When the Wedding is Over – Thanks for Faithful Moms

With many minds still savoring the recent royal wedding in England and it being Mother's Day, I thought it appropriate to share the thoughts of a young mom whose wedding day is 10 years past. In this writing she is imagining sending a letter back in time to herself just before her wedding. She gave it to me a while ago but I saved it for today. I am humbled by a wisdom beyond her years. She has an integrity that plays out in front of us daily as she struggles well to step into the roles and life God has given her. Enjoy.

A Letter to Myself as a Young Bride:

The calendar nears the tenth anniversary of the marriage vows you are about to make.  I reflect on the covenant you are about to enter, and I ponder…how did “you” become “me”?

You are right to tremble at the magnitude of this undertaking.  Though you are eager, you are serious, and that is a good place to begin.  You know that to be married will be difficult, raw, and costly.  Though you know to expect it, you cannot know how it will feel to walk through it.  Imagining happiness and then feeling happiness are different things.  Imagining pain and then experiencing pain are different things.  That’s why your vow doesn’t include escape clauses or conditions.  You are wise to promise a commitment that will not depend on how you feel.

Yes, I would still make the promise you are about to make.  But I wouldn’t speak those words with the brightness, or certainty, with which you are about to utter them.  You speak from an untested heart.  You approach the ceremony with your head high.  I tell you, if I were to renew those words, I would position myself on my knees, with my head bowed, and my heart contrite.  It’s likely that tears would mar any perfectly applied mascara.  Because, this time I would know that I am powerless to keep my end of the bargain.  I would know that trusting in even a shred of affection I have for my husband will be chaff that blows at the first winds of despair.  You do not know it now, but marriage will be the great winnowing fork in the next decade of your life.   The Lord God wants more of your devotion, and He will use the frailty of your marriage to draw it out of you.

Into your ear I whisper caution, against holding too tightly to the ingrained American idea that you are an individual with your own rights, and your own schedule, and your own body.  Your entire vision for your future is soon going to be overwritten by God’s hand.  You dream of a career and a Pottery Barn house in a desirable neighborhood.  And then kids.  In that order.   All of these dreams, of course, are couched in a loving partnership with the man awaiting you at the end of the aisle.

But God had others things in store for you.

He planned for your marriage to welcome four babies before your sixth anniversary.  All of your ideas of fun, creative, energetic parenting are going to die at the altar of necessity.  They will be reborn as a more enduring, steady form of focus and prayer.  They will not be the Kodak moments that our culture idealizes and advertisers market as the “good life,” but they will be the ancient values that God instills in the hearts of His people…the ties that really bind.

You will learn very early that human effort is utterly lacking.  Your self-sufficiency will be laid low.  You are going to learn that the Jesus you thought you knew is far more dependable and intimate than you believed before.  Those times when you cannot get away for a moment alone, or when little people cling to the hem of your clothes wanting something from you, or when they wake you in the middle of the night (again)…Jesus is going to be the comfort and the gentleness that sustain you.  He will teach you patience and compassion because He was tested this way too, and yet His perfect life will stand in your stead when all you have to show for is exasperation and anger.

That graduate degree that you aspire to…you’ll earn it, but at a price.  It will be through the tears of a mother torn between her love of learning and the raw realization that once the clock of motherhood is begun, it cannot be stopped, and you only get one chance.  You are going to make the decision to let go of all of those straight-A’s in order to offer more of your heart to your children.  You are going to hate it…and I think that’s the point of the pain, to teach you that loving someone else more than you love yourself is costly.

That public persona of “competent professional” you imagined yourself as having is going to vaporize.  In its place you will take on the humble mantle of the homeschool mom.  There will be little acknowledgment of your efforts.  You will feel utterly incapable.  But you’ll know God better here, too.  You’ll feel the weight of Deuteronomy 6, and it will nearly crush you.  Your only hope in this will be to turn to the Word of God with a dependent quality that, I am afraid, you currently make light of.  But after the refining fire of this submission, you will rise with the inner joy of obedience to the calling of God, who equips and strengthens his chosen people.   You will learn to hear and love the voice of your Shepherd.

