Milestone

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Today marks a very important milestone in my life. I have successfully completed my final report for Business Communications (20 pgs), my ethanol position paper for Ethical, Social, and Legal Environment of Business (13 pgs), my semester project for Principles of Management (10 pgs), and as of 10:40 a.m., my research paper on the life and influence of the Venerable Bede for Historiography (16 pgs).

So what does this mean for you, faithful reader? Well, simply that I will have less of an excuse for not posting anything on my blog, and if you reside within zip code 37315, you will be seeing a bit more of me. And for my roommate, it means that I might finally clean up my side of the room, as well as ceasing to get up at unearthly hours :)

To everyone out there who is still toiling away at your word processors, carry on! The end is attainable.

Excelsior!

Moral Dilemmas: Part Two

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I started to post another comment on my Conundrums post, but then I realized that most of you probably wouldn't see it, and it was also becoming rather lengthy, so I decided to upgrade into a new post. :)


I've been doing some more thinking (and research) on moral dilemmas (see Conundrum post for my working definition of a moral dilemma.) I listened to a very insightful seminar by Ron du Preez and I'm also in the process of listening to Samuel Pippim's 2005 GYC seminar Faithful Unto Death:Living Holy Lives in the Last Days. Also, and most informatively, I've been turning to the Bible to shed some light on this important and perplexing (to me, at least) issue. Surely God has something to say about moral dilemmas. . .

Well, He does. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I've already come across some interesting stuff. The most striking example so far is when God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the mountaintop. To me, this would seem to be the ultimate moral dilemma--a message, presumably from God, apparently directly contravening one of His previous commands not to kill.

Can you imagine that occurring in a modern context?! But, as Brian G. said in a comment on my last post on this topic, "we must submit our reasoning and decisions to the Holy Spirit in small things so that in larger situations there will be no question in our mind of what God's will is." Abraham had done that. He pursued such a close relationship with God that he knew Who was speaking to him. He was able to recognize the will of God. That still didn't make it easy for him to make a decision about what to do! Chapter 13 of Patriarchs and Prophets contains a very insightful commentary on Abraham's experience, and I highly recommend it.

There are a lot of things one can learn from this story, but I think the main principle God has shown me from Abraham's experience is Follow the clearly revealed will of God. This obviously has the corollary: understand what the clearly revealed will of God is. I think almost everybody agrees and understands the first principle, but it's the second part where we run into problems. Most of us aren't willing to spend the time with God and in His Word, becoming acquainted with His will which enables us to clearly recognize His guidance in extremely tough circumstances.

I have by no means come to a conclusion on my original question about the existence of true moral dilemmas; indeed, I don't even feel like I really have a good grasp of this first insight. But I'm going to keep searching and looking to God, 'the glorious answer to all my questionings.'

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

Excelsior

Distractions

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the nearness of exams and the necessity of studying and the peculiar urge to do anything but study. If Y is the necessity of studying and X is the nearness of exams, then a graph of Y vs X might look something like the following:


This is readily evident from the utter lack of utility in this post. Oh well, I suppose I shall slip my neck back into Agamemnon's strap of fate. Fare thee well.

Conundrum

This is a question which has been going round in my head for a couple of weeks now. I know I've asked a couple of you prospective readers about this already, but I wanted to get feedback from a larger audience (and I thought it might encourage you to verbalize your ponderings John ;)

So, without further ado

Are there ever truly moral dilemmas for a Christian? (By moral dilemma, I mean a situation in which one would be forced to choose the lesser of two evils.)

I could elaborate but I don't want to limit the scope of the discussion, so I'll refrain from examples. I'm sure you can think of a couple.

Any and all comments are welcome!

Excelsior

Moments of Clarity

(photo by Jonathan Gerrans)

I've come up for a breath of air, pushing aside Aeschylus, Churchill, and Copland, dodging Bok's globules and avoiding those pesky exculpatory clauses. It's too easy to lose oneself in the flood of information pouring into our skulls during this fleeting period of time called college. I'm afraid I've missed some priceless opportunities in my mad acquisition of letters and numbers--but I am grateful for what I haven't missed

Sitting in my orange-plaid recliner, listening to Thomas Tallis' Spem In Alium while cutting out felts
Taking time to go to the dulcimer concert, and the organ concert, and the other organ concert:)
Talking with a friend I haven't seen in months
Walking down the promenade in the fall sunshine with Emeric and having the kind of conversation one can only have with a five-year old
Making gargantuan sub sandwichs out of three feet of french bread, two tomatoes, an onion, some sprouts, rosemary basil cheese, and some pickles!
Getting to talk with and learn from Mr. Lampart at the nursing home
Working in the garden and getting to sample the arugula:)
Cutting out snowflakes and coloring with the kids in kindergarten Sabbath School
Singing until I can't sing any more at hymnsing

I'm learning to treasure these little things--moments that do little toward getting my homework done or accomplishing my to-do list, learning that piece for orchestra or clearing off the stack of bills on my desk at work. Yes, there are many important things I must do, but. . .

I'm thankful for the moments of singular beauty that God sprinkles throughout our days.

Excelsior