Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Augustine

Five Things I Learned Reading Augustine

St. Augustine of Hippo. That was the full Christian name of my now deceased cat.  I loved that cat. It was also the name of a well-known bishop and author who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries.  He is widely-respected, having been "sainted" by the Catholic Church and also being considered a spiritual father by the Reformers and even many modern Evangelicals.  John Calvin, for instance, quotes from Augustine extensively in his Institutes , many times wresting back Augustine's authority from his Catholic opponents who claimed it for their own positions. Like emo kids in the 2000's wearing tee-shirts adorned with the images of Bob Marley or The Ramones, we sometimes agree with famous theologians without ever really knowing what they taught.  Not wanting to be "that guy," I recently decided to read one of Augustine's works.  Instead of reading The City of God or Confessions , cuz, who has time for that, I decided to start with something much...

Life Lessons for a Five-Year-Old (and a 27-Year-Old)

This past Tuesday my family arrived home from a wonderful vacation to find a lonely cat and an awful smell.  You see, we have two cats, but only one came to greet us.  The other one, unfortunately, I found under our steps deceased.  We're not 100% sure exactly what happened to our three-year-old cat, but he had a history of UTIs that we thought were stress-induced.  Truth be told, he's never really acclimated to being a full-time indoor cat.  Augustine, you will be missed!  I am not, however, writing a eulogy for my cat, so I'll get to the point.  I really want to discuss how this tragedy proved to be a powerful life lesson for my oldest daughter, Genesis. Back to last Tuesday.  I walked downstairs to make sure that our cats had enough food and found myself surprised by how much food was actually left in their bowls.  Instantly I had a hunch that something was wrong.  Actually, my hunch went back to when our other cat met us at the doo...