Writing and a New Direction

I need to be writing. It's something that's important for me as a pastor, a leader and a follower of Christ. I need to be taking positions, making those positions known and learning how to better communicate my thoughts through words on paper.

Over the years I've obviously blogged here and there. The archives for this blog go back a long while - I know because I just read back through a few. At least to 2010. I was surprised and refreshed by the clear voice I feel I've used - by the relatively distraction-free writing and the genuine humor. Quite a few of those posts felt as if they were written by someone else. It was a nice read.

But a vast majority of those posts were clearly written by me - and for me. I was writing off the top of my head, into my passions and ideas and impulses. That's not the type of leadership-oriented writing I need to be producing; that's not the thought processes I need to be cultivating.

So, this post marks a turn in this blog. There are a few passion areas that I want to write on:

- Current events/Politics: I keep abreast of these things as best as possible. I'm generally reticent to share thoughts and ideas simply because I think I'm more conscientious than most concerning what I don't know - but that's not going to stop me. I'm going to write on my opinions on things I read and see, and actively engage in the comments following to grow.

- Parenting: this is such a key point in my life and ministry. I'll share thoughts, ideas and critiques.

- Church/Christian culture: this too is central to my everyday life.

I also hope to blog 2-3 times a week, so stay tuned (I know no one's reading this; I'm just writing it for my own growth).

Catch you on the flip side.

the proof is in the pudding - the christmas pudding

I think proof of God is built into everything - I really, truly do. "The heavens proclaim the glory of God - the skies proclaim the work of his hands..." everything, everywhere evidences God in some way or another.

Recently, I was thinking about this in the context of our joy. Especially with Christmas coming up, the notion of giving - the joy of giving - seems peculiar to me. What evolutionary process or naturalistic social construct might have taken us to a place where we find greater delight in giving of ourselves than receiving? Even secular studies have shown that those who regularly give of their time, money and other resources live longer, experience greater happiness in life and overall enjoy greater purpose, meaning and pleasure.

From a naturalistic standpoint, it really doesn't make sense. Perhaps an anthropologist might contradict me (I don't know many, so I feel pretty safe in this post!), but I can't conceive of a natural reason why this desire and pleasure of giving is so built in to our beings.

Other than the fact that we are created in God's image.

I mean, that solves it, doesn't it? We are created as the image bearers of God; our purpose is to reflect him fully and to find our delight and joy in representing him. And who else has found greater delight in giving  than the one who gave his very son for the salvation of the world? Who else has greater demonstrated true sacrificial giving that God the father?

It seems to me, as we enter in to this holiday season, that our very desire to give gifts is itself evidence of God's glory - and of his desperate love for us.

What a God we serve!

the grandeur

I was stuck over this weekend by thinking about how God is so much more awesome than we really give him credit for.

In a lot of ways, we affirm God's goodness and love and mercy and awesomeness and holiness and all those things. And we get that stuff - we try to pack it in our little heads and go through life with it. But he's so much more!

This was really driven home for me when I thought about how incomprehensible Jesus' sacrifice was to the 1st century Jews. Think about it! The Israelite nation had been promised a rescuer and a Savior for the past thousands of years - sometimes vaguely, by way of archetype and sometimes very precisely, by way of prophecy. In retrospect, the OT has clearly spelled out all we need to know that our salvation would be by way of sacrifice.

But the 1st century Jews had no concept of this! They were reading the same texts we read now, but their eyes glossed over the passages in Isaiah referring to Christ's death, or they ignored the clear prescription for atonement in Leviticus. Not because they didn't understand it, but because they would never, in a million years, associate those passages with God.

"Sure, there's going to be a 'suffering servant!' Isaiah says so clearly! But God would never stoop that low!" "Sure, 'without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins!' But think about how good God is - he set up the sacrificial system that allows us regular atonement!"

The leap from, "God allows us atonement through the sacrifice of animals" to "God provides us atonement through his sacrifice" is absolutely unthinkable. Sacrilegious. As the chief priests spat on Jesus and beat him, surely they must have thought  "There is no way this is God - if he were, he would never allow this!" Their mocking at the cross carries the same overtones: "The reason we know you're not God is because you're staying on the cross! God would come down!"

Never in a million years would they have thought, "The reason Jesus stayed on the cross was because he was God," and God is always more loving, always more righteous, always more good than we will ever imagine.

Kinda drive you to worship, eh?

oh, com'mon! you're a fallen sinner!

