Sunday, December 04, 2005

The Word of the Day

Well, it's Sunday night and we're kinda frustrated/bored.
Not that we don't have stuff to do at our house. We have a good amount of interesting books we can read. We can always study Japanese, which is usually at least intellectually stimulating. We have a nice computer w/ broadband Internet. We have playing cards. We have a guitar. We have each other.
But when there's no energy, it's hard to do that stuff. And Aubrey right now lacks alot of energy. Her body is still recuperating AND she has a cold, which is making her pretty miserable. AND the weather is really lousy outside - it's like 55 F, w/ really high winds and a bit on the damp side. So we don't want to go outside. I mean, we DO want to go outside, and we DID for about 10 minutes, but Aubrey's still-not-70% status and the lousy weather mean that we're stuck inside.
So it's kind of a junky day for us. Hope tomorrow's weather will be nicer and Aubrey's cold will be gone.
Also, I was just talking to a friend who was driving up to the highest point on Kikai in order to pray to some dead relatives in heaven. He said that the higher he goes, he guesses the easier it would be for them to hear him. But he's not really sure about it. But he's going anyway. And he's going to offer them some candy. And this is a well-educated man - a schoolteacher.
The word of the day is, therefore, frustration. Write it down.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"And this is a well-educated man - a schoolteacher."

As Sam Harris wrote in a recent article:

"The truth, astonishingly enough, is this: A person can be so well educated that he can build a nuclear bomb while still believing that he will get 72 virgins in Paradise."

Education and belief are not necessarily related.

Max

Rhology said...

Oh, no - no doubt about that at all. I wholeheartedly agree.
However, there are some (perhaps in my audience of 5 or 6) who make the connection between level of education and belief - if Joe were only more educated, he would not believe something so irrational!
Yet, that is by no means the case, and my comment was meant for anyone who thinks that way, and I have met many. The bondage in which this friend of mine is entangled is not a matter of education - it is a spiritual matter. As is said in 2 Corinthians 4:4 - "The god of this age has blinded the eyes of the unbeliever, so that he cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God."

This is a subject frequently mentioned in my daily prayers for the people of Kikai island - that they would be released from these spiritual fortresses a la 2 Corinthians 10:5 - "We demolish strongholds and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ." This is not accomplished thru mere words or education, but thru God's sovereign work.