Tag Archives: Hope

Chapter-a-Day

New Season, Big Challenge

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When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:4 (NIV)

It will forever be one of the most critical and difficult moments of my entire life journey. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I remember sitting in my home office. I remember my desk by the window and the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window. It was fall.

I had been through years of wilderness in so many ways. God had promised me so many times in so many ways that He had great plans on the other side of this wilderness. There was a Promised Land coming. I had been waiting. I had been slogging. I had been asking, seeking, and knocking.

On that fall afternoon I realized that it was time. This new season in life was about to begin. I thought that it would be a joyous moment. I thought that it would be triumphant and thrilling. It was none of those things.

For the new season to begin, my marriage had to end.

The setting of any story is important, and the story of Nehemiah cannot be fully appreciated without the setting.

We are in the ancient empire of Persia, in what today is southwest Iran. Over a century before, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed. The Hebrew people had been taken into exile. In the game of thrones, theBabylonian empire fell to the emerging Persian empire. Some of the exiles had returned to Jerusalem, but others like Nehemiah remained and flourished.

Nehemiah finds himself at a critical inflection point in the Great Story. This is not a random moment. It’s been foreshadowed and foretold for centuries.

God through Moses initially made His covenant with the Hebrew people and told them that if they broke the covenant they would end up in exile among other nations. He goes on to promise that even then His love will not fail and He will bring them back. (see Deuteronomy 30:1-5)

The prophets later echoed this same warning and promise. Jeremiah repeatedly warned his people that they would end up in exile in Babylon if they didn’t repent. When it happened, Jeremiah wrote the exiles a letter and said:

“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

“This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity.’”
Jeremiah 29:5-7, 10-14 (NIV)

As the book of Nehemiah opens, this is the moment. Nehemiah has done exactly what God commanded through Jeremiah. He has a great life. He’s an advisor and protector of the Persian emperor, Artaxerxes. He’s made a good life for himself and his family. He’s helped the Persian empire prosper and he has prospered in return. Now, it’s time to return from exile, to go home – back to the family’s land in Jerusalem.

Sometimes what seems like it should be a really joyous moment is actually a very painful one.

What precipitates Nehemiah’s return is word of just how bad things are back in Jerusalem. Yes, some exiles had returned but the situation is dire. The city’s walls were broken. There were no gates. It was defenseless chaos. There would be no prosperity for God’s people, they might not even survive, if something didn’t happen quickly.

The moment humbles Nehemiah and sends him to his knees. He remembers God’s love and promise, he repents, he prays for the guidance and inner resources he’ll need. The next season for Nehemiah will change the course of Israel’s history. It kick-start what is known as the Second Temple period that will be one of the most important in Jewish history. In that Second Temple period Jesus, the Messiah, will arrive. But the season starts with a challenge for which Nehemiah is not sure he’s ready.

Been there. Done that.

God had really great plans for me. Plans full of hope and a good future with Wendy, the girls, and each of their families. But sometimes the best seasons begin with the greatest challenges.

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

Ordered Procession

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So the Israelites did everything the Lord commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each of them with their clan and family.
Numbers 2:34 (NIV)

There is always a subtle tension in our household. There is a ying and yang to the way Wendy and I operate, the way we were created, and the way our brains are wired. It can be at once exasperating and beautiful. For the most part, you’ll find our home well-ordered. There is a place for everything and everything in its place. It doesn’t take long to know the patterns, where to find things, and the places they belong. That’s Wendy. I, on the other hand, tend to bring chaos to that order. This isn’t out of antagonism or ill-will but rather from simply not being wired the same way. Our brains work differently. Wendy is Rembrandt and I’m Pollack. She’s Bach and I’m Bird. The truth is that I love order. In fact, I tend to find it in places others can’t see it while being blind to it in plain sight.

Chaos. Order.

That’s how the Great Story begins.

Formless, empty, dark, and deep chaos.

Then God brings order in seven days. Six days of work. One day of rest.

Then there is a serpent, a lie, temptation, desire, disobedience, shame, and blame.

Order gives way to chaos.

For the rest of the Story, there is an ebb and flow between order and chaos. It has been observed that when God delivers the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, the 10 plagues mirror creation in reverse order. Egypt, the greatest, most ordered and glorious human empire on the earth descends from order to chaos before Pharaoh finally relents and lets the Hebrews depart.

