Monthly Archives: February 2020
“Violence Instead of Justice”
“The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,
because they refuse to do what is just.”
(Proverbs 21:7 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,
I was struck by the fact that the violence of the wicked destroys the wicked, rather than their victims. This is not to say that the wicked do not often destroy (or at least harm) the innocent. Rather, it is to say that, ultimately, wicked violence destroys the perpetrator of such wicked violence.
Jesus was driving at something very similar when he said, “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Jesus said this when Peter tried to deal with Jesus’ imminent arrest by drawing his sword. If ever there was a time to draw the sword, surely this was it. But apparently, Jesus didn’t think so.
This should make us a lot more careful about being violent or unjust ourselves. Do we really want to be swept away by our own violence and injustice?
It should also make us reluctant to be too harsh with those who are violent and unfair. I am not suggesting that such violent and unjust people ought not to be confronted and opposed. They most definitely should be! However, we need to set aside our judgmental and superior attitude. The violent and the unjust are ultimately are ultimately destroying themselves, even as they are destroying others. They have to live with themselves 24/7. And who wants to live with a violent and unjust person? We need to remember this, even as we confront and oppose.
“Aging: The Decision to Open Up and Move On”
Erik Erikson identified a number of developmental life stages. I am in the last one: Ego Integrity vs. Despair. And I have times of both integrity and despair.
But I get to choose, on any given day (and many times during the day as well) whether I will go with integrity or despair.
The other day, I had a good text message exchange with a friend. He was telling me that he was rereading The Road Less Traveled, and that, now that he was older, maybe he would be more open to its message.
I replied, “The aging process is, I think, an invitation to either close up and shut down, or it is an invitation to open up and move on. I’m not sure where I read that, or if I made it up, but I do believe that’s true. However, we have to either accept the invitation to open up and move on, or turn it down.”
And this acceptance or rejection of the invitation isn’t a one-off. No! It must be accepted or rejected many times during the day. Sometimes, the invitations are to open up and move on in big ways. Most often, the invitation involves such small things that it is easy to miss the invitation entirely. These invitations do not come on fancy paper, with gilded envelopes, but all these invitations are significant.
How will I respond to these invitations today? How will you respond?
“God’s Hope”
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21, English Standard Version)
Today’s “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Press was based on 1 Corinthians 13:13.
Why is it a problem for God to have hope? It isn’t, IF God doesn’t know the future. This is one of the beliefs of an approach to God called “open theism.” I have some sympathies for that approach, but I still think it is wrong.
In fact, when I asked my wife the question, “Does God hope?” she immediately responded, “How could God hope? He already knows the future.”
However, there are some verses in the Bible that might suggest that God does indeed hope. For example, considering the following verses. I am indebted for these Scriptures (and some very helpful comments) to an excellent online article by the editor of The Baptist Standard. You can read the whole article at https://www.baptiststandard.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-does-god-hope/.
Here are some of the Scriptures that Marv Knox listed, along with some good introductory comments:
“In God, hope abounds
That syllogism—God is love; love hopes; God hopes—seems to be a stretch. But it gets to the clear message of Scripture: God is the source of hope; in God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—hope abounds.
• “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
• “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).
• “… God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:17).
• “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1).”
• “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us …” (Hebrews 6:19-20).
• “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).”
There is not much I can add to Knox’s good comments, except perhaps for this: The Bible clearly portrays hope as a virtue, and as something that God extends to us and requires from us. If God gives hope, the chances are pretty good that God has hope. It is pretty difficult to give anyone something that you don’t have yourself.
“Concerning Short-Cuts and Bright Ideas”
“There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
My affirmation for today is “Today, by God’s grace, I am praying the Serenity Prayer at least ten times, and living the prayer all day.”
To live something out, I first need to live in it for a time. There is no shortcut for living in and with someone or something, before I can live that reality out.
And yet, I’m always looking for shortcuts. For example, . . .
. . . on Friday, my wife wanted to go for a short bike ride, so we did. It was cloudy and windy and (for Tampa) cold. But we bundled up and went out for our “short” ride. Straight down S. Newport to the bay. The wind was worse along the bay, but it was at our backs.
When we turned around, I realized immediately that the wind was going to be a problem. So, I had A BRIGHT IDEA! Why not cut inland a few blocks. We would be sheltered from the wind, at least a bit, by the houses.
At first, my decision felt pretty good. The wind and the traffic noise on Bayshore were substantially diminished. Excellent, I thought to myself! I’ve had a bright idea that really is bright.
