Wonder

Do you ever wonder? I do.

I wonder how it just so happened that my parents and my good wife Debra’s parents, not to mention all of my ancestors and all of her ancestors, got together and married and then got together and produced children that ended up, way down the line, being us. The odds of everything and everyone working together in ways that would lead to us are astronomical—yet here we are.

I wonder how it just so happened that she and I, who had never heard of each other’s hometowns, both decided to attend Mercer University and both made that decision only after considerable influence was exerted on us by people who cared so deeply about our futures that they thought that they knew better than we did about the direction we should take—and they were right.

I wonder how it just so happened that late one fall afternoon in 1976 we ended up standing in line together to get our pictures taken for the college annual and I noticed that she was cute; while I don’t know what she noticed about me I suspect it was that I was awkward, which I proved in the way that I asked her out, in the first date that I planned, in the way that I dressed for it, and no doubt in the things I said.

I wonder how it just so happened that, five years after we married, we combined our respective gene pools to produce a son who was born on February 21, 1984 and whom we named Joshua. He was our first-born.

I wonder how it just so happened that, a couple of years before that, the partners in a couple in Madison, Wisconsin were combining their gene pools to produce their third child and first and only daughter, whom they named Michelle.

I wonder how it just so happened that, following various educational, extra-curricular, and vocational pursuits, Joshua and Michelle both decided to be writers.

I wonder how it just so happened that, although he was offered a similar fellowship at other places, Joshua chose to attend Georgia College & State University to pursue his Master of Fine Arts. I wonder furthermore how it just so happened that, after growing up in Wisconsin, attending college in Minnesota, and serving two years with the Peace Corps in Honduras, Michelle decided to pursue her MFA in Milledgeville, Georgia, too.

I wonder how it just so happened that Michelle and Joshua decided that their shared love for life, literature, family, good food, good beer, exercise, and cats—and each other—could form the foundation for a life together.

I wonder how it just so happens that they will stand before God, family, and friends this Sunday afternoon in the Senate Parlor Room of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in Madison and become husband and wife.

I think a lot about that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest says, "I don't know if Mama’s right or it’s Lieutenant Dan. I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both; maybe both is happening at the same time."

So if somebody asks me is it that God has plan for each of us or that we form our own destiny by the choices we make, I will answer “Yes.”

I’m not even sure I’d like to know how it all “just so happens.”

The beauty of life, I believe, is found in the wonder of it all…

Two Reasons to Take Advent Seriously

[This is my church newsletter column for this week.]


This Sunday is the first Sunday of the season of Advent. The word “Advent” means “arrival” or “coming”; during the four weeks of Advent we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas, the second coming of Christ in glory, and the continuing and new ways that Jesus will choose to come to us right here and right now. Advent, then, is about watching and waiting; it is about trusting and hoping; it is about looking and listening.

I want to encourage you and your family to give special attention to the observance of Advent. I do so for several reasons.

First, Advent is a particularly Christian observance. You are likely thinking, “Now, wait a minute—Christmas is a Christian holy day.” Of course it is. But Christmas has also been co-opted by the culture at large so that for many people the secular and commercial aspects of it are much more important than the religious aspects; as Donald Heinz observed, “Christmas without religion is now more imaginable than Christmas without shopping” [Christmas: Festival of Incarnation(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010), p. x]. It is not surprising that such is the case for non-Christians but it is rather shocking that it appears to be true for many professed followers of Christ.

Advent is different. There are no secular Advent carols; there are no Advent presents; there are no Advent sales; there is no countdown of shopping days until Advent; there are no Advent television shows or movies. If we choose to focus on Advent, nothing competes directly for our attention because only followers of Christ pay any attention at all to Advent. Advent, then, gives us a means to give appropriate focus to Jesus in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Second, Advent encourages an alternative to pre-Christmas frenzy. One of the reasons that the observance of Advent runs so counter to the flow of our culture is that it is all about waiting, an activity at which our society is not practiced and that it thus does not embrace. Our Christmas practices, fueled by unrealistic expectations and by barely bridled materialism, lead us to approach Christmas at a frenetic pace that results in exhaustion and disappointment.

