Daily Lesson for May 30, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 7 verses 24 and 25:

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."

Yesterday I officiated a funeral and just before I led the family into the sanctuary I asked the congregation to rise and our pianist began to play the old hymn "How Firm a Foundation".

Here is something about life that must be accepted: there will be storms.  Rains are going to fall, floods are going to come, and winds are going to beat against the doors of every family's house.  If we deny that we will be surprised and disappointed when the storm does come, and we will in all likelihood be swept away in a torrent of shock, grief, sadness, and resentment.  We will be dismayed that such a calamity has fallen our home.

But those who know the storm will come are ready when it does.  When they built their house they dug deep and laid a firm foundation.  When the storm comes, they will weather it; they will survive.

I know that somebody is reading this and thinking that survival seems a pretty low goal.  I would say that person probably hasn't considered just how mighty and destructive some storms can be.  Illness, debilitation, the loss of a job, betrayal and death - some storms you hope just to survive.  And survival depends on how firm a foundation you've got.

Daily Lesson for Ascension Day, May 29, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 and 17:

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.  18 And Jesus came and said to them,“All authority iin heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And see, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I love this scene because it's so honest.  

Jesus has been raised from the dead. He appears to the women at the tomb and tells them to go and tell the remaining eleven disciples to go to Galilee, His home region, where He will meet them. When the disciples arrive in Galilee, He is there waiting and they worship Him.  But, the Scripture says, "some doubted."

So, Jesus was there in flesh and blood - but there was still doubt.  And not Jesus one doubter. Doubting Thomas usually takes the rap here, but the Scripture actually says "some doubted".  That's more than one.  Two?  Three?  Seven?  All eleven?

In the Baptist church when someone is senses a call to ministry an Ordination Council is set up to discern the fitness of the person for ministry.  They usually ask the candidate to tell them about what they believe about various things including the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, and His bodily resurrection.  I read this Scripture and have to wonder how many of of the disciples would have passed the test.  And yet, Jesus went ahead and commissioned them anyway.  There was no rebuke or chastisement for their doubt.  Instead, there were these words, "Go . . . Baptize . . . Teach . . . Make disciples . . . And see that I am with you to the end."

Sometimes we have our questions. Our uncertainties.  Nothing in this thing called faith is beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Nevertheless, we go.  And in going, we discover that we have something within us that makes others want to come too.  In other words, in going we see.  We see that it's true - that He really is risen, and alive, and with us all the way.

Daily Lesson for May 28, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 82 verses 6 through 8:

6 I said, “You are gods,

sons of the Most High, all of you;

7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,

and fall like any prince.”

8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;

for you shall inherit all the nations!

Yesterday's lesson on the injunction to pray for our leaders has me today thinking about our need to keep a proper perspective toward all earthly authorities. Government and rulers are apart of God's divine ordinance, and should be respected as such. But ultimately all laws, governments, governors, and nations are subject to God Himself. To Him belong all nations and governments. In the end, all rulers, authorities, and nations will pass away; only the LORD's authority endures.

In the oculus above the rotunda in the United States Capitol Building, there is a beautiful fresco painted in 1865 by Italian artist Constantino Brumidi titled "The Apotheosis of Washington". The painting depicts George Washington seated amidst the clouds, rising high into heaven. It is Washington's exaltation or "apotheosis", which is a Greek word meaning literally "to become a God".

For many, George Washington was a God. But he too passed away, just like any common man of history. So will our present rulers. And so too will our nation. They're all temporal. It is God who is eternal.

Recognizing this helps us keep things in perspective.

Daily Lesson for May 27, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Timothy verses 1 and 2:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 

On Sunday night our U.S. Congressman, Randy Neugebauer, attended our Memorial Service.  As I welcomed the congressman I was reminded that Scripture instructs us to pray for those in positions of authority and leadership.

We may or may not personally like our mayor, or our city councilmen, or state and congressional delegations, or our president.  But either way, they are our leaders, and the decisions they make will have a major impact on our lives and the lives of future generations.  Because of that we are enjoined to pray for them - to pray for wisdom and sound judgement, and a limitation on misjudgment, error and abuses of power.  We pray these things that we might have peace and prosperity in our country and world.