That magazine-worthy house you imagined will never materialize.  In its place, God will humble you with one of the greatest lessons of your life.  He is going to set your little family down into a neighborhood unlike any you’ve lived in before.  You will be among the poor, and the unfashionable. You will be confronted with the knowledge that your Christianity is marred by traces of racism and classism that your safe choices, up until this point, could never have exposed.  You will be shocked at how deep your materialism goes.  You will want to move away from the social problems plaguing your neighborhood.   But, God will keep you there so that you take ownership of your depravity and your pride.  He wants to give you His heart for all people…and you will struggle against this, complaining that you feel more equipped to “minister” to the middle-class, suburban white people you grew up next to.  This will be a bitter cup for you.  Just when you think you’ve mastered it, more sin will be uncovered.

The greatest warning I can give you is to expose your thoughts about significance and gender.  Your life is a classic example of the words to the woman of Genesis 3.  If I could teach you anything right now it would be that feminism has a greater hold on you than you think.  You assume that your years of being raised in a Christian home, school, and church have purged that from your system.   I weep for you.  No lesson will cost you as dearly.  No pain will be as personal as the peeling of this sin from your heart, your thoughts, and your theology.     Your marriage will be strained to its thinnest when you play this card.  I wish you would respect more deeply the difference between who your husband is as a male image-bearer, and who you are as a female image-bearer.

You are right to insist upon inherent dignity that you have from your Creator.  But that is not the truth that counters the lies of a power-hungry, androgynous culture.  The truth you need to learn is to rest in the role you have been given, because that will most glorify God.  You are woman because He imagined you that way, and he wants your spirit to delight in Him thus.  You do not understand the nature of God’s love for you and you will ignorantly inflict pain on your marriage because of this.

I wish that this letter could really traverse time and reach you.  I wish I could let you know that ten years, two marriage counselors, a Bible Study called “Five Aspects of Woman” and a few good sermons later, your pain will ease and joy will trickle in.  You will even begin to understand the mystery of marriage as a picture of Christ and the church…no, I’m not kidding on that one.  It’s real.  I know you don’t recognize yourself in my words, but I think that’s the point.  Ten years from now I hope to, myself, get a letter from a wife of twenty years.  I dread the stories of gray hair and adolescent turmoil she’ll tell, but I look forward to seeing who she is.

The Greatest Sporting Moment Ever

Nicklaus takes the lead on the 17th hole of the '86 Masters

This post, ultimately is not about golf or sports. This post is about life and joy and resurrection, but I begin with sports.

After morning basketball earlier this week a few of us guys were chatting. One of my friends asked if I would be following the Masters golf tournament this week. I told him no because I don't enjoy watching golf. If I had to choose between watching golf or watching soccer I would probably blackout from the prospect of having to do one or the other.

I observed, however, that despite my dislike for watching golf I considered the greatest moment of sports history a moment from a golf match.

In 1986 Jack Nicklaus was 46 years old and considered done as a serious threat to win any tournament, let alone the Masters. He hadn't won a major tournament in 6 years, was experiencing financial setbacks in his personal life, and was perceived as washed up and beleaguered. Besides, nobody had ever won the Masters at his age.

Remarkably, Jack had a pretty good 3 1/2 round score and was 4 strokes behind going into the back nine. No one thought he had a chance to win, but it was good to see him lingering up by the leaders. Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman were red hot and it appeared one would be the eventual champion.

Ballesteros took command on the 13th hole with an eagle giving him a 3 shot lead. Nicklaus was playing well with birdies on 9, 10, 11 and 13 but was still 4 strokes behind with 4 holes to play. On the 15th hole Jack put himself on the green for a long attempt at an eagle. When he holed it to pull within two of the lead the crowd and the day transformed.

Fans were cheering wildly but something more than just applause going on. The crowd became very un-golf-like. Old staid golf people were running to get position at Jack's next green. The cheering was exuberant. The other golfers would talk later about hearing the thunderous cheering from different holes wondering what was happening. The galleries for the other leaders shrank considerably because everyone wanted to see Jack.

Golf fans are almost always polite, but this day they couldn't contain themselves. When the leader Ballesteros plunked his ball into the water on 15 for an eventual bogey the crowd cheered openly over his misfortune. Moments later, after another birdie on 16 Jack's approach shot on 17 put him on the green with a chance to take the lead. Rick Riley, sports writer for over 25 years and currently with espn, claims the roar after Jack birdied 17 is the loudest outdoor cheering he's heard in all his years of covering sports. Something unique was unfolding on those last few holes.

