The Joy of Eating and the Death of America I

Have you ever wondered how the joy of cooking gets lost in fast food? Probably not. The thing to consider, however, is have you ever wondered how the joy of eating gets lost in fast food? Micky D's is the symptom of a dying culture. Fast food is not a joy-- it is nothing compared to a good meal with friends and family. Everything about fast food is a sign of the death of a people. Drive through windows, service right now, greasy cheap food. Even if you think it tastes good, it isn't good for you.

When you are eating in a car, your day is not going well. Life has seasons. Life has rhythms. Life has ebbs and flows. Fast food denies this. The quality of the food denies this. The place you eat it denies this. The speed at which it comes to you denies this. The isolation denies this. Fast food is not the problem. The existence of fast food is a symptom. It is the symptom of the death of a culture. There should be joy in eating-- fast food robs you of that joy. Search for the joy. Search for it.

Slowly Fading

You know, dying is a funny thing. We all die in one way or another. Maybe this is a weird way to look at it, but it seems to be true. On your way out, how do you want to be treated? I have often thought that certain things were a bad idea on the way out. Now, I wonder. Sometimes it's true what they say, "you don't know; you weren't there."

August 26

Tomorrow when the polls open up at 7am for the primaries, I will be off to my polling place to cast my vote. If you do not know where your polling location is,

click here.

Tomorrow looks to be an exciting day. If anyone has any questions let me know.

Republican Primary

Tomorrow is the Republican primary in my Area. I look forward to voting. I am currently planning on voting for Schaeffer Cox for State House for district 7 (among other things). Hope all is well with you voters out there.

(Subtlety and Chuckles)

Some dreams are better than others. Some goals are worthy, some are not. You cannot always have what you want at a given time. Thankfully, we don't get all our dreams. We just do not always see how our dreams are good or bad. You know, as I have gotten older, I have realized that I want so much less out of life than I once did. I dream of little things. But simple and "little" are not always unprofound. The little things are so much more than we often think.

There is one thing I would like to remind myself of. Not everything that I want that I cannot have is bad. There is little reason not to try for that which is good. There is little reason to be dismayed when you fail at good dreams. Just stay away from the bad ones.

Christmas

And on that day a child did come
And we who were not there were saved
And when the star shone after that
wise men from the east came there.

That God should come himself a man
And we His creatures be relieved
Oh the joy they felt that day
And now again remembered here.

What shall we say in memory?
And what might we so small and weak,
Bring our Lord on this sweet day?
This day that God was born with us.

Oh sweet child we sing to thee
For you are great and now are born
And all our hopes did come that day-
Except that you will come again.

Quote of the week X

"5. Which rope is stronger? The green or the blue one? Those of you who answered this question doubtless know something the rest of us don't. You might enjoy ice-climbing."

(John Sherman. Page 105 of Sherman Exposed: Slightly Censored Climbing Stories. The Mountaineers; Seattle: 1999.)

In one moment

Kings have been deposed in a single day. In a single moment, we can gain or lose more than we ever thought possible. Our stride can be broken. Something can hold us down. Oh yes, it does not matter whether or not we are moving. But why do we forget, why do I forget, that what can be undone in one moment can be exceeded in the next. I always remember that it can get worse. I always forget that it can always get better. So much can happen in one moment.

Return

I'm going to Item again. It has been awhile. I fully expect dire conditions. I wish you all the best.

In Brief On Hurt

Sometimes hurts are buried so deep that we can't get to them directly without ripping ourselves apart. Sometimes we have to unpack one thing at a time, as it were. Sometimes we have to approach the healing process slowly. But of course, we have to approach it. Time heals nothing. Healing may take time, but you cannot just wait around and get better. There may be a great pain buried deep down inside, but it doesn't have to come out all at once.

Quote of the Week IX

"The American people are incredibly forgiving, but John Edwards violated a basic sense of public dignity and personal morality. The fact that his wife, Elizabeth, is in the fight of her life with cancer only adds to the public's sense of outrage at his violation of his marital vows. His repeated lies added fuel to the fire. On top of all this, the narcissism and recklessness of his affair revealed a poisonous disregard for his responsibilities, his supporters, his family, his friends, and the public."

Albert Mohler 2008

Invasion

You know, I have never experienced a physical invasion. Reading about the

goings on in Georgia

has got me thinking. This may seem like a tacky stretch, but I'm actually thinking about the worldview clash. What messages are trying to invade the sovereign territory of my worldview? And is that territory really sovereign?

Mountains and Philosophers

I have added two new links to the resources column on the right. One is to Peakware World Mountain Encyclopedia and the other is to The Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy.

