Life Stages

Some folks are always in a rush. Never content with what they have or where they are, they are always looking ahead and pushing toward the next thing. Sometimes they are in such a hurry that seasons of their life flicker in and flicker out, seemingly in an instant. A unique and special period to be savored and appreciated, but with their feet pushing the pedal flush to the floorboard, they seem oblivious to the movie of their lives playing out in fast forward just outside their window. But, this scene is typical for so many of us. It makes me think of the opening line from the old soap opera, "Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives."

It is interesting to me to consider the typical stages of our lives and the attitude with which we approach them. You might come up with a different list, but mine looks as follows:

• Elementary school - young childhood
  
• Middle school - developing our identities
  
• High school/teenager - developing independence
  
• Young adult - learning how to live on our own
  
• Child rearing - passing on what we know
  
• Work - productive years
  
• Retirement - winding down
  

What is interesting to me is that, except for the final stage, retirement, we are so eager to get the other stages over with and get onto the next one. There things always seem so much better and more interesting. We are so manic in our looking ahead to the next stage that we oftentimes don't take in all that we could or should from the stage that we are in. Watching my daughter as she pushes so quickly to grow up, stirs memories of myself from so many years ago. Try as I might to learn to extract all of the life that I can from the period that I am in, I too tend to keep barreling ahead with my head down. Meanwhile, outside my window the movie plays on.

Love Wins

Some books are dangerous because they are subversive. Some because they can be misunderstood easily by the careless or uninformed. Some are dangerous because they make us think about things we thought we already understood. It seems to me that one or more of these dangerous labels must be applicable to the book Love Wins by "celebrity" pastor Rob Bell. This book has a rather grandiose subtitle of "A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived". Even before this book came out, there was a storm of controversy surrounding the author's pre-publication teaser. He seemed to be espousing universalism, a philosophy that says that everyone eventually gets to heaven to be in the presence of God. The heretic label was thrown about by pundits and pontificators. As for me, I have very much enjoyed and embraced each of Bell's previous works, and I felt the need to push all of the rhetoric to the side and let what Bell actually says allow me to form my own opinion.

Bell asks the question directly, "Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?". Bell's answer is "Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don't need to resolve them or answer them because we can't." But, in fact, he makes it clear that his belief is that, yes, everyone will eventually be saved at some point because God always gets what he wants and His love for us will always, eventually, win out.

The Bible is a complex book, written over a period of nearly 2000 years, many, many centuries ago. A different time, a different place, a different world. It contains passages of literal narratives, allegories, hyperbole, poetry, parables, and prophesies. One must be very careful in its interpretation to ensure the context is fully understood. Furthermore, we must be careful to appreciate that we are reading translations of the original greek and aramaic languages. It's possible there are things that we have come to misunderstand over time. To be sure, the statements of many renowned Biblical scholars are seemingly orthogonal on some points. From Augustine, to Martin Luther, to Billy Graham. However, on the keystone ideas they belt out the same tune.

The truth is that a fully literal interpretation of the Bible is imprudent. Banking on what you have heard in Sunday school or church as 100% fact is almost certainly indefensible. Claiming that a just and loving God would banish billions of people to an eternity of torment and untold suffering for choices that, in many cases, were cultural or circumstantial, requires a careful defense. Nobody alive on this Earth can claim that they know for certain. They may believe. They may have faith. But they don't know for sure. This is one of Bell's points. All we can do is to help ensure that love wins. Here and now.

What you believe isn't the full issue. What somebody else believes isn't the full issue. What you need to be able to do with a philosophy or decision on which, perhaps, your entire limitless eternity rests, is to ask honest questions and seek reasonable answers that hold up to probing and questioning. It's the only truly responsible thing to do. Whether or not you believe Bell's statements or conclusions, at least let it drive you back to the Scriptures. Just be careful what you read and which sources you claim as accurate. So, seek the rose along the way, just beware of the thorns.

Hey Jealousy

You want me to share? ... I'd rather just sit here and listen. ... I mean, the thoughts rattling around my head are pretty dark. ... I don't want anyone to see how twisted my mind really is. ... Well, maybe, on the other hand, if I get it out there, someone will be able to help me ... heal.

There is this guy I know. I call him my friend, but we are really just, well, acquaintances. I usually see him once a week and we exchange some light chatter for only a minute or two. Sometimes we leave comments on each other's blogs. He is about 15 years younger than I. I mean, I respect him as a person. He sets a good example for those around him and he has a lot of friends. I think he respects me too, but he really doesn't know all that much about me. Maybe if he did ...

Well this guy and his wife had some sort of fertility problem, I don't know the details, but they wanted to start a family. They tried lots of stuff and saw lots of doctors, but nothing worked. Anyway, to make a long story short, they just gave birth to twins. Now they are both just busting because they never thought they would get this opportunity. It's like they already had so much going for them, and now they get another major blessing. Then you see them surrounded by dozens and dozens of friends and supporters.

I mean, I'm happy for them too, but my feelings run deeper than that. Most of my joy for them has been stolen by my own poor choices and bad luck in life. I don't even want to admit it to myself, but my joy for my friend is being overwhelmed by jealousy. I mean, why can't I ..., dang, I hate that I feel this way ... Well, that's it, that's everything. ... I told you it was messed up.

... for love is strong as death; jealousy as fierce as the grave.

What is God?

