The Value of Distance

"I number it among my blessings that my father had no car, while yet most of my friends had, and sometimes took me for ad rive. This meant that all these distant objects could be visited just enough to clothe them with memories and not impossible desires, while yet they remained ordinarily as inaccessible as the Moon. The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the standard of the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in return I possessed "infinite riches" in what would have been to motorists "a little room." The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it "annihilates space." It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there." - C.S. Lewis

It's been said that familiarity breeds contempt, and I think that has tremendously horrifying implications for Christians that experience it in their lives. I think that what C.S. Lewis says in the quote above (from his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, which is great by the way) has related warnings for Christians who have lost their "value of distance."

For we were once absolutely separated from God. The word "absolutely" is even insufficient, because it fails to convey the true nature of our separation. We were further than New Jersey is from California, than the U.S. is from South Africa, than Earth is from the Sun, than this galaxy is from the furthest galaxy. To continue in the same vein of these metaphors, we were not even in the same universe as God. Maybe to some another picture would pierce even further: we were as far as a heart broken by unrequited love is from the unattainable object of its forlorn adoration.

But thanks be to God, that infinite distance was amazingly bridged for us by Christ, and by means that we will never be able to wrap our minds completely around, we are now offered direct, intimate, and close fellowship with our Creator, Friend, and King.

Alas, it seems that all good things in this world must be paired with an evil, and in this case the evil is that we, who have been brought near to Him who was once impossibly distant, eventually forget about the gap that has been done away with for us. Our understanding and appreciation of our nearness "lowers the value of distance" for us. And this lowered value perverts and corrodes our gratitude, joy, and peace.

May it be my daily endeavor to passionately value and treasure the distance that has been bridged for me.

Linus Explains Christmas

You Are Not Your Own

"You are not your own..." - 1 Corinthians 6:19

I'm reading 1 Corinthians, and I'm realizing that Paul's words on ownership are pretty significant.  He does it here in chapter 6, and he does it again in chapter 7 when he talks about marriage (1 Co. 7:4).

This verse is pretty self-explanatory at first.  Yes, I'm not my own, I know this.  I am God's.  But is that where we are meant to stop?

Maybe, maybe not.

I didn't, and here are three possible interpretations to these five "simple" words that my mind bumped into on the way to the grocery store:

1.  Laissez Faire:  I think that the vast majority of us fall into this appealing interpretation.  It's easy to take to this one because it's probably the most literal interpretation, the easiest for us to swallow, and the one that we've experienced the most, though mostly when we were kids (I hope...but I guess if you or your friends are still ridiculously immature, you might still experience this often).  It's almost as if we are holding something we are just getting to understand, and God is pouting and saying, "Hey, hands off!  That's not yours!  It's mine! Give it back!"  And our response would be to hand it back, care no more for it, and move on, knowing that our life is only his burden and not ours.  It's a specious laissez faire approach, and one that leads easily to laziness and irresponsibility, but it's pretty clear that this interpretation does not fully capture all that is meant here.

2.  It's not yours...yet:   This interpretation is easily understood when you picture a salesman creeping up behind you as you are looking at an object you want.  "It's not yours...yet," he tells you.  This interpretation might be the furthest from the conventional, but I do think there is a pearl of truth in this, but there is also an equally sized pearl of falsehood in it.  We grow closer to becoming fully ours as we grow closer to becoming "fully" God's (sanctification), so in that very loose sense, yes, we are not our own just yet.  Our enemy still has his hold on some parts of us that we will not be able to shake loose until we die.  But then again, we are never our own and will never be truly just our own, no matter how long or how hard we work to earn it (no matter the sweet lies that the salesman pours into our ears).  There is a shot of humility in that, but an even bigger dose of comfort.  Alas, this interpretation, though helpful, is incomplete.

3.  Here, borrow my car for the weekend:  I think this interpretation is the nearest to the truth, the most helpful, and makes the most sense in the context of the verses before and after 1 Co. 6:19.  Yes, we are not our own.  So, the question of utmost concern becomes "Whose are we?"  The answer to that (as we've examined through two different lenses already) is "We are God's."  Now the issue should turn into one of response rather than understanding.  If a kind, close friend let you borrow his car for the weekend, you'd be grateful.  But even more than that, you would (or at least, should) feel the need and desire to return the car in better condition than when you first received it.  This might mean tidying up the interior, filling up the tank, or even taking it to a car wash.  I'm confident that this illustration points us in the right direction.  We are not our own, but we are God's, and we should take care to treat ourselves and our lives as if they were God's, and not just our own.  This perspective should spur us on to care infinitely more about our bodies, minds, souls, families, friends, surroundings, and very lives than we currently do, because they are for someone far greater, lovelier, and more worthy than ourselves.  We will be "returning" all of these things to our Lord one day, and his satisfaction with them should burden us greatly.  But for those of us in Christ, that burden is now weightless and a non-factor, because he bore it for us and has dealt with it in full.  Everything we will return is already (not yet) perfected in him!  But don't be fooled into sliding down the slippery slope that the enemy will open up to you here.

Though number 3 seems to contain the most truth and encouragement, I think that all three, somehow intertwined, help us to understand what Paul means when he tells us that "You are not your own."

History of Religion

Ask X

Okay, I hate being a promotion whore, but I'm serious when I say that Ask.com is pretty awesome, and to be dead honest there are a lot of reasons why it's nicer to use than (dare I say it) Google.

I could go on and on about why, but please try it out for yourself.  I promise you won't be disappointed.  (But if you want a rundown of why Ask > Google, let me know and I'll be happy to go into detail.)

Now, about the title of this entry...

The preview for Ask X is up and running!

