A Scandalous Beauty (pt. III)

Nic,

I'm humbled that you were willing to open up so much to me about your reactions to the story of Mabel. Indeed, the crowns are not coming to me. And the thought that Mabel will be the first to lay them at the Master's feet only increases my own sense of unworthiness.

I think the key to your questions, awful in its simplicity and its implications, is that we are called to be faithful.

A Scandalous Beauty (pt. II)

Dear Dr. McGrew,

I got it; read it as well.

It deserves a longer comment than I can give it here at the moment. But let me just say that it touches a nerve with me. I suppose there may be a number of reasons for the sensitivity of that nerve. The trouble is that of ever coming down conclusively on which precisely is correct. The nerve is this: I wonder sometimes whether I'm not just

A Scandalous Beauty (pt. I)

This is sent to me by Dr. Timothy McGrew at Western Michigan University (one of the graduate programs I'm considering). I first began talking with Dr. McGrew after he came across my "Socrates & Elton" piece (somehow linked from the C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea blog site) a while back. We've been talking since then. Anyway, he sent me this short story today after a conversation on the phone about

courage

It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.
-Soren Kierkegaard

GREat news

I want to thank everyone who prayed so earnestly for my taking the GRE. I know this comes a bit late, as I took the test on Jan 25th, but I just got the "official" scores in the mail two days ago. Let me try and share this in a manner that conveys my excitement hopefully without crossing into the territory of self-aggrendizing.

The GRE is composed of three sections: Verbal, Math, and

Temptation is a Life Apart

"Not to leas us into temptation" means that God gives us strength and power to resist. But it does not mean that the spiritual distress is removed and done away with. No one can avoid temptation and enticement as long as we live in the flesh and have the Devil around us; and this will not change: we must bear tribulation, yes, even be in the midst of it. But that is why we pray not to fall