So, I've Started Watching Glee

I don't really know why exactly. I watched a video of one of their recent songs on Youtube, and for some reason or another (I'm not quite sure why) I proceeded to watch a bunch of other Glee songs. So, I figured I might as well go ahead and check out the show in earnest. I've kind of been meaning to anyway. I realize I'm about a year and a half late on this, but whatever. Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, I mean, it's a goofy-looking show about a high school glee club. That isn't exactly up my alley. Sure, it's massively popular, but so are Desperate Housewives, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, and Glenn Beck. However, I've watched the first 7 episodes now, and here's the thing: This show is good. It's really good.

I knew going in that the show would have good music. [random sidebar] Actually, more accurately I knew the show would have music I liked. I have terrible taste in music, so I'm hardly qualified to say whether the show's music is objectively good or not [/random sidebar]. What I did not expect was for the show to be as funny or fantastically zany as it is. Rather than trying to be a realistic little underdog story about a group of lovable misfits, Glee wisely chooses to embrace the absurdity of its concept, and the show is much better off for it. Characters break out into perfectly choreographed musical numbers, and every performance has a bit of a dreamlike quality to it. The whole football team can break out into the "Single Ladies" dance, and there isn't an ironic wink to the camera, it just is what it is (though, about those football scenes. If you're going to cast someone as a quarterback, maybe he should look like he has at least attempted to throw a football before). For my money, the best comedies are the ones that are able to throw reality out the window and embrace the zaniness (Community, 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother are great examples of this. The best example is, of course, Arrested Development). Glee does that, and doesn't get too caught up in weighty issues or drama. In fact, the worst parts of the shows to this point has been the drama that has been rather clumsily handled (Quinn's baby, Will's incredibly unlikable wife). On the whole though, the show is pure fun and energy, and that's a great thing.

The cast is mostly great, though the younger actors have their moments of, well...not being very good. The adults are pretty excellent though. Two characters, though, stand out in particular. Jane Lynch has earned well-deserved accolades for her Sue Sylvester, the wickedly funny cheerleading coach. It's hard to describe just how fantastic she is in this role. Lynch steals basically every scene she's in, and much like Neil Patrick Harris's Barney in How I Met Your Mother, elevates the entire show. If you haven't seen the show, let me present you with a selection of quotes from Ms. Sylvester:

"I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat; and then on some dark cold night, I will steal away into your home, and punch you in the face."

"This is what we call a total disaster ladies. I'm going to ask you to smell your armpits. That's the smell of failure and it's stinking up my office."

“So you like show tunes. It doesn’t mean you’re gay. It just means you’re awful.”

"You think this is hard? I'm living with Hepatitis, *that's* hard!"

"I'll often yell at homeless people: 'Hey, how is that homelessness working out for you? Try not being homeless for once.' "

"I hear people say, "That's not how I define marriage". Well, to them I say, "Love knows no bounds." Why can't people marry dogs? I'm certainly not advocating intimacy with your pets. I, for one, think intimacy is no place in marriage. Walked in on my parents once, and it was like seeing two walruses wrestling. So, WOOF! on Prop 15, Ohio. "

Yeah, fantastic. The other character who I really love on the show is the other real breakout star, and that's Lea Michele as Rachel. The reason I love the character, besides the fact that she has a heck of a voice, is because she isn't just one of the misfits. She isn't unpopular because she isn't pretty or isn't talented, she's unpopular because really, she's a pretty insufferable egomaniac. She isn't simply misunderstood or a diamond in the rough or whatever, she's a really flawed character who often is the cause of her own misfortune. In a show that (so far) is populated by a lot of broad stereotypes, Rachel is a refreshingly complex character.

