I've been working at DQ for a little over a week now. It's an old school DQ. Not a Grill and Chill. We serve Ice Creme and Hot Dogs. That's it.
And we use the old soft serve recipe as well. So it doesn't suck.
Any way, on our bulletin board in the back, I happened to notice that something resembling money was stuck up. But something was funny about it.
A closer look revealed that some customer left a million dollar tip to one of our workers. I had to laugh. I wonder what my co-workers would think if they all knew that I'm a false prophet...
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That's like leaving Monopoly money as a tip, how insulting!
ReplyDeleteIf the worker remembers that person's face, it might be unwise for the jerk/jerkette to show said face there again. Restaurant workers can and will do things to his food.
ReplyDeleteDid this tipper appear to be a person with a science degree? Or maybe he had a badge?
ReplyDeletePerhaps he walked in shouting at everyone to get down on the floor for Christ, under the orders of the police officers of the military, and then brought his fifteen children and three wives in, carrying a large photo of Ray Comfort?
'Cause if so, I bet I know who left it...
One of Ray's million dollar bill tracts? Perhaps Terry Burton visited the DQ. He owns a boatload of those stupid bills.
ReplyDeleteOh Geoff, our minds are so alike. :-P
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Burton would have made an impression. They'd be talking about him.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that xtians handing out Ray-bills for tips should definitely have some extra attention applied to their food the next time they visit.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone did a study on who are better tippers... Atheists or theists...
"You don't fuck with people who handle your food." Monty
Rob Penn,
ReplyDeleteNice to see you!
I am elated that you have found meaningful work. That's what most of us do for a living rather than prance around campus all the time pushing bronze age myths.
Rob, I busted you three months ago in a couple of our excahnges and it becomes increasingly obvious that you are holding on to some of your beliefs on the thickness of a gnat's eyelash.
You are actually laughing at yourself, and rightfully so, because we all go through that.
Let's say you move toward Agnosticism. Do you lose the support of your family? Friends?
How much of your support system do you lose? That can be a very daunting question, indeed. I have friends that went through their Radical Stage, and went back. It didn't hurt them to try it.
So, It's up to you, friend. And, by the way, I hope you are still taking those psycology courses. You have some insights that only you may be able to confer onto future generations.
/d
EB said:
ReplyDelete"You don't fuck with people who handle your food." Monty"
Truer words were never spoken.
If someone ever hands me one of those bills I'll stick it in my mouth, chew, and spit it out.
ReplyDelete@ dale:
ReplyDeleteMy beliefs are fluid. They change as truth is presented and supported to me.
However, they will always include a presupposition of the truth of the Bible (Even if I screw up when reading it), the existence of God and his love and sacrifice for me, and the existence of a supernatural realm.
All for the same reason that my world view presupposes the existence of an America and my mother's existence and love for me. I've experienced them, and experience them daily.
I laugh at the false prophet thing because, in all honesty, I'll get angry if I don't. I tried that when the accusation first came up. It was about as productive as Miracle Grow on a bald man's head. Useful tool, but not for this job.
Man, I'm full of those kind of smilies and comparisons at this time of night.
I wouldn't loose much family support if I moved toward Agnosticism. Most of my family believes that I've been duped by Satan into uselessness as it is, so there's not much to loose. I would loose a lot of friends, but there are plenty of friends waiting for me saying "Please please PLEASE stop talking about God!" In similar ways, I wouldn't loose much of my support network.
If you don't count my relationship with Jesus, of course. ;)
I am still a psych major. I'm taking Social Psych this semester. The first two days was watching a video called "Darwin's Dangerous Idea." High quality acting and production, lemme tell ya. Not as entertaining, though, as the looks on people's faces when I tell them that I as a Christian am not offended by it.
Hi, Rob
ReplyDeleteYou made a point that I'd like to ask you about:
"All for the same reason that my world view presupposes the existence of an America and my mother's existence and love for me. I've experienced them, and experience them daily."
Ray and some of the Raylians have made a similar point, but it's hard to get them to answer questions, so I'm hoping your more open to a dialogue about it.
What is it like to experience God? How do you know that an experience is of God and not of something else?
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI moved the discussion up here just cause it’s easier to follow newer threads thann look for old ones.
Rob Penn…”The fact of the laws is, most of the laws are laws that are impossible to follow. It's not because the laws are unreasonable; the laws aren't there to save us. The law is God saying "Look, the only way to have a relationship with me outside of Christ is to be this perfect, because if you've got sin then you'd be a tissue paper trying to give a big fire hugs. That's why you need Jesus."
Hmmm…that’s interesting the way you put that. It gives another perspective. I still don’t see it as totally rational, but it seems more rational then the impression of god that I get from Ray. What I mean is, the picture I get of god from Ray and the fundie crew is of a tyrant god. I’m sure that’s not the way the see or mean it to be but that’s how it comes off…god is just a dick and humans are filthy scum.
They way I reading your description, it’s like god wants to be with us, but can’t for some reason, so he’s trying to fix the situation with Jesus; to bridge the gap for both sides. But here’s why it still doesn’t seem totally rational (aside from the lack of evidence thing) …why can’t god have a relationship with us without us being perfect or having Jesus? Is he under some kind of constraint? Is he subject to moral laws; are they more powerful then him? Is he unable to change? Or is he just being stubborn?
RP…”Why do you have to blow up fatty? let fatty go hungry for a while. He'll get smaller. Dislocate his shoulder, he'll fit through then.”
Yep, there’s something to be said for logical thinking ;)
@ Geoff:
ReplyDeleteWhat is it like to experience God? How do you know that an experience is of God and not of something else?
Experiencing God is not quite the way people talk like it is.
