Yeah! REAL progress!
The outline is finished, and now I have to review it and make sure it's the story I want to tell. I'm also going to start writing the actual stuff, so that is really exciting.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Timshel: God isn't a linear God
Recently, a particle dubbed "neutrinos" was said to travel faster than light. It turns out the measurements were wrong and Einstein was right again: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Why is this important? This not only vindicates Einstein's theory of relativity, it also vindicates God. Whoa there, you might say. But it's really simple: God isn't tied down to the time/space fabric. Confused?
Yesterday, we had our weekly worship with the 7th floor gang (and a few others.) In these conversations we sit and talk about a subject (last week was faith--read Andrew Stevens' blog for that one) and this week we delved into scripture and talked about the importance of knowing all sorts of sciences and arts to understand the Bible better and about Genesis. We talked about God's character, and we used the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16) as the catalyst.
What this all boiled down to was verse seven, which says 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (NIV) and 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. (KJV). We took Lee's East of Eden approach to this verse and discussed why the King James Version (and others) said "you shalt rule over him" (him meaning sin) and the NIV (and others) said "you must rule over it." Shall is a promise that he would conquer sin (which didn't happen) and "must" is an order to conquer sin (which also didn't happen.) It turns out that the word there is Timshel, which also can be translated "you mayest." As in, "if you want to, you can."
It's not "can I go to the restroom?" when you're little, it's "may I?" And the teacher said, "you may." God here is giving Cain the choice: if you want to, you can. It's our choice to defeat sin. This gives us room to fail.
After we went through this, we talked about free will, and we all had our theories on it. However, one of us said that they couldn't wrap their head around the fact that if God knew what we were going to do next it wasn't really our choice. We all tried explaining but nothing satisfied him, except that God chooses not to know.
We ended like this because we have these conversations not to convince each other that I'm right and you're wrong, but to understand each other's viewpoints. But this intrigued me, and another night was spent thinking instead of sleeping. I thought about how if God chose not to know, He wouldn't know how or when to intervene because He would be just as blind as us.
Then I remembered the importance of knowing all sorts of sciences and physics.
I'm going to skip all the ways relativity works because I would probably get lost and this post would be five times as long, but one of the things that stuck with me was that if you were to travel faster than the speed of light, weird things start to happen. All of a sudden, were you watching a fighting couple, you would hear someone say "ow!" before they get slapped. Insane, right? But I think this explains the whole dilemma: God is outside the time/space continuum, which means he doesn't live in a linear timeline: he's outside it, he sees everything at once, making hearing the "ow!" before the slap very possible. We usually think of God as setting a path, but with him it's not a path--it's not linear. The issue of thinking that if God knows what I'm going to do is thinking that He goes through time as us: except he has the ability to see ahead and we can't. But God doesn't deal that way: we are tied down to time, God is not.
C.S. Lewis explains this nicely in Mere Christianity: "Suppose God is above the time line. In that case what we call "tomorrow" is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call "today." All the days are "Now" for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not 'forsee' you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never suppose that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already "Now" for Him."
For God, it is at once 1948 and 2012 and 2048.
And then, I finally fell asleep. He truly says Timshel to us: it's our choice whether to live for Him or not.
Yesterday, we had our weekly worship with the 7th floor gang (and a few others.) In these conversations we sit and talk about a subject (last week was faith--read Andrew Stevens' blog for that one) and this week we delved into scripture and talked about the importance of knowing all sorts of sciences and arts to understand the Bible better and about Genesis. We talked about God's character, and we used the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16) as the catalyst.
What this all boiled down to was verse seven, which says 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (NIV) and 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. (KJV). We took Lee's East of Eden approach to this verse and discussed why the King James Version (and others) said "you shalt rule over him" (him meaning sin) and the NIV (and others) said "you must rule over it." Shall is a promise that he would conquer sin (which didn't happen) and "must" is an order to conquer sin (which also didn't happen.) It turns out that the word there is Timshel, which also can be translated "you mayest." As in, "if you want to, you can."
It's not "can I go to the restroom?" when you're little, it's "may I?" And the teacher said, "you may." God here is giving Cain the choice: if you want to, you can. It's our choice to defeat sin. This gives us room to fail.
After we went through this, we talked about free will, and we all had our theories on it. However, one of us said that they couldn't wrap their head around the fact that if God knew what we were going to do next it wasn't really our choice. We all tried explaining but nothing satisfied him, except that God chooses not to know.
We ended like this because we have these conversations not to convince each other that I'm right and you're wrong, but to understand each other's viewpoints. But this intrigued me, and another night was spent thinking instead of sleeping. I thought about how if God chose not to know, He wouldn't know how or when to intervene because He would be just as blind as us.
Then I remembered the importance of knowing all sorts of sciences and physics.
I'm going to skip all the ways relativity works because I would probably get lost and this post would be five times as long, but one of the things that stuck with me was that if you were to travel faster than the speed of light, weird things start to happen. All of a sudden, were you watching a fighting couple, you would hear someone say "ow!" before they get slapped. Insane, right? But I think this explains the whole dilemma: God is outside the time/space continuum, which means he doesn't live in a linear timeline: he's outside it, he sees everything at once, making hearing the "ow!" before the slap very possible. We usually think of God as setting a path, but with him it's not a path--it's not linear. The issue of thinking that if God knows what I'm going to do is thinking that He goes through time as us: except he has the ability to see ahead and we can't. But God doesn't deal that way: we are tied down to time, God is not.
