Missing my friend . . . Steve Huisman

Two years ago on June 12, Steve Huisman went to be with the Lord. I don't know why his death is heavy on my heart this year, but it just is. I miss my friend. I have so many things to share with him, so much to ask, and I need his honesty.

I miss Steve more than I can say.

Two years ago, I wrote the following note in memory of Steve. I read it again today and it brought tears to my eyes. I want to share it with you all again as a reminder of how important good friends are. If you have a friend like Steve, call that person today and thank them. If you don't, I pray that God will send you one soon.

Sorry to be so melancholy!

Here's the post in honor of my friend:

Steve Huisman.

Most of my readers will not recognize that name, although a few may think they know it.

Steve was a very good friend of mine. In fact, he was one of the best friends I ever had.

Steve died on Monday (June 12, 2006) in a plane crash. He was flying a plane in Florida that encountered some mechinal problems and crash landed on Davis Island. Steve died when the plane hit a home and caught fire. His co-pilot and the one person in the home survived.

I don't want to dwell on how Steve died. I want to describe how he lived.

Steve was a man that seemed at times to operate on an almost visceral level of honesty. He was unafraid to admit exactly how he was feeling and what he thought, especially when those thoughts and feelings pertained to his own spiritual status.

Don't misunderstand me, he was not a negative person. He was just quick to recognize his own fallenness and struggles. And by his honest admission of his fallenness, he elicited from others a confession that often bordered on sacramental.

Steve was my hero.

I would never have completed my Ph.D. if not for Steve Huisman. He was working on a correspondence course when he called me one day. He asked how the dissertation was going, and I confessed that I was struggling and didn't think I'd finished. Oh, my lovely wife was gently prodding me, the members of the dissertation committee were doing their part to help me out, but I just was not motivated.

Steve had a great thought--"Leo, how about we call each other at 6:00 a.m. to update each other on our projects. It will be good for us and provide a source of accountability."

Promptly at 6:00 the next morning, he called me.

For about two years after that my early morning conversations with Steve were opportunities to admit my fears and my failures as well as times to rejoice in milestones and accomplishments. He never judged me when I had a bad day or week. He gently encouraged me to press on. He laughed with me when something funny happend, he celebrated with me when things got done. He walked with me, and by being there he pushed me to finish.

When I graduated with my Ph.D., I neglected to tell him how much his encouragement had meant to me. Two weeks ago he called me here in VA. He was in FL and just wanted to talk. We talked about an hour about our families, our lives, our Lord. We laughed, we kidded each other, we prayed for each other. He told me that he wanted my wife to speak to his wife. As we were passing the phones, I cleared my throat and said, "Steve, I wanted to tell you how much your friendship means to me. You were God's instrument to help me finish my dissertation. I never adequately thanked you for that." I told him all the great things I loved about him--his acceptance, his honesty, his gentleness even when he corrected me or pushed me to discipline, his gut level love for other people that was evident in my life. I sang his praises, I think I embarassed him.

I told him I loved him.

Little did I know it would be the last time we would talk on this earth.

Steve went to be with the Lord in that plane crash Monday, but he left an awful lot of good stuff behind. His life is still having an impact on others even though it has ended. His diligence to serve God and others has left the world a better place. His love for his wife and children have instituted a legacy that will no doubt bear great fruit. His ongoing desire to be the best he could be for God's sake continues to motivate those who knew him to a deeper intimacy with God through Christ.

Steve was not a Bible scholar, but his life exemplified a clear understanding of the biblical call to follow Christ. He was a friend. He was a godly man. I miss him.

God, how I miss him!

I hate this fallen world of ours, but I know that it isn't home. Not completely. It is a way station. None of us are on this earth forever.

I still miss Steve.

41 years is not enough. I only knew him about 13 or so of those years.

He was a tall drink of water, a missionary kid with a love bigger than the world. He was the kind of guy you could trust to watch your most prized possessions. He had my back, he was my mighty and marvelous comrade. He helped me slay dragons and rescue damsels. Now I have to contemplate life without one of my wing men. Steve loved flying only slightly less than he loved God and his family. He loved to be in the air. Someday, I'll look up in the air and see him coming with Christ. It will be the ultimate flight, and it won't surprise me to see Steve acting as the pilot.

Death has invaded my life again. I can't imagine how his wife and children feel. I feel like I've been punched in the stomach, like I've lost something that cannot be replaced. I can almost hear Steve saying "I'll call you in the morning. You're going to make it! Hang in there!"

Thanks Steve, for all you gave us. Thanks to God for sharing Steve with us for 41 years. I'm crying now and feeling like I'm rambling, so maybe I better stop.

Live today like you have no tomorrow. Hug someone special and tell them you love them. Life is fragile, my friends, but God is strong. God is still in control, even though the world seems to spin crazily out of orbit.

Hang in there! With God's help, we're all going to make it!

Thanks for reading!

For Memorial Day

I wanted to post this today in honor of the men and women who have served or are currently serving in the United States military. Thank you for your service! May God bless you all, and may we all remember this weekend the sacrifice given for freedom. This poem by Edgar Guest says it well.

Memorial Day
Edgar Guest

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead to-day,
Is not a rose wreath, white and red,
In memory of the blood they shed;
It is to stand beside each mound,
Each couch of consecrated ground,
And pledge ourselves as warriors true
Unto the work they died to do.

Into God's valleys where they lie
At rest, beneath the open sky,
Triumphant now o'er every foe,
As living tributes let us go.
No wreath of rose or immortelles
Or spoken word or tolling bells
Will do to-day, unless we give
Our pledge that liberty shall live.

Our hearts must be the roses red
We place above our hero dead;
To-day beside their graves we must
Renew allegiance to their trust;
Must bare our heads and humbly say
We hold the Flag as dear as they,
And stand, as once they stood, to die
To keep the Stars and Stripes on high.

The finest tribute we can pay
Unto our hero dead to-day
Is not of speech or roses red,
But living, throbbing hearts instead,
That shall renew the pledge they sealed
With death upon the battlefield:
That freedom's flag shall bear no stain
And free men wear no tyrant's chain.


Thanks for reading!

Enjoying the sacrament of life

I don't have a lot to say today, and I'd rather let two authors whose writings I respect speak for me. I want to say, however, that I have been thinking a bit today about how life is sacramental--how all that we experience can be full of the holy awesomeness that is God. Remember, Jeremiah said that God's mercies were new every morning, just like the morning dew. Today can be full of the sort of radical presence of God as to overwhelm us. In 1999, Ray Bradbury gave the following view of life:

"It is neither all beautiful nor all terrible, but a wash of multitudinous despairs and exhilarations about which we know nothing. Our history is so small, our experience so limited, our science so inadequate, our theologies so crammed in mere matchboxes, that we know we stand on the outer edge of a beginning and our greatest history lies before us, frightening and lovely, much darkness and much life."

This description of life sees our existence as awe inspiring and frightening, and such it is on many occasions. Storms come and blow and bluster against us, threatening to undo not only our homes, but our very lives. As Bradbury said, life can be frightening and lovely at the same time. For the child of God, however, life has a more sacramental flavor. Oh, we may not "feel" it every day, but the truth is (as the Greek Orthodox have said) Jesus' very life has in some sense sanctified the mundane daily experiences of human life. His birth sanctified the birth process, his childhood sanctified childhood, yes, even his teen years consecrated those experiences in our own lives. As Frederick Buechner said:

"[C]hurch isn’t the only place where the holy happens. Sacramental moments can occur at any moment, any place, to anybody. Watching something getting born. A high school graduation. Somebody coming to see you when you’re sick. A meal with people you love. Looking into a stranger’s eyes and finding out he’s not really a stranger. If we weren’t blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental." From Wishful Thinking.

I like that last part--"if we weren't blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental." Yesterday God spoke to me in a silent moment, today I seem to hear his voice in the mundane. As Paul reminds us in Romans, God's very nature and character are obvious to us in nature, but of course we must take the time to look and listen. We ignore the very evidence that surrounds us, we brush it aside and pretend it isn't there. We make that which is natural our god and wonder why it doesn't save us in our time of weakness and great need.

Today God spoke to me in the simple things of life--celebrating my wife's birthday by going to Dairy Queen, playing with the bunnies with my children, feeding my dog, petting my cat and hearing his gentle purring, watching mindless cartoons and hearing the voice of God in the laughter of my children.

God is here, and he is not silent. He speaks, sometimes in whispers, sometimes in screams, but as he speaks he changes our lives; no, that's not right, he changes us. We become a type of living embodiment of the grace of God. Our lives become (in a sense) sacramental. As Christ invades our existence, his sanctifying grace creates holy places in our simple lives. Our lives become his, and by being intertwined with him we find something beyond ourselves.

