If You Can't Say Something Nice, ...

Saturday 6/8/2013 7:57 AM

I am not a confrontational person.  I walk away from an argument or any kind of conflict.  Jaci is much the same way and as a consequence we have had virtually no fights during the course of our marriage.  That is not to say we haven’t had disagreements.  We simply deal with it by using what I call the silent treatment.  I guess that strategy is based upon the saying by Clover, Thumper’s mother, in Bambi, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”  While that makes for a quiet home, seething beneath the surface there is often frustration, anger, resentment and a host of other feelings, which never get expressed or vented.

This morning I read a quote by C. Fitzsimmons Allison in his book Guilt, Anger and God.  He writes, “To act as if another does not exist is a more hostile act than to slap his face.  In the latter action one at least acknowledges his presence.  The silent treatment is an extremely powerful weapon of aggression.  With God, we are seemingly unable to hurt him in any other way.  The only weapon we can use on him, as a vehicle of our anger at all the suffering he allows, is our silence.”  This makes me reconsider my modus operandi.

I have never thought of my withdrawal from an argument or conflict as an act of aggression.  I have always considered it as taking the high road by not saying things without thinking them through or lashing out in anger, resenting the behavior at a later time.  I’m not exactly sure what alternate way I should deal with situations since I have been doing this for my entire life.

I do not seem to do the same thing in my relationship with God.  When faced with the suffering world I tend to get angry and shout and shake my fist at God rather than give him the silent treatment.  It seems that in the process of ranting and raving to God about the injustices I see that, in my opinion, he fails to adequately address, he will often quietly and gently point out the role I have to play in generating and sustaining those injustices.  He reminds me that if I want things to change, and want God to do something about it, he will use me, and the rest of his children, as his tools to accomplish it.  In other words, I need to confront the injustice and the suffering rather than giving it the silent treatment.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Thursday 6/6/2013 7:06 AM

Tuesday I wrote about how few times in my life I have truly adored God.  I can think of only a few times when I was moved beyond words, when the only thing I could think was The Sanctus from the Catholic Mass, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.”  I would like to have more experiences like that but it seems as if there has to be a perfect storm of circumstances, attitude and openness to the Holy Spirit.  Most of the time I am lacking one or more of the requisites.

A. W. Tozer writes about this in his book The Root of the Righteous.  “There is a place in the religious experience where we love God for himself alone, with never a thought of his benefits.  And there is a place where the heart does not reason from admiration to affection.  True, it all may begin lower down, but it quickly rises to the height of blind adoration where reason is suspended and the heart worships in unreasoning blessedness.  It can only exclaim, ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ while scarcely knowing what it means.”

Why I don’t have more experiences like that?  It seems that if I try to conjure up that feeling it becomes even more unlikely to occur.  It seems to be inversely proportional to my efforts.  In my experience it has surprised me, come at times when I least expected it.  I would expect that as I become more aware of the work of God in my life the more I would be overwhelmed by his greatness but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  I just wish it would happen more often.  My former pastor would ask me this question, “Are you in love with God or with the feelings?”  Perhaps the lack of being overwhelmed is to remind me to love God instead of the feelings.

1000 Miles

Wednesday 5/29/2013 5:43 AM

I love to run.  Over the course of the last year I have run about eight hundred miles.  In my younger years I ran over one thousand miles per year, running with a colleague each day or training for races.  I have been running for almost thirty-five years so I imagine I have run over thirty thousand miles during the course of my lifetime.  Thankfully, my knees and hips are still healthy in spite of the years of abuse from running on asphalt.  I will keep running until my body gives out.

I love to sing.  The lyrics to a song can be very moving but mostly I enjoy the music.  I love to listen to the notes dancing with each other, choreographed by the composer, using meter, timbre, pitch, etc. to affect emotion in the listener.  My sister, Ruth, composes music, a talent I covet.  For her it is therapy.  I covet the gift but God has given me but two tunes in my lifetime and only one of those tunes came with lyrics.  So for now, I will sing the songs of others.  I will sing until my voice gives out.

I love life.  A few weeks ago a lifelong member of my church, Johanna Vander Sys, passed away.  She was 103 years old.  She loved life too and she lived it in such a way that others were blessed by having known her.  Long ago she made a commitment to live her life for God and she was faithful to that commitment to the end.  I want to live like that.

