Down&Dirty Theology: God’s will

It’s something you don’t anticipate.

It’s something you never thought you’d do.

But when the time comes, you do it.

The sun wasn’t even up yet at 5:40 as we parked the van in the Wilson Garage at Riley Hospital.  We walked past the ER, pushed the “TWO” button in the glass elevator and checked in for Silas’ surgery.  We were ushered back to a waiting room where the nurse took all of Silas’ stats and double checked the laundry list of meds.  And then the time came…

Like I said, it’s something you don’t anticipate.  And it’s something you never thought you’d do, but when it comes time to hand your child to a complete stranger so they can sedate them and cut them…you do it.  You do it even though you have a knot in the pit of your stomach.  You do it even though you don’t want to.  It’s horrible, but…you just do it.

And here is the thing.  I have had numerous people say these types of things to me:

“I don’t know how someone could give up their child for adoption.  I could never do that.”

Or, “I don’t know how you take care of someone with all those special needs.  I could never do that.”

Maybe it’s true.   Maybe they couldn’t or wouldn’t, but I wonder if it’s just a case of context.  My parents said at one time that they would never live in a trailer.  However, when they had the chance to purchase 6 1/2 acres of prime, already developed land in Pennsylvania, but didn’t have the money to build a house, they decided to live in a trailer.  And the examples don’t end there…

…I’m pretty sure Abraham never dreamed that he would tie up his only son and sacrifice him to God.

…I don’t think Moses’ mother, Jochebed, ever dreamed she would leave her son in a basket in the huge Nile River.

…The prophet Samuel’s mother, Hannah, didn’t think she would have trouble getting pregnant and probably never even considered giving back her first born child to God.

…In more recent times, Jews during the Holocaust sent their children away knowing they would never see them again.  And everyday, birth-mothers who can’t raise their babies put them first by giving them a chance at a stable family.

“But I would never do THAT!”

I wonder.  I also wonder if God knew we would be wrestling with this issue and so gave us a word in James 4:13-15.  He says,

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,we will live and do this or that.”

This specific passage is about boasting, but the larger issue is that we have no idea what tomorrow will bring.  Our lives are “a mist” and it is only by the God’s will that we do this or that.  We have less control than we think we do.

I’ve realized the hard way, that making definitive statements about what I will or will not do in the future isn’t the best idea.  The reason is that many of the decisions we make, for better or for worse, are based on the situation at the time and the limited knowledge we have then.  None of us can say what we will or won’t do in the future because the Lord is in control.

Today, I swallowed that feeling in the pit of my stomach, kissed Silas on his curly hair and handed him to the nurse.  Now I don’t mean to say that my experience was the same as Abraham, Jochebed, Hannah, Jewish-parents during the Holocaust or birth-moms.  My experience was nothing like theirs because after two hours, I was ushered into the recovery room and saw my little, curly-haired boy softly sleeping off his anesthesia.  But it made my realize I should be careful before saying, “I would never do THAT!“

There are things we don’t anticipate.  There are things we never thought we’d do.  But when the time comes, we do them…trusting again that the Lord is in control.

Psalm 16 rewrite

Periodically, I go back to the psalms to reorient my soul to worship.  I find that they always speak to me and help me reset my perspective…especially as I continue to work through the the sovereignty of my God and the brokenness of my son’s mitochondria.  And when I do that, I also rewrite certain psalms to personalize it, but also to insert myself into God’s story.  To many times we think this world revolves around us and our issues, but the truth is that we are telling God’s better story.  Let me encourage you to spend some time in the psalms too.  You don’t have to rewrite them, but make the Word your own…these were prayers and songs of believers hundreds of years before us, but they are directed to the same God.

Psalm 16-Safety is only in God

Help me redefine safety, my God,

for in you only am I safe.

 

I say to the LORD, “You are my LORD;

apart for you I have nothing…”

I say of those who encourage my faith,

(who watch Silas, clean our house, pay for gas to Riley, bring us meals, send cards, give hugs, babysit and pray)

they are the godly ones.

Those who worship things made with their own hands

will suffer more.

So I will not worship things man-made or put my trust in a miracle drug.

 

Lord, you have assigned me my life and my son;

you have made my life secure.

