Monday, May 19, 2008
facebook notes and posted items
Does anyone understand how notes and posted items on facebook work. I have it set up so that it takes what I post on my blog and makes it into a note on facebook. Do I then have to go to the note and click on share and post the note as well, or is that completely redundant? When it makes my blog post into a note, does it announce it to the world, or does it only do that if I post it as well? or does it announce it to the world twice if I post something that is already a note? Or is there a setting for it to automatically post it?
Calling and Coincidence
It seems that for the most part, off the top of my head, their are three types of calling that modern Christians speak of: a) The internal sense of calling b) The general calling, as in, this is just what the bible says that we should do c) The coincidence calling, where everything falls in to place and seems like more than just a coincidence... If everything came together like that, it must be a sign from God.
Signs and having things fall in to place or in sync are certainly not unique to Christianity. I've rambled on this blog before about my limited knowledge of Carl Jung's idea of Syncronicities, in 70's new age pop culture there was the (in my opinion very poorly written and annoying) book Celestine Prophecy, and lets face it, nearly every religious group has ancient texts of some sort where magical things happen or life comes together in a fantastic way. It leaves us to wonder if the Calling of Coincidence is only for the Christian.
Have you ever had a calling of coincidence that didn't come to fruition? Nearing the end of my bible college degree, I went and talked to a local representative for Youth for Christ because I was looking in to different places that I might work for a while. I ended up telling him about another plan that I had been thinking over. I had been considering becoming a Katimavik leader (having been a participant several years earlier). I talked to him and we prayed about it and then I went across the street to the Tim Horton's to write in my journal a bit. While I was sitting in the Tim Hortons, the first Katimavik van that I had seen since participating over 5 years earlier drove right past the window. I was so excited and was sure that it was a sign from God.
The thing about it all was that after doing several phone interviews and two different full day group interviews, I didn't get a job with Katimavik.
What did end up happening was that someone from church who I had only known for a short time gave me an old car and then someone else from my church said that he had been praying about a job for me and a local homeless shelter had come in to his mind and then I got a job at that homeless shelter where I drove a lot of the homeless men around in the car that I had been given and tried to help them with finding housing. I've moved on from that job to other work now after doing it for three years.
Now, I'm happily married and I'm glad that I didn't become a Katimavik project leader because I wouldn't be where I am right now. But what a strange thing life can be, hey?
I don't know if I can imagine God saying, "Okay, this is what we are going to do... no, wait! I have a better idea". Maybe, he would?!? It's strange to think of change in calling like that.. or maybe it's not... or maybe it has to do with prayer.
The Bible tells us that God hears the prayers of righteous people:
(from the message version)
James 5:16
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
Proverbs 15:29
God keeps his distance from the wicked;
he closely attends to the prayers of God-loyal people.
It's fairly common practice for Christians to get other Christians to pray for important things in their lives. This can be a community building activity, but it also might be that it just takes the right person to pray. When Jesus walked the earth, lots of people wanted him to heal the sick or pray for people because they saw that he was able to do these things effectively.
Could it be that someone had prayed for me to become a Katimavik leader and then a more righteous person had prayed for something even better?
I wonder if God just decides to do things on his own, there are bible stories where he negotiates with people and we are taught that prayer is very important. Maybe God prefers to work in consultation with the community.
Signs and having things fall in to place or in sync are certainly not unique to Christianity. I've rambled on this blog before about my limited knowledge of Carl Jung's idea of Syncronicities, in 70's new age pop culture there was the (in my opinion very poorly written and annoying) book Celestine Prophecy, and lets face it, nearly every religious group has ancient texts of some sort where magical things happen or life comes together in a fantastic way. It leaves us to wonder if the Calling of Coincidence is only for the Christian.
Have you ever had a calling of coincidence that didn't come to fruition? Nearing the end of my bible college degree, I went and talked to a local representative for Youth for Christ because I was looking in to different places that I might work for a while. I ended up telling him about another plan that I had been thinking over. I had been considering becoming a Katimavik leader (having been a participant several years earlier). I talked to him and we prayed about it and then I went across the street to the Tim Horton's to write in my journal a bit. While I was sitting in the Tim Hortons, the first Katimavik van that I had seen since participating over 5 years earlier drove right past the window. I was so excited and was sure that it was a sign from God.
The thing about it all was that after doing several phone interviews and two different full day group interviews, I didn't get a job with Katimavik.
What did end up happening was that someone from church who I had only known for a short time gave me an old car and then someone else from my church said that he had been praying about a job for me and a local homeless shelter had come in to his mind and then I got a job at that homeless shelter where I drove a lot of the homeless men around in the car that I had been given and tried to help them with finding housing. I've moved on from that job to other work now after doing it for three years.
Now, I'm happily married and I'm glad that I didn't become a Katimavik project leader because I wouldn't be where I am right now. But what a strange thing life can be, hey?
I don't know if I can imagine God saying, "Okay, this is what we are going to do... no, wait! I have a better idea". Maybe, he would?!? It's strange to think of change in calling like that.. or maybe it's not... or maybe it has to do with prayer.
The Bible tells us that God hears the prayers of righteous people:
(from the message version)
James 5:16
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
Proverbs 15:29
God keeps his distance from the wicked;
he closely attends to the prayers of God-loyal people.
