Tag Archives: Stories

Chapter-a-Day

Untold Stories

Leave a comment

Untold Stories (CaD 1 Chr 27) – Wayfarer

Ahithophel was the king’s counselor. Hushai the Arkite was the king’s confidant. Ahithophel was succeeded by Jehoiada son of Benaiah and by Abiathar.
1 Chronicles 27:33-34 (NIV)

I’ll never forget the weekend my father and I made a trip to northwest Iowa to visit my grandfather who was well into his nineties. As we sat around the table with Grandpa V that afternoon, he began to share family stories that my dad and his brother had never heard. They were stories of the issues that had created division in the family and had partially shaped his life. But they had never been talked about.

I find it fascinating the things that people choose to talk about and those they keep secret. What is perhaps even more fascinating are the motivations that drive the silence.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler continues his lists outlining the reign of ancient Israel’s greatest King, King David. Today’s lists are the Army divisions and their commanders, the tribal leaders, and the overseers of the King’s lands, flocks, vineyards, and storehouses. David definitely had an impressive spread.

At the very end of the chapter, the Chronicler mentions David’s counselor, Ahithophel, and then quickly mentions that Ahithophel was succeeded by Jehoiada. Once again, I find that when reading through these ancient lists the stories are in the exceptions. I always look for things that don’t fit the pattern. In this case, nowhere else in his lists does the Chronicler name someone’s successor. So, what’s up with that?

The story is found in 2 Samuel 15-17. David’s very own son, Absalom, killed his brothers and very nearly succeeded in a coup d’etat to steal his father’s kingdom away. Why? Absalom’s sister had been raped and discarded by their half-brother, the eldest of David’s sons. David, their father, did nothing. When it came to unleashing his coup, Absalom was aided by his father’s own counselor, Ahithophel. When the coup failed and Absalom was dead, Ahithophel committed suicide.

The Chronicler is silent when it comes to this story or any story that might tarnish the memory of the great King David. Some historians argue that the Chronicler’s audience knew these stories well and they didn’t need to be repeated. While that may be true, his readers also knew the stories of David’s mighty men, but he lists them anyway. I think the motivation in the Chronicler’s silence is simply that he wants the history he’s writing to inspire the work of rebuilding and restoring the Temple that was happening in his generation. He was selective in sharing the glorious bits while leaving out the things that might tarnish those memories.

“Every family has bad memories.”
Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III

This morning in the quiet I found myself pondering anew my grandfather’s decades of silence and then his confession late in life. I’m grateful to have been there to hear it, and I’m glad that he shared it. It helped me understand a lot of things about our family and about my grandfather’s life. I don’t, however, know exactly what his motivation was in never talking about it. Perhaps it’s as simple as “letting bygones be bygones.”

I get that there are a million and one “what ifs” depending on the specific skeletons in the family closet. At the same time, I have observed along my life journey that there is a common human desire to understand ourselves, our families, and the things that shaped our life experiences. Knowing the truth, even a difficult-to-hear truth, may very well be a key ingredient in that journey of understanding. I don’t want to rob my descendants of knowing a difficult truth simply to avoid personal shame.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Shift in the Story

1 Comment

Shift in the Story (CaD Lk 9) – Wayfarer

While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
Luke 9:34 (NIV)

I have a friend whose story intersected with mine in college. As happens, our paths on life’s journey took us in different directions. A few years ago, our paths brought us back together. My friend is going through a particularly painful chapter of his personal story. As we have talked over the last few years, my friend regularly mentions one of our college professors. This professor meant a lot to him, and he always expresses how he would love to connect and what an encouragement it would be to him.

Yesterday, that very professor posted a comment on my blog and said that one of my blog posts unexpectedly “popped up” and prompted him to send a “remember me?” comment to the blog post.

Hmmmm.

In yesterday’s post/podcast, I talked about stories. My story. Your story. How my story has intersected with countless other people and their stories. They become part of my story and I become part of theirs whether it is for a moment, a season, a few different seasons, or the whole earthy journey.

