New Years Eve

Well it is New Years Eve and I am sitting in my living room drinking tea with cream. I am actually glad the holidays are over with. I have been here in Tennessee/Kentucky for about 3.5 months and for once I have a wide open schedule. No plans for weekends. Nothing on my schedule. I now have room for a routine. I usually find that if I have regular schedule, I can usually get things done and commit to goals. I need to start getting a social life here, being involved in the Church, working out and hopefully get in shape for an offroad triathelon, and hopefully get some reading in. This while of course catching my favorite TV shows. I will also hope to update my blog once a week, hopefully see more dots on my map as well.

In other news, I saw the Narnia movie. I enjoyed it very much and was impressed with how well they adapted the book. It wasn't overtly religous but still fully spiritual. If there is one thing, I would say it was using Liam Nesson as Aslan's voice. To me, it seemed to be Liam Nesson, not Jesus. I would have picked someone more unknown and with a more something voice.
But another interesting note that I read was that Mr. Lewis never intended this to be an allegory for Jesus's time on earth. Instead his intent was to create a parallel universe and describe how God would interact in that universe. It is like CS is recording the gospel of Narnia. In a sense it shows how little the Church knows about God. Not that that is a unusual thing, it is just shows how big God is and how much human ego and pride gets in the way in our understanding of God. If we all wrote about how God would interact with a new creation, we would all write something different because we all see God differently. Some may be just our different prespectives, but some things maybe just wrong in our perceptions of him. And we all have perceptions of God that are wrong. But we are all human. Understanding God is not a private thing. If we all worked on the story togther and learn from each other. Our relationship with God is supposed to be personal but also communal, not private.

In other news, here is the link of the day.
Happynews

Update

Well just kind updating here. First. I saw Syriana the other night. Just as Traffic was about drugs and Crash was about racism, so Syriana was about oil. But the difference is that while drugs and racism are definitly not good things, oil on the other hand is in itself not a bad thing. Now this might be surprising to those of you who know my career in the ethanol industry. But good things can from oil in the short term while it should be phased out, rather than waiting for it to runout. But the real evil in Syriana is power. And it is very tempting because it can be justified when you think you are doing the right thing.

I won't spoil the movie, but in reflection the greater good that is God presents to us may not make since in ends but the means must be pursued. It is greater than the good for the country, for the environment, and for our selves. What if Saudia Arabia made a decision that was good for the poor of the country, but was detrimental to the US economy. Would the US be willing to sacrifice it's own material success in order to to help out the underpreviliged in the rest of the world? Would us as Christians be willing to make that choice not only in our own lives but also in how we believe the government should act. A man once said that charity is not being a dog with two bones and giving the other dog one. Charity is having one bone and giving it to the other dog.

What is the answer to the issues pointed out in Syriana. I don't know. But maybe the issues wouldn't be there to begin with if we weren't concerned about what have and looking out for number one.

In other news, here is a great review by a friend of mine Narnia Review

Lastly have a great Christmas and don't spend too much money.