June 2010 Archives

Last night Terri and I went to the movies. It was there that I realized ...

If you're on a date, the best place to sit in a movie theater is directly behind two short people. Because nothing is more irritating than a giant cranium rising like a black hole sun into the horizon of the screen. But if you can find two short people to sit behind, there is a one hundred percent chance that that will not happen.

***

Before the movie started, there was a commercial for 3D televisions. During it, Terri remarked to me: "It would make me nauseous to watch stuff in 3D all the time."

I replied: "But dear, we see stuff in 3D all the time."

She remained silent for a few seconds, before replying: "Shut up."

It's nice to win one every now and then.

***

The film Terri and I watched, by the way, was Toy Story 3. Terri and Mark give it two thumbs way up. I say it is the funniest and most suspenseful of the three, with a truly Mission Impossible-esque storyline. Great fun.

Vatican officials are saying this could be some of the earliest evidence of devotion to the apostles:

ROME -- Twenty-first century laser technology has opened a window into the early days of the Catholic Church, guiding researchers through the dank, musty catacombs beneath Rome to a startling find: the first known icons of the apostles Peter and Paul.

Vatican officials unveiled the paintings Tuesday, discovered along with the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew in an underground burial chamber beneath an office building on a busy street in a working-class Rome neighborhood.

The images, which date from the second half of the 4th century, were uncovered using a new laser technique that allows restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the brilliant dark colors of the paintings underneath.

The technique could revolutionize the way restoration work is carried out in the miles (kilometers) of catacombs that burrow under the Eternal City where early Christians buried their dead.

The icons were discovered on the ceiling of a tomb of an aristocratic Roman woman at the Santa Tecla catacomb, near where the remains of the apostle Paul are said to be buried.

More here and here, with a picture here.

None among the gods can equal you, O Lord; nor can their deeds compare to yours. -- Psalm 86:8

But instead of taking the form of religious deities, the new gods are simply taking the form of ... stuff. Entertainment, materialism, basically a whole bunch of white noise. We may not live in a time or a society at least in the Western world where there are many other "gods," but we sure have a lot of stuff.

That's not a bad thing, at least not always. The more I personally see of all the absurd stuff out there competing for my attention, the more confident I become that I'm living for the greatest gift in the world, which is the Gospel of Christ, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not because of my own genius or insight of course, but because it was given to me. It's my heritage.

My favorite Catholic writer, Peter Kreeft, once wrote, "We become like the goals we pursue." So if we pursue absurdity, if we pursue white noise, we become the absurd, we become the white noise of celebrity and greed and sodomy, and all that. We know what the white noise is. If we pursue pointless, we become pointless. And I don't want to be pointless.

The question is what is the goal of your life. I know that at least generally for me, I want to make people happy. I want to make people smile. I don't want to just write a blog about stuff that upsets me, which I have done in the past and which would be very easy for me to continue doing. But I don't want to because in many cases that would just upset more people. Not that I want to ignore the problems of the world. But if all I do is talk about what's wrong with the world and I can't inspire people with something better then I miss the forest for the trees.

The world needs good news. The world needs a reason to smile. And I want my life to be that. I want my life to be a life that blesses other people's lives.

And if that sounds at all like what you want to do too, then you and I have one option. We have to pursue God, who "bestows on us every spiritual blessing in the heavens" (Ephesians 1:3).

This is Satan's big lie: that we can become like God by storing up power and knowledge and wealth for ourselves in this world. No, we become like God by pursuing Him. And when we pursue Him, other blessings follow from that.

When we pursue God, we become blessing for others, because we show them the face of God, the face of Jesus.

When we pursue Him, we become like His love: unconditional.

When we pursue Him, we become like His truth: undeniable.

When we pursue Him, we become like His goodness: unshakable.

When we pursue Him, we become like His beauty: inviolable.

Let's pray to Him that we can remember to always pursue Him first, so that we may become more like Him, so we may go out to our neighbors who are living in a world that is drowning in stuff, and give them a reason to smile.

I just wanted to take a moment to affirm my youngest sister, Anna, for her talent at video weblogging, also known as "vlogging."

Observe:

Funny stuff.

She has a series of vlogs posted at a Youtube channel that she shares with her friend Julia, known as the JuliAnna project. Check it.

Came across Psalm 125 yesterday:

Those who put their trust in the Lord
are like Mt. Zion, that cannot be shaken,
that stands forever.

Trust is difficult for someone like me. Someone who is very cerebral and likes to have all the answers all the time.

It is good to know God and know HIs word and His ways as much as we possibly can. But we can never know even our closest earthly friends so well as to completely understand everything they want and exactly what they are up to all the time. There will always be moments where they have to say to us, "Trust me."

How much more often, then, will God say to us, "Trust me," and how foolish would we be not to oblige.

In a relationship with an earthly friend, provided the friend is reliable and trustworthy, clarity as to what he is up to often comes only after our trust is placed in him.

Like in the movie Aladdin when the title character asks Princess Jasmine:

Do you trust me?

She doesn't know what he's up to until after she says, "Yyyeeeesss?"

Now again it is true: "Trust me" moments are easier the better we know someone. The better we know a person, the more confident we can be that he will not use our trust to take advantage of or hurt us. The second time Aladdin asks Jasmine if she trusts him, she says "Yes" with much greater ease and confidence that everything will be all right. So with God*.

But as with a regular person, we are limited by our singular vantage point. We can't know anyone completely. To demand to know a person completely before trusting is to trust no one ever.

So with God, when we stop trying to completely understand Him and His motives and simply trust Him, and let Him do His work in our hearts, the answers we wanted so badly before we trusted Him will naturally come to us. But trust has to come first.

Every morning when we wake up, God asks us: "Do you trust me?" And we have to answer Yes or No. If you answer yes, don't be surprised if He grabs your hand and tells you to jump.






*who similarly is trying to win our hearts, though dissimilarly not by disguising who He really is.

How cliche is my life?

I'm sitting here watching the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, two of the most storied franchises in the history of basketball -- for reasons of which my fiance is completely, and offensively, ignorant. She could care less about the game. I am hoping the Celtics win because I can't stand Kobe Bryant.

Speaking of my future wife, she is sitting next to me on the couch, reading ... Twilight, one of the most popular works of modern fiction in the country -- for reasons I will never understand. I could care less about the progression of the story, although unlike the game, I know what's going to happen in the book -- because I have seen the movie. So has she, and yet she continues reading, completely engrossed.

I know, I know. It's not supposed to make sense.

And I can't complain. Why do I get so much joy out of watching Kobe blow a play, then whine and moan and wave his arms around claiming the ref blew a call? One of those imponderables.