The observance of Advent, on the other hand, reminds us that life is not finally about what we do but about what God has done, will do, and is doing. It trains us to wait and to watch, to always be on the lookout for how God is acting. Advent keeps our focus on the grace, mercy, and love of God and thus teaches us to remember to trust in God. Very importantly, Advent slows us down and teaches us to pay attention.

So during this Advent season I hope and trust that you and your family will participate in Advent worship and will spend some time at home each day reflecting on our coming Savior.

Let’s slow down. Let’s wait. Let’s watch. Let’s listen…

Thanksgiving 2012

With Thanksgiving Day upon us, I’d like to share with you a few of the many things for which I am thankful this year.

1. I am thankful for my wife and children, who love, encourage, and inspire me; I am also thankful for the opportunity to be a friend to those who have little or no family or who are estranged from their family.

2. I am thankful for my sound health; I am also thankful for the privilege of being with and praying for those whose health is unsound.

3. I am thankful for good food to eat, for clean water to drink, and for access to good health care; I am also thankful for those who are working to make those necessities available to people who don’t have them and for the opportunity to help those who are trying to help.

4. I am thankful for the privilege to live in a free nation in which we try to balance individual liberty and corporate responsibility; I am also thankful for nations that are trying to grow toward such freedom and for people who are working for change in those nations whose leaders have no interest in such freedom.

5. I am thankful for a church family with which I can worship God, with which I can share sorrow and joy, and with which I can bear witness to Jesus Christ in our community; I am also thankful for the privilege of being the church in the world so that we can share the love, mercy, peace, and grace of God with people in need of those blessings.

6. I am thankful for this beautiful world in which we live; I am also thankful for the opportunity of doing what I can to preserve that beauty for future generations.

7. I am thankful for the grace of God that loves me just as I am; I am also thankful for the way that grace nudges me to love others just as they are.

8. I am thankful for the great blessing of knowing and following Jesus Christ every day of my life; I am also thankful for those who follow along with me, whether or not I know it.

21 Observations on my 54th Birthday

I’m writing these words on the morning of my 54th birthday and I’m in a reflective mood; I’m thinking about what I have learned in my five and a half decades of living. Here’s a list, in no particular order:

1. Baseball is still the greatest sport in the world but I have a suspicion that rugby is even better.
2. Some, but not most, of what I was afraid would happen has happened; most, but not all, of what I was afraid would never happen has happened.
3. There is pressure in diving deep and pleasure in staying shallow; both have their time and place.
4. Following Jesus is hard; not following Jesus is harder.
5. I owe a lot to a lot of people but I owe everything to only One.
6. Money isn’t everything; it is, however, something.
7. Lingering regret comes from short-sightedness while increasing gratitude comes from a broader perspective; God has a way of working God’s purposes out through and despite what we do or don’t do.
8. Most of what I really need to know I have learned from my father, my mother, Preacher Bill, Preacher Key, Dr. Giddens, my wife, my children, and Uncle Johnny; the rest I have learned from Frederick Buechner, Barbara Brown Taylor, Eugene Peterson, Brennan Manning, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen.
9. Small towns are better than big cities and vice versa.
10. I have a song.
11. German chocolate cake is worth waiting a year for.
12. Prayer, like breath, is life.
13. I suspect that for every act of grace that has been extended to me of which I am aware there are at least three of which I am unaware; I am grateful for them all.
14. I went into the ministries of preaching, praying, teaching, and writing because I wanted to engage in a life-long quest for truth; if I were not a minister I would be an astronomer—for the same reason.
15. Movies filmed in black and white are as a rule superior to those filmed in color.
16. The Holy Spirit will not leave me alone; most of the time I am glad.
17. I could do a better job of helping people overcome their self-centeredness if I could do a better job of overcoming mine.
18. It’s hard enough trying to figure out the people who live in the same town I do; it would be mighty arrogant of me to think I can understand folks who live on the other side of the world.
19. Life is simple. And complicated.
20. I will always like the Monkees.
21. I am me. Thanks be to God.

