the glory and the horror

Interesting websites:

Christian Counterculture
Antithesis

One particularly interesting article from Antithesis: Unorthodoxy by Jack Crabtree. A snippet:

“The nature of wisdom is such that it cannot grow and increase within us unless we “do business with it” — unless we are overcome by a holy passion to have more and more of it; unless we are driven to use the wisdom we do have in order to acquire more of the wisdom we do not yet have. We cannot grow in wisdom if we dig a hole in the ground, bury the truth we know in that hole, and guard it lest anyone take it away from us.”

and

“But some of us are evil. Like the slave in the story, we see no real value in possessing the treasure God has entrusted to us; we are utterly unmotivated to get any more. We don’t care enough about the wisdom God has given us to want any more. We lack the ambition to be wise; for true understanding has no intrinsic worth to us. Our desires are given to other things — to the pleasures and joys of this world. It matters not whether we understand the meaning and purpose of our existence so long as we can basically enjoy it along the way — whatever it is for.”

One test down. I missed a really stupid easy question on the identification part. GRRRR. That was 0.5% of my final grade on that one question, and since I’m sitting on the border between an A and a B+, each bit counts. And lest anyone who knows me well think I have left my ways and transformed into a nasty old grade grubber, the reason I am anal about this grade is because I’ve come to the conclusion that grades ought to reflect learning, especially here in medical school. However, the way things are going, especially in certain classes here at UT Southwestern, like Neuro and Genetics, learning and the grade are not related in any way. For example, I bombed Genetics. I got a C. That sucks, not because it’s a C, but because I know the stuff backwards and forwards, and was screwed on the final exam somehow. I still don’t know how. Regardless, That C does not reflect my knowledge or mastery of the material. Neuro, on the other hand, is so badly taught and organized, I have no pretenses of getting a good grade there. Cell Bio, the test I just took, is something that I worked hard in, and studied, and I actually enjoyed this class the most out of any class so far. Anyway, I would like my grade to reflect my actual knowledge, which I feel is in the A level. Anyway, that’s my thing for medical school grades.

I was reading I Thessalonians 1 the last few days, just reading it over and over, and meditating on it, and I’ve come to appreciate how much Paul really believes in the Body of Christ. “We give thanks to God always for all of you…” “Brethren beloved by God…” “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord… so that you became an example to all the believers…” “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you…” The entire chapter is about the way God has used people to propagate the Christian faith. It’s about how overjoyed and ecstatic Paul is to hear about the church in Thessalonica and the way that they have been faithful in both deed and word, both living and proclaiming, not out of their own strength, but in the Spirit. And they are all looking together, as one Body, to the return of the Lamb. I think this may very well be one of my newest favoritest verses. It just resonates with me. It sums the spiritual life up well. I’m so glad to have been reading the the last few days.

Especially after some pretty lame times with God in recent weeks. Not so much that the times with God were lame, but more like I was lame. It was just one of those stretches, those funks, that you know you’re in, and you hate it, and you really know something is off, out of sync, spiritually. That’s what most of this year so far has been. That’s not a good thing. I mean, there have been moments of great times, especially at church, but then during the week… I don’t know what it is. My attitude towards school hasn’t been the best, particularly with regards to Neuro.

I have a roommate now, though, and so that’s good At least I’m pretty sure of it. Not totally definite, but close.

In studying for Cell Bio, a couple of friends and I got into a short discussion of family, safety, and poorer and/or less safe neighborhoods. Two friends feel very strongly (to the point of characterizing it as criminal negligence) that your responsibility is always to your family first, regardless. An unsafe neighborhood is never something you should expose your family, especially your children, to if you really love them if you can help it, is what I got as their stance. On the surface, this totally sounds sensible, reasonable, and loving. To love another is to cherish and protect the other, as Josh McDowell used to put it. My gut reaction is the same, and I used to think the same when I sat down.

At least until recently, in the last year or two.

The question to me, can be put forward as such. When, if ever, are you justified to expose those that you care about, and love deeply, especially children/family, to danger, especially while in the process of of something else? Or is it always wrong to expose them to gang violence, drug dealing, and such things unnecessarily? On a larger level, what does it mean to live incarnationally among “the least of these” in America and elsewhere, especially if it means physical danger and possible harm, even death (a la the missionary who was burned alive in his car with his kids in India several years back)?

