Why working harder will get you fired.

Working smarter has an emotional intelligence connotation, or, at least innovation does. The current generation is in an economic environment that requires them to be entrepreneurs to make it. Getting ahead is more than efficiency, it is innovation. Creativity and personality is what people are buying these days. 

Working harder is an ideal that has to do with taking the current system and maximizing it. Like taking a car to its fastest speed. In general though, working harder isn't what gets a person ahead these days. A person can be a very hard worker and burn the candle at both ends, working long nights, and having early mornings, yet not get anywhere. Why? because many industries innovate and change to quickly to compensate for those changes by simply putting more fuel in the fire. One needs to change the way in which one works all together.

Routine use to make up a large part of employment. Systems organizations and franchise models had such in-depth and specific explanations as to job requirements that all a person ever had to do was follow rules. Those days are over. Anything that can be reduced down to mindless repetition can be programmed into a computer, or replicated by a machine. Which is why people who use to thrive in those settings are unemployed. This is why working harder won't get you where you need to be.

What is more, education out side of college and graduate school is a must. One has to learn what is going on in current industries in order to innovate. One must be able to constantly learn in order to constantly bring new things to the table. Industries change to quickly for a person to get away with being out dated. Again, you can't get away with just putting more fuel in the fire. People who once didn't lean beyond requirement will find themselves useless. They worked jobs functioning as a machine, and now they are being fully replaced by said machines. In order to work these days, one must be a human being. Creativity is the new dominant value, and is slowly evicting efficiency. 

The Depravity of Total Depravity and the Imago Dei

The first time I heard the term "Total Depravity", I thought to my self- "surely that doesn't mean what I think it means, and if it does, surely no-one believes that". But, it does mean what I thought it meant, and yes, people do believe that. It is one of the more radical, and controversial doctrines of the protestant reformation."Total" meaning "complete" or, "entirely. "Depravity" meaning "corruption". There are essentially two parts of this doctrine: 1) inability to choose God, and 2) inability to choose anything but sin. In the former sense, we are disconnected from relatedness to God, and therefore our only hope is that he would choose to rescue/choose us. In the latter sense, we only choose evil/sinful things. We have the inability to choose good things.

In general, I take no issue with "the inability to choose God", but I will come back to this in order to give it a more nuanced definition. What I do take issue with is the "inability to choose anything but sin". This is a strange statement, because if you take this reasoning to its extreme it seems to contradict other doctrines. The notion of being created in the Image of God falls apart, because our corruptness over shadows and taints the Image to being void of meaning and quality. A body after death, and over time, decomposes and becomes so corrupted by different biological factors that it is no longer a body. To say that a body is corrupted in every way is to essentially say it is no longer a body. It is something else. We were created in the Image of God, but now that image is so shattered (assuming total depravity) that it cannot be called the Image of God. Sand is not a mirror. Ashes are not a log. For this reason, I believe the doctrine that people were created in the Image of God, and still reflect that image, stands in opposition to the notion that of peoples "inability to choose anything but sin". I think this is partially intuitive as well. Many a Christian will respond to questions of the goodness of figures such as Ghandi with the explanation that non-believers are created in the Image of God, just as believers are. They have a capacity to look like God, they have a capacity to reflect his characteristics.

Obviously I am critical of this, but truth be told, I actually agree (in part) that all our choices are sinful, but let me be more specific and nuanced than that. I want to argue against putting all humans in one giant category, and then saying that that whole category has two characteristics 1) all humans are made in the Image of God, and 2) all humans have the inability to choose anything but sin. Here is what I will submit to you- what we call humanness is the characteristic of the Image of God. Our expressing Humanness, and our being in the Image of God are numerically identical. They are the same thing. What do I mean by this? I must define what being in God's Image means in order to define humanness. Saying something is in the Image of something is to say one the looks like another thing. A painters self portrait is in his own image. They are not the same thing, but they look like each-other.  We Image God. We are in God's Form. We look like God. When you see us, you see God (in part). This is where the lines blur, to some extent, like lines always blur when something is closely related to another thing. But the scripture goes further, it tells us to not only Love the Lord thy God, and to Love thy Neighbor as thy self, but also talks of how what we do to the "least of these" we do to Him. How can we love God whom we can't see, yet hate our brother that we can see? This is a common theme in the New Testament. Here is where I am stealing what Calvin says in his commentaries, and using it against him. He states that the injustices of man are the wounds of God. That to wrong a human is to wrong God, and to love a human is to love God. He connects the two greatest commandments.

