My Eyes Have Been Opened

I was browsing the internet the other day when this article caught my eye. The editor certainly chose a title that would capture my interest. I read the article and was rather appalled by the assertion of the author. I do not think that making money is inherently sinful, but this author essentially concludes that personal success and happiness is the ultimate moral value. The runs counter to the entire teaching of Scripture, as the author duly notes.

I linked this article to my Facebook page which prompted a colleague of mine to direct me to a second article. He noted that the author of the original article is president of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, which reveals an enormous amount about his philosophy--if you are familiar with Ayn Rand. I was not, but this second article greatly enlightened me and at the same time frightened me.

I won't attempt to summarize the second article. My readers would do well to read it for themselves. I say it frightened me because I was completely unaware of the extent to which Rand's individualistic philosophy had infiltrated not only American culture but American church culture. The author's citation of Ravi Zacharias cuts right to the heart of the issue:

"Wealth and enterprise have so woven themselves around the message of Jesus that popular models of Christianity appear as nothing more than self and greed at the center, with strands of Christian thought at the periphery."

Prior to reading this article I would have described myself as inclining toward libertarianism. After reading it I would hesitate to associate myself with the underlying philosophy he describes. I still am sceptical of the role of government, but I see the point in his critique of unbridled libertarianism. It certainly isn't reflective of the message of Jesus. So I stand confronted by the harsh reality that much of my thinking has been strongly influenced by values that are contrary to the values of Christ, without my having even realized this. That's a painful recognition, but at the same time I'm glad I've had my eyes opened and my thinking challenged. I would never have thought of myself as being influenced by Ayn Rand, but now that I see how I have been, I want to correct my course. Otherwise I might as well sign my name on the new moral code espoused by Yaron Brook and the Ayn Randians of the world.

WWJD

While in a discussion with some co-workers today someone threw out the ubiquitous "WWJD?" question in response to our conversation. This led one colleague and on onto an interesting tangent. Jesus never endorses the consumption of coffee, tea or other stimulant beverages. Yet he did turn water into wine and didn't seem to discourage its consumption. So maybe we need to close all our church coffee shops and replace them with wine bars. Or maybe we need to recognize that WWJD? doesn't answer every situation we will face as believers... It can be helpful, but sometimes we have to apply the reasoning and logic skills God has given us.

Some Thoughts on Mercy

I've been away for a while, enjoying some time of rest. A week without internet and other electronic entertainments proved quite refreshing. I'm still getting back into the frame of mind for blogging, but I read this blog tonight and wanted to pass it along for others to read.

Resisting the Work of God

I recently had the opportunity to do something that I knew I should do, that would be beneficial both for me and others involved, and that would support my wife in her work in particular. But in my heart I was not eager to do this thing. I really hoped I could find a reason to excuse myself in the end. But such an excuse did not present itself and in the end out of a sense of duty as well as a desire to demonstrate love to my wife, I chose to go ahead with the event. At first I found it hard to participate wholeheartedly, because my whole heart was not in it. But as I relaxed and allowed myself to enter more fully into the situation I found increasing interest and joy in what was going on around me. After the event finished and we were driving home I felt real joy in my heart that I had the opportunity to be a part of this and I thanked God for placing me and my wife in this place at this time.

Later I examined myself to see if I could determine what was behind my initial reluctance to participate. I saw that I hesitated to go because doing so would take me outside of my comfort zone. It would place me in surroundings that might be uncomfortable and unfamiliar and the harsh truth is that I like my comfort zone very much. I like being in situations where I know what is happening and can exercise some control over events. I also like the creature comforts I have around me, limited though they may be. And I like the comfort of my routine. I resisted stepping outside of these "comforts" and allowing myself to be stretched. I also realized that entering the situation would strip me of all that makes me "someone" in the eyes of is world. All of my life experience and the skills I have would would mean little in that particular context. I had to become a humble learner and sit and listen to others who by the standards of the world had little to offer me. My pride rebelled against this. As the Spirit revealed these things to me I had to humbly ask God for His forgiveness for my stubbornness and my attachment to the things of this world, both the material things around me and my identity and reputation. I thank God that he persuaded me to accept the opportunity, for had I not I would have been impoverished in many ways, even though I may not have realized it at the time.

How often does God want to grow us by taking us out of our comfort zone? And how often do we miss these opportunities for growth by resisting this very thing? How often do we cling to our status, identity or creature comforts because they give us a sense of security? And yet God would strip us of all of these so that we could become humble learners, sometimes through those we might least think could teach us anything useful. I am reminded of a citation attributed to Martin Luther:

God's nature is such that he makes something out of nothing.
Therefore, whoever has not yet become nothing, of that person God cannot make anything.

It is not easy to allow myself to become nothing, but if that is what must happen in order for me to be of use to God, then may he enable me to accept this humiliation. May I become like Christ, taking the nature of a servant so that God might be exalted.

Job Finished

I was able to finish the roof on the rabbit hutch last Saturday, after a friend brought me a full piece of sheet metal from the market. I bent the edges of the roof over the wood to make it safer, since sheet metal can easily cut a person. It also looks nicer this way.Overall I'm satisfied. I learned some useful techniques as I proceeded with the work and if I should ever build another one (which I hope I won't have to do!) I think I could do even better. Now I need to buy a sheet of plywood and construct a nesting box. I'm waiting for our car to be delivered, since my friend's car is too small to carry the plywood from the market to our house. Then Teresa wants to begin breeding rabbits--and that will be yet another adventure.

