Thanks to TV, movies, web posts, twitter and more, life often seems to move from one huge mind-boggling event to the next.
Replays and closeups, slow-downs, and speed-ups bring us right into the action and give heart-stopping coverage.
Seems like each week there is a new championship match...from anywhere in the world. The new world record holder is..... Wasn't the world soccer competion fabulous!? And here comes football...and the boys of October.
After awhile seems like we might start to conclude that that is normal life, after all.
And, if we are not aware, this can lead to some very poor self ratings. (Ever seen me play soccer?)
Well, I really enjoy all that stuff...but want to go on record today reaffirming that most of life is really about taking the next modest step.
There aren't really a whole lot of leaps across a canyon...or jumps into starry places, or records climbing those 14ers. It is mostly about doing the next modest, even insignificant thing. Taking a bunch of little steps that lead you to that worthy end that few people see, but to you and God, really does mean a whole lot.
I remember Dr. Gordon Fee, New Testament world class scholar, and writer of the 850 page commentary on First Corinthians, summing up a teaching on the christian life by saying:
"As I end, I want to quote a poem that to me puts this whole thing of living for Jesus in proper perspective. And here it is:
Plod on
Plod on
Plod on
Plod on
Plod on
Plod on
Plod on.
I wonder if this was a bit of what Saint Peter had in mind when he wrote to early christians with these words:
"If you endure...this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you. leaving you an example, that you shold follow in his steps." I Peter 2...
....and that for Peter included countless actual steps in his living out the Jesus life, right next to Jesus.
So today, may the Lord give each of us the grace to make that phone call, pull those weeds, read those texts, call those screams, get that exercise, send that note, wash those dishes.
Steps...along the path of real champions,
indeed.
Selah.
David
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Whoa-sanna!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Two days ago I was out on the high seas.
Micah and I had booked for a whale-watching venture and put out on a large - room for 30 people - craft from Monterey Bay, off the coast of Central California. Captain said we would be going 6-8 miles out across rolling waters.
We zipped and buttoned as land slowly faded from view. An overcast and blustery day.
We scanned the grey waters and grey cloud formations. Any sign of life?
The first clue that success might be ours was a spew - and a tall, narrow vertical puff of white spray many yards off the bow. It was a whale surfacing and clearing its throat :) - something that relates me closely to them.
At times there were spews going on in various places and then we began to see dark moving objects on the horizon, as blue whales (some of the largest God-made creatures) were surfacing.
Then humpbacks humping their backs (go figure)...in little clusters, I should say, big clusters. And at times they would seem to be at play.
The water would suddenly flatten and bubble, a sign that whales were "fishing" nearby.
Then the darting of dorsal fins...as porpoises hunted in groups...in the krill and shrimp beds far below the surface. And comorants, and sea birds...tiny like sparrows, with fishing-rod beaks.
And seals way out in the ocean and perfectly at home.
At one point we wheeled around at the first sounds of a great humpback whale breaching - flinging himself into the air to show us his unique white body tattos and then crashing down on the water.
Two hours in their world.
No.....it was actually two hours in HIS world.
"Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding
...let them praise the name of the Lord,
for His name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens." Psalm 148:7,13.
My ESV footnote (to Psalm 104:25-26): "This Psalm joins the creation account in portraying the various creatures as subject to the Lord, not opposing him. The admiration continues, as the song says that God formed Leviathan (the whale) to play in the seas (or, if the alternate rendering in the ESV footnote is followed, he formed it to be his partner in play.)"
Just had to invent a word for the ending...It is a combination of whale and hosanna.
Whoa-sanna!
David.
Two days ago I was out on the high seas.
Micah and I had booked for a whale-watching venture and put out on a large - room for 30 people - craft from Monterey Bay, off the coast of Central California. Captain said we would be going 6-8 miles out across rolling waters.
We zipped and buttoned as land slowly faded from view. An overcast and blustery day.
We scanned the grey waters and grey cloud formations. Any sign of life?
