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Showing posts from 2019

The Will to Live

In 1868, in Russia, Dostoyevski published Crime and Punishment , and later in 1880 published The Brothers Karamazov , not long before his death.   In the 1870’s, a continent away in Europe, Nietzsche was developing himself and his philosophy, and it wasn’t until after Dostoyevski’s death that Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra , and Beyond Good and Evil .    My experience of these authors, however, was the opposite order.   I first read Thus Spoke Zarathustra in the early 1990’s, and a few years later Crime and Punishment .   There could hardly have been a better parry to “God is Dead” than Dostoyevski’s “If there is no God, everything is permitted,”   and that ended the “debate” for me, for the time.   These many years later I found that both Dostoyevski and Nietzsche were responding to similar philosophies, Dostoyevski to Russian nihilists, Nietzsche to German skeptics.   If you don’t believe in an Evil One who works to deceive the human race, I can sympathize.   But e

Silence Thunders

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.   Prov. 25:11 NKJV As a golden apple in a small necklace of sardius stone, thus it is to speak a wise word.   Prov. 25:13 SAAS (LXX) I have made a lifelong observational study on what it is to say the right thing at the right time, in the right way.   "A word fitly spoken" has been something of a snipe hunt.   How this became such a quest seems largely the result of contradictions.   From the womb I received, on the one hand, a sensitive nature with which, involuntarily, I readily notice when a self-possessed wise man (or woman) moves through life as though untouched, dispensing golden apples of peace, or of timely goading, or of a blessed aloofness that admonishes without a word.   And on the other hand, I was cursed (also from the womb) with an inability to bring to mind appropriate words in the moment of need.   For it seems that the time required for me to observe and understand a situation ex

A Way of Life

Actions not speeches declare the content of a soul.   My actions, my way of life has followed a template, on balance, of the decent civilized man.   This is not to say that I am decent in any deep and moral sense.   Rather it means that I can check some boxes on a list of things associated with being civilized and decent.   I have worked in a respectable career—as our society counts respect; have earned money, by which to house my family; raised (or supported my wife’s raising of) civil children; funded some people in charitable work.   I think I’ve tried, and know I’ve fallen short, to do what Jesus and the Apostles taught.   But in the end, I see myself as having a basic civilized decency.   I have tried to repent of my secret sins and weaknesses; tried not to be a slave to my appetites, but with weak, inconsistent effort.   What, in short, is this way of life? If I have accomplished anything, about the best I can say is, I’ve fulfilled my father’s way, which is to live and let l

Ecumenism and Church

The modern use of “ecumenism” pertains to a narrow problem in a wide swath of differing Christians.   And within that context it’s regarded ambiguously, either with hope or suspicion.    Between these poles sits a taught unspoken proposition that the Church is divided.   Since Christians know that the Church can’t be truly divided, the proposition finds no voice.   Instead ecumenism proposes to solve dividedness.   While it may have some impact on unity as a qualitative experience, ecumenism has offered little with regard to the universality of the unified Church. The very notion of dividedness is ambiguous; just consider the grammar.   “Dividedness” as a noun seems concrete, but its verb root (to divide) already has a standard noun form as “division,” which is the concrete result of dividing a whole.   “Dividedness,” on the other hand, begins with something that has already been divided, abstracts the quality of that division, and then treats this quality as the issue of concern

The Foolishness of God

Brilliant minds chew on the great human questions: how should we find meaning? How should we order our lives together? What are the essential and real qualities of being human, and what does that imply for what we do?   And, although answers vary, one dominant, modern idea informs most of the modern answers: Human beings emerged through time on a continuum with everything else, from non-life to life, from non-consciousness to consciousness, from practical survival behaviors to morality, from awareness to self-awareness, from awe to religion, from irrational to rational.   In short, to say that man evolved from the lower animals is to say something mundane, like saying the earth is round. This now commonplace theory of origins has found renewed energy in the teachings of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, whose essential message is that of acquiring virtue.   Unlike traditional treatments—ancient wisdom, religious teaching and practice—Peterson’s is grounded in a remarkably broad and comprehen

What's a Gospel?

