Context

The Matrix is one of the films I most enjoy watching. It's got a good plot, great action scenes, and the stoic Neo is probably the character Keanu Reeves was born to play. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie couldn't leave well enough alone (is that right? "good enough" sounds like it would be better grammatically. oh well.) and made not just one, but two, underwhelming sequels.

While some of us might just choose to conveniently ignore those two movies (something many of us experienced after watching the most recent Indiana Jones film), they still figure into the mythology and story of The Matrix. We may not like it, but stories, no matter how poorly done, do not function based on what the viewers or readers prefer. We can't just stop in the middle and take the parts we like.

Sometimes I feel like that we as Christians do the same thing. Here's John 8:3-11a

³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.

What a wonderful story don't you think? Why should we condemn others? We are just as guilty of sin and in need of God's love and salvation. Who are we to judge what other people say and do? That may be all well and good, but I feel like it's all too easy to forget the last words that Jesus says to that woman. The entirety of verse 11 reads thusly:

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

It can be easy to ignore these words. We may like to rest knowing that we have a loving and forgiving Savior as we forget to live out this simple command to us. Because we are saved by grace, does this give us a free pass to sin? Should we continue to do whatever we want just because we know God's grace is unfailing?

Conveniently, someone much smarter and wiser than myself answered this question. Paul writes in Romans 6:

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

This is just something that I've been thinking about recently. It's nice to talk the talk, but the important (and difficult) part is walking the walk.

Tapping Out

I'm done with the whole one-post-a-day thing. It's too frustrating for me to try to do it and keep missing it as I have done a couple times recently.

Originally I had in mind to keep it up until the school year started even though I don't think I ever mentioned that, so I'm decently satisfied with somewhat accomplishing that about 5 weeks into the school year. Well, 5 weeks into my school year I guess. I'm all too aware that some schools haven't even started yet.

Anyway, my whole intention was to become more consistent with posting on this blog. I think at the very least I've become much more comfortable writing on here and it's become more than an afterthought.

My posts will be much more regular than they were before, although of course not as numerous as once a day. Hopefully a few times a week if all goes well. I think this is a good thing since I have noticed that I just don't really have anything to say, interesting or otherwise. And it is sort of unfortunate to clog up this blog with random nothings.

So yes, expect more updates and posts. Just not every day.

English as a First Language

I'm taking Latin 201 this semester and it's been pretty interesting since the last Latin class I took was 2 years ago in high school. It's really cool since even though the language obviously hasn't changed, the learning environment has but I'm actually enjoying taking it again, probably because it's not for a grade.

But one thing I've noticed in both high school and college is that some people just don't get it. And it's not that they don't understand even somewhat complex things like grammatical constructions, it's just pretty basic things that they can't put together. What I don't understand is how you can't translate a three word sentence when you know: a) what each word means, b) what part of speech each word is and c) how each word is used (e.g. subject, direct object).

I mean it's not too hard. Assuming you don't know Latin, you may not be able to translate the sentence "puer amat canem" but if I told you that "puer" means boy and is the subject, "amat" means to love, and "canem" means dog and is the direct object, I'm guessing you'd be able to piece together what that sentence means rather quickly.

But some people in my class couldn't even do that. It's actually kind of disturbing. In my Biblical Hebrew class we were learning about verbs. One girl said she didn't know how to translate one of the words into English because she didn't know what the 2nd person singular pronoun was.

I mean this really isn't complex. And I really do hate it when people think I'm just being elitist or looking down on other people. I should just let them learn at their own pace and not worry about it. But the thing is, this is basic English stuff. We're not talking about being behind a couple days or even a couple weeks. This is elementary school level stuff.

It's funny to me that English classes in high school and college are basically just about literature and writing. Maybe a little grammar review thrown in somewhere wouldn't hurt.

What's Hot

Recently I had to interview some people about trends and what's cool for one of my internships. And by the way, if you were one of the people I talked to, I really appreciate the time you took to talk to me.

Anyway, it kind of got me thinking about how trends get started and are determined. I'm sure that this topic has been beaten to death, but it is interesting how we sort of adopt certain values and tastes just by being exposed to them even without being taught.

I mean really, if you just look at how some people dress, I'm thinking specifically about "bros" although you may know them as "douchebags" and sadly, that's not a joke, it's amazing that they think they look good. With the backwards cap, sloppy basketball style jersey and the studs in their eyebrows, you gotta think that somewhere out there is a mother cowering in shame. Either that or a proud father high fiving other dads over a six-pack or three.

It's weird how we make determinations in our mind that some people are cool and some aren't. I can't say that I haven't done or don't do that. But I like to think I'm smart enough to know that some people just have "it," a coolness that seems to ooze from within that can't be duplicated.

But then there are the unfortunate who don't realize that and try to copy it anyway. Some say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But I think it can also be the purest form of stupidity.

School Loyalty

It must be really easy to support and cheer for your school when you're strong in something. Like Texas football or North Carolina basketball or Cal Tech engineering.

But what makes the fans of those small schools tick? Like when Mcneese State goes out and plays another school that 90% of the nation hasn't heard of, what makes the fans scream and holler when they're going for it on 4th and short in the middle of the 2nd quarter?