Tag Archives: Spiritual

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

A Plethora of Prayer

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And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

There was a fantasy movie that came out when I was a teenager called Ladyhawke. It starred a very young Matthew Broderick who played the part of a young and mischievous monk. Throughout the movie, the young monk has a running conversation with God, often humorously explaining why it was necessary for him to behave in less than monk-like ways.

As silly as it seems, that movie taught me something about prayer. As a young believer, I had always been taught the formal mode of prayer. I assumed the prayer position by closing my eyes, bowed my head, and folding my hands together. I prayed formally, addressing God with voice and words that I would never use in conversation with anyone else. After watching Ladyhawke I asked myself the question, “If I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit as I’ve been taught, then why can’t I just have a running conversation with God? “

It was my first step into understanding that prayer is a spiritual discipline that takes many forms. There’s a veritable plethora of ways one can pray. One of my blog posts that continues to be among the most popular is about “popcorn prayers.” Through the years, I have found writing God my prayers like a letter to be one of my favorite and most powerful forms of prayer. I’ve spent seasons of life praying the Divine Hours in which prayers are recited at fixed times throughout the day and night. I sometimes repeat classic prayers that have been handed down through the ages like the prayers of St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St. Francis. I sometimes pray silent prayers. Sometimes I pray breathing prayers. And sometimes, especially when I’m alone in the car, I will simply have a casual conversation with God, outloud, as if He is sitting in the passenger seat – just like Matthew Broderick’s character did in Ladyhawke.

I have always had a creative spirit, and I get bored easily. Finding creative ways to communicate with God and commune with His Spirit has been a worthwhile endeavor throughout my spiritual journey. In the quiet this morning, as I’ve been writing these words, I’ve been reminded of some of the forms of prayer I haven’t tapped into for a while and convicted to weave them into my day.

I think it fitting to end today’s post/podcast with a prayer.

God, I pray for any and all who read/hear these words, that you will bless them wherever they are with whatever it is they need in the moment, and I pray that they will in turn bless you by having a conversation with you. In Jesus name I pray this. So be it. Amen.

I’m taking Thanksgiving weekend off. See you on Monday when we’ll begin a trek through Mark.

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

Blind

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Blind (CaD Ezk 12) – Wayfarer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugh!

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

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

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

Chapter-a-Day

Don’t Read It, Eat It

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Don't Read It, Eat It! – Wayfarer

Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
Ezekiel 3:3 (NIV)

The other day, The Babylon Bee posted one of its usual satirical memes that pictured a man with children on his lap reading. The headline said, “Man Sits Down With Children To Read ‘The Hobbit’ for Nightly Devotions.” I sent it to our family chat string with the comment “I’m not sure what’s satirical about this.”

I read both The Hobbit and the entirety of The Lord of the Rings to our girls when they were young. They were preteens when the epic Peter Jackson film adaptations began being released, so they grew up watching those with me, too. It’s a thing in our family.

A few years ago I received a strange text in the middle of the day from Taylor asking the name of the character King Theoden’s horse. “That’s random,” I thought as I immediately replied with the answer: Snowmane. Turns out she was at a Pub Trivia night in a pub in the UK and knew that I’d know the answer. For the record, I could have named most of the other character’s horses, as well.

There’s a difference between reading a book and digesting it.

That’s exactly the metaphorical point of today’s chapter. We’re in the final of three chapters describing Ezekiel’s vision of being ushered into God’s Throne room and called to be a prophet to the people of Israel exiled in Babylon. Zeke is handed a scroll with God’s message of “lament, warning, and woe.” In today’s final chapter describing the vision, Ezekiel is told to “eat” the scroll. He does so and finds it sweet as honey.

There’s a difference between reading a scroll and eating it.

Throughout the Great Story, God tells His people to devour His Words. Not just to read them, but to feed on them spiritually; To digest them as they meditate on them day and night. Like the old PSA I grew up with on television stated: “You are what you eat.” That is not only true physically, but also metaphorically. Spiritually we become whatever our mind and spirit feast upon daily.

