Author: jbwatson

Jason B. Watson is a follower of Christ who enjoys "thinking out loud" when he has time to do so.

A Daily Wrestling Match

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I can say with certainty that I have watched more wrestling in the past two months than I had in my entire life. Neither of the schools I have served in before coming to SBA had wrestling programs, and the only time I had ever been to a wrestling match was when I was in high school and the pep band was playing (I was in the pep band). I can say with confidence, though, that I spent more time talking to my friends while we were not playing than I did watching the wrestling. I have nothing against wrestling–it’s just not my thing.

However, as I have watched wrestling in recent weeks I cannot help but think of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians when he discusses the spiritual wrestling match that believers are engaged in every day:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).

I have learned a few things about human vs human wrestling: there are definite rules about what the wrestlers can and cannot do, and the wrestlers are usually completely exhausted by the time their match is over, regardless of whether they won or lost. The wrestlers are also required to be properly attired, including their headgear.

Spiritual wrestling isn’t quite like that. Satan doesn’t have many rules he has to follow. In fact, short of any limits God may place on what he can do–such as when He told Satan not to touch Job but to do whatever else he pleased, and then told him he could do whatever so long as Job was not killed–Satan pretty much has free reign. He doesn’t have a mat he has to stay on, he doesn’t have guidelines about the kind of holds that he can use, the methods or approaches of attack, and the only clock he has to concern himself with is the one that expires when our lives are over. Until then, he can keep coming at us as often, as long and as hard as he wants.

Another clear difference between human and spiritual wrestling: we cannot see our opponent in spiritual wrestling! The wrestlers I have watched keep their eyes fixed on their opponent as long as they are both on their feet, watching for when the opponent may make a move. While I suppose there could be one, I have never seen a blind wrestler, and I cannot imagine trying to wrestle an opponent I could not see. And yet Paul makes it clear that that is exactly what we must do, because we cannot see Satan. We cannot see the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers; we cannot see the spiritual forces of evil. We can see their influence around us, and we can feel it when we get taken down, though.

Thankfully, we do not wrestle alone! Immediately before and immediately after verse 12 Paul reminds the church at Ephesus–and believers today–that we must “put on the whole armor of God” in order to be able to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (v 11) and “to stand firm” (v 13). When I was in the classroom regularly I would tell my students early in each school year, “If I repeat something, that is a pretty good indication that it is something you need to know!” The same is true for Paul; that he repeated the instruction to clothe ourselves in the “whole armor of God” in order that we may not be taken down in the spiritual wrestling match is an excellent indicator of the importance of what he is saying!

Just like the wrestling matches I have watched on the mat, spiritual wrestling can be exhausting–especially if we are not adequately prepared, attired and focused on the issue at hand. I must be prepared for the daily wrestling match by equipping myself through prayer and Bible reading. I must dress myself in the armor of God, every day. The wrestlers at SBA don’t put on their wrestling suits once; they put them on every time they are going to step onto the mat. We must do the same thing spiritually. Satan doesn’t care if I am properly attired or not; he will come after me regardless.

I must also focus–I must be on the lookout for the attacks of Satan. Even when I do all of this, though, I may get exhausted by the fight. Thankfully, the same God who provides us with our armor for battle also provides us with nourishment and refreshment and strength when we need it–and ask Him for it.

Tomorrow when I wake up I’m going to think about the alarm clock not as just a buzzer to wake me up; rather, it is the whistle indicating the start of another wrestling match. And as soon as my feet hit the floor, I’m on the mat.

Developing a Mindset

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Since I started blogging regularly a few months ago I have noticed that I often find myself “seeing” lessons in the every day activities of life. Knowing that if I want to blog regularly I will need to continue to need new things to blog about has caused me to approach life with a different perspective. Not that I never saw lessons in life before, or never saw how God was at work around me, but the act of blogging has caused me to develop a mindset whereby I am on the lookout for them. I have never had any lasting success when I have tried journaling, so I cannot say if it is the same thing or not, but I suspect it is similar.

