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Faith in the Unseen

My aunt and uncle had a missionary family visiting. When the missionary children were called in for dinner, their mother said, “Be sure to wash your hands.”

The little boy scowled and said, “Germs and Jesus. Germs and Jesus. That’s all I hear, and I’ve never seen either one of them.”

Vesper Bauer, Audubon, Iowa www.ChristianReader.net (Sep/Oct 1998). (Doubt; Faith; Unbelief)John 20:24-31; Hebrews 11:1-3; 1 Peter 1:7-10

Beauty’s True Source

The most jarring TV commercial last Fall didn’t say a word. It simply shows a series of people who have one thing in common—a nasty injury or scar. There’s a cowboy with a huge scar around his eye, and something wrong with the eye itself; a fellow with a bulbous cauliflower ear; another with horribly callused feet. There’s no explanation at all, simply the Nike swoosh and “Just Do It.”

The ad has been analyzed and criticized widely as being incomprehensible and extreme. But the key to the controversial commercial lies in the background music. Joe Cocker sings, “You are so beautiful … to me.”

To these athletes—the wrestler with the cauliflower ear, the surfer with a shark bite, the bullrider blind in one eye—their injuries are beauty marks. And to their fans, these athletes are beautiful because of their scars. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” says Mike Folino, the ad’s creator.

God’s grace is just as jarring and controversial. Our beauty is found not in us, but in him. He looks down at us—injured, blind, and scarred—and sings, “You are so beautiful … to me.”

Jim Congdon (Beauty; Grace; Trials) John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10; Ephesians 2:8-10

Giving: Better than Laughter

Laughter is an instant vacation. Giving is a two-week cruise—with pay.

Bob Hope, entertainer. Source: Hoyt Hilsman in Hemispheres, (Dec 1999), p.50 (Generosity; Giving; Joy; Laughter) Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 9:1-15

Waiting for a Savior

Writer Clark Cothern tells of a Christmas when his family encountered an unexpected house guest. A squirrel had fallen down their chimney into the wood burner stove in the basement of their Michigan home. Cothern writes:

I thought if it knew we were there to help, I could just reach in and gently lift it out. Nothing doing. As I reached in … it began scratching about like a squirrel overdosed on espresso.

We finally managed to construct a cardboard box “cage” complete with a large hole cut into one side, into which the squirrel waltzed when we placed the box against the wood burner’s door. We let it out into the safety of our backyard.

Later, I thought, Isn’t it funny how, before its redemption, our little visitor had frantically tried to bash its way out of its dark prison? It seemed that the harder it struggled in its own strength to get free, the more pain it caused itself.

In the end, he simply had to wait patiently until one who was much bigger—one who could peer into his world—could carry him safely to that larger world where he really belonged.

That is what we need the Lord to do for us.

Clark Cothern in Detours: Sometimes Rough Roads Lead to Right Places (Multnomah, 1999) (Advent; Christmas; Freedom; Patience; Redemption; Salvation; Waiting on God) Psalm 27:14; John 1:1-18; Acts 9:1-19

Why You Really Want Bad News

Bill Gates, in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought, writes:

“A good e-mail system ensures that bad news can travel fast, but your people have to be willing to send you the news. You have to be constantly receptive to bad news, and then you have to act on it. Sometimes I think my most important job as CEO is to listen for bad news. If you don’t act on it, your people will eventually stop bringing bad news to your attention. And that’s the beginning of the end.

“The willingness to hear hard truth is vital not only for CEOs of big corporations but also for anyone who loves the truth. Sometimes the truth sounds like bad news, but it is just what we need.”

Bill Gates, Business @ the Speed of Thought (Warner, 1999) (Confrontation; Listening; Truth) Proverbs 9:8; 16:13; 2 Samuel 12; Romans 3:23

The Power of Internet Porn

What makes sex online far more compelling than any shrink-wrapped smut [is] instant gratification in endless variety—you never get to the end of the magazine and have to start looking at the same pictures again. With old porn, once you view it, you’ve consumed it. You’ve chewed the flavor out of the gum. This can’t be done on the Net. The gum never runs out of flavor. A new piece of flesh waits behind every old one, and expectation bids you to go further. Much further. Because as long as there’s more to come, you’ll keep looking. This is all so new. No stimulus like this ever existed before.

