Michael Kelley's Blog, page 28

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. When I Die Young (or Old)

Every day we live we are one day closer to death. Here is a wonderful reflection on what that means, be it sooner or later.

2. Significance

We all want to live lives that actually mean something, don’t we? This article helps us confront that perhaps we are defining significance wrongly.

3. Do the Will You Know

Absolutely important. Rather than pining away for what we might now know of God’s will, let’s get busy doing what we already do know to be His will.

4. The Highest a Human Voice Can Go

Huh. Not super useful, but interesting nonetheless.

Make Sure You’re Pursuing the Right Kind of Vision

One of the buzzwords we often hear in the context of leadership discussions is vision. We want our leaders to have vision, to be able to articulate vision, and to bring other people on board with that vision. But, as with any word that becomes part of our vernacular, with popular usage comes a dilution of meaning. So what exactly do we mean when we say “vision”?

Well, we know we are talking about the future. A person of vision is a person who is future-oriented and spends time thinking about not only what is, but what might be. And we also assume, with the word, that the future is hopeful. Or better. Or more advanced in some way. In fact, it might be so different and fanciful that we can’t really even see how to get there, or even imagine that such a future is possible. But a person with vision can do just that.

Visionaries, then, are people who are somehow able to imagine with clarity what is to come, and are able to marshal the resources to help get there. Steve Jobs was a visionary. So was Henry Ford. So was Martin Luther King, Jr. All these looked forward to what could be and inspired others to see the same.

Vision, in this sense, is a noble thing. A good thing. A wonderful thing, in fact. But I wonder – can we take that same understanding of vision and project it onto our personal lives? Much in the same way that Steve Jobs was somehow able to look down the line of time and see a day when we could have more information available to us in our pockets than all history before us, and do the same thing when it comes to us? Can we envision a future for ourselves when we are working at a certain job or earning a certain amount or have a certain lifestyle and then will it into existence?

Perhaps we can. We can set goals for ourselves and then work incrementally toward them, and this, too, is a good thing. But at least when it comes to our personal lives, we must be very careful not to mix up vision with presumption. We must be so, so careful not to chart out our lives to the extent that we begin asking God to affirm our own plans for our lives rather than submitting our lives to his:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil (James 4:13-16).

This is what James is warning against – a presumptuous kind of life. It’s the kind of life that arrogantly leaves no room for the Lord’s will, but instead goes about making plans with no consideration of how small we are in the grand sovereignty of God.

Now for some of us, that is an anxiety-inducing prospect, because it’s a reminder of just how little control we actually have in our lives. And if you feel that way, then chances are you have spent a lot of time asking – begging – God for a vision of the future.

“Show me with pristine clarity what will come to pass in the next five years!” or something similar, we say. But God does not. He will not. And that is because, at least in part, He desires faith from His people, and faith by its very nature is being certain of what we do not see.

It’s being certain of God’s wisdom in His plan, His love for His children, and His power to carry it out. This is what we have a true vision of – not our circumstances. This is the best kind of vision. The right kind of vision. It’s a vision, growing ever more clearer the longer we walk with Jesus, of the goodness of God. This is the kind of vision that bears more and more faith as we see God continuing to be faithful to His Word.

We can trust Him. And we can trust Him because about Him, we have clarity. Even if about nothing else.

3 Ways We Misunderstand God’s Patience

God is patient with us. Thank goodness He is. Every time we look at ourselves and think that we should be further along in our spiritual walk, when we think we should be well beyond struggling with certain sins, when we think we should know more of who God is, we can fall back on this fact. God is patient with us. He plays the long game as our spiritual Father, knowing that time is, of course, on His side as He molds us into the people He created us to be in Christ.

But God is also patient with the world. Thank goodness He is. Day after day, we see evidences of His common grace all around us. The sun shines, the rain falls, the seasons change – all things live and move and have their being in Him. The earth does not tilt off its axis; the oceans do not rise uncontrollably; and then there are the man-made systems of the public good that have been set up. These are all evidences not only of God’s common grace to us, but also of His patience. For all the while He continues to provide for us in these means of common grace, we still as a world do not acknowledge His power, His love, or His authority. We just keep on living, and God allows the world to do so because He is patient.

