partsofspeaking

I have been insanely busy, juggling many balls at work, home, church, community, and personal. Here's an update and commentary. 1. I spent Friday night and all Saturday in training to be a disaster relief worker, specifically in mass feeding. It was enlightening in two ways: to see the extent of the work the Southern Baptist Convention does in disaster relief (it provides the food for the American Red Cross and Salvation Army), and what I learned about food preparation and storage. I hope I can actually be involved in a disaster relief effort sometime--my work schedule is prison-like, but on the other hand I hope not--it means there is a disaster, and that's the last thing we need. The SBC responds to hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, and even to 9/11-type events. Statistically speaking, there will be another of these soon. Perhaps if there is something close by I can go. 2. My son and I went bowling. It is our "tradition" when he comes home. We bowle...

Today a friend, her daughter, and I traveled to Atlanta to see the King Tut exhibit. I thoroughly recommend it. It has everything but the mummy and golden sarcophagus--something of a disappointment, but the remainder was fascinating. How indebted we are to the scholars and archaeologists of the past 200 years who have brought these finds to us. I am thankful for a bit of warm weather but tired of it now and would like to go back to winter. Way too warm here. I am thankful for a week off, that my son will be home tomorrow night for his spring break, that he got home safe from his trip to Washington, D.C., and for a secure job. College teachers don't make much but we hold on to our jobs.

Who is God? What is He like? (the very pronoun says something—personal and revealed as father, male) How we answer these questions defines everything in our lives. Isaiah’s key name for God is the “Holy One of Israel.” The central identity of God as defined in Isaiah and really in the whole Bible is holiness. Like the Israelites, we have lost this attribute to replace it with a tolerant, kind, loving, laissez faire God who, like that cloying song “was there all the time, waiting patiently in line.” The Israelites had lost sight of Him by thinking of Him as either a local deity, as a part of their ethnic identity that had to be placated but not really worshipped wholeheartedly and solely, or as a deity that wouldn ’t bring the judgment for their syncretism . (I love that word.) So we have to come to grips with the holiness of God, even if it makes us feel a little less warm and fuzzy for a while. Fortunately or unfortunately, we are not capable of contemplating God’s holiness c...

Any one who reads this blog knows I am a big fan of LOST. I have watched it faithfully this season. It continues to amaze and astound me--and confuse.

If you haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, you should. Wonderful film. Swept me away. I rarely say that. My theory is that movies are supposed to transport you into another world. Most do not. This one did. Also I would recommend the book The Contested Public Square by Greg Forster. He is amazingly Reformed in his approach; the book discusses the various leading views on political theory throughout the church's history. I learned a lot, or I should say, my understanding of many concepts deepened. I would like to teach the book in my Baptist church, but Baptists like to have their ears tickled more than study something in depth (oh, that was cruel). I can write this because no one reads this blog anyway. I have gotten into Facebook. I see its appeal, but it's tempting to write really innocuous and frivolous things on it. I was surprised to find out a former student had voted for Obama. I was tempted to scold him for claiming to be prolife and voting for someone who waste...

I now know what I'm giving up for Lent. Anger. More specifically, in the spiritual journey to the resurrection that is traditionally called Lent, I want God to mine the depths of the anger within me and reveal its source to me so that I might pursue a path of repentance and renewal and then experience the resurrection in a metaphorical way, as Christ did in a factual and literal way. What am I angry about? It's not so much the object but the disposition. I am angry about the economy; the stupidity of this situation we're in both politically and morally and economically; the lies of the news media; the belief that we must be what our emotions tell us to be and must do what our inclinations tell us to do; the holocaust of abortion and all oppression of the stronger and powerful by the weaker, whether in Darfur , China, or the more polished society of the U.S.; the greed that got us here; the apathy of the church, (not even sure it qualifies as apathy--one must be aware bef...

For some reason I am more conscious of Lent this year, maybe because I'm conscious of Mardi Gras , maybe because Lent is a reasonable but unrecognized part of the year (by Baptists). Giving up something for Lent is, of course, a misunderstood cliche, and not what this is about. If Christians, especially evangelicals, understood the origin of ceremonies or rituals such as Lent, we would appreciate them more and seek to weave them and the cycles of the natural world into our spiritual focus. Which, of course, has nothing to do with Mardi Gras , the New Orleans version of Carnivale , which of course comes from " carne " or "flesh", that is, a celebration of the flesh before repentance. Party before you straighten out; get really drunk before you sober up. Eat a gallon of ice cream before a diet, something like that. Yesterday a coworker had brought in a king cake. I "got the baby"--the little plastic doll that's baked into the cake. It is symb...