Derek Johnson Muses

It is my daily goal to make everyone around me better people, thanks be to God.

Time in a Blender

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on June 17, 2013

Over these last couple of months, I have been feeling the subtle onset of middle age in the area of my memory and how it has changed throughout my twenties. When I was younger, it was easier to mark time around the school year. The defined four years of high school and college were marked out in my head with clear chalk, stalls where defined amounts of memory could be parked (even though I finished college in three years.) Sometime around when I turned twenty-five or twenty-six, the way I looked back on years dissipated and became more fluid. Maybe it was having a defined period of life that was six years long, or seeing one too many people I went to high school with have kids. Memories of the past eight years all seem to have happened recently when I think on them. Events that happened during my freshmen year of college seemed miles away on the day I graduated. A significant event that happened back in 2009 blurs into the front of my memory as if it happened last week.

As I’ve noted before, change is so much easier when you are in early twenties. After my freshmen year of college, I packed up and transferred without a second thought. The thought of moving itself feels taxing now, even though I have barely any stuff. And I refuse to buy stuff because I fear that I will at some point have to pull up stakes again and move, and I will, horror of horrors, have to go through it. (I really need to get a wife to help with this.)

The older I get, the more I want and need to have routines. Years ago, I dreamed of running off and working in a National Park. Now, I’m much more content to take little side trips on work trips, all the while honing my craft in the seed lab and on the computer. I don’t need to do everything, just master a few things. This year, I’m turning thirty, and in another thirty years, I’ll be looking like the old man I feel like most days. Youth does go so fast, even if you drag your adolescence through your twenties.

Depends on Your Perspective…

Personal Journey Aging, changes, community, Growing, Life, Memory, New things, Out of, Perspective, school, The Mind, Timing

World War Z, Conservatism, and Christianity

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on June 15, 2013

“Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’” (Genesis 8:20-22 ESV)

I read World War Z last winter, after the film adaptation’s trailer came out, and enjoyed the book immensely. The idea of a zombie did get me thinking about how I should think about post-apocalyptic literature like WWZ, The Walking Dead, or even the late TV show Jericho, from a Christian perspective. WWZ preached the token secularist point: surviving nations ruthlessly adapt the Redeker Plan that leaves people to die, and Theocratic Russia is plainly hiding something. But as I read the book, I couldn’t help but wonder why it seemed that liberal, isolationist culture would be the ultimate victim of a WWZ, if there was such a war.

Liberal social policies tend to rise in societies that can afford them. Should the resources disappear, society would have to adapt. Ask yourself this: who is better built to survive a zombie apocalypse, wealthy, urban social liberals who can pay for two or three divorces, or thrifty conservative families who have always bought their clothes at Goodwill? Birth rates always go up with the advent of war and fears of the end, and prospering in our modern society is bound in many ways to being socially liberally. Should the zombies rise, humanity would have to reproduce at much more rapid rate to replace those who died, and conservatives, in general, have more children than liberals

And consider how the notion of family would change. Without birth control abundantly available as it is now, people would have more children, and the sheer act of providing, even without emotional content, would be considered love. The ambitious people who today leave government for the private sector would have a stronger moral obligation to lead in government. And religion would become more of a cultural force, and not the religion of self. If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, “give us this day our daily bread” is your favorite prayer, and you would want a God who is greater than this world.

I’m not saying that every liberal/leftist principal would get swept away in a sea of zombies, but what I am saying is that a lot of liberal principals require the vast prosperity that America (certain parts of the world) currently provides. Liberalism wouldn’t die (although modern capitalism as we know it might), but some of it we would see in a different light.

It makes me wonder why Hollywood, the liberal center of western culture, is greenlighting so many destroy-the-world epics when destroying the world would likely cause them to loose a place for the liberal values they enjoy. Of course, the Hollywood version usually features the “death of God” in some capacity, and the end of the world is caused by a greedy businessman or general (think Terminator 3, where the ambitious military is responsible for Skynet, or , as I’m given to understand, The Day After.) But it would be curious to see one where the liberals get the shorter end of the stick.