Out of the chaos, God leads the Hebrews into something new. He gives them a detailed and orderly blueprint for doing life together in Leviticus. Now, as they make preparations to set out on their wilderness journey, God provides order to both their camping and their procession. In both walking and resting there is a pattern to be followed. Every member is part of a tribe and every tribe has its place in the camp and in the parade.

God loves order.

In fact, what most casual readers fail to notice is that even today’s chapter is written to reflect the order of the Hebrews camp described in the text. God in His tabernacle are at the center of the camp. This is mentioned smack-dab in the middle of the chapter. It’s called a chiasm. The most important bit is in the center, and everything else is symmetrically structured around it.

God loves order.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on the fact that there are patterns even in the seemingly randomness of nature. I find it meaningful that the first thing we find God doing at the beginning of the Story is turning chaos to order. Because, along my life journey, I’ve observed that no matter how ordered I try to structure my personal, earthly human empire, the chaos of my own failings, blind spots, and foolishness eventually plagues me. Who will set me free from the chaos of my own making?

Thank God, He’s been doing it from the beginning. He’ll be doing it to the end. He’ll be doing it when He begins everything anew. He is my hope and salvation from the chaos of my own making, and the chaos of this broken world.

Time for my procession through another day of this life journey. I may not see it clearly, but I know God has a plan, just like He gave to the Hebrews in today’s chapter. It’s who He is. As I proceed, I take comfort in that.

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

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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!
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Chapter-a-Day

Bringing it Together

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Bringing it All Together (CaD Lev 12) – Wayfarer

“‘On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.’”
Leviticus 12:3 (NIV)

As we’ve been making our way through this ancient instruction manual for the newly appointed priests of the ancient Hebrew people, I’ve alluded to the fact that God is doing something new with His people. He heard their cries from slavery. He approached Moses and then the people. He delivered them from slavery. And now He is establishing a formal way of daily living in community with them.

But, it didn’t start here.

The relationship between God and the Hebrew people began with Abraham back in the book of Genesis. God called Abraham and made a covenant with him. At the time, God prescribed a physical sign of that covenant which would make Abraham different as I addressed in yesterday’s post/podcast. That physical sign was circumcision, the removal of the foreskin of his penis. This sign was passed on through Abraham’s descendants Isaac, Jacob, Jacob’s sons who became the patriarchs of the twelve Hebrew tribes that God delivered from Egypt, the very people who are now going to live in daily community with the God of their ancestors.

The ritual of circumcision prescribed on the eighth day (remember that the eighth day symbolizes “new things come”) was performed with a knife made of flint rock. What God had done through His covenant with Abraham, He is now codifying as part of what He is doing through the ritual system for the Hebrew people. What “was” is being brought together with what “is.”

Yet, with the Great Story, God is always about “was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev 1:8, 4:8). As humanity matures, the Son of God, Jesus, comes to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world and rise from the dead. Once again, “new things come.” What had been a physical sign for the ancient Hebrew people is transformed into a spiritual sign for all who are in Christ. Paul explained this to the largely non-Hebrew gathering of Jesus’ followers in Rome:

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Romans 2:28-29 (NIV)

It began as a physical sign that would make them different from all other peoples, that all other peoples would see and know there is something different about these people and their God. Jesus transformed into a spiritual sign for all who would believe and receive. A priest with a rock knife cutting off the foreskin of a boy’s penis became Jesus the Great High Priest and the Rock of My Salvation doing spiritual heart surgery, taking away my heart of stone, and giving me a heart of flesh (Ex 36:26).

It’s also interesting to note that many Christian traditions transformed the eighth day ritual of circumcision into the ritual baptism of infants. This was largely built on a connection between the ancient covenant and the new. This is fascinating, as the only ancient covenant spoken of in connection to baptism in the Great Story is a covenant even older than the covenant of Abraham, the covenant of Noah (1 Peter 3:20).

So in the quiet this morning, I am once more blown away at how God perpetually connects all things together even as He perpetually recreates, with old things passing away and new things coming. Along my spiritual journey, this has developed within me a continuous spiritual posture:

Appreciation for what was.
Discernment for what is.
Expectation for what will be.

