An Uber-Post
Baby Update:
Still no baby, but it's going to be any moment now. The next post will be the announcement of his birth. In the meantime I leave you with an UBER-POST!
Honduras Mission:
If you are interested, here is a short video (QuickTime file) of our trip to Honduras. It's really just a preview of a larger movie that's to come in the future. I took all the pictures with my new to me (read used) digital camera with a 20mm - 200mm lens (Jeremy you will have to show me how to use it).
Music:
Wondering what the best album I've heard recently from a band you've never heard of is? It's a band called The Nobility (formerly known as JetPack) and their new album The Mezzanine. If you want to say "I've been listening to that band before they were big," you should definitely plunk down $9.99 for this album. It's really a fantastic album, and I highly recommend it to people who like Indie Rock, The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, etc. But you don't have to take my word for it. If you are in Nashville check them out live, and it appears they are coming to NYC August 6th and I will definitely be there.
Let's get political:
Do you have a need to do some easy political activism today? Click on the previous link to help motivate our Senators to pass The Dream Act.
Nature Doesn't Love You:
You know those shows on Discovery called "Man vs. Wild" and "I Shouldn't Be Alive?" I love watching them, but every-time I do I seem to be pushed further and further into thinking that nature isn't as cute and cuddly as it's made out to be. The truth is, given just the slightest chance, nature would like to eat you for lunch (yes you should click the link).
The director of "Rescue Dawn" Werner Herzog is famous for portraying nature as an enemy or obstacle for his characters to overcome. "Rescue Dawn" is no exception. There is even a line in the movie that goes "...don't you get it, the jungle is the prison". Check out this video of Herzog discussing his feelings about the jungle. Warning, it's kind of intense, but I think he inadvertently articulates the crux of Romans 8:19-22.
Nature is often portrayed as this fragile thing that needs coddling and protecting by humans. I think that misrepresents the fundamental nature of nature! Nature is a powerful wild beast that couldn't care less if you were stranded in the woods on a zero degree night without coat. It would have no qualms about freezing you to death. And for most of human history people really struggled to live against the power of nature, and a lot of the world still does to some degree. Remember the short story by Jack London called To Build a Fire (taken it back to 8th grade English)? That story is a great example of nature's ruthlessness.
I realize this is hardly a profound thought, and I like another person I know am not nearly as articulate about this as a whole host of other people would be. However, I think it's a valuable frame of reference to have that our survival in nature depends on us maintaining a balance between both using and maintaining nature. We must use all of our expertise and technology to take advantage of everything that nature has to offer, without upsetting the environment that is conducive for us to survive. If we continue to alter the natural world in ways that force nature to adapt, then the ways that nature might change could prove to be existentially devastating to how we have grown accustomed to living. Which is pretty obvious right?
Nature can be wonderful and awe inspiring, but it doesn't need to be viewed as such. However nature does require us to respect it and if we don't then we stand to loose much more than nature does.
3 comments:
I get the whole "you better fear nature because it can't be tamed" thing but this way of thinking is theologically problematic. When God created the earth (nature), didn't he call it good? And so it is. And it is most often that I find God in nature. I feel closest to God while in nature
But I get what you are getting at: That we must not take nature for granted or that we have some kind of supreme hold on it because we don't, as you imply.
Can't wait for that baby boy to come!
I went to school w/ a better chunk of The Nobility f/k/a Jetpack. Proof you maybe shouldn't dismiss people's college bands. ;)
Allison's looking amazing. Hope the boy puts in a stress-free, safe arrival.
I think nature is "good" because God created it. However I am not sure nature participates in the world the way he intended or designed it to in the beginning.
Does nature have free-will? Not in the same way that humans do, but I do think (as alluded to in Romans 8) that nature is allowed to be in turmoil and chaos. What causes the natural creation that was "good" to not live up to the creators ideal? That's a great question, that goes beyond the easily thrown out "We live in a fallen world."
You also bring up a point about feeling close to God in nature. Totally agree with your feelings, but I would be willing to bet that it isn't nature in the way I am talking about it in my post that creates that feeling. Watch the Herzog clip and you begin to wonder how we can see God in nature at all. That's a little extreme I know but I think there is something to it.
Perhaps it's the expanse, the bigness, the untamed that make it easier for us to comprehend something other than ourselves as the biggest force in the universe. I definitely feel that way when nature reminds me to humble myself before God.
Great comments, and thanks Holy for giving college bands hope.
And Zeke is doing great.
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