Reflections for 3/29/14

"Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this."(Ecclesiastes 7:10)






I've noticed something that has probably always been true, that there always seems to be some "golden age" that all of us want to go back to. We mythologize the past, usually remembering only the good parts of it, while paying no attention to the not so good parts.






I suppose this really happens when we are feeling unsure of ourselves. When there is to much chaos in our lives and when we can't see what lies ahead. The beauty of former days I suppose is that if we lived in them they have had an impact on us. They are a part of our history. The truth is that all of history has some sort of impact on us, because someone we're related to lived then and their world view was formed.






The moments when I want to time travel back to some era that I did not live in would only be from a place of curiosity. To witness some event I've read about. Not to influence or change it.






I will admit to fantasizing about going back to high school and doing some things differently. But the real wisdom would be to learn from what I didn't do and see if I can apply what I'd do differently to my current context. Perhaps that's real wisdom.






Blessings,


Ed

Reflection for 3/26/14

"Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead."(Philippians 3:12)

If you have ever seen the movie the Lion King you may recall the great scene where Simba gets hit over the head by the baboon character.  Simba asks why he did it and the baboon replies "it doesn't matter it is in the past.  And from that point Simba starts to make his return and move forward into the future as the rightful king.

The past is always lurking in the back recesses of my mind I find.  The recent trend on Facebook is something called TBT (Throw back Thursday).  You get to post some picture from a previous chapter in your life.  I play the game regularly, mainly because I find it harmless.  I don't really long for the good old days. Frankly I could find enough problems with the previous chapters of my life to know that going back in time wouldn't be worth it.  So when I do reflect on the past, I choose to remember the happier moments, warm the heart a little, but not stay there too long.

When we spend time constantly remembering and at worst romanticizing the past we really are avoiding the present and perhaps even scared of the future.

I can't say that I'm always content in the present, but I've learned to deal with it so I don't get stuck.  I have no idea what the future holds but I wake up each day ready to face it and perhaps even embrace it.  And sometimes even that can be straining forward.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/25/2014

"Therefore my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."(Philippians 2:12)

Figuring things out for ourselves is both a daunting and a freeing task at the same time.  I personally like to get advice from others when working through a problem or trying to come to a decision.  Of course ultimately what I do and how I go about doing it is my decision.

Often we get advice on how to do something but fail to process the information and make it applicable to ourselves.  We can be given the tools to do any activity but we need to figure out how we will utilize them.

When I think about working out my own salvation, my starting point is always my faith in Christ.  For all Christians this should be the starting point.  Where we go with that faith, how we live it out in relationship to ourselves and others is where the working of it comes in.

There's a reason no two Christians are completely the same.  We will respond to God's call in ways that are unique to us.  We will most likely hear and apply a biblical passage based on our own experience.

Do we have helpers and advisors along the way, of course.  But we are ultimately responsible for our own salvation and that can sometimes be quite overwhelming.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/24/2014

"It is not good to eat much honey, or to seek honor on top of honor."(Proverbs 25:27)

So can there be too much of a good thing?  The answer is obvious, yes there can be.  Honey is certainly a great sweetener, good as a natural remedy.  But I suppose eating the whole jar can be problematic.  Think of Winnie the Pooh, too much honey and he got stuck in the hole.

Most of life's good things, when taken in excess usually lead to problems.  Even when we think we're doing something for the right reasons we can overdo it and turn it into a negative.

Same is true for accolades.  While it is certainly great to be recognized for a job well done, exactly how many trophies, testimonials, titles does one really need?

A life lived in moderation is one where all the good things in this world may be enjoyed.  To find that balance in life where I find what is just right is what I constantly seek.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/22/14

"And fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."(Ephesians 6:4)

In a few months my children will have left the nest.  This is turning into a year of wild transition for me.  People told me it would happen fast and that I shouldn't wish them out the door, but I've often thought that as a parent my job was to get them ready to go out the door.  To equip them for the world in which I would not be able to be there all the time.

