Note: This was originally posted at The Rabbit Room. Also, FYI FWIW: This is my 700th post here.

It’s a dangerous thing to be alive, where temptations to think we’re better than others are everywhere. Temptations to believe we deserve more, ubiquitous. Sinful pride is part of our awful inheritance, even when we’re depressed.

Sometimes I think it’s all about me, that even my failures are more important than they really are, or ever could be. It’s the smoking gun of pretended sovereignty, of usurpation. I sigh, denied.

And my sighs are the song of selfishness thwarted. Sighs pour forth from the fancy mouths of make believe monarchs, kings detecting treason in every ordinary frustration. Everyone is out to get the selfish man, because everything is about him.

I sigh because I’m a thirty-four year old man and crying in public is bad P.R.

If I sigh, a defeated, surrendering soul, I am blessed.

If I sigh, a frustrated king, an idolater whose god just did nothing again, I am a moaning idiot. I am slapping back at the gift-hand of my Father.

Who am I? Good question.

It’s the only question and only the right answer will serve.

Because from that answer I know my story and the danger then is in forgetting. We are skydivers all, but there is such a thing as a parachute. Remember?

Sighs are so often the evidence of my forgetting. They are the heaving woes of wounded idols. They are the crying out for water now, bread now, a return to the slavery of Egypt now.

But, though I am often a forgetter, I am never forgotten.

That makes me happy.

Don’t forget to remember who you are and remember not to forget it. And never never ever ever be redundant.

Speaking of redundancy: When my brothers and I were kids, my Dad had one instruction when he dropped us off anywhere. He would always say “Don’t forget whose boys you are.”

A good word.

Whose child are you? The answer to that question, for those in Christ by grace, is a sigh of relief.

Be relieved. Be happy. Sigh not so.

Images from Alan Jacobs, The Gospel of Trees

They posted this at the Rabbit Rom the other day. But here it is here. -Sam

This is very instructive stuff from King Of The Hill on many fronts. Watch it, if you are cool.

I know this can be argued many ways. King Of The Hill is not, sadly, the final word on this subject. But it seems worthy of sharing.

When relevance is king, the kingdom soon ceases to exist. And non-existence is not relevant.

Years ago my brother, Josiah, had a great line about the ubiquitous trend of “being relevant.” (You couldn’t brush your teeth without some one saying you could do it in a way that more relevant to people who love U2 and are addicted to Starbucks.) It’s the sort of thing my brother is always saying. Few words, deep and easy. It has stuck with me ever since.

“Reality is relevant.”

Let’s get real.

If you like NASCAR and not U2, that’s OK. If you hate Starbucks, but like Big Red, good. If you wear jorts and don’t know what a Mac is, bully for you.

My dad would often quote from his favorite cartoon from his childhood when trying to get us kids to see past whatever fad fascinated us for the moment.

“Always, always I tell you, Tootor. Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot.”

And “folks what do this” end up –paradoxically perhaps– being the most relevant. Because, as Josiah said, “Reality is relevant.”

Our identity (who we are) is tied up in this. If we are changing our behavior in an effort to be relevant –to appear to be what we are not– are we actually getting further away from resting in who we are in Christ? Are we trading in Monopoly money?

More can be said about this. What’s your take?

HT: Thabiti Anyabwile

“If I get 1,000 compliments and one insult, guess which one I listen to? The insult, of course. I have an unbelievable ability to ignore a swarm of positive words and camp out on the one negative.” Jon Acuff

Et tu, Acuff?  This is from a short post excellently titled, “Quit Giving The Haters PhDs.” He refers to the tendency in our minds to promote those who snipe and sideline those who encourage. No great formula, he simply says we should “stop it.”

Good advice.

There definitely seems to be something of our identity involved. Who do we listen to and why? Are we getting our identity from our Father, or from anywhere/everywhere/anyone else? Do we believe the extravagant truth of God’s love for those who belong to Christ? Do we operate out of that reality?

Why not?

I think I’d add to Jon’s good advice a bit (and I suspect he would too). We need to be intentionally preaching the Gospel to ourselves and focusing on belief over unbelief, on happily receiving the Good News.

The Devil’s name is Accuser. It’s what he does.