It is (almost) finished

Thanks to another day of reasonably cool weather I was able to make good progress today. In fact, only one thing remains to be done.

I began the day by constructing the door for the small section of the hutch. This went reasonably smoothly, until it came time to hang it on the frame. Then I discovered that the door and the opening didn't match as well as I would have liked. However, with a slight adjustment I was able to make a workable solution.
I was not so fortunate with the second door. After my difficulties with the first door, I should have been more attentive to the sizing of the second door. In fact I was, measuring carefully and framing my door very carefully. This second door was probably the most square of anything I'd constructed so far. After attaching my wire mesh I was ready to hang it...only to discover that my nice square door didn't fit the not-so-square opening. This time the problem could not be resolved with a quick adjustment. The door simply was not going to fit in its current form. Time to take a break and come back with a fresh perspective.

After a trip to the bazaar to get some more nails (and a fresh watermelon!), I tackled the problem with the door. I removed the wire mesh, took the frame partially apart and analyzed where I needed to make adjustments. I had to cut down the vertical parts of the door frame by 1 1/2 centimeters and cut a new top piece in order to fit the opening. I wasn't happy about the extra work, but it was my own fault for not testing the door initially. Having reassembled the door, I mounted it in the frame as well. Now it was time to construct the frame for the roof.
My plan for the roof was to construct a basic frame similar to the base with with supports running the length of the hutch. This will give me something to which I can attach the metal roof. This task went rather smoothly, with no unexpected difficulties. Dietrich was quite helpful in this stage, cutting all the boards and helping me nail the frame together. Here is the completed frame.
And here is the roof frame mounted on the hutch. About the time I began to build the roof frame I realized I had a problem. I thought I had a sheet of metal the right dimensions to completely cover the roof. But when I unrolled the sheet, I discovered (or remembered) that at some point a piece had been cut out of it. The remnant would not be enough to cover the whole hutch. I really wanted to make this hutch usable tonight so we could get the rabbit out of her box in the living room. I called a friend who is building some new rooms on his house and asked him if he would pick up a sheet of metal at the bazaar tomorrow when he goes for his own needs. In the meantime I considered covering the roof with some thick plastic for the night. Instead my wife suggested that I just use the piece of metal I have, which was adequate to cover one of the sections of the hutch, making it safe and weather proof for the night. Tomorrow I can remove that metal and attach the new sheet.

With that task accomplished, the hutch was ready for its first inhabitant. The male rabbit (seen in the picture below) was moved from the old hutch into the smaller section of the new hutch. The two female rabbits will currently live in the old hutch until Teresa is ready to mate one of them next month. Before then I have to build a nesting box, which may prove to be yet another experience to share with you.
In the end I have had several moments of frustration and have had to accept that my results would not be the perfect model I would like them to be. I have found a certain satisfaction in working with my hands and constructing something useful, though I think I still prefer expressing myself creatively in other ways. But this experience has given more added confidence to tackle future challenges like this.

Much Progress Today

I decided to take advantage of the fact that the weather was much cooler today, with overcast skies and intermittent rain. Between the rain showers I worked almost all day, even canceling my language lesson so I could work more. So we've got a lot to show today.

I began the day by finishing the base, covering the remaining two supports with sheet metal and then assembling the pieces into the base structure.I then laid the wire mesh over the top and began securing it to the base. I found it difficult to secure it with the sheet metal covering the wood, but in the end it worked.
Here is the completed base with mesh covering. The mesh allows the rabbit's waste to fall through to the ground, where Teresa gets the job of cleaning it up (since this whole rabbit project is her idea!) At the same time the mesh needs to be small enough that the rabbit's paws don't pass through, potentially causing them injury.After a break for rain and dealing with a plumbing problem in the house I returned to work, cutting and assembling the two end pieces and middle divider. Here are the two end pieces before I added the wire mesh.
I covered the center divider with sheet metal to keep the rabbits apart. One half of this hutch will be a nursery, so it will be good for the mother rabbit to not be disturbed by her neighbor.

After covering the outer edges with wire mesh I mounted them on the base frame, adding a board across the top for stability, although I may remove it later depending on how I do the roof. At this point I really saw the effect of not having a square to make sure my cuts were even and my joints squared up. The three pieces I added here all varied to some extent from each other and it was impossible to get everything lined up perfectly. This frustrated me a great deal. Thankfully I am building a rabbit hutch, not a jet plane, so the tolerances are a lot looser.
Finally, I framed in the larger half of the hutch and added wire mesh to the back and to the section of the front that will not be a door. Throughout the day I had the intermittent help of Dietrich. On the one hand this was a good thing, but in terms of having an extra pair of hands and as an opportunity for teaching him some basics of carpentry. On the other hand, because he is very new at these things, he works slowly and with less accuracy than even I can manage at present. I had to discipline myself to be very patient with him and to not criticize any errors he made. Instead I tried to use them as teaching moments so he can improve next time.
Tomorrow I will try to build the two doors and mount them on the frame. Then I need to build the roof frame, cover it with sheet metal and attach it to the rest of the hutch. I hope it will not be too hot so that I can finish all this tomorrow.