The six days of creation provide a unique inversion to us today, because initially the order of the objects doesn’t appear to make sense. After all, the sun appears on the fourth day, after the land and oceans were created. Every middle schooler who reaches the fourth day of creation can see a problem here, because the sun surely preceded the earth in terms of formation. Did we not just read in the opening verse of the Bible that “God created the heavens and the earth”? Is Genesis already switching the order and putting the sun, which is part of the “heavens,” after the earth? Did we just go f ..read more

Everything outside of planet earth we call “space” or “outer space.” This inversion is about reclaiming wonder for “the heavens,” which has been lost during the onslaught of “The Enlightenment,” for which a better name would be “The Great Flattening,” “The Vanilla-ing,” or perhaps “The Vacuuming” since we have undergone three centuries of sucking the enchantment out of life, making heaven and all spiritual things prohibited from the public square. Instead of lying in the grass or on rooftops looking up in awe at the incredible depth of the heavens, we now are face down looking at Webb telescop ..read more

Finally, we come to the last words of the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” With these words comes an inversion that tips over ye olde pagan worldview and also the modern secular worldview. The order here is important. Ordering often has great importance in the Bible, especially once we get to the days of creation and the Commandments. Creation is an act of ordering, and we have a bad habit of disordering that creation. But I won’t get ahead of my inversions - let’s first look to the heavens. Notice that heavens is first. Ear ..read more

“In the beginning God created…” Creation was covered in the last inversion with creation “out of nothing,” but there is more to be said about the verb “create” and how God creates. At this point, I will venture beyond the first verse of Genesis 1 (finally!). Here are the first three verses of Genesis, which are worth committing to memory: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light ..read more

With the fourth word of Genesis, the second inversion arrives. At this rate, I may not get far, because here a long pause is required on this word. “In the beginning, God…” There is no word more argued about, discussed, twisted, bargained over, or rejected than the word God. We all have some idea what it means. But more importantly, what we believe at this top level affects the heart and mind. What we believe about this fourth word of the bible ultimately directs how we live. This acceptance or rejection of God, and what that word means, acts like a compass along the journey of life. Where we ..read more

When we read “In the beginning…” we must stop right there to contemplate the first inversion. The bible begins with these three words and tips over an apple-cart of worldviews. This idea of time having a beginning upsets various ancient and modern philosophies by saying, “I respectfully disagree: time had a beginning.” Many people then and now will claim that time has always existed, that there was no beginning. The bible inverts this idea. Why is this radical? It depends on where you live and what worldview you have been taught. Many in the ancient world believed that time was a flat circle ..read more

There is a reason that the Christian message and the bible have such staying power. There is a reason why the books of Moses are so radical and different from all other texts. There is a reason why the tradition of the people of Abraham is so strange to outsiders, and even angering, and why it makes perfect sense to insiders. Most importantly, there is a reason why everyone cannot stop talking about Jesus. There is a reason why and it is this: the message of Christianity tips everything we think we know upside down. But it is actually right-side-up. The bible is full of inversions that disrupt ..read more

If Christianity ever stops being weird, it will no longer change lives. So let’s get weird. I knew that the childhood mantra of “Believe in yourself” had failed in the crucible of reality. That turned out to be a bad drug, like the brown acid that the 1960’s burnouts spoke about. Work and career couldn’t save me. Money couldn’t either. The old trusty sidekick, liquor, was as worthless as ever now. These were all bad drugs. While I had flung beer bottles at religious people for using God as a crutch, I was leaning on various crutches, and when those crutches failed, anti-depressants became the ..read more

There is more backstory to tell before I get to the day that I flushed my anti-depressants. I had never hear of Father Garrigou-Lagrange and the idea of a “predominant fault,” also called a root sin, until a few years ago. Everyone has a predominant fault, and it is one of three things: pride, vanity, or sensuality. Sensuality seems to be my taproot, because in pleasure I find the sensual escape from all struggle. A slice of pumpkin pie is not unlike a shot of whiskey for me. But pride and vanity are ever ready to take the lead as well as my predominant fault. The more I reflected on it, I cam ..read more

As long as I kept moving and doing and performing, it seemed that these “Black Dog” days of depression could be kept at bay. To be busy became a virtue, rather than a vice. For about thirty years I believed sloth was just lying around and didn’t understand that the other half of sloth is the constant busybody who cannot stop working. Thus it seems that sloth is more of a national pastime than baseball. Funny that I had never been told the word, “acedia,” also known as the Noonday Devil, in any of my schooling. The old American ethic of hard work starts early and sets deep in the bones. Oddly e ..read more