What to Share Guided by Why We Share
My wife and I watched the 1950s period piece Quiz Show last night. It proved once again that beneath the outward conformity and stability of the decade lay a lot of tension and insecurity. It also spoke to trends which I find outlast the Cold War or that particular burst of consumerism. The movie spoke powerfully to what one generation tends to pass on to the next.
Herb Stempel is an ex-G.I. with a photographic memory. He is also a Jew from Queens. On the quiz show 21, he believes he has found his entrée to social acceptance and admiration. As he continues to find an outlet on the show for the fact he has stored, between outings he peppers his son with similar questions. His wife protests, "You're going to give him your ulcer." She would prefer that her son develop his own ulcer rather than inherit his father's particular fixation.
The Bible doesn't have quiz shows on which its characters can show their strengths and weaknesses. Neither does it offer us histories and physicals which might help us to diagnose their ulcers, inherited or otherwise. Confirming Amy Layne Litzelman's wisdom that an empty religion betrays itself in relationships, the Bible tends to show us the impact of wrong belief and the resulting charting emotion.
Abraham fails to trust God to protect his bond with his wife Sarah when the two flee to Egypt. Instead, he asked Sarah to convey that she is his sister. This choice nearly costs him his marriage at the Egyptian ruler attempts to appropriate Sarah for himself. Like the inherited ulcer that Herb Stempel's wife worries about, the Bible shows that unbelief can pass itself undiluted to the next generation as Abraham's son Isaac does nearly the same thing to protect himself, with the same results.
Herb Stempel's foil in Quiz Show is the polished son of a respected academic family, Charles Van Doren. Only after Charles has made some compromising choices in an effort to live up to the legacy of his widely respected father to the to have a candid kitchen table conversation. In this setting, the father admits to feeling his own pressures, and the son is startled. I never knew you felt pressure, he says.
The Bible captures this sort of healthy, intergenerational candor as well. Throughout Proverbs, the author draws his son in for these sorts of kitchen table conversations. He shares with them in the context of admitting the pressures to which he and his son are both vulnerable. He may not share every gory detail of his failings. He has no desire to pass the ulcers of one generation onto the next. But he is honest enough, with Mark Van Doren, to admit the temptations which are common to man.
One plumb line of wisdom in this respect may also be offered by Psalm 145:4. Continuity is established, says the psalmist, when one generation declares God's work to the next. Admitting life's generation-to-generation struggles can be less maudlin and self-indulgent and more productive if it is done with the overriding purpose of declaring God's work. I've struggled here, fathers, mentors, disciplers, and bosses can confess proactively and appropriately, but I've seen the work of the Lord.
Perhaps the work of the Lord that can be celebrated includes insights into how to make glacial progress in the fight for sanctification. Perhaps the work of the Lord includes the humble and bracing wisdom to avoid certain situations altogether. Certainly celebrating the overall and over-awing work of the Lord on every front can put each common generational struggle in a perspective which will no longer allow it to dominate.
An appreciation for the glory of God alleviates ulcers that time is as likely to exacerbate as heal. Tapping into timeless worship renders unnecessary the pretenses of pride.
Herb Stempel is an ex-G.I. with a photographic memory. He is also a Jew from Queens. On the quiz show 21, he believes he has found his entrée to social acceptance and admiration. As he continues to find an outlet on the show for the fact he has stored, between outings he peppers his son with similar questions. His wife protests, "You're going to give him your ulcer." She would prefer that her son develop his own ulcer rather than inherit his father's particular fixation.
The Bible doesn't have quiz shows on which its characters can show their strengths and weaknesses. Neither does it offer us histories and physicals which might help us to diagnose their ulcers, inherited or otherwise. Confirming Amy Layne Litzelman's wisdom that an empty religion betrays itself in relationships, the Bible tends to show us the impact of wrong belief and the resulting charting emotion.
Abraham fails to trust God to protect his bond with his wife Sarah when the two flee to Egypt. Instead, he asked Sarah to convey that she is his sister. This choice nearly costs him his marriage at the Egyptian ruler attempts to appropriate Sarah for himself. Like the inherited ulcer that Herb Stempel's wife worries about, the Bible shows that unbelief can pass itself undiluted to the next generation as Abraham's son Isaac does nearly the same thing to protect himself, with the same results.
Herb Stempel's foil in Quiz Show is the polished son of a respected academic family, Charles Van Doren. Only after Charles has made some compromising choices in an effort to live up to the legacy of his widely respected father to the to have a candid kitchen table conversation. In this setting, the father admits to feeling his own pressures, and the son is startled. I never knew you felt pressure, he says.
The Bible captures this sort of healthy, intergenerational candor as well. Throughout Proverbs, the author draws his son in for these sorts of kitchen table conversations. He shares with them in the context of admitting the pressures to which he and his son are both vulnerable. He may not share every gory detail of his failings. He has no desire to pass the ulcers of one generation onto the next. But he is honest enough, with Mark Van Doren, to admit the temptations which are common to man.
One plumb line of wisdom in this respect may also be offered by Psalm 145:4. Continuity is established, says the psalmist, when one generation declares God's work to the next. Admitting life's generation-to-generation struggles can be less maudlin and self-indulgent and more productive if it is done with the overriding purpose of declaring God's work. I've struggled here, fathers, mentors, disciplers, and bosses can confess proactively and appropriately, but I've seen the work of the Lord.
Perhaps the work of the Lord that can be celebrated includes insights into how to make glacial progress in the fight for sanctification. Perhaps the work of the Lord includes the humble and bracing wisdom to avoid certain situations altogether. Certainly celebrating the overall and over-awing work of the Lord on every front can put each common generational struggle in a perspective which will no longer allow it to dominate.
An appreciation for the glory of God alleviates ulcers that time is as likely to exacerbate as heal. Tapping into timeless worship renders unnecessary the pretenses of pride.
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