Buffering (Friday Devotional)

 

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

- 2 Timothy 3:1-5

There you are, enjoying the latest movie on Netflix after a long week. The story has swept you up, you’ve invested yourself in the characters’ lives, and you’re fully immersed in the experience.

Then, without warning, the story stops, the actor onscreen frozen in place. A circle appears in the middle of your screen, spinning around a percentage number—maybe 0%, maybe 25%, maybe 99%—that after a few seconds, doesn’t go up or down an iota. Whether for a moment or for the rest of the night, movie time is over.

Buffering—it really is one of the 21st century’s most annoying first-world problems. While usually only a momentary aggravation, it totally takes you out of the moment. It reminds you, in the most jarring way possible, that whatever you’re watching so rapturously is ultimately just a collection of digital images that can malfunction the moment the Wi-Fi starts to lag. Buffering brings the illusion to a screeching halt.

The Bible tells us that sin is a little like that. It seems fun for a while to indulge yourself, to do whatever brings you pleasure without regard for the consequences or morality of your actions. But before long, reality comes rushing in and, like the Prodigal Son longing for the pigs’ food, you are brought to a point you never thought you’d see.

For believers in Jesus, there is joy in knowing that your sin has been washed away by the Savior’s blood, that your punishment has been paid and glory awaits instead. But while sin has been ultimately defeated, its power in this world still endures, and so believers are called to be wary. Our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, and it is only by clinging tightly to the Word of God that he can be resisted.

 And resist we must—for sin’s illusory happiness is always revealed to be a fiction. True joy comes elsewhere—and when it finds you, there’s no buffering.

Cleaning Our Mess (Friday Devotional)

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

- 1 John 1:8-9

Sundays in my family are a gauntlet. My day starts at 4:30 AM with a couple hours reviewing my sermon before the family wakes up, and once they do we’re off to the races—everyone needs to get dressed and ready, the kids need to eat breakfast, and everybody needs to be at the church by 8:30 for a full morning of volunteering, Sunday School, worship, and more. After Sunday morning, either Lindsey or I inevitably have a meeting that night (or two or three) and perhaps a churchwide activity to attend as well. By bedtime, our whole family is wiped out.

With all that going on, we often feel like we’re swimming upstream on Sundays—mistakes will be made, corners will be cut, and somebody’s going to throw a tantrum at some point (we all just hope it’s one of the kids.) But every now and then, there will be a golden Sunday where we’re hitting all our marks. Everybody wakes up with a good attitude and ready to move, everybody minds their Ps and Qs in public, and we proceed through the day like a well-oiled machine. I can’t say it happens often, but we dare to dream!

This past Sunday gave all appearances of being one of those special days. Everybody was on their best behavior all morning, we never felt too rushed, and by lunchtime it seemed that we were on a glide path to a perfect Sunday. Then I walked the kids out to the car to load everyone up and saw it: the big brown crayon melted into a puddle on the front passenger seat, having sat in the direct sun for the last 3 hours. Our flawless day—not to mention our clean leather seat—had encountered its first, inevitable flaw.

The Bible tells us that we’re a lot like that—no matter how perfect we may appear to be, no matter how spotless our record, we are stained by sin. There is no one who is righteous, Scripture tells us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The truth is that perfection is entirely beyond your reach.

But equally true is that Jesus has done what is necessary to cleanse you. Through his death on the cross, the penalty has been paid for your sin and the victory has been won, so that now by repenting and placing your faith in Jesus, you can know eternal life with God. By grace and through faith, what is stained can be made clean.

It’s easy to walk through life with the illusion that you’ve got it all handled, that perfection is achievable. But it doesn’t take much—something as small as a melted crayon—to remind you’re not perfect. So praise God for a Savior with the grace and the mercy to clean us up and make us new!

A Fresh Start (Friday Devotional)

 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

- 1 John 1:9

More than ten years ago, I made a commitment to start running regularly, hoping to eventually participate in the half marathon that my alma mater, Baylor University, sponsored every year. In pursuit of that goal, I downloaded the Couch to 5K app on my phone, a program which helps you alternate between walking and jogging for 30 minutes at a time. Week 1, you spend more than 20 of those 30 minutes walking; by the 8th and final week you’re running the whole time.

The plan was a huge success for me. Not only did I complete the program, I managed to train for and complete several half marathons and even one full marathon. More importantly, for the first time in my life I had a regular fitness regimen, an exercise routine I actually enjoyed. As recently as just a few years ago, my neighbors recognized me as the guy out running early in the morning, rain or shine. I was a runner.

Fast forward to this year. Now I’ve got two children to help get ready in the morning. Now one of those kids needs to get taken to school by 8:00 AM. Now I have a job where I need to be in the office by 9:00. And, most importantly, now I have a lot of other things I’d rather be doing than running when it’s 90 degrees before sunrise.

