But the waiting is a very different thing depending on who is doing it.  The post behind this link is hard to see and hard to read.  But well worth it.

http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com/2010/09/while-we-wait.html

“If I do not express myself clearly, it is either for the reason that having no conversational powers, I cannot express what I mean, or that having no meaning, I do not mean what I fail to express.  Which, to the best of my belief, is not the case.”  - Charles Dickens

I’ll second that quote, and ask in advance that you comment to create discussion if I don’t mean what I fail to express in this post.

The statement I’ll challenge as lacking intellectual honesty, or in today’s lexicon, not keepin’ it real: “Everything I have is God’s, not mine anyway…” or common variations such as “All or my money comes from Him and is His, not mine…” 

First potential misunderstanding - In a deeper, longer-term way, I actually think those statements are true if made by any human, plant, animal, etc.  My point is, we don’t live that way.  Typically, those statements are made to salve our consciences - to claim a true, accurate, statement as a core belief that puts our actions beyond reproach.  The problem is, stating it makes us feel better when it shouldn’t.  Makes us feel good and generous when in reality it should be an indication of how far we are from where we should be with use of our posessions.  And in reality, I don’t think God set things up quite that way in this present time and place.  Let me explain…

Money is my business.  I’m a CPA and a financial advisor.  In that role, I manage money and investments for clients.  I can make the statement: “That money is really my clients and not mine anyway”, and I know what it means.  It means it really isn’t mine.  It really belongs to someone else.  I can take it - its almost as easy as writing a check,  But I won’t get away with it.  It’s a crime.  I would eventually be held accountable, and I would be punished.  Even if I take a relatively small amount for my personal benefit.  Anything at all.  Why?  It’s not mine, it belongs to someone else.

So, when we say our money really belongs to God and not us, then go out and spend it primarily on us, we are not keepin’ it real.

Second potential misunderstanding.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t spend any money on us.  I’m just pointing out the fallacy in a common statement I hear that makes us feel all nice and warm and fuzzy inside, but is really a ridiculously inaccurate statement.  “WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE??? (An aside - that’s a quote from the 80’s - a source any true child of the 80’s should know, and that I’ve quoted before and asked for recognition of… come on, this is fun… who recognizes it?  The all caps is a clue.)  Anyway… back on topic… the significance is that here and now, in this life, time, and place - what God has given us (it does all come from Him) is ours.  Ours to do with what we please.  He’s given us that authority and freedom.  If we really believed it is all His in this time and place, we would be compelled to treat it like I treat my client’s money - don’t touch it for my personal benefit in any amount.  I just don’t think that’s an accurate portrayal of either how we act, or how we are expected to act.

So the honest statement is:  God has given me great blessings, and the authority to spend them either on myself, or for the good of others.  My actions are the evidence of how I respond to that authority.

Why is that distinction important?  I don’t know, maybe its not for “normal” people, but for wierdos like me, the first (not real) statement lets me relax.  Just by stating it, I feel better about myself and my actions and feel free to coast having made that intellectual concept/statement public.  The second forces me to take a hard look at my actions.  To really consider if my life is lining up with giving God the glory, honor, and respect He deserves with my actions and use of the things He’s given me.  I think the latter path produces more fruit.  At least for me…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605232.html

I did a series on thankfulness some time ago… probably my favorite posts - look them up in the archives if you missed them.  I can’t remember how many posts were in that series, but wherever we are in the count, this is a delayed addition.

After watching this, I was struck by the question; “How can we, of all people - with God’s own spirit living in us, not be thankful regardless of our circumstances?”  But we are discontent and unthankful to the extent that we often think of our Christianity only in light of what it can bring us that we don’t currently have.  Let’s change that focus to a focus on what we can do for others.  That doesn’t mean just write a check.  It means change our entire outlook on the meaning of our lives.  Frankl had it right.  Happines naturally ensures from living for a casue greater than ourselves, for others.  God is so good.  We change our way of life and impact the lives of others for the better and who really benefits?  We do.  The ones who made the “sacrifice”.