So, conservatives, let’s write a novel that will show a world crisis that eradicates radical secularism and liberalism from America after a cataclysmic event. Hey, maybe I should get on that.

Books, Movies, Religion, Society Christ and Culture, Christianity, Conservatism., current-events, End of the World, Film Adaptations, literature, Phenomenon, Politics, Post-Apocalyptic, society, World War Z, Zombies

Coffee Bread, Microwave French Toast, and Corn Flakes Treats: New Adventures in the New Kitchen

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on June 12, 2013

Early evening light coming through the window…

Everyone tells me that my new kitchen is spectacular, and truth be told, it does dazzle. Its subtle orange color scheme is more out there than most kitchens (certainly brighter than my last two kitchens), and it has an old-fashioned, swing into the room window which looks into my utility room widow. But as a frequent cook, I love spending my evenings tweaking old recipes and trying new things.

As a coffee junkie, I have been considering ways that I could integrate leftover coffee into my cooking. I decided to substitute the coffee as water in making basic bread in the machine. Since I envisioned the bread as ideal for toast with eggs, I added brown sugar and cinnamon. It turn out to be the perfect volume of sweet, like a warm muffin, and the conversion of water to coffee was exact. It did go well as toast, but I still had brautwurst on it too.

Mixes up the same…

Same Delicious

And after cutting some makeshift hotdog buns out of a few slices of bread, I experimented in making a single serving of French toast in the microwave. (Side note: if you live alone, making pancakes and/or French toast for just yourself is always such a dilemma.) I simply broke up the ends into smaller pieces and mixed up about a cup and a half of milk with an egg, cinnamon, and peppermint syrup instead of vanilla. (Really have to remember to move that here too.) Two minutes in the microwave, and I have French toast for one.

French toast out of the microwave…

I also took a new approach to making granola, using marshmallows instead of honey as the sticky substance to hold the dry ingredients together like Rice Krispie treats. My friend Marian had given me some Corn Flakes when I moved in, so I used them with the Cheerios instead of oats. On the second batch, I found out it took half the bag of marshmallows to get the treats to stick together. But totally worth it, although I really should just break down and buy the specialty honey I like.

The Base…

The Sticky Stuff…

The Delicious..

Yeah, my new kitchen rocks.

Cooking baking, Bread Machine, Breakfast, cooking, culinary arts, dry ingredients, french toast, in the kitchen, New Place New Space, Recipes, Rice Krispie Treats, Trying New Things

Thanks, Dr. Walther

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on June 9, 2013

I had a joyous experience Tuesday night. I had the privilege of attending the coordinating council at St. John as the rep from the worship committee. Finally, I was hanging out with the cool people and have made a small step toward becoming one of the elders.

Not only that, but I was also privileged to read the group’s devotion and choose a daily devotion from God Grant It by C.F.W. Walther. The devotion covered John 3:14-15, and was on new birth. Even though I read it at home before the meeting, hearing myself read to the group was a bit surprising. Dr. Walther had a way of piling up words against each other that we don’t hear in today’s diction.

“our bodily birth gives us a bodily life and natural movements, desires, wills, understanding, and powers…” (p. 472, God Grant It, Concordia Publishing House. Translated by Gerhard P. Grabenhofer. 2006)

“a born-again person…thinks, judges, speaks, and lives according to the Word.” (p. 473, God Grant It.)

For a young man who was eager to be in a place of church leadership, I’m glad to remember how little I really know. Today, we read news stories and blog posts that say, “Bill got up. He ate breakfast and went to work. His boss supported him.” Walther hammers on points, making them over and over again, one sentence after the other. In our modern twitterverse, you will rarely hear one person expound the same principal in such a way, for fear of loosing audience. Which you will if you are too repetitive.

A hundred and fifty years ago, when sermons would last an hour and political debates three. Now, pastors I know tell me that they have, at most, fifteen minutes of people’s attention until their eyes start glazing over. Our technology in America today is amazing, great, and a blessing from God, but we should never think that we are so much smarter today than we were fifty years or a hundred years ago, even if we have a greater libraries of information. What we do with information and using it well is what counts for something.

