Thanksgiving

So today, as we gather around the dinner table for all the tasty yummy stuff, let's take a moment to reflect on what we have.

If you're reading this, you have access to the internet. It's a wonderful tool that many don't have access to.

If you're going to be sitting down to a dinner table to eat your Thanksgiving feast, you have food to eat. Many in the world are struggling to find food, and many can't. Also, you have a place to live and furniture in it. You are a blessed person!

If you're going to sit down with others at your table, you have people who care about you.

If you watched the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade this morning, congratulations. You have a television and TV service in order to do so.

But most of all, if when you sit down at the dinner table to eat you pray to the God of Heaven whom you love, you have the most wonderful blessing of all. You have Him.

The deal with Star Trek: Enterprise

You know, when you sit around waiting for somebody to come to your house, it gets rather boring. You find stuff to do. Like laundry. :-/ Although I have to admit, listening to some great jazz while being slightly bored isn't too bad.

Okay, so I don't really know what to write right now. I'm just rambling on. So I guess I'll just tell ya what's going on today.

Well, we had a big storm around here about a month ago. Big hailstones, high winds, tornado warnings and the like. Eh, it's Oklahoma. But after that storm, Mom and Dad figured we should get the roof on the house looked at. We got a roof inspector to come to the house and he said we had some damage and should really get it replaced. Normally that would be really expensive, but their insurance covers storm damage. And I guess insurance companies would much rather replace a roof than have to handle the claim if it wasn't replaced. So the insurance adjuster is coming in a couple hours to inspect the roof himself to see if they'll replace it or not. And right now, I'm waiting for the roof inspector to come back and mark the damaged spots once again. I think he was supposed to come around 11. It's 11:46. So I'm still waiting.

I have to admit, I kind of hate being stuck at home sometimes. But lately, I've been watching Star Trek Enterprise. I've already gotten through seasons 1&3. I think it might have really improved if was given another couple years. But the whole premise of a prequel series was just a really bad idea, in my opinion. Also, with so many sci-fi shows around with a setting of present-day, I think the whole Star Trek franchise is on its way out.

I think that nowadays, people want more realism and believability. Star Trek is entirely fiction. The UFP (United Federation of Planets) and Starfleet are entire fiction. Even the setting is fiction. Take Stargete SG-1, for example. It was the longest-running science fiction show besides Doctor Who, and ran the same time Enterprise did. (Enterprise ran from 2001-2005 I believe, while SG-1 ran 1997-2008) It was set on Earth, during the years of its production. The organization that the main characters were in was the U.S. Air Force. So the setting was familiar. Sure, they went to other planets and fought aliens, but at the end of the show, they would always return to present-day Earth. It grounded the show. The Star Trek franchise has no such grounding. Sure, just about everyone in the world with TV has heard of Starfleet and the Federation. But nowadays, without an active crew on TV or on the big screen, the public interest for Star Trek may be dwindling*. And without the interest in Star Trek, unfamiliar viewers (non-nerds) may not find anything to relate to. Those who don't know the background of the Federation (a fictional creation and institution) may simply be confused by what goes on. With so many sci-fi shows being based in current times, they may gain an audience that alienated (pun totally intended!) by Star Trek.

Also, I think the idea of a prequel was a big risk for the franchise. Ultimately, it was a bust. There may be a few reasons for this. Quite a lot of fans know the canon quite well, and when you have a prequel series, you run the risk of messing with continuity. The writers are quite limited in what they can do. Granted, this could have been an opportunity for the writers of Star Trek to show how good they were in creating new stories while keeping with canon. But that didn't happen. The writers pretty much screwed the canon and threw continuity out the window. And fans noticed. And they left.

Another reason it might have failed was because it was moving backwards. Star Trek fans had been moving forward since the beginning in the '60's. With the movies after the original series, the plot of every one took place after the last. It was a continuing story that had a flow. Then with TNG on TV and the movies, the story continued moving forward. DS9 did the same thing. Voyager, while set on the other side of the galaxy, was still moving forward within a timeline. Then came Enterprise. It was so random, so out of place that I think many fans just weren't ready for it. Also, after 16 years of TV episodes and something like 8 movies by then, they'd ran out of original stories long ago. And what with the limits that technology and continuity brought them with the prequel, it was almost destined to fail in the writing department.

The casting for Enterprise always seemed to me like it was not thought out very well. The chemistry wasn't all that great from the get-go, and I thought that the choice of Scott Bakula for the captain was all wrong. Granted, as the series went on, the chemistry improved and so did the acting. As with all the Star Trek series up to that point, it was starting to come into its own. But it was too late. It had lost too many fans and wasn't attracting enough new ones. So it crashed and burned. To many in the Star Trek community, it remains the black mark in an otherwise stellar franchise. (Yep, that pun was intended too.)






*I'd like to clarify this statement. Star Trek has prbably the most dedicated fans of any TV show and movie franchise in history. To be sure, these people will always be trekkers and will support the franchise and watch the shows and movies. What I refer to here are new viewers, people who have either never watched Star Trek or who have never been interested in it. "Non-fan, new viewers", so to speak.

