Deep acceptance

“In the cross God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance. For to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer — to know that we have been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are, an even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves. This is what the cross offers.”
— Rebecca Pippert

A new look?

Alright. I'm officially looking at updating the look of my blog. If you are one of those deranged souls that actually reads it... then heads up :)

On the Road, Sal and me

"I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing... but burn burn burn like roman candles across the night." - On the Road, Jack Kerouac

As the city sleeps

I walk as the city drifts off to sleep.
As the smoke rises gently and quietly from her buildings,
as the cars past the river glide slowly at a distance past hearing,
and the city says that she is all mine,
and that her quiet view is just for me.
And my mind doesn't always catch it,
but my soul does
and is grateful for the stillness she lends this noisy heart.

Relevant Self-Defense

Antony Flew quote

This quote is from a gentleman named Antony Flew. Flew, a philosopher, was the face of atheism for a majority of the 20th century. Of course, in the 2000's after much wrestling, he came out as a theist. He's got a book on it. I think my roommate has it.

"I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence. I believe that this universe’s intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source. Why do I believe this, given that I expounded and defended atheism for more than a half century? The short answer is this: this is the world picture, as I see it, that has emerged from modern science."

Antony Flew

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Well, if you've talked with me about books in the last few years, you've undoubtedly heard me refer to a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. It's one of my favorites and it opened my eyes to alot of things and really helped me view my world and times in a different light. In short, read this book. It will be a paradigm-shifter for you.

Much to my surprise and delight, I just found this link to some men I deeply respect sitting around and shooting the breeze about a book that deeply impacted me. What it is is Albert Mohler, Mark Coppenger, Timothy Paul Jones, Bruce Keisling, and Owen Strachan talking about the book 25 years later.

I'll leave you with a bit from the foreword of this devastatingly prophetic book. Here, Postman is looking at two different "prophecies" told through fiction: Aldous Huxley in Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949):

---

Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.

Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.

Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.

In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.