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”
on being happy
We should gladly accept good things when they come, but don’t let them make you forget where the fountain of happiness is.
Good things, good people, good jobs, good moments come and go. If they don’t go they will change. And during that change they will definitely disappoint you along the way. Continue reading “on being happy”
on lessons learned
Some things I learned this past year:
• The importance of empathy cannot be overstated. Uncaring cold-heartedness, bullying and generally being a shithead can be cured in part by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Continue reading “on lessons learned”
on being nice
Recently I watched a Chinese soap opera portraying a spoiled little imperial prince. He treated all the servants like dirt and had no respect for his elders’ authority. I was thinking how different he is from kids in our era, who are expected to be nice and multicultural and polite. But then I thought it must’ve been because these princes were raised for a specific purpose: their education consisted in how to rule the kingdom and stay alive. Their education had nothing to do with getting along with other people. They literally had no reason to be nice.
Which made me think back to my niceness vs kindness debate, which I’ve briefly touched on before. Why are we nice? Is niceness for its own sake worth it? Often we are nice because, let’s face it, you won’t get far in life if everyone hates you. Continue reading “on being nice”
on spiritual highs and lows
Spiritual ups and downs are a seemingly unavoidable part of the Christian’s life. If you’re anything like me it goes like this: a two-week spiritual high followed by a crash, followed by feelings of remorse, self-disgust and disappointment. Along comes a great experience or inspiring sermon, then a bout of spiritual growth, another high, then a crash. Repeat ad nauseam. Continue reading “on spiritual highs and lows”
on the abuse of indelible grace
Consider: nothing that the Christian does or fails to do can condemn him before God.
What are the biblical grounds in support of this statement? Continue reading “on the abuse of indelible grace”
on our right to eternity
I’d been having trouble figuring out why exactly Christ’s sacrifice entitled us to oneness with God and eternal life.
I understood the concept and system and logic behind penal substitutionary atonement, double imputational justification, sacrifice, temple/tabernacle mechanics, etc., but it still escaped me why we should be allowed to come to God once sin was dealt with. Why does the removal of sin automatically place us with God? Why do we deserve to rise from the grave just because God raised Christ from the grave? Continue reading “on our right to eternity”
on the sun
A friend of mine was telling me a while ago about the sacraments: The obvious ones are the communion, the many sacrifices outlined in the latter half of Exodus. There are also less obvious ones, he said, such as the rainbow: It is a weapon of war (wrath) that is strangely pointed toward its wielder, prophetic of God’s atoning self sacrifice.
At that moment I was convinced, but less so now. Still, it was interesting. How about the sun? Continue reading “on the sun”
on shyness
I am what you’d describe as a shy guy, scared of talking to pretty girls.
Sounds innocuous, even charming. But here’s what’s wrong with that:
Shyness means I don’t want to talk to a pretty girl for fear of looking bad in front of her – I think I speak for nine out of ten guys who suffer from shyness (and in fact the Cantonese/Mandarin words for ‘shy’ are rendered 怕羞 and 害羞 respectively, both of which approximately mean ‘afraid of shame’) – but is this not simply pride and self-importance? Continue reading “on shyness”
Remember, My Lord 