Here’s a test.  What is the Gospel message? a)   Jesus died to pay your debt of sin. b)   Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! c)   A word that means “good news” Answer:  b Many years ago, after some years in active rejection of Jesus and all things called by His name, and after the consequent despair arising out of ephemeral alternatives, I returned to Him.  I had become acutely aware of my shortcomings and of my inability to rein them in.  I knew that, although my case was mild, it did not differ in kind from others who drift into more consequential, death inducing, shortcomings. On the cosmic scales of justice I deserved punishment quite as much as they.  It’s not surprising, then, that the Gospel of my Protestant upbringing reached me in a profound place of need.  The Protestant Gospel is answer a), “Jesus died to pay your debt of sin.”  What I needed was forgiveness, and that’s what I got, in spades.  For an over scrupulous young man, I was assured of forgive

In Control

Paradox lies at the heart of the most meaningful truths.   For example, “Pray as though everything depends on God; behave as though everything depends on you.” I’ve seen this attributed to Christian and to Jewish sources, and I dare to think the concept lives in the repositories of wisdom in many other places. It can be helpful to see paradox as lopping off extremes.   For example, part of the above quote warns against using God’s sovereignty as an excuse for indifference.   But it also warns against the opposite extreme of complete self reliance, as though nothing gets done without you!   Cutting those out clears the conceptual stage, creating space that can then be filled with any number of good ways to rely on the Lord proactively. What are some of these ways?   I smile to remember examples that others have shared with me.   Each one that comes to mind can be ambiguously interpreted.   For example, my own history includes three distinct episodes wherein we were in transit

Mocking Birds Don't Fly

Daily activities, responsibilities, and incidents are enough to wear a person down.   Humor, therefore, brings a little grace into the mix.   It's the proverbial oil that lubricates the machine, preventing it from overheating.   Some humor, like sarcasm, can be more a relief valve than a lubricant.   If a lot of friction has already heated things, a sarcastic expostulation can awaken the need for some needed sympathy, forestalling a meltdown.   So sarcasm is necessary but should be used judiciously.   In other words, not all brands of humor "lubricate the machine."   One in particular actually increases friction, namely mockery, sarcasm’s near cousin. One who easily mocks goes directly to my "do not trust" list.   Mockery is a strong indicator of poor character.   We know it when we see it, parody that highlights what the mocker thinks stupid, weak, or contemptible.   This is such an undignified way on many levels.   For one, the mocker feels assured in hi

Jesus in the Present

Be present.   This sage advice saturates the world around me, yet this same world teems with increasingly numerous varieties of distractions and crises.   Countless wonderful people find themselves caught in these chaotic cross currents.   Many ride them with apparent, yet frenetic, ease, turning them to useful outcomes.   Others compartmentalize, carving parts of their lives to enter the flow.   But as good as these strategies are, staying “grounded” proves elusive.   Somewhere along the way you discover voids that have deepened through neglect, neglect reinforced with time spent in the swift currents of distraction.   So, yes, that sage advice reverberates loudly in these empty spaces:   “better not to have yielded to distraction, better to have been present!”   Hopeful as this sounds the idea falls short, being a negation of the unpleasant reality: be not-distracted.   So if distraction has a real antidote, what is its substance? From reading Time and Despondency , by Nicole Roc

An Answer

Happy New Year! Let’s begin the year with one of the big questions.   No, not, “Why am I here?”   Instead, “Why am I a Christian?”   I don’t believe I have ever attempted to answer this directly.   At the level of intuition, it’s simple.   But piecing it together, articulating the intuition is too complicated. So, here’s an attempt to go straight to simple. I am a Christian first because I am certain that god exists. That’s half the journey, the smaller half.   From there everything—nature, civilizations, past and present events, human nature, etc.—opens up into one utterly compelling question, “What is god like?”   There is an answer.   God is Personal, Powerful, Good.   Experiencing this answer is why I continue breathing. That’s it.   The rest is details.   A great many details.   All of them amazing.   Some difficult.   Many beautiful.   All incomprehensible.   So much more remains unknown.   What is knowable resonates most fully in the worship and teachings of Christ