Psalm 19 Under the Sea

Over break, while Emily and I were in Puerto Rico with my parents and siblings, I had the great gift of going SCUBA diving. I’ve been SCUBA diving twice previously, first last December and then this past July on our honeymoon. (Emily on the other hand has been diving 40+ times and is literally called a “Rescue Diver” – pretty incredible to have as a lifetime dive buddy) As we descended below the surface to around 60 feet, the view through our masks changed from one of empty ocean water to a reef teeming with life and activity. Sea fans, large leafy looking things swayed in the underwater currents. Sponges of every diameter, height, and color protrude up from the underlying coral. We spotted a sea turtle that we quickly scared off but still saw enough of to remind me of Finding Nemo “You totally rock Squirt!” Feather-dusters, with their milky white tentacles would stick up from the coral and then contract into their tiny tube with the slightest touch or eddy of water (You might have seen something like this in Avatar – no, James Cameroon did not come up with them, God did.)

While I was swimming over the reef, a thought popped into my head. All this has existed since the beginning of the world, yet only in the last hundred or so years has humankind been able to explore and marvel at it. This astounded me, especially in light of this quote about beauty from John Macmurray: "All this beauty exists so you and I can see his glory, His artwork. It’s like an invitation to worship Him, to know Him...Beauty doesn’t make any sense apart from God giving a gift to his children. Think about it. Is there a Darwinian explanation for beauty? Not really. It’s a love letter, that’s all. It’s this massive letter to creation, inviting us to enjoy him."

So God, in his infinite power, creativity and knowledge put every single reef, every single Queen Angel Fish, every little sponge and sea fan in the ocean even though he knew that us humans wouldn’t even be able to see it until just recently. To carry on with the metaphor, it is as if God wrote us love letters with beauty for ink, yet hid them under the sea, tucked away from thousands upon thousands of years of human history until they could one day be opened and read. Wow.

In Psalm 19, David writes the following...

 

          The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

 There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

 Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,

 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them,

and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

David sees God’s love displayed through the night sky and the sun's movement day after day. Those who know me (or even those who have gone through my pictures on facebook) know I love sunsets. But while I was SCUBA diving, surrounded by a world hidden from common view, I thought – what would Psalm 19 say if David had gone SCUBA diving?

'Be Born in Us Today'

This Christmas season, while listening to Christmas carols, I was struck by the following lyrics from the classic hymn ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’

"O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today."

It’s now the 2^nd week of January and the Christmas celebration of a few weeks past is long gone. Yet each day, I keep reminding myself that Christ has come, that just because today isn't the day we specifically celebrate as Jesus’ day of birth doesn't mean that he is not living, that he is not present, that he is not waiting to be born in us this day. According to the Gospels, Jesus is our Immanuel – a name meaning 'God-with-us.' That God chose to call his Son Immanuel clearly shows His desire for the process that ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ speaks of- that Jesus would ‘be born in us,’ that he would be with us, to live life alongside us. As a side-note, I find this attribute of God- his relational nature, his desire to not merely rule but to accompany his people, his willingness to do life with us – to be one of the most fascinating and compelling aspects of his character. That God loves us enough to be with us; I pray that this mystery never ceases to amaze me. 

One of the questions I am trying to frequently ask myself is 'where do I need Jesus to be born in me today?' Whether it be in my relationship with Emily or interactions with classmates, or in putting to death my pride or forgiving others, I need Jesus to be born more and more in me each day. I need Immanuel - God-with-us.

This gift of God-with-us is ours for the taking – as Jesus says in Rev 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." May we not pack up our Immanuel as we put away the Christmas decorations and forget the truth of Christmas hymns simply because they don’t fill the airwaves anymore. May Christ be born in us this day.

In reflecting on what I'd like to change in my life and do differently in 2014, I decided that blogging would be a good way for me to reflect on what God has been teaching me and process all that I'm learning and experiencing. While the motivation for this new foray into blogging in 2014 is mainly for myself as a tool to process and reflect, I hope that whoever reads each post will be blessed by whatever truth they contain. May God speak to you through my posts as I reflect on how He is speaking to me. 

There is also no coincidence that I am starting this blog on January 6th- today is the 20th birthday of my 'little' brother, Vince. He's tied with my sister for my favorite blogger. He has so many good things to say and such a great way of saying them. The joke in our family is that my mom, a writing teacher for many years, has always said that Vince is '"her best writer" of her kids. Anna and I joke about it but we know its true. If you want to read some deep thoughts and great writing, check out http://blogbyv.wordpress.com/ 

So today, in honor of my brother, I though I'd include one of my favorite quotes. It comes from Henri Nouwen, one of my favorite people and authors, and has to do with birthdays. I frequently include it on birthday cards I write to family and friends because I think the words are so true. And they are no more true than today in honor of my brother Vince.

"Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”"

Thank you, Vince, for being you. On today your birthday we thank you not because of your servant's heart, your love for others or you fun-loving spirit. Today, we celebrate you. Happy Birthday V-dogg. 

the wholistic nature of the Gospel - Chapel talk by Dr. Dane Ortlund

Dr. Dane Ortlund gave this talk in Wheaton chapel last spring. I found it incredibly meaningful and moving...I hope you will too.

http://www.wheaton.edu/WETN/All-Media/Chapel/Undergraduate/110425ortlund?lightbox=true


Miles

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

One thing I'd like to do with this blog is share some of the things I've been reading and thinking about. One of the books I read over the summer that really struck me was Erasing Hell by Francis Chan. The book was somewhat written as a response to Love Wins by Rob Bell, but in my opinion the crux of the argument goes far further than that. Erasing Hell goes beyond talking simply about hell and discusses a common way of looking at God that is not just theologically misguided but cripples our relationship with him.