You may ask, well what about when we disagree with a leader and believe him or her to be arrogant and abusive in his or her leadership?  My response is to remind us that Paul's instruction to Timothy about praying for those in power likely came during the reign of the Emperor Nero, the madman who began the First Roman-Jewish War and burned the city of Rome so he could build a new palatial complex, blaming the fire on the Jews.  Paul told Timothy to pray for Nero precisely because Nero was so reckless and abusive.

There is a government official serving now who I have a lot of problems with.  I don't like what he says or what he does and I believe that if he had full reign he would do a lot of dangerous and destructive things.  Yet I pray for him.  I pray that God sends him wise counselors.  I pray he listens to them.  I pray he sees the consequences of his decisions. And I pray God limits the destructiveness of his abuses.  

I pray these things for his sake, and for the sake of those he governs and others affected by his decisions.  And, you know, I pray these things for my sake also.  It is the way I seek to live a peaceful, quiet, Godly and dignified life in my own spirit; and it is a lot better than cursing.

Daily Lesson for Memorial Day, May 26, 2014

A Memorial Day Lesson

Yesterday our church hosted a Memorial Day Service of Healing and Special Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the War in Vietnam.  We heard stories of heartache, including one from one of our own church members Dick Baker who shared about coming back from Vietnam in his Marine uniform and being spat upon by war protesters. Yet we also heard stories of healing, like the one from a then-young nurse in the Vietnam War who years later received a phone call from one of the wounded soldiers she cared for during his convalescence.  He remembered very little from the days following his injuries, but he did remember the nurse who held his hand.

One speaker, with whom I have had the privilege of meeting on two occasions now, was Shilo Harris.  Shilo's father served in Vietnam and Shilo himself joined the 10th Mountain Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2007, the Humvee Shilo was in was struck by an improvised explosive device.  The bomb killed three of Shilo's men in the truck and left Shilo terribly burned.  He was in a coma for 48 days with burns over 35 percent of his body, and has since undergone over 50 surgeries.  The bomb took his nose, both his ears, and three of his fingers.  But it did not take his heart.  He is now a motivational speaker, a soon-to-be published author and a visible witness not only to the sacrifice some have made on behalf of our country, but also to this nation's indomitable strength and courage.

Following the service in the church foyer, Shilo and I embraced.  We were forehead to forehead and my hand reached across the breadth of the back of his bald head.  His skin was smooth with no stubble, as all his hair except a small crest atop his head was burned away in the fire.  "Thank you," I whispered, "thank you."

When we finally released, Shilo and I both looked down and saw my seven-year-old daughter standing beneath us watching our embrace.  I looked back toward Shilo.  "This is my daughter, Gabby," I said.  "What a beautiful little girl," he said.  Instinctively, I looked back down at Gabby asked what I always ask her when somebody says she's beautiful.  "What do we say in our house," I asked.  Her answer came in shy whisper directed back at Shilo.  "It's the inside that counts."  I looked back toward Shilo, seeing a twinkle of light from his eyes spring forth from out behind his badly-deformed face.  He was smiling.  "That's right," he said, "it's the inside that counts."

It's what is inside men like Dick and Shilo and the hundreds of thousands of men who gave their lives for our country that has made this country what it is.  And it is for what is inside - service, honor, character - that I am exceedingly grateful.

Mark Cuban's Bigotry and Race Comments

http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=10971451&i=FB&w=1e1gh

I live in a fully integrated bedroom and still have my race issues to overcome. Though ‪#‎MarkCuban‬ could have been more sensitive when it comes to the Martin family, I think the substance of what he said was honest, reaching and showed the courage we need to help carry thisdifficult conversation forward. I am grateful for this. 

We are learning to speak about difficult and painful things as an American family. This requires grace and humility from all of us.

Daily Lesson for May 23, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 7

Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but udo not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

When I was in high school football was everything. Friday Night Lights and all that.  And I was captain of the team and garnered a lot of accolades.

