Category: books and films and articles

you are not enough

What a funny word.
“Enough” means sufficient, even if it means barely squeaking by.

I wonder what happens when enough is a challenge. Are you man enough? Are you strong enough? Are you brave enough? Are you mom enough?

These questions issue a challenge to those places in us that can’t resist – those places in us that say, “I’ll show you…” in response. We might even get a little carried away in proving that we are, indeed, enough of whatever quality is in question. We might even, on the wild proving grounds of this challenge, reveal just how great is our need. Because when we start to think that our adequacy is found in what we do, we’re beat from the start.

We were never meant to rise to the challenge of enough. We were meant to see our not enough and recognize our need.
We were made to find our enough in Another who is always sufficient, always abundant, and always.

This little excerpt (thanks, Tim Challies) from John Piper’s book Pierced by God gives helpful perspective. I realize it’s a bit much for this morning, so if you don’t read the excerpt below, just know that you are not enough.

You will never be brave enough, strong enough, smart enough, or mom enough. You can’t reach down deep and muster up the willpower. It’s not in you. And it’s not failure to admit that – it’s just recognizing that you are not God. You are made to depend on God’s enough-ness (if you will) and bring Him glory.

We are not God. So by comparison to ultimate, absolute Reality, we are not much. Our existence is secondary and dependent on the absolute Reality of God. He is the only Given in the universe. We are derivative. …We were. He simply is. But we become, “I Am Who I Am” in His name (Exodus 3:14).

Nevertheless, because He made us with the highest creaturely purpose in mind—to enjoy and display the Creator’s glory—we may have a very substantial life that lasts forever. This is why we were made (“All things were created through Him and for Him”, Colossians 1:16). …This is why we eat and drink (“So whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”, 1 Cor. 10:31). …This is why we do good deeds, (“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”, Matthew 5:16).

That is why we exist—to display the glory of God. Human life is all about God. That is the meaning of being human. It is our created nature to make much of God. When we fulfill this reason for being, we have substance. There is weight and significance in our existence. Knowing, enjoying, and thus displaying the glory of God is a sharing in the glory of God. Not that we become God. But something of His greatness and beauty is on us as we realize this purpose for our being—to image-forth His excellence. This is our substance.

Not to fulfill this purpose for human existence is to be a mere shadow of the substance we were created to have. Not to display God’s worth by enjoying Him above all things is to be a mere echo of the music we were created to make.

This is a great tragedy. Humans are not meant to be mere shadows and echoes. We were to have God-like substance and make God-like music and have God-like impact. That is what it means to be created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). But when humans forsake their Maker and love other things more, they become like the things they love—small, insignificant, weightless, inconsequential, and God-diminishing.

Human life is all about God, isn’t it? So, why do we love being enough more than the One who is enough? Piper continues,

Listen to the way the Psalmist put it: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes but they do not see; they have ears but they do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them” (Ps. 135:15-18: see also 115:4-8).

Think and tremble. You become like the man-made things that you trust: mute, blind, deaf. This is a shadow existence. It is an echo of what you were meant to be. It is an empty mime on the stage of history with much movement and no meaning.

Dear reader, be not shadows and echoes. Break free from the epidemic of the manward spirit of our age. Set your face like flint to see and know and enjoy and live in light of the Lord. “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5). In His light you will see Him and all things as they truly are. You will wake up from the slumbers of shadowland existence. You will crave and find substance. You will make God-like music with your life. Death will dispatch you to paradise. And what you leave behind will not be a mere shadow or echo, but a tribute on earth, written in heaven, to the triumphant grace of God.

In God, we find all our desire for enough so that our lives can be a tribute on earth to the triumphant grace of God. You are not enough, but in Him we have more than enough to

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 2

therapy, cohabitation, syndrome success, and momentary marriage

Several things made me emotional today – in mostly good ways. I’d like to share a few of them with you in the form of these links in hopes that you’ll be encouraged, challenged, and spurred on. These are all inroads for conversation. That’s how I see it. The more we take in of our culture, the more ready we are to “give a reason to anyone who asks about the hope that we have.” Hope is not something that shows up once or twice a week. Hope makes appearances in conversations over a coffee or a beer or on the sidelines at a little league game. And these can be inroads, so let’s not waste our opportunities to engage.

