6/29/2006
CHOOSE LIFE
NUMBER ONE-FIFTY-ONE
Choose Life
I think it was Richard Foster who said, “Life is a series of hard decisions made for the right reasons.” This poem was written for a son in a “far country,” but it has a universal application that is more and more needed today as the mainline churches are busily remaking themselves into the image of man.
Last week’s news was full of the Anglican Church’s descent into anarchy with the Episcopalians’ election of a female bishop who sees homosexuality not as a sin but as just one of God’s gifts. Down the street, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has decided it is just fine to think of the Trinity as “Mother, Child and Womb.”
The culture of death has largely taken over in the marketplace, the academy, the government, the entertainment industry, the media and society in general. As usual, the church is behind but catching up rapidly.
CHOOSE LIFE
Two little words--
So simple to utter,
So hard to do.
Life is a choice I make
Each day, each hour, and
Sometimes, each minute.
Each choice, no matter how small,
Diminishes death,
Shines light into dark corners,
Discomfits demons,
And causes angels to sing.
Choosing life is a habit
That fights every day to replace
The easy, stubborn, friendly habits of death.
There is no silver bullet,
No easy shortcut, no magic pill--
Only a long obedience in the same direction.
Success
Is to live each day
With full attention
To the reality God brings,
Fitting oneself to it
By doing what needs to be done.
4/91-6/06
066
+++++++
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”
Deuteronomy 30.15-16
Choose Life
I think it was Richard Foster who said, “Life is a series of hard decisions made for the right reasons.” This poem was written for a son in a “far country,” but it has a universal application that is more and more needed today as the mainline churches are busily remaking themselves into the image of man.
Last week’s news was full of the Anglican Church’s descent into anarchy with the Episcopalians’ election of a female bishop who sees homosexuality not as a sin but as just one of God’s gifts. Down the street, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has decided it is just fine to think of the Trinity as “Mother, Child and Womb.”
The culture of death has largely taken over in the marketplace, the academy, the government, the entertainment industry, the media and society in general. As usual, the church is behind but catching up rapidly.
CHOOSE LIFE
Two little words--
So simple to utter,
So hard to do.
Life is a choice I make
Each day, each hour, and
Sometimes, each minute.
Each choice, no matter how small,
Diminishes death,
Shines light into dark corners,
Discomfits demons,
And causes angels to sing.
Choosing life is a habit
That fights every day to replace
The easy, stubborn, friendly habits of death.
There is no silver bullet,
No easy shortcut, no magic pill--
Only a long obedience in the same direction.
Success
Is to live each day
With full attention
To the reality God brings,
Fitting oneself to it
By doing what needs to be done.
4/91-6/06
066
+++++++
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”
Deuteronomy 30.15-16
6/20/2006
ICHTHUS UPDATE
NUMBER ONE FIFTY
Ichthus Update
After two successive years of aggressively nasty weather, Ichthus 2006 was sunny and hot. The air quality was poor and the UV factor was high. Saturday afternoon, with the temperature at 90 degrees and the humidity at 50%, personnel from the Jessamine County Emergency Services were busy tending to festival-goers with heat-related illnesses. The Festival organizers brought out water hoses to cool off the crowd.
However, the general consensus was that a good time was had by all--but it wasn’t an event that would merit a tee shirt; “I Survived Ichthus 2006.”
As I contemplate the greatly improved weather during Ichthus 2006, there are three things that come to mind.
First: It is a risky proposition to draw a theological conclusion based on the conjunction of specific weather and a specific event.
"He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. 5.45
Second: It is also a risky proposition to assume that God never uses the weather to accomplish His purpose or express his judgment. He did it often with the Israelites; it is quite possible that He may do it in these latter days.
"I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord." Amos 4.7
Third: It is also risky to assume that prayers about the weather are either always answered or never answered. No doubt there have been many prayers offered up about the weather on the weekend of June 15-18. Whether these qualify as the “the effective prayer of a righteous man” I am not competent to judge.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. James 5.17
What is the lesson in this? What is the moral of this story for me?
I think God has far more patience and grace than I do with the thundering, rocking, rolling, mindless, vain repetition and cosmic self-indulgence of the contemporary Christian music movement. I think He wishes me to meditate at length on the parable of the tares among the wheat in Matthew 13.24-30
He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.”