The first clue that success might be ours was a spew - and a tall, narrow vertical puff of white spray many yards off the bow. It was a whale surfacing and clearing its throat :) - something that relates me closely to them.
At times there were spews going on in various places and then we began to see dark moving objects on the horizon, as blue whales (some of the largest God-made creatures) were surfacing.
Then humpbacks humping their backs (go figure)...in little clusters, I should say, big clusters. And at times they would seem to be at play.
The water would suddenly flatten and bubble, a sign that whales were "fishing" nearby.
Then the darting of dorsal fins...as porpoises hunted in groups...in the krill and shrimp beds far below the surface. And comorants, and sea birds...tiny like sparrows, with fishing-rod beaks.
And seals way out in the ocean and perfectly at home.
At one point we wheeled around at the first sounds of a great humpback whale breaching - flinging himself into the air to show us his unique white body tattos and then crashing down on the water.
Two hours in their world.
No.....it was actually two hours in HIS world.
"Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding
...let them praise the name of the Lord,
for His name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens." Psalm 148:7,13.
My ESV footnote (to Psalm 104:25-26): "This Psalm joins the creation account in portraying the various creatures as subject to the Lord, not opposing him. The admiration continues, as the song says that God formed Leviathan (the whale) to play in the seas (or, if the alternate rendering in the ESV footnote is followed, he formed it to be his partner in play.)"
Just had to invent a word for the ending...It is a combination of whale and hosanna.
Whoa-sanna!
David.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Reflections
These days are outstanding.
We are visiting Micah, Sarah and Ella....and having a wonderful time.
Fresh seafood...the Monterey Aquarium...picking strawberries...vast expanses of artichoke fields, In and Out Burger, and such good times sharing. Ella is a bundle of joy and such fun. Micah is on a break from language school. It is a gift to be here. Evenings are cool and even damp.
The vast fields of produce are populated by migrant workers...one wonders what would happen if the much discussed laws become the way we operate.
We will return to home late Thursday.
Meanwhile...these words ring in my ears...
This is my Father's world.
I rest me in the thought.
Of rocks and trees and skies and seas.
His hands the wonders wrought.
Back in touch soon.
David
We are visiting Micah, Sarah and Ella....and having a wonderful time.
Fresh seafood...the Monterey Aquarium...picking strawberries...vast expanses of artichoke fields, In and Out Burger, and such good times sharing. Ella is a bundle of joy and such fun. Micah is on a break from language school. It is a gift to be here. Evenings are cool and even damp.
The vast fields of produce are populated by migrant workers...one wonders what would happen if the much discussed laws become the way we operate.
We will return to home late Thursday.
Meanwhile...these words ring in my ears...
This is my Father's world.
I rest me in the thought.
Of rocks and trees and skies and seas.
His hands the wonders wrought.
Back in touch soon.
David
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Looking Up
Read a piece yesterday that I will not soon forget.
About a book written by Soon Ok Lee, a lady of faith who spent 6 years in a North Korean labor camp. She has written a book called EYES OF THE TAILLESS ANIMALS that chronicles her experiences and that of many.
"Lee's burden, on every page, is the pleading eyes of 140 inmates in the front row who on the day of her public release, dared to break the prison policiy forbidding Christians from raising their heads.
Their peculiar punishment is to never be allowed to look up.) But on this day they did...together.
So Lee writes:
"Whenever I got tired, I remembered their eyes and kept writing."
(World magazine, June 20, 2009 page 99)
Never allowed to look up.
What an incredible gift it is just to be able to do so....to "consider the heavens, the work of Your hands." To look at the trees, the stars, the clouds painting life across the skies.
And to look into the eyes of friends and see their love, and care and tenderness and attentiveness.
Looking up...what a gift.
Most of all...to consider our forever home with Jesus.
"When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus." (Matthew 17:8)
May we look up today
....and be sensitive in love and prayer to those with eyes cast down.
Selah.
