Read and Respond

Ok, here goes, for those joining this transmission recently I am prone to post some of my thoughts and opnions. I always welcome comments and would like for exeryone to be respectful.

So here goes.

So the other day I was thinking to my self again (I seem to be the best conversationalist i can find, I am not arrogant either, how dare you say that). I was reading a wonderful book and the author had a conversation between two characters. One of the people was thanking another for a kind act and wanted to know what prompted the act of "altruism", to which the answer was for reasons that a) did not need to be said, and b) "altruism" is merely a term for selfishness with camouflage.

I do not think that services done for another are necessarily termed "altruism", but i do believe that the term "Altruism" is over used and poorly used at best, and may be nothing than a verbal phantasm on the other hand. I intend to state an opinion here and back it up with what arguments and reasoning work for me, if you disagree, I am welcome to your input, but be polite please.

The first step in this sort if discourse is to normally lay out and define the terms involved. Altruism I would define is action with the sole intent to do good for another, there are no other motivations allowed, there should be no allowance for other reasoning, otherwise it is filling a need or desire of your own and is not valid altruism. I think another definition that needs to be stated is "selfishness" or "self interest", these I would define as having any benefit for the performer, if you do something due to the fact that it makes you feel good, or important, or anything like that it has some element of selfishness in it.

My opinion is that "altruism" is merely a smokescreen for people, it is a work that folks use to mask true intentions. Sometimes "altruism" is a way of saying, "I felt good knowing that what pass off as pocket change is a weeks money to another person". Other days it has the sense of "I know that i did something good today, and I am glad I could do that". Both of these are cases where I think we are throwing clouds of dust in the way. In my opinion, doing something that would help to enforce your own sense of importance and position is the height of selfishness and self promotion, but often it is the end result of "altruistic" acts.

Is the intention of a sports star to feed needy people at the soup kitchen, or clothe them with a donation, or is it to serve out a probation, send a fine to someplace to get recognition, or to show that despite their other action they are actually a much better person than some of their actions bear out? So often I have seen reporters show up to some football player working at habitat for humanity, or a soup kitchen and the player drops everything to talk about how great they are and what all they get out of helping out. This to me send the wrong message, "help out, it is all about how you feel at the end of the day". What message are we really sending when that is the end result.

I have seen this answer given in many churches too, and it saddens me. The "pitch" for the work project, or nursery help, or anything at the church. The pitch always includes the clause, ".... and you know at the end of it, you will feel good about doing something nice".

I think that when someone who claims Christianity, the answer for why the do something the only good answer is "This is my service and sacrifice to God." That being said, I think that honesty is still the best course in most cases. So if asked, give the honest answer to your intentions, I hope that mine can always be "My service and Sacrifice to God is to do this for You."; I fear that more often than not I let "Altruism" be my smoke screen for saying that I get to feel superior or better due to my actions, and that is why I am out there.

The basic premise for anyone that read this far: Be honest, with yourself most of all. Let your good works be of God, the only instigator of good in this world. If you do "good" and have intentions other than Obedience, be honest, say that you know it is what you are supposed to do, and you get a good feeling out of it, bu by no mean let the impression be given that your actions are totally pure in that case, the intentions matter.

I know this probably makes little sense, I wrote it over the course of several days, so it is a bit disjointed.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think, I might just have to write a disagreement with my self later.

Craziness

So yeah, I have been away for a while, and it has been really difficult to sit down and write some. I know i need to get better about it, but everyone knows how the whole holiday season can get.

I am well these days, busy with work and church, stuff at home, and all of that. My life is boring, and I am always tired these days. I have really been encouraged these past few weeks by some of the youth at church, I actually was there while they stayed on topic and discussed the lesson of the week, it was pretty cool.

I got to go riding this weekend at Terry Hershey, it was a freaking blast. I am glad I went on Saturday, as today looks like it is the start of a new ice age for Houston. Riding was sort of interesting this week, I got to show a whole group of guys the trails and lead them around some. I got to be the "'ol guy" who knew the trails and really got to show off some riding too.

Soon I hope to be posting a more philosophical ranting, something that came to me a while back and I really need to get out, but i want it to be right also. It will be about the concept of "altruism". Stay Tuned, and as always leave a comment or hit a link.

