- They have had a connection with something big, scary, and real. Somehow, someway God has spoken.
- They are uninterested and/or afraid of any feedback or pushback. They are, in reality, saying, "Don't ask me any questions about this thing."
27 October 2009
God Sez...
20 October 2009
The World's Hardest Question (for dudes)
Big Love, an HBO show, is great. It centers on a polygamist family living life in the modern suburbs of Utah. My wife and I have been watching on DVD for a month now and are hooked. It's a show that brings up great conversations about family, love, faith, and morality. However, it also brings up THE WORLD'S HARDEST QUESTION (for dudes). I will now recount a conversation I had with my wife a few nights ago...
27 August 2009
09 August 2009
A Thought on Eternal Destiny
- Exclusivism: You must say the name of Jesus in this specific way in order to be saved.
- Inclusivism: God knows the hearts of everyone living and dead and will be the final judge.
- Universalism: God will save everyone.
Advice From Jayber Crow
15 July 2009
Kierkegaard Opens Up a Can
...the parsons canonize bourgeois mediocrity. We Protestants have done away with the Catholic canonization of ascetics and martyrs, etc.--as a substitute those interested in the bourgeois corporation are canonized and of course they are canonized by the last clerical order to appear in Protestantism: the office seekers and place hunters.From Christ the Offense
Zoinks!
20 June 2009
Carry the Fire
09 May 2009
A Walker Percy Formula
A Technician of Man=Skinner
A Lover of Man + A Technician of Man=Hitler
John Steinbeck on the Progression of Mystery
John Steinbeck from The Winter of Our Discontent
I don't know why, but the religion/science question has heated up in my circle lately. Everything I've been reading has been coming back to the question. Even when I'm just trying to read a novel, there it is.
Today, I was thinking about what I was like when I was a teenager. Regrettably, I was one who knew it all. It wasn't until my early twenties that I was able to make decisions out of my vast knowledge and wisdom...and it wasn't until the last few years that some of these decisions have come home to roost. I wonder if science (I'm talking about the ideology/religion of science that pervades our culture) is in that early twenties phase. The knowledge has been met with resources and now it's on like Donkey Kong.
A list of scientific accomplishments whose conseqences are mostly unknown:
- Genetically coded plants who only respond to proprietary fertilizer and herbicide.
- Cell phones vs. brain health
- The long-term effects of an industrialized diet
- The internal combustion engine and its possible link to climate change
07 May 2009
Goodbye Tree
10 April 2009
The Wire
I love morally complicated stories. The Wire plays this line to perfection. All the characters, both the "good" and "bad" guys, are flawed. The story in the first season centers on a police unit trying to take down a drug dealing operation in Baltimore. The show digs in on both sides. You get to know the cops and the dealers. The more you know, the more ambiguous it gets. It's making me think about the nature of good and evil, the reality of moral ambiguity, and the sadness of drugs and addiction. If you like thinking about these types of things, watch it.
31 March 2009
Walker Percy on Suicide
Begin with the reverse hypothesis, like Copernicus and Einstein. You are depressed because you should be. You are entitled to your depression. In fact, you'd be deranged if you were not depressed. Consider the only adults who are never depressed: chuckleheads, California surfers, and fundamentalist Christians who believe they have had a personal encounter with Jesus and are saved for once and all. Would you trade your depression to be any one of these?...
Percy goes on to describe the true choice for the depressed when considering suicide. You can either become a non-suicide, avoiding the pain, treating symptoms, running, or you can become an ex-suicide, pushing into the pain, searching for your truth, stopping.
The non-suicide is a little traveling suck of care, sucking care with him from the past and being sucked toward care in the future. His breath is high in his chest.
The ex-suicide opens his front door, sits down on the steps, and laughs. Since he has the option of being dead, he has nothing to lose by being alive. It is good to be alive. He goes to work because he doesn't have to.
From Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy
I've been in deconstruction mode in a lot of areas of my life--religion and my work in specific. I was taught in school and in the profession at large to help people avoid suicide. I give people suicide contracts which state that they will not kill themselves until X-date. We keep the ball rolling (and protect ourselves legally). While there is merit in this (it is good that people do not kill themselves), I am realizing that it does not get the job done.
Percy confirmed this feeling with his essay on suicide and the way depression and suicidal ideation is treated by therapists. He makes the case that rather than helping people avoid suicide, stepping aside and then walking with them into the despair is the only chance at peace. Instead of asking, "What needs to happen for you to not kill yourself?" What if we asked, "What needs to die?"
