Scott Stilson

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If the delay of the parousia ever becomes a problem again for me, I remind myself that N.T. Wright has written a solid article on the subject with one solution, Andrew Perriman has written a book with a different, more thoroughly preterist account of it, and Christopher Hays has written an entirely different book account of it.

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New habit: When I think of someone, I will do something to indicate their importance.

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Now that’s a fetching image.

A brick church building with a tall tower features solar panels installed on its roof.
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I am newly resolved: I will not work past 5 PM except to finish up for the day, discharge my daily email duties, and fulfill requests that are specifically to work after hours.

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“Feeling good about what you’re doing is no guarantee that you’re doing any good.”

— David Mesenbring

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“And so climate politics has become the art of the impossible: a cycle of increasingly desperate exhortations to impracticable action, presumably in hopes of inspiring at least some half-measures.”

— Matt Frost

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“[R]ecent sex research suggests, the sex drive is as much about the desire to be desired and to be close as it is about sexual release, for men and women alike."

— Sue Johnson

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Remember that if it’s late in the evening and you’re tired but don’t think it best to go to bed just yet, listening to music is the perfect fit.

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“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

— George S. Patton

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I think President Trump thinks “to exonerate” means “to let get away with” or “to fail to produce absolutely irrefutable proof of wrongdoing by.”

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“Their question is haunting: Who will tell our stories well when we have forgotten who we are?”

— John Swinton, Dementia (23)

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It shall be unlawful for a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or… [an] expressed or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election.

U.S. Code Title 52, section 30121, line a2. President Trump is in violation of that law. Additionally:

[N]o Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution. President Trump is in violation of that clause. So, he has broken statutory and constitutional law. Out with him!

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What I really want in this instance, as George MacDonald taught me, isn’t the forgiveness for the consequences of my sins (e.g., the wrath of God) but freedom from my actual sins. I’d like to become the father that doesn’t snap at his son. I don’t want an imputed purity. I actually want to be, myself, pure.

— Richard Beck

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Good working definition of joy from Richard Beck: “great delight regardless of external circumstance.”

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On the subject of the solo satisfaction of biological and psychological drives (e.g., eating, masturbating, sightseeing): As long as they are not harmful and they are undertaken with thanksgiving, they are done in love, and are thus good.

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“[A] Christian sexual ethic is a process of transforming eros into agape.”

– Richard Beck

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Shame and guilt can be healthy, life-giving emotions. There’s a reason we have them. Sure, shame and guilt can become toxic and debilitating. But let’s not think that there’s something unhealthy about feeling shame or guilt when you do something that violates your conscience. That’s called being a human being.

— Richard Beck

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“In distinctive contrast in the midst of the ancient world, the Jews will sacrifice animals to God, but never their children. And that’s a moral revolution in the history of the world” (Richard Beck, “On Genesis 22: Give the Story a Little Respect”).

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Love is hardly love if it is lazy.

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My reflections on excerpts from A Grief Observed (1961) by C. S. Lewis

The death of a spouse after a long and fulfilling marriage in quite a different thing. Perhaps I have never felt more closely the strength of God’s presence than I did during the months of my husband’s dying and after his death. It did not wipe away the grief. The death of a beloved is an amputation. But when two people marry, each one has to accept that one of them will die before the other (xii–xiii).

Such insightful and poetic words from Madeleine L’Engle. It is true: Either Carla or I will predecease the other, and that will feel like an amputation.

Reading A Grief Observed during my own grief made me understand that each experience of grief is unique (xiii).

I must remember that as I age and my friends’ spouses die.

Like Lewis, I, too, kept a journal, continuing a habit started when I was eight. It is all right to wallow in one’s journal; it is a way of getting rid of self-pity and self-indulgence and self-centeredness. What we work out in our journals we don’t take out on...

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“…[w]ith humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves…” (Paul). This is a crucial verse for me if I’m going to bear the fruit of love. It’s this regard of others as more important than myself that is going to turn up my inner hearth of love for others. Without that phrase, my love risks being too mechanical, too principled. If I can honestly regard others as more important than myself, I will fulfill the second Great Commandment.

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To love = to give a damn about (1) the good of and/or (2) the enjoyment of relationship with

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I’ll at least put the Irish places we visited in order, with the idea that maybe I’ll make a little route map later:

Dublin

Clare

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I just read that attraction is common in cross-sex friendships, especially in men. I write this because it helps me know whether I was an oddball in my younger days for being attracted to just about every girl or young woman with whom I was good friends.

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I like retelling the events of the day with the kids and Carla. It is enjoyable. Plus, it helps me remember later.