Tag Archives: Pessimism

Chapter-a-Day

The Divergent Paths of Fear and Faith

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“Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
Numbers 14:3 (NIV)

As a purely base human instinct for survival, fear is essential. Our brains react to situations instinctively to warn us and cause us to be cautious of or to flee potentially fatal dangers. As a disciple of Jesus, I have found that the spiritual journey requires the development of faith that overcomes fear. Fear is the enemy of faith. Where Jesus leads me is away from the fear of death. In fact, where Jesus leads, I walk into death as He did, believing what He asked the sister of Lazarus to believe:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Today’s chapter is one of the most crucial waypoints in the Great Story. Having quickly reached the Promised Land, the Hebrew tribes are at a point of decision. Will they have faith that the God who miraculously delivered them from Pharaoh and 400 years of slavery will also deliver to them the land He’s been promising all along, or will they now refuse to go where He is leading them?

I found an interesting pattern emerge from the story starting in yesterday’s chapter and continuing into today’s fateful moment of decision.

It begins with fear, expressed in the spies report back to Moses:

“But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.”

As the fear grew, it led the spies to exaggerate, lie, and deceive the people as they spread false claims:

“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

The fear, fueled by deception, leads the people to doubt and a presumption:

“Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. “

They don’t know this negative outcome is going to happen, but their fear has led them to believe it. Fear has led to a kind of shadow faith, the firm belief in their pessimistic presumptions.

As a confirmed pessimist, I know this road to presumption really well. I’ve trodden its path many times on this earthly journey. In fact, I can see it play out constantly in the doomsday predictions that come from both sides of the political aisle as well as conspiratorial groups that are ever with us. As Wendy and I sit over breakfast every morning and read through the news, not a day goes by that there isn’t at least one headline proclaiming some kind of doomsday scenario. I’ve observed that not only is fear a base human instinct, but its also both contagious and creates reactive responses. Among those active responses is clicking on the doomsday articles to find out how we’re all going to die, which makes media outlets money, which is why they love printing doomsday articles.

The spies fear led to deceptive exaggeration that spread their fears like contagion throughout the Hebrew camp, leading to a reactive uprising against Moses and Aaron, along with the threat to murder Joshua and Caleb for even suggesting that they enter the Promised Land. I see that same pattern happen over and over again in our own world.

Fear —> Exaggeration/Deception —> Presumption —> Reaction

In the quiet this morning, I find God’s Spirit reminding me of all the ways that Jesus called me to live by faith, not fear. All of the ways He calls me to respond with faith rather than reacting to fear. All of the ways He tells me that God’s Spirit leads to a place where my flesh instinct to fear death must give way to an understanding that the path to Life leads through death to the Resurrection.

Like the Hebrews camped outside the Promised Land, if I’m afraid to have faith that following Jesus where He is leading me will ultimately lead to Life, then I will find my fear leading me to all sorts of deadly presumptions this side of the eternal Promised Land.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

The Tension

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“Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.“
Mark 13:18-19 (NIV)

There is a great tension lying at the heart of our culture today. I’ve been observing it for the last several years. I also observe that most people are completely unaware of it.

One end of the spectrum there is a great pessimism. Anxiety and mental distress is off the charts. The pandemic and its aftermath resulted in global uncertainty, cultural divide, and political unrest that we’re still feeling today. And then there’s the fact that both sides of the cultural and political divide have unprecedented ability to stoke fear, hatred, and misinformation through social media. Fear is the great human motivator, and media outlets use it to keep people addictively reading, watching, and clicking because it’s what makes them money.

World War III, genocide, terrorism, riots, political corruption, assassinations, school shootings, health care crisis, and climate change aren’t just daily headlines, they stream at us every moment of every day through our phones, tablets, computers, and televisions.

On the other side of the spectrum there is great optimism. Hans Rosling, his book Factfulness, and his team at gapminder.org have been beating their drums to a very different tune for some time, along with intellectuals like Harvard’s Steven Pinker. They prove that if you look at the actual facts, human beings on planet earth have never had it so good. Extreme poverty is at the lowest levels ever across the globe. Wars and conflicts are killing fewer people than ever in human history. Humans are living longer, have more access to health care, more access to education, and the status of women has never been higher than in all of human history.

