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Opportunity in Interruption

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For two whole years Paul stayed [in Rome] in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!
Acts 28:30-31 (NIV)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned that our local gathering of Jesus’ followers has been talking about “interruptions.” Sometimes life interrupts us with unexpected tragedies, challenges, or obstacles. Sometimes God interrupts us like Saul on the road to Damascus. When interruptions happen, how do we react, respond, and cope?

Today’s chapter is the final chapter of Acts. Luke obviously brought it to a conclusion before Paul’s earthly journey was finished. The events and experiences Paul went through, even in today’s chapter, are a good reminder that life does not always turn out the way we want or expect. Paul is shipwrecked. A poisonous viper bites Paul and dangles from his outstretched hand before he shakes it off. The castaways find themselves spending three months on the island of Malta, which none of them had even heard of, and dependent on the kindness and hospitality of others. When Paul finally does get to Rome, he is literally chained to a Roman soldier day and night while under house arrest.

I spent some time meditating on how I would have reacted and responded to these circumstances: shipwreck, castaway, snake bite, house arrest, and chained to someone 24/7/365 for two years.

Luke ends with a rather positive proclamation regarding Paul’s attitude. He was welcoming, upbeat, bold, and optimistic. He used his chains as an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with his guards and to be an example through his words and actions as he welcomed guests and extended hospitality to everyone. Paul was able to see the golden opportunities in life’s interruptions, including his chains.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about life’s most recent interruption that surfaced this past Friday evening. It was one of those moments when what you’ve been planning and expecting to happen for years suddenly vanished with the receipt of one unexpected email. Life’s trajectory suddenly changes. I can react with anxiety and/or fear. I can brood about how unfair it is. I can even look for a scapegoat to blame for this interruption. Or, I can “trust the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. In all my ways I can acknowledge Him knowing that He will make my path straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I have learned along life’s road that when interruptions occur, my immediate emotional reactions aren’t very healthy or productive. When my mind, will, and spirit work together to respond with faith, I have the opportunity to see God’s opportunities.

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

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Praise in Chains

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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 (NIV)

When life interrupts our lives with any kind of unexpected difficulty or tragedy, Wendy and I announce it to one another by saying, “Honey? We have a Chain Reaction of Praise moment.”

I have written about the Chain Reaction of Praise before. It’s a simple, formulaic way that reminds us that as disciples of Jesus, we are to give thanks in all circumstances. It was first introduced in our local gathering of Jesus followers and it has now been expanded into a book called Strike the Match, Light the Fire. The Chain Reaction of Praise goes like this:

Praise God in difficult times which
Activates our faith to
Pray powerful prayers and
Overcome evil that we might learn to
Live and reign with Christ.

And it all begins when we praise God in the darkest moments.

In today’s chapter, Paul and Silas find themselves in a literally dark moment. In the Roman colony of Philippi, they are unjustly beaten with rods and thrown into a jail, their feet placed in stocks. The jail was completely dark. Paul and Silas sat in the darkness unable to move, their feet in stocks. What did they do? They sang praise songs and prayed (praise activates faith to pray powerful prayers). An earthquake suddenly shook the area so violently that their stocks were broken and the prison doors all opened.

Rather than flee, Paul and Silas remained, knowing that their escape would be a death sentence for the jailer. It was a very Christ-like thing to do (e.g. learning to live and reign with Christ). As a result, the jailer and his entire household become believers in Jesus.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking back to all of the “We have a chain reaction of praise” moments over the last several years. We haven’t experienced anything quite as dramatic as the Philippian earthquake, but we have learned to immediately, in that moment, stop to praise God and pray together. That alone has allowed us to see each dark moment as an opportunity for us to grow and for God to use each circumstance to shine His light in unexpected ways and/or to grow in us a deeper faith, trust, and hope in Him.

That has made a huge difference for us.

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

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Best of 2023 #3: Plague and Blessing

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I’m on vacation for three weeks. While I’m gone, please enjoy the top 15 posts from 2023 based on total number of page views and podcast plays. Cheers!

Plague and Blessing (CaD Joel 1) – Wayfarer

A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number…
Joel 1:6a (NIV)

For Father’s Day this year, the girls bought me a Wisteria vine in honor of my mom, their Grandma Jeanne, who crossed over into eternity back in March. My mother’s favorite color was purple and the Wisteria blooms with large purple flowers.

