From Nicholas Wolterstorff, one of my travel guides (in the journey of life and parental grief):
God is love. That is why he suffers. To love our suffering sinful world is to suffer. God so suffered for the world that he gave up his only Son to suffering. The one who does not see God’s suffering does not see his love. God is suffering love.
So suffering is down at the center of things, deep down where the meaning is. Suffering is the meaning of our world. For Love is the meaning. And Love suffers. The tears of God are the meaning of history.
But mystery remains. Why isn’t Love-without-suffering the meaning of things? Why is suffering-Love the meaning? Why does God endure his suffering? Why does he not at once relieve his agony by relieving ours?
Another thought from reading Tracy Kidder’s MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS (about the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, “a man who would change the world”):
Kidder traveled all around the world with Farmer as he prepared to write the book–to Peru, to Russian prisons, to Boston, to Haiti (the center of Farmer’s work with the poor), and to Paris. Here’s what he records about entering Paris: “As we entered the city proper, that great dove-colored epicurean city, he murmured something about how much could be done in Haiti if only he could get his hands on the money that the first world spent on pet grooming.”
Statements like that jolt me into reality and embarrassment. It makes me think about how hard it is for us to buy Christmas presents for each other when we can’t think of anything lacking. And yet there are people in Haiti (and hidden from us in Abilene) who lack almost everything.
Enjoy Jim Shahin’s thoughts about Santa:
“Isn’t Santa always beaming? For once, I’d like to see a pensive Santa or a melancholy Santa. I was lucky enough to see, in person, a drunk Santa. It was in Florida on Christmas Eve, Santa after-hours. He was weaving down the late-night street, spotlit by the hazy light of overhanging street lamps, mumbling something that didn’t sound remotely like ‘and to all a good night.’ I’ve also been privileged to see a cigarette-smoking Santa; several of them, in fact. They’re all over the place in Italy. Cigarette smoking and hair the color of cigarette ash, worn slightly askew, a look that is less jolly than it is kind of Santa noir.”
Santa Noir, huh? Can you imagine how different all the lyrics might be to popular Christmas songs? Go ahead . . . give it a try.
Just survived a flight from Abilene to DFW. Winds in Abilene turned it into a roller-coaster ride. I saw lots of people in the airport headed to Abilene. They asked how it was. I just smiled and said, “buckle up.”
On the way, I continued MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS. There is a great passage about what Dr. Paul Farmer calls his “H of G.” It stands for “hermeneutic of generosity.” In other words, he tries to interpret what people say with a generous spirit, giving them the benefit of the doubt. What a great idea!
You can’t trust the Sooners to win. When you want them to lose, they kill everyone. When you need them to win so Texas can get in a decent bowl game, they blow it.
And the under-12 Burn? Won in quarters, won in semis, lost 1-0 in the finals. It was a great seven year run. (Thanks, Scott!)
I love my job.
But somedays . . . like this morning. So glad to be here. But I’ll miss Chris’s soccer team at the Tournament of Champions. They advanced through yesterday’s three games into this morning’s quarterfinals. So last night, as I’ve done several times before, Diane stayed to watch what will hopefully be three more games while I drove back for my Sunday gig.
Chris has played on the same soccer team for seven years. Many times I’ve seen him play Saturday in tournaments. But I’ve never seen one of the final games on Sunday.
Go Burn! (For non-soccer fans, this is a cheer for a sports team, not some eschatological fury.)
Here’s how a real zoom shot works: from a galactic view of the Milky Way galaxy to sub-atomic particles in a leaf on earth.
I came across someone’s “ALL I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED ON THE CATTLE RANGE.” Thought it was pretty valuable.
1. Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.
2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman…neither works.
4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
5. Always drink upstream from the herd.
6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.
8. There are three kinds of men:
- The ones who learn by reading.
- The few who learn by observation.
- The rest of them have to touch the electric fence to see if it’s really on.
[Note to my family of origin here: Does this remind you of our farm? How many times did we touch that fence to see if it was on?]
9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
10. If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.
It happened again this morning. I said to Diane, “You look great in that sweater. Is it new?” She said, “Thank you. And no, it isn’t new. You got it for me for my birthday last year.”
All right. So my taste is better than my memory.
I’m finishing up my grading of the papers my 106 freshmen students wrote. They’re supposed to review a movie (from a list I gave), showing how the movie prepares for hearing the gospel through messages about sin, brokenness, community, friendship, compassion, etc.
Some, never having done anything like this before, just turn the movie into an allegory. I finally took “The Matrix” and “Lion King” off the list because I couldn’t take any more “Neo represents Jesus” or “Mufasa represents Jesus” papers. (Of course this year I put “Finding Nemo” on there, and you can imagine where that went!)
But others catch it: instead of trying to find illustrations and draw parallels and produce allegories, they grab the big, overarching themes that great novelists and producers work with.
“Places of the Heart,” “Shawshank Redemption,” “The Apostle,” “Chocolat”–movies like this are working with real life themes like loss, grief, hope, pain, friendship, hypocrisy.
On the subject of GREAT MOVIES, it is just sixteen days until December 17. And you know what that means! (LOTR #3)