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10 Things I Learned from the Old Testament

Posted in Commentaries, Lists on February 3, 2012| 2 Comments »

1.    Seeing is not necessarily believing.  Though many of today’s Christians seem to feel as though the manifestation of miraculous “signs and wonders” would spark a mass revival throughout our land, the book of Exodus would seem to indicate otherwise.  As we read about the Jews leaving Egypt, we see that they were witnesses to many spectacular miracles, yet in spite of seeing the Nile river turn to blood; the angel of death passing over their households (while at the same time touching every Egyptian family); walking through the parted Red Sea; eating manna from heaven; drinking water from the rock and following a pillar of fire at night, they continuously complained to Moses and did not hesitate to form a golden idol when he did not immediately return from the mountain. 

2.    Men have an innate ability to rationalize their wrong behavior.  In one of the first instances the Bible records man speaking to God, we hear Adam rationalize his disobedience by saying, “it was that woman You sent”.  In essence he’s saying that it was not only Eve’s fault that he didn’t do what he was told, but ultimately that it was God’s fault for sending her in the first place.  Sadly, mankind has been rationalizing misguided behavior ever since.

3.    Being used of God isn’t necessarily a sign of your good standing with Him. Throughout the Old Testament we find examples of God using unlikely vehicles to convey His message.  In the book of Isaiah He refers to the brutal Assyrian regime as the rod of His anger, while in 2nd Chronicles it speaks of Him “handing” the people of Israel over to the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar.  In perhaps the most dramatic instance, he uses a donkey to speak to the misguided prophet Balaam.  These things ought to give pause to all who have compromised God’s truth, yet take solace in the fact that He’s still using them to some extent.

4.    Having the gift of wisdom and living wisely are two different things.  The gift of wisdom that God bestowed upon King Solomon is unrivaled in the Old Testament and his resume of accomplishments is also without peer; and yet, it was ultimately his unwise choices (i.e. marrying foreign women & worshipping their gods) that caused him to lose God’s favor (1Kings 11).

5.    There is no formula to the way God works.  Throughout the Old Testament we see God orchestrate victory for His people through many different means.  We see Him bring Joshua victory through Moses upheld arms (Exodus 17); we see the walls of Jericho fall to the shouts of His wandering tribes (Joshua 6); we see Gideon gain victory with broken pots & trumpet blasts (Judges 8); we see the angel of death wipe out 185,000 enemy soldiers in their sleep because of Hezekiah’s prayer (2Kings 18 & 19) and we see the enemy turn on each other, as Jehoshaphat leads a group of unarmed worshippers onto the battlefield (2Chronicles 20).  The only common thread in these victories was that the people were willing to trust and obey the Lord in times of trouble; and that is as close to a formula as we can hope for.

6.    God does send His children to people that He knows will reject them.  I have often heard Christians despair when their outreach efforts are rejected.  Many of them seem to feel as though being “called by God” to a task, is in some measure an assurance of good results.  But one need only read of the Old Testament Prophets to see that God is not hesitant to send His messengers to a people He knows will reject their message.  Of course, the greatest example of this is documented in the New Testament and involves His very own Son.

7.    It is not the quantity or quality of our prayers that causes God to hear them.  The oft quoted 2Chronicles 7 passage (i.e. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray…) is generally applied as a call for “more” prayer; but a closer reading of that passage would seem to indicate otherwise.  This verse actually speaks to the posture of our hearts when we pray (i.e. humble, repentant of our wicked ways, seeking God’s face) and suggests that without that posture, our prayers may be in vain.

8.    Worldly prosperity rarely leads people to God.  Throughout the Old Testament we see the nation of Israel stray from God and His ways during the good times, only to run back to Him during times of oppression.  This speaks to the nature of man and ought to be a warning to us Western Christians, who seem so enamored with the trappings of worldly prosperity.

9.    Taking matters into our own hands will often take them out of God’s hands.  In 1st Samuel (4) there is a story that tells of the nation of Israel’s frustration at losing a battle to their enemies the Philistines and of their decision to deploy the Ark of the Covenant in a subsequent battle.  In a pragmatic way, this decision seems pretty sound, after all they were the “Children of God” and the Ark was a representation of God’s faithfulness to them.  Unfortunately, this story doesn’t include anything that indicates that the Israelites sought God’s guidance in this matter; and that presumption proved costly, when during the ensuing battle, they not only lost 30,000 soldiers, but the Philistines also managed to take the Ark of the Covenant from them.

10.  There is just “one thing” that God is really after.  2Chronicles (16) tells us that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, seeking to strengthen those whose hearts are fully His.  To me, this is the precursor to the great commandment, which also tells us that all God really wants is all of our being.

