« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
October 31, 2006
Self-Reformation
In the second half of life the necessity is imposed of recognizing no longer the validity of our former ideals but of their contraries. Of perceiving the error in what was previously our conviction, of sensing the untruth in what was our truth, and of weighing the degree of opposition, and even of hostility, in what we took to be love. --Carl Gustav Jung
Jung makes a good point, don't you think? Maybe even those of us who are in the first half of life ought to do these things: to study ourselves and our behaviors and bring them back into line with Truth.
That's the thing, isn't it? What is Truth? That's been the question since the beginning. Pilate asked it. That's exactly how the Enemy tempted Eve: "Did God really say...?" Getting her to question what Truth is--getting all of us to question what Truth is.
We know what Truth is, and it's our responsibility to recognize our tendency to stray from that Truth. Often it's like an undertow--our default settings that drag us back to our habits of sin, of self-centeredness, of pride, of desire, of need for control. Those responses are understandable, but they are not necessarily Truth.
We who are redeemed know what Truth is. We know Him and we know His voice. We recognize His voice, because He is our Shepherd, and we are the sheep of His pasture.
Once we know what Truth is--and reconcile ourselves to follow that Truth--then the task becomes constant reform. We must measure ourselves to see if we're falling back into error, untruth, opposition, and hostility, and commit to repenting of those sins and choosing the way of Truth again.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 05:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Happy Reformation Day
All day long the television programs have featured Halloween. TV chefs seem to think the only thing going on today is giving cutely-costumed kids candy, decorating our homes with cute-spooky decor, and making black-and-orange the theme color for all our food today.
And I've been selling Halloweencrap at The Department Store for weeks. I'm a little tired of cute black bats gamolling around cute black spooky houses decorated with purple glitter...all of which sells for $23.99 and has a little place for a votive candle. Ick. It's not cute.
I grew up with the anti-Halloween church party: the Reformation Celebration. When I was little it really was a celebration of the Protestant Reformation, but by the time I was in high school, it degenerated into a safe-Halloween-alternative party. Ick.
In any case, today is more than just cute black cats and cute bottle of fake-entrails cutely displayed on our bookshelves, cute bats flying around cute black spooky houses, cute witches and familiars.
Don't forget:
Sola scriptura
Sola fide
Sola gratia
Soli Deo gloria
Solo Christo
Posted by The Newest Worker at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2006
Onion Goggles (Nothing Like Beer Goggles!)
Funny story.
I was chopping onions today, getting a whole lot of them minced in my chopper, and I was in serious pain. (Did you know that the onion fumes mix with the salt in your tears to make sulfuric acid???? Yeah. Pain.) I thought I could just grit my teeth and make it through, but no. I left the kitchen, could barely open my eyes because they were swollen, and thought of what I could do.
White bread shoved up under my upper lip right under my nose didn't work. Short stints chopping onions didn't work. Nothing worked. So I took drastic measures.
I put my goggles on. Then I put my glasses back on. I was a delight to see. But my eyes weren't burning and I got my onions minced.
Go ahead. Laugh.
---
I called my parents to tell them the goggles-onion story and my dad answered, and as I told him the story he laughed till he cried. It was good to hear.
---
I tried something else new.
You know the kitchen tip to freeze your extra chicken stock and gravy and stuff in ice cube trays? I froze all that minced onion in my ice cube trays and I will un-tray them tomorrow and put them in a freezer bag. Each cube (they say) is about a tablespoon, so we'll see how this works.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 09:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Cellphone chatting and register shopping
As a cashier, I really get irrittated when you...
- take my questions the wrong way ("No, I don't want a Department Store Charge Card! Don't you know how evil credit cards are!"
- talk to your shopping buddies only, refusing to acknowledge me at all
- chat on your cell phone right in front of me. It's really rude!
- talk too quietly (especially when asking where the restroom is)
- don't listen to my instructions (No, swipe your credit card faster. No, I need to see your ID when I'm done ringing you up. And so on.)
