RootsRain

If you have any fascination with Old English/Norse/Anglo-Saxon literature, here’s something you might find fascinating. Benjamin Bagby, a multi-talented singer in the group Sequentia, has beautifully recreated what it would have been like to listen to a skald tell the tale of Beowulf. Thankfully, unlike the recent teen pube-fueled Beowulf, this one was done with meticulous research and an eye to creating something timeless.

You can purchase the full DVD on Amazon.

Okay, so $4 per gallon is an absolute crime to be paying at the pump. I know. Some bad points:

1. There’s lots of oil out there for us to tap. But we’re not doing it. Which makes us stuck in this situation.
2. Using my precise, scientific method of making up statistics, there are 95% too many oil speculators (read: irresponsible gamblers) having fun driving up the world’s oil futures.
3. Since gas prices and food prices are inextricably linked (because who the heck eats locally-grown food?), and since food and ethanol prices are inextricably linked (remember, you get ethanol from corn, sugar cane… starchy/sugary foods like that?), the wondrous Iowa gas alternative will always be the same price as the ball-and-chain Middle Eastern variety.
4. Gas is now unbelievably expensive in third world countries.
5. Food is now unbelievably expensive in third world countries. Remember that food is brought to them almost entirely by petrol-fueled ships. And since even the corn grown in their own land is being shipped out as ethanol, it drives food prices even higher.

But let’s look on the bright side for a minute.

In my horribly American-centered world, I’m stepping back and seeing that at least Americans have been increasingly interested in renewable energy. They’re actually starting to think SUVs maybe aren’t so great and that maybe a hybrid would be sexy. I’ve been wondering for years when this would happen. I kept thinking “Nothing moves unless the market moves it… So unless hybrids are bought in massive numbers, they’ll be an unattractive, expensive option. But they’ll never be bought in large numbers until they become an attractive, inexpensive option.”

Of course, there’s a problem with that reasoning. I forgot to include gas. Drive up the price of gas enough, and people are willing to take the hit on the front end to buy an ugly, expensive vehicle if they can save on gas later. Voila. $4 a gallon is the tipping point. Hybrids/Flex Fuel vehicles are everywhere.

Add to all this the recent Wall Street woes, and you have a pretty significant recipe for Americans paying more attention to how they spend their money. It’s possible that the days are gone when people just bought whatever was advertised and paid for it with credit. Joe Six Pack might actually restrain himself when thinking about driving, shopping, spending…

And once he’s learned to stop and breathe before he spends, he might also consider where some of the gas problems have come from. Like, say, the fact that China and India are being brought onto the gas grid. And they’re making our oil consumption look like a tea party. So there’s no way out of this. If everyone wants oil in the quantities they’ve been wanting it, it’s not going to last. We’ve got to look for other options.

And before you know it, you’ve got Americans thinking like global ecological citizens.

I know that the current economic crisis is affecting some people in really horrible ways… and I don’t doubt there’s a strong element of divine judgment in all this… But I do find an increased awareness of the social, economic, and ecological implications of our actions a cause for some rejoicing. In the middle of a recession, America just might find the time to stop being the single-seat sports car with “the engine that drives the world’s economy” and learn to be a stable mini-van. Not so sexy, but far more helpful.

Hovering over nearly everything I have written is the question of how a human economy might be conducted with reverence, and therefore with due respect and kindness toward everything involved. This, if it ever happens, will be the maturation of American culture.

Wendell Berry

Thanks to Will for alerting me to this wonderful site created by the guys at Portland Studios. It’s a microsite for a “new” book by John Piper. They’ve taken Piper’s poem about Job and turned it into a painfully beautiful book illustrated by Chris Koelle.

…and so I add yet another thing to my long wishlist of books I can’t afford…

Back in my college days, when I first had access to the internet and started poking around on NASA’s then-new collection of freely available Hubble Satellite photos, my interested was first piqued in science. What I saw started a love affair with astronomy in particular, and science in general. The kinds of pictures I saw, and the numbers they were quoting for the size of some of these stars and galaxies and distances between them just blew my mind.

Several years have passed, and I’d like to think my appreciation of those images, facts, and figures has matured even further. And it’s in that spirit that I’d love to show you some things that I think will blow your mind.

