What we’re willing to watch

Our society is so fascinated with parading mistakes online, on TV, on the front page.  We watch broken marriages, addictions, relational rifts and all sorts of indignities play out before eyes.  And because we consume it, we’re served up more of it on a platter.  Give the people what they want!

We don’t seem to mind that the brokenness of these lives is displayed for all to see.  But here’s the thing — we seem to grow disinterested when the indignity stretches beyond celebrity status to faces for whom we have no names.  It’s just so depressing, we say.  Give us more about this girl and how she cheated on that guy.  Show us more pictures of this guy making a fool out of himself because he’s high on meth.  Tell us more about this person’s drunk driving conviction.

Injustice.  Modern-day slavery.  Trafficking.  Mass rape.  Hunger.  Abuse.  Poverty.  Neglect.

If we’re going to indulge in watching other people’s sins, then perhaps we shouldn’t limit it to the ones that make us feel better about ourselves.

 

Gone

I love Washington D.C.  It is by far one of my favorite cities to visit, and I’ve loved getting to travel there for work a few times over the past year.

As my plane took off from Reagan Airport a couple of weeks ago, I looked out the window in an attempt to spot as many landmarks as possible.

I saw the Capitol, then the Washington and Jefferson Monuments.

But before I could pick out any others, they were gone.

I literally blinked, and we were completely enveloped in thick rain clouds from that moment until we landed in Boston.

I was a little miffed.  I had wanted to see more of these marvels that have stood so long as reminders of people and events and principles.

But before I knew it, they were gone.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies.  But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.  (Isaiah 51:6)

 

Time, where did you go?

We’re at peak foliage right now.  It’s breathtaking as always.

But the days are getting much shorter.  The temperatures are getting much colder.  And somewhere along the way we jumped to the end of October.

I have no idea how that happened.

These past several months have blown by, and here I sit on the eve of another New England winter.

(Of course, when it snows in mid-October, I wonder whether it has already arrived.)

It seems like that’s usually the case in life.  The days of sunshine seem to race by, and we spend much of our time feeling trapped by circumstances that will take quite awhile to run their course.  We long to stretch our legs and breathe in fresh air, different air.  Winter can be harsh and relentless.  And we end up a little stir-crazy in the confinement of the dark, cold solitude that it can bring.

But what if we embraced, rather than resisted, winter?  What if we welcomed its periodic entry into our lives?

Because there’s really no way around it (Genesis 8:22).  Other seasons we love cannot come unless we endure winter.

That snow that blankets the ground later brings life and growth.

And in due time, it brings forth a harvest.

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  (Hebrews 12:10-11)

 

Why we read

I fear many in the world might look at why the Church reads Scripture and be confused.

We read it to gain knowledge and information.

At times, we  read it to change the way we think or act.

And sometimes we read it to justify the way we think or act.

But do we read it to change who we are, that we may be formed in His likeness?

For the word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.  (Hebrews 4:12-13, NLT)

 

Discerning Deception

“Christian consciousness begins in the painful realization that what we had assumed was the truth is in fact a lie.”

(Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction)

 

Love doesn’t

I was reading I Corinthians 13 in The Message the other day and stopped when I got to this:

Love … doesn’t revel when others grovel…  (13:6)

When others mess up, love doesn’t throw their failures back in their face.

When others ask for forgiveness, love doesn’t dwell on why they need to do so.

When others are broken, love doesn’t crush them.

When others are humbled, love humbly stoops down and lifts them up.

When the sins of others are laid bare before all, love covers them.  (I Peter 4:8)

The son said to him, ” Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”  But the father said to his servants, “Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him … Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” … The older brother became angry … “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders … But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”  “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”  (Luke 15:21-32)

 

A narrow way

“To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is indeed a narrow way.”

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

 

Something to think about over chips and dip

My history with the game of football runs deep.  I grew up cheering for Tennessee football with my parents and performed in the drill team at halftime of every football game from seventh through the twelfth grade.  I appreciate the game and enjoy watching it.  However, in honor of the 11-man sport, here are eleven questions that plague me this time of year:

1. Why is it necessary for football players to unhook their chin straps after every play?  Seriously, it’s like an automatic reaction and seems completely counter-productive.
2. Why do football players wear eye-black for night games?  There is no sun from which to protect your eyes, buddy.
3. Do mouth guards taste good?  ‘Cause I sure see a lot of players chewing on them.
4. Who determined that the organ was the right instrument to be played for NFL games?  My primary memory of going to Houston Oilers games with my dad is that dang organ.  What is up with that?
5. As a former member of the drill team, I beg you, why don’t more people pay attention to the halftime show?  You’d get through the nachos line faster if you waited until the band was finished and everyone came back to their seats.
6. Has anyone else noticed that Nike left off half of the stripes on every team’s pants?  Was it just too much money to finish them?
7. Do football players really like getting all those stickers on their helmets?  Is it kind of like that chart with the gold stars that we all had in preschool?  Do they really get motivated by stickers?
8. Will the Aggies ever sit down during their football games?
9. Are the quarterbacks really talking to the offensive staff when they pick up those phones on the sidelines?  Or, are they ordering a post-game pizza?
10. When will sideline reporters realize that head coaches are really not interested in interviews on their way to the locker room at halftime?
11. How many more days until basketball season starts?

 

The one that got away

If you haven’t seen the little girl who threw back her dad’s foul ball catch at the Phillies game last night, then maybe you’ve got your head buried in a hole in the ground.

It really struck me when I watched the national news tonight.  The man reporting this story commented that, among multiple stories in recent days of a lack of civility in public, this was a story of a man who felt that it was most important to make his daughter feel loved.  No lost tempers.  No comments of “Look at what I just lost – poor me.”  Just a hug for his little girl and “That’s okay.”

I’m not trying to make this more profound than it really is, but I believe we should observe social reactions to stories like these.  Because I think that the reason people love this story is because they see a father who cares about his daughter more than a baseball he’s waited years to catch.  I think there are a lot of parents who could relate to watching a child innocently do something that you just can’t take back.  And I think that society finds it refreshing when someone demonstrates that people are more important than stuff.

This man is not the only father who has welcomed a child into his arms after she’s done something wrong.  He’s not the only person who has ever had a very personal reaction in public. 

He’s just the one who reminded us how we should respond when these things happen.

He’s the one who showed us that that baseball we’d always waited for wasn’t really such a big deal after all.

He’s the one who reminded us what Fatherhood truly is.

And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming.  Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.  (Luke 15:20, NLT)

 

Costly Grace

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance … Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.  Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.  It is the pearl of great price to buy for which the merchant will sell all his goods.  It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him … Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.  It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.  Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son … and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)