Thirst

Legion Two

2012-02-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

We have seen God move in mighty ways as he speaks to us as a community and not just as individuals. One evening in one of our house churches we were studying Mark 5:1-20, where Jesus delivers and heals the man called Legion. Although we share the duties of leading the study, it happened to be my turn to lead. I had prepared by reading the passage, studying some commentaries, getting the historical context, all the things that a good preacher would do. As I was leading the discussion, Daphne brought up a difficult question. Now in our group we have many divergent personalities and perspectives. Daphne is a vegetarian and she is a vegetarian because she has a very soft heart for animals. I on the other hand, am a farm boy raised in rural Alberta who respects animals but believes that they are part of God’s provision for humans. I love a good steak or a pork roast. Daphne and I have learned to appreciate each other’s perspectives and enjoy some good-natured humour at each other’s expense as we would share a meal together at church. Daphne was disturbed by the fact that Jesus allowed the evil spirits to enter the herd of pigs which led to the pigs plunging down a steep hill and drowning in the lake.

As a theologically trained person I began to wrack my brain trying to come up with a good reason for why this might have been done. None of the commentaries I had read had addressed this issue. I suspected that it had something to do with God’s judgement against the owners of the pigs and I vaguely remembered something like that from Bible college. But fortunately before I said too much I opened the question to the rest of the group. Another member said, “It makes me think of the high value that Jesus placed upon the man named Legion. Jesus loved this man so much that He was willing to allow the death of 2000 pigs to demonstrate the value of this man’s life.” We continued the conversation talking about the value that God places even on the sparrows and how this man had been cast out by his community and was driven out into the tombs where he lived among the corpses. The community did not want to have anything to do with him and treated him like garbage but Jesus showed him love and community. This made some sense to our whole group and we believed that this was the message God had for us that night.

The next day, I received a phone call informing me that a friend of mine had tried to take his own life and was in the hospital. As I went to visit him it occurred to me that this man had something in common with “Legion.” My friend (I will call him Legion Two) was very much rejected by society. He was a twice convicted high risk sex offender whose victims were children. Society at large tends to consider such people impossible to rehabilitate and chases them out of their communities. I had become part of a Circle of Support and Accountability group (a highly effective ministry of the Mennonite Central Committee) and had been holding him accountable and supporting him so that he would not reoffend for about three years.

Legion Two told me that he felt hopeless, unloved, rejected, and hated. He had tried to end the emotional pain. I shared with him what our house church had been studying the night before and told him of the value that Jesus had placed upon another person whom the world had rejected. Legion Two broke down in tears. This was a key turning point in this man’s life and his spiritual journey toward Jesus.

Our community had heard a message from God as together we grappled with a challenging passage. And God spoke to another person through our community. This was a tremendous encouragement to our body of believers. I was glad that I had not simply preached to a crowd and that we had a format that allowed God to work in this manner.

Follow-up to "Things That Can't Be Explained"

2012-02-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about what Alan Lightman had said about the Osprey flying over his head as he watched from the deck of his house as I went for a run past portions of False Creek. It occurred to me that I too had had an unusual, hard-to-explain encounter with animals a while ago. The full blog can be read here but here is an excerpt from it.

As I walked along the seawall of False Creek a seal popped its head out of the water and began swimming at the pace of my walk. A second seal raised its head and swam beside it. The two swam along beside me for a while before diving below the surface and disappearing. I commented to God that it seemed like He had given me a sign to reassure me but that it was so brief that it would be hard to know. As I continued to walk, the two seals appeared and kept pace with me again before diving and disappearing below the surface. I said to God, "If I were a man like Gideon I might ask for a third time." As if on cue, the two seals appeared beside me a third time, swam beside me for a few more meters, swam out into the middle of the bay, disappeared below the waves, and did not return.

Of course there are several scientific explanations for an experience like this but it is not easy to explain the feelings that both Alan Lightman and I experienced in these situations. If we are simply products of chance and proximity to a star, why do we feel such a sense of holy awe and mystery with incidents like these?

Things That Can't Be Explained

2012-02-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

It is refreshing to hear an atheist and physicist admit that there are some things that he can't explain. Alan Lightman, in an essay entitled "Does God Exist?", has this to say.

I believe there are things we take on faith, without physical proof and even sometimes without any methodology for proof. We cannot clearly show why the ending of a particular novel haunts us. We cannot prove under what conditions we would sacrifice our own life in order to save the life of our child. We cannot prove whether it is right or wrong to steal in order to feed our family, or even agree on a definition of “right” and “wrong.” We cannot prove the meaning of our life, or whether life has any meaning at all. For these questions, we can gather evidence and debate, but, in the end, we cannot arrive at any system of analysis akin to the way in which a physicist decides how many seconds it will take a one-foot-long pendulum to make a complete swing. These are questions for the arts and the humanities. These are also questions aligned with some of the intangible concerns of traditional religion.*

Many of the "new atheists" like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Stephen Hawking, and the late Christopher Hitchens have been trying to convince us that they can use science to prove that God does not exist. What they are really doing is coming close to showing that it is possible to imagine a way in which the universe could exist without a need for God. This, of course, is far different than proving that God does not exist. Lightman explicitly states that some things are just not provable in the way that a physicist proves a theory. We cannot set up an experiment that could be used to once and for all prove that God does not exist. Such things are outside of the realm of science. Lightman knows this and I suspect that the new atheists also know this but will not say it because it does not serve their rhetoric and their ultimate goal of getting rid of religion.

Philosophy, theology, art, and poetry are not science. Such disciplines often defy description by science and are in fact legitimate means of exploring the questions of ultimate meaning and reality. We cannot allow proponents of a rationalistic science to convince us that the only tools we are allowed to use are those on the scientists tool-belt. Despite statements to the contrary, philosophy is not dead; and neither are theology, art, and poetry.

Lightman has a marvelous story within the essay of how he and his wife had spent several years watching osprey nest near their summer home. They studied the birds in their spare time and made notes about their behaviour. They knew much about the birds from a scientific perspective. But one day something "other" happened. He describes it this way.

. . . one August afternoon, the two baby ospreys of that season took flight for the first time as I stood on the circular deck of my house watching the nest. All summer long, they had watched me on that deck as I watched them. To them, it must have looked like I was in my nest just as they were in theirs. On this particular afternoon, their maiden flight, they did a loop of my house and then headed straight at me with tremendous speed. My immediate impulse was to run for cover, since they could have ripped me apart with their powerful talons. But something held me to my ground. When they were within 20 feet of me, they suddenly veered upward and away. But before that dazzling and frightening vertical climb, for about half a second we made eye contact. Words cannot convey what was exchanged between us in that instant. It was a look of connectedness, of mutual respect, of recognition that we shared the same land. After they were gone, I found that I was shaking, and in tears. To this day, I cannot explain what happened in that half-second. But it was one of the most profound moments of my life.#

*Lightman, Alan. "Does God Exist?" Salon.com. October 2, 2011. http://www.salon.com/2011/10/02/how_science_and_faith_coexist/singleton/ (accessed February 9, 2012). The whole essay is worth reading.
#(Lightman 2011)

Community and Care

2012-02-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

It is important to tell good news stories of people finding care and community in the church. The following story is an example of how this can and has happened in the life of one church. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

The Siparia family had been part of a house church gathering for nearly two years and in that time they had seen a number of challenges. They had been loved and supported through the death of the grandfather of the family and then they struggled with poor health of their grandma. Connections Christian Church in Calgary became a surrogate family for these immigrants from Trinidad.

Grandma Renata developed a serious infection in her foot that reduced circulation and threatened her life. The doctors suggested that the foot would need to be amputated. The church community began to pray that God might save the foot, and for a while it looked like God had answered that prayer. The doctors felt that with a little more antibiotic treatment and hydrotherapy they could prevent an amputation. The church rejoiced. However, a few days later the doctors determined that the therapy was not making enough of a difference and that the amputation would need to be performed to save Renata’s life.

This challenged the faith of all in the group, but our daughter, a 15-year-old at the time, expressed it best when she said, "It feels like God is teasing us!" "It looked like God was going to answer our prayer for healing and then He didn't." Renata, a woman of great faith, taught my daughter, me, and indeed our entire community a great deal when she said, "If we look at the Bible we see that many people had trials and tribulations. Why would we not expect the same? I have already said good-bye to this foot. I will have a new one in heaven."

The Sunday evening after Renata returned home from the hospital her family still wanted us to have church in their home. Her bed was in one corner of the living room to allow her to function on the main level of the house. As she sat up and told us her story of faith and what God had been teaching her through these experiences, she was surrounded by 30 attentive people who wanted to hear a message from God. Children, teens, young adults, and middle-aged adults listened intently. The Holy Spirit spoke through the Bible and through the life of this committed believer that evening. She gave us hope for a good future in the midst of the temporary struggles of this life.

Because Renata was in the process of immigrating to Canada, she did not yet have medical coverage for the hospital bills which added up to more than $40,000. Renata’s house church family (and some from the broader house church network) gave more than $13,000 to a trust fund to help with these medical expenses. After the initial payments were made the group continued to walk with the family as they worked through the immigration process and made payments on the remaining bills.

Why do I say that it is important to tell stories like this? I meet many people who tell me that they are Christians and follow Jesus but they have quit attending any form of church. They think that they can be Christians on their own. But stories like this show the importance of being together in community. It is possible that God might have met the needs of this family if they did not attend a church; but, because they were a part of a Christian community many people were able to think through significant issues and learn how to follow God in good times and in bad. God worked through this committed group of believers and showed the power of love and community.

Working Together for Good

2012-02-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. - Romans 8:28.

I used to understand this passage something like this: "God looks after His people and nothing will go wrong for us." Now that is a rather simplistic understanding of this passage and it is one that does not help us much when we fail or when disease comes or when someone hurts us.

If we read this verse in its broader context: Romans 8:27-29 (New Living Translation), it reads.

And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

God has been teaching me a few things through this passage and through circumstances in my life. If we look at the passage in the broader context we realize a different emphasis. The emphasis is not on how everything is going to work out well for me. Or to put it more simply, it is not all about me.

Verse 27 makes it clear that one emphasis of this section is God's will - what He wants for the world. Verse 29 makes it clear that another emphasis is making us become more like Jesus. If I look more deeply at this I realize I need to have a different understanding of this passage. I realize that it is even more helpful than I thought in seasons of failure or success.

God is in the business of making me the kind of person He wants me to be. He is working on making me more like His Son, Jesus. In good times and bad times, the goal is the same. God wants me to daily become a bit more like Jesus. And He wants me to become more like Jesus so that together we can accomplish His will here on earth.

So God is teaching me that whether I succeed or fail, my comfort is not the primary goal. I need to look beyond myself to what God chooses to accomplish through my life. How might God's will be accomplished through the things that are happening to me? How are these circumstances making me more like Jesus so that I might serve others better? With this broader perspective, I can truly say, "God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose."

Fishermen

2012-01-31T10:28:00.000-08:00

I want to get to know maritime people. I grew up with farmers and, even though I now live in a large city, I have a great deal of respect for farmers. Similarly, I think I would like to get to know fishermen, tugboat operators, and sailors. The few I have met show that same hard-working, willing-to-get-the-job-done attitude I have seen in farmers.

A few months ago I had the chance to visit with John Jenkins, a tuna fisherman who, when he is not at sea, lives in Metchosin, BC. For many years he fished for salmon until it looked like the salmon on the west coast would be depleted. He and his son converted their boats to reel and tackle systems suitable for tuna and now go out for these big fish for a portion of the year. He spoke of agreements between the United States and Canada that set limits on where each country's boats can fish and the challenges of international agreements. He spoke of long times at sea perhaps as much as 200 miles offshore and three months at a time. He spoke of how a captain must always be in control of his boat and can never truly get a good night of sleep without one eye open watching for trouble.

His big boat has a hold that is equipped with a compressor system that allows him to flash-freeze the tuna at minus 70 degrees. The fish have to be handled and working in this kind of cold is demanding work. Then there is the danger of the sea, the possibility of collisions at night, and the chance of onboard fires. These hard-working people are an inspiration to me. This may be one of the reasons Jesus chose so many fishermen to be his first followers. Think about these people the next time you enjoy your favourite fish at a restaurant or sit down to a tuna sandwich.

Billy Joel captured some of the joys and struggles of the contemporary fisherman in his song "Downeaster Alexa." Enjoy the words of his song or watch the video.

My Father Was A Farmer

2012-01-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Robert Burns Day!

"My Father Was A Farmer"
Robert Burns, 1782
Song to the tune of "The weaver and his shuttle, O."

My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O,
And carefully he bred me in decency and order, O;
He bade me act a manly part, though I had ne'er a farthing, O;
For without an honest manly heart, no man was worth regarding, O.

Then out into the world my course I did determine, O;
Tho' to be rich was not my wish, yet to be great was charming, O;
My talents they were not the worst, nor yet my education, O:
Resolv'd was I at least to try to mend my situation, O.

In many a way, and vain essay, I courted Fortune's favour, O;
Some cause unseen still stept between, to frustrate each endeavour, O;
Sometimes by foes I was o'erpower'd, sometimes by friends forsaken, O;
And when my hope was at the top, I still was worst mistaken, O.

Then sore harass'd and tir'd at last, with Fortune's vain delusion, O,
I dropt my schemes, like idle dreams, and came to this conclusion, O;
The past was bad, and the future hid, its good or ill untried, O;
But the present hour was in my pow'r, and so I would enjoy it, O.

No help, nor hope, nor view had I, nor person to befriend me, O;
So I must toil, and sweat, and moil, and labour to sustain me, O;
To plough and sow, to reap and mow, my father bred me early, O;
For one, he said, to labour bred, was a match for Fortune fairly, O.

Thus all obscure, unknown, and poor, thro' life I'm doom'd to wander, O,
Till down my weary bones I lay in everlasting slumber, O:
No view nor care, but shun whate'er might breed me pain or sorrow, O;
I live to-day as well's I may, regardless of to-morrow, O.

But cheerful still, I am as well as a monarch in his palace, O,
Tho' Fortune's frown still hunts me down, with all her wonted malice, O:
I make indeed my daily bread, but ne'er can make it farther, O:
But as daily bread is all I need, I do not much regard her, O.

When sometimes by my labour, I earn a little money, O,
Some unforeseen misfortune comes gen'rally upon me, O;
Mischance, mistake, or by neglect, or my goodnatur'd folly, O:
But come what will, I've sworn it still, I'll ne'er be melancholy, O.

All you who follow wealth and power with unremitting ardour, O,
The more in this you look for bliss, you leave your view the farther, O:
Had you the wealth Potosi boasts, or nations to adore you, O,
A cheerful honest-hearted clown I will prefer before you, O.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

2012-01-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

Matthew 6:9-13 (King James Version)
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

This prayer, taught to Jesus' followers, says, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." God has called us to make the world a bit more like heaven where His will is done and He is considered holy. How should we do this?

*We should start with the room in which we are at this moment and there seek to make it as much a part of heaven as we can possibly make it. Next we should expand our thoughts to those with whom we live and make our household as much like heaven as we are able to do. We should treat those with whom we live as the sons and daughters of God that they are. But we should not stop there. Next we must consider those who live next door to us and seek to give them a taste of heaven and of this God whom we serve. Do they know that God loves them and wants the very best for them? Do they have any needs that God has placed in their hearts with which we might help them? Are there any barriers that we have caused to prevent them from seeing the heaven which God is seeking to create on this earth? Again, we would not stop there, but would next ask ourselves about the community in which we live. How can I make my community a bit more like heaven on earth? What is God's will for this place? What is He already doing here? What about our country? How might we serve our country and make it a little more heavenly? What of those who live in other countries? What would it look like if more of God's will was done in their country? How might we use what God has given us to help those in other places? We might start with a country next door and expand to other parts of the world.

Of course all of this is not necessarily sequential and we can and should pursue God's will on more than one front at a time. But as we begin to feel overwhelmed by the sense of the gravity of the situation and the immensity of the task, perhaps we should read that first line again: "We should start with the room in which we are at this moment and there seek to make it as much a part of heaven as we can possibly make it." What mustard seed efforts might I make today as I start at home?

*I know that I have read something like this in a book somewhere but when I looked for it I could not find it. Perhaps one of my friends who reads the same books I do could inform me as to where I have read something like this so that I might give the original author full credit.

Living For Others

2012-01-23T06:26:00.000-08:00

I was looking for a specific C.S. Lewis quote when I came upon these brilliant, but lesser known quotes.

"She's the sort of woman who lives for others—you can always tell the others by their hunted expression." - C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters (p. 145).

He expands upon this concept in his book, The Four Loves.

Mrs. Fidget died a few months ago. It is really astonishing how her family have brightened up. The drawn look has gone from her husband’s face; he begins to be able to laugh. The younger boy, whom I had always thought an embittered, peevish little creature, turns out to be quite human. The elder, who was hardly ever at home except when he was in bed, is nearly always there now and has begun to reorganise the garden. The girl, who was always supposed to be “delicate” (though I never found out what exactly the trouble was), now has the riding lessons which were once out of the question, dances all night, and plays any amount of tennis. Even the dog who was never allowed out except on a lead is now a well-known member of the Lamp-post Club in their road.
Mrs. Fidget very often said that she lived for her family. And it was not untrue. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew it. “She lives for her family,” they said; “what a wife and mother!” She did all the washing; true, she did it badly, and they could have afforded to send it out to a laundry, and they frequently begged her not to do it. But she did. There was always a hot lunch for anyone who was at home and always a hot meal at night (even in mid-summer). They implored her not to provide this. They protested almost with tears in their eyes (and with truth) that they liked cold meals. It made no difference. She was living for her family. - C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves (as quoted in C.S. Lewis: An Examined Life, By Bruce L. Edwards, p. 197).

Perhaps the antidote to this problem is found in this quote.

For what comes is Judgment: happy are those whom it finds labouring in their vocations, whether they were merely going out to feed the pigs or laying good plans to deliver humanity a hundred years hence from some great evil. The curtain has indeed now fallen. Those pigs will never in fact be fed, the great campaign against White Slavery or Governmental Tyranny will never in fact proceed to victory. No matter; you were at your post when the Inspection came. - C.S. Lewis in The World's Last Night, and Other Essays (1960).

In the Garden

2012-01-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

Itall started in the garden. The world was tainted by sin in that first garden whena snake crept in and marred what God had made. God had made the world in such away that it had the potential for beauty and perfection; he had also made itwith the potential for sin and disease and death. For John, it all started in thegarden as well. Ever since Adam, humans have been trying to correct the damagedone in that first garden: toiling over weeds and sin. Maybe John twisted alittle hard as he pulled a weed, maybe it was as he lifted a tool in thegarage. Even he wasn’t sure, but something popped and he began to feel hismortality. His ribs were sore the next day and continued to be sore for thenext several days. Sometimes it was difficult to breathe without pain.Laughter, always an essential part of John’s life, hurt and it became difficultto sleep.

Thepain in his ribs was not truly the beginning for John, but merely one of thefirst noticeable signs. No one knows when, or for that matter why, but deep inthe marrow of his bones a process had started some time ago. As cells divided andmultiplied to replace other cells that were dying in the natural processes oflife, something went wrong. One of those cells lost one of its chromosomes.Chromosome 13 is a mid-sized chromosome in a very tiny world of chromosomeswithin a very tiny cell and yet the loss of this microscopic piece ofinformation in one cell was enough to start the process. As this cell dividedand other cells were created from it, they too were lacking a copy of chromosome13. This change in itself was not enough to cause disease because each cell hasa second copy of chromosome 13. The creator had designed the system withredundancy and just as a computer user backs up his information on a seconddisk, God backed up the information on chromosome 13 with another chromosome13. But as more and more of these cells with missing information proliferatedin the marrow, there was a chance that something even smaller would happen. Whenmillions of cells with only one chromosome 13 had developed in John’s bonemarrow something further did happen. When all of the genetic information wasbeing copied so that another cell could divide and carry out its importantwork, a little gene, too small to even see with a microscope, was copied withan error. Perhaps one of the tiny building blocks that make up the gene was notput into its proper place, leaving a tiny hole in the gene. Or perhaps one of thebuilding blocks that we label with C was used instead of the one we label G. Theend result was that a second copy of a vital piece of information was lost. Nowthis cell, with both copies of this genetic information missing had animportant switch missing. It was the “off” switch. This cell no longer knew howto quit dividing and making more of itself. It could no longer tell that therewere already enough of its type of cell in the bone marrow. And so it made moreof itself and its daughter cells made more of themselves. Each daughter cellwas missing the switching mechanisms that told it when to shut off. More andmore of these cells were made at the expense of other types of cells in thebone marrow. This overproduction of cells began to make John tired, even beforehe knew anything was going on. He began to have far too many of some cells in hisblood and a lack of other cells in his blood. So many of the "B"cells were being made that there was a lack of resources to put into theproduction of red blood cells and other cell types. John began to be anaemic.