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Beautiful Truth

Posted in Commentaries, Free Verse / Poetry on January 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

If you come to me

I will try to tell you the truth

But I must warn you

My story is likely to change

 *

You see, the things that I hold as true today

Aren’t necessarily the same as they were a year ago

And if I keep growing and learning

It follows that they will be different a year from now

 *

It is not truth that is changing

It is my understanding of it

It is not my desire for honesty that is growing

It is my capacity for it

 *

As a young man I thought I had a grasp on truth

But now I see that the truth is too big to hold in your hands

The human mind cannot fully wrap itself around truth

In fact, it is truth that wraps itself around our minds

 *

The truth is like a mountain

Too thick to be penetrated

And too heavy to lift

Ultimately, all we can do is journey towards its shrouded summit

 *

It is made of solid rock

And we can choose to build upon it

Or fall upon it

Or have it fall upon us

 *

It is a foolish man who believes that the truth is somehow subject to him

Or moved by his disapproval

Who thinks that he might bend it by his will

Or outrun it in his strength

 *

To some the truth is terrible

And to others it is beautiful

But regardless of our perceptions

Ultimately truth will prevail

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Freedom of Speech

Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, Social / Political on January 9, 2012| 3 Comments »

The book of Proverbs tells us that a kind word turns away wrath; and thus it would seem to follow that an unkind word is bound to invite it.  Though this may seem obvious, it is wisdom that we have apparently forsaken in our culture.  Yesterday, as I sat in the bleachers of my daughter’s sixth grade basketball game, listening to parents heckling the referee’s, I couldn’t help but cringe in anticipation of the explosion that was sure to come.  A few minutes later, when the referee stopped the game and ejected the mom of one of the players, the inevitable storm of accusations and condemnations quickly ensued.  Regardless of the particulars of that ridiculous exchange, the mere exercise itself managed to eclipse the whole reason we had come to the gym in the first place.  Players on both sides stood staring at the crowd, bewildered and embarrassed.  Minutes later, the game was stopped again; this time because the level of player hostility on the court seemed to be escalating to a dangerous level.  Certainly, it shouldn’t be surprising that eleven and twelve year old girls would follow the lead of their parents and it made for a tense and miserable closing period to what had otherwise been a hard fought game of basketball.  On the losing side, one young player valiantly attempted to lift her team’s morale by making a positive comment in the huddle, only to be shouted down by her teammates.  This, of course, managed to leave the team even more miserable and fractured than simply losing the game would have; and I couldn’t help but shake my head at the whole pitiful mess.  There was a lot that the girls could have learned from the game; much of it, things that their coach has been trying to teach them in practice; but I’ve no doubt that the car ride home with their parents convinced them that the only reason they lost that game was because of the “bad referee’s”.

Though some might view this as an isolated incident, I see it more as representative of where we’ve arrived as a culture.  As we’ve transitioned from the idea that we are “One Nation Under God” to the concept that every man is their own island, we’ve lost perspective on anything that stretches beyond our own perceptions.  Collectively, we have become so enamored of our individual points of view, opinions, ideas… that most of us have websites, blogs or Facebook pages, so as to broadcast our invaluable perspectives into cyberspace.  As if that wasn’t enough, we now also have Twitter; so that minute by minute, we can keep everyone abreast of our spontaneous reactions to and insights on, life itself.  Sadly, these mediums rarely produce much that is truly uplifting and more often are used as a way to criticize, condemn and ridicule the things that we don’t understand or agree with.  We often use them to post images that we shouldn’t be sharing or to say things that we shouldn’t be saying.  I myself shudder at the thought of having a Twitter account, as my initial and spontaneous reaction to things is often wrongheaded or at least misinformed.  I’m thankful that many of the thoughts I’ve entertained were never recorded for posterity, much less transmitted to the people I care about.  How foolish and self important would I be to think that people are sitting at home and wondering what my “status” is at any given moment.  I’m not saying that there is “no value” in these things, but I am saying that their potential for destruction is more often realized than their potential for good.  Worst of all, is that our kids have never known it to be any other way.  They’ve grown up in a culture that has largely cast off restraint, with a steady diet of reality TV, where people routinely express every rude, crude and vulgar thought that pops into their head.  They’ve been taught by coaches who tell them that “trash talking” is just a normal part of the game; and they’ve witnessed their parents blatant disrespect, and often ridicule, for any other adult (e.g. teacher, coach, referee, umpire, co-worker, neighbor, traffic cop, politician…) who has the audacity to disagree with their opinion.  Unwittingly we have trained up a whole generation in this way and it is unlikely that they will ever depart from it.  Is it any wonder that teachers are struggling to maintain control in the classroom or that bullying has reached new levels of viciousness or that fans are trying to beat each other to death in the parking lots of sports venues.

