Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Who cares what's coming?

What will happen in the future?

The more I contemplate this question, the less interested I am in the answer. We simply don't know. Some people have proven somewhat adept at prediction, but more often than not these predictions are completely wrong or have to be interpreted in hindsight to seem accurate. Where's the value in that? I've never seen much. More often than not it seems that the end result is people getting whipped into a frenzy over some potential horrible ending when no such fate comes to fruition. It's just a distraction from the Kingdom which is at hand... within reach... not in the future nor in the past.

I have come to somewhat of an epiphany on this subject and it boils down to a simple (I think) well-crafted sentence that came to me in a moment of clarity:
This is not the end of times
except that you wish to make it so.
What do you think?

Monday, December 10, 2007

Taking One for the Team

So I went to see The Golden Compass last night. I know it was supposedly watered down, but it didn't seem particularly anti-God to me. In order to learn more about the hubbub surrounding this release, I decided to purchase read the book upon which this movie was based. In fact, I bought the three-book trilogy "His Dark Materials" (The Golden Compass is the first of these books) and plan to read them all to see what's up. I'll report back to this blog as I make progress and will prepend all my posts with *Spoiler Alert* whenever appropriate (which I anticipate will be often).

Stay tuned and remember to keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times during the ride.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Reflecting on one thing I did...

Other than gain weight, I did achieve something while I was away on holiday. I finished reading (well, listening to) A.J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically. It's a fun, insightful book and I would encourage anyone, secular or spiritual, to check it out.

When I started reading it, I posted about that, but now that I'm done, I would like to share something really cool from that book with you. At the end, the author reflects on what he's experienced during the last year... living by following every rule and suggestion for living provided in the "old" and "new" testaments of the Bible. He comes to a very insightful conclusion about literal translation of the Bible that I agree with whole-heartedly.

Robbie Harris, one if the author's Rabbis is asked about whether a literal interpretation of the Bible's text is appropriate:
He says, "We can't insist that the Bible mark the end of our relationship with God. Who are we to say the Bible contained all the wisdom? If you insist that God revealed Himself only at one time, at one particular place, using these discreet words, and never any other time than that, that in itself is a kind of idolatry."

His point is you can commit idolatry on the Bible itself. You can start to worship the words instead of the spirit. You need to meet God halfway in the woods.
Amen. This is something I had always believed, but never brought far enough forward in my mind to put into words nearly this eloquent. What do you think?