Doing Badly

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly." (G.K. Chesterton)



The really worthwhile endeavors in life are not mastered immediately. Painting (see above), lovemaking, singing, beer-making, writing, conversation, witnessing, bible-reading, etc. are all acquired skills that require persistent effort (and many failures along the way) to do them well.

Chesterton is not arguing for mediocrity in anything, but rather wants us to have permission to fail repeatedly on our way to proficiency, excellence and joy in all things "worth doing."

P.S. There is actually a website called "The Museum of Bad Art" subtitled "Art too bad to be ignored." The site is true to its name, but, to misquote Janet Jackson, "What have you done for [art] lately?"

The Sad Little Charade

Here is a four-minute video, without words, presenting a romantic view of life without God and with nothing beyond the grave, which, to me begs the question: "How do unbelievers get out of bed in the morning?"

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

Similarly, around the turn of the 20th century the famous atheist Bertrand Russel wrote:

"Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals henceforward must find a home.

That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins — all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.

Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built."


Praise be to God, we are saved, not only from sin and death, but also from purposelessness and the sad little self-deceiving charade of importing (read: "fabricating") meaning into our otherwise meaningless lives. Soli deo gloria!

HT: Justin Taylor

When Writing About Those With Whom You Disagree

Here is a link to a post whose leaven I pray, by the grace of God, works its way through the entire loaf of Christendom.

HT: Jim Saemens

The Beast of Revelation Identified

The first few segments of this extended series of Youtube videos are a little cheesy, but interesting nonetheless. But when the series finally gets to Dr. Kenneth Gentry's address at the 1999 Ligonier Conference in Orlando, FL, the content and presentation turn rock solid. I attended this very conference with Josh Appel in 1999 and had a fun time watching the Christians around me unfamiliar with the "Post-mill" paradigm listen to and process Dr. Gentry's arguments. Enjoy.(To listen to the rest of the segments go to YouTube.com and type in "The Beast of Revelation Identified.")

Alas and Did My Savior Die

After Jason and Aileen's wedding down in Enterprise, OR, some of us Trinity saints stayed around long enough on Sunday to worship with our CREC brethren at Christ Covenant Church. For the communion music we were introduced to the music ministry of Nathan Clark George. Below is a sample. Enjoy.



HT: Justin Taylor