Month: March 2021

Serving God

The counter-intuitive idea of serving God is tied up in the idea of freedom or slavery. We tie ourselves to God and to his teachings. A pile of ‘do this and shan’t do thats.’ It seems to the outsider that Christians chain themselves to a puritanical and demanding master.

Humans are wired to serve. We will serve something.

This is where the ironic bit comes in. If you ask people who have given their lives to God, they will describe the freedom that results from this choice. They speak as sons and daughters not as slaves.

Choosing God allows us to reject other far more demanding and demoralizing task masters; fear, lust, despair are a few. Take fear for example, if you have ever given yourself over to fear, you will know what awful master it truly is. Fear is an enormous black hole that will never be satiated. You will never hit the bottom. There is always more to fear.

God is the only Master who chooses to serve us. We say, “Yes, I’ll serve you God.” He then kicks in and does everything else; salvation, joy, meaning. I have to say we are getting away with an incredible deal! Take this deal! Run with it and don’t look back. Go forward in His love. Leave all the other masters behind.

1 Samuel 12: 24 Be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Zach Williams – No Longer Slaves (Live from Harding Prison) – YouTube

Thoughts on artificial intelligence

I love listening to cultural and political issues. I’ll listen to podcasts and video interviews about all sorts of topics. Even topics I know little or nothing about can intersect with the issues I do care about. This intersection is usually at the corner where values and beliefs meet the subject at hand. A great example of this is Artificial Intelligence.

This is the next great technological front. The brightest scientists seem to be putting their energies into this study. I have listened to long, complex and often boring discussions about AI. I have no interest in the technology, except how it may impact my life. This is of course hard to tell until the technologies are fully explored. Having said that, basic AI is already impacting how we get news, what we think, what we buy and how we behave.

I do hear, in these discussions, great hubris and vanity. If you do not believe in God and you believe that humans are the pinnacle of evolution, then the sky’s the limit. But… if you believe that man is a lovingly made expression of a wildly powerful and all-knowing God, then the achievements of mankind are less impressive.

Human exploration and ingenuity is great and God given. But we are foolish if we think we fully understand God’s creation. We are only barely scratching the surface.

I love the story of Babel in the old testament. The people were going to build the greatest building and reach the sky and be like the gods. The work or their minds and hands were to rival that of the Creator.

Genesis 11: 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

Again it’s a question of scale. The humans are building the highest building ever and God has to come ‘down’ to see it. It’s a little throw away line, and yet it says so much.

If this is a topic that is of interest to you, I love what John Lennox has to say about it.

2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity | John C. Lennox – YouTube

Focus on God

The world around us is spinning, wilder and more out of control. It is harder to see the problems as distant. The troubles of the world seep into our homes and everyday lives. How do we keep our own hearts from despair?

There is one option; keep your eyes on God. Focus your gaze upward. Lean into His loving arms. This is the way to keep the problems of the world at bay. The world cannot touch or corrupt what we give to God. They can take our possessions. They can take our lives. But they cannot take our souls. They cannot touch what belongs to God.

The first thing to recognize is that worry and concern are human. God knows our humanity, he understands how hard it is for us to not focus on the turmoils of life. Once we acknowledge our shortcomings and our concerns we then ask what next?

It is a matter of focus. A young teenager wakes up and finds a pimple on his forehead. It is all he can see. He spends the day covering it with his bangs or hat, leaning his hand on his forehead and turning his face away. His is focused on the problem. By the end of the day the blemish is larger and even more noticeable. His whole body and mind is affected by a small blemish that will go away in a couple days.

What if he turned from the mirror, forgot its presence, joked about it, or put the concern where it should go, in a temporary problem category? He’d still have the pimple. It may even still cause embarrassment, but he’d be able to carry on and live his life. His attitude would keep the problem in check.

This may seem a silly example, but this is what we need to try to do. I am not minimizing problems. The problems in life are terrifying and real. We need to remember that we have a home with God. Focusing on this will help us see our struggles as temporary. It’s a question of scale.

John 14: 1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take
you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Facing trials

When I was a young woman, a friend told me that something (my memory fails what the subject of the discussion was) would build character. I responded that I thought character was highly over-rated. I was trying to be funny not profound. In doing so I unknowingly hit on something true.

If we could see around the corner at the suffering and the tests that are to come, we would beat a different path around it. In that moment we’d be unable to see what we might learn, how we might grow, we would just see the ugliness before us. Before you walk down an ugly path the obstacle is larger than the gains.

When speaking to other parents of children with serious illnesses or conditions one common view is expressed. Paraphrased as such, “I would undo what my child has suffered but I wouldn’t undue what we have learned.” Few people voluntarily take on a life of hardship. It is rarely a choice. But how we react and what we learn is the by-product.

We are urged to control our attitude in the face of trials. This after all is what we can control. Choosing to find joy in the face of trials is how we can at once acknowledge the ugliness while determining to make some good come out of it.

James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.

