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As the angel said at the empty tomb, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

Theology is Life has a new home.

QICQA #4

I just finished helping my wonderful wife peel apples for apple crisp. This brought back to mind a question that has plagued me for decades:

Why do we contort our faces to help us concentrate?

And furthermore, how does such an unattractive treatment of the human face actually produce the desired effect of increased concentration and dexterity? I found it nearly impossible to peel an apple without my jaw jutting out in what must have been a most unattractive bulldoggish grimace.

p.s. while I'm on the subject of QICQA's, I must confess my disappointment at the apparent lack of interest in the last QICQA. Not one of my four readers spoke up. At least that one was a question with some theological import.

Roundup: Back in Action

Anyone who has a blog knows that the longer you wait between posts, the harder it is to write a post. I'm determining to overcome the inertia right now with a general roundup post that gets me up to date.

South Africa was really wonderful. I met many dear people and renewed many friendships from seminary. It was also pretty tiring – three, 3-day conferences in a row with two Sundays included. I taught for 11 or 12 days straight, including travel days. The trip home was epic – started in Cape Town on the morning of June 4, arrived home in L.A. around noon the 5^th. Door-to-door, it was 32 hours. I was rather brain-dead.

Upon arrival in the U.S., my laptop promptly crashed. After some anxious moments over the course of a week, our heroic IT staff at GCC/TMS installed a new hard drive and retrieved all the data from the old one! They also gave me a loaner (on Sunday, no less) so that I would have something to use for my summer class beginning on Monday. I love those guys…

So, I arrived home on Friday, and I started teaching summer school on Monday. Theology 1, my bread-and-butter class in the M.Div. program. I'm now finished teaching (the class was 3 weeks long), but I'm working on several ideas that will enhance the class for fall – a whole new approach to the attributes of God, and a slightly modified way of tackling the sovereignty of God and problem of evil. Can't wait to get back to that in a couple weeks.

In the middle of all that, I attended the Resolved Conference, one of my favorite events of the year. It's like summer camp for big people. So encouraging and challenging – Piper's sessions on sin and the glory of God were really helpful to me, not just as a believer, but as a theology professor. I also had the unique privilege of serving the band, Enfield, as a kind of chaplain. I had devotions with them before the sessions—their own call to worship, if you will. It was a blessing. Oh, and you should get the CD.

Finally, I taught in Crossroads today. They asked me to do an adaptation of my seminar from the Shepherd's Conference, on theology of worship. It was a challenge, but it was so valuable to take the principles that I have brought to church leaders and explore the congregational perspective. This will help me greatly as I develop my class on theology of worship for next spring at TMS.

And that brings us up to date. I have two more weeks at home, including two days of seminars with D.Min. students at TMS, then on July 10 I leave for the Grand Canyon and a 7-day rafting trip. More on that, and an update on Dark Dog, coming in the days ahead.

Moving Quickly

This is a placeholder post. I am alive and well in Pretoria, South Africa. I arrived last Wednesday evening, did a little sightseeing for two days while trying to adjust to the time difference. Taught once Saturday and got a tour of one of the townships with a church planter. Preached 3 times yesterday, and the Shepherds Conference series starts today: three, 3-day conferences in a row, in three different cities - Johannesburg, Polokwane, and Cape Town. And I'll preach twice on Sunday morning between conferences 2 and 3. There will be a few free hours here and there, but I may not have time to post anything substantive, and I don't know if I'll have internet. It's an exciting time - please pray for me, all 4 of you, and I'll update here or on Twitter when I can.

QICQA #3

This one really gets me: why do animals play?

There's something to know about the Creator here. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I'm utterly fascinated by the pervasive sense of play in the animal kingdom.