Acceptability

OK. I have railed against the slow-to-change jargon of the religious community and the suspicious nature of this community toward change. So, exactly what would I like to see happen?

I think that I would like for people to trust the spirit within them from God to live decent lives. I think I would like for people to see that spirit in a modern context instead of always quoting from an ancient context and trying to apply what happened then to what happens now.

If that took place, then translations of ancient texts would be in the people's language as people wanted their peers in society to easily know what makes them tick. People could then read for themselves and see easily in the language of their current society how to live decently for God and get on the path that leads to him. Instead, we get, and perhaps want, translations that have to be explained and commands that have ended up being codified.

I do see individuals and pockets of people that live daily depending on God to enable them daily to stand in the face of life's curve balls. I don't rail at all when I think of them. I hope that they multiply by the thousands.

Language behavior

Studying how society uses language is interesting. The term language behavior has been coined to describe society's use of language. Society is fickle and hypocritical about its language use. Everyone has heard someone say about the way a friend delivered some news, "You didn't have be so harsh or cold in the way you said that." Not long after hearing those words, the same person has turned around and said, "Why didn't you say what you meant. I don't understand polite." Yes, how fickle.

People make value judgments about others just by the way others speak. If the person is using heavy vernacular, we judge and react accordingly. If the person seems eloquent or "articulate," we act a different way from the way we react to the person using his/her vernacular. If dialect different from our own is used, we react a certain way to that as well.

So, I accept the way people view New Testament translation even though I characterize it as disappointing. We are victims of circumstance of our own language. I guess I am out to change that circumstance, but I know I could not change it single-handedly and not quickly. So, I expect people's fickle comments about liking or not liking new translations or individual's translations to be suspicious or not preferential or bizarre. The language of religion follows the customs of religion, so change is slow, value judgments are not quick to follow generational changes, and reactions reflect caution. I don't like the truth offered by this observation, so I for one am out to change religious language behavior.

Modernity

I am doing a rather informal testing of what people expect or want in a translation of a New Testament book. So far, what I'm finding is disappointing to me. It seems people want a somewhat antiquated rendering. When given a choice between modern English with the most current phrasing and most current syntax, and a little older style English, people opt for a little older style of English. Why? I think that sometimes people just resist change. I think sometimes people get stuck thinking that text representing something old should sound old. I found that to also be true when comparing Beowulf translations from Old English in a class of young people. I think sometimes a change in English phrasing and syntax somehow gets related to inspiration of the Bible and people don't want to update that.

When one deals with the New Testament, one deals with preconceived ideas. I find it disappointing to see a great preconception against keeping Christianity, at least where it represented by translations, from being current, modern, ever-changing, up-to-date. Disappointment doesn't necessarily dampen my desire to ever present the message in modern terms. It just makes me temporarily sad. But my Christianity is not affected. I don't answer for anyone else. So, I press on with the my vision for the modern Christian.

Satisfaction

Translating from ancient Greek is something I did in my 20s because I had the time, it was a little fun, it gave me an edge when around smart people, and I could learn a lot from the material being translated. What a difference a decade makes—actually 3 in my case. I have over the last year and a half picked up the book to translate again. I did a fair amount of translating in the intervening 3 decades, but only when I had a reason to translate, when I was on a mission, or when I took on a project. These days, picking up the pen to translate is fun. I don't have an edge on anybody for anything. All people my age are smart in some area or another and there's no competition. What's the point? I still learn a lot from the material, but now I know in what ways the material enriches my life or in what setting to share any enrichment. It is satisfying to see growth in skill level of translation and in knowing how to cast the translation against a bigger setting of other training I have received over the 3 decades.

I hope that the Creator looks through the centuries and reflects in some of the same ways. I hope he has had fun with his creation. At times it was work to do so I'm sure. I hope that he sees growth in people's perception of him. At the beginning (that's a long time ago) people feared him, split him into various spirits or functions, but now, maybe we see him more for who he is and what he has done. He certainly doesn't have to worry about the edge part. One who knew him put it like this: the light has been shining in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out. So there's no competition. And I hope he's satisfied when I walk through the door one day to greet him because the path I walked on here led me to his home. I know I will be satisfied.

Tone + Words

Language can be fascinating at times. It can soothe, encourage, excite, anger. It elicits a range of emotions. What about language causes such a response in a listener? Words and tone of voice are inextricably intertwined. I guess that is why emotions are logical responses to words. What would happen if tone of voice were removed from one's speech? Or what would happen if words could not be heard but the tone of voice could? The answer to the first question is that one would have to guess which part of the sentence was being emphasized. In the case of the second, one would have no idea of the substance causing the tone. Together, they make for unmistakable clarity. I know someone who has told me that I get hung up on tone of voice. That words are much more important. That's just not true. Only in writing does one give up tone of voice, but even then, one's mind supplies, by guessing, what tone is being used. Tones help a person match words to thoughts. One can only imagine what it takes to be a good writing teacher or a good writer. Two dimensions have to be created. Well, that's enough on good communications 101. Spouses, siblings, and friends have double the amout to watch for in good communication since there are 2 dimensions instead of 1.

