Tag Archives: Maturity

Chapter-a-Day

“Pucker Up, Professor!”

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“Pucker Up, Professor!” (CaD 1 Cor 11) – Wayfarer

Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
1 Corinthians 11:13 (NIV)

I spent one semester at a fundamentalist Bible college. The legalistic culture and its effects were a surreal experience in so many ways. I have so many stories from those few months. The saving grace was that I had a friend who shared the experience and we didn’t live on campus, so we got to escape the crazy after class each day and return to the normality of our own homes.

One of the things I learned in my fundamentalist sojourn was that legalistic systems pick their hills to die on when it comes to rule following. At the school we were attending, one of those hills was the length of hair that men were required to maintain. It had to be short. This was defined as a man’s hair couldn’t touch the collar of your dress shirt. A coat and tie were required attire in class for men. Women had to wear skirts or dresses with a hem that was below the knee. These rules had to be perpetually justified and reinforced, so it was always interesting when a lecture would randomly stray into a defense of one of the schools rules.

We were in a class called Biblical Hermeneutics (e.g. How to interpret the Biblical text) one day when the professor launched into a defense of the short hair rule. One of the defenses for the rule comes from today’s chapter: “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair it is to her glory?”

Today’s chapter is filled with instructions that Paul gave to the church regarding head coverings and hair. The passage fuels life practices in different believer groups to this day. When you see a group of Amish or Mennonite women with their hair pulled up under a bonnet, the practice comes directly from following Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter.

Of course, one of the other lessons I learned from my months in a fundamentalist and legalistic system is that they also pick and choose which rules to be legalistic about and which to ignore. Our school was rabid about men having short hair, but they completely ignored Paul’s instructions in today’s chapter about women wearing head coverings. Likewise, I find it fascinating that Paul ends this same letter to the Corinthians by telling them directly to “greet one another with a holy kiss.” In fact, Paul gives this same instruction in four different letters! Not once did my professor kiss me!!

As I was meditating on this passage this morning and all of the layers of cultural and religious context, I could help but notice that Paul clearly tells the Corinthian believers, “Judge for yourselves.”

Thanks, Paul. I think I will.

There was recently an article in the Wall Street Journal about the resurgence of young women in the Catholic church choosing to wear traditional veils when they attend mass. It was interesting to hear their reasoning and I think it’s awesome that they are finding spiritual lessons in the practice as they judge for themselves. At the same time, I once knew a follower of Jesus who had hair that was so long it went all the way down to his butt. He had a friend who went to prison and he promised his friend he would pray for him every day and would not cut his hair until his friend was released. Now that’s a cool expression of love for a friend and I’m glad he judged for himself to do it.

In both of these instances, sincere followers of Jesus have made different choices for different reasons. Each of them are making their choice from a place of spiritual growth and increasing maturity. Neither of them is doing it because a legalistic religious system is demanding it from them and threatening them with negative consequences if they disobey.

In the quiet this morning, I’m actually thankful for my experiences at that Bible College. It taught me so many valuable lessons about what being a follower of Jesus is and isn’t. It exposed me to fundamentalist legalism and allowed me to see it and personally examine it from the inside. And it continues to remind me of St. Augustine’s wisdom:

In the essentials, unity.
In the non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, charity.

I sometimes fantasize about being able to go back into those classes with all the knowledge and life experience I now have. When my professor was waxing eloquent about how Paul directly says that long hair is a disgrace on a man. I’d ask him to flip to the end and read 1 Corinthians 16:20 where it says just as directly to greet one another with a holy kiss.

“Pucker-up, Professor!”

Or perhaps we should all, with spiritual maturity, learn to judge for ourselves about these things.

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

Outcomes

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Outcomes (CaD 1 Cor 2) – Wayfarer

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
1 Corinthians 2:6 (NIV)

I have found myself surrounded by some rather interesting and challenging circumstances in recent months on a number of different fronts in life. There is always a challenge when navigating diverse human temperaments, personalities, motivations, and conflicts in an effort to getting people unified and moving in a positive direction.

