Well, yesterday I finished the first five books of the Bible.
The experience so far has been amazing and, surprisingly, emotional. There are times where I'm sitting there, reading the very spoken words of God.. and I feel so disconnected to what He's talking about. So far, a huge percentage of the words of God are so many rules, regulations, and architectural designs. He loves a people who are polygamists, screw-ups, and courageous. And this nation memorizes and memorizes and memorizes these words.
I think that reading the Bible almost expects you to have read it before. There are several points in these first five books where I've felt like I should already know something. Where it seems like it would make so much more sense if I already knew the ending. Like if I was living with this nation day in and day out and I knew more, there would be so much more significance.
I think that's kind of how it's supposed to be, maybe? Maybe we who are not a part of God's chosen nation weren't meant to be a part of this story UNTIL we could know the end. It wouldn't make sense to us until we came in through the blood of Christ. Because without Christ, without knowing what He did/is going to do to make us a part of this nation... then a lot of this just still doesn't fully resonate with me. I don't connect with laws and ideas dealing with multiple wives... because I'm never going to have multiple wives. I don't know much about pouring out blood from freshly killed animals... because I buy my meat from Kroger.
It's emotional, because I just wish I had done this before. I want to already have all this knowledge, I already want to understand the realtionship between Moses and God. I want this.
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So I was at the John Edwards kick-off event here in Nashville today... for about 15-20 minutes (had to pick up Ashley). The event was changed to a memorial service for the shootings at Virginia Tech at the last moment. We got to see Mr. Edwards wave at people, the associate minister of the West End Methodist Church prayed, and then some blue grass band played (they were introduced as the coolest guy since Elvis).
I've never been to a political rally before... so it was interesting. I almost felt bad for John - the shooting took up all the media attention, so I think he know he wasn't going to get any kind of play on CNN or what not. And.... there really weren't a lot of people there. Only the inner circle on the bottom was filled... from the stage to the wheelchair aisles:
The balcony was then filled between 6-10 rows deep. It really wasn't what I expeceted... but I think that might have been because it started at 4; not a lot of a chance for people to get out of work and such.
All in all, it was neat to go, if only for a few minutes. I'd like to start going to more of these kinds of things... things meaning free events.
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The balcony was then filled between 6-10 rows deep. It really wasn't what I expeceted... but I think that might have been because it started at 4; not a lot of a chance for people to get out of work and such.
All in all, it was neat to go, if only for a few minutes. I'd like to start going to more of these kinds of things... things meaning free events.
originally published on Reading the Bible in 90 Days
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Oi - so I, too, was tempted to skim the details of all this building and making clothes and getting everything JUST RIGHT. However, this is the stuff I’ve never read before, never really heard before. We hear the story part of Exodus, how the Isrealites get away from Pharoh… but so much of Exodus is really about constructing the Ark, the sacrifice tables, and how exactly God’s nation was to offer their sacrifices to Him. We even get the formula for a perfume (that no one can wear except the priests… it’s amazing how tempting it is to try to make the perfume, just to see what smells so pleasing to God). So we have these long sections of scripture that isn’t just God-inspired, they are they very words of God. This is God, the very one who created the Universe. So His words should just resonate with our soul, right? They should brin enlightenment and help us understand why we’re here, right? All the questions we would love to ask God, and the unknowns… and we get paragraph after paragraph of how to build thing, what colors the robes should be, and how to burn meat. I mean… really? Where’s the mystery? Where’s magic and wonder and “why did you even create us”? Where’s the “why do you let bad things happen to good people”? Where’s the “how do I know You’re real”? We get… intricate directions on how to make stuff. Which, I imagine, somehow makes sense. God is the ultimate architect; He was picky and peculiar about how He made the laws of physics… I suppose he can be picky about a box He’s going to call His home. He made the colors of the rainbow, so I guess he can be picky about what colors his priests wear. He made all the smells; from the smell of dog to the smell of bleach to the smell of peppemint. If he likes cinnamon, I think God can be picky and say He likes cinnamon. These are the sights and smells and texures God is going to recieve offerings around; He can be picky and choosy. Perhaps this is all part of the point… maybe our questions don’t really matter so much. Maybe if we sat and listened, God would talk to us about the things He likes, instead of us telling Him what He should like. Instead of us telling Him what we like, and thusly, He should like it too. It’s strange to think that there are things that God just… likes. I imagine when Christ returns he’ll be partial to some version Mariam’s “Horse and Rider” and reminisce of eating the fat from a calf. He like jewels and gold and maybe even turbans. It’s hard, because I want to think that God would like my own favorite bands, like OtR or William Shatner… but we have so little idea of what He likes. Unless we look at these long passages and find out that yes, God is partial to certain colors. That yes, He likes things built by skilled craftsmen. That yes, God does have opinions and likes and dislikes. These passages make Him more than just a God for architects or a God for fashion designers… these long passages are God showing He likes things a certain way; that He does care about the details. Now to go find some cinnamon…originally published on Reading the Bible in 90 Days
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Well, I finished Genesis today. I must say, it's rather enjoyable as one flow of a story.
