Monday November 14th was a down day. Not sure why. Sometimes after a busy weekend I am emotionally flat. Tuesday dawned bright and cool. I rode my motorcycle down to the RnR. After coffee and prayer with my pastor friend Mike I was feeling better. Then as I motored down to Mardel’s, I caught a beautiful view of the mountains. I figured ‘1,000gifts’ would get me in the mood for Thanksgiving! And can you believe it? ‘1,000gifts’ was on sale! So I got two and two of Francis Chan’s ‘Erasing Hell’ the counter to Rob Bell’s ‘Love Wins’. That and a $1 Bill Bennett book and things were getting better by the minute. I had Christmas gifts! I picked up some free Irish Cream coffee before exiting Mardel’s to sit on a bench and sip and preview my cool books. A man driving a very old van stopped completely at the ‘in the middle of nowhere’ stop sign – I smiled. Then a very pregnant woman with a very happy 3 year old came by. The little one was skipping with joy and unsuccessfully keeping her giggles inside out of the sheer happiness of being alive and out with mommy. As I drove away, being careful to stop at that ‘in the middled of nowhere' stop sign, a mother and her toddler were meandering across the road in front of me. The little man spotted me, broke into a big smile and raised a mighty arm to point me out. My smile matched his. Things were looking up as I looked forward to getting home and digging in to Ann Voscamp's ‘One Thousand Gifts’. I walked into the house – the dog had pooped on the rug but it barely effected me. I put three pieces of Sunday’s left over pizza in the microwave – even though I knew it would probably kill me & settled in. I knew it was going to be a good Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Maybe I'm crazy
'All vows are rash.' 'All women are crazy.' 'Marriage; a duel to the death which no man of honor should decline.' GK Chesterton went on to suggest that two stubborn pieces of iron must become red hot to weld them together. He suggested that 'sex' was the gateway to adventure but too many people want to hang around the gateway instead of embracing the adventure (meaning getting into a real live relationship defined by marriage vows). He said that a vow is an invisible line tying a man to the future. Does this not make you want to jump right in? All of a sudden my vows to Kris are not old and boring but relevant, even exciting me to the future! I have a pet peeve. It's called a Christian life that is only 'positive and encouraging' and not 'dangerous and exciting'. It's called a life that is 'safe for the whole family' but not 'provocative and life stimulating' in the truth. God exists to bring us comfort and safety but not to challenge our small assumptions and transform our lives, not to steer our ship out of safe harbor. 'There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy.' Thank you Jim for inviting me to a seminar on GK Chesterton at Focus on the Family. It reminded me:
Boredom: 'Irreverence for the present;'
Baby: 'The kingdom of God; the most beautiful thing on earth.'
Automobile: 'A way of going very quickly when I am bored in London to bore somebody else in Yorkshire.'
Boredom: 'Irreverence for the present;'
Baby: 'The kingdom of God; the most beautiful thing on earth.'
Automobile: 'A way of going very quickly when I am bored in London to bore somebody else in Yorkshire.'
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Gratitude
Permit me to muse on about life with G.K. Chesterton a bit further. In 'Orthodoxy' he continues his theme of children being fierce and free with God-like enthusiasm. He suggests, 'A tree grows fruit because it is a magic tree. It is the man who talks about a law he has never seen who is a mystic.' 'Having a nose is more comic even than having a roman nose.' 'God made the frog jump; but the frog prefers jumping.' He returns to grownup land with, 'I could never mix in the common murmur of that rising generation against monogomy, because no restriction on sex seemed so odd and unexpected as sex itself. Keeping to one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman.' Here is the wrap up: 'The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth.' (p60)
GK Chesterton is explaining his journey from atheism to God. He suggests that it was the awareness of gratitude that caused him to think that there was magic in the world and behind the magic a Magician. One who delighted in surprising people of faith. One who delighted in their delight. I want to share the delight of children and discover God afresh!
One last thought: 'Humility was largely meant as a restraint upon the arrogance and infinity of the appetite of man. He was always outstripping his mercies with his own newly invented needs. His very power of enjoyment destroyed half his joys. By asking for pleasure, he lost the chief pleasure; for the chief pleasure is surprise. Hence it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything - even pride.' (p36)
GK Chesterton is explaining his journey from atheism to God. He suggests that it was the awareness of gratitude that caused him to think that there was magic in the world and behind the magic a Magician. One who delighted in surprising people of faith. One who delighted in their delight. I want to share the delight of children and discover God afresh!
One last thought: 'Humility was largely meant as a restraint upon the arrogance and infinity of the appetite of man. He was always outstripping his mercies with his own newly invented needs. His very power of enjoyment destroyed half his joys. By asking for pleasure, he lost the chief pleasure; for the chief pleasure is surprise. Hence it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything - even pride.' (p36)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
My God-drenched world
I read a book shortly after returning from 4 years in Tatarstan, Russia ten years ago that still affects me today. It's called, "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton. Despite its title, the incredibly long thoughts that sometimes stretch for pages at a time, and the fact that it was written in 1908 when GK was a young man - it is amazingly relevant. I'll let him speak for himself:
"...it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has an eternal appetite for infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a Theatrical encore."
(Ignatius Press reprinted 1995 pp65,66)
This is the enthusiastic God that my discouragements never mirror. This is the Lord of Creation that I go to for refreshment and rejuvenation. This is the eternally joyful God of the Bible who works good through all things. This is my Redeemer whom I worship. We are transparent before Him and constantly in need of His refreshment. Yet we hide.
"...it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has an eternal appetite for infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a Theatrical encore."
(Ignatius Press reprinted 1995 pp65,66)
This is the enthusiastic God that my discouragements never mirror. This is the Lord of Creation that I go to for refreshment and rejuvenation. This is the eternally joyful God of the Bible who works good through all things. This is my Redeemer whom I worship. We are transparent before Him and constantly in need of His refreshment. Yet we hide.
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