Tag Archives: Jeremiah

Chapter-a-Day

Trust the Story

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Trust the Story (CaD Ezk 17) – Wayfarer

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.’”
Ezekiel 17:22 (NIV)

As I write this, the 2024 Presidential election is 47 days away. Yesterday morning, Wendy and I found ourselves finding other news to read. We are so tired of reading about the election and the prognostications about what will or won’t happen if one candidate or the other wins. There’s also the daily clairvoyant journalistic pieces about our enemies and what they must be thinking and preparing for should one candidate or the other win. It reminds me of 2004 when The Guardian published a piece about official predictions that in less than 20 years major European cities will drown under rising seas and Britain will become a Siberian-like climate. Well, it’s now 2024.

Editors know fortune telling and doomsday predictions always make good click-bait.

The political intrigue is, of course, real. Nations and empires are always posturing and looking out for their own interests. This has always been true in human history. Ezekiel’s prophetic message in today’s chapter is predicated on it.

Jerusalem and the nation of Judah happened to lie right at the crossroads between empires. Egypt to the southwest, Babylon and Assyria to the northeast, and the infant Greek and Roman empires soon to be birthed to the northwest. Empires, of course, compete with one another in a global game of King of the Mountain to control the most territory and wealth. As Ezekiel is writing the two super powers are Babylon and Egypt. Babylon has the upper-hand and Jerusalem is a vassal state of the Babylonian empire with a treaty to be loyal subjects.

The king in Jerusalem is a man named Zedekiah. He’s playing political poker and has gone all-in with Egypt, breaking his treaty with Babylon. Interesting to note that some scholars claim that treaties like that between the king of Babylon and the King of Judah were vows made to their respective deities, such as, “May my Lord slay me if I break this treaty.”

What’s fascinating about Ezekiel and the other prophets of his day, is that God is spiritually at work behind the scenes of the history taking place. The book of Daniel makes it clear that God is at work in the person of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar. God is taking an intimate interest in the individuals and the empires.

In today’s chapter, Zeke’s message is an allegory addressing Zedekiah’s betrayal of his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar. God takes Zed’s betrayal personally and considers that Zed had broken a covenant with God himself, lending credence to the notion that when he swore an oath of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar it was an oath made to the Lord. Once again, Zeke is delivering bad news. Jerusalem and Zedekiah will pay the consequences for Zedekiah’s bad gamble.

For the second chapter in a row, however, Zeke’s message ends with a Messianic prophecy of hope. God declares that He Himself will plant a sprig on top of the mountains of Israel that will grow into a proverbial Tree of Life. It’s branches will bear fruit (sound familiar?) and “bird of every kind” will nest in it and find shelter in its branches.

As a disciple of Jesus, I once again find in Ezekiel’s prophetic message some comfort in our own crazy political climate. I do believe that all of human history is part of the ebb and flow of the Great Story that God has authored from Genesis to Revelation. I do believe as a disciple of Jesus that my citizenship is ultimately in God’s Kingdom, and that I have a responsibility on this earthly journey to respect the human authority under which I reside. I’m called to honorably live and participate as a citizen. If I really believe what I say I believe, then I can trust that no matter what happens 47 days from now it is part of the Story.

I trust the Story.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Made for More

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Made for More (CaD Ezk 15) – Wayfarer

“Son of man, how is the wood of a vine different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest? Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful?”
Ezekiel 15:2-3 (NIV)

I come from a family of carpenters and craftsmen. My father has my great-grandfather’s tool box. My grandfather told us that his father began by making wooden dowels by hand that were used as fasteners before metal nails and screws were widely available. It is believed that he worked his way up to building boats and ships before he came to the States. He worked as a carpenter before starting his own Hardware Store.

For the record, I did not inherit those genes. Though I have spent a lifetime around my father who can still make just about anything out of available scraps of wood that happen to be lying around. And, I’ve watched my brother, a luthier, turn different types of wood into fine handmade guitars.