When I went to plant the Wisteria, Wendy instructed me to plant it a long distance from our patio. Flowers bring bees and m’luv Wendy has a thing about bees and wasps. With her gorgeous mane of thick, curly hair, Wendy has a fear of a bee or wasp getting caught in her hair.

Of course, one can only control nature to a certain extent. So, during the summer months, Wendy is often confronted with the random reality of her flying nemesis “buzzing her tower” like Maverick in his fighter jet. Her intense reactivity to the presence of the flying pests is a sight to behold.

This week, our chapter-a-day journey is going make a quick trek through the short, ancient prophecies of Joel. Joel is a bit of a mysterious prophet on the historical landscape. The historical record both within the Great Story as well as non-Biblical tradition are silent regarding who exactly Joel was and when exactly he lived and carried out his prophetic ministry. He appears out of nowhere and writes one prophetic poem warning of a coming plague and calling the people of Judah to repentance.

The plague Joel warns about is a plague of locusts. For a modern reader here in America, this sounds archaic and mythological, but plagues of locusts devastated parts of Africa just a year ago. It’s horrendous.

As Joel opens his prophetic prognostication, he compares the swarm of locusts to “a mighty army without number.” This isn’t the first time that this phrase was used in conjunction with a locust plague. Psalm 105:34 uses the same phrase to reference the plague of locusts used against Egypt in the time of Moses when Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.

I mulled this over in the quiet this morning. It’s a fascinating connection. In Exodus 10 the locust plague is used against the Hebrews’ antagonist to motivate a change of heart. Now, Joel predicts, God is going to use the same natural plague against His own people to motivate a change in theirs.

What goes around, comes around.

I’m reminded that there is so much in this life that I do not control. As Jesus said in His famous message on the mountainside: “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Tragedy sometimes befalls the best of us, while blessing sometimes rains down on the worst of us. I have observed along my life journey that in either circumstance, Jesus’ question remains essentially the same:

“What will I do if the plague tragically strikes? “

“What will I do if I’m undeservedly blessed?”

Joel is promising the former, and calling his people to respond accordingly. But how I answer both questions and how I respond in either circumstance is equally important in God’s Kingdom economy. I’ve observed that we as humans like to think of earthly things in simple binary terms. I’m either the victim of tragedy or blessed beyond measure. The truth of what Jesus taught is that I will likely experience both on this earthly journey, and how I respond is a barometer of my spiritual health.

For Wendy’s sake, I just hope I planted the Wisteria far enough away from the patio.

Chapter to read for tomorrow’s Best of 2023: Revelation 21

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

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“Perhaps…”

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"Perhaps…" (CaD Phm 1) – Wayfarer

Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
Philemon 1:15-16 (NIV)

Just this morning I received an unexpected text from a friend asking Wendy and me to pray. Life has thrown one of those wicked curveballs and suddenly everything in life is reeling in ways that feel completely out of control. As I confessed in a poster a few days ago to having a pretty miserable week myself, I’m feeling acute empathy for my friend. Prayers have commenced for them.

When life throws a wicked curve, I always find myself asking some of the same questions:

“How did we get here?”

“Why is this happening?”

“God?! What are you doing? Don’t you care?!”

“Where is this going to lead?”

Today’s chapter is a letter that Paul wrote from prison to a wealthy friend and fellow believer. His name was Philemon (hence the title of the epistle), and he was a good friend of Paul’s, a financial supporter of Paul, and Paul had previously lived as a guest in Philemon’s home.

Philemon had a slave named Onesimus. Long story short, Onesimus stole from Philemon and made a run for freedom. While we don’t know the back story of the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon, I can assume that Onesimus’ actions amounted to throwing a wicked curveball at Philemon and his household. It would not surprise me if Philemon had written Onesimus off and harbored ill feelings towards him.

What happens next is amazing. The runaway Onesimus somehow runs right into Paul. How and why, we don’t know, but Paul graciously takes Onesimus under his wing, Onesimus becomes a believer, and Paul comes to consider the runaway his “son.”

This very tender letter is sent to Philemon in the very hands of the runaway, Onesimus. The runaway slave arrives at his former owner’s house, letter in hand. I can only imagine what emotions each of them was feeling at this reunion.

