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On Christian Commitment
He never complained. He seemed to have no instinct for the making much of oneself that complaining requires.
Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife
Beware the patriot who doesn’t have a passport.
when one has seen beauty all else ceases to
What’s taking you to Iceland?
And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
But we often have cause to regret having said too much, and we would rarely have cause for regret if we spoke less rather than more.
Three Maxims on Knowledge, Belief, Action Don’t claim to know what you merely believe even on good evidence. Don’t claim to believe what you are not prepared to act upon. Don’t let insufficient evidence prevent you from believing what you are better off believing in the long run than not believing in the long run.
And this raises one of life’s greatest mysteries. Why do some of us value good books above bread while others of us are indifferent to them? A harsh answer tempts me: the latter are human only in a biological sense. But I warn myself not to succumb to misanthropy.
Man is godlike and therefore proud. He becomes even more godlike when he humbles himself. The central thought of Christianity, true or not, is one so repellent to the natural human pride of life that one ought at least to entertain the unlikelihood of its having a merely human origin. The thought is that God humbled himself to the point of entering the world in the miserably helpless and indigent way we in fact do, inter faeces et urinam [between feces and urine], and to the point of leaving it in the most horrendous way the brutal Romans could devise, and from a most undistinguished spot, a hill in an obscure desert outpost of their empire.
We have reasoned our way to uniformly conditional relationships. This is at the very center of the crisis of the family, since the word means, if it means anything, that certain people exist on special terms which each other, which terms are more of less unconditional. We have instead decided to respect our parents, maybe, if they meet our stringent standards of deserving. Just so do our children respect us, maybe.
At the heart of these incredulous statements about the poor decisions poor people make is a belief that we would never be like them. We would know better. We would know to save our money, eschew status symbols, cut coupons, practice puritanical sacrifice to amass a million dollars. There is a regular news story of a lunch lady who, unbeknownst to all who knew her, died rich and leaves it all to a cat or a charity or some such. Books about the modest lives of the rich like to tell us how they drive Buicks instead of BMWs. What we forget, if we ever know, is that what we know now about status and wealth creation and sacrifice are predicated on who we are, i.e. not poor. If you change the conditions of your not-poor status, you change everything you know as a result of being a not-poor. You have no idea what you would do if you were poor until you are poor. And not intermittently poor or formerly not-poor, but born poor, expected to be poor and treated by bureaucracies, gatekeepers and well-meaning respectability authorities as inherently poor. Then, and only then, will you understand the relative value of a ridiculous status symbol to someone who intuits that they cannot afford to not have it.
Love means never having to say You're not forgiven
Marriage is increasingly the big sociological divide in American life. Getting and staying married makes you part of a privileged elite. As Charles Murray documents in his 2012 book “Coming Apart,” that divide tracks the income divide, with low-income whites much less likely to be married than their high-income counterparts. (I criticized a different aspect of Murray’s book in this column.) The causality is debatable. Maybe poorer people have a harder time getting married. Maybe being married makes it easier to earn more. Maybe some third factor causes both phenomena. But what is clear is that you’re most likely to have a better life if you’re married — even if, it turns out, you get cancer.
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Calculating the exchange rate on civilian life
Why we named our third son Carper
Rather than say: “I am too busy, I don’t have any time for X.” I realize I can be honest and say I am not interested enough in X to do it.
sitting on the shoulders of giants or
the pumpkin murder of 2012 it was the boys in
Marriage as a joke
theatlantic how your job and your salary
ilovecharts what is guyana suriname georgia
Like every other psychology researcher, Harvard’s Daniel Gilbert believed that people are happier when they can change their minds. But in 2002 he and a colleague discovered that people are generally happier about irrevocable decisions: once you are locked in to a decision, you tend to focus on its positive aspects and ignore the negative ones. But if you are allowed to change your mind, you ruminate on both the positive and negative aspects of the choice, which makes you less happy. Inspired by his findings, Gilbert proposed to his girlfriend. Since the “till death” vow makes marriage an (almost) irrevocable decision, the result is that “I love my wife more than I loved my girlfriend.
Why is marriage in such a mess? Because we believe that love is something that happens rather than something we do – chemistry rather than calisthenics. We talk of “falling” in love; we should speak instead of rising, standing, and walking in love.
Pro-life verses pro-existence
same method but now resurrection free
There is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Therefore there must be a God. You either see this one or you don’t.
