Here are things that regularly disappear in my life:
1. Socks. They disappear. At least one sock disappears; the other one hangs around as a lonely soul. We used to have a plastic shopping bag (would you like paper or plastic? -- that kind of bag) hanging in the laundry. It was filled with single socks with lost mates. There's nothing you can do with them. You can't throw one out, because you're always fearful the other one will show up the minute you do.
I'm absolutely certain: when I throw pairs of matched socks into the dryer, only unmatched single ones come out. It's a hopeless mystery.
2. Mechanical pencils. In my line of work, you're constantly underlining stuff in books: Good points, questionable points, references to be cited later. Underlining these items in pen is something like a traffic offense: it's a permanent record. So you underline in pencil.
But the pencils disappear. In my travels to the Right-Aid or the supermarket, I regularly pick up yet another pack of cheap mechanical pencils -- because I know they'll all be gone in a few days. In my current pack I'm down to 2 pencils. I have no idea where the others went.
3. Cell phones. Thankfully, this item doesn't disappear forever; it plays hide-and-seek. Valerie just went through a week without knowing where hers was. She didn't worry about it (which impressed me to no end observing the crisis from afar; she's a woman of peace. At least she frets about different things than I do). Sure enough the phone turned up.
Anyway, whenever I'm looking for my cell phone, I think of The Clapper. Isn't that the thing where you clap your hands and the lights turn on? For all the gadgetry they put into cell phones, why couldn't they put The Clapper in it?
4. My cat YoYo. He, of course, is now gone forever. But he once disappeared for days in hide-and-seek fashion. YoYo was a housebound cat, so we knew he was in the house somewhere. But where? We were about to fly to Ohio, so my neighbor Cori kept searching the house, staying in touch with me on -- ahem -- on my cell phone. So Cori's been into my attic; she's crawled through my crawl space. ("Hey, check if he's sandwiched between the front door and the storm door...!" that sort of thing over the cell phone).
Finally on our way back, the plane lands in Denver and I get a message from a sobbing Cori: He's back! I found him!
How I wish I would get a call like that again!
I miss Yo-Yo terribly. He'd be sitting right here now, with his paw on my arm so I wouldn't be able to type.
I'd give all the mechanical pencils in the world to have you back, YoYo.
Logos2Go
James 4.14 ... you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Psalm 90.12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Joel 2.25 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten ...
Things that disappear
The problem is usually in the connections
When a building collapses, very often the fault is not in the beams, but in how the beams are connected to their supports.
In architecture school they teach you how to "size a beam": How much weight can this 2x10 hold? It depends on how long it is spanning, how close it is spaced to the next 2x10, and also what kind of wood it is. They teach you all of that.
But the real problem is at the connections. You can have all your calculations right about the beam itself. But if you attach it to the wall with just superglue, well, say "hi" to Saint Peter for me.
And when you're dealing not with simple wood frames, but with steel and concrete: with skyscrapers and bridges, the stakes become very, very high.
In life, we all "size up" people. What is this guy made of? What kinds of loads can he take? Can he withstand "dynamic" forces?
These are all good and necessary questions.
But we rarely consider the connections. How is this individual linked to others? What are others doing to support him? Does he have the resources to carry the loads he is expected to carry?
In life, when you take into account the connections, that accounting includes not just the person you are sizing up; it also includes YOU as part of that person's connective network.
This immediately calls for calculations of a more sobering kind. It calls for self-reflection and repentance.
This works in all sorts of life relationships: friendships, marriages, the raising of children, business ventures, church life, expectations for subordinates.
I know of an organization that used to excel at giving its employees titles. When someone was unhappy, they just gave that person a new title. But the organization never really did the hard work of providing the connective tissue to make anything really work.
Giving titles is like calling a beam by another name.
But how do you frame it? What do you frame it in? What connective tissues are there? How can you contribute to that connective network? That's the concern.
Logos2Go
Ephesians 2.19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Hebrews 10.24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
A distribution of empathy
A credit card company's TV ad consists of nothing but things that look like happy and sad faces:
Two closet knobs and a clothes hanger make a sad face; a car's front grille and fender is a happy face; stitching on a purse connotes a troubled face; a curved row of seating makes a smiley face.
