Over the past few weeks it has rained a lot. And over the past two days it has rained to the point that flooding is becoming a problem. I just looked at an image of the radar and it looks like a giant line of storms will be hitting us sometime during the middle of the night. I suppose we are all thankful for the rain, but there is at least one part of my bus route that is underwater and there may be a few more tomorrow that I cannot reach.
Years ago there was an old I Dream of Jeannie episode in which people started to believe that Major Nelson was able to control the weather. A work colleague asked that he do something about his family farm somewhere in the south, and so Jeannie made it rain. Unfortunately, at some point she forgot to turn off the rain and everything flooded.
It seems like this is how we sometimes think about rain and how we ask for it from God. Here in the plains we can go weeks, even months, with nary a drop of rain, but we continue to pray for how it will quench the fields, the ponds, the streams. And then amazingly God makes it rain...and rain...and rain. We get caught up in a cycle of non-stop storms (especially in the spring) and we often end up with floods or hail or tornadoes that do more damage than the drought.
I used to live on the Oregon coast, and there were two season: wet and dry. Around the middle of October it would start raining, and in the middle of April it would stop. I know it was more complicated than that, but I remember it raining parts of 21 days straight in the middle of winter one time, and how I thought I was going to lose my mind.
As I sit here tonight the thunder keeps rolling around the skies, and the light rain that is falling makes it noises on the window. I enjoy it, but I'm ready for it to be over...there's only so much we really can take, so hopefully they are right and it ends for awhile tomorrow. But hopefully tomorrow won't be the last of it through the summer.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Monday, May 6, 2019
The Unbearable Advancement of Tech
Tonight at our dinner table my 11-year-old son and I got into an interesting discussion about the growth and change of consumer technology. Actually, we were talking about gaming consoles I had as a kid, from a simple 'pong' setup to the Atari 2600 and eventually into my adulthood with the original XBox and then the XBox One. For most of my life gaming has meant computer gaming, whether on my friend Chris' Apple IIc or whatever desktops or laptops I have used over the years.
I guess it got started somehow with a discussion about how YouTube is this version's generation of the VCR. I remember our first Betamax, how my mother would approach it with all the caution of a police bomb squad coming upon an unmarked suitcase. Generally I would have to program it for her when she wanted to watch a show (which was almost never); I told my son that there will come a day in which there is technology in my life that I look at in much the same way. At this point in my life most technology for me is something that I have to learn, while he is still at the age where it simply comes naturally. As kids we seem to be able to pick up almost anything and within five minutes figure something out; as we get older we have to think through the processes a little bit more.
This conversation moved on to talking about computers, where I told him the horrors of having to boot up DOS with a floppy disc, and how I would then have to turn discs over and then change them based on whatever program I decided to run. He seemed more horrified by the idea of having to flip the discs than anything, and so I told him that his most precious piece of current technology, his Switch, would within 10 years seem like something that was so lame and cheap. Someday kids will grow up playing games within their fingers and eyes with little to no exteranl equipment, I believe...and so to have to handle an actual joy-con on his switch or have to wait a whole minute to boot up a game on the XBox will seem so primitive to his kids. The world of Ready Player One will be as real as reality for future generations.
I don't know that there's anything inherently good or bad about the power of this technology...it just is. The moral question, of course, is how we use it. Do we continue to let these things take over our lives? Do we recognize that having them simply become a part of who we are as a person will be considered what humanity is all about? I don't know where it will stop, and I laugh at futurists who try to tell us exactly what these things will look like...we have no idea. Who would have thought a few years ago that we could carry around cheap, almost disposable tablets with access to almost any kind of entertainment?
I'm curious about what the future holds. I don't think that it's necessarily dystopian nor a new age of enlightenment. It just will be what it is.
