British bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has an intersting essay in the June 2008 issue of Standpoint magazine...his premise is that he collapse of British Christianity in the last half century has left the culture beleagured and ripe for Islamic radicals to fill the ideological void.

Interesting read - the source can be found here - Breaking Faith with Britain - When one looks at history the armies of Islam were held at bay in Europe by two powers.  First, the hammer of Charles Martel and the Frankish armies.  Second, the philosophical and scientific efforts of the great philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas.  My fear is that Europe has neither the will to dispute with or resist Islam - I hope I am wrong.

I just read an interesting BusinessWeek article on the documentary 2 Million Minutes which chronicles the high school experiences of 6 students: 2 from the US, 2 from India and 2 from China. Here is the trailer below...interesting stuff. 

I am sitting in a restaurant in the place of my birth...or, uh, rather the place of my new birth.  Today I was completing a drive from my former home in Franklin, TN to our temporary home this summer with Kasey's parents in Raleigh NC.  We have detoured for a few weeks as we finalize housing for our actual move to New Jersey.  As I neared Raleigh I felt drawn, somewhat magnetically, to exit and take a drive through Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  I have since called my wife and told her I would get to Raleigh later this afternoon and needed some time to think.

For some reason, the whole process of raising funds, finishing ministry, selling a house, finding a new one and preparing to move has swamped my soul a bit.  I have struggled in the last few weeks to find my passion as a myriad of details has swirled about me.  I have also been a bit distracted reading two technology books - one on the history of the iPod, the other on Google.  I guess I was interested in tech history as I once studied to work in the technology field and have kept an interest.  Anyway, it has been a bit tough of late to see the forest from the trees so I am thankful for today's detour.

I drove around the campus and looked at dorms I once called home, places I used to party, athletic facilities where I sweat and bleed and paths I walked daily to classes.  I saw Phillips Hall where I studied Physics and Sitterson Hall where my love for computer science blossomed so many years ago.  Yet the most profound thing I remembered here was meeting Jesus in some quiet places around this campus and having the direction of my life profoundly changed.  I ate lunch at a place called Armadillo Grill, a place I visited often during my time here - at least when wrestling was not in season and I could actually eat a little. Smile.  I even talked to a homeless guy about Jesus and probably gave him beer money for the day.  We used to hang with the Chapel Hill street guys back in the day as well.  Sitting there in the tex-mex grill, the classic rock, the smells and the scenery brought me to a place of nostalgia.  So many things happened in this town for me.  I became a Christian, I met Kasey Monroe (now my wife of 12 years), I grew in my love for truth and intellect ual life and received a calling upon my life that, to my knowledge, God has not in any way revoked.  

I am 35 years old and in transition - this can be a tough time for people.  I sense this in my soul. At my age you now have a bit of a past, a few memories, and if motivated, you still feel like you have so much left to do.  I'm really not sure why I pulled off here in Chapel Hill today, nor why God detoured us to NC for a short season.  My conclusion is that I needed to remember, to reflect and contemplate the horizon before us.  So I am wandering Chapel Hill today by foot and in my black Mazda 3 hatchback...on my iPod plays the autobiography of Ravi Zacharias recounting his own story as he "walked from East to West."  Ravi was good to me during my final days in Chapel Hill as he nourished my mind with a view of Jesus that was satisfying, sincere, and intellectual.  I loaded his book on my iPod a few days ago but did not expect to be listening to him in Chapel Hill.

For some strange reason I live with a constant concern of my life not counting for much.  The reality is this world and our lives within it are so brief in their passing.  What else can we do but try?  To be honest I wonder where this present age is heading long term with so many competing views of reality, people with agendas and clashing ideologies clamoring for supremacy.   I also find the level of understanding and intellect in the church to be troubling.  Yet I am convinced of a few things in this life:

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.  2 Timothy 1:12

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69

Why am I in Chapel Hill today?  Perhaps to remember Jesus and him crucified and his work to save people far from him...Perhaps to remember Jesus, his wisdom and the truth he revealed to the world.  For if I have hope it is in him, not in Steve Jobs or the Google Guys as cool as their products may be.  For that matter, our hope is not in any others who desire to proclaim themselves saviors of the world...for that title is reserved for the one who created to world, then lived, died and was raised...For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.