In the background the Prelude from Bach's Suite No. 1 for cello is playing.
The ad is very pleasant to experience; worth more than many concerts I've paid admission for.
We have empathy for things.
This means we assign human emotions and feelings to inanimate objects. When things look like they are smiling, we smile. When things look like they're sad, we're sad.
An overcast day is a sad day. But it's not the day that's sad. We're the ones that are sad. A day -- or even a night -- cannot be sad. It's just a physical condition of a distribution of light or lack of light.
But for us, a physical distribution of light or dark immediately means an emotional distribution.
A distribution of empathy.
When the Greeks built the Parthenon, they made the stone columns bulge ever so slightly at their midsections to suggest the strain of holding up all the weight above. They wanted the stone columns to look like human muscle.
You might think that's sentimental. But if you substituted steel columns instead of the stone columns on the Parthenon -- or even if you substituted stone columns with no bulge in the middle -- it wouldn't be the famous building that it is.
It's very important to us that the stone columns of the Parthenon have been straining for these thousands of years.
Here is one of our major challenges in life: How to distribute our empathy correctly.
Or righteously.
It is one thing to feel good about a car fender that smiles. But there are higher callings for empathy.
Logos2Go
James 1.27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
Isaiah 55.12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Proverbs 12.10 The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals, but even the kindness of the wicked is cruel.
On making beds and the sovereignty of God
I'm talking about the sheet with the elastic corners that gets stretched onto the mattress.
This is the sheet that you can never neatly fold -- because of those elastic corners. It usually looks like a crumpled parachute somebody gave up trying to put back in its bag.
When it comes out of the dryer, you first try to be civil: you try folding it. But then you just give up and ram it into the linen closet.
Now of course, a mattress of any size is never square, but rectangular. (For those of us geometrically challenged, this means one side is longer than the other).
So the game is on: The goal is to guess which elastic corner hooks on to which corner of the mattress such that, by the time you traipse over to the opposite diagonal corner -- we have a king sized bed, so this journey takes me to the other side of the room -- the sheet actually fits.
In living memory, I've succeeded just once at this enterprise.
And retirement age is within sight.
All of the other times when I reach the opposite side, I discover I've hooked the wrong corner, so I'm trying to stretch the wrong dimension of the sheet onto the mattress.
Of course this never works, and I look around in my mind's eye to see if anybody's laughing.
It's like putting on underwear 5 sizes too small.
Why don't I ever guess right? This is my question.
Logos2Go
Luke 12.7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Proverbs 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
Psalm 37.23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way ...
Art versus Craft
A work of art is one-of-a-kind. Take the Mona Lisa, for example. She is one-of-a-kind.
Repeatedly painting the same Mona Lisa would be considered forgery. At least it would be considered a mental illness.
Can you imagine any great artist, after creating a great work of art, saying, "Hmm, I think I'll do that same thing over again." What would you think of Beethoven if, after he writes the Fifth Symphony, goes and writes the same symphony again?
That would be, my friends, a mental illness.
Works of craft, on the other hand, are by definition many: pottery, quilts, fine furniture, woven baskets, origami. This time of the year, there is wreath making.
We have several friends who make their own greeting cards rather than buying them at the Rite-Aid. When you get one of their cards, you tend not to throw them away, even weeks later. Ever.
Cooking, for those who love to do it, is a craft. As is gardening. As are many many activities that, for whatever reason, people decide to take up and, over long periods of practice, do well.
If you repeatedly create the same object in craft-making, you would not be forging. You would not be mentally ill.
Instead, it would be a sign of your moral character.
If you devoted yourself to pottery making, to cooking, to tending your garden lovingly, tenderly, repeatedly, you would be well respected -- instead of being sued for forgery.
Our friend Mary W, well on in years now, makes floral arrangements with orchids. She grows the orchids in a small greenhouse in her own home. She then makes the arrangements, again, again, again. The other day she fought her backpain to get back into her beloved greenhouse -- to practice her craft. Again.
Mary is a godly woman, and her children now bless our community with good works.
