Wasted life

darkly

Posted: 10.02.2005, 10:39

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Did you see the article in the Guardian re the 7 deadly sins? I'll see if it is lying around here and post some quotes. Was an interesting read.

D4rk|y

andy

Posted: 17.02.2005, 06:39

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No, didn't see that.

darkly

Posted: 18.02.2005, 19:55

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[URL=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1407253,00.html]Read the article...[/URL]

D4rk|y

Anonymous

Posted: 19.02.2005, 14:24

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The 7 deadly sins are a strange concept, aren't they? Any idea where the list came from? Lots of people assume it's in the Bible, but it isn't. I suppose the 10 commandments are the almost equivalent list there.

andy

Posted: 21.02.2005, 08:23

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Some monk wasn't it?

Anonymous

Posted: 24.02.2005, 20:25

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[URL=http://www.cbc.ca/7deadly/sins/]The Church preferred to call them "capital vices" ...[/URL]

andy

Posted: 25.02.2005, 08:01

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Interesting point made in that article, that the 10 commandments are outward-looking, but the 7DSs are inward-looking. That might suit our current culture, but I don't think it fits with what I see as Jesus' attitude - he said "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength," and "love your neighbour as yourself," not "watch your mind to prevent yourself being proud."

Go, on, someone find a quote like that just to show me.

Anonymous

Posted: 24.03.2005, 09:56

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Well, he did talk about needing to be clean inside, and that our outward actions flow from the inside.

On the original topic, I get annoyed or frustrated about unresolved things in life that I want to sort out, like the fact that my record collection and most of my possessions are stuck in boxes in my parents' houses and will they ever not be?, or useless bureaucracy that needs to be complained about, or dentists who want to drill holes in my teeth cos I don't floss enough, or films I keep not seeing, or not having time to post articles to express myself on GX, etc.

When this happens, I often find myself saying "There are more important things in life to worry about". But it occurred to me today to ask - What is worth worrying about? Surely some things are important? And life is made up of these moments like listening to music or having to deal with letters from the Inland Revenue saying they think you're living abroad, so surely it's right to be concerned about these things?

So what do you think is worth worrying about?

Midge

Posted: 24.03.2005, 09:58

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And that's another thing - websites that forget you're logged in!

andy

Posted: 24.03.2005, 10:07

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Does my head in. Don't know how to fix it.

Anonymous

Posted: 24.03.2005, 10:19

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Oh well, life's too short to worry about things like that (and the way it's started forgotting how to interpret BBCode) :-P

I suppose what I'm really asking myself is - what should my priorities be in life? what is worth valuing? The easy Biblical answer is 'Don't worry about details, seek the Kingdom of God...' But what are the details?

Midge

Posted: 24.03.2005, 10:23

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I mean, what are the details of a life which puts God's kingdom first? :-?

Anonymous

Posted: 24.03.2005, 10:51

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From the different stories of great Jews and Christians in the Bible, it might be that the answer is, "The details will be hugely different for each person." What ties the Bible characters together is trusting God - apart from that they have very different lives.

Midge

Posted: 24.03.2005, 11:54

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Yep, I wasn't expecting a one-size-fits-all answer. What I meant was "What are the details of me living my life in that way?", apart from the general trying to have some trust in God. A trendy answer is "kingdom values" - look at what Jesus says about the kingdom and follow that. And try not to worry about stuff.

andy

Posted: 30.03.2005, 10:28

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Kingdom values - I hate that phrase, but if it means putting the last first, loving God and your neighbour, then how about that?

Midge

Posted: 30.03.2005, 20:04

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How does that apply to my PhD? Should I just chuck it in? Should I submit to everything my supervisor says? (I can tell the answer won't be that simple.)

davidb

Posted: 02.04.2005, 09:54

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How realistic is it to (a) just ignore what your supervisor says and hand it in? or (b) show it to some other lecturer and see what *they* think? (c) Start seriously thinking about arbitration - there must be guidelines in the University for this sort of disagreement between student and supervisor?

As for how this relates to 'kingdom values', I don't know. What I do know is that this is a huge burden for you, and that God is for you in wanting it to be thrown off you.

Love, DavidB

Midge

Posted: 03.04.2005, 21:29

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Someone suggested to me what Paul's advice about PhDs was: "If you can gain your freedom, do so".

I don't think arbitration is necessary - communication between us hasn't broken down - he's probably not even aware of my concerns. And I've just heard from a past supervisee of his that he can agree that something's OK for submission if you put it to him, otherwise he just keeps making suggestions. And someone tells me apparently it's the student's responsibility to judge whether it's ready for submission (so you can't sue anyone).

Basically I think I need to force some other people to give their opinions, and then do the minimum necessary and hand it in. The bottom line is that (1) I have to finish it (2) I have very little time to work on it any more. I just have to deal with the questions in my mind - which of his criticisms are worth listening to and which aren't?

