the test

try this political candidate test out. I was pretty surprised at the results but found it really helpful.

paper is better than digital

for everyone who has those moment-by-moment commentaries with themselves and they wish they had something to preserve the conversation: here is the classic moment-preserving instrument. someone want to buy one for me?

couple of quotes for today

Here's a couple George MacDonald quotes. MacDonald was to Lewis as Lewis is to us. (1) "The love of our neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self, where we mope and mow, striking sparks, and rubbing phosphorescences out of the walls, and blowing our own breath in our own nostrils, instead of issuing to the fair sunlight of God, the sweet winds of the universe." (2) "The Son of God suffered unto the death not so that men would not suffer; He suffered so that our sufferings would be like His."

Eugenics, Reproductive Technologies and "Choice"

On Wednesday, I travel to Notre Dame to go through a two-day grad school interview process. I'm picking up as many things to talk about while there as possible before I go. Today, I was drawn to this article hinting at some of the consequences of genetic choice. Gattaca seems well within the realm of possibility the more big business is in control of medicine and the more we are afraid of health issues and therefore flee to insurance companies to pay for more and more costly procedures. Here's a quote from the article. "Fear" is a key concept in this article. "Since none of us know what evils may lurk in our genes, prospective parents can hardly escape the ever-widening net of fears being cast over the health of their future children. Most parents-to-be do not realize that the information prenatal tests offer is often uncertain and rarely useful. Nor are they usually warned of the anxiety the tests themselves tend to engender. The choice ideology that is part of the thinking of those of us who support abortion rights keeps many of us from acknowledging the one-sidedness of our 'choice' to assent to predictive testing. Many of us don't pay for these services out of pocket, so that our 'choices' are constrained by the cost/benefit calculations of our insurers. They are, of course, also limited by the calculus of profit that determines which tests are developed, and how (and at what price) they are marketed."

quote for today

Announcer: "Well folks, if you ever wanted to see a mailbox shoot a little boy, that's about as close as you're going to get!" The Simpsons: "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", 1509 EABF04 SI-1504, Original Airdate: 1/11/04

mo' mo' about small church stuff (to think about, not to incite hurt feelings)

thank you to jeff burkett for sharing this article. i really, really don't feel comfortable with the way that these small groups come across as a "cooler" alternative to "uncool" megachurch. that's so counter-gospel! some of these other posts/articles give a much better feel for what this small group thing could be about. you might have to scroll around a bit to find the particular post, but here are the links: What is the reason? Dr. StrangeWorld friends of the emergent/c i hate the emerging church The origin of the species that's good enough for now. chew chew chew!

Most Valuable Posts (MVP)

kelly roger meesch brad's magnum opus

HBD!

the blog turns one today! yay! in celebration, i'll be posting links to some of my fav posts this year by each contributer--brad, roger, meesch, kelly--and i'll take nominations for your favorite post. i think i already know what the votes will be....

quote for today

"Outside the second-story window of the office where I work is a magnolia tree. It isn't large or particularly impressive, but over the last years it has become a sort of focal point for me: while on the phone, or mulling over the day's problems, I gaze down into it... "The old Latin word for nest was nidus, a word now part of our language. Nidus--an origin of change, a breeding ground for new ideas, a place of grief and joy, a source of support and sharing. It's a word you won't hear in casual conversation, but it's the best one to describe the gathering place below my window. It's something the birds in my tree have that perhaps we humans could use more of." --Jonathan Zimmerman, found on this site

