A Sad Story

Have I told you this story before?

It is a sad story so if you are not in the mood then perhaps you might want to read this later. I truly do not want to spoil your day.

Are you still here?

Well then, here is my sad tale.

Every so often I travel somewhere to do something, usually to speak to others about living like a Christian. This is a subject, by the way, that I am quite good at.

There are times when my wife, Angela, accompanies me. We both like to travel and everyone who knows her likes her a lot. And so, you might think at this point—this doesn’t sound very sad at all—but wait, and prepare yourself to feel deeply regarding my misery.

It happened the first time that we traveled by plane. During any given flight, since I am not behind a steering wheel, I take the time to study or read or write. This is such a personal time for me, and an extremely rare occasion in my life. So this was my continuing expectation even though this time, Angela was with me.

The first sign of trouble was her asking me about what we might do during our ‘layovers’. This occurred right after I had pulled a book out of my travel bag. Yep, you guessed, I had to talk with my wife the entire flight. She asked about the people that we were visiting, what I might be speaking about, with whom we were staying with, what sights we might take in…it just went on and on until she, finally tiring, took a little nap. By that time I was tired too so I slept as well.

The next time we flew I was prepared. As soon as a flight attendant reintroduced to us all how a seat belt worked and then the wheels were in the air, she turned to me for conversation. I countered with a stack of magazines that I had thoughtfully bought for her; her favorites. I figured that she would now be happily occupied while I returned to my own personal time and space. Empathize as I sorrowfully report that instead of delving into Bon Appetit, Architectural Digest, or Garden & Gun on her own—she solicited my comment and opinion for almost every page! I was once again forced into shared life.

 Not long after that trip I was booked again somewhere else and she was once again invited to come along. Being the wise and resourceful person that I am, I took all my previous experiences and formulated the perfect plan. After lift-off I offered her a set of ear buds so she could enjoy the inflight movie. She readily accepted this gift with loving gratitude. But to my chagrin, as she enjoyed the film she constantly poked me with her elbow to signal the appearance on the screen of notable actors or pivotal scenes or points of gorgeous cinematography. As you might imagine this can make concentration on anything of importance highly difficult. When the film ended she asked to rest her head against my shoulder to which I complied. I even surrendered my hand to hers and as she slept leaning against me I realized I had failed again.

So that is my sad tale. Thanks for listening.

But before you leave and because of your kindness in sharing the burden of my personal cross. I’d like to utilize the gift that God has given me to encourage you in your personal walk. So here is the basic gist of what I usually talk about in those places that I travel to.

Romans 12:1-2 is well known to most of us. ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’

But what is not usually understood is its application. The application is purposely set in the rest of the chapter. For instance, the very next verse tells us that one way that we know that we have indeed offered our bodies as living sacrifices is that we don’t take a high view of ourselves—after all, we are all vitally connected to each other. The apostle Paul goes on to stress that the love we show to one another is to be genuine to the point of preferring others above ourselves.

So, look for occasions to do this.

I am sure that we all have tons of opportunities to practice this very basic aspect of our faith.

We just need to open our eyes.       

    

The Greater Context

I know that you don’t feel well. I know that you are lonely, diseased, and poor.

I understand that you have addictions and that you have suffered great loss.

I wish things were different for you but they are not—and they might never change.

So, as I hold you, you hold on.

Hold on and listen, for there is hope.

Listen to me for I love you and what I am about to say is going to sound harsh.

Are you ready?

Your context is too small.

The parameters of your life are narrow. They allow only for your happiness and the happiness of a few others. And if you were honest, the happiness of these few is included only because your own selfish desires cannot be satisfied without it.

Stop! Stop trying to break free from my embrace.

Listen. Your suffering is real but your perspective is making it worse. Pain comes into everyone’s life—and yours has come into mine and compounds the burden that I am already carrying.

That is not a complaint on my part just a fact and that means that everyone around you is also bearing this weight. And the weight will eventually bring everybody down.

We all struggle under the circumstances.

But I am telling you to rise above your problem and the problem, frankly, is you. 

You have resigned your trouble outside the bounds of God’s providence.

You refuse to acknowledge the truth that “all things work together for the good to those who love God” and this is sad because it is such an important promise to all those who inhabit the kingdom.

The kingdom is based on a love that lead to personal sacrifice and that is why I hold you.

Our king gave his life for us and now he calls us to live for him and for one another and so to lose our own lives in these two pursuits.

The kingdom is the greater context, a place where you can only live by giving your life away.

Now, I can see how hard this might be for those who are healthy or popular or have great possessions, in other words, those who have much to lose. I remember something about a camel and the eye of a needle…

But you, my friend, what have you to lose, the desire to have more of what you lack? Would you be healed and then, healthily, give your whole life away?

Would that not place you out of the realm of being poor in spirit?

Is it not easier at this point in life to give it all away?

I implore you, give our king your illness.

Give him your pain, your addiction.

Offer to him the shards of your broken life.

Hunger and thirst for righteousness instead of just relief.

Remember, praying for his kingdom to flourish and to seek the right-ness of that kingdom in our lives puts our needs and desires out of our control.

You haven’t, you are not doing this and that is a problem worse than all the others you have.

Am I wrong to tell you this? If this indeed is the truth, then what kind of friend would I be if I did not tell you?