In the parking lot after a practice our senior year my best friend told me he was sick of football because he never got to play. He said he was really ready for the season to be done and he said he didn't care if we made the playoffs.  I heard that and laid into him with the full force of my anger.  It was because of him and others on the team like him that we were losing, I said.  I was so disgusted; and came within inches of punching him square in the face.

You know why I was so angry?  Because truth be told, I actually hated football.  I couldn't stand it's pressures and anxieties and the fear I went through every Friday night.  Secretly, I had wanted it all to be over since the very first day of high school.  But that was my secret; and I had to do whatever it took to hide it.  What I was fighting in my friend, I was actually fighting inside of me.  And I needed to put up a good fight.

We often see the specks in other people's eyes out of proportion because they are distorted by the logs in our own eyes.  The "sin" we are so quick to project on others is often actually much greater in us.  We fight them because it's a lot easier than fighting ourselves - or better, making peace with ourselves.

Daily Lesson for May 22, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 6:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

I read these words from Jesus to my daughter and in her seven-year-old naïveté she takes it all at face value.  In fact, she takes everything Jesus says at face value.  "God feeds the birds. And look how pretty the flowers are - God clothed them.  Don't worry; the LORD will provide."

 But she doesn't pay the bills.  With enough work, I still actually might be able to convince her money grows on trees.  She sees how the birds of the air are fed and the flowers of the field are clothed, but it hasn't dawned on her just how short the lifespan of a bird or the season of a flower really is.  I read to her Jesus' words and in my anxious and somewhat cynical adult mind I think (though I don't have the heart to say), "Yes, sweetie, look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field; but don't look too long - for they won't last long."

But then it dawned on me the other day - that's just Jesus' point.  The lives of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are but a hair's breadth in length.  And yet, they make the most of the time they have. The birds set off in flight, dancing left and right, swooping down towards the earth, ascending towards heaven.  And the flowers dance in the field, blazing with a purple, even a king with all his money cannot afford.  The birds soar.  The flowers dazzle.  They live!

"You must become like a child again," Jesus said.  In other words, I must learn to think like my daughter once more - open to hear Jesus' words at face value and to look with open and wondrous eyes to the birds of the air and to the flowers of the field in order to learn how to live.

The Mind of the Child: "Look at the birds and the flowers - how God provides for them."

The Mind of the Adult: "Birds fall.  Flowers fade.  It doesn't last long."

The Mind of the Adult Born Again as a Child: "Yes, birds fall.  Flowers fade.  And it doesn't last long - But they sure seem to enjoy it while it lasts."

Daily Lesson for May 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 23 and 24:

"23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it."

G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."  I am not sure that's quite right.  It's been my experience that the ideals of Christianity have been sincerely tried; but many have found them so difficult that along the way they stopped trying.

"Walk the second mile."  "Turn the other cheek."  "Everyone who even looks upon a woman with lust is guilty of adultery."  "Anyone who is angry with their brother or sister is guilty of murder."  "Pray for those who persecute and abuse you."  "Love your enemy."  "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Talk about lofty goals.  It's a wonder we set out for this at all; and it really isn't any wonder just how frustrated we get with our lack of progress.  I mean, Be perfect?

But today's Daily Lesson reminds us that we aren't alone in this. God is with us; and He is working in and through and on us.  Like the slow but steady trickle of water that eventually cuts away a hard, hard rock, God's Spirit is at work in us, cutting away at our hardness of heart.  

We're not perfect.  We're far from it.  We do not give like we could or love like we should and our thought life if ever revealed would be enough to have us dig a hole and crawl in.  We aren't perfect at all.  We're a jumbled, inconsistent mess.  As St. Paul said, we do the things we don't want to do and what we want to do we don't do.  But - God isn't done with us yet.  He is still at work, cutting and shaping us to perfection.  And, as the Lesson says today, "He will surely do it."

Dr. King used to say, "I ain't what I ought to be.  I ain't what I'm gonna be.  But thank God, I ain't what I was."  That's not spiritual perfection; but it is progress.

Daily a lesson for May 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 6 verses 14 and 15:

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

After the dismantling of of Apartheid in South Africa, as the country was seeking its way forward into a unified future, Desmond Tutu used to say, "There is no future without forgiveness."