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

The Mystery

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Message in the Mystery (CaD Ezk 43) – Wayfarer

The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
Ezekiel 43 (NIV)

I love a good mystery. It’s always been one of my favorite genres of novels. Wendy and I love a good British mystery drama more than just about any other thing on television. Life is full of mystery, and from Genesis to Revelation the Great Story has plenty of its own mysteries and we’ve been reading about one of them the past few days as Ezekiel is given a vision and very detailed blueprints and instructions for its construction. But it’s never been made.

In today’s chapter, the vision and tour of the Temple is complete and Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord arrive from the east through the East gate. This is significant because back in chapter 10, Ezekiel was shown a vision of God’s glory departing from Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. So it would appear that Zeke is seeing a vision of the Temple that will replace Solomon’s Temple which had been reduced to rubble by the Babylonians.

But when the Hebrews returned to Jerusalem after the fall of the Babylonian Empire at the hands of the Persians, they faced the monumental task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem as well as rebuilding a Temple. Resources were few and the Second Temple began as a fairly modest structure. It would later be expanded and refurbished by Herod, but it was never built as Ezekiel described.

So why would God give Zeke this vision and instructions for a Temple that has never been built? It’s a mystery, and there are many theories across both the Jewish and Christian spectrums of thought.

Many Jews believe that Ezekiel’s Temple is the Third Temple that will be built in Jerusalem one day. The pesky problem there is that right now the Muslims control the Temple Mount where it should be constructed and the Al Aqsa mosque that stands there is a holy site for Muslims. If you’ve been watching the news lately you’ll be reminded that there’s not a lot of goodwill between the Muslims and the Jews, so I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. Nevertheless, a lot of work has been done (and money raised) to prepare for the Third Temple’s construction one day. You can find architectural design images online showing what it’s projected to look like.

For Christians, many believe that Zeke’s Temple will be built during the end times. Others believe that Zeke’s Temple was the plan but the Jewish people forfeited the opportunity for its construction by their disobedience and it will never be built. Still, others see it as a precursor vision to the same vision John sees of a New Jerusalem in the final two chapters of Revelation when there is a new heaven and a new earth.

So which is it? It’s a mystery. I can choose one of the theories that makes the most sense with my understanding of the prophecies of the end times and John’s Revelation but even that mystery is interpreted in a host of different ways.

Richard Rohr in his book The Divine Dance says that mystery isn’t something we can’t understand but something we can endlessly understand. There are messages for us in the mystery itself. As I’ve peeled back some of the layers of this envisioned Temple over the past few days I think that it’s fascinating how there is a thread that weaves itself through the entire story.

For me, one of the biggest spiritual lessons for me in Ezekiel’s vision is the hope. Ezekiel and his contemporary, Jeremiah, witnessed and experienced one of the darkest periods of history for the Hebrew people. They literally lost everything, and were taken into exile, their nation and their Temple (one of the fabled seven wonders of the ancient world). And what does one need most when you’re down and out and without hope? You need a vision that gives you hope for what could be. In this darkest of times, God is giving Zeke and his fellow Hebrews that vision.

It was in a letter to Zeke and his fellow Hebrews, suffering in the darkness of their despair in Babylon that God through Jeremiah said:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Those words weren’t given to bright, affluent high school graduates looking forward to their Freshman year in college. You’d think so given the number of cards and trinkets that have those words printed on them every May. And, while the promise is true for those bright high school graduates, it’s helpful to understand that those words were originally given to a people who had lost everything, had experienced terrible suffering we can’t even imagine, and were living in a foreign land in a hopeless situation. In the pit of their hopeless despair, God gives them a vision and hope.

As another person who suffered terribly, Corrie Ten Boom loved to say, “There is no pit so deep that God’s love and grace aren’t deeper still.”

I don’t know for certain if or when Ezekiel’s envisioned Temple will ever be constructed, but that is the message I find in the mystery.

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

Chapter-a-Day

This is the Way

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This is the Way (CaD Ezk 37) – Wayfarer

Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
Ezekiel 37:12 (NIV)

I have mentioned in recent weeks that our local gathering of Jesus’ followers has been journeying through the book of Exodus and the story of God revealing Himself to Moses and leading the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt. It is the very beginning of God’s relationship with the Hebrew people as an entire people, a nation. I gave a message about it this past Sunday. FWIW: You can watch/listen here.

