Coming Up For Air

From Isaiah 2:5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord. 6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with eastern ways; They are soothsayers like the Philistines, And they [b]are pleased with the children of foreigners. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders," suggests Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. "Instead," he contrasts, "teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Prophetically, the second chapter of Isaiah takes a similar approach. After a largely negative, justly confrontational first chapter, the opening of Isaiah 2 is visionary and inspiring. Wherever the ultimate fulfillment of its picture of eager, contagious fellowship of the nations at the throne of God lies on the eschatological timeline, the glimpse gives Isaiah's audience something to yearn for. This rapturous motivation bigger than ourselves and our present dra...

My wife and I are watching the first season of The Crown , which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Not for the first time, I'm realizing how easy it is to dismiss or diminish the physical and emotional stamina involved in a life in politics. The Queen is on a tour of Australia which requires her to present the best face of the monarchy to a different city nearly every day for almost two months. Her face is literally cramping. Like an athlete who must perform, she opts for an injection that makes it possible for her muscles to meet expectations. This makes the consistency of God's smile upon His people all the more amazing. Professional smilers faint and grow weary, but God's ongoing delight in His own does not dim. What's more, rather than work and rest periods as Prince Philip sensibly counsels the Queen, God orders His representatives to remind His people constantly of His smile in an integral part of gathering in His Name called the A...

From James 3 ( New King James Version ) – 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and [h]self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Andrew Murray writes on humility in his classic book by that name that the virtue is, "nothing but that simple consent of the creature to let God be all, in virtue of which it surrenders itself to His working alone.” This approach to our thinking also begins to unpack the distinction James makes in his biblical lett...

In the Danny DeVito feature Other People's Money , his character is interested in purchasing a family held company in order to sell it off for its assets. The family resists, insisting that with no debt and decades of success behind it, the company is well-positioned for the future. DeVito's character explains that the company's customer base will shrivel up because of the coming of fiber-optic cable. Yes, boys and girls, there was a time before widespread Wi-Fi.  If you want to know how to go broke, he says, take an increasing share of a decreasing market. In this, he challenges human instinct. So does the Bible. We are inclined to cling to the seemingly immovable status quo until forced to do otherwise. That's why I find the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount so economic and impactful. Link our own forgiveness of other people to being forgiven by God? Pluck out our eye and cut off our hand before allowing our greed to mislead us? Come face-to-face with the realit...

My romp through the 90s sitcom Mad About You is winding up, and the newlyweds at the center of the show, Paul, and Jamie, are now parents of a crawling infant. Paul's parents want to keep up, and their offering in that direction is an odd one. His mother orders a handstitched rug featuring both of them. Jamie grapples for an escape, trying to explain that she and Paul are trying to keep the child from looking down. They want to think of Bert and Sylvia, and they want their daughter to do the same. This particular looming legacy, however, is a bit much. Elizabeth, who has just given birth to the baby who will become John the Baptist in the narrative of Luke 1, could identify with Jamie's predicament. Luke 1:58 ( New King James Version ) sets a wholesome and encouraging scene, relating, "When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So far, so good. But pressure comes with the postpartum baby shower. The next verse...

From Isaiah 2 – 3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore. David Wilkerson in The Cross and the Switchblade advises on more than dogs when he suggests how to get a bone away from one. Give him a pork chop. Isaiah has pointed to this kind of glad exchange already on an individual and national scale. In the first chapter of the prophecy, God revealed to him, both the worshiper by habit and the self-gratifying prince begin to change as they grasp the glory of God. What each has been satisfied with heretofore is paltry indeed, a shadow of th...

State-of-the-art doesn't look like it did 35 years ago. In baseball, this is particularly unnerving. As a young fan, I wasn't bothered by the intrusion of an "eye in the sky" to help the Braves position their defenders. I rather admired it and incorporated it into my way of looking at the world. 44-year-olds are less admirably adaptable, and I'm adjusting with reluctance to defensive alignments which use reams of computer-generated data to produce defensive positioning so unorthodox it requires an overhead diagram similar to football. Coaches will now regularly move the shortstop to the right side of second base if that's what the data demands. This is generically referred to as The Shift. Mark Lemke spent most of his career relying more on his own grit than on Big Data to refine defensive excellence. Nevertheless, in last night's radio broadcast, he reflected on the secondary impact of the changed positioning we see on the field. Spring training changes, ...