Judgement & Appearances

July 31, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Teach me, and I will be quiet;
show me where I have been wrong.”
Job 6:24 (NIV)

Yesterday afternoon, Wendy and I enjoyed an afternoon of chilling out in a pool with friends on a hot Iowa summer afternoon. One of our friends and I have been talking about the biographies we’ve been reading. I’m currently working my way through a prodigious tome about Ulysses S. Grant, our friend just finished a biography of a pop culture celebrity of less historical consequence though probably of greater interest to most people.

One of the things that came out of our conversation was how easy it is to judge people by appearances, or judge them by their circumstances. I see a man drive up in an Aston Martin and get out in a finely tailored suit and there certain assumptions I make about his wealth, status, intelligence, and abilities. Likewise, I see a homeless man on the same street and I immediately make different assumptions about wealth, status, intelligence, and abilities. In either case, I don’t know the person, their circumstances, or what led to those circumstances.

In today’s chapter, Job begins his reply to his friend, Eli. In his effort to comfort and encourage Job in his suffering, Eli insinuated that Job must have done something to incur the wrath of the Almighty. In this case, Eli has made a value judgment based on appearances. In Eli’s world view, a man who lost everything in a single day and then contracted a hideous and painful skin disease had to have done something to warrant his fateful circumstances. It’s the same way I look at a man in a tailored suit driving an Aston Martin and conclude he must be intelligent and capable to have attained such success, and I look at the homeless man and conclude he must be incompetent, addicted, or insane to be homeless.

In the midst of his suffering, the first thing that struck me is his unwillingness to suffer his friend’s prejudice and judgement. He calls Eli out for making the assumption that Job must have a secret sin that God is punishing. He demands that this friend put up or shut up as it pertains to the accusations. Job has lost everything, including his hope (vs. 11), but he refuses to surrender his integrity. He demands that Eli look him in the sunken eyes of his disfigured and sore-ridden face and take back his passive-aggressive accusations:

“But now be so kind as to look at me.
    Would I lie to your face?
Relent, do not be unjust;
    reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.
Is there any wickedness on my lips?
    Can my mouth not discern malice?“

In the quiet this morning, my thoughts drift back to a message I gave last week in which I, once again, shared part of my story. The truth is that I made some really bad decisions earlier in my life which eventually led to the end my first marriage. There are friends from that stretch of my earthly journey who walked away and have never spoken to me since. I suspect that if you were to ask some of them about me today my reputation in their eyes goes no further than those publicly known sins and failures back then. I’m so grateful to God that my story didn’t end there.

I’m also grateful to God that I have no clue what Job-level suffering is actually like. I do, however, know what it’s like for friends to make judgments based on appearances. It’s made me far less apt to apt to judge others based merely on appearances or a few known circumstances. There is always more to the story, both the story of how a person ended up in the present circumstances, the story of the larger contextual circumstances that aren’t readily apparent, and the story of what God might well be doing in using those circumstances in all sorts of redemptive ways.

If I really am a friend, perhaps I should reserve judgment based on limited appearances and instead simply sit down and say, “I’d really like to hear your story.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Slimy Sympathy

July 28, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
Job 5:27 (NIV)

I once had the opportunity to sit under the teaching of a popular speaker and author at a weekend conference. This was probably twenty or more years ago. At the time, he was around the same age that I am now. At. one point, this gentleman has been on the “it” persons in popular Christian culture. I sold a lot of his books over the years when I worked in a bookstore in my high school and college days. His name was instantly recognizable. He was popular. He was influential. He had fame in his circles of influence.

Then, he disappeared.

He was gone from the bestseller lists. He was gone from the Christian publishing circuit. He was no longer part of the conversation. There were no scandals. There were no sensational headlines. He simply checked himself out of the game.

So, when he appeared as an instructor that weekend, I was intrigued. There was one thing he said that weekend that has stuck with me all these years. I’ve never forgotten it. I paraphrase from memory:

“I’d like to share with you some of the things I’ve been thinking about. Things I’ve been learning. You may disagree with me on some of the things. That’s okay. Go right ahead. I no longer feel the need to be right all the time.”

