Blood brothers

The reason some Pharisees tithed and fasted is the same reason some German university students take off their clothes and lie around naked in the park in downtown Munich. The moral legalist is always the elder brother of the immoral prodigal. They are blood brothers in God's sight because both reject the sovereign mercy of God in Christ as a means to righteousness and use either morality or immorality as a means of expressing their independence and self-sufficiency and self-determination. And it is clear from the NT that both will result in a tragic loss of eternal life. So the first meaning of legalism is the terrible mistake of treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God's favor. It is a danger we must guard against in our own hearts every day.

But the church is not man's institution. It belongs to Christ. He is the head of the body, and he alone should set the entrance requirements. That is very important!

And this I know beyond the shadow of a doubt: God hates legalism as much as he hates alcoholism. If any of you still wonders why I go on supporting this amendment after hearing all the tragic stories about lives ruined through alcohol, the reason is that when I go home at night and close my eyes and let eternity rise in my mind, I see ten million more people in hell because of legalism than because of alcoholism. And I think that is a literal understatement. Satan is so sly. "He disguises himself as an angel of light," the apostle says in 2 Corinthians 11:14. He keeps his deadliest diseases most sanitary. He clothes his captains in religious garments and houses his weapons in temples. O don't you want to see his plots uncovered? . . . Listen as I uncover one of his plots. Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn't look like one. Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one. Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength. Alcoholics don't feel welcome in church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in church. Therefore, what we need in this church is not front-end regulations to try to keep ourselves pure. We need to preach and pray and believe that "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither teetotalism nor social drinking, neither legalism nor alcoholism is of any avail with God, but only a new creation (a new heart)" (Galatians 6:15; 5:6). The enemy is sending against us every day the Sherman tank of the flesh with its cannons of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. If we try to defend ourselves or our church with peashooter regulations, we will be defeated, even in our apparent success. The only defense is to "be rooted and built up in Christ and established in faith" (Colossians 2:6); "Strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy" (Colossians 1:11); "holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together, . . . grows with a growth that is from God" (Colossians 2:19). From God! From God! And not from ourselves.

...You cannot legislate righteousness or make people more holy by having laws, one any more than another . . . I faced and saw the weakness of legislated righteousness years ago. I cut my eye teeth on preaching against THE BIG FIVE—dancing, drinking, smoking, gambling, and theater going. I heard messages against these things by the dozen. I heard very little about gossip, covetousness, a hateful spirit, etc. I observed that people who adopted this separated life often become pharisaic and proud of their separation, and I heard very few sermons against such pride. For example, one preacher I knew observed that while some women thought separation meant wearing long hair, they often had tongues as long as their hair!

So, while the problem is surely not a simple one, I think if I had a church and wrote my own constitution, I would word it positively, perhaps saying, "It is expected that all members will abstain from habits and life styles that fail to honor Christ and will seek to perfect holiness in the fear of God doing everything in word and deed to His honor and glory." Something like that, anyhow. And then leave it to the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the word to effect the right results . . . (last quote from John Piper's dad in a letter dated November 10, 1981)

-Piper, in "Flesh Tank and Peashooter Regulations"

Media I Recommend

"The Girl Nobody Wanted," is a great sermon by Tim Keller on Genesis 29:15-35. Through the story of Jacob, Rebecca, and Leah, Keller explores ideas about satisfaction. He speaks to the fact that "all life is marked by cosmic disappointment." Three teasers:

Most people if they really learn to look into their own heart [and that's what I'm urging you to do right now] most people if they really learn to look into their own hearts would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love or first think of some foreign country or first take up some subject that excites us are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can ever really satisfy. I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or failures of holidays and so on. I'm speaking of the very best possible ones. There is always something we have grasped at. There's always something in that first moment of longing but fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It turned out to be a good job. But it's evaded us. In the morning it's always Leah. -C.S. Lewis, quoted by Keller

If you're a person who is very upset whenever you get near a wedding because you're so angry that you're not married, or if you're still just incredibly desperate to be married, you've missed the point. In the morning it's never what you thought. You cannot look to anything but Jesus. In heaven we have a Father that will deal with all of our imperfect fathers here. In heaven we have a Brother that will deal with all our imperfect families. In heaven we have a Spouse that will deal with all our imperfect spouses. And until we make him the One, until we say "this time I will praise the Lord," we'll never be able to deal with all the imperfection around us. -Keller

"God is not the top of the ladder. He sent his Son to be the ladder." -Keller

http://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/article_print.html?id=34022

Training Week

I'm at training week for the internship I'm doing... you know, the one I didn't think I'd get? A.K.A. the one that I still flip out about because I totally can't fathom the fact that a month from now I'll (hopefully) be in the swing of things working in another country helping some really incredible people work to free people currently forced to work as slaves! I am cooooooooooompletely psyched and humbled and grateful for this opportunity.

