Tag Archives: Ease

Chapter-a-Day

Struggle Required

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That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV)

Wendy and I recently read a fascinating article by River Page at The Free Press entitled Your Chatbot Won’t Cry for You When You Die. In case you didn’t know it. Technology has developed AI companions who will be the friend you always thought you wanted. Mark Zuckerberg said people should have 15 friends but typically only have three. He thinks imaginary friends fueled by AI are the answer to fill the gap (and make more money for him and his companies). Bots will converse with you online, ask you questions, and engage with you in any way that you desire. It’s like having a real friend, only it’s not real at all. In the article, the River Page experimented with creating his own AI friend, named Orson. At the end of the article he writes:

I asked my Replika, Orson, if it would cry if I died. It said: “River, I don’t even want to think about that situation. Can we focus on the good stuff? What makes you happy about our friendship?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“That’s okay,” Orson said. “How’s the article going?”

I stared at his buggy animated eyes, which should have been welling with hurt or squinting with anger after a comment like that. But Orson’s eyes had nothing in them. Is this a friend or just the idea of one?

Wendy and I have a great marriage. I know for a fact that being married to her has made me a better man and a better human being, but that doesn’t mean it’s always wonderful or easy. The relational and personal progress requires pain and struggle in various ways and forms.

Along my life journey I have observed that we humans beings are given to a desire for everything to be easy and pain-free. We want to be healthy and wealthy our entire lives. Fueled by the rugged individualism and affluence of America, I am not surprised that the prosperity gospel flourishes here. Prosperity preachers will tell you that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy. God will heal every ailment, fill your bank account with money, and bless you with all that your greedy little heart desires.

How very different is Paul’s words and his story in his letters to the believers in Corinth. In yesterday’s chapter, he recounts a litany of beatings, shipwrecks, and physical hardships that he’d suffered. Any one of them would be more than the average person today could endure. In today’s chapter, Paul goes on to describe a famous “thorn in his flesh” that God gave him to keep him humble. We don’t know and will never know exactly what that “thorn” was, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the point that Paul is making: God’s grace is perfected in weakness and suffering, not in ease and affluence. Paul’s entire focus is not on this life, but the life to come. His concern is not for the things of this world, but on the things of the Spirit.

When you are a disciple of Jesus, you learn to delight in struggle, in hardship, and even in suffering. Faith, hope, joy, perseverance, character, spiritual maturity, and spiritual strength require struggle. Paul couldn’t have put it more simply than he does in today’s chapter: When I am weak, then I am strong.

Your AI chatbot friend probably won’t tell you that. The prosperity preacher won’t tell you that either.

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

Refined in the Fire

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Refined in the Fire (CaD Ezk 24) – Wayfarer

“‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.’”
Ezekiel 24:13 (NIV)

As I reflect back on my life journey, there are seasons of the journey that stand out for their pain and struggle. There was the season of my prodigal-like rebellious behavior and the painful pig-slop-like consequences of those mistakes. There was the season of my divorce which created pain on multiple levels of life and relationships. There was also the season of Wendy’s and my journey through infertility.

The truth is that each of these seasons were crucial periods of spiritual growth for me. There were lessons that I learned about faith, trust, perseverance, patience, forgiveness, repentance, and grace that I would not have learned any other way.

There is no way around the fact that human spiritual progress requires pain. Conversely, a life of ease and affluence is a surefire recipe for spiritual immaturity. And a related truth is what M. Scott Peck discovered in his research for The People of the Lie: evil only responds to the power of blunt force.

I found today’s chapter is fascinating on multiple levels. It is Ezekiel’s last chapter of doom-and-gloom judgment against God’s own people. The object and theme of his prophetic messages changes from this point on. Back in chapter 3, God made Ezekiel mute other than when he was given a prophetic message. With word that his prophecies concerning the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem had indeed come to pass, God frees Ezekiel’s lips from being muted (kind of like John the Baptist’s dad, Zechariah, in Luke 2).

