Whispers (Friday Devotional)

“And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.””

- Mark 2:15-17

My 16-month old son is, in many regards, fearless. People don’t scare him—he’s never met a stranger to whom he didn’t want to smile and wave. Heights don’t scare him—in fact, his favorite thing in the world these days is climbing stairs. And as for spiders and ants and other creepy crawlies? Well, on a hike a few days ago, he picked up a caterpillar and threw it aside with a giggle, so I’d say bugs don’t exactly intimidate him.

The only thing that consistently upsets him, from the time he was an infant until today, is loud noises. Whether it’s the hair dryer, the vacuum cleaner, the power drill, or the trash truck, thunderous noise guarantees that a wide-seyed little boy will be clutching your pant leg. Should the sound continue or, heaven forbid, get louder and closer to him, tears aren’t out of the question. For all his fearlessness in other areas, he melts in the face of loud noises. Chances are, he’ll grow out of that as he gets bigger. But if he’s like most of us, his fear of loud noises will ultimately be replaced by its opposite: the fear of whispers.

That’s because for adults, few things seem to be as paralyzing as the idea that someone is judging you, criticizing you, and gossiping about you behind your back. The very prospect of being whispered about is crippling; your worries about their whispers can completely change how you behave. How many times have you refused to take action because you worried about what other people might say? How many times have you bowed to the wishes of the murmuring masses because you couldn’t bear the thought of their judgment falling on you?

No one is immune to the whispers of the crowd, including Jesus. When he chose to share meals with “many tax collectors and sinners,” a group who decent people didn’t dare be seen with, it didn’t go unnoticed. The God-fearing, law-abiding scribes and Pharisees responded to Jesus’s actions the same way that God-fearing, law-abiding people unfortunately still tend to respond today—they started whispering about him behind his back.

But where we often allow whispers to drive us away from risky compassion, Jesus would have no part of such fearfulness. Given the choice between saving his reputation or saving people, in his mind there was no choice at all. Jesus countered whispers of judgment with acts of kindness; he fought gossipy condemnation with grace and truth.

If you will place your faith in his righteousness instead of your reputation, valuing his gospel over your pride, then you can do the same. There are people in your community, your office, your family, and your church who need someone to take a chance on them, for someone to worry more about them than about the whispers. If you will cast your insecurities and doubts aside, that person can be you. In Jesus’s name, may you respond to murmurs of judgment with thunderous grace.

Look Up (Friday Devotional)

“Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.”

- John 4:35

“Look, up in the sky!”

Cries like that have for decades signaled the beginning of the next great Superman adventure. Every time those words are uttered, whether in print or onscreen, the reaction is the same: the ordinary citizens of Metropolis, folks formerly preoccupied with getting to work or catching a cab or reading the latest issue of the Daily Planet, drop what they’re doing and lift their gazes heavenward. Hope soars above them, and whatever they’re doing can wait.

Of course, the skies of the real world are filled with birds and planes, but no Supermen. And the sad result is that we don’t look up very much. We stare down at the papers on our desks, consumed by work. We stare down at our bank ledgers, fixated on what we have and what we don’t. And, of course, we stare down constantly and compulsively at our devices—our cell phones, our iPads, our laptops, anything that will keep our heads down and our minds distracted while the world flies by outside.

In a world where our default setting is to look down, to stay absorbed in our own matters, Jesus calls us to look up to the Father and around to our fellow man. There is a world in need of Christ’s redemptive gospel, and we have been tasked with sharing that good news—but that will only happen when we learn to look beyond ourselves.

When opportunities arise to extend the love of Christ, they aren’t often announced. When someone in pain crosses your path, they don’t always ask for help. So in a world full of people needing to see, hear, and experience the gospel, your first job is as simple as it is difficult: look up. You may be surprised how much you see.

I Just Called to Say I Love You (Friday Devotional)

“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.”

- Psalm 145:1-2

While at the park with my son earlier this week, I witnessed something that got me thinking. A little boy, 3 years old or so, was sitting atop the playground slide, preparing to go down, when he stopped suddenly, like he’d had an idea. “Dad!” he cried out, turning his head toward the park bench where his father was talking with another adult. “Dad!”

