Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

An absolutely astonishing and poignant post about dropped balls, letdowns, and screw-ups by those who love you most when you are in grief and they don’t know what to do about it.

It stuck home for me because just a few days ago a friend of mine, who I haven’t checked in on for a few months, was sentenced to a prison term. I was told about it the day of, and I wanted to go and be there with him in court. I didn’t - work pressed in of course but I did call him and wished him well.

I am reminded of a couple we know who had their 3 year old drown in the neighbour’s pool when she crawled through a hole in the fence unbeknownst to her mother. Again, I had no idea how to deal with that. I still don’t.

Just being there and showing care is a lot. No need to try to be “deep.” Job’s friends served him best when they wept with him, and sat silent with him for seven days (Job 2:12-13). When they opened their mouths, they started getting into trouble.

I just wanted to share that link at the top, I hope it helps someone.

I love reading.

And writing. That’s why I blog.

I was just going to put up a whole pile of links here of some killer really insightful articles I just stumbled upon (not via the service, but the old-fashioned way). Then I got to thinking (probably due to some of the articles’ content that I really love to read and write. If I had to pick a career, it would be reading and writing. Sadly, you don’t get paid a lot to read and write. You get paid a lot to do OTHER things and read and write as a skill. What I love a skill, not a job. How annoying.

What caused me to think this? I was thinking about how odd it really is to put essentially, private journal or diary information online. I mean, what good does it really do me? There is a vanity element, I suppose, the thought that others (relatively few for me) are actually interested in what I have to say. There is the element of allowing people who know me to know me better through my writing. There is the element of a need to communicate what I know to others, heretofore relatively choked off (I don’t work at a job where I teach much of anything).

Ah well. Enough philosophizing and navel-gazing. On with the linkage! I happened onto townhall.com, a site that I had noticed before but never bookmarked or anything. I don’t know what led me there today, but I read through about 4 or 5 really good articles on a number of different topics. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Ten Commandments for my Daughter’s Boyfriends - amusing look from a Dad’s perspective on his daughters dating. I hope my boys grow up to meet his standards.

How Wives Can Kill Their Marriage - Part One, Two AND Three - Amen and amen. I’m not saying guys (including myself) don’t have their faults and can kill our marriages just as quickly and easily, but honestly, in this culture, it is all the man’s fault. A humurous look at balancing the scales a bit.
These next ones led me to Townhall, but they are a different source - a career counsellor wife to a Stay-at-Home Dad. She writes stuff that is dangerously close to common sense - and hence anathema to the latest in popular wisdom.

New Agenda For Workplace Activism - Keep Marriages Together - you have to read it. She tells it like it is - divorced parents who sale their guilt by telling themselves (and you) that “the kids are better off because their parents are happier” are LYING.

How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy? Hint - Your Sex Life Matters More - All income brackets claim they would be happier if they had 20% more money - pretty much kills that. It never gets easier with more money. Also, going from once-a-month sex to once-a-week sex results in the highest gain in personal happiness across the board. Best way to meet that goal? Get married!

Perhaps more shocking, My Own Marriage and the Myth of the Stay-at-Home Dad - dismantles the modern model of both parents working, AND stay-a-home dads being an acceptable alternative. And this from a feminist career woman.

Knocked off the conclusion to my paper last night. 16 pages of scholarly goodness.
The topic I finally decided on? Of passing interest to some people, it is entitled, “The Use of Ephesians by the Missional Movement.” The course I took was on the Book of Ephesians, so I had to do something on that.
To be honest, I don’t think it’s all that useful. I didn’t have a very broad selection of commentaries (the stupid Trinity Western Library is close at 4:30pm weekdays, so I couldn’t really get any research done there). Also, my source material on the Missional movement was all online blogs, with the exception of one of the course texts. It was good in one sense, in that online content like that is really the most current source material a person can access, but a lot of their use of Ephesians I found to be based upon seminars or books that have come out. The books in particular I would have loved to reference,because I know it is bad form to reference a reference (I managed to stay away from that for the most part), but it was not to be in the time frame I had.
I think I may have come across a bit harsh towards the missional conversation. (The rest of this post was cut off in a data loss by my host. Sorry.)

“The problem with Scotland, is that it’s full of Scots.”
- Edward the Longshanks, “Braveheart”

No reason for that leadoff quote, except it sprang into my head, all unbidden, as I considered writing this post about my success.

No, not at writing my paper. It ain’t done yet. But it IS finally begun!

The problem with master’s level scholarship is that you actually have to find topics worth writing about. In my time working on a bachelor’s degree (which was fleetingly short because I never got one), the papers I wrote basically took a bunch of sources and smudged them all together to come up with a composite. It wasn’t really anything interesting or groundbreaking - it just established that I had engaged with a bunch of sources and understood the course material. Not so at the graduate level. They actually expect you to SAY something or contribute something to scholarly discourse.

So, part of the reason I had put off this assignment for so long was that for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what I could say that would at all be interesting or contribute in any way. But yesterday, as I beat my head against EBSCO-Host, I came up with an idea. I have been passably interested in the discourse at (e)mergent voyageurs, partly to see where these, well, seemingly new movements called “emergent” and “missional” were actually contributing to Christianity, and where they seemingly wandered off into a sea of relativity and silliness. Turns out, there is some meat on those bones, and tasty at that. It occurs to me now that perhaps these movements are not so much new, as they are what someone I read once, “each generation rediscovers the Gospel anew for itself” or something like that.

