How Christians Ought to Suffer

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of practical, helpful guides to going through pain and difficulty in a Christ-centered, God-honouring way.

Now, I want to say right off the bat that the sustaining grace and power of God the Holy Spirit is the only reason that I’m not only still alive, but still retain any measure of sanity. I won’t bore you with the details, but let it suffice for the moment to say that, to quote a former co-worker, “this ain’t my first rodeo, bruh.”

I’d like to begin by quoting the U.S. Army survival manual. It lists three ways to strengthen your ability to withstand pain.

Recognise that pain serves a purpose.
Realize that pain is temporary.
Take pride in your ability to withstand pain.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on them one by one.

First, pain exists for a reason. It exists to alert you to a condition that is harmful to your life, safety, and well-being. A police or fire siren is piercing and shrill. It hurts your ears, even from far away. But it gets your attention, and alerts you to take action, whether that’s to pull off to the side of the road, get your loved ones away from a dangerous area, or to lend a hand during an emergency.

Author and Apologist Ravi Zacharias once told a story about a man with leprosy. He lost all feeling in his limbs. One morning, he awoke to find that to his shock and horror, his hand had been eaten away by vermin. “If only I had been able to feel pain,” he said, “I would still be whole.”

Use pain. Let it get your attention. Let it focus you on what’s important- your relationship with the Lord, good stewardship of His temple (your body), your family, and your community.

Second, pain is temporary. The siren eventually fall silent once peace and order are restored. Even for those who suffer chronic pain from injury, illness, or PTSD, there are days when things are less painful than normal. Suffering gives you tunnel vision, since all the energy that you would normally put into planning for the future, caring for loved ones, and enjoying life are now being diverted to enduring the present torment. You must always remember that all pain is temporary. There may well be painful new realities to which you must adjust, but the human body- and the human spirit- were created by God, and possess a resilience that is nothing short of astounding. You will adjust, you will improve, and you will come through.
I was hospitalized for cancer treatment in September of 2012. I laid in bed for twelve days while I got biopsies, lung tests, and, finally, chemotherapy. There was a lead-up of several months during which we didn’t know what was going wrong, and one of the symptoms was a severe insomnia, so I was at my breaking point. I had an attitude of resignation.  “Well, I’ve had a good run, but I’ve got nothing left. I’ll get to rest, and see the Lord soon.” One day I was reading in the Psalms, and I ran across this passage:


“I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.”

Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

The Holy Spirit used that scripture to renew my failing strength. I began to feel a deep sense of peace about the outcome, and a quiet confidence that I would live. From then on, though the dull, drawn-out misery of chemotherapy lay ahead, my heart found rest in that wonderful promise. “Be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord.”

Third, and last, take pride in your ability to take it.

Christian missionary Amy Carmichael, writing at the turn of the twentieth century, put it this way:

“Manliness is not mere courage; it is the quality of soul which frankly accepts all conditions in human life, and makes it a point of honor not to be dismayed or wearied by them.”

Don’t get hung up on the gender, because I think it applies to both sexes- there is something about someone who endures hardship with patience that serves as an inspiration to the people around them in ways that they themselves don’t always notice. Whether you are at the start of a difficult journey or nearing it’s end, there will always come a day when you can look back and marvel at the things that you’ve been able to endure. And that looking back will begin to form in you that wonderful quality, so readily apparent to everyone around- the quiet dignity of the veteran.

St. Paul tells us that “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Do you see? For we Christians, no suffering is pointless. Our example to others, our faithful obedience in the midst of heartache and pain, and the sculpting of our souls under the chisel and hammer of our older Brother will produce in us the capacity to reflect His radiant glory, not only to a broken and dying world now, but in the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness.

Will you stand with St. Stephen the martyr and hear of his stoning, or St. Paul with his beheading, or St. Andrew with his crooked cross, and have nothing to add but a few parking tickets and a rained-out ballgame?

There’s an old hymn:

“By and by when I look on His face,
Beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face,
By and by when I look on His face,
I’ll wish I had given Him more.”

Beloved, whatever you’re going through, whatever you’re experiencing, you can take it. You’ve already withstood so much. If you’re reading this, you’ve already learned how to make twenty-six squiggly lines into literally every word in the English language. Don’t you remember? That took months- years- and now you can’t even remember what it’s like to not be able to read and write. There is a light at the end of this tunnel, guys, and you will not only be proud at what you’ve endured, but humbled by the lengths to which our Lord has gone to protect and sustain you.

