Weak run, strong thought
I struggled through my morning run today and wasn’t pleased with how it turned out. But while I struggled, I was also listening to Rob Bell on my Shuffle (the Shuffle is an iPod AND a description of my running stride).
Rob is preaching like a real theologian these days, digging deep into a few verses of Philippians each week. Today he honed in on v. 4 of chapter 2: “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” His message was called Others and Rob talked about the others in our lives - the strange co-worker, the irritating neighbor, the parent who seems to like to be difficult. We all have them, and we all wish (sometimes) we didn’t.
But then, this thought: Treating these people well, looking to their interests, is the surest way for me to experience (to a tiny extent) what God is willing to go through for me.
Keeping ego out of it
I was filling out the roll sheet last night in the Kindergarten through Second Grade class at church. I asked one girl how to spell her name. I should add here that I am sensitive to name-spelling because my last name is so often misspelled (pluralized). So I said, “Do you spell your name ‘K-R-I-S-T-A’?”
She said: “You CAN spell it that way if you want, but I always spell it ‘C-H-R-I-S-T-A’.”
If I was in a bad mood, I’d make this an illustration on relativism. But today I see it as a good lesson in self-forgetfulness. 
Sermon: Training in Godliness
Sermon: Training in Godliness
1.6.8
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Physical fitness and godliness
Physical fitness doesn’t happen by accident. Neither does godliness.
Deena Castor is a world-class marathoner who won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and won the Chicago marathon in 2005. In her online journal, she recently reflected on the year ahead, which will include the Olympic marathon trials in March and (hopefully) the Olympic marathon in Beijing.
Beijing is only eight months away. Between now and then I will log over five thousand miles. I will go through 15 pair of DS Trainers. I will take 200 ice baths. I will log 600 hours of afternoon naps. I will get more than 200 massages and have a total of about 1000 acupuncture needles. All this in an effort to maintain health and get as strong as possible.
Notice that there is nothing haphazard about her plan. This snippet reveals a larger training regimen which makes the most of every day. When the races finally arrive, Kastor will have done everything possible to be ready.
Paul tells us to train for godliness in 1 Timothy 4:7-8 because “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. But many of us have no plan for training in godliness - not a plan to study Scripture, nor a time set aside to talk to God, nor any definite commitment to serve someone in His name.
The payoff for physical training is fitness. The payoff for godliness training is so much more, holding promise for this life and the one to come. This will be the topic at MHCC this Sunday.
PS - I think I’ll pursue Deena Kastor’s training plan. I’ll start with the naps and see how it goes from there.
The End of Summer
I always look forward to the end of summer (and I don’t mean this). I love the semi-cool air that finally moves in after a long, humid, HOT summer…weather like we’re having now. I think of it as “September 11 weather” because it was just this sort of day six years ago when the world got knocked off its axis - sunny, a little hot, bluebird sky. It is the kind of day where I ALMOST wish I was back in my old office at the old building where we could open the windows and breathe the fresh air.
It is amazing how a change in the weather can affect my perspective. Problems don’t seem as big when it’s 70 degrees, and possibilities seem bigger. We are a strange body-soul combination, and the physical realm can have a huge impact on the spiritual.
I think a key indicator of spiritual and emotional growth is when we act according to our most deeply-held beliefs in spite of the physical circumstances.
I have a long ways to go. But it’s easier when the weather is nice.
Reading the red
This week as I prepare for my sermon on Jesus and poverty, I’m reading though all the red text in my red-letter edition of the Gospels. If you’ve never tried reading only the actual words of Jesus, I recommend it as an occasional discipline.
I’m tempted to say that if I had to choose a small portion of Scripture to sustain me for the rest of my life, I’d choose the red letters, the words of Jesus. What could be better than constantly re-reading the things Jesus actually said? But today’s reading through Matthew and Mark reveals a problem with that.
Today I was looking for the things Jesus said about the poor. While he did SAY some profound things (Matthew 25:31-46, the Sheep and the Goats is hard to miss), the lessons from his actions are at least as important. If I didn’t already know what the black letters say about who Jesus spent his time with and who he ministered to, the red letters would be disembodied truth, sayings divorced from real life. Like me, his words are made meaningful by his actions.
So if I had to choose only a small portion? I’d choose Luke. What about you?
Last year’s school shooting
In the awful eclipse of tragedy by tragedy, it’s easy to forget that on October 2, 2006, a one-room Amish school was victimized in the same horrible way that Virginia Tech was last week. U.S. News has a great story on how the people around Lancaster County, PA are coping six months on.
The overwhelming response by the Amish to the shooting has been forgiveness, and the article dwells on this point:
The forgiveness here “wasn’t an aberration,” Kraybill said during a recent interview. “To a person, the Amish would argue that forgiveness is the central teaching of Jesus. They will take you to the Lord’s Prayer-if you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven.”
I grew up in Holmes County, Ohio, which has a strong Amish population. Living so close to Amish people makes it easy to pick on their apparent legalism - they don’t own cars but they ride in them; they have no phones in their homes, but use cell phones - but it sure is hard to argue with people who follow Christ by taking forgiveness so seriously.
Thanks to PreachingToday.com for pointing me to this article.
Today is “Waiting For Sunday” day
Even though I’ve been neglecting my blog lately, I have to post today. This, after all, is “Waiting For Sunday” day.
As I’m sure you’ve read on my “More about me” page, I love Philip Yancey’s eloquent words about the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the day that symbolizes our life between Ascension and Second Coming.
“…we live on Saturday, the day with no name. What the disciples experienced in small scale - three days, in grief over one man who had died on a cross - we now live through on cosmic scale. Human history grinds on, between promise and fulfillment. Can we trust that God can make something holy and beautiful and good out of a world that includes Bosnia and Rwanda and inner-city ghettos and jammed prisons in the richest nation on earth? It’s Saturday on planet earth; will Sunday ever come?” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995, p. 267)
This in-between day is when we need our faith. Salvation is here, redemption is beginning. And yet…
…we’re waiting for Sunday.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
“I’ll be your friend even if you become an atheist.” Criticism & Brian MClaren
Out of Ur has a good post today about handling criticism. Brian McLaren has received a lot of it (and a lot of praise too) for his books, A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy. People criticize McLaren for the same kinds of reasons they criticize the rest of us: Some have honest disagreements with him. Others misunderstand. Some define themselves by tearing down anything or anyone who seems to be rising.
McLaren, who served as a pastor for years, touches a nerve when he says that “pastors know what it’s like to have people they’ve cared for—people they’ve married, and baptized, and counseled—come up and say, ‘You’re not meeting our needs anymore, and we’re leaving.’” To balance that, ministers (and all the rest) need “non-utilitarian friends”, people we’re with simply because we like them, not because they can help (or hurt) our ministry.
When McLaren was a young man struggling with his faith, a Christian friend and mentor told him: “Brian, I’ll be your friend even if you become an atheist.” That profound demonstration of Christian love freed him to open up to God.
Do you care for anyone like that?
Philip Yancey on Prayer
On p. 191 of Prayer: Does it make any difference? Philip Yancey reduces Jesus’ teaching on prayer to three memorable principles: “Keep it honest, keep it simple and keep it up.” He also suggests that you can get an insight about prayer by asking parents of young children what is the “correct” way for their toddlers to approach them with needs. The silliness of the question is a lesson about prayer, in which our relationship to God is always child to parent.
Man, that Philip Yancey can write!
