Vision
The Future
The future, it turns out, is a fairly recent invention. According to Iwan Rhys Morus (“Future perfect,” Aeon, December 10, 2014) thinking about the future developed in Victorian England and linked social progress with progress in science and technology. “It was only around the beginning of the 1800s, as new attitudes towards progress, shaped by the relationship between technology and society, started coming together, that people started thinking about the future as a different place, or an undiscovered country – an idea that seems so familiar to us now that we often forget how peculiar it actually is.” The people of Victorian England viewed the future “as the product of technological innovation.” This view was taken up by science fiction writers, whose visions of the future often became the projects of inventors and entrepreneurs. Technology and the future have been linked ever sense, and not always or necessarily in optimistic ways. Why do we suppose that developments in science and technology alone hold the key to the future? Is this not more a reflection of our materialist age than, say, of the parables of Jesus or the prophecies of Daniel and Micah? The future, after all, does not rest in the hands of those who prefer to live only “under the sun.” But if the future is to be more like that which Jesus and the prophets envisioned than that warned of by environmentalists or hoped for by the gurus of artificial intelligence, those who are keepers of that vision had better get about the task of fleshing it out.  http://aeon.co/magazine/society/how-the-victorians-imagined-and-invented-the-future/

Discipline
College Football Playoff
I have my friend Ralph Lehman to thank for reminding me that sport does have a place in the life of faith. Not as much as some believers allow, perhaps, but a place. The combination of skill, cooperation, pattern, beauty, strategy, suffering, and satisfaction that goes into a sporting event like a college football game offers plenty of opportunities for delight and wonder. And, if you happen to be a Missouri fan, for bearing-up and looking ahead. The College Football Playoff is, I believe, a reasonable arrangement. The fans at TCU and Baylor might not agree – not this year, at least – but they should invest their energies not in whining and complaining but in working with Big 12 officials to find enough teams to permit a conference championship game. College sports has its own forms of corruption, it’s true, but so does life, and we don’t despise it. Sport is part of what we take up in pursuit of the good life, each of us in varying ways and to differing extents. There are benefits to be gained, even within the Christian worldview, from having a place for sport in one’s life. Like any discipline, sport must be engaged judiciously and in moderation. Except, of course, in March, when “judicious” and “moderate” are subject to redefinition and deconstruction to fit the demands of the Madness.

How to Read
Tim Parks encourages us to read with a pen in hand (“A Weapon for Readers,” New York Review, December 3, 2014). That way we’re likely to be more alert and critical as we read. Plus, we may even learn something about ourselves, since we often define ourselves by what we think or feel in contrast to or comparison with others. Reading is a fundamental discipline, one engaged at some level by almost everyone. But reading critically, with a view to understanding another and working out one’s own views in response, is a discipline practiced, I suspect, by very few of us. Reading and thinking go together, of course, but if we are not thinking critically as we read, then we are in danger of being misled or duped. If reading with a pen in hand can help us to avoid that, then by all means, let us be at it.  http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/dec/03/weapon-for-readers/

Reviving Art
The arts are in need of reviving, or so argues Alexander Zubatov in the Fall 2014 issue of The Hedgehog Review (“I Loved You, I Loved You: A Farewell to Art”). Art calls us to slow down, pay attention, go deep, and savor a moment. But such discipline is becoming increasingly difficult in our noisy age: “Bombarded by overstimulating, superficial entertainments, nonstop distractions, and meaningless communications that intrude upon us incessantly, we are, more than ever, losing the capacity to linger and reflect, to be in the moment we are supposed to be experiencing.” Art suffers for all this, so that what goes by the name of art these days is unconnected from the great tradition and trajectory of art from generations past and is mired in self-reference and formlessness. The “common tradition” of art has begun to “unravel” so that art today is “going nowhere fast.” Instead, those who might benefit from the arts “are left with pop culture, the kind that requires no cultivation, no tradition, no steeping in the Great Works as a prerequisite to understanding and appreciating its offerings.” Consequently, we “are at the inception of a new dark age, and it is time to start fleeing to the monasteries once again.” Mr. Zubatov believes we need a generation of “champions” who will work hard to reconnect us with the great tradition of the arts by interpreting that tradition in terms meaningful and relevant to our generation. If such is the case – and I think Mr. Zubatov is on to somethng – then here is an excellent opportunity for Christians, tapping into and bringing forward their own rich heritage of art, to lead the way to a reviving of the arts and, through them, to a powerful restating of the Gospel. But then, we must first reconnect with that tradition ourselves, the neglect of which is certainly one of the great communal transgressions of our generation of Christians.

Outcomes
Heavenly Peace and Joy
Christmas is the season of peace and joy. We sing about these, wish them to loved ones and strangers, and hope to experience a measure of them ourselves. For believers, the peace and joy of Christmas are associated with the Babe in the manger: “Sleep in heavenly peace.” “Joy to the world! The Lord is come.” This is as it should be, for Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Is. 9.6, 7). But the peace and joy we know at Christmas are not the special domain of Christmas. They are the context and consequence of the Kingdom of God (Rom. 14.17, 18), of our coming into the righteousness of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That being so, we should expect and experience the peace and joy of God, not only at Christmas, and not even especially at Christmas, because the Kingdom of God is within us, our ascended King rules from His eternal throne, and our sovereign God is working all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. While celebrating Jesus’ coming to earth at Christmas is good and wonderful, we should also celebrate, with equal peace and joy, and throughout the year, the sovereignty and grace of God to which Christmas bears powerful witness. He rules not only the coming of the Christ Child, but all nations, peoples, events, and things, for the peace and joy of His people and the reconciliation of the world. The Christmas season gives us an opportunity to step back, as it were, from that lovely, wondrous scene in Bethlehem, to take in the larger scope and fuller measure of the sovereignty of God. If we will do so, we may take away from Christmas not merely some new gifts and fond memories, but a stronger sense of the presence, power, and steadfast love and faithfulness of our sovereign God. Then we’ll have peace and joy to speak about throughout the coming year, and not just at Christmas.

Envoi
It's Never Too Late

It’s never too late not to waste your life.
Regret is neither vision, goal, nor plan,
so press on, stay the course, endure the strife.

There’s no use waiting for some drum and fife
to rally you to action. Be a man!
It’s never too late not to waste your life.

So everything you’ve tried so far is rife
with disappointment – still, believe you can!
And press on, stay the course, endure the strife.

Does this rebuke cut deep, like some dull knife
sheathed in your ego? Take that blade in hand –
it’s never too late not to waste your life –

and carve a new direction, slice by slice.
You can’t go backwards, and you must not stand
still: press on, stay the course, endure the strife.

Look up, draw strength from that great unseen band;
run, run each day to gain the promised land. 
It’s never too late not to waste your life, 
so press on, stay the course, endure the strife.

T. M. Moore