There have been many apocalyptic predictions about 2012 and I’m certainly not the kind of person who would attempt to confirm or deny any of them; but the words that the Bible uses to describe the people of the “end times” give me pause.  It says, “There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness, but denying it’s power (2 Tim 3:1-5)”.  As I turn on the television or listen to the radio or look at my computer or attend one of my kid’s ballgames, I can’t help but think that this is becoming a pretty fair description of our national character.  Last night, as I consoled my tearful daughter and told her how proud I was of her for having a good attitude, playing hard and trying to lift up her teammates, I was sickened by the knowledge that next week’s game might not be any different.  After all, unless we are willing to admit that we were wrong yesterday, there won’t be any incentive to do things differently next week.  God help us.

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Diary of an Angry Protester

Posted in Commentaries, Free Verse / Poetry, Social / Political on January 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Here’s my take on some of the recent protests.
*
This is the hour of our discontent
A defining moment for our generation
It is a time to stand and demand our rights
A time to shout from every street corner
*
Where is our piece of the American Pie?
Who will pursue our happiness?
This is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth
Where is the prosperity we were promised?
*
We believe that every generation should do better than the last
And that our kids shouldn’t have to work as hard as we did
We believe that education is the most important thing
And that teachers ought to do a better job of motivating our kids to learn
*
We believe that the government should do more for the people
And that it shouldn’t cost us more in taxes
We believe that corporate America should provide good, high-paying, non-polluting, jobs
And that they need to keep prices low for us working people
*
We believe in:
Global Warming
Instant credit
No down-payment
No interest for one full year
The convenience of a drive-thru
Weight loss, without diet or exercise
Relationships, without commitment
And in “Just Do It”
*
We don’t believe in:
Smokestacks
Standing in line
Waiting our turn
Doing without
Being told “no”
The daily grind
Growing old
Or that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
*
We want:
Free WiFi
Tax breaks
Paid vacations
Cost of living increases
Affordable health care
High yield, no risk, investments
Early retirement
And the rich to share their wealth with us
*
These desperate times have spurred us to action
As angry words fill our blogs
We are creating websites about our adversaries
And camping out in the public squares
*
And if all of this fails to bring about a change
We are willing to go even further
Like initiating an international Twitter campaign
Or maybe even a boycott of Starbucks
*
The revolution has begun!

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The Day After Christmas

Posted in Christmas, Commentaries, Social / Political on December 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, I was afforded the rare opportunity to have the day after Christmas off.  And though I mostly spent the day cleaning up from our holiday festivities and running a few errands, I noticed a few things along the way that struck me as strangely symbolic of the current state of our culture.

 

The first of those observations came as I got out of bed and gazed out my window.  Just the night before, my neighbor’s house had been a glow with all sorts of blinking lights; along with lighted candy canes aside the walk-way, a robustly decorated tree in the front window and multiple inflatable’s in the yard.  Judging from the number of cars that surrounded the house just a night earlier, it would seem that there had been quite a celebration there.  But in the mid morning hours of December 26th, the only shred of evidence that remained was the dead carcass, of the now bare tree, which lay lifelessly along the roadside.  Though I guess that I can admire my neighbor’s efficiency, it struck me as rather sad that we’d be in that great a hurry to usher in the end of the Christmas season; but that’s how things work in today’s high tech society.  We’ve been there, done that and got the colorful holiday tie to prove it.  No reason to linger, after all we’ve got BCS bowls and late night parities coming up next weekend; and heck Valentine’s Day is practically upon us.  We move on in the name of progress, but I can’t help but feel that we’ve somehow missed the point.

 

Later, as I was driving along, I heard the headlines about what a good shopping season that retailers had; and the radio commentator interpreted this to be a sign that people had become generally more “hopeful” for the future.  I couldn’t help but be taken aback at that notion.  Is “hope” really what running up our credit cards at Christmas represents?  I just read an article last week, where economists estimate that household debt in America has now surpassed the national debt and yet, this man suggests that there is hope in the idea of people spending money that they don’t have?  God help us if this is how we’ve come to express our hope.  In truth, the guru’s of our cultural continue to perpetuate the myth of the consumer based economy, which purports that America is going to somehow consume its way back into economic prosperity.  It is an idea that runs right along the same lines as losing weight without changing your unhealthy diet or doing any exercise; it has a certain curb appeal, but it doesn’t really work.  Indeed, I couldn’t help but notice that the stores were packed for after Christmas sales, but I also noted that the lines to return unwanted items were wrapped around the building in some cases.  Unlike the positive sounding voice coming from my car speakers, I interpreted this as a sign of our disillusionment with all the “stuff” that we thought might make the coming year more palatable.  As I watched people, I didn’t see anything that looked like optimism in their faces; and to me, it seemed that maybe they were realizing that they still hadn’t found what they were really looking for.