My Dear Mogslopper,

In my last post, I mentioned, but did not expound upon, the issue of mortals and possession. I know the issue makes you giggle. I daresay anydevil laughs out loud at the claims made by humans who say they own something; as if they could actually possess anything corporeal or incorporeal. Presently, I want to focus on this issue of laughter instead. Laughter is always to be discouraged--especially among proud Spirits like ourselves. There is no need for laughter: tempting is serious business. And "fun" is very far from infernal. We cannot use "fun" unless it is so twisted out of the shape the Enemy crafted that it is nigh unto unrecognizable. This twisting is how we turn boys that enjoy firecrackers and pop-guns into Arsonists. You can see, can you not, how un-fun arson is to them the moments before and after the act. When they truly become useful to our Cause, they feel nothing but the vast Emptiness of Hell in their souls the moment they touch the match. Nevertheless, it is the potential of good feeling--some might say Meaning--that keeps them returning to that same dried-up well; now filled only by the parched dust of habit and misery. We would steer them toward the misery dangling in front of them some past prospect of enjoyment that they once received, albeit in a drastically different form. But when they go back to the habit, be sure to drain any actual enjoyment out of it. Make the sin as un-fun as possible; make them think that it once was fun. But I depart from my original goal. I would like to tell you a cautionary tale about laughter--even merited laughter--out of the mouth of a Tempter such as yourself. Though it may seem counter-intuitive from what we know happens to them after Death, the bipeds are relatively insubstantial creatures. They are fragile. And they hang in a fragile balance between the material and the spiritual worlds. I agree that the material world is vile on the whole and that you would rather not dirty yourself with its slime and crust so often, but you will be a Tempter, 2nd Class soon (unless you continue your blundering ways) and will have to, as they say in your patient's segment of America, "suck it up." In the Beginning, Our Father Below confronted the Enemy about associating with the vermin. But the Enemy would have none of it and insisted against the most emphatic advice of Our Father to actually mix Himself up in the whole Grand Mess. Of course, Our Father did not have to work very hard to convince Many of Us that the Enemy had officially lost His faculties. We departed to more sterile soils. Practically, this means you may not insert yourself corporeally into the material world except in the most dire cases. I am certain that comes as some relief to you. But you also must watch your mouth. Even a small peep from a very high Spirit such as yourself sounds positively shocking to a human. Demonic laughter, even if elicited by ridiculous comments by your patient, is out of the question. Some time ago, a mentor of mine, Mr. Tummarst, discovered first-hand the troubling consequences of laughter on his patient. (You may not remember the event--you were only a wraith at the time. I myself was only a Tempter, 2nd Class and had not yet earned my wings.) Tummarst was about as good a Tempter as they come. He was up for Demotion in only a few years, they said. He was also a fine mentor. But his last assignment was a certain Roman nobleman named Nestor. Nestor hated his name and changed it to the name History remembers him by as soon as he was of age. As legend has it, Tummarst convinced his patient to begin learning that curiously devilish instrument, the fiddle, in order to turn his attention away from a burgeoning attentiveness to the up-and-coming religion of Christianity. Apparently, Tummarst's patient became infatuated with the teachings of the loathsome Apostle Peter and it was all Tummarst could do to keep his patient, now known as Nero, focused on his fiddle-playing. But you see, Nero was a terrible fiddler. And one night, in a fit of frustration, Nero prayed earnestly to the Enemy for the ability to fiddle like one of the Greek gods. The irony was not lost on Tummarst and he immediately burst into laughter. Nero was instantly deafened and then driven insane by the sound of the booming devil's voice. Soon after, he began hacking away at his fiddle and burning things to try to drive the sound of Tummarst's laugh out of his head. I am assuming you know the rest of the tale: Nero burned down Rome and burned up Christians--all while sawing on his violin. I suppose he got his prayer granted in the end. Unfortunately for Tummarst, he also created an awful lot of Martyrs for the Enemy in the process. We lost elders, bishops, and rag-tag dabblers in Christianity by the score. All work of delicately "phasing out" the newfangled religion by subtle cajoling and corrupting was set back by centuries. The Lower Order saw it fit to put Tummarst Out-To-Pasture until he could be suitably fattened up for use during those days of famine. I guess you could say Tummarst got consumed by his work.... In any case, I became his replacement precisely because I never let the vermin know I was there or what I was up to. Sure, my methods were not as glamorous as some. But I became a specialist in the Slow Decline--the painstaking but effective method of gradual, nearly imperceptible, hardening of heart, thickening of mind, and corrupting of will needed to bring a steady stream of human chattel to us. I never afflicted the comfortable or comforted the afflicted. I learned that those haunted by dreams of ravening beasts will not worship us. They will run to the Enemy in fear. And those that long for possession will never say 'no' to us when corrupted to a certain point--they cannot see us as ravening beasts any longer. They will not run because they do not recognize the need to escape the trap of unwavering pleasure. Hopefully by the time they wise up, they will be meeting us face-to-face. Affectionately, Your Uncle

Today's lesson: How to get all my conservative friends mad at me.