It was not a conscious decision to have our chapter-a-day journey trekking through Ezekiel at the same time, but I’ve been amazed at the parallels. Ezekiel is roughly 1,000 years after Exodus. They are two different stages of history, two different chapters of the Story. Yet the same theme weaves through them both and foreshadows what is yet to come.

Today’s chapter is one of the most iconic prophetic messages in the entire Great Story. If you didn’t actually read the chapter today, I encourage you to take two minutes (that’s all it will take) and read the first 14 verses of Ezekiel 37. It’s an apt passage to read the week of Halloween, by the way. Ezekiel is taken in the Spirit to a valley full of dry bones all across the valley floor. God has Zeke prophesy to the bones and the bones begin connecting themselves, tendons grow to hold them together then flesh grows on top and finally skin completes the bodily resurrection of the bones. God has Zeke prophesy once more and Life is breathed into them.

We have to remember that just a couple of chapters ago, Zeke and the Hebrews living in exile in Babylon got word that their nation was destroyed. Jerusalem was turned to rubble and burned. Solomon’s Temple was razed to the ground. What was left of their people were slaughtered or else they fled. Their hopes are dashed. Their souls are crushed. Their nation is dead. I can hear the wails of Zeke and his compatriots crying out to the Lord… just like a thousand years before:

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Exodus 2:23b-25 (NIV)

The Hebrews were hopeless, crushed, and dead in their slavery. God brought ten plagues on Egypt that metaphorically deconstructed the seven days of creation in Genesis. Then, God leads them out of the death of slavery and begins to infuse new life and new ways of living.

Now the same people find themselves crying out a thousand years later. Once again, they are surrounded by death, hopelessness, and despair. The vision God gives Zeke is a repeat of the theme. “Amidst your death, despair, and hopelessness I am going to raise new life.”

Life –> Death –> New Life

God tells Zeke, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…”

As a follower of Jesus, it is impossible not to see God pointing 500 years into the future and foreshadowing the exact thing Paul wrote to Jesus’ followers in Ephesus. Picture Zeke’s valley of dry bones as you read this:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:1-5 (NIV) emphases added

Life –> Death –> New Life

In the quiet this morning, my heart is encouraged, lightened, and hopeful. In one week, our nation will have a Presidential election. On both sides of the aisle, people and pundits are prophesying the death of our nation, the demise of democracy, and the end of all things should the other side win. I have talked to people who are on the brink of despair because of their fear of the outcome. I personally think it’s all overblown fear-mongering that politics has always used to motivate people to action. Please refer to all of human history. But I am also reminded this morning that no matter what happens next Tuesday there is a theme that God has been revealing to humanity over and over and over again for thousands of years that dispels any of my fears. It is amidst death and despair and hopelessness that new life emerges.

Jesus said to [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Yes. Yes, I do.

Life –> Death –> New Life

This is the way.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Faithful God

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Faithful God (CaD Ezk 2) – Wayfarer

The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’
Ezekiel 2:4 (NIV)

Earlier this week I wrote about my work experiences when I was young. The thoughts around that post have continued to rattle around in my thoughts this week. I thought of Mike Rowe and his show Dirty Jobs. The dirtiest job I ever had was pollinating seed corn fields. It was hot and the corn would cut and scrape my arms and legs. By the end of the day, I would be drenched with sweat and I would be yellow from head to foot covered in corn pollen. It was nasty work but it paid well, and it taught me that Ag science was not a field I was particularly interested in pursuing.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision of being in God’s throne room continues and the young priest is given his prophetic calling. God has a job for Zeke. He is to proclaim God’s messages to the Israelites living in exile in Babylon. God warns Zeke that it is going to be a tough job. The very reason they are in exile is because of their rebelliousness and obstinance toward God. God tells Ezekiel that it’s highly likely they will refuse to listen and that he’s not going to be very popular.

As I read the chapter this morning, I also thought about Jeremiah. In fact, I went back and read the first chapter which describes God’s prophetic call to Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s prophetic ministries overlap. God called Jeremiah to proclaim His messages to the same obstinate and rebellious people in and around Jerusalem. If Zeke knew Jeremiah at all before being sent in exile to Babylon, he would have an inkling of what he was in for. Jeremiah was threatened, beaten, and thrown into a well. God’s warning to Zeke in today’s chapter might be summed up: “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.”