David
About a book written by Soon Ok Lee, a lady of faith who spent 6 years in a North Korean labor camp. She has written a book called EYES OF THE TAILLESS ANIMALS that chronicles her experiences and that of many.
"Lee's burden, on every page, is the pleading eyes of 140 inmates in the front row who on the day of her public release, dared to break the prison policiy forbidding Christians from raising their heads.
Their peculiar punishment is to never be allowed to look up.) But on this day they did...together.
So Lee writes:
"Whenever I got tired, I remembered their eyes and kept writing."
(World magazine, June 20, 2009 page 99)
Never allowed to look up.
What an incredible gift it is just to be able to do so....to "consider the heavens, the work of Your hands." To look at the trees, the stars, the clouds painting life across the skies.
And to look into the eyes of friends and see their love, and care and tenderness and attentiveness.
Looking up...what a gift.
Most of all...to consider our forever home with Jesus.
"When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus." (Matthew 17:8)
May we look up today
....and be sensitive in love and prayer to those with eyes cast down.
Selah.
David
Monday, July 26, 2010
Distracted
"Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. but Martha was distracted with much serving." Luke 10:38-42.
Martha's distractions led her to:
a. impugn the Lord's character - "do you not care?"
b. interrupt the Lord's teaching - went up to him as he taught
c. create family tension - "my sister has left me"
d. live with lots of emotion - "anxious and troubled"
e. require two mentions of her name for even Jesus to get her attention!
- "Martha, Martha"
Martha's distractors were:
a. good things - "welcome" & "serving" but gone too far - "much serving"
b. possessiveness - "her house" - Mary and Lazarus lived there too!
c. attitude of poor me - "left...alone"
d. probably a long list of stuff attached to a certain time of day..for eating
Martha's way out (and ours too), according to Jesus:
a. simplify - "one thing is necessary" - simplify the kitchen, the schedule...
b. focus - take care of yourself, be who you are
c. diversify - let your family be who they are
d. trust Jesus - He is saying, "I give and as I do it can't "be taken away"...and if I have to I'll call your name over and over...but do listen, it is the secret to life.
And that for us all is a big Spirit life lesson...
If we have to choose between a three course meal and sitting at Jesus' feet...do the latter. It is focused time with Him that will do so much to keep the rest of the distractors at bay.
Selah.
David
Martha's distractions led her to:
a. impugn the Lord's character - "do you not care?"
b. interrupt the Lord's teaching - went up to him as he taught
c. create family tension - "my sister has left me"
d. live with lots of emotion - "anxious and troubled"
e. require two mentions of her name for even Jesus to get her attention!
- "Martha, Martha"
Martha's distractors were:
a. good things - "welcome" & "serving" but gone too far - "much serving"
b. possessiveness - "her house" - Mary and Lazarus lived there too!
c. attitude of poor me - "left...alone"
d. probably a long list of stuff attached to a certain time of day..for eating
Martha's way out (and ours too), according to Jesus:
a. simplify - "one thing is necessary" - simplify the kitchen, the schedule...
b. focus - take care of yourself, be who you are
c. diversify - let your family be who they are
d. trust Jesus - He is saying, "I give and as I do it can't "be taken away"...and if I have to I'll call your name over and over...but do listen, it is the secret to life.
And that for us all is a big Spirit life lesson...
If we have to choose between a three course meal and sitting at Jesus' feet...do the latter. It is focused time with Him that will do so much to keep the rest of the distractors at bay.
Selah.
David
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Weeding
Weeding.
Out this morning, before it gets into the 90's, mowing grass and pulling weeds.
Long spindly weeds that have turnip roots,
fine lacy weeds that spread quickly across the bedding with their strange leaves, dandelions that send up bright yellow aberrant flowers ("look at me, he missed me") and then blow their parachute seeds all over the yard...
weeds that turn earthy-colored rock beds into bursts of invasive green.
"Missed me again!"
Weeds.
I pull them with a long screwdriver blade unearthing their grasp on mother earth. If not, most of them have learned to say "bye, bye" to the green part as I pull on it and just dig deeper into the earth, waiting till I retreat to launch their next green invasion.
