“ ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME’: MOVIES VERSUS BOOKS”
DTEB, “ ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME”: MOVIES VERSUS BOOKS”
My wife and I went to see “A Wrinkle in Time” on Saturday. It was worth going to see, and I would recommend it to others. However, I still like the book better. I generally like books better than I do movies. I wonder why?
I don’t think that it has anything to do with the fact that Oprah Winfrey had a minor part in it. I actually like Oprah Winfrey—at least, some of the time.
Nor was it the fact that Meg (one of the main characters) was the daughter of interracial parents. I was surprised by that, but not terribly put-off by it. I think that my preference for the book “A Wrinkle in Time” (as well as my general love for books) stems from other reasons.
I think part of it may be that, with books, I can read at my own pace. Movies drag me along at their own break-neck speed. While reading a book, I can pause, or go back and read a sentence or a paragraph again. I can ponder. In the case of movies, there isn’t a lot of pondering time allowed. You’ve no doubt noticed some of the announcements that they run just before the movie. “TURN OFF YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES!” That sort of thing. Perhaps they should make an announcement “NO PONDERING ALLOWED!”
Then too, movies tell me and show me too much. Good books suggest, but also leave room for imagination. Movies suggest too much. (It gives “suggestive movies” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?)
As a particular aspect of books leaving more room for imagination, books let me identify with the various characters more than movies do. In the case of movies, I am seeing characters. In the case of books, I am being characters.
Of course, as a lover of the Bible, you would expect me to say that I like the Bible better than movies based on the Bible. And you would be right! The Bible (the book, not the movie) draws me into it, causes me to ponder, argue with it, fuss and fume. The Bible gives me time to ponder . . . and ponder . . . and ponder some more.
“THE PROBLEM RELIGION AND SCIENCE SHARE”
The following is from a website that I like a lot—“A-Word-a-Day”. (https://wordsmith.org/words/today.html), accessed 03-09-2018
“A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
‘What has occurred over the course of the last few centuries is a growing (but by no means universal or certain) recognition that science gets the job done, while religion makes excuses. Sometimes they are very pretty excuses that capture the imagination of the public, but ultimately, when you want to win a war or heal a dying child or get rich from a discovery or explore Antarctica, you turn to science and reason, or you fail. -PZ Myers, biology professor (b. 9 Mar 1957)’ ”
Now, as will soon become apparent, I don’t entirely agree with this quote. However, quite often, those who oppose us can teach us a great deal. This is, at least in part, because they are right and we are not.
Religion does, far too often, make excuses. And science has indeed enriched our lives. I wrote part of this post while waiting for my coffee to perk. It stopped on its own. I used to watch my grandmother keeping an eagle eye on her boiling coffee pot. She didn’t dare leave it and do something else, lest it boil dry. What enabled my coffee pot to stop on its own? I’ll give you a hint: It wasn’t religion.
If I were using an old-fashioned pot to make my coffee (and given my attention deficit disorderly mind), I might burn our house down. Religion might help me to feel forgiven, but my house would still be ashes and cinders.
On a much more serious note, I heard a man being interviewed on “Fresh Air” on NPR. Terry Gross asked him about his church involvement. He said that he had left the church when he was in his early teens. He had asked serious questions about the evil in the world, and had been simply told that it was God’s will.
Often, for believers and unbelievers alike, such words are not an explanation. They are an excuse. The gentleman who was being interviewed was struggling with the death of a favorite uncle, and also with some children about his age who had died.
Of course, science has its own problems. Science (and its stepchild technology) have been used to win wars, but also to make them even more lethal. Chemistry is usually considered a science. Chemical warfare is likely not something most scientists are proud of.
Perhaps the problem with both science and religion is that they share a problem: human nature. Both science and religion are connected with human nature. The virtues and vices of both science and religion are the virtues and vices of humankind. Both have a tendency to become all-consuming.
And, frankly, both science and religion tend to offer excuses, instead of “getting the job done.” Both science and religion have a tendency to say, “Don’t blame us! We’re fine! It’s just how people use us that’s the problem!”
That may well be true at one level. However, at a deeper level, it sounds to me like an excuse, rather than a rational explanation. It doesn’t matter whether science or religion is saying it.
It should also be asked whether science and religion are always as incompatible as the quote above implies. Sometimes, no doubt, they are. However, there have been (and still are) excellent scientists who are also very religious.
I’m not an expert on either science or religion, but I suspect that the same things might make both stronger and better. One is an unrelenting quest for what is true. The other is a dogged humility about how much we actually know about that truth.
“THE CONTENT OF CHARACTER: CHOICES, THOUGHTS, AND DEEDS”
“The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.” (Heraclitus)
I was just about to play some computer word games. The problem is that I am trying to eliminate them for a while. If I could play ten minutes and stop, that might be okay. However, I tend to play ten minutes, and then keep playing.
So, instead, I read some quotes from one of my favorite philosophers: Heraclitus. When I read the above quote, I was so glad that I had chosen not to play any computer games, because I don’t really want to become a computer game.
What do I want to become? I want to become love, humility, kindness, and courage. I want to become more like Jesus Christ.
But here is the important question: Am I in fact making the moment-by-moment decisions about my choices, thoughts and deeds that will help me to become more loving, humble, kind, courageous, and Christ-like?
Wanting is not enough. Choices, thoughts and deeds matter.
In one of my 12-step readings this morning, the author (anonymous as you might expect) pointed out that there are two basic requirements for sobriety: trusting God and doing something for your recovery.
It isn’t a case of either/or. It is a matter of both/and. And I’ve noticed that the more I really trust God, the more I am freed up to do what I need to do to be sober. And the more I do what I need to do to be sober, the more I trust God.
