Seeds

For many years now I've been collecting quotes that act as prompts for blogs and illustrations for sermons. I thought I would share some of these with you with the hope that they will stimulate your own thinking.

Never teach a child something they will later have to unlearn. —Earl Palmer

People go through three conversions in the Christian faith: their head, their heart and their purse. —Martin Luther

The truth is never a wrong answer. —Brother Cadfael in The Virgin in the Ice by Ellis Peters

If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped —Evelyn Underhill

The times most favorable to fits of depression, I have experienced, may be summed up in a brief catalogue. First, among them I mention the hour of great success. When at last a long-cherished desire is fulfilled, when God has been glorified greatly by our means, a great triumph achieved… Before any great achievement, some measure of the same depression is very usual… This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry… In the midst of a long stretch of unbroken labor, the same affliction may be looked for. The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking… —Charles H. Spurgeon

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. —Betty Reese

Doing good is imperative. Doing everything is impossible. — Grant Howard

The fact that you were okay yesterday has nothing to do with whether you are going to be so today. The fact that you were close to God yesterday has nothing to do with whether you are going to be close to God today. All Satan needs is an opportunity. You don’t even have to open the door for the devil. Just leave it unlocked; he knows how to turn the knob. —Tony Evans

The qualification for having a public ministry is not giftedness. The qualification for ministry is proven character. —Steve Farrar

Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go; keep you longer than you wanted to stay; cost you more than you wanted to pay. —Steve Farrar

Many believers are simply frantic over the fact of failure in their lives, and they will go to all lengths in trying to hide it, ignore it, or rationalize about it. And all the time they are resisting the main instrument in the Father’s hand for conforming us to the image of His Son! —Miles Stanford

Even When It's Not Easy

As I mentioned in a earlier blog, I'm reading through the Bible in a year even though I got started in May rather than January. So I'm in Exodus while my friends are all in the Psalms. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've read through Exodus, but today I noticed something I don't remember seeing before. Already the sabbath has been mentioned repeatedly. In one section God even prefaces yet another statement about the sabbath (31:13) with the phrase, "Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you." Then in chapter 34 I saw this sentence that I don't remember seeing before. It starts with a familiar statement, "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest." It's the next statement that grabbed my attention today. "In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest."

I'm not much of an agriculturalist, but I know from helping Sharon with her gardens over the years that there are two times I am most involved with her gardens. Preparing and harvesting. Dig, mulch, weed, rototill. Multiply that many times over for those who actually raise the food they need to live on. Mass quantities.

So here's the nagging voice in my head (the Holy Spirit?). In this simple sentence is the implication that Israel was to obey this command from God even when it was going to be hardest to do so. Can't you hear the rationalizing. "If I don't go out there again today to get the ground ready, we'll starve." "If I don't get out there again today and get the manure turned in, the ground will be worthless." "If I don't go out there again today and get the seeds in the ground, you can forget about the harvest." If I don't get out there again today and bring in that harvest, it will rot on the vines and we'll be begging for food."

But God told Israel to do something that was very hard for them (and hasn't gotten easier in the centuries since then). He told Israel to stop. He told Israel to pray and play for an entire 24 hour period. He told them to do nothing that would increase their income (read that "harvest"). In short, God told them to trust Him enough that they would bring all of life's usual work, the wheels of commerce, the daily-ness of life, to a halt.

Lest they miss the point about trusting Him, God clearly said, "In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest." God is saying, in essence, "When it would be most difficult to justify a 24 hour rest, that's exactly what I want you to do: rest."

My point in bringing this up is not to address the issue of whether or not Christians should keep a sabbath. That's a blog for another time. My point is that when God gives a command, which He clearly says in several places in the Bible are always for our good, He does so with the implication that we are to obey that command, even when it is most difficult to do so. And then trust Him with the results.

By Ourselves

In his book, "Answering God," Eugene Peterson writes, "By ourselves, we are not ourselves."

I've been chewing on the phrase all afternoon. In the culture in which I live we have personal water craft, personal DVD players, personal computers, personal digital music players. We champion personal rights (while, I might add, we avoid personal responsibility, but that's a blog for another time). We even invite people into a personal relationship with Jesus.

But I think Peterson is onto something. From some moment very near the beginning of human history God said clearly, "It is not good for the man to be alone." God made us to be in relationship with others. One of my favorite passages is from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus where he says, in effect, "Until we're all mature ain't none of us mature."

