Just Admit It.....

Times are changing. Quickly. But if you're reading this blog, I think you already know this simple fact that is changing our world moment by moment. As a geek, I live in a culture that expects you to know a little bit about everything. We're expected to be a jack (or jill) of all trades; yet master of none. We live in a culture that often doesn't look favorably upon "specialists" because, in some peoples opinion, they've become too narrowly focused.

While this has some truth in it, I've recently found that our busy lives require us to turn to a specialist. Life just has so much going on that we have an ever increasing need for specialists in this fast paced culture. When I was growing up, my dad prided himself on being able to change the oil in his car and do a wide variety of other types of maintenance. He taught these skills to me and while I didn't enjoy doing it I knew how to perform quite a few of these tasks. However, after I began to work full-time and got married I realized that I just didn't have the time to go buy the oil, set the car up on blocks, get under it and do all the nitty, gritty work that comes with changing my own oil. It was just much easier to drive it down to the local oil change service, wait 20 minutes and then be on my way.

Well, this whole truth has hit me home once again. I've had trouble maintaining my website over the past few years. It was, at one time, a good source of information and looked fairly nice. However, the "busyness" of life has once again caught up with me. I just don't have the time to do it any more and I have also had to admit that web design has outpaced me over the last decade. It's just no longer possible. So, I've looked around and found a professional to actually fix my site for me. Hopefully this will work out and everything will turn out well.

So, you ask, what does this have to do with spirituality? In living in a culture that so often despises "experts" and thinks everyone should be able to "do it themselves," I've come to realize that there are a number of people that believe they can travel on their spiritual journey all alone. They believe themselves to be self-made people and since they're supposed to do everything themselves then they better take care of their own spiritual life. They don't need anyone else meddling about with it.

The only problem with this philosophy is that it's very similar to the "do-it-yourself" mentality of our work culture. This is the mentality that leads to worry, ulcers, hypertension, fatigue and a variety of other illnesses along with burn-out in the workplace. We're (hopefully) starting to realize that people need to slow down and let others take up some of those tasks they've been shouldering on their own for way too long.

This is where the spiritual life fits in. That's the function an organic, living church or faith community should be giving to those walking through an increasingly busy world. The church and the Christian faith should be a place of shared community and one in which we pick up and carry each others burdens. Step back from trying to work out your spirituality in a vacuum and find some good, friendly, open-minded people with whom you can share your journey. Yes, you make yourself vulnerable in doing this and risk getting hurt but that risk, my friends, is definitely worth it in the long run! I'd rather be vulnerable to some pain caused by me being too open with my friends than face another bought of spiritual burnout.

Hopefully, my little ramblings here will be helpful to some of my readers. On the other hand, it may sound like pure foolishness to others. Whichever it might be, please feel free to dialogue with me at your leisure.

Storms and The Geek Life

I know that some of you reading this blog may find George Carlin's bit on "stuff" to be quite off color and possibly offensive. I'm not going to defend his language but I must say that there are some great truths to be found in his stand-up routine. You can find it here:



So, what does this have to do with Christianity and the Geek life? Well, as some of you may already know we've experienced a bit of a displacement as of late. The parsonage in which we live was invaded by an evil Treant/Ent (read some Tolkien, okay?) on Saturday, April 24, 2010. It crashed through the roof of the parsonage and in doing so broke itself in half. Its suicide attack did not do the damage it may have hoped to do as it only took out part of the attic without fully crashing through the roof. However, its efforts were not totally fruitless in that its "attack" did cause a great deal of water to come flooding through the kitchen and washroom ceilings.

Well, again, you may be asking yourself what does this have to do with The Geek Life, preacher man? Besides your geeky Lord of the Rings references we don't see much geek "stuff" going on here so what's the problem?