A Biblical Basis for Liberal Politics

quote for today

"The whole person is a person who is on the one side open to God, and on the other side open to other human persons. It has been said that there is no true person unless there are two entering into communication with one another. The isolated individual is not a real person. A real person is one who lives in and for others. And the more personal relationships we form with others, the more we truly realize ourselves as persons. "This idea of openness to God, openness to other persons, could be summed up under the word love. We become truly personal by loving God and by loving other humans. By love, I don't mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of God Himself in us. We are not truly personal as long as we are turned in on ourselves, isolated from others. We only become personal if we face other persons, and relate to them." --Kallistos Ware, "Being Real." In: Ordinary Graces, L. Kisly, ed.

T-minus two months

i think my fears of fatherhood were more focused on the...let's just say uninspiring...fathering i received. since then i've had loads of prayer and encouragement and other fathers and fathers-to-be sharing their own stories of growing up in a household full of fear instead of laughter. if you've been one of the encouragers, thank you sincerely. i think i've turned a corner in this struggle and instead am terrified of something else entirely: diapers. that and shrieking for no reason. oh yeah and a penchant for smashing precious things. is that normal to be terrified of these things? and another question: cloth or disposable? i now know that depression, suicidal tendencies, manic-depressiveness, bipolar disorder, etc. run in the family. i thought it was just my dad and myself, but now i know it's beyond only the males in the fam. so, parents out there: how do you deal with depression and other mental stuff when you have kids? is it better to get on medicine so your children don't have to suffer the effects of "dad feels sad today?"

when in Rome...

Or Cambodia... ...follow the exploits of jmc in cambodia here. I guess they're not really exploits, exactly. Just as well. It's encouraging, sometimes heartbreaking stuff. And you can participate from the comfort of your computer desk.

quote for today

"By all accounts, and according to the precepts of modern-day Christianity, I'd been 'saved.' On the surface, I stopped doing bad things. I quit a lucrative career that didn't square with my newfound religious principles. I no longer partied myself stupid on weekends. Instead, I spent my free time with fellow believers, and we inspired each other with long talks about the Gospels. I built homes for the poor, tutored disadvantaged children, visited elderly shut-ins, fed the hungry, and clothed the homeless. On top of that, a livelihood of farming among simple folk, away from the rat race of the American Dream, restored some peace of mind. Yet I couldn't shake a nagging sense that the real essence of the Gospels had eluded me. I sensed in the most demanding of Jesus' words a life I had not yet discovered. Outwardly I'd changed. Yet inwardly, I was haunted by my past and the realization that though I'd cleaned up my act, I was still living as I wanted, accountable to no one. What did Jesus really mean, after all, when He said, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!' 'Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it' 'Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple?' "It was during these years that I encountered a group of people sharing their lives and their faith completely, much like the early Christians did as recorded in the book of Acts. From what I heard, the meaning of repentance among these people seemed to penetrate far deeper than anything I'd known. Not only were coarse sins renounced, but also all remaining toeholds of a self-directed life: private property, personal independence, even pet ideas--so that Christ, and Christ alone remained. I sensed a unity far deeper than the all-embracing ecumenism of the churches (which in my experience often glossed over a lot of tensions and bad feelings). Somehow, I felt that the pearl of great price, spoken of by Jesus, lay hidden in such a life. "I'd spent years being a 'good Christian,' but my first months in community shattered long-held illusions about myself. Not only was I shocked by the level of my own ambition, divisiveness, and arrogance, but I began to realize for the first time that thirty years of living a very sinful life had left me with an enormous burden inside. Hearing others speak from hearts struck by the need for repentance, I saw that I was deeply bound by an accumulation of countless deeds kept in the dark, the awareness of which crippled me inwardly.... "I realize now that this experience of repentance and forgiveness of sins, sealed by baptism, was the beginning of a lifelong course. Many times since, I have needed to repent of further arrogance or selfishness or impurity. And it seems that time only deepens regret for past sins, revealing them in a light of increasing intensity. Yet the joy of being freed to live for Christ and His kingdom in this way only increases, too. "I'm convinced now that the repentance Jesus was speaking of is a way of life, which has little to do with being 'saved' and a lot more to do with dying to oneself completely so that Christ might truly live. But this isn't the 'gospel' we hear being preached today. Jesus said, 'Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted,' yet today's 'gospel' seems to me like one of exaltation: of personal ministries, of clever theologies, of 'discipling' converts and planting churches, of discovering one's full potential. Everywhere, it seems, one can be a 'good Christian' and get away with it. Whatever happened to the challenge of John the Baptist, who warned the brood of unrepentant vipers of his day to leave the Jordan until they produced fruits in keeping with repentance? Jesus spoke of repentance as the 'narrow gate,' and said that many rather go through the wide gate, which leads to destruction. I think he was talking about Christians, perhaps especially those of our time." --Dan Hallock, "What Shall We Do?". Found on this site.