This has been an ongoing process.  I have tried not to be one of those parents who needs their children to affirm their identity.  I've tried to give them the tools and the boundaries to be able to make decisions.  Whether they are the choices I would make has not always been the case.  For the most part though they've done okay.

I've tried to work the parent child relationship in such a way that it can be maintained when they are adults.  I've tried not to provoke them to anger, though I'm sure I've done so on occasion and perhaps even disappointed them.  I do hope that what they will always remember is a dad who was there for them, yet gave them the space to become their own person.

Yes I've given them a faith foundation, yet have given them a chance to build on it themselves.  I hope that they will find that having faith is a good thing and not something to be cast aside.  I do think they've been given the tools to make an informed choice.

We never really know how our children will turn out. I've seen rotten kids come from seemingly decent people. And I've met great people who's parents really messed up. 

But there are only two that I have had some effect on.  Time will tell whether it was positive or not, but the signs are good.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/20/14

"Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but one who has a hasty temper exalts folly."
(Proverbs 14:29)

I like to believe that it takes a lot to get me riled up.  That's not to say that I never get angry.  Heck even Jesus got angry, but it took a lot to get him there.  It isn't the anger that gets us in trouble but the speed with which we react to situations with anger that matters. 

I say speed not that there aren't moments that will really make you mad.  But there are folks for whom anger is their default position on everything.  The problem is when we react that way to everything, we may have not evaluated the situation properly.  We may in fact be reacting in a way that has nothing to do with the actual situation, sort of the last straw response.

When I feel myself getting angry I often have to slow down and take a deep breath.  I want to make sure that my response is actually appropriate to the situation.  Will my anger result in a positive outcome or will it add fuel to the fire? 

A greater understanding comes from a slower reaction, perhaps a more prayerful one.  A hasty reaction often makes matters worse.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/17/14

"There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family."(Proverbs 4:16-19)


While most of the focus today seemed to be about people wearing green and how everyone is Irish, I also noticed some chatter around the impending death of the Rev. Fred Phelps.


Pastor Phelps may not be a household name for you but his "church" is, Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for picketing at military funerals and in front of churches that do not see the world the same way he did. His "members" (mostly his extended family) show up with signs bearing such good news as "God Hates Fags."


There is much that I could say about these signs, first being I'm not at all convinced that God hates things, and I'm sure God isn't pleased with people speaking on his behalf at funerals.


But here in this passage from Proverbs the author says that there are six things he hates and even seven that are an abomination. Funny thing is these are things all of us should have real problems with. Haughty eyes or to put it a different way, people who think they are better than everyone else. Lying, people who literally kill others for no reason. Some planning to do bad things, people who eagerly who choose to be bad and around bad people. Someone who lies in such a way that gets other people in trouble. And one who brings discord into a family, and family doesn't have to be relatives.


While most of these actions are easy to avoid, there are a couple that all of us should be vigilant about, that haughtiness and sowing discord intentionally.


And while I'm not into hate language, I do think these actions are highly problematic in the eyes of God and should be for us as well.


Blessings,

Ed

Reflections for 3/14/14

"Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things."(Galatians 5:19-23)


What type of advice do you find most helpful? The kind that tells you what you shouldn't do, or the kind that tells you what you should do?


Personally I'd rather be given advice in the positive rather than the negative. But for some reason we more often are told what not to do, and of course it usually seems like something we really want to do.


So that's why I love the contrast here. The don't do list, starts off as one where most of us can smugly look in a mirror as we check off what we don't do, unfortunately if we keep reading we'll find some overwhelming behavior of ours on there.


The contrasting list however is fascinating. It points to ways of being rather than specific actions. Perhaps the invitation that is being given is that when you start modeling your life on that list, you don't even come close to taking on actions from the other list.


I can't say that I've got it right 100% of the time. But I do know that daily I try to live a life governed by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It isn't easy, but ultimately well worth it.


