Thanks Greg for tossing my own words back to me to help me realize what a jerk I can be. This is one thing I’ve been convicted of increasingly more and more as time goes on—I’m a typical, egocentric, selfish, opinionated, jerk of an American. (And usually, those tend to go together somewhat)

Obviously, I’m not the foremost expert on everyone and everything in the world. Certainly, I rant and rave about others’ faults a lot. Don’t worry, I try to keep from talking about people I know, but that doesn’t eliminate the fact that everyone out there is an actual person, and I probably could do a lot better than going around calling people stupid. (A fact so poignantly demonstrated with my last post).

For one who hopes to be a pastor someday (I moved to Chicago for seminary today), I’ve just oh-so-brilliantly demonstrated that God does not call just perfect people, and that everyone—especially me—needs a very large helping of Grace, and a lifetime of sanctification.

Lord, make me humble, and teach me to love as you do.

Some lady wrote a review of the Fifth Harry Potter movie, and the people over at Gospelcom linked to it, so I read it. I had to shake my head and laugh. (here it is)

Regardless of her opinion on the entertainment value of the movie, she makes two comments that are quite revealing about her familiarity with the Harry Potter saga:

1. “I think the film could have been stronger, more entertaining, and less bleak, and still remained very true to the original story.”
2. “And Quidditch—what is a Harry Potter story without Quidditch?!?”

As anyone who actually read the book would know (and she implies that she has in the first comment), Harry was banned from Quidditch that year, and thus it didn’t even appear in the book. How can she comment on it’s faithfulness to the book when she obviously hasn’t even read it?!? And if she knew anything about Quidditch, she would know that it’s a quite simple game, we’ve seen enough of it, and putting it into any future Harry Potter books and/or movies would be, quite simply, boring.

Don’t try to be an expert on stuff you know nothing about.

So last night at about 1 AM, I finished reading the 7th book of the Harry Potter Series. It was good, it was long, and I’m glad it’s over. Why?

JK Rowling is not CS Lewis.

The 7 books were certainly fun to read, and mostly well-written, and had good continuity. They were also quite creative. But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, there’s nothing there. No deeper meaning, no eternal hope, nothing. In contrast, I thought of the end of Narnian time in “The Last Battle”: what a picture of heaven, with perfect sweetness that only gets better as eternity increases. What a hope to be drawn into the fullness of communion with God Almighty!

In contrast: [click here only if you want to have the ending of Harry Potter to be spoiled]

By far, I prefer the example of the woman from Perelandra, who lives out the temptation of the garden of Eden and gets it right, upholding purity, complete obedience to God, and heavenly love as the highest and noblest of desires.

Yeah, today Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows showed up via our friendly UPS guy. I took a picture of the box from Amazon.com:

I can’t wait to see what’s inside!

So Lisa and I went to Cedar Point yesterday, and while waiting in line for the Millenium Force, we stood about 15 people ahead of the infamous “Crazy Guy from Cedar Point”. I guess that he loves Cedar Point, he loves music, and he loves dancing. You can find him in the line for Millenium Force. From Youtube:

There’s quite a few videos of him on YouTube, some even a year old or older. I tell you what, he made the 1.5 hr wait to get on that ride the quickest 1.5 hours of my life. Everyone around him was laughing and having a good time, he was enjoying himself, and it was awesome! I guess a few people might have been a little embarrassed, but honestly, the world could do with more people like him who don’t always feel the need to prove to the world that they’re “cool”, “smart”, “rich”, “funny”, “likeable”, or any other of a bazillion terms we each work so hard to maintain a facade of.

I love this guy. Rock on, oh Crazy Dancing Guy from Cedar Point.

You’ll be happy to know he’s upgraded from the old CD Player to a blue iPod Nano, and he was even taking requests when we were there.

This morning I read an article on MSNBC.com about a girl’s battle to be allowed to wear her virginity ring to a school that has a ban on jewelry. While I commend her commitment to sexual purity, and applaud her desire to stand firm in her convictions, I agree with the court’s decision.

The whole point behind the ban on jewelry, I’m guessing, lies somewhere in having a distraction-free place of education, and keeping people from outwardly flaunting or flashily broadcasting their social, political, and religious views. There are better ways of proclaiming that you’re a christian than wearing a shirt that says “JesUSAaves” (yes, saw one yesterday). The school, as far as I can tell, has not prohibited her from talking to people about her faith or commitments, and to throw a stink about not being granted special privileges to wear this ring is ridiculous.

If the ring was essential to her virginity (ie, if she wasn’t able to remain a virgin without the ring) or if it was dictated by her faith (ie, if her faith demanded that virgins wear a ring), I would consider it necessary that she be allowed to wear the ring—and I’m guessing that the court might be as well.

The bottom line is that no one else is allowed to wear jewelry as a means to express anything about themselves. Why should she?

Another thought on the “True Love Waits” movement.