When a Symbol is Changed: Tragedy on Boston

I was saddened today when I heard the news that two bombs had exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon at a point in the race when this area was the most crowded.  I was even more saddened later when I heard that three people had passed away and nearly 80 had been treated for injuries.  When I heard the news I immediately thought of the World Trade Center bombing in New York in the 1993, the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995, and the bombing in Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics.  I also thought of the scenes in Aurora and Newtown from the past year.  The images that flashed across the screen seemed more like a scene from Batman than actual reality.  It seems that as soon as the news stops their daily conversation about the last major tragedy another one happens.

I mourn at the loss of life.  I feel empathy for those who were affected.  My heart breaks for those who were harmed, mentally or physically, and my mind wonder why an event like this happens.  I wonder how a person could be so evil as to plan and carry out an event like this.  I wonder what kind of hate has to permeate a person's heart in order for them to carry out mass murder.  My mind was filled with questions, many of which I will never know the answer to.  I can't explain what leads a person to do something like this, but I know what could have saved them.  I don't know what to say to those who mourn, but I know they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). 

The sight of the explosion struck me in a particular way.  Whoever carried out this bombing chose a scene of jubilation and celebration as the scene for fear and terror.  A finish line is a symbol of accomplishment and joy, and today it was turned into one of confusion and panic.  It was clear to me that the person (or persons) who did this did so to take a positive symbol and turn it into a negative one.  As I contemplated this I couldn't help but think of the crucifixion of Jesus.  In the first century the cross was a symbol of pain and suffering.  Those who passed by Golgotha and saw men being crucified would have had feelings of disdain and disgust.  Jesus, however, didn't let the symbolism of the cross define him.  Through his resurrection, he defined what the cross meant.  After his resurrection people no longer looked at crosses with fear and no longer thought of death.  Now they look at the cross and have joy, being reassured of their salvation.

Just as Jesus took the cross, this negative symbol, and turned it into a symbol of salvation, I know that he can do the same with this event today.  Right now the scene is one of fear, death, and injury, but in time it will be redeemed and will again become a scene of victory and triumph.

There will be a lot of discussion in the next few days about why tragedies like these happen.  People will blame violent movies, the eroding of our educational system, the breakdown of the family, angry music, gay marriage, a lack of prayer in school, and on and on and on.  All of these explanations will miss the point, as the true cause of the problem will never be discussed.  These possible causes are merely symptoms of the real sickness: sin.  It is the sin within us that leads people to carry out such violent actions.  It is important to remember that we all sin and are in need of a savior.  It is because of this imperfection that God sent his perfect son to become perfection for us.  It is only Him who can save a hardened heart.

I know that good will come from this tragedy.  I know that God will work in and through this horrible experience.  I also know that we as Christians have the message that can bring comfort to those who hurt, clarity to those who question, and salvation for those that need saving.  May we never miss an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

The Christian Life is like an Italian Dinner

Tonight at church the youth group hosted our annual Valentine's Dinner.  This is the third year that we've decorated the fellowship hall and served a delicious meal to those who purchased tickets for a fun and romantic evening to raise funds for the youth group.  The students always help set up, cook the food, serve the guests, and clean up after.

This year we decided to serve homemade lasagna for dinner.  I had never made lasagna from scratch before, so I made a trial batch a few weeks ahead of time, and then tinkered with the recipe a bit until I got it right.  That's one of the things I love most about cooking.  Every time you make something, no matter how many times you've made it before, you can always do something a little different and make it better (or sometimes worse).  I never believe that a recipe is perfect.  Now that doesn't mean that I never think a dish I make is delicious or successful.  In fact, I do a lot of cooking and I think that most of the things I make are pretty good, and some are certainly delicious.  But I never think I'm done with a recipe.  I always wonder what it would be like if I did something different.  A little less of this or a dash more of that.

I think that's how it is with life sometimes too.  Even when something goes well or I think I have something figured out, there's always more to learn.  I can't tell you how many times I've gone through some sort of life experience and thought I learned the lesson God was teaching me through that, only to look back years later and realize that there were other lessons from that which I hadn't figured out yet.  I know there are also times where I think I've learned my lesson, only to repeat the same mistakes later on, or make new ones.  The same is true when I read scripture.  There are times when I read and I have a great epiphany, or hear an inspiring sermon and glean a new insight.  Every time something like this happens I think I have the meaning of that passage figured out.  Inevitably though, some times later, I'll reread that passage or hear it preached on by someone else, and discover something new about it that I had never realized before.

The scriptures are so deep and nuanced that no matter how many times I read a passage, it is fresh and new every time.  That's because the scriptures aren't some basic dish served out of a box, they are layered.  Just like a plate of lasagna.  With each bit of a good lasagna you discover a new flavor or texture from the layered dish.  And each batch of lasagna you make will be slightly different from the ones you've had before.  That's how it is with God's Word.  Every reading is slightly different.  Each one brings some new insight to light.

I think that people are similar to this as well.  It's often been said that people are like onions, and you have to get to know them by peeling back one layer at a time.  While I like this metaphor, I think that comparing people to lasagna is better (and not just because lasagna is delicious!).  I think people are more like lasagna because each layer is different.  Some have more cheese, others have more sauce, and more have thicker noodles.  And each time you spend time with someone and talk to them you learn something new about them.  And just like with a lasagna recipe that's never quite finished, we can never know another person completely.  With an onion every layer is still just onion, and there is the perception that you can eventually get to the core where you would know everything there is to know about someone.

The great thing about lasagna, like a person, is that the recipe is never finished, and God isn't finished with us until we're united and perfected with Him in heaven.  God never stops working on us.  He never stops making us better.  He never quits perfecting us.  Just as we have to be open to try variations in our recipes in order to make a dish better, we need to be open to God's work in and through us in order for Him to make us better.

It is my prayer that I remain open to God's intervention in my life.  I pray that I recognize God's movement in my life and invite Him to daily make me better than I as yesterday.  If He's not working on me and making me better than I might end up at the back of the shelf getting stale.  Father, work in me daily, and help me to see your work in others.  Allow me to realize that other people are layered as well, and that I can learn something new and exciting about other people though every interaction I have.  Amen.

The Man of Many Hats

Sometimes I feel like the man in the photo, juggling many hats as I switch from one responsibility to another.  In any given day I am a son, brother, server, bus boy, mathematician, student, blogger, youth pastor, and friend.

Even as a youth pastor I often feel like I work multiple jobs.  Today alone as I prepared for our Valentine's Dinner at church tomorrow night I was a shopper, chef, event planner, janitor, accountant, baby sitter, manager, designer, and counselor.  And this was wedged in between going to work at my other job, finishing up a homework assignment, and writing this blog post.

I don't say all this to boast or to receive your pity, but to show how complex life can be at times.  I know that I am certainly not alone in this, and I am sure that there will be those who will read this and think that my day was easy compared to their typical schedule. 

Why do we allow our lives to be so complex?  Do we do the things that we do merely to fill the time?  Is it because we feel obligated to be involved?  Have we lost the ability to live in simplicity?  Some days I sit and long for activity and other days I run and ache for simplicity.

I love the time that I spend at my family's vacation home on Put-in-Bay, and island in Lake Erie.  While the downtown area of the island is filled with the hustle and bustle of weekend tourist shopping or getting a drink at one of the many local watering holes, I spend most of my time at our cottage on the quiet western shore of the island.  I spend most of my time with the television turned off, our of cell phone rang, with a book or fishing pole in my hand, or doing yard work.  I'm not on anyone's schedule.  Not my own or anyone else's.  I am free to be.  It is through these times of simplicity that I reconnect with my Heavenly Father and recharge so that I can go back back to the complexity of living in the city and working two jobs.

I need to find moments of simplicity in my daily life.  We all do.  I keep a very detailed calendar so that I can budget my time wisely.  This allows me to manage my time well, helping to navigate the complexity of my life and find moments of simplicity.  I need to commit myself to times of reading, prayer, meditation, stillness, and quiet every day.  Without this period of quiet simplicity I would not be able to deal with the complexity I am faced with in the world.  It is necessary to take this time to wait on the Lord to renew my strength (Isaiah 30-31).  Amidst all the things the complex life has to offer, it is in the moments of stillness that I find peace in Christ.

"Be still, and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10a NIV

Love is Patient: a Valentine's Day reflection

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Right before this passage Paul gives a listing of spiritual gifts and an explanation of how those gifts are used for God's glory as part of the body of Christ.  Immediately before these verses Paul says that we ought to "eagerly desire the greater gifts," then he tells us that he is going to show us "the most excellent way."  What Paul is telling us is that love is the ultimate spiritual gift that we should all desire.  He then sets before us an explanation about how and why doing everything with love is the most excellent way.  He tells us that if we use the gifts of the spirit, but do not use them out of love, then they are meaningless.  Without love all of our actions become empty and hollow.  Without love, life ceases to have meaning.

