Finding the Balance (Friday Devotional)

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

- Matthew 10:16

My 5-month old daughter Katherine reached a milestone last week when, for the first time, she was able to sit up on her own. At the time, I hailed her accomplishment on social media as the beginning of a brief golden age in which she would be big enough to bet set down momentarily without supervision, yet not advanced enough to crawl away and get into things.

As it turns out, I jumped the gun a bit. While Katherine can indeed sit by herself for a few minutes when set down just right, she’s a little wobblier than I expected. If she leans a little too far forward or to the right or the left, she topples over helplessly; she still hasn’t mastered the art of regaining her equilibrium when she’s unsteady. If she’s going to sit by herself unsupervised, she’s going to have to learn a little more about balance first.

Balance is important, and not just in the physical sense. In terms of time and energy, much has been made of the work-home balance, ensuring that you’re not neglecting either area of your life. Financially, you want to find the right balance between buying what you need while saving for the future. You want emotional balance too; you don’t want your highs to be too high or your lows to be too low.

Spiritually, Jesus advocates a sort of balance in Matthew 10:16 while giving his disciples instructions about going into the world to proclaim the gospel. He warns them that they are traveling in hostile territory—“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves”—and that they can expect mockery and even physical violence for doing his will. In the face of such threats, Jesus offers this advice: “be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

By calling us to wisdom, Jesus is calling for a kind of shrewdness and prudence in the face of danger. Don’t go seeking out unnecessary conflicts, don’t leap headfirst into controversies, don’t get so caught up in the fervor of the mission that you abandon good sense.

But by calling us to innocence, Jesus wants to ensure that caution doesn’t give way to cynicism, that we don’t become so world-weary that we lose sight of the mission he has given us: to proclaim good news to people used to bad news. In the face of derision and even danger, we are called to remain steadfast to the truth of the gospel.

In the face of fear, believers must be mindful even as we are missional. As Christ commanded, we must balance sense and innocence, pragmatism and passion. And ultimately, we must know where to turn to find that balance: not in our gut, but in our God.

Weeding Out Sin (Friday Devotional)

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

- Ephesians 6:11

Though officially we have to wait until March 19, spring appears to have arrived. 30 degree wind chills have given way to sunshine and highs in the 70s. Little League fields are being prepared for the upcoming season. Even Punxsutawney Phil, the Nostradamus of rodents, agreed a month ago that we’d have an early spring.

Unfortunately, I’ve been getting another, less pleasant reminder lately that our days of freezing temperatures are behind us: weeds. Weeds in the flower bed. Weeds between the sidewalk cracks. Weeds along the fence line. Every time I step out the front door, they’re the first thing I see—and I know that unless I deal with these unwanted menaces, they will start to overwhelm the grass and plants we want to thrive.

Similarly, sin has a way of infesting your walk with Christ and choking out what is healthy. In no time at all, a nagging temptation can become a stumble which can lead to a series of falls and then even to habitual wickedness. Having once devoted your life to Christ, you can quickly find yourself so far from him that you lose sight of his grace and are instead consumed by guilt.

That’s why, like with the weeds on your lawn, Paul encourages believers to be proactive about dealing with sin in your life. Telling believers to “put on the whole armor of God,” Paul instructs us to defend ourselves from the things of the devil with the things of God. Instead of passively hoping you won’t be tempted, you can follow Jesus’s model and pray that God will lead you away from temptation and deliver you from evil. Rather than looking for manmade defenses against your vices, you can look to the Bible for spiritual wisdom. Instead of trusting your willpower to overcome sin, you can lean on the Holy Spirit’s power and the accountability of a brother or sister in Christ.

Too often we think of sin as something we are powerless against. The truth is that in Christ you have been given victory over your temptations, that in him you can overcome the very struggles which once left you helpless. But you have to be proactive instead of reactive, ready to defend against and deal with sin before it takes over. Like a weed, sin can be a menace to healthy life—but Christ has given you what you need to stop it in its tracks.