It's fairly common practice for Christians to get other Christians to pray for important things in their lives. This can be a community building activity, but it also might be that it just takes the right person to pray. When Jesus walked the earth, lots of people wanted him to heal the sick or pray for people because they saw that he was able to do these things effectively.
Could it be that someone had prayed for me to become a Katimavik leader and then a more righteous person had prayed for something even better?
I wonder if God just decides to do things on his own, there are bible stories where he negotiates with people and we are taught that prayer is very important. Maybe God prefers to work in consultation with the community.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
contemplating the meaning of calling
The Christian idea of being called to something is an important one and I'm still working through it.
For me, there are two issues, a) does God call people to things and b) in what way should a person choose to speak about what God has called them to. The first question is the easier question, I do believe that in a variety of ways, God calls people. The second question is more difficult for me. Is it appropriate for people to go around saying that God has called them to this or that.
There is also an aspect in there somewhere of occupational calling. They say that this was a Calvanist idea whereby people would be destined to one particular line of work and God would call them in to it. I'm not sure about that; I mean, ya, it probably happens sometimes, but what about people who just aren't called in to any particular line of work. Don't such people get left out? Maybe fairness was never supposed to be the main focus of this...
But that brings me back to talking about calling. Should a person be like Gideon and be skeptical of that which God has called them to do? We live in an era that values skepticism a lot. Or on the slightest suspicion that God is guiding you to do something, should you immediately go and tell everyone this? I guess that I tend to be a bit more like Gideon because I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things that a person should be skeptical of. I mean, apart from whatever vocabulary you choose to use to express your own faith, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few people out there somewhere who would say that they are called to something for imperfect reasons. Often social pressures can be overwhelming and we can't all relentlessly express the exact truth as we understand it in all situations like Mr. Marsault in Albert Camus' L'Etranger.
I think that "Calling" or "Called" must be some sort of very powerful word that we should be careful how we make use of. It would be true to say that the thing in front of my couch is a table and someday it might be true to call that thing something other than a table but only under a few circumstances. I might call it garbage if it became no longer good and it was thrown out. I might cut it up and put it back together and call it some sort of ramp. I might chop it to pieces and call it fire wood. maybe without physically changing, in some other situation, it could be called a bench or a workspace. But if I went around saying that it was called a pumpkin, I would be confused and I would be confusing other people who may be trying to figure out what it is themselves. How much stranger would it be if God called it a table and I tried to argue that it was somethings else.
I think that when people talk about calling, they are talking about what they are called in there current form and situation. I think that to get that sort of thing wrong or to wave it as a flag to show our own greatness just increases the confusion for those who are trying to figure out what things are called; to learn the language so to speak.
If Christians are all parts of Christs body, maybe we need to find knew ways to see what we are called. I'm often uncertain of what I'm called and it seems better to say nothing at all.
For me, there are two issues, a) does God call people to things and b) in what way should a person choose to speak about what God has called them to. The first question is the easier question, I do believe that in a variety of ways, God calls people. The second question is more difficult for me. Is it appropriate for people to go around saying that God has called them to this or that.
There is also an aspect in there somewhere of occupational calling. They say that this was a Calvanist idea whereby people would be destined to one particular line of work and God would call them in to it. I'm not sure about that; I mean, ya, it probably happens sometimes, but what about people who just aren't called in to any particular line of work. Don't such people get left out? Maybe fairness was never supposed to be the main focus of this...
But that brings me back to talking about calling. Should a person be like Gideon and be skeptical of that which God has called them to do? We live in an era that values skepticism a lot. Or on the slightest suspicion that God is guiding you to do something, should you immediately go and tell everyone this? I guess that I tend to be a bit more like Gideon because I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things that a person should be skeptical of. I mean, apart from whatever vocabulary you choose to use to express your own faith, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few people out there somewhere who would say that they are called to something for imperfect reasons. Often social pressures can be overwhelming and we can't all relentlessly express the exact truth as we understand it in all situations like Mr. Marsault in Albert Camus' L'Etranger.
I think that "Calling" or "Called" must be some sort of very powerful word that we should be careful how we make use of. It would be true to say that the thing in front of my couch is a table and someday it might be true to call that thing something other than a table but only under a few circumstances. I might call it garbage if it became no longer good and it was thrown out. I might cut it up and put it back together and call it some sort of ramp. I might chop it to pieces and call it fire wood. maybe without physically changing, in some other situation, it could be called a bench or a workspace. But if I went around saying that it was called a pumpkin, I would be confused and I would be confusing other people who may be trying to figure out what it is themselves. How much stranger would it be if God called it a table and I tried to argue that it was somethings else.
I think that when people talk about calling, they are talking about what they are called in there current form and situation. I think that to get that sort of thing wrong or to wave it as a flag to show our own greatness just increases the confusion for those who are trying to figure out what things are called; to learn the language so to speak.
If Christians are all parts of Christs body, maybe we need to find knew ways to see what we are called. I'm often uncertain of what I'm called and it seems better to say nothing at all.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Mac users and my site
Do mac users have difficulty loading my site? I just loaded it in Safari for windows and it locked up. I checked my stats and have only 1% mac visitors.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Does anyone know where I can find some more music from The Wisdom of Harry or other music from Pete Astor?
