JOLLYBLOGGER

The Inverse Relationship Between Volume of Knowledge and Volume of Words

Good grief - this fits me to a "T."  It's also something I've observed.  I hope I'm headed toward the good side of this equation, i.e. to more knowledge and less desire to talk.  This is from Galileo, courtesy of Kottke:

Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgment upon anything new.

Building Faith in the Face of Suffering

In the past week the following news has come across the screen of my life. 

• An old friend that of ours lost his wife this week after a long battle with brain cancer. 
• A dear friend and former member of our church recently found out she has breast cancer and had surgery this week.  
• A 21 year old kid from the youth group I used to pastor has been battling cystic fibrosis for most of his life and is now in ICU. 
• This morning I found out that a pastor friend's wife has cancer and has just had surgery.   

All of this is in addition to several in my church who have either lost jobs, are battling illness, facing family breakdown or worrying about loved ones overseas in the military. 

Indeed, the world we live in is a fallen world.  So, how does one retain their faith in the midst of such things?  

I just finished reading "Why Johnny Can't Preach" by T. David Gordon, a book I recommend highly to preachers and anyone concerned with the state of preaching in the church.  In a section on how to build faith in one's hearers, Gordon offers the following anecdote from the life of Robert Lewis Dabney: 

. . . Faith is built by careful, thorough exposition of the person, character and work of Christ. 

One of the great articulations of this reality in the history of Christian literature occurs in a letter written by Clement Read Vaughan to the renowned Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney.  Dabney moved from Virginia to Austin, Texas, almost twenty years after the Civil War and lived there for another fifteen years.  In his latter years, he became blind and weak and knew his death was near.  He wrote to his old friend Vaughan, wondering whether he would have strong enough faith to face his impending death, and Vaughan's reply was as theologically trenchant as it was pastorally lovely.  He wrote back to Dabeny and asked Dabney what a traveler would do if he came to a chasm over which a bridge was spanned: 

What does he doe to breed confidence in the bridge?  He looks at the bridge; he gets down and examines it.  He don't [sic] stand at the bridge-head and turn his thoughts curiously in on his own mind to see if he has confidence in the bridge.  If his examination of the bridge gives him a certain amount of confidence, and yet he wants more, how does he make his faith grow?  Why, in the same way; he still continues to examine the bridge.  Now, my dear old man, let your faith take care of itself for awhile, and you just think of what you are allowed to trust in.  Think of the Master's power, think of his love; think how he is interested in the soul that searches for him, and will not be comforted until he finds him.  Think of what he has done, his work.  That blood of his is mightier than all the sins of of all the sinners that ever lived.  Don't you think it will master yours? . . . 

Now, dear old friend, I have done to you just what I would want you to do to me if I were lying in your place.  The great theologian, after all, is just like any other one of God's children, and the simple gospel talked to him is just like any other one of God's children, and the simple gospel talked to him is just as essential to his comfort as it is to a milk-maid or to a plow-boy.  May God give you grace, not to lay too much stress on your own faith, but to grasp the great ground of confidence, Christ, and all his work and all his personal fitness to be a sinners refuge.  Faith is only an eye to see him.  I have been praying that God would quiet your pains as you advance, and enable you to see the gladness of the gospel at every step.  Good-bye.  God be with you as he will.  Think of the Bridge!

Your brother, 
C. R. V. 

We all wonder how we are going to face the most difficult situations of life and if we will be able to cope.  We all wonder how we will face the most difficult situation - our own death.  Like Dabney, I have had fresh occasion to consider that like never before.  

These words brought great comfort to me as I hope they did to Dabney. In asking if I would have the faith to face my own death I have been asking if I have the resources to do so within me.  My eye was on me and my experience of faith.  But C. R. V. rightly reminds us all that we are not to look to our faith, for faith by definition is a look to Christ. 

This is all any of us has to offer those who are facing situations like the ones I described above - we need not worry ourselves as to whether we have the inner strength to face these things - we don't and we shouldn't look within for strength to face them.  Christ alone has "the personal fitness to be a sinners refuge."  This is the key to faith in the midst of suffering. 

Tim Chester - A Church of the Cross

If you have read my blog lately you will know that the "theology of the cross" has become the pattern by which I am beginning to understand my life.  Tim Chester takes this to the next level in a post at the Resurgence as he talks about a "Church of the Cross."  Here's a couple of excerpts. 

The great Reformer Martin Luther spoke of theologies of glory and a theology of the cross. Theologies of glory look for the revelation of God in his mighty works: creation, miracles, spiritual experiences. But this kind of knowledge, said Luther, only puffs people up. Instead God has chosen to reveal himself supremely in the cross. 

And: 

Now apply the same idea to our churches. Churches of glory will put their confidence in mighty works: stage performances, big budgets, large numbers, powerful arguments, charismatic preachers. A church of the cross will be characterized by power in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, victory in shame. Its confidence will be in the sovereignty of God, the presence of his Spirit, and the power of his Word.

