Tag Archives: Fidelity

Bad Motorcycle, Better Covenant

January 23, 2026 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZJESYyjKSgNI5ynr06Jz3?si=lvzs8LXvS9a7zYAHu7PgRw

“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you…”
Deuteronomy 28:15 (NIV)

Yesterday at breakfast, Wendy and I discussed an article she’d read about a string of women who became adulterous lovers of a serial adulterer. When later on life’s road the serial adulterer gained a certain amount of notoriety, the women determined to make their former lothario into their scapegoat. They are determined to ruin his life as they blame him for ruining theirs.

Fascinating.

As I meditated on the situation, what I saw in between the lines of the news article was the chaos and the unraveling of life that comes with journeying down the road of infidelity and adultery. The line I love to quote about the path of adultery is from Bob Dylan. He sings that it’s “like a bad motorcycle with the devil in the seat, going 90 miles-and-hour down a dead end street.”

Believe me, you don’t want that ride.

Today’s chapter is arguably as tough as it gets when it comes to harsh Old Testament language. It’s the kind of chapter that causes modern readers to close the book and walk away. There’s so much going on beneath the surface of this chapter that I could write an entire book unpacking it—but let me try to do it succinctly.

Today’s chapter follows a well-established pattern of what we call an Ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaty. A suzerainty was a dominant king who, in expanding his empire, would take over foreign cities and people groups. They became his vassals. The suzerainty treaty was one the king would make with vassals he’d conquered and who were now under his sovereignty and protection. These treaties had a distinct pattern they followed, and one of the pieces of that pattern was to briefly explain the blessings the vassals would experience by being faithful to their new king followed by a long host of agonizing consequences they would experience if they were unfaithful.

Today’s chapter follows the exact pattern of these suzerainty treaties, with God as the suzerain and the Hebrews as the people he’s entering into a covenant with. It was intended by the ancients to act like a prenuptial agreement. It briefly highlights the blessings the bride could expect in the relationship (life, abundance, provision, blessing) and then goes to great lengths describing in the harshest terms the unraveling that comes with infidelity and disobedience (death, destitution, poverty, chaos).

The suzerain was saying “You don’t want to hop on the back of that motorcyle.”

Now, hang with me because it gets better. I know that in the Great Story everything is connected, and today’s chapter is no different. The primary difference between typical suzerain treaties and today’s chapter is that the suzerain was typically a distant monarch sitting on his foreign throne. God has drawn up the covenant in the covenant language the Hebrews were used to, but He isn’t distant. He’s right there in the middle of their camp. He showed up and introduced Himself. He delivered them from Egypt then joined them on their wilderness journey. The blessings and curses presented are not from a distant, conquering foreign king but a divine suitor who for 40 years has been wooing them. God wants a good marriage with this people.

By the time you reach Deuteronomy 28, Israel already has a problem baked into the dough.

The covenant assumes:
A faithful people
A loyal vassal
A nation that listens, obeys, trusts

But Scripture immediately begins narrating the truth:
The Hebrews cannot sustain covenant faithfulness.

The blessings are glorious – but the curses become prophetic autobiography.

The Old Testament tension is not:
“Will God be faithful?”
It’s:
“Can Israel be?”
And the answer—generation after generation throughout the Great Story—is a weary, sheepish “no.”

When the Son of God appears on the scene, He doesn’t come as the suzerain King but as an every day carpenter — just another one of the vassals. As a human being, Jesus walks the same path as the Hebrews, but with fidelity.

Hebrews —> 40 years in the wilderness grumbling, testing God
Jesus —> 40 days in the wilderness, tempted but faithful

And when Jesus responds to the devil’s temptation, He quotes — wait for it — Deuteronomy.

He doesn’t invent a new covenant language. He fulfills the old one.

Suzerainty treaties assumed:
Loyalty
Exclusive allegiance
Submission to the greater king

Jesus refuses:
Political shortcuts
Coercive power
Empire without obedience

He won’t reach for an earthly throne.
He won’t grasp.
He won’t rebel.
That restraint?
That’s vassal faithfulness.