God is not after one-of-a-kind great artists, famous to everyone.
He is after craftsmen, known to only a privileged few.
Logos2Go
Zechariah 1.18 Then I looked up--and there before me were four horns! I asked the angel who was speaking to me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem." Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He answered, "These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people."
A theology of the Toyota Prius
Some advertisements are also great theology lessons. Take this ad for a Toyota Prius.
The car is not there.
When a company is willing to spend big bucks on an ad that doesn't even show its product, it is confident what customers want are the moral values the product represents.
Don't you want to be part of a clean, sustainable, natural world? A Prius can get you there.
But not only is a Prius not pictured, it is barely mentioned. The word "Prius" appears only once in small print in the lower right, as part of the "credits" contributing to this expansive and beautiful natural world.
You see through the Prius to the moral beauty it ushers in.
You see through the product to the moral beauty it ushers in.
Two caveats:
1. This only works for products already well known, with reputations that are beyond reproach. In other words, don't try this ad strategy with a Yugo.
2. The moral values promoted should be ones that appeal to the heart and a sense of eternity, not ones that appeal to what some might call our baser instincts. In other words, if you want to promote values associated with six-packs and bikini-clad women, you probably need to show a six-pack with bikini-clad women. Good luck.
But if what you have in mind is the proclamation of uplifting and eternal truths, then try getting out of the way; become transparent so that people see through you to the Beauty beyond ...
... even though it is the Beauty you represent -- so long as you get out of the way.
Logos2Go
2 Corinthians 4.15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Don't walk away too soon
Many of us know the story of the rich man who asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. In reply, Jesus listed a number of things: know the commandments, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't lie, honor your parents -- to which the man said, "I've done all that."
A real over-achiever here.
Then Jesus said, "Go, sell all you have and give to the poor so you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." To this, the rich man became very sad because he clearly was not willing to do so. His riches meant too much to him.
At this point, the story differs depending on whether you read Matthew or Luke. Both say the young man became very sad.
Matthew says he was so sad that he walked away.
But Luke does not say the rich man walked away. So in Luke's account, the rich man may have stuck around for the rest of the story.
The rest of the story is as follows.
The disciples were so aghast at the high standard of works Jesus set for inheriting eternal life that they wondered if anybody could pass muster. To this, Jesus said that it is indeed impossible; that it is only possible with God.
The gift of eternal life is only possible if God grants it to an individual. And of course, God does grant it through precisely the Person speaking, Jesus.
But was the rich man there to hear this?
Matthew recalls that he wasn't.
Luke recalls that he was. At least Luke doesn't say that he wasn't.
Let's hope that he was. Let's hope that the rich man didn't walk away too soon, sad.
Logos2Go
Luke 18.23 ... When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
Matthew 19.22 ... When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
What the locusts meant to Joel
The prophet Joel spoke gloom and doom like most Biblical prophets.
But the difference is this: the gloom Joel lived through was not brought about by the moral sins of people. The problem was a natural disaster:
Locusts had invaded the land and wiped everything out: the grapevines and figs were ruined; all the grain was gone; the fields were ruined; the wheat and barley destroyed; there was no food in the cupboards; and all the barns were empty.
What a bleak time!
What is striking about Joel's approach is that a natural disaster -- in other words, a bleak event that cannot be attributed to any person's moral failings -- was nevertheless used by Joel as a reason to call for moral repentance:
"Turn to me now while there is still time; give me your hearts; come with fasting, weeping, and mourning ... rend your hearts not your clothes ..."
Like Joel's day, we live in a fallen nature in which many undesirable things happen that are not specifically due to any one person's moral failures. Hurricanes come; earthquakes come; old age comes; Alzheimer's comes; death comes.
Winter is coming to where I live: what the cold leaves, the snow takes away; what the snow leaves the ice will take away ... It is a bleak time, a time of "seasonal affective disorder."
But Joel would see this bleak time as a time to re-examine hearts. And he then says that with repentance will come blessing:
"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten ... you will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you..."
Logos2Go
Joel 1.4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten...
Joel 2.12-13 Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with faasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love ...
