Happy Friday
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. Psalm 119:7f
These Seven words Will Change Your Life: I hate headlines that make such outlandish promises. They make me feel, well, like you feel right now. You know that seven words are not going to change your life. The headline is a ploy, and yet… it does make you curious, so you scan ahead. I did. And I hope you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was when you see what seven words I am talking about. They come from I Samuel 3:10. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. (In the same vein, I also appreciate the 12 word Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner).
Why So Few: Max Lucado makes this surprising observation: “Jesus healed hundreds, fed thousands, but so far as we know, He only raised three: the daughter of Jairus, the boy near Nain, and Lazarus. Why so few?” Lucado offers these possibilities: “Could it be because He knew He’d be doing them no favors? Could it be because He couldn’t get any volunteers? Could it be that once someone is there, the last place they want to return to is here.”
My Fortieth High School Reunion: I spent last Friday evening with one hundred old friends (pun intended) from the United Township High School graduating class of 1978. It was our fortieth reunion. I’d been to two previous reunions – my 10th and 25th. The 40th was better, largely because most – though not all – have given up trying to impress others. I had two take-aways: 1) Most people’s lives make sense. By which I mean, while it is impossible to predict what people will do when they are 18, when you reconnect with them forty years later and hear what they’ve done, you think, “Yeah, that makes sense. Mark is a doctor, Steve is a pilot and Jude lives in Hollywood. I should have seen all of that coming.” 2) I am thankful for how many have come to faith. As with my college fraternity brothers, I wish I had adopted a longer view earlier on. Many who say “no” to Christ when they first seriously consider his claims, are really only saying, “ not yet.” I was often discouraged at who wasn’t interested. Forty years later, they are all in.”
Detroit: I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Detroit with David Weil – who leads our work in North Chicago. We went to observe four ministries we’d heard good things about. As you likely know, the Motor City has had a rough ten years: the population dropped from 2 million to under 700K. This has left entire neighborhoods – and 70,000 homes – sitting vacant. Some say Detroit is back. But unless they are talking about quarterback Matt Stafford and the Lions, that’s not entirely true. The business corridor looks great. In fact, I ran along the river front and marveled at how nice, clean, safe and vibrant the core is. But many of the neighborhoods are in rough shape. And given the fact that 93% of kids are reading below grade level, 80% are living in concentrated poverty, 54% are living in actual poverty and unemployment is over forty percent, I’d say it’s not back. But be assured, as many were fleeing the Big D, some were running towards the fire. We had a chance to spend time with wise, thoughtful and humble people doing thoughtful, bold and important things. The light of Christ shines very brightly in dark corners. I left encouraged and challenged.
Keller on Kavanaugh: For both of the last two Updates, I drafted comments about the political moment, but pulled them at the recommendation of proof readers. Neither was partisan, but polarization is reaching such levels. that it’s probably best to save political observations to settings where you know you are being clear – i.e., not emails. That said, I do feel strongly enough about a Christianity Today interview with Tim Keller, and his efforts to navigate the moment, to send it along. You can listen to it here.
Quotes Worth Requoting:
- Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working is not work. The inventors of the Sabbath understood that it was a much more complicated undertaking. You cannot downshift casually and easily, the way you might slip into bed at the end of a long day. As the Cat in the Hat says, ”It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” This is why the Puritan and Jewish Sabbaths were so exactingly intentional, requiring extensive advance preparation — at the very least a scrubbed house, a full larder and a bath. The rules did not exist to torture the faithful. They were meant to communicate the insight that interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will, one that has to be bolstered by habit as well as by social sanction. Judith Shulevitz, “Bring Back the Sabbath,” The New York Times, 2003.
- How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it . . . You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theatre in which your own little plot is always played. You would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers. G.K Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908)
- No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it — not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ — because He was the only man who neveryielded to temptation — is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means. He is the only complete realist. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
- Busyness is moral laziness [because it is often a statement of our self-importance and our excuse to be inattentive to people]. . . . But God has given us just enough time to do what we need to do moment by moment to respond to him. And his grace is there; it is eternally present. Every moment is a sacrament where time touches eternity and there is exactly enough time to do what God has called us to do. Bruce Hindmarsh.
Prayer Requests: Our efforts to help plant three churches overseas is moving forward. The team in Ghana is preparing to select a pastor and break ground on a small building. And a group of 25 professionals in Chennai is in the early stages of forming a launch team, hoping to assemble and train a team of 100 soon. Both need prayer.
Closing Prayer: Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you my whole being. I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge; let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more, and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of your love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love. Amen. Anselm, 1033 – 1109