One thing that's stuck out to me this week is what a privilege it is to have work that I believe in - that in and of itself is a blessing, and a privilege that few people have. This week I've been waking up way earlier than I normally wake up, donning business suits, and taking public transpo all over town - in heels (ok, well, in Chacos, and then I wear the heels at the office). Each morning I've woken up excited to get to the office for the day, excited about the people I'm working with because they challenge me and model for me what a person should be, and excited about the work I'm learning to do, because it makes a literal difference in people's lives.

And I'm realizing that that kind of work isn't easy to come by - the kind of work that makes the early mornings and the high heels and the bunions (ew, just kidding) worth it. The kind of work I feel cut out for (so far), and the kind of work I want to tell my friends about because I believe in the cause we're working for. That's something many people never experience. There are moms at work right now in jobs they dislike, but they go faithfully to feed their kids. There are sisters at work right now because their family members need the help. And there are countless other individuals who sit behind desks and count the minutes until they get off work, and it's probably partly because no one ever taught them that they had potential, that they had choices, that they had gifts and they could make a difference in the world.

So thank you to each person who taught me that I had gifts. Thank you to to people like my mom for teaching me how to spell. Thank you to Dr. Miranda who took the risk of sending me to a symposium at Princeton in 2003 because she wanted to give me a shot at entering that world. Thank you to my brother who taught me that minutes matter, not just special holidays and big events. Thank you to Doug who told me to take risks, make a plan, and to ask for the order. And thank you to every one of my friends: I told my colleague last night that God has been so sweet to me by putting really amazing people in my life. I am so blessed by God in you.

I hope I say all that humbly. I'm in awe of all this, and this whole week has felt so surreal. It's hard to believe I'm here, with these folks, doing this. And sure I put in some effort, but really, I have such an infinitesimally small amount of control over anything. I guess that's the point: yes I worked to get here, but where did my mental capacity come from? Sure I worked hard on my writing samples... but who taught me how to write? How did I get the computer I typed them on?

As one of our wise leaders pointed out to us this week: yes, we work hard. But we didn't earn any of these basic faculties God used to get us here - even the ability to do work is a gift.

Thought

The homemade music videos on YouTube are weird. Just weird.

Media I Recommend

• True Christianity Changes the Culture It's In: Tim Keller on idols & the Gospel: http://tgc-video.s3.amazonaws.com/2009-conference/plenary/Keller_Session_1.mp3
• Dating, Singleness, and Marriage: Females AND males of all ages, you MUST listen to this panel by ASCC staff & partners: http://www.austinstone.org/what/gt_blog/dating_singleness_marriage/
• Discipleship: These three talks are from Austin Stone's Summer Conference "The Kingdom is at Hand: The Foundational Need for Discipleship" http://www.austinstone.org/resources/other_audio/category/2009_summer_conference
• What the Church Should be Like: Click the link above. Listen to the 3rd talk, "Discipleship in the Church." Yes, I gave it two bullet points. Yes, it is that good. I wish every broken, hurting Christian, as well as every Christian who thinks they will never be broken or hurting, would listen to this and pray for the Holy Spirit to move in their heart. If we all did, I think the Church would be beautifully changed.

Mmhmmm.

My longtime-but-recently-waning interest in quotes is making a comeback:

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." -Oscar Wilde

“We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character” -H. D. Thoreau

“No segment of society is more strategic and more in need of prayer than pastors and their families... They urgently and desperately need our love, encouragement and earnest prayers.” -Bill Bright

Prayer for the Day

From Jeff Iorg:

"Lord, your Kingdom matters. Mine doesn't. Advance your cause, whatever that means for me."

