Death is, so to speak, a favorite topic of mine, and I’ve written about it here many times. I say “favorite” tongue in cheek, of course, because death is the topic we mortals most want to avoid talking about, let alone experience, whether that’s our own, or the death of those we love. We lost a friend this week to this most implacable foe, and as common as death is in the human experience, it never fails to shock us when it rears its ugly head. My first response when learning about this tragedy was, this can’t be! When a young man dies well before his time, no matter the circumstances, it hurts. Especially when it’s one you love and care about. So I knew I’d have to write something because when death comes knocking, I can’t just ignore it or explain it away. I’ve argued, in fact, that death is the great question mark of existence. It forces us to ask why it is, and why we hate it so. Any secular answer is supremely shallow and unsatisfying, but nothing takes away the sting. (more…)
We know in this excessively “woke” age we live in that the Bible is terribly regressive, and of course we Neanderthal’s wouldn’t have it any other way. One thing we know that our overly-educated elite refuse to admit, is that there is a biological, psychological, and emotional difference between males and females, men and women. I know, radical. The thing we have to remember about the woke mob is that they are a tiny minority of the population, with a very lot of cultural power and the biggest megaphones. What they don’t have is reality. When human beings insist on denying reality it will eventually rebound back on them, usually in horrific ways. History makes that obvious. The beautiful thing about the Bible, though, is that is corresponds perfectly with reality because the author is the author of reality! (more…)
In a website comment section yesterday, someone linked to this short video for me to check out, so I did. It’s only a few minutes, but it’s very much worth watching because the guy is a gifted communicator and said some seemingly wise and thoughtful things, until you really think about what he’s saying. It sounds so profound on the surface, but it’s as solid as the surface of an egg shell. I wrote a comment in reply that I thought I’d share here because it is so necessary to confront the meaning of mortality, and entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics, all of which he talks about.
This is sad, even as it is beautifully elegant deeply unfulfilling garbage. The young man thinks this is some kind of answer to our mortality, but all it does is blind him to obvious questions: Why do we die? Why is there entropy? Why is everything ephemeral and fleeting and ultimately unfulfilling? For most secularists, including Freud, and all Eastern religions, the meaning of death is the elephant in the room best left ignored. Maybe death is ultimately meaningless, maybe it doesn’t point to anything beyond itself, doesn’t come from anywhere or have any reason for being. It is, as the atheist contends, just a brute fact of the natural world. Or maybe not. (more…)
As everyone in the Evangelical world, and many beyond, know by now, evangelist and apologist Ravi Zacharias was a phony and serial sexual abuser. Those are words I never thought I’d write, to say the least, but they also don’t surprise me. Christianity assumes and teaches that fallen man is, well, fallen. It assumes and teaches that the sinful human heart is capable of complete self-deception. It also teaches that salvation is the reconciliation of man to a holy God by an inner transformation, and not merely intellectual assent to certain propositions. It appears that Ravi was all head and no heart. Zillions of people have written and talked about this, and many have asked if they thought Rave was saved, or not. A tree, Jesus tells us, is known by it’s fruit, but the history of redemption we encounter in our Bibles is filled with God using and saving terribly flawed human beings, so none of us knows the answer. From what I’ve heard and read about all this, Ravi seems to me like he was a smooth talking sociopath, but I’ll leave the judging of his soul to God. (more…)
If you have to ask what Frank, stop reading right now. Anyone who lived in the 20th century, and raised their kids well in the 21st, should know that could only be the incomparable Sinatra, the Chairman of the Board. The other night my wife told some little intimate cylinder with the name Alexa to play big band Frank Sinatra, and on came the wonderful song Come Fly With Me, and the phrase of the title of this post came instantly to my mind. There is nothing as awesome as Big Band Frank. One song after the other came on, and each so incredibly captured the vibrant vitality of life through The Voice. Even though Frank in the 40s made his name as a crooner, his legacy lives on more as the voice of the Great American Songbook with big bands led by the likes of the great Nelson Riddle. It’s difficult to express in mere words how his voice accompanied by the amazing arrangements of so many songs capture how wonderful and vibrant this life can be. When you’re listening you can almost feel like it is possible that what we’re ultimately looking for can actually be found in this life. As any honest person will tell you, it can’t, not least because the Grim Reaper is always waiting in the wings to spoil the party. (more…)
Recent Comments