Interestingly, Rosling has a thirteen question multiple choice test that he administered to people around the world including gatherings like the United Nations and the worlds most prestigious universities testing people’s knowledge regarding facts about things like global poverty, population, education, and health. The results regularly revealed that he’d have gotten better test scores from a room full of monkeys randomly selecting answers.

So, which is it? Are things worse than ever, or better than ever?

Today’s chapter brought this great tension to mind, as Jesus tells His followers that the end of the Great Story is not going to be a pleasant experience. Wars, famines, earthquakes, and cataclysmic events are in store before the climactic end and new beginning.

As I have meditated on these things over the years, I have come to a couple of important personal conclusions.

First, I observe that most human beings operate in binary ways of thinking. It’s an either-or world: Red or Blue, black or white, left or right, salvation or condemnation, optimism or pessimism. But, the truth is often both-and.

For example, scholars for centuries have argued about Jesus words in today’s chapter. Was He talking about the events of the first century, or end times yet to come far in the future? I’ve heard scholars argue both, but my study of the prophetic gives me plenty of examples of it being both-and. Metaphors are layered with meaning. Jesus may have been speaking at once about the cataclysmic events in Jerusalem 70 A.D. and events thousands of years in the future. Even Jesus said in today’s chapter, “No one knows. Not even me. Only the Father”.

This also leads me to believe that the great optimism and pessimism tension is just another both-and scenario. In fact, from a spiritual perspective this makes more sense to me than anything else. If I really believe what I say I believe, then there is an Evil One and forces of evil that are dead set against God and everything God is about. It would make perfect sense that evil would twist and contort truth (e.g. things are better than any time in human history) into lies (e.g. things have never been worse) in order to stoke fear, anxiety, despair, hatred, anger, conflict, violence, and upheaval.

And this brings me to two other conclusions.

Jesus words do speak of things spiraling out of control in the end, and He clearly says to “watch” for it, and expect it. So, I am not that surprised by the steady stream of fear-inducing, anxiety-producing pessimism that I’m confronted with every day across the entire spectrum of media. I believe that things will eventually spiral out-of-control, even if there’s every reason for it not to do so. It’s been a recurring theme throughout the entire Great Story.

Finally, me responding with fear and anxiety is the exact opposite of what Jesus expects of me and His followers. Jesus’ foundational teaching from the beginning was to seek first God’s Kingdom, stop worrying about the things of this earth, and store up eternal treasures for a coming reality. This is a basic faith issue. If I really believe what I say I believe, then yes, things will ultimately go to hell in a hand basket on this earth, and I don’t have to be afraid or “worry ’bout a thing, ‘cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”

And so, I endeavor on this day, and each day, to follow Jesus command to his followers at the end of today’s chapter: “Watch!”

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

My Choice

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My Choice (CaD Php 2) – Wayfarer

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)

It’s interesting the words you retain from childhood. I have a very clear memory of sitting at the counter in our family’s kitchen. I was talking to my mother as she prepared a meal. I don’t even remember the context of the conversation, but I remember my mother saying with some exasperation, “Tommy, you’re such a pessimist!”

I remember it because I had to figure out what a pessimist was. I also remember it because it is the only memory I have of my mother being so forthrightly critical of me.

And, she was right.

Whenever my pessimism comes up in conversation, the most common response is surprise. People don’t see my pessimism, and that makes me happy because it’s something I have worked hard to address. And, to be honest, my faith has had a lot to do with that. If I really believe what I say I believe, and I do, then I have every reason to be optimistic no matter my circumstances.

Attitude is a choice.

It was Paul himself who first shared about Jesus and His message in the Roman city of Philippi. The local gathering of Jesus’ followers were Paul’s dear friends and his spiritual children. He’d lived among them, taught them, and I can feel his concern for them in his letter. It has a very loving, paternal feel to it.

Paul wrote to his friends during a period of Roman persecution against Jesus’ followers. Paul writes while being under house arrest. His letter was prompted by his friends in Philippi who’d sent a monetary gift to help with his financial needs while incarcerated in Rome. And, Philippi was a very Roman city. Many Roman military men retired there with their families. The threat of persecution was very real for the believers there. I find it interesting that Paul focuses on their attitudes.

Attitude is a choice.

It is a dark time, and Paul’s stated desire is for the Philippian believers to “shine like stars” among their Roman neighbors in a “warped” and “crooked” culture. What do they need to do to “shine?”

Don’t grumble. Don’t complain. Don’t argue. Don’t be a pessimist.

