Monthly Archives: August 2012

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 6

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English: Watch Movement Français : Mouvement d...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I want you to show love,
    not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
    more than I want burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

Intimacy has been a recurring topic in my life conversations of late. How interesting that it relates both to human relationships, namely marriage, but also to our relationship (or lack thereof) with God. Time and time again, God’s message makes a direct parallel between the two. Jesus used the metaphor of marriage to describe our relationship with Him on a continual basis.

Many struggle with intimacy in marriage. Having going through divorce after a 17 year marriage, I know that struggle. Instead of the deep experience of truly knowing and being known, two people spiritually, emotionally, and even physically hide themselves from one another. The relationship becomes contractual and platonic. Sex becomes a physical exercise (“Well, I guess we should”) rather than a spiritual and emotional experience of bodies and souls intertwining and finding oneness.

The same can be true of our relationship with God. Instead of the experience of truly knowing and being known, we spiritually and emotionally hide ourselves from God. The relationship becomes contractual and Lifeless. Relationship becomes rigid religious exercise rather than a spiritual and emotional experience of God and me in intertwining oneness.

I love the way God said it through Hosea the way a spouse would say it to his or her mate: I want your love – not your obligatory duty. I don’t want you to live with me as much as I want you to live within me.

Today, I’m continuing to pursue my relationship with God just as I pursue my relationship with Wendy. I want to relate to each in such a way that I experience it growing organically deeper and more fruitfully life-giving instead of going through rote daily ritual like a cog and a wheel in an inanimate machine.

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Chapter-a-Day Hosea 5

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“For as soon as trouble comes,
    they will earnestly search for me.”
Hosea 5:15b (NLT)

Amidst the stretch of my journey in which I served as a pastor, I performed a lot of weddings and a lot of funerals. In a few cases, the two very different rites of passage were performed close to one another on the calendar and it provided me with a very interesting contrast.

From my perspective, weddings have largely become events of mass distraction. They are huge affairs with seemingly endless amounts of time, energy and money invested in the most frivolous of details. Everyone is stressed out. Fathers are groaning under the fiscal weight of the event. Mothers are groaning under the pressure to make it perfect for themselves and their guests. Brides are under pressure to create and experience the ultimate Pinterest-perfect fairy tale. Grooms’ heads spin as they cluelessly follow orders and try to keep it all straight. Guests are distracted by the spectacle, the feast, and the dancing. Despite the token nods that God is given during the festivities, few if any pay much serious attention to spiritual things.

At a funeral, there is a dead body in the room. A living being people knew and loved and with whom they experienced relationship is gone. The body lays like a wax figure in an open casket. There is a somber weight to the event as every person is vividly reminded of his or her own ultimate, earthly fate. In comparison to a wedding, funerals are generally simple affairs that are arranged quickly. People just want to get through it and get it over with. Unless the deceased is royalty or celebrity, relatively little time and energy is spent planning the details of the event.

I struggle to recall to mind any wedding I performed in which I entered into any serious spiritual discussion with a member of the wedding party or their families. There’s too much hub-bub. People are too distracted. I can, however, bring to mind several funerals in which I had very meaningful conversations with individuals and families about life, death, family, regret, guilt, forgiveness, and eternity.

It’s natural and human, I suppose, to think that we don’t search for God until trouble comes. If the going is easy then we feel little need. I don’t want to live that way, however. I don’t want to wait for trouble to come. Along the way, I’ve determined to seek God each and every day, in good times and bad times, in weddings and in funerals, on the peaks as well as in the valleys (and a chapter-a-day :-)).

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 4

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English: Image of a Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX sch...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Don’t point your finger at someone else
    and try to pass the blame!”
Hosea 4:4a (NLT)

The other day I was in a meeting and those in attendance were asked if they had any prayer requests. I was expecting the normal litany of requests about illnesses and safety for those traveling, but one of the men in the group had an unusual request.

The previous week he’d been driving home and happened upon a school bus with kids and parents milling about. One of the parents standing along the curb began to trip and fall toward the street. Distracted in an effort to avoid hitting the tripping mother, the man realized he’d passed the bus with its stop sign out. Realizing he’d broken the law he promptly drove to the local police station and turned himself in. He reported what he’d done. The result, he was told, was a mandatory court date, a citation, and the possibility of serving jail time. While writing out the citation, the officer realized it was the man’s birthday. “Happy Birthday!” the cop said as he passed over the ticket. Hearing the words “jail time” had the man a little rattle and he asked that we pray for the judge’s leniency at his trial.

