Summer, so far

So it's been a rainy summer so far, but productive in its way. I landscaped an embankment at the back of our property (hoping that the shrubbery will soon grow tall enough to block the view of our neighbor's giant pile of lobster trap buoys and spare tires). Laurie's calling it Bob's Bonnie Bank. I've also been getting into bread-baking every Saturday, which has been fun and satisfying.

A good friend of mine whom I haven't seen in a year came to town last week and it was a very large blessing to me to get a dose of his spirit. We talked a lot about church, of course. He now attends a mega-church in Colorado, but nobody is less mega-churchy than Tom. I would consider him one of the most authentically evangelical (tr. "good newsy") Christians I've ever known. Just being around him gave me a boost.

When it comes to church, I've been planning to look around a little this summer, but haven't gotten started on that yet. The whole project is rife with difficulties. The idea of "church shopping" is repugnant to me. Still, there's an Acts 29 church around here I'd like to drop in on at least once. And blogger Josh Otte's church, though it's a little too far from home for me to consider as my home church, is definitely on my summer agenda.

There was a time when I looked forward to Sunday morning all week. Now, I just long for a few close friends for whom the mission of God is of foremost importance.

[On this score, read Darryl Dash's sort of related musings -- Save Me from My Subculture -- and don't miss the first comment at the bottom.]

Going on a brief trip to Pennsylvania tomorrow to see my peeps. Don't know if I'll be in blogging range or not. Everybody have a really great Independence Day!

Old Time is not a crime!

So I was sitting around with some guys on the deck and one of them asked me what I'd done the night before and I said watched a movie and he said oh what movie and I said it was a documentary about the life of Pete Seeger and I really enjoyed it and he looked kind of puzzled and said, wasn't he in Easy Rider?

And I thought to myself, what strange world have I wandered into, and how do I get back to the one I came from?

A valuable story

A great story from my co-blogger John Mahshie. The mercy of God is the motivation of his wonders.

Ray Ortlund's letter to his family

In 2000, shortly before his death, Dr.Ray Ortlund wrote a brief letter to his family. He placed it in his desk, knowing that it would not be found and read till after he was gone. You can read the letter here.

I'll say nothing more. It speaks for itself.

[HT: Joshua Harris]

Mount Jesus Update

I just added my latest contribution to the conversation over at Mount Jesus. That's where I and two other guys chatter about the "sermon on the mount" together. The two other guys are

John (he's the one looking down, not the one looking up):



and Nate (he still won't clean his plate!):



We're just three guys intrigued by Jesus and trying to hear Jesus on "the Mount" for the first time all over again.

Please feel free to join the conversation!

The Lord taketh?

"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away." It was Job who said that, I think. Dude was having a hard go of it, what with all his kids dying and all. And he says, The Lord did this!

No attitude can be farther from modern evangelicalism in America than this. We're all about the Lord giveth, but it is not possible, apparently for the Lord to taketh away, at least he wouldn't do that to good, praying Christians.

We just don't go there. It seems to indicate a lack of faith.

That the Lord takes away is a very hard lesson. We want to say that it is the devil who takes away. We live and pray as if the verse said, The Lord giveth, and the devil taketh away (that is if we don't pray enough, obey enough, go to church enough, etc.).

Just listen to the way we pray for people who have life-threatening conditions. The language we use often reveals that we believe that there is a battle between God and the devil for the life of the person in question. The devil brought the life-threatening condition, but we're praying for God to win the battle and restore health to the person. Moreover, we're to believe God will do this, because that's what faith is all about, right? Believing God will do the good thing that we desire.

It's as if we see ourselves as under God's umbrella, which protects us from the rain of hard things. But if illness and death are threatening, that must mean that for some mysterious reason (owing no doubt to the devil) the umbrella wasn't protecting us.

Of course all this sets us up for a major faith crisis when a loved one dies. Instead of God taketh away we cry, How could God let this happen!

