God and Country (Friday Devotional)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 

- 1 Peter 2:9

Today we honor the 249^th birthday of the United States, celebrating our national independence with fireworks and parades and all sorts of revelry. It’s a day when Americans of all stripes take pride in our country, giving thanks to God for the freedoms we enjoy. We say the pledge of allegiance, we sing the national anthem, and we salute the flag.

And for believers in Jesus Christ, we do all this even as we remember something important: our primary citizenship is not in this country, but in heaven. In talking about the Lord’s church, the Bible describes us as “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation”—terms which once exclusively described Israel and now refer to all who profess faith in Jesus. With those words, Scripture reframes our understanding of belonging and identity.

The New Testament makes clear that, while we have secondary allegiances—to family, to workplace, to nation—our primary allegiance is to our Savior. We serve our communities, but first we serve our God. We pay honor to those in authority, just as the apostles command, but we worship our Lord.

We have much to be thankful for as Americans—first and foremost that freedom of religious expression is a constitutional guaranteed right. So as we celebrate our national heritage today, may we do so with our spiritual heritage top of mind. Love for country is worthwhile—and love for God is supreme.

June Reading Log

 

As I post this, I'm at youth camp, but the log waits for no one (plus I finished writing it on Saturday). Here's what was on the docket for the month of June!

RISE by Carly Parkinson with Nancy Scammacca Lewis

If you've been reading these logs for a while, you'll know that I'm picky when it comes to church health/growth books. A well-written book in this genre is a blend of the spiritual and the practical, incorporating both biblical principles and modern applications of those principles. Some miss the mark by veering too far in the spiritual direction, offering a sermon that inspires but leaves you with little in the way of pragmatic strategies. Others lean too far the other way, offering lots of corporate jargon, charts, and marketplace techniques, but doing so to the point that you wonder if the authors remember that a church is different from a business.

Rise, unfortunately, falls into that latter bucket, to the point that I almost DNF'ed it. The bulk of the book is chapters looking at different church archetypes, from the "troubled church" all the way to the "vibrant church," analyzing how churches get to where they are, what pros and cons exist in each archetype, and how to then get where they need to be. For a researcher this is probably fascinating, but for a pastor looking for a hand, I quickly identified the archetype that matched my church and then found reading about the others to be largely a waste of my time.

The last 40 pages or so offer the strategies promised in the book's subtitle, several of which, unfortunately, seem to be more about selling particular programs than anything else. What's more, these strategies commit the cardinal sin of church growth books: assuming every church has the resources and structure of a megachurch, when in fact few pastors reading a church growth book are in that situation.

As you've probably gathered, this is not a book I plan to keep on my shelf for long. I appreciate the research done by the authors, but just didn't find the conclusions satisfying.

I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Kate Baer

Following last month's review of The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats, when I declared that "I still don't get poetry," my friend Kelley showed up to church the next Sunday with two books in hand, confident that the problem is neither me nor poetry in general, just my selection. And so far, maybe she's on to something!

I Hope This Finds You Well is a slim, clever collection of erasure poetry, in which the poet takes a selection of found text, then removes words, leaving behind the remaining words to form a new poem. In this case, Kate Baer takes as her initial text the comments left on her  blog—most critical, a few complimentary, all personal—and transforms them into beautiful words of affirmation, especially for women. The result is poetry that takes the ugliness of the Internet and redeems it into something uplifting. Recommended, unless you're prone to tell feminist authors why they're wrong online.

FOREVER WORDS by Johnny Cash

The second poetry book Kelley loaned me is a collection of previously unpublished poems and song lyrics by American music icon Johnny Cash. These are easy reading (especially after 5 months of W.B. Yeats), and you can't help hear Cash's voice as you read. Admittedly, some work better than others as reading material—song lyrics are meant to be sung, after all, not read silently—but nevertheless this was a fun, breezy collection.

I'll share my favorite snippet, from the undated "I Have Been Around":

I have been around

I have tasted rapture that could not again be found

I felt the power filling up

And I felt the power gone

I've been full but hungry

And abandoned to the bone

In the end I knew one thing to pull me through

I always come back around to you

'SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King

Hot on the heels of his debut novel Carrie, 1975's 'Salem's Lot was Stephen King's foray into a more traditional horror story. It tells the story of a small New England town—this is Stephen King, after all—which is infested by vampires and about the small group of brave townspeople who take them on. Borrowing heavily from Dracula—both Bram Stoker's novel and the subsequent film adaptations—the novel starts slow, steadily builds up steam, then erupts into a final 100 pages of nearly nonstop action.

While beloved by King fans, who often put this book in their top 10 of the author's works, I kind of had a hard time sticking with this one. It's hard to put my finger on the reason why, and it may have had more to do with my busy month than the book itself, but I wasn't sucked into this novel the way I was with Carrie, Misery, and other King classics. For me, this was a perfectly serviceable horror story, but one I wasn't sad to finish. It's also, incidentally, the first of King's novels to deserve the oft-level criticism that he's not good at writing endings.

I have yet to read any bad Stephen King books, and I know they're out there, but so far I would put this in the bottom half of what I've read. You've got to read it if you love King, but don't expect it to be your favorite.

CIVILWARLAND IN BAD DECLINE by George Saunders

My experience here mirrored that of reading 'Salem's Lot—this was an early work by an author I normally love, yet who in this case left me cold. The author in question this time was George Saunders, often regarded as America's best living writer of short stories. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline is his first collection, made up of tales published in the early 1990s in magazines like The New Yorker and Harper's, including a novella, "Bounty."