This chapter-a-day habit is, for me, a spiritual breakfast that gives me a good spiritual start to my day. Just like the blueberry-spinach smoothie Wendy will make for me an hour from now, that does the same thing for me physically. Just as that will not be the only thing I eat today, this chapter-a-day rumination is the only time I spend reading, studying, meditating, or memorizing.

Having devoured the text for over forty years, I have a few observations regarding why God would ask His people to do so:

First, everything in life begins to relate to the Word. Having devoured it and digested it, I begin to find that my heart and mind translate everyday events, conversations, and interactions through the spiritual lens of the Great Story. I can’t help it. It just does.

Second, there are important verses and passages that I have on instant recall just like the name of King Theoden’s horse. The difference, of course, is that life isn’t always trivial. In moments of fear, stress, anger, temptation, conflict, or tragedy I have instant recall of God’s words to instruct, inspire, guide, and comfort. And, it not only works for me intrapersonally but also for others interpersonally as I’m conversing with them.

Third, the deeper I get in my reading, meditating, and memorizing the more deeper, more rich, and more fulfilling it becomes to me spiritually. There’s always more for me to learn, understand, and connect to as I return to it. It humbles me how much I know that I still don’t know after a lifetime of study, but it excites me to keep going back to dig deeper knowing that it will continue to yield even sweeter fruit in my life.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded why I’ve developed this chapter-a-day habit and why I continue to do it. I’m grateful for the experience that digesting the Great Story has been for me and my life. And, I recommend it. It’s never too late to start, and I guarantee it yields positive spiritual results.

And, for the record, in the Lord of the Rings:

Gandalf’s horse is Shadowfax.
Sam’s pony is named Bill.
Aragorn rides Hasufel.
Legolas and Gimli ride Arod.
Merry’s pony is called Stybba.

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

Big Family

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Big Family (CaD 1 Thess 2) – Wayfarer

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
1 Thessalonians 2:7b-8 (NIV)

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Wendy had her friends over this past Saturday night. This group of ladies became friends when they were all single in their twenties. They have shared life together ever since. They have been part of one another’s weddings and have celebrated and supported one another through babies, toddlers, children, and teens. They regularly communicate, make a point of seeing one another, and have enjoyed girls’ weekends together. They are “the Golden Girls.”

As a husband, it has been a quiet joy for me to watch these ladies do life together so well. And, I really mean that they do life with one another. I’ve watched them share with one another in their pain, struggles, and tragedies. They go deep, dig in, and encourage one another in every part of life. Wendy is blessed to have them. I’m blessed that she has them.

In today’s chapter, I thought it fascinating that Paul describes his and his compatriots (Timothy and Silas) brief time among the new Thessalonian believers by metaphorically naming all the key members of a nuclear family within a few verses of one another:

…”we were like young children among you.” (vs. 7a)
“Like a nursing mother cares for her children.” (vs. 7b)
“Surely you remember, brothers and sisters…” (vs. 9)
“…we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children.” (vs.11)

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of the time when Jesus was speaking to a house that was absolutely packed with people listening. When His mother and siblings showed up to see him, they couldn’t get in and sent a message to Him.

Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 3:31-34 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I have experienced and observed exactly what Jesus was getting at. Individuals who spiritually share life together for a period of time become a type of family. What Paul was telling his spiritual Thessalonian “children” was that he purposefully embraced all facets of family in his relationship with them. He was innocent and honest as a child. He nurtured and spiritually fed them the “milk” of God’s word. He was, at the same time, like a father as he spiritually instructed, encouraged, and equipped them. He considered them his brothers and sisters in God’s family.

I am blessed with a great nuclear family. The further I get on life’s road and hear the stories of others, the more grateful I’ve become for this. At the same time, both Wendy and I recognize that we are doubly blessed to have an extended family of individuals and couples we do life with. Along the way, I have found that Spirit goes deeper than blood in binding lives together. Jesus alluded to this multiple times.

