Tag Archives: Lens

“In the course of time…”

June 17, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

In the course of time…
1 Chronicles 18:1a (NIV)

Yesterday was Father’s Day here in the States. I was honored to be asked to deliver the message among a local gathering of Jesus’ followers near Des Moines, so Wendy and I took off first thing in the morning. We have friends among the gathering there and were joined by other friends who accompanied us for a wonderful lunch. We headed over to spend the rest of the afternoon with our kids and grandkids. Last night, we had other friends who joined us for a semi-regular Sunday evening visit which usually turns into a debrief on our respective lives. It was a really lovely day.

As Wendy and I made the drive home, I sat holding Wendy’s hand and found myself thinking about our lives together. We are so blessed. Life is so good.

Not that our lives have been perfect. In fact, they have been far from it. Wendy and I both have dots on our respective timelines in which we made major mistakes in life. We both have had seasons of life marked by serious moral lapses. The skeletons aren’t in the closet, either. We have been open about these things. Why? They are part of our respective stories.

The Chronicler begins today’s chapter with the words, “In the course of time.” This is his way of telling us as readers that he is being loose with the chronology, and he has been. The Chronicler has chosen to present David’s story in a certain way. He begins by presenting David as the “priest-king” who “was a man after God’s own heart.” He wants us to see that David put God first as David brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and restores the tent temple of worship and the sacrificial system as prescribed by the Law of Moses.

Now, the Chronicler shifts to telling us about the victorious warrior-king who defeated the surrounding kingdoms. He’s also sure to point out that it was through these victories that David collected the gold, silver, and bronze that would eventually be used to furnish and decorate Solomon’s Temple.

It’s a perfectly lovely big-picture description of David. He put God first and was blessed and victorious…in the course of time.

The Chronicler leaves out some of the details. David wasn’t perfect. He had dots on his own personal timeline marked by mistakes. He had seasons of serious moral lapses. The Chronicler, however, is looking back through the lens of history and presenting the larger story of David that he sees. He’s presenting the big-picture view of what God was doing in the larger context of the Great Story that God is telling from Genesis to Revelation.

In our cynical, tabloid-driven culture of tell-all scandals and true-crime podcasts and documentaries, the Chronicler’s version of events might strike one as dishonest. In the quiet this morning, I find it to be an honest view of God’s grace and mercy.

The most beautiful and gracious thing that Jesus offers is forgiveness. God through the prophet Isaiah said, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Thank God that I am not defined in His eyes by the mistakes I’ve made, many many failures, or the seasons of my moral lapses. When God “remembers them no more” all that is left of the story is the person God has been growing, cultivating, pruning, and transforming me to be “in the course of time.”

I am so blessed. Life is so good.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Struggle for Spiritual Perception

March 31, 2017 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”

“You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand?”

“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:3, 8-9, 23 (NIV)

Over the winter months this chapter-a-day trek journeyed through the writings of the ancient prophet Isaiah. One of the many relevant and memorable take aways for me from that trek was this:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

On my ceaseless pursuit to observe and plug-in to the flow of what God is doing around me, I am constantly aware of my finite limitations to see, perceive, and know. Today’s chapter is another good reminder.

The religious leaders came with their hearts and minds closed, testing Jesus by asking for a “sign from heaven,” as if all the miracles Jesus had publicly performed were not evidence enough. Jesus walked away. “You don’t get it.”

The disciples had now been following Jesus for some time. They’d been continuously, listening, following, learning, and working together. Jesus had spoken incessantly in parables and word pictures for months. He’d even interpreted parables for them on a constant basis. The boys still couldn’t make the mental shift to think in metaphor. You can almost hear Jesus’ frustration when he says, “You still don’t understand?”

Peter even makes a huge declarative leap of faith to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Yet in the very next moment Peter proves how little he really knows as he tries to get in the way of Jesus’ real mission. “Peter, you’re only seeing from your own self-centered perspective. You really have no clue.”

