Tro Creideamh

I must preface this post by stating that I am in no way an expert on manga; I probably don’t even qualify as an aficionado. I’ve read very little manga in my time, and while I am interested in the medium from a visual standpoint, most manga storylines hold little interest for me.

A few weeks back, an article on the Gospel-as-comic-book came across my feed reader. Basic summary of the article from Christian Today: Manga Messiah is a 300-page retelling of the Gospels from Jesus’ birth to His resurrection. During this past Christmas season, copies of MM were distributed around Japan - a sadly unevangelized nation.

To my limited understanding, manga is a wildly-popular medium throughout Japan, with adults and children alike regularly reading the books. We Americans think of comic books as primarily the domain of children and teens, but I get the impression that manga is to the Japanese as sitcoms or reality shows are to Americans: much of the popular culture is disseminated through the medium and they form the basis of much “water cooler” discussion. I occasionally enjoy Western-style graphic novels (I particularly recall a comic-book Macbeth that I found in the University library while I was in high school), but I’ve not had a chance to see a copy of Manga Messiah.

When looking for more information on Manga Messiah, I came across a review by Manga Life, a seemingly general-purpose site discussing manga of all types. In their review, Manga Life encouragingly suggests that MM is a “very faithful adapation of the four Gospels” but that some of the artistic choices (including the extensive use of color) would likely turn off regular manga readers, relegating the publication to an audience of Christian teens who are already familiar with the Gospel from Sunday School.

While I must reiterate that I have very little understanding of manga culture in Japan, the Manga Life review seems to me very dismissively Western in its approach. In my opinion, they suffer from a lack of vision - while Western audiences may not connect with MM, might this be a way to crack into the decidedly non-Christian culture of Japan? I don’t know how accurately the Gospel message of salvation through Christ is presented in MM, but anything that can penetrate the popular culture of such a lost and globally-influential society as Japan must certainly result in some good.

I am reminded of Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 9:22b - “I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.” The Gospel presented as manga is certainly becoming all things to the Japanese people; if by that means the people behind Manga Messiah can save some, I rejoice at the harvest. Now if we could just encourage more television and movies to present Christ…

A recent article published in Newsweek highlighted a phenomenon noted around the world by wildlife researchers: as trophy animals (the ideal specimens of a type) are hunted for sport or food, those that remain are the “weak and scrawny.” Essentially, the observation is that Darwin’s ’survival of the fittest’ gets perverted when a more cunning power (i.e., man) is added to the equation. Decades of “selective hunting - picking out individuals with the best horns or antlers” are resulting in changes to the species, as the less genetically-superior animals are left to propagate future generations. The worst danger is that the “losers tend not to be very good breeders, meaning that this demographic shift ultimately threatens the viability of a species.”

I can see a parallel to the Christian life here. Someone told me once that if Satan is attacking you, you know you’re doing something right. Satan is a cunning hunter, roving about in search of trophies, and he won’t waste his time on a “weak and scrawny” specimen of a ‘Christian’. (Besides, it’s typically easier to round up and overcome the weak ones after the robust individuals are out of the way).

Are we losing our viability for future generations through the strong and mighty succumbing to the tactics of the Devil? Is our culture of tolerance and acceptance, coupled with the wearying effects of an increasingly busy life, resulting in strong Christians becoming easy fodder for Satan’s hunting parties? Are Christians today “weak and scrawny” as a result of our paragons being attacked by Satan?

The call to you today is 1 Peter 5:8-9: “Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world.” Stand up and become a target of the Devil, resisting him with all the armor of God and proving a strong example for future generations. We will prevail in the end; our God is bigger than any of the weapons of Satan.

Don’t court the Devil, but be such a strong force for the right side that his resources can’t help but to be diverted away from your weaker brothers and sisters; perhaps that will be just the respite they need to re-fasten their own armor and step up alongside you in the fight for the souls of the world.

Kudu photo by Arno & Louise via Flickr - CC:BY-NC

I was asked yesterday about my philosophy of ‘good planning’. For so long in my professional career, good planning has been a moving target based on whatever an individual client had expressed through their needs and desires. Consulting is a service industry — while we are expected to contribute our professional expertise, ultimately the client pays and the client receives what is paid for.

That said, I’ve not given much thought to my own personal philosophy of what makes for good planning since sometime early on in grad school. The difficulty I find now is separating the basic concept from applications of that concept. To state that I follow the tenets of, say, Smart Growth or New Urbanism is to muddy the waters, I think (especially since applications of planning theory engender strong opinions).

I responded with something along the lines of the following:

Good planning means balancing the activities of daily life (living, working, recreating, shopping) with protection of the natural environment that allows a high quality of life to be maintained.

I’ll revisit this more in the future. What do you think good planning means?

So here I go, breaking the resolution in my last post already. Work is slow - lousy economy translates into not much billable time.

I just came back from lunch, praying that something would change to relieve the pressure of making my hours. I sit down at my desk, and my supervisor walks up with a site plan to review - guaranteed 4 hours of billable work. Praise God!

Resolved: I will not blog about work.

Except to say this. When work takes up most of your life and effort, how can it not come through in your speech? Lord, keep a guard on my heart and my lips.

“Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening?” - James 3:11

“I had a life, but my job ate it.”