Instead, be humble. Be loving. Be considerate. Be content. Be glad.

Attitude is a choice.

I still struggle with my pessimism. You can ask Wendy who sees it more than anyone else. That said, I don’t have to be a slave to it. Jesus said that I’m to be light in a dark world. Brooding in pessimism and complaining about every person who annoys me and every circumstance that irritates me is a great way to snuff out my light.

I don’t know what this day holds, but I choose to be optimistic.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Profane

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Profane (CaD Mal 1) – Wayfarer

“But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’”
Malachi 1:12 (NIV)

Having just finished the prophecies of Jeremiah and the events of Jerusalem’s destruction on this chapter-a-day journey, I’m going to travel in time 150 years to the future. I’m going to spend the next few days back in Jerusalem around 430 B.C.. Taking a quick view of the landscape, I notice the contrast to the rubble I left behind at the end of Jeremiah.

The walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt. People are once again living inside the walls of the city. Many have returned to their homeland from exile in Babylon. It’s certainly not the splendor of Jerusalem in its glory years, but it’s home. There is a new Temple standing where Solomon’s Temple once stood. It, also, is not quite the same. Solomon’s Temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This Temple is, well, functional if not awe-inspiring.

Jerusalem and the surrounding area is now a back-water province of the Persian Empire. There is a Governor in charge. The new temple was finished some 85 years earlier. The walls completed some 30 years earlier. The rebuilding was a monumental task carried out and documented by Ezra (a priest) and Nehemiah (a governor). Exiles returned. The city is back on the map! What a comeback story! Ezra and Nehemiah charged the people to follow the law of Moses, to be faithful in worshipping of God as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

So, as I look around the streets and listen to people talking in the courts of the temple, why is everyone so depressed, so cynical, so…negative?

Enter the prophet Malachi. He is the last of the ancient Hebrew prophets. His four chapters close the door on the period formally known as the Old Testament. After Malachi there will be four hundred years of political upheaval and prophetic silence until we hear the cries of a newborn baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Back to the temple courts around 430 B.C. Life is, more-or-less, working. The word functional keeps coming to mind, but not flourishing.

The design God gave the Hebrew people through Moses was an entire system designed to perpetuate life, health, and blessing throughout the entire community and beyond. The temple would be the center of the community. People would honor God, bring their first-fruit offerings and unblemished sacrifices to the temple. The priests and temple workers were provided for through these tithes and offerings and, in turn, blessed and served the people. When everyone puts their heart into it, it works relatively well.

Therein lies the problem.

Witness the people bringing a meager offering to the temple, certainly not the ten percent tithe the law requires. They also bring grain and animals for sacrifice, but that lamb is certainly not the shepherds best. The thing is half-staved and looks to be diseased. The priests go through the motions of accepting the sacrifice, but they certainly don’t want to feed themselves and their family with this farmer’s harvest dregs and diseased, meager livestock.

The system isn’t working. Everyone is going through the motions, but no one’s heart is in it. They hear the promises of Jeremiah and Isaiah of a blessed and abundant restoration under a glorious messiah, but that’s not what they’ve experienced. They’ve lost the faith. They’ve lost hope.

In God’s opening message through Malachi, God addresses the people’s cynical, defensive, and defiant attitudes.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?'” (vs. 2)
“But you ask, ‘How have we showed contempt?'” (vs. 6)
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?'” (vs. 7)

God through Malachi goes on to tell the people that what they are doing amounts to “profanity” (vs. 12). To modern readers, “profanity” is synonymous with saying naughty words. But the concept of profanity is much deeper and is differentiated from obscenity or vulgarity. Profanity is when I empty something of its original meaning. If I take my family’s precious and priceless fine china and antique silver spoons and use them to feed a stray dog on the back patio, I’m profaning it. If I take the name of Jesus, who I have chosen to make my Lord and believe to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and believe that someday it will be at that name that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, and I use his name as a common expletive when I’m pissed off at somebody or something, I’m profaning that name.

In the quiet this morning, I enter the time machine once again and fast forward to present day. I’m in a church building watching people walking in and out on a Sunday morning. I watch myself (welcome to the multi-verse!) entering and leaving worship. I compare myself in worship to my daily life, words, actions, relationships, and attitudes during the week. Is my heart and soul in it? Or, am I just going through the motions? Am I bringing my best to God, or just the leftovers of my time, energy, and resources? You know, the minimum required by my conscience to be free of any guilt and shame?

