I’m just going to leave this video right here while I go kick myself for not watching it sooner. It’s definitely something I’ll be sharing at school in the next couple of weeks. Whenever I get bits like this from Alan Jacobs or Jamie Smith, it just feels like my time at Laity Lodge gets extended in a nice, refreshing way.
There is this strong sense that Our Current Moment feels somehow unending. It can be easy to feel that way about a lot of things, good and bad. But these last few days I’ve been encouraged and comforted by Mission House’s take on things with their song “Never See the End.” Shared for your encouragement at the beginning of this good but busy week.
It’s always a good time when you get back around to the songs of ascent in the book of Psalms, and not just because they tend to be shorter than the average psalm. There’s a certain sense of place and purpose that fits them well as travel songs. Today’s brought one of my favorites to light, Psalm 131:
1 My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. 3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
I’ve always been interesting in what can be found at the intersection of faith and art. Now it’s also a bigger part of my task at work. So when I found out that Christianity Today had published a piece featuring Sara Groves and W. David O. Taylor, I was sure to check it out to pass it on to my friend in the Fine Arts department. It’s a really good piece. And while it spends a good bit of time with the arts and the Pentecostal church, it also acknowledges the challenges of faith and the arts in a broader context. It’s definitely worth the read, if only because Sara Groves is an amazing musician and Taylor has some interesting categories for “inspiration and the arts” to consider.
As is often the case, though, the article saves the best for last. Groves gets the last good word, and it is worth remembering:
Not less of me, more of God; but all of me, all of God—a profound mystery.
Here’s Sara Groves singing one of my favorite songs, “Why It Matters,” which also has something to say about the arts.
A couple of weeks ago, just as school was starting back up for us, Andy Crouch commented on Twitter in a way that said we were all but nudged into the “little ice age” view of Covidtide. Here’s how the folks at Praxis broke it down:
Blizzard: You can’t go out — zero visibility and hostile conditions. Need to shelter.
Winter: You can go out, but not for long. Wear protective clothing and check the forecast for storms. Need to survive.
Ice Age: Things don’t grow the way they used to — but we’re finding new ways to live and even to thrive. Need to adapt and rebuild.
It’s a sad and sobering thought, that it might be some time (some say 2022, some say 2024) before a return to something like pre-Covidtide. There are differing views on how we are handling things, from how we are communicating cases to the necessary implications for day-to-day life. Here on Oahu our case numbers took a leap (late July, I believe), and we’ve been on a certain kind of edge since. Rumors are swirling about another lockdown/stay-at-home order, even as our beaches, bars, and parks have been shut down again. I’m guessing that it will happen this coming weekend, but it could be earlier. I’m praying that it won’t happen before Saturday evening/Sunday morning.
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I had planned on getting to this coming week’s chapel message (first of the year!) by the middle of last week. Then things kept happening, meetings kept happening, and I find myself nowhere near the frame of mind to record anything. I finally got to that place Friday afternoon. And then I had technical issues. So I inadvertently had two practice runs before the actual recording. I had hoped to get home before dark. I think I missed the mark by a bit.
There was, of course, one moment where I realized that I had told myself in June and in July that I wasn’t going to do this to myself again. Not the chapel part, which is what it is, but the road to the finished product. Granted, it’s an experience common to any pastor who has had to record his own sermons over the last few months, so I don’t think I’m in any particular need for pity. But that coupled with other day-to-day realities reminded me that I need to get some (re)thinking done.
And so I’m really hoping that a stay-at-home order doesn’t kick in until Saturday evening because I really want to use this week to get caught up on some things and use this weekend to take a step back and gain some perspective. Because, it turns out, no one is going to do it for you.
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So what have we learned . . . what have I learned . . . over the last five months? Probably not as much as I would have liked, probably not as much as I should. But I need to figure out some of those things before we get too far into the fall (for school, too far into lots of other areas, too). I have no issue with the concept of the little ice age. Even if I disagree with the way things are playing out across the state or country, those in charge seem to think we’re in one. I’m thinking that it’s also revealing that “things haven’t been growing the way they used to” for some time now, for a good bit of time before Covidtide set in, and we’re really just now allowing ourselves to get a better sense of it. Or we’re simply in denial. But that’s no good in the long run or the short. That’s something none of us can afford.