Life is sacramental and sacred. Don't take it for granted.

Enjoy the sacramental wine of your life, drink deeply from the grace of God in the everyday.

You won't be sorry.

Thanks for reading!

A sheep hears his master's voice . . .

Today I was reading in John's Gospel and came across the familiar passage about the Good Shepherd. Here is what the Word of God says to us:

John 10

14 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

The words that caught my attention in this passage were the words sheep, shepherd, voice and hear. The idea is obvious--the sheep know their shepherd and listen to his voice. The shepherd loves the sheep and is willing to die on their behalf. The sheep follow the shepherd because he loves them and they know he loves them.

Today Jesus continues to call to his sheep. Are we listening? Do we think so highly of our Shepherd that we pause to hear and to get to know his voice? Are we paying attention?

C. S. Lewis addresses a similar issue in Mere Christianity:

The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

Each morning there is a voice calling to us. Do we hear it?

Oh, there may well be a cacophany of voices in your mind/heart! I know there often is a raucous and rowdy group of them in mine!

"Don't forget your work! Don't forget that e-mail or project you promised! Don't forget to play with your children! Don't forget to read your Bible!"

The voices vie for my attention even as my mind tries to shake the cobwebs of sleep and regain some semblance of focus. I hear them every morning. As Lewis notes, they rush at me.

What voices call us away from the Voice? Do you hear him? God is calling--"come to me, all who are weary and I will give you rest."

"Take my burden upon you."

"All you like sheep have gone astray."

"Come to me. I love you."

The imagery of coming out of the wind is a good one. Lewis reminds us to leave the wind of the voices calling us to busy-ness so that we can stop to listen to the one Voice that matters. God's call matters.

There is something about the call of God that transforms us when we hear it and respond. It isn't what we do, it is the very fact that God in his grace and kindness "called" us, spoke to us, singled us out, so to speak.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in The Cost of Discipleship:

The call of Jesus makes the disciple community not only the salt but also the light of the world: their activity is visible, as well as imperceptible. "You are the light." Once again it is not: "you are to be the light," they are already the light because Christ has called them. They are a light which is seen of men, they cannot be otherwise, and if they were it would be a sign that they had not been called. How impossible, how utterly absurd it would be for the disciples--these disciples, such men as these!--to try and become the light of the world! No. They are already the light and the call has made them so. Nor does Jesus say: "You have the light." The light is not an instrument which has been put into their hands, such as their preaching. It is the disciples themselves. By an amazing act of mercy, they are the light.

When God speaks, something changes. The very call to discipleship changes us. As in the beginning when God simply spoke things into existence, his Word continues to breathe creative life into the heart of humanity (see John 1). His Word enlightens us, illuminates our dark lives, transforms us into the light of the world.

God speaks, something happens. Light comes into being. Darkness is confused, overcome, ruined. God speaks, light breaks forth.

God calls, and we become salt and light. Every part of us becomes a testimony to the kindness of God. Every aspect of our life bleeds his kindness, his love, his grace, his mercy, his call.

Oh, and let's remember--He calls us, we don't call him.

May we pray as A. W. Tozer prayed:

Lord, teach me to listen
The times are noisy
and my ears are weary with the thousand raucous sound which continuously
assault them.
Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel,
When he said to you, "Speak, for your servant hears."
Let me hear you speaking in my heart.
Let me get used to the sound of your voice, that its tones may be
familiar when the sounds of faith die away,

And the only sound will be the music of
your speaking Voice.

God speaks, we listen, stuff happens.

Wow!

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Thank you for reading!

Ever dream of being a hero?

Heb 11:32-40

“32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” NASU

There are several stories represented in this passage from Hebrews—stories of daring action, bold attacks, thrilling suspense, and even political intrigue and romance. Read this list above again—these people conquered kingdoms, shut lions’ mouths, quenched fire, became mighty in war, etc.

Remember when you were growing up and you would pretend to be a soldier in a war, or a superhero fighting crime, or a “man alone” against evil? Did you ever dream of conquering kingdoms by yourself? Did you fight the odds? Did you defeat the evil ones with your super powers? Did the “good guys” win the fight?

I remember playing at superheroes and war when I was a child. None of my brothers or friends would choose to lose. We wanted to be the hero, the one who changed the tide of battle so that the “good guys” won. We wanted to perform daring deeds; we wanted to walk with a swagger, to be swashbucklers for good!

We wanted to be John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Captain America. We wanted to be heroes standing against the evil doers!

We wanted to be like those listed here in Hebrews 11. We wanted to be amazing, to be daring, to be bold, to be courageous.

Where are we now?

What kind of heroes have we become at the end?

Where are our tales of daring, of bold actions?

Phillips Brooks says it like this:

“The great danger facing all of us—let me say it again, for one feels it tremendously—is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning at all—not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God—and be content to have it so—that is the danger. That some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with the husks and trappings of life—and have really missed life itself.”

Have I lost my verve for life? Have I lost contact with the One who makes life worth living?

Have I fallen into the danger of complacency and mediocrity? Have I missed that “abundant life” because I forgot how much fun it was to “risk it all” to save someone from evil?

Have I allowed my contact with God to be minimal?

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan is described in this manner:

“’Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver, ‘Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.’”

God is like that.

He isn’t safe, he isn’t tame . . . in fact, God can be quite wild on occasions.

But he is GOOD.

We have to have contact with him, we have to be intimately attached to him for life to be good.

Oh, life may also be wild on occasions, and it will not always be safe.

But it will be GOOD. . . .

And abundant. . . .

When once we experience this intimacy with God, the hope is that we will become addicted. Addicted to God, what a great idea! As God in Christ fills all of our mundane existence, we will begin to see all of life as sacramental. Why? Because God is in it.

That’s our challenge, isn’t it? To live as though all those things Jesus said were true. As Charlie Peacock has said, we must learn to “live like heaven is a real place.”

May God grant us the grace to do so.

Thanks for reading!

The "Absence" of God?

This past week I was reading some excerpts in a little devotional book I have, and I was thinking about the “absence” of God. Some of the things I read gave me pause as I thought about the concept of God’s omnipresence. Those of us who claim to be Christians (or even Jews and Muslims, for that matter) typically claim that God is everywhere always. That is, he is right with us even when we don’t think he is, and worse, when we hope that he is not. He is there. I think Francis Schaeffer wrote a book entitled The God who is There.

At any rate, I was thinking about all the times in my life when God was present (like he always is), but I tended to overlook that reality. When I notice God there on the fringe of my experience (kind of hanging around like a brother who wants to be involved in everything you do), sometimes I respond with a sense of comfort (Oh good, he is there!). Other times I respond with fear (Oh no, did he see that!). Other times I am complacent (Oh, it’s just you, huh?). Still some times I am overwhelmed (Thank God you’re here!).

I think of the Jews wandering in the wilderness and camped at Mt. Sinai. God showed up on the mountain, and they begged Moses to make it stop! “Don’t let God speak directly to us again, we can’t take it!” The acknowledgement of God’s presence frightened them, maybe it made them a bit uncomfortable. Maybe we respond to God in the same way.

Annie Dillard addresses this problem when she says:

“It is difficult to undo our own damage, and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. The very holy mountains are keeping mum. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it; we are lighting matches in vain under every green tree.

“What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn’t us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: ‘Hello?’ We spy on whales and on interstellar radio objects; we starve ourselves and pray till we’re blue.” From Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard

Our fear of God’s omnipresence causes us to turn off a switch in our minds and hearts that helps us to ignore this fascinating (and sometimes frightening) reality. We pretend he isn’t there. We even ignore his obvious appearances. We ignore the God of all, then we say that we didn’t know he was there.

As A. W. Tozer notes:

“. . . If God is present at every point in space, if we cannot go where he is not, cannot even conceive of a place where he is not, why then has not that Presence become the one universally celebrated fact of the world? The patriarch Jacob, ‘in waste howling wilderness,’ gave the answer to that question. He saw a vision of God and cried out in wonder. ‘Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.’ Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside of the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. People do not know if God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.” From The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer

We “know it not” because we don’t like the reality that God’s omnipresence makes us face. That reality is this—when we fail and sin, he is there. When we succeed, he is there. When we need him, he is there. When we think we don’t need him, he is there. Even when we don’t want him to be, he is there. God's omnipresence reminds us that we can neither take all the glory for our "good" acts nor can we avoid the blame for the selfish acts. We can't get away with anything. There is no place to hide. He is there! He is always there!