American Capitalist Christian? Or Christian Capitalist American? Or Capitalist American Christian?

I am a natural born American citizen; I am practically a natural born Christian, too.

I was, after all, born on American soil to American parents who took me to church for the first time when I was ten days old.

My growing up years were marked by a seemingly natural and comfortable alliance between love for God and love for country. At Vacation Bible School we pledged allegiance to the United States and Christian flags with absolutely no sense of irony. It was made clear to me that good Christians supported their country, even if its actions ran counter to the teachings of Jesus.

I was born in that little window that kept me from even having to register for the draft, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I ever had to kill people because of my devotion to country I would be honored whereas if I refused to kill people because of my devotion to Christ I would be vilified. That’s just one (and an extreme one, at that) example of the tensions that can arise for someone trying to be both a faithful Christian and a faithful American.

Over the years I began to try to think seriously and critically about those tensions; specifically, I began to think about how I and others could appropriately live in America as Christian citizens.

The position that I developed could be summarized as follows: “A Christian’s allegiance to Jesus Christ should always come before any other allegiance, including the allegiance to country.” To put it negatively, “A Christian should never put being American ahead of being Christian.”

Things get complicated pretty quickly, though.

Take, for example, the matter of a Christian’s stance toward American economic policies and practices.

It seems to me that many Christians in America are much more “American” when it comes to economics than they are “Christian.” I am neither an economist nor the son of an economist, but we all know that the heart and soul of the American economic system is capitalism. According to Wikipedia, “Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit. Competitive markets, wage labor, capital accumulation, voluntary exchange, and personal finance are also considered capitalistic.”

Ideally, everyone has the chance to profit in and from such a system. If I operate a successful business, everyone associated with my business (shareholders, employees, vendors, etc.) might reap the benefits. And, if I am a Christian operating a business, then ideally grace, love, and generosity will be churned out along with profits.

Still, it is difficult to make a case that capitalism is a Christian system or is even particularly compatible with Christian practice, given that it is based on competitiveness that all too often degenerates into making a profit at any cost, even if that cost is a human one, and into an atmosphere of greed and selfishness.

It was Jesus who said, “You cannot serve God and money” and successful capitalism practically necessitates, when push comes to shove, having God be the one eliminated from the equation if the choice has to be made.

It seems to me, too, that many professed followers of Christ who put capitalism ahead of their Christianity do not take seriously enough the very clear bias of God, as God is revealed in the Bible, toward the poor and the helpless.

Now, I do think that many folks sincerely believe that, left to itself and to the hard work of business owners and operators and of their employees, the free market will eventually create a situation in which the rising waters of profit will float all boats.

I also know that many people try very hard to participate in the capitalist system in a way that honors Christ; I know that many such folks do everything they can to be honest, fair, and charitable in ways that they make and invest their profits.

Some of us find ourselves wanting an American society that cares for the poor and the helpless as much as, and maybe even more than, it does for the preservation of wealth (although, in the interest of full disclosure, let me make it clear than I am doing what I can to preserve enough wealth to be able to eat after I retire, if I ever do).

I’m not convinced that we couldn’t have it both ways—that is, that we couldn’t foster a robust business climate that still finds a way, through the combined efforts of government, churches, and non-profits, to protect and care for the poor and helpless among us. I furthermore believe that Christians could and should be in the forefront of such an effort.

My thoughts on this subject are complicated by my belief, as expressed elsewhere, that a nation is not capable of being Christian, and thus to talk about a “Christian America” is to employ a misnomer. I am aware of the tension between that conviction and my desire to have my nation display in its policies and practices the emphases that characterize basic Christianity, namely, “to care for orphans and widows” (James 1:27) and robust prophetic religion (note the consistent emphasis of the Hebrew prophets on the responsibilities of the “haves” toward the “have nots,” of the 1% to the 99%, if you will).

