links for 2009-11-20
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John writes one for us Calvinists on the subject of providence. Even the Bible says, "by chance….": "Maybe I've been tempted too much to fall into the hyper-religiosity and hyper-spirituality and hyper-purity of which the Scriptures also seem to warn us."
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Are you on the government watchlist?
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Hold your babies, my friends.
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More Economics 101: "Love him or hate him, he got this one almost competely right, and explained it in terms anyone can understand." If you scare easily or have too much stress already, go ahead and skip this.
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I love it when people get a chance to do what they were born to do. (This guy used to be a teacher.) You will love watching this, unless you're one of the 10 million people who have already seen it.
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November 20th, 2009 at 8:48 am
What a heartbreaking hospital story!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I loved that audition video. I had not seen it. Between worrying about patriarchy, the dollar, and breathing a sigh of relief that the baby at 6 Year Med didn’t die (and wanting to jump thru hoops to find a way to bring that little one to my house so I can hold her every night)…I am usually the last one to see the fun clips. Thanks, Amy. :)
November 20th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I remember when I first became a believer and was discussing the 5 points with my youth minister, he told me that God is so much bigger and my mind cannot possibly wrap itself around all He does. There are many truths in Scripture that seem to contradict. There is undoubtedly predestination. Other verses do support a free will. These truths can co-exist, even if in our finite minds it makes no sense. I remind myself of the mystery of His designs and the dimensions I can’t possibly comprehend on this earth whenever I encounter such seeming contradictions. The Word is true…it doesn’t have to always make sense. I can’t wait till the day He will open all the Scriptures to us!
November 20th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I didn’t read the article, but I’ve thought about this a lot. And it comes down to what you mean by ‘chance.’ ‘Chance’generally understood is a term describing mathematical probability.
If the interpretation of scripture leaves God out of the equation, then it simply can’t be Biblical. KWIM? For example Ecc 9:11 is one that people quote a lot, but there most scholars agree that it carries the idea of ‘opportunity,’ rather than an inanimate, self-determining, mathmatical probability capable of directing what belongs to Providence and Providence alone. The latter is an impossible reality, though many people use it to supplant the Biblical view of God.
Anyhoo…just passing through and this caught my eye. I love thinking through things like this. Now I’m off to get a snack and resume teaching writing to my son! lol.
Blessings,
Tracy
November 20th, 2009 at 11:44 am
To me, the audition link was very moving because, like you said, we love it when people get a chance to do what they were born to do.
My thought was if I have this kind of emotional response over such a thing, how much more does our Heavenly Father delight in us when we use the gifts and talents He gave to us.
I’ve never verified if the quote is historically accurate, but Eric Liddle is credited with saying, “I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Predestination to be a blessing….that’s how I see it! :)
November 20th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Re: Glenn Beck… Amy, I have to say that your announcement about going back to Florida for several months surprised me only from the economic/political standpoint. I’m very glad for you and your family that you will be together more. But I was surprised given your views on the economy and such that you would leave your farm for so many months. Do you think the unwind will come later or are you operating from the “have to live life and can’t sit around waiting for the shoe to drop” perspective?
To go along with the Glenn Beck thing, did you see this? (Really not for the easily scared or stressed.)
The Day the Dollar Died
http://johngaltfla.com/blog3/2009/11/18/the-day-the-dollar-died/
P.S. I miss your quick tags! :-)
November 20th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
The post about the little girl at the hospital is tearing me up right now. I don’t understand life sometimes. Things like this make me long for Heaven. How can humanity be so cruel to each other?
November 20th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I’ve been gone all day, and it is just now 10:15 p.m…. Sorry that this will be a short reply.
Sallie,
That’s a good question, and I’m surprised nobody has asked me about it until now.
A few angles. First, a family will be house-sitting so everything will roll along as it has been. Kinda like another family walking in and pretending to be us. I am going to ask my church and friends if they think it was a good trade. ;)
After a year here (that was left mostly unblogged), I feel pretty good about our preparedness skills. I don’t mean that in a nuclear doomsday sorta way, but a how-to-survive-on-nothing way. My biggest concern is unemployment. We’ve always been on contract, and I know that the unemployment rate will rise as fast as a Goldman bonus.
Just so long as Greg doesn’t die, we’re all set. (I’m doomed without him. I am just the idea person, which isn’t helpful when stuff actually has to be done.)
