Look at me, I'm......

We all need to think about how this sentence applies to us by filling in the last word.  All of us have something by which we classify ourselves as noteworthy.  Whether it be our appearance, our talent, our intelligence or a skill, whether developed or natural.  It's called pride.
I really want to emphasize the point of self examination, not others examination.  It is very, very easy to see and criticize the sins of others,  but usually not so with our own sins.  So the question then is, how do we finish this sentence?  And then immediately following, what can I do to change this mentality?
Very much like exercising, we need to find and work on our weak points.  One very important point in our lives as Christians is sanctification.  We need to be finding sin in our lives and root it out.  We will never succeed at this if we spend our time judging others and ignoring our own sins. 
So where is our source of pride?

Progress and immaturity

My wife and I, as of late, have been lamenting the seeming negative ramifications of technological progress.  From simply a practical perspective, there is so much time wasted on entertainment and distraction.  There are entire industries built around creating and maintaining entertainment, such that there are people whose entire waking lives consist of some form of entertainment.
To answer the first question that may come to mind, no, I am not becoming a Luddite.  What did occur to me though, is not so much the "Protestant work ethic", but the idea of the wonder of technology being foisted upon generation after generation of people who are far too immature to responsibly handle it.  I have nothing against entertainment, as a concept, the problem is that technology has advanced so quickly and has become so inexpensive, that pretty much anyone can live a lifestyle that exceeds even the imagination of the wealthiest and most powerful men in all of history.
As I said to my son the other night, imagine meeting someone from 100 years ago and telling them about a smart phone.  It would be so far beyond their comprehension that it would only appear as magic.  Or imagine describing the food harvesting, transport and storage capabilities we have today, to someone from 500 years ago, again, it would be so far beyond their thought processes.
At a time when we are capable of so much, with so little effort, there is still so much suffering and deprivation.  If people were responsible enough to use our technology and wealth to actually help those in need, there would be no lack, anywhere.  But we, sinful and selfish as we are, can only complain when our fast food meal doesn't come fast enough.  We complain when we have to wait ten seconds for an internet page to load.
It is far beyond time that we grow up, learn to love others as much as we love ourselves and learn to use the wonderful technology we have to love our neighbor and help those in need.

Progress and conclusion

As i am being subjected to the music of the guy in the office next to me, it has occurred to me why New Age music seems so vacuous.  It doesn't go anywhere.  When you listen to the classical or baroque composers, their music travels.  It has a specific beginning, climax and conclusion, New Age music does not.  It picks up with a catchy and typically playing melody, goes for awhile and then stops.  I would compare this to walking in circles. 
I would argue that this sort of destination-less music is unchristian simply because it does not tell the truth about reality.  Our lives are never stagnant, we are either growing our diminishing.  We are moving forward toward our goal or we are sliding backward.
This is really more of a philosophical statement than a critique of music. 

Disposable

The question that came to mind was this, "Is the idea of "disposable", compatible with the Christian worldview?"  As technology has moved further and faster along, we have become a disposable society.  Everything from furniture to electronics has become disposable.  When something wears out or breaks, we throw it away.  In the past, things were built to last, to be repaired.  For example, my parents owned a chest freezer for approximately forty years and only got rid of it because it was too large for their needs. 
It seems to me that this mentality is a consumerist mentality.  It moves us away from building something in an excellent manner, to last.  Instead, it is designed to fail in the short term, only to be replaced.  It seems to feed to idea of getting the next bigger and better thing.  It seems to pull us away from being content.  It seems to move our thinking toward being distracted with "things". 
I don't really have a conclusion or answer to this, the thought has just come to mind.

Soul destroying words and deeds

This phrase really caught me this morning during the divine liturgy.  In our materialistic America, our attention is, almost exclusively, on the physical.  We are paying more and more attention upon what we eat, and drink, the quality of air, going organic and non-gmo.  These things are all good and fine but we are mistakenly focusing on only half the picture.  The concept of the spiritual being anything other than "going to heaven when you die", is almost completely foreign to the average American.  Unfortunately, much of the attention that is paid to things spiritual comes from Hindu or Buddhist thought, in the form of new age. 
The thing to think about is this.  God made man body and soul, as a complete whole.  We need to start paying attention to and addressing, our spiritual selves.  We need to avoid the mistake of even thinking of it as one part of us.  The spiritual is really the other side of the coin.  But don't listen to the world or to other religions, the church has specific teaching on tending to our souls.  We need to start recognizing soul destroying words and deeds. We need to start learning how to avoid them.  We need to learn to repent of them.
Soul destroying words and deeds are actually far more important to address than diet and exercise.  The latter only affects (for the most part) our temporal bodies, but the former affects our eternal souls.  Think about that for a while.

Names, again

If you remember, and I hope you do, I have spoken in the past about names, naming and what it means when someone names someone/something.  Over the last several years, I have begun to take notice of the names of churches.  Traditionally, churches take the names of important saints, or important events in the life of Christ.  Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox churches especially have historically practiced this.  But as of the last few decades, churches have started naming themselves after experiential events.  Take for instance "Open Door Fellowship", "Breath of Life" or "Liberty Fundamental Baptist Church".  I don't really know what to think of a shift like this, other than to suspect that it is simply fruit of a spiritual gathering focused on experience rather than the Eucharist. 
The other thing that is odd about these names is the lack of the term "church", in many.  It's almost like a huge Freudian slip.  These Protestant gatherings seem to unconsciously know that they are actually not churches, at least in the practical, historical sense.  They have no priest, no hierarchy, no bread or wine, no confession and no practical connection with the apostolic faith.
I actually really do appreciate the renaming that is going on.  At least they are being honest about who and what they are.  I may come across as harsh, but a rose is a rose.  A man may honestly believe himself to be invincible, but he's not.  A spiritual gathering it may be, but historically speaking, it's not the church.

Experience and history

A further thought had occurred to me in regards to my previous post on interpretation.  As we experience various things, we will interpret them according to our worldview.  And it seems that no one really questions the validity of doing so.  But if one steps back and considers what is actually going on when we do so, it starts to appear rather untenable.
To try to analyze, interpret and label the reasons behind why things happen, we really ought to marvel at how little we actually know.  This goes for interpreting world history as well.  Basing an interpretation of events on our extremely limited knowledge ought to make us pause.  Our knowledge and experience storehouse is simply far too small.  But this is why we have the church.
One, we can trust that God is moving through and directing history toward his desired end.  Two, we can know that God is moving through and directing his church, making it a spotless bride for himself.  Three, we can know that the Holy Spirit will always be with us, his people.  Beyond that, assurance is tenuous.  God has created us to be in communion, with him and with his people.  As God said to Adam, it is not good for man to be alone.  We live and move and have our being , in the body of Christ. Jesus Christ is life and there is life nowhere else. 
As we live, we will go through peace as well as trouble.  We won't have answers for some things that happen. In other words, our limited knowledge will fail us.  But we have the assurance of life and love, as we are part of the people of God.  If we want answers, the church is there for us. If we tire of the fight, we can rest with his/our people.
Regardless of where we are or what we see and think we understand, we are loved by a God who is directing history, has all the answers and has provided us with the means to reach a wonderful end.
Regardless of whether we understand the journey or not.