Joel 2.25-26 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten -- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm -- my greate army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you ...
What does "a work in progress" mean?
He's a work in progress ...
When we say this about someone, it can mean a whole lot of things.
It can be pejorative: The guy is basically a loser.
Or it can be encouraging: Don't give up on him; there's a lot of good qualities waiting to bust out!
Often it is neither of the above. When we say "he's a work in progress," it simply means we need to put up with the way he is; he's always going to be that way.
This is particularly true when "he's a work in progress" is used in reference to adults. Valerie used it the other day to describe a friend in his 50s, someone well-established in society, with a great job, a great family, respected in his neighborhood, a man of good works, a church-going man. He even loves his pets as far as I can tell.
But ... his quirkiness and idiosyncrasies led Valerie to say: "Oh ... he's a work in progress."
I'm thinking: what do we want him to progress to? Do we really want him to lose his idiosyncrasies? Would that be progress? But would he even be the same person we love -- and roll our eyeballs over when he's not looking?
Wouldn't he be less spice in our lives if he was denuded of his quirks?
What did she mean that he's "a work in progress?"
Can it be that there's some things about him that just don't strike our fancy? Can that be all "he's a work in progress" means?
But what makes our fancy a measure of other people's need for "progress?"
Logos2Go
Blaise Pascal, Pensees #196: Some fancy makes me dislike people who croak or who puff while eating. Fancy carries a lot of weight. What good will that do us? That we indulge it (fancy) because it is natural? No, rather that we resist it. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees, translated by A.J. Krailsheimer (London and New York: Penguin, 1995), 58
Colossians 3.13 You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Galatians 5.15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Ephesians 4.12-13 ... prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith...
Why the book is better than the movie
Hardly anyone says: The movie was better than the book.
Why?
The world of any movie is simply a world that you see.
Better yet, the world of the movie is simply a report of what somebody else saw when they read the book.
Then they rigged up a movie to tell you about it so as to make money off of you.
By not having a world in full detail as a pre-fabricated object for you (and everybody else) to see, you write the book along with the author as you go.
You write the book along with the Author as you go.
Logos2Go
Genesis 1.5 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Exodus 24.7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient."
Psalm 40.7 ... "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
Revelation 20.12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
clicking "Like" / saying "Amen"
Now, about clicking "Like" on Facebook:
When you read someone's entry, you don't have to hassle with writing a comment in reply. Just click "Like" and all your friends will know that you, well, that you Like it.
You Like it that Suzy just had a second scoop of ice cream without feeling guilty. Click.
Oh well, just click "Like" ...
Some of you know this because you pray. And you pray with others. And when you pray with others sometimes they say "Amen" when they agree with something you are praying. Here's an example:
"Lord, thank you for bringing us safely together -- (others: Amen) -- and now, Lord, bless this gathering -- (others: Amen) ..." and so on.
Is saying "Amen" like clicking "Like" on Facebook?
Saying "Amen" in public prayer is about deep calling to deep, when in that depth you realize others are there as deeply as you are in your labor before God. You beseech God about a matter, and an echo rings in the room -- and in the halls of eternity: "Amen!"
Clicking "Like" on Facebook is also an echo of agreement. But how deeply it echoes needs further assessment.
Logos2Go
Revelation 1.7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation 22.20-21 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
What is 'The day of the Lord?'
"The day of the Lord" is a formulaic term repeated in both the Old and New Testaments.
As best as I can gather, "The day of the Lord" can be defined as a period of time when God is particularly present in judgment and blessing.
In the Old Testament:
1. The prophets tended to see "The day of the Lord" in the future, a time when all conflicts will be resolved and God's blessing comes completely upon His people. For example: "... in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine..."
2. The prophets tended to see natural phenomena as metaphors for either the judgment or blessing of God in "The day of the Lord." For example, the prophet Joel interpreted a plague of locusts as a form of judgment on "the day of the Lord."
3. Interpreted in this way, natural occurrences became warnings for God's people to examine themselves and to repent of ways that were not pleasing to Him. Joel: "... The day of the Lord is awesome ... that is why the Lord says, 'Turn to me now, while there is time...'"
