gray

Now, if there's something wrong with the fundamentalist view in practice, what does the culture around us say? Everything is gray. There is no ultimate wrong or right. It's all relative. Every individual can (and must) construct his or her own worldview as long as you don't impose it on anyone else.

Sort of like the nation of Israel as described in Judges 17:6: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. Moral relativism then, moral relativism now. Oh, it definitely has an attractive feel! And to fit in this world, gray is the way to go. This is a world that acknowledges no king, no sovereign, no absolute that arches over all.

Yet, ultimately, it's not really that attractive. For it does not propose a worldview based on love. Rather it sets forth a worldview of being satisfied with mere tolerance. Bland tolerance. Foggy gray tolerance.

So what am I to do? My experience tells me that there are a lot of things that I can't really judge. My faith tells me that there are absolute rights and wrongs. Perhaps instead, life can be illustrated as a gradiant from black to white. We do have black and we do have white but we also have many areas of uncertainty, levels of gray.

Or, is this all merely another attempt to straddle two opposing viewpoints and wind up standing nowhere? Perhaps even more wishy washy than Gray! Yet again, something is out of whack here. There must be a better way.

black and white

I'm just lying in my bed...it's such a subtle yet significant difference: eyes open/eyes closed. It is 3am and I was hoping to be asleep before it got here, but during these late nights, I think most clearly.

While my grandmother was here, I attended a Korean presbyterian church with her, and one worldview I noticed in Christian circles is to see everything in black and white. Every activity, viewpoint, attitude, thought, opinion is either right or wrong. I suppose that from God's point of view this must be true. Perhaps that is the inference of Jesus' words in Luke 11:23: He who is not with me is against me.

But there is something disturbing about this worldview in practice. It seems that the stronger someone holds to this view, and I'm thinking of practicing fundamentalists in particular, the farther they are from exemplifying the love of Christ, to extending grace and mercy in His name. More modern day Pharisees. More law. More hate. Something is out of whack here. There must be a better way.

She is a fine woman, but you have to learn to feel your way with her. My grandmomma just left to return to the states after a month long visit. I learned a lot while she was here, and I wouldn't disagree that it has been good for me. But I'm really glad to be off her fish diet (she abhors red meat), haha :)

Running in the fall is best. I love those evenings when it would be just a bit cool to eat dinner on the patio without a light jacket, but running is perfectly comfortable. Yesterday was one of those days--the high was 70 and it had cooled into the 60s by the time I went for my run. The sun was moving toward the horizon, casting long shadows. I had to laugh at my shadow at one point. The shadow of my legs stretched out for about five feet on the pavement while the shadow of my torso was only a foot or so. I did a 30 minute run to the nearest train station and shared the road with a motley crew of bikers. Sometimes, I still don't believe I'm living in Korea. The run itself was invigorating, fun, and I'm so thankful for these fall days, enjoyable to the last drop of sunlight.