These “out-of-control” B cellstravelled out into John’s blood stream and into his lymphatic system in suchhuge numbers that they swamped some of the other types of cells. Some of thesedaughter cells differentiated into cells with specific jobs to carry out. Oneof the many jobs of these cells, is the work of breaking down bone. Some of theB cells, with no “off switch,” became osteoclasts - the bone breakers.Osteoclasts lie on the bone surface or in pits where they resorb bone.Normally, this natural degrading of bone allows for periodic repair andremodelling needed for everyday skeletal health. Normally, the production of theseosteoclasts is balanced with bone formation by another group of cells calledosteoblasts. Now, there were far too many of the osteoclasts and not enough ofthe osteoblasts. There were far too few builders and far too many breakers.

John’sbones began to get weak. Deep pits began to form where bone had been brokendown but no bone cells had been put back in to replace the ones that had beendestroyed. The bones in John’s body began to look like Swiss cheese. And so, inthe summer of 2001, as John was working to rid his garden of the corruptionbrought on by the fall, as he pulled on a weed that marred the simple beauty ofGod’s creation, another part of the corruption brought on by the fall becameevident. One of John’s ribs broke.

Space

2012-01-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

I am continually amazed as I think about the nature of our world. We live in constant interaction with the molecules of the universe. We perceive things around us as solid objects: the keyboard on which I pound out these words, the desk on which my computer sits, and the dense mass of the mountains I can see out my window. We also perceive things in between the solid objects as empty space.

Yet, the space between the mountains and me, and my desk and me for that matter, is far from empty. That "space" is filled with molecules of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon-dioxide. The "emptiness" also contains water vapour, trace amounts of household chemicals, vapours given off by plastics and electronics, particles of my own body as dead skin cells flake off and float on the air or bio-chemicals from my lungs are expelled into the atmosphere. (It is all of this stuff that our bodies are continually giving off that allows a good tracking dog to detect us and follow our trail through the woods.#) The space between the mountains and me is also filled with dust and industrial particles from a major city, electrons sent out from the sun in a continuous solar wind, and photons of light. Physicists are still unclear on the best way to describe the elementary particle/wave that is a photon but we can see that they are there.

The things that seem solid are less solid than our perception would lead us to believe. The molecules which make up these solid items have a significant amount of space between them. The individual protons, in the nucleus of these atoms, associate with electrons that are far away from the proton itself. To get an idea of these subatomic distances, let us consider a thought experiment in which we scale up these protons and electrons to the size of things which we are used to handling.

Here, I must give a few disclaimers about how this thought experiment will work. It will not be strictly accurate. Whenever we try to describe such molecular and atomic interactions, words will fail us. Mathematics is a language better suited to describing such things and yet most of us do not have sufficient mathematical fluency to converse about these subjects. A mathematical physicist would look at my crude description of protons and electrons and find many flaws within it. So think of it as a metaphor that might poetically, not scientifically, explain some of the sizes and spaces between things.

Allow me to take your imagination on a journey down into atomic spaces. The size of a proton is approximately 0.8418 femtometres (fm) or 0.8418 X 10^-15 metres. A very simple atom is the hydrogen atom. It consists of one proton and one electron. The electron orbits around the proton and the average distance from proton to electron is called the Bohr Radius. This distance is approximately 5.29 X 10^-11 metres.

Thus, if we scale up the size of the proton to the size of a basketball, the electron would orbit around the proton at an average distance of 1.60 X 10^4 metres = 16000 metres = 16 km.* If I held a basketball sized hydrogen proton in my living room, its associated electron would be somewhere around Richmond in the south, Burnaby to the east, the North Shore mountains to the north, or out over the Pacific Ocean to the west at any given moment.

This is the simplest of atomic models. The typical distance between two helium protons is 2.5 X 10^-15 metres. In our scaled up model, this distance becomes about 0.755 metres. Thus our basketball model helium atom would have two basketballs separated by 75 cm in my living room in downtown Vancouver and two electrons whizzing around in an orbit which again would include portions of Richmond and Burnaby.

The nuclear radius of Uranium is around 15 X 10^-15 metres. This involves 92 protons interacting together in this nucleus. In the model we have been discussing, that is 92 basketballs in my living room taking up about 4.5 metres of space. The cloud of 92 electrons would be similarly scattered in orbits far beyond the protons themselves. By the way, electrons are small, but present science has not given us a very good idea of their actual diameter.

Even the massive granite of a mountain (like the Stawamus Chief monolith near Squamish, BC) is a complex interaction of molecules in which individual atoms are linked together by molecular bonds and share electrons between atoms. There are spaces between the protons and electrons and the whole thing is a spinning, buzzing, hive of activity despite the fact that we see it as a lump of rock simply sitting there since the mountain range was formed.

What do we do with this sense of space and solid objects? It is beyond our comprehension. There is something beautiful, mystical, and spiritual about it. It fills me with awe. It causes me to praise a creator who could create all of this and understand all of its complexities.

He counts the stars
and calls them all by name.
How great is our Lord! His power is absolute!
His understanding is beyond comprehension!
Psalm 147:4, 5 New Living Translation

#See my blog of April 18, 2011.

*You can check the math here:
Basketball model:A basket ball is 254 mm in diameter = 2.54 X 10^-1 metres;a proton is
0.8418 X 10^-15 metres in diameter; 5.29 X 10^-11 metres is the average proton/electron distance.

(2.54 X 10^-1 / 0.8418 X 10^-15) X 5.29 X 10^-11 metres
3.02 X 10^14 X 5.29 X 10^-11 metres
1.60 X 10^4 metres = 16000 metres = 16 km

Follow-up to Pacing the Cage

2012-01-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's blog quoted Bruce Cockburn's amazing song, "Pacing The Cage." In that song sunset is a metaphor for aging and death. It is a dark and brooding song about the sundown stage of life. In this follow-up I quote Wayne Watson's "There Goes Sundown." It has some of the same melancholy and sorrow of a man looking back over his life. Yet, in this song, sundown is much more hopeful. It is a sign of God's faithfulness. Sundown represents another day that God has given us on this earth.
Certainly the song also contains the singer's mental struggle about whether it is better to be on this earth (growing old with that girl of his) or for the Lord to return and renew this life he lives. In this we hear echoes of the apostle Paul saying,

For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. (Philippians 1:21-24)

There is hope. God is faithful, he is good, and he knows the number of the days of a man . . . and a woman.

There Goes Sundown
(Words and Music by Wayne Watson)

Doomsday... Some day
But not today so far
Said this world wouldn't
Be here much longer
But look around, here we are.
Only God in his wisdom
Surely not me in mine
Knows the number of the days of a man
Every day he shows me a sign.

There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown again.

Some days I pray this prayer more than others
For My Lord to come
When I'm weary of fightin'
When I'm tired of runnin'.
Other days I wanna stay around
Grow old with that girl of mine
Most of the future is out of my hands
He reminds me every day about this time.

There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown again.

I Don't Believe
We've been forgotten
God's too faithful
He's too good at keeping
All his promises
He's gonna come for me
Just like he said he would.

There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown
There Goes Sundown again.

Pacing The Cage

2012-01-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

(Bruce Cockburn - 24 June 1995. Philadelphia.) (Watch him perform this song here.)

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you live too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

I've proven who I am so many times
The magnetic strip's worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And every one was taken in
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can't see what's round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage
Pacing the cage

The longer I live the more I can relate to this song by Bruce Cockburn. In this world of ever changing careers, values, and practises, I sometimes feel like "I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strip's worn thin." We can never rest on yesterday's successes. That holds true for folk-singers, scientists, authors, bloggers, pastors, and church planters. "Sometimes the best map will not guide you; you can't see what's round the bend. Sometimes the road leads through dark places; sometimes the darkness is your friend." All too often I catch myself pacing the cage.

Jeremiah knew these emotions as he wrote Lamentations 3:1-8,

I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.
He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.
Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.

It is unclear whether Jeremiah had truly been shut out by God. More likely, Jeremiah is expressing how he feels God has treated him and is prophetically speaking of how God will one day abandon his Son, Jesus, on the cross. Later, Jeremiah seems to realize that God is more gracious and loving and attentive than Jeremiah had made him out to be. In 3:21-26 he says,

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

So, just as we cannot rest on yesterday's successes, we must use the best map we have even if it is insufficient to the task of guiding us, and we must strike out to where the road leads even if it is through dark places. As we go, we can take a fresh measure of God's great love and his compassions; for they are new every morning and made fresh each day for every one of us. "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."

The Hometown Band

2012-01-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

I arrived home from a week of Christmas and New Year holidays in Alberta and was pleased to find a package with two CDs in my mail box. The albums are Flying and The Hometown Band by "The Hometown Band." They have recently been digitized from the original masters kept in the vaults of Universal Music. I first owned these recordings on 8-track tape in the late 70s and enjoyed them for hours in my 1970 Ford Gran Torino.

I pulled them out and gave them each a good listen. If, like me, you are a fan of Canadian music from the 70s you would readily remember their signature song, "Flying." But, like me, you may have forgotten some of the other great songs on these two albums. I found myself singing along with "I'm Ready" and reminiscing about how much I enjoyed this song. Shari Ulrich's vocals are incredibly strong and I remembered how much I enjoyed seeing her and the whole band perform in 1977 as they toured with the legendary folk icon, Valdy. Both "Flying" and "I'm Ready" were written by J. Mock. [I do not know this name but I must do some research to learn who this phenomenal writer is. Perhaps in a future blog I can give you the results of my investigations.]

Many of the songs on both albums show off the instrumental abilities of the band members. Producer Claire Lawrence's saxophones soar and tug at the heart, Ulrich's violin parts are mesmerizing. The concert I saw in 1977 at the Memorial Centre in Red Deer, Alberta started with a five to seven minute fiddle solo by Ulrich before the curtains pulled back revealing the rest of the band on the stage behind her; they then joined in. I remember thinking how amazing it was to see one person with a fiddle hold an entire audience spellbound for this long. The song, "Spread'm All Around," on Flying really shows the prowess of all of the band members. A strong bass line undergirds this twelve minute masterpiece while violin and saxophone duel and swoop. The song also features some great organ solos by Robbie King (I am thinking it is a Hammond B-3). The organ sound is solid without becoming overpowering like much of the music in this period known for over reliance on the organ and synthesizer as filler. Great guitars by Doug Edwards fills out the sound.

Of the two CDs, Flying is the stronger album yet the self-titled album has a few pleasant surprises. "What Would I Do" has that sound that made it a hit on AM radio in the 70s and still gets me singing along. The short but sweet "Feel Good" written by Ulrich is a great example of her ability as a writer and is just plain fun. "Sweet Emma" written by Ulrich and Lawrence has a fantastic rhythm and a New Orleans sound (is that a straight tenor sax I hear?).

The Hometown Band started in 1975 as a group of session musicians who supported Valdy but they developed their own identity on the strength of these phenomenal musicians. The music still sounds very good today. I am glad Shari put in the effort to convince Universal that it was time to digitize this important art from the Canadian music scene. I long ago lost the ability to play this music on my 8-track player. I encourage you to go to Shari Ulrich's web site (www.shariulrich.com) and order the two CDs while you still can.

How Many Kings

2011-12-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

(Written by Marc Martel and Jason Germain; 2006 Centricity Music Publishing/Germain and Martel Music Publishing/ASCAP)
From the album "Ending is Beginning."

Follow the star to a place unexpected
Would you believe after all we’ve projected
A child in a manger
Lowly and small, the weakest of all
Unlikeliness hero, wrapped in his mothers shawl
Just a child
Is this who we’ve waited for? Cuz

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn savior
All that we have whether costly or meek
Because we believe
Gold for his honor and frankincense for his pleasure
And myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer
Do you believe, is this who we’ve waited for?
It’s who we’ve waited for

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Only one did that for me
All for me, All for you
All for me, All for you

This is a great song for this time of year or any time of year. You can listen to it here.

Follow-up to A Parable

2011-12-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

On December 9th John Stackhouse had a blog post which contained these quotes from Walter Hilton. Hilton offered a way for us to determine if we truly love our enemies. Here is the quote.

What it really comes to is this: if you are not stirred up against such a person in anger while faking an outward cheer, and have no secret hatred in your heart, despising him or judging him or considering him worthless; if the more shame and villainy he does to you in word or deed, the more pity and compassion you show toward him, almost as you would for someone who was emotionally or mentally distressed; and if you are so compelled by love that you actually cannot find it in your heart to hate him, but instead you pray for him, help him out, and desire his amending (not only with your mouth, as hypocrites do, but with a true feeling of love in your heart): then you will be in perfect charity toward [him]. . . .

. . . Stop and think how Christ loved Judas, who was both his mortal enemy and a sinful dog. How good Christ was to him, how benign, how courteous, how humble toward him whom he knew to be damnable. He chose him for his apostle and sent him to preach with the other apostles. He gave him power to work miracles. He showed to him the same good cheer in word and deed. He shared with him his precious Body, and preached to him in the same manner as he did to the other apostles. He did not condemn him openly; nor did he abuse him or despise him, nor ever speak evil of him (and yet even if he had done all of that, it would simply have been to tell the truth!). And above all, when Judas seized him, he kissed him and called him his friend.

A Parable

2011-12-12T08:28:00.000-08:00

Once there was a wealthy business man who passed away. People knew him as an upright entrepreneur, a leader who served in a mid-level political role, and a man of character. He was well loved and it was expected that many would attend his funeral and speak of his kindness to others, his generous gifts to the poor, and the grace with which he served and cared for his family.

The entrepreneur had left a will that contained instructions for his own funeral. In those instructions he asked that six specific people be given the honour and responsibility of carrying his casket and speaking of him at his funeral. People were surprised to see who the business man had chosen to fulfill this role as pall-bearers.

The first pall-bearer was a man who had sued him in a business deal. This same pall-bearer had many arguments with other business people and had sued or threatened to sue others. He was known as an unscrupulous dealer. Another pall-bearer was a woman who had accused the deceased man as the father of her child hoping for financial gain. Her case had been proven to be unfounded. A third pall-bearer had been a political rival who had mounted an extreme campaign against the business man in a bid to discredit and unseat the business man in a particular election. And so it went, each pall-bearer was found to be someone who had a disagreement with or had spoken publicly against the deceased man.

A large crowd gathered at the funeral to see what these enemies of the man would say at his funeral. Each pall-bearer came forward and struggled with something to say. All could tell that they were uncomfortable with the situation and had little they could say either for or against the man. The lawyer for the deceased business man was then instructed to read a statement the man had prepared before his death. In it the business man said, that it was his desire that half of his wealth be given to the poor and if anyone felt that he had cheated anyone in any of his business or personal dealings then that person should be paid back four times the amount they had been cheated. No one came forward with an accusation but it was noted that several of the pall-bearers went and settled arguments and debts they had with other people in the community. The people of the community organized their own tribute to the deceased entrepreneur and people came forward and spoke for many hours regarding the character and love of this man. And so it is that we shall be known by our deeds toward our enemies.

Frail

2011-12-08T16:37:00.001-08:00

Listen here.

Read about how the song came to be here.

Words and Music by Dan Haseltine, Steve Mason, Mark Odmark, Charlie Lowell
©1994Bridge Building Music/Pogostick Music (BMI)

Convinced of my deception
I've always been a fool
I fear this love reaction
Just like you said I would
A rose could never lie
About the love it brings
And I could never promise
To be any of those things

If I was not so weak
If I was not so cold
If I was not so scared of being broken
Growing old
I would be...
I would be...
I would be...

Blessed are the shallow
Depth they'll never find
Seemed to be some comfort
In rooms I try to hide
Exposed beyond the shadows
You take the cup from me
Your dirt removes my blindness
Your pain becomes my peace

If I was not so weak
If I was not so cold
If I was not so scared of being broken
Growing old
I would be...
I would be...
I would be...
...frail

I wonder, do we ever feel frail?

Just Like That

2011-12-07T08:57:00.001-08:00

(Words and Music by Mike Charko and Keith Shields - SOCAN 2011)
Listen to the recording of this song here.

I sat down on my front step
And I strummed my old guitar
I wrote a song to make you laugh
I knew it would go far

Usher saw me playing there
He said, "You're gonna be a star."
He signed me up to play The Bowl
And gave me a new car

Well I know you might think I'm a fool
Or maybe it's not true
But it all really happened just like that
In my mind

I climbed up on my white horse
And I went to ride the range
A pretty woman in distress
So I galloped to her aid

The bad guys tried to get away
But I wouldn't let them run
My draw was quick and my aim was true
And they lowered down their guns

Well I know you might think I'm a fool
Or maybe it's not true
But it all really happened just like that
In my mind

Spiderman and the Man of Steel
They are some friends of mine
They call me up wanna buy me drinks
But I haven't got the time

Paparazzi follow me
Cause they think that I'm so fine
I'd like to pose for one or two
But Jagger's on the line

Well I know you might think I'm a fool
Or maybe it's not true
But it all really happened just like that
In my mind

Don't worry I'm alright
I'm not crazy or anything
I'm not crazy or anything
I'm not crazy or anything

Well I know you might think I'm a fool
Or maybe it's not true
But it all really happened just like that
In my mind
In my mind
In my mind

Alone

2011-12-03T08:41:00.001-08:00

Two articles published online last week stood in stark contrast to each other. The press release from the Mercer survey reported that Vancouver, British Columbia is once again in the top five most liveable cities in the world.1 Vancouver has ranked as high as number one in previous surveys and is always in the top ten cities of the world. The other article was published in the Globe and Mail and reported the findings of a "Table Discussion" carried out by the Vancouver Foundation.2 They set out to determine the key issues for members of the Vancouver community. One would predict that such concerns as homelessness and affordable housing would be on the list; and indeed they were. But what is surprising is that the survey showed that "the top issue on the minds of the majority of those being interviewed was not one that had been in the headlines: the growing sense of isolation in Metro Vancouver."3

While living in a great city with a large number of people with whom to interact, many people still feel isolated and alone. This is a sad commentary on my city and it is also part of a growing problem in many other cities in Canada and the US. The American author, Robert D. Putnam, in his book, Bowling Alone, suggests that since 1950 there has been a continual decline in the number of in-person social contacts between people in the United States. Furthermore, "Matthew Brashears, a Cornell University sociologist who surveyed more than 2,000 adults from a national database found that from 1985 to 2010, the number of truly close friends people cited has dropped -- even though we're socializing as much as ever."4 The conclusions made by these various authors suggest that we are living in a culture in which people are withdrawing into more technological forms of contact and are investing less in in-person forms of social interaction. The result is a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Much more could be said of this and we could point to other trends in our culture such as how the entertainment we consume is becoming more and more individual (listening to music through our ear-buds; watching movies on our tablets or phones). In future postings we will explore this subject more deeply. For now I leave us all with one suggestion and even a challenge. Take the first step! We know that people around us are lonely and isolated and perhaps we feel a measure of this ourselves. What might happen if we invited that neighbour over for dinner? What if we truly got to know the person living beside us? It might be a risk worth taking.

1 (Mercer: Mags Andersen 2011)
2 The Globe and Mail article suggests that this was a survey but the report itself available at http://www.vancouverfoundationvitalsigns.ca/wp-content/uploads/community-conversations/Vancouver_CC_FINAL.pdf refers to this process as a "Table Discussion."
3 (Mason 2011)
4 (Potter 2011)

Mason, Gary. "Alone, so alone, in Vancouver." The Globe and Mail. November 24, 2011. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/alone-so-alone-in-vancouver/article2246891/ (accessed November 26, 2011).

Mercer: Mags Andersen. "2011 Quality of Living worldwide city rankings – Mercer survey." Mercer. November 29, 2011. http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr (accessed December 02, 2011).

Potter, Ned. ""More Facebook Friends, Fewer Real Ones, Says Cornell Study"." ABC News. November 8, 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-friends-fewer-close-friends-cornell-sociologist/story?id=14896994 (accessed December 2, 2011).

The Vancouver Foundation. "Community Conversations." Vancouver Foundation. 2011. http://www.vancouverfoundationvitalsigns.ca/community-conversations/ (accessed December 3, 2011).

Wait

2011-11-29T07:46:00.001-08:00

Advent is a time when we look forward to the coming of salvation. We light candles that glimmer with a faint light as if we are seeing the "light of the world" from a far off distance. We recognize that before the coming of Jesus the world was truly in darkness. We must not too soon skip over the concept of darkness and immediately look forward to the coming of the Christ child. We must wait patiently in this darkness. The years prior to the coming of Jesus had been a dark and quiet period of waiting. Waiting for the Lord. God was not sending prophets and few miracles were occurring. It was the calm, quiet, darkness before the brilliant light that was about to flood the world.