In the New Testament:
1. The emphasis is upon NOW. Now is the day of the Lord. For example, what was for Joel a future reality ("After all those things I will pour out my Spirit upon all people...") in the New Testament becomes NOW. And so Peter says this on the Day of Pentecost: "... what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel..."
2. But there is still a future tense to "The day of the Lord." Peter again: "But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief ..."
So we are living in a cosmic time when the blessing and judgment of God are particularly present now, but will be even more so at a future, ultimate, time. It is fitting that this is so, because what makes the New Testament new is the first advent of Christ.
Christ's promise is that he is with us always, even unto the ends of the world. This being so, how can it not be that God's presence is particularly with us now?
But even with his presence, the sense you get is ... we ain't seen nothing yet. So everything still holds from the Old Testament: anticipation of future blessing while living each day with a godly fear that respectfully reads all things and all events not as indicators of God's absence, but of his presence.
Logos2Go
Joel 3.17-18 Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, live in Zion, in my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy forever, and foreign armies will never conquer her again. In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, nd the hills will flow with milk ...
Joel 1.6 ... 15 A vast army of locusts has invaded my land ... The day of the Lord is near ...
Joel 2.11-12 The day of the Lord is awesome ... that is why the Lord says, 'Turn to me now, while there is time...
Acts 2.17 ... what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days... I will pour out my Spirit upon all people..."
2 Peter 3.10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment.
Matthew 28.20 ...and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
It is always now
Snow is on the ground again so soon after it was here last. The first thought the whiteness stirs is how quickly time flies. And how it seems to fly by faster each year.
It can't possibly be time for Christmas lists again. But it is. I was up in the attic the other day and saw the boxes with the holiday decor. I could swear I just put those boxes back up there a few weeks ago.
What exactly is time? And why does it seem to go faster when you get older?
One answer might be that, by old age, we've accrued all of the original experiences there is for most of us to accrue in a regular lifetime. So everything has a been-there-done-that kind of feel. This very level of "normal boredom" gives the illusion that, after about 50 years, all our days look about the same.
So even as Christmas is unbelievably here again; summer will be unbelievably here again also.
But I just don't know. Deep down inside I have this feeling. I just have this sneaking suspicion that ...
... time is not linear at all. Time is not a train we're on, speeding by the scenery of life -- and so over time (so to speak), the stuff all looks the same.
But I suspect time is not a train we're on at all. Rather ...
... time is actually an ocean we're in.
Everything that happens in it is somehow always here.
Why does that make things seem to "go" faster? I don't know.
But this I know: Jesus is always present tense.
Logos2Go
1 John 16.33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
2 Corinthians 6.2 ... I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Hebrews 3.15 ... Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
Givens tells all!
On television last night a promo for Oprah blurts "Givens tells all!"
I ask Valerie: Will those three words get people to watch Oprah?
She said you bet.
"You know who Robin Givens is don't you?," she said. "She was married to Mike Tyson. People want to know."
This got me thinking. Then I ask:
"If the promo says, 'Wang explains Kant!' do you think that would get people to watch?" (I'm writing a paper on Kant, so I've got him on my mind).
She looks at me like I've got some disease. She shakes her head slowly.
I think about a world in which the interest levels are reversed: Nobody cares about Givens and what it was like being married to Tyson. Many people care about the difference between theoretical and aesthetic judgment. What would such a world be like?
"Wang explains Kant!" -- and millions tune in.
"Givens tells all!" -- and they shake their heads like you have a minor disease.
Years ago I was traveling in France. I go into this hole-in-the-wall restaurant in an out-of-the-way corner of Paris. Simple place. All I could afford back then. (Probably all I can afford now in Paris).
Anyway, the guy at the next table looked like he belonged there: simple; all he could afford. He's reading a book while chomping away at his meal.
He's reading Denis Diderot.
Denis Diderot, the French Enlightenment philosopher who wrote an encyclopedia of knowledge.
Diderot tells all!
And this simple guy was reading him while chomping down on his meat and potatoes.
Logos2Go
Proverbs 26.22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts.
Ecclesiastes 12.12 ... Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Daniel 12.4 ... Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase ...