A further question, beyond who we listen to, is which kind of person are we in others’ lives? Is it our job to “set everyone straight,” and to make sure everyone says right things all the time?

Are we functioning more like the Holy Spirit (Advocating, Comforting), or the Accuser (throwing stones, devouring)? While loving correction and righteous anger are good things, do we major on conflict and anger? Do we believe the Holy Spirit is really pretty much an Accuser and that we are his agents in the world?

Is our life a kind of slander against God the Spirit?

Have you ever heard those phrases people come back with, like: “Don’t Hate…participate,” or, “Don’t hate…articulate?”

Try this phrase on for size.

Don’t hate, meditate.

Don’t hate: Don’t believe the lie that we are called to set everyone straight about ______ on the internet. Maybe we’re called to love? Love’s easier to hear when we’re not screaming, foaming at the mouth, or typing ALL CAPS!

Meditate: on the Good News of God’s radical mercy to us, his love for us in Christ and how the Holy Spirit advocates for us, comforts us. Meditate on how the point even of God’s correction of his kids is not punishment (our sin’s already been punished in Christ), but loving discipline toward more joy in him.

Maybe this little phrase will pop into our heads the next time the radio host, or blog writer, or Moralist preacher (or whatever Masters we serve) tell us to get mad about something. Maybe we can refocus when we’re commanded to go spy out whoever doesn’t agree with US and fight, fight, fight ‘em all till all compromisers and impure ones are defeated!

Yeah, let’s not do that. Let’s meditate on the Good News and be agents of Mercy and Reconciliation. Let’s do Truth and Grace! And maybe we should consider dumping the radio host/blogger/author/moralist preacher/slanderer who makes us so mad at “those people” and simultaneously puffs us up because we “just believe what the Bible says,” or some other proud pronouncement.

God have mercy on me, a sinner. God, thank you for loving me in an extravagant way, a saint!

“I am trying to recover a respect for the life of the Spirit that is revealed in Jesus and the Scriptures in contrast to a life that is defined by consumption and achievement, competition and psychological profiling. I am trying to develop an imagination that is immersed in the operations of the Trinity so that I will not be constantly seduced into thinking that spirituality is a way of managing my own life and the lives of others, my life with me in charge with an occasional assist from the Spirit. I am trying to practice a way of language that is personal, particular, relational, a language of poetry and parable and metaphor, a language that welcomes mystery and counters the bullying, propagandizing, sloganeering, cliched and abstracted use of language that dominates our schools, our workplaces, our media, and, sadly, our churches.”

Eugene Peterson

My friend Ken sent this to me. It reflects a lot of our recent conversations and the aspirations that keep coming up in them. I feel far from this, but my heart yearns for it. This might sum up what I pray God is doing in me, my family, my church, and my community right now better than anything else I’m aware of. It feels like it will require a miracle, that I’m up against the Red Sea and helpless. It feels like only God can do this thing in my heart. –Sam

Lately I’ve been feeling and seeing the need to reevaluate what merits arguing about. What is worth fighting for? Lately, there have been a couple of extra-heated internet debates which I’ve tried to stay out of. Some of it is actually encouraging, but some is just unbelievably sad. But it’s made me think about both what is worth arguing about and whether or not most of our arguments are very effective at all.

I feel like the “camp” that I come out of is very good at arguing and fighting, but not very good at living in a constructive, winsome way. Still trying to make sense of this myself. You too? While we do, let’s enjoy this video.

Regarding the quotation below, Zach Nielsen says, “Tozer was great, but don’t be like him in this way.” I srongly agree. Many Christian men (esp. leaders) are busy with many things and are easily tempted towards a lifestyle of neglecting our families and leaving to our wives great piles of lonely, largely-thankless work. Men, this should not be. This is the first province of our stewardship. We all fail in many ways, but failing here is like standing on the porch of our burning home aiming a water hose everywhere else.

“With a burning desire to learn and a keen sense of educational inadequacy, Tozer began to devote long hours to reading. He not only read a lot, his mind was preoccupied when he was home, as he continually sorted out ideas and wrote articles in his mind when he could not be alone to put them on paper.