“Wait for the Lord. Be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord.”

Encouragement for Christians in Distress

The Holy Spirit of the Living God dwells within your heart.

You have a glorious destiny.

You are full of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is your birthright as an heir to the Kingdom of God. Will you not boldly claim it, in prayer before the throne?

The Holy Spirit of the Living God is transforming you every day. He is using the hopes and fears of all to years to conform you to the image of Christ.

"Success is the progressive realization of worthwhile goals."

-Dan Miller

If you are more like Christ today than you were yesterday, then you were a success today.

Life is not but a walking shadow. Life is a vast and tattered musical brocade. You can peer through the tears to see the glory beyond, and take heart.

Reflections on Christian Duties

The things that Christians are called to be and do in the world have a number of useful parallels in everyday life. 

The Christian evangelist is not unlike a sheriffs deputy tasked with serving a judicial summons. 

He is also, however, not unlike a postman, carrying a love letter from God to a wayward humanity. 

Just as a policeman is a relief for someone in trouble but a terror to someone in the middle of a crime, so the Christian, and the risen Lord whom he represents, is a comfort to those who soul thirsts after God, but a hateful reminder of the severe justice that faces evil to those whose hearts remain enslaved to sin.

Members of all three emergency services – ambulance, fire crews, and law-enforcement- respond to the scene of an accident. So also the Christian must carry with them at all times God's tender mercy to the sick and wounded, God's power over the raging elements both within and without, and God's justice.

In our system, EMT crews treat everyone, regardless of their guilt or innocence. 

Fire crews rescue everyone regardless of their fault in starting the fire.

It is the policeman who is tasked with proclaiming and enforcing the law, but he does not himself execute judgment – that is for a higher court.

It's the same for us. We bear witness to a higher law, even as we are engaged with the task of rescuing those in trouble and binding up their wounds.

Reflections on Advent

​As I get old enough to remember my hometown being slightly but permanently different than it is now, I find that a growing number of my memories happened in places that no longer exist. These are important, formative, and gut-wrenching memories- things that shaped who I am and how I see the world- and I can’t ever go back. A. E. Housman wrote it this way:

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon far country blows;

What are those blue remembered hills

What spires; what farms are those?

It is the land of lost content

I see it, shining plain

Those happy highways where I went

And cannot come again.

Sometimes the places I remember become other places. The classroom of an English teacher I had in high school is now a fifth grade classroom, with colorful posters of tips and tricks for math and grammar. I can technically go back, but it’s not the same. I remember how the wind would get caught in the narrow alley between the two modular buildings and sound a mournful retreat as it escaped, and if one had recently read a ghost story, it wasn’t difficult to imagine someone as trapped in loneliness as I was inhabiting the sound.

But even when the location hasn’t changed, I have. So it isn’t really the same anyway.

I find a similar feeling creeping in when I think of Christmas. It’s as though I remember walking through a pristine forest, with dark green trees and white snow and a Narnian lamppost, but when I return I find that the place has been leveled and a strip mall built.

The commercialization of Christmas is a perennial complaint. I heard it all growing up. And as amusing as it is for some of you who know that I’m only twenty-eight to hear me wistfully recall my younger days, remember that even in that short time, huge changes have taken place. Since my childhood, the internet has risen to prominence in American commerce, causing retailers to raise their advertising efforts to fever pitch. In addition, social media has provided a constant stream of images, not of strangers modeling the newest fashions, but my own friends and neighbors displaying a carefully curated exhibit of their “best life now.”

I recently heard a minister make the comment that television’s sole aim is to create discontent. Think about it: how does every commercial go? A task or state of being is described that is uncomfortable or undesirable, and a need is created. Then the product or service being advertised swoops in to fulfill that need, and all they want in return is a few dollars. Is it any wonder that we never seem to catch up? We’re constantly surrounded by discontentment propaganda. As Wordsworth said:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;-

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

we have given our hearts away. A sordid boon!”

