Opus 2016-238: Reaping Is a Two Way Street

If you are one who likes short posts that have long thoughts you might take a look at Christian Ear.  It doesn’t take long and often has a thought to jump start your thinking. 

It hit me today as I read “The Benefits of Labor”.  I was expecting another Bible truth of sowing what we reap but she pointed out that it isn’t just,

(Galatians 6:7 KJV)  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

It is also that we reap the results of other’s labor.

That can cause me to rejoice in the ways in which God provides.  It also serves as a reminder that I have a responsibility to do my part so that others can reap their rewards.  We are tied together in common everyday ways.  If the baker does not get up early, I have no bread.  If the farmer does not plant, I have no bread.  If the truck driver takes the day off, I have no bread.  If the grocer stays home, I have no bread.  What happens when I am the baker who did not get up early?

I am thankful, not only for having work myself but for the work of others.  And Christian Ear said it faster.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-237:  Digging into Deuteronomy:  Historic Israel

Over the summer I read through the book of Deuteronomy and jotted down some ideas that came to me.  Here I begin to develop those as time permits.  I want to start with,

(Deuteronomy 1:7 KJV)  Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

As you read through this passage you get a view for the vision God had for His people.  He planned on giving them a land.  This is quite a large chunk of territory.  It would include a much larger area than modern Israel. 

The exact lines are difficult to establish.  Every scholar seems to have a slightly different understanding so let’s look at the terms that we are more familiar with.  In verse 1 you have the KJV mentioning the Red Sea.  Everyone I read agreed that the word “sea” is not in the Hebrew and it seems to refer to something else.  The Amorites and Moab are mentioned as well as the Negev and Canaanites.  This would mean the area to the east of the Dead Sea and south to the Gulf of Aqabah.  In the North and East you have Lebanon and the Euphrates River mentioned.

This is obviously a larger area than modern Israel and covers areas that neither David or Solomon controlled. 

So what is historic Israel?  Larger than today.  Does that give a right to conquest?  History will be the judge of that.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-236: Ode to Old: Time to Grow Up

It is time for old people to step up to the plate and take one for the team.  I speak as one who is officially old.  I am 68, soon to be 69 and not long after that 70.  In fact I will keep getting older until I die and then they will talk about how “he would have been 97, if he was still with us.”  Maybe it is time for us old folks to grow up and realize that TANSTAAFL.

I am looking primarily at Medicare.  The cost of this is destroying the country.  Okay, that may be a little over dramatic, but it is one of the problems with our economy and a set of concrete shoes for our future.  It is costing too much.  Why?  Many reasons.  A large one is mismanagement.  Waste sucks up the bucks.  So does fraud.  Another is government regulation which always lights the fuse on the rocket of prices.  The elephant in the room is the sense of entitlement that seniors seem to have. 

Yes, entitlement.  The same thing that is ruining the welfare system and education.  That character trait which we lay on the millennials when they want everything free.  They learned from their elders.  I saw it in my mother.  Before she hit Medicare she never had insurance and never went to the doctor.  After the government started paying she lived at the doctor’s office.  The thinking beings when you have good insurance.  I don’t know how many times my wife has said, “We have good insurance, I am going to use it.” 

We need to stop using it because we think it is our due.  Somewhere I read the suggestion that we should look at the car insurance model.  Car insurance does not pay for regular maintenance.  It covers damage from major accidents.   How would our rush to healing change if we actually were forced to ask ourselves, “Is it worth it?”

Perfect health will never happen.  No one will live forever.  We need to set an example of selflessness to the younger generations.  Will it hurt?  Of course but if nothing changes it will hurt even more.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-235: The Unexplainable

William Lane Craig was talking about physics on one of his podcasts and trying to explain some complex detail of science.  At one point I expected him to say “It is too complicated to explain.”  He didn’t.  He went and attempted to make it clear.  I don’t remember the point buy I do remember wondering, “Is it possible that something is not too complicated to understand but too complicated to explain?”  I am more at home with theology than physics or philosophy so I apply it to concepts I deal with every day.

