Author: josh

The Resurrection Really Matters

I just read an article over at Albert Mohler’s blog called Rabbi Gellman Gets It — The Resurrection Really Matters. It’s a truly excellent article, and I’d strongly suggest you read it, even if you’re not a Christian.

This article gets to something that is at the very heart of Christianity, something I’ve tried unsuccessfully to express in the past. And in this case, Rabbi Marc Gellman understands something perfectly clearly about Christianity that many Christians don’t even grasp: namely, without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity is completely meaningless. Gellman’s article, quoted by Mohler, states that, “Some Christian respondents to [the movie ‘The Jesus Family Tomb’] have said that even discovering the bones of Jesus would not seriously undermine their faith.” That confuses and frustrates me to no end. What he’s saying is completely true, but I wish it weren’t. It’s just an indication of how watered-down Christianity has become.

Christianity is not about a set of behavioral guidelines. It’s about belief in a supernatural, transcendent event, and the meaning of that event.

I’m on the Board!

In my promise to post all wrong-number voicemails to my blog, I give you “The mistaken Josh Lewis board member offering”:

I’m currently considering if I should accept on behalf of whoever they’re actually trying to find. Would that be a nice surprise when I showed up to the first board meeting in jeans and a t-shirt?

B-Day

Happy Birthday, Steve! Here’s to 52 more.

If any of you choose to celebrate today, I’d like to suggest an appropriate way to celebrate: choose ten things you could do with your time and energy today, say “no” to nine of them, and then do the last one extremely well.

Henson is Sick

Henson and his Chill Pill toyHenson has recently fallen ill. He was on some medicine recently that had a 0.5% chance of causing liver failure in dogs, and unfortunately he was in that 0.5%. Earlier this week he spent 24 hours at a vet hospital on an IV because he wasn’t able to keep any food down.

This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s done for. To the contrary, the liver is one of the most regenerative organs in the body, so there is certainly a chance that with the right medicines and treatment, he’ll be back to normal soon. He’s certainly gotten a lot better since his visit to the hospital. But it’s not a done deal, and we’re still getting more information from his vet as they do blood tests.

Please keep him and us in your prayers as we may have some hard decisions coming up. I’ll keep you all posted. This has been harder on me and Steph than I expected. When I take a photo of him, like this one, I find myself thinking, “Make this one good.” It’s certainly making me more thankful for the time I have with him.

Technology, Art, and Penn

Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) was quoted as saying the following:

Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else’s vision.

Not to sound too much like a textbook, but: Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

Cargo Cults

I recently heard the term “cargo cult”, looked it up on Wikipedia, and found it to be a really fascinating read. Reminiscent of The Gods Must Be Crazy, only real. Read the article, and ponder.

(Loosely-related fact: I originally got the idea to put a “!” after my name from The Gods Must Be Crazy’s cast list. I liked the idea that such an unpronounceable character in our language could be tucked into a name like that.)