 

I know that I have a strangely non-linear way of looking at things, but somehow all of these things seemed connected to me.  It has been suggested that most people lead lives of “quiet desperation” and I would suggest that the collective volume of that particular emotion is steadily increasing here in America.  We’ve even taken to the streets this year, to protest the disparity in our collective prosperity.  Though pundits and politicians and philosophers have all promised us that our clearly eroding way of life is going to rebound any day now, there is the nagging sense that they really don’t know any more than we do.  We keep hoping that someone or something is going to come along and fix our unraveling ways of thinking, but no one has emerged.  Christmas presented a fresh opportunity to find something hopeful, but we’ve largely traded in the true message of Christmas (i.e. John 3:16) for a new iPad and a 60” flat screen TV.

 

But now, just one day later, our Christmas trees lay dead on the roadside and we’re taking back all that stuff that we couldn’t afford in the first place.  It’s a shame that our culture holds nothing sacred anymore, because there is no more hopeful message than the one’s the angels delivered upon Christ’s birth.  “Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you, you will find a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”  It is a timeless message that was meant for a people who seemed to have little to hope for.  If ever we needed to embrace the true meaning of Christmas, this was the year.  I know at my house, it’s a message that is still resonating and one that I hope to carry into the new year.

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Sibling Rivalry

Posted in Commentaries, Parenting / Family on December 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday my oldest brother (Tom) had his fiftieth birthday and it caused me to reflect on our relationship over the years.  Tom is only a year older than my brother Kevin and two years older than me; so as with many other things in our lives, Kevin and I will quickly follow his lead toward this significant milepost.  As is typical of oldest siblings, leading is something that comes quite naturally to Tom and I am ashamed to admit that for many years I let that be a point of contention for me.  For most of that time I wasn’t conscious of my role in creating that charged atmosphere, but after having children of my own, I began to gain some clarity on it.

Though I have a step-daughter, who is six years older than my oldest son, her influence on the sibling dynamic was greatly mitigated when she decided to move in with her father at age twelve.  In her absence, my son Patrick has generally played the role of oldest sibling.  Our twins, Andrew and Rebekah, were born before Pat’s first birthday and thus we unwittingly created the perfect storm for sibling rivalry.  As those three are now reaching their teen years, that rivalry can at times become fierce and ugly.  Though the boys have their moments, the most contention seems to exist between Patrick and Rebekah, who happens to be the youngest by 1 minute.  Though Bekah is generally a sweetheart, from a very young age she seems to have resented any input from Patrick, including his attempts to help or protect her.  This baffled me at first, because Patrick has always been very loving and not one to torment his younger siblings; but as I’ve watched, I began to see myself in Bekah’s behavior.

Like Patrick, Tom wasn’t one to torment Kevin or me.  The only thing he seemed to want from us was our respect and as the youngest brother, with a big chip on my shoulder, that was the one thing I refused to give him.  He and Kevin tended to compete on a more level field, which at times got heated; but because I really couldn’t compete with either of them, I simply developed an attitude that they couldn’t tell me what to do.  This wasn’t much of an issue in my relationship with Kevin, because he was naturally quiet and not one to give a lot of input.  But with Tom, this attitude caused me to interpret everything he said as an attempt to control me.

Looking back, I now realize that this was ultimately rooted in my own insecurities.  Tom was a genius, who spoke like a thirty-five year old, when he was in Kindergarten; Kevin was a golden haired, star athlete, who quietly got straight “A”s.  Then there was me, the near-sighted, emotional train wreck, who seemed to find trouble at every turn.  Though I never sensed that this was how my parents or my brothers viewed me, it was absolutely the view I had of myself; and that caused me to take on some misguided quest to prove my significance to them and the world.  Of course, the harder I tried, the more frustrated I became and the worse my attitude got.  Eventually, I did give up on trying to compete with my brothers and for the most part, Tom gave up on trying to say much to me.  Through our mutual love of rock and roll, we even managed to share some pretty good years of friendship through our late teens; but the bitter root of this thing was still in me.  As we moved into adulthood, it sprouted in a new way, as I somehow managed to make Tom out to be the man I didn’t want to become.  I judged him as being too serious, too rigid, too religious… and I promised myself that I’d never be like that.  For more years than I’d like to admit, it was a promise I kept.

