A Book With No Words

I am re-posting this entry from  Seeing Creation Reflections on God & Nature by Chuck Summers & Rob Sheppard. You should be able to go to the site by clicking on above or the title below. If not, the url is http://www.seeingcreation.com/  I lived in West Virginia for six years and have been to the locations pictured; enjoy!  

A Book With No Words

St. Augustine is one of the most significant figures or voices in church history.  In seminary I read his Confessions and came to see why it is considered a classic of Christian devotional literature.  In this book Augustine notes, “God has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him.”  I consider this passage to almost be on the same level as Scripture.  It rings true in my heart and explains a lot of things.

I also appreciate what Augustine had to say about God and nature.  Writing in the fourth century he said “Some people, in order to discover God, read books.  But there is a great book; the very appearance of created things.  Look about you!  Look below you!  Note it.  Read it.  God, who you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink.  Instead He set before your eyes the things He had made.  Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”

I happen to be one of those people Augustine wrote about when he said some people read books to discover God.  I have a personal library of over 15,000 books.  I love to read and have learned much about God through the books I’ve read.  Still, I, and others, need Augustine’s reminder that there is another book that we need to be turning to—a book not written with ink.  In Creation we find a wonderful volume that will teach us much about the God we seek to discover.
Augustine is pretty emphatic about this.  He says “look about you!,” “look below you!,” “note it,”  “read it.”   It was his conviction that we hear God speak louder here—in Creation–than in all the books written about God.   I suspect he would have even included his own books in this great claim.
If you are one who longs to “discover God” or want to know Him better, I encourage you to take Augustine’s advice.  Start reading that “book not written with ink.”  Get outside and get to know God.
–Chuck
(I took the images above in West Virginia last week.  The top image was captured at Blackwater Falls State Park.  The bottom image was taken in the Monogahela National Forest.)

no comments   |  tags: Blackwater Falls State Park, books, Monongahela National Forest, St. Augustine, The Confessions of Augustine, West Virginia | posted in Nature photography, Spirituality

Hiatus Interrupted

It's been a while; not that it's been that long or that I stopped writing or thinking about things to write. I just have been on something akin to a blogging hiatus. As we all know, things happen. In my case it was primarily two things that happened: one good and one not so good. The first thing, which was and is exceedingly good, was the birth of our first grandchild, Edward Riley Tompkins, in May. Silly almost how something for which I can take very little credit, if any, can be the source of great pride and joy. Maybe that's the grace of it all.

The second thing that happened resulted in our leaving the church I had served for four years and move to another church and community. That's what happens to Methodist preachers from time to time. Often it's time to move or there's a good reason for it to happen. Sometimes the logic is less clear. However, as a full time hospital chaplain, I supply smaller churches part time and serve at the pleasure and discretion of the bishop and her cabinet. Without re-hashing all the nuances of what happened, I have spent the past few months packing, saying goodbye, moving, unpacking, saying hello all during one of the hottest and most humid summers I can ever remember. None of what happened reflects poorly on my new congregation. They are lovely folks and I'm honored to serve as their pastor. But the transition to a new church and community does explain partially the hiatus I allowed myself.

So now that I have once again picked up the metaphorical blogging pen, what next? Well, I expect occasional bursts of grandfatherly prerogatives with cute pictures and whimsical anecdotes so consider yourself forewarned although I will attempt not to abuse the privilege.

I will probably give in, now and then, to my semi-obsessive affection for the elegant and intuitive devices made by Apple as I have added an iPad and iPhone to my long standing solitary iMac. I expect a tidbit now and then from a recent sermon or a reflection after a long night at the hospital will find their way here. But I imagine more will come from thoughts elicited from those coveted occasions of being outside on the river, at the lake, in the mountains, on the beach, sitting around a campfire with a tin cup in hand, always in awe and newly surprised by the beauty and wonder of it all.

"Ite in pace, ad Deum laudandum et serviendum ei"

Many Faiths, One Truth: The Dalai Lama | Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education

Many Faiths, One Truth: The Dalai Lama | Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education

Millions of Sea Turtles Trapped by Fishing Nets

I'm passing this on from Guy Kawasaki who writes the blog

Holy Kaw! All the topics that interest us

Millions of sea turtles trapped by fishing nets

The number of sea turtles inadvertently snared by commercial fishing gear over the past 20 years may reach into the millions, according to the first peer-reviewed study to compile sea turtle bycatch data from gillnet, trawl, and longline fisheries worldwide. Six of the world’s seven species of sea turtles are currently listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

“Fisheries bycatch is the most acute threat to worldwide sea turtle populations today. Many animals die or are injured as a result of these interactions,” says Bryan Wallace, lead author of the study and an adjunct assistant professor at Duke University. “But our message is that it’s not a lost cause. Managers and fishers have tools they can use to reduce bycatch, preserve marine biodiversity, and promote healthy fish stocks, so that everyone wins, including turtles.”

Conservation International has posted some amazing and heartbreaking sea turtle images.
Full story at Futurity.

The Vanderbilt Republic: “The Mechanical”

THE VANDERBILT REPUBLIC is non-profit creative agency that partners with arts/culture/human justice organizations to assist in the realization of their goals.
A “MECHANICAL” is a prepress proofing tool, and this one was made as part of the process of creating the top-tier reward from our last, record-setting project.
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All funds raised from this project will go towards the processing of the 1,600 sheets of 4” x 5” film we brought back from Cambodia. Resident within each of these unprocessed sheets are the building blocks of an entirely new kind of iconography.
CAMBODIAN LIVING ARTS (CLA) is our current partner organization. The CLA has the vision “that by the year 2020, Cambodia will experience a cultural renaissance so dynamic that the arts have become the country's international signature.” To guarantee this, we staged a 6-week, large-format, film-based shoot in Cambodia, applying professional-grade creative concepts and solutions to the formulation of a new Cambodian iconography. Our plan is to make the CLA's vision a concrete reality, and sooner than 2020, by harnessing the power of the photograph.

This really is "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"...

Read the full article from the Yale Bulletin and gain a new appreciation for the Cosmological Argument for God's existence at Deepest Image of Universe Yet Reveals Most Distant Galaxies Ever Found

First Thoughts on My Fifty-eighth Birthday

The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. - T.S. Eliot 

It is not by muscle, speed or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment; in these qualities old age is usually not only not poorer, but is even richer.  - Cicero  

A wise professor of mine in divinity school, Paul L. Holmer, said in response to my perpetual questions whether he had read this new book or new article or new theory: "For every new book published, I go back and read two old ones." I didn't understand him at the time; I do now. 

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. - Psalm 90:12