This weekend I was at the Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis and came to the realization that I am not a blogger. And odd thing to confess on a blog but let me explain. Reason why I’m not not a blogger: Mark Driscoll took the mickey out of bloggers in his talk. Something like “20 year old white male living in his parents basement, sleeping on Star Wars sheets with footy pajamas and when mom comes down stairs and brings him his bowl of Lucky Charms and askes if he’s going to look for a job today he says ‘I dunno, the alert level is orange today.'” That was really, really funny but it wasn’t that that made me realize that I’m not a blogger. What convinced me I’m not a blogger was something postive. They had a blogger get together between the sessions. It was hosted by Justin Taylor and Abraham Piper. Two individuals very much not fitting Driscoll’s picture of a blogger. I didn’t attend the blogger gathering. I overheard people mentioning blogs they read while moving aroud the conference and realzied that I’m just not a blogger.

So what the heck do I mean by blogging about not being a blogger? Well, I have a blog but that doesn’t make me a blogger.  I don’t update my blog daily. I don’t care that I don’t update daily. I remember a few weeks ago coming across a link from another blog to mine that said it was a good blog but that I hadn’t updated in a while. He was right, I don’t update a lot. I write when I have something to say. This is more of what should be called a “web journal” or “bournal” or something. With my Moleskine, I don’t write in there every day and with my blog I don’t update it every day. I think “blogger” has become something more than it once was. The most “sucessful” blogs have daily updates, big followings and a lot of comment activity. That isn’t me and frankly, I’m not interested in that kind of a blog. I don’t want to be Justin Taylor or Tim Challies. I enjoy reading their blogs but don’t want to duplicate their success.

So I’m just a guy with a blog, I’m not a blogger. Kind of remindes me of a cartoon I once linked to.

I did it. I completed my very first 5k run ever. The official results are in and I met my time goal. I finished in 30:50.6 and I wanted to make it in 30 minutes. That means I averaged just under 10 minutes/mile. I came in 71st overall (out of 193 including walkers) and was 6th out of 9 in my age bracket, one minute behind number 5 and 22 minutes faster than the last placed man in my age bracket. Overall, I am pleased. The event was scheduled to start at 9AM, which is late even for a 5k. On top of that the race started 15 minutes late. And it was an 80° September day so it was pretty warm by the time we got going. I’ll be leaving some comments on the website that registered the run.

I met my goal. I completed the Couch to 5k program and a few weeks later (3 months to the day from when I started running) I ran my first 5k. So does that mean a return to the couch? No way. I’ve already picked out my next run in November and am considering hiring a personal trainer for a few weeks.  After that, we’re going in to winter and I’m going to keep running as long as I can but we’ll see. I’ll probably do another 5k in the spring and then train for a 10k later in the spring.

If I can do this, anyone can. It wasn’t that long ago when I was telling other people who were running that they were crazy or “better you than me” and just couldn’t fathom what would cause someone to run other than being chanced by someone bigger or better armed than them. Maybe some time I’ll blog on the many different things that inspired me to start.

I’m no fan of Tony Campollo. One of his “things” lately has been to call himself a “Red Letter Christian” as in follow the words of Christ since, for an odd reason, they tend to be printed in red in our modern Bibles. What about the rest of the Bible? Well, who knows.

Anyway, there is now a Green Letter Bible. From Time:

Now there is a Bible trying to make gardeners of us all. On Oct. 7, HarperCollins is releasing The Green Bible, a Scripture for the Prius age that calls attention to more than 1,000 verses related to nature by printing them in a pleasant shade of forest green…The new version’s message, states an introduction by Evangelical eco-activist J. Matthew Sleeth, is that “creation care”–the Christian catchphrase for nature conservancy–“is at the very core of our Christian walk.”

So there ya go. Green or Red, you now have your choice in which subsection of the Scriptures you wish to obey or rise above other portions!

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness – 2Ti 3:16Okay, end the sarcasm.  I don’t disagree with the “Red Letter Christians” that we need to wake up to social issues. And I don’t disagree that the Bible has some serious implications for Christians in the area of “creation care”. These are areas where our following of Jesus really needs to improve. Hitching our wagons to the politically conservative train has done us a disservice in these areas. However, I really, really chaff at the approach that seems to emphasize one part of the Bible over against another. There is a danger in that approach that can lead to an unbalanced approach to the issues. We need the black and the green and the red letters of our Bibles to tell us how to live as God’s people in a fallen world.

A few weeks ago I got my favorite seat on the train. It is on the upper deck near the stairs.  After I got settled I looked around a bit and saw a women below and across from me I saw a women with a bag at her feet and a magazine in her hands. It was a Watchtower magazine. I bristled at the heresy. A young girl I had seen on the platform folded herself into a corner a seat or two away from the heretic in my third favorite seat.

After a bit the conductor came around to collect tickets and it became clear that there was a problem with the young girl in the corner. She was probably on the wrong train, she didn’t have a ticket or any money. She was trying to get to Milwaukee and we were going to a town in Northern Illinois about an hour’s drive from Milwaukee. The conductor tried to help her figure out what was going on for a bit but needed to tend to his other duties as well. And so that’s when the Witness moved in. She had put away her magazines and pulled out a schedule with a map on it, slide next to the young girl and they tried to work out a plan.