In today’s chapter, God gives Ezekiel a prophetic metaphor in which God’s people in Jerusalem are compared to a vine. It’s interesting to note that both Isaiah (5:1-6) and Ezekiel’s contemporary, Jeremiah (2:21), also use the same vine metaphor. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah describe God’s disappointment with His “vineyard” not producing good fruit. Ezekiel, on the other hand, expresses that the vine is utterly useless. To his point, my father could not use the wood of the vine to craft a frame for his stained-glass, nor could my brother make a guitar out of it. Therefore, if the vine is fruitless it is useless except to be used as fuel on a fire.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, He takes the metaphor of the vine to another level. He tells us that He is “the True Vine” and as His disciple, I am a branch on that Vine. The goal is the same as it ever was: to bear the good fruit of God’s Spirit which is love in all of its facets. Jesus then talks of me being pruned along the life-cycle in order to produce more pure, deep, and abundant love. I only become useless if I produce no fruit and am cut-off from the Vine. Then, Jesus says, the outcome is the same that Zeke proclaims: the burn pile.

The truth on which the vine metaphor is established is that I was made with a purpose, just as God called His people with a purpose. I’m not useless. I’m called to be a life-giving organism producing the fruit of love and bringing God’s Kingdom to earth through that love. When I remain connected to the True Vine, I allow the Living Water from the root structure to flow through my branch and leaves spreading all of the vital nutrients of Word, prayer, relationship, and witness to have its life-giving, fruit-producing effect. The prophetic warning only comes if and when I fail to interact with the Vine. Then I will slowly, day-by-day, decision-by-decision, step-by-step, spiritually dry-up. My leaves wither. There is no joy, or peace, or love.

As I head into a new work week, I am thankful for purpose. I was lovingly made. I am grafted into a True Vine. I am called to produce the fruit of God’s Spirit, and thus bring God’s Kingdom to every one, every day.

Yesterday, Wendy and I spent time in worship with our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. We sang a song that welled up in my head and heart as I meditated on these things. I share it with you as I head into my day. May I always be mindful that I was made for more.

I wasn’t made to be tending a grave
I was called by name
Born and raised back to life again
I was made for more
So why would I make a bed in my shame
When a fountain of grace is running my way
I know I am Yours
And I was made for more

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

Chapter-a-Day

Blind

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Blind (CaD Ezk 12) – Wayfarer

I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylonia, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and there he will die.
Ezekiel 12:13 (NIV)

I have been experiencing acute frustration of late with multiple situations in life. Despite stark differences in the situations, there is a common thread woven into each one. People who are blind to the implications and consequences of their own words and actions. At best, this leads to foolishness. At worst, it can be incredibly destructive.

The ancient King Zedekiah had a similar malady. Babylon had already successfully attacked Jerusalem. Ezekiel and his fellow Hebrew exiles in Babylon were part of the spoils of the first defeat. But the Babylonians didn’t destroy Jerusalem at first. They wanted to control it as a vassal state, squeeze more money out of it in taxes and tributes, and command the remaining Hebrews. Zeke and the first wave of exiles were, in a sense, hostages to help ensure the loyalty of the Hebrews still living in Jerusalem.

Zedekiah, the King back in Jerusalem was a poor leader who was blind to his own foolish actions. First, Zedekiah refused to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah and others. He continued to allow the Temple to be used as a carnival of pagan idols and worship despite God’s warning of the consequences of His wrath for doing so. Second, when a new Pharaoh rose to power in Egypt, Zed saw it as an opportunity to create an alliance with Egypt to win independence from Babylon. It was one of the most foolish miscalculations in history.

In today’s chapter, God tells the prophet Ezekiel to act out a little performance art piece in front of all his fellow exiles. He packs his things as if he’s going on a journey, digs a hole in the wall, crawls through it, with his things and wanders off. And, God tells him to cover his face while he does it so that he can’t see.

God anticipates, the reaction of all his fellow Hebrews as he acts out this strange pantomime. He tells Zeke to prepare for them to ask, “Dude! What are you doing?!”

The prophesy was about Zedekiah. He will pack his things and be taken into exile, but “he will not see it.”

2 Kings 24-25 tells the rest of the story. When Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, learns of Zedekiah’s treachery, he acts quickly. The Babylonians march on Babylon for the second time, lay siege to it, and eventually take it by force. This time, the city is completely destroyed along with Solomon’s Temple, and most of the citizens are slaughtered. As for Zedekiah? He is forced to watch the Babylonians murder his children with his own eyes. They then plucked out his eyes so that it was the last thing he ever sees. The Babylonians then bring the blinded Zedekiah back to Babylon.