The temptation to sin is like an advertisement. It takes a need that you feel, real or perceived, and it advertises itself as the only solution.  Over the last century or so, the most common besetting temptations known to mankind have been given a psychological and scientific backing. Lust is now psychosexual development. Self-actualization reigns supreme. And all the while, as Dave Ramsey puts it, we go deeper and deeper into debt to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t even like, and while we shell out more and more money to endless therapy sessions and self-help literature, the real needs of our souls go unfulfilled.

Every human spirit is suffering from being disconnected from its source: the love and holiness of their Creator.

St. Athanasius put it this way:

“The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it…”

That lofty sounding existential problem is brought down to earth by St. Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

The only hope for the human soul is to be reunited, to be grafted back into the vine. A rose can survive in a vase for a little while, but it won’t grow and thrive unless it’s being nourished by the plant it sprang from. Inevitably, the petals wither and fall to the ground.

Knowing all this, God sent his one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, down to the earth in human form. He lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died, so that by putting our trust in Him, we may gain eternal life.

Christmas, once the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus, has descended into an orgy of “stuff.”

Now, I know that the true meaning of Christmas cannot be compromised. But as I get older, I find that my soul rejoices in the celebration, not of Christmas, but of Advent. In the season of Advent, we live in remembrance of what is past, and eager and exhausted anticipation of what is coming. The French resistance doesn’t make any sense without D-Day. The martyrs beneath the alter cry out, “How long, O Lord?”

There’s a tension in the words of our Lord while He walked among us: we are to live not only as slaves whose master’s return may be long delayed, but also as slaves whose master’s return may be imminent.

A definition of faith that’s been helpful to me is “living one’s life in the light of the promises of God.” Advent allows us to acknowledge and wrestle with the immense difficulty of living in the tension between the “already” and the “not-yet.” We can cry out “how long, O Lord?” when drugs, violence, depression, and the petty pace creeps in from day to day. We can also joyfully proclaim that the year of the Lord’s favor has come.

It’s okay to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. And it’s okay to be hurting and confused and lost. But the day is coming when every tear will be wiped away, after every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed that Jesus is Lord.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Links:

Housman:

http://www.bartleby.com/123/40.html

Wordsworth:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174833

Athenasius:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.ii.html

Augustine:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3296/3296-h/3296-h.htm

Scriptures:

Saints beneath the altar:

http://biblehub.com/revelation/6-9.htm

Live as slaves:

http://biblehub.com/matthew/24-45.htm

The year of the Lord’s Favor:

http://biblehub.com/luke/4-18.htm

Even so, come:

http://biblehub.com/revelation/22-20.htm

How to Win at Life

Win at people, win at life. 

God is a person. Humans are people. According to the Westminster confession of faith, the purpose of life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Your  raison d'être is a relationship. So the better you are at relationships, the better you are at life. 

My hope for this post is that it encourages you to take your relationships more seriously. The vertical one, which is vital, and the horizontal ones, which allows the life and love you get vertically to flow out to everyone around you. 

As Christians, we are a nation set apart; a holy priesthood. What do priests do? They mediate the grace and glory of God to everyone else. 

We're the hands and feet of Christ in the world. 

We can't do our jobs properly unless we maintain a supply line to the grace and truth of our Lord through the Holy Spirit. There are certain things that act as exercises for us to keep that connection strong. 

Prayer, reading and meditating on scripture, acts of service, corporate worship, charitable giving, and other good works don't get us "in", but they are signs that an inner transformation has taken place. 

If you're sick to your stomach, you check what you've eaten. If you feel spiritually dry, you check your pipeline to the source, and you repair any leaks. 

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any unrepented sin in your life that's clogging the pipeline. He's faithful to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness, and restore your relationship as though it had never gone wrong. 

Recognize all the good gifts you've been given, and thank the Lord for them. 

Memorize some scriptures to act as shields from temptation. Your weapon isn't useful if it's out of ammo. Fill your magazine with truth bullets. 

Any more thoughts to add?

From Purpose to Providence

When I was in my late teens, making important decisions about my career and life goals, I remember waiting with eager anticipation for the moment when the clouds would part and I would receive a divine revelation of what my path would be. I believed that there was a God, that He had a wonderful plan for my life, and that if I sought after Him then the plan would be revealed.

I also believed, deep beneath the patina of religion, that the longings of my heart would be satisfied by a challenging, rewarding career and a perfect wife, and that any residual angst would be mopped up by a Mercedes-Benz convertible.

