Monthly Archives: October 2013

Chapter-a-Day

This Has Not Changed

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verses in the stairwayMy old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

On the stairway leading d0wn to the main floor of our home hangs a frame in which three different verses from God’s Message are hand written in three different calligraphy fonts. It was a gift to me from one of my brothers, who penned the verses himself and had them framed as a college graduation gift. The three verses were ones that I had memorized as a young follower of Jesus. They were verses I considered to be spiritual stakes in the ground and they took on deep personal meaning about who I wanted to be and how I wanted to live my life when my spiritual journey and my life journey were in the early stages. One of those verses was the verse above from today’s chapter.

It has been a quarter century and those verses have hung in every one of a dozen or so places I have called home. The paper is yellowing with age. The frame shows wear. Each day I pass it countless times as I walk upstairs to my office and back downstairs again. Every time I catch sight of it in my peripheral vision I remember the three verses. They go through my head once more and my heart touches them like a compass seeking true north. I think about where I started in my journey. I think about where I am today. I think about where I am heading.

A lot of water under the bridge; I’ve journeyed far since the day I first opened my gift. I’ve attempted short cuts that proved tragic dead ends. I’ve stumbled and fallen, and have gotten back up again. I’ve seen much, heard much, and lived much. I’ve experienced good times and bad. I’ve struck out more times than I’ve gotten on base, but I’ve also knocked one or two out of the park. I’m older. My hair seems to turns more gray with each passing day. I’m losing my hearing at a sad, rapid rate. Though blessedly healthy, I don’t have the strength or stamina that I used. I am nowhere near the waypoint I thought the journey was taking me when I was young and naïve (and that’s ultimately a good thing).

Still, I pass those old framed verses and I am reminded that this has not changed:

I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.

Chapter-a-Day

An Audience of One

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audience of oneObviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. Galatians 1:10 (NLT)

In the wee hours of this morning I was up praying for and responding to an e-mail from my daughter. Earlier this week she and her husband crafted a well articulated blog post about the journey of relational and behavioral they have been struggling through in the past three years. As happens whenever you offer up intimate details of your life for public consumption you are bound to receive diverse reactions and responses. The kids have been struggling through some particularly negative, personal feedback.

I thought of them as I read the opening of Paul’s letter to those following Jesus in Galatia. In the early years after Jesus’ resurrection, there were all sorts of quarrels and schisms between the growing number of believers around the known world. Paul was a fiercely independent person and I get the impression that he had a very strong, fiery personality. Because Paul was not one of the original group of disciples, because he had once hunted down and executed Jesus’ followers, and because he didn’t not easily fit into the organizational structure of the emerging group of believers, there was a lot of controversy surrounding him and his work to share the good news of Jesus with the Roman provinces in Greece and southern Europe.

In today’s chapter, Paul makes it clear that he is doing what God had called him to do. He did not seek nor solicit anyone’s permission. He did not beg anyone’s leave. He had an audience of one, and that was God alone. He did not care what anyone thought about him or his work. He was not answering to them nor responsible for their reactions to him. He was not out to please people. He was working to please God by being obedient to walk the path he’d been given.

Unlike Paul, God gave me the personality of a people pleaser. I want people to like me. It makes me uncomfortable when people take issue with me, my words, or my actions. Yet, I have learned along the journey to accept the criticism, harsh words, and negative reactions that sometimes come with public speaking, blogging, and performing. I can’t keep people from judging me, criticizing me, or condemning me. What I can do is continue to walk the path God has laid before me, step-by-step, to the best of my ability, and to keep my focus on the audience of One who ultimately is the only One who counts.

My daughter shared with me some of the outpouring of people who have been touched, encouraged, moved and motivated by their blog post. People who thought they were alone in their own pain now have someone with whom they can identify. Opportunities are opening for them to help others through the painful struggle of their own brokenness. Despite the criticism of a few, many are benefitting from their courageous honesty, openness, and transparency. They have no need to waste emotional energy on unimportant criticism and the judgment of others. They need that energy to be channeled in love, grace and encouragement towards the precious ones who are coming out of the wood work to say, “Help. Me too.”