But the brightness of the idea soon dimmed. The roads along the bay started in one direction, and then took off in another. Some of them were cul-de-sacs. The GPS on my phone stopped working. Finally, I asked a lady out with a stroller how to get to Newport, in Hyde Park. “Hyde Park is that direction,” she said, pointing the opposite way from the direction we had been going for quite some time.
Well, we started off taking her directions. They were good—up to a point. She had told us to turn left on Morrison, but apparently had forgotten that there was another turn before that. However, my GPS now decided to start working. We had already had a good deal more than “a short bike ride,” and my GPS informed me that we were 3.7 miles away from our destination.
My wife was really kind about all this. I think that she could see that I was beating myself up badly for my stupid brilliant idea. We did make it home, I made her some hot tea and myself some coffee, and (after an hour or two) we got warmed up.
“Do me a favor, sweetheart,” I said. “The next time I have a bright idea, or want to take a shortcut, just shoot me.”
There is an old saying in chess: “If you see a good move, sit on your hands.” In other words, “Don’t be premature, baby!”
Bright ideas and shortcuts very rarely are either bright or short. I have heard it said that a shortcut is a quick way to a place no one in his right mind would want to go. And as for bright ideas, they are usually about as bright as a burned-out light bulb. There is no shortcut to anything worthwhile. If I am to live out the Serenity Prayer, I must first live in the Serenity Prayer for a long time. Otherwise, I will miss the right path as sure as shootin’.
“THE KINDNESS OF CHECKING ON PEOPLE”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . kindness . . . .” (Galatians 5:22)
One really nice form of kindness is checking on people.
A good friend, who is also a faithful reader of these blog posts, had his wife send a text to my wife to ask if I was okay. I hadn’t done a blog for a couple of weeks, and he was worried about me.
The truth is that I am both alright and not alright. To some extent, my web silence has been because I’m enjoying the beautiful city of Tampa, Florida. Also, while it is a lovely city, it seems to take at least 30 minutes to get anywhere, so we’ve doing lots of driving. (The only exception is my twelve-step meeting which is only an eleven-minute bike ride away from where we are staying. Sweet!)
Also, I have been working on a scholarly paper, which I am presenting at a conference in a little less than a month. And then, there is going for long walks/runs with the dog. And, of course, when you stay in any place for more than a few days, there are dishes to do, and clothes to wash. Even in paradise, the trash needs taken out a couple of times a week.
But it was good for my friend to check on me. For one thing, it reminded me to get off my lazy butt—or rather, to get on my diligent butt—and write a blog. The laziness has an explanation, but no excuse. The explanation is, at least in part, that I am mourning the closing of the university where I taught as an adjunct for over eleven years. The truth is that I am also feeling rather sorry for myself. Mourning is okay; self-pity, not so much.
Sometimes, though, a friend just checking on you helps to blow up your excuses and your laziness and your writer’s block. Kindness is quiet dynamite.
My challenge today is two-fold: to be grateful for the quiet dynamite that others place under me, and to place some kindness under others. Maybe this blog post will do that for you. You have to light the match, though!
“A Day of Small Kindnesses”
There are two interesting, seemingly unrelated emphases today. First, there is my personal emphasis. Today, my 12-step affirmation is, “Today, by God’s grace, I am being kind to my own self, and kind to all my other selves as well.” So, I prayed that God would help me to live out this affirmation—“to make it real,” as a good friend likes to say.
Second, today is National Wear Red Day. Did you know that? I didn’t, and I found out rather accidentally. Or was it fortuitous?
I went out for a long walk/run with my little dog. We left before sunrise. We walked (and ran a little) down to the bay, and then along the bay. I was soon seeing signs along the promenade, signs with brief facts and warnings about cardiac risks for women. I thought of my own lovely lady, and wondered how her heart was doing.
Remembering my affirmation about kindness, I decided to look for people to encourage all day long. I encountered a couple of young ladies wearing red shirts and carrying signs. “Thanks for what you are doing,” I said. “It makes me think about my lovely wife of forty-six years. I want her with me for a lot longer.”
They thanked me, seemingly touched by my words. “And you’re wearing a red shirt!” one of them said.
“Strictly accidental,” I confessed. “I wasn’t aware of the emphasis today.” I walked on.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about National Wear Red Day:
“It occurs in America on the first Friday in February each year, where people wear red.
The Heart Truth—is a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Designed to warn women of their #1 health threat, The Heart Truth created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wakeup call to American women.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Wear_Red_Day, accessed 02-07-2020).
When I turned around to head back toward home, I was starting to cross the street. Traffic was heavy and the walk light was a long time coming on. A bevy of red-shirted ladies was waiting to cross the street from the other side. They were carrying many more signs. A gust of wind blew one of the signs out of a young lady’s hands, and onto and across the street. The now sign-less young lady was heard to say, “Oh no!”