I believe that every person’s story, and our respective intersections with each other’s stories, are ultimately about our respective intersections with the Great Story that God is authoring in the grand scheme. I believe they are all connected in ways we can’t humanly fathom.

The further I get in my spiritual journey, the more I recognize that everything is connected.

Today’s chapter marks a definitive shift in Luke’s version of the Jesus Story. We’re less than halfway through, but having given a broad brush summary of Jesus’ first two years of ministry he’s going to shift to the climactic final months. Here’s how the good doctor clues us in:

First, Jesus asks The Twelve who they think He is. Peter says he thinks Jesus is God’s Messiah. Jesus warns them to keep this to themselves and immediately tells them what is going to happen: He will be handed over to the religious institution, be killed, and rise from the dead. (vs 18-27)

A second time Jesus tells The Twelve that He will be “delivered into the hands of men.” (vs 43-45)

Dr. Luke then states that as these events approached Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem” where all these things would take place. (vs 51)

Smack dab in the middle of this setup (vs 28-36) is one of the funkiest episodes of the Story, also referenced by both Matthew and Mark in their versions.

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to the top of a mountain. The three amigos start to nod off, and when they wake up Jesus is standing there shining like the sun talking to two others talking to Him. The two others turn out to be Moses and Elijah and they are talking to Jesus about His “departure.” Then a thick cloud appears and the boys are freaking out. The cloud is so thick they can’t see anything and a voice from the cloud says, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; Listen to Him.”

What most casual readers miss is that this entire episode is rooted in the ancient story of the Exodus (you can read it in Exodus 20), when God delivers the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and makes a covenant with them, that they will be His people and He will be their God. Everything in the Great Story is connected. If I don’t learn the whole Story, I’ll always miss the connections. Let me break it down:

Moses was the appointed deliverer of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, just as Jesus is about to be the deliverer of all humanity from slavery to sin. Both episodes happen on mountains, Moses on Mount Sinai, Jesus on an undisclosed mountain (probably Mount Hermon). In both cases, a cloud covers the mountain and God speaks from within the cloud. Moses (the Lawgiver) and Elijah (representing the Prophets) speak to Jesus about his impending “departure” (literally, the Greek word “exodos”) from this earth to establish a new “covenant” in which all who believe are His people, and He our God.

Everything in today’s chapter is a foreshadowing of the rest of the story. The mysterious mountaintop miracle connects what’s happening to Jesus’ story to what God was doing thousands of years earlier. The events are connected. It’s all part of one big story.

As I sit in the quiet this morning, I’m simply resting in the connections and flow of this Great Story. Daily circumstances so easily take up so much of my mindshare and they demand so much of my emotional reserves. It’s easy to forget the bigger picture. These momentary circumstances are connected to a larger story – my story – which is connected to other peoples’ stories – which is connected to the Great Story. If I lose sight of this, the daily circumstances easily become overwhelming, meaningless, futile even. Jesus reminds me that I need to shift focus and pull back on the camera to see the larger story.

And, I need to trust the Story.

I’m looking forward to connecting my dear friend with his beloved professor today.

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

Uncategorized

Listen Carefully

3 Comments

Listen Carefully (CaD Lk 8) – Wayfarer

Therefore consider carefully how you listen.
Luke 8:18a (NIV)

Along my life journey, there are so many people I have met and with whom I have shared the journey for a particular season of life. Over forty years I have spent stretches of my journey amidst at least eleven different local gatherings of Jesus’ followers across two states. In each case, I had some opportunity to use the gifts I’ve been given in some kind of spiritual leadership.

I woke up this morning and the lake. My father and I made a quick trip down yesterday to winterize things and button the place up for the winter. As I sat in the quiet this morning, watching the sun come up over the cove, I let my mind linger in the memory banks. I thought of each of those gatherings. Faces and names came to me that I had not thought about in so very long. There are so many lives and stories.

There were so many individuals that I have no idea where their journeys led them or what has become of them.

