At the end of my life……….I will look back.

I know that I will see things that I will regret. But I will also see things that will make me smile. I am much closer to the end of my life than to the beginning………that is likely the source of this post.

When we think about dying, I think that we often focus on judgement. Far too many Christians teach a brand of faith that focuses on death as a time when we are confronted by an angry God…….and we have to explain it all……..every last mis-step. We see the transition between this world and the world to come as a time when we have to answer for our misdeeds………and no doubt that will be an element of it.

But……..for the Christian…….for those who have accepted Jesus and his blanket of forgiveness, I think that this will be very brief……… the blink of an eye. We will not sit around dwelling on our mistakes. There will be no cosmic tongue lashing. The fact is, our misdeeds will be quickly and permanently erased from God’s memory……….and if they are erased from God’s memory, I believe that they will also be erased from our memory as well. The sadness and the guilt that we have been dragging around because of the mistakes that we have made……..will be gone. We will go through eternity without regrets.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it?……..a world completely free from guilt and regrets. I will remember the gifts and kindness that I have given my family and those around me. The anger and pain that I have spread……..will just be gone. My death will be the death of my regrets……….my joy and love will live on. As I consider it………that may very well be one of the best features of paradise.

This even goes one step further. The people that I have lost……my two sons………both Christians……..are living a life of joy and love…….. completely free from guilt and regret……right now.

I cannot change what I’ve done…….but I can try to balance the scales a bit.

So I will ask a question as I move forward:

“Will this choice make me smile………when I finally look back?”

Even more important

“Will this choice make Jesus smile………when he and I look back together?”

“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds .” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

Jesus, NIV

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

David, NIV

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away .

John, NIV

A major league ball player’s batting average is the number of times he gets on base divided by the number of times he goes to bat. It is a measure of his success as a hitter. About one in three (.300) is considered very good.

When we pray, we praise God, we ask for forgiveness, and we ask him to do things. Today I want to look at how often God does what we ask him to. In a way, I want to look at God’s “batting average”. If I look back at my prayers throughout my life, the number of times God has fulfilled a prayer is surprising. But, there have also been times when I prayed very hard for something very important……..and God just sat there. I am certain that a great many people have abandoned God over an unanswered prayer.

A parent with a very sick child prays long and hard for healing……and the child dies. The parent says something to the effect of:

“God! Where were you when I needed you? Why did you abandon me? Why did you ignore me and allow this to happen? If I can’t count on you……..then I’m done with you. I’m out of here!”

There can be no doubt that God does not give us everything that we ask him for. But, what does that mean? Does it mean that God didn’t hear? That he didn’t care? That he doesn’t even exist?

As in many things, the situation is not that simple.

Imagine that you are a parent and your 6 year old is watching TV with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. It’s 9 pm. You say, “Bedtime!…..brush your teeth and hit the sack.” He utters his standard bedtime “prayer”…….”please, please, please, let me stay up…… I’ll sit here quietly, eat my popcorn, watch the rest of my show…….and I’ll just sleep on the couch”.

And his fervent “prayer” goes unanswered. At best, he is disappointed…….at worst, he is angry.

I have always found that my relationship with God is identical to a child’s relationship with his parents. By studying my relationship with my parents, I can better understand my relationship with God.

So……back to the unanswered prayer.

We all know what an unanswered prayer looks like from our side…….the side of the child. But, what does it look like from God’s side…..the side of the parent?

Here is what I believe:

God is there.
God hears your prayer.
God loves you with a love far greater than even your mother.
God looks out for your best interests……..over the long run.

So…..

God will fulfill your prayer……. if it serves your best interests…….and his………..in the long run………from his eternal perspective.

If God is silent. If he doesn’t fulfill your prayer. It is because he has another plan for you……..a better plan.

This is hard. It calls for patience. It calls for trust. It requires us to love God……..the same way he loves us.

I have had three sons. Two of them died as young men……just as their families were getting started. I don’t need to go into the pain that this caused. Shortly before they died, they both accepted Jesus.

From my perspective, the viewpoint of a child, their deaths were the greatest tragedies of my life. It would be very easy to be angry. It would be very easy to lash out at God……for letting me down when I needed him most.

