Choices

“ 'Le bon et 'le mal

These are the voices

We nous somme liberti'

We make the choices” - “Voices”, Michael W. Smith

“So this is how freedom dies - to thunderous applause.” - Padme, Star Wars III

I was at a bar last night, listening to Jay tell a story. Yes, sometimes I walk into bars. Head hurts when I do that, though... (sorry) Anyway, I wanted to share Jay's story, then build on it. I was trying to find where he spiked it from, but couldn't find it.

One day during World War II, a squadron of Allied fighters were patrolling off the British coast when a fog bank rolled in, dropping the visibility to near-zero. The squadron formed up, and were headed back when they spotted the enemy. A dogfight erupted, and the skies were filled with chaos and fire. Radio silence settled in as the pilots battled for survival. One damaged Allied fighter got separated from the rest and became disoriented. Lost in the fog bank, all he could see was flaming debris falling – no sky, no water, no ground. Just grey.

With most of his instruments knocked out, he was truly flying blind. He gathered his senses and wits, then tried to stabilize the airplane. Miraculously, his radio was working and he heard his home base calling. They told him that his entire flight was killed in action, but that he was on a heading that would take him home.

Maintaining altitude and heading as best he could, the weary pilot trundled homeward. Suddenly, he sees a light flick past just off his wingtip. He questions the tower about it. They tell him that he is indeed pretty low. As a pilot myself, I know that the reflex response is to pull up to gain altitude.

Radio contact was lost immediately.

After a few weeks or months, they pieced together the event chain. The pilot had become so disoriented that he was flying upside down. The light off his wing was a lighthouse on the coast, and pulling up had caused him to crash into the coast.

If you look at Jesus, then look at the world, somebody seems to be upside down. The world gives us a set of conditions for success – money, fame, and so on. Jesus gives a set of conditions for success, but they're backwards. He says stuff like “He who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses it for my sake will find it.” or “If you want to be great, be the servant of all.” Why? Who is right?

The quick answer is that of course the way espoused by Jesus is right. Yay Jesus. OK, set that aside for a few minutes, and let's be “open-minded.”

I would venture that the world is the one that's upside down. The way that we hear to get higher in the world somehow always dooms us to crash. It may seem social to party, but eventually you'll get “burned”, whether it's liver failure or something else. Of course, everyone who has money is happy. That's why we hear so much good news about celebrities and sports players, how their money has made their lives so much better. (That's sarcasm, by the way)

My table got into a rather spirited discussion about what actually drove our lives. What gets you out of bed, what makes you do the things you do. We concluded that more than seeking happiness, life is about seeking fulfillment. Two of the people at my table do work with social service organizations like AmeriCorp, trying to make the world a better place from the bottom up. They find fulfillment through helping others.

I've been listening to a very thought-provoking sermon series from a friend's church. The pastors at Flatirons Community Church is doing a series of sermons taking an honest look at romance and relationships. (link at end of post) While the pastor strongly challenges his audience to listen to what God says, one line from his first sermon especially stood out. He said “If the way you're doing things is working for you, that's great. You do that. If it's not working, look at what God says.” Now, he's the pastor. He's supposed to say “Do things God's way because it's the Right Thing to do.”

I finished an e-book today that's also added fuel to this fire. I cautiously recommend Cory Doctorow's “Little Brother” if you have any bent towards computers or technology or privacy issues. (The cautious recommendation is due to a couple scenes/major plot points that I thought were a little heavy-handed. You'll know what I mean if you read it) The book poses a debate about citizen's rights versus security of the state.

The first point I'd like to pull is actually from the last part of the book. In the afterword, different authors with different perspectives offer opinions and guidance on security “hacking”. “Hacking” is used in this sense to denote devising both new security schemes and ways to beat new security schemes. The main point is that to be effective, it's not about technological knowledge or political posture or natural talent. It's about a mindset that takes systems down to their elements, considers the benefits and flaws, then looks for ways to improve them.

Like going to a bar to discuss Jesus without the context of Christianity. Once I set aside the part of me that said “I know all this. I'm a good church kid as opposed to those not-church people”, I found that the knowledge can definitely go both ways. I find that I identify closer to most people than I think. I carry hurt inflicted by “good church people” in a handful of instances, I reject most of the stupid “rules for the sake of rules”, and so on. Besides, Jesus argued with the “religious right” - where does that mean we should stand?

As the book's protagonist tries to go about his day-to-day activities in a post-terrorist-attack police state, he starts adding various minor tweaks to his routine to defeat pursuers. Usually they're simple things like dumping gravel in your shoes to defeat gait-recognition cameras, or microwaving a library book to inactivate the RFID chip. It's a battle of paranoia between him and the DHS, each waiting to see who will slip first. Even as he gets more paranoid, though, the other citizens are handing in their freedoms readily in the name of security.

This analogizes pretty closely as well. As Jay puts it, drug addicts don't become that way when someone jumps out of an alley and sticks it in their arm. They become that way through a downward-spiraling path through all sorts of ugly stuff. It starts with a small concession, then a slightly larger one.

In the same way, our lives don't just become “upside down” one day all on their own. Even our inaction is a choice in some way. Every day, the choices we make have consequences. These consequences will determine our destiny, whether we like it or not.

Over the last few days, I've been considering a few areas of my life. I just graduated from college and accepted a full-time job offer. Both of these things would be considered “on the way up” to the world. I don't think either item is bad, either. The problem lies in wanting to subscribe to the whole package of what the world thinks is good. I have some choices to make in the next day or two that will help set a course for the immediate future of my life.

One more quote, this time from a Matrix movie. Neo is told that he has “already made your choice. Now you just have to understand why you made that choice.” Even with little thought, I can feel my mind aligning on these choices. They may be good choices, or my sneaking suspicion that some probably will end up poor choices may be correct. But they are being made even now, and what remains is to understand why I've made them.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for reading!

Link list:

http://www.flatironschurch.com/ Chris's church. Follow the link to “Messages”, then the “Explicit Lyrics” series. And heed the warnings – your responsibility, not mine.

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/ Where to find the e-book. It's free under a Creative Commons license, so it's free to download and read. Go to the “Download” page to get a copy.