I loved the simple humility with which he said this. I appreciated his experience driven life-and-faith lessons.

The further I get in my journey, the more I’ve embraced life’s mysteries. The more content I am to shrug my shoulders. The less I feel the need to have an explanation for every thing that fits neatly inside a theological world-view.

In reading the last half of Job’s friend, Eli’s, first discourse, it felt kind of slimy from a relational human perspective. I suspect I’m going to be feeling that a lot as Job’s friends try to comfort Job by explaining his suffering.

Eli tries to be encouraging. He points out that God works miracles and wonders. God provides rain for the crops and blesses the lowly. If Job will be make an appeal to the Almighty, God will restore him. But, Eli also passive aggressively accuses Job of being secretly to blame for his sufferings:

“Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.”
(You must have resentment hidden in your heart!)

“Hardship does not spring from the soil, nor trouble from the ground.”
(You must have done something to bring this trouble on yourself!)

“Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so don’t despise His discipline.”
(Your suffering is clearly God’s “correction” and “discipline!”)

To make matters worse, Eli’s assured promises make light of the harsh reality of his present sufferings, his lost wealth, and his ten dead children:

“You will know that your tent is secure;
you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
You will know that your children will be many,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.“

To add the proverbial cherry on top, Eli ends his discourse by assuring Job of his rightness, even taking the plural form to make his personal arguments sound like corporate, agreed upon truth:

“We have examined this, and it is true.
So hear it and apply it to yourself.”

It felt slimy. Under the guise of encouragement and promises are passive aggressive accusations and self-righteous assurances that Job’s suffering fits neatly into the box of Eli the apologist’s theological wisdom and understanding.

How fascinating that as I read Eli’s discourse the Holy Spirit brought to mind the reappearance of the disappearing teacher some twenty years ago. The humble acknowledgement that he doesn’t know everything. The shrug and the admission that he’s simply not going to bother trying to prove his rightness to some guy from Kokomo, Indiana whom he’s never met and who wants to challenge his theology.

Some things simply defy easy explanation in this life.

Life gets messy.

It is what it is.

“I don’t know, Job. I can’t imagine. Nor can I make sense of what you’re going through right now. I won’t pretend to understand. I’m so sorry. I can assure of one thing, however. I love you. And, I’m going to sit right here with you as long as you’d like me to do so.”

FWIW: Today’s featured image “Job and his three friends covered in slime” was created with Dall-E2 AI image generator.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Eli and the Santa Clause

July 27, 2023 Tom Vander Well 4 Comments

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
Job 4:5-6 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I have noticed that humanity has a certain base belief that is woven into the fabric of our DNA. We inherently believe that doing good is a good thing and doing bad is a bad thing. Pardon me for borrowing from a Hollywood movie title, but I often think of this as “The Santa Clause” because in Santa we boil it down to its pure form and feed it to our children. If you’re naughty you get coal in your stocking. If you’re good you get presents, or as comedian David Sedaris puts it, “if you’re good and live in America, you pretty much get whatever it is you want.”

As an adult, I’ve observed that the Santa Clause often gets hard-wired within us. If we live right and do good things then life should be filled with goodness and blessing. If we are selfish and a bad person then certainly we will reap the consequences of our self-centeredness and bad actions.

In today’s chapter, we hear from Eli, the first of Job’s three friends who have been sitting with him and contemplating the terrible suffering Job is experiencing. Eli begins and jumps right into Santa Clause world view. He recounts how Job, in his goodness, has encouraged and counseled others in their troubles, so Job should take a bit of his own advice not that he’s on the other side of the troubles. Cheer up!

