“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and He has not been disappointed.”

This insight was voiced by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently while addressing a Knights of Columbus gathering. Scalia is a staunch Catholic, and while I won’t agree with all of his religious beliefs as part of the Roman Catholic church, he has this one exactly right. Paul wrote about this in First Corinthians chapter 1:

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

As Christians, we are constantly told by the world today that we are stupid for believing what we do.

Aren’t you smart enough to know that evolution is the way it happened and that creation is a myth? Are you so stupid as to believe that there is a God who is all-powerful? Have you yet to gain the understanding that we are the ultimate arbiters of what is moral? Come on, how stupid can you be?

At times I find it disheartening; at times only frustrating When I gain the correct perspective, then I can finally look past the insults and criticism to realize that I have a knowledge (through no merit of my own) that they don’t have, and regardless of how they ridicule me, it is still my duty to proclaim what I know to be true.

I look at it this way: if I were walking by somebody’s house and saw it burning, they’d want me to come tell them so they could escape. But what if I was walking by and somehow knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that their house was burning, even though they didn’t understand why. Wouldn’t I still have the moral imperative to tell them? If this were the case I would also be trying anything in my control to try to help them to understand how I knew.

In the case of my beliefs, they won’t be able to understand unless the Spirit enables them to respond to the message. However, I still have the moral imperative (and the command from God) to keep speaking the message, even if I am called a fool for saying it.

Here’s where I have to do some self-evaluation. I generally don’t like to be thought a fool. (Who does?) While I’m not willing to go change my beliefs so people won’t think I’m stupid, I too often keep my mouth shut when I really shouldn’t… thus providing the impression that I’m not a fool, when if I told them what I believed, they’d think I was. I think I need to open my mouth more. I’ll have to pray for the boldness to do it.

Scalia again:

“If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

Consider yourself challenged. I know I am.

So I got an iPod for Christmas… and of course the next task is ripping all of my CDs to mp3s so I can put them on the iPod. That was a task in itself. I’m almost done… (done with all the popular music, about halfway through the classical.) So then I got curious and started wondering about converting all the cassette tapes that I’ve got… (there’s not as many as the CDs, only probably a dozen that I’d care about converting, but still…)

So I researched it a bit online and figured out that by running a cable from the headphone jack of my tape deck into the line in input of my PC, I can record those old tapes. And the free dBPowerAmp software is really slick for recording them; it will automagically sense dead time between songs and split it out into separate mp3 files… too cool. So, now that the geek in me was satisfied with my use of technology, I could get on to recording all of my high school tapes. And that was the scary part.

I was a big Michael W. Smith fan in high school. So of course some of the first tapes to get converted were his albums The Big Picture, Go West Young Man, Change Your World, and The Live Set. (To be fair, a couple of those were done when I was middle-school-aged… and I just picked them up in high school. ) And then there were a couple old Amy Grant albums, and Michael English’s two good albums that he released before his confession-of-an-affair-and-returning-all-his-Dove-awards debacle. And an old Steven Curtis Chapman album or two.

If you’re reading this and recognize all these names, then you’ll also recognize that my musical scope was a bit limited in high school; my folks were pretty adamant that Christian music was the only choice (although jazz and classical were also OK), and I was remarkably content with that. The downside is that now as an adult I feel like I missed a few things… but that also makes for neat discoveries. I got the 2-CD set The Essential Bob Dylan this weekend and I’m enjoying it immensely. Probably wouldn’t have appreciated it when I was 17.

What a difference a decade makes.

Or so my sister tells me. Of course, she’s 17, a senior in highschool, and has the time to keep up her blog. But the least I can do is actually give it a shot. Don’t know how interesting it’ll be, but I’ll give it a try. This will probably be more informational than thoughtful, but if info’s what you’re after, then you’re all set.

I watched a couple interesting high-school movies the other night: the recent Napoleon Dynamite, and then Ghost World, which is 4 or 5 years old. Napoleon Dynamite is a hit among some of my friends, and I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it. I laughed at parts, and was generally amused by the whole thing. It’s one of those films thatmy wife just rolls her eyes at (“that’s two hours I’m never getting back”) but I enjoyed the pastique of the high school life. It certainly sums up the experience of being a loser in high school. And I just have to have appreciation for a movie where basically no one is a decent actor in the whole movie, and that’s almost the point; the guys just have blank-faced stares the whole time. Am I rambling here? Have I made any sense? I dunno. Yep, that’s pretty much the movie.

Ghost World was different. It was snappy, incisive, and incredibly profane. But at the same time it painted a good picture of two girls headed different directions in life, and their search for life after high school. While the language/dialog probably prevents me from recommending this to everyone, I really enjoyed it.

I don’t know why the sudden interest in high school movies; I was home schooled and never went to high school. I guess I’m reverting back 10 years for a little while.

So that’s the interesting news from my life today. Now it’s back to work.

Or so my sister tells me. Of course, she’s 17, a senior in highschool, and has the time to keep up her blog. But the least I can do is actually give it a shot. Don’t know how interesting it’ll be, but I’ll give it a try. This will probably be more informational than thoughtful, but if info’s what you’re after, then you’re all set.

I watched a couple interesting high-school movies the other night: the recent Napoleon Dynamite, and then Ghost World, which is 4 or 5 years old. Napoleon Dynamite is a hit among some of my friends, and I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it. I laughed at parts, and was generally amused by the whole thing. It’s one of those films thatmy wife just rolls her eyes at (“that’s two hours I’m never getting back”) but I enjoyed the pastique of the high school life. It certainly sums up the experience of being a loser in high school. And I just have to have appreciation for a movie where basically no one is a decent actor in the whole movie, and that’s almost the point; the guys just have blank-faced stares the whole time. Am I rambling here? Have I made any sense? I dunno. Yep, that’s pretty much the movie.

Ghost World was different. It was snappy, incisive, and incredibly profane. But at the same time it painted a good picture of two girls headed different directions in life, and their search for life after high school. While the language/dialog probably prevents me from recommending this to everyone, I really enjoyed it.

I don’t know why the sudden interest in high school movies; I was home schooled and never went to high school. I guess I’m reverting back 10 years for a little while.

So that’s the interesting news from my life today. Now it’s back to work.

Or so my sister tells me. Of course, she’s 17, a senior in highschool, and has the time to keep up her blog. But the least I can do is actually give it a shot. Don’t know how interesting it’ll be, but I’ll give it a try. This will probably be more informational than thoughtful, but if info’s what you’re after, then you’re all set.

I watched a couple interesting high-school movies the other night: the recent Napoleon Dynamite, and then Ghost World, which is 4 or 5 years old. Napoleon Dynamite is a hit among some of my friends, and I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it. I laughed at parts, and was generally amused by the whole thing. It’s one of those films thatmy wife just rolls her eyes at (“that’s two hours I’m never getting back”) but I enjoyed the pastique of the high school life. It certainly sums up the experience of being a loser in high school. And I just have to have appreciation for a movie where basically no one is a decent actor in the whole movie, and that’s almost the point; the guys just have blank-faced stares the whole time. Am I rambling here? Have I made any sense? I dunno. Yep, that’s pretty much the movie.

Ghost World was different. It was snappy, incisive, and incredibly profane. But at the same time it painted a good picture of two girls headed different directions in life, and their search for life after high school. While the language/dialog probably prevents me from recommending this to everyone, I really enjoyed it.

I don’t know why the sudden interest in high school movies; I was home schooled and never went to high school. I guess I’m reverting back 10 years for a little while.

So that’s the interesting news from my life today. Now it’s back to work.