A beautiful, intelligent, and personable young woman whom I visited in the suicide watch section of a mental health clinic. The death in her eyes concealed so many secrets.

A young man with so much happening inside of him, and he didn’t know what to do with all of his anger. He had flaming red hair to match that anger and he struggled as the only child with a single mother and absent father.

The rough, rebellious, foul-mouthed, drug-using offspring of a fundamentalist family system. Man, I loved him. His rough exterior, which put so many people off, hid a heart of gold. Come to think of it, I imagine Simon Peter was a lot like him.

The beautiful trophy wife of a wealthy, prominent attorney. No amount of expensive clothing and cosmetics could hide the loneliness and pain that had her dying inside. Her exterior was so put together for someone so spiritually desperate.

Then there are those whose stories I’ve known or learned about along the way.

The prank-pulling, immature dude who was not serious about anything ended up getting his act together, succeeding in business, and being a great husband and father to his kids.

A different beautiful, intelligent, and personable young woman whom I watched walk through her suicide attempt, struggle with her inner demons, and find her way.

Several individuals came out of the closet, (some to me personally) and found very different roads leading to very different places.

Multiple seemingly wise individuals made very different tragic and foolish decisions that led to painful consequences affecting so many others, which also led to very different places.

In today’s chapter, Luke presents a series of episodes from Jesus’ ministry, when the crowds were huge and He was riding a wave of popularity. The chapter begins with a parable Jesus told about a sower who scatters his seed. The seed falls in different places on different types of soil which leads to very different results. Jesus tells His disciples that the parable is about how God’s Word lands with different individuals which leads to very different results.

As I meditated on the chapter, I thought about all the different individuals mentioned in the chapter:

The wife of Herod’s house manager who became a member of Jesus’ entourage and a financial supporter of His ministry.

The man possessed by many demons, who after being delivered by Jesus, asks to join His entourage. In this case, Jesus tells him to stay home and tell his story to the people in his community.

The angry pig farmer whose pigs (and livelihood) the evicted demons entered and killed.

Jesus’ own biological family members trying to get in touch with him (and who, at the moment, think he’s crazy).

The little girl who dies and whose spirit leaves her body, only to be called back by Jesus. What did she experience while she was absent her body?

So many individuals encounter Jesus, hear Him, touch Him, and witness His interactions with others. So many different lives. So many different experiences. So many different outcomes.

Each person has their journey. Each person has their story. Each person ends up in different places with different outcomes.

I found it fascinating that after the parable of the sower, Jesus tells His followers: “consider how carefully you listen.” With each story choices are being made about listening, receiving, and responding. With each choice, different directions lead to different places. My story, my journey, and my trajectory in life that led to intersections with all of these different individuals I mentioned are rooted in how carefully I listened, how receptive my heart had been, and how I chose to respond. It led me to each of those people.

Indeed, that process continues today and each day of this earthly journey.

Lord, help me listen well, be receptive, and respond appropriately to Your Word and Spirit.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Lost and Found

Leave a comment

[King Josiah] stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
2 Kings 23:3 (NIV)

One of the common themes of all great stories is when the hero loses his or her way. We see it in Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VIII as he has chosen self-exile. Ron Weasley similarly chooses out in the Deathly Hallows. Edmund loses his way and follows the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In The Hobbit, it is Bilbo who loses his way in the Misty Mountains where he happens to find a plain-looking golden ring in the darkness. Despite his insistence that he would never fall away, Peter denies that he knows Jesus three times.

Along my spiritual journey, I have come to embrace that losing one’s way is a common theme for a lot of us. As I look back on my own life journey, I can humbly point back to a period of time I call “the dark years,” in which I lost my way and made many regrettable choices.

In the Great Story told between Genesis and Revelation the theme of losing one’s way is recurring. From the Hebrew tribes “wandering in the wilderness” for 40 years to the exile of Israel and Judah in Assyria and Babylon to Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, the tale of losing one’s way is a familiar one.