Eli then recounts his observations of the Santa Clause principle at work. God blesses the upright and doesn’t kill them, while evil doers reap trouble and God wipes them out. As I read, I couldn’t help but wonder if Eli is trying to say: “You’re a good guy. God won’t let you die” while the subtext of his words is: “People don’t suffer like this unless they brought it on themselves.“

After this, Eli goes into the classic “I had a dream about you,” which I consider a variation of “God told me to tell you.” Dreams, visions, and words from the Spirit-realm carry an air of authority from beyond. The messenger isn’t responsible. Eli isn’t source. He is simply retelling what the “hushed voice” in his dream told him. I have written before about my thoughts on dealing with “God told me to tell you” statements. It’s not that I don’t believe in the prophetic, because I certainly do. I have a number of experiences with the prophetic that have been mind-blowing. I have also had experiences with those playing fast and loose with the “God told me” card. I have always found that a certain wisdom, discernment, and openness is required.

Today’s chapter are just the first half of Eli’s words for Job. Tomorrow’s chapter will contain the second half. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that he’s wading in the shallow end. Along my own life journey there have been stretches and experiences in which a Hallmark card poetry and “buck up li’l camper” platitudes feel like salt being rubbed into my wounds. While there is truth in the Santa Clause view of life (that’s why we use it with children), it certainly falls far short of addressing the messy circumstances we experience along this life journey.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t point the finger at Eli without three fingers pointing back at me. I am mindful of my own terrible Eli-like attempts at encouragement to others over the years. I’m embarrassed by some of the silly, shallow, and unhelpful things I know that I’ve said to people in the worst moments of their lives. The Sage of Ecclesiastes wrote that there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. The further I get in on this earthly journey, the more I embrace the latter. I wonder sometimes if simple, loving presence with open ears, an open heart, and a willing spirit aren’t the best thing for those suffering like Job. There are moments when keeping my mouth shut might just be the most gracious thing I do for others.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Job (Jul-Oct 2023)

July 26, 2023 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

Each photo below corresponds to a chapter-a-day post and podcast for the book of Job published by Tom Vander Well in July through September 2023. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post or listen to the podcast.

You’re all caught up! Posts will be added here as they are published. Click on the image below for easy access to other recent posts indexed by book.

Chapter-a-Day

Birthday

July 26, 2023 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

“Why is light given to those in misery,
    and life to the bitter of soul,
to those who long for death that does not come,
    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
who are filled with gladness
    and rejoice when they reach the grave?”
Job 3:20-22 (NIV)

One of the things that Wendy and I have noticed in our marriage is that birthdays are treated a bit differently in our families. In essence, the siblings in my family don’t really pay much attention to each other’s birthdays. I never expect to hear from them on my birthday, and I feel no expectation to do so for them. In our family system, birthdays are a thing between parents and children, but it doesn’t extend to siblings and their families. Wendy’s family, on the other hand, experiences an explosion of activity on the family text string whenever anyone in the family has a birthday. Everyone is in. Everyone celebrates, even if it is simply a text of good wishes.

Today’s chapter is the first we hear of Job’s thoughts as he sits on the refuse pile of broken pottery and the ashes from people burning their garbage. In one day he lost every one of his earthly blessings. His wealth was stolen by enemies. His children died in a natural disaster. Then, he lost even his health. As we begin what will be twenty-four chapters of conversation between Job and his three friends regarding his suffering, we find the emaciated, disfigured Job covered in his festering skin sores from head to toe, scraping at the sores with pieces of broken pottery. His friends have sat silently in commiseration with Job for seven days.

When Job finally speaks, the first thing he does is curse his birthday. The day that friends and loved ones gather to celebrate each year. The one day each year when every person is celebrated and made to feel special. Job, in his intense suffering, laments that he was even born only for his life to lead to this intense loss and affliction. What Job longs for, he says, is death. He wants an end to the pain.

This past year, a nurse sat down with my Dad and me to discuss my mother who was in memory care. What they shared with us is that my mother, painfully thin and living in the increasingly bitter reality of memory loss, showed all of the signs of someone who had “given up” on life. Like Job, she was on her own ash heap of life. She refused to eat, she began to sleep more and more, and she was increasingly life-less during her diminished waking hours. We agreed with the nurses recommendation to allow Hospice to take over her daily care.

