Tag Archives: Newspaper

Chapter-a-Day

Ezekiel’s Leading Market Indicator

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1929_Black_Tuesday

Your wealth, merchandise and wares,
    your mariners, sailors and shipwrights,
your merchants and all your soldiers,
    and everyone else on board
will sink into the heart of the sea
    on the day of your shipwreck.
Ezekiel 27:27 (NIV)

Reading the newspaper (the actual paper and ink newspaper) is a old school habit that has become a little luxury for Wendy and me. Growing up as a “Paperboy,” I learned early in life to enjoy taking a few minutes each day to read through the news. I long ago grew tired of the way our regional newspaper, The Des Moines Register, became little more than a giant circular advertisement with regurgitation of syndicated content from the AP wires. Wendy and I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and enjoy reading and discussing the news of the day with our breakfast each morning.

One of the things Wendy and I have come to observe about “the Journal”  is the laughable way that economic indicators grab headlines. One day the front page signals that we’re back to the economic glory days of the Roaring ’20s and the next day the headlines scream that we’re teetering on the brink of another Great Depression. There is little doubt that the paper caters to its core constituency of business and investors who tend to look at everything in life through the lens of commerce.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel continues his prophetic message of doom for the ancient city-state of Tyre. The prophecy, however, takes a sudden turn worthy of a front page mention on the Wall Street Papyrus of their day. Ezekiel, whose prophetic messages centered around religion and idolatry, turns his prophetic lens on Tyre’s economy.

Situated on the Mediterranean coast, Tyre was an important harbor of trade back in that day. Ships from northern Africa, Greece, and southern Europe regularly sailed in and out of Tyre. The trading ships of Tyre had a strong reputation. Ezekiel, however, prophesies that their ships and their economy are about to sink.

My high school history teacher once told us that if we really wanted to find out what is really going on in the world we should “follow the money trail.” I have never forgotten it, and have found it sage advice. Greed is a powerful force, and economics regularly gets the better of our strongest moral principles and religious virtues. Ezekiel’s message in today’s chapter seems to tap into that knowledge of the human condition. Business often scoffs at religion and politics. Commerce seems to think that it will always find a way to escape and make a buck off the suckers in the world. If you want to strike fear into the heart of the business class simply threaten their bank account. Which is exactly what Ezekiel was doing.

Chapter-a-Day

Worthwhile Things Take Time

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From thought to reality in less than a year.
From thought to reality in less than a year.

[Solomon] had spent seven years building [the temple]. 1 Kings 6:38b

Worthwhile things take time.

In the nearly 50 years of my lifetime I believe the greatest change in our culture has been the speed with which we live our lives. Our technological age has pushed the envelope of speed in nearly every area of life.

When I was a kid, I delivered the afternoon edition of the Des Moines newspaper on four square blocks up Madison Avenue from Lawnwoods Drive to Lower Beaver Road, south to Douglas Avenue and then back up Lawnwoods catching the side streets of Garden, Seneca, and Fleming Avenues in between. There were two papers printed each day back then to get more news out to the public faster. News traveled at the speed that my eleven year old feet could carry it in Chuck Taylor high-tops.

My "Paper Route"
My “Paper Route”

When I got home, I read the newspaper myself. I was always fascinated by the small “blurbs” that newspaper editors used to fill space on the page. “Blurbs” were small articles just a sentence or two long. Usually, it was a news story from the far reaches of the world that had little relevance to anyone in Des Moines such as a massive earthquake that struck a remote province in China.

Today, my phone would notify me of that same earthquake minutes after it happened with links to photos, videos and eyewitness reports. Suddenly, everything that happens is newsworthy and we are aware of everything that happens in an instant. Everything happens faster than before. Things get old quicker. Things are obsolete almost as quickly as you purchase them. Fads come and go in a day (remember the “Harlem Shake?”).

Today, I’m thinking about Solomon’s seven year effort to build the temple, and thinking about the house that Wendy and I are watching emerge from a vision in our heads to reality in less than a year. I’m thinking about some of the great building projects of history that spanned generations, and I wonder what it was like for a craftsman to dedicate his whole life to a building project that he knew he would never see completed.

I love all that that technology has afforded us. I love that I can have a coffee date with Taylor in Scotland via FaceTime. I love that Madison can text me from whichever airport she happens to be in at any moment and I can instantly communicate with her from anywhere. And yet, I am aware that having the world at our fingertips 24/7/365 has not made us better people, nor wiser, nor more satisfied.

Worthwhile things take time, but we increasingly steal time from our lives in search of worthwhile things.

 

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Top Five Tuesday

Top Five Moments in My Day

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cwg coffee cup lr“Tom, you are man of routines,” my friend Sam once said to me. I guess he’s right, but I think we all have routines. There are little moments in life that we experience everyday, or almost every day, without giving them much thought. Here are my top five routine daily moments:

5. The quiet time. Most days I am up before anyone else in the house. I like the quiet to read, think, pray, ponder, get things done undisturbed.

4. The first sip of coffee. Ahhhhh.

3. The breakfast with my baby. After the quiet time, most days at home begin with Wendy and me sitting down with the Wall Street Journal to eat breakfast and read about what’s going on in the world. This usually leads to good and enjoyable conversation. I grieve that future generations will never experience the simple joy of reading the morning newspaper over breakfast. Technology is killing some really good things.

2. The hugs. I am an affectionate person. My home is an affectionate place. Hugs are physical, spiritual, emotional, relational and spiritual fuel for my day. I can’t count the number of hugs Wendy and I share each day. Some would find it ridiculous. Having Suzanna living with us this year and the subsequent increase in my daily hug quotient has made me realize just how much I’ve missed the days when Taylor and Madison lived at home and I experienced their hugs regularly.

1. The slide into bed. I love that first moment each night when I slide under the sheet next to Wendy. It is a subtle and peaceful moment. The day is done. Rest is imminent. I’m laying next to the one I love. Mm.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Numbers 24

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So nobody knew WHAT to wear
Image by #2 Son/John (busy) via Flickr

Decree of Balaam son of Beor,
yes, decree of a man with 20/20 vision;
Decree of a man who hears God speak,
who sees what The Strong God shows him,
Who falls on his face in worship,
who sees what’s really going on. Numbers 24:3-9 (MSG)

Garrison Keillor once said of his hometown newspaper that it wasn’t really the news, it was simply a table of contents to what was really going on. Having lived in a couple of small towns, I get exactly what he’s saying. The events that everyone is talking about in the coffee shop rarely make it into print. If you read the newspaper you’ll never know the whole story.

Life happens on so many levels. There area human events, but things are constantly happening on a relational level, and emotional level, and even on a spiritual level. Jesus said that a person was blessed who could discern the truth of what was happening in the spiritual realm even when they did not see it with their eyes. He spoke of many of his followers as have ears to hear his words but never discerning the depth of what He was saying on a spiritual level.

Even though he was not one of “God’s people,” God had given Balaam the ability to see with 20/20 vision what God was really doing with Moses and his followers in the big picture. He stands as a model of what Jesus told his followers they should be: “shrewd as serpents; gentle as doves.”

Today, I’m asking God to increasingly give me discernment to perceive what my eyes do not see and my ears do not hear. When it comes to what God is doing in the spiritual realm, I want to have 20/20 vision. I want to see what’s really going on.

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