Apr 4
Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cellphone, a real, handheld, portable cellphone.
Martin Cooper, speaking the first words ever said over a mobile phone. A Motorola engineer, Martin used his newly invented device to call Joel Engel, a rival at AT&T, on April 3, 1973. Many would say that the mobile phones have been rude and annoying ever sense.
See: This story from the BBC and this one from CNN for more
This life’s dim windows of the soul / Distorts the heavens from pole to pole / And leads you to believe a lie / When you see with, not through, the eye.
William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel
sec. 5, line 101
What’s all this about giving people a “Christian alternative?” Makes Jesus sound like soy bacon.
Bono talks about Karma and Grace:
You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.
We have a thing or two to learn from Bono about how to interact with a doubting world. He doesn’t call secular and pagan ideas “stupid” — he merely says they are in incomplete picture of the whole story. He doesn’t attack the notion of karma as foolish. Instead, Bono just describes it as another term for the laws of nature. Laws of nature suspended by the miracle of grace.
To me, that’s how we make friends with — and make sense to — our friends and neighbors. Don’t call names, offer a wider perspective. Give our world a way to make sense of the fractured pieces sin has left in its path of devastation across history.
More from his fascinating conversation about Christ and religion right here. It’s well worth reading.
Thanks to seancom for posting this article.
What sort of freak then is man! How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe!
– Blaise Pasçal
quoted in The Cross and Salvation,
Bruce Demarest
I was talking with a guy named Dillon today. He asked me: “How have you found media to be effective in mnistry.” Here’s what I said:
“The story-driven nature of media makes it a powerful vehicle for sharing the Story — and for encouraging believers with accounts of others’ faithful lives.
Hebrews 12 talks about the “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds and encourages us. Media can populate that crowd with fellow believers we’d never meet otherwise! To me, this is the value of media in ministry. It’s not a substitute for face-to-face human interaction, but media can widen our perspective and deepen our resolve to persevere together.”
It’s too bad Christian media doesn’t put more effort into telling stories about well-lived lives.
Theme: Linen by The Theme Foundry
