Introduction: I was off today for Veterans Day. CJ let me sleep in a bit, and I did. When I came downstairs, she hugged and kissed me, and said, “Happy Veterans Day, Pirtle. Want to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast?”
That was not a difficult decision–for either of us. I showered and we both dressed and went into town for a breakfast together at Cracker Barrel. We were blessed by having a sweet girl as our waitress. (Isabella, you were wonderful.) I sipped my coffee, ate my eggs and bacon and biscuits and gravy, and CJ enjoyed her meal, too.
Afterward, I paid and we perused the gift shot but left after not seeing anything we needed. I had to get my oil changed in my car, so we went by a local vendor I use. After that, we headed back home.
CJ practiced music for church on her keyboard. I went outside and raked leaves from the bottom of the driveway and unclogged a culvert at the bottom of the driveway. Then I took the blower and blew the fallen leaves from the driveway and walkway in front of the house.
The deer were seemingly everywhere this morning. The does wandered across the property, munching on acorns. Our local bug man, Sean, came and sprayed around the house. I picked up some downed limbs from recent winds.
After I finished removing leaves from the culvert at the bottom of the driveway, I came in to grade my students’ work and read for a bit. Today’s fare of reading is Ortlund’s wonderful book, Why God Makes Sense In a World that Doesn’t. I should complete it today. And his thesis is simple but life-changing: What makes more sense–naturalism (everything is material) or Christian theism? And he provides four main areas for us to think through, realities of human experience: origins, meaning, conflict, and hope.
I know the wise answer to Ortlund’s question, of course: Christian theism. We’re not just time, slime, and chance. Every honest person concedes that. If we are, don’t complain about injustice or rights or cancer or war, because you’re just a cosmic accident of molecules in motion. But we know better. God is there and he is not silent.
Ortlund’s book didn’t just write itself. These deer didn’t create themselves. The colors in these leaves didn’t just happen without wisdom and decree. The buck in my backyard didn’t just happen to be there.
