the glory and the horror

Because of medical school, Kathleen and I missed 2 weddings this past weekend, will miss another one this weekend, and 2 more the weekend after that. GRRRRR.

We’re making it through surgery though. Q3 call is definitely tough. Very neat surgeries though. Even I&Ds are interesting still. However, we’re less than 2 weeks in. That means more than 6 weeks left. I might be singing a different tune by the end.

This year’s senior film was definitely more entertaining than that one 3 hour+ monstrosity a couple years back. Not that I didn’t enjoy certain parts of it, but suffice it to say I still haven’t seen the entirety of that film, whereas Kathleen and I really enjoyed the senior film from this year’s graduating class. Plus, it helps to know lots of people in it.

I’m not sure what the sign on the left is trying to say. After all, it’s because of Newsweek that this story came out. If it is a true story, that’s a GOOD thing for Muslims, right? If Newsweek broke the truth, then Muslims should be rightly upset, and the sign on the right is justified. But if so, why ban Newsweek?

However, if Newsweek is wrong, and they want to ban publications that publish erroneous and false claims, then the sign on the right is inaccurate, since that would mean there hasn’t been any significant proof of desecration of the Quran.

Accountability – this seems to come up time and time again in our Sunday school class. It came up this past week. Who has a “right” to say what to whom? Is there such a thing as “none of anyone else’s business” in the Church? What things? When? Why?

In particular, we were talking about financial matters, and whether or not there’s the possibility that someone else should be able to say something to someone about their spending habits and the priorities those spending habits seem to reflect. The words people use in regards to spending money, what to spend it on, when to spend it, why, etc. also reveal things about priorities.

That is not to say that any old person can just walk up to someone and berate them for spending their money wrongly. However, it’s not that a Christian’s spending habits are “none of anyone else’s business,” either. While I believe that there is much freedom in the Christian life in regards to money, and how it can be spent, I also believe that there are overarching principles that are clearly delineated in Scripture.

For example, it’s good to save wisely, and spend wisely. That means not being stingy penny-pincher so that you can gain interest, but also not being a frivolous spender. That means a nice night out on the town, or a nice splurge on a vacation is well-within proper use of the money that God has given into your stewardship. That also means that there are things that are better and worse to spend your money on, at least relative to each other.

There’s also the principle of giving – giving to your local church, especially. Not just funds, but definitely a good starting place, and an easy one. But also time, energy, ideas, etc. But giving of funds/time/energy/etc. should also not be limited to the local church. There are many wonderful organizations that we US Christians have access to, such as World Vision, International Justice Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Compassion International, and other various parachurch organizations, that also need our f/t/e/etc.

While I am not trying to condemn people who do not specifically give to some of these organizations, I believe the ideas and projects of these groups should be given tangible support by the people of God. And perhaps that’s where I’m going with all of this. I’m not looking to bash people for what they spend money on. I think it’s more of what they don’t spend money on. Perhaps it’d be easier to accept someone’s buying of a nice expensive *whatever* if it were also clear that they were giving generously to other things. A balanced stewardship, I suppose.

Anyway, the role of other Christians and/or the Church to encourage and nurture such an attitude is still quite flexible. But it’s definitely not “none of anyone else’s business.”

Are we ready for robots?: “‘A human being is the only self-contained, autonomous creature that can be made with unskilled labour. And the fact remains that until we find a way of overcoming that, to trivialize it, we will not be able to overcome that fantastic cost-benefit ratio.’”

- Mark Tilden

So we’ve heard back from the almighty Registrar’s Office, and we’re both slated to go to India for a rotation in August. That means we’ll also get to piggyback our trip with the Northwest Bible Church trip to Asian Christian Academy. That means we get to be in India for 6 weeks!

We’re both very excited for this, and would appreciate everyone’s prayers as we prepare, and as we go on this trip. More details will be coming, but if you have any questions now, please let us know. We’d love to tell you more about what we’re doing.

BBC NEWS | China suffers memory lapses too
While I totally understand the bad blood between Japan and China from WWII, I also think that it’s a bit inconsistent and hypocritical of the Chinese to allow only carefully controlled/incited riots against the Japanese, and still conveniently deny its own history, as the commentator notes. The Tiananmen Square incident is still not truly public knowledge inside China, and people are still spoon-fed their opinions. That’s slowly changing, but not without careful conditioning into a nationalistic mindset that rivals Japan’s mindset in WWII.