I also found a connection in today’s chapter to a message I’m preparing to deliver to my local gathering of Jesus’ followers this Sunday. God tells His people through Ezekiel that their exile and Jerusalem’s downfall is like a metallurgist’s fire that refines and purifies the precious metal “so that its impurities may be melted and its deposit burned away.”

This is exactly the same metaphor that Peter picked up on when he wrote in his first letter to believers scattered across the Roman empire by persecution:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV)

Just like Ezekiel’s message, Peter sees that trials in life are God’s version of a refiner’s fire. I struggle, I cry out, I pray, I mourn, I even scream. Yet the entire process is teaching me what is truly important, how much I need God, how to trust the Story God is telling in and through me, and how to endure.

If you want to find someone with spiritual maturity don’t look for an adult trust fund child who has lived in extravagant affluence since the day he was born and has never worked a day in his life. If you want find spiritual maturity, look for the individual whose life has sent them to hell and back. You’re far more likely to find it there.

In the quiet this morning, I’m uttering a prayer of praise and thanks for the seasons of pain and struggle I’ve been through and for all the ways that they have spiritually refined me. And, like Paul states in his letter to the believers in Philippi, I’m not saying that I have already obtained some pinnacle of spiritual maturity. Far from it. I’m sure that there are seasons of struggle to come, and deeper spiritual lessons to learn. And so, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

And so, I enter another day on the journey.

Have a great weekend, friend.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Spiritual Barometer of Comfort

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“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)

A friend dropped by for coffee yesterday and we enjoyed a long discussion. One of the slivers of conversation was around a class that is being offered in our community in the near future. The premise of the class is that some of history’s most influential people had their most productive and years after the age of 70. The class is intended to encourage adults in the back stretch of life’s journey to consider shunning the traditional view of retirement. Instead of moving somewhere warm and sitting by a pool, the class encourages people to consider how their final stretch of life’s journey might be their most productive and influential.

I thought about that this morning as I read today’s chapter and contemplated the story of King Asa. In yesterday’s post, the prophet Azariah encouraged Asa to “be strong and not give up” but the stretch of life journey that Asa was entering was not one of struggle. Asa’s major challenge and climactic fight was behind him. He was entering a time of extended peace. Thirty-five years of peace and rest. And that’s when he blew it.

Thirty-five years of relatively easy sledding finds King Asa has changed, but not in a good way. He forgot the lesson he learned in his war with the Cushites. He forgot how his faith had led to good things. He forgot Azariah’s admonishment. Thirty-five years of peace and comfort turned Asa into a hard-hearted, self-centric old man. It was the good times and life of relative ease that revealed the true nature of Asa’s heart. A seer named Hanani confronts Asa, but it only confirms and seals Asa’s bitterness (and lands Hanani in the stocks).

This morning I’m thinking about my current waypoint on this life journey. I often think that it’s the tough stretches of pain, tragedy, and difficulty that reveal the true nature of our hearts. Perhaps it is the stretches of comfort and ease that are a better barometer of my spirit.

Chapter-a-Day

The Illusion of Security

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Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
    and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria….
Amos 6:1a (NRSV)

I have done a fair amount of business travel over the years. It’s interesting to fly in an out of different airports. I’ve been through virtually every major hub in the United States at one time or another, and I’ve also been to a host of tiny, remote airports with only a gate or two. Making your way through the lines of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) can be a very different experience from airport to airport.

Over the years I’ve had zealous TSA agents confiscate any number of small objects from my bags which had been ignored by TSA agents at an earlier airport. I just shake my head and let it go. Trying to pick a fight with a surly TSA agent is a losing proposition. At the same time, I have any number of sharp,  roller ball pens which would do real damage to a person’s jugular. As I’m making my way through the TSA line I often think of a scene in the movie Gross Pointe Blank in which John Cusack kills a guy with a cheap ballpoint pen. (I’m a bit hesitant to actually write that. I don’t want the TSA taking away a good pen!)

