7 Quick Takes Friday

I’m trying something new, courtesy of Jennifer and a site called conversiondiary.com.  Not sure if I’ll like it, but I like it so far.


ONE

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed this week with the potential of entering into two collaborative authoring projects of completely different natures.  I’m excited, because it might help hold my feet to the fire to actually do some more focused writing.  I’m excited, because I enjoy the various people that I’d be working with.  But I’m also overwhelmed at the thought of more focused writing. 

Perhaps I need to be overwhelmed more often. 


TWO

As part of one of the aforementioned writing projects, I may be doing some spieling here on the theological concept of vocation.  It’s a classical Christian idea that has really gotten a bad shake in the last 100 years or less.  I hear people talking about trying to determine God’s will for their lives, and to follow God’s will rather than their own.  I hear a lot of angst.  I smell a lot of fear.  I taste a lot of uncertainty on conversational winds like these.  And I hope that with some frank discussion about what it means to be a child of God the Father, redeemed by God the Son and indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, some people might be able to sleep easier at night.


THREE

That being said, I really need to get into a better sleep cycle.  Late night writing – particularly on Saturday nights – sets a trend that often will keep me off balance for the next several days.  It doesn’t help that I’m a night owl with a stubborn streak who enjoys the odd hours – until I’m being awoken lovingly by my children in the wee small hours of the morning. 

I’ll go to bed as soon as I finish this entry.  Honest.


FOUR

Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untruthful
Honesty is hardly every heard, and mostly what I need from you.

– Billy Joel –

Sing it man, sing it.

FIVE

I hate my blog hosting service, and need to get up the chutzpah (and just the time) to migrate it to another site.  Any recommendations?  Know somebody that could make this awful thing look purty?  Honestly?


SIX

I appear to be one of the only male bloggers participating in this “Take 7” gig thus far.  I wonder if I should be questioning my masculinity?  Perhaps if I had a better hosting site, and was getting more sleep, I wouldn’t have these late night feelings of insecurity.  Honestly.

On the plus side, they mostly look like ladies that have a lot in common with my wife – stay at home moms and in several instances, home-schoolers, which we will become in the next week or two.  Woohoo!


SEVEN

I’m not a fan of perpetual uncertainty.  One of the hallmarks of post modernism is this notion that if truth can’t be known absolutely – or at least can’t be communicated absolutely – then the necessity of staking oneself on something pretty much evaporates.  Why go through the hassle of trying to sort through things to find out if there is truth and what it is?  Why not just remain ambivalent?  Why not have warm fuzzy inclinations that you act on in a half-hearted way when it isn’t too hard for you to do so?  Why not write about your uncertainty as though you’d really prefer to be certain, but you have no intention of making the effort to become certain?  Why risk either hot or cold when tepid is kinda comfortable? 

That’s sort of the category that this fits into.  I thought about doing a full-blown blog post on it, but realized there’s not much to respond to.  How do you respond to a non-theist who likes the idea of being a theist but apparently not enough to actually do something about it?  Like punching jell-o, or wrestling Spam, or doing cartwheels in tofu.  Honestly.  Since when is doubt the ideal?  When did Doubting Thomas become the hero instead of the obstinate skeptic or the lovable goob?  “It sure looks a lot like Jesus, and those nail marks and open wound in his side look real enough all right.  But I’m a little late for this progressive dinner I’m supposed to be going to.  I gotta go buy some ice cream or something.  Maybe spumoni.  Nice to see you again Jesus, if that’s really you.  Oh hey, can somebody unlock this door for me?”