Matt W Cook

I stare at the bland ceiling and think about life. I think about the prospect of having worked hard, paid my dues and finding out that, perhaps, it all meant nothing.

You hear of people devoting their lives to things that don’t matter. You see people spending hours and hours in from of the TV. Useless. Short-lived. Scary.

Thoughts of my own futility scare the crap out of me. What if it’s all worthless? What if I spend three years writing a book and two people read it? What if I slave my whole life for a cause benefits no one? What if I wake up early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to write a blog, but no one reads it?

Are you afraid of futility? I guess it’s a good fear to have. I’m afraid that what I do will not last. I’m afraid of the sands slipping away in the hourglass. Are you? Be afraid. Fear spurs you on. Sometimes I get so afraid I pull myself out of bed and work on something productive.

I found the secret to beating the fear when it becomes to great. Want to hear it?

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,  so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but sit shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

There it is – I just make sure that the work I busy myself in is attached to God’s work. If it points to him it must be good.

And I work on. I don’t think I’ll ever be sure if most of my work is futile or not, but I work on anyway. I know that, at the very least, since I busy myself with God’s work it will help me. Even if only two people read the thing I worked for three years on, at least the writing of it was a benefit to me. And I guess that’s enough for now.

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

I heard a cool story the other day.

There was this university guy who hated all Christians (because all authorities hate Christians) and he was going to prove Christianity wrong by dropping a piece of chalk and letting it break (if it broke, God didn’t exist). But one student stood up and said that Christianity was right and he had faith (brave dude, eh?). So the professor laughed and dropped the chalk, but it bounced off his cuff and rolled safely onto the floor (proving Christianity true, Q.E.D.). So then the teacher got scared and ran out of the room (for some reason) and the student who stood up came to the blackboard and preached the gospel (and no-one minded because of the chalk). Oh, and the student was Einstein.

It must be true. Because it helps our case, right?

We are such gullible people. We Christians are willing to believe pretty much anything so long as it agrees with the principles of what we already believe. So we are willing to swallow obvious lies about Darwin’s deathbed confessions, computers that prove Joshua made the sun stand still, Einstein being a Christian and a fetus grabbing a doctor’s hand. Are we so afraid of Truth that we are willing to make up and blindly believe lies?

If we are going to show the world what we stand on, it will take intellectual fidelity. This is hard. This means that we will have to search and dig and stand on truth even if it seems that the truth we discover doesn’t actually help us convince people of the truth of Christ. But we have to do it anyway. We have to be committed to truth because the moment we start believe and propagating lies about Jesus being portrayed in a gay movie we are putting up a big sign saying ‘Hey! I don’t care much about truth or fiction. I don’t mind believing things I’ve never tested. I agree with things I like and disagree with things I don’t!’

Christians have complained about the fact that most people think there is a necessary conflict between Intellect and Christianity. They shouldn’t complain because it’s the actions and opinions of Christians who give credence to that opinion.

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

While the feeling I get when I encounter jerks is certainly different than the feeling I get when around spiders, I am still kept up at night by them. I’ve never understood them.

How many problems in the world would be solved if jerks simply stopped being jerks? What if every jerk turned into a nice guy/girl? Off the top of my head I can think of five pressing problems in my life that would be utter solved and turned into loveliness if the jerks involved turned nice.

Is it really that hard? Is it so hard to be kind? Is it so hard to stop giving in to your jerky tenancies and assume, for a moment, that other humans have feelings and hopes and dreams that you shouldn’t pound?

I guess it might be. And I guess it takes Jesus to fix that, right? So Jerk + Jesus = Nice Dude.

So why are most jerks I know Christians?

Of course, I suppose most people I know are Christians, so I’m not suggesting that there are more jerks in Christendom than out of it. But shouldn’t Christians not be jerks? Isn’t a Christian someone who lives as Jesus lived? Or at least tries? If that’s the case, then is it not impossible for a Christian to be a jerk? Love and Jerk do not go together.

Something’s wrong here and it keeps me up at night.

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The challenge is to show the world that we are hoping in and counting on something different from what they are counting on and hoping in. We can’t do that if we are not radical. If we are not radical we are normal. If we are normal we are like everyone else. If we are like everyone else we are not hoping in or counting on anything special. And if we are not hoping in or counting on anything special we don’t know Jesus.

Jesus is radical. Jesus said to sell all that you have and give it to the poor. Jesus said if anyone asks from you, you need to give. Jesus said your possessions don’t matter. Jesus knows what he’s talking about.

Christians are not radical. Christians say get a decent savings account and buy big things on credit. Christians say never give to beggars because if they can’t get a job they’re either lazy or junkies. Christians think possessions are the most important things in the world. Christians are dummies.

There is nothing wrong with you going to the bank, withdrawing $400 and giving it to a charity, a less-well-off family or a bum on the street. Nothing. Do you think the poor in Jesus’ day were more responsible than they are today? Not likely. And he suggested selling everything.

But, of course, we can’t do that. Something has changed since then. I’m not sure what. I don’t know why Jesus’ advice is no longer sound, but I know it just can’t work anymore. Maybe because people were more financially stable back then. Maybe because Jesus cared more back then. Maybe because poor people deserved it more back then.

I was once told that I shouldn’t give money to poor people because they don’t deserve it. I am so glad no one told Jesus that when he was giving his life for me, because I certainly don’t deserve it. Do you?

If we don’t give radically, people will assume (rightly) that we rely on the same things they do.

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It looks like my mother has join the blogosphere. If you like books and cooking, maybe you should check her out!

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It was the best of songs. It was the worst of songs.

Have you ever heard a really bad song? Or a really bad ‘Christian’ song? I think I saw one this morning…but I probably shouldn’t diss it. It’s pretty famous. You’re not supposed to diss famous things.
But I guess I will anyway.

Meeting in the Saviour’s Name,
‘Breaking bread’ by His command,
To the world we thus proclaim
on what ground we hope to stand.

It’s a favorite of the Brethren. Maybe because it mentions Breaking Bread. But I don’t like it. I’ll tell you why.

This song implies that the main way in which we proclaim on which ground we hope to stand – the main method we use to show people how much we hope and delight in Jesus, is by meeting on Sunday morning and breading bread, singing songs and doing ‘church.’

I don’t think this is right. Do you think it’s right? I mean, I love the Lord’s Supper. I think it’s a great thing. A necessary thing for Christians. Some of the greatest moments of encouragement, spiritual clarity and devotion have happened to me during the Breaking of Bread. But it’s not the main way in which we proclaim how much we love and hope in Jesus. Because, the way we do things, the Breaking of Bread is little different from any other religious exercise.

Catholics do their mass. Muslims do their namaz. Evangelicals break bread. As far as the world can tell there is no real difference. If we want to show that we are hoping in something radically different from what the rest of the world is hoping in, then we need to do something radically different from what the world does.

And so I’m going to be starting a little blogging series on this. I don’t know how long it’ll go for. We’ll have to wait and see. I just want to answer the question: How can we thus proclaim on what ground we hope to stand?

There’s a bill in the pipes in America right now.  Read it.

There’s a bill in the pipes in America right now.  Read it.

I’m heading off on a canoe trip tomorrow morning. You know, one of those manly, father-son & other men sort of bonding time. Should be good.

I’ve been pretty regular with the blog lately, eh? Not too bad if I do say so myself. But I guess I won’t really be doing much on it for the next few days. Wi-fi isn’t so good up at 6-Mile Lake.

See ya!

Okay, so I did it.  I’m a twit.