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"Wild at Heart"?
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Anything but sin | "Because I can" | Business 101 | Christianese | Cloud computing | Facebook | Media bots | Millennials
My message(s) to women | Plastic Christianity | Flaws of the ribbon | Too much information | Windows 8: Fail. | Words and connotations
Anything but sin
It really bothers me every time I hear someone—especially pastors—use a euphemism or "fluffy phrase" to avoid using the word "sin" in their message. God calls it sin, and that settles it. Stop watering down the truth:2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV 1984): "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
We live in a world that gives little to no thought or attention to logic and consequences; you know, asking the simple question: "What will happen if I do or say this, watch this, act this way or buy and start using this?" Even simple logic is completely ignored. From technology to sexuality, we just don't care anymore. And we wonder why the world is in such a mess?
People who have recently repented of their sin and given their lives to Christ pray in a very refreshing way—there are no overused expressions, clichés, pretenses, or vague meanings in their words. Just the specifics of what they're facing, how they feel, and what they need. Having grown up in a Christian home, and being around Christians most of my life, I value what these new believers don't have—Christianese. The longer you've been a Christian, the easier it is to absorb and repeat Christian "lingo" in an attempt to sound eloquent to those around you. I realize it's difficult to think of new, but accurate words and terminology when praying for the same things year after year, and prayer in a public context affects what we're comfortable praying about, but we should always be praying from the heart, and directly to the Lord:
Matthew 6:5-8 (NIV 1984): "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
As it becomes increasingly more mobile and prevalent, technology is also becoming more invasive and controlling, as monitoring, access, and manipulation of information and data increases exponentially—especially in combination with "the cloud". In addition, advertising and its use of pornography (especially "soft-core" porn aimed at younger viewers) are a massive problem. Personal financial and medical electronic information are subject to both government and corporate control and manipulation, let alone hackers and identity thieves. The ominous thing about these trends are that they are growing bigger and faster than anyone can accurately predict, and much of it remains in the hands of people who have no desire to see it used in an objective or responsible way, but rather for personal, corporate, and governmental control and power.
Have you ever given any thought to the ramifications of using Facebook (a.k.a. "Failbook")? No? Take a look at this list. Like cell phones and other forms of technology, Facebook connects you to people. But besides potentially wasting hours of time every day on mostly insignificant information, there are dangers that most people either are not aware of, or just don't seem to care about. When you use Facebook, you are creating an intricately detailed profile of yourself: your likes, dislikes, who your friends are, which organizations and political parties you're affiliated with, etc. Facebook tracks and owns every tiny piece of that data. Ever heard of data mining? How about increasing governmental control, intrusion, and ever-increasing globalization, not to mention hackers and identity theft? You are using their website, their services, and nothing is deleted from their system once you put it there; data may be removed from the interface, but not from their system. It also creates a dependency. Ever stopped to calculate how many hours a day you spend on Facebook posting and absorbing information? With numerous companies and organizations catering to the Facebook "movement," an account with Facebook is rapidly becoming more of a requirement than an option. You may say, "But so many people are on it, and there's safety in numbers!" Ironically, that's why it's so dangerous:
Flaws of the ribbon
Microsoft touts the ribbon "interface" as "the modern way to help users find, understand, and use commands efficiently and directly—with a minimum number of clicks, with less need to resort to trial-and-error, and without having to refer to Help." I challenge that assumption, and here's why. The two biggest philisophical problems with the ribbon is that it: Oddly enough, there is nothing magical about the ribbon—it is not something fundamentally new. It is, in essence, nothing more than a tabbed toolbar that requires more vertical screen real estate. The key difference is that the GUI team at Microsoft has now dictated your decisions and preferences for you. "List" GUIs are the lazy approach to GUIs. They're easy to throw together since they require zero time for layout, but they rely heavily on vertical space, while completely ignoring the extra horizontal space the majority of users now have due to widescreen monitors. What constitutes a "media bot?" My definition is anyone who cannot voluntarily disconnect themselves from one or more forms of connective technology for more than a day. Media bots are typically people who buy and use the latest technological device simply "because they can," "because it's cool," or "because everyone else is" without a truly valid, practical need for it. Examples: checking your e-mail every fifteen minutes or less or text messaging when you should be paying attention to people or your surroundings. Personally, I'm trying to disconnect myself more from the web, and spend more time in the real world; admittedly, not an easy task! Some additional thoughts on this from Merritt, a lady who says: Turn off your gadgets and let's talk face-to-face. Ever heard someone talking about Millennials? They usually go to great lengths throwing out hypotheses and statistics, trying to purport a special formula for communicating or interacting with them, making it sound like they're from another planet. Please. It's time the hype and generalizations stopped. The truth is, every generation has some differences, and Millennials have dreams, problems, and a sin nature just like everyone else. We are all in need of God's grace.