One of my pet peeves is to hear a preacher talking about Jesus’ cry (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”) from the cross and say something like, “At that point, God turned his back on Jesus because he became sin for us.” Think of the ramifications of that idea—God, the omnipresent One, turning his back on his only unique Son. God, the merciful, overlooking the sacrifice his own Son Jesus is offering.

Can you imagine it? God, forsaking his Son! It sounds ridiculous because it is. God did not “turn his back on Jesus” (look in the text of the Gospels, it does not say any such thing). No, God was watching the brutal fact of it all with tears in his eyes. He did not forsake Jesus, and he does not forsake humanity. He endures when we pretend he is absent, but he is there. He loves Jesus . . . even when Jesus became sin for us, God lovingly watched his Son. God lovingly watches us as well.

He is there, and he loves us. He watches, waits, endures, and hopes. He wants us to acknowledge his presence, to catch a glimpse of him and smile. He is there, and he wants us to notice and to know it. He has not forsaken us. He is there, why not admit it and embrace it? Why not exult in the sheer joy and enormity of it? He is always there.

Scary, ain’t it?

Thanks for reading!

Some quotes to chew on . . .

"There is no doxology without theology, and good theology should produce doxology." Ergun Caner

“A theological thought can breathe only in the atmosphere of dialogue with God.” Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians

“Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks.” Basil the Great (From On the Spirit 1.1).


“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head." C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, pp. 13-14

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Stealing Quiet . . .

Here's a song from 40 Days that I really enjoy. The song is "Quiet" by Mark Warren, Joel Warren. Here are the lyrics:

Walk into a crowded room, into a faceless sea
I feel right at home
Remember not to look too close so they won't see through me
They can never know that there's a voice inside my head
Inside my mind
If I could find that secret place
A place to hide

Chorus:
It would be alright if I could stay there for awhile
It would be alright if I could steal the quiet
Deep down I have a need that I cannot deny
It would be alright

I sense you there across the room
A blinding light stills me where I stand
I didn't think you'd come this soon
If I may, if I might find out where I stand
I didn't plan to leave you out for all this time
I took for granted you were here
But if you don't mind

Chorus:
It would be alright if I could stay there for awhile
It would be alright if I could steal the quiet
Deep down I have a need that I cannot deny
It would be alright

I don't know why this song speaks so strongly to me. I think it is the whole idea of stealing quiet.


Finding a center.

Hunkering down for a moment of peace in a world of white noise.

Brother Lawrence said, "To be with God there is no need to be continually in church. Of our heart we may make an oratory, wherein to retire from time to time and with Him hold meek, humble loving converse." (The Practice of the Presence of God)

Sometimes we need to retire, to separate ourselves into a sort of solitude just to be in the presence of the One who really matters. Thomas Kelly in A Testament of Devotion calls this the process of centering on God. It is the discipline of finding a place to be, a place to just sit with Abba and simply to breathe.

If we make time for this practice, for this centering, for this laser like focus on what really matters, we may well find that God often appears in those times in ways we may not have expected. As Evelyn Underhill notes in Practical Mysticism:

"Because mystery is horrible to us, we have agreed for the most part to live in a world of labels; to make of them the current coin of experience, and ignore their merely symbolic character, the infinite gradation of values which they misrepresent. We simply do not attempt to unite with Reality. But now and then that symbolic character is suddenly brought home to us. Some great emotion, some devastating visitation of beauty, love or pain, lifts us to another level of consciousness; and we are aware for a moment of the difference between the neat collection of discrete objects and experiences which we call the world and the height, the depth, the breadth of the living, growing, changing Fact, of which thought, life, and energy are parts and in which we 'live and move and have our being.'"

I think that sums up the second verse of the song--sometimes we are just jolted out of our activity, out of our busy-ness, out of our mundane existence, and then we have a clarity we have not experienced and maybe cannot adequately express. We see.

We see HIM.

We get IT.

I need the quiet. I need to get it. I need to crawl into my Father's lap and be shocked into an awareness of how interconnected my world is to His, how his grace overflows in every aspect of my existence, how completely all encompassing is this One called God.

Steal the quiet.

Take the risk and get into God's presence.

Let the Mystery and Meaning of life jolt you into the reality of this great grace which sustains us all. Look for opportunities today to raise yourself above the mundane/temporary to that which will never fade. Set your mind to pursue it, and wait for the sheer shock of God's interruption.

We need to steal the quiet. We need to stay there for a while. We need Him.

Thanks for reading!

And now, a song from Switchfoot

I was driving to church this morning listening to the music of Switchfoot (in case you were wondering, I was listening to the album The Beautiful Letdown). One of the songs struck me as simply poetic and poignant, and I wanted to share the lyrics with you all. The song is entitled "Gone." Here are the lyrics:

She told him that she'd rather fix her makeup
than try and fix what's going on
But the problem keeps on calling
even with the cell phone gone.

She told him that she believes in living
bigger than she's living now
But her world keeps spinning backwards
and upside down.

Don't say so long, you're not that far gone.
Don't spin today away, 'cause today will soon be

Gone, like yesterday is gone
Like history is gone
Just try and prove me wrong and
pretend like you're immortal.

She said, he said, live like no tomorrow
Everyday we borrow brings us
one step closer to the edge. Infinity.
Where's your treasure, where's your hope,
if you get the world and lose your soul?
She pretends like she pretends like
she's immortal.

Don't say so long, and throw yourself wrong.
This could be your big chance to make-up
Today will soon be

Gone, like yesterday is gone
Like history is gone
The world keeps spinning on
You're going, going,
Gone, like summer break is gone,
Like Saturday is gone
Just try and prove me wrong and
pretend like you're immortal.

We are not infinite
We are not permanent
Nothing is immediate
And we pretend like we're immortal.
We are so confident in our accomplishments
Look at our decadence.

Gone, like Frank Sinatra, like Elvis and his mom,
Like Al Pacino's money, nothing lasts in this life
Gone, my High School dreams are gone,
my childhood sweets are gone
Life is a day that doesn't last for long.

Life is more than money, time was never money
Time was never cash, life is still more than girls.
Life is more than hundred dollar bills and
roto-tom fills.
Life is more than fame and rock and roll and thrills.
All the riches of the kings end up in wills
We've got information in the information age
but do we know what life is outside of our convenient Lexus cages?

She said he said live like no tomorrow
every moment that we borrow brings us closer
to a God who's never been short of cash
Hey Bono, I'm glad you asked.
Life is still worth living, life is more than we are.

I really like the last 4 segments of this song. I listened to it in my convenient Corolla cage and realized that we humans are good at hiding, even in plain sight. We pretend we are righteous, while we do our best to hide the unrighteous acts we do in secret. We act like every thing we do is important, while in our hearts we cry for a life of purpose. We would never admit our inner feelings or thoughts to another for fear of "being known" too intimately. We are afraid that the light may blind us or show our weaknesses too clearly. We are afraid of being known by others. We are afraid of rejection. We all know, however, that life is more than the stuff we use to try to make life worthwhile. Life if more than the stuff we collect to hide our insecurities while building a personal empire that we hope proclaims our (self) importance. Today, let's come into the light, let's let our deeds be exposed for what they really are, let's let God be God.

Thanks for reading!

What if you had no reputation? A Christmas meditation

Philippians 2:5-9 NASU

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

This passage may not usually be associated with Christmas, but for some reason that is how it comes to me this season. Look closely at the passage above, then read the quote from The Jesus Style by Gayle D. Erwin below.

“Christ Jesus . . . made himself nothing.

“He made himself nothing, he emptied himself—the great kenosis. He made himself no reputation, no image.

“I can recall my father shaking his head and repeating over and over to himself, ‘If only I knew what this meant. There is something powerful here. If I only understood it.’ Maybe that is why this Scripture has glued itself to my mind and equally disturbs me. Reputation is so important to me. I want to be seen with the right people, remembered in the right light, advertised with my name spelled right, live in the right neighborhood, drive the right kind of car, wear the right kind of clothing. But Jesus made himself of no reputation.”

Christmas in America means lots of things to lots of people.

For some it becomes a political event that pits “the true meaning of Christmas” against the bias of some against religion. For others Christmas is just another time to visit families and to pretend to get along with each other. For others Christmas is a season that involves incredible profits (or expenses) and lots of activities. For still others Christmas is simply a winter break, a time to regroup for a new year.

I know I’ve left a big group out! There are those who see Christmas as the celebration of the birth of the world’s Savior. But I want to twist the prism a bit and look at Christmas from a different angle.

