Saw this quote today over on a post by iMonk.  It’s going in my rotation (over on the right), but was too good to not specifically point out, also.

The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you . . . by the grace of God. — Walter Brueggemann

A friend sent me a (bit of an inside) joke. I replied “< insert rimshot here >”. He replied with this:

Here you go.

In a recent review of Brad Whittington’s Living with Fred, I noted that the protagonist, Mark Cloud, “starts trying to ‘engage his culture’ decades before such a phrase was ever dreamed up”.

Case in point: He goes with his high-school buddies on a hunting trip, something he wouldn’t ordinarily be the least bit interested in. While part of his motivation may be general peer pressure and trying to fit in better, he also is truly trying to connect with these guys in a Christ-like manner.

As I also noted, Mark “messes up some times, crossing lines that he shouldn’t, but eventually recognizes these errors.”  One of these times occurs on the hunting trip, when his buddies crack open some cans of beer.  Mark is somewhat conflicted, but goes ahead and drinks.  Even as he’s doing it, he wonders if he’s going too far.  And when his father finds out later, he reminds Mark that — even laying aside any convictions or beliefs about alcohol in general — he is underage.

In short, Mark went out on a limb, went too far on said limb, and it snapped under the weight of his sin and error.

Elijah went out on a limb.  In 1 Kings 18, we read the story of the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  After the prophets’ lack of success, Elijah taunted them wondering aloud if Baal was on a trip, or asleep, or seated on a porcelain throne.  Think about the Muslim reaction to the Muhammad cartoons, and the fact that verse 40 tells us that after Elijah was victorious, he “brought [the prophets of Baal] down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there”, and tell me that — if God hadn’t thrown down — they wouldn’t have killed Elijah, just for being a smart aleck.

He then goes further out on the limb and has 12 barrels of water poured on his sacrifice before asking God to consume it with fire.  Ask one of the guys on those shiny red trucks, and I bet he will agree that water is a very good fire-repellant.

Did Elijah believe that God was more than capable of providing enough fire to overpower that water? Certainly!

Did Elijah know that God would do just that? Not really.

Yeah, he knew it in the sense that “faith is … the evidence of things not seen”, but that’s more spirit than intellect.  From the most basic definition of “know”, Elijah did not know that God would do what He did.  But he trusted God to guide him.

Do we go out to the very tip of every last limb, presuming on grace?  No. Using Elijah’s example, I’m sure he had lots of ordinary days — or else 1 Kings would be a lot more than 22 chapters.

But we shouldn’t swing the pendulum too far the other way.

There are those who constantly scoff, sneer, and look with utter revulsion upon the concept of “engaging the culture“.  To beat the “out on a limb” metaphor into the ground, these people are clinging tightly to the tree trunk.  And ya know why?  Out of fear.  Out of a lack of faith.

The implication is clear:

Yeah, Jesus, that whole cross thing You did was really groovy, but it’s not enough. If I ever mess up, your Dad’s gonna be ticked, and He’ll zap me.  So I’m just gonna hang out right next to the trunk here where it’s safe, and I know I won’t even be in danger of messing up.

What’s that?  If I venture out, the Spirit will guide and protect me and keep me from sinning?  Nah, I’ll pass.

What?  Yeah, I know that most of the lost are way out there on the branches. But they need to come to You on my terms, er um, I mean on Your terms.  (Sorry, sometimes I get those mixed up since I’m sure that they’re the same thing anyway.)

Yeah, I know that by clinging so tightly to the trunk, my back is turned to those on the branches. But You’re the one who’s going to draw them to Yourself.  It’s not me — so I can be as irrelevant as I want.

Now would ya quit bugging me?  I was having a nice, quiet, safe-for-the-whole-family moment in my little cocoon here before You came along!

Berkeley has nothing on these tree-huggers.

Living with Fred
Brad Whittington
(book 2 of the Fred, Texas series)

The author is probably going to be a bit disappointed in me. But the feeling isn’t at all mutual.

Brad caught my review of the first book in this series and called it “the best summary of the book [he had] ever seen”. When my cranial swelling finally went down, I started reading Living with Fred, the second book in this series. I liked it even more than the first book, but this review probably won’t be as good as the first one. Hence my opening paragraph.

Living with Fred continues the story of Mark Cloud, a Baptist preacher’s kid (PK) living in Fred, Texas — a town 5 miles on the other side of nowhere. Born in Fort Worth, but having spent his pre-adolescent years in Ohio, Mark is still something of a fish out of water in Fred as his senior year of high school approaches. The mere fact of him being an outsider is wearing off, but his very nature (partly formed by his “not from around here” upbringing) and the fact that he is a PK still conspire to keep him from fitting in completely with his peers.

