the wonderful tragedy

Quite a number of years ago, I dabbled briefly with writing poetry. Every year at Valentine's Day, my wife and I write poems to one another; part of the game is to hide these verses so that the other will find them on that day. Sometimes the poems are pretty good, but more often they are bad, meaningful only to us because they represent a shared intimacy.

One year, though, I kept writing. I wanted to write something meaningful, perhaps to share with others what was on my heart, or maybe more accurately what was washing around in my head. What I think I learned was that, while I could convey my thoughts, I lacked the gift of being able to beautifully express those ideas.

One of the poems I wrote was entitled "The Wonderful Tragedy," in which I sought to share my heart about the cross of Christ: A tragedy in which the son of God became man and was executed as a criminal; wonderful in that it was the realized plan from all eternity of a loving God to reconcile sinful man to himself without denying his own righteousness and justice.

I remembered the poem today when I read this from Emil Brunner.

Only at the cross of Christ does man see fully what it is that separates him from God; yet it is here alone that he perceives that he is no longer separated from God. Nowhere else does the inviolable holiness of God, the impossibility of overlooking the guilt of man stand out more plainly; but nowhere else does the limitless mercy of God, which utterly transcends all human standards, stand out more clearly and plainly.

the next time you are "wronged"

Pride has many different looks. The world might identify pride as self-respect. The Christian knows pride (generally) as haughtiness. Boastful arrogance. False humility. One of the most insidious expressions of human pride is the "need" to be right--self vindication. The common element in all of these is self.

One of my co-workers had to stay at home for a few days this week after some rather extensive dental work, and so he subjected himself to several hours of daytime television. He commented on the number of advertisements by lawyers ("Get everything you deserve! I'll fight for every dollar you having coming!") To me, this is just one illustration of how individualistic and self-focused American society has become. This stands in stark contrast with what the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3: "...with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself."

Consider Charles Williams' comment:

Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven.

Something to think about the next time we're "wronged."

of him, through him, to him

Each Thursday, I meet with a group of men for coffee, fellowship, Bible study. This morning, our discussion came to the decline of American society, and one of the men mentioned a generational difference: "Today it is more common to preach about God than to preach God."

What a rifle-shot distinction between religion and relationship! I remembered that Oswald Chambers had similarly drawn this distinction, differentiating between preaching Christ and preaching our beliefs about Christ. As important as it is to know what we believe and why, doctrine (a systematic expression of the truth) cannot eclipse God. Jesus' invitation, after all, was not "learn about me" but "Come to me."

When we come to him, walk with him, he teaches us and reveals himself. As William Temple said,

Knowledge of God can be fully given to man only in a Person, never in a doctrine. Faith is not the holding of correct doctrine, but personal fellowship with the living God.

what do I really want?

You know, I'm no hero. As a matter of fact, a life not characterized by trial, hardship, burden... That sounds pretty good to me.

Now don't misunderstand; I don't mean to say that I've endured lots of hardship or many trials. I certainly don't wish to say that I've had a hard time or to compare myself with others who to my way of thinking have indeed had it harder than I have. The fact is, I've been richly blessed all my life, but that doesn't mean that there haven't been trials.

What if a trouble-free life was handed to me--would I be happy? I have heard all my life the phrase, "It builds character," and I've got an idea that if suddenly all adversity were removed from my life, my life (character?) would be degraded and a continual downward slide would ensue.

Except--

I believe that God is the only character-builder, and as such character is only built in me by adversity as a result of God's use of it in my life. But whether or not there is conflict, burden, or trial in my life, character building of any eternal significance will only occur as I learn to trust God in more and more areas of my life. I think this was what led Oswald Chambers to say

I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.

I need not fear adversity with God in my life. As a matter of fact, living dependently on God allows me to embrace James 1:2ff, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,...

my first post

Several weeks ago, a person at my church (someone that I have known for some time and have thought highly of) vented some frustration in a blog post. When I saw it, knowing exactly over what and why this person was frustrated, I nevertheless was so torn down by it that I left work early that day, I was so upset.

The reason that I share this is that we should always remember that electronic communication (blog, e-mail, etc.) is an excellent filter; that is, elements of communication that a person [perhaps unconsciously] depends on for full and proper understanding, such as body language, mood (joy, sadness, anger,) and so on, are unavailable.

With this in mind, as I begin sharing my love for quotes through this blog, God placed on my heart the following quote from Philipp Melanchthon:

Nothing can be said so clearly as to preclude the possibility of it being misunderstood.

Until next time, God bless.