I got pretty uptight yesterday when I read an open letter in our local newspaper. It read,

"To the police departments of this nation I say: Though your eye seeks justice there is destruction in your wake. We've been using punishment for 2,000 years now. It does not work. If it worked we'd have no criminals. Damage pays for damage pays for damage until all you see is damage. Vengeance does not stop the battle, it starts the war."

I'll spare the author's name.

I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY? I don't even know how to start an actual critique of this comment; looking past the authors obviously misplaced blame (addressing the police departments - not even the originators of punishments, merely the enforcers!), lack of respect for the brave and courageous public officers, clear lack of understanding of time (we've only been using punishment since the time of Christ?), and weird almost-quoting of Scripture (or something), I'm just dumbfounded by the sheer lack of understanding.

The author says that if our punishment system "worked," it would result in zero crime. Yes, I think that criminal law is on one level a deterrent, but on a completely different level it is punishment. Punishment for wrongs committed.

I'm so confused right now. What does this author expect? That we can stop punishing crime and wrongdoing and have it go away? Replace it? Replace it with what? Reward? Education? Ska music? Wouldn't that be a cruel and unusual punishment?

The reality is that our sin nature makes whatever type of misinformed and naive idealism this author carries about absolutely pointless. The simple and unfortunate reality is that without regeneration, humans will always sin.

We always will. This author will, I will, and you will. No amount of deterrent - no amount of punishment can stop that reality. The only hope for a sinless nation is a nation completely regenerated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One last point: to imply that punishment is akin to vengeance as this author does, is ludicrous. Would you accuse me of taking vengeance on my daughters when I discipline them? I should hope not. In fact, is this author a parent? Because then she should be able to know how ridiculous her post is.

back from the mundane!

Wow! I've been back, rocketing through past posts and reading what amounts to be an interesting, albeit very incomplete, diary of my past four and a half years in youth ministry. There are some good posts on this blog! Annnnddd... some not so good ones. Such is life.

The past few days have been filled with a lot of nostalgia. I've been reading past conversations with friends, remembering good times in college and high school, and really, overall, filled with pangs of sadness as I've thought about past relationships and moments.

As I've reflected on all this, I've been overcome by the reality that I've gotten away significantly from the pursuit of the mind. In the past, I took a lot of time to read good blogs, study good books, practice solid exegesis and just generally develop, deepen and grow. But the past few months have left me, honestly, just vegging in front of the TV or internet. I'm just wiped and fried! Trying to be a good husband, youth pastor, father and person is exhausting! Whew!

But I need to find relaxation less in vain and worthless TV (although Doctor Who and Eureka are certainly FUN) and more in the passionate pursuit of Christ. I need to be energized not by a lack of movement, but rather by deliberate movement TOWARD Jesus. I need the gospel to be my life and breath and heartbeat.

And I honestly think this blog plays in to that! So I hope I'll be writing in here a little more often - sharing my thoughts, prayers, focuses and passions.

God is good. Thanks for praying for me.

Where is Death's Sting?

I struggle to find a way to effectively write these thoughts; on the one hand, while I know that through grace there is, "eternal encouragement and hope," I'm also acutely aware of real pain, the real hurt, and the real sting of death.

I've been thinking about these things - death, particularly - over the past week. While I was thinking and praying for a friend, a verse came to mind: I Corinthians 15:55. And, because I tend to be a bit of a skimmer of sorts, these specific words came to mind, but not their context:

"Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?"

And I sat there and thought, 'I know where the sting of death is... I have experienced it. These words seem foolish and naive. What is Paul talking about?'

The context makes it abundantly clear. Paul is giving hope and encouragement to the people of Corinth as he encourages them to hold on till the promised day of redemption. And he says, in verse 54 - "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

Then the saying that is written will come true... how I wish those words applied today! How I wish there was no longer, "a time to mourn... and a time to weep." But it is not that time - not yet. Paul goes on in verse 56: "The sting of death is sin."

Where, o death, is your sting? Everywhere! Death was brought to the world through sin - and sin defines this world. In this cursed world, the sting of death is everywhere!

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Stop for a moment, and consider these words. Just pause, and let them sink into your heart.

Yes, death still has sting - here, on this perishable earth. Yes, death still reigns, here in this mortal, sinful world. But it is passing away.

But it is passing away!

The victory of Jesus Christ - tied directly to a historic action - his death and resurrection - provide for us concrete hope. Hope, tied not to whim or desire, tied not to chance or possibility, but tied to fact and reality, gives for us an assurance that this world apart from Christ cannot even consider! Through Jesus Christ, though we suffer under the sting of death yet - though for a little while we still have cause to mourn and weep, we are assured victory.

