Randy Greenwald

I begin my Sunday mornings with, well, to be honest, with a cup of tea. THEN I sit down to my journal and a Psalm. Often those Psalms become great fuel for my worship time later at church. It is a blessed time for me.

This past Sunday morning, I read Psalm 6, and was once again struck with the persistence and patience of the saints behind the psalms. Here are verses 6 and 7:

“I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.”

Like many, the Psalmist does not get an answer to his prayers. Every night he pleads, with effort and devotion and deep emotion, but relief does not come. So, what does he do? He repeats the prayer the next night, and the next night, and the next.

Why?

I have had my times of distress and anguish, but I cannot say that I have ever struggled like this, nor do I think I would. I would very soon give up and question the love of God for me. The Psalmist does not stop because, unlike me, he does not base his conviction of the love of God on whether he gets what he asks. He asks because he is persuaded simply of the lovingkindness of his God.

I was both convicted and encouraged by this thought. Convicted because I do lay blame at God’s feet when I do not get the good things I seek. I base my assessment of his love on how quickly he gives me what I want instead of upon the steady assurance (revealed in the cross) that his love for me is secure and enduring.

And encouraged because there is a streak of background discontent in my heart. I am reminded by all of this that that background noise should be silenced once and for all by the certain assurance of God’s disposition to my favor.

With that I was able to go to worship with joy.

Technorati Tags: Psalms, Worship

My grandson Isaiah is only three years younger than my son Colin, so that, yes, though they play a lot together, one is technically the uncle of the other.

Anyway, the other day they were running through the house playing some kind of great game of pretend. In the midst of it, Isaiah came storming through the kitchen shouting, “Run from your lives! Run from your lives!”

I’ve tried, Isaiah. Believe me, there have been times that I have tried.

Thankfully, God won’t let me!

Technorati Tags: Family

If we become dependent upon having our behavior legislated, we lose the ability to think wisely, and we crave more law.

Christians are famous for adding legislation to law and over again, in order, it is hoped, to more and more precisely regulate behavior. We know, for example, that the 7th commandment prohibits adultery. We rightly see that any sex apart from
marriage is forbidden. But the temptation scares us, and so we place restrictions around our own actions. We don’t ask our girlfriend up to our apartment or we don’t touch or whatever.

So far, not necessarily bad. But then we decide that these restrictions ought to be in place for everyone, and before long we are telling our young people they should not dance. We start with something good, and we add and add and add until the law becomes something burdensome, but safe.

Many of us crave such legal boundaries because it does feel safe. Some are drawn to churches and other communities that are highly law structured. In such communities, we are free NOT to think, but to simply do what we are told. We think this is holiness, but this is not what God desired for his children.

I was made to think of this the other day while reading The Atlantic. John Staddon, in an article entitled “Distracting Miss Daisy”, argues that US roads are cluttered with unnecessary signage. He makes a fascinating case that the more signage on the roads (stop signs, speed limits signs, slippery when wet [duh!] type signs) actually makes our roads less safe. The proliferation of signs distracts us and (this is the fascinating point) makes us actually less safe drivers because we grow to depend upon the signs and not upon driving smart and defensively.

I find the same pattern among Christians navigating their lives.

Staddon says this:

When you’ve trained people to drive according to the signs, you need to keep adding more signs to tell them exactly when and in what fashion they need to adjust their behavior. Otherwise, drivers may see no reason why they should slow down on a curve in the rain.

When we train Christians to live according to law, we end up having to proliferate law, because people lose the wisdom necessary to live their lives naturally to the glory of Christ. the reality is, with less law, Christians are not less holy; they are as holy and more joyful.

At least, that makes sense to me.

Technorati Tags: Grace, puppy, Sin

I never heard of this guy until today, but I’m already inspired by him. Wish I’d heard of him sooner.

This from the news reports is worth reading:

In May, Dr. Pausch spoke at the Carnegie Mellon University commencement. He said a friend recently told him he was “beating the [Grim] Reaper” because it’s now been nine months since his doctor told him he would die in six.

“But we don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well,” said Dr. Pausch, who urged the graduates to find and pursue their passion. He put an exclamation point at the end of his remarks by kissing his wife, Jai, and carrying her off stage.

Has anyone read / heard his “last lecture”?

It all makes me wonder – have I lived well?

Technorati Tags: Living

One teen daughter yesterday went through orientation for a new retail job at a clothing store in a mall near us. There she was told that in the past six months the loss from shoplifting was $19,000. She was told about people who know how hard it is to convict someone of shoplifting, and who manage repeatedly to enter the store and take what they want when they want.

I know such people are out there. I just don’t like to think about it.

Another teen daughter was at work yesterday at a local bustling restaurant. She helped a manager empty the ‘customer comment’ box, and the manger asked her to sort through some of them with her. The first one my daughter read said something like this: “Thank you for hiring some clean white people.” The manager was horrified. My daughter laughed. But, my daughter is black.

I know such people are out there. I just don’t like to think about it.

I also know that my heart is capable of such things. If I do not do or say them, it is the grace of God restraining the sinfulness of my own heart. I long for a world in which the battle with sin is done, and where the knowledge of the goodness of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

That is a big order, a God sized hope, but God is the sovereign bringing this to pass. And the discipling of the nations through the church is his means. So, we keep at it, longing that his will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Technorati Tags: Ministry, Sin

Thomas Friedman in The World Is Flat details the way in which technology has changed the world in which business is done in the 21st century. In that, he looks at the types of workers who will prosper in such a new world, and then he ponders what type of person will thrive as workers, and how we might as a society ‘train’ them. He concludes, and I am simplifying here, that those who are broadly educated with a curiosity to learn will do best. And it strikes me as to whether this is a new insight or not. I’m no scholar, but haven’t those with broad training and a curiosity to learn more always been at an advantage?

