If I had a city…

If I had a city, I’d burn it down; just to rebuild it. If I had a garden, I’d plow it; just to sow new seeds. If I had a sand castle, I’d put it by the ocean; just to see if it would survive the torrents of the sea. If I had a grandfather clock, I’d stop his swaying arm; and I’d wait to see if he began to swing it once again or if all the fight had left his feeble frame. And if I had a mountain, I’d try to pull it down. My arms would scratch, my back would bend, my brow would sweat, my feet would swell, my legs would feebly shake, my chest would heave, and my tongue would dry from dragging stones, rocks and boulders from his loft peak. And when at last my will was broken. I’d take a pebble for a token.

Read Full Post »

Ancient People

The Parthenon is an example of the brilliance of ancient people. The parthenon is built on a curve with each of the pillars slanting inwards. There are no straight pieces. Which means “each of the over 70,000 pieces of the Parthenon is unique and fits only into one place.” To see more about it check out this video 

Read Full Post »

Razzle Dazzle Camouflage

The purpose of camouflage is to disguise yourself or your actions. During the first world war radar had not yet developed to the point of being a practical means for determining a ships movement. Instead a rangefinder was used when firing artillery at enemy vessels. Rangefinders used two images which would be aligned to make calculations to determine the direction, speed, and size of the ship. These calculations would be used to adjust artillery fire. Range finders were also used on submarine periscopes for firing torpedoes. Ships sought to camouflage themselves, but ran into a particular problem. The myriad of colors which paint the sky. If painted blue the ship could be clearly seen on cloudy days. If painted grey a clear sky would give away the ship. But instead of taking it for granted that the ships would be seen, some British military thinkers decided to make the ships more noticeable. By painting spectacular curving, clashing and angular patterns on the ship they made the ships more difficult to sink. Now at first making a ship more visible doesn’t seem like the best way to disguise it. However the bizarre patterns accomplished several goals. First it made aligning the two images on the rangefinder more difficult, since even when the images were aligned they appeared to clash. Second they made it much more difficult to determine, what direction the ship was facing, heading, and its speed. These factors made it difficult to determine where to fire the artillery or torpedoes with accuracy. This camouflage is called razzle dazzle camouflage. Actually I think it was just called dazzle camouflage, but I prefer razzle dazzle. What’s interesting is that there are animals who use this same concept to protect themselves. For example the butterfly fish often has bright colors but a flase eye on its hind portion, to trick predators to think it is coming when it is going.

Read Full Post »

Hello Dark chasms

Hello vast chasms of the interwebs. Just checking to see if anyone is out there. If not I’ll probably keep posting, but I’m just checking if I’m merely talking to myself.

Read Full Post »

Brothers Karamazov Quotes Part I

I’ve been reading the Brothers Karamazov recently. Dostoyevsky, like no one else, cuts to your soul in his writing. His insight into the breadth and depth of humanity is staggering. As a slow reader in general, and an even slower reader of Russian writers, I’ve only read about 200 pages in the past several weeks. From this story I would like to share several selections which I particularly enjoyed;

“As a general rule people even the wicked are much more naive and simple hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are too.”

“He was sentimental. He was wicked and sentimental.”

“I want to live for immortality and I will accept no compromise.”

“Let Him feel ashamed of himself, let him be ashamed of other people’s knowing, but not of my knowing. He can tell God everything without shame. Why is it he still does not understand how much I am ready to bear for his sake?”

“…it was the beauty of the moment, the fleeting beauty which is so often met with in Russian women.”

“Why, why had he gone forth? Why had he sent him into the world? Here was peace. Here was holiness. But there was confusion, there was darkness in which one lost one’s way and went stray at once…”

“…you really love him. And the more he insults you, the more you love him- that’s your ‘laceration.’ You love him just as he is you love him for insulting you. If he reformed you’d give him up at once and cease to love him. But you need him so as to contemplate continually your heroic fidelity and to reproach him for infidelity. And it all comes from your pride. Oh, there’s a great deal of humiliation and self-abasement about it, but it all comes from pride…”

Read Full Post »

Lazy River Days

aaahhh. Its nice to have time to do nothing but read, relax, and swim. Its nice to have a grandmother cook you potroast. Its nice to be around family. Its nice to play with your nephews. Its nice to sit on the edge of a dock with your feet hanging off the edge as you watch the sunset melt into the horizon. With the exception of the screams and crying from my 3 year old and 8 month old nephews, its pretty nice out here.

