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Monday, August 04, 2008
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The Fall and The Stand
O mankind, how far did you fall? Could you ever comprehend how far the fall, what you might have been?
I am just leaving my teen years. I can feel the strength, energy, and passion of new adulthood filling me, growing me. And yet here in what seems the consummation of joy and strength, my body cracks. A disease which will affect me for the rest of my life (just pneumonia and the weakened lungs it brings) has leapt upon me. In the midst of vibrancy, disease. In the consummation of life, the signs of death. O man, how far did you fall? What might you have been?
It seems as though I’ve never felt the weight of the fall so, that I’ve never felt my body crack so under the weight. Yet if it seems so, it must be due to my own blindness, my own ignorance. That is the irony of the fall: that in it we are so blinded we can’t discern the height from which we fell. The reality is that the weight of the fall, the weight of my sin, has so often cracked me much more deeply and indeed much more permanently than any disease. I cannot begin to number the times I’ve given into temptation. My soul is cracked through and through. The very essence of who I am bleeds sin and corruption. How far have you fallen, O man? What once might your soul have looked like?
Thank God for God! Thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ! Thank God I stand not alone but in His strength! Thank God His Right Hand bears me up ‘neath the weight of my sin! Battered, bruised, and broken, that which You created, You recreate! You humbled Yourself that I might be raised! You broke Yourself that I might be made whole! You threw Yourself down that I might be lifted up!
“You stood before my failure,
And carried the cross for my shame.
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand
So what can I say?
And what can I do?
But offer this heart, O God,
Completely to You
So I’ll Stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the one who gave it all.
I’ll Stand
My soul, Lord, to You surrendered,
All I am is Yours.”
~The Stand by Hillsong United
Sunday, August 03, 2008
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Happy 18th Birthday Will!
Happy Birthday to my totally awesome younger brother! Welcome to the world of U.S. voters!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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Joy - Virtue of the Idiot or the Invincible
"Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity." - G.K. Chesterton
At first this quote struck me as just odd. Then, on further reflection it struck me as profound, but only only once one has truly experienced the joy of the Lord does its full truth ring home. It seems like the gray cloud of familiarity and mediocrity rolls back from this world, if only for a moment and you glimpse the world as the paradise it was designed to be. This experience leads Chesterton to proclaim, "Most probably we are still in Eden, it is only our eyes that have changed."
Perhaps the single greatest symptom of this pure joy is a suprarational invincibility, almost a sense of transcendence. All the seemingly significant troubles shrink to the point that they almost fade from view. The only response to them seems to be laughter. Laughter is the response of the idiot or the invincible. Perhaps the best word to describe it is mirth. It's that look that crosses Gandalf's face and finds realization in the corners of his mouth when he faces imminent death on the walls of Minas Tirith. He has traveled that path before and overcome. He has glimpsed the far side and when it confronts him again he says, "The grey rain curtain of this world folds back and all turns to silver glass." The words of a fool or a master.
Nehemiah knew this sense. He was confronted with overwhelming problems, yet I can't imagine that he did other than laugh as he proclaimed, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." I'm sure he felt the invincibility that true joy brings and I am just as sure that he was truly invincible."You are now with us here
We are found in You
And this makes all the difference,
This changes everything
Making our whole existence
Worth something so we sing:
Oh, You make all the difference,
Yeah, You change everything
You make our whole existence
Worth something so we sing:
La, la, la"
...Neverending... by David Crowder
Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Quotables - Freedom's Foundations II - Dr. Mitchell
1. Dr. Mitchell: “Freedom’s II… we need a better name. How about Freedom’s Supremacy or Freedom’s Ultimatum.”
2. Dr. Mitchell: “There is a song there to be written: ‘Living in the Subjunctive.’”
3. Dr. Mitchell: “You can chortle, you can chuckle, you can even smirk, but no guffawing in my class!”
4. Dr. Mitchell: “I’ve fallen asleep in bad places. Have you all… of course you have.”
5. Dr. Mitchell: “I tried that with a policeman once; he didn’t like the Aquinas stuff.”
6. Dr. Mitchell: “The semester is like going from island to island. The weekends are the islands.”
7. Dr. Mitchell: “One independent thinking person messes up an entire class.”
8. Dr. Mitchell: “If you are sick, don’t breath *long pause* on anyone.”
9. Dr. Mitchell: “I’m wearing a necktie, it must be a special day.”
10. Dr. Mitchell: “If your roommate gets sick, move!”
11. Dr. Mitchell: “Maybe we’ll just hack off your ears.”
12. Dr. Mitchell: “Starvation does… cause… some… problems.”
13. Dr. Mitchell: “Hemmingway had a short story: ‘Men without Women.’” Robert: “That’s why it was a short story.”
14. Dr. Mitchell: “If you meet Burke on the street and he calls you an abstract metaphysician that’s bad. It’s the worst insult his imagination can think of.”
