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!
Sovereign!
A strange thing happened the other day.
An Israeli dude wanted a restraining order against God. He petitioned the Haifa Magistrate’s Court to issue one.
“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
Let him who reproves God answer it.”
Job 40:2
The name of the petitioner has not been reported, but he represented himself in court, creating quite a storm with his audacity.
Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said,
Weighty!
If you want to get folks to carefully and thoughtfully consider answers to a weighty matter, then you might do well to make the weighty matter actually weigh something significant.
A few years ago, Psychological Science published “Weight as an Embodiment of Importance,” by researchers from the University of Amsterdam.
Subjects were asked to respond to questions on either a light clipboard (1.45 lbs) or a heavier one (2.29 lbs). Guess what, the folks holding the latter
Marathon!
The other week LeeAdianez Rodríguez decided to run 3.1 miles. But she made a mistake. She ran 13!
Rodríguez, called Lee or Adi by friends and family, intended to run the Wegmans Family 5K that day. But the 12-year-old lass from Irondequoit, NY, outside of Rochester, was already late and so she scrambled to get to the starting point on Broad Street Bridge in Rochester. Mom Brendalee dropped Lee off and went to park.
There were already thousands of runners assembled at the
Broken!
Perfection! We always entertain the fond hope that we will achieve it.
At least in a few arenas of our lives: becoming or finding the perfect spouse, being the perfect parent with the perfect children, achieving that perfect job, attaining to the perfection of being respected by everyone around us, accomplishing perfection in our tasks, hobbies, responsibilities ….
But, invariably, life deals us these down-to-earth put downs that crack our hopes and shatter our dreams.
Liars!
Election season is upon us, those of us who live in the US of A. Ergo, the “season of lies” is upon us (as one correspondent called it).
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump labeled rival Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted.”
Cruz hit back:
Falsely accusing someone of lying is itself a lie and something Donald does daily.”
There is the standard joke that we’ve all heard:
How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving.”
News organizations dedicate tons
Theism?
The other day, the news reported on the bizarre behavior of chimpanzees. New footage shows these primates in West Africa banging and throwing rocks against trees, and chucking them into gaps inside trees, etc., all producing piles of rocks accumulating in and around trees. These piles did not seem to have any functional purpose, and looked suspiciously like ritual cairns (= mounds of stones) found throughout human history as memorials or markers.
As Joshua did, way back
Trash!
Yes, it’s trash. All that white stuff—a river of trash!
The surreal sight snakes its way through the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, a blot and blight.
Two million tons of the bad stuff, stretching for a quarter mile through Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut. This overflowing landfill is the result of Beirut’s months-long garbage crisis, both an expression and a consequence of Lebanon’s dysfunctional politics.
Said a local resident, Jawanah:
This used to be such a beautiful
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. 