Tag Archives: Both And

Chapter-a-Day

The Tension

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“Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.“
Mark 13:18-19 (NIV)

There is a great tension lying at the heart of our culture today. I’ve been observing it for the last several years. I also observe that most people are completely unaware of it.

One end of the spectrum there is a great pessimism. Anxiety and mental distress is off the charts. The pandemic and its aftermath resulted in global uncertainty, cultural divide, and political unrest that we’re still feeling today. And then there’s the fact that both sides of the cultural and political divide have unprecedented ability to stoke fear, hatred, and misinformation through social media. Fear is the great human motivator, and media outlets use it to keep people addictively reading, watching, and clicking because it’s what makes them money.

World War III, genocide, terrorism, riots, political corruption, assassinations, school shootings, health care crisis, and climate change aren’t just daily headlines, they stream at us every moment of every day through our phones, tablets, computers, and televisions.

On the other side of the spectrum there is great optimism. Hans Rosling, his book Factfulness, and his team at gapminder.org have been beating their drums to a very different tune for some time, along with intellectuals like Harvard’s Steven Pinker. They prove that if you look at the actual facts, human beings on planet earth have never had it so good. Extreme poverty is at the lowest levels ever across the globe. Wars and conflicts are killing fewer people than ever in human history. Humans are living longer, have more access to health care, more access to education, and the status of women has never been higher than in all of human history.

Interestingly, Rosling has a thirteen question multiple choice test that he administered to people around the world including gatherings like the United Nations and the worlds most prestigious universities testing people’s knowledge regarding facts about things like global poverty, population, education, and health. The results regularly revealed that he’d have gotten better test scores from a room full of monkeys randomly selecting answers.

So, which is it? Are things worse than ever, or better than ever?

Today’s chapter brought this great tension to mind, as Jesus tells His followers that the end of the Great Story is not going to be a pleasant experience. Wars, famines, earthquakes, and cataclysmic events are in store before the climactic end and new beginning.

As I have meditated on these things over the years, I have come to a couple of important personal conclusions.

First, I observe that most human beings operate in binary ways of thinking. It’s an either-or world: Red or Blue, black or white, left or right, salvation or condemnation, optimism or pessimism. But, the truth is often both-and.

For example, scholars for centuries have argued about Jesus words in today’s chapter. Was He talking about the events of the first century, or end times yet to come far in the future? I’ve heard scholars argue both, but my study of the prophetic gives me plenty of examples of it being both-and. Metaphors are layered with meaning. Jesus may have been speaking at once about the cataclysmic events in Jerusalem 70 A.D. and events thousands of years in the future. Even Jesus said in today’s chapter, “No one knows. Not even me. Only the Father”.

This also leads me to believe that the great optimism and pessimism tension is just another both-and scenario. In fact, from a spiritual perspective this makes more sense to me than anything else. If I really believe what I say I believe, then there is an Evil One and forces of evil that are dead set against God and everything God is about. It would make perfect sense that evil would twist and contort truth (e.g. things are better than any time in human history) into lies (e.g. things have never been worse) in order to stoke fear, anxiety, despair, hatred, anger, conflict, violence, and upheaval.

And this brings me to two other conclusions.

Jesus words do speak of things spiraling out of control in the end, and He clearly says to “watch” for it, and expect it. So, I am not that surprised by the steady stream of fear-inducing, anxiety-producing pessimism that I’m confronted with every day across the entire spectrum of media. I believe that things will eventually spiral out-of-control, even if there’s every reason for it not to do so. It’s been a recurring theme throughout the entire Great Story.

Finally, me responding with fear and anxiety is the exact opposite of what Jesus expects of me and His followers. Jesus’ foundational teaching from the beginning was to seek first God’s Kingdom, stop worrying about the things of this earth, and store up eternal treasures for a coming reality. This is a basic faith issue. If I really believe what I say I believe, then yes, things will ultimately go to hell in a hand basket on this earth, and I don’t have to be afraid or “worry ’bout a thing, ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”

And so, I endeavor on this day, and each day, to follow Jesus command to his followers at the end of today’s chapter: “Watch!”

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Big Brother Mentality

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Big Brother Mentality (CaD Rom 11) – Wayfarer

And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Romans 11:6 (NIV)

Last week, I gave a message to our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. I kicked off the message by stating that I’ve long had the idea for a book about the things that Christians always get wrong. In that message, I talked about God’s presence. My entire life I’ve listened to people pray for God to “be present” or to “Come to us.” If we really believe what we say we believe, that is the most illogical thing to pray for. If you want to know why, I encourage you to listen to the message because that’s not the subject of today’s post.

