Mercy is by definition unjust.
Just finished reading “Die With Me: Jesus, Pickton, and Me” (2006) by Brita Miko, who argues that we need to love and forgive even the worst of sinners if we’re going to follow Jesus. My take: Not if you think forgiveness should be granted without confession and repentance, as it seems Miko does.
To love God is to want to delight Him.
I am the In-Betweener:
I’m never satisfied.
Is that I’m keener,
Or am I just a bag of pride? ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Is it passionate love
Or just a love for passion? ✏️ 🎤 🎵
I feel more nervous running A/V for a 200-person address than I do addressing the 200 people.
A potential revolution for memorizing lyrics: Write them down. Why haven’t I been doing this all along!?
“There is no escaping the fact that want of sympathy condemns us to a corresponding stupidity.”
— George Eliot • Daniel Deronda (1876)
Roughly my sophomore year in college, I started using Georgia for school papers instead of Time New Roman. Why? Because it’s bigger at the same point size, hence easier to get to “four pages, double-spaced, size 12 font.” (Not to mention it’s easier on the eyes.)
May all of our eros be agapified.
To insist it is my civic duty to read about, think about, and talk about tyrants only augments their tyranny. Ignoring tyrants is my preferred mode of protest. NB: This is not the same as saying I will ignore the effects their tyranny has on my neighbors.
Watching this classic macOS screensaver featuring the cover art of the CDs I own is the closest I come to swimming through piles of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.
A movie and dinner > dinner and a movie. More to talk about and less trouble falling asleep that night.
The degree to which you don’t buy the fundamental idea I put forward in this essay that amends are necessary for a just forgiveness is the degree to which you can stand even more amazed at the love of Jesus in subjecting Himself to crucifixion to provide that (proxy) amends. You may not believe amends are necessary for forgiveness (and if you don’t, that itself may be an indication of Jesus’ ideological success), but Jesus’ contemporaries and forbears did think so. If the idea is mere cultural contingency rather than ethical fact, that only makes Jesus’ sacrifice all the more amazing in its condescension—and thus more apt as reason to sit at His feet and align yourself with His overall ethical program.
Some introspection while walking home from a nighttime walk with Matt after an evening when I failed miserably to bring together a cohesive Spring Break plan for the family:
Too often at home and at church and, historically at least, at work, I stand opposed to and suspicious of what’s being brought by others. Blame eighteen years as an academic. (I’m using that term very loosely to include K-12 and undergraduate.) Blame a natural bent of my mind.
But that’s not what’s gonna get it done. When I say “it,” I mean togetherness, I mean unity of vision and will. I mean a sense of belonging and cherishing. I mean laughter.
No, what I need if I want those things at my kitchen table, in church, and at work is the “Yes! And…” spirit of improv. Bring myself and what I have to offer in a positive sense, sure—and honor that which others bring of themselves. “Yes, that’s right! And we can do this…” That’s so good. That’s the way.
I will hazard an unsubstantiated guess that two-parent families in which only one parent participates in the full-time workforce are, on average, healthier, happier families as families than ones in which both parents do.
“Having different gracious gifts, according to the grace given us: if prophecy, according to the proportion of faithfulness…” (Romans 12:6, DBH). If Hart’s translation is correct, then one should prophesy in proportion to one’s demonstrated faithfulness, not according to one’s faith, the latter word being the majority translation in this context vacant of meaning.
In other words, only prophesy if your deeds warrant you time with the microphone.
The Year of the Snake. How appropriate.
Man, do I feel done with movie and TV watching. Just a phase, I’m sure. But still: No appeal whatsoever.
Alas, I’ll be in Vegas
For the tenth or eleventh time ✏️ 🎤 🎵
But Lord, I had noble pretexts! ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Jane Doe?
I never knew her ✏️ 🎤 🎵
What shall we do with the decaf tea?
What shall we do with the decaf coffee?
Nobody drinks it except me
And if I drink it, I can’t sleep ✏️ 🎤 🎵
“Should” is a word with real, live uses
Granted, it’s seen its share of abuses ✏️ 🎤 🎵
I wanna do everything
Without doing anything ✏️ 🎤 🎵