The new film “The Road” is coming out this week. Viggo Mortensen plays a desperate father in post-apocalyptic America, walking south through the rubble as he tries to take his son to safety. It’s an amazingly gripping work, depicting survival in a lifeless landscape of ash and cold. It’s also a bit of a horror story, as some survivors succumb to cannibalism, as all other food (animal or vegetable) is dead and gone. 

I wonder how many Republican’s will see this film. And as they watch it, will they look at each other with raised eyebrows? For nearly one year now, the Republican Party has been journeying through the post-Bush rubble, searching for the America of the past. As they sift through the remains of Newt Gingrich’s conservative revolution, they have begun to starve.

Woe to those who prefer the spirit of control over the spirit of liberty: will we expend the energy to pursue interior holiness?

(I'd rather not write this one.)

For years I've been thinking about a disturbing and distinct division among followers of Jesus. On the one hand I see many rediscovering the spirituality of the arts, befriending the unclear, finding beauty in the ambiguous, and celebrating difference. 

And on the other hand I see people craving more details, more definition, "how to" downloads...almost as though they were screaming, "God, just tell me what to do and I'll do it! Give me the 10 points and I'll follow to the letter. I don't have to understand, I just need to know what you want from me."

(For an introduction to these thoughts, please view my blog from April 30th)

 Woe to those who crave fame: Do we possess the strength to be nothing?

Woe to us when...

...we daydream of greatness and call it being visionary.

...we long to be publicly affirmed in the superlative and call it God-confidence.

...we boast of opportunities and call it faith.

May we speak honestly about the spiritualization of ambition in the church?

Over fifteen years ago, I was slowly soaking in Christ's passion station by station in a desert prayer garden. Misunderstood, misrepresented, betrayed, beaten, rejected, mocked, ultimately murdered...in each moment of pain Jesus could have stopped the suffering with one word: "enough." But instead, Jesus assumed a posture of holy weakness.