Just as the theology of the cross transforms our understanding of the individual Christian life it can change our understanding of life in the church. 

Allison Kraus - A Living Prayer

Got this from Ray Ortlund's blog and Kelly Munroe Kullberg's Facebook

A few random thoughts on cancer and mental and emotional health.

I had chemo today and one of the drugs they give me for nausea is a steroid that keeps me up at night, so it's a little after 1:00am now and I'll probably be awake till at least 3:00am tonight.  So, I'm looking for something to do besides laying in bed wishing I could sleep and thought I would share a few random thoughts that occurred to me today about cancer and things associated. 

I'm talking about this because I recently read that one out of four people in America will get cancer - so either you or someone you know, or you and someone you know or you and several someones you know will get cancer at some point in your life.  I am just hoping that my experiences can be of help to you in dealing with it and that I can be a testimony of the grace of God and the reality of hope in this. 

Jim Murray was the greatest sportswriter of his generation and he lost his wife to cancer.  One day the doctor told them that the cancer had metastasized.  Rick Reilly replays that incident: 

"Sorry," the doctor said. "The cancer has metastasized."

"The cancer has metastasized."

"The most terrible collection of syllables in the language," Murray says.

I couldn't agree more with Murray, but I also believe that if our profession of Christian faith is worth anything, then we must profess and confess that the Christian faith is made for the most terrible times in life and God can sustain you in the midst of it. 

Governing Our Thoughts and Emotions

I'm preaching a series right now called "The Magnificent Love of God," in which my purpose is to convince our folks that God does indeed love them and that this is the greatest thing in the world. 

So far we have looked at God's general benevolent love for everyone vis-a-vis His particular saving love for His people, we have looked at God's love for the wayward and today we looked at God's love for the broken. 

Next Sunday (3/29/09) I'm preaching on "God's Love for the Bewildered" and I will address God's love for us even when we are at our most mentally and emotionally confused, depressed and angry.  The text will be Psalm 73:21-26(NIV): 

²¹ When my heart was grieved 
and my spirit embittered, 
²² I was senseless and ignorant; 
I was a brute beast before you.  
²³ Yet I am always with you; 
you hold me by my right hand. 
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, 
and afterward you will take me into glory. 
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? 
And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, 
but God is the strength of my heart 
and my portion forever.  

My main point will be that God loves us when we are at our worst, mentally and emotionally.  Here you have a catalogue of negative emotions - grief, bitterness, senselessness, ignorance, to the point that we are beastly before God.  In this Psalm the writer is not hungry for God, is not desiring God, is not pursuing God, is not loving God or any other thing we ought to do when it comes to facilitating our relationship with God.  He is mired in the deepest despair, yet the love of God still reaches him - "yet I am always with you, you hold me by my right hand." 

This passage reminds me of the words of Brian Chappel, president of Covenant Seminary at the funeral of his friend Petros Roukas.  I am told that Brian said that when you can no longer hold on to God, God will hold on to you if you are his child.  Or it may have been that when you can no longer hold on to the gospel the gospel holds on to you. 

An Interesting Take on the News Business

Here's an interesting story I found while goofing off on a Saturday, catching up on Gator News.  Although it's a story that works in my favor as a Gator Fan, it's an interesting illustration of how the news media works. 

For years now I've been pretty ambivalent about the news.  I can't remember the last time I watched a news program on TV and I only read the newspaper in the fall on Sundays to catch up on Saturday's football scores.  Check that, I sometimes read the newspapers in the fall, but usually I just go over the SI and ESPN sites and the GatorSports site and that's enough.  For news I'll check Drudge usually once a day and on a day when I am intensely interested in the news of the day I may lightly scan an article or two they link to.  And I have a few blogs that keep up with the news that I read from time to time so I'm not completely ignorant of the news.  In fact, just last week I heard there was an election last year, and did you know we have a new President?

Now for those of you who find my lack of interest in the news heretical never fear, I get all kinds of email forwards that keep me informed of the conspiracy or EOTWAWKI scenario dujour so it's not like I'm completely out of the loop. 

With all of that, any guilt I ever felt about not keeping on top of the news was relieved when I read c. John Sommerville's book "How the News Makes Us Dumb."  In it he makes what to me is a persuasive case that the problem with the news media is not bias or incompetence on the part of the news organizations or news personnel themselves, it is the nature of the media itself.  The problem with news is it's daily-ness.  Because the news business is daily, the #1 goal of news media is to make you come back tomorrow.  Therefore, they have to focus on the sensational, they are not able to discern the significant.  In other words the nature of the beast itself prevents the news media from being a good source of . . . well . . . the news. 

