"They have good beer there."
"... now I know how bad American beer is thing."
This evening I watched a spectacularly entertaining movie, Kicking and Screaming, directed by Noah Baumbach (not to be confused with a Will Ferrel comedy of the same name.) The movie is about a group of educated guys who just graduated from college are spending their time drifting aimlessly waiting for real life to kick in. The movie has virtually no plot, and the sets are merely peripherals. What this film is about is dialogue, and this is absolutely glorious. Lines like the above quote, or "And I say, to paraphrase myself, if Plato is a fine red wine, then Aristotle is a dry martini," or "I'm nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I've begun reminiscing events before they even occur. I'm reminiscing this right now. I can't go to the bar because I've already looked back on it in my memory... and I didn't have a good time." As the characters drift through the semester, appropriately divided into now-meaningless phases like "midterms" and "winter break", the essentially subsume their lives in pointless conversation and alcohol. Perhaps there is something akin here to the classis pointless stoner flick, except that the stoners are all Yale graduates strung out on apathy instead of pot. All in all, it was a great film.
* * *
In the realm of spiritual musings, I'm wondering if the church hasn't lost all sense of biblical repenteance. We have been so dominated by the pragmatic, "practical" approach to life that we interact with sin like Weber's man interacts with the rock in his backyard. "It's there, now how do I utilize the tools I have to move it." You struggle with pornography? Develop psychological tricks to beat it. A pastor is in sin? Fire him. You lack in love for God? Read your bible more.
Don't misunderstand; some of these things are good and useful ideas. However, the biblical response to sin always begins (and oftentimes ends) with repenting of it. In greek, the word "to repent" is "metanoeo," a combination of "meta," which is "to change," and "noeo," which means "perception or understanding." In essence, biblical repentance is to change our understanding of our sin so that it matches God's. This should be our first response whenever we face struggles.
As an example, I remember reading Every Man's Battle a few years ago. The book addresses dealing with lust in the believer's life. While the book had some good and bad things to say, I felt like its ultimate failing was not in what it said but in what it didn't say. The first act a believer should take in confronting lust is not "bouncing your eyes" or "building fences." Instead, it should be to confront the sin in your heart for what it is and grieve it. A believer should look at lust and see that its ugly and objectifying. It is born of selfishness, pride and insecurity. It misunderstands God's plan for good and joy-filled sexuality, and it turns women made in God's image into conquests or playthings. What's more, it trades the image we should have in our minds of Christ's faithful and selfless love of His Bride for a hollow sham. To truly repent, a believer should take all these things to heart and meditate on them. He should be broken in seeing his own depravity as a righteous God sees it and grieve the wickedness in his heart. This is the chief response to sin the Bible commands, and should be our chief response as well.
Don't misunderstand; there is a place for these practical strategies. However, without true repentance they are simply hollow legalism, which simply increases our guilt. In beginning to change our perception of sin to conform to that of God, many of the practical struggles will fall into place on their own.
Don't misunderstand; some of these things are good and useful ideas. However, the biblical response to sin always begins (and oftentimes ends) with repenting of it. In greek, the word "to repent" is "metanoeo," a combination of "meta," which is "to change," and "noeo," which means "perception or understanding." In essence, biblical repentance is to change our understanding of our sin so that it matches God's. This should be our first response whenever we face struggles.
As an example, I remember reading Every Man's Battle a few years ago. The book addresses dealing with lust in the believer's life. While the book had some good and bad things to say, I felt like its ultimate failing was not in what it said but in what it didn't say. The first act a believer should take in confronting lust is not "bouncing your eyes" or "building fences." Instead, it should be to confront the sin in your heart for what it is and grieve it. A believer should look at lust and see that its ugly and objectifying. It is born of selfishness, pride and insecurity. It misunderstands God's plan for good and joy-filled sexuality, and it turns women made in God's image into conquests or playthings. What's more, it trades the image we should have in our minds of Christ's faithful and selfless love of His Bride for a hollow sham. To truly repent, a believer should take all these things to heart and meditate on them. He should be broken in seeing his own depravity as a righteous God sees it and grieve the wickedness in his heart. This is the chief response to sin the Bible commands, and should be our chief response as well.
Don't misunderstand; there is a place for these practical strategies. However, without true repentance they are simply hollow legalism, which simply increases our guilt. In beginning to change our perception of sin to conform to that of God, many of the practical struggles will fall into place on their own.
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