Highlights
My recent posts have been pretty heavy. It really was a fantastic week, and there was much fun to be had. We are thankful for a great week. The kids and I spent the better part of Friday picking strawberries at a nearby farm with friends. It was overcast, and we had a wonderful time. The other fun part of my week involved me installing a “new” chandelier in the 
kitchen. I was so excited that it actually worked! I bought this dirty old thing at Goodwill for a DOLLAR, spray-painted it black, and pretty much went in blindly to install it. (No pun intended and don’t try this at home unless you’re crazy. Eric – with good reason – thought I was nuts.) After I turned off the breaker I just went to the wires and guessed because the fixture’s wires weren’t labelled. Whatdya know? It worked! Now I’ll try to cover some little shades and line them with beads and black fringe (probably some time months from now when I sew curtains for the windows)! I was even able to reuse the bulbs from our old one. Not bad for less than $10! If you’re going for the “old and quaint” feeling with your lighting, just give the thrift stores a chance before you fork out over $200 for a new chandelier. It’s amazing how one man’s junk can be made-over for a few bucks!
Steven had a blast today at his birthday dinner. He was ultra serious about digging into a menu tailored for him: bacon, sausage, eggs, grits, and biscuits. Can you tell we live in the South?! He received several variations of his favorite toy – the automobile – for gifts and will likely be busy for weeks trying to play with all of them. Some of our family couldn’t come, so I wanted them and all of our friends to feel the excitement of Steven blowing out his candles by himself 
Even if you don’t know Steven, you can see what a sweetheart he is and the wheels just a turnin’ inside that head!
Total Truth – II
Do you think you are arrogant? Hang with me … (please, hang with me because this is long!)
The rest of Nancy Pearcy’s conference was great although I’m sure I was one among many who wished it could’ve lasted longer. That’s why she wrote a book I guess!
One of the personal outcomes of the conference was my interest in the website behind the promotion of the blasphemy challenge, which I mentioned in the previous total truth post. Basically I willingly engaged in a conversation with some of the atheists on their site, and the dialogue didn’t last long. It became somewhat popular, but it wasn’t what I would call a “good dialogue.” I went in with the honest intention to learn about atheists’ perceptions of their own happiness, and I quickly realized that my inability to comprehend how they could have happiness without God made me seem stupid, rude, and arrogant.
I don’t really know what to say without making this post extremely lengthy. I know that many of the people who read my blog are Christians. How do you respond when someone thinks you are arrogant for reading the Bible and believing it? (I believe the Bible clearly shows the depravity of the human condition and that we are on a constant lonely search for happiness until the truth of God’s love in Jesus finds us.) How do you respond when all of the logical arguments against the reality of God are thrown at you? How do you respond when you want so badly to explain how God opens a human beings eyes to the truth of himself despite everything that would seem to deny his existence? I know there are plenty of people in this world who are happy without God – on the surface. I guess my question to them is, “When you are about to go to sleep every night in the silence of just your head on the pillow and no one else is “around” you, are you truly happy?” The answer for me without God would be “no” because I think I would be constantly wondering if I am in control or if there is someone out there who designed me, who is watching me, who knows me. I think it would drive me to despair not to know. And, what if, what if, that person loves me? Everyone who seems to know confidently this “person” claims to have a holy book to explain what this relationship entails. I’d be searching those holy books like crazy. (Many of them there said they used to be Christians, but they left for various reasons.) I would look at creation, at National Geographic, and scientific findings and keep asking if it could possibly true that we were designed, and if we were, are we accountable for this designer for something? (I still seek to learn those things, by the way.) To me it seemed during my four-day visit to the site that there was much more of an attitude of, “See! Look at this, and this, and this – this is why I want nothing to do with God if he does exist. I don’t want anything to do with it, and I’m going to make sure no one else does, too”. But where does that attitude leave you when you come upon something/someone that might actually lead you to believe God is real? It leaves you closed. Hardened. You don’t want to even entertain the idea because you already have your mind made up that God is evil, and because you are a human being, the highest and most intellegent level of the food chain, you have every right to call him that.
The problem in this case for me at least was that I walked into an artificial community. What I mean is that I entered a forum, and you just can’t have the same kind of conversation there you would face-to-face. Also I just don’t know that I would ever have the time to think through my answers and put them out there non-stop, not even knowing if they were being read, or worse, immediately just shot down because they mentioned faith in the unseen. That is why Eric told me to stop on Wednesday. He knows how I am. He knows how I can get so upset and cry when I see how God hasn’t overtaken someone else’s unbelief (and crying at my own lack of faith sometimes), and he knows that I would have quickly allowed these conversations consume me because I really love God, want to do whatever I can to understand a person who doesn’t believe (in) Him, and my questions for them would have turned into nothing but pleadings for them to seek God. I did plead with them upon leaving the forum, and that was received as a rude “cop-out” from a “missionary seeking converts” as well.
