Sunday, October 24, In the year of our Lord 2010
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Just returned from House Church, 3:40 PM
Weather = Overcast, cold, windy (bleak)
It occurred to me last night that if I took my understanding of God seriously then my priorities have been backwards for a while. What do I mean when I say this and how does this relate to singleness?
This is what I mean. It has been a life time goal of mine to be married someday, and for a I while I thought I was really close at accomplishing that goal. I wanted the intimacy of the marriage relationship, the sharing of one's entire life, the opening of one's inner most heart to another, an equal, a loved one, opening to and sharing with me also. Things didn't turn out this way, and has left a very real longing after dealing with the initial shock and aftershocks of the breakup. (My relationship ended very well, in a mutual and respectful fashion which preserved the friendship and respect we still have for each other) The marriage relationship is a good thing to be sure and something that I still desire, but it needs to be seen in its proper perspective.
I have heard it said that marriage is a living analogy that God purposefully crafted to reflect how God has union with Himself (Father Son and Holy Spirit) and how we as Christians have union with Him through Christ Jesus. Here is the issue. If marriage is just an analogy of God's relationship with me, then why and how has the analogy overtaken the reality to which it pertains in my life? My focus should be on Christ and the reality to the analogy I long for. It's like desiring Mom's cooking (an expression of her love to me) to the exclusion the actual relationship with my Mom (which is very precious to me).
Maybe it's no coincidence that Adam was created alone, able to enjoy God without distraction. But God also created Adam in His image which made him long for an equal companion to share himself with. We know the story of what happened and God crafted Eve also in His image and joined the two as husband and wife which completed the image of God so that God has intimacy with Himself and with his image bearers who share in the intimacy with God and flowing from that then with each other. Christ is the one who fulfills. Christ is the one with whom the marriage relationship and the intimacy their in was modeled after. Christ is already placed himself in my inner most being and I have access to Him for all time. So why run about asking God for a wife when I haven't filled myself with the source of what I want which is staring me in the face? Could you imagine the absolutely horrible consequences of trying to find fulfillment in a spouse to the exclusion of Christ who is the very source and Archetype of the relationship you seek fulfillment from?
So I turn to Christ (rather sheepishly) and realize that when I sing
"I will glory in my Redeemer
My life He bought, my love He owns
I have no longings for another
I’m satisfied in Him alone"
that part where it says "I have no longings for another" needs to be taken seriously. I ought to pursue this incredible God revealed in Jesus as though He were my beloved. I barely even know what that looks like. In one of the books I have been reading the author related his relationship with God to his relationship with is wife who told him "I wish you enjoyed me more," which cut him to the heart and changed his marriage. He looked forward to spending time with her but didn't enjoy it, and that acts (at least for me) as an analogy to how I can treat God. This same author also proposed that we become more like what we are focused on. If I am focused on fixing myself or on a life issue then I just become more like myself, which makes me frustrated because I see problems that need to change which makes me focus even harder on the problems thus creating a downward cycle of self destruction.
So I am not actually glorying in my singleness, (even though there are many practical reasons why I could) I am choosing to glory in Christ. Even people that have been Christians their whole life, grew up in the church, and graduated from Bible College need to be reminded of God's love in a radical way every once and a while. How this will take shape is unknown to me, but deliberately taking time out of my schedule to spend time with the person I want to know better should be a generally good start.
So on that note I'm going out into the frigid Saskatchewan pre-winter to chat with Jesus
Greg Out
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Would You Like to Make That a Meal?
Friday, October 15, In the Year of our Lord 2010
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Preparing Supper, 5:20 PM
Weather = Sunny yet cool/cold and windy
Today I felt the urge to rage against Subway’s “would you like to make it a meal” deal. This has been something that has irked me for a while. For an additional $2.20 (in Caronport Saskatchewan) you can add a fountain drink and a couple cookies or a tiny bagette of chips. My issue is that the $2.20 being paid is not proportionate to the goods received.
I shall begin with the fountain drink. It is a combination of syrup and carbonic fizzy water. It is low quality. very cheap to mass produce, and is literally shipped by the truckload. At this point I’m not sure which is worth more, the fountain drink or the disposable cup you put it in! Let’s say half of the $2.20 is for the drink, so that’s $1.10. I have seen an entire liter of REAL soft drink being sold for less than that on the right day at Wal-Mart or Superstore. Furthermore, fountain drink pop is not something that I want to fill up with, I would be happy with half the drink you get. This item is clearly not worth the debatable $1.10 that you paid for it. Even if it did cost that much make, ship out, and make a 10% profit (which it doesn’t) then it would still not be worth it.