“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’
“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
“He said, ‘no, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
In the end, I recognize it is God’s job to decide what is wheat and what is thistle. In the meantime, I will bake my bread with wheat and avoid the thistles wherever and whenever I am able.
Ichthus Update
After two successive years of aggressively nasty weather, Ichthus 2006 was sunny and hot. The air quality was poor and the UV factor was high. Saturday afternoon, with the temperature at 90 degrees and the humidity at 50%, personnel from the Jessamine County Emergency Services were busy tending to festival-goers with heat-related illnesses. The Festival organizers brought out water hoses to cool off the crowd.
However, the general consensus was that a good time was had by all--but it wasn’t an event that would merit a tee shirt; “I Survived Ichthus 2006.”
As I contemplate the greatly improved weather during Ichthus 2006, there are three things that come to mind.
First: It is a risky proposition to draw a theological conclusion based on the conjunction of specific weather and a specific event.
"He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. 5.45
Second: It is also a risky proposition to assume that God never uses the weather to accomplish His purpose or express his judgment. He did it often with the Israelites; it is quite possible that He may do it in these latter days.
"I also withheld rain from you,
When there were still three months to the harvest.
I made it rain on one city,
I withheld rain from another city.
One part was rained upon,
And where it did not rain the part withered.
So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water,
But they were not satisfied;
Yet you have not returned to Me, says the Lord." Amos 4.7
Third: It is also risky to assume that prayers about the weather are either always answered or never answered. No doubt there have been many prayers offered up about the weather on the weekend of June 15-18. Whether these qualify as the “the effective prayer of a righteous man” I am not competent to judge.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. James 5.17
What is the lesson in this? What is the moral of this story for me?
I think God has far more patience and grace than I do with the thundering, rocking, rolling, mindless, vain repetition and cosmic self-indulgence of the contemporary Christian music movement. I think He wishes me to meditate at length on the parable of the tares among the wheat in Matthew 13.24-30
He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.”
“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’
“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
“He said, ‘no, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
In the end, I recognize it is God’s job to decide what is wheat and what is thistle. In the meantime, I will bake my bread with wheat and avoid the thistles wherever and whenever I am able.
6/15/2006
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
#149
A Blast From The Past
When I attended Wheaton College (1952-56), the scholarship was deadly serious but the scholars were something else as well. Both the professors and the students had marvelous senses of humor. This is a picture of my wife’s father, Dr. Russell Mixter, who taught science at Wheaton for 50 years. He was much loved by generations of students-both for his serious Christian scholarship and his stories and jokes. We are not sure when this picture was taken or for what reason but the shark jaws ended up with a lot of other things he collected and used in a museum named in his honor about the time he retired.
Sometime about 1954-55 I was in the science department among such artifacts with a classmate and one time roommate. We were both studying New Testament Greek at the time and he was studying Archeology I think. We got to fooling around and the result was a poem. I wrote it and promptly forgot it. He memorized it. Getting together 50 years later at our class reunion, He recited it to me. I was amazed. Here is the poem. It is not a great one, but perhaps has some historical interest.
At Midnight
Recovered from the memory of J. Julius Scott, jr., college roommate and good friend who memorized it sometime prior to June 1956 and remembered it 50 years.
At midnight in old Blanchard Hall
The fossils gathered for a brawl.
There were no clubs or window hooks,
Each was armed with old Greek books.
A rollicking group of fossil hearts
Brandishing noun and principal parts
Were meeting together to express their whims
In declensions, conjugations, and paradigms.
“Hoi Anthropoi," intoned C.B.,
"Lege! Lege!” yelled Dr. Free,
“Heymin, Heymin," said St. Jerome,
"Hote," they screamed with mouths a-foam.
And then amidst linguistic jostle
I caught the eye of one small fossil
“Cheer up, sad world,” he said, and winked,
“Someday we’ll all be quite extinct."
J. Sweers
Circa 1955-56
6/08/2006
THE UBIQUITIOUS CELL
NUMBER 148
CELL PHONES
"All the misfortunes of men derive from one single thing, their inability to remain at repose in a room."
Pascal, Pensees
"And it came to pass in the later days that the daughters of the mother goddess bonded to the sons of technology and there was born into the world the cell phone. And Lo, the cell phone spoke gently to the daughters of Gaia saying, ‘Fear not, neither be bored, for I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Cleave unto me and I will connect you to all that is wonderful and you will never fear the dragon of repose."
