The Israelites

I'm not sure if I thought of something cool or if this is something that everyone besides me has heard before, but if you have heard this comparison before, I apologize.

I think it's cool how often God uses relationships in the Bible as a model for how he wants to relate to us. Marriage is a relationship that God uses as a metaphor, and so is his relationship with the Israelites.

I think there is a similarity between our salvation and the Israelites' acquisition of the promised land. In fact I think it's very similar.

The first step into the promised land was taking the city of Jericho. It was the threshold between the desert and promised land, a watershed moment in history. And God did all of the work. God brought down the walls of the city with one fell swoop after the Israelites marched around the city seven times. It was a miracle. The Israelites were given something they did not deserve through no effort of their own besides faith.*

After that miraculous victory they spend the rest of the book of Joshua and Judges trying to take the rest of the promised land by waging a long war with all kinds of people whose names end in "ite." God says that they need to mercilessly root out all of these people and eradicate them, claiming the land of Canaan for Israelites and the Israelites alone. It is a lot of hard work that requires generations of effort for the people of God. Lets just say that this campaign, which relied much on the efforts of man, had mixed results.

In the case of the modern day Christian,the promised land is the Christian life.** Getting in is the easy part. Well, actually it's the hardest part because it requires a miracle. But it's the easiest part for us because God does all the heavy lifting. It took the death of Jesus and the reworking of our entire understanding of God's covenant to get us there, but God was able to save us from our sins and usher us into a righteous standing with him. It is the watershed moment in our lives where overnight we have gone from sin and damnation to righteousness and Heaven. And it was all God's doing. Much like tearing down the walls of Jericho to usher in a new era of Israelite history.

What happens next is a little less miraculous, and a lot more difficult (for us). We have to actually begin living as Christians. It becomes time to root out and mercilessly destroy sin an our lives and claim it for God and for God alone. Using our own efforts, it is up to us to do the rest of the work and eliminate kill off the rest of the Canaanites (and whatever else-ites). This is a long and arduous process that God doesn't just do for us overnight. And if you are anything like me and the Israelites, I would assume that you are dealing with "mixed results" on this front.

And that's the story of judges. Theres some good stuff and some bad stuff, but basically things don't go well for the Israelites when they try to do things on their own. God should be their king and they should stick with him. Because when they forget to stay close to him and continue to conquer in his name, things get ugly. Just like in our lives.

"Well wait just a darn minute" you will say. "I agree with the first part of what you are talking about here, but you have gone to far with this "do it yourself" stuff you are describing. We do need to put some effort into killing off the sin in our lives. But you act like it's all up to us and God doesn't help us! We definitely need to rely on God to change us or we will never EVER succeed in "taking the promised land!""

That's a good point. You got me there. And that's exactly why we turn back to the Israelites. If you look at Joshua 7 you see this guy named Achan disobeying God and bringing a lot of ruin down on the Israelites. Basically, God does not support them in a battle and they lose big time. Joshua has to punish Achan and get their act cleaned up before God gives them another victory. You would think they would learn pretty well from this early example but...well, that's why the Old Testament stays interesting.

Even though it's "our job" now to win the victories, we really can't do it without God. If we are going to be like Achan and think that we have a better plan (and to be honest, if I were Achan I would be tempted to do the same thing) I don't think we should be surprised if we are not strong enough the win the victories we think we should win or take the promised land the way we thought we would. Ultimately, it's still God doing the heavy lifting. The only difference is that it's us doing the heavy lifting now too. Just like the Israelites.

"Wait a minute" you might say "That last sentence didn't really make a lot of sense. I was really following everything and you were drawing some nice little parallels there. But now I feel like you just dropped us in a paradox. Are you going to resolve that? Do you even know HOW to resolve that? Are you 100% sure what you are even talking about?"

Good question. The answer is "nope." But if you enjoyed the thought process without a definite conclusion, you're welcome. And if you didn't...well at least it was free.


*Well, that, and killing everyone in the city after the walls came down.
** You might also say it's heaven, but stick with me on this one.

Oh yeah. I learned the word "watershed" a while back and it's a fun one for purposes like this. It's a geographic term referring to how water flows. If there is a high point in the land all the water on one side of that point will flow in one direction, and all the water on the other side will flow the other way. So in the United States, the Rocky mountains act like a watershed. It's the point that says rain water is either going to flow towards california or towards the plains. It's used in a historical sense to say "before this moment, everything was one way, now that this has happened, everything is different forever."

Thanksgiving

As I'm writing this, it is almost Thanksgiving, so I think it's only fitting that I should write a holiday themed blogpost. Something that you can read as you sit back on your couch, watch the Lions lose a game, and drift off to sleep with the warm, comforting feeling of triptephan coursing through your system.