Moving

I'm starting to get really nostalgic about moving and this whole leaving Austin business (I don't like the leaving Austin part). As in, Bryan Adams just came on my iTunes and I'm getting teary eyed.

This feels very similar to when I graduated from high school and it was time to move on to Austin. I had no idea what life in Austin would bring. And it's amazing to think about all the tremendous things God has done in and through me, others, and events here. It's funny how during my last two moves (Dallas to Austin, and this one), things seem to have settled so much pretty shortly before it was time to go.

In Dallas I had been lonely for much of high school. Had lots of friends, but was always ready to move on, go somewhere else, try something new. It was restlessness that drove me to dream of a new place. By junior year, the darkness of doubt and questions made me not just humanly lonely, but spiritually lonely. But God provided the most amazing friends I could have asked for, and just when it was time to leave.

So I came to Austin. And here I met challenges bigger than any I would ever imagine: the darkest days of doubt (without God, there is no true peace or hope), depression, anxiety, fear, my family being stripped from me, my idols being stripped from me, my self-confidence being stripped away, all so that God could break me and mercifully put me together as a new creation, newly aware of who He is and how good He always will be. I have seen friends hurt worse than I could fathom, I've seen hallmates chase vanity in ways that only lead to heartache, and I've watched respected leaders fall amid lies and deception.

But what I also encountered here was a light and a song like I've never seen or heard. I met Believers who woke at 8 a.m. to pray at the Tower. I met men who make it their mission to plant churches among college students. I met women who pour out the truth of God into younger women with the passion of someone who understands that their treasure really does belong at the foot of Jesus' throne in Heaven. I have met people who live for THAT day, not this day. And yet those same people have more joy in the present than would make sense to the normal observer.

Five years in Austin. Five years in God's grace. Five years of chasing truth, running from truth, being ripped apart by truth, and learning that truth is the sweetest honey to my lips I will ever find. Truth has put a song in my heart. Truth overrides how ugly that same heart often is. Truth leads me, guides me, assures me.

Five years in Austin - and an encounter with truth. And it's that same truth that tells me I have to leave.

God Called us to be Helpers

So, I just learned today that Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was married for seven years. Before he died in 1917, he had published only one book. Yet today, we have 30 works in his name! How did that happen?

According to a biography by RBC Ministries, the reason we have his works today is, largely, his wife:

Although Oswald Chambers wrote only one book, Baffled to Fight Better, more than thirty titles bear his name. With this one exception, published works were compiled by Mrs. Chambers, a court stenographer, from her verbatim shorthand notes of his messages taken during their seven years of marriage.

In other words, Mrs. Chambers spent much of married life copying down her husband's messages. And then she spent a few weeks or so publishing his sermons, right? WRONG! RBC goes on to say that for the next fifty years, Mrs. Chambers "labored" to give her husband's words to the world. This further cements two ideas that God has been teaching me in the past year or so:

1. We never know how God wants to use our giftings to build His kingdom in the future, so we have yet another reason to work with all our hearts in the "small" and the "large" tasks. I doubt Mrs. Chambers was born with the revealed knowledge that she would one day need court stenography skills to bless the world with solid Biblical teaching. Maybe, but I doubt it. So, praise God that He equipped her with those abilities and then employed them for His work. Lord, may I be open to any kind of preparation You are doing in me right now!

2. Without constantly dreaming of future ministry, or bigger and better ministry, each individual should worship and serve God in the place assigned to him or her. Mrs. Chambers was a wife, and she was therefore called to be a helper to her husband. "Helping" often means laying aside all personal ambition to stand as a pillar, support, and encouragement to the one who is helped. I wonder if Mrs. Chambers had ever dreamed of another vocation - perhaps she had once wanted to excel to the top of her career.

But God had called Mrs. Chambers to be a helper. So she spent seven years taking notes on messages. Then she spent another 50 years transcribing those notes, editing them, finding willing publishers, negotiating contracts, and finally seeing those notes published.

Be the Part You Are

Let's rise above the common lie that to be a helper is to be a non-essential part of the body. Many people lie to us in the name of "dignity" and "empowerment." They teach us that a career, a hobby, or even a mere sense of personal pride are more important than laying down our lives, serving husbands, and raising children. But we have an answer for those lies. The answer is rooted in Scripture. And that Scripture finds expression in the lives of women like Mrs. Chambers, who spent a marriage - and a life - helping. Thank goodness she did.