When my fervent prayers for guidance seemed to fall on deaf ears, I would vacillate between anger and fear. See, the deal I had with the Almighty was that if I did things He liked, then He'd do things I liked. Anger that God wasn't holding up His end of the bargain, and fear that I didn't (and couldn't) fulfill my obligations, were things that I stuffed down so that I could focus on school, work, and a social life. 

A sense of injustice is the first step on the road to victimhood. It keeps the question of one's own responsibilities on the back burner. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick," says the Proverb. My hope for stuff was deferred for a long time, and I was nauseated. The problem was, my hunger for stuff was based on a faulty premise- that stuff would satisfy. Here's a hint- it doesn't. 

Giving my longing for stuff a religious window dressing didn't help much. Not only did it conceal the problem- longing for 'purpose' was biblical, right?- but it was offensive to the One who had already freely offered the most precious gift of all: Himself. It reminds me of Tim Keller's conversation with a little girl in his congregation. When he asked, "don't you know that the king of the universe suffered, died, and rose again so that you could be together with Him forever?" And she responded with "well, yeah, but what good is that if you can't get a date?"

C.S. Lewis makes a similar point: 

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."


What would our lives look like if we really, truly grasped the awesome reality that we are the redeemed of the Lord? That we are ever before Him, and that our names are written on His hands?

That's why I've given up on praying for God to reveal my purpose. It's too much. I wouldn't understand it if it was revealed. And if I didn't find it to my liking, I would almost certainly work to undermine it.

What am I doing instead? I'm praying that the Lord would use my experiences, my reading, my study of scripture, my relationships, and all the other things that constitute a life, to form me into a man after His own heart. Psalm 105 says "look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." Our Lord Himself said "seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you."

Instead of asking the Lord for the tools and resources to be my own boss, I'm asking for a change in my heart that makes me more receptive to His authority.

What does a recon marine need more: a "situation room", with maps, video screens, live intelligence, and fast access to world leaders and analysts, or his rifle and radio?

All that stuff is necessary to his success, but it's not realistic for him to carry it all with him. It's too bulky to deploy on the front line. The vital thing is his ability to defend himself and take the fight to the enemy, and his link to his HQ. That means his two most important tools are his rifle and his radio.

As believers, our offensive and defensive capability is our knowledge and application of scripture to our thoughts, words, and actions. And our radio is prayer. Do those two things better and you'll get a lot closer to "purpose" than you realize.

That's short shrift, I know. But I hope to expand on those things at a later date, Good Lord willing.

Until then, give this some thought and comment or argue if you want.

Musings from the "Notes" folder on my Phone

The more I learn about the moving parts that make up our souls, the more I discover that I don't know. We're all singularities, from which no light escapes. Who could plumb our depths but the one who fashioned us, and plunged headlong into Sheol to get us back?

Someone who could see us for who we really are, and know us better than we can know ourselves, and see our awful words and thoughts and actions stretched out on a noxious tapestry, and still suffer hideously so that he could destroy sin and death without destroying us, has to be a being of pure love.

Be a Life Person

Are you a “life” person?

Everyone remembers being in high school and taking a subject they just didn't get. whether it was math, science, history, or English, you hit a wall every single time. at my high school, at least, and maybe yours, too, there arose a convenient fiction to serve as an explanation: some people are just “math people.” they walked into Algebra II and everything clicked. the clouds parted, the angels sang, x was found and graphs were plotted like nobody’s business- meanwhile, the rest of us dully wandered in problem purgatory, burdened with a sinking feeling that our futures rested on a skill that some of us had and some of us didn't.

Others, like me, were history and English people. We made similes our servants, mastered our metaphors, and panned for themes and motifs in everything: books, commercials, and cereal boxes. No text was too obscure; no historical date too meaningless- while all the “math people,” starving for something concrete and more frustrated each day, finally asked: “why are we reading so much into this?! The author didn’t mean all that, or she would have just said it!” or “Who cares who invaded who? It was a thousand years ago!”

Initially, when we heard that magic phrase- “oh, she’s just a math person”- it was a great relief. We weren’t stupid, or lazy, or rebellious- we had just lost an arbitrary genetic lottery that had given some of us special powers and left the rest to fend for themselves. Our anger shifted to the authorities. “Why are ‘they’ making math people do history? Can’t ‘they’ see that ‘they’re’ wasting everyone’s time?”

