Humble Thinking

From John Piper's book Think:

Any knowledge that does not stand in the service of love is not real knowing. It is prostituted knowing. It's as though God put surgical tools in our hands and taught us how to save the sick, but we turned them into a clever juggling act while the patients died. Knowing and thinking exist for the sake of love -- for the sake of building people up in faith. Thinking that produces pride instead of love is not true thinking. We only imagine that we are thinking. God does not see it as thinking. It's not surgery; it's juggling.

Think -- A Plea to Thinkers

From the final chapter of Think:

Make all your thinking an act of love for people...Thinking that does not aim to display Christ and build up people is not worthy of God's approval. It may produce wonders -- antibiotics, buildings, bridges, books, big-screen TV's -- but the final stamp on the box will be: Disapproved.

Think -- A Thought for Non-Thinkers

The final chapter of John Piper's book Think is a final plea to encourage both thinkers and non-thinkers. Here's one of his encouragements to non-thinkers. It may seem a bit self-serving given my calling in the church, but I think it's valuable to consider nevertheless:

Respect those who by inclination and calling devote time and effort to thinking for the sake of understanding the Bible and the world we live in. Christ has given pastors and teachers to the church (Eph. 4:11). Their job is to "labor at preaching and teaching" (1 Tim. 5:17), "rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), "able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it" (Titus 1:9). That is not all they do. But this part of their life is difficult, important, and precious. Respect them for their work. As Paul says, "Respect those who labor among you...esteem them very highly in love because of their work" (1 Thess. 5:12-13).

Think -- Knowing and Loving God

From page 90 of Think, in a chapter entitled Loving God:

The main reason that thinking and loving are connected is that we cannot love God without knowing God; and the way we know God is by the Spirit-enabled use of our minds. So to "love God with all your mind" means engaging all your powers of thought to know God as fully as possible in order to treasure Him for all He is worth.

God is not honored by groundless love. In fact, there is no such thing. If we do not know anything about God, there is nothing in our mind to awaken love. If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point calling it love for God. There may be some vague attraction in our heart or some unfocused gratitude in our soul, but if they do not arise from knowing God, they are not love for God.

Think!

Rick Warren controversy aside, this really looks like an exciting conference. The DG crew does an outstanding job of using the arts to make much of Jesus:

Becoming a Better Reader

Last year I read 54 books, probably the most I've read in any one year of my life. But what I found in reading that much is that I did a pretty lousy job of retaining what I read. As 2009 came and I thought about setting new reading goals, it dawned on me that I felt like I needed to re-read many of the books that most engaged my thinking last year. I was in such a rush to read a book per week, that I have only a fuzzy idea of the content of many of those books.

So, with the help of John Piper, I have devised a way to be more active when I read and hopefully read books in a way that will profit me for a longer period of time. I have read that when Piper reads a book, he makes notes in the front and back blank pages of the book indicating the page number of quotes and thoughts that were significant. In addition, he breaks the page into tenths to indicate where on the page the quote or idea is found.

For instance, I'm currently (re)reading a book called Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright (yes, I am aware that he has some questionable beliefs; we can still read authors like that, so long as we use biblical discernment!). On page 18 Wright gives a succinct definition of the Kingdom of God. I thought it was worth noting, so in the front of the book I wrote, 'Kingdom of God defined, 18.6.' That means I can find that quote on page 18, around 6/10 of the way down the page.

Also, as I finish a chapter I am writing a sentence or a phrase or two in the front of the book so I know what the main theme or idea of that chapter was. Another book I'm reading is Robert Coleman's The Master Plan of Evangelism. Inside the front cover I have written, 'Chap. 1 -- Jesus invests in a few, not crowds.' That will now jog my memory as to the content of that chapter.

Whether you find these particular tips helpful or not, I encourage those of you who love reading to think about some specific ways that you can retain what you have read. Because a book with great content isn't really worth much if you can't remember anything that you read six months later.

Enjoying God Everywhere

In Mark Noll's book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Noll calls attention to the regrettable absence of Christian scholars and thinkers in various fields of study like art and science. This is regrettable, according to Noll, because in failing to learn diligently about nature, society and humanity, among other areas of study, we fail to learn about the Creator of all. As Noll says, When we study something, we are of course learning about that thing. But even more, we are learning about the One who made that thing.

Noll draws attention to the famous American theologian Jonathan Edwards. Here is a man who had an insatiable thirst for learning about both God and God's world. When he was still in his teens, Edwards wrote an extensive description of the shape, construction and purpose of a spider's web.

There are many true things we can say about the spider's web, but according to Edwards, the ultimate thing shown by the spider in its spinning is "the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who hath provided for all the necessities, but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures, even the insects." Edwards understood that the final reason for exercising our intelligence is to know more of God and his loving ways with the world.

Clearly Edwards was a man who did more than read his Bible and preach on heaven and hell (which he did extraordinarily well!). He was zealous to know all that he could about God, by studying carefully both His Word and His world.

May God raise up many such intellectuals who will zealously pursue a greater enjoyment of God through all that He has made.

From Where Does this Satisfaction Come?

Yesterday I was in the Firehouse (the building next to our church where I do much of my work, for those who read this and don't attend my church) doing some work. To my right, around fifteen feet away, was a little trash can in the corner of the room.

I had a piece of paper that I no longer needed, so without thinking, I suddenly balled it up as tightly as I could and tossed it toward the trash can...swish. Right in the can, two points!

Very unspectacular, right? But as the 'ball' went in to the can, I had around three seconds where I had a strong feeling of satisfaction. I mean Dwayne Wade I'm not, but that was a pretty good shot!

Immediately I began to ponder why in the world I would feel satisfaction about something so small and insignificant. Is this a matter of trivial amusement for a few seconds, or is there something more deep in our hearts that compels us to feel satisfaction in such a moment?
This is not a loaded question; I assure you, I don't have another post going up later today on why I felt such satisfaction at shooting a paper ball in a trash can.

Maybe I just think too much. But I'm wondering, does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Has anyone else experienced such a phenomenon (not just with a ball of trash, but anything similar)?

The Mind is Important, because God is Important

In line with the last post I made on vocation, here is a link to a sermon preached by Tim Keller that has been influential to my thinking on these matters (It's $2.50 to buy an MP3 download, but I think it's worth it). In the sermon he shares this quote from Mark Noll, which I love:

“For a Christian, the mind is important because God is important. Who, after all, made the world of nature, and then made possible the development of sciences through which we find out more about nature? Who formed the universe of human interactions, and so provided the raw material of politics, economics, sociology and history? Who is the source of harmony, form, and narrative pattern, and so lies behind all artistic and literary possibilities? Who created the human mind in such a way that it could grasp the realities of nature, of human interactions, of beauty, and so made possible the theories on such matters by philosophers and psychologists? Who, moment by moment, sustains the natural world, the world of human interactions, and the harmonies of existence? Who, moment by moment, maintains the connections between what is in our minds and what is in the world beyond our minds? The answer in every case is the same. God did it, and God does it.”