I’d really like to hear from some of you who know Jesus Christ. Do you think this kind of dialogue is possible in today’s prevalent internet culture? Let’s face it. There really is a huge internet “community” in our society, and although it may not be wise (or obedient) for us to invest solely in it, can we just look away and ignore it? Jesus told us to go into all nations…. Does this include the nonbelievers in cyberspace? If so, how? What are your thoughts?
Happy Birthday!
Today is my mom’s birthday, and tomorrow is my son’s birthday. Happy birthday to you, Mama, and Steven! I love you so much.
It’s hard to believe our “baby boy” is two years old. God has taught me so much about His creativity from the affectionate, tender, joyful nature from this lovable little child. I am so thankful to be his mother. I hope to write a little more just about Steven this weekend when I have a bit more time.
Total Truth – I
Last night’s session with Nancy Pearcy was great. It was very eye-opening for me to sit and listen to some of the things she said. I felt like I was back in college for some of it. I don’t really know what to share except that the mindset of secularists, humanists, naturalists – whatever label people have for themselves when they have replaced their belief in a universal, whole design and Designer of life with the belief that life is just random events with no real intrinsic truth and meaning – is very overwhelming.
When someone points out, as Nancy did, that the slope of naturalism leads to a dualistic, fragmented worldview, it makes total sense that our culture has become the way it has – a battlefield of humanistic modernists and postmodernists. And it makes sense that Christians would constantly be ousted from it. It makes sense that anyone claiming to know and believe that there is absolute Truth that holds us responsible for everything we say, think, and do would be silenced, ignored, and despised.
I think one of the most troubling points she made is that many churches and educational institutions (and she has really done her research) have adopted bits and pieces of the postmodern (what you say is true is good for you, and what I say is true is good for me – it’s all relative) mindset without even realizing it. That is alarming. Yet, as she shared in her first few minutes, the fact that the opposition to absolute Truth has become so defensive (and offensive) should be seen as a good sign. As heart-breaking as it is to see, things like the “Blasphemy Challenge” of the “damned” on You Tube are signs that there is actually some reason to fight.
I know that as we raise our children in this culture it will become increasingly vital for us to know the opposition to our “ignorant” view of absolute Truth. Believing there is actually a God who designed this place where we live, saw the need for our redemption, and that he calls to his children in a personal relationship cannot just be compartmentalized. Either we believe these things to be true and live by them, or we proudly call ourselves postmodernists. I think the motivation I received from last night’s session was to be resolved to know what absolute Truth is up against as I walk and live in my life.
On a side note: Can you believe that some colleges actually have students fill out their “gender history” on health forms instead of checking male / female?
You can browse part of the book “Total Truth” by clicking here.
I’m so excited! This has definitely been a kudos week for Eric. He’s so sweet. He emailed me a forward the other day, showing that he had signed me up for a conference at church that I a cannot wait to attend. Next week Nancy Pearcy will be sharing the essentials of walking in “total truth” amidst a worldly culture with our church congregation. Eric is going to keep our kids for three nights in a row, so that I can go to this and hear Nancy.
To quote our pastor, “Our church purpose statement is ‘equipping people to pursue Christ passionately so that they may impact their culture.’ Part of equipping is developing a Christian world and life view. Nancy Pearcey has written THE definitive book of the last ten years regarding the Christian world and life view entitled Total Truth. You will not be disappointed if you avail yourself of this opportunity. Regarding this book, JI Packer, the author of Knowing God, says, ‘Nancy Pearcey takes us into true and worthy witness in our increasingly secularized world. All will profit mightily from what is written here.’ And I can promise you that all will profit mightily from this conference!” The registration was limited to 300 people, and I’m so thankful my honey made sure I could go. I am sure that I will be blogging about what I hear at this conference, so stay tuned!
Cartoon by Genevieve.
Great Design
I was reading a short article concerning the phenomenon that “great design is often invisible,” or in other words, that many times things that are meticulously arranged and made beautiful are easy to take for granted. Yes, this is probably true for good web design, but I thought it also made a really profound statement about the ultimate design: the creation of the universe by God. This excerpt made me think in this direction:
“Great Design is Invisible.
An interesting property of great design is that it is taken for granted. It works so well that we forget that creative effort was involved to bring it about. Sometimes, like with the lowly spoon, the object is so simplistic that it seems obvious, and we disregard that at one point in history it wasn’t. Other times, like with the automobile, the object is so sophisticated yet easy-to-use that we’re blinded to the fact that millions and millions of human-hours went into getting it to this point. That’s a shame…every great design has a rich history. And every design has behind it a designer or designers who tried to make the world a better place by solving some problem or another.
Bad design is obvious because it hurts to use. It is awkward, difficult, and complex. In a great irony of the world, bad design is much easier to see than good design. It raps us on the head like a bully. Because of its success, great design is often invisible.
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