And, as I meditated on it in the quiet this morning, I realized that was the point. God refuses to give up on His people. They have rejected Him, but He isn’t giving up on them. Whether it was the exiles in Babylon or the people left in Jerusalem, God was determined to continue warning them, continue calling them to repentance, and continue assuring them of the love and hope He has for them if they will simply soften their hearts and choose to follow. Even knowing that most of them will refuse to listen, God refuses to give up on them. I am reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy (another young man tasked with proclaiming God’s Message):

“if we are faithless,
    he remains faithful,
    for he cannot disown himself.”
2 Timothy 2:13 (NIV)

One of the more challenging aspects of parenting (speaking of another tough job but someone’s got to do it) for me has been watching my children (and now grandchildren) navigate their own spiritual journeys. Their dance with the Almighty is their own. I have no control. What I do have is faith in a faithful God who refuses to give up on His own, even if and when they give up on Him. In the meantime, I, like Zeke, will keep proclaiming the Message even if no one listens.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Motivation vs. Obligation

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Motivation vs. Obligation (CaD 1 Thess 1) – Wayfarer

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)

I saw an interesting blurb from an article in The Atlantic that explored the reasons that so many people failed to return to church after COVID-19. It spoke of people who perhaps were slow to return and then found themselves more sporadic in attendance. This created a fear of facing questions like “Where have you been?” that they simply didn’t want to face, so they chose not to. It concluded that they discovered going to church was another task in our ever-busier lives that they learned to live without.

I thought to myself as I meditated on this: “Good. If in your heart and mind going to church is simply a task to be checked off of your list, perhaps your choice not to return is a win-win for you and your church.”

Today our chapter-a-day journey returns to Paul’s letters to the fledgling group of Jesus’ disciples in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Paul made a brief stop there and his sharing of Jesus’ Message led a few Jews and a large number of non-Jewish Greeks to become believers. Paul’s M.O. was typically to stay in a new town for a while to help a new group of believers get established in their faith. That didn’t work in Thessaloniki (see Acts 17) because enemies rose up and started a riot, leading to Paul’s abrupt departure and a number of the believers being arrested and thrown in jail.

Paul writes the group of believers this letter to encourage and commend them. In today’s introductory statement, Paul commends their:

work produced by faith
labor prompted by love
endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

What struck me first about Paul’s commendation was the words “work” and “labor” which in English are typically synonymous. So, I dug into the original Greek words Paul used:

“Work” is translated from the Greek “ergon” which is more easily thought of as good deeds. I think of Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek, walk an extra mile, and bless your enemies. All of which, the Thessalonians were given opportunities to exemplify by their local enemies and persecutors.

“Labor” is translated from the Greek “kopos” which can be thought of as being “troubled” or “bothered.” A week or so ago, when Wendy and I were busy moving everything in our basement, ripping up carpet, and recovering from a flooded basement, it was “kopos.” Slogging through the consequences of trouble. This was also the reality in the wake of the Thessalonian believer’s local persecution.

The next thing that struck me about Paul’s three-fold commendation was that the “work, labor, and endurance” were linked to a specific motivation. The “work” of blessing their enemies was motivated by their sincere faith in Jesus and desire to follow His teaching. The “labor” of slogging through the consequences of local persecution was motivated by love for Jesus, and love for others. Their endurance was motivated by hope in Jesus’ presence, provision, protection, and eternal reward.

In the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think back to those in The Atlantic for whom going to church once a week was a task. It was work that they felt burdened in doing. It took more out of them than what it provided them. So what was the motivation for going in the first place? Family tradition? Social or cultural expectations? Personal obligation? Having experienced many churches of many kinds along my life journey, I would observe that a congregation largely made of people who attend out of those motives is not a spiritually healthy system.

The Message makes it clear that believers’ regular gathering together is about encouraging one another, building one another up spiritually, corporately worshipping together (a unique experience compared to individual worship), and experiencing a spiritual refreshment needed to help us be examples of Jesus and produce the Fruit of the Spirit each day as we interact in the world. I don’t meet with my local gathering of believers because it’s a task. I meet because I both want and need the regular infusion to remain spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.

Yesterday, Wendy and I missed our regular local gathering because Wendy had a sleepover with her inner circle of lady friends and I wanted to be present to help host and serve. It was a different kind of fellowship and a healthy change of pace. That said, I texted back and forth with multiple people in the gathering. I missed being there. I was thinking of them, being encouraged by them, and encouraging them in return. I was motivated by Jesus’ love for me, and my love for them. It wasn’t a task. It was the natural fruit of loving relationships. And, that’s what “church” was and is supposed to be.