Nicklaus recollected years later that the walk up the 18th fairway was something he had never experienced before or after that day.  Fans were so exuberant they could not stop cheering and calling out to him. Their reception and excitement moved him so deeply that twice he had to choke down tears. The fan and the athlete were connecting in a very deep and personal way.

On 18 he had a very long putt for birdie on a tiered green. His putt stopped about 3 inches short of a birdie, but the putt made his par a mere formality. He finished the back nine with a score of 30. Nicklaus hugged his son Jackie who was caddying for him. It was a moment for the ages.

The crowd was beyond excitement as Jack waited for the remaining few contenders to finish. Greg Norman tied Nicklaus on 17. However, on 18 Norman's approach shot to the green went wide right. Not just off the fairway, and not just into the gallery. His shot was so far right that it practically cleared the gallery and left him with a shot that all but guaranteed bogey and victory for Jack.

More remarkable than the crowd's reaction during the last few holes was their reaction after the victory. People cried. Not just his family and friends. Women cried. Men cried. Old men who probably hadn't cried for decades cried. Sportswriters cried. Announcer Pat Summeral cried. People watch the replay today and cry. I want to cry just writing about it. Something transcendent happened that day.

I say transcendent even though nothing about Christian doctrine was presented that day. Jack didn't talk about Christ in the aftermath. In fact I don't know of any overt connection with Christianity  from that day. You may ask, how can that be transcendent if Christ wasn't featured by the events?

The moment was transcendent because it was what C.S. Lewis would call a stabbing of Joy. For Lewis stabbings of Joy happen occasionally in peoples' lives, but in unexpected times and places. These stabbings of Joy are tastes of the transcendent. They are windows or pointers into another realm. It is God wooing us to taste a tiny bit of what He offers to us through His son Jesus. It can be an event, a special toy, or a special place. It is difficult to understand and impossible to conjure up on our own.

The problem with stabbings of Joy is that we often mistake them for the source of joy rather than a window or pointer. We fail to go beyond the thing and see what it is pointing to.

Many times I've thought about Jack's run and other great sports moments to try to understand why we get so caught up in them. I think Lewis' concept of Joy gives powerful insight on this matter. Why else would millions who don't even know Jack Nicklaus get so caught up in him winning a golf tournament. We get caught up not because its Jack, though he embodied something we long for, with his long, successful, integrity filled career and his classy and gracious disposition in victory and defeat.

Its beyond him.

Its redemption.

It's seeing what we loved be labeled washed-up only to come back from staggering odds to win. It's a father and son embracing after an impossible victory.  It's seeing perseverance and faith trump human wisdom and inevitable defeat. It's a story as old as humanity. It started after the forbidden fruit was devoured and death was unleashed on the universe by our sin. In the face of our rejection God promised a redeemer. The story of the dead coming to life plays over and over throughout history and we never tire of it.

The naturalist - atheist can't explain why we love comeback stories better than one sided expected victories. Darwinism would tell us that having the mighty win is good for survival of the species. That begs the question as to why the underdog victory story stirs us like no other story? It is universal and it overwhelms and moves us in ways we can't explain.

The answer is because the Gospel is true.

Nicklaus' win tapped into an ancient story that is part of our humanity. Maybe the Nicklaus story doesn't move you, though if it doesn't I suggest a trip to the nearest cardiologist. I bet there are other stories that move you in a like manner. I assert that they have the same shape and point to the same thing.

The '86 Masters unknowingly remembered God's promise in Eden while the half eaten fruit lay at our feet. It remembered Sarah's 90 year old dry womb coming to life to birth Isaac.

It remembered the murderer Moses leading a downtrodden people out of Egypt with all the wealth of their captors.

It remembered Hannah's dry womb birthing Samuel and Ruth being saved by Boaz to birth a redeemer for Naomi.

It remembered David and 5 smooth stones and a decapitated Goliath.

It remembered the sun bleached bones in Ezekiel's valley coming to life to dance.

It remembered Elijah on Mt. Carmel, Lazurus in the tomb, and on and on through all human history and into our lives.

Big and little all these stories gravitate to their common home - an empty tomb. God became man, lived perfectly only to be destroyed by the people He came to save. Three days later the impossible became the most probable and sure thing in our lives.

All these stories carry the same shape.... the shape of the cross.