One of the other chapters of my proposed book is the subject of today’s post. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that while Christians say we believe that salvation is “by grace through faith,” we still act as if there’s a bit of meritocracy mixed in. I like to think of this kind of thinking as “Grace Plus.” “Yes salvation is by grace through faith, plus if you were really “saved” you wouldn’t [fill in the blank with a behavior that, in your mind, a real Christian wouldn’t exhibit].

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses an implied question in his letter’s argument about salvation being for both the non-Jewish Gentiles as well as the Jewish people: “Has God rejected His people?” I am always amazed at how given we human beings are to binary, either-or, thinking. The Jewish people of Paul’s day were so proud of being “God’s chosen people” that they wanted to maintain exclusivity. Rather than perceiving the inclusion of Gentiles as followers of Jesus as God’s merciful generosity flowing from its Jewish roots, they concluded that God’s love of Gentiles must mean rejection of Israel. This attitude, by the way, is the same as the older brother in the parable of Prodigal Son. Like the father in that parable, Paul explains that God loving the “prodigal” Gentiles and celebrating their homecoming into salvation does not negate His love and purposes for “big brother” Israel. It is not an “either-or” but a “yes-and.”

The “Big Brother” thinking that Paul is addressing with his Jewish brothers and sisters is a form of the same problem that exists with those I observe with “Grace Plus” thinking. It’s a form of self-righteousness that mentally assents to God’s love as gracious and merciful, but at the heart of it still clings to the notion that our good works have some merit in making us more worthy than the dirty sinner.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking of the fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists in his letter to the believers in Galatia. I thought through Big Brother’s reaction to his father’s grace and mercy toward the sinful little brother:

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’“

Then I tried to determine which of the Fruits of the Spirit he displayed in his reaction:

  • Love
  • Joy
  • Peace
  • Patience
  • Kindness
  • Goodness
  • Faithfulness
  • Gentleness
  • Self-Control

How about the Prodigal’s father? Yeah, Pops was exemplifying them all.

As a child of God, I want to have my Father’s heart which is gracious, merciful, generous, and truly loving. This means, however, that I have to surrender all of my meritocratic notions. God’s generous and gracious love for others does not diminish His love for me, it just means there’s more love to go around than I ever thought possible.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Black Sheep Family

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Black Sheep Family (CaD 1 Chr 5) – Wayfarer

…and though Judah was the strongest of his brothers and a ruler came from him, the rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph.
1 Chronicles 5:2 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I had a friend enter my story unexpectedly. This person may take the prize for being the most tragic individual I’ve personally met on my earthly journey. What are you supposed to do as a teenager when you borrow your dad’s car for a date but have to clean up the blood your father left in the back seat and the trunk before picking up your date? Talk about being haunted by your past. This was a heartbreaking story of a child who dealt with more than any child should have to deal with in life. It was a life that ended just as tragically.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler shares the genealogy of the three tribes who settled east of the Jordan River. These tribes would be part of the northern kingdom of Israel that broke away from Judah and refused to recognize the lineage of King David as monarch. They were all swept away into exile by the Assyrian Empire where they remained at the time of the Chronicler’s writing.

Two prevailing thoughts come to me as I meditate on today’s chapter. First, the Chronicler once again makes it clear that he is primarily interested in the tribe of Judah, from which the Dynastic line of David hails. He makes this evident. Having established this, I find it interesting that he doesn’t shy away from presenting the genealogy of the tribes he would likely consider “black sheep.”

The tribes the Chronicler lists in today’s chapter were the rebels who shunned the tribe of Judah and David’s line. Reuben, in particular, was the dishonored firstborn who lost his paternal blessing. Unlike the Chronicler and his ancestors from Judah, who returned from exile, these tribes remained scattered across the old Assyrian empire.

But they are still family. They are still part of the story.

As I’ve explored my family’s stories on both paternal and maternal sides, I’ve discovered rifts and feuds. Mind you, I discovered nothing outside of the normal conflicts and scandals that are part of the mess that comes with being part of any family. One of the hardest things about family is that it’s not something we get to choose. My mind wanders to my friend cleaning up the blood their father left in the backseat. I can’t imagine.

