Peace. It’s quite some word. Even just saying it solemnly seems to bring a hint of the its substance to a moment of our lives. And at this particular time of the year, it’s something far too many of us feel we lack. We rush to buy gifts. We scurry to prepare a feast. And then it’s all over. January comes and it seems as though another season devoted to the birth of the Prince of Peace came and went with very little indication that He was Lord of it at all. Do I have a solution? Yes and no.
I can’t solve this in a paragraph, but I can make a suggestion. Peace is usually missing because we neglect to seek it. It is frail and easily displaced by the things we do seek. So ask a question of yourself every so often: does this bring me peace? And if it does not, why not ask the One Giver of Peace what to do about that?
I am just a man. I cannot give you true peace. But I do know Someone who can, if you’ll just ask Him to.
TOD 12.21.07
Though the Bible speaks of the joy of serving Christ, many Christians nonetheless struggle with feelings of self-condemnation. Does the Bible address this? I think so. “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls….”(Rom 14:4) When Paul writes this, he is chastising those who presume to play the role of master over others and judge their faith. As he explains, only the Lord’s opinion of that person matters.
But this same admonition applies to self-judging. Who are you to judge yourself? It’s useful to think of there being two people inside of us, the one that judges and the one that is judged. And just as the judgmental me must learn to shut up and honor the Lord’s evaluation of others, he must do the same when the Master says He cherishes me.
First, I realize God loves me. Second, and only then, am I free to love my neighbors as He tells me to love myself. Why? Because the judgmental me has taken off his robes and returned them to their rightful owner.
TOD 12.20.07
I recently heard another talk show host say that the goal of our society in the realm of sexuality should be to not care about it. Sex is private, and whatever flavor of preference it is, we should not ask, not know, and not care. This sort of nouveau-libertarianism sounds chic, but it’s really quite dangerous.
Unless this person is also willing to say that we shouldn’t care whether someone is married, he cannot be consistent. Marriage is a public sexual act whose purpose is to produce children. If there are no children, something has gone wrong. Perhaps it’s contraception, perhaps it’s infertility, or perhaps it’s aberrant sexuality. Society is designed around families and children. Therefore it must focus on marriage, which means that sexuality will always be, to some degree, a public issue.
The only way to become a truly sexuality-blind society is to become a society that refuses to notice children and honor spouses. Now I dare you to try to convince me that would be a good thing.
Unless this person is also willing to say that we shouldn’t care whether someone is married, he cannot be consistent. Marriage is a public sexual act whose purpose is to produce children. If there are no children, something has gone wrong. Perhaps it’s contraception, perhaps it’s infertility, or perhaps it’s aberrant sexuality. Society is designed around families and children. Therefore it must focus on marriage, which means that sexuality will always be, to some degree, a public issue.
The only way to become a truly sexuality-blind society is to become a society that refuses to notice children and honor spouses. Now I dare you to try to convince me that would be a good thing.
TOD 12.19.07
All of us who have ever received a paycheck have had to learn a simple principle: the more we spend on ourselves, the less we have for other purposes. What if we used that concept to think about God’s grace toward us? Imagine that every week God has allotted to us a certain number of grace units, call them graceos, which we then decide how to use.
Now, as with a paycheck, I must first pay my debts, which are the sins of my daily life. Jesus’s blood is clearly enough to pay off my debts, but if there’s nothing left over, I can’t be a blessing to others this week. I have so many graceos to use, and the more I mess up, the less there is left for uses beyond my own debts.
Of course, it may not work precisely like this, but it’s sobering to imagine that such an economy would mean that, every time I sin, I am not just harming my own character, but cheating someone else as well. When I retire to heaven, my portfolio will show how I spent my grace here on earth.
Now, as with a paycheck, I must first pay my debts, which are the sins of my daily life. Jesus’s blood is clearly enough to pay off my debts, but if there’s nothing left over, I can’t be a blessing to others this week. I have so many graceos to use, and the more I mess up, the less there is left for uses beyond my own debts.
Of course, it may not work precisely like this, but it’s sobering to imagine that such an economy would mean that, every time I sin, I am not just harming my own character, but cheating someone else as well. When I retire to heaven, my portfolio will show how I spent my grace here on earth.
Andrew's Story
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