When I was eleven, my sister Mary came along, but that didn’t really change the sibling dynamic which was already firmly established between my brothers and I.  Mary eventually grew into the best and the brightest of my parent’s children, but thankfully that happened too late for me to use it as evidence in the case I was unconsciously making against myself.  At nineteen, I joined the Navy and moved away from my family, which seemed to allow me to turn a corner in my mind.  For the first time in my life, I began to find some success and build a little self esteem.  Again, this isn’t because they were holding me down, but because of the way I saw myself in reference to them.  While this period of my life seemed to be better, it was a time when I invested my sense of significance in the wrong things (e.g. achievements, my marriage, what people said about me…).  Unwittingly, I built an emotional house of cards and in my early thirties, that house collapsed.

Once again, feeling as though I was completely lost, I cried out to God for help; and in His mercy, He made Himself real to me.  It took some years, but I slowly began to realize that my significance lies in the fact that I was made in God’s image and that He calls me His own.  Over time He’s shown me that I’m not the warped, damaged piece of goods that I’d always imaged; and that He actually created me differently for a reason.  As only He could, He convinced me that I was not the least among my brothers and that I didn’t have anything to prove to anyone.  Needless to say, it was like having an eight hundred pound weight lifted from my shoulders.

Freed from this oppressive insecurity, I began to see my brother Tom and our history as brothers, in a new light.  For the first time, I realized that Tom and I never really had a problem with each other and that ultimately, the problem had always been mine.  Though he isn’t perfect, he’s never really done anything to be worthy of my scorn or belligerence.  I can’t help but be ashamed of the way I treated him and moreover the way I thought of him throughout those years.  The truth is, you’d be hard pressed to find a finer man than my brother Tom.  He is still madly in love with his high school sweetheart Fawn; he is the father of two wonderful children (Erin and John), who both managed to find amazing spouses (Ben and Melissa); he is the grandfather of four beautiful grandchildren (with a fifth one on the way); a man of faith, whose “yes” means “yes” and whose “no” means “no”; a man who is always willing to serve and always ready to lead.  He is a man of wisdom, compassion, character and integrity; and at 50 years old, he is rich in all the ways that truly matter.  I will die a happy man if my life bears the kind of fruit that his already has.

Ultimately, I wrote this piece to not only confess my sins against my brother, but also to hopefully make others aware of this blindness that comes from sibling rivalry.  It has become somewhat of a punchline in our society to describe our families as “dysfunctional”, but it is no laughing matter.  In these last days before Christmas, there are many who dread the idea of being with their family and even some who will choose not to participate in such gatherings because of it.  It is my prayer that God will help each of us to see past these deceptions and to find the value in the people He’s placed in our lives.  I pray that one day; my own sweet daughter will understand what a precious gift her oldest brother is.  As for me, I am thankful that my eyes were opened before it was too late; and today, I’m glad to celebrate the life of my big brother Tom, who is a truly good man and worthy of such praise.

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A Friend to My Father

Posted in Commentaries, Heart of "The Father", Parenting / Family, tagged , , , , , , on August 5, 2011| 1 Comment »

I was my parent’s problem child, which isn’t to imply that my brothers and sister were perfect.  We all went through our rough periods, but I was the one who consistently struggled, and routinely required a lot of parenting.  To be sure, my low points reached far greater depths than I ever would have imagined, and looking back, it’s a wonder that I wasn’t more permanently damaged by some of my woeful choices.

 

Those struggles were not a byproduct of passive or poor parenting. In fact, my parents were extremely proactive in raising all of us.  I was just the kind of kid who desperately needed an abundance of support, guidance, accountability, and ultimately strong boundaries; all of which my parents readily provided.  I knew what was right and what was expected; unfortunately, I frequently chose to forge an alternative path.

 

If folly is bound up in the heart of a child, I seemed to be born with a double portion to work through.  Because of this, it was essential that one of the earliest revelations of my father was that of an authoritarian.  Though he was loving and caring from the beginning, recognizing him as the ultimate authority was pivotal to my early development.  Had I not been forced to adhere to some external standard, which I recognized as being greater than myself, it is likely that I would have continued to live out of the futility and chaos that has so often reigned within my own heart and mind.  I guess another way to say it is that because my will had to bend to his will, I learned that my will (e.g. what I thought, what I felt, what I wanted…) was never the final word.  Undoubtedly, few lessons in my life have been more valuable than that one.

 

Though I did eventually manage to become a fully functional adult, I also continued to make questionable choices in my life, which I believe kept my father’s paternal guard up.  Though he treated me with the dignity and respect due a fellow adult, to some degree he still had to view me through the lens of his struggling child.  Though I didn’t recognize that at the time, it became evident to me, when some years later, it changed.