My Dear Mogslopper,

Yes, yes. You have understood my instruction about Worry and Time correctly. And I am quite pleased with myself for your success with your patient. But in your glee at his gnawing anxiety (a lovely dish, is it not?), do not inadvertently neglect the underlying causes of his worry that may be used to advance our Cause. By and large, Churchmen are not angered by mere misfortune as much as they are when the misfortune is also conceived as an injustice. Usually, the amount of anger the throw at the injustice directly corresponds to the amount of personal stake the patient believes they have in the matter. In something that they have laid claim to, the sense of injustice and then anger may be great indeed. Note that we are not speaking of true anger at true Injustice. We are referring to the minor infractions that daily life makes upon the particular claims that humans stake during the course of their lives. As you have now noted in your patient, Time is a particular thing in which many humans claim a stake. Some, like your patient perhaps, view their entire day--the turning of their miserable planet upon its axis once around--as theirs. They exchange a good bit of it, usually between one quarter and one half, for the accumulation of wages or goods. Despite the willingness of the exchange, most humans regard this employment as a tax upon their day. Even if they enjoy their work and recognize its importance in their lives, they will complain about it as if their employer were deliberately stealing their time. But, in the sense we prefer, this could not be construed as an Injustice, and your man knows it. Interrupt the remaining half to three-quarters of his day, however, and you will see an irritable human, prone to rash judgments, unkind words, grumbling inwardly and outwardly. He is angered because he really believes this time to be his own, by which he means that he believes he possesses the time from the end of his sleep to the beginning of his next sleep. This idea of possession thrust down deep inside your patient's mind and spirit is the result of centuries worth of work from our Side. Most of the images on television, in the papers, the magazines, the billboards--and the myriad other methods of communication the rats have devised and we have manipulated--are all organized into a vast cacophony from which your patient extracts the idea that he has been justly doled out a quantity of time and energy to use as he pleases. The donation of some of this time and energy to work is a necessary evil, in his mind. The donation of some of his time to religious duties, relationships and the like he no doubt believes to be a saintly activity--though you may still want to remind him that there are "sporting events" that likely take place over "his" weekends that he wouldn't want to miss. The donation of any of his remaining time will likely be resisted; the amount of time seen as "defensible" and his correlative anger at losing it will depend on his temperament. Tempting your patient to irritability regarding time is touchy business. Should a human question this line of tempting, we are left with virtually no rational response. As we've already discussed, your man is a fish in the stream of Time and cannot call any bit of it his own. If the Enemy were to appear to one of His followers and require an hour, a day, or a year of service, none would resist. On the contrary, they would be willing to sacrifice the time and their absurd claim over it. Their expectation would be that His demands would be great and heroic and therefore worth investment and obedience. It is obvious to all in Hell that this is what He is calling them too daily. That they resist is due partially to the way He reveals Himself--He will not overwhelm them, even to carry out tasks for Him--and because they are so certain that Time belongs to them that they are loathe to give any away for any purpose other than the most worthy. If they only knew their Master was asking but ten minutes to listen to the broken soul on the other end of the phone or computer and then they would be free to do their hearts' bidding, we would have a much harder time building up walls of resentment, solitary longing, unrequited attention, agony--to say nothing for the tantalizing whisper of addiction and suicide. Why think of it, Mogslopper. If the twits would give each other more than a moment's unfettered consideration--because they are indeed asked to do so by the Enemy daily--we would have utter Harmony on our hands! We can't stand for that. Continue to massage your patient's misunderstanding that he justly controls his portion of Time and he will drift further from his neighbor and, thenceforth, from his God. To that End, Your Uncle

