I forget how exactly this came up. Maybe we were talking about my 80-year-old back or how my knees will sometimes start twitching after I drive past someone to score a layup.

Me: "In Heaven, we'll all be between 18 and 21 years old."
Lindsay: "In Heaven, we'll be like, 'HA, 18 to 21 has nothing on this!' We'll be old in a new way."
Me: ___
Lindsay: [smiles like that dude's wife in the Sonic commercial]
Me: "And young in a new way."
Lindsay: "We'll be like, 'I'm a million years old and loving it!'"

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Tim Keller, the founding pastor of NYC's Redeemer Presbyterian Church, is releasing an apologetic book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, this week.

Keller's first book since Ministries of Mercy (1997), The Reason for God has already earned some attention, with Newsweek trumpeting Keller as "a C. S. Lewis for the 21st century, a high-profile Christian apologist who can make orthodox belief not just palatable but necessary." The article (go read it) describes Keller's church as well, sketching a man who comes off as a professor/pastor:

Don't let your mind drift, or you will miss the main attraction. At 9:40, the voice you hear reading from the Scriptures changes suddenly; it becomes deeper, more authoritative and coarser, with traces of Pennsylvania and Georgia in the vowels. Look up. The callow junior minister has disappeared. Standing at the microphone is a man more than six feet tall with a shiny bald head and wire-rim spectacles, looking more like a college professor than a megachurch pastor. This is the Rev. Tim Keller, a Manhattan institution, one of those open urban secrets, like your favorite dim sum place, with a following so ardent and so fast-growing that he has never thought to advertise. He rarely speaks to the press. His reticence, though, is about to belong to the past.

I'll be reading Tim Keller's book in the weeks ahead, and thought I'd give you a heads up. Keller has been quick to deflect the C.S. Lewis comparisons, but the fact that he and Lewis can be mentioned in the same sentence is saying quite a bit. Needless to say, The Reason for God is a book I'm looking forward to.

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This raises additional questions about the location of LOST's island, the nature of time and distance, and whether the smoke monster can teleport.

Immediately after taking this picture, I closed my eyes and counted to ten--heard crashing and screams coming closer--but somehow emerged unscathed.

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Guest post by Amelia Freidline

I don’t know if this is a trait intrinsic to women or just to me, but when I first received the Tough Sayings of Jesus leader kit, I evaluated the packaging. This study is produced by an imprint called “threads,” so I thought the-felt-and-embroidery look of the box and the study booklet was a clever way to reinforce their goal of “piecing life together -- one experience at a time …” (courtesy of the back of the box). So after I finished admiring the packaging I opened the lid and pulled out the book.

Okay, I admit that I kind of thought, “What do you mean by 'tough?'” when I read the title, and when I looked at the table of contents and saw what stories they were using, that thought came back to me. The rich young ruler. The Canaanite woman. The unforgivable sin. Jesus as the Prince of Peace. Yeah, I knew all of those fairly well after 20 years of hearing and reading them.

Because I’m so familiar with these accounts, then, I grew to appreciate Michael Kelley’s take on the situation. He sets up each session with a modern-day anecdote related to the New Testament account he’s going to explore. When he talks about the Scripture passages, he doesn’t just let you go with what there is to see on the surface. He explains the Biblical and historical contexts of those passages and the underlying political, religious or social currents that influenced people’s actions.

For instance, Mark says that the rich young ruler ran up to Jesus and knelt down in front of Him. So imagine with me for a moment that you’re King George II of England, and you hear about some guy named Whitefield who stands on a stump and yells out sermons to people for hours at a time. Are you going to rush up to him (on foot, no less) and kneel in the mud at the base of his stump? Probably not.

According to Kelley, neither would the young man in the Gospel of Mark. He had wealth and power, and therefore had a reputation to keep up. He wouldn’t run somewhere and then throw himself down in the dirt at the feet of a wandering preacher unless he had a darn good reason for doing so. I won’t steal Kelley’s thunder by telling you the rest of that story, but throughout the four sessions he explores the contexts of the scriptures in such a way as to renew your outlook on what’s happening and why people reacted the way they did to Jesus’ words. Sprinkled in the margins are also some definitions, quotes, verses or thoughts to go along with that week’s topic and provoke further thought.

At the end of each section are some activities designed to further what you’ve learned from that week’s session. While some might be helpful, others seemed silly to me (e.g., “Break a commonly accepted rule in life this week. For example, use a fork to eat soup.”). There are also videos, songs and audio files to accompany each session. The videos were both funny and disturbing and would make good discussion-openers.

I had some trouble with the audio supplements, however. I couldn’t get any of the e-mailable audio files to work (the first song played, instead), and the music didn’t really add anything for me. This, however, could be more a problem of conflicting musical tastes than anything else. There were a few typos throughout the text, including a rather unfortunate one near the end that distracted me from Kelley’s train of thought (“Jesus has called us to lose your lives” -- great, thanks). That brings me to the title.

I don’t like it.

And the more I think about it, the more I dislike it. It’s called The Tough Sayings of Jesus. The word “sayings” really bothers me. I think of “sayings” in the context of “the sayings of the Buddha” or “the sayings of Joseph Smith” (although I guess that’s the Book of Mormon). In other words, nice thoughts which just possibly might contain some truth, but definitely not the inspired Word of God. I’d probably substitute “words” for “sayings” in this case.

On the whole, however, I enjoyed the study. If I had a five-star rating system, I’d probably give The Tough Sayings of Jesus a 3½.


