Embracing Moments

It's been 5 days since I've seen my family and new baby Carter. This is a picture from yesterday. If you haven't seen him much, it will be impossible to notice how much he has changed! His cheeks are fuller, his forhead bigger, his eyes clearer- he's getting big without me.

Before I left, I held him and just looked at him because I knew this would happen. I wanted to capture that moment.

Life goes by fast. Appreciate the moments you are in and recognize the beauty of God in the common, everyday moments of life!

Journey on, friend,

Nick

False Promises

After four days of Greek, I feel glad to still be thinking rationally. These intensives become very draining by the end. Thankfully the air is finally getting warmer. All the way up to 18 today. Heat wave!

We had some great discussion today relative to I Peter 5:7. You know the verse, but maybe not by the location. How often have you heard, "cast all your cares on him, because he cares for you"? If you're anything like me, you hear this assurance bantered around in Christian circles on a regular basis. It's interesting to look closer at the context. Here in chapter 5, Peter is wrapping up his argument and appealing to everyone, "all of you, serve each other in humility." (vs. 5) And then we are commanded to be humble, trusting that it is God who will exalt us, or give us honor, at the right time. Out of this command, we are encouraged to "give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you." (NLT) In other words, as we fret or worry about our place and our desire to be more important or more significant or more noticed by others, God invites us to trust in Him and not worry about these things. He will give us true honor in his timing, because unlike the world, He truly cares for us. So, rather than being a vague, generic encouragement to give him our worries, this is very specific instruction to first be humble! I wonder how often, if ever, we've thought of that when being told to give God our worries.

This highlights the Christian tendency to pick apart Scripture and use it for our needs. (See Rick Warren, who will shamelessly use 14 different translations in a message to back up his specific point. Don't get me wrong- I really appreciate what Rick does and what he stands for, but his twisting of the Bible to suit his needs sets a bad example.) Rather than really wrestling with the context and meaning of Scripture, we find the quips that we like and try to live off of them alone. We say things like, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" This is a nice sentiment, but if we look at it (Ephesians 4), Paul says this in the context of learning how to get along in every situation- whether with plenty or with little. We use it as a general pep talk for any situation, when Paul offers it as a focal point for living with extra or in want. That really changes the meaning!

Now you might be concerned by this. "Hey, wait a minute, don't take away my favorite verses!" I guess what I would offer is that when we really wrestle with Scripture, the promises get even better. Perhaps we like convincing ourselves that we can do "everything through Christ" but there are just too many real life situations where we find we can't do everything. So then, either the promise is empty, or we've misapplied it. The wonder of this truth is that even if we have to get along in life with very little, we can do it because Christ fills the need in our life. This whole truth is better by far than living with a half-true slogan.

So, can we give all our worries to God? Absolutely. But when we really wrestle with Scripture, we see the beauty of a humble life being the source of worry-free living. When we refuse to pickpocket our favorite Scripture and we embrace the whole context of Scripture, we find real promises for living.

May you journey in godly wisdom today,

Nick

Speaking Out

Tonight, the group of guys that compose "cohort I" got together for our traditional mid-week dinner. This has become a much anticipated event during the intensive weeks in Minnesota. For one reason or another, we have settled on Fuddruckers for this meeting, which could also be called "a bucket of grease on a bun." Good for the tongue, but not the digestive track.

Anyway, tonight while we were chowing down on 1/2 pound burgers, the conversation veered towards a class we had recently taken "together" on-line. Overall, the class had been a difficult and troubling experience for me, and I ventured out in this conversation with a small critique of the class format. Little did I know that I had just pulled the proverbial plug out of a great and massive dike. For the next half an hour, sustained complaints and frustrations poured forth from this group of friends. We had all had similar, and equally negative, experiences with the class. And to think, I thought I was the only one. For three months as I had taken the class, I had convinced myself that everyone else understood the program and found the class useful and enjoyable. I thought it was best not to reveal my opinions because I did not want to be labeled as a weak student, or even worse, a complainer. You can imagine how therapeutic this half an hour was! To hear my private hurts be shared and affirmed publicly was wonderfully freeing.

I have been pondering tonight how often we go through times like this in life. We are convinced that everyone else has it figured out- how to have a good marriage, how to be a good parent, how to have a fulfilling faith, how stay positive at work, how to forgive an enemy- and so we stay quiet, unwilling to be the weak one or the complainer. And yet how often is it that in reality, our friends are experiencing exactly the same thing?

So I'm wondering, where do we get this need to put on the good face and keep quiet about the things we struggle with? Why do we try to cover up and hide the very things where we most need wisdom and strength? Could it be because we believe that we are alone?

