Season 5, Episode 6 revisited

Are you a Trekkie?

I am. I don't go to conferences dressed in pajamas, but I've seen every episode, many more than once. ALL the Star Treks: the original (starring William Shatner, who's birthday is TODAY - this must be providence!), the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise & all the movies. I also don't want to talk about how much time that equals, even at minimum viewing time.

But, have you seen episode 6 in season 5 of the Next Generation? Man, does it speak to me!!! Not to mention it stars a young Ashely Judd and has these two seriously great quotes, both spoken by Counselor Troi:

I never met a chocolate I didn't like.

                  and

Chocolate is a serious thing.

So, you can read the synopsis of the episode in way more detail than I'll give you on wikipedia, and see even more if you click those links on the bottom of the page. (Really?!? who has time to note that much detail about anything they are watching?!? But that's another post.)

Basically someone brings this game on board that is super addicting (and controlling, but you don't find that out right away) and then proceeds to get everyone else on board to play it. It makes people feel good when they get this disc in the cone on the game and suddenly people's jobs don't get done and it's all they do. There are a few times where the people who are already addicted to the game try to convince, and then coerce other crew members to PLAY.THE.GAME.

A few things in the last couple years have reminded me of this episode. First, facebook. People said 'You should do it!' 'Sign up.' 'Find people you barely know and haven't seen in years...'

And then I signed up and LOVED it. And it sucked up a bunch of time, but saved time because I didn't need to actually talk to people to know what was going on in their lives. And then you'd run into someone who didn't know those things, figure out they didn't have a facebook, and then YOU turn into the coercer...

Then there was the smart phone. Oooooh! Micheal got one, took it to bed with him 'just for the alarm' (Does that sound like, "I'm only reading it for the articles"?), and bought a bullet and water proof OtterBox case in case he drops it, or in case I decide to SHOOT it because it's always in his hand... (AND I'll be honest and say the same thing about me and the iPad Micheal bought me...)

Does the smart phone really make you smarter, or does it get smarter while we waste our time and get dumber....?

AND now I just got my first iPhone. And I love it, how did I live without this previously? And how sad it it that we had to make an actual rule to not have electronics at the dinner table?

Now there are Angry Birds. Angry Birds is a game where little green pigs steal the eggs of some cute little birds. This causes a war pitting various birds against structure building pigs. You launch the birds at the structures, trying to get them to fall and crush the pigs - all in a frantic bid to bring home Tweetie. Makes complete sense, right?

But do let me warn you about the addictive nature of this game! There is apparently no end to the size, scope, or materials they will use to build these structures and no sooner do you complete one then you get an option to go on to the next one, or do better on the last one... You are liable to stay up way to late trying to kill these little pigs that smile at you when you fail to smush them. And don't bring it into the bathroom with you or you may have a ring permanently imprinted on your butt. O

Just trying to be real here, people. ;o)

The Next Gen episode I talk about above actually ends with the crew finding out that this insidious game was really an attempt to distract them so their ship, and eventually the entire Federation, could be taken over by some really bad dudes. All the other things I mention aren't bad, but they can definitely become bad, have bad consequences, if I let them get control of me, and take me away from what I should really be doing.

I Like Ellen

I really like Ellen DeGeneres. I think she's funny, I love when she dances, and she's lovely and seems kind. More than that, I can't tell because I've never met her.

At a party yesterday with the TV on, an American Idol commercial played and Ellen was on it. Someone there told me a short story about how he used to watch AI and then review the show long distance with a grown child. He loved to do it, but can't anymore because now Ellen is a judge. When I asked why, "I just cannot do it with her open lesbianism, I've read articles where she details her joy in her marriage to another woman, I just can't watch it." I responded that I really like Ellen, and that pretty much ended the conversation.


But this has left me with much to think about. Ellen will never know if I watch her talk show or not (I don't - I work and I don't TiVo it) or American Idol, I do like the CoverGirl commercials she's done, but how do I and should I, as a Christ follower, respond? How do you respond? I think the issue could be much more black and white if the contents of said shows were obviously wrong, but I don't think they are.

A brief list of some of the things I know:

• God loves Ellen DeGeneres.
• Ellen is an admitted lesbian.
• The Bible, to many, seems clear on lesbianism being wrong.
• The Bible is also clear on many things I do being wrong - even things I like to do.
• God, being the ultimate Good cannot look on sin, cannot abide when darkness is, evidenced when Jesus was on the cross.
• In one of those strange paradoxes that only God seems to be able to do, He does look at us, and love us, even when we are so broken in our sin, He still draws us, woos us and redeems us.
• I know God loves and pursues me, even in all my brokenness. He doesn't look away.
  
• We are supposed to learn and grow and be more and more like Jesus as God heals us.
• We are supposed to avoid evil, avoid doing wrong, repent what God is pointing to in our lives.
• Jesus said to take care of ourselves and stop judging where someone else is at. (Luke 6:40-42)
• I don't think Jesus would have EVER said that, 'I just can't watch this, I can't look at, I can't stand this person.'
• It's awful hard to love on someone when you aren't looking at them, can't see them, and don't care to.

Not to reduce this to a trite, overused phrase, but what would Jesus do?
Because that's what I want to do.

(*** IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT a post on whether or not homosexuality is right or wrong. This is a post about trying to discern how God, who loves each of us unconditionally, wants us to respond to and love the people group with which we have the most issue - whatever it may be.)