Month: November 2008 Page 2 of 4

Barb and I watched a movie Friday night (My Life without Me) in which a nurse tells the story of her holding and nurturing a set of Siamese twins until they died, first, she said, the boy, and then the girl. Barb just about came out of her skin. Siamese twins are ALWAYS of the same gender. Was there not one person involved in the production of this movie that would have caught that? Barb, with her medical background, did.

This was on top of reading last week Michael Crichton’s State of Fear. Now, MC could rewrite the telephone book and keep me up late reading it. He’s that good. But whenever someone hijacks an artistic endeavor to mount a soapbox, whether it is this book or that classic The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore), quality suffers. Crichton is very preachy in this book, and though he claims that in his dialog about global warming he tries to present both sides and disguise his own point of view, in this he deludes himself.

That said, he is a writer known for his scientific credibility, and he is writing a book in which he preaches accuracy in reporting scientific fact. So it is heavily ironic that he mentions at one point watching a high pressure system off the coast of Florida to see if it indeed will turn into a hurricane. I had to read that paragraph several times to make sure he was serious.

Hurricanes, you see, arise from low pressure systems, not high.

So, I say, “Where have all the editors gone?”

[Note: If you want to know what I thought of the above mentioned movie, consult Roger Ebert. My sentiments exactly.

Today, I made a delivery on the Mother/Baby Unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

But not THAT kind of delivery!

Some of you know that I enjoy a side ‘business’. Long story, but there it is.

A woman from Durham, NC contacted me the other day to tell me that a friend of hers would soon be giving birth to twins. The last two months of the pregnancy, she has not been able to eat sweets, and was craving cinnamon rolls. She wondered if I could deliver some to her the day after she delivered the twins.

That sounded like too much fun to pass up. So, there I was, performing a delivery in the labor and delivery floor. Surprisingly, I was able to carry the rolls directly to the room, explain their presence, and hand them off to the new father. What joy that was. That’s what makes this side business so much fun.

In our house we have an eclectic network that just got, uh, ‘eclectic-er’. Years ago, our computer life started with an Amiga 500. One simple computer. Life was so much simpler then.

Recently, counting my laptop, we had five computers on the network, two running Mac OS X, one running Windows 98, another XP Home, and the last XP Professional. The Windows 98 machine was just not handling business very well, and was very frustrating. So, we replaced it with another Windows XP machine that my daughter was no longer using.

As a result, we were stuck with an out of service, ten year old Dell museum piece that I hated to trash. Slowly the wheels of geek adventuredom began to turn, and I realized that I had the perfect machine on which to try a long dreamed-of experiment without the fear of harming anything.

Now, to my great delight, we have added a sixth computer on the network, this one running Linux (the Ubuntu distribution). This old computer has been resurrected.

Most of you will not at all understand the thrill of this. There is the geek side of me that is excited by being able to try something and get it to work. And there is the economical side of me that is blown away by the fact that this computer is up and running with the latest distribution of the Linux operating system and it is all absolutely free.

I’ve only used this for accessing the internet (particularly playing Pandora radio), but if I were serious about using this machine, it is loaded with the full OpenOffice office suite (word processor, presentation program, spreadsheet) plus an additional word processor (Abiword), and a ton of other stuff. And I did not have to spend a dime.

For a general purpose computer, this can’t be beat.

And it’s fun as well.

Any one else out there using Linux?

Friday morning, HPC Associate Pastor Geoff ‘Geoffsnook‘ Henderson (“Jee-off” to some) was approached by a young woman in a local restaurant who said that she had a word from God for him. You can read all about that here. Regardless of what one thinks of the content or the act, Geoff was impressed with this woman’s boldness (and he was impressed with the ‘result’!)

Sunday afternoon, I was meeting with a couple of guys at a local Starbucks (gathered to discuss Bryan Chapell’s Each for the Other). On the other side of the room was a young man sporting a pink shirt and a tongue ring sitting alone studying his Bible.