I am not, by the way, arguing for stoicism. Job was no stoic. But I'm wondering aloud how the truth that it is God who takes life away (as well as gives life) should affect how we think and pray and live.

In Genesis 3 God actually ordains hardship and mortality for Adam and Eve and their descendants. Which means us. Jesus didn't rescind that order for believers, but his mission and ministry, his life and death and resurrection, taken together, shows us the ultimate context of suffering and death in this world. We see death in a new light. The context is not a battle between the devil and God in which sometimes God wins (and we live) and sometimes the devil (and we die). We need to see our own sorrow, pain, hardship, and even our dying in the context of the God's unfolding redemptive plan, which by the way defeated death as an enemy (for those who "look to Jesus") back about 2000 years ago, on a hill called Calvary.

Bob's One Big Awesomely Important Tip on Reading

Bruce Ashford has been posting on the subject of reading (one of my favorite topics). In part 3 of the series he offers tips on getting the most from your reading. He has much good advice here, something like Bookishness 101, including this, always carry a book. But of course you'll only do this if you've got a good book to carry, something you really can't wait to get back to. Something that makes you feel that everything else in life is an annoying diversion from the "real world" of the book. That's the book you're going to carry with you. But what if you've never enjoyed reading so much that you found it difficult to put the book down?

I know an awful lot of adults who have trouble reading. [BTW, what the heck happened to our schools that there were no teachers who could effectively convey the sheer joy and exhilaration of a good book?] Many of my friends who have trouble reading seem to think they really should read, they'd like to read, but they just can't seem to focus for very long. In short, they speak of reading the same way they speak of dieting. It's something they know they should do, and they know it's good for them, but the just don't seem to have the discipline. They admit this with shame and promises to try harder in the future.

Can I say, sheesh! Christians are not supposed to be fatalistic. We like to repeat after Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." [Phil 4:13] Except grow and learn when it comes to reading, apparently.

My mother instilled in me the joy of reading when I was a child. She made sure we visited the local library often, and she let us linger there as long as wanted. The point is, long before I knew that reading was good for me, reading was giving me pleasure. And that, my friend, is the key.

Now, most Christians I know who have trouble reading feel a little guilty about that. They first started feeling guilty about it in the early grades, when the other kids snickered and the teacher grew impatient as they stumbled through a reading exercise. That guilt might have been compounded when they became Christians, because all of the major Christian gurus write all those "life-changing" books, and here they are with their unchanged lives, unable to read past page 5. The thing is, reading is completely off their real-life grid (although it certainly is on their fantasy Christian life grid). What to do?

Here's my advice. Reading is never going to make it to the top of your to-do list if it's merely a chore, a good-for-me duty, like brushing teeth or watching PBS. What makes a kid love reading is the sheer joy of it, and what's going to make an adult love reading is for him or her to discover that joy also. You might say, it's time to start thinking like a kid again!

Now, admittedly, it's harder for adults to discover joy than it is for kids. We're jaded. We think in terms of future pay-off, kids think in terms of present experience. So this is going to to take a little shift in thinking for some. The question you need to ask is, what kind of book is going to give me joy?

I mean, really. Don't be embarrassed, answer honestly. Is it a comic book? Go ahead, get into it. Is it a children's book with big colorful pictures? Is adventure your cup of tea? Or do you just long for a good laugh now and then? I guarantee you, there's a book for you out there. No, a bunch of books. If you would really like to become a better reader, start here: Dude, read for pleasure!

Now, I've tried this advice on a few Christian friends, and I gotta tellya, nobody believes me! It's hard to crack through the Christian-legalism when it comes to reading. As good Christian types, doing something for pleasure sounds vaguely sinful. Instead, they they think they should read something useful (because we're all utilitarians at heart), or something "life-changing" (blech!), or perhaps that one book that the Christian consumer culture is buzzing about this month (also blech!), or maybe something the pastor recommended (that's a common one), and on top of all this, something quick and easy. The thing is, none of these books are likely to give you joy. None of them are going to capture your imagination, and therefore cause you to forget everything else and simply be enthralled!