Does my daily life profane the very faith I profess to believe?

As God says through Malachi in today’s chapter: “I’d rather you just the shut the doors and not even pretend, than simply go through the motions because that’s profane.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The God in My Image

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Sticking With the Task (CaD Hag 2) – Wayfarer

“Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron.”
Jeremiah 28:13 (NIV)

I heard it said recently that “humans like to make God in their image.” It’s one of those phrases that just sort of sticks with me and I find myself contemplating and mulling over for a while. As I’ve been trekking through the anthology of messages by the prophet Jeremiah, it certainly appears that he was a lone voice saying the thing that no one wanted to hear. Meanwhile, the rest of the prophets were actively predicting the things that everyone hoped to be true, assuring them that what they wanted to happen would happen.

Along my life journey I’ve observed that the culture I grew up with painted a rosy picture of success. If one went to college, worked hard, and did the right things, then a life of success was pretty much guaranteed. Preachers and self-help gurus have become successful and famous by reinforcing versions of this formulaic optimism.

I love optimism, too. In fact, I need regular positive affirmation to balance my traditionally pessimistic nature. But I have come to believe that “balance” is the key. Here are a couple of thoughts that rise in my heart in the quiet as I meditate on today’s chapter:

I’ve observed that it’s easy for people to make the outcome of optimistic formulas into kind of personal god. Success, fame, influence, popularity, status, or financial security become the god, rather than a blessing. When the formula doesn’t work, when the outcome doesn’t match the personal desire, or when life doesn’t turn out as expected, then it creates a crisis of faith. Yet, when this happens I have to ask myself what the object of my faith really is.

When I step back and look at the overarching Great Story, the final chapters are a climactic conflict between the Prince of this World and the nations and kingdoms of this world under his dominion lined up against God. If that is where things are going in the long run, then maybe I should reframe my expectations from how I want life to happen and embrace where God had revealed that things are ultimately headed.

But these thoughts really lead me to what being a follower of Jesus is really all about. Jesus wants His disciples to be individual lights in a world filled with all kinds of darkness. He wants His disciples to bring peace in conflict and chaos. He asks me to love others in a world that can be tragically hateful. He wants me to have grace in a world that tells me to get even. He wants me to live with hope even in seemingly hopeless circumstances.

When the prophet Hannaniah prophesies Babylon’s downfall, the return of the captives, and the return of treasures stolen from the Temple, Jeremiah’s response is quite gracious. He gives Hannaniah an “Amen” and states that he hopes that all his wishes come true. After all, Hannaniah has made god in his own image, the one who does exactly what we want him to do in order to make my life turn out the way I desire. Jeremiah then has the task of delivering a message that neither Hannaniah nor anyone else wanted to hear. I paraphrase:

Difficult times are ahead. You can embrace this pending reality, place your faith in God, and trust the Story God is authoring in these events. You can alternatively continue to place your faith in the god of your own image who tells you what you want to hear and promises to deliver the outcomes you expect. If you choose the former, you’ll live, even though it will be a tough life. If you choose the latter, get ready for a fatal crisis of faith when things don’t turn out as you have prophesied out of your own self-centric desires.

For Hannaniah, the fatal crisis of faith would happen long before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem. His fatal crisis of faith took place a few months later when death came knocking at his door.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Brooding

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Brooding (CaD Ps 116) – Wayfarer

Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.
Psalm 116:7 (NIV)

I have always been a world-class brooder. It comes in tandem with the pessimism that marks those of us who are romantic individualists known as Enneagram Fours. If there is a major relational conflict or some kind of crisis in life, I will tend to brood on it.

Brood is actually an interesting word because the most common definition in the English language means “to sit on” and “incubate” as a mother hen sits on her eggs. What an apt word picture for what I can do with a conflict or crisis. I mentally and emotionally sit on it, keep it warm, keep incubating as I stir it in my soul over and over and over again. I may look like I’m perfectly normal on the outside, but inside I’m a boiling cauldron of angst, fear, negativity, and insecurity.

Along my life journey, I’ve gotten a lot better at recognizing when I’m going into brood mode and when I find myself there. As a young man, I know I spent long periods of time in brood mode never knew I was doing it. To the world around me, I appeared to be functioning normally, but I was actually mentally and emotionally disconnected for long periods of time. This is when having an Enneagram Eight as a spouse is really helpful. Wendy is quick to see me go into my brooding mode, and she’s quick to address it.

