Coming Up For Air

The cartoonists had full rein this week at the New Yorker magazine. One of the efforts they featured had a priest in full vestments and a formal funeral setting, but offering the bit of hospitality, "Today‘s service will be using the hashtag “Jerry‘sDead.“ If we were entirely comfortable with that, there would be no need for the ink and the effort. If it were entirely farcical, it wouldn't have gotten anyone's attention as a favorite cartoon. This is a still shot of our culture with some bite because everything, even the death of a loved one has become fodder for social media. It's not enough to attend to signs of respect. We need to be SEEN doing so by a wider audience than is in our immediate physical surroundings. Most of the time, our experience with death is so peripheral that we only think about it well enough to avoid scandal with token gestures. CS Lewis warns in The Screwtape Letters that the removal of death from our everyday experience is much to the de

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. John 21:17, New King James Version There's a scene in the movie Judy in which a worn down Judy Garland encounters a kindly doctor who interposes himself as the voice of caution. Predictably, he tells her what the role of Dorothy from 30 years before means to him. Wistfully, Garland recalls that people always seem to like the pigtails. Used hard by drink, and drugs, and the expectations of others, she is decades from from being able to convey pigtailed innocence believably. He pivots calmly, quietly. He prescribes, in a sense, that what he liked about Dorothy was how she always took care of her dog. Garland has never been allowed, or allowed herself, to prioritize such daily routines. More, grander, is expected of her as a Star. This doctor is calling her back to Earth where most of us live most of our lives, reminding her that the subtle, habitual things we do have value. I thought of Peter in the Bible. He is ready to pronounce his allegiance to

From Psalm 145 – 14 The Lord upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season. 16 You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. From Psalm 4 6 There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. 7 You have put gladness in my heart, More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. 8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Spurgeon declares from experience in Morning and Evening , "Abide with Jesus, and it is of secondary importance whether we live on the mountain of delight or the valley of deprivation." In a season of much getting and spending, the psalmist instills this same reflection. The Lord, he is certain, proves Himself where our goods do not. Whatever the source of his fall (Psalm 145:14) or the gravitational pull on those who continue to

From Psalm 145 – 1 I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. 3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. 5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. 6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness. 7 They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness. “While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One," celebrates Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the seasonally appropriate God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas , "it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas I think the scope of Bonhoeffer's statement

5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not [c]fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. – Jeremiah 17: 5-8, New King James Version “It should not be possible for Christians to be disillusioned," argues Gene Edward Veith Jr. in Loving God with All Your Mind .  "It's We should have no illusions in the first place. Our faith is in Jesus Christ alone.” One of the interesting places the Bible offers to help us see as faith sees i

9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. I thought Michael Keaton cut an engaging, self-deprecating Bruce Wayne in Batman's 1989 cinematic outing. So did Vicki Vale, and her smitten reaction was irritating her fellow reporter who had eyes for her. When Wayne leaves, he consoles himself aloud, "The rich. You know why they are so odd? Because they can afford to be." James in writing his epistle in the Bible would not have thought of this characterization unrecognizable. The rich he surveyed there, he warned, could easily become defined by the idiosyncrasies in which they could indulge. The wind of the Spirit, though, is a leveling wind. It, in keeping with the inspired prophecy of Mary the m

From John 10 – 22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." From Psalm 137 – 1 By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion. 2 We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it. 3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill! 6 If I do not remember

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5, New King James Version As much as we depend on and delight in gadgets in our house, we rarely update them until doing so has become a borderline need. In such concessions, I've discovered the principle of AND. Years ago, I wanted, and maybe needed, a new tablet because the old one would not take a charge. In meeting the need, in fulfilling the essential functions the old one would not, this bookish gentleman whose love language is audiobooks discovered that the new one would read e-books to him. I got the gift of AND from God who gives more than enough. AND doesn't always open magnificent vistas. Sometimes God just grants an AND beyond what we ask for by making the same things He has already enabled us to do easier and less irritating. He even speaks gadget here, and has done so recently. My e-book dealer, I mean vendor, through whom I hav

A couple of weeks ago, without time for work to develop a full blog, I dashed this off to my like-minded Facebook community gathering in admiration of CS Lewis: I had a Lewis moment early, early this morning to which you might be able to relate. I woke up about 25 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off, thinking, "This is the length of one sitcom. I CAN pray this long." My brain bounced from one topic and analogy to another, and I got frustrated. Then I remembered Lewis, backward through Screwtape. He urged us to pray as we are rather than to posture as we think we should be. Too often, I measure my Father's attention by PEOPLE'S. They can be dismissive or condescending when I stretch an analogy by which I'm fascinated or unfurl one too many of them or make people think on uncommon words. If the Father can chortle, He did. Pray as you are, He comforted and challenged even more than Lewis. Who do you think wired you this way? He assured me He delights