Uniquity

Interesting Dei.

On the way to work, I "talked" with a deaf guy who struck up a non-verbal conversation with me at the downtown bus stop in which I got to share my faith with him, then at work, I met Jen the student worker who watched old Battlestar Galactica episodes on her computer the entire day at dispatch while training me in (she also gave me a donut and a handful of pringles! Nice!). Ray,( who reminds me of Robert (Berto) Perez back in MN), came into the office sporting a ghetto fabulous wardrobe and commented on my shirt's new-looking-ness. Joe noticed Ray had gotten a haircut, upon which observation Ray removed his hat for a haircut inspection by us. I said it looked shorter, Ray followed up with a smile and the comment: "I hate white people". I educated him as to my heritage, and we got into a conversation about the jews, and my theory that a majority of the world's population has some sort of Jewish heritage somewhere (since they've been scattered through the whole world for the past 3000 years) then Ray & I got into a conversation about the books of Judges and 1 Samuel, which he'd just finished and I'm still reading through. We talked about our favorite judges and the messed up ending with the Levite who was a class-A hole to his concubine (Ray & I agreed) and the horrible benjamite nastiness which brought it out, the conflict between Benjamin & everybody else plus the ensuing slaughter on both sides and shenanigans in general by the rest of too compassionate (in my opinion) Israel to make sure the nasty tribe of benjamin continued to crawl the earth...bleah. I want to slap that Levite around every time I read that story. The Benjamites and him are what flamethrowers were created for.
Oh, and I ordered two pairs of tactical boots for work. Really cool ones. And processed quite a few applications for the Flexpasses that SPU gives out to FT employees (Think "Multipass", like in 5th element. I do.-that's one of my favorite parts of that movie, when He's trying to get them to believe that Lilu's his wife while she keeps holding up the card and repeating "Multi-pass!" with a beaming smile.)

Anyhoo... On the bus ride home I missed my first bus, witnessed a partial beat-down from a half a block away, (which was broken up by the time I got there) Got a call from my little brother, got lost on the bus system, found my way back, had a gay shirtless heavily-pierced guy at the bus stop prance around in front of me trying to elicit attention which I all to gladly and nauseously withheld, was subject to the bus stopping while the bus driver gave a first and last warning to the people in the back of the bus to stop smoking their ganja, (oh my goodness, I almost got a contact high-and then they had the nerve to deny it with straight faces!) and finally at about 10pm I made it home. Reading "Out of the Silent Planet" (for like the fifth time so far) helped me stay awake. I also read most of J Gresham Machen's "The Christian Faith in the Modern World" (written in the '30s, but perfect for today as well. I've come to the conviction that there are very few really good books out there, and tons and tons of books that are basically attempts to re-write something that an author of a preceding generation wrote with much more skill and inspiration, and then put a snazzy new cover to it and market it like a panacea. Machen's books I'm beginning to think belong in the realm of classics, along with C.S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer.)

I've just noticed that I use a LOT of parentheses.

And further, I found it's becoming frighteningly easy to put off reading the actual Scriptures of God in favor of reading a book about the scriptures of God. When these moments of realization hit I'm confronted with the absurdity of my choice (why bother reading something that's only meant to enhance that which I'm avoiding?!) So I caved in to the Holy Spirit's influence on my reason and read Matthew 5-7

I read Matt 7:13-15 over and over until it sank in. It's been too long since that one sank in. I've read it a gazillion times, but not often have I read it and stared at it until it comes into mental focus.