Fish, God, and Men

Do you know why fish can't survive outside the water? As I understand it from my Chemistry professor, it's because water has a higher concentration of oxygen than air does. It's not that fish don't need oxygen, or that their gills couldn't get it from the air. They can. There just isn't a large enough percentage of oxygen in the air to sustain the fish before they died. They would need to take in much larger amounts of air than they would of water to get adequate oxygen, and in the time that it would take to get that much air, they would die.

For some reason, this came to mind as I was thinking while reading "Redeeming Love". Michael Hosea constantly talks to God and asks Him questions - specifically regarding his wife, Angel. In the book, Michael often talks and talks for a paragraph and then God answers Him with just a sentence or two - a few words. As I was reading, I wondered why God didn't say more, why He didn't elaborate, especially when Michael was struggling so much to understand. Then it occurred to me, maybe words are like oxygen. We have such a small "concentration", if you will, of wisdom in our words that we feel the need to talk and talk and talk to fully communicate our message. In contrast, God has all wisdom. The "concentration" is so high that He can say just a few words and communicate everything we need to know.

So instead of being discontent and angry with God for not saying as much as we would like, maybe we should listen to His quiet, simple messages - for therein is found all the wisdom we will ever need.

A Treasure That Can Never Be Stolen

"It is because we cannot be robbed of God's providence that we know, amid whatever encircling gloom, that all things shall work together for good to those that love him. It is because we cannot be robbed of God's providence that we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ-not tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword... Were not God's providence over all, could trouble come without his sending, were Christians the possible prey of this or the other fiendish enemy, when perchance God was musing, or gone aside, or on a journey, or sleeping, what certainty of hope could be ours? 'Does God send trouble?' Surely, surely, He and he only. To the sinner in punishment, to his children in chastisement. To suggest that it does not always come from his hands is to take away all our comfort."

- B.B. Warfield, quoted in Right Reason and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal, by Paul Kjoss Helseth.

Live Your Life in Him

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

- Colossians 2:6-7

Irreplaceable!

"In order to be irreplaceable, you must always be different."

The Cards of Our Lives

There is a card game known as “Phase 10”, and it has become a tradition in my extended family that every time we get together, we play it at least once. Tonight, as usual, I was playing with my aunts, uncles, and cousin after dinner. My aunt was dealing the cards and, as we picked up each card as she dealt it to us, loud complaints or exclamations were heard around the table as we received the bad or good card respectively. I was one of those commenting on the cards as I received them. At first, each card did not seem to form the needed set or run and I complained, “This hand stinks!” However, on one particular occasion, after I had all my cards, I found that I was only one card away from making my phase! Then it occurred to me how foolish it was to complain about the cards as we received them, before we could see what they formed in the end. At the same time, I realized how often we do this in life. Circumstances occur, accidents happen, unfortunate events take place, and what is our response? We complain, we gripe, and often tell God that He’s messing up. Yet how can we possibly do this justly when we don’t have the ability to see the whole picture - we don’t have all the proverbial “cards” yet. We’re judging each card as it comes along, thinking we know best what each one should be, while the whole time God is planning and ordaining each event (each card) to form the perfect finished picture (or hand of cards).

There is an expression - to erupt “half-cocked”. It means to get angry or upset before fully understanding the circumstances, or before thinking it through. We just get angry for no reason. I think this is what we are really doing when we get angry or disgruntled with God when we can only see a small part of the picture; or just one card out of the final ten. While we are receiving each card, we complain about how lousy it is. Yet at the end of the deal, we often realize, “Oh! I did need that card! Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make my phase.” I believe at the end of our lives, we will probably look back and see the unpleasant or tragic events and realize that they were a necessary part of the whole picture. In the meantime, perhaps we should strive to stop complaining at each individual “card” of our lives. Instead, we should wait to judge until we have all the “cards” - in eternity, when all things are fully explained. And as Christians, we should know that there it will be shown that God’s will was and always will be perfect! (Rom. 8:28)

Poison Ivy

My grandmother lives on a lake in Tennessee and we go there to visit her usually a few times a year. This summer, I visited there with some of my extended family. As several of us were walking back to the lodge after swimming, my uncle pointed out a patch of poison ivy in the woods. One of my aunts was unfamiliar with its appearance and wanted to know what it looked like so that she could avoid it, and help her children to avoid it, in the future. I was thinking about this later and it occurred to me that we should treat sin in the same way. As we walk through this life, we should take note of sin and temptations - we should be familiar with the ways in which Satan works so that we might recognize them in the future and avoid them. Yet, just as we don’t trample through the poison ivy in order to familiarize ourselves with it, we don’t need to actually indulge in a certain sin to be able to recognize and avoid it. Sometimes, however, we only recognize the sin when we feel or see the effects of it; just as sometimes we only notice a patch of poison ivy after we have already walked through it and a rash has appeared on our skin. The difference is that sin’s effects are much more detrimental and long-lasting than those of poison ivy...and none of us are immune. So as careful as we are to avoid trampling through poison ivy, we should be so much more careful to avoid the path of sin and temptation. We should also endeavor to warn others about the appearance of sin and temptation, just as my uncle warned my aunt about poison ivy, so that they will not be ensnared in it either. Moreover, if we are truly sincere in our desire to avoid poison ivy, we must be vigilant and observant of where we walk at all times lest we should be distracted by our surroundings for a moment and step into a patch while unaware. It is the same with sin and temptation. We must be constantly watching for it, not growing overconfident, lazy, or complacent; for it is when we let down our guard that Satan is free to have his way with us.

Remember! Be knowledgeable! Share this knowledge with others! And be vigilant in your efforts to avoid sin!

Longing for Autumn

It's that time of year again...the heat has been here for a couple of months and I am starting to truly long for the autumn again! This season, commonly referred to as fall, is a remarkable and stunning time of year - the leaves turn golden before fading into brown and retreating to the ground, cool breezes start to temper the sunny days, apple orchards are at their peak... This year I will spend the fall at Berry College (my soon-to-be home). I look forward to seeing the trees change color and the leaves pleasantly clutter the grass.

"To love is to be vulnerable"

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."

~ C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)

To Stand in the Presence of God

"I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news."

- Luke 1:19

The Inherent Hypocrite

Have you ever noticed that one tends to be much wiser and logical on paper than in reality? I find this tendency within myself constantly, much to my disappointment. I can have it all figured out when I'm writing it down and talking to others, but once it's time to put it into practice myself it gets hard. The inherent hypocrite is hard to overcome...

Still, I think writing the correct response or idea on paper is at least a step in the right direction. It's just, unfortunately, not the final step.

Changing the Question

After a conversation with my mom tonight, I was forced to wonder if I am going about deciding on a major/future job in the wrong way. She said that I should assess what my gifts are and then find a way to use those gifts in a way that helps others and glorifies God. It sounds so simple, yet I don't know that I ever thought about it quite with that focus. It is so easy to get caught up in "What do I want to do?" that sometimes I think I miss the "What can I do to help others given the gifts I have?" I believe which question you ask yourself originates from your original goal: either to do the best you can do in life, succeed, and make yourself happy and fulfilled or focus your life outside yourself and on others. The latter option requires you to see the point of your existence (or presence in the world) as to make the lives of others better or to somehow improve the world in a small way. It completely shifts your goal from having the best life you can to forgetting yourself in your efforts to dedicate your life to helping others, in whatever area you can. This doesn't mean you have to be a missionary or a doctor or a nurse. You can be anyone and do anything with this focus. No matter the occupation, you can do it with a selfish agenda or a selfless one.

Also, by starting with the original premise of assessing your gifts and going from there, you are more able to cut out wishful thinking and unrealistic ambitions. I am not suggesting that you shouldn't dream...but there comes a point when it would be a waste of time, money, and whatever your real talent is to pursue your wishful ambition. For instance, it would not be a good idea for a person who has dreams of becoming an actor to pursue it heedlessly if the said person had absolutely no acting talent potential.

So the question is no longer "What do I want to do?" but rather "What did God make me to do?" He made me expressly with certain gifts and talents in order to do something for His glory...the tricky part is figuring out what that is.

All Things are Relevant

"If Christianity should happen to be true -- that is to say, if its God is the real God of the universe -- then defending it may mean talking about anything and everything. Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true. [All] things not only may have something to do with the Christian God, but must have something to do with Him if He lives and reigns."

- G. K. Chesterton on Christianity

A Paper Jam (Dealing with the Crises of Our Lives)

In an episode of One Tree Hill, Julian finds Peyton crying in the copy room of a business. She smacks the printer out of frustration with her situation. He remarks that the problem was probably just a paper jam and not something to get worked up over. However, it's clear to him that there is something much deeper and more complex wrong than a mere paper jam. That is when Julian makes this insightful comment:

"You know the best thing about a paper jam? It forces you to open up the machine and see what went wrong in the first place."

Truth

“Truth ensures trust, but not victory, or even happiness.”

- Penelope Fitzgerald

Living in My Future's Past

Remember 8-track tapes, disco music, record players, bell-bottom jeans, and car phones? Me neither. These were all popular things and fads of my parents' generation, yet through the course of time, they have been restricted to faded black-and-white photos and fuzzy slides. American culture has quickly moved onto new fads: cell phones, video games, iPods, Dubstep music, and skinny jeans. Now, when our parents start talking about "When I was your age..." we laugh and mock the styles and ideas that were so popular at the time. Yet it occurred to me that while we mock our parents' generation, the things we so idolize and enjoy now will someday be mocked and ridiculed by the next generation. That's a rather interesting thought...

It also occurred to me that whatever I do now and whatever decisions I make, these are the stories I will someday have to tell my nieces and nephews. With that in mind, it makes me more cautious that I make wise decisions...knowing that I am not just living in my present...I am also living in my future's past.