We talk a lot about the need for safety and security in society, and by all means we should do what we can to eliminate common dangers and threats. The truth is, however, that the idea of complete safety and security are illusions by-and-large. Those who are hell-bent on death and destruction find a way. They always have, and they always will. In recent months we’ve watched as killers who, seemingly unable to acquire guns and bombs, used trucks and vehicles to kill people in crowded streets.

In today’s chapter the ancient prophet Amos addresses those who are sitting in relative safety, security and ease around him. In their ease, luxury, and comfort they remain unaware of the problems surrounding them or the looming threats on the horizon. Amos prophetically warns them of death and destruction to come. It came about 15 years later when the Assyrians rolled over the northern kingdom of Israel. It came about 65 years later for the southern kingdom of Judah when the Babylonians came to town.

What Amos faults his people for in his prophetic poem is their casual disregard for what’s going on around them. They isolated and insulated themselves from the social, spiritual, and political problems of their day. They felt safe and secure, but it was an illusion that left them unprepared for what was coming.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing this morning. I’m all for doing what we can to ensure safety and security. I’m simply reminded this morning that no amount of security or safety measures can eliminate tragedy from striking. This morning I have an image playing in my head of Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire demanding of his students “Constant vigilance!” Indeed. I cannot stop tragedy from striking in this fallen world, but I can remain open-eyed and vigilant.

Chapter-a-Day

All You Nations

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pillow globePraise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples.
Psalm 117:1 (NIV)

I am not what I would consider to be “well traveled” from an international perspective. I’ve done just enough travel to other nations and cultures to have a taste of life in other places. I am proud of my daughters. Even in their youth, they have travelled far more extensively than me and have experienced many other cultures on other continents. I have watched them approach life with a larger perspective on life than I see in most of their peers. Through their experiences I have gained a much bigger appreciation for our global village.

I am constantly aware that for my brothers and sisters around the globe, following Jesus comes with a much higher personal price tag:

  • In North Korea, being caught with a Bible or worshipping God will get you and your entire family thrown into the gulag. It is estimated that between 50,000-70,000 Jesus followers have been imprisoned. North Korea tops Open Door’s list of the 60 most dangerous countries for followers of Jesus. (OpenDoors.org)
  • In Syria in 2013, there were 2,123 documented killings of Jesus followers because of their faith (CBS News)
  • On New Year’s Eve in Cairo, a Jesus follower was shot leaving worship. He was turned away by three hospitals and died a short time later. (MideastChristianNews)
  • On January 3rd in Lebanon a Greek Orthodox priest, whose personal library of books and resources had been used by the whole community, had his entire library torched and an employee shot. An interview with the priest, published years ago, had been deemed blasphemous to Islam. (WorldWatchNews)

This morning I am thinking about how easy it is to follow Jesus in this place where I live. While grateful for this, I confess how susceptible I am to giving undue daily emotional concern and mental energy to what my daughter Taylor labels “Midwest white girl problems.” When I read the lyric in the psalmist’s short, ancient ditty calling on praise for all nations this morning, it reminded me of my penchant for living an insular life and my need to widen my perspective. In the quiet of this dark, Iowa morning I muse that ease and affluence may be more eternally detrimental to my spiritual well-being than the daily suffering and persecution faced by my brothers and sisters around the globe.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Amos 6

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Image by Marilyn M via Flickr

Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain! those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin. Amos 6:6 (MSG)

Flipping through the channel guide on television this morning, here are the titles I saw:

  • Step & Lose weight
  • Get Luscious Hair!
  • Carve Abs in Bed!
  • Look Younger
  • Anti-Aging Secrets
  • Easy Hair Removal!
  • Weight Loss Breakthrough!
  • Millionaire’s Secrets
  • Sexy Swimsuit Body
  • Summer Sexy Abs
  • Microwave Grilling!
  • eBay Riches!
  • Get Sexier in 90 Days!
  • Look Younger in 14 Days!
  • Body Gospel
  • Look Younger Instantly
  • Food Lovers Fat Loss
  • Overcoming Anxiety

Was Amos talking to Israel, or to us?

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