7 Takes In All Directions

All my Easter Flowers gathered on the kitchen counter.

I wasn’t going to blog today because I’m so tired, but the habit is too deep-rooted…

One

So sad to hear about Prince Philip! May he rest in the light of God’s eternal peace!

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. pic.twitter.com/XOIDQqlFPn

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 9, 2021

Two

I got the first Moderna vax on Wednesday because–well, mostly just so that everything can open up as soon as possible. Consider it my humble nod to totalitarianism (insert a string of laughing and crying emojis here). I’m not afraid of dying either way, but I would like to go shopping and to church with people so that they feel comfortable around me and not worried about anything. I thought the person who poked me was overstating things when she said that my arm would be sore and I would be “tired.” Wow, NO KIDDING. Anyway, two days later, here I am, still alive and blogging. May Fauci be kind now, and let us all with one accord go to church whenever we want.

Three

I do love these kinds of tweets that are going around:

Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite your bosom friend over for an elegant afternoon tea and get her drunk on currant wine you mistook for Marilla’s raspberry cordial

— Amy Peterson (@amylpeterson) April 8, 2021

Four

The narrative around my Jesus and John Wayne article seems to have congealed like a cold, delicious green mint, onion, and marshmallow jello around the fact that, as I mentioned on Wednesday, I am not allowed to criticize the book because I am not “from here.” Everyone else’s “lived experience” was confirmed by du Mez’s version of events, therefore, please do be quiet “with respect.” There are many gotchas on my page, which I was watching go by. I think Matt finally went in and blocked some people so that I would stop muttering and walking around in a distracted circle. Twitter is not a fun way to have these kinds of “Conversations.”

Five

I don’t want to defend myself, and yet I keep finding that that’s what I’m doing. What my detractors are missing is an essential little problem–many, not all, of course, but many–evangelicals were real Christians over the last 70 years. Purity culture (which I have a more intense experience of than many who are so angry about it), moral therapeutic deism (also know it first hand), Focus on the Family (also check), and most of the rest of it do not enrage me–even the bad parts–because most of the people employing all these various kinds of cultural whatchamacallits really did love Jesus and were trying to follow him, however badly. I am not prepared to have much energy for anyone online who is not willing to acknowledge this fact and then examine what kind of terrible assumptions they have now, that might be leading many people into hell, and then to offer gospel repentance to all people.

Six

Whether or not I’m “from here,” I have observed a lovely new trend that is coming into full flourishing this very hour. It’s where you wander around and discover things and embrace them without stopping to test whether or not those things are objectively true. I’m going to call it the I’m A Cheetah approach to Christian formation and discipleship. What you do is, you go to the zoo, or a Trump rally, or get on Twitter, and everything falls into place. If you’re Glennon Doyle, you go to the zoo and “discover” that you’re a Cheetah. If you’re du Mez, you go to a Trump rally and “discover” that evangelicals are racist. If you’re other famous people on Twitter, you “discover” that the theological convictions of others are “Doctrines of Man.” Whereas, just to step out of the broad, rushing stream of personal flourishing, I cracked open Ye Olde Bible this morning and discovered that I should seek the Lord while he may be found. That I should call upon him while he is near. That, being wicked, I should forsake my own way, and my own thoughts, because–and this is so hard to grasp–my thoughts are literally not the thoughts of the Lord, nor are my ways his ways. But, if I will turn to him, he will have compassion, he will abundantly pardon.

And by “me” I include you and everyone into one grand, glorious “us.”