Dave Dishman

Guidance from Overlooked Men and Women of the Bible

Author: Dave Dishman (Page 397 of 475)

Does God Track Us Through Algorithms?

October 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments

There are several search engines, with Google, Yahoo and Bing being the biggest players. Each search engine has its own proprietary computation (called an “algorithm”) that ranks websites for each keyword or combination of keywords.

Julie Brinton

How did I get to a place where “algorithm” re-entered my regular lexicon, a word I happily lost after college calculus, only to resurface years later regarding internet feeds? Products and services track us down using algorithms based on our online searches and interests. Never sleeping, they pursue us like hounds on the hunt.

Last fall, in Florence, Italy, I took part in a private cooking class led by a group of Italian caterers and long-time home cooks. From three wonderful women, I learned to prepare Pasta Carbonara from scratch.

So delicious I dreamed about it. Several times. I planned to make it at home, but not much of a cook, I needed help in remembering exactly how to do so.
I found a promising recipe matching my Italian mamas’ teaching. I fixed the dish. It tasted authentic and fabulous. I saved the recipe for future meals.

Then, for months, my social media feeds summoned ads displaying Carbonara, and pasta, and olive oil, and Italian meals. Over and over. I triggered an Italian algorithmic tsunami.

Thanks to a plate of pasta, I understood that if I wanted more attention from people across the worldwide web, I needed to manipulate the algorithms.
Like the gods, I want the algorithms to work for me.

I attempt to manipulate GOD in the same way.

I try to game the system with God. I use key religious words, like blessed and grateful and sinner. I attempt bona fide actions, by giving a bit more money, or pausing for a neighbor.

Always wondering, what optimizes the system? Seems silly, when I think about it.
Silly in reality because there’s no need to manipulate. The Lord is already listening, even as I fail and choose poorly and force my agenda on the people around me. Even in my silent hypocrisy.

Amazingly, unexpectedly, astoundingly – words cannot express my attempt to grasp this truth – God listens to you and me. The God of the universe bends an ear towards us.

David, a flawed king with plenty of ups and downs, shares his insight in song:

I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Psalm 66:17-20

No algorithm needed. God hears. Thank you, Lord.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Watching Modern Love as a Father

October 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Last night my wife and I watched two episodes of Modern Love, a show about relationships drawn from letters to the New York Times. My wife liked the show (thus two episodes), but I slowly grew disenchanted. I couldn’t place my finger on why, until this morning.

In the first episode, a young woman living alone in New York City enjoys a friendship with her doorman, a former Albanian soldier. The doorman treats her like a daughter, watching her return home from dates, commenting on the men she spends time with, offering good advice.

The young woman accidentally gets pregnant, facing the daunting prospect of bringing up a child alone. The doorman is the one person who stands by her through her crisis and the raising of her young daughter.

It’s a wonderful story, one of devotion and friendship from an unlikely source. I should enjoy it. But I did not.

Why?

I watched the show as a father.

As a father, I’m annoyed that this young lady, with so much in her favor, finds it necessary to sleep with multiple men in order to pursue a lasting relationship. I know it’s hurting her.

As a father, I’m mad at the baby father. The dude needs to man up – do the right thing. He remains passive, in the background. He represents the overgrown adolescents that pass for many men in our society. I want to shake him.

As a father, I’m frustrated that this young lady’s real father doesn’t show up.

On the flip side, as a father I totally appreciate the doorman. Not enough men like him in our world.

This all makes me wonder how our Heavenly Father views our lives? Like the doorman, he’s watchful, patient as we chase what we think will make us happy, ready with an open door.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”

Jesus in Revelation 3

I Should Be Walking the Camino de Santiago

September 22, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This week Dawn and I and a group of friends planned to be in Northern Spain, walking the Camino de Santiago. But due to Covid, we cancelled our trip months ago. I love the Camino – I’m grieving the loss.

But, like Jacob waited for Rachel (though hopefully not for seven years), I wait for another time on the Camino. We will try again next year. In the meantime, I’ll take long walks and dream of what will be.

If you’d like to know more about our trip in 2021, visit the Camino de Santiago website. Registration for next year is coming soon!

dandelions

I Am Being Colonized

September 14, 2020 / / 2 Comments

I am being colonized.

And I’m letting it happen.

Colonization is a process where another nation, or culture, or people group, enters and wrests control from indigenous people. It’s happened all over the world. Today the word is often used to refer to cultural appropriation, when a dominant culture forces their views and way of life on others.

Dandelions are imports from Europe to North America. Like bad ideas, they spread across the continent. We easily recognize the picture above because dandelions successfully colonized the Americas from sea to shining sea.

So, who, or what, is colonizing me?

I’m being colonized by the seeping, constant dripping of values opposite to those I believe, values that I cannot avoid. I watch shows in my home that are far more violent and sexual that I would have even considered years ago. I consume without thought or guilt. I consider what I once thought immoral as acceptable.

I’m being colonized.

Ideologies colonize me. Legal definitions. Economic philosophies. Moral perspectives. Proponents of these views don’t care about me, they care about themselves, while relentlessly pushing their agendas.

Social media colonizes me, shouting messages from the edges of society. It urges me to fight with others, to make instant value judgements, to feel guilt and angst and anger. To posture in the correct ways. To hate those different from me. Mostly, it urges me to never turn off social media.

Advertisers colonize me, manipulating me to desire something I do not have, making me crave for more, to believe that I’ll finally be happy with their product in my hands. Beer companies colonize me. Drug companies. Internet shopping. It’s the colonization of my good desires, pushing them well beyond good to greed and lust.

News about the ongoing pandemic, racial upheaval, politics and cancel culture, all colonize me by sowing distrust. My natural skepticism moves beyond healthy to where I trust no one.

I am being colonized.

As a follower of the way of Jesus, I’m reminded that the devil wants to colonize me. He’s the father of lies, prowling around seeking someone to devour.

I think of Solomon, the wisest and richest of the kings of ancient Israel, colonized by his multiple wives. His devotion to the Lord collapsed due to the ceaseless pursuit of ever more exotic women and their exotic gods and the political alliances they strengthened.

I want the Lord to colonize me. I’m asking the Holy Spirit to colonize me. I’m adding the Scriptures to the colonization efforts along with prayer to the Father.

Colonization by the Holy Trinity.

Here’s a vision of the colonized follower of the Lord, a vision of my hoped for life:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Psalm 1:2-3

You will join me in embracing this colonization from the Lord?

Photo by Scott Manicke

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