There are different kinds of blindness. Zed was spiritually blind to the terrible consequences that pagan worship had wreaked on the culture and life of Jerusalem. He was deaf to the prophets trying to get him to open the eyes of his heart to see the truth. Zed was situationally blind to the political realities around him. The new pharaoh was never going to be strong enough to defeat the Babylonians, and he wasn’t strong enough to protect Zed from Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath. His physical blindness was a tragic reminder.

In the quiet this morning, as I meditated on these things, I heard the words of a confidant yesterday as I vented my frustration with one of those situations I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

“He doesn’t see it,” my friend said to me emphatically referencing an individual whose blindness to the consequences of his actions were making me want to pull my hair out. “He doesn’t see it,” my friend repeated, adding, “and he never will.” Wendy made the same observation.

Ugh!

I am reminded this morning that even Jesus experienced similar frustration with His disciples and His people: “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus said, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?

It gives me a little comfort to remember that Jesus knows my frustration even as He calls me to exhibit the spiritual fruit of patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control with those who frustrate me. It also reminds me that I have had my own bouts with spiritual and situational blindness along the way, and God has always been patient with me.

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.

Book Summary List, Wayfarer Podcast

Lamentations (Dec 2021)

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Each photo below corresponds to the chapter-a-day post for the book of Lamentations published by Tom Vander Well in December of 2021. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Lamentations 1: Blue Christmas

Lamentations 2: How I Should Grieve!

Lamentations 3: “Yet This I Call to Mind”

Lamentations 4: It Stinks to Be Right

Lamentations 5: A Different Spirit of the Season

Chapter-a-Day

“Yet This I Call to Mind”

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"Yet This I Call to Mind" (CaD Lam 3) – Wayfarer

Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:21-24 (NIV)

Jeremiah shows all the signs of being an Enneagram Type Four. The constant brooding. The wallowing in melancholy. The ability to wax eloquent and hyperbolic on his suffering and affliction. Of course, Jeremiah has far more reason than I to brood. When, in today’s poetic chapter, he states “I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit” it wasn’t just hyperbole. In Jeremiah 38, his enemies literally threw the prophet into an empty well and left him to die in the muddy slime at the bottom.

And I think I’ve seen some bad days.

One of the things lost on most readers of Lamentations is the intricate way in which it is written. Each chapter is its own separate Hebrew poem. Each poem (chapter) is a Hebrew acrostic, meaning that every verse begins with a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Today’s chapter is the middle poem, and those who joined me for last year’s journey through the book of Psalms might remember that in Hebrew poetry, the very middle verse or stanza or poem tends to contain the central theme. The way that Jeremiah structured this cycle of poems, the first verse of today’s chapter is the central verse of the book:

I am the man who has seen affliction
    by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.

[cue: I Am a Man of Constant Sorrows by the Soggy Bottom Boys]

Yesterday, I wrote about the very human need to grieve, and the permission that God gives throughout the Great Story to do so. I believe it is healthy on all levels to process and express sorrow and grief, and God gives consistent permission to do so. Jesus even sweat blood as He expressed His despair at the suffering He was about to face on the final day of his earthly journey. Singing the blues is good for the soul.

Along the journey, however, I’ve also learned that there’s a point at which the healthy expression of my sorrow becomes an unhealthy victim status. Jeremiah didn’t die in the pit. Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. Choosing to mire myself in despair and refuse hope is to deny the very core of my faith.

