Pagan Birds and Breakfast Foods

Someone asked me if I write Christian music. She meant to discern whether my lyrics are Jesus-y and intended for church use, and my reply would have been "sometimes," if only I had been willing to leave it alone. But I would have walked away feeling very misunderstood, and since humans have a deep need to be understood, this simply wouldn't do.

I wanted to ask her if she makes Christian waffles. I wanted to tell her that Christ has all of me, including my creative ability, and I am therefore as incapable of writing a non-Christian song as a duck is incapable of making non-duck-like sounds. I wanted to tell her that the songs of mine that best reflect the revealed nature of God are the least likely to be sung corporately or enjoyed in a church setting. I wanted to tell her that my songs about adultery and depression are more Biblical than "I Can Only Imagine."

Instead, I just said "No, not really."

The Thickest of Threads

I broke bread on two separate occasions this week in the company of men with whom I have little in common. Through the nature and content of our conversations, I've come to a conclusion: unity would be a meaningless concept if those bound were exactly alike. The diversity of those unified is what makes the idea worth talking about. It's not so much complete agreement as it is resolve to remain attached in spite of disagreement. All that needs to exist is a single common thread that transcends any and all dissonance. The more transcendent the thread, the more strongly it binds, and so we find that love (self-sacrifice for the benefit of its object) is the thickest of threads.

Film Noir (Now in technicolor)

He was a yellow man with a black and blue heart who scowled at the bronzed bodies of the silver screen's golden era, green with envy and always seeing red.

Joining the Church

It seems to me that there are two ways in which one can interpret "join the church."

The first way is if one views the church as an organization, in which case it is the same as joining a club or a society: To go from being on the outside to being on the inside.

The second way is if one views the church as an active organism accomplishing a work, in which it is the same as joining a charity board or a chain-gang: To go from being inactive to being active.

It also seems to me that the second interpretation is the only Biblical one.

McCartney and the Blessed Mother

"Mary said, 'You see before you the Lord’s servant. Let it be done unto me as you have said.'"

In our world, wisdom comes from experience. Practically speaking, even Scripture backs that up. The sin is in believing that wisdom comes only from experience: that innocence equals naiveté. Mary was a virgin child, and yet even the great pagan philosopher Paul McCartney lauds her wisdom,

"When if find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom: ‘Let it be.’"

If there’s one thing the humility of the nativity teaches us, it’s that the powerless can have great authority and the inexperienced can have deep wisdom. Mary surrendered herself to the miraculous work of God in her life when she could neither deserve nor comprehend what was taking place. She stated simply, "Let it be." This is true wisdom.

Joshua Nakamura

I saw an advertisement for an upcoming film entitled, The Day the Earth Stood Still. I have no idea what it is about nor do I care. But it caused me to think about the day the sun stood still as recorded in Joshua 10. The historicity of the account is met with sharp Copernican criticism and this criticism is met with a reasoned rebuttal followed up by a jump to a typical conclusion that is typically decimated by physics. Usually it goes this way:

guy 1 - "The sun stood still."

guy 2 - "Big deal. The sun always does that. It's the earth that moves."

guy 1 - "Semantic trifle. Of course it was not the sun that stood still. But don't we in the scientifically emancipated 21st century still call it sunrise even though we know astronomically speaking it should be called the earthspin? It was really the earth that stood still."

guy 2 - "The earth and its passengers move at a rate of 66,600 miles per hour. If Earth stopped suddenly, all life would be ripped apart and slingshot from the earth at that same rate until friction stopped it. No survivors. Not Amorites, not Israelites, not even cockroaches."

guy 1 - "[pause] God can do anything."

guy 2 - "Why are we having this discussion?"

...And we have reached communication breakdown (It's always the same...).

Both sides are wise to accept that the language describing "the sun standing still" was intended to communicate the effect of whatever physical phenomenon occurred and not to scientifically document the phenomenon itself. What the scribe recorded was that an ancient commander asked his God to make the sun still because, by his ability to perceive, it seemed to him that this would give him longer daylight under which to defeat his enemies. It also seemed to him that this was exactly what happened. No need for his God to clarify. "Listen Joshua, the Sun always stands still. Answering your prayer literally would be meaningless because it's the earth that moves. [pause] Yes, seriously. And since stopping the earth would be globally cataclysmic, I'll have to do something else for you." Why go to the trouble? Joshua doesn't need a physics lesson; he needs his God's help. What physically happened is of no relevance to the commander or to his scribe. To them, the day was much, much, longer.

Where the conversation takes its fatal turn is when, after guy 1 and guy 2 agree that it couldn't have been the sun that stood still, guy 1 immediately jumps to the conclusion that the uncharacteristically immobile culprit was the earth, leading guy 2 to point out the obvious. Allow me to offer another option.

While we're allowing that the sun standing still was only the people's perception of the phenomenon, why not explore other scenarios that could produce the same appearance? What if instead one thing slowing down, other things just moved much faster? Time is relative, therefore so is speed. I think it's possible that God allowed both armies to have an altered time-space experience until the battle was over. To Joshua, it looks like his prayer is answered literally, so why get into the details?

I now open the floor for a possible discussion. Or disinterested silence. Whatever.