Posts in Category: down to earth believer
“LET’S US BE THE HEROES”
DTEB, “LET’S US BE THE HEROES”
We all love heroes. Some of us even love superheroes. And probably most of us sometimes fantasize about being heroes or superheroes.
However, perhaps we need to redefine what a hero is. The words of an old Tina Turner song come to mind:
“Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistakes this time
We are the children, the last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change?
Living under the fear, till nothing else remains
We don’t need another hero,
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
Looking for something we can rely on
There’s got to be something better out there.
Mmmm, love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change?
Living under the fear, till nothing else remains.
All the children say,
We don’t need another hero,
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
So what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark.
Will our story shine like a light,
Or end in the dark?
Give it all or nothing!
We don’t need another hero,
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
All the children say,
We don’t need another hero,
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome”
(the lyrics from “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” the theme song from the movie “Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome”)
But there is another way to think about heroism. Perhaps the real heroes are simply those who do their jobs, those who fulfill their roles to the best of their abilities every day.
I am reminded of a newly minted graduate from medical school, who invited my wife and me to his graduation party many years ago. We were making small talk, and I confessed to him that I tried to avoid doctors as much as possible. Like my dad before me, I had a suspicion that people who ran to the doctor for medicine for every little ache or pain ended up not living as long as they might have. “I suppose, in view of our increased longevity, I should be more grateful for doctors than I am,” I said.
He looked very thoughtful and said, “Well, doctors may have played some small part in increased longevity, but you probably should thank the garbage men, more than the doctors.”
“Really?!” I said, furrowing my brow. He didn’t seem to be putting me on.
“Yes, really,” he said. He continued, “One of the main reasons we are living longer is that there aren’t as many of these terrible plagues that used to wipe out whole families. And that is mainly because of better sanitation practices. So, you see, the garbage collectors are the real heroes.”
Ever since then, I’ve had a great respect and appreciation for garbage collectors. Whenever I see them, I thank them.
So, maybe a hero is just a person who does a necessary job as well as they can. Are you working as a mine inspector? Work diligently! You are a hero! Do you recruit nurses? You are a hero! Do you counsel those with emotional and mental problems? You are a hero! Do you teach? You are a hero! Do you take care of an aged, cranky mother? You are a hero! Do you write blogs? You are a hero!
Do you do the dishes and make your bed? You are a hero! Do you drive defensively and courteously? You are a hero! Do you tell the truth, even when it portrays you in a bad light? You are a hero!
Let’s us be heroes today!
“ON FINISHING OTHER PEOPLE’S SENTENCES”
I have a nasty tendency to finish other people’s sentences. My wife pointed that out (very kindly and humbly, I might add) just the other night. We were in the car, and had left our community group meeting. My sweetheart started to say something, and I finished her sentence for her.
She immediately called me on that, but softened the blow a bit by saying, “I know that you get excited about the Scripture, and that’s why you do that.” I’m not sure if she was right about that part. She may have been crediting me with a good motivation that I don’t always have.
I got quiet. At first, the quiet was a defensive quiet. (What can I say that will put her in her place?!?) But then, the quiet deepened into a more reflective quiet. (What if she’s right?) The final stage of my silence was a self-aware and honest quiet. (Of course, she’s right!)
I do, in fact, finish people’s sentences for them. And even if it is because I get excited about the topic of discussion, it is wrong. I was able to acknowledge that fact to my sweetheart before we got home.
The next morning after breakfast, we were sharing our prayer requests for the day, as we do on many days. I said, “Please pray that I will work on not . . .” My wife interrupted and said, “. . . finishing people’s sentences.” For a split second, I thought that she meant to do that, and was just making a very funny quip. After all, I call her “Princess Quirky Humor” sometimes. But the shocked look on her face told me that she had not done this intentionally. No! She had done the very thing that she had spoken to me about the night before, the very thing that I was requesting her to pray for this morning!