I’m not sure whether his father initially didn’t hear him or just wanted to finish his conversation, but he didn’t give his son any immediate acknowledgement. So the boy shouted out even louder, “Dad! Dad!” This time the man gave his son the universal wait-a-second sign, the upraised index finger with no eye contact. Impatiently, the son yelled again, “Dad!”

Finally, the man turned to his son and, with both weariness and affection, simply asked, “What is it?” His son smiled and happily shouted back, “I love you,” went down the slide, and ran back to the playground entrance. Apparently that was all he’d needed to say.

That brief moment on the playground got me thinking about how we talk to our heavenly Father. One the primary purposes of prayer is to ask God for things, whether spiritual aid, physical protection, or material blessings. Another is to thank him for the many blessings He bestows upon us. But do you ever check in just to save you love Him?

I ask because a prayer life built entirely on asking, receiving, and thanking is transactional, not relational; it’s the way you talk to a contractor, not your father. It’s worth noting that the model prayer Jesus gave his disciples included appeals for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from temptation and sin—but it began by praising God’s name. Before getting to his prayer requests, Jesus thought it necessary first to offer words of worship.

Let me encourage you to take a page out of the Book of Psalms, which contains dozens of poems and prayers written with no agenda except to praise God. Continue to ask things of God, because He gives generously to those who place their trust in Him—but every once in a while, come to him with the faith of a child, needing nothing except for Him to hear you say, “I love you.”

The Infinite vs. the Infinitesimal (Friday Devotional)

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

- Philippians 4:8

Wednesday night after church, my wife suggested that we go for a short walk before heading home. We live close to Lake Waco, and there’s a popular trail that overlooks the water and provides a beautiful view of the sunset, so she suggested we take advantage of it before it got dark.

Unfortunately, the gorgeous sunset is not my enduring memory of that brief walk along the lake. That’s because, as the sun dipped below the horizon, swarms of gnats started to swirl around, flying in our faces and trying their hardest to get in our mouths. Far from enjoying an idyllic sunset stroll, we wound up spending most of the time swatting at the air before finally turning back and heading for the car.

What should have been a beautiful moment was obscured by an unsightly distraction.

When you think about it, that’s not such an unusual disappointment—notes of grace are often drowned out by the blaring dissonance of anger, gossip, envy, and bitterness. In the daily swirl of negative headlines, interpersonal conflicts, and general stressfulness, God’s blessings can be so obscured that you barely even notice them.

In the face of these constant earthly disruptions, the Bible teaches us to dwell on the godly, those things which are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable. You cannot necessarily remove the distractions which buzz around you each day, trying to pull your focus away from God, but you can remove their power. By fixing your eyes on Jesus instead of the distractions and by dwelling on his way instead of your own, you show where your heart truly lies.

This week, I encourage you to stop several times a day and observe where your focus is. Are you swatting at the air, trying in vain to force away distractions? Or are you looking through those distractions to that which ultimately matters? Even the most seemingly insignificant distractions can damage your relationship with God if you allow them to block your view of Him—so with eyes fixed on the Lord, don’t let the infinitesimal obscure the glorious.

March Reading Log

Didn't have much free time during Holy Week, but the first 3 weeks of March gave me enough time to enjoy my typically eclectic assortment of articles and books. Here's to another month of reading!

5 Articles I Like This Month

"Burning Out: What Really Happens Inside a Crematorium" by Caren Chesler, Popular Mechanics. 23 minutes.

In the last few generations, more and more people have opted for cremation as a less expensive alternative to the traditional burial. In this fascinating article, Caren Chesler dives deep into exactly how cremation works and how it has gone from socially unacceptable to the preferred option for 48% of bereaved families. 

"How to Raise a Boy" by Will Leitch, The Cut. 11 minutes.