I'm serious. Read for pleasure. Read for joy. Read to be enthralled.

One last point. You may not have ever stopped to think about this, but all your favorite movies are stories. That's what they are. Stories. Story-telling is perhaps the art form that undergirds all other art forms, it is a built-in inclination of all humanity. So if by now you're wondering what kind of book might give you pleasure (and I hope you are), my answer is, it's probably some kind of cracking good yarn, that's what kind. And by the way, your local library is full of these, for every reading level.

Look, I know I've had certain advantages. Namely, a mother and big brother who enjoyed reading and set the example for me. They instilled in me the love of reading and talked about it with me as I grew up. That kind of thing is huge. If you didn't have that, I'm sorry. The next best thing might be a friend who also enjoys reading, with whom you can sit down over a coffee (or a beer, a schnapps, or whatever) and recount the latest chapters in the book you've been reading. In other words, tell the story back to someone. I mean it. Look for a friend who likes to read too, and share your stories with one another. Try it. I promise you, you are going to love doing that.

Bottom line: go find yourself some reading joy!

[Update: Check out Why Should Christ-Followers Read Fiction? Lotta good points.]

"An overwhelming commandment"

This little firecracker in the woodshed of a quote comes from John Piper's What Jesus Demands of the World:

The second commandment seems to me to be an overwhelming commandment. It seems to demand that I tear the skin off my body and wrap it around another person so that I feel that I am that other person; and all the longings that I have for my safety and health and success and happiness I now feel for that other person as though he were me. It is an absolutely staggering commandment. If this is what it means, then something unbelievably powerful and earthshaking and reconstructing and overturning and upending will have to happen in our souls. Something supernatural. Something well beyond what self-preserving, self-enhancing, self-exalting, self-esteeming, self-advancing, fallen human beings like me can do on their own.

Reading List

Here are a few books I've recently heard about that I'd like to read soon.

The Mission of God

Seeing with New Eyes

Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower

"Christ in you" and the Beatitudes

John's latest post at Mount Jesus is really good. Concerning the "blessed are" statements of Jesus known as the beatitudes, John puts the focus squarely on union with Christ. The post is called, "With Man It Is Impossible."

That's the place to start, isn't it, when thinking about these beatitudes. It will keep you from thinking, Okay, I want to inherit the earth, so I've got to be meek. Let's see, now how do I do that? Maybe there's a book I could read? A seminar I can attend? The meekness driven life!

With man it is impossible! Yes, which means, of course, that with me it is impossible. But like John I've got this rich young ruler attitude (makes no difference that I'm neither rich, nor young, nor a ruler!). I keep asking, What must I do to . . . get the blessing?

Of course there are examples of all these "beatitudinal" conditions Jesus speaks of throughout the Scriptures. Poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, etc. We see these in all the OT "types of Christ," like Abraham, Joseph, David, etc. Then we see them in fullness in Jesus himself. It's a good exercise to go through the Gospels and write down every example you can find. When you do that, you begin to see it is Jesus himself who fulfills these conditions and receives these blessings first!

Me, I am by no means meek. And I have to admit, those who mourn make me want to run away and hide. I seldom really "weep with those who weep." Mercy? Real mercy draws you into the pain and need of others and requires sacrifice. That's not my natural inclination, sorry.

I think John is right. With man all this is impossible. And I think I begin to understand, maybe for the first time, why Paul made it his goal to "share" the suffering of Christ [Phil 3:7-10] To share in Christ's suffering, maybe, is to share his heart for those who suffer. To enter into the brokenness of the other in order to share its burden. It is to accept the burden of the other, on behalf of the other, and for the higher purpose of God's ultimate plan and mission. That's how and why Christ suffered. Christ, the one who said, "follow me."

