Only Wonder Grasps Anything

I have architectural envy

I want to take the Milwaukee Art Museum's building back to Chattanooga with me. The architecture swept upwards, coasting in the air at times, and then sailing along beside the shore of Lake Michigan. The art within the building was cool, too, but I'm not so sure that I could convince city of Milwaukee to throw all that great art in with the building. Here are some pictures from the article I linked above.

The wings fold up agains the windows underneath them. Cooooooool!

Since I couldn't take the building, I had to settle for a postcard. Its on my desk at work.

morning after thanksgiving

We're going to see a traveling collection of Rembrandt's art at the Milwaukee Museum of Art today with our Grandma Swanson and our cousins, uncle, and aunt. I'm excited.

Yesterday the dinner table looked to be a veritable canvas of autumn colors- we had three different colors of napkins, two tablecloths, and a variety of foods. During the course of the meal we decided that corn pudding is the only really non-negotiable compliment to the thanksgiving turkey (although homemade cranberry sauce is a close runner up).

Last night we cousins went to see the fourth Harry Potter movie. I enjoyed talking with my cousins about it afterwards, because they're way more into the series than I am, and having read all the books, we each had theories about book seven.

It was about 8 degrees Fahrenheit when we left the theater at midnight.

thanksgiving morning

Our hotel has wireless. I'm with my family in Illinois somewhere about a two hour drive south from Chicago, and we're making our was to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving. I've gotta jet- we're leaving the hotel.

do truth

"The longer I live, the truer the Bible gets."

Andree Seu put together a list of aphorisms, and many of them struck a chord with me.

Truth can be expressed in propositional statements, but it can also be experienced. Many of Seu's aphorisms are concise statements of her experience of truth. We can say, "God is love," which is certainly true, but to read how Jesus walked in that truth is so beautiful, solid, and real. Think of when he forgave Peter three times after being denied three times by Peter; and think of the setting: the disciples were probaby exhausted from trying to fish all night, Peter was soaking from having just jumped into the water to get to Jesus, and they were sitting around the fire, bellies full of the breakfast Jesus had cooked for them, and it was in that context that Jesus so lovingly and graciously restores Peter.

3 John tells us that the apostle received great joy in hearing that his children walk in the truth. Sure, you have to believe it to walk in it, but that isn't what gives John joy. Its when folks actually live the truth by doing it, by fleshing it out in their lives, by incarnating the truth of Jesus, that John rejoices.

Is our (Reformed) understanding of truth too propositionally abstract? Are we too Greek and not biblical enough in how we think about, speak about, and live truth? I'm not suggesting that propositional truth isn't important or that its not true (the Bible is full of propositional truths), but that if we make it the priority over and against doing truth in our lives, we aren't being biblical about truth.

cold front coming in

The weather here has been unseasonably warm, or so the weather forcasters and radio weather announcers have said. I'd have to agree with them--highs in the mid to upper seventies and topping eighty degrees in the second week of November!

However, it has been beautiful to work outside the past three days. Clouds have gradually rolled by, the wind sometimes coaxed, sometimes blew, and sometimes ripped autumn leaves from the trees in a riotous rain of colors. At times the sun shone with brilliance, and then would hid behind the clouds as if the bright leaves made it shy.

cold front coming in
thunderclouds bring chill and rain
has autumn arrived?

what the locust ate

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend who asks good questions which set me to thinking about how my relationship with Jesus has been recently, and then this morning I think another friend who's a missionary in Belgium prayed for me (he told me he prays for me on the sixth of each month), because as I read from one of the Old Testament prophets (the one I'm named after), I was overcome by the Lord's gracious promise to restore the years the locust have eaten (Joel 2:25) that I might know Him as my Lord and God (2:27). My desire to know the Lord has been sporadic recently, but I want to see growth in my life, and I want to know Him more fully. I can only continue to grow in knowing the Lord through his Spirit, which He promised to give (2:28), and by the prayers and support of his people, as I read his Word and seek to live a Bible-saturated life.

If you've prayed for my growth in Jesus, thank you. Please let me know how I can be praying for you, and pray that I'll be more faithfully disciplined in prayer and time in the Scriptures. Thanks.