Met a new friend today through Facebook...I really enjoyed his quotes so I thought I would share them here on the POCBlog...

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. - Martin Luther

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God. - Martin Luther

When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it, he keeps a very small stock of it within - C.H. Spurgeon

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
- C.H. Spurgeon

Jesus is mighty to save, the best proof of which lies in the fact that He has saved you.
- C.H. Spurgeon

Good meeting you Beau 

Kasey and I are moving again next week.  Not to where we were hoping but to an interim stop on our journey towards New Jersey.  We have a slight game delay so we have to pull the tarp over the field and sit in the dugout for a short season.  As I think about moving I can testify that I have grown and matured a little in the last four years...want proof? I promise I will NEVER do this again.

Figure 1 - Reid's moving schematic (yes schematic) from May 2004...man, did I have issues.  Now I will only do this in my head and not do it on the computer.  For those who are wondering...yes, it was all "to scale." For larger version - click here.

This is just some crazy stuff...I can't imagine how much time this took. Not sure if the guy broke the law or not, but his work is pretty creative stuff.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

OK, I was baited into this one by a good friend whose PR department would not permit him to blog it...and he figured I would be his huckleberry.  Well, he guessed correctly.  Christoga - a nice combination of YOGA and Christ - or is it?  Now, I happen to have some dear friends who are committed Christians who were converted from Hinduism.  It is interesting that Indian people who become followers of Jesus typically call poses dedicated to certain eastern gods...well...idolatry.  Not us western, Oprah Winfrey watching, syncretism loving "Christians." We like our bodies to be filled with Yoga and our hearts with some person we vaguely call "Jeeezus."

Now, I am not going to get into a debate here on whether stretching is bad - of course it is not.  Of course Yoga type stretching increases flexibility, strength and can make your body healthier.  Yet if you want to stretch you do not need "Christoga" to do so.  You certainly do not need yoga to "worship Jesus." Also, "getting centered" and eastern meditation are the antithesis of seeking the peace of God through meditation upon God's works, his Word and his attributes.  Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46)...this is the result of something Yoga cannot offer, a relationship with the creator God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble...yet we love to grab cool eastern stuff and mix it up without even knowing what it means.

OK, all the Yoga loving Christians can now send me your kind, loving, tolerant comments...

Thomas Cahil, Sailing the Wine Dark Sea - Why the Greeks Matter, Audio book narrated by John Lee, Books on Tape 2003. Also available in hardback and paperback.

I just finished another installment of Thomas Cahil's Hinges of History series of books chronicaling the sources and influences of western culture.  As with the Mysterious Middle Ages, I thouroughly enjoyed Cahil's work Sailing the Wine Dark Sea. Any student of the classical sources would find great enjoyment in Cahil's work; though it must be said that these works are not intending to trod new ground.  What I have most enjoyed is that Cahil seems to be achieving his goals with these works.  Rather than simply recount literature and ideas his goal has been to make the people of history speak to us once again; in this volume I heard the echoes of the ancients who ruled the Mediterranean and beyond.

In this review I want to highlight some things I enjoyed from the work and then comment briefly on a few glaring drawbacks to this work.  I want to note that I read Cahil more as one interested in the history of ideas and cultures rather than a critique of his work as a classicist.  I will leave that to others who share that field. On to the some highlights.

