journey through silence...

How often in the midst of conflict, especially when I 'feel' I am the one attacked have I lashed out in anger. Now, obviously it was to make the truth known or perhaps to defend my case and cause or to prove my rightness... And yet, my lashings out to those acting and speaking against me are from the selfishness and insecurities of my own heart. This selfishness and insecurity manifests itself at making others look bad to make myself look better. I am certainly along way from the way of Jesus in dealing with my 'enemies'...

Lewis, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe paints the scene of Aslan's unjust death better than almost anyone. As Susan and Lucy look on in secret at what the witch and her cohorts are doing to Aslan they watched with anticipation at the ferocious response Aslan would make at any minute. They knew with one swipe of his paw or one bite of his jaw he could have sent the enemy fleeing in fright. And yet Susan and Lucy notice something... 'they held their breaths waiting for Aslan's roar and his spring upon his enemies. But it never came.' How in the world could we follow in the way of Aslan... impossible.

For those not making the connection, Aslan is a certain and obvious Christ figure. Isaiah the prophet told us He would respond like this... 'He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.' How can the King of kings respond to such unjust cruelty from his inferior enemies as a Suffering Servant? He knew full well with one thought he could have destroyed his enemy in a moment.  Why did He not?

Grace... He suffered graciously so that we could experience His saving grace.

Oh, and by the way, He does defeat His enemy... just not in the way he (or she) would have thought. For Aslan is not laying on the stone table nor is Jesus in the grave...

Wonder at Jesus' sacrificial love as servant and triumphant rise as King!







 

journey in our spirit...

Few things make me feel a jump on the inside. But there are a few... a kiss from my wife, a moment of snuggling with my daughter, my son actually making the shot, the first hint of a Christmas carol played at a store, the first coolness of the fall, the first warmth of the spring... The Spirit moves within our spirits as we experience the goodness and joy of God's good gifts on this earth. Oftentimes, however, the One thing or the One Name that my spirit sometimes is immune to is the One Name it should respond to the most.  

Mr. Beaver was quite excited to tell the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve that Aslan was on the move. And Lewis writes eloquently about what happened in the spirit of the children at the sheer mention of the name of Aslan. "And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different... At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in his inside." I long to feel my spirit jump at the sheer mention of the Name of Jesus. I long to feel my spirit jump as I experience his presence. I long for the response a mere child can give at the mention of His Name.

This scene in Lewis' masterpiece reminds me of an account in the beginning of Luke's Gospel. In this account, Mary, the soon to be mother of Jesus, goes to visit her very pregnant relative Elizabeth. As soon as Mary, bearing Christ, enters the home Elizabeth 'feels something jump inside' or as Luke puts it "... the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... and she exclaimed, 'As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy". Those that truly experience the Name and the Power of Jesus respond inside. It is inevitable.

May the Name of Jesus move your spirit to jump within you...      

journey through Narnia...

Our faith is only as firm as its object. Many people have faith, but many have no thing or no one in mind worthy of being trusted. Peter and Susan so desired to believe in Narnia as Lucy was proclaiming it. Yet, they could not bring themselves to trust in what to them seemed like a fantasy. They struggled so much with the concept that they even dared enter the professor’s study in the house and spoke with him about it. Their conversation concluded with thoughts that we hear elsewhere in Lewis’ writings… 

The professor debated with Peter and Susan over these three issues: First, was Lucy known to lie frequently? Peter and Susan responded in the negative claiming that Lucy was rather truthful. Second, was Lucy known to be crazy? Once again, Peter and Susan were forced to answer in the negative. Then according to logic states the professor, “There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.” Peter and Susan had a reasonable object or person (Lucy) of faith in which to trust.

Lewis remarks elsewhere that we must view Jesus the same way. We have three options with Jesus’ claim to be God. One, Jesus was a liar. Two, Jesus was nuts. Or three, Jesus was telling the truth. The Scriptures give us quite a remarkable picture of Jesus who time and again claimed to be God and time and again proved that He was God in flesh. Many believed, many more doubted... The first ones to believe however were the most unlikely...  