In the quiet this morning, I find my heart whispering prayers of gratitude for my family members, both blood and Spirit. I’m thankful for a big, big family of individuals on this life journey who have nurtured me like mothers, encouraged and equipped me like fathers, and walked alongside me as siblings. I pray that I have and continue to do the same nurturing, loving, encouraging, and equipping in others’ lives.

I love that genetic science has proven that we all descended from the same woman. I have come to believe that God’s Kingdom is about embracing the reality that all of us are one big family and loving one another accordingly.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Send Phoebe

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Send Phoebe (CaD Rom 16) – Wayfarer

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.
Romans 16:1-1 (NIV)

One of the things that has changed most dramatically in my spiritual worldview in my 40-plus years as a disciple of Jesus is my thoughts on women and their role within the Body of Christ. My early spiritual journey as a believer was among conservative, even fundamentalist, groups. They believed that the role of women was to be limited, and I didn’t think much about it at the time. I simply absorbed it as all young people tend to do when they are young.

Not surprisingly, it was in college that I first encountered pushed back on some of the things I’d been taught to believe about the role of women. Even more personally, I realized that some of my own personal thoughts and feelings about women were offensive, even hurtful, to women who I cared about and deeply respected.

Over subsequent years, I was led to serve in different flavors of denominations. They had different views on the role of women than the ones with which I was raised. I actually experienced having women serving right alongside me as elders, teachers, and pastors. What I experienced was good. Women brought wisdom and understanding that expanded conversations in healthy ways. I learned from their perspectives, which were different than male perspectives.

Then, of course, God saw fit to make me a Girl Dad of two amazing daughters, and God led me to a loving, female, spiritual force of nature named Wendy. The women in my life have taught me so much about female strengths and capabilities that teach me things the men in my life never could. I have witnessed them being treated unequally and experiencing discrimination. I have heard their stories and have walked with them in their pain. I became their champion, and it changed the way I think of all women.

Finally, there’s God’s Message. Along the 18 years I’ve been doing this chapter-a-day blog and podcast, I’ve often shared my experience of continually returning to the same books, chapters, and passages I’ve read countless times over 40 years. The text doesn’t change, but I have changed. I’m on a different waypoint on the road of life. I have grown and experienced new things since the last time I read and meditated on today’s chapter. It meets me in a different place and it has new things to teach me.

Healthy things grow. Growing things change.

Today’s final chapter of Romans is a standard list of personal greetings that Paul added to his letters that were meant to be read to all of the believers and circulated around. He begins by introducing them to the person who personally carried the letter to Rome and delivered it. A woman named Phoebe. He introduces her as a “deacon” within the church at Cenchreae as a “benefactor” of many, including himself. The reality is that we don’t know for certain where the Jesus Movement was in the process of establishing official roles of organization at this point in time. Nevertheless, Paul is certainly introducing her as a respected person of means and status to whom he has appointed a personally important task.

This stood out to me as I read it in the quiet this morning. Phoebe is one of a long list of women who played a critical role in Jesus’ ministry and in the early Jesus Movement. As I meditated on this woman, Phoebe, I wondered how many times over 40 years I’ve read this chapter and completely ignored the reality that was staring me right in the face? Here is a woman of status and means, potentially an official within the Jesus’ movement, to whom Paul had given the important task of delivering his letter to the believers in Rome. Paul speaks highly of her and tells the Romans to take good care of her. She is a respected and trusted spiritual colleague. I want to be surrounded by women like that in all areas of my life. Thank God, I am.

In the quiet this morning, I once again find myself meditating on how grateful I am for the women in my life. I couldn’t do the things I do without them. They support, enhance, and empower me. They challenge me and force me to consider new perspectives. They make me a better man, and a better human being.

“Hey Paul? Who do you trust to get this letter to the believers in Rome?”

“Send Phoebe.”

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.