Of whom the world was not worthy

Originally published Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 2:06am

Well, it’s time for another semester at OU, and I’m very hopeful but also apprehensive. The truth is that although a lot of good things happened this winter break, on the whole it was lacking. I am unhappy with myself for not accomplishing all the things I set out to accomplish. In addition I was hoping to find answers to some questions that have been dogging me for a while, but none are forthcoming.
The good news is, I learned from a fortune cookie I ate today that “things are turning for the bright side.”
I learned from another fortune cookie that “all happiness is in the mind,” and I really believe it. I become very sad thinking of all the suffering there is in this world, but with the right attitude, a person can endure almost anything. With the wrong attitude, all the riches of the world can’t make a person happy.
Apparently people in America are ten times more likely to be depressed than they were sixty years ago, and people in some primitive societies in New Guinea almost never get depressed. Lifestyle is obviously a huge factor in this. If we all spent just a little more time hunting and gathering to stay in shape, socializing with our in-laws, and staring at our light boxes, we’d all be much happier.
Another thing I learned last semester is that if you put enough pizza in your refrigerator for long enough, your milk will eventually start to smell like pizza.
I’m pretty sure I heard the best radio advertisement ever today, and I’m sure you will all find it every bit as reassuring as I did. It was about the top 8 mistakes that investors make, and it began like this: “Maybe you don’t consider yourself affluent. Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself as a high-net-worth investor. But it doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive or what kind of home you live in; if you have over $500,000 in investments, you’re a high-net-worth investor.”
I also realized today how out-of-touch I’ve become when I saw the commercial for the new Kidz Bop 13 CD and only recognized about half of the songs. Clearly this is a product I need, so that I can groove to the sound of an ungainly mob of pre-teens singing “Party Like a Rock Star.”
I leave you with one final thought which kind of ties into the enduring-almost-anything-thing. The eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is a beautifully poetic treatise on faith and those who have it, and I am especially fond of verses 37-38, where the persecuted saints living before the time of Christ are described in these stirring words:

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.