Greg Gutfield, “The Sex Drive,” Men’s Health (Oct 1999) (Lust; Purity; Self-control; Sex) Psalm 24; Matthew 5:27-30; Romans 1:24-32; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Kindness to Strangers

[My wife] Gail and I were in an airplane, seated almost at the back. As the plane loaded up, a woman with two small children came down the aisle to take the seat right in front of us. And behind her, another woman. The two women took the A and C seats, one of the children sat in the middle seat, and the second child was on the lap of one of the women. I figured these were two mothers traveling together with their kids, and I hoped the kids wouldn’t be noisy.

The flight started, and my prayer wasn’t answered. The air was turbulent, the children cried a lot—their ears hurt—and it was a miserable flight. I watched as these two women kept trying to comfort these children. The woman at the window played with the child in the middle seat, trying to make her feel good and paying lots of attention.

I thought, Boy, these women get a medal for what they are doing. But things went downhill from there. Toward the last part of the flight, the child in the middle seat got sick. The next thing I knew she was losing everything from every part of her body. The diaper wasn’t on tight, and before long a stench began to rise through the cabin. It was unbearable!

I could see over the top of the seat that stuff you don’t want me to describe was all over everything. It was on this woman’s clothes. It was all over the seat. It was on the floor. It was one of the most repugnant things I had seen in a long time.

The woman next to the window patiently comforted the child and tried her best to clean up the mess and make something out of a bad situation. The plane landed, and when we pulled up to the gate all of us were ready to exit that plane as fast as we could. The flight attendant came up with paper towels, handed them to the woman in the window seat, and said, “Here ma’am, these are for your little girl.”

The woman said, “This isn’t my little girl.”

“Aren’t you traveling together?”

“No, I’ve never met this woman and these children before in my life.”

Suddenly, I realized I had just seen mercy lived out. A lot of us would have just died in this circumstance. This woman found the opportunity to give mercy. She was, in the words of Christ, “The person who was the neighbor.”

Gordon MacDonald, from sermon “Pointing to Jesus: Generosity,” preached at Grace Chapel, Lexington, Massachusetts (2/22/98) (Mercy; Neighbors) Psalm 41; Luke 10:25-37

I’m Better

When researchers at Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern asked investors how their mutual funds performed last year compared with Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a third claimed their funds outperformed the market by at least 5 percent. One in six said their funds fared better by more than 10 percent. However, a check of the portfolios belonging to those claiming to have beaten the market showed that 88 percent had overestimated their earnings. The study discovered that some “market beaters” lagged between 5 to 15 percent behind the S&P. Said Don Moore of Northwestern, “Everybody wants to believe they’re better than average.”

Unfortunately, the same thing is true in the spiritual realm. It is human nature for us to look at our neighbors and conclude that we are more righteous.

Rick Kauffman, McDonald, Pennsylvania. Source: Money (Jan 2000). (Arrogance; Humility; Pride) Mark 9:33-37; Luke 18:10-14; Romans 12:3; Philippians 2:3

Apart but Not Alone

I like to fly fish, and when I do, I spend a lot of time alone. Even when I go on a trip with my son, we usually split up and take different parts of the river. We come back in a few hours and swap stories. Even when I’m casting by myself, though, alone in front of a gentle riffle, enjoying some solitude with nature, I never feel alone. I know my son is fishing with me, even though he’s not right there.

That’s how it is with the Lord’s Prayer. Even though we might say it alone, it reminds us that we’re not alone. That’s the point of the words our and us that run all the way through it. Even when you pray it alone, you are reminded that you’re part of a community—in particular, a group that honors Christ, that prays to him regularly, and also, from time to time, that says the prayer he taught.