I couldn’t help but be impressed by the man’s honesty and willingness to take responsibility for what he’d done. I observe that most people today would quickly slink back home, do everything they could to avoid the rap, excuse their behavior and shift blame to someone or something else. I have come to believe that we live in a time when pointing the finger and shifting blame have been raised to new heights by both individuals, groups and our culture as a whole. How sad that we find it quirky and odd when an individual steps up to the plate and accepts responsibility for his or her own mistakes.

Today, I’m praying for honesty and personal integrity in my own heart and actions, along with those of God’s people.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 3

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Hoshea was the last king of the Israelite King...
Hoshea was the last king of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel and son of Elah. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols! But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness. Hosea 3:4-5 (NLT)

Hosea was a prophet and his book is part of the Hebrew books of prophecy. It is impossible to read them and not think about their message in the context of history, time, and events. This morning, these two verses caught my eye for their prophetic nature.

Israel will go a long time without a king or prince… Indeed, Hoshea was the last king of Israel and he finished his reign in 712 B.C. Even if we count Zedekiah who was the last king of the southern nation of Judah, we only make it to 586 B.C. So, we’re now at roughly 2500 years Israel has been without a king.

without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols!…  When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans just 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, all of the Hebrews’ extensive genealogical records were destroyed along with the temple. Because God’s law specifically requires that the priestly and sacrificial systems be carried out by sons of Aaron and Levi, the sacking of Rome made it impossible for these systems to continue. It’s been nearly 2000 years.

But afterward the people will return…. Israel’s statehood in 1948 has resulted in millions returning to their native land.

and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king…. What’s interesting about this is that the destruction of the genealogical records in 70 A.D.  make it nearly impossible to determine who is a direct descendant of King David. Yet Jesus’ family tree exists. The line through both his mother and his earthly father is recorded in the gospels and traced back to David.

In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness. Today, I feel like I’m living out this prophecy as I ponder in wonder. I’m amazed at God’s story, His plan, and His prophets. I’m grateful to be living in such amazing times and witnessing so much from  a man walking on the moon to the ability of holding more information than all the ancient libraries combined in the palm of my hand. At the same time, I’m reminded that it is all part of a larger plan and story that God is telling through human history. It was foretold through the ancient prophets, has been working itself out and is yet coming to be.

Tom's Photos, Wayfarer's Journal

My Life: A Photo Abecedarius

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E is for Eyes.

I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a fascination with eyes. When I am struck by a stranger, it almost always their eyes that, well, “catch my eye.” Eyes have been a consistent motif in my artwork. I’ve heard it said that science has been able to replicate almost every human aspect in the form of robotics, but the eye  and it’s coordination with the brain and body has been virtually impossible to replicate in its complexity, sensitivity and rapid response.

I love that God created the eye to be the lamp of the soul. Eyes speak so much. They are so expressive. Eyes captivate.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 2

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Path off Coombs Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire
(Photo credit: eamoncurry123)

“But then I will win her back once again.
    I will lead her into the desert
    and speak tenderly to her there.”
Hosea 2:14 (NLT)

As one who has walked the faith journey for a good long while, I am repeatedly amazed at God’s patience, grace and long suffering with those of us who choose into relationship with Him. I can look back and see so many times that God could have, and perhaps should have, cut me loose and cast me aside. To be honest, there were many times that He gave me freedom to make foolish choices and harvest the consequences of my actions.

Nevertheless, God has always proven faithful. St. Paul wrote to his protege Timothy that even when we are faithless, God is faithful because God cannot disown who He is. Faithfulness is at the core of God’s being. Despite the fact that Israel acted like an unfaithful spouse and even though our own thoughts, motives, and actions show us to be no better, God waits for our return like the Prodigal’s father. When we come to our senses and return, God does not just grudgingly accept us, but woos us with kindness and tenderness. God goes the extra mile to win our hearts back again.

Today, I am humbly reminded of God’s faithfulness to this wandering wayfarer. His kindness leads me once more to repentance, and gratitude, and a renewed commitment to faithfully and lovingly follow.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hosea 1

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from loren javier via Flickr

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” Hosea 1:2 (NLT)

Hosea was written in whacky period of ancient history about 750 years before Christ. After King David and his son Solomon, the small kingdom of Israel had been broken up in a civil war. The southern kingdom was called Judah and their kings followed the lineage of King David. The northern kingdom continued to call themselves Israel and their throne was occupied by anyone who could plot, assassinate or politically maneuver themselves into the position.