In today’s chapter:
Obedience earns blessing
Disobedience triggers curse

Jesus:
Lives perfect obedience
Deserves full blessing
Receives the curse anyway

Exile. Shame. Abandonment. Death outside the city. The faithful vassal takes the consequences of the unfaithful people. That’s not legal trickery.
That’s covenant love with skin on.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
Galatians 3:13

This means my relationship with God is not sustained by:
Perfect obedience
White-knuckled faithfulness
Fear of slipping into curse

It’s sustained by participation—showing up at the table, taking a seat, and choosing to stay.

It’s not about performance. I don’t earn blessing.
I inhabit it—because Jesus already stood where I couldn’t.
Obedience becomes response, not requirement.
Faithfulness becomes gratitude, not terror.
And Deuteronomy 28 stops sounding like a threat…

…and starts sounding like a story that finally found its hero.

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

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well. — 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

The Knife, the Cradle, and the Cross

December 22, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
Deuteronomy 13:4 (NIV)

For twelve chapters Moses’ deathbed message for his people has lovingly poured out of his heart. Remember, remember, remember the God who introduced Himself to you, the God who made a covenant with you and your ancestors, the God who delivered you from your chains, the God who miraculously provided and protected you, and the God who has promised you hope and a future.

Moses reminds his children and grandchildren through these twelve chapters that their relationship with God is a marriage. God has perpetually wooed, courted, delivered, provided, protected, and guided. What He asks of His bride is faithfulness. This is Moses at his most intense.

Moses poses three scenarios.

A prophet arrives with signs and wonders that appear to be the calling card of divine authority. Bedazzlement then gives way to the whisper of seduction. The prophet suggests they worship other gods.

An intimate family member whom you love deeply and trust implicitly suggests that together you worship other gods.

An entire community of people within your tribe chooses to follow and worship other gods and it becomes part of the community’s acceptable culture.

Notice that none of these seductions come from outside. They arise from within—religion, family, and community.

The response prescribed is uncompromising: resist, expose, remove. Loyalty to YHWH is not negotiable, not sentimental, not softened by affection or awe. The chapter ends with a repeated refrain: “So all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.”

Today’s chapter is jarring, especially at the beginning of the week of Christmas as I hum O Little Town of Bethlehem. Yet one of the things that I’ve discovered about this Great Story is that everything connects.

It is easy sitting in my 21st century context listening to soft Christmas piano music on my computer to think that today’s chapter is the antithesis of Jesus. Only if I’m selective in my hearing of Jesus’ words. The reality is that Jesus embraced and extended the covenant as marriage metaphor. He repeated an uncompromising demand for fidelity, and warned of the consequences of faithlessness. He repeatedly channeled the serious, uncompromising truth of Deuteronomy 13.

Whether it’s prophets:

“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
Matthew 24:24-28 (NIV)

Or intimate family members:

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Matthew 10:36-38 (NIV)

Or community:

Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-22 (NIV)

Or even myself:

“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Matthew 5:29-30 (NIV)

Jesus does not dilute the command to love God alone; He intensifies it.

But here is the turn that happens at Bethlehem. Jesus, the Bridegroom of heaven, leaves heaven behind and comes to humanity. He arrives, not only to woo and court His bride, but also to pay the bride price.

Where Deuteronomy polices faithfulness from the outside, Jesus transforms it from the inside.

The battle moves from execution to examination. From purging towns to purifying hearts. The idol is no longer a carved figure—it’s whatever claims ultimacy. Whatever replaces affection and fidelity. Whatever becomes that which I care about more than the One who cared so much for me:

Power. Nation. Certainty. Distraction. Entertainment. Even religion itself.

And instead of destroying the seducer, Christ absorbs the cost of human unfaithfulness into His own body.

The knife becomes a cross.
The warning becomes a wound.
Love bleeds instead of legislates.

Deuteronomy 13 is not asking me whom I would stone.
It is asking me what I would refuse—even if it came wrapped in love, success, or certainty.

Deuteronomy demands clarity.
Christmas whispers comfort.

Together they ask a single, piercing question:

What has the power to lead my heart away – even gently?