In Eastern religions, there is a general religious belief in 'pantheism' that proposes that god is all and in all. It is not far fetched that god could take on the personality of a human. In the Roman world in which Jesus lived there was a religious belief of 'polytheism' where there were a multitude of gods. And these gods would visit from 'heaven' from time to time. In fact, Paul and Barnabas were mistaken for gods on one of Paul's missionary journeys. The disciples, however, were Jewish.... that is their religious system was monotheistic. For a Jew to believe in anyone being a God was the unpardonable sin. This is a chief reason the Jews crucified Jesus. 

For monotheistic Jewish men to believe, from what they saw and heard of Jesus, makes their claim credible. It makes the object of their faith worthy of trust. They had to come to grips with a conclusion: was Jesus lying, nuts or was He God? They gave their lives assenting to Jesus being God. 

One of the things that attracts me to Christianity is that, yes, it is a matter of faith. We are called to be ‘sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’. However, we also have quite an object of our faith. We worship a God who, while on earth, has a credible testimony of truth and was commended, not as one who was crazy, but as one who was wiser than all around Him. 

I pray that we would realize that ours is not a blind faith. While there are large parts of our faith that are based on things we cannot see, it is equally true that large parts of our faith are based on reason. May your faith be strengthened by the strength of its object.     

journey through Narnia...

I know I know... why pick Narnia to read? Well, it is on the top 100 list (for those who don't know the Top 100 list yet go back to my first blog and catch up) and for good reason. And although I have already read the book several times and have seen the movie several times it seemed like a logical choice. Santa is in Narnia after all.

After what I think was probably the coldest night of the winter so far in Columbia, it got me to thinking, why do I love winter so much? I don't particularly like being cold, although I do love being bundled up with hot Starbucks coffee... I don't like waiting on my car to defrost in the morning... I don't like heat bills in the winter... Yet, I love the winter.

I think the answer is obvious. My favorite holiday is in the winter. What would Christmas be like in hot weather? Any Floridians out there want to take a shot at that? Christmas just comes with cold, snow, ice, Frosty, Hot Chocolate, etc.  Christmas would not be the same without winter. Nor would winter be the same without Christmas.

Lucy finds this out in C.S. Lewis' famous classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As Lucy discovers Narnia for the first time and enjoys tea and sardine toast with Mr. Tumnus, he shares with her three times in the second chapter of the book that Narnia is a place of winter all the time without Christmas. Now, I don't think Tumnus was just talking about freezing cold with no gifts, hot cocoa or candles. Tumnus was referring to a much greater spiritual reality in Narnia. Narnia was a place overtaken by the White Witch with no hope of ever experiencing life again.

Can you imagine a world without hope? Can you imagine our lives without hope? This Christmas season... spend time thanking God for the hope that is found only in the Incarnation of Jesus... and enjoy the winter... knowing full well that Christ comes and brings life again!  

journey through grief...

A favorite pastor of mine used to always challenge his congregation to never look at your circumstances and derive God's character from them... but to always filter your circumstances through the lens of what you know God's character to be. What a true statement. And yet what a difficult thing to do. Our minds are so great at creating images and ideas of what we want or think God to be and if we allow these images and ideas to be created by our circumstances we will have created a god that is the figment of our imaginations, not the God of the Bible. C.S. Lewis learned this the hard way.

The tragedy that was cancer taking his wife's life caused him to question his belief in and idea of who God was. He testifies that God constantly ruined all of his previous thoughts of who he thought God was and/or should be.

He writes in a Grief Observed, "My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins. And most are 'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not. But the same thing happens in our private prayers..."    

What images or ideas do you have of God?
Are they consistent with Scripture's expression of God?
Have you ever thought that the Incarnation, what we are celebrating even this month, is a chief example of God completely shattering your images and ideas of Him?
And have you ever thought that when God does shatter those images and ideas it could just be a sign of His presence in your life? 

Ask God, not for greater understanding this season... but greater faith... to accept Him for Who He is in simple trust... even if circumstances would try and communicate otherwise.

journey through grief...

As I begin the next book on my list, 'A Grief Observed' by C.S Lewis I must confess that this blog has nothing to do with grief at all. Rather, it is an excerpt on gratitude.

