Blak

I have been down and out with a terrible cold for several days, and I am now stepping lightly back into the blogosphere. And when I say lightly, I mean lightly. I would like to discuss the serious topic of caffienated beverages.

Not since the two guys collided on the corner, getting one's chocolate in one's peanut butter, and vice versa, have two such disparate tastes come together in one product. Yes, two of my favorites, Coca-Cola and Coffee, are together at last in Coca-Cola Blak. I don't know what I was expecting, but upon taking my first sip, my initial thought was, "what a rip-off - it tastes just like Coke". But then about two seconds later, it was as though I was sucking on a coffee bean. And I mean that in a good way. The perfect blend of Coke and Coffee, IMHO. That is the good news.

The bad news is that Coca-Cola is marketing this as a foo-foo coffee drink for the suburban and exurban elite, and not as a soft drink for the masses. The best price I have seen is about $4.48 (and as high as $6.49) for a 4-pack of 8-oz. bottles, or $1.12 per tiny bottle. or about 14 cents per ounce. Compare that to your average $3.49 Fridge Pack, and we are looking at nearly a 600% price differential. (I will leave the math for you - extra credit).

I have a B.A. in Economics, so I have a firm grasp on the concept of selling a product for more than it costs to produce it. But I cannot believe that the coffee extract (the difference between Coca-Cola Classic and Coca-Cola Blak) inflates the cost of production by 600%.

Note to Coca-Cola marketing execs - maybe you could use Eight O'Clock Coffee (#1 in Consumer Reports taste tests) instead of Starbucks Black Apron Rwandan (just guessing), and slam it in a 12-can Fridge Pack, and I'm all over it. Or leave it at $1.12 per 8-oz. bottle, and you have another New Coke on your hands. And neither of us wants that, do we?

So Many Pedestrians...

The funniest bumper sticker I ever saw was on a big old winter beater car in front of me that read, "So many pedestrians, so little time". I have nothing against pedestrians, but that struck me funny. Still makes me chuckle. This post has nothing to do with pedestrians, it was just a pithy story to suck you in to read the rest of what I have to say. I know what you're saying, yes, Tom, that really sucked alright.

So now we are going to play The Match Game, and I'll be Gene Rayburn. (I know that you have to be at least my age or watch Game Show Network to even know what I am talking about).

So many ____________, so little time. Fill in the blank. While you are thinking about that, I will fill in mine.

• Books.
  
  
  
  • Bible - this really deserves its own category, but "So many Bibles" doesn't really make sense, so I put it here.
    
    
    
    • Reading - Every day, I try to read the following:
      
      
      
      • 3 Old Testament chapters = 1.4 times/year through the OT
        
      • 1 Psalm = 2.4 times/year through the Psalms
        
      • 1 Gospel chapter = 4 times/year through the Gospels
        
      • 1 New Testament chapter = 2 times/year through the NT
        
      
      My intention is to start every day in the Word, but my intentions and $4 will buy a cup of coffee, and you know where the road leads that is paved with them. If it doesn't happen in the morning, I make a point of not going to bed until it does. Not as a matter of duty, but as a matter of delight (Ps. 1:2).
      
      This isn't necessarily a sell job on my way of doing things, in fact I would be interested in hearing how others handle the Word of God on a daily basis.
    
    
    • Memorizing - it is my goal to memorize the NT and Psalms before I die, and if not before I die, then after I die, at which time I would imagine it will become much easier. But on this side of the Jordan, I find that about a dozen verses a day are plenty, and that time is spent on my morning commute (Don't worry, I ride the bus).
      
      
  • Books - I like both non-fiction (just finished Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, currently reading The Slumber of Christianity: Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth by Ted Dekker) and fiction (just finished Black by Ted Dekker, currently reading The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco).
    
    I try to find time to read in the evening, leaving my fiction reading for later, just before bedtime, when I need to wind down with lighter fare, when I am in the mood for a good story.
    
  
  
  • Sudoku/Kakuro - I enjoy solving these Japanese number puzzles, and as for how I carve out time in my day for these, suffice it to say that all my Sudoku/Kakuro books would be flagged at Brentanos (Seinfeld, Episode 173, Season 9).
    
    Dare I ask what is flagged in your house?
    
  
  
  • Audiobooks - currently listening to 1776 by David McCullough, narrated by same, on the shaky beginnings (for our side) of the Revolutionary War. From what I have heard so far, it's hard to believe we won in the end.
    