In fact, I have found that blogging has had an impact on me similar to what Ann Voskamp describes in her book One Thousand Gifts. The book grows out of a list that resulted from an e-mail Voskamp received from a friend asking her if she could name one thousand things for which she was grateful. So Voskamp started keeping a list, and as she did so she found that her outlook changed. She began to recognize and appreciate things that she perhaps had not before, to realize how many things for which she was grateful she had previously taken for granted, and to realize how the attitude of thankfulness could completely transform her life. Voskamp’s list was wide ranging; for some of the items it seems one would certainly express gratitude, others it is easy to see how they might be unrecognized when the heart and mind are not tuned to seek out reasons to be thankful. “Morning shadows across the old floors” are pretty neat, if you think about it, but how many of us do–stop to think about it, I mean? Number 22 on her list is “Mail in the mailbox.” I can remember in college how important it was to me to get mail, and how thankful I was when I did receive a letter from a family member or friend, but I can’t really remember the last time I expressed thankfulness for mail. How many of us would think to record our thankfulness for “new toothbrushes” (number 526 on Voskamp’s list)? In the grand scheme of things I am sure we are much more likely to give thanks for the “forgiveness of a sister” than for “nylons without runs” (Voskamp’s 783 and 664 respectively). And one may indeed be more important than the other–but should we only be thankful for the important things?

In the same way, I am not certain that I would have recognized the lessons I found in gleaning corn or being awakened in the middle of the night by a cat stuck in the bathroom were my mind not already being transformed and refocused by the act of regularly taking time to express thoughts and life lessons through this blog.

Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind….” I have known this verse for years. I have, I trust, a mind that is more transformed than conformed, and yet recent months have revealed to me just how far I still have to go. The dust jacket of Voskamp’s book includes the statement that, “[I]n giving thanks for the life she already had, she found the life she’s always wanted.” In developing the mindset of looking for lessons and biblical truths in the everyday experiences of life I have found just how many of them there really are. I have not done anything out of the ordinary or changed my habits any since I started blogging, yet the impact of the events of my life is now far greater. My life didn’t change…my mindset did.

A Very Slippery Slope

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WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS REFERENCES TO BEHAVIORS THAT READERS MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE AND OFFENSIVE. DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has received considerable grief and accusations of bigotry for asserting–and standing by his assertion–that expanding the definition of marriage could serve as the beginning of a pathway that could lead to further expansions of marriage to include any number of possible combinations. If marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is okay, why not between one man and two women? Or one woman and three men? Why not between a human and an animal? Or between an adult and a child? Many who support homosexual marriage have blasted Senator Santorum for his position, and have also accused him of both using such statements in an attempt to scare people and of being ignorant and disconnected from reality. However, I am not ashamed to say that I agree with Senator Santorum, and I think that there is ample evidence to support his position.

Until 1973 homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. Look out how far America has moved in the ensuring 39 years: homosexuality is regularly depicted on television and in movies, homosexual marriage is now legal in several states and the District of Columbia, and homosexuality is widely portrayed to be a biological predisposition. In other words, homosexuals are “born that way” the argument goes. Furthermore, those who most adamantly support homosexual marriage have called it the Civil Rights Issue of Our Day! Please do not misunderstand me when I say, in response, “That’s ridiculous.” The color of someone’s skin is, without a doubt, something that person is born with, and it is not anything that a person can change (with the possible exception of through expensive and dangerous surgical procedures or drugs). Alan Keyes once said, referring to the old habit of calling African-Americans people of “the colored persuasion,” that “persuasion has nothing to do with it.” Even if one were to grant that homosexuality is an innate, even a genetic, characteristic (which I do not), someone can choose not to engage in homosexual behavior. A person cannot choose to change the color of his or her skin. Accordingly, to suggest that people who choose to engage in homosexual behavior should receive the same legal rights and protections as people who do not choose to do so, and that not allowing them these rights is tantamount to denying equal rights and equal protection to African-Americans or others on the basis of their skin color is absurd.

But the issue for which Senator Santorum has received the strongest attacks is not his opposition to gay marriage (after all, that position hardly makes him unique) but his insistence that granting homosexual marriage could lead to a further expansion of what marriage includes. I must ask, with the Senator, why would it not? Once homosexuality is widely accepted (if it isn’t already), why would we not think that polygamy will be next? Or pedophilia? Or bestiality? After all, it has been only 39 years since homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, let alone morally wrong. It has not been all that long ago that homosexuality began to be portrayed on TV and film, and no it is difficult to find a show on network or cable television that does not include a gay or lesbian character. Remember, it was only 15 years ago that Ellen DeGeneres “came out of the closet.” Remember the uproar that caused?

The groundwork is already being laid for the polygamy. There are at least two “hit shows” that are centered around the very idea: HBO’s Big Love is a drama about a polygamist and his three wives. TLC’s Sister Wives is a reality show about a polygamist, his four wives and their sixteen combined children. (They get around laws banning polygamy by only one of the four marriages being a legal marriage). Why would we not think that as soon as homosexuals are allowed to marry that polygamists would not demand the same right? (And quite frankly, if we buy into the arguments used by the homosexual side of the argument, how could we justifiably refuse to grant the same right to polygamists?)