First up is a video I swiped from a DVD I got a few years back called The Privileged Planet. After watching the DVD, I found this little segment buried in the bonus features: almost a throwaway. But as soon as I saw it, I thought it was the most amazing thing on the program. You can watch it below, but promise me you won’t keep reading until you watch it. It’s important.

Kind of puts a different spin on things, doesn’t it? I imagine size like that sets the mind of a person who doesn’t know God reeling. All that space. And what am I? Nothing. Less than nothing.

But to a believer, all that space was given to us as—at least partially—a divine illustration of how much God loves us. It’s like, when He made the universe, He said “Let me create a vastness so large that the human mind can measure it just enough to perceive something of how immeasurable it is. And then I’ll tell them that vastness is weak illustration of how much I love them.” What an extravagant gesture!

God has also said that His wisdom is higher than the heavens above the earth, and that His ways are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Which should put at least a few arc seconds more perspective on how much wiser God is than us. We can trust Him in whatever He’s up to, whether it looks good or bad to us.

Time to do some more mind blowing. Back in 1995, Hubble did the first “Hubble Deep Field.” They aimed the Hubble camera at the darkest patch of space they could find and decided to let the camera expose a photograph for several minutes over several months. All told, it exposed a picture for over a week. And the patch of sky they focused on was (please try to get this size in your head) the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. The idea was to see if maybe, just maybe they could see a star or two not visible to our powerful telescopes. Here’s what they saw.

It’s a joy to “use your mind to blow your mind,” as John Piper once said. So I want to help you use your brain and sense of wonder to praise God for His marvelous works. I would encourage you to listen to “When Morning Gilds the Skies” as you take a look at some more pictures and see how “the heavens are telling the glory of God.”

If you enjoy these pictures and would love to see more God-glorifying visions of our universe, bookmark the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day or subscribe to its RSS feed.

“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” —Psalm 19:1

If you’ve ever wished presidential races could be won simply by desire, then head on over to presidentialprizefight.com and battle it out as John McCain or Barack Obama. Winning bouts racks up votes for the Republicans or Democrats in an attempt to win over the electoral representation of that state.

It’s somewhat addictive, so beware.

For several years I’ve struggled with the implications of Reformed Theology. In the past 2 years, it’s progressed from arguing against Reformed Theology, to having conversations with people about why I can no longer agree that humans are the final arbiters of their election.

The passage that’s been the hammer that broke the rock in pieces, so to speak, was Romans 9. I talked with someone who said Romans 9 is about God’s sovereign choice over people groups, but had nothing to do with an individual’s salvation. That sounded fishy to me, so I began at Romans 8 and read through Romans 11 several times. The clear implication was that it was talking about an individual’s salvation.

See, here’s the context: if God gives huge covenant promises in Romans 8, how are we supposed to believe them if God’s Word has failed with respect to His covenant promises to Israel? Israel’s rejecting the Messiah and going to hell. How does that uphold God’s word to His chosen people? How can we Gentiles take God at His word if He can’t keep His word to the Jews?

Given that context, Paul argues that God’s word has not failed, and here’s why: not all Israel is Israel. In other words, there’s an ethnic Israel and a spiritual Israel. How can that be? Well, both Ishmael and Isaac were sons of Abraham (Jews, right?), but God chose to bless Isaac and reject Ishmael. But lest you think that was because of Hagar’s status as a slave, Rebekah’s twins, before they’d been born or done any good or evil, were likewise split. God chose Jacob and rejected Esau. Every time there have been children of Abraham (or his descendants), there has been a distinction between those who are mere biological children, and those who are children of the promise—real children of the covenant. In other words, it has always been the case that mere lineage was not a determining factor in salvation. God is able to make Jews from stones if He wants to (Matthew 3:8-9). Don’t presume that lineage guarantees salvation. Repent, or you will likewise perish.

I ask: has Paul just begun to randomly talk about the destiny of nations? Or is Paul supporting his assertion that within ethnic Israel is spiritual Israel? If he’s supporting his point that there are two Israels and ethnic Israel doesn’t guarantee placement within spiritual Israel, what context does that put the conversation in? The destiny of nations? Or salvation?

