Archaeology is legal grave robbing.
McDonald’s Monopoly prizes have gone downhill.
I hate shopping for health insurance.
Just a few random things on my brain. I may or may not elaborate on them later.
I had cause to look through some of my old calendars this week. (Thankfully not because I have to testify in front of the Senate and someone is accusing me of something while hoping I can’t prove I was elsewhere.) I used to take better notes. I have never been a good journaler. I have the best of intentions and approximately 4,000 journals, but I get too in my head about it.
My sister and I had a brief discussion on the importance of letters vs diaries in historical research. We agreed that diaries tend to be better because they weren’t written with the intent that anyone one would read them. The writer can be much more honest about their feelings than in a letter. There are exceptions, of course, and I shudder for future historians who have to sift through thousands of meme posts and pictures of food. Most people’s online lives are incredibly curated these days. We’re probably going to present as two cultures living side by side - one that is entirely online and one that is entirely offline, with a very thin overlap.
My apologies, future historians. You have such profound quotes as “It’s giving” to inspire your youth.
This may have gotten away from me.
Life is a little complicated these days. There’s a lot of stuff I can’t talk about yet, family illnesses I’m trying to keep track of, and a new feeling of kinship with Martin Luther.
I think I’ve said before that I understand why the Protestant Reformation happened, I just wish it hadn’t had to. I will admit, life was probably less complicated when you weren’t allowed to read Scripture for yourself and were just told what to believe. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a brain.
Yes, I’m being vague. But speaking broadly, what, if anything, would make you leave your church? I switched churches a year in to living here because the same person introduced themselves to me three weeks in a row. The church was just a little too big, and while I appreciated the sermons, Sunday morning had started to feel like a performance where the pastor threw bread at ducklings under a disco ball. I was looking for substance and connection. I knew I had found the right church for me when the pastor started his sermon with “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” God very rarely puts out a blinking neon sign, but I figured when he does, I should be prepared to follow it.
I’m reminded of Adoniram Judson. When I was younger, my father made my sister’s read “To the Golden Shore” to get out of punishment. I read it because I read everything. Judson has long been considered the first Protestant missionary to Burma, now Myanmar. But one thing I had forgotten is that Judson and his wife broke off from their sending church on the voyage over. They had become convinced that the practice of infant baptism was not supported by Scripture.
It takes a lot of conviction as a missionary to leave the church that is financially supporting you and still continue with your mission. Now, I call it conviction because I happen to agree with their conclusion. I imagine their sending church might have called it hubris. I’m sure there were plenty of people who thought the Judsons had been led astray by false teaching. I’m sure there were others who would have suggested keeping their newfound realization to themselves - taking the money and running, as it were.
But they chose to be honest.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned him before, but Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) is a noted atheist. However, he has frequently said that if you truly believe in Heaven and Hell, it is hateful to remain silent. “If Jesus is first place in your life, wouldn’t you tell people about Him? If the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, why wouldn’t you share the gospel?”
People leave churches for a lot of reasons these days. Some are understandable, some are ridiculous, and some require a lot of jumping through hoops to justify. But I think if your church is preaching something you profoundly disagree with, you are honor bound to call it out. Not publicly, not at first. You don’t have to make a spectacle of it. But if you can back up your position biblically and the church doesn’t take you seriously, you have a choice to make.
Oh look. Free will to make choices. Who woulda thunk?
Anyway.
So there was a big computer security breach this week that may or may not have effected our work on publishing. My understanding is that the barrier between ne’er-do-wells and our private data was the number 4, and if that’s true, I would like to have a word with that person. Also, how do you get away with a password of 4?! Every website these days has a list of things I have to include in my password, and do they provide that list when I’m trying to remember my password? No, no they do not, so I get locked out of something because I’m trying to remember if I used the one with the special character or not.
I spent last weekend with my parents and still managed to accomplish most of what I set out to do despite one of those family illness things cropping up. My mom officially has a new computer that is 90% set up. I didn’t have the dock to connect the second monitor.
Lots of meetings this week. They were mildly useful. I also worked on the other half of my Chinese project. I didn’t quite get it done, but I made good progress.
I’m losing my Train & Multiply knowledge. I spend so much time in VCP these days that my InDesign skillz are getting rusty. First world problems.
I can’t think of anymore tangents, so I think this is it. Please join me in studiously ignoring the impending holiday season.
Bye!