I remember I used to always think that the geneologies were annoying and boring. However, when read as a part of the meta-narrative, they are an incedible literary technique and a great critique on the people presented. The geneologies serve as a very fluid way of travelling down time to the next major event. I also love how they show importance to the stories... the major characters are not left out - their decendents are always told. But sometimes, that's all that's told about a person... and that shows the storyteller's attitude toward that person. However, what most stood out to me in the stories of Genesis is the importance of sex and keeping the lineage alive. God is opening and closing the wombs of the women all throughout the stories. Rebekah, Rachel, Tamar... concubines of Pharoh... I love how in Genesis sex is treated with such high, powerful regard. God is intimately involved in their sexual relations. Even other nations understood the intimacy of sex, and begged for forgiveness when mistepping. Whole cities were destroyed for the rape of a sister. It seems almost that nothing was more sacred than a man's relations with a woman. I wish there was still that respect for other people in today's world. Whenever someone wronged another, they would beg for forgiveness, on their knees, calling themselves "your servant." Nowadays, far to often, when we wrong someone we seek to justify it. Joseph accused his brothers of stealing his cup. Though they knew they didn't actually do it, the proof was there, so they admitted to it. They didn't understand what had happened, but they knew they had wronged this Egyptian ruler and they could only let him judge them. They put themselves at his mercy, instead of trying to cast blame. All in all, I liked Genesis as a complete story. Watching this family of generations ebb and flow and try to do things right, all the while stumbling along making mistakes is simply beautiful. Getting these little vignettes of life from them... they are so raw and human. They are so brave and yet so scared. What I think I love the most about these stories is that there's nothing particularly special about them. They're just a traveling people, holding fast to a promise that God made them - and slipping from that grip just a little here and there.originally published on Reading the Bible in 90 Days
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Today began the first day that I will be attempting to read the entire Bible in 90 Days. In my brief life I’ve read bits and pieces here and there; I would assume that I’ve read at least half of it, if not more… I was a Religious Education major after all. I know I’ve read all of the New Testament, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually gone through the whole of the Old Testament. I guess in some ways this is some fabled rite of passage; to read the whole Bible, word for word.
It’s embarrassing, really, that I’ve never done this before. I imagine Jesus’ boyhood friends would have made fun of me for not having the whole thing memorized when I was still a child. Our society, unfortunately, doesn’t really encourage the process of reading through the whole Bible, of truly knowing it all. Instead, when faced with the idea of reading this text that we proclaim as so important to my every day, thought and breath, most people I talk to say something along the lines of “good luck” or “wow”. Why is actually reading the Bible marked with such wonder and amazement?
Why haven’t I done this before? Why has it taken me so long to try and find the motivation… or time… or just plain desire to read it cover to cover? Why haven’t my friends encouraged such an activity… or modeled it for me?
I’m blessed to be in community where several of our church members underwent this same task last summer. Unfortunately, at that time, I was in class and teaching myself the fundamentals of programming. I knew I wouldn’t be able to devote the proper time, attention and thought to such an intensive reading of the Bible.
Now, this time, myself and a few of my friends are doing this together. I hope that we’ll be able to process through these stories together and bounce ideas around. I hope that others will join the conversation. I hope that I’ll be an encouragement to others. I hope that I’ll do this again and again for the rest of my life.
So today I read through the first 16 chapters of Genesis. I find it amazing how long the fathers of humanity lived; how many of their great-great-great grandchildren they were alive and blessed to see. How many generations of this great family tree heard Adam’s version of Eve giving him the apple. How many times was Eve the mid-wife for her own descendants, weeping over the pain of childbirth? How many sons of sons cursed Adam for bringing upon them the curse of a toiled ground? How many of them couldn’t understand why they never got to meet Abel… or Cain?
I want to run the numbers, and figure out how many of them were still alive when the flood came… how many of them mocked Noah for thinking he heard from the Lord?
