“The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven’t seen the joke yet.”
- Oliver Herford, 1863 – 1935
Funny Bagpipes
Funny Football Quote
“Football combines the two worst features of modern American life; it’s violence punctuated by committee meetings.”
- George F. Will
My New Favorite Paragraph
I have a new favorite paragraph.
It’s from page 115 of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. The narrator is an old dying country preacher writing about dancing the waltz alone in his study:
“I plan to do all my waltzing here in the study. I have thought I might have a book ready at hand to clutch if I began to experience unusual pain, so that it would have an especial recommendation from being found in my hands. That seemed theatrical, on consideration, and it might have the perverse effect of burdening the book with unpleasant associations. The ones I considered, by the way, were Donne and Herbert and Barth’s Epistle to the Romans and Volume II of Calvin’s Institutes. Which is by no means to slight Volume I.”
Now that’s rich. What an amazing writing gift. And what a lovable character!
Christianese Blooper
I just stumbled across a funny reminder that Christians need to be careful not to slip into Christianese. When I saw a podcast sermon title and clicked on the information button to see what it was about, it said: “A study in Romans chapter 8 encouraging Christians to be anxious for nothing.”
Sounds kinda like a bad idea to me!
I Think I Know Some of These Guys
Last night in our small group we were studying the ministry of Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Thessalonica. As we were reading Acts 17:1-10, one of our readers read from the King James Version.
In the New International Version, Acts 17:5 says that some Jews who were jealous of Paul “rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace.” But you gotta love the KJV translation of this verse–instead of “bad characters” it calls them “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.”
While I’m definitely not a big King James guy, there’s something to be said for turning a phrase like that.
Nice Political Bumper Sticker
Seen in the parking lot near Bank of Ocean City:
“DON’T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR PEDRO”
Picking Up a Ping Pong Ball (or How Not to Look Cool)
The other day Pastor John from the Gathering Tree made an astute observation: “I think I’ve looked the dumbest in life trying to pick up a ping pong ball.”
Who can’t relate to that?!?
Great Quote About Capital Punishment
From the current issue of Christianity Today:
“It’s anti-evangelical to kill people. Christianity is redemptive. But you can’t redeem people by extinguishing them.”
- John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute
This seems obvious, yet so many people miss it. As a white evangelical, it’s embarrassing that white evangelicals are the strongest supporters of the death penalty (with an approval of 74% according to the March 2008 issue of CT). I honestly don’t understand how we can say that we believe Jesus died to pay for our sins, but other people have to die to pay for their own sins.
You Can’t Buy the Gospel Through Amway
Today I was listening to Mark Driscoll’s sermon from Sunday. He’s the pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Talking about being a pastor, he said: “I’m not a salesman. I’m a messenger.”
Well said!