Its also nice to be away from things. Its nice to be away from obligations, worries, and troubles. Its nice not to have a tv around. Its nice to be in a place where you can escape from everybody for a little bit. Its nice to be in a place where you have to drive into town and go to the library to get internet. Its nice to walk through a town that still has an old fashioned post office. Its nice to be in a town where you can leave your house and car doors unlocked.

All in all this is a pretty nice little vacation.

Read Full Post »

Short Term Workers in a Long Term World

I was recently talking to a missionary in a country which is very unfriendly towards missionaries, who has been on the field for 20 years. He talked to me about all the workers he had seen come and go. Something he said struck me. He said that “Eight years isn’t enough time to see if your ministry failed.” He then proceeded to tell me of everyone who came to the country excited and then left because the work was too difficult or they weren’t getting the results they wanted. They judged their ministry on results, and they quit or moved on before they could even have any serious effect.

We are result oriented people. But there is something to be said for not being results oriented. There is something to be said for doing good deeds without compensation. Most of us are not willing to wait 1 year, 5 years, 8 years, 10 years, 20 years, 40 years to see the fruits of our labors. We want the alter call at the end of the sermon, we want our checks at the end of the week, we want our reward for our effort and we want it now. There are no long term plans, no long term commitments, at least not without short term rewards. But what happens when result oriented people move into relationship oriented societies. Societies which will look at you with suspicion and doubt. Societies in which it may take 8, 10, 20 years to build trust. A society in which you may only be able to drastically change the lives of a few. Usually they get frustrated, burn out, and move away.

In the mission field, especially in areas hostile to the gospel, there needs to be something more than just a commitment to work. There needs to be a commitment of time. Where are the people who are willing to devote 20 years to a people group? Where are the people who are going to dedicate the rest of their lives to one place, no matter what the consequences?

Read Full Post »

Time Orientation

This is an interesting and creative take on time. In many respects it relates to my previous post.

Read Full Post »

Tormented Souls

Man is immortal dust. He was raised from the ground and longs to rise to greater heights. He longs to rise to the heavens, out of the corruptible to the incorruptible. Yet there is a part of him that finds its security, its value, its dark joy in the corruptible. It is this struggle between the desire for heavenly glory and earthly desires which torments the souls of mankind.

Death, as it often does, gives clarity to this struggle. There is a pervasive mentality that this life should be experienced solely for personal satisfaction. This mentality is typically justified with the statement “You only live once. Implicitly of course, this means that one should experience all the pleasures and leisure possible since after death, there is nothing else to experience.

There are others who long for immortality. Throughout the vast religions of the word there is a belief that something exists after death. That death is merely a doorway. And that this life should be used as a preparation for the next. That in the next life greater things await. That the pleasures and joys of this world are base and abject compared with the pure and heavenly enjoyment in the next life.

Those who belong to the second category I believe are the souls which are under greater torment. They have the desires for two worlds clashing within them. A desire to rise out of this present life into something higher greater and holier is conflicted with the many base pleasures and comforts of the present. Longing for unseen rewards they are constantly faced with present temptations. The two world wrestle to control the soul.

In Christianity the earthly and heavenly worlds are compared to a seed. The seed is a particularly important metaphor since it is something which must in a sense die before it can come alive. 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 states, “It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam became a living person’; the last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. Like the one made of dust so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven.” The imagery is that the earthly world is brief, corrupt, fleeting, and weak. That in the great scheme of things this life is only important in terms of how it affects one’s eternal destiny. The ultimate goal is a spiritually rich life of glory and power. This life is provided for the believer, by God. 1 Corinthians 15:52-58  says “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. for this perishable body much put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory,’ ‘Where, o death is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! So them dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the works of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This is where Christianity is quite unique from all the religions of the world. All the other religions of the world attempt to attain heavenly life through effort, discipline, obedience, enlightenment or good works in this world. In Christianity God gives the heavenly world to the believer at His own expense. The Christian having freely received of God’s riches, then works out of gratitude to honor God in this life and prepare for the life to come.

Read Full Post »