Ask X is essentially a new user interface that Ask.com is testing out for possible future implementation.  It's a very slick departure from the normal search engine interface.

You can read more about it here.

Check it out!  You won't regret it.

Also, in case you haven't heard about it already, check out Ask City.  It's local search on steroids, and integrates the likes of Citysearch and Ticketmaster, among other complementary services.  You can read more about Ask City here.

Okay, I'm done promoting Ask for today.  Keyword: today.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day.

Young@Heart sing 'Fix You' by Coldplay

The year’s best cover-song performance

On paper, the group Young@Heart seems like a dubious proposition. Excuse our cynicism, but a senior-citizen choral group in Northampton, Massachusetts, that covers songs by the Clash, Radiohead, Talking Heads, and Coldplay? Um, sure. Sounds cute. And vaguely insufferable.

Then we saw this three-and-a-half minute excerpt from a documentary, also called Young@Heart, that recently aired on British television. In it, a fat, frail old man named Fred takes to the stage, his oxygen tank in tow, to sing (beautifully) “Fix You,” a Coldplay song we’ve heard a million times but have never really listened to.

It’s a simple, subdued, dignified performance, but somehow it gets to the heart of the song and outpaces the original. (Even die-hard Coldplay fans have been saying as much in their online forums.) Particularly when the chorus gets to the line “Tears stream down your face,” and Fred answers with “When you lose something you cannot replace.”

The performance was originally meant to be a duet — but Fred’s singing partner, Joe, had died of cancer two days earlier.

(From Very Short List, a daily e-mail newsletter that is funded by IAC/InterActiveCorp, the big parent company of Ask.com and other big Web brands.)

"Holy Crap!" - Peter Boyle Dies

For all my fellow fans of Everybody Loves Raymond, I'm sure you'll resonate with my sorrow upon hearing this news today.

I only became a fan of the show about a year and a half ago, but ever since I got into it I quickly grew to absolutely love it and I try to watch it whenever I can. Frank, the bitter, selfish, brutally honest father, who was played by Peter Boyle, was a big reason why I grew to love the show.

Mr. Boyle, you will be missed.

Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun

M. Ward - Chinese Translation

Lost and Found Ground

Too many of my thoughts are negative, especially when it comes to my own personal faith and its shoddy condition. Of course, there is always reason to be thankful, to see the upward slope ahead, to see progress, but I guess I just have a nasty predilection for being critical of everything that is me.

I feel that when I first experienced my salvation, it was as if God placed me in a brand new "territory." I use the word "territory" loosely here, cos I don't mean that I feel like I was given a physical piece of land, but I mean that God gave me a new ethereal lot in life, and so I will refer to it as "territory."

The new territory that He placed me in was glorious and beautiful, full of light. So, for the first few months I enjoyed it, breathed it all in and walked around, fully absorbing the freshness of it all.

But, as with all beautiful lands, when it is granted to one person there will be many more who will do what they can to occupy it with you, or worse, take it all from you. In my nascent naivete, I was unaware of any notion related to losing this new territory.

Slowly at times, quickly during others, I watched as the outer skirts of my territory began changing hands, as the light I once laid my eyes upon grew dark. I saw areas that I had not even yet perused being gobbled up by those who had no intentions of sharing them, but claimed it all as their own and desired nothing less than to kick me out completely.

It took me a while to realize this, and then to stand up and decide what my response should be. I had two choices:

1. I could allow this to happen and watch it play out to the fullest extent, clinging to a feeble hope that these voracious conquerors would take and ravage all they desired and leave me a small plot of this beautiful territory to keep and call as my own.

2. Or I could come to my senses and realize that the land these conquerors were seizing was mine, that the entire territory was given to me, that no one was ever meant to have any of it, and respond accordingly.

Option 1 was and is the easier one, and one that I have fallen for and continue to fall for today.

Option 2, on the other hand, was the harder and more difficult alternative. It's the one I shied away from and still look upon with fear. But I know that it is the right one.

So, what must I do?

I was wrong in lazily enjoying the new territory when I was first placed in it. I should have been building walls, towers, and strongholds on the outer borders, and prepared to fight to the very end of my finite will in order to protect and selfishly keep this land as my very own.

Alas, it is too late to fret over what I failed to do. Pieces of this sweet territory have already been taken away from me. Places that I had not even yet tasted have already been stolen from my eyes, and this breathes life into great sorrow and even greater rage that grows in my heart with each letter I am typing here.

I did not build strong defenses against this foray, and I repent of that. I repent of the fact that I just sat and watched as the enemy expanded their territory as they greatly shrunk mine. I repent that my weak mind and heart have oftentimes opted to choose Option 1.

But I know that choosing between the two options is not a onetime decision. Rather, it is the choice I make with every breath I am given, with every thought my brain raises, with every moment that passes by.

Though I know my egregious fondness for Option 1 will never completely fade away, I do know that my desire to choose Option 2 is growing hotter now, and that I will take back what was and still is rightfully mine.

The fight to reclaim my territory will be tortuous, overwhelming, and bitter, but I know this is what I am meant to do, and I know that it is what I want to do.

Will Option 1 become alluring to me the second I finish typing this entry? Yes. I can't lie about that.

But Option 2 is where my heart lies.

I've languished for too long, piddling around this tiny plot of land that the enemy has so graciously left me. It's time to go beyond this. It's time to taste, for the first time, all the sweetness that has always been mine. It's time to stop neglecting what has been given me.

So, I'm clanging my sword and shield, rallying myself, calling upon the Triumvirate to aid me, and marching out to revisit familiar lands and to battle familiar foes. And, if all goes very well, I may find areas that are still new to me.

My territory will be wholly mine once again.

Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.