The Law of Love

 “Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.” (Psalm 119:24)

Several years ago Carol and I took a trip to Scotland. It was an amazing experience. We loved the culture, the countryside, the cities, the trains, the accents, the food, the ale, the whisky. 

One of the things that caught my attention was the quirky signage that was posted everywhere. I don’t really know how to explain it, so let me show you a few examples.

In the U.S., we would probably just say, Danger: High Voltage. In Scotland, they put a picture of a guy getting zapped, with the wording, “Danger of Death. Keep Off.” Good thing they were so vivid, because otherwise I would be tempted to climb the electric pole.

I was worried about walking across something that was labeled as a “Weak Bridge,” but I felt more at ease when I saw that the weight limit was 18 tons (or tonnes, as they say in Scotland).

Evidently, they have an issue with dogs. Or, more precisely, they have an issue with dog owners. Clearly, it has reached the point of a public health hazard.

Sometimes I got the feeling that the officials were trying to catch our attention by being cute. Mission accomplished.

This wasn’t technically a sign. But it just goes to show that the Scots aren’t afraid of being blunt and to the point.

Finally, I didn’t know if I was supposed to watch out for elderly people because they are slower in crossing streets and prone to fall, or was this sign warning me about a particularly dangerous class of people? 

++++++++++

All joking aside, the signage has a purpose – to warn us of danger, to guide us in the right direction. The signs are there to protect us, to ensure our safety. They encourage behavior that not only protects the individual, but also makes the community a better, more hospitable place.

When I talk to people about the Bible as my authority in life, it is not unusual for them to look at me with suspicion, as if I am about to take a Bible and hit them over the head with it. A lot of folks think that the Bible is just a bunch of “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” that are meant to suck the joy out of life. You know, thou shalt not drink, dance, or play cards – things like that. BTW, you won’t find any of those commands in the Bible. But still, that’s how a lot of people think of the Bible. 

But that’s not the way I see the Bible at all. As God’s word to us, the Bible is not about sucking joy out of life, but the exact opposite – it is about guiding us to live life to the fullest emotionally, physically, spiritually. God gives us “The Law” because God loves us and wants us to have an abundant life. 

 

“Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.” (Psalm 119:66)

Sometime you should read through the chapter of the Bible that is probably the most eloquent affirmation of the life-giving nature of God’s word: the 119^th Psalm. It’s 176 verses long, so don’t expect to read through it too quickly. But verse after verse is full of praise for God’s law and a personal commitment to live by God’s law, because God’s law is good. God’s law, truly, is an expression of God’s love.

Life can be confusing. How do I know which way to turn, how to react, what to do?

I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get. 

“Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” (Ps. 119:33-34)

 “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:1-2)

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for beauty. As a photographer, I have learned to keep my eye attuned to the world around me, looking for beauty in my surroundings. From mountain grandeur to coastal swamps,from botanical gardens to the garden in the backyard – even to the lamp in the parking lot outside of our apartment – beauty is ever present, waiting to be witnessed.

I have thousands of photos, literally, that testify to the omnipresence of beauty in the world around us. 

When I see something beautiful, I stop in my tracks, and something stirs within me. I feel a sense of awe, wonderment. My heart is at peace, at least for the moment. Whenever I encounter beauty, the worries of the world seem to dissolve, if only temporarily.

I think that one of the most basic yearnings of the human heart is for beauty. Beauty inspires us. I think the pursuit of beauty makes us better people.

The pursuit of beauty is very much akin to the single greatest longing of the human soul: to have fellowship with the living God. Just ask David, as in King David in the Bible. David had everything – money, power, popularity, and all the benefits that come with those things. Yet despite having everything that one would think someone would need, he repeatedly confessed that his greatest need – the deepest longing and desire of his heart – was to have fellowship with God:

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. (Ps. 27:4)

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Ps. 51:11)

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. (Ps. 62:1)

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Ps. 63:1)

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” (Ps. 16:2)

My heart yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. (Ps. 84:2) 

David vocalizes a longing that very much resonates with me. I, too, have nothing – am nothing – apart from a vibrant loving relationship with the living God. Without God in my life, I am empty. 

God is everything to me. God is the One who makes everything else in my life infinitely better. God’s love enriches my marriage, inspiring me to strive to be a better husband and father. God makes me more forgiving. God plants within my heart the determination to share God’s goodness with everyone I encounter. God fills my work and vocation with meaning and purpose and joy. God fills me with compassion and concern for the suffering of others. God makes my heart attuned to injustice, and compels me to work for a more just world.

