7.11.2020 - week 62
i have released a 30 minute lecture called ‘race + the church: a white perspective for white evangelicals.’ in god’s providence, i had planned to study this in grad school this summer, so i was long into study before the world was talking about these issues again. it would bless my heart if you would watch and pass along to others… i don’t know it all, but i want to share what i have learned as widely as possible. watch it here.
on dunking on people when we win
so the other day, my younger two boys built a box fort on our patio. kristen + i momentarily felt so proud they weren’t just on screens all day that we agreed to their request to sleep in it. our little back area is totally enclosed and we often get critters running across a fence that backs up to a large warehouse. about 30 minutes after they laid down outside, reid thought he heard me walking near him, but opened his eyes to see a giant opossum wandering along the fence. so he ran inside freaking, leaving 7 yr old graham all alone.
when i came downstairs around 5:30am, i was amazed to find graham still sleeping outside, without a care in the world. he came in a few minutes later and his first question was, ‘where’s reid?’ and i explained the opossum situation to which he immediately replied,
‘of course, he’s a huge wimp’ and with the size of smile reserved for the extremely occasional moments when little bro wins, he strutted upstairs for a little more shut eye.
what is that thing? the thing in our hearts that immediately pivots from personal success to pushing others down. he had every right to be proud of himself for sleeping outside all night, but why did his sinful heart see it as an opportunity to shove his brother down.
proverbs 11:12-13 says,
whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
i have been pondering this verse a lot. when you have the opportunity to say I TOLD YOU SO, wisdom produces restraint. jesus in the good samaritan story made clear your neighbor is anyone in proximity to you who you might help or might need your help.
being quiet is often virtuous
if you have nothing to add that’s insightful or helpful, stay quiet.
if your spoken opinion won’t bring peace, stay quiet
if your criticism will hurt someone, stay quiet.
don’t kick them when their down
don’t mock them when their wrong
don’t hurt them when you are up
no matter how much you may want to dunk on the anti-mask guy or all lives matter girl or ‘woke’ but has never held down a job dude or let’s call out everyone but margaret sanger girl … it might be the gospel of our current culture, but is never the gospel of our king.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
Our family filled row 23. As the plane began to descend on it’s destination, the flight attendant suggested we all wait to stand before we plug the center aisle in order to clear the plane. But, once the seat belt sign turned off a woman sitting behind me got up quickly and started up the aisle. My 2 year old looked at me and innocently asked, “Mommy, why can’t we go?” I said (rule follower here), “They told us to wait until the row in front of us goes, so we are going to wait here.” She seemed satisfied with that answer and hung with me until it was our row’s turn to exit.
As I sat there pondering Felicity’s question these words of Jesus came to mind, “So the last will be first, and the first last.” {Matthew 20:16/similarly found in Matthew 19:31} Most of us have found ourselves on the back of the plane waiting patiently but longing to already be at baggage claim or finding our ride. We have stood up and possibly, (if you are anything like me) hit your head on the overhead compartments while you impatiently look at your phone and wonder why you stood up so early in the first place?! There’s this system the airlines have in place which says, the people who pay the most get to sit in the front, they get off the plane first, and they get to enjoy a bit better service. As I waited this time I was taken back to the title of a sermon series Luke did years ago with the high school ministry we led, “Upside Down.” Simple, but so true. Jesus’ way and therefore God’s economy is so far outside the bounds of how our world system is set up. I wondered, what would happen if the flight attendant came over the intercom and said, “Ok, we are changing things up from now on! We would like the last row to get off first.” Would there be an uproar? Would the people upfront try to cut in line? Would the people in the back of the plane simply sit in shock by this announcement?
So often I think we read these sentences in our Bibles and then skate on past them, guys… it says, “so the LAST will be first, and the FIRST LAST!!!!!!” I’m sorry, but I have to read that a few times over to be as stunned as I should be! The kingdom life is different, God’s way is so not the way of the world system we live in and far too often we get or shall I say I get confused into thinking they aren’t too far off from one another and yet that couldn’t be farther from the truth!
