Postman: technology changes word meanings

...he [Thamus] worries that wisdom will become indistinguishable from mere knowledge.  This judgment we must take to heart, for it is a certainty that radical technologies create new definitions of old terms and that this process takes place without our being fully conscious of it...

...technology imperiously commandeers our most important terminology.  It redefines "freedom", "truth", "intelligence", "fact", "wisdom", "memory", "history" - all the words we live by.  And it does not pause to tell us.  And we do not pause to ask.

Technopoly, p8-9

Montgomery: don't be a Bugle

It's only that Cousin Ernestine Bugle is catching.

I know now why Rebecca Due has always called her 'Miss Much Afraid'.  The poor soul has borrowed so much trouble she must be hopelessly in debt to fate.

There are so many Bugles in the world, not many quite so far gone in Buglism as Cousin Ernestine perhaps;  but so many kill-joys, afraid to enjoy today because of what tomorrow will bring.

Anne of Windy Willows, p209-10

Vocation and unemployment

In recent years, Christian scholars have reflected in fresh ways on a theology of work. It can be devastating when people are unable to engage in meaningful labor. "It's perfectly natural to be ill at ease about becoming unemployed and to be frustrated and anxious," Ben Witherington, author of Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor, told Christianity Today. "I don't think that most Christians have thought seriously about what the Bible says about work."

When the vision of work is not rooted in Scripture, people fall back on a lesser notion: the perfect job. "Christians have associated vocation with job," said Gene Veith, author of the 2002 book God at Work, noting that job is a secular word, while the word vocation has rich theological meaning.

Vocation is defined as God calling us to serve and love our neighbors. This is something one never loses, Veith said. According to the Reformers, Veith said, there were three vocations: the family, the church, and the state. A paying job is only one aspect of the family vocation.

"We invest so much of the meaning of our lives in our jobs," said Veith, provost and professor at Patrick Henry College. "That's our identity, that's what gives our life reason, that's why we get up in the morning. When that is taken away, we feel purposeless. That mindset has led us to neglect our other vocations and callings."

CT

Dalrymple: cover nihilism with malevolence

It is better [in the minds of those he is describing] to be opposed by an enemy than to be adrift in meaninglessness, for the simulacrum of an enemy lends purpose to actions whose nihilism would otherwise be self evident.

Our Culture... p303

Dalrymple: The West case - loss of family is loss of protection

The [Fred and Rosemary] West case revealed how easily, in the anonymity of the modern urban environment, and in the midst of crowds, people may disappear;  and how such disappearances are made all the easier by a collective refusal - in the name of individual liberty - of parents to take responsibility for their children, of neighbours to notice what is happening around them, of anyone to brave the mockery of libertines in the defence of some standard of decency.  And the various public agencies - the police, the schools, the social services, the hospitals - proved no substitute for the personal contact that families were once supposed to have provided, but that, in a permissive climate in which tolerance all too often shades into indifference, many provide no longer.  The failure of these agencies was not accidental, but inherent in their nature as bureaucracies: the state is not, and never will be, a substitute for an old-fashioned mum and dad.

Our Culutre... p271

The problem with advice (Tolkien)

"...But it is said: Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. The choice is yoirs: to go or wait."

"And it is also said," answered Frodo, "Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes."

"Is it indeed?" laughed Gildor. "Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill..."

TLOR, p97

Dalrymple: producing shallow people

...a loss of sense of shame means a loss of privacy; a loss of privacy means a loss of intimacy;  a loss of intimacy means a loss of depth. There is, in fact, no better way to produce shallow and superficial people than to let them live their lives entirely in the open without concealment of anything.

Our Culture...  p.240

Ortberg: Hope Management

A very wise person suggested a great image to our staff recently. I asked him what he thought is the primary barrier people in church ministry face to finding spiritual health. I thought he would speak about how hard church leadership is, but he immediately said that our challenge is no different than anyone else's: "Learning to depend fully on God for every moment of your life, right where you are."

The image was this: Remember Atlas, that old character from Greek mythology who carried the world on his shoulder? Put it down. Refuse to carry the weight of the world anymore. Rely on God's love this moment for your identity and well-being, so that they no longer hinge on outcomes.

I am a recovering Atlas.

When I remember to do this, when I take the world off my shoulders, it always results in life and hope. Hope, after all, is very different from getting myself to believe that things will turn out the way that I want them to. Hope means, among other things, a joyful dying to my need to have my life turn out any particular way at all. Hope comes when I live in the reality that the world is in better, larger, more capable hands than mine.

The ancient Greeks loved virtue, and believed deeply that suffering would produce character. But in the ancient world, only a Paul would top this list (suffering, perseverance, character) with "hope." The Greeks were not big on hope; they did not believe the universe was kindly disposed to humanity. Paul did, because Jesus did. So Paul said hope "does not disappoint."

Hope-management may be the single most important thing you do today. No circumstance or person is allowed to siphon it from you. When you took this job, when you answered this call—you signed on for hope. It's much bigger than you are. Rest in it a little while.

Leadership