Daniel 12.13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days...
Food as a barometer of culture
The Chinese could never have invented fast food.
Never in a million years. Why?
Well, to come up with the bright idea of fast food, you need to be going somewhere. Meaning in life is the next thing you're headed towards. So don't waste any time; eat fast!
The American culture is the culture of "The New World." This is the idea that we're going to leave the present one -- because of religious freedom, because of desire for a better life, because of land -- and go to the New World, the land of Promise. So let's get going!
The American culture is (or at least was) the culture of "Manifest Destiny" -- the idea that there is an entire continent to conquer because God has given it to you. Just go west young man! and you'll fulfill your destiny.
The American culture was the first on the moon. Enough said.
And so it is no surprise that it was the American culture that invented fast food.
In the Chinese culture, food IS the destination. Food IS the promised land. You don't just get there and ... what! All I get is a hamburger? That would be a cultural insult of major proportions.
The Chinese invented gunpowder, paper, the compass. They invented movable type centuries before Gutenberg. Did they use any of it?
Not to the extent the Europeans exploited these ideas.
The Chinese came up with all these gadgets first ...
... then they just went to dinner.
Logos2Go
1 Timothy 6.8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
This is a snippet from Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung: ... By and large, my grandparents' generation expected much less out of family life, a career, recreation, and marriage. Granted, this sometimes made them unreflective and allowed for quietly dismal marriages. But my generation is on the opposite end of the spectrum. When we marry, we expect great sex, an amazing family life, recreational adventure, cultural experiences, and personal fulfillment at work. It would be a good exercise to ask your grandparents sometimes if they felt fulfilled in their careers. They'll probably look at you as if you're speaking a different language, because you are. Fulfillment was not their goal. Food was, and faithfulness too. Most older folks would probably say something like, "I never thought about fulfillment. I had a job. I ate. I lived. I raised my family. I went to church. I was thankful. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009), p. 31.
The joy of science, art, religion
Science is when a universal principle is known, and particular cases are assessed in light of this principle.
Consider Einstein's theory of relativity, expressed as E=mc2 (squared). The equation states a universal principle that can explain any particular instance of the relationship between energy, mass and the speed of light. Our ability to fit a particular example of this relationship to the universal, as expressed by Einstein's equation -- and the certainty that this fit gives us -- is the joy of science.
Art is when a particular case is in front of you, and it is so rich in sensual appeal that we search for a universal to which it relates.
Our inability to find such a universal is actually the pleasure we get in viewing a particular work of art. Consider the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. To what universal do we refer this? Beauty? But what is "Beauty?" And so the pleasure of viewing the Mona Lisa is its indeterminate connection to ideals -- even as this uncertainty stirs much reflection. This is the joy of art.
Religion is certainty in a Universal -- The Universal, God -- even though words fall short of full description. Our inability to capture religious experience in description, but the certainty that nevertheless accompanies spiritual conviction, is an essence of religious experience.
One of the great sleights-of-hand promoted by secularism is that you need to be "open-minded" about all different religions. This demand to be "open-minded" is recognized by any true practitioner of a religion as a contradiction. Show me a Christian who is "open-minded" about answers to life as propounded by Sufism, Buddhism, New Age, Something Else, and I'll show you someone who is not actually a Christian. Similarly for the Islamic religion. Similarly for Buddhism.
Religion is about certainty -- even though it is a certainty we cannot fully define in equations. Religion is about Beauty -- even though we cannot fully define at present what Beauty is.
And hence the spiritual patience of waiting for a Certainty that is impossible to be fully explained now while we await the Beauty of its fulfillment. This is the joy of faith.
Logos2Go
1 Corinthians 2.9 ... as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him ..."
From Werner Pluhar's introduction to Kant's Critique of Judgment: "... reflective judgments, including aesthetic ones, have no determinate concept available to them, no universal under which to subsume the particular that is given to us ... rather, they try to find such a universal." Hackett Publishing Company, 1987, lvi.
Slogging through Atlas Shrugged
1. She could have said it in a lot fewer pages; the message is really quite simple. But then, our lives could probably be said in a lot fewer pages too. It takes a tome of time to realize a simple message.
