My facebook feed is an interesting indicator of what's on people's minds. i don't contribute much. i rarely update my "status", and it doesn't often reflect what i'm thinking --- more likely it boasts about where i'm eating. But i have become a student of what my "friends" think...and what their friends think as i read the thread of "comments". And it often causes me to think about what i think.
Over the past week, as the red equal sign popped up in the Human Rights Campaign effort to "paint the town red" in support of gay marriage, i have been thinking about what i think. i have thoughts that are intensely personal, based on my own experience and history. i have thoughts that some people would qualify as narrow, discriminatory...unAmerican.
Which is worrisome to me.
But as i've thought about this potentially volatile, certainly divisive issue, i keep going back to Scripture. It's my sure foundation. My anchor. While there are many things that i am unsure of, this is something that i know: the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, 'the only infallible rule of faith and practice,' and the Bible alone is sufficient to inform my thinking. About anything.
And so i read and re-read Genesis 1-3.
The account of creation in Genesis 1 reverberates with this phrase: it was good. In fact, the chapter closes with the superlative: it was very good. In Genesis 2 Moses goes back and adds detail to the account of God's creation of humanity, the climax of creation. These verses offer an interesting and important glimpse into the heart and mind of the Creator as He formed man from the dust of the ground and placed him into a perfect garden home. The text is rich with so many significant features, but i want to pause in the middle of the chapter.
Verse 18 of chapter two indicates that God's plan is not yet finished. "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone." Hmmmm....
So God sends the animals. One by one God "brought them to the man" and Adam had the privilege of naming each one. This scene has become so familiar that i think we miss the wonder of the moment. Can you imagine what Adam was thinking as each creature, from the spider to the giraffe paraded past him? It makes me smile.
But something is missing. You have to wonder if Adam is not looking at each of these creatures and noticing that there are more than one. Every creature is part of a "pack", or a "school" or a "colony", or a "gaggle". (Seriously. That's many geese in one group. It's a gaggle.) Many lions. Many mooose. Many ants.
One Adam.
It's not like he didn't notice. Verse 20: "But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him." Sad.
Unfinished business. Something is missing, and God intended for Adam to notice.
What happens next is profound as i ponder the red equal sign.
God put the man to sleep.
Took out his rib.
Closed up the wound.
"And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man..."
And the rest is, literally, history.
It was not good for man to be alone....
Equality not withstanding,
God's answer to Adam's "aloneness" was not another man.
What Adam needed was Eve. A woman.
i'm so struck by that this week. It's a nuance that is easily dismissed, but it's one that is of paramount importance to my thinking today. When Adam was alone, God gave him Eve. i know it's not popular, but this sure foundation is clear for me. As i submit my thinking to this text and to Scripture in its entirety, this is the framework for my understanding of the issue of marriage.
When Adam was alone and it was not good, God gave him Eve.
He did not offer Adam a choice.
And Adam, when he recovered from his deep sleep, was ecstatic.
i'm sure it's probably over-simplified.
And i'm afraid it is narrow.
And maybe un-American. i hope not.
But with Scripture alone as my rule of faith and practice, it's what i know to be true. One man. One woman. And it was very good.
i know. i'm repeating myself. It just seems really important.
What's my status?
Grateful for the Gospel.
We don't live in the garden anymore.
Sigh.
p.s. this "it was not good for man to be alone" theology has ramifications that weave their way through layers of my life. It is enough to form the framework for a book that i'm toying with. This content, therefore, is "proprietary" to that work... just FYI
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Well-placed words
We've been studying Proverbs. Today, i taught a difficult lesson about sexual sin and marriage. The first seven chapters of the book of Proverbs reverberate with this message from father to son: stay away from the immoral woman. As a woman, it's tempting to dismiss that text with a sigh of relief. Phew. That has nothing to do with me.
Not true. Sadly.
Not that i'm admitting to such immorality in my own private life. Let's not start any rumors.
