tuesday afternoon update
it's 4.07 pm on tuesday afternoon. i worked this morning at the sports bar (great management, a mixture of high-quality and really bitchy waitresses with proportions erring on the latter end of this spectrum, slow business but we just opened and things should pick up soon, so they say...). yesterday we were so slow for lunch that i didn't have even a single table!! i was totally frustrated, grrrrr. i've had the worst of luck with jobs...this one we've been super slow, my other food service job (blah) hasn't been able to give me as many hours as i need...but it's been good because i'm being exposed to crowds of people i haven't otherwise been exposed to during my 22-years being in or in very close proximity to one Christian bubble or another. i'm still not always sure what role to play because i don't want to be stereotyped as 'Christian' = 'someone who will judge me' but i also don't want to be like, 'oh, yeah! i moved in with my boyfriend this weekend, but really the only reason i like him is because he's got a big....' yeah, i can't relate. so Christians in secular cultures seem to be trapped between two equally displeasing options... and so the question of how the 'salt' in the Sermon on the Mount is effective. i mean, not enough salt is gross or flavorless and food rots in its absence, but too much salt is overpowering and even unhealthy! it feels like a balancing act... or perhaps an art. yes, an art. art transcends the need for the balancing act...artists are free to move in 3 or 4 dimensions instead of typical two-dimensional paradigms.
which brings up the interesting topic of the state of the global Christian church. i recently realized that most of the North (the States, Canada, Europe, Russia(?), China...) is more or less secular and the South (Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, India...) is highly religious (Christian, Muslim or otherwise). and i realized that for the entirety of my life, i have been on the defensive against the growing secularization in the States. ...so what does this mean for the Christian church? it seems that too many of our Christian leaders have chosen to remain here in the States but most of the basic human needs are found elsewhere -- like in Sudan and Rwanda where genocide has slipped its way yet again into our history books with little or no opposition.... and as a future Christian leader, would i do best to develop a practical skill to serve in Third World areas (internationally and in Third World/urban America) or to develop my mind and teaching skills to help renew the Western church? both perhaps?? ...and what is it all for? civilations rise and fall with Left and Right parties fighting during the civilization's height of power...but will we ever escape the cycle of Left and Right, secular and religious, grassroots and institutionalized, cat and dog, even and odd, happy and sad?? will transcendence ever remain here on earth? or will we simply be caught in the cycle of this rising and falling? ...what will the relief in the end look like? the textbook Christian answer would state that 'the second coming of Christ' will bring relief and the reign of heaven...but what are the stipulations for the return of Yeshua? we will ourselves eventually destroy the earth by fire, the literalists might say; we will create heaven on earth, utopian-minded thinkers would argue; and agnostics and disenchanteds will likely put forth that we'll wait passively for the random reappearance of a mystery-shrouded religious figure. what is the direction of history??? i should go into eschatology....
well, all these thoughts on a tuesday afternoon. i now need to go to cater an event at my second place of employment. perhaps while i'm serving chardonnay chicken and pouring cheapish wines i will solve the mystery of the meaning of the universe. you never know what people might be thinking as they pass by in silence...
...more to come...
which brings up the interesting topic of the state of the global Christian church. i recently realized that most of the North (the States, Canada, Europe, Russia(?), China...) is more or less secular and the South (Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, India...) is highly religious (Christian, Muslim or otherwise). and i realized that for the entirety of my life, i have been on the defensive against the growing secularization in the States. ...so what does this mean for the Christian church? it seems that too many of our Christian leaders have chosen to remain here in the States but most of the basic human needs are found elsewhere -- like in Sudan and Rwanda where genocide has slipped its way yet again into our history books with little or no opposition.... and as a future Christian leader, would i do best to develop a practical skill to serve in Third World areas (internationally and in Third World/urban America) or to develop my mind and teaching skills to help renew the Western church? both perhaps?? ...and what is it all for? civilations rise and fall with Left and Right parties fighting during the civilization's height of power...but will we ever escape the cycle of Left and Right, secular and religious, grassroots and institutionalized, cat and dog, even and odd, happy and sad?? will transcendence ever remain here on earth? or will we simply be caught in the cycle of this rising and falling? ...what will the relief in the end look like? the textbook Christian answer would state that 'the second coming of Christ' will bring relief and the reign of heaven...but what are the stipulations for the return of Yeshua? we will ourselves eventually destroy the earth by fire, the literalists might say; we will create heaven on earth, utopian-minded thinkers would argue; and agnostics and disenchanteds will likely put forth that we'll wait passively for the random reappearance of a mystery-shrouded religious figure. what is the direction of history??? i should go into eschatology....
well, all these thoughts on a tuesday afternoon. i now need to go to cater an event at my second place of employment. perhaps while i'm serving chardonnay chicken and pouring cheapish wines i will solve the mystery of the meaning of the universe. you never know what people might be thinking as they pass by in silence...
...more to come...
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