Plainspoken

It was refreshing to be with someone today that I'm not with usually. The conversation was at points routine but at many points the conversation was very unusual. The conversant was just simple, honest, plainspoken. He was not out to impress, nor was I. Every word could be taken at face value. I didn't detect any agendas, any seed planting, any game playing. It's been a while since I have had a conversation like that. It was pleasant. Most days I have to have my language radar machine on and it beeps constantly. So I rest more easily tonight with thoughts of an honest conversation for once.

Heart surgery

Tonight I attended a group that was discussing a letter purported to have been written by Barnabus in the first century. One of the topics from one of the chapters was circumcision. I know what that is because I have been. But it was being applied to the heart, not to the penis. I am wondering about the symbolism here. I think that circumcision is done for health reasons if it is not related to religion or identification to a particular cause or sect. Now when dealing with matters of the heart, I am losing a lot of the symbolism. Is circumcision of the heart a health matter? Or does it mean that my heart is identifying with a cause such as having major ethics? Does it mean having a clean heart? Whatever it is, the circumcision is a request from the creator about the inner person I have developed. Developing character usually hurts in some way. So, in that way I know I have been circumcised.

Phenomenon

Today I got to see a satellite crash into a meteor. Phenomenal! I wonder what living 300 years from now will be like. Phenomenal, I bet. Then I think of all the creation in the multiple universes and the one who made it, and he still cares about me individually. Phenomenal!

Dreamworld

I never have trusted dreams or visions, and even said on one occasion recently that God didn't communicate with me in that way, that I was just a Church of Christ guy that God couldn't use in that way. I lied to myself and that man after I thought about it later. God has communicated through a scene or a dream on several occasions. Twice I have been warned of horrendous events that would take place. On one occasion I was given a dream to tell someone else. I have several times been led to see where my efforts would lead me. So, I have learned the difference between the illusive dreams that seem to vanish as soon as I wake up or soon thereafter and the ones that stay around for me to know to analyze. I have to say that nearly all of my dreams vanish. But, on rare occasions, they sometimes have significance.

Recently, I have had a significant dream. I have not lost its details for 2 running weeks. The environment the dream was set in is not exactly one that a person would want to admit to. But, I think it is one of those that I am supposed to tell to someone else, which means that the setting of the dream is one that helps in analyzing what to tell the other person. I still don't know the direction of the details of the dream. I think it might have been as simple as a plea to fast and pray with that person. On the other hand, I think it might have been as hard as saying this person's son who has cancer is about to get worse. It could, of course, be neither of the above. It might just be an assurance that we are in league together against a common adversary. At some point, I will have to tell this person. I just trust that by that time, I will have a clearer indication of the meaning of the dream. I guess the maker of dreams will make it come clear if he wants me to deliver a message.

Well, the best thing is that the giver of dreams has not given up on me. That's a good sign for I would be devastated to think I would be out of his favor. If he trusts me with a dream, for whatever reason, he is saying that he trusts me to be a good follower of his son. For that I am thankful.

Classifications

One way to refer to what goes on in life is to call it game playing. Many events in life can be compared to playing different kinds of games. Trying to figure out what is meant by someone's actions, for example, is akin to figuring out what someone is doing with a hand of cards. When someone answers a question intelligently, (s)he is compared to being a Trivial Pursuit expert. When people pay for their actions with high stakes consequences, they have been said to have played chess because they didn't think ahead when they moved in order to anticipate the opponent's moves. If people are slow to react in a situation, they get blasted by X-box junkies because they didn't scan and kill the enemy in a split second. And if someone gets mad too easily at work or at another person, then they obviously were poor sports when they lost those beginner card games like Go Fishing.

Certainly one way to classify life's events is to compare it to games. Of course, there are all sorts of other analogies. Some people color code life or compare it to animals. Some people create dichotomies like love and war or win/lose. I don't know what life is. It seems like a nightmare at times and like an illusion at other times. Sometimes I experience ectasy and sometimes agony. The rollercoaster of life is many times applicable to the picture of my experience. Our society has 1001 ways to refer to life's events.

All I really know about life is that it ends and I want to be on the path that leads directly to the door of the next world when the path through this life comes to its end. Lead me home.