The Nutcracker

This afternoon, I went to see The Nutcracker with Annabelle, my 4 year old niece. I used to take ballet and loved it, so I was excited when my sister asked me to take her. Anna loves princesses and dresses and everything girly, so we were sure she'd love the ballet too. Neither of us much enjoyed it, however. Anna, because she was scared by the mice dance, and me because Anna insisted on leaving after watching the mice dance.

I suppose I've taken it for granted that all stories have good and evil characters. I'm less disturbed by the bad ones b/c I know that its just a story and that the good characters usually win in the end anyways. Anna, on the other hand, is very troubled by evil characters. She tends to focus on them - like the Grinch of Dr. Seuss, or the "Tricky Wolf" of Little Red Riding Hood - she gets very bothered by them. "Why?" she asks - "why do they do bad things?" "why are they in the story at all?" "I don't like them." I don't have a good answer for her. I don't know why. I'm glad, though, that I've grown up to no longer fear them as she does.

I confess though that I did feel slightly anxious watching a movie not too long ago. As I sat on the edge of my seat, I told myself to relax b/c, afterall, it was just a movie and surely the good guys would win in the end. As predicted, it all worked out. Afterwards I thought "I wish that were the case in real life" - isn't it?

Discipleship - a workout

Just back from a run. 2 months ago I ran a marathon, and already I'm out of shape - a little less muscle, a little more flub, and a pair of gasping lungs. So frustrating. I want to train and work hard to get my body healthy and strong, then quit and have it stay that way, but it doesn't. I want to pray and study Scripture, figure it all out once and for all, to get my mind healthy and strong, then quit and have it stay that way, but it doesn't. The daily grind is so...frustrating. You ease up for a moment and everything falls apart.

"Things Fall Apart" - how true. I've not read the African novel, but undergrad Brit. Lit. introduced me to a Yeats' poem that I really like:
Turning and Turning in the widening gyre
The falcon can not hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold...
and then...
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming!
I like it not because its so happy, but because its so telling of our condition. Things fall apart - when left to ourselves our lives are always coming undone - but restoration is coming!

RE: Discipleship - Salvation Now?
I say, salvation now, but we're all aware that this life is still very much affected by the fall. Salvation is now, but it is only in part. One day it will be full (The Second Coming!), but for now we've got to work at living under God's authority, 'cause it doesn't come natural to us. Ecclesiastes describes this so vividly - "Vanity, Vanity, all is vanity". In vain I run a marathon, in vain I practice spiritual discipline today, only to watch it all come unravelled if I don't work at it again tomorrow. Salvation (true life) is work - continuous daily work!
Paul writes, "just as you have always obeyed...work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12).

So salvation is now, if only in part. It is a life of discipleship, a life of work, but it is the good life.

Discipleship - Salvation Now?

I'm reading The Great Omission by Dallas Willard. It's about discipleship - a role not just for super Christians, but defining of what it means to be a Christian. These thoughts flow out of those readings...

Adam and Eve lived in communion with God, under His provision, care, and authority. The fall marks their rejection of Him. The fall marks their decision to live by their own provisions and own authority. Such a life is marked by death.

Today Christians present the gospel as good news of escape from that inevitable future death - life eternal. We say, "believe and be saved," as if a verbal word now is a guarantee of future escape. But, salvation is not just a future escape from hell - it is, as it ever was, life in Him - for now and for as long as we are living under His authority and provision.

Most "Christians" believe (give a verbal nod), but continue to live under their own authority - that's not salvation. They may become saved in the future when true belief expresses itself as life under God's authority - but in the present its just empty words.

Non-Christians are a little more honest perhaps - they are not saved and they know it. They say, "I'll live under my own authority for now, and submit to God's authority when death comes-a-knockin'". I kind of think that will work (though I'd never bet on it) - I think (I hope) that He'll make room under His umbrella when judgment pours down.

But thats not the point! The point is that Adam and Eve royally messed up - it wasn't better to live under their own authority. They were stripped naked. They suffered and toiled. They died. That's why "heaven" (eternity under God's authority) is HEAVEN - a desirable place to be - because God, who is good, is in charge there.

The good news of the gospel is that heaven is here - Christ has come. It is not "believe and you'll go to heaven when you die". We can live under His authority now. That is not oppression - that is salvation. But we are Adam and Eve all over again - asserting ourselves, making provisions for ourselves, and rejecting God's authority.

Public Life - Blog Life

A few years ago I began reading a book called For Common Things by Jedediah Purdy, in which the author campaigns for civic engagement: “to speak earnestly of uncertain hopes…hopes that we know to be fragile.” Our postmodern context doubts that there is any meaning to life, and if there is meaning, that it is private and should be kept to one's self. But, is it really so narrow minded to think that one person’s perspective might actually inform another’s – that there might be some things (truths) that are common to all people and warrant public discussion?

Purdy describes our time as ironic, in which individuals “practice a style of speech and behavior that avoids all appearance of naïveté,” and “that is aware of all the ways it may be thought silly or jejune.” I confess that I am very much a part of that culture, and am acutely aware of the ways my ideals, thoughts, beliefs, and future blog posts may be thought silly. I’ve decided to express myself publicly as a blogger nonetheless, because I agree with Purdy. I agree that there are common things of meaning and significance in life that deserve our earnest speech – that deserve at the very least to be blogged about:)

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A few excerpts from For Common Things by Jedediah Purdy…

The point of irony is a quiet refusal to believe in the depth of relationships, the sincerity of motivation, or the truth of speech – especially earnest speech (10)

Love letters, then, require the courage to stake oneself on an expression of hope that may very well come to nothing. They also indicate a perception of importance, a sense that some possibilities, however unlikely, are so important that not acknowledging them would be an act of terrible neglect (xxi)

The ironic individual is a bit like Seinfeld without a script: at ease in banter, versed in allusion, and almost debilitatingly self-aware. (11)

The combined effect of ubiquitous television personalities, sanctimonious political pronouncements, and popular spiritualism has been to render cliché nearly anything that anyone would feel it important to say. (12)

So far as we are ironists, we are determined not to be made suckers. (14)