Joeletter 12.3

Wow, so I was really whiny in my last letter, J 12.2. Sorry about that. More areas to work on trusting God, and taking each thing to Him every time I meet with Him.

How have you been doing meeting with God? Have you been looking for Him in Bible accounts? Have you been spending time with Him in your imagination? Do you look around and try to find Him in the room with you? I don't ask to make you feel guilty, if you are not currently seeking Him in this way. I don't believe that our God is a God of guilt. I only ask to offer ways to seek God. And I look forward to hearing from you how you have been spending time with Him.

I didn't end up being able to go to another Solid Rock concert, for which I was sad. But on Thursday night I had a chance to be with some friends from Prague, CZ. The Valodines were my surrogate family while I was away from home. They are currently here in the States on furlough, visiting churches and friends. On their way from North Carolina to Illinois they stopped by to visit my family and I. It was really nice spend the evening with them.

Work continues unabated. It has still been hot, but if I am able to stay in front of a fan I am fairly comfortable. My last few blog/xanga posts have chronicled "The Fanless Saga." Parts of this past week we were without a fan on my line, Line 253. That made it a little tougher to function, as I recounted.

Today, Saturday, I worked on my usual overtime line, Line 574. This is the hottest line in the plating department, because we work in a small area bounded by walls on two sides, and the huge drying machine on a third. The dryer heat is thus concentrated on us, in addition to the heat and humidity present due to summer.

But they borrowed two extra fans from other lines, bringing the number up to five. This made it possible to almost always work in a stream of moving air. I was quite comfortable, considering. Although I would only prefer to work on 574 for overtime pay!

I recently got into a debate with a friend over the Harry Potter books. Now, I am not particularly a Harry Pothead basher. So far, I've only read the first and third book. After reading the third, a variety of reasons combined made me decide not to read any more of them. I didn't particularly hate them at all, I just decided not to read them.

The one thing that I really didn't like about the Harry Pothead books was that Harry always got away with breaking the rules, and never received the just punishment. It was always a slap on the wrist, if he was punished at all. Or the punishment was just, but extenuating circumstances rendered the punishment impotent/non-applicable.

The subtle rule that continually gets reinforced is that 1) If you don't get caught, what you're doing is not wrong, or 2) The end justifies the means, or 3) If you're special, you're above the law. The law doesn't apply to you, it applies to everyone else. You have a certain destiny which you must follow. Thus, to follow that destiny, it's okay if you bend/break/blatantly smash rules.

Let's go over that again.
1) If you don't get caught, what you're doing is not wrong, or
2) The end justifies the means, or
3) If you're special, you're above the law. The law doesn't apply to you, it applies to everyone else. You have a certain destiny which you must follow. Thus, to follow that destiny, it's okay if you bend/break/blatantly smash rules.

I don't agree with any of the above logic statements. I suspect (hope!) you don't either. My disagreement is not merely a personal thing, I believe it is grounded in what God has said to us. In opposition to what God has said to us, these statements are being subtly, strongly reinforced by the Harry Pothead books.

My friend challenged my limited scope, saying that in only reading two of the now just available six books, I was not looking at the whole picture. I strongly, strongly disagree. I believe that the worldview of an author will always come through in that author's writing, no matter how much or how little is written.

However, I have agreed with my friend that I will read all seven of the books. As I go, I plan to post to my blog/xanga specific instances where Harry Pothead should receive punishment, but doesn't. I may post other things too, but I plan to make that my main post subject.

If you choose to follow this line of postings, I should make a disclaimer. I do plan to be nitpicky. But only as nitpicky as you would be if you were trying to rid yourself of cancer cells in your body.


In His Time,