Happy Friday
The Message and the Messenger: When I was in seminary, an 80 year old chapel preacher – whose name I have long since forgotten – said, “When I was young I spent all my time preparing the message. I now spend most of my time preparing the messenger.” I think I am starting to understand that.
Quotes Worth Requoting: This week I have two quotes about worship from British author / Anglican Bishop – N.T. Wright:
- You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.
- When we begin to glimpse the reality of God, the natural reaction is to worship him. Not to have that reaction is a fairly sure sign that we haven’t yet really understood who he is or what he’s done.
IMHO: In my experience, attacks from the right are mean, while attacks from the left are condescending. I dislike both and wish more people would just admit that I am always right. BTW, I recently learned that the H in IMHO is silent.
What is Not Being Said: Much of what finds its way into these updates are things I hear or read. Years ago, Kelly Monroe – then a college minister at Harvard and soon to be the editor of Finding God at Harvard – suggested I pay equal attention to “what is not being said.” In her case, she noted that the “J-word” (Jesus) is never uttered at Harvard. What is not being said. My nomination for this week is “good-bye.” When I started in ministry, people facing the end of their life (especially when it was being brought on by cancer) eventually stopped treatment, accepted that the end was near and prepared to die. This meant using their final days to make peace with God and say good-bye to those they loved. Today many cling to the hope that they are going to be accepted into a clinical trial for the new drug that is going to return them to health. And they not only hold onto this hope until their last breath, they refuse to prepare for death believing that to do so would be a lack of faith. What is not said, “I’m so glad I got to share my life with you. I love you so much. I am so proud of you. I will see you in heaven. Good-bye for now.”
What is Being Said? If death is what is not being talked about, what is? Loneliness. I’ve been surprised recently by the number of articles discussing how lonely everyone is. According to a study of 20,000 Americans: 46% sometimes or always feel alone; 27% rarely (or never) feel that anyone understands them; and only 53% have meaningful in-person social interactions on a daily basis. What surprised me most about recent studies is the suggestion that the youngest (18 to 20-somethings) are the most lonely and the oldest (those 72 and above) are the least. Could it be that older people simply know how to be alone without being lonely? (Why not do your part to fight loneliness: invite your neighbors over for a BBQ).
The Second Most Important Thing. C.S. Lewis claimed that what a person thinks about God is “the second most important thing about them.” (The first is, what God thinks about them). InTraveling Light, Eugene Peterson develops Lewis’s point: One of the wickedest things one person can do to others is to lie to them about God, to represent God as other or less than he is. It is wicked to tell a person that God is an angry tyrant storming through the heavens, out to get every trespasser and throw him into the lake of fire. It is wicked to tell a person that God is a senile grandfather dozing in a celestial rocking chair with only the shortest of attention spans for what is going on in the world. It is wicked to tell a person that God is a compulsively efficient and utterly humorless manager of a tightly run cosmos, obsessed with getting the highest productivity possible out of history and with absolutely no concern for persons apart from their usefulness.
Prayer Request:
- ReNew Communities – the 501C3 we started last year to enlist businesses, other churches and other ministries in helping under-resourced communities – is working on the next three Matthew homes. It is also working to secure additional homes and working on job creation / business development. Pray for David Weil as he provides point leadership for these efforts, raises funds, etc.
- It’s Mother’s Day Weekend – which can be a wonderful time for some and a challenging time for others.
- Ben Torres began his efforts to recruit a team of forty people (or more) to launch a church among second generation Hispanics in the Highland Park / Highwood area.
Closing Prayer: Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours, and bind my heart in Thee. Give me eyes to see the world as You do. Give me ears to hear the cries of others and to love them as You do. Give me wisdom to separate what is of the world and what is of You. Give me courage to walk in Your truth. Lord, make me more like Jesus. Make me more like You.