Bed

ByHal Hammons

For everyone who has been fretting that television-watching conditions in the average American home have been just too oppressive, there is good news.  Now there is a bed that transforms into a theater.  Literally.  The “Inyx” features a retractable canopy that includes walls, a screen, and surround-sound speakers.  A projector built into the headboard produces a high-definition image.  No more trying to decide between watching Netflix on your tablet and getting up to walk to the big screen TV in the living room.  Now you can have it all.

When we get to the point that our idle, mindless, motionless recreation is too taxing, maybe it’s time to reevaluate things. 

When did we develop the notion that the purpose of life was to do as little work as possible?  And if the “work” involves getting dirty or sweaty, or waking up too early, or thinking too hard, we just go on welfare.  Our recreation mostly consists of television and the internet — or, if we are adventuresome, perhaps going to a stadium to watch other people work.  Then we fuss about how much they get paid to provide the entertainment we can’t live without.  That’s a special kind of myopic right there.

I’m all for rest in its place.  But life is for work — especially work in God’s service (John 9:4).  If we make our downtime too pleasant, we may wind up like the sluggard in Proverbs 24:30-34 and forget the purpose for rest. 

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Hope

ByHal Hammons

The advent of the new year is all about hope.  We hope the good things we have experienced in the outgoing year will continue and increase.  We hope the bad things we have experienced will diminish or disappear.

But hoping is far different from wishing. 

Ice cream, walks, and personal growth

ByHal Hammons

When we lived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, we lived a short walk from a major intersection, 91st Street and Aspen Avenue.  I would often take Samson, the Brittany spaniel we owned at the time, for walks around the neighborhood, and occasionally I could convince the girls to come with me.  Yes, they loved their daddy.  Yes, they loved Samson.  But mainly, they loved ice cream.  And on the opposite corner of the intersection of 91st and Aspen, there was a Braum’s ice cream parlor.  Samson and I would cross both streets with the girls and then wait on the sidewalk and watch through the glass door as two little girls, not ten years of life between them, walked up to the counter with a $5 bill and ordered some ice cream.

Know

ByHal Hammons

Mathematician David Hilbert had inscribed on his tombstone, “Wir mussen wissen. Wir warden wissen.”  He was German, in case you thought this was going to be a note about typographical errors made in granite.

“We must know.  We will know.”  That’s the translation, and a powerful commentary on mankind’s need — mandate, even — to advance the boundaries of knowledge. 

Rabbits, eggs, and the Lord’s day

ByHal Hammons

Rabbits and eggs are in great abundance this time of year.  And anyone who knows anything about the history of Easter knows why.  They are symbols of fertility.  The spring equinox has always been celebrated as the time that the earth is in full recovery from winter.  The earth has come back from the dead, as it were.  The pagans, who saw the earth as an entity to be worshiped, turned the equinox into an opportunity for revelry — and, typically, debauchery.  (Children, if you don’t know what “fertility” and “debauchery” mean, ask your parents.)  The Catholic church incorporated local pagan worship traditions as it spread throughout Europe many centuries ago.  Thus, the celebration of the rebirth of the earth became the celebration of the risen Lord.  (The Greek word in Acts 12:4 rendered “Easter” by the King James Version translators is the same word rendered “Passover” every other time it occurs.)

Personally, I like rabbits.  And I absolutely love eggs. 

Let’s get serious about Jesus

ByHal Hammons

In the late spring of 1994, as I rooted on the Houston Rockets on the way of the first of two “Thank you, Michael Jordan, for trying to play baseball” world championships, most of the world was watching another sport.  The World Cup had come to America.  (That’s a big soccer tournament, in case you were unaware.)  And the American home crowd got a thrill when the Yanks pulled off an upset victory over traditional power Colombia.  The 2-1 win was helped along when Colombian defender Andres Escobar scored an “own goal,” giving a point to the Americans and effectively eliminating Colombia from the tournament.

In related news, Andres Escobar was shot and killed in his hometown of Medallin a few days later. 

Eagle vs. Fox: The war for our souls

ByHal Hammons

Wildlife photographer Kevin Ebi captured a series of photographs, one of which is included here, depicting an epic struggle between a bald eagle and a young red fox over a rabbit they both wanted for themselves.  The eagle, obviously far more powerful, was determined to have the rabbit.  But the fox would not give up.  Ultimately, though, it had to; it let go and dropped about 20 feet to the ground below, emerging unharmed.

Imagine for a moment that you are the rabbit.  God is the eagle.  Satan is the fox.  And don’t push the metaphor too far; God isn’t going to eat you for dinner, for instance.  Just go with it.