Stealing from Atheism 2.0. Nicely.

I'm stealing this idea from NearEmmaus, one of my favorite blogs.

Alan de Botton, a kind atheist, presents some profound critiques of secularization in this TED Talk. As a Christian, he reminds me of some of the great benefits of Christian art, the liturgical calendar, community, etc. As a Christian, de Botton encourages me in my practices. While I disagree entirely on the superstructure of belief, and I say "Of course there is a God, look around you," I think he has some important things to say, which ought to act as excellent reminders for those of us who find ourselves swept up in the grand story of a loving Creator. Take a few minutes to watch de Botton's talk; you'll be glad you did.

A Brief Theology of the Academic Vocation

Over at Intervarsity's Emerging Scholars Network I've written an article about the purpose of academic work, and about how that work is informed and influenced by the Christian understanding of the glory of God. Check it out! http://blog.emergingscholars.org/2014/01/a-brief-theology-of-the-academic-vocation/

Isn't Feeling More Spiritual Than Reason?

Right now I'm reading After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, a book on Christian purpose and ethics by N. T. Wright. In it he stresses over and over again the need for Christians to think out what it means to be "in Christ." The following quote displays one of the central arguments of the book, and one that should be taken seriously by all of us--we who stumble along through this lovely life claiming Jesus as Lord.

"Part of the problem in contemporary Christianity, I believe, is that talk about freedom of the Spirit, about the grace which sweeps us off our feet and heals and transforms our lives, has been taken over surreptitiously by a kind of low-grade romanticism, colluding with an anti-intellectual streak in our culture, generating the assumption that the more spiritual you are, the less you need to think.

"I cannot stress too strongly that this is a mistake. The more genuinely spiritual you are, according to Romans 12 and Philippians 1, the more clearly and accurately and carefully you will think, particularly about what the completed goal of your Christian journey will be and hence what steps you should be taking, what habits you should be acquiring, as part of the journey toward that goal, right now. Thinking clearly and Christianly is thus both a key element within the total rehumanizing process (you won't be fully human if you leave your thinking and reasoning behind) and a vital part of the motor which drives the rest of that process."

Dallas Willard: One Who Knows His God.

Dallas Willard 

Dallas Willard died this morning after announcing Stage 4 Cancer on Monday.

Dallas--a USC Professor of Philosophy, a man whose writing has greatly magnified my view of beauty and goodness and hope in this life, and a lover and beloved of God--awakened early this morning into the full experience of the brilliantly abundant life with God.  His last two words were,

“Thank you.”

This morning, as his life-light dawned into full day, I think Dallas was welcomed into rest and love and praise by the voice of God; a voice which he once described as recognizable through its "spirit of exalted peacefulness and confidence, of joy, of sweet reasonableness and of goodwill."

And I think the voice sounded something like this: "Well done, good and faithful servant."


Here's something he wrote about the intersection of God and love and death, from Hearing God, 1984:

"Thomas à Kempis speaks for all the ages when he represents Jesus as saying to him, 'A wise lover regards not so much the gift of him who loves, as the love of him who gives. He esteems affection rather than valuables, and sets all gifts below the Beloved. A noble-minded lover rests not in the gift, but in Me above every gift.' The sustaining power of the Beloved Presence has through the ages made the sickbed sweet and the graveside triumphant; transformed broken hearts and relations; brought glory to drudgery, poverty and old age; and turned the martyr's stake or noose into a place of coronation.

As Saint Augustine has written, when we come to our final home, 'there we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise.  This is what shall be in the end without end.'  It is this for which the human soul was made."

Thank you, Dallas.

A Universal Letter to Fathers And Sons: Parenting Christian Children.

"Spiritual Warfare" by Ron DiCianni

Fathers, 

if you don’t like the way your son walks, do not say to him, “Walk like a man.” 

Instead, learn to hear his heart.  Learn who he is.  What makes him tick?  What saddens him, and why?  What is it for him to be who he was created to be?

The Father in heaven and our King, Jesus, have shown us the way of raising successful men—men who die having really lived.  Men who die having loved honorably, spoken truthfully; men who die having cared for the wounded and the needy and the heartbroken and the sick and the dying and the orphaned; men who die having lived as Jesus lived.  Men who don’t stop living even when they die.  

We’re raising up immortals.  Heroes. 

Sons of God.

Do not say to him, “Walk like a man.”  Tell him that he is a man.  Tell him what the goodness of God looks like and find it in him.  Pray for him. 

Let him catch you with your hands raised on the crest of a mountain, enjoying the presence of the Living God. 

Teach him like Jesus teaches his own—graciously, wisely, thoughtfully and spiritually.  

Love him like God loves his own, in order that one day God might love the world through him. 

When you fail him, ask him for his forgiveness and tell him that you’re learning too.

Tell him what makes you tick.  Tell him about your dad.  What was it like for you to be a son?  What is it like now, being a son of The Father?

Tell him that you love him and that you trust him.  Let him know you. 

And when discipline comes, he’ll trust you through it.

While doing these things, you’ll notice his gate improving.  Confidence will fall into his steps.  You’ll begin to enjoy the way that he walks.  He’ll start walking like his King.  He’ll walk like a man.

This is how my Father in Heaven loves me.

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Pappa! Father!'"  Romans 8:15