Those who didn’t really want to see remained blind.
Those who really wanted to see still didn’t fully perceive.
The one who saw in part still revealed a skewed perspective.

This morning I’m reminded of what little I see, how poorly I perceive, and how skewed that perception can be from my own self-interested perspectives. I’d like to stand in judgment thinking that I’m more open than the religious leaders, sharper than the dull-witted disciples, and more perceptive than Peter. But, I confessed earlier in this post that I’m ceaselessly pursuing, seeking, and struggling to perceive. I certainly have no room to judge.

My prayer today is that I can honestly embrace God’s message through Isaiah. I don’t fully perceive the mind of God, nor do I comprehend all that God does. At least today’s chapter reminds me that I’m in good company.

I take solace in the fact that Jesus did not reject His motley crew of followers or strip Peter of the mantel of leadership that He’d just laid on the ol’ bass master. Jesus urged His followers on, and they changed the world. I think I’ll just keep pressing on and pursuing God’s flow despite my acute lack of perception. Maybe God will use me to accomplish a little something along the journey, as well.

Featured photo courtesy of Jenny-pics via Flickr

Chapter-a-Day

The Challenge in the Way We See the World

November 14, 2016 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The Lord has spoken this word.
Isaiah 24:3 (NIV)

Over the past week in the United States we have seen a clash of peoples with very different world views; People who see the world very differently. The presidential election has brought those stark differences into the spotlight, along with our continued struggle to to love those with whom we disagree and to let discourse rule over discord.

I don’t hear people talking much about world views any more. I had an entire class on it in college in which we defined many of the more popular world views, discussed them at length, and weighed their differences. My impression is that higher education has changed a lot in the past 20 years. At the liberal arts college I attended we were taught that the loss of an election to those who saw the world differently was reason for fascination, personal challenge and understanding rather than fear and loathing.

World view is the primary way we see the world. World view is the lens of our core religious, political, and socio-economic views. Our world view is the filter through which we see the world and process news and events. It is a very human thing to assume that our world view is right and others world views are wrong; to struggle with those who don’t share our own personal view of the world.

There is, however, value in understanding how I view the world and to have it challenged. This is where discourse is a worthwhile friend.

Today’s chapter highlights a piece of world view that has been challenged in recent years. I had a discussion about this with Wendy and one of my daughters this past week in light of the surprising results of our election. Many followers of Jesus hold to what is essentially a medieval world view as it relates to our view of the future. This world view holds that things are going to get progressively worse and worse until there is apocalypse, and then Jesus will return and redeem everything in a eucatastrophic climax to the Great Story.

There is another world view I’ve been reading from some modern day mystics which takes an opposite view. God is progressively redeeming things. Things are getting better all the time, though we can’t really see it. Despite our fears, worries and a media bent on showing us all that is sensationally wrong with the world things are actually getting better as God’s resurrection power spreads in an ever-expanding universe.

So which is it? Apocalypse and eucatastrophe or evolving redemption? Isaiah’s prophetic words today certainly lends itself to the former. The world laid waste in desolation, but in the end the Lord is reigning in Jerusalem.

This morning I’m mulling over these things in my mind. I’m pondering how I see the world and weighing what I read in God’s Message. I’m watching the news of the day and trying to see them both in context of my personal world view while understanding how those same events are perceived by those who see the world differently than I.

Tom's Photos, Wayfarer's Journal

My Photos of 2014

January 1, 2015 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

I took some time on this New Year’s Day to go through all my photos of 2014. I’ve pulled some of my favorites for this 2014 year in review slideshow. It’s interesting which photos stood out to me. Some of them are photos I’m proud to have taken. Many would never qualify as great photography but they are connected to personal moments or events that are particularly meaningful for me. Anyway, here’s our year in review through my camera lens. Feel free to Take Five and have a look.

Happy New Year!