So apparently lately I've only really written about philosophy and theology and abstract notions. Now my mind has swung back into step with the rest of reality, or at least as close as it will ever get. I'm sick. Which is what usually kills the higher life for me. All I can focus on is the fact that my chest hurts and my head hurts and I feel like I'm about to explode. Lovely, isn't it?
But I didn't start this blog thing to complain about inflamed bronchial tubes. I just wanted to say that despite not feeling well, the sun still shines, the birds still chirp and the cicadas are loud as ever this year. I'm in that wonderful time of day called dusk, when everything is brilliant greens and browns and reds and golds. The curtain of life seems drawn away for a second and I see everything as if I was an eight year old again, merry as a lark and content to be outside and play my little games from seven in the morning until seven at night.
The butterfly bush is about five days from full bloom, the black eyed susans are doing nicely as well. Everything has survived the heat waves (record heats of 100-105 for two weeks!) more or less intact.
Good day for now,
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Teaching
I've been teaching at Calvary Bible Fellowship Church's VBS this week. I'm discovering, once again, why I love to teach. I love to tell stories (I was, after all, the kid who at age 10 made up a whole plot about a war between Allentown Business College students and Upper Saucon Township landscapers that involved a sociopathic deer hunter, a destroyed police car light and a phantom train for the terror and delight of my peers). I love the Bible. I love kids, who are always cute. And I love the little look of understanding when they understand, at last, what I am trying to explain.
Kids say the darndest things, as someone famous once said. Like tonight, when a kid explained the Second Comin as "Jesus is a thief and he's coming back to clean you out." That's one perspective...
I've also been reading up neo-Orthodoxy interpretations of the inspiration of Scripture. This may seem a tedious summer pastime, but my job is mostly desserts anyway so I need some seriousness in life. Neo-orthodoxy believes most of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity - sin, salvation, deity/humanity of Christ, virgin birth, etc - but focuses on the individual experience of Christ. It's an essentially existential view of Christianity.
The problem many Evangelicals have with Neo-Orthodoxy is that it does not affirm the infallibility of Scripture. It doesn't exactly disapprove of this doctrine either, but it leaves the matter open to interpretation. The revelation of God is not IN the Bible, but the Bible becomes it when the Word of God is present. The focus is on Christ, not on the Bible. And this seems quite fine.
However, how can we know whom Christ is if we have no infallible Bible to read about Him? Then any opinion would be equally valid as the next, with the Bible one authority amongst many. What then would be the truth? How could we find it? Neo-Orthodoxy is not itself heretical, but it can lead towards dangerous waters.
For those of you that cared,
Kids say the darndest things, as someone famous once said. Like tonight, when a kid explained the Second Comin as "Jesus is a thief and he's coming back to clean you out." That's one perspective...
I've also been reading up neo-Orthodoxy interpretations of the inspiration of Scripture. This may seem a tedious summer pastime, but my job is mostly desserts anyway so I need some seriousness in life. Neo-orthodoxy believes most of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity - sin, salvation, deity/humanity of Christ, virgin birth, etc - but focuses on the individual experience of Christ. It's an essentially existential view of Christianity.
The problem many Evangelicals have with Neo-Orthodoxy is that it does not affirm the infallibility of Scripture. It doesn't exactly disapprove of this doctrine either, but it leaves the matter open to interpretation. The revelation of God is not IN the Bible, but the Bible becomes it when the Word of God is present. The focus is on Christ, not on the Bible. And this seems quite fine.
However, how can we know whom Christ is if we have no infallible Bible to read about Him? Then any opinion would be equally valid as the next, with the Bible one authority amongst many. What then would be the truth? How could we find it? Neo-Orthodoxy is not itself heretical, but it can lead towards dangerous waters.
For those of you that cared,
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Vacation
Hi there folks! Sorry I haven't blogged (note: this is my first and last apology for not blogging. I feel I have several legitimate excuses). First of all, my internet crashed. That usually impedes blogging. Or just about anything online. Then I went camping. Before these blessed events, I was working earning cash. So, in other words, I've been keeping busy.
