Head-dibs

While stuck in “revision-land” with my novel, I am trying to keep the creative juices flowing by using prompts and various writing assignments. Admittedly, I’ve not been writing as much as I’ve wanted, despite my best efforts. Regardless, here I am staring down my latest assignment and frankly, I don’t want to do it. It frightens me. Here it is: “Create a character with personality traits of someone you love, but the physical characteristics of someone you don’t care for. ” Immediately the faces of two individuals come to mind and just as quickly comes the horror: I must destroy someone I love for the purpose of creating a person who does not exist. Then came the greater horror: there exists someone in my life for whom I don’t care. All the discipline I require to press on with my duty has crashed head-on with my refusal to do the assignment.   I have love for one and I have hatred for another. There exists within me deep respect for one and deep disdain for another. One dra...

"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice."

My wife came into the room where I was reading and asked, "did you hear what your son just said to your daughter? He said, 'don't be drinking the hate-eraide!'" I don't know where he gets his material. Really, I don't. The mantra of the day is “don’t be hatin’” and “be informed.” How wonderfully these go together! Perhaps with a tool like the internets we are a bit too over-informed. Actually, that is not quite right because being informed requires a little research (as opposed to sitting in front of the computer like a virtual salmon trying to swim upstream through a tidal wave of disconnected information). What better way to understand than to seriously, intentionally look into a matter. One might say, “be open-minded.” We already considered the Apostle Paul’s visit to Mars Hill in Athens and the conversation that took place over many, many days as recorded in Acts. We can learn that before Paul ever arrived in Athens how Paul set about bringing the ...

I was handing out gospel tracts during a visit to the grocery store (I come close to emptying my pockets sharing the gospel this way. I primarily keep my eye out for bored people who are tagging along while someone else does the shopping—they would do nearly anything to pass the time, so gospel tracts are a great diversion). I rounded the corner and passed by a small elderly African-American woman pushing her basket. I extended a gospel tract to her, “May God bless you as you read this.” She put her hand out to take it, and asked, “What is it?” “It’s a gospel tract,” I replied, then repeated, “May God bless you as you read this.” This dear old lady snapped her hand back like I had slapped it and turned her head as if I’d suddenly gone invisible. “No! I don’t want that from you!” She quickened her pace away from me. My heart broken from her reaction, I was nearly weeping when I spoke a half-hearted “Good evening” to her. I don’t know how to wish someone’s grandmother (or great-grandmoth...

Tertullian (160 - 220 A.D.) wrote the following in his "Apology," addressing the ignorance of the Roman authorities behind the unjust persecution of Christians: " We lay this before you as the first ground on which we urge that your hatred to the name of Christian is unjust. And the very reason which seems to excuse this injustice (I mean ignorance) at once aggravates and convicts it. For what is there more unfair than to hate a thing of which you know nothing, even though it deserve to be hated? Hatred is only merited when it is known to be merited. But without that knowledge, whence is its justice to be vindicated? For that is to be proved, not from the mere fact that an aversion exists, but from acquaintance with the subject. When men, then, give way to a dislike simply because they are entirely ignorant of the nature of the thing disliked, why may it not be precisely the very sort of thing they should not dislike? So we maintain that they are both ignorant while they...

Yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama gave the following speech wherein he made some very particular comments. USA Today also carried a concise run-down: Regarding the history of the Prayer Breakfast, the President said it "strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill." The President said, "There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all." The " Friendly Athiest " remarked, "It’s strange hearing a politician mention non-religious people in a positive, inclusive way. I could get used to this." The President went on to say, "But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there ...