Tiny Tom Donuts

Ok, so unless you have grown up around the Toronto area, and the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) has been a yearly end of summer pilgrimage, you may never have heard of a Tiny Tom Donut. If you have experienced this long time pillar of the CNE experience, there is no doubt that it is a deeply rooted pop culture phenomena. At the Ex (that what we call the CNE) you can find Tiny Tom vending trailers where you can watch these tiny donuts being made fresh before your eyes. When you purchase them, the fresh warm mini donuts are placed in a bag and then icing sugar (or now you can choose cinnamon, apple and cinnamon or chocolate) is sprinkled on top. I have discovered two little keys to maximum enjoyment. Firstly, you always give the bag an extra shake to ensure full coverage by the icing sugar. Secondly, they are best enjoyed warm and fresh not only because the donut is fresh, but because the icing sugar sticks the best. If you wait too long, the icing sugar can fall to the bottom of the bag, harden a bit, and is much more difficult to get on the donut. It is here that I found myself thinking about the life experience.
How often do we attempt to understand ourselves, define ourselves and change ourselves by externals? When it comes to bettering ourselves we can so often focus on external things, adding or subtracting habits, foods, material things etc. We approach it all from the external, and all from our own power with varying degrees of success and longevity. When it comes to the Christian experience, there is one powerful difference for which I am so grateful. Although there is much in the Christian walk calling us to change, to strive for holiness and to be transformed more and more to the image of Jesus Christ, we are not left to do it on our own. Sanctification is the term we use for the progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives. Firstly, we are given God the Holy Spirit to dwell within us to change us and give us greater holiness of life. God calls us to it, but importantly also gives us the power of the divine to dwell within equipping us to make those changes reality. Secondly, this change is internal, initiating from the deepest part of who we are. The change will manifest itself in external things that can be seen, but they are the fruit of internal change and can not so easily be shaken off.

Ms. Pac Man

I had the opportunity to take my kids to an old beachside arcade that I remember going to as a kid. Apparently it had the same game machines as when I remember being there last, it was great! The games only cost a quarter and were the great classic games. I played Ms. Pac Man myself. Although I thought it was great, my kids were underwhelmed to say the least. Eventually they came around and recognized the true history lesson they were having the opportunity to live out! Ok, maybe they just found some games they thought were funny enough to be amusing, but we had a good time.
I should not be surprised that they were less than impressed when I consider the level of sophistication that the video games that they experience have achieved. I must admit I am awed at the technological advancements. I am also, however, astounded at some of the content in these new video games and am left wondering how it could ever be classified as entertainment! Someone recently showed me a brief edited clip from a current video game to give me just a glimpse of what is out there. He said it took him 4 hours to edit the clip so as to find enough footage to give us a taste but to avoid the really graphic stuff. I remember thinking that if sex with a prostitute in the front seat of a car, along with colourful play by play commentary by the prostitute herself, followed by her murder in order to get the money back was not the really graphic stuff I don’t want to know what is! Unfortunately, it seems that we have taken these amazing technical advancements and in many cases used them to present explicit language, explicit sexuality and extreme violence in the most extremely realistic presentation we have ever been able to create.
I want to avoid coming out with a blanket “this is the Christian response” type post but there are a few significant questions (Ok, there are innumerable questions but here are a few to start with) that I think we who claim to follow Christ should be asking ourselves when it comes to such material.
Firstly, is this the kind of material that we want to be promoting? When we play it, talk about it, invite others and specifically when we buy it, we are promoting it. Our culture runs on supply and demand, and when we become part of the demand we are implicitly asking for more of this to be produced.
Secondly, how is this affecting us? Sadly I think that there are many who would say that they don’t agree with the content, but that they know it is just a game at that it does not affect them. I am not one to claim that just because you played a violent video game you are going to go out a kill someone. But, let’s be realistic, if we claim that we can sit and engage with this stuff for hours on end and then not be affected we are just kidding ourselves. At the very least it desensitizes us. The mere fact that some of us could watch this type of sex and violence and claim that it does not affect us is proof in itself. These are not documentaries trying to open our eyes to the realities around us. They are not ever satires meant to graphically point out the foolishness of it. These are games glorifying depravity and evil and inviting us to play along. They are glorifying things that break God’s heart about our world, and if our hearts are not broken as well, then I would argue that we have become desensitized. This brings me to my last question.
How does this affect my witness? When we are desensitized to the things that break God’s heart, when we choose to engage in it and even worse when we can laugh at it, how well are we representing God? As Christians is it not our job to represent God’s heart to the world around us, to be ambassadors of the kingdom and to have God make His appeal through us to be reconciled unto Himself? We should be heart broken about what breaks God’s heart. We should be angry when evil is glorified and we should be motivated to respond!
Video games, along with all other forms of media and entertainment, are extremely influential in shaping our worldview. We should be asking ourselves what is the effect of exposing our culture, our kids and let’s not forget ourselves to such extremely realistic portrayals of pornography (yes, I would call watching and listening to sex with a prostitute porn), violence and explicit material.