I wanted to remark on the inappropriateness of a loose kickstand to mountain biking. You see, that kickstand is going to fall off as you ride down a rutty lane or hillside. I know because this happened to me today. Who's fault was that? Well, mine really, because I didn't tighten the bolts. Or consider the inappropriateness of driving a car through a barn (or a ditch, I've done both). Some things are just naturally inappropriate.
And some things become inappropriate due to circumstances. Gnawing your shirt is acceptable at age 3, but not at age 33. Ditto with sucking your thumb. But these are self-apparent inappropriatenesses, easily corrected. Less apparent ones are harder. Take, for instance, a cherished ideal that suddenly fades in the hard light of "reality." Or a dream that withers untimely due to unavoidable circumstances. These are hard to bear.
The circumstances do not invalidate the dream, they merely reform it.
I wanted to remark on the inappropriateness of a loose kickstand to mountain biking. You see, that kickstand is going to fall off as you ride down a rutty lane or hillside. I know because this happened to me today. Who's fault was that? Well, mine really, because I didn't tighten the bolts. Or consider the inappropriateness of driving a car through a barn (or a ditch, I've done both). Some things are just naturally inappropriate.
And some things become inappropriate due to circumstances. Gnawing your shirt is acceptable at age 3, but not at age 33. Ditto with sucking your thumb. But these are self-apparent inappropriatenesses, easily corrected. Less apparent ones are harder. Take, for instance, a cherished ideal that suddenly fades in the hard light of "reality." Or a dream that withers untimely due to unavoidable circumstances. These are hard to bear.
The circumstances do not invalidate the dream, they merely reform it.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Skepticism
I am the most thorough-going skeptic since Rene Descartes, at least I'm one of them. Descartes said that he could deny everything except that he was thinking. I sometimes wonder if I'm thinking or merely raving mad. Perhaps my greatest struggle as a Christian is the fact that I don't want to take anything on faith. I was the kid who at four calculated that Santa Clause couldn't exist because even with all of the times zones he couldn't make it around the world. Ditto the Easter Bunny (and what about non-Christian kids? What do they get, Passover eggs?)
If I do actually believe something happened, however, I take things to extremes. I love conspiracy theories because they tell me that my skepticism should be suspended. That is the reason I love mythology and the Lord of the Rings and just about any fictional works. It forces me to suspend my skepticism.
Consider the Bible, for instance, which demands to be take at face value. It claims to be no less than the inspired word of the only God. Let us unpack this exceptional claim. First, inspiration is a rather hard concept to claim. How can an invisible, non-material being "inspire" (such a deliciously vague term, is it not?) a material book? Just what is inspiration? And if you can't define it, how can it exist?
But putting that aside, there's this whole business of Word. Words are special to God, somehow, and He puts a lot of stock in what He says. Frankly, I don't usually like people who do that, because it means my ego is interrupted and I have this nagging feeling I should listen. And God really believes that His Word, which is somehow connected to Himself, indwells that Book. And that it should be taken seriously.
And then there's the concept of God. Someone more important than me is really a rather odd premise. I should be able to perceive a being so all-encompassing, so all-powerful, but I don't directly perceive Him. If I was illiterate, I could infer His existence. I've heard that less analytical people, more sensitive people, can somehow sense His presence calling them. I can't. God once had to beat belief in Himself into me - I had a dream. I'm just not sensitive enough to sense His presence.
Then, while reading C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, I realized something quite profound. I had come to the scene where Puddleglum was trapped by the Green Queen in the Underground City in The Silver Chair. She is trying to convince the two children and our dour Puddleglum that there was no Sun, no Moon, no Aslan, no Narnia, no Grass. Nothing but darkness and gloom. Puddleglum's courageous reply was that though there might not be any such thing and though they might all be in his head, he preferred to live with the fantasies than with reality if this reality was all that existed.