I learned so much in the few months that followed. The wonderful nurses of Hospice taught me that there is a certain pattern and cadence that a person in my mother’s condition takes in the final stretch of her earthly journey. One of the hardest adjustments for me to make during this period of time was embracing her loss of will to live. When she refused to eat, I wanted to force feed her. When she slept all day, I wanted to get her up and make her take a walk with me. When she was awake yet seemed uninterested in engaging with me, I wanted to find some way, any way, to get some signs of involvement in conversation from her. The Hospice nurses taught me that forcing food, waking, and engagement was actually the worse thing we could do. I had to force myself to be content with reading Psalms to her when she was asleep, sitting silently with her and holding her hand when she was awake, and allowing her and her body to dictate what she needed each moment.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think that in those few months I was not unlike one of Job’s friends. I read one commentator who, in referencing Job’s friends sitting with Job in silence for seven days, shared the opinion that they should have remained silent, foreshadowing the foolishness and unhelpful words they will utter in the following chapters.

Just this past week, my dad and sister and I spent a few days at the lake together. It was this past St. Patrick’s Day when our family celebrated mom’s life. Her body was cremated. She and dad have a cemetery plot where both their ashes will be buried, but we felt no rush to do this in the cold Iowa spring weather. We decided to put this off until it was warmer and we could gather as a family around the grave and celebrate to celebrate her and remember all the life and goodness she gave us.

While at the lake we decided on August 18th as the day we will lay her remains to rest.

August 18th is her birthday.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Spiritual Triangle

July 25, 2023 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

[Job] replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
Job 2:10 (NIV)

I’m getting to a place on life’s road in which retirement sits on the horizon. I have friends who have already retired, and retirement thoughts and plans has suddenly become a more frequent topic of conversation.

I’ve observed that retirement seems to be a piece of “the American dream.” We’re told to plan for it, save for it, and get ready to “enjoy” life in our golden years. It’s easy to feel that I have a right to those promises of a “good life” in the retirement years like you see on every drug commercial. I put in all of those years of work, and the financial planner promised that my savings and investments will allow me to do the things I want to do.

Over the past decade, I’ve watched my mother suffer and die from Alzheimer’s. I’ve watched my father suffer from cancer as well as a viral infection that almost killed him and put him in nursing care for months. I know it’s not the life my parents envisioned in their seventies and eighties. It’s easy to feel a certain sense of injustice in it all.

The prologue of Job (chapters 1-2) sets up a divine relational triangle. God and Job have a good relationship going. Both are happy and content with one another. Job is grateful and faithful to God, ritually providing offerings even for his children that they would be pure in their relationship with the Almighty (Job 1:5). This is an important piece of the story for me to understand before embarking into the main text of the story.

In the ancient near east, the Hebrews had a very different understanding of God than the other cultures surrounding them had of their many gods and goddesses. The other religions of Job’s day viewed gods as higher beings, like super humans who were very human-like. The notion was that the gods got tired of providing for themselves, digging irrigation systems, raising crops, building homes for themselves, and et cetera. So, they believed that the gods created humans to serve them, provide them with a home and daily needs (a temple or shrine, with food (offerings and sacrifices), and to care for the gods in every way. Humans were essentially a slave labor force. The gods provided for humans in order that humans could provide for them. This is referred to as “The Great Symbiosis.”

In contrast, the God of Hebrews revealed Himself in a covenant relationship of His own prompting. He asked for ritual offerings and sacrifices like the other gods, but not because He needed humans for anything. God promised to provide and protect the Hebrews, but not because He desired anything other than relational fidelity from them. God simply wanted to be in a faithful covenant relationship with His creation, a covenant relationship very much like a marriage. Marriage is used as a metaphor for the relationship of God and humanity throughout the Great Story, especially by the prophets and later by Jesus.

The third member of this relational triangle revealed in the prologue of Job is Satan. The Hebrew word satan means “accuser” or “adversary.” Satan attempts to drive a relational wedge between God and Job (I can’t help but see a literary parallel to Iago driving a wedge between Othello and Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello). Satan’s accusation is that Job is faithful to God only because of a “Great Symbiosis” type relationship like the other gods of the near east. Satan contends that Job is only faithful because God has provided for him, protected him, and blessed him. Take away his wealth, the blessing of his children, and (in today’s chapter) his health, and Job will certainly lose his faith and curse God.