Enjoy these stories as they come into your life, but remember they get their shape, from the cross. And also remember that the story is best known when it becomes personal. When you and I remember that our hearts were corpses and our deserved future was Hell until through faith we were given Jesus' ultimate comeback story to be the story of our own life.

Look for redemption stories daily. They are everywhere. Most of all live in the redemption story so you may give it to others and they can understand why an aging golfer can reduce the multitudes to tears just by winning a golf tournament.

Shalom.

The Great Divorce II or For Whom Bell Tolls

What could wake me from my blog fog? The Twitter-rebellion in Egypt? No. Devastation in Christchurch  New Zeeland? No. Protests in Wisconsin? No. Cruise missle-ing Libya?  Almost, but not quite. It had to be something as big as Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins to reinvigorate my keyboard.

I've been asked a lot on the subject, so here I go into the Rob Bell controversy. I am all a quiver writing about something so relevant. I might have to don some skinny jeans by the end. Here goes.

Plate from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

William Blake, the late 18th and early 19th century poet/painter is most famous for his poem and corresponding prints entitled, "The  Marriage of Heaven and Hell". The poem has a lot to it that I won't cover here. One major theme, however, is the oppressive nature of morality and religion. Blake wants us to rethink evil, virtue, and Heaven and Hell. He takes traditional ideas of evil and hell and gives them virtuous properties. A few examples follow:

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom."

"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction."

"Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires."

Today there is still much debate as to whether he was being direct, symbolic, or satirical. Certainly, however, he considered himself an enemy of the Church of his day.

Years later C.S. Lewis wrote a response to Blake's work called The Great Divorce. What Blake "married" Lewis was "divorcing". Lewis' book takes place in a dream sequence and imagines a place on the outskirts of Heaven where people from the outskirts of Hell travel. Each person has a chance to stay. Each chapter follows different people and spells out what consumed their life on earth to send them to Hell. As they experience the fringe of Heaven, each one decides to return to Hell rather than give up their self-centered passions.

Ironically, some have compared Bell's book to Lewis' because each contemplates a decision point beyond our earthly deaths to choose Christ. There is some similarity....but not much. Lewis' book is a dream and not a theological examination of Heaven and Hell. Lewis' goal is showing how those who reject Christ in life would still reject Christ if given a second chance in the afterlife. Bell "imagines" an afterlife where even the most reprobate are eventually redeemed because Love Wins. In The Great Divorce Lewis is refuting Blake and depicting a literal Hell full of people who won't accept Christ rather than a Hell that is empty because of the overwhelming power of God's love.  One can defend Bell's book, but one cannot equate it to Lewis'.

I am not insinuating that Bell and the poet, Blake , are totally alike. Blake was diabolical and an enemy of the church. Bell is not. They are similar, however, in that both Bell and Blake used their imaginations to contemplate things beyond Scripture and beyond historically understood interpretations of Scripture. And where Blake's "marriage" needed annulment, Bell's "win" needs to be reviewed by the officials.

Many theologians have done excellent work analyzing Bell's use and interpretation of Scripture. I have nothing to add to that process. The little I add below is more from a biblical worldview perspective.

I think the essence of the controversy surrounding Rob's book is how we decide what is true and what is not.

We discern truth in one of four ways: reason, our five senses, feelings, or revelation. Every culture in every age has a dominant way of determining truth (this is called epistemology for the budding philosophers out there). The ancient Greeks began by favoring physical evidence (the pre-Socratics), but then turned to reason (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle). The early church had revelation in Christ and the Bible which then mixed with Greek reason (Augustine). Medieval Europe continued with a mix of revelation and reason (Aquinas). The renaissance and enlightenment began to reject revelation in favor of the five senses and reason (Kant and many more). Today our way of knowing truth is often called post-modern.

The post-modern way of knowing truth is feelings or intuition. Feelings can be a legitimate way of knowing truth. However, truth found through feelings must stay within the parameters of God's revelation.  This is where the Bell controversy brings in an important post-modern question. What do I do when my feelings begin to pull in a different direction than God's revealed truth?