Faith and reason

I was listening to a chapter of CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity about Faith (Chapter 11). An interesting chapter full of reflections on human behaviour, sin and how God interacts with us. A short listen. If you are like me, listening is easier than taking the time to sit and hold a book and read. Many of CS Lewis’ writings are on YouTube – so you don’t even need to download an audio book. He is among the authors I enjoy most.

In this chapter Lewis asserts that the tension in believing Christianity is between faith and reason on one side and our imaginations and emotions on the other. This was striking to me.

We live in an age where faith and reason are presented as polar opposites. Religion = faith. Science = reason. Faith is for those who can’t think ideas through and choose to believe. Science is for those that like proof and won’t believe fairy tales.

The past is full of great thinkers who leaned heavily on their faith and their reason. Scientist, artist, theologians all wrote inspired by both.

Hearing this made me realize how far our society has fallen down the slope of anti-Christian rhetoric. The dialogue is no longer, ‘your reason leads you to one conclusion about God and mine leads me to different conclusion.’ Instead, ‘if your reason leads you to believe in God then you are not thinking it through you are not rational, you are motivated by faith.’

This attitude puts the Christian on the back foot, having to not only prove their position but their process as well

I don’t have any answers to this. The best we can do is stay the course and hope that the dialogue improves with time.

Treasures on earth

I had a visit with my mom today about all the stuff she has accumulated! A lifetime of gifts, purchases, things; some have monetary value, some have sentimental value, some have neither (like her weird little spoon collection). We talked about people who came before us and what they left us and why it matters.

I have a few tokens, gifts, and heirlooms that I treasure because of the people that gave them to me. I know I can’t carry them forward to my next life and they may not mean anything to my children. But I still have them, and I still treasure them. The blanket my Grandmother made for my mom when I was a child, is the bedcover in our spare room. The book my Grandfather gave me when I graduated is in my bookshelf. His mother gave it to him when he finished grade ten. He was the first of his siblings to get that far in his education.

We landed on the importance of the photos. The photos tell the stories of our families. They show the connections, the faces, the relationships. These are the most important things to carry forward.

Whether it is through photos or a precious treasure, I can remember and think of my loved ones and that gives me comfort. I know one day I will see them again.

My family history gives me a framework to build my life. It creates a structure around which I can build my own identity. I am extremely blessed that this history is one of faith, dedication, suffering and love. I want my children to share in this history. I want them to build their own characters in the shadow of the people that came before them.

So yes, its lovely to have physical possessions. Things that I can look at and handle that remind me of the people I have loved. But the stories and shared history… these are the building blocks of my life.

Matthew 6: 19 – 21   Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 
where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin
do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I am thankful

A friend called. A friend I haven’t talked to in far too long. A sister in the faith with whom I’ve had a relationship for a very long time. But she is not alone. I have other friends who have also been there for me, over the years. They are still there for me now.

There is a very special bond that you share with people who also love God. It is almost indescribable. A commonality of spirit that can help focus you when you need direction. It can be a support when you need to be held up. These friends and loved ones are the greatest joy of our lives.

I may not be the best at reaching out right now, but just know how much appreciate and love you all.

Ephesians 1: 15-16  For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in
the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped
giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

Psychological safety

I am not a daring person. All I’ve ever wanted is a safe life. Extreme sports have never been attractive to me. I haven’t wanted to do anything spectacular. Safety and comfort have been my main aims.

Everywhere I look there is concern for mental health. ‘Psychological safety’ is a term that has almost become ubiquitous. According to the world I should be aiming at a safety. I should be coddled and wrapped up and feel secure. My desire for safety and the worlds urging are on the same page.

It appears to me that God has had other ideas. My life has been a series of terrifying tightropes. Using all my strength to stay balanced. One wrong step and I fall. My goals and what I live are two different things. Yet God keeps tossing me off the cliff and I am left hanging on by my fingertips.

Maybe safety isn’t the goal.

Maybe comfort isn’t the aim.

Maybe we are all wrong.

The idea of resilience has been hovering around for years now. How to make people more resilient is the big question in education and medicine. This newer idea of Psychological safety and the idea of resilience are at odds.

There is only one way to build resilience in people. Let them fall and then pick up the pieces. Resilience is a by-product of suffering. Plain and simple. No magic pill. No shortcut. No painless way. Resilience is the scar covering the wound.

Based on my own life experience I will say I feel the most successful when I remember where to feel safe. I can feel safe in God’s hands regardless of the storm. Nothing around me is safe, the world isn’t calm. I need to turn to God for that.

The image that always comes to mind is our little boat flaying around in an awful storm – no help in sight. The winds and waves more than we can handle. We feel desperate and alone. Yet, when the picture zooms out, way WAY out, the tiny boat is floating in a great rumbling sea and holding the whole works are God’s impossibly large hands. He may not have me, but he has the whole storm.

The only way forward is through the storm. God is my safety!

Mark 4: 39-41 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 
“Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this?
Even the wind and the waves obey him!”