In nature, in the northern hemisphere, trees and plants lie dormant through the bleak mid-winter awaiting the coming of light and spring. There is no fruit; there is an appearance of death. But look at the ends of the branches and you will see the new buds preparing to burst in spring. There is hope; there is life; spring will come again; but for now we must wait. We must wait in the darkness, accepting the dark night of the soul, the barrenness of winter, and the winter of our spiritual life. Only by hanging in the moment of this darkness will we appreciate the brilliance of the light. Advent is a season that cries out, "Wait, wait for it." Let the moment build to a heightened expectancy. We must wait so that we might truly appreciate light and life.

Dorothy L. Sayers, speaking of the "Word becoming flesh," says, ". . . from the beginning of time until now it is the only thing that has ever really happened . . . We may call this doctrine exhilarating or we may call it devastating, we may call it revelation or we may call it rubbish . . . but if we call it dull then what in heaven's name is worthy to be called exciting?"*

In this season of Advent we look with expectancy to this "only thing that has ever happened." He is near, but, at this very moment we wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . in darkness and barrenness.

*Sayers, Dorothy L. Creed or Chaos? Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1949, p. 5, 7.

The Irish and Civilization

2011-11-21T10:51:00.001-08:00

It is the thesis of Thomas Cahill's book, How The Irish Saved Civilization, that if Patricius (also known as Saint Patrick) had not boldly gone into Ireland, the course of the entire world would have been different.

Ireland, a little island at the edge of Europe that has known neither Renaissance nor Enlightenment - in some ways, a Third World country with, as John Betjeman claimed, a Stone Age culture - had one moment of unblemished glory. For, as the Roman Empire fell, as all through Europe matted, unwashed barbarians descended on the Roman cities, looting artifacts and burning books, the Irish, who were just learning to read and write, took up the great labor of copying all of western literature - everything they could lay their hands on. These scribes then served as conduits through which the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian cultures were transmitted to the tribes of Europe, newly settled amid the rubble and ruined vineyards of the civilization they had overwhelmed. Without this Service of the Scribes, everything that happened subsequently would have been unthinkable. Without the Mission of the Irish Monks, who single-handedly refounded European civilization throughout the continent in the bays and valleys of their exile, the world that came after them would have been an entirely different one - a world without books. And our own world would never have come to be.*

What a remarkable thought. Imagine a world without the books and knowledge of the great western literature of Rome, Greece, and Israel. Imagine Europe without a knowledge of animal husbandry and breeding, agriculture, viniculture, military strategy, and law. Many of the books and parchments on the main continent of Europe which contained this knowledge were lost in battles, lootings, burnings, and disregard. Cahill makes a very good point. These humble monks who were far enough removed from the turmoil that was happening in the rest of Europe were able to preserve culture and then restart that culture from their little corner of the world. It is astonishing to think of the impact of the life of one person. Patrick, who was once a slave in Ireland, a herder of pigs and sheep, influenced the whole of Europe and the western world. It makes me believe that perhaps God may be calling many more of us to make sacrifices and take risks to make our world a better place. What might happen if we all began to listen to God in a manner similar to the way Patricius listened to God? What might happen if you and I lived a life that was more about our concern for others and less about our concern for our own well-being?

*Cahill, Thomas. How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. New York: Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1995. p. 4.

A Piece of the Darkness

2011-11-17T07:44:00.001-08:00

I am reading Street Crossers by Rick Shrout. Chapter two is about Jason Evans who started something called Church atMatthew's House (or simply Matthew's House). At the close of the chapter, Rick reflects on some of what Jason has to say:

I was blown away when Jason made the comment about being called to respond when he and his fellow brothers and sisters in arms see darkness at work in the city. He said they wanted "a piece of it" . . . a piece of the darkness. It's their call to action . . . reminding me of the expression, "a piece of the action." As individual followers of Christ and as members of local churches, what is your call to action? From where you live, can you see a specific piece of the darkness that threatens individuals and families in your local community? If so, can you identify the action needed in order to confront it? Just imagine if all of us went after a piece of it - a piece of the action - a piece of the darkness. Just how far reaching might our impact be in our neighborhoods, towns, and cities? But in order to get a piece of the action, it will require a trip across the street to see and understand the darkness at work in your city. This calls for people who are willing to go. Find those people and do all you can to help them in their crossing.

Darkness cannot be overcome and displaced by light until light enters into darkened areas. So that's why we need to be there - simply there - in the darkness. You might think you can stand on one side of the street and direct the beam of a high-powered flashlight into the darkness on the other side. But that's ineffective. For one thing, darkness hides around corners and can only be exposed up close, by venturing around those corners with light in hand and heart. Furthermore, confronting darkness is not easy. It's not as simple as identifying what's wrong with the world and broadcasting that they all have to come over to your side of the street and get fixed. Few will hear the broadcast, and even fewer will listen. Even more telling is that this approach is impersonal, void of relationship and human contact. Then why do we tend to prefer this approach? Because it's easy. The more difficult way requires following The Way - a way that leads to face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball relationships with people who might make us uncomfortable.

Rick's reflection makes me think of Bruce Cockburn's unforgettable words: "But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight; Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."*

*"Lovers In A Dangerous Time," Bruce Cockburn; September 1983. Toronto, Canada.

Follow-up to "Imagination"

2011-11-17T06:28:00.001-08:00

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. - Thomas A. Edison.

Imagination

2011-11-10T14:15:00.001-08:00

Many of us spend very little time cultivating our imagination. The earlytwenty-first century was expected to give us more leisure time as automateddevices freed us up from household chores. But instead the pace of life hasrobbed us of quiet times to dream and create. Add to this the fact that we haveso much information and entertainment available to us and one soon sees why mostof us are quite content to absorb someone else's imagination as we settle infor a night of television, movies, or video games. Most are content to listento music rather than compose; read books rather than write; view movies ratherthan produce; and critique art rather than create.Perhaps you are one who has thought about using your imagination andbecoming more creative. Can we cultivate an imagination? The good news is thatwe can. Think of imagination as an ability to play. When I was young I had noproblem imagining that my bicycle was a space-ship on which I cruised throughthe solar system. I could use it to visit interesting planets and lostcivilizations. When I was bored with another afternoon on the farm I couldreadily invent something that was far more interesting than dirt roads and fieldsof grain. My mind could transform these into other places, other times, andother creatures. Trees became jungles, barn-cats became fierce carnivorousbeasts, and a granary roof the look-out for a castle. How could I be bored whenI was capable of seeing all of these things in a single day?

Dorothy L. Sayers, in an interview, once explained how, at a certainpoint, she was discontented with her life and so she created a character in oneof her novels that had all of the things she wished for.

Lord Peter's large income... I deliberatelygave him... After all it cost me nothing and at the time I was particularlyhard up and it gave me pleasure to spend his fortune for him. When I wasdissatisfied with my single unfurnished room I took a luxurious flat for him inPiccadilly. When my cheap rug got a hole in it, I ordered him an Aubussoncarpet. When I had no money to pay my bus fare I presented him with a Daimlerdouble-six, upholstered in a style of sober magnificence, and when I felt dullI let him drive it. I can heartily recommend this inexpensive way of furnishingto all who are discontented with their incomes. It relieves the mind and doesno harm to anybody.[1]

What an amazing way to explain her process. I think I would haveenjoyed spending an afternoon learning from Sayers. That too is another way tospark imagination: spend time with those who are creative. C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien,Owen Barfield, and other writers were known to spend time together at a publichouse known as "The Eagle and Child" in Oxford. The group was knownas "The Inklings" and they read each other's works and inspired eachother's imaginations. If you want to write books it certainly can't hurt tohang out with those who already write. Spending time with authors and songwriters is a great way to stimulate your own creative gifts. Perhapsimagination and creativity are not expressed in every person. That is likelywhat makes them such precious gifts. Yet, I am convinced that more of us arecapable of imagination than the ones who actually go on to express theircreativity. What projects lie dormant in your heart? What might come of dustingoff your imagination?

[1] Barbara Reynolds, Dorothy L. Sayers:Her Life and Soul, p. 230.

Quotations

2011-11-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

"I always have aquotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
- Lord Peter Wimsey (acharacter in Dorothy L. Sayers' detective novels)

Darkness

2011-11-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

Darkness is not as easy to come by as it once was. At least not the literal kind. When I grew up on a small farm in central Alberta the nights were truly dark. Most people turned off all lights on their farm when they went to bed. There were very few sodium or mercury vapour lights in the area. The cities were smaller and did not give off as much light pollution. The night skies were spectacular. I remember standing in the yard and being awestruck by the immensity of the Milky Way. In one swath across the sky I could see thousands of distant stars all at once. I imagined what it would be like to travel to a distant star or some exotic planet. I learned the names of a few constellations and stars and loved to watch for them in the sky: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Orion, Cassiopeia, Polaris. Each had wonderful names that rolled off the tongue and allowed me to dream of places far, far away. I soon learned that the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) could help me find direction. As long as I could see these stars, and the North Star (Polaris) to which they pointed, I could always know north, and by inference, south, east, and west. With this knowledge I would surely be able to find my way home.

Orion was a favourite constellation. Noticing this collection of stars but not knowing it by name, I had given it my own moniker: "The Scotty Dog." Years later in high school a science teacher brought in his photos of his favourite constellations and I discovered that my little scotch terrier in the sky was actually Orion The Hunter, with bow, arrow, and a belt of three stars. I would stare out the window of the car at Orion as our family drove home from town. I would try to imagine how long it had taken the light of those stars to reach my eyes. By the time I was fifteen I knew that light from even the closest stars had to travel many years to reach earth. Light that I was seeing shining from the centre star of Orion's belt had left that star over 1300 years before I sat in my parents' car watching it twinkle in the night sky. It was almost impossible to understand this and it filled me with awe and pointed me to God. As I gazed out the window my mind was filled with questions. Why was there so much space out there? What were those distant stars and planets like? Was there life on any of those planets? Could there be intelligent life that was looking back at me and wondering if there was life "out there?" What was the significance to how people gave names to collections of stars? I must confess, today, when I look up at Orion it still looks like "The Scotty Dog" to me.

Today, most of us see stars very infrequently. Even at a distance of many miles fromthe nearest city, the light pollution from urban centres destroys our abilityto see all but the brightest stars which makes constellations very difficult todiscern. For hundreds and thousands of years humans have looked up at thesestars and wondered what they meant. Ours is one of the first generations toactually know the composition of a star and where it is in the universe. We arealso one of the first generations to live most of the time not seeing thestars. Many go along without contemplating the immensity of space because they sorarely see the stars. Whole generations of children have grown up in cities in whichthey can only see one or two stars at a time. They may never know the awe ofthe Milky Way or the beauty of the aurora borealis or think about the vastdistances of space. Could this be one of the reasons why faith in a creator God is waning?

Follow-up to "All Truth is God's Truth"

2011-10-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

John Henry Newman, who was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland, also spoke of the seamless nature of all truth.

Ilay it down that all knowledge forms one whole, because its subject-matter isone; for the universe in its length and breadth is so intimately knit together,that we cannot separate off portion from portion, and operation from operation,except by a mental abstraction; and then again, as to its Creator, though He ofcourse in His own Being is infinitely separate from it, and Theology has itsdepartments towards which human knowledge has no relations, yet He has soimplicated Himself with it, and taken it into His very bosom, by His presencein it, His providence over it, His impressions upon it, and His influencesthrough it, that we cannot truly or fully contemplate it without in some mainaspects contemplating Him. (John Henry Newman, (1858), The Idea of a University, p. 50-51)

All Truth is God's Truth

2011-10-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

There is an often quoted statement that says, "all truth is God's truth." Arthur Holmes wrote a book with this title in which he explained that there is no divide between sacred and secular knowledge. The quote is a paraphrase from one of Augustine of Hippo's writings. He said,

A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truthbelongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it evenin pagan literature, but rejecting superstitious vanities and deploring andavoiding those who 'though they knew God did not glorify him as God' . . .*

Wherever truth is found, if it is indeed truth, it is known to God and is part of what we too can know if God allows us to know it. We can trust that truth is a good gift from his hand.

Of course truth must be separated from untruth, lies, and superstition. That is often the challenge. How do we know things? How do we know truth when we see it? Is what we think to be true, actually true or simply something we have always believed? These are difficult questions and we may always find some uncertainty in our answers. When it comes to understanding God's revelation in the Bible and God's revelation in the created world, we must read the two together and allow each to help interpret the other.# Science that reveals truth is God's truth as much as God's word in the Bible is truth. Augustine goes on to say that

Inmatters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in HolyScripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways withoutprejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush inheadlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress inthe search for truth justly undermines our position, we too fall with it. Weshould not battle for our own interpretation but for the teaching of HolyScripture. We should not wish to conform the meaning of Holy Scripture to ourinterpretation, but our interpretation to the meaning of Holy Scripture.
The science of our day, some of it being done by followers of Jesus, is revealing many things that we could not previously dream of knowing. Some of it is very challenging to our traditional interpretations of the Bible.^ Does this mean that the Bible is wrong? No, the Bible is still God's word and is true. Could it be that our interpretation of the Bible is wrong? Truth and truth will agree. In some places, we may need to reinterpret our understanding of the Bible, but the truth of the Bible will indeed fit with truth wherever it is found. The challenge will be for theologians to understand God's meaning in his word and find a way to understand the truth in light of truth found elsewhere. There is much work to do and some scholars such as Darrel Falk at the Biologos Forum are seeking to help with the conversations that need to happen. He has said

Wehave some re-thinking to do, but it can be done and will be done within thecontext of a Christian faith that is fully orthodox and thoroughly evangelical.Any time we draw closer to truth, to God’s truth, we have nothing to fear.There is still much to learn, but we can look back at what we have learned withawe—absolute awe.&

Truth, wherever it is found, is truth; it is not hidden from God. All truth is God's truth.

*Augustine, On Christian Teaching II.75

#For further explanation of the two book metaphor see the article by Loren Wilkonson in Crux.

^ As one example, see these articles by Dennis Venema at the BioLogos Forum.

&See "A Geneticist's Journey."

Sacred Spaces Followup

2011-10-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I wrote about sacred spaces and challenged us to create our own. Now I would like to ask you to tell me about your sacred spaces. Where do you go to be creative? Where do you go to unplug? Some write songs or solve problems in the shower. For others their creative space is in the car while they drive. Still others find solice and sanctity on a mountain-top? Take the time to send me a comment in the space below.

"Creative Arts raise a person to another level of consciousness as if you could imagine life before words." — Charlie Haden

Guarding Sacred Spaces

2011-10-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Whatare the sacred spaces of our time? At one time it was only God's Tabernacle orHis Temple in Jerusalem that were considered holy. God used to rage against theIsraelite people for going to other sacred spaces. Back then, people saw everyhigh place or wooded grove as a potential sacred space to whatever god it mightbe dedicated. God drew his people to worship him in appropriate places and in appropriateways. Eventually churches and cathedrals became the sacred spaces of choice. Ohthere was still the occasional holy moment celebrated on a mountain-top; buteveryone knew that the only real place to meet God was in a church building. Sopeople built churches and they proliferated throughout our cities. Municipalplanners left room for them in their community designs and people attendedthem. Today it is a rare thing to see the construction of a new churchbuilding.

Today,it seems there are no sacred spaces left. All have become secular and strippedof spiritual meaning. Even places that were once dedicated to God have becomecommunity halls or condos with only a facade left to give an impression of pastglory. We have declared that nothing is holy. Annie Dillard says, "We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it." [1]

Wewonder why we feel so scattered. We wonder if we will ever again feel togetherand holistic. Our spaces are a constant barrage of email, internet, socialnetworking, twitter, mobile phones, satellite radios, iPods, and every otherimaginable distraction. Nothing is sacred.

"Despite the incredible power and potential of sacred spaces, they are quickly becoming extinct. We are depriving ourselves of every opportunity for disconnection. And our imaginations suffer the consequences." Scott Belsky[2]

Itis time for a revolution. It is time to take back some sacred space. It is timethat we drew a circle around some spaces and declared them holy. Standing within these circles we will stare technology in the eye and, like Gandalf facing aBalrog, declare, "Go back to the shadow. You cannot pass!"

Without sacred spaces we shall surely perish.Without places of imagination free from interruption our culture will wither onthe vine. We must be proactive in creating sacred spaces for ourselves. When wefind ourselves in places of disconnection we must guard them jealously and usethem wisely. Unplug, disconnect, worship, let creativity flow,and seize the space.

[1] http://hungerandthirst4.blogspot.com/2011/09/hearing.html

[2] http://the99percent.com/articles/6947/What-Happened-to-Downtime-The-Extinction-of-Deep-Thinking-Sacred-Space

Steve Jobs

2011-10-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

Walter Isaacson is a writer of biographies whose previous works include the life story of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. I find biographies to be interesting insights into public personalities and have read Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe. Recently, Isaacson completed what will likely be his biggest selling book, the authorised biography of Steve Jobs. The publisher is rushing the book to the market to capitalize on the peak in interest following Jobs' death on October 5th. In a teaser to the book Isaacson has told of Jobs' motivation for having his biography written.

"I wanted my kids to know me," Isaacson quoted Jobs as saying in their final interview at Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California. "I wasn't always there for them and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did." *

Steve Jobs' words don't sound so much like regret but rather an explanation. He wants his kids to know him through this book. He wants them to have an explanation for why they did not know him and why he was not "there for them." There is much we can learn from Steve Jobs. Even these words from his final interview are instructional. They can lead us to think about what we will leave behind when we pass from this life. They can lead us to ask questions about our own lives. "How well do people know me?" "Do I care whether or not people know me?" "Who are the people in my life for whom I want to 'be there'?"

I will likely read this biography of one of the most interesting men of our time. And as I read it I will ponder the important questions of my own life.

*© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/07/steve-jobs-biography-official-release

Good Work

2011-10-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

When I grew up in Western Canada there was a weekly CBC television show called "Marketplace." The theme song was sung by Stompin' Tom Connors and the lyrics I most remember said,

The Consumer, they call us,
We're the people that buy
While everyone else is out to sell
Some kind of merchandise
Another sale on something,
We'll buy it while it's hot
And save a lot of money spending money we don't got
We'll save a lot of money spending money we don't got

Oh, yes we are the people
Running in the race,
Buying up the bargains in the old marketplace,
Another sale on something,
We'll buy it while it's hot
And save a lot of money spending money we don't got
We'll save a lot of money spending money we don't got

It was only a snippet of a longer song that spoke of the difficulties of the working population who were trying to pay their bills, get a good deal, buy quality products, borrow more money, and generally get a fair shake. Stompin' Tom was using his platform as a folk-singer to say some of the same things Dorothy Sayers said in a 1942 essay entitled "Why Work?". She says,

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.

Nearly seventy years later, I wonder if we have learned anything from Dorothy Sayers' important essay. Indeed, have we learned anything from Connors' folk song? Or are we simply "saving a lot of money spending money we don't got?" As economies of the world plunge to new depths and we wonder how it will affect our country and our jobs, politicians encourage us to see things as "business as usual." We continue to consume more than we can afford and individually and collectively go more and more in debt. We are told that it is just a temporary slowdown in the economy. "It will all get back to normal if we put our nation first. But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse."* We spiral into more debt and consume more to stimulate our flat economy.
Sayers suggests,

Whatever we do, we shall be faced with grave difficulties. That cannot be disguised. But
it will make a great difference to the result if we are genuinely aiming at a real change in
economic thinking. . . . The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of the work done. To do so would mean taking the attitude of mind we reserve for our unpaid work – our hobbies, our leisure interests, the things we make and do for pleasure – and making that the standard of all our judgments about things and people. We should ask of an enterprise, not “will it pay?” but “is it good?”; of a man, not “what does he make?” but “what is his work worth?”; of goods, not “Can we induce people to buy them?” but “are they useful things well made?”; of employment, not “how much a week?” but “will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?” And shareholders in – let us say – brewing companies, would astonish the directorate by arising at shareholders’ meeting and demanding to know, not merely where the profits go or what dividends are to be paid, not even merely whether the workers’ wages are sufficient and the conditions of labor satisfactory, but loudly and with a proper sense of personal responsibility: “What goes into the beer?”

Sayers is reminding us that our jobs are about more than money; they are about producing a good product. We ought to "clamor to be engaged in work that was worth doing, and in which we could take pride." Work is to be about making a difference in the world. I wonder if we might try that for a while.

*Bruce Cockburn, "The Trouble With Normal."

Skyscraper Soul

2011-09-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

I had a surreal experience tonight. I had just finished a day of work and I was waiting on Maureen as she was walking home from her job. I was sitting in our condo on the 14th floor of a 27 storey skyscraper watching the sun go down and the people bustling home from work. I turned on a previously recorded television show of Jim Cuddy performing his Set List in Studio One at Corus Quay in Toronto. He was singing Skyscraper Soul and the words flowed over my consciousness. It was like he was in the room with me describing the sights and feelings of my day. Oh yes, I've got a skyscraper soul and I'm scraping up against the sky!

