philosopher Jean-François Revel argued: The fact is that we do not use our minds to seek out the truth or to establish particular facts with absolute certainty. Above all and in the great majority—if not in the totality—of cases, we use our intellectual faculties to protect convictions, interests, and interpretations that are especially dear to us.
What we know
Let’s start with a few facts that are clear:
Vaccinated people are nearly guaranteed not to be hospitalized or killed by Covid.
Among children under 12, who remain ineligible for the vaccine, serious forms of Covid are also extremely rare. Children face bigger risks when they ride in a car.
The Delta variant does not appear to change either of those facts.
Millions of unvaccinated American adults are vulnerable to hospitalization or death from Covid
Søren Kierkegaard said that life must be lived forward but can only be understood backward.
Doubt
Christian Wiman wrote in his book My Bright Abyss, “Doubt is painful…but its pain is active rather than passive, purifying rather than stultifying. Far beneath it, no matter how severe its drought, how thoroughly your skepticism seems to have salted the ground of your soul, faith, durable faith, is steadily taking root.”
Andrea Lucado
Incarnation
Because of the Incarnation, we see signs of God himself in the most human expressions of art and literature. Jesus became a man. The creator irrevocably, for all time, bound himself to his creation. The best human stories beckon us like a fire on a cold day. As we linger, warming feet and hands and face in its glow, we recognize Christ at the burning center.
Heather Morton
Thy Kingdom come
It is incredible dishonesty in the human heart to pray daily that this kingdom should come, that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven, and at the same time to deny that Jesus wants this kingdom to be put into practice on earth. Whoever asks for the rulership of God to come down on earth must believe in it and be wholeheartedly resolved to carry it out. Those who emphasize that the Sermon on the Mount is impractical and weaken its moral obligations should remember the concluding words, “Not all who say ‘Lord’ to me shall reach the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven” [Matthew 7:21]
Eberhard Arnold, Salt and Light: Living the Sermon on the Mount,
Gospel
As Walter Brueggemann says, “The gospel is a truth widely held, but a truth greatly reduced. It is a truth that has been flattened, trivialized, and rendered inane. Partly, the gospel is simply an old habit among us, neither valued nor questioned. But more than that, our technical way of thinking reduces mystery to problem, transforms assurance into certitude, quality into quantity, and so takes the categories of biblical faith and represents them in manageable shapes.”
We try to take a truth that’s as big as an ox and turn it into a bouillon cube. We want to talk before we listen; argue before we converse; assume before we know; reject before we honor.
Michael Frost
Death
Death means little if it is not impetus to change ourselves while we are alive and thereby the future when we are gone.
Steve Leder – The Beauty of What Remains
Transcendence
God’s transcendence has to be so radical so that God can come close to the creature while not becoming the creature.
Unknown
…just because one side of a coin is wrong, that doesn’t mean the other side is right.
Jonah Goldberg
Knowing God
I have often used the example of riding a bicycle as an image of knowing God. There’s no difficulty learning how to ride if you don’t mind falling off for a while. But no matter how many years you have ridden, you cannot describe for someone else how you know what you know. But you know it. I also suspect that if you thought too much about riding a bicycle while you were riding it, you could mess up and wreck.
Fr. Thomas Hopko famously said, “You cannot know God – but you have to know Him to know that.” He clearly knew what he was talking about.
Fr Stephen Freeman
Gratitude
Gratitude is a social emotion, the response we feel when we’ve been given a gift. And where there is a gift, there is a gift-giver. …, you can’t feel grateful for life and creation and be an atheist, not emotionally. Being awed at the cosmic odds is different from saying “Thank you.”
Richard Beck
View From the Front Porch
You can learn a lot about people watching traffic go by. Some drive by furiously, seemingly self-absorbed, without regard for speed limits, or anyone else. Others are unhurried and wave. Some are faithfully punctual, I know it is 6:36am when her red car passes. For many, the condition of their vehicles are metaphors for their lives — noisy, needing repair, with an uncertain future. Recently a stranger stopped and came up for conversation, we enjoyed each other’s company for a few minutes and he was gone. Occasionally, someone will stop and ask for assistance, directions or perhaps money.
Seldom am I asked for advice. Oh well. ?
FRONT PORCH PLAYLIST
Still on the Journey