I'm surprised by how consistently funny the show is, and at their willingness to go to weird places to mine that humor. It certainly doesn't feel like a mainstream, super-popular show. But hey, sometimes you just catch the zeitgeist. The humor is sharp and zany. Some of the inner monologues are fantastic (particularly Puck), and the recurring joke with Finn's memory of running into a mailman is really well used. They mine humor out of pretty much every character, no matter how small a role ("Howard, if you cannot fold a fitted sheet, you cannot work at Sheets 'N' Things!"). The moment that killed me more than any other though, the moment where I knew this show was capable of awesome things, was in the 4th episode, when Stephen Toblowsky's Sandy Ryerson (I see what you did there Glee) has this exchange with another character.

"Who is Josh Groban?"

Sandy: "'Who is Josh Groban?!?' Kill Yourself!...He is an angel sent from heaven to deliver platinum records unto us, and if he were here right now, I would club you to death with his critic's choice award."

That right there is great comedy folks.

So, is Glee my new favorite show? Not even close. It's a lot of fun, and the music is usually very good, but it struggles to find its feet sometimes and the tone can swing wildly from episode to episode. It isn't capable of being non-stop, laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end like Community or 30 Rock can do on their best of days. However, Glee is its own unique little animal, and it has certainly showed enough promise so far that I'll keep watching and try to catch up with the current episodes. It's a lot of fun, and as long as it doesn't veer to far into dramatic territory in the future (which would be terrible, terrible, terrible), I'll gladly spend time in the zany little universe Glee has created.

So, there it is, my thoughts on Glee. If you cared (I know you didn't, humor me). If you're still reading, congrats to you, you stubborn completist. If you aren't reading this and instead stopped after the first paragraph to avoid my nonsensical rambling, then good for you. Give yourself a gold star.

Work, School and John Wooden

So, I haven't posted in a while. Not terribly surprising, I was pretty positive that would happen when I started this thing :).

Anyway, life has been very busy recently. I started working as at tutor at Mathnasium recently (yes, I work at a place called Mathnasium, I am a nerd). That's been interesting. It's mostly tutoring younger students, which isn't really my strong suit. Pretty much all of my tutoring experience has been high schoolers, who are much easier to work with. With high schoolers, you just have to explain the concepts. With younger kids, it's as much babysitting as it is tutoring. All in all though, there are many worse jobs you could have, and tutoring really isn't that difficult.

Also encouraging on the job front is that I'm being considered for a youth ministry internship with a church in the area. That would be a tremendous blessing. Over fall break, I got to go on the Fall Retreat with the Peace Youth Group, and I realized just how much I've been missing working with youth. It would be really awesome to do that again (and also get paid, that's nice to).

So, other than work, I've been busy with a little bit of school as well :). I wrote my first sermon as a seminary student a couple weeks ago, on Philippians 3:1-11. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, so I'm interested in seeing what kind of corrections I get. I also just finished a paper on John Wooden for my Leadership class that was really interesting to do. Fascinating man, and he really had an unorthodox approach to coaching.

There's all sorts of other stuff that's been going on as well. Beach for Fall Break. State Fair last weekend. Dominating my fantasy football leagues. Being reminded of how awesome John Piper is (this may warrant a whole blog post later). Anyway, that's been my life recently. Busy and hectic, but good. Hopefully I'll start finding a bit more time to keep making blog posts, but no promises. :)

To end, I'll leave you with my favorite John Wooden quote I came across.

"If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me." -John Wooden

Be Ye Glad

This song was on my mind today. One of my absolute favorites. The lyrics just paint an amazing picture. It's awesome.

Be Ye Glad

In these days of confused situations.
In these nights of a restless remorse,
When the heart and the soul of the nation,
lay wounded and cold as a corpse.
From the grave of the innocent Adam,
comes a song bringing joy to the sad.
Oh your cry has been heard and the ransom,
has been paid up in full, Be Ye Glad.

(Chorus)
Oh, Be Ye Glad, Oh, Be Ye Glad,
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord,
Be Ye Glad, Be Ye Glad, Be Ye Glad.