This week as I stand at the manger, the text invites a holy audit:

What voice do I trust because it dazzles?
What affection do I excuse because it’s familiar?
What belief do I protect because it flatters me?

The babe wrapped in swaddling clothes will not compete for my loyalty.
He will simply lie there—vulnerable, unarmed—waiting to see if my love still knows His name.

And if I listen closely, beneath both Moses’ warnings and a chorus of angels, I hear the same ancient invitation of a Bridegroom:

Choose life.
Choose love.
Choose the One who refuses to seduce—and instead, saves.

And so, I enter this week of Christmas with a heart that is not just floating with sentimentality, but anchored in the sobriety of a Love who’s sacrifice “demands my life, my soul, my all.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

A Land That Drinks Rain

December 18, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0xRclnGJ6BIS5zescdesgG?si=dAN3qhtQSfiLuN9Et294SQ

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.
Deuteronomy 11:10-11 (NIV)

It’s not even Christmas and our driveway has required shoveling more times already than a few entire winters of recent memory. Last weekend Wendy and I were driving through a snow storm.

“Well, the farmers will be happy,” Wendy said.

That is such an Iowa thing to say. When you live in a state that drives nearly $50 billion dollars in annual revenue from crop production, agriculture is always part of the conversation. But for children of Iowa, it’s more than just money. We know that the fertile fields of Iowa feed the world. Closer to home and hearth, we know that farming is the life-blood and legacy of families.

Growing up in Iowa, you quickly learn that weather isn’t just about comfort or recreation, it’s an essential element of life, provision, and prosperity.

On a macro level, Moses’ words to the Hebrews crossing into the Promised Land in today’s chapter are about the blessings of love, legacy, and loyalty contrasted with the curses of apathy, forgetfulness, and hearts that wander. Right in the middle of the chapter (ancient Hebrew writers loved to put the most important bits in the center of the text), is a fascinating reference. Meteorology as metaphor: rain.

Back in Egypt, Moses reminds his people, water had to be industrially stored and channeled. Irrigation systems required. Humans digging, tunneling, manufacturing ways to make water work for them—that’s human empire. Human ingenuity finding ways to do what God does naturally by divine means. Humans have been doing that since the Tower of Babel.

The Promised Land, Moses tells his children, is God’s country. It is a land God Himself waters with rain from heaven. Rain is God’s blessing on the land and the people. God’s blessing, however, requires…

Faith, not function
Trust, not contraptions
Love, not labor.

This is God through Moses laying another layer of metaphor to lovingly communicate what He’s been saying all along. I’ve chosen and called you to be different than this world and the kingdoms of this world. Not because you deserve it or earned it but because of my love, grace, and mercy. Love me, trust me, follow me and rain will fall from heaven and you will be blessed with abundance and prosperity you can scarcely imagine.

Then comes the hard side of love. It isn’t punishment, it’s consequence.

There is a consequence, a curse, that comes if love, trust, and fidelity fade and fail. The skies close up. Drought conditions set in. At some point things resort back to the function, labor, and contraptions. When that happens, God’s people will be just like all the other kingdoms of this world.

The message I found flowing through the chapter in the quiet this morning was that the danger is not rebellion or disobedience. The danger is forgetting. Moses’ mantra thus far in his deathbed message has been the steady rhythmic beat of Zakhor: remember, remember, remember. Remembering what God has done is the crucial first step and activating ingredient in Life and blessing. Forgetting leads down a very different path.

“Believe me,” Moses urges his children, “you don’t want to go there.”

In a little divine wink, I’ve been hearing waves of heavy rain hitting the window of my office as I’ve been writing these words. I pulled up the radar. It’s a chilly Iowa winter morning, but well above freezing. A heavy rain is melting the snow from last weekend’s storm and soaking the slumbering earth.

In coffee shops all over Iowa, farmers sitting patiently through the death of winter and looking to the promise of Spring are smiling. A soaking winter rain. It’s a good thing. Gotta love it. But, it’s not a guarantee. Gotta have faith, too. Spring is still a long season away.