Mrs. Chambers exemplified once important principle that applies to the married and to the single: function in the body as the part you were designed to be. For Mrs. Chambers, that meant being a married woman who served her husband well. For me at this point, it means loving Jesus with every ounce of my life as a single, as a student, and in the various roles in my church, family, and friendships.

Understanding God's Heart for Wives and Mothers Renews our Mind

It's important to understand God's heart for wives and mothers for two reasons. First, it renews our mind about the future and teaches us to view marriage with dignity. Be honest: how do you view the role of a full-time mom? I grew up around several people who made fun of stay-at-home mothers. It was as if being a mother was petty or trifiling. I even mocked girls who wanted to be wives, arrogantly promoting careers and ministry positions (as if motherhood and ministry are always two separate pursuits!). Yes, there are some moms who use motherhood to pursue comfort and vanity. Many, however, exemplify sacrifice, caring, and service to their families. The Biblical calling on a mother's life is a good and holy one. Let's not take that calling lightly. When we understand that God has called wives to be helpers, we understand that He has a precious plan for women who obey that calling.

Singleness is Not a Waiting Room

Understanding God's heart for our role as women is also important because it renews our minds toward the present and teaches us to view singleness with dignity. Most of us singles will marry. Some of us are called to lifelong singleness. Regardless, we see in Scripture that we have a calling and a purpose to serve God here, now. When a woman is married, her husband is her head - she follows him as he follows Christ. For the single woman, Christ is her head. Therefore, she is called to serve Him.

Paul encourages the church in Corinth:

"...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (I Cor 15:57-58, emphasis added).

... and that was to the married and the unmarried. What a privilege! We are called to "always" abound in the work of the Lord! That means that singleness is not a waiting room where we listlessly sit around and hope to get married because then life would really begin. No! We have the blessing - the holy calling from God - to serve Him now.

That "always" means the future, ten years from now. It also means now, this minute. That's the great thing about God's promises - we don't have to wait to trust them and to act on them.

Therefore, we have several promises to claim. We take God at His word when He says in Genesis 2 that woman was made as man's helper. We trust that by faith in Christ's sinless life, death, and resurrection as our substitute, we are able to know God and be deeply known by Him. Because we have the hope of eternal life, we are victorious over death and any fear. Because we have this eternal victory with Christ, earthly sacrifice only makes eternal life sweeter. We can serve God joyfully, because we know the outcome: life.

And we have more promises to claim that help us as we walk toward that life: His power is made perfect in our weakness. What He has begun in us, He will carry out to completion. If He demands something of us, He will give us the grace to obey.

It is a precious and blessed thing to be a helper called by the Lord.

If we rest in the Gospel

Fabs said this in her blog and I liked it so much I snatched it right up and put it on mine! She disciples me, so I can. :)

"...if we rest in the true Gospel, looking at our sin will only help us see grace." Yes.

The if's of the Bible sometimes make my breath catch in my lungs.

Here are three:

For IF God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you will be cut off. -Romans 11:21-22

IF you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. -John 8:31-32

My childhood conversion experience is not the basis for my faith. My empassioned conversation with someone five or ten years ago should not the basis for my assurance. The question is: am I abiding (present tense) in God's Word? That means reading it, believing it, submitting to it, seeing it bear fruit in my life.

Jesus is the Lord, Savior, and Treasure of the believer's heart. If He is not, I must to ask Him to become those things to me- daily and hourly.

Quotin'

Haven't read A Man Without a Country, but I just come across this quote from Kurt Vonnegut. Love it. God, help Your church. Use us... despite us.

"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere."

Easy Dinner! (Just plan ahead)

Ground Turkey Sweet Potato with Pasta

I know this looks like something Paula Deen would make, but I promise it's healthy.

Dedicated to Laura Cannici and Allie Connelly Threlkeld, who first inspired me to experiment with the sweet potato.

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato

Approx. 6 ounces lean ground turkey*

Small amount Barilla High-Protein Pasta

Olive oil (optional)

Ground cloves

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Tony Chachere's seasoning

Salt

Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash sweet potato and cut away any brusies or "eyes." Stab with a fork several times to allow steam to escape. Do not wrap in foil, as this will result in a soggy potato. Stick 'er in the oven in a glass pan for 40-60+ minutes. Let's be honest, potatoes take for-evvvver to cook, so plan accordingly.

