Storytelling

Community is a place where stories are told and retold, celebrated and heard. We all have stories; some funny, some joyful, some dramatic, and some tragic. These narratives are meant to be shared, they need to be shared. But many stories are often untold: stories of fear and shame, pain and pleasure. They hide in the recesses of one’s heart, afraid of what may happen if they were to come out. This is the challenge of community. For these kinds of stories, the ones that will shake a person’s world, come out only when certain unspoken agreements are understood by all in the community. First, the storyteller must feel comfortable telling their story without the judgmental eyes of others staring at them. Second, they must know the unconditional love and support of the group to which they are pouring out their life. Third, the storyteller is not a broken record for everyone to fix. And fourth, the community must be a place where people point each other to Christ, with whom there is acceptance, forgiveness, and healing. For ultimately, our stories are part of the bigger narrative of the world from creation to new creation. The beautiful thing about the Christian gospel is that the Creator of the world enters into this story in order to bring us to the end of the story. In a way, we already know the ending because He has foreshadowed it a couple millennia ago in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Through Jesus, God has reconciled the world to Himself. And not just in a spiritual sense, but wholly and completely: physically, emotionally, psychologically, you name it. Each of our stories have meaning and significance, but more than that, they are subsumed into the greater story of redemption, and because of that, they are worth telling.

Selfishness and Marriage

One thing that scares me about getting married (actually there are many things that scare me) is how I will bring my selfishness into it.  And not just me, but she will too.  Marriage is like bringing two captains onto one ship; both will want their way and neither will get it.  Along the way, both will get hurt and frustrated with the other.  Now, here is my solution to the dilemma: I won’t get married.  This way, no one will get hurt.  Sounds good, doesn’t it? Maybe even a noble and considerate act of sacrifice.  I wish it was that easy though.  As someone reminded me recently, we were made for community.  Our selfishness will affect everyone around us, not just the ones who live under our roof.  Therefore, the pain caused by our selfishness is not something that can be avoided.  Rather, selfishness is a sin that must be confronted head on.  Ironically, one of the hardest and best places to deal with selfishness is in marriage.  Here, your sin is shamefully exposed for what it really is and how damaging it can be.  But it is also here where you learn the depths of love and forgiveness in the face of sin.  Here, you are forced to rely on a power greater than your own, to do what is not natural to you, and to sit at the foot of Christ and see his selfless sacrifice on behalf of his bride.  “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her…”  All this to say that marriage has a way of making us more Christ-like.  Alright then, that’s one excuse down and 9 more to go.

Thoughts on Las Vegas

My favorite things about the trip:

1. Driving through Red Rock Canyon and climbing up the sides of mountains.

2. Playing cards with my brothers late into the night in our rooms.

3. Holding my niece, Maxine, at a restaurant and seeing her smile.

4. The scenery on our way to Hoover Dam.

5. The Las Vegas Blvd strip at night.

My least favorite parts of the trip.

1. Provocative and sensual images everywhere.

2. The dry, hot weather.

3. Everything was expensive.

4. Losing a hundred dollars in Black Jack (I’ve heard Las Vegas sometimes being referred to as Lost Wages, Nevada).

To be honest, I have no desire to go back.  It’s not a real family-friendly place.  Nor is it a christian-friendly place.  There was simply too much temptation around.  Maybe it’s just me.  Perhaps the big city just doesn’t fit my personality.  Next time my family takes a vacation, I may suggest we pack our tents and join the Greenwald’s in the Smoky Mountains.  That sounds more like my kind of place.

To the Ends of the Earth

Worship is the fuel and goal of missions. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.  John Piper has on more than one occasion convicted me about my lack of passion and seriousness for the glory of God in all of life.  Missions is one of those areas.  The other day, there was a missions meeting at the church in order to decide about what to do with some of our missionaries.  Many who were present were very gracious and spoke well of our missionaries.  I, on the other hand, found myself being very critical of some of them when I don’t even know them.  I was simply being too quick to judge.  I had forgotten about the goal of missions.  In this regard, I need to remember the advice of my pastor and “err on the side of grace”.  Missions is a vital calling of the church.  The peoples of the world are not yet fully worshipping God.  My attitude needs to change.  I need to take off the wig, put down the gavel, step off the bench, and start waiting tables.  That’s what Jesus did.

Free At Last

To those who daily struggle with the evil in their hearts, to those who when wanting to do good find sin right there with them, to those weighed down by constant failure, I offer this brief note of encouragement: It is your heavenly father’s sovereign prerogative and promise to kill the sin in you and make you whole.  As one song writer put it, “our shepherd good and true is he, who will at last His Israel free from all her sin and sorrow.”  Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be easy.  You will fight and get beat down.  It will be a painful process, but make no mistake about it; you will win.  Sin will be defeated.

“Jesus’ blood alone can deliver from sin.  Live in His blood and you will die a conqueror-you will by the good providence of God, live to see you lust dead at your feet” (The Enemy Within-Kris Lundgaard).