The pieces of the puzzle have fallen in pleasant places;

Yes, I have a life full of snuggles and slobbery kisses.

 

I will praise you God, for re-orienting me;

even at night my heart calls me to trust.

I keep my tear-filled eyes always on the LORD.

With him at my side, I will not be shaken.

 

Therefore my heart rejoices and my mouth praises;

my body will rest secure,

because you will not abandon us in death,

nor will you let Jesus slip away.

You tell me that life isn’t safe;

but you fill me with joy in your presence,

and you give eternal life with you…

without sickness.

Instruments from the Inside

A friend recently posted a link to this page (with all the pictures).  It is a series of pictures taken to promote the Berliner Philharmoniker.  The friend that posted them commented that the pictures look like the inside of “tiny temples”.  An interesting comment, I think.  Beauty many times points us to the creator.  The pictures are not on the same level of God, but reflect Him, however imperfectly, none the less.  These instruments were created to make beautiful music and to be beautiful.  And God is there…

Good Art Speaks to Me…

The email conversation this week was about art.  As the emails pinged back and forth between me and this other person who is an advocate for the visual arts here at ECC, I kept thinking about this quote I posted earlier from Robert Webber.

Good art “speaks to me. It makes me listen. It forms me.” . . . Somehow the art in worship surrounds me and gathers me up into itself.

I feel the same way.  I was also reminded of how we think about God.  He is usually associated with words, isn’t he?  We regularly refer to the scriptures as “God’s Word.”  Harkening back to John’s gospel intro, we talk about Jesus as “the Word” or “the Word made flesh.”  We don’t, however, commonly refer to Jesus as the “image” or picture of God, but the idea is found in scriptures itself.  In the Old and New Testaments, God uses visions (sight) to speak to his people, to bring about change.  When this happens, the experience is just as powerful as speech.  God’s words AND his visions are both powerful.  As we’ve studied recently, Moses had more than one of these powerful visions and writes in Deuteronomy 4:35, “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God.”

The ultimate example is Jesus who not only is the Word of God, but also the “Image of God” as seen in Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Hebrews 1:3. The first passage says it this way,

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

All that to say that we can use the visual arts to help us better understand God.  Drama, visual art, signing and video are all ways to do this.  To give us a chance to experience this…check out these pictures taken from the Christians in Visual Arts (CIVA.org) website.  Think of this as an online gallery for God’s glory…

Treasure by Stephanie Green

Gathering by Megan Prospe

Empty hands by Hal Moran

Matthew 6:29-30 by Jennifer Kimbrough

Ehtiopian Nativity by Nancy Goes

 

 

 

Witness by Sarah Jane Gray

Creation Declares the Glory of God

A great mashup by Louie Giglio of the sounds of creation illustrating the praise rising around us from the rocks, trees, stars and whales that we are totally unaware of…as Psalm 148:13 says,

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

8 Messages Through The Snow

I enjoy doing biblical word studies.  I’ve done a number of them already so as the snow was falling today I wondered, “What does the snow tell us about God and his plan for us?”  Now you might be thinking I’m a bit nuts, but I happen to believe that to often we reduce the world around us to just their material parts or the inconvenience caused by too much rain, snow or sun.  In fact, we know that the heavens declare the glory of God and no one is without excuse because of creation’s testimony.

So what do we learn from snow?

1.  Snow is symbol of the sinner’s brief time here on earth and what comes afterwards.

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
Job 24:18-20

2.  Snow is picture of God’s control over creation.

Psalm 147:16
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes…and again in the next chapter…

Psalm 148:8
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding

3.  Snow shows us how much we don’t know and can’t control.

God asks Job, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail…?”
Job 38:21-23 Job has to admit that he hasn’t and the truth is that we haven’t either…

4.  Snow is a symbol of our purity from God.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:6-8  And later in Isaiah…“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 as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isaiah 1:17-19

5.  Snow can be refreshing and reminds us of trustworthy co-workers.

Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters. -Proverbs 25:12-14 (I’m not totally sure about this one…maybe it’s a Hebrew OT thing, but I’m not sure I get it!)

