francis schaeffer

says:

But when I am a creature in the presence of God, and see that the last relationship is with an infinite God, and these human relationships are among equals, I can take from human relationship what God meant it to provide, without putting the whole structure under an intolerable burden. More than this, when I acknowledge that none of us are perfect in this life, I can enjoy that which is beautiful in a relationship, without expecting it to be perfect.

the one advantage to having insomnia, is that you have more time to read books...

augustine

says

"And I answered unto all these things which stand about the door of my flesh, "Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not He; tell me something about Him." And with a loud voice they exclaimed, "He made us." My questioning was my observing of them; and their beauty was their reply?

veiled glory

veiled beauty

I think I understand why brides wear veils.

A friend of mine showed me a passage from a book that talked about how women are beautiful because they are the image of God's beauty. I had forgotten that man and women are the image of God and I realized that I had never really considered God to be beautiful.

Sometimes girls are too beautiful to look at. It almost hurts to see them. I've always relegated that to the "strange guy-girl phenomenon" pile, but now it makes complete sense—the glory of God is shining through them. Moses saw a glimpse of God's glory and had to wear a veil. The beauty of a woman is the image of God's glory and beauty.

The Bible is very clear that marriage is a symbol of our relationship to Christ. The whole idea of submission is an image of our submission to God—it is one way husbands reveal Christ to their wives. What my friend found liberating and I find stunning in its simplicity and truth is that wives reveal the glory of God to their husbands by being beautiful.

We cannot see God's face on our own. It is only when we turn to Him that we see His face (2 Corithians 3:12-18). Wedings are symbols of that: the bride is veiled, just as God's glory was veiled. Once the bride and groom are married, the veil is removed and the groom can see his bride as she is.

I always knew that marriage is a beautiful symbol of our relationship with Christ, but I only saw half the story. The husband and wife are simultaneously showing and being shown Christ. At the same time, they both see Christ in and and show Him to each other.

The crazy beauty of this just makes me want to praise God! How does He think this stuff up?

distractions

are good for you, apparently

This morning, I spent a thousand dollars. Canadian dollars, though, so it's not that much. You would expect that in making that important decision, I would have spend hours poring over the pros and cons to make sure I was making a good call.

However, that's not my style. I checked out the prices. I checked out all the details. I heard what a few people thought about it. And then I got into a long discussion about software engineering, posted some pictures and watched the Olympics. Was I irresponsible? Ought I to have spent more time studying and deliberating?

Well, according to this guy: no, I shouldn't have. His research suggests that the best way to make a complicated decision is to get all the relevant info, and then distract yourself. As you distract your conscious self, your (way more betterer) unconscious mind gets to work and you'll make better decision.

I know what you're thinking: Dave that's just an excuse to be your usual lazy self. And? What if it is? The best excuses are the ones that are actually good reasons for doing something. I wasn't being lazy, I was using state-of-the-art multicriteria optimization techniques ;)

parking

parking
Originally uploaded by his daveness.

I love this picture, if I may say so myself :)