I love Paul’s letter when he communicates that perhaps there was a divine purpose in Onesimus running away. Perhaps that needed to happen so that he could run into Paul and become a believer, and ultimately bring about an unforeseen reunion, restoration, and a redemptive ending to an otherwise wicked curveball situation.

I have written many times in these posts about the Chain Reaction of Praise that Wendy and I have been practicing for years. In the heat of the moment when the curveball comes at us in what appears to be a total strikeout, we step away from the plate, take a deep breath and consciously move into “perhaps” mode. We may not see clearly, in that moment, how God might redeem our circumstances. It might even feel hopeless. But time and time again we have experienced God ultimately redeeming circumstances in ways we could never have imagined, and weaving purpose into our stories that were impossible to see when we were initially reeling in the circumstances.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself recounting all of the wicked curve balls life has thrown at me. I find myself remembering what it felt like in the moment, as well as the redemptive endings that eventually occurred in each one. In doing so, it reminds me that there is a “perhaps” to my miserable week. I just don’t see it yet.

Note to my regular readers, listeners, and subscribers!
I am taking a three week vacation starting next week. While I’m gone, I’m going to be republishing the top fifteen chapter-a-day posts from 2023 as determined by the total number of page views and podcast plays. We’ll start at number 15 next Monday and end up with number 1 on Friday, February 16. See you in a few weeks!

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

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Unrelated

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Unrelated (CaD Job 20) – Wayfarer

The heavens will expose [the wicked man’s] guilt;
    the earth will rise up against him.
Job 20:27 (NIV)

When I was a young teenager, I spent the night at a friend’s house. There was a pizza joint down the street from his house, so we walked there for a late dinner. It was a Friday night and the place was absolutely packed. When we were finished eating my friend said, “Come on,” and he proceeded to walk right out the door without paying the tab. When I suggested we should pay for our meal, he shrugged it off and continued to walk towards home.

I had never done anything quite so brazenly wrong in my life, and I remember having a hard time sleeping that night at my friends house. Every time I heard a police siren in the distance I was convinced they were coming for us. I guess I had a pretty healthy conscience!

Here’s the thing. We got away with it. The cops never showed up. I woke up the next morning and went home the next day. The pizza shop owner took the loss along with our server. I’m sure it happens all the time. I went on with my adolescent life the next day and forgot all about it.

At the end of yesterday’s chapter, Job makes the comment to his three friends that, given the way they are treating him with their accusations and lack of kindness, they should be fearing the same wrath of God that they say Job is experiencing.

Z takes this as a personal affront, and his friend quickly intervenes. Z’s discourse is another Hebrew wisdom poem on the fate of the wicked. The theme of the poem is that the wicked always come to ruin.

Except, they don’t. Not always. I walked out on my dinner tab and experienced no ill effects other than about twelve-hours of acute guilt and shame. Z’s poem speaks in grandiose black-and-white terms of the wicked having unbridled craving for wickedness that lead to God’s unleashed just desserts. Except, they know Job, and they know that he has never acted like the description of the wicked in Z’s poem. They are looking at life with a simplistic equation:

Sin leads to suffering and tragedy therefore suffering and tragedy must be the evidence of sin.

Not only is this not a true statement, but I believe it leads one to believe an equally incorrect spiritual assumption that Job’s friends are asserting:

Sin leads to suffering and tragedy therefore the lack of suffering and tragedy must be evidence of a person’s righteousness.

This type of thinking leads to me live by keeping up self-righteous, religious appearances and hiding my own sinfulness from the world. It also leads to self-righteousness by bank ledger. I walked out on my pizza tab, but it was just once and I was a good, church going kid who typically didn’t do that sort of thing, so I on the balance my pizza theft is not such a big deal.

Except, it is.

Jesus called all of this out in His message on the mountainside (Matthew 5-7). In God’s Kingdom economy, Jesus stated, I only have to look lustfully at a woman and I’m guilty of adultery. I only have to call another person an “idiot” and I’m guilty of murder. In His parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus states quite directly that on Judgment Day there will be many who appeared to be good religious and righteous people who never got what Jesus was about. At the same time, there will be many who never appeared to be either religious or righteous who still got what Jesus was all about and treated life and others that way.

