A Gospel Paradox

Whenever I think of the word paradox, a song from The Pirates of Penzance pops into my head without fail. Maybe you've heard it, it's a catchy little ditty regarding the fact that a certain character in the play, although 21 years old, has technically only had 5 birthdays, (his birthday being, as you may have guessed, February 29th). Strange concept if you think about it. Here's the definition of paradox: A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.
With that in mind, a friend of mine and I have been plowing through St. Augustine's Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, where I stumbled across an mind-boggling paradox that I thought was too amazing not to share. Consider this:

"Now when Adam was created, he, being a righteous man, had no need of a mediator. But when sin had placed a wide gulf between God and the human race, it was expedient that a Mediator, who alone of the human race was born, lived and died without sin, should reconcile us to God, and procure even for our bodies a resurrection to eternal life, in order that the pride of man might be expose and cured by the humility of God; that man might be shown how far he had departed from God, when God became incarnate to bring him back; that an example might be set to disobedient man in the life of obedience of the God-Man; that the fountain of grace might be opened by the Only-begotten taking upon Himself the form of a servant, a form which had no antecedent merit; that an earnest of that resurrection of the body which is promised to the redeemed might be given in the resurrection of the Redeemer; that the devil might be subdued by the very nature which it was his boast to have deceived."

Now that's what I call ironic.

Lessons from a Mentor

I apologize for my delay in posting, I've been out of the country and haven't had internet access. But I'm back now, so I'll hopefully make up for my slack.

Something I've been mulling around in my head lately are words my music teacher/mentor shared with me at a recent lesson: People will forget exactly what you said or even what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

People will remember if you go out of your way to make them feel appreciated or special. They will also remember if they always feel like you are critical of them. Our influence over other people is a lot stronger than we often realize.
It's worth thinking about.

Brag Time... :)

My newest little nephew was over this evening, so of course we just had to get our picture taken. Here's Titus Christopher Edmonds (2 weeks), with his big sister Karis, and proud auntie.
... and here's a shot with another proud auntie, (my sister Christa).
I just had to post those. There's something fantastic about showing off your nieces and nephews. Karis has one smile for the camera, and it's called, "CHEESE!"
So we have fun. :)

Embryos and Slippery Slopes

You've probably heard that President Obama lifted the ban from federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on Monday. While discussing this in class yesterday, our teacher first broached the topic by saying, "What happened this week that made the Pope white hot with fury?" An interested but frustrating debate ensued regarding whether or not the research was ethical. The most aggravating thing about it was that none of the students who spoke up in favor of embryonic stem cell research seemed to realize where their logic would take them. On young man even rationalized the "end justifies the means" type argument which naturally leads to a horribly slippery slope. (Remember in Animal Farm how Napoleon begins justifying everything, no matter how unjust or atrocious, for the sake of the success of the animal-government, including killing off different animals one by one?) Yet my fellow student didn't even consider the ramifications of his ideas; to him is was worth it to "use" embryos to find cures for people suffering from diseases. (I have some stats on the supposed success of embryonic stem cell research posted here.) I hate to be so blunt, but let's not think about the fact that we're killing a child for the sake of trying to find a cure for someone else without even acknowledging the embryo's right to life.

Interestingly enough, because it's very costly to extract the embryos here in the states, we're probably going to move the process over to the third world countries, where it is much less expensive. Then of course, we're not using American embryos either, and you have a win-win situation. Curious how we're learning to cope with our "moral conundrums", isn't it?

Book List: To End All Wars

Centered on a group of POW's in a Japanese prison camp during World War II, the great reviews I heard about this book lead me to find it and stick it on my shelf. It had been sitting for the last few months, with me not finding the time to read it until the speaker at church shared a story from it on Sunday. The recount was so impacting that I couldn't help but break out this book and change it's from "to read" to "being read".
Perhaps the story will encourage and challenge you as well:

"The day's work had ended; the tools were being counted, as usual. As the party was about to be dismissed, the Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He insisted that someone had stolen it... Striding up and down before the men, he ranted and denounced them for their wickedness, and most unforgivable of all their ingratitude to the Emperor. As he raved, he worked himself into a paranoid fury. Screaming in broken English, he demanded that the guilty one step forward to take his punishment. No one moved; the guard's rage reached new heights of violence.
'All die! All die!' he shrieked.
To show that he meant what he said, he cocked his rifle, put it to his shoulder and looked down the sights, ready to fire at the first man at the end of them.
At that moment, the Argyll (Scottish) stepped forward, stood stiffly to attention, and said calmly, 'I did it'.
The guard unleashed all his whipped-up hate; he kicked the helpless prisoner and beat him with his fists. Still the Argyll stood rigidly to attention, with the blood streaming down his face. His silence goaded the guard to an excess of rage. Seizing his rifle by the barrel, he lifted it high over his head and, with a final howl, brought it down on the skull of the Argyll, who sank limply to the ground and did not move. Although it was perfectly clear that he was dead, the guard continued to beat him and stopped only when exhausted.
The men of the work detail picked up their comrade's body, shouldered their tools and marched back to camp. When the tools were counted again at the guard-house no shovel was missing."

Of course, the Argyll didn't steal the shovel. He'd given up his life for his fellow soldiers. God give us the selfless love and sacrifice that man had.

We Interupt this Series...

A month or so ago, I wrote about my broken finger and how I was worried I wouldn't be able to fulfill my music obligations. Well, I think it's time a praise report was issued. My dad sent out an email to our church asking for prayer after I first broke it, and as a result, I was flooded with friends and family's prayers and encouragements. The news I first got back from the specialist doctor a few days later was that I would in fact to able to play as long as I was careful not to stress it. As you can imagine, that was a huge relief off of my shoulders as well as a clear answer to prayer. I played in my first concert without much trouble, and although it was a little painful, it went far better than I had hoped. I had another three weeks before my next two performances, and I continued to avoid playing on that figure directly, (substituting it with other fingers, etc). Although my situation was much better than it could've been, I was still getting discouraged that I couldn't play as well as I wanted with my injured finger. I totally did not deserve it, but the week before my next performance, the Lord took away all the pain and enabled me to play on my broken finger without any trouble whatsoever, and my performances went better than before my finger was broken! I still can't believe it. My next challenge is to try and fathom why such a great God would so lavishly bless an undeserving sinner like me. :)