Echoes and Stars

1. i’ve been reading Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis. This is probably my fourth or fifth reading of his memoir of his early life. But it’s the first time I’ve really felt the power of his discovery of joy. I get it now. The stab. The inconsolable longing.

2. No one sits around and talks about great literature. They sit around and talk about TV shows. And we wonder at the trajectory of our culture.

3. If we are going to use the phrase “the binding of conscience” in the church, it must have some meaning in our criticism of the phenomena. It must mean a believer has a conscience totally separate from that of the leaders or peers and should be respected in matters where there is no sin and liberty is given. Without this, it has no teeth.

4. The older I get, the more I look for beauty in the things that will occupy me. Beauty like Auden. Not red carpet beauty.

5. Will the Flannery O’Connor stamp be sold as wallpaper? What about a mug?

6. It is amazing how we expect people who have been abused to act. We criticize their tone as shrill, bitter. Require them to act rationally when challenging those in power. All the while, believing the worst of them and the best of those with the power who have abused them or shielded the abuser.

7. When power, acclaim and, influence coalesce onto one person or one institution, “service” can turn into control very quickly.

8. After all these years, I still foolishly look at my wife and her wisdom with amazement.

9. This morning I’ve been struck by how much The Village Church trusts the decision-making abilities of a confessed pedophile but not the wife who he admittedly and succeesfully deceived for years.

10. There are a lot of problems with social media. But giving a voice to the voiceless, when before only the powerful and influential had a voice, is not one of them.