SARX

I presently suppose that the most important comment I can make at the end of the year is that a blog is not a prayer.  At best it is self-expression; but the raw self, or inner adulterer if you will, while commonly trumpeted loudly about, here and in a myriad of elsewheres, is neither of any intrinsic value nor of any external significance. 

It is of eternal significance only if totally subsumable. Unto the Real Living GOD, that is; and to no one else. As I said in a long-ago post, Walker Percy called the Jews, "unsubsumable."  They defy categorization, rationalization, and oblivion.  They are special to God and hence hated by all people--but even more so is their Messiah, "rejected of men," even in His Name!

Such is our ability to live lies...

Not that this author never prays.  But he blogs and opines more than he prays.  God is not impressed with mere variations of the English language, nor with the "entertainment value" or even "family values" of our expressions.

When I was still in high school, my first band was a so-called "greaser band" badly imitating The Kingsmen, led by a grocer's son from Rock Falls, who penned our first name, "The Expressions."  We expressed ourselves by imitating others.  Have I really gotten very far from that, today?  Is not the same dead-end non-creative impulse at work in me today?  Does it not hang to me, as the Edomites clung to the Israelites, culminating in the Herod family, whom Rome put in power to doubly humiliate the Chosen People? 

In a word, "Sarx"?

The very stuff that falls apart more quickly than mere rocks or trees?

In the AM our son Mark will, as most of you know, be married to Alison Ryan. Most of today will be spent in final preparations.  Here's my prayer, hoping that most of u-few will agree. 

I pray for a reversal of the entropy found in me; that there would be, unlike in the book of Judges, an ongoing and growing love for Christ, His Father, and His Holy Spirit  in Mark's new and emerging family, to the  "Nth" generation--I will not specify for even Christ on this earth did not know, nor could tell, the day and the hour of His Return--only that it would come when people "least expect it."  Or as Henry Morris said, "Perhaps today!!!" Because "God is not willing that any should perish," i.e. that all should have at least enough God-given sense to come home on His terms, not on the ones that we invent, and humanly foist on others as the Scribes and Lawyers did, then, and even more so now.

And that the growing of God-given faith in the Creator should not wane, as it will if done by human effort and without more prayer than I, the negligent one, have prayed to date; would increase as I decrease.  Does Herod have me en gaol?  Heaven forbid.  But as for blogs, they will cease.  He will show us--has shown us-- the "MORE EXCELLENT WAY." 

AMEN.

Post Hook/Hoc Levi-athan

It was not my intention to review The Hobbit Part the First here; and I won't--but the general impression is much the same as the impressions I got from the previews--a constant stream of violent monsters. This is a far cry from the grotesque of O'Connor, which altho seeming alien to us, is all too possible and all too real.

What is common is the triumph of the common. In that sense, it may be more realistic, for only the common do the work that sustains empires and civilizations. Unwittingly or unwilingly makes no difference.

 We acquired a children's book from a Japanese author, yesterday, called, The Mighty Prince.  Very simple, like The Emperor's New Clothes, with a happy ending. This describes the transformation of a perpetually angry prince who conquered many nations and who many feared, esp. his own people.  But he became a 'prince of peace' when a young girl gives him a packet of seeds and he tries planting them in his neglected garden.  "And for the first time, he loved his people."

Unlike this prince, God is traduced no matter whether He does what we like, or does the opposite. We dislike Him, no matter what!  Even the most devout don't like to be messed with;  we replace one agenda with another, one law with an opposite law; and hence cancel out whatever we have done, in a burgeoning horde of contra-dictions.  We are, in fact, the "contras" who, like the Unitarians, remain defined by what they are against (Trinity); because to us destruction comes far more naturally, as does reaction to what IS, no matter what the blessing IS, is!!! We use our energies to not just neutralize our enemies but  to attempt to obliterate them from the earth (but they keep on coming--and there are more now than "there was awhile ago." No more redcoats, but...

There is, in fact, not a one of us on earth, who is not simultaneously and continuously both Reactionary and Rebel at the same time.  (Liberals react to what is and has gone before; and Conservatives react to the attacks on stasis, i.e. life in the past lane!)  The only thing we are really called upon is to embrace IS--but instead of reification, we seek entertainment value, which we also call politics, or existentialism, which is rather like Lucy Van Pelt's petition: "Here, sign this. It absolves me of all blame." Charlie Brown said, "It must be nice to have a document like that."  (Try Christ as Signatory? He is not bound! Or tied! Like us or/as the tramps of Godot.)

Not so fast! Not so past, either.  The key to the present is the past, not vice versa as evolutionaries contend!  Yet there is more...than we, or any army, can contend with. C.f. Ezekiel 12 and Pharoah's grave.

  We are formed by culture but are still able to choose against it, and choose Christ, Who IS "no respecter of persons," and even less so of mere cultures which exist only as a matter of taste--usually for the Thanatos/Eros nexus/ Demi god's Urges. Formed by culture which we did not choose; but far before our culture, we were formed, prochoice and prolife, in our mother's womb, limited by our decaying genome but unlimited by the multifaceted gifts of choice, faith, love, and God Himself, who requires of us the one thing we can provide, which is surrender.  We will surrender, have no doubt!

 "Who will be Master, that's all."

postscripting--If it were only a matter of one angry, earthy prince! Yet the Past also indelibly says, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry."  Re-read, please, Isaiah 53, I can only hint at the Who (vs The Who and their Doctor--" My Dad's a doctor, but not the kind that can do you any good...")

To Whom is Concerned Like No Other. And to WHOM we owe all we could ever think or imagine.  It's all on loan from His Collection...


,

...worthy of mention in any blog, anytime:

CALVIN:  "I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. 
I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure
poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity."

"With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!
Want to see my book report?"

HOBBES: " 'The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives  in Dick and Jane;
A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender Modes.' "

CALVIN: "Academia here I come!"

A timely reminder to us obscurantic inscrutables!

I am hard pressed at this time to express the many thoughts I have, many of them of interest to few but myself.  It is also that I have 3 grandaughters and a grandson and 4 brothers and one wedding to attend to.  The chance of a lifetime, you may say. So the Real must supercede mere ideation.

Besides all that:

It has been very difficult to make the move to Paw Paw.  It is possible that I have upset more people in the past month than at any other point in my life.  It was much easier to go to IN. There was an outpouring of appreciation 15 years ago that I still recall vividly. However at present I feel like the message is that  I am imposing on  everyone by trying slow down so I can stay in pratice longer; the longer I live, the more I see that people make plans but their lives are lived by the imperatives of the moment; few can or choose to see ahead, or look to see what would happen to our call schedule if I pulled out altogether, costing the hospital far more than it can afford to hire a team of hospitalists. 

But these are more logistical problems borne out of my being different hence continually a grievance.

Perhaps far more important is a limited but significant outpouring of comfort in regards to our fallen pilot and crew who crashed coming to get my patient.  I will not mention names, but I would have a lot more of a guilt burden and survivor syndrome than I have at this point, had not the right people (3) intervened. Of course Flo also gave me the message that this was not my fault but an error in judgement in the air; but it helped to hear it from "seasoned" professionals.

Well, breakfast is served  by Stephen the Bold (his chess name, I think) so I will make bold to sally upstairs.  Dennis I see your article and will read it when I can. And no doubt respond.

I might add that we boys will be seeing a pretend "Hobbit" later today.  I will let you know how the "Of Being" fared .  ("Wow! How existential can your get!?"--Hobbes; on life without entertainment....)


.

"Specialty: The Bleeding Obvious!"

One of my sons, at the inception of this blog, said, "Keep those pop culture references coming, Dad!"  As my father recently said to me on Facebook, "I try, son."

It is no surprise then that, esp. right now with merchants languishing, that Eph. 4:29 -- 5:21 would bring to mind and heart,  many sore subjects now subject to exposure, and overexposure.

The oft-repeated ad for Spiriva is interesting--and mainly true--the drug doesn't need advertising--but "The Elephant has Left the Building" comes to mind.  As does the name "Ichabod" which is not just the name of the narrator in Moby Dick but originally meant, "The Lord has departed." A royal baby was named this as his mother was dying in childbirth and the Ark was captured by the Philistines.

(The Philistines seem to have gotten a reputation for being a party people and party poopers at the same time. The Palestinians, who are named after Israel's nemesis, are more the latter--tho they did party on 9/11/2001)

But it also brings up the "coarse jesting," of, "Elvis has left the building."  That Elvis was the King--of idolatry--there can be no doubt--at least for that generation, which, as our grandmothers warned us, was merely the begining of coarser beasts to come. Everything however can become an idol, so it is still basically Creator Unacknowledged vs the mere created, the human element predominant and misusing our  mandates to rule in a totally unruly fashion.

"For you were once darkness..." Notice that it does not say, as it says or implies, that we were IN darkness--no, it says that we were actual darkness. Without so much as a reflected moonbeam to show for it. I think of the Stone's album, "Let it Bleed."  So what do Stones bleed--if you are content to be "that darkness" one can only bleed darkness." (c.f. "Something Wicked This  Way Comes" with Mister Dark the carnival master of souls--by Ray Bradbury, my favorite author as a teen).

But Paul does go on to say," but now you ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD--yes in the Light as He Is the Light--but Paul the Bold says--yes as Christ said and prophesied-- you ARE the Light, and as such we are not merely light-bearers but so much of our indwelling nature, with the entrance of the Holy Spirit in Christ, is Light in Whom There is no Darkness at all, that we are literally to be "Bleeding Light."  This too is a great mystery, as are all things which the Spirit touches,  and beyond our ken.

