Let’s just get this out of the way first. If you read any online review of the book The Shack then you will inevitably see someone post a negative comment about the book. Then no matter how solid the points are and no matter how clearly they are stated, inevitably someone replies in the book’s defense by saying, “It’s just a fictional novel.” The points are not rebutted. The points are not challenged. They are dismissed by this one simple statement.

But, it is just fictional novel? The Pearl by Steinbeck is just a fictional novel. Nineteen Eighty Four by Orwell is just a fictional novel. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is just a fictional novel. Yet no one can deny the great influence these books and many others have had on American culture and society. The arts either reflect culture or attempt to influence it. Do we as Christians look at any other book or art with such a standard? What Christian parent just hands their teenager The Catcher In The Rye by Salinger as says, “Eh, it’s just fiction”?

How is this now a valid excuse to ignore the content of a fictional novel that is speaking in the name of the Christian Godhead — especially when most of the promotions includes quotes like, “Reading The Shack has changed my life”? There is no question that this book is affecting people so the excuse that “it’s just a fictional novel” is self-defeating to the defense of the book’s own worth.

Now let’s look on a high level of how it it is effecting people. Somewhere in the vicinity of the “it’s just a novel” excuse you will also find someone defending the book by saying, “It’s just a story, not theology.” Or something similar to, “The story didn’t change my theology, it just changed how I view God.”

Let’s look at the definition of theology:

Theology: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience ; especially : the study of God and of God’s relation to the world

Based on the content of the book, the claim that “it’s just a story, not theology” is, by definition, false. When someone says, “the book changed the way they viewed God” they are, by definition, saying that the book changed their theology — not to mention their anthropology, soteriology, and their Christology. Believe it or not, we are all theologians. We all hold a view of God, a view of humanity, and a view of how they relate.

We will look into what view of God the book actually portrays is later, but one thing is for sure, The Shack is not being offered as mere fantasy or entertainment, so it cannot be placed outside of spiritual scrutiny just because it’s fiction.

I have a good photo printer but I am the type of person that likes to tweak every aspect of a picture until it’s just right, so I always end up spending several hours of time just to get a picture or two printed — not to mention the use of a ton of expensive ink. But those two pictures sure do look good.

Do you use a photo service like SnapFish, Kodak, Ofoto, or something else? Apple’s iPhoto has print processing with Kodak built-in but there is a price for convenience — .19 per print. I just can’t bring myself to pay that when I know SnapFish is .12 per print.

What is your process of getting your digital images in physical print format? When and why do you decide to place an order? How long does it take? Gimme the scoop.

Polyandrium

Cemetary, originally a cemetery for the victims of great battles.

I found it while searching through an online thesaurus. The photo is of Union Hill Cemetary. I was driving back from lunch at Waffle House with Kevin, and decided to pull over and take a few pictures since I had the camera in the car with me. Turns out there is a wetland area behind the church too. It was pretty sceneic to have a single oak tree atop a large grassy hill that rolled down to a marshy lake. I couldn’t get far enough back for that shot though.

If you are into digital photography, don’t settle for the automatic “make picture black and white” button. I use Photoshop CS2, here’s my process:

1. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
2. Set the Layer Style to Color
3. Create another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of it and drop the saturation all the way down on it
4. Next go back to your first adjustment layer and fiddle with the Hue slider
5. Depending on your picture, you may also want to add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer
6. Oh and don’t forget to Unsharp Mask when you’re all done.

I’m not sure if Photoshop Elements has adjustment layers. Just search on Google for how to make better black and white images with what ever image editting tool you may use — it’s well worth it.

I admit that I felt this way all last week while I was at Disney World. A while back my sister told us about the book called The Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World. It uses scientific data every year to plan out the most efficient way to enjoy all the parks at Disney World — from what time of year to go, to what days are least crowded, to what time of day to ride what ride. Let me just tell ya, it works. We did everything we wanted to do in one day with the longest wait in line being about 10 minutes.

I recommend two days in the Magic Kingdom though. The first day can seem more like a To-Do list (Hey mom, look at … sorry, no time, gotta go to Thunder Mountain!) so we used another day to just soak up the atmosphere and do anything we wanted to do again. Having kids made it more fun to me than the last time I remember going. Seeing your kid staring at Snow White or Mickey with a sense of wonder and pure happiness just makes the whole place so much more magical.

This time I think I looked at Cinderella’s Castle a bit differently. Instead of seeing it as a big stage prop of sculpted plaster, I saw it as the icon of child-like innocence that believes in dreams coming true — it was indeed a refreshing sight.

View the full picture that I took using my new tripod.

I am also starting to feel the change of seasons coming up — not too much of a chill in the air yet but Halloween will be here soon. These big spiders are starting to build their webs everywhere in our yard. This one is in the corner of our garage. He posed so well for me. He stayed in the center of his web the whole time while I put the camera up to him for a close-up and filled up a memory card on different settings and angles. I need to read the manual and general camera control tutorial that Eric gave me so I can get the shot I want the first time.

Most people don’t like spiders but I like them. They eat other bugs and they are designed so well. They come in so many different colors and patterns — Nike designers get a lot of their designs from spiders, insects and fish. See if you can get past the eight legged creepiness and admire God’s creativity in the astheics and functionality of the spider and the web it weaves. Did you know that spider silk is twice as strong as steel? In addition, spider silk is very elastic. It is this combination of strength and stretch that makes the energy-to-break of spider silk so high. Simply put, it is the toughest material known.