In Praise Of God’s Sunlight (May 25, 2003)
Don't you love the longer days at this time of year?
It is a genuine pleasure for me to see the sky getting light early in the morning, and to go for a walk when the sun is still shining past 8 o'clock in the evening. I just like it. I treasure a memory from my youth when I was in northwestern Montana and saw the sun set at 10 o'clock. My family knows that one of my life's ambitions is to see the midnight sun somewhere in Canada or Alaska - or Greenland for that matter - I don't care where, I just want to see the sun cast my shadow as the clock strikes 12.
I'm not alone in craving light like chocolate. I understand that research confirms what we know intuitively - that light keeps us from being sad. I once saw a picture of school kids in Canada receiving "light therapy" - basically they stood in front of a spotlight for a few minutes a day. It was supposed to keep them from getting depressed during the long dark winter months.
In the Bible God is revealed to us as light - all light. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." One of the intriguing elements of the New Jerusalem is that "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Revelation 21:23). When we yield to God, the "Father of lights" (James 1:17), we are assured that we "are all sons of the light and of the day. We do not belong to the night or
the darkness" (1 Thessalonians 5:5).
Give thanks to God for the bright sun he made. Some day we will see how that sun has barely reflected the greater light of his glory, and we will understand how the pleasures of long summer days had merely hinted of the eternal joys at his right hand.
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Sunday, May 18, 2003
May 18, 2003: Enabler Parents
Columnist John Kass ("Teen stupidity brings a lesson never forgotten" - Chicago Tribune, May 16) talks about the time in high school when he bought liquor with a fake I.D. and sped off with friends to smoke pot, drink and party. The police caught him and Kass's parents had to go bail him out.
Kass's father did not speak to him for weeks. Finally when Kass begged his dad to talk, he said, "You bought whiskey. You had pot. You want to talk?"
"Yes."
"OK. First, do something for me."
"What?"
"Take this glass."
Kass took the glass from his father.
"Now smash it to pieces. Then put it back together, all the pieces together, so it looks brand-new, so it was never broken. Then you talk to me, OK?" And he walked off.
The next day he approached his son, and at long last they talked “about deceit, about consequence, obligation and shame. About drugs and alcohol, and how they rob you of control." When they were done, Kass's father said, "I love you, boy." Kass said, "I know. I love you, Dad." The shattered glass of broken trust was restored, but "slowly, piece by piece, not by talking but by doing."
Kass contrasted his father with the Northbrook enablers who are busy filing lawsuits to overturn the suspensions from school their daughters received for a liquor-fueled hazing incident. Some of these parents are using every resource available to try to shield their daughters from the consequences of wickedness. Apparently an effort is even being made to host an “alternate prom” so that the little malefactors, barred from their school prom, can still party in style. Makes me sick.
These Northbrook parents do not love their daughters. Kass's dad, however - silent, angry, full of stern wrath - knew how to love his son. The Bible explains the difference in Proverbs 13:24: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
A pastor friend of mine said that when he was involved in student ministry at the University of Illinois, he noticed a recurring theme among students who had kept their virginity and sober lifestyles in the midst of an atmosphere hostile to Christian virtue. When he asked what motivated them, they tended to say things like, "How could I disappoint my parents like that?" or "My dad would kill me!" Those are good answers. If my sons are ever tempted to vice when their will is weak and their faith is foggy, I want this one thought to sound a siren-wail in their heads: "What would Dad think of me if I did that?"
Columnist John Kass ("Teen stupidity brings a lesson never forgotten" - Chicago Tribune, May 16) talks about the time in high school when he bought liquor with a fake I.D. and sped off with friends to smoke pot, drink and party. The police caught him and Kass's parents had to go bail him out.
Kass's father did not speak to him for weeks. Finally when Kass begged his dad to talk, he said, "You bought whiskey. You had pot. You want to talk?"
"Yes."
"OK. First, do something for me."
"What?"
"Take this glass."
Kass took the glass from his father.
"Now smash it to pieces. Then put it back together, all the pieces together, so it looks brand-new, so it was never broken. Then you talk to me, OK?" And he walked off.
The next day he approached his son, and at long last they talked “about deceit, about consequence, obligation and shame. About drugs and alcohol, and how they rob you of control." When they were done, Kass's father said, "I love you, boy." Kass said, "I know. I love you, Dad." The shattered glass of broken trust was restored, but "slowly, piece by piece, not by talking but by doing."
Kass contrasted his father with the Northbrook enablers who are busy filing lawsuits to overturn the suspensions from school their daughters received for a liquor-fueled hazing incident. Some of these parents are using every resource available to try to shield their daughters from the consequences of wickedness. Apparently an effort is even being made to host an “alternate prom” so that the little malefactors, barred from their school prom, can still party in style. Makes me sick.