Many years ago now I was new in my faith and I was serving at a large church event. Of course parking was a problem and since my dad was helping lead the parking I helped too. One less volunteer for him to find. As we waved people in we were pleasantly surprised that people arrived early and the plan was all working out {as in enough spaces and enough people went to the shuttle lot}. But as the event got closer to start time I realized and pointed out to the volunteers I was with that all the people that got there early had to park far away and the people arriving right before were pulling into the best spots in the lot. As I suggested earlier I’m a rule follower at heart so I was saying this in a ‘that’s not fair’ tone. One of the women replied back, well isn’t that what the Bible says, “the first shall be last and the last first?!”
Ouch. Yea, I think that is what it says but it’s so opposite from my instinct. I see this principle all over scripture in who Jesus was to people just like me who didn’t deserve anything… and it just has me thinking these last few days, I have a long way to go and yet if it stays on my mind long enough it may alter my thinking and my ways in the way that it should. The way of the kingdom is you before me even if I think I got here first, because we are all lucky to be here in the first place!
I love the Lord. I have walked faithfully with him for 19 years this summer. This is the sort of thing I didn’t think happens to “good” Christians who trust God and stuff. But it does, and if you don’t talk about it I think it makes you feel even more isolated and even sometimes doubtful in your heart. I have found that the very honesty of where I am and sharing that with a loved one can remove the denial and can help me stop the recurring thoughts of ‘why I am discouraged’ and lead instead to trusting God in the midst of my discouragement.
You see it is a real feeling, the dictionary describes discouragement as, ‘a loss of confidence or enthusiasm; dispiritedness.” Although I don’t think it’s wise to be led by our feelings, I also believe that we need to acknowledge them in order to process them, diffuse any doubt and keep moving forward.
On this particular day I sought the Lord (that’s what God says to do, right? Psalm 34:4). I probably prayed this prayer 50 times that day, “Lord, I know you are there, I know you are good, I know you have good plans ahead, and I know you are always, always working, show me Lord, remind me of your Word and what you are up to right now, bring the encouragement my heart needs today.”
As I prayed, these words from Psalm 61:2 came to me, “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”
As I pray and fight for peace on days like these I have learned that I must remember whose I am. I have shared here before how much I love the Psalms because they are filled with so many of the names of God: He is my protector, my shield, my refuge, and like this last verse suggests my Rock. A rock is known for its immovability, it’s not going to falter or fail. When I shift my focus from my circumstances to the one who I know is in control there’s simply more peace. Yes, the situation I find myself in may feel bleak and it probably isn’t comfortable but if I remember the one who created the universe promises his presence in the midst of it then I am more likely to keep my eyes fixed on Him.
I have a list of the beautiful identities we gain when we decide to follow Christ and scriptures that confirm it in the front of my Bible. It helps me to remember that God’s Word tells us that no matter the itch of discouragement we feel that we are known, loved, useful, redeemed, forgiven, precious, seen, chosen, free, an heir, a new creation, and I am His. Let’s not discount all the good He has done for me and you because we can’t see the present or future clearly. He sees you, He loves you, and He wants you to take courage because He has good plans for you ahead.
book review
i’m a little too young and was a little too focused on sports to know much about michael jackson. i kinda knew a few songs, the jokes about his nose and skin color, the trials and sensational headlines, but not much detail. this book was absolutely phenomenal. not written by syncophant or someone desperate for notoriety by making things worse than reality, this read like a fair look at an astonishingly talented and mutilated person. i found him both sympathetic and sad, in the way we so often become the abuse we suffered from. really really good read.
i have been pondering gender + the church a lot. i believe the same things i always believed about the beauty of the difference between men + women in god’s created order, but i have been hit in the face a lot with the problems in the way it’s often applied by men in power. this is an amazingly well written book on how to read the bible for all its worth. why it needed to be marketed only to women i don’t know. i certainly wouldn’t assume bad motives from the writer or publisher, but just feels weird to me. anyway, this book is a wonderful resource for anyone trying to take their faith and spiritual disciplines to the next level. i highly highly recommend it.
super christian guy
why are we trying to make the thing we are talking about into a different thing to talk about?
content this week
my new message ‘stop mean christians pt.2’ is available on youtube .. i think this one will bless and encourage you.
pieces of good news I saw this week
1. francis chan wrote a beautiful letter about this moment of race conversation that morphs into a description of life with a prophetic personality, i was genuinely moved by it, i think you will be too.
2. i found this read discussing ‘historically how societies change after pandemics’ quite helpful and interesting.