One of the things that has struck me as I’ve been meditating on these different circumstances is the differences between wisdom and folly. In some cases, I’m a bit further down life’s road than many of those I’m working with. There is a wisdom that comes with age and experience that others have simply yet to learn and develop. I’ve noticed that it’s easy for me to see things that others don’t as it relates to foreseeing the outcomes that particular choices, words, or courses of action will elicit. I can see a larger picture of what will be profitable and productive, and what will only stoke more problems and complications. Hopefully, I can be effective in influencing people toward the former while avoiding the latter.

At the same time, I have been faced with other circumstances that involve individuals my own age or older. Despite having traversed relatively the same amount of life’s road, these individuals appear to have learned nothing from their respective journeys. Their lives are a train wreck of perpetual poor choices and a refusal to learn from the painful consequences they’ve brought on themselves. There is little or no self-awareness, and appears to be zero desire to actually make any kind of meaningful positive change. At this stage of life’s journey, it’s a pretty good bet that tragedy will continue to follow them.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to lay down a foundation for addressing the challenging circumstances among Jesus’ followers in the city of Corinth. Like the circumstances I have found myself navigating, the believers in Corinth were experiencing conflict, differences in motivations, differences in personalities, poor choices, foolishness, and unwillingness to change. Paul pleads that what is needed is God’s wisdom, which he points out is not like the wisdom the Greek sophists at the Corinthian temples espoused.

As I meditated on all of this in the quiet this morning, I found myself thinking about the outcomes Jesus says He wants from me as a disciple. I’ve observed that many people who call themselves Christians seem to have two primary outcomes in mind as it relates to being a Christian. First and foremost is making it into heaven. Second is to maintain some kind of social perception of moral goodness.

My perpetual journey through the Great Story, however, (of which this chapter-a-day post/podcast plays a part) reveals that when I made Christ Lord of my life then heaven was in the bag, and part of the surrender to His Lordship was becoming brutally honest about my moral failings instead of trying to hide them. If heaven is in the bag and I no longer need to pretend like I don’t have my own shit, what are the outcomes of this life journey that I am reaching for as a disciple? I discovered that what Jesus really asks of me and all those who follow Him is spiritual maturity. He wants me to grow up, grow wiser, learn from my mistakes, increase my spiritual knowledge, deepen my relationship with God and others, and to continue pushing further up and further in towards God’s Kingdom while letting go of this world and the things of this world.

So, here I am in the quiet once again, reading the Great Story, meditating on the daily challenges I’m navigating, praying for more wisdom, and attempting to be spiritually fruitful in my thoughts, words, actions, and relationships. My hope is that I speak “a message of wisdom among the mature but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.“

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

Time to Drive

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Time to Drive (CaD Ezk 44) – Wayfarer

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites.
Ezekiel 44:9 (NIV)

I was driving with our daughter Taylor in the car. It was a gorgeous, quiet day late in the afternoon. She was around eleven or twelve years old at the time. About a block from our house was this giant parking lot that sat completely empty. I pulled into the parking lot and Taylor was wondering what was going on. I told her we were switching seats and that I was going to give her an opportunity to drive the car.

Taylor was completely freaked out by this, and that first driving lesson didn’t last very long, but she did it. She learned the basics of an accelerator and brake pedal, about shifting the car into gear, and she performed some basic turns with the steering wheel.

I not only had the joy of taking her completely by surprise, but I was also wanting to plant a seed in her soul. She was on the cusp of a new phase in life when she will find herself capable and responsible for things that were once forbidden to her. And while she was still a few years from having legal permission to drive a car, the truth is that she was already far more capable than she even knew – she’d never even thought about it.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision continues and he is reminded of all the rules of the priests in the Temple that were established back in the book of Leviticus. In a previous post, I talked about God being a God who makes distinctions. And in today’s chapter, we are reminded that in that day there were distinctions between priests and non-priests, even between Jews and non-Jews. By the time Jesus appeared on the scene, the distinction had morphed into outright prejudice and religiously sanctioned racism.