Jeremiah quite obviously was a student of David’s lyrics in the Psalms. He follows David’s example both in shamelessly singing the blues, but also in finding the inflection point at which a ray of light shines in the darkness. There’s always that moment when the free-fall ends and the road begins to ascend. It’s the moment of eucatastrophe when the winds shift, the lighthouse appears on the horizon, and the seeds of hope bear fruit in the midst of despair. Jeremiah, writing from the depths of death, starvation, and devastation more extreme than David ever faces, makes the turn to hope more eloquently than David ever did:

Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

That’s the moment I seek in every dark valley of my journey. The moment that comes after I’ve cried a river of tears, screamed like King Lear and his fool into the winds of misfortune, written endless pages of guttural lament, and feasted on every angry growl of my blues collection. The moment when I lay spent from the rage and my soul can finally hear the whisper:

“Yet this I call to mind…”

Wait for it.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Of Rubble and Restoration

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Of Rubble and Restoration (CaD Ps 126) – Wayfarer

Those who sow with tears
    will reap with songs of joy.
Psalm 126:5 (NIV)

I had a great conversation recently with a gentleman who shared with me some of his life story. It read like a roller coaster of ups and downs in business from the luxuries of being at the helm of successful corporate ventures to the bitter pill of his own companies that failed terribly and lost him everything. As he reaches the twilight of his vocational journey, I observed a deep joy within him for all that he’d experienced and also deep wisdom sourced in the lessons of both successes and failures.

As I mulled over what he told me, it reminded me of my own dad who I observed navigating his own vocational highs and lows as I was growing up. There is so much I observed in my parents that I never fully appreciated until I was a husband and father trying to provide for my family and make my own way through vocational peaks and valleys. It’s in adulthood that I finally appreciated all of the joys of vocational success, all the anxieties of job changes, and all the pain of business failures.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 126, isn’t fully understood outside of the context of history. In 586 B.C. the Hebrew people had their own “lost everything” moment. Their nation was plundered, their capital city destroyed, and their temple was desecrated and reduced to rubble. Most of the people were taken into captivity and exile. For a generation, they were forced to make a new life for themselves in a foreign land left to wonder if they would ever return to their own land and rebuild their home. Those not taken into captivity were left to try and survive amidst the rubble and the carnage. Some were reduced to cannibalism just to survive.

One of those left behind was the prophet, Jeremiah. The book we call Lamentations is his poetic expression of grief at the devastation he witnessed when Jerusalem was destroyed:

“This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”

At the same time, it was at this rock-bottom, lost-everything moment when Jeremiah’s faith was activated and he discovered this thing called hope:

“Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

In 538 B.C. the first wave of exiles were allowed to return and begin rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple and for the next 100 years the restoration continued as more and more exiles returned.

Today’s chapter was a song likely written from the pinnacle of Jerusalem’s restoration and the realization of Jeremiah’s hope. As I go back and reread the lyrics, I imagine being the descendant of Jeremiah singing those lyrics on my pilgrimage to the Passover festival knowing that I was experiencing the realization of what the prophet could only dream.

As I meditated on this, I thought of my grandparents being newlyweds and starting a family during the Great Depression. I know their stories. They shared with me how little they had, how hard they struggled, and I got to observe them en-joy-ing the goodness they experienced in their later years, long after those tragic times. It strikes me that my generation is probably the last generation to have known that generation and to have personally heard their stories.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reflecting on the highs and lows of this life journey. There’s so much joy, faith, and hope to be found in life’s dark valleys if I choose to seek it. Wisdom is there if I open my heart to hear her speak to me. There is also so much to celebrate when the road of life winds its way up the next mountain and that dark valley is a distant memory and life lesson. That’s the waypoint from which the lyrics of Psalm 126 spring.

Chapter-a-Day

Child-Like Feelings, Child-Like Faith

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Child-like Feelings, Child-like Faith (CaD Ps 74) – Wayfarer

Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
    the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.
Psalm 74:23 (NIV)

Our grandson, Milo, turns three in a few weeks. And, while we haven’t physically seen him in almost a year, our video chats across the pond along with photos and snippets reveal a normal little boy complete with fits and tantrums. When Ya-Ya Wendy and Papa Tom mentioned we couldn’t wait to have him visit us, he ran and got his shoes on because he thought the transatlantic flight to Papa and Yaya’s house was boarding immediately. The photos of his meltdown pout upon hearing that there was no immediate flight to Papa and Yaya’s house are priceless.