Skyscraper Soul (words and music by Jim Cuddy)
© JimCuddy.com 2006 - 2011

Everyone knows it, try not to show it,
This city can bring you down
I’m a believer some days are hard, but
I couldn’t leave this town

I got a skyscraper soul
Like a flower that comes where the sun never goes
Skyscraper soul
Filling my heart where there once was a hole

Look out my window
Watching the sun go down
On the crowds below
I know the struggle,
Weaving through trouble
Life can be hard, I know

I got a skyscraper soul
There’s mud in my veins and there’s steel in my bones
Skyscraper soul
Building it all up from water and stones

Look through the market stalls
Over broken walls
To this hollowed ground
Looks are deceiving
There’s a heart beating
Here in this battered town

Cause I got a skyscraper soul
Like a flower that comes where the sun never goes
Skyscraper soul
Filling it all up with water and stones

I’ve got a skyscraper soul
There's mud in my veins and there’s steel in my bones
Skyscraper soul
Brushing the rust off and losing control

http://www.jimcuddy.com/Music/Songography/default.aspx?songid=12cce866-fd61-4653-86d0-17f5e8d9c129

People and the Kingdom of God

2011-09-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

“You can’t lay down anypattern for God. There are many different ways of bringing people into hisKingdom, even some ways that I specially dislike! I have therefore learned tobe cautious in my judgment."

“But we can block it inmany ways. As Christians we are tempted to make unnecessary concessions tothose outside the faith. We give in too much. Now, I don’t mean that we shouldrun the risk of making a nuisance of ourselves by witnessing at improper times,but there comes a time when we must show that we disagree. We must show ourChristian colors, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silentor concede everything away."

“There is a character inone of my children’s stories named Aslan, who says, ‘I never tell anyone anystory except his own.’ I cannot speak for the way God deals with others; I onlyknow how he deals with me personally. Of course, we are to pray for spiritualawakening, and in various ways we can do something toward it. But we must rememberthat neither Paul nor Apollos gives the increase. As Charles Williams oncesaid, ‘The altar must often be built in one place so that the fire may comedown in another place.’” C.S. Lewis

These words from C.S. Lewis are taken fromDecision magazine,September 1963; © 1963 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The article can be found online at http://www.cbn.com/special/Narnia/articles/ans_LewisLastInterviewA.aspx

Mortality

2011-09-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

I was listening to some of Michael W. Smith's music today and heard "Live and Learn" from the I 2 (Eye) album. The beginning of this song quotes the last stanza of the William Knox poem, "Mortality." In an attempt to make the entire poem more accessible I present it to you today.

Mortality
(aka "Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud")
(Writtenby William Knox)
Oh,why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passes from life to his rest in the grave.
Theleaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around, and together be laid;
And the young and the old, the low and the high,
Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie.
Theinfant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband, that mother and infant who blessed;
Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest.
Themaid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,
Shone beauty and pleasure - her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.
Thehand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.
Thepeasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.
Thesaint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
Sothe multitude goes - like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes - even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.
Forwe are the same that our fathers have been;
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we feel the same sun,
And run the same course that our fathers have run.
Thethoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink;
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling -
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.
Theyloved - but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned - but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved - but no wail from their slumber will come;
They joyed - but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.
Theydied - aye, they died - we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.
Yea,hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.
'Tisthe wink of an eye - 'tis the draught of a breath -
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
(This is commonly referred to as AbrahamLincoln's favourite poem.)

Walking in the Dark

2011-09-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Fora few years now I have developed a practise of walking in the dark. What I meanby this is I like to go for walks at night in places that are as dark I canfind. Living in a large urban centre like Vancouver means that even when I gofor a walk at night there are still plenty of city lights. So in my quest fordarkness I find myself walking in places like beaches, parks, and the Iona Jetty(one of the best places in Greater Vancouver to see the stars). When I lived inCalgary, one of my favourite places I would go for a night walk was a retreatcentre near Calgary called King's Fold. At night one could hike the rivervalley with just the light of the stars to guide you.

Nightwalks heighten my senses and allow me to listen better, smell more, and detectthings I might normally miss. One must overcome a sense of fear for we areoften taught to be afraid of the dark and there may in fact be some real danger.The valley of the Ghost River at King's Fold is home to predators such as bearsand cougars and so my ears were constantly tuned for the snap of a twig when Iwalked this valley. Yet, such fear and heightened awareness can be a metaphorfor life.

Thelife I live in Canada is really quite safe and secure. Most of the time Iorganize my life in ways that protect me and minimize my exposure to danger orthe risk of loss. I have my keys and locks to keep out the "bad guy,""bogeyman," and "terrorist." I have my vitamins anddisinfectants to protect me from disease and bed-bugs. I have my lifeinsurance, RSPs, and stock investments to placate my fear of the financialfuture. I am fortunate to have so much. Many in the world have none of thesethings. They survive and thrive without all of these protections. Could I do aswell if I were to lose all of my security blankets?

Walkingin the dark reminds me that I am small and fragile in a big world of danger. Itreminds me to put my trust in the right places. It causes me to pray and trustand love and hunger for something more. It reminds me that life is about risk;it is about taking chances when every fibre of my body cries for comfort andsecurity. Where would I be if I had never taken a chance? Where would I be if Ihad taken more chances?

Walkingin the dark reminds me that there are more sources of light than streetlights,sunshine, and flashlights. There is inner light which is a reflection of lightthat is far greater. There is a light in which we can walk that will bringlight to any dark place.

No longer willyou need the sun to shine by day, nor the moon to give its light by night, forthe Lord your God will be your everlasting light, and your God will be yourglory. - Isaiah 60:19 New LivingTranslation (NLT)

This is the messagewe heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is nodarkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with Godbut go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But ifwe are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowshipwith each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. - 1 John 1:5-7 New Living Translation(NLT)

Voices II

2011-09-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

I posted these lyrics a while ago but now I have added a link to a recording of this song.

Voices(Lyrics by Keith Shields; Music by Mike Charko; Copyright 2011 SOCAN)

It's 5 am and all is quiet
I hear voices in my head
One says, "I should seek out comfort"
Another, "Give it all away"

Life is complex and confusing
Wise enough to know
I will always keep on seeking
The Voice that whispers in the Wind.

It's the Voice that cleared away the darkness
It's the Voice that separated seas
It's the Voice that speaks against oppression
The Voice that whispers in the Wind

Other voices cry with passion
Tickle in my ears
They tell me I must try to fit in
They tell me not to make a scene

Friends and family want to help me
Tell me to be calm
But I cannot keep from hearing
The Voice that whispers in the wind

It's the Voice that cleared away the darkness
It's the Voice that separated seas
It's the Voice that speaks against oppression
The Voice that whispers in the Wind

So many voices that I'm hearing
Listen through the buzz
One says, "Give it up and follow"
One says, "You are just a fool"

The call of comfort keeps on screaming
Listen, screen it out
But I will always keep on seeking
The Voice that whispers in the Wind

It's the Voice that cleared away the darkness
It's the Voice that separated seas
It's the Voice that speaks against oppression
The Voice that whispers in the Wind

Sometimes I wonder, sometimes
Sometimes I wonder, sometimes

It's the Voice that says I am holy
It's the Voice that calls me by name
It's the Voice that heals all my sickness
The Voice that whispers in the Wind

A recording of this song can now be heard by going to the profile page of "Key of Zed" on MySpace.com.

Listening to the Universe

2011-09-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today I simply offer another quote from Annie Dillard:

Who shushed the stars? There are a thousand million galaxies easily seen in the Palomar reflector; collisions between and among them do, of course, occur. But these collisions are very long and silent slides. Billions of stars sift among each other untouched, too distant even to be moved, heedless as always, hushed. The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out. But God knows I have tried.At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains; the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: there is nothing there. There is nothing but those things only, those created objects, discrete, growing or holding, or swaying, being rained on or raining, held, flooding or ebbing, standing, or spread. You feel the world's word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: this hum is the silence. Nature does utter a peep - just this one. The birds and insects, the meadows and swamps and rivers and stones and mountains and clouds: they all do it; they all don't do it. There is a vibrancy to the silence, a suppression, as if someone were gagging the world. But you wait, you give your life's length to listening, and nothing happens. The ice rolls up, the ice rolls back, and still that single note obtains. The tension, or lack of it, is intolerable. The silence is not actually suppression; instead, it is all there is.*

*Dillard, Annie. Teaching A Stone To Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. New York: HarperCollins, 1982, p. 89, 90.

Big Bang

2011-09-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

The "Big Bang" hypothesis of cosmology has become part of our collective psyche and is the most popular explanation for how the universe came to be. If you asked a cross-section of people who it was that first came up with this theory you might get a variety of answers but few would be able to tell you that it was a Belgian scientist and catholic priest named George Lemaître (Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître). He first developed his idea in a paper published in 1927 under the terminology of the "hypothesis of the primeval atom." The paper suggested that the universe was not static but rather continuously expanding. Such a view was contrary to the collective understanding of the physicists of his day, including Albert Einstein. Lemaitre's theory led others to agree that there might have been a primeval point and sent physicists down the path of searching further and further back toward the elusive big bang as the point from which all else follows. Einstein once stood and applauded a lecture given by Lemaitre on this very topic.

Many would find it surprising to hear that a faithful catholic priest would have developed such a significant and world changing concept. How did this man maintain his faith and his science? Hubert Vecchierello remarked that,

It is a point of great interest nowadays . . . to see a man who is both a priest and a scientist fraternizing on the most intimate terms with the world's most illustrious scientific geniuses. He not only associates with them, but he is their peer; and in that is the lie given to the old and empty charge that the study of science means the loss of belief in religion. Lemaître, of course, is usually an object of great curiosity — not so much to his coreligionists as to many not of the faith who marvel at the "phenomenon" of a Catholic priest being a scientist, yes, not only a scientist of the regular run, but a genius whose theories are most daring.*

Lemaitre was very careful with his use of the scientific method. Speaking to Catholic scientists, Lemaître said:

The Christian researcher has to master and apply with sagacity the technique appropriate to his problem. His investigative means are the same as those of his non-believer colleague . . . In a sense, the researcher makes an abstraction of his faith in his researches. He does this not because his faith could involve him in difficulties, but because it has directly nothing in common with his scientific activity. After all, a Christian does not act differently from any non-believer as far as walking, or running, or swimming is concerned.#

And he was sensible about his understanding of theology.

Once you realize that the Bible does not purport to be a textbook of science, the old controversy between religion and science vanishes . . . The doctrine of the Trinity is much more abstruse than anything in relativity or quantum mechanics; but, being necessary for salvation, the doctrine is stated in the Bible. If the theory of relativity had also been necessary for salvation, it would have been revealed to Saint Paul or to Moses . . . As a matter of fact neither Saint Paul nor Moses had the slightest idea of relativity.%

His understanding of the Bible led him to trust it on all matters of salvation but never worry that it might include scientific or historic errors.

The writers of the Bible were illuminated more or less — some more than others — on the question of salvation. On other questions they were as wise or ignorant as their generation. Hence it is utterly unimportant that errors in historic and scientific fact should be found in the Bible, especially if the errors related to events that were not directly observed by those who wrote about them . . . The idea that because they were right in their doctrine of immortality and salvation they must also be right on all other subjects, is simply the fallacy of people who have an incomplete understanding of why the Bible was given to us at all.^

Lemaitre's conclusion to his 1950 book on the subject of the primeval atom gives us a glimpse into the mind of a man who is thoroughly scientific and thoroughly Christian.

We cannot end this rapid review which we have made together of the most magnificent subject that the human mind may be tempted to explore without being proud of these splendid endeavors of Science in the conquest of the Earth, and also without expressing our gratitude to One Who has said: "I am the Truth," One Who gave us the mind to understand him and to recognize a glimpse of his glory in our universe which he has so wonderfully adjusted to the mental power with which he has endowed us.@

For further reading see "The Faith and Reason of Father George Lemaitre."

The original 1927 paper can be found here.

*Hubert Vecchierello, Einstein and Relativity; Lemaître and the Expanding Universe (Paterson: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1934), 23.

#Godart and Heller, Cosmology of Lemaître, 174.

%Hubert Vecchierello, 1934, 24.

^Hubert Vecchierello, 1934, 25.

@Georges Lemaître, The Primeval Atom (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1950), 55.

Hearing

2011-09-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I was rereading The Language of God by Francis Collins for a paper on which I am presently working. I came upon a place where he quotes one of my favourite authors, Annie Dillard. She reminds us that we have banished God from the world in which we live. We have found ways to show that He is not involved in our daily lives. We have plugged our ears solidly so that He will not speak to us. And now, when we think we might like to hear from Him, He is quiet. We hear of stories in other times and in other places where it seems like God might be at work and might be speaking and we wonder why we do not hear Him and see His miracles. Dillard says,

Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy. . . . We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism .... It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it. We are lighting matches in vain under every green tree. Did the wind used to cry and the hills shout forth praise? Now speech has perished from among the lifeless things of the earth, and living things say very little to very few. . . . And yet it could be that wherever there is motion there is noise, as when a whale breaches and smacks the water, and wherever there is stillness there is the small, still voice,
God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song and dance, the show we drove from town ... What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: Hello?"
(Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk p. 87-89; as Quoted by Francis Collins in The Language of God p39.)

Oh God, how do I unplug my ears?

Collins, Francis S. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. New York: Free Press, A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc., 2006.

Dillard, Annie. Teaching A Stone To Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. New York: HarperCollins, 1982.

Song Writers

2011-08-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

Music is highly personal. Ask a group of people to tell you some of their favourite songs and you will get a wide variety of answers. A friend of mine recently blogged about choosing his perfect music for a long road trip. Although I could appreciate his list and even liked some of the songs, his road songs and my road songs would be quite different. Many people tell me they never listen to lyrics; but I am a lyrics first person. Intelligent lyrics that I can sing are a must for me to engage a song. Good rhythm and melody are important but they come second.

This got me thinking and I decided to put together a list of some of my favourite song-writers and some of their songs. So, read this list and then let me know of one of your favourite song-writers and why you think they should be on my list.

Annie Tate, Dave Berg, and Sam Tate, writers of Moments
Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, and Matt Odmark, writers of Faith Enough
Don Henley and Steuart Smith, writers of Waiting in the Weeds
Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, writers of Bad Timing
Harry Chapin, writer of Taxi
James Page and Robert Plant, writers of Stairway to Heaven
James Taylor, writer of Copperline
Jimmy Webb, writer of The Wichita Lineman
Mac McAnaly, writer of Down the Road
Marcus Mumford, writer of The Cave
Robbie Robertson, writer of The Weight
Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy, and Tommy Simms, writers of Change the World

Problem With the World

2011-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

"The Problem"
Written by Marc Martel and Jason Germain
Copyright 2008 Centricity Music Publishing/Germain and Martel Publishing/ASCAP

There's got to be some reason for all this misery
A secret evil corporation somewhere overseas
They're pulling strings, arranging things
It's a conspiracy

Or what about the ones who shape the course of history
What if we petitioned for one grand apology?
I'll write to my prime minister
You, write your president

Everybody's wondering how the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could be filled with so much pain
It's not the age-old mystery we made it out to be
Yeah, there's a problem with the world
And the problem with the world is me

Some will say the devil and his legions
They put us in a headlock of submission
But they lost all power over me
A long, long time ago

And since I was a kid you know I've caused a lot of hurt
And no one ever taught me how to put myself first
It came so very naturally
But I'm not a prodigy

So I will look no further than a mirror
That's where the offender hides
So great is my need for a redeemer
That I cannot trust myself
No, I cannot trust my self
I dare not trust myself
So I trust in someone else

The sooner you can sing along
The sooner you can sing this song
The happier we'll be
The problem with the world is me

Sometimes the poets say it better than all of the philosophers, scientists, and politicians. This time the guys from the band "Downhere" have said it well, "the problem with the world is me."

(Of course, an astute reader will recognize that the boys from "Downhere" are quoting the great G. K. Chesterton. Chesterton was once asked by a London newspaper to join other authors and thinkers to address the weighty and important question of "what's wrong with the world." His response:
Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton.)

Curiosity

2011-08-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

On Sunday August 7, Discovery Channel premiered a new series: “Curiosity.” The first episode was a show entitled “Did God Create the Universe?” The episode was narrated by Stephen Hawking and presented his own arguments and scientific explanations. The show is available online here.

Stephen Hawking continues to be a man that both amazes me and frustrates me. I have a great deal of respect for him and read his popular works with enthusiasm. He has a very large platform for his ideas. He is highly respected and has become a “rock-star” in the scientific world. He is likely the most famous mathematician who has ever lived and the second most famous scientist next to Einstein. We all know that he can do the math to prove the existence of eleven dimensions in our multiverse. In more recent years he has become a vocal atheist and philosopher. Although he would say that philosophy is dead, there is little doubt that as he speaks of cosmology (the nature of the universe) he often strays into the areas of philosophy and cosmogony (the study of how the universe came to be).

In this episode of “Curiosity” Hawking makes bold statements about how science can explain the universe such that there is now no need for God. He suggests that those who hold to a belief that God did create the universe are simple minded. He compares them to ancient Vikings who screamed at the “wolf god” to prevent it from eating the sun as they experienced a solar eclipse. He apologizes to people of faith and then firmly states that there is no God, no heaven, and no after-life.

I am not a logician or a philosopher. There are plenty of others who are writing about this program and Stephen Hawking's line of reasoning. One can easily compare my explanation with others. My understanding of Stephen Hawking’s reasoning goes something like this. First, Hawking says that we can mathematically analyze our universe in ways that allow us to “see” the creation of our universe right up to the “Big Bang” from which our universe sprang. So far, so good, Hawking and other physicists have the technical knowledge of math and science that allows them to analyze things which others cannot.

Second, he maintains that for most things in the universe “it takes something to make something.” You can’t make a mountain of dirt without taking dirt from a hole in the ground. However, the universe, he claims, is the ultimate “free lunch.” Quantum physics suggests that subatomic particles can spring into existence out of nothing. I would want to check with physicists to see if they would agree that this is what is happening at the subatomic level. Perhaps others would express it as not knowing the source of such particles. But since you and I are not physicists (I doubt that physicists read this blog) we will concede this point to Professor Hawking. He states that when we consider anti-energy, anti-matter, and other universes, it all adds up to zero. So, as long as the net sum is zero, the universe can come to exist out of nothing (at least nothing in our universe). Okay, that was the hard one to understand. Hang in there for one or two more paragraphs before you give up on this blog.

Third, Hawking says that, at the Big Bang, time came into existence. Therefore, we cannot talk about a time when God existed before the creation of the universe because there was no time prior to the Big Bang and God could not be in a place where there was no time. Plus, we have filled in all of the gaps in our understanding of the universe and there is no need for God. Therefore, God does not exist. That, in simplified terms, is the argument Hawking wishes us to follow and with which he would like us to agree.

Okay, here is where my small brain begins to disagree with Professor Hawking’s large brain. Just because I don’t see a need for something does not mean that thing does not exist. He might have convinced me of his argument if he had said that "there is an alternative explanation of how the universe came to be and the explanation does not require God." I might grant him that and we could agree to disagree on which explanation suits our philosophical understanding (since we are now solidly in the realm of philosophy, theology, and cosmogony). But the leap from “we don’t need God to explain the origins of the universe” to “there is no God” is too great for me. Even other atheists have pointed out the weakness of this argument. As for there being no time before the Big Bang, in first year Bible College we considered the possibility that God existed outside of time. Einstein’s theory of relativity has always been a great source of comfort to me as I have grappled with understanding just how God might indeed be able to see all of time at once and stand outside of it. Again, Hawking can say that there is an alternative explanation that does not require God but this is not the same as saying "God cannot exist."

Curiosity, I am all for it! I think it is appropriate to ask the questions proposed in this television program. We should seek to learn all we can about this amazing universe. We should seek to explain how things came to be in the world in which we find ourselves. We should hear from scientists who wish to explore these topics as well. But science and mathematics are still not the only tools we use for analyzing our world. Philosophy and theology continue to be valid disciplines which add to our understanding of the questions and the answers. I appreciate the Discovery Channel programming and the way they challenge us to think, dream, investigate, and experience the world. These questions lead me to a greater sense of awe about the God who calls us into relationship with Him.

Two Great Mysteries

2011-08-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

In as much as we are conscious at all, we human beings, find ourselves in the centre of these two great mysteries. The first is our presence in a world which we did not create, we could not have expected, which is continually a surprise and a gift and a challenge. We are born into mystery. We exist. Why?
The second is our consciousness of all of this. It is not just that all of this is here, from the rings of Saturn, to the Hubble deep field pictures that we can see, to the living things that are all around us. It is not just that all of that is here but that we are aware of it. Consciousness is a greater mystery than the whole universe and as far as we know is unique to this part of the universe. It is a gift and a problem as scientists try to figure it out. -Loren Wilkinson (Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies and Philosophy at Regent College) in a lecture to a pastoral science cohort, 2011.