Human nature is to set up categories, and decide who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out.’ Shrinks call it “Heuristics-” google it if you have an hour to kill- and it’s a powerful force. Sometimes this is based on natural abilities, or skin color, or whatever ‘beauty’ happens to mean this decade, but whatever the arbitrary criterion, it shifts responsibility from people, who make choices, to groups, systems, and the dreaded “they.”

Winning a genetic lottery is nice, as is being born in certain places into certain circumstances. But the temptation to throw in the towel and give in to bitterness because “they” are out to get us- no matter who “they” are- must be resisted with all of our might.

Which of us, when we were first born, were “word” people? We bubbled and gurgled and sputtered for months before we even managed syllables, much less words. But now we speak English, which is among the most difficult languages to learn. Or which of us were “walking” people? Toddlers didn’t earn their name for being steady on their feet. But now most of us hop, skip, and jump without a second thought. Eating, drinking, bathing- I could go on. But the point is that every one of us already has a rather impressive track record of overcoming obstacles and mastering difficult tasks, simply by remaining alive.

I wasn't born yet when President Kennedy made his great speech announcing the program to put a man on the moon, but thanks to the internet I got to hear something incredible: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

So to everyone who’s not a ‘health’ person, or a ‘book’ person, or a ‘rich’ person, or a ‘leadership’ person, or a ‘Jesus’ person, I say be a ‘life’ person. Do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Remember all the hard things you've already done, and let those memories give you strength. “Do not ask what the world needs,” writes O.S. Marsden. “Ask what makes you come alive, and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Getting with the Program

Socrates is on the record as having asserted that "the unexamined life is not worth living." One of the reasons for this is that unrealistic ideas can often survive for far too long if they remain insulated from reality. Sometimes the kindest thing we can do for ourselves and the people around us is to reveal to them, gently, the unrealistic nature of their desires. 

When I was a teenager, I wanted nothing more than to drive a Mazda Miata when I got my license. I was on the soccer team and fairly athletic, but I was also 6'1" and 250 lbs, and the Miata, to put it kindly, was not designed with those particular dimensions in mind.  When my dad commented that he wasn't sure it would be big enough, I didn't listen, and after months of pining away over the smooth lines, canvas convertible top, and racing stripe, he finally took me to the Mazda dealership. The salesman didn't do as well as my dad at hiding his good-natured incredulity, and when I finally climbed in, everything became clear. 

My legs were too long to work the pedals (and I couldn't yet drive a manual, to boot), my shoulders were too broad for me to buckle the seat belt, and when I tried to get out, I suddenly understood why ejector seats in airplanes were rocket powered. We almost needed the jaws of life. Needless to say, my dreams had to adjust to reality. There was a period of mourning, as there always is, but in the end I wound up in a Jeep- which, as any Jeep owner will confirm, is always a good decision. 

So what does old Socrates have to do with any of that, you ask? Well, part of examining your life is assessing how realistic your goals are, certainly. Big dudes and tiny cars don't mix. But how do we keep ourselves from despair when a dearly held dream is dashed by the cold smack of reality?

We've all had it happen, and some of us fare better than others. But Christian believers have resources available to them that keep them from giving up hope. Ephesians 2:10 reads: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." 

That's an incredible statement. It means that if we'll submit ourselves and 'get with the program', we become part, not only of a cosmic dance that steps through the centuries and connects us to countless generations of believers, but of the consummation of our own story. 

Ask yourself: why would the One who loves you enough to die for you, who formed your innermost being and knit you together in the depths of the earth, make your life's work something with which you are incompatible, or, what's worse, something you hate? Sure, maybe you're stuck for the moment in something lousy, but it's changing you, in ways you'll only recognize much later, into a creature who is better able to reflect the glory of your Creator. Philippians 2:13-16 reads: 

...for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.

Whenever you feel the sting of defeat; whenever the sharp crack of a door slamming shut is ringing in your ears- remember the words of Moses in the desert, the horsemen of Pharaoh in hot pursuit: 

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

The same spirit that led the heroes of old will lead us, too, and will use the circumstances of our lives, even wicked betrayals and pitiful disasters, to mold us into what we were always meant to be.

