I had a dream last night. It seemed so familiar, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream like it before. I was in a time not significantly different from today: we still used cables for most things and the same adapters for the same devices. Yeah. It got that detailed. So, it seemed really realistic. Then I see outside there are all these lights in the sky, like flat panel screens floating with no backs and no edges, displaying some blue static.

Out of these screens appear air crafts that come out slowly and then fly all around. But these panels keep appearing everywhere. I can see down on the city, and there are creatures running around. I close the door. I hide. I’m up on a hill in the suburb, out in the edge of the main city.

Somehow I know what is next. So I grab my valuables and stuff them in boxes. Everyone knows what we are doing. We are closing doors, but not locking them. We are packing our valuables and hiding behind them. We strap everything down.

The world could be ending.

And as the creatures pass door after door, I know lives are ending.

My life, my world, could be ending.

What is a promise, if there is no future?

HELLO
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The message has been flagged as spam – The sender has been automatically blocked

We have a great opportunity in this country. We have freedoms that many countries of the world simply do not have. We can worship God according to our conscience freely and without the tyranny of the state forcing us to follow after other gods. God promises to bless those who follow after Him alone. And since we have such a great privilege in our country let us pursue God fully. For with great freedom comes great responsibility. We are stewards for a time, and will be judged according to what we were given.

Yet in Christ there is freedom unlike any freedom our nation allows us. For we have no assurance that our freedoms are not taken away. But in Christ, we are truly free: we can follow after God without the shackles of sin, we can enjoy God forever in His presence, and we have confidence that God is always good, righteous, and just. For in Christ there is neither male or female, white nor black, American nor alien; all are one in Christ. We have in the body of Christ a true holy nation, a people of God whose citizenship is in heaven.

So let us praise God openly and publicly while we have the freedom to peaceably assemble. Let us proclaim God in the streets while we have freedom of speech. Let us spread the gospel while we have the freedom of the press. Let us worship God for the freedom we have been given, both now for a while and forever.

THINKING ABOUT YOU, DEAR

- JONATHAN

Perfection is something everyone wants. I think.

Some think it is possible to strive for it, and know they are not perfect in the meantime.

Some think it is possible, but the very act of striving is itself perfect, because they are in an active state of perfecting or rather they are oriented toward perfection. The jump in reasoning there being that perfection is not something over time, but what one is or is not, right now. And that life is an activity, not a journey; a mode, not a history.

Some think it is possible to strive for, and think they have attained it. The only legitimate considerations for this are to think that (a) perfection is a wide range of being, or (b) perfection is not the same standard for the same people. Either way, the “perfect” in mind is not something strictly absolute, but rather varying on what is, in all convenience, good enough to call perfect.

Some think it is possible to strive for, and think that so long as one tries to avoid imperfections one will get it right, sometimes; but what is most important is not being perfect itself, but being less imperfect than others. Perfection is on a grade-curve. Maybe no one is perfect, so let’s raise the lowest scorers, and the highest will be considered “perfect” out of fairness. They did, after all, try not to be too bad.

Some think it is not possible to strive for, and have lost every inclination to try. This is the easiest to do, but the hardest to be consistent about. For it is one thing to just assume one need not try to aim for something one cannot hit, but it is another to have one’s expectations fairly assess others with the same rubric.

Some think it is not possible for us to have a concept of “perfect”, thus rendering the question irrelevant.

There are those who are not perfect and have grace. They see themselves as imperfect and call out for grace, because without it they cannot hit the mark and their previous failures tarnish their history of being.

They are willing to see those who have missed the mark as people who need grace.

They are willing to give as they have been given. A clean slate. Help to make the mark.

And are patient, never willing to give up on offering a clean slate and help to make the mark.

I want to be in America
Okay for me in America
Everything is free in America
For a small fee in America

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him, all creatures here below
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost

To love is insecurity
Remedied only by love

To care is investment
Without demand of return

To long is regret
One didn’t love enough

The rich have property rights just as much as the poor, and labor is extracted only from those who agree to it. I’ve read Locke, Hegel, Marx, Marx/Engels, and others. I never really found their concepts of personal property to be convincing, for they are all, if I recall correctly, tied to labor. But “exploitation” is a loaded word, and with it comes the idea that someone is being used as an end merely, and that the person is not getting what he agreed.

To the former, that is not a necessary consequence of capitalism. That is a consequence of human nature, with or without capitalism. Thus, it is inherent to any and every system.