In as much as I am conscious at all? Am I conscious at all? I should be incredibly excited about the world in which I find myself. Most days the level of my consciousness is not that of astonishment and mystery. Why is it that I am so uninspired by existence and consciousness? There is evidence that the psalmist, David, caught glimpses of such awe and wonder when he says,

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth. Psalm 19:1-6

Much of the time I go through life without a thought of the miracle of being here as opposed to not being here. What did it take for me to be living here in this place at this time? The placement of the sun and earth had to be just such that life, as we know it, could exist on this planet. My ancestors had to thrive and escape death long enough to have children who in turn had children of their own. My own immune system had to defeat numerous viruses and cancer cells to keep me alive.

Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise." — Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher)

Most days I take all of this for granted. But there is great mystery and awe in being here and being conscious. Without consciousness I am little more than a self-propelled sac of biochemicals.

My mitochondria comprise a very large proportion of me. I cannot do the calculation, but I suppose there is almost as much of them in sheer dry bulk as there is the rest of me. Looked at in this way, I could be taken for a very large, motile colony of respiring bacteria, operating a complex system of nuclei, microtubules, and neurons for the pleasure and sustenance of their families, and running, at the moment, a typewriter. — Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher)

But consciousness changes everything. The fact that my brain can rise out of the goo that is biochemistry long enough to realize that there might be something more to all of this is one clue that there just might be something more to all of this. And therein lie the two great mysteries. We are here and we are conscious. Because of this, before I get to work, I think that I shall allow myself a few minutes of "contented dazzlement of surprise."

The Eighth Day

2011-08-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

I am working on a paper for some studies I am doing at Regent College and so I am doing a lot of reading in the area of cosmology, origins of the universe, and origins of man. I am reading a number of journal articles in contemporary theology, science, genetics, and philosophy. It is challenging and exhilarating work. It can sometimes get far removed from the day-to-day issues of life. Yet, every once in a while I find a piece that helps make sense of life in the here and now.

We often speak of the days of creation and wrestle with how to understand all that there is in our universe (or multiverse) and how it all came to be. We might speak of the 7 days of creation or the 6 days of creation and a day of rest. We might ask questions about these 7 periods of time. We might argue about whether these are 7 twenty-four hour periods of time or 7 indefinite eras. But what about the 8th day? What is our understanding of the process of creation? Was it a once and for all historical act? Or is there a sense in which the universe is still being created? What about new islands (like the Galapagos Islands or even younger islands) that form as volcanoes erupt in the sea? Are they part of this mysterious process of creation? Or, what about a new baby that is born into this world? Are they a part of the creation process? Is there a goal toward which all of creation is heading? Is the whole thing just blind chance, variation and natural selection, cause and effect? Is there a purpose?

Some of my recent reading has focussed my attention on the continuous process of creation. The universe in general, and the earth in specific, are still in the midst of being made. They are very much a work-in-progress. I like this perspective. I like the idea that things (including me) are not yet finished. We get to watch it unfold. We have a front row seat for the biggest show of all time and it is the "show of all time." It puts me in the midst of something. It makes me a character in the story. It makes me one of the "adams" of the creation story and not just one of the "atoms" in the cosmic theatre. It also leaves room for God. John H. Walton says,

If God's work of creation is considered only a historical act that took place in the past, it is easy to imagine how people might not think in terms of God being active today. We have lost the view that nature does not operate independently from God. He is still creating with each baby that is born, with each plant that grows, with each cell that divides, with each nebula that forms. We might find it easy to look at some majestic view like a glorious sunset or the grandeur of the mountains and ponder the magnificence of God's handiwork. But this sense needs to extend beyond the "wow" moments to encompass all of our experience of his world. We have the same problem when we only recognize God in some incredible occurrence in our lives and forget that he provides for us, cares for us and protects us moment by moment, day after day. God did not just create at some time in the past; he is the Creator-past, present and future.*

God is involved in the day to day actions. This does not mean that we discard our understanding of embryology. It means we understand that God is involved and is behind and sustains the embryology that leads to the development of a child that will be born on the earth today. It means we can look for the mechanisms of how things come to be without discarding the "why and who questions."

Perhaps some readers would like to take up this challenge today: watch . . . . See if you can catch something in the process of being made. It is happening all around us whether we notice or not.

*Walton, John H. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009, p. 142, 143.

The Fiddling Wood

2011-08-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

I came upon this powerful poem a few days ago. Take the time to read it slowly. It is a master-piece.

The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet

Gods, what a black, fierce day! The clouds were iron,
Wrenched to strange, rugged shapes; the red sun winked
Over the rough crest of the hairy wood
In angry scorn; the grey road twisted, kinked,
Like a sick serpent, seeming to environ
The trees with magic. All the wood was still --

Cracked, crannied pines bent like malicious cripples
Before the gusty wind; they seemed to nose,
Nudge, poke each other, cackling with ill mirth --
Enchantment's days were over -- sh! -- Suppose
That crouching log there, where the white light stipples
Should -- break its quiet! WAS THAT CRIMSON -- EARTH?

It smirched the ground like a lewd whisper, "Danger!" -
I hunched my cloak about me -- then, appalled,
Turned ice and fire by turns -- for -- someone stirred
The brown, dry needles sharply! Terror crawled
Along my spine, as forth there stepped -- a Stranger!
And all the pines crooned like a drowsy bird!

His stock was black. His great shoe-buckles glistened.
His fur cuffs ended in a sheen of rings.
And underneath his coat a case bulged blackly --
He swept his beaver in a rush of wings!
Then took the fiddle out, and, as I listened,
Tightened and tuned the yellowed strings, hung slackly.

Ping! Pang! The clear notes swooped and curved and darted,
Rising like gulls. Then, with a finger skinny,
He rubbed the bow with rosin, said, "Your pardon
Signor! -- Maestro Nicolo Paganini
They used to call me! Tchk! -- The cold grips hard on
A poor musician's fingers!" -- His lips parted.

A tortured soul screamed suddenly and loud,
From the brown, quivering case! Then, faster, faster,
Dancing in flame-like whorls, wild, beating, screaming,
The music wailed unutterable disaster;
Heartbroken murmurs from pale lips once proud,
Dead, choking moans from hearts once nobly dreaming.

Till all resolved in anguish -- died away
Upon one minor chord, and was resumed
In anguish; fell again to a low cry,
Then rose triumphant where the white fires fumed,
Terrible, marching, trampling, reeling, gay,
Hurling mad, broken legions down to die

Through everlasting hells -- The tears were salt
Upon my fingers -- Then, I saw, behind
The fury of the player, all the trees
Crouched like violinists, boughs crooked, jerking, blind,
Sweeping mad bows to music without fault,
Grey cheeks to greyer fiddles, withered knees.

Gasping, I fled! -- but still that devilish tune
Stunned ears and brain alike -- till clouds of dust
Blotted the picture, and the noise grew dim --
Shaking, I reached the town -- and turned -- in trust - Wind-smitten, dread, against the sky-line's rim,
Black, dragon branches whipped below a moon!

Raise Me

2011-07-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Listen to this song here.

My life is now in the hands of those who know my crime
They stare at me with their hungry eyes
Pious words from their lips hide a bitter rage
We share a crime that’s now all mine

Please let me live
This just isn't fair
You are guilty like me
My life has been laid bare

Who is this one they take me to, a judge, or just a man
He looks at me with sorrow in his eyes
At my feet he kneels to write words I cannot read
He sees right through all of their lies

Please let me live
This just isn't fair
You are guilty like me
My life has been laid bare

I can't escape, a lifetime of mistakes
I want to run; I'm so alone

Please let me live
This just isn't fair
You are guilty like me
My life has been laid bare

Suddenly, we are alone; are they really gone?
Only one can tell me now my fate
He looks at me with purest love I truly understand
And says to me go, sin no more

Where are my accusers
I have been released
The one who stooped down with me
Has raised me up again

Lyrics and Music by Mike Charko and Keith Shields.

We Do Not Lose Heart

2011-07-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Today's New International Version (TNIV)

Mathematics

2011-07-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should be grateful for it and hope that it will remain valid in future research and that it will extend, for better or for worse, to our pleasure, even though perhaps also to our bafflement, to wide branches of learning. - Eugene Wigner

Thin Places

2011-07-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

The concept of "Thin Places" fascinates me. The definition of a "thin place" is "a place where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially thin. It’s a place where we can sense the divine more readily."* This was an important concept to Celtic Christians. For the Roman church, the place to meet God was, and is, in a church building or a cathedral. To the Celts, the place to meet God was at a thin place. Such places were most often outdoors and defined by islands, mountains, points of land that thrust out into the sea, caves, or other natural landmarks.

The concept fascinates me and unnerves me at the same time. It is not something of which the bible explicitly speaks and yet it seems that the concept is there and that several people in the bible had their own thin places. If you think of Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, Jacob and his ladder, and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane you will get a picture of what I mean. Perhaps it is not that the places have particular significance but that the places come to have special relevance for a person or for people in general.

I have a few places where God has spoken in unique ways. These are places where His voice was a little more clear and He has spoken more often. They are places to which I return to hear from Him again. It is not that He always speaks at such places; for He can be just as silent in such places as any other. It is not that these are the only places where one can hear from God. They are, however, places to which I return with increased expectancy and with an increased desire to listen. Perhaps that is the purpose of this metaphor in my life. Mark D. Roberts has this to say about the concept.

If you want to use the thin place metaphor, then you might want to say that the purpose of thin places is to help us realize that all places can be thin. Or, better yet, perhaps the purpose of a thin place is to train us to make the other places in our lives thinner. Moreover, when we realize that the Spirit of God dwells within us, we will come to believe that we are called to be thin places, as God makes his presence known through us.*

May you seek places in your life where you might find a greater depth of connection with God. May there be enough thin places in all of our lives to spur us on to love and good deeds.

* For some helpful theological reflection on the concept of "thin places" see Mark D. Roberts Blog series on the topic. This is where I found this particular definition. http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/thinplaces.htm

Let's Get Small

2011-07-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

No, I am not referring to the 1970s comedy routine by Steve Martin. This blog is about how we humans perceive ourselves in the universe. Who are we? How are we different from the other life forms on this planet (or other life forms in the universe)? What is our function in this world and what is the purpose of life?

It was so much simpler when we could think that our planet was at the centre of the universe, or even the centre of our solar system. But we no longer have that luxury. Observation of planetary bodies and the invention of the telescope mean that there is no turning back. Compared to the known universe, we are small.

This sort of reasoning leads many to question previously satisfying answers. A generation or two ago it was almost always assumed that behind all of the questions was a God who knew the answers and a God who cared about humankind as his crowning creation. That is certainly no longer the starting point of such conversations nor is it the common conclusion.

As we look at a diagram such as the one noted above, it is easy to see that we have come a long way in our understanding of the world in which we live. Perhaps the realm in which we continue to struggle is best represented by the word "why." Not "how" do things work. We have much knowledge and plenty of experiments to do to search for explanations about the workings of our bodies and of our universe. The real interesting questions are still out there. Why does the universe exist? Why does all of that "extra" space in our universe exist? Why do humans exist? Science and theology both seek to answer these ultimate questions of life and there is no necessary conflict between the answers provided by each discipline.

"Why" questions (or purpose questions) are often beyond the scope of scientific naturalism and experimentation . Lesslie Newbigin has said that "cause is something that can be discovered by observation and reason. Purpose is not available for inspection because, until the purpose has been realized, it is hidden in the mind of the one whose purpose it is." Who is behind the universe and why are we here are some of the most difficult questions which humans now face. The work to unravel these answers will require more effort than the largest scientific experiments of our time. And this work will take an eternity. It will require the work of our brightest minds and the collective effort of many people on the planet. Want to join in the conversation?

Click on the picture for a larger image or go here for the original source.

Pardon Me Lord

2011-07-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

"Pardon me Lord, but if You are with us, why has all of this happened to us? Where are all of the miracles that happened in the past? You have abandoned us and left us at the mercy of this post-modern, consumeristic, God hating people."

That is my paraphrase of Gideon's words found in Judges 6:13. Gideon was hiding from his enemies and sneaking around getting some grain to make some bread. God had not done any miracles in Israel for many years. He is scared, he is alone, he feels small and weak, and he has been defeated by a conquering army. Yet, God calls Gideon in the midst of his cowardly hiding and tells him to "go in the strength he has and save Israel out of Midian’s hand." God doesn't even tell Gideon that He will increase his strength. Gideon is to use the strength he already has to save Israel. This doesn't seem to be much with which to work. There does not seem to be much of a plan. God does not say, "Do it this way." It is up to Gideon.

There is an almost awful freedom about Christ's religion. "I do not call you servants." He said, "for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth. I have called you friends." As Christ's friends, His followers are supposed to know what He wants done, and for the same reason they will try to do it--this is the whole working basis of Christianity. Surely next to its love for the chief of sinners the most touching thing about the religion of Christ is its amazing trust in the least of saints. Here is the mightiest enterprise ever launched upon this earth, mightier even than its creation, for it is its re-creation, and the carrying of it out is left, so to speak, to haphazard--to individual loyalty, to free enthusiasms, to uncoerced activities, to an uncompelled response to the pressures of God's Spirit. Christ sets His followers no tasks. He appoints no hours. He allots no sphere. He Himself simply went about and did good. He did not stop life to do some special thing which should be called religious. His life was His religion. - Henry Drummond (17 August 1851 - 11 March 1897) a Scottish evangelist, writer and lecturer.

What have I got that I can use for God today? What strength do I have? What resources? What fear? What faith? What missiology? What ecclesiology? Who will go with me? God calls me with the same call that He gave to Gideon. "I am sending you to save the church (Israel)." I will give my little and He will fill it up.

Judges 6:11-24
New International Version (NIV)
11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
14 The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
16 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Celtic Blessing

2011-07-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

May you have -
Walls for the wind
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks bedside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire

Traditional

Ancient Wisdom

2011-07-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430).

Lord, inspire us to read your Scriptures and meditate on them day and night.
We beg you to give us real understanding of what we need,
that we may in turn put its precepts into practice.
Yet we know that understanding and good intentions are worthless,
unless rooted in your graceful love.
So we ask that the words of Scriptures
may also be not just signs on page,
but channels of grace into our hearts.
Origen of Alexandria (c.186-254)

Church

2011-07-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

I could not attend my usual community of faith and so I walked down the street to one of the closest places of worship. I was an outsider and looked in as the community worshipped together. This came at a good time, I was ready for a change, a good selection of worship songs, and a message from the Bible. It was a sunny day and I walked to and from the gathering with a joyful spirit. I was moved by the songs, the guitar solo, the vocalists, the passionate words from the woman who preached a well researched and well-spoken message. There were moments when the veil of heaven was pulled away and we sensed Holy God was present. If I could attend a new gathering every week I would likely be equally inspired and would go out to share what I have learned with others in my world.

Unfortunately, if I get to know any of these people I will soon come to realize that they are just people like me. They have their flaws, their sins, they fail to see God, they fail to care for the poor, or look after their neighbour. In my foolish vanity I would soon see myself as equal to them, and then far superior. I would imagine that I could teach them a thing or two about worship and then that I could do much better starting my own church.

Eugene Peterson quotes Annie Dillard in his book The Contemplative Pastor*.
Dillard says

"I know only enough of God to want to worship Him by any means ready to hand....There is one church here so I go to it....It is unfashionable because it is ridiculous. How can searchers after God and seekers after beauty stomach the 'dancing bear act' that is staged in Christian churches, Protestant and Catholic alike, week after week?" Dillard, cheerfully and matter-of-factly, goes anyway. Her tour de force on worship, "An Expedition to the Pole," provides the image and rationale. "Wherever we go, to the North Pole or the church, there seems to be only one business at hand: that of finding workable compromises between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us". "Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?...The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares: they should lash us to our pews. Explorers [to the North Pole] unmindful of 'conditions' died. Why don't similarly unprepared worshipers perish on the spot?"

After attending this local church gathering I came home and read a meditation from my book of Celtic Daily Prayer*. Perhaps there is an answer to my unasked questions in these words:

Where are you to begin? Begin where you are. Make that one corner, room, house, office, as like heaven as you can. Begin? Begin with the paper on the walls, make that beautiful; with the air, keep it fresh; with the very drains make them sweet. Abolish whatsoever makes a lie - in conversation, in social intercourse, in correspondence in domestic life. This done, you have arranged for a heaven, but you have not got it. Heaven lies within: in kindness, in humbleness, in unselfishness, in faith, in love, in service. To get these in, get Christ in. Teach all in the house about Christ - what He did and what He said, and how He lived. Teach it not as a doctrine, but as a discovery, as your own discovery. Live your own discovery.
Then pass out into the city. Do all to it that you have done at home.#

Begin at home, begin with the people closest to me, begin to build a community, begin to reach a city, begin to reach a world. I will begin right now.

*Peterson, Eugene H. The Contemplative Pastor. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993.
#Northumbria Community. Celtic Daily Prayer: Inspirational Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community. London: HarpersCollinsPublishers, 2005, p. 714, 715.

Self

2011-07-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Our world is a place of joy, beauty, love, grace, war, pain, suffering, and selfishness. I want to celebrate all of the good things of this world but I also want to recognize the pain in which we find ourselves. We all want a better world. We all want to contribute to a better world and yet, I am hindered by my own selfishness. I never seek to be selfish. I never feel that I am selfish. But one thing I know is that my heart wants what is good for me. I am not alone in this. Selfishness shows up in so many places in our culture. We see it in road rage and horn honking in traffic. I saw an instance of cycle rage on a leisurely Sunday afternoon in Vancouver where a cyclist was shouting at people to get off the cycle path and onto the walking path. The irony was that the cyclist was yelling at people who were carrying on a conversation in sign-language happily unaware of his rage. Others got angry and shouted insults at the cyclist for his attitude. We see selfishness in a lack of common courtesy and we see it in a general lack of patience with others. I will often disdain others for the very thing that lurks in my heart. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn spoke of this in his book, The Gulag Archipelago.

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Solzhenitsyn knew this well having spent several years in the Soviet work camps known as Gulags. And I too see it around me and in my own heart. My heart needs a renovation. My heart needs the kind of revolution found in these words.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3,4, the Bible (New International Version).

This seems quite impossible of me and my fellow humans. This requires more than you and I are capable of giving. Perhaps that is why it requires help from God. With Him, all things are possible.

Trinitarian Bash

2011-06-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

In Robert Farrar Capon’s The Third Peacock: The Problem of God and Evil#, chapter one, “Let Me Tell You Why” opens the book like this:

Let me tell you why God made the world.

One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost sat around in the unity of their Godhead discussing one of the Father’s fixations. From all eternity, it seems he had had this thing about being. He would keep thinking up all kinds of unnecessary things—new ways of being and new kinds of beings to be. And as they talked, God the Son suddenly said, “Really, this is absolutely great stuff. Why don’t I go out and mix us up a batch?” And God the Holy Ghost said, “Terrific, I’ll help you.” So they all pitched in, and after supper that night, the Son and the Holy Ghost put on this tremendous show of being for the Father. It was full of water and light and frogs; pine cones kept dropping all over the place and crazy fish swam around in the wineglasses. There were mushrooms and grapes, horseradishes and tigers—and men and women everywhere to taste them, to juggle them, to join them and to love them. And God the Father looked at the whole wild party and he said, “Wonderful! Just what I had in mind! Tov! Tov! Tov!”* And all God the Son and God the Holy Ghost could think of to say was the same thing. “Tov! Tov! Tov!” So they shouted together “Tov meod!”^ and they laughed for ages and ages, saying things like how great it was for things to be, and how clever of the Father to think of the idea, and how kind of the Son to go to all that trouble putting it together, and how considerate of the Spirit to spend so much time directing and choreographing. And forever and ever they told old jokes, and the Father and the Son drank their wine in unitate Spiritus Sancti,+ and they all threw ripe olives and pickled mushrooms at each other per omnia saecula saeulorum %. Amen.

It is, I grant you, a crass analogy; but crass analogies are the safest. Everybody knows that God is not three old men throwing olives at each other. Not everyone, I’m afraid, is equally clear that God is not a cosmic force or a principle of being or any other dish of celestial blancmange we might choose to call him. Accordingly, I give you the central truth that creation is the result of a Trinitarian bash, and leave the details of the analogy to sort themselves out as best they can.