But humanity grows and matures the way my daughter does. There was a time when the distinction was made “You are not to drive. Only daddy or mommy drives. That’s your seat. This one is mine.” But there comes a time when the distinction is removed. Jesus came to remove the distinctions and do something completely new.

Paul, who was himself a Jewish religious and legal scholar who became a disciple and apostle of Jesus, explained the removal of the distinction Ezekiel shares in today’s chapter between Jewish Levitical priests and “uncircumcised foreigners” to the believers in Ephesus:

(I know this is a long passage, but imagine yourself being one of the “uncircumcised foreigners” who was never allowed into the Temple and had been treated like a second-class citizen your whole life reading this for the first time.)

 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Ephesians 2:14-22 (MSG) emphases added

Jesus came to usher in a new age of humanity in which the Temple is no longer a bricks-and-mortar building but a flesh-and-blood organism. Everyone who is in Christ is a brick of the living, breathing Temple, and everyone who is in Christ is a priest of that Temple. We’re all included, we’re all a part of it.

In the quiet this morning, I am grieving the fact that for two thousand years the Institutional church has largely succeeded in putting the old distinctions back in place in which professional clergy are the only holy priests and the people in the pews are the unholy commoners. But that’s not what Jesus taught or intended. You and I, my friend, are a brick in the Temple and we’re Priests in this world to show others by our lives, our words, and our example the love and way of Jesus.

Jesus came to tell all of us “Get over here in the drivers seat, my child. It’s time to learn to drive.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

Refined in the Fire

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Refined in the Fire (CaD Ezk 24) – Wayfarer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And so, I enter another day on the journey.

Have a great weekend, friend.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Work as Spiritual Discipline

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Work as Spiritual Discipline (CaD 2 Thess 3) – Wayfarer

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.
2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (NIV)

Growing up, work was an expectation as soon as I was old enough to do so. I had a newspaper route when I was twelve, which was sort of a brilliant way to learn business at that age. Not only did I have to deliver the newspapers, but I also had to collect the money from my customers and fill out a sales ledger each month. At thirteen I was a bus boy at a local restaurant, and then took advantage of the Iowa caucuses to get hired on with a Presidential campaign. I pollinated corn and mowed lawns in the summer. I shoveled driveways in the winter. I was a babysitter. I was a lifeguard. Basically, I did just about anything to make a buck.

A year or so ago, I was giving the message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers and was explaining that I wasn’t a staff member of the church. I mentioned that I had a “tent-making” operation during the week. I had more than one person who didn’t get the reference and thought my business was manufacturing tents.

“Tent-making” is a metaphor that comes from Paul. He was raised in his family’s tent-making business in Tarsus. Tarsus was a key post for the Roman army in Greece and Paul’s family was likely a supplier to the Roman legions. While we’ll never know for sure, it’s possible that their tent-making service to Rome may have earned his family their Roman citizenship.

While taking Jesus’ Message to the Roman world, Paul continued to make tents. Wherever he traveled he would hang out his shingle and work. In fact, Paul felt passionately about it, which is abundantly clear in today’s chapter. Paul saw work as a form of spiritual discipline. He didn’t want to be dependent on anyone’s gifts, donations, or financial support. He believed that hard work was part of his daily witness to others, and in today’s chapter writes that he has heard reports of individuals who are “idle” among them. He bluntly admonishes the believers in Thessalonica: “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

In the quiet this morning, I am whispering prayers of gratitude for growing up in a time when work was a part of both childhood and adolescence. I have been blessed to have had so many different jobs and had such diverse experiences. I learned a lot along the way.

Along my life journey, I have rarely, if ever, heard anyone teach about Paul’s teaching on work as a witness or the trap that living in financial dependence on others can become. I find it an important lesson in the development of personal and spiritual maturity. Paul repeatedly writes that he was a living example with his tent-making. I pray that my life, and my work, is an example as well.

Note: Tomorrow, our chapter-a-day journey begins Ezekiel!

