Monthly Archives: August 2023
“Letting Our Death Inform Our Life”
A week ago today, a horrific event took place in our neighborhood. About 200 yards from where we live, a man murdered his wife. Two days later, he confessed to the crime and took his own life when the police came to arrest him. This has, of course, shaken our quiet community to its core.
What could cause a man to make this kind of decision? Who knows? The desire to control other people, anger when we can’t, our own evil hearts—again I ask, who knows?
The Bible is not an optimistic book when it comes to human nature. According to Jeremiah 17:9-10,
“Jer. 17:9 ¶ The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?”
And then, God answers his own question.
“Jer. 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
I think that the thing that unsettles us/me the most is the unwelcome suspicion that we ourselves might be capable of terrible acts of violence. We like to flatter ourselves with lies about how we would never do such a violent thing. Then, we get in our cars, somebody cuts us off on the interstate and a murderous rage hijacks our brain.
Perhaps one thing that might help us to live better is to realize that this might very well be the last day we get to live. A friend of mine pointed this out in an email just this morning by sending me his thoughts about a reading from the American Indian website “White Bison”:
“Reflection on white bison 8/30- ‘My life is run by choices and decisions. Every choice I make today will carry with it the consequences of that choice. Every decision I make today will carry with it the consequences of that decision. The question I will ask myself today is, ‘Do I want to be happy or do I want to be right?’ Which ever one I choose will have a lot to do with the consequences I will experience today. If today was the last day of my life, what choices and what decisions would I make? Oh Great Spirit, guide my path today and help me see the value of choosing the Red Road.”
My friend goes on, “I love that question about if this was the last day of my life. As much as I’m around death, I feel like I haven’t really asked myself that in a long time. The human feeling that “it can’t happen to me” is persistent. How would I want to live though if it was really my last day? Man, I’d cherish it. I’d want to be present and open and loving. I’d just want to love everyone and everything. Serenity, peace, acceptance, sacred awe, joy, connection, humility, tenderness, vulnerability. That’s the good stuff!”
I’d make the decision to stay in the good stuff. I should try that tomorrow. Remind myself that I’m going to die and let that inform how I live my day.”
Yes indeed! That is the good stuff! And the good stuff, along with the realization that it could well be gone before the day is through, may keep us and other people alive and well for another day.
“Burning my Black Robe”
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;” (Luke 6:37 English Standard Version)
I like to think of myself as not being very judgmental. This is true—as long as you see things the same way I do and don’t do anything that irritates me. In other words, I am very judgmental. I don’t like judgmental people. A lot of my self-dislike and self-criticism flow from my tendency to judge.
When it came to judging, Jesus had some very direct words: “Don’t do it!” Leon Morris has some good observations on vs. 37.
“Jesus’ opposition to our judging other people is put in a peremptory command, Judge not. He goes on to the consequence, you will not be judged. A similar injunction to avoid condemning follows and an instruction to forgive. In all this Jesus is not of course rejecting legal processes. He has in mind not law-courts but the all-too-common practice of assuming the right to criticize and condemn one’s neighbours. This, he says, we must not do. It is not quite clear whether you will not be judged refers to the present judgment people pass or the future judgment of God or both. If we are harsh with our judgments on other people we generally find that they return the compliment and we ourselves are widely condemned, whereas if we do not pass judgment on others our neighbours are slow to condemn us. But the words apply also to more permanent consequences. The person who judges others invites the judgment of God upon himself. It is the one with the forgiving attitude who is forgiven. This is not salvation by merit: rather the thought is that the true disciple is not judgmental. When God accepts people God’s grace changes them. A forgiving spirit is evidence that the person has been forgiven.”[1]
So, I am going to make a serious attempt over time, beginning today, to be more aware of when I feel like judging. Then, I’m going to shut my mouth and think about what would happen if God judged me the way I am inclined to judge my fellow-sinner. I’m going to burn my black judge’s robe. It never fit me well anyway.
[1]Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC 3; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 152.
“On Loving My Stomach”
“Eph. 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,” (Ephesians 5:29, English Standard Version)
This morning, I looked in the mirror at my stomach, thought about my need to get in better shape, and said, “Goodbye, stomach!” And then I said, “No! Hello, and I love you, stomach!” I thought of all the work my faithful stomach has done over the decades and felt the need to honor it. Perhaps this was, at least in part, because a friend’s spouse is having terrible digestive track problems.
I thought to myself, “I am not going to get rid of my excess belly fat by being mean to and unappreciative of my stomach. The truth is that I need to honor my stomach and take some of the pressure off it by eating more wisely.”
A shift like that in my thinking is no small change. In fact, it is a quantum leap. When I was a scrawny little kid, I came to hate my body. I was too skinny. Later, I was a bit overweight. Then, I became more than a bit overweight. I don’t remember ever being just right. It must have happened at 2:00 a.m. when I was asleep.
