The Day the Rain Began

With it being so rainy and all, I thought I would share this short post (original post here) from Kevin DeYoung. Enjoy!

Mark

The Day the Rain Began

First Things includes several poems in every issue. I liked this one (in the March 2012 issue) by Duane K. Caylor. It’s based on Genesis 7:12 and called “The Day the Rain Began.”

Today seemed just an ordinary day.
The sun rose like an irritated eye;
wives cooked rice pancakes; children went to play
at tag in dusty fields or caught frogs by
the bank of the Euphrates; while the men
took to the brick kilns, potters’ wheels, and plows;
lovers arose to make love once again;
and old men at the gate weighed claims and vows.
But now this afternoon, things have grown tense.
Anxiety as flour-fine as sand
from Aram fills our hearts as we watch dense
cloud ziggurats grow tall above the land,
and weather warnings in cuneiform
alert us of a coming thunderstorm.

What's Happening to ______?

Hello again! It has been a relatively long while since I have posted. It is nice to have time to write again.

For a few weeks now I have noticed that people often make statements like "what is happening to_____ (insert some given institution or organization or group of any kind)?!" They are implying with that question that something bad is happening to whatever the given group might be. The change might be a deterioration in morals or standards, or maybe a loss of quality, or perhaps a change in structure. This is all good and well. These people are entitled to their opinions and probably usually have good reason for their exasperation.

I was intrigued to think about a particular usage of this "what's happening to _____?" phrase, however. I've found that people often talk about the United States in this way. I heard the phrase used again and again to talk about America. They'll use it when, for example, the government passes a new and controversial law. Nothing much to be found here, really. The new law/whatever it is may be unfortunate and worth expressing dissent over. What struck me, however, was the surprise that accompanied so many of these exclamations. It seemed to me as if the fact that things were getting worse or that standards were being lowered came as a surprise to many. This intrigued me because as Christians, we ought not be surprised when things go badly in this world. We ought not be surprised when governments are corrupt, when people lie, cheat and steal. We ought to be heartbroken and saddened, but not surprised.

A Busy Week

This week has been mostly spent writing an extensive compare-and-contrast paper about Cornelius Van Til and CS Lewis' apologetical methods. However, worry not. More posts to come soon. The paper will be done by tomorrow and I can get some good thoughts out on here! Hope your week is going fantastically! :)

Optimism, Pessimism, and Real Realisticism

Would you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? You've probably been asked that question before, perhaps by a friend getting to know you better or in some other instance. Another way that people might have put it to you is in the form of a hypothetical situation: do you see a glass of water as being half full or half empty?

The idea of being either optimistic or pessimistic has been on my mind recently. Maybe it is because I have heard people talking about it, or maybe it is because I have been thinking about whether or not my friends (and myself) are optimistic. Whatever the case, it has been on my mind. And after having thought about it for a bit, I think that some thoughts I had might be helpful for you, Reader.

So, I want to show you that, as Christians, we ought be be by default realistically optimistic and that that disposition is one unique to Christians. And I furthermore want to argue that the Christian metanarrative, the grand story of history, is one that compels us to be this way.