There is also the Fruit of the Light. (without light there is no fruit--ask any tree or bush)  --the same as the Fruits of the Holy Spirit--the list is infinite, not merely the few basics mentioned in Scripture.

Jesus certainly bled much light--that's why we honor and give thanks for His Blood--which has the power to preserve our blood--but if and when it is shed, it should bring light--as our brave helicopter friends recently showed. To quote a friend of the fallen fliers, they look down on us as to  say, "I'm spending Christmas/ with Jesus this year."  (from their Memorial Service last week) 

The Bleeding-once for all- Still Exploding AntiPlasticene

  Inevitable. 

AND IF TRAGEDY COMES IN WEDDING CLOTHES

WATCH OUT!

TIME BANDITS REDUX

In a well known sequence in this Pythonesque fairy tale/morality play, Shelly Duvall and Michael Palin go through several incarnations, but they always have, "The Problem."  This is deliberately left obscure; but in their first appearance in Sherwood Forest, Palin gives us the only clue we'll ever get as to the remedy for said problem, to wit: "FRUIT! I MUST HAVE FRUIT." 

The theological themes in this film are much more profound, possibly because the protagonist is a child, than anything I have ever seen from Monty P et. al.

It suddenly came to me that this cry of a desperate rich man beset by wobbers could be profoundly useful in terms of our own lives; that we all have unmentionable problems (emotional/spiritual constipation among them?) that seperate us not from Molech, Baal, or the Corporate God of Commerce as God is depicted in this film; and therefore the Real/Royal Holy God experienced by Moses and Joshua, says:

"Ah it's your "Problem," again, I see. (unlike Calvin's parents, I Always See)  Well, then! YOU MUST HAVE FRUIT!!!  SO WHERE IS IT ALREADY? 

This begs God's most basic question, "What have you done with My Son?"

For Jesus Himself also said: "By their fruits you will know them. A bad tree produces bad fruit. You are called to bear much fruit.       But without Me you can do nothing. "

We are not mere useless eaters; or crazed consumers; we are not here to gobble up all the toys we see.  (another primary theme of this movie in the first and the last scenes and throughout) 

We are to bear much fruit so that others, and God, may be served well.  Our branches are to be those of the Giving Tree, Shell Silverstein's refracted tribute to Christ; and we must give our best apples even to that sad child that despitefully uses us,as in Silverstein's parable.  But even more so according to Christ The Book; as unto the Body.

We will never work ourselves out of this job! (although I am greatly looking forward to a new assignment.)

Happy Christo Mas`   --meaning more of Him--and less of our treasured "selves."

Hagah

Last night our group, led by my dear wife, investigated being "double-minded.) (as in James)

This morning, as I began the book of Joshua, and my own "new day" (as all will later understand),
I came across, in Chapter One, this command:

"Do  not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;mediate on in day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in It."

The commentator whom I am reading in the "Fire" study Bible, a version used widely in the Third World, is Donald Stamps--not a theologian but an actual practicing missionary while he was alive--gives an interesting general and more specific definition of "meditation."

Hagah: Hebrew for: "means to read quietly or to talk to yourself as you think about something.  It implies studying and carefully thinking about God's Word in order to know and understand its principles and deepest meaning. The (teleology of that) is to apply those principles to every area of our lives."

My first thought on reading this is rather self-centered, to witless: Finally! Someone is recommending talking to myself!  I talk to myself a lot--not usually out loud--in fact, I think I mostly talk to myself:(

It does suggest however that the self- our basic bundle of body, soul, mind, and spirit as in the Shamah, is pretty important to God; only that our self-talk be based on God-talk. Stamps says earlier of the Joshua-era Hebrews, "They could not depend on human ideas, traditions, or religions."  And that the Promised Land could only be reached by faith. Their carnal weaponry would never be enough, nor would it even provide any impetus as Far as what God desired. They were specifically directed to occupy Hittite territory and the Hittites were among the first to forge large volumes of iron for weaponry and were well known for their "iron chariots" and fierce horses; whereas the weapons of the Hebrews did not include horses or chariots at all.  In other places, God actually forbids the kings of Israel to ride on, or import, or accumulate horses.  In fact, they were not to fear those with chariots, and the Red Sea certainly demonstrated both how and why. They were the Ultimate Footsoldiers who had to march by faith into the teeth of multiple technologically advanced societies actually stronger--but doomed anyway. As we see constantly; from WW2 to the  fast-moving marginalization of USA today.

I would recommend, as an aside, Dr. John Patrick's talk, "Why There Are No Hittites on The Streets of New York."  (but lots and lots of Jews!) I have it on tape if anyone is interested. It may be on the net in published form also. Dr. Patrick is a distant friend who introduced me to Robert Spitzer, and helps to run Augustine College, a prep school, in Canada.    

I actually wrote this in the fall...so before it gets too stale...

Tragedians All

"Tragedy does not come to us
on bended knee."

Kultur Kampf

Our culture, at least in the USA but probable all of the West included, has been called a "culture of death," and we are fast accumulating more reasons to think it so.  This whole week has been filled to the brim with lethal accidents and rampages. In future I will continue to try to make sense of this, realizing that the twin answers are "sin" and "Jesus Christ not-a-swear-word-thank-you-very-much."

No Country for Old Men...Amen and Amen.

Just a brief view of Hollywood output should, for one unaccustomed to carnage, put any relatively innocent minds into "culture shock."  As much so as visiting the original Auca tribe, or a tribe of cannibals, thanks to the Hannibal Lectures. And we are known worldwide for this, just as Chicago was once known only for its gangsters which are still gist for the media mills to this day.  Now Chicago has superseded even D.C. as murder capital of the world; anybody for "death rap?" (Death Metal is dead)

Death has certainly penetrated to my heart this week.  Death is always an increasing reality for those of us who strive to survive to a "ripe old age."  There was a time, so I hear, when grey hair was a badge of honor and a right to some added respect...but I have heard many even of my generation who wonder if getting old is even worth the candle.  I often hear, "Getting old is hell, Doc." and I have no way to refute them. This does tend to put a different light on, "only the good die young."

There is a learning and experience option to getting older unless dementia steps in.  But younger people do not ask, they would rather work it out themselves. The thing we learn from history is_____. Yet even if wisdom and better judgement accompanies age--which may be the minority of cases now--there is no denying the life of hormones, including both rages and relenting types. There is, even or esp. for the hypothetical pure materialist, the trap door of entropy hidden under the straw of the loft/y, ready to let us down with a bang, and a whimper from a brittle bag of bones at the end of the descent.  Well, there's always the nursing home; until they too become way stations for "useless eaters."

Civilizations only progress for a little while, until a more sanguine cultures, such as Islam, replace them.  True Christianity, on a personal basis, does not encourage gnawing on the bones of dead cultures; It is intellectuals, as a whole, that bring forth their new/old pantheons of idols, as they did in the Renaissance; necessitating a Reformation.  But Reformation eventually also comes to unbelief  and what Schaffer called, "The Great Evangelical Disaster."  (Good reading for those who also like Jeremiah...")

If there is a point to this--a big maybe--I think it would be that we as individuals "can do nothing" without the Messiah, whose birthday we already missed--Christmas is only a winter solstice celebration borrowed from paganism.  How convenient--and compromised from Xmas' inception if not its conception, so to say... and the beat goes on...

I could apologize for the darker tone of this blog; but as some may realize, I am in a pretty bleak corner just now.  There have been a few in the hospital staff, mainly Lynn Klein CEO and Stacey Belski, our social worker, who have reached out--it is part of their job, of course but they could have just let it pass, as most are doing--well, most don't even realize I was involved yet and I hope it stays that way. My great thanks to them whatever may happen.

 But I also long for the days in Warsaw where the hospital employed a chaplain. I was very good friends with the last one, and he would have been perfect "for such a time as this."  I wonder if he is still there...

"Our hearts are heavy" --React helicopter response team of Rockford IL

In case you have not heard--I am sure my Mom and Dad have not--2 nurses and one pilot perished in a weather-related helicopter crash near Compton.  They were coming to Mendota. They tried to turn back because they were icing up.  They crashed in a cornfield instead.

And they were coming to get my patient.

You will have to fill in the blanks, I can't.

"It is such a secret place, this land of tears."

St. Exupery:

"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."

"You don't have to be Jewish...

...to love Levites."

Joshua 12 and 13 reiterate Moses' message from God that the Levites would inherit no land at all--that the Lord Himself was the sum of their inheritance.  The Levites were the first diaspora, spreading over all Israel and now over the entire world.  The Levites were the keepers of the Law of Moses, even though they themselves could not follow it, to the Lord's good and perfect pleasure, no, not nearly.

But now I would say that there aren't too many Levi's who own no land, or rent from the Gentiles.  Meantime they have still been very busy,  making bluejeans to bagels, both of which have pleasured people around the world; but have brought neither God nor Messiah nor Their Spirit with their riches and influence, in the majority of cases.  But they have also, as have most Gentiles, brought not only their most basic errors, but a modernist antinomianism that transcends and overwhelms what little remains of their tradition. 