Leave then your pettiness.

Stop the weary rule of your personal kingdom. It is bankrupt of possibilities.

Rise above by waiting on the Lord.

I, and many others, long to see strength in your weakness.

The world needs to see what the king can do with chaos.

They need to see the beauty that his holiness brings to desert real estate.

And now I am going to let you go. I must.

As your dilemma has become part of my own I must keep my promise to our king.

You are now part of my ‘seeking first’ the greater context of life.

As I approach the altar to die once again to myself, my concern for you must be crucified too.

I will say, “Here Lord are all my concerns, dreams, possessions.

As you know my heart and mind concerning all of these…not my wishes but Thy will be done.”

  

Eight Twenty Eight

Life is not the random mess which it may sometimes appear.

We do not always understand what God is doing, let alone welcome it. Nor are we told that he is at work for our comfort. But we do know that in all things he is working towards our supreme good. And one of the reasons we know this is that we are given many examples of it in scripture. For instance, this was Joseph’s conviction about his brother’s cruelty in selling him into Egypt: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…the saving of many lives. Similarly, Jeremiah wrote in God’s name a letter to the Jews in Babylonian exile after the catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem: “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The same concurrence of Human evil and divine plan had its most conspicuous display in the cross, which Peter attributed both to the wickedness of man and to ‘God’s set purpose and foreknowledge’-- Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death                          

From: John R W Stott, The Message of Romans

Cold Comfort Farm

You know how it is. You personally love a film so naturally you recommend it to someone and they watch it and come away with, let us say, a lesser enthusiasm. So, now that we understand 'how it is'...

This film is one of my family's favorites for so many reasons. 
Great acting, excellent cast, witty dialogue, awesome setting. It is all the better watching it the 2nd, 3rd, and 9th time. 

And since every story tells (in it's own way) THE STORY, well seeing that unfold is always a thrill. 

Epimenides, Bill Withers, and I

For years after becoming a Christian I struggled with justifying my appreciation for art, music, literature and film that was, and still is, considered by some in the church as secular or worldly. Rarely would I ever go so far as to admit that by ‘appreciation’ I really meant, ‘spiritually stimulating’!

For some time now I have come to understand this appreciation as a correspondence to truth. This is what happens when something that a person does, without necessary intentionality, has a particular similarity to biblical truth.

Consider the lyrics to Bill Wither’s Number One Hit, Lean on Me:

Sometimes in our lives 
We all have pain 
We all have sorrow 
But if we are wise 
We know that there's always tomorrow 

Lean on me, when you're not strong 
And I'll be your friend 
I'll help you carry on 
For it won't be long 
'Til I'm gonna need 
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride 
If I have things you need to borrow 
For no one can fill those of your needs 
That you won't let show

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand (Chorus)
We all need somebody to lean on 
I just might have a problem that you'd understand 
We all need somebody to lean on

Now I already have a category for friendship from the Bible which tells me to love my neighbor as myself and that we all are to be our brother’s keeper. That is the sacred, gospel truth. So when I have occasion to hear ‘secular’ music that corresponds with this truth—like Lean On Me—my heart and mind are not pulled into the profane but toward my calling.

Now certainly there are some (perhaps many) disciples who are too immature to appreciate the harmonics between the sacred and secular, and we have to be careful here, but there are also disciples who sincerely believe that certain foods are forbidden—and the Bible says that they are wrong, not right, about that. Some go so far as to say that most anything secular is forbidden to the Christian and yet the apostle Paul outed himself as being conversant with the secular when, speaking to the Greeks at Athens, he quoted two pagan philosophers to make a biblical point. That point, driven home by quoting the pagan philosopher Epimenides to witness of God’s nature and attributes, was far more substantial than Withers singing about human camaraderie. 

Of course the intention of the unbeliever in painting, writing or composing is never to bolster the faith of Christians by corresponding to sacred subjects. But being made in the image of God they sometimes cannot help themselves. And here is where being the spiritual comes into play. We as new creations in Christ should naturally go beyond critique of the secular to harmonic appreciation and application. This is another way in which the Egyptians are plundered…and their gold does have value.

Shouldn’t I convey to my Christian brother that he can ‘lean on me’ and that ‘I’ll help you carry on’? Doesn’t that type of language really only belong to us? Just like the truth that, “in Him we live and move and have our being” was an idea stolen from our treasury and then reclaimed for all time by Paul?

And yes, there is a danger here. We do not want to become worldly.

On the other hand, how worldly was Paul the apostle? His sermons and lectures included quotes and references from secular cultural and yet he was in the world but not of the world.

He wasn’t being careful; he was being spiritual. He was bringing every musical, artistic, philosophic, and literary thought captive so that he could revel and rejoice in it

And that is the difference between spirituality and just wanting to keep your old vinyl.   

Giving Life

Angela & I have received a few gifts of late; coffee, wine, books, cookies, selections from a garden, and a cigar. The cigar I did not share.

Presents always make me feel a little awkward—especially the ones mentioned above for they are Life, they are what the givers enjoy. So when the exchange is made, the gift and then the Thank you…my cup runs over.  

Perhaps the reason that it is better to give than to receive is that the level of emotion that accompanies the reception is not near as weighty to the giver. The giver walks away (certainly happier) but the ones gifted have to stand there and deal with all of that love. And that is not easy.