Almost all of the views above look at Christmas from the perspective of what humans gain from the season. I wonder if we can look at the season as something we can offer to others, a gift of sorts.

This passage from Philippians reminds me that Christmas for Jesus wasn’t about what he would gain. In fact, he lost just about everything! He left the comfort of his Father’s place, he became a tottering, dribbling little baby, he had to learn to talk, to walk, to eat, he left his riches behind for the poverty of a manger, and ultimately he would even become sin, something he had never experienced. As Paul says, he made himself of no reputation.

Imagine what Christmas would be like this year if those of us who follow Jesus would do as Paul admonishes here and have this approach to the season. Imagine if we actually attempted to have the same attitude towards others that Jesus has towards us! What would Christmas look like if we didn’t care about what we got out of it?

Ronald Reagan is credited with the saying “There is no telling what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” We don’t like that approach though, do we? We kick against it! I mean, we deserve to be recognized, don’t we?

You came up with the idea that made the company money, shouldn’t you be rewarded? Maybe you found a problem and fixed it, and that fix saved someone’s job. Shouldn’t you be shown gratitude? Maybe you did some kindness for someone you knew couldn’t pay you back, shouldn’t you get credit for that?

Don’t we all think that we should be center stage, center of the world, the most important person in the world? How many times have you heard “I quit going to that church because MY needs weren’t being met”?

No reputation.

Let that sink in.

NO Reputation!

No fame, no credit, no automatic acceptance, no celebrities, and no place where who you know or what you know earns you admittance.

Jesus made himself of no reputation.

Ouch!

We love our awards, the acceptance of others, the glamour of being “somebody,” or the wonderful happiness of fame, don’t we?

“Don’t neglect me” is the motto of many in our society and our churches.

The motto of Christ and his followers is “No reputation.” God chooses such people to further his agenda. Will we be involved or do we like our perks too much?

In Job 1, Satan appears in God's court. Go acknowledges the good job done by Job, and asks Satan if he has noticed. Satan's response is a tough challenge: "Does Job fear God for nothing?"

Think about what the evil one is implying here. He is asking, "Will a human serve God with no expectation of something in return?"

Will humans serve God for nothing?

That hurts, doesn't it? Even the mere thought of it as a possibility smarts a bit. Surely the mighty God of the universe wouldn't expect me to show him respect and serve his purposes without expectation of payment for services rendered, right?

Right?

Will you serve God for nothing?

Can we humble ourselves to the point where we realize that God owes us nothing? Quite literally, we have done nothing to merit a reward. Even our service is a response to his continued mercy.

Will we, like Christ, humble ourselves to the point of no reputation? Are we willing to be "nobodies" in God's service, among his people, even among those who ought to "recognize" us?

What would Christmas look like this year if we (all of us) decided to give with no expectation of return? What if we humbled ourselves and expected no acknowledgement?

What can you do this Christmas season that will bless others and garnish no reputation for you? Who can you serve that can't repay you? This year let's commit ourselves to serving, giving, and loving as Christ did. Let's look for opportunities to bless others in a way that does not give us recognition. Instead of asking for things for ourselves, let's give to the needs of others.

How would that change Christmas in your circle?

Thanks for reading!

A repeat--Jesus and the Blind Beggar

Hey y'all:

I was reading some old posts the other day, and this one really struck me. It is a devotional I wrote on the blind beggar who prayed for Jesus' attention by crying "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" As I reread this post, I decided I ought to share it again. I wrote this about 2.5 years ago, and the truth of it still stings me a bit. So, here it is:

“Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

The Jesus Prayer, a short, enigmatic statement of faith and repentance. Contained in this short phrase are some of the most powerful doctrines needed to heal the human condition.

One version of it is found in Luke 18:35-43, the story about the healing of a blind beggar. The blind beggar sat by the road. There was nothing new here. He had done this many times in his interminable suffering. He sat there. He begged. Another day in paradise.

Imagine his situation. Close your eyes for a moment and think of how he experienced life. Devoid of sight, he lived in a constant sense of blackness. Of course, his other senses were sharp, he could hear and smell and taste. But he could not see.

Because he could not see, he could not hold his child’s face and admire the nose or the eyes that obviously are a family trait. He could not admire his wife’s beauty or the glory of her in splendid dress. He could not get around like the rest of us. He had to rely on the kindness of others to avoid stumbling.

Perhaps he chose this stretch of the road because the people in that area were especially generous. He could get a lot of money or other goods begging there. Whatever the reason, he hauled himself as best he could to the spot he had occupied so often. He sat. He begged. Another day in paradise.

Yet somehow today promised to be different. He couldn't quite explain it. There was something in the air, something that did not smell or taste or sound the same as all the other days. The humidity was the same, so it wasn’t a change in weather. He was the same blind person he had always been, so it was not a physical change in his situation. Something was different, however, but just what it was remained a mystery.

Then, he heard a sound of a crowd. Was there a parade today about which he had no knowledge? This crowd did not sound like a typical parade. Folks were talking about a great teacher, a person who had told the most amazing stories, of an encounter with a rich man, of an encounter with the Pharisees. This person the crowd discussed was evidently no ordinary man. He was different. He was the difference in the blind beggar’s day.

The blind man inquired, “What’s going on? Who is coming?” One of the people told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is headed this way.”

He thought about it. “Jesus of Nazareth,” he mumbled. “I wonder if that is the same fellow who reportedly healed ten lepers the other day. If so, surely he can lift my blindness! Surely he can set me free.”

His excitement grew. Nervously he formulated a plan. He stood up and cried out loud, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Some of the folks in the crowd shushed him and angrily asked him to be quiet. He got louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The noise got Jesus’ attention. Stopping, Jesus asked the man what he wanted. The request was simple, “Please give me my sight.” Jesus granted the request and told the man, “Your faith has saved you and made you well.”

The crowd (the same ones who rebuked the blind man earlier) now rejoiced at the notable (or should that be “visible”?) miracle that happened here. They gave glory to God for the man’s healing. Isn’t that just like us? When someone cries the loudest for God’s mercy, don’t we sometimes wish that they would just be quiet? It is embarrassing to hear all that crying and begging. Can’t you just do that in private?

Or maybe like the blind man you’ve become so desperate that you simply don’t care anymore. “Jesus, have mercy on me!” is your rallying cry, and you’re going to shout it until you get a response.

There is good news here. Jesus stopped. He listened. He healed and saved. The crowd rejoiced.

Just another day in paradise.

Thanks for reading!

What it means to burn . . .

As I sit here in my comfortable home reading the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, I am listening to Caedmon's Call (the first album). I am struck by the honesty and character of the lyrics (of course, it doesn't hurt that Derek Webb wrote a bunch of the songs). Nonetheless, the interesting mixture of the admonitions of Hebrews with the alternative/folk feel of Caedmon's Call has put me in quite the introspective mood. Before I go any further, then, I want to quote for you the song "Coming Home," written by Aaron Tate and copyrighted by Cumbee Road Music in 1994. Here ya go!

You say you want a living sacrifice
Well here I am a burnt offering
Crawling off the altar
And back into the fire

And with my smoke-filled lungs
I cry out for freedom
While locking and chaining myself
To my rotting desires

And I hate the stench
But I swallow the key
And with it stuck in my throat
Can you hear me
Can you hear me

(Chorus)
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
But I'm still a long way off

I am shell shocked and I have walked
Through the trenches full of tears
With the mortars of memory
Exploding in my burning ears

You've stripped the trees of Lebanon
And now you're stripping me
Of the bark of false morality
The bite of selfish greed
Lord, can you hear me

(Chorus)
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
But I'm still a long way off

Will you run to me
Will you come to me
Will you meet me
Will you greet me
Will you drag me home
Cause I'm still a long way off

(Chorus)
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
But I'm still a long way off

I guess the reason that this song struck me today is the imagery of fire. Fire plays a big role in the letter to the Hebrews.

God is depicted as a burning fire.

There is a bit of discussion about the altar and sacrifices aflame.

Even Christ is depicted as a type of burnt offering offered on our behalf outside of the city--the same place where the author of Hebrews wants us to join Christ so that we can endure the abuse that he suffered.

Why? Because our God is a consuming fire.

What does fire consume? It consumes anything that is not like it. God will also consume those things in us that do not correspond to his character. That is why we are admonished to "Strive for peace with all people, and for the holiness without which no one will see God."

The song above reminds me of these things. We are on an altar whether we like it or not. We are either on the altar of God (allowing our non-God aspects to be burnt away and changed into his likeness), or we are on the altar of our own selfishness (burning away with our own deceit and sinful wishes). Like Aaron Tate points out, we crawl off the altar of God into the fire itself. We cry out for freedom while chaining ourselves to our own rotting and despicable desires.

