Reminder–Perfect Timing

Perfect timing! Our first daffodil on the first day of spring brings a timely reminder of God’s promise.

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. – Luke 12:27–31 (ESV)

Or, maybe Eugene Peterson’s take in The Message, on the corollary passage in Matthew, makes a sharper point:

            “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
            “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
            “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. – Matthew 6:27-34

The Future

"The future is like a Japanese game show. You have no idea what’s going on!” Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock.

Some days that is exactly how it feels – even to a Christian who is supposed to have it all together. At least as Christians we have the knowledge of who it is that holds the future and he is not a Japanese game show host.

For those who’ve never seen a Japanese game show, YouTube has quite a collection.

A Chesterton Primer

Book Review: Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton, by Kevin Belmonte.

Most Christian readers know of G.K. Chesterton. I’m sure that few of those readers have actually read much of his work – a category into which I fall. Having read Belmonte’s book I now feel that I have a basic introduction to the man and his work. The biography is really more of a primer. As stated in the Author’s Note, “Such is the aspiration of this book: to introduce a life and legacy that should be better know. It does not in any way aspire to be a comprehensive or definitive study.” Belmonte achieves his aspiration. The book seems to be an excellent overview of his life and work.

As a Christian reader I, like many others, knew his book Orthodoxy, at least by reputation and isolated quotes. I also knew of his influence on C.S. Lewis. Defiant Joy helped to expand my limited knowledge of a remarkable writer and literary critic and understand that he was a “whole” man with a world view that was big enough to include writing and thinking that wasn’t distinctly about God in a manner that honored God completely.

At several points Belmonte demonstrates the unique character of G.K.C. (as he was often called). I particularly appreciated the insights into Chesterton’s ability to be great friends with those men with whom he disagreed. Given some of the personal vitriol among Christian theologians and bloggers today, this is something to long for.

C. S. Lewis was deeply affected by G.K.C., The Everlasting Man in particular; something that Lewis regularly acknowledged. Belmonte says,

“Moreover, Lewis’s affirmation of Chesterton’s influence upon him is one supreme reason, among many, as to why Chesterton the apologist matters today. As an apologist, he helped to give the world C.S. Lewis, perhaps the most influential Christian apologist of all time” (p. 234).

If for no other reason, I’d encourage Christian readers to engage with the thinking of G.K.C. and Belmonte’s Defiant Joy is a good place to start.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

The Word of God Was Missing

The biblical account of King Josiah of Judah (2 Kings 22-23) contains the story of revival that comes when a King, and a nation, submit to the Scriptures in true repentance when a copy of the Scriptures is found.

The sad commentary on Josiah’s day is that the Word of God was missing, but nobody seemed to miss it! Religious practice and temple activity went on, but was apparently uninformed by knowledge of the Scriptures.

I’m wondering if the sad commentary today might be that while the Word of God is everywhere in the USA – translations abound in an almost embarrassing array of versions – there is still an amazing biblical illiteracy in so many churches.

Totally Random Thoughts

A few thoughts from March 1990.

• As a pastor it is quite easy to be drawn to meeting everyone’s expectations, but lose our joy of relationship with the Lord who has called us to service beyond expectations.
• “Burned out people always look their best the day before they crash.”
• When pruning grapes, one must cut back the vines to the five good canes, possibly cutting off forty-five others that seem good, or you’ll have the lushest, greenest vines but NO fruit. It is good to submit to the pruning of the Lord. (See John 15).
• People come to worship with distractions – often legitimate distractions – deep cares and hurts in family, in body, in soul. They may be in a financial crunch time, or struggling with an aging parent, or a rebellious child. Our job as ministers is to overwhelm the careworn with the aroma of the gospel. Most people need encouragement – courage to make changes in their lives – even small ones. That means along with the aroma of grace we must bring words of courage far more readily than words of challenge.

I wasn’t good about recording sources back then so I really have no idea where most of them came from (but Leadership Journal would be a good guess).

Reputation?

Warren Wiersbe wrote somewhere that young ministers seem to be more concerned with reputation rather than with character. Some older leaders do the same – lots of talk about leaving “legacy”.

I think that maybe we should leave the reputation and legacy to God as we strive in his strength to point everyone to his glory. We should be all about making his name famous.

Not every character in the Scriptures is a Paul, but Paul seemed to consider unnamed and unknown believers just as important to the work of the gospel as he might have been.

Parenting Teens

There is seemingly no end to advice on being a good parent – especially the parent of an adolescent. While my “parenting teens” years are in the rearview mirror (as are my youth ministry years), I think Kevin Huggins’ advice in the now out of print Parenting Adolescents is still the very best.

The key to becoming a more effective parent is to become a more godly person.

When I read this book 20 years ago I noted in my journal that there are three basic errors that parents (i.e., me) tend to make when it comes to dealing with problems with their children.

• Misguided focus. The focus of a disappointed parent too easily becomes that of changing or controlling his or her teen’s outward behavior often seeking to eliminate our feelings of distress.
• Misdirected Goals. A parent’s goals can be considered misdirected when they are aimed at getting their desires fulfilled by people or circumstances – for example, getting their children to do what the parent wants – instead of their relationship with Christ.
• Misplaced Dependency. When we choose not to depend on God to satisfy the desires that battle within us, our dependency comes to rest in our own ability to get people (like our kids) to come through for us.