My soul is empty apart from God. With God, my soul is full. It really is that simple. 

Here’s something amazing to consider: this longing for a relationship is something that God shares with each of us. God earnestly desires for us to be in fellowship with him. One of the things upon which we are called to reflect during the season of Lent is the extent to which God went to restore the relationship that we broke with our sin. The depth of love that God shows to us in sending Jesus to do for us that which we are unable to do on our own – namely, to save us from our sin and to restore us unto God – is truly beyond measure. 

Our pursuit of God is never in vain, because God is ever and always pursuing us in love and grace.

That, friends, truly is beautiful.

How Good and Pleasant it Is!

 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)

When we lived in Clinton, North Carolina, we saw something really cool every spring in front of the Episcopal rectory (rectory is just another word for manse; manse is just another word for parsonage; parsonage is just another word for pastor’s house owned by the church). There’s a peach tree right where the driveway meets the sidewalk. Only, it’s not your ordinary peach tree, by any means. It is a peach tree with two different kinds of flowers. Reddish-pink flowers and white streaked flowers sharing common branches.

I’m going to go out on limb here, and say that something strange is going on. 

Well, a few years ago I asked the priest about the tree. He said that a long time ago someone planted two different kinds of peach seeds right next to each other. The two trees started to grow independently, but because they were planted within a matter of inches of each other, their root systems became intertwined, and their trunks self-grafted. The result is one tree, with two different kinds of peach blossoms growing side-by-side.

It really makes something beautiful, don’t you think?

I see in this peach tree a wonderful metaphor for the church (you should know by now that most of my reflections are based on metaphors). The church is comprised of people from all walks of life who believe in and follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Though we are different in many ways from one another, Jesus makes us one. One body, with many parts, as Paul describes the church in 1 Corinthians 12.

The key is that our differences no longer separate us or create divisions. In the church, each of us keeps our own uniqueness, while being united with those who are different from us. Again, I refer to Paul, who describes this dynamic beautifully: 

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ.” (Galatians 3:28)

Paul isn’t saying that our unity in Christ eliminates all those differences; rather, he is saying that in Christ those differences are no longer to be used to make one person superior over another or create divisions or practice discrimination. In Christ, we are all grafted onto the same family tree.

This, of course, is how it is supposed to be in the life of the church. Through the centuries, reality has fallen far short of the ideal. But that’s fodder for another reflection. 

For now, I want to lift up the inherent beauty of our unity in Jesus Christ. It really is a remarkable thing when black and white, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, young and old, male and female, American and Latino and Asian and European and all other nationalities and cultures can come together to worship and serve the Lord as one people.

Jesus prayed to God that all of Jesus’ followers would “be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you [i.e., God] have sent me [i.e., Jesus] and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23) In other words, Jesus knew that the way that we live together as one people united in him would bear witness to the gospel of Jesus’ love and grace.

After all, that kind of unity is something beautiful to behold.

Turn On the Light

 “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

I love to look at stained glass windows in churches, especially the ones that depict scenes from the Bible. The beautiful interplay of colored glass bordered in strips of lead creates a striking image as it conveys of the glory and grace of God.

From centuries-old cathedrals to modern-day churches, the stained glass window has been used to help tell the gospel story.

Here’s the thing, though: without light shining into the stained glass windows, the windows are drab and dark. The pictures are lifeless. The sanctuaries that contain the stained glass windows have a cold, almost gloomy, feel to them when the windows are darkened. But when the light shines on the windows, the windows come to life, and so does the room that contains them.

Light, it seems, is the necessary ingredient that must be added to any stained glass window in order for the window to display the glory for which it is designed.

I feel like we are like the stained glass window. We are beautifully created in the image of God. And, for all you presbies out there, you know that our chief purpose is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. But in order to fulfill the purpose for which we were created, we need light. 

Jesus is our Light. You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you? I’m an ordained minister – I have to say that. But it’s true, isn’t it? Jesus is our Light. When Jesus takes up residence in our hearts, there is a radiance about us that was previously not there. We are not fully alive apart from Jesus. 

Problem is, even with Jesus as our light, I feel like sometimes we keep the light turned off. Or we use the dimmer switch, and we keep his light low. Interestingly, when a dimmer knob is turned to low, it is exercising resistance to the flow of electricity to the light; when the knob is turned to high, it removes the resistance to the flow of electricity, so that the light can shine brightly.