God never promises us traditions; nowhere has he ever said so. His Son in fact condemned them on numerous occasions.  They are a sociological substitute for the Comforter; the Paraclete who bids us be ready for anything but esp. the counterintuitive.  Such as love your enemies etc. How many of us, Jew or Gentile, manage that for more than a few feeble "I ought's?"  Which of course turn immediately into "noughts."  (Then Noughties)

I am no anti-Semite.  I have suspected that I have a bit of Jewish blood left over from the mass diaporas of Israel or maybe of Judah herself. There is a German "Frank" family from Europe not too far back in our lineage as gathered by my mother; I have it somewhere.  But what need do I have of proof?  I am grafted in! Besides, the last genealogies  were destroyed by the "bloody Romans" in 70 AD.  So it is all by faith, and the particulars won't much matter in Heaven.

The real question is: who is carrying on the job once Levi decided that business is business?; do you need a brand name to be known, respected...and feared?  Messiah now leaves us with the original assignment to the Levites; and a whole lot more. We are not to be antinomians but to hew to the Law--but in a better and more universal way. Spirit first, then humility, then gratitude leading to Real Love not just for David's first love ("Oh how I love thy Law." Ps 119)--but for All Of God as He progressively reveals Himself and trains us in Real Righteousness, the opposite of our overweening self-righteousness, or using Law or even Grace to excuse ourselves. Until even our thoughts please Him...but are anathema to McWorld of curse. Only He can do this; if we will at least hold still, not cling to traditions, and see what will come forth at His Touch.

It is said that we have really learned a language when we dream...and pray!!!...in it. What then is our real "idioma del Cielo?"  Is it not some Tongue/s other than the one we think wef know now?  Justice sayin'.

The Genuine and Hardest Question is not how they are doing; but how I am doing?  Will Christ see me as a goat?  Will I cling to my McLand and my traditions, yea, and my hobby horses too? Or will I just be available, as were Barnabas, Stephen, and Phillip? Buy their fruits: you will know them." Do I love the Lord as my only possible inheritance, more than I love myself?

Blessed Holy Days--whenever and whatever they may be.  See you on 12/13/12 at any rate!

ephemera ?

NIHILISM IS THE AIR WE BREATHE   -FO'C

It is apparently very dry air.  No vapor canopy either.

Rollin' on the River
or Stranded on the Strand?

Eliot should see this; his mighty brown god mightily humbled by a far greater God--Who knows how to hit us right in our "breadbasket."  (see News Tribune 11/30/12)

Where did acts of God go?
Can God be erased by lesser creatures?
"It does not yet appear what we shall become--but when He comes, we shall be like Him"--no longer able to be-little Him--we shall all be humbled much more than we are right now; everyone can depend on that.

"Whatever happened to sin?" asked Carl Menninger. "It is the  beginning of sorrows" ever says The Master.  We come, we go; but unlike the self-willed and self-absorbed Gaugin, "Whence" has already been announced by Moses, the Prophets, the Son, and The Spirit. There is no author attached to the "authority" of science and scientism.  On might as well depend on the CTA--or the CPD and Rahm "Emmanuel" (behold he comes).

At the very least these nihilist-driven ephemera will cease all their authority at the moment of our deaths "then it shall appear" whatever king--or "King,eh?"--for whom we have truly voted.  As in Screwtape, we shall see what, and whom, we have really served. Is the ministry of trying-to-impress- myself-and-others suggest in the least the "King Of Kings?" Or...

" 'We will not have this man to rule over us.'" ?

Wanna see a real rocky horror picture show? No joke intended?  I'll pass.

Final suggestion for now: if you dig biology at all, read "Genetic Entropy" by the Cornell (rtd?) professor and pioneer of genetic engineering, by Dr. J.C. Sanford.  Why did I not see this before?  The same process that deteriorates your car; and your body; is at work "inferiorating" the entire human genome.  More on this in future posts I trust.  Extinctions? Cancer? "Fitness"? It's all there and more. (I see I already mentioned this earlier--oh well it won't hurt to do so again...and again...and prn.)

Your fellow mutant,

possible letter to ed. Ideas?

The sin of global warning—or just plain sin?

It’s common in newspapers to blame the drought on our carbon footprints, which is kind of like original sin, since all are guilty. 

It’s a very convenient truth after all; here’s why:

Human greed is always with us—originally as well as now.  But this is the first opportunity that the trend-setters have had to hold us all guilty, directly, for the state of the inhabitable earth; and this after less than a year of a drought; although it certainly gets worse by the day. (Snow, anyone?)

But this is not the first drought humanity has ever seen.  Over 1400 years ago the Khmer tribe had a huge empire in SE Asia which built the massive but now-deserted complex called Angkor Wat.  According to the National Geographic, this ruling tribe seems to have been destroyed, in the tropics, by two back-to-back 40 year droughts.  Was this because of man’s sin? Or its large carbon footprint?

Yes, and no.  The thing that the Khmer rulers had in common with us, besides overbuilding, is human sacrifice. It is also what we both also have in common with the Khmer Rouge—for those who have already forgotten, the latter were directly responsible for the killing fields of Cambodia.

Our society is built on the merciless conceit that our offspring are only a good thing if they are not, well, inconvenient.  And we have just massively voted our pocketbooks and our rights to be entertained to the highest bidder; as opposed to, for one moment, assuming responsibility for the massacre of our own children through “therapeutic” abortion.

Some therapy.  All of us are also guilty of this holocaust if only by doing little or nothing to stop a culture bent on destroying its soul.   First stop the slaughter; or watch us go the way of both Khmer killing machines.

And, oh, by the way:
“The majority is always wrong.”    --Ibsen

 

Sincerely,

 

William Schuler

Mendota  11/27/12

 

 

Genetic Entropy

I am forced to highly recommend to the reader a book by Dr. John Sanford, of Cornell, called exactly that: Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome. In it, Dr. Sanford, with 80 technical papers and 30 patents including the revolutionary "gene gun," outlines the Enormous Problem, both in theory and in actual life, of the progressive degradation of the human genome in terms of our fitness to survive.  Not only are mutations unable to account for macroevolution as commonly advertised, they destroy useful information daily, and natural (or artificial) selection simply has no power  to prevent this.  That is, as we should have suspected all along, mutations normally and naturally and constantly degrade every genome, and the incidence of potentially useful mutations is so minute as to be overwhelmingly consumed by the steamroller of entropy and random error.

These are well-kept secrets that rule out the Primary Axiom that presently and destructively rules our society world-wide. That would be the necessary assumption of "No God" only random variations of materials and materialism.  Michael Behe, known to some of you as the promoter of "irreducible complexity" of such complex machines as the bacterial flagellum, says of the book, that, "He shows that, not only does Darwinism not have the answers for how information got into the genome, it doesn't even have answers for how it could remain there."

The book can be pretty technical for some, but it is written so that a person with a basic biology background can understand it and greatly profit by it.

Nonetheless, one observes that Darwinism has hardened and crystallized into an ideology with profound materialistic implications for culture and politics; but only in the sense of self-destruction; of destroying (they think) everything metaphysical when their proofs are increasingly "Hollywood" like, self-referential to the point of utter blindness, and as I have said elsewhere, like a serpent devouring itself by swallowing its "tales"  --which some have rightly called "just so" stories like Kipling's, a materialist  religious mythology, and a frog-to-prince fairy tale.

Speaking wisely of fairy tales:

Here's a quote from Chesterton's Father Brown, from the story, "The Sins of Prince Saradine":

"All right," said Father Brown. "I never said it was always wrong to enter fairyland. I only said it was always dangerous."

So what accounts for the solidified, encrusted, and rancid fat of our dominant worldview?

"The powerful words of poet W.H. Auden describe what is often the case in a world filled with sickly sweet illusion:"

'We would rather be ruined than changed;
we would rather die in our dread
than climb the cross of the moment
and let our illusions die.' "                  from "A Slice of Infinity', Jill Carattini

We would rather embrace self-contradictory teachers and cultures, than go to the trouble of investigating major truth-claims for ourselves.  We congratulate ourselves on our wisdom (read "good taste") and our rhetoric that is afraid to countenance any other view; esp. a subservient view in which we are accountable for, "every careless word."  Considering how destructive our words can be, this would seem to be the correct view, not "whatever..."

Do recall Ibsen's Axiom, as illustrated by the Old and New Testaments;..."the majority is always wrong." And hates God to boot.  Darwinism is merely our excuse to indulge ourselves.

Nonetheless, as opposed to real change, in our character, say, the harshest truth of our existence is right here:

"We would rather be ruined than changed."

 I would rather not be ruined, at all events...

About the Paw Paw tree,,,

Well, the proverbial cat is out of the proverbial bag; and not a minute too soon--hope it wasn't a plastic one.

Yes I am going to Paw Paw, to a clinic that is run by a local foundation, but which has not had a full time doctor since I inherited Dr. Lucy Young's practice and took them to the Wholistic Health Center @ St. John's Lutheran Church in Mendota Il.  Some of these patients still see me, over 33 years later.

There are numerous reasons to make these rather drastic changes...but don't worry--- I still make house calls to "whosoever wants"  (One person in particular will be visited on an ongoing basis.)  I am also offering some friends the option of continuing with me, including whoever reads this blog.

So Reuben Schuler, don't worry, I'll still see ya--as often as  I can.  (Coming for the wedding, I presume? Then I will "house call" you in Mobile, for a few days!:)

(Walk-ins welcome)

The point is that medicine has become so complex, with no advantages truly seen to require all the dodgy commercialized stuff we invent--too many cooks and too much broth spoils the patient. So I have to find a way to simplify/slow down, just to keep up!  Because it takes me 2-3 times more minutes to do even an adequate job on an individual patient; Hospital records are even worse.  Thus I cannot keep up, without frankly endangering my charges.