God is patient, though, to a greater end. His patience is meant to lead us to repentance:

Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Rom. 2:3-4).

Unfortunately, though, it often doesn’t work that way in our hearts. We make assumptions about God, and in our assumptions we take His patience for other things. Here are three of those other things we might mistake God’s patience for:

1. Apathy.

We might mistake God’s patience for apathy when it comes either to our sin, or to the state of the world. We might look around and not see any visible evidence of God executing His justice, His wrath, or His discipline and then assume He just doesn’t care about what’s happening. Nothing could be further from the truth. God is not the cosmic clockmaker who just wound the world up and then let it run. Rather, He is intimately involved in the details of everyday life. It is out of His patience, desiring all who are willing to come to repentance, to do so. So when we see evil in the world, we should be very careful not to assume God is apathetic. We should be thankful for His patience instead of critical of His apathy.

2. Leniency.

We might also mistake God’s patience for leniency. Let’s say that we are involved in a pattern of sin, over and over again, and nothing happens. Now what we might think is, God is being so patient with me. I must trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep in the fight because I believe that, by God’s grace, this sin can be conquered in my life.

But we don’t. More likely, when we don’t experience any immediate, tangible evidence of God’s discipline we jump to the assumption that God must be okay with what we are doing. So rather than repentance we simply wash and repeat.

3. Forever.

And one final way we might misunderstand God’s patience. We might misunderstand His patience to be forever. That life will always keep going, both at home and around the world, just as it is now. But we should be careful to not assume God’s patience will last forever, because it won’t. There is a limit to that divine patience, and eventually all the wrath and justice stored up behind the dam of that patience will break forth.

Justice will be executed. God will show forth His perfect character. And we would be wise to know it will happen.

God is patient with us, friends, but the right way to respond with patience is not with assumptions. It’s with repentance.

The Essential, but Easy to Miss Ingredient for Courage

I think we all know courage when we see it:

It’s the first responder running toward when everyone else is running away.It’s the kid on the playground standing up for the other kid who is being bullied.It’s the soldier willing to sacrifice himself in order to save another.

Yes, we know it when we see it. And we can even somewhat define it, at least in part. In our attempts to do so, we might say that courage is akin to bravery. Or that it’s the decision to press on despite the potential consequences of doing so. Or that it’s the willingness to embrace personal cost for someone or something else. Or that it’s internal fortitude, grit, or resolve. And all of those things would be right.

But here’s another question – how is courage learned? Or grown? Or developed? Is it through opportunity? Discipline? Faith? The list could go on, but there is one essential ingredient for courage that must be named, at least for the Christian. And ironically, it’s also the one ingredient that can most easily be overlooked:

God’s Word.

God’s Word is an essential ingredient for courage. Christian courage. And it can also be overlooked if we think of courage only as an internal quality or relegate it to the level of risk-taking. By way of example, consider Joshua:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

This is actually the third time in that chapter that God has told Joshua the same thing – to be strong and courageous, so it’s clear that this is important to God. He very much wants Joshua to be strong and courageous, and that ought to make us wonder why. What reason did Joshua have to need to be so strong and courageous? After all, he had led troops in battle. He had seen the glory of God with Moses. He had spied out the land and come back to urge others to courageously to go in and take the land. And yet here, despite his pedigree and experiences, all of which tell us that he IS strong and courageous, we find God telling him over and over again to be strong and courageous.

The answer to why is found in verse 2: “Moses my servant is dead.”

Moses the deliverer after 400 years of slavery. Moses who God had used to perform all the signs and wonders and even part the Red Sea. Moses who had been given the law. Moses who had stood between the nation and their God. And now Joshua – those are some big shoes to fill. Can you imagine the pressure?

True enough, Joshua had been prepared for this moment. He had been groomed over the years to take over the reigns of leadership. But then he watched the people around him die, one by one, over 40 years of wandering in the desert, until only he and Caleb remained of the originals. And so here he finally stood, the one in leadership, at the edge of the land God had been promising to His people for generations. Suddenly it’s no wonder that God was telling him to be strong and courageous:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

There is evidently a direct correlation between strength and courage and the Word of God. Look at how Joshua is meant to treat God’s Word. He is supposed to read it. To talk about it. To meditate on it. To obey it in its entirety. In other words, Joshua is to become to intimately familiar with God’s Word that everything he thinks, feels, and does is filtered through that Word. And if he does that, then he will be strong and courageous. Now why might that be?