Here is my reply to skepticism. What comes of not believing in anything? You end up believing in chaos, in nothing, which in itself is something. Chaos is not the absence of stuff, but the illogical disarrangement of everything. And that which hates God and His creation is naturally chaotic and evil. Evil wishes to use skepticism. The greatest lie is to convince that which exists that it shouldn't, and that which is alive that it should be dead, and that which moves that it should be stationary, and that which thinks that it should be dumb. Because Nothing, as an abstract entity, is docile and easily manipulated, but Existence must cohere by the very rules that God - the most detested being in the universe - set up.
Yet another philosophical musing that went way too deep,
If I do actually believe something happened, however, I take things to extremes. I love conspiracy theories because they tell me that my skepticism should be suspended. That is the reason I love mythology and the Lord of the Rings and just about any fictional works. It forces me to suspend my skepticism.
Consider the Bible, for instance, which demands to be take at face value. It claims to be no less than the inspired word of the only God. Let us unpack this exceptional claim. First, inspiration is a rather hard concept to claim. How can an invisible, non-material being "inspire" (such a deliciously vague term, is it not?) a material book? Just what is inspiration? And if you can't define it, how can it exist?
But putting that aside, there's this whole business of Word. Words are special to God, somehow, and He puts a lot of stock in what He says. Frankly, I don't usually like people who do that, because it means my ego is interrupted and I have this nagging feeling I should listen. And God really believes that His Word, which is somehow connected to Himself, indwells that Book. And that it should be taken seriously.
And then there's the concept of God. Someone more important than me is really a rather odd premise. I should be able to perceive a being so all-encompassing, so all-powerful, but I don't directly perceive Him. If I was illiterate, I could infer His existence. I've heard that less analytical people, more sensitive people, can somehow sense His presence calling them. I can't. God once had to beat belief in Himself into me - I had a dream. I'm just not sensitive enough to sense His presence.
Then, while reading C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, I realized something quite profound. I had come to the scene where Puddleglum was trapped by the Green Queen in the Underground City in The Silver Chair. She is trying to convince the two children and our dour Puddleglum that there was no Sun, no Moon, no Aslan, no Narnia, no Grass. Nothing but darkness and gloom. Puddleglum's courageous reply was that though there might not be any such thing and though they might all be in his head, he preferred to live with the fantasies than with reality if this reality was all that existed.
Here is my reply to skepticism. What comes of not believing in anything? You end up believing in chaos, in nothing, which in itself is something. Chaos is not the absence of stuff, but the illogical disarrangement of everything. And that which hates God and His creation is naturally chaotic and evil. Evil wishes to use skepticism. The greatest lie is to convince that which exists that it shouldn't, and that which is alive that it should be dead, and that which moves that it should be stationary, and that which thinks that it should be dumb. Because Nothing, as an abstract entity, is docile and easily manipulated, but Existence must cohere by the very rules that God - the most detested being in the universe - set up.
Yet another philosophical musing that went way too deep,
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Night
I've started this blog post 3 times in as many days. Only problem is that I got as far as "I love nighttime" each time and quit. Maybe it is because I was afraid revealing my true feelings for post-dusk hours would scare my loyal readers. Or perhaps I was just simply talking to important people.
Anyway, I really, really like night because it makes everything appear strange. I've experienced nightfall in almost every situation imaginable except the top of a large mountain and at the bottom of the ocean. Each time it still amazes me. The light slowly fades, the darkness flows in like a cool stream and then all of a sudden you realize it is inky black (or, in some, ahem...populated places, dusky red)and night has come. Night is the introvert's comfort, because it forces everyone else away for a little while so he can think and ponder and meditate and process.
And everything turns gray. My favorite color is officially green, but gray makes everything very, very, very interesting. Shapes melt away, distinctions blur, the world is new and exciting if only because it is different. Gray is the color of obscurity, of anonymity, of isolation, but also of silver light and moonlight and lake water on a still, quiet dawn.
