Read: "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper

I just finished reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. I put off reading this book for a few years, as several people told me I really should read it. I thought it would be a summary of much of what I've read in some of Piper's longer works, e.g. Desiring God, Future Grace, etc. My expectations were immediately shattered, however. This little book is an amazingly passionate call and reminder to prize Jesus Christ above all else, and in doing so, be ready to gladly risk worldly pleasure and comfort for the glorious cause of Christ's kingdom. Forgive me if I sound too Piper-esque in my writing there - if I've been reading Piper for any extended period of time I start to think, talk and write like he does. The only problem is that accidentally sounding like Piper doesn't make someone as smart as he is. Oh well.

Among the things I appreciate about John Piper, is the honesty in his writing. A place in the book that really stands out for me is where he acknowledges that once his position at Bethlehem Baptist church in Minnesota is no longer the most effective post for him in the Gospel cause, he will leave and do the thing God has for him then. I want to have the same wartime mindset, where I strive to find the most effective place in the cause, where God has gifted me and enabled me to do the most good, with the most joy. There I must do my best to live, and as Piper says, I risk wasting my life if I do not live there.

The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. ~ John Piper

Why I enjoy reading Shakespeare

I wrote the following today for an online class I'm taking to renew my ACSI teaching credential. The class deals with teaching and reading Shakespeare with young adults. I thought I would post some of my writing assignments as I go, when they deal with a good topic. The following is a free response, answering the questions, "What have been your past experiences with Shakespeare, why do you think it is important to teach Shakespeare in high school literature classes, and What do you hope to gain from the course?" I'm looking forward to the class, as it looks like it's going to be helpful.

I've always had a love for Shakespeare. Even as a younger student in school, reading Shakespeare's plays have always been intriguing for me, albeit difficult at times. I think it's always been the uniqueness of his stories, and the mystery we experience as we decipher his language, that have been so appealing to me. I also really enjoy when a story completely immerses the reader in its atmosphere, and Shakespeare's plays do this like few other works. Who hasn't felt the eerie foreboding of the foggy Scottish moors in Macbeth, or the terror in the castle on the night of Duncan's murder?

As a graduated English major, and as a teacher of literature, I still feel that way about Shakespeare by and large. I also appreciate the richness of the early-modern English now more than I ever did. I still remember my Shakespeare prof. from college telling us that good old Will (as she affectionately called the Bard), wrote his plays when there weren't any grammar books or dictionaries to guide his use of language. Without Shakespeare, perhaps we would all be speaking French, instead of reciting Hamlet's beautifully tragic lines in English. That would be different, sure; but it's hard to imagine our favorite pieces of Shakespeare's text written any other way.

I really do believe teaching Shakespeare is important to continue in our classrooms. Just because something is old doesn't make it irrelevant (as Mary Ellen Dakin argues in the introduction of our class text), and Shakespeare's plots connect in so many ways with mankind in our present day that we would be mistaken if we thought we must abandon his work for something more "novel." C.S. Lewis wrote about the tyranny of novelty, and I have to echo his opinion that some of the richest, and most relevant (and correct) observations about life come from the classic authors.

Shakespeare's language, as Dakin mentions, can also serve as a great leveler in our classrooms. Students come into our literature classes from widely varied backgrounds (culturally and socially); varied home lives, talents and academic abilities. When we open a play by Shakespeare, there is a definite sense in which we are all "in it together." We must all decipher and decode his sometimes-archaic language, and determine what his stories have to say to us.

In my last 4 years teaching high school literature and composition, I've taught several plays, for a few different grade levels. For 9th - 12th grades (all of which I've taught at one point or another at our private school), we have read Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth. And I do realize that those are all tragedies. Hopefully my classes over the past years haven't experienced tragedy in our reading of them.

Overall, Shakespeare remains at the top of my list of favorite authors, in all of his complexity and mystery. I really do hope to gain some new, fresh ideas for how to bring students along in discovering the good in reading him.

The Old Man and the Sea

His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.

Well, I finished reading The Old Man and the Sea three days ago. It was a great read. I was very impressed with Hemingway's narration of the story; how, in a very short read, he gives us so much insight into the protagonist, Santiago; how Santiago lives his life according to what he believes he was "born for," which is to be a fisherman.

One of the things I really do appreciate in Hemingway's writing, in the few novels I have read by him, is that he finds a way to make his stories so profoundly sad. The Old Man and the Sea is not as bleak as some other Hemingway I've read, but there is still a profoundly sad undercurrent as we get to know Santiago.

Why I appreciate the sadness: I believe that life is equally made up happy, and painful experiences. So art, doing what art does, as it reflects the human condition in all of its happiness and pain, must not ignore the pain and sadness. To focus entirely on the sadness would be far more bleak than necessary, for sure; but, to ignore human pain and focus completely on happiness would be dishonest. We are a fallen human race, living in a fallen world fraught with imperfections.