  • I appreciated this article from Qideas, “Overcoming the Merely Therapeutic.” In a 2005 study (according to researchers Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton), teenagers say that worship is, “something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he’s always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.” Revered Gregory Jensen responds to these findings and also reviews a recent book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 (2012).
  • This article by Scotty Smith, “Pray the Scriptures” for how it seeks to battle the, essentially therapeutic idea, by knowing God through His Word and then forming a conversation from that knowledge.
  • If you’ve got high school graduation parties to attend, think about giving a gift off this book list. It will last longer than the food gift cards and picture frames, promise.
  • This is a brilliant article by writer George Will in the Washington Post on the life of Jon Will – 40 years and going with Down’s Syndrome. I felt like I just watched a beautiful, short film of a life lived well (and still living).
  • Switching gears a bit, this article from the New York Times is more than interesting. The Downside of Cohabiting Before Marriage is important on so many levels. Something about being published in the NYT gives a topic legitimacy and makes it a valid conversation over cards.
  • This article, “Who Wants to Buy Honduras,” hits pretty close to home for me. With a country whose past is layered with corruption and poverty, are charter cities really the way out?
  • In view of the recent Desiring God conference on men and ministry and masculinity, I appreciated this article from Michael Horton, “Muscular Christianity.” Do you have thoughts on how manly Christianity is or if it is even worth deciding?
  • Lastly, I want to encourage you to watch this film on Ian and Larissa. Their marriage story is absolutely broken and beautiful. May God receive the glory!

Okay, friends. That’s all for now. Click one or two if you have to choose, but just do something with the knowledge.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

pictures, poetry and punctilious illustrations

I know I haven’t done a “this & that” post for a long while. It’s overwhelming, okay? That’s the bottom line. There is just too much to share! Here are a few bullet points for you to click on, read through, think on, look at. But, just so you know, it’s always the hardest thing to narrow it down!

  • I loved this article, “Poetry and the Common Good,” from Qideas. Here’s a little sneak peek: “Learning to love poetry could prove a valuable counter-practice to scientism’s language of certainty and its assault on the wholeness of the human. Truth, whether scientific or other, needs beauty to keep it from becoming harsh and dogmatic. There is a mysterious depth to the art of poetry that is designed to pierce the illusion that we see the world directly, and it does so by sinking into the deepest depths of consciousness, into the kardia of our being, showing us how imprecise our certainty can become.”
  • Do you LOVE the snapshots of life – especially when they’re done well? Then you’ve got to check out these photos from March from around the world. The Big Picture from Boston.com lets us travel around the globe through a bunch of camera lenses.
  • Sometimes we don’t call a spade a spade – which is pretty silly (I mean, how long can we kid ourselves? Spades will always be spades). Idols are that way often in our lives – we don’t call them what they are and then we’re upset when they don’t give us what we want. Read this article by Justin Buzzard, “That Idol that You Love, It Doesn’t Love you Back” and you’ll be blessed. Promise.
  • I’m becoming more and more a fan of illustration. I think because I recognize the power that it has in our culture and the strong messages it can convey. Here are some great examples from graphic designer/illustrator Mike McQuade.
  • I could probably write a hundred posts on the new music I’ve been listening to, but I’ll just post a few here and hope that you can fill in the blanks.

Okay, friends. Now let’s all go out and

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

is theology unmixable?

I just read this article yesterday, “Why Theology and Youth Ministry Seldom Mix” and now I’m wondering what we would say Theology does mix with? Or does the study of God always hang out in its own category – in the same coffee shop where people who study God hang out?

Is the solution to our watered down youth programs more theology? Is theology something we can add in to the recipe of various ministries where some have enough, others too much, and others not enough?

Maybe theology is about living. Doesn’t it make sense that the more we study God the more we know what pleases Him and the more we delight to do it? So, our ministry (whether formal or otherwise) is not about balancing out the messy games with the exegesis of Romans. Ministry is just about inviting others into our study of God – finding out what pleases Him and delighting to do it together.