Since I had to do a paper on Ephesians, it hit me: why not talk about how the missional conversation deals with the text of Ephesians, and contrast it against more traditional readings of the text from various commentators. So here I go.

Once I am done, I’ll probably post it here (on in the blog, but perhaps in a separate page) for those who are interested. In the meantime, I have to get back to writing. Lots to do, and little time to do it!

One of the bloggers on Canadian Crossbloggers, under the name Kirken, wrote a little on how she attended a B’ahai funeral where they sang, “I’ll Fly Away“, an old Christian hymn. I love that song myself - the newer version by Jars of Clay I love to listen to.

A friend of hers was saying that “anyone could use it” and I would assume, by implication, it is not a good Christian song because of its universality. If I am reading Kirken’s post, she now feels the same way after hearing it at the Baha’i funeral.

Here are the lyrics:

Some glad morning when this life is o’er,

I’ll fly away;

To a home on God’s celestial shore,

I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

Chorus

I’ll fly away, Oh Glory

I’ll fly away; (in the morning)

When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,

I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

When the shadows of this life have gone,

I’ll fly away;

Like a bird from prison bars has flown,

I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Chorus

Just a few more weary days and then,

I’ll fly away;

To a land where joy shall never end,

I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Chorus

If I recall rightly, this song is about the rapture - a doctrine not without its controversies. This site seems to suggest so - it quotes 1 Thessalonians 4:17 in reference to the hymn. However, it is possible that it can be understood in the context of the weariness of toil on earth, and the everlasting happiness to be found after death, in heaven with God. It also seems to recall Psalm 55:6 and Psalm 90:10, as well as Elijah’s ascent into heaven and Jesus’ ascent as well. Certainly it is very Christian in its themes.
Having said that, the idea of “god” is certainly not universal; neither is the concept of “heaven” as a place of rest. Even Buddhists believe that life is merely a place of pain, and they long for unity with the universe after death. The song’s omission of specific references to Jesus Christ or other distinctives of Christianity can render it subject to innocuous use by secular or nominal generic “god-followers” but that does not render it without meaning to the Christian listener. I mean, lots of religions “pray”. Does that mean we should not, in case someone thinks we are praying to someone else? Lots of religions meditate. Does that mean we should ignore Joshua 1:8 or Psalm 1:2 or Psalm 145:5?
I can agree that this song does not present the gospel message. However, I don’t believe that Christians must be so locked into a box that all their entertainments must only reflect the story of God’s redemption of us in a specific manner. This song has spoken to millions of Christians about their faith in the hereafter. It may not have brought many to Christ, but it seems to me that songs can be like people - we are all made for different purposes. Some worship. Some teach. Some evangelize. Some serve. Some simply love. We can enjoy them all, but we must not throw some away because they are not what others are. That denies their purpose.

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
^{Oi, this could be bad.}
But really, I am not 100% addicted to blogging, so there’s still hope.
Right?
Right?
(crickets heard in the distance…)
Then again, Jamie’s more addicted than I am. Hat tip for the addict.

I am such an idiot. I’ve been spoiling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows repeatedly for myself, whilst I await the arrival of the book from Amazon.ca. I don’t mind it really, I am more a “journey” than “destination” person, so I’ll enjoy it anyway.

Been thinking about the idea of the preincarnate Christ ever since I spent the 6 blocks from my out-of-gas truck to the gas station debating with my new friend David about whether Jesus was fully human and fully God before he was born to Mary. I need to do some more research on that one.

Hm. These assignment thingys may actually take some thought. At least I have one out of the way. Two should be easy, I managed to write a bit on it last night (after upgrading the RAM in the laptop, buying and assembling a new chair for my darling, pregnant wife, enjoying a wondrously cooked repast, and putting my boys to bed with Narnia. Hopefully I will have more time tonight to work on it.

The National Post did an interesting piece on Aimee Semple MacPherson. I’ve taken a few courses on Church History, so I was aware already of her significant influence on the growth of the Charismatic movement in the early part of the 20th Century. What I didn’t know was her substantial influence over the development of Evangelicalism as a political force, or the fact that she was a Canadian!
I join the author of the article in amazement that in a sense, Canada is responsible for the social conservatism of american evangelicals and the intensive involvement of Christians in politics in the USA. The very thing that Canadians often mock and frown upon in American politics was farmed and grown by one of ours from rural Ontario.

Soon.  I re-read that post and there are a few things that need explaining.

In the meantime, the good news is one of my three papers due on the 31st is finished.The bad news is it is not the BIG one.

What is UP with Trinity Western University’s Library summer hours?  I mean, are they not aware that people work JOBS in the summer?  Heck, AT ALL?  I work full time!  Exactly WHEN am I supposed to be able to get into the library to do research for summer courses I take when they close at 4:30pm weekdays and are not open AT ALL on the weekends?

End rant.

Says her bishop, “Umm, no.” (hat tip to Life under the Sun)
Bwah hahahahahaaaaa!
(No, I’m not laughing at her misfortune. I’m laughing because I can’t believe anyone could possibly ordain someone who thinks Jesus was a prophet of Allah AND God at the same time.)
(Ok. I am laughing at her misfortune.)