Bad Customer Relations

It's an amazing thing. I just spent an hour on the phone booking tickets to the states. Not only was the price outrageous, but I finally managed to get tickets at just over $3000 dollars, 300 more a ticket than I've ever paid. This is probably due to the 'visa panic' cause by a terribly enacted law that requires a lot of things, including foreigners having to return to their own home countries, no longer can we hop on over to Lithunania.

But that wasn't the worst of it. No, you see, the airline we ended up with required a paper ticket. So, I had to get it delivered ($40 FedEx). I repeatedly had to tell them "NO! Not the billing address! I need it delivered to Moscow." Like I would order tickets from Moscow to the US when I was already in the US. GAH!

It gets better. I was told I had to call back Monday because ticket issuing agency was closed. So, I called back, gave them the same information, again, which they apparently didn't save the previous two times I gave it to them. They finally confirmed it with me as being shipped to moscow, and arriving on Wednesday. That same night, 3 hours later, my father calls to tell me he received the tickets. And, it's now thursday and I have no tickets... My dad is going to have to UPS the tickets here, and Travelocity is about to get a nasty call and/or e-mail from me.

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Quotes of the...well, you know, whenever

"They're stealing my heat and converting it into evil." -Starslip Crisis

"It's narrower but wider." -My aunt

"It's like, you know, a van ride." -Youth in my mother's youth group

"I'm not arrogant because she said I'm handsome, I'm arrogant because I am handsome." -Me

Life and Death

Someone we know recently told us about some problem with their church. It was something that really got them down, a sense of apathy among the members. No, not so much an "I don't care" attitude but a "I'm fine right here" attitude. It's very discouraging for them, and I can understand why. Imagine at the age of 10 stating you were fine where you were and never going to grow any, develop any, change any. That's about what that amounts to, staying perpetually as a child. Because that's where we are, we are children, and to simply want to stay where you're at is not wanting to grow.

The sad thing is, this is one of the reasons I like being here in Russia, there's no "meh" Christians here. Here, you are in the midst of the spiritual fight, and you have to fight or die. And this experience is so hard, that it makes you know you are alive. There's no apathy here, because apathy is death in a real spiritual sense. You have to hold on with all you're worth, and you know that each second you fight it's a sense of being truly alive.

Admittedly struggling constantly means hurting, crying, and nearly despairing. You often feel beaten to the end of your life, and all that's holding you up is a thread. I would be lying to you if I said this is fun, that I enjoy it. But the oppurtunity this presents is amazing! You see, when you're that far down, you see your only choice: God taking over. And you depend on God so much here, that you really grow. Growth is painful, to be sure, more painful than I can properly articulate. But it's worth it. And where God has called me to be is where I can both serve best and grow best.

That is why I am here. Because I am called, and there is purpose in His plans for me.

Truth

A recent discussion along with reading of Josh McDowell’s “Right from Wrong” brought something interesting to my mind. That is the inherent hypocrisy that relativists have, and yet don’t realize it. Relativists believe there is no absolute truth, and seem to almost thrive on arguing that with anyone. Yet, for them believe that there are two problems inherent in relativism. First, to believe that there is no absolute truth is contradicting, because you are in fact believing in an absolute truth…that there is no absolute truth. My mind kind of rebels over that, being that it’s circular, and self-contradicting, but that’s how it is. To believe there is no absolute truth is to acknowledge that you believe something that applies to everyone everywhere, that is, there is nothing that is true for everyone, what is true for that person may not be true for another, which is an inherent belief in a contradictory absolute.

The second fallacy is that a relativist can not debate someone and maintain their position. You see, if you truly believe in relative truth, then you can not ever say the other person is wrong. After all, you believe in relative truth, so I am right for me. You can never say someone else is wrong, lest you contradict yourself, because to state so is to say some other form of truth that is absolute. If I believe you’re wrong, you can’t even argue with me there, because that may be what’s true to me. You can’t argue tolerance, because intolerance for others could be my truth. You see what I’m getting at?