In today’s chapter, King Josiah reads the recently discovered Books of Moses to his people. We have no idea how long it had been since the story of Moses delivering the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and God establishing a covenant with them had been read. It says in today’s chapter that the annual Passover Feast prescribed by God had not been celebrated “neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.” That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 years.

Today’s chapter is essentially about coming home, the Prodigal’s return, and the hero finding his or her way back to the path. Luke shows up to deliver the rebel forces in stunning form. Ron returns just in time to save Harry. Edmund is redeemed and restored by Aslan. Bilbo finds his way back to Thorin and Company with the ring that will help him facilitate the overthrow of Smaug. Jesus restores Peter on the shore of Galilee with three affirmations of his calling. Josiah leads the nation in renewing their covenant with the God who delivered and established them.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that losing one’s way is a very common story. Jesus told stories about lost coins and lost sheep as well as a lost child. The stories are ultimately not about being lost, but about being found. The Shepherd risks the entire flock to search for the lost sheep until it’s found. The Prodigal’s father waits patiently and expectantly on the porch to catch sight of his child’s return. The found book helps Josiah and God’s people to find their way back to God.

I once was lost, but now I’m found.

For the spiritual pilgrim, there’s both encouragement and hope in the revelation that God expectantly desires that I find my way back to Him.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Both/And Family

1 Comment

Both/And Family (CaD Gen 42) – Wayfarer

Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
Genesis 42:6 (NIV)

There was a period of time in my twenties and early thirties when I did a deep dive into my family history. I investigated both my father’s and mother’s family lines. I talked to my parents, grandparents, great aunts, and great uncles. I asked many questions about relatives I knew nothing about. I heard many fascinating stories, and I learned a great deal. I was led to the conclusion that family is messy. My family, like almost every family, always put our good foot forward for public perception. In both my paternal and maternal families going back several generations, I found plenty of skeletons hidden in the closets.

Divorce
Broken relationships and members refusing to speak to one another
Deceit
Suicide (more than one)
Depression
Alcoholics (more than one)
Illegitimate children
Children sold into servitude
Secret marriages
Sexual harassment
Attempted sexual assault
Public scandal
Lawsuits
Court hearings
Prison sentences…

I also found multiple examples of…

Deep love
Intense devotion
Genuine faith
Sacrificial generosity
Honorable character
Faithfulness to duty
Unquenchable hope
Inner strength

One of the lessons my family history adventure taught me is that family is not either/or “good” or “bad,” but rather it is both/and good things and bad things. Yes, I am a product of a loving family. Yes, my family has failings and dysfunctions like every other family system. I endeavor to do my best to be a healthy cog in my family system. I’d like to think I’ve succeeded in some ways. I must confess I’ve tragically failed in others.

I thought about these things as I read today’s chapter. The dramatic story of Joseph is drawing to its climax. Everything begins to “work together” for Joseph. Israel and his sons are starving in Caanan because of the severe famine that was predicted by Joseph in interpreting Pharaoh’s dream. The same brothers who almost killed Joseph and sold him into slavery because Joseph told them of a dream in which they bowed down to him, now arrive in Egypt to buy food and they bow down to him. The dream is fulfilled just as Joseph described thirteen years earlier.

I thought it fascinating that Israel would not allow Benjamin to travel with the brothers. With Joseph presumed dead, Benjamin was the only son that Israel had left who was born of Rachel, his first love. It would seem that when Israel thought Joseph was dead, he replaced his “favorite” with the only other son of Rachel in the tribe. Joseph, longing to see Benjamin, uses his brother’s ignorance of his true identity to force them to bring Benjamin back to Egypt. Israel balks. Having lost Joseph, he fears that the same will happen to Benjamin.

In the quiet this morning, I found myself thinking about the very human family drama of Israel and his many sons, including the lost son Joseph. Yes, it’s a tragic story fraught with flawed characters, tragic choices, and dreadful circumstances. And, it’s also a beautiful story of redemption, salvation, and God weaving these flawed human beings into a larger story, the Great Story, of God’s redemption of all things.

