A Hope Fan

I’m a Hope fan.

         

For those of you who know me, even casually, you are probably going, “Duh!”

         

A graduate of Hope College, an employee for 8 years, a member of the Board of Trustees for 24 years. I am a Hope fan.

         

But that isn’t what I am writing about. I am a hope fan; the kind of hope that this week is built upon; the hope that we possess because of Easter; Christ’s resurrection.

         

We battle a lot of enemies in life: physical ailments, emotional turmoil, relational challenges, economic stress and personal demons that haunt us for a variety of reasons. It would be easy to be discouraged, to grow worried and to give up. But for those who claim Christ as Lord and Savior, there is always hope. Jesus defeated our most intimidating and feared enemy...death. If Jesus conquered death on our behalf, what is it that you and I cannot overcome?

         

I am a glass half full person; an optimist. I always think things can get better, that we will figure out a way, that whatever hurdle, or barrier, or momentary affliction we may encounter can be overcome.

         

Some people would say it is a personality trait. Others would attribute it to my competitive nature. I would say it stems from my firm belief that Christ can overcome anything!

         

I also know that there are situations and circumstances where hope is crushed. I have sat at the bedside of people who are dying and their relatives are grieving; I have been with parents who have lost a child; I have listened as people have described spouses who are impossible to live with; I have tried to comfort those who are despondent because they have lost their jobs, or because one of their children is addicted to drugs, or suffers from severe mental illness.

         

In these moments we are not ready to hear about hope; hope is a distant companion, pushed to the periphery of life. At the same time, we need to have hope in our arsenal. It needs to be something we can call on when we are ready, otherwise we give in to constant despair which turns into anger and bitterness.

         

The hope of Easter is the hope that puts things in perspective.

         

“...we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:16-18)

         

We are only visiting here. We have an eternal home. No matter what we face here, we do not lose heart. We do not get discouraged. We always have hope.

         

Robbie Seay expressed this truth in the lyrics of one of his songs, Song of Hope:

         

          All things bright and beautiful You are

          All things wise and wonderful You are

          In my darkest night, You brighten up the skies

          A song will rise

          I will sing a song of hope

          Sing along

          God of heaven come down

          Heaven come down

          Just to know that You are near is enough

          God of heaven come down, heaven come down

          All things new

          I can start again

          Creator, God

          Calling me your friend

          Sing praise, my soul

          To the maker of the skies

          A song will rise

         

Hopefully, Sunday you will find a place to worship the author of the hope within us and join me in being a Hope fan!

         

Happy Easter!

This Week

I had a teammate on a church staff I led who didn’t like the season of Lent. He had a particular distaste for acknowledging the events of Holy Week. It was too dark, too morbid, too unsettling and in his mind tended to ignore how the story ended...with a joyful resurrection.

             

I have worked with other church staff members who came from religious backgrounds where the historic church calendar wasn’t acknowledged. They had to learn what lent was, what it meant and why anyone would spend any time with the events of Holy Week.

             

This Sunday marks the beginning of what the historic Christian church has referred to as Holy Week. Holy is a great word. Its etymology has to do with “unique”, “special” and more literally “a cut above.” This week is unique among all other weeks because of God’s ultimate demonstration of love, the sacrifice of His only begotten son, Jesus.

             

Modern authors and screenwriters couldn’t match the drama, suspense and the complicated plot of Holy Week. Then again, their subject matter isn’t the pivotal event in all of human history!

             

One of my personal traditions during Holy Week is to watch Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. It allows me to be intimately involved in this week and elicits a powerful reaction from me. When I finish the movie I am exhausted emotionally and spiritually and need to be alone to reflect for a while. Even though I know that will happen, I will watch it again this year.

At ECRC we will have a service on Thursday to relive the events of Jesus’ celebration of the Passover with His disciples, and a service on Good Friday to recall what took place that day. These services are not celebrations. They are not filled with joyful music or motivational messages. We are reminded of Jesus’ suffering and death and our part in it. We are also reminded that the events of these days are the ultimate demonstration of God’s unconditional love for us.

