Gah. Sometimes I am not inspired with a brilliant thought for this here place. Like…oh say the last two days. Like Dory from Finding Nemo‘s trailer – “Nope, nothin’ in my noggin'”. Bleh. Yet here I am, attempting to say something intelligent (this would be a perfect place to link to something regarding Miss Teen South Carolina’s now famous “map answer” and drive traffic to my site…yeah, I’m shameless – here’s a link to the YouTube posting).

Now for something completely different:
Becky Miller is again having an interesting discussion regarding what should make up a Christian hero. It is related to last week’s blog tour over The Legend of the Firefish. Bryan Polivka blogged about the repeated comments that viewed Packer as a potentially weak hero. Several times in the book he steps back and lets things happen according to God’s will, whether it ends up in his death, disaster for all around him, or deliverance. Bryan has a great point to make, and Becky gives her take on it. Make sure to check the comments of Becky’s post for more of the discussion.

My thoughts: I didn’t have a problem with what Packer did, because it is truly a great Christian response – one that I would have a problem duplicating in real life. I would suggest that perhaps the way it was written is more of the contention (which I admitted in my post last week was a minor contention).

The discussion made me think of the book Germ, which is quite a different book than Firefish. In it, the Christian character has regret for past violence, and sacrifices himself in the end to allow others to survive – a very Christian act and imagery for the book. The points being made in Becky’s discussion are very valid, but I think that examples like this are in other places in CBA fiction right now as well.

There’s a lot that could be said, and I don’t have the inspiration to work it out at the moment. I’ve got a heaping plate ahead of me for the next 6 weeks. Mainly my wife and I are in charge of bringing in and promoting Noel Richards for a worship seminar and concert at our church on September 22. Then I have to take a major recertification test for my physican assistant license on October 5, so I have to be studying through this time. Of course, it doesn’t help that I sign up for things like fantasy football.

Don’t worry, I’ll be around. Hopefully I’ll have more to offer in a day or two.