The Resolute

You need Self Control.

If you’re like me then you’re good at procrastinating. Subconsciously you’ve you alt-tab’d into Chrome and your off into Facebook…

That’s where this little app comes in. You tell it which websites you don’y want to use (you know, SMH, FB, YouTube, Wikipedia…) and then set the timer for however long you need and it won’t let you use them until the countdown reaches zero. Simple. And it’s amazing how much more work you can get done.

After the bombardment of blogs posts, a hand full of sermons and a steady stream of twitter messages form some high profile Christians¹ I thought I should get into watching some UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) wrestling. So I set my recorder to record the late night UFC matches on HD One, and started watching a few of them last night.

Well, you know what, I was a little disappointed. UFC was presented as the ultimate man sport. But I have some suggested improvements.

First of all, why limit it to only 2 players. Why not have 10 or 20 or, even better, 30 players.

And that toy ‘octagon’ they wrestle in? For 30 players I think it’d need to go full field.

And when it comes to the rules of UFC I was totally misinformed. I thought it was no rules wrestling. But it turns out there are lots of rules. No kicking down there (good rule), no holding shorts, no punching the back of the head, no biting… the rules go on and on.

Although the fights are all over in 30 seconds. That’s not a sport. You take a bit of your pizza and it’s all over.

Here’s a suggestion: You want a good man sport? One that is violent? One that lasts long enough to watch with your mates? One played at a venu big enough for 70,000 other men? One with lots of rules?

Rugby.

1. well Driscoll mainly, but I’m sure there were some others [↩]

I probably wouldn’t recommend you read this book. I haven’t. Although I did read the title and tag line and that was enough.

To set the scene: I found a catalogue from some big local ‘Christian’ bookshop in the postbox. I inverted-comma-ed the ‘Christians’ because I’ve heard it described as “A self-help shop with a few Christian books”… But that’s a rant for another day.

One that caught my eye was titled “It’s NOT My Fault”. My first thought was “well it’s not God’s fault”… but anyway… the authors were talking about negative thinking. The blurb puts it “people don’t recognize what the blaming mindset does to them”. I’m no shrink so I can’t really comment on that.

But it’s the tag line that I thought was… well here it is: “The no-excuse plan to put you in charge of your life“.

Anyone well schooled in 2 Ways to Live will hear the alarm bells wailing. To quote 2WTL: “The sad truth is that, from the very beginning, men and women everywhere have rejected God by doing things their own way.” In kids-talk you might say “we try to run our live’s our own way, instead of making God the boss”.

ie. God should be the boss. A better tag line would be “You have no excuse but to put God in charge of your life“.

But then again, I admit, I haven’t read the book.

I wonder how many atheists there really are.

Christopher Hitchens was recently on QandA and then there was the whole debate in the media (under the guise of ‘ethics classes’) about whether religion should be taught in schools.

These atheists seem to talk as if religion is dead, like people are starting to become ‘enlightened’ to the ‘fact’ that there is no god… but I’m not sure that’s the case. Far from atheism taking over, I think spirituality/religion is here as much as ever.

2 movies I saw this week had massive religious overtones. Avatar had a bit of ‘god in the trees’ Pantheism, Animism and ancestor veneration. The Lonely Bones was a mix of spiritualism, medium-ism and a strange-nice-purgatory-afterlife-thing going.

Not sure if I got those ‘ism descriptions right, but it certainly wasn’t atheism.

I’m always looking out for good material to blog about… so when Philip told me about an article titled “Mac or PC: dividing the Christian community” on sydneyanglicans.net… well… it’s like discovering a gold mine.

The endless possibilities… so much I could say…

ps. I’m a mac.

pps. Do I take my Mac too seriously…?

Political Correctness (PC-ness) is a little confusing.

I just watched Good News Week (GNW) where the comedians made humour of recent accusations that they use bad words¹. They use lots of words starting with f. And they joke a lot about sex. It was the first time I’ve watched GNW in a few years. Back then they pushed the boundaries… Today they push it further. Not PC.

So I’d assume to be PC would mean to speak tastefully about sex. To value it, to promote it in the way God intended, to speak of God’s intention for it. But of course that’s not very PC. Philip Jensen starts his 3rd of 4 talks in the new You Sex and Society² series reminding us that sometimes the Bible is not PC. The world doesn’t want to know what God thinks about sex.

So how is it that GNW and Philip Jensen are both being politically-incorrect when they are saying opposite things?

1. Herald Sun “Good News Week’s Andrew Hansen, Ben Elton slammed over bad language by Family Council of Victoria” 23 November 2009 [↩]
2. Philip Jensen. You Sex and Society Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3, Talk 4 [↩]

I almost made a new friend yesterday. Gordon Cheng invited Kev and I to be his friend… on facebook. Once I got over the whole “will-you-be-my-friend” thing I was all set to add Gordon as a FB friend. But then someone started talking about leadership and said that leaders don’t follow, infact, leaders don’t do what they are told. Since I want to be a leader I can’t follow and so I’m in a predicament where I can’t add Gordon as a friend.

Other news, yesterday I also learnt from a very respected Christian leader about Governor Macquarie. Apparently William Bligh was a mutineer on Macquarie’s boat out to Australia, on arrival to Australia Bligh was made a prisoner, but eventually rose to become Governor himself. Fascinating. The question was raised: why were we never taught this at school?

Last week some guy called Dave made the following comment on my 1 Month Being Resolute post.

I’d also like to complain that you write sarcastically far too much. Sarcasm, like ginger, needs to be used sparsely to avoid being overwhelming.

Last night at bible study we were looking at Job 38-42, and God get’s a little sarcastic with Job. By ‘a little sarcastic’ I mean that the whole of chapters 38 to 41 are just one sarcastic comment after another.

Here’s a taste of God having a go at Job¹:

“Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!”

(more…)

1. Job 38:3-5 [↩]

Here’s an idea for a game.

Get a rectangular field. Put 2 sticks at either end with a cross bar to form an ‘H’ shape.

Create lots of rules. Then add some more rules. Maybe another rule or 2 for good measure.

2 teams of 15 players. Oval Shaped ball.

The object of the game is not to break rules.

Every time someone breaks a rule then the opposing team has the opportunity to kick the ball over the ‘H’ shaped posts. If they are successful then their team gets 3 points.

Or maybe we could just keep playing rugby and the referees could understand that their job is to facilitate the game, rather than playing infringement officers. No-one likes them.