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The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis published a new “Apostolic Exhortation” today titled “EVANGELII GAUDIUM”, which translated means “The Joy of the Gospel”. It’s a long read - more a book than a web page, about 50,000 words - and I only got about 10% of the way through it at lunch today. However, there is a ton of good stuff even in that first 10%. A few striking quotes (emphasis mine):
How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.
That’s a great reminder. Then there’s this:
There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.
“When everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” I need that reminder. Regularly.
In every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by by the power of his Spirit… The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us.
God takes the initiative, God gives the growth, God asks everything of us and at the same time offers everything to us. Wow.
And one last one:
God’s word is unpredictable in its power. The Gospel speaks of a seed which, once sown, grows by itself, even as the farmer sleeps (Mk 4:26-29). The Church has to accept this unruly freedom of the word, which accomplishes what it wills in ways that surpass our calculations and ways of thinking.
It’s gonna take me a while to get through the whole thing, but I’d say it’s definitely worth a read.
Jim Belcher, "In Search of Deep Faith"
I first became acquainted with author Jim Belcher back in 2009 when I read Deep Church. It appears I didn’t review it here on the blog, but my Goodreads review gave it four stars: solid but not revolutionary. Now Belcher is back, with In Search of Deep Faith.
I feel like I’ve seen bits and pieces of this book already, having followed Belcher on Twitter for the past few years. In Search of Deep Faith reads like a travel journal crossed with Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, as Belcher recounts his family’s adventures through several months of “pilgrimage” in Europe. Belcher, his wife and four pre-teen children spent several months in Oxford, England, where he was a visiting scholar at the university there. They then spent time exploring European sites that were notable because of the saints who had lived there.
Belcher’s chapters bounce back and forth as he shares his family’s adventures in finding and exploring the locations - from Corrie Ten Boom’s house in Holland, to C. S. Lewis’ home in Oxford, to a fruitless search for the location of Bonhoeffer’s hidden seminary - and then interspersing the stories of these saints, with an emphasis on how their deep faith led them to be devoted even during times of crisis and under threat of death.
Belcher’s concern in this memoir seems not primarily for his own spiritual health, but for that of his young children. He reminds us (several times) of studies telling us that children with shallow faith roots will abandon their faith in adulthood. How, Belcher wonders, can he inspire the faith and spiritual understanding that will allow his children to remain firm in their faith throughout their lives?
In Search of Deep Faith is an entertaining read. Most readers will find at least one of the historical faith stories to be new to them - the full story of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was particularly interesting to me - and Belcher drives the reader to reflection on the health of one’s own faith.
[caption width=“640” align=“aligncenter”]
Cranmer burned at the stake[/caption]
My one big gripe with the book is Belcher’s style of driving his argument via what I’m assuming must be invented dialogue. Sure, some of the conversations on his trip probably happened as they are written, but even though page after page of his book is filled with quoted dialog ("‘why do you think he did that?’, my wife asked."), either he provided a script for his family to read their questions from, or he’s putting words in their mouths later as a device to move his arguments along. And while literature has been using the forced question-and-answer format at least since Plato did it in The Republic, after too many chapters of it from Belcher it just feels contrived.
In spite of that gripe I’d still recommend reading this one if you think you’re at all interested. Style aside, it’s an encouraging and educational read.
Disclosure: InterVarsity Press provided me a free ebook copy of In Search of Deep Faith in return for posting a review here and at Amazon.com. The contents of the review are mine alone.
The command to love my neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me
I don’t always find myself warmed by the writings of Charles Spurgeon, but my friend Michael Terry sent me this bit yesterday, to which I can only give a hearty Amen!
We have seen such a one limping about with a long doctrinal leg, but a very short emotional leg. It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that, if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race. This is horrible!