 

That change occurred when I was in my early thirties, and the life that I had carefully built crumbled before my eyes.  As I cried out to God, my will finally began to genuinely yield to His, and my life began to dramatically turn.  As those changes took root in me, I noticed that it also changed how my earthly father related to me.  He was more relaxed, less paternal and more like a friend.  A few years later, when he became terminally ill, we had some amazingly frank conversations about God, life, death… where he spoke in an unguarded way; like you would with a trusted confidant.  Though my father passed away shortly after my fortieth birthday, I will always treasure those moments of friendship that we shared in his final years.  Though I was honored to be called his son, it somehow seems even more profound that he might also have considered me his friend.

 

Ultimately, I believe this pattern of relationship reflects what God intends for His children as well.  He says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  If we don’t begin by recognizing Him as the ultimate authority, and greater than ourselves, we never yield our will to His.  Though we may speak of Him highly, and even claim to be His, we live life on our own terms, guided by our own ideas, and going in the way that seems right to us (which the Bible says, “leads to death”).  When Jesus first gathered the disciples, they related to Him as Rabbi (i.e. teacher), which was a position of great authority in Jewish culture.  They called themselves His servants and referred to Him as “Master”.  It wasn’t until the night before His death that Jesus bestowed upon them the title of “friends”.

 

Unfortunately, modern philosophies on parenting favor the idea that parents ought to relate to their children as friends over the more traditional authoritarian approach; but in practice this generally creates dysfunctional family relationships.  Children raised in this manner remain self-centered, compulsive, demanding, and disrespectful.  As in so many other aspects, Western Christianity has mirrored the culture by frequently trying to introduce the heavenly Father as “friend”; but like the earthly counterpart, this does not produce a legitimate or functional family.

 

If we do not first recognize Him as Lord, and come through the cross of Christ, we have no incentive to die to ourselves and to live through Him.  We might call Him good, and look to Him for provision, but we live in our own strength, and by our own sense of righteousness.  Though I do believe that God ultimately wants to be able to relate to His children as friends, I also believe that this is a distinction that we must grow into over the course of time.  As it was with my earthly father, I would be forever humbled to one day be counted a friend to my Father in heaven.


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Runaway Bride

Posted in Commentaries, Free Verse / Poetry on July 13, 2011| 3 Comments »

We say that we believe

Yet struggle in our doubt

 

We declare that we are free

Yet live as though we’re bound

 

We say that You are good

Yet blame You in our pain

 

We claim to be victorious

While stumbling in defeat

 

We say Your joy is our strength

Yet battle with depression

 

We call ourselves Your followers

While adhering to the whims of culture

 

We say that You’re the Comforter

Yet find ourselves beyond consolation

 

We consider ourselves Your army

Despite our inability to deploy the weapons You gave us

 

We say that we love You

Though our passions are invested in temporal things

 

We claim that You are with us

Yet struggle with feelings of abandonment

 

We say that You are truth

Yet also believe that truth is relative

 

We call ourselves Your Bride

Yet prostitute our souls in the marketplace

 

You said that people would know us by our love for each other

And by the fruit of our lives

And sadly

That is exactly how they know us

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10 Thoughts for This Year’s Graduate

Posted in Commentaries, Lists, Parenting / Family on May 16, 2011| 3 Comments »

With our oldest child graduating this year, it’s hard to resist the urge to attempt to dispense some wise counsel for the future.   Of course, at eighteen she’s probably not likely to hear much of what I’ve got to say; so I’ll offer this list for everyone else’s graduates.  Hopefully she’ll room with one of them at college.  [Note:  Because good advice is timeless, this is an only slightly revised version of other lists I’ve written in recent years.]

1.    Life is not a ride, it’s a journey.  A ride is simply being carried along to wherever the vehicle happens to be going, while a journey has an ultimate destination, which requires some navigation and effort to complete.  Unless we purpose in our heart to be someone, or to do something, we are likely to live life like a pinball; propelled by gravity, and bouncing from one obstacle to another.  Anything worthwhile in life will require some investment on our part.   Those who are unwilling to make such an investment will generally be pushed along by the winds of circumstance to some uncertain end.

2.    Misery not only loves company, it wants to settle down and have children too.  I’ve noticed that miserable people not only seek out other miserable people to bond with, but that they’ll often unconsciously sabotage anything that has the potential to pull them from their misery.  There are few emotions that are as debilitating and self-sustaining as self-pity.  Generally the only way to remain free of such feelings is through a dogged determination not to live that way.  As long as we are willing to blame other people, and circumstances, for our condition, we will remain powerless to change it.

3.    What other people believe about you isn’t as important as what you believe about yourself.  Only the things which we genuinely believe have the ability to impact how we live.  Therefore, the only words (positive or negative) that have the power to move us are those which we accept as truth.  If a man concludes that he is a failure, no amount of praise or encouragement can bring him to victory; and if a man concludes that he is an over-comer, no amount of criticism can hold him back.  While we are generally powerless to keep others from speaking about us, we possess the ultimate responsibility for what we are willing to accept as truth.