Having said that, though, I think it’s fair to observe that what I want my nation to practice is basic kindness, fairness, and compassion, emphases that bleed across religious lines and indeed are a part of just being decent human beings. So yes, “secular humanists” could and can participate, too.

This much I know: if we follow Christ, our priority is our faithfulness to him and to his ways, ways that are best described by the words “service” and “sacrifice,” words that are difficult to apply and concepts that can be difficult to live out if we buy whole-heartedly into any other way, even if it is the American way.

What Do Your Choices Tell You?

(My weekly column in our church newsletter is called "When You Stop a & Think About It." What follows is this week's column.)

A friend and I were discussing some movies we had seen recently when another friend standing with us chimed in to say, “You two must have a lot more free time on your hands than I do since you have time to watch so many movies.” I responded, “How did the Braves do last night?” He said, “They won!” I asked, “How often do you watch the Braves?” He proudly replied, “I never miss a game!” I didn’t do the math for him but, if I watched two movies a week I invested around five hours in them while if he watched six Braves games a week he invested about twenty hours in them.

Of course, I really couldn’t say much since on those nights when I wasn’t watching a movie I was probably watching the Braves, too; I respected my friend’s devotion to the Braves. The difference between us was defined by his belief that my watching movies was a waste of time.

Priorities and choices—so much of life is about priorities and choices. The truth is that, while some things are thrust upon us, we all in large part do what we want to do. We choose what is important and we give our time and energy to those things.

While every Christian must, with the help of the Holy Spirit, figure out for herself exactly what her discipleship should look like, we can name some elements that can and should characterize all of our lives.

One element that should characterize our lives is prayer. The longer I live the more I value the practice of prayer. How much time do we spend opening our lives up to God, who wants to commune with us, in prayer? How much time do we give to developing our relationship with God?

Another element is worship. Worshiping God along with other members of the Body of Christ is to me akin to eating a meal with other hungry people. Do we prioritize corporate worship?

Yet another necessary element of the Christian life is service. The greatest commandment, Jesus said, is to love the Lord our God with everything we are while the second is to love our neighbor as we love our self. To love our neighbor is to serve our neighbor in whatever ways we can. We are called by our Savior especially to serve those who are the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. How much of our time and other resources do we invest in helping others?

This Sunday morning we’ll think together about another important element of the Christian life that I suspect most of us neglect: solitude.

When you stop and think about it, we do what we want to do. What do our lives reveal about what we truly value in our lives?

A Prayer for the Sunday after the Aurora, CO Shootings

(We observed a moment of silence to remember the victims and their families; I then prayed the following prayer.)

O God,

Once again we have been confronted with the horror of the killing and wounding of a large number of people, this time in Aurora, Colorado. As we ponder the numbers—12 killed and 59 wounded—help us to remember that each one of those numbers represents a person whose death or injury has left their family and friends grief-stricken and in turmoil.

Lord, have mercy on those families.
Christ, have mercy on that community.
Lord, have mercy on us.

We pray for the one who carried out these murders. We ask for him the related miracles of healing and forgiveness that come only by your grace. We pray that the kind of darkness that overcame his soul will never overcome ours.

This tragedy, like all such tragedies, causes us to ask hard and challenging questions. Help us, O God, not to hide from confronting questions that we need to confront. We readily acknowledge the sin and sickness that are present in one who would carry out such an act. Is there also sin and sickness in our nation, in our culture, in our mindset, in our priorities, in our communities and even in our churches that help to contribute to such an event?

Is there something in our hearts? Is there something in my heart?

If our asking of such questions and if our seeking of your Spirit lead us to conclusions that challenge and trouble us, help us to deal with those conclusions honestly and courageously.

On your grace and on your grace alone can we rely in this time and in all times.

Thank you for hearing our prayers.
Thank you for seeing our hearts.
Thank you for healing our hurts.
Thank you for forgiving our sins.

Amen.