Forgive the Last Post

I went back and read my most previous post. Ughh. I think I had good intentions but, bah, what a stretch to fit in Psalm 11 to that concept. Sometimes I'm not up to it...writing, that is.

But isn't that what this is all about? It typifies life. Some days go better than others...ups and downs. Yet if we keep moving progress is made.

Last summer I went on a spiritual trek with about 20 other people. I learned so much and gained so much. I also discovered an illustration that goes along with what I'm saying. As we climbed and trudged along seeking out high camp the terrain went up and down. However, through those miniature valleys and hills we consistently pressed to higher elevation. That's the Christian's journey. We suffer in the valleys and relish the high points but we keep moving up.

Ok, to sum it up, my previous post was a valley I hope to climb out of sooner than later.

Feeling Naked | Psalm 11

The news came in between the Bible classes and worship hour yesterday. She had already told my wife the news, but she had to stop and tell me…

One of my Christian sisters, who has the misfortune of being the alphabetical first on my mobile phone’s list of numbers, smiled and said, “You called me yesterday morning,” I gulped with an aching feeling of what was about to hit me. “Yeah, I got to listen to you sing in your truck for about five minutes,” she said this time laughing. Red-faced, I played it off like the coolest thing to ever happen to me. Inside I felt naked.

I felt invaded. No privacy, no time to rock-out with just me and The Beatles. Now I don’t blame her, the poor unfortunate soul. I admit, the whole thing is rather funny, but I couldn’t suppress those nagging feelings of having been exposed—no mask, no social inhibition.

But I got to thinking. Is it a bad thing to let my church family see the real me—the one exposed and unhidden? God sees. “His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men.” Shouldn’t one of my hopes be to see others and be seen by others as God sees?

The thought of being nude brings shame and fright to many because of what it signifies and makes known. Think nightmares of going to school in your underwear. It signifies undeniable vulnerability. It reveals and exposes those things we can easily cover up. It discloses the blemishes and the imperfections common to everyone though everyone doesn’t need to see. It puts us in a spot we don’t want to occupy—reality about who we are.

What I’m about to write shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement for a naturalist lifestyle. However, in a social, psychological and emotional sense disrobing ourselves could begin a revolution of spiritual healing and renewal that pulls God’s people closer together. Hopefully, instead of scaring off that brother and sister (she shared the saved voicemail with her husband), I exposed a cover-up and opened a new channel for relationship.

Who knows? Maybe I did scare them away, but it’s a start.

Show up | Psalm 9

Have you ever prayed silently that God would just show up all to see and never doubt? Ever asked, “Why can’t God just leave no mistake about his justice and presence in a world gone wild?” Where is he at? David asked this question too.

He, in hair-pulling frustration, wanted to know why God didn’t show up and wrap up all the problems and injustice taking place on a daily basis. David highlights the denial of those who engage such wickedness. They have removed God from their minds. They’ve talked themselves into believing he’s won’t find out—“God who?” they feign. “God is in none of his thoughts” bemoans David.

So why not show up and set them straight?

We could look at the person who lives in the shadows of reality and scoff at his foolishness for not recognizing. We could chide him for refusing to see what we plainly see. Or we could take away a valuable lesson from David’s insight into the human condition. Let’s do that.

Keep God on your mind. Do not push him aside or let him slip away. If we can see where people go when they don’t believe God is there then we should invite the discipline of bringing him into our thoughts constantly. As David will say in a later Psalm, “I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure” (Psalm 16:8).

God may not show up on a grand-scale and in the manner we sometimes wish he would, but he can show up in our thoughts and lives whenever we focus on him.

But Men | Psalm 9

“Glory has its Price” reads the title of an article about the ’81 49ers. They’re the team that brought glory to San Fran with “The Catch” during the NFC Championship game—Joe Montana to Dwight Clark. Now they’re a group of guys who can barely walk. Crooked backs, shattered knees, stiff necks and immobile shoulders about sums up the bodies of these once inhuman athletes. Reality creeps in as 4.4 forties have slowed to rickety walks. It hurts just to read of their pains.

What could cause such turn around? Well, naturally the body wears down. However, the process speeds up when the body endures monstrous, bone-crushing hits day after day—consider Lawrence Taylor and Joe Theismann (Video). But another reason, a more fundamental explanation, can answer the question. As big and physically superior as NFL football players can be, as fast and super-human as they might seem, they are but men.

And taking a look back through history, humans have forgotten that bit of truth over and over. When David languishes over the enemies of God in Psalm 9, he declares that those who rise up against God’s ways will parish and fail. God will set things right.

David exposes the heart of those rebels. He understands why mere mortals would dare challenge the righteousness of God and forsake his ways in the face of his justice, mercy and marvelous works. They forgot a simple, yet imperative, facet of reality. David responds “Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”

Appropriately, Anne Lamott said, “The biggest difference between you and God is that God doesn’t think he’s you.”

The Great Omission

I’m reading a book by Dallas Willard titled The Great Omission. His concepts and depth have already gripped me. He writes to dismantle the common misconception that discipleship is an elite level of Christianity. He uses the biblical account to show that you cannot be Christian and not a disciple. Jesus is about more than just forgiving your sins—he wants to change your life! Only completely following him as a learner, an apprentice will bring life-change about.

This book may change the way I teach and bring people to Jesus. It has already altered my course of thought about God’s expectations. It has opened my eyes to some of the deeper troubles haunting God’s people today, namely outright disobedience.

If you’re a reader and desire a deeper relationship with God, read The Great Omission.

Sleet

Ok, so Marshall, TX has fortunately missed the winter weather that so many around us have received. Not today!

I like it to be honest. It forces you inside, you get to build a fire and life stops for a little bit.

The world keeps going though. Even if I take a break. Even if church activities and business come to a hault for a day or so. Yes...time moves on and life happens.

It's probably good that we all get reminded once in awhile that life continues without us.

Can't Figure Him Out

The Psalmist of Psalm 8 gushes at the glory and excellence of God. He’s blown away by a God he can’t figure out. What? How? These questions continuously swirl around heaven’s God. Man will never capture a full conception of God.

The mystery magnifies his greatness. I mean, who wants a God who can be figured out? Who wants a God who can be demoted to syllogisms and arguments—a God on paper? The God of heaven baffles the mind and leaves the seeker seeking. He drops jaws and defies figures. He is there but he is here.

The God that cannot be fully comprehended and explained hasn’t left it all to obscurity. His love for man resists questioning. He left no doubt. God’s love for humanity is as great as the quest to understand him.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!

Nurture them

“To help grow or develop” is one definition of the word nurture. A person could argue that this word captures the idea behind Paul’s words in Ephesians 6. “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

Merged with all the other principles God gives for raising kids, parents must do some teaching and instructing. Yet, out of fear of indoctrination many parents have left their children to their own way. But Paul curtails the chance of indoctrination by prefacing his instructions for parents to instruct by telling fathers to watch how they teach their children. Don’t force and pressure. Do it out of love. Don’t push. Lift.

The scare of indoctrination is real. When speaking of indoctrination, it is meant that someone is forced or coerced, brainwashed if you will, to believe a certain thing. Nonetheless, it has nothing to do with what is taught. It has to do with how it’s taught. Parents have scared, belittled and manipulated their children into certain teachings. Paul encourages Christians to avoid such tactics.

Nurture better describes the approach Christian families should embrace when teaching God’s truth.

God Knows | Psalm 7

At times it’s just you and God. You venture out not knowing what will happen. You have critics (enemies) attempting to thwart your pursuit of God’s righteousness. You have “friends” who won’t get your back on this one. It’s just you and God.

David was overcome with these feelings of rejection and loneliness at times. How did he handle them? How did he face hostility alone?

Read Psalm 7. He developed an outlook on life that requires the deepest trust and faith in God. He knew God would make it right no matter what. Can you trust God in those times? Could you move forward against all odds? Against criticism and cynicism? Against resistance? And, would you do this knowing God may never bring the truth to light in your lifetime? Could you press on understanding that even so, as long as he knows, it’s ok?