No one truly believes in relative morality, they just like to argue it. In practice, most everyone believes in some sort of absolute truth, if only “Live and let live,” which seems to be what most people really mean by relative truth and morality. And if you disagree, you can't argue with me, because this is true to me! :P

Following

I am currently facing large questions about God's call for my life in the immediate future. These questions arise not because of doubting God's call, so much as the arise from the questions in the details involved. There are things about the calling I feel that make me doubtful that make it difficult to bare. And yet I am certain that it is the right way.

I am reminded of a saying my sister once had on her bedroom wall. "What is right is not always easy, but it is always right!" I have come up with my own similar saying "Following God is rarely easy, but it's with God." And it is so true. It is sometimes hard to follow the Lord's will. Largely the difficulty comes, to me, in the form of my understanding. You see, my understanding why I do something is not always required in my life following after God. And that scares me sometimes. But God reminds me of Job, suffering, beaten down by Satan. All he wants to do is vindicate himself before God in front of his friends. And the whole time I'm reading thinking, "Go on, God, explain it to him, let him know what a great thing he has shown by showing up Satan." Instead, God tells him off for thinking to question His sovereignty. And...I'm left humbled. You see, God doesn't require my comprehension, He requires that I commit to Him and His will. And time and again it's shown to be the absolute best way.

He also reminds me that He truly does know best, and that to seek Him I must throw off my fears and hopes in anything but Him. That is the beauty of it, to me. I must give it all up, and I gain more than I could ahve imagined. By seeking I don't mean the casual," ho hum, yeah, whatever you want God...as long as it involves me marrying a hot chick." Or whatever else, you know what I mean, putting these plans together and claiming you're trusting in God. Now I'm not saying plans are bad, I'm saying that we all to often make plans, then claim they're God's will and anything that deviates from them can't be God's will because they're not part of the plan.

God's will is not a mystical secrecy that we don't get to see, despite the way our attitudes seem to be. God wishes us to know His will, but the problem is that we don't really want to know it. God isn't some fortune teller to answer questions about whatever items we wish. Rather he is "a lamp to our feet" which reveals the next few steps. Think of it, He does reveal the next few steps, but not the context. We are in the dark about our lives and its grand meaning, and God never promises us to understand it. Rather, He promises that we can trust Him, and that though we can't see the way or what's around us, He will lead us to the best thing in the end. We want to know where we should buy our home next year, but God is trying to get us to focus on the guy accross the office. We want to know who we will marry, but God wants to show us where best to focus our ministry.

These things go again any man's nature, or at the very least, mine. We want to know. We want to be confident and secure, independent and strong. But to trust God and truly get the good stuff, we have to be dependent and weak, and it sometimes is down right scary. But in the end, my life isn't worth beans if its in my hands, because I am weak compared to a massive world of which Satan is the prince. I must follow God and put my faith in Him, or there's nothing left for me.

Faith

So I've been reading this book, "How to Give Away Your Faith" by Paul Little, and I have to say it's good. It's also rather convicting. It begins with the reader, telling me (in this case) how I have to have my act together.

What's most interesting to me is its take on 3 types of faith that people who have enough genuine Christian feeling to actually read an evangelism book. The first is based on surrounding, place, and isn't really faith. These are the christian kids that 'go wild' once they're out 'from under thumb'. Upon removal from the surrounding, they realize they have nothing, no real personal faith, they simply lived life by osmosis. These can be the seed that sprouts on the rocks. They're just sort of week, because they don't know what they believe, it was just what everybody else was doing. Unfortunately, I think this largely describes a huge chunk of the mid-western US christians. This I think is a large problem in modern youth groups also.

The next is a sort of intellectual faith. They know all the hymns, the right words, they can even sometimes argue the apologetics, the different doctrinal interpretations, and the harmony of the gospels. But they are like the former, they don't really know more. These are the ones to whom it refers when it says "Even the demons know there is a God, and they tremble."