The problem, my friends, is that my extensive gaming/geek collection was in the attic. I have been collecting many of these items (figurines, books, etc) for a long time now and a great deal of them are out of print. Over the past few years, a number of the people that originally wrote many of these products have passed on so some of this "stuff" is virtually irreplaceable. Many of these items mean a great deal to me both as a geek and a minister. Why? Because quite a few of these authors are/were people of faith and those that have passed on have had an impact on both my geek life as well as my life in ministry. (Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Bob Bledsaw...you will be missed.)

Again, I was very fortunate. The Ent (Tree) that attacked the attic missed my collection by mere inches. Even with all the extensive rain and wind only one or two items were really damaged so I must say I was very fortunate. I was even happier when a company showed up to help me move these items out of the attic. Friends also arrived from Jackson, TN later that night to also help make sure my collection was okay.

Now, you may be wondering about the family during this whole time. Was I worried about them? You bet! I made sure they were safe and that our bedrooms and other areas of the house were secure before giving any more thought to this collection so put your hearts at ease on that point. My son and daughter were quickly picked up by my mother-in-law and were in the safest of care. My wife and I also checked on quite a number of other things before worrying about the collection.

However, over the past week I've had a great deal of time as a geek and a preacher to think about all this stuff. What meaning does it have? Am I too focused on my stuff? During this same time, I remembered the fear in my daughters eyes as she realized the possible of losing quite a number of her stuffed toys. She really loves WebKinz and she'd worked hard to build up her own collection of toys. (She works around the house for an allowance and does a great job. She is becoming a very responsible young lady. Yes, I'm her dad and allowed to brag. She's a much better child than I was at her age.)

So, here are my thoughts on stuff. As a geek, I've got ties to quite a few things. Just like a hunter has his trophies scattered across his home, geeks have quite a few books, games and electronics scattered throughout the house as well. Since I've had some time to meditate on these things over the past week while living in a motel and moving from room to room (Yes, motel rooms even flood!), I realized that stuff often can be a huge hindrance. We supposedly need tons of clothing to get by but I've found that two or three outfits can be cleaned fairly easily and reword throughout the week. When you don't have room for a lot of things, it's very easy to narrow your "stuff" down pretty quick.

As geeks, I have found we have come to rely on our tools and toys much more than we rely on our brains. I have noticed over the years that geeks who did great math in their heads as a child now like to pull out the latest gadget and use it instead of that great brain that made us so "cool" in school. The other thing that I've become aware of is that our stuff often helps us lose focus on our spiritual life as well as the geek life. We become so enamored of things that we often don't think about other people. Spiritually, the pursuit of things (whether it be toys, gadgets, wealth or power) often blinds us to the needs around us. On the geek side of things, all those nice geeky toys end up getting in the way when we try and have fun. Who among us has sat down at a gaming table to watch someone pull out twenty or so gadgets and books and realized that no gaming is going to occur until all the flashy toys and books have been examined?

I'm reminded of this very good tale:

Mark 10:23-31: And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter(AH) the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." 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 lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

I know this is a long blog and I hope many of you are still with me. I'm not going to go into all the ramifications of what Jesus is saying in this passage but I'll let it suffice to say that "stuff" isn't all that we've made it out to be. Following Jesus and spreading the good news is more important than any single thing any of us own. Now, what is this good news? Is it telling people about Jesus? Yes. Is it sharing forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus? Yes. But this good news is also about serving others. Helping one's fellows....even those unlovely ones. Giving to the hurting, helpless and hopeless is a major part of the Gospel and so many times things get in the way.

It's not impossible for those of us attached to "things" to follow Jesus but it sure is hard! Are we willing to take the hard path? Are we willing to count those things as nothing? Can we set the things aside and put our brains and hearts back into action? It doesn't sound very geeky but, hey, isn't going on an adventure one of the things that geeks love the most? Just follow Jesus and you're going to find yourself on the adventure of a lifetime (or maybe an eternal adventure, eh?)

Remember the words of Johnny Cash:

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

FWIW,

The Geekpreacher

Religion and The Southern Geek

    Here is a topic that I've been meaning to address for some time now. Many people in Christian circles talk about how American society has become "post-Christian" and very few people have any understanding or familiarity with the faith. While this has a certain truth to it, this is not a hard and fast rule and couldn't be less true in the South.

