In Light of Eternity?

I've been considering my lifestyle more and more all the time as I get older and begin to make more and more decisions on my own. For me, almost 20 years have come and gone and time seems to fly faster and faster. This leads me to ask the question, what have I done in life to make it worth it? In other words, have I been living the way God truly intends His children to live? I don't have much time on this earth, and soon I'll be in the presents of God, and suddenly none of the times I lived for good times, or friends, or myself on earth will mean anything except that it wasn't lived for God. It was waisted.

One of my goals in life has been to never go into debt. I have no desire to borrow from my future only to have to worry and work for something that I couldn't wait for in the past. Likewise, why should I live for myself now here on earth, only to regret not living entirely for God in my future? I say "likewise", but in a sense, it's not alike at all. Our chief end in life is a whole lot more important that money.

Because of this, I have realized that I'm going to have to make some very tough discussions in life all in the name of "living in light of eternity". Living the way God intended me to live. For example - I have allot of good friends that I like very much, but they aren't teachable, they're not sanctified or set apart from the world (though they would argue with that), and to put it plainly, they don't take their walk with God seriously enough. I believe that God wants us to choose our friends VERY carefully. Therefor, I've come to the conclusion that some of my friends (though I love them very much) are just not worth the time God gave me. I will continue to pray for them that God would work in their hearts, but that's all I can do.

That sounds terrible right? You say, "that isn't a Christ like attitude! Jesus was always ministering to sinners and the people who needed to be set straight!".

The thing is, there is a difference between Jesus and me. I am a sinner, Jesus is not. I am responsible for my own life first, and then to others. Jesus didn't have to worry about His life, and becoming like those around Him like I have to. Christians are to guard their hearts in any way possible that they have to.

There are other examples too. What I do with my time and how I enjoy myself is another one. It all comes down to realizing that our life on earth here is the only time EVER we have to shine and be diligent and live for God with a sin nature. How ever long you have to live… is NOTHING in light of eternity. There will be an endless amount of time to have fun unlike anything you can even come close to imagining when we get to heaven, so I would challenge you to stop with the foolishness and live for Christ. I think you will see that He will give you the Joy that comes with serving Him here, and in heaven if you are truly right with Him.

Its that time again

The rumors are true! Thursday, November 13th 2008... Thats right. Christmas music on the radio. I fired up the radio (thats right.. fired up) on my way to pick up Josh from school when I heard it with my own ears! Today (from what I can tell) will be marked on our calendars as the first day the annual tradition of Christmas songs in November has started here in "Upstate" New York for the year 2008!

Speaking of calendars, maybe we should have a calendar here on Great Minds... its a thought... 

What are your thoughts on Christmas music in November? Leave a comment. 

Procrastination or Joy. Choose.

Why do we procrastinate? Why do we put off what should be done now? Why do we sacrifice a clear conscience with procrastination? 

Procrastination, or time on credit is... SERIOUS! 

Why am I going on and on about procrastination? Because I procrastinate all the time. Take my school work for example.. I am way behind because of procrastination. Today I just did 1/7th of an entire History school year... in 10 hours. Do the Math, thats a school year of History in a week. I did this while keeping my grades above a 90% except on one test.. I got an 88%. Sure, I had an energy drink.. powdered.. the healthy kind that I never get... I rarely drink energy drinks... and now I know what speed reading feels like... but look at what I missed out on. If I would have done this along time ago, I'd be done with school right now. Yes, I realize you have to have a certain amount of hours in a school year, but I'm behind... so I can go as fast as i want right now with nothing to worry about. Believe me.. I have the hours. Did I sacrifice? yeah.. I didn't spend time messing around with pictures or photoshop... but let me tell you my friend, it was worth it. You have no idea how good I feel right now. I know that I have done everything that I could do today, and it is paying off. I'm so happy.. I want to sacrifice again tomorrow.. and Monday.. and the next day and the next... until I'm DONE with school. 

Why do we procrastinate in terms of spending time with God? Why do we put off time with God right now? Why do we sacrifice real joy for selfish procrastination? Procrastination is serious. 

Like getting lots of work done, and the joy it gives you when you know you did everything you were supposed to.. even greater is the joy you get spending time with your heavenly father. After spending quality time with God, and being right with Him.. I often ask myself.. "What have missed out on!". The Lord has blessed me today. He has given me the intense energy to get loads of school done. He has given me the joy of knowing I got my work done. He has given me the true joy in being right with Him and walking in His path for me. Did I sacrifice? From a worldly standpoint, you bet I did. I didn't get stuff done that I WANTED to get done. I didn't get ME time. I was totally pre-occupied the whole day. I'm not watching TV with my family right now.. I'm missing one of my favorite shows. Is it worth it? You better believe it! In light of eternity, it was no sacrifice. 

