DONE

I am celebrating the end of year 2 of 3 of my doctoral program by sipping a bit of toasted coconut rum and not writing much on this blog.

I finished my 10 page paper just after lunch.

On Monday I will write my advisor and find out what the steps are for my dissertation. I think the first two months will be all about me reading as much as I can on my topic.

And taking notes.

I'm OK with that. In fact, I started yesterday. 

UNDONE

I wanted to finish the final assignment of my doctorate program, a 10 page paper on integrating preaching with the other elements of a worship service.

My intention was to turn in my paper by midnight, no matter how lame it might be.

But a second option kept distracting me ...

Maybe I could just skip the paper altogether.

I did the math. Currently I have a high A, so even with a big, fat, complete ZERO on the paper, I wouldn't end the semester with a grade lower than a B-. 

Tempting - Over and over again. All day long.

But in the end, neither my pride nor my sense of obligation would allow me to take Option B-.

Besides, I had already invested time in research. 

Unfortunately, the drag on my focus throughout the day left me with an unfinished paper at midnight.

Tomorrow morning I WILL finish this paper. No turning back.

I want to be done.

THE BUG

Sarah - our youngest - bought a car today. It's a VW Bug and a convertible at that.

It's a milestone and she can barely contain her excitement. 

My own emotions, however, are a jumble.

On the one hand, since I am largely working from home these days, I have been the one responsible most days to pick Sarah up from school. This has meant dropping whatever I am doing at 3:15 - right smack in the middle of the afternoon - and driving 15 minutes to her school and back. 

For work flow, it has been a true nuisance. 

On the other hand, it has been a father/daughter time which I have enjoyed, catching up on her experiences at school. Having my little girl as a captive audience each day for 15 minutes has been priceless. 

To see that end is nearly unbearable. 

This is the nature of parenting. 

We have a few more days or perhaps even weeks before my pick up duties will end. She doesn't have the car in hand yet nor does she have her official license. But both are coming soon.

I will try not to think about it. 

P.S. Sarah, like her siblings before her, bought her first car with her own money. It represents hours and hours of scooping ice cream at Zaharako's. Melissa and I are proud of her. 

DUST

Psalm 103 is becoming one of my favorite passages in all the Bible. Here's verses 1 to 14:

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name.

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds—

3 He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion,

5 who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

9 He will not always accuse us, nor harbor His anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

14 For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

King David wasn't much of a Calvinist. 

IGNORANCE ON FIRE

"Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice." - Dr. Ivan Misner

I heard this quote today on a podcast and it stuck with me. Misner is the founder of BNI - Business Network International and so his audience is entrepreneurs.

But it seems applicable to one's spiritual life as well. 

When it comes to theology, we really have no choice but to move forward in ignorance. 

The other day I heard a pastor promoting a six-week study he had created for church groups called The Whole Truth about God.

In six weeks! Whatever the price tag is, if he can deliver, I want to buy it.

But I am not optimistic.

None of us knows the WHOLE truth about God.

If we wait until we have our theology perfect before we can call ourselves Christian, then none of us are Christians.

I love the story of "the man born blind" in John 9:

The Pharisees interrogate him - twice - about his miraculous healing and what Jesus exactly did to bring it about.

V.25 "Give glory to God by telling the truth," they said. "We know this man (Jesus) is a sinner."

And the formerly blind man shoots back, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

What? He was healed without having all of his propositional truth ducks in a row?

Is that possible?

STEEPED IN SIN

A quiz over a quote: "You were steeped in sin at birth." 

Who said it? (Besides every Calvinist preacher you ever cared to listen to ... ad nauseum.)

An Old Testament prophet?

Jesus? 

The Apostle Paul? 

No, No, and No.

But it does come straight out of the Bible.

Correct answer? 

A group of Pharisees - the bad guys of John's Gospel in particular and the New Testament in general. 

In the 9th chapter of John, Jesus heals a man born blind and the man ends up in hot water with the local Pharisees. In the course of having the Pharisees grill him over his healing, he gets a little sassy, questioning their logic in rejecting Jesus out of hand as God's Messiah.

He tells them, "If this man - Jesus - were not from God, he could do nothing." (v.33)

This ticks off the Pharisees royally: "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" And they threw him out. (v.34)

You can hear the self-righteous condescension spilling out along with the words.

But surely we are not to see this "steeped in sin at birth" as being a faulty theology arising from the Pharisees' own hubris, right?

Couldn't this be sound biblical theology, but merely in the wrong mouths? A broken clock being right twice a day, and all that?

I suppose one could make that argument ... if Jesus had not already weighed in on the topic himself when he and his disciples first encounter this blind man at the side of the road:

John 9:2 His disciples asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

True, Jesus is not saying the guy had never sinned in his lifetime, just that his blindness was not the result of some sin he or his parents committed. 

Still, Jesus' focus was not on condemning the man and playing up this guy's experience of existing in some profound state of unrighteousness.

Jesus' focus was on restoring his sight. 

Simple.

JOHN AND HELL

It's after midnight and we just got home from the airport. Travel days and packed weekends are both tiring, so I will keep this short.

We had an hour and 40 minute flight from Dallas to Indy this evening and since I didn't have anything downloaded to watch on my phone and I didn't want to turn a light on to read a book, I decided to read straight through the Gospel of John.

It's an interesting experience to read through large chunks of the Bible in one sitting. I try to put aside my assumptions and notice what is really there on the page.

And also what is not there.

Most significant omission that struck me tonight? Unless I missed it, in the entire Gospel of John, Jesus says zilch about hell. He talks about "perishing" apart from Him at least twice that I noticed, but nothing about fire or worms or gnashing of teeth. 

I may be wrong. If you've seen it there, please point out the verses to me.