Take mercy, for example. True mercy always involves us in some form of personal sacrifice, the setting aside of our own preferences and aversions in order to truly care for another. When you take a good long look at Jesus, you will behold a life that perfectly illustrates this point. Maybe to share in the suffering of Christ, then, is to to share his heart for the suffering of others and to respond in a way that "pays the price." Paul had not yet achieved such a sharing. No, not even Paul! But his dream was to continue to grow toward Christ's kind of extreme mercy, his meekness in the face of antagonism, his broken-heartedness over sin and its ravages, all of which involved a suffering in some way.

Why? Paul says it's so that he, Paul, might achieve the resurrection from the dead (v.11). But as elsewhere he makes abundantly clear, it is Christ living in him (and in you and me) which gives any and all hope of such a resurrection ("Christ in you, the hope of glory"). Or any hope, we might also say--getting back to the beatitudes--of inheriting the earth!

To sum up: we can't "do" the beatitudes. With man it is impossible, but all things are possible with God, and Christlike things are possible when Christ lives in you. Therefore, Christ in you is your hope of every blessing mentioned in the beatitudes.

Disengaged

I've mentioned before that I was disengaging from my church this summer. I've said we would be playing Sunday mornings by ear, with no particular plan from one week to the next. We'd fulfilled our commitment to serving in the church bookstore until the end of May, so yesterday was our first Sunday of this new era. I had wondered all week whether we would go to church or not, but in the true sense of playing it by ear, we were not really sure.

Yesterday morning we stepped outside at the usual time (just a little behind schedule) and both of us were immediately wowed by the beautiful weather. I mean, it was near perfect. The morning sun, the cool breeze. Nothing about that moment made us want to go into a windowless cave where there would be an amped up early morning rock concert in progress (aka, a worship service at church).

"It's a shame we have to miss all this," said the wifey.

"But we don't," said I, leading her down the primrose path to a churchless Sunday.

So we stayed home. Sat in the yard and read our books, soaking in the sunlight and the quiet.

What's remarkable about this is that we've never done anything like it before on a Sunday morning. Stayed home, just for the pleasure of staying home. That's a new thing for us. We're not leaving the church, we're not down on it, we're not turning our backs on it, and we love the people of God. But man, yesterday morning in the back yard was so much more pleasant than the usual church routine.

And Next week? Who knows? We're playing it by ear.

Sunday Afternoon in the Yard (with a good book)

Shrubs that are not in my yard . . .

True, I have been doing a little landscaping around my place this year. . . but these are NOT examples of my work . . .

Summer Reading.

You're starting to see the annual "summer reading" articles, a kind of ritual post for bookish types: Christianity Today tells us what their editorial staff is reading this summer, and Al Mohler does the same here.

Presumably "summer reading" is different than Spring, Fall, or Winter reading. Mohler's list is all military history, for example. For me, reading is a continuous adventure, with ever-changing landscapes and seasons, but my choices in summer or not much different than the rest of the year. I try always to be reading a novel, always at least one book of Christian spirituality by an author I trust, and a third book which might have as its subject some episode or period of history, some facet of natural science, or anything else that catches my fancy.

Anyway, I like these "summer reading" articles because they give me ideas for my own future reading. I keep feeding my brain titles and authors, and my brain has its own arcane way of filing this information so that as I wander the library aisles, search a catalog, or (less often) browse the shelves of a bookstore, titles jump out of me: yes, I remember reading something about this somewhere.

This past week I made two visits to the local public library, carrying home a small stack of novels, but probably only one that I'll actually read (that's how my system works). That one: Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. Oh my, this one looks really good. I've just started, but it's got me in its grip.

As for the "Christian spirituality" book, I'm slowly reading and enjoying Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. I talked about this in our small group last night. I actually have a lot of ease in my life right now, a lot of satisfaction, and very little suffering (well, none actually). But I know that suffering will come again someday, and although I do realize that we are never really "ready" for it, I want to understand what God has to say about it. I want not to have to work through illusions and misconceptions as I face my season of suffering. That's why I'm reading this book. I'm about half-finished, and I high recommend the chapters by Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, and David Powlinson. Much wisdom here.

