Each generation of believers develops its own weird convictions about Scripture. Though confessions and creeds offer some stability, they also conceal our faulty beliefs under a thin cover of orthodoxy. And there they wait, erupting to the surface in times of trouble

One place we can find the corporate weirdness of our day is in the doctrine of sanctification. It seems that we have arrived at a consensus about the normal process of sanctification and it’s not good. Here it is:

Our letter writer raises the question of how to sort out whether her sadness is more keyed to self-pity or to longing for Christ to return and to make right what is wrong. She suspects that her experience is not quite an undiluted version of either one. She is then rightly puzzled about how her relationship with God fits in:

Is it abnormal to feel saddened by the lovelessness and wrongness of much that happens in life? No. “Every little thing that happens” often contains sorrows. Even with lovely things, there is often a worm in the apple. At minimum, good things do not last—“Pleasures pass but sorrows stay,” as an old saying put it. And many everyday things are plain wrong: backbiting in the workplace, gossip and factions in church, arguing and indifference at home, deceptive dealings in money matters, ill health, friendships that drift apart or turn sour.

Dr. Mike Emlet's 2012 national conference session on recognizing and overcoming perfectionism was a favorite this year, and attendees had lots to say about it on Twitter:

Emlet on the litmus test for perfectionism: What you do and what you think of God and yourself when you fail. @ccef #ccefcon

"Dealing with perfectionism has more to do with how you respond after you sin than it does with not sinning at all." --Mike Emlet #ccefcon

"In prayer we are truly affirming: 'Apart from you, I can do nothing.’" --Mike Emlet #ccefcon

"'The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.' There are two possibilities with that. One possibility is it's just some sort of an interesting, though somewhat risqué, bit of trivia. The other possibility goes like this: there was a time when shame was not part of the human dilemma. If it's true, this is a setup to something very important. ‘And their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked.’ This is the very first feature of the Fall. If this is true, we are being introduced to the human dilemma.”

As many of you know, the northeast was battered this week by Hurricane Sandy. As you may have noticed by our absence online, CCEF was closed until Thursday. We were fortunate to only lose power, and we suffered no damage to our property. Many others were not so fortunate. Many continue to deal with untold loss, pain, and struggle. Nearly three years ago, Julie Lowe wrote about how we are affected by traumatic events and how the gospel can meet people in the aftermath. We wanted to share this blog with you again today in light of Hurricane Sandy’s recent impact on millions of people.

CCEF likes science. Of course, everyone likes science—there is no news in that.

To be more specific, we like the disciplines that carefully observe human behavior. These include anthropology, medicine, psychiatry, sociology, literature, history, psychology . . . and another dozen or so. If someone is looking closely and carefully at people, we are interested.

But closely and carefully are the operative words here. All science is not equal. Good science precludes a rush to judgment. It takes time and requires humility.

Arrogant science, humble science