I've often wondered if gray isn't the color of humanity. The universe is shaded in black and white, good and evil, God and Satan. But humanity is caught in between the two great rival powers, pulled in both directions. Even Christians sin, despite Christ, and non-Christians do right things, despite their lack of Christ. We are gray, a mix of white and black. The white and the black can't mix, won't ever mix, so we are eternally caught in the scissor pinch.
And so, which color are you? White-gray or gray-black?
Anyway, I really, really like night because it makes everything appear strange. I've experienced nightfall in almost every situation imaginable except the top of a large mountain and at the bottom of the ocean. Each time it still amazes me. The light slowly fades, the darkness flows in like a cool stream and then all of a sudden you realize it is inky black (or, in some, ahem...populated places, dusky red)and night has come. Night is the introvert's comfort, because it forces everyone else away for a little while so he can think and ponder and meditate and process.
And everything turns gray. My favorite color is officially green, but gray makes everything very, very, very interesting. Shapes melt away, distinctions blur, the world is new and exciting if only because it is different. Gray is the color of obscurity, of anonymity, of isolation, but also of silver light and moonlight and lake water on a still, quiet dawn.
I've often wondered if gray isn't the color of humanity. The universe is shaded in black and white, good and evil, God and Satan. But humanity is caught in between the two great rival powers, pulled in both directions. Even Christians sin, despite Christ, and non-Christians do right things, despite their lack of Christ. We are gray, a mix of white and black. The white and the black can't mix, won't ever mix, so we are eternally caught in the scissor pinch.
And so, which color are you? White-gray or gray-black?
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday Medications
I don't know why I titled this post that way. Frankly, I was going to write about Isaiah 39-40, but somehow "medications" sounded cooler than "meditations." But just read "meditations" in there and you'll be fine.
Isaiah 39 records the stupidest moment in the life of King Hezekiah. He has just witnessed an incredible victory by God over the Assyrians, a victory that saved his capital and his people from utter destruction. Judah has escaped the fate of Israel and the Assyrians suffered 180,000 military casualties, a number that wouldn't be topped until the 20th century or so.
And then the Babylonians show up with congratulatory gifts. Even at this time, Babylon was mulling overthrowing Assyrian rule and Baladan (later deliverer of Babylon)wanted to enlist the help of these plucky, if outnumbered, Israelites. It must be remembered that Israel stood between Egypt (the Iowa of the Middle East) and Mesopotamia (the megalopolis of the Ancient Middle East), making it a vital strategic area. Jerusalem, capital and largest city of this area, was thus a prime strategic point for both Assyria and Babylon.
Hezekiah was apparently still shaken by the whole invasion thing and feeling perhaps a little cocky. He decided, subconsciously perhaps, perhaps not, that Babylon was a strong friend for little Israel. He felt he could relax, because here were allies he could trust against the Assyrians.
Here was his great mistake. God had spent the first 30 or so chapters of Isaiah warning Judah against an alliance with Egypt or Tyre or Sidon or anyone else. And now Hezekiah has instead made an alliance with Babylon! The lesson has not been learned, because now Hezekiah is trusting in another foreign power instead of God.
God punishes Hezekiah, of course, with a promise of the Babylonian Captivity, and Hezekiah flippantly replies, "at least it isn't happening in my lifetime." In other words, at least I won't be skewered by posterity for messing things up.
Then, immediately after his flippant defiance, God returns with "comfort ye, my people." God knew that the news of Babylon's eventual victory would frighten Judah, so He moves immediately to comfort. This comfort is messianic without being directly applicable to Assyria. God does NOT say, "I will crush your enemies, rub their faces in the dirt and then serve you a chocolate sundae with whipped cream." He says, "I am sending the Messiah and when evil seems to reach its climax, I will crush it, but for my glory and not yours."