February Reading Log

February was a weird month for me, super busy at times and mind-numbingly slow at others. The result was some days where my reading time was cut short and others where I just didn't feel like reading. So it's a short log this month; hopefully March will be better in that respect!

3 Articles I Like This Month

"Most Americans Want Off Extreme Ride" by Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News. 3 minutes.

The national discourse seems more and more to be directed by those on the extremes of each party. Yet, as Abby McCloskey writes here, most of America is part of "the exhausted majority" who just want government to get things done for the American people. A little guilty of both-sidesism, this op-ed nevertheless is an effective reminder that our country is more moderate than cable news makes us seem.

"The Age of Decadence" by Ross Douthat, The New York Times. 21 minutes.

In this essay, Ross Douthat elaborates on an idea that has become a frequent theme in his New York Times column: that America has entered into an age of decadence, in which we are materially prosperous but spiritually, emotionally, socially, and intellectually numb.

"The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake" by David Brooks, The Atlantic. 38 minutes.

When you hear the word 'family,' you probably think of the nuclear family, i.e. a husband, wife, 2.5 kids, and a dog. However, as David Brooks persuasively argues here, the nuclear family is more of a historical aberration than a norm, and our collective idealization of it has made us less connected as a society. Here he argues for a redefinition of family that reincorporates extended family, friends, and neighbors, hoping that returning to an expansive definition of family will help cure our society's epidemic of loneliness.

THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD by N.T. Wright

You'd be hard pressed to find a more prolific and beloved living theologian than N.T. Wright at the moment. The former Bishop of Durham has authored more than 70 books at both the popular and academic levels and regularly lectures at the finest universities, seminaries, and churches around the world. In June, he'll be coming to my own Truett Seminary for an intensive course on Galatians, which I'm already looking forward to attending. So I decided that between now and then the time had come for me to tackle Wright's magnum opus, the four-volume "Christian Origins and the Question of God" series.

The New Testament and the People of God has the unenviable task of setting the table, which means the first two hundred pages or so are basically a long abstract, thesis statement, and explanation of his research methodology. In the hands of a less capable writer this would be deadly dull; in Wright's it's tedious but bearable (and for academicians, necessary.) Once through this introductory work, however, Wright is able to get going with this first volume's major task: explaining the world of the New Testament.

An advocate of the so-called "New Perspective on Paul," Wright argues that the Protestant Reformation harmfully de-emphasized Christianity's relationship with Judaism, and thus the Old Testament. Thus much of this book is providing information, mostly from the New Testament, Apocrypha, and Josephus, about the beliefs and priorities of first century Judaism and then connecting them to Christ and the early church. For Wright, the gospel must be interpreted as the fulfillment of the Old Testament in order to be fully grasped; to call Jesus the Christ, a.k.a. the Messiah, means understanding him not just as Savior but as the keeping of God's promise to Israel.

Wright does a lot of convincing myth-busting throughout the book. The Pharisees, in his telling, are not trying to get into heaven through works (as the Reformers often caricatured), they are a conservative religious party trying to uphold God's law in a pagan society. The early church is not a brand new faith which rejects Judaism, but an extension of it which did not truly break from its roots until almost the second century. Explanations like these do a helpful job of bringing nuance and new perspectives to readers' understanding of the world of the New Testament.

