Whom we ought to love.

My wife and I saw one of my favorite bands in concert last night—The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle is even better in person than on record. Two things struck me about the show.

First, common grace. God has preserved some good in the world, and it doesn't take a Christian to produce something beautiful or pleasing. Darnielle's spirituality is far from orthodox (in any sense), but his brilliant lyrics and music are worthy of admiration and enjoyment. Clearly, he gets some kind of pleasure in performance, and the audience shared it.

Second, the raggedy crowd. It struck me that the hipsters and freaks and weirdos were among those Christ came to save, but which His church so often has a special aversion toward. These are not mostly pretty people, people you'd feel safe around, or people you could talk small with. Yet they were all together in one place, united by a mote of common grace swirling in the dark.

What if they could all be united to us through Christ? What if we could grasp that grace common among us all and show them the particular grace of faith in Our Lord and eternal salvation? Why don't we? If we're willing to stand among them to watch a good show, why not stand before them with the Gospel? Why do we act as though common grace was any more than a taste of goodness in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation starving for the Bread of Life?

After long silence....

My wife is pregnant (just in her third trimester), I've been working 50+ hours per week for over a month now, there's always pleny of yard/housework to be done, and I've been teaching Sunday school every week at church. This isn't braggadocio, just an explanation of why there haven't been any posts for so long. Oh, my sister got married, I was in a dear friend's wedding, my car's been in and out of the mechanic's, and other stuff. So, I'm going to start writing shorter posts, but I'm going to commit to posting five days a week. Whether you've missed me or not, I'm back.