Whatever it takes …
“It wasn’t this wealth of information, just smacking me in the face. My parents didn’t have to deal with this.”
[HT: Joel Dombrow]
Our son is 4. About time for The Talk.
Author Archives: Jeff
All that and more.
The world is smaller, bigger, better and badder than you think.
And God so loved the world.
Both of those lines help me grasp why Jesus came to rescue us.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… [16] And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. [17] For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [18] No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
—John 1:14, 16-18, ESV
All those turtles and our competitive nature.
Last week we were able to see huge sea turtles and enjoy sunshine on a certain Hawaiian island. It was amazing. Plus, it was a place to refresh and renew as a family in our deepening relationships with one another and under Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We felt little impulse to prove ourselves or to pretend we were something better or different than who we are. We could rest and play and reflect on the past year with gratitude.
When I returned to public life today I was reminded of my own tendency to be like this:
Counting others.
Every time I tell our four-year-old son “I’m proud of you, son,” he is quick to remind me, “No, Daddy. Pride is bad.” True, son. So if I’m thinking about it I instead said, “Son, I’m really happy with you. You please me.” It seems our kids need to know we are happy to be called their parents. God the Father was happy to say the same of His Son (Matthew 3:17).
Our son is learning about humility. He’s getting the concepts down, and like all of us, learning in real-time the pitfalls of our self-centered pride. Brings to mind some of the things preached this Sunday in our church worship gatherings:
“You don’t need to try to be humble. Just be honest with who you are in light of who God is. Stop pretending, and trying to cover up who you are before others… Be honest before God.”
—Joel Dombrow, preaching on Philippians 2:1-11, Joy From Humility (Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011)
If we do that, we will then consider God as awesome, certainly more than ourselves. I was moved as I sat there asking God to do this in me.
Joel continued: “The humble person is someone who considers others as better than their self.” Not that we have to think that others are better than us, but that we place their needs before our own. We treat them as if they are better and more deserving than us. We must think about them more than us. It is putting others first.
“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Paul writes, Philippians 2:3-4)
Facebook debate.
We become what we think about.
(Or, Hermeneutics and the Transformation process, for the theo-dorks.)
Hermeneutics |ˌhərməˈn(y)oōtiks| is a cool word to describe the science and art of Bible interpretation. (More broadly, it is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpreting literary texts.) It is a process of making sense of God’s Word as well as His world. One goal of hermeneutics is to make sense of what God said, so we can know what He says today for us.
We all know far too many people who have piles of knowledge but whose life is also in piles. As Eugene Peterson reminds us, “There is a great deal of impersonal knowledge available. There is no impersonal wisdom.” Knowing a lot about what God has said should lead us to knowing Him personally, and applying His wisdom to our lives.
Wise people know a few core things really well, and are gripped by them.
Making sense of God’s words is parting of the larger process of transformation — being made new. God’s transformation process through the Word often works like this:
- Think // Our will directs our minds to interact with the thoughts of God’s Word.
- Understand // Good hermeneutics helps to understand the meaning of God’s Word.
- Illumination // The Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding and helps us see how to apply God’s word to our lives (how the meaning is significant to us, and for us).
- Transformation // As we submit ourselves to the Person of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word has a radically transforming impact upon our lives.
“Think over what I say, for the Lord
will give you understanding in everything.”
—Paul writing to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:7)
We must understand that the role of hermeneutics is not to be an end to itself, but it is for the purpose of transformation. However, it is an integral and necessary part of the process. This is why after interpreting the meaning of a passage, we need to spend time meditating and pondering the truth of the passage, and asking the Holy Spirit to show us the significance of that truth to our lives. On the flip-side, if we have stellar hermeneutics and we don’t seek to bring our hearts and our will under the submission of the Holy Spirit and actually apply God’s Word, then it doesn’t matter (in some sense) if we got our hermeneutics down pat. (Much thanks to Adam Poole on these thoughts.)
If everyone lives roughly the same lies
“If everyone lives roughly the same lies about the same things, there there is no one to call them lies; they jointly establish their own sanity and call themselves normal.”
