Absurd Line from Notting Hill

I finished "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" a couple weeks ago. Pretty good. Started off slow, a lot of the time it was like what is this madness what's going on. I felt it was worth it, though, built up well, the end was worth it.

Here's an entertaining line from one of the characters: "How can these people strike dignified attitudes, and pretend that things matter, when the total ludicrousness of life is proved by the very method by which it is supported? A man strikes the lyre, and says, 'life is real, life is earnest', and then goes into a room and stuff alien substances into a hole in his head."

I'd write and quote more, but alas, it's late. If I started earlier in the day, maybe I'd have a real blog post for you =). That's what I tell myself, anyway.

Spending Life

In economics we use this concept called "opportunity cost." Let's say I have 20 bucks to spend on Christmas gifts. I could spend that 20 bucks on a 20 dollar jacket for myself. That'd be good, I want to do that. But I also want to buy gifts for people. I could instead buy two 10 dollar t-shirts. I can't buy the jacket for myself AND the t-shirts for others. If I buy the jacket, I can't buy the t-shirts, and if I buy the t-shirts, I can't buy the jacket.

We see here that doing one thing necessarily means not doing another. The cost of spending all my money on myself is best understood in terms of what I am giving up for it, the opportunities foregone, hence the term "opportunity cost."

I'd like to think I'll never grow old. But one day I'll grow old, weak, ugly (uglier), dead. Right now I'm alive, young, and I have energy. How shall I spend it? On myself? On others? Both? There seem to be many worthy causes, and many pleasurable pursuits in the world. What should I do with this small amount of life I have? I can't do everything, as much as I'd like to. Doing one thing necessarily means not doing another.

I really enjoy the song "Dancing through Life" from the musical Wicked. Quite a fun song. One part goes:

Dancing through life
Down at the Ozdust (ballroom)
If only because dust is what we come to...
Nothing matters
But knowing nothing matters
It's just..
life

Makes sense that if dust is what we all come to, then nothing matters except knowing nothing matters, and then why not just dance through life? As it says in 1 Corinthians 15, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ... If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. ... If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" But, "knowing nothing matters" is only liberating in fiction, because in truth, life without meaning and purpose is full of despair, for there is no hope.

But how shall I live life, since I believe that dust is NOT what we all come to, since I believe that Christ has been raised and there is life after this one? I choose to spend my life for the one who spent his life for me. I was a slave to sin, but Christ spent his life to pay the ransom so that I might have freedom. I too now spend my life so that others might have freedom, I spend my life for the gospel, the only worthwhile pursuit in life.

Yes, it means I have to not do certain things I'd like to do. Then again, that happens any time I do anything, there is always opportunity cost. Is it worth it? Yes. No regrets.

Rudolphian Semblance

My project is dying! With the holiday season approaching and all I thought it appropriate to grow a red bulb at the tip of my nose. It was going quite well (or should I say, swell!). The timely zit is now shrinking, however. Now how shall I see in the dark??

Of Manners

Hello friends and non-friends. I know I told you I'd post more, but then I went ahead and posted only once all of last month. My apologies. I have some thoughts about things I've been working out in my head, but it's late and it'd take some time for them to be put into a form ready for public consumption. So! How about some more shallow thoughts =)

I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice. It's really interesting how concerned they are with courtesy, civility, manners, form. They're so concerned about such things that it's really quite ridiculous. Its gotten me thinking more about social conventions in our world today. Certain things can be said at certain times, and are just inappropriate or awkward at others. Historically I like to pooh-pooh conventions if I can, but, I've become increasingly aware of my need to at least be aware of what the conventions are.

Rules can be broken, but only under certain circumstances. Awkward can be funny, but sometimes its just awkward. Anyway, that's all. Trying to learn.

Oh boy I'm going to be tired tomorrow.