What post-moderns tend to do is re-interpret revelation to fit their feelings or reject revelation altogether. Topics that pull our feelings in directions different than revelation are red-hot right now. Homosexuality, Hell and judgement, divorce, women in ministry, exclusivity of Christ, are some feelings-led controversies. History shows us topics that have been controversial in other eras but don't cause a stir today: The dual nature of Christ, the Trinity, Christ’s relationship with the Father, and what to do with those who denied their faith under persecution and wanted back into the church. These controversies were settled by agreed upon interpretation of Scripture, not the feelings of the day.

In his book, Bell is much more  a product of the age of feelings than he is an objective interpreter of Scripture. None of us are ever fully objective. That is why we join our thoughts with the Spirit-led stream of interpretation from the 1^st century to today. The interpreter must lead with humility not presumption. Just because I feel Ghandi was a good enough guy to go to heaven, doesn't mean he does.  What the bible says and how other Godly thinkers through time interpreted what the bible says is a more reliable indicator of truth than my feelings.

The popular question, Would a loving God send a person to Hell? is a great example of our presumption. The question assumes we have the capacity to evaluate the full meaning of love and also how the sovereign creator of the universe should behave. No human is up to that task. Yet the question is asked as if it is the litmus test for interpreting Scripture. Would a loving God flood the world and destroy all but one family, level Sodom and Gomorah, kill the Canaanite inhabitants of the promised land - men, women, and children?  Apparently so.

God is Love, but He is also Truth. These must both be held fully by the Christ-follower whether our emotions take us there or not. Abraham went dutifully to the mountain to kill his son Isaac. He did not question the Love of God because he understood the Truth of God.

The Post-modern often forgets that Satan is active and loves to use our God-given emotions to lead us to oppose God-given truth.

Emotional knowledge can also be a short-cut to spending time getting to know truth and changing our actions. The Christ-follower must hold firmly to both Truth and Love.

Remember, the balance of truth and love wins.

Well, my skinny jeans have cut off my circulation, so I'd better quit.

Shalom

Shalom

For my pending ordination I have written my confession of faith. It is not in final form but is probably near enough to post here. This is not a personal testimony of conversion but a statement of belief. I welcome questions and comments.

The true story of our existence begins with the holy, eternal, uncreated, triune God graciously creating the universe as a home for mankind to live with Him. We know this story because God has revealed it to us.

To understand our story we must first understand who God is and how we know about Him. We know something of God through observing creation, which overwhelmingly points to a creator with love, purpose, order, and beauty. We also know something of Him through reason, and an internal sense of good and evil.  He is known more completely to us through the life of His son Jesus and subsequently through Scripture.

Scripture is God’s revelation written through men for humanity to know Jesus. Scripture is true, without error and is self authenticating. It is complete as was given to the church in the first century and to the Jews before Jesus. It consists of several types of literature and was written over many centuries by over forty authors. Despite its diversity, it reveals a unified story about the truth of God’s existence and ours. Scripture is not to be added to or subtracted from and is collectively interpreted by the faithful across time and space by the aid of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit led interpretation upholds the veracity of Scripture despite efforts to debunk it based on historical and linguistic skepticism.

Through Scripture we are given sufficient but not total knowledge of God. He exists as three distinct persons with one essence. The three persons are God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three exist in perfect relationship with each other combining an equality of being with a hierarchy of roles.

God the Father directs all things. He is spirit, and He is holy, just, perfect, loving, merciful, faithful and true. He is not described by these attributes, rather these attributes are perfected in Him. He perfectly orchestrates all of human history with the coexistence of good and evil, toward the extermination of evil and restoration of absolute goodness. This orchestration is known as providence. Providence is the reality that God has authored our entire story. He is never a passive reactor to human events, but is always an active director without culpability for evil.

Jesus the Son enacts the Father’s will. He intersected intimately with humanity though His incarnation. He is all God and all man.  After His resurrection He ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father advocating for sinners. He will remain there until He returns to earth to defeat evil and reign with His people.

The Holy Spirit has been involved in all of human history but was uniquely dispersed to the church at Pentecost. He illuminates the Son. He convicts humans of sin and initiates their salvation. He gives comfort and various gifts for the building up of the church in power and unity. The greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit are the power to believe and the power to forgive. When we put our faith in God the Holy Spirit comes to live in us.

This is what we know of God. Now here is the story of us.