One slight elucidation, however. It is very easy, when talking about creation, to conceive of God’s part in it as simply getting the ball rolling—as if he were a kind of divine billiard cue, after whose action inexorable laws took over and excused him from further involvement with the balls. But that won’t work. This world is fundamentally unnecessary. Nothing has to be. It needs a creator, not only for its beginning, but for every moment of its being. Accordingly, the Trinitarian bash doesn’t really come before creation; what actually happens is that all of creation, from start to finish, occurs within the bash—that the raucousness of the divine party is simultaneous with the being of everything that ever was or will be. If you like paradoxes, it means that God is the eternal contemporary of all of the events and beings in time.

#The book is out of print but still available as part of a trilogy, The Romance of the Word: One Man’s Love Affair With Theology : Three Books : An Offering of Uncles/the Third Peacock/Hunting the Divine Fox.
*Tov is "good" in Hebrew.
^"Abundant good" or "very good."
+In the unity of the Holy Spirit.
%For ever and ever.

Imaginative Meditations

2011-06-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Meditations upon
Matthew 26:7-16, Mark 14:3-11, John 12:1-8, and Luke7:36-50.

In these descriptions of four very similar events, we see that John emphasizes the fact that Mary was at the feet of Jesus. On the other hand, Matthew and Mark emphasize the anointing of Jesus' head as with the anointing of a king. Most scholars agree that Luke describes a different event with a different woman. I can imagine a conversation between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in heaven.

Matthew says to John, "Hey I really like what you did with your account of Mary anointing Jesus."

"Oh yeah, thanks, you know how it is, inspiration of the Holy Spirit."

Mark chimes in with, "Yeah, John, but you really emphasized the bit about Mary always being at the feet of Jesus. I wish I had thought of that. We all saw her anoint his head but you also brought out her humility in stooping down, anointing his feet, and wiping them with her hair."

John replies, "Yeah, I guess that is how I always saw her. She was at Jesus' feet when he was teaching. She fell at his feet when he came to raise Lazarus. And then she poured perfume on his feet and made quite a spectacle of herself with her long hair."

At which point, Luke breaks into the conversation and says, "Yeah, she looked a lot like that other woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her tears. I mentioned her in my gospel record, you know."

Matthew, Mark, and John chuckle at the doctor and Mark says, "Yeah, good connection Luke."

John adds, "All those feelings of unworthiness and sorrow wrapped up in both of those events."

Matthew looks over at the Holy Spirit and says, "Wow, talk about divine inspiration!"

Appreciation

2011-06-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

Notes of appreciation to the Vancouver Police from the people of Vancouver.

Click on the picture for a larger image.

Emotions

2011-06-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am a mixture of emotions today. I am very happy that the Vancouver Canucks Hockey team gave us such a great season of entertainment. I am thankful that I get to live in the great city of Vancouver. Yes, I did want to celebrate a Stanley Cup victory with my friends in this city or celebrate a great second place showing. I remember other good celebrations where people cheered and spontaneously sang "Oh Canada" on the balconies and streets of downtown Vancouver. I wanted to wave across the street at my neighbours and have them feel joy.

I am sad that anarchists and other people with empty lives have hurt the image of Vancouver. People who think that rioting, or hockey, or alcohol , or marijuana will fill their lives are sadly lost. They do not realize that they have a "God-shaped-hole"# in their lives that is aching to be filled.

A few hours before the hockey game started last night I was thinking about these words by Dallas Willard: "Feelings are, with a few exceptions, good servants. But they are disastrous masters."* I thought about how many people in Vancouver needed to put a little emotional distance between themselves and the Canucks so that they would avoid being ruled by their emotions. The rioting in Vancouver last night had little to do with hockey but it did have a lot to do with people being ruled by emotions.

We dare not deny our feelings and we dare not be ruled by them. If we identify the underlying condition that gives rise to the feeling we can assign feelings their appropriate place. Then our actions will be guided by "insight, understanding, and conviction of truth" rather than the feelings of the moment. For further understanding of these principles I highly recommend Renovation of the Heart.

#Blaise Pascal coined this concept and C.S. Lewis made it popular.
*Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002, p. 122.

Tools

2011-06-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Using the right tool for a task is important. A small screwdriver and a pair of forceps are the right tools for opening up my computer. They work better than an axe . . . especially if I want to be able to close up the computer and use it again. Mathematics is a great tool for describing difficult concepts in physics. In fact much of what is presently being investigated in the area of particle physics can only be described by mathematics. Once a concept is worked out in mathematics it may lead to physical experiments that attempt to prove or disprove a theory. For such experiments one would need another set of tools like a Large Hadron Collider and experimental science. Math and science contribute much to our understanding of the world but they are poor tools for investigating God. They are good tools for investigating how our universe operates but they are poor tools for answering the question of why things exist.

Philosophy and theology use tools of logical discourse and thought experiments to investigate things that are beyond the limits of mathematics and empirical sciences. These tools are well suited to the analysis of questions of origin, ultimate reality, and God. They also require faith.

Francis Collins in his book, The Language of God, realized that,

science, despite its unquestioned powers in unraveling the mysteries of the natural world, would get me no further in resolving the question of God. If God exists, then He must be outside the natural world, and therefore the tools of science are not the right ones to learn about Him. Instead, as I was beginning to understand from looking into my own heart, the evidence of God's existence would have to come from other directions, and the ultimate decision would be based on faith, not proof. Still beset by roiling uncertainties of what path I had started down, I had to admit that I had reached the threshold of accepting the possibility of a spiritual worldview, including the existence of God.*

We must not fear math and science but we also need not fear belief and faith. They are all tools which, when used appropriately, are well suited to the investigation of reality.

*Collins, Francis S. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. New York: Free Press, A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc., 2006, p. 30.

Hell

2011-06-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

In light of recent controversies about hell, I found these words by C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Great Divorce, to be rather helpful.

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.*

In another section of the book the author and his mentor are speaking of a woman, who, being in heaven, appears untouched by the misery of one left behind in hell. The author questions this and his mentor, the great Scottish writer, George MacDonald, responds:

'Would ye rather he still had the power of tormenting her? He did it many a year in their earthly life.'
'Well, no. I suppose I don't want that.'
'What then?'
'I hardly know, Sir. What some people say on earth is that the final loss of one soul gives the lie to all the joy of those who are saved.'
'Ye see it does not.'
'I feel that it ought to.'
'That sounds very merciful: but see what lurks behind it.'
'What?'
'The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs' should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.'
'I don't know what I want, Sir.'
'Son, son, it must be one way or the other. Either the day must come when joy prevails and all the makers of misery are no longer able to infect it: or else for ever and ever the makers of misery can destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves. I know it has a grand sound to say ye'll accept no salvation which leaves even one creature in the dark outside. But watch that sophistry or ye'll make a Dog in the Manger the tyrant of the universe.'#

*Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce (fourteenth edition). Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1983, p. 66, 67.
#(Lewis 1983, 110, 111)

Scotland

2011-05-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am in Scotland, the land of my genetic ancestors, the land of my literary ancestors, and the land of my spiritual ancestors. My grandfather’s grandparents farmed in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. Driving through that area yesterday I was impressed with how similar it is to portions of Central Alberta where I grew up. If you substitute sheep for cattle, stone fences for barbed wire, and big hills for slightly smaller hills, Great Bend could be a New Aberdeenshire. I guess others thought so too because Alberta is filled with Scottish place names like Nevis, Erskine, Craigellachie, and Banff. We drove through “Keith,” the place, and the clan, from which I received my name.

We drove through Huntly where George MacDonald lived and wrote such literary classics as Phantastes, Lilith, and The Princess and the Goblin. I could see how his great imagination was stirred by the wonder of these hills, valleys, deer, and springs. It was MacDonald’s writing that would inspire writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. This is the land of Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

It is also the land of Eric Henry Liddell, the Flying Scotsman, upon whom I meditated as I went for a run in the hills near Dufftown. Liddell was the winner of the men's 400 metre race at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris but it was his faith in God and convictions about right and wrong that are most strongly depicted in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

And it is the land of Columba and the Celtic Monks. They brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to the fierce Pict people and the murdering clans that lived in this area. They spoke much about the Trinity of God and used simple descriptions of how God was at once both Three and One. Columba came in the sixth century AD and he and his followers had great influence over the land for more than two centuries. Evidence of this influence can be seen in the architecture and art that survives to this day in Scotland.

Today we made it to the windswept North Sea and the Firth of Moray where Bottle-nose Dolphins swim and play. Tomorrow we head on to Inverness. What wonders lie in the highlands beyond?

Tidal Pool

2011-05-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on a rock on the edge of the Pacific Ocean on Galiano Island staring into a tidal pool carved into sandstone. It is completely detached from the rest of the ocean as it is each day when the tide goes out. I am having an E.O. Wilson moment. The pool is approximately 1 meter in diameter, slightly elliptical and about one meter deep. It is teeming with beings. About a thousand minnows in two sizes, crabs, bottom feeding fish, orange starfish, purple starfish, tiny jellyfish, and barnacles; and that is just the fauna. The flora is more diverse, kelp, several kinds of weed I cannot identify, a liver coloured weed with iridescent blue spots that look like eyes staring up at me. Is this the way this weed protects itself from being eaten?

I was at this same spot yesterday just before the tide came in and I wondered how many of these creatures would still be here today. I am surprised to see that all are present and accounted for. I often feel sorry for fish in a fish bowl because they have so little space to swim. But after seeing these fish who choose to live in 2000 litres of water every day, I have no such sympathy. (The mathematically inclined will find themselves wanting to check my calculations.) These fish could leave when the tide comes in. They could say, "Let’s swim to Hawaii," for the equivalent of a piscine weekend. But these are the safe fish, the smart fish who know that, by staying in this tiny pool, they will not end as food in the belly of a baleen equipped grey whale.

I am awe-struck by this tidal pool and feel that I am teetering on the edge of something large and ominous. E.O. Wilson once came to a tidal pool just like this. When he walked toward the pool he was a child; when he walked away he was a scientist.

I stand in shallow water, staring down at a huge jellyfish in water so still and clear that it's every detail is revealed as though it were trapped in glass. The creature is astonishing. It existed outside my previous imagination. . . . why do I tell you this little boy's story? Because it illustrates how a naturalist is created. A child comes to the edge of deep water with a mind prepared for wonder. - E. O. Wilson, The Naturalist.

Elsewhere, Wilson describes how he left his faith because he did not find a place for scientists in the church. When he found mystery and awe in nature and looked for ways to explore his world, he found himself alone. The church had lost interest in the mystics who delved into the wonders of nature. How many other small boys and fifty year-old men might lose themselves in a moment like this and teeter into the tidal pool of science. Will there be anyone in the church willing to dive deep with them? Can we love God and love the science of a tidal pool?

Click on images for a larger view.

Photo credit: John Van Sloten.

Proper Confidence

2011-05-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

It has once again become fashionable to have large public debates on issues of science, faith, cosmology, and the God question. I have previously blogged about two recent debates. (Take a look at a previous blog post here and YouTube video here.) I find it interesting and a symptom of our time that we have public celebrities debating these topics rather than professional philosophers. Philosophers tend to be much more precise with their language and write everything in formal papers before debating with each other. They also tend to be less entertaining and more willing to admit they may not know everything.

One thing that is getting lost in such debates is epistemology. Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. It addresses the questions: What is knowledge? How is knowledge acquired? How do we know what we know?

In a short book (really more of a long essay) Lesslie Newbigin has written about how we set out to know things and what the limits of our knowledge might be. There are helpful distinctions between "cause" and "purpose." Many of the debaters of our time would do well to consider these words from Newbigin.

Cause is something that can be discovered by observation and reason. Purpose is not available for inspection because, until the purpose has been realized, it is hidden in the mind of the one whose purpose it is. Suppose that going along a street, we observe men at work with piles of bricks and bags of cement, and we guess that a building is being erected. What is it to be? An office? A house? A chapel? There are only two ways to discover the answer: we can wait around until the work is complete and inspection enables us to discover what it is. If we cannot wait until then, we must ask the architect, and we will have to take his word for it. If the work in question is not the building of a house but the creation and consummation of the cosmos, the first alternative is not available to us. We shall not be present to examine the end product of cosmic history. If the whole thing has any purpose (and of course we may decide, as postmoderns do, that it has no purpose), the only way we can know that purpose is by a disclosure from the one whose purpose it is, a disclosure which we would have to take on trust. There is no escape from this necessity. The modern antithesis of observation and reason on the one hand versus revelation and faith on the other is only tenable on the basis of a prior decision that the whole cosmic and human history has no purpose and therefore no meaning. It is possible to make this assumption, but it is not necessary. The question whether the cosmos and human life within it have any purpose other than the individual purposes we seek to impose on things is one that cannot be decided by observation. If we live with a prior assumption that human life has no purpose; then we shall act accordingly, and there will be no possibility whatsoever of discovering its purpose.*

Is Newbigin right? Have we assumed that the universe is without purpose? If the cosmos and human life within it have a purpose, how would we know that purpose? Does an assumption of a purposeless cosmos affect the way we approach life in this century? Newbigin affirms that indeed there is a purpose and the architect of the cosmos has revealed to us the purpose. We must take it on trust with "proper confidence" and "personal knowledge." The rest of the essay expands upon these themes.

*Newbigin, L. (1995). Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., p. 57, 58.

Cicadas

2011-05-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Talking with a couple of friends last night I was reminded of a section of Annie Dillard's amazing book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. The book was written while she lived beside Tinker Creek in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and in it she records her thoughts on the flora and fauna she observes. She speaks of sitting under a tree and considers the activities of life going on beneath her.

The insects and earthworms, moles muskrats, roots and fungal strands are not all. An even frailer, dimmer movement, a pavane, is being performed deep under me now. The nymphs of cicadas are alive. You see their split skins, an inch long, brown, and translucent, curved and segmented like shrimp, stuck arching on the trunks of trees. And you see the adults occasionally, large and sturdy, with glittering black and green bodies, veined transparent wings folded over their backs and artificial-looking, bright red eyes. But you never see the living nymphs. They are underground, clasping roots and sucking the sweet sap of trees.

In the South, the periodical cicada has a breeding cycle of thirteen years, instead of seventeen years in the North. That a live creature spends thirteen consecutive years scrabbling around in the root systems of trees in the dark and damp – thirteen years! - is amply boggling for me. Four more years - or four less - wouldn't alter the picture a jot. In the dark of an April night the nymphs emerge, all at once, as many as eighty-four of them digging into the air from every square foot of ground. They inch up trees and bushes, shed their skin, and begin that hollow, shrill grind that lasts all summer. I guess as nymphs they never see the sun. Adults lay eggs in slits along twig bark; the hatched nymphs drop to the ground and burrow, vanish from the face of the earth, biding their time, for thirteen years. How many are under me now, wishing what? what would I think about for thirteen years? They curl, crawl, clutch at roots and suck, suck blinded, suck trees, rain or shine, heat or frost, year after groping year.

And under the cicadas, deeper down than the longest tap-root, between and beneath the rounded black rocks and slanting slabs of sandstone in the earth, ground water is creeping. Ground water seeps and slides, across and down, across and down, leaking from here to there minutely, at the rate of a mile a year. What a tug of waters goes on! There are flings and pulls in every direction at every moment. The world is a wild wrestle under the grass: earth shall be moved.*

The creation we see is amazing. There is so much more that we never see!

*Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999, p. 97, 98.

Headstone

2011-05-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

I like this sentiment from the band "Warped 45s."

"Let my headstone be my favourite jukebox loaded with the songs of my friends. . . .Push B24 and sway barefoot on my grave.” – “Radio Sky”

Would you be one of the ones who would come by and sway?

Safety and Security

2011-05-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

If I continue to quote from good books I may have to rename my blog, "What's in Keith's Book-bag?" At any given time I often have multiple books on the go and so it is not surprising that I want to introduce you to another fascinating book: The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.

The book is a community development book and lays out a great plan for how we can get our cities and neighbourhoods back on track with community. Chapter one has some great ideas about safety and security.

As Jane Jacobs, author, activist, and icon of the importance of a vital neighborhood, wrote years ago, a safe street is produced by eyes on the street. It is produced by people walking around, sitting outside, knowing neighbors, and being part of a social fabric. No number of gates or professional security people on patrol can make us safe. They can increase arrests, but basically safety is in the hands of citizens. Citizens outside the house, interacting with others, being familiar with the comings and goings of the neighbors. . . .

This is an interesting paradox. We pay police to make us safe, and then they spend some of our money to send us police officers who tell us: that the strength of our own community ties is essential for our safety! There is a name for it: community policing. This police message is confirmed by all kinds of social science research. One of the best is a Chicago study by Robert Sampson and colleagues that found that two factors often predicted whether a neighborhood was crime prone:

Is there mutual trust and altruism among neighbors?
Are neighbors willing to intervene when children misbehave?

Of course, this trust and community responsibility can develop only when neighbors know and are committed to each other. So, the suburbanites whose local relationships are limited to a cheery hello to the neighbor, and the urbanites whose fear keeps them from even saying hello, are all increasing their chance to be a victim.

I passed these words on to my friends at my local Block Watch office. This is exactly what they have been telling us.

Descartes and Niettzche

2011-05-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

Lesslie Newbigin (1909 – 1998) was a missionary and theologian in India and England. He has written some brilliant books including The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (SPCK/Eerdmans/WCC, 1989) and the one I am now reading, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Eerdmans, 1995). It is a short book, not difficult to read, and Newbigin has a gift for summarizing great stretches of history and philosophical thinking in a few sentences.

In chapter two he refers to René Descartes who is best known for his statement, "Cogito ergo sum." Which translated to English means, "I think, therefore I am; or "I do think, therefore I do exist." Newbigin shows the tremendous influence of Descartes and how his pursuit for certainty has led to the great crisis of the postmodern world.

It was Friederich Niettzche (1844-1900) who, at the end of the nineteenth century, drew with inescapable clarity the necessary conclusion of the method of Descartes. . . . Rational criticism rests on beliefs which are, for the moment, held acritically. But these beliefs are themselves liable to critical questioning. If the critical principle is exalted to the supreme place in the enterprise of knowing, then the possibility of knowing anything is destroyed. "True" and "false," "right" and "wrong" - these are now words which have no objective reference. They are simply expressions of the will. The will to power is the real driving force of history. The "eternal truths of reason" so beloved during the Age of Reason are in fact nothing of the kind; they are the products of particular historic developments and of particular exercises of the will to power. The twentieth century has learned this lesson. Claims to speak meaningfully about right and wrong are discounted. Instead, one speaks of "values." These "values" are a matter of personal choice. They express what the person who holds them wishes to see enacted. They are precisely expressions of the will (albeit in a less brutal form than that suggested by Nietzche).

. . . .

The modern age began with the daring program of Descartes, a program encouraged by a cardinal of the church and designed to banish skepticism once and for all by establishing the method by which indubitable certainty could be obtained. Neither faith nor probability would suffice. Certainty was possible, and we ought to be content with nothing less. It is deeply ironic that this method has led us directly into the profound skepticism of the postmodern world. The greatest product of the modern age is the work of science, a work which has transformed the human situation and continues to do so. Yet, there is now a profound skepticism about science itself. It is recognized as a unique avenue to power (and the greater part of scientific work is now directed towards the achievement of power - military, industrial, and commercial), but it is not perceived as a pathway to wisdom. Modern science has placed in human hands the power to do things that were previously unimaginable. Technology, the development of ever more sophisticated means for achieving any end we choose, dominates modern and modernized societies. But there is a growing perception that science and technology are no substitute for wisdom - for the power to discern what ends are in accordance with the truth and the power to judge rightly between alternative ends.

Watch this blog for more insights from Proper Confidence.

Exotheology

2011-05-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Although I have thought about the subject for years, I learned a new term today: "exotheology." It is defined as the examination of theological issues related to extraterrestrial intelligence. Now lest you think I have completely lost my mind, let me point out that many gifted and creative writers have written on this topic. C.S. Lewis wrote a trilogy^ of books that grappled with the questions of what it might look like if humans travelled to other planets and found intelligent life. Mary Doriah Russell wrote The Sparrow and Children of God as a means of wrestling with complex questions of evil and suffering in the world. In these two books intelligent life is discovered on a distant planet and Jesuit priests organize a scientific expedition to investigate.

In addition to such fictional references, the Catholic Church has theologians dedicated to thinking about the implications of life on other planets. José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory, has said that "Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom."*

One of the first places I came upon the concept of exotheology was in the lyrics of a song written by Larry Norman and released on his In Another Land album in 1976. In the song "UFO" he writes,

And if there's life on other planets, then I'm sure that He must know. And He's been there once already, and has died to save their souls.

Norman's approach to exotheology is one valid perspective but is not the only perspective. Lewis, in the Cosmic Trilogy suggests that life on other planets may have taken a different path. He writes about other worlds where intelligent life had not yet fallen from grace with God; rather, they continued to walk in harmony with their Creator. Mary Doriah Russell is much more interested in the theme of how we reconcile a benevolent God with suffering in the world but her books allow exploration of other ways God might work with persons on other planets.