Today, I just want to encourage you- in whatever you face, you are not alone. I can guarantee you, others have been there, probably more people than you would ever guess. And the key for us is to take risks, sometimes even small ones, amongst groups of friends and to open up and be honest. Try it- and you may find, like I did, that expressing the truth was the path to freedom. And a great night of conversation with friends.

Jesus said, "I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark." When we hold on to our pain and our weakness alone, we remain in the dark. When we find communities of friends where we can open up, we invite truth in, and in the right contexts we welcome the very light of Christ into our situation.

May you journey in light,

Nick

Temporary Residents

Today is day two of Greek Exegesis. "Exegesis" is basically short-hand for looking at a passage in Greek until your blue in the face. Okay, it's not really that bad. We have been going through the book of 1 Peter verse by verse to translate the Greek and learn how words function in that language.

One meaningful observation has been on the phrase "strangers and aliens" used in I Peter 2:11 and referenced several other places in the book. I remember running across this wording as a kid and thinking it was kind of cool that following Jesus made me an "alien." But beyond this, the general concept I had was that believing in Jesus made me, and anyone else, out of touch with this world.

The full meaning is much better. For instance, the term first gets biblical mention in Genesis, when Abraham describes himself as a stranger and an alien, living in the land of foreigners. It is an important note, though, that this is exactly the place God has led Abraham. He has become a stranger because God put him in that place for a reason.

By the time Peter writes this letter to scattered believers in present day Turkey, "resident aliens" has become an entire social class of people are on the move, usually to find income in tough times. This was much different than a move in our culture, though. Such a move made them a "second class" citizen who lacked many of the rights that land-owners and natives would enjoy. They had to do their best to live well in a place not truly their home.

Peter refers to believers, and ultimately to us, as these "temporary residents." I like this rendering of the phrase more than stranger and aliens, because it emphasizes that we are indeed residents. Between the cross of Christ, and the glory of God's coming kingdom, we reside here. But our time is temporary. We have been led by God to be in specific places, to integrate as best we can into society in order to bring about change. The instructions Peter gives in the following verses reminds us, as temporary residents, how to spend our time,

"I warn you, as temporary residents and foreigners, to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world." (I Peter 2:12-13)

When we pursue the things of God, and willingly live for him, we make a difference, even if others may at time misunderstand what we do. Continue in honorable behavior, and others will see.

May you know that on this journey, you are a temporary resident.

Blessings-
Nick

Beyond Rules

I am hanging out in the MSP airport this morning after a nice flight into the Twin Cities from SeaTac. I always appreciate how quiet and laid-back the Seattle Airport is in the middle of the night, even if it means I am about to board the red-eye!

Yesterday at church, I spoke about why the Bible has so many rules. We see Jesus in John 12 telling us that he says not only the exact words God tells him to say, but he says them in the way God tells him to say them. If we had to do the same, such as speaking for our boss at a meeting, we would feel confined- forced to behave like a robot. When it came to his relationship with the Heavenly Father, though, Jesus found this arrangement to be the true source of eternal life. (12:50) Jesus was free because he was in complete obedience to the Father.

So also, we can follow Jesus into freedom by living in obedience to the Father. As I read my class text for an upcoming Ethics class, I was reminded of a further development in our attempt to keep God's rule. In her book, Reviving Evangelical Ethics, Wyndy Reuschling argues that a truly Christ-centered ethic must go far beyond rule keeping. As an example, she holds up the third commandment (out of ten, for any that are uncertain of that reference) which tells us not to take the Lord's name in vain. In her view, it is unfortunate that we often reduce this grand call to the simplistic instruction not to swear by using God's name. (Or any derivative of it- we couldn't say "gosh" in my conservative home because that was only one step away from breaking this rule)

Reuschling goes on to point out that God gave this instruction to a group of people that had already committed themselves to him. He invited them into a relationship where they refused to use God's name lightly by invoking it in situations where God and his name were merely being used for the benefit of the speaker. In other words, God was telling Israel not to use him like another one of the house gods common in the world at that time. Other nations had gods, whose names they would invoke for any need. The gods were there to serve them. Jehovah God was reminding His people that their proper relationship with God was to serve Him in humility and fear, only using his name rightly in worship and adoration of Him.

All this is to say that when we set out to keep God's rules, we ultimately fail if we see these rules as nothing more than a checklist of spirituality. While Christian men might think it simple to check-off "do not commit adultery", we need to make sure we have enlarged this rule to encompass all of our heart attitude and actions as it comes to marriage. When we tithe, we can't automatically assume we have been generous. The rule God gives is like the base-line, the starting point for obedience. But if we stop here, we miss the true freedom that God invites us to through giving Him unconditional obedience.

On your journey today, may you see all of God's rules as invitations to know Him more and walk in freedom in this world He has given us.

Nick