And the Correct Answer is?

It sounds so lovely to say that you follow the Truth. It sounds so clear, so black and white. It sounds so obvious. Why wouldn't you want the Truth? These days, you hear a lot of people saying not so much that they don't want the truth, but more just that there is no truth to follow. "There is no absolute right and wrong. Just because something works for you doesn't mean it works for me. You do what you want but keep it to yourself." These types of statements generally rub me the wrong way. As a science-y person, I really like to find the right answer. I like to follow the equation, plug in the variables, and come out with THE answer. If someone doesn't come to the same conclusion as I do, then that means that one or both of us has it wrong. We should be able to go back and see where we went wrong. So all of this "there is no right answer" type of thought really doesn't jive with the way my brain works.

In the past while, I have started to realize that life isn't as black and white as I would like it to be. It isn't always easy to say without a doubt what is truth. So much seems open to interpretation. People disagree, but everyone (or at least many) have good reasons to think the things they do. In many cases, this is not hugely consequential. However, when we start talking about the big things: God and eternity, life and death, etc, it starts to seem a little more important to get it right. This is where it starts sounding really nice to say that you just follow the Truth. "The Bible right? I just read what it says and do it." I just finished reading the book "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell, and he addresses this type of thinking:

"The Bible has to be interpreted. Decisions have to be made about what it means now, today. The Bible is always coming through the interpretation of someone."

(As I write this quote I realize that it isn't all that amazing an excerpt. I mostly just wanted to give Rob Bell some of the credit for my thoughts on this) The thing is that if you want to do anything with the Bible beyond reading it - such as actually applying it to your life - you need to interpret the words you read and make judgment calls about what they meant and what they mean. And that means that when two people disagree about something, it's not so simple as going back and figuring out who is right and who is wrong. Shucks.

This sounds like I am on the road to saying there is no truth. And that is certainly not what I am doing. I believe that there is truth. It seems silly to me to not believe that. Take evolution for example. (By the way, from a faith perspective, this is one question that doesn't seem very important to me to find the right answer to, even if it could be determined. For curiosity's sake I am interested, but it doesn't affect what I believe about Jesus as far as I can tell) Some people say that over millions of years, animals evolved and became more and more advanced, and others say that God created the world in 7 days. Well, neither of those people were actually there when it happened, but that's not he point. The point is that SOMETHING happened. We got here somehow. Some people didn't get here through evolution and others were created on the 6th day. Maybe both those people are wrong, maybe one of them is, but they are not both right.

So where does all of this get me?

There is truth.

It's hard to find.

That's it? But what about in the Bible where it says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) "It says it right there, doesn't it? Jesus is Truth. End of story." Well, I guess I would say that is the bottom line. Jesus is the Truth. That is what we need to keep coming back to. But once again we come back to what it is we are going to do with the things Jesus taught, and the things that the people who knew Jesus taught. Well, I don't think we are ever going to figure out the whole truth in this world. I think there will be many situations where I will disagree with other people who are trying to follow Jesus about what he actually meant, or what he would want us to do today. I am coming to accept that as a fact. But accepting that doesn't mean that I don't think there is still truth. It just means we can't figure it out exactly.

So what? Do we just give up since we know we won't get it perfect anyways? No. Knowing that truth exists, I am determined to search after it. (Hey, this sounds familiar, like I've written it before...) I will search and search and search, and I will find some things. And I will probably (undoubtedly) get some things wrong. So will you. But if truth exists, it would be foolish to do anything except for devoting my life to finding it (or getting as close as possible).

Oh, and if any of you people who actually read this are wondering when I will write something that actually matters at all again, let me tell you... I don't know. I have about 10 rants materializing in my head, I just have to decide which one of them (if any) deserves internet space. Don't worry, I have thought about more than just what you can blend in a BlendTec blender in the past few weeks, if you can believe it.

Will It Blend?

Here is something that made me laugh:
http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=cube.

Cute Cute Cute

My nephew is the cutest ever. I realize that I have a slightly biased opinion, but come on. Look at that. I have decided that I am not planning on having kids in the extremely near future, as there are many other things I want to do first, and also some things I need to do first (such as get married). So being an aunt (or tante, as I like to say) is pretty much as good as it gets on the kids front.

Night of Yay!

