I will not quote GK Chesterton

I read an article last week that quoted GKC from Orthodoxy which roughly refered to God tempting God and the statement (from the article referring to atheists) "They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist."


Some one took issue (it's the internet so make any statement and someone will  disagree.) with this.  The "disagree" contention was that Jesus was using the statement as a reference to Psalm 22 and didn't mean he was forsaken.  They continued that every Jew in the crowd would have immediately known it was a reference to Psalm 22 and felt sad.

I was just thinking this arguer worked very hard to not prove a point.

Either he was forsaken (abandoned) by God the Father, or he was not forsaken but surely felt like it.  Go ahead and argue Jesus was not entirely cutoff but just spiritually cutoff.  I'm not sure where the difference lies. 

To me there is something chilling (and proper) that Jesus brings his greatest emotional anguish, his doubt, to the Father.  Not from a position of confidence & challenging (Job); but from a position of a servant (Your will, not mine).  A servant unto death.

"David, he chased God's own heart.  All I ever seem to chase is me."  -Andrew Peterson, The Chasing Song.

Ah, those wacky materialists

The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts. -GKC, Orthodoxy

Yup. More GK Chesterton.

I think I like this anytime I read/hear about some new discover and now we know for sure, "science has proven" this item to be true.  All history, geological or human, is "simply and solely a chain of causation".  My kid's library book said that the Egyptians believed snakes held the power of life & death.  This & the Mayans "believing snakes were god" rubbed me the wrong way.  Maybe over stating somethings we just aren't sure about.  I'm pretty sure some future scientist will conclude my household worshipped talking vegetables and sang tribal chants to pass along the traditions of my culture.  When truly, I just like the song.  C'mon it is Burger Bell.

Thorn in my side

I'm having a day where this song is fitting.  Big project due in a few hours so this will be a quick blog.  I keep getting interupted by folks that are just frustrating right now.  Plus it"s catchy with a great sound.

Regularly I feel this way too, more often that I'd like to admit.  The rough part isn't the admitting; it's the feeling.  It is generally out of arrogance or paying attention to petty things where the seeds of people pissing me off arrives.  Let the grace & love abound more than the personal preferences.  God knows I need it.

I first heard Paul Thorn when we adopted It's A Great Day (To Whoop Somebody's Ass) as a work anthem.  Paul was once a pro- boxer, so he could do it too.  I was looking for the anthem yesterday and kept digging up his other songs.
Turn's out he's a pretty good singer/songwriter too.  Honest songs that I'm liking today.  Okay, back to work.

Why stories connect (or don't)

Another dose from the GKC calendar:

Nothing is important except the fate of the soul;  and literature is only redeemed from an utter triviality, surpassing that of naughts and crosses, by the fact that it describes not the world around us, or the things on the retina of the eye, or the enormous irrelevancy of encyclopedias, but some condition to which the human spirit can come. - GKC in Introduction to 'The Old Curiosity Shop'

Also said as:
"The story of any one of us is the story of us all." - Frederick Beuchner.


At some point I was dwelling on what makes a story good or bad.  For me it comes to - can I relate to anything human about the story?

It's slightly past how believable a story is.  There can be wild fantasy elements or entire sci-fi worlds that work for excellent story telling.  Does it have that something that makes me want to fight for the character? Do I want the character to win?  Am I mad & frustrated when they are?

That's when I'm hooked.