heath's blog

Last week in my sunday school class we talked about how we as American evangelicals rarely think about or long for the second coming of Christ. I think this is because we have largely fulfilled our needs through technological advance. The only suffering we consistently face is the suffering of being denied needs of Maslow's upper levels. And, psychologists and pharmocologists are trying to solve these problems through various methods.

Granted people still die, and many suffer with various diseases, but the constant threat of death and hunger are largely absent from our minds. We have recently been watching episodes of Little House on the Prairie. Death and hunger were almost constantly knocking. Suffering was real and imminent. It was more a question of when than if.

I can't help but think of the millions that live in unimaginable conditions of filth and hunger. I think of the thousands that die of malaria because they don't have $5 mosquito nets to sleep under. These people are longing for the salvation of the body. They understand an aspect of the salvation that Christ came to give that we do not. In fact, we may fail to understand the gospel when we interpret it in terms of mere self-actualization.

Our success in eradicating many forms of suffering increases our confidence that it is only a matter of time before we solve all problems of suffering. It is this confidence that makes it hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. In addition, scripture virtually guarantees suffering. Christ himself predicts that his disciples will suffer because if the world hated him, it will also hate us. It almost makes me wonder what we are doing wrong that we are not more hated. I wonder if the yeast of the worldliness has so worked its way through the dough of the church that we are no longer offensive. This could only mean that our churches fail to preach the radical gospel of free merit.

Christ preached that merit can be obtained with no work at all. He offered his own body to pay my debt. He offered a perfect life to merit my reward. Very few things are more offensive than elevating the outcasts of a society. It flies in the face of the values of a society and often provokes anger from the highest and lowest of social orders. These kinds of rules are not made to be broken. Christ broke these rules when he touched the leper, forgave the adulteress, talked with the woman at the well, welcomed the children, and ate with the tax collectors and prostitutes.

Who are those people in our society? Do we have what it takes to live as Christ? If we have truly believed, we do. His Holy Spirit lives in us, and pries the cold dead fingers of our flesh from the idols of this world. Our new life in Christ reaches out to those for whom Christ came; that is, those who have need.

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Technorati Tags: Suffering, Theology

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Today I was reminded of a truly horrible time in my life. Sometimes, when you are in a situation, you don't realize how hard it really is. Today when talking about it, I almost hurt to describe the details.

While I was a freshmen at Baylor, I decided on a whim to rush Kappa Sigma. I soon learned that you don't decide to rush on a whim. This was my first problem. Guys that knew anything had been establishing themselves in the appropriate social networks all semester. I had no chance. However, in the end, the rejection of getting cut was nothing compared to my experience at The Smoker.

I cannot remember my thought processes when I decided to go. To be sure, I was unsure. I hadn't smoked anything, ever. I knew it was just guys trying to be cool, so I didn't think much of it, but I didn't plan on smoking. In the end, I did smoke, though it was not what I would have expected. I know I did have some reservation. The previous night I had been at a rush party with an out-of-town high school friend. I had decided so late to go I couldn't get a date at Baylor. Granted I was absolutely stricken with fear the few times I did call a girl. How I overcame the waves of rejection, I do not know. Nonetheless, I put on my black suit and drove my '68 Mustang down to the river.

The Smoker was at the Brazos Queen, an old steamship converted into a restaurant. I entered, and to my shock, the room was full to the brim with blazers and khaki's smoking cigarettes, cigars, cloves, and pipes. I did my best to push back my anxiety as I pushed through the crowd desperately looking for someone I knew. I finally found someone from my home-town, but he seemed only marginally interested in drawing me into the conversation. He had earlier told me that he wished he'd known I wanted to rush, and he could have done more. Apparently he had more to do for guys who had planned ahead.

Thankfully, there were some nice guys I had met the night before who drew me into a conversation or two, but for the most part I was stuck butting my way into conversations where I had to introduce myself. And, to my dismay, each little conversation group seemed to dismantle every three seconds. I was constantly forced to press against the limits of my social fear of being a nuisance in the worst possible situation.

My lowest point was perhaps my "smoke". I was foundering as usual with a group of members and rush candidates when someone alerted me that my suit coat was smoking because the heater that was blazing on my back. I don't think I could have felt much lower. There I was in my cheap polyester suit among the sea of classy wool navy blazers. I was way in over my head. The near-catching fire of my suit almost kept me under. I thought about leaving, but my dogged overdeveloped sense of duty made me stay to the end.

I was relieved when we were gathered to listen to some announcements and listen to the band. This was when I encountered the final signal that I did not belong. The band began to play Sweet Home Alabama, and the crowd broke out in song. I did not recall ever hearing the song. I'd like to say that I laughed to myself and accepted that I had been and in all likelihood was on a different path that most of these guys. Instead, I mouthed the words as best I could.

