End Time

July 11, 2018

Year 3, Day 192 | No Comments

Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

That God wants us to live practically is clear from Scripture – in general satisfaction with human experience during our earth sojourn. Issues of health, family, work, aspiration, orientation (physical and/or spiritual) are addressed with implications of blessings (affirmatives) and curses (negatives) as part of the course for daily living – the Ebals and Gerizims of life. From Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, Israel’s tribes shouted blessings and curses, and with acknowledgments between them of what it was that each had shouted. (Deuteronomy 27:11-47) It was the end time for Moses. On the conclusion of that event, he died. The extent and balance of these inevitable life accompaniments (affirmative and negative factors) are interpreted differently. They are neutral in themselves, but… Read more

Exasperation

July 10, 2018

Year 3, Day 191 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

Exasperation is a normal response found rather often in our experience. Although we think of it as a negative factor in our lives it serves good purpose when we address its cause in a mature context. It brings improvement when we treat it in the way it ought to be perceived and managed. If we are mature, we keep it in boundaries, and it indicates that we may need to do something about the cause of the exasperation. Parents who do not feel exasperation, with understanding, for conflict in their children will not likely be effective parents. The exasperation ought to be mild enough not to generate anger, or eat away too much time in addressing it, but used properly… Read more

Little Things

July 9, 2018

Year 3, Day 190 | No Comments

Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

There have been a number of revered coaches in sports/athletics, both for formal and informal educational contexts, and the same in any industry. Of the best of the best, John Wooden would certainly be a leading candidate. He was great at the helm of basketball at UCLA because he fused the concept and application of education to life and physical skill in the area of choice. When asked how he could be so successful in a highly competitive field, he had a number of perceptions (truth maxims) and guidelines (truth applications) he would follow. In analyzing his ideas and procedures he taught a marriage of thought and action to purpose. One of his double maxims was: It’s the little details… Read more

Adaptation

July 8, 2018

Year 3, Day 189 | No Comments

Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

We are living in an era when freedom and rights are affirmed widely for individual choices. Many persons make choices in this or that direction not because the choices are right or thought through, but because the right to act freely is present. We do not always think through reasons to do this or that, or desist in doing this or that – we do it because it is a right to do or refrain. It is known, for example, that many demonstrators in confrontations for real or alleged rights, especially among young cavaliers, are present and engaged not with any idealism other than to be a part of a dramatic event that may even cost them their lives –… Read more

Mediation

July 7, 2018

Year 3, Day 188 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

Our perceptions of God are sketchy. They run ahead of any evidence we have of God and his immediate environs. I image the abode of God as a great city with suburbs. He never leaves that city. There is no better place to be. He knows what is going on everywhere, and is as alert to the universe as he is to the central capitol. When it is reported that he said or did something that message or act was done through an ambassador of first rank for Adam, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah and many others – even Satan (Job 1: 6-12). We may think of them as angels or archangels, perhaps seraphim. For some events he sends lesser representatives: an… Read more

Getting It

July 6, 2018

Year 3, Day 187 | No Comments

The discovery of God for humankind is personal to the individual. There is a kind of exclusiveness in it, necessary for the person taking responsibility to discover self-identity (Who am I?) and to answer the other vital questions of life: Where am I? What am I to do? Where am I Going? And, How Do I Get There? The questions appeared to me so often with students, parents, and persons in churches, even at secular conferences. Issues are questions. I am inspired today to write this page after two events: the first, at noon a fellow called me from California asking if he could use some of my material gathered from a paper I had written, and a presentation to… Read more

Shallowness

July 5, 2018

Year 3, Day 186 | No Comments

As human beings with limited insight, we may be living in the vestibule of achievement, of upward growth as relates to God and his meaning for us. Serious students of the human condition are often cast down in themselves in what they find in their studies of societies, both in individuals and in the mass. The point here can be well illustrated in pop culture. Sweaty, ill-clad, often poorly-educated, performers with limited talents scream their lyrics into microphones to sometimes screaming and self-preoccupied audiences. Many in the audiences could not repeat the lyrics, if they did not know them in advance. The diction is that distorted. For this the performers are paid fabulous fees, are sought out for their opinions… Read more

Freedom

July 4, 2018

Year 3, Day 185 | No Comments

Some nations, especially those using the English language as the standard for education and practice in making laws, education and daily life have found the greatest freedom context in what is called democracy. Democracy in simple perception is the election of government leaders through the ballots of the citizens of the identified country. In the third millennium Americans are discovering that process has produced messy government and social conduct, with a decline in the respect for government. That decline is not only the fault of politicizing government, but also the decline in the education to provide a government dedicated to freedom, justice and the pursuit of happiness. Some problems relate to freedom confusion. One of the departments of all this… Read more

Noise and Sound

July 3, 2018

Year 3, Day 184 | No Comments

Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

The new millennium, the third in the Christian Era gave cause for a boost in many movements that were somewhat foretold in the changing flow of culture that followed World War II. There were significant changes that occurred following World War I, commonly summarized as the Jazz Age. It never matured because of the onset of the Great Depression and the second world conflict barely twenty years after the first one. At this writing almost seventy years have passed since the end of World War II, early in 1945 in Europe and later in 1945 in Asia. My life was deeply impacted by the world economy and warfare. Although no world warfare has occurred since, many smaller wars have, and… Read more

Signifying

July 2, 2018

Year 3, Day 183 | No Comments

My life has been touched with the highest joys we can know in natural life, and the deepest griefs. I have seen persons weeping and laughing in both contexts. Weeping can be for joy or sorrow. What triggers that response? The body can provide an answer based on biology, but that answer is quite secondary to the invisible switch that permits a tear to fall. A well worded article appearing in the New York Times told the story of the author’s grief related to the death of his father. Here are a few lines from the article, and I have read many similar articles with each seeming special in its own way even when they resolve their grief in a… Read more

Monthly Archives: July 2018