Coming Up For Air

I like continuity, so my scroll through Facebook's On This Day feature is a fixture as I consider what I was thinking about on June 30 in past years. Given the murders at a Maryland newspaper this past week, and the general grudge, and in the culture against the media, I was reflecting on this observation from Charles Emerson's 1913: The Search for the World before the Great War . Emerson describes of St. Petersburg, Russia in that year that newspapers provided, "a common culture of aspiration." I think the culture of aspiration still mixes with the ink in the blood of, if not on the fingers of, journalists, bloggers, pundits, opinion-shapers, cranks, and critics from every direction. I also find that we as Christians miss something in our default reaction when others dare to aspire to something different than the culture in which we, generally, have flourished. In one breath, we are ready, brothers and sisters in Christ, to cry out in the wilderness that we have ...

The experience was very much like finally locating the lingering source of an unpleasant smell, although the actual aroma in the diner where I gathered with friends was pleasant enough. The night before, I had been gathered with a different group of guys studying Jeff Vanderstelt's Gospel Fluency and admitting to areas in which we failed to believe the Gospel applied. Many of us, it seems, believe Christ's power and intentions for our eternity but not in the comparatively easier challenges we face on a daily basis. In this discussion, I admitted to having difficulty believing that my new job was going as well as it was. I was, I admitted, waiting for the other shoe to drop in spite of all the amazing ways Christ has shown Himself faithful and generous on this job, and in its predecessors. I was fully prepared to convict (good) and condemn (not good) my own heart as the source of this failure to believe. But the next morning, I discovered the smell of unbelief was not wholly s...

Psalm 124 – 1 A Song of Ascents. Of David. "If it had not been the LORD Who was on our side," Let Israel now say – 2  "If it had not been the LORD Who was on our side, when men rose up against us, 3 then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us; 4 then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul; 5 then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul 6 Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers, the snare is broken, and we have escaped. 8 our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made Heaven and Earth. His name was Ricky, and he had the standing swagger of someone with law enforcement experience. When I met him, he was doing safer work lecturing a room full of bureaucrats on how to handle threats of violence. In telling him about incidents, he said those he was responsible for protecting will report we were conce...

From Psalm 123 – 1 A Song of Ascents. Unto You I lift up my eyes, oh You who dwell in the heavens. 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us. Three Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 4 our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud. Roger Angell in Season Ticket observes, "Baseball, to its credit, confirms continuity and revolution in equal parts, thus keeping its followers contented but attentive." This productive tension also exists in the revelation of God's purposes as Psalm 123 points to the phenomenon. The author begins by recognizing the distance between God and men. He is, admits verse one, in Heaven, and we are on Earth. His ways aren't exactly like a household, or a baseball game. Nevertheless, behold, ...

To wake up still somewhat at the behest of the body and mind which haven't yet been made fully like Christ's is to troll incessantly for likes from our fellow fallen humans. If I needed proof, that's eventually what I do when I first get out of bed. Before time in God's Word which has yielded amazing results of grace, as well as the respect of men, there is Facebook. Before Charles Spurgeon's daily devotional Morning and Evening which continues to shape me on what I think is my fourth annual trip through, there is the quest for little white numbers in a little red box indicating how approved of I am. My flesh got a quick fix from this ritual this morning, only to be followed by pangs of withdrawal. SOMEBODY LIKES ME, came the internal howl as someone managed to wade through one of my blogs and come out on the other side with enough energy to hit the approval button on social media. What's more, the morning brought a response from my faithful reader. Perhaps sh...

From Psalm 121 – 1 A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth. As a resident for most of my life and the flatter portions of the Carolinas, I have scant experience with mountains. Mine is enough, though, to know that they impose the consideration of a different perspective. My family traveled to the top of Pike's Peak on a vacation. The compact rental car was nearly overmatched by the climb. Meanwhile, the clime which had allowed for lounging by the pool the day before changed drastically enough as we ascended that at the top my brother and father were rifling through suitcases for warmer clothing. The psalmist is at such a place opening what comes down to us as Psalm 121. The mountains are too big and too different to be ignored. They have to be factored in. They change the climate. Depending on one's situation, they either offer protection or expose human limitations. Conside...

From Luke 18 – 1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that man always art to pray and not lose heart, 2 saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, "Get justice for me from my adversary." 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, "Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His own elect to cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" 9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. In this week's issue of the New Yorker magazine, Amanda Petrusi...

A friend of mine with considerable teaching gifts says her only hesitation in teaching the Bible to children is that she isn't comfortable with crafts. Nevertheless, a couple of years ago her second-grade son showed me a pillow he painted in church on Wednesday night. It was covered in a print of puppy feet. Inspired to go for the avuncular, I asked him, did they have to dip the whole dog in paint, or just the feet? I expected a roll of the eyes, or a charitable laugh. What I got was a look of focused concentration as he tried to figure out an earnest answer to my question. His mom had to let him off the hook with the revelation that this grown-up was kidding. I don't repent of attempts at humor, however abstruse they may be. I don't repent of figurative language, as all too often the word choices by which we would convey Truth or build relationships are thoughtlessly unoriginal. A timely word is often well thought out to break through the dullness of conventional, nearly...

