Modern Inconsistency

I listened to Ravi Zacharias quote this today. So good.

But the new rebel is a Sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then he writes another book (about the sex problem) in which he insults it himself. He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy because they keep it. As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. A man denounces marriage as a lie, and then denounces aristocratic profligates for treating it as a lie. He calls a flag a bauble, and then blames the oppressors of Poland or Ireland because they take away that bauble. The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite sceptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.
Excerpt from "Orthodoxy," by G.K. Chesterton

Guilt and Blessing

Well, first of all, thanks to God for providing for me in many ways recently. Especially in regards to certain uncertain situations; God granted me favor. Second, thanks to God for guilt, for that internal pain and pull that leads to repentance. Thank you, God.

CHICKEN POT PIE [ramble]

I got stuff going on in my life, and I can tell people about it if they ask me. You know, a progress report on work, church, life in general. But must I give my weekly summaries to everyone who asks "how's it going?" On the other hand, "yeah, it's going good," is so lacking in detail that it's pretty much uninformative anyway. I greatly prefer deeper, more philosophical reflections on the happenings of life, but, sometimes I tire of making complete sentences.

That's why sometimes when someone asks me how's it going, I give a non-answer, such as, CHICKEN POT PIE. In terms of substance, it's just as informative as "pretty good"; arguably, even more so. Actually, definitely more so. "Pretty good" is a vague, often-used term, so if I say "pretty good" you'd just think "oh not much haps iz good it's not bads," though maybe not in those words. If I say CHICKEN POT PIE though, there's a picture of rich buttery goodness that far more powerfully expresses goodness.

In a online conversation yesterday I think I annoyed my friend by constantly making random comments. Haha, I should be more considerate of others, because sometimes people don't understand crazy. Anyway, here is my new conversation theory: Oscar Wilde says "quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit," and I'd like to add that caps-lock is a serviceable substitute for diction. Youtube comments are definitive proof of this. What, you don't think that's legitimate evidence? SILENCE, INFIDEL.

Today I drank orange juice with a straw, it was awesome. I felt like a kid again.

Viridian City

Life update: On the road to Viridian City, I'm on my way I'm on the road, I'm on my way I'm on the road. On the road to Viridian City, I'm on the road. We've built a team and we've been training all day long, long. We're on the road and getting' strong (getting strong). Now here's the plan: We're gonna' head down to the forest. Time to collect some Pokemon, gotta catch them all, gotta catch them all. We keep on tryin' tryin', and then we try some more, to stay together and find a place worth fighting for. I'm on the road to Viridian City, meet my friends along the way (I'm on the road). We're on the road to Viridian City!

Poke-please! Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!

by the way, Yoo gets 3/8th of my kingdom.

Saving, Investing, Giving

Sup! Well, my second money post in a row. Having money is a new thing for me, and it's been kind of exciting recently figuring out how I should be stewarding it... especially since in Economics I learned all these different theories about finance and the markets, and in church I learned all these different principles, I finally have a real chance to apply what I've been taught. I remember the first time I paid my credit card bill this summer; I thought, gee whiz, I'm an adult! Haha, paying off debt, my coming of age moment =p

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on saving, investing, and giving. Being new to this whole money thing, I'm definitely not saying this in a prescriptive way; rather, these are my thoughts on these issues, and the principles that I believe should guide me in money matters.

The Case for Saving
Proverbs 6

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

We're taught to imitate the ant, to work hard and to save in times of abundance for more difficult times. I once read someone who said that saving was a sign that you're putting your trust in money rather than God. I definitely agree that there is a real danger that we will begin to trust what we have saved up for ourselves rather than trusting in God, but misfortune happens even to those who earnestly trust in God. And when that misfortune happens, who will pay for the medical bills and repair fees? Stories come to mind of God miraculously providing for individuals in these kinds of situations, but in most cases it just seems irresponsible to ask others to cover every unexpected bill. Though the amount that we save is up for debate and probably dependent on the circumstances (Joseph recommended a high degree of savings when he knew the seven years of famine was forthcoming), preparing for nearly inevitable future needs seems ant-like and Biblical.