Listen to how Paul describes this truth: He says we have, "knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness — in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time (Titus 1:1-2)."

Christian hope is so different. Christian hope is founded on the character of God; on His truthfulness and His reliability. It is not a whim. It is not a wish. Hope is concrete. As Christians, we can go so far as to say that hope is fact!

And this should encourage, and reassure us. While we taste and feel death today - we hope in the day where we will proclaim, "Death has been swallowed up in victory!" And we hope in assurance and trust, and reliance. And faith.

So hope.

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If you're interested in doing a little study yourself, go ahead and turn to I Corinthians 15 and read verse 58 - the passage immediately following the one we just spent time in. Think about what our hope through Christ might have to say about our lives now; Paul has strong words to say about our current responsibility.

The Real Battle in Madison

Wisconsin is in a state of turmoil.

And everyone has an opinion.

As I've watched countless friends and acquaintances chime into the state's budget discussion on Facebook or through other mediums, I've developed a bit of an opinion, as well. And, since I hadn't blogged in a while (and it's a longer opinion), I thought I'd share it here.

My understanding is that these are some of the facts:

We are in a budget deficit. Wisconsin, constitutionally, is not allowed to carry a budget deficit. It ranges in the $140 million range (honestly, this should preclude me from talking about it. I have a hard time dealing with $15, much less $140 mil). Part of the reason we have that deficit is $200 million in tax cuts pushed through by the Republican party last year. But, next year we will again face a budget shortfall - much greater. The majority of these shortfalls are due to a loss of jobs, and fallout from the global recession.

This bill proposes that state workers carry a greater percentage of the cost of their retirement and healthcare benefits, as well as removing most of the collective bargaining rights their unions have. As I understand it, the loss of rights is much more troubling to those opposed to the bill than the pay-ins are.

Tens of thousands of people are protesting in Madison as well as around the state. Teachers are not coming into work in order to protest, and many schools (as well as the ones here in Merrill) are closed.

There. I understand my facts are limited. And if they are askew, please correct me.

My thoughts start in Luke 13, in an instance where Jesus was asked a remarkably pointed and controversial political question. The Roman government had murdered some local men, and the people were incensed. So, some of the local politicians mentioned the event to Jesus - probably to gain credence and traction in their political agenda. He responded with this parable:

“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"

... ... you can almost hear the crickets chirping.

Honestly, the answer seems remarkably unhelpful and... lame. Detached.

What did he mean?

When Jesus looked at the political landscape of the day (as he would look at the political landscape of today), and saw real issues. But ultimately, he saw a far greater crisis.

We are that tree - intentioned to bear fruit, but bearing none. And in the midst of a political squabble, Jesus responded by saying, emphatically - "Your efforts to produce fruit are going to lead to greater ruin that you can imagine."

This can mean two things, depending on whether or not you have accepted the truth claims of Jesus.

If you are not a Christ-follower, the reality of the political battle in Madison is important, imminent, pressing and consuming. But it is not a crisis. Please don't misunderstand me: yes, many lives will be dramatically and powerfully changed. Many of those affected are parents of students I minister to, or congregants at my church - or my own immediate family.

But it is not a crisis.

The true crisis is that your soul remains alienated from God - from the creator and sustainer of all our rights. The true crisis is that there is coming a day of justice to the world; this justice is not merely social, nor merely ethical - it's eternal.

The issues in Madison are great - but the crisis of your soul is greater. And the gains you stand to win in Madison are great - but the gains through Jesus Christ are greater by far. The concern is that workers will be stripped of rights; the reality is that apart from God's grace, you have been stripped of rights - of freedom, of hope and of life as it is meant to be lived: in communion with a holy and righteous God.

A blog post cannot change your heart (and I would be a fool to think it would), but it can encourage you to give me a call or shoot me an email or send me a letter and chat.

And to the Christians: Remember that our greatest battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And make no mistake: Satan sees this political battle as an opportunity to leverage his lies and deceit.

Please, engage this topic. Please, stand for righteousness and justice; these are close to God's heart. But please, also remember that our ultimate fight is not one to win collective bargaining rights or to reduce wage garnishments. These are things that are passing away.

No, our ultimate battle is the battle for souls. And our ultimate victory is not a balanced budget, but is found in Christ's defeat of death. And our ultimate source of hope and pride is never in political agenda, but in the loving God who entered into the brokenness of this world for our eternal peace.

Proclaim the gospel - for only the gospel has the power to save.