George’s Neighborhood

Seedtime and Harvest

There is a season for all things, a time for every purpose under heaven the preacher says. I've had this blog up for two years and have not made a single post so far. So why start talking now? No special reason, except that now (unlike then) I have something to say that I think is worth saying. That's important. I don't like blogging just to blog, or blogging without a clear purpose. I've tried that and one runs out of worthwhile things to say pretty quickly...at least I do. So what is this thing I suddenly feel up to saying? It is simply this, I want to explain to those of my family and friends who have known me for many years why I became Orthodox. Others who have heard my story know why this might be a useful approach given my propensity for digression and over meticulous backgrounding (lest I be misunderstood). There is no minimalist approach, no way to explain this decision in a nutshell that does it any justice. Besides, it has been almost 15 year since I decided I wanted to be Orthodox and set out to discover just what that would mean. So, it is about time I would say.

First Things

I blame it all on my mother. She planted the seed that grew into my embrace of Orthodoxy back in my preschool years. We were Southern Baptist, and knowing in some vague way that not everyone was Baptist I asked my mother one Sunday why we were Baptist. She replied that she and Daddy believed that what the Baptist Church taught was the closest to what the Apostles believed and taught back in Biblical times. That thereafater became my measuring stick, my metric, for all spiritual life. Whatever I came to believe in the many years since that time I believed because I was convinced those beliefs where those closest to or actually held by the Apostles during their earthly ministry. Boiled down it is really a question of authority and authenticity. Authentic Christianity must bear an apostolic stamp. But what is that stamp? What determines what is or is not the faith in the midst of many competing truth claims? What if anything distinguishes the Baptist claims from that of the Methodists, Reformed, the Mormons, or the Catholics, or any other group that self identifies as a Christian Church? It is at this point most "discussions" break down into squabbles over biblical interpretation, the idea being that the "truest" or "closest" church will have the best and least assailable biblical arguments in defense of it's beliefs. Of course, in my experience winners and losers are determined more by how good and knowledgeable a presenter/apologist one has enlisted in any given theological fray. In short the presumed answer to any question of theology is expertly argue the Scripture, which is believed to be so clear as to be easily understood by anyone who is diligent and who has ears to hear. Funny how so many assiduously diligent hear so many different things. How could that be? How could the Spirit teach so many conflicting things. That has long been a problem for me...but one for which i had no answer until I encountered Orthodoxy.

You see if somewhere in the welter of Christian belief there was one which was more right... substantially more right than the others, and if for some reason it was not what I currently believed, then how could I know if what I held was in greater or lesser degree some species of theological error? All honest readers and searchers of Scripture that I came to know over the years thought they had it right, that they were led by the Spirit into all truth. But there was no reconciling the certainties of my earnest Mormon friend with that of my earnest Baptist, Reformed, or Catholic friends (who while united in opposing the Mormon faith were united in little else). What I eventually came to learn from this was that I could be wrong. It was certainly incumbent upon me to try and "be right" in my beliefs, but my sincerity was no guarantee that I would get it right. After all there were millions of others who differed from me in all sincerity and in some great exegetical detail, and if I was right, then wherever we had substantial difference, they were wrong no matter that they thought God had opened the Scriptures to them. If God was no respecter of persons, then I had no grounds to believe my faith had of necessity any firmer theological foundations.

My conclusion was that either God cared far less about what I had come to think of as "dead doctrine" or I had missed some important consideration along with several million of my closest and dearest friends and co-religionists, or perhaps both. How could we know after 2000 years which interpretive formula was the right one. Which was authoritative, if any?

I had no idea how many questionable assumptions there were in my arguments and my questions and in those of my contemporaries. It just took a while to discover them...to wake up to the walls of "intellectual" box I and so many others were ignorantly trapped in. However, I was not mistaken in this...the need for an apostolically established measure of truth and Christian experience. Only what could it be? More on this next time.

Astronomy!

Justin
May 19, 2009
5 comments

For those who don't know, I'm currently in Gunnison, Colorado, and will be until next Wednesday. I, along with 10 other physics students, are here using the observatory to study exoplanets (planets around stars besides the sun). On the side we are using the CCD's to take pictures of other astronomical objects, and also possibly studying a bit of cataclysmic variation.

ANYHOW,

Last night was the first time we used the equipment, mostly for orientation since people were a bit traveled out from the trip. But even with that short amount of use while we were exhausted, it was INCREDIBLE. We took a quick look at M3, and it was just an incredible number of stars in a cluster. There are so many stars out here it's just unbelievable. The facility we're using is relatively new, and completely equipped with red lights and all sorts of other astronomy technology, which we're figuring out right now.

My job here is to be one of the two photometer operators. When our professor informed us of this job, he introduced it by pausing, chuckling, then informing us that it was like trying to write the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. So yes it is very precise and very fragile. Dropping or jarring a photometer will destroy it, pointing one at the sun even while it is off will destroy it, even pointing it at the moon while it is on will destroy it. I have to attach two of these to the telescope after using a series of three different eyepieces, a tracker, and a photometer mount to find the star with the utmost precision. While attaching these I cannot let the telescope be budged AT ALL. eeeek. Then I have to make sure it is centered using two different sets of X-Y axis knobs, without being able to see the star; rather I will have to watch the photometer readouts to get this to work. Then it's time to take data.

So that's what I'll be doing in a nutshell, but in between operations like this we will be finding awesome formations and taking amazing pictures. Those who were taking AIP (astro-image processing) at UD using the UD telescope inform us that our quick orientation lookarounds last night gave us better quality images than they had seen their entire time at the UD observatory. So I hope we get some awesome images. Friday we will give a presentation to a group of locals here at Gunnison, and later we will apparently give another presentation to the group here for the mayterm astronomy course.