Blessings,

Ed

Reflections for 3/13/14

"I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you."(Galatians 4:20)

We live in a time of rapid communication.  If I needed to get a message to you I have many options, I can text, I can email you, I can send you a message on Facebook,  I can even see your face when we talk if we Skype.  I can even resort to such antiquated technology as a phone.

Before all of this technology the mode of communication was of course writing.  Had been for centuries.  We don't do much writing of letters anymore.  That takes time and of course our words lack tone and can be misinterpreted and we might have to wait a long time for a response.

That is true, but of course one thing that writing does is create some space for us to get the emotion out of the way before we send it.  I know that the same is true for some of our modern technology but because it moves so rapidly we sometimes forget to pause and pray before we hit send.

What none of these modes of communication can ever replace however is being physically present with the person.  Most of the repairing of relationship can only take place face to face.  Paul knew this, which is why he wished to be present with them, to talk it out, to be able to explain his feelings about the situation and to be able to hear their point of view as well.

But doing that face to face is very risky.  It always has the danger of escalating fast.  There is no where to hide, no actual distance, you can't hang up.

What I do know is that when I'm perplexed by others and need to talk with them, one of the first things I need to remember to do is to slow down and pray.  When I do that I might have a better conversation overall.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflection for 3/12/14

"They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made. Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends." (Psalm 7:15-16)

I've always been a fan of Loony Tunes, one of my favorite cartoon shows growing up.  One character that I always found amusing was Wiley Coyote.  As you probably recall he is always scheming and planning new ways to catch his nemesis the Roadrunner.  Whether it be products from the Acme Company or his own bizarre and usually over thought traps, he inevitably winds up being the one caught by his own plan.

There are certainly instances in our lives where we have pursued some goal for all the wrong reasons or sought some kind of revenge against someone else, only to have it backfire completely.  The consequences of these choices ultimately coming back to haunt us or getting us in a lot of trouble.

This of course is nothing new.  Throughout human history when our thoughts seek the downfall or the hurt of others we often wind up being the ones hurt.  Not because the other party outsmarts us, but because our initial impulse was wrong.

I don't personally like being trapped, not only by others but especially by own foolish plans.

How very humiliating it can be to look from a hole we dug but never expected to wind up in ourselves.

Reflections for 3/11/14

"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing."(Galatians 2:21)

At some point you have probably said to yourself, well that was a waste of time, or what was the point of that?  You've gone through a very painful experience, made some kind of sacrifice for another person, and nothing came of it.  You can't even look back and say, I did what I knew needed to be done.

As a Christian the greatest gift we've been given was God's grace, given freely to us because of Christ's death.  Living fully into that grace filled life one would think should be easy.  And yet I seem to find people wanting to complicate it all the time. If they can just put some controls on others, whip out a handy verse or two to show their correctness, all will be well, they will be justified.  It is even more ironic when they choose their quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures.  This happens especially in any of the cultural wars when the Bible gets quoted.

And yet here is the Bible giving us a real warning about doing that.  If our justification comes through the law, or I'd add in quoting the law, then Christ died for nothing and grace is nullified.

I do think it is incredibly important to know what the Bible says.  I read, mark and inwardly digest it daily.  However, to use quotes from scripture as a weapon to judge others violates the integrity of the Good News and personally I won't do that.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/10/14

" And they glorified God because of me."(Galatians 1:24)

When was the last time you can recall someone singing your praises to others?  I hope that it has happened for you.  I also hope it was for something that you might not have been expecting any kind of praise for.

Believing that someone might actually give thanks to God for us is often hard. Perhaps it feels to egocentric.  Perhaps we feel we were just doing the right thing.

There are certainly people that I give thanks to God for, not only because of their presence in my life, but also for people who I've never met that I see doing the work of Christ in this world.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflection for 3/9/14

While today is officially the First Sunday in Lent, from the readings today I think it could just as easily be Temptation Sunday.  Two of the readings in church today were classic stories of temptation, one ending in failure, one in triumph.

