radical orthodoxy

Yesterday, I heard a Presbyterian pastor (PCA no less) say something that astounded and encouraged me.

Regarding deducing Biblical principles: "Our deductions are fallen deductions."--Dr. Jim Urish

He was urging for a gracious interpretive stance. This recognition of the limits of modern rationality is popping up all over, and in places where it's least expected.

Fortunate Fall

The whirlwind has started again. It must be fall. But I love this season. And I have 42 interested and interesting Honors students and 18 CS Lewis students. These quirky, smart, not always rule following young people remind me of why I love teaching. It's the interaction of questioning minds, with lots of laughter along the way. It's the surprising epiphanies that come from the students.

Like one from Rachel, one of the Lewis students. We decided to have class in the school garden because we had just gone outside for a fire drill and we couldn't bear to go back inside. It was one of those edge of the season days, warm but smelling of fall. We were talking about how Autumn was often a medium for Lewis' joy, those ephemeral timeless moments when Heaven broke through for him. Rachel said the bitter sweetness of fall caused that longing for her too.

Bittersweet...a great description of fall. (Like dark chocolate!) The sharpness in knowing that the golds and reds and achingly blue sky are here for just a moment. This dying season surely speaks of grace, of the "fortunate fall" in a way that is "too definite for language".