So, I'm reading today about my beloved Gators (which is always significant and newsworthy!) and I come across this article in the Orlando Slantinel about why newspapers in Florida are giving more coverage to the Florida Gators than the FSWHO Seminoles.  And while it seems self-evident to me that no one with a sound mind could have any interest in knowing what happens to the nolies I was intrigued to find out why newspapers in Florida are covering the Gators more than other schools in Florida.  

The bottom line - it's readership and advertising.  While it's true that the Gators have been more newsworthy in recent years than any other athletic team on the planet, it is interesting to me why the nolies and other teams aren't getting the coverage.  Here's the writer: 

I regret to inform you that the debate is over. Newspapers undeniably prefer the Gators, though not for the reasons persecuted fans think.

It's not an orange-and-blue thing, It's a green thing.

Money is becoming scarce in the newspaper business. 

And: 

That's not to toot our horn. If the boss is ever ordered to choose between covering FSU and Florida, he'd pick the Gators.

Florida gets more readers, more Web hits and more reaction, and generates more advertising. Seminoles fans don't want to hear it. It's not fair, but a lot of things aren't fair in this scenario. Like three FSU beat writers being laid off, one just last week.

Sports fans say if only newspapers would have covered their favorite teams better, circulation wouldn't have dropped. Just as conservatives say if newspapers weren't so liberal, they wouldn't be in this fix.

The biggest reason is the billions of advertising dollars disappearing into the Internet. Things like Craigslist aren't Republican, Democrat, Seminole or Gator. The newspaper business model broke, and FSU picked a bad time to founder.

While it's been Emerald Bowl material, Florida has won two football and two basketball national championships. Which program would you cover?

Again, while I don't want anyone to waste any of few precious moments we have on this earth reading about nolies, I do think this illustrates Sommerville's points - that the goal of news is not to report the news, it is to generate readership. Interestingly enough, Sommerville was a prof at the U of F.  But because of this one ought not to think they are getting news of significance from the news, and we ought to be aware that we are being fed what will bring more readers, not what is necessarily significant. 

Sommerville's alternative is that we ought to take the time we devote to reading newspapers and watching news programs to reading books.  We need to read history and philosophy, and I would add theology, and things like that which give us a larger view of the world and give us the tools which will enable us to rightly interpret the events of our day. 

So the next question is, why are you wasting your precious time reading my blog when you could be reading something significant like philosophy, history, or theology, or the latest on the Florida Gators.  

Baltimore - A Great Place to Be if You're a Crab

I"m goofing off here getting ready to go to a show my daughter is in tonight - reading a tribute to Jim Murray, the greatest sportswriter of yesteryear, by Rick Reilly, the greatest sportswriter of thisteryear.  Murray had lots of opinions about different cities in America.  Here's what he said about Balitmore: 

"...a guy just standing on a corner with no place to go and rain dripping off his hat.  Baltimore's a great place to be if you're a crab." 

Badda bing, badda boom

Suffering is for Witnessing, Not Just Teaching

A friend and I were recently talking about the trials of life and we were discussing the lessons learned from trials and how we would like to learn those lessons and get them over with, i.e. learn the lessons and thus have an end to the trials. 

I got to thinking about this later and realized that such thoughts demonstrate a deficient view of suffering.  The thinking goes that God sends trials to teach us a lesson and thus, we should expect relief once the lesson is learned.  When the trial continues beyond what we expected or hoped we wonder what is wrong with us - we must not have learned enough from them.  So we apply ourselves that much harder to "learning" from the trials in hopes they will be relieved. 

But it occurs to me that such a view does not comport well with reality.  One of Francis Schaeffer's famous tests of the validity of a worldview is that a true worldview fits with reality.  The problem is that some suffering leads to ever greater suffering, and it can't be that the sufferer is always obstinate and unlearning in such a situation.  Further, some suffering ends in death, not deliverance from the trial.  This is certainly the case with believers through the centuries who have suffered for their faith, and I am also thinking particularly of modern believers in places like China whose suffering seems to lead only to further suffering. 

It can hardly be said that Jesus needed to learn a lesson on the cross, the learning of which would have terminated the experience of the cross.  So with that in mind we need to expand our understanding of God's purposes in suffering.  

I'll issue one caveat on this - I don't mean to deny that suffering is a great teacher, it may be the greatest teacher a Christian will ever have.  It wouldn't be far off the mark to think of it as a means of grace.  I know that I am certainly trying to pay close attention to what God is teaching me through my recent trials. 

So while acknowledging that suffering has a teaching focus in the life of a believer, I think we ought to expand our view of suffering to see it as a means of witness.  I know that many do, but maybe this ought to be given the greater weight. 

A New Book by Richard Dawkins

Did you hear that Richard Dawkins has a new book out - he's expanding the sphere of his polemics. 

HT - Steve Bishop at An Accidental Blog