The last is a faith based on knowing God. A true, heartfelt, knowledge, or even more accurately, a yearning to know him more throughly every dya. This is the faith that a true christian is supposed to have. The question is, do I? Do you? I was impressed by the very pointed remark to examine myself before evangelizing.

Okay, I'm done rambling for now.

Missles and Spinach

Don't Fear the Spinach



This very nice little article from the Moscow Times (see sidebar) sums up a very stupid situation very nicely, as well as reflecting my own opinion on the issue. Yulia Latynina, my favorite Moscow Times opinion writer since Masha Gesen left, sums up pretty well both the US and Russian flaws in the issue. America is impudent, then again, that's not unusual. Russia is down right psychotic, believing it's somehow back in the Cold War when it comes to its power. And maybe it is technically, but relatively its behind, because in the past 15 years the rest of the world has moved on. Moscow may have more money than ever, but its lost most all its influence. And when it tries to flex its oil and gas powered muscles, rather than intimidating its neighbors, it irritates them.



Sadly, I don't see an end in sight for Russia in this. The country needs to realize how much it has to learn, and that, and it's no longer cock-of-the-walk. Now, US has the same problem, but seems to be handling it better. The rise of multiple nuclear powers, the formation of the EU, the emergence of India, China, and Brazil have all redrawn the power map, and the old rules don't work. The game isn't about nuclear arsenals and simply saying "It's us or the communists/capitalists." It's different, and the sooner everyone, especially russia, realize this, the better.

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Irony

I read something incredibly ironic Monday in the Moscow Times (see sidebar). According to an article, Russia has been playing host to member of the Hamas faction of the Palestinian Authority. You know Hamas, it's basically a terrorist group that is bent on destroying Israel, and it recently won majority within the PA. Since they won't acknowledge Israel's right to exist, nor renounce violence, the west ceased all aid to Palestine.



Now, here's the ironic part. Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, was speaking to a press conference in Moscow, and said, "Our goal is to encourage the international community to start cooperating with the Palestinian government and to exert pressure on Israel to recognize the Palestinian state's right to exist." Whoa...wait, you, a pseudo-government of a non-sovereign territory that has as its stated goal the annihilation of Israel and meanwhile won't even acknowledge it should exist, you demand acknowledgment and support from Israel? Do you know see the irony in that statement? Or the hypocrisy?



Honestly, the election of Hamas into the government killed any legitimacy of the government in both my eyes and, I believe, in the eyes of Israel. It would be like Ireland voting in the IRA, the IRA stating that it still has the right to blow bombs up in Britain, and then demanding the UK treat them as if they were an acknowledged stat with legitimate goals and policies. You just don't do that!



And here Putin is hosting them, acting like some big diplomat. I think they're trying to play a game and come out on top as a big deal peace broker for the middle-east, not, I suppose, understanding the concepts of isolation and shunning. Honestly, the purpose of isolation was to show that there are limits. You cannot spew the sort of idiocy that Mashaal does and be recognized as a legitimate ruler. Except apparently in the Russian Federation. Because, this is the same country where the President dropped gubernatorial elections, and has managed to re-write election laws to exclude all but the so called "center-right" and "center-left" parties, which just happen to BOTH be yes-men groups for the Kremlin. These along with other political bizarrities (yes, I made up my own word) make the words of Mashaal look almost sane.



Then again, maybe it just shows itself to be foolish.

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Some Additions

I'm excited...somebody is actually reading this, judging by the fact that I have comments. I'm almost positive those aren't from me, so I guess it's stuff to be excited about.



Anyway, some additions to the sidebar: I added two new comics I started reading. Looking for Group is about a-ah-interesting group of characters adventuring. I really can't call them heroes. You'll have to read it to understand what I mean. It's loosely based on the Blizzard game World of Warcraft, if I understand correctly, but as I don't play and I still think I get the humor.



