Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Strong Words

One of my pet peeves is words -- words that have strong meanings that are used in ways that weaken the words. I have tons of these, but today I'll talk about the word "miracle."

A miracle is something that occurs outside the natural order only with the direct intervention of God, such as instant healing, walking on water, etc . . . I may even give you salvation as a miracle, but I just think that "miracle" is a pretty high standard and should only be reserved for truly miraculous events.

I love sunsets, but sunsets are not miracles; they happen every day at specifically predictable times; they are by definition part of the natural order.

Babies, too. They are born every day all over the world; again, they define the natural order as oppose to violate it. It doesn't get much more predictable than that.

These events are awesome, cool, wonderful, breathtaking, amazing, etc . . . they just aren't miracles.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Repent!

Say you're surfing. You've seen the pose, knees bent, one foot in front of the other, blond tresses blowing in the sea breeze. The waves are changing, or you're at the end of a run, and you need to change the direction of the board, what do you do? You do the switchfoot, moving the position of the feet on the board to change the direction you're going.

To turn around. To completely change direction. To Switchfoot.

BTW, go buy their new album.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Katrina thoughts

The pictures coming out of the South are still gripping, but nonetheless I am starting to move from emotional response to theological response to this natural disaster. In no particular order, here are some of my thoughts:

* It is a fallen world, one in bondage to decay. Whether this signifies the end times or anything calamitous of that nature I don't know, but it certainly is reflective of a wild world. Singer Tonio K once noted, "it's a jungle out there; it used to be a garden."

* Man is not by nature good. Quite to the contrary, when the strictures of authority and civilized society are gone, we snap quickly (QUICKLY) into our true looting, raping, pillaging, selfish selves.

* There is light in the darkness. The storm is not evidence of God's absence, but help and heroism are evidences of His presence.