I was reading… a post by Blestwithsons, which discusses humor.

I was struck by a line from the Screwtape Letters – which I should have remembered, and kept in the forefront of my mind recently.

Humour is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame.

I know this, and am often convicted (fleetingly) by my reaction to the type of humor which is found in a job such as mine – where the employee pool is made up, overwhelmingly, of rough, lower-class to lower-middle class males.

In short, innuendoes, foul language, crass speech… all of that. In fact, I’m often tempted to it myself. In short, I’m being an absolutely despicable witness to my peers at work.

There are several people at work who absolutely delight in “one-upping” the worst jokes of everyone else. In a way, they are very genuinely funny. They have excellent comic timing, their delivery is great… but their subject matter is as bad as anything I saw in the military.

I admit… when it goes on, I laugh just as hard as anyone else, once they start in on it. In hindsight, I’m sickened by it. Just the other day, my pastor was speaking on Ephesians 5- where it tells us:

But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks

Coarse jesting… zing! Filthiness… zing! Ribald jokes, and obscenities, in short. I’ll take it a step further, and go along with what I was thinking about earlier. Laughing at those things eliminates any sense of shame about them. It’s encouraging it, and affirming it. I’m ashamed.

I’m supposed to be an imitator of God, not of the world. I’m going right along with it… and I’m no different than anyone else there, God help me. True, I don’t initiate the jokes, or tell them myself. That doesn’t matter, and that excuse won’t fly. Holiness is the aim – not some simple “I didn’t actually do it…” That’s an excuse that children make, when they try to get out of being involved in wrongdoing they encouraged, but didn’t perform.

It’s wrong, and I cannot engage in it. I cannot encourage it. I cannot even laugh at it.

A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous jokes do not help towards a man’s damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke. […] Any suggestion that there might be too much of it can be represented to him as ‘Puritanical’ or as betraying a ‘lack of humour’.

As Screwtape finishes…

Only a clever human can make a real Joke about virtue, or indeed about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny.

I call myself an apologist? I should be ashamed of myself. I know I can manage to be funny without being crass. I do so all the time. Why can’t I keep from laughing at what is crass, or ribald? Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

I won’t end on that note, however much I’d like to, in an orgy of self-flagellation. It’s so much more cathartic.

Paul says more than that.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hasset you free from the law of sin and of death.

You can read the rest of Romans 8 here, which finishes the thought. I’m comforted by it, and I understand it. I’m just ticked at myself for falling into it.

Time to pray, confess, and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Then, ask the Spirit for those nudges as I go through my day tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be a better reflection of my Lord.

Because, really. It just isn’t funny. It’s the equivalent of “following the crowd”. However… “Be Holy, as I AM Holy.”

Yes, Lord.

I’ve been working on a ton of other sites, mostly for family and church – slightly overwhelmed at the amount of work I have to do, to make them *just* right… and I just realized something. It probably isn’t anything profound, but it’s something.

I’ve had this blog up for a year, and my main site up for even longer… and I have never been happy with them. Not ever. I spend several hours per week just tweaking the layout, graphics, theme, or something else about this blog. More “behind-the-scenes” time than I’m really comfortable with admitting, frankly. I’ve spent roughly ten hours in the last 5 days just here. Not on any of those other sites – just here.

per·fec·tion·ism Pronunciation Key (pr-fksh-nzm)
n.

1. A propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards.

Instead of obsessing over perfection, I should be obsessing over excelling. I should concentrate on doing things to the best of my ability – within some sort of ordinate time constraints. I need to quit being such a tweaker. I’m slightly… well, ok, maybe more than slightly… obsessive compulsive, and it only shows in really nitpicky detail-oriented stuff. Like, well, code. Instead of tweaking, I should be studying, responding to current apologetics issues, and addressing much more important demands on my time. I need to leave the design alone, and finish what I’ve said I’m going to finish, instead of doing the equivalent of “comfort eating” – tweaking my blog.

I tweak my blog when I’m frustrated with how something is turning out elsewhere – because I know it’s code and layout inside out. I need to expand my horizons, and me skills, instead of endlessly circling around my own obsession with how I look – because, for web designers, this IS how we look, to the world… err… web.

