Out of the Mouths of Babes

The best part about being married to a teacher of kindergartners is the stories I hear. Here is this week’s favorite:

Each night a dad brought home a briefcase filled with papers. His curious son asked him why he did that.

The dad replied, “Because I didn’t get all my work done at the office.”

The son logically said, “Maybe you need to have them put you in a slower group.”

Do you admire the innocence of this child? Someone who hasn’t yet learned that his value is dependent upon his productivity, someone who believes he is valuable regardless of which group he is in. I wonder how long his innocence will last. How long it will be before he learns that his worth in the eyes of others is tied to how smart or how fast or how powerful he is; that he only wins when others around him lose?

Our society submerges us in these kinds of messages every day. In a hundred different ways we are told that our productivity determines our value.

But the Good News--the “gospel”--of Jesus Christ sharply disagrees. Jesus cryptically said, “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matt. 19:30). He told his disciples that the way to greatness was through serving others because even he “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44-45). Talk about a “reversal of fortune”!

The Apostle Paul is a case study of this phenomenon. He began the third chapter of his letter to the Philippian Christians by citing his personal credentials -- his family, his schooling, and his morality. In our terms, he was “on his way up.” He was well-established in his life and his career.

But then something startling took place: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). In other words, on the balance sheet of his life, everything that he previously considered an asset, he now had moved into his “loss” column. Why? Because he had come to the conclusion that the pride he took in his background and achievements was preventing him from achieving the counter-cultural goal that was now his greatest desire.

“I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself” (Philippians 3:10, The Message).

It’s something to think about, anyway. Maybe being in the “fast group” isn’t the main thing. Maybe I need to learn to value myself because God values me. Maybe I need to learn how to trust in God’s love more than I trust in my own achievements.

Lost in Wonder

Have you been to those places where the sheer beauty of something causes you to pause and say "thanks"?

Have you had those moments when you were surprised by the wonder of life and the grace of God?

Jesus takes my breath away.

Easter Joy

"The disciples were so glad and amazed that they could not believe it."

None of the disciples expected Jesus to rise from the dead. Their first reaction was fearful incredulity. (Luke 24:41, CEV).

"Easter joy" is something we can carry with us -- not because life is easy -- but because Jesus is alive, because He is the Lord, and because what He tells us is true!

In a world suffused with grief and pain, we need to remember that "the joy of the Lord is our strength" (Neh. 8:10). Karl Barth once said, "Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God." Don't you think that's why C. S. Lewis entitled his autobiography, "Surprised By Joy"?

We can live joyfully in the afterglow of Christ's resurrection!

(My young friend, Mac, and I waded in the Atlantic Ocean last summer. It was pure joy!)

Why Did Jesus Have To Die?

This week laryngitis has forced me to stay inside and keep silent (for the most part). The up side to this is that I've had a lot of time to ponder the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection.

As to why Christ had to die, consider what Jayber Crow, one of Wendell Berry's best-drawn characters had to say:

Christ did not descend from the cross except into the grave. And why not otherwise? Wouldn't it have put fine comical expressions on the faces of the scribes and the chief priests and the soldiers if at that moment He had come down in power and glory? Why didn't He do it? Why hasn't he done it any one of a thousand good times between then and now?

I knew the answer. I knew it a long time before I could admit it, for all the suffering of the world is in it. He didn't, He hasn't, because from the moment He did, He would be the absolute tyrant of the world and we would be His slaves. Even those who hated Him and hated one another and hated their own souls would have to believe in Him then. From that moment the possibility that we might be bound to Him and He to us and us to one another by love forever would be ended.

That makes sense, don't you think? Jesus did not come down from the cross because He is not interested in overpowering us. Instead, He wants us to willingly give ourselves to Him. Therefore, the Lord of heaven and earth chooses to save us and to woo us . . . in love.