This gives me hope for my own family story which, when I really dug in to look at it objectively, I found to have its own flawed characters, tragic choices, and dreadful circumstances. Along my journey, I’ve discovered that God has redemptive purposes for me/us as well. On this eve of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for that.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Tribal Stories & Ballads

1 Comment

Tribal Stories & Ballads (CaD Ps 105) – Wayfarer

Remember the wonders he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced…
Psalm 105:5 (NIV)

I have a couple of short stories in my possession that were written by my great-aunt. They tell the stories of her father and her paternal grandmother, which would make them my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandmother. They are pretty amazing stories that would be lost to history were it not for them having been researched, written, and handed down.

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that Wendy and I are asking questions about the distraction of having more information at our fingertips at any moment of our day than was available in all the libraries in all the world when we were children.

As I read through the ancient Hebrew song lyrics, that we know as the Psalms, one thing it’s easy to lose sight of was the fact that the very act of having a written record of the lyrics was an arduous task. Very few people could read or write, and very few people had the means with which to have the materials necessary to write things down and archive them. In that world, information was shared in stories around the fire at night which had been passed down through story-telling for generations. In that culture, songs became an important medium for sharing important stories of family and history.

The historic ballad is a well-established genre within music. When I was a kid, Gordon Lightfoot’s moody ballad The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald became an oddly popular song. I haven’t heard that song for years, but I remember the tune, a bunch of the lyrics, and the story it tells of a doomed freighter sinking in Lake Superior. I’ll link to it for those who’ve never heard it. Warning: It’s an earworm.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 105, is the same genre of song. It was written as a retelling of the story of the Hebrew people from a nomadic tribe, to slaves in Egypt, and their miraculous exodus out of slavery to become a nation. Songs can be sung and pondered while one works, by families and communities in social gatherings, by parents and children at bedtimes. It was a critical way of telling and re-telling the important stories of a person, a family, events, tribes and nations. To know and remember the song is to have the story always on the tip of your tongue waiting to be shared and passed along to others.

If you’ve been following along on this chapter-a-day journey, you know that Wendy and I have spent much of the past month in quarantine with our children and grandson. As most families do, we regularly find ourselves wandering down memory lane, sharing stories, and reliving events of our familial journey together. I’ve watched Milo and thought about the fact that he’ll be one (among others, I hope!) who will one day be sharing the stories of our tribe.

As I’ve been meditating on how technology is forming us, I’ve thought about the difference between information and knowledge, between data and understanding. In a world in which all the information of our lives can be digitally stored and accessed, I wonder if we’re at risk for losing out on the intimacy of generational storytelling, the experience of a tribe singing their shared story in song, and the understanding that comes from the weaving of both the data and relationship with the deliverer.

My mind wanders back to those short stories written by my great-aunt. I hear her voice as I read those words. While I never met my great-grandfather or my great-great-grandmother, I knew Aunt Nita. She was a living, breathing, loving conduit connecting me to the stories of my tribe, and that layers the stories with added emotion and understanding. I hope that those stories get passed along, not just through bytes of information consumed conveniently on a screen at will, but through love and relationship.

I guess if that’s my desire, then it’s also my responsibility.

Chapter-a-Day

Hope and the Pit

Leave a comment

Hope, and the Pit (CaD Ps 30) – Wayfarer

O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
    restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
Psalm 30:3 (NRSVCE)

A couple of weeks ago I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers and spoke about Hope in Death. I’ve been doing a lot of meditating on death recently, mainly in conjunction with that message, but also because of the pandemic. Fear of contracting the virus and not surviving is very real.

In my meditation, I’ve observed how prevalent death is in most all of our stories. Antagonists are trying to kill protagonists. Protagonists are trying to avoid being killed. Writers of films and television shows love to stir our emotions by allowing us to witness what had to have been the death of our favorite character and then stir them again when it’s revealed the character actually survived. In the ending of Yellowstone, one of our favorites the writers left us with the classic season cliffhanger and we’ll have to wait a year to find out if a character survived. Wendy and I binged all ten season of the British whodunnit Vera this summer (loved it!) and of course all classic mysteries are predicated on death. The shows start with a dead body.