I'll just excerpt the article, because it makes for a good summary and tease: "The power white American boys have been taught to seize for generations comes from the already powerless, women, people of color, everyone who isn’t us. Which is why, in a macro sense, the lessening power of men (straight and white particularly) is an unquestioned societal good. When others rise, we must fall. It will be good not just in a moral sense, but a practical one. As a patriotic American who believes our country is a better place when all have an equal chance, and who believes it is time for the historical ledger to be balanced, this is what I want for the future. The only thing is: There are two little future white men who live in my house, and I love them very much."

"The Myth of Authenticity Is Killing Tex-Mex" by Meghan McCarron, Eater. 21 minutes.

While Texas barbecue has spent the last decade acquiring national fame and a cult-like following, Tex-Mex—which the author convincingly argues is eaten much more often by the average Texan than barbecue—is disrespected as a cheese-covered, processed, cheap meal not worthy of the label 'cuisine.' In an article guaranteed to make you hungry, Meghan McCarron dives into the past, present, and future of Tex-Mex, passionately making the case for it as a misunderstood and delicious state food.

"When Winter Never Ends" by Wright Thompson, ESPN The Magazine. 19 minutes.

While I don't relate to it (probably because I don't relate to it), I find the almost pathological obsession of elite athletes with their sports—think Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, etc.—endlessly interesting. Ichiro Suzuki, indisputably the greatest Japanese import to Major League Baseball of all time, certainly qualifies as one of those obsessive, my-sport-is-who-I-am athletes, as this well-written, insightful article makes clear. A great look into the life of an athlete whose been in our highlight reels for 15 years now, but who we still don't really know.

"The Lost Kids on the Line" by Bronwen Dickey, Popular Mechanics. 21 minutes.

If you've ever spent any time on a college campus or at a summer camp, at some point you've probably seen a kid balanced precariously on a bungee cord tied between two trees, trying to stay balanced as he or she walks across it. "Slacklining," as this article taught me, is a sport invented by mountain climbers, and one of the best tests of concentration (and humility, since it's impossible to do it in a dignified way) out there. And now, courtesy of an energetic group of nonprofit workers, it's a way to bring some much-needed fun to Syrian refugees whose lives haven't had much room for it in the last 7 years. This is a beautiful, heartwarming, life-affirming story; I can't recommend it enough.

ANYWAY ANYTIME ANYWHERE VOL. II by Ken Camp

Back in November, I read the first volume of the official history book of the Texas Baptist Men, which chronicled the origins and early ministry of an organization that grew in size, scope, and faith over its first 30 years. Now, just in time for the 50th anniversary of TBM's formation, author and really excellent father Ken Camp is back with a second volume, picking up where he left off and filling in readers on the last 20 years of TBM's work.

Like in the first volume, Dad (I typed "Camp" initially, but it felt weird and stilted) spends most of the book detailing the responses to different disasters over the last two decades, from wildfires in the Hill Country to floods in the Midwest to earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. Particularly with the bigger disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina or the West fertilizer plant explosion, readers will be interested to see what role TBM played in immediate relief efforts. Statistics are supplemented with anecdotes in a way that keep the narrative flowing and prevents compassion fatigue for the reader.

While most of the book deals with TBM's disaster relief efforts (understandably, since it's what the organization is best known for), Dad spends the early chapters charting the growth and efforts of TBM's other ministries, from the builders of church camps and churches to the Royal Ambassadors and Challengers programs that have changed the lives of so many young believers. The first and last chapters also deal with the internal politics of TBM and how the organization navigated the denominational battles of the 1980s and 1990s. For someone fascinated by Texas Baptist history (I come by it honestly), I found these accounts particularly interesting.

Look, I'm pretty biased, but you should buy this book. All proceeds go to support TBM, and you'll walk away with a better grasp of what arguably the most widely respected Baptist group in the nation has been up to for the last 20 years. I enjoyed reading it and it will sit proudly next to its preceding volume on my bookshelf.

GREAT PRAYERS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT by Walter Brueggemann

My expectations going into a book play a big part in determining how I feel about it, for better or for worse. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by a book I expected to be tedious or mediocre. Other times I go in expecting to be wowed, whether because of the book's reputation or its author or some other factor, only to be disappointed by the book itself. Unfortunately, Great Prayers of the Old Testament fell into the latter category.

Walter Brueggemann is, without a doubt, one of the world's foremost scholars on the Old Testament, a gifted expositor, lecturer, and writer. So the premise of this book—12 chapters, each devoted to explaining a different prayer from the Old Testament and showing what it teaches us about God, humanity, and prayer itself—seemed like guaranteed gold. Sadly, I went in expecting an accessible, applicable, prophetic work along the lines of Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination. What I got was a surprisingly technical, dry biblical commentary. And while commentaries make for good reference materials, they're not great books to curl up with before your coffee kicks in.

Make no mistake, there's good historical and exegetical background information to be found in Great Prayers of the Old Testament, and Brueggemann draws some general conclusions at the end of each prayer (though never with quite the verve of his more popular works). But this book is best suited for those needing to do next-level research on one of these prayers—for my fellow preachers and teachers out there, it's much closer to the Word Biblical Commentary in approach than to Broadman or Barclay. A nitpick to prove my point: the biblical text of each prayer is not included in the chapter, which drove me crazy, since it meant I had to have my Bible open alongside this book just to understand it...would it have been that difficult to print the verses in each chapter? Any book which requires the employment of another book just to be fathomable is not intended to be enjoyed, but used—and that's how Great Prayers of the Old Testament will serve me in the future, as a tool and not a treat. Recommended, but now you know what you're getting better than I did.

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

After sitting on my shelf intimidating me with its length, reputation, and presumed difficulty for years, March was the month I finally tackled The Brothers Karamazov, widely considered one of the greatest novels of all time. Ostensibly a story about three brothers whose father is murdered (and one of whom is accused of being the murderer), The Brothers Karamazov is ultimately about what it means to live well, tackling issues of morality, love, family, and more. Classics are hard to review, and this one's no exception. So lets look at the positives and the negatives.

On the plus side, this wasn't nearly as hard to read as I was worried it would be. Maybe I was still feeling burned from the nightmare that was Ulysses, but I went in thinking that reading this would be more akin to homework than entertainment, and I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out that unless your name is James Joyce, your writing has to actually be readable before you get "exalted author" status. While the book did drag at times (and what 718 page book doesn't?), for the most part I was compelled by the plot, characters, and ideas of The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky has a lot of deep thoughts he wants to get across in this book, but his novelistic genius is to preach them through the vehicle of a murder mystery. So even if and when he was going over my head, I was at least being entertained by the story.

On the negative side, this is a Very Important Book, and I'm 100% sure I missed a lot of the philosophical meat that has made it part of the literary canon. Books like this are, in my opinion, best read in the context of a classroom or book club, where you can talk through the themes and ideas after reading. If you're reading it alone, as I did, you're guaranteed to miss a lot of what lies beneath the surface...and it's frustrating to spend a full month reading a book and then feel like you missed something.

Am I glad I read it? Definitely, and not just so I can say that I did and cross it off a list. Did I get everything out of it that I was supposed to? No. I'd love to hear from other folks who have read The Brothers Karamazov: what did you think? How was your reading experience?

A LOWCOUNTRY HEART: REFLECTIONS ON A WRITING LIFE by Pat Conroy

Some authors write in order to make you think, to stretch you intellectually with their fiction. Think Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace and...ugh...James Joyce. Others write purely to entertain you, like Stephen King or John Grisham. Pat Conroy, while capable of both of these feats, sought to do something else: he wanted to make you feel. And in my case, he nearly always succeeded.

I discovered Conroy during my training for a marathon a few years ago, when I started browsing the public library's database of downloadable audio books to listen to on long runs. There I stumbled upon My Reading Life, Conroy's memoir of sorts about the books and authors which have shaped his life. I'd never heard of Conroy, but I love books about books, so I gave it a try and fell in love with his prose about 20 minutes into the first chapter.

Since then, I've bought 4 Conroy books, and fully intend to eventually buy and read his entire bibliography. My Lowcountry Heart is presumably his final entry on that list, released posthumously after his death in 2016. Half of the book collects essays he posted on his blog and Facebook page in the last few years of his life, while the rest is an assortment of speeches he gave, letters he wrote, and tributes to him written by friends and family.

What happens over the course of reading is that you find yourself falling in love with the man and his gift for language. Whether he's talking about literature, lifelong friends, his beloved South Carolina, or anything else, his prose drips with emotion and beauty. He was above all else a storyteller, and every essay reads with the clarity and warmth of a friend sitting next to you in your living room.

If you're unfamiliar with Conroy, I'm not sure I'd start with this book, since he writes about events from his life that you'd like only know about from his other works. But for Conroy fans, this book is a fitting tribute to a man whose writing has made me laugh and cry in equal measure.

ESSENTIAL WARLOCK VOL. 1 by Jim Starlin, Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Buscema, et al.

Sometimes it just takes a character a while to come into his own. Adam Warlock's first appearance came in the pages of Fantastif Four as a cocooned, biologically engineered McGuffin known only as "Him." When he reappeared in Thor #165, he was still going by that less-than-descriptive name, but now at least had a body (though no costume). By the start of his adventures in Strange Tales, where this Essential volume begins, he had been scooped up by the godlike scientist and sometimes villain called the High Evolutionary, who gave him a name, a costume, and a purpose, to protect and cleanse Counter-Earth (a world virtually identical to Earth, albeit without superheroes) of evil. But not until Jim Starlin, Marvel's greatest cosmic storyteller, did Adam Warlock finally become the cosmic savior he is today. And let me tell you, the end result is, in this case, the best result.

As mentioned, this Essential volume actually does not begin with Warlock's debut, probably because it is so far removed from the character he'd become as to be virtually irrelevant. Instead, it picks up with Warlock's first solo stories in the pages of Strange Tales, told by Roy Thomas, Stan Lee's successor on virtually everything in the late 1960s-early 1970s. The story Thomas tells is a heavy-handed (very heavy-handed) Christian allegory, with Warlock serving as the exemplar and savior of Counter-Earth, ultimately dying and rising again so that they might live. The seeds of greatness are planted in these tales, but they are overwhelmed by Thomas's tendency to be way too on the nose with his allegorical writing (e.g. in the issue where Warlock sacrifices himself for Counter-Earth, he cries out in his death throes, "High Evolutionary, why do you forsake me?!")

When the reins were handed over to Jim Starlin, on both writing and art, the impact was immediate. For the majority of his time producing Warlock's issues, both in Strange Tales and the eponymous Warlock title, he was telling one overarching story about Warlock's attempts to alter a future that sees him transformed into the Magus, a dark mirror image of himself, the Antichrist to his Christ. These issues combine elements of hard sci-fi with space opera with mysticism, but never take themselves too seriously, a criticism I have of Thomas's run. For example, in the same issue where Starlin introduces the dark figure of the Magus, he also introduces Warlock's best friend and sidekick, Pip the Troll, a wisecracking, cigar-chomping...well, troll.

Toward the end of Starlin's run and stretching into a couple of crossovers with other Marvel heroes like the Avengers and Spider-Man, the villain shifts from the Magus to Thanos, Starlin's greatest creation. As big a threat as the Magus is, Thanos leaps off the page, and his appearances are the highlight of the book. Who could have known in 1977 that when he and Warlock faced each other again a decade later in The Infinity Gauntlet, it would form the basis of what will soon be one of the biggest movies of all time!

As you may have gathered, this is not really a superhero book, especially during Starlin's run. But, even for someone like me who doesn't typically enjoy the sci-fi genre, it is a compelling cosmic adventure, and well worth the time. The writing is charmingly bombastic (especially during Starlin's run), the art is crisp and detailed (especially during, you guessed it, Starlin's run), and the evolution of the character is fascinating even in its convolution. Glad I picked it up, and now I just may have to start collecting all Jim Starlin's Infinity crossovers to see what happens next to Warlock, Pip, Thanos, and company.