We are on fire. We are burning.

What are we burning and why are we burning?

Many of us burn for all the wrong reasons--we are aflame with our own passions and desires, pursuing things that not only will not satisfy, but that will scar us forever if we continue to make ourselves a sacrifice to stuff. We look for stuff to fill the hole in the seat of our beings, we strive to come to wholeness through means that will not make us whole--we try to make ourselves something we are not, we try to obtain possessions that we do not need, we spend and are spent pursuing more stuff that not only clog our homes but clog our spiritual and physical veins and keep us from living our lives as God intended.

We can also burn for the right reasons--we can give ourselves over to a life of sacrifice or selfless living that puts the needs of others before our own desires and wishes. We may be aflame with a love that desires the best of God's blessings for our neighbors. We burn in God's presence so that we may lose anything that is not of God and gain Christ as "all that is really important." It is not an easy place to be, being consumed until only God is left. Nonetheless, such a place is necessary if we are to live a life abundant.

Let us come to God's consuming fire to be purified, to receive the delicious grace of God in Christ, to find all our rotting desires removed and transformed. If not, we are merely burning on our own waste.

Hebrews 10:31, 39
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. . . . But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls."

Thanks for reading!

Other May, You Cannot

The following is from an old tract and was forwarded to me by a friend. Enjoy!

"If God has called you to be really like Jesus he will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways he will seem to let other people do things he will not let you do.

"Other Christians and ministers, who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

"Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence of Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

"The Lord may let others be honored and put forward and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get all the credit for it, but make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious he may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

"The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is sovereign and can do what He likes with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in his dealing with you, but if you absolutely sell out to be His servant, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow on you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

"Settle it forever, then, that you deal directly with the Holy Spirit and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hands, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to do with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven."

Thanks for reading!

The faithfulness of God

I think sometimes that I have believed a lie. Yes, I think sometimes that I have bought into something that isn’t true. For example, the idea that somehow my sin is too great for God to forgive, or that he may forgive me but never help me get beyond it. Or how about this one—habitual sin causes God to leave me. Or here is another one--God must hate me because of the bad things that are happening in my life.

In Leviticus 26, God is describing to the Jews how he will discipline them if they disobey his law, and the punishments listed there are hard and terrible to me. Yet, at the end of all this discussion of exile and desolation, God says, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

Note the faithfulness and love of God in these verses. He will not forsake his people, no matter how horrible their disobedience or failure or sin. He will keep his covenant because it is what he does. He is the LORD, he is Yahweh, and it is his essential nature to keep his covenant. He will “remember” the promises, the covenant, he has made with us, and more importantly, he will not break that covenant.

Yes, God disciplines his children, and yes, no amount of discipline is looked on with joy (usually! see Hebrews 12:3-10). Even God's discipline, though, is only for a season. Think about any athlete you may know. Most of them practice almost fanatically while complaining about the practice itself, yet most of them still make the time to do it. Why? Practice, like any discipline, works into us habits that will (hopefully) enhance our performance under stress. The athlete who has trained (disciplined) himself well will perform well. So also the follower of Christ who has received God's discipline and instruction will exhibit the qualities of Jesus in life. It is simply true.

As Romans 10 says, “The kingdom and word of God is near you, even in your heart.” We know in our hearts that God will not abandon us, yet we cover over our sins as though somehow we may be that one exception to the rule. Proverbs 28:13 warns us against concealing our transgression, and yet that is exactly what we all try to do when conviction first hits our hearts. Why do we do that?

Thank God he is faithful and merciful! As 2 Timothy 2 reminds us--even when we are faithless, he is faithful. As Paul records elsewhere--God is faithful to complete the work he has begun.

Thank God today for how he has been faithful to you.

Thanks for reading!

What the? Genesis 6 and the "sons" of God

Recently I engaged in a conversation with some graduate students on the subject of Genesis 6:1-12. The main question revolved around the identity of the "sons" of God in the passage who evidently engaged in illicit relations with humans with disastrous results. Jewish tradition (and Christian, too) tends to view these "sons" of God as angelic beings, but the context of the passage doesn't give a clear indication. The discussion still rages in the office.

That being said, I discovered a document the other day that appears to come from one of my colleagues. It is a collection of student responses to the query above. I thought I'd share them as they are quite funny.

1. In Genesis 6:1-4 one is introduced to the "sons of God"; who went on to inhabit the daughters of men.

2. Concerning the identification of the "sons of God," one student states, "The popular views have strong weaknesses." (I guess that is better than weak strengths, huh?)

3. Still another student opines, "The offspring mentioned in Genesis 6 can still be considered men; there is no evidence that they held great supernatural powers or were half-breads." (I guess they were multigrains instead of whole wheat!)

4. Another student wrote, "The 'sons of God' were great men of God who were caught up in the daughters of men." (I'm tangled, and I can't get loose?)

5. One student asked, "Can angles take a human form?" (I'm not sure, but I thought I saw a human triangle once)

6. Another student affirmed, "Angles can not marrie or be married to." (I guess there are only single angles)

7. And last, but by far a favorite, "The second view is that the sons of God were fallen angels of some kink . . ." (No comment!)

Well, there you have it--mystery settled! I hope these made you smile, they did it for me!

Thanks for reading!

Some interesting quotes to chew on . . .

"There is no doxology without theology, and good theology should produce doxology." Ergun Caner

“A theological thought can breathe only in the atmosphere of dialogue with God.” Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians

“Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks.” Basil the Great (From On the Spirit 1.1).

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head." C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, pp. 13-14

“This is true worship, when the mind of the worshipper presents itself as an undefiled offering to God.” Lactantius, Divine Institutes

“Spiritually ill theologians produce sick theology.” Christopher Hall

“Education begins in the home, where it is a parental right and responsibility.” Ronald Reagan, 1982

“Words can be polluted even more dramatically and drastically than rivers and land and sea. There has been a terrible destruction of words in our time.” Malcolm Muggeridge in The End of Christendom, p. 2

Plutarch—“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

And now, an honest appraisal of our worth . . .

Today I am reminded that life isn’t a sprint, it isn’t even really a marathon. No, life is more of a journey, a wandering, if you will, through various places in search of the place where we belong. We travel, we sojourn in this world looking for that special place, that special task to which we are called. Like Hercules, we labor through our struggles, sometimes utilizing an almost superhuman power to accomplish the “trials” of our lives in an effort to prove somehow the worth of each breath we take, the value of each thought, even the inherent worth of our own existence. We labor, we travel, we worry, and yet we humans seldom seem to find that place of rest, that place of contentment where all things are in harmony, where we feel “at home.”

What is it about us that makes so many of us feel the need to travel, to labor incessantly in an effort to prove our own worth? At which point in our lives did we fall so far from the recognition of our value as God sees it? Let me put it this way—if you have a valuable piece of jewelry, to whom do you take it to have it appraised? The jeweler or the street peddler and huckster? Reasonable people will take their treasures to the jeweler for an honest or fair appraisal. Why? Simply because the jeweler is a professional, trained in his area of expertise to offer an honest appraisal. In other words, he knows his craft and knows the value of the otherwise insignificant trinkets presented to him. He looks through his glass and sees worth in what appears to us mere costume jewelry. He declares its worth, and we cling to our now treasured possession as though it were a king’s ransom.

Let me share a story from my own life—I read comics. That won’t surprise my friends out there who are aware that I haven’t outgrown this seemingly juvenile past time. In my years of reading comics, I have kept thousands of them in bags and boxes for future reading. As a youngster, I had no idea that some of those comics would one day be valuable. I simply kept them because I liked to read them. One day while in seminary, my mother informed me that a young man in my childhood neighborhood wanted to start a comic collection, and he wanted to look at and possibly purchase some of mine. I hadn’t read them in a while, and I figured I could use the money, so I agreed. The young fellow and I met at my mother’s house at the designated time and day. We agreed to some prices, and he began his shopping spree. When he left he seemed happy, and I had a few extra bucks in my pocket. But the story doesn’t end there.

A few years later I was in a comic shop in Bowling Green, KY. Behind the counter a comic was displayed, but it was an unusual comic in that it had a price tag of about $400 attached to it. It was an Incredible Hulk story in which the X-Men character Wolverine made his first appearance. I remembered that I owned that comic, and after verifying with the shop owner that he would indeed pay me $400 for the comic, I made plans to visit my mother soon. When I got home, I went straight to the comics and looked for my treasure. Did you guess yet? Yes, I sold that comic to the young man a few years prior. I think I may have gotten a couple of dollars for it! Two dollars compared to four hundred dollars! I almost cried.