Saunders is now well known for stories that blend satirical, comic prose with horrifying, dystopian situations. Sure enough, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline sees him trying his hand at that formula in virtually every story. But where his stories now routinely grab me from the get-go, these are harder to get into, with protagonists you never feel attached to and worlds that he's too slow to build out.

In short, this reads like a writer still finding his voice. By the time he published Tenth of December, he'd found it, and has been richly rewarded ever since. But these stories are rough drafts compared to those—he'd make it the mountaintop, but this collection represents him still climbing.

GOING SOLO by Roald Dahl

It took every bit of a month to get through this one, the second half of Roald Dahl's two-volume autobiography. Where the first volume dealt with his boyhood, Going Solo tackles his early adulthood, particularly his experiences in Africa working for Shell Oil and then his time flying with the Royal Air Force during World War II.

While that sounds exciting, I have to be honest—this one was a drag to get through. Dahl has an engineer's enthusiasm for aircraft, so you get lots of lengthy descriptions of planes, aerial maneuvers, etc. While that may interest some, I could see Katherine's eyes glazing over as I read the descriptions aloud (and I was as bored as she was!) Additionally, this book has longer chapters than most of his work and is nearly twice the length of his children's novels, making it a rough bedtime read. Andrew stuck with it the whole time, but he was the only one of the three of us who I think really enjoyed the experience.

Dahl's adventures overseas are interesting, but his storytelling in Going Solo is lackluster, something you'd never expect of the writer of James and the Giant Peach. I'd file this one (and, for that matter, Boy too) as "for completists only."

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1-11 by Mark Millar, Warren Ellis, Mike Carey, Adam Kubert, Greg Land, Pasqual Ferry, et al.

In 2000, Marvel debuted Ultimate Spider-Man, a reimagined, modern take on their most popular character, which sought to keep all the core elements of the character but without the burden of 40 years of continuity. Ultimate Spider-Man—and subsequent versions of the X-Men, Avengers ("Ultimates" in this universe), etc.—aimed to bring in new readers by shaking off the dust of characters who had started to feel, well, old. The trick was to match the original characters' ethos while updating it for the 21st century.

Ultimate Fantastic Four, unfortunately, failed to do that. The FF has always been about family, with Reed and Sue acting as mom and dad, Ben and Johnny as the lovable uncles, and eventually Franklin and Valeria as the bright young kids. Secondarily, it's about wacky science fiction adventures, superheroes as "imaginauts," to borrow Mark Waid's memorable term.

The Ultimate version of the characters manages to get this secondary theme, with the team traveling to the so-called "N-Zone" (an alternate dimension known as the Negative Zone in Marvel's primary universe), being visited by zombie versions of themselves from another world, and fighting off alien invaders that include Ultimate Thanos. The heroes themselves are part of a think tank for young prodigies, and the accident that gave them their powers, it is explained, is actually stretching Reed's brain in such a way that he is literally getting smarter every day. So if all you want is superheroes with a heaping spoonful of science fiction, Ultimate Fantastic Four has you covered.

But the book's core mistake—which was then borrowed in the universally reviled 2015 Fantastic Four film—is in making all the characters young adults. Instead of being parents, here Reed and Sue have just started dating. Instead of feeling like close friends and family with decades of history, here the four feel like the more traditional superhero team forced together by circumstance. And instead of the rivalry between Reed and former labmate Victor Van Damme—the Ultimate universe's Doctor Doom— carrying the weight of decades of stories, it feels more like an immature grudge match.

The Ultimate Universe was all about putting a fresh coat of paint on characters weighed down by the baggage of their history. But the problem is, the Fantastic Four are Marvel's First Family—their history is what makes them appealing. So in this case, reinventing the wheel winds up making it worse. Ultimate Fantastic Four, which continued until the entire Ultimate universe met an ignominious end, was one of the line's misfires—it's not bad, but it's not right.

Making Peace (Friday Devotional)

 

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

- Romans 12:18

Headlines this week have been filled with what the Bible promised we would see repeatedly until the Lord’s return: “wars and rumors of wars.” Rockets have been fired, bombs have been dropped, military bases have been attacked, and now the world holds its breath to see if a fragile ceasefire will hold. Global peace feels like an impossible dream at the moment.

And indeed, in a world rife with division, disagreements, and discord, even interpersonal peace is elusive. “Can’t we all just get along?” is a sentiment most consider naïve rather than desirable. Realists understand that people are too different, too stubborn, and too sinful to ever coexist in perfect harmony.

The truth is, you can’t control how other people deal with you—but you can control how you deal with them. When your spouse is 99% to blame for the argument you had this morning, you can apologize for your 1%. When you and a coworker are butting heads, you can be the one to lay down your sword and pursue reconciliation. When you’ve been wronged, you can forgive unconditionally instead of waiting for the apology and the penance you feel you deserve.

Peace, in other words, is possible on your end—but only if you value it more than pride. It requires the kind of humility Christ exhibited on the cross, the willingness to put others above yourself. It means valuing love more than getting your way.

The world will not know that kind of peace, not fully, until Christ returns. But you, in your little pocket of influence, can give people a preview of the kingdom to come. You can’t fix the world—but in Jesus’ name, you can bring peace to your corner of it.

Such a Time as This (Friday Devotional)

 

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

- Esther 4:14

All week long, the church has been abuzz with activity due to one of our biggest events of the year, the weeklong day camp known as Summer Musical Activities for Kids, or S.M.A.K. In addition to the usual features of such a camp—snacks, trips to the swimming pool, etc.—the kids have been learning a biblically based musical, “Malice in the Palace,” which they’ll present to their families and the church on Sunday night at 6:00 pm in our sanctuary (tell your friends!) Through songs and drama, the kids have been learning the story of Esther, the girl who became queen and saved her people.

The turning point of that story comes when Mordecai, Queen Esther’s cousin, comes to her with the news that the evil Haman is plotting to destroy their people. Only Esther, Mordecai explains, has the power to stop the plot through her proximity to the king. In making his plea, Mordecai muses to the new queen, “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

We don’t always understand or even know what God is doing in between the lines of our lives. We wish he’d spell it out for us, that he’d reveal why things are going the way they’re going. We don’t just want to be participants in God’s plans, we want to be the architects of those plans—or at least sneak a peek at the blueprints.

But more often than not, we can only speculate about God’s purposes for us. Like Mordecai, the best we can offer in any moment is ‘perhaps.’

But even when we don’t understand, even when we’re just guessing what the grand plan is, we can be obedient. Esther didn’t know at first why God allowed her to become queen, but she knew she had to make the most of the opportunity. She didn’t know why the responsibility fell to her to save her people, but she knew she needed to be courageous and do what no one else could do.

“For such a time as this” has become a sort of evangelical shibboleth for so-called turning point moments in life, like the one Esther faced. But the truth is, faithfulness to God doesn’t require a dramatic moment of crisis, the kind that a stage play revolves around. Every time is a time to be faithful. And that includes such a time as this.

Fairness vs. Grace (Friday Devotional)

 

Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

- Romans 12:17-18

Retaliation is, by its very nature, fair. You hit me, I hit you back. You scream at me, I respond in kind. Everyone is treated the same.

That inherent fairness is probably why nobody has to teach children to retaliate when they’re provoked. When one of my kids yells at their sibling, it becomes a shouting match almost immediately. When somebody gets hit with a toy, it doesn’t take long for them to pick up that toy and strike back. Nobody taught them to respond like this—it’s just what feels right.

But while it may feel that way, I’ve observed something from my parental perspective: the fairness of retaliation leads to twice the tears. Nobody wins in a back-and-forth; everybody loses.

That’s why the gospel points us to a different response in times of conflict: not the fairness of retaliation, but the grace of peace. When believers are wronged, God calls us to look to a broader perspective than the one to which our sinful flesh defaults—instead of thinking about what’s best for you, the Holy Spirit compels you to think about what’s best for everyone.

It’s not an easy thing to turn the other cheek in a world where lashing out is rewarded. But the crucified Christ is our model and the risen Christ is our hope. In a world of anger, escalation, and violence, may Christians be reminded of Jesus’s words: blessed are the peacemakers.

Whistle While You Work? (Friday Devotional)

 

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

- 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

I can’t whistle.

It’s not for lack of trying. In fact, I’ve always been a little embarrassed by it. But no matter how hard I try, all that comes out when I try to make that sharp, distinctive sound is a soft, anticlimactic hiss. There are first graders out there who can whistle, but at age 35, I cannot.

Obviously I wish I could whistle, just like I wish I could drive an 18-wheeler or dunk a basketball. But those aren’t skills I was born with, nor ones I’ve acquired. So I just have to content myself with the things I can do, leaving those abilities for others. After all, I can’t do everything.

We understand that principle at a basic level, but forget it sometimes when it comes to spiritual matters—we want to be able to do everything (or perhaps want certain people to be able to do everything!) But the truth is, God doesn’t set up his church like the Avengers, a small team of superheroes swooping in to save all the ordinary bystanders. Rather, he empowers each believer, ensuring that all of us have a role to play.

You can’t do everything, no matter how much you want to. But you can do your part. And God has given you his Spirit to make sure you have what you need.

May Reading Log

I didn't feel like I did any more reading than usual in May, but the numbers tell a different story. Lots to see below!

HELP THANKS WOW by Anne Lamott

As she explains in the introduction to this book, writer Anne Lamott has found that virtually all of her prayers can be summed up with one or more of the book's titular words: help, thanks, wow. All of her prayers—and so, in a sense, all of her spiritual life—is suffused with either need, gratitude, wonder, or some amalgamation of the three. Help Thanks Wow is her meditation on these themes.

On the positive end, Lamott is a wonderfully gifted writer, and the rare author outside the evangelical publishing subculture who dares to write about spirituality from a Christian perspective. Furthermore, her insight into how simply our prayers can be summarized—help, thanks, wow—was instructive to me, something I've already shared with members of my congregation.

On the negative side, while Lamott's writing in this book is decidedly theistic, it seems as though she (or her editor/publisher) has sanded down any expressly Christian language in order to make the book more palatable to a general audience. I don't remember Jesus being mentioned once; the book assumes a benevolent Creator but never points to a crucified Savior. Knowing that Lamott is a Christian—and that fundamentalist types consider her heterodox—I wish she'd been a little bolder and veered away from the spiritual-but-not-religious side of the road.

Due to that criticism, I don't know that I'd recommend this book to just anybody, and it's one I'm glad I checked out from the library instead of purchasing. Nevertheless, there's some useful insights about prayer and some beautiful writing to be found. Proceed with caution, but you might appreciate what it offered here.

A LONG OBEDIENCE IN THE SAME DIRECTION by Eugene Peterson

This was a reread of a book I first tackled in 2019. What I said then remains true today, so here you go:

When A Long Obedience in the Same Direction was published in 1980, it was unlike anything else on the shelves at the Christian bookstore: a book that offered no easy answers and no 5 step plans, just a biblical call to the slow, methodical work of discipleship. 40 years later, it remains as singular a work as ever.

In this, Peterson's first book, he sounds what would become the clarion call of his written and pastoral ministry, a call to discipleship. In a society used to getting so much quickly, if not instantaneously, he writes that becoming more like Christ is something that takes a lifetime's worth of prayer, study, and effort. It is not always glamorous, but it is worthwhile.

To illustrate what he calls the biblical model for discipleship, he uses the Song of Ascents, a.k.a. Psalms 120-134. Each psalm shows a different facet of discipleship, from worship to service to blessing, with Peterson using both personal and pastoral anecdotes alongside his breakdown of the biblical text. Each chapter works both as an individual sermon on the topic and as a piece of the larger message on what it means to be a disciple.

In many ways, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is the ur-text for everything Peterson would write afterwards—his call to incarnational, rooted, lifelong ministry is one he wrote about, preached about, and lived. Whether you've never heard of Peterson or own all his books, this one is not to be missed.

THE MEASURE OF ENOUGH by Deonna Kay

I confess, this is not an unbiased review. Deonna and her family are dear friends of mine, and this is her debut novel. I was thrilled to pick it up the day she announced its publication, and enjoyed reading it over the first half of May.

The Measure of Enough is a story about an independent but conflicted woman coming to terms with her family history. Through a return to her hometown and the reading of her mother's journals, she learns that her childhood was more complicated than it seemed, and her lifelong opinion of her unstable mother and her saint of a father does a 180. In the end, by wrestling with the demons of her past, she is able to come to terms with who she is, learning that, just as her mother had always preached, she is enough.

This novel, while filled with humor, tackles some deep subjects, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, and and mental illness. These topics are handled sensitively, but readers for whom those subjects are triggering should be warned. For anyone unfamiliar with or ill-educated on such topics, the novel provides some basic, therapeutic outlooks.

I'm so proud of Deonna for writing this book, and was glad to read it. Buy your copy today!

DIGITAL MINIMALISM by Cal Newport
SLOW PRODUCTIVITY by Cal Newport

Every couple of months, I get mildly obsessed with the intersection of time management and phone addiction, seeking the secret sauce to bring down my screen time and open up newfound hours in my day. This month, that preoccupation led me to two books by Cal Newport, both of which seek to recapture and redefine productivity in the digital age.

Digital Minimalism is the more focused and practical of the two, making a case and offering tips for how to divorce yourself from the siren songs of email, apps, and mindless scrolling. Newport's advice is, by his own admission, radical, but he argues that by temporarily taking extreme measures—for example, switching to a flip phone for 30 days—you will break bad habits and be better able to establish digital boundaries. His diagnosis is convincing, even if his prescriptions feel a little fantastical.

Slow Productivity is a broader and more meandering, but also more enjoyable, read. It argues that things like email and Zoom, far from making us more productive, have actually robbed us of the ability to get important things done—instead of working on projects, we're constantly responding to the latest query or attending a meeting. With a flurry of anecdotes and case studies, Newport argues that the key to productivity is working more slowly and deliberatively, instead of just more. Intentionality, not volume, is the key.

Both of these books were fascinating, if flawed. My overriding criticism is that most of Newport's solutions only work if you have a high degree of freedom in your work life—you can tell subordinates you only take meetings on certain mornings (as he suggests in Slow Productivity), but good luck telling that to your boss or a demanding client. Newport offers a compelling case for why modern office culture is broken, but his solutions will only work for those in upper management. These are interesting reads with good ideas therein, but take them with a grain of salt.

BOY by Roald Dahl

When you think of Roald Dahl, you probably think of his wildly inventive children's fiction, and for good reason. From James and the Giant Peach to The BFG, my kids and I have loved working our way through all the oddball characters and stories. But Dahl also had stories to tell about his own life, which he covered in two autobiographies dividing his life between boyhood and adulthood.

Boy covers, as the title indicates, Dahl's adolescence in Norway, Wales, and England. There are family tales, boarding school stories, and more, all told with his characteristic imagination and wit. Admittedly, the subject matter isn't quite as off-the-wall as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it's an enjoyable ride nevertheless. My kids didn't seem to mind the absence of Dahl's usual wackiness! Next month, we'll finish up our 16-book boxed set of Roald Dahl books with the second half his autobiography, Going Solo.

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF W.B. YEATS

One of my resolutions for 2025 was to read more poetry, so I dutifully read one or two of W.B. Yeats' poems every morning for the first five months of the year.

Nope, I still don't "get" poetry.

Admittedly, my strategy was bad here. For a novice, going with one poet's complete works instead of a "best of" anthology was bound to disappoint me. Complete collections are for hard-core fans, not beginners.

And I did admire Yeats' hits, like "The Second Coming" ("Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold") and "Easter, 1916." The trouble is, most of the poems I enjoyed were the ones I was already familiar with; I didn't do a lot of highlighting of the material I was reading for the first time. By the time I got to his later works, which are longer, epic poems, my "reading" was a lot more skimming than comprehending.

None of this should be taken as a criticism of Yeats, often considered one of history's greatest poets. I'm just convinced I handled this project all wrong; I should not have started with a full course of Yeats when I was only intellectually prepared for a snack.

I did not enjoy this book, but I don't blame the author. Yeats was not at fault—rather, in the words of one of our best-known modern poets, "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me."

ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 11 by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, et al.

At long last, Essential X-Men Vol. 11 brings to a close Chris Claremont's run writing the X-Men, which began with 1975's Giant-Sized X-Men #1 and concludes here with the first three issues of the adjectiveless X-Men series, the first of which remains to this day the bestselling comic book of all time. This volume is almost exclusively devoted to tying up the loose ends necessary to debut that book and reset the X-Men universe—dissolving the X-Factor team so that Cyclops, Jean Grey, et al. can be X-Men again, injuring Professor X in such a way that he is once again wheelchair-bound, reestablishing Magneto as a villain, etc.

As mentioned last month, the end of Claremont's tenure did not happen on his timetable, nor according to his wishes. Marvel editorial, after years of letting him and Louise Simonson have their way with the X-universe, stepped in with a mandate to reset things in such a way that new readers could follow the action. And, while I sympathize with Claremont and am generally in favor of giving writers as much freedom as possible, I have to admit that Claremont's final three issues—which see the X-Men form two separate strike teams made up of fan favorite characters to face off against Magneto and his Acolytes—were the most I'd enjoyed X-Men comics in a while. With Jim Lee at the peak of his powers art-wise, the book has an energy that had been lacking for a long time in the years when Claremont had disassembled the team.

With that being said, issue #3 ends rather suddenly, probably a reflection of Claremont's abrupt decision to leave Marvel. After more than 15 years with this team, one wishes he had been allowed to craft his own conclusion instead of having it handed down. In this reader's mind, Marvel editorial's decision to pry the X-Men loose from Claremont's hands was probably the right one—you just wish it could have been done more gracefully.

I'm all X-ed out for a while, but there are still 7 volumes of Essential Wolverine and 5 of Essential X-Factor that I'll have to tackle someday. So for more mutant action, check back in around 2032!

Quiet Faithfulness (Friday Devotional)

 

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you.

- 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11

For more than a week, the people putting in the most hours at the church have not been staff members, Sunday School teachers, or deacons, but the volunteers decorating the church for this year’s Vacation Bible School, which we’ll hold next week Monday-Friday from 5:30 to 8:30 PM. Every day—rain or shine, on workdays and weekends and on Memorial Day, sometimes leaving the building after 10 PM—this small group of women has shown up to draw and cut and staple, over and over and over again. Seemingly every spare minute of their time has been given to the church, all so this year’s VBS is a vibrant, exciting experience for the families who attend.

Those volunteers won’t get a big check at the end of VBS. They won’t be invited onstage Sunday morning to take a bow—indeed, they’d shoot death glares my direction if I so much as asked them to stand and be recognized. And at the end of it all, most of the decorations they spent so long assembling will get thrown away.

It’s enough to make you start to think that such work is thankless, even pointless. After all, in our world, your impact is usually measured according to the fame and fortune you accrue. If people aren’t watching, it doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t turn a profit, it isn’t valuable.

But the Bible teaches us that there is dignity and inherent worth in the kind of quiet faithfulness that Eugene Peterson called “a long obedience in the same direction.” Christian service often happens in the shadows instead of the spotlight; acts of love happen behind the scenes far more often than on a stage. Quiet, unglamorous work for others is one of the hallmarks of a life of discipleship.

Our egos demand recognition when we do good, but the Holy Spirit reminds us that our reward is heavenly—not pats on the back, but jewels in our crown. So be encouraged even when it seems that your faithfulness is unnoticed or unappreciated—your Father in heaven knows, and he loves seeing his children humbly doing their part. Keep up the good work—not for the adoration of the crowd, but for the glory of the kingdom.

Telling the Truth (Friday Devotional)

 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

- Romans 12:2

When I was a Boy Scout, a regular chore on campouts was doing the dishes, which included cleaning cast iron skillets. When our adult leaders doled out this task, they always stressed that we were under no circumstances to use soap. Hot water, yes. Foil, yes. A washcloth, yes. But soap, they explained, would eat away at the cast iron and ruin it.

So for nearly 20 years I took that advice as gospel, always keeping the Dawn far away from our cast iron cookware. Until this week, that is. Because this week is when I learned the truth: while there was certainly a time when dish soaps, which were made with lye, would strip away cast iron’s seasoning and damage the pan, that has not been the case for decades. No modern dish soap is going to hurt your cast iron.

I’ll let you fact check me on Google or ChatGPT real quick. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

….

Welcome back. Chances are, you may still be suspicious of this new information—truthfully, I am too! That’s because once something becomes conventional wisdom, it’s awfully hard to successfully dispute it. Once our world decides something is true, it takes a lot of courage and conviction to go against the tide.

But for believers in Jesus, there are times where our faith requires us to do so, times when the gospel of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of the world simply do not align. In those moments, you have to choose whether you will passively go with the flow or actively follow the Lord. You have to decide whose disciple you really are.

In a world of conformists, God calls his children instead to be transformed—made not in the image of the world, but in the image of his Son. Don’t settle for the conventional wisdom—embrace the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Form vs. Function (Friday Devotional)

 

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

- Psalm 119:105

In the corner of my office sits an acoustic guitar. It’s in tune (or pretty close, anyway). All its strings are in good shape. If you know how to play it, you can pick it up and make some beautiful music.

But the thing is, I don’t know how to play the guitar, at least not beyond a few simple riffs I taught myself in high school. Ask me to strum a G chord and I’ll look at you blankly. Tell me to play you a tune and I’ll just laugh. That guitar in the corner may technically be functional, but for me it’s purely decorative.

On the other hand, not 2 feet from the guitar is a brown recliner that used to belong to my grandmother. Beyond that sentimental attachment, there’s nothing particularly special about it. It’s not a beautiful piece of furniture, nor is it hideous. It’s comfortable, but far from luxurious.

But I sit in that recliner, whether for a few minutes or for hours on end, every single day. Whether I’m reading, writing, studying, praying, making a phone call, or just taking a break, I’m often doing it from that brown recliner in the corner. It doesn’t look like much, but I use it all the time.

That brings me to the last thing that’s caught my eye in the corner of my office: my Bible. If you’re reading this devotional, then chances are you have one too. Maybe it’s a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, filled with photos and handwritten notes and baptismal certificates. Maybe it’s a prized possession, with a real leather cover and pages with gilded edges, the kind of thing somebody had to save up for.

Then again, maybe yours is an old Gideon Bible you ‘borrowed’ from a hotel room 20 years ago. Maybe it’s a study Bible you got for Christmas which is nearly falling apart. Maybe yours is filled with ink stains and highlighter markings.

God gave us his Word so we would learn it and thereby know him. In our time, we have the indescribable blessing of being able to hold personal copies of those scriptures in our hands. So is your Bible more like my guitar—something to look at, but rarely pick up—or is it like my familiar, useful recliner? Is your Bible decorative or functional?

God, Please Help (Friday Devotional)

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 

- Colossians 4:2

Every time an ambulance speeds past, I can count on hearing two things. The first, naturally, is the siren. But the second sound is the quiet voice of my daughter Katherine in the backseat.

“Dear God, please help the people where the ambulance is going. Amen.”

The origin of this prayer comes from a day, years ago, when Katherine had a lot of questions after an ambulance drove by. Who were they going to help? What was wrong with the person? What were the paramedics going to do when they got there?

At the time, we told Katherine we didn’t have the answers to her questions, nor did we have a way to find out those answers. But what we told her we could do was pray for the people in need and for the paramedics seeking to help them. And so, without fail or hesitation, she does so every time she hears a siren screaming.

There are times when, even as adults, we find ourselves like Katherine in the backseat, filled with questions and concerns but no answers. Grown-ups like to imagine we can solve all our problems on our own, but life has a way of disabusing us of that notion. Sometimes you just don’t know what to do.

In such moments of confusion and disorder, the best thing to do is to turn to the one who has the answers we don’t, offering the simple prayer that has sustained God’s people since the beginning: “God, please help.”

Such a prayer won’t necessarily result in God intervening to solve your problem for you. Praise the Lord when he does, but it’s not exactly the point. Prayer is simply your acknowledgement that you are not sovereign over all things—and that you know who is. It’s an act of trust.

So today, let me encourage you to turn your anxieties, whatever they may be, over to God. You don’t have all the answers, and you may not get them. But there’s something humble, something faithful, and something powerful about looking to the Lord, and simply saying, “God, please help.”

April Reading Log

I don't know if you've heard, but April was kind of a busy month for pastors. So my normal daily reading routine (30 minutes of church reading, 30 minutes of comics, 30 minutes of a novel, plus bedtime reading with the kids) definitely fell by the wayside a lot of days. Nevertheless, here's what I was able to finish last month!

THE CROSS OF CHRIST by John Stott

Christians of all stripes are unanimous on this simple statement: Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. That's a fundamental truth of the faith, really the fundamental truth of the faith.

But what does it mean? Why did Jesus die, how does his death save us, and how does the manner and the meaning of his death affect the way we live in the world?

Those are the questions which pastor and theologian John Stott seeks to answer in The Cross of Christ, one of the 20th century's best-loved books about Christianity. In this theological masterpiece, Stott covers everything from the historical meaning of crucifixion to the various atonement theories to ethics, all with the erudition of a scholar but the tone and diction of a pastor. For all the heavy subject matter, this is a remarkably readable book, more akin to a sermon than a dusty tome.

I am grateful especially for this book's defense of the idea of substitutionary atonement, which has been taking a beating in moderate-to-liberal theological circles over the last few years. Those critics rightly point out that, taken to the extreme, the picture of the Son dying to appease the wrath of his Father paints God as a monstrous, abusive deity. But it's virtually impossible to read the epistles (especially Paul's) and deny that Jesus on the cross in some way stands in as a substitute for us. Stott's defense, largely on incarnational, Trinitarian lines (i.e. Christ's sacrifice is God's self-sacrifice) is effective and far more persuasive than the more hard-edged cases I've seen from Reformed types like Piper and Sproul, who sometimes seem more intent on defending Paul than proclaiming God's love.

The Cross of Christ, which I picked up as Lenten reading this year and finished shortly after Easter, is a book I'd gladly put in the hands of anyone wanting a primer on why the cross matters. Highly recommended.

THE SURVIVOR: BILL CLINTON IN THE WHITE HOUSE by John F. Harris

I am fascinated by Bill Clinton as a historical character. Some of that is nostalgia talking—he was the president for most of my childhood, which also happens to be the last time it felt like we knew what we were doing as a country. But more than that, I find him interesting because of how contradictory a person he is, almost to a literary degree. He was always, as was said so many times it became a cliché, 'a man whose gifts were matched only by his appetites.'

On the one hand, Clinton was universally regarded as a brilliant politician, as adept at the ins and outs of campaigning, fundraising, and and wooing legislators as he was at governing domestically and internationally. His mind was matched by both his work ethic—the Clinton White House was as known for all-nighters as a college library—and his love for the job. In so many ways, Bill Clinton seemed tailor-made to be President of the United States.

But the man just couldn't get out of his own way. His high-minded morality on issues of public policy was contrasted with a relativistic private character that was lawyerly at best, sleazy at worst. From the friends he kept to the sexual affairs he hid to the lies and half-truths he told (often in an attempt to wriggle out of scandal), you always felt there was something grimy under the surface of Bill Clinton, something he wasn't nearly careful enough to keep contained.

The result is a president and a presidency that feels, some 30 years later, small. The 1990s was a time of peace, in between the end of the Cold War and the catastrophe of 9/11. It was a period of prosperity, when Clinton and the Republican Congress he was saddled with managed to balance the budget and grow the economy. By all accounts, it was exactly what voters want from their president.

But instead of newspapers being filled with Clinton's accomplishments, they were dominated by his self-inflicted (and, yes, Ken Starr-exacerbated) wounds. For every legislative victory, there was a new lawsuit. For every international summit, there was another whisper about a woman. For every speech, there was a leak.

So The Survivor, a journalistic account of the Clinton presidency, winds up being a conventional reflection of its subject. At times it feels like a Doris Kearns Goodwin-esque treatment, the kind of historical work that stands the test of time. Other chapters feel like tabloid fodder, gossipy inside baseball all about who's up and who's down in Washington. It's well-reported and easy to read. It just feels like it should mean more.

We're still waiting to see how history will ultimately judge Bill Clinton, and this book, published in 2005, doesn't have the perspective to deliver that judgment. Will he be remembered for his gifts or his failings? After reading The Survivor, I can't help but wonder if the answer will be neither—if, in a true nightmare for a man who wanted above all things to be loved, we will eventually just forget about him.

GEORGE'S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE by Roald Dahl
ESSIO TROT by Roald Dahl
BILLY AND THE MINPINS by Roald Dahl

George's Marvelous Medicine tells the story of a boy who, tired of being mistreated by his wicked grandmother, whips up a concoction that mixes virtually every chemical in his house and gives it to her grandmother. The result? She grows as big as the house, prompting his father to demand that George make more medicines for profit, until that plan inevitably goes awry. It all makes for a silly little fable.

Esio Trot is probably the most obscure Dahl book we've read, and for good reason. It's a quirky little story of a lonely old man who woos his upstairs neighbor by caring for her beloved pet tortoise and lying about how he helped it grow. Dahl somehow makes the book's questionable moral—a little white lie will win you love—seem sweet. But yeah, this is definitely the kind of story Dahl wouldn't have been able to get published earlier in his career before he was a big name.

Finally comes Billy and the Minpins, a tale about a boy who discovers a whole society of miniature creatures living in the tree in his backyard. That intriguing premise doesn't really go far, but it's a charming enough story, most notable for being the last one Dahl published.

All three of these books are slim (less than 100 pages apiece) and forgettable entries in the Dahl oeuvre, necessary to knock out as we come to the end of our box set of his works. None were favorites of mine, but the kids enjoyed them all to varying degrees.

ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 10 by Christ Claremont, Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, et al.

Ok, story time.

If you've been reading these monthly logs for a while, you know that, from the late 1970s through the 1980s, the X-Men were written exclusively by Chris Claremont. Through highs and lows, his vision dictated the path the team took, for better and for worse. And since the title exploded in popularity over that time, Marvel editorial let him play in his sandbox without much supervision, content to cash the checks.

Then in the early 1990s, fissures started to form. For one thing, the X-verse had expanded far beyond the Uncanny X-Men title, with the additions of The New Mutants, X-Factor, and Excalibur, not all of which were written by Claremont. For another, Claremont's ideas, like breaking up the team and having them spend more than 5 years in a disassembled state, started to become unfeasible from a sales perspective. Finally, a new superstar artist, Jim Lee, came on board, armed with not only talent but ideas of his own.

So Essential X-Men Vol. 10, and especially the line-wide crossover event "X-tinction Agenda," marks the beginning of the end for Claremont, as Marvel editorial started dictating direction in a way they never had before. That story, which takes up nearly half this volume, sees the X-Men kidnapped by a former ally and taken to the mutant apartheid state of Genosha, where the intention is to enslave them. Entertaining but waaaaay too stretched out, it ends with the board reset, many of Claremont's loose ends having been tied up not by his storytelling but by editorial fiat.

Before that, there are highlights, primarily the introduction of Gambit, the charismatic Cajun thief who brings a refreshing devil-may-care attitude to the proceedings. And Jim Lee's art, whenever you get it for a full issue, is truly a sight to behold—you can see why fans were swooning over him in the 1990s.

Nevertheless, this period of X-history is marked primarily by behind-the-scenes machinations, not the stories on the page. The next and final Essential volume sees the peak of the X-Men's popularity, with the introduction of the bestselling, adjectiveless X-Men title...and Claremont's departure from the book and from Marvel after only 3 issues. Check back in next month to read all about it!

Making the Time (Friday Devotional)

 

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

- James 4:8

“Can we read tonight?”

It’s a question that, especially on busy nights, I know the kids are inevitably going to ask me. Bedtime reading is something they never want to skip—I’m not sure if it’s the book they enjoy, the quality time, getting to stay up for a few extra minutes, or all of the above, but regardless, that time is important to them.

In a perfect world, I would say yes every time; I would give them the 10 minutes they’re begging for. But I confess, some nights I don’t. Some nights we don’t get home until an hour past their bedtime. Some nights I’m worn out from a long day and don’t have it in me. Some nights they’re bouncing off the walls and I don’t want to reward them. And so some nights I send them to bed without reading to them.

But here’s the thing: I always regret it afterwards. No matter how good my excuse is in the moment, I always wish later that I’d taken the time—just a few minutes—to read to my children. After all, someday they’re going to stop asking.

Along those lines, I’m reminded of a common teaching in the evangelical church about the importance of a daily “quiet time,” a personal devotional time between you and God. To be clear, there’s no explicit command in Scripture that you devote 15 minutes to Bible reading and prayer every day. But just as obvious is that doing so is fruitful—it’ not a coincidence that the gospel writers tell us Jesus often rose early and spent time alone in prayer.

For my part, I do not legalistically set aside 15 minutes per day to read a few Bible verses and pray as though doing so were one of the Ten Commandments. But I’ll tell you this—when I don’t make that kind of time for the Lord, I miss it.

Some days are so busy it feels like you can’t find time for the Lord. Some days you’re so distracted that you feel like you can’t possibly focus on your Bible. Some days you just don’t feel like having a quiet time. I get it; really, I do.

But just like my kids want that time with their Dad, your heavenly Father wants some time with you. Don’t let momentary priorities pull you away from what truly matters.

Beyond the Trivia (Friday Devotional)

 

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

- 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Lately, my son Andrew is in a phase I remember well and, if I’m honest, never completely outgrew: he is memorizing as many fun facts about baseball as possible. And he can’t wait to share them with me.

“Daddy, do you know how many players hit more than 700 home runs in their career?” [Yes, there are four: Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Pujols.]

“Daddy, do you know who has the 2^nd most World Series wins of all time? [Yes, the St. Louis Cardinals. Had to Google how many, though.]

“Daddy, do you know how many 1952 Mickey Mantle cards still exist? [….nope. He’s got me there.]

Rarely does a drive home from school occur without Andrew peppering me with these kinds of trivia questions. He’s just so excited to soak up every bit of baseball history possible that he can’t keep the newfound knowledge to himself.

Some of us are the same with the Bible—we’re always excited to learn something new, whether it’s a connection between two passages, a bit of historical context, or a new interpretation of a familiar verse. Maybe you’re somebody who can rattle off the names of the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelves disciples; maybe you like to scour biblical genealogies for familiar names.

All of that is wonderful, because it shows a love for God’s Word and a desire to know more about him. The trick, however, is to go beyond the fun facts to what they mean—not just to learn trivia, but to apply Scripture to your life.

God gave us the Bible, all 66 books of it, so that we would know him better and know better how to live for him. It’s fun to pick up exegetical nuggets, but it’s far more useful to let God’s Word take root in your heart. So keep reading and keep learning—not just the surface-level fun facts, but also the deeper truths of who God is and what he calls you to do.

Never Forsaken (Friday Devotional)

 

At three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

- Mark 15:34

Of the seven things Jesus said from the cross—from the pitiable “I thirst” to the climactic “it is finished,” it is his despairing cry to heaven that has always struck my heart the deepest.

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabacthani?”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

You may know that, when Jesus shouted those words, he was quoting Scripture, specifically Psalm 22. That particular psalm is one that sees David taken from the depths of depression to the heights of faithful worship—over the course of its 31 verses, David reminds himself that, even when he was in the most severe danger, God never left his side. Therefore, David declares in the song’s final verses, he remains certain that, despite his present circumstances, the Lord is worthy of all praise.

For this reason, there’s some disagreement on what Jesus was getting at when he quoted Psalm 22 from the cross. For some, Jesus obviously means exactly what it sounds like—he is in utter despair, and from the depths of his humanity he is lamenting the physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering he is enduring on our behalf. For others, the reference to the psalm shows that Jesus’ anguish is tinged with faith—just as David despaired but knew God would not truly leave him, the Son of David weeps on the cross but knows that resurrection is coming.

Reasonable people can (and do) disagree on which interpretation is right. But this week when I looked to Psalm 22, I kept reading to the next chapter, and was met with another verse, one you’ve undoubtedly heard before: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

It got me thinking. I don’t know whether Jesus, fully human, experienced true hopelessness on the cross or whether Jesus, fully divine, remained totally in control. I don’t know whether Jesus believed himself to be abandoned by God or whether he was actually foreshadowing glory yet to come. I don’t know for certain whether, having taken on all the sins of the world, Jesus was truly forsaken at his death or not.

What I do know is that, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, you can sing every word of the psalms—the travails and the triumphs—with conviction. I do know that even when you feel abandoned, you are never alone. I do know that, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you need not fear any evil—for God is with you.

Because Jesus endured suffering that was rightfully ours, we can lay claim to the glories of eternity. Because he gave his body and his blood, we are cleansed of sin and guilt. Because Jesus died, we get to know resurrection.

Eloi, Eloi, lema sabacthani? From the mouth of Jesus, those words are now carved in our hearts for eternity. But because of Jesus, we know they are not our story. You are never forsaken—God sent his Son for you.