I also believe that the decline will be gradual and not a one time event (other than a stock market crash). In the Great Depression, they predicted green shoots every year. I agree it will be worse, but I think it’s just starting. We’ve got years. (Who knows. But if I had to make a wild guess, that’s it.)
Florida is mostly paid for in our contract, so it’s not an economic burden for us.
There is a bit of “can we just get on already” with life. We still hope to put our house on solar power (just for fun and for the tax credits, not because we’re scared–Greg is an electrical engineer and a bit geeky that way), but I’m tired of working right now. I just want to do some fun stuff with the kids. We always work, work, work, and I’m burnt out.
I struggle with raising the kids sometimes without Greg, and it’ll be very nice to have him home in the evenings when we’re in FL. When we moved to KY, his FL work kicked into high gear, and it drives me crazy. Why couldn’t he have all that FL work WHEN WE ACTUALLY FREAKING LIVED THERE?! But here we are. I’m rolling with it (while kicking and screaming). We still don’t have a rental house (dozens tried…having trouble finding something that fits us and is willing to go only 7 months), and the kids’ school called this morning to tell us that they would NOT hold their spots for next fall. So why rush back in July? And other crazy odds and ends. Didn’t mean to ramble. I can’t control the economy, Greg’s job, the kids’ school, people saying “yes” to renting short-term, the lag time in getting an answer, the fact that we’re supposed to leave in less than a month and have no place to live, what our long-range plan is, what we will do if there is more work in FL, etc. I’m working on these details, but wondering why nobody else is agreeing to work with me here….Hello! I have money and want to rent your empty, depreciating house. Can somebody please return my phone call?!
Speaking of. Greg found an empty foreclosed house all overgrown, so we looked it up on the property appraiser’s site. (I figured I’d buy it, live in it while we’re there in FL, fix it, and sell it for a fraction of the assessed value–very dangerous in this environment, yes, but I was only going to offer a penance for the house.) I called Citibank and went round and round with the REO department. They refused to listen to an offer. The house had been empty for years. Why, why, why?
Because if they sold the house, they’d have to mark to market on their books. They know the house is worth about 20% of what the loan was for in 2006. They’d have to realize the sale, and on a grand scale, that makes them insolvent. Right now, they have it as an asset on their books at the full 2006 price, which is crazy. Everyone knows it’s crazy. It’s legalized fraud.
This is one reason I’m banging my head against the wall. But really, I’ve just been working on basic, straight-forward “for rent” properties lately, and I’m laying low on the crazy schemes.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
p.s. Wow. That wasn’t short.
p.p.s. I miss my quick tags too. My blog is a mess. I need to fire my husband. (Is that allowed? ;) )
November 21st, 2009 at 1:54 am
A little more food for thought on the article about “Chance”:
per Vines Expository Dictionary of the New Testament:
sunkuria lit., “a meeting together with, a coincidence of circumstances, a happening,” is translated “chance” in Luke_10:31. But concurrence of events is what the word signifies, rather than chance.
Note: Some texts have tucha here (from tunchano, “to happen”).
http://www.antioch.com.sg/cgi-bin/bible/vines/get_defn.pl?num=437#1
Now … my curiosity is aroused. My Greek is VERY minimal, but I’m curious. I know that in Spanish, “adios” is short for a phrase that ends with ‘a Dios’ which means literally something to the effect of “I leave you in the care of God.” Though this is what it means, the lexicons would all say that it means “goodbye.” Now what about “sunkuria” in Greek. Again, my Greek is SO minimal, but the word LOOKS to me like “sun” (together/with) and “kuria” (the Lord). Which would seem to actually be a reference to an occurrence that happens providentially, but common culture has relegated to “by chance.” Maybe my guess at an etymology is totally off base. I wish someone with a true knowledge of Greek that has studied the word in depth would proffer their opinion. And, BTW, the word is only used ONE TIME in the entire New Testament.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:05 am
I think the point of the post on chance is well taken, that we too often forget that God condescends to reveal Himself to us in our own language, in our own culture, in a way that we can understand – so stop religiousizing everything, like the annoying ” pot providence”. To say that something happened by “chance” is not a contradiction to God’s absolute sovereignty over all things. In fact, I love these things in Scripture because it is almost like God is winking to us as He says it and I don’t think the humor was lost on the original audience. Jesus was often an appropriately humorous storyteller as well as one who used sarcasm.
