Looks More Like a Puma

Who are we? Why do we muck around with all things that cause us grief? Why do we bother with sins? Fear. Worry. Materialism. Lust. Faithlessness. Spite. Don’t we know who we are?

We are Christians!

We are the disciples Christ loved.
We are more than conquerers.
We are new creations.
We are a holy priesthood.
We are the Body of Christ.
We are the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We have no reason to be afraid and every reason to hope.
We have no use for pride for we could not save ourselves.
We have no need for insecurities for Christ loved us even to death.
We are not without purpose for God has made plans for us.

Let us not be so easily mired in sin and flesh and doubt and fear. Let us not stoop to these things which are so far beneath our calling. Let us run after our Captain, our Savior, our King.

Go!

Love People!

Fight the Devil!

Win!

I didn’t used to be a yogurt eater. Not from any particular dislike, it just wasn’t one of those foods that I would say, “You know what sounds good right now - friggin’ yogurt.” But now, (hang on, that actually does sound pretty good…

…mmm: strawberry!)

But now, I do like yogurt and eat it on a regular basis. What’s so spectacular about that? Well, it is a curious case, because I happen to know the reason I changed my mind about yogurt - and that reason is Burn Notice.

Burn Notice (if you didn’t know) is a tv show about a spy in forced retirement who uses his mad spy skillz to help out people in distress. Also he eats a lot of yogurt. And since he is clearly an awesome dude, and he eats yogurt, I was subconsciously propelled into the yogurt eating habit.

Scary, huh?

Well it’s not all bad news. At least in this case, I was completely aware of what was going on, and while my attitude towards yogurt was shifted unconsciously, my behavior was changed consciously both because of yogurt’s new appeal and my deliberate recognition that yogurt is generally a good thing.

So what’s the moral? I don’t know, I just thought it was an interesting story. Feel free to draw your own conclusion. Or select one of the suggested ones below.

Suggested Conclusions:

• TV is an evil mind-control device.
• Yogurt is tastey*.
• If you need to motivate yourself to do something, find a tv show about a spy who does that and then you will be motivated to do the thing that you’re trying to motivate yourself to do.
• I am a weak-minded fool.

*@Bequavious ‘e’ for ‘Emphasis!’

You know when God’s telling you to do something? I don’t. I admit: I really don’t feel like I have a good grasp on what God’s voice sounds like. And that’s all it takes - just that little doubt for that other voice to say, “ah, let’s not”, and now I’m not doing whatever it is that God is telling me to do. But I discovered recently that the question you need to be asking yourself at this point is (and this is going to sound bad) does it really matter?

Even if it’s not God - is there a good reason not to do whatever it is you’re being prompted to do? If you suspect the voice to be God’s, the idea is probably a good one, regardless of the source. So the new rule is: if you have the faintest suspicion that God is telling you to do something, and you have no good reason not to do the thing in question, then just do it!

Coupla cautions:

1. Don’t confuse miserable excuse with good reasons. Have no doubt - you will have some reason not to do whatever it is. Chances are, though, it’s not a good reason.
2. This algorithm only works in one direction. I’m not going to tell you that God will never ask you to do something which you have a good reason not to do. And God always trumps your good reasons. So this rule can only be used to help you to action, never to help you to inaction.

So that’s what happens when a computer scientist thinks about spiritual matters - you get heuristics for recognizing God’s voice.