You remember that scene in Return of the King where Denethor pines over the mortally-wounded Faramir? He thinks his biggest problem is that his son is dead and his line extinguished, but he walks to the edge of the cliff and sees that it’s much worse: the host of Mordor is at the gates and he’s had no idea. And so he despairs, telling his soldiers “Flee! Flee for your lives!” Continue reading “on looking out in despair”
on idolising women
A dear friend of mine and I were recently talking about my singleness. I was telling him that I’m actually pretty scared that I’ll be single for the rest of my life.
Now God has been outrageously, scandalously generous to me all my life. And the takeaway from that, I tell myself, should be the knowledge that there is nothing good that God will withhold from me. The takeaway is not that God has given me all good things therefore he won’t withhold a wife, but the fact that no good thing has been withheld, and if singleness is my lot I won’t merely get by, I’ll thrive. Continue reading “on idolising women”
on elitism and inclusiveness
What happens when the Christian faith produces its own culture? Christian movies, songs, celebrities and cell groups with the Church stamp of approval, exclusively for Christian consumption so as to avoid secular culture? Or what happens when the Church holds out any group in particular as a special example of fallenness to avoid or resist, and leaves it at that? Continue reading “on elitism and inclusiveness”
on lifelong things
How would you qualify a lifelong interest? Something that lasts ten years? Twenty?
In my entire life I would say the longest-running interest I’ve had is in dinosaurs. That interest ran probably from as early as I can remember till I was about 15. That’s 13 years of dinosaur mania.
On the other hand I only started getting interested in Roman history (and ancient history in general) when I was about 16, and that interest is still running. So that’s just shy of 10 years of interest in Roman history.
But I get the feeling that my passion for Roman history will last a long time, if not for the rest of my life. My interest in dinosaurs on the other hand has pretty much run dry. So despite its longer run in my life till now, dinosaur mania still lost out. Continue reading “on lifelong things”
on what truth is
On the eve of his execution Jesus is questioned by Pilate about his identity (John 18:33-38). Jesus tells Pilate that he is in fact a King, just as Pilate had been trying to get Jesus to admit all along, but adds “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of the truth listens to me.”
To which Pilate (you can almost see the sneer on his face) replies “What is truth?”
What is truth? The classicist in me goes first and foremost to the ancient writers: Continue reading “on what truth is”
on low self-esteem and burning questions
There are two types of doubts that have come at me recently. One is an old friend while the other is a more theoretical doubt, one I am less passionate about but still floats around my head sometimes.
Regarding the first doubt: low self-esteem is a constant problem for me. I can do most things more or less competently but certain recurring failures, or an occasional, spectacular cockup, will bring me crashing. Continue reading “on low self-esteem and burning questions”
on what christians are best at
We are the Church. We are the bride of Christ. We are a light to the world, a nation of priests, a royal people who were brought out of darkness so that we could share the light with other people. We are God’s people, we are the children of Abraham, we are the co-heirs of the Son of God, we are the ones who can see in Christ the very image of the invisible God.
Yet how far short we fall! Continue reading “on what christians are best at”
on seeing
There’s this really awesome moment in 2 Kings chapter 6 when the prophet Elisha and his servant find themselves surrounded by Aramean soldiers, on orders to bring them alive back to their king. The servant wakes up one morning and finds the city encircled with horses and chariots, and so he goes to Elisha and asks “what do we do?” You can almost hear the panic in his voice. Elisha then prays that his servant’s eyes will be opened, and then and there the man sees – he sees the armies of the living God surrounding the Arameans. The latter, of course, fail their mission. Continue reading “on seeing”
on alexander the great and broken cisterns
The historians tells us that Alexander the Great was driven by great yearnings. He had a yearning to cross into places his people had never gone before; he had a great yearning to know and understand the world around him; he had a great yearning to live up to his ancestor Achilles and always be the best at everything; he had a great yearning to conquer and explore. Continue reading “on alexander the great and broken cisterns”
on learning and faith
I recently gave a talk on evolution and creationism. It involved some very challenging research, with some pretty challenging implications.
I was raised in the tradition of literal six-day creationism, but reading about the other ideas of creationism (and evolution) gave me a lot to think about. What did God really do? Did it really happen in six days? Is it really that important? Was it literally like that? If not then how literal are other parts of the Bible? Did God use the imagery in Genesis merely to speak to what we know? What then are the implications for the other imagery of Scripture? What is God? Continue reading “on learning and faith”
Remember, My Lord 