29. The Harbinger of Pyongyang

For today's title, I chose to combine the titles of two recent books I've read that unnerve me, or in the words of Franz Kafka “wound and stab” me. Jonathan Cahn's The Harbinger (ISBN 9781616386108), a Messianic rabbi's – that is, an Orthodox Jewish teacher who believes Jesus Christ is the Messiah – fictionalized account of a vision he received concerning the path the United States going down eerily paralleling ancient Israel's, is meant to be a warning for the reader. The September 11 attacks not prompting a national call to repentance but instead building bigger and better than ever, by this account, seems to be the first step into a national downfall that's also predicated by economic collapse, repeated attacks, and … it's really hard to put this into words, though Rabbi Cahn does very well with it. It scares me a little that I'm not – I'm not sure how to word this – more caught up with wanting to herald this national renewal.

That I'm not believing what I'm supposed to believe. (One or two of our speakers this weekend at Synod Conference brought this out in me; I don't believe Christianity – well, as I believe it – is so much or can be so much social activism and liberation theology as it is personal transformation and purest life, and the endeavor to maintain it yourself. In standard Christianity, with the help of God.) THEN I come to a book the likes of Guy Delisle's graphic novel account of his two-month stay in North Korea as an animation director, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (ISBN 9781897299210). Barring the overthrow of the existing regime in that country, it's unlikely to ever get read there. But there are many layers to being, even in a totalitarian country. And Delisle wasn't there to make any grand changes or plant seeds of revolt, he was there to do a job. And in doing that job, gave us a better account of a land under a cult of personality (the original leader's the Eternal President) that straight prose does.

Anyway, if I go into detail about ALL the books I'm reading or that I've read, we'll be here a while. I got home last night after work, but Sarah called me a few minutes before I left and reminded me to bring home the sour cream that I've kept in the fridge at work as well as ask me to pick up some granola bars. Turns out she had an ulterior motive with that, wink wink nudge nudge, for after she got off the phone with me she told Martha, “Okay, I got us some time!” Martha had ordered a package of one hundred envelopes with letters and was with Sarah's help stuffing them to be ready for mailing. And they were, except for the stamps that I bought this morning. When I got home, Martha's sister (and the kids' aunt) Mary was there too for the house where she's staying had nonexistent plumbing and she stayed at least the night with us. I can take that; we had homemade burgers and fries and settled in to watch Judy Moody And The Not-So-Bummer Summer on the laptop.

And during one suspenseful scene (well, as suspenseful as a kids' movie gets) I was sitting behind Sarah and Jeffrey who were laying down and focused on the film and gave them a shock by tapping them on the shoulders! Sarah turned to me and said I scared her out of her pants, while Jeffrey climbed up on me and said I was a big brat. But we calmed down and had fun watching the film, then the kids went to bed without much fuss. I think Mary being there helped a lot with that, they really like her. And this morning after getting the kids to school – they have two days left! – I napped on the couch and I had set the alarm, but for 9:20 PM, not AM! Fortunately I woke up in time, got the reimbursement for our room and travel to and from Synod, got the stamps, and got to work. AND had an encounter with Tyrian – or someone looking a lot like him – in a grocery line; I tried to help him pick up some money he's dropped, but he quite brushed me away on that. But again, I'm ok with that.

Clocked in at three hours, David