We both burst out laughing. It was so funny! I know that God understands the language of our tears and of our anger when we pray. I hope that God also appreciates laughter in prayers. I imagine he does.
It was several minutes before we got ourselves under control. Every time my wife and I tried to look at one another, we began to laugh again. It was a wonderful, sweet moment.
Every sin and stupidity is a reality that transcends gender, race, nationality, I.Q., and every other artificial distinction we make, to pretend that we are better than others. Some of us may be worse or more prone to certain human vices, but we are, nonetheless, human. Vice is an equal-opportunity employer.
That said, my wife is not very prone to interrupt or to finish other people’s sentences. She is a quiet, thoughtful, courteous person.
In fact, as I was thinking about writing this blog post, it occurred to me that I might be at least partially at fault for her finishing my sentence. Here is why:
Have you ever noticed that, if you hang around with someone who gossips, you find yourself gossiping more? If you are spending time with someone who complains a lot, do you complain more than usual? I could ask a lot more questions that obvious answers, but perhaps that’s enough. If you hang around with someone who finishes other people’s sentences for them, you might . . . Well, I’ll let you finish that sentence.
So, at least in part, I may have been responsible for my wife’s interruption.
The Bible, especially the book of Proverbs, points out that we become like those with whom we associate. Influence can be positive or negative.
Positively, consider the following: “The person who spends time with wise people becomes wise himself” (Proverbs 13:20, my paraphrase).
Negatively, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered” (Proverbs 22:24, New International Version).
Influence is a powerful thing. I need to pay attention to how others might be influencing me. I also need to be aware of how I might be influencing others, and make sure that my influence is for the good.
I also need to pay attention to the wise rebukes of those who love me. I can learn a lot by paying attention to the wise counsel of others. I need to pay attention to what my wife says a lot more often than I do. I could actually become a better person.
“DON’T TRY TO CATCH THE GERBIL!”
Melody Beattie tells a wonderful story in her book The Language of Letting Go.
Her son brought home a gerbil to live with them. Sometime later, the gerbil escaped and eluded capture for the next six months. Melody and her son would catch sight of the gerbil, and would scream, “Catch him!” However, the gerbil was still on the lam.
Finally, she decided to give up. If the gerbil wanted to live a reclusive life, let him!
Shortly after deciding to let go of her attempts to catch the critter, he stopped beside her chair one day. She very gently stooped down, scooped up the gerbil, and put him back in his cage.
She concluded, “Detachment works.”
Yes, it does! It works for catching runaway gerbils—when they are ready to be caught.
There are times when I think that I am the gerbil. I am afraid to be caught, not realizing that what I call “being caught” might actually be a better version of freedom than my own furtive hiding and eating crumbs off the floor.
But I want to take this in another direction: Fear is why we run and why we hide. Fear is also why we want desperately to catch and cage certain memories, certain feelings, certain relationships.
Perhaps, in a sense, fear is the gerbil. Maybe we—maybe I—try too hard to track down, corner, and cage our fears. Maybe we should just let them run wild for a while, until we become more accepting our fears, and they become more accepting of us.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said that “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Maybe we don’t even need to fear our fears.
Much of the evil I’ve done in my life, evil to myself, others, and ultimately to God, has been primarily caused by my fears and my desire to control them. I’ve wanted desperately to detach from my fears, when maybe what I have really needed to detach from was my desire to catch and cage my fears.
My new life-motto is “DON’T TRY TO CATCH THE GERBIL!”
“WATCH OUT FOR PRIDE!”
My wife is not a prideful person. As evidence of her humility, she gave me permission to tell you this story about her.
And yet, even she has her struggles. During our prayer time the other day, she was asking for me to pray for her. She had felt left out recently in regard to a certain matter, and was feeling a bit resentful. “I guess I’m struggling with pride,” she said.
After we had prayed, she turned to a devotional that we are working our way through (Bread for Each Day), and read it out loud. It was titled “THE FIRST SIN”). The Scripture reading at the beginning of the one-page meditation was Proverbs16:18. My sweetheart read the first word of this verse, her eyes got very large, and she burst out laughing. The first word was “Pride”!