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

Chapter-a-Day

Perpetually Growing

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Perpetually Growing (CaD 2 Thess 1) – Wayfarer

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)

Wendy and I spent the past week at the lake with the kids and grandkids and good friends of theirs who have a daughter Milo’s age and another baby on the way. Wendy and I had a great time with them and enjoyed playing host. We got home late in the day on Saturday, and yesterday we joined our local gathering of Jesus’ followers, including my father.

It’s a fascinating season of life for me. I’ve been meditating on this a lot in recent days. Our kids are in the throes of parenting young children, being first-time homeowners, building careers, and paying the bills. At the same time, we’re walking with my 87-year-old father who is learning about life without his spouse of 60-plus years, living in a relatively new community, and managing the aches and pains, bumps and bruises, and perpetual medical diagnoses that come with the human body in its inevitable decline.

While at the lake, our daughter asked, “Were you overwhelmed all the time when we were little kids? I don’t remember you seeming overwhelmed.”

I laughed. Oh man, was I overwhelmed.

I shared that story yesterday morning with a young man who was in high school with Taylor and Clayton and is in the same season of life. His father, now retired, was standing there with him. We had a good talk and a few laughs about life’s stresses and being overwhelmed in that season of life. His father then added, “I hate to break it to you, but I sometimes feel just as overwhelmed today!”

And, it’s true. The things that overwhelm us change, but life has its challenges in every season on life’s road.

Today we begin Paul’s second letter to his friends in Thessalonica. It was written shortly after the first letter. It’s shorter than the first, and the themes are relatively the same. He wants to applaud how they are handling continued persecution. He wants to address issues surrounding Jesus’ return, and he wants to give them encouragement.

In today’s opening of the letter, Paul acknowledges that their faith is growing “more and more” and their love for one another is “increasing.” One of the things that struck me about this was reading in the context of a post I wrote last week in which Paul encourages an increase in the Thessalonian believers’ faith and love. They took his encouragement to heart and continued to grow in faith and love.

This takes me back to Taylor’s observation and question about young children being relatively oblivious to their parents’ being overwhelmed. I have found along the life journey that we have certain perceptions of what life will be like down the road that are simply wrong. I used to think that at some point on life’s road, I would feel like I’ve “arrived” and things get easier. They don’t. The challenges simply look different. Along with this misguided sense of “arrival,” I thought that one sort of reaches a pinnacle place of spiritual maturity in which you’ve learned it all. Quite the opposite, the further I push into spiritual maturity the more aware I am of how much further I have to go. As C.S. Lewis put it, there’s always more to reach for “further up, and further in.”

And that’s why I loved Paul’s acknowledgment of the Thessalonian believers’ increase in faith and love. They were fledgling believers, but they were growing and increasingly producing spiritual fruit.

In the quiet this morning I am reminded that this should never end on this earthly journey. As long as I have life and breath I will be pushing further up, and further in toward God’s Kingdom. I will perpetually be letting old things pass away so that new things may come. I will always be spiritually growing, learning, repenting, and increasing in faith and love, even as my body begins and continues the slow decline to physical death.

It is the beginning of another work week. I have a number of things on my task list this week. I have added “Grow in and exhibit more faith and love” to the top of the list. If I’m not increasing in that, accomplishing all of the other tasks is eternally meaningless.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Increase and Diminishment

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Increase and Diminishment (CaD 1 Thess 3) – Wayfarer

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 (NIV)

I have a confession to make. For years now I’ve had a secret, largely unspoken obsession with Tiny Houses. I first learned of the Tiny House movement back around the turn of the century. I read an article about a man and his Tiny House and something connected and attached itself to my soul. I have a million Tiny Houses pinned on a Pinterest board. Some of my favorites are the ones that double as houseboats. Wendy will tell you that I avoid Home Improvement and DIY shows like the bubonic plague. Then the other week I stumbled across a show (on Disney+ of all places) about people building and transitioning their lives into Tiny Houses. Wendy came home and immediately asked, “What are you watching?”

In today’s chapter, we learn about Paul’s movements after hastily leaving Thesslonica as his presence sparked riots in the city. It’s interesting to read this chapter along with Acts 17, as this letter fits hand-and-glove into the events of that chapter. Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the fledgling disciples there. Timothy had just returned with a good report that the believers were standing firm in their faith despite the persecution. That report is what has prompted this letter, and Paul describes his longing to return and visit his Thessalonian friends.