So the sad truth is, this year I went nearly 6 months without running regularly, and the few times I tried, I found myself shifting to walking after less than 5 minutes. I might have had a nice pair of running shoes and a pile of race medals in my closet, but I could hardly call myself a runner anymore. So at the beginning of this week, I swallowed my pride, re-downloaded the Couch to 5K app, and rebooted my running journey back to where I’d begun.

Sometimes the only way to move forward is to start over.

In life, sometimes you can feel like you’ve passed the point of no return, like you can’t possibly recover from the mistakes you’ve made. It can seem like you’re blocked on every side and like things will never get any better. But we’ve been given a promise in Scripture—if we’ll confess our sins to God, he wipes us clean and makes us new. All the guilt and the shame that threaten to consume you is taken care of by the blood of Jesus, and you are forgiven, given a fresh start in Christ. In him, you are a new creation.

No matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve fallen, the Lord always stands ready to pick you up and make you new, because the condemnation of sin is no match for the grace of God. Trust in his mercy and accept his forgiveness—he’ll give you the restoration no one else can offer.

Tuning Out the Noise (Friday Devotional)

 

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

- Hebrews 12:2

It’s one of modern life’s great nuisances. There you are, part of an audience—in a movie theater or at the symphony or watching your granddaughter’s recital—and you’re utterly engrossed by the performance. Then suddenly, a cell phone starts ringing from a few rows back at maximum volume, breaking everyone’s concentration and inspiring a legion of dirty looks. Whatever reverie the show had inspired is shattered in an instant. All it took was one phone call.

That’s the nature of human attention—it’s easily broken. Whether it’s a phone call or our own intrusive thoughts, distractions are constantly drawing us away from the things on which we intend to focus. Much as we want to concentrate on the important things, the trivial persistently beckons.

But the Bible tells us one thing—or rather, one person—who is deserving of our undivided attention. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus”—not just look to him for a moment, but to focus intently on him. Why? Because he is the object of our faith, the one who went to the cross for our salvation and has been glorified in his resurrection. Where earthly priorities come and go, Jesus reigns eternally.

In a fast-paced world, we exist in an almost constant state of overstimulation, seemingly unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. But when it’s important enough, we find our focus and tune out the noise. Today, remember what and who matters most—with laser focus, fix your eyes on Jesus.

July Book Log

 

As I look at what book I read at the beginning of this month and what book I finished on the last day of the month, I reach one indisputable conclusion: July was a really long month. Here's how I occupied my (admittedly sparse) free time!

Reading Through the Fantastic Four- (5th series) #1-14, 642-645, Secret Wars #1-9, Marvel Two-in-One #1-12

This month marked a period of transition for the FF, the first period in the team's history when it did not have a monthly title. It all begins with James Robinson's run, an inconsequential but fun ride in which the team is disbanded due to a conspiracy that sees them disgraced in the eye of the public. It all makes for good character work, even as your realize while reading that it won't lead to anything permanent.

What did feel permanent, at least for a time, was when the FF (or at least the Richards family) was shuffled off of the Marvel Universe as part of Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars crossover event which brought the Ultimate Universe to an end and served as a fitting conclusion to years of buildup on his Avengers titles. What no expected was that Hickman would also use it as the coda to his Fantastic Four run, culminating in an epic duel between Reed and an omnipotent Doctor Doom whose only weakness is his own hubris and hatred of Reed. Secret Wars, for all its implications on the Marvel Universe, is at its best in these more personal moments.

When Secret Wars ends, the Richards family is taken off the metaphorical game board, leaving Ben and Johnny behind to pick up the pieces. To fill this vacuum, a yearlong Marvel Two-in-One book sees the two of them go dimension hopping in search of their lost teammates. It makes for fun romps and great character work for both characters before the team is finally reunited at the end.

Next month I end this looooong reread by catching up on the team's most recent run, courtesy of longtime Marvel scribe Dan Slott. See you then! 

ON WRITING by Stephen King

Since I first read The Dead Zone on a whim in college—I legitimately have no idea what prompted me to check it out of Baylor's library—Stephen King has been my favorite popular-level (i.e. not "literary" or theological) author. And, despite the millions of dollars he's earned and scores of film and TV adaptations of his books, I think his writing is actually underrated. Often pigeonholed as the 'horror guy,' King is in truth a master storyteller, gifted at propelling you through a narrative and making you enjoy what you're reading.

On Writing is his account of how he does that. Part memoir, part instruction manual, it tells the story of how King came to love his craft, how he improved at it along the way, how alcoholism nearly derailed his life and career, and how writing slowly lifted him out of despair after an automobile accident that nearly killed him. Accompanying the memoir is a section on simple tricks of the trade he's picked up, from his antipathy for adverbs to advice for getting published once you've written your first stories.