I hate to hear the terrors of the Lord proclaimed by men whose hard visages, harsh tones, and unfeeling spirit betray a sort of doctrinal desiccation: all the milk of human kindness is dried out of them. Having no feeling himself, such a preacher creates none, and the people sit and listen while he keeps to dry, lifeless statements, until they come to value him for being “sound”, and they themselves come to be sound, too; and I need not add, sound asleep also, or what life they have is spent in sniffing out heresy, and making earnest men offenders for a word. Into this spirit may we never be baptized!
Whatever I believe, or do not believe, the command to love my neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me, and God forbid that any views or opinions should so contract my soul, and harden my heart as to make me forget this law of love! The love of God is first, but this by no means lessens the obligation of love to man; in fact, the first command includes the second. We are to seek our neighbour’s conversion because we love him, and we are to speak to him in loving terms God’s loving gospel, because our heart desires his eternal good.
This comes from Spurgeon’s book The Soul Winner. I love both the spirit and the sense of humor displayed here. Good stuff.
Today I did something I've never done before...
I bought two tickets to a big rock-and-roll show.
I’ve been an Arcade Fire fan for a few years now, but have never seen them in person. This morning their advance ticket sale went live for their 2014 tour, and after a quick consultation with Becky, I bought a pair.
Minneapolis. March 8. Happy early birthday to me!
And yeah, I bought General Admission Floor tickets. Because if you’re gonna go to a big show, why do you want a chair in a fixed location if you can instead be down on the floor?
Also: many thanks to Becky for being agreeable. She’s not a huge Arcade Fire fan, and not always one for big shows. Hopefully she’ll enjoy this one.
About those doubts and questions
From Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead:
I’m not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I’m saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own, not, so to speak, the mustache and walking stick that happen to be the fashion of any particular moment.
Sage advice, that.
Many Happy Returns
Just a quick note here today to say Happy Birthday to my dear mother. (I’ll call you later on today, Mom!)
Remembering her long annoyance on this day many years ago when us kids ran into church on a Wednesday night and breathlessly announced that it was Mom’s birthday and she was turning 40!, I’ll not mention her age here. (Maybe I can safely say is that while that event was on her 40th birthday, she and Dad have now surpassed their 40th anniversary.)
Mom invested the bulk of her life to raise and educate her five children, and remains an example of faithfulness, graciousness, and consistency to us all.
Happy birthday, Mom, and God’s blessings on you for this next year and many more to come.
Cue the Vangelis soundtrack...
One of the enjoyable things about going on business trips to various locations is the chance to get to do some running in locations I don’t usually get to see. I love that running gives you a perspective on a place that you don’t get from just driving past in your car, and when you can get that perspective on someplace new, that’s a treat.
A couple of past favorites include a run around Washington, DC, and another one in Ottawa, Ontario with a short excursion into Quebec. Tonight, though, I got to do my best Chariots of Fire impression on the beach outside of Melbourne, Florida. Can’t beat the sound of waves crashing on the shore as accompianament for your run.
I had to cut the run short because it was getting dark fast, but it was a great run; will definitely have to hit the beach this way again on my next trip to Florida.
The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior outside the church
Here’s one for ya this morning:
The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior outside the church should be one of wise resignation and acceptance. There’s no gospel call to change the world into the church by law. In fact, it cannot be done.
Roger Olson, from How to be Evangelical Without Being Conservative.
I find this thought compelling. It seems so backwards to the evangelical ear, and definitely runs afoul of Dominion Theology, but I think Olson is right.
A Calvinist at the Pearly Gates
Trevin Wax today reviews Michael Bird’s new book Evangelical Theology. Outside of the book and review, this humorous aside from Bird’s book inspired a chortle, which is why I pass it along. Enjoy!