    I have a special time of day to listen to my audiobooks, and that would be whenever I take the dog out. That gives me 5-10 minutes a day, depending on the dog's constitution. Not much, I know, but that would be 5-10 minutes of otherwise unproductive time, for myself if not for the dog. I am about 8 hours into 1776 since Christmas.
  
  
• Podcasts. This is a recent development for me, and has really changed how I spend my days. I currently download (all in iTunes):
  
  Three daily podcasts:
  
  
  • Desiring God - John Piper
    
  • Grace to You - John MacArthur
    
  • Truth for Life - Alistair Begg
    
  
  Six weekly podcasts:
  
  
  • Ebert & Roeper - movie reviews
    
  • Mosaic - Erwin McManus
    
  • Let My People Think - Ravi Zacharias
    
  • Renewing Your Mind - R.C. Sproul
    
  • Relevant Magazine
    
  • Upper Room Community
    
  
  and others which are updated on a less regular basis:
  
  
  
  • Consumed Ministries
    
  • Invisible Children (videos mostly)
    
  • Vintage ToonCast (vintage cartoon videos)
    
  
  I used to be obsessed with keeping up every day. I couldn't go to bed with a dot by a podcast (meaning it had not been heard). I've gotten over that, and keep up as best I can, knowing that I can always catch up later.
  
  So my question here is, am I missing any good ones? What do you listen to on a daily or weekly basis?
  


• Blogs.
  
  
  
  • Writing - like I'm doing now at 1:25am when I should be in bed. Seems like after midnight is prime blogging time, because of all the other stuff listed above and below. I can't do this every night though, which is why you probably won't see more than one or two posts a week from me. But I find myself constantly blogging in my head, and have about six posts in my mental file right now. But I have to sleep sometime.
    
  
  
  • Reading - there are several blogs I check on a daily basis for updates, which are listed in my Links at left, so I won't repeat them here. Again, if I am missing any good ones (like yours), let me know.
    
  
  
• Movies. Blame this one on Netflix. I am currently working my way through the AFI Top 100 Movies chronologically (just watched "Singin' in the Rain", 1952; 3 stars), among other things. I receive and view about two movies a week, which is plenty given everything else in this list.
  

Now a few closing notes about what is not on the list.

• Work. About 40 hours a week + commute time - but I am talking here only about how I spend my free time (and by way of inquiry, how you spend yours).
  
  
• Exercise. That would be the 40-minute brisk walk through the skyways every weekday on my lunch hour. But I am well aware that my pear-shaped profile belies the fact that I could do more.
  
  
• Sleep. I try to get a good 4-6 hours a night whether I need it or not. Then there are the naps on the bus. And in my cubicle. (Just kidding, boss).
  
  
• Children. Well, Betsy is in college, and I will get to chat with her online occasionally around 1:00am when she is up studying and I am up blogging. And Kacie just got her license, so spending the evening playing Uno with Mom & Dad is not her top priority.
  
  Parents, enjoy every precious moment with your little ones, because they grow up so fast. I know, that sounded cliche' to me too, even ten years ago, but there isn't anything on this list that I wouldn't trade now to have spent more time with my kids when they were little.
  
  
• Music. To read the list above, one could logically assume that I live a life sans music. Not true. I fill every nook and cranny of my life with music (including a big 8-hour nook and cranny called my work day). Whenever there is not enough time to give my full attention to some of these other endeavors, or when I just want to relax, I hit the shuffle button and let the music flow. Just ask my family, they will tell you that I have had the iPod surgically attached to my head. As for what kinds of music, all kinds, but that is a topic for another post, or check out my first post, "Pandora's Box".
  
  
• Last and probably least, Television. Not that I never watch TV, but the only must see TV of the week for me currently is "24". Amazingly, this is as far as I have gotten into a "24" season, (four hours to go), without missing an episode and having to wait for the DVD.
  
  Of course, now having said that, I have jinxed myself, and will most likely be hit by a bus crossing Marquette this Monday after work. And wouldn't it be spooky if that really happened and you are reading this...as if from beyond the grave...on Tuesday...

Well, if you've made it this far, congratulations. That's 5 minutes of your life you will never get back. Sorry. Press on.

Addendum 05/09/2006: I successfully navigated Marquette Ave. last night and was able to view the 21st hour of "24". Three hours to go. My prediction - Jack Bauer catches the bad guys in about the 24th hour. Hope I didn't ruin it for you.

