DowBlog

Quest

By Darrell | May 12, 2008

At the beginning of almost every fantasy novel lies a page containing The Map. There’s a good reason why the map is a vital part of the book; the characters in a fantasy novel are not going to stay put. Our heroes are not going to sit by the fireside watching the world pass them by, they are going to be off and doing. They are going to be on a mission to destroy the ring, slay the dragon, find the treasure, or save the world. They are going on a quest.

Sometimes I find myself wishing my life were a bit more like those books. Fight evil. Save the World. Die happy. And indeed, a good number of Christian books would seem to offer this to us. Books like the Purpose Driven Life would tell us that our focus should be on finding our purpose and promise that life is a great adventure just waiting to happen. Missionary stories of adventures in the wild thrill our imaginations and make us long for a more exciting ministry.

But as a Christian what is my ultimate goal? What is my quest? It’s not an outer journey to a physical goal but an inner conforming to a spiritual mindset. My enemies are not flesh and blood. The treasure I seek is God Himself and the path is being conformed to the mind of Christ. It’s a very different kind of quest.

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22 Words

By Darrell | May 11, 2008

The Bard said that brevity is the soul of wit. It would also seem to be the soul of 22 Words blog.

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Forgiving Yourself: Part 2

By Darrell | May 11, 2008

To go along with my previous post about the lack of Biblical basis for the concept of ‘forgiving yourself’ I found another excellent piece from In The Clearing in the save vein:

You hear it all the time. People say, “I know that God has forgiven me, but I’m still having trouble forgiving myself.”

I understand that people really do believe this when they say it. They believe they have diagnosed their problem sufficiently to explain their lack of joy, their depression, their inability simply to move on. They are trapped, they realize that much, and they sincerely believe they will break free once they learn to forgive themselves.

But they’re wrong. However plausible it may seem, it’s a dark and nasty lie. They’re confused and deceived. The devil has kicked sand in their eyes. They’re operating in a fog. They have added . . . listen to me . . . they have added to the grace of God.

In fact, they’ve created an idol of their own self-forgiveness. Something on which they place an even higher value than on what Christ has accomplished on their behalf. The thing is, that’s a sin, and unless they understand it as such, repentance will remain far from them, which is a crying shame.

I speak for many. I speak out of experience. I speak with authority. I have said those things. I have operated in that fog. I have carved that idol and set it up in a special corner of my heart.

Listen. Here’s how God smashed it to smithereens. He said, Son, listen to me carefully. I am your creator, God almighty. I don’t mess with half-measures. My declarations are not ineffective. My works are not fruitless. Go back to the cross, son. Go ahead. Go back and hear the lacerated dying Jesus say, “Forgive them, Father. They don’t know what they’re doing.” Wait, stay there longer and here him say with his dying breath, “It is finished.” Then walk away from that place saying, “Yeah, okay, but I still have to learn to forgive myself…”

Listen! Don’t you dare presume to add anything to what Jesus has called finished. Don’t you dare! As if you needed something more than my forgiveness! As if my mercy were not sufficient! If you are not satisfied with what I give, you have no part in me! Turn again, and receive what I continue to offer, that for which the whole universe longs: enduring, abounding, all-satisfying grace!

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Whimsey from Whitman

By Darrell | May 9, 2008

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired, and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

– Walt Whitman, 1865

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Data Mining: Fishing for Terrorists

By Darrell | May 9, 2008

Data mining is the strongest (and yet must underdeveloped) anti-terrorism tool in our arsenal. I hope to see some more emphasis put on this kind of technology in the future.
Scott McPherson writes:

We have spent tens of billions of dollars on reactive antiterrorism gear. I am sure that is important for the residents of Fargo and other towns. Yet we have spent a comparatively paltry sum of cash on solutions that actually might stop terror before it happens. And one of those ingenious things that actually worked, Seisint founder Hank Asher’s brilliant MATRIX system, remains mired in controversy and politics. Hank showed me MATRIX just a few short weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Using law enforcement data and commercial data, all of the commercial data available in the public domain, Asher’s query produced Atta’s photo — and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers.