Sadly, polygamy is perhaps the least scary of the possible expansions of marriage that we find along the slippery slope. Pedophilia is defined as “sexual desire in an adult for a child.” Think that approval of that wouldn’t happen? Don’t be so fast. There is a non-profit organization in Maryland called B4U-ACT that has been speaking out on behalf of pedophiles since 2003. The group uses the less-offensive term “minor-attracted people.” They claim there are as many as 8 million men in the U.S. who are attracted to minors. (The December 17, 2011 issue of World discusses the groups efforts to revise the DSM-IV and remove any stigma associated with pedophilia). Homosexuality is now considered just another sexual orientation. Rarely now is it even referred to as an alternative lifestyle; it is just one lifestyle on the menu of options. So why would pedophilia not become just one more option? There have been scholarly articles suggesting that adult-minor sexual activity is not only not necessarily wrong, but is even healthy, provided that both parties are consenting participants.

If homosexuality is okay, then polygamy becomes okay, and even pedophilia eventually becomes okay, why wouldn’t bestiality be okay too? If one person is genetically predisposed to sexual attraction to members of the same sex, another needs multiple partners, and still others are naturally attracted to minors, who could tell someone that they cannot be sexually attracted to animals? I am not going to explore this argument in any further detail because I am sure you get the idea: once we cross the line, where do we draw the new line? Better yet, how can we draw a new line?

John MacArthur has written this: “If we teach our children not to walk where it is slippery, we will minimize their opportunity to fall.” Good advice for parents (and others working with children). Good advice for our nation, too–if we don’t want to fall, lets not walk where it’s slippery!

Checking My Gig Line

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A few years ago my father, brother and I traveled from the mid-Atlantic to upstate New York to visit my paternal grandmother. Her health had not been well, and we thought it important that we go to see her. We arrived within a half hour or so of her home late on a Friday night and checked into a hotel. The following morning, I had showered and dressed and my brother looked at me and said, “Your gig line’s not straight.” Turns out he was telling the truth, but was also just giving me a hard time. However, I had no idea what he was talking about; to my knowledge, I had never heard the term. So, he explained it to me. “Gig line” is a military term that refers to the alignment of the shirt, belt buckle and trouser fly, and when properly attired those three items should form a straight line. (My brother was never in the military, but he had been a stand out in high school in the JROTC program, and quite possibly would have pursued the military if his colorblindness had not disqualified him for his preferred area of service). So basically he was giving me a hard time, saying the buttons of my shirt and my trouser fly were not properly aligned. Maybe it is my fondness for trivial information or the fact that I have always tried to dress neatly that I have remembered what for most people would likely be a quickly-forgotten conversation. In fact, I have not only remembered it, but rarely does a day go by when I do not consciously check my gig line in the mirror!

In the grand scheme of things, of course, the alignment of my gig line matters little. And yet I habitually check it to make sure it lines up. As I said, I look in the mirror to check it. If it is crooked, I fix it. It would be foolish for me to look in the mirror, see that my gig line was not aligned, and then walk away without fixing it. What would be the point of that? After all, checking it is only of any value if I make any necessary corrections revealed by the checking. If next time my brother saw me he happened to say, “Your gig line is crooked” and I replied with, “I know,” he would justifiably think it a bit odd that I knew there was a need for correction but I did not bother to do it.

Spiritually speaking, though, I am afraid I am sometimes guilty of just that. James writes about this very idea when he writes, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:22-24). How often do I look into the Word of God–either in personal Bible reading or by hearing the Word taught–and then go on my way, ignoring the necessary corrections that the mirror revealed? James makes it clear that just hearing the Word is not enough; we must be doers. If my outward appearance is important enough to me to pause in front of the glass mirror to check my gig line each day, how much more important should by spiritual development be? How much more important is it to look into the spiritual mirror of the Word of God and then to do what it says, to straighten my spiritual gig line? James says that anyone who fails to do so is deceiving themselves.

What about you…how’s your gig line?

Greatly Blessed

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Most mornings I eat breakfast alone. My wife is awake, and usually makes the coffee, but because I head out shortly after 7:00 my children are usually either just getting up or are not up yet. But as I am getting my breakfast ready I almost always pour my coffee into a mug that says “Greatly Blessed.” It is a tremendous way for me to start my day…a much needed reminder that I am, in fact, greatly blessed.

The words on the mug come from a song written by Bill Gaither and Larry Gatlin. It is a simple song, a bit repetitious actually, but the words are valuable reminders of who I am and what I have to be thankful for.