Of course, we do not know if there is such a thing as intelligent extraterrestrial life and we do not know if we will ever discover such if indeed it exists. Yet, the thought experiments related to such speculation are helpful as we think through our "endotheology" (my own word for the opposite of exotheology) and how we understand our own relationship with a Creator God. As is often the case, C.S. Lewis has some appropriate final words on the topic.

I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on Earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter.#

^The trilogy of books sometimes called the Cosmic Trilogy consists of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

*"Vatican scientist says belief in God and aliens is OK," Reuters, May 14, 2008, and "Pope's astronomer insists alien life 'would be part of God's creation,'" The Independent, 15th May 2008.

#A 1963 interview with C.S. Lewis http://www.cbn.com/special/Narnia/articles/ans_LewisLastInterviewB.aspx.

Commonplace

2011-04-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

“There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly…” In Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner.

Everything

2011-04-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

"Everything is a subject on which there is not much to be said." C.S. Lewis

A Rose By Any Other Name

2011-04-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare's often quoted line suggests "that which we call a rose; by any other name would smell as sweet." The bigger question is how does it smell as sweet? Olfaction, the sense of smell, is still not well understood. There are multiple theories regarding how we actually are able to detect smells. One leading theory is that of a lock and key system. This theory suggests that if airborne molecules of a certain chemical can fit into the specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity the nerve cell will respond and send a signal to the brain which is interpreted as a particular aroma. Another theory proposes that olfactory receptors respond not to the shape of the molecules but to their vibrations. This theory maintains that odours exist as a spectrum much as colour is detected as a spectrum of light by the sensors of the visual system. There is also a secondary system of olfactory receptors which may detect aromas without the brain being consciously aware of the smell. Some scientists suggest that this secondary system is highly tuned to pheromes and may be a basis for why we feel attracted to or warned away from certain situations. (Note added April 20th: Recent scholarly papers have concluded that this vomeronasal organ, although extremely active in most non-human animals, is non-functional in humans.# This is probably a good thing. The perfume and cosmetic industry would seek to exploit this function with irresistable sexual phermone fragrances. I can imagine the military creating phermone weapons which would cause the enemy to experience a sense of fear.)

As biological entities, we are always giving off fragments of ourselves and leaving a trail that can be detected by others. Think of a tracking dog that is able to follow the scent of one particular human based only on the specks of biology and their corresponding smells left behind as that individual walks through a forest containing thousands of other smells.

Dogs have a much greater capability of detecting odours than do humans. Some studies have found that dogs have as much as seventeen times more olfactory epithelium than humans and as much as one hundred times more nerves in that olfactory epithelium making it plausible that their sense of smell may be seventeen hundred times more sensitive than ours.* What a strange world this must be for a dog. To the dog, the air is alive with many more smells. Every human and animal in its environment is continually raining down a stream of biological bits with interesting aromas that the dog's discerning nose can codify and quantify to learn helpful information about its environment. What a different perception of this world we would have if our sense of smell were as sensitive. Imagine the smell of that hockey locker room!

One day we may have a more complete understanding of olfaction. For now we revel in the mystery of smell.

*Bear, Connors and Paradiso, Mark, Barry and Michael (2007). Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain. USA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 265-275.
#Wysocki CJ, Preti G (November 2004). "Facts, fallacies, fears, and frustrations with human pheromones". The Anatomical Record. Part a, Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology 281 (1): 1201–11.
#Wyatt, Tristram D. (2003). Pheromones and Animal Behaviour: Communication by Smell and Taste. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This blog entry was inspired by The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas.

The Lives of a Cell

2011-04-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was given a book to read for a retreat that I will take in next month. The book is The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas. It arrived by courier in the afternoon and I have already devoured the first six chapters. How did I not discover this book earlier? It is a series of poetic essays on the wonder of biology. The only other book I have read that is quite like it is Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Thomas may be a little more technical and scientific in his writing but both authors share a sense of holy awe at the biology of our planet. They remind us of the mystery that is at the heart of biology. Some would explain all of biology as an extension of physics. Lewis reminds us that biology is also an extension of the divine, the holy, and the other.

Readers of this blog who share my interest in the relationships between science and faith will surely enjoy The Lives of a Cell. I will end with a sample of the first chapter of the book so that you can assess for yourself whether or not you might want to read this inspiring book. For those who may not find it to be quite their cup of tea, I recommend that you start instead with Annie Dillard.

We are told that the trouble with Modern Man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature. He sits in the topmost tiers of polymer, glass, and steel, dangling his pulsing legs, surveying at a distance the writhing life of the planet. In this scenario, Man comes on as a stupendous lethal force, and the earth is pictured as something delicate, like rising bubbles at the surface of a country pond, or flights of fragile birds.
But it is illusion to think that there is anything fragile about the life of the earth; surely this is the toughest membrane imaginable in the universe, opaque to probability, impermeable to death. We are the delicate part, transient and vulnerable as cilia. Nor is it a new thing for man to invent an existence that he imagines to be above the rest of life; this has been his most consistent intellectual exertion down the millennia. As illusion, it has never worked out to his satisfaction in the past, any more than it does today. Man is embedded in nature. The biologic science of recent years has been making this a more urgent fact of life. The new, hard problem will be to cope with the dawning, intensifying realization of just how interlocked we are. The old, clung-to notions most of us have held about our special lordship are being deeply undermined.
Item. A good case can be made for our nonexistence as entities. We are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts. We are shared, rented, occupied. At the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria, and in a strict sense they are not ours. They turn out to be little separate creatures, the colonial posterity of migrant prokaryocytes, probably primitive bacteria that swam into ancestral precursors of our eukaryotic cells and stayed there. Ever since, they have maintained themselves and their ways, replicating in their own fashion, privately, with their own DNA and RNA quite different from ours. They are as much symbionts as the rhizobial bacteria in the roots of beans. Without them, we would not move a muscle, drum a finger, think a thought.
Mitochondria are stable and responsible lodgers, and I choose to trust them. But what of the other little animals, similarly established in my cells, sorting and balancing me, clustering me together? My centrioles, basal bodies, and probably a good many other more obscure tiny beings at work inside my cells, each with its own special genome, are as foreign, and as essential, as aphids in anthills. My cells are no longer the pure line entities I was raised with; they are ecosystems more complex than Jamaica Bay.

I would like to express my appreciation to the Pastoral Science program at Regent College for introducing me to the writing of Lewis Thomas. You can see more about the important work of this group at the Cosmos website.

Self Reflective Faith

2011-04-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I quoted Bradley Artson Shavit from a debate with Christopher Hitchens. In that same debate Rabbi Shavit noted that religion, like science, must be self-reflective. I would add that followers of a religion must constantly assess whether their understanding of God and faith fit with their experience of life. If we find a truth in the world we must reflect on how that truth fits into our understanding of the Bible. All truth - is God's truth. Alister McGrath makes a similar point in his book, Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life.

For an orthodox Christian theologian, the doctrine of the Trinity is the inevitable outcome of intellectual engagement with the Christian experience of God; for the physicist, equally abstract and bewildering concepts emerge from wrestling with the world of quantum phenomena. But both are committed to sustained intellectual engagement with this phenomena, in order to derive and develop theories or doctrines which can be said to do justice to them, preserving rather than reducing them. Both the sciences and religion may therefore be described as offering interpretations of experience.*

We must not fear an understanding of faith which includes an understanding of science. Our understanding of life must include a thorough reading of the Bible and a thorough reading of God's other revelation: the universe.

*Alister McGrath, Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1998) , 88.

Choice

2011-04-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Recently, atheists Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris debated two Jewish Rabbis, David Wolpe and Bradley Artson Shavit. One of the most cogent points made by Rabbi Shavit regarded "choice."

At the very core of traditional Judaism is the concept of bechira or choice. No miracle is so unambigious that it can't be explained away as secular. No miracle is so overwhelming that you have to accept it.

Christian theologian, C.S. Lewis made a similar point in the book The Screwtape Letters when he spoke of why it is that God does not make it clearer that He exists and is involved with our lives.

You must have often wondered why [God] does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo.

Christopher Hitchens will always have an easy time debating Jews or Christians since all he has to do is demand that his opponents prove that God exists. Yet, God has chosen to keep Himself veiled so as always to allow humans to choose whether or not to believe. Thus, Hitchens' fellow-debaters cannot prove the existence of God.

As the King James version of the bible puts it, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). If we could prove God, it would not be faith. It would not require faith to believe in God and would be purely a matter of logic. Those who debate Hitchens know that God will not over-ride our choice by proving His presence. Christopher Hitchens can go on demanding that God show Himself in a material manner, but God will not ravage Mr. Hitchens (or any of us) with His felt presence. Instead He woos us with the sense that, in the midst of all of the credible scientific explanations of the universe, credible scientific explanations of consciousness, and credible scientific explanations of life, there must be something more.

Comfort

2011-03-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

So often I want my life to be comfortable. I want it to be free of stress, free of conflict, free of hard work, free of ambiguity, free of distress at seeing pain and suffering in the world, free of responsibility to do something about the pain and suffering in the world. The voice of comfort calls to me and lulls me into doing my work and ignoring the things that make me feel awkward. But comfort and ignoring the world around me becomes isolating. I avoid the uncomfortable theological discussions, I avoid my neighbour, I avoid making decisions about who to support in a federal election. Then I remember these words from one of my favourite writers.

I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity. - C.S. Lewis

So today I say, bring on the discomfort, bring on the ambiguity, bring on the tension, bring on the dis-satisfaction with the world in which we live. I embrace the discomfort knowing that it is good for my soul. It is through wrestling with these things and seeking to right the wrongs of this world that I become the man that God intended me to be.

God at Work

2011-03-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

Our community of faith was blessed to see God's redemptive hand at work this past week. Some of us have been serving a man who is a contemporary "leper" and an outcast from society. He is a man who spent a long time in prison for things he has done. We have walked with him for over two years providing him with support and accountability.

This week he gave a tour of the downtown east side of Vancouver to a group of Bible college students who were visiting our church. He showed them many of the services he had used, the Christian ministries that have been a help to him, and the shelter he had used when he had no other place to stay for a brief period of time.

Although this man is not yet a follower of Jesus, it is apparent that God is slowly breaking through to him. He knows much about Jesus from his interactions with our church and other ministries. He was able to give back some of what he has learned and served these young people by showing them around and giving them insight into the needs of the community.

Marriage

2011-03-25T11:29:00.001-07:00

We often hear that “Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as people in the world.” Recent studies show that this is not the case.

A Statistics Canada report found that while religious affiliation had little impact on marital dissolution (separation and/or divorce), religious service attendance had a pronounced effect. Among Canadians 25 and older who had ever been married, those who attended religious services occasionally were 10 per cent less likely to have their first marriage dissolve than those who never attended religious services. The risk of dissolution was 31 per cent less for those who attended religious services at least once a month.*

The confusion comes when we associate all of those who say they have a religious affiliation but do not have a living faith. The article goes on to say,

Naturally, claiming to believe something or merely belonging to a church does little for marriage. However, the deeper and more consistent the practice of faith – submitting to a body of committed believers; learning regularly from Scripture; being in communion with God through prayer individually as well as with spouse and children; and having friends and family who encourage deeper marital commitment – the greater difference this makes in strengthening the quality and longevity of marriage.

A living, active faith does make a difference in the life-long commitment of marriage.

*"Divorce, the church, and the world," Glenn T. Stanton, March 24, 2011.

Progress

2011-03-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

As I look around Vancouver I see projects that suggest progress: a new condo tower beside other new condo towers; a 500 million dollar project to put a new roof on BC Place; a 3.3 billion dollar project to build a new Port Mann bridge. All of this is exciting to watch and means more and more people will be able to live and work in the "most livable city in the world." Is this progress? Humans have been given the ability to reason and the power to create. We must reason well and learn to create that which is good.

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day. [Uncle Vanya, 1897]
- Anton Chekhov

Patrick

2011-03-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick (originally Patricius) was a British, Roman, Christian, missionary in Ireland during the second half of the 5th century. He was taken to Ireland as a slave from Roman controlled Britain. In Ireland he toiled as a shepherd-slave for six years before escaping. He trained for ordination and returned to Ireland as a missionary to the people who had once been his captors.

With the Irish - even with the kings - he succeeded beyond measure. Within his lifetime or soon after his death, the Irish slave trade came to a halt, and other forms of violence, such as murder, and intertribal warfare, decreased. In reforming Irish sexual mores, he was rather less successful, though he established indigenous monasteries and convents, whose inmates by their way of life reminded the Irish that the virtues of lifelong faithfulness, courage, and generosity were actually attainable by ordinary human beings and that the sword was not the only instrument for structering a society.... Patrick is beyond dispute: the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally against slavery. Nor will any voice as strong as his be heard again until the seventeenth century.*

Today, we celebrate Missionary Patrick.

*Cahill, Thomas. How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. New York: Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., 1995, p. 110-114.

Good Things Come In Threes

2011-03-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

Last June I wrote about the experience of two of our daughters getting married within six months of each other. That was a lot of fun. Now, just ten months later our third daughter has married. We are blessed. We are blessed to have these amazing young women in our lives. We are blessed to have their husbands in our family. We are blessed to have so many family and friends who have shared with us in these wedding celebrations.

Weddings are joyful, social, events that remind us of the rhythms of life. Jesus chose a wedding at Cana to show his first miracle and the book of Revelation tells us that one day there will be a marriage in heaven.

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:
“Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.” Revelation 19:6-9.

Our family has rejoiced in three weddings in 16 months and still we prepare for the greatest wedding of all.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Humanae Vitae

2011-03-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I wrote about chastity as discussed in the recent "Pastoral Letter to Young People on Chastity" written by the Canadian Catholic Bishops. As I said in that post, I found the article to be a helpful letter which gave guidance and encouragement to Catholics and other followers of Jesus. But,one sentence did confuse me and left me with uncertainty of what the Canadian Catholic Bishops meant to say. I wrote them for clarification and asked about a sentence on page three. The sentence reads: "That is why the sexual act has to be unitive and procreative and why some kinds of sexual activity are not chaste." I notice that the sentence specifically says unitive "and" procreative. My question regarded what this sentence means for married couples where procreation is no longer possible.

Patrick J Fletcher, PhD, Senior Theological Advisor, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops was kind enough to answer my question.

The sentence you mention, although perhaps unfortunate in its lack of precision, simply intends to express the teaching of the Church (cf. Humanae Vitae 12) that the marital act must have a procreative and unitive significance. It is not trying to say that every marital act must result in procreation, or even have the possibility of resulting in procreation. To the extent that the current wording could imply this, it is unfortunate.
Please be assured, however, that the Pastoral Letter is in no way intending to change the teaching of the Church on sexuality as contained in the magisterium of Pius XI, Paul VI, John Paul II, or Benedict XVI.
Thus, as regards the example you provided of a couple who is sterile for reasons beyond their control (age, disease, etc.), sexual intercourse for them would still possess its procreative significance inasmuch as the essential meaning of the act still speaks the language of life-giving and has not been intentionally thwarted in this regard.

I appreciated being directed to the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae 12 and read with interest much of the letter. This quote from Humanae Vitae section 11 was particularly helpful.

The sexual activity, in which husband and wife are intimately and chastely united with one another, through which human life is transmitted, is, as the recent Council recalled, "noble and worthy.'' It does not, moreover, cease to be legitimate even when, for reasons independent of their will, it is foreseen to be infertile. For its natural adaptation to the expression and strengthening of the union of husband and wife is not thereby suppressed. The fact is, as experience shows, that new life is not the result of each and every act of sexual intercourse. God has wisely ordered laws of nature and the incidence of fertility in such a way that successive births are already naturally spaced through the inherent operation of these laws. The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life.

The encyclical letter clearly states that sexual activity between a husband and wife is noble and worthy whether or not the couple is fertile. This is a helpful clarification as it is clear that some Catholics and other readers of this letter have been confused by the language. I encourage readers to take the time to read all of Humanae Vitae and particularly sections 11 and 12. They are a helpful counter-cultural voice to a world focussed on personal gratification.

Ready

2011-03-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Chastity

2011-03-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago the National Post ran an article about a letter written by the Canadian Catholic Bishops regarding "chastity." The majority of the letter entitled, "Pastoral Letter to Young People on Chastity," is directed to young single people and states that "living a life of chastity is an ongoing journey which requires both guidance and encouragement." Chastity, not to be confused with celibacy, can be defined as an appropriate attitude toward sexuality or perhaps defined as holy sexuality. Of course the ideas of chastity, celibacy, and sanctity in marriage are not popular themes in our western culture. Naturally the letter was newsworthy and some persons quoted in the National Post article expressed concern that it represented a return to more conservative sexual attitudes that predate the reforms of Vatican II.

I encourage the reader to read the entire letter before drawing conclusions since it appears to me that the letter is consistent with the teachings of the church and indeed the teachings of the Bible. The National Post article chose to focus on one paragraph of the letter that dealt with chastity in marriage. Reading the Post article one may be confused about what the Catholic Bishops consider the place of sexual intimacy in marriage. Here is what the letter from the Catholic Bishops had to say about chastity for married persons.

Sexuality becomes truly human when it is integrated into the total relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. Pope John Paul II wrote: “Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love.” This means that married people are also called to be chaste if they are to truly love each other.
Married people living chastely can have vibrant sex lives. In the relationship between a man and a woman, chastity helps them love each other as persons rather than make each other an object of pleasure or satisfaction. Despite what the media and Hollywood suggest, the value of sexual intercourse does not lie in recreation, or physical gratification. Any physical pleasure should lead toward the ultimate expression of love between husband and wife, the total self-giving of one person to another. Sexual intercourse in marriage can be so intimate that it becomes an emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual experience. It strengthens and completes the bond of marriage. That is why the sexual act has to be unitive and procreative and why some kinds of sexual activity are not chaste. Though pleasure may be present, some acts are a misuse of sex when they fall short of what God intends.

The letter calls Catholics and all followers of Christ to a higher view of our sex lives. It reminds us that the goal of sexual intimacy is the total self-giving of one person to another. In a world driven by self-gratification, consumerism, and Hollywood attitudes regarding sex we need once again to hear this call.

Unlived Things

2011-03-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

No one lives his life.
Disguised since childhood,
haphazardly assembled
from voices and fears and little pleasures,
we come of age as masks.
Our true face never speaks
Somewhere there must be storehouses
Where all these lives are laid away
like suits of armor or old carriages
or clothes hanging limply on the walls.
All paths lead there,
to the repository of unlived things.

–Rainer Maria Rilke*

*As quoted at Empire Remixed

Grateful

2011-02-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

I have committed myself to living a grateful life. I want to remember how fortunate I am to have my family, my home, and to live in Canada. I have asked God to keep reminding me how fortunate I am. Every once in a while He does. Today was one of those days. Our dishwasher began to fail and we had to buy a new one. This morning, Mike installed the new dishwasher and took away the old one. As he worked I detected an accent and asked him about his home country. He said he originally lived in the Soviet Republic of Czechoslovakia but had escaped from communist rule in 1985. One day, he and some other men grabbed a few possessions, put them in water-proof bags, and wrapped them around their waists. They jumped into the Danube river by night, avoiding the guards who patrolled the border, and swam across to Austria. They turned themselves in to the Austrian police and he was surprised when the police officer allowed him to walk on his own to the police station a few blocks over. He had expected hand-cuffs.

They spent six months in a political refugee camp while they tried to determine where he should go. He asked to go to Canada without knowing much about the country; but he knew he would be free. He was told that he would be sent to Vancouver as the city prepared for the world fair. He had never heard of this place and could not even pronounce the name. He arrived in Vancouver and went down to the Expo 86 construction site. He had enough English to talk to the boss and say, "I am Mike. How much?" When they answered "four," he agreed to work for four dollars an hour. Once the construction was done he worked during Expo in the kitchen of the Ukrainian Pavilion. He worked hard and went home smelling like cabbage and turkey; but the food was good and occasionally he would get some German beer. After three years he managed to get his Canadian citizenship. Soon after that the Berlin Wall came down and he could go back to Slovakia to visit family.

This is the second time in a few weeks that someone has told me their story of escaping from a country so that they could live in Canada. Those of us who grew up in this country seldom reflect on the lottery we won when we found ourselves born as Canadian citizens. It is easy to complain about things or wish for a different life. Ethan Baron, a columnist in The Province on February 23, 2011, commented on how many in Vancouver appear to be "Miserable in Paradise." He says that

The qualities that make Vancouver so "livable" are certainly impressive. Our economy is stable, we can get into a good health-care clinic or emergency room any time, we have excellent roads and schools, we're surrounded by world-class natural beauty. Yet everywhere you go in Vancouver, people are frowning. Rarely do strangers talk to each other in public. When two solitary people pass on a sidewalk, they avert their eyes and say nothing.*

Live What We Talk

2011-02-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

"We must live what we talk, even in places where we cannot talk what we live." - Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002, p. 231.