It is extraordinary to me that Jesus taught that if you wish to find forgiveness you must first give forgiveness.  This is counterintuitive for me.  I am inclined to think that the one who has received forgiveness is the one most able to give it; but apparently it is the other way around.  The one who gives forgiveness is the one who will receive it.

To forgive means literally "to let go of".  I think it is difficult for us to let go of other people's sins because, if we are honest, holding onto those sins gives us a sense of power.  Resentment at having been wronged has a certain pleasure to it.  If we are honest, we have to admit that we enjoy lording it (whatever "it" is) over other people.  In an odd way, we actually come to enjoy the taste of the bitter root.

But God has no taste for bitterness.  His land is the land of milk and of honey, where the bitter herb is left behind.  To continue to feast on the bitterness of resentment is to continue to live as a prisoner to the past.  And Tutu is right; there is no future in it.

I think Jesus told us to forgive in order to be forgiven because He knew that receiving forgiveness is an act of humility; it is an act of powerlessness.  We literally "beg forgiveness"and when we do we admit that God is God and and that we are not.

But you know, I would rather be a begging in God's honey-filled future than lording it over everyone in my bitter past.

Postscript: 
  It also occurs to me that we can't receive the forgiveness we need into our hands so long as you're holding tight-fisted onto the sins of somebody else.  

Daily Lesson for May 19, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 6 verse 1:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

The other day a friend from church was telling me about one of the first Sundays he came to worship and his father-in-law was sitting on the first row.  He asked his mother-in-law why his father-in-law was sitting up front. She told him it was because he was a deacon, and all the deacons were asked to sit up front as part of a new deacon ordination that Sunday.  That father-in-law is one of the most faithful servants in our church; you can't beat the man when it comes to giving his life to the church.  But the fact that he had not thought to tell his son-in-law he was a deacon told me something also.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them," Jesus said.  A lot of us want others to know what we're doing and who we're doing it for.  We don't necessarily want people to think we walk on water, but we do want them to know we walk the extra mile.  It's an ego thing; we are insecure about ourselves and so tell (or at least hint) about things we are doing so that others will think we are pulling our weight.  It helps is to feel more secure in ourselves to know that the world might find us necessary.

But Jesus says in doing all this we miss out on our reward from God.  I used to read that and think it meant the reward we would get from God in heaven for all the things we've done - the stars in our heavenly crowns.  I see now that what He is really talking about is the reward we get for doing the right thing for the right reason - pure, genuine and free from the burden of worrying what others might think or not think about it. It is the reward we get in the very moment of serving when we are whole-hearted and present and not concerned about who is watching or who isn't watching, who will know and who will not know.  Getting distracted by all that makes us miss the moment - we miss the reward.  And the reward is the joy of the simple gift itself - given and received.

Now go and make sure you tell everybody you heard it from me ;-)

Daily Lesson for May 16, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 5 verses 33 and 34:

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all."

If you are called to come and testify in a court of law, you will be asked to take an oath binding you to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is required because the courts know telling the truth is so exceptional in this world. 

There was a lot of swearing and oath taking going on in Jesus' day too. When people were telling the truth would often swear by something - by heaven or earth or Jerusalem. When they really intended to do something they would make a promise. But when they were lying or not telling the whole truth then they wouldn't swear. And when they didn't know if they would really be able to do what they said they would hold on the promise. Oaths and promises then actually encouraged lying because so long as people hasn't sworn an oath or made a promise they didn't feel bad for not telling the truth and not fulfilling their commitments.

Jesus tried to change all that among his disciples by teaching them to stop all the swearing and oath taking and simply let their yes be yes and their no be no. He was teaching them to be accountable for what they said - for everything they said. He was imagining a culture among his people where truth telling and follow through were not extraordinary but absolutely what was expected. in other words, he was imagining a people whose word was their bond.

I'm sure those disciples didn't get it right all the time; but I bet they were changed as a people simply by trying. 

I bet we would be too.

Daily Lesson for May 15, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 5:

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment . . . 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

When Cain came to bring his offering before the LORD the LORD rejected the gift because Cain was boiling with anger toward his brother Abel. The LORD would not accept Cain's outward gift of sacrifice, while inwardly Cain seethed with hatred and bitterness.

Our worship cannot be separated from our ethics. We think of worship as what we do in a sanctuary on Sunday. But Cain's story and today's lesson from Jesus reframe things for us. They remind us that what we do in our church's sanctuary is inherently bound up with what is going on in the sanctuary of our own heart. We cannot come to give praise, worship, tithes and offerings in one, while the other is defiled by anger and resentment. The inward heart needs to be purified before the outward gifts will be accepted.

So how about the sanctuary of your heart? Is it cleansed and ready to offer its gift before the LORD or has hatred and bitterness found a home there? If so, Jesus tells us what to do. "Go," he says. Go, get straight with your brother, and then come back to church with your praise, worship, tithes, and offerings.

In the Old Testament days, people would come to the Temple to give various sacrifices of birds, and bulls, and cattle to the LORD. In one of the psalms (Psalm 50), the LORD speaks and says every beast of the field and bird of the air and cow in the hills is already His; but what He wants is what isn't already His - the human heart. 

That's still the same in New Testament days also.

Daily Post for May 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus 33 verses 5 and 6:

5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Israelites are stuck.  Mt. Horeb was the sight of their idolatrous worship of the Golden Calf and because of their unfaithfulness there the LORD tells them He will now no longer go with them into the Promised Land lest He burn them up.  Knowing they will never make it through the Wilderness alone, the Israelites begin to mourn.  The LORD sees their act of contrition and relents; He will go with them if they strip themselves of the ornaments they are wearing.

In the Bible the act stripping or being stripped is always an act of humiliation.  To be stripped of anything is to be exposed - naked, vulnerable, and ashamed.  It is to be "disgraced".  I am sorry to say that it is also always a necessary part of the journey.  

No one makes it through the Wilderness of life without being stripped of something very precious, valuable, and identity-giving.  This may be a title, or a position, or an income, or an important relationship, or some symbol of status.  Whatever it is, we can be guaranteed that we will have to lose something very valuable in the Wilderness before moving forward.  We must be humiliated into the Promised Land - and that's a good thing.  As the old hymn says, "My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride."

A couple of years ago Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles.  Seven times he crossed the finish line wearing the yellow jersey, and it turns out he was cheating every time.  He was an international disgrace.  

I am sure it was humiliating for Lance to be stripped of those titles as day must have felt like the worst day of his life.  But I know it was not the worst day of his life; instead it was a necessary day in his journey to an even greater finish line.  The moment of disgrace can also be the moment of grace.  I hope he can some to see that.

I hope you can too.

Daily Lesson for May 13, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 32 verse 21:

"And Moses said to Aaron, 'What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?'"

The Israelites were making their way through the wilderness.  Moses went up the mountain to be with the LORD while his brother stayed with the people down in the valley below.  Moses tarried and the people became anxious, thinking perhaps Moses had been killed atop the mountain.  They began to wonder if they too might not die in this wilderness.  Soon enough, they were face to face with Aaron, demanding that he do something.  "Make us gods who will go before us," they said.  Aaron responded to their demands by telling them to throw their gold jewelry into the fire; he then took the smelted gold and made an idol calf of it.

That was when Moses came back down the mountain and could not believe what he saw.  "What did this people do to you?" he asked Aaron.

What do your anxieties do to you?  For me, the loss of control and the pressure to perform can lead to spiritually lethal situations. As a leader, when things are beyond my control I get anxious and I get desperate.  I lash outward or I lash inward.  I either cast blame or I take it.  I am willing to do whatever someone suggests I need to do to fix things. Usually that is something that releases the tension in the immediate time, but is often something destructive to the community in the long run.  Like Aaron, I feel responsible for whatever situation we might be in, and when I don't have the answers I feel shame - like I don't quite match up to the wilds of the wilderness.  So I make a golden calf - something, anything I can handle so as to feel like I'm in control.

The lesson of the wilderness is that we are not in control.  There are things in life way beyond our ability to shape, manipulate, and "handle".  There are some things we simply cannot escape.  It is when we come to see and accept this - when we come to hold space and live with the tension of our and others' anxieties - that we learn to wait for and trust that we really have and are enough to make it through.

