One of the amazing blessings of fatherhood has been the experience of doing things for my children which give me the sense of doing as God does toward me. This brings me the joy of feeling as He feels, the camaraderie of common purpose with Him, and a greater understanding and appreciation of Him as my Father. Yet surprisingly, most of these things are quite small.
For instance, when my family was away recently, I happened to notice a dime sitting in the grout crack of our garage floor. As I bent over to pick it up, the thought occurred to me that Spencer would get far greater joy out of finding this dime than I would. So I left it there in anticipation of the day he would find it for himself. Then, just yesterday, having forgotten the incident, I spied the dime again and went to pick it up again before I remembered my crafty plan to give my son joy. So I returned the dime yet again.
He still hasn’t found it, but this miniscule act of restraint gave me some perspective about why God might sometimes choose to let us do a wide variety of things for ourselves such as solving problems, overcoming obstacles, and helping other people. He’s just leaving dimes in the grout cracks of life for us to enjoy picking up.
Thought of the Day 06.06.08
In thinking about contentious social issues like gay marriage, it’s very important to keep in mind the distinction between personal holiness and public virtue. For instance, though many Christians believe it’s wrong to drink alcohol, use profanity, or neglect church-going, few of us want these behaviors criminalized. That’s because these are matters of personal holiness, not civic necessity, and the impulse to legislate them is called totalitarianism.
To avoid this, our opposition to gay marriage must explain how granting gay relationships full legal status will either adversely affect them or the rest of us or will at least fail to help society enough to justify the benefits granted. This is generally much more difficult to do than the emotion surrounding the issue would indicate, but it both can and should be done.
Nonetheless, we must constantly check that that both our real motives and our stated reasons are properly leading us to legislate morality rather than improperly leading us to legislate holiness.
Thought of the Day 06.05.08
If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we are scandalously selfish. For starters, we all disobey God because we think that either our wisdom is greater or our desires are more important than His. Then, we excuse our sin by saying, “Well, at least it’ll only hurt me,” as if this charade of nobility atones for it.
But my sin does more than just damage my own soul. It also offends and grieves God, causes me to glorify Him less, and deprives Him of His due honor. It even keeps others from coming to Him because I am now a less enticing ambassador. Further, my sin poisons my social community and can earn us all the wrath of God, even if everyone else does what is right (as we know from examples in that of Achan after Jericho in Joshua 6-7). And then I have the gall to praise Jesus for delivering my soul from destruction, as if the only thing that mattered all along was the dubious benefit to me of avoiding punishment I deserve.
Of all the monsters which strangle my soul, the tentacles of my selfishness penetrate the deepest.
But my sin does more than just damage my own soul. It also offends and grieves God, causes me to glorify Him less, and deprives Him of His due honor. It even keeps others from coming to Him because I am now a less enticing ambassador. Further, my sin poisons my social community and can earn us all the wrath of God, even if everyone else does what is right (as we know from examples in that of Achan after Jericho in Joshua 6-7). And then I have the gall to praise Jesus for delivering my soul from destruction, as if the only thing that mattered all along was the dubious benefit to me of avoiding punishment I deserve.
Of all the monsters which strangle my soul, the tentacles of my selfishness penetrate the deepest.
Thought of the Day 06.04.08
I just saw my new favorite bumper sticker on a car yesterday. It said, “Don’t believe everything you think.” Now, obviously, it is meant as a tweak on the old saw, “Don’t believe everything you hear (or “read,” or “see on TV”).” But the tweak is really important, since those older sayings, though valuable, commit a major mistake: they presume the reliability of our own thoughts. And this updated version reminds us that the biggest source of error in our lives is not something “out there,” but everything “in here.”
Think of it this way. Imagine that God thinks at a level ten and that the most unwise person in history thinks at a zero. We’ll optimistically put you at a three. Clearly, when a one talks, you recognize it as foolishness because it’s so far from your own mental comfort zone. But what happens when you encounter a six? You think he’s crazy, not because he is, but because he’s just so far from what you know. And you’re so accustomed to trusting yourself that you never even realize what a dangerous mentor you might really be.
So if the Bible is a ten, we should expect at least two things from studying it. One, it will regularly tell us we’re wrong. And two, it will regularly strike us as absurd. But then again, “Don’t believe everything you think.”
Think of it this way. Imagine that God thinks at a level ten and that the most unwise person in history thinks at a zero. We’ll optimistically put you at a three. Clearly, when a one talks, you recognize it as foolishness because it’s so far from your own mental comfort zone. But what happens when you encounter a six? You think he’s crazy, not because he is, but because he’s just so far from what you know. And you’re so accustomed to trusting yourself that you never even realize what a dangerous mentor you might really be.
So if the Bible is a ten, we should expect at least two things from studying it. One, it will regularly tell us we’re wrong. And two, it will regularly strike us as absurd. But then again, “Don’t believe everything you think.”
Thought of the Day 06.03.08
Imagine that you live in a third-world style shanty hut with no plumbing, a tin roof and a dirt floor. Then one day, a man comes to you and makes you a rather unique offer. He says he wants to build a marvelous skyscraper on your land, but he doesn’t want to buy it from you. Instead, he wants a lifetime free lease on the building so he can use it for his offices and organizations, and he’ll give you the fully furnished top level to live in when it’s done.
But there is one catch. You have to personally bulldoze the shanty and destroy everything in it yourself, and you’ll be essentially homeless for a while during construction until the penthouse is ready. You know that this man always keeps his word because others in your city have already accepted a similar deal from him, although others have not.
Would you take this deal? Or would you be afraid to give up the rickety old shack you’ve known for so long and the garage sale quality possessions you’ve surrounded yourself with? As for me and my house, we’ve chosen the skyscraper.
But there is one catch. You have to personally bulldoze the shanty and destroy everything in it yourself, and you’ll be essentially homeless for a while during construction until the penthouse is ready. You know that this man always keeps his word because others in your city have already accepted a similar deal from him, although others have not.
Would you take this deal? Or would you be afraid to give up the rickety old shack you’ve known for so long and the garage sale quality possessions you’ve surrounded yourself with? As for me and my house, we’ve chosen the skyscraper.
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