If the 19th century sage Ralph Waldo Emerson had a page on Facebook,
February 26th, 2009If the 19th century sage Ralph Waldo Emerson had a page on Facebook, perhaps his “favorite quotation” would be his own words: “Events are in the saddle and tend to ride mankind.” So wonders Jonathan Alter in the latest Newsweek cover story on President Obama, “America’s New Shrink” (March 2, 2009). Events really are in the saddle these days, aren’t they? Listening to the President in his primetime address to Congress and the nation this week was an exercise in checklisting— ticking off one by one the immense challenges facing our nation and our world. “Events in the saddle” indeed!
But the ancient prophets perennially reminded their audiences and readers to remember the Someone else who is also in the saddle. Stepping into that midnight palace of inebriated orgy, the elderly prophet Daniel interpreted to the petrified (and now sober) king the mysterious handwriting on the wall: “‘The Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. . . . The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified’” (Daniel 5:21, 23). Hardly had those words been uttered, then the mighty empire of Babylon collapsed in the wee hours of that very morning. “Events are in the saddle”—but so is God!
And that is why I’m convinced we can face the future with confident hope and quiet assurance. The economic meltdown that is draining away the financial might of this civilization isn’t worth fearing. If God chooses to restore our financial viability for the sake of his kingdom and his mission on earth, then he will. If on the other hand, he chooses to allow the monetary hemorrhaging to bleed away our economic vitality for the sake of advancing his kingdom and mission on earth, then “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.” Knowing his will is done on earth “even as it is in heaven” assures the one who trusts God that in our very present circumstances God is still achieving his ultimate purpose, and that all things are working together for good. “ . . . the complicated play of human events [“in the saddle”] is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He . . . still guides the affairs of the earth.” (Education 178)
Then let us take both heart and courage! Christ reigns. And he is returning. There is room in the saddle for hope.
What do Alex Rodriguez and Roland Burris have in common?
February 19th, 2009What do Alex Rodriguez and Roland Burris have in common? They’re both in the headlines. Rodriguez—the superstar, multi-millionaire third baseman for the New York Yankees—is the youngest player to ever hit 500 homeruns and is considered one of the all time greats of baseball. Burris is the junior senator, appointed by disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to fill Barak Obama’s senate seat. But both have made the headlines because of mounting charges of dishonesty—for Alex, lying about illegal injections of performance-enhancing drugs; for Roland, lying about fundraising contacts as quid pro quo for his appointment to the senate. Guilty? The courts will render that decision. But the fishy smell in our collective nostrils is a somber lesson regarding integrity.
In his celebrated Sermon on the Mount, Jesus put it plainly: “‘But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No.” For whatever is more than these is from the evil one’” (Matthew 5:37). I.e., equivocating, hedging, nuancing—“it depends on what you mean by ‘is’”—is contrary to the life Christ calls his followers to live. When you’re asked, let your simple, honest response be “Yes” or “No”—for anything else (how did Jesus put it?) is from the devil, who “‘when he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies’” (John 8:44 NIV).
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, that little classic on the Sermon on the Mount, observes: “Everything that Christians do should be as transparent as the sunlight” (68). No cloudy obfuscation or shadowy truth-bending for the man, the woman who follows Jesus—rather an integrity and honesty “as transparent as the sunlight.” But what a refreshing burst of light such transparency is in our age of white-lied denials.
But is it easy to live such radical honesty? Read on: “Yet it is not a light or an easy thing to speak the exact truth.” Then what hope of honesty is there for the likes of shady you and me? “We cannot speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth” (Ibid, emphasis supplied). No wonder the last generation of Christ’s followers on earth are described in two ways: “These are the ones that follow the Lamb wherever He goes . . . . and in their mouths was found no deceit” (Revelation 14:4, 5). Clearly, living a life without deceit is the fruit of a life that follows after Jesus. Every early morning, alone with the Savior, brooding over another gospel story, meditating on Him whose transparency and integrity can become ours, as “by beholding we become changed” we trust him to provide the divine power to change us from the inside out—isn’t that what it means to follow the Lamb in the third millennium?
Truth is, in a world hungry for new headlines and a new transparency, your friendship with Christ will be a welcome burst of sunlight.
They’re calling it the “mother of controversy!”
February 5th, 2009They’re calling it the “mother of controversy!” And of course, the whole world is watching. After all, it isn’t every day that a 33-year-old woman gives birth to eight implanted embryos. Octuplets—the word is so unusual my Word spell check wants to change it to “couplets” (perhaps a more reasonable proposition for a mother wanting babies). While the initial news story was on the level of “miraculous births”—the unfolding details have shifted the headlines from “hallelujah” to “bizarre,” since now it’s been learned Nadya Suleman was already the mother of six children under the age of eight. That makes fourteen youngsters for this college-educated single mother to rear, living at home with her parents in Whittier, California. According to her newly hired publicist, million dollar proposals are being offered for rights to “scoop” the story of the young mother’s feat. “‘My client is a wonderful woman, she’s smart, she’s bright, she’s well-educated, and she has a wonderful sense of humor,” crowed PR consultant Joann Killeen. ‘She’s looking forward to being the best mum she can possibly be to all her children. She looks at this as a blessed event.’” (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2009/02/05/2003435302)
Fourteen children under the age of eight certainly qualifies as an “event”—but “blessed”? But lest we indulge too quickly in sanctimonious judgment, we can only imagine the collective astonishment of the universe over its own multiple-babies headline long ago: “Creator spares fallen first couple—grants them permission to procreate sinners across the earth.” Can you imagine the universal shock over divine grace’s decision to populate this planet with earth-bound sinners? Was God “having babies” for the fun of it? And what kind of Parent could possibly provide for so many children at once!
“‘Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made’” (Isaiah 43:6, 7). Multiple sons and daughters from the ends of the earth—and all of us, each of us, willed into existence and created by God for his own glory—you’ve got to admit it’s an astounding destiny for us multiple birth children!
A destiny in glory that begins here on earth—that’s the premise that underlies our Black History Sabbath today. For fallen though we all are, the divine grace that chose us to be born promises to shape our multiple-birthed complexities and diversities into a single, united community where Christ’s love is the most compelling and contagious reality. “‘By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’” (John 13:35). Octuplets, sextuplets, quadruplets—never mind the numbers—Jesus has called this academic community to be Family for a world hungry to be loved, even if only for a lifetime. And who needs a publicist for that?