My Dawning Conviction

Currently reading:

How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, 2^nd Edition
by D.A. Carson

Currently listening to:

Jeremy Enigk, Return of the Frog Queen (1996)

I have to say that reading the above book by D.A. Carson has been a real breath of fresh air. An Australian missionary friend let me borrow it, after raving about it for weeks. Again and again, Carson says things in this book that I don’t really hear many other people saying (perhaps being willing to say?). For example, in his chapter on death he says:

There is a cultural factor at work in the Western world that must be squarely faced. Death has become the last taboo. I can write about sex and breasts, discuss homosexuality in public, and debate the ethics of abortion, but I must not mention death in civilized company. (103)

How about that. I really like an author’s willingness to point out inconsistencies in a belief system, and bring the authority of the Word to bear on it. That element of hard-hitting truth has been very welcome.

So (as you may have gathered from previous blog articles perhaps) lately I’ve been feeling a little worn down by many of the very issues he talks about in the book: social evils, poverty, war, illness, death, etc. He even brings this up in the first chapter of the book, using the example of a Christian who goes to the Third World for a time, and he says the problem really for many people struggling like that is “the dawning conviction that there is something wrong with one’s belief system somewhere.” And I think that’s exactly it. I haven’t really been able to put it into words before.

I think from reading the book so far (I’m still only halfway through, but I’m sure it won’t take longJ) one of the major problems in my belief system has been my consistent underestimation of the vileness of sin. I underestimate it in my own life, in the lives of others, the world as a whole; and that pain and suffering in a very real sense show us how wicked our sin really is.

Fresh air.

I'll keep you posted (there's even a whole chapter on the mystery of God's providence!)

And oh, by the way, the Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) album is amazing. I couldn’t believe it’s been out for over 10 years. Where have I been! It’s really quite mellow, somewhat depressing, but he makes good use of instrumentation and they’re quality songs. So there you go.

-T.M.