We’ll never know a certain diagnosis of what Job was afflicted with, but within the rest of the story he describes symptoms of festering sores from head-to-foot, nightmares, hallucinations, fever, weight loss. His physical appearance was frightening. The fact that his three friends put ashes on their heads (an ancient sign of grieving for the dead) when they saw him basically meant they considered Job as good as dead. Job’s wife certainly believed that Job would be better off dead, and urges him to essentially commit suicide by cursing God and prompting God to finish him off.

Despite his agony, Job refuses to do abandon God or curse him. He asks his wife another one of the big questions that resonate throughout the entire story, and that resonates with me in my own life: “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In the quiet this morning, I focused on the fact that Satan exits the story upon his affliction of Job and Job’s refusal to curse God. We’ll neither see nor hear from the Accuser again in this story. Job will question God, plead with God, and complain to God, but never will he curse God. The accuser is proven wrong. Now the questions that remain for next 40 chapters are how on earth did Job endure? How does Job make sense of his circumstances? Why would God allow this suffering?

In the quiet, I’m also reminded that Jesus never promised His followers an easy life. Quite the opposite, He said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Big, Uncomfortable Questions

July 24, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.
Job 1:9 (NIV)

As a child, I remember my concept of God was that of a omnipotent source of all blessings and suffering in my life. The relationship was transactional in nature. Every strongly felt desire prompted an internal debate about what good I had to do, or what wrong I had to avoid or atone for, in order for God to grant my wish. Likewise, any experiential suffering in life was, of course, the result of my fatal flaws. Surely, I did something to warrant all four Vikings Super Bowl losses in the 1970s. My sins were just that bad.

I grew up. My relationship with God became very real, and I began to realize how foolish and vainglorious was my childish belief that I was solely responsible for every perceived fortune and misfortune in life. Nevertheless, there is a thread of wisdom throughout the Great Story that lays out a seemingly contractual system. Follow God’s ways and be blessed. Follow the path of evil and painful consequences will follow. While this is generally true, the human experience reveals that there are, and always have been, exceptions to the general rule. Good people suffer horrendous evils they don’t deserve. Evil people seemingly prosper and escape any earthly consequences for their actions. Both of these earthly realities are humanely unjust. How do we reconcile these exceptions?

That’s the question that Job grapples with.

The story of Job is one of the oldest and most difficult stories in all of the Great Story. The basic plot is well-known. A godly man who has done nothing wrong is allowed to suffer in what appears to be a spiritual test-case, to determine whether or not the man will lose his faith and curse God. My experience is that very few people have actually waded into the text itself which is an extensive exploration of human suffering and the theological arguments that ultimately fall short of explaining a justification for it.

The opening chapter is a prologue to the main story. The scene is set in God’s counsel chambers as God points out what a good man Job is. Satan then asks a pertinent question: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” It goes to the heart of my childish spiritual notions. Do we fear and serve God in exchange for security and blessing? The accuser even seems to implicate God in the question and give some credence to my perceptions of a tit-for-tat, quid pro quo relationship between faith and blessing: “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.“

God allows the adversary to put Job to the test, and Job experiences the worst day of his life. His wealth is stolen or destroyed and all ten of his children are killed when the house they were feasting in collapses from a derecho wind.

The result?

Job, in his sudden grief, utters his famous faith-filled lament:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself entering this latest trek through Job with mixed feelings. My previous journeys through Job reveal it to be a story that asks big, challenging life questions that test the human limitations of understanding. I have always found it both uncomfortable and humbling. At the same time, I have also found beauty in the struggle of wrestling with Job’s core questions, which I have found to be ironically consistent with the experience of suffering itself.