I just wanted to note that I think giving thanks is closely related to humility.

It's hard to be too prideful about who you are or what you've done when you keep in mind all the advantages and blessing you have had to help you get there.

I'm a smart guy. And a lot of times I am prideful about just how smart I am and how good of a leader I can be. But I would like to take some time to think of some of the things that go into that that I should be thankful for.

Genetics (both my parents were smart)
Both of my parents went to college
Grew up with smart sisters.
Dad read to me when I was young
There were many books in the house
My parents valued my education
My parents were involved with my education
I went to good schools
I had good teachers
I was encouraged to read
I have had the opportunity to travel
I had the resources to go to an expensive private college
I was encouraged to go to graduate school
I could afford graduate school

I am thankful for all of those things, and I am responsible for none of them. It's true that I have worked hard and studied to be as smart as I am, but that is just one part of it, and probably not even the most important part.

I would like to be in the habit of being consciously thankful for the things in my life. ESPECIALLY when it is in regards to things about which I am prideful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you are all awed and humbled by God's generousness in all of our lives.

Something I made

Hey Guys, Not sure if I put this on my blog before on not...I think it was on facebook.

I just presented this lil' "educational" about video games at Letourneau.

I was also talking while I was showing this presentation, so if you wonder "what's up with that picture?" I bet I probably would have explained it if you had actually been there. The main point is, As Christians we are exposed to a lot of things that are different from how God intended them to be. We are watchful and vigilant about some of these things when they overtly challenge or morals, but we should look also for subtle implications and themes that promote values and ideas contrary to what we believe. We do this pretty well with music and movies (sometimes) but how about with video games?

Enjoy (if it works...click in the bottom right hand corner of the little window, it will give you an option for a full screen mode or other viewing modes. If you just view it in this column it will cut off the right side of the screen)

Video Games on Prezi

Assessment

As we have learned in higher education, assessment is a really good thing that gets a really bad reputation. Mainly because professors don't want other people telling them what to do. But professors use assessment too. they do it all the time. But when they do it it's called "grading."

I've seen grading from both sides, I've been a student for a long time, and I married a teacher, so I understand that students and teachers look at grading in very different ways. For the student, the grade is something you strive for. Everything you do is to "make the grade" and it is the end goal. For a teacher, the grade is largely irrelevant except that it is a way of measuring learning, which is actually the end goal.

Teachers don't really care about grades because they are arbitrary letters. What they care about is learning, and grades are just the methods they use to measure them. Students, on the other hand, are always confusing the measurement for the goal itself. That's why they will sometimes ask professors "is this going to be on the test?" Students want to know what they will be evaluated on. Professors hate that question because it shows them that the students are just trying to jump through the hoops for the purpose of grades instead of trying to actually become a master of the material.

As a student,I know professors sometimes got frustrated that we wanted to know about the test, and that we focused so much on grades (I am personally guilty of this as well), but I always wanted to say "I promise that I'll stop thinking about the grade the moment you promise to stop grading me." It's hard not to focus on the grade when that is the only measurement you have to go by, and when that measurement is permanently recorded on a transcript that might affect your future.

All of this brings me to my point about Christian living. I believe a student struggling for his grade is caught in the same conundrum as a Christian reading the words of Paul. Paul is saying that it is not our works that save us, it is our faith. We need to be less concerned with the things we do, with the rules we observe, and with the level of righteousness we seem to be obtaining though our actions. Instead, we should be concerned more with drawing closer to God.

The question always comes up (and you've seen it on my blog before) "so Paul, does that mean we should just sin away without a care in the world?" To which Paul always responds "absolutely not."

A professor might tell a student "you need to worry less about grades and testing and papers, and focus more on learning the material, and developing a passion for the subject matter. You are too caught up on what you are going to get on each assignment that you aren't focusing at all on actually learning from what you are doing. And that's the most important thing." The student's response would probably be "does that mean that you don't care at all what I get for grades? So that as long as I think I"m learning I don't need to actually turn in the papers or answer any of the questions correctly?"

Unless this is the Dead Poet's Society the teacher will say "Absolutely not!"

Grades should be a natural outflow of learning. They are a reflection of true learning that helps the teacher understand what the student knows, and holds the student accountable for learning the true answers to the correct material. Good grading means that students who know more about the subject matter will naturally get better grades. Though this is not a perfect system, and sometimes tests and papers ask unfair questions or measure the wrong thing, this just means that sometimes teachers issue bad assignments, and not that grading is a bad practice in general.