I read today in the plane, on the way home from New Mexico. I thought I was in the private, I thought I was reading and just enjoying it on my own. But as we taxied to the gate, the elderly lady next to me learned over and gently told me in that whisper-voice of one who has seen so many years, “Keep up the good work. Read it thoughtfully.”
My reading encouraged her; and she encouraged me. Why haven’t I done this before?
off to the desert we go! bright and early in the morning (6:30), Ashley and I will be on a plane to NM for the weekend. I'm looking forward to getting to meet Holly's new husband, and Ashley's mom's new fiancee. I'm hoping to get some reading done, and finish up some writing projects I've been working far too long on.
I personally love plane rides as I get plenty of time to be focused on getting things done. 4 hours in the air sounds great to me!
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There are going to be new questions that need new answers. There are truths that the Christian body will always hold on to - and should hold on to. But the fact that we have opinions, that we hold to truths and that we oppose the chaging morals and new actions of the cultre.... the fact that we disagree with the movement of society does not mean that society is not moving. Our whole culture is wrestling with these questions... so don't we as a body of believers need the freedom to figure out what we're going to do with these questions?
How soon will we have to deal with the question of do human clones have souls? Do they have ties to the garden of Eden? Are they a new thing, a continuation of the human race and so on and so forth? I can ask a million questions... but before we even get there, do we wrestle with this?
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Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human
What do I do with a sheep that is 15% human? If I decide now that the DNA that makes this sheep scientifically human is NOT human, then what do I decide when the DNA is half human? When the sheep is 51% human... more human than sheep?
Human clones... when they happen, we can talk to them. We can see them and love them and maybe the Holy Spirit will bring forth a prophet who can see the maybe-souls of the duplicated race. Not matter what, if I meet a clone in my lifetime, then I will err on the side of love and grace and choose to know that clone like I would choose to know any other human being.
But what in the world do I do with a sheep/human chimera?
In my lifetime, faith and the spiritual are only going to get more and more complicated. I fear that we as a body of Christ have gotten so caught up with spiritual milk that meat is almost foreign to our bodies.
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For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of God’s revelation. You need milk, not solid food. Heb 5:12 (HCSB)So what are these basic principles?
Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, 2 teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And we will do this if God permits. Heb 6:1-3 (HCSB)There's the list, right there. Those are things we should understand, we should believe in as fundamental, basic aspects of the Christian life. I don't remember the last time I heard a sermon about laying on of hands... let alone the resurrection of the dead. Let's be honest; I'm not even sure I know what he means by resurrection of the dead in this context? I feel like every now and then I get pieces of meat... but I've drunk so much milk that I can't even process it all. Is that the issue with my generation? Have we been fed so much milk that we've become lactose-intolerant? Is that why so many of my friends have lost contact with a church; because they've had their fill of milk and it was becoming sour? I'm not saying there's no meat out there to be had... but i want to be ready and strong for the days when new questions are asked, when we have less answers, and when faith-in-something becomes so very neccessary.
rock*
Originally uploaded by aaronlinne.
had first real frustrating night with the camera.... lots of pictures turend out blurry, out of focus, etc. it was disappointing to look at 141 photos and only a couple of them be decent, and even les be "good". I guess it's ok to have an off night.
I need to learn more about what I"m actually doing with this camera. Shooting from a distance to a stage deffinately takes some finesse. One of my problems, I think, is that the drummer was really well lit, but Sh4wn wasn't. As suck, it was messing up my shutter, focus, etc. Like I said, I need to learn some of the more technical stuff so I can shoot more manually.
On a good note, however, lowercase collective rawked tonight. Even though I've been to dozens of the shows, I'm usually performing with them as a VJ. We didn't do that tonight, so I got to see the actual show and se them rock out. They haven't played out in a few months, but they seemed tighter as a band than ever. Seriously good job, guys
I keep looking for what is games as art, and now I found it:
http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/
Download the game, but don't read the instructions until you've played it a few times. This is definately worth 5 minute of your day.
So why is Will Wright's keynote so interesting to me? The core of the keynote was a demonstration of his upcoming game, Spore. Yes, thi in itself is interesting. But what's more interesting is his actual talk, his actual reasoning for developing the game the way he did. What's interesting is the circle of story and how story - and thus, storytelling - has evolved.
According to Wright, stories are unchanging. They are a chain of events that flow through a larger story.
This, in of itself, warrents some conversation. If stories are unchanging, can we permit stories to be resurrected and retold in new ways, but still retain the same beats and characters and passion; can stories remain unchanging yet flow through a different set of larger events?
