The Art of Living

Posted on February 11, 2014 by awtraughber

Death-by-Living-nd-wilsonLast week a life-long friend of mine posted her thoughts on how all of our lives are art, that “if we are made in God’s image, and if He is in the business of creating (and He is – just look out the window), then we are all creative in some way.”  It’s a great post that you can read here.

My friend’s thoughts have been reiterated for me through my current and third attempt at reading the long-form non-fiction of N. D. Wilson.¹   From Death by Living:

Understand this: we are both tiny and massive.  We are nothing more than molded clay given breath, but we are nothing less than divine self-portraits, huffing and puffing along mountain ranges of epic narrative arcs prepared for us by the Infinite Word Himself.  Swell with pride and gratitude, for you are tiny and given much.  You are as spoken by God as the stars . . .

You are spoken.  You are seen.  It is your turn to participate in creation.  Like a kindergartener shoved out from behind the curtain during his first play, you might not know which scene you are in or what comes next, but God is far less patronizing than we are.  You are His art, and He has no trouble stooping.

You can even ask Him for your lines.

I’m just over halfway through the book now.  It’s got a number of good moments in it,  but what you see above is my favorite so far.

You can get a copy of Death by Living online or wherever good new books are sold.

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¹ Which I mentioned last week in connection with Wilson’s “children’s” books as well as his essay writing for Christianity Today.

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The Lego Movie Really Is That Good

Posted on February 9, 2014 by awtraughber

The Lego Movie tries to have its cake and eat it, too: and it succeeds magnificently.

It plays off our need to fit in even as it exploits our need to feel special.  It’s action movie, romance, and “coming of age” story all rolled into one.  I have heard the movie called the first “remix movie” of our “remix culture,” which it totally is.  It’s nostalgic and iconoclastic.  It’s subversive and obvious.

And it’s a whole lot of fun.

In fact, it might be the best Justice League movie we’ll ever get (even the Flash makes a cameo).

I’m not sure what else there is to say except go see it.  It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a movie since The World’s End.  In fact, it has some interesting thematic connections with that movie.  And don’t let the “theme song” fool you.  “Everything is Awesome” may be the first hint that something is wrong just beneath the surface of things.

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Don’t Tell Him How to Get to Sesame Street

Posted on February 8, 2014 by awtraughber

There’s a good chance you’ve already seen this: it’s racked up almost 4 million views on YouTube in the last four days.  Even so, it’s what I’ve got to serve as a place-holder until I get my thoughts for Sherlock series three down.  It’s a preview of Benedict Cumberbatch visiting Sesame Street.  Two . . . count them, two . . . minutes of worlds colliding.

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Miller and Church, More and Less

Posted on February 7, 2014 by awtraughber

Bearing witness to the direction of Donald Miller’s work has been interesting.  He’s written some of my favorite books over the last ten years, and his blog has been a relatively constant encouragement to think about my faith.

This week Miller posted his current perspective on church.  “I Don’t Worship God by Singing.  I Connect with Him Elsewhere” pretty much says it all, but you can read it here.  It’s well-said and to the point.  It also caused quite the backlash, inspiring a firestorm of 415 comment responses.¹

The response was so strong that Miller put together a second, longer post to explain some things.  He took what he calls a “camera angle approach,” which I can appreciate.  It’s casting  a net more than sinking a line.  That post, “Why I Don’t Go to Church Very Often, a Follow Up Blog,” garnered over 450 comments.²  Lots of comments came through Twitter and other sources, including an interesting “Dear Donald Miller” posted to the Gospel Coalition and available here.

It’s all well-written, and it’s all insightful, comments included.  And it’s something churches would be wise to talk through.  Definitely worth thinking through in tandem with the Gushee article from earlier in the week.  People see things from different sides of the fence.  These posts are a good reminder of both how far we have to go AND how far we can go together.  I’m still trying to articulate my own recent journey with the local church.  Maybe someday soon I’ll get those thoughts down.

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¹ Which is like 400% more than I usually get.

² But I’m not bitter.

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The Making of Something Visible

Posted on February 6, 2014 by awtraughber

I suppose it’s bad blog form to post similar entries back-to-back.  Ah well.  Just came across a short “making of” video for the U2’s new song, “Invisible.”  It’s always nice to look behind the curtain of the creative process.  So here we go. . .

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U2 Not Quite Invisible

Posted on February 5, 2014 by awtraughber

u2-invisibleHope you took the time to download U2’s new single, “Invisible,” over Super Bowl Sunday.  According to Rolling Stone, about 3 million downloads brought in $3 million dollars through Bank of America.  I was kind of hoping that the single’s release would be accompanied by an announcement for the new album.

That didn’t happen.

But Rolling Stone posted a rundown of comments from the band via a recent BBC radio interview.  Turns out “it’s not done ’til it’s done.”  Until then, you can check out the article here.¹

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¹ My personal thoughts on the single?  It starts out as a pretty solid “break up” song that slowly becomes something else.  I am curious about how the full, unedited version goes.  The coda seems a little different from the rest of the song.  Having said that, I quite like the song lyrically.  Soundwise, it’s not as different as I was expecting.