The first is a promising new database of mountains (to wet the appetite of climbers all over) and the second is a top-notch online philosophy reference that I highly recommend.

Quote of the Week VIII

"If somebody's willing to kill for you, die for you, and help you bury a dead body without asking questions first, that's all you can possibly hope to find in a friend or a spouse. No rational creature can possibly demand slavish devotion to anticipating its momentary whims; stay very far away from any man or woman who does."

-Vox Day, 2008

Get Me

All laid out in fine array
I see the liars here right now
I listen to their flattery
And know that they don't care somehow.

They listen to my every word
But I know they don't feel a thing
And though they feign an interest now
It's only that they think me king.

And sore and shocked they'll surely be
When they find me just a prince
And when He comes they'll bow the knee
But who then could they convince?

There are plenty of tricks that one can learn
And people are mostly open fools
No one's special here at all
And power flows from certain rules.

Yet all the world I dream tonight
To find just one who won't pretend
Am I a fool to want this thing?
And what will happen in the end?

"The Heart of the Church"

Very little else in the Christian Scriptures is as certain, sure, and repeated throughout as the doctrine of predestination. You do not have to understand it. You do not have to be able to immediately reconcile it with other doctrines you believe are "taught" in the Bible. You certainly do not have to like it. It is simply not possible, however, to read the Bible and miss the teaching of predestination-- both implicitly and explicitly, both by content and by the word itself, and both in the new and old testaments. The Bible contains the doctrine of predestination almost as surely as it contains the doctrine of the existence of God-- and more surely than the doctrine of the trinity (which no one "inside the pale" disputes). This is how Paul's letter to the Ephesians opens:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened: that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. (Ephesians 1 NKJV)

People in the Church still manage to say things like, "I don't believe in predestination," and, "the God I believe in would never do something like that." I have been thinking about why someone would ever want to hold on to the Bible and still try (hopelessly) to maintain statements like these. May I suggest a failure on the part of our pastors? Surely this is the case (although not the only thing going on by any means). Many pastors do not preach on predestination. Many people do not study much on their own. Therefore: many people do not have informed beliefs about predestination, let alone right beliefs. It is time for a change in the consciousness of the Church in America concerning predestination. Well, there is that or slow spiritual death, I suppose.

A Brief Thought On Faith and Reason

‘there is no reason without faith, and no faith without reason: they are inextricably connected. They appear disjointed and opposed only when reason is understood in the narrow sense of positivism and faith is understood in the narrow sense of fideism.’ (Alban McCoy, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Catholicism, (Continuum), p. 3.)

I couldn't agree more. Having spent eight months studying this very topic for a paper I wrote, I understand these words in a way that I could not have before. Try and separate them. I dare you. Faith and Reason are joined at the hip-- have at it if you like though.

On Failure

Failure is always a hard thing to cope with. Sometimes it's hard because our expectations were not met. We really thought that we could do better than that (and by extension, rightly or wrongly, we really thought we were better than that). Sometimes it is hard because it is embarrassing or shameful. We may have failed in front of others and they now think less of us (or we think they do, anyways). Of course, other times failure could be hard because it means we lose something. You fail at fidelity and you might lose your wife. You fail on a climb in the mountains and you might lose your friends life. You fail on a test (or series of tests) and you lose an opportunity to go to a school that you had hoped would furnish you with certain opportunities that you really do not think you will get anywhere else.

Failure is often hard for all sorts of reasons. I think that when we fail, we can react in a host of different ways. Some of those ways, though, are failures themselves. Getting back up is not always so easy. I hope that we all remember God when we fail. Let us not despise his rebuke and correction.

John, Barrack, and the Optimism I Found at DeadHorse

Does it get you down, thinking about choosing between McCain and Obama? Are you tempted to sit this one out? Do you find yourself thinking that maybe if these are the choices it just doesn't matter? Well, I sympathize with you. I would like to suggest, however, that you not forgo your local and state elections while in the throughs of a national voting depression. Primaries are coming up in Alaska and other states. Think a little smaller scale and consider trusting in God even when your choices seem... less than ideal. Voting is not something you should take for granted. And don't forget, you can always write in Mickey Mouse for president.

Fictional Emotional Undisciplined Expression

In the latest Batman installment, the character of Rachel Dawes says to Bruce Wayne, "Don't make me your only hope for a normal life." I thought that was just a bit on the odd side. It seemed like she really wanted to say something else (and maybe meant something else), but said that instead. I think she should have stuck to something like, "I really don't want to date you." I mean we all have "conflicting" feelings now and again, but does every feeling need a voice? If you were to voice all of your feelings all the time to a person, then every time they were in conflict you would confuse the person you were speaking to. Ask yourself this, "do I really want to confuse the people I care about?"