Highlights

Any history of ancient times, people and places has the great risk to be profoundly boring and the opportunity to launch a new adventure for the mind of the reader.  Cahil's treatment of the Greeks was certainly the latter. His discussion of the epic stories of the Illiad and the Odessey brought renewed fascination for me of wars in Troy and wanderings with gods and men.  For those unfamiliar with these epic poems Cahil will be a great introduction. Additionally at every phase of the work, whether art, politics, science. medicine or philosophy Cahil traces developments historically.  This adds a great bit of perspective to the work which I highly appreciated.

The book begins with the two great poems of Homer and structures two chapters treating these works.  The Iliad Cahil treats the great warrior culture that emerged from Greece and indeed has populated much of western thought and politics ever sense. Second the romance and longing for home is treated by looking at the plight of Odysseus. As mentioned before, if anything these chapters introduce these poems to a new generation.  Yet they also bring some reflection on the western war machine and the desire for love, peace and home.  Always relevant in a world of depravity where conflict and love both clamor for the soul.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of work for me was the treatment of philosophy.  Comprised of two Greek words phileo (love) and sophia (wisdom), western philosophical reflection found deep percolation in the minds of the Greeks.  Cahil's treatment is brief but thoroughly traces thought through the pre-Socratics, to the looming figure of Plato's Socrates, the ideas of Plato himself and his greatest student Aristotle who would one day be known in medieval Europe merely as "the philosopher." A friend once said to me "philosophy is flashy, but theology nourishes the soul" - I confess this to be true.  The wrestling of the Greeks with the nature of everything is a contagious pursuit in the West. I too find the art of questioning to be a pleasurable pursuit.  Yet when philosophy does not meet its proper object - reflection can only go awry.  Thinking and meditation with God and after God is fruitful indeed. Speculation and pondering as aimless wandering apes has lead only to postmodern uncertainty and deplorable despair.  Yet anyone who wants to reason well can learn much from our Greek friends.  In fact, I did some small work tonight with my six year old which was first formalized by Aristotle.  Indeed, the Greeks matter. (For those interested we discussed these laws: A is, A=A, A or nonA=True, A and nonA=False)

Lowlights

Cahil's book also had some shocking weaknesses which almost ruined the book for me.  One chapter is subtitled "How to Party" - indeed a lesson we learn from the Greeks but one presented by Cahil in brash and at times lewd form. In treating the proclivities of the Greeks it is expected that wine, sexuality and song should be a part of the story, but how that story is told can bring unfortunate baseness.  Cahil chooses some profane language to interact with the Greeks, dropping the f-bomb on several occasions. In one instance he was perhaps attempting to be true to the translating a poem by using the meaning of the modern f-word, yet at times it appeared almost as if he wanted to shock sensibilities. Certainly the Greek attitude about sex would on its face offend many today.  Yet in whatever the case, the language was offensive and in my opinion highly unnecessary.  Additionally the treatment of pederasty occupied too much space and was presented as a cultural norm without any harsh criticism from Cahil. The discussion of the sexual escapades and drunken debauchery may be too much for some who take up this book. Readers be strongly warned - this was a major drawback for me.

Conclusion 

In reading Sailing the Wine Dark Sea I again was taken deep into the heart of a people which lay in the past of western culture.  I learned much, enjoyed Cahil's historical writing and engaging prose and heard again why I am glad the Christ overcame both Dionysus and Apollo.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series on road trips in the car...perhaps next will be The Gift of the Jews.

Dutch Politician Geert Wilders' controversial 15min short film Fitna (a word which means discord or strife) is causing quite a stir.  The film features readings from the Koran accompanied by quotes from Islamic teachers along with some disturbing images.  Of course Wilders has had too many death threats to count and the film is causing debate about speech that offends. 

What is lacking in the commentary I have read is a discussion of the truth of these matters. Anyway, it is a pretty shocking film - available here on Google Video. 