It was simple data mining and algorithms, and none of the information was obtained illegally. But the prospect of such powerful data mining was apparently anathema to those who feign surprise at such matters. The politicians’ collective “shock” reminded me of the classic line uttered by Claude Rains in Casablanca. Rains, as Captain Renault, says “I am shocked — shocked — to find that there is gambling going on here!” Then the casino employee hands Rains some cash and says, “Your winnings, sir.”

Why the mock horror? Political parties have been mining similar data for cash and votes for over a decade, maybe longer. They have been using many of the same databases, and many of the same techniques, with very effective results.

We have gamma-ray detectors for looking into tractor trailers without opening the doors. We have thousands and thousands of bomb suits, anthrax response suits, atom bomb detectors the size of a pack of Marlboros, and huge chem/bio truck depots in places so remote that terrorists couldn’t find them with a Garmin and a Navaho scout.

But we can’t unify all the nation’s jail booking systems, and all the bench warrant systems, and all the other data systems, because it costs too much, or people are fearful of losing their control over the data, or they don’t want to lose the ability to take credit for something.

One thing’s for certain: These criminals — and terrorists are criminals — will continue to make small mistakes. And until we can link the small mistakes with the Bigger Picture, I guess we will need all that other stuff.

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Owning A Book

By Darrell | May 8, 2008

I found this over at Challies.com and couldn’t help but pass it along.

There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher’s icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood stream to do you any good.

Confusion about what it means to “own” a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type — a respect for the physical thing — the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn’t prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.

There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best sellers — unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books — a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books or many — every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.) …

But the soul of a book “can” be separate from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheets of music. Arturo Toscanini reveres Brahms, but Toscanini’s score of the G minor Symphony is so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself can read it. The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores — marks them up again and again each time he returns to study them—is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.

– Mortimer Adler How to Read a Book.

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Visiting Church…

By Darrell | May 6, 2008

A typical Sunday in my church search, portrayed by the ineffable Mr. Bean:

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Spiritual Water

By Darrell | May 6, 2008

Here’s a gem from the Denver Post

Spiritual Water, the faith-inspired venture of two Sunrise, Fla., businessmen, offers its drinkers clearer focus, positive thinking and connection to a higher power.

The 11 bottles in the company’s collection bear prayers and impressively detailed images of Jesus Christ, St. Michael and the Virgin Mary.

Spiritual Water joins a broad slice of feel-good products — Testamint, Bible Gum and other bottled holy waters — emerging at the intersection of religion and commerce, entrepreneurship and pop culture.

Spiritual Water’s message is delivered in a 16.9-ounce plastic bottle that sells for $2.

The Formula J’ variety carries the image of Jesus in a crown of thorns and the Fatima prayer: Oh My Jesus, forgive us our sins. / Save us from the fires of hell. / Lead all souls into heaven, / especially those in need of the mercy. Amen.

“You drink it, and you just feel like you are in church,” says Cecilia Joseph, a Sunrise real estate agent who liked Spiritual Water so much she became a distributor. “The pictures are so beautiful. You look at them and read the prayer, and it just feels good.”

Alongside the standard nutritional facts — zero calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, protein — the bottles are printed with prayers in English and Spanish. Product varieties include Power Water with the Apostles’ Creed, Strength Water featuring the Serenity prayer and Essential Water with the Guardian Angel prayer.

Wear-your-faith T-shirts already had exploded in the market, along with jewelry and candles, even candy. The New Jersey firm that makes Testamints offers berry, spearmint and peppermint mints wrapped in a verse of scripture. Bible Gum promises consumers they can chew their way to spiritual enlightenment.

But water, central to religious experiences, had not fully tapped the growing faith-inspired market.

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