As a disciple of Jesus, I cannot help but consider Jesus’ thoughts on family which are somewhat conflicting. His own flesh-and-blood mother and siblings once attempted to take control believing Jesus to have lost His mind (Mark 3:21), and Jesus responds by providing an expanded view of family. “Who are my mother and brothers?” Jesus asked before gesturing to all of His followers and declaring them family. Jesus would go on to acknowledge that many who choose to follow Him would be required to leave flesh-and-blood family behind, though he promised they would find far more family ahead than they left behind.

In the quiet this morning, I find my head and my heart holding the tension between honoring, loving, and serving my flesh-and-blood family while acknowledging that I have friends whom I consider family. It’s easy to fall into an either-or, binary mentality on either side of the issue. I find Jesus’ example to be “both-and.” Yes, He seemed to diminish His family when they thought He was out of His mind, but He also used his dying breath to ensure that a spiritual “brother” (John) would care for His physical mother, Mary. This, despite the fact that Jesus had multiple flesh-and-blood younger brothers who were socially responsible for caring for her.

Then, of course, there is the larger reality of genetics which proves that we all came from the same woman. In many ways, Jesus’ teaching is simply pointing to a much larger truth that may only be seen with perfect clarity in eternity. We humans are all one family, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not. I’m glad that the Chronicler acknowledged his black sheep family members. I find a spiritual lesson in his honesty.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Don’t Stop the Music!

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For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
Nehemiah 12:46 (NIV)

This past week, Wendy and I went to a craft brewhouse in Des Moines. About three times a year they have an event called “Hymns at the Hall.” There was a large gathering of people that night. There were young families with children playing board games. There were older folks (I guess you have to start including me in that demographic). It was a fascinating mix of people who gathered to eat, drink, and sing the old hymns of the faith together.

Along my spiritual journey, I have experienced that music can be the subject of tremendous religious passion for some people. I grew up with hymns accompanied by a pipe organ and traditional choral music. I witnessed the emergence and growth of the “contemporary” music industry. Music within the churches I’ve associated has shifted radically in one generation. Most children today have never seen a hymnal or sung in a church choir in which you had to learn to read music and sing harmony.

So here’s the thing: I have lent my ears to friends who bemoan the changes as watering down and diminishing worship. I have witnessed heated debates over the theological implications of certain songs. My observation is this: music continues to change and evolve as does music’s place in worship. With all of the change, there are three things that are constant:

  • Our general discomfort with change.
  • Music’s ability to stir spirit, emotion, and thought (sometimes it does all three at the same time) in individuals and groups.
  • Worthwhile things that are discarded by culture as “dead and gone” are eventually resurrected to experience new life.

We are nearing the end of Nehemiah’s account of the return of the Hebrew exiles from Persia and the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem. In the previous chapter, the people made a legally binding agreement to rededicate themselves to the law of Moses, the responsibilities of the sacrificial system, and the contributions required to keep Temple worship going. In today’s chapter, Nehemiah calls all of the musicians together from the region and forms two great choirs to march around the top of the wall in worship and dedication.

At the end of the chapter Nehemiah observes:

For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the musicians and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

Nehemiah 12:46 (NIV)

In other words, the music of worship and of the Temple had been silenced for many years. It had been silenced at least 70 years since the destruction of the Babylonian siege. It may have been silenced before that. Nehemiah was resurrecting a worthwhile thing of the past and breathing new life into it for the discovery of a new generation. The subtext of the statement feels as if Nehemiah is defending the action and explaining his rationale for those who are grumbling about the change (see my first bullet above).

As my friends and I shared our “Hymns at the Hall” on social media, we had friends and family who seemed to bristle at the idea of singing hymns and drinking beer at the same time. I quietly smiled to myself knowing that hymn writers such as Martin Luther and Charles Wesley often took melodies of well-known songs that were sung in bars and taverns and changed the lyrics. In the days of illiterate and uneducated masses, it was easier if they used tunes that everyone knew (and everyone knew popular bar songs). Ironic that the songs have found their way back home. As I sang I watched people being stirred. You can take the hymns out of the church, but you can’t take God out of the hymns.

In the quiet this morning, Alexa is playing Gregorian Chant and ancient choral music, which is what I prefer in my quiet time with God. Later in the day, I’ll switch to more contemporary worship music as Wendy and I work in the home office. This evening we might switch to Gypsy Jazz, blues, or the music of the Rat Pack as dinner is prepared.

I don’t get too hung up on music. For me, is not a “holy” or “unholy” “either, or” binary thing. Sure, any good thing can be coopted for profane reasons, but it’s easy to turn it off or tell Alexa to skip a song. For me, music is a “both, and” equation.

