Fridays Are For One Question
Posted by MK | Filed under Fridays Are For One Question
On the wall on my office hang 2 piece of plywood. On there, I use a Sharpie to write quotes that I think are particularly meaningful. And here’s my thing about quotes – I don’t have to agree with everything the person says to like this one, little nugget of truth.
I think I’ve got a pretty diverse group on there. I’ve got a quote from Rocky Balboa next to one from Anne Lamott next to GK Chesterson Next to Martin Luther next to Ralph Waldo Emerson next to Albert Einstein next to John Calvin next to M Night Shylaman. Ecclectic, I know.
But that’s the nature of today’s question:
“What one quote would you frame and hang in your home or your office?”
The First First Day of School
Posted by MK | Filed under Parenting
And there he goes. Joshua is off for his very first first day of school. And I’m trying to hold it together.
Both Jana and I though we wouldn’t be “those” parents. But guess what? We are them. Big time. Those parents that cry when their kid steps into the classroom. Those parents who sit by the phone during the morning in case they get a call from the administration. Those parents who can’t believe that six years has already come and gone.
Along with the first day of school, there come alot of questions at least in my mind:
Is he prepared for the challenges of being in the world, but not being of the world?
How will he handle the fact that not everybody he meets is going to be nice to him?
Did we make the right choice in choosing public school over home or private school?
How is this experience going to change him and our family?
How long is it going to be before he is simply too cool for all the things he used to do?
So as I reflect on his little room in our home, still filled with stuffed animals and pictures and toys that he might soon decide he’s too old for, I’m trying to sort through, with a spirit of wisdom, all the emotions. And for me, I think it comes down to this:
I suddenly feel very out of control. And that’s hard for me, especially with Joshua.
It was almost four years ago that my son was diagnosed with leukemia. Close to a year ago that he went off of chemotherapy. But throughout those four years, the control thing has been a constant battle for me. Today I’m feeling the same thing I have felt many times over the course of these past few years whenever Joshua has entered something new.
His first baseball practice.
His first overnight sleepover.
Even the times when I’ve taken him to play on the playground. I’ve had to make a conscious effort to let him go and play with the other kids instead of hovering over him to make sure he is protected. Maybe that’s the fear of losing him that comes from cancer coming out in me. Maybe not. Regardless, it seems to be about control.
This, I choose to believe, is where the gospel is brought to bear on the first first day of school. We’ve tried our best to prepare Joshua. To teach him about Jesus. To raise him in love and faith. But have we done enough?
Unquestioningly, no. We have not. I have not.
I have not been the perfect father.
I have not been the perfect teacher.
I have not been the perfect example.
But the gospel? Well, the gospel is God making up for what we lack. And in parenting, as in all cases, we lack very, very much. The gospel doesn’t excuse our lack; it assumes our lack. Because of Jesus, in this situation where I can’t do much else, the only avenue left for me is to believe.
Which ironically, is where I should have started to begin with.
In your grace, Father, take care of our son this morning.
The Parable of the Sea
Posted by MK | Filed under Church, Videos
Sea Parable from ilovepinatas on Vimeo.
More Holy Vocabulary Reviews
Posted by MK | Filed under Books
The first from Trevin Wax over at Kingdom People:
In all, this is a very helpful resource. If you’re looking for solid theology in a creative package, you’ve found it.Holy Vocabulary is faithful to Scripture and current to our cultural setting. It’s by far one of the best Threads Bible studies that I’ve come across. You won’t be disappointed.
This one from Becky Dietz:
This book would fit any small group–from the baby or carnal Christian all the way to the Greek scholar–and any age group. In fact, I had my own small group in mind as I read, knowing it would hit the broad spectrum of that group.
And from Heather Thompson:
Overall this was an interesting book that I would especially recommend to those new to the faith, but does offer some insights to old hats like myself.
Be sure to click over to read the reviews in their entirety. You can order Holy Vocabulary: Rescuing the Language of Faith by clicking here.
The Awesome-ness Driven Church
Posted by MK | Filed under Church
Jared Wilson with a cutting, and accurate, post here:
It is widely repeated that a Korean pastor once visited the United States and remarked at the end of his stay, “It’s amazing what you people can do without the Holy Spirit.”
Yesterday I watched a video of a motocross bike jumping over a pastor on stage. Now, I’m not saying that church or its pastor don’t have the Holy Spirit, but I am saying that setting up a dirtbike track in your sanctuary is profoundly stupid.
What is profoundly stupid is the sheer amount of innovation, creativity, energy, ambition, and astounding levels of human wherewithal that go into crafting the most amazing worship experiences Americans have ever seen inside churches where the gospel isn’t preached. I can say this because there’s only one thing we hold that the New Testament calls “power,” and that’s the gospel.
Read the rest here. God, wake us up to the inherent power of the spoken word. We don’t need to “sweeten” the gospel. It does find on its own.
Fridays Are For One Question
Posted by MK | Filed under Fridays Are For One Question
As of Joshua’s 6th birthday, we have officially added a Wii to our household. It’s pretty cool, but I admit that it’s a little over my head. Lots of buttons on that thing. And a joy stick. And something called a “nun-chuck” I think. It makes me long for the, um, simplicity of a Nintendo.
That inspired today’s question. So think back to the Nintendo, the arcade, or whatever else you can knock the cobwebs off of:
“What was your favorite video game as a kid?”