In short, I’ve observed that death is everywhere we turn for both news and entertainment, even though I don’t really think about it that much.

Today’s psalm, once again penned by King David, tells a story. David thought he was going to die. Whether it was sickness, war wound, or a combination of both is not known. In the opening verse he cries out to God for healing because God “brought up his soul from Sheol and restored him from those who go down to the Pit.”

Human understanding and belief systems with regard to death and the afterlife have evolved over time. In Part 1 of my podcast on Time I talked about how human history is like a life cycle. Humanity itself is growing, maturing, and changing just a you and I grow, change, and mature on this life journey. The Hebrews in David’s day believed a lot like other Mesopotamian cultures. After life was a shadowy, uncertain state of existence. The underworld was known as Sheol and it was considered to be a dark pit in the deepest recesses of the Earth. For David, there really wasn’t hope of an afterlife. There was just fear of death. In escaping death, David writes this song of joyous praise for God’s deliverance.

Fast forward roughly 1,000 years from David to the time of Jesus. In Jesus’ day, the Hebrews’ beliefs had evolved but there was still vastly divergent views on what happens when we die. One school of thought (the Sudducees) believed there was no afterlife at all. The most prominent school of thought (the Pharisees) believed there was an afterlife or resurrection. Jesus certainly believed in resurrection. In the Jesus’ story He predicts His death and resurrection on multiple occasions. Before raising his friend Lazarus from the dead Jesus tells Laz’s sister, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will never die.” (see John 11). While in Jerusalem, the Sadducee scholars approach Jesus in an attempt to debate Him on the subject (see Matthew 22).

In the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but feel the joy of David’s escape of death, but the unbridled praise is rooted in his absolute fear and hope-less despair at the prospect of dying. As I mull this over, I can’t help but think about what a game-changer Jesus was. In his letter to believers in the city of Corinth, Paul doesn’t quote from David’s fear of the Pit, but this verse from the prophet Hosea:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

I realize that one of the things that has grown and matured in me as a follower of Jesus are my thoughts and feelings about death. Though earlier in my journey I feared death a great deal, I’m no longer afraid to die. I’ve heard and read the stories of those who have gone and have been sent back. The further I get in this journey the more fully I believe that this earthly life is about me fulfilling my role in the Great Story. When my role is finished I will make my exit to that which is more real than this 19,848 days of physical existence.

I will sing with David his words from today’s psalm:

You have turned my mourning into dancing;
    you have taken off my sackcloth
    and clothed me with joy

Not because I escaped physical death to live another day, but because Jesus conquered death and I’ll escape this this earth-bound life for eternity.

In the meantime, it’s another day in the journey. Time to press on.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Remember: Getting My Head and Heart Aligned

Leave a comment

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.
Proverbs 27:1 (NIV)

It’s been a couple of weeks now that Wendy and I have joined the rest of the world in keeping to ourselves. My home office is the most organized that it’s ever been. Our house is clean. Honey-dos have that have been on the task list for a long time have gotten done. We’re almost caught up on This is Us after binging on it this week. We had a FaceTime marathon with family yesterday afternoon. And, I’ve dusted off the never-ending work on my family tree and the giant tub of old family photos and ephemera.

Who saw this COVID-19 global quarantine coming? Who knows where this is all going to lead?

On this earthly journey, I’ve observed that most of us cognitively know that we can’t predict what tomorrow may bring, but we still set our hearts on some personal vision of how we expect life to play out. What I have set my heart on always seems to take precedence over what my brain knows. So, when life eventually throws me a wicked curveball I instinctively flail at it and fall all over myself like a clown (for a laugh, watch the video below), rather than having the spiritual discipline to hold my stance and wait for another pitch. Along the journey, I’ve found that I have to repeatedly and consciously go through an actual process of getting my heart in sync with my brain.

