Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Inaugural Post

In the letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” And in his epistle to the Romans he exhorts, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Waking into an embrace of the faith is critical to taking hold of the infinite richness and promise it holds. It is a rousing into life.

Whether a theologian, philosopher, scientist, or laymen; man has a vested interest in who he is, why he is here, and what lies beyond. The trappings of modernity can provide satisfying, at times intoxicating, diversions from these questions but such diversions are illusive and temporary. They are a form of slumber.

In our present information age, curiosity has given way to cynicism. People are not interested in discovering truth. Academics have cornered themselves in highly-specialized circles where conventions predominate. Patterns of thought have become myopic. Metanarratives have been rejected.

The prevailing view, therefore, is a slumber. Waking from such slumber is unsettling but liberating. Our ability to think and to reason, as limited as it is, gives us the ability to discern. Ultimately this discernment leads us to the source of all truth, God Himself. The alternative is to live in ignorance and superstition.

I wish to know. My posts will be sporadic and largely if not entirely unoriginal, relaying kernels of wisdom from those who saw beyond their age. Hopefully they will coalesce around enduring truth that, regardless of convention, explains our human condition. The faintest notion of which can begin to waken the heaviest sleeper into a life of unimaginable and lasting joy.

As the Psalmist writes, “You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever . . . As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”