The Highest Praise

Trust: Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.

For sometime now, I have considered the words "I trust you" to be the highest compliment anyone can give. In fact, I would much rather have someone say to me, "I trust you" than, "You are so talented" (if anyone actually thought that). If I have a person's trust, their confidence is in me, not just my abilities or possessions. Even the adage, "Its not what you know, but who you know" indicates that most people prefer to work with those they trust and know rather than simply someone who is skilled.

Who is trustworthy? Someone who keeps commitments. Someone who does not deceive. Someone who does right whether seen or unseen. In other words, someone who says what they mean and does what they say.

Ultimately, if trust is the highest praise, God wants our trust also:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
- Jesus, John 14:1

So for God or man, trust is a great honor to those who receive it.

Feel the Waves

I recently purchased a basic GPS Navigatior - the Garmin i5. I've only used it a few times, but I can already see how it fundamentally changes the driving experience. Here are just a few of the key benefits:

• The driver is never lost
  
• More direct routing saves time and gas
  
• Quickly find nearby food, shopping, or entertainment in unfamliar places
  

This technology is still in its expanding stages, but in 5-10 years, I'm sure GPS Navigation Systems will become standard auto equipment just like CD Players and keyless entry (Investors can check out GRMN and NVT).

As I thought about GPS and other "wireless" technologies, I realized how much our society depends on electromagnetic signals of varying frequency and strength:

• Radio (AM, FM, XM)
  
• TV (Off the Air, Satellite)
  
• Cellular Phones
  
• Bluetooth Networks
  
• WiFi Computer Networks
  
• ILS Landing Systems at Airports
  
• CB, Police, Aircraft, and Maritime Communications
  
• Much, much, more...
  

Most of these signals started or greatly intensified in the last 50 years. I'm not sure if there any great conclusions to draw except that we live in simply amazing times and we may need to start wearing tin foil to protect us from all this radiation. ;-)

The Holey Grail

I don't read fictional novels very often, but because "everyone" is doing it, I decided to see what the Da Vinci Code is all about. I couldn't bring myself to buy the book, so I borrowed it from a friend last week.

The constant suspense and mystery combined with a lot of dialogue made the book a real page turner - I had no problems finishing the 400+ pages in just under 2 days. I imagine the upcoming movie will be an exciting mixture of Mission Impossible and National Treasure.

Without going into great detail, I can summarize the "secret" of the book by quoting a few passages.

The threat Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early Church was potentially ruinous. Not only was she the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the Church, but she also had physical proof that the Church's newly proclaimed deity had spawned a mortal bloodline. (254)

...you must understand the Church's powerful motivations to conduct such a cover-up. They could never have survived public knowledge of a bloodline. A child of Jesus would undermine the critical notion of Christ's divinity and therefore the Christian Church... (254)

...Jesus was a Father...Mary Magdalene was the womb that carried His royal lineage. The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships Mary Magdalene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the Rose and the Divine Mother. (255)

This is where Dan Brown shoots himself in the foot. Assuming that all the facts are correct about Mary Magdalene's marriage to Jesus, I see 3 ways of interpreting the relationship:

1. Jesus is God > His wife might be someone to honor
2. Jesus is just another mortal prophet > His wife might be special but not because of her marriage to Jesus
3. Jesus's supposed deity is a conspiracy of the Church > His wife is Divine and worthy of worship

Either #1 or #2 might be consistent beliefs to hold (assuming their facts are true), but option 3 is silly - if the Priory of Sion knew Jesus was not Divine, why would they or anyone care about Mary Magdalene? Not only that, if Christ is only important because the Church conspired to make him divine, then Mary is only important because of the Church they are trying to discredit. By denying Jesus' divinity, Dan Brown completely destroys the meaning of the conspiracy he is suggesting.

So, even granting that all of the facts in the Da Vinci Code are true (and they are not), the main premise of the story is nonsense at best.