Wishing I Could Fly South for the Winter

Yesterday was the first day of winter in the Seattle area, at least as far as I’m concerned.

I went outside after my first class was over at 5:30 and it was already dark. After my second class was over at 8:30 there was ice all over my car. I can already see the snow accumulating on the Cascade Mountains to the east, and radio DJ’s are rooting for the local ski resorts to be open by Thanksgiving.

Naturally this scares the crap out of me. I think for Halloween I’m going to be someone who is very afraid of freezing to death. I’m wearing four layers of clothing, including a Texas Basketball shirt which I wear both in celebration of the beginning of the college basketball season and also as an explanation as to why I am so tightly bundled up when it’s “only” 42 degrees outside in the middle of the day.

Wish me luck. I may need it.

Geographical Paradox: A few observations from a speeding train

So I got to take a train ride and these are some of my thoughts from starring out the window which I did a lot of.

We have passed cities and country side and I am struck by the tragic beauty of this place. A land so beautiful, yet it tells the story of innumberable tragedies. A place with hope for the future, but a past filled with sorrow it is forbidden to grieve. Rust and decay with a growth of new life and construction. Here prisoners live in ignorant freedom. This place where poverty of possession is being replaced with imported materialistic poverty of soul. The home of the future, who are controlled by a stagnating present, but bear the burden of hundreds of generations of history, culture, and family. Life and Death. Tragedy and Beauty.

It was just amazing to me how scenery could tell the story of a location and it's people so well.

I have faith in faith, but should I?

Have you ever been a part of a spiritual conversation where some confusing idea surfaces, and in the confusion one or both parties decide that they “just need to have faith” and not worry about such seeming paradoxes? I think most of us have done something like this at one time or another, and I’m not entirely convinced that this is a good thing. I mean, yes, of course, in the Christian life we all need faith, everyone would agree on that. But is that what it’s all about, Or can faith instead be used as a barrier behind which we can hide so that we won’t have to really interact with God? Wait a minute, what exactly is faith?

Isn’t it just believing in something that we can’t see?

Well, yes, but is it not much more than that?

Yes, of course it is. One of my professors, Dan Allender, has talked a lot about faith (it is, after all, part of the name of the course). He talks a lot about remembering stuff, and how faith yields stability, and how hope is faith for the future, and that betrayal works to destroy faith, and a bunch of stuff like that.

Wait, what is it?

I thought I just told you that.

I don’t think you did.

Oh, so you want me to give you a real, actual definition?

Yes, please.

Well, I don’t really know that I can do that. Can’t you just have faith that God knows the definition?

Yes I can! That’s perfect! I can use my faith that God knows what “faith” means so that I won’t have to actually think about and ponder these things. This is brilliant!

Wait a minute, what were you saying earlier about faith not necessarily being a good thing when it’s used as something to hide behind in order to avoid actual relationship with God and the difficult and often paradoxical ideas that are often used to describe him?

What? Oh, I don’t remember, why?

Eh, no reason.