You might say that grades aren't really a good measure because sometimes we know much about the subject but just miss a few specific things. For example, a senior in a calculus class might not do as well as a freshman in algebra class on an algebra exam because the senior now takes for granted many of the skills he once used in algebra and has relied on his calculator to do most of the work for him the past few years. But does that mean the senior knows less about math? No, that only shows a limited range of tests and grading. A different test with higher level math would clearly show that the senior in calculus understood much more math than the freshman. The algebra test was designed to measure a certain set of skills, not all mathematical ability in general. This just shows that a single test doesn't tell the whole story.

I hope you see that the above example is not an argument against grading. It's an example of why we should not place the ultimate emphasis on grading. Grades are relevant, but they are fallible. In the same way, we should not put the ultimate emphasis of our Christian walk on the fruits of our relationship with Christ. The emphasis should be on the relationship itself.

We should focus most strongly on what draws us nearer to Christ and on being transformed into His likeness. We should know His character and spend time with Him and reflecting on Him. However, we should not be unaware of, or irresponsible for the good things He would like us to do. I've heard it said "love God, and don't worry about the rest." And that's true if you are a perfect person with a perfect, unfailing love. But if you are a sinner like me, it might be a good idea to consciously pay some attention to some of the other "stuff" that goes into being a Christian, such as being honest, generous, patient, and humble etc... These are good things to work on because they are hopefully the kinds of things that will be revealed when we grow in our relationship with God, just like good grades should come when we grow in our understanding of math. Just don't make these good things the end goal, keep them in perspective where they should be...the results of true learning.

Perhaps I've gone around in circles too much on this post. Maybe I should have stopped earlier and let you draw all the inferences instead of trying to point them out myself. I wanted so much to get some of these ideas out there that this might be a poorly written post in which I just throw around words willy nilly and get as redundant as most pastors in a 3 point sermon. If that's the case forgive me, but I would like to create one more image with my words before I go. Now that I've said all this, I'll boil it down to one last thought.

A student who focuses on grades runs the risk of not truly learning. He may not develop a passion for his studies and will likely not retain much of the material. He shows no respect for the subject and has missed the point. A student who focuses solely on the material is much better and shows he understands what school is for. But if he fails to turn in his assignments how will the teachers know if he is learning correctly, or even the right material? He will eventually fail out of school because his great knowledge, unpracticed, will be worthless to him. A good student does focus on the material and not the grades. But it is still important for him to take the time to actually complete his assignments, as this is a form of studying too. They are not the most important thing, but they go hand in hand with the most important thing.

In short, I've spent way too much time worrying about my grade. I don't want to do that any more, and I don't think that me, or anyone else should ever ask God "is this going to be on the test?"

More Writings

Hello again friends

As you are well aware, I am a writer in the same sense that throwing a NERF football to your 8 year old nephew makes you a quarterback. In case anyone is interested in my latest "pass" I've provided a link to something I've been writing. As Hugh would say, it's part of my "files."

I haven't gone through and edited at all, so it's likely to be quite terrible. In fact, if you are one of those people who can't tolerate my spelling errors perhaps you should stay away. Or, if you are one of those kinds of people that doesn't find it that interesting to read all the ramblings of every 20 something year old who feels that the internet has given him the right to broadcast all his thoughts to people who don't want to hear them...then you should probably stay away too. If you are my parents, you'll probably read it because I live in Texas and you don't get to see me very much.

But anyway, here is the latest from my files. At the Robert Jordan like pace I write you can expect another gripping installment sometime next summer.

section 2

P.S. someone commented on my use of grammar on my blog the other day. She mentioned that I ended some sentences with prepositions. I'm sorry about that. From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which we shall not put.

Greatest Hits

Hey Friends

So I get a lot of feedback about my blog. Sometimes people say things like "hey Steve, I really liked that one post about the mini. Why haven't you written anything that funny the past couple of years." Or else they will say "Hey Steve, your spelling errors and typos are embarrassing. Seriously, it's painful."

And that's lead me to believe that my readers are loyal fans that have stuck with me over the years no matter how bad my spelling or how long my absences are. And I thought..."wow...that's weird." But I'm going to operate under the assumption that if you are reading my blog right now, there is a good chance that you actually like reading my blog. That's why I've gone back and categorized some of my favorite entries into an easy to find format. So that all readers, new, and old, can enjoy some of my best posts. (Or, actually, maybe the reason I did it was because I realized that I had posted some things twice, that I couldn't find stuff I was looking for, and that the reason I started a blog in the first place was to keep track of my thoughts, and that's kinda impossible if there is no system.)

Well whatever.