The New Testament and the People of God is an academic tome, no bones about it; however, Wright is not only a brilliant thinker but one of my favorite religious writers, so the book is readable for pastors and others beyond the ivory towers of academia. For those wanting a fuller understanding of the New Testament world, I highly recommend this book as a reference.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Mark Twain

Maybe you already know the highlights of this beloved children's book: Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into whitewashing the fence for him, Tom watching his own funeral from the rafters, Tom sleeping in a cemetery  only to come upon grave robbers. I remembered these, both from a Wishbone episode and from my first time reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a middle schooler. But what I did not remember was just how delightful a little book this is, and how ably it captures the imagination and adventurous spirit of a young boy with time on his hands and wit to spare.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is less a novel than a series of loosely connected episodes; if Mark Twain were creating the character today he might have made this a Netflix series instead of a book. The through line is Tom himself, a mischievous Mississippi boy with a nose for trouble. Aided by friends Joe Harper and Huckleberry Finn, Tom navigates everything from young love to witnessing a murder, and with Twain at the storytelling wheel, it all makes for an entertaining tale that's tough to put down.

What struck me most reading Tom's adventures for the second time was just how different a reading experience it was as an adult than as a child. Some of Tom's preoccupations and fears, which when read as a boy made perfect sense to me, now read as satire. Twain clearly had a gift for portraying what boyhood is like, and the result is a book that, while meant for kids, is worthy of a different kind of appreciation by adults.

Though overshadowed by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which I'll read next month), Tom's novel is fun from beginning to end and introduces some of American literature's most enduring characters and memorable scenes. If you've never picked it up, give it a shot; you won't be disappointed.

THE BOYS OF SUMMER by Roger Kahn

Let's not beat around the bush here—The Boys of Summer is considered by some to be the best baseball book ever written, and I'm not going to argue.

The elevator pitch for this book is that it's the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s and 1950s, the team that starred Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider. But anyone expecting a linear season-by-season account of wins and losses is in for a treat; the book takes a much more interesting trajectory. The first half of The Boys of Summer is a memoir of Kahn's childhood growing up in Brooklyn and his eventual, unlikely ascendancy to the Dodgers beat reporter job for the New York Herald Tribune during the golden age of baseball writing. Kahn continues from there by telling what it was like to cover the Dodgers during those days, culminating in Brooklyn's World Series victory in 1955. After an interlude about his father that serves as both intermission and transition, Kahn then jumps forward several decades where, after years of feature writing for magazines, he decides to track down the old Dodgers and tell their stories chapter by chapter.

The stories—about Kahn's Brooklyn upbringing, the Dodgers' stories from the 1950s, and Kahn's accounts of the lions in winter—are compelling enough, but Kahn's writing is what really takes your breath away as you read. While he spent years as a beat reporter, Kahn's writing ability goes far beyond the just-the-facts kind of writing traditionally employed by such reporters. He has a gift for storytelling, and does a marvelous job of getting to the heart of the Dodgers, both as a team and as individual men. By the end of the book, you feel like you know the team through and through, and only wish you could have seen them play.

While The Boys of Summer is widely lauded, some critics have said the book is overly sentimental and paints the team and its city in sepia tones, ignoring hard realities for the sake of romanticism. Maybe, but Kahn's writing sells it, and by the time I finished, my only disappointment with the book was that it was over. And besides, like the saying goes, how can you not be romantic about baseball? 

ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT VOL. 1-2 by Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Doug Moench, Mike Ploog, Don Perlin, et al.

As I've slowly worked my way through 1970s Marvel horror comics via my beloved Essentials line, there have been highs and lows. Tomb of Dracula is some of the best Bronze Age stuff I've read in any genre, with interesting characters, gorgeous art, and a don't-take-it-too-seriously sensibility. Comics starring Brother Voodoo, the Scarecrow, and the Living Mummy reside at the opposite end of the spectrum, boring me to tears with dull stories and characters, B-movie dialogue, and mediocre art. With Essential Werewolf by Night Vol. 1-2, two books which contain every appearance of the titular character in the 1970s, I got comics right in the mediocre center, never embarrassing but never thrilling either.

Werewolf by Night tells the story of Jack Russell (yep, that's really his name), a college-aged resident of Los Angeles who discovers on his 18th birthday that he bears an incredible family curse: at the full moon, he transforms into a mindless, vicious werewolf. Over the course of the title's 43-issue run, Jack teams up with his friend Buck, his sister Lissa, and a mysterious empath named Topaz to try and remove his curse while also facing a variety supernatural foes.