But, from God’s parental perspective, this was a win…..both for him and for me. I will spend eternity with my sons…….in paradise.

From my side, God’s “batting average” doesn’t look so hot. But, from his side, it’s a different story.

I will trust God to manage my future……. understanding that his perspective……..his plan…….is much bigger than mine…….much better than mine.

I will trust that God will look after my interests better than I can.

Why?

Because he loves me……with a parental love that I cannot come close to understanding.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God, NIV

It’s a new year……but I am still the same old guy.

I have the same old strengths……….and the same old weaknesses. I want to be better, but my track record says that by March I will probably be in about the same spot I was in this time last year.

What to do?

This is a time of year for fresh starts, resolutions. We all come up with a list of things that we are going to do……. lose weight, stop smoking, exercise, etc. Usually this is a list of things that we have failed at for many Januaries in the past. Why do we think that this year will be any better?…….that we will be any better?

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” 

Einstein

Maybe we need to try a different tack.

Maybe we need to start with baby steps. Instead of taking on something big……..and difficult, maybe we should try something easy and small. This is not taking the coward’s way out. I would propose that a small success is better than a truly grand failure. And I have had my share of grand failures in Januaries gone by.

Easy and small.

I think that the easiest thing to tackle would be something that is built into our nature. The easiest new years resolution would be to find something that is central to our nature……..but that we have neglected.

I think that the smallest thing to tackle would be to change one thing for one day……..today.

Easy and small

So……tackle something easy and small. Do one thing that is easy because it is central to our nature……..one thing that is “hard wired” into our heart……..and do it one time……today.

And the first and most important thing that is hard wired into us…….is love.

So……..

My resolution this year?

I will perform one small act of kindness today.

I’m not going to worry about tomorrow’s act of kindness…….not until I get there.

Years ago, one of my sons made a suggestion. “Follow the wisdom on the shampoo bottle”……….”Lather, Rinse, Repeat”……good counsel…….for tomorrow.

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Paul, NIV

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me .’

Matthew, NIV

I have been reading a biography of Paul. I was hoping to put some flesh on the bones of the guy who wrote much of the new testament. It really didn’t tell me much about the man that I didn’t already know. It did, however, firm up my understanding of his theology.

Paul was, first and foremost, a Jew. Not only that…….he was a highly educated Jew, trained by one of the greatest Jewish scholars of his age. In addition to being a scholar of Judaism, he was a passionate promoter of his faith. He was a zealot. In his early years this led him in his attempts to destroy Christianity.

Then, one day, he met Jesus.

In that encounter Paul’s Judaism collided head on with Jesus. And that is the key to Paul. Paul taught that Christianity is the natural progression of Judaism. Christianity is a fusion of Judaism and Jesus. They are not two separate religions. They are two phases of outreach…….by the One God. Christianity does not replace Judaism or compete with it……… Christianity fulfills Judaism.

Think of it as an operating system……… God v. 1.0……..and God v. 2.0.

The other theme that runs through Paul has to do with paradise. Paradise is not going to be some far away, gauzy, soft focus place with clouds, halos, and white robes. Paradise will be very familiar to you. It will be here…….or at least a place very much like here. It will be real. It will be physical. And God will be there with us. We will work…….and God will work with us. Paradise will be the fusion of our physical human realm with God’s spiritual realm….much in the same way as Paul’s fusion of Judaism and Jesus. The only difference between our world today and paradise is that all of the stuff that is broken……..all of the things that are inconsistent with God’s plan will be fixed………that, or they will simply be gone. Sounds nice. God will fix all of the things around me that are just plain wrong. I’m a little unclear as to how God is going to deal with the parts of ME that are wrong. But, I must believe that faith, hope, and love will remain. Anger, vengeance, jealousy and all of the parts of me that I am ashamed of will be stripped away.

So why be good?

Being a good person is not something that you do to “get into heaven”…….or, on the flip side, to “avoid hell’. Whether you spend eternity in paradise or hell………is purely a function of grace. You can’t earn……or deserve either.

So…….if being good is not something that we do to “get into heaven”……….