Lots of them learn to burrow in, in the midst of beautiful bedding plants - so we are in the midst of admiring a thousand tiny flowers, when our eyes are assaulted by - green weed leaves.
"Honey, this yard really needs attention."
Weeds.
Very durable. Very clever. Very fast growing. Very hungry.
And one or two of them in plain view gives the feeling to others passing by..."they sure don't care for their yard do they."
Just one or two...weeds.
So, by now sweat is running freely behind my ears, and the back of my knees, and my back is tickling with the little rivulets of weed-wrought moisture.
Then I am struck by this thought:
I will get this job done - all the weeds gone - and no one will even notice...because there will be no weeds to see.
Cruel irony.
Idea: maybe I should leave my weed container near the sidewalk with a little sign saying something like: "This is what I removed. I won. Please, enjoy not being able to see them. PS - and how is your yard?"
And then I am thinking about people weeds
...attitudes that sap goodness,
sins that invade righteousness,
Spirit Life destroyers,
character of Christ diminishers.
Spiritual weeds.
They too need to be pulled from their deep grasp of our souls.
And when they are gone...it will be beauty that remains.
Always it is hard work...careful work....this cooperation with the Spirit.
Paul even uses the upside down imagery
"put to death therefore" with the result
and you will "live." See Romans 8 - especially :13
So lets keep grabbing our inner person garden tools...
the deep digging of prayer
the sweat of diligence
the planning and doing of commitment
the chemical enrichment and restraints of the word.
As we do...the Spirit of God will help us
....and what will shine brighter and brighter in us is
Jesus.
Really.
Selah.
David
Out this morning, before it gets into the 90's, mowing grass and pulling weeds.
Long spindly weeds that have turnip roots,
fine lacy weeds that spread quickly across the bedding with their strange leaves, dandelions that send up bright yellow aberrant flowers ("look at me, he missed me") and then blow their parachute seeds all over the yard...
weeds that turn earthy-colored rock beds into bursts of invasive green.
"Missed me again!"
Weeds.
I pull them with a long screwdriver blade unearthing their grasp on mother earth. If not, most of them have learned to say "bye, bye" to the green part as I pull on it and just dig deeper into the earth, waiting till I retreat to launch their next green invasion.
Lots of them learn to burrow in, in the midst of beautiful bedding plants - so we are in the midst of admiring a thousand tiny flowers, when our eyes are assaulted by - green weed leaves.
"Honey, this yard really needs attention."
Weeds.
Very durable. Very clever. Very fast growing. Very hungry.
And one or two of them in plain view gives the feeling to others passing by..."they sure don't care for their yard do they."
Just one or two...weeds.
So, by now sweat is running freely behind my ears, and the back of my knees, and my back is tickling with the little rivulets of weed-wrought moisture.
Then I am struck by this thought:
I will get this job done - all the weeds gone - and no one will even notice...because there will be no weeds to see.
Cruel irony.
Idea: maybe I should leave my weed container near the sidewalk with a little sign saying something like: "This is what I removed. I won. Please, enjoy not being able to see them. PS - and how is your yard?"
And then I am thinking about people weeds
...attitudes that sap goodness,
sins that invade righteousness,
Spirit Life destroyers,
character of Christ diminishers.
Spiritual weeds.
They too need to be pulled from their deep grasp of our souls.
And when they are gone...it will be beauty that remains.
Always it is hard work...careful work....this cooperation with the Spirit.
Paul even uses the upside down imagery
"put to death therefore" with the result
and you will "live." See Romans 8 - especially :13
So lets keep grabbing our inner person garden tools...
the deep digging of prayer
the sweat of diligence
the planning and doing of commitment
the chemical enrichment and restraints of the word.
As we do...the Spirit of God will help us
....and what will shine brighter and brighter in us is
Jesus.
Really.
Selah.
