Mere Mortals

C.S. Lewis on the people around us:

"The ... burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly temped to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."

— "The Weight of Glory"

Using the JW Bible to Prove the Deity of Christ

We all know Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) don't believe in the deity of Christ; they believe he was created. And we all know they made their own version of the Bible — the New World Translation (NWT) — to carefully remove anything that might suggest otherwise — verses such as John 1:1.

They missed a spot.

Here is John 1:3 in their own NWT:

All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.

Do you see it? Everything that came into existence did so through him. Everything. So Jesus didn't "come into existence."

What do we do with this? Ask a JW to read this verse from his Bible. On a piece of paper, draw a box. Label it like the one below.*
Ask the JW to put an X where Christ should go. He'll want to put in in the box of thing that were made. But the verse says Christ made everything that was made, so he can't have been made.

He'll want to say it means "everything else" that was made. But that's not what the text says. Don't let him do it. Remind him, "apart from him not even one thing came into existence."

Push him on this for as long as you can. It's unlikely he's going to fall on his knees and declare Jesus is God right there — he might, but probably not.

What we're hoping for, though, is that this will stick with him, bug him, work at him. If he sees the inconsistency here, he might begin to see it elsewhere. And one day he really may fall on his knees and declare Jesus is God.

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*I wish I could take credit for this; I can't — I read it somewhere. I wish I could credit that source; I can't — I can't find it. But I want to openly acknowledge that I didn't come up with this.

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Related:
Was the Cross Just?

Waving Bye-bye

I told you we are trying to adopt some kids. The best way for us to do that involved getting licensed for foster care even though we — especially I — are constitutionally ill-equipped for that.

We weren't licensed a week when we got the call: "Can you keep a baby girl for a few days?"

A few days turned into a month. A month of too little sleep (especially in the beginning), no free time, and a lot of money spent caring for a tiny tyrant. A tyrant who wants to eat every two hours, demands to be held constantly, and pees every fifteen minutes.

A beautiful tiny tyrant with big eyes, a sweet smile, and little brown hands that wrap around your heart as easily as your finger.

She left today, three weeks late and 18 years early.

I am definitely not cut out for this.

Review: Mars Needs Moms

I try to highlight those few things in popular culture that re-enforce Christian value.


Disney's new movie Mars Needs Moms does just that.

In the movie, Milo's mom is kidnapped by Martians who use the brains of human mothers to create better child-care robots — necessary because their society has cast off males entirely, leaving the females too busy to be mothers. Milo stows away on the kidnappers' ship and, with the help of a man who was once in Milo's shoes, tries to rescue his mother before it's too late.

It's not a great movie, but it is a good movie, and the kids will enjoy it. More importantly, though, the movie will show them that mothers and fathers are important.

There are a couple of unfortunate moments of potty humor (one during the closing credit montage), but overall it's pretty clean with mild violence. I think there was one mild swear word. Visually, it was very attractive (we saw it in 2D). And you should expect to get all verklempt during the climax.

I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. If you're going to take your kids to one of the cartoons that are out now, this is the one to see.

A Tale of Two Neighbors

I'm probably going to get in trouble over this. My neighbors on either side of me have something in common: they recently lost their homes. Both houses burned to the ground — a pretty much total loss.

But the neighbors, and their situations, are not that much alike.

The man on the right has a good job and makes a good living. His family has some savings, good credit, and good insurance. The initial loss was terrible, but after a couple of days they were able to get some money from their insurance company. Combined with their savings (and probably a little on the credit card), they've been able to get a hotel room and buy some clothes. The house will be rebuilt, and it looks like they're going to come back from this pretty OK.

The man on the left has been out of work for two years. His family was already on the verge of losing their house. Their savings have been depleted, their insurance has lapsed, and their credit is ruined. They literally have nothing but the clothes on their back.

The family on my right needed a little help right after the fire — a place to spend the night, some clothes to wear to go shopping, and a shoulder to cry on. The family on my left is going to need a lot of help for a very long time.

Given my finite resources, where should I focus my efforts — and money?

Here's where I get in trouble: The family on the right is Japan. The family on the left is Haiti.

Right now Japan is a shambles. They need man-power and materiel to manage the crisis, help the injured, and deal with a few damaged power plants.

But as the "donate to help Japan" links start appearing, a voice in my head keeps whispering, "They're the third richest nation on Earth."

I keep beating the drum of discernment in generosity: We have to use our finite God-given resources wisely, to make them stretch as far as they can, and to use them in ways that do not further harm the recipient. To think about how and to whom we should give.

I'm not denouncing, decrying, or accusing. I simply ask that we all consider this question: Given the great need in the US, Haiti, Indonesia, and all the other places we're investing our resources, how much can and should we give Japan?

I'm totally open to have my theology or my grasp of the facts corrected, but this is the way my thinking is going these days. And maybe I just need more sleep (we're babysitting a two-month-old for a few days).

What do you think?