Blog Rant

So, it's been a while since my last post (that seems to be the way I start a lot of these) and I figured what better way to come back then a good old fashioned blog rant. I've got several topics that I have thought about writing on, even started writing in some cases, but just never got the time or motivation to write a whole post, or didn't feel it was a good topic to come back with. So, this post will be just a short paragraph or two on each topic. If anything interests you and you want to hear more of my thoughts, let me know. Otherwise, here we go.

First, before getting into any of my thoughts, a quick update on life since the last post. A lot has happened, so I'll just try to do the quick version. I got an internship at a great little company that was actually in my field (and paid). I graduated from GVSU with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Computer Science. This led to my internship becoming a full-time job. Which in turn led to me buying a house. All of this has been interspersed with some amazing adventures with a wonderful young woman who I have the privelege to be dating, celebrations with friends of accomplishments and commitments, and many opportunities for growth in a community in Christ.

Now, on to the topics in no particular order:

The ever popular yoga pants/modesty issue.

I recently came across this article, shared by a friend on Facebook. To be blunt, I find it completely ridiculous. I understand that it's satire. And I understand the point she's trying to make. But it's just ridiculous. And there are many articles making the same or similar point. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for women being able to express themselves through their fashion choices and have the choice of being comfortable in what they wear. And I completely agree that a lot of the responsibility is on us guys to have self-control. But there's a big difference between something that looks attractive on a woman (as the author of the article insinuates is the main argument) and something that tightly hugs the contours of intimate areas.

The #charityChallenge craze
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for giving to charity and raising awareness. And I know these things do a lot of good for the organizations they're for. There's a few things about them, though, that I don't like. Here are some of them:
1. The idea that it's give money or do the challenge. I'm sure that it is meant to encourage people to donate, but so often it seems like people view it in the opposite way; that donating money is the "bad" alternative to doing the challenge.
2. It's all about me, me, me. I know this isn't true for everyone, but it seems like every time I see one of these videos it's someone trying to outdo the last one. Everyone tries to think of a new crazy way to make their video memorable or better than the rest.
3. It can get dangerous. With everyone trying to one-up each other, they come up with increasingly dangerous (and many times, stupid) ideas. Some of the original ideas themselves are pretty dangerous.

4. This. (I know statistics are easy to manipulate, but my point is that maybe donations should be proportionate to the number affected.)

5. Does it really raise awareness? Yes there's a huge wave of people donating. Yes there's a lot more mention of the particular disease or cause. But there's a lot of people who don't even know what they're doing the challenge for. And the popularity (and donations) will die off. It won't be long before people forget about the challenge and what it stood for.

Bad Christians

What I'm talking about here is the people that call themselves Christians, but don't even begin to come close to living lives that represent Christ. These are the Bible thumpers on college campuses, so eager to tell the students they are all going to hell. These are the extremist "Churches", protvesting the funeral of a man who gave his life for the freedom for them to practice their religion. These are the "Sunday Christians", attending church every Sunday (or at least Christmas and Easter), yet living the rest of week in a completely different manner. They are the kind of "Christians" that turn people off to Christ. The world would be much better off if they would stop calling themselves Christians. If people could stop associating Christians and Christ with these types of people.

Complacent Christians

These are the Christians who see the problems in the Church, but sit idly by. They allow the Church to stray from Christ, unwilling to do anything about it. And I'll admit that I've fallen into this category. But this is what I'm going to focus on. It's part of the reason I was motivated to write this blog. I know it doesn't do much, but at least it's putting my thoughts out there. The next move is for me to write a letter to the leaders in my church. Some Churches are going the way of the Pharisees, falling away from following Christ due to focusing on their traditions and rules. Others are too far in the opposite direction, too willing to let things slide in the hopes of attracting more non-Christians. Take a good hard look at your Church and see how well they are following Christ. If you see things that aren't right, will you be willing to speak up?

Bad Drivers
I've added bad drivers here mainly just because it's my biggest pet peeve. I really don't have much to say about them, other than that if you can't drive, you shouldn't be on the road. Most of the people who fall into this category are the elderly folks who can barely see past the hood of their car and make up for it by driving 20 mph under the speed limit. I just feel like there's a lot of people on the road who should no longer be driving. Would it be that difficult to have a quick road test every 5 or 10 years after a certain age to make sure people are still capable of driving?

Anyway, that's that. If you want to hear more on any of these topics (or any others), let me know and I'll go into more detail. I'm hoping that my posting can start to be more frequent again and that this will be the starting point.