We are equipped with SO MUCH.  More than we need, and there is such a need for the excess that we have - not just money - love, peace, joy, wisdom, compassion…

I’m sure you’ve heard the story.  Medical aid workers from a Christian charity murdered one by one, each seeing their fate, having accepted the possibility long since, now knowing they would be leaving those they love as their turn at the muzzle of the gun arrived.  The recent example in Afghanistan is only one of countless examples since Jesus promised that His burden is easy, his yoke light.  And truly, it is today for those aid workers.  But how… how is it easy and light for their wives, husbands, children?  Don’t think I’m going to answer that one.  I’m not even going to try.

But He said it.  If He is God, what is the difficulty?  In this life, our pain only represents birth pangs as we enter our real life in eternity.  I don’t know, maybe that’s it.  Maybe He really makes it easy and light in this world in ways we can’t understand without experiencing it.  I read an account of a Romanian minister, imprisoned and tortured daily.  Jesus would come to him physically and hold him after the torture sessions.  Now, in freedom in the U.S, this man said in many ways he longs for those days of torture to relive those moments with Jesus.  I don’t know.  I just don’t.  And I can’t fathom how His burden could be easy if I lost those I love.  I only know He said it and I have to accept it by faith and walk on with a complete disregard for saving my own life - because that’s precisely how I will lose it.  That I have to allow my wife and kids to do the same, knowing that we might face great loss and suffering in this world.

It is naive, unscriuptural, and leads only to disillusionment to pretend that such sacrifice and loss is not a part of many of our walks in this world.  Today I’ll borrow from The Choir’s song, The Chicken (in some eastern societies chickens are believed to channel evil, thus the imagery).  I have to agree with this song.  That doesn’t mean that God’s promises are not true.  It means we need an unshakable faith that God’s promises are true even when we suffer, and that we should not be surprised if and when we do suffer - nor should we doubt our ultimate deliverance.  The Gospel MUST BE as true for those watching their chidlren die of starvation and dehydration tonight as it is for me.  Knowing pain and suffering here must not shake our faith.  Real faith believes in the face of suffering that is a natural part of a battleground.

I could tell you there is no troll in the valley,
No tricky ghoul behind the trees.
Yeah, I could tell you there is no molester in the alley,
To take a lead pipe to your knee.

But you won’t believe it ‘cause it ain’t true.
You won’t believe it ‘cause it ain’t true.
Rivers flowing through your precious body blue,
Trickle crimson when the chicken claws you.
Trickle crimson when the chicken claws you.

I was recently asked, “How can you do a series of posts borrowing from other thinkers and writers and not include a Pensee from Blaise Pascal?”.  I was, of course, ashamed at my glaring omission - even if the person who asked me was me (I often have discussions with myself).  So, here goes:

“How I hate this nonsense of not believing in the truth and reality of God’s presence in the Eucharist.  If He is God, what is the difficulty?”

Whenever I am daunted by the immensity of suffering in the world (or even by day-to-day struggles), by my seeming inability to make any difference, I remember that He has a plan.  He will make a way.  If His Word makes it clear what we are to do, and He is God… what is the difficulty?  It is only logical that if we believe He is God - then the apparent immensity of any challenge is irrelevant.  If He is God, what is the difficulty?  The logic is so simple that it exposes the real question:  do I believe He is God?  Answer that with real certainty and we can rest assured as to the outcome.

Here’s the great thing about scripture, following Christ, and God’s promises.  It all fits together.  It has to.  Lest my last post be interpreted as me being a prosperity message-basher… at its heart - where it has its base in scripture, I think I beleive in God’s promises of prosperity more than most who follow the “popular” version of the prosperity message.

The concept of happiness and success ensuing from a devotion to a cause larger than oneself rings true on a spiritual level.  It does because it is consistent with scripture.  We have a job to do, much is expected of us.  Why?  I beleive that is clear as well.  Because in doing what is expected of us - truly following Christ - happines and success (i.e. prosperity) will naturally ensue.  God promised that it would.  That He would do His job - protect, bless, prosper our every step.  Here’s where I think I believe that more than the name-it-and-claim-it proponents.

