Don't try to make something more than it is

At a Perspectives class for my old church, the instructor said something along the lines of "Romans in the Pax Romana spoke Latin, but the common language was Koine Greek. The New Testament is written in Koine Greek. Isn't it amazing that God decided to reveal the truth of His Son and His redemptive plan in the common language of the day?"

Um, no. It's not amazing. That's the equivalent of saying "Most Americans speak English. Isn't it amazing that most American books are written in English?"

Guys, let's not try to find "amazing", "captivating", or otherwise "revolutionary" ideas where none exist.

Thought Experiment: disability

This is a thought experiment intended to get you in the mind of someone who has been disabled from birth (this idea was spawned by thinking about someone who is deaf).

Imagine that tomorrow you're going about your daily life and you notice that people start treating you a bit differently. You don't really know why, things seem the same to you. You ask one of your friends and they say that you're "abrent" [I've made up a word here]: i.e. you're missing a sense that everyone else seems to have. Apparently it's something around you that you interact with all the time, but you can't perceive it. People try to describe it to you but obviously and utterly fail because how do you describe an entirely subjective experience?

Now imagine how someone might feel who is deaf from birth. As they grow up, they can obviously see people communicate imperceptibly with others. It seems that someone opens their mouth and moves it around and the other person knows exactly what they're communicating. Someone tries to explain that they're making sounds with their mouth that the other person hears, but how do you explain sound? How would you explain color to a blind man? If this person were somehow excluded from all other humans, they might think they were a perfectly normal human being. But put them in a society of hearing humans and they're labeled "deaf" and it's claimed that there is a sense that they are missing.

How would you feel if you found out tomorrow that there is a "sixth-sense" that you've been missing out on this whole time? I can just imagine the situation now:

[You and a friend walk outside]
Friend: Oh, it's going to rain today!
You: Wait, how do you know?
Friend [looks at you dumbfounded]: Because my fingertips tingle, obviously.
You: What do you mean your 'fingertips tingle'?
Friend: Wait, you don't feel that? Everyone feels that.
You: What do you mean 'everyone feels that'?
Friend: Like...hey, John, do your fingertips tingle?
John: Yeah. That's what they're supposed to do. It means it's going to rain. [Walks off confused]
Friend: Mary, are your fingertips tingling?
Mary [gives a weird look]: What is this, a trick? Obviously they are.
Friend [turns back to you]: See?
You: Huh. Well I just don't feel it. What's it supposed to feel like?
Friend: It's kinda like you touched an electric fence, but not quite. Almost....cold? Uh, it's kinda hard to explain.

Imagine how your life would change from there on out.

Here's a random, pointless question relating to Jesus that I just came up with. It has no theological, philosophical or other significance.

Did God choose ahead of time the appearance that He (aka: Jesus) would take? To put it another way: God could've made His human form look appealing, ugly, average, etc. Or He could've "just left it up to chance" (predestination is another topic for another time) and just said "I'm going to become a human baby" and just let nature do with the growth as it may. 

I wonder if there was some sort of discussion between God the Father and Jesus before He was incarnated along the lines of "Ok, Son, I've decided that I'm going to send You to Earth in human form; to grow up as a human." "Sure, Dad. I'll do whatever you ask. But one request?" "Yes?" "Can you make me at least a semi-good-looking person? Not some grotesque creature no one wants to listen to?" I doubt something like that happened. I'm probably trying to impress upon God human emotions and qualities. But it is amusing to think about.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you fail by default.”

~ J.K. Rowling

“I try to take one day at a time but sometimes several days attack me at once.”

~ Ashleigh Brilliant

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

“Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there’s no point trying to look in that direction because it won’t be coming from there.”

~ Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

"Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

~ O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman