Deeper Waters

One thing I believe as an apologist is that while new arguments are good, the best apologetic in many ways is simply reality. Are we going to take reality as it is or are we going to deny it? Are we going to see wonder in all that is around us or are we going to discount it all as an accident?

This is also a question for us as Christians. Are we going to be amazed at the universe that God has created as our giant playground, or are we going to nitpick about it? We are like people who get a new car to drive in, but then we get angry because when we look close at it, we notice a tiny dent on one side.

I thought about this some as I was at a church event tonight playing volleyball with my class. You do not have to guess how I play. I am not athletic at all and it was a miracle I thought the times I got it over the net. Many guys are proud of their achievements in slamming the ball over the net to get a point. I am simply thrilled if I even manage to touch a ball that’s hit to me. Through this, by some miracle, the team I was on won.

Yet as I watched, I noticed that things were happening. A ball would be rolled on the ground to the server and someone in the way would just part their legs as if the balls course had been predetermined to go right where they were. Throws would be made that hit their target every time.

I used to watch Braves baseball and I thought back to that. I remember being so stunned that the ball was so small and the field was so big but no matter what, if it was a fly ball that was fair and not a home run, you could be assured that the outfielder would catch it. It seemed to me the strangest wonder. How could they see such a small object so often in the sun even and catch it every single time? You would think something was dreadfully wrong if they didn’t.

I also thought back to watching the Ninja Turtles cartoons when I was growing up. When Raphael, for instance, would burst in on the enemy and throw his sai, you knew that it would always hit the target. Granted, that was a cartoon and not reality, but I think it hits on an idea in reality. Those with the ability are marvels to watch.

I consider it magic. You would have thought that it was written out according to a script, but it hasn’t been. It is simply day to day life. It is simply people living out their world but they act as if the world will handle things a certain way. The thrower of the ball acts as if he expects the ball to take the intended path and hit its target. Some may call that the laws of science, to which they are correct, but cannot the laws be considered magical? Could they not be an enchantment that has been cast on the world to bring order and to prevent chaos?

Yet some of you will think me silly for writing this perchance. You will say it is simply natural. My reply is that what is natural is simply marvelous. When we reduce it to mere mechanics, we remove the wonder. When we think about what puts the mechanics in motion and what is behind the mechanics and how they serve a higher purpose, then we can have wonder.

Especially if we think that it could have been another way. I do not believe laws of logic or morality could have been another way. I do believe physical laws could be another way. I can imagine a world where I can run at 200 MPH. I cannot imagine one where I am running and not running in the same time and in the same sense. I cannot imagine one where running down the street is immoral.

Yet when I see the world could have been another way, it makes me marvel that God made this world the way it is for a reason. I do not see naturalism able to explain my wonder as it reduces all to mechanics. Even the idea of wonder must be mechanical in some way. Love is mechanical even where sex truly is “just sex” with simply bodies uniting and yet not having to have the souls connect. Two strangers can have casual sex as its called when it is simply mechanics.

Any wonder you have is not really there. It is simply the mechanics of a chemical reaction. Any love you have is not really there. It is simply the mechanics of a chemical reaction. In fact, if naturalism is true, it is not because your thinking is better that you realize that. It is simply because the chemicals in your brain are working one way to produce the thought that they are not in another brain.

I say no. Now I am not a sports fan, but I do find a hidden magic in the physical world as it is. I am not speaking of the magic that I sometimes hit the ball. I am speaking of the magic that the ball comes to me, that I am capable of moving my hand, and that I am capable of hitting it in a certain direction.

That is magical.

Trek fans will know this link well, and I am sure I have it right this time when referencing Star Trek, of “You will be assimilated.”It is the line that the Borg give to indicate that resistance is futile. There is no “might” within that. They speak like it’s a certainty. I had such a moment in the church service last night.

Our pastor preached on Romans 8:28-30. Like most churches I suspect, we read the passage first. As we read, I listened, and it was one of those times again where I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. During the times we read, I don’t read alone because I want to hear the words fresh as if Paul’s letter was being read to me or Jesus in the gospels was speaking and I was in the audience.

I love this passage. I’ve heard it several times. However, with my emphasis lately on the image of God, I noticed something in this passage I had never heard before and it was enough to change my mood in a good way. In fact, I had my own private worship service going on I’m sure after hearing that. Let’s read it as the NIV records it.

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This verse is a key verse in answering the so-called “Problem of Evil.” However, I would like to focus mainly on verse 29, though verse 30 does play a part. The Bible is clear and straight-forward here. We are to reflect the nature of God as I have said before and have all removed from us that does not reflect him.

What does this passage say? “If you live a righteous life, you will be conformed.” No. “If you attend enough church, you will be conformed.” No. “If you have enough faith, you will be conformed.” No. It simply comes right out and says that if you are a Christian you will be conformed. All of these are good, but they’re not what the passage speaks of.

Notice also what else it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say “A few good ones will be conformed.” It doesn’t say “You might be conformed.” It doesn’t tell us that being conformed is for the most righteous of all or it doesn’t mean that it is only for a select few. (If you are a Calvinist, consider my meaning a select few of the elect.)

This is one of those times when I wonder if we really realize the truth of what the Bible says. As this dawned on me what was being said, I thought my world was being rocked. This means that at some point in the future, I WILL be conformed to the likeness of Christ. I will walk as a true reflection of God. I will be free from the sinful nature.

Such a thought should leave us in excitement. If it doesn’t, it could just be further indication that we’re not free yet. It could show that we don’t know how bad our sinful nature is and/or how good the nature of Christ is for us. It means that the truth of what we believe hasn’t hit home yet.

What a great thought it is! You don’t have to wonder if this will happen. You can be sure it will. God has promised it and if you do not think God is a liar, you will have to believe that he can deliver it. There will come a day when you will walk in perfection as you are conformed to the likeness of the Son.

For unlike the borg, God can always and always will deliver on his promises.

I had to fill in for a friend today in teaching Sunday School. I was teaching boys of the High School age and quite enjoyed it. I was to teach on what Jesus was doing after his resurrection. Oh we had some occasional side notes, but by and large, we stuck to the lesson and we had a great time.

Time for a side note from me. I love teaching. I just do. My family tells me that even behind the pulpit, I teach more than I preach. Maybe so. I love it though. There is nothing like seeing the “eureka moment” as I call it when someone finally gets it. I was even up later last night talking to a friend about Plato’s doctrine of the forms. (Dude. You know who you are. You’re awesome. Just want you to know that.) Was I tired today? Yeah. It was sure worth it though.

I say that though because one thing becomes clear if you do any teaching. You will learn more from teaching than your students do most likely. Such is the case of my blog. It was something that I’d “known” but there are times that you read something or hear something you’ve heard before and the reality of what it is hits you.

Now the first passage was the first one we read with the phrase, but I’m going to include all of them from the book of Hebrews. All quotations are from the NIV.

1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

8:1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

10:12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we read verse 3, I told the boys that there was a shocking phrase in that passage. None of them would have dreamed that I was telling them that it was “he sat down.” What did that mean? It meant one thing. It meant that Jesus sat down because the work he had was done.

What was his work? Purification for sins in the mission that he was on from the Father. Jesus has purified us. We are justified in his sight. The work is done. No longer does a sacrifice have to be offered. It is done for all time. He sat down waiting for his enemies to be made into his footstool.

Some of us are thinking that this is what we know, but I often ask of the things we know if we have realized them yet. Has the full meaning of what we believe hit home? Have we really realized that our sins are covered? Do we fully grasp the idea that Jesus’s work of redeeming us is done?

This is one reason I say we need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday and to each other. We can say “Well we already know the gospel.” Of course we do. Do we realize it yet though? Maybe one day when we are told of the love of God, we will see that God really does love us as we are.

For now though, look at those passages again. The Hebrews writer tells us this four different times in the same book. It’s obviously something he wanted us to grasp.

Maybe it’s time we did.

Maybe you’re not a Christian of the same type as me. Maybe you’re one of those to whom prayer comes easily and is not difficult. If so, you are blessed. However, I am willing to bet that there are several out there that are like myself. We don’t always know what to do when we approach the throne and our minds can stray.

I will say at the start of this that I do not see prayer in Scripture as a dialogue. I will not be writing anything on hearing the voice of God. I will admit, there are times I would like to, and I doubt that I’m alone, but I just don’t see that as a common practice in Scripture. I think if it happened even, I would become too focused on an experience and not focused enough on truth such as the Scriptures.

I thought last night about that. I thought that sometimes it seems hard to pray and those who read my blog yesterday know what I’m talking about.  I wondered though why it seems hard. What is prayer? Prayer is simply talking to God? Why would one have a hard time talking to God?

Maybe part of it is that we don’t know what it is. Some of you are thinking “Well you just told us what it is. It’s talking to God.” Yeah. I did say that. Does that mean we fully grasp what it is. It would make as much sense to say that kissing is having the lips of the male meet the lips of the female in a romantic gesture. It is only until you begin thinking about it that you realize what that really means.

What does it mean? If I knew entirely, I’d be a wiser man. It means though having the audience before you listening of the most awesome being of all and the most awesome one that will ever be. It means that you are in the heavenly throne room and you have the attention of the one sitting on the throne who can do all and knows all.

Yet what makes it hard? Could it be that we don’t believe he really listens to us? We know he hears us and maybe at times we doubt that. Do we think that he’s listening to us. Do we think he might be saying “Well here he comes again to go on and on about all these little insignificant things.”

Could it be that if God is the creator, God has more interest in his creation than we do? We may think it doesn’t matter, but God has infinite interest in it. That girl you have a crush on? God is interested. Your case of the sniffles? God is interested. Passing your final exam? God is interested. On deciding to be a missionary in a foreign nation? God is interested. No matter how big or small, God is interested.

Where did we get this idea God is only interested in big things? Are not big things themselves made of smaller things? Are we to say that a doctor who can perform major surgery is uninterested in dealing with the common cold? Could it be we have been making God in our image?

Could it also be we don’t see ourselves as good enough? I think many of us are still stunned by how holy God is and how sinful we are, and well we should be. However, are we not aware that if there was nothing good in us that he would not have us enter into his very presence? What is good in us? It is his image and that we are created in it. All the goodness we have is that which is participating in his goodness.

This isn’t pantheism. This is theism. We are participating in the goodness of God for there can be no goodness outside of him.  He allows us to come because we are image bearers and we as Christians have been made worthy to be in the presence of the holy of holies. We can truly boldly approach the throne.

Isn’t that a great verse also? He wants us to do that. BOLDLY APPROACH! We can walk right up to the throne and start talking to the one who sits on it. Isn’t that awesome if we think about it? If only we could grasp the truth that lies in this, and indeed, I am speaking to myself as well.

So why do our minds stray? I don’t know entirely. Maybe some of us just have a harder time focusing. It could just be that we don’t really know the truth about what we do. It could be we have become so familiar with prayer we have sadly allowed familiarity to breed monotony, something that no child of God should ever have. That, however, is another blog.

Well, these are my thoughts on prayer. Maybe I’ve blessed you some. Maybe you are like me and realize you’re not alone. Here’s a good suggestion. Pray for me. I shall pray for you as well. I may not know you, but God does and he can handle things. I hope that I will pray he does.

Sigh. There are times I really would like to get home and write a good blog, but it seems difficult. My mind often has a hard time focusing unless it’s something negative. A train of thought I get going on can too easily become derailed or else split into a thousand directions. It’s quite distracting.

So what happens tonight? We have an influx of customers where I work where several different people come up at once wanting something, I find one of my favorite movies which a friend comes by and as a joke removes, to which I don’t find out until 2 hours later and not even by a confession from him, I work half an hour with two more who don’t even buy something causing me to take a late break, and it ends with a customer so crazy that I’m talking to him and thinking “Remember your karate classes. This is what you do if he throws a punch, a kick, etc.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Keep in mind that this is going on amidst all the other issues I often have going on in my life. There’s the number of debates that I’m in and the work that I do online, there’s preparing the blog, there’s getting set for seminary, and dealing with all other manner of personal issues which largely resides in my own constant fault-finding particularly in myself. Whew!

There are times when one is just spent entirely it seems and there is not much one thinks they can give. I have been entirely thankful for my friends at this point. I have sometimes imagined scenes where I would just collapse in their presence and they’d understand and if anyone came by they would just say, “He’s worked hard and he’s recuperating now. Leave him be.”

It is either the emotions are spent or they are taking over entirely and it can be difficult to tell which. The world turns topsy-turvy and you wonder if it can just slow down. I should mention I got off at 11 tonight and have to be at work at 9 tomorrow for which I will wake up at 7 in the morning. Great recovery time. Such is life though.

I try to keep in mind at this point the stoic philosophy that these things happen. All of this will pass away. From the view of eternity, these incredibly stressful events at this point could seem like nothing more than a minor case of the sniffles and one that I will laugh at from that point.

Unfortunately, we’re not at that point yet.

It’s times like this though that I try to remember that God is on the throne. No matter how crazy things did, the Lord is still sovereign. Christ is still in charge. It is at times like this that I try to remember the peace of the Trinity. I remember that God is omnipresent and so the presence of the Trinity is omnipresent and that Trinity presence has peace and love in it. It is waiting there for me to accept it.

What keeps you and I from doing it? I suppose honestly, we are afraid of the love of God at times. I think of these stray cats I sometimes see. I love cats and when I see them, I want to take them and let them know that they’re not unloved. What do they do though? They run. If they would come close, they would get to have my love for them. They don’t trust it though.

Can we really not trust God? Yep. I think of the idea that some of us have that God will take us and make us do something utterly miserable to us to teach us how to trust him. I don’t really see this in Scripture and it seems centered on us. My guess is that God doesn’t make a big deal out of such things usually. Chances are, we take small choices to God and make them gigantic and we take what he considers the big choices and make them tiny.

As I go on my way, I must simply remember that God is on the throne no matter what’s going on in my life. Things aren’t as big as I make them out to be and I just need to learn to step back and focus. I need to pause and remember in all things that God is on the throne.

So that’s my rant for tonight with my reminder. Why say it? Because my guess is that you have those kinds of days also and you probably need someone to come and tell you that they’re just like you. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

I hope a lot of you read my blog from last night. If not, I urge you to read it at this point as I plan to continue the thought. I kept it going after I wrote it and have toyed with the idea off and on all day. Sadly, my job usually distracts me so I spend more time in the off position than in the on position.

I thought that I could teach someone how to drive to another state if I wanted to. If I was a pilot, I could teach them how to fly to another state. If I was the captain of a boat, I could show them how to sail there. I could teach them all manner of ways to get there, but there is one thing I could not teach them. I could not teach them how to walk there.

That is something I find amazing. It is for us quite natural though so we cannot explain how to do it. I find if I’m playing a video game I have played for years, when a friend asks me for the controls to do something for the first time, I am at a loss. I have been doing it for so long, I have forgotten how I do it. The only difference in this case is that I don’t know how I walked the first time.

We say we teach our kids how to walk. We do no such thing. A child cannot be taught your thought processes whatever they may be whereby you learn to walk. Our children just naturally develop this ability and I see it as a mystery how it happens. We merely create the environment and encouragement for them to learn how.

We do not know the most of what we do. A child has the problem of wetting himself not because he does not know how to go but he does not know how not to. He has not learned that self-control and we would still be hard-pressed to teach a course to a child on “How to go to the restroom.” We could teach a child all the hygiene involved, but we could not teach him the main reason one goes in the first place.

Sadly, we have lost the wonder in these I believe because they are so natural to us. A good friend of mine (Who will be an awesome Christian counselor I hope someday) told me last night about the Lord of the Rings. It’s been years since I’ve read the books, but he’s a fanatic of them. He was telling me about a scene where the elves give some characters cloaks and one non-elf, Sam, asks “Are these magical cloaks?”

The elves are stunned. They don’t know what he means. To them, it’s completely natural. We think the same thing about what we do well. I do mathematics well in my head. I cannot tell someone how I do it exactly. I just do it. A fast runner might not be able to tell how he does it. He just does it.

We see the same in the animal kingdom. We can be amazed at the Bombardier beetle because he is capable of igniting gases within himself and shooting a flame, but if we could see into the mind of one who was a philosopher, he might well see his practice as quite natural and instead be writing treatises on how other animals do other things.

This is the miracle then that has invaded our world. The miracle is that which we view as commonly natural is in fact in many ways supernatural. It is a wonder of God that we have these many simple things that we cannot explain. We can explain how electrons move and why. We cannot do the same for ourselves.

We should spend our days in wonder that we are capable of walking. That my eyes open in the morning and close at night and I know not how should make me stand in amazement. That I can somehow lapse into a period called sleep that while I may aid you in reaching, I could not teach you how to do the act itself, is amazing. I do not know how I do it, yet somehow I do it every night. (Well, excepting two stay-up-all-night parties when younger.)

It is a shame that we have taken such commonalities and forgotten the wonder therein. Either these are incredible events or they are not. Yet if they are not incredible, I would think they would be easily explained. It seems no one else can do so. The atheist writes the books saying there is no God, but can he tell me how he moves his hands across the keyboard? Can he tell me how he even thinks? That he can analyze what he says and draw inferences (though I believe invalid), I find utterly amazing. It would seem though that it is not unfamiliarity with his subject that is his downfall. It is familiarity.

It is our age that seeks to find the extraordinary and we think we have to look past the common. Instead, we should define what is extraordinary first and then find that in the common. It is then that we can appreciate the unique acts the more. We should be amazed at the incarnation, but let us take it further. We should first have amazement that God is. We should then have amazement that he has revealed himself. The more amazement we find at these, the more we will be amazed when we get to “The Word Became Flesh.”

My suggestion? Let us look not to the unusual to find God. Why not begin with that which is closest to us, which is the usual. It could be that when we finish, we find that we called the unusual was really usual and what we called the usual was really unusual.

Last night, I had finished everything on my computer and was getting in some last minute reading as I often do. Reading before turning the lights out is quite enjoyable. I am one of those people who likes to carry a book everywhere with me. However, as I was reading, I went over to a small hallway between my bathroom and bedroom and flipped the lightswitch for the hallway and something incredible happened.

The light came on.

Now some of you are reading this and thinking “Has he finally lost it?” (I assure all of you, I lost it a long time ago.) “Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when you turn on a lightswitch?” Well, yes. Of course it is. However, how often have we stopped to be amazed that that is in fact what happens.

When I fly on a plane, I find it amazing that the pilot says that we are flying to X city and lo and behold, that is where we arrive. We do not arrive in a different city. We arrive in the city that he has spoken of. It may not be the same as the magic powder in the Potter books, but it is still the wonder.

You can come to me and talk to me about the light and say “Ah. I will tell you why that happens. When you flip the switch, electrons…..” Yes, yes yes. I’m sure it’s all interesting. However, even if I know how it works, that does not tell me something. It does not tell me the why. Why was the system made that way instead of another.

You can tell me that is what the electrons do, but I simply find it amazing that they do that. I am caught in the opposite side of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man. He was terrified by the fact that 2 + 2 = 4. I am utterly amazed by it. It is a shame that we do not live in a world where people walk down the street and constantly live in amazement that 2 + 2 = 4.

Why are these things such? As a Christian theist, I cannot believe the flow of electrons is an accident. I believe that God made it to work X way and not Y way for a reason. I believe God made sexual intercourse the way he did for a reason. I believe the heavenlies move the way they do for a reason.

However, if I keep asking “Why?” I will eventually have to come to the mind of God. There is something about it all that reflects his nature. This would mean that there is some glory in all that there is. If it is his and it reflects his nature, then insofar as it reflects his nature, it is glorious, and it does not depend on my agreeing with it or not.

This means that I should have wonder all around me. Even without looking at things outside of myself I can find wonder. I should walk around in amazement that I have these two things called legs that end in two things called feet and that they seem to motivate me everywhere that I go.

In the cartoon, Peter Pan, Peter Pan tells the kids that they can fly. When they ask “How?” he says, “It’s easy. You just….” Peter Pan cannot explain it. Who could? It would make just as much sense for me to try to tell you how to move your arms. I do it and I know I do it and I do it when I want to do it, but I could not dare tell you for a second how I do it.

Should that not hold me in awe? Should that not make me realize that the universe is far greater than I thought. I can attempt to explain it all, but such a small world it would be. It would be thinking that because I know all the hows of the universe, then that makes it less fascinating. With a mind behind the universe, that makes it more fascinating.

I have no quarrel with science then. Finding out how things work makes them more fascinating for it shows how complex they are. Let us suppose the scientists are right and find some theory of everything, that universal law that explains why everything does what it does. It should not decrease wonder. I would be amazed that God could sum it all up in one simple truth.

So why the title? Because I believe such is quite close to what would be called magic. Even if you could explain the way magic works in the stories, it would still be incredible that when you say “Hocus Pocus!” something happens. I find the belief that the plane can take me to the city as amazing as the idea that teleportation could take me there. In fact, I should find the fact that my own two feet can take me there amazing.

There is much concern these days in our world with the idea of magic. There are people who will ban the Potter books for instance and refuse to have anything to do with them. I pity such people. I have no problem with condemning the occult for it is the occult. I have a problem with condemning fantasy simply because it is fantasy.

I would much rather though meet the person who believes in magic than the one who does not. I would that we were steeped in paganism rather than materialism. With paganism, all we have to do is get people to abandon one god for the true God. With materialism, we have to get people to abandon no god for some God. However, the saddest part is that usually, there is a god and that is the god of self, and he is the hardest god most often to forsake.

It is a shame our world does not see the magic of what we have. It would hold us more in amazement everyday if we did. Tonight, some people will not sleep well wondering why their checkbook doesn’t seem to add up. I understand the concern and we should help people financially if we can. However, I will do my best to work not concerned with why a checkbook doesn’t add up, but with more amazement that 2 and 2 do to make 4.

I have just today found I’ve been accepted to Seminary. Alright. Had to get that good news out. The blogs will still continue though. However, the story that I am sharing is from before this time. I have been speaking to my church about my high hopes of Seminary and wanting to preach one more time before I left town.

An odd feeling comes over someone then and I am still working through this. I have had this come to bear more on my own life as somehow, humility has come up in my conversations and my friends on here have identified me as humble, which I find absolutely shocking. I don’t see myself as humble, so all of this has given me much to think about.

I looked at the pulpit after mentioning my request and thought. I really felt quite unworthy to enter the pulpit. I really saw what an honor it was. You’re up there giving the message that the people often believe is practically from God himself. Many people believe that their preacher is practically infallable and don’t digest what he said. I realize that while I may examine and question some things my preacher says, a lot of people sadly don’t. I have to take that into account.

A lot of people believe in the calling of God. I don’t. However, I do believe in the seriousness of the task. I find a side in Scripture we don’t usually speak of. I find the desire to be a success and a desire to be a teacher. I don’t see anything wrong in that. I don’t think we should set out to be failures.

This is the area of difficulty in many ways. We should want to be good in what we do and desire a good name, but we should do it for a greater glory, and sometimes that is hard and I hope I do that. I know my friends would say that my hope to seek his glory first would indicate my character well. It would be good for me if I believed all about me that they do. I am incredibly thankful for my friends in that regard.

It is all about simply trying to see onesself as one really is. I think of the prayer of Soren Kierkegaard where he said “With your help Lord, I will now become myself.” That is where I think humility and pride lie. Humility is seeing onesself as one is. It is not humble to lower yourself. It is prideful though to exert yourself as what you are not.

So that is the goal. We are to see ourselves as we are and that is the way that God sees us. God has no false beliefs about us, but we often have false beliefs about us. God’s goal is also to help us become ourselves, and that is who we are in Christ. We are to take on his identity more and more every day. We are to be shaped to be more like him. That’s hard to hear really. I want to resist that a lot. There is a part of me that cries out still against the hands of the potter.

So then I think about the pulpit again. I think that people do say I have strengths and ideas to share and such. However, I still see myself as unworthy. I don’t think that’s it though. I think that’s what makes it a gift. I don’t deserve that gift. If I did, it wouldn’t be a gift. Getting to spread the gospel though is a gift. It’s a great gift. We are invited to be co-laborers with Christ, and that is an honor.

I’m glad to be in the pulpit. Don’t get me wrong. I love it. I love public speaking. I have no hesitancy about being before the crowd. At the same time though, I approach it with some fear and trembling. I like to hear what people say afterwards, but I pray they are learning as well and applying.

The pulpit is a great place and it’s also a gift. Like any gift from any friend, it is to be treasured but treated with respect.

I was talking to a friend last night and shared a proposition with him that I plan to write on at a later date. Tonight though, it’s awfully late and I don’t really feel like deep philosophy and theology at the moment, so I shall stick with a basic look at a text. I was telling him my idea that I hadn’t really thought about much before, but I was seriously thinking about now. That is the idea that God is funny. I don’t mean that in a mocking sense. I mean that in a serious and honorable sense. God is that which brings delight by being who he is.

I told my friend that I believed the Bible contains jokes. I mean that in a positive way the same way a good speaker such as a preacher will often mix jokes in with his message. It keeps the audience in a good mood and aids for the retention of what is being said. You can hear a joke just once and remember it well.

This will also mean we have to alter our modern conception of Jesus. I’m not speaking about that which is found in the creeds. We dare not abandon orthodoxy. I’m speaking about the Jesus in the media. If there’s one thing I just can’t get into, it’s biblical movies. They are usually entirely dry and boring. (In fact, my favorite scene in Luther is when he talks about 18 of the 12 apostles being buried in Spain, the joke part!)

Do you really see Jesus like that? Do you see Jesus as this purely solemn guy who walked around and never cracked a smile? When you think about him speaking as you read the gospels, is he always speaking in a monotone? Is all he knows in the area of theology and the Scriptures? If so, I ask you to abandon that view for awhile.

I took my friend to Matthew 7 with the plank in the eye passage. I reread that passage last night. I’d like you to think of Jesus smiling as he delivers this sermon and think of him fluctuating his voice or winking playfully into the audience or using expressive gestures to show absurdities. Much of Jewish humor was by exaggeration. Keep that in mind.

Picture Jesus talking about that example first. He’s made his point about judging and then he expounds on it. Grant me some paraphrase here. It sounds like he’s saying “Just look! You want to go to your brother while he has a speck in his eye and you,” and I picture him here holding his hands out in front of his eye as far away as he can as if to hold the plank. “have this loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong plank coming out of your eye!” You can just imagine the audience laughing. “Get that plank out of your eye! Then you can help your brother!”

Then he tells us not to give dogs what is sacred or throw pearls to swine. It’s a “Duh!” moment. Surely the Lord had to say that with delight. You can read the passage an think “Well obviously, I wouldn’t do that.” That’s Jesus’s point. This is so obvious that you wouldn’t miss it, and yet you do it every day!

We are told then to ask and it will be given. Knock and the door will be opened. Seek and you will find. Let me state something else obvious here. How else will you be given something unless you ask for it? How else will you get the door opened unless you knock? How else will you find unless you seek? Jesus is still using humor.

He then speaks about if your son asks for bread will you give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake. He basically says, “A good father won’t do that will he?” Of course not! Obviously! Yet this is still Jesus’s point. You don’t approach God the way you approach a father. These fathers here are evil even and they give good. Have a little trust in the Father. Don’t you think you’re being silly?

He later gives an example of false prophets. Really think about this description he’s giving. They come like sheep but they’re really wolves. What a play this is! One can just picture the image of a sheep being replaced by a wolf. How do you know the real ones? Grapes don’t grow from thorn bushes nor do figs grow from thistles do they? Obviously not! Again the point! Good trees produce good fruit! Bad trees produce bad fruit! The obvious is the humorous!

He closes by teaching the parable of the two houses built. Think about the humor there. Obviously a house built on sand won’t make it! The absurd example makes the point. One can picture Jesus imitating the wind blowing and gesturing to indicate that one house stands while the other tumbles down.

All of this in what is said to be the greatest sermon of all.

Yes my friends. Our God is a God of humor. I encourage you as you read the Bible, read it with new eyes. This isn’t meant to be a boring book. It’s an enjoyable one. It’s not all fun and games of course, but there is humor hidden therein. It’s just waiting to be found. Now how do you find again? Oh yes! I remember! Seek!

Some of you are going to think I’m unusual for this. (As if you didn’t have enough reason to already think that I’m unusual.) I carry my digital camera with me to church if I remember it. I have one of those things where I can hang it around my neck. I also visit the church library every Sunday to see if they have anything new in and make recommendations if need be. (Churches. Please support your libraries)

The librarian today sees my camera and asks if I’m planning to take any pictures. I tell her I’m not. I just like to take my camera when I go somewhere. I never know if something interesting will come up. To which she responded in a questioning voice, “Something exciting around here?”

And that statement stuck with me all day.

Why is it that it seems so amazing to think that something exciting would happen? I still have this contention that you could make a major motion picture out of anyone’s life and it would be interesting. I have many friends who are into the series 24. I’ve never seen it, but I bet you could make a real-time TV show of anyone’s life and it’d be interesting. (Well, maybe not when they’re asleep, but if you could get into their dreams then….)

As I write about that, I wonder why I don’t even consider sleep exciting. That is the body rejuvenating itself after a long night. There’s something odd to that. As one who has been in enough surgeries, I find it amazing that I can enter a state like sleep and be cut open and not even feel it. (Although darn it, I sure felt it when I woke up!)

It seems like we should realize our lives have more adventure than we realize. Perchance if we all started thinking of them as adventures, we’d enjoy them more. We can chide people for “playing games” but could it be God is the best at playing games? This life is the adventure that he has designed for us. Yes. The consequences are serious, but every game has consequences.

Isn’t there excitement everyday? What goes into the colors that you see? The world could function in black-and-white, but it is not. It is full of color. We could have food without taste and it’d still be nutritious, but it has taste. What of the joy of several emotions? We could be made like robots with no emotions, but we are allowed to experience joy, happiness, and love.

Ah Love! That is the big one! I can recall one time truly being in love with a lady and I certainly know it was a joy. While I miss it, I do not regret the time in love. Love is such a great joy. It didn’t have to be that way. Animals reproduce without love and I think it seems only dolphins have intercourse for pleasure. God made it different for us. Why? Why are Proverbs 5:18-19 and Song of Songs in the Bible? Could it be God wants us to see how exciting this gift is?

What about simple entertainment? My Sunday afternoons are relaxation time. I only have the internet for MP3s at that time. I’m listening to them and playing for the moment, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. God didn’t need to have any of those around, but he does.

That even gets me thinking further. We’ve all seen people who don’t have one or more of their senses. Have we been thankful for ours? It seems it isn’t until I meet someone who is deaf that I really appreciate my ability to hear. It seems I don’t learn to appreciate sight until I meet someone who is blind. Dr. Paul Brand works with leprosy patients in India who can’t feel pain due to problems with their nervous system and writes about “the gift of pain.” That is a book title of his. He thinks it’s wonderful that we can feel pain and don’t have to worry about mutilating ourselves because we feel nothing. He even tried to create a synthetic pain system once and couldn’t do it! What do we do? We complain and whine if we stub our toes!

As I write, I get thankful that I have the ability to write and to think out these ideas, and I’m all the while honing it. It is truly a gift. Maybe you have one that you can sing or paint or play a musical instrument well or something of that sort. Give thanks for it as well. It is exciting.

Thus, I believe I have found many exciting things just in my ordinary (or not so ordinary) life. I believe I shall stop for now though for if I keep going, I will never reach the end of this blog. You want more things though? Here’s an idea. I’ve got the ball rolling. You go out and find them yourself now.