In the quiet this morning, my thoughts wandered back to a message I gave a few weeks ago in which I talked about “outside-in” spirituality and “inside-out” spirituality. Job’s friends have their hearts and minds stuck in “outside-in” mode. They see Job’s outer tragedy and suffering and conclude that it must be evidence of an inner spiritual problem. Job is arguing that there is nothing inside his life that justly warrants the outside tragedy and suffering he’s experiencing. Not one of the four has yet considered that perhaps there is tragedy and suffering that exists in a fallen world where evil exists along with billions of sinful people which is not connected in any way to an individual person’s sinfulness, thoughts, words, or actions.

I can’t control every circumstance of this earthly life. Sometimes the wicked prosper and escape earthly justice. Sometimes the righteous and innocent unjustly suffer. It is what it is.

All that I can do is to manage those things which I do control. As a disciple of Jesus, that means to live authentically from the inside out. A couple of years after I became a disciple I remembered the night of the great pizza heist. I stopped by the pizza joint after school, confessed to the manager, and gave him enough money to cover the loss.

If I remember correctly, it was about the same time I fell in gym and tore all the ligaments in my ankle.

My right action, and my tragic circumstances were unrelated.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Plague and Blessing

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Plague and Blessing (CaD Joel 1) – Wayfarer

A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number…
Joel 1:6a (NIV)

For Father’s Day this year, the girls bought me a Wisteria vine in honor of my mom, their Grandma Jeanne, who crossed over into eternity back in March. My mother’s favorite color was purple and the Wisteria blooms with large purple flowers.

When I went to plant the Wisteria, Wendy instructed me to plant it a long distance from our patio. Flowers bring bees and m’luv Wendy has a thing about bees and wasps. With her gorgeous mane of thick, curly hair, Wendy has a fear of a bee or wasp getting caught in her hair.

Of course, one can only control nature to a certain extent. So, during the summer months, Wendy is often confronted with the random reality of her flying nemesis “buzzing her tower” like Maverick in his fighter jet. Her intense reactivity to the presence of the flying pests is a sight to behold.

This week, our chapter-a-day journey is going make a quick trek through the short, ancient prophecies of Joel. Joel is a bit of a mysterious prophet on the historical landscape. The historical record both within the Great Story as well as non-Biblical tradition are silent regarding who exactly Joel was and when exactly he lived and carried out his prophetic ministry. He appears out of nowhere and writes one prophetic poem warning of a coming plague and calling the people of Judah to repentance.

The plague Joel warns about is a plague of locusts. For a modern reader here in America, this sounds archaic and mythological, but plagues of locusts devastated parts of Africa just a year ago. It’s horrendous.

As Joel opens his prophetic prognostication, he compares the swarm of locusts to “a mighty army without number.” This isn’t the first time that this phrase was used in conjunction with a locust plague. Psalm 105:34 uses the same phrase to reference the plague of locusts used against Egypt in the time of Moses when Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrews go.

I mulled this over in the quiet this morning. It’s a fascinating connection. In Exodus 10 the locust plague is used against the Hebrews’ antagonist to motivate a change of heart. Now, Joel predicts, God is going to use the same natural plague against His own people to motivate a change in theirs.

What goes around, comes around.

I’m reminded that there is so much in this life that I do not control. As Jesus said in His famous message on the mountainside: “[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Tragedy sometimes befalls the best of us, while blessing sometimes rains down on the worst of us. I have observed along my life journey that in either circumstance, Jesus’ question remains essentially the same:

“What will I do if the plague tragically strikes? “

“What will I do if I’m undeservedly blessed?”

Joel is promising the former, and calling his people to respond accordingly. But how I answer both questions and how I respond in either circumstance is equally important in God’s Kingdom economy. I’ve observed that we as humans like to think of earthly things in simple binary terms. I’m either the victim of tragedy or blessed beyond measure. The truth of what Jesus taught is that I will likely experience both on this earthly journey, and how I respond is a barometer of my spiritual health.

For Wendy’s sake, I just hope I planted the Wisteria far enough away from the patio.

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

Chapter-a-Day

What I Want to Hear

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What I Want to Hear (CaD Jer 14) – Wayfarer

Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine.
Jeremiah 14:14-15 (NIV)

In today’s chapter, Jeremiah describes a drought that struck sometime in his prophetic ministry. No one knows when this was, but drought is a periodic reality in that area of the world, just as it is here in Iowa.