By myself I can convince myself that I possess all kinds of sterling qualities of character. In relationship with others, the mask is torn away and I see more clearly how much more I need to learn of humility, patience, kindness, gentleness, etc. By myself I am a paragon of virtue. With others I can be a pain in the rear.

My real self can only be known in the context of others. That is why God created all of us. It is why he gave us families, and neighborhoods and churches. And it is why we need to stop absenting ourselves from the very people who will help us be ourselves. They will both make us who we are and show us who we are. And we return the favor.

By ourselves, we are not ourselves.

Marriage is Daily

I wrote the following in July of 2006 for the newsletter of Santa Margarita Community Church. As I read it over this afternoon (in between getting cold packs, chicken broth, water, and apple juice for my wife who had two wisdom teeth extracted), I thought I'd post it on my blog. This article looked forward to a major event in the life of one of my daughters. Since then her brother has also learned the significance of what I wrote. I thought it bears repeating both for those who are married and for those who will one day be married.

"Over the years I’ve mused about many things in this column. The purpose of the church. The importance of rest. The power of the resurrection. The struggle for holiness. The heart-breaking reality of sin. The profound relief of forgiveness in Christ.

I’ve also chronicled the more pedestrian seasons in my own life, both implicitly and explicitly. I have, at some level, let you into the mundane, menial aspects of life as a pastor, a father, a husband, a friend. I’ve shared with you the joy of children who follow Jesus. I’ve written about the humbling I’ve received at the hands of my children or wife. I’ve opened myself to you regarding the bittersweet season of having them graduate high school and launch (and then re-launch) into adult life.

Over the past few years, Kelli has done a marvelous job planning weddings for some of her friends. Recently Kelli was looking at a church building with a view to its suitability for an upcoming wedding. In the back corner of the sanctuary, I noticed a room with a large window that allows you to see and hear the wedding without those in the wedding hearing you. I told Kelli that during the wedding she’s planning, that’s where I will be. You see, it’s the crying room, and the wedding she is planning is her own.

I am still amazed by the father of the bride at a wedding over which I officiated. In the middle of the wedding, he sang “Sunrise, Sunset” without wavering once. (The rest of us were undone.) I distinctly remember the umpteenth viewing of the aforementioned “Fiddler on the Roof” when I switched my allegiance from Teyve’s children to Teyve. How could the girls grow up and marry those boys?

Yet I find myself in Teyve’s situation. A young man has captured the heart of my daughter. He is a man of integrity. He is a man of faith. He is a man who is willing to work hard. He is a man who is willing to commit himself to the daily-ness of life with one woman and one woman only…for the rest of his life. That woman is my daughter.

Pray for David Mireles and Kelli Schliep as they make public and permanent the most profound promise anyone can make to another person. As Kathleen Norris writes in her book The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” (quotidian is a word meaning “occurring every day; commonplace, ordinary”), “In seeking any covenantal relationship we must be willing to say ‘yes’ long before we have a clear idea of what such intimacy will cost us. Marriage is eternal, but it’s also daily, as daily and unromantic as housekeeping…Paradoxically, human love is sanctified not in the height of attraction and enthusiasm but in the everyday struggles of living with another person. It is not in romance but in routine that the possibilities for transformation are made manifest. And that requires commitment.”

You will never find that written in a Hallmark© card. But those who have been married for more than six weeks know the reality of it. It is quotidian, dying to ourselves in order to live the life that God desires for us to live. Pray that Dave and Kelli’s married life will overflow with a deep and abiding commitment that expresses itself in daily acts of service for each other."

Even if...

I'm reading through the Bible again this year (although I only started a few days ago). I've gotten through Genesis 18 so far. What struck me today is how often Abraham (and others before and after him) had questions for God. And how often he questioned God. The distinction between the two is that one seeks information, the other seeks a Plan B. (Both responses, by the way, are quite natural. God tends to be far more gracious about the question that seeks more information than the question that seeks an alternative. But with both, He knows that we are limited. Notice the response of Zechariah, the father of John the baptizer in contrast to Mary, the mother of Jesus the Messiah in Luke 1. Similar questions, but different responses from God. Zechariah's seems to question God's ability, Mary's seems to question the logistics, as it were.)

What began to roll around in my head is how often over the years people have said to me (and I have sometimes thought to myself), "Why doesn't God show Himself to me. Then I would believe. Then I would follow Him. I would have no question about His existence or His authority."