I am really not so sure why we take an ancient instrument of execution upon which God incarnate gave his life in sacrifice for sin and make it into trinkets.  Here is another installment in the history of Jesus Junk - a Cross shaped MP3 player. I guess this is supposed to make a statement but I do not know what statement. Here is how this one was reported on Engadget:

Good lord. No, really. Good lord. The TEO MP-301 MP3 player from IceTech USA crams 1GB of media storage into -- as you can see -- a very Jesus-friendly form factor. The $49 player features a built-in microphone with voice recorder, mirrored front panel, and even a little speaker. According to reviews, the player has some serious interface issues and a weak screen, but if crucifixion is your thing, you can't go wrong with this necklace cross-cum-MP3 player. Or is that the other way around? Is this an MP3 player that's also a cross? Anyway, there you have it: the cross-shaped MP3 player, indeed.

My small counsel to the kind souls which produce this sort of thing - STOP IT.  OK, now podcasts of Christ centered preaching are really great on iPods.  That is how I would rather experience "Cross" and "MP3 player" in the same sentence.  But maybe its just me...

John Mark Reynolds has a refreshing dose of optimism online with his essay Great News Today! Or Despist Us the Church is Winning! OR Ten Reasons to be Happy!  over at the Scriptorium.  If you are typically found hanging out with Chicken little, lamenting how bad everything is or just tend towards a modicum of moribundity this little piece will be good reading for you.  Of course, you will simply want to refute his post and tell us how bad it really is...but hey, it is worth a try to look on the bright side every now and then...no?  Of course John Piper will tell you that our joy is in God and not simply good goings on in the world or culture...but if and when both may be true it is a day for smiling is it not?

Personally, I love Chesterton's exhortation for Christians to be irrational optimists.  At that I will leave you with one of my very favorite sections of Chesterton's book Orthodoxy...I find very few write like this today:

This at least had come to be my position about all that was called optimism, pessimism, and improvement. Before any cosmic act of reform we must have a cosmic oath of allegiance. A man must be interested in life, then he could be disinterested in his views of it. "My son give me thy heart"; the heart must be fixed on the right thing: the moment we have a fixed heart we have a free hand. I must pause to anticipate an obvious criticism. It will be said that a rational person accepts the world as mixed of good and evil with a decent satisfaction and a decent endurance. But this is exactly the attitude which I maintain to be defective. It is, I know, very common in this age; it was perfectly put in those quiet lines of Matthew Arnold which are more piercingly blasphemous than the shrieks of Schopenhauer --

"Enough we live: -- and if a life, With large results so little rife, Though bearable, seem hardly worth This pomp of worlds, this pain of birth."

I know this feeling fills our epoch, and I think it freezes our epoch. For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening.

No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world: but we demand not strength enough to get on with it, but strength enough to get it on. Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.

We just finished up a two day urban church planting conference in Manhattan...a great few days connecting with some Jacob's Well guys and meeting some men from the Acts 29 network.  The event was held in an old cathedral (now a Unitarian Universalist church) on 76th avenue right adjacent to Central Park.  New York is a great city and we enjoyed staying in NJ and feeling the commuter lifestyle taking the trains into Manhattan. Spending time with five of the single men who are a part of the Jacob's Well team was the main highlight for me. The teaching at the conference was great and sitting in a cathedral setting at tables was a cool vibe.

Mark Driscoll was passionate, Tim Keller genius-like, Darrin Patrick helpful, Eric Mason off the chain with theology, passion and a tight flow...and Ed Stetzer managed to offend just about everyone (Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Unitarians...brought helpful kingdom theology and made me laugh out loud).  CJ Mahaney humbled us in a exhortation to watch both life and doctrine - an ever present need for pastoral ministry.  I don't ever want to get in any cults of personality or become fanboys of guys I respect...I find that goofy and strange.  Yet I am thankful for these guys' faithful ministry. Apparently audio/video will be up at some point at www.dwellconference.com - I recommend checking that out. 

On the family front Kasey joins me in NJ today to finish (we pray) our house search.  We are thankful for the quick and profitable sale of our home in Tennessee and hopeful that the other part of the equation - namely, having somewhere to go, will come together in due time.