Tradition!

Crystal and I enjoyed a really special treat last night. We got to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. What made it even more enjoyable was the fact that Topol, who played the lead character Tevye in the 1971 movie, was performing in person. From what I gather, this is the last time he will play this role in Minneapolis.

Topol has definitely aged, but it was so great to hear his voice. The sets, the dancing, the dialogue were all delightful. It was a great date.

If you’re in the Minneapolis area, the show is playing through March 1. The tickets are a little pricy, but Crystal and I kept a couple seats warm for you up in the nosebleed section.

5 Geography Trivia Questions

These questions are from a loose paper that came with the latest issue of National Geographic. They are all about oceans and they are questions from the National Geographic Bee. I’ll include the answers at the end of the post so you can test your intellectual prowess.

1. In which ocean is Ascension Island, home to one of the three ground stations for the Global Positioning System?
2. Sala-y-Gómez, a rocky islet of volcanic origin, is located on the Nasca Plate in which ocean?
3. Which ocean shares the longest stretch of open water with the Arctic Ocean?
4. In which ocean is the Ninetyeast Ridge, a long mid-ocean ridge that is located north of the Kerguelen Plateau?
5. Cocos, a nine-square-mile island that is a national park, lies north of the Galápagos in which ocean?

As a brief intermission so you’re not tempted to look at the answers too quickly, one of my favorite shows when I was growing up was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Okay, now the answers:

1. Atlantic
2. Pacific
3. Atlantic
4. Indian
5. Pacific

So This Is How They Make Donuts

I never knew.

How Well Do You Know Your Biblical References?

My wife passed along this quiz from the BBC. It is a set of ten questions which test your knowledge of biblical references that are made in classic works of literature. Here is the context for the quiz:

From Shakespeare to Steinbeck, literary greats have borrowed heavily from the Bible. Now, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has raised concerns that students of English literature are struggling because they don’t understand Biblical references. Is he right to worry? Test your knowledge with this quiz from the Bible Society.

Try it out. It’s pretty enjoyable.

What Life Is Like for a Tibetan

A friend of mine shared this video with me and some others on Friday. It does a great job of drawing attention to the spiritual darkness that pervades much of Tibet. I would warmly recommend watching it.

Running Is a Quirky Parable

Last night for the first time I joined a couple friends of mine who run regularly at the Metrodome. During the winter off-season the stadium opens its doors to exercise enthusiasts who want to sweat and gasp in a climate-controlled environment. All you have to do is pay a dollar and you get to run around the concrete concessions loop as much as you want.

If you stop and think about it long enough, running is a pretty quirky activity. Especially running in the Metrodome. I mean, think about it. People actually pay money to huff and puff and wear weird, stinky clothes for 30 minutes or so. The Metrodome profits off of a mobile mass of pain and fatigue.

But these runners know what they are doing. They aren’t after pain. They are ultimately after pleasure. Health. Slimmer bodies. Sounder minds. They know that the pain is working a greater joy, and so they keep on chugging.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

God Stands Behind Good and Evil Asymmetrically

This is an excerpt from a chapter by D.A. Carson in “Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace” entitled, “Reflections on Assurance.” We had to read this for a class. My good friend Phil praised this paragraph to me and I join in his exclamations. Carson discusses how God relates to good and evil while being sovereign over both:

[A]lthough God, by virtue of the fact that he is sovereign, stands behind both good and evil (e.g., God can be portrayed as the one who incites David to number the people, the one who sends a strong delusion so that people will believe the lie, the one who sends nations to war, the one of whom Romans 8:28 is predicated), he stands behind good and evil asymmetrically. He stands behind evil in such a way that none of it takes place outside the limits of his sovereign sway, but so that no evil is chargeable to him; he stands behind good in such a way that all of it is credited to him. Do not ask me to explain how this can be so: these are components of the biblical “givens,” perspectives that the biblical writers teach or assume. (pg. 271-272)

Top 50 Countries Where Christians Are Persecuted

Open Doors has released their World Watch List 2009, which details the top 50 countries in the world were persecution of Christians is the worst.