The Apostle Paul, in the verse that leads off this post, says that no one hates his own flesh, but cherishes it. I suppose, in a sense, that’s true. If someone pointed a gun at my head, if I had time to think about it, I would probably cherish my flesh a great deal.
However, at least nowadays, there are a lot of us who struggle with our body image and with body hatred. But hatred does not fuel positive change. Love does.
Admittedly, I am taking Paul’s words about loving our physical bodies completely out of context. The context is that Paul is writing about how wives and husbands should regard and treat one another. He says that a husband and wife become one body. Therefore—and Paul is speaking particularly to the husbands here—husbands should love and cherish their wives as they cherish their own bodies.
Furthermore, Paul can’t help bringing Jesus into the mix by saying, “And, oh by the way, the relationship between a husband a wife is to be a lived-out parable reflecting how Christ loves and cherishes the church.” Nevertheless, as Paul goes on to make clear, he is talking about how husbands should treat their wives.
So, the business of a man cherishing his own body is tertiary to what is going on in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Still, I think there is more than a little truth in the idea that we should honor God with our bodies. Do you want a specific verse where this is the main point? I can provide that, also courtesy of the Apostle Paul!
“1Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
1Cor. 6:20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (ESV)
Now, I am going to have a handful of blueberries before I go out and get some exercise. Okay, stomach? Love you!
“Seeing God’s Face and Fingerprints”
DTEB, “Seeing God’s Face and Fingerprints”
“Today, with God’s constant help, I am seeing God’s face and his fingerprints all over the place, even when I look in the mirror.” (A recent twelve-step affirmation for me.)
The Bible says that we humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), both male and female. This means, among other things, that whenever I look into the face of anyone, I am looking into the face of God. The image of God in them may be defaced, but it is not erased. The same is true for me.
Too often, however, when I look at someone’s face, especially my own face, all I see is a human face. That inability and unwillingness to see God’s face in myself others is the result of my own defacement. I am frequently not simply near-sighted. I’m downright blind. What makes my blindness really tragic is that I am willingly blind.
The affirmation that leads off this post invited me to look at myself, others, and all creation differently. How did I do? It was a mixed bag. However, there were times during the day when I succeeded. When I did, the joy and peace and the gratitude where very nearly unbearable. I can only handle so much time spent with strangers. Joy, peace, and gratitude are not close friends of mine. On the other hand, we are getting better acquainted, and I am beginning to desire a deepening of that relationship.
Too often, whether I’m looking in the mirror, all I see are the weaknesses, the wrong choices, the harms I’ve done to others and to myself. To see my face as a reflection of God’s face is not easy.
Nor is it easy to see face in others. All I see is their weaknesses, their wrong choices, their harmful attitudes and behaviors.
Nevertheless, I do have a choice as to how I look at myself and others. It takes courage and hope to change my way of seeing, and I don’t have a lot of either. But there is a God who offers to give me those gifts. God also promises to nourish courage and hope until they flourish. God is a good gardener. God is a God who gives sight to the blind.
I am always struck by the fact that Genesis chapter 2 follows Genesis chapter 1. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but hang with me.
In Genesis 1, we are told that God made humans in God’s image and told them to rule over creation. And then, in chapter 2, it speaks again of the forming of the humans. It turns out that their rulership is expressed in being gardeners! Doesn’t sound like fun? Think again. God designed and planted the garden. And when God created the man and put the man into the garden and made the woman to be his companion, the command was not simply commanding them not to eat the fruit of one of the trees. That one prohibition wasn’t the first command. Rather, they were commanded to eat the fruit of every tree, except for the one. Unfortunately for them—and for us—they decided that the fruit that was the one exception must be exceptional.
But God still wants us with God in God’s garden. God wanted this so much that God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Then, the Master Gardener went to a cross to take care of all the ways in which we had defaced God’s image. But there is more: the story tells us that the story doesn’t end there. The Gardener was buried in a tomb in a garden, but in a very short while, in three days, the Gardener burst out of the ground, bringing us image-bearers with him. Now, God gives us another wonderful miracle: God calls us into ourselves and out of ourselves to join God in the garden. The garden is all of us, but we are also co-gardeners with God. As we work the soil and pull out the weeds, the image of God in us all becomes clearer and clearer.
“A Good Price”
I was working through a Duolingo Spanish lesson when I came across a Spanish phrase that translated literally into English as “a good price”—as in “She paid a good price for those shoes.” I was supposed to fill in the blank as to whether the pair of shoes was expensive or cheap. I clicked the Spanish word for expensive, “caros”. I was wrong; it should have been “barato”, cheap. I was confused.
