Virtues are funny things.
Virtues are the fruit of faith and whenever paraded, become parodies of themselves and the worst kind of vanity imaginable. When they are not the fruit of faith they become its greatest obstacle....
Take, for example, wisdom. Wisdom has at its source the "fear of the Lord" - the highest regard and reverence for Him. The tendency among many of us, though, is to confuse wisdom with omniscience and to think ourselves wise in proportion to how much stuff we know. God calls us to be wise and provides us with Christ. We pressure ourselves to be all-knowing and fret over where Cain got his wife and how the earth can be as young as the Scriptures claim when geologists say that it takes millions of years more than that to produce a barrel of oil. We tend to suspect that wisdom lies in the ability to answer imponderables rather than in Christ. And we sometimes end in self-contempt and even abandonment of our faith, not because our faith is false, but because we focused on a wisdom that is not a virtue but a vanity.
It is the same way with strength. God calls us to "be strong" and we mistake that for a call to omnipotence. We confuse strength to endure trials with an ability to walk unfrustrated through life. We convince ourselves that if we were strong we would never fail, never tire, never hurt, never need. We begin to measure strength in terms of ease of progress, equate power with success, endurability with invincibility and inevitably, when our illusion of omnipotence is shattered, we condemn ourselves for being weak.
God has called us to be lovers and we frequently think that He meant us to be saviors. So we "love" as long as we see "results." We give of ourselves as long as our investments pay off, but if the ones we love do not respond, we tend to despair and blame ourselves and even resent those we pretend to love. Because we love someone, we want them to be free of addictions, of sin, of self - and that is as it should be. But it might be that our love for them and our desire for their well-being will not make them well. And, if that is the case, their lack of response no more negates the reality of love than their quickness to respond would confirm it.
Love is a virtue and not a feeling. It is fed and fired by God - not by the favorable response of the beloved. Even when it doesn't seem to make a dime's worth of difference to the ones on whom it is lavished, it is still the most prized of all virtues because it is at the heart of the very character of God. By loving we participate in His Life and Essence. When we stoop to bait and buy good behavior we are no longer loving as God loves. We are manipulating and cheapening the dignity of the person whom we are called - not to save, not even to change - but to love. If real salvation is possible (and we know it is) it is because real love is there. And love that is real, love that is truly a virtue and not just an act - agape love - gushes from God through those who know Him. It is not strung along by those who don't. (Rich Mullins, "Virtue Reality", Release Magazine, July-August 1994)
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Truth is...The more we try to knuckle down hard and produce good fruit like wisdom and strength and love, the more disappointed in ourselves we will be. That's called walking by sight and it's a recipe for depression and disaster. Our call is to allow the Holy Spirit - "Christ in [us], the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) - to grow His goodness within us...and then let it spill out and drench everyone we come in contact with.
I'm in the midst of reading CASH: The Autobiography, by Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr, and particularly enjoyed The Man In Black's account of when his voice went from a boyish tenor to his manly baritone/bass.
I was singing as I walked in the back door, and [my mother] wheeled around from the stove in shock and said, "Who was that?"
I sang some more for her, exploring my new range, and as I found out how deep I could go, her eyes teared up and she said, "You sound exactly like my daddy." Then she said, "God has His hand on you, son. Don't ever forget the gift."
I don't think Moma really wondered who was singing; she knew it was me. And that was the first time I remember her calling my voice "the gift." Thereafter she always used that term when she talked about my music, and I think she did so on purpose, to remind me that the music in me was something special given by God. My job was to care for it and use it well; I was its bearer, not its owner."
Truth is...any innate ability or talent any of us has can rightly be called a gift. We have not, nor cannot, create them. We can certainly develop them, harness them, and train ourselves to use them with excellence, but their existence within us is absolutely dependent on the grace of God.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 (NIV)
According to every sports-related movie I've ever seen - and when it comes to sports, watching movies is the only experience I have to go on - to "take a knee" means to gather around the coach and listen up because he's about to lay some important words on you.
Of course, for the past several weeks, the idea of football players taking a knee carries a totally different meaning.
For those on one side, it is a form of silent protest against the inequality and injustice that exists within the borders of "the land of the free and the home of the brave". For those on another side, it is a disgusting show of disrespect for those who have fought and died for the star-spangled banner that is our nation's flag.
For me, taking a knee is something completely different.
- It is the first step in retrieving one of Beloved's earrings from under the bedroom dresser.
- It is a necessary posture to get eye-to-eye with my grandchildren; either to let them know I love them or to let them climb onto my back.
- It is a sign of humility before the almighty Creator God.
If I were to kneel in protest of anything it would also be completely different.
- I would kneel to protest my lack of kneeling to pray.
- I would bend my knee to protest the bending of my will toward the things of this world instead of the things of God.
- I would collapse in grief to protest the sickness of human hearts and the greatness of my own selfishness, greed, and gluttony.
- I would lay spread eagle on the ground in utter amazement at the One who sacrificed all so I could be free from sin's stranglehold.
Truth is...my life could do with a little more of that kind of humility, amazement, and life-changing grief.
You may be surprised to hear that Jesus didn't feel like He could depend on Himself.
I mean, there He was, God in the flesh. Able to heal the sick, raise the dead, and leap tall buildings in a single bound, but, according to Hebrews 2: 11-13, not comfortable in seizing the day without the Father's active presence.
