Looks More Like a Puma

When tragedy strikes, it’s easy to ask “Why, God?”.

But when annoyance strikes, that’s rarely the first thing that comes to mind. When I get stopped at a red light, my most natural response is to wonder how I could possibly hit seven in a row! Or how is it necessary for this rinky-dink cross street to have a such a long light? There’s nothing there but a Food Lion (which I now hate by association). Turns out - God made red lights.  What’s more, He engineered the circumstances that put me at that red light at that exact moment. Why would a loving God do that?! He could have made it green - would have been no trouble at all.

Well, friends I can’t tell you why you got a flat tire or why there’s noisy tree frogs in your pool or why there’s a guy driving 45 in the left lane of the interstate or why Windows has so many bugs… But! I do know why God made red lights. (Somehow, I feel like I shouldn’t be giving this secret away for free…but I really don’t have time to monetize it, so)t:

1. Get some index cards.
2. Write Bible verses on them - reference on one side, verse on the other.
3. Stick them to the sun visor in the driver’s seat of your car.
4. When you get stuck at a red light - pull one down, read it, think about it for a sec, and it should be about time to go again.
5. Work on it in your head until you get to the next red light.
6. Check your knowledge, then pull down the next card.

Do this for long enough, and you’ll learn to hate green lights! (maybe)

Also, when you make your index cards (if you tweet), tweet which verses you’re working on with the tag #MemoryVerseMonday. It’s not a meme yet, but it totally should be.

Half a dozen drafts of incomplete blog posts.

Is this what they call writer’s block? Half a dozen genuinely good ideas abandoned because I couldn’t negotiate the difference between how good they sounded in my head, and how lousy they sounded on paper. What is the solution? Don’t ask me! I’m just musing out loud. (No, seriously - I don’t even know right now if I’m going to publish this or not)

How did I get started blogging? On a whim, actually. I just thought to myself, “Self: I do some thinking occasionally, here and there, and it would be nice to have an outlet for some of it. It may be that I have something of value to offer to the internet.” In that inspiration I wrote my seminal second post (trust me, it makes sense) - a suggestion on how electrical engineering could be taught better. Certainly not an area in which I have any expertise!

And where did I crash? I was working on an entry - proof I had discovered that theistic evolution could not be true, when it occured to me that I was surely not the first person to observe what I had noticed. (It was obvious, but it wasn’t that insightful). So I googled, and…turns out, they do have an answer for my ironclad argument. They’re still wrong, but for the first time I felt the weight of my having joined a 5000 (roughly) year old conversation - the human conversation of all that is known and speculated consisting of every written work ever. And how annoying am I, jumping in in the middle, woefully ignoranat of most of what’s already been said, proudly spouting off a bunch of well known ideas as if I was the first to think of them. I certainly now feel an obligation to try and get caught up, and am discovering the daunting enormity  of the task. Turns out,  I can find new books I want to read way faster than I can read them.

So, how then can I write, knowing that I know so little? What have I to offer? There are a couple possibilities:

1 - If the substance is not new, perhaps the formulation is. Perhaps the way I pose a thought, necessarily unique, is valuable even if its substance isn’t necessarily unique. Or perhaps it’s worthwhile (especially to those who know me) to know that I’m the one saying it. Discussing college football with one’s friends is quite different from hearing even the same exact words from the talking suits on espn. Or perhaps even the meduim and timing are valuable. If I didn’t know what I’m saying until yesterday, there’s a fair chance the reader hadn’t heard until today, the classic book written in 1450 notwithstanding.

2 - Why do 2nd graders write? Clearly not because they have insights about the workings of the world that have been hidden from the rest of us. In fact, 2nd graders write (in school) to practice writing - in preparation for the day when they have something that must be expressed on paper. Though I may have nothing of import to impart now, it doesn’t hurt to write what I have been given, on the off chance that a philo sophia and a James 1:5 prayer may result in some sophia that will need written expression. (Definitely gotta get fluent in Greekglish!)

Well, I don’t think it was a question of ‘why blog’ that cursed my writing with clumsiness, but seeing as I don’t actually know what did, and I’m pushing the limit of internet attention spans, I’ll go ahead and cut it off here. Perhaps tomorrow it will be given me my desire to Ephesians 4:15.

EDIT - Well, I’m not entirely happy with it, but unlike all my other drafts, this one has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I Suppose I could put it up.