Then I remembered, that comic had little value to me until an “expert” told me how valuable it was (after all, I only paid 25 cents for it originally!). To bring this back to our topic, I think that sometimes so many of us work so hard to “prove” our worth because we have been listening to the wrong “experts” regarding our value. The Jeweler who makes all humans sees our true value, and I am willing to bet that you are more valuable to him than you might think. Why do I say that? It is actually very simple—the great Cosmic Jeweler or Comic Expert loves you enough to exchange His own Son for you. He only has one Son, but He is willing to give that unique possession to purchase you, a pearl of great price. God’s view of our worth is so much better than our own. I know I need to check in with Him more often before I trade what I consider my “cheap comic book” life for a paltry sum instead of the invaluable amount it is worth in God’s eyes. It's worth thinking about, right?

Thanks for reading!

Innate Concepts? C. S. Lewis on perceptions of God

The following is a quote from C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 38-39:

If a good God made the world why has it gone wrong? And for many years I simply refused to listen to the Christian answers to this question, because I kept on feeling "whatever you say, and however clever your arguments are, isn't it much simpler and easier to say that the world was not made by any intelligent power? Aren't all of your arguments simply a complicated attempt to avoid the obvious?" But then that threw me back into another difficulty.

My argument against God was that the universe seemed too cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole world was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because a man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying that the world really was unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist--in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless--I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality--namely my idea of justice--was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

Thanks for reading!

What is your "place"?

“I’m stuck in this place.” How many times have I said that when I find myself somewhere I’d rather not be? Maybe it was a job I didn’t particularly enjoy, or a meeting that bored me to tears, or perhaps a relationship that wasn’t what I hoped. In all these ways, we often find ourselves “stuck” in a “place” that we don’t appreciate or even like. Do we ever stop to think that it is those sinkholes, those pits, those stuck places where God wants to meet us? Do we ever think that maybe, just maybe, like Job God has brought us to a place where we can focus on him?

I forget sometimes that the Bible speaks often of “place.” Jesus went out to a deserted place to be alone with his Father. Paul went to a desert place to learn about his new faith. Ezekiel speaks of the places where God met him. Isaiah was in the Temple, the place of God’s revelation, when king Uzziah died, and Isaiah saw a vision of God in that place. Abraham left his hometown to go to a “place” that God would show him. Even Satan wants to have a “place” since he lost his “place” in heaven (see Revelation 12). We all want a “place.” Like the old theme song to the TV show Cheers, we want a place “where everyone knows your name.” We want a place to belong, a place to be at peace, a place of rest.

There is such a place you know. We can even carry it with us every day of our lives. That place is Calvary. The place of the Skull and the place of the supreme sacrifice in history is where we can go to find what we want. There, safe from the world, we can shelter ourselves under the sweet sacrifice of Jesus, confident, as Paul tells us, that “He who freely gave his Son for us, will he not also freely give us all things?” It is a place of both sacrifice and safety, a place of grace and rest. Although it was not a positive place for Jesus on that day, it has become for us a place of comfort, kindness, grace, and even peace. There Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself. There God redeemed me as his own by giving his only Son in my place. Read and think on these words from Dennis Jernigan’s song “It was My Sin.”

1. See the God of Glory giving up His Son
See the awesome depth of love in all that He has done
See the tiny baby on the hay so still
See Him take the cross and climb up Calvary’s lonely hill
That hill

Chorus:
It was my sin that nailed him there
It was my cross He had to bear
It was His blood that washed me clean
It was the greatest love this world has seen
He died for me
He washed me clean
I am redeemed
Worship the King

2. Hear the groaning thunder, feel the falling rain
See the King of Glory bear unbearable pain
Dying brokenhearted, Himself He would not save
See the King who died for me now risen from the grave
My grave

Chorus:
It was my sin that nailed You there
It was my cross You had to bear
Your precious blood has washed me clean
No greater love has this world ever seen
You died for meYou washed me clean
I am redeemed
Worship the King

There is a place for each of us, a place where we belong and may receive mercy. I don't know what your circumstances hold, and I can't tell you that Christ will take away all your problems. I can say with confidence, however, that his love knows no boundaries. He cares, he loves, he has mercy.

It isn't a promise of a soft path. The way of Christ starts with a crucifixion. Nonetheless, the place of wounding becomes a place of joy and belonging in Jesus. The battle scars received when following him are awards, metals of honor, reasons for rejoicing.

Being at the cross with Christ is a good place. Being at the grave as he comes out is a hopeful one. The promise of our salvation is the promise of a place where we belong to and with God. That place is ours here and now, but it is also the promise of a future rest from the worries and wounds of today. To get to that place, though, we must start with Christ and his wounds and death. There is no crown without a cross.

What place are you in today? Is it a hard place? A place of comfort? A place of confusion? A place of contentment? No matter where you place yourself today, God desires to be there with you. He wants his place to be your place. Trust him. Come home to God's place. He knows your name, he knows your need.

May God grant us the grace to live confidently in the places he has placed us. May we understand the height, width, breadth, and length of his love to us. May we find his place of rest.

Thanks for reading!

I'm praying for you!

Some C. S. Lewis Quotes

I've been rereading The Abolition of Man recently, and I wanted to share two quick quotes from this book. Here they are:

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head." pp. 13-14

"Until quite modern times all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional reactions on our part could be either congruous or incongruous to it--believed, in fact, that objects did not merely receive, but could merit, our approval or disapproval, our reverence or our contempt." pp. 14-15

Thanks for reading.

And now, a helpful quote . . .

Here is a quote from Henri Nouwen that has meant a lot to me lately, I hope it blesses you as well.

“One way to express this is to say that in order to be a living reminder of the Lord, we must walk in his presence as Abraham did. To walk in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him. When we walk in the Lord’s presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of him. That is what is meant by a prayerful life. It is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.” From The Living Reminder by Henri J. Nouwen.

Thanks for reading!

Some Random (Funny?) Quotes

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life," --Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body," --Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in
the country," --Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

Thanks for reading!

A Little Story . . . and hopefully some encouragement

“O Lord my God, when the storm is loud, and the night is dark, and the soul is sad, and the heart oppressed; then, as a weary traveler, may I look to you; and beholding the light of your love, may it bear me on, until I learn to sing your song in the night. Amen.” From Little Book of Prayers by George Dawson.

Sometimes in the midst of the trials and burdens of life, we lose sight of the idea of an anchor. We feel tossed and thrown as on a wild and restless sea. Our emotions tell us that things will never be good, all will be despair and loss. Our hope seems shipwrecked, our desire to go on in life sinks into depression. We see nothing good, only evil all around us. Our enemies (both physical and spiritual) seem to have the upper hand, they seem to be winning the day. The victory we felt sure would come has not yet manifested itself, and we feel ourselves sinking ever deeper into a pit in which we cannot get the proper traction to climb. The clock is ticking down, our hope is gone, our day is over, and Christ has not come.

Like the disciples in Luke 24, we had hoped that Jesus would be the one who would rescue us all. We had fervently prayed that maybe, just maybe, today would be the day when we would “live happily ever after” and find our dreams coming true. We shake our heads and go out for a walk. Maybe some fresh air and a quick walk will clear out the cob webs in our minds. Still, the topic of our recent failure hangs like a cloud over our heads, raining down doubt and fear.

Suddenly, a stranger approaches. He seems rather ignorant of our experiences, and besides that he has a fairly sunny disposition. He is definitely someone we want to avoid at this moment. No pie in the sky false hope will satisfy us. We fear that he will say something like, “Cheer up! Keep a stiff upper lip! Things will work out in the end!” We try to avoid the stranger, yet he resolutely comes our direction. He seems determined to interrupt our brooding, our despair. We try to ignore him, but then he speaks.

“So, what’s going on? Why the sad face?” Out of pure human kindness we try to explain our pain in as brief a manner as possible. We do not want to burden strangers with our “little” concerns, after all. The stranger hears our story and stands tall. Looking at us he says, “Foolish one, slow of heart to believe what God has said!”

The force of his accusation causes us to stumble in our walk. How dare this stranger tell us our business? How dare he interrupt our musings with his “pollyanna” announcement. We look at him with disdain and think that he has nothing to offer.

Then, he begins to speak to us again. Starting with the beginning of our story and bringing us pretty much up to date he tells us things we knew but somehow in our anguish had forgotten. As he speaks, our hearts get a bit lighter. We can literally feel a burning inside that slowly (painfully slowly) begins to purify our thoughts and hearts. We feel encouraged even.

