Forced to Smile

"Jerome’s [late 4th century] own character was notoriously difficult. . . . . It amuses me greatly to envision Jerome, of all people, shining like a star, and hating every minute of it. As we’re leaving the church, I mention this to one of the monks. ‘Ah, poor Jerome,’ he said, ‘forced to smile and sing for all of eternity. Maybe that’s his punishment’.’‘
--Kathleen Norris

Would heaven be hell if John Piper and Clark Pinnock found they were together for all eternity, or Paige Patterson and Art Allen? How many Christians are there who have no real interest in developing the whole range of Christian virtues or reaping the fruit of the Spirit? We want the forgiveness of sin and the acceptance of God; more to the point, we want to avoid hell, and perhaps, get to go to heaven.

We may even want to become a serious Christian to a degree, on certain points, but might genuinely cringe at even the thought of actually allowing the Spirit to rule and reshape every dimension of our thoughts, feelings, decisions, and actions.

Raw Sewage

[Speaking on why she doesn’t let "the one-eyed monster in her house"] "Having a sieve up on the roof collecting wild beams from everywhere does seem poetic, but the image that strikes me as more realistic is that of a faucet into the house that runs about 5 percent clear water and 95 percent raw sewage."
--Barbara Kingsolver


Except for the weather channel, I stopped watching television near about twenty years ago. It didn’t matter what you view–and hear–it numbs the mind and agitates the nerves. I found that I could not go to sleep for a few hours after tv. It took that long for my nerves to calm. Also, it was almost all pointless.

But my main reason for eliminating the "boob" tube from my life was that it was robbing my life. We have a limited amount of time in which to live, why give time to watching the imaginary life of others rather than spending that time living my own life? I quit because I didn’t have time/life to waste. I certainly would never watch it, or do anything just "to kill time."

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds of distance run. . ."

From what I read about the developments on tv over this past twenty years (confirmed by what I have seen in passing on the omnipresent and unavoidable screens) I can’t help but wonder why intelligent and responsible people not only allow raw sewage, much less pipe it into their homes, but also what kind of soap they use to wash the stuff off.

I’m with Kingsolver when she says, "To me, that ubiquitous cable looks an awful lot like the snake that batted its eyes at Eve." There are better things to do than be deceived and taken in my those eyes.

Ostensibly Christian

[In a California radio interview with Kathleen Norris, on Pacifica radio] "‘Do you consider yourself a Christian?’ my host asked. I sighed and said, ‘My problem with that is that so many people who publicly identify themselves as Christians are such jerks about it.’"
--Kathleen Norris

I cringe when I see these jerks with simplistically "Christian" messages on their t-shirts and bumper stickers or when I see them praying over their food in restaurants. I don’t label as jerks everyone who follows these practices; many are not. Many are sincere and unthinking Christians.

I have yet to see a t-shirt sporting the Jesus’ words according to Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven."

One reason ostensible Christian testimony bothers me is that often I know these people. I know that much of their daily practice--speech, attitude, action--is contrary to clear biblical guidelines. If I were not a Christian, if I were not already "born again", neither they nor their message would attract the least of my interest. Like everyone else I would find myself paying more to the person than to what they were advertizing.

The same holds for so many of the cute "Christian" messages that show up on the marquis in front of churches. They make some of the insiders feel good, but to the outside passerby they may look either innocuous or offensive. Nearly always they see them as childish.

I've lost my source, but somewhere Doris Betts wrote, "Christian spoils into a rancid adjective."

U. S. President Starts a War

"'...the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him [the President]."
. . . .
". . . must have begun the war motivated by a desire for "military glory"--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy.' When that aim failed, his mind, "taxed beyond its power," began "running hither and thither, like an ant on a hot stove," and this "bewildered, confounded, and miserable man " could only speak in "the half insane mumbling of a fever-dream."

[Abraham Lincoln, speaking of President James K. Polk]
--David Herbert Donald

The mind moves easily, almost naturally, to think this speaks to another president, long after Polk. It might seem to refer, not to the U. S. invasion that initiated the Mexican war, but a later U. S. invasion that started another ill-begotten war.
Lincoln still speaks, even in the 21st Century.

Although he was labeled "unpatriotic," and a "traitor," and was accused of treason and speaking from political motivation, he nonetheless supported sending supplies and support to the troops, who were in this through no fault of their own.