Dr. K @ GU

Bringing my longstanding hero worship and my current vocational responsibilities into a violent clash (the latter wins out, btw -- I'll most certainly be @ mass), Dr. Tim Keller is scheduled to speak @ the Veritas Forum on the campus of Georgetown University tomorrow night. I was pleasantly surprised to learn from this interview @ First Things: On the Square that Dr. Keller's book has reached #18 on NYT. I say it the news was pleasant, but it was certainly a surprise to me because I have been assuming we've heard all but the last, faint echoes of the death knell of apologetics in the West due to what Keller calls the "cumulative" effects of the "the rise of narrative and loss of trust in logic," plus a "rationality-attention-deficit disorder." Keller seems to hold out hope that "something of a mixture of logic and personal appeal" can still move people. Perhaps I was wrong in my initial suspicion that The Reason for God is answering questions that a broad swath of the populace just isn't asking anymore. We'll see.

Flannery Agnes Arrives

Born @ 9:24am on 2/17 here in DC.
7 lbs, 11 oz; 20" long.
And surprisingly pink.

She's headed home w/ moms and grandma in about an hour.

Thank you for your prayers (and keep them coming, if you don't mind).

Happy Truck Day!

And what a day it is!

Lent

After 4 quiet months (and a terribly disappointing end to the NFL season), newly priested and growing into a new role in our faith community, the first thing I have to say to you is this:

Lent scares the bejeezus out of me.

We talked a bit about this @ our Community Group on Thursday night, when I somewhat inartfully used the lyrics to "Transcontinental" as a springboard to get us thinking critically about Lent, what it means, what we really think we're doing by mortifying our flesh, the nature of sin and sanctification, etc. The most poignant response of the night was probably from DM who said: "You really think about sin a lot, don't you?"

Why, yes. Yes, I do.

It's hard to say what scares me about Lent, though. I certainly didn't explain it too well on Thursday. But today I read this from George Herbert's poem "Lent" (p. 84 in The Complete English Works):

Besides the cleanness of sweet abstinence,
Quick thoughts and motions at a small expense,
A face not fearing light:
Whereas in fulness there are sluttish fumes,
Sour exhalations, and dishonest rheums,
Revenging the delight.

In short, the third line doesn't describe me @ all. A face not fearing light? My face, which happens to be attached to my body, positively recoils from true Light, like Daniel Plainview exhorting "Just give me the blood, Eli, and let me get out of here. Give me the blood, Lord, and let me get away!" I'm not sure what I would even be without my particular sins, and I'm loath to let God cut them away. I'll take some salvation, please, but easy on the sanctification, thank you very much. I'm not proud of that; it's just the way it is.