So thank you, Dr. Walther for knocking me off of my pedestal.

Lutheranism, Personal Journey, Religion, Society Arguments, Bible, C.F.W. Walther, Complexity, Devotions, God's Word, Grammar, Growth, Law and Gospel, LCMS, Lutheran, religion

Neighborhoods of Seward

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on June 6, 2013

Over the past year, I’ve semi-moved twice, once to an apartment a few blocks from my parents’ house, and the second time to my new house. The first move wasn’t really a move and felt more like a designed re-organization. I would sleep at my apartment, but I’d go back to my parent’s house to check in the internet and cook most of my meals. In the eight months I had that apartment, I would be surprised if I cooked more than twelve non-breakfast meals in my apartment. When I came to my house, it was a real move

Each of my residences each has an unique flavor, which conversely is what is one of the oddity’s a town Seward’s size. Even though there’s only 7,000 or so people here, the neighborhoods mirror pre- and post-World War II style, and Hillcrest Street divides the town smoothly along those lines.

My parent’s house is a duplex that sits on a semi-busy suburban street, (East) Pinewood, which comes off Highway 15. Ironically, my aunt in the Bay Area gets less noise on the street she lives on than we got on our street because she lives in a circle off the main street. (In California, a house where you have less noise is more valuable than it is in rural America.) The garage dominates the front of the house, making it looks smaller than it actually is. The windows to the backyard and the upstairs balcony do create a lot of room, but I always felt like I was looking out at the interstate of walkers and school children passing my kitchen window, back and forth, back and forth all day. I heard the school children playing in the morning and the parents coming home and taking their kids to practice in the evening, even as I was stowed away on my private island.

The House by the Elementary School…

As I have alluded to, I felt semi-home at my apartment, which was the definition of a studio space. My realtor told me that renting is for people who want to do nothing but work and not do home maintenance, making that your residence nothing more than a glorified Motel 6. The complex, a mess of college students and other twenty-somethings, represented a mass of humanity at life way stations. In my constant desire to be alone, I always seemed to work my hours so that I woke up well after everyone else left for first shift at five in the morning, and arrived back after everyone else was in bed.

After I had lived their for three months, I felt much more safe than I ever felt on Pinewood because there were a lot of people living close to my apartment and could hear the city bustle when I lay awake in bed. Even when a door slammed at three in the morning and someone stormed out, it was mildly disturbing when I slept in proximity to others, very similar to the time I lived in a dorm just off the freeway in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Street by my Apartment…

I don’t want to make conclusive assertions about my new house, since I’ve only lived here a month. There’s more drive-by traffic than I expected because of an one-way street that forces some people to drive by my north corner, but overall it’s not bad. From the outside, my house looks bigger than it is; I’ve already got stuff strewn everywhere. I have a porch I can sit on in to read and watch people go by. There aren’t as many walkers as there are on Pinewood, just the hodge-podge of people who live around me. Since I’m in an old part of town, the houses around me are kept up to varying degrees. Some are ghost houses, some have been refurbished and dazzle, others are abandoned, still some are being rebuilt. It is not crowded with families and retirees like Pinewood was. In a way, it’s like cities were back in the 1950′s, when people of all walks of life and political persuasions lived close to one another. While I have left the old walking trails that lead around the ball fields behind, I can now walk into downtown Seward, mega-plus.

My new house is a dilemma in the making. I love the old-school neighborhood and the old-school high windows and ceiling, but my house is small and lacks the closet space of a modern house. I would really miss being close to the coffee shop and the bank if I had to move, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Who knows what opportunities will come by in the next thirty to forty years? I may even get a chance to leave Seward.

But if I stay, it’s great to know that Seward has plenty of options.

Rocking it at the Crib…

Thanks to St. John for letting me stow this here…

Personal Journey bedroom community, Change, Different Spaces, Moving, NE, Nebraska, neighbors, old houses, Old Town, Quality of Life, Refurbish, Seward, Small Town Life, Surbia, Surbs

Kids are Okay. In Fact, They’re Good.