What is the significants of this? Well, our humanness is contingent on our loving others. The good is to love others. The best people are the most loving people. The most human of people (I mean this in a positive sense) are the most loving people. But, we in some ways have lost our humanness. Us humans, at times, can be less than human. We can do things that are "abominable". How can that be? How can we seem less than human? How can a rock be any less than a rock? How can a tree be any less than a tree? It is simple, our humanness is dependent on our Imaging God. The less we look like him, the more abominable we look. The less we love one another, the less good, the more wretched, so on and so forth. We are like pools of water, that in some way are small oceans. We are not oceans, but are rather very similar to the ocean. There are little streams that run from one pond to another, and the flow of water from one pond to the next eventually leads back to the ocean. This flow of water protects against stagnation, and causes the water to run more pure. If the ponds should be disconnected from one another, and there to be no stream back to the ocean, the ponds would all either dry up or become stagnant pools of disgusting water. The ponds completely depend on and derive their existence from the ocean. If it didn't rain, there would be no ponds. What is more, the more it rains, and the more the water flows from stream to stream, the better it is for the whole cycle. Without water, the ponds would just be empty holes in the ground. We wouldn't call them ponds anymore, we would call them something else. That is how we relate to each other in love- we love and are loved, but it all ultimately comes from God. Without him, the Living Water, there would not be us, these little wells. These little ponds. Now, John Calvin believed something very similar to this, as do many in the Reformed crowd. But here is where I think they go wrong: they are essentially saying that our ponds are totally corrupt and contaminated that there is nothing left in them that is good, unless God cause it to rain. That is just a confusion of terminology. Of course a pond doesn't have anything in it unless it rains. We don't call those ponds, we call those large holes in the ground. But if you are talking about a pond, then it by definition does have something good in it, namely, water. Because a pond is contingent on an ocean for it's existence, than it has to, by its very definition, share qualities in common. Man has some good things in him because his is created in God's Image, and without God he would cease to be what we call "Man". This is all a conceptual critique. What I have done here is to simply argue with doctrinal ideas. What is to come is a more practical critique in which I will seek to show how these things actually flesh out into reality, where the rubber meets the road.

All orthodox Christians would believe that we are sinful, but is it the case that we are unable to do anything but sin? Here is my critique of the Doctrine of Total Depravity. Curious as to what you think, especially if you are of the Reformed Persuasion. This is a part of a series me and Maxwell are doing on Doctrines of Reformed Theology. For his first article, check out this.

On Origen

for those who are ascribing to see origen as either a church father or authority, I have a hand ful of things to say. The first thing I would like to say is that in general theologians primarily respect origen for his apologetics not for his theology. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that any soldier on any battle field plays this fine line between the good guys and the bad guys because he is fighting on enemy territo and there is this tendancy to be sucked in by the enemy and almost become an enemy your self. he who fights monsters beware lest he become a monster. in general that is the accusation against origen. He kind of "became a monster". That is really strong language, and perhaps to strong for origen. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. but in general origen, he had some incredbile defenses for the christian faith. He was a really good apologist and really articulate for people who were not christians as to why they should be christians. But at the same time he seems to have compromised his theology- he kind of believed some pretty crazy things. He didn't believe the scripture was inerrant. He believed the authors of scripture made mistakes in writing it. He also believed that the trinity (father, son, and holy spirit) were a higher archy. Father, who is the highest, the son, who is the next highest, and the holy spirit, who is the lowest. The implications of that is that they are all God, but not all equal. Or something along those lines. Which, theologically, goes against some of the early creeds and sets the stage in a strange fashion for thinking about God. I haven't actually read Origen on the trinity, but I know that people are critical of that. And the thirds thing that people are critical of his theology is that he was a universalist. He believed that everyone was ultimately going to be saved and a lot of people today try to claim origen as their guy because it is historical. Which, yes it is historical but it is also heretical. people have never really considered that idea to be orthodox christianity. See, origen beliueved that hell was a resting place, but it wasn't a place that people stayed. He believed that people always ended upcoming out of hell I believe he believed in the rasnsom theory which states that satan origenally held us in bondage, but that god comes along and jesus chrsit comes along and ransoms us from satan and in the long run all humanity makes their way out of hell and so do all of the demons. And origen actually has an interesting way of coming to that conclusion (and I partially agreee with him, but not on the universalist part). He believes that we are all sons of God in a manner of speaking. We are all created in a way that makes us like God., Meaning that angles deamons and humans are all part of the same species, but parts of different sects(?) of the same species. That we have kind of grown a part, that angels have continued to be obedient to God,

Ignorantly insightful

We are, at times, ignorantly insightful. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? But what do I mean when I say that? We can say things that speak greatly into a situation, but without understanding either what we are saying, or the situation we are saying them towards.

