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...