2. When you're 20-ish minutes out from the taters being done, start the water for your pasta. In skillet, brown the ground turkey. Add seasonings and olive oil to taste.

3. Boil your pasta for 11 minutes, as directed on the box (the reason you have to cook Barilla pasta so long is because of its high protein content. It's a good trade, though: longer cooking time for lower blood sugar. I'm not complaining).

4. When the sweet potato is done, remove from oven. Split it longways, mash the insides a little, add butter or Smart Balance. Place seasoned ground turkey over open-faced sweet potato. Toss a little olive oil on the pasta. Voila!

If I'd had broccoli or asparagus on hand, I would have replaced the pasta with the veggie. That's what I recommend.

Depending on your butter use and your portions, this can be a really healthy dinner: sweet potatoes are loaded with vitamins and fiber (eat the skin!) and ground turkey can come quite lean. Olive oil will add omega-3's and good fats, and the veggies I recommended will round it out nicely with more vitamins and fiber.

Or, if you'd rather eat something from Paula Deen's kitchen, use the same ingredients, but fry them. :)

*Did the picture scare you? Chick-ify this recipe by replacing the ground turkey with avocado and grilled chicken breast. Yum!

Thoughts on my writing break

Item 1: I like the idea of talking mice. The makers of Cinderella nailed that one.

Item 2: One thing I appreciate about Austin is that we have neighborhood pride. Like any human habit, that could go too far and trend toward insularity. But in Austin, people actually hang out in their hood instead of just punting it to to the nearest mall/restaurant/Starbuck's like we used to in Dallas. Props to that. So glad I live here. (And so glad Cafe Brazil took us in with open arms while I lived in Big D.)

Item 3: Good music is just so good...

Suggestions for while you write:

-Bela Fleck's "Places" album

-South Austin Jug Band's "Treak of Beandip Perkins"

-Elvis' gospels. Interesting spiritual journey he had, by the way. Read up on it during an earlier writing break.

-The Passion "God of This City" album. Still like it.

-When I'm writing I try to listen to music that energizes me but that I don't pay attention to because I get distracted. So, best practice = listening to an album straight though, preferably when I know the words to all the songs. Personally, I can accomplish this with Hanson's "Middle of Nowhere," Caedmon's Call's "40 Acres" & the self-titled CD, and a coupla' old Jars of Clay CD's. That's not very many albums. Hence the bluegrass.

-This song:

Then later, when you're on the front porch, throw in some:

-Dirty Dozen Brass Band

-Big Sam's Funky Nation

-Sarah McMillan

-Sandra McCracken

Ambassador Hot Dog

In this June 5, 2009 article in the New York Times, author Dan Berry traces the diplomatic history of the hot dog. Interesting.

Silence and Sin

Proverbs 15:12 "A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise."

We sin because sinning is fun.

Or at least it's fun for a time. As John Piper puts it, "We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe God is more to be desired than life itself.”

The promise of sin enslaves us in so, so many ways. Just one of the ways sin enslaves us is by making us resistant to people who will speak wisdom into our lives.

When I am struggling with sin, I can be tempted to avoid wise people. A few months ago I was struggling with a decision. I knew the objective, visible truth. I knew that I should probably make one choice, but I wanted to make a different choice.

For a few weeks I was super honest with God, but I caught myself trying to squirm out of convicting conversations with people. After all, I reasoned with my deceitful little heart, God already knew my heart. But people! People could judge me. People could talk to me. People could hold me a-a-accountable!

Thank goodness, God showed me a few years ago that we are made for community, and that means we are made to do battle together - not alone. That time around, I had learned the hard way. So this time, when I saw myself starting to avoid wise people, I made the decision to be as open as possible.

Confessing to a friend was one key step in the right direction. (Oooh, the c-word. Scary. But if you find someone who truly believes in the gospel, confessing your sins to another human being will be some of the sweetest freedom you'll ever know in a human relationship).

Here's why: confession is like a chainsaw that cuts the shakles that hold us in our sin. Confession is speaking the truth about our actions, our thoughts, and our beliefs.

