Category: Miscellany

Charles Stanley has said that some people are not really Christians, but are merely ‘name droppers.’ These readily report ‘I am a Christian’ and ‘I’m blessed’ (which necessarily implies that they are blessed by God or Jesus). The ubiquitous phrase ‘Oh My God!’ in innumerable — and sometimes completely incongruous — circumstances begs the question of what those uttering it are actually doing; it strains credulity to suppose that all of them are redeemed through Christ, rather than simply needing some filler to cover the inadequacy of vocabulary to express a bubbling emotion. Only recently the cross was seen everywhere — and some places that it shouldn’t be seen — and this seems to have become the new cross, typed without thought into history through texting — or saying — ‘OMG‘ whenever space demands.

Rather than being a mere name-dropper, we should, instead, be sure that we are ‘name-callers’; not in the schoolyard taunt sense, but in the sense that we ‘call upon the name of the Lord,’ in recognition of our weakness and inability to save ourselves, and his utter capacity for strength and salvation.

Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What) proposes that we all act as if we are in a cultural lifeboat, in which permission to remain in the boat depends upon the approval of the majority in the boat. This requires us to jockey for relative position, presenting ourselves as being more valuable to the group than others.

This would include attempting to be more valuable to the group because we make more money, or because we know more people, or because we are better looking, more influential, more entertaining. This is consistent with the error that the disciples made in asking Jesus “who is the greatest in the kingdom,” and Jesus chastisement of them that we can’t believe because we receive glory from each other and not from him. What those who live according to the lifeboat theory don’t realize is that satisfying the other occupants of a boat in a shipwreck situation might be useful, when those occupants decide whether you will remain as a potential survivor or as lunch.

But life, as it were, is not that situation. Sure, we need rescuing. But it is not the others in the boat that determine whether we stay long enough to meet the rescuers. That determination belongs only to God, who determines which ones are in the boat to begin with. So satisfying our fellows is not important, but satisfying God is. And the only way to satisfy God is to rest in the satisfaction made by Another, Jesus Christ.

What’s more common than a cup of coffee? One would hardly expect to discover anything profound there. Yet you might…

Sugar dumped from your teaspoon into the coffee makes a distinctive sound, like that of tissue paper quickly torn. And, if you pour creamer in just afterward, the creamer will ride the current created by the sugar.

What is the profundity, you ask? Perhaps that significant truths can be demonstrated in small, seemingly insignificant events.

According to a program on the Animal Planet, bears ‘adapted’ the ability to hibernate in ‘response’ to food shortages. Additionally, certain crickets ‘adapted’ the capacity to withstand being frozen solid. In other words, evolution occurring over millions of years produced in these bears and crickets an ability they did not possess before.

Yet scientists don’t know how either of these animals accomplishes its cold-weather feats. If they don’t know how it’s done, how can scientists be certain that those abilities ‘evolved’? The idea of evolution such as this is that the accumulation of many minute changes are passed down through generations, eventually resulting in the characteristics we observe now. So, at one time, bears could not hibernate. On this theory, the first bear ‘hibernated’ a little bit, his bear son hibernated a little more, and so on until the great-great bear grandson made it all the way through winter.

Can anyone see the problem? The case of the cricket makes the difficulty more obvious. The first cricket in the evolutionary chain could not withstand being frozen solid. Little Jiminy, therefore, died. After attempting to survive being frozen Jiminy left no cricket offspring to whom to pass his contribution to the evolutionary process — jumping into the freezer.

Another problem is that there are plenty of cold-weather animals that do not have this ability to hibernate. Most notable among them: men. What makes one animal ‘adapt’ favorably and others not? The evolutionists thus propose a position that these hibernating creatures are ‘smarter’ than humans. Sure, men can fashion warm clothing and build heaters, but so what?

Isn’t it more reasonable, doesn’t it make more sense, that these animals were designed this way?

Certainly by now I am not the only one who has noticed the utter stupidity of current US energy policy. Of course, calling it ‘policy’ implies that someone has actually thought about it, which is perhaps giving a bit too much credit. Images of knees jerking come to mind.

Gas prices are soaring, the price of crude oil is soaring, and more than likely the incidents of hitherto unknown ‘pump rage’ will soon be soaring. Oh, and the oil sheiks across the pond are soaring off the moguls on their full-size, indoor ski slope, purchased with the profit from my driving to work and hauling rug rats to T-ball.

We are, at present, refusing to open up new oil fields for drilling and are making it as difficult as possible to open new refineries (to process Saudi oil) or build new nuclear plants. That big slurping sound you hear is China sucking the oil and natural gas from under the Gulf of Mexico. Soon our heads of state will not only be begging increased production from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, but also from the Chi-Coms. Jamaica was able to put together a bobsled team for the Winter Olympics: perhaps, they, too will soon be drilling our oil.

The response from alleged leaders is noticeably juvenile. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain recently opined that we should be developing power from wind and solar sources and from battery-operated-cars good for 100 miles before a plug-in. I was waiting breathlessly for him to suggest that we harness the power of twisted rubber bands, or juice up every gerbil exerciser in the country.

God gave us corn. God gave us oil. He did not give us Ethanol, and for a very good reason. Corn makes delicious foodstuffs: cornbread, fritters, muffins, tortillas, taco shells, and nachos. It is also crucial for agriculture, fattening our cows, pigs and chickens. Corn is good to eat. Oil, on the other hand, is good to burn. And to lubricate the moving parts of machines that burn it.

Yet, what is our stance toward these two, God-given resources? Leave the oil in the ground and put the corn in the car.

If we rely on this logic for too much longer, household exchanges might sound like this:

Boy: ‘Daddy, I sure am hungry. What’s for supper?’
Daddy: ‘Crude on the cob. Dip this dried up husk in some oil and suck on it.’

A colleague chastises me for slipping of my loafers and walking around the office in my sock feet. There is no unbearable stench or ugly toes poking through threadbare material. He just doesn’t like feet. But why wear loafers (he does) and only remove them at home? Why obtain the ability to easily remove your shoes but never use it?

CONVENIENCE WITHOUT UTILITY IS MERE NOVELTY.

We are dabblers most of the time. In most things in life, we simply skim along the surface and refuse to go deep. Relationships, work, and even our play don’t get our full attention or our best efforts. For most of us in the West, even our faith is susceptible to this perfunctory treatment.

We float on the surface of the water, and then complain that it’s hot and refuse to jump in for a dip.

We nibble at the skin of the apple and complain that it doesn’t taste very good.