             

The reminder and rehearsal of these events aids us in embracing God’s love for us and enhances our celebration for Easter. As spiritually draining and emotionally painful these events are for us, without them we couldn’t celebrate Easter!

             

So, I invite you to embrace Holy Week; a unique and special week; a week that is a “cut above” all others, knowing that as we rehearse Jesus’ ultimate acts of love, we will be more than ready to burst forth with joy on Easter!

Scenes From a Parking Lot

It is amazing what kind of life lessons you can learn if you pay attention to the parking lot. At one of the coffee shops I frequent, customers use parking spaces in the lot and have to go in to get their coffee. There is no drive through. People who visit this shop dutifully park their cars, walk to the door, get their coffee and return to their car. But not everyone.

         

I sat in the coffee shop one morning reading the paper and watched curiously as the gigantic black SUV pulled up along the sidewalk and parked at the curb. The windows were tinted so you couldn’t see inside, the chrome wheels were blinding, and the Mercedes logo gleamed in the sunlight from the hood. A young woman exited the SUV (How young? I’m not sure, but younger than me, which gives her a lot of room to be young.)

         

“Well, I guess she’s too good to park in the lot like the rest of us commoners”, I said to myself. “Typical wealthy person. They think the rules don’t apply to them. I guess she doesn’t care if she blocks traffic as long as she has to walk fewer steps to get her fancy coffee drink.”

         

Then it struck me. I don’t know this woman. I don’t know if it is her car. Maybe she has a good reason for parking at the curb. She may be very kind, gentle and loving. Why am I so quick to move to judgment and criticism?

         

During the season of Lent we are called to self-examination, reflection, and introspection. This scene from the parking lot exposed my propensity for judgment and criticism. Jesus warned us not to judge others, “...for the judgment we give is the judgment we will get.” (Matthew 7:1-2) I don’t want to be judged by the car I drive, or where I park, or how I carry myself. People should get to know me. Then why am I so quick to judge others?

         

The woman who parked at the curb needs to be loved not judged. How do I know that? Because we all need to be loved. Jesus loved people unconditionally and lavishly. He commanded us to love each other. “My command for you is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) We all need more love, acceptance, encouragement and support and a lot less judgment. I am glad Jesus loved me and didn’t give me the judgment I deserved.

         

During this season of Lent God used this scene in the parking lot to confront me with my quick judgments and criticism; with my jumping to conclusions and my biases.

         

What are you learning about yourself?

March Madness

I am a junky and this is my time!

I love basketball and March Madness feeds my addiction. Since selection Sunday, I have listened to the radio and television commentators, read a few articles and looked at my brackets on numerous occasions. The television is all set (Becky has made it clear that the basement is for basketball viewing). I have been working on using the jump feature to switch channels as well as perfecting picture in picture to keep track of several games at a time. I have a stack of magazines and a pile of books ready to feed my ADD. I can’t just sit and watch games, but if I am doing a couple of other things at the same time, it makes the day/night really enjoyable.

         

This year I am in a pool with some long-time Chicago friends. We take the winner out to dinner. I also compare my brackets with my son, Jesse, who may have inherited my addiction. He is actually hosting a final four party on March 31 to which he so graciously invited his dad!

         

March Madness has deep theological significance.

         

Little known schools, from unheralded conferences, can defeat highly favored perennial powers. It’s David and Goliath.

         

Teams fall behind by 20 or 30 points early in the game. You change the channel because that team is buried, only to discover that they mounted an unbelievable comeback for a victory. The dead were raised.

         

Ordinarily the teams that play well together and use each player’s gifts survive the tournament and finish victoriously, mirroring God’s design for the church.

         

The tournament progresses to the culmination with the crowning of a king (champion) at the beginning of Holy Week. We will celebrate the crowning triumph of our King, our resurrected Lord, on the first day of the next week!

