Things I Think…
1. I confess that I am often paralyzed by anxiety these days. Aging is not for cowards…aging in a country run by people possessed of little but incompetence and malice strips whatever secular security one could hope to muster up.
My assumption is that the Lord is directing us to place all our trust in Him…we’ve been able to trust in other powers in the past, but those days seem to be over.
For me, I think this is a season of preparation to be able to minister to those who are also anxious…to comfort them with the comfort I’ve received.
I’ll let you know when I’m ready…it could be a while…
2. The Episcopal church is on life support…that is in the form of endowments. Back in the day, people often provided generously to these churches in their estate planning and the churches invested that money for the long term. The churches can actually keep the lights on without any parishioners at all. It appears that the same thing is happening at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa…it survives off the deals Chuck Smith made back in the day…
3. I’m spending little time on social media these days…it’s too stressful to watch people cheering as their house burns down…so…if I miss something you post, I’m not trying to be rude, I just didn’t see it…
4. We were discussing last week how empathy has become a wicked thing to some people…David French offers some insight here….evidently, the right wing extremists believe empathy to be a “feminine” characteristic…and God knows we don’t want anything “feminine” informing our society…
5. Lest you think I’m picking on low hanging fruit…(the assembled beards would recoil at the metaphor) this is the standard view of the Reformed wing of Christian Nationalism. We live in a time when there seems to be an audience for any repugnant view someone has…this is just one of theirs…
6. Go ahead a and write this down…the next piece coming will be re-segregating society as much as they can get away with…
7. I celebrate Easter because of the resurrection…and my insatiable love of chocolate covered marshmallows…
8. The sport isn’t what it used to be…but Opening Day of baseball season is still one of my favorite days of the year…everyone has the same record and everyone has hope for the future…no looking back on past failure, but looking forward to what could be…maybe we should live everyday like that…
9. Bible sales are booming...this is exciting until I think about who will be teaching new readers what the sacred text means…
10. As hard as it is to get through current events, they’re all part of the plan…Jesus is still in the process of redeeming and re-creating this world and the world to come…keep looking up…
Michael,
It’s a very anxious time, which is why I monitor how much news I expose myself to. I do want to pray for specific areas, so I check a few times a day, but it’s usually only the headlines. If something looks specifically interesting, I’ll give it a look and go on. The women’s Bible study I lead (in Spanish!) has been doing Revelation this year. It has been a great comfort to know that, no matter what happens, God still wins in the end!
I’m so sorry Michael
I’m praying for you.
Webbon should be pitied, he is one insecure male…Thankfully the bulk of the reformed faith (differing greatly from “new Calvinist” mold) holds to nothing akin to Christian Nationalism.
Linn,
I’m not one prone to fear…but everyday brings some fresh hell.
The thing that scares me the most is that so many aren’t afraid…
Michael, I understand anxiety in our times. The Lord’s grace is sufficient. He is strong in our weakness. Stay the course, brother.
Tim,
There has always been a strain of Reformed theology that leaned this direction…I’m not sure what the numbers are, but this is not an inconsequential movement…
Tim,
Thanks…I wonder what will be left for the young ones.
Part of my problem is it all seems so unreal…and the realization that to the rest of the world, we’re the bad guys now.
Traditions aside – If you all have never read John Newton’s Letters, do so. They have been a source of great comfort to this anxious guy
I understand Michael. I have 3 young adult children and one younger. Sometimes all we can do (and teach others) is look to Christ and cling (sometimes barely). He is faithful.
“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.“
Amen, my friend…
I am proudly egalitarian in my theology and orthopraxy and extend both ‘genders’ to God as well–after all he created male and female in ‘his’ image. Obviously, my thoughts run broader than that, but suffice it to say these buffoons you posted don’t do complementarians any favors…
In fact, the ideals behind complementarianism can be extended to radically extreme positions and expectations. Egalitarian thinking doesn’t bend that far; how extreme can equality be?
