Three Excellent Stories

If you would have told me when I was putting this site together that I would spend a couple posts discussing women's beauty pagents, I would not have believed you. In addition to covering Katie Stam's Miss America victory -where she performed an interpretive dance to Via Dolorosa- I would like to say a few words about Carrie Prejean in the Miss USA pageant.

Carrie was asked by a blogger judge if she supported the legalization of homosexual marriage in the United States. The fact that this particular blogger judge -a militant homosexual- is a major scandal in itself. Carrie gave a very honest answer:

Well, I don't think that's right; I think marriage is between a man and a woman.[1] [2]

She was booed, heckled, and attacked. The blogger himself acknowledged she was the frontrunner and would have won if she had not answered that question. Some have spoken well of her for sticking up for her beliefs (and I share their opinion). Carrie is a student at a San Diego Bible college and works with charities to help disabled children while the blogger judge is known for little more than schmoozing with celebrities. It reminds me of this passage in Luke 6:24-26:

But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

Another excellent story has been penned by a theology professor who still teaches at my old school Biola. In it, he discusses the early period of Karl Barth's ministry when he was still very much involved in watering down Christianity.

During those years, Karl Barth wrote a piece on the recent sinking of the Titanic. You should read some of the excerpts:

There is a way of using technology, that cannot be called labour any more, but playful arrogance. It is arrogance to install theatres and fish-pools on a vessel exposed to these sort of risks … God will not be mocked. He certainly intends us to work and to achieve something in the world. But he does not intend us to act as though we were done with working, and could now go fooling around

The story ends with Karl Barth realizing his error: he was making Christianity out to have worldly importance, when those who truly understood Christianity found something in it that surprassed all worldly comparisons.

Barth's transformation involved setting aside his political views about how the government and technology are supposed to give us meaning in life. In the void of these visible, worldly things, he presented to his audience a person I believe to be the real Jesus.

The third story of this post involves a woman who decided to give up stripping to become a nun. The writer of this article is obviously poking fun at this woman, but there is something in his title worthy of note: "anything can happen".

"I was throwing away my life dancing for men. I was being used as a drug by people who wanted to see me dance."

Next week she will be in Rome to perform a ballet called Holy Dance, dedicated to episodes from the Bible, for senior cardinals and bishops.

In the ocean of scoffing, I saw many attacks on her physical beauty or accused lack thereof. I was surprised I didn't read anyone saying that it was easy for her to give up her stripping career now that she had become so old.

Although not a woman myself, I have seen something of the low esteem they often hold for themselves. Most women, I believe at that point in their lives would say, 'I've become worthless to God long ago, and now I'm worthless to the world!' But the way I read the story, the woman abandons the world's approval and clings in faith to God's strange and wonderful redemption of her life.

Three stories of mere devotion: a woman who lost all worldly approval for standing by her convictions, a preacher who learned how to look past the surface of world historical events, and a woman who learned to value herself by following Christ's example. Each story has something to teach those with ears to hear, to those who wish to learn the secrets of mere devotion.

Plus Ultra

A certain Hollywood actor made a name for himself playing biographic roles of famous people. The studios were won over by his talent, but when he was approached to play himself in a film about his own life he replied, "That is the one character I have no wish to play!"

Do idiots go to swim with crocodiles? No, not even idiots do that. Even idiots are full of schemes and calculation, and they stay away from the swamps were the crocodiles lurk. The only people who go to find the crocodiles are scientists and those who have given up on life.

Do not be eager in your heart to be angry,
For anger resides in the bosom of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:9

Plato and Diogenes went to the supermart together. As they were strolling down the aisle Plato saw Diogenes look at some cereal on the top shelf, and so he asked him, "Diogenes, tell me: is it better to have a long ladder or a short one?"
"You appear to have some ready answer." Replied Diogenes.
Brushing his observation aside, Plato told Diogenes that with a longer ladder you can reach higher and grab higher objects. Plato moved a store ladder to the cereal and climbed it -going up much higher than he needed to reach the cereal. "... And ... you will be closer to the gods."
As Plato finished his words he flourished a smile, but the smile disappeared quickly as the ladder tilted and he fell -crashing to the ground.
Diogenes found a stool down the aisle, moved it beside the ladder, and grabbed the box of cereal easily. Then he noted to Plato that low chairs are more sturdy because they are the closest thing to keeping your feet on the ground. "... And ... perhaps the God has come down to dwell among us."

If you're okay with a superficial salavation, then go ahead and lead a superficial life!