A professor asked his hungover engineering student at the beginning of a 7am class: “Can you tell me how an internal combustion engine starts?” Furrowing his unibrow in deep concentration, the young engineer seemed pleased with himself when he finally burped a reply: “Vroooom!” The class laughed, but he wasn’t wrong. That is indeed how engines start. Only his answer was too simplistic for someone who would build engines.
The scene is from the Bollywood classic Three Idiots, a film that manages to be hilarious, thoughtful, and beautiful all at once. And what it shows is that within a basic question (how does an engine start?) there are many technical sub-questions (how do pistons fire? what are the chemical properties of fuel? etc.) that a specialist must master and synthesize in order to produce for us non-engineers the sound Vroooom.
This dynamic between big questions and technical sub-questions is the inspiration for this blog. I aim to pop the hood on some of life’s deepest questions, trying to understand what’s really going on down there in the engine of theology, philosophy, the Bible, culture, and the enigmas of the human heart. More specifically, I have an intense desire to understand things like love and power, death and resurrection, servanthood and leadership, nature and the physical universe, story and epistemology.
Do you care about any of these things? If so, I think this blog might be helpful for you. Here’s what you can expect if you make it part of your online rhythms:
1. Regularity. I aim to post 1–2 times a week.
2. Substance. I will engage real thinkers and ideas, not fluffy thinkers and ideas.
3. Honesty. Although I’m a scholar, I won’t pretend I’m not also a human with biases and emotions of my own. Although I’m a pastor, I won’t hide that I’m also a soul on a pilgrimage. (As I mention on my About page, the opinions in this blog are not official statements of The Bay Church, where I serve as Teaching Pastor and Biblical Theologian.)
4. Brevity. These will not be long form essays, but snapshots of what I take to be important ideas. Part of my goal is to whet your appetite for books, which is where most real learning and transformation occurs.
5. Joy. This is not a ranty, grumpy place. Yes, there are many grave problems in the world, but because resurrection love is the backstop of reality, those problems won’t have the final word. Joy, justice, beauty, and love will.
I’m looking forward to the path ahead.