From Isaiah 2 – 8 Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. 9 People bow down, and each man humbles himself; therefore do not forgive them. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty. Bob Dylan famously sang, "You gotta serve somebody." Isaiah 2:9-10 offers proof of this that predates the Nobel laureate, but also an indication that not all service and subjugation is equal. Inveterate do-gooders by our own oft convenient and shifting definition of oft convenient good, we want to cry foul to God's verdict in verse nine. People who bow down, we reason, people who go through such motions actually do humble themselves, don't they OBLIGE God to forgive them? His vantage point, however, is wider than a verse nine snapshot carefully cropped to human advantage. Backing up only as far as verse eight, He shows Isaiah and his readers more than ...

I met a new friend yesterday who was transitioning from teaching high school kids to teaching the same material to college students. I surmised out loud that he had had an excellent opportunity to test his material, and he agreed. You know the difference between high school seniors and college freshman, he asked? Three months' vacation. I'm still considering this because it appropriately challenges the bright and clean lines with which we like to separate stages of maturity. A child is a high school senior. He or she steps over a magical threshold and is, we suppose, changed all at once to readiness for college. I know this not to be so from professional experience, but I still expect such dividers of demarcation in my own life and that of others. I'm learning. I got to give my testimony on the impact of a ministry I learned under in college to those representing that ministry now. I said some of the seeds planted in that fertile era are still coming up as I walked in my ...

When Corrie Ten Boom was a little girl, she was riding the train with her father. Such a little time about other business apparently created the space to ask questions that pressed on her young mind, and she did. She asked her father what sex sin was. Her wise father turned to her and asked that she carry their large suitcase. When she admitted that she could not, her father drew a parallel between that futile effort and the answer to her questions. He suggested that just as the suitcase was too heavy for her right now and that it would be best for her to let her father carry it, so it was with the answer to some of life's questions. Better to leave them in her father's hands until the right time. I think about that when I come upon verses like Psalm 119:78, in which the psalmist opens by inveighing, "Bring disgrace upon the arrogant people who lied about me." Although this celebration of the righteous judgment of God runs counter to our culture, I don't struggl...

There's an energy drink provider's commercial that sticks with me these days. A parent of a newborn serves by night. An office assistant perseveres who hasn't had a day off in recent memory. If the settings and the dialogue didn't clue us into the fact that these people needed a boost, there's an icon above their heads familiar to nearly every 21st-century American. It's a cell phone battery representing the individual's energy supply, and it is predictably low. I'm not sure our energy and positivity can be registered on a single gauge. Recent changes have charged mine to 100% on some fronts, but adoption optimism has been flagging. My wife and I have been on the infertility/adoption journey for many years without an occupied crib. Recently, she has been following a startup consulting service on social media begun with promising results, and she encouraged me in her wifely way to join her for a conference call. I did, mostly. The perky voice on the oth...

From 2 Thessalonians 3… 6  But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which [ a ] he received from us. 7  For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8  nor did we eat anyone’s bread [ b ] free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, 9  not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. 10  For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11  For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12  Now those who are such we command and [ c ] exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. 13  But as for you, bre...

From Isaiah 2 – 7 Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Years ago, my computer was running slowly. I got the assistance of a friend who told me that the machine's memory was overburdened, clogged up by items on the desktop and programs running in the background. Remember, he said, even if you don't see it, it is using up resources. The Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah in verses seven and eight of the prophet's second chapter would agree. He has dealt with the hot and exotic sins which are impeding the nation's sanctification process toward perfect communion with God in the preceding verses. Even if the people listening to him excise soothsayers and the temptations that come with foreign cultures, they aren't well before God ...

I've started watching another 90s family comedy, and this time Blossom has my attention. The title teenager's resolve to focus on life's positives animates the show from the quirky, catchy theme song and through her grins and dialogue. Predictably, though, it is when her joy lapses that I learned from her. Her dad's separation and divorce from her mother happened four years ago, and he has, in a sitcom staple, started dating again. She attempts to drive off the interloper for her father's affections for no better reason she can express than that the new woman doesn't close the cabinets or cut vegetables correctly.  Her way of doing these things is not exactly like Blossom's mother. Caught up in the changes of life, many of which are out of our control, we can adopt such quibbling tendencies even in those transitions far less emotional than that Blossom's family faces. When we can't face the people who seem to have foisted change on us and express o...

In one installment of Saturday Night Live still taking up space in my working memory where possibly something more profound should be is an opening by Steve Martin. He is already an established superstar, and the younger cast of acolytes surrounds him. They are asking about his previous successes, and one even asks for an autograph. Martin admits that he can buy and sell those around him now but builds to a crescendo that he is not going to "phone it in tonight." The performance in this moment will get his full passion and attention. In the put-on of the performance, Martin's enthusiasm is catching, and soon the other cast members are pledging. "We gotta learn our lines, do our part as well, then we'll go back to coasting, but not while Steve's host. 'Cause we're not get a phone it in tonight, not gonna sleepwalk through tonight." Steve Martin's introduction to his effort to show has more than a little in common with the apostle Paul'...