The View from Everest

Finding God’s Will

(Copied from Stand to Reason Blog)

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Kevin DeYoung’s new book Just Do Something:  A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will is an impressive book in how it profoundly boils down a significant and tricky subject into a short, pithy handbook.  Regular STR readers will note that DeYoung’s take on the topic coincides with ours and Greg’s teaching “Decision Making & the Will of God.” This is an excellent book to give someone to open up a discussion on the topic, without overwhelming them with too much information at first.  It’s also helpful if you already agree with DeYoung’s take because his observations and practical advice are very wise.

Here is a sampling of DeYoung’s points from the “call-outs” in the book.  They’re clever and helpful “proverbs.”

Let’s not spiritualize our inability to make decisions in the quest to discover God’s will.

His way is not a crystal ball.  His way is wisdom.

We can stop pleading with God to show us the future (being) confident that He holds the future.

Anxiety is simply living out the future before it gets here.

God never assures us of health, success, or ease.  But He promises us something even better, to make us…humble like Christ.

Our attitude toward wisdom should be one of earnest longing.

The way of wisdom is a way of life.  And that makes you freer than you realize.

And this is an interesting observation:

Of the five reasons for our obssession with finding God’s will, this may be the most crucial:  We have too many choices.  I’m convinced that previous generations did not struggle like we do trying to discover God’s will because they didn’t have as many choices.  In many ways, our preoccupation with the will of God is a Western, middle-class phenomenon of the last fifty years….My hunch is that most of our obsession with knowing the will of God is due to the fact that we are overburdened with choice.

Something Awesome

Giant Mutant Bunnies

Happy Easter, everyone :)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Footage

Check it out you guys!!! Polaris Banks, the director, put up a montage of clips from the Casey Jones movie. A couple of scenes we filmed are in here. I’m the one doing the awesome ninja kick. Just kidding :)

Why didn’t we elect this guy?

Foot Clan… ATTACK!!!

Several months ago I responded to one of the greatest casting calls to ever appear on craigslist. A Casey Jones fan film was being made in Austin, and they needed extras to play Foot Clan Ninjas.

In case you don’t remember, Casey Jones is the guy with all the hockey sticks that beats up thugs in the Ninja Turtles movies. Here’s a clip:

Time went by, and I never heard back about the movie. Then, about two weeks ago, I got an e-mail with the details of the shoot!

Needless to say, I was excited.

Josh Pruett and I both went. Here’s a picture. This one’s for you, Mel :) I’m the fat one on the right:

Here’s one of us without our masks on:

The best part of the night was when Michelangelo arrived. It was SO AWESOME! He looked real. The costume was having a few makeup problems, but since he was moving around a lot in all of his scenes, it didn’t matter. Here he is in all his epic glory:

You can see on his hands where it was messing up, but as these next pictures show, you won’t be able to tell in the final video. Check it out:

Doesn’t he look real?!? It was incredible – like being a kid again!

Speaking of Pipes…

VAPRAK THE DESTROYER’S GREATER PIPE OF DOOM

Last Christmas, my friend Ben got me a raw pipe. Basically it is a pipe that has holes drilled in it, but is otherwise a solid chunk of wood. I’ve been carving on it for a while now, and finally its true form is beginning to emerge.

I’m going to make the spikes intertwine, and then I’m going to stain it several shades of red. I think the finished pipe will be awesome. So awesome, in fact, that it deserves a name:

VAPRAK THE DESTROYER’S GREATER PIPE OF DOOM

This pipe once belonged to Vaprak, the god of ogres and trolls. It is said to grant its user immense strength. However, it also drives its user into a bloody rage, removing all ability to reason while on the battlefield.

ATTRIBUTES

+30 Attack
+15 Defense
+10 Evade
+15 Stamina
- 5 Speed

** Damage Reflect 10%
** Berserk (constant)

**Unusable by Lawful Good, Neutral Good, or Chaotic Good Characters

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Vaprak the Destroyer is the name of a diety from Dungeons & Dragons. He is the god of ogres and trolls. No, I’m not into the occult, I just thought the name suited the pipe perfectly :)

CLEANING HOUSE

I’m cleaning my apartment, and I thought I’d take time to clean up my blog as well. I’m removing the scoreboard page, since I don’t really do contests on here anymore. Here are the final scores:

• Will – 47
• Dave – 35
• Daniel – 30
• Tony McCallie – 20
• probabilityzero – 10
• Vance – 10
• Jeff Jenkins – 7
• Satire and Theology – 3

For old time’s sake, here’s a new version of the contest. Try to guess which superhero I’m thinking of based only on the colors below. I’ll give you a hint – it’s a Marvel character, and it’s not a villain. Good luck!