7 Quick Takes - Time and Space and God

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First, I read a couple of REALLY great blog posts this week elsewhere, and I wanted to share them. Both participate in 7QT, so some of you may have already read them. The first, in fact, is the post in which the host of 7QT, Jennifer, shared the video of the forum she participated in this week on Exploring God. If you didn't watch the video, I highly encourage you to watch it. It's just really good.

The second was a post on sin by Leah Libresco over at Unequally Yoked. I wrote on sin, too, the day before she posted it, so it caught my attention. She sets up an analogy wherein she compares general "sin" to "punching someone in the face." She goes further, in reference to the line in Amazing Grace, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear," and says:

Punching people in the face is pretty bad, but what’s worse is punching them and not noticing and losing the opportunity to repent or make amends.  Then the relationship between betrayer and betrayed still exists, but with a compounded betrayal, as I go on oblivious, leaving my friend to deal with a wound alone.

And what’s even worse than that is noticing the punching but being callously indifferent to their pain and to my error.  After all, in this case, I need more help than just drawing my attention to the way I clipped you with my fist as I pushed through a crowd.  I have more that needs to be healed for my natural concern for you to flower again.  And, like a person recovering from frostbite, getting the blood moving again hurts and it’s easy for me to try to avoid the very thing I need to recover.

So, being able to notice and regret sin ends up being a very precious gift.  When I stillhaven’t made any progress at not-punching, I can still be thankful for the sense of guilt, the sense that punching people is the wrong choice, which forces me to keep trying and to not abandon the not-punching-people project.

Do yourself a favor and read the entire post!

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I've been having technical difficulty in that, on the computer I normally have access to on Thursday nights (otherwise known as "7QT link-up night") does not register the linky list on Jennifer's blog. I have access to the Internet on my phone, but the web address of my weekly post is usually too long to enter on the list via my phone (it won't accept it), so I haven't been able to link up. I miss linking up!! But, until I replace my own laptop and am able to link it again, I will continue to post Quick Takes all by my lonesome, even if they do get fewer views that way. [Sigh.]

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This coming Thursday I will be taking the GRE. For some reason, I did not have to take it before entering my last graduate program, but have found that it is required for both of the degrees I am currently looking at. I have applied at Missouri State University for an MNAS in physics. I've pretty much persuaded myself since then that I am absolutely bonkers for doing this, since I have almost no science background in my transcripts and that is a pretty big prerequisite.... But I am interested. In fact, I am still interested in a theologically-oriented doctorate, but I find the subject of God in light of the cosmos fascinating. I want to interweave the two disciplines as I prepare for my ultimate goals of teaching and writing. And if they accept me despite my lack of science credits, I'm pretty sure I can catch them up during the spring and summer and be ready to start the graduate work by next fall. So please pray for me Thursday that I do well on especially the Math portion of the GRE!! Thanks. 

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Here's one of the types of things I'm interested in studying:

 

 

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Along the same lines, if you watched the video above with Jennifer and two pastors in Austin, at one point in addressing the question of how to respond to accusations that Christianity is a crutch, Jennifer referenced the idea of gravity. Like we are dependent on gravity to hold us in place, so we are dependent on God to get us through life. Call God a crutch if you will, but you would also have to call gravity a crutch, whereas in reality, it is quite simply a natural law. 

 

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Has anyone else noticed the story of Peter Pan has a lot to do with time and space? You know, Neverland..."Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." In the BBC series Neverland (2011), it is described as being situated at the very center of the universe, and the implications of its position relate to why no one ages in this mysterious land.

 

It did bring up some moral questions in my mind. On Leah Libresco's blog there have been discussions about sexual morality between various genders and numbers of partners...and this Peter Pan thing made me wonder...if such a place did exist, where people arrived and did not age, would it be acceptable then to mate sexually with people considered "under age" under current Earth reckoning? Would a person who was, say, 14 for 200 years mature psychologically over that time, or would psychological advancement be subject to biological limitations...?

 

Anyway....

 

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Just in casin' you still haven't clicked on that video, here it is. It's an hour long, but definitely worth the hour! ;)

 



 

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