Why be good?

The short answer is straight from God……..”because I said so”. How many times…….as a parent……… have you said that.

The long answer is tougher. And, from here on, I’m making my best guess.

Be good because:

God created you to be good……you and the whole world works better when you do.

God created you out of love. He created you for one purpose…….and one purpose only………to love. Being good is the practical application of love. All of the pain in your life…….in your world……..can be traced back to a failure to love.

Want to fix the world? Love.

So…….. maybe…….being good today is something that you do to prepare yourself for paradise…….a world defined and ruled by love. Because……..if you can’t love (both God and your fellow man)…….if you refuse to love……. there may be another place for you.

 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

John, NIV

See, I will create
    new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
    nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
    and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
    and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
    will be heard in it no more.

 “Never again will there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
    will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
    will be considered accursed.
They will build houses and dwell in them;
    they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
    or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
    so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
    the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
    nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
    they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Isaiah, NIV

With this post, I want to go back to basics……..way back.

I have said many times that Christianity is a simple religion. There are basically two rules, two ideas……..two jobs for a Christian.

Love God.

Love your fellow man.

So……….How do I love God?

How do I love my fellow man?

Globally, where does this put me……..as a Christian?

It puts me at the interface between the spiritual world and the temporal world. I am required to look in two directions. I am required to act in two directions. In a way I am required to operate…….to mediate between these two realms. If I do my job well, I draw these two very different worlds closer.

So…… what about these two very different worlds? Right now I am reading Revelation. Needless to say…….this is a tough read. But, Revelation gives us a glimpse at the interface between the spiritual world and the temporal world. A temporal man, John, visits the spiritual world. Revelation is a deeply symbolic book. I will not even try to explain or interpret the things described in it. What I will do is try to extract the main themes. And here they are:

Our temporal world is just that…… temporary. It had a beginning and it will have an end…….both our individual lives and our global corporate world will end. The details are hard to sort out. But we can count on one thing…….the end is going to be ugly.

Our lives in the temporal world are temporary. Our lives will end……..we will die. Our personal temporal world will end……one way or the other.

The spiritual world is permanent. It had no beginning. It will have no end. It is another dimension and we simply cannot clearly see it from where we stand. That does not mean that it is not real.

When we die, our existence in the temporal world will end. At that point we will become permanently and completely a part of the spiritual world……..a world that we cannot clearly see from here.

As human beings, like it or not, we have one foot in each of these worlds. We cannot avoid our relationship, our participation, in either of these worlds. We can ignore the spiritual world……and many of us do. But, that changes nothing. It is still there and we will one day be a part of it……..for better or worse.

We will one day exist in and deal with the spiritual world.

So, as a Christian, how do I operate……at the interface between these two worlds?

This takes me back to the two basic rules. The key to life…….in both of these worlds……… is love.

Love is outward looking. It is an act of giving…… to others. So, we, as Christians, are asked to give to God and to give to our fellow man. But, what can we give to God? I can only think of one thing…….and it happens to be the one thing that God wants the most…….. relationship. What can we give to our fellow man? There are many things both great and small. Of those, considering the eternal consequences, the greatest would probably be God…….a relationship with God.

So, it seems to me, that our calling, as Christians, is to draw our fellow man into relationship with God.

Evangelism is the highest expression of our love……. for both God and our fellow man. If done well, it can draw our temporal and our spiritual worlds closer.

In a word, we were put here……at the interface between God and our fellow man ………. to love.

We were put here to love.

And the greatest act of love is to help others find their way into relationship with God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John, NIV

‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ‘The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus, NIV

 “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Jesus, NIV

I know a girl. She is constantly comparing what she gets to what others get. This comes out as sibling rivalry on steroids. Her most common line is: “it’s not fair!” Oddy, she never seems to use this line when she gets something extra.

She’s a bit misguided……..but the thing that she is crying out for……is justice……and don’t we all want justice? Justice, love, relationship………these are universal. They are “written on our hearts”. I would say that they were put there by our creator.