The Biblical narrative says different. The Biblical story, in fact, tells us that even if God were to show up in your bedroom some night, you'd still have questions and you'd still question. In other words, our problem is deeper than simply needing some sort of external "proof" of God's existence. We are so broken that even if God deigned to appear in a way that you could see, you would still remain, at your core, unconvinced to some degree. That's how self-focused we are.

It reminds me of the time early in our relationship when Sharon flew to Coeur d'Alene to visit me without my knowing about it. She plotted with my parents to keep it a secret. I came home from spending time with friends and walked into my bedroom. There, sitting in a chair in the corner of my bedroom, was Sharon. I looked at her, turned and walked out of the room. I could not take in the fact that Sharon was in Idaho. I had just spoken with her the day before. She was in Redondo Beach, CA, not Coeur d'Alene, ID. It just didn't fit.

In the same way, when we encounter God in His word we are expecting it to fit our paradigm, our understand of life and how it works. It is no wonder that we are conflicted with what He reveals about Himself and the way life really works. We're living in Cd'A and He's in Redondo Beach. The worlds cannot occupy the same space. But that's the beauty, isn't it? He leaves His home to come into our space. He condescends to communicate. And as difficult as it is for us to comprehend, He continually shows us who He is and what He has done for us. Slowly, over time, we ask less questions and we question Him less, but it will never go away completely because He is God and we are not.

So our response, really, is always about faith whether we have had a direct, physical encounter with God or a "secondary" encounter by means of Scripture. Either way, we need to moving toward the place where we trust Him. And then live accordingly.

Welcome Home

Sharon returned home from Germany last evening. It is these relatively brief separations that remind me how much I appreciate our friendship. I am painfully aware that for many marriages, this kind of friendship is missing. I have known the joy of this friendship for most of our 35 years (When I introduce Sharon and I in public speaking settings I say, only half-jokingly, that we have been married 35 years, 34 of them happily.). When I have opportunity to talk with young adults about what they are looking for in a mate, I emphasize the importance of this factor. C.S. Lewis, in his book "Four Loves," talks eloquently about the importance of "side by side" love, the love that works alongside each other and enjoys the camaraderie of friendship. Oh, the joy of this friendship with Sharon, my lover and best friend.

The Journey Continues...

On the way home from Munich we traveled back through Zurich. We had time before we needed to be back in Kandern, so we took a detour into the old city of Zurich. There we saw the church from which Zwingli launched the Swiss branch of the Reformation. (On our last trip to Germany, we saw Calvin's church in Geneva, Switzerland. Now I just need to get to Wittenburg.) We enjoyed people watching along the Platz Promenade where people gathered on a glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon. We drove home, having visited 3 major European cities in 3 European countries in 3 days. Pretty impressive. And, yes, we did stop for coffee at Starbucks near the Platz Promenade in Zurich and I did get my mug.

The Problem of Sin

Saturday was our trip to Munich and Dachau. We spent 4 hours at Dachau, which was the first of Hitler's work camps and became the model for all others. Even experiments and camp organization were first tested at Dachau before becoming the rule at the other camps. It was sobering and disturbing. It was set up in 1933 on the site of a former munitions factory.

As you wander the grounds, you keep asking yourself questions like, "How could this happen?" and "Was anything being done to stop this by those who lived nearby?" and "Why were the Allies so slow in seeking to stop Hitler?" and "Isn't it a bit scary that many of the conditions that were true of Germany in the early 30's are now true of America in terms of economy and the prevailing view of the value of human life?"

The image I always had of the furnaces was that they were at the camps for purpose of extermination. Eventually that was true at some of the camps. Originally, though, they were there as a way of dealing with the many bodies of those who died of disease, overwork, malnourishment, and fatal lead poisoning (bullets from the guards). Extermination camps were built for the purpose of extermination alone. Work camps were built to extract work from the undesirables, the less-than-human population (which turned out to be most people who were not German or were German but were not Nazi. Roman Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles and those whose political views were different than the Nazis were all treated with contempt and found their way into work camps or extermination camps by the millions.)

After 4 hours of Dachau where people endured unimaginable cruelty and degradation, we went into Munich on the S Bahn to have dinner. We did sightseeing first (and bought a Munich Starbucks mug. But I didn't have a Zurich mug.), then we began looking for a restaurant. Between the crowds who were in town for the Munich soccer team's home game, thus filling the restaurants, and the dietary restrictions of one of our travel companions, we spent at least an hour walking the streets of Munich searching for dinner. We finally got back on the train to our pensione, stopping by the restaurant that had first been recommended to us by our innkeeper. We dined on fabulous food.

