PEAK EXISTENCE

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."

So said Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I think he nailed it.

And I think this is why Jesus' announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom of God is such good news. I think, deep down inside, we all want to be useful. 

And to be useful to God Himself, the King of Kings? Well, there's no higher aspiration for a human being. 

Maybe Jesus was saying something profound when He said that it is better to give than to receive. 

Like ... it's better for our psyche, our self-image, our soul, to live like God, giving ourselves away. 

When we are useful, we are leaning into the very purpose for which we were created. 

And THAT is peak existence.

TIME ON THE DECK WITH SAMUEL

This isn't really a post. It's an explanation of why I didn't post tonight.

With Melissa and Sarah in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a dance competition this week, Samuel and I have been the only ones around the house. He was fighting a nasty head cold earlier this week and I have been trying to get ahead on some of my work tasks so that I won't have to work over our time in Scotland next week.

So we haven't really spent any time together this week. Heck, we really haven't just hung out since he returned home in May.

I was planning to work some more after dinner tonight, but then I grilled some hamburgers and Samuel suggested that we watch something while we ate. He wanted to introduce me to a show he thought was funny.

One episode turned into two. Then we started talking about music.

I recently switched my phone from a Samsung to iPhone and he's been eager to show me all the new capabilities at my fingertips.

Anyway, I found an old Scottish band called Runrig I was introduced to 35 years ago. We sat out on the back deck and listened to some Runrig on Apple Music and then I remembered another Scottish band I hadn't thought about in decades, The Battlefield Band, and I took Samuel down my memory lane with some of their songs, playing through his Bluetooth speaker.

We talked about how technology has changed so much - for better or worse. How my parents used to watch The Lawrence Welk Show religiously each week. (You can find hundreds of episodes now on YouTube!) How we had CBS, NBC, and ABC and people actually gathered around their TVs to watch their favorite shows. And how, if you missed it, you had to wait months for the reruns to air over the summer. 

During lulls in the conversation, we listened to the music and took turns throwing the dog's rubber bone toward the yard for her to fetch.

It was a truly pleasant evening together and worth every minute of whatever work I might have to make up tomorrow! 

FREE WILL?

I wasted some time this evening arguing with a Calvinist in the comment section of a YouTube video. 

Upon seeing I was a non-Calvinist, he asked this:

"I want to ask a genuine question, do you pray for the non believers? If you do, why? In your world view God can not violate the mighty will of man? This is a genuine question."

I have heard Calvinist say things like this - that indicate they believe their theological opponents hold that man's free will is of such a nature that it cannot ever be overridden by God. I don't know why they believe this. 

It would be a complete non sequitur to say, "Man has free will, therefore God is incapable of ever imposing His own will upon human beings." 

So I wrote back:

Excellent question. I'm glad you asked it because maybe I can clear up a common misunderstanding. Just because we say that man has free will it does not follow that we believe God can never "violate" man's free will. Why would it? 

I don't know if you have children or not but I think of it in terms of a father with his children. The father is both free and "sovereign" while the kids have free will but are not sovereign. 

The father is not micromanaging the kids' every move. They have plenty of choice as to what they play and how they spend their time. The father can say, "It's time to clean up" and the kids can even then decide to disobey. But the father is in charge and is the final authority. So when he says, "If you don't clean up, there will be consequences", the kids need to be prepared to suffer the consequences of their actions or inactions.

Of course, the father is also at liberty to bring unexpected blessings into the lives of his children: "Hey, kids, we're going to the amusement park tomorrow!"

When I pray for non-believers, I pray that God will put people and events and ideas into the pathway of that person that will wake him or her up to God's reality and goodness. God reaches people in a million different ways, so I don't presume to dictate the means in my prayers as if I would be better equipped to reach that person than their Creator is. 

What does the Calvinist pray for the non-believer? And why?

WE ARE YOUNG!

Melissa, Sarah, Samuel, and I joined some friends last night to enjoy some of the local fireworks from the roof of their house. 

Some of the best seats in the city.

As we were waiting for the show to start, I was doing the math in my head and realized that next year will be the 250th birthday of the nation. 

And then I felt old because I remember the bicentennial! I was 8.

And while I suddenly felt old, it also reminded me that our nation is quite young! Afterall, I've been alive for over a fifth of our history since the founding and I'm not exactly an old-timer myself. 