Fragment engraved on rear window of a burned out SUV, circa 2001
"Substitutes for repose are a billion dollar business."
Norman Cousins, Human Options
I can remember the time when many women did not drive. My father taught my mother out of necessity when I was 12 (1946). Driving always appeared to me to be a stressful activity for women. Perhaps it was because men are from Mars and women from Venus (although we didn’t know that in the 50’s yet). More likely it was because as a class, male drivers are impatient, inconsiderate, and downright rude. For many years the first thing many women did when they got behind the wheel was light up a cigarette. I am not sure what the female non-smokers did to cope.
Then one day, the world changed. The cell phone came along and replaced the cigarette. Today it is hard to find a woman behind the wheel without a cell phone stuck in her ear. In one way this is probably progress—they aren’t absolutely sure yet whether cell phone addiction causes brain tumors, but they are dead certain smoking causes all sorts of deadly maladies. Men use cell phones too but the biggest users of all are teenagers.
A recent South Korean study suggests heavy cell phone use by teenagers could be a sign of their unhappiness and anxiety. It also suggests, at least for American teens, that technology is busy subverting education. I recently talked with a teacher who said his students can be looking at him attentively while text messaging other students in the same class, everyone with a cell phone on his or her lap.
The study's findings, presented at the American Psychiatric Association's meeting in Toronto, were based on a survey of 575 South Korean high school students. The survey found that the students who used their phones more than 90 times a day frequently did so because they were unhappy or bored.
These scored significantly higher on tests measuring depression and anxiety than students who used their phones a more sedate (Sedate?) 70 times daily. The findings come at a time when the cell phone has become a vital part of the lifestyle of the young.
Dr. Jee Hyan Ha, lead author of the latest study, says heavy cell phone users in his report weren't clinically depressed, but were probably suffering from serious cases of teen angst. "They are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to others," he said.
Ha believes that while cell phone use in South Korea may be higher than in the United States, the findings would generally apply to U.S. teens as well.
So if you want to be a modern parent, you will not ask “Where is my teenager tonight?” The question for today is “How many cell calls is my teenager making today?”
+++++++
"To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you."
Theophan The Recluse
This place is where Thomas Kelly says we find "The deep silences of the Center where the light of eternity burns still and bright…where we can hear the silent thunder of the Lord of Hosts."
Testament of Devotion
+++++++
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
Psalm 46.10
CELL PHONES
"All the misfortunes of men derive from one single thing, their inability to remain at repose in a room."
Pascal, Pensees
"And it came to pass in the later days that the daughters of the mother goddess bonded to the sons of technology and there was born into the world the cell phone. And Lo, the cell phone spoke gently to the daughters of Gaia saying, ‘Fear not, neither be bored, for I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Cleave unto me and I will connect you to all that is wonderful and you will never fear the dragon of repose."
Fragment engraved on rear window of a burned out SUV, circa 2001
"Substitutes for repose are a billion dollar business."
Norman Cousins, Human Options
I can remember the time when many women did not drive. My father taught my mother out of necessity when I was 12 (1946). Driving always appeared to me to be a stressful activity for women. Perhaps it was because men are from Mars and women from Venus (although we didn’t know that in the 50’s yet). More likely it was because as a class, male drivers are impatient, inconsiderate, and downright rude. For many years the first thing many women did when they got behind the wheel was light up a cigarette. I am not sure what the female non-smokers did to cope.
Then one day, the world changed. The cell phone came along and replaced the cigarette. Today it is hard to find a woman behind the wheel without a cell phone stuck in her ear. In one way this is probably progress—they aren’t absolutely sure yet whether cell phone addiction causes brain tumors, but they are dead certain smoking causes all sorts of deadly maladies. Men use cell phones too but the biggest users of all are teenagers.
A recent South Korean study suggests heavy cell phone use by teenagers could be a sign of their unhappiness and anxiety. It also suggests, at least for American teens, that technology is busy subverting education. I recently talked with a teacher who said his students can be looking at him attentively while text messaging other students in the same class, everyone with a cell phone on his or her lap.
The study's findings, presented at the American Psychiatric Association's meeting in Toronto, were based on a survey of 575 South Korean high school students. The survey found that the students who used their phones more than 90 times a day frequently did so because they were unhappy or bored.
These scored significantly higher on tests measuring depression and anxiety than students who used their phones a more sedate (Sedate?) 70 times daily. The findings come at a time when the cell phone has become a vital part of the lifestyle of the young.