I don’t have to name it.  I don’t have to claim it.  God promised it.  And He never told me I have to go out and grab it.  That I have to somehow wrestle it out of him by demanding it long enough and loudly enough.  I believe He’s true to His Word.  He said He’d do it for me.  That’s good enough for me.  I can let go of what I want and trust Him for the desires of my heart and meeting of all my needs because I really believe He’s all powerful, He loves me, and He promised it.  So I trust Him to provide all of that.

I have a teenage son (almost - will be this December, but trust me - he’s already got the emotional swing thing down).  Let’s just put out a hypothetical that I want him to be succesful, content, happy, and blessed more than anything else.  So I tell him that, and promise that I’ll put everything I have into an effort to get him there.  So the next day he presents me with a list:  a new car, $100,000 to start his savings account, 60” flat screen for his room, big career at my firm… and yeah, he’d like it all tomorrow.  Then he demands that list of items every day… after day… after day.  How would I feel about that?  For those of you who know me, you know the answer.  I’d open a can of you-know-what on him.  That attitude is self-centered, ungrateful, and lacks a core trust in me - a trust that I know better than he does what is really good for him, and that I will actually follow through on my promise without being badgered… we would all recognize the flawed heart behind that attitude in our kids.

Ok, live and let live, right?  Why be upset by the other mindframe in the prosperity message?  First, I believe that Frankl is right.  The more we set our minds on grasping at what you want, the more it will elude us - particularly if we want contentment and happiness.  And I want Christians to live in contentment, happiness, and true prosperity.  I really, really want that.  For us to be at peace, content, living life in a way that clearly - clearly - shows the world they need and are searching for what we already have.  So I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because we not only should be - we must be - blessed, content, and full of real prosperity to fulfill our calling.  But I think we really need to get this right or it will do more harm than good.  I think God’s promises of prosperity are among the most beautiful and true (as all scripture is) revelations of God’s tenderhearted love for us.  I love them, and I love what they tell me about Him.  I just think our response should be to respect and trust Him to follow through, while we focus on doing what He told us to do.

”...Success, like happiness, cannot be pursured; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.  Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”

-Victor Frankl, from the preface to the 1984 edition of Man’s Search For Meaning

Despite his deep insights into spiritual truths, my understanding is that Frankl is not a Christian.  I find it both embarrasing and enlighteing as to the state of western “Christian” throught that one of the most popular teachings of the past several decades is that we should, and must, demand and claim what we want - posessions, happiness, etc.  All of those things are promised to us, and I expect to (and do) receive them.  But God’s promise is that these blessings will naturally ensue from a life surrendered to His will and spent in following Him.  I personally believe that it is insulting to demand that He do what He promised He would do.  I trust Him to do what He promised - His promise is good enough for me.  When I grasped at success and happines, it eluded me.  My job is to follow Him - to submit my life to a cause - THE cause - greater than myself.  Success, and happines, will ensue (and is, in fact ensuing in my life as I never imagined it could. 

We’ve got a lot going on here, what with adjusting to 8 kids and all… all good.  It’s amazing how much joy there is in this.  It’s not easy - nothing worth having is easy.  But it has been full of joy for us, so much so that I can’t express it and I tear up even trying.  But, anyway, not a lot of time for independent thought.  So, with so many good thoughts already out there, I’ll continue my theme of borrowing from others:

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked throug the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.  And there were always choices to make.  Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision which determined whether you would or would not sbumit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.”

-Victor Frankl, Auswitz survivor, as written in his autobiographical account of his concentration camp experience - Man’s Search For Meaning  In case you’re wondering, yes - you should read it.

I’m convinced that I lived most of the last twenty years imprisoned by my own numb paralysis - a paralysis that prevented me from “shaking off those golden shackles” (image from classic Choir song that I find so appropriate).  The Nazi death camps were designed to strip every shred of individuality and choice - inmates were stripped naked and shaved of every hair on their body.  The use of names was forbidden - inmates became naked, unrecognizable numbers, without hope of any fate other than they saw around them.  Yet some shone in those circumstances, making full use of Frakl’s “last of the human freedoms”. 