What was the greatest thing _before_ sliced bread?
howtopickupchicks
these boys just heard what what is we just found
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Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the criticism that in contrast to scientific or empirical thought, it rests on mere faith.
Excellent short article on marriage
fellow motorists this is an accident some are
Beware the patriot who doesn’t have a passport.
trying to get my kids to be hard core gamers we
Honest questions about Christmas music
I'm reasonably sure my wife isn't _the one_ for me
From the days of our founders the social contract of the United States has been equal opportunity. A newborn child bears no responsibility for the circumstances of her birth and yet is often destined to a life of advantage or disadvantage based on those circumstances. The American commitment to equal opportunity is not being fulfilled. With what we know, it is morally offensive not to act.
merlin where you see only ten sets of
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It's [nearly] football time in Oklahoma
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
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bendelaney teddy roosevelts diary the day his
Oh they say I come with less than I should rightfully possess. I say the more I buy the more I’m bought. And the more I’m bought the less I cost.
At its core, college football is about the connection between the actors on the field and the devotees who watch them. There’s something more than zone reads and blitz schemes at work when millions of people choose to spend their Saturdays firing up the grill nine hours before kickoff or working their remote from the couch. Certain elements of our love affair with college football remain impervious to NCAA bylaws and bloated television contracts.
mrs williamson my 11th grade english teacher
To use Richard Dawkin’s justly famous metaphor, “memes” like “human rights” and “human dignity” may not indefinitely continue replicating themselves once the Christian “infinite value of every life” meme has died out.
Free Kiva loan
what happens during your 73rd hour in jail or
Is it surprising that so many American Christians are obsessed with hell when mass incarceration and capital punishment are the way the nation does justice?
Why then do we think that this [hoping for change in the pagan faith] is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause?… For it is disgraceful when no Jew is a beggar and the impious Galileans [Christians] support our poor in addition to their own; everyone is able to see that our coreligionists are in want of aid from us.
when apples just cant cut it
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.
is texas to scale on this map from listening to
The Global Temper Tantrum
Poor Christians?
a jellyfish doing his thing
Netflix's price hike defended
In defense of short-term missions to the underprivileged
the liquor store next to the local gas station is
Short-term mission trips a good idea?
san francisco street im working on technique to
theyd been coming to buca di beppo for years
isaacs eye i can nearly hear the csi guys can
I think there ought to be a reality show where they tape someone having to watch reality shows and not be affected by it.
the older couple sat on the plane a seat
Messengers from the world to the church
I don't understand the popularity of cheese pizza
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Who was it that said that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past?
photography makes everyone happy
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What does it take to be a parent? (or, thoughts on the DHS process)
this sign is strange to me do they speak spanish
i assume theyve got bats and mosquitoes eaters
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The word “christian,” when applied to anything other than a human being, is just a marketing term.
when your technology starts threatening sentience
This culture is on an extraordinary pace toward needing things to be more efficient. But that is a value that is ultimately antithetical to the gospel. I’ve never heard of efficient wisdom, efficient love, efficient suffering, or efficient compassion. So what does it mean that we inhabit a world that is so dominated by this ideology of efficiency? That’s my interest in asking, what does it actually mean? How is it shaping you without your knowledge or permission right now?
J-P Teti: The iPad is 99% more open than any other computer
oh yeah pickup note writer well im gonna love
ilovecharts via an experiment
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id be leery of a dealership whose temp tag has
dear sunday school teacher we spell isaac the
It’s a shame, almost, that we squandered the term “personal computer” 30 years ago.
kpwerker a book commits suicide every time you
Google capturing children's SSN for an art contest‽
By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?
travel is fatal to prejudice bigotry and
It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.
Competitive Theism
checking out the menu at the local thai place
that prosthetic leg looks suspicious to me thanks
The loss of the sacred
two thoughts this is another sign of the
Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious.
On Jeff Buckley, Rob Bell, and Qohelet
A South Sudanese girl is more likely to die in childbirth than to learn to read and write.
Spike in teen stds and pregnancy with morning-after pills
we went to bricktown last summer on a hot july
My first website
The familiarity of marriage
Rules for talking to a woman about pregnancy
Sure, you can be a good, moral atheist. But why?
