OK, I know this is an old question, but what about this. It seems everyone buys into this. And, at some level there is a little truth to it. It is hard to be happy if you are starving, and enough money to not have to worry about having money helps ease stress, but many people have enough money to live comfortable lives but make thier lives uncomfortable by pursuing material wealth to the point where they can no longer afford thier lifestyle. Why do we put ourselves into so much debt? What do we hope to attain by this? Is it spiritual fulfullment through material wealth?
Along the same lines:
There is something else I have been noticing here in Memphis lately too. I see many companies advertising themselves as Christian. They seem to be mostly in the car repair and building industries: "Annointed Oil Car Repair", "Christian Brother's Tire and Battery", Noah's Arc Plumbing" to name a few.
What about all of this? The Christian names in the titles tend to make me more worried about doing business with these people rather than being reassured. What do you guys think?
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
NGO
The situation:
I just had an interesting conversation with an accountant who is going over to Africa to buy children out of fishing slavery. The fisherman buy the kids for 5 year contracts and then when the 5 year contract is up, they go back to thier families. The accountant is going to go over there and buy the kids back and send them to school for 3 years instead. And, the group the accountant goes with tries to teach the parents that no amount is money is worth thier kids life.
My initial thought:
I think that sounds very good. But, in some ways isn't the "slavery" more like how apprentices worked in the Middle Ages? The families get about $25 for a 5 year contract. It seems that if the families are selling the kids for that amount, the greater problem is that the families cannot support the childern and so they are getting rid of them by putting them to work in some sort of industry. These people are in survival mode, maybe they are just making the best decision out of many poor choices.
The real question:
What is the best way for an NGO (non government orginization) to interact with the people they are trying to help? If a group is going to another country to help people, what is the best way to do it?
I just had an interesting conversation with an accountant who is going over to Africa to buy children out of fishing slavery. The fisherman buy the kids for 5 year contracts and then when the 5 year contract is up, they go back to thier families. The accountant is going to go over there and buy the kids back and send them to school for 3 years instead. And, the group the accountant goes with tries to teach the parents that no amount is money is worth thier kids life.
My initial thought:
I think that sounds very good. But, in some ways isn't the "slavery" more like how apprentices worked in the Middle Ages? The families get about $25 for a 5 year contract. It seems that if the families are selling the kids for that amount, the greater problem is that the families cannot support the childern and so they are getting rid of them by putting them to work in some sort of industry. These people are in survival mode, maybe they are just making the best decision out of many poor choices.
The real question:
What is the best way for an NGO (non government orginization) to interact with the people they are trying to help? If a group is going to another country to help people, what is the best way to do it?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Acclimation to Emotional Pain or Suffering
This is from Sara S:
Acclimation to Emotional Pain or Suffering
This, to me, is a strange phenomenon. You know how it's a survival mechanism for humans to never acclimate to physical pain (like, if I put my hand on a hot stove, my hand doesn't stop burning until I remove it, and the function of this phenomenon is to ensure that I will get myself out of harm's way as soon as possible). Why then, does it seem that people so easily acclimate to emotional, mental, or spiritual suffering? Maybe this is just my perception, but let me present you with an example.
I was listening to This American Life several weeks ago on NPR. The story was by a guy about my age and he was talking about rescuing his mother who is an alcoholic. The story starts with him getting a call from the hospital where she's been admitted after someone in her living community (something like a retirement home) found her nearly dead on her couch. She had almost drunk herself to death. The son goes to the apartment after visiting his mother in the hospital and finds that it is filthy, infested with roaches, and in a state of general decay. Over the course of several months, he slowly gets her story of how it is that she has come to such a low point in her life. The thing she says to him that is so interesting to me is that her life started out pretty normal. She was happy, always had some sort of monetary or relationship struggle, but life wasn't too bad. Then, things would happen that would make her situation one notch worse. Her husband was shot because, as she discovered, he was involved in selling drugs illegally. She couldn't get any money so she'd miss her rent payment and get evicted.