So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.” (NLT)
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Truth is...(From my journal, February 20, 2001) If the Son of God saw the need to rely on Yahweh and not Himself, how much more must I (one who has the same Father) abandon all hope of self-sufficiency and throw myself into the loving care of the Most High God?
Because his video for "The Color Green" was in black and white, and the one for "Here in America" was filmed in Ireland, it is somehow fitting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of singer/songwriter Rich Mullins' death by reprinting the first of a series of articles he wrote for Release magazine; this one published in Spring 1991.
The only thing worse than a joke you don't get is the explanation that is bound to follow: an explanation that, while it may help you see why you should have seen the humor that you so lamely missed, is little likely to make you laugh. It may provoke you to muster a sympathy snicker so as to avoid more of an already tedious and misdirected lecture. It may inspire a mild giggle of recognition, but it will hardly ever raise a real belly-laugh, which was the original desired effect.
And so, here I go - me and a dozen thousand other people - trying to explain a joke that we would do better to learn to better tell. I am setting out to explain again why Jesus is the only true hope for the world, why we should put our faith in Him and what all of that won't mean. I am collecting the information, selecting from what I hope will be usable as evidence, arranging my findings into arguments, framing it for presentation and recognizing that, while it may all be fine as far as it goes, it doesn't go far enough.
But then I remember two things. The first thing I remember is how I once won an argument with a heathen friend of mine who - after I had whacked away his last scrap of defense, after I had successfully cut off every possible escape route that he could use, after I had backed him into an inescapable corner and hit him with a great inarguable truth - blew me away by simply saying, "I do not want to be Christian. I don't want your Jesus Christ." There was no argument left to be had or won. Faith is a matter of the will as much as it is of the intellect. I wanted to believe in Jesus. My friend wanted to believe in himself. In spite of how convincing my reason was, my reason was not compelling.
So, the second thing I remember is this: I am a Christian because I have seen the love of God lived out in the lives of people who know Him. The Word has become flesh and I have encountered God in the people who have manifested (in many "unreasonable" ways) His Presence; a Presence that is more than convincing - it is a Presence that is compelling. I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts, who through their explanation of it, held it together so that I could experience it and be compelled by it to obey. "If I be lifted up," Jesus said, "I will draw all men unto me."
So, here I offer what is possibly the worst thing that can be offered: an explanation of a joke. And, what makes this more inexcusable than the fact that this is that, is the added fact that this is an explanation to a joke you've already gotten. I offer it anyway. I offer it in the hope that it might somehow encourage you to live out your lives and, by your living, tell the joke that I, in my writing, so feebly attempt to explain. Love one another, forgive one another, work as unto God, let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts. Make it your ambition to lead quiet lives. Obey. Greet one another with a holy kiss. No one will argue with that.
And I will keep rattling on about how good it all is and won't expect to be taken too seriously. I and a dozen thousand other bores will fill up book shelves and record bins and magazine racks with writing that is fine as far as it goes - hoping that it will help you somehow to go farther. Much that I have read has challenged my opinion and hardened my convictions - I am thankful for it. It is for you (and for me, more in my living than in my writing) to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.
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Truth is...In the words of Meredith Wilson (The Music Man), "You can talk, you can talk, you can bicker, you can talk, you can bicker, bicker, bicker..." but it is by living out the truth of the Gospel with a transformed life that those around you will come to know Jesus.
Oh, the needless anxiety we heap upon ourselves.
Allow me to use a recent Sunday comic from Sandra Bell Lundy's Between Friends as an example.
Regular character, Susan, is in the grocery store and sees a stranger with gray hair. Of course, Susan starts comparing herself to the stranger and ends up feeling inferior.
Little does Susan know what's going on in the stranger's mind.
Truth is...Comparing ourselves to our idealized assumptions about other people often has negative results for everybody involved. Be yourself, as God created you to be. That's beYOUtiful enough.
If you've been around Truth is... for a while, you know I try to keep things positive as much as possible.
Today, it might be a struggle to live up to that precedent, but I'll give it a shot.
Most-notably with the recent weather-related emergencies in Texas, but also widespread across the social media landscape, there have been uncountable uses of variations on the theme "Our thoughts and prayers are with you."
- We're thinking of you!
- We would appreciate any positive thoughts you could send our way.
- Our thoughts and prayers go out for...
Let's look at each of these specific examples:
We're thinking of you - This seems to be a non-religious synonym for "We're praying for you"...meant to be an encouragement to the person hearing it. But why would it be an encouragement? If we don't believe in the power of prayer to affect change, what possible use would it be to think about a person and their negative situation? Wouldn't it be better to say "You've crossed my mind and I'm on my way over"?
We would appreciate any positive thoughts you could send our way - Apparently, the speaker isn't comfortable asking for prayers, but has faith that people thinking positive thoughts about them will be of some use. And if "positive thoughts" is politically-correct code for "prayers", why send them toward anyone other than God?
Our thoughts and prayers go out for... - I really don't get this. If I'm going to pray for someone, I'm going to pray for them: ask the Lord of all creation to intervene on their behalf. How does additionally sending "thoughts" into the ether have any bearing on what may or may not happen?
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Truth is...for Christ followers, prayers are powerful tools for making the world a better place. For non-believers, who think that prayers are nothing more than wishful thinking, wishful thinking is all they can offer. And for both groups, linking those thoughts or prayers to actual involvement where the rubber meets the road is the best of both worlds.
