(Not So) Random Thought

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. - Romans 7:21

A Sermon A Week

Why should we have a sermon every sunday? What if a pastor stands up, goes to the pulpit and says 'I have no sermon for you today'? 

What is/should be/ideally has been the role of pastors? How much of it is expositing what the bible says and how much of it is modeling for the church what it means to be a man who is led by God, and out of that having sermons preached, may be twice a week? Shouldn't a shepherd be more of a man who is walking and leading the sheep and preaching being only one of the several ways he leading them? Or does a shepherd look at his responsibilities as, "If i give the sheep 5 whacks a day, give them to the waters once a week, then my responsibilities are over "

I find it hard to believe that every Sunday God wants the church to gather in a building, sit in the pews, and to listen to a pastor preach, and then go back home. I find it hard to believe that a pastor is called to preach every sunday. Don't get me wrong. There is a place for sermons, there is a place for preaching. However, as of today, I stand unconvinced that it needs to be done every sunday. 

Delhi - 6

... cuz I love this song.

The Unsaid Exception to the Unsaid Rule

If you wear multicolored boxers then an ABCD offence will not be counted against you.


Someone should blog about ABCD, so that I can link to it. 

The Decline

The First said, "Thank You"

The Second chose not to. 

The Third asked, "Who are you?"

The Fourth said, "We don't know you"

The Fifth asked, "Do you exist?"

The Sixth answered, "He does not!"

Why I like blogging

1. It is creative. I like creativity.

2. The world, with all its messages, talks to me all the time. ALL THE TIME. This is my way of talking back to it. I love the fact that the world has access to it. 

3. There are so many things to say, but whom are they to be said to? Who is the audience? Friends? But there is only so much you can talk with friends, only so much you can burden them with / bore them with. Blogging lets the audience decide if they want to continue listening to you. 

4. When you write, you preserve a mind. It can be helpful in the future.

5. Though biased, it is a semi-decent reflection of who you are - to yourself and to the world. 
6. Writing/blogging is like crying in that It is an emotional release. You stay less complicated once you write.  

Random Thought

I desire, therefore I am.

The best part of, "Life of Pi"

I am not a big fan of the book. There isn't much to get from it... but this is the best part.

Chapter 13

So you see, if you fall into a lion's pit, the reason it will tear you into pieces is not because it's hungry - be assured, zoo animals are amply fed - or because it's bloodthirsty, but because you've invaded its territory.

As an aside, that is why a circus trainer must always enter the lion ring first, and in full sight of the lions. in doing so, he establishes that the ring is his territory, not theirs, a notion that he reinforces by shouting, by stomping about, by snapping his whip. The lions are impressed. Their disadvantage weighs heavily on them. Notice how they come in: mighty predators though they are, "king of beasts", they crawl in with their tails low and they keep to the edges of the ring, which is always round so that they have nowhere to hide. They are in the presence of a strongly dominant male, a super-alpha male, and they must submit to his dominance rituals. So they open their jaws wide, they sit up, they jump through paper-covered hoops, they crawl through tubes, they walk backwards, they roll over. "He's a queer one," they think dimly. "Never seen a top lion like him. But he runs a good pride. The larder's always full and - let's be honest, mates - his antics keep us busy. Napping all the time does get a bit boring. At-least we're not riding bicycles like the brown bears or catching flying plates like the chimps."

Only the trainer better make sure he always remains super alpha. He will pay dearly if he unwittingly slips to beta. Much hostile and aggressive behavior among animals is the expression of social insecurity. The animal in front of you must know where it stands, whether above you or below you. Social rank is central to how it leads its life. Rank determines whom it can associate with and how, where and when it can eat; where it can rest; where it can drink; and so on. Until it knows its rank for certain, the animal lives a life of unbearable anarchy. It remains nervous, jumpy, dangerous. Luckily for the circus trainer, decisions about social rank among higher animals are not always based on brute force. Hediger (1950) says, "When two creatures meet, the one that is able to intimidate its opponent is recognized as socially superior, so that a social decision does not always depend on a fight; an encounter in some circumstances may be enough."  ...

It's a question of brain over brawn. The nature of the circus trainer's ascendancy is psychological. Foreign surroundings, the trainer's erect posture, calm demeanor, steady gaze, fearless step forward, strange roar (for example, the snapping of a whip or the the blowing of a whistle) - these are so many factors that will fill the animal's mind with doubt and fear, and make clear to it where it stands, the very thing it wants to know. Satisfied, Number Two will back down and Number One can turn to the audience and shout, "Let the show go on! And now, ladies and gentlemen, through the hoops of real fire ..."

Chapter 14

It is interesting to note that the lion that is the most amenable to the circus trainer's tricks is the one with the lowest social standing in the pride, the omega animal. It has the most to gain from a close relationship with the super-alpha trainer. it is not only a matter of extra treats. A close relationship will also mean protection from the other members of the pride. It is compliant animal, to the public no different from the others in size and apparent ferocity, that will be the star of the show, while the trainer leaves the beta and gamma lions, more cantankerous subordinates, sitting on their colorful barrels on the edge of the ring.

The same is true of other circus animals. and is also seen in zoos. Socially inferior animals are the ones that make the most strenuous resourceful efforts to get to know their keepers. They prove to be the ones most faithful to them, most in need of their company, least likely to challenge them or be difficult. The phenomenon has been observed with big cats, bison, deer, wild sheep, monkeys and many other animals. It is a fact commonly known in the trade.

Universal Fact #48

Chacha Choudhari's mind works faster than a computer.

Random Thought

The best thing  a person can do for himself, all humans around him and the human race in general is to pursue God for himself.

Desire v/s Discipline

Discipline cannot produce a desire in you. It can only help channel or stregthen a desire, and avoid others choking it. If there is no desire at all, then there is no need for discipline at all.


Desire 2 : Discipline 1

Thoughts on Humility - C. S. Lewis

The following is a modified quote from 'The Screwtape Letters', by C. S. Lewis. It needed to be modified because the context of the book makes it difficult for a direct quote to make sense to those who do not know it, and it would have been a pain to explain it. 

"Thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. 

Humility is not a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of your own talents and character. Some talents your really have. Don't fix in your mind, the idea that Humility is trying to believe those talents are less valuable than you believe them to be. No doubt they are infact less valuable, but that is not the point. 

God wants you, in the end to be so free from any bias in your own favor that you can rejoice in your own talents as frankly and gratefully as in your neighbor's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant or a waterfall. God wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognize all creatures (even yourself) as glorious and excellent things - when you have really learned to love your neighbor as yourself, then you will be allowed to love yourself as their neighbor. "