Rain is a gift.
So is remembering.
And faith, like spring, is something we wait for—but also something for which we prepare.

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

Chapter-a-Day

What’s In a Name?

December 12, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2i8w5uaaSLZsRs8CbW2Se6?si=ZxNL_HKBSDi-2kWPF65_Yw

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Deuteronomy 7:6 (NIV)

One of the things I love about living in a small town is being known. I love walking into a restaurant, a coffee shop, or the pub and being greeted by name. I suppose some people like to be anonymous, but research consistently shows that most of us truly want to know and be known. And the beginning of that relational journey is simply knowing one another by name.

The subject of names has been surfacing a lot in my conversations of late. My local gathering of Jesus’ followers is working on a short-term initiative intended to help people learn one another’s names. I just read a fantastic article about the neuroscience that proves just how powerful using a person’s name truly is. I talk about it in business all of the time as I deliver customer service training.

One of the things that I have learned about name-use over the years is that the deeper and more intimate the relationship the more likely we are to create nicknames and pet names for one another. Conversely, as relationships break down and marriages move toward divorce we stop using one another’s names and revert to using pronouns or impersonal descriptors like “my children’s mother.” Wendy is “my treasure.” From the very beginning of our relationship, it’s been a special moniker that is hers and only hers. Between the two of us it is a sign of affection, devotion, honor, and fidelity.

Today’s chapter is one of those chapters that is misunderstood in modern cultural context. It’s a love letter disguised as a battle plan. God reminds Israel that their chosenness isn’t about muscle or merit, but about affection and fidelity. They are to enter the land clear-eyed and clear-hearted—no half-measures, no flirtations with rival gods. Destruction of idols isn’t cruelty; it’s fidelity therapy.

God promises protection, fruitfulness, and flourishing—not as wages earned, but as the natural overflow of covenant intimacy. Obedience here is not stiff-backed compliance; it’s trust leaning its full weight into the arms of a faithful Lover.

In Jewish tradition, Deuteronomy 7 is foundational for the concept of segulah—Israel as God’s treasured possession (v.6). This chosenness is not superiority; it is purpose and calling. Israel is set apart for something: to bear God’s name and reveal Him and His character in the world.

This covenant love is a foreshadowing of Jesus, who loved the world so much that He left heaven behind and became one of us. He treasured us so much that He suffered and died to pay the penalty for our sin. Then He called us to bear witness of God’s Kingdom through our love of Him and others.

The contrast could not be clearer.

The world chooses powerful.
God prefers the weak.
The world finds security in big numbers.
God prefers faith in a few.
The world indulges in surface sensual appetites.
God prescribes deep, exclusive and intimate relationship.
The world values self-centered personal ambition.
God values faithfully putting others ahead of ourselves.

In both today’s chapter and Jesus’ example, it is God who loves first. It is God who makes the covenant. It is God who promises fidelity, provision, protection, and blessing. We are the object of His love and affection.

We are His treasure.

He whispers, “My life for yours.”

When God speaks of loving His people in verses 7 and 8, the Hebrew word is ‘ahav. It is not a giddy infatuation, it’s a choice and a volitional act. In verse 9 God’s ‘ahav blesses a thousand generations of those who ‘ahav Him. God’s love invites reciprocity. Not because it needs it, but because it awakens it. And notice: God’s covenant loyalty flows toward those who love him—not as payment, but as shared intimacy.

This is mutual devotion, not transactional obedience.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that God says that those who choose to follow have their names written in the Book of Life. My name is there. God knows my name. But today’s chapter reminds me that my name being written in the Book of Life is far more than just a “Hello My Name Is” name tag knowledge. That’s just the record like Wendy’s and my marriage certificate in the safe downstairs. I am God’s “treasure.” He gave His life that I might live. That kind of love awakens love in me.

Less Hallmark card, more keeping marriage vows at 3 a.m.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Seduced by the Unseen

November 24, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Unseen.

That’s the word that leapt off the page again and again this morning as I meditated on the well-known chapter. It’s known as faith’s Hall of Fame.