Or to put it another way, to gain your life you must lose it.
21 March 2009
The Church Business
We need to run this church more like a business.
Something I've never heard:
We need to run this business more like a church.
20 March 2009
Nothing is Free
'Cause you grew up in a mall
From "Nothing at All" by The Shins
This is our zeitgeist. This is the story of my childhood. This is the sentiment I'm trying to pry myself from. This is what I fear my kids will someday believe.
17 March 2009
My Beloved Corn
Two years ago I thought it would be funny/interesting to plant corn in my front yard. I tilled a 20 foot path and planted two rows of corn. Yes, I was that crazy corn-in-front-yard guy. My wife was not overly thrilled, but was cool. My neighbors were not happy one bit. On at least three occasions, I saw them standing near my beloved corn, pointing and scowling. I wanted to go out and hug each one of those precious little corn plants and say, "It's OK, people don't know where food comes from, but I do...and I love you." The minor scandal my corn-in-front-yard caused is still a mystery to me.
Four corn-related facts:
- Corn must be planted in at least three rows so that it can be properly pollinated.
- Corn, a grass plant, requires full sun (it did not do well in my partially shaded front yard).
- Corn is scandalous in suburban Atlanta.
- King Corn is a great documentary about industrial corn farming, community, and "progress."
06 March 2009
Inherent Unmarketability
How do you make attractive that which is not?
How do you sell emptiness, vulnerability, and nonsuccess?
How do you talk decent when everything is about ascent?
How can you possibly market letting go in a capitalist culture?
How do you present Jesus to a Promethean mind?
How do you talk about dying to a church trying to appear perfect?
This is not going to work.
(admitting this might be my first step)
05 March 2009
Why We Fight--Film Review
I'll sum this "documentary" up in one word: silly. Are you telling me that I am to believe our country would literally perpetuate war to keep the "military industrial complex" moving forward? And who came up with that silly phrase, military industrial complex anyway? Oh, Dwight D. Eisenhower...well what did he know? Wasn't he the same president who made those silly buttons that said "I like Ike?" You can't spell silly without Ike. His warning to future generations regarding the dangers of having a standing military and corporate interests tied so closely with the war machine were, well, silly. If you look at our wars since WWII, our causes were clear. We were fighting for...oh, never mind. The movie asserts that profit may be driving much of our war effort. They present silly "facts" about how our defense spending blows all other countries out of the water, by a long shot. Obviously, the makers of this movie have not studied up on just war philosophy developed by the unsilly St. Thomas Aquinas. Yeah, he's old school, but he clearly stated that profit motive is a perfectly good reason to go to war.
To summarize, if you like silly movies, this one's for you.
Seriously, this was the scariest movie I've seen in a long time. I'm talking pit in my stomach, loss of sleep scary.
28 February 2009
Walker Percy Quote
a. Was it because people were not bored before the 18th century?
b. Was it because people were bored but did not have a word for it?
c. Was it because people were too busy staying alive to be bored?
Walker Percy from Lost in the Cosmos (The Last Self-Help Book)
Percy goes on to propose three additional answers, but they take up pages so I didn't include them. This question haunts me for three reasons.
1. I hear people complaining about boredom. I don't believe there is an answer to this. Most people say, "Well, let's go bowling, or to a movie, or to the mall, or to..." I have found myself saying things like, "You should ponder that" or "Think about what you just said." My responses are not popular. My response from now on: "You know, boredom did not enter the lexicon until the 18th century. HMMM." This type of response is very well received.
2. When I bring up the question to friends, there seems to be an underlying terror about the answer (or lack thereof).
3. I got my mouth washed out with soap by a babysitter when I was 11. My crime? Uttering these infamous words, "I'm bored." Oh, the humanity.
27 February 2009
Levi Brings a Tear to My Eye
22 February 2009
Quote from The Chosen by Chaim Potok
This is the second of Potok's books I've read. My Name is Asher Lev was wonderful as well. Both books have profound things to say about family, community, and independence. This was a wonderful book about the importance of friendship and how pain is passed on from generation to generation.
I found the above quote and the content of the book to be helpful in my work. I definitely recommend it.
20 February 2009
Murder
For all who are being killed, slowly.
For all who murder from their own pain.
Jesus Christ have mercy.