God never operates for our own personal glory. He never vindicates us or lets our enemies get blasted because they are so mean to us. He does not dote on us and we are NOT His only concern in the world. All of that being said, He still takes care of us in a wonderful, incredible way. His ways are not for our ego, to be sure, but He still tears down evil, upholds the oppressed and defends the helpless. Through Jesus, He is reconciling the World to Himself.
Just a thought,
Isaiah 39 records the stupidest moment in the life of King Hezekiah. He has just witnessed an incredible victory by God over the Assyrians, a victory that saved his capital and his people from utter destruction. Judah has escaped the fate of Israel and the Assyrians suffered 180,000 military casualties, a number that wouldn't be topped until the 20th century or so.
And then the Babylonians show up with congratulatory gifts. Even at this time, Babylon was mulling overthrowing Assyrian rule and Baladan (later deliverer of Babylon)wanted to enlist the help of these plucky, if outnumbered, Israelites. It must be remembered that Israel stood between Egypt (the Iowa of the Middle East) and Mesopotamia (the megalopolis of the Ancient Middle East), making it a vital strategic area. Jerusalem, capital and largest city of this area, was thus a prime strategic point for both Assyria and Babylon.
Hezekiah was apparently still shaken by the whole invasion thing and feeling perhaps a little cocky. He decided, subconsciously perhaps, perhaps not, that Babylon was a strong friend for little Israel. He felt he could relax, because here were allies he could trust against the Assyrians.
Here was his great mistake. God had spent the first 30 or so chapters of Isaiah warning Judah against an alliance with Egypt or Tyre or Sidon or anyone else. And now Hezekiah has instead made an alliance with Babylon! The lesson has not been learned, because now Hezekiah is trusting in another foreign power instead of God.
God punishes Hezekiah, of course, with a promise of the Babylonian Captivity, and Hezekiah flippantly replies, "at least it isn't happening in my lifetime." In other words, at least I won't be skewered by posterity for messing things up.
Then, immediately after his flippant defiance, God returns with "comfort ye, my people." God knew that the news of Babylon's eventual victory would frighten Judah, so He moves immediately to comfort. This comfort is messianic without being directly applicable to Assyria. God does NOT say, "I will crush your enemies, rub their faces in the dirt and then serve you a chocolate sundae with whipped cream." He says, "I am sending the Messiah and when evil seems to reach its climax, I will crush it, but for my glory and not yours."
God never operates for our own personal glory. He never vindicates us or lets our enemies get blasted because they are so mean to us. He does not dote on us and we are NOT His only concern in the world. All of that being said, He still takes care of us in a wonderful, incredible way. His ways are not for our ego, to be sure, but He still tears down evil, upholds the oppressed and defends the helpless. Through Jesus, He is reconciling the World to Himself.
Just a thought,
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Signs
Road signs annoy me. They really, honestly do because they distract me from what I really want to do. They are bossy. They make me pay attention to the side of the road. And what's more, jerks like to write gang symbols on them, which makes them absolutely appealing works of art! And yet, I'm thankful for them, as was proved yesterday when chevron signs warned my sister to stay on the right side of the road as a car was coming the other direction. If there were no signs, she would have crashed. We all would have had a nasty time, even though our massive van would have triumphed.
Now that you have all heard my little soapbox about road signs, I'm trying to think of a great analogy with some deeper, spiritual meaning. The first one that springs to mind is about the "Signs of the Times" for the End Times. I'm rather divided on the whole End Times thing, mostly because I firmly believe in taking prophecy as literally as possible and yet I'm not willing to believe that every tragedy is pointing to the End Times.
All of this being said, I've come to the conclusion that we are living in the beginning of the End. Perhaps the End is still two hundred years from now, but it is coming nonetheless. I look at the news, and it more dismal than usual. Natural disasters keep on getting more prominent, Israel is increasingly surrounded by angry Arabs (wait, that isn't a change. It's the angry Europeans that bear watching.) and the US is led by the most inept administration since at least Warren G. Harding.
