Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Doorbuster

Hey, Cobblestone,


    Some years back, I moaned over the trend of more stores being open on Thanksgiving Day. My sister-in-law, Chris, had to work a full day at Wal-Mart that Thanksgiving. Had the Black Friday competition become so fierce that retailers wouldn’t risk people spending their money
somewhere else on Thursday? Well… yeah, it had. Most other workers got Thursday off – if
there wasn’t something more useful planned than going to Wal-Mart, why wouldn’t they? And
why wouldn’t retailers try to cash in on the lack of a better plan? On the strength of those two
rhetorical questions, the trend got its start.


    Continuing in our “Three R’s” series, it’s time to redeem thankfulness. Step One is to be grateful for what’s already underway. The trend is turning: some of the retailers who’ve made a big deal about being open on Thanksgiving the past several years are now making a big deal about not. One big-box place says it’s a “pandemic measure” – but hey, whatever works, right? This is our break, our one-day shot at considering gratitude over consumption – trusting the Lord that, if we don’t bust down a door somewhere tomorrow morning, we really will be OK.
So, the next question, utterly non-rhetorical, is: What will you be doing tomorrow that’s more
useful than going to Wal-Mart?


    In our Bible reading plan a few days ago, Psalm 126 was on the menu. Number 126 is one in a group of psalms called the “Songs of Ascent.” Israelites would sing these on their way to
Jerusalem for the set times of worship and feasting – think “Over the River and Through the
Woods” on steroids. They would start with a spark of gratitude, put it to music, and let it build.
Check this out:

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
    we are glad.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126).

Laughter and joy… thanksgiving. There was weeping, then there was harvest… thanksgiving.
And I hope you didn’t miss it: it happened more than once. The singers tell of how God has
restored, then they implore the Lord to restore again, and have full confidence that the one
who has shown shall reap… over and over. It’s a cycle, guaranteeing a steady supply of chances to express gratitude. And if you’re a saved person, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, you have an eternal spark of gratitude – the Lord has done great things for you, indeed!

    “I will not fuss over what I can’t buy tomorrow. I will not fuss over what I can’t buy tomorrow.”
Say it to yourself as many times as necessary. And answer the question: What will I do
tomorrow that’s more useful than going to Wal-Mart?

    Hot Tip: Kay and I have discovered the drop-dead best time to go to Wal-Mart. If you’re into
avoiding the crowds and the discombobulated shelves, go during the Super Bowl. Yeah, while
the game is being played. The only trouble we have is finding an employee to take our money.
One year I thought about skipping it – handing over money for the merchandise, that is. I
figured it was the perfect time to load up a second cart and simply walk out. Thankfully,
according to his promise in 1Corinthians 10:13, the Lord did not allow me to be tempted
beyond what I could bear, and he provided a way of escape:

“Don’t do that.”

“Right, Lord, I hear you.”

    Chris won’t have to go to work tomorrow, and she’s glad (so am I). She does, however, have to be there at 4am on Black Friday, which is another flavor of insanity altogether. But, as Jesus
said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34, King James Version). We’ll let it
slide for a while, maybe a whole year. Meanwhile, whaddya say about redeeming thankfulness,
contentment, and gratitude?

What’s your plan?

Grace and Peace (and a mouth filled with laughter),

John

Friday, November 19, 2021

Reason to Believe

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Feelings are faster than reason. Let’s agree on this much right out of the gate. If you’re betting on a two-horse race in which one is named “Emotions Run High” and the other “Wait – Let Me Think,” go all-in on the first pony. If speed is the only consideration, feelings can’t be beat. But is speed the only consideration all the time? Well, we won’t know for sure unless we think it through. Welcome to reason. Pull up a chair; we’ll be here for the next several minutes.

     Our mission this week in the “Three R’s Series” is to begin redeeming reason. First, then, let’s put it to the standard test – Receive, Reject, or Redeem – but not in that order. You’ve seen my unwavering commitment to redemption, so there’s no use pretending I’m not going there again – it’s only a matter of a couple paragraphs. The other two can be treated as a package, equally wrong for opposite reasons, meaning this: Decisions made on reason alone, to the exclusion of feeling, are cold and heartless – feeling-less decisions are often made on the pretense of pursuing excellence. Conversely, decisions made on feelings alone, to the exclusion of reason, show a disdain for reality – reason-less decisions are often made on the pretense of being purer. In this present Age of Extremes, “total” is the guiding word. Pick your total and don’t budge. Budging is losing. Have you stopped lately to consider poor reason – how lonely it must be?

