Theological Musings

ere on the east coast of the US, it’s just minutes away from the start of Thanksgiving Day.  I wanted to take a moment to just bullet point some of the things for which I am so very thankful right now:

• I am so thankful that my Father watches over me and cares about every detail of my life.  His care for me is evident every day, and I can’t express the depth of my gratitude.
• I am so thankful for a beautiful, loving, wonderful wife who supports me in so many ways and gives me opportunities to support and show my love for her, too.
• I am so thankful for two children who bring joy to my life.  While being a parent is often tricky, I could not be happier as a dad.  The fact that both children have come into my life through adoption reminds me on a daily basis of the joy of being adopted into my Father’s family.
• I am so thankful for the recent move to Abingdon, VA.  I haven’t changed the graphic in the “About Me” section of the sidebar yet to reflect our move, but we are now officially residents of Virginia.  The details of how we ended up in Abingdon remind me of the tremendous provision of our loving Father.
• I am so thankful to be able to do things that I enjoy doing for “work”.  My work stays varied enough and interesting enough to actually be fun.
• I am so thankful that my work often gives me the ability to be home with my family.  There are stretches of time where the schedule gets difficult, but there are many more times where I can stay home and spend time with my lovely wife and children.
• I am so thankful for blog readers who often encourage me.  Especially when it’s weeks or even months between blog posts, and yet they keep coming back to read!
• I am so thankful to be a part of a podcast that is actually encouraging people.  The comments we have been receiving on our (mostly) weekly episodes humble me.
• I am so thankful to be able to minister to people through my music.  There was a time when I realized that I was nowhere near worthy of being used by our Father to touch others’ lives, but I have come to relax in the joy of knowing that I am worthy because of Christ.

These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for.  What about you?  The comments are open for you to share things that you are thankful for.  And to my brothers and sisters reading this in the United States, have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving day!  To my brothers and sisters outside the US, this is a good day to give thanks anyway!

steve

any are familiar with sayings similar to, “It is not what a man does that measures his worth, but what he is.” And on several levels, that is true. However, Jesus also said that we would know people by “their fruit”. Fruit can be what a person is, but it also often manifests in what they do. So, what a man does really can be important in measuring his worth, right?

Barb, blogging at A Former Leader, wrote a post called “Husband Replacement“. While the major gist of the post is not what I’m trying to blog about here, she wrote a few sentences that I find really pertinent to this question about how we measure spirituality and “leadership”.

I measured [my husband] Marshall for so many years by a measuring stick that was skewed. On one stick was all the things that I thought made you a good Christian – things like being faithful to daily Bible reading, memorizing, journaling, church attendance and fulfilling all the expectations of the leader of whatever church we were in. On the other stick – (God’s stick, btw) – were things like faithfulness, kindness, loving the unlovely, willingness to help me and others, love for his kids, the ability to laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep. If I were to have used the right stick he was head and shoulders above any one I knew.

How often do we judge leaders (or just any Christian) based on their faithfulness to the checklist? You know the checklist I’m talking about. All those things we have been taught indicate that we’re a “good Christian”. We honor church attendance, scripture memorization, etc. Yet how often do we look at the relationships people have? How often do we look at how their heart is displayed in their life?

To paraphrase Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, you can memorize scripture, journal diligently, attend anytime the church doors are opened, etc., but if you don’t have love (or, I would add, any of the other fruit of the Spirit), it is completely worthless.

I think this goes along with a post that Alan Knox recently reposted regarding the story we usually call “the good Samaritan”. The one who didn’t have his theology “correct” becomes the hero of the story. He becomes the one Jesus offers as the model to follow. Why? Because he lived it out.

Until next time,
steve

K, so I realize it’s been over three months…three months!…since I’ve posted here. And there are many reasons for that dry spell. I could make all kinds of excuses, but I won’t. I’ll just say that I’m back for this post, and who knows how long it will be until the next one!

This week, we obviously held a very important election here in the United States. And I noticed something leading up to the election, and it became very obvious as the election results came in Tuesday night.

I have a Facebook account (look me up on there if you’re not already my Facebook friend), and my friends list is very, very diverse. I have some of my blog readers, some “in real life” friends, high school classmates, college classmates, co-workers from the theatre where I have been working these past few months, high school kids whom I accompanied this summer at a music camp — all different types of people. Some very liberal, some very conservative. Some Christian, some not. Some straight, some gay. Some old, some young. Anyway, you get the picture.

Well, if you’re not familiar with Facebook, there’s this little thing on Facebook called “status” where you can say what you’re doing at the moment, what you’re feeling, or whatever you want to put in there.

And so, election night, I was logged into Facebook, and I was following the status changes of all of my Facebook friends. And I noticed a very disturbing trend.

I could have divided my friends into two groups that night. One group was jubilant. “YES, WE DID!!!” read some statuses (stati?). “Change is coming!” read others. “I am sooo happy,” read still more.

And then, there were the evangelical Christians and more conservative types in the other group. “I’m feeling very scared.” “I’m scared, but I know God’s still in control.” “I’m worried about our country.”

Now, would I expect everyone to be happy about the election results? Of course not. Millions voted for John McCain.

But fear? Acting like the world was about to go to hell? The funny thing is, I seem to recall very similar comments from friends and family back in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected as President.

Seriously, Christianity is supposed to be about hope. About life. About victory. About peace. And we’re going to let the results of a Presidential election override all of that??

I just don’t get it. What are you afraid of?

Until next time,
steve