2. But Ayn Rand is no Dostoevsky, although both wrote tomes. In a Dostoevsky tome, the world is in living color. Atlas Shrugged is in black and white.
A Dostoevsky novel paints people and situations in all the ambiguous shades of real life. But the world of Atlas Shrugged is Either/Or, which happens to be the title of Part II.
Part III is entitled "A is A". Oh brother...
So there is a minimalist stage-set texture to each Ayn Rand scene. Everything -- furniture, factories, cities, nature itself -- everything is a prop in a backdrop for a small cast of characters who are truly human. But because everything else is prop, these human heroes don't live convincingly in the real world.
As a matter of fact, by about page 700, they have all secluded themselves in a valley in Colorado (of all places) mutually admiring one another. A kind of Peace-able Kingdom of Snoots. Oh the joy of being far away from the Great Unwashed!
3. Ayn Rand obviously never heard that old adage: any church is perfect until you join it. She would have us believe there is a perfect church, albeit a very exclusive one. And because the Church of Ayn Rand is so exclusive, in Atlas Shrugged, she manages to get you to dislike her main characters long before she gets you to dislike everybody else too. Atlas Shrugged is an unlovely book.
4. It is unlovely because there are no transformations of character as the hundreds of pages slog on and on. Each character simply becomes the values he or she represents extrapolated to a logical extreme. But because nobody changes, hope is not part of the calculus.
Logos2Go
1 Corinthians 6.10-11... nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Jesus aimed low
I posted about Jonah earlier, wondering why Jesus, who rarely compared himself to another person, would compare himself to Jonah. This morning I have an opportunity to preach about Jonah at church. So I thought I would post my first point ...
You see, the reason why Jesus compared himself to Jonah in chapter 1, when he was in the whale, rather than to Jonah in chapter 3, when he was the conquering evangelist, is that WE are in Jonah chapter 1.
Has God ever told you to do something and you went the exact opposite way? But do you understand that that is our very condition? The human condition is God saying one thing but us buying a ticket to go the other way. And so elsewhere the prophet Isaiah says: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him(self) the iniquity of us all.
If Jesus had only compared himself to the Jonah of chapter 3, there may well be no room for you and me in his saving work on the cross. I don’t know about you but I’ve never gone to a city, spoken a word, and the whole place repents. So Chapter 3 sounds very strange.
But I sure have gone my own way; I sure have felt like I’ve blown it; I sure have felt separated as far as I can be from God. So Chapter 1 sounds very familiar. And it is in that condition that the Lord Jesus says, “I am with you exactly where you are. I had to descend to the very depths in order to save you.” This is the first lesson of Jonah:
Jesus didn't aim high. He aimed low so as to include you and me. There were three people in the belly of that whale: Jonah, you … and Jesus.
Christmas is coming again. We celebrate Christmases year in and year out, but it never occurs to us how absolutely lowly, humbling, simply nasty and grungy it was for the God of the universe to have to descend into the world. There were no Macy's parades, no lights all aglitter, no iPods and Craftsman tools, no new clothing piled under Christmas trees.
Instead of these festive things, take time out to hear a conversation that probably occurred in the Godhead before time began, when the Father said to the Son, "Look, in order for this to work, you’ll have to go to down to the lowest of the low, and die, before you can come back up. Only in that way can you include everybody.” And the Son said, "Yes, that is what I am willing to do."
And so Paul says elsewhere: What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens that he might fill all things…
And all things includes you and me. That is the first reason why Jesus compared himself to Jonah.
Logos2Go
Matthew 12.40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Isaiah 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him(self) the iniquity of us all.
Ephesians 4.9-10 What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens that he might fill all things…”
Why do thrills go away?
Some people have never been kissed. So, for them, life is pretty exciting looking forward to the thrill of the first one. (Kisses from mothers don't count).
Other people have been kissed. And they've found out that, well, it is what it is. The thrill is more or less gone.
Gone.
That's what I think about. It's one thing to look forward to thrills. But why do thrills go away? Why do they fade?