The author starts by saying that faith is assurance of what we do not see. The word faith in Greek (pistis) was a term from relationship and politics: loyalty, trustworthiness, fidelity. In Roman culture, it was the glue of friendships and alliances. When the author of Hebrews repeatedly pens the words “by faith,” he’s whispering: “They aligned their lives with God. They trusted His character enough to follow, to act.”

And with each example, the author points out that they are following and acting upon the “unseen.”

Creation that came into being from unseen nothingness.
Enoch, who walked so intimately with God he was no longer seen.
Noah, who built a boat in the desert in preparation for unseen storms.
Abraham, who followed God to a land promised but not yet seen.

The author is speaking at once on a grand eternal scale and a dusty, earthly one. He points out that this entire temporal life journey is leading to a City, a home, an eternal reality that we do not see. In this we are sharing the same journey with all of these well-known characters in the Great Story who have gone before us.

At the same time, it’s that assurance of the unseen that shapes the way I enter and traverse my 21,759th day walking through this world. Everyone mentioned in today’s chapter had their own mundane days to trek through. These people aren’t flawless, they’re faith-full. A drunk, a murderer, a vain self-centered jock, a liar, an adulterer. They are remembered for their trust, not their perfection. What God was looking for was faith amidst the rough edges of their very human flaws, not a polished religious finish meant to hide them. They each pressed on daily toward promises unseen.

I love that Rahab is chosen for mention. A woman, a Canaanite, and a sex worker. The author could have chosen Miriam, Deborah, or Hannah. He chooses Rahab and breaks every box of religiosity. Faith loves people with a past.

As I sat in the quiet and meditated on this, it struck me that all these ancient lovers of God are not far away. They’re not marble statues in a faith hall of fame. They’re close. A cloud of witnesses pressed up around me like warm bodies in a crowded room, whispering, “Keep going, Tom.
Don’t stop. We’ve walked this way too.”

So, in the quiet this morning, I realize that I am seduced by the unseen. God wired me for wonder. My spirit is tuned to that point-of-tension between what is and what’s still just beyond the veil. When today’s chapter speaks of the unseen — of walking toward a country you’ve never seen, of trusting a God that cannot be measured — it presses all my deepest buttons:

My longing for meaning.
My hunger to taste the divine in every bland task.
My desire to be drawn into something bigger, riskier, holier.

And so, on this Monday of a short work week leading to an annual day of gratitude, I’m lacing up my walking boots. I’m pressing on in the journey towards an earthly future and an eternal City that are both unseen. But I feel it in my spirit. It burns in my bones. It continues to seduce me to press on while an unseen cloud of witnesses whisper their encouragement.

Have a great week friends.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“We Must Be Cautious”

August 26, 2025 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
Numbers 25:1-3 (NIV)

I get it. The ancient episodes in the Great Story are often strange, confusing, and even offensive to modern political and cultural sensibilities. Yet, lying behind the veil of time are deep spiritual implications that are as relevant today as they have ever been. Today’s chapter is one of those.

We’ve just been through two chapters telling the story of Balaam the spiritual guru for hire who was contracted by Balak the King of Moab to curse the Hebrew tribes camped outside his kingdom. Balaam failed and returned home. So it would appear that Balaam has exited the story and the events of today’s chapter are unrelated.

But they’re not.

In today’s chapter, men from the Hebrew camp begin flirting with some women from Moab. They are invited for a meal, which turns into some wild parties that turn into sexual orgies. The Hebrew men are then invited to go to the Moabite’s pagan church with their new girlfriends, make some sacrifices, and participate in the pagan rituals. The men shrug and follow along.

Hard stop.

At this point, I find it important for me to remember that God sees his covenant relationship with the Hebrew people as a marriage. They were slaves crying out in Egypt. He showed up. He redeemed them. He delivered them. He agreed to dwell among them in the center of the camp, provide food and water, provide protection, and promised them a great home and life. Thus, God made a covenant with them to be their God and they His people. Husband and wife. This literal covenant agreement came with a prenup that listed 10 major items. At the top of the list: “You’ll have no other gods.” Fidelity. Faithfulness. I redeem, save, provide, protect, and bless and in exchange I want you to honor me by being faithful to me.