There are two things that I love about Hosea. First, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and I love to imagine how that conversation went over with his parents.

“God told you WHAT??!”

Hosea stands as an eternal reminder that God does not fit inside a box of our own finite  cultural, social or political sensibilities. God is not subject to the limits of our own definition of propriety. In fact, the only limits God fits are those He has ordained for Himself.

Second, I love the way God made Hosea’s very life became an object lesson. His marriage to Gomer became a metaphor for God’s “marriage” to the idolatrous and therefore adulterous nation of Israel. Hosea’s poor children became metaphor’s for God’s message to Israel. The Great Creator as master artist turned Hosea’s life into a work of performance art.

I think God does the same with my life and yours.

How interesting to think of our very own life journeys being a metaphor for what God is doing. It’s why I love history. There are lessons, eternal spiritual lessons, to be learned from each person’s story. A few days ago I asked the question “What’s your story?” Today, I’m asking the same question for a second time with a different twist:

What is the story God is telling through your life?

(Note: Those following along on a chapter-a-day may wonder why we haven’t finished the book of Psalms. Because Psalms is 150 chapters long, I’ve opted to break it up a bit so as not to get fatigued with it. Psalms is broken up into five distinct sections or “books.” The first book ends with Psalm 41 which we walked through yesterday. We’ll pick back up again with the second section in the near future.)

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Texas Weekend

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I think my brother is taking the looking like Jesus thing a bit too far 🙂

Wendy and I spent last weekend in Texas. Some of have commented as they followed my Foursquare and Facebook posts that it was obvious we had a host of travel problems, and that is true. The weekend was originally a two-client business trip. We had a two day project scheduled in the Dallas area followed by a Sunday morning presentation for another client in San Antonio. When the Dallas project was scuttled at the last minute, we were stuck with the flights we’d purchased and had little choice but to make the trip and enjoy a few days in Texas.

My new chapeaux from The Hat Box in Austin

Friday we drove down to Austin to visit with my brother, Tim, who is living and working nearby. We arrived in the afternoon and went down to Austin’s famed 6th Street where we enjoyed a leisurely stroll. Even in the late afternoon the strip of pubs and bars was buzzing with activity. Texas’ roadhouse blues was pouring out of different establishments as we walked by. Wendy and I happened upon a great haberdashery called The Hatbox, and I felt compelled to support my desire to bring the hat back by purchasing a nice little brown pork pie to add to my small collection. We also found a little hole-in-the-wall cigar and coffee shop which hand rolled their own cigars, which was fun to watch (and I opted to support them as well). We also couldn’t pass “Shakespeare’s Pub” (Their motto: “Two beers? Or not Two Beers? That is the Question!” without stopping to enjoy some cold refreshment.

Wendy on the balcony of Shakespeare’s Pub in Austin, TX

We met Tim at a great Tex-Mex place called Chuy’s and feasted while enjoying some catch up and great conversation. The food was gone but the conversation felt like it was just getting started, so we went next door to a mirco-brew called Uncle Billy’s. We sat out on the porch there and talked late into the night.

It was a pleasurable evening, but after that the trip quickly descended into travel hell. In Austin we were only an hour drive from Saturday’s destination in San Antonio, but we had plane tickets from Dallas to the Riverwalk city so we made the three hour drive back to Dallas in emerging thunderstorms. The storms wreaked havoc on all air travel in Texas and the DFW airport was shut down for periods of time that afternoon and evening. Long story short is that our 5 p.m. flight to San Antonio on United turned into a midnight flight to San Antonio on American. We got to bed about 2:00 a.m. before my 8:00 a.m. client presentation. Our trip home through Houston Intercontinental Airport was also delayed because of weather and in stead of getting home at 6:00 on Sunday evening it was after midnight.

Gate B84 in Houston is the armpit of air travel. Flight crews call it “the litterbox.” I’ve been in nicer Greyhound stations. Wendy and I spent a week at this gate on Sunday evening.

Despite the time in travel purgatory, Wendy and I loved the time in Austin with Tim and look forward to a return trip when we can spend more time exploring all the town has to offer.