The chorus, for example, goes like this:

Greatly blessed, highly favored
Imperfect but forgiven child of God

It repeats that line twice. But the truth in those two simple lines is powerful. I am imperfect (believe me!) but I am also forgiven. That in an of itself is an incredible blessing and would be worth getting excited about all by itself.

But look at these words from the verse:

Standing upright, on God’s good earth
I’m counting my blessings, great things He has done
I’m fighting the good fight
With the blessed assurance
That the battle is already won

The second line always reminds me of one of the great hymns we sung often in the churches I grew up in: Count Your Blessings. That song includes the line, “Count your many blessings/name them one by one/and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” I don’t think the hymn writer means that we will be surprised by what God has done in the sense that we did not expect He could do it so much as we will be surprised, when we really stop and think about it, how much God has done. In other words, when we slow down enough to pay attention to all the ways in which we have been blessed, and continue to receive God’s blessing every day, we will be surprised. Surprised primarily because we will likely have to say, “Wow! I hadn’t even realized/thought about that!”

But the Gaither/Gatlin song continues wit the reference to fighting the good fight. We are, of course, fighting a spiritual battle here on earth, and Paul himself references having fought the good fight. What a blessing it is to know that the battle has already been won! There is an old Southern Gospel song written by Roger Bennett that says, “I’ve read the back of the book, and we win!” Praise God! The battle, and more importantly, the war has been won! Christ died, but He rose again, and in so doing He conquered death, hell and Satan. We will continue to struggle and battle in this life until the Lord returns or calls us home, but, to quote another Gaither song, “we can face uncertain days because He lives.”

I am greatly blessed!

The Value of Teachers

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In yesterday’s New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed with the same title as this blog entry. In the column he examined the results of a recently-released new research study by economists at Harvard and Columbia universities that identifies the value of good teachers. The study highlights test performance but also the actual long-term economic value of good teachers in terms of students’ future earnings. According to the study a student with a good teacher in fourth grade will go on to earn, on average, $25,000 more in his or her lifetime than a fourth grader with a teacher that is no so good. According to Kristof, that translates into approximately $700,000 in additional earnings per class. Furthermore, that fourth grader with a good teacher is 1.25% more likely to go to college and 1.25% less likely to get pregnant as a teenager.

Perhaps even more shocking than that is this assertion: “Conversely, a very poor teacher has the same effect as a pupil missing 40 percent of the school year.” Whoa! No school anywhere would allow a student to miss 40% of the school year and still move on to the next grade. Yet, based on these findings, students with ineffective teachers may attend school every day of the year and still end up just as far behind as if they had done exactly that. Kristof highlights the importance of the study’s findings by pointing out that if a good teacher announces his or retirement or plans not to return to the school the following year, the parents whose students would have had that teacher should hold fundraisers, pool their resources, or do whatever is necessary to offer that teacher a bonus of up to $100,000 to stay on for another year. That is how important it is for students to have a good teacher. On the flip side, Kristof says that poor teachers have such an adverse impact on students that parents of students who will have an ineffective teacher should offer that teacher $100,000 to retire or otherwise leave the school, assuming he or she will be replaced by a teacher of at least average quality. Now, neither of these things will happen, of course, and probably should not happen, but it is a powerful means of conveying the importance of quality teachers.

Kristof goes on to write that, “Our faltering education system may be the most important long-term threat to America’s economy and national well-being….” He laments that, given that level of importance, education is receiving so little attention in the current presidential race. In fact, he goes on to say that, “Candidates are bloviating about all kinds of imaginary or exaggerated threats, while ignoring the most crucial one.” (That word bloviating may be new to you. It was to me. It means “to speak pompously”). I agree with Kristof that it is imperative that students have, to use the phrase made popular in No Child Left Behind legislation, teachers who are highly qualified. There is no excuse for students in the United States to have inferior, incapable or just plain apathetic teachers. Of course, overcoming that is easier said than done, as Michelle Rhee and others have learned. Why teacher’s unions seem so intent on saving teacher jobs and seem to care so little about actual student success is beyond me.

But I think that it is important to take this a step further. Kristof, and the authors of the study he is writing about, are focused on public education. And given the number of students in this country who are in public schools I think it is important to look at those. As a Christian educator, however, and someone who is committed to the value and importance of education from a biblical worldview, this research highlights for me the fact that students receiving instruction lacking in biblical worldview, regardless of their age, will have long-lasting consequences of that education. If having an ineffective teacher will impact a student’s academic progress and ability for years afterwards, how much more does the worldview of a teacher impact a student’s development? If the consequences of worldview are even remotely close to the consequences of academics, a student–even as young as elementary school–who has a teacher that is at best “neutral” in their worldview (though that isn’t really possible) and at worst actively opposed to a biblical worldview could experience influence on his or her own worldview for years to come.