This morning I changed the playlist on my iPhone before I ran.  I usually have a list of songs I listen to that are my favorites from different artists.   Today I chose to listen to the album Broken and Beautiful by Mark Shultz.  The lyrics of one of the songs, 1000 Miles, started me thinking.

Oh, I would walk one thousand miles; a thousand miles, it’s true.  Oh, I would walk one thousand miles just to be with you.  Cause you’ve got my heart and you’ve got my soul now you’ve got this promise too: Oh, I would walk one thousand miles just to be with you.

And if I write ten thousand songs, ten thousand songs, it’s true.  And if I write ten thousand songs I’ll sing them all for you.  Cause you’ve got my heart and you’ve got my soul now you’ve got this promise too:  If I could write ten thousand songs, I’ll sing them all for you.

And if I live one hundred years before my life is through.  And if I live one hundred years I’ll spend them loving you.  Cause you’ve got my heart and you’ve got my soul now you’ve got this promise too.  If I could live one hundred years, I’ll spend them loving you.

The refrain of each verse makes me think.  God has my heart and he has my soul.  This is not because of what I have done but because of the work of Jesus on my behalf.  But I also have a decision to make with respect to my relationship with God.  God does not force himself upon me; I can choose to pursue a close relationship with him or not.  Each day I have a choice of how I spend my time.  I pray that I will have the commitment to run one thousand miles, sing ten thousand songs and live one hundred years just to be with him.

Reconciling Science with Faith

Thursday 5/30/2013 9:01 AM

I recently read the book Quantum Leap, the story of John Polkinghorne, a nuclear physicist and Anglican priest who has reconciled his life of faith in God with his work in science.  I have also read the books Coming to Peace with Science by Darrel R. Falk, a biologist, and The Fourth Day by Howard Van Til, an astronomer.  As scientists they, too, attempted to reconcile their scientific endeavors in their respective fields with their faith in God as creator.

There are many in both the scientific and the Christian communities who would suggest that the realms of science and faith have nothing to say to the other.  Scientists find Christians to be misinformed ignoramuses who need to leave their noses out of science and Christians feel threatened by theories of evolution, be it stellar or biological, thinking somehow that would eliminate the need for God.  There are strong feelings on both sides of the issue and vitriolic language and behavior spew from both sides.

 I believe that God reveals himself in both the Bible and in his creation.  In Reformed circles, of which I am a part, these are called God’s special revelation and God’s general revelation respectively.  It seems to me that if God is revealing himself to mankind through both means there should be a common message rather than a divided one.  As Christians, I believe we should do all we can to inform ourselves with regard to both the Bible and the sciences so that we can wrestle intelligently with whatever paradoxes seem to arise.  Unfortunately, too often Christians are ignorant of both what the Bible and what the sciences say.  We need to search for the truth of God wherever it can be found and not shy away from the difficulties that may arise as we seek to reconcile any discrepancies.

In 1 Corinthians, Commentary, William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther suggest a similar tack.  They write, “One who participates in the life of the Spirit in the Christian fellowship examines all things, is free to investigate all things pertaining to God.  Paul proposed that there should be no censorship nor obstruction to the systematic search for truth.  This implies that the spiritual person is capable of evaluating properly the good and evil he confronts, of estimating what things are worthwhile and what things are not.”  I wish the Christian community, as a whole, would be less defensive of God and less offensive to the scientific community and have the courage to engage in reconciling the findings of science with their knowledge of God, as Polkinghorne, Falk and Van Til have done.

Resuming Workout 2

Tuesday 5/28/2013 6:16 AM

Yesterday I wrote about my Nike app on my phone that kept malfunctioning saying “resuming workout”.  Today it started doing the same thing so I turned my phone off and restarted it.  That seemed to do the trick and it worked normally after that.

As I ran this morning I thought about working out and the verse about working out one’s salvation came to mind.  When I got back I looked it up and found it was Philippians 2:12.  My devotional theme for the week is the mind of Christ and as I looked at my assigned passage for today I discovered it was Philippians 2:1-11, the famous passage about having the same mind of Christ, that of an obedient servant who considers others better than himself.  That passage is followed immediately by verses 12 and 13, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”  These verses seem to imply that God works his salvation into me, causing me to want what he wants and informing me of the actions he desires for the building up of his kingdom.  Then I need to work that salvation out by following the advice of the next few verses, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”

If I am to be effective in bringing about the kingdom of God I need to work out what God works in by the power of his Spirit.  My daily motto as I begin each day should be, “Resuming workout.”