Sometimes I think followers of Jesus have turned the dimmer switch to low, or even to “off”, because I don’t see much light in them. They bicker amongst one another, they are divisive, they set aside common courtesy and civility, they demean all who oppose them. And lest I be accused of pointing the finger, I confess that I, too, go through times when I have shut Jesus down and I have failed to shine his light in my life. It’s not pretty when we do that. When we increase our resistance to the lordship of Jesus in our lives, then we become dim, dull, lifeless even.

"See to it that the light within you is not darkness" - Jesus.

“See to it that the light within you is not darkness,” said Jesus (Luke 11:35) I think he means for us to set our internal Light knobs to wide open. No resistance. Let Jesus take control. Jesus also said that if you have a light, you shouldn’t hide it under a bushel (Luke 11:33; Matthew 5:15). Again, don’t dim the light.

You really are a beautiful work of art created by the best Artist in the world. The only thing that will make you even more beautiful is to let a little light shine in you. 

Turn on the Light in you, so people can see how beautiful you really are.

When Lament Turns into a Call

 "...I will see the goodness of the Lord 

in the land of the living." 

(Psalm 27:13)

A personal psalm of an aching heart.

Based on Psalm 27:13

“I am still confident of this: 

    I will see the goodness of the Lord

    in the land of the living.” (Ps. 27:13)

I want to see your goodness, Lord.

    I need to see your goodness.

I watch the news, and it isn’t good.

    It’s ugly. 

I want to see your goodness, Lord.

    I need to see your goodness.

Ukraine is under attack

    from a cruel and wicked foe.

Her people are targets

    of missiles and bombs.

I want to see your goodness, Lord.

    I need to see your goodness.

Politicians and leaders have become agents of division.

They point the finger and wag the tongue,

    they care only for themselves 

    and for those who nod in approval.

Your people have sown seeds of hatred,

    and we have reaped harvests of

        injustice

        racism

        inequity

        distrust.

Civility and respect have been lost.

    Gone.

    Vanished from the landscape.

I want to see your goodness, Lord.

    I need to see your goodness.

Sickness assails the bodies of your people,

    and insidious dementia slowly 

    steals their brilliant minds.

Death robs us of those we love dearly,

    and leaves us overwhelmed with grief.

I want to see your goodness, Lord. 

    I need to see your goodness.

Selah*

Thus says the Lord, 

    the One for whose goodness you wait:

“You, who want to see my goodness,

    do something about it!

"Show my goodness to my people.

    Bear witness to my lovingkindness.

“Welcome the refugees from Ukraine,

    and other nations,

    or support those who do.**

“Show my goodness to my people.

    Bear witness to my lovingkindness.

“Do not answer evil with evil,

    but answer evil with good.

Answer the hatred and incivility

    with the fruit of My Spirit:

        Love

        Joy

        Peace

        Patience

        Kindness

        Goodness

        Faithfulness

        Gentleness

        Self-control

for against such things 

    there is no law. 

“Show my goodness to my people.

    Bear witness to my lovingkindness.

“Visit the sick,

    and thus offer them comfort and peace.

Walk with those whose minds are failing,

    do not let them walk their journey alone.

Go to those who mourn,

    and share my mercy with them.

“Show my goodness to my people.

    Bear witness to my lovingkindness.”

Selah

I am still confident of this:

    I will see the goodness of the Lord

    in the land of the living.

And I will show the goodness of the Lord

    to all who are living.

*Selah is thought to be a poetic pause in the psalms, calling us to stop for a moment and reflect on the word.

**My cousin and his family who live in Germany have opened their home to a Ukrainian woman, and her son and her sister. If you would like to offer support to them, let me know, and I will try to help you make that connection.

Congregate!

 “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1)

In our walks along the swamps and wetlands of the Lowcountry of South Carolina, it is not at all uncommon for us to happen upon turtles warming in the sun. They will gather on the shoreline or on any rock or log jutting out of the water that will hold them. It is not uncommon to see large groups of turtles congregating on a single log. Sometimes there are so many on a relatively small log or rock, it reminds me of those challenges to see how many people can fit into a phone booth or a VW Beetle. Wherever there is a place for them to catch some rays, you will likely find them. 

They’re even willing to share their warming pad with ‘gators. 

