Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life

 

This catchphrase has never been more true for me than it is today. 

41 years after being hired by Carol Clark to unload trucks and manage the storeroom at Columbia Regional Hospital, I find myself without a job. For the first time in over four decades, I woke up this morning and it wasn't a weekend, it wasn't a vacation day or sick day or personal day, but I didn't have to go to work.

When you've followed the habit of the 40-hour week/8-hour day for several decades, the routine can get to be a drag. It was kind of nice this morning to get up early, go to the pool at the gym, and spend nearly an hour and a half working out, never wondering what time it was getting to be.

It sounds, I know, like the description of someone on his first day of retirement. That might happen for me in four months or two years or five years, but that's not why I'm unemployed.

I got laid off from my job. Thanks to COVID-19, my career ended short of qualifying for full pension benefits. I'm getting paid my full salary through the end of 2020, which relieves some urgency. Nevertheless, I find myself job-seeking for the first time since April 1979.

For today, though, I just want to enjoy the freedom and contemplate what to do with the unscheduled and non-routine days ahead.

 Not focused on yesterday

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

For the past four decades my primary focus has not been on my job. I've never been a company man or a career climber. There have been a few times I'm sure my bosses have wished I would be more dedicated to the job.  But it was never true.

Sure, I cared about my job. During the past two weeks that they kept me around to finish out my time, I was surprised to discover how much I do care about both the minutiae and the big picture of my job.

But I've always had two motivations for working. One of those was to support my family. The other was to have the freedom to do whatever God had in store for me.

As a follower of Christ, my real career has always been to follow him, leaning hard into whatever tasks and purposes he put before me. That has meant teaching, preaching, counseling, small group leading, worship leading, mentoring, servant leadership, subversive following, foster parenting, home schooling, writing, campus ministry, prison ministry, and church ministry.  And also going to work every day, whether at the office or in my rideshare car, always staying attuned to divine appointments to share the world's God-colors and God-flavors with the people I've encountered.

Sometimes I've done a poor job of pursuing that career. Some of my co-workers who have known me best are the ones who know that best.

But as I begin the rest of my life today, no matter what it winds up looking like from a job perspective, I can't help but wonder what the Lord has in store for me next.

The goal to win the prize that Paul says he's pressing on toward in that verse from Philippians is not heaven. Yes, God is calling Paul - and me, and you - heavenward. But the goal and the prize are the things he mentioned in the previous verses. 

3:8  the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord 

3:9   and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ 

3:10   I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death

That's the goal. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, I want to know Christ and to become more like him.

Seize Today

So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12

The chief portion of wisdom I've learned about numbering my days is that every day is number 1. If yesterday I made a mess of representing Christ to my world, today is Day #1 of starting again. If I did a great job of knowing Christ yesterday, I can't settle in and count on yesterday's success. Today is still the first day.

My routine for today is all shot, at least in terms of my job of 41 years.

My routine for Day #1, though, is clear. 

• Dedicate today to the Lord. Exodus 32:29
• Deny myself today, take up my cross, and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23
• Keep my ear tuned for whatever God wants to teach me today. Proverbs 8:34
• Eagerly study the scriptures today. Acts 17:11
• Look for opportunities to encourage whoever God puts into my path today. Hebrews 3:13

I just did that last one by inviting you to join me in intentionally making today the first day of the rest of your life, pursuing the only goal that lasts.

In the day of prosperity be happy, But in the day of adversity consider— God has made the one as well as the other. Ecclesiastes 7:14

Now in Print: What's In It For Me?

Eric and David, part of the Free Feast grilling crew, both said they volunteer for service to set an example for their kids.

“They see what I do and why I do it,” said Dave. “And they grow up wanting to do the same.”

“It helps me be a better husband and father,” said Nate. “It helps model to my family the example Jesus himself set, in that he came to serve, not to be served. When there are opportunities for us to serve at church as a family, it’s even greater!”

“Any event or activity where you can participate as a family strengthens the entire family,” said Steve.

Lydia, a staff member at the Mizzou CCH, said she grew up in a home where involvement in ministry was the norm.

“My dad was involved in ministry to people, so there were always people in our home. That meant there were so many more people in my life, setting an example for who I was growing up to be.”

All because she had a father who knew the value of serving the Lord.

Read the rest at http://www.lookoutmag.com/whats-in-it-for-me/

Missional Politics: What is Truth?

Kevin Drum, of Mother Jones magazine did some data crunching of results from Politifact's fact-checking service (How Honest is Your Favorite Candidate?). The actual ranking of specific candidates is irrelevant for the purposes of this blogpost. My goal is not to tell you who to vote for, or even which party.If you want the details, you can click and see for your self.

What is most interesting to me is this little nugget:

"Among Republicans, honesty is the exact inverse of popularity. Jeb Bush is the most honest, and he's got the lowest poll numbers among the serious candidates. Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the least honest by quite a bit, and they're also leading the field by quite a bit. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are in the middle on both honesty and popularity."