quote for today

jnf sent me a copy of this article. don't have the ability to repost, but it's the one he mentioned before in CT. good stuff in there.... __________ "It is safe to say that I have learned more about grace, forgiveness, diversity--and, yes, original sin--from my family than from all the theology books I have read. Chesterton's point, exactly. Troublesome issues like divorce and homosexuality take on a different cast when you confront them not in a state legislature but in a family reunion. "Those of us who trumpet "family values" need to make clear that we are not proposing a lobotomized society of Stepford wives and their offspring. We recognize that families consist of individual human beings with all their idiosyncrasies and faults. We simply contend that the family, a very small social unit, is a good place to confront those flaws." --Philip Yancey, "Why I don't go to a megachurch," in: Christianity Today 40.6 (5/20/1996). pp. 80.

more on church

first there was this, this, this, and this. through those, I came across all of the ones below. read them all.... http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/01/defining_the_em.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/01/more_on_megachu.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/02/emerging_church.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/02/emerging_church_1.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/02/emerging_church_2.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/02/emerging_church_3.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/02/emerging_church_4.html http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/church/index.html and then: http://bridgesbuilder.typepad.com/nw/what_is_the_church/index.html and: http://www.emergingchurchnetwork.com/wabisabi/ There is so much more out there, but this is a good start to hash through all of this stuff. If you're someone who likes to hash, that is. If you're not a hasher, please be respectful to everyone's opinions. This is not me saying "There's not One Right Answer." There may very well be One Right Answer. I'm just not sure what that is. IMO: Everyone who is a hasher, should also respect the people they are hashing, but not necessarily the opinions. The opinions are to be hashed through and you can't always keep every one of them in some sort of intellectual "everything is as good as everything else" suspension. One or a few have to rise to the top eventually--even if you come to the point of saying "This works for me but not everyone." Now I realize that 'hash' was probably the least appropriate word I could have used there. But after all the stupid HTML linking and coding, I ain't going back to fix it.

to brian

i tried to "comment" this to your blog, but it was too long. here's what i was thinking in reaction to your post and comments on Celebrity Atheist List. __________ brian, good commenting. i really like the way you're processing through these things. being someone who strives to parse these things out as well as i can--for His glory (i tell myself)--i also must draw your attention to the essentially faith-based nature of both theism (obviously) and atheism. you will never be able to simply convince an atheist that there is a God worth serving through logical argument. Blase Pascal had to be one of the most intelligent people to ever live and even he couldn't convince those who were convinced that there was no Purpose. (He made a brilliant Wager, though!) Lewis' point in The Problem of Pain is that pain, much more than anything else, works to shake us from the spiritually oblivious but otherwise pretty-hard-to-discern mentality that we are living in a material-only, Godless, good-less, teleologically empty universe. The Problem with pain is not that it exists but that it inexorably drives people either toward or away from God. Case in point: Charles Darwin was a Christian originally. He wanted to be a pastor. Then his daughter died at a very young age. He believed a good God--who Darwin prayed to earnestly and fervently and repeatedly--would not have taken his daughter. Darwin became so disillusioned with the notion of a "God Who Is There" (Schaeffer) that he dumped the entire idea of a purposeful reason for living. To him, and many others, God cannot be loving. Darwin's solution was to adopt the deist position that there 'is' a God, but that He doesn't really care much for us. This decision is ultimately one based in faith as much as our believe that God does indeed care for us. Of course, as Christians, we don't help the matter much when we address these people's genuine sorrow and anger at the injustice of the world as a logical problem to be solved. It isn't. It's a soul that needs to be healed. The only way it can be is if it comes to the Healer. Usually the only way it will come to Him is through the His Followers lovingly and long-sufferingly introducing the person in pain to the Man of Sorrows. And the best way to do the introducing is to love that person the way that God loves them--not for who they might be when they accept Jesus, but for who they are right now. Who they were created to be; not necessarily the faulty, craptacular person you see before you. That, my friend, is much harder than arguing for the existence of God. (And I would argue probably can't be done on a website!)