But the truth of the matter is that there is a feminine side of that warning. If Solomon harped on Rehoboam about steering clear of certain kinds of women, it seems that there is a message to the sisters to be warned about becoming that kind of woman. Now there's a message that'll make a girl popular!
And, on another note, there is merit to asking ourselves: who is she? What motivates her and how did she become a woman described as "forbidden", an adultress, a seductress? Surely no one sets out with such aspirations of low living....
It won't be popular, but there is so much important stuff here that it seemed "blog worthy". So here goes.
Solomon repeatedly remarks on the speech of the woman Rehoboam was to avoid.
2.16 and 7.5 speak of her smooth words.
5.3 warns of her words that drip honey.
6.24 describes her as having a smooth tongue.
7.14-20, 21 provides graphic illustration of her seductive speech and smooth talk that is almost embarrassing to read out loud.
It is interesting that the King warns his son more about what this woman says than about what she does. It makes you think that Solomon knew the power of a well-placed, well-seasoned word. Hers were full of flattery and seduction. She knew how to appeal to his desire and his need...and she played to those weaknesses.
Well-placed words with grave and disastrous potential for destruction.
Why? What might have been her motivation? We'll come back to this in another conversation, but it is enough to consider that this young man came along "ripe-for-the-picking" (my Grandmother's saying) to satisfy her desires.
She had her own craving.
Her own need.
And she would use him to fill the void in her own life.
He became the object of her obssession to meet her need.
Sound familiar? Maybe not to such an extreme and perhaps in a less public, more respectable way...
but i do this.
i see people as a means to meet my own need...
and i do what i must to draw them in.
i have done it with my children.
i have done it with my siblings.
and my husband.
and my co-workers.
and my friends.
i am the adulterous woman.
My agenda is my own pleasure.
My own passion.
My own comfort.
i have more to say, but that's all i can take today.
i am clinging to this verse from John 7. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven."
Not true. Sadly.
Not that i'm admitting to such immorality in my own private life. Let's not start any rumors.
But the truth of the matter is that there is a feminine side of that warning. If Solomon harped on Rehoboam about steering clear of certain kinds of women, it seems that there is a message to the sisters to be warned about becoming that kind of woman. Now there's a message that'll make a girl popular!
And, on another note, there is merit to asking ourselves: who is she? What motivates her and how did she become a woman described as "forbidden", an adultress, a seductress? Surely no one sets out with such aspirations of low living....
It won't be popular, but there is so much important stuff here that it seemed "blog worthy". So here goes.
Solomon repeatedly remarks on the speech of the woman Rehoboam was to avoid.
2.16 and 7.5 speak of her smooth words.
5.3 warns of her words that drip honey.
6.24 describes her as having a smooth tongue.
7.14-20, 21 provides graphic illustration of her seductive speech and smooth talk that is almost embarrassing to read out loud.
It is interesting that the King warns his son more about what this woman says than about what she does. It makes you think that Solomon knew the power of a well-placed, well-seasoned word. Hers were full of flattery and seduction. She knew how to appeal to his desire and his need...and she played to those weaknesses.
Well-placed words with grave and disastrous potential for destruction.
Why? What might have been her motivation? We'll come back to this in another conversation, but it is enough to consider that this young man came along "ripe-for-the-picking" (my Grandmother's saying) to satisfy her desires.
She had her own craving.
Her own need.
And she would use him to fill the void in her own life.
He became the object of her obssession to meet her need.
Sound familiar? Maybe not to such an extreme and perhaps in a less public, more respectable way...
but i do this.
i see people as a means to meet my own need...
and i do what i must to draw them in.
i have done it with my children.
i have done it with my siblings.
and my husband.
and my co-workers.
and my friends.
i am the adulterous woman.
My agenda is my own pleasure.
My own passion.
My own comfort.
i have more to say, but that's all i can take today.
i am clinging to this verse from John 7. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven."
