Leap Year Tradition

According to legend, St. Patrick said that yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year, because women had been complaining about having to wait so long for men to propose. In 1288 Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose to the man of their choice on February 29, and any man who declined must pay a fine--which could be a kiss, payment for a silk dress, or a pair of gloves.

You learn something new every day!

SO post-modern.

I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately, just blogging in general (sparked by the recent veritas blog post), and it reminds me of post-modernism. Blogging embodies so much of what post-modern is in and of itself--people are communicating and conversing with their own thoughts and opinions, so much dialogue is happening back and forth. No one may necessarily be "right" or hold absolute truth, but the conversation is ongoing.

I think this is good because there needs to be conversation, and substantial conversation at that. And by conversation I mean the presentation of ideas back and forth, the responses to what someone writes. There must be a safe place for this, and I think in a way blogs provide that. People can anonymously read and react to different ideas they are digesting, thinking about things they might never have thought about.

But where is the line drawn between blogging and reality? Because ultimately, there IS Truth that can be known. Maybe blogging can lead someone closer to that Truth, and maybe it can lead someone down a wrong path. We need to continually be testing what we are believing with what we know to be right--Scripture.

Just some thoughts. And for kicks, this blog post was so post-modern too.

"Caregiver of the Year"

Every month I get the new issue of MS Connection, a publication of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I love reading it for so many reasons, but mostly because it inspires me to serve and to realize that I am so blessed by the people who surround me and the health I have been given. The 2007 Annual Achievement Awards are in, and I wanted to highlight the Caregiver of the Year, Cliff Lindemann:

"When you look up the definition of caregiver, my husband's picture should be there," says Desra Lindemann, wife of Cliff. Desra was diagnosed with MS 26 years ago and at the age of 26. At the time, they had two young children, ages three and seven. Cliff held her in his arms all night as she cried the day she heard the news. Now after 33 years of marriage she is still being held. Cliff has worked at Contintental Tire in Mt. Vernon, Illinois for 31 years and has turned down numerous promotions so he would be available to help Desra pursue her dream of becoming a cheerleading coach, which she accomplished. Through the years, Cliff has always made sure that Desra made it to every practice and every game. His faily routine has been to get her out of bed in the morning, bathe her, shave her legs, fix her hair, take her to the bathroom, dress her, feed her--then kiss her.

After arriving home from a 10-hour workday, he kisses her again, then begins the household chores. He doesn't complain, he just smiles and tells Desra that he loves her. "He is my rock," says Desra. "When God made Cliff, He knew what I would need in life to get me through this."

I just love that picture of love, of compassion, of service. It is such a great example of taking the lowly place, the place that is not in the spotlight and the place that doesn't get much recognition. I'm sure Cliff would never have chosen this place, this life--yet he accepts it despite the fact that he hadn't planned on it--and does so with a contentedness that I cannot even imagine. His day-to-day life is not envied by our culture. What happens when a curveball is thrown your way? God can and will still be glorified wherever he has called us--and living within His will will bring us more joy than we could never image, and it will leave us more satisfied that we could ever have thought possible.

Get to Know Tim Keller

He wrote the Reason for God...
He pastors a church in New York City...
He really likes baseball...

Tim Keller is pretty great. Read an interview about him and his new book here. He talks a lot about his church, C. S. Lewis, and how Christians should be apologists.

The Heart of Prayer by Jerram Barrs

I picked up Jerram Barrs' new book at the L'Abri conference called The Heart of Prayer and wanted to write a little bit about it. It intrigued me for a couple of reasons: 1. It's Jerram, so of course it's going to be good! 2. Prayer is something that I feel like I continually fall short in, and for reasons that I don't always know. When I'm honest with myself, I can see that this is an enormous weakness in my life. I for sure can stand to learn more about prayer--I want to do something about this sense of "poverty in my prayer life."

Jerram writes in such a way that isn't condemning, but is still voicing truth in every sentence. He continually shows Jesus' teaching and examples for us in a way that is so encouraging, and he provides questions at the end of each chapter for reflection.

Some of my favorite passages so far:

"Prayer is not a performance in which we are trying to prove something to God about our depth of theological understanding or our skills of eloquence. Nor is prayer a performance in which we seek to impress our fellow believers about these things. And prayer is certainly not a performance in which we are to appraise and applaud ourselves for theological acumen or verbal gymnastics. Prayer is talking to God; prayer is not about trying to feel better about ourselves" (18).