Now from your dungeon a rumor is stirring.
You have heard it again and again.
Ah, but this time the cell keys are turning,
and outside there are faces of friends.
And though your body lay weary from wasting,
and your eyes show the sorrow they've had.
Oh the love that your heart is now tasting
has opened the gate, Be Ye Glad.

So be like lights on the rim of the water,
giving hope in a storm sea of night.
Be a refuge amidst the slaughter,
for these fugitives in their flight.
For you are timeless and part of a puzzle.
You are winsome and young as a lad.
And there is no disease or no struggle,
that can pull you from God, Be Ye Glad.

Movies I Love: Gone Baby Gone

The first time I watched Gone Baby Gone was probably over a year ago, and I hadn't gone back and watched it again until recently. I didn't have to. This film leaves an indelible mark on your brain, and it's not one you're going to forget in a hurry. That said, I watched it for the second time a few days ago, and it blew me away again. It's as well-acted a movie as you'll find, and it delivers several gut-wrenchingly emotional scenes, like haymakers to the heart. And to think that this gem was directed by first-time director Ben Affleck. Yes, he of such monuments of cinematic achievement as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Daredevil and Gigli shockingly crafted a minor masterpiece on his first try. It's less shocking now, since Affleck has reinvigorated his career a bit (this movie playing not a small part in that), and has a big film in theaters now (The Town, which he directed and acts in), but when this came out in 2007, Affleck was not exactly a hot name (to put it lightly). No small wonder, then, that this movie is as good as it is.

Now, before I get any further, I have to make a disclaimer. I'm writing these posts both because I love these movies and like to write about them, and to recommend the movies for those of you who actually read this blog, so that you can enjoy them too. I must warn you about this movie, it has an excessive amount of language in it. I mean, pervasive use of the F-Bomb, among other things. It's there for a reason; the movie is set basically in the seedy parts of Boston, and the dialogue realistically paints that picture. It's part of the atmosphere that makes the movie seem so real, and ultimately makes the movie work. However, there is a TON of cursing, and if you can't handle that sort of thing, don't watch this movie. Consider yourself warned.

The basic plot of the movie is that a little girl is kidnapped, and her aunt hires private investigators Patrick and Angie (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) to help the police find her. However, things aren't so straightforward in this case. The girl's mother (Amy Ryan) is a crackhead who may not have been completely honest with the police, and who doesn't seem nearly as worried about finding her child as the girl's aunt and uncle are. To reveal anymore would be a disservice to the film, and if you haven't seen it you really should go in knowing as little of the plot as possible.

Much like Good Will Hunting, the film Affleck won a "Best Screenplay" Oscar for over a decade ago (with co-writer Matt Damon), the city of Boston is ever-present in Gone Baby Gone. In most films, the setting is fairly generic, it could be taking place anywhere, but in Gone Baby Gone, even moreso that Good Will Hunting, the city feels real and alive. This is a small story, taking place largely within the confines of this small neighborhood of Boston. It's up close and personal, and a city that is raw and not given the typical Hollywood gleam gives the movie a tremendous sense of realness, and makes the final story hit that much harder.

The movie has some great acting all around, but it really hangs on two fantastic performances. First is Amy Ryan (who you might recognize as Holly from The Office) as the screwed-up mother whose little girl gets kidnapped. She has the thankless job of playing a character who is largely despicable. We should be more sympathetic, she has lost her kid after all, but Ryan really makes the character loathsome, and kind of annoying as well. On top of that, Ryan's Boston accent was so good that apparently Ben Affleck asked her in her interview what part of Boston she's from (she's actually from New York). The other great performance is Casey Affleck, who does a tremendous job as the baby-faced private investigator. It's not a showy performance; Affleck looks young and harmless, out of his depth as a PI. He's subdued, almost mumbling his lines at times, but then has moments where he transform into, for lack of a better word, a complete badass. He really carries the film, and his performance in the movie's pivotal scene is one of my absolute favorites.