Now for the embarrassing, self-revelation part of the blog. During our walking tour of downtown Munich in search of food, I was quiet most of the time. I was tired and I was hungry and, I discovered, I was irritated. Irritated that I wasn't able to eat when I wanted or what I wanted. How ungrateful and self-focused is that? But it's true. After 4 hours of seeing graphic evidence of man's fallen nature and rebellion against God, I was faced with my own, more subtle, sin nature. My traveling companions will tell you I held it in pretty well, but it began to leak out as I became more tired and more hungry. Did I commit an unpardonable sin? Was my sin as heinous as those committed by the Third Reich? No. But the root of it is the same. Self-centered rather than God-centered. Our home group will begin a study in Paul's letter to the Christians at Rome when we get back from this vacation. I've been reading chapter 1 through the middle of 3. Not a pretty picture of mankind. Yet an accurate one. The gospel is good news because without it we would be trapped in our bad news. Left to ourselves, we will express our self-centeredness in greater or lesser ways. Christ, alone, can redeem a self-focused, God-ignoring mankind. And he did! That, indeed, is good news.

Schnitzel, Without Noodles

On Thursday we drove to Salzburg, Austria. We walked the city, enjoyed the view and the food. I ate half of my first chocolate covered pretzel (Kristi got the other half). Wunderbar!

If you ever get to Salzburg, be sure you take the "original" Sound of Music tour (not the "unique" Sound of Music tour which is also available). The guide could take his sabbatical at Disneyland doing the Jungle Cruise. He is great. He's been doing the tour for 12 years. (Maybe that's why he's worked on his schtick.) Apple strudel with vanilla sauce in Mondsee (where the church is located where the Captain and Maria, in the movie, were married).

Salzburg has salt mines, hence the name. How, with so much useless information in my head, could I have never heard that before? We strolled through the Mirabel Gardens twice. This is where much of Do-Re-Mi was filmed. Very fun. We walked to the castle which was begun in the 600's (yes, 600's, not 1600's) and finished in the 1700's. (America is such a young country.) People in earlier generations were in much less of a hurry and took a much longer view of life, even though their own lives were shorter.

We finished our Friday with Schnitzel in one of the oldest establishments in Salzburg. The waiter was a space cadet who, even after we asked for the bill, would look at us, and the other customers who wanted their bills, and would then go off to do something else. Eventually we almost grabbed him by the shirt front to get our bill, paid it, and strolled back to our pensione.

Cosmopolitan

Our first meal in Kandern, Germany was Chinese food in a restaurant run by Vietnamese from Australia. How's that for cosmopolitan?

But I Didn't Have My Mug

Sharon and I are enjoying our trip to Germany to visit Kristi. We've been here a week now and our days have been full. Along the way I've picked up some insights into myself. Mostly about expectations. We flew into Zurich, arriving Tuesday morning. Kristi had told me I should pick up my Zurich Starbucks mug in the airport so we wouldn't forget and because we weren't planning to spend time in Zurich on this trip. After using the WC, our first stop was the Starbucks. No Zurich mugs. The coffee was good, but I didn't have my mug. I wondered if there was a Starbucks along the Autobahn before leaving Zurich. Nope. So we headed to Kandern. My mind would drift back to the mug I never purchased. The scenery is magnificent year-round, but this is Spring when it is spectacular. I enjoyed it, even with my jet lag. But I didn't have my mug. Not having my Zurich Starbucks mug didn't overshadow the view, the fact that we had arrived safely or the anticipation of spending time with Kristi. But I didn't have my mug.

The Rhythms of Grace

I know this will come as a surprise to the 14 or 15 of you who actually read this blog on a quasi-regular basis, but I have been heavily influenced both personally and "professionally" by the writings of Eugene Peterson. 22 years ago I read, for the first time (but not the last time) his book, "Working the Angles-The Shape of Pastoral Integrity." In that book, Peterson wrote of a biblical reality, reflected throughout the Older Testament, that I have since tried to work into a daily experience. Like many disciplines, I have been sporadic, but when I am consciously aware of this biblical reality, my days are transformed.