The sign flew across the road and sidewalk, lodging against the concrete railing above the bay. Another gust, and it would be in the bay. I ran back and retrieved it before it could go aquatic, and made it back (just in time) to cross the street. I was loudly cheered and thanked by the ladies, way out of proportion to what my small act was worth. (And no, if another wind gust had taken the sign, I would not have jumped into the bay after it.)
A friend of mine—the same one who likes to “make it real”—gave me another wonderful saying today: “It’s the small things where all the change happens.” That is so.
Thanking someone for doing something worthwhile is such a small kindness. So is rescuing a sign from blowing into the bay. But we all need to begin somewhere. I certainly have to start small.
“No Boundaries to This Promised Land!”
“You are my promised land.” (Zach Williams, “Let the Redeemed of the LORD Say So.”)
I was reading one of the most boring sections of the Bible this past Sunday morning before church. When I went to worship at Hyde Park United Methodist Church, the section of the book of Joshua that records the dividing up of the land that God had promised to Israel suddenly became a lot more interesting.
The praise band was leading us in the song “Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So.” I had heard the song several times on K-Love Radio, but had not paid much attention to the words. May God have mercy on my inattentive soul!
“You are my promised land,” the singers sang.
And I immediately thought of Joshua and the dividing of the land. Boundary lines in the promised land were all over the place. But God is infinite—or so the theologians say. And if God has no limits, then there are no boundary lines in God. And if God is our Promised Land? We have no limits either in exploring this promised land.
I have not yet watched the final show of “The Good Place.” However, I’ve read some analyses of the last show, and if I’m understanding things correctly, the show turns on the fact that Heaven is hellaciously boring. That probably is what a lot of people think. Mark Twain has Huck Finn pretty much say that in one of his books.
However, if God is infinite, if God has no boundaries, we can explore God for eternity, and never reach the boring border. There is no border, and no border lines. No borders; no boring!
“Thankful for Regrets”
I have decided to be thankful for regrets. This probably demands some explanation.
I have lots of deep regrets. I regret the ways in which I’ve treated people in the past. I regret things I’ve done. I regret things I have not done. I regret missed opportunities. Sometimes, I regret me.
But my sweetheart and I had a very thought-provoking conversation the other day. I was saying—not for the first time—how much I was weighed down with regrets. She said something that was like a beautiful sunrise after many grey days. “Maybe the regrets are part of your recovery.”
She pointed out that perhaps I needed these regrets to keep me from repeating the mistakes of the past. “You know,” she added, “it’s not necessarily a good thing to feel no regret for the wrongs you’ve done. You wouldn’t want to be a person who has no conscience, would you?”
Now, admittedly, a lot depends upon what I do with my regrets. Do I allow them to dominate me and drive me to despair? That would obviously be a bad use of regrets. However, the bad use of anything, even regret, does not mean that the thing itself is bad.
A good question to ask is this: Are my regrets riding me, or am I riding them?
The story is told of a man who had never ridden a horse. A friend was trying to teach him to ride. His friend saddled his normally very docile horse, but the horse’s owner failed to cinch up the girth strap properly. The horse had held its breath, so the saddle was loose when the man got on it. The saddle slipped sideways, and the normally docile horse became a bucking bronco. (Lest you think this terribly far-fetched, I had a very similar experience with a Shetland pony when I was in the seventh grade.)
The novice rider didn’t know what to do, so he tried to hang on for dear life. But trying to hang on and get back on a horse’s back when the saddle has slipped would not be an easy task for even an experienced rider.
The last straw came when the bucking horse got its hoof stuck in the stirrup. Just before he hit the ground, the horseman was heard to yell, “If you’re gettin’ on, I’m getting’ off!”
If regrets are riding you, let go. But if you are riding your regrets, ride on, sister or brother! Ride on, and thank God for your horse. Just make sure that your saddle is cinched up good and tight.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “The Process in Miracles and the Miracle of Process” March 11, 2024“2 Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids […]
- “The Power of Encouragement—Even for Old People” March 10, 2024“But encourage each other every day while it is ‘today.’ Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you.” (Hebrews 3:13, New Century Version) Yesterday, I was walking at a nearby park. There was a large group of young people some of whom were running while other young people […]
- “Endurance” March 10, 2024“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:36, English Standard Version) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us […]
- “The Limits of Non-Judgmentalism” February 24, 2024“Matt. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. Matt. 7:2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2, English Standard Version) This morning, in my virtual 12-step meeting, we discussed the topic of judgmentalism. There were many wise […]
- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
- “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked” January 1, 2024Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”. What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked! Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck […]
- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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