Laughter and Tears

Last week Alora was sick. She had a fever, diarrhea, an ear infection, and a number of other issues. Although Amy and I were concerned about Alora and we wanted her to get better, we didn't ever feel as though her life was in danger. Thankfully, we have abundant access to doctors, water, and medicine. Yet, people in other places of the world are not so fortunate. According to World Vision, "diarrhea accounts for 21 percent of all deaths in children under five in developing countries."

When I was a child I remember singing the "Diarrhea Song" which consisted of verses like...."When you're walking in the rain and you feel something drain, diarrhea, diarrhea. When you're ridin' in your Chevy and you feel something heavy, diarrhea, diarrhea." (I'll spare you from any more verses.) Sadly, the things that we joke about are the very things that bring tears to the eyes of parents around the world.

Strange and Common

"We have made the Church strange and alien to the world, as if she were of a completely different order than the institutions of common social and political life. Paradoxically, the result of this estrangement has been to reshape the Church into the image of the world.

The Church is strange: she is the creation of the Father through the Word and Spirit, the community of those who have been united by the Spirit with the Son, and therefore brought into the eternal community of the Trinity. She is a city whose town square is in heaven. She is a city without walls or boundary lines, a polity without sword or shield. Of no other society can that be said.

But she is ordinary: the Church is made up of human beings, with features that identify her as a culture among the cultures of the world. God did not enter a world of books with blurks; He did not intervene in a world of rituals and meals with spatuals and gleals; He did not call His people to live according to the specific quormal principles or to promote a particular uphos.

Rather, God created a world of stories, symbols, rituals, and community rules. Into this world of stories, God introduced a rival story; into a world of books, God came with His own library; in a world of symbols and rituals and sacrificial meals, the Church was organized by a ritual bath and a feast of bread and wine; in the midst of cultures with their own ethose and moral atmosphere, God gathered a community to produce the aroma of Christ in their life together.

Only by insisting on the Church's ordinariness can we simultaneously grasp her strangeness."

-Peter Leithart, Against Christianity, 17-18.

Calvinist Romance

I thought some of you might get a kick out of this. I laughed out loud when I first saw it on Doug Wilson's blog.

Staring at a Tree

Okay, so here is a not-so-interesting-or-creative-story, but it should bring up a good point of discussion:

A man was walking home one day, when he noticed two women staring at a tree. The man was curious (and a bit nosy too), so he walked over to the ladies.

"Why are you staring at that tree," asked the man.

The short lady said, "we are having a debate over whether this tree was created by God or if it is the product of millions of years of evolution. I think that God created all things, including this tree."

"But I do not believe that God exists and I think that this tree is a product of chance," responded the tall lady.

The man was still puzzled: "Well, if both of you are looking at the same tree, why do you come to such different conclusions? You are both looking at the same tree aren't you?

"Of course we are looking at the same tree!" responded the ladies in unison.

Bewildered by the series of events, the man continued to make his way home, while the women continued to stare at the tree.

So, here is where the discussion comes in. If the women are looking at the same tree (i.e. they are observing the same "facts"), how do you explain their disagreement? What is the source of their differing opinions?

Abortions and Scholarships

This morning, I came across an online article--"Clemson criticizes ESPN story on student-athelete abortions"-- from the Anderson Independent-Mail. The ESPN report focused on student atheletes (some of whom were from Clemson) who fear losing scholarships if they become pregnant. Some of the women say that the school's policy (i.e. “pregnancy resulting in the inability to compete and positively contribute to the program’s success will result in the modification of your grant-in-aid money.”) made them feel like they had no choice. So, some of them had abortions. When one student became pregnant she said:

'How could this happen?' she told ESPN. 'My career was going to end. I’m not going to go to the Olympics or get to finish my four years. I was just like, This is a dead-end road. You’re not going anywhere else.'

I am not really interesting in debating over whether or not the policy was good. But I do want to say this: As the previous quote shows, our society has mixed-up priorities, to say the least. It is a sad indication of the state of our world when we are willing to hold careers, scholarships, or aspirations as move valuable than the life of a child.

But as believers, we cannot be satisfied with merely pointing out the problems of the world. We must also be ready to engage the world with the gospel. Let us point our neighbors, friends, city, state, nation, and world to a new way of living. Let's take them the message of the cross. "But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15).