RaMbLeS
Welcome to RaMbLeS, a collection of weekly musings on life and Scripture. It all began in 2005 on Google’s blogspot as the aBeLOG (a name now recycled), a semi-autobiographical devotional that attempted to keep well-wishers abreast of my activities as I relocated to Scotland for a few years. Since my return, I’ve continued my RaMbLeS, and here’s its most recent incarnation on Homiletix, as random reflections usually based on current news articles and travel experiences and whatever else takes my fancy!
Ambitions!
Another “graduation” occurred last week.
One of my teachers went to be with the Lord: Dr. Stanley D. Toussaint, Senior Professor Emeritus of Bible Exposition, who taught at Dallas Theological Seminary from 1960 (before I was born!) to 2012. He was 89.
Charming, sharp, full of parrot jokes (yup!), and an amazing knowledge of the Scriptures. I count it a privilege to have been one of his “small-fry” students, but the man has taught Dallas Seminary stalwarts
Language!
Mark Twain is reported to have said:
Let us swear while we may, for in Heaven it will not be allowed.”
The great man would have been happy with the results of a recent study. Jean Twenge, prof of psychology at San Diego State, and her co-researchers analyzed titles of English books published in the US between 1950 and 2008, looking for profanity, specifically for seven words I am ashamed to repeat here. They were, BTW, the “seven words you can never say on television,”
Honesty!
George G. Klein, 96, is a World War II Veteran acclaimed as “one of the great celebrities” and a war hero as a veteran of the battle against the Germans in Normandy. He was celebrated during the 73rd anniversary of Normandy during a ceremony recently, honored as one of the 90 survivors in the elite 2nd Ranger Battalion that fought on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on June 6, 1944.
The guy participated in several commemorative events and, wearing his “Ranger” hat, signed
Fearless!
We can become fearless!
So say researchers from the University of California, Riverside, Woong Bin Kim and Jun-Hyeong Cho, in “Encoding of Discriminative Fear Memory by Input-Specific LTP in the Amygdala,” published recently in Neuron.
Cho and Kim used genetically modified mice to study parts of the brain processing sounds and those dealing with emotional memories, the amygdala.
More and more studies seem to indicate that memories can be rewritten, modifying, or even
Waiting!
Waiting in line consumes 15% of one’s lifetime. [I made that up. If it isn’t true, it certainly sounds true.] Between waiting in line and sleeping, no wonder I don’t have any time left for anything else.
Some places in the world, no one lines up. It’s a free-for-all. The survival of the fittest. So much so, leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the People’s Republic undertook a vigorous program to train their citizens to queue. They even instituted a “Queueing
Stress!
An ongoing University of Wisconsin Study (the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention: WRAP) has shown that stress “ages” the brain. Findings presented recently at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London pointed to the negative impact on brain function of even one stressful experience in life. Cognitive decline was significantly affected, said the scholars, after studying 1,320 subjects who were asked about stress in their lives as
Super!
Hollywood did pretty well at the US box office till July 2017, shoveling in about $6 billion. But things have not looked that good since. Receipts went down 7.7% between May and the end of June, another summer slump, like the one of last year.
Declared one media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian:
We’re down—but versus a summer of 2016 that was not exactly impressive in terms of the number of sequels that failed.”
So that means this year, things are really down. Disappointments
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.