The most ready example of this would be the multitude of Hollywood remakes of older movies. What makes these resurected stories successful - and what makes them such failures? And what of stories that are created to be resurrected; there has for years been an X-Men comic, but now there is a movie series as anew version of the smae basic stor, along with multiple cartoon series, video games, and even a refreshed Ultimate X-Men series of comics.
Wright clarifies two of the strengths of linear storytelling:
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1) The audience is engaged in not only the story being told, but also the myriad of directions the story can go 2) The storyteller knows the ending and, as such, can craft details and steps to better take the audience to the themes and morals of the story.This leads us to see that the storyteller has an obligation to the audience; not only myst they string together events to head toward some sort of resolution, the storyteller must put his audience on a path that makes sense, and that perhaps could have been deduced from across the myriad of possible outcomes; and that the storyteller's path was once worth listening instead of the audience departing down an alternate path in their own mind. But now, Wright tells us something different is happening: "Computers can start understanding what story a player is following, and the game can change on the fly to adapt to that type of story. Eventually games will learn player behavior a lot faster through adaptive mapping and story parsing, so the player's intended story can change, via music, events, lighting, and even the events that happen in the game. "This is similar to what happens to Jim Carrey and The Truman Show. He's wandering around through his life, and the director is controlling what happens to him, but he can't break the bonds of what 'Truman's Life' is." The Truman Show and Groundhog Day are the two best examples of linear storytelling." It is possible for Wright to adapt the story being told to the audience's choices; now longer is it a storyteller and an audience; the storyteller is crafting the player's story. So how is this reflected in society? How can a book publisher engage a world where linear stories have evolved? How can we resurrect stories that are integral to our lives into player stories that are dynamic and change with each action we take? If stories are becoming more and more lifelike - to the point of being almost organic and interacting with the storyteller and the story player - do stories become more important and life less so? How can I take the truths that I know and tell them as truths - as something more than just a story? edit: the link to Will Wright's Spore keynote coverage: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/13/sxsw-joystiq-live-at-the-will-wright-keynote/
Well, I just had two long, exciting days at work.
Now I'm a touch tired.
This week we brought people in for usability tests on a new web service we're working on. Honestly, I have to say that the process was pretty exciting. Basically we get people to come in and look at the application, and I run them through each page asking them questions about what they're seeing and what they think is going to happen on the page.
It is truly remarkable how many things you see for the first time through someone else's eyes. The process was a tremendous success; some fairly consistent responses. I think one of the ways you can tell the testing works is when you get through 8 people and you're thinking "Gee, this one thing is so obvious. I wish we had just changed it earlier so we could have gotten different feedback". If everyone has a similar/same complaint, then clearly it's something we need to fix.
I feel just a complete sense of success from yesterday and today's usability testing.
Unfortunately, it was almost like a siren's call telling me it's time to think about what comes next for me career-wise. In my current job I do project management, usability testing, website statistics/metrics, iTunes sales, technical support, etc etc. I enjoy it all, but I'm still trying to see what's next; will one of those portions of work be able to turn into a full-time oppertunity for me? I've been able to excel/succeed in almost everything they've thrown at me... I'm ready to dive in deep into one of them. I've been in this role for two years now; it seems so long to me but I'm sure my bosses see that as such a short period of time.
Come what may, I'll make an adventure of it. I hope that I'm telling the story of hope and love every day; I hope that I'm a storyteller first and a customer service tech second, a statistician second, a project manager second. Life is a good story; I'm glad to be living it.
Ah, how stream-of-consciousness posts can make such little sense. I hope to catch my breath this weekend and think about Will Wright's keynote.
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this keynote may be the most important speech for culture/technology in 2007:
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/13/sxsw-joystiq-live-at-the-will-wright-keynote/
That keynote alone is enough to make me want to go to SXSW next year. I hope to be able to synthesize it and give some thoughts on it later... but there's a LOT there to chew on. Seriously, give it a read; it's dead on with where culture is going.
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Ah, stretching. The pulling away of what you thought was good towards that which is better.
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I love talking to people who aren't my age.
I got to have lunch today with one of my new favorite people, Matt Tullos. He's works where I do, and we've gotten to know each other through random circumstances and projects. Today I asked him a question:
Why doesn't our workplace have a mentoring program?
So many businesses have these great mentoring programs where the new employees come in and get paired with some people who have been there much longer. I know I made plenty of mistakes as a brash new employee five years ago. I would have loved to of had someone to take me under their wing and help me out a bit. Thankfully I've been there long enough now to have made these relationships on my own, and I can go out and call people like Matt a friend and someone I can learn from.
