RetrophischWhenever he’s been asked what sports he wants to play, our son has been consistent: “Baseball and hockey!” The first skill required in hockey is the ability to ice skate, so with that in mind, we enrolled him in ice skating lessons earlier in the year. Of course, Dad had to take photos of the first lesson!
Thanks to our friends Brent and Tracy, I was able to go with Brent this past Friday to see Rob Bell on his The Gods Aren’t Angry Tour. I’d never heard Bell, and while I have one of his books, I confess I’ve yet to crack the cover, so I was looking forward to hearing what Mr. Bell might have to say.
I was not disappointed. Brent has a thorough review, and I’m pretty much a “ditto” with what he says, so be sure to check it out.
I will add a few comments and observations to those made by Brent. I noted how, when Bell was talking about how God changed the entire dynamic of the relationship with humans starting with Abraham, Rob noted how God, “used those other gods, worshipped by the rest of human civilization, as props in His narrative to humanity.” I’m not sure why that line jumped out at me, but it made enough of an impression to get copied into my Moleskine. Maybe it was just a reminder of how big God truly is, that He exists outside time and space as we understand them, and doesn’t display the very humanistic characteristics we see in the gods of the ancient civilizations.
What’s also fascinating is how so much of what transpired, from a spiritual/faith standpoint, in the ancient world still pervades our so-called modern society. Looking at the religions of the world, all of them are still engaged in some sort of “doing” relationship. You have to do this to please Allah, you have to pray at a certain time, facing a certain way, saying certain words. If you sin, you must confess to the priest, and do penance as he directs. If you offend your neighbor, this is the ritual the rabbi can help you with to make things right. It’s all about doing, which is just how the ancients engaged with Apollo, Jupiter, or whoever.
Christianity is unique in that God Himself provided the means of salvation, saying “Done!” The only thing required of you is to say yes to Him. That’s it. Everything that follows is from your relationship with Him, not because there’s anything you have to do, rather there are things that, as a result of the relationship, you want to do. Which was part of what Bell was getting at, too: the God of Abraham is unique in that He reaches out to humanity for a one-on-one relationship with each man, woman, and child. This idea floored the ancients. It would’ve been as radical a concept as showing a modern automobile to the Founding Fathers.
Bell’s still on tour until December 2d, so if you’re in and around Raleigh, DC, Pittsburgh, NYC, Philly, Beantown, Louisville, Indy, or Rob’s home town of Grand Rapids, I highly encourage you to take it in. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
How well do you know your history and civics? Find out with this Civics Quiz, courtesy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Leave your results in the comments.
For the record, I missed two of the sixty questions. (Yes, sixty. Get over it. They’re multiple-choice.) First was number 19; it’s been a long while since I’ve read The Republic. Second was number 36; honestly, this was the first I’d heard of just-war theory. How did you do?
[With thanks to Michael for the quiz link.]
As Chris said when he pinged me via IM, “Someone’s going to get a PhD out of this.”
The McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama, is getting a cool new invention, courtesy of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. My little sister wrote the grant application that landed McWane the exhibit. Way to go, sis!
Every year, an updated list of things incoming college freshmen, or graduating high school seniors, know and don’t know circulate the Internet. Hugh points to the latest from Beloit College.
I won’t rehash the list here, but thought I would share some of my favorite points:
+ There has always been only one Germany.
Whenever I think about this historic event, I am always reminded of Dennis Miller’s (and there’s a personality a lot of these kids may be wholly unaware of) commentary on SNL’s “Weekend Update”, when he said, and I’m paraphrasing, except for the last line: “Today, East and West Germany announced their plans for unification. France has already announced its formal surrender.”
+ A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents’.
Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s much less so for them than their parents.
+ They have never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football teams.
This has been true for a long while now, for many incoming/outgoing classes.
+ Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.
Do they even know who Milli Vanilli were?
+ Reality shows have always been on television.
Unfortunately. Oh so unfortunately…
+ Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
I don’t believe this is something that is new to this particular class.
+ Most of them have never had the chance to eat bad airline food.
Since when is there good airline food?
+ Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.
And that is a crying shame. It was something of a rite of passage in my childhood to stay up so late that you were still watching when the anthem came on. Though these days, it’s mostly because there is no end to the broadcast day.
+ They have always “dissed” what they don’t like.
Do kids this age still use that word?
[Via Susan via e-mail.]
This whole “Numa Numa” thing is out of control.
What swims at 20 miles per hour, can carve out hunks of human flesh, and will attack anything that moves? The Humboldt squid. Brace yourself for a dive with the eeriest beast in the ocean.
A fascinating read.
Jeff has an outstanding parable of the recent Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
If you’d like a first-person account of the Hezbollah attacks on Israel, and the Israeli response, head over to David Dolan’s site and subscribe to his e-mail list.
David is a Christian pastor and author who has been resident in Israel for many years. Last year, David spoke at our church, and even for someone like me, who has followed the Mideast conflict, and the region’s history, for many years, it was eye-opening.
If only I had room in any of my bathrooms for one of these.
Just when you think there might be some hope in this world that the tide of sexual immorality would take a turn for the better, something like the Shame On You Kit pops up. How about never putting yourself in the situation to have to have a “Shame On You Kit”?
As a satisfied customer, I highly recommend KnowledgeNews, which today had a bit on the differences between viruses and bacteria. I loved this analogy:
Imagine it this way. If just one of the 10 to 100 trillion cells in your body were the size of a baseball park, the average bacterium would be the size of the pitcher’s mound. The average virus would be the size of the baseball.