I say all this because it’s a critical context for understanding the rest of the chapter. I used to skip the beginning of the chapter because I didn’t understand why Paul was bringing Israel into the picture. But once you understand why he’s arguing on the track that he is, the entire chapter opens up. I would most of all encourage you to read Romans 8-11 and see the thought flow of Paul in those chapters. But I would also encourage you to download a sermon I listened to this week by John Piper called “What is Romans 9 About?”. It’s a very humble unfolding of the thought flow of Romans 9 and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

If you want a more complete exposition of Romans 9-11, listen to this series:

• God’s Word Has Not Fallen, Part 1
• God’s Word Has Not Fallen, Part 2
• God’s Word Has Not Fallen, Part 3
• God’s Word Has Not Fallen, Part 4
• God’s Word Has Not Fallen, Q/A

I’m sorry for delay in posting. I’ve been horrifically busy with work, people coming over, us going over other people’s houses, freelance, etc.

Here’s a sermon series I’ve listened through several times in the past month. It’s from John Piper’s book of the same name, called The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God. Piper’s basic argument is that since we can define idolatry as loving anything more than God, then God is not an idolater: He loves Himself more than anything else. He does everything for His glory. And it must be so because for Him to do anything for the ultimate glory of anyone else would be idolatry. God takes the most delight and satisfaction in His own perfections as they are imaged in His Son and radiated from them in the Spirit. And since God takes the most satisfaction in that, we should as well.

So ask yourself: Do I take my highest delight and satisfaction in thinking about the things God does for His own glory?

…Probably couldn’t answer Yes, could you? Me either. At least, not most of the time. That’s why I’ve been listening to these sermons over and over. And I’d highly recommend them to you.

And here are the other sermons in that series:

• The Pleasures of God, Part 2
• The Pleasures of God, Part 3
• The Pleasures of God, Q/A

Emily and I have always had a hard time falling asleep. Okay, actually, it’s just me. I keep her up by my incessant talking. I can’t help it. When the lights go out, my mind thinks I’m in the home stretch and gives it everything it’s got.

Of course, since we’re both tired, our conversations often turn bizarre. For instance, there’s the evening we spent happily insulting each other with fruit:

Jeff: You’re like a pineapple. There’s something sweet inside, but you have to hack it out with a machete.

Emily: Well, you’re like a cluster of grapes. You’re okay as you are, but you’d be better squeezed and sealed in a cask for 100 years.

Jeff: Ha! Well, you’re like an orange. Once you peel away the hard outer layer, there’s a lot of flakiness underneath.

Emily: Oooo… well, you’ve got layers, too, buster. A lot of them. Like an onion. And they all stink.

Of course, Emily’s the queen of half-asleep, back-handed compliments. On one occasion, she’d had a really bad day and hadn’t been terribly nice to me:

Emily: I don’t get it, Jeff. Why don’t you just kill yourself? Why don’t you just crawl under the bed and die?

Jeff: …ummm…

Yet another backhanded gem after several days of frustration with life:

Emily: I know why I’m always depressed. It’s because I’m a genius. Smart people are always more depressed than stupid people…

…but it’s nice that you’re always so happy.

Jeff: …ummm…

And then there’s the totally loopy tradeoffs that make me think we could be brilliant if only we would act more stupid…

Jeff: I was digging a trenchcoat…

Emily: but it made me sweater…

Jeff: so I sat on a bench in the parka…

Emily: but I started to pants…

Jeff: so I hopped in my cardigan…

Emily: but a cop said pull overalls…

Jeff: so I drove slow as a turtleneck…

Emily: At home I popped the hoodie…

Jeff: but the gears were full of sandals…

Emily: so I kicked the tire and stubbed my toga.

I got the idea of doing a do-it-yourself “Topsy-Turvy” planter from Camille Lewis’ blog. I modified the design a little and just smashed in the top of a 2 liter root beer bottle rather than cutting it off, inverting it, and hot gluing it back on. The result isn’t gorgeous, but I think I’m in for some good tomatoes.

Not that I really need any more tomatoes. I planted 10 tomato bushes this year and the one that sprouted earliest already has 27 tomatoes on it. But it would be interesting to see if this method of planting really keeps away the normal soil-borne diseases and pests that you get with in-ground tomatoes. And I’d like to see if I can keep it growing indoors throughout the winter.

So this is just a little experiment.

My favorite little boy.

And last but not least, I dare you to not laugh while watching this…