Mark Galli, Idiots Guide to Prayer (MacMillan, 1999) (Community; Prayer) Matthew 5

Life Goals

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once told of an incident that seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the rest of his life. The winter he was nine, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow’s flight, and then young Frank’s tracks meandering all over the field.

“Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again,” his uncle said. “And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that.”

Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how this experience had greatly contributed to his philosophy in life.

“I determined right then,” he’d say with a twinkle in his eye, “not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had.”

Jeff Arthurs source: Focus on the Family letter (Sep 1992) (Beauty; Creativity; Curiosity) Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

What Self-denial Isn’t

Sixteenth-century spiritual director Francois Fenelon clarifies a confusing biblical concept:

“Self-denial has its place in a Christian’s life, but God doesn’t ask you to choose what is most painful to you. If you followed this path you would soon ruin your health, reputation, business, and friendship.

Self-denial consists of bearing patiently all those things that God allows to pass into your life. If you don’t refuse anything that comes in God’s order, you are tasting of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart (Library of Spiritual Classics), p. 24 (Patience; Sacrifice; Spiritual Disciplines) Matthew 16:24-25; 2 Corinthians 1:5-7

Drugs: They’ve Gone Country

On January 26, 2000, Joseph Califano, Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, presented results of a study on teen drug use to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington. The study was based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Justice, and findings from local police departments.

The study showed that rural eighth-graders, in comparison with teens in large metropolitan areas, were in the previous month:

Twice as likely to have used amphetamines
More than twice as likely to have smoked cigarettes
Five times more likely to have used smokeless tobacco
83 percent more likely to have used crack cocaine
50 percent more likely to have used cocaine
34 percent more likely to have smoked marijuana
29 percent more likely to have drunk alcohol
70 percent more likely to have been intoxicated

USA Today (1/27/00, 1A) (Addiction; Outreach; Drugs; Youth) Galatians 5:19-21

Live Like an Eagle

Psalm 103:5 says, “He satisfies my desires with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Why like the eagle’s? For us, the eagle is an especially powerful, handsome bird, an emblem of strength and beauty.

However, the eagle had an additional meaning for the ancient Hebrews. Because it molts (sheds and regrows) all its feathers annually, they viewed the eagle as having a new life each year. Like the phoenix, new life emerged from the old.

How can we enjoy the gift of renewed life that the eagle symbolizes? Every day we can ask, “What can I learn about God’s world that I don’t yet know?” If we have inquisitive minds, we can continually grow in our appreciation of God’s handiwork, no matter how many years we’ve lived.

Jimmy Carter in Sources of Strength (WaterBrook) (Strength; Renewal) Psalm 103:5; Isaiah 40:31

Life Among Stars

With the death of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, many commented on his insight into the human soul. Many of his panels have two characters outside, at night, staring at a field of stars. “Let’s go inside and watch television,” Charlie Brown says in one. “I’m beginning to feel insignificant.”

Linda Gehrs; source: James Poniewozik, “The Good and the Grief” Time (12/27/99) (Insignificance; Meaning; Nature) Psalm 8; Ecclesiastes 1:1-18; Matthew 5:3-5

Always Finding Fault

An elderly man lay in a hospital with his wife of 55 years sitting at his bedside. “Is that you, Ethel, at my side again?” he whispered.

“Yes, dear,” she answered.

He softly said to her, “Remember years ago when I was in the Veteran’s Hospital? You were with me then. You were with me when we lost everything in a fire. And Ethel, when we were poor—you were with me there, too.”

The man sighed and said, “I tell you, Ethel, you’re bad luck.”

Our Daily Bread (1/18/00) (Attitude; Ingratitude; Marriage; Perspective) Jude 16

Waiting Like a Trapeze Flyer

Not long before his death, Henri Nouwen wrote a book called Sabbatical Journeys. He writes about some friends of his who were trapeze artists, called the Flying Roudellas.

They told Nouwen there’s a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air.

One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher.” The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.

John Ortberg, from sermon “Waiting on God,” Preaching Today #199 (Faith; Trust; Waiting on God) Psalm 25; Psalm 27:14; Proverbs 3:5

The Weakness of the Great Wall

Whenever there is a separation between values and practice, things break down. In ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric, invading hordes to the north. To get this protection, they built the Great Wall of China. It’s 30 feet high, 18 feet thick, and more than 1500 miles long!

