Monthly Archives: July 2015

Chapter-a-Day

When to Close Up the Filet-O-Fish Stand

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source: roslyn via flickr
source: roslyn via flickr

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 (NIV)

I recently had several conversations with a friend who is on the leadership team for a local group of Jesus’ followers. They were having issues with a particular individual who has established a pattern of expecting the group to pay for things. A month’s rent, a tank of gas, or a new piece of furniture were common expectations from this person. The individual doesn’t ask for help, it is just an expectation. Ironically, this same person appears to have no expectation to actually work to provide for their own needs or to contribute to the group in any meaningful or tangible way.

Jesus was a giver, and I get that. We are called to give and to help those who need it, and I am continually challenged and convicted to do more in that department. I find, however, that we often fail to remember that after a couple of instances of miraculously providing fish sandwiches  to the crowds, Jesus stopped the welfare program with a blistering tirade. Jesus chided the crowds for following him simply because he filled their stomachs while they had no intention or hunger to fill their souls.

Today I’m reminded that even in the early days of the faith, a period of time I often find idealized by Jesus’ followers today, there were some of the same nagging, human issues we grapple with today. People are people. Wherever there is generosity, there will be those who seek to take advantage of that generosity. I find it interesting that in today’s chapter the leaders in Thessalonica were commanded to take a strong stand with such individuals. If those who were able didn’t develop an industrious work ethic, then the generosity had to end.

These are difficult issues, especially when it’s not just a debate of principles but becomes a real person you have to confront, encourage, and admonish. It gets messy. There is inevitable conflict. If there is to be real spiritual growth in human hearts and lives then sometimes conflict is necessary. Iron sharpens iron and it is not a gentle process. Jesus not only drove the crowds away when he effectively closed up his filet-o-fish stand, but even had his inner circle scratching their heads.

I think of wise King Solomon and his reminder that there is a time for everything. I guess there is a time for giving, and a time for withholding generosity. Today, I’m praying for wisdom to know the difference.

Throwback Thursdays, Wayfarer's Journal

TBT: Soccer Man

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Tom SoccerSpeaking of fitness, for Throwback Thursday let me take you back to the golden days of yore when soccer wasn’t even a high school sport and you had to play for a local club. I played fullback for Des Moines’ Northwest Soccer Club. This photo was taken in the backyard of my grandparents house (you can see grandma’s shadow as she held her prized Polaroid camera). Gotta love those rockin’ short shorts!

Chapter-a-Day

Proper Position

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Proper Position

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NIV)

No one will accuse me of being a fitness geek. Nevertheless, I have picked up a thing or two along the way. When it comes to strength training, I have never forgotten the principle that position and form is critical to getting the maximum benefit from each exercise. If your body is not positioned correctly and you don’t move with proper form you will not only minimize the outcome of your effort but you could even end up injuring yourself.

This morning as I read the encouragement to “stand firm” and “hold fast” I thought about position. If I don’t put myself in a position emotionally and spiritually to stand firm then I can’t expect the maximum benefit as I weather life’s storms. Taking care of myself physically, staying connected spiritually and relationally, maintaining a conversation with God, and investing time and energy in quiet are all components of putting myself in the proper spiritual position to stand firm. It is the spiritual equivalent of standing with feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, back straight.

Today, I’m putting myself in the proper position to stand firm.

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Chapter-a-Day

Faith & Love Analysis

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source: debord via flickr
source: debord via flickr

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 2 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)

Yesterday I was on-site with a client. I sat with four Customer Service agents walked through the criteria that we will use to analyze the quality of service they provide over the phone. The process requires us to ask, “What does good service sound like? What behaviors are evidence of a quality service experience?” By listening for evidence of these behaviors in the calls we analyze, we can determine how consistently our client’s customers are receiving a quality experience.

This morning as I read the reasons Paul gave for being thankful for the Jesus followers in Thessalonica I suddenly saw it through my vocational lens. “What is the behavioral criteria that points to doing a good job in my faith?” Paul gives two:

  • Faith that continues to grow
  • Love that continues to increase

This morning, I’m asking myself some hard questions. What evidence is there that my faith has grown over the past week, month, or year? In what ways has my active love of others tangibly increased during those same periods of time? To what can I point for substantiation of measurable growth?

I’m not sure I like the answers to my questions. Lord, have mercy on me. Some days I look at the path and realize just how far I have to go.

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Chapter-a-Day

Being Watchful

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people in a mall

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Colossians 4:2 (NIV)

Back in college I had an assignment for my Acting I class that took me to the local mall. The assignment was simply to watch people. Not just to merely look at them, but to really watch them. Acting is about creating believable characters on stage, so our assignment was to watch how real people walk. We were to observe how different people move and carry themselves. What are their quirks? How do they relate to other people.

I thought about that assignment as I read the admonition to be watchful in today’s chapter. I have found that people largely make their way through life’s journey unaware. People are neither observant nor considerate of others. I find people giving little thought to what is happening around them nor how they are engaged in what is happening.

Jesus was fond of saying, “They who have ears, let them hear.” The lesson is clear that there is a difference between merely hearing and really listening and understanding what is going on around you. We just finished going through the Book of Acts and it ended with Paul quoting the prophet Isaiah on this same subject:

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.

Today, I’m thankful for my education in theatre and the life lessons it provided, such learning to be watchful, observant, and considerate of what is happening around me. I am thinking about my progressive hearing loss, how each year the whole world sounds a little bit more like Charlie Brown’s teacher, and how important it is for me to consciously listen. I’m thinking about my need to be more watchful and aware of others, their circumstances, and their needs.