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Posted by MK | Filed under Church, Preaching/Teaching
Here’s the backstory for this tremendous hymn from The Gospel Coalition:
O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller beO Light that foll’west all my way
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be
Stabilizing lines, especially for those in darkness.
Do you know the story behind it?
At age 20 George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancee, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the church of Scotland in his day.
A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.
The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.
In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.
O love that will not let me go. Heartening hope for you and me.
Here’s the last stanza.
O Cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be
Happy Anniversary, Jana
Posted by MK | Filed under Marriage
This past weekend, my beautiful and wife celebrated (?) our 11th anniversary. The celebration was in question because we spent the day cleaning the upstairs of our house which we’re waiting to move back into after the flooding in Nashville. In the chaos of the flood, there were mismatched shoes, half-opened boxes, and albums scattered all over the top story. We hadn’t taken the time to sort through and organize the stuff since it was all piled up there the day of the flood.
Real romantic, huh?
Not to excuse myself, but I think that day is an interesting picture of our life together thus far. In the past 11 years, we’ve weathered a few storms. A parent diagnosed with rapid onset Parkinson’s disease with severe dementia. A sister with thyroid cancer. A brother with multiple brain surgeries and difficult recoveries. A flooded home in one of the worst non-hurricane disasters in the history of the US. A child with leukemia. In truth, it’s felt like some months / years, we’ve just trudged through the waters.
But Jana is an uncommonly strong woman. She’s never – NEVER – checked out. Not emotionally. Not physically. Not spiritually. She’s had her questions of the Lord, true, but they’ve all been asked in the way such questions should be asked: Built on a foundation of faith, spoken from a posture of humility.
And through it all, the most intoxicating sound in my life continues to be my wife’s laugh. The one where she’s really laughing; not the one where she’s just humoring me. We have laughed together at the most inopportune times, cried together at random, and on our anniversary, we packed boxes. But we did it together.
I’m thankful to the Lord today, too, to live life beside a woman who even now is battling a stomach bug that has infiltrated 3 children under 7, while living in a home that is not our own. I sit in my quasi-comfy desk chair while she cleans up a steady stream of you-know-what.
What an amazing woman. What an amazing friend. What a daily reminder of God’s grace in my life.
Holy Vocabulary News and Notes
Posted by MK | Filed under Books
It’s been about a month since my Bible study Holy Vocabulary released. I’m grateful for those who have agreed to review the material on their blogs. Here’s a couple of links so far to the reviews, with more coming in the next few days:
From Aaron Shaver:
“I think somebody once said, “If you say a word too much, it eventually loses its meaning.”
If nobody has ever said that than I just did and you can quote me. But we all understand what that quote means. The significance of the word “love” is lost if you frequently apply it to how you feel about favorite foods or designer clothing.
Michael Kelley believes much of the language describing the Christian faith has lost its meaning. And, he’s fighting to rescue it…”
From Ben Reed and Ron Edmondson:
“I grew up going to church every week. The doctrines of the faith and the accompanying slew of “insider” language were engrained in me through Sunday School, Bible drill, vacation Bible school, youth camps, Royal Ambassadors (which, for the record, I never really enjoyed), small groups, large groups, and the various plethora of cassette tapes that hung in the hallway on the way into the sanctuary. After college, I went to seminary…which was good, but which filled me with an even deeper level of “insider” language. And I found that when I preached, I used this “holy vocabulary” so much that I would quickly alienate those I was seeking to minister to…”
Order your copy of the book and leader materials here in time for a fall study. Also, if you’re a college leader or student, there’s a free collegiate version of the leader guide downloadable here.
The Idol of “How It Should Be”
Posted by MK | Filed under Theology
As I’m reading Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller (a book I highly recommend you pick up, by the way) I’m thinking alot about idolatry and the nature of idols. As Keller points out, we typically think of idols like totem poles – wooden or bronze or iron statues with grotesque faces that people bow before while chanting in low, hushed tones.
The idols of today are less visible, but no less insidious.
In fact, an idol can be anything that you look to for complete and total fulfillment. It’s that thing that you look at and say, “If I could only have.. or do… or be…” And in my opinion, one of the biggest is the idol of “how it should be.”
At one point or another, all of us wake up and look at our lives and have that thought: “This isn’t how it ought to be.” Whether we relate it to our job or our house or our spouse or our wealth, we somehow had a different dream about life than what we are living. Now there are certain schools of Christian thought out there that argue that as followers of Christ, you just need to chase that dream. Live with reckless abandon. Get out there and make it happen.
I’m for that, at least to a point. But I’m only for that as long as that dream is a goal; but many times it ceases to become a goal and starts to become an idol. It starts to become an idol when you put all your stock in whatever that dream is, to the point that you feel as though you will never truly be fulfilled unless you posses _______________ . You fill in the blank.
But what is the antidote for such a thing? How can such an idol be smashed to bits? It’s difficult because when “how it should be” is formed into our thinking, it’s done so through countless hours of daydreaming and disappointment. It built on the foundation of starry-eyed gazes and bitterness in equal measure.
It’s the power of the gospel that can send it reeling. Only through the Holy Spirit reminding us, over and over again, that we already have everything – every spiritual blessing in Christ – that indeed, God has held nothing back from us in Christ.
The gospel gives us the ability to look at the idol of “how it should be” and say, “Enough.” Not because we are content with how little we have, but because we suddenly come to the realiziation of how rich we already are. May God give us grace to see the richness of what we’ve been given, and may that vision pulverize the idol of “what should be.”