I find that my practice, rather like my Dragonspeak, becomes unmanageable at some point.  And has to be completely replaced.  I have been in Mendota 10 years now--and the first time it was 18 years before it reached the breaking point of unwieldy records and "irreducible" and burgeoning complexity. So one can see that the burden has at least doubled, even though my capacities have not.  I am (sadly said) the same person, hopefully slightly wiser for having seen a lot of pathology and pathos, as when I came here.  That's no longer considered enough. But this more rural clinic is more of what I originally signed up for--as you will see when you visit us. We open Jan 7 but I hope there will be an open house as well.

So it seems slightly appropriate to sort of re-start where I began; up in "Forgotonia." (An old political term for Northwestern Illinois which Dennis may recall...

 What I most regret is that I will no longer have much of a Hispanic practice, and my Spanish will be atrophying--as it is already because of  excellent translations by Maria, Sandy's and my sidekick for the last few months, and so delightful--but she will be staying in my former office to help with all my previous patients, maybe the majority of whom were Hispanic...but the Latino demographic is changing rapidly as are  their desires and needs; as their more productive and  actually--they never boast about it, by the way--tolerant culture is becoming more and more like the rest of us. Alas. (Those who boast of their tolerance have to do so because they have even less than average--unsuprisingly.)

Perhaps I can take a few pictures of the clinic and post them here--it might save the reader several thousand words.  The decor is 100% Norman Rockwell. A good fixer-upper!!!

I may mention more, however, in the future about this move, as I make it.  I am still working for MCH, I must add, so I am still an employed physician, without which I could in no way do this.  We will know in about 2 years how well this is going to work--but it may be a new paradigm for me--that is, providing a needed service in an under served area, as opposed to strictly earning my salary, dollar for dollar, which I cannot do in the present multi-physician office.

I apologize for posting twice today--see previous-- on two different subjects--but I am still somewhat subject to the "stream of consciousness" style with which I grew up. Have u noticed?

Vertical Caves

It is hard to know with any precision the exact nature of Plato's cave...we think of it as a domain of troglodytes totally unlike ourselves.  But by so thinking, do we not make ourselves one of their degraded race, rather like the Morlocks?

It occurred to me just now that we not only inhabit such figurative caves, we dig them ourselves. And the simplest cave, or "mine" (pun intensive) is a pit or a dug well, rather like the wishing wells of yore--which are still with us today, though extensively disguised in a tech-veil.

Jeremiah was thrown down such a well which had mainly dried up and was a mere mud mine. It had been exhausted by thirsty men who had no concept of what living water (i.e. the meaning of Blood) would be.  Thus they drained the well over time so that it no longer served its life-giving teleos, but rather became an instrument of torture and death. No sane person would volunteer to spend the rest of a greatly foreshortened life in such pits--or would they?--If it is dug by the person, it is a hole that at least they can call, "mine."  One can buy a cave, as the one at Machpelah (for Abe and Sarah) to bury our dead--but all such natural caves are not of our devising. On the other hand, we have more abandoned mines than active ones because we got what we wanted, and sealed them up. 

One hardly dares to do so with some of the deep but dry wells that we spend a lifetime digging ourselves into. I'm not sure how far I can take this analogy before it is "mined out," but it brings to mind C.S. Lewis' and Tolkien's mining folk, the stunted gnomes and the selfish gold-digging dwarves who will not come out even when the last battle has come and gone, and they choose to remain 90% buried with only their unity in misery, strife, and darkness occasionally issuing from a tree stump--"Who said that? Did you say something?" but the riders and striders move quickly on, not tempted to bury themselves in bondage.

All are free indeed, as MLK once said--but do we re-invest it in its Source, so that we can go on?  Or do we bury ourselves much more firmly and thoroughly than Kruschev ever believed possible; do we continue to accomplish for ourselves what was truly an empty threat from an im-potentate ?

If we must go underground, as directed (Pole, Eustace, and Puddleglum) not as a Hobbit-Venture but as a rescue attempt, let's not forget their miraculous escape--with the goods (Princely) but not a shred of gold. ("The Silver Chair")

And I have the image that God can "flip us out" of our pits at a moment's notice, just as he ran to the prodigal son in Jesus' central parable of the Father of the King/dom.  The world can only notice that we have "flipped out" indeed; but they cannot know that it wasn't us, it was Him. We cannot, of ourselves, get ourselves even out of a ditch (think Pozzo--the ingrate; and the blind leading the blind) much less a deep yet only man-sized hole.

In the Lincoln movie the only mention of Jesus Christ was, par for the course, as a swear word--this is typical of "men in black" (the Jones') whose hostility to Christ has spread literally to every corner of the world. To bring Lincoln down to our level--the unspoken but obvious reason for the attempt--does neither the man who was Lincoln any justice, nor does it give the denizens of the world any hope outside of American-made materialism, and sensate illogic. But hey,

"That's Entertainment "(with Hal Holbrook too) Tonite. Naytheless,  some are called to work "while it is still day" rather than to engender more "Endarkenment."  (Go Mark Schuler and his brothers)

By the way, I suppose I should apologize for references not clear unto all--it is my hope that the reader will be inclined to search further--as Dennis does, because he is an old hand at it, finding stuff, that is. But if it is important--as it may or may not be--please ask.  Descartes delighted in requiring people to connect his dots, and in pointing the inferiority and unworthiness of those who failed to do so--whom he considered to be lazy, or incompetent, or ignorant, most likely all three.

Just as I do not subscribe to his "cogito ergo sum" theory of life, I do not want to leave off that philosophy only to assume and display Descartes' arrogance. (yet are not arrogance and ignorance closely related? One is active, the other passive, but the outcome will be the same.)

I suppose I flatter myself by hoping that the Holy Spirit is the glue that holds these thoughts together.  But if God does not fill in the outlines of history, who can?  I have only his "great and precious promises" on that--I can't engender it myself, but can fail to oppose it, I suppose--yet I love a Perfectly Reasonable God, whose ways are at the same time far beyond our understanding. He stoops to conquer, as it were. And I am so very Thankful for that, above all "mere things."

The Turkey Trot, (it's) Not!!!

Most Thanksgivings in Ill a Noise, I can be found at the annual "Turkey Trot," a 5K run in Oglesby, which always is blessed with 2 killer hills at the end of the course.  On this day, however, I am going to run with Daniel, just for the joy of it--and for the health of it of course--and to justify overeating later in the day...not guilt-free, but close. 

I quote from Linus Van Pelt: "No problem is so big or complicated that it can't be run away from!"

A solid declaration of independence, that!  And yet...

Lucille Van Pelt, ever the cynic and critical spirit, replies:

 "You can't just run away from your problems! What if everybody just ran away from their problems?"  But Linus, ever hopeful, rejoins, "Well at least we'd be all running in the same direction!" 

Something that cannot be said of USA today. The paper or the people.

Running is not my salvation, far from it; but the Spanish verb "salvar" largely means healing and receiving health. "To save," more often than not  has that implication in English. Usually to save from physical or mental destruction, is what is meant by it; so much so that when one speaks of spiritual salvation, the wordly question is, "Saved from what?"  And if one tries to explain, one often hears the protest, "I'm basically a good person--I haven't killed anybody--yet--except in the heart, one must add.  This recent election was the very opposite of salvation, it brought no health to anyone, with each side equally implying that the entire opposite side should be run off a cliff and drown like the herds of swine that they are; being demon-possessed of course by "Legions"  of Devils not unlike those in the Dost. novel of the same name, also being "possessed," more than "oppressed." 

But the present situation shows that we who have been long-time experts as running away from our problems and commitments, are not running in the same direction. 

Or are we?

Are we just running around the world in the dark, only to collide with each other at the end, rather like the comedy movie/treasure hunt, that I mentioned recently? And be both severely wounded by our own culpability, and stuck immobile in the same ward as our co-conspirators and frenemies; possibly forever?  (Now that's a chilling thought--without the "beer here," refrain.)

Are we really the same at the root, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees--united only in the ABC paradigm so prevalent worldwide, that is, "Anything but Christ."  (the essence of Unitarianism and why it is 100% reactionary--it only exists for those who can't tolerate Christ or Christians)

I am opting out of the rat race this year. Rhetoric, like running, has only put the Sophists in the lead, even though they are really twice-dead last. The spirits of competition have run themselves ragged and into an early grave.  And an attitude of gratitude is less in evidence in our nation than in any Thanksgiving in the past, I'll wager.

OK, so that's the down side; I am going to run with Daniel and trust that some of his positivity will rub off on my side; so that later today I can "post positively" and truly thankfully.  (Hint: I believe I will be waxing sanguinely on home schooling, which all my home schooling readers will appreciate--in fact, my few readers are also home school teachers, so I will pray about something constructive to say...)

Sol's Conundrum--a scientific approach

by Dr. Jason Lisle

DO NOT ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY, LEST YOU ALSO BE LIKE HIM.

ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY, LEST HE BE WISE IN HIS OWN EYES.


The "Answer, Don't Answer" mandate.

First, don't answer according to a fool's worldview,  making the same unwarranted and disastrous assumptions he makes.  True of materialism and relativism, two snakes that devour their own tales, heh...

Second, hold up a mirror to the foolish mindset that excludes God; such that they can see how they undermine themselves.