6.  Snow that comes too early or too late reminds us of the fools we know.

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.
Proverbs 26:1-3

7.  Snow that comes to melt and water the earth is a symbol of God’s Word.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty -Isaiah 55:9-11

8.  Snow is a symbol of Jesus’ purity and power when he comes again.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
Revelation 1:13-15

So as the snow falls today…remember that the world is more spiritual than we think and God is speaking to you right now through the snow.  He is not silent.  The problem is that too many times, we are not listening.

P.S.  One more thing…and this isn’t purely biblical, but it’s good advice.  Don’t eat the yellow snow.  ;-)

This year…Christ in me

Today brought the unexpected joy of a deep conversation with a friend.  This is a friend who has walked through some of the darkest medical valleys of our life and helped us simply by being there…and also by explaining what the doctor was saying in plain English.  To have someone who cares about you AND speaks “medical”…that is a friend indeed!

We were talking about how each of us is called to live our lives (the joy and the pain) by following Christ the best we know how.  All our stories are different, but we are all called to follow.  So this year I am going to begin again with this poem from a little under 400 years after Christ.  I hope it helps focus your new year as it has mine.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who desires me ill,
Afar and a near,
Alone or in a multitude.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

• Lorica, St. Patrick (ca. 377)

More than Thankful for Hope

Every year around this time, people sit at a large table surrounded by friends and/or family and ruminate on the things they are  thankful for.  And this, I think, is a fine thing to do.  ”Very traditional,” one might say and also a way to realize how much God has already blessed us despite what we tend to think the rest of the year.  I too am thankful for my family, friends, a new mini-van and house, turkey induced sleep and foggy, fall days.  There are other things that I’m also thankful for, but in a different kind of way.  I’m thankful for things I don’t have to do…here is the short list…

1.  Because we only have to make 4 trips to Cleveland for Silas’ medical trial instead of 13 we will not have to drive the additional 4,365 miles over 72 hours costing around $675.00 in gas.

2.  I’m thankful that I didn’t have to paint my house trim, rake my leaves by myself, clean our house for the kid’s birthday party or make the 8 frozen meals downstairs in the freezer because other people from our church did that for us.  Wanting to help Silas and our family, they pitched in and gave.  I am humbled and thankful.

But beyond that, I’m thankful for hope today.  I’m thankful for hope that defies our “out-come based world”. And I guess I’m thinking about that because so many times my list on Thanksgiving is made up of things I have achieved or things I own.

But what happens when we have less this Thanksgiving than last Thanksgiving?

What happens when we pray for God to heal a loved one and they are not better or perhaps worse-off than before?

Has God stopped caring?

Has God stopped listening to our prayers?

This afternoon as I was driving home from a huge Thanksgiving meal where we stopped just short of the sin of gluttony, I was thinking about my son Silas who has lost quite a bit of ability in the last year.  I was also thinking and praying for a wonderful family who gathered this Thanksgiving knowing that it would most likely be the last one with their husband and father who is battling cancer.  And then I thought…have all of us been trying to win and simply lost?  Are these situations that are hopeless?

No, no and again no!

Hope transcends today’s suffering.  Hope transcends sin and death.  This is a basic belief for Christians.  The problem is this:  even though we claim Jesus, we act as if our prayers are magical spells and He should answer all our prayers.  But that’s not what he said is it?

He came with the name “Emmanuel”.  He said  that he would never leave us or forsake us.  So God is with us no matter what changes or what outcomes we wish for or what ideas we conceive about God.  He is with us.  This isn’t an academic statement for me.  God wasn’t just here for a time and has now left.  He is here now.  This is true and this is life and in this we have hope.  He hasn’t left us and my list at Thanksgiving is just one, small, little example of that.

And if all of that is true…maybe the goal of hope isn’t for everything to be perfectly resolved.

Maybe things won’t always be better this Thanksgiving than last as our out-come based culture assumes.

Maybe this requires a shift in our thinking.

Maybe instead of hoping for “deliverance from” our suffering we should have hope for “deliverance through” the suffering.  As one of my profs, Greg Wilde, has written,

…perhaps we are delivered from evil when, instead of avoiding it, we live through it with God and come out on the other side, shining.  There is hope in midst of suffering, not because it will be over some day, although certainly it will be, but because God is there in the midst of it, now.

So this holiday season, I’m more than thankful for hope…hope that lasts…hope that remains.  Yes, I’m thankful for hope.

