Missing beauty

Below is an article from Desiring God. I think it is an amazing analogy. How often do we flip quarters at God or ignore Him altogether?:

The Washington Post conducted an experiment to see if beauty could be recognized through the mundane malaise of day-to-day life. They arranged for Joshua Bell, a preeminent violinist, to play incognito in a busy corridor in D.C. one morning--a free concert from a musician who plays a $3.5 million instrument. He had his case open for donations and played the best music most of the workaday passers-by had probably ever heard. To what effect? Virtually none.

The article asks those who come into contact with street musicians: "Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? ... Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?"

Is it immoral to ignore beauty?

I couldn't help but read it as a parable:

As it happens, exactly one person recognized Bell, and she didn't arrive until near the very end. For Stacy Furukawa, a demographer at the Commerce Department, there was no doubt. She doesn't know much about classical music, but she had been in the audience three weeks earlier, at Bell's free concert at the Library of Congress. And here he was, the international virtuoso, sawing away, begging for money. She had no idea what the heck was going on, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to miss it.

Furukawa positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She had a huge grin on her face. The grin, and Furukawa, remained planted in that spot until the end.

"It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington," Furukawa says. "Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?" (my emphasis)

She was appalled that anyone would have either the naivete or the gall to condescendingly flip a quarter at one of the world's greatest musicians. She was shocked that something as astoundingly beautiful was so easily disregarded.

For my fellow coffee lovers

Video coming....as soon as I work out some glitches.

Response to Hot Coffee.. "Where to begin?"

Visit Hot Coffee... for the beginning of the discussion:

Good point. I think it vital to demonstrate the gap between our righteousness (in the flesh) and that of our creator God. God is our measuring stick and we must attempt to understand His holiness to see how we fall short. However to complete the picture, we must understand the depth of our depravity to comprehend the grace of God. And I think this is where most people struggle.

As we discussed this morning, many think they are self sufficient. And even though they would not dare say it, many Christians will even believe they are somewhat responsible for their own salvation. (I chose to believe and my neighbor did not, therefore I am to be credited for something). This leads to the pius attitude that can be found in many churches who would rather condemn "sinners" (as if they are not included in that category) than to love them with the gospel.

When we come to understand that depravity is total, we see that all men have an utter dependence on God to obtain the righteousness we need to be in His presence.

Let me pose another question: What would most people say they are being saved from?

Dumb random thoughts...

This came to me while blowing bubbles with Zach today. What if bubbles don't really pop, but are actually transported into another dimension when they disappear.

Journal Entry: April 10th, 2007

I thought I would share with you my journal entry from today. Here it goes:

"For the past couple of weeks I hvae been struck with fear and struggling to break free. I have never felt a bondage to fear like this before. At times, I have even doubted the existence of God. The fear comes from a lack of faith that God will provide. But, how can I be so blind."

"I reflected on my past entries today. I was struck by my works on Feb. 1st, 2005. I remember how it felt to wonder how God could provide in such circumstances. But He has and is!"

"Right now God is cutting away my flesh, my self-sufficency. It is painful, very painful. But I shouldn't focus on 'what if' , but on 'what is'. God is soverign, He is gracious, He is loving, He keeps His promises, and He promises to work out all things for my good if I love Him."

"Father help me to be thankful for this time. Remove my fear and replace it with trust, but continue to cut away my flesh until none is left. Have me continue in Your strength and not my own."

HE IS RISEN!

Happy Easter everyone. The tomb is empty and Jesus is alive! Below is something I obtained from John Piper.

Five Lines of Evidence That Jesus Rose From the Dead

The testimony of the apostle Paul. We have 13 letters from his pen. He was a contemporary of Jesus. He claimed to see the risen Christ. He spoke of others that he knew who saw him alive after his crucifixion, even 500 at once, many of whom were still alive when Paul was writing (1 Corinthians 15:5). This gives to Paul’s writings what is called “historical control,” which means that there is good reason to take seriously what he says because there were so many people around who could easily falsify his claims if they were not true.

The empty tomb in Jerusalem where Jesus had been buried. This is relevant because the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead spread in a city that was hostile to that claim and would have done anything it could to squelch it if they could. The one thing they could have done was to produce the dead body of Jesus, but they could not (Acts 5:30-33).

The courage of the disciples of Jesus and their willingness to lay down their lives to preach that Jesus was raised from the dead just weeks after they abandoned him out of fear and thought that they had been badly mistaken about his Messiahship (Luke 24:21). What had changed them from fearful to courageous so suddenly? And do men really risk their lives for what they know to be a fraud?

The diverse testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, and the writer to the Hebrews. Here you need to get to know these men as witnesses, and see if they are credible. Give them a hearing and see if they do not win you over, and prove themselves to be more worthy of your confidence than the skeptics of our day.

The ring of truth in the biblical vision of the world. Does not this whole story of God and creation and sin and Christ and salvation help make more sense out of more things in this world from beginning to end than any other vision of reality?

Five lines of evidence. I hope that you will pursue them. Your eternal life hangs on what you conclude from these.

Mr. Deity

I questioned whether or not to put this on my blog. It can certainly be taken as...well...offensive, but it is funny. I am not sure of the intent of the creators, but it has certainly caused a serious dialogue on YouTube, as most religious things will do. Dialogue can be a good thing, if people are willing to listen, as well as talk.

Dave

baseball and caterpillars

Last night we decided to take the kids to a Diamond Jaxx ballgame. It was the first game at the park this season; an exibition between the Memphis Redbirds (AAA Cardinals) and our hometown Jaxx (AA Mariners). As soon as we walked into the stadium I saw a look of amazement in Zach's eyes. He was soaking it all in. He headed straight down the stairs toward the field and plopped himself in the front row by the Redbirds dugout. I was so happy to see my boy excited about baseball.

After sitting there a few minutes I was finally able to get him to walk to our fifth row seats behind the Jaxx dugout (good seats aren't hard to come by). Then about 3 pitches into the game, Zach decided he had enough baseball. So Angie took him to buy a Chicago Dog (Angie highly recommends) and a pretzel. I kept watch over Sam, who also wanted to do nothing but walk. I think he covered every square inch of the park before the night was over...along with the rest of the family.

When Angie got back with Zach, he sat still long enough to take a couple of bites of the pretzel. Zach wanted to go for a walk. He and I walked all over the park and out into the berm, while Angie continued to make the rounds with Sam. While out in the berm, Zach discovered the caterpillars, which he took much more interest in than the ballgame. We followed the line of them until we had gone as far inside the walls of the park as we could go. Finally I convinced Zach we should head back toward our seats.

We we returned, Sam was tired and Zach still didn't have much interest in the game. We decided to hang it up in the fifth inning and head home. Although we didn't see more than a few pitches, we all had a good time.