The rest of the night is a haze. The next days two very sincere acquaintances knocked on my door to let me know I was not invited to the next round. I hated to hear it, and it was painful to see the guys I liked have to undertake such a difficult task. I am sure they thought it would crush me, but I felt a mixture of disappointment and relief.

The best thing that came out of the whole experience was that my date with the high school friend ended up being the rekindling of a relationship that would end up in a blissful marriage. Sometimes God's strange providence is hard to understand.

Courtney and I have a running conversation regarding the growing split between the educated, disciplined, and wealthy and those that are none of these. The gist is that we are on the cusp of a cultural shift. I see the cultural events of the 60's as the apex of cultural ideas that were born around the time of the French Revolution. Like an ocean, these waves have come in and gone out with growing intensity finally washing ashore radical feminism, the sexual revolution, the complete breakdown of the family, extreme individualism, radical capitalism, and complete secularization.

Since the 60's our cultural elites have been seeking to work into the dough of our society the final products of modernism. I believe there are many that are finding these absurd. They are looking back to models of traditional societies, traditional religion, and traditional values. The rise of influence of evangelicals in the political scene is only the beginning. Beneath the surface is brewing a much more radical change.

I believe that even in many secular homes, children are being raised deliberately differently than their parents were raised. They are being raised to value family, creation, and a higher sense of duty to their community. Now cultural change is a gradual process, and usually periods can only be identified in retrospect. However, I think the turn of the millenium will be seen as the move from post-modernism to the retro-victorian era.

I think the children born in the first 10 years of this millineum are going to make a radical difference in this world. I know that I am praying that three of them will. Now it will not be all of the children. Unfortunately, most of the children of this period will receive poor educations. The will develop bad habits of body, spirit, and mind. Many will be verbally abused by their single mothers or sexually by their single mother's boyfriends. It seems obvious to me that our political structures cannot survive this fissure. While I have libertarian leanings, I question how long they will be relevant. The privileged children will have better educations than their poorer counterparts. They will have psycho-social advantages that border on deterministic success guarantees. They will come to dominate every aspect of society. It is really only natural.

They will recognize that with power comes responsibility, and they will seek to be the responsible stabilizing force in society. Those below will welcome it. Gradually, society will morph into a caste system not unlike that before the modern era in western society. The aristocrats will enjoy many privileges, but they will also consider themselves responsible for those below them. The best of them will treat them like their own children. The worst will maintain their serfs with the minimum that is their duty.

Strangely enough, all of this will seem natural. Both the aristocrats and the peasants will begin to see that this is the natural order of things. Rights doled out by class will not be considered unfair. It will be considered just. No doubt there will be instances of jealousy and envy, but as a whole all will accept their place.

Now I will reserve judgement as to whether I think this is a good arrangement. For the most part, I just see this as an inevitable step in western society. To some extent, it is a return to our roots. There is much room for good, and there is much room for evil. I doubt that as a whole this society would be much worse or much better. I believe the most important factor is how Providence chooses to move his children into places of power. Were the Gospel to permeate my future scenario, things could be much better. I will be praying to this end, and that Gage Augustin, Soren Basil, and Pax Athanasius will be tools in the Master's hand as he carves history into the stone tablets of time.

As with most of my theories, I would have a hard time offering anything but antectdotal observations from music, movies, articles and books. But, this is how all great ideas are born. The hard research is what comes next. Maybe someday I will realize my dreams of entering the academy. Until then, I have the benefit of making lots of unsupported assertions.

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Technorati Tags: Culture, Social Theory

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Some time ago I was having dinner with a friend from work. He asked me if I had an opinion about a situation. I said that I did. I also said that if he asked, I would probably always have an opinion.

I live me life pretty much constantly judging and evaluating. While I may sinfully do this at times, much of the time, I am just trying to learn what is good and right about a given subject. I almost always have an answer that I am working form. I try not to be too attached to my view especially if it is one that is relatively new or out-of-step with my community.

In addition, I am always looking for my opinion to be reformed by scripture, the facts, experience, history, teachers, etc. I wouldn't want to be a fool who arbitrarily picks a position and arrogantly refuses to change. However, I don't want to be the aimless fool living the unexamined life.

I picture my kids someday quoting one of their dad's favorite proverbs as they are arguing for their point. "If I didn't think I was right, I would change my mind."

All this to say, please, comment. I love a good discussion.

I was sitting at a table with one of our VPs and a couple of consultants when one consultant said, regarding a customer's situation, "Then they're SOL."

Now, I was raised in a some what sheltered environment, but at 30 I've heard just about everything. Considering some of the movies I watch, I think I have seen and heard just about everything, but apparently "SOL" has somehow slipped through the cracks.

So, I asked, "What's SOL mean?" There was an awkward silence, and everyone looked at each other as if to say, "No, you first." I don't know if the hesitation was because of the corporate setting or because no one wanted to offend my virgin ears. As the highest ranking officer, the VP explained that it meant they our out of luck and said that this was the difference between state schools and Baylor.