New Photo Site

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.d.campbell


Go check them out.

Trip update

Ok, So I am a horrible person, and I have not given a trip report with photos yet. I know have promissed this soon, and I still intend to do that.

My life has gotten majorly busy the last wqeek or so, and I really want to take enough time to get the update just right.

Merry Christmas,

Trips

So My company is sending myself and 2 other Engineers to Oregon for a meeting at a customers site this week. I am sorta looking forward to it, but also somewhat apprehensive, this is a big trip and my first for the company.

Well, I am trying to stay healthy, got a bit of a cough but dealing with it.

Stay in touch, leave me a message, it is always good to know who is stopping by and saying hello.

I will let ya'll know how the trip goes.

Allergies

SUCK!


No really, I hate allergies. they are killing me today.

Well it is getting to be that time of year, holidays. Commercialism and greed at it's best.


Some folks know that I am not a huge fan of this season, and it is just that fact, that this time of celebration, family, and reflection has turned into a slice of what is wrong about all of America. No longer do people want to sit down to a nice Thanksgiving dinner, watch some football and enjoy thier family; it is now a time to wolf down a low fat, low cholestrol turkey sandwich with folks you hate but are related to, go to bed early so you can hit the Friday morning sales good and early. I love that people now pay hundrudes of dollars to get thier homes professionally lit for Christmas so that they can prove that they are better than thier neighbors. I decorate my home, but simply, and it is not professional or even noteworth, but it is my celebration of the Birth of Christ. I put up the tree, with lights, and decorations, but not many ornaments. I put it up for the symbolism, nopt impress anyone.

BTW, I have a new blog toy, look all the way at the bottom, it is a pretty cool way for me to see where folks are look from. I think i know who it might be from NY, and Texas is the only other dot. But hit that ahd take a look, and also please leave comments, it makes Matt a happy person.

Remember that what you do this season might show folks a little more about yourself than you realize. Make sure that your actions really do reflect your views, and also think about what your actions might tell someone about you.

Later Folks,

Things I Hate

So I really really hate time changes. I don't mind the time change itself, but about 2 or 3 weeks later I really hit a wall and just get totally run down.

I think today is that day, I was totally wandering throughout the day, and I have just felt rundown all day.

I am not sure why this always happens around now, but boy does it bite. Feels like bad jet lag only no reason for it. Like wanting to go to sleep at 6 pm, that is not me at all.

Anyways, just felt like sharing that little bit.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Ok, so anyone who knows me knows that I have alot of passions, sci-fi, reading; football, college football; A&M football, food and cooking. Cleaning was no where in that list.

So realize this fact when I show and tell you what I did.

I washed my truck and then waxed it. I actually took the time to clean something.

I just wanted to say that, pat my self on the back a bit.

Checkout the photoblog at some point, I will try and have pics of the 'Ridge up.

Conesquences

A Wiley Coyote Culture:

I was eating dinner alone last night and I happened to be people watching as is my way when eating alone. I was also taking the time to read through my Sunday school book and it happened to use Mr. W. E. Coyote as an example, so it connected in my mind.

What I heard was the World Series on TV and the guys in the bar area talking about the pitching, hitting and coaching. I also heard several tables of folks ordering food, and chatting.

I heard one guy telling the waitress that he misordered and that she should take it back and get him what he wanted. He then told the waitress that he would not pay the extra for the swap, as he thought that a good customer service would simply accept the change with out comment or compensation. His wife also wanted a margarita, but was not pleased with it, and did not want pay for it.

One couple was chatting about how their friend, who had cheated in his marriage, should be welcomed back with out comment. Their reasoning about that was that the marriage was "through good and bad, health and sickness" and the man compared the bad decisions to a sickness, and there fore it should be excused without comment.

I think this is people taking a look at life like it is a cartoon, you can make bad decisions, run right off a cliff, and have no consequences. The new one concept that everyone wants to avoid in these days is "accountability". I have never had a problem with accepting the consequences of my bad decisions, and there are plenty of them. In the Road Runner Cartoons the coyote always had a hair brained scheme to catch the elusive prey and it never seemed to work out well for him. When he fell, crashed, blew up, ran into a wall, got crushed by a rock, or otherwise was exposed to something that should have mutilated him, he walked away to a funny sound and came right back after the commercial, there were no consequences to his actions. The Coyote was never accountable.