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Reflecting on the Paradoxical Church

Posted on February 4, 2014 by awtraughber

Over Christmas vacation I had a chance to catch up with a college roommate still connected with Union.  It was a great time for me, one that reminded me of how fortunate I was to attend a school that made healthy connections between faith and life.  One of my professors who is no longer at Union, David Gushee, just posted his first article for the Associated Baptist Press News/Herald.  Granted, he’s written a good bit for a long time, but it’s kind of nice to get in on a column from the beginning.

The first article’s opening lines:

Across the United States, many churches are fading, some churches are closing, and a handful of churches are surging with explosive growth. Sunrise, sunset; sunrise, sunset. One of the topics I want to address in my new role as Senior Columnist is the paradoxical state of our churches. And I will not hesitate to call it like I see it.

What follows is a reflection on a trip to a church that many conservative church-goers might find too different and even troubling but that all of us would be wise to be aware of.  You can check the whole article out here.  Definitely something worth thinking about.

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Reading N. D. Wilson

Posted on February 3, 2014 by awtraughber

empireofbonesWhile I can’t seem to get into his long-form non-fiction, I’ve found myself quite enjoying N. D. Wilson’s more fictional or shorter stuff.  I recently rushed through the second and third entries in the Ashtown Burials series.  Much like his previous series, 100 Cupboards, the story is quite involved: invisible snakes, comatose parents, and a secret organization protecting the world from the threat of “transmortals.”  And yet there is something really engaging about the stories of Cyrus and Antigone Smith and the Order of Benedict.

Wilson has also started writing shorter non-fiction pieces for Christianity Today under the umbrella of “Mud Alive.”  Three have seen print so far.  The first, “To Tame the World,” is a nice piece about reality and our relationship to it.  The third piece, “The Dark-Tinted Truth-Filled Reading List We Owe Our Kids,” is exemplified in the “big bad” of Empire of Bones.  It’s the second one that gets me.  In “Our Love-Hate Relationship with Christian Art,” Wilson starts off with that queasy feeling some of us experience when talking about faith and the arts.  And then near the bottom of the first digital page of the article:

Christian art? Are you kidding me? Christianity has produced the greatest art of all time. Get some swagger, people, because we’re undefeated. Did a culture of atheism bring us Handel’s Messiah?Bach? What faith fed the Dutch masters? Give the cathedrals a glance and then find me better architecture. Have a listen to some American spirituals. To the blues. To gospel. Our brothers illuminated manuscripts (and don’t you forget it). Narnia. Hobbits. Folk songs. Symphonies. Through the history of the Christian church there runs a wide and roaring river of artistic glory, feeding believers and unbelievers alike.

And then some real encouragement:

Pursue excellence in your moment even when only he sees, because he always does. Strive to do better, to improve, to create glory, not because you fear catcalls from the bleachers of unbelief, but because the bar has been set so high by saints who have gone before, because you would love to be an accurate image of God, as true a reflection of his creativity as you can be. Take joy in your craft, lofty or lowly, because you would be like him.

You can read the entire essay here.  From there you can link to the other two entries.  The 100 Cupboards and Ashtown Burials can be found in most bookstores and online for order.

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Space Enough, and Time: Super-Bowl Edition

Posted on February 2, 2014 by awtraughber

superbowlI’m not much for professional sports, but I’m all about trying to make sense of professional life in your thirties.  That’s why Chris B. Brown’s Grantland piece on Peyton Manning caught my attention a couple of days ago.

The article, “Better With Age,” looks at Manning’s ability to maintain his edge after 20 years in the game.  And while I haven’t been teaching for twenty years, I can’t help but feel that “the game” has changed as much or more than I have these past ten years.  Manning’s solution?  Something about “throwing short” and the “Drag.”  Brown:

Denver’s increased reliance on the Drag this season has been partially strategic, since it works well against the kind of press-man coverage many teams employ in lieu of letting Manning expose their zone coverage. It has also stemmed from physical concerns, though. Manning’s arm strength, while still serviceable, is obviously not what it once was. But, much as Michael Jordan shifted from slashing and dunking to employing a crafty and basically unstoppable fadeaway jumper as he aged, Manning has adapted to his physical limitations by relying on his anticipation, his ability to process defenses, and his knack for delivering accurate passes to receivers on the run.¹

I’d like to think that a teacher has a “better shelf life” than a football player, considering how physically demanding the sport is.  And yet there’s a kind of mental and emotional demand that comes with teaching that can trap you between maintaining what is and creating what isn’t yet.  I’m feeling it, eleven years in.  Change is constant: technology, students, personnel.  There’s a lot to work through that may have nothing to do with a sense of vocation and mission.  But if Jordan can move to “fadeaway jumpers” and Manning can emphasize short passes, then maybe there are better ways for all of us, teachers included, to get “better with age.”

You can read Brown’s entire article here.

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¹ The article includes a number of video clips and play diagrams that probably mean more to you than they do to me.  It’s a quality article, I think, even if I don’t get the nuance in much of it.

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Sherlock’s Many Almost Returns

Posted on December 24, 2013 by awtraughber

Lots of good things coming out of Britain over the next few weeks.  Tomorrow we see “The Time of the Doctor” and another regeneration.  Then, come January, Sherlock and Downton Abbey return to American airwaves.  Thankfully, the BBC has released a “minisode” for Sherlock, something they mostly do (to great effect) for Doctor Who.  This one’s quite nice, too.

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