Well, when I said that I would try to write something soon, I didn't actually mean less than 24 hours, but what do you know, I had a wonderful last hour. It is currently 3:58 in the morning, and I just got home from work. Although work wasn't the best ever, I discovered that tomorrw (actually today already) is slurpee day and 7/11 is giving away free ones, so me and Nashly and Vij decided to stop in for a slurpee on our way home. Well, my highly honed sweet talking skills came in handy, since apparently the giveaway isn't supposed to start till 7 am, which is a whopping 3 hours away, and the guy we talked to said he wasn't allowed to let us but we could talk to the the guy behind the counter, so I explained to the guy behind the counter (whose name was Horatio, and now looking back I really should have tried calling him "H" just for CSI Miami times sake) that we work the night shift and we wouldn't come back the next day for another slurpee if he would just let us have one now pretty please. And he let us. And I had a coffee flavored slurpee which, looking back, it is almost surprising that it tasted good.

Before you go telling me that my last hour of excitement was infinitely better than your last hour of boring sleep, let me tell you what else happened. That's right, there's more. Well, it was raining when we left work, and there was pretty regular and impressive lightning, which is already enough to make me in a good and smiley mood. But then the most amazing thing happened. We were on the cloverleaf at the perimeter and Pembina, and this prolonged and very bright flash of lightning flashed (what verb should I have used here? This sounds a little redundant) and it was so bright that it tricked the street lights that it was day time, and they all went out (or at least got very dim) for a few seconds before realizing that God tricked them and it was actually still night and then turned themselves back on. Then I realized that conveniently my Sheree Plett cd was in the player at that very moment, so I switched over to the track with the line,

"It's silent, just the crickets and my breathing
And the God above is practicing his flash photography"

I officially love night shift.

Hmmmm...

Well, it has been brought to my attention that it is time to blog. The fact that this is the main reason why I am getting around to it at this moment suggests that this post does not have very much promise. But we'll see what I can come up with. At this point, it is a mystery even to me. Mysteries aren't all bad. They can be pretty good. Like Nancy Drew for example (great movie by the way, especially if you have amazing sisters and sister's friends like I do).

If you could be any animal, which animal would you choose to be and why? This is a question I used to ask people when I was in youth group to "break the ice". I always used to say that I would be a gorilla because then I could have hairy legs and not have to apologize for them. I don't know if I am a very good ice breaker. I sometimes try to talk to a person when I first meet them and I don't want them to feel awkward so I just talk and talk and talk and I get a little nervous so I don't talk as smoothly as I like to think is normal for me and then I finally let them speak, and when the "conversation" is done I feel foolish and wish I was one of those people who just didn't care if I didn't strike up conversation with a new person in the room. Anyways, to answer my own question, if I could be any animal, I would perhaps choose to be a blue whale. I actually probably wouldn't, but saying that gives me the opportunity to disclose a couple interesting facts I just learned. Did you know that baby blue whales gain a ton of weight every month when they are growing? And not "a ton" meaning "lots", but a real ton as in 2000 pounds (by the way I just looked up what a ton was in pounds because I didn't know. I'm Canadian, okay? We talk in tonnes, which I did know are 1000 kilograms. And while I'm at it, that means that a tonne is bigger than a ton, so if you ever feel like being difficult when someone says the word ton/ne you can ask them to clarify the spelling so you know what they mean). Crazy. Also, an adult blue whale's heart weighs 1000 pounds (or should I say, half a ton). Just think about that for a second. The heart of a blue whale is the size of like 7 grown adults. I love God. And biology.

Are you getting the idea that I'm kind of just writing down whatever comes to my mind that will take up space? Well, that's what I'm doing. Hmmm, maybe I will ask another question and then answer it in another poorly constructed paragraph. Oh, here's a good one. If you had to work a week of 10 hour days, which 10 hours would you choose them to be? Now, I have a little bit of an educated opinion on this one, because of all the possible answers, I have actually tested 2 of them. I would have to say that if I could choose when to work a 10 hour shift, it would start at 4 pm and go till 2 am. That is how I am feeling right now at least. This week I am working from 5 pm and 3 am, and it is almost great. It is a lot closer to what my body wants to do than when I work 7 am to 5 pm. If you work till 2, you get to bed by 3 and you sleep till 10. Then you have a good 5 hours in the nicest part of the day to relax and hang out with people before getting ready for work at 3. Yes, that would be great, don't you think? I think. Okay, I don't think this topic is really intersting for anyone anymore, including me.

That is all. Sorry if it left you hungering for more. I will try to have a more organized post that actually has a point in the near future.