Category: Notes Anthology

Failing to tell the truth, and failing to face the truth, is ultimately more harmful than the opposite.
Rod Dreher

Calvin and vaccines
Sixteenth-century Reformer John Calvin taught this creational theology with particular verve. “Wherever you cast your eyes,” he wrote in Institutes, “there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of God’s glory.” What many today call the “natural world” was, for Calvin, a “dazzling theater” of God’s glory. He lamented that “scarcely one man in a hundred is a true spectator of it!”
Calvin insisted that through medicine God “provides us with the capacity to attend to our illnesses.” Indeed, he exclaims, “whoever does not take account of the means [medicine] which God has ordained does not have confidence in God but is puffed up with false pride and temerity.”

Telling a story
But you can’t convincingly tell a story until you’ve made it your own. Until we allow the story of Jesus to shape our own, to make us more and more into his likeness, we just sound like Pharisees, bleating about religious freedom, insisting on our rights, and demanding the world conform to our esoteric form of holiness. And that’s what people like my Uber driver see. They might be neutral about Jesus, but their views about the church are anything but impartial. Indeed, the reputation of church has never been lower.
Michael Frost

center of the cosmos
…why not put human being at the center of the cosmos? The universe might be vast, but it is cold and empty. Yet here, in the midst of that vast icy silence, exists a hot, burning flame. You are a candle in the darkness. Incandescent. More mysterious and remarkable than anything reveled by astrophysics. 
Richard Beck

“Pursuing one goal to the utter exclusion of all others is not to make a choice but to run from it. It’s not leadership; it’s abdication.”
Mitch Daniels

Electric Christians
Among the “new” things of that era [19th century] were new religious ideas. An interesting group of those ideas fall under the heading of the powers of the mind. It was the great century of electricity and it seems only inevitable that such a force would become a power image for spiritual energy. Already in the late 1700’s, there arose “electrotherapists.” One such physician, T. Gale of upstate New York, who used electricity for the cure of mental and physical diseases, described it as the “soul of the universe.”

For Gale, his fellow electrotherapists, and their numerous patients, electricity was a material current of divine love; matter and spirit, nature and grace, were different aspects of a single reality. God, for Gale, was the “spiritual sun” whose love was “spiritual nutrition”; electricity was that spiritual substance in material form, “participation of the same element as the natural sun diffused through all the natural world.” There was, in Gale’s view, “no animation in the natural world” except by the heat of the “ethereal fire.” Echoing [Jonathan] Edwards, Gale believed that the discovery of electricity and its divine healing properties augured a worldwide Christian millennium. (McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon, p. 136)

I often think that in our contemporary times we are tempted to become “electric Christians.” We “send out thoughts and prayers” as though they were radio signals. We gather as many people who will agree to join us in prayer as though its power and effectiveness were somehow increased if more people “generate” it. It is a powerful image, and our thoughts in that direction are not intentionally wrong. But prayer and matters of the Spirit are not electrical forces (nor even like electrical forces). The Holy Spirit is quite silent for the most part (Jn. 16:13). Nevertheless, the Spirit is a person – not a force to be used. It is not for us to create such false images in an effort to explain what cannot be known.
Fr Stephen Freeman

Fundamentalist
A fundamentalist … is absolutely certain that his system of thought gives him access to unvarnished truth, and therefore doesn’t waste time examining contrary evidence or engaging in dialogue with nonbelievers. The fundamentalist is unshakable in his belief that his viewpoint is perfectly clear and so cannot be misinterpreted. He reasons down from initial premises to what he takes to be unchallengeable conclusions.
Persuasion Community

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Victor Frankel

View from the Front Porch
The world looks different when you view it through grief.
RIP
Jordon Ezell

Still on the Journey

Self-awareness
Self-awareness is being able to not just feel your emotions, but observe yourself feeling your emotions; to not just have thoughts but to observe your thoughts as though they weren’t yours; to not just have beliefs, but to question those beliefs. 
This self-observation—or the mind that watches itself—is at the root of mental and emotional health. It is a skill that we can practice and become better at. Therefore, knowledge is gained and wisdom is practiced. While knowledge is accumulated, wisdom is honed. While knowledge can be lost, wisdom lasts forever. 
Mark Manson

Prison Prayer Request
Posted on 5.10.2021
As I’ve shared, after a long absence due to COVID, chaplain volunteers have recently been allowed back to the unit on Sundays to participate and preach in the prison worship services.
I preached in two services yesterday. In one of the services, we had a moment where the men could come forward for prayer. Three men came to me and we shared in a time of prayer.
The request that struck me was from Robert. Robert was heavily tattooed, even on his eyelids. Obviously, an intimidating appearance. But as Robert shared his prayer request, tears started to fill his eyes.
Robert was a stutterer. And he wanted prayers for his speech. When he’s anxious or emotional, he can’t express himself. What he carries on the inside cannot make it to the outside. In fact, Robert shared that the reason for all this tattoos is that they communicate the important things that he cannot. He has etched his heart on his skin.
I prayed. For the healing of Robert’s speech, but mostly for his pain, his frustration, his embarrassment, his shame. 
I left the unit thinking about Robert. We’re all carrying on the inside some fragile thing, our external facades masking some shame or deep frustration. Looking at Robert, you wouldn’t know the pain he carried. When we gaze at each other we can’t see what is hidden on the inside. Like Robert, we’re all carrying, even hiding, some private fragile thing. 
Richard Beck

What Happens?
Russell Moore’s powerful and anguished words, “What happens when people reject the church because they think we reject Jesus and the gospel?” He continued, “What if people don’t leave the church because they disapprove of Jesus, but because they’ve read the Bible and have come to the conclusion that the church itself would disapprove of Jesus?”