Oh, by the way, have I just made my political views known? So sorry if you voted for our current government. I respect them as the leaders of the US, I pray for them, I fervently disagree with them. And I have no trust. Just look at the BP fiasco. Not that I think Republicans could do better. It seems you know a US president's term limit is coming when he starts bumbling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Allow me to get more personal. I'm sitting on my front porch, watching my two-year-old brother sleep. It's sorta funny how I can walk into the post office and everyone knows me, I walk home from the post office and three people greet me, and then I get home and letting the kid sleep in the car unattended isn't safe. What type of place is this, anyway?
I started another story idea today. I hate it. That means it is probably pretty good, for me, although I still try my hand at fantasy long after I should have given it up and gone into romance fiction or something. Hey, what if I brought fantasy elements together with romance...WAIT, that's already been done and the world has yet to pay atonement in full for it. Maybe the BP accident is our propitiation for Twilight.
Have I mentioned my poetry? I wrote three or four poems on the EMW Mayterm and haven't been inspired since. Since the last time I had voluntarily written poetry before that was in 7th grade, I figure I have a few years to wait for my next inspiration. I should post it here but I'm lazy. I also have a financial aid form to fill out and a paper to write. I'm so motivated right now.
On the good side, my life isn't consumed with work like last summer. I'm hoping to keep work and life in balance - I do one for thirty hours a week, and then I come HOME and PARTY. Partying in my household is pretty much eating long, slow dinners, laughing at stupid jokes and playing chess or Blokus.
Welp, don't have to go but I have nothing else to fire off right now. Have a great day!
Now that you have all heard my little soapbox about road signs, I'm trying to think of a great analogy with some deeper, spiritual meaning. The first one that springs to mind is about the "Signs of the Times" for the End Times. I'm rather divided on the whole End Times thing, mostly because I firmly believe in taking prophecy as literally as possible and yet I'm not willing to believe that every tragedy is pointing to the End Times.
All of this being said, I've come to the conclusion that we are living in the beginning of the End. Perhaps the End is still two hundred years from now, but it is coming nonetheless. I look at the news, and it more dismal than usual. Natural disasters keep on getting more prominent, Israel is increasingly surrounded by angry Arabs (wait, that isn't a change. It's the angry Europeans that bear watching.) and the US is led by the most inept administration since at least Warren G. Harding.
Oh, by the way, have I just made my political views known? So sorry if you voted for our current government. I respect them as the leaders of the US, I pray for them, I fervently disagree with them. And I have no trust. Just look at the BP fiasco. Not that I think Republicans could do better. It seems you know a US president's term limit is coming when he starts bumbling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Allow me to get more personal. I'm sitting on my front porch, watching my two-year-old brother sleep. It's sorta funny how I can walk into the post office and everyone knows me, I walk home from the post office and three people greet me, and then I get home and letting the kid sleep in the car unattended isn't safe. What type of place is this, anyway?
I started another story idea today. I hate it. That means it is probably pretty good, for me, although I still try my hand at fantasy long after I should have given it up and gone into romance fiction or something. Hey, what if I brought fantasy elements together with romance...WAIT, that's already been done and the world has yet to pay atonement in full for it. Maybe the BP accident is our propitiation for Twilight.
Have I mentioned my poetry? I wrote three or four poems on the EMW Mayterm and haven't been inspired since. Since the last time I had voluntarily written poetry before that was in 7th grade, I figure I have a few years to wait for my next inspiration. I should post it here but I'm lazy. I also have a financial aid form to fill out and a paper to write. I'm so motivated right now.
On the good side, my life isn't consumed with work like last summer. I'm hoping to keep work and life in balance - I do one for thirty hours a week, and then I come HOME and PARTY. Partying in my household is pretty much eating long, slow dinners, laughing at stupid jokes and playing chess or Blokus.
Welp, don't have to go but I have nothing else to fire off right now. Have a great day!
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