- assume I don't know what I'm doing (No joke, but a lady actually told me quite rudely "Don't forget my daughter's earrings!" I was busy putting her 15 dress shirts into the bag, lady. Sheesh.)
- shop at the register ("I don't know about these pants. What do you think?" Customer holds pants up to self. "Do you think they make me look fat?" Etc.)
Posted by The Newest Worker at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Weekend shoppers
Two customers made me see red Saturday. Literally. (I have always thought that was a figure of speech, but now I realize, blood actually floods your field of vision.)
Customer number one: She was buying Halloween Placemats, Matching Halloween Couch Pillows, Matching Halloween Bowl and Matching Halloween Tea Light Holder. Her total bill was approximately $130. (Yes, that much money for Halloweenie CRAP!) I commented that marketing it corporate would love her; she's doing exactly as they want, and that the set sure did match. (That's my innocuous comment when I hate what the customer is buying: "Boy it sure is ruffled" or "Wow that is quite a set." Most of the time they have no idea that I really thing they are moronic lemmings for spending that much money on CRAP.)
As I was bagging she got a little huffy and said that it's her hard-earned money and she could spend it on anything she wanted. Neither I nor her husband was going to control her spending, no matter if he cut up her credit cards. Wow. She was just a touch defensive, I would think. I zipped my lip and said to myself, "What about her husband's hard-earned money??? The saying 'What's his is ours and what's mine is mine' is false, and she's made the sad mistake of buying into the fantasy."
Moral of this story: Exercise control in all things, including your spending. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Customer number two: It's my habit to begin every customer itneraction with a fascinating series of questions: "Will this be on your Department Store Charge? Do you have a Department Store Charge? Are you interested in applying for a Department Store Charge...you get __% off today just for applying!" I was exercising my routine with this frau when she decided to go ahead and use her Department Store Charge since she had one already. Then she told her teen daughter: "We don't need to tell dad that we used my Department Store Charge. We'll just have $50 more dollars in cash to spend on other things today, like lunch out!"
Grr. Double grr. Her blatant deception of her husband regarding money would have got me on its own, but to involve her daughter in deception and to teach her daughter that it's ok to deceive men? Arrrrrghhhhh! I think you can tell what the moral of this story is.
---
And just so you all know, remember that your cashier is there and can hear everything you say and see everything you do. You're not hiding. So mind what you say and doif you don't want it gossipped (or shared, hehheh) all over the store and in the Break Room.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 02:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Technology, wow.
Yesterday I was computing at the library because our home computers are dead. Totally d-e-a-d. The girl at the computer next to me was typing a report for school and her typing was painfully slow. Painfully. It wasn't just hunt-n-peck, it was hunt-n-peck with one finger of one hand. Like she'd never seen a keyboard before. Poor thing. She typed a paragraph comparable to this one in about 30 minutes. (And I wonder, why hasn't her school adopted some sort of typing class for kids her age? She looked like she was about 6th grade or so...)
Well, she couldn't print. They only let you print if you are a library patron. The librarian came over and looked the situation over and informed them "Sorry. You can't print unless you're a patron."
They were going to close the job and leave but I intervened. (Aren't you proud of me?) I saved her little report on my Y'hoo account via her computer, opened it on my computer (and this amazed the girl and her dad), copy-pasted it to Word and printed. Took about 30 seconds. Whew.
They were very thankful. But imagine not being aware of Y'hoo 'it can open anywhere on any computer' technology.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 02:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
JKrue:
call me again. i lost your number.
Thanks.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 06:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday catchup
It’s been a while again. Here are some thoughts that have been simmering in my mind for a while.
---
I've been thinking a lot about this insta-results problem we American Christians have--that I have. And praying about it. And mulling over it. It's really been shaping a great deal of my prayers lately.
---
One of my college roommates was irritated at me once because we weren’t hanging out very much. I was busy with 18 credits and 18 hours of work study a week. We fought about it quite often (which was better than one other roommate, who was totally pissed off at me but never talked to me about it at all), and I got advice from my RA. The RA explained that the roomie couldn’t understand a busier schedule. Could I imagine how to fit another 18 hour job into my life? No. neither could the roomie understand or imagine just what I meant when I said I was really busy. All that to say I’m considering adding another activity into my life and I am worried about my schedule…but I’ll be ok. I’ll cross those bridges when I come to them and trust God to provide what I need when I need it.
