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Something Lasting

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:11:00 -0400

Sometimes I look at my kids and feel something wash over me that is both exciting and excruciating. It’s my desire for them to be whole. I see in them such potential for joy and adventure, and I want them to take life by the horns. But I know they have to live in this world with all its imperfections and cruelty. They will be shaped by my imperfection as a father, as a man. And as much as my wife exceeds my acumen as a parent, she is flawed, too. They will know pain and sometimes it will extend into the sleepless turmoil we’ve all endured at one time or another. They will have some amazing relationships. But they will also feel the weight of undue criticism, disloyalty and the constant pressure to live up to _________. I look at my kids and want them to transcend. But it’s not within my power to make that happen.

Here’s my theory: The only way they can transcend is to find a lasting hope beyond the smell of new plastic or the latest ringing of praise for their performance. It won’t be constant in this life, but it will be a haven. I want for them the same thing I want for myself. I want to be deeply satisfied in the Author of my story, despite the fact that my story will not always be sunny. The setting for my story is a world turned in on its selfish self. And I am written in as a flawed character having his own measure of selfishness. A flawed character seeking satisfaction…

sat·is·fac·tion (sts-fkshn) n.

1.a. The fulfillment or gratification of a desire, need, or appetite.

b. Pleasure or contentment derived from such gratification.

c. A source or means of gratification.

2.a. Compensation for injury or loss; reparation.

b. The opportunity to avenge a wrong; vindication.

3. Assurance beyond doubt or question; complete conviction.

——-

When I read the definition(s) of satisfaction, I see layers. The first layer is the gratification of desire, need or appetite in 1a above. When I read this, it feels thin and temporary, in need of repetition. And that sounds a lot like what we mean in our culture when we say “satisfaction.” We want something lasting, but we continually settle for a string of new somethings. In fact, we are taught by each other to view satisfaction this way - the blind leading the blind, the dissatisfied leading the dissatisfied toward one temporary experience after another. We expect our relationships to be forever enticing, but they are not. They are touched by the frailty and fickleness of humanity. I believe more relationships fail because the expectations placed upon them are unfair. In our hearts, we expect eternity. But we want it to be squeezed into the the span of our present lives - sometimes into one relationship or one endeavor. That just doesn’t work.

The second layer is more encouraging. It’s #3 above. I have doubts and questions. They come and go, but don’t saturate my faith or my commitment to the transcendent - to Jesus. Doubt is about me and this world more than God. The world is so dissatisfying, it makes us cynical and contentious, pointing a finger at God or others or circumstances as though we deserve to understand everything and everyone. And by the way, if you doubt God, but not yourself, you’ve got a serious ego. The world and all its imperfections - including people and theirs - is not the best place from which to judge the cosmos or the eternal. This is how I shelf my doubts and quiet my ego as I try to listen above it and the noise of life to something more beautiful. Something lasting. That’s what I want and what I want for my kids. But it’s not a “completely now” thing. It’s a hope. I want them to spend their hope on something worth it. Therein lies their wholeness.

Who knew Monty Python could be so prescient with their satire?...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:53:20 -0400

Who knew Monty Python could be so prescient with their satire? Who knew self-redefinition could become the advancing norm?

Monkeys. at Sturkieville – View on Path.

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:43:01 -0400

Monkeys. at Sturkieville – View on Path.

Seabird egg. God is an artist. with Ashley at Deveaux Island –...

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:58:53 -0400

Seabird egg. God is an artist. with Ashley at Deveaux Island – View on Path.

Farewell, Dallas Willard

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:27:45 -0400

Dallas Willard (September 4, 1935-May 8, 2013) was the first theologian I ever read (see above), and, fittingly, he was also a philosopher (taught at USC). My heart is sad that he is gone and that he suffered through cancer, but his reward is great in heaven. He said many beautiful things and some difficult things. Quite often, they were both. Before him, I had read a good bit of philosophy (Sartre, Kierkegaard, et al) trying to sort things out. But when I truly came to faith in college, Willard helped me understand the bigger tapestry of life into which the tainted heart of man, desperately in need of renovation, is woven. Reading The Divine Conspiracy, I began to question all that I had been wrongly taught about Jesus and Christianity by well-meaning people (it happens), much of which had led me away from the Church years before. The book also helped me understand and develop some of the theological and cultural misgivings I had with Pentecostalism (my background) and to find firmer footing. He taught me about the Kingdom, and not in the triumphalistic buzzword-y way “kingdom” gets thrown around in many church circles. He helped me see Jesus more clearly. And I am thankful. Here are some quotes:

“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.” (Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God)

“We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than the one who believes. You can be almost as stupid as a cabbage, as long as you doubt. The fashion of the age has identified mental sharpness with a pose, not with genuine intellectual method and character.” (Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God)

“Great faith, like great strength in general, is revealed by the ease of its workings. Most of what we think we see as the struggle OF faith is really the struggle to act as IF we had faith when in fact we do not.” (Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God)

“We must understand that God does not “love” us without liking us - through gritted teeth - as “Christian” love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core - which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word “love”.” (The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God)

“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.” (The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship)

“There is no question of doing is purely on our own. But we must act. Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort. And it is well-directed, decisive, and sustained effort that is the key to the keys of the kingdom and to the life of restful power in ministry and life that those keys open to us.” (The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship)

More quotes here

"God is right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives… trying to get messages through our blindness..."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:32:52 -0400

““God is right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives… trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.””

- F. Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is..."

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:36:35 -0400

““Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.””

- Brennan Manning (1934 - 2013), The Ragamuffin Gospel

"I simply argue that the cross should be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:39:29 -0400

““I simply argue that the cross should be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles but on a cross between two thieves; on the town’s garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan they had to write his title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, … at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died. And that is what he died for. And that is what he died about. That is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen ought to be about.””

- George Macleod

Cooperate. Looking forward to teaching this series on the Spirit...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:26:51 -0400

Cooperate. Looking forward to teaching this series on the Spirit beginning 4/21.

Kingdom Work

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:02:04 -0400

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom [of God] is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace
to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.”

- Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador (who was martyred for his outspoken advocacy for the poor)

"The best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:00:09 -0400

“The best thing you bring to leadership is your own transforming self.”

- Ruth Haley Barton

:) – View on Path.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:22:36 -0400

:) – View on Path.

“To the Jews, this was absolute blasphemy: a cursed Messiah on a cursed cross. No wonder the...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:56:20 -0400

“To the Jews, this was absolute blasphemy: a cursed Messiah on a cursed cross. No wonder the cross was such a stumbling block to them! To put it in the most shocking and yet perhaps the most accurate way, the apostolic message was about a God-damned Messiah.”

-Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” Galatians 3:13

"His cross, planted in the middle of the jostling, uncomprehending, mocking world of his day and..."

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:21:34 -0400

“His cross, planted in the middle of the jostling, uncomprehending, mocking world of his day and ours, stands as the symbol of a victory unlike any other. A love unlike any other. A God unlike any other.”

- N.T. Wright

Luther on Preaching

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:20:00 -0400

“The office of preaching is an arduous office, especially when it is like what Paul encountered here in 2 Corinthians. I have often said that, if I could come down with good conscience, I would rather be stretched upon a wheel or carry stones than preach one sermon. For anyone who is in this office will always be plagued; and therefore I have often said that the damned devil and not a good man should be a preacher. But we’re stuck with it now… . But then confidence returns and we say, ‘Let happen what may, we still have our confidence through Christ.’”

- Martin Luther, Works, Volume 51: Sermons I

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:53:00 -0400

Resist Porn. Save lives.

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:47:01 -0400

Or… watch porn, perpetuate sex slavery. There are significant links between the demand for pornography on the internet and the rise of sex trafficking. Here’s a challenging article about human trafficking, which mentions this particular journal, The Protection Project, of John’s Hopkins University about the link between porn and slavery in the modern day. It’s eye-opening. Beyond a desire to remain faithful to God’s sexual ethics and my wife on all fronts, one of the primary deterrents to watching porn is my sensitivity to the plight of so many people in the sex industry who are trapped. Daughters. Sisters. Sons and brothers, too. I don’t want to be complicit in something that does incredible harm and has no justifiable or redeeming qualities. If we can look one degree past our momentary urges and the skin on the screen, we will see how truly ugly porn is.

In the name of free speech and a quick turn-on, pornography makes sex an act meant for physical gratification at the cost of the dignity and, often, the well-being of those involved. Far worse, pornography’s addictive qualities create a gateway for many into the unspeakable - it perpetuates sexual greed that has fueled the highest levels of slavery and prostitution in the history of the world. Run. And advocate against it. Sometimes the best defense is an amazing offense.

“Although the evidence may be slim, we nevertheless know enough to conclude that pornography does present a clear and present danger to American public health” - Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (The Meese Commission, 1986)

Judging by the evidence 27 years later, he was right.

What Does Your Stuff Mean to You?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:54:00 -0400

What Does Your Stuff Mean to You?:

Challenging article from a young, rich guy.

Keller fielding criticisms of the Bible. Great insight.

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:54:12 -0500

Keller fielding criticisms of the Bible. Great insight.

"Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. What people don’t realize is how much..."

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:10:48 -0500

““Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you. What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.””

- Flannery O’Connor