It Lives!

...and breathes, and thinks, and... wait for it... she can even type! No, she hasn't broken all her fingers! She has actually returned to the blogging world.

Well, rumour had it that y'all weren't coming here just for the pretty background. Though it IS rather peaceful. Did I mention that Yvonne did that for me? She's so talented. But I digress. Or do I? Don't you have to have your train of thought on some tracks in the first place in order to derail it?

Anyway.

Where on earth (or cyberspace) have I been? Well, I've just needed some time to deal with some more personal stuff, and writing simply has NOT been part of the process. I won't go into details, but it's been a pretty rough season around here lately, and I've just needed to withdraw a bit.

So, if I'm putting this out I must have something to say, no? Alrighty then, here's where some of my brain has been lately.

LIFE, AND THAT MORE ABUNDANTLY

I have two friends (okay, two PARTICULAR friends - I'm not so pathetic as to run off all but two). They each have a child whom they are at risk of losing.

One has a beautiful boy who turned eight today. He is now in the palliative stages of his battle with cancer. The treatments have not been effective and my friend is doing all she can to cherish the time she has with this precious child.

The other is pregnant. She has not so far been able to carry a child to term. While things are looking good so far, and all the steps are being taken, there is still risk. I am both thrilled for the possibility of a good outcome, and scared spitless of the chance she may have to walk the same road again. It's just not a simple emotional response.

I pray for them both daily and then some.

Then I have days like Friday. I was willing to sell my own kid to anyone with a nickel! And that was by the time I got him to school! We may have "life" in our house, but abundant is hardly the word for it right now. On the positive side it shows up my own issues and shortcomings quite vividly. Too bad I haven't the foggiest clue what to do about them or the logically impaired offspring with which I've been endowed.

BOOKWORM

Well, I'm supposed to be proofreading a friend's novel, but that's another story (E-mail coming soon, Cath).

What I have recently delved into is Schaeffer. Francis Schaeffer. Anyone heard of him? He was an evangelical intellectual who published some truly interesting works in the mid 20th century. I assume they're interesting, because while I've been intrigued by him I've never been able to get more than a few pages in before he's lost me.

I thought I'd pursue it now as it seemed somewhat relevant to the stuff Jude's been looking into. Y'know, all that emergent discussion that I don't directly follow but am curious about. Plus I thought it might give me some insights into the stuff that JJ tends to find online.

I have three of Shaeffer's books, but I thought I'd start with "The God Who Is There". It seemed a good place to start. The subtitle is "The Book That Makes Sense Out of Your World". Of course I had to laugh. The entire first section dealt with how the way we process truth has changed from a classical logic and antithetical approach and moved below what Schaeffer calls "the line of despair." Yeah. That would help anyone make sense out of their world, wouldn't it?

The funny thing is, this is the first time I feel like I understand most of what he is trying to say. The book was copyrighted in 1968, so I know that I have to adjust my cultural lens in order to see what he saw and extrapolate to where we are now. But it is quite interesting to see the path of relativism and how it has permeated our approach to thought.

I came across this quote today, and thought Jude might appreciate it:

"As Senghor pointed out that the basic factor of Marxism was neither its economic theory nor its atheism but its dialectical methodology, so the unifying factor of the new theology is its wrong methodology. Its concept of truth is wrong and because of this, what sounds right in fact often means something entirely different from that which historic Christianity means by the same phrase. It is naive to discuss the theological questions as theological questions until one has considered what truth means to the one who is making the theological statements."

Interesting, no? JJ?

And that, naturally leads me to DaVinci. I confess to not having read the book. I took the easy way out and saw the movie. This may horrify some of you. But, as far as I'm concerned, it's simply a work of fiction. FICTION. As in - NOT TRUE. Hence, I decided to see if someone's imagination could come up with an interesting story. Sure, it got some pretty bad reviews, and not just from religious groups, but I found it interesting. Completely fictional and interesting.

Wait, did I forget to mention that I have a hidden soft spot for church history? It was my favorite (albeit short) class at Bible School. This movie made me want to pick up my books and delve into it again. Don't you think it's important to know how we came to believe what we believe? I mean, on just what basis were the books of the bible cannonized? How did the reformation happen? When did scripture actually fall into the hands of the literate masses who now look through 21st century eyes and assume that they know how to interpret linguistic complexities and foreign cultural understandings? What have we lost in throwing out traditions that no longer hold their original meanings instead of researching those origins and creating our own forms?

Wow. For someone who HATES research (that's what I have Jude for - right?), I sure have a lot of reading ahead of me. And while it looks theoretical, I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of practical application to the current discussions. Some foundations, perhaps.