And then there's the third reading stream, which is usually some form of history (including sports history, a topic I find fascinating). Right now I'm reading something that will help in my work. It's a text book on the subject of cartographic history (the history of map-making), called Maps: Finding our Place in the World. Of this book someone said:

From religious pilgrimages and vacation road trips to depictions of the ocean floor and the magical landscapes of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, maps chart both physical and imaginary worlds. As geographer Denis Cosgrove explains "World" is a social concept . . . a flexible term, stretching from physical environment to the world of ideas, microbes, and sin. Arguably, all these worlds can be mapped.

Cool. Plus, one chapter was written by an associate of mine.

That ought to do it for my summer reading plan! What's yours?

Eugene Peterson Interview

Eugene Peterson is as near as it gets to "hero" in my book. But this 30 minute interview is the first time I've ever heard him speak. And of course, it's profound.


(HT)

I haven't quoted Lewis in a while, so . . .

Speaking on the eve of WWII, Lewis said:

If we had foolish unchristian hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we though we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon.

That's from a recent post on Kevin DeYoung's blog, in which DeYoung also quotes the philosopher Gilbert Meilander:

Life, and our shared way of life, are always fragile and insecure. That is not a crisis; it is human history. And during our share of that history it will always be true that how, rather than how long, we live should be our central concern.

No doubt.

Feeling Quotatious

Self-glory is revealed to be an idol in our heart when the Lord presents us with an opportunity to glorify him by speaking the truth about our convictions or our sins, yet we are unwilling to do it for fear of what someone else will think of us.

Curious about the Shoes

We were discussing the "armor" prayer of Ephesians 6:10-20. Someone asked, "Which piece of the armor resonates most with you right now?" I had to think about that a little, and the discussion actually moved on to other things before I had my answer.

I'm curious about the shoes.

Isn't it interesting that in the midst of this warfare metaphor we have this:

and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Paul says in this life the Christian has certain powerful enemies, and we need the armor to protect ourselves and to fight properly. He refers to truth, righteousness, faith, assurance of salvation, the Word of God as the essential elements of our war-gear, given that the "cosmic powers" are set against us. But what about those shoes?

In keeping with his battle motif, he might have said the shoes were for charging into the fight or something. But he says they're for "readiness." And that the readiness is ours through "the gospel of peace." It's a readiness to "stand," I suppose, as opposed to cut and run. Perhaps it's a readiness to "go" with the good news of peace "into all the world," or at least your neighborhood. You've got all this other gear (helmet, breastplate, sword, shield), but that doesn't make you "ready." The gospel (good news) of peace does that.

In the midst of all this war-talk, the gospel of peace. This is a soldier whose purpose is to bring the "good news" of peace. Not peace with the devil, but peace with God, who is infinitely more to be feared.

But what if I'm not "ready"? What if I have all the other gear but not the shoes? What if I'm not prepared to "go," carrying my message of peace to a war-torn world? My suspicion is, if you don't have the readiness, the enemy will leave you alone. His purpose is to undermine your faith so that the good news doesn't look so good and you're not really sure you want to tell people about it. I have a hunch that if you don't have the shoes, he won't mind you going about with your sword and shield, a Christian tin soldier.

Many in this world are living in a tragic peace with the enemy of their souls, while they are at war with their friend and lover. The Christian, bringing his/her message of peace (with God) into every situation, is a threat to that enemy's single overriding purpose. Jesus said, "Go," but the devil stays, "hold on. Wait. Go back." That liar will try to undermine your mission by attacking your knowledge, your faith, your assurance, making you feel "unready." But faith means believing something and living like you believe it. And that "something" is, in this case, the gospel of peace.

Have I got my shoes on?