These Northbrook parents do not love their daughters. Kass's dad, however - silent, angry, full of stern wrath - knew how to love his son. The Bible explains the difference in Proverbs 13:24: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
A pastor friend of mine said that when he was involved in student ministry at the University of Illinois, he noticed a recurring theme among students who had kept their virginity and sober lifestyles in the midst of an atmosphere hostile to Christian virtue. When he asked what motivated them, they tended to say things like, "How could I disappoint my parents like that?" or "My dad would kill me!" Those are good answers. If my sons are ever tempted to vice when their will is weak and their faith is foggy, I want this one thought to sound a siren-wail in their heads: "What would Dad think of me if I did that?"
Sunday, May 11, 2003
May 11, 2003: Brute Force Obedience
At one point in C. S. Lewis' great novel The Screwtape Letters, the demon Wormwood believes that he has cause to rejoice. The new Christian whom he has been trying to tempt away from the faith is going through a period of spiritual dryness. Wormword boasts to his uncle Screwtape of his hope that "the patient's religious phase is dying away."
Screwtape writes back to rebuke Wormwood's confidence, explaining how God ("our Enemy") uses those dry periods to make a believer even stronger. He writes:
[God] leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs - to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best...Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
“And still obeys.” Sometimes I think the best obedience is that which we offer to God when there is no love or good cheer or spiritual energy to motivate it. It is like the widow's mite in Mark 12:42 - a small sum, but noted by our Lord for its greatness because it came from poverty. Recall that Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). A broken-hearted, consistent self-discipline has a sweetness and a power that robust zeal can never match.
Often I have counseled with people who felt that they were sunk deep in a spiritual trough. My advice to them is neither earth-shaking nor profound: sometimes you just have to trudge through it. Read your Bible even if you find that it is giving you no help, say your prayers even when they seem pointless, give thanks to God even when you would rather just complain. Maybe the day will come when you can submit to God with gladness. Till then, submit to him out of duty. As the Bible says in Galatians 6:9: "Let us not grow weary in well-doing. For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
At one point in C. S. Lewis' great novel The Screwtape Letters, the demon Wormwood believes that he has cause to rejoice. The new Christian whom he has been trying to tempt away from the faith is going through a period of spiritual dryness. Wormword boasts to his uncle Screwtape of his hope that "the patient's religious phase is dying away."
Screwtape writes back to rebuke Wormwood's confidence, explaining how God ("our Enemy") uses those dry periods to make a believer even stronger. He writes:
[God] leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs - to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best...Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
“And still obeys.” Sometimes I think the best obedience is that which we offer to God when there is no love or good cheer or spiritual energy to motivate it. It is like the widow's mite in Mark 12:42 - a small sum, but noted by our Lord for its greatness because it came from poverty. Recall that Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). A broken-hearted, consistent self-discipline has a sweetness and a power that robust zeal can never match.
Often I have counseled with people who felt that they were sunk deep in a spiritual trough. My advice to them is neither earth-shaking nor profound: sometimes you just have to trudge through it. Read your Bible even if you find that it is giving you no help, say your prayers even when they seem pointless, give thanks to God even when you would rather just complain. Maybe the day will come when you can submit to God with gladness. Till then, submit to him out of duty. As the Bible says in Galatians 6:9: "Let us not grow weary in well-doing. For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
Sunday, May 4, 2003
May 4,2003: Stray Comments That Get You In Trouble
Watch what you say.
Recently a young relative of mine got fired from a job she had just started because of a nasty little coincidence. She met an acquaintance at a fast-food restaurant and they talked about work. She happened to mention that her former boss was a moron, and she was relieved not to have to work for that jerk anymore.
It just so happens that her ex-boss’s wife was standing nearby and heard everything. She told her husband, who was a client of my relative's current employer in the same industry. He called them and said he would no longer do business with them. So they fired her.
The thing about that bad-luck story is that it could happen to just about any one of us. Who is wise enough to keep from saying stupid things in unguarded moments? Even one of our heroes, Billy Graham, was deeply embarrassed last year when his voice was heard on a 30-year-old Nixon White House tape uttering comments that were perceived as anti-Semitic. Who knew that those offhand remarks would come back to haunt him?
I myself have been haunted by careless comments I have made - things too embarrassing to reveal here - words the memories of which make me wince more than 20 years later. I take some comfort in knowing that I'm not alone. Though people can learn to control their passions and emotions and appetites, hardly anyone learns how to control his own tongue. James 3:2 says, "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check."
Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." That is a good goal. Say this prayer today: "God, help me not to say anything that is hurtful, stupid or untrue. Let my conversation be just the way the Bible says it should be, seasoned with salt and full of grace."
Watch what you say.
Recently a young relative of mine got fired from a job she had just started because of a nasty little coincidence. She met an acquaintance at a fast-food restaurant and they talked about work. She happened to mention that her former boss was a moron, and she was relieved not to have to work for that jerk anymore.
It just so happens that her ex-boss’s wife was standing nearby and heard everything. She told her husband, who was a client of my relative's current employer in the same industry. He called them and said he would no longer do business with them. So they fired her.
The thing about that bad-luck story is that it could happen to just about any one of us. Who is wise enough to keep from saying stupid things in unguarded moments? Even one of our heroes, Billy Graham, was deeply embarrassed last year when his voice was heard on a 30-year-old Nixon White House tape uttering comments that were perceived as anti-Semitic. Who knew that those offhand remarks would come back to haunt him?
I myself have been haunted by careless comments I have made - things too embarrassing to reveal here - words the memories of which make me wince more than 20 years later. I take some comfort in knowing that I'm not alone. Though people can learn to control their passions and emotions and appetites, hardly anyone learns how to control his own tongue. James 3:2 says, "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check."
Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt." That is a good goal. Say this prayer today: "God, help me not to say anything that is hurtful, stupid or untrue. Let my conversation be just the way the Bible says it should be, seasoned with salt and full of grace."
Sunday, April 27, 2003
April 27, 2003: Praying Like A Child
I think I can speak for most teachers when I say that it is a pleasure to see a child raise his hand. It means he has something to say, that he is involved enough in what is going on to want to contribute. I've had the opportunity to teach children many times, and have decided that on any day I'd rather teach mischievous kids with lots of questions than well-behaved ones who stare at you in dull silence.
Sometimes kids say things that make no sense to me. When that happens, I try to keep in mind that whatever they said, it made sense to them. When I was a child, I probably said lots of strange things that sprang from my childlike grasp of reality. But even when I could not get my point across to an adult whose attention I craved, I could still tell whether or not he was taking me seriously. Every a child knows when he is being taken seriously - or silently laughed at by an adult who thinks he is stupid.
God takes us seriously, which is stunning when you consider that the distance between his understanding and ours is so much greater than that which exists between the wisest adult and the simplest child. We know he takes us seriously because he has told us to pray. Prayer is how we come and talk to him.
We are apt to botch prayer. James warns, "You ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3). Even a good man like Job confessed, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me" (Job 42:3).
But botching prayer is no excuse for avoiding it. God requires us to contribute our bit to the heavenly conversation that brings him glory and joy. I like to think that the pleasure I feel upon seeing a young student raise his hand is a distant echo of the divine pleasure God experiences when we approach him in prayer. In your spirit, with a child's humility, raise your hand and God will call on you and you can talk to him. He likes that. He likes it so much he has commanded it.
I think I can speak for most teachers when I say that it is a pleasure to see a child raise his hand. It means he has something to say, that he is involved enough in what is going on to want to contribute. I've had the opportunity to teach children many times, and have decided that on any day I'd rather teach mischievous kids with lots of questions than well-behaved ones who stare at you in dull silence.
Sometimes kids say things that make no sense to me. When that happens, I try to keep in mind that whatever they said, it made sense to them. When I was a child, I probably said lots of strange things that sprang from my childlike grasp of reality. But even when I could not get my point across to an adult whose attention I craved, I could still tell whether or not he was taking me seriously. Every a child knows when he is being taken seriously - or silently laughed at by an adult who thinks he is stupid.
God takes us seriously, which is stunning when you consider that the distance between his understanding and ours is so much greater than that which exists between the wisest adult and the simplest child. We know he takes us seriously because he has told us to pray. Prayer is how we come and talk to him.
We are apt to botch prayer. James warns, "You ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3). Even a good man like Job confessed, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me" (Job 42:3).
But botching prayer is no excuse for avoiding it. God requires us to contribute our bit to the heavenly conversation that brings him glory and joy. I like to think that the pleasure I feel upon seeing a young student raise his hand is a distant echo of the divine pleasure God experiences when we approach him in prayer. In your spirit, with a child's humility, raise your hand and God will call on you and you can talk to him. He likes that. He likes it so much he has commanded it.
Sunday, April 20, 2003
April 20, 2003: No Cussing
While getting an oil change last week I struck up a conversation with a customer who told me (I think after she found out I was a minister) that she had given up swearing for Lent. I congratulated her. It is good not to cuss. I said something about hoping that she would be able to keep her momentum and not use bad language even after Lent was over.