So, when the boys from the Hebrew tribes willingly choose to be seduced, led astray, and shrug off the top item on their prenup with God, it’s not just a small thing.

And, the events of today’s chapter were not a random case of multicultural curiosity and innocent lust gone astray. The seduction was a Moabite plot rooted in the counsel of guess who? Balaam, the spiritual guru.

Fast forward to John’s Revelation at the end of the Great Story. In His dictated letter to the believers in the city of Pergamum, Jesus writes through John: “You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.”

Balak was mad at Balaam for not cursing the Hebrews. Balaam offered the Moabite King some parting advice: “If you can’t curse them, corrupt them.”

So, as I meditate on these things in the quiet this morning, I find in the sordid and bloody Moabite seduction an apt spiritual reminder for myself. After all, Jesus carried the spiritual marriage metaphor forward. He is the bridegroom while I and all of my fellow believers are His bride. He came and paid the bride price with His own life to make an eternal covenant with me. He redeemed me, saved me, offered me protection, provision, blessing, and promise. I don’t want to be unfaithful and dishonor that love and commitment.

Yet Jesus warned His followers the night before His crucifixion that the enemy, while standing condemned, will never be idle. Jesus’ blood and sacrifice forever protect me from the enemies curse. But the enemy knows Balaam’s counsel: “If you can’t curse them. Corrupt them.”

As I think about entering another day of the journey in this fallen world, the sage voice of Obi-wan Kenobi just flit into my mind:

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…We must be cautious!”

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

Chapter-a-Day

An Ear and a Prayer

July 17, 2019 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.
Daniel 9:18 (NIV)

Yesterday morning the nurse walked me into the exam room of the dermatological surgeon. As I sat down on the bed she turned, smiled at me, and asked, “Is this your first time with skin cancer?”

I told her that it was.

“Welcome to the club!” she said, cheerfully. With that, she launched into her work.

Thanks. I guess.

I successfully had a small patch of cancer cells removed from the top third of my right ear (Don’t forget to rub sunscreen on your ears, too!). Other than looking like I’m performing the role of Vincent Van Gogh for the next few weeks along with some minor discomfort, I’m doing fine.

I will admit, that the experience has me thinking about my age. I’m not doing to the “pity me, I’m getting old” kind of thing. I’ve simply been meditating on the fact that I’m entering a new season of the journey. Things change. The body starts requiring different kinds of maintenance and attention. It is what it is.

Perhaps that is why I got to thinking about Daniel’s age as I read today’s chapter. In all the times I’ve read through the book of Daniel, I’ve never really thought much about the timeline or Daniel’s age as he wrote about his dreams and visions. Given the reference to Darius the Mede at the top of the chapter, David has been living in exile in Babylon for roughly 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). What prompted his journaled prayer in today’s chapter was the realization that seventy years was how long Jeremiah had prophesied the Babylonian kingdom would last. He was there.

What struck me is that in casual reading I wouldn’t differentiate between the Daniel praying in this chapter with the young man who was praying and keeping the faith back in the first chapter. He has not forgotten who he is, where he came from, or the God whom he has served with fidelity while living an entire lifetime as a captive exile living in the capital city of his enemies. He has been living faith-fully for a lifetime as a stranger in a strange land.

In the quiet this morning I find myself reflecting on my own earthly journey. In about a year and a half, I will mark 40 years since I said a prayer and made my decision to follow Jesus. Despite feeling my age I’m still short of the tenure of Daniel’s sojourn by quite a ways, to be sure. And, my journey has been much easier than his.

A good reality check and an inspiring reminder to start my day…with a sore ear.

Press on, my friend. Have a great day.

Chapter-a-Day

Line Gisters and Line Nazis

November 16, 2017 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”

He answered, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Numbers 23:11-12 (NIV)

I have found among actors that there is a rarely discussed spectrum. It parallels the ongoing legal debate about our Constitution here in America, between those who interpret the Constitution as a “living document” versus those who interpret it in context of its “original intent” as written.