In 2008 the status of religious freedom grew worse in the following countries:

1. Saudi Arabia
2. Iran
3. Afghanistan
4. Somalia
5. Pakistan
6. Iraq
7. Mauritania
8. Algeria
9. India
10. Nigeria (North)
11. Indonesia
12. Bangladesh
13. Kazakhstan

The status of religious freedom grew better in these countries in 2008:

1. Bhutan
2. China
3. Turkmenistan
4. Vietnam
5. Azerbaijan
6. Sudan (North)
7. Zanzibar Islands
8. Cuba
9. Turkey
10. Columbia

You can access a detailed exaplanation of the World Watch List for more information. For example, here is Open Doors’ recounting of conditions in North Korea, the #1 perpetrator on the list:

North Korea tops the World Watch List for the seventh time in a row. Daily life for Christians in the country remains extremely harsh. The border between China and North Korea is almost closed; everything and everyone going in and out of North Korea is strictly checked. As usual, executions occurred in secret. The number of people sentenced to labor camp or prison has increased compared to last year. North Korea is closing its doors and Christians are persecuted constantly. They suffer immensely as no one is allowed to be a Christian in North Korea. Genuine religious freedom does not exist at all. The constitution is firmly based on Juche ideology. The North Korean regime believes that it will collapse if it fails to stop the spreading of Christianity.

Let’s pray that God would give boldness and persevering grace to our brothers and sisters in these countries and that he would grant repentance to their persecutors.

(HT: James Grant)

8 Ways to Use Facebook Wisely

Facebook recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Al Mohler has offered some reflections on how to use the website and other social networking media wisely:

Social networking is like any new technology.  It must be evaluated on the basis of its moral impact as well as its technological utility.  Social networking sites offer unprecedented opportunities for communication and contact — and that is both the promise and the peril of the technology.

Here are a few suggestions for safeguarding the social networking experience:

1. Never allow social networking to replace or rival personal contact and communication.  God made us to be social creatures that crave community. We cannot permit ourselves to substitute social networking for the harder work of building and maintaining personal relationships that are face to face.

2. Set clear parameters for the time devoted to social networking.  These services can be seductive and time consuming.  Social networking (and the Internet in general) can become obsessive and destructive of other relationships and higher priorities for the Christian.

3. Never write or post anything on a social networking site that you would not want the world to see, or anything that would compromise your Christian witness.  There are plenty of young people (perhaps older persons now, too) who are ruining future job prospects and opportunities by social networking misbehavior. The cost to Christian witness is often far greater.

4. Never allow children and teenagers to have independent social networking access (or Internet access, for that matter).  Parents should monitor, manage, supervise, and control the Internet access of their children and teens.  Watch what your child posts and what their friends post.

5. Do not allow children and teens to accept any “friend” unknown to you.  The social networking world can be a dangerous place, and parental protection here is vital.

6. Encourage older friends and relatives to sign up and use the technology.  Grandparents can enjoy keeping up with grandchildren and with friends and loved ones separated by distance or mobility.

7. Use the social networking technology to bear witness to the Gospel, but never think that this can replace the centrality of face-to-face evangelism, witness, and discipleship.

8. Do all things to the glory of God, and do not allow social networking to become an idol or a display of narcissism.

The fifth anniversary of Facebook is a milestone in American culture — and a good time for a reality check.  We were made by our Creator to be social creatures, but made for far more than mere social media.

Name One of Your Idiosyncrasies

One of my big-time quirks is that I chew abnormally forcefully. I don’t know how I got started, but there’s no dinking around when I eat my food. It’s one deliberate, pulverizing chomp after another. I’m surprised my jaw muscles aren’t the size of my thighs by now. My wife and others have lovingly pointed this out to me because of the very audible noises my teeth make at the table. I can, at times, sound unsettlingly bovine.

How about you? What is one of your idiosyncrasies?