C.S. Lewis explains this nicely in Mere Christianity: "Suppose God is above the time line. In that case what we call "tomorrow" is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call "today." All the days are "Now" for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not 'forsee' you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never suppose that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already "Now" for Him."
For God, it is at once 1948 and 2012 and 2048.
And then, I finally fell asleep. He truly says Timshel to us: it's our choice whether to live for Him or not.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Book Update, II
I need to streamline the process, but I have suddenly turned into a night person. I think best after the hour of 10 p.m. Maybe because the room is dark and it feels like I'm in a little cubicle, just me and my thoughts.
The outline is not as near as where I wish it was, but I'm getting there. Sometimes the content I have planned is so heavy that I have to literally step back and catch my breath; something that only Steinbeck and the Bible have done to me. It seems to me like when I read East of Eden or The Winter of Our Discontent, when I had to stop and process what had just happened.
I have started outlining the third and final part of the book, and it's so far the hardest. At least now I have an ending, which makes it easier to work backwards and retrace Carlos' steps.
Since the third part is about how the family has assimilated, the major conflict is no longer external. This part deals with the mixed feelings in the family, those who don't want to ever go back anymore and those who have everything back there still. This side of the conflict might be better seen through the characters eyes, so we see the pull and tug from both sides of the conflict and keeping the family together on him as the family leader. I might do something different and have this in another style of writing altogether. . . but I don't know yet.
We will see how this goes.
The outline is not as near as where I wish it was, but I'm getting there. Sometimes the content I have planned is so heavy that I have to literally step back and catch my breath; something that only Steinbeck and the Bible have done to me. It seems to me like when I read East of Eden or The Winter of Our Discontent, when I had to stop and process what had just happened.
I have started outlining the third and final part of the book, and it's so far the hardest. At least now I have an ending, which makes it easier to work backwards and retrace Carlos' steps.
Since the third part is about how the family has assimilated, the major conflict is no longer external. This part deals with the mixed feelings in the family, those who don't want to ever go back anymore and those who have everything back there still. This side of the conflict might be better seen through the characters eyes, so we see the pull and tug from both sides of the conflict and keeping the family together on him as the family leader. I might do something different and have this in another style of writing altogether. . . but I don't know yet.
We will see how this goes.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Obituaries
In my reporting class we have begun talking about obituaries. Mr. Mennard gave us a fictitious character and we had to write two obits for the poor person. These little boogers are harder to write than I thought, although I think I did a pretty good job on them. However, there was a second part on the assignment: we had to write our own obituaries.
This is by far the hardest assignment I have had--crazy introspection and self-evaluation. What do I want my obituary to say about me someday?
This is by far the hardest assignment I have had--crazy introspection and self-evaluation. What do I want my obituary to say about me someday?
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A True Christian
Recently I posted about how to really spread the gospel. An article published on the Outlook magazine about how to really witness to people bears my name. But all I say comes from experience.
St. Francis of Assissi once said, "Spread the gospel, and, if necessary, use words." I've tried to live up to that, and I told my Junior High sabbath school class "the best sermon you can preach is your actions" over and over again. But I only say this because I feel guilt over what could have been. Let me explain.
I could live in Barnes and Noble and Guitar Center. Those are my favorite places in the world. One time, I was at Guitar Center in Arlington, Texas, and I grabbed a Gibson Les Paul '57 custom (over seven grand!) and plugged it in. It felt amazing, and, wanting to show off, started playing the craziest riff I know: "Newborn" by Muse. This song is very very upbeat. I mean, VERY upbeat. So here I am, rocking out to this song, when another boy comes up and says "you know muse? awesome!" and immediately struck up a conversation, swapping guitars and just playing riffs we knew. Suddenly, I had to leave, and I left him there, with the Les Paul, rocking out to Muse.
What if I had been playing a Christian song?
It's been almost four years and it still haunts me.
St. Francis of Assissi once said, "Spread the gospel, and, if necessary, use words." I've tried to live up to that, and I told my Junior High sabbath school class "the best sermon you can preach is your actions" over and over again. But I only say this because I feel guilt over what could have been. Let me explain.
I could live in Barnes and Noble and Guitar Center. Those are my favorite places in the world. One time, I was at Guitar Center in Arlington, Texas, and I grabbed a Gibson Les Paul '57 custom (over seven grand!) and plugged it in. It felt amazing, and, wanting to show off, started playing the craziest riff I know: "Newborn" by Muse. This song is very very upbeat. I mean, VERY upbeat. So here I am, rocking out to this song, when another boy comes up and says "you know muse? awesome!" and immediately struck up a conversation, swapping guitars and just playing riffs we knew. Suddenly, I had to leave, and I left him there, with the Les Paul, rocking out to Muse.
What if I had been playing a Christian song?
It's been almost four years and it still haunts me.
Friday, February 10, 2012
From the extraordinary mind of C.S. Lewis
Idealism can be talked, and even felt; it cannot be lived.
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