What intrigued me about Jerry’s conversation with God was his description of all the other prophets who, claiming to speak in God’s name, continued to tell everyone that every little thing was going to be alright, that the drought would not lead to famine nor would the Babylonians attack as Jeremiah has repeatedly warned.

It made me meditate on three things this morning:

First, there have always been false prophets like Jeremiah describes. In today’s terms, I’m reminded the name-it-and-claim it preachers of prosperity gospel. Health, wealth, and bullet-proof optimism flow from their lips, telling their donors (they are always asking for money) and followers that God wants to bless them with health and wealth, too. I was in college during the televangelist scandals back in the late 80s. They are still around.

The second thing on which I meditated is the current state of our culture and media. This is my observation, not a political statement. The fact is that news organizations on both sides of the political spectrum have abandoned objective reporting to feed their viewers whatever those viewers political bent happens to be. One of the fascinating things I’ve witnessed coming out of the Covid years are small, independent news and journalism outlets on platforms like Substack. One that Wendy and I have begun reading regularly states openly that they began their site in order to return to journalism that’s about objective reporting of facts. The founders of the site came from one of the most prestigious news outlets in the world and complained of editors demanding that reporters write within the preferred political narrative the editors were pushing. It’s happening everywhere, and it’s happening on both sides of our cultural divide.

Which leads me to the third thing on which I meditated this morning. False prophets of religion, news, and politics are not going away just as Israel and Iowa will continue to experience periodic droughts as has always been the case. As I chewed on these things in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of Paul’s mentoring words to his young protégé Timothy:

You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.
1 Timothy 4:3-5 (MSG)

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that life is filled with tragedy and difficulties. It’s also filled will facts and realities that inconveniently refuse to fit into what I want to believe about the world as I desire it to be in the comfortable little box of my personal worldview. Jerry had the difficult job of being the lone voice pointing out the proverbial handwriting on the wall; A message no one wanted to hear. They preferred to have their fancies tickled with false assurances. It was still that way when Paul was mentoring Timothy. It’s still that way today.

I concluded in the quiet this morning that I am on a faith journey as I follow in the steps of Jesus. It is Maundy Thursday as I write these words (the commemoration of Jesus’ final night before His execution) and I’m reminded that the end of Jesus’ earthly journey was not a pleasant one. It’s funny how easy it is for me to believe that it should be different for me than for the One in whose steps I follow. If the world operated perfectly within the comfortable little box of my personal worldview then Jesus would never have had to cry out, “Father, let this cup pass from me” and I would never need faith.

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

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Golf Dream

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Golf Dream (CaD Dan 7) – Wayfarer

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.
Daniel 7:1 (NIV)

The other day I had an unusual experience. All night long I had strange and vivid dreams. Most of them were the typical mish-mash of things both silly, non-sensical, and strange. I woke up, however, remembering one vivid dream about me and an old friend going golfing. This is funny because I’m not a golfer, though I remember playing a few holes with him once. That was over thirty years ago.

I remember from my dream that we were standing in line in the clubhouse waiting for our tee time. It was a busy course. There were others in our group, but I didn’t know them. The tee box for the first hole was literally right outside the clubhouse door in a sort of vestibule with the exterior walls of the clubhouse on either side of the tee box extending and creating a kind of alleyway. The fairway went about ten yards in front of the tee and then did a severe ninety-degree dog leg around the corner of the clubhouse.

What was funny about this is that if I try to hit a golf ball straight, it would probably shank at just that 90-degree angle (which is why I’m not a golfer) but I could never in a million years do that on purpose, and in my dream, I knew this. I was perplexed about how to proceed and considered using my putter off the tee to get the ball past the clubhouse wall and effectively lay up for my second shot. I can remember thinking in my dream what a terrible golfer I must be to have to use my putter off the tee.

For some reason, this dream stuck with me that day and it came to mind as I was getting ready for bed. I hadn’t talked to my friend in a long time, so I texted him out of the blue that evening. I didn’t expect him to reply immediately:

Okay, that was wild. Was there anything spiritual about it, or was it just a coincidence? Here’s where my thoughts on the prophetic provide me with guidance. I won’t dismiss it outright, and I won’t obsess about it. I do believe that everything is connected. I will hold on loosely and enjoy the wonder that my spirit, and/or Holy Spirit, seemed to somehow connect that a dear friend was celebrating a big waypoint on life’s road that day (and that I should have been with him at Pebble Beach that day!!! 😂😂😂).

