The Reason for God

I'm just starting to read this book with a friend. I've grown to associate the name 'Tim Keller' with very sound, very reasonable, and very deep teaching about Jesus and God. My brother, Christopher, introduced me to this urban pastor's audio sermons (he teaches at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, 'one of Manhattan's most vital congregations' according to Christianity Today and #1 of 'America's Top Multiplying Churches' - over 100 plants in the last 10 years!) a couple years ago and I've found them to be oh-so-inspiring.

So when I heard that he wrote a book that addresses these questions--Why does God allow suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? How can there only be one true religion?--I was extremely interested. The back of the book says that the issues covered are 'frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion,' and that's true. I don't know how many conversations I have had about these things, particularly among Christians.

Like I said, I'm just now starting it, but I'll let you know along the way what's impacting me. Tim Keller is a very academic man, yet he is very concerned about relating what he's saying to the situation of his listeners, so he breaks down quite complex matters into palatable pieces. Also, he's quite good at referencing other thinkers and writers, and I see that the back of his book is filled with notes for each chapter. So I've got two bookmarks - one for where I am in the text, and one for where I am in the notes.

I bring this up because I think it speaks to an important attribute of Tim Keller and an important aspect of learning - it is an ever-continuing conversation. Tim Keller isn't addressing these issues in a vacuum, and neither should we. He's drawing from the good research of others as well as the authority of the Bible, and I hope we can follow his lead when sorting all the harder (and easier, and all the in-between) issues of life.

Dragonfly

Sarah loves sushi.

I can't remember exactly when this obsession overtook her, but it's definitely been heightened by my brother Christopher and his wife Alice's love for those little raw fish morsels. The last couple times we've visited them in Knoxville, they've taken us to Nama (both the original downtown bungalow and the new location in Bearden, lovingly called by locals Nama #2), a very hipster sushi place that even brought me around with its intimate and charming decor, friendly and knowledgable staff, and sushi tempura (lightly breaded) for this hesitant beginner.

SO, lo and behold, my own home of Morgantown, WV, with its freshness-due-to-presence-of-the-university and its small-but-decently-cultured-downtown-experience has recently added a sushi bar to the mix. It's called Dragonfly. So far I know of one other restaurant in Morgantown dedicated to sushi (called Ogawa) but it's on the other side of town. And there are two Hibachi-style Japanese restaurants that have their own sushi bars, but they are likewise spread out in the suburban sprawl. The arrival of one in the downtown business district is therefore quite exciting; even though I'm not the lover of sushi my wife or brother and his wife are, I can certainly understand the significance such pure, high-grade food has for the cultural pulse of an area. It's a step-up for Morgantown. And let me tell you, this place is NICE, far and away outstripping the atmosphere of its contemporaries.

Sarah and I have walked by it many times, peering in and waiting for any sign of opening. The last time we were window-shopping, I snapped some photos on my phone:

The first shot hopefully gives you some idea of the size of this space; it's huge. It's in an almost warehouse-sized old brick building on Chestnut Street, which runs parallel to High Street (the 'main street' of Morgantown and where are beloved so.zo coffeehouse is located). High St. is one-way down the hill (south roughly) and Chestnut Street one-way the opposite direction. It's good to see some development on the peripheral streets to High St.

In the second shot you can see some of the different levels they used to divide the large room, as well as some of the subtle Japanese-esque finish work on the top of the columns and with the wall lights.

It's finally open! We're going tomorrow night for a belated birthday dinner for Sarah (though her big day was almost two weeks ago, she's patiently waited with building anticipation for Dragonfly to open its doors). Luckily it's a full bar & grill as well, so I may be sampling some of Sarah's sushi in between bites of my own juicy steak. We'll let you know how it goes!

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day (which is one my favorite comedies - I'll blog more one day on the type of comedies that always catch my fancy) and its namesake (February 2nd) will always hold some bittersweetness for me. Groundhog Day 1989 is the day my dad (John Dillard King III) died of cancer (I was 7), and in some ways my siblings and my mom are forced to relive that day each year not unlike Bill Murray's character was forced to relive his own Groundhog Day over and over in the movie. I know that Christopher, my older brother, in particular feels the effect of the day strongly. It reminds me of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, because there was a long period of his life after his adventures where he would become sick on the anniversary of being stabbed by the ring-wraith on Weathertop, and also on the anniversary of being stung by the huge spider in Mordor.