We invite the stranger to eat with us, and he offers to say grace. As he prays, we realize his true identity. He is our Lord, the one who was beaten brutally, was painfully crucified, who died with the full weight of our sin upon his broken and bruised body. He has been there all along, listening to us, sympathizing with our pain and anguish. He has been waiting to comfort us with his presence. He loves us so.

We beg him to stay. Oh, the situations of our life haven’t changed dramatically. We still have problems, and those problems are just as depressing and burdensome as before. The difference is that we have Jesus in the house, and the light of his love gives us courage to press on, he becomes an anchor for our souls. Why? Simply stated—“Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Through him and his love we may not have better situations or circumstances, but we can still be “more than conquerors through him who loved us” in the trials we share as his joint heirs. How? Talk to him. Let him love you. Trust his character. He is faithful even when we are faithless. You matter to him. Hang in there.

Thanks for reading!

Music for a hot August day

Today feels a bit eclectic to me, so I am listening to the following CDs:

1. Relient K--4 score and seven years

2. Starfield--Beauty in the Broken

3. Need to Breathe--Daylight

4. Jonny Lang--Turn Around

5. Jeremy Camp--Beyond Measure

6. Family Force 5

Well, that ought to keep me working today! Thanks for reading!

Update on my wife

Hello everyone:

As of last night Lisa was feeling much better. Her legs are still bothering her a bit, but she feels stronger and less anxious. I'll try to keep everyone posted on how she is doing. Thanks for the prayers!

Leo

Prayer Request for my wife

I know many of you pray for me and my family occasionally, so I wanted to ask for you to pray for my wife Lisa. Her Multiple Sclerosis has been acting up lately, and today she is really hurting and having problems with her legs (she has little or no feeling from her knees down). Would you please pray for her? Thanks!

"The prayer of the righteous has great power in its effects." James 5:16b

Today's Topic--Freedom!

1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. (NASU)

“Be not anxious! Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety. Yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety. If our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety whose burden is intolerable. Anxiety creates its own treasures and they in turn beget further care. When we seek for security in possessions we are trying to drive out care with care and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations. The fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be cares themselves.” From The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Phil 3:19-21
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (NASU)

What does it mean to be free? That isn't really a rhetorical question.

In America we talk of "Freedom" as if it is a birthright or an entitlement. We all want our "rights" protected so that we can pursue whatever petty little thing it is that makes us feel better. We are all part of at least one special interest group that insists it is being neglected, overlooked, mistreated, or offered second class status.

We fight and we argue about "our" stuff. I've even heard this language in Christian communities: "I left that church because they weren't meeting 'my' needs."

Yeah, that's why God created this community--so that "I" could be the center of attention, right?

Is this really freedom?

I mean, look around us--we are tied to our cares and our anxieties, we are chained to our possessions and our passions. We run around anxiously trying to protect the very things that often hold us in the very chains of bondage.

Why do we do that?

Why do we think that a new job, spouse, haircut, car, movie, boat, home, location, government, church, relationship, etc. will free us into the blissful realm of happiness?

I don't know that I can answer that, but I know a remedy.

HUMILITY

It doesn't come cheap, and it isn't easy to maintain, but humility will help us break free from bondage.

Look at the Bonhoeffer quote above, then read the passage from Philippians underneath it.

Paul tells us that our citizenship is in another country besides this earthly domain. We don't belong here. Since we don't belong, why do we waste our time buying into the stuff of this place? Why do we bind ourselves to the stuff of earth?

Those who are Christ followers have a home that is not this mundane, temporary place. We have a home that is not fully realized yet, but it is one in which we can live to some degree right now. We don't have to wait for Independence Day or Christ's return, we can live abundantly now.

Okay, enough preaching. Here's the deal. We were meant to be free with heavenly freedom. We were not meant to be chained up here. Jesus didn't live, die, and get out of the grave just so I could have the latest laptop or so that my kids could enjoy the newest video games.

Jesus lived so that he could grant us true freedom. That freedom comes at a cost. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: "When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die."

As the popular cliche reminds us, freedom is not free.

Tonio K sings a song that I think is appropriate here. The song is entitled "You will go Free." Enjoy!

you've been a prisoner
been a prisoner all your life
held captive in an alien world
where they hold your need for love to your throat like a knife
and they make you jump
and they make you do tricks
they take what started off as such an innocent heart
and they break it and break it and break it
until it almost can't be found

well i don't know when
and it don't know how
i don't know how long it's gonna take
i don't know how hard it will be
but i know
you will go free

you can call it the devil
call it the big lie
call it a fallen world
what ever it is it ruins almost everything we try
it's the sins of the fathers
it's the choices we make
it's people screaming without making a sound
from prison cells in paradise
where we're chained to our mistakes

well i don't know when
and it don't know how
i don't know how much it's gonna cost you
probably everything
but i know
you will go free

you can't see your jailer
you can't see the bars
you can't turn your head round fast enough
but it's everywhere you are
it's all around you
and everywhere you walk this prison yard surrounds you

but in the midst of all this darkness
in the middle of this night
i see truth cut through this curtain like a laser
like a pure and holy light
and i know i can't touch you now
and i don't want to speak too soon
but when we get sprung
from out of our cages baby
god knows what we might do

well i don't know when
and it don't know how
i don't know if you'll be leaving alone
or if you'll be leaving with me
but i know
you will go free

Often this freedom comes when we surrender our selfish interests in order to care about the issues of others. Paul reminds us of this in Philippians 2 when he reminds us to look not only after our own interests, but also to concern ourselves with the interests of others. He calls us to have the same attitude as Jesus.

Jesus died for us to be free. Can we offer any less sacrifice for the freedom of others than to find a way to die to the things that bind us so that we can be free to serve the needs of others? Can we humble ourselves? If we can't, we won't be free!

Be like Jesus.

Be free.

Live humbly.

Do justice.

Thanks for reading!

Knowing Jesus

“God has made me bread for his elect, and if it be needful that the bread must be ground in the teeth of the lion to feed His children, blessed be the name of the Lord.” Ignatius

“We must be put to the flame before we can burn brightly. When we
cease to bleed, we cease to bless.” Anonymous

This morning my attention was drawn especially to Philippians 3:10, where Paul reminds his beloved friends that his goal is to know Jesus in the dynamic power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, and in the likeness of his death. That word translated “becoming like him” or “becoming conformed” to his death has me puzzled. Usually, folks note that this reference has to do with the Christian dying to the carnal nature, to the flesh. Yet, Jesus had no flesh or sin nature, did he?

I mean, to what death of Jesus am I being conformed?

Jesus’ death on a cross represents his personal humility, his willingness to take on my sin and sinfulness, his grace to take my place, his mercy. The cross is the place of sacrifice, a place where one loses all sense of self-importance or arrogance. It is a cruel instrument of death, a place where all humans are equal. I am called (or encouraged, at least) by Paul to “be conformed” to death on the cross. Jesus, the very glory and righteousness of God, willingly chose to become sin for me. That is the message of the cross.

Note also that as he died (innocently, I might add), he did not blame those around him. No cries of recrimination emitted from his mouth. No angry shouts of “It’s not fair!” or “I’ll get you for this!” No, on the cross there is only mercy.

Except for the quote of Psalm 22 (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”), there is no indication on the cross that Jesus thought of his own situation. His focus was on the job at hand, on the salvation and mercy he was producing for others. His focus was on those around him—the two thieves, his mother, his disciples, even the angry mob. Jesus died on the cross with little or no thought about himself.

This, then, is the likeness of his death—-being willing to bear any burden, even death itself, for the benefit and blessing of others. As Paul says to Timothy, being conformed to the likeness of Jesus’ death is “being poured out” as an offering for others. Consider that, when you are tempted to cry out in dismay or to fight back in anger.

This is not an easy task to which we are called. In fact, this call is one of the most difficult things to which a child of God can aspire. But if I am to be a follower of Christ, how can I hope to attain to his resurrection power if I refuse to stoop to his humility? How can I hope to reign with him if I am unwilling to bleed with him? As Paul notes in Romans 8:18-19 "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

Paul even tells the Philippians in chapter 2 that we should have the same attitude as Jesus, an attitude that includes looking out for the needs and interests of others in a humble manner while considering others as more important than ourselves. I don't mean a false humility that smiles inwardly as a person "pretends" to be unimportant outwardly. I mean a genuine unselfish approach that requires us to measure our worth by God's estimation and not our own. This humility is a recognition that God's business is more important than any other enterprise.