A Pub Gathering

For starters, surely I am violating one of the cardinal rules of blogging (if anyone has the blogging rulebook, send me a copy), because I am going to quote the same excerpt from the same book that I quoted in my last post. But it is a fine way to introduce the topic, so here it is, from "Blue Like Jazz", Donald Miller, p.103:

"My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don't really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it's about who is smarter, and honestly I don't care..."

I experienced a real life example of this last night. I took a bus from downtown over to Seven Corners in Dinkytown, where I met up with Jamie Miller, and we proceeded to the Corner Bar to attend a "Pub Gathering" of Missio Dei (www.missio-dei.org), a Christian community at the U of M. They had invited a couple of representatives from the Minnesota Atheists organization (www.mnatheists.org) to come and tell us why they are atheists. They gave a presentation, whiteboard and all, then there was a time of Q&A afterward.

These were a couple of nice gentlemen, about my age or older, with no visible horns growing out of their heads, not shaking their fists at God (no God to shake a fist at, after all), just two guys very comfortable in their own skin as thinking functioning atheists, and willing to talk about it with anyone who will listen. And on this night that was us - a group of about a dozen Christians in the basement of the Corner Bar, which would become a Comedy Club 24 hours later. No one was out to convert anybody, just a very non-confrontational, respectful dialogue between two groups of people with diametrically opposed beliefs about the existence of God.

It was a spirited discussion between highly educated individuals, with each side sporting at least one philosophy major. To give you an idea of the flavor of the discussion, if I had been playing that old college drinking game where I would have to take a shot every time someone said the words "epistomology" or "ontology", Jamie would have had to carry me out of there. (Don't worry, I played no such game). Luckily, I have read enough Francis Schaeffer to know what those words mean, and it was actually all quite fascinating. Just the high points...

First, where this idea of God came from. This was a fabrication of ancient civilizations who could find no other explanation for natural phenomena. They used the concept of God to explain the gaps in their knowledge, thus the "God of the Gaps". But now that science has filled in most of these gaps, there is no longer a need for God. Science now explains what once required a "God of the Gaps".

Alas, I thought of this 12 hours later (on the bus this morning), but I would assert that the "God of the Gaps" still exists. It has just evolved (pardon the pun) into a different name. Today it goes by the name of "Time + Chance". If it can't be explained it must have happened over billions of years and trillions of chance mutations. How did the primordial ooze become intelligent life? Time + Chance. That's right. Swamp Gas + Time + Chance = You and Me. Case Closed. End of Debate. Let's Eat. See, now I'm getting confrontational, and that would not have fit in with the tone of the meeting last night.

But the whole evolution debate was just a side issue, as was separation of church and state, gay marriage, socialism vs. capitalism, and the subtle differences between the God metaphors in Star Trek vs. Star Trek:Next Generation vs. Star Trek:Deep Space Nine (here I was out of my element - all I know about Star Trek is that if Captain Kirk and Spock are beaming down to a planet with some guy nobody has seen before, that guy ain't coming back to the ship).

All that aside, what mainly interested me was finding out how these men found purpose in life. What made them tick. What made them want to get up in the morning, knowing that this life is all there is. And this is where a most interesting illustration was offered by the presenter, August, using the familliar glass half full...

He drew a picture of a glass on the whiteboard, and asked us to visualize life as this glass. Half of the glass is filled with the natural world, that which we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. The top half is then filled with the supernatural world, that which is beyond our five senses. He came to the point in his life where he came to believe there was no supernatural world, resulting in a temporary state of depression, because now his glass was half full. But then he came to realize that since there was no supernatural world, that top half of the glass did not exist anyway - and he erased the top half of the glass. In other words, when your glass is half full, just pour it into a smaller glass, which in his mind was now filled to the brim with the natural world, and he was able to face life again, a happy, well-adjusted and quite content atheist.

The more I think about it, the more I see this as a perfect illustration of John 10:10. Thanks, August, though I am sure that was not your intention. Jesus says this in John 10:10b:

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (ESV)

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (NIV)

I think the NIV translation is particularly helpful with this illustration. Back to the glass as your life. Try as you might, with all that this natural world has to offer, you will only fill up your glass of life halfway at best. What Jesus is saying is that you don't have to be content with a glass half filled, nor do you need to convince yourself that life is just a smaller glass. He came to give you life, not to the half, but to the full - life abundant. Life filled with Himself. Life filled with things beyond our comprehension.

So if they are beyond our comprehension, how do we comprehend them, you ask? I defer to the Apostle Paul:

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"—
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

1 Cor. 2:9,10 (NIV)

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared to pour into your life's glass. Drink up.