Jesus fulfilled the Father’s will by creating the universe under His direction with the aid of the Holy Spirit. The universe is the home for humans to live with God.  Humanity, created uniquely in` the image of God, was charged with establishing God’s Kingdom by creating more image bearers and exercising dominion over creation by creatively developing it with care to its well being. Abundant families through monogamous marriage and the development of culture were the activities that humanity was to engage in to establish the creator’s Kingdom. Humanity was to have an abundant and peaceful coexistence with God. This state of peaceful flourishing under God established liberty can be described by the Hebrew word, shalom.  Shalom is God’s vision for humanity living together with Him. We were made to exist with Him in His glory and presence. Shalom is the highest and best vision for mankind.

This perfect state did not last. Shalom was destroyed as the evil usurper Satan, who fell from Heaven with a legion of angels, entered a serpent. As a serpent, Satan convinced Eve and Adam of the lie that God had cheated them because He did not want humans to be like Himself. Once they believed the lie their hearts became intent on self centered power in place of God centered authority. Consequently they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which they were warned not to eat of because they would surely die. Adam and Eve immediately found that Satan had lied, and God told the truth. Death for all humanity and creation was the consequence of their rebellion. Humans in their sin could no longer be in relationship with a holy God. Death and separation was the consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin and is the consequence for every human since. We are separated from God, each other, ourselves, and creation. All relationships are broken, stunted and frustrating. A profound loneliness haunts all mankind because it desires relationship with its creator that its sin prohibits. This death causes an ever escalating rending apart of things meant to be whole. Marriages, families, friendships, communities, and every human attempt to make lasting whole relationships eventually gives way to the selfishness of the human heart. All our attempts to restore shalom are futile. Evil is the way of fallen man. Our ability to restore our relationship with God by our own effort is impossible. Presence with Him was lost, and His glory could no longer be seen by us.

All was not lost. What was impossible for us to restore was possible for the creator God who became our redeeming God. Simultaneous to affirming the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin and establishing curses on the ground and the serpent, God foretold of a struggle of good against the evil unleashed in the Garden. The offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman would battle through time. The serpent would do damage but the ultimate son of the woman would deal the crushing blow and defeat Satan and death. This promise of redemption and restoration was fulfilled in the virgin birth of Jesus, His perfect life, His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection.  Victory over death is available to all who come to Jesus in faith, acknowledging their deserved death because of sin and His exclusive role as Savior. Those who accept Christ as Savior have their sin put on Jesus and His righteousness put on them. Those who reject Christ remain in death and will suffer eternal separation from God in Hell. All humanity is justly accountable for accepting or rejecting Jesus. Yet, this truth lies in tension with the reality that the redeemed were chosen by God.

Tensions are an integral part of our story. Jesus’ restorative resurrection exists within a tension of being completed at Calvary but not finalized until His second coming. We exist between these two movements of the finalization of redemption. In this space we have the unique privilege of bringing the life saving truth of Jesus Christ to others. We do this by gathering ourselves into redemptive communities which comingle daily with the world at large.  These redemptive communities are the church which Jesus calls His bride. The church is simultaneously a uniting of all Christians everywhere and the localized manifestation of places of regular gathering for collective worship of God and equipping for mission. Our mission as the church is to make disciples, teach all Jesus taught and baptize in His name. As we live this out we worship, pray, witness through word and deed, and restore communities through the continued development of godly culture. As the church we subjugate personal ambition for corporate mission and live together in a way that manifests Jesus Christ to the world. We live in a way that establishes tastes of shalom and foreshadows final restoration. The church is meant to image the presence of Christ and a glimpse of His glory. The story of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ is maintained symbolically by the church through practicing the ordinances of believer’s baptism and communion.

Restoration will be completed with Jesus’ second coming when He defeats Satan and his city of Babylon and establishes a new heaven and new earth centered in the redeemed city of the New Jerusalem.  At this time shalom will be restored, and all people who acknowledged Jesus as their Lord and Savior will live with Him forever in His presence and glory experiencing never ending flourishing.

Super Dreams

Advertisers do not sell us products. They sell us stories that we want to live in. Consequently, commercials tell us a lot about what you and I dream about, and what we wish our lives were like. This makes the Super Bowl commercial binge an important window into the worldview that dominates our communities.

It is time to analyze where we are at as a culture, so here are my second annual Super Bowl commercial awards, thoughts, and observations.