The culture we are in is the Coyote, a goal is identified and every hair brained idea is entertained, and there are no considerations to the consciences. People will pursue the prey to the point of ignoring the environment, or even if they are running right off a cliff. When people in this pursuit fail, they expect to fold up like an accordion and walk away squeaking. When this happens and people do not bounce right back, when thy are held accountable to the consequences, they hate the world and blame God for the unfairness. What is referred to by Americans as unfairness is actually fairness.

Thank God for forgiveness, but that does not prevent consequences. In bible study we talked about confession, and how it is a spiritual discipline. Forgiveness requires repentance to be effective, in that term is the concept of compensation, renewal, repair of the breach.

I think that this world needs to have more repair, more forgiveness, and more acceptance of accountability.

Leave your thoughts, weather you agree or not, I would like to know what the ones who read think.

Pictures, Photos, and Pics

Photos,

I love to take pictures, as almost anyone who has seen me in the past few years has noticed. Last night I found a scene that I had to capture, and it makes a very strong impression on me. I added some of my thoughts under the series of pictures. Let me know what you think.

My Photo Blog!

New Stuff!

OK, I know I am a very bad person for not keeping this thing more up to date. I need to get better about it.

Life has been freaking crazy recently. I have a new vehicle now, a 2007 Honda Ridgeline. And I know what a few of you are thinking, a pickup truck built by Honda?!? YES! and it is a damn good one at that. If you can get over your ego for a minute, and thinking analytically about your driving habits, the Honda Ridgeline is one of the best pickup trucks on the market. It is well thought out, superbly engineered, well designed, and has the strength and capacity to handle most any task that is required. No, I can not tow a house with it, or go rock crawling, or have 450 ft.-lb. of torque, but honestly who does in an every day vehicle?

The same day I had to trade in my old F-150, which by the way was a great truck for 9 years, and I am very impressed with it, I went to my 10 year highschool reunion. That was a blast if you ask me. I got to catch up with some old friends, and to start to connect with some folks I one recgonized. It was interesting to see how a few people never changed one bit, and how a few were totally different. It made me laugh that the whole time, the old highschool cliques reformed, the brains in one corner, drama folks in another, Football players in front of the buffet, and the other groups you could think of. I was able to move through praticaly every group and catch up with a lot of people, in high school I was a very quite guy, never spoke much, and to have some folks comment on how I was so talkative now, was kinda refreshing. I have changed, not personality, or marital status, no kids still, no big life changing events yet, but I was a more open, friendly, conversational version of the Matt that folks used to know.

I also do not have my old roommate anymore, he has moved on to his dream job in Austin, and I am totally thrilled for him. For over two years now he has wanted to get a job as a full time firefighter somewhere, and in the last year or so, he got his heart set on Austin. Well he is there now and I would like to ask that folks pray for him, that he finds a good Christian environment somewhere there and stays true to his faith. I know how hard it can be to keep that when you have a big move, and also, this is Austin folks. Not that I have anything against my hometown, but it is not the place that is most conducive to a Christian life.

the other thing going on is that at church we have been working on a production of "The Music Man", and opening night was last night. We had a few oops', and a few improvisation moments, but all in all it was a good night. I am running the follow spot, and for those of ya'll who don't know what that is, the follow spot is the one that highlights the center of attention. It is a tough, critical job with a bit of regard and respect. The job of follow spot is stressful as any, especially for a perfectionist like me, but it went fine and I need to remember that the purpose is not really to make profit off of tickets etc... But to introduce people to a good performance in the house of God, and maybe just maybe influence one heart to show up on Sunday, if that happens all of it was worth the time.

Well I am sure that there are tons of other things I could share, but I will try to write them down in more posts soon.

Have a great weekend all!

I have been a bit out of the loop recently, computers have been a bit on the cantenkeraous side. I have to replace a hard drive on my laptop, reinstall the OS and the go about rehabbing it so that it is useful once again.

