Monthly Archives: November 2007

Writing

Notoriety

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I’ve done it again.  Fallen into the world of…

“Hey, I know this person.  I got an email from her.  I got a free CD from these people.  I work with this guy.  I’m gonna interview her.”

Why, why, why, why, why, why, W-H-Y do I care so much about that?

Why is it that I (and many of you…probably all of you) get so excited about knowing certain people.  Why does fame–whether genuine or impressed upon–make us think highly of other people?

That is a dirty trick that Satan uses.  Look at the entertainment news industry.  People spend hours of their lives reporting on which star went to which restaurant to get drunk and then wreck their car.

It’s so interesting to me how Satan makes the genuine, pure desire of wanting to know people turn perverted.  God created us to love other people.  He created us with this desperate need for community, acceptance and relationship.

It’s totally fine to want to know other people.  Then Satan came along and turned that desire into a sick and twisted relentless pursuit of gossip-driven knowledge that is known as the secular entertainment news industry.

I try not to watch things like Entertainment Weekly.  Although, I have caught myself reading tabloid headlines just to look at their ridiculousness.  And, I do read the entertainment headlines on MSN.com, though I think I should stop that.  

I just get excited to get to know people.  I love finding stuff out about the people around me.  I like knowing how people work and the reasons why they do what they do.  So, when I get to know somebody a little better I get really excited at my deeper level of relationship with them.

So, naturally, I want to know everybody at every level.  I wanna know my neighbor just as much as I want to know “famous people.”  Although, when people develop a desire to know someone “famous,” things change.  Though I may genuinely want to have a relationship with some musician (for example), it could be taken as obsessive if I pursue it too much.  Why can’t I know somebody perceived as famous?  What’s the deal with that?

Sure, a lot of it is proximity.  I know of that person because they receive a lot of publication and attention.  If they weren’t well known and lived on the other side of the country, then I probably wouldn’t have know of them in the first place.

So maybe the distance creates the potential for perceived creepiness.

All theories aside, I love knowing people.  I wish that my genuine and pure desire for that was recognized, received and reciprocated. 

Another pivot of frustration for me is that I get so excited about knowing people but I don’t usually get so excited about knowing God.  He is the Creator of the universe.  He’s the man that knit me together in my mother’s womb.  He makes the sun rise and set.  He raises the dead.  He makes the world spin exactly as it should.  He will be the one to put the final, devastating blow on Satan. 

Yet, I don’t get all thrilled about Him like I should.  Sure, I love Him.  But I don’t go around every day telling everyone that I know Him.  I don’t usually speak of His greatness either. 

I think I’ve fallen into conforming to the world’s trend of promoting people rather than promoting the Creator.  I get more excited about knowing a variety of people, rather than the notoriety of the Creator.

*sigh*

As I type this, I’m reminded of Romans 12: 2.  Of course I am.  That verse is all over my life.  It tells me not to conform to the world, but to renew my mind.

I’m not renewing my mind enough.  If I don’t fill my mind with God’s Word and the stories of His majesty, then that leaves room for the world to fill my mind with hero worship and idolotry.

The answer is simple: Get more in the Word.

*sigh*

Sorry, God.  I’m missing out on so much of the true Famous One.

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Writing

Everything Is Tedious

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Last week I did a lot of repetitive, seemingly never-ending things.  It tested my positivity patience.  I was working on a few projects that required a lot of editing and restructuring.  With all of the redos and undos it would’ve been very easy for me to become cranky.   However, I kept my attitude at a relatively reasonable level.

If you’re at all familiar with the Bible, you’ve heard of the book of Ecclesiastes.  Solomon, the author of that interesting book, revealed that everything is meaningless.  He had all the riches and wisdom in the world, but it was all meaningless…

…without Christ.

With Christ/God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit, everything is meaningful.  However, without the one True and Holy God, every single thing you’ll ever do, buy, partake in is totally meaningless.  Infinite riches and happiness mean zilch without Christ.

I struggle with doing things that I think are pointless.  For example, I used to work at a grocery store.  Part of my job was “conditioning” the product.  Basically, that means walking around the whole store and making sure the products look good on the shelves.  I made sure that everything was facing the right direction and that all of the rows of stuff were pulled up to the front so that they could be easily reached.  I’d spend hours walking around and pulling the product to the front and straightening it out.  Then…moments after I’d made everything neat and presentable, someone would walk up and take off a bottle of shampoo.  So, my big effort to condition was ruined.  It felt meaningless. 

I did not like seeing all of my effort go to waste.

While I was driving home one evening and pondering all the editing I’d done that day, I thought to myself, “Everything is tedious.”  Not just conditioning in a grocery store.  But everything.  Driving is tedious.  It’s the same thing all the time.  Typing is tedious.  Eating is tedious.  Going to school is tedious.  Sleeping is tedious.  Working is tedious.  Everything is tedious.

It amused me that tedious and meaningless kind of have the same ring to them.  And, since I’m a Bible-believing gal, the similar phrases of everything is meaningless and everything is tedious made me laugh a little.

As encouragement, just remember that no matter how high profile you are or what job you do, everything is tedious.

Writing

Come, unication

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I hearby announce that I am making up another new word.  Yes, a new one.  Yes, a new word.

I make up new words all the time.  Take pudgulous for example.  I’ll use it in a sentence, “Wow, the runway looks pudgulous after the rain.”

Or how about this one: dragic.  Means tragic, dramatic and drastic.  Clever, eh?

*looks down*  *finds the point of this word party*

Ok, so unity has been on my heart lately.  As well as on my mind.  As well as stirring in my spirit.  As well as on the paper that I write on whilst I’m at church cuz my pastor’s teaching us about unity.

I used to think unity was hard.  It appears to be a difficult concept to activate into functionality.  But…appearances can be deceiving.  And, the appearance of unity is one of those deceiving guises.

Here’s the truth: You cannot make unity, you must maintain it.  As my pastor has said, “Find the 1% you agree on and agree on it 100%.”  There ya go.  It’s unity.

Christians get all bent up and pent up over areas of disunion.  It’s like this super evil ugly monster that stomps around and smashes little unity bubbles.  It’s very scary. 

If we would all agree to agree on something and then build from that, it would be stellar.  Forget agreeing to disagree.  Let’s agree to agree what we agree on.  That, my friends, is unity.

Back to my new word: unication.  I was being silly when trying to think of a title for this.  There’s the word, communiation.  But, in my wordish mind, I thought, “Ha…that’s like direct address and saying, ‘Come, unication.'”

And now here we are.  If you’re feelin disunified, just say, “Come, unication.” 

You wonder, “What’s it mean when I say that?”

I answer, “It means that you’re acknowledging that unity is alive and there for the taking.  So take it.”

Unication is unity plus community plus communication.  Talk to people about what you agree on and build on it.

Don’t cease communicating with somebody just cuz you think (or you actually will) fight with them.

Find something common.  Agree on it.  That is unication.

*nods*

Say it with me now, “Come, unication.”