Coming Up For Air

1 Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. 2 I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these th

16 “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; 17 for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.”  18 (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. 19 And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood.)  Acts 1:16-19, New King James Version "If we," interposes C.S. Lewis, "could see things from a sufficient height above we should all realize that we are in fact proper objects of pity.” Peter, then, is a man who between his denial of Christ and his great coming out in Acts 1:16-19 has seen things from a sufficient height. If I could know the whole of his spiritual itinerary, I would copy in stride for stride. Perhaps it as well, then, tha

In The Kid , Bruce Willis plays a straight talking consultant. Whatever the differences between those he engages, he tends to have one particular target. He will ask, if they know what the number one killer of insert-your-demographic-here is, and the answer will always be self-pity. Donald Miller gives the idea transference into the evangelical world. In Father Fiction, he diagnoses that self-pity keeps us from developing emotional muscle. But, even in Scripture, those revered figures we would discern have already demonstrated plenty of emotional muscle are subject to undermining their identity and effectiveness in Christ with self-pity. Elijah's furry face is a prominent one to be flattened by this fugue of self-pity. Perhaps we can learn from the nature of the attack, and how the intrusive grace of God overcomes it.   2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow abou

  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.  1 Corinthians 15:10 The tagline for Tuesday's experience in my little sphere is applied after the fact by GK Chesterton in Heretics . He surmises, "In the attempt to be everything, the first and most difficult step is to be something." In one day, God showed me a lot about the something I am in Christ. The day began, as many of them do, at some indeterminedly early hour with an impromptu after action report yesterday's events. This is otherwise known as insomnia. Little pricks from beginning a performance review on myself and a brief interaction with a student goaded me. Was I living up to the US Army's former slogan embedded since my childhood in my sense of self. Was I being all I could be, really? My day job as a career coach involves counseling students when they are brave enough to inquire about the transition between school and work. When students are about othe

15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. New King James Version "Real writers," the New Yorker 's Adam Gopnik who would know characterizes, "ought to bear witness to transformation rather than pretend it hasn't happened." Tuesday unfolded that way for me. It packed in transformation with unusual coherence within the subtle, small-scale context of one life. In accordance with Gopnik's dictum, and my own time proven experience that I wil

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. After several years away, my wife and I are reentering the ministry of foster care. We are doing so more wisely this time. In one respect, in our mid-40s, we have less expectation of using this as a means to claim an infant as "ours" through the eventual adoption process. We simply, sincerely, by the grace of God, both want to help where we can. We are wiser in another respect because God has provided us with counselors among whom Proverbs says there is safety. One of those is Kelly with Crossnore, the agency that is the conduit of personal grace between us and the at times lumbering bureaucracy of social services which left some bruises on

I'm working through the Bible's book of Acts with my friend Curtis, and our weekly encounters over that text are a highlight. They are splendid from the angle that God has given us His Word and has given me a particular love for the book of Acts as He continues to display His glory after Christ ascends to Heaven. But these encounters are also splendid for more individual reasons. They are, in turn, a miniature book of Acts in my own life. I recently had my work hours reduced, and many of the hours I do work are from home. In a sense, I'm experiencing the gradual closing of one chapter with its loss of something like prestige and its diminishing opportunities for connection. By God's grace, though, He is closing out my excuses along with what can seem, humanly speaking, like lost opportunities. I know longer can say with any sincerity that I don't have time to reach out to people on the periphery of my social circle, to ask the extra question, or to offer to help to

9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” New King James Version I had a former pastor who used to talk about the relationship between the whistle and the steam engine. People paid attention to the whistle. Sometimes they wanted it blown. But the steam which on occasion blew the whistle actually existed to power the whole train. That happens, he would say, with the spiritual gifts. We are attracted to the flashiness and the novelty of the gifts, to the times when they found the whistle rather than like steam, power the train. This could be the point at which we take off on a tangent on the evils of the distra

Screwtape suffered a defeat in my kitchen an hour or so ago. More accurately, the principles espoused by CS Lewis's fictional demon were undermined in what began as a normal conversation. I'm hoping you can help me count the ways in which the demons were flummoxed and the Kingdom of God advanced in a subtly sanctified Saturday. Where the patriarchs built an altar in order to prompt memories, gratitude, and questions from passersby, I write a blog in the same spirit. Plus, I'm trying to come out from behind my tendency to insistently quote somebody else.  It builds more faith to share what God is doing in my sphere, usually little by little, because individual events are not as dramatic as those publishers will invest to put into print. I come back from Saturday morning Bible study face aglow  in exposition mode. I want to share what I taught and what God is doing. Although my wife is prioritizing putting away the groceries and other Saturday chores, it worked this time.