Anonymous

Posted: 04.04.2005, 11:18

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Also, I have sent it to my old supervisor to read, and she was very positive about the first chapters of it, but she's been too busy to read any more yet. Other people in my dept who'd said they'd like to read it were too busy when I actually asked them. As I said before, everyone's too busy these days.

And if I ever do finish, I can return to thinking about other things in life again, try to rebuild my shattered faith and hope, and try to work out what on earth I'm any good for, remembering other people's encouraging advice - such as "Don't consider full-time Christian work unless you can see continual spiritual progress in your life".

andy

Posted: 04.04.2005, 11:59

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Don't ask, just send with a little note about how valuable it would be to hear their thoughts because they're so clever.

My own advice: "don't enter full time Christian work unless you're prepared to see the nastiest side of Christians."

Anyone who claims to see continual spiritual progress in their life is claiming something not claimed for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, or anyone else in the Bible ...

... except ...

Jesus.

They should probably think about that.

Midge

Posted: 04.04.2005, 13:49

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Some people seem to think the Bible says "Not by might, not by power, but by your staunch theological soundness". On the other hand, it's risky to enter a battle when you doubt your own weapons and shield and purpose.

davidb

Posted: 05.04.2005, 13:30

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This is all very honest - thank you both for your posts.

> Also, I have sent it to my old supervisor to read, and she was very positive about the first chapters of it, but she's been too busy to read any more yet.

When was this? If it's a while back, you may want to send her an email expressing how much you'd like her to do this. I feel as though she should act more responsibly towards you, even though she may not be your 'official' supervisor any more.

> And if I ever do finish, I can return to thinking about other things in life again, try to rebuild my shattered faith and hope, and try to work out what on earth I'm any good for

Sorry to hear that your faith feels shattered. Do tell us more if you feel like it.

I know you're good for huge amounts; and I'll pray that you get a sense of hope back.

> remembering other people's encouraging advice - such as "Don't consider full-time Christian work unless you can see continual spiritual progress in your life".

Which muppet said that? Not their name, just which part of your life they're from. I'm very angry with this comment - I agree vociferously with Andy. Replace 'continual' with 'gradual' or 'on average' and it might be good advice, I suppose.

> My own advice: "don't enter full time Christian work unless you're prepared to see the nastiest side of Christians."

I feel so disenchanted that I'm tempted to say to everyone: "Don't enter full time Christian work. Full stop." But that's clearly not right of me. However, full-time Christian work is not something I'm at all tempted to do (except for the worst of motives: to get myself out of the pain of my current job). In actual fact, I'm sure you'd be good at Christian work that used your PhD training.

> Some people seem to think the Bible says "Not by might, not by power, but by your staunch theological soundness".

Are you getting this sort of attitude thrown at you at the moment? Again, by what sort of people?

> On the other hand, it's risky to enter a battle when you doubt your own weapons and shield and purpose.

I suppose so, to an extent. On the other hand, I tend to think: I'm in this battle, whether I like it or not. I'm fortunate in not doubting my weapons, although I don't use them much; I doubt my shield but it occasionally helps; I have no clue about specific purpose, but I keep doing a bit here and there. But I'm perverting your analogy, I think - you were talking about the battle of full-time Christian work - all I can say is that anyone who thinks they're ready for it is being foolish.

darkly

Posted: 05.04.2005, 16:44

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Midge, sorry to hear that you are still having a hard time with your thesis. What are you doing at the moment that means you are finding it harder to spend time writing it?

D4rk|y

Midge

Posted: 05.04.2005, 21:08

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As I mentioned on the "Hard work" thread, I'm working full-time taking digital pictures of the pages of 2000 lab books for a pharmaceutical company for about 5 months. It got the Job Centre off my back and gave me something to get out of bed for, and a bit more money. But I don't really have enough energy and inclination to rehash my thesis in the evenings/weekends, and having spoken to people, that's probably a good thing, as it shouldn't need more work done on it, and my supervisor would just keep suggesting more things to do anyway.

Midge

Posted: 06.04.2005, 09:13

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I might not have remembered it exactly, but that was just some advice from a conference a few years ago which was supposed to encourage people to go into full time Christian work... I haven't taken it seriously, but on the other hand I think a certain amount of spiritual strength is required for some activities, just as a certain amount of physical strength is required for others. When Jesus told Paul 'my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness', I don't think that meant it's OK to be feeble, flabby and unexercised like me. I think Paul must've been pretty strong in his faith to keep going on with all the floggings etc.

"staunch theological soundness" >Again, by what sort of people?
I just feel like that's a general attitude among a lot of Christians, that the most important requirement for serving God is to be exact, precise and certain about everything theological. From a couple of books I was reading, it seemed clear that the most important thing is to know Jesus, and these other things can get in the way. And then last Sunday evening we had a sermon on Philippians 3 which said much the same.