Name-Dropping

Articulation is such a challenge. I consider it one of my greatest weaknesses. I’m not exactly superhuman in other areas either, but in some sense, ineffability has become my Kryptonite. (Maybe that’s why I’m so hard on those who pursue ineffability.)

I can already see the irony in what I’ve just said here, because, my pursuit to improve my ability to articulate my thoughts and feelings about my life and the world I live in, is, in fact, a form of pursuing ineffability. Let me attempt to clarify: I’m not saying any pursuit of ineffability is dangerous. What I am saying, is - destroying or barring forever any knowledge, and the language that carries it, is dangerous. If we pursue ineffability by reaching the limits of knowledge and language after using all knowledge and language available to us, then ineffability can be accepted as a part of our current identity. Arriving at this point, for me, is the pinnacle of poetry.

[via daydreamer]

Why On Earth Would I Want to Picket a Church? More on the Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill Seattle Action

[via Shari MacDonald Strong, HT: oxymoronredundancyparadoxtrap]

The Unforseeable Desire

2,000 years after a resurrection we never witnessed, facing a future that seems more or less insoluble. We’re not deluded into believing we can return to the idealized modernism of the ’50s. And still we’re not yet willing to throw in the towel and succumb to nihilistic despair. We still hope beyond hope. We groan. We struggle. And we cry out—not defiantly into the void and not to some man-diluted, manufactured god who can’t satisfy. We cry out to the God we hope is actually here.

-- From 2,305 Words On "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Curt Cloninger in the Nov 2006 issue of Paste.

[via Ideajoy]

Flawed Post, Flawed Testimony

So, here is how I think that Mark should have worded his advice TO men about their marital relationship. I won't pretend to be a martyr and take one for the team on this one.

"Men, how is your relationship with your wife? Are you attentive to her or have you neglected her and put her last on your list of people who need you? Are you giving her the better part of yourself? Does she feel lonely and neglected? Is she starting to exhibit addictive behaviors like over eating, smoking, drinking, watching too much TV or the like? Has she tried to talk to you and you rebuffed her with an accusation of being a "nag" or "too demanding"? How is your sex life? If it is suffering, look in the mirror. You, as the man, must take responsibility in this. A woman doesn't have a problem with wanting to have sex when she feels loved, cared for, appreciated and made a priority. Is sex enjoyable for your wife? Does she get pleasure from it or does she do it out of duty? Maybe your technique is lacking? She may enjoy sex more if you would commit to being the kind of lover that Solomon was in the Song of Songs. Are you a "wham, bam, thank-you maam" type of lover? Or are you gentle, considerate, wanting to please? Do you approach sex with the attitude of thinking that it is something that you deserve and it is something for your pleasure? Or do you have the attitude that sex is all about pleasing your wife? 1 Corinthians 7 tells us that intimacy is important in our marriages. Too many women are being neglected and then expected to perform like women we see in the movies or women we have seen in porn. Men, you cannot allow your ideas about sex to be defined by this culture and this world. We cannot afford to be selfish in our approach to sex and we cannot afford to neglect our wives. After all, if we cultivate our gardens, will they not bear delicious fruit?

Men, marriage reflects Christ and His love for the Church. Christ is not selfish and He is not a clod. He is a thoughtful, sensitive, doting lover of our soul. Shouldn't we strive to reflect His love to the lost and dying world? I believe that men are the ones who initiate and women are responders. We see this in the Church and how God set up these gender distinctions to show the world something of Himself. Christ initiates and we respond. Right?

If your woman is not responding to you, then you need to take a good look in the mirror. You are the one responsible for your marriage as the head of your home. If your wife is being sinful and neglecting you in spite of you being a good husband, then go find help. Your marriage depends upon it. "

This is how pastoral advice to men should look like. This is how it should sound....

Part of being a mature male is taking responsibility. It isn't feminism that is the problem in our churches. It is the lack of accountable and responsible men. I will take one for the team on that statement.

[via The Pineapple Pundit, emphasis mine]

We are free to choose life. We do not value life, as some pro-lifers say, because of innocence.

[via Levellers, HT: Jesus Politics]

Vanishing Concerns

If this really happened, we would give it a name. The instantaneous disintegration of every child and of hundreds of millions of adults, everywhere, at once. The lethal aftermath.

And the psychological aftermath. The panic and fear and realization that everything had changed. Every parent on earth simultaneously experiencing every parent's worst nightmare. "I only turned my back for a second and she was gone." "He's not in his bed, where is he?" In an instant, the world is transformed from the home of 6 billion people to the home of only 4 billion, most of whom would be suffering from some form of traumatic stress.

"Things don't just disappear," my mother used to say. But in this story, they do. People do. And in addition to the shock, grief, loss and horror, this is something else everyone would have to cope with. They could no longer take for granted something they didn't even realize they had been taking for granted. The possibility now has to be considered that you might at any second vanish without trace or explanation. A third of us gone, the remaining two-thirds would all feel the carpet had been yanked from beneath our feet.

So if this really happened, we would need to give it a name.{read the full post}

[via slacktivist]

Protective Coverings

Today many of the people that walk in supernatural power keep it captive in small enclaves of Christians.

[via The Heresy]

If the whole world were poured into my soul, I would still have an appetite.

[via From My Heart, Out of My Mind]

Mark Driscoll & Francis de Sales: Two Different Models of Cross Gender Intimacy and Friendship

[via Faith Dance, HT: Jesus Creed]

Can't We All Be Nice?

People are no so easily categorized into “nice” and “jerk.” The guys who you think are “nice” sometimes turn out to be jerks and the jerks could actually be good guys. As humans, we are more complicated than that. We all have our moments. And the people who are stuck at the ends of the spectrum, those men who truly are 100 percent “nice” or 100 percent “jerk” are actually really boring and impossible to talk to. Because the interesting stuff about humans isn’t found in the extremes. It’s found in the middle, where us normal people live, balancing our good intentions and kind natures against our darker side that is more likely to misbehave and call people names, gossip, sleep around, act cocky and generally not always be polite.

In short, sometimes the flaws are what attract us to people. Sometimes the flaws are what make people not boring.

[via Charming, but single]