David
Monday, July 19, 2010
Fuming
FUMING
Four meanings of this word in my dictionary....the third one: to show irritation or anger. The others - having to do with emitting an irritating vapor, smoke. (in an almost funny way, these seem to relate closely)
You fume?
I can
...started with the chance to observe at my grandmother's fuming. She fussed and fumed over life, and food, and what "they" were or were not doing to her, and the traffic and did I tell you about the weather?...and that government!
Fuming - filling the air with noxious words, thoughts, looks, gestures, eyes cast heavenword (and not in prayer) ....robbing energy from the good stuff that could be done and being overcome by the bad. Totally absorbed in self and what I consider to be fair and good...especially as it affects me.
So when I got into "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes" by Kenneth E. Bailey - IVP, 2008 - a book I bought in Phoenix, at the XA conf - well, when I got into it and got to a section headed: "Joseph's Fuming." I was a bit surprised. It is Baily's exploration of the Jesus' narratives...and what a treasure chest of insight and fresh thought it is. He lived a lifetime in the middle east and is a linguistic scholar.
Bailey explores what the language means, when, of Joseph's learning of the coming of Jesus..."he considered this" and Bailey says two meanings are possible: 1) considered or pondered and 2) "he became angry." (See Matthew 1:18-25)
Bailey weighs in for the latter.
Not surprising.
How would we react, really, if our plans for a nice home and marriage to a wonderful lady were crashed by an unexpected pregnancy...and we found ourselves caught in the interplay between Jesus, God the Father, Mother Mary and a few angels?
Unfair to the max!!
Reason to fume...lots of smoke out of nostrils, ears and eyes.
But
Joseph is truly a first hero of the Jesus' story. Not that he doesn't fume but that he does. It is not his human emotion that disqualifies him, but his right responses in spite of all his feelings that make him wise, before the "wise men" ever show up.
So, today's thought. What have you and I been fuming about? What "just isn't fair?"
And what is the right thing to do anyway?
Shake it off. And move forward.
Joe just might be peering down, shaking his head and cheering you on.
Selah.
David
Four meanings of this word in my dictionary....the third one: to show irritation or anger. The others - having to do with emitting an irritating vapor, smoke. (in an almost funny way, these seem to relate closely)
You fume?
I can
...started with the chance to observe at my grandmother's fuming. She fussed and fumed over life, and food, and what "they" were or were not doing to her, and the traffic and did I tell you about the weather?...and that government!
Fuming - filling the air with noxious words, thoughts, looks, gestures, eyes cast heavenword (and not in prayer) ....robbing energy from the good stuff that could be done and being overcome by the bad. Totally absorbed in self and what I consider to be fair and good...especially as it affects me.
So when I got into "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes" by Kenneth E. Bailey - IVP, 2008 - a book I bought in Phoenix, at the XA conf - well, when I got into it and got to a section headed: "Joseph's Fuming." I was a bit surprised. It is Baily's exploration of the Jesus' narratives...and what a treasure chest of insight and fresh thought it is. He lived a lifetime in the middle east and is a linguistic scholar.
Bailey explores what the language means, when, of Joseph's learning of the coming of Jesus..."he considered this" and Bailey says two meanings are possible: 1) considered or pondered and 2) "he became angry." (See Matthew 1:18-25)
Bailey weighs in for the latter.
Not surprising.
How would we react, really, if our plans for a nice home and marriage to a wonderful lady were crashed by an unexpected pregnancy...and we found ourselves caught in the interplay between Jesus, God the Father, Mother Mary and a few angels?
Unfair to the max!!
Reason to fume...lots of smoke out of nostrils, ears and eyes.
But
Joseph is truly a first hero of the Jesus' story. Not that he doesn't fume but that he does. It is not his human emotion that disqualifies him, but his right responses in spite of all his feelings that make him wise, before the "wise men" ever show up.
So, today's thought. What have you and I been fuming about? What "just isn't fair?"
And what is the right thing to do anyway?
Shake it off. And move forward.
Joe just might be peering down, shaking his head and cheering you on.
Selah.
David
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