocean is tough work, but as parents, we feel it's important to show our support.

In other news...

Okay, I don't really have any other news.
I'm enjoying/enduring the hot, humid Midwest summer, the flowers are blooming, I might go to bike night again this week (I might not), and all of the other very typical, ordinary stuff that I do (and love doing) every day.
It's a pretty simple life (with or without the beach body).

I'm thinking about a new little project--a flowerpot smoker.
Here's one (of many) video on building one.
I haven't priced anything yet, but figure I should be able to get everything I need for less than a C-note.
I'll get back to you if I actually do this.
Other than that, I'll be doing the old man, retired guy thing while trying to do the beach body prep at the same time.

Enjoy the day. We're looking at another 100F (38c) kind of day in the Ozarks.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 

John

The Fourth of July and Circling Back Nearly 250 Years

I'm not going to lie--this year's Fourth of July celebration doesn't have the usual "Love my country" vibe that it once had. 
I wonder what those early Americans that revolted against taxation without representation, nation religion, and government by monarchy would think of our current USA where the richest get the tax breaks and the Highest Court of the land imposes religious standards to our laws as we move closer to an authoritarian government.
I am not without hope. I'm just not lovin' what we're doing right now.

We'll have a few friends over for a cookout tomorrow and we'll watch the neighbor's better than most small rural towns' fireworks display, but I'm not sure I'd call it celebrating.
Don't get me wrong. I am happy for the freedoms we have, but I really believe that we've moved to a society that is far more concerned with individual personal freedoms than with what is best for all of us.
When did we become so damned selfish?

I know there are plenty of people that don't agree with my simple way of thinking, but I really don't think that the striving-for-more lifestyle is all it's cracked up to be. We're pretty comfortable, but our cars are older, we live in a modest home in a small rural community, and we watch our budget like most people.
I enjoy the peace and stress free life of enjoying the modest privilege that is mine more than needing to have more. I certainly don't feel like taking away from others is going to elevate my position in society.

sigh

Sorry to be a downer on the holiday weekend.
Enjoy your families and friends and your time together. Eat food, drink responsibly, and have fun blowing shit up.
I'll probably be more contemplative about how we can protect the freedoms that we appear to be losing.

John

Morning Work

I'm a slow starter in the mornings.
I like my quiet time and coffee.
I generally scroll through a little social media, read a few blogs, read a little of a  book or two, and just sit for a bit while I enjoy my morning coffee.
I tend to put off the morning's chores for as long as I can. 

The downside is that it gets pretty warm pretty quickly in July and that can be tough on an old, fat guy. Fortunately, I have no problem with taking breaks as I need them or knocking off earlier than originally planned.
I did get a couple of crepe myrtles in the ground yesterday and have two more to plant today. I also have a small maple tree to plant from pot to ground. It doesn't sound like much, but digging three tree holes in this hard rocky soil will pretty much do me in for the day. I need to spread a little mulch in one of the landscape areas and should be able to get that done, as well. 
And if not today, there is always tomorrow.

I find that working in the yard, watering plants, planting trees, etc., has a way of connecting me to the earth and to The Creator. A big part of what disturbs me about the SCOTUS ruling concerning the EPA is how it ignores the symbiotic relationship we have with the planet and allows those that can't see beyond their own immediate monetary gains to continue to destroy what is left of our environment. 
We have to do better. We have to take care of the earth for the future generations of humanity. 

*sigh*

It's time to plant a tree (or two).

John