Example:"Christians are dishonest. They teach that God created the world some thousands of years ago, which is clearly false."  To which one may answer, "I don't accept your claim that teaching creation is dishonest. We are equally convinced that evolution as you teach it, is untrue." ( opposite worldview not accepted)

But the second part shows that the critic's objection is inconsistent, internally and externally. "But for the sake of argument, even if we were lying, why would that be wrong according to your worldview?  The idea that lying is wrong is not a universal human idea; The idea that lying is wrong is a Biblical concept. Lying is wrong because it is contrary to the nature of God.  But in an evolutionary paradigm, on what basis could I say that lying is wrong--particularly if it benefits my survivability?"

And the point I would  make is that Christians and Jews are not to lie--so long as they believe in God to the extent that they can rest in God, to make it right; to make it up to us, as it were, even though we may suffer for telling the truth. 

I have come to believe that in modern and post-modern science, truth-telling is out, and mere rhetoric is King. Telling the truth to power does not increase our survivability, esp. in the 10-40 window, where Mark is going, Burma, where Buddhist troops have been attempting to wipe out the Christian tribes for a long, long time. Not that these tribes have not resisted--but like South Sudan, they really are a separate country  oppressed by the centralist Burmese tribes.

The Irish saved civilization from the vantage point of isolated monasteries, and "white martyrs"--as well as red ones.  I think that that sort of thing must needs happen again, unless Christ comes first. Which I fully expect, but can't say when.

"It's a Mad. Mad. Mad. Mad. Whirled...

I always enjoy this movie, and "The Rat Race" with John Cleese, which was patterned after the former film.  (Are they "biofilms"? Or is Terry Thomas just naturally slimy?) It is of course all about the degrees of madness induced by the lure of wealth--and who should know this inside-out better than Hollywood?  So, like most movies, they are self-referential (even down to the Californiae setting) and I do enjoy self-deprecating humor, which is so much more honest and pleasant than H-wood's other prime motive for film making, as propaganda. So as far as that goes, it's always an enjoyable evening--and a history lesson for Daniel and Julie re: great comedians in the past, all in a row. (I forgot there were so many!) However they fell asleep right after the intermission...even though we fast-forwarded through the overture, mid-verture, and post-verture. 

It also reminds me that Hollywood is shot through with many a Jew! And who is more self-deprecating, both defensively and offensively, that a Jewish entertainer? And it still works...

But one of the reasons Jewish tradition supports such um accurate observations is their Law, which God, Moses, and the angels introduced 430 years after Abraham, "because of the transgressions," which were obviously piling up, moment by moment, in Egypt.  And thus also Jews have a keen sense of the injustices still being done to them--to which they are currently reacting by not turning the other cheek--even if they were so inclined, they would say they only have but two cheeks--ok, four.
But they have run out of cheeks in any event, so they are demonstrating some raw cheek to Ishmael again.

But it is not enough. It was not enough in David's time, or Joshua's time, or Solomon's time, or in the 1960's, or at any other time.  It's the "7-Devil" principle which the Principle Jew related to His own people. A perspicacious view of other-evil, which is the sum and substance of politics and the greed mentioned above, is never enough. Even if all the evil in the world were eliminated, we would still be unhappy, as I mentioned yesterday about the anti-Eliots. Seeing other people happy or content is still more or less galling to most of us too dishonest to admit it openly. For part of greed is also jealousy and covetousness; and it's extremely hard to legislate against point of the 10th commandment, as it may be done secretly throughout one's life with no one knowing except me and my Maker.

So what's the solution?  What profound message does the ultimate comic vehicle convey? Why another pratfall, of course!  Ethel Merman on a banana peel!  The Perfect Solution!  And yet...and yet... "beauty walks with evil..." (Offisa Pup re: Krazy Kat and Ignatz. ha. ha. ha...)

Hope, Fully, Yes!

We always seem to think that we are making concessions to God by believing in Him, half-heartedly.

But we leave out the whole-hearted concession that God cares, for some reason that evades even wise old Screwtape, enough to intervene constantly in our lives.  Like that old racist and adulterer national hero, Jefferson, cut out all possibility of miracles, which would mean we might actually be accountable for our actions, not just to men, but much more intensely, seriously, and eternally, to an Eternal Godhead.  Who in fact has already done all the hardest parts already. 

Most of the miracles of the Bible, even the existence of the Bible, are not advertised-as-such.  I am reading in Joshua 3 how God, once again, held back the waters of the Jordan at harvest flood stage at a little town upstream called "Adam," meaningfully but not ironically I believe;  This was done primarily to give the perpetually weak faith of the Hebrew-now true more than ever--a booster shot of immunity to the Jebusites, et.al. whom they were to fight--and are still fighting--now more than ever but now with only carnal weapons, sans God.

The existence and persistence of the Hebrews should be miracle enough, as many have noted. Yet their unbelief could hardly be more "advanced" (but just you wait)

Earthly fathers like me spend most of their time, "taking care of business," so that we can distance ourselves from our true, and harder, responsibilities to God and family. I am certainly guilty of this
par for the course and no more, succumbing to the human law of averages, the statistics of biology, temperament,  and the "social proof" I mentioned yesterday; I, for instance, was to be responsible for teaching science in the home. But except for John to a half-hearted degree, I failed at this. Ironically, only John has become interested in science and medicine himself--no accident there. He still calls me about the potassium pump!

But God foreknew, foresaw, and fore-provided. Yes, miraculously.  As the saying goes, anymore I do not just believe in miracles, I depend on them.  Speaking of which, God has provided a "parting of the waters" for me, which I will speak of later. So, in advance, all Glory and Honor and The Imparting of Eternal Thanks to Him for undeserved mercy in overlooking my dis-honor.

As far as fathers go, the Original Father is still the Only Author of Unconditional Love via the Perfectly Loved Son, who never strayed from His Covenant one time even at any given moment. It just occurred to me that the Father also is "taking care of business" (here the computer deletes many a thought thank you so bloody much...)

What I was going to say is that even I, Asimov conceded that the human brain is the most complex thing we know, or perhaps can know in this limited existence--we could only recognize something higher by revelation, not by working at it. That might explain why God is taking so much trouble over us, as opposed to  Satan's hobby horses, computers and statistics. Like the Hebrews, no matter how many miracles were and are done for them, we are High Maintenance. We need miracles, not in the shallow sense that is what only the world will allow--Big Rock Candy Mountain and all that--Freudians and Darwinians are far better and more basic wish fulfillment machines that a Man on a Cross ever could be or intended to be--no, but in the sense that we could not even physically hold together for two seconds absent any design and maintenance from God. 

"More than I can say..."

VAL ELIOT 1926-2012

       I note with sadness the passing of Thomas Stearns Eliot's 2nd wife, Valerie, much maligned even as his first wife, Vivienne, is in the media and academia now hailed as the real hero; there are those who say that Vivienne wrote some of his poetry, and that he drove her insane.  This...is...typical...of our age and strains the credibility of institutions who champion the insane over those who merely suffer their outrages. 

I would refer you to the Daily Telegraph article on Val and Tom which my literary son Stephen posted on his Facebook, which is always a delightful read in itself! Dated Nov 11.

It says that Eliot stopped writing poetry--and did a few plays instead--after they married. No wonder the academics rage!  Eliot had been their Major Angst poster boy for some decades--because the modernists still revel in human suffering and hate human happiness.  "I do not deserve such happiness," was Eliot's remark, a statement of fact as equally despised as his Christian conversion decades before. (Common denominator--grace/mercy)

"Tom Eliot is now curiously dull," remarked Aldous Huxley. "He felt he had paid too much to be a poet, that he had suffered too much," as Valerie later explained.

The idolatry of the addiction of revelling in gloom, other people's troubles, and disasters has become a trademark of our arts and culture.  Once portrayed as "realism," we have taken this into the realm of complete fantasy--the works of Bunuel, for instance, are nearly universally acclaimed as the modern standard for artistic achievement.  But I notice that those who promote these realisms take great care to shield themselves from reality, and to build up cushions of fame, fortune, and respectability so that they may not suffer themselves.  Of course they do suffer--but by their own hands and choices.

Made-up suffering or over-the-top portrayal of human misery are now as common as dirt--and unlike the Catholic-informed writings of Percy and O'Connor, it is considered anathema to inject the least element of grace into any stories or novels, but to leave whole families and dystopic societies grovelling in the dirt before overwhelming circumstances, by the end of their tales.  Of course I would except the works of some--Wendell Berry and Garrison Keillor come to mind--but on the whole- as I would take it from the experiences of my sister who is a professor at Univ. of Maryland,  "happiness" is not only dull but hateful. (Politics are considered a Love  Potion # 9 substitute; and one gives one's all to it--or suffer the consequences of shunning en masse.)

I note that there are two parallel movements of the human soul that tend to support views far more pessimistic than my own; the first would be the fundamental human response of Gossip.  According to my Dad re; his experiences at Carleton College, faculty gossip prevails over any discussion of ideas. Another would be the force of "social proof" which is the bedrock of any viable culture. More of the latter, later, perhaps.

Since my middle name is Eliot, I suppose there are many ways in which my life parallels Eliot's; not in the quantity of suffering but in the trajectory of it, also experienced by CSL by the latter part of his life with "Joy" Davidman.

Flo has sometimes wondered why I don't write poems about her, but I point out that I don't need to or want to.  Much as Eliot, once one discovers and imbibes in the reality for which men and women were meant, when one is "accepted in the beloved," one has no need to convince the beloved--who cannot be reduced to words at all. One becomes, "a man in full," but far beyond anything Tom Wolfe or others can even dare to imagine--and they dare not to do so, because they are too deeply invested in their output and the usefulness of their own sufferings, which they hold close to their chests, and brag about to the media and their colleagues. It rather reminds me of that Python sketch in which the old men compete to outdo each other by bragging of how bad their childhood was, telling of course the usual lies and exaggerations to which we aged are prone. "I walked 20 miles to school in the snow barefoot and uphill both ways..." etc.