I’ve come to realize along my life journey that there are aspects of childhood that we as human beings retain. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus told us that child-like faith is a spiritual necessity in following Him. I have observed, however, that child-likeness takes many forms. Just as we are called to have child-like faith, we can also have child-like frustrations.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 74, is an ancient Hebrew blues lyric written after the city of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple were destroyed by the Babylonians. Amidst the rubble, the ruins, and the reality that scores of his friends and family were marched off into captivity and exile in Babylon, Asaph expresses his grief and confusion in a song.

Asaph is in full meltdown blues mode. God has forgotten His people. God has abandoned them. There are no prophets to give voice to God’s message. God has given no time frame for how long the Hebrews are going to be in their exilic time out. Foreign gods have defeated, dishonored, and defamed the Almighty, and God is ignoring the whole affair.

Except, none of it is true.

There was a prophet left and his name was Jeremiah. God had spoken through Jeremiah to tell the Hebrew people they would be taken into Babylonian captivity for seventy years. God also spoke through Jeremiah to explain that there was eternal purpose in their circumstantial pain. Through Jeremiah, God told His people to settle into captivity, to pray for their enemies and captors. He told them to pray for Babylon to prosper. Another prophet, Daniel, was one of the exiles, as was Ezekiel. Through Daniel, it became clear that God was actively working to reveal Himself to the Babylonian king and people.

In the larger context of the Great Story, Asaph’s blues read like a child’s tantrum. But isn’t that exactly what I do when I lament my own circumstances without any understanding of what God may be doing on a larger scale? If I lack the faith to believe, or the sight to see, that God has not abandoned me and God is fully engaged in my circumstances, then I’ll be full meltdown blues mode myself. Just as I confess I have been on many occasions.

My mind wanders back to my grandson, and I am reminded of the photo of Milo seriously lamenting that he can’t go to Papa and Yaya’s house. The picture was texted to us accompanied by his mother’s confession that she and daddy have to actively keep themselves from laughing at times. For Milo, feeling all the feels is honestly where he is at in the moment. For mom and dad, who see and understand the moment in the much larger context of life, the job is to help the little man feel all the feels, get through the rough moments, and keep pressing on in the journey.

How often do I allow my circumstances to send me into a child-like tantrum in my thoughts, emotions, and spirit? How do I recognize it in the moment, and transition those child-like feelings of fear, anxiety, and despair into the child-like faith Jesus requires of me?

The fact that Asaph’s song made it into the anthology of Hebrew song lyrics tells me that, like a good parent, God understands that sometimes we have to feel our feels. And, like a good parent, God keeps beckoning me, leading me forward in this spiritual journey to deeper levels of understanding, greater levels of spiritual maturity, that ironically result in the simple purity of child-like faith.

Chapter-a-Day

“Get it Out, Little Dude”

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"Get it Out, Little Dude" (CaD Ps 6) – Wayfarer

I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
Psalm 6:6 (NRSVCE)

This past week I was in the dentist’s chair. Neither Wendy nor I had braces when we were young, and we both have some dental issues as a result, so we’re finally pulling the trigger on doing Invisalign and doing it together. So if my voice sounds a little strange on my podcast for the next year, know that it’s because all of my teeth are wrapped in plastic!

Anyway, my dentist and I got into an interesting conversation that started when he asked me how long I’ve been doing this chapter-a-day blog. I don’t think he expected to hear that it has been fourteen years! We then proceeded to talk about some short posts that he has been writing and posting on social media, which I’ve been reading and enjoying very much. He then shared with me that he found himself with these things he was feeling and thinking that he “had to get out.” I couldn’t help think of the prophet Jeremiah when used the metaphor of the message God was giving him being a “fire shut up in my bones” that just has to get out.

Today’s chapter, another song lyric by King David, is one of the examples I have used when I tell people that the psalms read like the blues. I’m sure that the ancient music didn’t sound anything like the blues, but I’m quite certain that Robert Johnson or Jonny Lang would identify with David’s spirit and could do something amazing with the same lyrics.

In both the cases of my dentist, and King David, the same theme has contrasting lessons to teach. Sometimes, there is stuff inside that I’ve just got to get out. With the former, there is something positive inside that needs to come out because others need to hear it, learn from it, be inspired, encouraged, or comforted by it. In the latter case, there is negative energy shut-up within that needs to be exorcised and expressed so that it can’t do spiritual, emotional, mental, and relational damage that always occurs when I suppress and hold in my shame, loneliness, fear, anxiety, anger, pain, frustration, grief, hurt, [insert your own negative emotion here].