As the chapter ends, Paul writes a prayer that the Thessalonian’s love would increase to overflowing for one another, and to others. As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I asked myself this question, “Based on my words and behavior, what do I want to increase in my life?”

Money in my 401K?
“Likes” and influence on social media?
Crypto?
Pens in my collection?
Vehicles?
Clothes in my closet?
Time to relax?
Sleep?
Travel?
Single malts on the bar downstairs?
Square feet in my house?
Acres of land?
Assets in my portfolio?

I think in our world and culture, our hearts and minds are wired to hear “increase” and immediately think of the stuff of this world. It’s hard not to do so given the way we have been shaped by our world and the experience of living in this world. However, Jesus calls His disciples to, as Bob Dylan aptly put it, “Change My Way of Thinkin’.”

Paul is exemplifying this for his Thessalonian brothers and sisters, simply by writing this letter. And, he is urging them to follow his example. Increase your love. Increase love to the point of overflowing to every person you interact with in life every day. That’s Level Four Kingdom of God thinking. It’s Kingdom of God priorities, and it differentiates a disciple of Jesus from a person who is living only for this Level Three world.

In the quiet this morning, I keep returning to the “Fruit of the {God’s} Spirit” that increases as I grow and mature in my spirit and in my relationship with Jesus:

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Gentleness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Self-Control

These are what I want to increase to the point of overflowing in my life. As for all the rest of the stuff in my life, I find myself wanting it to diminish. I don’t think I’ll ever live in a Tiny House (at least, not as long as Wendy is alive), but whatever soul connection I feel to the idea of diminishing the things of this world that I have to store, maintain, keep up, clean, and fix is something I want to lean into. At the same time, what I want to increase in the rest of my earthly journey is love.

Now, God, I pray “Please help my behavior match my heart.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Need for Struggle

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The Need for Struggle (CaD Rom 5) – Wayfarer

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)

Here in the Midwest, there has been a tremendous amount of rain this summer. Entire towns in northwest Iowa are underwater. We know individuals and businesses who have been significantly impacted.

A week ago Wendy and I were preparing to have our entire family with us for two days to celebrate the 4th of July. The day before everyone was scheduled to arrive we had a rainstorm that poured several inches of rain in a short period. Our sump pump couldn’t keep up. Our basement flooded. Suddenly we found ourselves in crisis mode as we scrambled to move things around and find a way to stem the tide. At one point, Wendy looked at me with tears running down her cheeks.

“This is not how I wanted this day to go,” she said.

Indeed.

At the same time, Wendy and I have been walking with multiple families who are in seasons of acute suffering. Not just the momentary pain of a flooded basement kind of suffering. We’re talking about the severe, agonizing circumstances that can rip lives and families apart type of suffering. The circumstances are uniquely different with each of these friends but the life struggles are equally difficult. It’s hard to witness. And, it puts a wet basement into perspective.

Along my life journey, I have observed that our culture struggles with suffering. It’s almost as if we believe no one should ever experience difficulty. We spend a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to avoid or alleviate suffering. There are plenty of televangelists who will promise you that God will provide a life of wealth and blessing if you simply send them a few bucks, and then a few more, and then a few more. And, to my point, many people do.

Wendy and I recently read an article by an expert who addressed the reality that we have a generation of young adults who have been overprotected by parents and a culture obsessed with safety. Now these kids can’t cope with the struggles of everyday adult life.

In today’s chapter, Paul tells the believers in Rome to “glory” in their suffering. This is not an isolated teaching. James wrote the same thing, as did Peter. The goal of being a disciple of Jesus is to follow His example. Jesus Himself said that following Him requires me to carry a cross. The cross was invented to make a person suffer an excruciating death. The bottom line is that spiritual maturity is forged through painful struggle. If there is no pain, there will be no spiritual progress.