Note: Thanks to those of you who noticed my absence much of last week and checked to ask if I was okay. Between a couple days of business travel and a number of things on the plate, I found myself taking a few days off.

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

Chapter-a-Day, Uncategorized

Watershed Moment

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Watershed Moment (CaD Jhn 11) – Wayfarer

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
John 11:8 (NIV)

Certain movie scenes stand out in my memory because of the way the entire storyline of a movie hinges on that one moment. For example, in The Godfather, it is Michael’s late-night visit to the hospital to find his father alone. In the darkness, he whispers to his father, “It’s okay. I’m with you now.” From that point on, the son who wanted nothing to do with his father’s business will be on a trajectory to become the very thing he once despised.

Today’s chapter contains a similar dramatic and pivotal episode in Jesus’ story. This is the seventh and final miraculous “sign” that John chooses to share before shifting to Jesus’ fateful and final days. It is not only the most dramatic of the seven because of the miracle itself, but because the event pushes Jesus’ enemies into a conspiracy to commit murder and rid themselves of Jesus once-and-for-all.

The conflict between Jesus and the chief priests in Jerusalem was already at a boiling point. Jesus had escaped attempts to arrest Him and stone Him the last time He had been in Jerusalem. Because of this, He left the region altogether. But now Jesus gets word that His good friend, Lazarus is gravely ill. Lazarus and his sisters live in Bethany, a stone’s throw from Jerusalem and the Chief Priests.

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been lying in the grave for four days. Mourners from Jerusalem had gathered to comfort the family. There is a big crowd on hand.

Part of the drama of the moment for me is in John’s careful crafting of the human emotion of the moment. He emphasizes Jesus’ love for Lazarus and his sisters. There’s the wailing and lamenting of the friends gathered with the sisters at the tomb. John also records Jesus’ own emotions with the simple declaration “Jesus wept.” And then, amid the grief and despair, Jesus orders the stone rolled away and loudly commands Lazarus to exit the grave.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead was a watershed moment on multiple levels. The crowd of witnesses and the public display ensured that word would spread like wildfire. The proximity to Jerusalem ensured that word would quickly reach Jesus’ enemies. With this particular sign, Jesus also foreshadows the impending end of His own earthly journey through death to resurrection. Lazarus, meanwhile, would be a living witness to Jesus’ miraculous power, leading Jesus’ enemies to conspire to send him back to the grave as well.

As I meditated on this dramatic scene in the quiet this morning, it once again seemed clear to me that Jesus was not a victim of circumstance. He was very clearly driving the action. Jesus had already declared how His earthly journey would end. With the raising of Lazarus, He was putting the wheels into motion that would lead right where He always knew things would end up.

Along my own earthly journey as a disciple of Jesus, I have been able to look back on my journey and see how certain watershed moments in my story were instrumental in driving the action. Even difficult and hard times have resulted in spiritual growth, deeper levels of maturity, and they have led to places where I’ve experienced life in greater and more fulfilling ways.

The story of Lazarus is really a microcosm of the Great Story itself. Death leads to new life just as winter leads to spring. Or, as David penned in his lyrics of Psalm 30, weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

I find this a good reminder for the start of a new work week. Just as Jesus shared with Lazarus’ sisters, if I believe Jesus truly the Resurrection and the Life, I am assured that the darkest of earthly circumstances eventually end in light, the saddest of times ultimately give way to joy, and even death itself is simply a gateway to new life.

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

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Best of 2023 #8: Busy Livin’

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I’m on vacation for three weeks. While I’m gone, please enjoy the top 15 posts from 2023 based on total number of page views and podcast plays. Cheers!

Busy Livin' (CaD Job 17) – Wayfarer

“…where then is my hope—
    who can see any hope for me?“
Job 17:15 (NIV)

There is a classic scene in The Shawshank Redemption in which Andy and Red are sitting in the prison yard discussing hope of life on the outside. Andy shares his dreams of getting out, moving to Mexico, and living a quiet life on the coast. Red, who has no hope of getting out of prison, fears he wouldn’t know how to live on the “outside” and he chastises Andy for his pipe dream of life in Mexico. Andy then shares with Red the simple truth he has embraced: “You either get busy living, or you get busy dying.”