Everyone benefits when people guard their tongues, because bad words pollute the air like exhaust from a diesel truck. Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up." Bad words tear people down. They degrade both speaker and hearer, but "a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver" (Proverbs 25:11).
Some years ago a cousin of mine met a woman who sparked his romantic interest. But the second time he met her with her he heard her use foul language, and his heart cooled on the spot. He knew that words reveal character. As Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).
If there is garbage in your heart, it will come out in what you say. The best way to clean your mouth is to change your heart. But it is also true that the cleaning can work the other way. Guard your words, and you may well find that your heart responds by becoming a bit less trashy.
While getting an oil change last week I struck up a conversation with a customer who told me (I think after she found out I was a minister) that she had given up swearing for Lent. I congratulated her. It is good not to cuss. I said something about hoping that she would be able to keep her momentum and not use bad language even after Lent was over.
Everyone benefits when people guard their tongues, because bad words pollute the air like exhaust from a diesel truck. Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up." Bad words tear people down. They degrade both speaker and hearer, but "a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver" (Proverbs 25:11).
Some years ago a cousin of mine met a woman who sparked his romantic interest. But the second time he met her with her he heard her use foul language, and his heart cooled on the spot. He knew that words reveal character. As Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).
If there is garbage in your heart, it will come out in what you say. The best way to clean your mouth is to change your heart. But it is also true that the cleaning can work the other way. Guard your words, and you may well find that your heart responds by becoming a bit less trashy.
Sunday, April 13, 2003
April 13, 2003: Organize
My mother kept a Booker T. Washington quote taped to the door or our refrigerator that read: “But gradually, by patience and hard work we brought order out of chaos, just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with patience and wisdom and earnest effort.”
Mom used those words to motivate herself to keep the house clean. She always wanted things neat and orderly, but was never particularly good at getting them to be or stay that way. I inherited her genetic predisposition to clutter, and have passed it on to my sons. I am finding that the trait intensifies as it marches through the generations.
There are ways to justify sloppiness. When failing to bring order out of chaos, my mother drew comfort from another quote: "The cost of productivity is mess." (I think that was on the refrigerator too!) And she delighted in her personal interpretation of Proverbs 14:4: "The stall is clean where no oxen are, but much increase comes by strength of the ox." Granted - an oxen-free stall is nice and clean, but without those messy oxen the furrows don't get plowed and the grain does not get threshed. A clean stall is just a sign of sterile inactivity!
Well, as my mother and I would have to admit, that is not exactly true. I have known lots of people who are both productive and organized, and while I don't hate them, I do admit to being so jealous of them that it becomes my spiritual duty to restrain envy. They prove to me what I'd rather not believe: that order and productivity are in direct rather than inverse proportion. The more organized you are, the more you can get done. (Partly because you don't have to spend so much time looking for things.)
Order is good. The Apostle Paul told the chaotic Corinthians, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way" (1 Corinthians 14:40). If you lack the knack for order, you are not excused from trying to achieve it. You'll just have to go at it with more of Booker T. Washington's "patience and wisdom and earnest effort."
I better stop here and clean my office.
My mother kept a Booker T. Washington quote taped to the door or our refrigerator that read: “But gradually, by patience and hard work we brought order out of chaos, just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with patience and wisdom and earnest effort.”
Mom used those words to motivate herself to keep the house clean. She always wanted things neat and orderly, but was never particularly good at getting them to be or stay that way. I inherited her genetic predisposition to clutter, and have passed it on to my sons. I am finding that the trait intensifies as it marches through the generations.
There are ways to justify sloppiness. When failing to bring order out of chaos, my mother drew comfort from another quote: "The cost of productivity is mess." (I think that was on the refrigerator too!) And she delighted in her personal interpretation of Proverbs 14:4: "The stall is clean where no oxen are, but much increase comes by strength of the ox." Granted - an oxen-free stall is nice and clean, but without those messy oxen the furrows don't get plowed and the grain does not get threshed. A clean stall is just a sign of sterile inactivity!
Well, as my mother and I would have to admit, that is not exactly true. I have known lots of people who are both productive and organized, and while I don't hate them, I do admit to being so jealous of them that it becomes my spiritual duty to restrain envy. They prove to me what I'd rather not believe: that order and productivity are in direct rather than inverse proportion. The more organized you are, the more you can get done. (Partly because you don't have to spend so much time looking for things.)
Order is good. The Apostle Paul told the chaotic Corinthians, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way" (1 Corinthians 14:40). If you lack the knack for order, you are not excused from trying to achieve it. You'll just have to go at it with more of Booker T. Washington's "patience and wisdom and earnest effort."
I better stop here and clean my office.
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