As Drum says, "It's almost as if the Republican electorate wants to be lied to, and the more you lie, the more they like you."

If you distrust something published by the left leaning Mother Jones, a Fox News poll in November polled people on which candidates are honest vs. not honest. Ben Carson scored highest, at +34.  Hillary Clinton, who came in at negative 28.

The question then arises: When someone talks about honesty, what do they mean by that word? Obviously the folks at Politifact have a different definition than the "1,230 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide" who responded to the Fox poll.

As I've read and listened to what's being  written and said about the candidates, two distinct concepts of honesty keep popping up. They couldn't be more different.

The first approach to honesty is one I've heard over and over during this presidential campaign season, summarized succinctly in this quote:

“His honesty, he’s blunt, he tells it like it is...” (a Trump supporter, quoted at breitbart.com)

That sentiment is spoken often about Donald Trump, but similar comments have been made in reference to other candidates as well.

At the other end of the spectrum is a comment made by Ashe Schow, on Observer.com. Schow is ranking the candidates after one of the GOP debates last October, and says this about Jeb Bush:

"Where he excelled: His answer to the very first question about his greatest weakness was more honest than any of the other candidates. He actually gave a weakness: He’s impatient, and the presidency calls for patience."

Whatever you think of Jeb Bush or of that answer in particular, it certainly is an example of a much different definition of honesty. It was blunt in the sense that it didn't hold back. He did indeed "tell it like it is". But he was being blunt and to the point about his own weakness, not bluntly rude and scathing in pointing out the weakness of an opponent or a policy.

I'm not here to talk about the accuracy of either of those statements about the candidates' character, nor am I trying to build up or tear down any specific candidates.

My concern is about the definition of honesty, from a biblical point of view.

I've heard (and read on social media) several Christians use phrases "he tells it like it is" and "blunt" and "he really lets them have it" in describing the honesty they see in some candidates.

If these same Christians were preaching or teaching about Jesus as the Truth (as in, "I am the truth, the way, and the life"), would they use those words to describe Jesus' honesty? For that matter, even if you don't think of yourself as a preacher or teacher, but just a "regular Christian", is that the concept of honesty you talk about when you're sharing your faith with your friends and neighbors and co-workers?

One biblical character famously scoffed at the idea of a perfect standard for truth.  "What is truth?" he famously asked. The words were spoken, of course, by a politician.

Some will (and have) objected: We're not electing a preacher-in-chief. We're electing a commander-in-chief.

Yes, that's true, but I would counter: There's only one definition of truth and honesty, and it should apply in your fishing boat on Saturday, in church on Sunday, in the office on Monday, and on the campaign trail, no matter what day it is. In season and out of season.

Many people fail miserably and many more fail occasionally to live up to the biblical concept of honesty. Many of those who fail are believers, like me.

The biblical concept of truth and honesty is defined by Jesus himself, the perfect example of honesty.

Was Jesus direct? Did he speak the truth even when it was unpopular? Did his honesty sometimes offend and upset people? Yes, yes, and yes, you'd better believe it.

Was Jesus ever rude or vulgar? Was Jesus sarcastic in his truth-telling, ridiculing people? Did  he shade the truth in order to gain popularity? No, no, and no again.


Fellow believers, support whomever you will. Vote for whichever candidate you think will make the best president.

But please don't destroy your witness and lay down a political stumbling block for seekers by using the word "honesty" to describe any politician's dishonesty. Let's not praise the ones who practice deception by putting a self-serving spin on everything they say. And let's not praise the alternate flavor of deception, the ones who try to pass off rudeness and sarcasm as honesty.

Missional politics means always being more concerned about winning people to Christ rather than winning them to a political candidate or viewpoint. As I said in the current issue of Christian Standard magazine (Theology in the Public Square),

Have you considered whether your freedom of political expression might interfere with your ability to be heard when you talk about Jesus?

When it comes to honesty, the mature Christian will avoid the craftiness of deceitful leaders and will instead speak the truth in love, just as Jesus did.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:14-15)

Framed

Yes, that's a picture of a picture frame.

The frame was one of several things we brought home from my mother's house after she was gone. She had several framed paintings, most painted by my grandmother, Mamie Borgen. She also had several unframed paintings, rolled up together, along with this empty frame.

Uncertain whether any of the rolled up paintings would fit this frame or be suitable for hanging, my wife hung the empty frame on the wall in my office.  Her intent was that it should remind us to figure out what to put in the frame.

As things tend to go, we put off actually doing anything more with it.

After several weeks, my wife asked me if I wanted her to take the frame off the wall and store it away. I declined her offer and told her I like it just the way it is.

The frame hangs on a wall just across from my writing desk. Every time I'm writing and start to wool-gather or look around the room in the throes of wither writer's block or just plain  old lack of motivation, my eyes always fall on the empty frame.

And it reminds me that it's up me to fill the frame.

