Almost thirty years ago, an American graduate of Kings College, Cambridge, reinvented the university’s old magazine, Granta. This week, it’s one hundredth issue is in the wild on both sides of the Atlantic.
All posts by Phil
Sledding in a Ton of Snow
I haven’t seen snow like this except on a screen, much less the sleds they are using.
Hope, the Warrior
Again Bill meditates on strong truth: “In the Bible hope is strong, it is virile, it is tough. Hope is a warrior. Hope sees the victory, before the battle has even begun. Hope bursts forth, the fruit of suffering that has produced endurance and a character strong enough to hope. . . . Hope charges the bunkers of despair, hope outflanks its lines, hope takes the enemy camp. Hope is the flag raised on the Mount Suribachi of our fears, and hope doesn’t give heed to the bullets.”
Do not be afraid, but rejoice in the hope the Lord has for us. “Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight.”
Aliens, Wormholes, and the Really Big Questions
“If you want to read books that tackle profound philosophical questions, then the best — and perhaps only — place to turn these days is sci-fi. Science fiction is the last great literature of ideas,” writes Clive Thompson in Wired. (via Books, Inq.)
I’m not sure Thompson is right, because crime fiction or mystery explores some deep ideas about humanity, community, God, and life. I think science fiction may be the best label for this kind of praise because it can include almost any story with unreal elements, even overriding other genres or labels. When Thompson starts throwing out examples to support his argument, he picks three fantasy series first.
Waiting to Yawn
Perhaps Dan Brown is taking so much time to write his follow-up to The Da Vinci Code because he is taking all of the criticism he received to heart, planning to make this next book critical as well as popular success. Doubt it, but why be pessimistic? For far superior books on secrets and religion, take up the ones Will Duquette read yesterday.
Light Without End
Bill has had a moment–you know, one of those epiphany things. “I read a glowing tribute to the movie It’s a Wonderful Life a while ago (and that’s one of my favorite movies), and, apropos of almost nothing, the author of the tribute said that he believed people would be watching that movie long after Christianity is forgotten. . . . ” As if.
Refreshment in The Cruciform Life
My cousin has taken up church planting in northeast Tennessee, and I remember that I have not prayed for him and his team as I originally wanted to. Perhaps, you can pray with me. He is blogging at The Cruciform Life now (updated link). In one post, he writes about finding spiritual refreshment during, not after, a trial and draws beautiful pictures of water coming from the rock. I needed to read that today. I’m also looking forward to his posts on dashboard lights. Can’t say too much about those little lights.
Simplify
With a knee-jerk tax “rebate” coming from Uncle Sam, that great benefactor without whom we could not live nearly as well as we do, let me point out a bit of common advice from Paul Borthwick’s book Simplify: 106 Ways to Uncomplicate Your Life. He writes:
#3 Resist Temptation
An article in a local paper described customers at a local “bargain” store as “People Shopping for Things to Need.” Stay away from shopping centers or malls except when you have a specific purchase in mind. Don’t surf the Internet gazing at all the stuff for sale on eBay or at the website of your favorite clothing, technology, music or DVD store. Window-shopping in all forms induces buying. That’s why professionals spend so much time decorating the windows, jazzing up their websites, and bombarding your Christmas mail with catalogs.
According to the must-be-decent people at feedthepig.org, any money we get from the federal government (which is probably being stolen from starving children in the first place) should go to pay off our debt and save for our future. How boring is that? America was built on the back of responsibility, now was it? No, sir. Spend that money, citizen, and vote for the candidates who will beat down the rich man to save you from victimhood–in good ole American fashion.
Why So Downcast, Oh My Soul?
“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” (from Psalm 42 ESV)
Stop Running
Edward T. Welch asks,
What is, by far, God’s most frequent command?
The usual suspects include “Do not commit adultery,” “Have no other gods before me,” and “Love one another.” The next group includes whatever commands you know you have violated, in which case they only feel as if they appear on every page of Scriptures.
The actual answer is “Do not be afraid.”
“Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.'” (Matthew 14:27) See also Genesis 15:1, 21:17; Numbers 21:34; Isaiah 54:4; John 14:27. “Do you get the sense that God is alert to your fears?” Welch asks in his relatively new book, Running Scared. From the publisher:
Welch encourages readers to discover for themselves that the Bible is full of beautiful words of comfort for fearful people (and that every single person is afraid of something). Within the framework of thirty topical meditations, Welch offers sound biblical theology and moment-by-moment, thoughtful encouragement for life-saving rescue in the midst of the heart and mind battlefield of rampant panic-stricken responses.