Robert Reich on what's wrong with America
Mom takes her three teenagers off the grid for 6 months
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants"
Jersey Shore will have more seasons than Arrested Development. Hope you’re proud of yourselves, humanity.
We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
looked and looked but never did see a duck
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The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.
Why I married me a college-educated girl
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What's better than a New Year's Resolution? Live a good story
I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature - not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that we eventually come to mean by life are those moments when life, instead of going sideways, backwards, forwards, or nowhere at all, lines out straight, tense, and inevitable, with a complication, climax, and, given some luck, a purgation, as if life had been made and not happened.
One might say our lack of suffering fuels a cycle of meaninglessness
Faith and Santa
theres a healthy and appropriate debate about
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New tax-cut extension to harm 51 million households?
Can a country with so many poor consider itself a Christian nation?
texans this is true i looked it up and it
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After 45 years, wedding photos found at scrap yard
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Distractivity
journaphotolist um
When we think too much about the opinions of others, we are letting them edit a book God has written.
i have no doubts that id love girls if i were so
TSA: A Waste of Money and Time
Faith is the confidence that in every life situation there is meaning, opportunity and hope. It is not up to me personally to invest life with meaning, the meaning is already here and challenges me to find it and strive to understand it as fully as I can. So I don’t have to despair and flee from reality however complicated and harsh it may be. Nor do I have to dress it up in illusions. That is why I believe that faith is the ally of realism and critical thinking and the enemy of superstition, prejudice and illusion. It is the courage of truth.
Do you want bacon with that?
A painting summons us to relish its lines and colours; a tree invites us to marvel at its roots and leafy shadows; the body of a lover beckons us to draw delight from its hidden wells; young children demand that we face them while they play, so that the miracle of their difference will not be without witnesses. Left to ourselves we shrink inwards, anaesthetised by a drowsy solipsism. Joy is waking to reality; joy is salvation from the self. It is our startled response to the call of another. … Raw materials for a Christian ethics of joy: the distance of prayer; the patience of reading; the veneration of the meal; the delight of friendship; the tenderness of eros; the love of childhood; the obedience of learning; the speed of imagining; the superfluity of art; and the omneity of language.
So what are experts for again?
last traces of fall
Secret to weight-loss found
TSA opens investigation on defiant passenger.
the economic contrast in the picture is as
my wife taking a photo in a winery i liked the
Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA
Whizzing by our heads
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george getting his camp on
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inside an old barn at our family campout with
the difference between regular and decaf coffee
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Is it spaghetti without meat[balls]?
i love this chart it reminded me of some thoughts
im not saying it wont work but probably not a
reminded me of the reality of our no vacation
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The ethics of following Satan
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
The problem with bacon burgers
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What I've learned from beer commercials
Obama, a model of cheerful consistency
Let me tell you really need in this world. What you need is people who’ve got an exclusive truth that humbles them.
Don't hate the payer, hate the game: My Inner Democrat and Republican go at it again
Given his rather high self-christology, I’m surprised we don’t see his name rendered as the ineffable and unpronounceable RCH-RD D-WKNS.
Sweet marriage thoughts from an older couple
Lost and Found in Europe
Demonstrated love fail
I believe in a God big enough to make hot dogs nutritious.
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My Inner-Republican and Inner-Democrat discuss a NYT op-ed on poverty
Scott Adams, travel agent. Travel agent, Scott Adams.
summertime family fun at my uncles pool
Mike Tyson on community
We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
ilovecharts especially thought complykated
On God and diamond rings
Maybe the most poignant thing you'll see today
another tuesday another family game night this
some of my best memories were playing ballcatch
Photos of migrants, maimed by attempts to enter US for work
A few reflections on my first year without grandparents
Rolling Stone on the BP Spill and the President
solvitur ambulando
a sea lion picture to start your friday
Tooth pull win
george enjoying a summer afternoon chalking up
Without religion the coherence of an ethic of compassion cannot be established. The principle of respect for persons and the principle of the survival of the fittest are mutually exclusive.
French football. Would you like some embarrassment with that whine?
ilovecharts destinations via jason i love
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If Necessity if the mother of Invention, who’s the father? Unsolved Problem? And if so, did he skip town?
No-vacation nation
This WiFi thing just might catch on...