Reality

2011-02-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

According to one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, “there is no picture- or theory-independent concept of reality.”* What Stephen Hawking means by this is that we are all limited in our perception of reality. He compares all of us to a goldfish living in a bowl with curved sides. Gazing out, the fish has a distorted view of reality. He points out that if the goldfish had sufficient time and brain-power, it might be able to work out a series of laws that describe the way things appear from inside of a fish bowl. We, on the outside of the bowl would find these goldfish descriptions of the world overly complicated and would simply point out that the fish lives in a bowl and cannot see reality in its true form. Hawking says, “might not we ourselves also be inside some big goldfish bowl and have our vision distorted by an enormous lens. The goldfish’s picture of reality is different from ours, but can we be sure it is less real?” Hawking then suggests that we might be living unknowingly inside a virtual reality created by intelligent computers as described in the science fiction film, The Matrix. He adopts a view which he calls “model-dependent realism: the idea that a physical theory or world picture is a model (generally of a mathematical nature) and a set of rules that connect the elements of the model to observations.”

Now I suppose it is not surprising that a mathematician would come up with a mathematical way of describing the universe. But that is just it, it is a mathematical description of the universe. The greatest strength of his argument ultimately makes it weak in explaining the hows and whys of the universe. For, his is just one way of seeing the universe as is the goldfish way of seeing the universe. He certainly can develop such a model and use it to describe the universe as he sees it. Where he strays too far is in saying that his is the only way to view the universe and that philosophers and theologians have nothing to add to the story. His mathematical models have great predictive value for describing how electrons, protons, neutrons, and quarks function in the universe. He would like this same model to predict how the universe came into existence and why the universe came into existence. Here his model is less helpful. Just as the goldfish in the fish bowl cannot be sure of the reality of her world-view (even if she could create models that described her observations), neither can Hawking be sure of the reality of his world-view. It is equally as possible that his model works inside of the universe (or even inside the multi-verse that Hawking goes on to describe) and also inside a greater, over-arching, plan of a creator God. Here is precisely where philosophy, theology, and epistemology come into the discussion. Despite what physicists and mathematicians might think, mathematics is not the only valid tool of inquiry or description that we can use to understand our universe.

*This and other quotes in this article are from Hawking, Stephen, and Leonard Mlodinow. The Grand Design. New York: Bantam Books, 2010, p. 39-43.

Hearing from All Canadians

2011-02-15T08:40:00.001-08:00

Many of us believe that a "true north strong and free" includes the ability to speak freely and listen carefully to others. I want to be one who listens to other voices, other perspectives, and other world-views. I want to understand what others see as the future of Canada and work together for a great country. This can be challenging when we will most certainly disagree on major issues and it is challenging in a climate of rhetoric which generates strong emotions.

I appreciate an article written by Don Hutchinson on the Activate CFPL blog site. He quotes government house leader John Baird who says that

We think it is tremendously important in a pluralistic society like Canada to always reach out to people of different backgrounds, and we make no apologies for it.

It is a good reminder that we all need to take seriously our responsibility to speak to the issues of our country. Religious, atheistic, and agnostic viewpoints should be spoken and heard.

The article goes on to speak of another occurence in Ottawa last week. Mr. Hutchinson calls it a "wacky week" in Ottawa but that is perhaps just an unfortunate choice of words. He goes on to speak of Liberal Member of Parliament Carolyn Bennett who has chosen to sing her own version of the national anthem. I will leave it to others to decide if this is an appropriate way to make her position known or if it is impolite to sing different words when we have all previously agreed on the way we will sing a song together. It does bring to mind questions of unity and manners.

What I will say is this MP deserves to have her opinion heard. She would like to suggest that our national anthem should be free of gender and religious bias. I am also free to disagree with her but I want to listen to her concerns. It is important to have rational debate and rational debate requires listening as well as talking.

Oh Canada, our home and native land, may you truly be our true north, strong and free. We stand on guard for thee.

Tribute

2011-02-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

John Robert Wilson (June 10, 1953 to February 4, 2011).
The words I spoke at the funeral of my friend, John Wilson.

2 Timothy 2:11 and 12 says, "If we die with Jesus, we will also live with Jesus. If we endure hardship, we will reign with Jesus."

For the last couple of weeks, all of us have been coming to grips with living in a world without John Wilson. It is never easy to figure out when someone will leave this life; but it has been even more difficult with a man like John. In these last few weeks when most people thought he was approaching the end of his life, John was making plans for the future. He was planning trips, he had projects he wanted to complete, and he had new projects he wanted to start. We began to wonder if he might actually accomplish several of these things yet. He seemed so positive, so hopeful. But it was not to be.

Selfishly, I wonder what my world will be like without John. John is one of my closest friends. For about ten years while I lived in Calgary we met together with another friend, Warren Horricks, once a week to pray with and for each other. It was an anchor point for my spiritual disciplines. We prayed for others; we sometimes confessed our failings as husbands, parents, and church leaders to each other. And we kept each other on track so that there were fewer failings than there might have been. We prayed for healing in people's lives and saw some miraculous answers to prayer. And then came the day when John told us that he had cancer and our prayer times became a real laboratory of prayer. We worked hard to figure out what we could ask of God and what prayers God would answer and we struggled when God said no. For about ten years we prayed that God would take away John's cancer. And although God gave John strength through all of the procedures, and extended his life several times, God never completely healed him here on earth.

John was always suggesting books for me to read. I have often quoted John's statement that "Leaders are readers!" He challenged me to take on tasks that were bigger than I could accomplish on my own. He was my biggest supporter when Maureen and I planted a church in Calgary and when we decided to move to Vancouver and do it again. We still connected by phone and continued to pray for each other. Every Wednesday at 1:00 pm an alarm goes off on my phone and I remember to pray for my friend John and a few other people. That alarm will mean something different now. Even two weeks ago, John was still challenging me and offering me support in some of the things I was tackling. He still had plans. He wanted to write a book, he wanted to contribute to a website we were starting, he planned to attend our daughter's wedding in March. He had other trips he wanted to take.

I imagine that John did accomplish quite a few things in the last two weeks of his life. John had a rich prayer life. In the last couple of years we would often catch John talking to someone when no one appeared to be around. When he knew we had seen him talking to himself he would joke and say, "I'm on drugs." But I think there was more to it. The spiritual realm was getting more real to John as his physical body failed and his prayer life grew. In the last two weeks, John slept a lot but I imagine he and God were doing quite a bit of talking in those times. As his body was getting weaker, his spirit was getting stronger and was getting more prepared for entering eternity. John and his Lord probably had some good conversations in those last days and hours. I suspect John prayed for his family, his church, and many of you here in this room today.

I am just one person who has been touched by the life of John Wilson. There are many more who were affected in a similar manner. Many of you were challenged and supported as you took on things bigger than you could accomplish on your own. John's ministry at Alberta Bible College was about teaching and mentoring the next generation. For more than 30 years he had a particular passion for church planting. He planted a church himself, participated on Church planting teams, boards, and agencies including Partners in Atlantic Canada Evangelism; Alberta Church Planting Association; the Calgary Church Planting Network; and Genesis Canada. John generally encouraged church planting teams and church planters. Because of these efforts, a number of new congregations exist today.

I have had lots of heroes in my life and I have often been disappointed by heroes who have failed in their mission. But John was one who was faithful to his mission. He was faithful to the end. He worked hard to be a good husband, a good father, a good elder, a good leader, a good teacher. He taught others how to deal with adversity. He taught us to pray for more opportunities to serve God and he taught us to keep on going and planning for the future. John challenged us all to rely upon God and pray for His strength.

We will all have to carry on in this world without John Wilson. But I know that John would want us to take up the task for him. He would want us to be the next ones to plant churches, lead others, teach others, support others, challenge others, bring hope to others, and pray for others.

There are some words in 2 Timothy 2: 2 that speak to the kind of ministry that John had and that we can now have in his place. "You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others."

Chicken Soup

2011-02-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

When our daughters were little we found lots of great kids' music at the library. Joe Scruggs, Charlotte Diamond, Fred Penner, and Alan Root were some of our favourites. We spent many hours listening to and singing along with these great songs. Many of them were quite educational and certainly contributed to our girls' present love for music.

One of the songs on an Alan Root recording caused a great deal of discussion around the dinner table. Alan Root is a Christian minister and children's performer and subscribes to a young earth, seven day understanding of the creation of the universe. Here are the lyrics to his song, "Chicken Soup."

Chicken Soup (words and music by Alan Root)*

In the beginning so the scientists say
The planet was covered with soup
According unto them it started up when
The seas were sort of like slimy green goop
That became DNA so the storybooks say
Nobody really knows how
Single cell creatures kept finding new features
Til your great-grandfather climbed out

But you can't make a chicken from soup
Chickens didn't come from any slimy green goop
You can make soup from any chicken in the coop
But you cannot make a chicken from soup

Atheists say long ago and far away
Everybody used to be fish
Then we landed on the land and - ala ka zaam
Promoted to potatoes with a satellite dish
The Bible says the foolish man doesn't fear God
Time to look around and get a clue
It takes more resolution to believe in evolution
Than the seven day story that's true

But you can't make a chicken from soup
Chickens didn't come from any slimy green goop
You can make soup from any chicken in the coop
But you cannot make a chicken from soup

In the history of science and a civilized world
No new critters have advanced
No matter what you think we're missing missing links
Chromosomal language couldn't happen by chance
Einstein said God doesn't role dice
Your future is determined by your past
Either you're the masterpiece of a master-mind
Or the accident of hydrogen gas

But you can't make a chicken from soup
Chickens didn't come from any slimy green goop
You can make soup from any chicken in the coop
But you cannot make a chicken from soup

In our household, I was a proponent of theistic evolution as a means of creation. In other words, I believe that God did create the universe and He used evolution to accomplish this. I agree with many scientists who would say that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old and that the universe is about 13.75 billion years old. So we had conversations at the dinner table which discussed why this song was written, what it was talking about, and various theories and ideas of how our universe came to be. The statement with which we would often conclude was, "How the world was created is not as important as the fact that the Bible tells us who created the world. In the beginning, God created."

I like much of the song-writing of Alan Root and even his "Chicken Soup" song is clever and humorous. It was a great discussion starter in our family. However, I would encourage us all to look at the songs we are singing with our kids and investigate what they are really teaching. Are they encouraging our kids to think for themselves and search after the truth of God? We want children to grow into adults who are self-feeders who will search for truth themselves rather than simply agree with whatever the person at the front of the church, university class, concert-hall, or the person on the You-Tube video says to them.

*Lyrics transcribed from www.alanroot.com audio. Listen to it here.

Haircuts

2011-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Becky* has been cutting my hair every four to six weeks for the past two years. She works at one of the many beauty salons in Historic Chinatown just five blocks from my home. Although her English is good she is fairly quiet and does not say much about herself. Over the two years I have learned that she lives in an outlying suburb with her two sons who she thinks will never get married or move out. They say, "Momma, it is too expensive to get married and buy a house." She has told me a few other things about herself as well. She was born in China, took schooling in Hong Kong and eventually travelled to Canada. She is now a Canadian citizen. I used to pay ten dollars for my haircuts and give her a five dollar tip. Recently, the price went up. I now pay eleven dollars for the cut and still give her the five dollar tip.

Today, Becky told me an amazing story. She told me that when she was fifteen years old she swam from China to Hong Kong. I asked her how far that was. She could not work out how to explain the distance in English. She spoke to her co-worker in Cantonese but he did not know either. She said it took her ten hours to swim.

I asked Becky if she was part of a team or if she was on her own. I thought perhaps it had been a competition or an endurance record. She told me that she swam it with two sisters and two brothers but that her one brother had been taken out of the water by the government. It slowly became clear to me that she had escaped from China by swimming from the mainland to Hong Kong. I have since looked it up, the distance is around twenty-seven kilometres. With this kind of athletic ability she could have probably qualified for the Olympic team.

Becky told me that at that time, the government in China was not good. There were no jobs for young people. There were many who were poor and the prospects for her future were bleak. For weeks leading up to the day of their escape they swam for eight hours a day. They were training because their lives depended upon it. Her father was a journalist who worked for the government. They never told their father or mother of their plan. If the parents had known they would have been arrested after the escape.

She made it to Hong Kong then travelled to Canada. She worked hard and eventually got her Canadian citizenship. It took ten years before she could travel back to China to see her family. Her mother will soon be ninety years old and still lives in China. Becky plans to take a trip there this year to celebrate with her. She feels that the Chinese government is much better now and her mother has a good life in China. "Things have changed a lot."

Becky's attitude is amazing. I have immense respect for her. She says that, "Canada is a great country. If you work you will get a job and make money. It is a fair place." I wonder if I should tip a little more.

*Not her real name.

Individualism

2011-01-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Western culture in general has a high degree of emphasis on the individual. Individual rights and values are often allowed to trump societal benefits and norms.* Some would say that this is a direct result of western Christianity and the changing relationship between Church and State.#

Faith, in particular, has become much more about me and my relationship with God and less about community and serving my neighbour. I am not sure which came first, the cultural tendency toward individualism, or an individualism of faith that influenced an entire culture, but it is an anomaly. In the latter part of the 19th century George MacDonald had this to say about our faith:

Till we begin to learn that the only way to serve God in any real sense of the word is to serve our neighbor, we may have knocked at the wicket-gate, but I doubt if we have got one foot across the thresh-hold of the Kingdom.^

How might we turn the tide of individualism which is sweeping both church and culture? Could we start with these words of Jesus?

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Matthew 20:25-28 (New Living Translation)

*I believe such statements to be somewhat self-evident but if the reader wishes to investigate this further they may look to Wikipedia.
#For example see this abstract.
^George MacDonald in Beautiful Thoughts, First published in 1895.

To A Mouse

2011-01-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

On many a January 25 I have quoted from Robert Burns' "To A Louse (On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church)." The final stanza, the most well known from the poem, is full of insight into humanity.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

Yes, if only we could see ourselves as others see us.

But today, on the 252nd anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, it seems somehow more appropriate to quote from "To A Mouse (On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November 1785)." I won't quote the entire poem. Those who wish to read it in its entirety can readily find it elsewhere with a translation into more common English. But let us pause for a moment and listen to the last two stanzas.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou are blest, compared wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

Certainly, in this poem, Burns has captured many of our human fears. The best laid plans of mice and men often do go astray. Yet, in the midst of this we catch a note of hope. For the same God who cares for mice and sparrows cares for you and me. Raise a toast to Scotland's Bard: Robert Burns.

Philosophy Is Dead

2011-01-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

Stephen Hawking says that philosophy is dead. In his new book, The Grand Design*, he asks questions like, "How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves?" "How does the universe behave?" Where did all this come from?" "Did the universe need a creator?" Then he states, "Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge."

We all know that Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man who can do the math and show the formulas that describe eleven dimensions and multiple universes. But with three sentences he discards a whole intellectual field of study and proclaims that it is worthless. Someone should tell Peter Singer and John E. Hare to quit their day jobs. And just when did this death of philosophy occur? I don't recall seeing the obituary. Did it occur before or after Rene Descartes?

No, we must understand Hawking's three sentences for what they are. They are logical sleight of hand. He is asking us to agree to his conclusions before he makes his arguments. If we agree that philosophy is dead and that science is the only true field of study, then all that Hawking presents will be all that we can discuss. There will be no room for other voices. No room for philosophical questions or philosophical answers. He is seeking to preclude all conversations of a metaphysical nature and limit all discussion to what can be seen, felt, heard, tasted, or smelt. But as an article in the Guardian newspaper says, "who let Stephen Hawking choose the rules of the game?"

I am continuing to read The Grand Design; but I will be aware of the path down which I am being led and will recognize that a good portion of the pursuit of truth is being left out. Even brilliant minds have their limitations. Dr. Hawking does not have the final say on cosmology, philosophy, religion, and science. There are other voices to be heard.

“The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once.” Rene Descartes (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Scientist, 1596-1650)

*Hawking, Stephen, and Leonard Mlodinow. The Grand Design. New York: Bantam Books, 2010, p. 5.

Science vs Religion

2011-01-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

The Cardus website is featuring a review of the book Science vs Religion: What Do Scientist Really Believe? In this book Elaine Ecklund encourages us "to cross the picket lines separating science and religion" and join in appreciative discussion.

The book presents several findings of Ecklunds research:

1.Despite stereotypes, scientists are not entirely irreligious or unspiritual. Around 50% of elite natural and social scientists identify with a religious tradition.

2.Most scientists made decisions about their spiritual lives before entering science. That means that those without any religious or spiritual commitments may have chosen science because of what they thought; science may not have caused their distance from spiritual practices.

3.Elite scientists who are not at all religious—despite being highly educated, and despite operating in high profile positions—are often very ignorant of even rudimentary aspects of various religious traditions.

4.Scientists are often completely unaware of their colleagues' religious orientation because it is either not talked about at all (being deemed inappropriate within the halls of science) or disparaged, under the assumption that being a scientist means being an atheist or agnostic.

5.Scientists who reject God and religion have similar reasons as the general population: existence of evil and suffering, bad religion, bad personal experiences, and cognitive dissonance.

6.Younger scientists are more religious than older scientists—the inverse of the general population, where older people tend to be more religious than younger people.

Ecklund argues that science and religious faith need each other.

Accepting only what can be verified scientifically (scientism) is a wholly inadequate and impossible way to live a life, according to most Americans. Similarly, rejecting all of science in favour of only religiously-derived knowledge will leave the American public open to the very real dangers of uncontrolled fundamentalism, superstition, and regressions of the worst kind.

She encourages believing scientists to be courageous in speaking about how they reconcile science and their beliefs for the sake of improvement in the way that science and religion relate. We need scientists who are both credible in their scientific community and understand enough about religion and spirituality to speak knowledgeably. I would add that we also need faithful and courageous Christians who have enough knowledge of science, and the philosophical limits of science, to join the conversation.

True Religion

2011-01-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

I had coffee with a friend yesterday. He lamented that it seemed to him that many people rally under the Christian banner but then argue and disagree about a lot of small things. I agreed. It would be nice if we could create a place where people could enter into community and agree to be about the business of the important things of God. Perhaps we could work on the things upon which we agree and ignore some of the small things for a while. Once we got the big rocks in place then we could consider the placement of the pebbles. What might that look like? A few passages from the Bible come to mind.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. - 1 Corinthians 15: 3-7 (New Living Translation - NLT)

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1: 19-27. (NLT)

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8. (NLT)

It seems to me that there is enough in those few verses to keep a community busy for a long time. What do you think? What are some of the big rocks with which we might start?

Work

2011-01-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine asked me to watch a video and make some comments. The video is by Nigel Marsh and can be seen here. Nigel Marsh is an author and lecturer who speaks about balance in life.

I agree that "finding the balance between work and life is an ongoing battle." Regarding my own balance in life, I have changed careers twice to try to find a better balance and have made some progress. I think I am winning the battle but the battle is not yet complete.

When we look more generally at society, I would say that "finding the balance" at a cultural level is and will continue to be a battle as well. Moving from Calgary to Vancouver has allowed me to see the differences of subtle changes in attitude. Calgary has traditionally been more of an entrepreneurial city while Vancouver has a larger history of labour unions. Thus, Calgary is a little more economically right (capitalistic) and Vancouver a little more economically left (socialistic). Both cities and our country as a whole are seeking to find the balance between (or more accurately, living in tension between) an emphasis on hard work with little time for self-actualization versus an emphasis on self-actualization with little time for productive work. There are quite a few Calgarians who work excessively to the detriment of relationships, community, and self-fulfillment. There are quite a few Vancouverites that have chosen to retreat from excessive work and seek personal fulfillment without contributing to a productive city. They become consumers and not contributors to the things that sustain a city and a society. Of course each city has its share of each of these types of persons but there is an overall skew one direction or the other. (I realize that I am making gross exaggerations for the sake of discussion.) Living in appropriate tension between "work and life" will always be a battle.

Another issue in this discussion is the way it is framed. Marsh sets up an artificial dichotomy between "work" and "life." He makes it seem like we must choose one or the other; and who would logically choose work over life? Perhaps the battle is about balance between - work and life in community - or work and life without community.

Nigel Marsh suggests a perfect day and then quickly points out that he has not had any, or very many, such days in his life. His perfect day would only be attainable occasionally, with a lot of cooperation from other people (not the least of which would be his wife). This is another indication that we are really talking about a distinction between work and life in community or work and life without community.

What do you think? Are we seeking to live in tension between productive work that is lived out in community versus productive work that is attained without much community? I would love to get your comments at the bottom of this blog.