On one end of the on-stage spectrum are those who memorize their part of the script and present the general gist of a line. They call it good. Let’s call them the “Line Gisters.” At the other end of the spectrum are those we will lovingly refer to as “Line Nazis.” Line Nazis are rabid defenders of the script, word-for-word, as written.

“The playwright wrote these words for a reason,” a Line Nazi will passionately admonish his/her fellow actors. The Line Nazi then explains that changing a word or two here or there can change the entire interpretation of a line (and thus the play itself, and the intent of the playwright). In my experience it’s at this point that the “Line Gisters” proceed to roll their eyes, the Line Nazis grumble in frustration, and the rehearsal continues.

I’ll confess to you that I have spent most of my theatre journey at the Line Gister end of the spectrum. Then, I actually wrote a couple of plays and had the privilege of watching them being produced. For the first time I began to feel personally what my Line Nazi brethren had been preaching to me all along. I was suddenly on the other side of the spectrum seeing things from a different perspective. Line Gisters would memorize and deliver a loose version of the words that I had written. Sometimes it wasn’t a big deal, but other times I had specifically crafted that line for a reason! Just getting the “gist” of it didn’t cut the mustard.

In today’s chapter, the mysterious seer Balaam continues his cameo role in the story of the Hebrews wilderness wanderings. King Balak of Moab hires Balaam to curse the Hebrew hoard camping on his borders. Multiple times Balaam speaks the words God gives him, and each time it is not what Balak paid Balaam to say. Rather than cursing the Hebrews, Balaam blesses them.

“Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?” Balaam asks his prophetic patron.

Balaam understood that it was important to deliver the line as written.

God’s Message is just like the Constitution or any playwright’s script. Words can be interpreted in context or out of context. Lines can be quoted verbatim or butchered in an effort to communicate the gist. The words end up in the hands of the expositor and out of the control of the originator and/or author.

As a reformed Line Gister I confess that my years on that end of the spectrum were rooted in a generous portion of laziness and a general lack of discipline. This morning I find myself appreciating Balaam’s fidelity to deliver the words as given to him by God, heedless of the reaction of his patron. I find it honorable. I’m not sure you can call me a full-fledged Line Nazi (still working on that laziness and self-discipline), but it is a character trait I increasingly desire to exemplify in my own life, both on stage and off.

(Line Nazis Unite!)

Random Thoughts, Wayfarer's Journal

Day 6: Your Opinion on Cheating on People

August 15, 2011 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Expense Reports — Image by mynameisharsha via Flickr

30 Day blogging challenge Day 6: Your opinion on cheating on people.

There are a lot of ways I could go with this question, but one memorable experience popped into my head:

A few years ago my business partner and I had lunch with a client who was the Senior Vice President of a large company. During the course of the lunch we asked our client to tell us honestly if our group was serving him and his company well and if there was anything we needed to improve.

“Do you wanna know why I love you guys?” he asked. “You give me great data and do your jobs well, but what I really like are your expense reports. You don’t stay in extravagant hotels, you don’t try to bill me for expensive dinners, and you don’t ding me for extraneous expenses. I have consultants who try to bill me for first class air fares, $200 bottles of wine and expect me to pay for the magazines they read on the plane. I know when I get your expense reports that you’re dealing with me honestly and looking out for my budget instead of trying to get as much out of me as you can. That makes we want to keep doing business with you!”

There is a much broader definition to cheating on people than we realize. Jesus continually made it clear that sin is not only the major scandalous acts of the flesh, but also the seemingly invisible acts that reveal the intentions of our heart. Taking advantage of an employer, padding an expense report, or not leaving a tip for your server are ways we cheat others and prove ourselves unfaithful.

Wayfarer

Tag Archives: Fidelity

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A Land That Drinks Rain

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Day 6: Your Opinion on Cheating on People

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Just another wayfarer on life's journey, headed for Home. I'm carrying The Message, and I'm definitely waiting for Guffman.

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Just another wayfarer on life's journey, headed for Home. I'm carrying The Message, and I'm definitely waiting for Guffman.