Against Nothingness

Mark Buchanan. Your Church is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down . Zondervan, 2012. 240 pgs.  Mark Buchanan believes there is a visible gap between life in Jesus and the life we live, between the Church of Jesus and the churches we have. In his own words, "What happened? When did we start making it our priority to be safe instead of dangerous, nice instead of holy, cautious instead of bold, self absorbed instead of counting everything loss in order to be found in Christ?" This, then, is a book for those who wish the church looked more like the kingdom of God.  What follows, then, are 18 chapters of pleas, stories, examples, and explanations of what it means to be the true church of Jesus Christ. Buchanan shares with us how Christ makes all things new, how Christ calls us to trust and work for healing and reconciliation and forgiveness and love, and how this will get us into trouble.  A friend of mine commented that this book could be

Upon finishing my post-malazan  period of readers mourning  I took a moment to reflect on my reading over the past months. I reviewed my readers log (stardate 2178...) and realized that "The Malazan Universe" had entirely occupied the fiction portion of my reading for upwards of 6 months. In itself this was unsurprising; thirteen 1000+ page fiction books should take that long to read given how much time I devote to reading fiction. However, I also realized that I needed to now read something utterly different. Science fiction and Fantasy would have to be laid aside, at least for a time.  But what else could I read? In the world of non-fiction, I have a seemingly never ending pile of books waiting on my desks, and an even longer list waiting on Amazon. In the world of fiction, not so much. And so I began to look at top lists: Pulitzer prizes, New York Times Best Sellers, etc. It didn't take long for me to come up with half a dozen books to start with and this list hap

It has been hard, but I have resisted posting any response to the whole Kony2012 debacle.  If nothing else, it made me take notice. With so many people making the point that raising awareness about child soldiers and world problems is a good thing, no matter what else we think of the video or InvisibleChildren, I decided that I should actually raise my awareness. That is to say, do something other than watch a 30 minute video which is mostly mistaken or lying. I bought, and read, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children   by Romeo Dallaire  (who founded the Child Soldiers Initiative ; a much better way to get involved and help stop this serious problem).  I know that I am still in the process of understanding all that Dallaire shares in his book. It broke my heart to learn what is going on in our world, what some children go through. And then something happened.  The day I finished reading this book I saw a preview for "The Hunger Games." My first thought

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?   Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?..." And which of you, if his son asks for a pocketknife, will give it to him without first showing him how to use it safely? If you know me in person your probably know that I usually have a pocketknife with me. In fact, if I have my jacket I will have a small multi-tool as well. I use them all the time and am often glad I have them. Thus, I fully intend for my children to have them as well (when they reach the appropriate age, of course). But I would be remiss, as a father, if I were to one day just hand my child a knife with nary a word of instruction or caution. Knives are tools. They are incredibly useful. Though they seem less and less necessary in our technological age I do think that the ability to properly use a knife is still an important skill to have. However, knives are also dangerous. They are dangerous if approached wrongly (as a weapon) or

I thought I knew them all but I was wrong. I learned a new sin . Pusillanimity. Did I mention that I also learned a new word? Technically, pusillanimity is the state of being timid or cowardly but Aquinas' definition is better: A shrinking from greatness out of littleness of soul. It is caused by an ignorance of one's own capabilities and by a fear of failure. For an example, we may turn to Moses at the burning bush. Moses would have been prideful to take up the leadership of God's people without tremble but equally prideful, and pusillanimous, to refuse the command of his Creator.  For me, this learning came with power. What I mean is that it came with the power of a new category, a new explanation, a new understanding, and with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Let me explain. Shrinking from greatness caused by fear of failure? That's me. One of the characteristic fears in my life is a fear of failure.  As a teenager I took kayaking lessons and joine

TED Video: Hooked By Octopus -  The earth is amazing, and Mike deGruy does a great job presenting some of it.  TED Video: Impossible Photography  -  funny and interesting 'realistic' photo-shopping. More Photo-Shopping   - scary photo-shopping... Photos were unbelievable already... Groupthink: The Brainstorming Myth   - Does creativity come from relationship density and chance encounters? Is brainstorming effective at all? The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia -  one of the many reasons wikipedia is not a reliable source of information; at least they are honest about it though...? Interval Training is Enough -  you don't have the excuses you thought you did! Start Every Day as a Producer, not a Consumer   - Indeed, please do.  Old Workshop by Jack Woolley   - Very cool house I'm Being Followed...   - excellent article on identity and tracking on the web

Late again :) I have decided I need to start doing two top 3 lists of posts. One will contain the 3 most visited posts which I put up in the last month (Top Three Posts of February) the other will contain the 3 posts which received the most visitors over the last month (Three Most Visited Posts of February). This month, however, I only posted 4 times and so a top 3 seems kind of pointless. Instead here is a top 1: Top Post of February: "Mere Apologetics" by Alister E. McGrath  - My one book review of the month. Good apologetics resource.  3 Most Visited Posts of February: 1. Heaven and Hell - Yep. There it sites. A monument to the power of google.  2. We're Sinking - It seems most people find this for reasons unrelated to the actual content of the post. I wonder what such people think? Do they read it? Or browse and leave?  3. Pull Up a Chair...  - I really enjoyed doing this activity with some of our youth. One of them even testified to its influe

There is no good time to reach the end of a book. If the book was bad you should not have finished it. If the book was good you will wish it had not ended. If there is no good time to finish a book there are even fewer good times to finish a series. And woe to he who reaches the end of a ten book series which has been years in the reading and re-reading. Indeed, one mourns. I do.  For some people the quality of the writing ceases to matter somewhere between the 3rd and 5th book of any series. The flawed gamblers logic of "I've already invested so much" takes over and momentum alone carries us through to the end. I have never been such a one and so, in agony, I have left behind me a ragged trail of unfinished series. Yet when a series is good enough to hold my interest the agony I experience, through my own foolishness, has often been no less. I keep starting series before they are completely written and so I face the specter of uncertainty as I await with eagerness

" Religion  that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27 A few weeks ago I came across this article  about the crisis within the foster care system in Canada. I felt sad and I prayed. Then, this weekend, I went to the justice conference  and one of our speakers asked a question. He pointed to the american foster care system and noted that there were more children needing care than foster parents to care for them. Then he asked the question: "Why, if the religion God finds pure and faultless is to care for widows and orphans, are there so many orphans in our country with no one to care for them? Why, in a nation with millions of Christians, are there children going uncared for and how can this make us look like anything but hypocrites?" And my mind flipped back to this article, and I realized that we in Canada are in the same place.