God is a God who communicates to us In our language and in our flesh.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:35 am
Yikes, Greg. I agree that the Bible is full of anthropomorphisms so we can understand God better, and that God does indeed “wink” at us and speaks “baby talk” so that we get it. (As Carman aptly noted: “The word says he’ll protect us with his feathers and his wings, but that don’t mean that God’s a great big chicken.”) The point of my comment was simply my curiosity about the word in question (sunkuria): is it really an example of that, or is it, ironically enough, an example of the opposite — a word that originally acknowledged God but has been disbelieved by culture enough that it became a euphemism for “chance”. And again, I’m curious, not dogmatic.
BTW, can I have one of those cookies that Amy made while we discuss theology? :)
November 21st, 2009 at 9:43 am
Jay!!! That wasn’t a smackdown from Greg!
November 21st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Jay,
Sorry for any misunderstanding. I wasn’t interacting with what you said, just the original article. I really like what you wrote and I think it is some excellent food for thought and analysis.
I shouldn’t be writing quick comments on my phone while launching rockets.
November 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Wow Amy. Sallie’s comment made me realize that bloglines did not give me notice of about 5 of your previous posts. I can’t miss a single one, you know! I’m devastated to realize that I hadn’t seen the chickens led to their death, nor how cute your children looked, and how pretty you looked while butchering the fickle fowl. :)
I didn’t understand the moving to Florida comment – now I do. I understand. Enjoy the time. It will all work out! A break will be nice, and then you can come back to your farm and enjoy it all over again. :)
November 21st, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Holly,
Something funky happened when my blog crashed in July. I lost 2,000+ subscribers and the RSS feed is very spotty. I need someone with special powers to fix that.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Amy,
I had thought about your moving to FL but thought it was not my business to ask. Not that I mind Sally asking for me ;-)
Your comment about being burned out led me to comment. I have been challenging myself to think about how am I going to live in the age of America. I have often wondered if I would feel burned out by time everyone has to live that way. I think I would rather try to live this way for the next several years and even experience a learning curve than not have one clue what to do when the stuff hits the fan. (my new catch phrase apparently). You moving to your farm made me feel encouraged that the average person can do it.
Hope you are enjoying FL. Our high today was 65. Makes me mad.
Ouida Gabriel
November 21st, 2009 at 6:04 pm
That should be age AFTER America!
November 21st, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Amy,
Thanks for the answer. Glad you didn’t mind the question. Sometimes it is hard to know if it is prying to ask certain questions of bloggers.
So if you are going to have fun, fun, fun in Florida… Why are you trying to buy an overgrown foreclosure to fix up? (Insert wink here)
Maybe your blog readers need to hold you accountable that you are actually relaxing and having fun while you are there…
November 21st, 2009 at 11:52 pm
The link about the doctor who held the child is exactly why I quit being a doctor. I was the type of physician who would hold and cuddle the babies and kids that nobody wanted, the ones who were dying, the ones whose parents never came to visit, the ones with diseases that required full gown, gloves, masks, etc., all the while dying inside thinking about my own precious little ones at home without their mommy. I will live in a trailer with no electricity (not that there is anything wrong with that!) before I will go back to the gut-wrenching experience of having to choose between my job or my children. (Slightly off-topic, I know.)
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 am
Big Hugs to Valerie. I worked in a nursing home for a few months when I was 19. If I had not walked into that place thinking the world is a cruel place, I certainly would have left it knowing it was.
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Ouida, We’re not in FL yet. We’re going next month (if we can find a rental).
Sallie, I think it’s a fair question to ask in light of what I believe about the economy. I don’t mind your asking how that meshes. It seems hypocrital of me on the surface, I think.
Why are you trying to buy an overgrown foreclosure to fix up?
Because you know I’m not having FUN unless I’m doing that. After a long discussion between Greg and I the other day, he concluded, “Amy. You just need a project. Can we just get you a project?” Maybe I should go direct another play– or something that doesn’t involve financial disaster. I dunno. My gifting lies in administration (I think), and I don’t feel ALIVE unless I’m doing that. I concluded being a blogger telling folks how to think or live their lives is stupid and dangerous and pointless, so I’m just dealing with pent up, unused energy that needs an outlet.
I love real estate, too…which is unfortunate.
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Hey Amy, maybe you need to have another baby to give you something else to do? (Hee, hee, I am ducking right now to dodge your organically grown tomatoes being thrown at me.)