Wendy and I are opposites when it comes to handling negative emotions. As an Enneagram Eight, Wendy tends to explode with volcanic eruptions of emotion that often run hot like lava. But she exorcises those emotions quickly and then quickly settles and becomes solid rock again. As an Enneagram Four, I tend to broodingly hold the negative emotions as they boil and churn deep in my heart until daily life begins to tremor and toxic fumes start seeping out in my words and actions. It sometimes takes Wendy, or one of my close companions, to consciously drill down with me in order to release the crap that needs to be released.

Along my life journey, I’ve both experienced in myself and observed in others the tragic consequences of suppressing and holding in the toxic shit that builds up as we walk through life and relationship. I love David’s lyrical laments because they remind me of two things. First, I need to get out the crap I’m feeling even though it might be negative, raw, and even toxic. Better to get it out than to let it wreak havoc in my life. Second, God is not surprised by nor worried about my emotional crap any more than I am worried when my two-year-old grandson goes into full-tilt tantrum mode for the silliest of reasons. I totally believe that God looks at me in full tantrum mode and says the same thing to me that I’d say to Milo: “Get it out, little dude. Then take a nap. You’ll feel better.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Sower and the Seeds

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From Peter, an apostle of Jesus the Anointed One, to the chosen ones who have been scattered abroad like “seed” into the nations living as refugees…
1 Peter 1:1 (TPT)

I’ve always had an appreciation for Vincent Van Gogh. The tragic Dutch artist who failed at almost everything in his life, including his desire and failed attempt to become a pastor. The story of his descent into madness is well known, along with his most famous works of a Starry Night, sunflowers, and his haunting self-portraits.

I find that most people are unaware that one of Van Gogh’s favorite themes was that of a sower sowing his seed. He sketched the sower from different perspectives and painted multiple works depicting the lone sower, his arm outstretched and the seed scattered on the field.

This morning I’m jumping from the ancient prophet Zechariah to a letter Peter wrote around 30 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. In recent months, I’ve been blogging through texts that surround the Babylonian exile 400-500 years before Jesus. But that wasn’t the only exile recorded in God’s Message. Peter wrote his letter to followers of Jesus who had fled persecution from both Jews and Romans in Jerusalem. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, exile is a consistent theme in the Great Story.

At that point in time, thousands upon thousands of people had become followers of Jesus and were creating social upheaval by the way they were living out their faith. They were caring for people who were marginalized, sick, and needy. When followers of Jesus gathered in homes to worship and share a meal, everyone was welcome as equals. Men and women, Jews and non-Jews, and even slaves and their masters were treated the same at Christ’s table. This was a radical shift that threatened established social mores in both Roman and Jewish culture. So, the establishment came after them with a vengeance.

Peter begins his letter to the Christian exiles by immediately claiming for them a purpose in their exile. He gives the word picture of being the “seed” of Christ scattered by the Great Sower to various nations. They were to take root where they landed, dig deep, and bear the fruit of the Spirit so that the people around them might come to faith in Christ. God’s instructions through the prophet Jeremiah to the Babylonian exiles could just as easily apply to them:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “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.”

Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NIV)

And, in the quiet this morning I realize that it can also apply to me wherever my journey leads me. There is a purpose for me wherever that may be. I am the seed of Christ. I am to dig deep, create roots, draw living water from the depths, grow, mature, and bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, perseverance, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I can’t help but think of Van Gogh, the failed minister who found himself in several exilic circumstances that inspired his paintings. I’ve read his letters, and I find that scholars tend to diminish or ignore the role of faith in Vincent’s life and work, despite his many struggles. Then I think of that sower who shows up again and again in his work. I can’t help but wonder if when he repeatedly sketched and painted the sower, if he thought about his works being the seed of God’s creativity he was scattering in order to reflect the light which he saw so differently than everyone else, and so beautifully portrayed. I find it tragic that he never lived to see the fruit of his those artistic seeds. Yet, I recognize that for those living in exile, that is sometimes the reality of the journey.