"The Hebrew evening/morning sequence conditions us to the rhythms of grace. We go to sleep, and God begins his work. As we sleep he develops his covenant. We wake and are called out to participate in God's creative action. We respond in faith, in work. But always grace is previous. Grace is primary. We wake into a world we didn't make, into a salvation we didn't earn. Evening: God begins, without our help, his creative day. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated. Creation and covenant are sheer grace and there to greet us every morning. George MacDonald once wrote that sleep is God's contrivance for giving us the help he cannot get into us when we are awake.

Elsewhere U.S.A.

As readers of this blog know, I like to read books for pleasure, but I also like to read for that "hmmmmm" moment. You know, that moment when the author says something that you haven't really thought about before. I read for that moment that Oliver Wendall Holmes described when he wrote, "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." I also read books that quantify my own perceptions.

Today I finished reading "Elsewhere U.S.A." by sociologist Dalton Conley. His subtitle is "How we got from the company man, family dinners, and the affluent society to the home office, blackberry moms and economic anxiety."

Here are just a few of the quotes that I now have to process:

"Many Americans--particularly those with children to care of--have morphed into a hyperactive people constantly shuttling between where we think we have to be and where we think we should be..Those Americans who live in this 'Elsewhere Society' are only convinced they're in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time when they're on their way to the next destination."

"It is upper-income women who complain more about a time crunch as compared to their lower-income counterparts. That is, when you can earn more per hour, the opportunity cost of not working feels greater and the pressure is more intense...For the first time in history, the more we are paid, the more hours we work."

"..we certainly keep our kids busy...Every second is an opportunity for investment in their human and cultural capital--that is, in the cognitive and noncognitive skill sets. Our kids are not playing; rather they are learning to socialize with peers. They are not mashing clay; they are developing their manipulative dexterity in a three-dimensional medium. They are not kicking the ball around; no, they are physically challenging their fine and gross motor skills. They aren't just playing soccer, they are learning to function in rule-based systems and interact with nonparental institutional authority figures"

"...any casual observation of the children of professional parents today would suggest that they are treated like rare specimens, freaks of nature even, who rarely enjoy a minute of unsupervised by an adult...Well-paid professionals need to hire not-so-well compensated child care workers to shuttle their kids to and from soccer leagues and Mandarin lessons while they take meetings at the office or the cafe...The frequency of structured after-school activities has more than doubled over the last two decades for the average American kid...homework has been creeping down the grade ladder...All this happens despite substantial evidence that neither homework quantity nor quality in early grades predicts achievement later on, when it matters."

"Today, the highly educated, white-collar professional earns more per hour than ever before. However, instead of using that increased income to 'live the good life,' she now works more hours. Why? Because now that her billable rate is $200 per hour instead of $100, it 'costs' her more to stay home and 'do nothing.'..better to stay at work for longer hours and buy child care services in the marketplace."

Excuse me while I go chew on this for awhile.

A Smile for your Wednesday

This is a video that makes me smile. Wouldn't it have been fun to be there? And participate?

Day 32

This week begins the "new" rhythm of moving toward a healthier me. I'll "shred" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and walk 2 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 4 miles on Saturdays. On Sundays, I'll rest. I've learned a few things about physical exercise that carry over into the spiritual disciplines.

The one that stands out most comes from Jillian Michael's repeated reminder that one of her two workout buddies is "not getting as deep into the exercise" as the other buddy, and that there is "no shame in that." What she is saying is that you need to start somewhere. So you can't do it perfectly or completely to start. You shouldn't let that stop you from starting.

I'm reminded of an early experience after I moved back to Southern California. One of the men in the church where I was privileged to pastor heard that I ride my bike, so he invited me on a ride. I assured him I hadn't ridden in quite some time so we needed to start slow. 32 miles later I pulled into our driveway and nearly collapsed. My friend didn't recognize that what I meant by starting slow needed to be measured by my abilities, not his. It was definitely a shorter ride for him. For me it was almost fatal. (Not really, but it felt like it.)

In the same way, as we begin, or renew, the practice of spiritual disciplines that move us toward a healthier relationship with Christ, we usually don't do well with a weekend of fasting or 24 hours of prayer or reading through the Bible for 72 straight hours. We need to begin where we are and then move on to where we aren't. Just as in human relationships it takes time to develop deep friendships, so with God our relationship grows as we spend time with Him, learning who He is and what He has done and how we can best respond to that.

Easter is the quintessential time of "new beginnings." Maybe now is the time to stop procrastinating about developing a healthier relationship with Christ. You may not be able to "get as deep into the exercise" but there is no shame in that. Better to begin doing something that will enhance the relationship than to do nothing.