The Confessing Lunatic

I ran across the following poem while perusing through the list of blogs I read (that I haven't done much of since I've been working my Master's degree). It's called "The Speaker" by Louis Jenkins. I want to share it with you since it hit me like a brick... The Speaker by Louis Jenkins "The speaker points out that we don't really have much of a grasp of things, not only the big things, the important questions, but the small everyday things. "How many steps up to your front door? What kind of tree grows in your backyard? What is the name of your district representative?What is your wife's shoe size? Can you tell me the color of your sweetheart's eyes? Do you remember where you parked the car?" The evidence is overwhelming. Most of us never truly experience life. "We drift through life in a daydream, missing the true richness and joy that life has to offer." When the speaker has finished we gather around to sing a few inspira...

What is silence? Dictionary.com defines silence as "the absence of any sound or noise; stillness; the state or fact of being silent; muteness." This week we've been studying Psalm 46:10 where the psalmist says, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." Too often we are unable to be silent... In fact, Donald Whitney, author and teacher, puts it this way, "Many of us need to realize the addiction we have to noise. It's one thing to turn on the TV, tape, or radio to listen to while ironing or doing other chores, but it's another thing habitually to turn one of these on immediately upon entering a room just to have sound. Even worse is to feel that it's necessary to have background noise during Bible intake or prayer. I believe the convenience of sound has contributed to the spiritual shallowness of contemporary western Christianity. The advent of affordable, portable sound systems, for ...