Sunday, March 3, 2013
What happens when you are awake at 3 a.m.
i have had this phrase in my mind for two days: "Worship is more than a song". It's the refrain of Jimmy Needham's "Clear the Stage", a song primarily about repentance and the constant battle against idolatry. i am awake at 3 a.m. with the lyric repeating like a skip on an old vinyl album. And i've thought enough about it that i've stumbled on a more subtle, perhaps less purposed truth: worship is more than a song.
i know. it's profound.
Sarcasm aside, i am thinking that this is one of those seriously important truths that has eluded a generation of Christ-followers. Worship is more than a song.
Think about how we define "worship" in our spiritual vocabulary. If i were to poll ten people, i suspect i would get ten versions of: "It's what we do when we go to church". At least to a degree, that seems reasonable. i mean, in just a few hours (yawn), Chas and i will go to worship. i've used that language for years. Which is fine. Scripture uses it this way, too.
As an example, repeatedly in the Exodus story, God (through Moses) appeals to Pharaoh to "Let my people go so that they may worship me". It seems He was making a way for the Israelites to worship Him specifically in a designated place (3:12, 7:16) --- which was not possible in Egypt.
But my wee-hours-of-the-morning mind wonders if God wanted more for His people than a locale for a special service. Could it be that God's demand from Pharaoh was about giving His people space to live as the people of God? Perhaps His desire "that they may worship me" was not just the provision of a service ("worship service"), but of a way of life.
Worship is more than a song.
i know this is not new news. Paul's words from Romans 12 are at least familiar to almost every Christian: we are to "offer our bodies as a living sacrifice...a spiritual act of worship". i have heard many sermons and have taught this truth myself. Worship is a way of life.
But i'm not sure we've gotten it. Our theology may be solid, but our practical theology --- the way we actually live --- is woefully disconnected. i think we still think worship is a song. A service. A sermon.
Honestly, language fails me here. i am not sure i can articulate the weight of what i am thinking, but i am overwhelmed by the reality of what worship really is.
Worship is choosing Christ above all else.
Worship is the sacrifice of my own desire. Always.
Worship is the setting aside of my own agenda. Always.
Worship is thinking of others more than i think of myself.
Worship is making a difficult choice that pleases God...even if it's costly.
Worship is risking the disappointment of people rather than disobeying God.
Worship is not making too much of myself.
Worship is having hard conversations for the benefit of the hearer.
Worship is honoring authority.
Worship is giving my money away.
Worship is not watching trash tv.
Worship is asking for forgiveness.
Worship ought to be like breathing. It is the thinking about God, pursuing the heart of God, leaning into the will of God all the time.
Worship is more than a song.
Now that i think about it, i'm fairly certain that this is exactly what Needham meant. It's not really subtle at all...i'm just slow. His call to "clear the stage" is an impassioned plea for me to beg the Lord to reveal the stuff that gets in the way of all of the above. i will not be a worshipper --- in the fullest sense of the word --- until i ask God to "crush the idols".
Comfort.
Desire.
Respect.
Affection.
Ease.
Stuff.
"Peace."
Clear the stage. Worship is more than a song.
This is what happens when you are awake at 3 a.m. Sigh.
p.s. if i was at all tech savvy, i would attach a link to Jimmy Needham's "Clear the Stage". i'm not. But you should listen. Be prepared to be undone. It's stunning.
i know. it's profound.
Sarcasm aside, i am thinking that this is one of those seriously important truths that has eluded a generation of Christ-followers. Worship is more than a song.
Think about how we define "worship" in our spiritual vocabulary. If i were to poll ten people, i suspect i would get ten versions of: "It's what we do when we go to church". At least to a degree, that seems reasonable. i mean, in just a few hours (yawn), Chas and i will go to worship. i've used that language for years. Which is fine. Scripture uses it this way, too.
As an example, repeatedly in the Exodus story, God (through Moses) appeals to Pharaoh to "Let my people go so that they may worship me". It seems He was making a way for the Israelites to worship Him specifically in a designated place (3:12, 7:16) --- which was not possible in Egypt.
