Against Nothingness

When I started, back at the beginning of September, to post 3 times a week, I noted that 'life happens.' Well, it has.  My whole family, including me, has spent the last week being sick. You may have noticed some missing posts in that time (last Friday's misc. and last Tuesday's book review). Now you know why.  I enjoy blogging but there are other things higher on my priority list :)  So, apologies for not explaining earlier, and things should be back to the normal schedule beginning Sunday. 

“Praise awaits  you, O God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled.” Psalm 65:1 Indeed, praise awaits our Lord, now and on that final day when His glory is fully revealed. Praise for who He is, praise for what He has done, praise from all of creation. This is our God. For He is Lord over all things, from us human beings and out into all of creation. The same God who hears our prayers also covers the meadows and valleys. The same God who forgives our transgressions, despite our being repeatedly overwhelmed with sin, also clothes the hills with gladness. The same God who fills us with good things crowns the year with bounty. The same God who answers us with awesome deeds of righteousness also cares for the land and the waters. He, the one who formed the mountains and stilled the seas, is the hope of all the earth. This is our God.  We are His, He is ours, a people chosen before eternity, a God sought out in daily prayer. God who first loved us, first ca...

Chinua Achebe, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra. Penguin Books, 2013.  Achebe is a giant in African literature and his acclaim is well deserved. Until reading this book, however, I had only read his fiction. I picked this up because it was on the 'New' shelf at the library and because it was by Achebe. I was not disappointed.  There was a Country  is part biography, part event driven memoir, and part critique, all surrounding the Nigeria-Biafra war. The biography comes in Achebe describing his early life and personal involvement in events leading up said war. This section of book is more personal and, thus, more moving. The second half of the book is largely impersonal, focusing on the events of and after the war. Finally, as a conclusion, Achebe laments the current state of Nigeria and much that has happened since the war.  On the one hand, I do not know enough of the history to judge this book as an account of events, or of Nigeri...

"O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south... Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind. And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and tell of his deeds with songs of joy." - Psalm 107:1-3, 19-22 Have you ever heard of negativity bias? Negativity bias is what academics call the observed tendency of individuals to both recall negative information more readily and, also, to put more weight on those negative pieces of information. The combined effect is quite large, as we have a larger number of negative pieces of information available and we are also more likely to...

Some things are difficult. Some things are beautiful. They often overlap.  May both the difficult and the beautiful draw you to praise the Lord.

Gerhard Lohfink, Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was. Liturgical Press, 2012.  "There are innumerable books about Jesus. The reason is obvious: We can never finish with him, and every age must encounter him anew." (xi) Indeed. Here, then, is another such book. Lohfink seeks to give a comprehensive overview of Jesus, examining his actions, message, and life in a combination of historical critical research and theological thinking.  Lohfink does many things well. A friend, the one who requested that I review this book, commented of this book that it made Jesus more real to him than any other book he has read about Jesus. I can see that. Lohfink does an excellent job of bringing what we know about 1st century Palestine to bear on Jesus' life and teachings. Not only that, Lohfink is unquestionably a talented writer (and, I presume, Linda Maloney must also be a talented translator). I often found myself admiring Lohfink's details surrounding Jesus p...

I say faith is a burden It's a weight to bear It's brave and bittersweet And hope is hard to hold to  Lord, I believe, only help my unbelief - Andrew Peterson , No More Faith Faith, we read, is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see.  Faith is what those of old were commended for; Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and more.  Faith is what we see in the Roman Centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant. And the Canaanite woman who begs for Jesus to free her daughter from a demon.  Yet, with these examples before us, we somehow mistake faith for something easy. Something we can get once and for all. Something we can possess.  In my experience faith is something I must struggle for and cling to. Rather than possessing faith I am continually holding it out to God, doing my best to take him at His word, despite all that stands against such trust, and waiting, holding my breathe, to see if He will come...

It's misc. posting day, and this is kind of random, but in the past two days I read two entirely different accounts which made me respond: "How did they do that?" The first was the account of Peter Schoening's "Miracle Belay" on K2 in 1953. The team of 8 american men were heading off the mountain, having failed to summit, in order to try to save the life of Art Gilkey who had thrombophlebitis and a pulmonary edema (I had to look those up to). On a steep glacier slope one man slipped, pulling his partner down with him. These two slide into the rope tying the next two men together and pulled both of them down. These four men hit yet another rope, joining Peter Schoening to his partner, but Schoening managed to wrap the rope around his shoulder and set his ax behind a rock, while also bearing the weight of the gurney Gilkey was on.  So, five men are plummeting down a glacier and one man is holding on to a rope and an ax and somehow Schoening managed to ...