That preaches! Thanks for sharing. I needed to hear that.
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This points to something we noted in an OT readings (Hebrew) class: the priesthood of all believers is not new to the New Testament! We turn out to be little different from the Old; the general priesthood needs a special priesthood to show the way . . . and it still doesn’t manage the task.
The difference is that the OT priesthood looked ahead to and prepared for a Messiah Who hadn’t come, but the new looks back and stands in His place.
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From the movie Shutter Island, Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: “Did you know that the word ‘trauma’ comes from the Greek for ‘wound’? Hm? And what is the German word for ‘dream’? Traum. Ein Traum. Wounds can create monsters, …”.
- Shutter Island is a 2010 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay was adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from the2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It follows Deputy U. S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels and his partner Chuck, who come to the fictional Shutter Island in Boston Harbor to investigate its criminal psychiatric facility after one of its patients goes missing. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, with Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow and Michelle Williams in supporting roles.
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What, if any, is the etymological connection between the unnamed Greek word and Traum, which is very closely related to the English word “Dream.”
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“The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.” - tagline for Pluribus TV series
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I just found this quote: “Man is unhappy only because he doesn’t know he is happy; only because of that,” by Dostoevsky. Thanks.
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“And as life continually teaches us, being human was never about avoiding pain: it was about knowing it would come, and walking forward anyway.” The Necessary Ache, Philosophy Now
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The first real, undeniable, monstrous encounter shakes everything. Is unbearably confusing. Makes pat answers irrelevant. Intolerable.
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Meaning of Life is a recurring theme here. I usually find the various perspectives people offer interesting, and I often enjoy the discussions. I think the various truth-claims people make about TMoL are interesting and telling – what the rock bottom requirements must be, or, or, etc.
While I am a Christian I don’t understand life without God (or without a recognition of God) to be meaningless, although what is understood by the term “meaning” is likely different to those with such various points of view/sets of beliefs.
I recently finished another book by one of my favorite authors, Terry Eagleton. This is another thoughtful, while light-hearted, rumination on a significant topic. From the concluding chapter of Terry Eagleton’s terriffic book The Meaning of Life : a Very Short Introduction:
“Take, as an image of the good life, a jazz group. A jazz group which is improvising obviously differs from a symphony orchestra, since to a large extent each member is free to express herself as she likes. But she does so with a receptive sensitivity to the self-expressive performances of the other musicians. The complex harmony they fashion comes not from playing from a collective score, but from the free musical expression of each member acting as the basis for the free expression of the others. As each player grows more musically eloquent, the others draw inspiration from this and are spurred to greater heights. There is no conflict here between freedom and the ‘good of the whole’, yet the image is the reverse of totalitarian. Though each performer contributes to ‘the greater good of the whole’, she does so not by some grim-lipped self-sacrifice but simply by expressing herself. There is self-realization, but only through a loss of self in the music as a whole. There is achievement, but it is not a question of self-aggrandizing success. Instead, the achievement - the music itself - acts as a medium of relationship among the performers. There is pleasure to be reaped from this artistry, and - since there is a free fulfilment or realization of powers - there is also happiness in the sense of flourishing. Because this flourishing is reciprocal, we can even speak, remotely and analogically, of a kind of love. One could do worse, surely, than propose such a situation as the meaning of life - both in the sense that it is what makes life meaningful, and - more controversially - in the sense that when we act in this way, we realize our natures at their finest.
Is jazz, then, the meaning of life? Not exactly. The goal would be to construct this kind of community on a wider scale, which is a problem of politics. It is, to be sure, a Utopian aspiration, but it is none the worse for that. The point of such aspirations is to indicate a direction, however lamentably we are bound to fall short of the goal. What we need is a form of life which is completely pointless, just as the jazz performance is pointless. Rather than serve some utilitarian purpose or earnest metaphysical end, it is a delight in itself. It needs no justification beyond its own existence. In this sense, the meaning of life is interestingly close to meaninglessness.”
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From “Steps” - John Ortberg
If we believe our talent is fixed and our worth is variable, we’ll live in fear. If we believe our worth is fixed and our talent is variable, we’ll live in growth.
A bit later…
You can be impressive. You can be connected. You can’t be both.