"The truth is that the New Testament teaches us that we are called to walk by faith now rather than by sight, and so we must be content with not always, or with only rarely, or maybe even not at all, having intense experiences of the Lord's presence (22).

"Prayer is our response to God, the God who graciously invites us to come to him with our thanksgiving and requests. He is never indebted to us; we are always indebted to him. We cannot manipulate him into a position where we can make him answer us--no matter how much time, how much emotional energy, how much spiritual fervor, or how much frequency of prayer we offer to him. We are always beggars who are completely dependent on his generous kindness to us. We are not those who can bargain with him on the basis of our perceived spiritual power or faithfulness" (22-23).

"We should remember that the Lord wants us to be specific, for it is only as we face up to the practical reality of our failing to love God and to love our neighbor that we begin to see the seriousness of our sins" (34).

"When we start praying for people, we must begin to stop hating them!" (35)

"If we actually succeed in observing the disciplines, and so increase the time, frequency, and passion of our prayers, there is the danger of spiritual pride. We easily begin to believe that we know God better, that our relationship with him is becoming deeper, and perhaps even that he loves us more because we are doing well at our devotions" (60).

"Or if, on the other hand, we find ourselves failing at the disciplines, we become miserable. We become confused and depressed about the poor state of our devotional lives. We are tempted to believe that God loves us less because of our weak prayer lives" (61).

"He is eager to hear us tell him that we are full of gladness and joy because of the beauty of spring, because of the glory of a fall day, or because of the splendor of a night sky. He wants praise to burst out in our prayers and songs to overflow from our hearts (prayers and songs that no one hears but him) because we are so pleased to be loved and forgiven by him. He wants us to be so full of wonder and delight that we pray secretly without the knowledge of others in our household. He wants us to pray when we are in bed lying awake, when we are washing the dishes, when we are in the yard weeding the flowers, when we are driving our cars, when we are working around the house" (70).

"The Challenge of Hospitality in Our Contemporary Culture"

This past weekend was the L'Abri conference up in Rochester, MN (check out their website--www.labri.org) and like last year, I am left with so much to think about and process.

My favorite lecture this year was one that I went to hesitantly on hospitality in our culture--I am so glad that I went to this one because it changed and affirmed my views on what this really looks like and why it is so necessary.

Andrew Fellows, who gave the lecture, referenced Matthew 25, where Jesus offers a good description of hospitality: "when i was a stranger, you welcomed me." Early church fathers saw hospitality as central to the gospel, the primary means of imitating Christ. This is the heart of L'Abri's purpose and function, and this is what makes it such a unique ministry. I think that's why I liked the talk so much, because so many examples of L'Abri were used.

A lot of times we think of hospitality as welcoming in friends, and I think it is that, but I think it is also welcoming the stranger, the person who truly needs to feel loved and welcome and who needs a place to go.

The welcome we give strangers reflects the heart of Christianity and enacts the gospel, showing it in a real and concrete way. It is the most powerful sacrament of the love of God. What helps people the most at L'Abri is receiving the welcome that is offered to them. There were multiple people who commented during the discussion about how much that meant to them. Tears flowing down their faces showed their gratitude that there was a shelter they could go to, with someone opening up their lives to them, truly loving them as someone who is made in the image of God. That is the welcome of Christ to us: his door is opened wide and his love is there for us to run to, and when we enter his presence we are filled with a gratitude that this is even possible.

I think this is so counter-cultural to everything we see: we walk down the street and don't make eye contact, people are uncomfortable if you smile at them, and the thought of meeting your neighbors--much less having them over for dinner--strikes an uncomfortable nerve. We hang out in Memorial and talk to only the people we know, and we feel like someone has invaded our space if they sit at our table at a coffee shop, simply because this drives us out of our comfort zone.

Welcoming people gets to the heart of the "glorious ruin" principle that Francis Schaeffer talked about so much. While sin has damaged the goodness of creation, there is still a glory there that is reflected from God. You touch the glory and dignity of a person when you welcome them, but you also touch someone who is very broken and needy, no matter who they are. What is so cool about this picture of hospitality is that it solidifies the position that everyone is on level ground at the foot of the cross. We need his grace and welcome, and hospitality enacts this. There is something glorious to that.

the beginning of pain.

here's a really interesting article regarding whether or not fetuses can feel pain in the womb.

"As NICU technology improved, the preterm infants he cared for grew younger and younger — with gestational ages of 24 weeks, 23, 22 — and he noticed that even the most premature babies grimaced when pricked by a needle. “So I said to myself, Could it be that this pain system is developed and functional before the baby is born?” he told me in the fall. It was not an abstract question: fetuses as well as newborns may now go under the knife. Once highly experimental, fetal surgery — to remove lung tumors, clear blocked urinary tracts, repair malformed diaphragms — is a frequent occurrence at a half-dozen fetal treatment centers around the country, and could soon become standard care for some conditions diagnosed prenatally like spina bifida. Whether the fetus feels pain is a question that matters to the doctor wielding the scalpel. And it matters, of course, for the practice of abortion."

theology: does it even matter?

yesterday i was having a conversation with someone and they said something like, "i'm sick of people talking about theology, talking about something that doesn't even matter. we just need to love people." i want to disagree with that statement, because i think that theology does matter--and it goes hand in hand with loving people.

a. w. tozer wrote that "what you believe about God is the most important thing about you." when you think about it, it makes sense. how we see God changes us; our beliefs really do make us who we are. if i don't truly believe that i am accepted fully in Christ, i'm going to struggle with self-image and trying to please the people around me. if i think that i came to God on my own, i'm going to have pride issues and see myself greater than i really am. if i don't want to learn about the state of our culture, i'm not going to be the best person to engage with it.

i think that i've found that the more i dig into theology, the more i see God for who he truly is. the more i learn about his Word and the more i understand my Bible, what i am reading, and the people around me, the more equipped i am to handle hard questions, to handle humanity that surrounds me. i have a keener eye for darkness in my own life and in our world. and i am more moved to love out of the love that God has for me, because it is continually proven to me over and over again--something i desperately need because of my unbelief. but if i wasn't learning and thinking, i think my heart would get harder than it already is at the pace of a roadrunner. i would be dead in both mind and spirit, and i would never be refreshed. i want to have a more right theology tomorrow than i do today, i want to get closer to God's truth than i have ever been before.

2008 book list

check out andy patton's "5 books i want to read in 2008" book list on the veritas blog. i think i am most excited about tim keller's book coming out!

reaching out without embracing sin.

In the latest issue of Critique (a ransom fellowship publication), there was a letter to the editor that was really interesting to me. It responded to a lecture that told a story about “a church providing help to a pregnant couple who lived near the church who happened to be lesbians. Estranged from their families, they had no one to give them a baby shower, to provide meals, or to be with them during the births of their child. The church decided to offer them these practical expressions of care and love.” The letter written in regard to this asked questions like ‘what does it look like for the church to open our arms in situations like this without appearing to be embracing their sin?’ and ‘how do we be faithful without driving current members away who might be offended by the church’s choice?’

I thought this was really interesting in many respects; one, how great it is that a church would do this in the first place, and two, how much the Christian culture rejects being faithful over reputation. It is such a good picture of the church—this is what we are called to do, to reach out to our city, to those around us, and show them love in a practical and real way.

Denis Haack (who will be speaking at the L’abri conference!) had a great response. Whenever we offer help to anyone we are offering help to sinners; it makes no difference what the sin(s) are. He said that “there is only one category of person: all have sinned.” And if helping a fallen person means that we are endorsing or embracing their sin, then we could help no one. But why isn’t this understood by many? Why do we have such legalistic view of the world and our lives within it? Jesus himself ate with people who many believers, like the Pharisees, found undesirable. He was criticized for it and looked down upon.

Haack states, “The church needs to be faithful to teach the people of God what it means to truly follow Christ. Just as he was never aloof from fallen people in a broken, messy world, so we too must live in a way that incarnates grace.” Paul also spells out to us how Christ instructs his followers not to judge:

“I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave the world… What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” -- 1 Corinthians 5:9-13

If we refuse to associate with sinners, we are disobeying this clear instruction of Scripture. Haack closes his response with this: Christ’s sharpest criticism and most scathing rhetoric was leveled against those who imagined they would be contaminated by associating with fallen people.

“After all, what could be wrong with having a good reputation, with not offending fellow believers, with not hanging out with bad people? According to the example of Christ and the teaching of Scripture, everything.”