A voracious reader, Mark comes upon a copy of In His Steps, and starts wondering the central theme of that book — what would Jesus do?  In one sense, Mark starts trying to “engage his culture” decades before such a phrase was ever dreamed up.  He messes up some times, crossing lines that he shouldn’t, but eventually recognizes these errors.

Let me be clear — there’s no less story in this second book than there was in Welcome to Fred.  Rather, it’s just that Whittington’s writing improves, both in the tightness of delivery and in his growing ability to weave weightier themes into the story.

In the introduction, Whittington notes that an editor advised him to “tell us more about [Mark's] father”.  While the father’s role is somewhat increased directly in this second book (through Mark’s eyes, of course, since he is the narrator), the influences of the father are what appear even moreso through Mark’s thoughts and actions, continuing the “turning into dad” theme that Whittington started in the first book.

Living with Fred is an excellent continuation of the Fred, Texas series — working well with the first book, and yet even better.

Illuminated
Matt Bronleewe

This was a fun book penned by one of the founders of Jars of Clay.  I got my hands on an Advanced Reading Copy several months ago, which I then promptly lost until recently — so much for being the first kid on the block.

I’ve heard this book compared to The DaVinci Code (minus Dan Brown’s wack theology), but not being familiar with that latter book, I can’t say for sure.  But if you’ve seen either of the National Treasure movies, then you have an idea of the feel of Illuminated.  Subsitute church history for American history, but keep intact the intrigue, puzzles, clues, and a good bit of the adventure.

August and April Adams are both book experts.  They are a separated couple with a son, Charlie.  August’s pursuits have devolved a bit, moreso obtaining and selling rare books rather than his earlier work of discovering and studying them.  Not all of his dealings are totally above board, nor are his clientele.  April is a curator at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

A secret order, that is hundreds of years old, has stumbled upon information that Johannes Gutenberg hid clues to a huge treasure in the artwork (or illuminations — hence the title) of several editions of the Bibles that he printed.  Needing multiple copies, and knowing that August and April each have access to one, they strike both of them simulateously to acquire what they have access to, threatening the lives of Charlie and Grandma Rose (April’s mother, who helps care for the boy).

Meanwhile, a second order is trying to stop them, and also acquire the treasure for itself.  One of the characters eventually turns out to be something of a “double agent”, truly a member of one order but guised as a member of the other order — or then again, maybe not.  It’s not confusing, but it’s not a book to be read while watching TV, gardening, and cooking all at the same time.

Early on in the book, it is explained to August that much like a GPS uses three points to triangulate a location, so three copies of the Gutenberg Bible are needed to triangulate the clues and figure out where the treasure is.  This metaphor works well for the whole book, too, as pieces start falling into place and the mystery starts becoming clearer.

A movie that isn’t very heavy or life-changing, but is a lot of fun, is often described as a “good popcorn movie”.  Illuminated is the book equivalent.  It was a good bit of fun, and I definitely recommend it.

P.S. I understand that this is the first book in a series, with the second installment coming out next month.

Did you like the bumper music in my last podcast? I don’t mean “like” as in “I had to run out and buy the album”, but “like” as in “it didn’t make my ears bleed too much”. I actually created that myself online with JamStudio.

Unless you count clarinet in junior high and high school, I have no instrumental talent whatsoever, but with JamStudio, I don’t have to.  I played with the tool for about 15-20 minutes just getting familiar with it, and then created that little ditty in 5 minutes (most of which was spent finding the instrumentation that I liked best).

Basically, you give chord progressions (some musical knowledge is helpful), pick up to 8 instruments, each with dozens of riffs, and the ability to mix the volume on each.  You can set the tempo, and even change the key on the fly.  They’ve even got some sample artists, where the instrumentation and riffs sound like that artist.  I’m not very familiar with a lot of their samples, but the stuff created when you pick U2’s Joshua Tree sounds just like something that’d be on that album.

Most of the features are free, but for $10/month you get a bunch of extra riffs and skip-free MP3s.  This latter issue would be important if you wanted things to sound really good.  The nature of the web-based tool will cause some skips or slight delays now and then.  I had a few that I cleaned up in an audio editor in a couple minutes, but it’s still not perfect.

There’s a video tutorial on YouTube that describes this better than I can.  Note that the tutorial doesn’t always distinguish between the free stuff and the subscription stuff.  But there’s not much that isn’t free.

This is a fun toy for wasting lots of time online.  But it also can be a good tool for the aspiring songwriter with “no instrumental talent whatsoever”, like someone we know.

And in case you’re curious, here’s everything that went into my “song” (this is how it looked with all 4 instruments going):