Happy Reformation Day

A little video for your viewing pleasure to celebrate Reformation Day

Books I've Read - Letters To a Young Calvinist

Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition
by James K.A. Smith

There is a movement in Christian circles that has become known as the 'Young Restless and Reformed' or YRR for short.  This movement and the teachings of men like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, CJ Mahaney and many other dynamic Christian leaders, has led a surge of interest in Calvinism, particularly among younger Christian adults.  It would seem that many young Christians have become disillusioned with lack of intellectual food that 'pop' Christianity has to offer and are increasingly attracted to the depth and riches of Calvinistic thought.  As a Calvinist myself, I find this to be an exciting and encouraging thing, but as with every movement, the YRR movement comes with its dangers and so I was happy to see this book come on the market. This is a book which contains fatherly advice from someone who came out of a charismatic background and into the reformed movement 25 years ago.  He is looking back on the transitional stage in life that he went through and trying to impart some advice to those who might be going through the same stage in life themselves.

In this book, James Smith is writing to young man who has recently discovered the Reformed tradition and is giving him some of the advice that he wished he had received when he was in that stage of life.  On the whole I rather enjoyed this book and found it to be full of a lot of practical and Godly advice that it would be well for anyone (not just a new student of reformed thought) to listen too.  I did not totally agree with Smith on every count and found that he leans more  heavily towards the Kuypierian branch of the Reformed tradition than I would like, but on the whole I enjoyed this book, particularily the first half of it when he is laying down the groundwork and basis of what Calvinism means. 
 
Random Quote:
It seems to me very un-Reformed to prop up Reformed theology as a timeless ideal, a consummated achievement, when one of the Reformers' mantras was semper reformanda  - always reforming. You shouldn't expect a lifetime of pursuing the truth to result in constant entrenchment into what you thought when you were twenty. (Page 29)

Friendship

A person who has many friends either has a lot of money or is a good listener. – H. L. Mencken

How many friends do you have? According to Facebook I have 575 friends.  Of course we all know that is a bit of a misnomer.  It actually means I have 575 acquaintances who probably 'Facebook stalk' me once in a while.  But with that being said, the face of human communication has changed dramatically and continues to do so.  Friendships of the Facebook sort are ever easier to strike up, and I think the tools of the digital age have changed us in many good ways.  They have broadened our friendships and expanded our perspectives and perhaps even enabled us to stay in touch better, particularly with those who no longer live close by or aren't in the circle of friends that we are the closest with.  Social networking and cell phones and technologies of that sort have certainly changed us and empowered us in many ways, but I sometimes wonder if we have lost anything along the way.

Do these tools that we have ever fool us through misrepresentation?  Don't get me wrong, I think they are great tools, but sometimes we mistake them for being able to do things that they can't.  Take Facebook for example,  because it's easy to pick on and you're probably reading this on Facebook anyways.  The misnomer of 'friends' may make you think that Facebook is good at keeping you connected with your friends.  It's not.  What it is good at is keeping you connected with acquaintances.  For a friendship to be maintained you need a lot more than a status update and a comment on your profile picture. 

True friendship has always been hard to find and I certainly don't think that the communication tools we have at our disposal have made it any harder, but I don't think they have particularly helped either.  It's a good selling point because we all want to have that close friendship and we all want to have lots of friends (i.e. be popular), but if you think these things are going to create close friendships, you are popping the wrong pill my friend (did you see the irony?) True friendship takes work and sacrifice, two things that you can never buy, or get from technology.  Some things just have to be done the old fashioned way.  So go ahead and fill up your 'friend' list on Facebook, but don't forget to invest time and energy into those friendships in life that really matter.  You may not need money to have lots of friends anymore, but you still need the kind of friends that are there for you when Facebook crashes and you are suffering from withdrawal.  Cultivate those true friendships in your life!