There is some Bronze Age-y goodness to enjoy. For example, by the series' end, the werewolf has developed an arch-nemesis named—wait for it—Dr. Glitternight. I mean, how can you not love that? On the other hand, the stories get repetitive quickly, and there's no real arc for Jack throughout the series. What's more, none of the characters really grabbed me.

Reading Essential Werewolf by Night Vol. 1-2 was a perfectly unobjectionable way to spend a month, but I can't say I'll remember much of it long-term. Sometimes comics are middling affairs, and Werewolf by Night, it turns out, was for its entire duration during the Bronze Age.

If You Want Something Done Right (Friday Devotional)

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

- Psalm 28:7

With only 3 items in my basket, the self-checkout line seemed like the easiest option. I wouldn’t have to wait behind other customers, I wouldn’t have to make small talk with a cashier, and I’d be in the car in no time.

But when I tried to scan my last item, my plan went awry. For some reason, the $1.50 tin of Altoids I scanned rang up as a $10 bottle of Advil. Seeing the error, I frantically looked for a place on the touchscreen to correct the mistake, but didn’t see any way to do so. I tried cancelling the whole transaction and starting over, but when I scanned the Altoids tin again, I naturally faced the same problem. While I tried to figure out what to do, a mom with three kids wheeled her cart behind me, impatiently checking her watch. Finally, I gave up and did what perhaps I should have done from the beginning: I went to a cashier.

Most people go through life the way I tried to go through the grocery store that day, relying upon themselves even when more capable help is nearby. We’d sooner trust our own instincts than other people’s advice. We’d rather try it our way than follow somebody else’s strategy. Perhaps most arrogantly, we prefer to plan instead of pray.

Scripture consistently encourages us to lean on God instead of relying on our own understanding, to embrace His help, comfort, and salvation. Instead of trying to defend yourself, God can be your shield; instead of trying to muster up power, God can be your strength. All that is needed is the humility to turn to Him.

Living a “self-checkout” kind of life is tempting, but in feeding your pride it robs you of support. In a do-it-yourself world, may you have the humility to turn to the God who stands ready to help.

Looking for Answers (Friday Devotional)

“O our God, will you not execute judgment upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

- 2 Chronicles 20:12

Every time we’ve gone on a vacation the last few years—whether by ourselves, with my side of the family, or with my in-laws—Lindsey has planned the trip from start to finish. She buys the plane tickets, she finds where we’ll be staying, she looks up the local attractions, and she sets the itinerary. She is our unpaid travel agent.

But no matter how well-planned the trip is, there’s always going to be a snag somewhere—a flight will be delayed, a rental car won’t be ready, a reservation will get canceled, etc. Life still happens, even on vacation, and you can’t plan for everything. And when such problems arise, the response of everyone in the family—all of us fully functioning adults, mind you—is the same: we look at Lindsey. We don’t have the answers or the plan, but we trust that she will.

That was the attitude King Jehoshaphat had toward God when the enemies of Judah prepared to invade his kingdom. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the king knew that neither his wits nor his weapons were enough to overcome the enemy. So in a spirit of humility and devotion, he called for a nationwide fast and came to God with one of the most sincere prayers you’ll ever read in Scripture: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Sometimes you don’t feel equipped for the moment. Sometimes you don’t have all the answers you need. We tend to feel ashamed in those moments, to dwell on our own weaknesses, fears, and shortcomings. But Jehoshaphat offers us a lesson in faithfulness—especially in those times, the most important thing is not that you know what to do, but that you know who is Lord.

So when your plans go awry and your good intentions give way to bad results, take a page out of the king’s book and allow your bewilderment to be transformed into faith. Because what Jehoshaphat showed in crisis is the same thing I’ve learned on vacation: sometimes the most important thing is not what you know, it’s who you trust.

