The Second

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 u...

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...

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 spa...

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....

The great thing about aphorisms, proverbs and sayings is they so often turn out to be right.   Of course they also tend to have something of an iridescent effect: looked at one way they can mean one thing; looked at another they seem to mean the near opposite.   Take for example the saying, “Can a leopard change his spots?”   You’ll hear this when a habitually bad actor repeats his bad behavior in the face of a second chance.   But then we all know of examples of people who have, indeed, reformed their bad behavior into a more upright life.   So, would we say of them, “See, these leopards did change their spots!” The nagging sentiment at the bottom of this particular saying challenges those of us who really want to lead good lives.   We, if we’re honest, know that we are not as morally upright as we aspire to be—we all slip up, we all cling to another saying, “nobody’s perfect.”   Although a leopard certainly cannot change his spots into stripes...