How Will They Remember You? (Friday Devotional)

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 

- Galatians 5:22-23

One of the strange realities of my vocation is that I attend a lot of funerals. Sometimes I do so as the officiant, there to comfort a mourning family and offer the hope of the gospel. Other times I am simply one more person in the pew, attending the service as a gesture of respect for the deceased and kindness for the grieving family.

Having been to so many funerals, I’ve learned what to expect from the obituaries and the speakers. Accomplishments are listed, stories shared, and a life is summed up in just a few short minutes. Decades of work are described in a sentence or two, countless family memories are reduced to two or three anecdotes. Services like these make you think about what really matters in the end.

Our world prizes success and ambition—but the obituary which reads like a resume is hollow. Our world values wealth and fame—but such things mean little in death. Our world tells us there is no greater joy than winning—but all those victories, all those titles, all those trophies turn to dust eventually.

The truth is that the most joyous funerals I’ve attended have not been for the rich or the famous or the wildly successful, but for the humble, faithful servants who loved the Lord and loved their neighbors. Those whose lives were defined not by the fruit of their intelligence or the fruit of their ambition, but by the fruit of the Spirit. Those who cared more about being good than being great.

Our world is full of worldly men and women who crave glory, power, and acclaim. But in the end, we see what these things are worth. May you instead center your life around grace, mercy, and love. That’s what Jesus did—as his disciples, let’s learn from him.

What's In It For Me? (Friday Devotional)

“As you go, proclaim the good news: ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

- Matthew 10:7-8

When you do a good deed, you have certain expectations of the recipient of your kindness. If you mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn, you expect that she will check to see if you’d like a glass of water at some point. If you give a friend a birthday present, you expect that he will reciprocate when your birthday rolls around. If you drop off a box of clothes at Goodwill or the Salvation Army, you expect a receipt so you can write it off when you do your taxes.

None of these expectations are out of line and none of them make your good deeds any less generous. They simply expose these acts of charity as being conditional—I do this for you, and in return you do this for me. Even if the return for your kindness is nothing more than a thank you, you want some kind of response from the person you have helped, some kind of confirmation that your work has been noticed and appreciated.

But when it comes to spreading the Gospel, things are supposed to work differently. When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God was near, empowering them with the Holy Spirit, he did so with a reminder: “you received without payment; give without payment.” On this mission, they were expected to give freely and without regard for what they would receive in return.

We are quick to acknowledge the unconditional nature of God’s love. He sent Christ to die for us while we were still sinners, and the salvation the cross provides is unearned and undeserved. The Holy Spirit that guides, comforts, and encourages us today was given by God just as freely. These are theological truths we embrace, and they show the love and grace of God to be unrestricted and unconditional—He loves us regardless of our response to Him.

What we are slower to remember is that life in the Spirit means loving others with that same kind of grace. It means that acts of compassion are not done with any expectation that you will receive something in return—not money, not applause, not even appreciation. We love not because it makes us look good or feel better about ourselves, but because Christ first loved us. You received without payment; give without payment.

As you think about how you share God’s love, think also about what motivates you to do so. When your kindness goes unanswered, are you resentful of the response or are you driven by grace to love even more? May your compassion be based not on the shifting sand of human reaction, but on the solid rock of God’s grace.

A Shared Shower (Friday Devotional)

 

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

- 2 Corinthians 9:8

When you use a water hose, the water comes out in one targeted stream. There’s not much pressure—you’d use it to wash your car, but not pressure wash your deck—and while plenty of water comes out of the hose, it only goes in whatever direction you point it.

That’s why children everywhere are delighted when they learn that by putting their thumb over the hose, they can turn that steady stream into a pressurized spray. Water that was previously only going in one direction is now going everywhere. Is there more water than before your thumb was over the hose? No, of course not. But what was once a targeted stream now becomes a shared shower.

When it comes to practicing grace, it’s all too easy to do so like a water hose—having been given grace by our Lord, we show it only to a certain, targeted few. Our family members receive our forgiveness, our friends get a share of our compassion, our favorite neighbors are shown kindness. But as for the wider world, we keep people at arm’s length.

But having made grace abound in us, God calls us then to abound in every good work, for grace not to be something we point at a select few but something we shower the world with. It is not just those close to us who need the love of Jesus, but everyone. Grace is not something we should confine to a targeted stream, but something that should be given as a shared shower.

Grace is something we rightfully declare to be a gift from God, something we proclaim to be the key to salvation, something we say we want the world to know. So don’t just say it—spray it.

When Life Speeds By (Friday Devotional)

 

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

- Philippians 4:6

The fastest I’ve ever driven is 100 mph. I was going down a long interstate on a longer trip, I was alone, and I looked down only to realize I was going 90. My immediate reaction was to take my foot off the accelerator and slow down, but then I had a second thought and decided to give it a go. Pressing my foot down on the accelerator and fervently hoping I wouldn’t hear the sound of sirens, I kept going as the speedometer’s needle ticked slowly upwards until it finally hit three digits—100. I excitedly let out a yell and then slowed down immediately, not wanting to tempt fate any more than I already had.

