Irreconcilable Differences
Today's post is going to be on marriage, the Church, and divorce, but I want to start off with a disclaimer. Divorce isn't easy or fun for just about anyone in the church (if it is, they won't care about this post I suspect). I don't want this post to be a judgment of people who have gone through a divorce for whatever reason, and I know I can't even begin to fathom all circumstances that could legitimately or illegitimately lead to divorce. I will be talking about an ideal that we should be working towards, which speaks more to the future than to the past.
Just yesterday I got to thinking about why divorce shouldn't ever really happen in the Church. My thought process came about as a result of thinking on the most commonly cited reason for divorce (on paper), irreconcilable differences. In worldly thinking that makes total sense, but Scripture brings a very difference message here (as in many cases). The most irreconcilable differences ever was the human relationship(s) with God. We could never have bridged the gap in order to be reconciled to God. Instead Jesus came down to earth and died on the cross, making reconciliation possible.
As a result, I have to conclude that the minor differences and pain caused in human relationships can also be conquered if we try. This of course assumes two Christian people participating in a marriage and seeking reconciliation. If only the person sinned against is a Christian they can forgive, but real reconciliation probably can't happen because there won't be real repentance in the other person. And if only the person doing the sinning is a Christian than the other person will probably walk away and Scripture pretty clearly allows for that. Most Christians reading this are probably already against divorce, so just consider this a bit of thinking on it and bringing in Gospel reasoning (it's helpful for me to think through and put down in words, as well).
Christ Plays – 7/11/11
A dehumanized Jesus allows us to develop a practice of love that has nothing to do with actual people. We are free to practice a love of God that consists of a mix of music, mountains, and stories that fills our hearts with inspiring thoughts and feelings without all the distraction and bother of people.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays – 7/8/11
Sin confessed and forgiven frees us to develop relationships of love with our Lord and with one another.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays – 7/7/11
At the core of who we are, there is something wrong, something wrong relationally, wrong personally between us and our neighbors and God. The only way to deal with it is by forgiveness.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays – 7/6/11
Often enough the community of the resurrection takes its cues from the world around us and lets its identity be shaped by a pursuit of learning so that we can combat ignorance, a pursuit of power so that we can relieve weakness, a pursuit of money so that we can assist people to live a more fulfilling and satisfying life.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays – 7/5/11
When improvements need to be made in our communities, sin is not ordinarily targeted as the place to start. The usual launching pads for improving ourselves and the world around us are knowledge, power, and wealth. And the resources we assemble to deal with them are, in broad categories, schools, politics, business, medicine, and the judiciary.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Google vs. Apple
I know everyone may be talking about Google vs. Facebook right now, but since I've been reading through an introduction to economics the Google vs. Apple competition in the smartphone arena is of more interest to me right now. The two companies seem to be taking two different approaches, with Google on the more traditional side and Apple on the slightly more idiosyncratic side (at least to my knowledge, but I don't know much economic history). Let me tell you what I mean.
I'll start with the Apple approach, since to a certain extent Google is responding to the iPhone (Apple in its iOS 5 announcement showed that is also chasing the competition in some areas, but by and large that doesn't represent it's approach). Apple is essentially trying to create demand, and then using scarcity (whether real or just perceived) to keep making all kinds of money. This is best demonstrated through an example.
The iPad probably makes a more clear example to begin with, since the tablet market was almost non-existent until Apple decided to try its hand at making one. Apple came through and announced the iPad, and they called it "magical" and convinced a whole lot of people that they wanted it. As other tablets came out they merely maintain that their tablet is better, and thus worth the higher price tag (at least in some cases...other tablet makers aren't really pushing prices down yet).
I also suspect (and I can't prove this in any real way) that Apple artificially creates scarcity in order to drive demand. When no one can get their hands on a product and everyone seems to want it, it must be really amazing, right? Realistically, though, Apple is just making a few below what they can actually sell so that they never have to lower the price in order to sell off the remaining stock. It's also another way they differentiate their product from all those other ones that are easy to get.
The thing is, Apple's products aren't all that different from everyone else's, and in a lot of cases they don't seem to earn the extra price. Google is using traditional economics to fight back against Apple, and while I haven't seen numbers from Apple recently I think Google is growing its market share in the smart phone arena.
So what exactly is Google doing? They are allowing a whole lot of other companies to make phones based on their operating systems which naturally drives down prices. If two people make the same product the only way for one company to really beat the other is to sell their product cheaper. And so you see the constant downward trend in prices for Android phones (at least after they have been on the market for a couple months).
This has resulted in the consumer's ability to buy a really great phone (some would argue better than the current iPhone) for a fraction of the price (I see phone prices at work, and I'm fairly certain I could get a better phone for a third of the price). Apple's arguments that the iPhone is better are getting flimsier and flimsier over time, too. Android market has almost as many apps (there are probably very few cases where you can't find an Android app for a task you can use an iPhone app for) and Apple no longer has a perfect record with their hardware (see antennagate). Only time will tell the full results of this competition, but I think it will result in a victory for Google over Apple (similar to the early battles between Apple and Microsoft, where Microsoft also won on cheaper hardware).
Christ Plays – 7/4/11
for sin is basically a depersonalizing word or act. It is not, in essence, breaking a rule, but breaking a relationship.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays – 7/1/11
There is much naivete regarding sin in Christian communities. For a people whose text for living is the Bible, a book in which "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23) is documented on virtually every page, this is an enormous irony.
from Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
Interpretation of Dreams – 6/30/11
The pre-scientific conception of the dream which obtained among the ancients was, of course, in perfect keeping with their general conception of the universe, which was accustomed to project as an external reality that which possessed reality only in the life of the psyche.
from The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud