Reading Vertically (Friday Devotional)

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

- Isaiah 26:3

If you’re reading these words online—which, unless you printed off a copy yourself, you are—then chances are you’re not reading it that carefully. You’re skimming, your eyes racing over the words as quickly as possible so that you can take in the information and then move on to your next task.

Don’t worry, I don’t take it personally—that’s how we read everything nowadays. After years of ubiquitous e-mails, online articles, blog posts, tweets, gifs, and Facebook posts, our brains have been rewired to adjust to the onslaught of words and images put in front of them every day. This deluge combined with the constant distractions of modern life—the chirp of a new text message, the ding of another e-mail, the pop-up informing you of a Facebook notification—have taught our brains that anything worth reading must be read quickly.

Essayist and literary critic Sven Birkerts calls this “horizontal reading,” where your eyes skim along the surface of the words just long enough to receive the necessary information. This kind of reading has always existed, but it was once mostly limited to things like recipes or receipts. Now we read most everything horizontally, and “vertical reading”—where you are reading slowly enough to let the words soak in, where you are so deeply involved in what you’re reading that you lose track of time—requires legitimate effort.

This move from vertical to horizontal, from diving deep to skimming the surface, has an impact on you spiritually too. When you’re used to reading stories just long enough to grasp the plot, it’s tough for the messages of Scripture to penetrate your soul. When you’re used to “multitasking”, i.e. being distracted at all times, focused prayer can feel nearly impossible.

The truth is, growing closer to God is something that takes time, energy, and focus. Spiritual maturity is not something that happens via a 30 second prayer while you brush your teeth or by skimming a devotional while you wait in line at the grocery store. Knowing God better comes by giving Him what we struggle to give anyone or anything: undivided attention.

So as you close this devotional and move on to the next e-mail, or check Facebook, or open up a YouTube video, let me invite you first to find a window of time today when you can set aside all distractions and listen to what God has to tell you. When your eyes are fixed on Him, when you read His Word vertically instead of horizontally, you may be surprised how much you really learn.

Tilting (Friday Devotional)

“Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

- Jeremiah 17:5-8

If you’ve ever played pinball, you’ve experienced it. The lights are flashing, the music is playing, the ball is hitting every target, and your high score is just around the corner. Then in your enthusiasm, you bump the machine ever so slightly and it all comes screeching to a halt. The lights go dark, the music stops, and, most significantly, the buttons you’d been mashing so effectively only a moment ago are rendered useless as the dreaded four letter message flashes across the screen in front of you: TILT. Game over.

Life has a way of “tilting” on you. You’ll have spells where it seems like everything is going your way—you’re excelling at work, your family is healthy, your finances are secure, and the future’s never looked brighter. Then all of a sudden, something unexpected hits—a natural disaster, a severe diagnosis, a layoff, a betrayal—and that bad news sends you tumbling down a well of grief and despair. All the good that came before is suddenly forgotten and inconsequential.

When your life is built upon your own dreams and achievements, the things you’ve built and accumulated, you are just waiting for the tilt, because few of us are strong enough to withstand the harshest blows life can throw at us. So Scripture encourages you to place your faith in the Lord whose power is matchless, whose wisdom is immeasurable, and whose love never ends. Life is unstable and prone to tilts, but God is steadfast.

You can never predict when you’ll be set back on your heels, which event will push you further than you’ve ever been pushed. But when the Lord is your foundation, you have the assurance that nothing can tilt you beyond the point of redemption. Even if you lose a round or two, life with God means you never have to worry about game over.

Filling Your Faith (Friday Devotional)

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

- Ephesians 2:10

A trip to Freebirds World Burrito is always an exercise in decision making for me. The first few decisions come easy: which size burrito to get, which kind of tortilla, which meat. Those choices are easy, and my decision almost never changes. Same goes for the beans, rice, cheese, and salsa—decisions must be made, but they’re not exactly challenging.

But then I get to the crucible of any Freebirds order—what add-ons am I willing to pay for? Their queso is delicious—but it also adds $1.40 to my order. Same goes for the guacamole or sliced avocado. If I’m especially hungry and want some extra meat, that’ll cost me another $2.00. Even extra cheese comes with a price tag of $1.40. If you’re not careful, an eight dollar burrito can suddenly cost twice that—it all depends on whether you want to include the add-ons.

When it comes to your walk with Christ, there are certain beliefs you understand to be essential, doctrines which you cannot reject and rightly call yourself an orthodox Christian. You must believe that Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sins, you must believe he rose from the grave, and you must believe that placing your faith in him assures you of eternal life with God. These are all things that every Christian, from Roman Catholics to Egyptian Copts to Texas Baptists, would affirm—whatever our other differences, these are fundamental articles of faith. If Christianity were a burrito, these would be the tortilla—you need them just to get started.

Beyond those foundational beliefs, there’s a whole menu of items to choose from as you examine what it means to be a Christian. These questions, as major as the nature of Christ and as particular as how to properly baptize someone, have split the church for centuries. Sorting through all these different doctrines and deciding what you believe God wants is a crucial part of maturing in faith. If Christianity were a burrito, these beliefs would be the meat, rice, and other fillings—they fill out your faith, and you have an abundance of options.

Once you know what you believe, you come to one last step: what you do. How are you going to put your faith into action? Are your beliefs going to change the way you live? Unfortunately, there is a tendency to think of this last step like the add-ons to a Freebirds burrito—as something costly and ultimately unnecessary. After all, as long as I believe the right things, isn’t that enough?

Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that God calls His children to more than just belief. Those who belong to Christ are created in him for good works, and God intends for faithful generosity to be our way of life. Serving others, caring for the needy, bearing witness to the grace of God—these are not optional parts of your walk with Christ, they are the direct result of a relationship with him.

Life in Christ means believing the right things, but we must never forget that it also means doing the right things. As you reflect on your own walk with Christ, may good works not be treated like add-ons—may loving others be an essential part of your order.

Comfort Objects (Friday Devotional)

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

- 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

At some point around their first birthday, almost every toddler starts toting around an object of their choosing—usually a stuffed animal or a blanket—from which they refuse to be parted. Their “comfort object” goes with them in the car, in the crib, and everywhere in between, and woe unto the parent who tries to sneak it into the washing machine when their child isn’t looking. My comfort object was an old pillowcase that I labeled “my number one pillow”; Andrew’s is a lovey that looks like a sheep which we call “Sheepy” (we might have been more creative if we’d known he’d get so attached.)

When children start toting their comfort object around, sometimes it concerns first-time parents. ‘It can’t be hygienic’, mom worries, with visions of future doctor’s visits looming in her mind. ‘And will he ever put it down?’, dad wonders. ‘I don’t want my son bringing a teddy bear to his first job interview!’ The good news is that these toys are a natural part of early childhood development, a transition from infanthood’s total reliance on mom to some measure of independence. Eventually, they grow out of their comfort object and learn how to cope without it.

Maybe it was these kinds of things Paul had in mind when spoke about the “childish ways” that he left behind upon becoming an adult. The church in Corinth was, in Paul’s eyes, overvaluing their spiritual gifts, and Paul sought to remind them that those gifts, while important, were not eternal. Just as their childhood toys were indicative of an early stage of their development, Paul says that spiritual gifts are something that will pass away when Christ returns and God’s kingdom comes. What never ends, however, what abides even when everything else changes, are faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Like a parent or a Corinthian Christian, we still have a tendency to overconcern ourselves with things that are ultimately transitory, while undervaluing those things which are eternal. We’ll browse social media for 45 minutes at a time and wonder where the time went, but lose focus after 2 minutes in prayer. We’ll gladly dole out hundreds of dollars for the newest phone, but resent when the church asks for a special missions offering beyond out normal tithe. We’ll work 80 hours a week when the job calls for it, but get impatient when our child asks to read with us for five more minutes.

In a world that’s always changing, God calls us remember what endures and to build our lives around those eternal values instead of on a worldly narrative that’s long on style and short on substance. So few of the things we consume ourselves with, our grownup comfort objects, will matter when the kingdom comes—perhaps the time has come to start focusing on that which abides forever.