At one point, Chan references Roman 9, which says "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?" (v 20-21). Chan says the following in reference to the metaphor of the potter and the clay: Does the Potter have the right to do whatever He wants with the clay? In the midst of the tragedies that life often brings, in the midst of the mysterious and hidden ways in which God often works, in the midst of the theological tensions and paradoxes that are woven throughout Scripture, in the midst of the pain and sorrow and misery and confusion that accompany our existence on earth – we must come to a place we can answer yes to this question. Yes, the Potter has this right." 

He later says "It is incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace. No one wants to ditch God’s plan of redemption, even though it doesn’t make sense to us. Neither should we erase God’s revealed plan of punishment because it doesn’t sit well with us. As soon as we do this, we are putting God’s actions in submission to our own reasoning, which is a ridiculous thing for clay to do."

Wow. Thought-provoking stuff. May we live humbly enough to trust the Potter's hands in our lives and allow him use the clay of our lives to make a beautiful piece of art.


Here's a video of Francis Chan talking about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnrJVTSYLr8.

Or I recommend just picking up the book. It's a great one.

El Faro

In English, El Faro means the lighthouse. When I was studying abroad in Costa Rica, my group went to Nicaragua for six days. Of the many things I saw and learned, my experience with El Faro is the most etched into my thoughts. El Faro was the name of church located in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital and largest city. Managua is home to a place called “La Chureca,” the largest municipal dump in all of Central America containing the trash of some 1.3 million inhabitants. 2,000 Nicaraguans live inside the dump, subsiding on the money they make from going through the trash and finding bottles and other items that can be recycled and frequently eating any food scraps they find amongst the refuse. Food is in desperately short supply, as evidenced by the tragic story that took place a few weeks before the day we came. Three kids had been searching for food and ingested rat poison thinking it was food and died.

                In the midst of this incredible suffering and pain stands the lighthouse, El Faro church. El Faro runs an elementary school for the kids who live in the dump and feeds them each day. El Faro has several other programs in place to help the people of La Chureca. The church even started holding its church services in La Chureca so that the people there could come to church. I find El Faro to be one of the truest pictures of what the Church is called to be: Christ’s Body. In 1^st Corinthians 12, Paul calls the members of the church “the body of Christ.” We fulfill this calling by going out to a world in need and loving and serving the people around us. Christ’s body the Church exists not solely for itself, but for presently outside of the body. This is the way Christ lived (just read the Gospels).

The Gospel of John makes the analogy of Jesus as light, the light of the world. John 1:5 refers to Jesus, saying “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” And just as Jesus shone in the darkness, we are his followers and collectively as his Body the Church are called to shine in the darkness of this sin and suffering infected world. Maybe that is why in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says this “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (5:14-16).

My experience with El Faro church really brought this call into focus for me. My prayer is that we may all find our “La Churecas,” that we would follow our call to be Christ’s body and to be his lighthouses in this world filled with so much darkness.

An experiment: Intro to this whole blogging thing

Hello family and friends. This summer has been one filled with a lot of talks with those close to and a lot of self-reflection. In this process, it became apparent that I needed a way to process my daily thoughts. After some thinking about how to do this, I started thinking about starting a blog. As my favorite writer (and the author of the only blog I read or “follow”) Don Miller says "I write blogs, misspellings and all, as a way of journaling through ideas.” (You can read his blog here: http://donmilleris.com/ I promise you it is far better than mine. For me, I’m too much of a perfectionist to let too many misspellings go by, but over the next several months I will be trying out the whole blog idea as a way of reflecting on all that I’m learning about and some of my thoughts. I’ll try to post different thinks once or twice a week (along with the occasional Youtube gold for my fellow fans out there). Some of the posts will serious and some will be less so. For you all who are reading this please read as many or as few of what I post as you want. This experiment is primarily as a way to get my thoughts on paper and I’m humbled if you find what I write interesting or entertaining. I’d love to read any comments you have about what I post. I think that’d keep things a little more interesting.

The “title” of my blog comes from the name of one of my favorite songs, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2. (Check this out if you haven't heard it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv-lKwOQvE) If you didn’t know, U2 has long been one of my favorite bands. This song has always carried great weight for me because of its brilliant lyrics and killer instrumentation. I feel the song speaks of the struggle and longing that we all have...the desire to be whole. We go through our lives searching for something, anything to make us feel whole, to appease the deep inner desires of our hearts to be healed from the heart and saved from the suffering that is all too common in this Fallen world. My favorite part of the song is the third verse, when Bono sings

“I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it”

These lines so poetically capture what I believe is the answer to these longings of our hearts: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was him who carried the cross of our shame, loosing the chains and breaking the bonds of sin that entrapped our lives. Jesus’ Kingdom is coming through his death on the cross and triumph over death. As Jesus’ Kingdom continues to be ushered in, the transforming work of the Gospel breaks down all the barriers that separate us (all the colors bleed into one). Pain and suffering still are so present on this earth as we work to bring Jesus’ Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven and wait for his second coming, when the picture painted in Revelation 21 will become a reality. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (21:4-5 NIV). So in the midst of the tough times and pain and disappointment of life, run to Jesus, the one all of our hearts are looking for.

Miles