A Good Time

At first I was skeptical about another Muppet movie, but since my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, and a cynical friend recommended it (not to mention The Muppets killing it on Rotten Tomatoes), we went and saw it last night.

I can't remember the last time I had such a sustained grin on my face. The kind of smile that even feels good on the inside. And not the kind of smile where you feel guilty for laughing (ala Hangover), but the kind of general warmth where you can be sitting in between your wife and parents and everyone is equally delighted. Most importantly, it met my 3 criteria for enjoyable comedic art-it was creative yet familiar, it was surprising, and it didn't take itself too seriously.

"Christian" Creativity

This is a reeeeally early version of the Gospel of Mark. It is an interesting coincidence that two of the classes I'm taking right now are Greek and Medieval/Reformation Church History, and today at the Getty  there happened to be an exhibit on medieval Gospel preservation which included old manuscripts in Greek. I couldn't read squat.

Anyway, walking around looking at beautiful artifacts made to honor Christ struck me as odd-what would it have been like to live in a time where Christianity was at the forefront of creativity and the arts? Will we ever see a time like that again? Most likely not, since the seat of power and influence Christianity held for ages in Western society has all but evaporated and now it is marginal at best. But what would it look like? Have Christians totally lost the power to promote the Gospel in an original and artistic way?

Legacy

CJ Hobgood is a professional surfer from Florida who has spent over a decade competing on the world tour. He recently fell off the tour, and after surfing what could be his last professional event, he had this to say:
"It's definitely not a sad day," he said. "People are like, 'sorry,'-- but what do you have to be sorry about? I don't know what I have in surfing or what surfing holds for me. At the end of it, I don't want to be known as the 2001 World Champion. I want to be known as a guy that loved Jesus and loved everyone and had fun and that's it. It's not a sad day for me. The waves are pumping and Owen went mad in that heat. Everything happens for a reason and I'm enjoying the beautiful day here today. It's just awesome to be a part of."


I just find it refreshing when someone who has found fame and success still has there priorities straight. Maybe its because he's from the east coast... 

What ISN'T for sale?

We just watched "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" by Morgan Spurlock. It's his typical docu-drama fare where he records a process, in this case, how product help finance a film. It was quite funny and interesting. Many questions are raised-Where does the product placement cross over into blatant advertising? What does it mean to sell out? How much harder would it be to be successful as an artist if you never accepted any corporate financing?

Personally, this movie "worked" on me in that a) I am slightly more knowledgeable about how brands finance films and b) I want to support the companies that took a chance and sponsored his movie. How can you not like a film that is brought to you by Mane & Tale, a horse/human shampoo?

Fine Tuned Instruments

My dad Charlie (a.k.a. Chuck D.) is a wise man and this post is from him. He randomly sends me brilliant emails like this one.
He has been working on making his own mandolin and it stirred up some good ideas in his brain.
This picture is the back of said mandolin.


" I've learned so much about instrument building.  The true skill part on this mandolin was done before I got the pieces: i.e., selecting some decent wood for the project, carving out the F holes, and making the fretboard and neck.     But after that point, it is amazing how much an instrument is just held together by glue!    WE need an inner glue.  It almost never looks like the substance that will save us and integrate us and keep us from falling apart.   It is just squeezed out of a tube.   But if applied correctly and allowed to cure with pressure, it creates a bond that is stronger than the wood around it!   If you were to use excessive force to rend the bond, you would actually tear the wood apart!  The glued edges would stay bonded.

Besides just incredible skill in carving, the biggest investment of the master instrument maker is in the right tools and the time required.   A set of excellent "C clamps" with soft covers so they don't dent the wood is important.   Some might see these tools as being like the hounds of heaven.   They pin down the wood and stop it from squirming or running until the bond can make it strong and integrated.   It is the pressure of Godly, brotherly C Clamps in our lives that make our blind spots go away and allow are dark musty closets to air out.    In addition to pressure, the countless hours of sanding are what makes the bridemando one without spot or blemish or wrinkle.    The loving instrument maker uses very little coarse sand paper.   I used my belt sander for 5 minutes and left a few divots that will never go away and will always be a part of the final product and limit its aesthetic appeal.    Unlike having a huge area of forgetfulness,  Impatience is fortunately not one of God's shortcomings.   Not only does He limit his work on us to fine grit sand paper, but he "goes with the grain".    That makes for a smoothest possible final product as well as just being less traumatic and "painful" to the wood."

Meaning of Life

Finally got around to seeing The Tree of Life at the Pasadena 3$ theater. What an ambitious movie... it seems deliberately written to facilitate endless discussion. Is humanity just a blip on the radar of eternity? Do we each have Nature and Grace wrestling within us? Is love the only thing that makes life worth living? I love that it raises questions that cannot be answered. But it certainly does get you thinking... What a beautiful movie.

everything will be OK

This just blew my mind a little bit.

excerpt from Hope Against Hope, by Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart

"Since the cross cannot be edited out of the Christian metanarrataive, it forbids those who tell the Christian story any whitewashing of history, any progressivist tale of success which neglects the victims, any of the glossy simulacra with which the image-makers of modernity mask the horrors of history. The Christian metanarrative does not offer a speculative theodicy. It tells a story of God's dealings with evil which offers hope without minimizing or justifying evil. Above all, it finds in the cross God's loving solidarity with all who suffer and proffers hope for the end of history, when God will wipe away the tears from every eye and take his creation beyond the reach of evil."

Dang.
Where did we get the idea that life with Jesus would make everything OK all of a sudden?
Why do we think that telling people "God has a reason for everything" is a good consolation when they just lose someone to cancer, suicide, accident, etc.?
God is not ignoring the cries for help, and someday the story WILL have a conclusion, all the loose ends will be tied up... but it will be by God. The story does not necessarily make sense until then.

They end with this:
"Therefore it is in the highest degree important not to tell the story as though it were an already completed whole...We can neither master the future nor wait passively for it (though this is sometimes required). Christian hope is thus neither promethean nor quietest. It neither attempts what can only come from God no neglects what is humanly possible."

We are participating in a story, God's cosmic story, and our little contribution will make sense only in light of the completed whole.