Keeping Safari Extensions Synced between Macs
gregkb thedailywhat olasnich
USA v England in Legos
ilovecharts via david arty and casper365 and
To all the Stoops/Oklahoma haters out there:
a few pics of the golden gate bridge and environs
agreed and an irish kate at that
Raising racist children
no illegal drugs boat captains please feel free
a wilson ready just in case of forced
Uh-oh...Chinese workers demanding to be treated like humans
Thinking on the Internet
bp irony this isnt mine but i wish it were
Rumble, the Thunder mascot, looks like Teen Wolf, but with Precious Moments eyes.
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MPAA and digital copies
gregkb the oatmeal totally true a business
Children 'more likely to own a mobile phone than a book'
Easy words to say, scary to mean
The rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds an important cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.
Hypothetical tarmac conversation
after the inclement weather wednesday night i
Interesting perspective on Facebook's leadership
i took our new macro lens outside yesterday and
On hungry dogs and God
What is a good friend anyway?
SoCoS - Queue
Why do people keep peeves as pets?
benjamin franklins schedule source in reading a
They say happiness is being married to your best friend
come onlike church norris has a worse of
Want to feel really small?
a yellow picture for mandys yellow picture
SoCoS - Score
sure meeting president kagame of rwanda and
another coworker inspired figurine bible story
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Rules of nicknames
ilovecharts another cure chart pure
So you want a nickname...
my entry in mandys photo contest on eyes
SoCoS
Weeds and questions you don't ask a woman
There’s always room for ice cream because it melts and runs down the sides
I’ve always wondered why people who believe in total depravity say things to their kids like “good job” when they catch a baseball. Shouldn’t they say something like* you caught the ball, but you still deserve to go to hell?*
Can we stop ascribing sentience to Mother Nature?
more office bible stories
im not sure whats coming but as an okc resident
ilovecharts via kritigarg excellent i
sometimes when my co workers take a break they
I like the phrase 'Pardon my French'
easter 2010 more on the facebook
simon høgesberg has a fascinating montage of over
Should kids be paid for doing chores?
Saw an ad on ESPN for bowling coverage
So my son saw a picture of his [recently deceased] Great-Grandfather at my mother's house
an excellent index card from the always
Forget olive oil
There's a real person behind the Tubes
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Will Rogers once said
The addictive power of video games (long read)
SoCks - Birthday
On diamonds and guilt
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Beautiful pictures of 'the one who got away'
SoCoS #3 - snow
I’m thankful for sleep cycles that disrupt our progress, for children that stop your work and force you to keep someone you love alive, for the need to stop and eat, to stop and drink water, to stop and talk to friends. We buy billions of dollars in books that help us be more efficient, we praise the profit margin, and all the while, God is trying to slow us down, trying to remind us of what matters and what doesn’t, trying to stop our human progress, stop our creation of false Gods.
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Coffee doesn't smell like airplanes
i was hoping to buy a hippie but the store was
happy st patricks day benefit of going to
Penguin Books demos iPad prototypes
What's not to like?
Trying to live commercial free
I'm not sure who the choir is
entering mandys photography contest on a picture
our books needing shelf space or an episode of
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SoCoS #2 - yellow
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I figger it's time for a nap
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The Bible is not a Pink Floyd album
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I can’t prove reading books makes you smarter, but there’s compelling anecdotal evidence for what happens when you don’t.
Their last goodbye
Stream of consciousness Saturday (SoCoS)
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.
I think I could be a Soviet
Why Canada should win hockey gold (formula)
george enjoying vacation at south padre island
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
The miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine - which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes.
Have a blessings day!
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about a girl
lebanese restaurant owner in dublin standing
http://kenrockwell.com/tech/everything-sucks.htm
Now with comments!
facebook lets you choose upside down english as a
On video games and death
Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
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You've got too much time on your hands
After I find it, I'm going to look in one more place
Toughts about Ireland from tirty-tree tousand feet (or reflections on our Irish vacation)
I’m not saying there’s no such thing as genius. But if you’re trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right.
fortunately google labs lets you put the beta on
What did people do before Wikipedia?
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What are we working for?
at the okc bombing memorial for mandys
Obama and Reinhold Niebuhr
I need to start unitasking
eye vegetables?
TARP or TRAP?
Ice cream gender bias
Online retailers and competition
We have a Mardel. Next, an F5 tornado...
Unsolicited thoughts on the iPad
Anyways...
My favorite Israel trip souvenir (or ‘the lasting Messiah’)
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