Daily Lesson for May 12, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Colossians 3 verse 21:

"Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged."

Yesterday I was in one of our young parents' Sunday School classes, and it being Mothers Day we were naturally talking about motherhood and all its pressures. We talked about shame and the way it hooks moms into thinking they have to achieve "effortless perfection". Mothers are supposed to do it all - raise perfect kids, keep a perfect house, be perfect volunteers, cook perfect meals, be perfect employees - and look like its nothing at all to do all of it. We talked about how impossible that is and how accepting its impossibility is the pathway to grace. Paul's words were recalled, "His grace is sufficient for me; His power is made perfect in my weakness." Somebody then gave us a light-hearted moment when they said they recently saw a woman wearing a shirt that said, "World's OKest Mom".

That discussion yesterday about motherhood has me thinking about fatherhood also. Fathers watch our boys strike out in the 9th, or our girls get cut from the cheer leading squad, or any one of our children not behave like we expect them to and it pushes a shame button in us. The same thing happens when our wives end up not keeping that perfect house we expected them to. The shame button goes off. They aren't perfect; and because the whole can see that then that means it can also see that I'm not perfect. So our answer to this over and over again is to drive our kids and our spouses - to push them harder and harder until we end up pushing them away. As Paul writes, we provoke them until they lose heart.

The only way we fathers can get out of this shame cycle and begin to give our children and our spouses the grace they need is to accept it for ourselves. I am not perfect. Any attempt to make others think I am perfect is based on my own ego need. So too is my desire to have my kids and wife appear to be perfect. They will fall short and in falling short my shortcomings will be revealed. But it is at that moment, when I accept all these shortcomings, that I discover God's grace truly is sufficient for me and for them. And that is enough.

I really am the world's OKest dad, with the world's OKest children, and a wife who is the world's OKest mom. And you know what? That really is OK, because we all have the greatest God who can do some pretty incredible stuff with just OK people.

Daily Lesson for May 9, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 4 verse 17:

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"

When Jesus came preaching, he came with the same message of John the Baptist before him.  It was a message calling on people to repent for the sake of the nearness of God's kingdom.

To repent literally means "to change the mind".  It means changing the way one thinks.  It is a reprogramming of our thought processes and daily patterns of existence.  It is really whole life change.

A lot of people think that change happens by adding religion to our daily lives.  They continue doing what they've been doing, but add church.  Or they carry on with their lives, but start reading the Bible.  Going to church and reading the Bible are good things and I am definitely in favor of them, but true transformation necessitates more than these.  Real change demands a comprehensive deprogramming and reprogramming of the soul.  It means learning to think differently from the way we have thus far learned to think. It means unlearning a lot of the habits of thought we have been living and coping with from our childhood up until now.

That kind of change requires more than an hour on Sunday or 15 minutes in the morning; it actually requires complete surrender of one's whole life - including relationships, calendar, pocketbook and, most necessary of all, pride.

Most people aren't willing to pay that kind of price for life change; but those who are begin to discover that what John and Jesus said was absolutely true.  The kingdom of Heaven really is right at hand.

Daily Lesson for May 8, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 4 verse 3:

"And the tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'"

The tempter is so subtle.  Jesus has just come up out of the waters of his baptism and heard the words of God echoing from heaven, "You are my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased."  Turn the page, however, and Jesus is in the wilderness when the tempter comes with words of reservation and uncertainty.  "If," the tempter says.

Since I am married to an English teacher, I know the difference in the two types of sentences.  God speaks from heaven in the declarative voice, "You are."  But the tempter uses what is called the subjunctive - a voice that expresses hesitancy and doubt.  It is the tempter's subtle way of casting seeds of doubt.  If he had said straight on, "You are not the Son of God," then he would be be rejected outright.  But he is more crafty than that; his trickery is more often one of shade and innuendo than it is outright defiance.