15. Josh: “Well, we don’t always have to overthrow the government.” Dr. Mitchell: “What a relief.”
16. Dr. Mitchell: “King James, you’ve heard of him before. He wrote the Bible.”
17. Dr. Mitchell: “You smirk whenever I say ‘dismemberment.’ Do you like this?”
18. Dr. Mitchell: “If you can do one thing to your speaking, remove the word like.”
19. Dr. Mitchell: “They always peppered their rhetoric with Ad Hominems, which is fun… and effective.”
20. Dr. Mitchell on the Revolutionary War: “England doesn’t love us?!
21. Dr. Mitchell: “We’ve got natural resources… we have trees!”
22. Dr. Mitchell on his sub-freezing classroom: “I don’t want you to drift off; I don’t want to drift off, I’m tired.”
23. Dr. Mitchell: “‘Life, liberty, property!’ Now we’re on the Lockian bandwagon.”
24. Dr. Mitchell: “There’s Jefferson in a corner with his baby blanket.”
25. Dr. Mitchell: “It was a three-cent tax on tea. That’s a far cry from despotism.
26. Dr. Mitchell: “Those of you who think the pleasures of eating chocolate ice cream are better than Plato are wrong.”
27. Dr. Mitchell: “It was a lack of buckstopshereism.”
28. Dr. Mitchell on the Constitution: “It’s a new deal… that’s probably the wrong term.”
29. Dr. Mitchell interviewing student body political candidate Jacob Baum: “Did you mean that literally: any time I want a pen I can come to you?” Jacob: “Of course.” Jeremy explains: “He’s running for office.” Dr. Mitchell: “Are you?” Jacob: “Kinda.” Dr. Mitchell: “Kinda?” Jacob: “I’m not running to win.” Dr. Mitchell: “I like this campaign already.”
30. Dr. Mitchell: “Passions… remember, those are bad things.”
31. Dr. Mitchell: “How sick is he? Does he have the flu?” Curtis: “He was hucking up stuff…” Dr. Mitchell: “That’s enough.” Jenna: “Wait, didn’t you cook for him last night?”
32. Dr. Mitchell: “Not too many people should have armies.”
33. Dr. Mitchell: “We are going to play an imaginary game; Sophomores like imaginary games.”
34. Dr. Mitchell on the effects of guns: “You pull the trigger, the other person dies whether he’s a noble or not.”
35. Dr. Mitchell on opposing Democracy: “You will be beating your head against a brick wall. No, wait, you will be beating your head against something moving much faster than a wall… You are beating your head against a moving train, and that’s bad for your head.”
36. Dr. Mitchell on classical honor: “I’ll have the honor and you’ll have a noble death.”
37. Dr. Mitchell: “You are making my point Jenna: abstract thought à difficult.”
38. Dr. Mitchell: “Icarus wasn’t French!”
39. Dr. Mitchell: “Running drugs, I’m guessing that provides a sort of outlet.”
40. Dr. Mitchell: “Misery reduction, that’s not a bad thing.”
41. Dr. Mitchell: “Maybe we’ll build a pyramid that none of us will see finished.” Jenna: “We’re already doing that.”
42. Dr. Mitchell: “Cue happy music… ‘Won’t you buy some Soapy Suds laundry detergent.”
43. Dr. Mitchell: “Can you hug a ‘sir?’”
44. Dr. Mitchell: “Men without women need either marshal law or women.”
45. Dr. Mitchell to a visitor: “ You’re in eighth grade. Have you ever read Tocqueville? Ever heard of Tocqueville? Can you spell Tocqueville?”
46. Dr. Mitchell: “Remember we missed class that day. I forgot we have Easter.”
47. Dr. Mitchell: “Oprah’s book club, Tocqueville would say, ‘Yeah! Good thing!’”
48. Rob Gingrich: “Does Dr. Mitchell still start this class with a Psalm.” Class: “Yes.” Rob: “Good. Well I’m going to start differently.”
49. Rob Gingrich: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Dr. Mitchell if you are stupid.” Robert: “Don’t worry, he already knows.”
50. Jenna: “If the Italians aren’t spirited enough, we are in trouble.” Rob Gingrich: “Somehow I don’t think C.S. Lewis is talking about reproduction.”