Being conformed to Jesus’ death means to endure willingly any sacrifice that may bring blessing, life, or salvation to another. It means placing my selfish desires on the altar of sacrifice to do what God asks in order that others may see his love, his grace, his salvation, his blessing. Are we willing? Can we do it? Even the great apostle later says in Philippians 3, “I have not yet attained to it, but I press on.” Press on today. Seek to be like Jesus. What would Jesus do? He’d die for you.

Thanks for reading!

Did you hear?

“Because the word that God speaks to us is always an incarnate word—a word spelled out to us not alphabetically, in syllables, but enigmatically, in events, even in books we read and movies we see—the chances are that we will never get it just right. We are so used to hearing what we want to hear and remaining deaf to what it would be well for us to hear that it is hard to break the habit. But if we keep our hearts and minds open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize, beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear him, he is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, his word to us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling.” From Now and Then by Frederick Buechner

God seeks an audience. He is not speaking into the void just to hear his voice echo. He intends to be heard and to have a response. When God speaks, it is not a pompous, self-gratifying type of speech that increases his ego. Rather, God’s voice works with purpose, with a sincere hope that someone will hear and respond. Take the story of Adam and Eve as an example. After they ate the forbidden fruit, they hid themselves out of fear. What was God’s initial response? He came for his morning walk, looking for companionship and conversation. The omniscient God knew what had transpired that morning, yet still he came looking for his friends. Did he come in anger, in righteous indignation? No, he came seeking—“Adam, where are you? Are you there? I want to talk to you.” God spoke, and he expected a response.

God is still speaking these many centuries later. He speaks most clearly through the life of his Son Jesus and through the Scriptures he has given us. As Ambrose says, “As in Paradise, God is walking in the Holy Scriptures, seeking man.” God speaks to see if we will listen, to see if we will respond.

We have become so immersed in the noise of our age that we seldom “hear” God’s voice any more. Oh, his Spirit and abilities are still the same, but we have tuned our ears to a totally different wavelength of “white noise” that keeps us so preoccupied that we don’t even notice that God spoke to us. As Frederick Buechner notes above, God is still talking, and what he is saying is recoverable if we will listen. If we will really take time to listen.

How many of you have children? Do you ever have the feeling that your kids aren’t really “hearing” what you say? Their faces may register acknowledgement that your mouth moved or your voice sounded, but they aren’t “getting it.” I wonder sometimes if God doesn’t feel the same way. He speaks to us, even sometimes in the “white noise” of our lives, yet we don’t “hear” him. Like Adam and Eve, we record that God said something (“Oh, he said not to even touch that tree or else you would die, or something like that”), but we don’t catch the full ramifications or meaning of his words.

God speaks to me sometimes through movies. Yeah, that’s a little strange, but I often get a relevant message from God from the movies I watch (and I’m not just talking about “The Passion” either!). I remember when Lisa and I were dating, actually it may have been after we were married. At any rate, she wanted to see the Disney movie “The Lion King.” We found a theatre that was showing it and off we went. As I sat in that theatre, God spoke. When Mufasa chastised Simba for being forgetful of his ancestry, I heard the voice of God. “You have forgotten me and thus have forgotten who you are called to be.” I am called to be his child, of his nature, speaking his words, doing his deeds. I am called a priest, a king, a holy and precious possession of God. How then ought I to live?

I also remember watching "A Beautiful Mind" and wondering at the marvelous range of God's creation of humans. Here is a man whose mind works in such a way as to disrupt his life in bizarre ways, and yet the image of God is so strong in his person that he is able to sort out the "unreal" from the "real" in his life. He is able by diligent application of reason and thought to separate hallunications from reality. God made his mind that way! God created that ability! I mean, the guy could literally see things others couldn't, and over time he was even able to discern what was "reality" and what was not. What a marvelous creation! It was a reminder to me that God knit us together, he made us the way we are. We are lacking nothing physically to accomplish what God asks of us. We are fallen, yes, but we also have something of the image of God (the better angels of our nature). We stumble, yet we can also overcome. He made us so, and he longs to interact with us, to aid us in our journey to wholeness in his son, Jesus.

I wish I could say that these insights flash on my mind daily. They do not. God is certainly speaking daily, but sometimes I have such dull hearing or doubt the possibility of God’s communicating with me that I miss the conversation or completely misunderstand it. But there is hope—the same God who spoke the universe into existence is still speaking to me through various means. As Buechner says, if I listen, I will hear it, and what I hear will be beyond precious. Lord, help us to hear. Teach us the discipline of listening.

Thanks for reading!

Sad News . . . Jerry Falwell 1933-2007

Well, by now many of you have heard that the founder and chancellor of Liberty University, Dr. Jerry Falwell, went to be with the Lord today. Yes, the news is true. After 51 years of ministry, Dr. Falwell has completed his course and is at rest. I hope to write more in the next few days, but right now I am just a bit stunned at the news.

My heart hurts, but I am reminded of Isaiah 6 where Isaiah saw the Lord high and exalted on the day that Uzziah died. When people we respect pass away, the only proper response is to look to the One who made all of this possible. May Jesus give you peace and comfort as you need it!

“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on his being with them.” J. Hudson Taylor

Thanks for reading!

Rich or simple?

“Consider that wonderful world of life in which you are placed, and observe that its great rhythms of birth, growth and death—all the things that really matter—are not in your control. That unhurried process will go forward in its stately beauty, little affected by your anxious fuss. Find out, then, where your treasure really is. Discern substance from accident. Don’t confuse your meals with your life, and your clothes with your body. Don’t lose your head over what perishes. Nearly everything does perish: so face the facts, don’t rush after the transient and unreal. Maintain your soul in quiet dependence on God; don’t worry; don’t mistake what you possess for what you are.” Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life.

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jesus, Matthew 6:20-21

Live simply, so that others may simply live.

I don’t remember where I first heard that simple little quote about the simple life, but it stuck with me. Not that I understood it or am even capable of properly appropriating and living it, but it stuck with me.

What does it mean?

Sometimes it makes me think of the rich young ruler in Luke 18. You remember the story. This fellow comes to Jesus and asks the important question—“What should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus gives him a list of the laws—don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t murder, honor your father and mother, etc. The fellow claims that he has done just these things since his youth. Then Jesus starts to meddle.

Yes, Jesus looked into the eyes of the young fellow, looked deep into his heart, and knew just where to hit, just where to wound him.

“Go,” Jesus said, “and sell all of your stuff and give it to the poor. Then come and follow me.”

You know the story—the fellow left crestfallen. His spirit was crushed, his enthusiasm for eternal life was snuffed out, his desire to know the “way” was destroyed.

Right?

Well, not really, he left downhearted because he owned a lot of stuff. Or, more precisely, a lot of stuff owned him.

What can we learn here? Well, maybe we can begin to try to discern what we can do without. What is there in the “stuff” of your life that you just really don’t need? TV? Multiple pairs of shoes? Dozens of shirts and pants? More food than a small village can eat? Extra money in a bank account?

Does it feel like meddling?

When I hear the quote “Live simply so that others may simply live,” I am compelled to ask Jesus to look deeply into my rich heart and see what I can do without.

It is a question that causes fear in my heart even as I type the words. Do I really want to know what Jesus wants me to do with my stuff? What if he answers me like the young fellow in Luke 18? Will I walk away with disappointment?

What would happen to the world if the followers of Christ really loved him and his plans more than all of the stuff they had accumulated? What would happen?

What would happen if we loved the people Jesus asks us to love--the oppressed, the poor, the ones we try to avoid? What kind of world would it be if we gave time and treasure to love those that no one else will love?

Paul reminds us that the stuff of this earth is mundane and temporary, and yet we latch onto it as though it were the stuff of life itself (yes, I’m guilty too!).

But I can’t do without my stuff! Can I?

I think most of us in the good old USA could use a bit of discipline—maybe we should abstain from some of the stuff we think we need just to see if we can get along without it. Go one week without something. See if your mind sharpens and your focus becomes more exact.

It won’t be easy—God knows I have so much stuff to surrender that I’m not sure where to start. The payoff however will be worth it.

The less I’m focused here, the more I’ll be focused on what really matters—on Christ and his eternal plans, on following my Lord in loving the ones he loved and doing the things he did. Paul says that those things are long lasting and never wasting away. I need to pry myself loose from my mundane anchors in this world and get my sights set on something bigger and more amazing than the latest edition of CSI or the newest electronic gadget.

To do that requires rigor, discipline, and desire. Are we up to it?

I hope so! We don’t need any more rich young rulers.

May God give me the grace to cut loose the apron strings of this temporary existence so that I may more securely latch on to his unfailing hand.

Thanks for reading!