     God made us to be creatures who reason. If I were confined to one single word of Scripture to offer as proof, the one I would choose is from our Bible reading plan last week: Because (Psalm 116:1). We are creatures of because – something happened first, and other stuff has happened since; there’s a body of evidence, somewhere, and we are called to draw on it. Since I’m not actually confined to a single word, here are the first two full verses of Psalm 116:

I love the Lord, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

    Two because’s and a therefore – evidence and the response thereto. Why do I love the Lord? Because. Why will I call on him as long as I live? Because. Do I feel love for the Lord? Absolutely, except when I don’t. Do I feel his love for me? Absolutely, except when I don’t.

     The redemption of reason involves setting reason and feelings in proper relation. Before we lose track of the Three R’s paradigm, the redemption of reason does not involve vaulting reason to a place of totality; neither does it involve kicking feelings down the basement stairs. For reason to do what it’s built to do, feelings have to be understood for what they are: an invitation to begin reasoning, the starter’s pistol for the powers of deliberation. Reason asks, “Where is the body of evidence, and what does it consist of?” Feelings shout, “Go find it! And get a move on, will ya!” Feelings exist for a reason. Get it?

     If you had asked me thirty years ago which of the opposite errors pertaining to reason were being made more often, I would’ve chosen Receive – reason was being vaulted to a place of totality. In more recent times, I would say there’s been a change, though not a complete turnaround. Best I can tell, to the extent that it affects the acquisition of large amounts of power or money or influence over people, reason is cited as the single criterion in decision-making. Excellence, even the pretense of it, is hard to argue against. At the same time, at ground level, feelings – if for nothing other than their sheer speed – are being given a green light, often without thought. “I just feel like” is the sentence-starter most likely to shut down reason. If you asked me now which error is causing the most harm, I would say the second one, simply because most of life happens at ground level. Decisions made on feelings alone go bad in a big hurry. Is there, then, a way to set feelings and reason in proper relation?

     I try to make a habit of not arguing with CS Lewis, so maybe what I’m going to say next can be viewed as an extension of one of his thoughts – maybe what Lewis would’ve written if he had lived another week or two beyond my third birthday. In Mere Christianity, he describes a battle between faith and reason on one side, emotion and imagination on the other: “…unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off,’ you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.” True, that. But as God created us in his image, emotions were part of the package. They must have a proper use. What happens if feelings are plugged into their intended role?

     Back in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, I was quite the Indy 500 fan. For fifteen straight years I went to the Speedway (Capital S, mind you) for the first day of qualifying for the big race. During that period, I saw a changing of the guard: the superstars of the Sixties and Seventies were gradually being replaced by their juniors. “Gradually” was the weird part; with the huge amounts of energy and publicity (and money) being poured into the younger drivers, there should have been a total switchover in the space of two or three racing seasons. But the old guys – Johnny and AJ and Big Al and Gordie and Emmo – just kept putting cars on the grid for the big show… and winning. In a conversation between racing commentators, I heard a younger one express his puzzlement over the phenomenon. By way of explanation, an older commentator described how the older drivers had what he called “conditioned reflexes.” Sure, the youngsters had quicker reaction times, but having made the wrong move enough times to know how much it hurts, the old guys now tended to make the right move first. To investigate your feelings, rather than green-light them without further thought, is to work them into becoming those conditioned reflexes. CS Lewis would have said it much better, and not resorted to racing analogies. But I hope you get the idea.

     Nowhere in Scripture have I seen God telling us, his people, to abandon reason. Neither does the Holy Spirit guide us into a headlong, uninformed faith. Jesus tells us to consider (Matthew 6:27) the Father’s faithfulness in provision. And here’s one of my favorites, the startling invitation in Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD…”  We are reasoning creatures reasoning with our Creator – surely too grand an invitation to pass up!

     Feelings have their place. Reason has its place as well, in every conceivable scenario. To deny either of them its place is to be stuck in immaturity. In my reasoned estimation, reason is the one in greater need of redemption. The maturing believer will employ them both in an orchestrated approach to walking out the life of faith, to doing well and doing good, here in the land of the living.

 

 Grace and Peace (and great heaps of because’s),

 

John       


Thursday, November 11, 2021

Nature of Redemption

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Kay and I have been to Las Vegas exactly once. It was a short trip, a few days in early May of 2003, the payoff for grinding through a time-share presentation. We had some uneasiness about the city – they say anyone who visits there should have return flights purchased before leaving home. Still, we couldn’t let the rumors go without investigation, so we put together a plan that included forays into the bright lights and clanging bells that give rise to the rumors.

     Access to gambling was everywhere, of course – even the fast-food joints and gas stations had slot machines. And we weren’t surprised by the drive-through wedding chapels, although the one with two lanes did stretch our understanding a bit. The replicas of worldwide landmarks are well publicized in the brochures, so we weren’t startled by walking from New York to Paris to Egypt in a matter of minutes. No, what rattled us was a collection of storefronts around the corner and less than a block off the famous Las Vegas Strip. Six businesses occupied separate but conjoined spaces, each the size of, say, Dunkin’ Donuts here in Oxford – and every one of them was a pawn shop.