When there is that much at stake, does it really make sense to risk a child’s future by exposing him or her to a worldview that isn’t grounded in Scripture?

Prayers Like Incense

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In our house there is a bottle of hand lotion that sits just outside of the half bathroom attached to the master bedroom. Sometimes when the weather is particularly cold my hands get chapped, so I will use this lotion. Usually I use it before going to bed, but sometimes will use it at other times, as well. A couple of weeks ago I put some on just before heading to the office. I think it may have registered in passing that it was a new bottle, but I paid no attention to it. I honestly could not tell you what kind of lotion had been there before; I never really paid any attention to the kind. So I rubbed the lotion in and went off to work. Not too long thereafter I was sitting at my desk working on something and one of my hands was up around my face. I may have been adjusting my glasses, I don’t know, but suddenly and instantaneously my mind jumped to being at the beach.

Now, thinking about the beach during a South Dakota winter is not a bad idea, actually, but (1) the winter has been quite mild, and (2) the beach had not crossed my mind at all before that moment in recent memory. So what happened? Well, it turns out that that new bottle of lotion outside my bathroom has SPF 15 sunblock in it. Quite helpful, I suppose, for those whose hands have a tendency to get sunburned! But the fragrance of sun block reminded me immediately of the beach. Why? Because for my entire life I have vacationed with my family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and before heading from the hotel room or the beach house across the sand to the ocean we would put on sun block. So years of having the fragrance of sunblock so closely associated with the sun, sand and waves has built that memory groove into my mind. The concept is the same as Pavlov’s dog salivating upon hearing the bell after the food had followed the bell for so long. Odds are pretty good that the smell of sun block will cause me to think about the beach for the rest of my life.

The sense of smell is incredibly powerful, isn’t it? I imagine we can all think of favorite smells…smells that are likely associated with a place or a food that we particularly enjoy. We can probably all name some very unpleasant smells, too. And the same smell can create a different reaction among different people, some positive, some negative (or even revolting).

The Old Testament refers often to the use of incense in the worship of the Lord. There was a place in the temple for incense to be burned, and the there are several accounts where there were serious consequences for the improper burning of incense. There is also a psalm of David, though, in which David prays to the Lord, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you.” David was pleading with God to hear his prayer but also expressing his desire that his prayers would be like a pleasing aroma to God.

My encounter with the sun block-infused hand lotion got me to wondering. I wonder, to continue David’s analogy, if each person’s prayers have a unique aroma before the Lord? And if so, I wonder if my prayers are like incense…like a pleasing aroma that causes the Lord to think fondly and favorably of my petitions and praises, just like the scent of the sun block caused me to think fondly of the beach? On the other hand, I wonder if my prayers are ever like an unpleasant aroma before the Lord? When I am so focused on self, forgetting to praise Him or to seek His will and instead treating Him like a cosmic bellhop, I wonder if my prayers are more like a horrendous and stomach-turning stench?

My hope, like David’s, is that my prayers would be like incense before the Lord.

Living a Life “Without Wax”

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Philippians 1:10: “…so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ” (NASB).

In the Greek language, the word translated “approve” referred to assaying metals or testing money for its authenticity. Having knowledge and using discernment enable the believer to distinguish between the pure and the impure, the valuable and the worthless, the authentic and the counterfeit. When mining for precious metals the valuable metals are intertwined with rock and sediment that is often of no value, and it is necessary to separate the two in order to eliminate impurities and isolate the valuable metal. Likewise, we live in a world in which we are surrounded by and bombarded with impurities and worthless dross. We are called to approve only those things that are excellent–true, and God-honoring.

The word “sincere” in this verse, when understood in its original context and meaning, provides what I find to be one of the most fascinating word pictures in Paul’s writings. In Greek the word translated here as “sincere” means genuine, and in Latin it means pure or clean. There are many historical accounts of the prevalence of this word among pottery makers in the Roman empire. Pottery making was a lucrative business. After all, there was no plastic, and thus no Tupperware or Ziploc bags. Many of the storage containers we take for granted today did not exist, and pottery was used for the majority of storage. As with any business that proves to be lucrative, many people wanted to get in on the pottery business, and whenever there is competition there is usually a price war, too, as sellers try to beat their competition.

