Posted in Personal and Family on 01. Sep, 2010
On Monday I applied for my passport. I’ve traveled throughout the lower forty-eight, been to this place and that, but I’ve never gone abroad. I hope to go soon. Megan and I are planning on adopting from Uganda. We’re working on our paperwork now. There are letters and reports and statements and evaluations and more. [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 30. Aug, 2010
“Lot of things can get in the way when you’re tryin’ to do what’s right.” —Bob Dylan Nobody enjoys difficulty. No one likes opposition. No one appreciates pain. But they are necessary to progress. You can see it in business; competition and problem-solving drive innovation. You can see it in history; the great creeds of [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 26. Aug, 2010
Theatergoers will be able to break out their 3D glasses and watch Avatar again this Friday. They will be rewarded, courtesy of filmmaker James Cameron, with nine extra minutes of footage. Based on the news, it seems that much of the excitement swirls around just 20 seconds, the inclusion of a Na’vi sex scene. With [...]
Posted in Writing and Publishing on 25. Aug, 2010
Seth Godin’s announcement about abandoning traditional publishing ruffled a lot of plumage this week, for good reason. Publishing is navigating through disruptions and difficulties that make industry players fearful about the future. Amid all the news about layoffs and reorganizations, stores up for sale, declining sales, etc., Godin’s savvy and insightful business advice has pointed [...]
Posted in Politics and Society on 13. Aug, 2010
In his book The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis explains how the medieval worldview came to be, what shaped its vices, virtues, and values. Two tributaries fed the medieval mind, Greco-Roman Paganism and Christianity, and the two streams, brackish and sweet, often mingled. Here’s Lewis: “In a prolonged war the troops on both sides may imitate [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 10. Aug, 2010
Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow him, and he makes a striking provision for us in the Psalms to do so. The Psalter—in its own way as much as the Gospels—sums up Christ’s life and work while also making that life and work something with which we can identify in a [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 05. Aug, 2010
There’s a passage in Augustine’s Confessions that describes a holiday he took to Cassiciacum after quitting his job in Milan. On his break he wrote letters, suffered a horrendous toothache, and read the Psalms. “How loudly I cried out to you, my God, as I read the psalms of David,” he writes, “songs full of [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 04. Aug, 2010
I wonder how often we find our prayers dead and lifeless. I wonder how often we come up dry and dumb with no words, no thoughts, no way of formulating the feelings, frustrations, and various shades of grief that we bear. Burdened and distracted, we can hardly remember to pray, and when we do we [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 02. Aug, 2010
The American patriot leader Joseph Warren was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. Coming upon his bloodied and fallen body, a British soldier plucked a copy of the 1559 Geneva Psalter from his pocket. Warren had carried the little book into battle, a volume whose pages declare that God “maketh wars [...]
Posted in Faith and Spirituality on 29. Jul, 2010
I recently learned that an acquaintance of mine had announced a pretty significant life change, and not one for the better. As often happens, many people met this revelation with encouragement, impressed by his supposed authenticity and commitment to “finally being true to himself.” While I get the sentiment, I reject the thought. Admitting sin [...]
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