[Amelia Freidline is a journalism major and aspiring copy editor who lives in the Kansas City suburbs. She has visited seven foreign countries and hopes to learn at least five more languages before she dies. When she grows up she hopes to own a bookstore after the style of Eighth Day Books or Christopher Morley's Parnassus at Home.]

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David Sessions, the head man at Patrol Magazine, hands out a potentially devastating critique to Relevant Magazine. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure I can think of a critique that would pack more of a sting for Relevant. So we have an instance of dueling magazines here, with the brash little upstart taking a shot at Gargantua. Here's the heart of David's gripe:

Relevant, to me, has the same problem as “Christian worldview music.” It’s the fact that attention must be called to the relevance, rather than the relevance speaking for itself.

Check the whole article, which points to a parallel between the now-defunct CCM magazine and Relevant. David Sessions' analysis reflects a concern I have with Relevant--I mean besides my thing about them publishing my articles but not answering my emails--which is their tendency to fawn over selected artists and celebs rather than to really critique or review in the meaningful sense of those words. It's kind of a "come and see!" carnival approach rather than a search for, discovery of, and description of, the best of culture.

Or am I being to hard on them?

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Downsized in the euphemistic sense, as in canceled. (In Tolkien's world, you can't get much smaller than a hobbit.)

Peter Chattaway reports the grim details about lawsuits that New Line Cinema is facing from the Tolkien estate, the HarperCollins publishing company, and possibly others. From the AP Press report:

The plaintiffs seek more than $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

Such an order would scuttle plans New Line has in the works to make a two-film prequel based on "The Hobbit."

The chances of a Peter Jackson-directed Hobbit film appearing in 2001 seem to be shrinking.

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Over the last week, Aidan and I have been sharing the fellowship of the sick, which, let's be honest, is as enjoyable as sour milk on the way up. We seem to both be coming out of it at about the same time, which is really good news for the whole family.

Now Aidan can stop waking himself up a half dozen times a night with his hyena cough, I can stop coaxing him back to sleep with my bleary eyes and swollen schnoz, Lindsay can take off her nurse cap and stop treating us like invalids (invalids need extra sleep, special foods, frequent expressions of love--and also, they are always right), I can kick my new meds habit, and Asher can stop constantly brewing us Throat Coat tea and serving it in demitasse cups.

It's amazing how being sick reduces the scope of your world. My perspective on life is frequently not what it should be--especially when I am sitting in a warm, dimly-lit classroom, right after lunch--but a persistent flu bug makes the horizon truly narrow. Maybe this is especially true when you feel an existential burden to think about the future at least a dozen times a day. When your body aches, your sinuses and your throat are conspiring to do gruesome things, and the night is not long enough, "future plans" seem like a bad joke. Add to the equation a sick, exhausted baby, the the joke sinks to the level of graveside humor.

Well, this was going to be one of those I was sick / now I'm better / look for those book reviews post, but it got away from me.

In conclusion, I guess I'm reminded of how big a chunk of our "spiritual health" is wound up in our physical well-being. Going through these sick-as-a-dog-days, I'm thinking about making our life as a family more deliberate, placing a greater emphasis on getting adequate sleep,* avoiding the emotional numbness that creeps in and makes the world an unpromising place to live.

Right now, a healthier physicality may be the most strategic spiritual discipline I can tackle.

* Right, we have a couple boys in diapers, so I'm being a little idealistic.

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Recently I was catching up with my friend, Will. Back in the day, when we were rock-hard search & rescue & rebuild men with loads and loads of character, I had to frequently belittle Will and occasionally overpower him in rounds of sudden-death snow wrestling, because of his devotion to UCLA basketball.

So when we were talking, Will suggested that I hold an NCAA bracket competition, and hand out some of the "free swag you get from blogging" as prizes. And I was like Hey, yeah, I'll give a copy of John Piper's latest book to the winner!

Problem is kind of self-evident, seeing as theologians who dig college hoops are in such short supply these days. So I'm asking for your suggestions. If such a bracket contest were to be held--open to any and all readers of this blog--what would be an appropriate prize? I'll kick things off with a couple suggestions:

1. An autographed Carmelo Anthony shoe. Which is already in my possession. Yeah, I guess that is kind of random.

2. However, The Game of My Life, with contributing author Bill Self, would probably do the trick. Off the top of my head, this book seems like the PERFECT prize for the bracket contest winner.

Can you do better?

Serious suggestions should probably be confined to books which have been published within the last year or so...there's always a chance I could get hold of a promotional copy if appropriate terms are met. As always, frivolous suggestions are also welcome. In fact, they're all I expect from some of you...

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Lindsay and I are discussing the Jayhawks' upcoming schedule--shortly after they drop 100 points on Baylor without making a 3. Notice how we talk about the Jayhawks as "we." Because of all the coaching advice we have conveyed to them via the TV screen over the years.

Me: We don't play K-State again until March 1.
Lindsay: We're going to kick their rear ends into next week.

Wow.

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Reviewing the portfolio of a freelance advertising copywriter is like attempting precision marksmanship with a shotgun. You'll find excellent, polished work that reflects a writer's personal history--not the specific needs of your project.

My copywriting portfolio is diverse, in that you'll find ad headlines, online copywriting, print brochures, television ad concepts, and interview pieces. Rather than throw random samples in front of you, I prefer to talk specifics.

What are the requirements of your project? How can my experience and aptitudes help you solve your problem? Let's make the most of our time together. (Contact)

Screen captures from recent work with Mettler Athletic

I wrote headlines and marketing copy for Mettler's website, reworking existing text and creating extensive new program descriptions. See also the television spot based on the ad concept I generated for Mettler.

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