I have to wonder if we’re really in all that different a state of living here and now.  I know I was imprisoned by “normalcy”, leading a normal, respectable life, but in reality imprisoned in conformity to the world’s model of family, success, financial/life goals.  But I’m now free of that.  I’ve shaken off those golden shackles that I accepted for so long.  I’m nowhere near perfect - in fact, I’m no closer to that than I ever was.  It’s not about being good, it’s about being free.  Truly living.  Accepting real risk, rejecting the path of least resistance.  Making actual use of the last of the human freedoms.  It’s not easy, but I can’t begin to describe the joy.

Really good literature and music is a truly remarkable thing.  It makes us stop and reconsider things that we thought we knew, spurs new thoughts and helps us see past the trees to the forest itself.  I enjoy it immensly and appreciate those rare minds that can create at that level.  One of the best:  C.S. Lewis.  For any of you who don’t know, this passage is from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  The beavers are telling the children about Aslan, who represents Jesus.

“You’ll understand when you see him.”

“But shall we see him?” asked Susan

“Why, daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for.  I’m to lead you to where you will meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.

“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.  “Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly.  “Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-The-Sea.  Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts?  Aslan is a lion - THE lion, the great lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I thought he was a man.  Is he—quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just plain silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’  “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew 25:14-28

It’s pretty clear to me that, while grace is free, our salvation should change us, and thus change our actions to be very different from those of people who are not subject to the same Lord and Master we are.  This is just one of many examples in which Jesus tells us that much should be accomplished with the lives He has given us.  I think this teaching makes it absolutely clear that our lives must include risk for him - there is no investment return without risk (certainly not doubling your money like the wise servants did).  And there will be no meaningful results for His kingdom without taking risks and making sacrifices with our lives and finances.  Jesus is saying that the result of lives lived with the overriding goal of simply preserving what we were given (life itself), rather than taking risks to acheive returns for His kingdom, are not pleasant.  Let’s leave it at that - no point to open a fruitless debate about salvation by grace vs. works.  It’s grace.  Let’s just leve that alone and agree that the results for servant #3 are not good, and they are not good because of what he did (or did not) do.  Whatever the implication about grace and salvation, I’m sure we can agree we don’t want to have our lives parallel servant #3 when we meet God face to face.

Jenny will be leaving for Ethiopia in the wee hours Saturday morning.  Our Charlie and her sister Barbra will be going with her.  It is unsettling not to be with her.  But those feelings are mild this time, better for having been there before and having grown so much in our faith and confidence in putting ourselves in His hands.  They will be traveling with Greg and Melissa (also active here at KTM), who happen to have been friends of Jenny and Barbra since they were kids.  Greg and Melissa will be bringing home an addition to their family as well.  God is so good in putting all of this together so the timing worked out like this.  We had no control over it, and the odds were essentially zero… or maybe the odds were 100% all along.

Anyway, we appreciate your prayers for all of us.  I know my part isn’t as hard as Jenny’s but we have several traveling and three partial families at home - we all need Him through this, even those of us staying here.  But I suppose that, in and of itself, isn’t different from any other day.

But I don’t have much time today and this is really good… so, discuss amongst yourselves:

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  - Jim Elliot

Back in the day, I was known for dishing out some taunting in the course of sporting events.  I wasn’t a showboater - it was a strategic thing.  I did it quietly and personally, and directed it specifically at real weaknesses that I thought my opponents might be insecure about.  Despite the issues I now have with our sports and star-based obsessions in the US, there is much we can learn from sports (aside from the fact that Jim is a jerk).  It’s an undeniable fact that if you can rattle someone’s confidence, they will be far less effective than if they are competing with confidence and assurance.  And if I saw my opponent rattled, it raised my own confidence because I knew I could control his emotions, and thus, his performance.

