The Keener Way

  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...

       In Matthew Chapter 3, we see an odd ritual being preformed by John, cousin of Jesus. He is dipping people in the Jordan River. We're never really told why he was doing it. It's kinda just assumed that the people of that era knew why he was doing it.      But the fact that we're never told the purpose of this ritual always kinda bugged me. Baptism just never made sense. Really, it seemed a ludicrous thing. And even from a young age, I hated things that didn't make sense. Why do people get dunked in a giant bathtub in front of a bunch of other people? What in the world does that have to do with anything else about being a Christian?       Over the years, I put forth various excuses as to why I elected to not go through with it. Part of my inhibition was the extreme insecurity I had of doing anything in front of a crowd. Especially being dipped in a giant bathtub. Super awkward. But the other part was, I didn't feel right doi...