I’ve had difficulty sleeping lately with reels of chaos rolling through my head. I’ve resorted to breathing exercises that declare and confess with ins, holds, and outs. True to form, I sleep best when I pray. 🙂
fil,
Prayer and bible study are what is keeping me pieced together at present.
The Daily Office is genius…
I too find sleep running from me.
I think I realized last night that allowing ones mind to be overwhelmed is straight from the pit…a tactic the current administration knows too well.
I’m reading Richard Rohr’s new book, The Tears of Things (Prophetic Wisdom For An Age of Outrage) and it is providing thoughtful, challenging, and practical tools for coping as well as strategies for the remnant moving forward.
fil,
I just got that yesterday…hoping it would be as you say.
Hauerwas is jolting me into a better place as well…
” The gospel tells a story of a prophetic figure who suffers the worst that the empire can do to him, execution by crucifixion. But his resurrection and subsequent coming in power expose the limits of Roman power. The gospel constructs an alternative world. It resists imperial claims. It refuses to recognize that the world has been ordered on these lines. It offers an alternative understanding of the world and human existence centered on God manifested in Jesus.”
Hauerwas, S. (2006). Matthew (p. 38). Brazos Press.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” is John the Baptist’s sermon (Matt. 3:2), which Jesus will also proclaim (4:17). The kingdom is not some inner sanctuary, but rather the kingdom is an alternative world, an alternative people, an alternative politics. That is what it means for Jesus to be an apocalyptic. He is, in his person and in his work, God’s embodied kingdom. The temptation for Christians in modernity is to equate the kingdom with ideals that we assume represent the best of human endeavor: freedom, equality, justice, respect for the dignity of each person. These are all worthy goals that Christians have every reason to support, but goals that are not in themselves the kingdom. To equate these ideals with the kingdom is to separate the kingdom from the one who proclaims the kingdom. “Jesus is Himself the established Kingdom of God” (Barth 1936–77, 2.2.177). Or in Origen’s classical phrase, Jesus is the autobasileia—the kingdom in person (1926, 498).”
Hauerwas, S. (2006). Matthew (p. 38). Brazos Press.
#5 – The views expressed by Mr. Webbon are so silly and absurd as to be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. I feel sorry for him and the prison that he has created in his own mind and must live in. Having said that, I feel more sorry for the poor young women that will inevitably be duped into associating themselves with these goobers. God help the misinformed who listen to them.
I watch reels from an internet sensation named Nathan’s Lawns and Gardens daily. He takes overgrown yards and transforms them into presentable yards. He does this with high speed video so you can see the progress of his hard work and witness the transformation. They are hugely satisfying videos to watch. His millions of followers agree.
I see Nathan as a type of person who enjoys the hard work of weeding through the bad to get to his envisioned picture of good.
He inspires me.
I envision a God who does the same. I envision a God who is doing that right now to the “Church”. The anxiety of seeing the mess before we start should be replaced with the envisioned good.
I seem to remember teaching a lot about refinement. Burning away the bad. I also think I had no clue what I was teaching about. Maybe what we witness now is the refining fire?
That is deep Reuben. I’m copying that in my notes. Gonna have to think though it for a few days,
Reuben,
Well done!
I love those videos too…
I’m still around Michael et al.
I have been doing my best at trying to stay afloat and even-keeled, despite jaw-dropping crap coming from our leaders who SHOULD know better, but don’t, or don’t care.
The whole empathy dust-up strikes me as just a reaction to a woman speaking to Trump, and Trump and his followers are butt-hurt.
I too can see some areas of society becoming resegregated. It never really totally disappeard from the South.
Trump could say 2+2=3, and his followers would rationalize it to be true to them.
Number 7…Amen for the Resurrection, but much of the candy isn’t delectible to me (diabetes)
Amen to number 8, ‘cept my Twins are unwinning….yes I made that word up.
Dan,
Keeping afloat is getting harder and harder…I have to be very mindful about how well I’m taking care of my mind and spirit.
All that to say I’m glad you’re here and I understand the struggle…