Re(Tro)View: Rage Quit...and other gaming terms I don't really get...

Rage Quit Kids these days... said every adult over forty for the last two hundred years. There are an abundance of things about young folks that perplex....well lets call us "more chronologically experience adults"...not least of which is their creative use and abuse of the English language.  Every new generation finds ways to add their own personal twist on language.  Most recently I have notice the phrase "Because ______" cropping up with startling frequency.  In the blank is mostly placed a noun like "physics" or "politics".  It is used as a shorthand way of offering an obvious explanation to some conundrum that does not even warrant the use of a complete sentence.  It's like a child that pushes a full plate of food away after only eating the choice bits but when questioned about why they did not finish their food answers, "Because vegetables."  This explanation is so obvious the effort to generate the more complete: "Because, father dear, I find that the vegetables on the plate are unappealing to my less well developed palate and thus I am choosing not eat them." is an unnecessary expenditure of energy.   And yes, of course my children normally talk like that....said no parent ever... (the phrase:  "said no ______ ever" is also a new addition to our modern grammar).

The world of video gaming has recently given us the phrase, rage quit."  This charming little bon mot comes from the frustrating experience of playing a game so annoyingly challenging and unplayable that you give up in a furious huff.  Now don't ask me why it would be enjoyable to spend your time pursuing a game that inspired such a sense of annoyance, but then I am a one of those more well seasoned adults and lots of things kids do make little sense to me. All in all, I am not a huge fan of this phrase, or the gaming culture that spawned it, but I certainly understand the feeling of frustration and anger that comes from pursuing a goal so illusive and un-achievable that the feeling of tension and anxiety that rises in you becomes unbearable.  I would prefer that the phrase be: "Rage...walk away and take a breath and then come back once you are more focused and centered" (I hate quitting and quitters) but that hardly has the same pithy ring of "rage quit."

Let's be honest here.  Quitting is absolutely an option.  I have quit any number of things that left me a better man including a couple of ill fated relationships, cigarettes (what was younger Rus thinking?!), most soda, and any number of grudges.  All of which left me healthier and happier.  One of the best things I quit was Ford Escorts.

I am unsure why but I have owned three Ford Escorts in my life.  All three were absolutely awful vehicles that earned the abbreviation: Found On Road Dead...or F.O.R.D. richly.  All three had cast aluminum heads, all three cast aluminum head cracked.  The only good thing I can say about them is that they were inexpensive to buy.  They were however, exceedingly expensive to keep on the road.  I had everything from cracked engine blocks to whole wiring harnesses (that is to say the bundle of ALL the wires that lead to ALL the electrical devices on the vehicle) catching fire and mysteriously burning up. It took years but I learned something important.  Some things are not worth fixing. Some times you just have to start a new thing.

I am not talking about "rage quitting" here.  I am saying that sometimes you have to make the measured decision that the thing in question simply is not fixable and needs to be discarded in order for something better to be embraced.

In today's old testament reading God is likening himself to a vineyard owner whose vineyard is simply not worth fixing. Isaiah 5:1-7Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry! Even though every possible concession and allowance has been made for it the vineyard has not grown edible grapes.  The owner looks at it and says, "well, that did not work...lets move on."  Move on, the vineyard owner does with great force of will and dramatic gestures.  It is not a "rage quit" but it is extremely definitive.  There is a certainty to the vineyard owner that they will not waste another minute on this useless vineyard.  Something new, somewhere else is beckoning and the old is over.

Famed TV Producer Norman Lear was asked what was the secret to his success and long and productive life (Norman is still working even though his is 94). Norman said it is two words: over and next.  When something is done it is done.  Don't dwell no past failures or pains.  Always be looking forward to what the next thing life will bring you is.

Something new needed to be done.  A new nation needed plowed, a new people needed planting.  This brings us to Jesus himself.  He is here to turn over a new nation and plant a new crop.  Unlike the old vineyard though this one does not rely on the fidelity of humans to grow and prosper.  This new nation is the very Kingdom of God and it's steward is none other than the Holy Spirit itself.  Jesus plants a crop of believers and waters the soil with his very blood.  You and I are the new vineyard.  The old is over, now on to the next The old was allowed to be overgrown and destroyed so we would not be tempted to return to the failed vineyard for "wild grapes", which are poisonous by the way.  Too often we try to turn to the worldly vineyard of this land and look for grapes among the thorns and briers of this world.  We look for salvation and hope from the wild grapes of wealth, power, or prestige.  We seek out wine from the empty vats of politicians, nations, and popular culture.  We look for comfort in the shade of the withered vines of human philosophy, science, and all human "knowledge". When we do this we forget that for God, this is over and next.  God has planted a new, perfect vineyard for his people.  He does not want us to "Rage quit" this world.  But he does want us to join him in being over it, and in moving on to the next.