The Case for Investing
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. A man entrusts his servants with his money and goes off on his journey. The first two servants double the amount given to them, and the man is very pleased with them and blesses them. The third servant does nothing with the money, claiming in his defense that he was afraid of his master and didn't want to lose the money. The man points out that if it was really the case that he was that afraid of losing the money, he still should have put it on deposit with the bankers so that he would receive it back with interest. The fact that he didn't shows that even if it was true that the servant was extremely loss-averse and had poor investing abilities, the primary cause of his not doing anything with the money was that he is wicked and lazy.

The standard application for this passage is to say "Christians should be good stewards of their talents," talents now referring to both resources and abilities. The way the parable works is to tell a story, and to say that the same judgment we make in earthly affairs is also true in heavenly affairs. How it plays out in this parable is to say "just like the first two servants were good stewards of their master's money and earned their master's approval, so we should be good stewards of God's resources and earn God's approval." And how were the first two servants good stewards of their master's money? They invested it well, doubling what God gave them. Likewise, we ought to invest well everything God gives us; everything meaning more than just money, but it certainly does include money.

The Case for Giving
In Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a manager who's about to be fired by his boss. The manager knows that everything he's in charge of will soon be useless to him anyway, so he goes to each of his master's debtors and reduces the amount owed. He does this so that when he loses his job, he will have friends who will welcome him into their homes. The boss commends the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.

Though the manager's behavior is dishonest, he's shrewd because he recognizes that his resources have a very short expiration date on them, and uses these very temporary things for a more lasting investment that will serve him in the long run. Jesus says that we should be shrewd, too; just like the manager was shrewd in using temporary things to invest in his future, so we should be shrewd in using temporary things (every worldly resource) to invest in eternity.

Purchasing shares in a 5-star mutual fund may be a sound investment decision because even though I'm not able to use that money for immediate benefit, that money will grow over the long haul and provide for me in the future. But, mutual funds fail, and future provisions for myself are of limited value. Relatively, what is the value of donating to an organization like Compassion International? If I donate to Compassion, I care for the physical and spiritual well-being of impoverished children, and Jesus said "whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). Giving money, whether to a friend in need or an impoverished child, is a sound investment decision.

Conclusion
The difficult part is knowing how much to save, invest, give, and spend. I originally had a fourth section entitled "The Case for Spending," but I'm still trying to figure out some guiding principles as to how much is appropriate for spending. When is it ever justified to spend for myself? For example, seems like it'd be okay to buy ice cream for myself once a month, but why? I remember one scene from Schindler's list when Schindler is looking at a long line of Jews that he was not able to save. He takes a gold pin off his jacket, and, sobbing, says for this price of this worthless pin he could have saved at least another life. So, I'm still trying to figure that out.

The last thing I keep in mind before making a financial decision is to ask myself, if I die tomorrow, would I be okay with how much money I've saved, or how much money I've spent? Will I be okay with where it was spent? Or will I regret not giving more? I detect in myself a desire to hoard, to be protective of the little treasures I have on Earth, and to justify it by saying that I'm hoarding out of prudence, so this is definitely something to keep asking.

In summary, with money, as with all things, I'll try to keep a clear conscience before God. After all, he "will give to everyone according to what he has done" (Revelations 22:12).

Finances and Faith

Sometimes I feel self-conscious when I say I'm an economics major because I don't really understand the economy. When I say this to people, they reassure me that no one does. Nonetheless, I've been learning more about the economy recently especially with all the crazy stuff happening in the financial world. Today I heard Ravi Zacharias quote something which was really transformative for me in the way I see finances and faith, and I'll share my thoughts with you guys about that.

To begin with, the oils that keep the engine of this economy running are cash and credit. You know what cash is; quarters, nickels, dimes, dollar bills. You can exchange dollar bills for goods, such as turkey or a shiny new car. These bills don't really have any value in themselves, but people like them because of what they can get in exchange for them. There was a big debate a long time ago about having money backed by silver or gold, meaning that you could exchange bills for these precious metals if you wanted, which would give these paper bills solid value. As it is now, they're not backed by anything.