I think one of my favorite things about the film overall is that there isn't really a villain, and our heroes, if you could call them that, aren't always very heroic. Nothing is clear-cut. In fact, if anyone is the "bad guy" in this movie, it would probably be Ryan's character. The movie doesn't tell you who's right and who's wrong, what the right decision is, and I love that about it.

Now, I can't properly address this movie without revealing something that would be a real spoiler for those who haven't seen it, and since part of the reason I'm doing this is to advise people to check these movies out, that would be counter-productive. So, I'm going to write a bit about that below, but I'm making the text the same color as the background (I actually can't get it to the same color, but I think it's close enough that you won't read it with a quick glance-over). If you have seen the movie, just highlight the text to reveal it, and if you haven't seen it, then what the heck are you waiting for? Go watch it, and come back and tell me what you think :).

[Begin spoiler text]
So, how about that ending folks? I knew it was coming the second time around, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't really get emotional with movies, but that scene with Affleck and Morgan Freeman at the end is so powerful, it absolutely kills me. Like I said above, I love that the movie doesn't tell you whether or not Patrick made the right choice. You're left with an honest to goodness moral dilemma, and that's something precious few movies do. For my part, I think it's a really bold thing to do to not only have Patrick make the hard, moral choice, but to show him having to live with the consequences. His girlfriend leaves him, and the mother seems completely unchanged by the experience. That scene where she finally gets her lost child back and still comes off as an attention-craving ("Thank you to all the policemen and the firemen. I feel like 9/11 right now") hypocrite ("just never let your kids out of your sight"), it's just heartbreaking. As the movie closes on Patrick and Amanda, we're left with the same question he is, "what now?" He made the hard decision, and now he'll have to live with the consequences.
[/spoiler]

Community

No, this is not a post about the comedy on NBC (though in case you're wondering, it's the best comedy on TV, and you should be watching it). Rather, it's about the awesome blessing of Christian community.

Shannon wrote on her blog a few days ago about the blessing of being part of a big "pseudo-family". I know what she means. For 22 years, I've been blessed with an amazing family of "adopted" aunts and uncles, and countless brothers and sisters, mostly people in the church. One of the hard things about moving to Charlotte has been not having that community around me anymore.

However, one of the great things about modern technology is that, even if I'm not around that family anymore, I can still be connected. This last week, I had a second interview for a job that I desperately need to get, so as I was on my way there, I shot off a quick text message to some of my Christian brothers to pray for me, and within minutes I had responses from a dozen guys praying for me. That's such an amazing blessing [also, I got the job :)]. God has blessed me with an awesome community of friends, and all too often, I take that for granted. With all the different methods available to stay in contact with people (email, text messages, facebook, skype, etc.), there's really no good reason not to be building one another up and praying for one another, no matter how far away we might be.

“It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian community.” – Dietrich Bohnhoeffer

A Question of Authority

This post comes out of something that was said in my Introduction to Pastoral and Theological Studies course about a week and a half ago, that I've been kicking around in my head. We were studying the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, and Dr. Anderson made the point that scripture is, by necessity, self-authenticating. What this means is that Scripture is true not because the church says it is, or even because all sorts of historical evidence confirms it, but simply because it IS true. Now, I understand why this is true and must be true, but initially I didn't really feel comfortable with it. It seems far too close to that often used parody argument of why Christians believe in God. You know:

"Why do you believe in Christianity?"
"Because the Bible says it's true."
"How do you know the Bible is true?"
"Because the Bible says it's true."

You can see Stephen Colbert parody this kind of circular reasoning in this classic clip from The Daily Show. So what's the difference? Why isn't the idea of the Bible being self-authenticating a logical fallacy? Well, lets back up a second. You may wonder what I mean when I say the Bible is self-authenticating, so lets start there.