I need to quit obsessing endlessly over trivia. I need to get my teeth into some meat, and start chewing, instead of nibbling on a familiar toy.

There’s probably a neat theological tie-in. I might find it later. For now, though… I just need to keep telling myself; there’s more to life than your blog template.

Which means I should just release it, and let someone *else* tweak it 😀

Or I should just go to bed. On that note… goodnight!

At work, the other day, I had a discussion with a coworker, which centered around a discussion of The DaVinci Code. We discuss metaphysical or spiritual aspects of life quite often, but I engaged fully, this time – because he was not quite sympathetic to the specific claims made in The DaVinci Code, but sort of asking questions about themes in it – namely, Mary Magdalene’s supposed “marriage” to Jesus, and etc. That didn’t take long, as I explained the history of those claims, and who had made them – but that got me thinking – “what does he really think about the Bible?”

So, I asked him – “What do you think – is the Bible what it claims to be?” His answer, predictably, was to ask “in what way” – because, really, I wasn’t very specific. Have I ever mentioned that I don’t do apologetics in the real world very often? It’s my own shortcoming, and a result of the insular lifestyle I tend to lead. Well, anyway, I began to explain that the Bible claims to be the actual words of God, to man. His response was that it likely wasn’t the whole truth, but maybe part of the truth.

Well, my immediate response was to ask, in effect, that if it isn’t *the* truth, then what is? Is it found in the Mormons, or in Islam? Where? His response was, (also in effect), that truth was found in an individual person. Which, (also predictably), led me to ask – so, if truth is found in each individual, doesn’t truth always change?

What followed was, to me, an odd exchange. His point seemed, to me, to be that all morals are relative, and that what is true to one person is not true to another – and that the “belief” that it is true is what directs morality. My responses followed the pattern that if this is the case, then what Hitler did, or Hussein did, can be credibly justified by their belief that it is right. That was one aspect of the conversation. The other aspect was an attempt, on both parts, to explain exactly what we meant, when we said what we did. I don’t know if I understood him rightly, but by the end, he agreed with me that there is a concept of moral truth that over-arches what we believe to be true – but I don’t know if that was what he thought to begin with, or if it changed his mind. It’s hard to tell. I conceded that some moral decisions are situation dependent (such as killing someone – murder versus self-defense, or war), but that the basic principle remains the same.

It was a good exchange, but not anywhere near the “cut-and-dried” exchanges I’ve had in the past. He agrees that there is a spiritual world, that the physical came into being as the result of a non-physical force, and that there will be an eventual heaven and hell. However, it seems to me that he doesn’t think that the Christian way is what it says it is – the only way to an actual eternal existence in Heaven. We disagreed about the existence of an original or natural sin – but following a consistent moral code is very important to him. I enjoyed the discussion – as well as prior discussions we’ve had about the insufficiency of the limited-to-the-physical atheist/materialist viewpoint; but I’m not quite sure how I’d expand on this from here. Acer is what I’ll call him, since he uses that pseudonym online – and I had a lot of fun talking with him. (He may even read this – he knows about my blog :D) I’m not sure, exactly, what he really thinks, though. I’m not precisely worried about offending him by talking about Christianity – but I don’t want to badger him, either, or try to “win an argument”. That’s not the point. I’m a bit belligerent by nature, and I don’t want to be considered a bully. I also don’t want to lose the grip on the conversation by being too timid, either. I care about him, and I want to make sure he’s on the right track – not to become improperly judgemental and accusing. Speak the truth, in love…

It was interesting, and a bit scary – but I’m not quite sure how to handle it from here. Keep in mind – this is a friend from work, who reads this blog occasionally – so if you have comments, keep this in mind. (and Acer… if I messed anything up in our conversation, or I didn’t understand anything well enough – let me know!)

Thanks,

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on my blog yet, but I bought a motorcycle. It’s silver and black, and needs some work. That’s just background, however. I went to Slidell to purchase some parts for my bike not too long ago – just prior to Christmas. Afterwards, since we hadn’t yet finished our Christmas shopping, we decided to go by North Shore Square Mall, also in Slidell, to finish our shopping up. On our way in, we encountered a man up on a step stool, asking questions, and offering a dollar for a correct answer. This approach is directly out of Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master”, and I recognized it almost immediately, and wanted to watch, so we stopped there for a bit.