Gospel Mechanism

I listened to a message yesterday by R.W. Glenn and at one point he talked about the great assurance that Christians have from Romans 8:28, which says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." God causes all things that happen in our lives, good and bad, to work for our good and for His glory. He went on to point out that secular people sometimes have the optimistic belief that all things will work out in the end, but that this is not true. God does not work in all things for the good of those who do not love him and have not been called according to his purpose.

When I heard this and thought of my nonchristian friends and coworkers, it made me sad. As a Christian, even in the darkest of nights, I can still take comfort in the fact that however bad the circumstances, God is working for my good even through these circumstances. I realized that for someone who is not saved, something bad that happens could just be straight up bad. No guaranteed redemption of ill fortune.

One thought I've had recently is that it would be hard for me to handle life without humor, which alleviates pressure off of life's all-too-serious issues. But life would be incomparably harder without my relationship with God. With God, there's assurance, there's meaning, there's love... there's relationship. But for a person who does not even believe that God exists, there's no one to even yell at except the empty sky.

Sometimes when I sing worship songs, I sing of the cross and salvation and the gospel, and I think to myself that my actual appreciation for these things does not match my enthusiastic (albeit off-key) singing. Why? I consistently value and appreciate my relationship with God, but I do not consistently value the gospel. I realized today that this makes no sense, since it is the gospel, Jesus' death on the cross that allows me to have a relationship with God. The gospel is the mechanism through which we were brought from estrangement from God to fellowship with God, and for that we appreciate it.

This renewed my burden to share the gospel: that those who do not know God can come to know Him, through Jesus' death on the cross.

Shadows of Heaven

Let's say I went to heaven and came back. You ask me, dude, what was it like? I reply, dude, it was absolutely eurphasic. You're like, what? Yeah, everything was eurphasic. You say, uh, I dunno wut dat iz... can you at least tell me what it looked like? I say well, everything was made of a composite of talleet and glub-glub. You're like, the heck? I say fine. Everything was, like, gold. You say, ohhhh! Gold! That I can understand.

The point is I'm trying to describe to you something you don't know, heaven. If I describe it in terms that you also don't know, what's the use in that? Cities made of pure gold with gates of pearl may be the closest thing we can come to in terms of understanding the grandeur, glory, and majesty of what we'll see in heaven. C.S. Lewis makes the point that we ought not to think, well, gold, what use have we for gold in heaven? Gold is simply the closest approximation we have; it's a limit of our descriptive capabilities. Having never been to heaven, heavenly things must be described in earthly terms, since we have only experienced earthly things.

Now, imagine this. Suppose you and I are standing together, and I ask you hey, have you ever seen Thomas? You reply, no, I haven't. I say, actually, he's standing around that corner! You can see his shadow. From his shadow you can distinguish his figure, something about his height, his posture. But as you try to imagine what Thomas actually looks like, the best you can do is extrapolate. When you see Thomas, you might say, when I saw the shadow I did see a vague form of what he was like, but now that I see the real Thomas, I see him with depth, color, fullness. Though I had hints of what his shape was, now I see clearly.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

What we see here on earth are simply shadows of what are to come. That's quite comforting to know that the best things we experience here on Earth... peace and quiet after a long day of work... side-splitting hilarity in the midst of friends... the satisfaction that comes from a job well done... these are just hints of the things in store for us in heaven. Jesus told us that he's prepared a room for each of his followers in his father's house. I enjoy life, and I think I cling rather too tightly to the things I do have here, but it is quite nice to know that when it all ends, I'll finally be at home.

Write Mo

Looking back at my college days I wish I had read more of the assigned reading. I don't know if that would have been feasible given all that was on my plate, though I certainly could have read more. For the most part, it's the stuff I wrote essays about that I remember and understand the best. Even now, I realize that a lot of my best thoughts are the ones I've taken the time to articulate, sometimes on this blog.

I decided that if I want to continue to think well, I have to keep writing. So, I'm going to use this blog as my medium. I plan to write a solid post at least once a week. Enjoy =)