Maybe that’s why I appreciate the occasional taunting in the bible.  Among my favorites (if you know the original interpretation - it is a bit too crass for most English interpreters) is when (I hope I’m getting the right prophet here) Elijah challenges the phophets of Baal to call on their respective God/gods to light their offering with a fire from heaven.  When the prophets of Baal are desperately calling out, cutting themselves, and clearly starting to fear failure, Elijah chimes in with, “maybe your god is busy, maybe he’s in the bathroom relieving himself.”  After Elijah showed God’s power, there is a reason Elijah could single-handedly grab a sword and kill them all.  They were beaten and Elijah (and God) made sure they knew they were beaten without any hope of victory.

But my hands down favorite is1 Corinthians 15:54-55:

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Death has no power over us.  God’s promises tell us emphatically that He orders our steps, that He is all-knowing and all powerful, and that He loves us.  And when we do die - as Paul said, it is only our gain.  I have a feeling that death thinks he’s a pretty bad dude.  But where is that sting?  If we truly had confidence that there was no sting in death, I can’t help but think how different our lives would look.  And how rattled (and less effective) the enemy would be.

Read the linked blog post below.  Really.  You need to.  It is not easy to read or hear, but the Church must become aware of what we are allowing to exist.

http://talkissheep.blogspot.com/2010/07/korah-day-i-have-given-up-on-numbering.html

This unfortunately ties in to discussions I’ve had recently with several well-intentioned, serious Christian brothers and sisters who have heard “prophecies” of impending financial collapse.  First, let’s clarify what biblical prophets were (are).  Biblical prophets had a direct, shattering experience with God.  An experience that often compelled things like smearing themselves with excrement, marrying a prostitute to illustrate God’s faithfulness to an unfaithful nation, accepting the death of a wife (described by God as “the light of your eyes” when He told the prophet she would die so He could illustrate the message with more power)...  False prophets were stoned.  You had to be absolutely certain of your experience with God to speak as a prophet or you did so at risk of your life.  Biblical prophets spoke directly for God, passing on a specific message He gave them.  They were never scholars who, through their own diligence, insight, education, and research, figured out the timing and details of the future.  In fact, the future was never their primary concern at all.  Their primary concern was confronting God’s people with their unfaithfulness, and calling for repentance and a return to devotion to God as their Lord and Master.  They did not pull any punches, and were never widely accepted by God’s people - Amos referred to the wealthy women of Samaria as “cows of Bashan” (that particular breed was a show cow, overfed, useless for any practical purpose, and fat even for the bovine species).  These were not popular guys, and they did not give hollow predictions.  The future predictions were only a means to that end - a description of what would come to pass if the repentance was not forthcoming.

Did you link through to that blog post above?  Please do.  Really.

Then consider this.  Even if the “prophecies” I’m talking about are accurate, what should they motivate us to do?  Does this sound right?  We should worry.  Then we should spend our time, effort, and emotional focus on figuring out how to best invest/hide/use our wealth so that our standard of living is impacted as little as possible.  Then we should worry some more.  Then we should spend most of our prayer time seeking specifics about how to keep our standard of living where it is “if” things get bad.  Then probably some more worry.  Because, after all, it is all about us. 

In case the post I linked didn’t get the message across, things are already bad.  Things are, in fact, desperate for billions of people, many of whom have never heard the Gospel.  If our time is short, where should our focus be?  If we have only a short time before the wealth of this nation collapses, what should we do with that wealth before it disappears?  Really.  What does the bible say about how we should use our excess.  That’s the prophecy this nation needs to hear.  The only problem?  Throughout history, true prophecy is harsh, raw, and requires that the hearer turn from selfish indulgences.  No one has ever wanted to hear that, and the Church does not want to hear it now.

I apologize for the tone.  Really.  I don’t want to offend anyone, but did you read that link?  My kids grew up in that city.  This is personal to me.  I’ll kiss two kids goodnight tonight who once faced that future.  I love them dearly, and I now see the kids who suffer and die every day due to hunger.  I know them now.  And I love them.  I will fight for them, and I will call things the way I see them on their behalf.  Please read this with the understanding that I am a father to two (soon to be five) of these kids, understand my sense of urgency in that light, and forgive my passion for them if it has offended.