These paper bills are kinda like poker chips. If we were to walk to a poker table and wanted to play, we'd have to pay some money to get some blue and red chips to play with. At the table, we'd gamble using these blue and red chips, and once the game is over, we'd exchange these poker chips for our money again. It's the same kind of deal with these paper bills. They're not really worth anything outside of this game we're playing, but they can be exchanged for things we want, so that's why we want them.

Next, there's credit. In college (and now) I would try not to spend much money. One way I thought I could limit my spending was to carry less cash with me, because if I carried less cash, I'd be less tempted to spend. The problem was that my friends would often go out to eat, meaning that my friends would often have to end up spotting me. The bill would come around and they'd pay for my meal, and I'd pay them back once I got money from the ATM. Credit cards are kinda like that. The credit card company will spot you money for a month up to a certain amount, and at the end of the month, you get a credit card bill. You have a month to pay the credit card bill; you can pay the full amount, in which case (for the credit card I have) you'd pay no interest. If you pay less than the full amount, you pay interest for what you still owe.

I was introduced to commodities this past summer by a friend. Some people are really worried about inflation, and there are some who are worried about hyperinflation. A rough definition of hyperinflation is when the money that you're using is worth more as toilet paper than money. How does that happen? Well, think about if a bunch of us were at a meal, and there was just one juicy piece of steak. We'd all really want it and might be willing to trade half a salad for some of that steak. But if there were a million steaks, then no one wants to trade anything for steak because everyone has so much of it anyway. Same thing for money. If the government keeps printing out exorbitant amounts of money, then the money we have becomes pretty much worthless.

That's why advocates of commodities such as gold and silver say people should buy gold and silver during times where the currency is unstable. Your dollar may lose its value, but gold has universal value whatever country you go to, and it'll have value even if the economy collapses. Even if it goes down in value it doesn't have the potential to plummet in value like the dollar does, so the incentive is usually more about security than profit. I started tracking the value of silver earlier this summer, and it was about $13 per ounce in July, and $12 per ounce in early August. Now it's about $16, so it seems like it would have been a good buy. Not sure where it's going to go from here, though.

One thing cash, credit, and commodities all have in common is that they all promise us things. Material possessions in the form of shiny new cars (even ones we can't afford), a comfortable life, a secure future. Maybe even love? The Beatles say "can't buy me love," but... it does at least seem that you can. We evaluate potential mates on a variety of levels like personality, maturity, physical appearance, and so on. More money means increased social status, and so while money might not help you get that particular girl, it probably will help you get a girl in general. I can get you these things, money says... a nice car, a secure future, and a pretty girl, I can get you all these things.

What I began to see more clearly today is that these are promises being made. Cash, credit, commodities promise to provide us with the things that make us happy, and we buy into that promise. If you really didn't trust the dollar bill, you'd put into Euros or Yen or Gold like my friend who got me interested in that stuff. But you do trust it enough, so you keep your money in dollar bills.

What the recent financial craziness has shown is that none of this 100% sound. Our currency may hyperinflate, leaving all our cash worthless. Our credit system basically exploded on us, which was the big cause of the recession. And gold... during the Great Depression, the government issued a recall on gold, saying that you had to turn in the gold you had. And if you're hiding your gold, well, that can always get stolen.

Nonetheless, our economy is running on these assumptions. We believe that it's likely enough that these things won't happen, so we keep living as if they won't. We save money in the belief that tomorrow I can bring that cash to the store and get food with it. I'm banking on the fact that these banks and financial institutions will made good on their promises and deliver. I'm trusting in the fact that all these people, all these institutions, will follow through with what they say. I'm putting trust in them.

The quote I heard Ravi Zacharias make today was "the whole world runs on the basis of faith," even the financial world. That statement is so true. I'm working in the field of construction management now, where the contract is king. A contract is basically an agreement between two parties where they agree to something, such as, I pay you this amount of money if you will do this for me. Without people agreeing to make contracts, no one would be able to do anything. I could go to a store and give them the money for a product, but they could just refuse to uphold their end of the deal. If no one believed the promises of another, the world would cease to function.