I’ll leave that for others to reflect on and/or prove or disprove. I am intrigued by how he suggests we come by curiosity to learn. Steve Jobs, he says, finally began to grow in this when he dropped out of college, but then dropped in and took for a time whatever classes he wanted, fueling the breadth of his knowledge and his curiosity.

But more to the point, Friedman says that those who are wanting to really be prepared need to find the right teachers. A student once asked him what courses he should take to learn how to learn. His response is intriguing:

“Go around to your friends and ask them just one question: ‘Who are your favorite teachers?’ Then make a list of those teachers and go out and take their courses – no matter what they are teaching, no matter what the subject.” It doesn’t matter whether they are teaching Greek mythology, calculus, art history, or American literature – take their courses. Because when I think back on my favorite teachers, I don’t remember the specifics of what they taught me, but I sure remember being excited about learning it.What has stayed with me are not the facts they imparted but the excitement about learning they inspirited.

The parenthesis in his final sentence is very important:

And while it seems that some people are just born with that motivation [to teach oneself], many others can develop it or have it implanted with the right teacher (or parent).

Technorati Tags: Education

I watched The Dark Knight Friday afternoon, along with, it seems, half the country. I’m not really prepared to say a great deal about it, though the rest of my family here loved it (one daughter and my wife saw it twice).

I’ve puzzled over my reaction to the film, though I will say that Heath Ledger‘s Joker is as good as everyone was saying it was. Surprising to me, though, was how good Aaron Eckhart played his part as Harvey Dent. And having just been to Chicago, I enjoyed spotting places I had been (a good portion of the film was shot in Chicago). The two and one half hours did not drag. I was thoroughly entertained.

That all said, I have been stumped and unable to put into words my thoughts regarding the film. Another, however, has done it for me, with greater sensitivity than I could ever have mustered. These comments are from Margie Haack who with her husband Dennis spearheads the ministry of Ransom Fellowship. Here is a portion of what she has said, but I encourage you to click through and read the whole:

At the end of the Dark Knight I was left in want of a hero large enough to make life meaningful again, someone who could bring light to the set, who could heal the lives ruined by injustice, crime, ambition, violence. The Batman, the faltering, finite hero we love, disappears into the night still determined to try to fix the world, but everyone, including him, knows how impossible and grievous this calling will be.

Technorati Tags: Movies

I’ve been thinking about Mike B. almost daily as he continues on his attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Marsha reports that he has but 600 more miles, or about 25 percent more of the trail in front of him. This is one LONG piece of real estate!

Some of us who are cheering him on might begin to think that he’s got this thing licked. My guess is that the longer he is on the trail, the more grit is necessary to continue pressing on.

In honor of Mike’s hike, I picked up and recently read Bill Bryson’s wonderfully funny and insightful A Walk in the Woods. There is much here that will give us average people insight into just how difficult and yet transcendent is this thing Mike is doing. (I heartily recommend the book. However, Mr. Bryson makes occasional use of words that most of us do not use in polite company. Don’t be surprised by that.)

A sobering reminder is given regarding where Mike will soon be:

“…when the northbound hiker leaves Vermont he has completed 80 percent of the miles but just 50 of the effort. The New Hampshire portion alone, running 162 miles through the White Mountains, has 35 peaks higher than 3000 feet. New Hampshire is hard.” (page 221)

He needs our continued prayers and cheering!

Heck… I need cheering. We all need cheering, come to think about it. When I turned forty, given a liberal estimate of an average lifespan, I had completed 50 percent of my “miles”. But looking back over the past ten years or so, it’s pretty clear that by forty, I think I’d only completed 20% of the effort.

Mike’s hike is a picture of perseverance in our Christian life and calling. We do not know how much effort yet lies ahead, but we need the prayers – and cheers – of others to keep us from turning back.

Technorati Tags: Dreams, Struggle

I was driving early this morning past a church whose illuminated message board, among other things, said this:

This is Gods’ church

Yes, exactly that, punctuation and all.

Me? I’ve been satisfied with monotheism, myself.

I was so bummed yesterday morning. The alarm went off and I leapt from bed to hit the ‘snooze’ button a few times to give myself an extra half hour sleep. I missed and hit the ‘off’ button instead, meaning that if I had gone back to bed, I would never have gotten up. I was bummed, you see.

So, I went to the living room to have my quiet time, which, had I successfully hit the ‘snooze’ button, I would have missed.

But, bummer, I’m reading in Numbers, and the chapters in my reading were about a plethora of sacrifices. Nothing redemptive or encouraging here, by any means. I was reading with a critical mind and heart. All of these sacrifices were an excessive expense. Exorbitantly wasteful. Hundreds of cattle and sheep, for what? I could not fathom the bloody wastefulness.

And then it hit me: if it was excessive and exorbitant to slaughter some cattle for my sin, how excessively exorbitant was it to slaughter the Son of God for the same? But that is what it took, and the Father was not unwilling to pay that price. And I don’t think he looks at me, in my sloth and rebellion, and says, “That was an excessive expense.” No. He determined to save me knowing who I am and what I do. He paid the price of his Son for this rotten apple of a man. Wow.

Suddenly, I was not so bummed.