I guess it got started somehow with a discussion about how YouTube is this version's generation of the VCR. I remember our first Betamax, how my mother would approach it with all the caution of a police bomb squad coming upon an unmarked suitcase. Generally I would have to program it for her when she wanted to watch a show (which was almost never); I told my son that there will come a day in which there is technology in my life that I look at in much the same way. At this point in my life most technology for me is something that I have to learn, while he is still at the age where it simply comes naturally. As kids we seem to be able to pick up almost anything and within five minutes figure something out; as we get older we have to think through the processes a little bit more.
This conversation moved on to talking about computers, where I told him the horrors of having to boot up DOS with a floppy disc, and how I would then have to turn discs over and then change them based on whatever program I decided to run. He seemed more horrified by the idea of having to flip the discs than anything, and so I told him that his most precious piece of current technology, his Switch, would within 10 years seem like something that was so lame and cheap. Someday kids will grow up playing games within their fingers and eyes with little to no exteranl equipment, I believe...and so to have to handle an actual joy-con on his switch or have to wait a whole minute to boot up a game on the XBox will seem so primitive to his kids. The world of Ready Player One will be as real as reality for future generations.
I don't know that there's anything inherently good or bad about the power of this technology...it just is. The moral question, of course, is how we use it. Do we continue to let these things take over our lives? Do we recognize that having them simply become a part of who we are as a person will be considered what humanity is all about? I don't know where it will stop, and I laugh at futurists who try to tell us exactly what these things will look like...we have no idea. Who would have thought a few years ago that we could carry around cheap, almost disposable tablets with access to almost any kind of entertainment?
I'm curious about what the future holds. I don't think that it's necessarily dystopian nor a new age of enlightenment. It just will be what it is.
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Old Age Awaiteth
This weekend my sister-in-law came to visit with her two younger daughters, age 3 and 1. I love my sister-in-law and my nieces; but wow, the big takeaway from this weekend is that I AM OLD. Upon arriving last night the two rugrats were all over the place, and we were chasing and chasing and chasing and by the time it was bedtime last night, I was exhausted.
Today I did not spend that much time with them, as I made excuses to do the relatively easy work of cleaning out gutters and mowing the yard. But the time I did have with them, they continued to run me and the rest of the adults and my own children ragged. I made sure to point out to my teenage daughter (who loves children and is very good with them, BTW), that kids are hard work. I probably should have pressed a little bit further with this and gone into the and that's why you must not have any at this time.
I am going to be hitting my half-century in just over a year. And while I have been struggling with back problems and that may be one reason why I'm not at full speed when it comes to keeping up with the rugrats, I'm starting to realize that there's a reason why I can't keep up with these kids anymore. They are too much for me because quite simply they are too much. We are not designed to be raising kids (or grandkids) into our 50s. I don't want to be going to my child's preschool program having to be led in with a walker; kids need parents who are mature enough to be adults, but not so mature as to be old.
They are gone now; my sister-in-law was going to stay another night before realizing that it was too crazy to stay here. Our house is not child-proofed by any means and she was ready to get home and stay in her own bed with her own defenses against the kids. I don't envy her at all. I love kids, but I know that it's a good thing (knock on wood) to make sure that I don't have any more of them.
Today I did not spend that much time with them, as I made excuses to do the relatively easy work of cleaning out gutters and mowing the yard. But the time I did have with them, they continued to run me and the rest of the adults and my own children ragged. I made sure to point out to my teenage daughter (who loves children and is very good with them, BTW), that kids are hard work. I probably should have pressed a little bit further with this and gone into the and that's why you must not have any at this time.
I am going to be hitting my half-century in just over a year. And while I have been struggling with back problems and that may be one reason why I'm not at full speed when it comes to keeping up with the rugrats, I'm starting to realize that there's a reason why I can't keep up with these kids anymore. They are too much for me because quite simply they are too much. We are not designed to be raising kids (or grandkids) into our 50s. I don't want to be going to my child's preschool program having to be led in with a walker; kids need parents who are mature enough to be adults, but not so mature as to be old.