Having said that, I’ve also learned that I am an internal processor who has also, along my life journey, developed decent communication skills. This means that I can typically talk through what I am thinking and feeling with others, but not before I’ve taken some time to process it alone. I believe Wendy has done a great job of recognizing that there is a difference between me processing something internally and giving me time to do so, and me silently disconnecting and descending into my brooding pit where I might not surface for a while.

Brooding is like mental, emotional, and spiritual spelunking (those crazy people who descend into and explore caves). A wise spelunker always has a safety line that is attached to a strong ground anchor above. Along the way, I’ve also learned that I need spiritual, mental, and emotional “anchors” with which to pull myself out of my brooding pit.

That’s what came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter and came upon the verse I quoted at the top of the post:

Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.

When I descend too far into brood-mode I have allowed myself to go into a mental space that is not healthy. I have learned that one of the best anchored life-lines I have is my spiritual journey and my life journey. I can look back on that journey and recall several stretches of stress and crisis which were brooding bonanzas. In each one I can recount how faithful God was to me, how things worked out despite the difficulties, and how God used those moments to bring about growth, new levels of maturity, increased faith, and spiritual fruit. By recounting these both the crises and the progress it afforded in my spiritual journey, it helps me put my current crisis in perspective, to trust God’s faithfulness, and to left faith help lift me out of brood-mode.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself grateful for the waypoint I find myself in this life journey. I’m thankful for the things I’ve learned about myself, my loved ones, and how differently we engage in the world around us and in relationships with one another.

Socrates famously said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” This morning, Socrates has himself a witness. Were it not for my spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus, I’d have gotten stuck in a brooding pit years ago and might never have made it out.

(Did I mention Enneagram Fours have a flair for the dramatic? 😉

Chapter-a-Day

Dark Places

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Dark Places (CaD Ps 88) – Wayfarer

For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
Psalm 88:3 (NRSVCE)

I found it ironic this morning that in the very midst of the holiday season my chapter-a-day journey would bring me to perhaps the darkest song we will encounter in this anthology of ancient Hebrew song lyrics. As we reach the end of 2020, mental health experts have warned that social isolation, fear, anxiety, and depression created by the pandemic will have long-term effects. Just a few weeks ago it was reported that San Francisco has had more deaths by drug overdose in 2020 than Covid deaths. It is clear that many people are finding themselves in dark places mentally, emotionally, and spiritually right now.

One of the things that I’ve come to appreciate about the Great Story is that it doesn’t gloss over the darkness that is experienced on this earthly journey. In fact, what I have found in the 40 years that I’ve been studying it is that suffering is consistently presented as an essential ingredient in spiritual development, formation, and maturity. I’m reminded of our landscaper telling Wendy and me not to be too generous in giving water to our newly planted trees and shrubs. “They need to suffer a little bit,” he said, “even if it looks like they’re struggling you want to force them to push their roots deep into the soil. It will ultimately make them stronger and healthier.”

The liner notes of Psalm 88 attribute the lyrics to Heman the Ezrahite, who was well-known as a Hebrew sage in the days of Solomon. If the song is at all biographical, then Heman had a rough life. There is no uplifting statement of faith or hopeful assurance like those found in the darkest of King David’s songs. There is darkness, the pit of despair, the loneliness of being a social outcast, and the ever-nearness of death. If you’re an angst-filled teenager or a melancholy Enneagram Type Four, then you’ll love wallowing in the gloom as Heman pens “the Darkness is my closest friend.” It is part of the human experience to attribute life’s difficulties with divine wrath, retribution, or judgment.

It’s easy to overlook, however, that the lyrics quite purposefully state that the person is still praying morning (vs. 13), noon (vs. 9), and night (vs. 1). He is struggling through the darkness, blaming his troubles on the God to whom he continues to cry out, to pray, and to seek. As I meditated on this fact, God’s Spirit brought two other passages to mind:

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
    to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
    If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
    to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
    you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
    At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
    night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Psalm 139:7-12 (MSG)

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

In the quiet this morning I find myself reflecting on the difficulties we’ve all experienced in 2020. On this life journey, I’ve observed that every person treks through dark places when the last thing I want to hear is a cheery “Buck up little camper” or some over-spiritualized encouragement. As an Enneagram Four, I’m given to wallowing in the melancholy. In my own life journey, like Heman the Hebrew Sage, I’ve found myself in those stretches just continuing to press on in seeking, stretching, crying out morning, noon, and night.