I once tried to come up with a word for this: viviology.
I know it doesn’t make sense and thank goodness I don’t work at Webster’s. But, as I read through Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas several years ago, I struggled to come up with a way to describe the kind of life Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived. He was so serious about theology. I mean, brilliance ran in the guy’s family so he would have excelled in whatever field he chose to pursue. The interesting piece is not that Bonhoeffer was brilliant as a theologian, but that he was brilliant as a mentor, friend, and pastor.

To Bonhoeffer, theology wasn’t something that he worked in to a lesson plan. Theology happened when he played soccer and wrote letters and read for hours. Theology happened when he was in prison and when he struggled through sin and when conviction led him to take a stand against injustice. Theology wasn’t an additive.

Theology – the truest kind, I think – is always mixed. In fact, it’s mixed so much that it can’t be pulled apart from all the pieces of life it connects. Ministry is about drawing others into a study of God so that we know what pleases Him and are delighted to do it together.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 1

Singing Dads, Social Media, and Simple Branding

The links have been piling up in my tabs like rush hour traffic in Chicago, so I hope you aren’t overwhelmed. Maybe read one or two and ask: How can my knowledge of God inform my obedience in a way that leads to actions full of love in reponse to these things?

I think there are probably too many prepositional phrases in that sentence, but it’s Friday and such things are allowed.

I am honestly intrigued by the way our culture simultaneously dismisses religion as a worldview and promotes an alternative that relies on metaphysical beliefs. As long as you keep “God” out of it, you can steal vocabulary, morals, and other concepts which seem to end up working pretty well for the people who practice them. This is a short post from Atlanta branding agency Matchstic (love their work!). The title should at least intrigue you, “Branding is Telling the Truth.”
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This was such a beautiful post about a father showing his love for and pleasure in Christ by singing like he meant it in front of his kids. Dad’s, Sing Like You Mean it made me hope that I can make people wonder at the source of my joy – when it bursts out in all the wrong places. I pray they see Christ, like this young man saw in his dad.
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Who hasn’t heard of Hunger Games? Another in a growing number of Young Adult fantasy books that has captured all audiences, this was the “it” series after Twilight (can’t say I minded the switch). I have yet to read them, but my sister zoomed through the books in a couple days, so I think I could finish them before the movie. I’m more interested in the books after reading this post at Redeemed Reader. Read “Hungry” for yourself and then watch the movie with your eyes wide open to what it says about our culture and worldview.

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I guess I’ll add myself to the crazy number bloggers who have something to say about Kony 2012. Actually, I’d rather just point you to some others who have gathered helpful resources and let you decide for yourself.  Here are the straight up stats from Denny Burk, “Measuring ‘Kony 2012’ Viral Impact.” This video is the most viral of all time. There is definitely something to learn about our culture, communication, and what stirs our collective heart. Here’s a helpful response from Matt Papa on Kony, injustice and creativity. Here’s an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes, “Viral Video, Vicious Warlord” that gives both praise and constructive criticism. Lastly, here’s an article at Relevant by Rachel Held Evans, “Is Kony 2012 Good or Bad?”
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Presuppositionalism is a big word, which is why I think we should all say it at least three times before this Friday gets any older.  “What is Presuppositionalism” by William Edgar, professor  at Westminster Theological Seminary, has got some theological jargon that tastes a little like three espresso shots (just so you’re prepared). More and more people are coming to the round table called “apologetics” and wanting to have a conversation. If you’re one of those people who would like to engage in intelligent discussion where you are ready to “give an answer to anyone who asks to give a reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15), then take a look. Here’s an excerpt:

An unbeliever knows God. Not just about him, but God himself in his many attributes. Certainly an unbeliever seeks to process that knowledge in a wrong direction, to his advantage (Rom. 1:18-23). But the knowledge is there, in the heart. Second, assuming this innate knowledge-cum-suppression, we move over onto the ground of our unbelieving friend. From there we attempt to show, on his own grounds, that there is a disconnect between the presuppositions and the claims. If this is God’s world, then we cannot succeed living in it if we deny him. Third, we invite our friend to “taste and see” how good the Lord is. As C. S. Lewis put it, “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

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Blue Like Jazz is a book that somehow became both a study guide for Bible studies and the religious road map for the seeker. Donald Miller‘s clever writing style refused to be pigeon-holed, but that meant a questionable rise to a position of authority on doctrinal issues. I liked the book, but I like the Bible better. Working with Steve Taylor (edgy Christian musician and now film producer), Miller hopes to bring religious questions into the mainstream. Read about how they hope to, “Blow up the Theatre Real Good.” Also this article from the Gospel Coalition, “Blue Like Jazz the Movie,” which shares my thoughts exactly on the whole phenomenon.


Left to ourselves, we are completely disinterested in coming to Jesus. —R.C. Sproul

Posted on by Caroline 0

marginal utility | maximum authority

Derek: Ah, yes (eating the half-popped kernels at the bottom of our popcorn machine)! These have such a great marginal utility.

Me: (blank stare)

Derek: Oh, you don’t know what marginal utility is? It’s the best concept in economics. I love it. Seriously, it’s so cool! It’s basically all I remember from that class.

Me: (still blank stare) I want to believe that’s true, but the most I know about economy right now is that mine is not so hot.

Derek: (laughter) Well, okay. Utility is, like, the satisfaction someone has after consuming a certain amount of something. Usually, the more you consume, the more satisfaction you have. Marginal utility is… the satisfaction you get with each extra amount of consumption. Like, these kernels. The marginal utility is super high when I eat the first few – super beneficial and satisfying to me. Eventually, the marginal utility will go down because it’s no longer satsifying. (holding up a kernel)

Me: Uh-huh. Sounds interesting. I’ll probably write a blog about it.

I sent Derek a text that night because I forgot the word, but now that I have it, I’m intrigued on several levels. It’s strange to me that economy has something to say about measuring satisfaction and that measuring satisfaction has something to say about economy AND that there are technical terms to describe the relationship.

As I read Nancy Pearcey‘s book, “Saving Leonardo,” I’m on the hunt for ways we’ve separated things (through dualism) in our lives that were meant to be seen as a whole. Take life, for example.

Recently, an article came out from several medical ethicists who proposed that a newborn baby was really no different than a fetus – “morally irrelevant” and only a “potential person.” The article has since been taken down from the internet, but this is not the first brush modern culture has had with the “personhood debate.” In Pearcey’s book, she references Miranda Sawyer, an English journalist who identified as a pro-choice feminist… until she became pregnant and was faced with a dilemma. What would she call the thing growing inside her? She came to the conclusion that, “In the end, I have to agree that life begins at conception, but perhaps the fact of life isn’t what is important. It’s whether that life has grown enough to start becoming a person.” That is how she reconciled the two truths competing for her worldview – she didn’t. She was content to settle for piecemeal what was meant to be whole.

Pearcey writes,

“Ever since antiquity, of course, most cultures have assumed that a human being comprises both physical and spiritual elements – body and soul. What is novel in our day is that these two elements have been split apart and redefined in terms that are outright contradictory. As we will see, the human body is regarded as nothing but a complex mechanism, in accord with a modernist conception of science (the fact realm). By contrast, the human person is defined in terms of ungrounded choice and autonomy, in accord with a postmodernist conception of the self (the value realm). These two concepts interact in a deadly dualism to shape contemporary debates over abortion, euthanasia, sexuality, and the other life issues.” (Saving Leonardo p. 49)

Life was never meant to be divided into science and values; fact and fantasy; real truth and livable truth, but that’s what we’ve allowed our culture to do. Somewhere along the lines, I’ve let journalists and science books and professors of the “facts” create another stage on which to shine. See, this whole time we’ve been thinking that science is trying to steal the spotlight and what’s really happened is that secularism is basking in an entirely different, man-made stage with a different story.

The problem is this: there is only one story. There is only one reason why the first popcorn kernels mean a great marginal utility for Derek and it isn’t economics. Economics might explain some true trends, but that doesn’t give economics the power to write a new story. There is truth in science and there is truth in politics and there is truth in the worn pages of my C.S. Lewis library, but no truth contradicts itself because it is one story.
God’s story.

                                                              Let LOVE fly like cRaZy

“We are to magnify Christ, not like a microscope magnifies things but like a telescope magnifies things. Microscopes make small things look big; but telescopes make seemingly small things look like they really are: Huge!” ~John Piper

Posted on by Caroline 0

we can burn brighter?

There’s a popular song out right now by a band named “fun.” That’s right – the (.) is in their band name. It must be some kind of hipster thing to make the name of your band a whole sentence. I bet somewhere right now there is a new revised urban dictionary being written where one word sentences are all the rage.

I came across their song, “We Are Young” during one of my radio “seek” adventures. I haven’t yet programmed the presets in my car, so I just press the seek button until it lands on something interesting. NPR, classical, TobyMac, talk radio and Kelly Clarkson’s latest girl power anthem get equal airplay on my short commutes. When I landed on this song, I’ll admit I liked the beat (and the Queen-esque feel of the whole album). It’s hard not to if you have a sunroof and it’s 72 degrees in late February.

Then I listened to the underbelly of what all the hipsters are calling an “epic” sound:

Tonight
We are young
Let’s set this world on fire
We can burn brighter
Than the sun

Wow. My culture is making strong claims with this anthem and all the 35-year-old radio DJ had to say is, “Hey, gotta love this one. I just heard it last week and, man, I’ve got it on replay.”

I stopped bobbing my head and started asking questions. This is not some adolescent kid shaking his fist at the air – not some collegiate rabble-rouser stumbling in and out of bars spitting speculation. This is our Tower of Babel.

English: Tower of Babel

In Genesis 9, God told Noah to disperse after the flood – to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. The people decided it would be better to cluster together – to make a name for themselves by building a tower to the heavens and building a city around them for protection. John Piper (in his sermon “The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ”) preached that, at the Tower of Babel, “The two sins are the love of praise (so you crave to make a name for yourself) and the love of security (so you build a city and don’t take the risks of filling the earth).” With the flood still fresh in their memory, did the people really think they were powerful enough to reach heaven and strong enough to remain disobedient to the Lord?

Apparently, yes. The people decided they were both powerful and strong enough to complete the task and live prosperous in disobedience. They tried to outdo the God who had delivered them from sure death and preserved them for life.

As I listened to this band break “new ground” on the radio, I heard an old, familiar story. I heard a story where WE are the center, where WE decide our fate, where WE can build our own destiny, and where WE can make ourselves immortal. Call it “youth” or “foolish,” but don’t call it a joke.

I wonder if there were people in the days of the Tower of Babel who shut themselves in their homes, silently disapproving of the monstrous building project. I wonder if they thought it was a fleeting fad that would pass when the builders grew older.

Does my generation really believe we are powerful enough to set the world on fire?
Does my generation really believe that we are big enough to shine brighter than the sun?

Even taken metaphorically, these claims are concerning. Everyone can tap a toe to the anthem (about losing your troubles at the bar and promising to carry drunk friends home) that makes you think you are capable of anything – for no other reason than “we are young.” I’m not sure how the logic works out – something like this, perhaps?

-We are young.
-Young people have cultural authority (to set the world on fire).
-Authority governs earth/sun/moon.
-Young people can supersede sunshine.

Hm. Lots of holes, it seems. The stranger thing might be that the song weaves destruction in with delight. I’m pretty sure we all still think burning alive is one of the worst ways to die. So, they can’t be serious about setting the world on fire and burning brighter than the sun. Yet, they choose this clearly destructive imagery to represent the ultimate thrill – the greatest delight. The whole thing is about bumbling barroom mistakes, but the song repeatedly declares (like Charlie Sheen and Courtney Robertson) that it’s all canceled out because in the end, we’re “winning.” Even as we all light up in a burning ball of gas, the thrill of burning brighter than the sun is somehow worth it.

Left to our own devices and given the right amount of authority, I don’t doubt we’d light a match to the world – crazy as it sounds. I am so grateful we aren’t walking around with that kind of power. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of this generation as well. He is so gracious to call us to salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ, and rescue us from self-destruction.

.

Sorry to dump this on you all. My grandpa recently reminded me that I should stick to simple things on this blog. I can already tell you what he’ll say in response to this one, “Agh! I didn’t understand one word of it.” Well, maybe tomorrow I’ll write about how I forgot to close my sunroof overnight and drove on damp seats in the morning.

I simply want to encourage us all to think critically about what our culture claims about who we are and why we are here because it is shaping our generation (whether or not we’ve got our hands covering our eyes).

let LOVE fly like cRaZy
Posted on by Caroline 3

this & that

These are the links that cluttered my tabs this week. I know they tend toward depressing, but that’s not my intention. I hope that we are informed and that our knowledge of this world drives us back to our knees in our pursuit of knowledge of the Lord. Because, goodness, I don’t know what to do about all this.

In this article, “On Grudges and Generosity” Tony Reinke shares what Jonathan Edwards described as the root of all grudges: envy, contempt, resentment. In contrast, Edwards looks at God’s attitude of generosity toward us. This is an article I should probably read over and over again.

The documentary “Decadence: Decline of the Western World“ looks more than intriguing to me. You can view an interview with Pria Viswalingam (writer, director and presenter) below. From Center for Public Christianity’s website, “It is set in ten countries and features leading authors and academics as it traces the slow decline of the West. He came into CPX to discuss his documentary including why he sees the decline of family and religion as important markers of this decline.”

Remember that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Well, now there is research that shows just how close to reality that might become. In the film, there is a treatment one can have that will erase memories. It’s strange and (of course) involves characters manipulating the memory erasing process for selfish means and sexual sins. Several days ago, I found this article, “The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever.”  How much louder must our culture cry out before we respond with what they really want: a Savior.

In 2002, the Netherlands voted to make euthanasia legal. Now, there is a mobile team of doctors, knocking on doors and offering their euthanasia services (Euthanasia Squads Offer Death by Delivery). Doctors making house calls to help people kill themselves. Wow.

I’m not sure what is more disturbing – doctors traveling to speed death of the elderly or doctors proposing that a newborn baby isn’t actually a person. This article, “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” (the article has since been removed)published by BMJ (whose purpose is to “improve health and make a real difference to clinical practice worldwide“), is not some fluke. These are doctors from around the world, Oxford educated folks who study bio-ethics and all the fields I’m not qualified to talk about. These guys say that the fetus and the newborn are equally “morally irrelevant” and only “potential persons.” In this article, they defend their belief that killing a baby after birth is not wrong. In the words of my cousin, “That is the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard.” This is not about abortion. This is about the value of life. Read an article from the Telegraph about the findings here.

Okay, that deserves a breather. We need to remember the Sovereign One who has ordered the universe and who desires that all would hear His plan for redemption. John Owen said we need but sit down by the fountain and the delight we find in Him will mean we won’t ever stray too far. God is too good for us not to come back to sit at the fountain again. Tim Challies quotes John Owen today in his blogpost.

Because I want you to keep reading my “this & that” posts, I’m ending with a song by Josh Garrels – Pilot Me. The only way we’re equipped to bear the brokenness in the world is if we put on Christ. Only Christ pilots in a way that both navigates shoals AND moves forward. God did not intend for His followers to hide in caves while the world goes to pot. God invites us to jump on board His ship as He draws His creation to Himself.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
(Isaiah 61:1-3 ESV)

Posted on by Caroline 1

I will never be “wiser”

When a young man told his minister he felt called to spend his life as a missionary in China, his minister replied,

“Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.”

Funny how we are encouraged to wise up and grow out of the calling on our lives. We may not all be called to China, but there is this tender stage in youth (before we are calloused to the idea of Hope) where we look out into the world and think crazy things are possible.