They are gone now; my sister-in-law was going to stay another night before realizing that it was too crazy to stay here. Our house is not child-proofed by any means and she was ready to get home and stay in her own bed with her own defenses against the kids. I don't envy her at all. I love kids, but I know that it's a good thing (knock on wood) to make sure that I don't have any more of them.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
My Baseball Post for 2019.
So...the Royals suck again. A bit over a month into the season, they are now at 11-20, and that's with Alex Gordon having a late-career resurgence, Alberto Mondesi being the next big thing, and Hunter Dozier having one of the best OPSs in baseball. Even the starting pitching has not been terrible, as they've put together a number of quality starts, and Ian Kennedy looking like his transition to the bullpen was a great idea.
Yet they still suck, and this has been against mostly bad teams. And people aren't coming out to watch...yesterday they had a doubleheader against the the Rays in which something like 500 people showed up (announced attendance, 11K).
I guess this is the karmic price for the Royals winning the World Series in 2015...once in a generation we do something amazing, but most of the rest of the time we are consigned to misery. Is this a good thing? I suppose it's better to be the best once and really bad the rest of the time than it is to be good much of the time but never the best? Which is best for my sports fandom?
I still have the MLB app on my phone with the Royals set to my favorite team, and that will never change. Who really wants to jump on a Dodgers bandwagon at this point? Ugh. But I guess we are stuck with the curse of suck until I am well into my retirement years.
We'll always have 2015, though.
Yet they still suck, and this has been against mostly bad teams. And people aren't coming out to watch...yesterday they had a doubleheader against the the Rays in which something like 500 people showed up (announced attendance, 11K).
I guess this is the karmic price for the Royals winning the World Series in 2015...once in a generation we do something amazing, but most of the rest of the time we are consigned to misery. Is this a good thing? I suppose it's better to be the best once and really bad the rest of the time than it is to be good much of the time but never the best? Which is best for my sports fandom?
I still have the MLB app on my phone with the Royals set to my favorite team, and that will never change. Who really wants to jump on a Dodgers bandwagon at this point? Ugh. But I guess we are stuck with the curse of suck until I am well into my retirement years.
We'll always have 2015, though.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Things That Annoy Me #57: Resentful People
Let me start by saying that by simply pointing this out I am something that annoys myself: I resent people who live their lives resentful of others. I get it. I'm a hypocrite.
But one of the things I've tried doing in recent years it letting go. Frozen taught me that, I guess? I don't have time to be continually angry about Trump, or about North Korean religious oppression, or the sex trade. I hate them all, and if I were dictator I'd do away with them all in a week. But moment-by-moment anger, holding onto stuff that I can't do much about? I've got too many other productive things I need to be doing, like raising my kids or loving my wife or preaching the gospel or ensuring the kids on my route get home safely.
Through the years in ministry I have occasionally come across people who live their lives as a series of resentments that they seek to frame as righteous outrage. Years ago there was a man in our church who continually brought up the poor and the outcast that we needed to be seeking out, and all the failures of the church and its people, and how nobody was nearly as passionate as he was, and why were we not outraged? 'The church doesn't...' or 'The government ought to...' or 'You don't...' was the beginning of every one of his conversations. In many ways I agreed with what he said, but his sense of Elijah complex ("They've killed all the prophets, and I'm the only one left!") caused me to tune him out after awhile, because a)either he did nothing about those things or b)anything he did do was so poorly thought out or self-righteous in its promotion that if anything it was counter-productive. Eventually this man disappeared from my radar, and it was of him that I said, "When you burn bridges, don't be surprised when there's nobody left to help you across the river."