I couldn't believe it. Once again, I accidently reinforced my image as the nice guy who probably doesn't even know how to sin. It is almost as if people like to think of me that way. Is it possible for people to see me as a real human being who like them is desperate for the grace that only comes through Christ.

There are definitely times when I wish I had the radical-change testimony, but I am thankful that God has saved me from some of the consequences of sin that I did not commit merely because of my sheltered upbringing and often self-righteous obedience. For this I am all the more in need of God's grace.

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

- Stephen Jay Gould

My first reaction to this quote was to notice the irony. An evolutionist concerned about the dethronement of human arrogance was a combination I had not considered. In thinking about Gould, I decided to read a little. In my internet research, I happened on this article regarding NOMA. NOMA stands for non-overlapping magisteria. That is non-overlapping teachers. It is Gould's reflection on a statement by John Paul II's address Truth Cannot Contradict Truth in which he supports the view of neo-darwinian evolution and the idea that science and religion are two distinct domains and that the church only has authority to teach in religion.

I must say that I was surprised by Gould's grace. So-called Christians could learn by reading a Jewish agnostic on how to deal with opposing or nearly-opposing views. While I suspect Gould might have had a less tender tone with creationists in my own country, I suspect an honest inquirer would have received a generous welcome.

In many ways, Gould's tone reminds me of on of my favorite professors, Dr. Charles MacKenzie. Dr. MacKenzie is of Gould's generation, and it makes me wonder if there were be any room for real dialog if I ever reach the academy.

If I had the opportunity to talk with Gould about this quote, I think my first point would be that while one might think that the history of science would have dethroned man, it has actually had two effects in the opposite direction. In one sense, human life is regarded very lowly. Abortion, abuse, rampant materialism in the face of world poverty, high rates of suicide and depression all show the low estate of man's appraisal of himself. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine a society more dedicated to the human individual than western 21st century culture. Francis Sheaffer gives great insight into how this came about in his Escape from Reason. Ironically, NOMA is in some sense a product of the fundamental problem in modern philosophy.

I would say that in the above quote, Gould is delving into the magesterium that he most often back away from. He was commenting on religion. For it is only in light of God, that man can be both properly humiliated and glorified as a creature created in the image of God. And, it is only in the light of God that creation can truly be seen for what it is.

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Technorati Tags: Evolution, Gould, Theology

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Having just read the beginning of a series on self-discipline at stevepavlina.com, I have resolved to embark upon a 26-day blog-a-thon. I have at least 40 ideas for entries lying around. This doesn't even count the movies I haven't entered. I am guessing in the next 26 days I will run into a few more ideas.

Mark Miller recently mentioned the phenomenon where you have such a backlog on which to blog that you write nothing at all. I too have expereinced this. Courtney and my mom have mentioned that this violates my "if it's worth doing well, it's worth doing poorly," proverb.

Now that this is out, I'll start on my first post.

If you are interested in keeping up with the blog for the next 26 days, I would suggest using RSS. RSS is a way for people to publish articles from their website. It is a good way to keep up with a lot of different websites that so that you don't have to go to the site to just check for new items. An RSS reader checks for you and keeps up with whether or not you have read the article and provides a consistent interface for reading articles.

Wikipedia's entry on RSS is a good place to start learning about RSS, or you can just Google RSS. You can download readers for free and keep up with all manner of news from my fairly irrelevant ramblings to world news from CNN. There are also web RSS readers like Google Reader or BlogLines.

While your looking at Web 2.0 technology, take a look at del.icio.us (my bookmarks are at http://del.icio.us/midnighthour and Technorati.

Time for bed.

For the non-mathematicians out there, a vector has magnitude and direction. A scalar has only a magnitude. This sounds like some sort of quote. I have never heard it, so I guess I will take credit for it. If you are trying to get somewhere, and you just run fast, you may actually be delaying your arrival. Why? Because you may not be going in the right direction.

Sometimes, at least at my job, progress is mistakenly interpreted as a scalar. This means that it as long as you are running fast, things are OK. The problem is that later you find out that all you have been doing by going fast is putting more distance between you and your destination. Now, don't think that we are complete fools at PDI, we do seek to set out in the right direction. In fact, we look at the map, compass, stars, and everything thing a good explorer uses to set our course. The only problem is that sometimes, we leave our instruments at the dock. We don't really check them until we run aground somewhere and borrow the instruments that are available.

This is why Extreme Programming's concept of steering is so important. You check your course against the correct course (the customer's needs) and adjust along the way. The more often you do this, more efficiently you get to your destination because all your work is heading in the right direction.

Sometimes it is better to go slowly and more precisely in the right direction. Otherwise you can spend more time recovering from your speed in the wrong direction.

I just thought I would point anyone looking for a good church in the East St.Louis area to Redeemer Community Church.

My good friend Rusty Mosley is the pastor there, and I am sure that the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be both preached and lived.

They are starting services on Feb. 27th, and I am excitedly waiting to see what God will do in the comming months.