But my wee-hours-of-the-morning mind wonders if God wanted more for His people than a locale for a special service. Could it be that God's demand from Pharaoh was about giving His people space to live as the people of God? Perhaps His desire "that they may worship me" was not just the provision of a service ("worship service"), but of a way of life.
Worship is more than a song.
i know this is not new news. Paul's words from Romans 12 are at least familiar to almost every Christian: we are to "offer our bodies as a living sacrifice...a spiritual act of worship". i have heard many sermons and have taught this truth myself. Worship is a way of life.
But i'm not sure we've gotten it. Our theology may be solid, but our practical theology --- the way we actually live --- is woefully disconnected. i think we still think worship is a song. A service. A sermon.
Honestly, language fails me here. i am not sure i can articulate the weight of what i am thinking, but i am overwhelmed by the reality of what worship really is.
Worship is choosing Christ above all else.
Worship is the sacrifice of my own desire. Always.
Worship is the setting aside of my own agenda. Always.
Worship is thinking of others more than i think of myself.
Worship is making a difficult choice that pleases God...even if it's costly.
Worship is risking the disappointment of people rather than disobeying God.
Worship is not making too much of myself.
Worship is having hard conversations for the benefit of the hearer.
Worship is honoring authority.
Worship is giving my money away.
Worship is not watching trash tv.
Worship is asking for forgiveness.
Worship ought to be like breathing. It is the thinking about God, pursuing the heart of God, leaning into the will of God all the time.
Worship is more than a song.
Now that i think about it, i'm fairly certain that this is exactly what Needham meant. It's not really subtle at all...i'm just slow. His call to "clear the stage" is an impassioned plea for me to beg the Lord to reveal the stuff that gets in the way of all of the above. i will not be a worshipper --- in the fullest sense of the word --- until i ask God to "crush the idols".
Comfort.
Desire.
Respect.
Affection.
Ease.
Stuff.
"Peace."
Clear the stage. Worship is more than a song.
This is what happens when you are awake at 3 a.m. Sigh.
p.s. if i was at all tech savvy, i would attach a link to Jimmy Needham's "Clear the Stage". i'm not. But you should listen. Be prepared to be undone. It's stunning.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Hanging mammals and cupcakes
So i taught Bible study last week. The text was Proverbs 26, and the main character was the sluggard. The KJV calls the "sluggard" the "sloth", or "slothful man". Have you seen a sloth lately? Wow. Did Solomon hit the nail on the head with the poetic imagery here. The definition for sloth goes something like this: aversion to work or exertion; laziness; indolence.
So i talked about slothful relationships. Slothful personal habits. A slothful walk with God.
Then i ate two cupcakes. And hit my snooze button two times the next morning, effectively avoiding both my run and my time with the Lord. Impressive.
i am realizing that "comfort" is my idol. The comfort of my warm bed. The comfort of a peppermint mocha with whipped cream. The comfort of easy friendship. The comfort of familiar worship.
It seems the sloth and i are not so different. Ugh.
i do not like to get up early. So i sleep in.
i do not like to have hard conversatons. So i "fake peace" (to quote Tara Barthel)
i do not like to miss out on a tasty treat. So i have a cupcake. Or two.
i do not like to take awkward initiative. So i turn down an aisle in the store rather than meet you face-to-face.
i do not like to talk on the phone. So i procrastinate on returning calls.
i do not like to pray day after day for the very same thing. So i don't.
i do not like to dig deep and think. So i read what someone else has said.
Ridiculous, i know.
The sloth moves slowly, and only when necessary.
He will often die rather than search for a new food source.
He sleeps 12-15 hours a day and spends 90% of his life hanging upside down.
The parallels are painful.
i have spent years perfecting the art of "avoiding hardship" so that no one knows i'm doing it. Most people who know me have no idea that i am a sloth. But this is the hidden motive of my heart: aversion to work or exertion. In other words? Ease. And it's enemy? "Hard". i hate hard.
In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, on the date July 7, Oswald Chambers has said: “If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome.”
i'm ashamed to admit how often i "faint and cave". Which, i guess, calls my nobility into question. No surprise there.