This morning I'm reading about a recent rally in Washington DC in which somebody got a kiss from his favorite representative. "I even got a kiss from her! ... I'll never wash the spot!"
I'm thinking: Yuck. Please wash that spot. Keep up the hygiene pal...
Over time, faded thrills add up. They just do. Why?
Why is it that thrills don't get better? Why is it that, no matter how many kisses you've had, it would be a law of nature -- A Law of Nature -- that the next kiss would always be more thrilling? Why doesn't it work that way?
(And why do people who insist on the illusion that the next kiss will always be better usually ruin their lives?)
Why do thrills go away?
Logos2Go
I can think of some passages, but ... fill in the blank
The article about the guy who wouldn't wash the kiss away is here (the last line of the article on page 2).
Adults and grandkids
An adult is always somebody else.
That's the conclusion I've come to after almost six decades of trying to become one.
At least for me, I'm never going to get there.
The elementary school I attended was on the other side of a playing field from the junior high. As a 4th grader I used to look across that field and say, "Someday I'll get there ... I'll be an 8th grader and then I'll be grown up ..."
I've looked across many playing fields over the decades; so far I've made it across them all ...
... but I still haven't really found this thing called adulthood.
I'm now looking at people younger than me and saying, wow, that guy is one grown-up guy. Why couldn't I be like him? In other words, now I'm looking across the playing field to folks in the elementary school, and wondering ... hmmm, why couldn't I be like so and so?
Oh well ... halfway through writing this post, I get a text from my son Jeremy. He has some news this morning:
I'm going to have a grandson.
I'll look forward to looking across that wide field; maybe I'll learn something from this new arrival. I know I will.
Logos2Go
Matthew 18.1-5 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me ..."
Cartoon-ifying ourselves
A sidebar on a webpage tells me to "cartoonify" myself. It shows a picture of a regular guy, and next to it is a cartoon of the same person, except with little fangs and wearing a cape. So in this case, the guy cartoonified himself by dracula-izing himself.
This set me to thinking.
We already relate to people as cartoonified versions of themselves. Probably in our present condition, this is the only way we know people: as cartoons of the real people:
Here is Sarah the student. Oh, that's Joe the accountant. Over there is Mildred the retiree. And the Smiths? Well, they home-school ...
Even more: we probably only know ourselves as cartoons. Is it even possible for me to think of myself other than as wearing some cartoonified costume?:
Here I am as a professor. Here I am as a husband. Here I am as a neighbor. Hey, look at this one:
Here I am in my big fat Toyota Tundra. And friends say: "Hey Dave: all you need now is a gun rack and a cowboy hat."
It's all in good fun. But it's all in a cartoonifying sort of fun.
(I already have a cowboy hat, so bug off).
One thing is for sure: we don't need more cartoons of ourselves and others. What we need is the real person; what we need are real people.
Who am I? Who are you?
These are the real questions in this world of shadows; this vale of tears.
Logos2Go
1 Corinthians 13.12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Matthew 4.20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Matthew 4.22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Luke 5.28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
What does "Mc" mean -- as in McMansion?
Every culture produces objects that betray the essence of that culture.
In our day, a McMansion is one of those objects. That is because we live in a McCulture culture.
The key is understanding the "Mc" prefix. A "Mc" in front of something means that it is an inauthentic copy of the real thing.
We know there are the real things. But we settle for the Mc-versions of them:
McMansions
McChurches
McCauses
McNobels
We settle for all of these because we are largely comfortable living in our McCulture.
A "Mc" renders a thing inauthentic because:
1. It is a mass-produced copy of the authentic thing. A McMansion, for instance, is no mansion at all. It is a stage-set of a mansion. Cosmetics is a very important element of Mc-things.
2. Because it is mass-produced, a Mc-object takes little time to produce, little time to cultivate. It requires little time to get to know. Mc-things save us time (or so the illusion goes), so we can have time to work for the next Mc-thing.
3. A Mc-thing is ultimately not nourishing. That is because a Mc-thing is not animated by life from within; it is camouflaged by decor from without.
Logos2Go
Matthew 23.26 First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Matthew 6.5-6 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Haggai 1.9 You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.