Then we get to the part where Paul defines what love is (and what it isn't).  Paul begins by telling us that love is patient.  As a 27 year old man who is unmarried and who has never really been in a long-term serious relationship I know all too well how patient love can be.  I have gone through seasons in my life where I greatly desire to be in a relationship and want to get married soon, and other seasons where I am perfectly content being single and think it would be fine if I never marry.

As a minister I have performed many weddings in recently years and have seen most of my closest friends get married.  I sometimes wonder why they have found love while I haven't yet.  Then I read this passage and am reminded that love is patient.  I've seen many people rush into relationships, declare their love after only a few shorts weeks, and get married after only months of dating.  While relationships started in such haste can work, most do not.  Why?  Because their love was not patient.

It is in the times when I most desire female companionship that I most need this reminder.  It is in those moments when I catch an old episode of Boy Meets World or watch (500) Days of Summer and long for the type of romance that Hollywood dreams up that I remember that love doesn't just happen.  I am reminded that love is patient and that I need to be patient in order to find love, just as God was patient with me.

Most of all on this day I am reminded that the greatest love comes from God himself.  He is patient with me every day.  He has been patient with humanity.  When His greatest creation sinned and turned away from Him He didn't give up or destroy everything and start over.  He just loved us.  He was sad and at times angry, but He loved us through it all.  He loved us so much that He sent His son, His one and only son Jesus, to the earth to die in our place.  Anytime I feel unloved all I have to do is look to the cross and see God's arms stretched out to know what love is.  In that act of giving up his life for mine I am shown what love is.  God shows His love to us through His patient desire and longing for us to return to Him.

There are times, like the times when I want to rush into being in love, that I need to sit back and be loved by my creator.  I need to let God's love wash over me, conquer me, and consume me.  It is in those moments that I need to be overwhelmed by God's live.  God's love isn't just a feeling or a nice emotion, it is an all-encompassing, reckless, irrational abandonment of self for others.  It is the most selfless action ever.  It is the cross, forgiveness, and patience.

On this Valentine's Day I hope that this passage serves as a reminder to all of us that God loves us beyond what we can even imagine and that love cannot be rushed because true love is patient.

The Lent Project: Redux

Last year I made a commitment to post a blog every day during Lent.  I lasted five days and then gave up.  Unfortunately my grandmother had gone into the hospital and she passed away a week later so I did not fulfill my lenten goal.

This year I am taking up that goal again and dedicating it to my grandma Tata who we lost almost one year ago.  To start I am just reblogging what I posted on Ash Wednesday last year, and will post a new blog every day through Easter.  For me, committing to the discipline of writing will be far more fruitful than giving something up during this season, and I am looking forward to what I learn about God and myself during this challenge.  It should be quite the adventure!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  The word Lent comes from English and German roots meaning long or spring, but the original Latin term for this period of the Christian calendar meant fortieth, as in, the fortieth day before Easter.  Ironically enough, Ash Wednesday occurs 46 days before Easter (next Tuesday marks the fortieth day before Easter).

The period of forty days, however, is a significant period in scripture.  It rained for forty days at the beginning of the great flood (Genesis 7-8).  Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai as he received the covenant from God (Exodus 24, 34).  The spies were sent into the Promised Land for forty days to explore the land (Numbers 13).  Goliath challenged the Israelite army for forty days before David stood up to him (1 Samuel 17).  After killing the prophets of Ba'al, Elijah traveled for forty days before reaching Horeb where the Lord appeared to him in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19).  Jonah gave the people of Nineveh forty days to repent and turn to God or be destroyed (Johan 3).  Jesus spent forty days fasting in the wilderness before being tempted by Satan at the onset of his public ministry (Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4).  Christ also spent forty days on earth after his resurrection before assenting into heaven (Acts 1).  This period of time is clearly significant throughout the Bible and it is fitting that we should set aside this period of time to draw closer to God.

The season of Lent and the practice of marking believers with ashes in the form of a cross on the forehead dates back to the very early days of the church.  Traditionally this serves as a day for confession and repentance (similar to Yom Kippur in the Jewish tradition).  On this day people typically fast, confess their sins, repent, and ask for forgiveness in order to refocus on their relationship with Christ during the Lenten season leading up to the Easter celebration.

As an American Baptist, it has never been my practice to celebrate this season with any special significance.  While Lent is not part of my tradition, this year I have decided to celebrate in my own way.  In order to better focus on my relationship with God I have decided to sacrifice some of my time (time that would normally be spent watching television, napping, reading sports articles, goofing around on Facebook, watching YouTube videos, etc.) and practice the discipline of writing.  This will allow me to read and reflect, and put my thoughts down in a concrete way.  Hopefully this will spark conversation and engage others in this pursuit of growing closer to Christ through writing and reflection.