And no, I’m not having a baby. It’s something else.
---
speaking of something else, it’s actually a decision I’ve made. It’s not ‘something I’m considering.’ It’s an actual decision I’ve made, and I’m excited. But it represents a great deal of work and challenge which scare me. I hate change. But I’m tired of the nowheresville my life seems to be right now, and I’m sick of nowheresville and I hate it more than change and challenge.
---
I use the crock pot a lot. I like that I can turn it on and it cooks the food/keeps the food hot till we get home.
---
Sister is moving to Colorado. I’m so happy for her but really jealous; I want to move home too. I do not want to move back in to my parents’ house—I want to move home to my home city and live near my parents and near my sister so we can drop in, or plan weekly dinners together, or hang out together. She’s gonna have babies eventually, and so will I, and I want them to know their grandparents and their cousins. Sigh. I am homesick again. I thought I got rid of that dang homesickness years ago…but it comes back and back and back.
---
covenant homecoming was last weekend. It was great. I liked seeing people I havent’ seen in the last few years, though they are all frozen in my head from 4 years ago. I’ve changed and grown in the last four years, so of course they have too, but seeing them with kids or married or heavier or lighter or looking-like-they’re-twentysomethings is odd. It’s a cognitive dissonance.
---
I realized the other day at The Department Store what is good about the incessant stupid questions. I tell people a hundred times a minute “The bathroom is in the far back corner of the store, behind customer service” or “Returns are at customer service—the far back corner of the store—all the way to the opposite back” or “the yes button is next to the three” or “no, that sale ended last week. See, the date is printed right here” or “if I could see your ID please.” Sheesh!!!!!! I hate the incessant stupid questions! I hate them! I hate them! But here’s the good part: they are getting me ready for having kids and going through the same routine again and again and again…cashiering is good preparation for that.
---
I’ve been on slimfast because I’m tired of feeling fat and convicted about my eating being out of control. Here’s a verse that really kicked me over and left me breathless:
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. I Corinthians 9:25aSee what I mean? So I’ve made a change, and I’m seeing results! Woo hoo! I fit into my jeans again! I bought new jeans the other day and bought the next size smaller! I can wear more and more of my clothes again. My feet hurt less. Aaaaaah. Hooray.
---
The Dude and I went to the cheap theater last night (economy night—Wednesday tickets cost $1!) and saw Over the Hedge. It was so funny. It was painfully, laughably, unrelentingly funny. Oh my goodness. The squirrel’s voice reminded me of Bob. Bob, I miss you. You make me laugh, and if you haven’t seen Over the Hedge yet, you should. Go see it and laugh yourself silly and enjoy.
---
I can’t think of anything else. I think that’s all for now.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 06:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2006
Psalm 27
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, "Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face, LORD, do I seek."
Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the LORD will take me in.
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living!
Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!
--Psalm 27
Posted by The Newest Worker at 07:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2006
Fast Food Mentality
The follower can't have a fast-food mentality when it comes to the things of God. Once again, the curse of the western Christian has taught us that to wait for God's answer is a burden, not as it should be seen, a relief. Jesus knew that even the thing which is good for us, is only good for us in God's time.
Stine, Brad. Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot: 10 Assumed Truths that Make Us Look Stupid. Franklin, TN: Right Minded Records, 2004. Page 20.
I went to McKay's and bought 4 books and then several from the free bin. I was there right when the guy was dumping books into the free bin and got some beauties. I also passed up some books -- one, for example, was Wastewater Engineering. Yikes. I do not ever want to read about wastewater engineering. Ick. EVEN THOUGH it is a public work and a necessary city utility, still. Just no.
Anyway, one of my purchased books was the source of the above quote. Isn't it a good one? I like it. Stay tuned for more good quotes.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 05:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack