Thursday, June 23, 2022

Chasing After Good Things Just Might Get the Best of You

What is the value of a good night's sleep? or a delicious meal with friends? Don't you just love a refreshing dip in the pool on a hot summer day or hot chocolate by the fire after a few hours on the slopes? What would life be without the panacea of music, or the marriage of ice crystals and light in winter's sunrise, or the fragrance of flowers, or the warm embrace of a friend? Think of all the things we enjoy in this life. Would they be possible without the love of our Heavenly Father?

Ellyn Sanna, in her devotional Everyday Grace, writes:

Hedonists are people who have decided that life's only meaning lies in physical pleasures. But they can't escape God's hand. Our food, our drink, the satisfaction we take in our work, and all the physical pleasures of our lives are not separate from God. Instead, they are expressions of His grace. He longs for us to be fulfilled in every way possible.

The tragedy of a hedonistic life or a life that denies the lordship of the One True God, is those who choose such a life will be fulfilled in the same earthly, temporal ways as those who choose a life in Christ (maybe even more so). However, they will be convinced it is enough. They will believe the things they enjoy in this life are life itself. They will believe the enjoyment of those things is all there is. What they will fail to understand is those things are, as Sanna says, "expressions of His grace." Blessings cannot be separated from God because they are physical manifestations of His character. The good things of this life are meant to turn our heads and our hearts toward Heaven.

All of nature demonstrates His creativity and, Scripture tells us, sings His praises! The joy of marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship with His bride, the Church. The rainbow is a sign of God's integrity. Flavor can serve to remind us of the goodness of our Heavenly Father. The peace of a snow-covered city, the patience of a wonderful teacher, the love of a mother for her child, the kindness of a stranger, the faithfulness of your oldest friend, the self-control of a father as he takes his small son fishing --all of these are God displaying His character in people, places and circumstances around us. Not characteristics He is attempting to walk out, mind you, but characteristics that define who He is. The pleasure we experience in these things is not part and parcel of living in this world or being human. It is not owed to us. It should never be the treasure we seek. It is God revealing His character to us that we might recognize Him, that we might be grateful, that we might turn to Him and desire to give Him more of ourselves. 

Matthew 6:1-5, 16-18 warns against seeking after the admiration of those around us, saying we get what we seek but nothing more. In the remainder of the chapter, God, through Matthew, reminds us the things of this world are temporary, fleeting, but God is a trustworthy provider, giving us the things we need most and the rewards that last forever. 

Those who seek after pleasure but refuse to seek after God may get the good things they're chasing, and wouldn't that be the greatest curse?

Monday, June 20, 2022

Freedom and Fatherhood

Yesterday many Americans gathered in backyards, at public pools, on balconies, in kitchens and parks to celebrate dads. It was not lost on many of us, Father's Day coincided with Juneteenth, a celebration of slaves freed in the last of the rebel states in 1865. 

Freedom and fatherhood. Having grown up in the 60s and 70s, when a good whopping with the belt was a thing, it's hard for me to reconcile freedom with the role my father often assumed in our household. Dad was the disciplinarian. He spanked, he grounded, he removed toys (often by tossing them down the basement steps); his presence was most often synonymous with the restriction of freedom. To hear my mother announce, "You're father will be home any minute," meant the time for testing boundaries was over; it was time to clean up and shape up.

Like many folks, I grew up thinking God, our Heavenly Father, was no different. To enter His house was to be in your Sunday best, on your best behavior; He would settle for nothing less. Sunday school teachers reminded unruly students that God was watching them. Kicking your feet against the pew was grounds for a good slap. And NEVER, EVER were we to write in our Bibles, God's holy book. I feared God, and not necessarily the way we're supposed to. I was certain God would send me to Hell for my terrible behavior: I lied, I hit my brother --and then there were the things I was supposed to do that I didn't: obey my parents, read my Bible, pray. If I didn't soon stop being me, I was doomed.

In Galatians 5:1 (New American Standard Version), Paul says:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free." Paul's not being redundant here, what he's saying is, Christ liberated us from the law of sin and death so that we might freely enjoy the eternal life He gave us. Yes, we need to read the Bible, not because being a Christian requires it, but because any relationship --especially one with a Spirit so wondrous and complex as our Heavenly Father-- flourishes when the participants really desire to know and please the other. Yes, we need to obey Him and listen for His voice, but not because He will send us to Hell if we don't, but because our Heavenly Father truly does know best. Yes, our lives, our desires, even our character will be transformed, not because we've learned to be less "ourselves", but because the Holy Spirit is at work in us, making us new creatures, more like God's perfect design for us. The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus allows us to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, a relationship that frees us from the sentence of death imposed on us at birth, a relationship that frees us from a life of sin by the ongoing sanctification of the Holy Spirit within us, a relationship that frees us to serve our Creator because we want to express our love to Him.

Freedom and fatherhood have always been inextricably linked. What a beautiful thing that our nation's leaders officially recognized that 😉