Well, it is because the Word of God is really about one primary thing – it’s meant to show us who God is and what He is like. And when we know who God is and what He is like, the Bible helps us see who we are in light of who He is. And that revelation is where true courage is born.

The Christian finds courage not from some inner reservoir; we find courage when we know the God of the universe. We find the fortitude to stand when we understand His power and authority. This is how we are firm; this is how we run toward rather than away; this is how we are strong and courageous. It is by knowing the God of the Bible better and better.

Do not neglect this key ingredient, especially if you find yourself in a posture very much opposite of courageous today. God’s Word is for you, for strength and courage are found within.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. Winning Your Child’s Heart with Winsome Words

This was very challenging to me, making me consider what my default tone and language is for my children.

2. Sing the Word of God

Yes! Our worship should be both filled by and framed by the Word of God.

3. God Has Not Given You a Stone

No matter what it might seem like circumstantially, God is giving us the bread we need on a daily basis.

4. The US River That Flows Backwards

Interesting stuff here. It’s the Chicago River, and this article tells you why.

“Jesus Knows.”

The first three chapters of the Book of Revelation provide a stirring vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. He walks among His churches, His bride, and He addresses them directly. And though their contexts are different, though their struggles are unique, though their situations are particular, there is a common refrain that echoes through Jesus’ communication:

“I know.”

Those two words are incredibly comforting. Jesus knows about the labor and endurance of the church at Ephesus, how they tested the teaching in front of them to make sure it was truly from God. He knows about the financial struggles of the church at Smyrna, how they are about to experience the kind of persecution that might go unnoticed throughout the empire. He knows about the martyr named Antipas at Pergamum though the rest of history has long forgotten his name. He knows about how the works of righteousness of the church of Thyatira have eclipsed those works they did at the beginning of their faith. He knows of the remnant of the passionate faithful at Sardis, how they among their fellowship retain their love for Him. He knows about the limited strength of His people in Philadelphia, how despite their weakness, they have not denied Him.

Jesus knows.

That is indeed comforting, for Jesus still knows. He knows about your inner battle and your choice to turn off the computer rather than keep clicking. Jesus knows how many diapers you changed yesterday and how you fought to keep your temper under control. Jesus knows how demanding your boss is and the struggle it is to maintain an attitude of respect when you’re being mistreated. Jesus knows your secret worry about the mortgage payment, how you are actively fighting to trust Him during the layoffs at work. Jesus knows. Though no one else does, Jesus knows.

It’s comforting to know that someone notices. Someone understands. Someone sees and someone recognizes. I don’t know about you, but the knowledge of Jesus fills my heart and lifts my soul; it helps me to know that Jesus knows.

It helps me… and it frightens me.

Because if Jesus knows, then Jesus knows.

He knows about the infiltration of the seemingly insignificant sins into the life of the church at Pergamum. He knows that although everyone thinks the church of Sardis is alive it’s really dead. He knows the casual kind of faith and following that characterizes the church of Laodicea. Jesus knows. Though no one else does, Jesus knows. Nothing in all creation is hidden from the sight of Him to Whom we must give an account.

So what do we do with this overwhelming, all-encompassing, knowledge of Jesus?

In either case, whether the knowledge of Jesus is comforting or terrifying to you, you cannot and should not deny it. And in either case, when we come to Jesus and acknowledge our insecurities, our doubt, our anxiety, and yes, our sin – we are not telling Him anything He doesn’t already know. Perhaps that is, in part, what we do with the truth of Jesus’ knowledge:

We allow it to move us closer to Him. We pray and trust. We turn and repent. And the wonderful news is that when we come to Jesus, telling Him what He already knows, we will not find one shaking His head in disapproval but rather One who is very glad that we are finally willing to say the thing that He has known all along.