In the quiet this morning I’m continuing to pray for our friends in their season of suffering. I’m going to once again reach out to encourage them. One of the things I’ve learned in my own seasons of suffering is that I don’t have to be alone. I have great friends. When I’m suffering, I need those friends the most. When they are suffering, they need me, even if it’s simply making them aware I am present. There are important aspects of maturity that one learns in this life only through struggle. It’s good to have good companions on the journey.

By the way, our basement is back to normal. Our family’s visit was wonderful. In the grand scheme of things, it was a rather minor event. It did teach us, however, that there are some things we need to do to avoid it happening again.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“In the course of time…”

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

"In the course of time…" (CaD 1 Chr 18) – Wayfarer

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

Best of 2023 #15

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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!

Beyond the Blame (CaD Job 12) – Wayfarer

“To God belong wisdom and power;
    counsel and understanding are his.”
Job 12:13 (NIV)

This past weekend, I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. I began the message by citing three articles I had randomly come across from my daily perusal of the news. In each case, they spoke of the current epidemic of anxiety in our culture, especially among teenagers and young adults. One of the articles I read discussed the root of this epidemic and suggested that it lies with parents.

For most of human history, children and young adults lived with the stress, anxiety, and insecurity that simply comes from living on this earth. My generation rolls our eyes at young people who are connected to their parents 24/7/365. One meme I recently saw said “my parents didn’t know where I was the entire decade of the 1980s!” It’s funny because it’s true.

I grew up having to learn to cope with naturally stressful situations because I had no choice. If I got a flat tire driving through rural Iowa, I couldn’t call someone. I couldn’t use GPS to figure out where I was or where the nearest farmhouse was. I either changed the tire with the spare in the trunk or started hoofing it until I found a farmhouse and risked knocking on the door of a stranger to ask for help.

Today’s young generations have had the luxury of parents who can and do protect them from every uncomfortable situation as they grow. Parents have gone out of their way to effectively eliminate stress, difficulty, and danger from their children’s lives while taking care of their children’s every need and granting most of their affluent, earthly desires. As these children “adult” they now see any difficulty or natural life stress as inherently bad and something to be avoided at all costs. They expect their adult lives to be as easy as their parents made their childhood and young adult years. In some cases, children refuse to leave home and feel unable to cope independently in a cruel world.

Wendy and I recently had dinner with a friend whose young adult child is walking through an acutely painful stretch of their life journey. The pain results from the actions of another person. As we explored the circumstances and the host of negative consequences that have resulted, the conversation eventually turned to our own respective life journeys. Every one of us could identify painful stretches of our own respective life journeys, and in each case the pain served to produce progress toward personal and spiritual maturity in our lives.

Perhaps the most meaningful and useful life lesson that I have gleaned from the Great Story in my 40+ years of study is the fact that suffering can produce personal and spiritual maturity while lives free of struggle are likely to produce personal and spiritual immaturity. A diverse trio of voices echo this same general principle in the Great Story: Paul in Romans 5:3-5, Peter in 1 Peter 1:6-7, and James in James 1:2-3. Struggle promotes a host of character qualities that lead to wisdom, wholeness, and spiritual maturity.

In today’s chapter, Job continues to struggle with the “why” of his suffering. He wants to know why he is going through this painful stretch of his life journey. He wants to pin the blame on something or someone. In recognizing that an omnipotent God controls all of creation, Job continues to prosecute God as the perpetrator of his circumstances.

What’s fascinating is that Job continues to hold that every event in nature and history is a direct result of God’s willful action. That’s a lot of blame to pin on God in a fallen world in which billions of sinful people have the God-given free will to choose to hurt others, even unwittingly and with the best of intentions.

In the quiet my mind wanders back to our friend’s child and the pain that young adult is experiencing as the result of another person’s actions. I think about the painful events our own daughters have had to navigate and survive in their young adult years. I recognize how those events contributed to growing them up in positive and necessary ways. I think of other friends I know with adult children still living at home unable to cope with life outside of their parents provision and enabling.

There is progress in pain if I move beyond blame.

Chapter to read for tomorrow’s Best of 2023: Job 40

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