"Oh you think you had it tough!  When I was a boy, we....."

I have not had it tough, but my disposition tends to aggravate my stories I tell myself, all too often. When we have few externally recognizable triumphs--or even if we do, as they are never enough--we tend to pride ourselves on suffering in silence, and the ultimate narcissism, "No one understands me. I'm just ahead of my time, etc"

Oh, please!

"Jesus is for Losers"

(see the song by Steve Taylor--not what your think--but it's not about us--He takes care of the shovel-loads of trivia in our life in Factoid-onia)

I reviewed the lyrics of, "I Believe in You," by Bob Dylan from his born-again days.'S Quite the contrast with the current albums, which get progressively more sensuous with each one. I would call this, technically speaking,   reactionary, for the following reasons:

First, Dylan couldn't take the heat of being associated with ordinary Christians.  He's a very smart man, but except for a brief period of honesty about his actual condition before God, he voted his people, his politics, and his personal and ever-wavering passions. He just couldn't resist being part of the smart set and being brother to the Sophists in the entertainment biz,  which is at bottom what Dylan is still all about. "Touring"--he just can't get enough of it! Other examples of this would be TSE, who could stand being conservative, but not being mocked by his colleagues and critics.  "The poet of the century" could no longer refer to Christ in his swan songery. In its stead came the strange god of the Mississippi, the "strong brown god" of the massive and impressive river running by the town in which he grew up, St. Louis as I recall. Yet another fallen brown god-unto-himself would be Mel Gibson; and even Martin Luther at the befuddled end of his life. Trivial pursuit for the broken warrior types who fell back into the default positions of their troubled youth; and were and are dogged relentlessly by their earthly successes. "Better to be a doorkeeper," as David once sang. He would know--and his end, and his son's end, are surely nothing but whimpers, and most disappointing.

Second, and related to this, Dylan could not maintain his image as a mystery man and intransigent poet of unexpected twists and turns, and continue to maintain a genuine Christian witness. He saw that all his fame and influence could disappear almost overnight in the sturm und drang of the scorn of his critics and his colleagues.  Ironically, he has abandoned his poetry stance, too, and gone back to the merely sensual "folk-rock oldies" position from which he sprang.

Thirdly and perhaps underlying all the others would be the sort of sexual addiction that made him a hypocrite even while he was writing these paeans to Christ.  The man always portrays himself as in impossible relationships with women, in spite of all his power and  fame; yet is he not to blame for his own dysfunctional relationships? Since he held such power over them -and us- that few of us--blessedly-- will ever experience?


"Take a lesson from  the fig tree..."

I have a fig tree from the local farm store--but I have to bring it indoors for the winter. It won't survive the winter at this latitude. It produced two figs this year, very small as you can see.  The 'first fruit' disappeared without a trace; I don't think the cats ate it, and they keep all squirrels away, but it could have been an Extra Bold Bunny...or... it was, Taken Up, hm?

The second one, shown above, fell into my hand when I touched it.  It kind of looks like one of those pineal-like souls from the movie, "Cold Souls."  But could this fouled fig, three-quarters mummified, be a symbol of , well, us?  If not, we are moving towards this frustrated impotent and seedless state at ever increasing speed. Will future generations be able to produce better fruit than this? Or does this represent the state of the whole earth, minus a small but shrinking pale green remnant?

It is the Sensate Culture that contains the most "sugar" for fermentation. And once sugar or its fermentation products are consumed and then cease, nothing is left but dissipated energy that has been scattered abroad and wasted for no good or God-reason at all.  Witness the burgeoning no-child option, and the fact that we consume for ourselves and not for the future, whatever it may even physically be, much less our spiritual estate.

Small remnants still give me hope.  Some are still in the world but less and less of it--as indeed the world can offer less and less through its greedy death-throes.  Life will find a way--but all the more so will God and His Resurrected Son.  What McWorld offers was represented by the miniature mummy stolen by Hazel Motes for his "Church Without Christ" in the novel, "Wise Blood" by Flannery O'Connor.  And may I add that O'Connor did not end up like the sophisticates and Sophists and Sadducees noted above.  May I reach my end like her, only more so...Holy Spirit come and do in me what no man can.

"This man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he sought to destroy." "Wise Blood" made the difference, not a fallen shrivelled fruit.  (Gal 1--the whole chapter)

why winning is losing...

Winning of course means you are to blame for whatever follows; and negative results cling to the powerful much more than the biggest gift-basket of carnal pleasures, freebies, bread, and circuses. Plus, what do you do for an encore?

Whether a corporate biggie or the head of a bloody nation?

I recall the story of a party for one former member of an office like mine,  who had just been promoted. This was a major jump to a high executive position where the promotee would be over not only his old friends but many, many more. One of his colleagues--not one of competitors--said plainly,

"Congratulations--but this is the last time you'll ever hear the truth again."

Let that sink in a bit...

MOSES' END...OUR "NEW BEGINNINGS"

TODAY I FINISHED THE PENTATEUCH, THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES, AND SAW AGAIN HOW HE MET HIS END---AND HOW THAT CORRELATES IN A PROFOUND WAY WITH TUESDAY, BLOODY TUESDAY.

"Since then, no prophet has arisen like Moses, who The LORD knew face to face." 

"The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

"Just as Moses lifted up the (bronze) snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone that believes in Him may have eternal life."

The story of the bronze serpent is, as Jesus said, profoundly prophetic. It was a sign of God's undeserved and barely admitted Grace and Mercy in a blasted desert with only Manna to eat, and only this "hung snake" to come between them and their sins, God's True Truth, and death by a plague of poisonous live serpents, sent because of persistent rebellion and lying about God's revealed truth.

Whew!!!


We have had about 250 years of blessings and even honor, I think largely because until recently we sent out more missionaries at one time than the rest of the world combined--in other words and increasingly because there has been a remnant of belief and believers who do not at all belong the Mcworld "or anything in  it."  Our son Mark is one of those, as you all know.  But one must consider that we have also boasted of being a democracy or republic blessed by the rule of Law.  Hence there has always been this division.

Both Lincoln and Jesus said that a people divided against itself cannot stand.  So, here we are, as divided as we were in 1865, but over an even more profound and basic issue than it was in those days, an affront to The God of Grace even greater than the great sins of slavery.

I might say that it has never been any ambition of mine to go where I am not wanted--and this is ever increasingly true in the "urbanization revolution--and this in turn is going to effect a tsunami of change in my own life, towards the things that really matter. In a way I am leaving Egypt...and more of that soon...but even Bobb-o Dylan-o wrote that the flesh wars against the Spirit, "24 hours a day."  But I must declare that in USA Today, it is no a fair fight in terms of numbers--because "few there be that find it."  Connect the dots, friends; and do not color by numbers!

But the USA is at that point where Law has been shaken and democracy deadened by executive fiats and unjust judges--for an increasingly lawless and graceless and rebellious people.  We still have not gotten as bad as we have "given"--if that's the word--so there must be some modicum of mercy left--but he who will not receive grace will be humbled if not destroyed not only by The Law of Moses, which we left in the dust and the desert ago--but accelerated by the "laws" of men, full of greed and "dead men's bones."

In other words, we are getting Mammon; we are bribed by men for a momentary peace and prosperity increasingly made possible by an international Holocaust, on the back of millions and millions of our own children--the ones we have killed without mercy and so far without the least evidence of even any practical forethought . And  the survivors with--you know--"survivors syndrome?" If we don't kill them immediately--like unto "Baby Doe" and "partial birth abortion;" we abandon them to the torture chambers of "easy" divorce and constant abandonment of even the most basic parental duties, much less the demands of self-sacrificing  love. I could go on and on but I think most of my readers understand this already--but now it's a matter of emphasis...

"Aim for Perfection"

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!  We do!!! But in all the wrong places!!! Not to mention the wrong times and about the wrong things!

In Paul's final words to those in Corinth, we find admonishments that sound very foreign to our ears, why?  Is it because of the proximity to Christ--in Spirit? Or in our contrasting eras with Christ's actual influence waning over the centuries, as He predicted? 
"But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Maybe not--but He'll find plenty of "unjust judges.")

I think it is because we want our pie and eat it too.  Love without testing.  Peace by taking no trouble about it. (Maybe we can just buy off our enemies on ebay...)

I often recall a cartoon called "Pontius' Puddle" in which Pontius--a sort of ill formed Christian amoeba-was speaking to a friend and said:"I asked God why he wasn't doing anything about all the suffering and injustice in the world; and He asked me the same thing."  Ah, so!

In other words, God (of the Bible I'm talking here) allows all the trouble we create, and have continuously created since we were Created.  Overt Acts have consequences too, not just Ideas. Stewardship means taking some trouble to ameliorate at least our carelessness, infantile selfishness, and wayward spending with which we reward ourselves with our own comforts well outside the Will of The Comforter.

CSL once wrote that we are all contaminated by what he called "mountain apple," meaning original sin that was love of the world at first bite. With large dollops of suffering on top or to follow.  If we are contaminated--I would say closer to  immersed in such fruit--then it is true that, "Without Me you can do nothing." And I would add, worse than nothing. We are baked into Western Mountain Apple Pie.  "And when the pie was opened..."