quote for today

"When you sing, you make people vulnerable to change in their lives. You make yourself vulnerable to change in your life. But in the end, you've got to become the change you want to see in the world." --Bono, in 2002 "People say you shouldn't mix music and politics or sport and politics or whatever, but I think that's bullshit." --Adam, Rattle and Hum: The Movie "If you look at the cover of The Joshua Tree, you see four very unhappy men... What nobody realizes is that it was minus 20 out there. We were freezing. Put any bastard out there and see if he's happy." --Larry, 1989 "I have no trouble with Christ, but I have trouble with a lot of Christians." --The Edge

quote for today

"The tongue is our most powerful weapon of manipulation. A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us that we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. If I have done some wrong thing (or even some right thing that I think you may misunderstand) and discover that you know about it, I will be very tempted to help you understand my action. "Silence is one of the deepest disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don't need to straighten others out." --Richard Foster, Seeking the Kingdom

quote for today

"There is a generally accepted metaphor that compares life to a road. To compare life to a road can indeed be fruitful in many ways, but we must consider how life is unlike a road. In a physical sense a road is an external actuality, no matter whether anyone is walking on it or not, no matter how the individual travels on it--the road is the road. But in the spiritual sense, the road comes into existence only when we walk on it. That is, the road is how it is walked." --Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations

My Dear Mogslopper,

News of my departure from this blog have been greatly exaggerated. Orders from Below stated that, for now, our strategy should be to blend in with the otherwise seemingly innocuous blogs already in existence. Until we've been granted permission to do otherwise, I will simply attempt to ignore the sentimental hogwash that passes for a post on this particular blog. I noted some days ago that your patient is a dyed-in-the-wool Worrier. The thought of such an exploitable weakness in your patient reassures me that his belonging in the Church will have a much smaller impact than we initially thought. Indeed, this particular habit is the plateau of vice that leads to the lofty mountains of many other choice deviances. Unfortunately for you, Mogslopper, Worry is nearly as tedious for spirits such as ourselves as Lust or one of the other habits we, being incorporeal, are immune to. You will thrill with his agonies; you will bore of the tempting to worry. Humans are, as you no doubt have experienced for yourself, angellic creatures ensnared in a temporal dimension. They call it Time or Life or some other monosyllabic word. Only Death or direct intervention from the Enemy or someone on our Side can afford them the clarity of perception that we take for granted Downhere. (You see how that rush of clarity surprises them so when they arrive here!) Because Time only travels in one direction for them, they experience it the way that a salmon experiences a rushing river: they struggle to stay in one place while the stream of Time washes over them inexorably and at times imperceptibly. Worry is one of the most ridiculous of vices because it is a vice of control. And, obviously to anyspirit in Our World, a human controls Time the same way a salmon controls the river it navigates. In other words, it is an impossibility of scale and quality. Scale because the stream of Time is larger and longer and more unwieldy than any other material. Quality because Time is of a different order than material. Time is subject to nothing. We have precious little control over it; humans have none. It is as ridiculous for a human to worry about the passage of time as it is for a salmon to swallow the river. No doubt, being far stupider than a salmon, you will be amused at your patient's attempts to do just that. But I hear your interjection: that it is not Time Itself that your patient frets over; instead, it is an event within Time. Your man worries that this event will or will not come to pass and the eventuality or uncertainty of it makes him writhe. Do you not see, however, that the event is as firmly within Time as your patient is himself. He can no more control it than he can Time. And it is control that drives him mad. He wishes to control the event and, being incapable of that, also--as a happy chance--loses control of his emotions and perspective. He sweats, curses the night, and--if you are there exacerbating the situation--snaps at his wife and children, colleagues and friends. Your patient's will is so bent at the future that he is incapacitated in the present. You can be sure that you're man's future focus will have him completely out-of-joint here; he will be quite unable to perform the most basic acts of Charity in the here and now. We know, even if your patient cannot see it, that in his desires for control--the desires that cause him the greatest, most luscious inner turmoil--he challenges the lovingly laid plans of the Enemy. The Enemy has assured His Followers that their best interests are His concern. Your man, however, desires that his own plans be followed. He could not know, for instance, that the Enemy does not wish your patient to acquire great wealth lest he become numbed and then controlled by avarice. (Controlled by us through the means of avarice, would be a better way to put it.) Because of this ignorance, he worries about wealth and means to obtain wealth. Your patient thereby never questions his desires for wealth and security because he assumes they are innocuous parts of his own plan and are not in conflict whatsoever with the Enemy's plan for your patient. Therefore, when his desires go unfulfilled, he sees it less of an answer to prayer than yet another occasion to distrust the Enemy. And now we enter the much more pleasant territory of Idolatry. If you can cultivate your patient's sense of entitlement in the midst of Worry--a statement such as "I deserve this or that" would suffice--you are well on your way toward total domination. The moment when all Hell rejoices, however, is further still: when a patient recognizes the Enemy and the sickening beneficence of His plans and the ultimate Goal of Life and Time and still says, Not Your Will, but Mine be done. Yes even Worry--seemingly pointless, not too devilish--can over time and repetition become a portal toward depravity. See that it becomes so in your patient. We shall rescue him from the Church yet. Affectionately, Your Uncle