The first one was of course the classic scene from Genesis with Eve and the Serpent having a conversation about whether to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the other Jesus being tempted by Satan after a forty day fast.

As I thought about those two stories I thought about how in most of our lives temptation always seems to show up. The Genesis story is just like having that "friend" who tells you that there won't be any trouble if you follow his lead and do something that might seem to be fun or perhaps even risky.  Maybe your parents told you not to do it, but that nagging voice, perhaps even taunting you is just too much to ward off.  And suddenly you crossed a line you knew you shouldn't cross.  In the passage the argument was that God told the humans that if they ate that fruit they would die.  The serpent of course telling them they wouldn't.  In terms of a literal physical death the serpent was right, they lived.  However what did die was a trusting relationship between God and those two humans.  The relationship wasn't killed but it changed radically.  Perhaps in the same way that our relationship with those we love changes when trust gets violated.

As I contemplated Jesus' temptation I saw that reality of how when we are physically weak, that we can be spiritually vulnerable.  I doubt I would be at my best after 40 days with no food. Sometimes 40 minutes seems like an eternity.  I also noticed that the devil can use scripture just as well as the most devout.

The other thing I realized is how temptation plays such a role especially in Lent.  If we gave something up, something for Lent, and if it was something that we usually have or take part in, how tempting it can be to revert back.  Or if  you took something on for Lent, how tempting it can to do something else.

I hope your Lenten journey is one that has more time spent with God, than warding off temptation.

Blessings,
Ed

8 "I will both lie down and sleep in peace;    for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety."(Psalm 4:8)

Tonight we turn our clocks forward an hour, thus loosing an hour of sleep, but tomorrow gaining more time with the sun out.  I'm trying to decide if I will go to bed an hour early since I still have to wake up when the clocks say 6 am, even if my body thinks it is only 5 am.

Whatever time I choose to lie down, I hope I can lay aside the cares of the day.  I know that not having a lot on my mind leads to a peaceful sleep.  The CPap machine also helps.

I feel safe in my bed, safe with my wife lying next to me. And feel the safety of the presence of God in my life.

When my mind is troubled the peaceful sleep doesn't come.  I've had a good run lately and I hope to maintain it.

Perhaps the key to this will be giving up the days dilemmas to God.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflections for 3/7/14

"Therefore, to keep[a] me from being too elated, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated." (II Corinthians 12:7)

Is there something in your life that is nagging at you?  A part of your daily life that keeps you from being totally satisfied?  When I hear Paul talking about having a thorn given to him in the flesh, I get it. I can look into my own life and see actions, people, choices or circumstances that make it hard for me to be totally satisfied.
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That's not to say that the thorn ruins everything.  It doesn't.  But it keeps me very much aware of how I fall short. And that there's very little I can do about it, but keep on keeping on.

Paul doesn't tell us what his thorn in the flesh is. Anyone who claims they know what it is is guessing.

The only thorns in the flesh we can know about and acknowledge are our own. What we can seek is the best way to live with them, since they apparently aren't going away.

Blessings,
Ed

Reflection for 3/6/14

" I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! "(2 Corinthians 11:1)

One of the things I committed myself to this Lent was to get back to writing these reflections. Why has it taken me this long to get back into the habit of writing, I really can't say.  My heart and head could never seem to get in unison and start writing.  I found other things to do.  

Were all of them productive?  Hardly.  Were all of them necessary? Some but not all.  As I reflect back on how I used my time, I'm amazed at how often I foolishly wasted time.

My hope for this Lent is to be more focused on things that truly matter and then reward myself with a little foolishness, a little wasting of time.

Has my foolishness had a price?  In the big picture not really.  Is there foolishness that can have dire consequences absolutely.

But perhaps in ordering my day a little better there will be time for some foolishness, some lighter hearted moments, but I will do so knowing that I've also accomplished much if not all of what I set forward to do that day.

So we'll see how this goes, I hope if you are a reader you'll bear with me and hold me accountable.


Blessings,
Ed