Journal

He won't go away...

2008-12-16T14:58:58Z

Why can’t God just leave us? Think about it for a minute. Why can’t he or won’t he just leave us? Does he need us? Is he incomplete without us? What keeps him here? What brought him here? It’s a curious thing to consider.

Father Isaac...

2008-11-21T15:11:42Z

I "believe" God created certain souls / people when he created different emotions, qualities or feelings. So, when he created passion, he created David, and when he created wisdom, he created Solomon, and when he created law and order, he created Moses, and when he created faith, he created Abraham, and when he created love, he created John, and when he created hope, he created Isaiah, etc.

Each of us, I think, are descendants of someone who is the first in the line to possess a particular gift, emotion, or quality that is peculiar to them, and to us.

I know my heritage. I am a son of Isaac. When God created laughter, he created Isaac, and so he created me. I wonder who is your father or mother? What is your heritage?

"Saintly" hermeneutics

2008-11-18T13:50:31Z

"The Saints are the true interpreters of Holy Scripture. The meaning of a given passage of the Bible becomes most intelligible in those human beings who have been totally transfixed by it and have lived it out. Interpretation of Scripture can never be a purely academic affair, and it cannot be relegated to the purely historical." ~ Pope Benedict XVI

a novel idea...

2008-11-16T03:46:35Z

I’ve had almost two weeks to reflect on the election and I’m still amazed at the HOPE Barack Obama was able to inspire. I have drastically underestimated the power of HOPE. My sister is a counselor and I remember her saying once that when you counsel people, one of the first things you have to do is give them HOPE. I’ve done a little bit of counseling myself and when people believed there was HOPE we usually had a degree of success as opposed to when they had no HOPE.

Like him or not, Barack Obama inspired millions to HOPE.

HOPE is a powerful emotion. The Obama phenomenon has taught us that if it has taught us nothing else. With it, people will do incredibly constructive things, but without it, they do incredibly destructive things.

I began to think about Barack and the HOPE he had inspired. I won’t attempt to say what that HOPE was grounded in, but I do know this, people felt it and they were and are moved by it. Interestingly enough, Christians profess to have HOPE, and yet, they rarely seem that attractive to me. In fact, I dare say that Christianity as a whole inspires a lot less apparent HOPE than Barack Obama.

I am sad and a little angry that this is the case, but you know, I am HOPEFUL that it doesn’t have to be the case.