To the latter, a worker agrees to the wages he receives for the work he performs. If he doesn’t receive it, we think there is injustice. (but, ironically, in our culture if the person receives pay without doing work that’s fine — why is that?) But if he agrees to one wage even though the employer could pay more, that does not imply injustice. Furthermore, if two employees perform the same job for the same amount of time, the employer is not being unjust to pay one differently than the other — so long as they were the respective wages that were agreed upon. Likewise if two worked for different amounts of time, but received the same pay. Jesus even uses this example to illustrate his love to the workers who came late afternoon, not his exploitation of the workers who came in the morning.

This means that under a capitalist system, the workers who settle for less agree to it. That is not wrong. It is better than not working. But those who do not settle for less agree to it. And that’s not wrong either. This is not exploitation if the worker knows what he is getting into and makes a free choice to enter into the agreement. It is exploitation if the terms of agreement are not met, e.g. where he agreed to be paid $9.00/hr but the employer paid ANYthing less, such $8.95/hr.

And the poor buy things, and these prices are also agreed upon. The store gives an opportunity for a cost, and if the terms are favorable, then there is a purchase. But if not the other store will appreciate their money. If a person looks at the price and doesn’t want to pay it, but pays it anyway, that is the customer’s problem — he wanted convenience, or he couldn’t get it cheaper, or he couldn’t make it himself easily, etc. And that’s okay too. This purchasing goes for the rich too. They might pay for things that they would rather the price be lower. But the price is what people are willing to pay, otherwise it would not be sold.

This all goes to say that companies extract labor from the poor — but only according to what they mutually agreed. And stores extract money from the poor — but only according to what they mutually agreed. And the rich are not an exception.

Capitalism is not exploitation.

Belief Volunteerism is the position, contra Evidentialism, that a given person has a choice to believe something or not. Evidentialism posits that one beliefs only that which one has sufficient evidence for holding it, no more and no less. For the evidence compels you to believe, and if you believe without the push of evidence, you are unjustified and entertaining fancy.

However, upon recognizing the evidence in the world, you can interpret it in many ways with many elaborate physical models, and even metaphysical models. Belief Volunteerism is a necessary consequence of the fact that data always under-determines theory. This consequence gives us the freedom and, perhaps the responsibility, to recognize various things about our world around us.

For example, I choose to believe that God made some beautiful nature, giving us a mere glimpse of his own beauty and also giving us a reminder of his love. I could look at that very sight out in the wilderness and believe something else, for I am no way compelled to one over the other by mere evidence. Fitting it in a greater worldview, we can see nature as a creation, and God as the creator who intended to give us some evidence, though inconclusive, to believe that he appreciates beauty and has dominion over all the earth.

“Ya see those beautiful blue seas that seem to never end? I’m kinda like that. And those beautiful lilacs which make you stop for a moment, putting everything on pause to enjoy? I’m kinda like that. And ya know those huge spiders weaving their elaborate webs, I put them there to catch you for myself.”

Ever feel like your gender/sex is confirmed so wholeheartedly? I mean this in the following way: You are doing something or saying something that no one of the opposite gender really does (or at least, you exhibit the exact stereotype of your gender).

For example, a friend of mine thinks baby showers are stupid, boring, and when his child’s shower was going on, he made an effort to get as far away as he could to go sailing. Not interested. It’s dumb. Not his thing. Guys don’t do that. All these women would be there, and who wants to be around all the kattiness, high pitch squealing and esoteric women-jokes?

Or another, how guys are so completely turned off to discussing menstrual cycles. They, for some reason, think that they ought not know; or at least, they think it is irrelevant knowledge of something gross. They don’t want to hear it from women, and they sure, as hellfire is for the non-elect, are not going to look it up and figure it out.

Or another, how guys think that weddings are stupid, expensive events that are just a show for the woman. It’s the bride’s special day, not so much the groom’s. After all, guys don’t think about their weddings. After all, guys don’t plan for their weddings until the women need them to. After all, guys don’t care about that kind of sissy stuff. Never want to get in the way of her plans, or between the mothers of the couple to be wed. It is her day, so just do what you need to so you can get it over with and onto other, less-expensive things. You know, things you want to do after you’ve appeased her.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like a counter-example to my kind.

P.S.
I just realized that I have had this blog for 5 years and 25 days. How hardcore is that?