Imagine what it would be like if you had no way to see any aspect of yourself, except what you could glean by direct sight. For this little exercise I would like to include not just reflective glass or other reflective surfaces like water in a bowl, but any means of seeing ourselves, including the…
Category: Lent ’07
My Lenten meditations for the year 2007
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 30 – Dead Men Walking
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The Greek word for love that depends on natural affection, storgē (στοργή), is not used anywhere in the Bible. It is only used in compound forms, two of which are very striking. Paul uses the negative, without natural affection, as a severe condemnation in Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3. The English Standard version touches…
Art, Literature and Entertainment, Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 29 – The Resurgence of Magic
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Magic and things that might as well be magic, like the abilities of the X-MEN like genetic anomalies in the television series Heroes, are everywhere these days. It has been building for a while, but whether you consider the current Lost, Heroes, Charmed, The Dresden Files, Supernatural, and Superman (meteor rock magic) television shows, or…
Art, Literature and Entertainment, Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 28-S – The Annunciation
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Today is the Sunday in which the Church celebrates the angel appearing to Mary and telling her she was to bear God’s Son. It is called the Feast of the Annunciation. One of my favorite paintings is of this event, done by Henry Ossawa Tanner (the first African-American painter to rise to international acclaim), it…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 28 – The Shaping of Our Lives
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Coming out of a Reformed view of the world in my early Christian formation, I believe that God has a plan for each of us, set within the context of his overall plan for humanity as a whole, and he is constantly working at the shaping of our lives, an image framed by Paul in…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 27 – Doing the Right Thing
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How often do you admit you are wrong, that you have done something you need to apologize for or ask forgiveness for? For most of us, it is very seldom. However, as Christians, that process forms the central tenant of our view of repentance, since without the admission of wrong, there is no need of…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 26 – Fathers and Sons
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As I was driving home from work today, I noticed the man in the car next to me singing. Sometimes people sing in their cars, especially while driving rush hour traffic. It is a good way to dissipate the frustration that trying to make your way through dense traffic generates. Then I noticed the car…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 25 – Love Tested is Love Not Denied
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Only fifteen days left in our Lenten observance. This need to write something each night (can’t write in the morning…I leave for work at 6 am), has been good for me. Though, trying to be erudite when you are tired and the sheets beckon is not my definition of fun, more like a refiner’s fire.…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 24 – Dealing With Disappointment
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One of the hardest things in life to deal with is disappointment, such as when expectations go unmet or people unexpectedly “throw you under the bus” as the current aphorism goes. When approval, for whatever reason, is withdrawn, it bites deep to our core. There is something innate in our being that seeks approval. However,…
Christianity, Lent '07
Lent 07: Day 23 – The Comforting Cowardice of Atheism
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I read that phrase in an article by John Mark Reynolds, Who’s There?. The article discusses the important question asked throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Mark argues that in the play “Shakespeare has no time for the comforting cowardice of atheism, the universe is too complicated for that!” That phrase caught my attention and as I…