There's a very fine article in Touchstone magazine in regards to the general  Western cultural change from Aristotelian logic, in which each thing and person has an "essence" and intrinsic worth and existence;unto, thanks to Hume and Kant, "symbolic logic"  which is what I would call either sensate logic or the logic of the market place, or the logic of slavery.  In which anything and everything has no value except for what people will pay for it.  That might be money...or just attention. I am quite sure our hospital has made this cultural shift, and as an employee and no longer in private practice, I feel this everyday in the push for quantity as opposed to the desire for quality.  This struggle is ongoing of course because you can't really ignore the quality issue--but why? Because if you do, you might get sued?  But that is still Market Place Reasoning, not doing something for its own intrinsic or inherent worth, right?

Is the East taking over because they have a sense of the intrinsic worth of a human person? Not at all...it's still a very impersonal philosophical place--but certain concepts are held by some to have intrinsic worth; for instance Robert Pirsig in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence."  "Quality" is his mantra, even though it rather hangs in thin air with no "ratio"  ; thus joining the ranks of the absurd.

This is altogether different from this perfectness which Paul mentions among other admonitions; but in which perfection is balanced by mercy and grace, which he also displayed to the wayward Corinthians. If one wants an example of Eastern striving, read, "Death of a Guru," or give another viewing to "My Dinner With  Andre."  Both one-sided and dualistic strivings are "right out," (see my son's book on Auden and Augustine when it comes out next year--I have a copy of his thesis) which is why I am more of a Trinitarian every day; and less of a polytheist, which is just a mess. But without a mess, no Messiah?

For some, an "ah-so" moment...heh...

Uneeda Mess...

I'm sure this is not original with me, but it occurred to me after reading most of Deuteronomy, and being poised on the verge of the Song of Moses, that the foreknowledge of God is unlimited; and He states in Deut 38:26"

"Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your GOD. There it will remain as a witness against you."

I was struck by this statement in that there is no additional purpose adduced to these relics.  They, while sacred in origin, were not to be worshipped. Gideon's Ephod and the Bronze Serpent in the desert are good counter-examples of the kind of worship we always prefer; to worship objects that we can create and control, regardless of the goodness of God, their origin. The Middle Ages and even before were witness to pieces of bone, teeth, and hair becoming venerated, in spite of their usual origin as fakes. Secularists are regularly engaged in trying to find a bone box that will discredit God and His Messiah, making fools of themselves all the way--but what they are really looking for is a bone or fossil that they can look to and prize and worth-ship when they want to evade their considerable responsibility before God, and live only for their own pleasures.  (Ever wonder why modern Sadducees and Sophists are so hot on "good sex?" And why the schools they create and sustain are so good at handing out condoms and promoting sterile sex, but can't otherwise educate their charges even to read beyond a grade school level?  It's just the rattling of idols and temple prostitution being called up from the dead....)(Feliz Dia de lost Muertos, eh?)

But to return to my topic, which is worthy of Pascal and probably somewhere in his Pensees in other words:

"You need a mess to need The Messiah!"  In other words the law has to do what it can--which is less to prevent sin than to call it to mind and cause more of it all the while--"as a witness against you."--so that Messiah can come and do what only God can do: "Operation Rescue."  The Absolute does it Absolutely.

We of course abhor holy relics to hold, kiss, or desire as the flesh would have us to do.  Not kosher, to say the least!  But to say the most I can, our "relics" and idols are now in the form of abstract ideation, whole cultural masses of traditions which scream out the Basic Assumption of Modernism, that there is no God--but if there is, He is a Big Liar and at the disposal of his human trainers and owners--a "tame lion," in CSL parlance.

But is it not, "odd of God, to choose the Jews," only then to destroy them  again and again in the various deserts where he said they would wander?  As Moses questioned God, why bring all this people out of Egypt only to destroy (most of ) them?  And esp. why do this if You Knew already what they would do, in  spite of and perhaps even because of being chosen?  It's the non-eternal but all too human question of why God does not force us to love Him even though He wants to spare us some of the consequences of our thinking and actions?  And the accumulation of the sins of the world over multiple millenia certainly represents a vast mountain range of decay and the waste products of many civilizations which we nonetheless revere in vain. (I think about the tremendous trash pile of Wall-E--a good "solid waste" representation of our current state.)(I won't get much argument there, even from the most sanguine of progressives!)

Thus the purpose of all this futility is to bring us to Christ. Wasteful? Not in comparison to macro-evolution which sacrifices everybody and everything for no reason at all.

But if it's so obvious, what about the Bleeding Obvious? The exploding unplastic inevitable? God has provided a Blood Sacrifice because it's the ultimate one, and One worthy not only of His Purity, but also designed to be supra-cultural and trans-cultural and counter-cultural all at the same time. Culture and Civilization are simply "superclusters" of dead stars all burning down and out as we speak--but also leaving black holes all over the place, formed of pure negation and total failure unto oblivion. "You began well-what happened? (Gal 1)

"Jesus knows our every weakness--take it to the Lord in prayer." Well? Why not, then?

THE Equestion, Popped

"Come let us reason together, says The LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow..." 

In thinking about Pascal's strengths and his personal experience well beyond and above that, besides all the logic (derivative) deductive and empirical,  it is quite clear that more than logic is involved in our most central questions. Logic can help or hinder us in our relationships, all dependent on our wills. If one wishes to be in an intimate relationship especially, one has to give up a great deal in what I would call a Wholistic manner.

 Logic is a tool with an expiration date. Like Mammon,  it can be a potentially reasonable servant, but is always a terrible and vastly incompetent master or "god."

When I got married, I gave up many many possible worlds for the one, as it turns out, with the greatest potential to strengthen my better qualities and to let the others atrophy or be even ruthlessly omitted. So it is, but infinitely more so, with Christ the Bridegroom.

What Messiah Christ Jesus brings to us is in fact a much greater marriage proposal, a permanent and perfect marriage covenant.  While this may offend us in some sensate ways, the offer stands, and is eminently reasonable, and more than reasonable.  So if we are seeing ourselves as creatures of reason and more, we have to consider his perfectly reasonable proposal. So the question is:


"Is there any reason you would not want to take Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now?"

Let me say this: if Jesus were to stand before you today, and ask you this question directly, would you argue with Him?  What would be your "perfectly reasonable reason," for rejecting his proposal from the stance of a Higher Reason than any or all of us can comprehend?

But the fact is, He is before you all the time, and asks this question every day. We use our worldly concerns to put Him off and to at times resort to binding and gagging him, lest He "contaminate" our hearts that we, for some "reason" are saving up for a rainy day!

Come let us consider: does reason come from anyone but God?  See Job--no errors in Logic because Job's Interlocutor fashioned Logic and Law too for our benefit more than for His. Specifically, He invented man-sized logic for us alone; do we use it with "fear and trembling," as Kierkegaard would say; or with hubris and our secondary and too-much-vaunted  and totally derrivative intellect?

"God wouldn't do it that way," says the Muslim.  And who is he, and we, to tell God how He should proceed? (a strange statement for a follower of a supposedly ineffable god.)

As I mentioned recently, Pascal's conversion was the result of seeking Christ in the Scriptures, and praying for/wanting a personal revelation from a Very Personal GOD.  What prevents us then from pursuing and asking God sincerely for, "FIRE?" 

We have our reasons--but what do they look like from God's perspective? Do they not look incresingly foolish and frankly totally sensate and "bio-deradable" as we get older?; beside the very discomfiting fact that,"Man knows not his time?" 

Isaiah knew, darkly, that the "set time" would come--and also that his own people would crucify their only real king. The "set time" came and went for them, and Christ wept that they, "knew not the time of their visitation."  There is a set time for us--mine was Palm Sunday evening of 1979. "And then the end will come." 

The question remains, a Proposal Not Modest: Is there any reason for you, the reader, to turn down Christ Jesus, or to refuse to even bother to ask Him if He is real?  Having studied this, and science, for many years, and having explored all the major veins of philosophy, I have not seen one cogent, reliable reason to disbelieve anything Christ ever said or did.  There is nothing better, or longer lasting, I can assure any reader, than a Covenant Marriage between two faithfu ones. Has Christ be unfaithful to any, when even Pilate said,

"I find no fault in this man."  ?

Logical errors viewed logistically

I have had two visits of interest lately; one to the Creation museum near  Cincinnati; and a medical conference involving a speaker we heard 11 years ago; and whom the Pres. of CMDA has called a "medical C.S. Lewis." 

Un-coincidentally, I picked up a book by Dr. Jason Lisle--a small handbook on logic and faith--at the museum; which turned out to be quite useful personally, at the conference, and beyond. Dr. Lisle asserts that, on most sides of any given debate, proceeding logically is a lost art--and that Christians have to use  reasoned argument for the Christian faith, when dealing with matters on a fitting level.  Not a consumer-friendly approach,  but it is Biblical, see 1Peter 3:15.

The scientific researcher turned metaphysician is always a risky switch.  Very often people long to go beyond the materialism of our age and all previous ages, so much so that they venture onto ground upon which they are ill-equipped to stand.  A recent example would be Richard Dawkins, who is a skilled propagandist/teacher but a very amateur philosopher; and of course not a theologian at all by his own admission.  And yet because he is from Oxford and has done some reasearch, we are not allowed to question his greatness or even methods. He actually believes, at some level, that he is so brilliant that he is not only competent but ultra-competent in the most ill-defined areas of human endeavor.  An example of someone who was very literate and widely read and more honest and humble both was Stephen J. Gould,  an opponent of not only creationists but ill-tempered scientists who publish and self-promote in unseemly ways. 