4.    Planting apple seeds won’t get you an orange tree.  Just as dependable as the law of gravity is the concept that we will reap (i.e. harvest) what we sow (i.e. plant).  Though this phrase is immediately recognizable to most people, there are few who actually live as though it were true.  Our human nature will often cause us to be unforgiving with other people, while expecting generosity in return; to be deceptive about our motivations, while expecting others to deal with us honestly; and to be selfish about our desires, while expecting others to be considerate of us.  We must always remain conscious of the fact that the cup we use to dispense blessing is the cup that we will eventually drink our blessings from.

5.    The path of least resistance is rarely a road worth taking.  Often what causes something to be valuable is that it cannot be easily attained.  It follows then that the most valuable things in life normally require some perseverance to apprehend.  While everyone may sincerely want these kinds of things for their life (e.g. a healthy body, a strong marriage, a successful career…), few are willing to endure the process it takes to secure them.  Unfortunately, we live in a culture that increasingly values convenience above quality, and in which many of our children have grown up with an expectation of the instant gratification of their desires. Many a parent has worked hard to ensure that their kids get a great education, so that these children won’t have to struggle like they did.  But this ignores the fact that it is in the midst of the struggle that we tend to develop our character and work ethic; and that without this development we are generally ill equipped to handle adversity.  I’ve found that you can teach someone with character and work ethic just about anything, but without those qualities, an education becomes of little value.  I’ve also come to believe that giving my children everything that I didn’t have when I grew up will likely handicap them for life.

6.    There are few jobs easier than being a critic and few that are more taxing than being a builder.  I’m ashamed to admit that there have been times in my life when I’ve been like the guy who sits in the back of the classroom, ridiculing the person whose teaching the class.  Playing the role of critic, while someone sincerely tries to have a positive influence on the people around them.  While I might try to rationalize that their efforts were less than perfect, or maybe even in vain, life has taught me how little that criticism helps anyone.  It takes a tremendous amount of effort and patience to bring unity where there has only been division, or to stir a group to battle, when they’ve only known defeat, or to restore a sense of hope to a place of desolation…  The builder must make a concerted effort to create, while the critic can bring destruction with little effort.  As a witness to, and a participant in, both of these processes, I’ve committed myself to spending the rest of my days being engaged in the building up, and not the tearing down.

7.    No person or thing can “make you happy”.  People can support us, love us, inspire us, and even enhance the quality of our life.  But unless we determine within ourselves to find the joy, the beauty and the hope within our given circumstance, we will never be “happy”. The idea that it is someone else’s role to bring happiness into our life places tremendous pressure on our relationships, often causing them to fail (e.g. they just don’t make me happy anymore…).  Similarly, material things do not have the ability to bring satisfaction to our souls.  I’ve noticed that people who can be grateful for what they have today, will generally be that way regardless of what they have.  And that people, who crave something more, will normally continue to crave regardless of what they get.

8.    For everything there is a season and it’s important not to despise the season that you’re in.  If you live long enough you notice that there is a sort of pattern that life follows and that things come and go in seasons.  While we have a natural tendency to like some seasons better than others, I’ve found that every season comes with both challenges and blessings.  If we focus on the challenges of the season we’re in, we’ll often miss the blessings, and spend our time pining away for the season to change.  Conversely, if we focus on the blessings of each season, it makes the challenges easier to endure, and brings a sense of variety to the journey.

9.    It’s hard to be Clint Eastwood if you’re really Mr. Rogers.  As I was growing up my conception of what a man was came largely from my father, who was a big fan of men like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.   Throughout my adolescence there were other icons (e.g. John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever, Sly Stallone – Rambo, Don Johnson – Miami Vice…) who seemed to collectively shape the culture’s conception of manhood, and who I unconsciously graded myself against.  Since I was nothing like these men I assumed that I just wasn’t much of a man, and in subtle ways I let their image affect how I walked, talked, dressed…  But as I got older I began to notice that there weren’t many things less attractive than someone trying to be something that they’re not (e.g. a middle aged woman dressed like teenager; a suburban white kid acting as though he grew up in the ghetto; a man with a bad toupee, acting as though it is his natural hair…).  I eventually came to peace with the understanding that regardless of the fact that I bear little or no resemblance to the trendy cultural images of manhood, the best thing I could do was to be myself.  That catharsis has  allowed me to do things like wear the clothes that I feel comfortable in; to act silly in public, just to make my kids laugh; to say “I love you too honey” when I hang up the phone in front of someone; to cry at sad movies…, all without feeling self conscious.  I highly recommend it.

