The Prodigal Life

Mark Driscoll got into hot water several months back for his rant that he doesn't want to serve a God that is puny or weaker than him. And I have to agree. If God isn't bigger, stronger, wiser, more powerful, more merciful, and more loving than what I can muster, then I'm a little concerned. So, Mark proceeded to describe his Jesus as a powerful, untamable, unrelenting warrior-like God. But I wonder if we've still missed out on what Jesus is really like. The Jesus I read about in the Gospels is gentle and loving enough to attract the children from the crowd. I like to imagine Jesus sitting on the grass with two or three wiggling kids crammed onto his lap, a few more telling him stories with squirmy excitement--dancing around his feet to reenact their tales. Still more hang around his neck and on his hands. And yet, like a great dad with lots of little children, Jesus has so much love and joy that each child feels that they are the most important in the gaggle. The Jes...

Tonight my celebration of the Giant's victory was tainted... not just by the fact that I'm a Broncos fan but also by the commercials. Quite frankly I was angry. Angry at how women AND men were portrayed... and I think both sexes should be equally angry! I think women should be angry at some of those commercials. Angry that women were portrayed as little more than objects for sexual fantasies and having little value outside of physical appearance. I think women should be angry that, though the feminist movement was supposed to deliver greater equality with men, their value is still largely based on sexuality, particularly in the media. We're portrayed largely for attractiveness--not for what we can do or for who we are, but for what we look like. But I am more. My sexuality is only part of who I am... only part of who God has made e to be. But I think men should be personally offended by the same commercials. When women are reduced to sexual objects for the entertainme...

I know the Lost  phenomenon is long past... that television show that gathered a cult following. However, I've been re-watching the entire show... largely in hopes of finally understanding it... well, and making it past season 3. I'm not sure I understand it any better now than the first time around, but I have made a few observations. Take the character, Desmond, for example. He is taken into the service of the Dharma Initiative to type in a series of numbers into an ancient computer every 108 minutes. He fully believes that, due to a strange accident long ago, typing these numbers saves the world. When Jack, Locke, and Kate find Desmond, living in the underground hatch with his ancient computer, everything seems to unravel. Jack challenges Desmond--"How do you know the numbers do anything?" It's a fair question... I would wonder after years of typing numbers if I had been duped or become the victim of a psychology experiment. Desmond cannot prove the world w...