     How could that business plan work? Surely there couldn’t be enough clients to keep six pawn shops going, so tightly clustered as they were. To the uninitiated, here’s a thumbnail version of how a pawn shop works. Somebody who needs cash fast takes an item of value to the broker, who assesses the item and advances a loan for that amount to the pawner… plus interest, of course. If the item is redeemed by the pawner within a certain amount of time, the transaction is over, and only the interest has changed hands. As you might imagine, the interest isn’t where the big money is for the broker – unredeemed items are sold to somebody else.

     In Las Vegas, the idea is for the pawner – let’s call him Jack – to parlay his newly acquired magic beans into a beanstalk by which he raids the giant’s castle. Alas, in Vegas, the fairy tales favor the giants. Hence, with a high concentration of Jacks and giants on hand, six pawn shops peacefully and prosperously coexist, each sharing a wall or two with shops that are doing the same thing at the same time.

     I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while, Church, about the nature of redemption. We have some large topics coming up in the Three R’s series, and now is a good time to remember how, from among the three choices – Receive, Reject, Redeem – the third one keeps proving to be the best option. Receive and Reject are too easy and tend to cause more division, especially in this zone we’ve been studying where culture and Christian faith intersect. Redemption takes work, which is why it’s so appealing, since we know that no good thing comes without thoughtfulness and cost. Today’s touchup is to ensure we see redemption the same way our Redeemer does.  

     Not many realize it, but the second most merciful thing God has done in human history is block the way to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3:22-24). Rather than let the human race live forever in sin and shame and separation, he chose to initiate a long arc of redemption. The arc reaches its zenith where God does the single most merciful thing in human history, namely, sending his Son into the world to atone for all our sins. Jesus’ work on the cross – and busting out of the tomb! – has established the landing point of the arc, at which all the factors that brought about a need for redemption will be done away with. But what do you suppose caused God to work those earliest acts of redemption, and causes him still to guide the arc and draw more of humanity into its path? It could only be love for the redeemed.

     In our work as little-r redeemers, is there any reason to put redemptive effort into someone or something we don’t have a great deal of love for? Well, maybe. Not saying they’re good reasons, but I’ve caught myself trying to succeed at redemption where someone else failed, so I’d look like the better redeemer. I’ve also been known to throw redemptive effort into situations I didn’t yet have God-given wisdom for – you can easily imagine how those have turned out. At times, rather than waiting on the Lord, I’ve tried to start redemption for no better reason than nobody else had yet. Nope, not good reasons at all. Thankfully, those are in the minority – I bring them up for two reasons. First, to point out that deciding to Redeem will bring about enough work all on its own, without us looking for more than what’s assigned to each of us. And mostly, I bring them up to say that without having precisely the same motivation God has, even our best efforts at redemption will be at least slightly off the arc he has established. It can only be love for the redeemed.

     In Psalm 111, which is in our Bible reading plan this week, verse 9 says…

    He has sent redemption to his people;

   he has commanded his covenant forever.

   Holy and awesome is his name!

     Does anything strike you as unusual about the verse? Given that the psalm couldn’t have been written any less than 400 years before the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, doesn’t the past-tense “sent” sound odd? Isn’t the best of redemption still in the psalmist’s future?

     This verse is one of many fine Bible examples of future-perfect speech in the story of God and redemption – what he did before determines what happens now and guarantees what will happen later. It calls attention to three inseparable elements of reality: God has brought, God is bringing, and God will continue to bring redemption to his people until the full measure of redemption is accomplished.

     We live in the is… cooperating as much we’re able.

     In the power of the Holy Spirit, Christian, ask the Lord to lock you onto the objects of redemption assigned to you. Ask him to help you sort through the many and varied and worthwhile possibilities by giving you a can’t-turn-it-off love for those he’s chosen for you. Look for other Christians whose targets of love are something like yours. Redemption runs on love. Always has.

     Within the symbiotic relationship of gambling and pawn brokering, redemption is neither here nor there. Indeed, casinos can only stay in business as long as word doesn’t get out that gambling isn’t for the benefit of the gambler. And the broker makes out far better if redemption doesn’t happen at all. It’s a recipe for anything but.             

     Nothing personal toward the City of Las Vegas in general or pawn brokers in particular, but if you had mapped our travels for those three days in May of ’03, you would’ve found Kay and me more often in the desert, or up Mount Charleston, or over at Hoover Dam. In the city was a scouting mission, mainly, and when it was done we were glad for the experience – even more glad to get back among those who are the objects of our love and redemptive effort, and among whom we are the recipients of theirs.