Let me tell you in the declarative voice, you really are a son or daughter of God. You were made in God's image.  You belong in the family of God.  And God delights in you - period.  But the tempter will over and over again seek to erode that sense of belonging with subjective "Ifs".  If you are to be somebody you need to score this on the test, or graduate from this school, or live in this neighborhood, or drive this car, or have a body like this, or have this many people in the pews (this is getting a little too close for comfort), or get these kinds of honors, or at least have kids that do.  The tempter's subjunctives are alive and well in our lives.  They prey upon our insecurities and fears of rejection.  They tell us we must do something to prove we are somebody.  The true mark of our spiritual growth is coming to the understanding that the fact that we are somebody is not something to be proved, but rather accepted.  It is a gift from God, not to be earned, but to be received.

"One does not live by bread alone," Jesus responded to the tempter's subjunctive, "but by every word that comes from God."  The bread we make or consume in his wilderness called life will never be enough; but hearing God's word about us, taking it in to our hearts, trusting and believing in it - this is enough to sustain us forever.  

We are God's children, God declares - and that does it.

Daily Lesson for May 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 38 verses 17 and 18:

"For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is ever before me.
  I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin."

Psalm 38 was penned by David as part of what was called a Memorial Offering. Though we do not have the specifics of the occasion, reading the psalm through makes it evident that what is written in Psalm 38 is David's deeply moving remembrance of just how close he came to losing all, including his own life, and the surrender which ultimately led to his salvation.

At the beginning David speaks of God as having inflicted punishment upon him.  The LORD's rebuke is like wounds in his side and a heavy hand pressing him to the floor.  His body too is giving out;  There is "no soundness in my flesh" and "no health in my bones," he says.  Wounds on his body scream with infection, there is a strange burning in his sides. It is a picture of a man whose body bears the scars of a long years of abuse.

Yet, it is the soul that is the sickest.  He says his iniquities have risen above his head, as if his sins have risen up to drown him.  He can no longer keep his head above water.  His sins weigh him down.  He is feeble and feels crushed, and in a phrase that says everything the light has gone from his eyes.  The reader is ready to write him off.

But then comes these words: "I am ready to fall."  It is there, with those words that the psalm takes a turn.  There is release, confession, acknowledgement and the letting to of sin.  The LORD is no longer the enemy weighing down on him, but now his salvation.  Looking back, over however a long of distance it was, David can see that it was at that moment - the moment he was ready to fall - that was in fact his salvation.  When he was ready to lose everything, that was the beginning of everything being redeemed.

"First the fall," Julian of Norwich said, "then the redemption.  But both are the grace of God."

I believe that today more than ever.

Daily Lesson for May 6, 2014

Daily Lesson is from Matthew 3 verse 10:

"Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

These are the words of John the Baptist whose fiery sermons sounded a lot like, well, a Baptist's.

But the harshness of John's preaching should not keep us from hearing the truth he has to bring to us.  There is almost always a gift of truth in what others are tell is when they speak to us about our lives.  If we are open and not defensive, we can hear the truth and receive it as a gift even when the one who speaking it to us is overbearing, annoying, only partially informed, hyper-critical, selfish, ego-driven, and even hurtful.  There is truth in there, if we can stand to hear it.

So here is the truth that John the Baptist, that hard shell preacher, brings to me.  He reminds me that a tree is judged by its fruit.  He helps me to see that assessment and evaluation are a necessary part of life.  He helps me to ask what is and is not working in my life and in my work.  And then - and this is the hard part - he pushes me towards severance.  John helps me see that there are relationships, programs, projects, endeavors which simply aren't bearing any fruit in my life or work and therefore need to be ended.

That's not something  I want to hear.  It's hard and blunt edged and following through with its implications will no doubt be painful and even grievous.  But it is a truth; and if I am going to grow I have to be willing to hear it.

Postscript: John says that when a tree isn't bearing fruit we are to cut it down and burn it for firewood.  Failure is fuel for the future.  God wastes nothing.

Daily Lesson for May 5, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 1:

When you look at Jesus' family tree you find a lot of buried skeletons.

On the women's side was Tamar, who was the daughter-in-law of Judah (twice), and also the mother of two of his children.  There was Rahab, a prostitute.  And there was Bathsheba, who though married to Uriah the Hittite, was summoned to the bedchambers of David the King.

