One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to climb on the bed with my two older kids for storytime. (Sometimes Max joins us too, but his newfound urge to grab whatever is in front of him can get a bit distracting.)
I have discovered that there are some completely uninspired children’s stories out there. But, there are also some fantastic ones that I think I enjoy even more than my kids. Here are a few of my favorites:
Truthfully, a lot of Dr. Seuss could make the list, but those two are my favorites. Bonus points for The Sneetches for including the short but delightful Too Many Daves. I will never get tired of saying “Oliver Boliver Butt.”
I suppose it’s not a secret that I’ve been reading Surprised by Hope by NT Wright based on my last few posts. After finishing it, I can say that it was what I hoped it would be.
It almost feels crass to say it so, but Surprised by Hope is NT Wright’s theology of end times. I’ve often heard others joke about being a panmillenialist — they don’t know how the end times will look, but it will pan out. I can appreciate the heart of this joke more than I can appreciate the cheesy humor of it. But I’ve come to a place where I don’t see this a valid position to hold.
The hope one holds for how God will ultimately redeem and restore all of creation is at the core of how one will live their faith in the present. Our understanding of faith is strongly shaped by our understanding of what happens “in the end”. Perhaps just as true, our current context and understanding will have a strong impact on how we shape our expectations of the final redemption of the world. But to shape our perspective of “end times” based on what is most convenient to our understanding now is to do a disservice to God’s greater story.
One critique I read on Amazon said that Wright should keep his political views out of the book and stick to theology. That seems to me to be a complete miss of what the book is about. I think Wright helps us to see that these two constructs can’t be so easily detached. And that is what I appreciate…Wright brings his views of what God is working toward to the present and makes them matter now.
The pinnacle of the book for me is Chapter 13 — “Building for the Kingdom” — where Wright lays out how justice, beauty, and evangelism are part of our co-creation of the kingdom of God. Each of these become not just a ’should’, or a moral obligation, but deeply hopeful acts of inviting genuine human life as God intended it to be.
And salvation only does what it’s meant to do when those who have been saved, are being saved, and will one day fully be saved realize that they are saved not as souls but as wholes and not for themselves alone but for what God now longs to do through them. — NT Wright, Surprised by Hope
So far from sitting on clouds playing harps, as people often imagine, the redeemed people of God in the new world will be agents of his love going out in new ways, to accomplish new creative tasks, to celebrate and extend the glory of his love. — NT Wright, Surprised by Hope
Ambiguity is the element of tentatIveness, of risk, of gamble, in committtng to a path of understanding and action that is definite but also open-ended. If the church is commItted to learning Jesus as a living person, then It is also committed to ambiguity as an inevItable–and positive!–dimension of its existence. –Luke Timothy Johnson, Living Jesus
That’s what keeps going through my head as I’ve been reading Surprised by Hope.
When I think of how I want to use my voice, one of the main themes that comes up is dualism. Simply put, dualism is the idea that this physical world is a mess and the only good is that which exists in some other spiritual reality. I want my voice to be one that is not for, but against, dualism.
I often evaluate Christian beliefs and practices in light of how they have been shaped by the influence of dualism. I see how it influences everything from our view of creation, to our view of eternity, to what our prayer requests look like.
In the interest of disclosure, I should say that this is likely a theme for me because it is also a theme in much of NT Wright’s writing, which I’ve read my fair share of. In Surprised by Hope, much of his thinking regarding the influence of dualism on Christian theology has been pulled together in one place. And it is pulled together well — at least in the third of it that I’ve read so far.
And yes, when it comes to writing this book, NT Wright surpasses me in research, credibility, prose, pedigree, name recognition, number of words actually written, and publishers willing to give it a look. And so, reminded of that, I offer what is now going through my head as I return to my reading: “This is the book I rightly hoped that NT Wright would write.”
I started using Logos Bible software about five years ago and have a library full of handy resources. One of the most difficult things about switching over to Mac as my main computer a few years ago was the loss of Logos. They had publicly stated they were planning a Mac version, but it was obviously a bigger undertaking than they expected.
I have been able to use Parallels to run Logos for Windows on my Mac. But I found that it bogged down my system enough that it was often more of a hassle than it was worth. It performs better on my MacBook Pro than it did on my MacBook, but it is still a nuisance.
A few weeks ago, Logos finally rolled out an alpha of Logos for the Mac. It is still missing a number of features, but it has been beautiful to have it running without having to bog down my system with Parallels. The timing has been perfect as I’ve been writing some curriculum for Christ in Youth — an organization I used to do a lot with when I was in full-time youth ministry.
I’m not sure what the pricing to sidegrade from a Windows version of Logs to the Mac version is going to be, but all of the book resources are compatible with either. If you’re a Mac user and itching for good Bible software, you at least now have the option of buying a Logos package and running the Mac alpha.
I realized earlier today that my last post on auditory stimulation was lacking. In fact, it was lacking a link to the audio file that made me consider writing that post in the first place. So, here it is: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller. This was an open forum with Tim Keller at the University of Cal-Berkeley as part of his tour to draw attention to his new book The Reason for God. (I’m excited to dig into this book after I finish off the little bit of reading I have left for school.) I appreciate the humility and thoughtfulness with which Keller presents, and then engages with questions from the students.