King's overarching point is as comforting as it is challenging—writing is almost never a divine gift; it's a job, and you get good at it by doing it and doing it a lot. King writes every day—literally every day; he takes no holidays from writing—and doesn't stop until he's banged out 10 pages, and he spends nearly as many hours per day reading as he does writing. His chief advice to aspiring writers is not to take a course or rent a cabin in the woods, but to read as much as you can and write every day. Anybody, he insists, can do it.

Is he right? I'm not sure—the more Stephen King I read, the more I'm convinced that he's as talented as he is hardworking. But when you read his story, he manages to pull you in and make you believe. After all, that's what good storytelling does.

CARRIE by Stephen King

What, you thought I was going to read a how-to book by Stephen King and then not read one of his novels?

This was actually my second reading of his debut book, the famous and now thrice-adapted story of a teenage girl whose emerging telekinetic powers manifest in a shower of blood and fire when school bullies push her too far. Part thriller, part tragedy, part coming-of-age story, it's an ideal introduction to King's style of horror, packed with characters who manage to be both relatable and monstrous at the same time.

King has admitted that Carrie is more of a novella than a novel, but he managed to pad it with interspersed news bulletins, interviews, etc. that serve to both foreshadow the book's climax and make the story feel real. Whether this book would have been better without those asides or not (my vote is to keep them), in either case Carrie is arguably King's tightest novel at a mere 212 pages. Between that length and King's knack for getting you to turn the page, I finished this book in about 2 days, rarely able to keep away for long.

Thanks to the movies, you may already know the story of Carrie. But if you haven't read it, this remains one of Stephen King's finest almost 50 years after its initial publication.

NIRVANA: THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY by Andrew Earles

When Nevermind dropped in September of 1991, nobody had any reason to believe it would become anything more than what it appeared to be: a strong sophomore effort from a talented punk band out of Seattle. Instead, fueled by the incalculable mixture of undeniable talent, a charismatic front man, and an audience ready for a change, Nirvana went from a regional garage band to international superstars seemingly overnight. Less than 3 years later, the band would be no more, ended with one self-inflicted gunshot.

Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History is a coffee table book in every sense, light on new information and heavy on photos, scans of concert posters and ticket stubs, and other visual mementos. Beginning with Kurt Cobain's childhood in Aberdeen, it quickly shifts to the formation of the band and their exploits from 1987 through 1994 before ending with an epilogue about Nirvana's legacy. While careful to avoid historiography—the author is openly dismissive of the Saint Kurt mythology that became so prevalent after Cobain's suicide—the book is appropriately nostalgic, working less as a definitive history than a breezy joyride for fans.

The highlight of the book is a collection of inserts that appear every other page or so, listing and providing a one-paragraph review of Kurt's 50 favorite albums (as listed in his posthumously published journals.) Ranging from the Beatles to Black Flag to a vast array of unknown punk bands, these snapshots are a fascinating look at the music that shaped the enigmatic voice of Generation X.

I bought this book on sale at Half Price Books, and it was worth what I paid for it, but I probably won't hang on to it. Nirvana fans will be well served by its content, casual listeners probably won't care much.

KING: A LIFE by Jonathan Eig

Whenever I'm called upon to share my most admired historical figures/5 people I'd want to have dinner with/people I never get tired of learning about, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is always one of the first names who comes to mind. A Baptist pastor by trade, his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement elevated him to the status of national prophet, and his assassination in 1969 made him a secular saint whose name adorns everything from city streets to schools to a monument in Washington D.C. So when I learned that respected journalist and author Jonathan Eig (whose biography of Lou Gehrig I read a few years ago) had written a new, critically acclaimed biography of Dr. King, I snatched it up immediately.

Eig's stated intention in the book is to tell the story of King the man rather than King the myth. That doesn't mean the book is a seedy tell-all, but neither does Eig shy away from some of the less-than-pristine parts of King's story. This begins with the young King's habit of plagiarizing in his college and seminary days, an academic sin which was never caught at the time. But more significantly, Eig details—aided by recently released FBI files and tapes—how King conducted affairs throughout his marriage, a long-rumored dirty secret that this biography confirms as verifiable fact.

Where those FBI files chip away at the perception of King as a larger-than-life saint, they also reveal just how much of a threat he was perceived to be by operators in the federal government, most notably J. Edgar Hoover. The wealth of information from the FBI—with more still to come in 2027—shows how frequently the Bureau wiretapped King under the dubious claim that he was a Communist sympathizer. King, especially in his final years, was under a tremendous amount of strain, and this biography shows how it was this constant surveillance from his government, along with intense public scrutiny, that caused his stress far more the vitriol he received from the Bull Connors and Jim Clarks of the world.

This one-volume biography, which begins with King's grandparents and traces his journey all the way to the Lorraine Motel, is a comprehensive but accessible look at one of the most famous figures of the 20th century. By relying on never-before-revealed sources and coming at the project with a journalist's wary eye, Eig presents a true history rather than the historiography King's memory so often enjoys. You'll walk away from this book still convinced of King's greatness, but reminded of an important fact: before he was a monument, he was a man.