My emotional reaction was that I wished I was down there helping her instead of the heretic. I could protect her since the Witness would surely get around to her heresy and give the young girl a Watchtower magazine. But it was too late, I couldn’t barge in between the two. I didn’t want to overwhelm the young girl.

Then the sting came. With blistering clarity, I realized that I wanted to keep her from the heresy but I knew I wouldn’t share Christ with her either. Somehow my silence would be better than the Witness’ error.  I hung my head in shame and prayed for forgiveness and strength.

As I reflect on that, I realize that the Witness didn’t share her errors and if I were to be helping the young girl a gospel presentation wouldn’t have been necessarily appropriate either. In this case it was more about offering a cup of water in Christ’s name. But the brunt of the blow of realizing that I opposed error but was hesitant to speak truth stings and continues to sting.

So I’ve been thinking and teaching and writing about the Biblical role of women a lot lately. Sunday school the past few weeks was on Colossians 3 and then Sarah Pelin get’s nominated and all that. It is refreshing to get a good giggle in the midst of all this. The Sacred Sandwich provided it. Read it and grin.

John McCain has selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. In case you missed it, she’s a she. Bible believing Christians are faced with a question that seems archaic to others: Is it right for a women to lead a nation? Of course that has happened but the question is the appropriateness of it. Can we American, Bible believing Christians vote for a ticket that has a woman in the second highest office? One Reformed Baptist pastor has weighed in on the negative. I disagree [with some of his exegesis]. Here’s my review:

1. “The Bible views it as a judgment and calamity upon a nation for it to be ruled by women.” I do not agree with this. Chanski cites Isa 3:12 but uses just half the verse. The passage is written in the form of Hebrew poetry and a major component of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. The parallel in the Isaiah passage is children oppressing them and women ruling over them. These are saying the same thing in different ways. What I think Isaiah is saying is that the weak are going to be able to dominate the nation. Children and women are not strong compared to men.

The judgment is not that women might lead; there is no Biblical condemnation of the role of queen. Rather the judgment is that the nation will become so weak they will be that easy to conquer and dominate.

Chanski mentions an “inherent constitutional weakness in womanhood” citing 1Pt 3 and 1Ti 2. I don’t believe that either passage is intending to teach that women are weaker (beyond the physical) than men.

The major point of 1Ti 2 is not that women are weak but that men must fulfill their duty to lead. That is why Paul points out that Adam was created first in verse 13. Adam had the law of the garden and was to faithfully transmit it to Eve. When Eve was deceived and in danger of violating it, he should have stepped in and lead. He didn’t. If Paul is intending to teach the inherent weakness of women, the fact that he mentions the order of creation makes no sense to me. The context from 1Ti 2:8 through the end of the chapter 3 is men doing what is right, not that women are weak. That seems to make the most sense of what Paul is saying there.

The 1Pt 3 reference is to women as the “weaker vessel”. Typically, the Bible uses vessel as a metaphor for the body (see 1Sa 21:5 for example). Women are (typically) bodily weaker than men (though some of the stuff I saw in the Olympics made me wonder) and so Peter is saying to live with them in an understanding manner, don’t dominate them or expect them to do the same things you do.

3. Chanski brings up Deborah, a judge of Israel as “an indictment against shameful male dereliction” but that isn’t how Deborah is introduced. She is introduced in verse 4 of chapter 4 as a prophetess and a judge. There is no indictment in her judging the nation. There is no mention or hint of male dereliction of duty at that point in the story. The only “male dereliction” in that episode comes in verse 8 with Barak’s (oh, the irony of that name!) refusal to lead the army in battle.

The cycle of the judges goes from okay to horrible, ending with Samson who couldn’t be worse. It sets us up for David who will be a man after God’s heart. Deborah comes in near the beginning of the Judges cycle so she isn’t that bad. God raised up all of the judges, even the bad ones. Deborah is nowhere put forth at an indictment against the male leaders of Israel, God could have raised up a stinker like Sampson at that point.

5. Here/ Chanski is back on track. This is an important question; can Palin fulfill her duties to her family and be Vice President at the same time? She has five children including one with Down’s Syndrome. Women have a Biblical duty to be “workers in the home” (Titus 2:5) and with a handicapped child in the home the work is greater. But before we count her out on this we need to consider a few things. First, this is a decision that her husband must make, not other Christians. Her husband is responsible for her and we have to honor his decision unless it is clearly sinful. Second, Trig is only six months old the burden of caring for him will most likely not be more of a burden than any other six month old at this point. It is when Trig is older that the burden will grow. Third, being a worker in the home is not exclusive of doing other things. The idea woman of Proverbs 31 worked outside the home selling her wares in the market (Prov 31:18, 24).

In the end, we need to evaluate Palin based not on the appropriateness of a woman in the White House, but on her qualifications and ability to lead. Women may not lead in the home or the church but the nation is an entirely different matter. We need to be as Biblically faithful as we can in this and remember that God raises up and takes down the leaders of nations. Even in democracies.

Added 9/2/08: Thanks to Bob Gonzales for pointing out my misrepresentation of Pastor Chanski’s post. See the comments for his correction. I have modified this post to hopefully better reflect the original author’s intent.

Added  9/8/08: Another blogger takes on the same questions and appeals to Proverbs 31 as well. A well written post, I recommend reading it.

Added 9/12/08: Doug Wilson adds a little bit more of a bump to my point about Deborah.