Along my life journey, I’ve known multiple individuals who have been given a terminal diagnosis. A business colleague of mine was diagnosed with cancer and was dead in 10 weeks. When my father was diagnosed with Myeloma, his doctor gave him the statistical probability he’d be dead, if I remember correctly, about four or five years ago. Not only is he still around, but on top of the Myeloma he survived a potentially fatal infection a few years ago. His stained-glass won a third-place ribbon at the Iowa State Fair this week, and he’s currently working on crafting a prayer bench for a friend (Way to go, Dad!).

I once had a friend who told me that he had an agreement with his physician that if he was ever diagnosed with cancer, the doctor was forbidden from sharing it with him. He told me that, as a pastor, he’d seen too many of his parishioners die from the diagnosis. Once the doctor told them they had cancer, they “got busy dying.” While I disagree with my friend’s solution to live in ignorance, I’ve never forgotten the lesson that led to his decision.

As I meditated on today’s chapter, I observed that Job appears to be “busy dying.” Given the tragic circumstances he’s experienced, it’s easy to understand why. He can’t see beyond his troubles. In Job’s mind, the agony has been so great that the anticipation of death feels like a relief. Job’s only hope, he states, is the grave. Like Red in The Shawshank Redemption, Job can’t imagine life outside the prison of his suffering, beyond the barbed wire of his pain.

One of the things that Jesus perpetually taught His disciples was to think outside the prison of our momentary circumstances, and to see beyond our finite earthly existence:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

This is not to say, as the saying goes, that I “become so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good.” Rather, a Kingdom world-view changes the way I see my earthly troubles. Paul’s earthly, real-life circumstances included, but were not limited to, the following experiences he shared with Jesus’ disciples in Corinth:

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (NIV)

Despite this, Paul wrote in the same letter:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)

So in the quiet this morning, I once again feel for Job and his sufferings. I don’t blame him for his very human reaction to unbelievable tragic circumstances. His anger and his sense of hopelessness are natural human emotions that he has to work through. He can’t see beyond the grave. As a disciple of Jesus, however, I am called to look beyond the grave. That’s what Jesus’ resurrection was about and it set up a spiritual paradox through which I, as a follower of Jesus, should view my circumstances. Though my earthly circumstances are terminal, because the reality is that every human being’s existence on this earth is terminal, I can still, in the midst of them, “get busy living” because this world is not my home.

As the song goes, this wayfaring stranger is headed home, over Jordan. There is no sickness, no toil, or danger in that bright land to which I go.

Chapter to read for tomorrow’s Best of 2023: Job 35

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Three Things in Misery

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Three Things in Misery (CaD Mi 7) – Wayfarer

“What misery is mine!”
Micah 7:1a (NIV)

May I be honest with you? The past couple of days have been miserable. Like, they’ve been really miserable. I’ll spare you the details. My point is not about sharing my misery, but about how God met me in today’s chapter.

As I have always said, prophesy is layered with meaning. As I wrote in my post last week, the ancient’s prophetic words can at once be about what was, what is, and what yet will be. The ancient prophet Micah’s words in today’s final chapter are certainly about the spiritual, social, and political issues that were happening back in his day. But on a morning when I am acutely feeling misery in the moment and the first words I read are “What misery is mine!” I know there’s something that God’s Spirit has to say to me, today, in this miserable moment.

The first thing God had for me was an empathetic identification of my present reality.

“Now is the time of your confusion.
Do not trust a neighbor;
Put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
Guard the words of your lips.”

I am feeling confused. I am feeling distrustful. I am feeling caution with every word I say. Reading these words was God’s Spirit whispering, “I get it.” I needed that.

The second thing God had for me in today’s chapter was a statement of both faith and hope.

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD.
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.”

As I read these words, it felt like a guttural cry of my soul. They became a defiant stance, amidst my present circumstances, in faith that I can trust God and trust the story He is authoring in and through me.

The third thing God had for me was a promise.

“The day for building your walls will come,
the day for extending your boundaries.”

Sometimes, it’s good to be given a glimpse of what’s ahead. I may find myself in a deep valley on life’s road, but there are good things ahead just over the next hill.

So today, I’ll just press forward one step at a time.

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