Blog

n.
Short for weblog.
A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as "homework sucks" and "I slept until noon today."

(Urban Dictionary)

Fear Versus Kindness

Fear of the Lord leads to

wisdom,

but the kindness of God leads to

repentance.

-- Allan Yeh

How Many People Have Googled This?

Preludes by T. S. Eliot

I recently began reading through the Complete Works of T. S. Eliot. Today I read one of his early poems: "Preludes." Its conclusion shows clearly the despair from which Jesus saved him later in his life:

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;

The worlds revolve like ancient women

Gathering fuel in vacant lots.

Where are the Riots?

About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. . . . When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. -- Acts 19:23-26, 28-29 (ESV)

In ancient Ephesus, the ministry of one man ("this Paul") turned the whole city upside down in a riot. Where are the modern ministries so powerful that the world riots over them?

Does the Bible Frighten You?

"A Christian must always be frightened by the Bible, because it makes demands of him that only a saint could even come close to meeting and that no saint ever believes he has met."

--John Mark Reynolds, in his liveblog on Sarah Palin's new book.

Lose Your Life

I get headaches somewhat frequently (about three days out of the average week). When my headaches are especially bad, I remember something my grandfather once said, "After a certain age, you are always in pain." Always in pain. Imagine waking up with pain and going through life with no relief. That is where, unless we die young, we will end up. Your future most likely ends in a slow, painful death from old age.

So why do we try to save ourselves from discomfort? Pain is inevitable. Protect yourself all you can for your whole life, and you will still end your life with constant pain.

Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:25).

We have two options: attempt to preserve our lives from discomfort or embrace suffering for a cause greater than ourselves. Jesus calls us to lose our lives for Him and promises that He will save us.

Don't waste your life trying to keep it pain-free; instead, radically follow Jesus through all the pain involved and enjoy His salvation.

I'm An Adult!

Hello again. Today is my eighteenth birthday, if you didn't know. I'm very happy to be a legitimate adult (I can smoke, get a credit card, vote etc.). Now I guess I just need to have my soul's maturity catch up to my age. Goodbye, readers, and have a very good Thanksgiving!

On Nostalgia

Nostalgia affects humans like no other basic emotion. Recently, I took a trip home. After dropping a friend off a bit south of my childhood home, I drove the back streets of my hometown. Driving those familiar roads, nostalgia filled my heart. I began considering nostalgia's nature: what is it and is it good?

My conclusion: nostalgia is a love basic to the soul and beneficial to mankind.

As we go through our lives, we subconsciously associate memories with locations, foods, books, music, and many other things. We involuntarily throw ourselves into others. In this way, nostalgia is a love. It is just as much a type of love as is "eros," "philia," or "storge."

This love pulls our gaze off of ourselves. Hence, it is a "proto-morality": the most basic hint at selflessness and love for others. An example: driving past a shopping mall while at home, I remembered the good time I had there with my youth group a year and a half ago. For a time, that memory pulled my gaze off of myself and onto the beauty of the friendships in that group. Nostalgia forces us to remember the good, true, and beautiful moments in our lives.

It also provides necessary elements of human life: stability and joy. Our souls need to return to home. If we are unable to do this, we will settle for returning only in our mind, through nostalgia. It enables us to recall previous joys at the mere sight, sound, or smell of a familiar object. God made humans to feel deeply nostalgic. While we ought not to waste too much time reminiscing, we ought to embrace nostalgia when it comes.

Prof J's Dating Paradigm

Today was an interesting day in my history class. My very colorful professor, Jeff Jensen (he asked us to call him Prof J), always puts on a show, but today was special. After giving a tough quiz, he turned to the subject of dating. He pronounced that the dating culture at The Master's College is all wrong. Here's his paradigm for dating:

1. Back off! Don't assume that other people are dating and don't pressure others to move too quickly in relationships.

2. Be realistic. Pursue love, not romance (here he quoted Bono's "Man and a Woman"--the pop culture references he made throughout the talk were hilarious).

3. Be holy. Don't act like the world in your dating.

4. Be mature. Communicate with people honestly and openly. We're adults; we can act like them now.

His main point was to marry your best friend. That's what he did, and that's what he thinks everyone should do. So, what do you think? Is Prof J right? Should we marry our best friends or is there an element of romance which ought to be present?