The first challenging question: Do I fear God for nothing?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Coffee and Contentment

July 20, 2023 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:12-13 (NIV)

Wendy and I have acquired a plethora of coffee mugs along life’s road. There are at least large drawers full of them, plus a cupboard with more. That’s just the kitchen. There are more downstairs in the pub and of course there’s a bunch at the lake. We have mugs from different plays we were in. There’s a mug from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Pella Opera House. We have one coffee mug emblazoned with quotes of love from Shakespeare and another one with Shakespearean insults. I have diner mugs with various iterations of our company’s logo across the years. There’s a mug from a coffee shop in Kauai and others from various places we’ve visited. Far-side mugs, hobbit mugs, and flower mugs. Small mugs, medium mugs, and huge mugs. I believe Wendy and I could have the army of Guatemala over for coffee and still not be in want for mugs.

Come to think of it, I can’t think of one mug in our warehouse of coffee mugs that has a Bible verse on it. It’s possible that there’s one buried in there somewhere, but if there is I can’t picture it.

I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with popular Christian culture. All through my high school and college years I worked for a chain of stores that sold pretty much anything on which you could print a bible verse. There were frisbees that “rose on the wings of eagles” and flashlights with which to be “the light of the world.” There were pewter bread trays branded for “the bread of life” and water bottles for your personal “spring of living water.” Of course, there were coffee mugs to help believers praise God “from the rising of the sun.”

Hawking the Christian tchotchkes helped put me through college, and for that I’m grateful. Even then, however, there was a catch in my spirit with Jesus junk. Part of my personal hesitation has to do with the fact that Jesus Himself said He wanted His disciples’ love, kindness, and servant-hearted acts to mark them as His followers. Walking around in my “saved by grace” t-shirt feels a bit like a shortcut that cheapens the whole thing.

The other thing that bothers me is the fact that reducing the Message to a pithy painted trinket sometimes profanes it. I’m sure theres a power band or set of dumbbells you can buy that comes with “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” printed on them to inspire your holy workout.

When Paul wrote “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” he wasn’t talking about lifting heavy weights, running a marathon, or even doing spectacular miracles like raising the dead. He was specifically talking about being content whether he was living in wealth or poverty, whether he was healthy or sick, whether he had full pantry or didn’t know where his next meal was coming from. I know, contentment isn’t as inspiring as moving mountains, but to my mind it might be more difficult. After all, we live in a world that is fueled by discontent. What Paul was really getting at by saying “I can do all this through him” was about walking away from the end-cap full of exercise gloves with Philippians 4:13 stitched on them. I don’t need them. I can be content with plain black ones I have at home.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself contemplating contentment. I’m still shocked by the fact that I never hear it discussed in a serious way. I wonder if discontent and the desire for more is so embedded in our cultural DNA that we can’t even fathom the contentment that Jesus expected of His disciples when He sent them out in pairs to neighboring towns and told them to take nothing but the cloak on their backs. Somehow, I think that I need a lot more contentment and a lot less of everything else. It’s at least worth some serious conversation over a cup of coffee.

Feel free to stop by. I’ve got a coffee mug just waiting for you.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Uncategorized

Bullsh!t

July 19, 2023 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ…
Philippians 3:8 (NIV)

I have been so blessed on this earthly journey. I try to remember this always. I marvel at it and am so grateful for it. In my conversations with God I try to continually express my gratitude because I have done nothing to deserve any of it. I have simply tried to follow where God has led, and the Good Shepherd has led this lost sheep to some pretty green pastures. I am so thankful.

As the spiritual renovation of life has progressed I have increasingly come to understand and embrace one of the basic tenets of Jesus’ teaching. God’s ways run opposite of humanity’s ways. What this world values is not what God values, while what God values is given little or no consideration in the value system of this world.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”
-Jesus

Paul makes the same argument in today’s chapter as it relates to earthly status. He gives a brief version of his CV to the Philippians. In the Hebrew world of his day, Paul was a golden child. He was born into a good tribe, educated at the finest schools, was a member of the most prestigious organizations, and held important and powerful positions. In today’s terms it would be like having law degree and M.B.A. from Harvard and working for a prestigious firm on Wall Street or in Washington D.C. And, Paul writes, it’s all bullshit.