Eventually he rose, packed his backpack, and approached us. He was very polite and apologized for imposing and interrupting. We invited him to sit with us, but he was on his way somewhere.

At that point he looked directly at one in the group and said that he wanted to encourage him. He said that he did not know him (which he did not) but wanted to tell him that God would reveal himself to him, and that he should not give up hope, that hope would be restored. The one addressed thanked the man, and we said goodbye, and he quietly walked away.

We were amused at first, but intrigued. The one to whom this young man directly spoke, however, was moved almost to tears. Struggles in his life had led him to the place where hope was a precious commodity, and this young man’s words were of great encouragement to him.

We appreciated the fact that this man was not trying to make any claim to knowing the future (unlike Geoff’s prophetess). Rather he was speaking truth, that hope ought never to be relinquished. But like Geoff’s encounter, we were all impressed with the man’s boldness.

Was what this man did self-motivated or was he sincerely moved by the Holy Spirit? He did not say ‘God told me to tell you’, but he was clearly moved to speak and to speak a message he felt impelled to bring.

How often might another be encouraged by a word that we have learned in our time with God, but we are too shy to speak it? How often might we be moved to speak to others a word of encouragement – even people we know – and fail to do so through second guessing or fear?

Like Geoff, I’m not interested in building a culture of mini-prophets wandering the streets of Bradenton. But I would like us to not so quickly assume that others do not need to hear what we might be inclined to speak.

This young man blessed the one in our group. He blessed us all. We thank God for his boldness.

Now, what might God be trying to teach Geoff and me?

Things passing across my desk this past week:

On the importance of meaningful liturgy for the rising generations.

Former seminary classmate Mike Osborne posits a biblical perspective on taxes and socialized health care. Controversial – what do you think?

Why do people shoot their kids? Good question.

Speaking of kids, and wanting to shoot them – I had to tell my daughter this week, “Don’t text with the refrigerator door opened.” That’s a new one.

A filmed debate on the value of Christianity sounds dull. But how can it be with a trailer like this:

Thanks to Snowbot for the alert on this one.

UPDATE: And THIS just in. Puts blogging in perspective!

During my effort to redesign this blog a month or two ago, several people made a point to suggest that the colors should be dull so as to be consistent with the title and, er, theme of the blog.

I had to remind people that the title was intended to be ironic. I may be somber and dull, but I’m really not trying to be!

A couple years ago I decided one day to see what was involved in creating a blog. When it comes to things like this, I don’t read up on things. I just jump in and fiddle. So, I went to the Blogger site to create a blog.

I quickly was faced with the fact that I had to give the blog a name.

I had been reading – re-reading, actually – Alan Paton‘s marvelous novel Cry, the Beloved Country. (Take this as an advertisement. If you are looking for a good book to read, pick this one up.)

The main character in the novel is a poor, black Anglican pastor named Stephen Kumalo (pictured here as marvelously played by James Earl Jones in the movie version of the novel). Paton introduces him as “a parson, somber and rather dull, no doubt, and his hair was turning white.” Well, I’m a parson, and my hair is turning white. I’m not black, but the sobriquet ‘somber and dull’ was kind of appealing to me.

So, that was on my mind, and when Blogger asked for a name, in went Somber and Dull.

It has grown on me. I like the ironic tone. Either way it fits. If the blog is somber and dull, the title fits. If the blog is bright and interesting, then it suits the ironic intent. I can’t lose.

Enough of that. Now go get the book and read it.

(By the way, the current picture in the banner (that, of course, could change without notice!) is one I took of a sunset in the Smoky Mountains in the summer of 2008. Obviously no scenes like that here in Florida. Maybe during one of my yearly visits to the beach I’ll take a photo there and use it here.)

Had a lot of problems with vehicles over the past couple weeks, which should be no surprise. Roughly, the mileage total of the three vehicles in our driveway is around 525,000 miles.

It is frustrating to find a large puddle of something under one of them after having $500 of work done the day before. That’s what Barb found under the van this morning. So, I had to change plans and bring the van back into the mechanic to see if he might correct the problem. Bummer.

