I took this photo last night of a friends brand new baby. It is the hand of a one-day-old child holding his father’s index finger.
Sometimes the photos I take can say more than I can write. It’s not that I think I’m some kind of amazing photographer, but sometimes God allows me to see something that makes me speechless. This is one of those times…
As I write this it’s 3:45am…. yes, I said AM!
We’re off to be with family in the Great Northwest so I thought I’d leave you with the above photo. It’s a shot I took from a plane of Mt. Rainier. If there’s one thing that defines the great state of Washington, it’s that mountain. They’re hard core about their mountains up there… bunch of mountain snobs.
That’s all from me… have a great Labor Day Weekend.
Last night I had a strange dream. I stole a car from a high school friend — actually it was his dad’s car. I then proceeded to drive as fast as I could towards the nearest freeway entrance as an escape route. Everything seemed to be going great — no traffic (which is rare in L.A.) and the entrance was a straight downhill slope, just perfect for my needs. At first the entrance looked normal, but as soon as I made a right turn to jump on it, the road turned to rocks. These weren’t just little pebbles, these were boulders. Of course this piece of junk Oldsmobile bottomed out and there I was stuck on four or five large rocks not about to go anywhere. I’m pretty sure these things just popped up right out of the ground, because I’m telling you — I might be dumb enough to steal a friends car, but I’m not dumb enough to drive it over the Rocky mountains overpass. So after getting my bearings back I figured I’d unbuckle and get out the heck out of there. But unfortunately, that’s not where it ended.
Lately I’ve been having some really odd dreams, but it’s not just the dreams that are odd — it’s what I’m doing in real life while my imagination is out of control. In the past two weeks I have woken Bethany and myself up three times because I’m audibly proclaiming these dreams. No, I’m not speaking full sentences, I’m just basically yelling. The first two times it happened I remember just wanting out of my dream, so I thought I’d yell. I guess they were more like nightmares, but I don’t remember them like the one I had last night… which is where we left off.
After I unbuckled to get out of the car that I had just destroyed, I turned to open the door and BAM!…some crazy grandma lady was all up in my window yelling and screaming. I vaguely remember her wearing a muumuu and being of Asian decent, but don’t quote me on that. I guess she wasn’t happy that I was now blocking the entrance to the freeway and when you’re in L.A., that’s just not cool — not even for grandmas. And that’s when I start yelling really loud. I mean, c’mon — how would you react if some wild women was trying to attack you? It freaked me out! Thankfully, I woke my wife up with my audibles and she was able to wake me up before things got out of hand.
Don’t ask me where I get this stuff. I promise I’m not watching late night Sci-Fi or fighting with any of the many grandmas here in the old folks home where we live. But I am starting to worry that my reactions are going to escalate and freak my wife out more than I already have. So if you see Bethany around you can joke and laugh about my strangeness, but be sure and give her a nice hug and reassure that’s she doing the right thing by waking me up.
“Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” - Mark 7:8 Those are the words of Christ telling the Pharisees basically where they stand in their own hearts. These so called “religious leaders” couldn’t understand why the disciples of Christ wouldn’t wash their hands and follow the ceremonial cleansings before eating. The Pharisees believed that by doing these certain rituals it would make them righteous before God. Even though those rituals weren’t commanded by God, they held that these things must be done or one was considered “unclean”, or worse still, unrighteous. But that’s exactly where they got it all wrong — just like me.
Simply stated legalism could be defined as creating an external standard of righteousness to earn God’s favor. Legalism is what Christ pointed out in hearts of the Pharisees. They thought their own rituals, laws, or whatever would earn God’s favor even though God had never commanded those things in Scripture. Somewhere along the line they started adding to God’s Word with their own, which created all these nit picky (and sometimes absurd) practices which they held to. So it makes sense that they come to confront Christ and his own disciples concerning their traditions. They honestly believed that Christ’s disciples were in sin for not complying to their rules, but the reality was they had completely distorted God’s Word and were placing their law above God’s. It would be nice if I could just leave it there and say it was a problem exclusively for the Pharisees, but I can’t. The fact of the matter is this is exactly what I do and it’s been robbing me of my joy.