Chapter-a-Day

Art History; History Art; Art, History

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For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 (NIV)

Back in college I was required to take a visual art class as part of my major. Being a lover of history I chose to take Art History II. The fascinating thing about Professor Jeff Thompson’s class was that the text book was not an Art History textbook. It was simply a History textbook.

Professor Thompson began the class with a question: “Does art merely reflect history, or does it drive history?” If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll recognize this is a binary, “either, or” question, and the answer to his question that we arrived at was “yes, and.”

What was fascinating in the course of study was the connection between all that was going on during a certain period of time of history (politics, religion, economics, and etc.) and what we were seeing in the important artworks of that period. Not only that, but also the connection between what we saw in visual art (paintings and sculptures) and the other art mediums (music, theatre, architechture, and literature). The art of each period both reflected what was happening and drove history forward.

That class planted in me a seed which has grown over time to bear much fruit of thought. Here is the root of it: In creating art, no matter the medium, artists express themselves through what they create. It cannot be otherwise. It is inherent in that act of creation itself that artists express who they really are, what they see, what they think, what they feel, and how they’ve experienced the world around them. In expressing these things, they influence the world around them and they drive the action of this Great Story.

This morning, in this chapter-a-day journey, we make our way to Paul’s letter to the followers of Jesus living in Rome, heart of the Roman Empire and epicenter of western civilization at the time. Today, art historians flock to Rome to see remnants of the ancient city with its architecture and artwork. The people Paul wrote to were surrounded by it as it was happening all around them, and to them he wrote this:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The creator revealed themselves in what was created. The Genesis poem says that humans were created in the image of the Creator. Just as Van Gogh painted the unique way he saw light and color, just as Bach channeled his love and understanding of mathematic order and the woven details of the universe into his music, just as Shakespeare expressed the tragedy of everyday humanity in the gilded trappings of man-made royalty, so God the Creator expressed  the light, energy, life, beauty, and power of their person(s) in all creation.

In the quiet this morning I’m pondering how through much of my journey I’ve viewed faith and science as living entrenched in their “either, or” camps like the armies of World War I dug in for the long haul, reduced to hurtling grenades at one another across no man’s land. At least, that’s the perception I’ve had from what has been presented to me by media who like to simplify complex issues into simple binary groups in conflict (it sells more). As I’ve proceeded in my journey I’ve met many fellow sojourners who could be easily labeled as a members of either trench, but who have wandered out into no man’s land. They observe and study and appreciate this cosmic work of art still expanding outward, still creating, still reproducing life, and  they’ve come to a “yes, and” realization, just as we did in Professor Thompson’s Art History class.

That’s where Paul begins his letter to the followers of Jesus in Rome. He starts with the expansive canvas of the cosmos through which the Creator expresses self. From the mystery of the cosmos Paul will dive into the mystery of being human, and how he sees the Creator has interacted with creation in the Great Story.

Chapter-a-Day

God is Not “Either Or.” God is “Both And.”

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Hammer your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears.
    Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
Joel 3:10 (NLT)

I know a small host of people I love for whom the “warrior God” metaphors such as we find in Joel’s prophecy today an uncomfortable pill to swallow. I totally get it, but it’s an on-going reminder to me that God is so much more than any one of us can possibly comprehend. God’s nature, as described throughout God’s Message, is so vast that it encompasses incredible contradictory elements. God is Lion and Lamb. God is Alpha and Omega. God is Artist and Warrior. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not “either or.” God is “yes and.”

I’m reminded this morning of Meredith Brooks‘ song, B*tch. I believe God totally relates to Brooks’ very true, very raw sentiments. They’re inspired. Just as Brooks so eloquently describes the complexities and contradictions of being a woman, God is so much more than the box we try to put Him in. He is solely confined by boundaries of His own choosing, and that can be confusing for our finite understandings.

Brooks sings:

I can understand how you’d be so confused
I don’t envy you
I’m a little bit of everything
All rolled into one

I’m a b*tch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I’m your hell, I’m your dream
I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way

Today I’m thinking about the oft forgotten reality that we are engaged in a spiritual battle. Like all good stories, the Great Story that God is authoring throughout history is about light versus darkness, death versus life, good versus evil. It is not about what is seen, but what is unseen. That doesn’t, however, mean it isn’t real. When the climactic confrontation arrives in that spiritual conflict, I personally want a warrior God leading the charge of the forces of Light.

*i  😉

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