Recently I have had somebody new in my life who has filled this role. Maybe it's just that they try to find a place in small churches, or maybe I am more tolerant of listening to them than some (but, oh, Lord, forgive me for my thoughts and my occasional acidic responses). But sometimes people seem drawn to me as if I really want to hear their various resentments. For this person it's Trump, the Church of Christ of their youth, a preacher that was a creep, racism in general, and a half dozen other things (with something new everytime)...and they go back and forth in such a non-rational manner that after five minutes you've completely lost track of the rant. All the while, as you hold your tongue and wonder how you can extricate yourself, you recognize that this person isn't really talking with you, as most normal people do, but they talk AT you, as if you are the punching bag they have stumbled across at this moment with which they can take out their aggression.
My son regularly makes fun of Frozen, especially since they are having a money-grab sequel coming out later this year. I guess that's what 11-year-old boys do. But the message of let it go is something that so many people need. Hold something so tight to you and eventually you will crush it. It's not just enough to talk out your resentment at whoever is patient (or stupid) enough to let it continue on and on and on. Eventually, you have to make some progress with it, and choose to no longer hold it so tightly to your chest.
Want to hold onto a statement that somebody made in passing (and with no ill will) 25 years previously? I'm sorry, what good does that do you? We all screw up in the things that we say. But if we only remember the worst of what somebody said to us, then eventually we will be alone, screaming at the dark and empty void. That's no way to live life...God gave us one another to enjoy, not so that we could rage upon each other. Let it go.
But one of the things I've tried doing in recent years it letting go. Frozen taught me that, I guess? I don't have time to be continually angry about Trump, or about North Korean religious oppression, or the sex trade. I hate them all, and if I were dictator I'd do away with them all in a week. But moment-by-moment anger, holding onto stuff that I can't do much about? I've got too many other productive things I need to be doing, like raising my kids or loving my wife or preaching the gospel or ensuring the kids on my route get home safely.
Through the years in ministry I have occasionally come across people who live their lives as a series of resentments that they seek to frame as righteous outrage. Years ago there was a man in our church who continually brought up the poor and the outcast that we needed to be seeking out, and all the failures of the church and its people, and how nobody was nearly as passionate as he was, and why were we not outraged? 'The church doesn't...' or 'The government ought to...' or 'You don't...' was the beginning of every one of his conversations. In many ways I agreed with what he said, but his sense of Elijah complex ("They've killed all the prophets, and I'm the only one left!") caused me to tune him out after awhile, because a)either he did nothing about those things or b)anything he did do was so poorly thought out or self-righteous in its promotion that if anything it was counter-productive. Eventually this man disappeared from my radar, and it was of him that I said, "When you burn bridges, don't be surprised when there's nobody left to help you across the river."
Recently I have had somebody new in my life who has filled this role. Maybe it's just that they try to find a place in small churches, or maybe I am more tolerant of listening to them than some (but, oh, Lord, forgive me for my thoughts and my occasional acidic responses). But sometimes people seem drawn to me as if I really want to hear their various resentments. For this person it's Trump, the Church of Christ of their youth, a preacher that was a creep, racism in general, and a half dozen other things (with something new everytime)...and they go back and forth in such a non-rational manner that after five minutes you've completely lost track of the rant. All the while, as you hold your tongue and wonder how you can extricate yourself, you recognize that this person isn't really talking with you, as most normal people do, but they talk AT you, as if you are the punching bag they have stumbled across at this moment with which they can take out their aggression.
My son regularly makes fun of Frozen, especially since they are having a money-grab sequel coming out later this year. I guess that's what 11-year-old boys do. But the message of let it go is something that so many people need. Hold something so tight to you and eventually you will crush it. It's not just enough to talk out your resentment at whoever is patient (or stupid) enough to let it continue on and on and on. Eventually, you have to make some progress with it, and choose to no longer hold it so tightly to your chest.
Want to hold onto a statement that somebody made in passing (and with no ill will) 25 years previously? I'm sorry, what good does that do you? We all screw up in the things that we say. But if we only remember the worst of what somebody said to us, then eventually we will be alone, screaming at the dark and empty void. That's no way to live life...God gave us one another to enjoy, not so that we could rage upon each other. Let it go.
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