Hearing God, for example, does not mean an audible voice from heaven in most cases. Hearing God speak is often a similar kind of feeling that one gets when they say "That painting really speaks to me," or "That violin solo really speaks to me."
You know that it's God and not something else by what is being said. Kind of like how you can tell which posts are one of Terry's many sock puppet accounts by what is said and how it's said. Or how you can tell that, regardless of the name, that is NOT that person posting because they would never say that.
Communicating with God is done through that "Hearing" of his voice, as well as through the Bible and through other followers of Christ. One of the major things that showed me God's calling for my life into vocational ministry is a friend of mine named Devan who prophesied to me on numerous occasions.
Not that she predicted the future; That's not all there is to prophecy. Prophecy is just to speak for some one. If I tell some one to say something to you, then that person is my prophet. She prophesied to me for God.
Seeing God isn't possible. Seeing him move, seeing what he's doing, feeling him move you, and seeing his work is absolutely possible. That's why seeing God is compared to seeing the wind in scriptures. You can't actually see the wind, but you can see the dirt it kicks up and the trees that it moves and you can tell which direction it's going by feeling it and seeing the things it's moving.
I experienced God a lot this past summer. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I've been told that the word for it is "joy."
My cousin got married. To a guy that she moved in with 1 month after they met. She's only known him for about 4 or 5 months. He's almost thirty, and she's 18. He's got an 11 year old daughter, and a son who's ten I think. She told us that she was pregnant the month before they got married.
I tried all summer long to find a job. My girlfriend needs me to have work, because she has a family history that simply breeds insecurity in her mind. And besides that, she's got an internship this semester and won't be able to have her own income, so I'm helping her out. I searched all summer long and no one wanted to hire me. I cut my hair (*sniffle*), dressed myself up, put out about a bazillion applications, but finding a job in a college town ain't easy. She and I fought a lot, and almost broke up more than once.
The student leadership team in my campus ministry is going through some rough times. We have a new campus minister this year, and there are is lot of tension and emotional stress with the adjustment there. It seems like a little thing, but it's not so small really. This ministry is where I first learned how to find my own faith rather than sitting around and taking whatever my family fed me. I've grown up here, and I'm afraid that something catastrophic could happen to it.
I didn't get a chance to go home and visit my family in Arkansas. I have many close friends there whom I only get to see once a year, and that's in the summer. I really miss them a lot.
And yet, in all of that, this past summer and even still now has been the "happiest" I can ever remember being. I say that with quotations because I was also angry, sad, worried, and a little hungry. But at the same time that I was angry and sad and worried, I was happy. It was weird.
Knowing that the experience is of God and not something else isn't hard to discern some times, and is incredibly hard at other times. The most basic thing, though, is that if it contradicts what God tells us in scripture, then it's not an experience that came from God. Also, the community of believers is something that God has provided to be able to discern these things by.
The thing about a relationship with Christ is that it's a real relationship. There's only so much that can be looked at objectively and compared to other relationships. That's why you have John who's experiencing incredible peace in God in the Bible compared to Paul who says "My heart's breaking for these people! I can't have peace unless I tell them what I know! I would go to hell myself if it would save Israel!"
The things in my relationship that are common to every believer, though, are that I've changed in a major way. And I'm a better person for it. And there are people around me who are better off for it. Not because of what I'm doing, but what I'm being used to accomplish. And that, of course, goes back to "how do you know an experience is a God thing?". This time three years ago, I was a completely different guy. More lazy than I am now (still haven't completely let go of that), more arrogant and ignorant than I feel like I am now.
And the more I see the changes in my life, the more I realize that my short comings aren't permanent personality traits.
The Bible talks about God like a counselor some times. I like that idea. My experience with him has definitely brought about some kind of therapeutic personality change, and it still is.
I know that was an incredibly long diatribe that probably had more of my emotional ramblings to it than it did answers, but I hope that it's at least a start to some good dialog. ^_^
@ NaFa:
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the way I see God.
God can't have a relationship with us unless that sin is taken away because of his restrictions.
Yes, I said it. God has restrictions.
God doesn't change. I don't know if he can't change, or if he has the power to change and his personality simply doesn't. For whatever reason, he's always the same. His methods may change, but he himself is always the same.
Add that to God's holiness. God is set apart, which is what the word "holy" actually means, and not the stupid churchy definition of "Oh, a thing that is holy is something that's Good, and from God, and has God's goodness in it, and I don't REALLY know what it means so I'm just rambling off a lot of crap that is dressed up to look like Christianity."
God is perfect and set apart from things that are imperfect. If imperfection were to hang out with God, then he wouldn't be Holy any more.
But God doesn't change. He is set apart from that sin (imperfection), and always will be. So something else has to change.
The imperfect thing. It dies.
That's why in the OT, when the Hebrews had the ark of the covenant in the holiest of holies (or whatever they called that very center room of the tabernacle where it was), where God allowed his presence to be unfiltered, any one who hadn't made a sacrifice for their sin and walked into that room simply died. God is a big, big, all consuming fire. And if we are sinful creatures, then it's like God the big fire trying to give a hug to a piece of tissue paper.
The sacrifice paid for the sin's debts. It filled up the gap of that imperfection, and though the human is still prone to sinning and being imperfect, they didn't have any blemishes or imperfections when that sin was all taken care of. Until they screwed up again.
The animal sacrifices were not so great. They weren't a perfect sacrifice like Christ. He is still alive. He is still pouring out his blood for me when I screw up (because I do), that one sacrifice.
That's one of the things about WOTM that I don't like. I've never been the guy who thinks it's a great idea to get people pissed off at God in an attempt to show them his love.