He finished the last 1 dollar question, and progressed to the 20 dollar question, which uses the Ten Commandments, and demonstrates that everyone is a sinner, and needs God to overcome their sin. The speaker was really very good, and did this very well. His name was Mike.

While he was beginning this final portion, I overheard a janitor, who I had been watching, say into his radio that there was a “disturbance” outside the mall entrance. Now, I had been watching him for a few minutes, and he didn’t have anyone complain to him that I saw, and the group watching was not disturbed. There were a couple people who disagreed, but all they had to do was leave. They stayed right there to listen, regardless.

One in particular, a young man, we overheard saying “this guy is preaching, let’s leave”. Right after that, though, a security guard walked out, and said that “noone is allowed to have a forum on the premises”, and that he would have to stop, or do his presentation on an individual basis only. Well, I jumped in at that point, and asked if it was mall policy to discourage public speech. The security guard told us he was a churchgoer, but that this was, indeed, mall policy. Several others voiced dissent at this point – including the young man who had just said he was leaving. he said, I believe, “this is America – he can say whatever he wants to”. The security guard’s reply was simply that this was private property, and this was the mall’s policy, and reiterated that they were free to continue on an individual basis.

So, while I continued to talk to the guard, the evangelist asked whoever was willing to continue the discussion on an individual basis to follow him. A group of 13-15 people followed. Silently rejoicing, I kept talking to the security guard, and asked where I could file a complaint, and told him that I would no longer be shopping at the mall due to this policy. He told me where to go, and was really very nice. I went to the customer service kiosk, was responded to with courtesy (if a bit of frost, due to my reason for visiting), filled out my complaint form, saying i was no longer intending to shop there, due to their policy, explaining what I had seen the janitor do, and left.

It was a bit odd, and I made a snap decision, but I don’t think I could have done anything in good conscience. As a visitor to a shopping complex, the only means you have to show your displeasure are complaint forms and refusing to buy from them, in my estimation. So, that’s what we did. In fact, though, it turned out nicely. I went to the outlet mall, closer to home, spent less than I would have otherwise to finish my Christmas shopping, and had a good time.

The point wasn’t the shopping, or my displeasure, though, really. To be honest, I was trying to focus the attention on me to give the evangelist less distraction. The other was just the means to do so. The security guard escorted me to the kiosk, and stayed there after I left, and the evangelist was still talking with his group of people – they were all smiling as he explained what he had to say. I hope God was able to use him, and that He may have used me in a small way.

I do intend to keep my promise to cease shopping at North Shore Square Mall, in Slidell, however. I dislike that policy, and won’t support a business (or group of businesses) which espouses it. So, that’s the story. I told my wife I would post it, and I told the mall I would, too.

So, there you go. I’m no longer shopping there.

Check out Amanda’s post, about reading Shakespeare to her children.

Be Still, My Beating Heart – indeed.

Good stuff.

I watched “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” yesterday.

It was visually exquisite. It was very faithful to the spirit of the book (with one exception I’ll explain later). It was, in a word, a movie which actually made me tear up, due to the sheer power of presentation – which, I’ll say, was due to three things.

1. The absolutely breathtaking visual presentation.

2. The casting genius, and acting skills of the characters.

Most importantly:

3. The story.

As far as #1 goes, this was what made the movie work. No doubt, and no argument allowed. Narnia was…. impossible, incredible, and just like you imagined it as a child. Exactly like it. Whoever came up with the visual “look” for Narnia.. was a genius. The effects were superb, and Aslan was… Aslan. Down to the eyes. It was magnificent.

As for #2: Peter looked exactly like Peter should. Edmund looked just like I’d always imagined Edmund – even down to the bratty older brother looks he gave Lucy. Perfect. Susan was, indeed, Susan the Gentle. Lucy… the most adorable little girl I’ve seen on film since Drew Barrymore in ET.

The acting was great. The white witch was almost perfect… except she was blond. Plus the whole “ninja queen” thing at the end. C’mon. Oh well. Aslan ate her. hah.

