mel-web

I’m saved no matter what, why should I do good and behave?

Answer this in the comments and then I will post my epiphany answer.

It’s a common phrase to say that someone who makes a obviously poor choice that effects others “should be taken out back and shot”.  But that doesn’t solve anything because they don’t get a chance to make up for their wrong doing.

Sitting by the window at work a Hummer H2 pulled up to the ajoinnig suite.  I took a good look at for a moment.  Then exclaimed to in my usual IRC haunt, “What an absurd and ridiculous civilian vehicle.”  My friend appropriately responded with

“Yeah, there is no reason on earth to own one other than to prove to the world you make a ton of money (IE, enough to be able to fill the tank.)”

This of course stirred up some passion in me, and some frustration with the state of US.  No one should be wasting money like that.  No one.  My proposal isn’t that we take someone like this out back and shoot them.  No, No.  I propose that if you have that much money and throw it away so foolishly you should be taken out back and left in a third world country for a week.

Seriously though: we really do need to show people why they’re doing and why it’s a problem.  I encourage you all do it in the little ways.  The simple ways.  We can change this world one little bit at a time.

Sure, God exists.

Yup, Got me a Savior, it’s awesome.

If you agree with those two statements then you accept the basic truths of Christianity.  But are you really a Christian?  To be Christian means to be a disciple of Christ.  That is, to strive to be like Christ.  I keep reading my bible and realizing how crappy I am at this.  I don’t love everyone equally, I boast about myself,  I chase after worldly things that can be stolen, rust, and fade, I certainly do not act as a slave to all others, I’m really bad at being a good stuart, and I’m a complete failure when it comes to evangelizing.  Heck, I can’t even abide by the commandments.

Lucky for me God knew I’d be a fuck up.

But grace and a savior don’t excuse me from my responsibilities.  I find myself surrounded by ‘believers’ that entice me to be lazy in those responsibilities.  These are the folks that may or may not go to church, for the right or wrong reasons.  But they profess to be christians and to spend time with God, and to keep Him close.  Yet their actions say something else.  And if you ask them, they’ll tell you about how they think God accepts what they’re doing, that it’s just bending the rules.  The have an “understanding” with God is what they tell me.

I have finally, after many years of being a ‘believer’, become a disciple.  This has lead to many realizations about how poor my knowledge of God’s feelings.  That’s a crazy notion that I think gets neglected:  God’s feelings.  God has feelings?  God feels for us?  We offend Him and hurt Him?  We can make Him dance with joy?

Do I make Him dance more than cry?  Do I disappoint Him more often than I make Him smile?  Just because I think it’s okay in His eyes am I really doing what He wants?  Am I actually frustrating Him with my misunderstanding of His wishes?  I am serving God in a advisory capacity instead of as an underling?  How does it feel when someone points out in the bible “You’re doing it wrong!”?  How will I know when I’ve meet His wishes? Am I really being a disciple or just a believer?

Even the most heated discussion ends with gained perspective.  Often the conviction (aka stubbornness) of any party involved sheds light on another possible ‘right’.  Sometimes we learn our perspective was wrong.  Some times we find more support for our current conviction.  Sometime we just agree that there is more than one way and neither is more right than the other.

All heated conversations start the same way: peacefully.  And that’s how it started last night.  But at one point someone shared an opinion that wasn’t shared by all.  I walked away at the point when I became overwhelming offended.  I collected my thoughts so that I could make a clear, strong, proper representation of my opposite opinion.  In doing so I used a stereotype that we were both in:  All sportbikers are stunt monkey, wild child, loose cannons.  We both take offense to that stereotype, and suddenly the tables are turned.  We’re all part of stereotypes.  Women can’t drive, sportbikers are crazy idiots, geeks don’t play sports, and the list goes on.

We’re so quick to judge based on surface or first impressions.  We learn their profession before we meet them and suddenly you have a prefixed idea of who they are, what they stand for, and where their morality is like.  Or we see they’re ‘fat and lazy’, or ‘a dumb blonde’, or just ‘dumb’, and refuse to show them the same respect as we do our friends.  Then when we get lumped in, though, we’re offended.  So do we really treat people the way we want to be treated?

Yes, it’s the golden rule… but from where did this awesome idea come from?  The bible of course.  Where else does such timeless advice come from?  Being that it’s Lent and a time in which we are supposed to be renewing and growing our faith, a little scripture seems appropriate.  In Matthew 22 Jesus was tested by the people who tried to trick him into giving precedence to the commandments as though some were more important than others.  Instead he summed them up into two, one of which is the famous golden rule.

Matthew 22:36-40  (English Standard Version)

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

SO.  I learned last night that I’m not seen by everyone I know as perpetuating and feeding the “girls can’t ride” stereotype.  Which I was feeling heavy about.  And so I hope to someday be a far better rider than I am now so that I can pin “girls can ride” up on my private list of overcome challenges.  I want to pin it right up there next to “Girls can catch and filet fish”, “Girls and code”, “Sportbikers are controlled, normal humans”, and “Geeks are active and athletic”.

I think also did a decent job of opening the eyes of someone else to a new perspective on stereotyping.  I can only hope that I’ve passed along some food for thought to you as well.

I find great amusement in many little things.  Most people don’t find joy/amusement in the things that I do.  But that’s okay because it’s all subjective.  I happen to find self expression on a vehicle plate amusing.  Inspired by my friend’s new bike plate I went hunting for one of my own.  Check out the whole pile and leave a comment if you find any particularly good and would like to see it become a reality.  Or, if you want you can suggest one.  But you have to first see if it’s available:  Michigan Personalized Plate Creator.  Here’s what friends and I came up with as options (in no particular order)

Above:  It’s a LOLCats thing.  Don’t know lolcats? icanhascheezburger.com 

Above: Imagine getting a plate frame that turned “MICHIGAN” into “Hello, I’m ” so that it looked just like a name tag

Above:  Well, I am, and proud to be on sportbike.

Above:  My online handle, as many know, is some form of “mercury” so naturally, the plate could follow.

Above: Sometimes the simplest is the best.

Above:  Regardless stereotypes… I hear it a lot at stop lights from all sorts.

Above: I a cutie too, not just a biker.  This is the corniest in my opinion.  I’m not inclined to actually have this on my bike, but it was an option.

Leave some comments, k?