The First British Lutheran Blog Ever

From a supermarket job to a data entry/admin job.

I'm moving up in the world.

Sometime I'll finally work out what I want to do with my life.

Sometime, possibly sooner, I'll get around to writing a real blog post.

Don't stay tuned; feel free to channel hop. Just come back every so often to see if there's anything good on.

Have you ever thought about how or why pretty much all the world's religions seem to hold an idea, or ideal, of pure goodness? And how and why that ideal of goodness is above and beyond anything anyone has ever seen? They all have their rules/instructions/guidelines about how to do what is right and good, but then at various points and in various places, they also speak about what it is to be right and good.

For example,

Superior virtue is unconscious of its virtue
Hence it is virtuous.
Inferior virtue is conscious of its virtue
Hence it is not virtuous.
-Tao Teh Ching

True and perfect goodness doesn't have to even ask itself "Am I acting in a good and right way?" or "Should I do what is right, or what is wrong?". True goodness lives in perfect spontanaity. It does what is right, not only without having to think about it, but without even knowing there was anything but "right".

Good is as good does. A good man will do only good things, because that is all he can do. He cannot be anything but who he is.

And yet we aren't good in this way. Humans have only ever strived for this goodness in either a return to the past (for the Judeo-Christian expression, see Genesis chapters 1 to 3), or as the end, the goal of human life (e.g. too many to list but try this for starters). Those latter examples sound way too difficult, too high, too pure, for us to ever reach by our own efforts. They are. And they were not spoken as "a self-help guide to make yourself all holy-like" but as identifiers of the Life that is truly good and holy. Our rule/"moral standard"-based attempts at goodness simply don't fit this spontaneous, pure, heavenly goodness that everyone, for some reason, seems to recognise, but which no one actually has or does.

When that is realised, then, and only then, are we ready to even begin hearing what Christ has to say, and do, for us.

In July I graduated with a 1st Class Honours B.A. in Religious and Theological Studies, achieving the highest average grade in the class and being awarded the Theodore Robinson Award for excellence in languages.

Since then I've been stuck working for a supermarket doing the most brain-dead and menial tasks possible. And now my store can't give me any more than part-time hours.

Oh, I've applied for various jobs. My C.V. is registered with just about every recuitment agency in Cardiff, as well as a few national ones. I thought I wanted to get myself on a finance-related graduate training program and I almost got into one at PwC, the world's biggest accounting firm. But my psychometric test scores, which I had prepared as best as I could for, were so crap that I realised I needed to think things through again. I've thought about going back into education, to perhaps continue my theological education to Masters and PhD level, or to do a fast-track program in Medicine, or Computer Science, or something else I have some sort of vague interest in. I'll keep thinking about what I'll do come September but in the mean time I'm praying and searching for something other than working behind a till. Apparently though, having a degree means you're less likely to even get an interview for a basic admin job than someone with no qualifications. Or there's always "essential criteria: minimum of X amount of admin experience". I swear admin experience must be something you buy on the black market in dark alleys in inner cities at night because I haven't found a vacancy yet that just wants someone who can learn quickly and work damn hard in a professional manner, and has a proven record for it.

I don't know where this rant is going but every monotonous and mindless shift I work at that place I'm more and more likely to totally flip out ninja-style go on a rampant killing spree.

Read John H's post on the Naming of Jesus.

Stop reading this and click the link.