20 years' distance does help a bit, to be sure. It doesn't feel anything now like it did in the days and months after it happened. But 20 years! Wow. Very hard to believe that nearly 3 times as many years have passed as how many I'd lived around my dad. People often wonder if I can remember him very well, but I always explain that in my child's mind at age 7, a world with Dad was the only one I'd ever known, so all I have to do is remember what it was like to be a kid, and with all those memories come a lot filled with him. Sometimes the things I remember remind me of myself now that I'm an adult (of course he was a much older adult than I am - he was 53 when I was born!), particularly in areas of humor. He was good at waiting for the joke, just like me. Good comedy takes a lot of patience (reference Andy Kaufman for an example of what I mean), especially when you're using the contrast of inaction and action (like the basic fun thing to do with kids of acting like you don't know they are there, like you're reading or something, knowing the kid is locked on you with a huge smile, and then when they get close, making a loud noise and quickly reaching out to grab them). And then occasionally I'll catch a memory of my dad calling for me to come to dinner or something (I was always slow - still quite am) because all of a sudden I'll hear his voice in mine when I'm saying something to Sarah across the house.

I have to admit though that all my personal knowledge of Dad is from a child's perspective, and though I've heard a lot about the adult side of his life, it's different from actually knowing him as an adult myself. I sure would like to have a conversation with him now, just to see how our personalities would get along. I'm sure he was even more interesting and quirky than I realize (as all people are once you get to know them), and I would have loved to see our relationship play out as I got older.

I'm glad to know above all that he trusted Christ. And I trust God through all the circumstances of my life, even my dad's death. When he died, I was, as a 7-year-old, confronted with the idea of 'eternity' and I began my own journey of trusting Christ. If He could keep my dad safe in Heaven, He could do the same for me. The words of Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 have become particularly poignant since that time.

NEW LOOK!

My other Apple-carrying siblings convinced me to update the look of my blog. So here it is!

I'm getting to spend several days with them all this year, which is awesome. Christopher's quite the avid blogger -- you should check out his stuff.

elkins, part 2

I've been meaning to keep posting about all my ventures to Elkins in October, but heck, what can I say? So hard to keep this thing current...

ANYWHO, I got to go down to my hometown a second time the weekend of October 5th for the beloved fall event I always try to plan ahead to attend: Forest Festival! It was awesome; everybody in my family but Colleen [sad face] got to be there, including Christopher and Alice. Everyone not from Elkins always asks me what the Forest Festival is like, and it's hard to describe. Obviously it's celebrating the forest; there's a maid who becomes a queen (Sylvia) and she has a coronation on Friday of the festival in which there are many ladies of her court whose dresses are the colors of the forest and nature. And of course it has all sorts of arts and crafts associated with such West Virginian culture. And music is heard all throughout, from folk to bluegrass to country and everything in between. There is also a 'primitive encampment' set up where people live in authetic frontiersmen-like tents with real cookfires and wool blankets and everything! This was a huge hit when we were boys.

But my favorite events of the festival happen on Saturday morning and are centered around lumberjacking. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it this year, but there are several competitions in a field at the bottom of Davis & Elkins College surrounding some set up logs that are basically trees with their branches cut off. Lumberjacks have to try and saw them down fast and accurately (they're trying to make them hit a peg when they fall). They also do this awesome competition with shorter logs where they chop into them at a height, stick a plank in the side, hop on the plank and start chopping higher and repeat the process till they're at the top, and then they chop the top part of the log off. So cool.

This year I also got to visit my dad's grave (he died of cancer in 1989), which I did get some good pictures of. He's got the only rounded top gravestone in the entire new section of the cemetary! I actually used to draw it some when I was little. Beside Dad (J.D. King III) lies his good friend Jim Woodrum, who also has a unique grave marker: a bench. His wife, Bonnie, who's a good friend of my mom (Annette), also obtained permission to plant a tree by his grave.



On Saturday of the festival, we all went up to Bear Haven by Spruce Knob, one of our favorite places to be. It has a bunch of great rocks to climb around on and some amazing mountain views, and it was an absoultely perfect day. I'll let the pictures speak their own words...





It was a great overall visit to Elkins. The only group shot I have of some of the siblings/spouses is here on the corner of 3rd and Davis, and Alice is only half in it and Christopher isn't at all. Oh well. I guess I like scenery more than people. ...just kidding.