“By early 1928 the Tozers had a routine. Aiden [Tozer] found his fulfillment in reading, preparing sermons, preaching, and weaving travel into his demanding and exciting schedule, while Ada learned to cope. She dutifully washed, ironed, cooked, and cared for the little ones, and developed the art of shoving her pain deep down inside. Most of the time she pretended there was no hurt, but when it erupted, she usually blamed herself for not being godly enough to conquer her longing for intimacy from an emotionally aloof husband.”

Lyle Dorsett, A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer, p. 81

“Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.”

Charles Spurgeon

Does this make us sad, irritated, indignant? Or does it cause a knowing smile to form on our lips? If the latter, it may be some evidence that we’re not trusting in our own goodness to rescue us. Which is a good sign. May it be so.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Luke 18:9-14 ESV)

This idea has been circling in on me more and more. The reason good teaching (right doctrine) is important is because it can connect us to the right story. The story of Jesus and his self-sacrificial, substitutional death –which atones for sin– is the central story of human history. By hearing that good news and then trusting in Jesus’ work on our behalf, we are rescued from our real guilt before God and welcomed into his family.

Belief in right doctrine doesn’t save. Jesus saves. Confidence in the fact that we have the proper formula doesn’t atone for sins. Jesus does.

It’s kind of a fine-ish line in one sense.

Here’s an imperfect, but perhaps helpful, illustration of this. A man might believe in the power, beauty, and goodness of marriage, understanding what it takes to get married, even down to having a marriage license lined up and all the books on marriage memorized. He may even have the woman picked out and be loyal to her. But getting married, actually marrying the woman you love, is different.

If we are resting in understanding the right formula of doctrine and not in Christ, we are lost.

I believe that the correct formulas are good and helpful –mainly as shorthand for the Story. They help when they point us to the real Jesus we read of in Scripture. It’s the real Jesus, not the formulas, who rescues us.

Look to him. And live.

Thankful? Or envious and angry (and nostalgic)?

Now, I understand that there are more ways to measure the health of a culture than by lifespan and wealth, but still, this is quite telling.

It’s a wonderful time to be alive in so many, many ways!

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?”

(Ecclesiastes 7:8-13 ESV)

Advent began this past Sunday. For those not familiar with it, it’s not something only Roman Catholics do, but an ancient Christian celebration (begun in 380 AD, I’m told) that is growing in popularity among ordinary evangelicals like me. So, it’ll probably be ruined real soon. (I jest. Sort of.)

For some reason, a lot of people ask us (my wife and I) about Advent. It’s probably because it’s kind of strange to our area and the traditions we grew up in. Sometime I’d like to write more about the subject at length (and not after it’s begun –duh). But today, I’d just like to write briefly about one reason we love it.

It gives us an intentionality we need to focus on the glory of God in Christ.

Like most people, we’re easily distracted and can be prone to “go with the flow” unless we intentionally, directly do something different. There’s a lot of common grace in the “Christmas Season,” and I’m thankful for that. But so much of it, as is well-documented/lamented, is counter-productive to our aims. The Advent season marks a graceful antithesis with the world system and the emptiness that it offers. We do gifts, stockings, trees, etc., so don’t get the wrong idea. In fact, we love all that stuff and feel like it only really makes sense in a Christian world. Otherwise, it just rings hollow. But materialism always makes a holiday into a hollow-day.

Is that the worst play on words ever? I’m not sure we can know the answer to that, but it feels like it.

And speaking of holidays (holy days). Please don’t buy into the “War on Christmas” hype. So much of the political TV-run moralism offers us a fight that we don’t need for ratings and attention they crave.

Advent-then-Christmas is a time when almost the entire world is presented with great blasts of light. Don’t walk in front of that and get cranky because a store employee says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas!”

The customer is not always right-eous. No need to campaign for pagans to keep a tame Christ in Christmas. Keep Christ before you, above you, behind you, below you, as our brother Patrick said. Get surrounded by Christ and not by ginned up political pettiness.

Remember mercy? Remember, mercy.

Instead of being petty, or going with the flow, why don’t we just live on purpose? Be beautiful, people. If we’re in Christ, then everything is ours. Advent is a reminder of the coming that broke open the floodgates of mercy and a focus on that coming again which will cover the earth in the rule of Christ the King.

We love practicing Advent because it’s life on purpose. It’s a named thing, a shaped and placed thing that helps us be who we are.