What I've Been Up To Lately

I haven’t been blogging very much lately. When most people write their excuses for not blogging, they’ve usually been busy or gone or some extensive vacation. Well, I’ve been at home and, while somewhat busy, no more so than when I was blogging regularly. I guess I’ve been hard pressed to find anything original to say. Do you ever get the feeling that it’s all been said and that “there’s nothing new under the sun.”

For example, we just had an interesting theological issue raised at the lunch table, but I don’t think we really moved the discussion forward any. My son Jeremy wasn’t happy with what he had been served for lunch (spaghetti casserole—what kid wouldn’t like that?), so he got sent to his room to work on his attitude. We asked his friend, Stephen, who is visiting, to say the prayer for lunch, and in doing so he prayed for Jeremy to obey and to come eat his lunch. A little while later, after some coaxing from Mom and Dad, Jeremy did return to the table to eat his lunch. Stephen, wishing to give glory to God, said that it was God who made Jeremy come. Jeremy insisted that it was because he chose to come and eat. Stephen countered that God made him choose to come. So, which was it – did Jeremy choose to come on his own, or did God force or in some way influence the decision. If so, was it an authentic choice? At seven years old, these guys are already wrestling with the dilemma of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Of course, they moved on and forgot the issue, preferring to enjoy Scobey Doo. Maybe we theologically minded adults should take a cue.

Although I haven’t found anything new to contribute, I’m glad that some of you out there still have functioning brains and are doing so. I just finished reading Down in the River to Pray by John Mark Hicks and Greg Taylor. You can read my review by clicking on the link to the Amazon site, but overall I thought it was an excellent book. It confronts head on some of the dilemmas faced by those, like myself, who hold a more-or-less traditional CofC theology of baptism, while at the same time finding ourselves functionally fellowshipping many who do not hold the same view. Continuing in the Greg Taylor literature, I’m now reading his novel, High Places, set in Uganda where Taylor was a missionary, which I’m enjoying in a depressing sort of way.

A couple of blogs that you might want to check out from some guys who are also doing some thinking -- Carson Reed’s Musings and Shawn Duncan’s Chronicle. Both of these guys minister at the Northlake Church of Christ in Atlanta. I’ve found their reflections valuable.

Maybe I’m a bit braindead because of the case of malaria I got right after I returned to Africa, but more-than-likely it’s due to the hours I’ve been spending in front of the computer typing in the Ewe translation of the Train & Multiply material. I’m down to two books to go, but they are long ones. The end, however, is in sight. Sometimes it’s a little discouraging that I earned two master’s degree to be a typist, but it’s a job that needs to be done and very few people know English and Ewe and how to use a computer. So, this is has been one of those servant things that seems noble at first, but gets wearisome before the end. I guess that’s what servant-things are like.