Pottery, of course, is shaped and then cured in an oven. Well-respected and high-quality potters would inspect their pottery after it cured for any cracks in the pottery. Items with cracks would be discarded, and the potter would start over. Of course, this meant that the price of his pottery was higher, because it was a more time consuming process to ensure that only quality pots were produced. Less honorable potters, however, would fill the cracks in their pots with hot wax, and then glaze or paint the pot, thus concealing the filling. This enabled them to sell their pots at cheaper prices, because damaged or imperfect pottery was not discarded.

Since finished pots looked the same to the naked eye whether they had filled cracks or no cracks at all, it became important to test the quality of the pottery. The way to identify if the pottery has wax-filled cracks was to hold the pottery up to the sunlight. If wax had been used to fill cracks, the bright light of the sun would reveal the filled cracks. As this practice grew, makers of fine pottery would mark their pottery sine cera, or hang a sign over the doors of their shops that said sincerus. This were indicators that the pottery was genuine…without wax.

So, what about the application? Just as the pottery had to be held to the light of the sun to reveal any imperfections, we must regularly hold ourselves up to the light of the Son. When we do so, we will discover our imperfections. The question is, when we find those imperfections, what do we do with them? Do we fill them with wax and cover them up, putting on an attractive outer covering? Sadly, many of us have mastered the art of concealing our imperfections. We look great on the outside, we do what we are supposed to do, say what we are supposed to say… Jesus had very harsh words for people like that…people who look great on the outside but are hiding sinful attitudes and imperfections on the inside. If we want to be sincere–if we want to be genuine and without wax–we must, like the honest potters, refuse to cover up our imperfections and instead do what is necessary to be genuine. Obviously we cannot “discard our pot” to the extent of throwing our lives away literally, but we can discard our “self” and allow the Master Potter to remake us. When we live for self and try to do things our way we are filling our cracks with wax. When we die to self and let Christ take over, then we can be marked sine cera.

Don’t be Stupid

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Philippians 1:9-10 reads, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (ESV).

I think there are several important messages to be taken from this exhortation from Paul to the church at Philippi. First, notice that Paul is not reprimanding or chastising his readers for any areas of weakness as he does in some of his other letters. Still, he writes that their love should abound more and more, which is evidence to me that as believers we never “make it.” We can never reach a point where we can say, “I have completed the course. I have mastered the Christian life. There is nothing more for me to learn.” On the contrary, there is always room for improvement, for growth, for “more and more.”

Second, Paul instructs his readers that their love should grow “with knowledge” (ESV) or “in knowledge” (NKJV). Love for God is something that grows out of our knowledge of Him. We grow in knowledge of Him in the same way that we grow in knowledge of any person with whom we may have a relationship–by spending time with Him. We need to read His word, to spend time in prayer, to attend church and spend time with other believers.

Third, our knowledge of God should influence our actions. Paul follows “knowledge” with “all discernment.” Having head knowledge is not enough; we must know how to use that knowledge and apply it in our lives in order to live it out. There are many people who have an extensive knowledge of the Bible in a historical or academic sense, but have no idea what it is really about–or, more accurately Who it is really about–and how the Bible should influence their lives. Knowledge is really only beneficial when it is accompanied by discernment, which is the wisdom to apply the knowledge.

When I was in college my sister Marianne, who is twelve years younger than me, asked me once what the difference is between ignorant and stupid. I thought for a minute before responding, then told her that ignorant is lacking intelligence, while stupid is refusing to use the intelligence that you have. So, using that definition, Paul is telling the church at Philippi, and by extension is telling you and me, “Don’t be stupid!” We must not refuse to use the intelligence–the knowledge–that we have.

Looking Back (part 5)

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Here we are, finally…a look at the books I read in 2011. Then I can get back to blogging about other things, most of which will probably prove more interesting than a reflection on my reading habits over the past five years!