Have you ever tried to explain the trinity?  I have.  I have a deep satisfaction with understanding it even though I am continually getting new insights.  The problem is explaining it.  I constantly have a comment of one of my professors run through my mind, “Gentlemen, if you ever think you understand the trinity you have probably drifted into heresy.” 

Think about the things that are so hard to explain.  At school I tell my eighth graders that I had a lot of fun changing diapers.  I tell them that it is different when the child is yours.  They don’t believe me.  They don’t understand.  I have had fathers who understand but noone without the experience even has a clue. 

This does not mean we turn off our brains.  It does not mean we abandon thinking or reason.  It does not mean we stop changing diapers.  It means that we have been out and experienced enough to lose the arrogance of thinking our understanding is the measure of truth.

Just because you can’t explain something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-234: Training Is Basic, part 2 of 2

Basics are the foundation of anything worth doing.

I served my time in the military.  I went through basic training.  By the time we were done I realized that they didn’t really teach anything but marching and following orders.  I began to realize we were a long way from warrior training when one day in our “hand-to-hand combat” training the instructor said, “Remember what I have been teaching you?  Forget all that.  We are going to do it a different way.”  What?   The point being taught was “shut up and do what you are told”.  Thinking, application and initiative would be instilled later when we knew how to “column right” and “count off”.

College is pretty much the same.  A college degree doesn’t mean you are educated.  All it means is you were able to complete a task.  You have been given the basic skills that will enable you to continue to educate yourself and adapt to whatever comes.  It is amazing how many people get jobs that have nothing to do with their major in college.  One reason that so many college graduates today can’t find jobs is that they took the path of least resistance, were given grades they did not deserve and didn’t miss any of the parties.  They didn’t complete anything of note.  They have no skills.  They are not wanted by employers.

Our education is never over.  That is why we keep reading and arguing.  If we were short-changed by our teachers we have a lot of making up to do.  I am thankful that we live in America where there is always a second chance for people who wake up and want to smell roses instead of the welfare line.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-233: Training Is Basic, part 1 of 2

What is the purpose of education?  Cynics will point out the desire to mold a population for a certain purpose.  To them education is all about social engineering.  Since we are preparing young people from many backgrounds to be successful in the larger society that view has some traction.  The idealistic would think along the lines of giving children the tools to be productive and happy.  They want citizens, people who can make a contribution by using their gifts in a positive way.

Either way education is training for things to come.  It is not the final step, but a foundation.  Educators get all kinds of grand ideas.  The current Common Core Curriculum (CCC) people talk about preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist today.  They think they have the wisdom to determine what those skills will be.  Unfortunately their vision is a Socialist Workers’ Paradise that will never exist because they have a false vision about the nature of human beings.  Instead they should be focusing on the basic fundamentals of being an educated person.  Until a child has a firm grasp of what used to be called the Three R’s they will never be able to grasp the complexities of future society. 

Picture a football team in spring training.  They don’t start by working on the Statue of Liberty play or triple reverses.  They start with blocking and tackling.  They work on conditioning.  It is a time of preparation.  When the basics are taken care of what do they do?  Work some more on the basics and begin to introduce some plans for the year.  When they have a losing streak what do they work on?  Basics. 

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-232: On the Street: Love at work

It was an interesting couple.  He was obviously severely mentally retarded.  At least fifty years of age with a bulging forehead and the facial features that told the story.  She was not young and was leading him by the hand.  She was wearing a bright shirt that said, “Love, love, love, love” on the back.

Sounds like a good definition to me.  Even those who are extremely handicapped are human beings and deserve to be cared for as well as possible.  It takes special people to do so.  I requires a deep understanding of love.  It is a chore to exercise it even if they are paid well.

I salute her as she leads him.  I would have honked and given her a thumbs up but I might have scared the love out of her.

homo unius libri