On time

We might be the most time-conscious people ever. Perhaps the biggest factor in our acute awareness of time is the omnipresent clock. Everywhere we turn there are a variety of time-keeping devices (cell phones, watches, computers, bank marquees, etc.) that precisely measure away the day. Time tumbles on and we often navigate our day like Jack Bauer feeling the punch of each second gone.

Yet for all our fretting over time (or a lack of it) we have never had more ways to waste it. We have a plethora of time-saving technologies that provide opportunity to use even more time-wasting technologies. Our time is often absorbed by temporal pursuits rather than eternal ones. Time is too precious and the world throbs too intensely for us to watch the sands of time sink.

Not only can we waste away the present with frivolous pursuits, but there is also the temptation to live in times past. Nostalgia adds a satin finish to reality. Our mind, fueled with reminders of the past (music and scent being the most potent), busily reconstructs the past, churning out glistening gold memories. It is a temptation to bask in these memories, forgetting the needs of the moment.

There is the opposite temptation that exists as well. Instead of living in the past, we might long for the future, always chasing the next dream. Perhaps it is pursuing the next degree or job. Maybe we long for the next place of residence. Our hearts reside in what lies ahead, failing to recognize the needs of the moment.

So what are the needs of the moment?

Jesus has entered this world and dragged heaven down with him. Eternity has pierced the present with the coming of Christ's kingdom. Time needs to be redeemed because there is only so much of it; time had a beginning and it will have an end. Not only is time limited, but we don't even know how limited it is! In the meantime, what needs to be done with whatever time is left is the building up of Christ's kingdom.

Christopher Hitchens/Douglas Wilson debate

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HT: Creation Project

Pastor houses child killer

Read about it at Creation Project. Well worth the reading.

Open-mindedness

Certain words encapsulate the zeitgeist of a culture. Recently, Kevin DeYoung has done a nice job of unpacking two of these words, dialogue and inclusion. Here is another: open-mindedness. This word, particularly with regard to spiritual matters, expresses one of our culture's great virtues. If by open-mindedness one means a willingness to listen to those with whom we disagree or to thoughtfully engage with ideas at variance with our own, then I'm on board; open-mindedness is a fine thing. But typically when the term open-mindedness is tossed around it refers to a perennial suspension of judgment or an unwillingness to reach a conclusion or closure. The open-minded spiritual person is always searching, never finding. To have found, after all, implies in some sense a closure of the mind; options have been eliminated through some sort of sifting process which means our mind has narrowed, or closed.

Regarding this term, G.K. Chesterton offers a punchy comparison, saying, 'an open-mind is like an open mouth. It's only good if it chomps down on something solid.'

(Does anyone know where this quote can be found? Thankfully, my mind clamped, or closed, on the quote, and I am reciting it from memory which means it is probably not exact.)

A telling tale of the power of grace and forgiveness

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ESV Study Bible and the interpretive task

Click here for Jonathan Dodson's word on interpreting scripture.

Joni Eareckson Tada on Suffering

HT: Between Two Worlds