EXODUS! JOURNEY TO THE PROMISE LAND!

I had this awesome Nintendo game when I was little called "The Exodus." In it you could be Moses and work your way through various tasks to complete levels in the hopes of freeing the Israelites. You could even begin as Moses' mother or that maid who drew him out of the water and you had to protect him from the Egyptians who tried to take him from you! Intense! I can't say that I was all that into it, but it was a sweet game for a 9 year old.

Lately I've been reading that good ol' story of Moses and the redemption of God's chosen people. What amazed me this time through was the number of times that God provides for His people; not necessarily the grand finale act of redemption, but all the small steps leading up to that finale. From the burning bush to the Red Sea to the manna in the desert, it is incredible how many times God provides for His people. Truly God is faithful in His purpose and His promise to the chosen people of Israel.

However, what is even more amazing than God's provision is the Israelites' response! The chosen people of God have some serious issues with trust! After everything that has ocurred in Egypt - all the miracles, all the plagues - and the Israelites have been set free, they still don't trust God to provide. In the 10th chapter, when Moses has led the Israelites to the Red Sea he writes, "As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, 'Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'" These words make me laugh; as if they were the last sarcastic words of a doomed group of people. And, in their eyes, they were doomed because they were only looking at what stood before them. They had forgotten God's promise to provide.

I can't bring myself to type the sappy story of how this relates to my life. But the moral goes like this: I'm an Israelite. It is pretty ridiculous sometimes how the Truths speak louder than the story itself.

I don't know if this story of the Exodus ever even happened. Frogs, flies, and locusts? Sounds pretty crazy. I don't know if God really killed all those first-borns or brought darkness over Egypt. I'm not sure what I believe. But none of that really had to happen because I know that it's right on. Somehow. It's True.

Stop Trying So Hard!

Hillary Clinton spent the day in Las Vegas 'walking in the shoes of a nurse.' John Edwards spent the day shaving old men's faces at a nursing home. Barack Obama spent the day cleaning houses as a hospice care worker. WTF people? Aside from pandering to voters, what are you doing? Holy shit I'm so sick of these presidential candidates trying so hard! Obama's got ringtones for God's sake!!!

And it's not just the "Democrats." Mitt Romney says we need a man of faith in the White House and he's the man. Wow, is there an echo in Washington? News flash, Mitt: It doesn't seem to be working out this time 'round. Giuliani avoids a debate question by stating he couldn't possibly admit his mistakes in the time allotted. Ha! Good one, Rudy! Well played!

Democracy is basically a well-to-do popularity contest and ALL of these dumbass candidates will do ANYTHING for YOUR vote. Period. That's all I can stomach right now.


(By the way, great photo, Mitt! You look confident, strong, and hopeful.)

YouTube Debate a Joke

The Democratic Presidential hopefuls are so cool and hip that they can connect with the nation through YouTube! Or... they're so desperate for attention and advertising that they will waste thousands of campaign dollars to show they're face on CNN for an hour during a highly hyped debate sponsored by the internet's most popular free speech medium. If their mission was to walk circles around issues and waste the time of the viewers, then mission accomplished. I cannot believe how difficult it is for politicians to answer a question. Each candidate danced around straight answers; it was a joke.

And the bottom line is that every candidate thinks he or she has the right answer to everything. That's not a democracy, that's an autocracy. It will only lead to the inevitable end in which the Democrats will shoot each other before allowing someone other than their self to win the candidacy. I do have shreds of hope for something better, but when I see stuff like this I am burdened with the despair that all politicians are sucked into the downward spiral of the machine.

Still, I am supporting Barack Obama whom I think has the most genuine heart to serve and the most sincere foundation of values; his lack of experience is, in my opinion, an opportunity to regain control of a corrupt system through new personnel and building new bridges rather than old cronyism. For more information, see www.barackobama.com

Barack n' Roll.

A Merton Thought...

This is a small excerpt from a book of Thomas Merton's writings. It is a great follow up to some thoughts on the 'Gentle Pantheism' post.

His Paradise and Our Own:

"All nature is meant to make us think of paradise. Woods, fields, valleys, hills, the river and the sea, the clouds travelling across the sky, light and darkness, sun and stars, remind us that the world was first created as a paradise from Adam, and that in spite of his sin and ours, it will once again become a paradise when we are all risen from death in the second Adam.

Heaven is even now mirrored in created things. All God's creatures invite us to forget our vain cares and enter into our own hearts, which God Himself has made to be His paradise and our own. If we have God dwelling within us, making our souls His paradise, then the world around us can also become for us what it was meant to be for Adam - his paradise.

But if we seek paradise outside of ourselves, we cannot have paradise in our hearts. If we have no peace within ourselves, we have no pease with what is all around us. Only the man who is free from attachment finds that creatures have become his friends. When he is pure, they speak to him of God."

Apple, Do Something Constructive Like Make Good Products (Instead of Obnoxious Ads)

I'm getting super tired of Apple and their pretentious, artificial advertising campaign. Don't get me wrong, I love Apple's products - I'm actually updating my iPod on my MacBook Pro as I write this; but I am a bit fatigued by Apple's stupid self-absorbed ads on TV, in magazines and on the internet.
First of all, the arrogance displayed by the Mac vs. PC ads is just annoying (albeit funny at times). Get over yourself, Apple, you've created some crap products too. I happen to know a handful of a billion people who still prefer to use PCs. Secondly, the identity-themed ad campaign is quite possibly the most BS, dishonest (and probably most effective) idea ever. "You are your music" says one ad for iTunes. "Touching is believing" says another for the iPhone. Wow. Talk about a load of crap. Convincing people that they are what they own is not only the biggest load of garbage, but it creates a serious image/self-esteem problem that misses the point completely. Your music does not define you. Your contacts don't impress. "You're not your f***ing khakis." (Tyler Durden, Fight Club)
Ultimately, for a company that wants so desperately to be hip and cool, Apple sounds a lot like the Man.