A Calvinist arrives at St. Peter’s gates and sees that there are two queues going in. One is marked “predestined,” and the other is marked “free will.” Being the card-carrying Calvinist that he is, he strolls on over to the predestined queue. After several moments an angel asks him, “Why are you in this line?” He replies, “Because I chose it.” The angel looks surprised, “Well, if you ‘chose’ it, then you should be in the free will line.” So our Calvinist, now slightly miffed, obediently wanders over to the free will line. Again, after a few minutes, another angel asks him, “Why are you in this line?” He sullenly replies, “Someone made me come here.”
Some thoughts on the FAA's decision to allow use of phones/tablets on airplanes from gate to gate
The FAA announced today that it is directing airlines to enact policy that will allow passengers to use their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc) from gate to gate - a welcome change for travelers who are used to the “turn everything completely off until we get above 10,000 feet” announcement at the beginning of every flight.
So my first thought comes as a frequent traveler on this nation’s airlines, and I can summarize it like this:
It’s about time.
But what about the concerns over device usage? The FAA has said for years that they thought it was possible that having phones turned on during takeoff and landing could affect the aircraft. Is that really not the case?
Now, before I start offering opinions, I should explain that I have a little bit of background on this topic. I work for a company that designs and manufactures avionics equipment for big (and small) aircraft. We build things like displays, autopilots, communications radios, and GPSs for just about every aircraft manufacturer you could name. I work in our Certification Department. While my specialty is software certification, I work every day beside men and women who are some of the foremost industry experts in hardware testing relevant to concerns over the use of mobile devices.
Usual disclaimer: all the opinions in this piece are mine, do not necessarily reflect that of my employer, the FAA, or anybody else in the whole wide world.
First off, I’ve had discussions with these guys about the use of mobile devices on board, and they seem wholly unconcerned. That’s a significant data point in my mind. Second, I’ve flown multiple times on our corporate jet with our lead FAA-authorized test pilot flying the plane. Never has he expressed any concern that we make sure our cell phones are turned off prior to takeoff. (I try to make sure to kick mine to airplane mode just so I don’t drain my battery while searching for signal!)
Secondly, I’ve seen the test reports on how this hardware is tested.
Every critical piece of equipment that’s going on the aircraft has to go through a challenging set of qualification tests. The exact tests will be dependent on the how the equipment will be used (for instance, you don’t need a sand test for a box that’s only going to used on the inside of a 747, but you would if it were mounted external on a helicopter), but you’re always going to have to test it for things like vibration, temperature (bake it and freeze it!), and (most pertinent to this discussion) Radio Frequency susceptibility.
I’ve seen the pictures of the test setups, and while I can’t show them to you directly, here’s the general idea of what they do:
In this example, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is the tester, and the unit under test (display, autopilot, etc) is sitting on the table, while Agent P sits there monitoring to make sure it continues to run correctly while the Evil-Inator (or some similar sort of radio transmitter) beams radio waves at it.
(I’m not exaggerating much here.)
To pass these tests, the unit under test must work correctly while being bombarded with a whole range of radio frequencies. If it stops operating correctly, stop the test, update the hardware, and try again.
There’s a reason they test avionics this way, and it’s not because they’re afraid of people who forgot to turn off their cell phones. Airplanes frequently fly past radio transmission towers, and not infrequently through electrical storms. You want to be sure that you’re not going to lose all of your displays and controls even in a freak situation.
The systems design to perform the most critical functions on the aircraft are carefully designed and analyzed to ensure that they will fail no more often than once every one billion flight hours. That’s an amazing standard, more stringent than any other industry, save maybe nuclear. The engineers I know who design systems like our autopilots are some of the finest engineers I’ve ever met.
So suffice it to say I’m not particularly worried about being on a plane where everybody is allowed to have their iPhone or iPad or Kindle turned on during roll-out.
According to that CNN story, Delta Airlines has already filed plans with the FAA to allow their passengers to use devices below 10,000 feet. I’m excited to hear that. I don’t know how fast the FAA will move, but.. I’m flying to Florida next Monday for work, and I’d love to be able to keep reading my e-book or watching my movie from boarding all the way through arrival.