So, our outing tonight begins at 9 pm (mountain time), which gave me a quick time window to write this VERY quick update. There's still tons more to say though about this trip in general, but that's for later.

By the way, for anyone interested in astronomy, if you haven't already, look up and download Stellarium. It's quick, free, and awesome.

Pascha, the Pascha of the Lord!

Justin
Apr 19, 2009
3 comments

CHRIST IS RISEN! Christos Voskrese! Christos Anesti! Al-Masih-Qam! Cristo Ha Resucitado!

Holy Week

Justin
Apr 14, 2009
3 comments

"Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching,

and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not

be weighed down with sleep, lest thou be given over to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But

rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, O our God, Through the Theotokos have mercy on us."

David After the Dentist

Justin
Mar 7, 2009
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Couldn't resist this one. This is a kid who has just had a procedure done at the dentist, and thus is simply pumped with medication.

Incidentally, this is the exact same way Jeremy acts in the morning and after drinking coffee (. . . . combined)

David After Dentist

Red Window

Svyet
Jan 22, 2009
4 comments

The newest youtube video is up! Well, it actually has been for a while, but I just wanted to put it on here! :D

Red Window

And the bloopers! Actually, they are longer than the video itself, but they are hilarious!!!!! Watch watch! Oooh, I just reminded myself of Southwatch..... Sorry, nevermind....

Red Window Bluegrass

1 comment

Off to college again.

Justin
Jan 17, 2009
5 comments

Well, since I'll be leaving to college once again Monday morning, here is a quick update before things start moving light-speed again.

My semester will be similar to last one except that
(a) I'll probably be doing reader's services on campus once a week (I pray that works out)
(b) I'll be studying economics and theology ("understanding the Bible") instead of politics and philosophy, respectively
(c) um, it will be spring. . . and I'll be on the other side of campus

What else to say?!? Here we go, all in one breath. . . James, I hope your birthday was great (we have your sister here right now, so maybe she can personally convey our best wishes [late though they be] personally, if, that is, she can be pried from the small tornado the girls are able to inexplicably create), congrats to those who have shown forth their surprising writing abilities, Joanna I hope your back feels better!! I need to watch treasure planet again (haven't seen that in millennia), happy trails to those in Mexico, happy, um, namesday (?) mom, happy flying to super-dad, yay for those able to fully appreciate the genius of the music in Zelda, Jeremy keep on makin' them videos, Ben be the conquistador of technology, Jordan keep on reading them finance books, Rachel finish that book (I'm curious for goodness' sake), and Rebecca get really good at hoola hooping.

wheeew. That was intense. Forgive me if I've forgotten anyone, I wrote this sorta really fast. Really really fast.

HAPPY SEMESTER EVERYONE!!

MERRY

Justin
Dec 25, 2008
1 comment

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Squirrels. . . . . ?

Justin
Dec 19, 2008
10 comments

So as I said I wasn't positive about what exactly I was going to write about, but I decided it will be about the last things that happened at college. Finals, and that squirrel.

Finals first: How did they go? Well. . .
English ("literary tradition"): this one everyone sort of panicked about and studied like crazy for. We were memorizing quotes, plotlines, obscure monologues, the name of that one plant Hermes gave Odysseus to he wouldn't turn into a pig on Cerce's island (called Moly by the way), etc. Turns out it wasn't too bad an exam. I think it went all right. (it also turns out it was wise to memorize Moly, since it was on the exam, strangely enough).

Physics: Physics we actually took the final for before Thanksgiving, because our professor accelerated the course a bit so he could publish a book, I think. Since we took it so long ago, I already know my grade: 98. So that was fine, and also a fun course.

Math: no real problems here; there were some strange calculus theorums, and some tricky questions (like using implicit differentiation to prove that the tangent line to a circle is always perpendicular to the radius at that point), but overall I think it was fine.

Philosophy: This exam also included a reasonable amount of panic. However, after attending two or three separate study sessions after spending a whole day in the library studying on my own for this particular exam as well, I think it went all right, but it's so hard to tell how well you did when the questions are all either short-answer or essay.

Politics: Yuck. I officially don't like politics. Don't get me wrong, the course itself wasn't badly done (it was actually very well organized and often interesting), I just don't have politics in me. Nevertheless, it dealt with actual solid facts and outlines, and thus was tolerable since I guess I have a very formulaic mind. And I'm ecstatic that I'm finished with ALL politics courses for the REST OF MY LIFE. Happy times, happy times.

So that's that.
Now the squirrel.
Yesterday morning at college, I was preparing to leave. I was walking along the path from my new to my former dorm to check out, just strolling along during the very wet, crisp and cool, but not too frigid morning, hands in my jacket, minding my own business (possibly whistling a tune). Then I saw a squirrel.

Squirrels at UD are bizarrely common. They frequent every path, burying nuts, digging up nuts, looking for nuts, throwing nuts down from trees at people (literally), and all the other spaztic things that squirrels do. They are used to people, and thus will allow a passerby to get within a very close range before they decide they are in intolerable levels of danger and bound away.

So this squirrel was doing just this, digging around for nuts, a few feet off the path. Then it realized two things at once.
1) It was very wet
2) I was uncomfortably close
Its little mind could apparently not cope with deciding which issue to solve first. So it solved both at once.
Here I am just walking along, about 4 feet away from this little squirrel, when it suddenly jumps backwards through the air in a spinning flip, convulsing and thrashing while bounding away at the same time. Its aerial acrobatics were astounding, if maniacal and strange.

Nevertheless, at the end it was both dry and a comfortable distance away from my predatorial claws, so I suppose it accomplished its task. I wonder why humans never multitask like that too.