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Perhaps a fitting song/poem by James Taylor today on Epiphany:
Home By Another Way
Those magic men, the Magi
Some people call them wise
Or oriental, even kings
Well anyway, those guys
They visited with Jesus
They sure enjoyed their stay
Then warned in a dream of King Herod’s scheme
They went home by another way
Yes, they went home by another way
Home by another way
Maybe me and you can be wise guys too
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way
Steer clear of royal welcomes
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you
He really, really wants those presents
He’ll comb your camel’s fur
'Til his boys announce they’ve found trace amounts
Of your frankincense, gold, and myrrh
Time to go home by another way
Home by another way
You have to figure the Gods saying play the odds
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way
Home is where they want you now
You can more or less assume that you’ll be welcome in the end
Mustn’t let King Herod haunt you so
Or fantasize his features when you’re looking at a friend
Well it pleasures me to be here
And to sing this song tonight
They tell me that life is a miracle
And I figured that they’re right
But Herod’s always out there
He’s got our cards on file
It’s a lead pipe cinch, if we give an inch
Then he realized it’d take a mile
It’s best to go home by another way
Home by another way
We got this far through a lucky star
But tomorrow is another day
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way
Go home another way
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Timothy Mayer / James V Taylor
Home by Another Way lyrics © Country Road Music
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Quite appropriate for Epiphany / Three Kings’ Day, I think.
These are the lyrics that stood out for me in this day and time.
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Russell Moore interviewed Joseph Loconte about “The War for Middle Earth,” which discusses the influence war had on both Tolkien and Lewis. He brought up this poignant quote, which Lewis told Tolkien, formed his philosophy of history.. In it, Gandalf tells Frodo,
“That is a chapter of ancient history which it might be good to recall, for there was sorrow then too, and gathering dark, but great valor, and great deeds that were not wholly in vain.”
However, in addition, Loconte points out that in both Tolkien’s and Lewis’ works, no matter how we struggle, we all need a grace of help–Frodo at the end with Gollum, and the Pevensies, as well, from Aslan.
Thanks.
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“A cow is always simply a cow. It does not ask, “What is a cow? Who am I?” Only man asks such questions, and indeed clearly has to ask them about himself and his being. This is his question. His question follows him in hundreds of forms.”
– Jürgen Moltmann, “Man: Christian Anthropology in the Conflicts of the
Present, trans. John Sturdy (London: SPCK, 1974), p. 1.”
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More from “Steps” by John Ortberg
The most famous law in neurology is called Hebb’s rule: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” And this is what makes habits possible, and habit is what makes your life possible—what makes you you. “All our life, so far as it has a definite form, is but a mass of habits,” James wrote. Sometimes people think trying to cultivate good habits might make them dull. To the contrary, as James Clear writes in his bestseller Atomic Habits, “Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it.” It is people who do not manage their habits well who have the least freedom. People with bad financial habits or eating habits or exercise habits or learning habits are constantly shackled to the bad results. People with good habits in these areas are free to focus on life and growth. Character is built on the sum total of our habits. This is not a new discovery. The Roman orator Cicero said, “Habit is, as it were, a second nature.” What we do by habit feels “natural” to us because we don’t have to think about it. You may have heard that it takes twenty-one days of doing something to turn it into a habit. Sadly, that’s a myth. If that were true, just three weeks of forcing your family to eat together would turn them into the poster family for relational health. Twenty-one mornings of budget planning would ensure permanent frugality. If twenty-one days made a habit permanent, you could eliminate sin, overeating, and procrastination in less than a month! Habits are behaviors that have “become automatic,” that we can do without thinking about them. Imagine if you still had to concentrate on walking or reading or dressing yourself as you did when you were two years old and just learning how. Or think about driving a car: some of us haven’t actually thought about driving for years although we do it every day—which is a little scary. We live by habit. Our attitudes and thought patterns and moods are also mostly governed by habits. They have been outsourced to our bodies. That’s why motivational messages that teach “attitude is a choice” or “you can choose to be happy” are of little help. We might be able to overwhelm habit by willpower for a few moments, but not for long. Habits eat willpower for breakfast.
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LOL!
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“The priest looked puzzled also, as if at his own thoughts; he sat with knotted brow and then said abruptly: ‘You see, it’s so easy to be misunderstood. All men matter. You matter. I matter. It’s the hardest thing in theology to believe.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Complete Father Brown
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“The Christian does not have the luxury to remove themselves from the practice of reconciliation.”
–Sho Baraka
Sho Baraka on Faith, Justice, and Reparations in America | The Just Life Podcast
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