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, italics theirs).
We laughed together about the appropriateness of this reading. I said to God, “Hey! Lay off! She already admitted her pride!”
It was a good reading. The author pointed out that pride was involved in the sin of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:5). Perhaps there is an element of pride in every sin.
For example, I am frequently guilty of radical frustration. “Why haven’t I read all the books ever written about the Old Testament?” I ask myself. Sometimes, frustration boils over, and scalds me and everyone around me with resentment, envy, and self-loathing.
But why on earth do I think that I can or should have read everything written about the Old Testament? The failure—or refusal—to recognize my own limitations is the essence of pride.
I’m not convinced that any of us can ever be entirely humble. If we were, we would probably become proud of the fact that we were entirely humble. We are like dogs chasing our own tails. Seeking to be completely humble is the most subtle and most serious version of pride.
But, at least, we can be aware. We can be aware of how many events in life (and mostly our feelings about those events) trigger our pride. Perhaps such awareness is as close as we can ever come to humility on this side of Heaven.
DTEB, “SITTIN’ AROUND, WAITIN’ FOR SOMETHING GOOD TO HAPPEN”
Don’t!
Sit around and wait for something good to happen, that is. Make it happen!
We all want good things, but I’ve noticed something about myself: I don’t want to actually have to do anything for those good things to come to me. I want to be zapped with goodness.
This may or may not be a common human reality. You decide. But I am beginning to suspect that there is no goodness zapper.
The problem with knowing even a little bit about biblical languages is that you sometimes discover more than you wanted to discover. For example . . .
I receive a verse of the day from the You Version folks on my smart phone. Today’s verse was Psalm 37:4:
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your hearts’ desires.”
So, I decided to take a look at the Hebrew, just for giggles. I ended up not giggling.
The Hebrew verb that is used for “take delight” is a Hebrew form (stem is the technical term) that refers to “something you do to yourself.” Think, in terms of “I hit myself with a hammer.” The first three words of that sentence could be said in one word in Hebrew. So, the first part of this verse is saying, “Delight yourself in the Lord.”
So what? So this!
What this verse is saying is that God is not going to delight us. No! Instead, we are responsible for delighting ourselves in God.
This is, at first blush, unspeakably dismal. Do you mean to tell me that God isn’t going to just drop delight on me from the Heavens? Do you mean that I have to be active in my following of Jesus. I’m afraid that I only want to follow Jesus, if I’m allowed to ride in a comfy limousine. However, the last time I read the gospels, I noticed that the only time Jesus is recorded as riding anything, it was a donkey. And he was riding it triumphantly (??) into Jerusalem in order to be crucified.
Here is the bottom line: The Christian faith is not for sissies of either sex. Delight there is. But it is a delight that I must pursue myself.
And then, I came to another equally dismal insight. What if God granting the desires of my heart doesn’t mean what I want it to mean? What if it means that God will give me proper, healthy desires in my heart? Andy Stanley says that our problem is that we want what we want, and we want it right now! What if God gives me wants and desires that I don’t want or desire?
So, perhaps I have looked at this verse completely wrongly. Perhaps it is cold comfort or no comfort at all. Perhaps it is a most unwelcome truth.
But Truth doesn’t come to us to comfort us. Truth comes to us to wake us up.
And yet, I do feel strangely comforted by this Truth. There’s something I can actually do to know God better. If God’s Word says that I must delight myself in God, then there must be a way that I can. I just need to figure that out. And, by God’s grace, I will!
And as for the desires of my heart, I’ve often actually gotten what I wanted, only to find out that it left me feeling hollow inside, less alive, a billion light years away from God, from other people, even from the man I wanted to be.
Maybe it’s time for me to do it God’s way.