The Twinkie

The Twinkie is definitely an American icon that has achieved world wide recognition. They look great, taste great and have some slick packaging. The reality is, however, that a steady diet of these things would be terrible for your health. With the amount of sugar, preservatives and other odd man made ingredients I think that Twinkies have a longer shelf life than I do! Although they are a fun snack they don’t have much to offer in terms of sustenance and health.
When I consider the spiritual climate of the world I live in I see some parallels. There is no shortage of pop religion, philosophy and psychology to be had. There is a steady diet of man made ideas and world views being sold to us. Many of them have elaborate flashy packaging. Many of them, like Twinkies, are designed to be very appealing, palatable and very accessible, but are too short on truth to ever provide any sustenance. If we ever hope to stay healthy in this world, we will need to get back to basics and keep it simple. Just like real fruits and vegetables will always make a healthier snack option, we need to get back to real truth. We need to get back to basics and read our bible which alone can provide the truth to sustain us. It is simple in concept but one that is so important. When we are steeped in God’s Word we will then be able to discern what is truth and what is deception, what is healthy and what is a hindrance to our spiritual walk. We will be far healthier where our spiritual life is concerned.

Soda Jerk

For those of us who remember the 1940’s and 1950’s, there are no doubt memories of the soda jerk, the guy who worked the soda fountain at the drug store. It was a highly coveted position and a definitely a pop culture icon. Strangely, although once a very sought after title, I am not sure how I would feel about being called a jerk today. If I were to call my kids a jerk, I am quite sure that ice cream sodas would not be the first thing that jumped into their minds. It is funny how language changes over time, how it evolves. It got me thinking about the bible that I read. I use a fairly new translation in contemporary English. When I compare it with another English translation such as the King James Version for example, which bares the date 1611; there are significant differences in language. Though they are both English, it can seem at times like reading a different language!
The New Testament itself, in its original language, seems to highlight this same principle. Although the Old Testament was written in Hebrew (with a few passages in Aramaic), by the time the books of the New Testament were being written, Greek was a far more prevalent and commonly used language and thus became the primary language for their writing. Interestingly, the Greek used was not classical Greek but a popular form of Greek that emerged in post-classical antiquity called Koine Greek. The term means “common,” and was a common form of spoken Greek derived from the influence of different Greek dialects. It also became the unofficial second language of the Roman Empire and was thus widespread throughout much of the world to which the New Testament writers were writing. The languages of the New Testament seem to reflect the language of the world and culture it was written in, in order to be understood by the contemporary audience.
I am reminded of the importance of having good contemporary translations in all different languages, that are as true to the original meaning as possible, and yet in an understandable and relevant contemporary language. I am also reminded of the unbelievable access that we in the west have to such translations. We have multiple translations to choose from, with any colour or texture of cover to choose from. We have printed and digital, old and new, and just about any other variety you can think of. There are those throughout history and around our contemporary world, who would and have died for access to the bible, so let us not take it for granted!!!