Relationships, romantic and platonic alike, raise mirrors.

The surface of the mirror reflects the other, a standard to measure myself against. And in that mirror I see the texture of her features in opposition to mine. I easily see everything in the mirror that I am not. And so like a relief carved in flesh, my imperfections stick out, projected by the other, visible for me to see.

As the relationship intensifies, the features sharpen and clarify.

It is a hard thing to do, facing mirrors. 

eight seconds left in overtime

half the time it's a race to say something, say anything.
the other half is an apple eaten away by oxygen, and time.

Piper on whether God Loves Erry'body

In his recent book, Does God Desire All To Be Saved?, John Piper's answer to the titled question is yes and no. Yes, God would like all to be saved. No, God does not will the salvation of all.

What of the scriptures that say God loves all and desires all to be saved? Like, God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” that God is patient with us, "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance,” that he doesn't desire that any should perish but that they "should turn from his way and live? . . . I have no pleasure in the death of anyone."

Piper says that all doesn't mean all, at least not all the time.

"It is possible that careful interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:4 would lead us to believe that God’s desire for all people to be saved does not refer to every individual person in the world, but rather to all sorts of people..." (emphasis added).

Ah. Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up. So God just means he wants a few from all sorts of groups not to perish. He wants all sorts of people to know the truth. He doesn't desire that any sort (dwarves, hobbits, elves, Mets fans) be left out; he wants a few representatives from all groups to turn from "his" way and live, and doesn't have pleasure in the death(s) of an entire sort of people dying.

But what's keeping God from wanting everyone to be saved? What could better than God having a father-child life-giving relationship with all those made in his likeness and image? 

...God’s will to save all people is restrained by his commitment to the glorification of the full range of his perfections in exalting his sovereign grace.

The glorification of the full range of his perfections in exalting his sovereign grace? What does that mean? And how does that prevent God from saving everybody? Here, at perhaps the most important part of the argument, the part where we are told why God doesn't save everyone, the book ends.

Such are the fascinating perplexities of Calvinist theology. As someone who appreciates Piper's sermons, who finds them emotionally satisfying, intellectually enriching, and character-forming, I found this essay an exercise in mental gymnastics. 

the cost of a hamburger

How much does a burger cost? at a Wendy's or McDonalds, between one and five dollars.

But how much does it really cost us? What do we, collectively, give up for a burger?

According to Raj Patel, economist and political scientist, it costs us a lot more than five bucks.

When you factor the alternative services you lose when you chop down a forest to make soy plantations or whatever, factor in the the biodiversity you lose, and if you could put a dollar sign on the the social costs to cheap laborers mining tomatoes and lettuce for pennies, it amounts to around $200.00, says Raj Patel.

We as consumers don't pay all those costs. But just coz you can't see 'em doesn't mean they're not there. Those costs dissipate through the environment, and what could have been. Those costs dissipate in the opportunity costs that bleary-eyed laborers endure for a dream of a life they in effect give up. 

I love burgers, but you gotta admit, this all puts us in quite a pickle, like we are sandwiched between a rock and a hard place. 

Solace, pain, solace

Verse that sticks out to me in today's reading:

For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. - Job 13:26

I wonder what Job could have referred to there. Up until now he was pushing his innocence. But now, in a desperate attempt to explain his suffering, his mind becomes troubled by the "iniquities of my youth." Did he fool around as a teenager and wonders if it's come back to haunt him?

Strange. Dunno.

But Jesus didn't trust them, because he knew human nature. John 2:24

Ignorance begets comfort. Comfort begets trust.

#cynic
#possiblytakingthisoutofcontext
#whyisthisfontsosmall?

genesis 1: A divine collaboration

I love that every time I read scripture some new detail emerges that I did not catch before.

This time, it's how God and Earth collaborate together.

One example of this collaboration: Let the land produce vegetation... and the land produced that vegetation. And when God makes creeping and flying things, he says Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds. There, it says that God made the wild animals...

Did God make vegetation and the animals, or did the land make them? Well, why not both?

Another example is the role of "kinds". God makes things that replicate themselves "according to their kind". He winds up life in a few things, then lets them go. He winds up the creatures in the ocean, then lets them teem with life. He winds up flying things, and then lets them go and replicate themselves and rule the sky.

Creation is a process God begins and creation perfects.

Finally, there's the human race. We get to join in the collaboration too.

One, we get to be "fruitful". Funny how God uses what he makes on Day Four as a metaphoric blue print for Human Beings on Day Six; but with ONE major exception: plants are fruitful all on their own. Human beings can choose to be fruitful, and can choose to be wasteful.

Two, God gives us every "seed-bearing plant" and every "fruit-bearing" tree, AND God gives other animals every green plant. (Apparently we were vegetarians in Genesis chapter 1.)

What does this mean?

We are here in this together, humans and animals. We gotta learn to share whats ours.