Today’s chapter represents a huge shift in the book of Daniel. So far, it’s been a string of really incredible stories. From here on out, it becomes largely a record of prophetic dreams and visions. The dream in today’s chapter describes four strange beasts that are metaphors for the successive empires that will rule the Near East in the coming centuries: Neo-Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman. Daniel’s dream ends with a vision of “the son of man” (a title Jesus used of Himself) who will establish a kingdom of “all nations and peoples” with dominion that will be eternal.

It is not unusual for the prophetic to be “layered” with meaning. While it certainly points to the coming of the Messiah, the second half of today’s chapter is also regularly connected by scholars to the visions of the end times in the book of Revelation.

As I contemplated the prophetic and the dreams in today’s chapter, my thoughts led me to consider that God was particularly active in delivering miracles, dreams, and visions during this period of the Babylonian exile. That’s one of the themes across the Great Story. There are seasons and periods of time in which the miraculous and the prophetic are plentiful. Then there are seasons and periods of time in which they are rare. I find it fascinating that the seasons of plenty tend to coincide with periods of struggle. The time of Moses came in enslavement and wilderness wanderings. This period of the stories of Daniel and Esther happens during captivity and exile. Jesus’ arrival on the scene and the subsequent Jesus Movement happen as Daniel’s dream predicts, amidst Roman occupation and then persecution.

So I have found it to be in my own spiritual journey. It is in times of struggle, tragedy, wilderness, and exile that the work of God’s Spirit becomes more active and acute. Perhaps it’s because I’m spiritually more needy, focused, and open during these seasons. Perhaps it’s because God knows that I need more encouragement and a reminder of His provision and presence as I traverse the dark valleys on life’s road. Perhaps it’s a combination of both. Either way, there’s wisdom in embracing the reality that I will experience both types of seasons in my story, just as both types of seasons are present across the Great Story.

And, happy birthday to my friend, Matt. I hope Pebble Beach was a blast. It’s probably good I wasn’t there. Me putting off the tee would have only been an embarrassment.

Featured Image created with Wonder AI

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

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Into the Wilderness

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Into the Wilderness (CaD 2 Ki 25) – Wayfarer

So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
2 Kings 25:21b (NIV)

Many years ago, I found myself in circumstances I could never have imagined. I found myself in the middle of a divorce and living in a new community. My world had suddenly turned upside down and inside out. It was a scary, tenuous, anxious, humbling, and stressful season of life.

Along this life journey, almost everyone experiences a period of wilderness. Life as we know it experiences a tectonic shift. Things get turned upside down and inside out. Wilderness could be brought on by unforeseen tragedy, the death of a loved one, war, natural disaster, divorce, loss of a job, financial loss, conflict, illness, or any number of similar life-changing events.

The psychologist Carl Jung and the scholar Joseph Cambell did a lot of work in the 20th century studying and revealing the archetypes and patterns in the epic stories of humanity. Our greatest stories reflect the core of our human experience. They resonate with us because there is something in the story that connects deeply with our human experience. I would submit that the patterns and archetypes are found in our stories because they are found in our lives.

Wilderness is one of these common themes. Here are the first five steps of the hero’s wilderness journey as Jung and Campbell outline it:

  1. The hero’s journey starts in the Ordinary World. The hero—male or female—is “stuck,” but he or she senses some powerful, tectonic energy moving beneath the surface.
  2. The hero receives a “call.” This may be positive—an invitation to climb Annapurna—or negative … we’re arrested and thrown in jail. Or, like Odysseus, the hero commits a crime against heaven and is “made to” undergo an ordeal of expiation. But one way or another, you and I are ejected from Normal Life and flung, willy-nilly, into Something Totally New.
  3. The hero “crosses the threshold.” She moves from the Ordinary World to the Extraordinary World (also known as the Inverted World.) Like the children in The Chronicles of Narnia, we pass through a portal and enter a realm unlike any we have known.
  4. The hero encounters allies and enemies, undergoes challenges and heartbreaks, temptations and overthrows. The hero suffers. The hero loses her way. The hero has been caught up in an often hellish adventure (though with some good moments too), from which no escape seems possible. The stakes are clearly life and death.
  5. The hero perseveres. Reckoning that there’s no turning back, the hero pushes on, often blindly, almost always wracked by despair and self-doubt, seeking he or she knows not what. Escape? Redemption? A conclusion of some kind to this crazy, upside-down enterprise?