The other comic is Order of the Stick, an absolutely hilarious comic about dungeons and dragons table top role playing. It's downright, laugh out loud hilarious, especially if you know some about DnD. It's got a LOT of archive to fully read through, but having just finished it myself, I can tell you it's worth it. If you know dungeons and dragons stuff.



The other new bit on the side is links to one of the people whose comments I mentioned above, JCM. We both post a lot at the PvP message board (see side bar, comics), and I guess he followed my link here at one point. Anywho, thought I'd post link to his stuff.



Have fun people,

Alex

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Wheee for firefox

As I write this, I am not even logged onto my own blog, I'm perusing the add-ons section of Mozilla Firefox.



I'm having fun with this. Plug-ins are cool is my opinion so far. Of course, Firefox has been pretty consistent to me in its superiority to IE. In fact, it's easily arguable that IE 7 is just a big ripoff of Firefox.



Anyway, back to browsing.

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Challenge?

I recently heard of a site, and browsed it briefly. While reluctant, I think it's unfair not to post the link: http://www.blasphemychallenge.com/ It's a sad case of people thinking their proving a point. Somehow, I can't even think of it in anger, just a faint trace of sadness. This is a site designed specifically to defy God, as one 'member' puts it, "daring God to send me to hell."

Unfortunately it demonstrates a basic ignorance of theology on two points. The first is blasphemy. Webster's online dictionary defines blasphemy as 1 a : the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b : the act of claiming the attributes of deity2 : irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable As the gospel means it, I believe blasphemy is in itself an ironic thing, because in blaspheming the holy spirit you are denying it forever in your life. Not some temporary statement online, but forever keeping it from your life. Which, basically means, not accepting salvation. That's my view anyway.

Incidentally the site claims that Christians are trying to redefine blasphemy thanks to it. A rather uninformed response, as I read a definition similar to what I stated in a book (which title I can't remember) written in 80s, before such a site existed.

The other ignorance is that God sends them to hell. Okay, some may think I'm arguing semantics here, but I think intention really matters. Anyway, what I mean is, we send ourselves to hell. Everyone of us has sinned. Therefore we are marred, sin itself derives from the idea of 'falling short'. What do we fall short of? Well, God. If God is, if He created a world, then He is either perfect or flawed. If he is flawed, he is not deserving of reverence, his afterlife of 'paradise' will be flawed, and therefore who cares? If He is perfect, then those that are flawed can not be a part of what He is, to do so would mar his perfection. So he created a very simple way of casting off our sins by making a simple choice to trust in His Son. Not very hard. Those who don't, well, "The wages of sin is Death." I capitalize death because I mean eternal death, eternal separation from God.

My most basic reaction is sadness, as I said before, and a strong desire to pray. And I have been, and will continue to do so. I also urge all of you who read this to pray for those people that somehow God might touch their hearts.

Abortion

Lately I read one of the saddest things I think I have ever laid eyes upon. Recently in the Moscow Times there was a little blurb about the state Duma proposing a law to limit/end advertising for abortions. Okay, not much, I personally suport the idea, but whatever. Next, though, comes a blurb about statistics, stating that there are 2.8 abortions for every birth. I nearly cried.

That's right, 3 out of every 4 pregnancies end in death. Death, finality, destruction of the life inside of it. And 3 out of 4 can not nearly account for supposed 'life of the mother' nor rape/incest cases. This is just a tragedy of wanting to live a so called 'planne lifestyle.' What sort of life is that? A life built not upon planning, but on being able to relegate indulgement to a simple thing as 'choice' and a 'simple medical procedure.' And this is the country trying to push births, because they are losing several thousand in population count every year.

Of course, the whole issue bothers me a lot. I'm just to sad about the idea of life being ended with out a chance of life. What if a life aborted could have lead to some great discovery, if it was allowed to lead its life. Of course the counter argument is that it oculd have been the next hitler. But the over all point is there was never given any choice but that of a group of people to selfish to live up to the consequences of their actions.

Prayer is definitely called for here.