Things Only Scholars Can Say

"It may be our best source for Jesus's teachings. And then again, it
may not be."

- Stevan Davies, on the Gospel of Thomas.

Why is there traffic in Austin ALL THE TIME!!!

My brother and I see on our way home to Del Rio today, and once again we have run into traffic in Austin. It's 8 o'clock at night. If someone could explain to me why there is ALWAYS traffic in Austin, I would really appreciate it.

And by the way, this is not the case of over-generalizing from small, unrepresentative samples. We've been through Austin in the middle of the day, the middle of the night, in rush hour, and in normal traffic. Doesn't matter. Austin is traffic. Maybe it's their way of repelling outsiders.

Exquisitly bad #2

"Ever since the sex tape scandal, I have to be really careful about how I'm perceived."

- Kim Kardashian, struggling with a decision on whether or not to appear in playboy.

exquisitly bad #1

There are some things that are kind of annoying, some things that are just bad, and then things that are exquisitly bad. That provides the rational for my new series: the exquisitly bad. Today's edition? Heard while watching sex and the city with my girlfriend: "if you're tired you need to take a napa, not move to Napa." that's not just bad, that's exquisitly bad.

The Lord's Supper

Last night, Scott, Garrett, and I had a bunch of people over to celebrate the Lord's Supper. As I have posted about previously, I am not involved in a church that puts an especially high priority on liturgy. What they do for communion is nice enough, but I wanted a little something more, and so decided to have a communion with friends last night. It was fantastic. Sometimes I forget how much fellowship and community can mean when it is done with an open and eager heart, rather than the begrudging handshakes and good mornings I share at church on Sunday. This was truly awe-inspiring, and it reminded me of why God is so great, and of how he has blessed my life.

On a related note, I'd love to hear from people on their take of the Lord's Supper. Is it important? What's its theological significance?

do yourself a favor, and go see gone baby, gone

every sunday after church, my mom would ask me what i thought of my dad's sermon. i abhorred this question. i felt like it was english lit for a half hour every sunday afternoon. and, like many other church-goers, the fact is i didn't commit to memory everything my dad said right after he said it. BUT, he did have one sermon illustration that i always loved.

whenever my dad would get into a sermon on sin or evil, he would love to illustrate it with the film Fargo. Fargo was the perfect example of how the littlest act of evil, something that by itself would never register on a historical scale of evil acts, could turn into a devastating act in many, many people's lives. various films explore this territory, and i've seen two recently (both, oddly enough, connected to ben affleck) that i would highly recommend.

Changing Lanes is about two guys who get into a fender bender, and spend the rest of the day one-upping each other with despicable acts. at any point, if just one of them had said "enough" and done the right thing, the consequences of the film could've been avoided.

The recent Gone Baby Gone paints an even bleaker picture. It illustrates what happens when a plan that isn't intended to hurt anyone, but is a little bit underhanded (again, just the littlest act of sin) spirals out of control, to the point where doing the right thing still feels wrong because of how off track the morality of the characters has become.