At the bottom of this post I've included some "labels." If you click on the labels they will take you to all my previous posts that have the same labels on them. So for example, all of my favorite "serious" posts are under the label "thoughtful."
All my favorite funny posts are labeled under "classic"

I felt a little presumptuous labeling stuff as "classic" and about half-way through I decided that was stupid, and that I was going to change it. But by that point...I was already half way through. And there was no way I was going back.

A smarter person would figure out a way to post all of these "labels" somewhere permanently. But you are reading my blog, so for now, if you want to find your favorite post, you are going to have to click around through the labels at the bottom. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. There has been some conversation about going back and fixing spelling errors and typos. I think I'm actually going to work on that some, but it's going to take a while, Rome wasn't built in a day...Though I doubt you could compare my Blog to Rome. Few cities though, no matter how small and crappy, were ever built in a day.

Stuff Girls Like: Being Scared

I know that men sometimes to stupid things like ask their wives to pepper spray them or eat acorns. As men, sometimes we invite negative physical experiences because we wish to prove how tough we are or because we are idiots.

Women, on the other hand, seem to find it fun to invite the negative emotional experience of fear. There is nothing that girls like more than being afraid of things that aren’t actually scary. Let me explain.

Girls will go to great lengths to muster up a feeling of fear in a very contrived environment. They will gather all their closest, most timid friends and rent “scary movies” in which poor helpless girls are isolated and terrorized by monsters or (the most terrifying enemy) men. Girls love to watch other girls in frighteningly compromising situations. “Oh know, that creeper is behind her and she broke a heel. What if she can’t run?” They will even go to great lengths to enhance the mood of terror and paranoia. “Hey, lets turn our the lights! Let’s watch a movie on Friday the 13th! Let’s invite Amanda, she always freaks out the most! Lets cut the phone line! How about we leave our headlights on so our car is dead if we have to make a getaway! Why done we leave all the doors unlocked and leave our address and a picture of us at a bar so maybe some drunk guys will come looking for us with malicious intentions while we are all sleeping!

My Wife and her friends like to go geo-caching. Which, if you don’t know, means using a GPS to look for a treasure that someone else has hid. The coordinates of these treasures are posted on the internet so other people can find the treasure It’s a fun little game. Except when Cortney and her friends are doing it, it’s not about the treasure. It’s about the fear. They only go at night and they only go to treasures that are buried either in the woods or in a cemetery.

Of course, they also need a man to go. Because without a man they are too scared to get out of the car and poke around the backwoods of Indiana by themselves. These nights are still fun though because they involve driving back in forth in front of a “creepy” road and saying “this time we’re gonna do it. This time we’re gonna go out there.” You can do that for at least 30 minutes before it’s gets boring and it’s time to go back to starbucks.

Being the man on this kind of trip requires caution and a delicate balance. Without my presence the girls can’t get out of the car. But if I go out of my way to make things TOO safe by saying ridiculous things like “I don’t think that’s an axe murderer, I think that’s just the guy who lives here” or “no, I’m pretty sure there isn’t much violent crime in this county” they will roll their eyes and tell me I’m ruining it for everyone. I am “no fun” and they wonder why they brought me. Of course, when I get bored of wandering around in the dark, they all follow me back into the car.

And then there is the haunted house. Girls love haunted houses because it gives them a chance to scream, it is scary, people threaten them and creepy masked strangers get to touch them in the dark.* They will wait in line to pay money for this experience.

As you can see, I have conclusively proven that Girls like to be scared, Cortney especially. But we don’t have enough money to hire strangers and professionals to scare her all the time. So I have decided that this month I’m going to have some “do it yourself” scares in my house. If you really want to make that special woman in your life feel extra special, scare the crap out of her with some of these simple, at home, do it yourself scares.

1) Get up in the middle of the night and open the front door and go back to bed. She’ll find it in the morning. This works best if you live in a sketchy neighborhood

2) Bring a live rodent in your house.

3) Ask a buddy to prowl around in your house while you’re asleep and make a lot of noise. For extra effect, have him steal all the pictures of your wife (he’ll give them back later).

4) Here’s an easy one—take advantage of nature. A good thunderstorm or Tornado warning can really bring home the family fun if you take advantage of it.

5) Try setting off your smoke alarm at night.

6) If she’s ever home alone, call from an unknown number and breath heavily into the phone whenever she picks up. Girls love to watch movies where this happens.

It’s not about WHAT you do, it’s about the fact that you care enough to try. Girls LOVE being scared, so go out there and show her you love her. I guarantee you that every single on of these things is more fun than geocaching with people who won’t get out of the car.

*No innuendo intended.