So that's why I like Hemingway's knack for sadness. I think even as an unbeliever, he felt, and was honest about what it meant to be human. All this to say, I recommend the book.

Full Hitchens/Wilson Debate!

I thought I would re-post this. If you'd like to watch a full, unabridged debate between Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson, go here! This one is from Westminster Theological Seminary, and is one of the best samples from their debate tour I've found.

Thoughts on Blogs

I've been telling people over the past 6 months or so, that blogs are a blessing and a curse. This statement has prompted responses of both agreement and disagreement, usually combined with a confused look. It's funny that 7 or 8 years ago relatively no one had a "blog" as we know them today, and now they're one of the most popular mediums with which to share information in our culture. Thus, in such a blog-centralized culture, I think my distrust of the blogosphere comes across to some as old-fashioned and/or backwards (not to mention my mixed opinions about Twitter and Facebook).

But here's the thing: I really do think blogs are great. There are a bunch of them that I follow, and I greatly enjoy the opportunity to get regular updates from writers and thinkers whose material I love to read. Essentially, blogs give us regular new writing from our favorite writers (if that makes sense). The blogging community also gives us a whole world really, where we can read and share ideas with those whom we share similar interests and concerns. You'll notice, my blogroll is ready to go on the side of my page here.

The problem that I do have with blogs, and that has come up in quite a few conversations over the past months, is really best summed up by D.A. Carson in a book I'm reading at the moment. The book is Why We're Not Emergent, by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck; the book is ultimately a critique of the emergent church movement, but in it there's a great little quote from Carson relating to the blogging community. He says,

"The feedback on blogs is immediate. You have a thought and then three minutes later it's published for the world to digest. And then in another three minutes you have anonymous folks posting messages about how wonderful you are. It tends to inflate one's sense of importance."

The author goes on to add,

"We [he and Carson] agree that there is something good about the editing process, the idea that your work sits for a while and is evaluated before being thrust before the world." *

Again, I don't condemn blogging for the most part. I think it's great. I love to read and find new blogs. But, they give every single person a platform to spout their opinions, regardless of how intelligent or ignorant they may be; and like Carson says, once a person publishes his/her thought, anonymous people can post their agreeing or rebutting comments (regardless of how intelligent or ignorant).

If you haven't done it, do me this favor: find yourself a blog post by someone you respect and/or agree with on something, where open comments are allowed on the post. Read the comments and see what people feel the freedom to say. Also watch out for the lack of proofreading.

Ironic that I've said all this in a blog post, and Carson's quote comes from an actual book. For every blog post of mine that you read, go read 2 books by D.A. Carson.

*DeYoung and Kluck, Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), 93.

The Rhetoric of the New Atheism

We're moving quickly through a unit in my AP Language classes that I've entitled "The Question of Worldview," inspired by our required text for the unit, The Question of God by Armand Nicholi. I am stepping out in faith today, by giving a chapter to the students, taken from Christopher Hitchens' book God is Not Great, with the intention of then following up with a reading of a Douglas Wilson article on the New Atheism. The next logical step is to watch the DVD of Collision in class, which is on the lesson plan for later this week. It's a great documentary (I think); definitely pick up a copy, or watch it if you get the chance. I heard they're selling it at Costco at the moment.

As I've been reading Hitchens' book, I've been struck by his use of rhetoric (apropo for AP Language), and which I am discovering in much of the New Atheists' writing. Rhetoric: the art of speaking effectively, using techniques and tools to produce a specific response in the reader. Hitchens' draws eloquently on his vast reading experience, and weaves all his references together so well that he makes a compelling argument that conceals much of atheism's logical inconsistencies. These atheists are good writers, but the reader must beware of the persuasive power of the wordsmith.

Overall, I'm thankful for the chance to read/watch much from the New Atheism debate, at the same time I've been reading so much about rhetoric. It has really added a lot to my perception of those engaging in the debate, from both sides.

On Piper, on Lewis.

On desire, John Piper says this in a blog post from August 3, 2009:

"[...] all the debased enjoyments of the world are echoes of the joys of heaven. The analysis of this is worth a lifetime. And one effect of such an analysis would be to take the notion of “seeker-sensitive” ten miles deeper into Truth. How to penetrate the soul whose every desire is for Heaven while hating Heaven—that is the task."

Blogging about this concept of desire, Piper references the biography The Narnian about C.S. Lewis, and the references made in it to Lewis' own The Screwtape Letters. I love this idea of joy, and both Lewis and Piper have both been hugely influential in my own thinking as I have come to see this truth - namely, that every human desire is a desire for Heaven and for God Himself. Any desire, however big or small, is nothing less than this. Every good gift comes down from God, and is meant to reflect him like rays of light from the sun. As Piper says above, this should be stirring up in a Christian the desire to take unbelievers and fellow believers alike, ten miles deeper into God's Truth than we do. We need to pursue, and help others to pursue a joy in God Himself, because only He can satisfy.