So, here's a challenge. If you want true joy.... live your life for God and He will bless you. Depressed? Give God the throne of your life. 

Dial-up of death

For a long time now, I and many other people all around the world have been suffering from the evil and horrifying "Dial-up of death" syndrome. This is particularly hard for somewhat of a "technology interested freak" as myself. People RELY on me for new info and tips in the world of computers! (thats what I tell myself).... that and the fact that I don't like the slowness factor.. even if people never asked me anything again.. or just kept giving me out dated computers to fix.. I still would have a dastardly hard time. The reason I don't post on this blog as much as I should is the fault of DIAL-UP!!! I have put my pain into a short poem.

Good times with friends all end it's true
Dial-up wants it all to be through.
The sunrise goes away, but why?
'Cause dial-up hates the pretty sky.

the things that make us free and glad
and cheery and happy and joyously mad
Have all been shunned by dial-up
Your face has been shunned by dial-up.

Got a web page to look up lighting fast?
Dial-up wants the speed thing last.
And if your in the "I think I can live with dial-up.. it's not that bad" sect
Just wait till you see the message "reconnect?"

I know that rhythm was kinda lame,
But dial-up put me behind my game.
If dial-up was gone, gas prices would be right,
no one would be hungry and mosquitos wouldn't bite.

no one would be in a dark prison cell,
And you wouldn't need that nasty hair jell.
The days will be grand when dial-up is dead
And everyone's using high speed internet instead.

If any of you can come up with a short poem about the terror of dial-up, email it to me and I will post it.

How could the dial-up crises be fixed? We need to bring ideas to Washington so they can act NOW! Its so simple! I have a small list of ideas.

-Super laser powered Z-Rays of highspeedness beamed down to every home in the UNIVERSE!!!

-Toilet Internet.

-HSIzone layer. Similar to the ozone layer, only placed directly below the ozone layer, it reflects and multiplies all wifi signals.. EVER! even from back in time or in the future! (not affected by burping cows or SUV's)

-inferpink high speed internet links. Just point your computer at the moon... and instant connection. (on cloudy days or when the moon is not visible.... your cooked)

-Universal Teleportation Hub. Reach your hand through one end of the portal, and plug into an internet connected hub. Plug the other end into your own wifi equipped hub or computer.

If you have anymore brilliant ideas, make sure you tell me about them.



On a side note, Google Chrome has just been added to the list of web browsers. So far, its not available for mac or Linux yet, but it'll get there.

You can check out the official google blog article about it here.
It looks pretty snazzy.. if you ask me. Its supposed to be fast too..

Shoe shopping

We went shoe shopping today. teehee.
The reason we were shoe shopping was because my shoes were in nasty shape. I have needed new shoes for months, and now that I finally got a job working at the farm... I HAVE ENOUGH MONEY!!! So. I was going to get some two weeks ago, but that didn't happen... finally today we had the chance. This was the biggest outlet mall I have ever been to in my life! It was like a parking lot surrounded by... mall. As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear the sound of music coming from a BOSE outdoor speaker system. The song playing... "Listen to your heart". nice work song picker outer people. I always thought that would be a good song to shoe shop to.
Just a little heads up disclaimer thing. Just because I went shoe shopping doesn't mean I'm going to go to the next ladies night out or watch High school musical or something. I despise shopping. I guess its ok when your with the right people, but for the most part.. blaaa. *makes other disgusting sound effects*
Anyways, I did manage to finally find some running shoes that I like in the Nike store. Jim also got some spur of the moment shoes. they are ridiculously cute.
...... I just said that to be silly... by the way. They aren't cute. They're kinda cool.. but not cute. I'm going to stop now.
I am currently in the back seat of the car in Chicago using my amazing macbook. And suddenly we just went from 75 mph to 3mph... dude. Thats the pits...

At that note.. bye

Another take from another mind.

Another take from THIS post from Great Minds.
I have seen and heard many creepy things in my life time.. stories of people robbing stores with squirt guns, little kids eating animal cracker heads off and throwing the body away, poor souls buying a PC instead of MAC, I've heard people say that they like instant coffee better than fresh ground coffee from whole beans, There is the occasional sighting of guys huddled around a TV watching High School Musical or some other chick flick, but the most common creepy thing I see today, isn't so uncommon. As a matter of fact, this said creepy thing is found in people as young as 4 on up to people as old as 160. (ok... exaggerating) Though the age may have allot to do with the level of creepiness, it is more the ML (Maturity level) that is the real factor.
So, what creepy thing am I talking about?

