The Keener Way

  I know, I know. It's been a hot second since I've written anything. The last few months have been a bit weird. To make a long story short, I had an ice skating accident mid-December, that put me in a hospital for two days, gave me a titanium rod in my leg, had me hobbling around with a walker/crutches till January, and left me on work restrictions till the first week of February. Although the entire incident was quite a shocker to me, and everybody I know, my healing has gone as well as it possibly could have. As of now, I'm walking mostly normal, still on a few heavy lifting/high impact restrictions, and doing some light work, part-time, while looking for my next full-time job.  Granted, this long break off work should've been plenty of time to do all kinds of blogging. So, where have I been? Well, for one, I've been doing a lot of job research, trying to pick what direction to go next. Also, I've been writing. In the last couple months, I took a 51,000 word ...

       Typically, I'm not a short story person. I start writing what I think will be a short story, and it turns into a trilogy. Without fail. But this morning, I came up with an idea, and I think it actually stayed short.   The concept is simple. I know a lot of people who are married, a lot who are dating, a lot who have been in relationships in the past but broke up for whatever reason. Some break up and try again far too soon, without learning and growing from their mistakes, risking breaking again, while others break and then choose to build a wall, convinced that its not worth the pain.   So I wanted to write a little story to illustrate that sometimes, it can take a long time to find your people. Sometimes you think you've found your people, only to realize you've hit a dead end once again. Sometimes your people are the ones who are already around you and you simply need to open your eyes and see them. And perhaps some are simply created to walk the ...

  I read a story the other day, almost definitely AI-generated. It was about a grumpy old man who lived on cans of beans, and his granddaughter, a typical broke homeless Generation Z who moves in with him when she can no longer pay her apartment rent. Grumpy Grandad blamed his granddaughter's money problems on her $7 lattes and Netflix subscription. She blamed inflation, high interest rates, and a bad job market. Overall, the story was quite cliche, drawing on every stereotype that exists in the great debate of trying to afford housing. Granddaughter felt that she deserved to treat herself to lattes and Netflix and ordering out, because the economy was bad, life was hard, and she needed a few simple pleasures in life.  Grandad told her how he worked 14 hour days, living off of a baloney sandwich and a can of beans every single day. Where you stand in this debate is irrelevant. What is important is one particular line of the story that hit  really  hard. The Grandad s...

  I know, its been yet another long gap since I've posted. The thing is, I write stuff as inspiration hits me. Sometimes i get lots of ideas, sometimes they trickle slowly. This time around, I've had an idea for a while, but its been simmering on a backburner until I got the angle I needed this morning.  It started when I received a text with a quote by C.S. Lewis from his essay collection, "God in the Dock", which goes, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." This weighed heavily on my mind, as I often feel like I treat Christianity as only moderately important. Indeed, sometimes it feels like the modern church at large is doing this with great unity. As I mulled over this for some weeks, my church started a sermon series in the book of 1 Peter. What particularly stood out was Chapter 1, verses 13-16. "Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-min...

  Yeah, I know. Its been a hot second since I posted. Life has been a bit intense lately, with not a lot of breathing space. Anyway, it is time to continue the study on Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount, where He teaches His disciples, "this is what it looks like to be one of my disciples. This is the way I want you to live." And we are now in the section of his sermon where He addresses the taking of oaths. Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:33-37 BSB  See, the thing is, when someone takes an oath, this kind of insinuates that you can't...

    “What is sin? It is the glory of God not honored . The holiness of God not reverenced . The greatness of God not admired . The power of God not praised . The truth of God not sought . The wisdom of God not esteemed . The beauty of God not treasured . The goodness of God not savored . The faithfulness of God not trusted . The commandments of God not obeyed . The justice of God not respected . The wrath of God not feared . The grace of God not cherished . The presence of God not prized . The person of God not loved . That is sin.” ~John Piper  We live in a broken world. Perhaps more broken than ever, perhaps less broken than ever. There is only one entity who has been alive for the Earth's entire history, and that is our Creator. So only he can judge our current level of broken. But through all of time, man has called things sin which the Lord never forbid, and man has called good things that the Lord explicitly denounced. So I thought I'd do a little script...