Nothing Drifts in a Positive Direction

Several years ago at an annual physical, my doctor took the opportunity to throw some cold water on my overall health. I walked into the appointment frankly feeling pretty good about myself. I was exercising, eating reasonably well, and sleeping just fine. And she agreed – my overall health was good. And yet…

And yet, she explained, that once you reach a certain age, you will naturally gain two pounds per year. That is to say, if you kept everything exactly and precisely consistent from one year to the next, you would still gain two pounds. Her point was that if you wanted to maintain a stable body weight, it’s not enough to just keep doing what you’re doing. You either have to adjust the calories coming in or the exercise going out to account for two pounds… and that’s just to weigh the same as you do now, this same time next year!

It was less than encouraging to me.

Not only because it meant I would have to do more work just to remain the same, but also because it was a reminder that I – like everything else – am in a state of decay. That my natural, physical body is not going to last forever, and every year that goes by requires more intentionality to hold my ground against that state of decay.

It occurs to me that this same thing is true not just about our physical bodies, but about most everything else. If we leave anything alone – if we don’t pay attention to it and take positive action on behalf of it – it will decay. To put it another way…

Nothing drifts in a positive direction.

That’s what happens when things are left alone, isn’t it? They drift, because they are untethered and unaccounted for. They follow the prevailing currents of whatever they’re in, be it a body of water or be it the culture around them. Without intentionality, there is always drift – and nothing drifts in a positive direction. The writer of Hebrews knew this:

We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away… (Hebrews 2:1).

There are currents all around us. And they are always moving and swirling, defining and redefining truth and reality depending on the feelings of the day. And if we don’t pay attention, we will drift right along with them. But to make matters worse, there are not only currents all around us; there are currents within us. Currents of our own feelings. Our own misshaped desires. Of our sinful hearts that cling doggedly to the unredeemed versions of ourselves. Here, too, we must pay careful attention or we will drift along with what we feel rather than the truth that we know.

And that’s how we pay careful attention – we find our understanding of what’s true and real by something bigger and better than ourselves, and something bigger and better than the culture around us. We find truth and reality in God’s revelation that never changes. That revelation serves as our anchor which keeps us in place. This is how we pay careful attention in the midst of all the currents that are constantly moving us in this direction or that – we are firmly rooted in God’s Word.

Remember, friends, nothing drifts in a positive direction. We’d better have an anchor or we will look around one day and realize we have gone places we’ve never intended.

2 Truths About An Encounter With Jesus

There are mornings when you wake up and it doesn’t feel like the sun is going to rise. And even when it does, it feels like it shouldn’t. That’s because for you, everything has changed – the job was over; or the relationship had ended; or the phone call had come; the diagnosis had been confirmed. Your life, as you knew it, had been turned upside down, and yet…

And yet the world just keeps moving around you. You pass people in the car or the street who are laughing or talking or just going about their day, and it’s hard to believe that your personal world has been overturned and yet everything else is pretty much the same. The sun still comes up, just like it does every day.

Perhaps that was what Mary felt like, as recorded in John 20, when she went to the tomb of Jesus early in the morning. Everything she thought she knew had been upended in the past couple of days, and yet there was the sun. Coming up again as if nothing had happened. And so to the tomb she went, only to find that her shock and awe from the previous weekend was only beginning.

The stone had been removed. The tomb was empty. And Mary found a reserve of energy she did not realize she had – enough to run and inform Peter and John that the body of Jesus had been stolen. And while the two disciples ventured into the darkness of the tomb, Mary stayed outside and wept. She had already been in and she knew what they would find. What was bad had somehow, unbelievably, unfathomably, gotten worse. And then this:

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him” (John 20:11-15).

There He was. In the midst of her pain, darkness, and confusion – Jesus was there. And in reflecting upon this encounter with Jesus, there are at least two things we can learn about our own encounters with the Lord:

1. Encounters with Jesus come in the midst of the ordinary.

How could Mary have not recognized Jesus? The simplest answer is that she wasn’t looking for Him. Not there. Not in the midst of sorrow and grief. Not right in the place where everything seemed to be going so terribly wrong. And yet there He was.

But she did see someone – but she mistook that someone for the gardener. For an ordinary, run of the mill, non-spectacular person. And there is a great truth for us because in a day when we are obsessed with the spectacular, we translate that obsession over to our encounters with Jesus.

