God bless field trips!

So, I guess I could organize my desk, but I'm going to enjoy my respite by closing the door, cranking the radio, and doing a little blogging.

Yesterday, during the silent prayer of confession I decided to thank God for confusion and doubt, because I had words with him in the shower that morning. Then the preacher preached a whole sermon about how doubt is a blessing. It's just like when I ask my students if they are lying to me about lying. My head is spinning.

There are some really simple things I have heard from sincere Christians lately.

• One teacher talked about how Jesus never responded with a hasty word, but the last time I checked the Bible, he was responding in terms that I might consider hasty quite frequently.


• I listened to a local Christian radio station for approximately 2 minutes Friday (when I reached a tolerance limit), during which Luis Palau talked about a woman who miraculously survived a horrific accident in Tenerife in which she was thrown from the plane by a terrible explosion. Mr. Palau was very impressed by the fact that this woman expressed faith in Jesus before she was thrown from her plane. It seems to me that this sentiment is rather unremarkable. Isn't it usually when we are faced with death or something beyond our control that we turn to the supernatural? I think a truly courageous action would be to either face death as an atheist or to live as a person of faith.


• This isn't something somebody has said particularly lately, but I have heard it said that the gospel must be true because either...
  
  • the disciples wouldn't have done what they did for a lie, or...
  
  
  • Jesus must have either been crazy or divine to have done and said what he did and said.
  
  Having said this, what about all the people who knowingly or otherwise base their lives on a far more unreasonable lie?

The truth of the matter is that for some of us, the victory of living one day thoughtfully, productively, and intentionally is far greater than the greatest of great deeds. Speaking of the above, I recommend The Motorcycle Diaries. I may have quit the Socialist party a long time ago, but I'm sick of conservatives of goodwill defending the bad actions of the worst capitalists.

Here's a secret—the final good in life is not how prosperous was one's economy, but how we treated others. I truly believe that a fundamental existential equivalent can be made—how we treat others is how we treat ourselves. At least that's what Jesus said. Of course, he may have spoken hastily...