You’ve heard of vicious cycles? Trusting God and doing what I deeply need to do is a virtuous cycle.
“MOTIVATIONS, DO WE REALLY KNOW WHY WE DO THINGS?”
“People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.” (Proverbs 16:2, New Living Translation)
I suspect that the second half of this verse tends to negate the first half. No, I am not saying that this proverb contradicts itself. What I am saying is that I think that the Lord’s examination of our/my motives tends to call into question our purity. Note also the words “in their own eyes.” This is a phrase that often raises serious questions about the accuracy of our perception.
Do we really know why we do things? I doubt it. I have doubted it for a long time.
When I was a pastor, I noticed that the reasons people gave me for leaving the church I was serving almost never coincided with the reasons they gave to other people.
Now, of course it is possible that people were simply too cowardly (or too polite?) to give me their real reasons. However, it may well be that they didn’t really know their reasons, or that their reasons were changing as they went along.
Of course, my own motivations for moving from one church to another were always pure—or not! (Years ago, I read or heard someone say, “Why is it that a pastor never feels ‘the leading of the Holy Spirit’ to go to a church that pays less than the church he’s serving now?” That’s not always true, but it’s a good question, nonetheless.)
I was thinking about this matter of motives when a TED talk landed in my e mail in box. A Swedish researcher was talking about motivation. I need to listen to it again, but his final conclusions were pretty straightforward. Since his final words confirmed what I already suspected (both from Scripture and experience), I thought his words were very insightful.
“Know that you don’t know yourself!
(Or at least not as well as you think you do.)”
So, if we can’t be too sure about our motivations and the choices that we think flow from them, what are we to do?
First of all, we can be more humble about our own self-lack-of-knowledge. Knowing that I don’t know myself may not be a very satisfying type of knowledge, but it may be a very healthy kind of knowledge.
Second, we can cut other people some slack about their own motivation. If I don’t even know much about my own motivation, what right do I have to think I know someone else’s motivation?
Humility about ourselves often leads to kindness toward others.
“PURITY: THE QUESTION OF GOD’S WORD”
“9 How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.
10 I have tried hard to find you– don’t let me wander from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9-11, New Living Translation)
My wife was reading these verses aloud this morning during our devotional time, and she read the second half of verse 9 as a question: “By obeying your word?” She immediately corrected herself. “Oh,” she said, “that’s not a question; that’s the answer.”
Actually, it is possible to read the entire verse as a question. So, her “mistake” may not have been a mistake at all!
However, I suspect that her correction of her reading is correct after all. While it is possible that all of verse 9 is a question, I think it more likely that in the second half of the verse, the psalmist is answering his own question.
In any case, my wife’s creative reading of Psalm 119:9 invited me to think more deeply about the verses that follow it. I was also invited to think not only about the verses that follow, but more importantly about how to follow these verses.
Interestingly, after asking the question in verse 9—and possibly answering it—the psalmist seems to have immediately sensed a problem: the problem of wandering. Most of us don’t “go into a premeditated backslide,” as a friend of mine once expressed it. Most of us just wander. We get a little further and a little further away from God’s will for our lives, but eventually, we look up and wonder how on earth we go so far away from God. We need not wonder: We wandered!
Verse 11 gives us to antidote to wandering: hiding (or treasuring) God’s Word in our heart. The Hebrew word translated “hidden” is a word that often suggests hiding something (or someone) that is very special to us, so that it cannot be harmed.
C.H. Spurgeon, a preacher from the late 19th century, gave an interesting outline for vs. 11:
- The Best Thing (God’s Word)
- In the Best Place (our hearts)
- For the Best Purpose (so that we may not sin against God).
It is important to remember that we do not hide God’s Word in our hearts in order to impress others with how much we know. We hide God’s Word in our hearts so that we won’t mess up our own and other people’s lives, and so displease God. The question is not whether we read or know God’s Word. The question is whether we are using it to live our lives in accordance with God’s will for us.
“The Philosophy of Water”
Today’s blog post is simply a connection with an excellent TED talk at https://www.ted.com/talks/raymond_tang_be_humble_and_other_lessons_from_the_philosophy_of_water. The speaker says a lot in about ten minutes.
He is not necessarily coming from a Christian perspective. He is speaking of the power of water and lessons he has learned from water, from the standpoint of the ancient Chinese philosophy embodied in the book, Tao Te Ching.
However, if you remember that Jesus claimed to be intimately connected with the water of life (John 7:37-39; 6:35), it is not difficult to understand Lao Tzu’s philosophy in a Christian manner. (Of course, we in the Midwest are experiencing the destructive power of water, but Tang’s talk is still a good one.)
Enjoy!
“THE FIRST DAY OF MY LIFE”
Here is a brief meditation based on my report to my 12-step sponsor on Wednesday, February 28, 2018
“Dear _____,
No violations.
AFFIRMATION: Today, by God’s grace, I am treating this day as if it is the first day of my life. I am treating today this way because it is the first day of my life.”
Here is my sponsor’s reply..
“See this day through the eyes of a child. Enjoy the first day of the rest of your life.”
“See this day through the eyes of a child.” Yes!
So, I am listening to Richard Stoltzman’s composition “Begin Sweet World” on You Tube right now. It is achingly beautiful. And so, my day begins!
A wonderfully hopeful section in a very sorrowful, pessimistic book of the Bible says it very well indeed.
“ 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.
21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:
22 The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
25 The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.
26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.
27 And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline:” (Lamentations 3:20-27, New Living Translation)
I can begin afresh each morning because God has brewed up a fresh batch of mercies for the day.
A cup of fresh mercies, anyone?
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