Tom's Photos

Wendy Summit’s Arthur’s Seat

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Wendy Summit's Arthur's Seat 2This is another favorite shot from Scotland. I love the way the vast landscape and the path on the plain funnel your vision to Wendy making her way up through the crevice, her blue sweater providing a colorful contrast to the earthen rocks surrounding her.

Chapter-a-Day

The Place I Need Spiritual Heart Surgery

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"Crossing Cultures of Masks" source: Novica
“Crossing Cultures of Masks” source: Novica

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:11 (NIV)

One of the things that is largely forgotten today is just how socially radical the followers of Jesus were in the socio-economic Roman world of the first century. The lines of culture and society, of “haves” and “have nots” in their day and age were clearly drawn. Ethnicities, genders, and nationalities were deeply divided. As deeply divided as we see our own current culture, I have a hard time believing that it wasn’t exponentially worse in the first century Roman world.

Then Jesus came. And His followers saw in Jesus a different example:

Jesus spoke with women, and honored them as they supported His work. He spoke with a Samaritan woman with whom it was socially taboo to speak. He spoke with a woman condemned by her adultery, he touched her, covered her nakedness and forgave her.

Jesus was willing to go to the house of a Roman, whom it was socially and politically unacceptable by many in His culture to do.

Jesus accepted dinner invitations from those who were of the right wing, conservative political party that wanted Him dead.

Jesus dined with left wing, liberal Roman sympathizers considered traitors among His people. These hated turncoats and Bernie Madoff type con-men had worked the Roman system to get personally rich by extorting money from their good neighbors. 

Jesus touched and healed people who were poor, who were social outcasts, and those whom His society deemed wholly unacceptable.

Among Jesus’ circle of 12 disciples were educated and uneducated, a right wing extremist and a left wing extremist, rich and poor, blue collar and white collar. 

After Jesus ascension, His followers continued His example. When Jesus’ followers gathered together they welcomed everyone to the table. Slaves were welcome at the table with their own slave owners (imagine how uncomfortable that must have been). Men and women were both welcomed. People of all colors and nations were welcomed at the same table whether a respected Greek academic or a brutal Scythian barbarian. In Christ everyone who followed Jesus was welcome at the table. This simple, radical, counter cultural act would slowly rock the Roman Empire.

Today I’m asking myself, “How far has the pendulum sung back among those of us who claim to be Jesus’ followers today? Who would I honestly not want to welcome at the table with me? Who would make me really uncomfortable if they walked into my Sunday’s worship service and sat down?”

Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I’ve just identified the very place I need spiritual heart surgery. STAT.

Chapter-a-Day

Free

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“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” Colossians 2:21-23 (NIV)

Many years ago I had a friend who was a marriage and family therapist. About once a week he would show up in my office between sessions to take a break. We enjoyed our conversations and one day he began to talk about the fact that he spent one day each week counseling in a small town nearby. The town had a strong reputation as a pious, religious community that upheld very strict standards of behavior. From the outside, the community appeared the image of perfection. My friend the therapist, however, told a different story.

“It’s the sickest community I’ve ever experienced,” my friend said. “There’s so much social pressure to appear morally perfect that they stuff all of their troubles and imperfections deep inside and try to keep them hidden. In the darkness of secrecy they grow like an infection until they wreak all sorts of havoc on their lives and relationships.”

That conversation came to mind this morning as I read Paul’s words above. Along life’s road I’ve dwelt among many groups who fit his description of moral legalists trying desperately to tame their moral troubles with long lists of “do’s” and “don’ts” that allow for some kind of public moral measuring stick. In my experience, I have found the testimony of my friend, the therapist, to be quite accurate. The more we try to keep up moral appearances, the more spiritually sick we become. It’s what Jesus described in the legalistic religious folks he encountered: “You’re hopeless…You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.”

Last week on Independence Day I thought about how grateful I was for religious freedom. Today, I find myself thankful for spiritual freedom. They are two very different things. Jesus didn’t come to make us more religious, He came to provide us spiritual freedom. The former will never be able to provide the latter.

Tom's Photos

Daisies on Castle Hill

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Daisies on Castle Hill EdinburghThis is one of my favorite shots from Edinburgh, Scotland. There was something that struck me about the juxtaposition of this massive, man man edifice that has stood for hundreds of years commanding the view from miles around, and these fragile, temporal wild flowers residing nearby in the simplicity of their seasonal beauty.

Chapter-a-Day

Captivated

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source: Novica
source: Novica

…and through [Jesus] God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:20 (NRSV)

In marriage I have come to a greater appreciation of the relational dance of give and take, of pursing and being pursued. Traditional roles say that when it comes to courtship and sex, men are the pursuers and women the captivated. I have found it generally true as are most generalities, but it’s too simplistic a construct for the intimacy of so mysterious and complex of relationship. I often find myself to be the pursuer, but it’s certainly fun when Wendy pursues me.

I find it fascinating that God so often uses the metaphor of marriage to describe His relationship with us. As a young man I struggled a lot with the notion of Jesus’ followers being described as “the bride of Christ.” To be honest, it was discomforting to my male ego. After years of navigating marriage, however, I realize how apt a metaphor it is. I begin to understand that it’s far more intimate and mysterious than the simplistic generalities of gender.

In today’s chapter, Jesus is described as the reconciler. He reconciled us to him. He pursued. He initiated. He came to us. He sacrificed Himself for us. He gave. He drew us in.

When Jesus found me, I was seeking, but looking back there is no doubt in my mind or spirit that it was Jesus who found me in my seeking and drew me in. He pursued me. He reconciled me to Himself.

I was, and am continually, captivated.