quote for today

"Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanishes into thin air, and if people imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics…Although Peter cannot achieve his own conversion, he can leave his nets." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Salvation

For all Bread and Fish alumni, you will remember a particular time when we discussed the gospel message and grass-roots evangelism. I expressed a deep concern that I didn't really understand it...or how I could possibly tell someone about Jesus. Tonight at Youth Alpha (3rd week into it) I was able to pray the prayer with a lad named Chris (he's 14). It was sensational...spirit inspired...spirit filled...transformational stuff. How thankful I am that you all persevered with me through that time when I had so many questions and so little clue. England is ripe with opportunity to share the gospel. The kids here are desperate for something...come be a part of it!! Please?! Praise God

two great articles

the first one is in Reality Magazine, which you should check out if you haven't already. It is trying hard to fill in the void left when re: generation quit publishing. The second one deals very realistically with faith in the midst of the darkness. I know you want to pretend that people like this are seriously unlike you or were never Disciples to begin with, but come on. Do you know what the Dark Night of the Soul feels like? If not, can you begin to criticize someone who does? Though I feel like I've already been through this journey and out the other side, you have to take this kind of a testimony in. Think about it; pray about it. It could be you one day and you better hope you have patient, caring souls around you to help.

quote for today

(John 21.16) He then asked a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Master, you know I love you." Jesus said, "Shepherd my sheep." "What are you doing about the 'sheep' right in front of you, right now?"

for more guidance on guidance

thank you ss for this post. and jc expands the 3 legs of guidance to five (i can't remember the clever alliteration, so i'm summing up what he said): (1) Scripture (2) Saints (3) Spirit (4) Circumstances (5) and Common Sense. That seems to correlate pretty well with what others have said, scripture seems to say, as well as the experience of the historical Church and my own brain. (Wait...didn't i just use those five things to decide that?) To help with this discussion, i've been reviewing two of the best and most-consulted of all my books: Following Jesus in the Real World by Richard Lamb and Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. The first is an under-recognized book i received my senior year of college. The second is must reading for every believer. It's challenging, sure, but ranks up there with Lewis and Francis Schaeffer in terms of undergirding beliefs about how we work as the church. I'll post a quote from them later.