3 Comments Posted by Derek Johnson on June 3, 2013

Recently, I finished reading a book called What to Expect When No One’s Expecting by Jonathan V. Last, a statistical analysis of America’s (and the world’s) falling birthrate. Personally, I reflected a lot on this book, because it taps into feuding movements in my mind: one, having babies is a good thing, and two, I personally lack skills necessary to raise a child.

Last’s book, short and to the point, is definitely conservative but ends with a reasonable goal: we need to help people who want to have babies have babies, and there is only so much that we can do politically to increase the birth rate up. He simply lays out the trends, like the rising costs of raising a child, the decline in religion and family structure, and even social security, all adding to possibility that social unrest could accompany population shrinkage. And once momentum is heading one way, it’s hard to get going the other way.

While there may not be immediate problems with population decline, we should be aware of it and know the possible difficulties that way may face, like economic downturn and too many elderly citizens to support. Of all the points Last raises, the growth of movements like the child-free movement is particularly disturbing. Some (not all, of course) in this movement mock people with children and complain about how the world is set up for people who have children. I find the most extreme attitude of the people in this movement appalling. Yes, I’m in the same boat, but I’m not here to mock anyone who needs more resources and support to raise their kids. Personally, I have no idea what to say to a child, or how to raise one. People with my attitude shouldn’t be telling people who have kids how to raise them.

My perspective from the book: you can’t have a kid as an act of self-fulfillment. Two people have children because they see something beyond this life that is greater than it, and they want to give it to their . I can’t help but wonder as I look at the secularist countries and the secularist parts of the U.S., who have such low birthrates, what it is about this life that they don’t want to pass on to another generation.

I’m inspired by those of you who are raising God’s gifts to you, and doing it without a second thought. You’ll end up being a more self-less person than I’ll ever be. Yes, I mind it when your kids act up, but only for a second.

Epilogue: Pastor Mark Preus, has written a paper on rethinking birth control, which you can read here. His wife, Becky, was in my college class at CUW, and the way he connects naturally having kids with God’s plan for the humanity. Preus’ paper got me thinking about kids in general, and it’s really a great example of how belief in God is essential to raising the birth rate. If you view kids as a commodity, you won’t want one. If you view children as a gift from God, you see those sacrifices in a different light. Thanks again, Pastor.

Too many empty chairs?

Books, Personal Journey birth rates, Child-rearing, current-events, Having Children, human-rights, Jonathan V. Last, Kids, Parenting, Politics, Population Control, population decline, society, TFR, What to Expect When No One's Expecting

Why Jim and Pam’s Struggles Didn’t Bother Me

Leave a Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on May 29, 2013

When I read the criticism of Jim and Pam’s relationship, I shake my head. The Office‘s perpetual sweethearts, who moved seamlessly from crush to couple to married couple over the shows nine seasons, spent the better part of the show’s farewell season fighting over Jim’s absence, in direct contraction to their relationship over the previous 180-some episodes, where they moved on from fights in a heartbeat.

This is, America what you expect have in your relationships. Don’t be surprised when you see this generation’s Harry and Sally come close to calling it quits. It speaks to how the concept of marriage being a stable and permanent institution in our culture is long over. But I digress.

Jim and Pam Halpert just go to show how much even secularists want to believe in marriage, even when they find the institution “unrealistic.” Yes, Jim and Pam’s behavior this year has not as consistent with what they have been, but Jim undermined Pam’s engagement with Roy, and Pam proclaimed her feelings for Jim while he was in a relationship. The show has never dealt with their emotional infidelity.

And to be fair, it wasn’t just Jim and Pam fighting. One of the best episodes this season was “Junior Salesman”, that took place after the Halperts had a huge fight on the phone. Instead of just throwing Jim and Pam back into bliss after that fight, the show did something more realistic: they showed Jim trying to do the right thing for Pam on that day. When two people are having fights as big as they were, you can’t just go back to happy bliss without some work. It goes one day at time.

I’m actually glad that The Office went the way it did with Jim and Pam, and I’m not a fan off TV relationship drama for the sake of drama. Unlike the storyline with Jim being tempted with Cathy last season (oh please), this storyline was believable. And honestly, what could the show have done that would have been better?