Like everyone else, I’ve been medicating with the clever humor everyone is posting on social media. One of my favorite memes from the past week said: “Your grandparents were called to war. You’re being called to sit on your couch. You can do this.”

That’s was a great dose of much-needed perspective for me. That statement also reminded me of the process I’ve had to learn to get my heart and soul aligned with what I both know and believe. It’s the same process that God, from the very beginning, taught His people: Remember.

  • Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
  • But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
  • Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years.
  • …so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.
  • Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.

I know a lot of my family’s stories. Coming to America alone and starting a new life, the hardship of the Great Depression, the rationing and struggle of the Great War, dad’s lost jobs and the time we almost lost our home, tragic deaths, financial setbacks, relational struggles, and times of uncertainty. And, through all of these tragedies and difficult circumstances, three things remained: faith, hope, and love. Sure, things changed and didn’t always turn out exactly as the storyline on which hearts were set. But, looking back and remembering, I can see God’s goodness through each story. Time and time again I can see God’s faithfulness.

It reminds me of Paul’s words to the followers of Jesus in Corinth:

You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.

2 Corinthians 4:8 (MSG)

In the quiet this morning, I continue to wonder (along with everyone else) where this whole Coronavirus crisis will take us, and what it will mean. And, if I spend too much time focused on it, I can find myself out-of-sorts. So, once again I shift-focus, look back, and remember God’s faithfulness through the generations. No matter what changes in circumstance are in my future, God’s goodness and faithfulness are what my past has taught me will never change.

if we are faithless,

    he remains faithful,

    for he cannot disown himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 (NIV)
Chapter-a-Day

Maturing into Child-like Wonder

Leave a comment

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (NIV)

It’s fascinating to study the progression of Pablo Picasso’s artwork. He attended art school at an early age and his prodigious talent immediately revealed itself. He could paint with the  beautiful realistic style that his teachers instructed as they copied masters like Raphael. The further he progressed in his life journey, however, and the more he produced, Picasso found himself having breakthroughs that would change both art and culture forever. Instead of becoming more realistic, his art became less so. Rather than following the art world’s prescribed path of the artistic beauty of realism, Picasso embarked on a very different journey.

Wendy and I both have our “God stories.” We each have moments in our journey when God did something rather amazing, and I would in some cases call miraculous, to direct us on our respective and mutual paths, to encourage us in our journeys, or to give us a glimpse of what was to come.

Just last week Wendy was looking through some old journals and ran across a prophetic word that had been given to her during her long, depressing slog through singleness (she was 33 when we wed). She was struggling through a time when all of her other friends were getting engaged and married. It was a brief sentence, and she can’t even remember who gave it to her, but it encouraged her that marriage was, indeed, in her future. It also described me, and our situation, rather aptly. She showed it to me and we both just shook our heads with amazement.

I have other, similar stories. I was raised in Mainline tradition and with believers of conservative theological persuasions who dismiss the signs and wonders experienced by the early church as extinguished realities from a another time. I was taught to value knowledge of scripture and conservative theology above the experiential and often mystical work of the Spirit. As one teacher in my local gathering of Jesus’ followers described it, we were raised in a tradition in which the Holy Trinity was “Father, Son, and Holy Bible.” The further I get in my journey, the more I’ve come to confess this as “quenching the Spirit” that Paul tells the Thessalonians to avoid.

And, then there are all these God stories that I’ve experienced along my journey. I had a vision the day after I made my decision to follow Jesus, and that vision changed my life forever. So, I’ve always known it could happen. It did happen. Yet I was taught to dismiss, or at the very least to diminish, such experiences by my early instructors and get back to focusing on proper doctrine. I have a different view of things from my current waypoint on my Spiritual journey. The further I have progressed the less beholden I am to the iron-clad “that was for then, not now” theology I was taught in my youth. The willing I am to explore the mysteries of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The more open I have become to the power of the Spirit in the here and now.

Jesus said, “unless you change and become like little children, you’ll never enter the Kingdom of heaven.” I think this is at the heart of the place I find myself in this journey.  Which brings me back to Pablo Picasso.