It may be lost on modern American readers, but today’s chapter is one of the most life-changing historical events in the history of the Hebrew people. The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem was a violent, horrific event. Jeremiah, who lived through it, poetically describes the carnage in the five short chapters of Lamentations. The entire nation, the King and the priests, are taken into captivity and exile in Babylon. Among the exiles were the prophet Ezekiel and a young man named Daniel. Their stories, respectively, are rooted in their experiences in the Babylonian wilderness, along with the story of Esther.

The wilderness, Jung and Campbell explain, always has a purpose in making the hero the hero. It is in the wilderness the hero faces the darkness, the villain, their own fear, and/or seemingly insurmountable odds. It is in the wilderness that the hero experiences an “all is lost” moment, and it is in the wilderness that the hero eventually experiences an important epiphany and is ultimately led back home, a different person with a “gift.” Judah’s return from wilderness and exile is told in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra.

In the quiet this morning, God’s Spirit has brought to mind people I know who are experiencing seasons of wilderness in their own life journeys. I look back on my own season of wilderness and I can see the things I had to face, the lessons God had for me in it, and what a positive difference it ultimately made in my life and my spiritual journey. If I could write a letter to my past self in the midst of that wilderness, I would tell my struggling self to trust the story God is authoring in my story, to persevere one step at a time, and to know that good things, redemptive things, lie ahead.

My seasons of wilderness have taught me that God is more interested in developing my character than in facilitating my comfort.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“The People Said Nothing”

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"The People Said Nothing" (CaD 1 Ki 18) – Wayfarer

Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

But the people said nothing.
1 Kings 18:21 (NIV)

Wendy and I had dinner with friends last night. Our friends’ children are in their college and young adult years, and we had a fascinating conversation about children and their spiritual journeys. It is quite common for the college and young adult years to be a time when one contemplates the belief system with which they’ve been raised, and begins to make their own determinations regarding matters of faith and spirit. For me, it was the emotional angst of adolescence that led me to search for what I really believed. I was a little ahead of the game compared to a lot of people’s experiences.

Today’s chapter contains one of the most fascinating and exciting episodes in the Great Story. Elijah urges the people of Israel to stop their duplicitous worship of Baal and Asherah and to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the worship of the God of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David. Interestingly, Elijah’s appeal receives no response.

The prophet then challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a competition. Sacrifices are prepared and prayers raised for fire to descend from heaven to burn the sacrifices. The God who answers with fire is the true God. Let the spiritual smackdown begin.

The prophets of Baal rave all day long. They dance, scream, cut themselves, and whip themselves into a religious frenzy, while Elijah talks trash from the sidelines. There isn’t so much as a spark. Elijah then repairs the altar of the Lord and prepares the sacrifice. He then soaks the sacrifice and the altar with water. After uttering a simple prayer, fire falls from heaven and consumes the altar and the sacrifice.

The people fall on their faces in awestruck fear and humility.

Along my life journey, I have observed many, many individuals whose faith appears to be like the people of Israel when Elijah made his appeal: non-commital and silently unresponsive. I observe many who go through the religious motions of maintaining membership, giving a little money, and regularly making an appearance for an hour or two. The other 165 hours of the week, however, are void of any tangible signs of faith.

God’s fiery demonstration on Mount Carmel, however, shook people to their core and motivated both change and commitment. I have often observed similar reactions in people when a life event or tragedy shakes them to the core, like that of being in college or on your own in the world without parental supervision. In the routine and complacency of everyday life, it’s easy to fall into spiritual atrophy. No matter what anyone says about my spiritual need, I just go about my life and don’t respond. It’s only when circumstances shake me to the core that I fall to my knees.

I’m reminded this morning that what God desires is not a complacent, silent, religious routine that has little impact on my daily life. What God desires is an ongoing relationship of spirit and conversation with me that informs and motivates my thoughts, words, and actions each and every day.

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

The featured image on today’s post was created with Wonder A.I.