Liam as the voice of Aslan … awesome. The dwarf? Picture perfect. The minotaur? Great. The centaurs? Rockin. The fauns? Holy crap, they were great.

The giants! Sweet!

#3? The story, was… C.S. Lewis. Fantasy by a professor of medieval literature is, and SHOULD be good. It is, and always will be, one of the hallmarks of children’s fantasy.

How did they screw up? They departed from the story. Every part of it that was Lewis’ shone through with the brilliance of a master’s work. If you realize a master’s work, it will be masterful. The departures looked forced, they didn’t make as much sense as sticking with the story would have, and the character departures were jarring. Even if I hadn’t read the books over 3-4 dozen times, I’d still say the same. Peter was Peter… until they made him a wuss. Then, he was someone else for a while – and it showed. Edmund was spot-on. Susan was a bit less gentle then she should have been, and a bit more bossy. Lucy… was spot-on. The two older children were messed with, and they should not have been, to fit cultural “norms”. The book is about gentle young women, and strong young men, and how those two are what make Men and Women.

Anyway. The movie, despite the departures, is EXCELLENT. I recommend it very highly. I really wish they hadn’t changed parts, the same as I wished it with LOTR. Despite that, it’s incredible. Peter’s charge will bring tears of joy to your eyes, you young men. Don’t be ashamed. That sort of thing is what young men are made for. A glorious charge, a righteous fight – these are the things men are built to do. We love them. Well we should.

Aslan’s roar… a thing of beauty. There’s too many great things to count. A few things which mar it, but overall, it’s awesome.

Watch it. Peter isn’t as strong as he should be – but he’s still the High King he should be, once the battle starts. Edmund is still the hero, attacking the Witch. It’s not quite – the BBC version was closer to the book. This version, however, is simply a masterpiece, (visually) if not quite as story-perfect. The BBC version’s effects are quite dated. This is Narnia, and nothing else has ever looked anything close.

Aslan is on the move. Long live Aslan.

and we’re gonna get married!

The big date is Saturday, November 26th, at 9am CST!

So, I hope that explains the lack of posts recently, and the dearth of posts you’re going to experience for a bit longer, as we go on our honeymoon for the week following.

We’re just having a simple, garden wedding. We’re going to Gatlinburg, TN for the honeymoon.

Sorry, but I’m not going to even think about blogging – at all – for, oh, roughly a week 😀

Hate it for ‘ya!

So, have fun, read someone else in the meantime (what few readers I still have, after all of this craziness lately, post-Katrina, and pre-wedding!), and have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Just in case you didn’t know – the bride blogs here. She’s not blogging either, incidentally 😀

Seeya!

~ RK

I originally wrote this post on July 3rd, 2004, on my original blog. The area between the horizontal breaks was added today.

This week has been wild. First, Bethany’s car died. I spent until 9 pm fixing it, after I had worked a long day. The next day, Bethany’s power dims, and none of her plugs work. I have a computer I’m about to work on, and I have to tell this nice older man at church that I can’t fix it just yet… That same night, my truck dies… horribly. Blew a head gasket. Bethany’s had a psychotic week at work, she’s sick, I’m exhausted… So, I figure this is appropriate.

I used to HATE it when this didn’t go my way. It’d get me down, depressed, and oh, so pissed off.

Praise the Lord, I’m no longer bound to the emotional savagery that washes over you when it seems everything in life is conspiring to drown you, and crush you.

See, I live by a different paradigm, now. My goal is NOT to advance myself, and to make sure I’m #1 on everyone’s list. It’s to advance the cause of Christ! So, like my friends from Skillet,

 Quote:

I’m a beep, I’m a vapor
I’m just a blinking light
I’m a beep, I’m a vapor
And I’m about to evaporate

And the future’s robbing my soul
I’m face to face with my futility
And my life is slipping away
Inhaling my mortality

And I feel my skin’s just a shell
Underneath is my reality
I breathe dimensions unknown
It conquers my mortality

It’s a mad world will it ever stop?
Will the madness end?
While my body decays my soul does not
Death is just the beginning

And the future is robbing my soul
Inhaling my mortality

‘Vanity of vanities – all is vanity”, says the preacher – and I’m inclined to agree with him. Everything I’ve ever set my heart on, save God, has been systematically dismantled, bit by bit. I know why, too – I still claim ownership over my own life, in many respects, and count my worthiness in other’s esteem, much too often.

