Making Headway

I finally have some time to transpose more of the archived articles to this blogger site. I've found the missing posts that were somehow lost from my last backup of the harrytick.com website. I've even taken the liberty of placing some multiple part articles near each other for a limited time. Eventually, I will start putting them back in their proper chronological order.

I suppose that I will search through the forum archives as well, because there were some great discussions with friends there. Thanks for the patience and enjoy reading through these while they are at the front of the blog. Soon they will go back to their original dates.

Love,
HarryTick™

Settling

I remember those sermons that asked us if we were settling for things of lesser quality, "less than the best" of what God had for us in our lives. Those sermons were full of what I "should" be doing for God, implying that my choices separated me from Him and prevented Him from doing all that He could in my life. Just think about the idea presented, that your choices are able to render the omnipotent God impotent.

I now think that to accept the premise of such sermons is to settle for less than God has for us, less than Christ being our life. So, let's pose the original question but in this new context, "Are you settling for less than the best that God has for you in your life?"

Being Unique

Oh, man! There are other people out there writing under the name of "HarryTick"! What shall I do? The panic wants to find a way in and settle down to make itself at home. But, what's in a name? Did I honestly think I was the only one who would or could come up with the pseudonym from the word heretic? Was I the first? Am I the most prolific? Will I be recognized as The One True Harry Tick™?!?

Chill.

There is no point in worrying about whether or not my thoughts will be diluted by someone who uses the same name on the web. It isn't about a name. A message is like a gift, it's the thought conveyed by it that counts. A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. If it is only about me and any image I create, then there is no truth, it is all illusion.

Seasons Come and Seasons Go

Funny how the Easter season is now past. Just as March Madness is also complete and not to return until next year. The Resurrection and its hope are so conveniently shelved along with the baskets, easter grass, and decorations. As a member of the institutional church, I used to rail against the commercialization that seemed to diminish the importance of the season. Invariably, I would shelve the season along with everyone else, only secure in my self-justifications that I was one of the few who understood and observed the season with proper reverence.

 

Now, I find no season able to contain the hope of the resurrection, no shelf able to remove it out of my thoughts until the season returns. Every moment of my life inexplicably joined, entwined, infused, with his resurrection life. I find that I no longer identify with the season as I did before.

Older posts

As you can see, I don't have all of the old posts here on the site. I had planned on transcribing all those articles from the old database onto the blogger site by hand, since there is no program that will transfer from the Textpattern format to the Blogger format. Unfortunately, the database is not one of the files that I brought along with me. So, I'm gonna have to try and talk my wife through how to locate the file and send it to me through email. That should be fun! She just loves technology and computers and dealing with that stuff.

 

Anyways, once I have access to the database, I figure that I will start getting the old stuff up, and then just try and stay on track by day and month and post the older articles as current for a week or so and then have them drop back into their proper lineup. Maybe it will spark new thoughts or even comments. I hope to have it done by the end of the deployment.

Kung Fu Hustle

I grew up watching Kung Fu movies on Saturdays with my brothers. So, I've totally enjoyed the recent string of martial arts movies we've seen; Shaolin Soccer, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and of course, Kung Fu Hustle. In Kung Fu Hustle, the main character, first seen as a young boy, is "hustled" by a homeless guy to buy a martial arts manual. He is told that he cannot escape his destiny because he, "...has the bone structure and chi flow of a kung fu master." The boy breaks his piggy bank, buys the manual, and studies diligently, only to find that his mastery of the Buddhist Palm technique is lacking.

Without giving away the whole story, he misinterprets events and circumstances and spends his time trying to become something he is not. No matter how much he tries to change, his actions remain true to who he really is. There is martial arts fighting and some cheesy effects, among some really cool ones, and even some campy hijinks, but there is also a story of grace and redemption from misinterpreting life's circumstances that makes the movie fun for me to watch.

Cleansing

I've tried to write, honest I have. I have thoughts but it seems I've lost the impetus to put the thoughts together. I want to blame my current job, which has me drafting and writing memorandums and emails for everything; responses to questions, proposals for lame-brained ideas in the name of "safety" that don't accomplish anything for the unit. The responsibilities are beginning to pile up. Perhaps I've become too concerned with my accomplishment, maybe I'm too caught up in the perception of my position. It is real-life promotion time again, as well. Time for me to find out if I've measured up.

I still have faith, I still love grace, but I think that everything I've been through lately has begun to pile up, back up, and stifle my expression of freedom. Maybe I've begun believing some of the behavior-based rat race dogma again. Well, suggesting it myself may mean it is closer to the truth than I'd like to believe. I have caught myself being indignant with others, along with the idea of being beside myself, looking back at me and asking, "Really? Really?!? Who do you think you are, asshole? Who died and made you God?"

I'm sure there is much more to it, but at least seeing that part is helping me already. There are a lot of times when I really care way too much about how others perceive me. Honestly, I've been down that road before (Matrix flashback). So, let me ramble about myself for this post and get it out of my system. Let me finally express something, anything, just for the sake of expressing and perhaps that can open the floodgates and let the thoughts flow to the keyboard. And let's just hope that it has a sembleance of coherent thought.