Just Passing the Time

Okay, I have nothing particularly profound to share with you today, but I felt like writing something, so here I am updating all of you on what I've been up to lately.

Watching:
Entourage - Season 3, Part 1
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 2
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - the first and only season :(
Keeping up with the Hitchcock this summer, I watched Vertigo, and Psycho is next.

Reading:
Slowly getting through Life of Pi, I need to work harder on that.
Haven't picked up American Pastoral in a while, but I plan to tomorrow.
Gonna start trying to get through 2 chapters of Knowing God each day. It's really good, even if it is a little dense. But from what I've heard about how dense Mere Christianity is (which I also plan to read this summer), it should be a good preparation.
And in the Biblia, I finished Isaiah, and both Peters; next are Exodus and Matthew.

Listening to:
Acoustic Soul, India Arie
The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey
The College Dropout, Kanye West
Worship, Michael W. Smith
and I just started looking for some Derek Webb, since a bunch of my friends have a mild (and what I'm certain is a very healthy) obsession with him, and I wanna know what the deal is.

And that's what's happening in my world.

A good friend of mine who I love and respect enormously recently started up his own blog and wrote his first entry about "redemptive violence" - using violence as a means to create good, and why he doesn't feel this is a solid Christian notion given Jesus' words on loving our enemies and turning the other cheek. I agree, but I had a few questions, and hopefully we're gonna talk on it and figure some stuff out. I might let you know how it goes, if he doesn't do something similar on his own page.

I really liked a chapter I read in Knowing God about to what extent and how we should use images of Christ in daily life and in terms of worship. I would tell you about it, but it would just end up as me telling you what J.I. Packer said, so I'll just mention the main ideas. Basically, he says that we need to make sure we have a balance between symbolic representational images. Representational images are what we need to avoid because they attempt to show what God or Jesus actually look like, which is something we cannot comprehend, and in trying to show it, we diminish the glory and power of God. Also, because they give us mental images of God, we can pray to or worship God as if he were synonymous with those images (even if we don't realize we're doing it), and therefore violate the second commandment. Symbolic images (usually coming from artistic expression) are okay, as long as we do not let them become representational in our hearts or minds. So that's basically what Packer had to say on that, and for the most part, I agree. Feel free to contest it or ask questions, but know that Packer made his argument a lot better than I can, and I really recommend looking it up to see for yourself.

Other than that, though, not much going on (except I've been getting to the gym more).

I definitely know what I plan on writing about sometime soon, but I'm still working it out in my head, so check back. Peace be with you until then.