Before I get to the ads, I need to spend a moment on the National Anthem sung by Christine Ag-ra. Yes, I know her name has more letters, but since she dropped the middle third of the National Anthem I am dropping a third of her name as payback. What state of self perception must you be in to be asked to sing the National Anthem for the USA in front of over 100 million people and not practice? Most people would be so nervous they would practice morning, noon, and night. Not Christine Ag-ra.  She joins a long list of pop-stars who mistake their grammys for transcendent identity. Instead of humbly taking on the task out of gratitude for something bigger than themselves, the honor becomes an opportunity to show the world they are bigger than the song. How about a military person singing the song? I bet they wouldn't forget any lyrics.

To the ads:

The We Think Customers are too Stupid to See Through This Award: Eminem for his "Brisk" ad. The animated Eminem maintains his street tough, anti-establishment aura by doing a commercial about hating commercials. He swears, talks about "hot" chicks, and bosses people around. He's so tough and uncontrolled by the establishment. Um.....Em....it's still a commercial. Take two.

The How to be Relevant by Being Vulgar Without Having Blame Put on Our Product Award: Tie between Pepsi-Max and Doritos. Here's the plan. Have a home produced video contest with the winners getting aired during the Super Bowl. Have the winners chosen by popular vote. Then you are double insulated from responsibility because someone else made the video and the general public voted for it. You get the upside without the fallout. You can have commercials that perpetuate male shallowness as a man is torn between the desire to sleep with his new date or drink her Pepsi. What guy hasn't been there a thousand times? Or you can have a disturbing male to male fetish theme with a man sucking on another man's finger or smelling another's pants to sell your chips. Meant to be funny and progressive, but if you pause, it truly is bizarre and disturbing. But don't blame Doritios, they didn't make it. (wink, wink)

The We do it the Old Fashioned Way, Sex Sells Award: Tie between Telaflora and Skechers. Faith Hill attaches herself to an ad where the heartfelt message of a young man to his valentine is, "You have a nice rack." Skechers uses Jr. High-ish double entendre's as Kim Kardashian talks to her athletic trainer in terms that could mean training or having sex. She's sweaty, lightly clothed with seductive lighting and music highlighting the story. The entertainment industry continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth by denouncing and expelling Christianity because it's intolerant, and yet continues a pervasive assault on true womanhood by objectifying women as merely a means to sexual pleasure. Evil is incoherent, but it doesn't care.

The Deja-Vu All Over Again Award: Another commercial with Eminem. Em, I thought you hated commercials? At least you're still street tough and anti-establishment. Am I supposed to be intimidated into buying a Chrysler? Cash another check, Em.

My Three Favorite Commercials: Volkswagon - Darth Vader - I have a five year old who walks around the house with a light saber and blanket for a cape trying to use the force to choke stuffed animals. Very cute. Creates a story of family around owning a VW. Unfortunately, it takes more than a car.

Career Builder monkeys parking poorly. Very funny, though it plays on the victim mentality that we all work with idiots, and a new job will free us....to be with new idiots. Hey maybe we're the idio......naw.

Audi escaping from "old luxury". Clever idea with lots of subtle humor. The Kenny G bit was excellent. Cool guy escapes while the old guy stumbles back to "old luxury".  Makes me wish I had a luxury choice.

The Revisionist History Award: Chrysler. According to the commercial the story of Detroit is hard work, conviction, and know-how which gives them insight to luxury and has tempered them to excellence. Oh, I thought management, greed, union entitlement, and debilitating family-destroying social programs were a bigger part of the story. Lot's of good people live in Detroit, but lots of bad ideas run their world.  Watch the VW commercial back to back with this one and note the contrast in stories. Chevy threw a lot of different stories at the Super Bowl, but this was their featured piece. I do like their tag line - Imported from Detroit -  but probably for the wrong reasons.

The We Can't Do Anything Original Award: Microsoft XOON - the IPad wannabe. They allude to 1984 which was the theme for Apple's 1984 Super Bowl ad which is still considered one of the best ever. Even in their spoof Microsoft comes across as un-original. I think they snag ideas out of Apple's dumpsters.

The Stop Already Awards: Given to ads stuck in tired and often pathetic themes. Bud Light's telling us that irresponsibility is cool and life is a party. Go-Daddy using soft-core porn ads to sell a product that I still don't know what it is (btw. Does Danica Patrick want to be a race car driver or a porn star?).  Anyone featuring dogs to sell products. E-trade baby needs a diaper change.