Then you have your choice between some cookies and a handful of chips. Now their cookies are pretty good, if not for a dangerously high (sometimes even disgusting) sweetness content. But we all know that the cookies come in a frozen tube of pre-made mass produced dough. I ask you, how much do you think it really costs subway to bake these cookies? After all, they’re COOKIES! Nough said.
But what if you choose the handful of chips? It is quite literally a ‘handful’ if you have man sized hands. Maybe it is enough to satisfy some people, but it is hardly worth the other $1.10 that you paid for it. I would peg these annoyingly small bags of mass produced lightly seasoned potato at $0.45, and most of that would be to cover the cost of shipping as well as to create the biodegradable chip bags.
So when they ask me “would you like to make that a meal?” I say no. If they try to convince me otherwise then I proceed to tell them that I could simply walk another 20 feet into the service station and pick up a full bag of chips or three day old cinnamon buns (one of which is filling) for a much better price. If the meal deal was only an additional dollar then I might consider it.
Furthermore, the concept of “meal” doesn’t seem to fit hear. What you’re adding to make your super sized sandwich a ‘meal’ has little to no nutritional value, nor is it even partially filling. If I were seriously still hungry after eating my fully loaded foot long bundle of goodness (which in itself should be considered a meal) then I would bite the bullet and buy another ½ foot of similar tasty and filling awesomeness. I think a better way of phrasing “would you like to make that a meal” would be to ask “would you like to add tasty nonessentials at a price that looks small but is actually unreasonably high?” “Would you like to exchange some more hard earned cash for some things that are not good for you?”
Really what they are asking you is “would you like to give us more money?”
So there you have it, some Greg Rage against Subway. Rawr!
Greg Out
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Preparing Supper, 5:20 PM
Weather = Sunny yet cool/cold and windy
Today I felt the urge to rage against Subway’s “would you like to make it a meal” deal. This has been something that has irked me for a while. For an additional $2.20 (in Caronport Saskatchewan) you can add a fountain drink and a couple cookies or a tiny bagette of chips. My issue is that the $2.20 being paid is not proportionate to the goods received.
I shall begin with the fountain drink. It is a combination of syrup and carbonic fizzy water. It is low quality. very cheap to mass produce, and is literally shipped by the truckload. At this point I’m not sure which is worth more, the fountain drink or the disposable cup you put it in! Let’s say half of the $2.20 is for the drink, so that’s $1.10. I have seen an entire liter of REAL soft drink being sold for less than that on the right day at Wal-Mart or Superstore. Furthermore, fountain drink pop is not something that I want to fill up with, I would be happy with half the drink you get. This item is clearly not worth the debatable $1.10 that you paid for it. Even if it did cost that much make, ship out, and make a 10% profit (which it doesn’t) then it would still not be worth it.
Then you have your choice between some cookies and a handful of chips. Now their cookies are pretty good, if not for a dangerously high (sometimes even disgusting) sweetness content. But we all know that the cookies come in a frozen tube of pre-made mass produced dough. I ask you, how much do you think it really costs subway to bake these cookies? After all, they’re COOKIES! Nough said.
But what if you choose the handful of chips? It is quite literally a ‘handful’ if you have man sized hands. Maybe it is enough to satisfy some people, but it is hardly worth the other $1.10 that you paid for it. I would peg these annoyingly small bags of mass produced lightly seasoned potato at $0.45, and most of that would be to cover the cost of shipping as well as to create the biodegradable chip bags.
So when they ask me “would you like to make that a meal?” I say no. If they try to convince me otherwise then I proceed to tell them that I could simply walk another 20 feet into the service station and pick up a full bag of chips or three day old cinnamon buns (one of which is filling) for a much better price. If the meal deal was only an additional dollar then I might consider it.
Furthermore, the concept of “meal” doesn’t seem to fit hear. What you’re adding to make your super sized sandwich a ‘meal’ has little to no nutritional value, nor is it even partially filling. If I were seriously still hungry after eating my fully loaded foot long bundle of goodness (which in itself should be considered a meal) then I would bite the bullet and buy another ½ foot of similar tasty and filling awesomeness. I think a better way of phrasing “would you like to make that a meal” would be to ask “would you like to add tasty nonessentials at a price that looks small but is actually unreasonably high?” “Would you like to exchange some more hard earned cash for some things that are not good for you?”
Really what they are asking you is “would you like to give us more money?”
So there you have it, some Greg Rage against Subway. Rawr!
Greg Out
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