Surely we would never encounter Jesus in the midst of an ordinary day. At an ordinary job. Or doing the ordinary stuff of parenting like making dinner or playing catch in the yard. And yet those are precisely the times when we meet with Jesus. He is not restricted to the spectacular; indeed, Jesus has always made it His pattern to come to us in the most ordinary way imaginable. We would do well to recognize that every single moment of every single ordinary day is an opportunity to experience the presence and see the work of Jesus Christ.

2. We often don’t recognize the presence of Jesus until later.

In the moment, Mary was confused. Grief-stricken. Sorrowful. And it was not until later – granted, just a bit later – that she recognized the presence of Jesus. And so it is with us.

During days of pain and difficulty, we are prone to throw up our hands and ask the Lord where He is and what He is doing. And yet He is there. We don’t recognize Him, but He is there. It is only often with the benefit of time and reflection that we are able to recognize an encounter with Jesus. It’s only after the fact that we can see, at least in part, that He was indeed with us, and not only with us, but right in the middle of what was happening in the moment, working for our good and our continued formation into His own image.

So it was with Mary, and so it was with us. So let us not neglect the ordinary, because it’s in the ordinary that we will see Jesus. And let us be patient during seasons of sorrow, knowing that with the benefit of time we will be able to look back and see at least a glimpse of the abiding presence and purpose of Jesus with us in the middle of it.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. God’s Faithfulness in the Past Assures Our Happy Future

We all want to be happy, but where do we turn when it seems like it can’t happen? We look to the past for assurance of what is to come.

2. The Pleasure of God in Ordinary Work

This is a reflection on Psalm 104 that helps us see our everyday work through God’s eyes.

3. Deepening Your Friendship in Marriage

This is a very practical – and real life article – from a woman who came into an arranged marriage.

4. 6 Popular Etiquette Rules Explained

Huh. I knew we were supposed to do this stuff, but did not know why.

Christians Stumble, but They Are Stumbling Forward

During my undergraduate studies, I took a few statistics classes as a part of my degree plan. And though a lot of that knowledge has come and gone, there are a few terms and exercises I remember. One of those involved the importance of drawing a trendline.

A trendline is different than a line graph. In a line graph, you are connecting points to each other, no matter where those points are on the axis. With a line graph, you might be a steep high and a dramatic low point connected together to where the line is a constant up and down kind of peak and valley look. But the trendline is meant to demonstrate the direction of the change over a period of time. Rather than connecting all the individual points, the trendline is drawn through the middle of all those points to show whether or not there is a pattern.

This kind of line doesn’t answer whether there are high high’s and low low’s; instead, it’s meant to visually show the overall trajectory of the data. In real life, you might use a trendline, for example, to predict stock values. Yes, a stock might be super high on a given day, and be super low on another given day. But given time – what is the price of the stock doing? Is it going up, despite those low’s? Or is it going down, despite those high’s? That’s the trend.

And perhaps the same kind of thinking can be helpful when thinking about our walk with Christ. Reason being, each one of us are going to have both high’s and low’s when it comes to following Jesus. There will be days when the Word of God seems to jump off the page; when we are excited about giving ourselves fully over to the will of God; when we are freely sharing the gospel and pursuing holiness with gladness; when we are thankful and praying and rejoicing and learning.

But then again, there will be low’s:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

We have sinned, and we will continue to do so. We will sin through acts of commission and acts of omission, through doing what we know to be wrong and through failing to do what we know to be right. These are low’s, each and every one of them. And yet those low’s comes with a promise found in the next verse:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Because of the unending grace of Jesus, each low – each time we stumble – we can get up again. In His grace, Jesus lifts us to our feet and we continue on, which brings us to the trendline…

Every Christian stumbles, but we are stumbling forward. 

Yes, there are low’s, but the trendline of our lives is upward. It is toward Christlikeness. And it’s not so based on our own strength, resilience, or resolve, but because this is what God has willed for us in Christ Jesus:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Eph. 1:3-4).

Christian, you will stumble today. So will I. And yet we can get up and continue on because of God’s grace. When we do, we will see slowly but surely God is doing something in us. He is making us more like Jesus. This is our trendline – to stumble, and yet to stumble forward.