As for the men, there was David himself, who not only forced himself on Bathsheba, but then in turn had Uriah killed in the coverup.  There was Judah, who not only slept with his sons' wife (you read that right - two sons, one wife) but was also complicit in selling one of his brothers off into slavery.  There was Solomon, who though he was said to be the wisest man in the world at one time, later in life gave way to excess with the luxuries of the throne - including his 1,000 concubines.  Then there was his son, Rehoboam, who took his father's excessive ways to an even greater extreme, ultimately ending in the nation going into civil war and the 10 Northern tribes being lost.

That's a mess of a family history - adultery, prostitution, incest, human trafficking, murder, civil war.  It doesn't get any worse than that.

I tell you all that to say this: generations of dysfunction and chaos can be stopped.  We are not cursed with the fate of our fathers. We are our own people writing our own stories. We can break the cycle; it just takes one to do it.

Daily Lesson for May 2, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 16 verse 25:

"Moses said, 'Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field.'"

In our ever-quickening, fast-paced world, we all have more and more things to do with less and less time to do it.  We often think to ourselves, "If there were only one more day in the week, I could catch up."  But that's not true; it's not true because God has woven a law of diminishing returns into the fabric of every week.

God made the world and all its inhabitants in six days.  Then God rested on the seventh day.  God later gave us the command to rest on the seventh day also.  God called that seventh day Sabbath.  

Somehow we've been convinced that that commandment is a burden to bear.  We "have to" rest or "have to have" a day off.  Yes, we do have to rest; but that is only one side of the coin.  The command to rest is not intended to be onerous; it is intended to be a gift - a day of delight.  We do have to rest on the Sabbath; but we get to rest also.  

The great 20th century rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said the Sabbath is "a sanctuary in time".  Observing Sabbath, like going to church, is meant to be a blessing and not a burden.  I think this is what Jesus was getting at when he said that man was not made to serve the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made to serve man.

As for those who do not observe Sabbath, but work, work, work.  It is not true for them, as it was in the days of Moses and the Israelites, that they will not find bread in the field seven days a week.  There are things to be accomplished and money to be made every single day of the week.  But there is a deeper, spiritual truth God was trying to teach Moses and the Israelites which is still in effect today.  That truth is this: we may go out into the field every day of the week and find plenty of bread to eat; but we will still hunger for more - not so much in our bellies, but in our souls.

Have a good weekend - and a good Sabbath.

Daily Lesson for May 1, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 16 verse 21:

"Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted."

As the Israelites made their way through the Wilderness of Sin (what a name!), they learned daily dependence upon God. Morning by morning the LORD would send down manna, a weird flake-like, edible substance that Barbara Brown Taylor, a Southern woman, swears must have been grits. The people would then go out of their tents to gather their daily manna (one omer per person, for those of you counting out there). No one was allowed to gather more than their daily allotment - except on the morning before the Sabbath when they could gather enough for that day and the following Sabbath day. If anyone did gather more than was needed in an attempt to store or hoard, the manna always rotted in the hot midday sun. 

In the harsh wilderness we are sojourning in, where survival is difficult, we depend upon God day to day just to make it through. Daily contact with God through prayer and meditation is necessary in order to survive day in and day out. Provision for the needs of today is all that we can really count on.

To me, that's freeing. It means I don't have to miss out on today because I am worried about tomorrow. I wake up, I read the scriptures, I pray, and I go try to make the best of the rest of the day. And as Jesus says, I let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

I recall a conversation I had earlier this week. A friend and I were talking about life and all its worries and how it is that responsible men like us are to not worry but to do what Jesus says, "consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air" and how they are provided for. It was then I remembered the second naïveté. The first naïveté is my 7-year-old daughter who hears that and takes it literally and at absolute face value. "The LORD will provide - cool!" But then the skeptic enters and says, "Wait a minute; that won't work. Lilies and birds do not live long." And then the second naïveté begins to dawn on us and it says, "Lilies and birds do not live long . . . but they sure seem to enjoy it while they do."

Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow; as for today - pray a little this morning and then go out there and make it a great one.