         

I have my biases. I prefer college basketball to professional basketball. Too many players in the NBA play lazy defense, if at all. Professional games are too individualized. There is too much one-on-one play and very little teamwork, especially on offense. Too often defense is an afterthought in professional basketball. Professional basketball players make millions of dollars playing a game many of us would play for free, but some of them pout and whine too much about playing time, coaches, fans, the media and every other aspect of life. (That didn’t sound too pastoral!)

I am a basketball junky and this is my time!

I am writing this on Wednesday afternoon. Tonight I will finalize my brackets and get ready for three weeks of pure fun. 

Happy watching and good luck with your brackets.

I Shake My Head

It makes me shake my head.

At the end of an athletic contest reporters interview a player or a coach from the winning team. They stick a microphone into a players face and their first words are, “I just want to thank God...”. I guess my response should be, “Isn’t that great. On national television he/she is acknowledging their faith in God.” But that isn’t my response. My response is to ask questions.

“What about the Christians on the losing team? Did God favor the winners over the losers and if God did, why?” I rarely hear a losing player or coach begin their interview with, “I just want to thank God.” Apparently God only like winners and somehow God picks sides.

Not to mention the question of whether or not God really cares about sports at all. Now that has to sound kind of weird coming from a died in the wool sports fan!

With all the bigger life and death issues in the world, does God really care about sports?

Politicians make me shake my head as well. Too often they intimate that their political positions are sanctioned by God. How can God be sanctioning so many varied positions?

          “When the wicked advance against me to devour me,

          it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.” (Psam 27:2)

That verse is very comforting on the one hand. However, what if my “enemies” are other believers who are “attacking and devouring me”? How does God choose a side?

Our personal biases all make God lean in our direction, especially if we can pull out proof texts that support our positions. Certainly God would choose our denomination over the others because we embrace the “orthodox” positions. (What does that mean for a CRC church that has an RCA pastor?)

A few observations.

First, we should all stick to our areas of expertise. Sports figures shouldn’t make theological statements. No one ever sticks a microphone in my face and asks me what I think about the man to man defense used by Michigan State vs. the zone used by Louisville. Even though I have coached basketball for years, I wouldn’t feel it is my place to comment on technical decisions made by long-time professionals in their field of expertise.

If athletes or politicians want to express their faith perhaps the best phrase would be, “I want to thank God for loving me in spite of myself.”

Secondly, Jesus constantly encouraged humility and servanthood. I may have an opinion about an issue based on my understanding of the Bible and my theological persuasion, but to assert that I am right and someone else’s opinion is wrong, is arrogant and not humble.

Thirdly, one opinion I can offer with certainty is that I am a sinner and my perception of life, the scriptures and doctrine are all clouded by my sinfulness.

Fourthly, we may have a difference of opinion about something, but I need to communicate my opinions with love and respect, not with any hint of superiority or hatred. What God wants us to communicate more than anything else is that we are loved by Him!

Just so you know, I don’t lose a lot of sleep over this kind of stuff, but I do shake my head.

Constant Batle

What is it for you? I am convinced we all have something. What is it that you constantly battle, that you can never seem to totally defeat, that just when you think you have it licked, it rears its ugly head again?

           

Some people call them our signature sins, things that get in the way of us being all that God wants us to be. For me it is the sin of believing that what I do and accomplish defines me. People will like me and approve of me if I do things that they find helpful. My performance will win people over. And I need to win them over with my performance, because who could simply accept me for who I am?

           

I learned this lie early in my life. If I performed well in school, people accepted and liked me. If I didn’t, they didn’t. If I excelled in athletics people wanted me on their team, they applauded my performance, they chose me to be their friend.

           

Who I was as a person, how I felt, my inner self, was discounted and ignored. I came to believe that if I didn’t perform well, I would disappear.

           

It was when I was in college that I first experienced people who cared about me as a person, not as a performer. The irony was that it was people for whom I was performing who cared more about me as a person. My professors and coaches in college helped me wrestle with my inner world, my personal identity outside of performance. They helped me to understand that God accepted and loved me for who I was, not for how I performed.