Douglas Gresham is the step-son of the late C.S. Lewis, the child  of Lewis' wife who he grieves over in the book and the one who wrote the introduction to the particular edition I am reading. In his introduction he tells the story of the budding romance between Lewis and his wife Joy Davidman. What I came to find out through Gresham's writing is how much the two, Lewis and Davidman, had in common. They were both intellectuals, both had photographic memories, both were prolific writers and were atheists before their conversions. Their relationship was based on such a commonality of things that eventually led them to a loving and quite fulfilling marriage. Although Lewis and Davidman began as friends and with a civil marriage union, their relationship flourished through the years and they grew to love one another deeply leading to the writing of this work after Davidman passed away from a long battle with cancer.

I could not help but think about my own marriage as I was reading about the way the two got along so well and had so many common interests that they loved to be in each others' presence. They were truly best friends, what some might say are 'soul mates'.

There are emotions, thoughts, ideas in my mind and heart that only my wife gets. There are common interests that the two of us have that I think no one else in the world can understand or appreciate. I can go to my wife and communicate with her about things that I experience and she gets it like no one else does. And I am sure those of you who are married can echo the same sentiments regarding your spouses.  

Our lives have been brought together by a God who loves us and calls us to share that love through the love we express to one another in our marriages. Our marriages are to reflect the love Christ has for His bride. As you take time to read this feeble attempt at expressing my thoughts about my own marriage let us take time to bow before the Lord in thankfulness for our spouses. Let us be grateful in our hearts to the Lord who has brought a friend, companion, lover and soul-mate to so many of us. And let us never take them for granted. None of us are promised tomorrow.... for ourselves or for the ones we love...    

journey through the memory...

I have great memories! I remember vividly going to Disney World as a kid and watching the electric light parade with awe and wonder at Mickey Mouse. I remember jumping into cold swimming holes in the Smoky Mountains with my brother growing up and feeling both frozen and invigorated at the same time. I remember my first days as a freshman in college trying to make new friends and the exhaustion of staying up all night hanging out. I remember my wedding... the people, the cake, the euphoria... I remember the birth of my first, my little girl and after hours of staying by my wife's side being overcome with emotion as I got to hold her for the first time.

I also have memories that are not so great. I remember the first time a girl dumped me, I thought life was over as I knew it and that I would never find another one like her. I remember my first 'B' on a report card and the fear of my parents' reaction. I remember leaving college and all the good memories and having to start a new chapter of life. I remember my grandma dying of cancer and the absolute devastation I experienced that life as I had always known at 'Grandma and Grandpa's' would be no more. I remember moving my family away form home and to a new city, and having to watch my wife and kids struggle with the whys...

Sometimes we take for granted our memory... Even now I am watching my grandparents from a distance battle dementia and Alzheimer and losing essentially all of their memory to disease. What would it be like to have memory function lost in my life?

The memory is a blessing and a curse and is a complex thing to understand. Augustine says this about memory, 'The power of the memory is prodigious, my God. It is a vast, immeasurable sanctuary. Who can plumb its depths.' Augustine says a lot about the memory and the mind that I just do not get... and yet I walked away from his chapter in his 'Confessions' with a sense of wonder at my own memory. God has given us memory... and do you know why?

Maybe for the sheer joy of remembering life... maybe to create a dependence on Him when we remember the not so great parts of life... but ultimately He gave us our minds, our memories to remember Him...

In the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms we are exhorted to 'remember' the Lord, His mercy, His deeds, His miracles, His faithfulness. God constantly gave visual symbols to His people (Passover, altar of stones by the Jordan River) to cause them to remember Who He was and what He had accomplished for His Name's sake and on their behalf. One of the greatest instances where we are called to 'remember' is at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper where Paul quotes Jesus as saying, 'Do this in remembrance of me'. Steve Brown once said, "The world drinks to forget, but we drink to 'remember'". What a remarkable thing, to have been given by God the gift of memory in order that we might remember first and foremost, Him!

And yet, there is something in Scripture even more remarkable... God 'remembers'. Psalm 105:8 is just one place where the Bible states, 'He remembers His covenant forever...' God remembers His covenant with us... He will never forget... His memory is perfect. And finally, yet best of all, God does forget... The Psalmist cries out in 25, 'Do not remember the sins of my youth...' God does not 'remember' our sins but casts them as far away as the east is from the west.

When is the last time you thought about the vast sanctuary of your memory? Do not take it for granted, but remember this day the greatness of your God!