There is a way in which we can mirror actions. We can do what others do, and say what others say. All of this, without understanding. For instance, being a Barista is (to an extant) to be an artisan. As such, both skill and an artistic taste are required. But a person may come along, and too ignorant to understand fully all the reasoning that goes into doing something, and as a result they simply copy their mentors method. The mentor could be the best Barista in the world. The most skilled. The most artistic. The most thoroughly thought out. What ever. The students work would then reflect these attributes if the student is able to simply copy the work. It would seem, by looking at the work alone, that this student were a master Barista. This is ignorant insight on the part of the student.

The Hebrew Scriptures, as some of us know and believe, are written by God. They are his revelation to us. The irony here is that He is the great Master of all things. How can I be His student? See, with the Scriptures, there is massive room for ignorant insight. He is always right, and for me to simply mirror him is to echo his insight. Insight that I cannot comprehend. I can never know the limits of his words. But my speaking them echos their depths. Like copying a master piece of a painting by simply taking a picture of it. My speaking of scripture to some extent requires me to speak in ignorance, but only because I don't understand the depths of insight.

Xanga days

Lauren Shipman says that I haven't blogged in a while.

I was reviewing my old xanga(s) yesterday, and so many old memories and aspects about my life were coming back to me. It is both appalling and comforting to see who we have been. Lots of really happy and really sad memories from that day.

There was this girl that I liked from when I was 13-14, her name was Katy. In xanga days, I would post something about her nearly every day. I use to throw the "L" word around to girls I liked no freaking stop. haha, xanga Judah, you are a dork.

I think we are all pretty ambarrassed about the person we were in middle school. I am glad for those emotional and confusing days though. So much learned.

I was reading a few other xangas, as well as my own. You really see the root of a persons life long struggles begin to be developed at a very young age, and that is kind what I was seeing. But also, it is really interesting to see how far people have come from what they once were.

So much of me wants to go back in time, sit down with my self, and peacefully counsel my self to not do certain things in my life. And if I didn't listen, proceed to use more violent forms of persuasion.

Starbucks, Mike Bickle, and child prodigies

Does anyone else notice that wealthier people tend to go to cheep low quality Starbucks, while poor college kids all go to expensive high quality coffee shops? Such is life.

I am at Starbucks right now because it is the only coffee shop I have yet to run into somebody I know, and today I really need to focus on studying. No people sitting down talking to me. Funny that I am making a blog entry though. I just trade one distraction for another.

I ended up running into 3 different people I know at starbucks. That cost me 2 hours of study time.

Lydia (9), and Leah (11), jointly wrote one of the most poetic and musically impressive songs I have ever encountered. Check it out:

My dreams- By Leah & Lydia Powers

I have lived on the borders,

My real face unseen,

But where I go now,

Has no boundaries, but dreams

Walk with me,

walk with me

Out of this night

For you are my love

And you are my light

I have gone on long journeys

While walking in dreams

I’m running away

From those who seek me

I will dance with my love

In bright golden fields

And where we go

No one sees but in dreams

As I walk through this green field

While the bright sun sets

I dance and I sing

Forgetting my regrets

I will travel in dreams

I will go here and there

And where I have been,

Well I’ve been every where

I have lived

I have lived

On these strange borders

And you can’t see my face

So walk with me

Walk with me

Out of this night

For you are my love

And you are my light

Lydia was explaining its meaning to me, it is about a girl who lives by traveling through dreams. She doesn't have a real body, and her entire life is lived through the dreams we have. She is that friend that we fall in love with for a moment in our sleep, or the person we go on a grand adventure with. She lives moment by moment, dream to dream, night to night, and person to person. Really freaking creative.

Read a little out of Mike Bickle's Revelation's Study Guide. This is what I ran into within the first few pages.

Revelation 1:1

"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants-things that must shortly take place."

Mike Bickle's Study Guide on Revelation's: Comment on Revelation 1:1

"Revelation is not primarily about events that will happen."

What? Did he just say what I think he said?