As i think about the week ahead, the desire of my heart before the Lord is that i would "rouse up" more consistently. That i would resist the temptation to hang upside down, asleep and unmoving, However comfortable that may seem, i know that its end result is a bad perspective (upside down, get it?), a worthless life, and algae growing in my hair (that really happens to the sloth).
Scripture repeatedly calls us to hard things, and to work. The idea that we would be working people was woven into our DNA at the time of creation (Genesis 2). God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, works (Genesis 1). Jesus worked in the name of His Father, and on our behalf (John 4, 17)... when He broke into a sweat in the garden, it was not the salty sweat of physical labor but the bloody sweat of emotional and spiritual exertion that would eventually cost Him his life (Luke 22). The Apostle Paul spoke most strongly about work throughout his ministry, the harshest indictment found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 "If anyone is not willing to work, let Him not eat."
Clearly, ease is not an option offered the Christ-follower. i know this in my mind. My slothful will must be diligently disciplined. Sigh.
All that said, if you see me this week, check for algae. My hairdresser will thank you. And if i happen to have a cupcake in hand, tackle me and retrieve it. Nothing says "faint and cave" like a fresh cupcake with lots of icing.
So i talked about slothful relationships. Slothful personal habits. A slothful walk with God.Then i ate two cupcakes. And hit my snooze button two times the next morning, effectively avoiding both my run and my time with the Lord. Impressive.
i am realizing that "comfort" is my idol. The comfort of my warm bed. The comfort of a peppermint mocha with whipped cream. The comfort of easy friendship. The comfort of familiar worship.
It seems the sloth and i are not so different. Ugh.
i do not like to get up early. So i sleep in.
i do not like to have hard conversatons. So i "fake peace" (to quote Tara Barthel)
i do not like to miss out on a tasty treat. So i have a cupcake. Or two.
i do not like to take awkward initiative. So i turn down an aisle in the store rather than meet you face-to-face.
i do not like to talk on the phone. So i procrastinate on returning calls.
i do not like to pray day after day for the very same thing. So i don't.
i do not like to dig deep and think. So i read what someone else has said.
Ridiculous, i know.
The sloth moves slowly, and only when necessary.
He will often die rather than search for a new food source.
He sleeps 12-15 hours a day and spends 90% of his life hanging upside down.
The parallels are painful.
i have spent years perfecting the art of "avoiding hardship" so that no one knows i'm doing it. Most people who know me have no idea that i am a sloth. But this is the hidden motive of my heart: aversion to work or exertion. In other words? Ease. And it's enemy? "Hard". i hate hard.
In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest, on the date July 7, Oswald Chambers has said: “If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome.”
i'm ashamed to admit how often i "faint and cave". Which, i guess, calls my nobility into question. No surprise there.
As i think about the week ahead, the desire of my heart before the Lord is that i would "rouse up" more consistently. That i would resist the temptation to hang upside down, asleep and unmoving, However comfortable that may seem, i know that its end result is a bad perspective (upside down, get it?), a worthless life, and algae growing in my hair (that really happens to the sloth).
Scripture repeatedly calls us to hard things, and to work. The idea that we would be working people was woven into our DNA at the time of creation (Genesis 2). God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, works (Genesis 1). Jesus worked in the name of His Father, and on our behalf (John 4, 17)... when He broke into a sweat in the garden, it was not the salty sweat of physical labor but the bloody sweat of emotional and spiritual exertion that would eventually cost Him his life (Luke 22). The Apostle Paul spoke most strongly about work throughout his ministry, the harshest indictment found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 "If anyone is not willing to work, let Him not eat."
Clearly, ease is not an option offered the Christ-follower. i know this in my mind. My slothful will must be diligently disciplined. Sigh.
All that said, if you see me this week, check for algae. My hairdresser will thank you. And if i happen to have a cupcake in hand, tackle me and retrieve it. Nothing says "faint and cave" like a fresh cupcake with lots of icing.
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