How many people have looked at his later works and said, “My child could paint that!” Exactly. Picasso himself said that when he was young he could paint like a master, but it took him a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.

Image result for picasso self portrait

That’s exactly what I feel about the things of the Spirit. When I was young I memorized scripture and learned theology, both of which are important. Yet, now as I’m getting older I find myself following Jesus down this path marked with the bread crumbs of our God stories in all their mess and mystery. I find myself increasingly pushing into childlike wonder and openness to the power and presence of the Spirit in every moment.

When I was young man people said that I had the wisdom and spiritual maturity of an adult. It’s taken a lifetime for me to learn how to seek the faith and Spirit wonder of a child.

Chapter-a-Day

Destined for Tough Terrain

2 Comments

We sent Timothy,who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.
1 Thessalonians 3:2-3 (NIV)

This past week was a bit of a whirlwind for Wendy and me. It began with the unexpected death of a friend. She and her husband had been in a small group with us during a particularly turbulent time of our lives, and her death rocked our world a bit. The morning of the funeral we received news that another friend had suffered a heart attack in the night and had been flown to Des Moines for a hastily performed cardiac procedure.

We visited our friend in the hospital and were encouraged to find him alive and well. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that we knew he’d just been through a life-threatening trauma earlier that day, I’d have told you everything was perfectly normal.

As we spoke with our friend and his wife there in the CCU she shared about their life journey and the fact that the two of them had just entered a particularly enjoyable stretch. Retirement, time together, and the opportunity to enjoy large parts of each day in conversation and shared activity had been brining them both tremendous joy. She told us of her emotions and prayers the previous night as she faced the potential reality that it might be coming to a tragic end.

I thought about these two experiences, with two very different outcomes, as I read today’s chapter in Paul’s letter to believers in Thessalonica. Paul fled the city when his life was threatened. He knew that the fledgling believers he left behind continued to face opposition and persecution. Paul was worried about them, which was why he sent his protege, Timothy, to check on them, and why he was writing them this letter after Timothy’s return and report. Addressing the trials they were facing, Paul states quite bluntly: “You know quite well we are destined for them.”

Along my faith journey I’ve observed many who seem to have approached their life and/or faith journey with the expectation that it should always be a cake walk. In the quiet this morning I’m pondering the various reasons we might come to that conclusion. Is it somehow that the “prosperity gospel” that falsely teaches God wants us all to be “healthy, wealthy, and wise” has permeated our culture more than we care to admit? Is it somehow, for those of us living in America, some kind of bleeding over of the American Dream into our faith? Why is it that I am shocked and feel somehow cheated when life’s road unexpectedly becomes rough terrain?

My journey through God’s Message has taught me that I should expect rough terrain on life’s road. All of the early father’s of the faith said so. Here’s just a small sample of reminders:

Jesus:
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Mt 10:16)

Paul:
“We glory in our sufferings.” (Rom 3:5)

James:
“Consider it pure joy when you encounter various trials….” (Jam 1:2)

Peter:
“…rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Pet 1:6)

I find myself looking back this morning at Wendy’s and my journey over the past 13 years. Like our friend we visited in the hospital we’ve recently been experiencing a sense that we’re coming out of a valley and into a stretch of smoother terrain. It’s a good feeling, and we’re enjoying the lift. Nevertheless, this past week has been a reminder that I can never know what’s waiting for us up ahead.

As I start this week I’m reminded that with each warning of trouble, suffering, trials, and grief, Jesus and the early followers connected the inevitable hard stretches of life’s journey to heart, overcoming, glory, joy, and rejoicing. This journey will include both good times and unexpected bad times. It’s a natural part of the journey. Paul told the Thessalonians believers “we’re destined for them.” I shouldn’t be thrown for a loop when they happen as though I hadn’t been warned that they will come, or like I hadn’t observed that everyone I know experiences tough stretches along the way. There’s always purpose in the pain.

It’s the trials and the overcoming that make our favorite stories “epic.”

Have a great week my friend.