The Confusing Waste of Money Award: Stella Artois. Weird personification of beer into a lounge singer's one true love while real women cry romantic tears over it. Huh?!?

Finally, the Your Story is Way Bigger than Your Product Award: Coca-Cola dragon fight. Epic LOTR-like battle diffused by dragon drinking a Coke. Tag-line = Open Happiness. If only it were that easy. They just sell pop, but Coke knows we want something deeper even from our soft drinks.

Don't let products write your story. The Christ-follower lives a story of restoration through Jesus Christ in all ways. We must buy  products, but we must not let them write the story of our lives.

One other thing. If you see Christine Ag-ra, tell her Francis Scott Key wants her Grammys.

“….all persons held as slaves are, and henceforth shall be free.”

God uses certain people at particular moments to do extraordinary and courageous things whose ramifications cannot be seen at that time. Abraham Lincoln is one of those people.

On January 1, 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in the United States took effect. The scars of slavery are still evident, however, on this day almost 150 years ago liberty and justice began to be reestablished for a race of people once considered property. That emancipation should move us in deep ways.

Some will point out that the document had little legal impact on the institution of slavery. However, that we still look back to it 150 years later as a nation changing document reveals that it's impact went far beyond symbolism.

Lincoln was certainly not the first or greatest emancipator. God was the first through Moses and the Exodus and He was the greatest through His Son Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. All true emancipation begins in Jesus Christ.

The public ministry of Jesus opened with the sermon on the mount. He began His address with what are commonly called the beatitudes. Beatitudes are blessings. As part of them Jesus told us that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed because they will be filled.

Righteousness has a personal and a universal understanding. We often default to the personal meaning of us behaving well. The universal idea is that of a world set right. We are to hunger and thirst for the world to be set right. In other words, we are to hunger and thirst for justice. When we are emancipated from sin and death by the great emancipator Jesus Christ, we long for all the oppressed to be free both in this world and the next.

It was, at least in part, a hunger and thirst for justice that motivated Lincoln to end slavery. He dreamed of a union where all people are free. As Christ's people we are to dream of a just society that brings glory to Christ.

In the midst of your holiday take time to reflect on the significance Lincoln's actions. Then ask yourself, does my life reflect a hunger and thirst for justice? Whose emancipation am I striving for?

Merry Christmas

Some years ago I heard a person observe after a day of Christmas shopping that nobody says Merry Christmas anymore. For the next few days I made an effort to observe if this was true, and in my observation it was.

I won't speculate too much on why this is true except to say that much of the Christmas season's activities do little to pull our eyes to Christ. Between buying, selling, hurrying, deciding, and trying not to "offend" anyone, Merry Christmas as a expression of goodwill is mostly gone.

Instead of cursing the darkness I tried to bring a little light. So I committed to making Merry Christmas part of my send off in all my meetings be they big or small. So I put "have a nice day" , "take it easy" , and "who loves you baby?" on the shelf. O.K., I've never said "who loves you baby?" to anyone, but I could.

Making a point of saying it was not a stand against political correctness or an expression of defiance. I tried to think of it and mean it as a sincere hope that Christ would be known and embraced in big and little ways throughout the season. Over the years of doing it, I have never been corrected or scolded or even frowned at.

Reflecting on it over the years I must admit I don't think it has revolutionized the places I've visited. No store clerk, waitress, or bank teller has ever dropped to their knees in repentance and given their life to serving Christ because I said Merry Christmas. I don't know that anyone has ever given it a second thought. But I have noticed that there is someone it has helped quite a bit.

Me.

It is difficult to be crabby and pushy and return rudeness for rudeness in the public square when you know that at the end of your encounter you are going to say Merry Christmas. Finding the best deal and boxing people away from the last Star Wars Lego sale item gainsa new perspective knowing I'm going to leave behind a wish for a joyful Christmas. It's kind of like being a business person leaving behind a business card. He or she would not dream of doing that if his or her behavior was  crappy. You leave behind a business card if you want the person to remember their encounter with you foundly.

Let saying Merry Christmas mean: examine my behavior while we have had this brief encounter and may it even in a small way affirm that there is a living God. He walked with us 2000 years ago and now walks with us by His Spirit through His people who are the Church of Jesus Christ. I am one of them, and I desire you to be part of us.

Merry Christmas