We had an expression where I grew up that you may know: “He paid a good price for that.” This meant that he had paid a lot of money for something. It was expensive. You can see how I messed up now, can’t you?
But we also had the expression, “He got it at a good price.” This meant that what he had purchased was cheap, considering its value. So, the words “good price” can be taken in two very different (indeed, opposite) ways. Depending on the context, the very same words can have diametrically opposed meanings.
Being something of a dabbler in languages, I immediately thought of the problem of translation. Being something of a biblical scholar, I thought in particular of the issue of “literal translations” of the Bible. Here is the problem with literal translations: There aren’t any! Someone has said that every translation is an interpretation. For better and worse, this is true. Hebrew and Greek words and phrases can sometimes be translated quite literally into other languages, but very often they can’t. And sometimes, Greek and Hebrew words can be translated in opposite ways. Context may help the translator to decide, but sometimes even context doesn’t help much. When that happens, I suspect that the human author and the Divine Author wanted us to slow down and savor the ambiguity. After all, there is a lot of ambiguity in our real world. Perhaps we should expect it in our Bibles as well.
But then, another thought came to me. I am not only a biblical scholar. I am also a Christ-follower—or, at least—a Christ-stumbler. So I thought about Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. There is a persistent rumor that he died for the sins of the whole world. I believe that this is more than a rumor, but I try not to oversell that as if it were indisputable. It is obviously often disputed.
As a Christ-stumbler, I asked myself a question: In what sense was Jesus’ death for us “a good price”? Does that mean that Jesus’ death was cheap, considering its value? Or does it mean that it was expensive, considering that our freedom cost him carrying all your wrongdoings to the cross and dying for them?
According to at least parts of the Old Testament, we can come to God with nothing at all and find that he will give us what we need. Isaiah makes this explicit.
“Is. 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.” (English Standard Version)
The New Testament agrees.
“Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV)
So, in a very real sense, salvation is really cheap. Perhaps it would be better to say that it is radically affordable.
And yet, in another sense salvation is really expensive. It cost God everything. And this radical “cheapness” plus the costly sacrifice of God in God’s Son means that our salvation is absolutely priceless.
“The Voice Behind You”
“Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” (English Standard Version)
Ancient Judah was in trouble when these words were written. Politically, Assyria was pushing toward the Mediterranean Sea. The Assyrian army was like a raging ocean itself, sweeping away everything in front of it.
And there were religious problems. Some of the Judahites had concluded that, if the Assyrians were so powerful, so were the Assyrian gods. Correspondingly, their God, Yahweh, seemed incredibly small and ineffective. What difference did it make if your God couldn’t protect you against these cosmic Assyrian bullies? Why bother?
The prophet Isaiah does not minimize how bad things are. Alliances and military hardware will not avoid disaster. The people say that they will flee on horses. “Yes, you will,” says Isaiah, “but your pursuers will be even faster than you.” (Isaiah 30:16)
Yet, the prophet also holds out hope for those who wait on the LORD. He will have mercy on them (verse 18) and will answer their prayers (verse 19). He will give them teachers to teach them, teachers that they can actually see. (verse 20). No remote learning here!
But then, the prophet seems to acknowledge that such teachers are not always received well. That seems to me to be the implication of Isaiah’s next statement in verse 21: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”
Wait! I thought that they would be able to see their teachers! Now, they are hearing a voice behind them. What is going on here?!?
I don’t know, but I will tell you what I suspect. I suspect that this is Isaiah’s way of acknowledging a simple and disturbing truth. And what is this truth? It is this: we humans tend to be unable to handle a lot of straightforward, face-to-face encounters with truth or with those who tell us the truth. As someone has said, “Despite the paucity of truth in the world, the supply is still much larger than the demand.”
So, we turn away from Truth and those who teach us. I’ve never met an honest person who didn’t admit to doing precisely that at times.
But there is still good news. God—directly or through our teachers or through our circumstances—still speaks to us. Yes, even when we turn away from him and from Truth, we hear a voice behind is. We still have to choose whether or not to listen, but the Voice is there, speaking to us. Some people call it conscience. I call it God. But no matter what you call it, listen carefully and direct your steps in the direction it indicates.
“Rule 62”
“Don’t take yourself too seriously.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 149)
“Rom. 12:3 ¶ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (English Standard Version)
No, this is not a post about Gibbs’ (NCIS)rule 62: “Always give people space when they get off an elevator.” It is about the Alcoholics Anonymous rule 62, which cautions against taking yourself too seriously.
People in general (and addicts in particular) tend to take ourselves way too seriously. This is a human problem, but for us addicts, the problem is on steroids. Here is the story of rule 62.