Dr. Jee Hyan Ha, lead author of the latest study, says heavy cell phone users in his report weren't clinically depressed, but were probably suffering from serious cases of teen angst. "They are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to others," he said.
Ha believes that while cell phone use in South Korea may be higher than in the United States, the findings would generally apply to U.S. teens as well.
So if you want to be a modern parent, you will not ask “Where is my teenager tonight?” The question for today is “How many cell calls is my teenager making today?”
+++++++
"To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you."
Theophan The Recluse
This place is where Thomas Kelly says we find "The deep silences of the Center where the light of eternity burns still and bright…where we can hear the silent thunder of the Lord of Hosts."
Testament of Devotion
+++++++
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
Psalm 46.10
6/01/2006
ICHTHUS FORECAST
NUMBER 147
Ichthus Weather Forecast
Hearken to a smackeral of history.
From a blog dated 1.22.05—
Looking back to Ichthus 2004 and ahead to Ichthus 2005:
In Lexington Ichthus is the name of our annual Contemporary Christian Music Festival. This year’s theme is “Let It Rain.” The promoters admit the theme is “darkly humorous” since last year’s event was preceded by three days of heavy rain that turned the site into a mud hole and traffic into a nightmare. Reading last year’s accounts, I was reminded of the passage in Dante’s Inferno where he arrives at the third circle of hell to find it “filled with cold, unending, heavy and accursèd rain; its measure and kind are never changed. Gross hailstones, water grey with filth, and snow come streaking down across the shadowed air; the earth, as it receives that shower, stinks.” (Canto VI. 7-10)
4.24.05--What actually happened in 2005:
Late Friday the cold front arrived. A huge line of thunderstorms carrying hail the size of twenty-five cent pieces, 60-80 mph winds, threats of tornados, and lots of water rolled through Louisville, blew cars off the road on its way east to Frankfort and arrived at Ichthus Farm about 7:30 PM. Channel 27 was playing uproar and the festival goers were seeking shelter in or under their cars.
The storm shredded many tents, dumped an inch or so of water on the already soggy field and caused the cancellation of the rest of the day’s events. Right behind the storm came the cold. The temperature dropped to 39 degrees, the wind and the rain continued on an off through the night.
All day Saturday the temperature huddled below 45 degrees and the 20+ mph winds brought the chill factor down to way below miserable. The day almost exactly matched Dante’s description of hell in the excerpt from Blog #82 quoted above. People started packing up and leaving early. It was too much even for the hardy contingent from the Santa Claus Methodist Church. Many left their trashed tents and shelters in the clean-up dumpsters. The crowd of 20,000 was thinned down to few hundred by 10:15 Saturday evening when Super-Super-Star Michael W. Smith came on for the big finale--at that point snow began to fall and the temperature started down again to a record low of 32 degrees. It was so nasty the guitarists kept bowls of hot water handy to thaw out their fingers as they went along.
5.25.06—Looking ahead to Ichthus 2006.
The promoters finally decided that April in Kentucky is not a good month for large outdoor events scheduled 2-3 years in advance. They moved the festival to June 15-18. I am not sure this will solve their problem.
According to Pat Spoden, a weather service forecaster in Paducah, KY, “Those conditions (weather that may produce tornadoes) can occur any time of year in the Ohio Valley,” and he noted that there was a tornado in Owensboro Kentucky on Jan. 3, 2000. The region's main tornado season is April through June.
So the festival has moved away from the cold, and perhaps the rain, but a tornado is still a distinct possibility.
For myself, I am not planning any outdoor events for June 15-18 this year. I intend to stay close to home and tuned in to WKYT—the local channel that does the best job on the weather.
As for a forecast (It would be presumptuous of me to call it a prophecy), I expect one of two possibilities:
(1) The weather will be sunny mild and dry with only enough heat and humidity to make the crowd feel like it is roughing it for Jesus. Or
(2) There will be a major catastrophic weather event that makes it abundantly clear the Almighty is still trying to get the attention of the worshippers of Oompah!
Since I wish no harm to anyone, even to those bowing down to Oompah!, I will be praying for #1 above. (For those of you who have recently been added to my list and do not know Oompah!, he is the god of Christian Rock Worship Music. If you are really interested you can get caught up on my website. A click on the link below will get you there and you will find a number of blogs in the archives:
November 2003
#6 Contemporary Christian Music—A Letter
July 2004
#54—Oompah!