Other than that, I went to Colorado with the Family, the drive went well actually, considering it was 16 hours one way. The wedding went well and it was successful, someone actually got married that night. I enjoyed the time up there.

I am very happy to report that my Roomate got his dream job in Austin. So he will be moving there soon, and I am very glad that his career is headed in the direction that he wants.

I will try and post more soon, and also in the photo blog.

Boy am I glad that I am pretty much a Tech Support guy for my self. In the past few days, I have rehabed a desktop computer, cleaned it out, and added some new functionality; also backed up and diagnosed my laptop computer.

I got a new DVD burner for my desktop, and I am playing around with it, we will see what new things I can do with it now.

well, if I have been out of touch that is why, so thanks for the patience, and drop me an email sometime.

God is so amazing!

Last week I had the oppoturnity to attend a UM ARMY camp in Beaumont Texas. We were working in the community to clean up some of the damage caused by Rita and generally show the love of God to the whole City.

I knew going into the week that the work was only a side job to the real purpose of showing Christ's love, but the work was still important to me. I never would have thought I would have seen God's hand so clearly so many times through out the whole week. I saw family after family so overjoyed that someone, anyone, came to help them. I saw students begin to understand the whole impact of the call to true servanthood and discipleship of God. I saw my self doing things and leading folks to tasks and callings that could not have been done under human power.

Through out the week I had the honor of being the only Work Team Adult who also was working as part of the programs team. During the day, from 7 am till 5ish in the evening, I was working construction type of work, rebuilding handrails, painting, siding replacement. I was helping right along with the students, and I think that despite some slight issues we had with motivation and organization that we got the right work done right. During the evenings after meetings and paperwork from 6 till 8 I was working on teambuilding and eating, and boy were there some great things in both of those. 8 till midnight or 12:30 or so was worship time, and programs work, soundchecks, running the sound board, light controls, helping out with worship, setup, breakdown, everything that I was able to help with.

Needless to say I was totally exhausted at the end of the week, 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night, and lots of work during the day, made for a long week.

Client night this year was such a powerful thing for me, some of my Team's clients actually showed up and joined us. Now the way we met them was totally God. I was sitting at dinner with my team and 2 elderly black folks, who were obviously a couple sat down at our table. I was slightly bummed as none of our clients had shown up yet. I was talking to our guests and introduced myself and the group and offered to "adopt" them as our clients for the night and asked their names. They introduced them selves as the Adams family and said that we had replaced some windows for them. As I sat there it dawned on me that sitting there was actually the clients we had worked for the day before. I had talked to their daughter the day before and never met them. When I realized this it was like a burden was lifted from my whole time with UM ARMY. I had never before had a client show up, and I had never had one want to step to the front of the sanctuary and tell the whole gathered assembly what our kids had done for her. It was a powerful night all around, we had folks crying, laughing, and preaching. We changed folks homes, hearts, and even some outlooks on lives. We had folks testify to being scared of teenagers until a group completely rehabilitated a family home. We had women praseing God simply for replacing 5 window panes, or some siding and putting a good handrail in place for a wheelchair ramp.

If you ever doubt that God exists, go to a client night at UM ARMY, visit a work site, talk to someone who has gone. It is one of the most powerful spiritual retreats I have ever been on and one of the most effective mission trip also. A week like that can totally revitalize a dry spirit or kindle the fire in a new believer. This was the sort of week that sticks with you for a long time.

I would love to tell me, so please drop me an email and I will fill in some of the other details or stories.

Later Ya'll, Happy 4th, Praise God, Love freedom,

Wow, this is going to be short. Work is hectic, we are now down to 50% strength. Monday, I am going to have to spend all day long working on things that are not daily work, and it is only going to make life difficult on the rest of the guys.

Church is going well today. However Stephen and Star Smith, our worship leaders, had their last service with us today, Irving Texas is getting some great leaders, and wonderful people in them. It was sad to see them go, but at the same time God has called them to something great. I also have faith that God has some wonderful worship leader in store for Foundry.

Well I gotta run, check out the photoblog sometime, I like to post my new works there sometimes.

later folks,