Seeing how the turtles love to hang out together always makes me think of the church. Church isn’t simply a place to hear beautiful music or inspirational teaching and preaching. It is those things, but it is so much more. Church is the fellowship of people who love Jesus, hanging out together. Church is the people of God coming together to encourage one another, to spur each other on to faithful discipleship.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” (Hebrews 10:25)

You see, people aren’t really meant to go it alone. We’re meant to be together. Being together makes us more whole than when we’re not together.

Even before the pandemic, American Christians were in a downward trend in church attendance. Now, that trend has only grown steeper. 

It shouldn’t be that way. We are meant to be together. We are better, stronger, more healthy when we are together.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul describes the church as the body of Christ, with each member a different part of the body. Just as a body is less complete without a thumb, or an ear, or even a pinky toe, so is the body of Christ less complete without you. When one part of the body is missing, the whole body suffers – that applies to the human body, as well as the body of Christ.

Don’t go it alone. You need the church. You need friends in Christ with whom you can hang out and work through the highs and lows of life.

You need the church. And the church needs you.

Pieced Together

 “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted…” (Job 42:2) 

Back when things first shut down because of the pandemic, our church secretary decided to use some of her spare time to spruce up the bulletin boards around the church. She has some amazing artistic flair, transforming the bulletin boards from places to staple pictures and announcements, to beautiful works of art. 

At one point I saw her cutting up pieces of colored construction paper into hundreds of squares, rectangles, triangles, and other shapes, all about one or two inches. She then started to paste each square meticulously onto the bulletin board behind the sanctuary. This process took a couple of weeks, and at first I couldn’t see any rhyme or reason to her approach. It started out with a sea of blue, then she added some patches of yellow and brown and red and white. Eventually a picture began to take shape from the chaotic array of scraps of paper. The figure of a person appeared – a man, with a beard. Then we could see that the man was carrying a cross. Clearly, our secretary was creating a mosaic of Jesus on his way to Calvary.

After affixing thousands of scraps of paper onto the bulletin board, this is the final product that emerged:

Truly, a work of beauty. Shout-out to Melissa Griffin. Well done!

Every time I look at this beautiful mosaic, I am reminded of the amazing providence of God in our lives. You see, at any moment in time, our life is like a single scrap of paper. We really don’t know what the present moment means – good or bad – or how it fits into the larger picture of our life and the world. But by the providence of God, all the scraps of our lives are perfectly pieced together into something amazing and beautiful. In God’s mysterious and unsearchable wisdom, God takes the jagged edges of suffering and sorrow and confusion and chaos, and makes them fit alongside the more orderly and geometrically perfect squares and circles. God takes the dark and gloomy colors of our trials and tribulations, and places them perfectly alongside the bright and vibrant colors of our seasons of joy and gladness. Even the unspectacular ordinary colors and shapes find their place by the providential hand of God.

Often we wish that we wouldn’t have to go through certain things in our lives. I get it. Nobody really wants to experience tragedy, loss, brokenness. But if I were to take all of those things out of my life, then it would be like taking a handful of pieces from the mosaic. When you look at a mosaic with pieces that have been taken out, you notice the empty spaces more than you do the overall picture. Every experience in life has a place in God’s providence. Every experience is a piece of the beautiful mosaic that God is creating you to be. To quote Eugene Peterson (who was quoting Paul), “we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” (from Romans 8:28, The Message)

"I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted." 

A guy named Job (the one in the Bible, not the one who invented Apple – his name was Jobs) was extremely bitter and perplexed about the tragedies that had befallen him. He railed against God, demanding that God explain himself. When God finally responded, God didn’t answer Job’s questions. Instead, God gave Job a glimpse into all the workings of the world over which God is sovereign and exercises complete control – from the musings of the human heart, to the clapping of thunder when lightning strikes, to the placement of the stars in the sky, even to the creation of a bird that cannot fly (the ostrich). God’s point is to remind Job that God is God, and Job is not. God is the one who is working through every person, every creature, every natural occurrence to redeem the world according to God’s plan and purpose.

Here’s what Job said after God had finished answering Job: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted… Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (Job 42:2-3)

You see, at any given moment we won’t truly understand the meaning or purpose of what is happening to us, good or bad. But we don’t have to understand what is happening, because God has it all well in hand.

God really does work all things for the good.

Ultimately, God is enough. God is always enough.