Jesus told His followers that He was “the vine” and His Father was “the gardener.” From my current waypoint on life’s road, I can look back and see how in the darkest stretches of my life journey the Gardner was present, watching over me, pruning, and prodding: “Keep thirsting. Dig those roots deep into the soil. That’s where you’ll find Living Water.”

Chapter-a-Day

The Feed

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The Feed (CaD Ps 27) – Wayfarer

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13 (NRSVCE)

Wendy and I typically spend the start of our day together. We meet over coffee, a blueberry-spinach smoothie (mine is sweet; Wendy’s is sour), and a perusal of the day’s top stories. We have a couple of media outlets that are our go-to, and occasionally we rabbit trail to others. On weekdays it may only be for a few minutes that we sit together, read, and discuss current events. Saturday mornings we typically enjoy a long and more leisurely breakfast together as we read and discuss. It has been many years since we watched the news on television with any regularity.

In recent years I have made a couple of observations. First, whenever I happen into a room where a news or sports network is playing I am amazed at how jarring it is for me. The sheer volume and motion of visual information scrolling below, above, and on the side of the screen feels like sensory bombardment. Voices are loud, and often there are multiple voices vying for attention with the volume of their voice. Certain subjects are discussed ceaselessly and the discussions are repeated over and over and over again. I wonder how many times the words COVID, coronavirus, or virus are mentioned in a typical hour on any of the news networks.

My other observation is that if I regularly want news that is good, encouraging, inspiring and uplifting I must look for it. There are precious few news outlets who make it a point to find and pass along good news.

In the lyrics of today’s psalm, David has plenty of bad news that he is exorcising through song. Enemies are assailing him, he is surrounded on all sides, and the threat of war is real. There’s not a lot of good news. Then in verses 4 and 5 David makes a very conscious shift…

He turns to God with his request.

He seeks after being in God’s presence.

He makes a conscious effort to find God’s beauty.

“Come,” he says of his heart, “seek [God’s] face!”

By the last stanza of the song David is confident that he “will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” But it didn’t just happen. He went looking for it.

I find it fascinating that news being broadcast is called “a feed.” I meditated on that in the quiet this morning. I am fed the news. Writers choose the perspective with which they see the facts. Editors decide which stories get fed to us and which stories get completely ignored. Senior editors decide the larger story they people to be fed with what is seen, heard, and read in their feed.

I have come to understand that my mental diet is as important to my health and well-being as my physical diet. When I mindlessly feed at the trough of any news source, I end up wondering if there is anything good, positive, or optimistic in this crazy world.

There is. Every day God’s goodness is evident in the land of the living:

It’s there. But I’ve learned that I have to consciously choose to turn away from the never-ending, 24/7/365, voluminous, bombarding stream of sickness, death, war, violence, protest, anger, rage, tragedy, greed, and corruption that I am being fed.

I have to choose to feed my heart and mind a regular diet of something that is good for me.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Much Needed Affirmation

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Much Needed Affirmation (CaD Ps 12) – Wayfarer

The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure,
    silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
    purified seven times.
Psalm 12:6 (NRSVCE)

As I have confessed many times, I am not by temperament an optimist. In fact, as a child I didn’t get into fights with other kids because I was so good at beating myself up. The spiritual journey, if one genuinely follows Jesus, will always lead to dealing with the shit inside, and I use that word deliberately. We all have spiritual, emotional, relational, familial, experiential, and/or personal waste gumming up our souls and stinking things up inside.

I was fifteen or twenty years into my spiritual journey following Christ before Holy Spirit led me to the toxic waste that my internal critic had been creating in my soul with repetitive negative messages I’d been feeding myself without every being really conscious of it. As I processed my way through this, talked with wise counselors, and addressed the issue, I learned how much I need regular doses of healthy, affirming messages that counteract the negative self-talk that I can so easily slip into like a comfy old sweatshirt.

The first half of 2020 has been the most tumultuous period of time that I’ve experienced in my lifetime. COVID, lockdowns, social breakdown, economic downturn, violence, hypocrisy, and rage. Each morning as Wendy and I read the news we can’t believe what we’re reading. It’s enough to trigger my old inner critic to feed me all sorts of depressing messages of doom.