When I visited Scotland in 1988, one of the first moments that made a huge impression on me was walking into my first castle and looking at an ornate wooden bed with a little plaque nearby claiming the piece of furniture was over 400 years old! 

These days, a lot of people are talking like America's best days are behind her, but we are so, so young still. 

Who knows what some national maturity might bring?

Happy Independence Day!

THE GOSPEL IS BIGGER

We have reduced the gospel to "even though you are a sinner, Jesus died for you, and if you ask Him into your heart, you will be granted entrance to heaven when you die".

And it's so firmly ingrained in the church's mindset, that even the scholars with doctorates don't question it.

But the New Testament presents a much bigger gospel: God's Kingdom has been reestablished on earth, Jesus is the saving King, and He will one day return to earth to fully actualize His authority as King.

The first time the word "gospel" is used in the New Testament is at the advent of Jesus' earthly ministry:

(Mat 4:23) And Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

"The gospel of the kingdom"! This is His message 3 years before His death.

And then look at Luke 9:

1 And Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet has a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Here again, the gospel is clearly equated with Jesus' proclamation that the kingdom of God had arrived.

And, considering the disciples would later be completely caught off guard by Jesus' death and resurrection, they obviously were not proclaiming the same message that we today call "the gospel"! 

RE-ENCHANTMENT

I keep coming across this word: enchantment. 

It comes from the same roots as incantation - the placing of a magic spell on something or someone.

I hear people speaking of our need to recapture the enchantment of life. And everything in me screams "Amen!" 

It feels like we are all vaguely aware that some of the magic of existence has disappeared. Or perhaps it has simply been crowded out.

In this high-tech age where gadgets and AI and doomscrolling dominate what little is left of our individual imaginations, we are less likely than ever to stop and smell the roses. 

Depression and loneliness are common. And deadly - if not to the body, then quite often to the soul. You don't run into too many optimists these days. 

Re-enchantment isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. 

Perhaps the church should lead the way. Afterall, we have not been immune to this general disenchantment.

So often our practice of faith, prayer, and worship are routine. Dried out and stale. And Scripture holds no wonder or mystery.

Where are the psalmists who can remind us of the magnificent magic of God and reality?

The church would make for an appropriate launch site for a renewal of hope and wonder. 

How do we recover the enchantment?

God willing, two weeks from now, Melissa and I will be stepping off a plane in Edinburgh, Scotland. I haven't visited Scotland since I spent my junior year at the University of Aberdeen in 1988/89. I am looking forward to touring castles, drinking some whisky, and eating a ton of fish and chips. 

But what I find myself truly excited about is simply the pervasive magic of Scotland. There is something enchanted about the entire country and I feel like I NEED to experience it again. 

OPTIMISM KICKS IN

I think of myself as a generally optimistic person. 

BUT, I have a tendency to fixate on how anything I am directly involved in could go wrong.

And I realized something kind of weird about myself this weekend: I swing from pessimism to optimism as the due date approaches.

Our church was open to switching up our approach to VBS this summer and doing a neighborhood festival instead. It was still aimed at kids, but we weren't doing any explicit Bible lessons during our time together. It was more about simply having a positive interaction with our neighbors.

Anyway, after spending the last four weeks imagining all that could go wrong - even to the point of experiencing stress dreams at night - the Freedom Festival arrived today. 

And this morning my attitude flipped 180 degrees. Here's what went through my mind all day today:

• What's the worst that could happen? 
• Even if the event flops, God is capable of bringing something good out of it.
• God is in control.
• This is a grand experiment and we will undoubtedly learn a lot. 

And guess what.

We got rained on. Hard. And only a few kids showed up.

But the kids and adults who did show up? They thought it was great to see the church doing something for the neighborhood. 

And it was. 

Not only that, but even with a lot of church members out of town this weekend, many others showed up and worked hard. There's is no question how much these people care for those outside our fellowship.

I can't wrap up without giving a huge shout out to Melissa. She did a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure the festival was the best it could be. 

And it all paid off. I can't wait to see what God does with our efforts from today.

In the future, I should be more consistently optimistic. Less anxious. 

(P.S. If I wasn't so wiped out, I would post some pictures. Sorry.)