Too much to write. So many thoughts and ideas getting lost in the whirlwind of these days it is hard to put anything into pixels. I have been dreaming a lot lately but there is no sense to them that I can figure out and I know of no Joseph that I can trust. I have been on a reading lull lately…I need to pick something up and work through it. I miss my days of reading fiction…everything seems to be "real" these days or "true" in terms of what’s being read. People do not value fantasy the way they used too…although you would think they would given the state of things in the world – it seems like a place worth escaping from time to time.

 

I have read an interesting article on "The New Calvinists" – folks like John Piper, Mark Driscoll and others. While I respect their discipline (I have always respected the discipline of Calvinists) but they’re no different then the Old Calvinists and so offer nothing new – just the same old burdensome ideas with a different wrapper…I find that where Calvinists are right they are profoundly right and where they are wrong they are profoundly wrong. The challenge with arguing theology with Calvinists is that they are "elect" and so they never really listen to you – not really. Not deep down.

 

So what am I? Less and less do I find I fit into a particular box except Christian…that I become more certain of everyday…the rest is all an increasingly deep fog. I respect certain attitudes of Luther but despise his anti-semitism and suspect it tainted his theology a bit. I appreciate Calvin and even got to visit his church in Geneva, Switzerland before I could appreciate the moment but cannot fully buy into anything in TULIP except for the T (which may say more about me then Calvin). There is much I respect about our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters and yet too much that I do not. Ultimately the Apostles’ Creed says enough for me…and maybe enough for others too.

 

It is winter these days…it came so suddenly it is like it has always been here. I busted the fish out of an alarmingly small icy prison outside the other day and nearly froze my fingers off in the process. The weren’t as slow as I thought they’d be but they’re now safe in a tupperware container in the garage for the rest of the season. I am looking forward to our Christmas Movie Night Double-Feature in youth this week – we’ll be watching It’s A Wonderful Life first followed by Elf second. Should be good. I am feeling like an old movie these days…like Bing Crosby in The Bells of St. Mary’s or Holiday Inn maybe…something very old and somehow still very good.

 

Well – this has been more of an exercise in writing then in saying anything too useful. I’m sure you don’t mind though eh? It’s been a week where I have not written anything. Perhaps my muse is frozen somewhere on the slopes of Parnassus or Olympia…who’s to say really. This likely explains the drought in terms of poetry. I never worry about her disappearances though because she is faithful and always returns…next to Christ she is the one constant in my life. I love it when she returns and offers up some image or emotion…some idea or colour that I had never thought of before. She is a collector really…I think she travels far and wide seeking out shiny things to bring back to me that I might build something out of them…something they were never intended for but something beautiful nonetheless.