           

This week I thought about that when my devotional book took me to Matthew 4:1-11 where Jesus was “...led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus was tempted in the three areas of life where we are tempted every day. He was tempted to turn stones into bread...to do a physical miracle that would meet his own needs at the time. He was tempted to jump off the highest point of the temple where God would save him...to perform, to do something spectacular, to gain followers. He was tempted to receive power and prestige by compromising His commitment to God; to, in effect, sell His soul to the devil.

           

Jesus defeated each temptation with scripture. The bible teaches us God’s perspective and desires for us. It gives us the ammo to defeat daily temptations to turn our back on him.

           

This was not the last time Jesus was tempted. It happened regularly in his ministry. It was part of his being fully human as well as fully divine. It is one of His points of identification with us.

           

“...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

           

As Jesus goes about His ministry, he continually runs into these same three temptations in one way or another. So why do I think it should be different for me? My need for approval periodically rears its ugly head and gets me off balance until God puts me back on track.

           

I need to remember that God cares a lot more about who I am than how I perform for others. I need to remember that my identity is found in my relationship with Christ, not with people’s approval. I need to remember that this temptation will be with me for a long time and the only way to defeat it is to stay anchored in Christ and God’s word!

           

Looking Below the Surface

“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news”, the doctor said.

         

He was an orthopedic surgeon to whom I had been referred six years ago after a 30-year battle with bad knees. I had my first knee surgery in 1977 following way too many years of abuse playing sports as a youth, in high school and college. I was coaching college football at the time and the Hope College team doctor did some minor work on my left knee which held up for 25 more years of abuse with long distance running, basketball, racquetball, softball and golf. Finally, after two more surgeries on the same knee, which provided little relief, I was a candidate for knee replacement. This orthopedic surgeon would have the final word and perform the surgery.

         

“The good news is that you have the heart of a thirty year old man, but you have the knees of a 95 year old. In fact, one of your knees isn’t even that good.”

         

I knew my left knee was bad. I could hardly walk without significant pain and could barely stand long enough to deliver a sermon, which made my sermons shorter! But I had no idea my right knee was deteriorated at all. It was, and still is, pain free (unless I overdo it on the treadmill too many days in a row...then I ache everywhere).

         

The only way I had any idea my right knee had problems was through the x-rays that were done. There was no outward sign that things were bad. I was blissfully unaware of any issues.

         

How many times isn’t that the case? Someone goes into the doctor for their annual checkup and the blood work reveals some kind of disease. A friend has an ache in their shoulder that they think is an issue with their rotator cuff and they discover a tumor instead. Your child goes into the dentist for a routine cleaning and x-rays reveal cavities.

         

Everything appears to be fine on the outside, but just below the surface, danger lingers.

         

Which brings us to the season of Lent. Traditionally Lent is a Christian observation of the 40-day season of the year that immediately precedes Easter. It is a time for introspection, self-examination and reflection on our relationship with God. In some traditions people engage in some kind of sacrifice to identify with the suffering Jesus endured during His 40 days in the wilderness prior to His public ministry.

         

Frederick Buechner writes this about Lent:

“After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where He spent forty days asking Himself the question of what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask in one way or another what it means to be themselves.”

         

Rather than living on the surface, we are supposed to spend some time in reflection wrestling with our own discipleship. Are we reflecting the image of Christ everyday? Are we living out “first things” (the essence of the grace, mercy and love of God), or are we distracted by “second things” (personal preferences, programs, how many, how much)?

Buechner suggests some other questions for Lenten reflection:

•  “If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would you bet your money on and why?” 
•  “When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?” 
•  “If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are the most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?” 
•  “Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?" 
•  “Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?” 
•  “If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?”

Buechner concludes with these words:

“To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.”

I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

         

Sometimes we have to rummage around inside of ourselves to find out what lies below that surface that might be painful, or difficult, or present problems down the road. If we find those things we have a chance to rid ourselves of then we can begin to be a healthier version of who God wants us to be.

         

That is the opportunity we have during the season of Lent.