The universities know about this stage. Professors often push students to question the “wiser” world’s calloused assumptions, but fail to give any adequate answers for solutions. We are not the solution. If that were the case, failure would be certain. Try as it may, secularism cannot offer anything deep enough to meet the needs of the world. Naturalism, humanism, and pantheism (as discussed in Poplin’s book Finding Calcutta) all come to definitive and depressing ends, far short of an answer to the world’s deep pain.

Fear not, friends – for secularism is not what God had in mind for the reconciliation of Creation to Himself. Our wisdom is foolishness to Him. Our human efforts and toil amount to nothing, unless He wills. Our plans and schemes are rubbish unless He decides otherwise. Nothing crazy can/will happen outside of God’s will.

In fact, only inside God’s will do we find that the impossible is possible. Paul writes,

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV)

I heard my friend preach a sermon on this passage and he marveled at Paul praying that  the people know the love of Christ that is impossible to know (…and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…). He is praying an impossible prayer for the people in Ephesus. He then quickly follows with a reminder: God is capable of doing the impossible – beyond what we can think or imagine. 

He asks us to do the impossible – know Him, love Him – and then He provides a way to make it possible: Himself. He is the only One who transcends the constraints of this earth, the limitations of the physical world. He is the only One capable of making impossible things possible.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
Acts 17:24-27, ESV

That young man who heard such discouraging words from his minister – his name was Hudson Taylor and he never got “wiser.” He was the founder of China Inland Mission and the catalyst in a new era of Protestant missions. He believed his calling was not one confined to “the days of Christ Himself,” but that proclaiming the saving message of the Gospel is exactly what it means to be Christ today. This is what it means to pray “Your Kingdom Come.”

So, go tell it on every mountain… and let us never be wiser.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 2

a studied irrelevance

I was reading this article, “The Myths of Progress and Relevance” by John Dickson (PhD, Ancient History) at the Gospel Coalition Blog last night and this statement toward the end is still marinating today.

‎”The true relevance of the gospel is found in its studied irrelevance to any particular culture, whether ancient Corinthian or modern New Yorker. We do not need another message that affirms what we already think in all our foibles and cultural particularities. We surely need one that is free to challenge, rebuke, frighten, and enlighten us, as well as comfort and affirm us when appropriate. That message is the gospel. It is precisely because the gospel was not crafted to endorse ancient Athenians or modern Americans that it is wonderfully relevant to both.”
 
“…the Gospel was not crafted…”
Let’s start there. Sometimes I think we forget that we didn’t create this Gospel – we are not the authors and therefore deserve no credit for the masterfully written story. We have no reason to collect royalties or protect the Gospel as our intellectual property. The Gospel was not crafted – period.
 
“…the Gospel was not crafted to endorse ancient Athenians or modern Americans…”
The Gospel is not a political move or the newest trend in “social justice” (whatever that means). The Gospel does not draw a line in the political sand or raise a national flag. The Gospel doesn’t endorse human ideas. The Gospel is God’s idea.
 
“It is precisely because the Gospel was not crafted to endorse ancient Athenians or modern Americans that it is wonderfully relevant to both.”
The Gospel is not about progress. We will not evolve out of the idea or into it the longer we ruminate over it’s claims. We cannot make the Gospel legitimate. Oh, friends, we don’t have that kind of power. If the Gospel is what it claims, we are all (every generation, culture, people group, and nation) unworthy recipients. We will not reach an intellectual plane where it is no longer relevant.
 
“We do not need another message that affirms what we already think in all our foibles and cultural particularities. We surely need one that is free to challenge, rebuke, frighten, and enlighten us, as well as comfort and affirm us when appropriate.”
 
The Gospel is intentionally irrelevant in all the ways we’d rather it not be. The Gospel is not a cheerleader for our causes or the biggest fan of our agendas. The Gospel is not a product of this age or an influence in an epoch that has passed.
 
The Gospel is God’s and He has intentionally made cultural differences only relevant in one way: the future joyful celebration of people from all tribes, tongues, nations joining together in grateful praise for the gift of salvation and communion with our Creator.
 
let LOVE fly like cRaZy
Posted on by Caroline 0