Married men make better fathers from Yahoo! News

Very interesting. I’m not sure what to think of this. Not that the empirical measure of number of activities participated in with children makes a father “good,” but it does seem to suggest that there’s a committment level to the family that comes with the committment of marriage.

From First Things:

Christians as Patriots

I’m not sure that this is all that tightly written of an article. First, he equates people with the general polity/nation as a whole, but not really defining what it is that we are loving if we “love our country.” Secondly, he doesn’t answer some of his own questions. Assuming we follow him to the point of loving our country because of the reasons he puts forth. He still doesn’t answer what I think is a more pressing question. He says “Periods of crisis like the present remind us, often tragically, that our security and freedom ultimately rest upon the willingness of citizens to fight and possibly to die for their country should the need arise.” Should such love as he describes it be enough to drive us to fight, and possibly die, and don’t forget – kill, for a country we love? We love our family, our children, as they are given to us, not because they are good, or will be perfect, but merely because they are our children. Would we kill for our family? Would we kill for the Christ we love? Is that what God calls us to?

I think there is an inherent difference between individual persons, such as our family members, and the nation, as an institution. One is stated explicitly as having been made in the image of God. The other thing is fluid, arbitrary, temporal, and constantly changing based on the whims of politicians and generals. The love Meilaender calls us to have for nation cannot be equated to the love that God calls us to have for fellow human beings.

Valentine’s Day went off without a hitch! Yay! Kathleen and I went out to a nice dinner, and then danced to Frank Sinatra for a while afterwards. It was very nice.

Sam, Avery, and Sam Wu came to visit, too. Sam and Avery went to Dallas Theological Seminary to check things out, because they’re both (actually all 3) considering applying there in the near future. They got bird poop all over my car, but that’s ok. It rained this weekend and cleaned most of it off for me. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them, just to goof off, eat, watch TV, talk, and in general, just be like old friends.

Yesterday at Northwest was a lot of fun too. All in all, it’s been a great weekend. It’s World Passion Week at Northwest, and that’s the missions week that they have each year. We got to have some missionaries from Word of Life Seminary outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil, come to speak to us, and tell us stories about their life, their students, their joys, their struggles. It was EXCITING! And we had a dinner and worship time yesterday evening as well, and got to hear from more missionaries that Northwest supports, and we even got to send off some of Northwest’s own staff, who are going to be heading out themselves. Yay! It’s so fun to be a part of a church that really takes the glory of God seriously, and sees it extending to missions, so that others may more fully know the glory of God, and their purpose in that.

I still need a roommate.

I was in Houston last weekend, hanging out with old friends, like Ricky, Andrew, Dave, Olen, BJ, Joe, Lindsay… It’s good to be around old friends. I just wish I had more time down there. I didn’t get to see Scotty, but I’ll try to make it down there at least once more before he leaves for Malaysia. Man, he’s one jet-setting dude now that he’s working.

I got to see the Snellers while I was in Houston though, and that was a real blessing. It was an incredible joy just to be with them, to talk to them, to pray with them. It was almost like old times. I know it can’t be exactly like last year, but it was so encouraging to know that we really connected. Daniel is crawling and can imitate speech like no other toddler I’ve ever heard, and Jonathan is a mover. He’s all over the place, and they both love smiling, and they seemed to take to me pretty readily. I’m not sure that they recognized me exactly, but they sure didn’t seem afraid of me. I can’t wait to see them in a couple of weeks.

I might have a roommate next year finally. We’ll have to see. Keep on praying.

Speaking of praying, I think I’ve been more consistently and sincerely praying my heart in recent days. I’m not sure what it is, but I like it.

Reese was in Italy from Saturday through Thursday to see Jenn, and I think it was an incredible time for him. I’m so happy for him – the surprise wasn’t spoiled, and he sounded like he had a spectacular time. I can’t imagine how fun that must have been for him I’m jealous. He got to go to Italy for a week!

It’s almost tax time again. Sheesh. It’s always so stinking complicated to do taxes when you’ve got tons of loans and random things like that. But you gotta do it for financial aid.

I thought a little change would do me good.