  

Grace and Peace (holding fast to the arc of redemption),

 

John

Thursday, November 4, 2021

Whose Report

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Kay and I are back from some travels that took us to the Carolinas. As you might imagine, I put together a portable library, and yes, it outweighed any other single container we packed. In the Periodicals section were several newspapers I hadn’t read at home. (The carrier and I have a tacit arrangement: he brings the paper late; I read it even later; it seems to be the best we can do.) Those papers had a particular job. For years I’ve hoped to find a newsfeed without a heavy bias toward one extreme or another. No luck so far. I’ve asked some of the newsiest people I know, and they’ve made some earnest suggestions, but every source I’ve checked has been – sure enough – large on commentary and small on reporting. Maybe it’s the cynical streak in me, but I can smell an editorial slant from a mile off. Those five or six editions of the Journal-News I had packed were part of an experiment, the hypothesis of which could be stated like so: The Lord has a better purpose for news reporting than I’ve imagined up to this point.

     Though I’ve been away I haven’t stopped thinking about the Three R’s series, and our mission as little-r redeemers, cooperating with the capital-R Redeemer who redeemed us, to reconcile creation and humanity to himself. As Christians – being conformed to the image of (God’s) Son (Romans 8:29) – our heartiest efforts will be at the points where culture and faith intersect. Since news pervades the lives of Christian and non-Christian alike, it would qualify as one of those points. Running news through the grid of the Three R’s – Receive as all good, Reject as all bad, or Redeem something inherently good from whatever not-good purposes it may have been put to – what do we find?

     In the Information Age, differing viewpoints can be had by the millions in a split second. It’s not wise, or even possible, to Receive them all as good and true. And if you picked one, or a small handful, someone would be along (in a split second) to say you’re an idiot for doing so. Now the challenge is to figure out whether you’re an idiot, and viewpoints on that topic can also be had by the millions. Let’s give Receive a tender pat on the head and set it aside as not an option.

     How about Reject? Well, I tried it. For several straight months, I went news-less. During March, April, and the first half of May 2020, I had checked the news several times a day. After about six weeks I could have written the copy for the reporters – from the previous day’s copy and the day before that. So I checked out; surely there would be something better to do with the same amount of time. Right away I started missing news items I needed to know about. It got to where I could hardly contribute to a relevant conversation. In the current reality, where connectedness is a very real expectation, I doubt any of us could afford to Reject news altogether.

     Maybe the Lord could use that stack of newspapers to point me toward Redeeming the reporting efforts that had gone into them. I started with a prayer: “Father, please show me a better purpose for the news than I’ve seen so far.”

     Right away I read about the Christian missionaries who had been taken hostage in Haiti. My first thought was, “Obviously, this is a job for Special Ops.” But that thought was unproductive. Why? Because I’m not the one who decides whether Special Ops will do this job. Well then, is there a prayer to be prayed? Yes: “Father, let today be the day you deliver the hostages in Haiti.” Bingo. I thought I’d been reading a report on an international incident with potentially dire consequences, and it was indeed that. But at the core, I was looking at a prayer-starter.

     Were there any more prayers to offer up? Definitely. Gathering more reports, I learned that all over Haiti people were being snatched up, many of them children, by any gang members who thought they could collect any amount of ransom at all. “O, Lord, deliver the people of Haiti from gang violence, especially this scourge of kidnapping.” And how about the gang members? “Jesus, redeem the gang members – deliver them from their past and establish a future with God as their Father.” Turns out there have been dozens of different but related prayers to pray into this situation. And yes, I’ve prayed for the people who do have to decide whether Special Ops will be involved.

     In our Bible reading plan, yesterday was a day to read a whole Bible book: Obadiah (good thing it’s only one chapter!). From the middle of the first verse, catch this singular phrase:

 We have heard a report from the LORD…

     Yes, indeed we have – and we keep on hearing reports from the Lord, in Scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Question is, will we recognize them as such? Sure, many news reports won’t concern us, and there’s no need burdening our consciousness with those. But I would suggest that the great majority of items we come in contact with are prayer-starters.

     Looking closely, we can identify at least three things that “praying into the news” can accomplish. First and best, it can move the heart of God to rectify unjust situations. Next, by praying Spirit-led prayers we can sort truth from untruth, since, according to Jesus’ promise in John 16:13, the Holy Spirit is guiding believers into all the truth. And as it relates to our own hearts, praying into the news can relieve the frustration that mere fussing would only have aggravated. Looks like redemption to me.

     You won’t be able to escape the news for very long. I tried, and it didn’t turn out well. Better to engage the mind of Christ, Christian – let it have the lead – and ask: “Whose report will I believe?”

 

 Grace and Peace (and a prayer-nose for news),

 

John

 P.S. For updates on the hostage missionaries in Haiti, see https://christianaidministries.org/updates/haiti-staff-abduction/