The first book I read in 2011 was Sarah Palin’s second offering, America By Heart. Combining accounts of her travels around the country to visit with voters and deeper examinations of her convictions and policy commitments, I found it a good book. It would be particularly helpful if Palin ever decides to run for public office again, but even if she does not it will be appreciated by any who want to know more about Palin in her own words, as well as anyone who enjoys the political scene. I also read George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points. In fact, I read several memoirs of Bush Administration officials during 2011, as I will highlight shortly, which proved to be particularly interesting since not having long gaps between reading them makes it easier to identify slight discrepancies or matters of opinion in recollections of certain events, and helps put various pieces together into full pictures. I enjoyed Bush’s book. It provides a nice survey of his years before the White House, and is honest about his academic struggles, struggles with alcohol, and other things that he would not necessarily have had to address. Later in the year I read Tim Pawlenty’s Courage to Stand. At the time, Pawlenty was a likely candidate for the GOP nomination in the 2012 presidential race–a position he later formally announced–but he did not last long in the race, choosing to drop out after the Iowa Straw Poll. I won’t use this space to discuss that in much detail other than to say that to drop out after the Iowa Straw Poll is a clear indication to me of someone who is not really committed to running for President or ready for what the race will entail. (And as a side note, his hasty departure was disappointing to me, but I would prefer someone who is not committed to what it will take to drop out sooner than later, so in that sense it was good). I later read Herman Cain’s This is Herman Cain!, a short book that did not really do much to increase my interest in Cain as a serious candidate for the nomination, but a helpful read for anyone interested in knowing more about his background and policy ideas. It was ambitiously subtitled “My Journey to the White House,” a journey that has since, of course, come to a premature end. Dick Cheney’s In My Time is a thorough look at Cheney’s entire career in Washington, which is much more extensive than his eight years as Vice President. Reading it will likely dispel any suggestions made by many that Cheney was not qualified to be VP, but will not likely change any opinions about his churlishness. Meghan McCain’s Dirty Sexy Politics is a very unique look at the 2008 presidential race from the perspective of the adult daughter of John McCain who was on the campaign trail, but marginalized by the campaign. She is not shy about the fact that she does not fit many of the stereotypes of a Republican, and she unashamedly embraces positions that many, including her father, do not. Parts of the book are unnecessary and immature, but for political junkies it is an interesting read. Finally, Condoleezza Rice’s No Higher Honor rounds out my Bush-era memoir selections. It is a good book, extremely literate and detailed, and is the longest of the three by a substantial margin. As I mentioned, it is very interesting to see some of the differences between Bush, Cheney and Rice. Rice has high regard and respect for George Bush; she often clashed, however, with Donald Rumsfeld and not infrequently with Dick Cheney.

My first book in 2011 in the area of spiritual development and Christian living was Brother Andrew’s The Practice of the Presence of God. It is an excellent look at what it means to take joy in serving God regardless of how insignificant the service may seem from a human standpoint. J.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom’s Lead Us, Guide Us is an excellent book on seeking, identifying and following the will of God. Phillip Keller’s Lessons From a Sheep Dog is a short and easy to read book that provides some insights into the Christian life through lessons Keller learned from his sheep dog. Andy Stanley’s The Best Question Ever is another good book about following the Lord. John Piper’s The Passion of Jesus Christ is an excellent look at that subject, and Erwin Lutzer’s One Minute After You Die is an informative examination of what we can know about Heaven…and Hell. John MacArthur’s Slave examines the usage of that word in Scripture and its implications for what it means to completely follow Christ. Rocking the Roles is Robert Lewis and William Hendricks’ look at the roles in a marriage relationship. Robert Morgan’s The Red Sea Rules is a short book that examines lessons that can be learned from the Israelites encounter at the Red Sea and applied to the Christian life today. Kyle Idleman’s Not a Fan is a good book that examines how many Christians behave toward God like fans rather than committed followers. R.C. Sproul’s commentary John, on that gospel, is a thorough examination of the book that reads more like messages from the text than a verse by verse commentary–which is appropriate, since that is what it is. And Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts is a thought-provoking book written in a unique style (sometimes like a stream of consciousness) that reminds the reader of the importance of giving thanks to God, and looking for reasons to give thanks–and the impact that living that way will have on one’s attitude and interaction with others as well as with the Lord.