Style and Substance (Friday Devotional)

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

- Acts 2:42

I have a weakness for baseball cards. The anticipation when I’m about to open a pack still excites me, the sight of a superstar’s card still thrills me, the disappointment of a mediocre pack still bums me out. In the moments when I’m opening up a new pack of cards, I’m a kid again.

In some ways, the cards have changed a lot over the years. Once stuck between the spokes of bicycles, cards now often go straight into display cases on the off chance that they may be worth something someday. Once sold with sticks of tastes-like-cardboard bubble gum (and, decades before that, cigarettes), the gimmicks are now more centered around the sport—autographed cards, pieces of game-worn jerseys, etc. Once available for pennies, packs now require you dig out a $5 bill.

Yet for all these changes around the edges, baseball cards are still fundamentally the same as they’ve always been. The front of the card has the player’s name and a photo; the back of the card has their statistics. Whether you’re looking at a 1955 Mickey Mantle card or a 2020 Joey Gallo, the card is going to tell you their batting average and how many home runs they hit. The style of baseball cards has certainly changed over the years, but the substance is still the same.

In that respect, baseball cards remind me of the church. When you think about the earliest days of the church, in some ways it seems so ancient and foreign, like a totally different group than the one you worship with on Sunday mornings. They prayed and worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem. They had no New Testament to read from yet, only stories and teachings passed along by word of mouth. Heck, they didn’t even sing “Amazing Grace!” What could this group of first century Jews possibly have to do with your local church today?

Acts 2:42, which offers a summary of the church’s activities after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, gives us the answer: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

For all the differences in style between the early church and the modern church, the substance remains the same it’s always been. We are still called to draw near to our Lord and to one another; we are still call to worship and fellowship. And ultimately, we are still called to go and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with a world that needs to hear it.

Like baseball cards, today’s church looks a lot different from that of previous generations. But like those selfsame cards, at the heart of things, the church is carrying on the same good work done since its beginning. While our styles may—and perhaps should—change with the times, our substance must be grounded in faithfulness.

Chugging Along (Friday Devotional)

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

- John 5:17

For the better part of a month now, my son Andrew’s favorite toy has been a remote controlled Polar Express train and track. Every morning begins the same way, with him darting to the playroom to connect the engine, coal car, and coach cars, then get it chugging along the track. The Polar Express has become a permanent fixture of the playroom floor.

But now that the novelty has worn off, I’ve noticed something about how he plays with his train. When he first got it, he’d lay on the ground watching it with a level of attention I didn’t know his 3-year old self could muster. He’d press every button on the remote, making the train go forward then backward, making it whistle, and prompting the automated recording to call out, “All aboard!” But now, he’s more likely to turn the train on, get it running along the track, then move on to another toy as it continually chugs along.

So the other day I questioned him about it. “Buddy, since you’re not really playing with your train right now, do you want to turn it off?” His response has stuck with me: “No, Daddy. I like to have it working even though I’m not watching it.”

In the same way, God remains at work even when we’re not paying attention. When we talk about God’s impact on our lives, we tend to do so in transactional terms—I prayed for help and the Lord helped me, I studied the Bible and felt Him speaking to my heart; I worshiped and was encouraged by the experience. Perhaps without intending to do so, we start to give the impression that God operates according to our spiritual remote control, working only when we compel Him to do so.

The truth, as Jesus reminded the Pharisees, is that God is always at work. He doesn’t sit back just because we do. Where we may grow tired, He never does; where we lose interest, His eye remains on His creation. God is both sovereign and sustaining; He is both deeply aware of what’s happening in our world and deeply involved.

So much of life can feel random and chaotic, without rhyme or reason. But however disordered the world can seem, we can trust that God is still in the business of restoring what is broken and redeeming what is lost. Take comfort in the knowledge that, even when you’re not paying attention, God is still working.