And so we cry out for Justice. But, the Justice that we seek typically involves either getting something good for ourselves……..or punishing the other guy. In a truly just world, we would receive blessings………..but we would also be punished for our misdeeds. I don’t believe that I have ever heard a prayer that includes this line.

“Father, please give me justice……….punish me for the wrongs that I have done today.”

The fact is that when we cry out for justice, we really don’t want justice at all. What we want is vengeance on the other guy………and a “get out of jail free” card for ourselves.

I once heard a pastor say “Never pray for justice”. And I think he must have been right. Rather than justice, we should be praying for mercy. Justice and mercy are key attributes of God’s character. I think that God is more “tuned in” to mercy than to justice……..at least I hope so. But why?

The movie “The Shack” deals with this. In a pivotal scene, an angel shows a man his son and his daughter. Each child has done something wrong………as have we all. The angel then says to the father something to the effect of……. Today you are God………you get to decide…….send one of them to hell. In a word………administer justice……..to your child whom you love deeply with a parental love……..with a love very much like the love God feels for you. If you are a parent, you know that this brand of love is entirely different from “ordinary” love. The father struggles and finally replies that he can’t send his child to hell…….. he’d rather go himself. God is like that. He loves us so much that he is willing to take our punishment on himself.

As deep as our parental love for our children is…….it is a faint shadow of God’s love for us.

I believe that this movie is the best explanation of the interface between Justice and Mercy that I have ever seen. Watch it.

And there it is……… God’s delimma. God is the ultimate parent. He loves us deeply. Justice requires that he punish us for our sin. His parental love for us says let it go. It’s very hard to have both justice and mercy. He solves this by sending us Jesus. Just like the central character in “The Shack”, God would rather take the punishment himself than send us to hell. This is a truly amazing act of parenting. We need to take it seriously.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Peter, NIV

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Paul, NIV

Love God.

Love your neighbor.

The two central commands of Christianity. These are what it all boils down to. So far so good. And yet, when push comes to shove, what is love?

We know that love is good. We want to be loved. We know love when we encounter it. We experience joy when we give it to others and when it is given to us.. We want it in our lives and we pursue it.

But…….can we define it…….. accurately describe it? Because if we go on out into the marketplace looking for it, we are going to have a hard time……….if we don’t have a good, solid, accurate vision of what it is.

The truth is that most of us carry around a warm, fuzzy, soft focus notion of love. We stumble into it from time to time. But, we struggle when we try to make it happen. We struggle when we try to build it. Imagine a general contractor who tries to build a house………without a clear vision of what a home is……..what it is constructed with………what its function is.

So………. what is love?

Love is a relationship……. between two or more.

Love is selfless………its focus is outward……on the other guy.

Love is honest, transparent. It tells the truth……it hides nothing.

Love is founded on free will.

Love generates joy…….but not in the normal way. Most of our transactions involve a “quid pro quo”. I give you this…..and you give me something back. Love is different…….it gives with no predetermined repayment. We send it out with no expectation of a “return on our investment”. The best of us radiate love……without any preconditions. Then a miracle happens. The love returns to us……bigger and better than what we sent out……. freely sent to us by another………. someone who is operating on the same set of rules that we use.

This is the relationship that we all want. We see it from time to time in others. I would go so far as to say that this type of love……….is the most desirable thing in the universe.

Love…..freely given……and freely returned……is the most desirable thing in the universe.

And yet…….many of us struggle through our lives without it.

So……..how do we make love happen? How do we create love?

Here’s the good news……..the simple truth is……….that we can make love happen. We solve the “love problem” the same way we solve any other problem. We focus on the part of the problem that we can control. We perform an act of love……we walk up to a wall and toss a handful of love over it…….then we walk away. That’s all. Then we come back later……..and do it again…….and again. Until, one day, the miracle happens, a fistful of love comes back over the wall.

Love is not a “zero sum game”. When we give it away, we don’t have less. The people with the most love in their lives…… paradoxically……..are the people who give the most love away.

Love is written on our hearts.
It was put there by the guy who created us.
He wants us to love because he loves us.
That is the very heart of our relationship with God.

Love……freely given……..and freely returned.