“BEYOND NEGATIVE GOODNESS”
16 “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
Is. 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 1:16-20)
I wonder sometimes if I don’t have a merely negative goodness. There are times when I am so focused on not doing certain things that I have a difficult time doing anything good. And if I avoid the negative, harmful, evil things (as I do upon occasion), I pat myself on the back as if I had accomplished something. I am like a home builder who has merely done the dirt work, but hasn’t even poured the footer for the building.
And that is perhaps a pretty good metaphor for a merely negative goodness. Avoiding evil is like the dirt work that needs to be done before a building goes up. The ground needs to be cleared of trees and stones. A footer is dug, so that the building will rest on bedrock. Yes, it is all so time-consuming, but also essential.
Isaiah challenges Judah to do the necessary work of clearing the ground of their evil behavior.
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight,
Cease to do evil.” (Isaiah 1:16)
But Isaiah doesn’t stop there. Vers 17 is overflowing with verbs, positive things that Judah needs to do.
“Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless;
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.”
Apparently, Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, says to ancient Judah that they are to learn to do what is good. Goodness is apparently not an innately human trait. But it can be learned.
And what is goodness? Apparently, it isn’t looking out after themselves. They had apparently been doing pretty well at that. Rather, learning to do good was a matter of seeking justice for the most vulnerable—orphans and widows.
Of course, it is easy to recognize the mess-ups of ancient Judah. However, for those of us who believe that the Bible is the Word of God for all time, all places, and all people, things get very personal and very ugly very fast. The word of God shines a spotlight on our own individual selves and our own society.
Do we cease to do evil and learn to do good? Do I? Do we seek justice, not for ourselves, but for the most vulnerable in our society? Do I?
I can’t be content with a merely negative goodness. The dirty dirt work is essential, but not sufficient. I need to move on to positive. So do we all.
May God forgive us for merely negative goodness. And may God teach us to do what is right. Today would be a great day to begin.
“The God Who Knows Me”
I want to know God, but I don’t really. At least, I don’t know God very well.
I suppose that this is only to be expected. After all, God is infinite and I have lots of limits. God is holy, I am not. God is all-knowing. I don’t know much about much, and it is quite likely that much of what I know for sure is just plain wrong. The list goes on and on, but I won’t.
In Galatians 4:9, the Apostle Paul says that the believers know God, but then immediately adds that it would be better to say that they are known by God.
Alan Cole, in the Tyndale Commentary on the book of Galatians, comments on 4:9,
In the Bible to know has a far deeper meaning than the superficial concept of intellectual knowledge alone. That is why it can be used of the relation of God and humanity, and also of the peculiarly intimate relation of husband and wife. But it is typical of Paul’s strong theological position that he is reluctant to speak of humans ‘knowing’ God; at once, he corrects it to the passive to be known by God. This transfers salvation altogether out of the possibly subjective and possibly illusory into the great objective reality of the will of God.
We all long to be completely known. We are also deathly afraid of it. If anyone knew us completely, knew all our fears, selfishnesses, lusts, and hang-ups, would they love us? Love us?!? Would they even be able to stay in the same room with us, or would they run for the exit?
But the same Bible that tells us that God knows us completely also tells us that God loves us totally. How on earth can that be!
I don’t know, but I do believe it to be true.
What I am trying to say here has been much better said and sung by Tauren Wells. Here are the lyrics to a wonderful song that he wrote titled “Known”:
“It’s so unusual it’s frightening
You see right through the mess inside me
And you call me out to pull me in
You tell me I can start again
And I don’t need to keep on hiding
I’m fully known and loved by You
You won’t let go no matter what I do
And it’s not one or the other
It’s hard truth and ridiculous grace
To be known fully known and loved by You
I’m fully known and loved by You
It’s so like You to keep pursuing
It’s so like me to go astray
But You guard my heart with Your truth
A kind of love that’s bullet proof
And I surrender to Your kindness
I’m fully known and loved by You
You won’t let go no matter what I do
And it’s not one or the other
It’s hard truth and ridiculous grace
To be known fully known and loved by You
I’m fully known and loved by You
How real, how wide
How rich, how high is Your heart
I cannot find the reasons why
You give me so much
How real, how wide
How rich, how high is Your heart
I cannot find the reasons why
You give me so much
I’m fully known and loved by You
You won’t let go no matter what I do
And it’s not one or the other
It’s hard truth and ridiculous grace
To be known fully known and loved by You
I’m fully known and loved by You
It’s so unusual it’s frightening
I’m fully known and loved by You”
“ON NOT WANTING TO KEEP STRICT RECORDS”
I hate math! I don’t like numbers. I never have. But sometimes, it is a good idea to make your hatred work for you.