good band name

"Spouses for Animals" i didn't think it up, just think it has that certain something that would make for a good band name. any takers? i can play the tuba!

quote for today

though i find this blog often caustic, this post made me remember that sometimes we blame God or the Church for stuff that's not their fault. And it makes me really thankful for community. ___________ the quote is from arguably the most famous Dylan Thomas poem. it somehow fits the above blog entry. Do not go gentle into that good night Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

my cat hates you too

my friend KS has always yearned for this kind of recognition. i congratulate her on being formally recognized here i make no apologies for the gratuitous content featured on this site.

guidance

this week at our group/church/gathering we're talking about the issue of guidance. i think the central question is "How do we know the Will of God?" It's an intimidatingly difficult question, not one that I think we can answer 100% in this life (although jmc might justly accuse me of only acknowledging the "we see...darkly" and not "we see as through a glass...." part of the balance). Any suggestions on how to tackle this question? The "three legs of the Stool of Guidance," as I understand it are Scripture or "general" revelation, Spirit-inspired or "special" revelation, and the Church/community framework. Can you guide me in understanding guidance?

point of discussion

check out this conversation. lots to talk about.

quote for today

"I hunger." i'm glad someone finally noticed these nuggets of wisdom. ah, that really helped me get through my post-superbowl halftime schlock blues.

because it's often easier to simply take offense...

...I offer the disclaimer below. Thank you to jc for a stimulating post and comment session. ironically, it's through his post lamenting the problem with blogging and community that he's had the largest number of people rally around his blog in cyber-community response. it's like a play within a play! maybe the reason people blog is because we want to have community any way possible and are willing to take cheap substitutes to make up for the increasingly disparate walks of life that would prevent people from every having contact otherwise. some of the blogs linked to this one are for people i've never met, may never meet, in the normal context of non-blog life. i love all of you as much as i can through 1s and 0s, but it's nothing like the life-on-life that we should be experiencing. (just so i put it out there: if someone wants to go into buying a large duplex in the clintonville/OSU area, formulating some sort of regular, society-challenging community inside and around that house, and loves (my three) cats, please let me know!) but i also agree with him that some heart-on-sleeve stuff creates the simulacrum of intimacy rather than the real thing. without further ado, this site's necessary disclaimer.... Statement of Audience --------------------- "I realize that nothing I say matters to anyone else on the entire planet. My opinions are useless and unfocused. I am an expert in nothing. I knownothing. I am confused about almost everything. I cannot, as an individual, ever possibly know everything, or even enough to make editorial commentary on the vast vast majority of things that exist in my world. This is a stupid document; it is meaningless drivel that I do not expect any of the several billion people on my planet to actually read. People who do read my rambling, incoherent dumb%&*$ery are probably just as confused as I am, if not moreso, as they are looking to my sorry ass for an opinion whenthey should be outside playing Frisbee with their dog or loving their spouses or getting a dog or getting a spouse. Anyone who actually takes the time to read my bull@#^$ probably deserves to ingest my *(^#ed up and obviously mistaken opinions on whatever it is that I have written about."

< sigh>

the superbowl. i've never understood the urge to remove oneself from mainstream american culture. until last night. i know the baby's not born yet, but i'm considering putting electrical tape over his/her eyes...or at least taking sledgehammer to the TV. but seriously, how do you balance being over-protective with not being restrictive enough? i watched Finding Nemo for the first time yesterday and i was struck that the overall message seemed to be that you should trust your parents, but that they might be really closed minded and protective too. (it was a must better movie, i thought, than 90% of the other disney stuff.) the "best" parent seemed to be a surfer/stoner giant sea turtle who basically worked off of a let-the-child-learn-by-experience parenting model. and the "happily ever after" solution was to keep living in the 'burbs (by the Great Dropoff) but to allow Nemo to go on some adventures with his school. i'm not sure how all of this connects, but i'd really like to hear from any parents (or non-parents) on how you determine what's worth getting involved in culturally and what to absolutely avoid. < /sigh>