Happily ever after…

Dating/Relationships, TV Shows Beesely, divorce, entertainment, Fighting, Jim and Pam Halpert, society, The Office, US

Stuff upon Stuff: What’s at the Bottom of that Blue Tote

2 Comments Posted by Derek Johnson on May 27, 2013

The Mess is Beautiful as It Is.

One of the practical reason for me to marry is that I need someone to organize and throw out my old stuff. I hate organizing -my brain just doesn’t get the point of going through boxes of random things, putting it into files or in carefully labeled boxes, and throwing stuff I don’t need out. If I think about de-cluttering too long, my mind will go on pins and needs, and I will get angry and have to do something else. Seriously, I hate organizing.

But I still have to write this blog, and I figured going throw one of the blue totes I have stuff in would make a interesting post/writing exercise. Here’s some of what was in some of it:

A blue folder that has a sticker on the top that reads “Seminary Application Packet.” I’m surprised it doesn’t have more wear on it, because I must have had it for eight or nine years.

Husker ticket stubs and schedule cards, more than I care to count. I have saved all of these with the hope of selling them as memorabilia years from now. (When Ndamukong Suh was a senior, I grabbed a ton of his cards.)

An old popcorn tin from the Scouts. I have put all ticket stubs and schedule cards mentioned above in it. Now I have to figure out how to decorate it.

Fifty-some postcards from my last two art receptions, last October and back in February.

The Invitations and a Ticket from the 2005-1006 Nebraska-Oklahoma Basketball game

My good screw driver. This needs to be someplace where I can use it, which is why I need to build cabinets in the utility room.

A traveler’s wallet I bought at Eddie Bauer a few years ago before I realized that it was completely impractical for every day use. It has a shoulder strap, and you can put a pen in it. Debating whether or not I should start using it again, maybe I will take on a trip next month. In it I found a business card for the Chief of Interpretation of De Soto National Memorial (went to the Tampa area for a conference in February 2009), a punch card of Cici’s Pizza in Lincoln, a page from a Huskers’ day calendar in 2009, and a receipt from the Kennedy Space Center.

A cup warmer I got on a trip my dad and I took to the 2011 Husker-Minnesota game. It was from a Velveeta demonstration where I got a great cheese and fiesta chip sample.

A free game program from the 2009 Nebraska-Iowa State game that is 50% advertising. Interesting quote inside: “See you in two weeks! Oklahoma comes to town Nov. 7 to renew one of the most storied rivalries in all of college football. It’ll be the Sooners’ last visit to Lincoln until November 2, 2013.” Instead, Nebraska will be hosting Northwestern on that date. That was the last Nebraska-Oklahoma conference game in Lincoln.

The Blackshirts did do well on this day

A box of invitation envelopes. Hope I can use these.

A recent receipt from the Dollar Store. I don’t buy most of my groceries there, but the chips and crackers are cheap.

A brochure for the Associate of Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Churches (ACELC).

I remember this

An outlet expander with six plug-ins. Praise the Lord I didn’t already buy one for my TV/DVD corner.

A small case for an USB cable. I don’t know why anyone would need a case for a USB cable.

This deserves to waste away at the bottom of a box.

Binoculars. Need to remember to take these on my upcoming trip to Idaho, and loan them to my mother when we go to sporting events.

A whistle I bought in Death Valley in 2010, which also has a small light, thermometer, compass, magnifying glass, and small storage compartment. After attending a presentation on hiking in the desert, I figured I had better have an usable signal in case I was bitten by a rattlesnake, since I have a tendency to ward off on my own.

A 2011 calendar with photos from that trip to Death Valley.

Great Memories…

A 2009 calendar with watercolors that I bought in California.

And the relic of the collection, camera that actually uses film and its case. It’s so shiny, and I likely have taken no more that two or three rolls of film. Wonder if they even make the film it uses anymore.

I put away may of those things were I could use them or find them, but the bottom ten percent of the box I just dumped on another box stuff. I’ll get to that when I feel like it…or when I need something else to write.