We must focus first on meeting the true need in others rather than the need in ourselves and find the strength to do that in Christ – even when that requires trusting God to protect our children. We so often create damaging strategies of human effort to keep our worst fears from happening.

More Than Rest

Book Review: Sabbath: The Ancient Practices, Dan B. Allender

This book captured my attention mainly because one of my intentional pursuits has been to practice the principle of sabbath and rest – especially after reading Gordon McDonald’s Ordering Your Private World in the mid-1980’s. Allender seeks to “build a case for delight by looking at the Sabbath as a festival that celebrates God’s re-creative, redemptive love.” He holds that the Sabbath is to normally be a day (but not necessarily a particular day) that involves four key components, or pillars: sensual glory, rhythmic repetition, communal feasting, and playfulness. These concepts fill the first part of the book. He moves on to some thoughts on the purpose of sabbath as it might be practiced today in part two; and some thoughts on what we might do with Sabbath time in part three. This is not a complete theological study of the topic but rather one writer’s reflections and practice.

I appreciate some of the thinking that the author brings to this topic. The reminder that at some level Sabbath is about enjoying and delighting in God and his creation was much appreciated. The idea of playfulness and holy sensuality is intriguing. His choice of quotes and references to other writers and thinkers is broad and usually helpful. The call to consider Sabbath as more than merely a day off (Eugene Peterson calls it “bastard sabbath”) is a needed rebuke.

For those who like “lyrical” writing (back cover “marketing hype”), this will be a good read. I found it to be a bit confusing with logical thoughts being obscured by metaphor and jumbled theology. Not necessarily wrong (and it seems to be by design); it was just distracting to my thinking process. There is also a fairly regular stream of therapeutic talk which is provocative, but not always seeming to be on point.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Moving Lyrics

I’m guessing that most of my readers have never heard of Sara Beth Geoghegan. I hadn’t either until I read a review of her debut album in World magazine back in September 2009. I have to agree with the reviewer that

Tired of Singing Sad Songs, is a breath of unsentimental fresh air, realistically confronting the pain of loss and sadness while affirming a sure hope in Jesus.

Two songs in particular have been quite encouraging over the past year as they are truthful, real, and hopeful all at the same time.

Lord Deliver Me with its overlapping and repeating chorus of “Lord deliver me from me Lord deliver me to You” is quietly convicting especially as Sara leads us to pray:

Lord deliver me from the desire to be noticed, loved, exalted

Lord deliver me from the desire to be favored, popular chosen or acknowledged

Lord deliver me from the fear of being wrong, forgotten or ignored

Lord deliver me from the fear of being humiliated or left behind

And

Grant that I may seek to comfort rather than be comforted by others

Grant that I may understand and love more than be understood and loved well

Lord deliver me from the desire to be noticed and encouraged

Lord deliver me from the desire to be appreciated and included

Hallelujah, What a Mess speaks of the amazing paradox of brokenness and the grace of God. Another blogger writes "Hallelujah, What a Mess, is an admission of our weakness and dependence on God, that even at our best we’re a mess.  It has an infectious melody that begs you to sing.” (There is a link to the song at the end of that blog post).

Each song, or the entire album, is available for download from Amazon. I trust you will be encouraged.

Learning from a Little One

For the past week Mrs. Random and I have been in Glasgow, Scotland visiting and prepping for our daughter’s wedding. We’ve been enjoying the earliest and heaviest snow Scotland has experienced in 50 years from a small flat that we are sharing with the bride’s best friend from So. California, along with her husband and … M, their 11 month old daughter.

Having been away from living with babies for a while (a long while), it has been interesting to relearn some of the important life lessons that an almost 1 year old can teach us. I leave it to my readers to apply to themselves:

• Sometimes nothing will make you happy, but … wait for it …
• Sometimes everything makes you smile.
• Cheerios are maybe the best thing ever invented. they almost always make you happy.
• Eating is always exciting … unless there something more interesting in view. Rarely will there be anything more exciting.
• You must train you parents to feed you. Crying helps.
• You really don’t need many toys to be happy.
• However, if you roll the toys under the sofa you will be unhappy.
• Sippy cups might be the best invention ever.
• Empty Sippy cups are a source of great sadness.
• Cheerios are wonderful … like baby bagels.
• Fashion is not all that important. You can easily mess up anything you wear.
• Being cute means you get to be in lots of fun pictures just like a celebrity.
• People can talk about your poop and you laugh!
• If mommy says “no” to something, it is immediately very interesting.
• It is really easy to train old people to make silly faces and noises.
• If you snuggle up to old people they sigh a lot.
• Being cute means that you can pretty much do whatever you want. This works best especially with any non-parental units that are around.
• Naps are really nice. A good nap makes it so much easier to stay awake and fuss at night when your parents want to sleep.
• Big people keep talking about  what day of week it is. They are silly. Every day is snuggle and giggle day. And Cheerio day.
• When you are little, you get to teach your parents a lot about grace.
• Grace is a good thing!
• Did I mention Cheerios?