The lyrics of today’s short psalm feel like they could have been penned today. David is looking at the world around him, the generation he finds himself living in, and everything seems terrible. People are leaving the faith in droves, everyone speaks lies and false narratives to make themselves feel good, people demand their own way with arrogant pride, violence and vile acts are not just tolerated but celebrated, and the poor and needy are forgotten in the tumult.

Even as I write those words I have images of recent events coming to mind.

The reason for David’s song is found in the third verse. Amidst the seemingly endless stream of lies, hypocrisy, hatred, and false narratives David reminds himself that God and His promises are “pure” and have been refined by the fires of current events time and time again throughout history. David’s song is his own version of a much needed healthy, affirming reminder. God hasn’t abandoned or forsaken him. God’s promises are true. God has always faithfully protected, provided for, and delivered David from his enemies.

In the quiet this morning, I’m thankful for David’s little ditty. It reminds me that we are not the first generation of humanity to think everything was going to hell in a handbasket. I am not the only one who needs regular doses of healthy affirmation. God’s got this. I can believe it, and I can mentally run to that affirmation as many times as I need to today as I press on in the journey one more day.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Refuge in Royally Troubled TImes

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Refuge in Royally Troubled Times (CaD Ps 2) – Wayfarer

…Happy are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2:12

Saturday morning here at Vander Well Manor is typically a lazy affair. Wendy and I will often take our time getting up and going in the morning. We’ll typically sit in the dining room with our pot of coffee (I might even make a special French Press of the good stuff), our spinach and blueberry smoothies, and we’ll take extra time reading the extended weekend edition of the newspaper while we discuss the issues of the day.

This past Saturday morning I commented to Wendy that I hardly want to look at the paper these days. Between the doom, gloom, conflict, chaos, and crazy that seems ever-present in 2020, there are times that it simply feels overwhelming. Can I get a witness!?

Then yesterday morning among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers, I was reminded that “God’s kingdom is unshakable, unbreakable, and not in trouble.”

This morning’s chapter, Psalm 2, feels like a touch of synchronicity as if God’s Spirit is reminding me of this theme.

The first two psalms are bookended “orphans” (i.e. they have no title) that together frame a thematic introduction to the entire anthology of song lyrics that is the book of Psalms. Psalm 1 begins “Blessed/Happy is the one…” and Psalm 2 ends with “Blessed/Happy is the one….” As mentioned in last Friday’s post, Psalm 1 is all about the individual (the personal, Level 1, if you will). It addresses how I want my personal journey to be. Do I want it to be blessed and life-giving or wicked and death-like?

Today’s psalm is a “royal” song that was likely used during the coronation ceremony when one of King David’s descendants was crowned. God, pictured as the ultimate king and power, adopts the earthly ruler (who holds power amidst the [Level 3] institutions of this world) as a child and representative. The king and all the people gathered for the coronation are reminded that they serve God and God’s Kingdom. Ultimately, it is as Jesus prayed, “your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth.”

Jesus’ followers understood that today’s Psalm was ultimately about Jesus. Peter and John quoted it to comfort and encourage Jesus followers after they had been arrested and then released by the institutional religious authorities who had conspired to have Jesus crucified in Acts 4:25-26:

Why do the nations conspire,
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and his anointed…

Peter and John, like me, were in the middle of uncomfortable circumstances that were challenging everything they’d ever known and believed. Just a week or two before they thought they’d be picking out the wallpaper for their staff offices in King Jesus’ royal palace. Now they find themselves confronted with the reality that the road is going to be very different and more challenging than they had imagined. But, they weren’t despairing. Psalm 2 was a springboard of faith and encouragement. They found in Psalm 2 a reminder of the resurrected Jesus who was, ultimately, in charge. They began to understand that their mission was that of the King’s ambassadors in a fallen world:

[They prayed] For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:27-31

In the quiet this morning, I find the Spirit encouraging me amidst my own human weariness with this world. I also find myself challenged to embrace the reality that, like Peter and John, I may have to accept that the road may not be what I’ve always expected it to look like. This world may sink into all sorts of crazy just as it has time and time again throughout the Great Story. But, I know whom I serve. And, His kingdom is unshakable, unbreakable, and not in trouble.

“Happy are all who take refuge in Him.”

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