Back in the Swing of It

A few weeks have passed since my last update. Sorry about that. It’s been busy to say the least. Katelyn and I had an awesome Christmas with her family in Indiana. When we got back to Columbia we had much to do before our big move. Then the day finally came – we moved into our apartment here in Searcy last Monday and have spent the last week unpacking, setting things up, reassembling, rearranging, customizing, improving, etc. All the fun of moving. The two greatest things about this move are 1) we’re finally able to call somewhere “home” and 2) we finally get to use all the cool wedding presents we got 8 months ago.

A new semester of school started today, and I am stretching myself to the limit…just to see what that limit is. I am taking 17 credit hours (which translates into 21 hours of class time) and working about 20 hours per week. So if you don’t here from me for a while, I’m most likely either studying my Greek or reading for Advanced Intro to Old Testament.

I also wanted to briefly tell about a short book I just read: Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. This book is written by an atheist, discussing why he feels that Christianity, and religion in general, is a thing of the past, illogical, unreasonable, and a hindrance to the progression of society and the human race. It was a very challenging read, and much of what he wrote made me squirm in my seat or shake my head in shock. But he also raised many complaints against Christians in general with which I am inclined to agree. He really made me think about the way I think about the world around me and how Christians have been and continue to be responsible for some of the most atrocious crimes against humanity, e.g. the Inquisition, the Crusades, antisemitism which ultimately lead to the holocaust, and so on. He complains about Christians, as Jesus complained about the Pharisees, that we tend to strain the gnat and leave the camel. We look for the speck and ignore the plank. We raise such a fuss about abortion, embryonic stem cell research, or homosexual rights, and we turn a blind eye to poverty, suffering, genocide, and horrific diseases which ravage entire nations. We are more concerned about the potential life of an embryo than we are about the actual, miserable life of a fellow human suffering from a disorder which could be remedied by that embryo. I’m not saying he’s right. I’m not saying we’re right. He raised many key points which, right or wrong, founded or not, we as Christians must take to heart and think long and hard about. This book is not for those who are weak or young in the faith. I would only recommend it to those who would consider themselves ready to face head-on the atheistic world-view which is ever-growing in Western society.