 

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Chapter-a-Day

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

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Sello de lacre en sobre, escudo Heraldico de l...
Sello de lacre en sobre, escudo Heraldico de la Familia Fonseca Padilla, Jalisco; México. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Place me like a seal over your heart,
    like a seal on your arm.
Song of Solomon 8:6a (NLT)

I have in my desk a stick of sealing wax and seal press with the initial “V” on it. I purchased it many years ago and still pull it out from time to time when I am writing a special letter of some kind. It’s a funky little detail that makes a letter or card stand out. You light the wax stick and let the wax drip onto the back of the envelope where the letter is sealed. Once you have a little blob of melted wax built up on the envelope you use the press to squish the wax. When it dries, the initial is embossed in the wax and it creates a special second seal on the letter which the reader must break to open the letter.

Our culture has long forgotten the importance that seals played in ancient times. Kings, officials, and noblemen had their own unique seal which they used to seal letters and documents. It became a public sign of ownership for the person to whom that document belonged. When you saw the seal, you knew who you were messing with. Seals are sometimes known as “sigils” which etymologists trace back to the Hebrew word segula which referred to an item of spiritual effect. In ancient folklore, it was believed that a person poured a part of themselves into the design of their unique seal. An individual’s seal wasn’t just a symbol of a particular person, it was spiritually a part of them.

In light of this understanding of the ancient meaning of seals and sigils, I loved the above verse from the lyrics of Solomon’s song. Sung by the young woman in the duet, she asks Solomon to metaphorically place her as a seal over her heart and upon his arm. There are two layers of meaning here. The heart is the most private chamber of our thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams and intentions. By being placed as a seal over his heart, the young would lay claim to Solomon’s most intimate being. She alone would have access to Solomon’s heart. In Solomon’s day, the arm was often the only part of the man who was publicly seen by others other than his face. The arm is also a symbol of a man’s strength. By being placed as a seal on his arm, the young woman was laying public claim to Solomon and his strength.

God’s Message has scant descriptors of marriage. It does not prescribe a particular method or ceremony for marriage, but seems to allow room for cultures and history to develop a veritable plethora of customs around the marriage ceremony. What God’s Message does simply say is that a man and woman leave their respective parents, unite themselves, and become “one flesh.” When we knit ourselves together in spirit, soul mind and body we place our spouse as a seal over us.

Choose well the person whose seal you place over your heart and life.

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Chapter-a-Day

A Case for Delayed Gratification

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English: King Solomon in Old Age (1Kings 4:29-...I am my lover’s,
    and he claims me as his own.
Come, my love, let us go out to the fields
    and spend the night among the wildflowers.
Let us get up early and go to the vineyards
    to see if the grapevines have budded,
if the blossoms have opened,
    and if the pomegranates have bloomed.
    There I will give you my love.
There the mandrakes give off their fragrance,
    and the finest fruits are at our door,
new delights as well as old,
    which I have saved for you, my lover.
Song of Solomon 7:10-13 (NLT)

In today’s chapter, young King Solomon offers another flattering and erotic shower of compliments on the young woman he is courting. Earlier in the song he complimented her from head to foot. This time he moves from feet to head and you can feel the pent up sexual tension as the images and euphemisms gain a stronger sexual tone. Solomon is hot after this young woman.

The woman picks up the song and we find that she has finally been claimed by Solomon. She will become his wife. Solomon’s words and romantic verses have obviously had the desired effect because no sooner has she been claimed as his bride than she suggests that they proceed to a fertile, outdoor love fest. The chapter ends with the young woman declaring that she has saved herself for him, and for this moment.

There is something beautiful in the build up to this moment. I found it ironic that today is chapter seven. Seven, in biblical numerology, is the number of completion and here in the seventh chapter the completion of the long courtship, the claiming of the bride, and the bride’s invitation to consummate their love. We live in a generation of mobile phones, fast food, ATMs, overnight delivery, video streaming, music streaming, and more information available at your fingertips than has existed in all the libraries in all the world combined. We have been seduced by gratification of our temporal desires 24/7/365. This spills over into our sexual lives in the form of porn, sexting, hooking up, and the death of courtship as we have known it for centuries. My daughter linked this article in a comment to my post last week. I replied that it makes me want to get all the millennial young men in a room and have an intervention.

Do not hear what I am not saying. I do not intend for this to be the rant of an old man against technology and the younger generations. Rather, in contrast to where our culture seems to be heading, I hear in Song of Solomon the wisdom, art, and beauty of love that takes time, effort, and creativity to develop. I am reminded that delayed gratification makes the climactic sensual feast deeper, more meaningful and ultimately more pleasurable.

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