Discipline Them

Dad: Son, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.
Son: (Thinking to himself) Does he really think that? He’s never felt the blow of his paddle. Yeah right!

Have you been there before? I have. I’ve experienced both sides of that exchange and it’s looking doubtful that my father-side experiences will ever catch up to my child-side experiences. Looking back, though, makes me thankful my dad truly believed that phrase.

Parents don’t want to bring the pain of discipline to their children but it is a necessary part of raising them. Discipline proves a parents love; it doesn’t negate it. God told his people that they could confirm his love and acceptance of them through his discipline of them (Hebrews 12:5-6). Throughout history, God administered consequences to people who had chosen to ruin themselves by leaving his way. Why? He loved them and couldn’t bear their ruin.

As parents, we must understand the heart from which discipline emerges. It’s a heart of love, compassion and concern. Loving our kids involves wanting the best for them. And sometimes that means we have to enforce what is best when they don’t see it. At other times parents must love their children by making them face the consequence of harmful activity. We restrain. We spank. We remove privileges. But we love them the whole way.

Most parents understand this concept. The difficult part for me is my doubt that my children understand it. And that brings me back to the conversation we read at the beginning. We must continue to reinforce to our children that we discipline because we love. We don’t like it, but we like them more.

So a few suggestions to make our discipline a discipline of love: Try not to discipline in rage. Don’t punish out of embarrassment (that’s about the parent and not the kid). Avoid humiliating them. Explain the reason for the punishment. And one I’m working on—keep from yelling at them, stay calm. Discipline yourself—if you fail at discipline then be honest with your kids about it (e.g., Honey, I’m sorry I yelled at you like that.)

Is this easy? Well, no. But love isn’t easy. Let’s work on this together and examine ourselves. Let’s find one thing we can work on and start this week. You may find that, like me, you raise your voice too much—let’s work on it. Our children deserve the discipline that isn’t easy.

Accept them

Parents have dreams for their kids. They envision athletic achievement, scholastic success, fame, money or whatever else grand they may want to place on the list. Sometimes parents have their child's life completely mapped out.

In the past few years there has been a barrage of reality shows exposing overzealous parents pushing and pressuring their children toward greatness. However, the parents usually blind themselves to the resistance coming from the kids. It too often seems that these children suffer from their parent's desire to make them something they’re not. Sadly, the kids trudge along knowing that the life their parents have created is the only acceptable one. The message ultimately comes through that who the kid is just isn’t good enough. And as you can probably imagine, growing up receiving this message can prompt an onslaught of psychological damage and feelings of worthlessness.

Loving parents accept their child period—no conditions, no requirements, no tryouts, etc. So what if a boy doesn’t have the athletic skills his father enjoyed. He’s not any less worthy of the father’s love and affection than if he had exceeded his father’s talent.

Parents who exert countless hours molding their children in their own image have failed to see the child’s true image and worth in God. But by seeing below the surface and accepting this truth parents can accept their children, creating an atmosphere where their relationship can flourish.

Cry | Psalm 6

I bought into something that may ruin me (if it hasn’t already). For the longest time, I have lived the philosophy that men don’t cry. To shed tears expresses weakness. I’m wrong and I know it. But when it comes time to live the truth that rebukes me I fight. I don’t cry.

Shame on me… My relationship with God has suffered because I’ve yet to tap that moment when life hurts so bad that I feel my own inabilities and express them through tears that only God can dry. David’s words stung me hard. “I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.” He reached a point of transparency with God I have yet to find.

Tears don’t expose weakness. They bring hope and healing. Tears shower the soul in a refreshing stream of renewal and regeneration. They help wipe away the smudges from the windows of our eyes that have blurred our outlook on life.

I can write these things. They’re true. But can I embody them? I pray that before my soul hardens and I lose the hope of discovering the heart of David that I can live my words. Cry—the dirt is building up.