He really writes that. When Paul writes that he considers all this earthly status and prestige “garbage” he uses the Greek word skybalon. It’s a useful Greek word for labeling all sorts of rotten and decaying things. One of the things the word specifically referred to was cow dung. That’s what Paul thinks of all his earthly prestige.

As a disciple of Jesus, I increasingly understand the truth of this. All of my earthbound blessings, achievements, status, and possessions are eternally worthless in God’s economy. Jesus said that the real treasure, the stuff of true eternal worth in God’s Kingdom, is to know Him and in knowing Him to produce and flourish in relationship with others with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself once again taking stock of my own life. Where is my treasure? What is it I truly value? What is of eternal value?

How much of what I value is just bullshit?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Spiritual “To Do” List

July 18, 2023 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”
Philippians 2:14-15 (NIV)

Wendy and I use an app that has become part of the fabric of our lives. The app was purchased by Microsoft a few years ago and is being incorporated into their suite of software. It’s call “To Do” and it’s an ingeniously simple way for having, organizing, assigning, and sharing tasks in multiple lists. We have lists for all of our major weekly supply stops. When we use the last of something, we immediately pull up the app and put it on the list. There are lists for specific stores, lists for personal projects, and lists for projects that need to get done around the house, the garage, the yard, and the lake.

In yesterday’s chapter, Paul began his letter to Jesus’ followers in Philippi by reminding them that we are all “works in progress” as we navigate this earthly journey in an effort to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and live as He prescribed and exemplified. As I opened up to today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, that word picture was still resonating within me. I have an app with a list of things I need to accomplish for our home maintenance and improvements. What about a list of things I need to do in my spiritual maintenance and improvements?

Paul once told the believers in Corinth that we are “temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us.” As I read and meditated on today’s chapter, I thought about the never ending, top-to-bottom, spiritual DIY renovation project of my life as a disciple of Jesus and a temple of God’s Spirit. I read the chapter as if Paul was acting as my spiritual renovation foreman informing me and instructing me on the spiritual improvements that need to be made to my life, my temple.

There were a number of tasks to go on my task list, chief among them was shoring up the foundation of my core motives. My foundation has cracks caused by my own selfish ambitions and self-focus. The remedy starts with applying a base coat of humility, then layer on top of it the valuing of others, their interests, and their needs before my own. Paul then refers me back to how Jesus did it as an example to follow. “If you don’t get the foundation of humility and an ‘others first’ focus laid down,” I heard Paul saying to me, “then everything you layer on top of it will be unstable. Eventually, you’re going to have to dig down and fix the foundation anyway, so do it right the first time. And, the longer you wait to deal with the foundation, the harder everything is going to be to dig down in there and get it corrected. Save yourself a lot of time, energy, and headaches. Get the foundational motivations right and everything else will be a lot easier and more stable in the long run.”

Speaking of the “others first” focus, Paul next went on to point out that my exterior lights weren’t working. These are the lights that shine in the darkness. They help others in my neighborhood find their way by helping them see, providing a reference-point as they are trying navigate, and also give them a destination if and when they need assistance.

Unscrewing one of the exterior lights, he showed me that the wiring had this dirty, greasy, corrosive smudge all over the connections. “This,” Paul informed me, “is the natural by-product of a critical spirit. This builds up on the exterior light system when the exhaust system of your conversations, blurts, phone calls, tweets, and Facebook posts is filled with excessive complaints, gripes, grumbling, criticism, negative rants, mean tweets, snarky replies, name calling, and the like. It short-circuits the exterior light system. The light can’t shine for others until you clean up the exhaust coming out of your mind, mouth, and social media. I guarantee that if you clean up all that smudge that’s coming out of you, your exterior lights will ‘shine like stars in the sky’ for everyone to see!”

So, in the quiet this morning, I’m entering my day with a couple of spiritual maintenance and renovation tasks on the personal “temple” To Do list.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Wayfarer

Monthly Archives: July 2023

Judgement & Appearances