Personal Journey, Uncategorized boxes, forgetfulness, home, materialism, office, Organization, random, storage, stuff

Divorcing Ourselves from Our Goals

1 Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on May 25, 2013

A while ago, I have a conversation with an acquaintance about a couple we both knew. When I mentioned off-hand they recently celebrated their fifteenth anniversary together, my acquaintance interjected that it was “really admirable” that they stayed together that long. Really, society? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad when couples stay together and that should be celebrated, but should we give everyone a cookie just for staying together fifteen years?

Looking at the signs of marriage in our culture, the fifty percent divorce rate (and as Jonathan V. Last notes in What to Expect When No One’s Expecting, there many long-term relationships that don’t work out in addition to divorces), marriage and relationships are despaired over. Yes, society, marriage is hard, but so is any job that takes hard work. We have come to accept a high divorce rate as a social ill that we can’t do anything about. Given the role that marriage can play in reducing poverty in this country, a lower divorce rate is worth fitting for.

Society should have as its goal a 5-10% divorce rate. I know that sounds impossible now, but we need to set goals high; this is America, after all. A 5-10% divorce wouldn’t be reachable in five or ten years, but it could be over fifty or even a hundred years. If in ten years, America could have divorce rate that is 5-10% lower than it is now, that’s a starting point.

How would it start? It would start with couples whose marriages can be saved being saved, and couple who want to get married getting married. I know those things sound generic, but this process has to start with realistic goals, such as just saying that marriage doesn’t have to be a bad thing and that divorce is not a great thing. Divorce may be necessary sometimes (such as abusive situations), but do we want to live in a society where bonds are so easily broken?

All my life, I have been couples who married when they were young and stayed married, many of them now at St. John. Yes, there are some divorced individuals and single parents, and I learn a lot from them too. But my greatest source of strength comes from the people who stay together. I may not marry, but if I do, I know surrounding myself and my wife with people who stay married will be an important goal. Besides, who wants to go to the work of getting a divorce?

Dating/Relationships, Society community, Dating, divorce, examples, faith, half of all marriages end in divorce, marriage, opinion, Politics, post-modern, problems, relationships, Social goals, society, USA

Seward, Tear Down Your Unused Buildings!

2 Comments Posted by Derek Johnson on May 23, 2013

Revenge of the 80′s?

Seward has been my home base for my nearly thirty-years of life, and one of the constants has been the empty buildings on the Jones Bank lot. One was a Napa Auto Parts store, and the other use to be a roller rink, but I can barely remember a time when either front was used. (Someone I knew reminded that a flea market was in there nearly twenty years ago.) But finally, with the renovations underway at the bank, both buildings have been reduced to rubble.

Good freaking riddance.

As I record here, I traverse a lot of country, and there’s one thing you see everywhere: empty storefronts. I’ve seen them in Bay Area suburbs where my aunt and uncle live, in major Midwest cities , and in small towns everywhere. Rotting wood, cracking paint, rocks with holes in them. It’s sad, and it says a lot about how a town cares about its image. Frankly, if I had had money, I would have bought the old Napa Auto Parts store and turned it into a trendy townhouse/loft. Of course, the reason I don’t have any money is probably related to the fact that I would build a trendy town home in Seward, Nebraska.

But back to my point. The point is, America has way too rotting empty buildings. Some of this is probably inevitable (like the employment rate never hitting zero). But a building sitting vacate in the same town for twenty-some years is unacceptable, in the middle of downtown no less. At least the building across the highway from Wal-Mart south of Seward that has kept various restaurants rotating through it. NOTHING was in this two buildings for nearly twenty years. Couldn’t we at least have pulled it down and made a park?

But now these are gone, an accomplishment this town can celebrate. Here’s to Seward. And while we’re at, let’s try and get something permanent in the old hardware store across the street from Cattle Bank. Not to mention that there’s several old, empty homes around our city, paint cracking and ivy flowing out of them. Let’s do something about those too. Anyone got some loose capital lying around?

Society buildings, Economic development, Investment, Nebraska, old, out with the old, Seward, Small Towns, tearing down barriers, transportation

Even if it Weren’t True…

1 Comment Posted by Derek Johnson on May 21, 2013

Why doesn’t this work for you?