But wait! What’s this? A Starbucks 300 yards from the mechanic?

You know what they say – when live gives you lemons, get a tall caramel latte. I’m happy now.

Two very influential communicators in today’s reformed and evangelical arenas are John Piper and Tim Keller. Both have been nurtured by the same 18th century theologian, Jonathan Edwards. When one reads Edwards for any length of time, one can sense the connections between his convictions and passions and the voice these men have given to him in the 21st century.

I’ve been (slowly) reading Edwards Religious Affections in which Edwards carefully tries to dissect Christian experience to help us see the difference between those who have been truly converted and those who have not. What is the fruit which reveals a Christian profession to be genuine?

The 11th mark identified by Edwards is that genuine conversion will be marked by a holy hunger for more of Christ. That is, the genuinely converted will find satisfaction in Christ, and yet will hunger all the more to know and love him more deeply and more completely. We are fulfilled and unfulfilled at the same time. We are content, but longing for yet more.

These are the themes we see time and again in Edwards’ 21st century interpreters. They are as well themes which we see resonating in our own souls.

You can read Edwards’ own words here:

“Another great and very distinguishing difference between gracious affections and others is, that gracious affections, the higher they are raised, the more is a spiritual appetite and longing of soul after spiritual attainments increased….

”The more a true saint loves God with a gracious love, the more he desires to love him, and the more uneasy is he at his want of love to him: the more he hates sin, the more he desires to hate it, and laments that he has so much remaining love to it: the more he mourns for sin, the more he longs to mourn for sin: the more his heart is broke, the more he desires it should be broke: the more he thirst and longs after God and holiness, the more he longs to long, and breathe out his very soul in longings after God: …

“So that, the spiritual appetite after holiness, and an increase of holy affections, is much more lively and keen in those that are eminent in holiness, than others; and more when grace and holy affections are in their most lively exercise, than at other times.” (Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards, pages 376-377)

Over the past few weeks Barb and I have watched a couple of movies which raise a curious question for me. Why do we (speaking generally) find watching evil portrayed before us so entertaining?

The two movies are very highly rated crime dramas, Goodfellas and The Professional.

Goodfellas is the story of a man who as a young boy finds his sense of community and purpose in the mob. This is his story, and it is a sad story, and it is a story told with much violence and disregard for human life. But given that one of the purposes of a film is to entertain, why do we find such a film entertaining?

Whereas Goodfellas is a far more ‘mainstream’ and predictable mob movie, Leon: The Professional is not. It is an offbeat and odd story about a sensitive, emotionally stunted hit man played perfectly by Jean Reno. His predictable life is turned on its head when he takes in a emotionally starved, recently orphaned (her whole family murdered) girl played with freaky skill by an 11-year old Natalie Portman.

This may sound like I’m recommending the movie. I’m not. Parts of it are very, very disconcerting as our hit man agrees to train his orphan in his trade, and the orphan begins to see the hit man as more than a big brother. This was a far more original and engaging story. But the same question comes to mind: why do we find watching evil entertaining?

In both cases, and in many like it, the ‘heroes’ are not the traditional ‘good guys’, but rather men who make their living destroying the lives of others. These men are conflicted – they struggle with the nature of their living, but their lives are evil. And we will spend two hours watching.

My question is not whether we should be watching these films. That would be a worthy conversation, no doubt. My question is why do so many (apparently) find such films entertaining?

UPDATE: I am reading about Old Testament narrative in preparation for an upcoming sermon series, and found this quote somehow applicable to the above question:

“A story invites the reader to surrender his or her own thought system and to enter the world of another and to be carried along by the flow of this other world. Through this the reader becomes an insider, a part of the world of the narrative….
“We can see parallels in modern cinema, which entices the audience to identify with a different world and a different worldview in an entertaining and subtle way. Moviemakers are thoroughly aware of a story’s power to draw the audience in to adopt an alien perspective and value system.” (Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology, pages 104-105)