I'm weary of Plastic Christianity. The kind that attends church, and pretends that everything is just fine, while living a lie. The kind of "keeping up appearances" Christianity that refuses to talk about the real, rubber-meets-the-road life and faith issues and be relevant to struggles that everyone faces. The kind that refuses to stand up for biblical truth because it might "offend" someone, or accepts what it wants "buffet"-style and denies the rest. The kind that can quote Scripture without even trying to live it. Or the kind that's intentionally clueless about biblical doctrine, and instead touts fluffy hearsay and personal opinions over Scriptural truth. The kind of Christianity that wears a mask and insinuates that "I have no sin, no questions about my faith; no struggles." I've been as guilty of this as anyone I know. Real, biblical Christianity admits failure and shortcomings, and isn't afraid to be vulnerable with others in the desire to live out the truth of Scripture. Even when that vulnerability comes with criticism and judgment from others. It's worth every second of living.
Ever feel like you're drowning in news, ads, biased opinions, and useless information and you just want to pull the plug on it all? Stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, airports, even directly-in-your-face urinal ads on the wall in mens' restrooms constantly bombard us and invade our lives. Have you ever stopped to think about how ridiculous the amount of information is that you see crammed into a major news network channel? Live 24/7 discussion/reporting, overlaid with constantly scrolling and updating world news ticker-tape. I find myself disconnecting more and more from media, and becoming more cynical and discerning about what—and how much—I see, read, or hear (as much as I have control over). It's just too much information. As people, we were never created to ingest or be subject to this, especially not at these extreme levels. It's time to start pulling plugs.
In short, NOT interested. At all. I want a real GUI designed for a mouse and keyboard, not a bunch of cheap-colored blocks to slide around like I'm back in pre-school. Even as good as Windows Vista and 7 are, they already look like an OS trying to be a web browser. Got news for you, Microsoft: there's a big difference between the two. I already have a browser, and it's not IE. Remember Microsoft's attitude reflected in their "vastly improved" ribbon toolbar? It's way past time they hired people who know what a real OS and GUI are, how they function, and what they're supposed to do, and I'm not the only user who feels that way:
As another user noted:
"Every time I try something the new "Metro" way, I kept asking myself "is this better than the old way of doing it?" and the answer was almost always "no, this has been seriously compromised just to make it compatible with fat fingers on a tiny touchscreen." Microsoft are directionless and unfocused at the moment. Until we stop going to work in offices and sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse, that is what they need to concentrate their OS efforts around, and Windows 8 is not even in the same ballpark."
As Christians, we need to be very careful which words we use, because each of them carries connotations. As an example, homosexual activists have been using—and promoting the use of—the word "partner" or "companion" instead of words like spouse because it subtly removes the connotation of a husband-wife relationship; advancing their agenda while denigrating natural, God-designed one-man, one-woman marriage. Have you ever considered how ironic it is that the word "feminist" brings to mind starkly contrasting images and meanings compared to "feminine" (do an image search on the web to see what I mean). Again, words carry meaning, and meaning matters. Another example are slang words we've adopted with roots in sexual innuendo or crude references: e.g. "screwed up," "bone up on," "crap" etc. We are commanded in Scripture to keep our words and conversations beyond reproach:
Ephesians 5:3-4 (NIV 1984): "But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."
I used to argue: "But why should I be so paranoid? I need at least some gray areas—holiness is just too restrictive!" It's not paranoia; we are to have zero gray areas in our life. It means we finally stop making and believing excuses about our sin.
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