Randy Greenwald

This is a fascinating story. It’s worth reading in its own right.

Everett Ruess is someone I’d never heard of, but upon whom many others had fixed their ideals. In the article, I’m struck by how resistant true believers are to what clearly seems to be the truth.

Christians have staked their lives upon a hero whose end of life realities are central to their hope. The difference is that the earliest propagators of the idea of the resurrection of Jesus insisted that its truth mattered.

The revelation of Ruess’ probable demise has sent some of his believers into a frenzy of denial. Were it to be proven that Jesus did not rise from the dead, Paul’s counsel, it seems, would be that we shut up and go home.

Apparently, he who had seen Jesus raised (along with a myriad other eyewitnesses to that truth) was so confident of its truth, he could lay down a confident challenge. We can share his confidence.

My sons and I love a clever ad. Seth sent this one to me.

This is a product of The Richards Group, the same team that gave the world the Chick-fil-A cow. No surprises here!.

We who live insulated lives cannot begin to comprehend the depth of emptiness which arises when one we love is lost. I shudder to think how devastating such would be to me. Some of you already know.

For reasons I need not go into now, a friend recently re-introduced me to John Whitehead, a feisty, bull dog kind of guy, a guy you always want on your side in a battle.

But even bull dogs suffer. Whitehead writes,

Recently, my wife of 42 years, Carol, suddenly passed away. Nothing can convey the feeling of lostness that has come over me. I feel like a gutted fish. My sense of being has been amputated. All sounds, even human voices, seem shrill and overbearing. Strange headaches and twilight sleeping. I have trouble swallowing. A vacuum has descended and all the color has drained from the world and it has not yet returned. Maybe it won’t.

I’m grateful for Whitehead’s honest reflections on loss, shared fully here. Nothing prepares us for this.

But perhaps we can be prepared for being there for those who are facing loss. Our temptation would be to talk someone like Whitehead out of his grief. To throw Bible verses at him, in a way meant to comfort, but which only sting.

Joe Bailey lost three sons in tragic accidents, very close together. In his helpful little book The View from a Hearse, sadly out of print, he makes this poignant reflection:

“I was sitting, torn by grief. Somewon came and talked to me of God’s dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly, he said things I knew were true.

“I was unmoved, except to wish he’d go away. He finally did.

“Another cam and sat beside me. He didn’t talk. He didn’t ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left.

“I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go.”

I know that this blog is read by scientists and engineers, so I’m hopeful of some kind of answer to the question on my mind this afternoon.

And this probably reveals more about my idle mind than anything else.

Let us suppose that an unnamed man is traveling northbound on a still day in a van with the windows rolled down. Let us further suppose that he is traveling at 60 MPH and eating from a bag of Peanut M&Ms. And let us suppose, hypothetically, of course, that this man decides to throw one M&M out the window at a right angle to the direction of travel. And for argument’s sake, let us say that he throws the M&M at a speed of 30 MPH.

Given that the average mass of a peanut M&M is 2.5 grams (I happen to be in possession of the very bag from which the subject M&M was extracted – don’t ask how), what would the path of this M&M look like if traced along the ground?

For a time, as the M&M is in the man’s hand, it will trace a straight line parallel to the road. I understand that once thrown and until the M&M leaves the van, it will trace a curve of some kind. But I assume that all of that changes once it hits the air moving alongside the van.

But does it go immediately backwards (tests have suggested that this is not the case)? Does it continue on the same curve it began while still in the van? Is the curve violently altered by the wind?

I suspect that the exact path would be effected by the shape of the van and the consequent air turbulence immediately alongside the van. I’m hoping that is inconsequential to the final picture and can be ignored.

These are the questions which puzzle my mind.

Weird. I know.

In college, I wrote a paper challenging the views of one Mr. John Calvin, as if I knew anything then.

Particularly, I took issue with Mr. Calvin’s apparent denial of instrumental music having a part to play in Christian worship.

Since that time, my views of Mr. Calvin have – shall we indulge some understatement – mellowed. The theology which informs my life and practice is something people call ‘Calvinism’, though that too narrowly focuses its origin. I would be happy to be called an enthusiastic follower of the content of Calvin’s theology.

But not all of it.

Recently as I prepared a sermon on Psalm 92, I was struck with the instrumental emphasis brought to worship.

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.

The players of stringed instruments are commissioned to assist the community in the worship of God. A commission which, if we take Calvin’s approach, ceased with the advent of Christ.

Calvin’s position, as expressed in his commentary on this Psalm, and elsewhere, is that primitive worship lacking the insight that Christ brought, needed this aid of instruments, but in our maturity we have grown beyond that.

“In the fourth verse, he more immediately addresses the Levites, who were appointed to the office of singers, and calls upon them to employ their instruments of music – not as if this were in itself necessary, only it was useful as an elementary aid to the people of God in these ancient times. We are not to conceive that God enjoined the harp as feeling a delight like ourselves in mere melody of sounds; but the Jews, who were yet under age, were astricted to the use of such childish elements. The intention of them was to stimulate the worshippers, and stir them up more actively to the celebration of the praise of God with the heart. We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help forward a people, as yet weak and rude in knowledge, in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between his people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the Church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the Gospel, should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation.”

It is an argument embraced by some of his followers today, but it is an argument which falls empty upon my ears.

I will continue a Calvinist, albeit a 99 44/100% one.

Our waiter at The Melting Pot last week is in a band called The Prospect. We enjoyed during dinner talking to him about the dreams and hard work of being in a band. We noted that his music was not yet paying the bills – we assumed that he did not wait tables just because he got to talk to fascinating people like us.

In the course of our conversation, I told him about my deep involvement in the rock music scene. Well, that is, that I know the identical twin brother of the drummer of the band Black Kids.

He was aware of Black Kids. He said he had just purchased a song of theirs off iTunes (which raises another discussion, as I noticed that the guy trying to make his living making music believes that one ought to pay for his music).

What he noted was that a friend of his, the drummer for the band We the Kings, is also an identical twin.

We are noticing a trend here – drummers and twin-dom.

Two occurrences does make a trend, correct?