"The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it..." for "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

What Should I Read?

We've all heard that "you are what you eat," and Jefferson Airplane reminds us to "remember what the dormouse said: feed your head." 

I've heard it said that, in five years' time, a person will be just the same as they are now, except for the people they meet and the books they read. If that's true, then what you feed your head should be chosen with some care, since reading has a direct effect on the way we think, much as food has both an immediate and a long-term impact on the way our bodies feel and function. We find in the book of Proverbs that "as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he," and Marcus Aurelius reports in his Meditations that “The mind will be like it’s habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of your thoughts.” So, if one's reading choices will leave an imprint on one's very soul, then it's important to choose wisely. But how?

Matsuo Basho, a 17th century Japanese poet, gives the following advice: "Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters. [Rather,] seek what they sought." In other words, we should choose what we read based on what it is that we seek. Want to be knowledgeable in your field? seek out the literature. Want to improve your skills? Seek out books about the things you want to master. You'll get better by the act of adding to your knowledge and contending with a different perspective.

But it goes deeper than that, I think. To know what we seek is one thing, but what is it that we ought to seek? St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic theologian, taught that “Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.” Leave the salvation piece aside for the moment, and notice the three areas of importance: beliefs, desires, and actions. All three shape who we are, and are tremendously important in every area of life, so they can guide our search for what to read.

I'm suggesting here that we allow what we believe, what we want, and what we do determine our reading choices, but the joy of reading is that it becomes a sort of precipitation cycle, in which what you read influences what you think, and that color dyes the soul. 

It's also very important to bear in mind that the soul is nurtured by Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and, consequently, will begin to wither without them. Be intentional about seeking out what is true, beautiful, and good, and you'll be surprised how much vitality it can add to not only your inner landscape but also to your life and the living of it. 

So, how do we choose what to read?

1. Choose with great care, for you're choosing what stains your soul

2. Choose to expand your knowledge, hone your desires, and empower your actions

3. Actively seek out the true, the good, and the beautiful


I've read some good ones lately. Find my Goodreads profile here.

We All Matter to Someone

The following is a reproduction of an article of mine that ran in the June 20th, 2014 edition of the Greensboro News and Record:


Know This: We All Matter to Someone

Asked which three words of the English language carried with them the greatest measure of Pathos, I'd wager that the average man on the street would breezily respond with "that's easy-'I love you.'" Allow me to submit an alternative, familiar to anyone who's suffered loss: "now we can't."

"Now" evokes the passage of time, from which none are free, and the point at which we are closest to eternity. "We" is the pronoun of communion, of "I and thou." "Can't", as observed by many a manager and coach, is a seemingly innocuous but ultimately corrosive conversation ender. It stifles debate, and defies reason, because it doesn't come from reason. "Can't" is an emotion, a belief, as is “can”- consider the recent success of "yes, we can!" As a slogan. “Can’t” is informed by experience but is ultimately a condition of the heart, to be overcome only by the will, and the aid of Providence.

I offer this missive in memorandum of my dear friend, who, in the cosmic equivalent of taking his ball home because he didn't want to play anymore, took his own life in June of 2011.

Suicide, like the M*A*S*H* theme says, brings on many changes (though it is indeed not painless). Everything changes, and nothing changes. Author Wendell Barry observed this in a short story in which the reality of a beloved cousin's untimely death is lost on the young protagonist until he saw, hanging on a hook in the barn, the dead boy's coat. This was now a world, he realized (though it had been all along), in which a coat could be hung up and never retrieved; in which people can leave and not come back, and the unthinkable was not impossible. This, in my view, is the loss of innocence, from which many never recover.

Read these words, and really let them sink in. Whether you believe in a morally ordered universe divinely governed, or prefer instead the great purposeless chaos of a cosmic car crash, you matter to someone. Without you, nothing will change- the world will keep on spinning, and the price of tea in China will still fluctuate-but everything will change as well. Everything you could have said, or been, or did, or meant to those around you, would be gone. And that would be tragic.