He quotes her as saying that "I would just move one more step down on the ladder and, after a certain amount of time, that ladder rung became 'normal' for me. It was the standard against which I measured my life situation. So it was always just a small adjustment whenever something bad would happen again. Eventually, I just lost sight of what a healthy life was and so I didn't try to get back to one because I'd forgotten what it was like."
I just wonder how/why this is possible. Is it possible? To completely lose sight of how to live rightly and how to live in a healthy way that communes with God? Is this a function of free will? God has to give you the opportuntity to sink into sightlessness in order to assure that you can if you want to? Or is this bleak outlook not really true at all: something always happens to remind us that life is better than this. And, if that's true: what reminds us? How do we remember goodness when it's so far away from what we know? Is it because "God's law is written on our hearts?" We have an innate understanding of goodness that's just more nuanced than physical pain and, therefore, more difficult to return to? What do you guys think? I'm wondering because I've had some realizations in my own life lately that seem to come from nowhere: like I realized I've been operation on a set of false pretenses about life and, one day, they just dissappear. One layer at a time my vision becomes clearer. Is it something I'm doing? Or does God just reveal god's self one level at a time in measured steadiness?
Acclimation to Emotional Pain or Suffering
This, to me, is a strange phenomenon. You know how it's a survival mechanism for humans to never acclimate to physical pain (like, if I put my hand on a hot stove, my hand doesn't stop burning until I remove it, and the function of this phenomenon is to ensure that I will get myself out of harm's way as soon as possible). Why then, does it seem that people so easily acclimate to emotional, mental, or spiritual suffering? Maybe this is just my perception, but let me present you with an example.
I was listening to This American Life several weeks ago on NPR. The story was by a guy about my age and he was talking about rescuing his mother who is an alcoholic. The story starts with him getting a call from the hospital where she's been admitted after someone in her living community (something like a retirement home) found her nearly dead on her couch. She had almost drunk herself to death. The son goes to the apartment after visiting his mother in the hospital and finds that it is filthy, infested with roaches, and in a state of general decay. Over the course of several months, he slowly gets her story of how it is that she has come to such a low point in her life. The thing she says to him that is so interesting to me is that her life started out pretty normal. She was happy, always had some sort of monetary or relationship struggle, but life wasn't too bad. Then, things would happen that would make her situation one notch worse. Her husband was shot because, as she discovered, he was involved in selling drugs illegally. She couldn't get any money so she'd miss her rent payment and get evicted.
He quotes her as saying that "I would just move one more step down on the ladder and, after a certain amount of time, that ladder rung became 'normal' for me. It was the standard against which I measured my life situation. So it was always just a small adjustment whenever something bad would happen again. Eventually, I just lost sight of what a healthy life was and so I didn't try to get back to one because I'd forgotten what it was like."
I just wonder how/why this is possible. Is it possible? To completely lose sight of how to live rightly and how to live in a healthy way that communes with God? Is this a function of free will? God has to give you the opportuntity to sink into sightlessness in order to assure that you can if you want to? Or is this bleak outlook not really true at all: something always happens to remind us that life is better than this. And, if that's true: what reminds us? How do we remember goodness when it's so far away from what we know? Is it because "God's law is written on our hearts?" We have an innate understanding of goodness that's just more nuanced than physical pain and, therefore, more difficult to return to? What do you guys think? I'm wondering because I've had some realizations in my own life lately that seem to come from nowhere: like I realized I've been operation on a set of false pretenses about life and, one day, they just dissappear. One layer at a time my vision becomes clearer. Is it something I'm doing? Or does God just reveal god's self one level at a time in measured steadiness?
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Anyone's questins
I don't know how to make it so that anyone can post a question, but if you guys want to send me a question josh@circledw.com I'll post it. If anyone knows how to make it so anyone can post, please let me know and I'll make it work that way.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
God = Justice?
I'll start it out: Is the typical definition of Justice really the definition we should be using when we describe God as "Just"?
Open review is online!
OK everybody. We've haven't been able to discuss stuff ever since we all scattered to the winds. Now we can do it here. Hope you like it.
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