In 2009, pastor and author Graig Groeschel organized a multi-church campaign that sought to bring some element of unity and common direction amongst the different voices and the diversity. One outcome of that effort was a wonderful book called What is God Really Like?. This book collects the sermons of seventeen of the participating pastors together. Each sermon was designed to explore a specific aspect of God's character and approach. These included:

God is Strong - Francis Chan	God is Here - Dino Rizzo
God is Incomparable - Mark Batterson	God is Reconciler - Clark Mitchell
God is Certain - Andy Stanley	God is Encouraging - Rick Bezet
God is For You - John Burke	God is Present - Perry Noble
God is Able - Jentezen Franklin	God is in Control - Greg Surratt
God is Merciful - Stovall Weems	God is Close - Wayne Cordeiro
God is Not - Steven Furtick	God is Big - Gary Shiohama
God is Not Like Me - Toby Slough	God is More - Chris Hodges
God is Father - Craig Groeschel

This was just a wonderful set of devotionals that are easy to read and to follow. You will laugh and cry and smile and feel. A wonderful way to strengthen your knowledge and relationship with the great I AM.

Moonstruck

The full moon always seems to stir my imagination. Intellectually, it is no more than a barren rock that orbits our planet once a day, yet my mind always seems to dance with images of cartoon characters running around in search of the blue cheese mines. I guess this comes from watching too much television. I love to gaze up at that glowing orb in the night sky and just let the atmosphere and the clouds play games with my mind. Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. I talk to the man who lives up there, whose face peers down on the Earth below. I wonder what he sees from his perspective. I wonder if we seem as troubled to him as a people as I sense we are. His knowing wink, just a trick of the mind I guess. You might think that thoughts such as mine are ultimately a sign that there is some link between the phases of the moon and some other-worldly effects. In horror movies, it is always the lunar cycle that morphs man into werewolf. No, not so with me. It is just a fancy of thought, after all. Right? Moonstruck.

Inner Child

My inner child has gone and left no forwarding address. I'm not sure if he will come back this way again. I have been so busy and distracted that I never saw him go. However, until this moment, I felt certain he and I would be together forever as I always saw myself as a young person, with a child-like spirit and a simple, perhaps naive, way of looking at the world. Now it seems that things are noticeably different. I guess in most ways, I have finally grown up. This thought kind of makes me blue. You know who I blame for this? Justin Bieber. Well, maybe it's not his fault that I grew up, but it is his fault that I suddenly came to see myself this way.

I used to say that I had the musical tastes of a 14-year-old girl. Michael Jackson, I stared gooey-eyed at his posters. Backstreet Boys, dreamy. Their songs used to send tingles up and down my spine. I even have an album by Don Johnson as his style and swagger from Miami Vice made me want to grow stubble and wear a pastel blazer with a T-shirt. But something inside me is different, and it has taken me until my mid-40s to recognize that I'm not a little kid. I finally recognize myself as an adult.

My realization occurred when I considered the brouhaha caused by the latest teen-beat craze du jour, Justin Bieber. I look at this little whimpy, slightly effeminate boy and scratch my head. I hear his strained, thin wheezing and tinny voice and I am lost. He is all manufactured image and no substance. The other day I passed by a radio playing one his songs and all the teenage girls were there singing out loud, swaying back and forth, all with their hands on their hearts and tears in their eyes. I really don't get it. Not this time. I miss my inner child and worry that I will be left alone from this point forward. Will he be back? I would guess never, but "The Biebs" told me to never say never.

Desiring God

"Delight yourself in the Lord." is a verse from the Old Testament book of Psalms (37:4) that represents a command from the Word of God. It means that we should pursue joy in God. The Bible makes it clear that God created humanity to rejoice him, to make it our central purpose. Thus it stands to reason that the more passionately we pursue our purpose, i.e. delighting ourselves in the Lord, the more we will glorify the Lord and the more we will fulfill what God has designed us for. Such is the basic tenet of the book Desiring God by John Piper.

The book has chosen to make its arguments in the areas of worship, love, money, marriage, missions, and suffering from the standpoint of what Piper is urging us all to become, that is a "Christian hedonist". Of course, many folks are very uncomfortable with the term hedonist. A hedonist is someone whose life is devoted to seeking self-pleasure by whatever measures and means are necessary. Hedonism is the doctrine that the pursuit of pleasure is the highest good. I am sure that Piper chose this terminology purposefully to make folks uncomfortable and uneasy, to be provocative. To make them shift in their seats and shake their heads. The term hedonist is unequivocally linked with gluttony. All of these images have strong negative connotations.

Yet contrary to how we think about this label, Piper implores us that unless we approach God as a hedonist, then we aren't truly worshipping Him and giving Him what he desires and commands of us. If he could boil down his entire message in a single sentence it would be that "the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever". The more zeal and passion that we devote to this task, the more we will glorify God. Such is the notion of being a Christian hedonist.

The Bible plainly teaches that the goal of all we do should be to glorify God. But it also teaches that in all we do we should also pursue the fullness of our joy. Some theologians have tried to force these two pursuits apart. But the Bible does not force us to choose between God's glory and our joy. Many people mistakenly feel that if they experience joy or enjoyment or pleasant feelings in their work for the Lord, then they are not doing the work for the right reasons. Piper would argue to the contrary and he backs it up with fastidious attention to what the Bible actually says. So, go ahead, live hedonistically for the Lord, just make sure that you really understand what this means. Oh, and don't dive into this book unless you are willing to deal with a fair level of complexity and bloviation for a few relatively straightforward nuggets.