17 February 2009
Bonhoeffer Quote and Lent
It is laid upon every Christian. The first suffering of Christ we must experience is the call sundering our ties to this world. This is the death of the old human being in the encounter with Jesus Christ. Whoever enters discipleship enters Jesus' death, and puts his or her own life into death; this has been so from the beginning. The cross is not the horrible end of a pious, happy life, but stands rather at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ. Every call of Christ leads to death. Whether with the first disciples we leave home and occupation in order to follow him, or whether with Luther we leave the monastery to enter a secular profession, in either case, the one death awaits us, namely, death in Jesus Christ, the dying away of our old form of being human in Jesus' call.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Discipleship
I'm teaching on the season of Lent this weekend. It's a challenging topic to face at my home church. We're a group from many different backgrounds. As I was talking with some friends recently, we realized that most of our people are either from extreme Protestantism (we approach Lent-ish practice with skepticism) or former Catholic (we have had enough Lent already, thanks!) backgrounds. No way to play this one down the middle.
I've found so much healing and peace in Lent. I've experienced a lot of faith growth in seasons past. That said, I never look forward to it. At least not in the way I look forward to summer or the latest Justin Timberlake album. It's hard. It's not fun. I'm going to be talking some about the absolute unsellability of Lent (and really Christianity). If we had to develop a true sub-slogan for Lent (and Christianity), it would be COME AND DIE. Obviously, this is not the kind of slogan that is likely to increase market share...and here I go, getting all mad about the state of suburban faith.
Back to the Bonhoeffer quote. Why is it that deepening of faith is so often tied to deep suffering? If we are inviting people to suffer as Christ suffered, I feel like we need to have lived the answer to this question in some way.
12 February 2009
Always Keep Mystery & Other Musings by Coldplay
On defending yourself: You can either say, "It's not true," and leave it at that, or you can go on a 7-hour rant about why it's not true.
On the purpose of their job: Our goal is to make the perfect song. It's an impossible thing to do.
On why he is not a rock star: I'm not even a soft-rock star. I don't wear the right pants.
On their greatest talent: We rely on enthusiasm over talent.
On being called the greatest rock band currently working: It's probably true, but U2 comes off holiday next month.
On the meaning of Yellow: What's it about? Who knows? I can't quite work it out myself.
On doing interviews: We don't do them. One of our band rules is always keep mystery.
01 February 2009
Next Time You're Bored on a Sunday
30 January 2009
The Way I Joke
There was a talking Barbie that was released to be enjoyed by girls round the world. One of the phrases she said was "Math is hard, let's go shopping." Wow. We were all appalled at the stereotyping and flat out invalidity of the assumption (btw the smartest math person I know is my genius-level wife).
BUT, the phrase, "Math is hard," spoken in a whiny, annoying voice is HILARIOUS! No joke. Do it right now. Comedy gold. So, here's how I "joke." I take a hilarious phrase like this and begin saying it at random times and in response to real inquiries. "Did you finish that paper?" I was asked. "Math is hard," was my response. You get the idea. I tend to completely ignore the line that separates funny from I want to kill you. So that's how I joke.
Lately: I've been responding to questions with a fine tuned techno beat that emanates from my soul. I've resurrected "exqueeze me, baking powder?" from the depths of Wayne's World and say it to people who have absolutely no idea what Wayne's World was/is.
FYI, I realize that "the way I joke" is annoying. That's part of my mystique. It's part of my magic. Or maybe I just think being annoying is the ultimate form of comedy.
UPDATE: I have spent approximately 12 minutes of my life trying to figure out how to spell the sound of a techno beat. No luck yet.
20 January 2009
Book Recommendation: The Dip
I read The Dip by Seth Godin three months ago and the lessons from this little book just won't stop infiltrating my life. The gist of the book is that sometimes quitters do win. It's all about quitting the right things and pushing through "the dip" on those things that deserve our energy. I've primarily applied the concept to my work world, but really, it applies everywhere.
10 January 2009
The Top Five Books of 2008 (that I read)
An awesome book about groups, passion, business, and leadership. A quick read that's well worth it.
2. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
A must read for creative types. Particularly creative types born into family and cultural settings that weren't down with creativity.
3. Silence by Shusako Endo
A book about Catholic missionaries in Japan who experience great persecution. The ending...wow!
4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
She also wrote one of my all time favorites, The Last American Man. This is the story of the author finding herself after the world was pulled out from under her.
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is pure magic, genius. This is a story of a father and son on the road after the apocalypse.
Honorable Mention: I read Walden by Thoreau. Now I can say I read it. It had a few good moments, but was underwhelming. I'm sure I've broken all kinds of unspoken rules about Thoreau reviews. Oh well.