Don’t be discouraged by the evil we see.

The very fact that we perceive it as evil, and despise it, rather than accepting it as just part of nature—hoof and horn, tooth and claw, is proof that it is unnatural, something other. If we were unable to perceive it as such, we would be truly lost—any belief in God would be merely a fantasy. Just as a fish doesn’t know it is wet, a world where evil was part of the intrinsic fabric of existence would be invisible to us. That we do see it and despise it tells us not only that it is not part of this world’s blueprint, but there is also a Good to which we can aspire and cling.

Indeed, by the same logic, the fact that we see and appreciate beauty, glory, joy, love and the other virtues tells us there is more to the world, and us, than mere survival of the fittest.

But is it mere dualism, just yin and yang, light and dark in an eternal contest, in conflicting balance, with us on the front line between them, with our blood serving as the lubrication of their machinations?

The ‘Mundaneness’ of the Divine

I strongly suspect that one reason folks either don’t submit their lives to Christ or fall away is because it is boring.

Yeah, that’s a provocative statement. Hang with me for a minute, though. After every spiritual ‘high,’ daily life has a nasty way of rearing its, well, daily head. It’s routine, it’s boring, it’s mundane, it’s a distraction from the glory of the resurrection. It’s trials, it’s pain, it’s frustrations, it’s carnal, it’s ordinary.

When we read about the abundant life, we expect flowers blooming in our footsteps, angels singing as we pass, the feeling of Christ’s closeness uplifting us and constraining us from our natural selves, and in that freedom from falling to temptation, we will draw people to the Gospel like a lodestone.

Hah.

Lessons from Hitchens

Atheist Christopher Hitchens died two and a half months ago, and like so many deaths, it is a big news item briefly, then life moves on, and most people forget the person and their impact. Therefore, I do not feel it is a bad thing to pull out of my electronic file cabinet this article reminding Christians what we should learn from Hitchens’ approach to life.

The author, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., argued five lessons, and I will add a sixth that is implied, and is probably the most important lesson for those desiring to be intellectual Christians, that is, Christians who desire to think clearly about how our faith interacts in the real world with real world problems.

1)      “Hitchens understood the power of ideas, and he never left a field of intellectual combat without giving his best.”