Notes, Quotes and Billy Goats

Time for Notes, Quotes and Billy Goats:

Bumper Sticker
I saw a bumper sticker that I'd never seen before the other day. It said:
"I'm personally pro-life, but politically pro-choice. - Pontius Pilate"

Tolerance
My wife and I have been having some rigorous and confusing conversations lately about the word and concept "tolerance." It's become a big Christian buzz word no-no, I've found. But I don't know what it means, exactly. There are a few different definitions in the dictionary, which doesn't help. One definition is "the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others." I think, on one side, that's a good and healthy thing. You shouldn't go around, you know, lynching people because you don't like something they believe.

But it's also defined as: "leeway or deviation from a standard." Which I think is what some folks think of when they think of tolerance. God sets the standard for what is okay to do, and if you break from that, you're on dangerous ground.

My point is this: at the core of tolerance is a kind of "intolerance." You tolerate someone's behavior, but it still bugs the crap out of you. Nicole's point is how do you love somebody without accidentally sending the message that "Hey, what you're doing is okay!"

And more importantly, what does God think of all this? At the core of God is an astounding amount of intolerance because of His attributes of Holiness. But at the core of God is also a tremendous amount of patience for sin - as evidenced in both Old Testament texts and our own lives.

Aye, Aye, Cap'n
Nicole and I went out to a nearby lake yesterday to visit her grandparents. Her grandparents own a small cabin-like thing on a 40-acre campsite area that's right on a small lake in Michigan. Justus got to go on his first boat ride with his great-grandfather, who was in the coast guard which means that he was eminately qualified to drive a pontoon boat with a 45 HP motor. I also swam out to a floating dock a hundred yards off shore, or so, and dove in the water, fearful, the entire time about sharks. Which is ridiculous, because it's a fresh water isolated spring-fed reservoir. But still.

You Came From Where?
The biggest news of the day is that this Sunday, Nicole and I and Justus and her mom and step-dad are piling in their Honda CRV and driving 3 hours to Grand Rapids to attend the Sunday worship experience at Mars Hill Bible Church, which is home to my idol, Rob Bell. I'm totally excited. For me, going to see good preachers is like going to see a rock concert. Only better. Believe, me, I've seen Bryan Adams in concert and he's no match for Erwin McManus. This is totally going to make my vacation.

Afterwards, we're going to drive in dune buggys over the sand dunes, which sounds to me like a big invitation to taste grit for the rest of the weekend, but could also be a lot of fun.