Contrast "things that must shortly take place(Rev 1:1)" to "Revelation is not primarily about events that will happen. (Mike B.)"

For a second I thought he might actually present some convincing arguments on his views of the book of revelation. Not.

Spiritual Strongholds: Past, present, and future.

Seth and I went to Broadway today because he is studying for the GRE, and I have been studying for ear training and music theory tests that I am suppose to take at the beginning of next week. While we were there I made a routine trip to the bathroom, only to find a large graffiti upside down cross on the door of the bathroom. The cross was surrounded by several satanic symbols, and beside the cross was a figure of satan with other satanic symbols surrounding him. it was obvious that the person who drew the graffiti had spent a lot of time on it, but the funny thing is that it took me all but a minute and a half to completely destroy the entire thing with a paper towel and some water. Kind of symbolic to the way it which Jesus Christ has the ability to immediately free us from all kinds of strongholds that the enemy has spent years establishing. And maybe God gives us crap in our lives so that we might be in a position to see the horrible things the enemy has constructed in the dark, and bring those things to the Light.

I spent an hour and a half filling out an application to work for youthfront south today. Just in case it ends up being something I could do this summer. I signed up to be either a cabin leader, worship leader (which isn't going to happen), or a grounds keeper. Even though I am going to school for music, I think that is what I am least qualified to do as far as those three jobs are concerned.

I was talking to Seth today on our drive home from Broadway, and he was actually mildly considering working on the farm this summer. If that were to happen I would be freed up from that responsibility, and would be able to do something like go work for a youth camp all summer. Maybe that is what you want me to do, but who knows?

Kristen Sullivan became Kristen Sullivan Calhoun Sunday before last. Marriages make me feel either 1) glad I am single, or 2) sad that I am still single. haha, fail. Discontentment issues. In my youthfront application they asked me to explain my relationship with Jesus Christ, and I quoted the scripture from Philippians 3:8-9

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,"

I made the same bold statement that Paul made. But it weighs heavy on my heart. Do I really count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord? I hope so. If I don't, I pray that I do.

This scripture reminds me of a couple of years ago, when Wyatt first signed up for the military, and the Kansas City Boilar Room was having a week of 24 hour prayer. Wyatt and I had both been going to service at the Boiler Room every sunday night. So that particular sunday night I went and signed up for an hour of prayer, not really paying attention as I signed my name and phone number in the prayer slot. Later on that week I invited Wyatt to come and pray with me during my prayer slot, and he decided to come along as well. When we got there, for some reason we were instructed to go to Adam Cox's office instead of the designated prayer room. When we got to his office, Jon Doughty and Adam were both waiting for me, and they were really confused as to why I brought a friend. Come to find out, I had signed up for a spot that was specifically for someone who wanted the leadership at the Boiler Room to pray with them for an hour about specific Spiritual Strongholds that the person found them self bound to. Awkward situation, because I totally didn't consider my self to be someone who "needed the leaderships help". At first I was like "I would love it if you guys prayed with us, but I didn't mean to sign up for that slot at all." Adam kinda smiled, and Jon was like "sounds like a divine mistake". After both parties had shed light the confusion, we all settled down, and Adam told me very simply "We have been praying for you for an hour, and we feel like the Lord has given us some Scripture on you, and a few things he would like for us to tell you." He also asked me to confess any Strongholds I could think of, so that they could all pray for me that I would be set free. I was probably more honest then than I have ever been with people. Funny, the Lord knew I wouldn't personally go up there and sign up for such a prayer slot, so he made me do it on accident. All because the biggest stronghold the enemy has on me is pride, and I wouldn't humble my self to admit my utter depravity. But to bring it back to Philippians 3:4- 11

" ⁴Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

⁵Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

⁶Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

⁷But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

⁸Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

⁹And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

¹⁰That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

¹¹If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. "

Adam said that I was a lot like Paul, in that the Lord had given me a lot of ability as far as the world is concerned. He said that I had a lot of worldly reason to put confidence in the flesh, just as Paul did. But just as Paul, I need to count all loss for Christ. Two years later, and still struggling with the same thing. I wish I had listened more closely all those years ago.

He also gave me an analogy. He said the Lord had made me a lot like a diamond. Hard, beautiful, and has the potential to reflect the Glory of God. But also the hardest thing to change.

Divine hands are the only the that can shape this hard rock.

So much opportunity to take pride, and yet so much opportunity to be humiliated.

Come Lord Jesus.