“When A.A. was still young, lots of eager groups were forming. In a town we’ll call Middleton, a real crackerjack had started up. The townspeople were as hot as firecrackers about it. Stargazing, the elders dreamed of innovations. They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant A.A. groups could duplicate everywhere. Beginning on the ground floor there would be a club; in the second story they would sober up drunks and hand them currency for their back debts; the third deck would house an educational project—quite noncontroversial, of course. In imagination the gleaming center was to go up several stories more, but three would do for a start. This would all take a lot of money—other people’s money. Believe it or not, wealthy townsfolk bought the idea.
There were, though, a few conservative dissenters among the alcoholics. They wrote the Foundation , A.A.’s headquarters in New York, wanting to know about this sort of streamlining. They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for a charter. These few were disturbed and skeptical.
Of course, there was a promoter in the deal—a super-promoter. By his eloquence he allayed all fears, despite ad-vice from the Foundation that it could issue no charter, and that ventures which mixed an A.A. group with medication and education had come to sticky ends elsewhere. To make things safer, the promoter organized three corporations and became president of them all. Freshly painted, the new center shone. The warmth of it all spread through the town. Soon things began to hum. To insure foolproof, continuous operation, sixty-one rules and regulations were adopted.
But alas, this bright scene was not long in darkening. Confusion replaced serenity. It was found that some drunks yearned for education, but doubted if they were alcoholics. The personality defects of others could be cured maybe with a loan. Some were club-minded, but it was just a question of taking care of the lonely heart. Sometimes the swarming applicants would go for all three floors. Some would start at the top and come through to the bottom, be-coming club members; others started in the club, pitched a binge, were hospitalized, then graduated to education on the third floor. It was a beehive of activity, all right, but unlike a beehive, it was confusion compounded. An A.A. group, as such, simply couldn’t handle this sort of project. All too late that was discovered. Then came the inevitable explosion—something like that day the boiler burst in Wombley’s Clapboard Factory. A chill chokedamp of fear and frustration fell over the group.
When that lifted, a wonderful thing had happened. The head promoter wrote the Foundation office. He said he wished he’d paid some attention to A.A. experience. Then he did something else that was to become an A.A. classic. It all went on a little card about golf-score size.
The cover read:
“Middleton Group #1. Rule #62.”
Once the card was unfolded, a single pungent sentence leaped to the eye:
“Don’t take yourself too *&!# seriously.” (One word has been changed to avoid disturbing the serenity of some folks.)
(Copyright © 1952, 1953, 1981 by The A.A. Grapevine and Alcoholics Anonymous World Service)
Taking myself too seriously is not helpful. It gives me headaches, and I then tend to give headaches to others. The folks who are seriously good at anything almost always have a kind of childlike playfulness about them. I suspect that the best way to be good at anything is to take ourselves with a grain of salt. Some of us need to empty the saltshaker.
“How to Have a Good, Godly Day: Guidance, Focus, and Energy”
“Is. 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is vthe way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” (ESV)
“Prov. 4:25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.” (ESV)
“Is. 40:29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.” (ESV)
In my daily report to my sponsor, today’s affirmation is as follows: “Today, I am depending on God for guidance, focus, and energy for the entire day.” These are three huge issues in my life every day. I am too self-willed to ask for God’s guidance, too impulsive to seek focus, and too lazy to even want to be all that energetic. This is not putting myself down; this is the sober (and unfortunate) truth. I affirm things, not because I practice them, but because I think that they are true and important and worthy of practice.
So far, God seems to be honoring my desire for guidance, focus, and energy today. Guidance, focus, and energy are helpful in all sorts of ways. Here is one simple illustration.
I came upstairs to work at my desk. Among other things, I wanted to work on a post for my website. However, almost immediately, I wanted to play a game of 10-minute chess. Of course, each player has 10 minutes, so a game can take up to 20 minutes. Furthermore, playing one game of chess is like eating one potato chip or one chocolate chip cookie.
I thought about my affirmation and passed the desire to play “just one game” of chess through these three filters of God’s guidance, focus, and energy. Was God guiding me to play chess? Somehow, that didn’t seem to be the case. Was chess something that was worthy of my focus? The question answered itself. Would playing chess be a good use of my energy and/or energize me more? I knew the answer before I had finished asking the question.
So, no chess right now.
Daily affirmations really do help me to live in a more sane and healthy manner. I am so thankful to one of my sponsors who proposed this to me. I recommend it to you as well. However, you have to actually refer to your affirmation during the day and use it wisely. If you’re at all like me, that may not be an easy thing to do.
Of course, one day’s guidance, focus, and energy is not enough. But it is enough for today. Tomorrow I’ll work with the same filters. Who knows? I may just become a very God-guided, properly focused, energetic person after all!
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- “Even a Sliver of Light” April 9, 2024“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:6, English Standard Version) I missed the total eclipse yesterday. There were a number of good reasons for this, but […]
- “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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