Fans of "House, M.D." will recall the curmudgeonly doctor's observation that "almost dying changes nothing, but dying changes everything." I almost died of cancer a couple of years ago- allow me to recommend against it if you're given the option- and I can therefore confirm this sentiment. I liked, and continue to like, gummy bears, video games, and making snide remarks, both before and after remission. What has changed, however, is that sense of infinite possibility, the waxy wings with which so many young people fly too close to the sun. The world will get on without me, as it happens, as deflating as that realization was, but without my unique contribution, or yours, which no one can make in our stead, the world will not be what it could be.

Find what you're good at, O reader. Find what brings you joy, and then find out where they meet. Use those gifts to help people, to alleviate their suffering, and to empower them to use their own gifts. Be, in military terms, a force multiplier. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." You can’t relive the past, but here’s what we CAN do: "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." People will notice. Because you matter to someone.

Church Time

Columnist Peter Hitchens once remarked that the King James Version of the Bible was written "to be remembered, to lodge in the mind and to disturb the temporal with the haunting sound of the eternal." (Full article here) I share his sentiment about the beautiful, ancient language of that translation, and would add something else to the list: the liturgical calendar.

I first encountered the liturgical calendar at the top of the program I was given as I entered Ebeneezer Lutheran Church on Walker Ave. in Greensboro as a college student. I read that the day I had come was a "Sunday of Epiphany". I had no idea what that meant. Shortly afterward, as soon as I had gotten used to the flow and melodies of a Lutheran service, the music abruptly changed one Sunday as we entered into Lent. Believing I had things down, I sang out confidently the wrong melody and drew some embarrassing attention to myself. 

The idea is that, at different time of the year, Christians focus their energies and attention on different aspects of their spiritual lives. The time we presently find ourselves in is the season of Advent.

Advent is comprised of the four weeks before Christmas. It's a season of expectant waiting. But waiting for what?

Before Christ was born, people who believed in God and trusted Him to fulfill His promises knew that He was sending someone to redeem them from their sins and set things right. Jewish tradition called this person the "Messiah", or anointed one (for an interesting list of predictions concerning the Messiah and their fulfillment, check this out).

I've never really attached any significance to dates. Aside from the avaricious hunger for stuff that I experienced as a kid waiting for Christmas, I don't ever remember eagerly anticipating or reveling in a day simply due to it's occurrence on a calendar. This can be good, for instance, when I don't experience a breakdown on the anniversary of a tragedy, but also dangerous, causing me to be extra diligent to remember my girlfriend's birthday or our anniversary. 

But the liturgical calendar calls me to attend to the realities that shape my existence. Advent is a reminder that a lot of my life is built upon waiting for the things I've been promised. Some passages from Hebrews 10 come to mind:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds... -Heb 10:23-24

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, "In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay." Heb. 10:36-37

The life we're called to live is difficult. If the Bible is right, and we're not made to live in this world, then we're called to live somewhere we don't belong, and that's a hard thing. But it won't always be that way. Advent reminds us that waiting is part of life, and also affirms that it's not forever. We will receive that which we patiently seek- for every Advent, there is Christmas. 

"We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!"

-1 Corinthians 13:12The Message (MSG)

Some Reflections on Friendship

I've been blessed with many friends in my life, and during this season of reflecting on the gifts I've been given, I want to talk about the gift of friendship. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who got the human race started on pretty much everything, somehow found time in his busy schedule to write a treatise on the institution. In it, he describes two tiers of friendship. The first is defined by a series of mutual goals, desires, or interests. A shared love of golf, sports, or music creates pleasure for the interested parties, and a friendship begins. Writer C.S. Lewis opines that "the typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one." 

Aristotle believed that there was another level of friendship, as well. While the first one rose and fell along with the interests and goals, and fell away when the mutual desires were met or discarded, the second was characterized by a deep and abiding regard for the well being of the other. This higher friendship wants what is best for the other for their own sake. He also believed that it took a certain kind of person to be capable of this higher form. He called such a person a καλὸς κἀγαθός (kalos kagathos), which means, roughly, "man of wisdom and virtue". 

His point was that it takes someone who is capable of selfless love to love selflessly. But while he believed that such love was off limits to everyone except the very best, I believe that all of mankind is stamped with the image of God, and can, as such, speak the language of love. Anyone who's spent any time with a mother of a newborn can apprehend this. 

I believe that friendship is a gift we're given. Here's Lewis again:

“In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”  

Let me encourage you to look at the friendships in your own life, and thank God for the people He's brought alongside you.