The socially liberal lifestyle (or progressive, as it likes to be known by) is a tempting proposition. For the most part, people can do whatever they want in that life and can follow any kind of whim that they, and if anyone wants to challenge you, you just have to claim personal autonomy.

But I still follow conservative Christian social teaching for a simple reason: Christians are kinder.

Of all the half-truths that are propagated about Christianity and “religion” on TV, this is the one that the world gets the wrongest. They keep portraying Christians as stuck in their ways and unchanging, and sure, I know some Christian people who are bit crusty and who come off as cold and unfeeling.. But all of my Christian friends have better countenance, are better educated, and generally more pleasant people than the non-religious people I know.

There have been times in my life where, yes, I was wandering about, and I would have happily adhered certain liberal positions. But I missed the Lord, and even though Christians are a bit rigid and unwavering, at least they are for the right reason. The modern leftists are so insecure they don’t just want to win, they want the other side’s argument completely silenced in the public square. Why? What is it about Christianity that makes you so afraid?

In my observation, the simple difference between secularists and Christians is that Christians believe in joy over happiness, and secularist just believe in happiness over joy. Secularist look to whatever makes them happy in the moment, to whatever gratifies their fancy as something that deserves moral public standing. Christians believe in joy, that whatever is happening to them, God never lets go, and in fact, whatever happens is part of God’s plan. This is no more different when look at a Christian’s attitude toward having children versus a secularist’s attitude toward having children. Secularists say, “Have a child if it helps you realize yourself. Don’t compromise your lifestyle because of it.” Christians see children as a gift from God, and no matter how much work they are, they have intrinsic value beyond this life. (As someone who really struggles with the idea of having kids, that does help me.)

And even if that wasn’t true, who wouldn’t want to believe in that?

Religion Christianity, human-rights, liberal lifestyle, liberal positions, personal autonomy, Politics, religion, Secularism, social politics, society, Socio-Political

House to Sort-of Home: Lessons in Thrift Spending & Garage Sailing

2 Comments Posted by Derek Johnson on May 19, 2013

The Modern American Living Room

I used hit up thrift stores and garage sales every weekend, reveling in the thrill of a great find for seventy-five percent of the price. But such habitual shopping caused my closet and rooms to overflow. I cut back on it, but since I moved into my new place, I was at liberty to go shopping for furniture. I am fortunate that I moved when garage sales season was just starting up. My uncle advised me that high-end garage sales have great bargains, and in one trip into southwest Lincoln, I found two couches and a patio furniture. Not bad.

I always remind myself not to buy by something just because it costs a dollar. If it’s shoddy, after two weeks you will kick yourself if you see a similar product that’s basically new at another garage sale or thrift store. Yes, you can buy the nearly new thing, but you are going to spend time and money moving another thing (Side note: if there’s one thing I’ve noticed about marginally successful people is that they don’t understand that time is a commodity.) Hold out; this is America, and there’s always someone who bought something, only to find they didn’t need it ten minutes later and will put it on their garage sale.

Even if something is a little more expensive, it will be worth it if it’s something that I will use all the time. I found this out with my messenger bag I bought a couple of years ago completely new. Paid full price, but I use it every day and would be lost without it, as I carry essential electronics, books, snacks, tape, glue, meds, you name it. (Yes, it’s my purse). Same goes for the big couch I paid $80 for last week, but this is a rule that I have to work at not abusing. If not sure about something, I take time and think about it.

But I now have a living room full of furniture, with pictures hanging on the walls. My dining area is empty, and I should really move the table I eat at in there. I’m still looking for a breakfast nook-style table with high chairs for the kitchen, but that can wait. I still have to set up the office, but at least my house is presentable enough. Can’t wait until I start accumulating stuff and outgrowing the place.

First Washer/Dryer I’ve Owned

Personal Journey Couch, excess, garage sale, garage sales, interior design, journal, Living room, materialism, Moving, New Home, storage, stuff, thrift store, thrift stores

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Derek Johnson Muses

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