—Ernest Becker
Quoted by Alan Hirsch in Untamed: reactivating a missional form of discipleship, ch. 4, “Kultcha-Schmultcha.”
Derived meaning.
“Human existence cannot derive its ultimate meaning from society because society itself is in need of meaning.”
—Abraham Heschel
Quoted by Alan Hirsch in Untamed: reactivating a missional form of discipleship, ch. 4, “Kultcha-Schmultcha.”
Engineers as conversationalists.
Green gratitude.
The grass is always greener where we water it.
Contentment is the root planted deep in the soil of God’s faithfulness, tilled with gratitude.
Cultivate it.
One sign it will be a good day.
How does your day begin? Why on some days are we happy and free, and other days we wake up on the proverbial wrong-side-of the-bed? Perhaps there are many reasons, but consider a broader question first.
Where does generosity come from? We might tend to think we will be more generous with our time, talents, and treasure if only we had more. Or, if there were easier ways to ‘plug in’ and invest our time, use our talents, and give our treasure to others.
All of those opportunities are already before us. Everyday, and (just about) each moment. Being generous begins with being thankful. Gratitude is the key to changing our hearts to want to want to give our lives away for a cause much greater than our little lives.
Here’s a simple exercise we started doing a couple years back: on garbage day, watch the garbage truck pick up your trash. Seriously. Let’s pause our breakneck speed and consider the beauty of how someone drives by and picks up our trash. Better yet, when we hear the truck around the corner, say to our children, ‘Let’s watch the garbage truck!’ and rush to the window together to be awed.
Wait for the questions … this is a routine for us every Wednesday morning as my son considers important questions like “what do they do with all that garbage?” It has sparked many conversations on how the world works, our chores and responsibilities, why the recycling container is 4x the size as that garbage can, and how we can today choose to be thankful (aka “have a happy heart”).
Since the garbage truck circles around the back of our house, then up the other side of the street, back around on our side, and exits our neighborhood to the one behind us, there are four opportunities to say “there’s the garbage truck.” Of course, this may be a boy thing, and I’m doubtful our daughter will one day be as enthused. (We do the same thing with the street sweeper.)
Can you believe we are able to roll our garbage out to the curb? For about $20 a month? Are you kidding me? (Remember those old tin cans with the round lids that tended to blow off? Just remembered they didn’t have wheels, AND we had to purchase the cans ourselves.
I remember being jealous once as a kid that the neighbors had a fancy set of cans; they were colored plastic with special lids and built-in bungee cords that would latch them shut. They never had to be late to school because their cans tipped over with trash littering the street. We did.
There are people in developing nations walking trash across the city, barefoot, in the heat of the day, parched and yet not complaining about their lot in life. And I get to witness someone come by my house weekly and take our garbage out of sight and out of mind. In fact, there are two, as the recycling truck comes along later.
Sure there are opportunities for us to complain, worry, and get anxious. But if today the garbage truck stopped by to take your stinky heap of waste — that’s a good sign today will be a good day.
A parenting workshop for those doing pretty good (or even great) as parents.
Whenever we hear and announcement or see a 30-second commercial about a product or an idea, we subconsciously ask ourselves “Do I need this?” If we buy into what the marketers want — a want to want it, based our their projecting the ‘need’ we hadn’t realized before — we’ll buy what they are selling. Or, we’ll figure out the best version to get that is similar to what they’re selling.
Here’s the idea I’m selling you today:
You need to be at this Parenting Worship, on Saturday, January 22nd (9am-2pm).
As a friend reminded me this morning how all of us grew up with imperfect parents (bless them!). There was a year when we stopped communicating with and trusting them, and they were less effective in raising us. They were in many ways echoing the pattern they saw in their parents, living the same pattern out in raising us. So, let’s think about what age or year that happened in your family. Without wisely and godly counsel, you as a well-meaning parent (and me) will repeat this same pattern. We may be doing great right now, but there will be a day when we are not doing great. Let’s commit to planning for that day.
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