Legalism has been taking out notches out of my joy a little bit at a time. This is because, as my pastor clearly stated “legalist’s are more aware of their own sin then what Christ did on the cross.” For a while now I’ve felt that I can’t seem to get it right. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to always be humble, always trust God, always speak kind words, always be at peace with people, etc., etc., etc. From there I was overwhelmed by the fact that no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t put myself on a daily Bible reading schedule, my prayer times only came before meals, I didn’t share my faith enough at work, etc., etc., etc.. All of these thoughts were stealing my joy because I lost sight of the cross and could only think about myself. Furthermore, I got caught in the trap that I could do enough to earn the Lord’s favor. My own standard of righteousness, like the Pharisees, had taken the place of God’s standard which (or who) is simply Christ. I’ve watched as this has made my heart grow cold as I try and DO everything in my power to please the Lord. I’ve been trying to DO so much to obtain God’s favor, but the truth is I can’t do anything — Christ already did it. That’s the basic premise of the Gospel message! Christ is the only one capable of obtaining favor before the Lord’s eyes because He lived a perfect, sinless life. And as God in the flesh, He then gives up His own life for me so I can reap the benefits and stand righteous before God. It would be impossible otherwise. I can’t stand before a holy God because my sin separates me from Him. But Christ can! Christ can stand for me and God will see His perfect life and not my sin-stained life.
I never expected that Mark 7 would be a life changing passage of Scripture, but it’s been the most freeing thing for my heart. This teaching has has made me more aware of my legalistic heart and in turn my joy has slowly been restored. I’m slowly realizing that I’ve been creating a standard of my own that looks and feels very spiritual, but in the end will cripple only me. My standard will only cause me to look inward and not upward, and that can only lead to a self-righteousness, joyless life. As my pastor also said, “there is nothing you can do to make God love you more or to make God love you less” — Christ finished it on the cross.
If you would like to hear the messages my pastor has been preaching, I have put together a zip file with all 4 sermons. The title of the series is “The Deadly Dangers of Legalism” and as I’ve tried to attest here, the Lord has used it mightily in my life. Click here to download the series.
One of the great things about having a blog for over seven years now is that I have watched as people in my close circle and around the world have tried and failed at blogging. People tell me all the time, “I started a blog”, to which I reply “great.” Then I proceed to get the address to their blog and read their very enthusiastic “first post” which usually consists of “I know, I’m behind the times, but here’s my new blog!” They even have the perfect template for their blog that fits their personality just right, and normally I’ll find a detailed “About Me” section in the side bar. But days, weeks, and months go by and I return to their blog to the same excited first post, but nothing else. All the writing they planned on doing hasn’t made it to keyboard, and if cobwebs could come in digital form their blog would be covered in them. And it’s with that in mind that I don’t think you should start a blog — I don’t think you’re ready for it.
Blogging (or writing) takes both commitment and thought — both of which many people struggle with, myself included. Sure, not everything I write on my blog is up for a Pulitzer, but I constantly feel that I need to push myself in my writing for the sake of those who might take the time to read it. For me, blogging is another way for me to communicate ideas, flesh out thoughts, further my opinion, and even just a way for me to relax. But why should I expect someone to spend ten minutes or more listening to me ramble on about whatever and not put any thought in it. I think people have this skewed view that just because they started a blog that everyone should read it. More and more I hear “… oh, I’m gonna blog about it.” Well, OK great. But if you think I should spend my time reading about your experience or your opinion, then you better make it worth my time. Don’t waste my time (and your own) by thinking that something magical happens when you put your thoughts on screen. Unless you take the time to develop your thoughts, think clearly, and write in a way that helps me understand, your blog (or any writing) won’t be read by anyone. Furthermore, you should probably just tell me about your thoughts and opinions in person — it’ll probably be more exciting. But can I add one more thought? Be committed to your writing.
One of the great failures of anyone that wants to blog is that they just aren’t consistent. The common excuses are: “I have nothing to write about”, “I don’t have time”, “I’m just not that creative”, etc., but all of these are just that: excuses. Writing is a discipline in and of itself that takes time to understand and get into the habit of. If you have to, start a journal first. Don’t share it with the world just yet, but try to write consistently for a period of time. Be that every day (which is hard), once a week, a few times a month, whatever you want. You might start by writing about things you love and then move on to others. Write about your days, but expound on things you find your mind going back to — there’s probably something there that wants to come out. I trust that as you do you will have more content than you can shake a stick at, and then you’ll find yourself writing more frequently. You don’t have to be a NY Times journalist to write frequently, but you do have to work at it and a big part of that is being committed to it. So if you’re contemplating starting your own blog or just feeling the peer pressure, I think these things will help you. Writing is still an art and therefore some rules just don’t apply, but with any art there are rules that should be followed in order to create something of significance.
If I could suggest one major resource to you it would be the book On Writing Well. The title makes it sound like a text book, but it’s far from it. It’s an enjoyable book to read and I know that it will get your mind thinking on just what writing is and how much better you could be doing it.