**  Quote from Anchoring Faith, Hope, and Love in Today, By Gregory Wilde, Adjunct Professor, Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, July, 2008

‘JOHN’ IS RIVETING!

On November 30th at 6PM, we are going to experience an amazing event in which the gospel of John will come to life on the stage right before our eyes.  I’m thrilled to have professional actor, Brad Sherrill come and perform.  It has been performed over 600 times in theaters, churches and cathedrals from the U.S. to Canada to the U.K.  But don’t just  take my word for it.  Here is a review from Kathy Janich…

“The Gospel of John” is an amazing achievement.

That needs to be said again. “The Gospel of John” is an amazing achievement.

Atlanta actor Brad Sherrill, who created and performs this original piece, has taken the words of the New Testa­ment’s fourth book and, with his voice, his imag­ination and a few props, shaped it into a transforming two hours of theater.

Leaping angrily and overturning furniture, he becomes an enraged Jesus Christ chasing buyers and sellers from his Father’s House.

Sleepy, reluctant and fearful, he becomes Pontius Pilate, the official who would send Jesus to his death.

Cowering and sheepish, he’s the disciple Simon Peter denying his alliance with Jesus at the hour his devotion is most critical.

Sherrill inhabits them all, and many more. And he’s wonderful to see.

His piece is as inventive as it is athletic. Watch him splash water on the stage floor to simulate rough seas. Or turn a rough-hewn rectangular table on its edge to create Lazarus’ tomb. Follow him as he cuts through the space and moves about the audience, touching hands here and shoulders there, spreading  Jesus’ message of love and inclusion.

In short, Sherrill entertains and cajoles, moves us and mesmerizes us. “John” is undoubtedly among the best work he’s ever done. You can tell that it enthralls him as an actor. Just as clear is that it fascinates him as a man. This role, with its 20,000 words and myriad personae, allows him…no, commands him to tap into every resource he has!

The overriding question here is whether the word of God can work as drama. Sherrill proves that it most certainly and successfully can. You need only watch him as John the Bap­tist, testifying to his first sighting of Jesus Christ, to become a believer. And this moment comes less than 10 minutes into the show.

Simple, powerful, provocative. If they’d taught the gospel like this in Catholic school, I might have paid attention. And that is a high compliment, indeed!

You do not want to miss this once in a lifetime event.  This is a chance to see the words of the Bible leap off the page and come to life right in front of you.  Tickets are $2.  If you want to see a low-grade video of Brad in action, his website is here.  I hope to see you on November 30th at 6PM in the ECC Worship Center for an amazing performance.

Praying the Hours, the movie

In college, I got the chance to room with Matt Webb.

Right now, you’re thinking, “Matt Webb?  Have I heard of that guy?  Should I know him from somewhere?”

And the right answer is…maybe you don’t know him yet, but you should and soon, possibly, you will.  Now, Matt is an independent film-maker out in sunny LA working on projects that resonate with his heart and faith.  That means the films he works on probably won’t end up at the local RAVE theatre complex.  But, it does mean that the films he works on have a real message and creatively present characters who are dealing with life as it’s really lived.

PRAYING THE HOURS is the latest project.  The story goes like this…

Based on a true story, the Praying the Hours project is structured around the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer observed by the Abrahamic faith traditions. By personifying each hour into a character, we tell the story of a 24-hour day as if the hours were a community of friends.  The main character, “Traveling Man” (our everyman) is hit by a car.  Over the time that he takes to cross over from this life into the next, he visits with each of eight friends and sees his own life anew from the lens of eternity—not as something that happens to you after you die, but as the river that flows under the surface of ordinary life.

The purpose of this ambitious project is to observe a life from the perspective of both chronos (clock time) and kairos (grace time) and to consider that time itself is a breviary—or book of prayer. If so, to ignore its daily, extravagant inspirations is to suffer misalignment with our deepest selves.

I am excited to have the chance to be apart of this project by giving a little cash in the hopes of seeing it when it’s done.  This is a chance to be apart of telling the better story and making something beautiful that stands as a beacon of hope in this war-torn world.

The other cool thing is that they will be filming part of the this project in January right here in northeast Indiana!  Until then,  you can check out the official website and consider giving at PRAYINGTHEHOURS.COM.