Recommended Reading

I've just finished reading Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator. It is an excellent, entry-level look at the intelligent design movement. Basically, the theory of intelligent design says that certain features of the universe, the earth, and life itself are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.

Strobel is a former atheist and was once chief legal affairs editor for the Chicago Tribune. That backgrounds forms the basis for Strobel's approach to the subject matter. Each chapter is a journalist's interview of a leading expert in a particular field within the intelligent design movement.

I would recommend this book to Christians seeking to gain greater understanding into the scientific arguments for creation. However, I would not recommend using it as a tool to give to your unbelieving friends. Use it to inform your own understanding so that you can interact with your friends about the subject.

Theology and a Coffee Cup

My family and I drove down to Allen, TX, this weekend to do some back to school shopping. Since I was way groggy in the head and needed some sort of drugs to make me ready for a day of shopping in the Texas heat, we stopped by Starbucks and grabbed a couple of coffees.

Starbucks has a new promotion called "The Way I See It" designed to get people talking about life, issues, and things that matter to them. Each cup now has printed on it a thought, opinion, or expression provided by a notable figure to be used as a discussion starter. (Why doesn't the church come up with ideas like this?!)

On my wife's cup was "The Way I See It #116":

Mountains preserve the heritage of the past, enhance the beauty of the present and inspire actions for the future. Near a sacred peak, everything reveals its most essential meaning.

-- Constanza Ceruti, High-altitude archeologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

Ceruti points to a truth that every hiker knows in at least some since, that the mountains provide unique opportunities to connect with the divine. When we are in the presence of something infinitely greater than ourselves, majestically larger, we are humbled and reminded of who we are and our relationship to the universe as a whole. And it is there that everything reveals its most essential meaning. I would add that it is not the mountains that cause us to be reflective and see the essential nature of ourselves and our world, but it is the fact that the mountain causes us to come face to face with who we are in the world.

For years, mountaintops have been regarded as sacred places, places where man can meet with God. The Psalmist writes, "I raise my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).

So, I encourage you to get to a mountain and meet with God. Find everything else in life stripped away and find the beauty of meeting face to face with God.