God’s solution, as usual, is to pare my life down to it’s essence – He asks me, like Peter:

 Quote:

15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.

– John 21:15-19

That’s all that matters, folks.

Not job, not significant other, not children, not hobbies, not skill, not esteem – just read this.

 Quote:

23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

Yeah, I’m some religious nut. You betcha, kids. I stand on the promises of God. I don’t need man’s affirmation, I need God’s. “Whom God loves, He chastens”, though, is also something that comes to mind for a Believer. God destroys you, in order to build you up. Doesn’t sound
like fun?

Oh, it isn’t. You Jesus was kidding, above, when He says “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God”? Heck no. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world, though.

Cause despite the “refining” I’m going through right now – like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – I’m FIREPROOF

Job 13:15 – “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

Yeah, so.

Main splash page gets hacked within a week of Katrina.

( https://razorskiss.net/ )

Now it points to yahoo.

Bleh. I haven’t had time to fix it.

Main site goes down.

Blog goes down.

I don’t have intarwebs.

Yay.

Still don’t, but I got fed up with seeing a dead site. So i borrowed somne intarwebs, and fixed it.

Somewhat.

News:

Katrina sucked, people here were cool for a while, but now they’re back to their normal, irritable selves. Katrina still sucks. The gulf coast is getting back to normal, slowly.

Mumon is still a windbag 😀

(But we love him anyway…)

But, most importantly…

I’m now officially engaged!

Envy, all of you.

I have the coolest soon-to-be-wife ever.

Yesh, I do.

So, anyway. Post something else soon. I have to get up in like 6 hours, and I’m very tired. I worked 10 1/2 hours today, but it’s all good. Putting the coast back together takes work, you know?

Thank you for the prayers, emails, and etc. They were/are appreciated.

I’m still wading through several thousands of emails I received while I was out, so forgive any tardiness in replying. I have to separate the 2/3 spam out of it (AFTER my spam filter works on some of it).

See you soon.

~ RK

Ok, I got sent these interview questions about 5 minutes ago – I even watched them being written! That is because they were sent by my girlfriend, Bethany.

1. If you could live anywhere you wanted, where would
it be and why?

Tucson, Arizona. That’s my hometown, and I think it’s the most beautiful place in the country. Barring that… wherever Bethany happens to be!

2. What are the benefits/drawbacks of coming from a
large family?

Benefits: Lots of playmates, growing up (although, in my case, the next-oldest is almost 4+ years younger, and I’m the oldest), you learn a lot about parenting by watching so many examples, and you have a fun time when you’re all together for family dinners and/or get-togethers.

Drawbacks: Sharing rooms, financial shortcomings at times, and being blamed for stuff your siblings did 😀 I really have never thought of the drawbacks, other than that. I’m from a large family, and my parents are both from large families. I’ve always vaguely pitied small families, for some mildly obscure reason. I can’t really say why. That’s about the extent I’ve thought about it previously.

3. How has music affected your life?

Music has been a big part of just about every aspect of my life. I’ve been singing since preschool choirs, and my mother was a children’s choir director my entire life. She’s recently moved up to music director for our whole church, now. I’ve been in, or around music for pretty much forever, and I absolutely adore singing. I really can’t say, exactly, how it affects my life, though. It’s just… interwoven with it, I suppose. I can’t imagine life without music, and I have a hard time imagining what it would be like. I hope that answers the question.

4. What food do you wish your girlfriend would learn
to make?

I wonder if this is a trick question…

Seriously, though. Something called Chicken and Rice Casserole, from a cookbook of my mom’s. It’s probably my favorite dish. I’ll teach it to her soon, though, so no worries 😀

5. What family member has most impacted your life and
why?

Oh, man. I don’t know how to answer this one. Different family members have impacted me more in different areas of my life, really. Steve was always my best friend, my Dad gave me my love of reading and for the sciences, and my Mom has always cultivated my love for music, as well as culture in general.

I’m close to my other siblings in different ways, but Steve and I are probably the closest. I really don’t know how to answer this other than that.