September 2004
#60—Some Contemporary Christian Music
October 2004
#63—Oompah! Unchained
January 2005
#82—Ichthus
March 2005
#87—Exorcising Oompah!
April 2005
#96—Ichthus 2005 Report
June 2005
#102—Oompah! And Mammon
Stay tuned for breaking news!
Ichthus Weather Forecast
Hearken to a smackeral of history.
From a blog dated 1.22.05—
Looking back to Ichthus 2004 and ahead to Ichthus 2005:
In Lexington Ichthus is the name of our annual Contemporary Christian Music Festival. This year’s theme is “Let It Rain.” The promoters admit the theme is “darkly humorous” since last year’s event was preceded by three days of heavy rain that turned the site into a mud hole and traffic into a nightmare. Reading last year’s accounts, I was reminded of the passage in Dante’s Inferno where he arrives at the third circle of hell to find it “filled with cold, unending, heavy and accursèd rain; its measure and kind are never changed. Gross hailstones, water grey with filth, and snow come streaking down across the shadowed air; the earth, as it receives that shower, stinks.” (Canto VI. 7-10)
4.24.05--What actually happened in 2005:
Late Friday the cold front arrived. A huge line of thunderstorms carrying hail the size of twenty-five cent pieces, 60-80 mph winds, threats of tornados, and lots of water rolled through Louisville, blew cars off the road on its way east to Frankfort and arrived at Ichthus Farm about 7:30 PM. Channel 27 was playing uproar and the festival goers were seeking shelter in or under their cars.
The storm shredded many tents, dumped an inch or so of water on the already soggy field and caused the cancellation of the rest of the day’s events. Right behind the storm came the cold. The temperature dropped to 39 degrees, the wind and the rain continued on an off through the night.
All day Saturday the temperature huddled below 45 degrees and the 20+ mph winds brought the chill factor down to way below miserable. The day almost exactly matched Dante’s description of hell in the excerpt from Blog #82 quoted above. People started packing up and leaving early. It was too much even for the hardy contingent from the Santa Claus Methodist Church. Many left their trashed tents and shelters in the clean-up dumpsters. The crowd of 20,000 was thinned down to few hundred by 10:15 Saturday evening when Super-Super-Star Michael W. Smith came on for the big finale--at that point snow began to fall and the temperature started down again to a record low of 32 degrees. It was so nasty the guitarists kept bowls of hot water handy to thaw out their fingers as they went along.
5.25.06—Looking ahead to Ichthus 2006.
The promoters finally decided that April in Kentucky is not a good month for large outdoor events scheduled 2-3 years in advance. They moved the festival to June 15-18. I am not sure this will solve their problem.
According to Pat Spoden, a weather service forecaster in Paducah, KY, “Those conditions (weather that may produce tornadoes) can occur any time of year in the Ohio Valley,” and he noted that there was a tornado in Owensboro Kentucky on Jan. 3, 2000. The region's main tornado season is April through June.
So the festival has moved away from the cold, and perhaps the rain, but a tornado is still a distinct possibility.
For myself, I am not planning any outdoor events for June 15-18 this year. I intend to stay close to home and tuned in to WKYT—the local channel that does the best job on the weather.
As for a forecast (It would be presumptuous of me to call it a prophecy), I expect one of two possibilities:
(1) The weather will be sunny mild and dry with only enough heat and humidity to make the crowd feel like it is roughing it for Jesus. Or
(2) There will be a major catastrophic weather event that makes it abundantly clear the Almighty is still trying to get the attention of the worshippers of Oompah!
Since I wish no harm to anyone, even to those bowing down to Oompah!, I will be praying for #1 above. (For those of you who have recently been added to my list and do not know Oompah!, he is the god of Christian Rock Worship Music. If you are really interested you can get caught up on my website. A click on the link below will get you there and you will find a number of blogs in the archives:
November 2003
#6 Contemporary Christian Music—A Letter
July 2004
#54—Oompah!
September 2004
#60—Some Contemporary Christian Music
October 2004
#63—Oompah! Unchained
January 2005
#82—Ichthus
March 2005
#87—Exorcising Oompah!
April 2005
#96—Ichthus 2005 Report
June 2005
#102—Oompah! And Mammon
Stay tuned for breaking news!