So Matt and I had lunch and we got to share and dream and talk about how these jobs of ours should work. I learned about a few of his stuggles, he learned a few of mine. The excitement in his soul when he talked about this church he was working with, refreshing. It was good, and real, and easy.
This evening I got to spend some quality time with one of the guys who goes to my church, Joe. We sat out in the cold and just talked and were real and open about a number of issues. We talked about more real things in that hour or so than I have with some friends I've know for months/years. There's something so much more satisfying about talking about the more real things - the spiritual, the humanity - than talking about entertainment and assignments.
Sitting around with a group I just opened up and asked one of the girls, "What's your deep, dark secret? What is it you're struggling with right now" - and she answered. She offered herself to the group... and we all went around and were honest and said "here's what's on my mind right now". But Joe had the guts and boldness to say "Ok Aaron, you shared about this. But what about this, and this, and this - how are those things?" And so we talked and were open and choose to be real - and it was easy to be real.
I love being able to just talk with someone about things less mundane. Give me your real opinion, your real sturggles and, perhaps most importantly, your real joys. Tell me what makes you smile, what makes you prideful, and what dream you want to have tonight.
God made all of us, and then honored us by saying "Go, play. Interact. You are worthy to be a part of the life of my other creations. Enjoy it." It feels so good to be able to honor other people and say "You story is worthy for me to hear; and you are worthy to hear my story."
Maybe that's what mentoring really is; honoring and listening and sharing.
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Originally uploaded by aaronlinne.
Hooray! We went crazy and bought a new camera today... we've got lots of stuff coming up to take photos of (Ashley's play, Holly's reception, etc etc). We got an Olympus E500; this thing is aMAzing.
Ah, the power of manual focus. How I have missed thee.
i found this old entry on one of my computers. I don't believe I've ever posted it anywhere.
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This is the first time since my mother began to explore Heaven that I've really been alone.
When you're driving, you still have to think about the road. On an airplane, you're surrounded by strangers. At your father's house he sleep just as restlessly as you down the hall.
So here, in New Mexico of all places, I find myself alone. And this is good.
I will admit - I have been frustrated that I wasn't at my mother's side when she passed on. It's so so odd to think that we live in a world that sons don't get to see their mother's death bed. In the days of old, the miles of distance between myself and my mother at her time of death would have been unfathomable. But there I was, playing with lights.
I'm not mad, I'm not upset that I wasn't there. I would have liked to have been, if only because I wonder in my mind if she knew I didn't come. If she knew I wasn't coming. And I hate the idea that her last thoughts of me were that I wasn't coming.
But I'm not upset, I'm not mad. I wasn't meant to see it. And it's kind of morbid to think that I would want to see a death. I've never seen a human die yet. How often does one see that experience?
The hardest part of her being gone are the little things. Having to remember not to ask to speak to mom when I call home. Remembering when her screenname shows up on AIM it's not her... just my dad clearing up her emails and informing her friends. Remembering not to look for Goofy dolls or Elvis stuff. Remembering to say I'm visiting my dad, not my parents. And the knowledge that my wife most likely will have never met her. And that my children won't have a grandmother on my side.
On the other hand... she's really in Heaven. She's really living the life we were created for. My mom had a great love for people and God. I don't know that she was all that theologically educated. Imagine her surprise when she got to Heaven and was given a Crown of Life, a Crown of Righteousness... and whatever other crowns might have been bestown upon her.
As hard as it is to say, I don't imagine that she's "looking down on us." Personally, I image my setting up a light show or editing a video is relatively uninteresting compared to the glory of God. But that's not to say God might direct her attention to us at times.... like weddings. Like births. Like when we're loving other people as Christ would. I don't know how it all works. And while that's annoying... at least I know she's in the best hands in creation (and... um... pre-creation?).
Sigh - I think I'll rest now. That's something I've not had much of a chance to do. I guess I'll post this when I get back into town, since I have no internet here in New Mexico. Its good sometimes to be able to truly be alone.
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I feel like I've been taking a long rest.
When you get married, there's a reshaping that happens in one's life. You figure out how important finances are. How important balancing personal introspection with shared conversation. You learn social cues, you discover more about yourself than you maybe care to. You create awesome memories and strive to become the man your wife thinks you are.
I imagine when I look back on these early years of our marriage, I'll love the little things we did together as much as the hard conversations. Just looking back to when I was 22, graduating college and had my first real job how naive and silly it all was. And when I realize that was five years ago... precious time why are you always fleeting?
So here's to another stab at these things we call blogs, and here's to the exciting foolishness of thinking I have something to say!
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