    As someone who has spoken with Geeks across the world on a variety of topics, I have found that the Geek in the Southern part of the United States still has a somewhat nominal acquaintance with the faith. In a way, this bothers me for the same reason most "nominal Christians" irritate me but it especially irritates me where Geeks are concerned. Why might you ask? Well, let me relate something that recently happened:

I was recently in my FLGS sitting around talking with the store owner and some friends. As often happens, a group of customers walk up to the counter and ask about a particular product. Being a good Geek and supportive of my FLGS I point out several nice items while the owner retrieves some of the games from behind the counter that might interest them. As the customers are browsing through the games, a conversation starts up about technology. Imagine that! Geeks talking about tech. Go figure, eh? Well, since I didn't bring up the topic I thought I would listen for a bit to see if I might want to jump in the conversation. Hey, Geek Talk is Geek Talk, right?

As I listen to the conversation, one of the customers begins to talk about credit and debit cards while another brings up the concept of electronic chips being implanted in someone's hand and then scanned so they might pay their bill. It's a similar idea to the "quick pay" system you see at many convenience stores and gas stations. It was at that point I decided to speak up. I mentioned how it would be much more convenient and less likely for someone to steal your information if it was placed on a chip that would only work while implanted. This gamer, this Geek looked at me with wide eyes and said that it was a scary concept. I then asked this young man why he thought it was such a scary concept. His answer? "Because of that Bible thing. It talks about it, you know?"

Now, a few things were immediately obvious. First, this young man had only heard the "chip concept" within some type of Conservative Christian context. Next, it was fairly obvious that he had not really read any of the Biblical texts that are so often stretched to "prove" this point. So, what was my response? The first thing out of my mouth took him by surprise. I simply said, "That's bad theology." Well, the young man looked at me as if I'd suddenly rolled three consecutive ones on a Twenty-Sider or had told him that I'd never heard of an XBOX. I went on to explain that I work in the field of Biblical Studies (doesn't that sound so much geekier than "pastor"?) and that the texts used to try and prove that point were never meant to be read in that manner. Needless to say, I think I effectively killed the discussion at that very moment. It is times like that I remind myself why I try my best never to bring up these topics but I also realize that when someone else brings it up I'm definitely going to try and jump in and have a bit of fun.

    So, you might ask? What's the problem? Don't people show their Biblical ignorance daily in the South? Haven't people been exposed to just enough of the Scripture in the Southern US that they can pretend to know what they're talking about? Yes, these things are often true but I expect better from Geeks! Come on! Geeks are the ones who are known for reading through 300 page rulebooks so they can Min/Max their character or learning a new programming language just for the fun of it. Shouldn't we know better than to just make statements we haven't really researched?

Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't expect every Geek in the country to immediately become a Biblical scholar. However, I do expect Geeks to try and learn about a topic to some degree before just making some off-hand remark. Maybe I am asking for to much because I have to be honest with myself. In the electronic age where everyone immediately claims expertise on a topic, I probably should expect Geeks to behave like everyone else. Aren't we the ones that invented flame wars and L33t Speak while also constantly editing peoples Wiki entries just so we can have our own shot at rewriting history?

    So, what does all this mean? What's the point I'm trying to make? First, most people need to realize that many people of all stripes like to say "The Bible says" without having one damn good idea as to what it really says or means. Second, Geeks are like everyone else. We pretend to have knowledge we don't. Third, Southern Geeks are affected by Southern Christian culture just as much as the next person. Honestly, we're all guilty of these things so I'll end with my good ol' Southern Mama's Advice. She would say to me:

"Derek, when you don't know what the hell you're talkin' about keep your damn mouth shut!"

 

Thank you, Mama. I miss you but I don't think I'm ever going to forget that advice. Maybe it would do us all a bit of good to remember it.