neurological dryer lint

this morning i read about this - tivo is now doing what cable dvr's do - allowing broadcasters to flag certain programs to disallow end-users to do what they want with them... i.e. copy them to their PC, burn them to DVD, save them for longer than a week, etc. i got pretty pissed.

i focus a whole lot on earthly things, and not spiritual things. i get caught up in earthly causes for earthly rights. i think they're important. i get outraged and frustrated and discouraged. about bloody tv shows.

and then i read something.

so Jesus is walking from the Judean countryside to Galilee. he stops in a Samaritan village, sends his crew out to get food. goes over to a well and sits down... and a Samaritan woman shows up. probably is scared out of her mind that a Jewish guy is sitting there. panics, doesn't even want to look in his direction for fear of retribution, cause of how the Jews normally treat her people.

Jesus asks for a drink from the water she pulls up from the well. she probably flips out, startled, almost drops the water... and so starts the discussion. Jesus tells her that while the water in the well is tasty, what he has to offer is far more sustaining. he talks to her about 'living water', the providence of a God that wants to love and care for the people of this world in the most wonderful way a human can experience it - through a relationship, by drawing them close to him.

she doesn't seem to see the forest for the trees, though. he's talking up here and she's thinking down here. her throat is dry and he's offering her a life of fulfillment and love. so jesus reveals that he knows her a little more than she expected.

is this guy a magician? a stalker? how does he know her so well? she's still stunned, though, and a little intrigued by the stuff he said about endless life, about never being thirsty again. so when the crew shows back up with the food, she heads back home and tells everyone about this prophet she met.

how is Jesus feeling right about now? probably pretty good. he reached out and connected with a Samaritan woman, showing her that she's worth talking to, giving her hope. she's about to go tell the town. he's about to get the opportunity to spend two more days hanging out with the people there.

the disciples are excited, too, cause they got some food. mission accomplished. check it out, Jesus! we hooked up the big loaf of bread and some haggis. eat up!

Jesus doesn't bite. he just had this sweet conversation with this person...

the disciples keep pushing. dude! its haggis, mang! huge frickin loaf of bread! the big salad! (peter handed it to Jesus even though john paid for it, and john was pretty miffed, and later pointed it out)

Jesus isn't too interested. he's still hyped about the Samaritan. he tries to express this to them: "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together." is this what you guys are passionate about? bread and haggis? it's a sheep's stomach! stop staring at the bread and look around you at the people you can connect with... the lives you can touch... the prisoners you can help set free. there is so much more to life than you think. it can be so much better, so much more satisfying...

i live day to day thinking about PC's and politics. the most exciting part of my week is grilling italian sausage for me and my wife, or the day the Netflix discs show up. i am missing the chance to really connect with the people around me. i'm staring at the food and God is quietly nudging me, saying "dude, get off the couch, come on, let me show you something that'll drop your jaw."

can God mold the things that i care about so that they match the things he cares about? sure, it's happened before. it'll happen again.

listening to: jimmy eat world - half right