51. Dr. Mitchell: “When you avoid the teacher’s eye, it’s as good as admitting guilt.”
52. Dr. Mitchell: “That’s just not right to whack someone next to you.”
53. Dr. Mitchell: “I’m going to habituate my rock. Now it’s an Aristotelian rock.”
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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Quotables - Philosophy - Dr. Montgomery
1. Dr. Montgomery: “A guy walks into a Greek tailor’s shop and says, “Euripides (You rippa deez),” to which he replied Eumenides (You menna deez).”
2. Dr. Montgomery: “The scientist studies more and more of less and less and everything about nothing. A philosopher studies less and less of more and more and knows nothing about everything.”
3. Dr. Montgomery: “Papers are to be like a woman’s skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting.”
4. Dr. Montgomery: “I have Mafia contacts in Sicily. Many students have become foundations to modern buildings and thus become foundational part of modern culture.”
5. Dr. Montgomery: “There is evil. There is nasty-nasty.”
6. Dr. Montgomery: “That’s the way the universal cookie crumbles.”
7. Dr. Montgomery: “George W. Bush! He’s the worst president we’ve had since Clinton!”
8. Dr. Montgomery: “Two students plus two students equals four students, and probably a lot of trouble.”
9. Dr. Montgomery: “God create man in His own image, and ever since we’ve been returning the favor.”
10. Dr. Montgomery: “Though all presuppositions are equal, some presuppositions are more equal than others.”
11. Dr. Montgomery: “The only difference between blacks and whites is that blacks are better at music.”
12. Dr. Montgomery: “Mormon bosoms burn at a higher degree centigrade than non-Mormon bosoms.”
13. Dr. Montgomery: “Did you hear about the sad case of the man christened Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey. The rector stuttered when he christened him.”
14. Dr. Montgomery: “Don’t anybody try to keep my magazines.”
15. Dr. Montgomery: “You can look at a rock forever, and it will never tell you about itself. It just sits there and looks up to you.”
16. Dr. Montgomery: “What is the difference between you and a cumquat… Don’t say that to a non-Christian.”
17. Dr. Montgomery: “Aren’t you the audit… then shut up.”
18. Dr. Montgomery: “You couldn’t get me to vote Democrat if my life depended on it.”
19. Dr. Montgomery: “I will be dealing with philosophy of Art and philosophy of religion, two very sexy topics.”
20. Dr. Montgomery: “Some of you are suffering constipation of the brain and tongue.”
21. Dr. Montgomery: “Stew consists of gruel and gunk... get the gunk swimming in the gruel.”
22. Dr. Montgomery: “That is nincompoopishness.”
23. Dr. Montgomery: “Why are you all here so early? You have a full minute before class starts.”
24. Dr. Montgomery: “Surely if God can use TV evangelists, then he can certainly use reason.”
25. Dr. Montgomery: “What’s the difference between a psychiatrist and a coal miner? The answer is the psychiatrist goes down deeper, stays down longer, and comes up dirtier.”
26. Dr. Montgomery: “If we had a choice between Confucius and the Pharisees to invite to a dinner party, we would choose Confucius in a heartbeat.”
27. Dr. Montgomery: “As with everything else, including my jokes, this may show up on a quiz.”
28. Dr. Montgomery: “I don’t want to occupy all of your time… eighty percent sure, but not ALL of it.”
29. Dr. Montgomery: “There is, of course, a New Martin Luther doll that you can buy for Christmas. You wind him up, and what does he do? He just stands there.”
30. Dr. Montgomery: “I get out my airline puke bag.”
31. Dr. Montgomery: “Academic life is intensive, but it certainly beats jail.” Zach: “But we’re paying for this.”
32. C.S. Lewis was asked by a media interviewer during WWII what he would think if he say a bomb dropped from a German plane coming straight down at him. “If you only had time for one last thought, what would it be?” Lewis replied that he would look up at the bomb, stick out his tongue at it and say, “Pooh! You’re only a bomb. I’m an immortal soul.”
33. Cate: “Well, I’m from Florida.” Dr. Montgomery: “I’m sorry, we all have our problems.”
34. Dr. Montgomery: “I was delighted to hear that one person went to Florida and it did nothing but rain.”
35. Dr. Montgomery: “Chaos is not necessarily bad: a good explosion once in awhile is not a bad idea.”
36. Dr. Montgomery: “We always have propaganda for guests.”
37. Dr. Montgomery: “Who invented these things? Whoever invented these things should be drawn and quartered.”
forChrist4liberty
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- Name: forChrist4liberty
- Gender: Male
- Member Since: 9/26/2006