So, true confession time: I have a runaway mind. I tend to think inappropriate thoughts—lust, self-pity, judgmental thoughts, worry, regrets, you name it. And once I start down that rabbit hole, I am like Alice. I keep falling.
So, I’ve tried an experiment today. I am trying to keep a strict record of all my inappropriate thoughts. I haven’t had a lot of them.
Why? I think because I hate quantification so much. You might say that I have a case of “quantiphobia.” (I thought that I was the first to identify this sort of irrational fear. However, my illusion of creativity was punctured almost immediately by googling “the fear of numbers.” Numerophobia and arithmophobia are fairly common. Oh well!)
So, here is how I’ve been handling inappropriate thoughts today. I have been trying to quantify them. Trying to keep a strict account of my unhealthy thoughts is so intimidating that it is easier simply not to have them.
In a sense, this might be a variation on the tenth step of twelve-step groups: “Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.” Sometimes, just being aware of my tendency to go wrong is a helpful thing. Admissions of truth to oneself are never easy. It is much easier to inflict truth on other people.
Furthermore, I have such an easily distracted mind, and such a contrarian mind, that trying to focus on any unhealthy thoughts for more than a second or two leaves me desiring to distract myself with healthy thoughts. And I am so contrary that if I decide to concentrate on unhealthy thoughts, my mind is prone to rebel, and go to healthy thoughts. (The same is true for me concerning healthy thoughts. If I set out to think only healthy thoughts, I know it’s going to be a long and frustrating day.)
Now, I realize that this is exceedingly strange. I don’t think that this approach would work for most people. I don’t know if it will work for me over the long haul. However, I’m going to try to make it a habitual discipline, and see if it will work. One thing is for sure: It has helped me today!
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- God’s Specific Likes about Us April 25, 2025God pulled off a surprise love attack on me this morning. God lured me into the trap in a quite trivial way. I thought I would start my day, not by grading students’ assignments, but by reading and meditating on some Scripture. By the way, I am not saying that reading Scripture is trivial. The […]
- “Strange and Wonderful Creatures” March 28, 2025I did not sleep enough last night. Five hours of sleep may be enough for some, but not for me. However, when I tried for a while to go back to sleep after waking up at 1:00 a.m., I realized that it was not going to happen. I might as well get up and work […]
- “Even Computers Need a Rest Sometimes!” February 11, 2025Jumpy cursor! I was trying to grade student assignments, and my cursor was jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean. I would start typing something, and then I would be on a different line. Here is the sort of non-sentences I was ending up with: be Please see my respolownse video. Of course, what I […]
- “Lives as Well as Lips” February 5, 2025“Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, or declare all his praise? Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!” (Psalm 106:1-3, English Standard Version) […]
- DTEB, “The Wanna-Wanna Method” January 29, 2025“. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12b-13, English Standard Version) In a text exchange with a friend, he confessed that he really, really wants to make some bad […]
- “Fun, Cat Videos, and Transformation” December 9, 2024“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, English Standard Version) One of my twelve-step sponsors suggested that I need more fun in my life. He knows me well, but on this one, I was determined to prove him wrong. […]
- “The Enemy is Perfectionism” December 6, 2024“The good is the enemy of the best.” (A common saying.) “The best is the enemy of doing anything at all that is good.” (My take on the saying and my reality.) Some of you have been wondering why I haven’t been posting any of my musings in the past way-too-long. I am tempted to […]
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
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