Yikes.

Ever have one of those moments where you're totally freaking out and realize that you can't do much about what you're freaking out about? Yeah, I'm there.

So I'm needing a job for this summer, and don't have any leads as of yet. Today I intended to go out and look for a job all day. After all, finding a full-time job is a full-time job. But as I was pulling out of the driveway, I noticed something kind of important. My gas gauge was pretty much on empty. As I was out and about, I had to head back home after just one area of looking because I was out of gas. And I don't have any money for gas. Because I don't have a job. Oy! Talk about vicious circles!

So now I'm having to face the truth that I am totally and utterly dependent on God for a job. I can't job hunt because I don't have a vehicle in which to do so. I could use a bike, but I'm dependent on God supplying that bike. I don't really like being helpless at all. But I'm at the end of my rope. There is very little I am in control of. In fact, there is almost nothing I'm in control of, and that is very frustrating. I guess that's where faith comes in. When someone finally realizes they're not in control- God is - that's when they finally have to trust that He'll do what needs to be done.

"God will supply all my needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." That's a Bible verse, for goodness sake! You'd think I'd get it in my thick skull and just believe it instead of relying on it as a last resort! But no. I still have a stubborn heart that thinks it can do this stuff by myself. But, thing is, I can't. I can't do all this stuff - this life - all by myself. And I have been a fool time and time again by trying to. I only pray that God doesn't need to gently bop me on the head too many more times so I actually take this to heart.

Trusting in someone else is kind of scary. Even when that someone is someone you love, it can be scary to not be in control. When I don't have control, sometimes I start thinking of how things could go wrong. Sometimes I'm arrogant enough to think that whatever the other person does, I know how to do it better. I know that is a problem of mine. But when it's God who's in control, I shouldn't have any doubts whatsoever. But I still do.

I guess this situation is one way he's working on me; chiseling me into the man he wants me to be. I know He's the only one who is really trustworthy, and he does know what's best for me. He can set stuff up so perfectly that I couldn't understand how in the world it possibly worked out. In my head, I know that I can trust God. I know enough of Bible stories to know that. But often times I find it hard to really believe that.

In a way, I'm glad that this is happening. I'm glad that God loves me enough to show me he loves me and not just tell me. I know that God's love will shine through this circumstance, no matter the outcome. Even if I don't see the true outcome of this situation for five, ten, or fifteen years, I know that He has something big planned.

Just gotta remind myself of that while it's happening.

Shalom, folks.

Paid off

So I got my tax return today and the first thing I did was pay off my credit card. I must say, it feels pretty darn good to have that thing done and over with. And now I've got something that I've wanted for quite a while. Can't say what that is right now- I'll probably let y'all know at some later post. Well, that's really all i have right now. I'll probably probably post later this weekend.

Contentedly Single

So I've been single and content to be so for almost a year. It's a strange feeling that I don't think I've really understood until now. In junior high, I was in a relationship for 2 years. In high school, I was in a relationship for 3 years. After that, I was pining after a girl for another 2 years. Then, we were in a relationship long-distance for a year before I moved halfway across the country to be with her almost two years ago now. And about a year ago, we broke it off.

So it's been about a year that I've been single. It might be the longest stretch of time that I haven't been in a relationship or desired to be in a relationship. And it's really changed my perspective on relationships; made me rethink about why I would want to be in one.

Being contentedly single seems almost a contradiction. I very much desire to hold and be held; I desire to have someone by my side through thick and thin. Let's face it, I'm a bit lonely. But in this year, I've discovered that it's okay to be lonely. And this is why--

Our relationships we have here on earth, those of a platonic, familial, and romantic nature, are but an echo or reflection of our relationship with God. As good as these relationships we have with others can be, it's just a fraction of how good our relationship with God can be. And I'm convinced that it is because of God's perfect love.

God has a perfect love. He is love. He invented the thing. We, as humans, can only have an imperfect love because we are imperfect. We fail those we love; we don't fully understand love; we make decisions that are not out of love. That's where God is different -- he never fails. There is a passage in the Bible about love-

I Corinthians 13 4-8(a):
"Love is patient, love is kind, It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Jesus is the true template for this passage. Replace every instance of "love" with "Jesus" and you have a very true passage. I won't go into it all right now, but Jesus truly embodies this passage in every way.

So even though earthly relationships can be rewarding, comforting, empowering and amazing, they're just a sliver of the relationship we can have with the Messiah. So after all this time of being single I'm still realizing this: I'd rather have a relationship as close as possible with God and no earthly romantic relationship than the other way around. I'll take God over a relationship any day.

But it is quite possible to have an amazingly close relationship with Messiah and an amazing relationship with a woman as well. That's really what this time of no dating means to me.

I don't want to be in a relationship unless that relationship builds up both of our relationships with Messiah. After all, it is only through building up our relationship with Messiah, and gaining a deeper understanding of his love, that we can truly love in the most pure way.