Dating. Dating in and of itself isn't necessarily creepy, but rather who and when and why.

ML= Age + discernment (x) Smartness + logicalness (/) practicality

The formula above doesn't mean anything really.. I just made it up because it looked cool. Never the less, I can in fact use it to point some things that I think are creepy out. I'll do this by using some scenarios.

Bobby (age 11) asks Sally (age 10) to "go out with him".
Why does Bobby want to date when he's only 11? I'm not even going to try and answer that question because as smart and brilliant as I am.. its beyond me. I will venture to assume that marriage is not on Bobby's mind.

BUT WAIT!
You assumer you! What if marriage really IS on Bobby's mind!?
BOBBY IS ONLY ELEVEN YEARS OLD!!! THATS ONLY 4,000 SOME ODD DAYS OLD!!! THATS A LITTLE OVER 570 WEEKS OLD!!! HE'S JUST A BABY!!! babies don't get married!

THERE YOU GO AGAIN.. ASSUMING!
What if Bobby is really really mature for his age?!?!
... he's eleven. He has other things to think about besides who he's going to merry in 9 years.

This brings me to my second point. If Bobby plays video games non-stop, and wears a tank-top that goes to his knees outside of his dress clothes and talks like a cartoon chipmunk for the next 9 years of his life (A.K.A. 283,824,000 seconds) He needs a girl.

... actually, no he doesn't... I don't even know why I just said that.

CHALLENGE!!!
If anyone can give me one (just one) ALL I NEED IS ONE good logical* reason for Bobby to date Sally... I'll send them 2 mac gems cd's filled with over 50 great mac applications and games.. all yours for FREE! I'll even cover shipping and handling!**

*real life believable reasons. Nothing like " Bobs mom told him that if he didn't date Sally, she would feed him cold greasy liver and tofu for the rest of his life".
**offer expires 8/31/08

So, until proven otherwise, Its safe to say that dating when your Bobby's age is creepy. Personally... I wouldn't even date until I was AT LEAST 16...

So, lets here it. Why and when in life do you think you should date? Am I a sad mixed up guy?

IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH:
One of my friends cats neighbors friends friend just got engaged at the ripe old age of 15. Her "Fiancé" is 14. This is a true story. Dating is one thing at that age.. I would keep talking, but I'm kinda speechless. I hear she got a nice diamond ring out of the deal... diamond rings.. This will make a new topic. Coming soon.

~Ed

Practicality and apple juice

Lots of things are different from back 200 years ago that are actually very convenient and practical. We don't have to sit behind a horse that just might happen to stink some times when going some place, If we want to send dad a happy birthday card, it only takes a couple days instead of weeks or months (or for you cheep shots out there who send virtual cards over the internet it only takes seconds). Some genius came up with the indoor toilet so you don't have to run out to the out house, forget sweeping and stirring up dust... the vacuum cleaner will get that for you. Are you a little warm? turn up the air conditioner. (that is.. if you have one. Maybe the gas heater would have been a better example).
Some things are not convenient, though the list is small, there are things that were just better off back then. One thing comes to mind in particular that probably many people don't REALLY think about, though you might hear the occasional complaining. Now, when I say that this thing in particular isn't convenient, I mean it in a different way than one might imagine. Though it IS just as convenient as 200 years ago or maybe even more convenient, its a ridiculous no brainer.
So what is this no brainer convenient thing I'm talking about?

Juice. Milk. Honey. Food.

I live right next door to a huge apple orchard, and yet the apple juice that I drink comes from thousands of miles away. The Honey I eat (unless I buy it from someone who has bees) comes from thousands of miles away. Most of the food I eat is from THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY. The milk I drink however is from within a ten mile radius (or something close to that). Thats because I get my milk from Stewarts gas station. They get their milk from local farmers and it TASTS UTTERLY AMAZING! no pun intended. So I get my milk the sensible way... I would venture to guess that most people don't however.
Remember the good old days when people wanted apple juice.. they went outside and picked some apples, squeezed the juices out, and walla, fresh apple juice right from out back? (or maybe from the store.. who just happened to buy them from your neighbors). You probly don't remember that, and if you do... wow.
Convenient in the area of supply and demand and such. Inconvenient (and stupid) in all other areas. Its true, New York State alone produces enough apples to supply the whole United States with apples, but most companies go to Argentina, China, Chile, or perish the thought.. Mexico.

Its Ed

Hello. I'm Ed. I'll be posting every once in a while.
That was a great first blog!
~Ed