Radically Happy

  • Legitimate Authority

    Where does leadership come from? How can we recognize/create healthy leadership?

  • DiaBloguers Meetup

    In a turn of events that I’m sure Alan would ascribe to mere coincidence (though I consider them providential :-), he ended up here in California for Thanksgiving, less than two hours away from my house! We met halfway at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, where we took the…

  • Nehemiah 10 Performing Seal

    Questions: Why do we need a written contract? How much is our name worth? What role do leaders play? Are outsiders really the problem? Why must we not forsake the house of our God? “Read More” to pursue answers in Nehemiah.

  • DiaBlogue: Ernie’s Ethical Inferno

    Since Alan has so patiently and valiantly attempted to answer all my questions, I will finally answer his: “Do I believe in hell?” The short answer is: Yes, I do believe that the Biblical descriptions of an eternal hell do refer to some sort of meaningful objective reality that await…

  • DiaBlogue: Just, The Facts

    Alan has kindly revised my Brickman to match his actual position. I think the central point he makes is well stated here: I believe that it is fundamentally unjust to punish someone eternally for choices he makes based on uncertain, incomplete and seemingly contradictory or incoherent information, while being subject…

  • Dialogue + Blog = DiaBlogue

    I’m really enjoying my exchange with Alan Lund over at Little Endian. Not only is the content engaging, but I’ve developed a real fondness for the format of interacting posts on separate sites — what I call a DiaBlogue. [Read More] for some thoughts on the advantages of this format.

  • DiaBlogue: On Hell, eh? No!

    Today’s palindromic title is a response (on several levels) to the latest post/attempt at wordplay from my friend Bucky (aka Alan Lund, aka “Physical Plant”). He is “concerned about getting mired down in philosophical hair-splitting”, and wants me to address what he sees as his “most important problem.” So I…

  • Nehemiah 9 Father-Land

    Questions: When should we mourn? Dare we criticize our forefathers? What must we separate ourselves from? What does it mean to consider ourselves sinful, and God holy? Is that a safe assumption? “Read More” to pursue answers in Nehemiah.

  • Amazing Andhra Adventure: Rediscovering Ganugapati Krishnayya

    [The following is adapted from an email my parents sent during their visit to India, and demonstrates a great deal about their ancestors (and mine).] Dearest family, Grace and peace to you. We pray that you are all keeping busy and healthy. We made a historic visit to some family…

  • The Transformational Cascade

    Imago Christi! From The Vine Plentiful Love Peaceful Justice Powerful Humility To The Branch More Jesus More Cross More Kingdom More Truth More Forgiveness More Power For The Kingdom From All of God In All of Me With All of my Wife As All of our Family Through All of…

  • Kenneth James Sniecinski’s Personal Blurb

    My friend Kenneth (whose poetry periodically appears in this blog) recent sent out a letter, which concluded with a brief personal/biography: Concluding, I give a very brief bio in hopes U will share it with male and female advocates, as well as any female who may be interested/curious about this male.Click…

  • Between Life and Living by Kenneth James Sniecinski

    “Between Life and Living” by Kenneth James Sniecinski Written September 7th, Anno Domini 2005 Every moment hope they are savored Savorable everything cherished and favorable as U-R breathing Seeing and believing in all U’r hearts desires dreaming being unmistakable in pursuits seen in U’r vision unshakable So in every day…

  • The Transformational Spiral

    [Updated 11/12: “Structures” -> “Systems”; Structures constrain, Systems enable] I was talking to my friend/pastor John Isaacs about his work with TASCC, and I was struck by the parallels between what he was doing in the Christian community and what I’m trying to do within the technology community. In particular,…

  • Nehemiah 8 Ezra! Ezra! Read All About It!

    Questions: Why read the Law? With what attitude? To what end? How does understanding differ from knowledge* Why should we rejoice and not weep? “Read More” to pursue answers in Nehemiah.

  • DiaBlogue: Belief, Reality & Epistemology

    My friend Alan made an excellent point in his response to my last post: while Ernie has made a good faith effort to respond as best he knew how, we are lacking some kind of “meta-agreement”. I do not know quite how to explain that, except to say that I…

  • DiaBlogue: A Post-Modern Faith in Jesus, Take 0

    My friend Alan Lund was kind enough to reply on Little Endian to my lengthy post, and raises a number of extremely valid questions, which I might summarize as: a. Is that all you believe is empirically knowable? b. Is there anything left worth believing? c. Can we have empirical…

  • DiaBlogue: A Post-Modern Faith in Jesus

    I’ve recently received a couple of emails regarding friends of friends who’ve “lost faith.” In most cases, they’re rejecting a fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity on empirical grounds, with the end result of rejecting all of historic Christianity. While I admire their intellectual honesty, I suspect that part of the problem…

  • Thoughts from a Sunday Morning on Purpose

    These random notes cover what I was thinking about at church Sunday morning. They were inspired by the worship and message, and resulted in me going up for prayer, though the actual topic (Parable of Soils, Luke 8 ) was only indirectly connected to the various issues I’ve been wrestling…

  • True Repentance by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

    Today’s devotional from Spurgeon: True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in…

  • Nehemiah 7 Redeeming Authority

    Questions: What does it take to rebuild a community? Whom do we trust to lead? Are we building walls, or lives? How should walls be used? How do we establish just dominion? “Read More” to pursue answers in Nehemiah. Father God, make me an instrument of your authority. Where there…