Maybe you’ve never driven that fast—or who knows, maybe you’ve gone faster!—but we’ve all had those days, weeks, even months when we’ve been living at 100 mph. Those days when you wake up early and the whole day is a nonstop rush, consumed by work or school or family, when time to yourself is a luxury never to be granted. When you go to bed with your mind still racing from the day and awaken just a few hours later with the same thoughts immediately springing to mind.

It’s on those days, when everything is speeding by and you’re just trying to keep your eyes on the road, when a few words of prayer are needed more than ever. It’s then that you really need to let God into your day, to turn your anxiety over and make your requests known to Him. It means giving a few precious minutes of your overly busy day to Him, but it’s an investment worth making.

Because while sometimes it can seem like life is going 100 mph sometimes, there’s a comforting truth about turning stress over to God: He can keep up.

June Reading Log

        

Well, it's a short one this month, folks. There were about 10 days in the middle of June in which I got virtually no reading done (it was an overwhelming, busy, stressful month), plus I tackled a 600+ page collection of short stories that I'm not quite finished with. So take a look at what did get read this month...it won't take long this time around!

2 Articles I Like This Month

"Getting the Best of Yu: Can Padres' Darvish find what he's searching for?" by Andy McCullough, The Athletic. 12 minutes.

I am an unabashed Yu Darvish fan, who is undoubtedly the greatest Rangers pitcher I've ever seen. However, his has been a frustrating career for many who think he has failed to live up to both his pre-MLB billing and his gifts. What makes Yu Darvish tick? This excellent profile seeks to answer that question.

"How America Fractured into Four Parts" by George Packer, The Atlantic. 46 minutes.

Our country's division along party lines is a well-diagnosed problem. In this article, George Packer goes deeper, saying that our national division actually occurs along four lines, that there are "Four Americas" which speak to how people understand the country. A compelling if not particularly optimistic take on the state of our union.

Reading Through the Fantastic Four- #94-119

This month's daily reading of Fantastic Four saw the book truly enter the Bronze Age, as the Lee-Kirby partnership gave way to Roy Thomas's scripting and the art first of John Romita and then John Buscema, both of whom epitomized 1970s Marvel's "house style" (so much so, in fact, that How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, a popular 1984 how-to book, was illustrated by Buscema.) What I read this month was very indicative of Bronze Age superhero comics in general: a book that, like a sitcom, entertained more by hitting familiar beats than by reaching  new imaginative heights.

The stories are fun, make no mistake. The longest arc in these issues sees the Thing, his brain having been altered by a cure gone awry, go on a rampage throughout New York City, one finally ended not by his teammates on the FF but by the Incredible Hulk. Another notable story involves the Overmind, an extraterrestrial clearly but unconvincingly meant to be a Galactus-level threat, invading Earth, forcing the villainous Doctor Doom to actually team up with the FF. Also worth mentioning is Crystal's departure from the team and Sue's return, a decision clearly prompted by fan backlash (based on my reading of the letters columns) more than creative decision making.

I'm at a loss to say that any of these issues are classics, but they're good representations of Bronze Age Marvel comics—entertaining, professionally produced, and ultimately disposable. More Bronze Age fun to come next month!

THE MAKING OF BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD: HOW THE SUBJUGATION OF WOMEN BECAME GOSPEL TRUTH by Beth Allison Barr

In evangelicalism generally and the Southern Baptist Convention specifically, complementarianism is largely unquestioned. This doctrine, derived primarily from 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 14, and Ephesians 4, argues that men and women, while equal spiritually, are created for different purposes which complement one another. As such, men are created to lead sacrificially and women to submit graciously, both in the home and in the church. In most evangelical churches, particularly in the Bible Belt, you'll find that the average church member not only agrees with these sentiments, but sees them as biblical and historical. It's been this way, they assume, since the days of the early church.

In The Making of Biblical Womanhood, historian and Baylor professor Beth Allison Barr systematically dismantles this assumption, arguing from both Scripture and history that complementarianism and all of its results (such as the prohibition against women preachers) are reflective of sinful patriarchy rather than divine intention, and that a full understanding of the gospel and a wider reading of church history proves this to be true. A former complementarian herself (and wife of a pastor), Barr incorporates both her personal experience in evangelical life and her academic research to argue that "biblical womanhood" is not a revelation from God, but an invention of man.

From Scripture, Barr talks about the passages mentioned above, in which Paul said that women should "keep silent" in the church and that he did "not permit a woman to teach." These statements, Barr says, are contextual rather than universal, and she draws upon other Pauline passages to prove her point. Furthermore, she points to women in the early church who not only served, but led, such as Phoebe, a deacon; Mary Magdalene, the first to proclaim the Good News of the resurrection; and Priscilla, among many others.

From history, she shows how women have consistently served as evangelists, missionaries, teachers, and preachers as recently as the turn of the 20th century, and how the presumed prohibition against women preaching has most often reared its head when male teachers were threatened by the popularity of the women in the pulpit. The sheer number of prominent women we have ignored from church history is staggering.

The end result is a compelling case for egalitarianism, a doctrine which says both men and women are created in God's image and that in Christ there is no longer [differentiation between] male and female, for we are all one in Christ. Women, Barr argues, can not only serve, but lead, because God calls and empowers both men and women, and has been doing so from the beginning.

If you are an egalitarian, you will find this to be a good sourcebook for what you already believe, and a readable text to put in the hands of those who need convincing. If you are a complementarian, you will find a lot of discomfort in this book, but hopefully a lot to think about as well. Wherever you fall, I hope you'll read this, and I hope you'll do so with an open mind. The church has pushed women to the sidelines for too long—this book demands that we do so no longer. And to that I say a hearty amen.

WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett

....what was this? I read all 110 pages, every line of this 2-act play, and I'm still not entirely sure.

It tells the "story" of Vladimir and Estragon, two vagrants waiting by a willow tree for a man named Godot, who they are certain will appear at any moment, but who never arrives. As they wait, they talk about nothing in particular and, when met by a man named Pozzo and his slave Lucky, have a similarly nonsensical conversation with the two of them. The play ends where it begins, with Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot.

After reading a few reviews and the play's Wikipedia entry, I've learned that Waiting for Godot is considered a masterclass in minimalism—there are only four characters, virtually no set, and no scene changes; it's hard to imagine a play more stripped down. I also read that the play is quite philosophical, a treatise on meaning and the human quest to find it (and ultimately, in Beckett's eyes, the uselessness of doing so.) The point of the play, the reviewers say, is that there is no point—like life itself, the play is what you make of it.

I'd be interested to see if that translates better when seen onstage as opposed to reading it. I found it to be a frustrating literary experience: plotless, devoid of character growth, and generally little more than random sentences bouncing off one another. Perhaps that was the point. But like Estragon and Vladimir, I wanted something to happen. I too was waiting for Godot. I wish he'd come.

ESSENTIAL CONAN VOL. 1 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith

Yep, more Conan the Barbarian. This time in comics form!

In 1970, writer Roy Thomas talked editor-in-chief Stan Lee into letting him turn Robert E. Howard's pulp hero, Conan the Barbarian, into a Marvel comic. Thomas wouldn't let go of the title for a decade, and despite his many other successes at Marvel, Conan the Barbarian always had a special place in his heart. This Essential volume contains the first 25 issues of that series, which ran for 275 issues total until its cancellation in 1993 and spawned multiple spin-off titles before then, from King Conan to the magazine-size Savage Sword of Conan.

The book begins unambitiously, merely adapting some of Howard's stories visually as Thomas and budding artist Barry Windsor-Smith get their sea legs. But after a dozen issues or so, the book begins to flourish when Thomas takes his hero places that Howard never did, and Smith begins to stray from Marvel's house style of art and veer into visual storytelling more suited for the sword-and-sorcery genre. By the end of this volume, Smith is in top-notch form, and the art is at a level that makes it seem criminal that kids were only have to pay a quarter to get it.

Unfortunately for me, my passion for the character and his world seems to be in the inverse of Roy Thomas's—after hundreds of pages of Howard's stories and 25 issues of the comic, I am now certain that sword-and-sorcery in general and Conan in particular are just not my bag. While the character has a certain roguish charm to him, the world around him is one I just never latched onto despite Thomas's and Smith's best efforts. This comic may have helped launch the 1970s sword-and-sorcery craze, and there's no denying the storytellers' skills, but by the time I was done with Essential Conan, I was done. No more Conan next month, or the month after that, or the month after that. Like a rare steak, I know that Conan is beloved by many and I'm glad I tried it...but it's just not for me.

Sticking Together (Friday Devotional)

 

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

- 2 Corinthians 13:11

Sea otters spend most of their time in the water. It’s where they eat, sleep, hunt, mate, and give birth, where the majority of their life is lived. But of course, the sea is a dangerous, tumultuous place, and the otters can’t afford to let their guards down. So when they sleep, sea otters do something as unusual as it is adorable—they hold one another’s paws so that they won’t drift away from the group.

From that simple gesture the church can learn a great deal about unity and fellowship. Like the otters, believers live in a world which is often hostile, where there are no guarantees and plenty of risk. Trying to navigate the world while remaining true to Christ can be exhausting work, and it requires constant intentionality and purpose.

But for that reason, the Lord ensured that we would have brothers and sisters to walk through life with, fellow Christians who would share our victories, bear our burdens, and love us through it all. The church is more than a collection of like-minded neighbors, more than just a nonprofit organization, it is a family whose members encourage, protect, and pray for one another.

When you are struggling in life, one of the most common and most devastating feelings is that of loneliness. The prevailing sense in times of difficulty is that no one understands or cares what you’re going through, that your cross is yours to bear alone. Guided by the Spirit of God, may the church bring a different witness to the world, one in which no one is left behind. When they storms come, may they find us holding hands.