The Problem with Politics

The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’

And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’

And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’

Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

-Judges 9:8-15

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A Special Silver Celebration

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord!

-Song of Solomon 8:6

The love shared between a man and a woman is one of the greatest gifts that we enjoy in life, and it is the nearest metaphor we have for the cosmic romance between Christ and the Church. As the verse above indicates, love is at the very center of who God is. Peter Kreeft writes:

Love is God's essence. Nowhere else does Scripture express God's essence in this way. Scripture says God is just and merciful, but it does not say that God is justice itself or mercy itself. It does say that God is love, not just a lover. Love is God's very essence. Everything else is a manifestation of this essence to us, a relationship between this essence and us. This is the absolute; everything else is relative to it.

We're dealing here with something that is straight out of heaven, and even though the perfection of creation has been marred and fragmented, the beauty of God's original intent remains, and it is fitting that we celebrate it.

On July 2nd, Mom and Dad marked 25 years of marriage. The beautiful thing about Mom and Dad's marriage is how they've shown that it's not about just hanging in there and putting up with your spouse. You can pretend to love by forcing yourself and gritting your teeth, but not for very long. Mom and Dad have exemplified loving through surrendering, and in this way have been more than conquerors - not just surviving in marriage, but thriving in it.

Mom and Dad are also a model of serving in marriage. In fact, they're so busy doing stuff for others that we have to catch them totally off guard if we want to do anything for them. So, this past weekend, that's exactly what we did. On Saturday, some friends distracted them with a little trip to Yosemite, and over a hundred friends and relatives showed up for a surprise party. The surprise was a slam dunk, and we all enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of blessing and honoring this special couple.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our dear friends and family who helped to make Saturday the special day that it was, by bringing gifts, pitching in to help, or simply by being there, in body or in spirit. We love and appreciate all of you more than words can say. Thank you.

And to Mom and Dad: Happy Anniversary!

Image courtesy of Callis Family Photography

Tears, Idle Tears

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Knowing How To Blush

"Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush." -Jeremiah 8:12

Shame and guilt are some of the most uncomfortable feelings the human spirit experiences. Being creatures of comfort, we tend to covet affirmation and validation and shun conviction and godly sorrow. This is natural enough, but when we turn to scripture we find something quite different.

We don't have to look much further than the Beatitudes to understand what God is really after.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus doesn't say "Blessed are the holy" or "Blessed are the wise" or "Blessed are the successful." The Christian message is fundamentally a message of brokenness and hopeless inadequacy. In this respect, there is much we can learn from King David. He was royally screwed up, but he had this going for him: he knew how to be sorry. Repentance and righteousness go hand in hand - you cannot have one without the other. "I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us." (2 Corinthians 7:9)

This is the essence of the gospel: bringing our broken hearts to God to be remade by the redemption. And we don't just do this when we "get saved." We do this every day. God doesn't put us in spiritual tupperware - He leads us through the wilderness and the battlefield. This is the trial of faith that Peter and James speak of, and this is why staying a Christian is often a good deal harder than becoming one.

Through all our failures, we learn we must lean heavily on the grace of God. When we do, just like Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on the water, we find to our astonishment that it bears our weight.

If I stand, let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you

-Rich Mullins

When we see sin in our lives, sometimes it makes us question if we are really Christians. The reality is that sin will continue to ambush us throughout our pilgrimage. Our calling is to fight the good fight, not to attain some state of nirvana or spiritual immunity. Paul saw this clearly, and even went so far as to call himself the Chief of sinners, in the present tense! But he never lost sight of the gospel, and that was the secret of his strength. As C. S. Lewis wrote:

I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience et cetera doesn’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. [Prov. 24:16] We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of his presence.*

The paradox comes in when we realize that we must not sin that grace may abound, because this constitutes a crime against the blood of Christ. (Hebrews 10:29) God has little patience with those who would manipulate His mercy. "Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could." (Jeremiah 3:5) We acknowledge our shortcomings to God, all the time keeping our eyes on the prize of the upward call, aspiring to nothing less than the perfection of Christ.

But we have to know how to blush.

"But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble
and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."
- Isaiah 66:2

*C.S. Lewis, in a letter to Mary Neylan, January 20, 1942
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Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer

Jesus, draw me ever nearer
As I labour through the storm
You have called me to this passage
and I'll follow, though I'm worn
May this journey bring a blessing
May I rise on wings of faith
And at the end of my heart's testing
With Your likeness let me wake

Jesus, guide me through the tempest
Keep my spirit staid and sure
When the midnight meets the morning
Let me love You even more
May this journey bring a blessing
May I rise on wings of faith
And at the end of my heart's testing
With Your likeness let me wake

Let the treasures of the trial
Form within me as I go
And at the end of this long passage
Let me leave them at Your throne
May this journey bring a blessing
May I rise on wings of faith
And at the end of my heart's testing
With Your likeness let me wake

- Keith Getty & Margaret Becker

The Measure of Maturity

Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. -Philippians 3:15

I'm an achiever. I like to figure things out and get things done. I like having all the details accounted for and organized - just so.

Mostly, this is a positive thing. The problem is that it is taking me an awfully long time to learn that you can't treat Christianity like an algebra problem. You don't figure it out. You believe.

In the verse above, Paul has just got done saying that he hasn't got it all figured out, and proceeds to exhort the Philippians to think the same way. Startlingly, this is his definition of maturity - not mastery, but admitted non-mastery!

This is a tough concept for me. I had the experience last week of "God revealing that also" to me. It wasn't pretty. God doesn't reveal His truth on a banner behind a blimp - He reaches deep into your soul and performs spiritual surgery. It's messy and it hurts, but He's not going to settle for anything less than everything.

It's amazing how easily I start thinking that God is only interested in my sin. But everything means everything, and the reality is that He wants me to give Him my righteousness too. In fact, He wants to get me to the place where it isn't about me at all. "This is the will of God, your sanctification." Sanctification is total identification with Jesus Christ - an immersion of our individuality in His glory. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another."

When God corners me like this, I am obliged to concede that as a Christian, I am terribly clumsy most of the time. The strange thing is that's okay. The problem arises, not when I'm perverse, but when I pretend to be perfect. "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains."

The only time we really get it is when we admit that we don't.

I want to experience the promise. God wants me to embrace the process.
I want to get to the destination. God wants me to rejoice in the journey.
I want to be a spiritual superhero. God wants me to accept my limitations.
I want to graph grace. God wants me to grab grace.

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