I also read a considerable amount about education in general and Christian in particular during 2011. Neila Connors’ If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students is an easy to read book that reminds education leaders about the importance of providing encouragement, feedback and social interaction opportunities for teachers. James Deuink edited A Fresh Look at Christian Education, which provides essays on a variety of school-related topics from faculty members of Bob Jones University, and he also edited Preparing the Christian School for the 21st Century. Ardell Jacquot’s Guide to Successful Christian Teaching is full of practical advice for the Christian school teacher. Howard Hendricks’ Teaching to Change Lives is beneficial reading for any person who teaches, at any level or in any setting. Charles Walker and his son Brian provided an updated look at John Milton Gregory in their book A 21st Century Perspective of the Seven Laws of Teaching. E.D. Hirsch, Jr.’s Cultural Literacy is a further examination of that subject, including curriculum suggestions. Douglas Wilson’s The Case for Classical Christian Education does a good job of laying out exactly that, and his Repairing the Ruins provides further examination of the subject. Richard Whitmire’s The Bee Eater examines Michelle Rhee’s efforts as chancellor at reforming the public school system in the District of Columbia. Dayton Hobbs’ Classroom Discipline From A to Z is a practical guide for classroom teachers. Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise provide an outstanding examination of the benefits of classical education in The Well-Trained Mind and explain how parents can provide a classical homeschool education. Leigh Bortins, founder of Classical Conversations, also expounds on the benefits of the classical model in The Core. Glen Schultz provides a strong case for the need for Christian education in Kingdom Education and outlines what it should look like. Frankly, I found it much more informative and worthwhile than ACSI President Brian Simmons’ Worth It, which is supposed to justify the cost of Christian education. Gordon Brown’s Guiding Faculty to Excellence is a good book and a valuable resource for Christian education leaders, and Kenneth Gangel’s Team Leadership in Christian Ministry will be valuable reading for leaders in any Christian ministry. D. Bruce Lockerbie’s A Christian Paideia is a collection of speeches and articles Lockerbie has presented, but it provides one of the strongest cases of the need for Christian education and what it should, and should not, include that I have seen.

In the area of history… James Swanson’s Bloody Crimes continues his examination of events following the Lincoln assassination, and in this case looks specifically at the retreat of Jefferson Davis through the South. An excellent book. Nicholas Best wrote an interesting look at the final days of World War I in The Greatest Day in History, and understanding the events covered in this book goes a long way to understanding how not too long thereafter the world found itself in the midst of World War II. Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is an amazing story of the life of Louis Zamperini. Parts of the book, quite honestly, are hard to read, and if it were a fictional story there are times when one would easily accuse the author of piling on unnecessarily, stretching the string of things one person must endure to unbelievable extremes. The fact that it is a true story makes it absolutely incredible, and the power of the Gospel that is seen throughout the story is also terrific. Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer is a very thorough examination of the life of the German theologian and his efforts to defeat (even to kill) Adolph Hitler. Basil Miller’s George Muller: Man of Faith and Miracles is a short and easy to read look at the incredible life and ministry of Muller. Walter Borneman’s 1812 is an interesting look at the War of 1812, and Joseph Ellis’s First Family is a very readable and fascinating look at the Adams Family, but John and Abigail in particular. Ron Chernow’s Washington is a massive biography of our first president, but very well done and incredibly interesting. It draws substantially on Washington’s own letters and journals. David Hackett Fischer wrote a wonderful biography of the explorer Samuel de Champlain in Champlain’s Dream, a book that, because of Champlain’s involvement of so much of French history in the new world for so long, also provides an insightful look at that subject. Candice Millard wrote a fascinating book in The Destiny of the Republic, one that’s primary focus is the assassination of James Garfield, but that examines the life of the assassin and the scientific developments of the era in general and the work of Alexander Graham Bell in particular, in the process.

My fiction reading again included works by John Grisham, David Baldacci, James Patterson and Jeffrey Archer. It also included The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel, and the classics Mutiny on the Bounty by Nordhall and Hall; Pygmalion and Candida by George Bernard Shaw; To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf; The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky; and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I will not go into any detail other than to say that I am completely at a loss as to why Woolf’s book is considered one of the greatest of the 20th century and Dostoevsky’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest, novel ever written. They certainly did not have that impact on me.

One interesting autobiography that doesn’t really fit into any of the categories above is Dick Van Dyke’s My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business. It is interesting for its content about his personal life and his involvement in show biz, but there is a part of the book that has really stuck with me that concerned his experience in church. van Dyke discusses attending church growing up, reading the Bible and even many deep-thinking theologians, serving as a Sunday school teacher and an elder in the Presbyterian church. However, when Van Dyke and another elder suggested during the Civil Rights movement that their church partner with an African American church in town to facilitate better understanding and relationship building, and to include each attending a service at the other church, other elders said in no uncertain terms that blacks had never been in their church and never would be in their church. When this attitude was not confronted and defeated, Van Dyke left the church and has never been back. A convicting reminder that it can take the stupidity and bigotry of only one person to destroy the testimony of Christ.

So, there we are…a look back at five years of reading. It seems pretty clear to me that my reading is defintiely confined, for the most part, to history and politics, Christian living and spiritual development, leadership and education, baseball and fiction that usually is along the lines of mystery, intrigue and crime. I don’t really foresee that pattern changing anytime soon, but who knows…. I always have a long list of books waiting to be read, and I often have two or three going at a time. But I am also always looking for good books…so if you have a suggestion, let me know!