I'm not a painter but I am a writer. I'm not trying to put a picture into a wooden frame, but I am trying to fill in the details on whatever manuscript I'm working on.

As a magazine writer, my work mostly begins with queries.  The editor publishes a list of the themes and topics for the upcoming year or quarter, and writers send in queries - ideas for articles. I spend as much time thinking up ideas and writing queries as I do writing the actual articles. I have to spend some time thinking and researching, brainstorming for an idea. Then I have to flesh it out into enough of an outline or synopsis so that I know I can actually turn it into 1,000-2,00 words, and also enough to convince the editor to give me a go-ahead.

Because I'm trying to come up with ideas for between 150 and 200 issues each year, I will confess that some of the ideas I send of as queries are less well-developed than others. Many of these fall into two categories, at opposite ends of the spectrum.  There's the "well this is boring, but it just might be the sort of just-the-facts-ma'am treatment of the topic they want" idea. Then there's the "this is really odd and quirky, but maybe it'll grab their attention" idea.

Invariably, my editors will give the go-ahead to several of those queries. And when I read the e-mail that tells me to go ahead and write the story and send it to them, my response is always, "Oh great. Now I have to figure out how to write that thing."

This is when I look at the frame on my wall and remember that my job is to fill in the picture. The idea is the frame; not I have to fill it in, detail by detail. And so I set to work trying to not only string together enough relevant words to meet the assigned length, but to somehow make the story come alive.

When I've finished an article and read it through the last time before sending it off to the editor, there's always a warm feeling of having brought something to life. I've learned that my joy is greater in sending off the finished work than it is in seeing the article in print, something an aspiring writer never expects.

Faith is also like an empty frame.

Every new believer has some idea of what Christianity is about, but it takes awhile to figure out what goes in the middle.

Some write a story that puts Self at the center. Christianity is all about what God can do for me, how it makes me feel.

Others write a story about their place in a comfortable Christian family or church or job. Christianity becomes about the lifestyle of being a Christian.

The Gospel, though, is Good News about Jesus.  The old, old story is about Jesus and His love, how he lived and died and is still active in the world today through His people.

If I put Jesus in the middle of the picture frame, make sure He stays as the author and finisher of my faith, then filling in the middle becomes easier. It's up to me to step into His story and merge my story into his story.

Joy comes daily as I walk by faith, keeping in step with Jesus, making His story come alive in my daily life.

Reflected Glory

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
tweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16

Imagine yourself at a baseball game, but you can't see or hear the action on the field.  The only way you know what's going on in the game is by the reactions and conversations of the fans in the stands.

That's pretty much what I did last night.  The New York Yankees were playing the Detroit Tigers in a playoff game.  I wanted to be watching the game, because former Mizzou Tiger pitcher Max Scherzer plays for Detroit.

But the first two rounds of the MLB post-season are on TV only on TBS, a cable/satellite channel, which I don't have.  And this first round of games is not even on national radio.

So, I "watched" last night's game on Twitter.  By alternating between search terms of #NYY and #DET and #Scherzer, I followed the progress of the game for several innings by reading the comments and reactions of tweeters all over the world (some of them were in Spanish - interestingly most of those were fans of the Yanquis).

@JulieAnnDobbs: Tiger Max Scherzer he has 2 diff colored eyes which is kinda cool?” Just like David Bowie. 

@TylerKnepper: That strike three from Scherzer to Martin was one of the nastiest pitches I've seen. Absolutely vicious movement. 

@beckjason: Posada and Cabrera looked like they were battling for position on the low post before Scherzer struck out Russell Martin. #Tigers up 3-1 

@beckjason: Scherzer back out for bottom 7th. Gardner leading off. 

@JayScott1914: Good Grief Scherzer! He twisted Jeter in a knot on that fastball. 

@MzFuller8: When Scherzer throws, it's like his whole body whips it in there. It's a crazy when you watch him! 

@The1Tab: ARod clearly only drives automatic cars #CantHandleTheClutch 

@DJJordanV: Woooooo! Detroit wins! #MLB 

Obviously, it took a lot more than some sample tweets to keep up with the game.  But keep up I did.  On twitter there's always someone at the game, in front of a TV, listening to the radio that want sto tell the world what's going on and what they think about it.

And for the broadcast-blind like me, they're the only link to what's going on.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

  Romans 9

There are people around you and me every day who are blind to the excitement of what's really going on around them. It's up to us to tell them about it.

But often they aren't tuned in to spiritual things enough to want to pay attention or to even comprehend the truth if we try to tell it to them directly.

For many, the only way they're going hear the good news is by seeing the reflected glory in our lives. As we walk through our lives, showing in small ways and large ways that we are walking to the beat of a higher drummer, they notice. As our conversation is full of grace and seasoned with salt, their lives will be blessed by the overflow our God in our lives.

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception,
nor do we distort the word of God. 

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God.  

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  

So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

II Corinthians 4