Sin
Sin is so seductive and its strategies can seem so reasonable. In fact, sin is so deceptive as to make standing against it not only humanly unreasonable but culturally untenable, not only unloving but insensitive.
J D Walt

Follow your dreams…
A few years ago I was the commencement speaker for my son’s High School graduation. During the talk I made a very uncommencment like observation. I said, “During commencement addresses you’re supposed to tell the graduates to ‘follow your dreams.’ But if the research is to be believed, that is bad advice. What we dream for often doesn’t make us happy.”
Richard Beck

Live by the Spirit
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5.25) For years now, Strictly Come Dancing has been a highlight for those who are into such reality shows. What makes for a good performance is timing, movement in unison, anticipation of the moves, mutual understanding, shared enthusiasm, familiarity with the music and rhythm, and practice; lots and lots of practice. If we keep in step with the Spirit, and perform the music of Scripture with practised precision, then we become like those Paul described as those who live by the Spirit, and receive the promise: “The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Jim Gordon 

The Kingdom of Man
In the Kingdom of Man, the seas are ribboned with plastic, the forests are burning, the cities bulge with billionaires and tented camps, and still we kneel before the idol of the great god Economy as it grows and grows like a cancer cell. And what if this ancient faith is not an obstacle after all, but a way through? As we see the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, of choosing power over ­humility, separation over communion, the stakes become clearer each day. Surrender or rebellion; sacrifice or conquest; death of the self or triumph of the will; the Cross or the machine. We have always been ­offered the same choice. The gate is strait and the way is narrow and maybe we will always fail to walk it. But is there any other road that leads home?
Paul Kingsworth

Christian corporations
…all too many American Christian institutions are corporations first. They’re perpetually-existing legal entities who confront each and every scandal with a single prime directive: This ministry must endure. It is too important to fail. It cannot die. 
David French

View from the front porch.
It has been a busy few days, rehearsal and dinner, wedding and reception, family visiting. It was all good and great memories abound.
I cautiously predict spring has arrived, sweet smelling lilacs, stunningly beautiful rhododendrons, green grass, warmer mornings are undeniable evidence.
—
Linda’s van slowed and stopped. “I lost Archie.” she lamented, “he passed unexpectedly on April 28.”
I had been missing him, but with cool weather and my absence, I expected he would appear with spring,—walking to Cluckers to buy lottery tickets for Linda. His wife Linda and I never met but Archie walked past regularly and we often talked. A gregarious person, in his jeans and suspenders, looking like he might have been working in his garden, he shared a lot. He took pleasure in walking the one mile round-trip to buy the lottery tickets for Linda. Unable to get out, lottery tickets brought her some joy, he said. He was willing to do what he could to make her happy. “I love her,” he said, “I finally found a good one, she’s my third wife. We’ve been married 27 years.” “I’m her fourth husband.” Amused, I tried to do the math…
I never got to hear the whole story.
I miss Archie. As I think about he and Linda, I am thankful that they found each other. I am thankful that Archie stopped to talk. I may just buy her some lottery tickets.

Still on the journey

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill

Communication
We need to be careful of the desire to be clever in our communication. Twitter and Facebook have made this ubiquitous but we should be careful because it often shuts down actual thoughtful communication. A clever response can sometimes be helpful, but also it can shut down the possibility of extended discussion of complex issues.
Matt Redmond

Truth of the Gospel
I’m going to tell you now what I believe may be the deepest, perhaps the hardest (and as a consequence, most neglected) truth of the gospel. We tend to believe our love for others originates from God’s love for us, and it does—just not how we think. Our love for others will never exceed our love for ourselves and our love for ourselves will never exceed our awareness and experience of God’s love for us. No one knew this better than Jesus, who put , this way: “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:39).
J D Walt

Mattering
…we want our lives to be “high stakes.” We want our actions to have weight, import, and significance. But it’s hard to achieve this sense of “mattering” through self-talk. And yet, self-talk is the only tool our therapeutic culture gives us. Just stare into the mirror and try to talk your way into significance. Convince yourself that you matter.
Richard Beck

Lament
He often wrote about how difficult lament was, pointing out that we only learn to lament when the pain allows no other option. “Lament has been a journey for me,” he wrote, “a journey into grace, repentance, and wholeness.” On another occasion, my friend wrote, “If we don’t understand lament, we will never understand celebration.”
Lament without anger isn’t lament; it’s just whining. Honest anger is healthy and healing. Anger is a significant element in lament and one of the reasons for the freedom that follows it. 
Steve Brown
https://www.keylife.org/articles/jesus-died-to-make-us-nice-right-a-brief-for-anger/

Implications from Leviticus
God’s Otherness is absolutely necessary for a doctrine of grace. Grace is a gift, a gift that comes to us from the Outside, as a divine interruption. Grace is grace because is crosses over a vast unbridgeable abyss, a chasm so great we cannot cross it from our side. It is the Otherness of God that makes grace an experience of God’s free, unprompted, unilateral movement of love toward us. 
Richard Beck

Evil people
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

Scapegoating
Human nature, when it is seeking power, wants either to play the victim or to create victims of others. In fact, the second follows from the first. Once we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we will soon find someone else to blame, accuse or attack—and with impunity! It settles the dust quickly, and it takes away any immediate shame, guilt, or anxiety. In other words, it works—at least for a while.
Richard Rohr

View from the front porch.
Our neighborhood is very transitional. Numerous rental properties assure ongoing change. New pedestrians show up regularly. We are sad to lose Mary, our long-time friend and neighbor who moved last week. Another neighbor has been placed in a nursing home and his home across the street will be sold soon. We are looking forward to getting to know new neighbors. It is amazing how you can get to know your neighbors by sitting on the front porch.

LISTEN for the WEEK
My introduction to Drew Holcomb. It won’t disappoint.

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