MacBreak Weekly 82: The Double Album - I listen to this Podcast almost every week. Last week, they were joined by Patrick Wilson, the drummer of some relatively obscure band called Weezer. Their conversation centered around how the music industry is effected by the internet. It sounds trite to say, but the networking that happens on the internet is truly causing massive shifts and the conversation around the music industry can serve as an entry point into how it effects other things too…like the church.
sun, i love you, i really do. but you are making my grass grow way too fast. can we work something else out? Monday 9:52am
rain, i love the way you sound out there, i really do. but you are making my grass grow way too fast. can we work something else out? Wednesday 12:29am
snow, i love you. I really do…in december. but you are making it hard for me to mow the lawn. can we work something else out? Friday 1:43pm
Anne Rice is living out my dream. I’ll cede it to her — she is more qualified. Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana is the second book in her historical fiction series about Jesus. In it, she combines historical Jesus research and fiction writing, and therefore two of my dreams/passions.
I think I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first in the series — Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Perhaps more. The Road to Cana begins to deal with the Biblical narrative of Jesus’ ministry, and I appreciate the way she handled it.
Much like the first book, the greatest benefit is the historical research she has done. She places the Jesus story squarely in a first century context. These books are valuable because of the way they portray the political and religious tensions of first century Israel. I would think that one cannot help but read the Gospels with a new perspective on the work of Jesus.
And yes, I took great joy in having this book snugly in my Kindle only a few minutes after discovering it had been released.
For Extra Credit: My Trust in the Lord - a column by Anne Rice in the Washington Post (HT: Zach)
There is an adage that celebrities always die in threes. It doesn’t apply to hard drives.
A week and a half ago, my buddy JJ called me asking me if I knew how he might recover files off his MacBook hard drive that had just crashed. I didn’t. Last I heard, he was buried in a hole writing a quarter’s worth of papers that were due this week.
A week ago, my compadre Todd spent a few days pastoring like its 1989 while his MacBook Pro was off in the Apple Care triage unit. Todd is too young to remember 1989 well…otherwise he wouldn’t glamorize it so. When Todd’s frankenstein-ian laptop returned, they had replaced everything but that little grey felt piece that guards the SuperDrive opening. Last I heard, Todd was shopping for a sequin glove while time machine restored his data.
Two days ago, my friend Andy emailed me asking if I had copies of a few files that we had worked together on. His hard drive went kaput and he lost everything. I was able to help him out with a couple of files. That was more than the Geek Squad was able to do with his Dell laptop. Last I heard, he was soaring through cloud 8 on his way to 9 and enjoying a new MacBook Pro he received as a gift.
I thought I was safe. Three hard drives in 10 days in my circle of friends. Surely life in my binary universe was beyond corruption after a triad of failure was complete. The flashing question mark encrusted file folder on my MacBook screen yesterday told me otherwise.
But this is Easter weekend, where we celebrate the resurrection that comes out of death. Unfortunately for JJ, it was his death that has lead to my resurrection. Sorry amigo. JJ’s phone call last week offered the nudge I needed to get time machine working again. It is now Wednesday evening for me all over again.
And in case you are wondering, yes. You can seamlessly restore a MacBook backup onto a MacBook Pro.
A few weeks ago in class, we looked at these words of Jesus from Mark 4:30-31:
Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.”
I’ve heard these words most my life, although I think I have usually confused them with Jesus’ other words about mustard seeds and faith. However, looking at them again with new understanding (thanks to Thomas Keating), I would imagine these words sounded pretty foolish to those who were listening to Jesus when he spoke them.
While mustard was used well before Jesus’ time for many purposes, it wasn’t cultivated. It only grew in the wild. It can grow so aggressively that it is often considered a weed. Keating points out that it was illegal to plant mustard seed in a garden with other items for that very reason. Mustard can still be a problem plant today. Canada is the world’s largest exporter of mustard, but this government website explains the danger of how wild mustard can severely limit the yield of other crops.
So, Jesus is describing the kingdom of God as a weed planted in a garden. An illegal weed. Curious.
Mustard plants can grow large, but usually not more than four feet tall. They aren’t exactly towering trees. Jesus’ image of birds landing in a mustard plant is an allusion to a prophecy from Ezekiel 17:22-24 where birds represent other peoples coming to rest in the shelter and shade of the nation of Israel.
I am inspired by this metaphor. I wonder what it would truly look like to plant a church that would reflect the image of the mustard seed as Jesus describes it here. In the coming weeks, and maybe months, I will be offering scattered pieces of the mustard manifesto. (Yes, it’s kind of catchy, and kind of painful.) I’m going to offer some reflections on how we are thinking about a way of church planting that allows the kingdom of God to be like a mustard weed, er, seed.
This is the personal blog of John Chandler. The wonderings -- and wanderings -- you will find here were probably true when I wrote them, but that doesn't mean they will be when you read them.
April 29, 2008 
Posted in life, musing 
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And salvation only does what it’s meant to do when those who have been saved, are being saved, and will one day fully be saved realize that they are saved not as souls but as wholes and not for themselves alone but for what God now longs to do through them. — NT Wright, 
I started using 
I thought I was safe. Three hard drives in 10 days in my circle of friends. Surely life in my binary universe was beyond corruption after a triad of failure was complete. The flashing question mark encrusted file folder on my MacBook screen yesterday told me otherwise.
I can’t seem to stop thinking about mustard.
Mustard plants can grow large, but usually not more than four feet tall. They aren’t exactly towering trees. Jesus’ image of birds landing in a mustard plant is an allusion to a prophecy from 
This is the personal blog of John Chandler. The wonderings -- and wanderings -- you will find here were probably true when I wrote them, but that doesn't mean they will be when you read them.