The Chinese goal was to build an absolutely inpenetrable defense—too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around. But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence China was successfully invaded three times.

It wasn’t the wall’s fault. During all three invasions, the barbaric hordes never climbed over the wall, broke it down, or went around it; they simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through an open door. The purpose of the wall failed because of a breakdown in values.

James Emery White in You Can Experience a Purposeful Life (Word, 2000) (Security; Betrayal) Proverbs 14:34; Ephesians 6:14

Mister Rogers: Deep and Simple

Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated.

Fred Rogers, in Christianity Today (3/6/00) (Discernment; Knowledge; Wisdom) Matthew 5:1-12; John 6:29; Ephesians 3:18-19

Good news, you’re a sinner!

Sin is the best news there is. … Because with sin, there’s a way out. … You can’t repent of confusion or psychological flaws inflicted by your parents—you’re stuck with them. But you can repent of sin. Sin and repentance are the only grounds for hope and joy, the grounds for reconciled, joyful relationships.

John Alexander in The Other Side (Sin; Repentance; Atonement) Psalm 51; Romans 6:23; James 5:16

Preparing for Judgment

Seattle’s famed Kingdome—home of the Seattle Seahawks, Mariners, and at times, the SuperSonics—was destroyed on March 26, 2000.

Maryland-based Controlled Demolition Incorporated was hired to do the job of imploding the 25,000-ton structure that had marked Seattle’s skyline for two dozen years.

Remarkable about the event was the extreme measures taken to ensure no one was hurt. CDI had experience with over 7,000 demolitions and knew how to protect people. Engineers checked and rechecked the structure. Several blocks around the Kingdome were evacuated. Safety measures were in place to allow the countdown to stop at any time if there was concern about safety. All workers were individually accounted for by radio before the explosives were detonated. A large public address system was used to announce the final countdown.

In short, CDI took every reasonable measure and more to warn people of the impending danger.

The Bible teaches of a final judgment and destruction for this sinful world. Like the engineers who blew up the Kingdome, our heavenly Father has spared no expense to make sure everybody can “get out” safely. He warns us through our consciences, through the prophets, through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, through the Church, and through his Son.

Jon Mutchler, Ferndale, Washington; source: Seattle Times (3/27/00) (End of the World; Evangelism; Preaching) John 16:5-11; Romans 2:2-4; 2 Peter 3:9-10

Bad News, Good News

In the gospel, we discover we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved than we ever dreamed.

Singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his pastor Scotty Smith in Speechless: Living in Awe of God’s Disruptive Grace (Zondervan, 1999) (Depravity; Gospel; Sin; Grace) John 3:16; Romans 3; Ephesians 2:1-10

God’s Loving Kick

A Norfolk-Southern train was rolling down the rails of Indiana at 24 miles per hour. Suddenly the conductor, Robert Mohr, spotted an object on the tracks roughly a city block away. Initially the engineer, Rod Lindley, thought it was a dog on the tracks. Then Mohr screamed, “That’s a baby!”

The baby was 19-month-old Emily Marshall, who had wandered away from home while her mother planted flowers in her yard.

Lindley hit the brakes. Mohr bolted out the door and raced along a ledge to the front of the engine. He realized there was no time to jump ahead of the train and grab the baby. So he ran down a set of steps, squatted at the bottom of the grill, and hung on.

As the train drew close to Emily, she rolled off the rail onto the roadbed, but she was still in danger of being hit by the train. So Mohr stretched out his leg and pushed her out of harm’s way. Mohr then jumped off the train, picked up the little girl, and cradled her in his arms. Little Emily ended up with just a cut on her head and a swollen lip.

Sometimes, like this train conductor, God must hurt us in order to save us.

Charles Kimball (Discipline; Pain; Problems; Suffering) Psalm 119:67, 71; Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:4-13; James 1:2-4

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