“And, in the end, the love you take…….is equal to the love….. you make”

John Lennon

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Paul, NIV

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends”

Jesus, NIV

Facebook is a mess.

It is full of politically motivated rants.

It is loaded with hate.

It is loaded with lies.

I was about to the point of abandoning it………until I saw a recent post by a woman whom I am proud to say I know.

Here is a synopsis of her post.

Times are hard….they will probably get worse. If you are unemployed and struggling to care for your family, send me a private message with your address. I will drop off a bag of groceries. I won’t knock, I won’t call, I won’t bother you. No one will know and I will pretend that it didn’t happen.

This has to be the best example of working Christianity that I have seen in years.

Christianity is a very simple religion. You can basically cook it down to two commands:

Love God

Love your neighbor

If you are a Christian, these two commands should be at the very top of your “To Do list”……..every day.

I’ll go one step further……..it should be obvious to the people around you that those two commands guide your life.

As a nation, I think I can say that we haven’t been doing a very good job of obeying these two commands lately.

As a nation, we haven’t been very Good Christians

I would encourage you to consider my friend’s post. I would encourage you to do something similar.

In this current pandemic, I can think of no better way to serve God…….I can think of no better way to be his feet on the ground.

“give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Luke, NIV

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Paul, NIV

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus, NIV

Things have been a little quiet since Covid hit. Cindy and I have been watching more TV than is typical. We typically watch news and games shows just before dinner then Op-Ed shows and finally dramas for a few hours.

Last night, the Op-Ed show amounted to an angry talking head who was trying to get me mad at some other angry talking head on “the enemy network”. This was followed by another angry talking head trying to get me mad at politicians in the “enemy party”.

We finally abandoned that network and tuned in a Netflix series that we have been following. Some of them, like “Anne, with an E” have been excellent. The show last night spent its time showing a politician as he struggled over abandoning his principles for political expediency………he does. This was interspersed with multiple gratuitous sexual encounters of every imaginable type…….none of which involved a husband and wife and none of which had anything to do with the plot line of the show.

And this is what TV has become. Ozzie and Harriett are long gone. Today the theme menu is limited to: political manipulation, murder, sex, and “flexible, tolerant, morals” which is to say……no morals at all.

Is it any wonder that our society is decaying? I know…….. you’ve heard all of this before. So have I.

What do do?

We are consumers. The TV pays its way by selling ads. We watch the ads and buy the products. The networks…….every last one of them……..give us either what we want or what they want us to want. And don’t kid yourself, they are extremely skilled at making us want what they want us to want. But, in the final analysis, we are responsible. We are directly responsible for the media that we consume. But, we are indirectly responsible for the rest of it……. the manipulation, sex, murder, gratuitous violence………all of it. If we will watch trash, they will broadcast trash.

So……….what if we stop?

What if we pull the plug on the TV……the internet too. What if, instead, we pull out a good book, sit down with our family and read. Two things happen. The first is immediate and highly effective. We eliminate a source of intellectual poison from our lives. By poison, I mean something that you consume that harms you. The second is much slower and requires a lot of consumers pulling the plug. Ultimately, the networks and the advertisers that support them will change…….maybe just a little bit.

I’m not naive enough to believe that millions of Americans will drag their TV and their laptop out to the curb. But, begining today, I hope that you will join me in asking a simple question when you tune in a show or visit a web site.

“Is this product that I am about to consume……. poison?”

My wife and I own a small farm in Kentucky. I go out there to hunt and fish…….and to just get away. This week I went deer hunting. I was surprised to see about a dozen black buggies within a mile of our farm. An Amish community has been buying up farms and has moved into the neighborhood.

I used to think of the Amish as a quaint anachronism. But, now I’m beginning to understand. The Amish are not totally against technology. But, they are against being connected to the grid, the network. They choose to isolate themselves from the social currents that drive our society……..some would say the social currents that degrade our society. They refuse to consume the poison.

I used to think that they were wrong and modern society was right. After last night………I’m not so sure.

So, I am going to spend a be lot more time with a book and a lot less time with a video screen.

And, I think I’ll make an effort to get to know my new Amish neighbors.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Paul, NIV

After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

James, NIV