What does it mean to say the Bible is self-authenticating?
In Christianity, the Bible is to be our highest authority. It is the word of God, and there is no authority greater than God, so his Word to us must be the highest authority in our lives. Because of this, there is nothing else on this earth which can authenticate the Bible. If something else could endorse the scriptures as true, it would, by very definition, be a higher authority. So, if the Bible is truly the word of God, it is self-authenticating. It doesn't rely on the church fro it's authenticity and authority (as the Roman Catholic Church believes), it doesn't rely on historical evidence, it doesn't rely on logical proofs. Those things may be good, but they don't grant the bible its authority, they can't. The bible is true simply because it is the Word of God, and it is true.

Ok, so how is that not circular reasoning?
The difference here is subtle. What we're stating is not that "The Bible is true because it says it's true." What we're saying is that the Bible is true because it IS true, and more than that, because it is THE truth. The authority of the Bible comes from the fact that the Bible is the Word of God, and we recognize the voice of our creator. The Bible itself attests to this. As Jesus says in John 10:1-5, "The follow him, for they know his voice." In verse 14 he says "I know my own and my own know me." 1 John 4:6 says "We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." ([aside]Note, I'm not citing the Bible to prove the Bible, I'm showing that the Bible internally supports the idea of itself being self-authenticating[/aside]) Is this illogical? Well, no. Consider the laws of logic. Most of us are not going to argue that the laws of logic are not true. For example, the law of non-contradiction, which states that two mutually exclusive propositions cannot be true at the same time. That's true, we know that instinctively. However, you can't prove the law of non-contradiction, because any kind of logical proof would require the very laws of logic that you are proving. We recognize the laws of logic because they are true, not because we can prove them. In the same way, we recognize the truth of the Bible because it is true.

Ok, so if that's true, why doesn't everybody acknowledge the truth of the Bible?
Well, the Bible has a pretty simple answer to that. Everybody does, in fact, know that the Bible is true. However, we've all rejected that truth because of our fallen nature. Romans 1:21 tells us that all men know the truth of God, but we reject him and our hearts are darkened, then later says "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie." Romans 8:7 says that "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot." In the passage I quoted from 1 John above, John says that "whoever is not from God does not listen to us." Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that "the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The truth is the truth, regardless of whether or not people deny it. We've all rejected the truth, and it's only by the work of the Holy Spirit that some are able to recognize the Bible's authority.

Right, so why does this matter?
It all has to do with what our authority is. If the Bible is the highest authority and self-authenticating, one of the things that means is that it doesn't need us to defend it. In Amos 3, he says of God's Word that "The lion has roared; who will not fear?"and as Spurgeon says, "Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself." The Bible itself attests to its own truth. Now, don't get me wrong, there's definitely a place for apologetics and applying logic and science to the Bible. However, it's not the ultimate authority which gives authenticates the Bible. If the Bible is about a God who is beyond our comprehension, then we should expect that some things might not fit with our logic (the Trinity, for instance). If the Bible is about a God who is supernatural, then we shouldn't expect everything in it to be explainable by natural science. This isn't a problem, because the Bible is our highest authority. My favorite book on apologetics is Tim Keller's The Reason For God, and one of the reasons is because he goes over all these different evidences from logic and whatnot, but in the middle of it he says this: "I have not tried to prove the existence of God to you. My goal has been to show you that you already know God exists." It's the same principle. The fact that I don't have to defend the Bible is a tremendous comfort, for a couple reasons. First of all, it means that the Bible's authority doesn't rest on my ability to completely understand it. If I can't work out exactly how the Trinity works, I don't have to throw out the Bible because I can't logically explain it. Second, my ability to witness to other people doesn't rely on my ability to put forward an ironclad defense of the Bible. Ultimately it's the work of the Holy Spirit that will reveals the truth of the Bible to others, not my ability to debate and reason.

Watch. Laugh.

I have a big post coming that I'm working on, but for now, I have a little something to share. I was watching old clips from The Daily Show tonight, and was reminded of this, the single greatest clip of all time.



Enjoy