The first week of (online) classes comes to an end tomorrow. It’s been a good week. Turns out I’d forgotten a lot about the way technology works, so Monday was a kind of crash course. And while screen-to-screen is always going to be different and feel a bit “off,” I do feel like at least some sense of connection with those on the other side. Things keep coming, of course, and adjustments are always being made. But that’s part of life in this “little ice age.”
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I continue to learn ways of teaching and communicating more effectively from the ideas of Alan Jacobs. We are about 20 pages into How to Think in class. Today he posted a “Message to My Students” essay that, while obviously specific to his work at Baylor, still has some nice hints for how a teacher can carry himself in Our Current Moment. It’s a nice piece that ends well with a quote from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Jacobs freely admits that things will be different but that he will remain available, that some but not all accommodations may be met and that’s okay. He also links to a couple of other pieces he’s written that are appropriate for the moment that I’ll look into soon. But here’s the ending:
So let’s be patient with one another. I will try not to ask more of you than is reasonable in the circumstances, and I hope you will do the same for me. And I would encourage you all to keep in mind, as we begin this strange term, these words from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians: “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.”
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD wrapped up its seven-season run tonight doing what it’s done best: playing by its own rules. While there was one big nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was more about science than characters. Still, the two-parter still brought the feels, even as it brought many things full-circle. (It also makes me want to go back and rewatch the end of season six, but I imagine I’ll get there some time soon.) And while it didn’t take the path I had hoped, it still wrapped things up with a nice bow or two. Here’s the final scene, which ABC posted a few hours ago. I wouldn’t normally post something so final and so spoilery so quickly, but this is more for posterity’s sake.
Scripted television is now over for a good while, it seems. And when it comes back, there won’t be any Marvel on ABC. But that’s okay. SHIELD had a good run.
ABC finally took put together a better “series finale” trailer for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. It includes the short clip from last week but also has an extended introduction that highlights some key moments from some of the current cast. It’s a nice touch. It’s difficult to believe that the finale is upon us: the show had such an erratic schedule for the last few seasons and had its final season announced some time ago. But it’s here. The effects look great. And I’m hopeful for seven seasons’ worth of full circles.
I don’t follow many online newsletters, though I do like the comment. I follow Matthew Anderson’s because he regularly talks through “Christian ethics” in a way that doesn’t happen as well as often. One of my favorite parts of his newsletter, though, is the closing quote section. He regularly posts tidbits from Oliver O’Donovan or Augustine or some other thinker that are encouraging and a reminder of the deep well that we can draw from. Anderson ended his most recent newsletter (you can subscribe here) with a great quote from Stanley Hauerwas. I may have read the quote before, but it’s gotten lost in later reading. It’s nice to see something so pertinent and to-the-point. I’ll be sharing it at work sometime soon, I imagine.
The story of God does not offer a resolution of life’s difficulties, but it offers us something better–an adventure and struggle, for we are possessors of the happy news that God has called people together to live faithful to the reality that he is the Lord of this world. All men have been promised that through the struggle of this people to live faithful to that promise God will reclaim the world for his Kingdom. By learning their part in this story, Christians claim to have a narrative that can provide the basis for a self appropriate to the unresolved, and often tragic, conflicts of this existence.
Well, the two network shows that have carried me through the summer are coming to an end next week. First up is the conclusion of Stargirl on the CW and DC Universe app. The show has been a great blend of history and the contemporary, or light and darkness (sometimes really dark), hope and despair. I really hope the final episode gets to be a little longer (like the first two episodes), as there’s a lot that needs resolving. Here’s the final preview:
I look forward to a rewatch of the season sometime down the road, probably before 2020 comes to an end.
And then there’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD on ABC, which has done a good job of bringing on the pathos as it wraps up it’s seven-season run. I had hoped to actually see more time-jumps into previous season, but that hasn’t happened. We got some name drops in this week’s episode, which was nice but maybe not enough for this sentimentalist. But the stakes for the finale are appropriately high on multiple levels. And we get two hours on Wednesday, which is a treat. Here’s the final preview:
I have no idea what to expect with this finale. I’m hopeful, of course, but the looming threat of an erased timeline is something I never look forward to. May the show has one more trick up its sleeve. We’ll find out in a week.
Space Enough, and Time 