10.  It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.  Experience teaches us that the road to victory is generally paved with some amount of defeat; and that how we respond to those defeats will generally determine whether or not we ever come to the place of victory.   While victory tends to be the goal of every player, I’ve found that what we remember is how they played the game.  It is not necessarily the player with the highest winning percentage that captures our imagination, it is the player who played unselfishly, or with integrity, or who overcame the biggest odds…  Even for those who taste great victory, it is always in a moment that quickly passes into a lifetime of other moments.  At the moment we pass from this life, it won’t be that moment of glory that matters most; it will be how we lived all the other moments that ultimately defines us.

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And Justice For All

Posted in Commentaries on May 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In the last few years, the question of whether the United States is still (or ever was) a “Christian Nation” has become a popular topic of debate.  Of course how a person perceives that question is likely to depend on how they define the associated terms (e.g. Christian, Christian Nation…) and how they interpret the available data.  The fact that the vast majority of Americans still profess to believe in God (or in some form of higher power) would seem to be a positive data point, though it’s difficult to pin down exactly what that means.  Though many from that group might still identify themselves as “Christian”, statistics would seem to indicate an ever widening gap between their professed beliefs and even the most fundamental tenets of Christian doctrine.  In the absence of a traditional Judeo-Christian pattern of belief, it might be tempting to simply refer to these people as “God-fearing”; though a closer examination of their theology would seem to indicate that may be an even less accurate term.

 

The Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, which only really makes sense in the context of a holy God, who cannot abide with sin.  If a person believes that God is simply love, with a corresponding capacity to turn a blind eye to the inequity of man, there would really be no incentive to fear Him at all.  To be sure, the scripture tells us that God is love; that He is good and faithful and full of grace; yet it also says that He is a holy, righteous and an unwavering judge, who finds all sin to be an abomination.  While our finite minds might struggle to understand how all of those traits function together within the same being, our inability to comprehend does nothing to diminish the reality of who He is.  It is the acknowledgment of God’s inherent requirement of justice that produces a holy fear of Him; and without that acknowledgment, the Christian doctrine makes little or no sense.

With the rise of secular humanism in western culture, our societal philosophy has changed dramatically over the last forty to fifty years.  Statistics indicate that more than three quarters of adults in theU.S.now believe that the truth is relative (i.e. that every man defines truth for him self), which undoubtedly has radicalized our cultural view of God.  If the truth is not absolute, then God really has no basis with which to judge anyone; and without that, we really have no reason to fear Him.  Just as moral relativism allows the individual to decide what they are willing to accept as truth, it also allows them to pick and choose what characteristics of God they are willing to accept.  Culturally, we are willing to believe in a loving God, a God of provision, a God who heals and One who will ultimately take us to “a better place” when we die.  We like the idea of heaven and angels and sometimes we can even handle the image of a baby in a manger; but we absolutely reject the notion of a God who might hold us accountable.  I don’t believe that it is at all a coincidence that the cultural symbol for Christmas has become a jolly fat man who gives us the things we want; and that for Easter, we embrace the image of a cuddly bunny, whose colorful eggs are meant to symbolize new life.  These images retain the elements of God’s character that we’re willing to accept, while expunging those characteristics we don’t want to acknowledge.

While those of us within the traditional church structure might want to think of this as a cultural issue, the evidence strongly indicates that “the church” is veering wildly off course as well.  Statistics indicate that approximately two thirds of the people who identify themselves as “Christian” also adhere to the idea that the truth is relative.  This of course directly contradicts Jesus’ claim that, amongst other things, He is the embodiment of truth.  Just as the culture has expunged what they see as the undesirable characteristics of God, “the church” is slowly eradicating those parts of the Christian doctrine that don’t support their contemporary worldview.  Mainstream Christianity inAmericais rapidly adopting a revised view of God, creation, marriage, human sexuality, sin, money, Satan and hell; all of which directly contradict the foundational teachings of Holy Scripture.  Though many of these new doctrines are draped in spiritual sounding arguments, they are rooted in a hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ.  They encourage covetousness, comfort, and complacency; while ignoring our very real need to die to ourselves and to our inherently selfish compulsions.  They create the illusion that wide is the way to righteousness and that everyone is bound to stumble upon it eventually.  We stick verses like John 15:5 (where Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches) on our refrigerators, because we love the image of being connected to God and having all our needs supplied; but we ignore passages like the very next verse (John 15:6), where Jesus talks about branches that don’t produce fruit being thrown into the fire.  I believe that it is time that we, who claim the name of Jesus Christ, examine the fruit of this post modern brand of Christianity.

To be sure, the good news of the gospel is that God has made a way for us, but He says that way is narrow and that few find it.  While He is a God of love, He is also One that demands justice for all.  If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, I believe that it follows that losing our fear of the Lord is the pinnacle of foolishness.

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