I say that not only for its face value but to point out that I commit errors in logic all the time, as do we all.  The foregoing would be a combination of ad hominem and appeal to authority errors--which most debaters violate with impunity because they have so little else to offer in the way of independent reasoning...I was on  the debate team, I know how it's done--via a "quote box," and whoever had the best quotes, won.  These are  just barely contests  of rhetoric, albeit using someone's else's out-of- context rhetoric; and our civilization is all about rhetoric and Sophism now; there is so little else left.

As a physician operating out of a scientific worldview, and I can pretty well conclude that, first, man is more than any animal or world or imaginary universes we'll ever know. But secondly, classic definitions of reason and logic are observed by us largely by their absence; that is we use it as a name-calling exercise rather than as a tool for self-evaluation, or even a comparative evaluation of abstract ideas and psuedo-pragmatic proposals. And third, the ability to reason is only a small part of us, it's a gift but rarely exercised and subject to rapid decay, and the most important decisions of life involve a great deal beyond reason.  Those who have and use such a gift have many more reasons to be humble and to be humbled than those people in many other callings (perhaps.) As God  said to Gideon in Paddy Chayevsky's (sp?) play of the same name, "Sometimes, Gideon, love is a little unreasonable."  Not a Scripture but a hint about a Much Larger Love that we cannot earn or deserve.

I would like to investigate this a little more, and I probably will be appalled by my/our "strange devices" of thought in a post modern mileu.  Maybe our de-vices will be like Screwtape's; vices indeed and more akin to addiction (idolatry) than we have dared  to think yet.

  In any event, the Bible is not threatened and I fail to see how it can ever be.  God's Word has  on the surface suffered severe mangling and a continual 60-cycle hum of, "Yea hath God said?" for millenia, and still comes out cleaner or more durable than anything in history.  More later on its standing and "nothing works unless everything works."

Pascal's Law vs his Wager

I've been asked recently--by Dennis--to review some sites that try to discredit Pascal's wager. What I'd like to see is someone railing against Pascal's LAW!

Before I review these "angry birds" websites, I think it will help to review where I am at with Pascal's Betting Parlor.

First of all, one must see that the methods of arriving at his wager are very similar to those used to arrive at his Law; which is to say, statistics.

In a Newtonian scheme, one works on the law of averages.  One is not concerned with outliers; one is not concerned with individuals, be they particle, wave, or magnificently complex being.

Boyle's Law and Pascal's are configured as the result of the aggregate behavior of the majority of gas molecules in relationship to various conditions of volume, pressure, and so on. Pascal is still honored in scientific nomenclature, as in Pressure measured in Pascal Units, as in the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood, SPO2. So the scientific impact of these Laws remains unbroken over the centuries. Very useful in my biz.

In a purely physical sense-in theory that is- there may be no such thing as the purely physical  at the very least because of entropy. Materialism, like pragmatism, swallows its own tail.

The wager, on the other hand, is an attempt to reduce the metaphysical to the realm of scientifically derived statistical analysis. At the very least, it does outline the seriousness of God's Modest Proposals to man found in the Bible. But the fit is ultimately a poor one, rather like some one's project, "Reasons to Believe."  For believers who may be gifted in math or science, these are very interesting and perhaps comforting. But if God could be proven by such technical means, He could also be disproven by similar techniques at some point. Such is not the case, of course.  God, by definition, cannot be "found out," nor is He bound by any law, scientific or other.

If one looks at Pascal himself, not as a cipher or an errant molecule, but as an ordinary individuated human being; you will find that Pascal's belief was rather nominal until he had his direct and supernatural Pauline-style Damascus Road experience, which was written in short form, happened in an instant one night, and sewed into his coat, only to be found fortuitously after his death.  (One only finds  hints of it even in the Pensees. I  sometimes wonder why he hid it in his coat--scientific pride and unwillingness to be embarrassed in front of his Renaissance colleagues? So much; in so little; is the rule still for most Christian practitioners of science, in spite of science's inherent limits which can be outlined in a few minutes, or reasoned with a few minutes of real thought induced by a trace of real humility.)

One of the things that makes Quantum Mechanics so fascinating is that it IS concerned with outliers--with particles being inside the box and outside of it at the same time.  It's still statistical; but the difference is that it is different on different levels. Making it, for instance, quite possible to go through material walls as Jesus did. However, proof is more of a mechanical device and it is quite easy to speculate with the Uncertainty Principle always hanging around. "Plenty of room for miracles." as Robert Spitzer SJ has said (Dr. Spitzer is a physicist and mathematician who was recently president of Gonzaga U.  You should check him out Dennis; his lectures have been compared to the opening of a fire hydrant full blast. I have listened to one or two of them and they are very good if you can keep up with him.)

( I might add that the soft sciences including biology still operate in a Newtonian mechanistic thought-universe.) Last man standing?

In sum/in some, Pascal's belief was not based on a scientific conceit but a direct touch from God--provoked perhaps by Pascal's honest pursuit of Jesus.  It is best to read all of the Pensees' to put into perspective the inherently speculative nature of his wager. If one has not read it in the original--English, not French unless one is fluent in both--one cannot appreciate the fact that his wager is a very technical one, and not that easy to understand the way he writes it. But other Pensees are full of "proofs"--by the supernatural nature of God and His Christ. He realized that God is the Ultimate Outlier yet owns everything we can know and infinitely more. His evaluation of the more materialistic and sensuous Montaigne reflects Jesus more than any statistical analysis.

I look upon it the same way I look upon "maps" of the known universe. It should be a humbling experience, not a "religious" one.  Spiritually, yes, however, one can derive much wonder. But if God were in the reach of final proofs, He could also be disproven and would not be God at all.

Never put your life in the hands of statisticians (I'm not sure why I have to point out the bleeding obvious)--this is more of an evasion of personal  responsibility to our Creator and avoidance of the needed personal response to a Person--Elohim/Jehovah--who requires of us  not only general holiness--which is not to be attained by human effort but may be helped by personal intent--but also requires personal assignments; these two areas of responsibility form  the backbone of the Testaments, the Law, and Grace. Pascal's human responsibility was to be a scientist not first but earlier in life; then a testament to God's Grace in Christ. Those who are gifted in logic should never feel that God is beholden to bow down before what is ,after all, His Property...logic is a bit like time itself, it is a tool of measurement-- subject to be broken anytime anywhere and in any Holy manner--when God breaks into the tiny worlds of science and the truly limited selves that power it. Even or especially in this world, we are servants, never masters. Even logic will tell us that...

HOPE IS NOT A VACUUM

It becomes clearer each day that Sarte's contentless  and terminal "hope" is more a manner of vanity and pride of place and (baleful) influence than anything else.  It in fact qualifies on every level as, "strongholds...arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God..." (2 Cor 10:5)  Not to mention denial and self delusion. (But as for the alcoholic, misery loves company and social proof.)

I have come to the conclusion that, as I do weaken with aging, I really have too many opportunities of a worldish nature, and less and less time to fool around with them. "Look, it's really quite simple...
..."
The simplicity of the Gospel leads to The Basic Axiom, which is summed up in some of today's reading from the book and chapter noted above: referring to such plain wisdom as, "set no wicked thing before your eyes." Because if you do, you see, you will be left with Sartre's empty thought and nothing else--but still the Specific Content of God will not, and never, go away. Pascal's wager keeps popping up--but with this difference, as Lewis said: this particular story happens to be true--I might add, on every possible level.

Let it never be forgotten that Sartre from age 7 up, hated God.  His reasoning is/was sensate. The resentment of being one-upped in wisdom or authority or autonomy is probably the chief weapon (besides surprise) of all who hate God and need some kind of tangled rationale to dispose of Him. In that case, the philosopher can't even count on luck; supposing there is such a thing, which I cannot assume on any level. The power of self-deception is amazing--but it cannot move mountains and remains in the valley of decision like Godot's clueless tramps and Beckett himself.

Recently I have been quite discouraged--but I realized I was putting my nature and well-being at the disposal of almost anyone or anything besides God.  Like a true Pharisee, I was focusing on the superficiality of evil as if it alone had any substance.  But as noted above, in the end its substance is the null set. And this is entirely the opposite of life in and through and with Christ. Rather than focusing on legions, I find there is too much fermentation and mindless froth in the world to be taken up with it, or with people's weak points--I have too many of my own.


Aside: The matter of Entertainment has reached the king of boiling point of fecundity noted in Chapter 10 of "A Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek"--unsupportable at its present level, having only a faux influence but it's enough for the majority, all right. We certainly prefer a fiddle and the spectacle of Rome burning.

I also realized that there is plenty of Philippians 4:8 at my disposal that can be readily accessed if I will take even a little time to, "think  upon these things," and to leave all the rest behind.  It is as Jesus said about the little man who swept and garnished his little home, only to end up 7x worse than before, and without a proper exterminator --but Christ. It's not a matter of hosing the place down but doing as the Marys did--sitting at His feet while the opportunity--soon in the past--presents itself.

Hope...has a face.  Hope...is a Person.  Hope is open and ready for "whosoever will."  I can be stubborn and end up with a "handful of pebbles," as one despondent "higher critic" noted, looking back. (And I have enough to criticize within myself to have time to serve it up it up  for others who don't want it in the first place; much less judging God's Word and Spirit according to my faintness and ever- dimming sight.) Or one can arrange for a meeting...