Mark Twain once said, "faith is believing what you know ain't so." He entirely misunderstands faith. Faith is simply putting your trust in something. When I decide to use a boat, it's entirely possible it'll start sinking. But I have reason to believe it won't, and I act on that reason. It's like I'm saying to the boat, I believe that you will keep me afloat. The question is really how trustworthy is the object of faith? The fact that there is faith involved does nothing to disqualify the object, or the promise.

I had some more thoughts in that same vein about faith, but they'll have to go unsaid for now. The last thing I'll share, though, is that shortly after thinking these things I read 1 Kings 17:3. It's a drought, and God tells Elijah "Leave here, turn eastward, and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." That's a pretty big promise. God is saying that in this drought he will command nature itself to provide for Elijah.

In the face of a promise like this, the question is can God make good on his promise? Can we take this promise to the bank and cash in on it? Exactly how reliable is God with things like this, can he do this, and if so, will he do it? In the Christianized way of saying it, do I have faith?

Yeah, I believe it. God's good for his word. If he promises something, he will follow through with it, and I can put money on that. Cash, credit, commodities, and every other earthly thing may fail me, but whether I'm in the middle of a drought or recession, God can command nature itself to provide for me. So if God, who is always able to deliver on his promises, and who always will deliver on his promises, says "and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age," then I can have great confidence that His provisions for me will always be sufficient.

Shampoo Tropicana

Hello, sorry that I'm updating so little. I still have a follow up to that previous post that I need to write. In the meantime, enjoy reading these two odd dreams I've had recently. The first I had last weekend, the second I had this past weekend.

By the way, if you can interpret my dreams, I will give you up to half my kingdom. Maybe.

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Shampoo Warriors

I'm travelling on an adventure with a couple of my friends. There's some kind of jungle and cave-like scenery, and we're fighting baddies as we progress. Every once in a while there's a boss fight where my friends and I have to defeat a strong enemy. Upon our victory, the enemy leaves behind a shampoo bottle that, if held, allows you to use two abilities. The primary ability is an offensive capability (fire, lightning, etc.), and the secondary ability is a support ability (restore health, posion cure, etc.). In particular, I remember holding a sky-blue shampoo bottle and firing lightning bolts.

We continue on our journey and eventually we're fighting through a castle-cave sort of place, an area that has large cavern-rooms with balconies on the walls. After a fight, we were in need of the healing ability of the water-colored shampoo bottle. I put my backpack down and start rummaging around for the bottle. Everything's all messy and it's difficult to find things, so I start taking out the bottles so that I can find the one I need more easily. As I'm taking out all these shampoo bottles I start getting self-conscious. What if someone sees me with all these shampoo bottles in my backpack and thinks I'm really vain??? Then I woke up.

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Tropicana Battle

I'm with two friends, one guy and one girl, in a shopping mall that looks kind of like a Wallgreens or Longs Drugs. We're being chased by a couple of people that look like humans, but are actually robots. They're pretty much invincible but we discover that they can be slowed down if we spray stuff into their eyes. We use a variety of cleaning agents, like Windex and 409. In particular I find this spray can (the metal kind; looks like a metal cylinder with a nozzle on top) that is particularly effective. It is a Tropicana spray bottle. I don't think it was orange juice, but certainly it looked like it had the Tropicana orange juice label on the can. Maybe Tropicana orange-flavored deodorant spray?

We're still running around the store attempting to escape from the robots, every so often turning around to spray the robot in the eyes with the spray. When hit, the robot's eyes glaze over with a black film, looks kinda like black oil from the X-Files. Only I have a spray can, and we realize we should acquire more cans for my friends. We reach the spot, but Tim Choi is there to stop us (a Junior from Gracepoint). He refuses to allow us have the spray can.

I pin him down and attempt to force him (read: torture) to relinquish the Tropicana spray can, but he stubbornly continues to refuse. I start feeling bad because I like the guy, and think that it was just fate that made us end up on opposite sides in this conflict. I hear another group of my friends from a different aisle, yelling for us to throw them a spray can because they're under attack from the robots. I begin pushing Tim's head harder and start screaming at him to give us the can, but he still refuses.

Eventually we're able to get the can and we run over to the next aisle to aid our friends, but the tide has already turned against us, and it was all chaos. Then I woke up.