The fundamental premise of sin is deception. How did Satan get Eve to eat the forbidden fruit? He misquoted God, and he got her to question what God had said. Then, he got her to question the consequences of her disobedience (Genesis 3:1-5).

To counter a lie, we need truth. If our sin is based in a lie, speaking the truth begins to break the power of the sin. We must have the truth of God's Word to expose and replace the lies we too often believe.

With this knowledge, I need to be proactive in seeking truth to apply to my life. Below are a few questions I find helpful for examining my heart. I hope you'll pray through them, too - and I pray that when answers are revealed, you will see confession as a means to freedom. Staying in darkness only brings slavery, darkness, and death. Speak and believe the truth. It brings life.

Questions to ask:

-Is there any passage of Scripture I avoid reading?

-Is there a question I hope someone won't ask me?

-Do I feel convicted around any wise person?

-Is there any place I'm avoiding because I might see people who will bring conviction into my life?

-Am I acting out of the belief that God has told me not to do something, but doing it will bring me greater pleasure than obedience?

-Do I think that I will get away with sin - that there won't be a consequence?

For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality (Col. 3:12)

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16)

Illusions of Safety

As I drove home home tonight, I saw the big fingers of lightning reach down across the sky. I’d seen brief flashes of lightning as I read on the dock this evening. Now, hours later, here I was on my way home after dinner and the storm was just now arriving in Austin. I thought about going to sleep, and I was a little scared (go ahead and laugh at me!). Then I realized: if I’m scared here, what on earth is it going to be like next semester? If I get an internship, I’ll be somewhere on planet Earth, and that’s literally as much as I know. If I get hired, I’ll probably be in South or Southeast Asia, South America, or maybe the African bush. In other words, I have no idea where I will be sitting 4 months from now.

And then it hit me: There’s only so much truth to this feeling of safety I have here in Austin. I mean, here, I’m safe in one sense of the word. Structures protect me: buildings, police, a justice system I've trusted my whole life. If you compared the crime reports from my neighborhood with those from a neighborhood just a little further east, you would say I am very "safe."

But this safety is deceiving. Even if my life is completely “safe,” and I never get robbed, or seriously ill, or even majorly inconvenienced, even then . . . one day, I will die. And once I do, no earthly safety will help me. Only what is truly permanent will remain.

That’s why, in another sense, I might be safer in a more "dangerous" location: I would lose the ability to lie to myself about my safety. Yes, I would be in more immediate physical danger. But my soul would probably be safer because much more of my faith would be in God, rather than in God plus the APD, or in God plus my local government, or in God plus the fact that I live in a certain neighborhood.

The Bible is replete with warnings not to fear. Tonight I read in Luke 21:34, "But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap." Though Jesus was teaching a parable to a specific group of people at that time, the eternal truths of His teachings apply to us today. I can't help but think that my physical safety is one of the "cares of this life." One day, I'll receive an eternal body. Any suffering I may incur now will no longer pain me on that day.

So here’s to safety. Not the fleeting safety that will vanish with my last breath, but true safety: the safety that comes from an awareness of how short my life is, how fleeting anything on earth is, and the fact that faith in Christ’s death and resurrection is my only means to real life, both now and in the future. True safety is not found in a human or a piece of infrastructure.

El Numero Uno

I would imagine that most people's blogs start out in one of three ways:

1) The hesitant novice: "I swore I'd never blog, but here I am," their blog might begin. "We'll give this a try and see how it works out." If read aloud, this blog would sound something like Eeyore. Ho-hum. This blogger sounds begrudging. But don't be fooled by their facade, they really just want to sound casual so they don't loose too much face if no one reads their site.

2) The eager novice: This blogger would practically burst out of your computer screen and shake your hand, thanking you for reading their blog. When they log on to update, they're thinking, "Here I am in cyberspace, finally getting the maximum number of words to the maximum number of people for FREE!" . . . or maybe they're just excited to show off pictures of their kid's first day at swim lessons. At any rate, this blogger is super stoked that you're reading and they're soooo excited to keep updating so you don't forget about it. Gotta stay current and give the people what they want!

3) The novice who tries to make it look like they've been blogging for forever; you just can't see any of their previous posts: Post #1: "Sitting at Starbucks today, I was really struck by the latest Nooma video. Makes me think of how Mark Driscoll's sermon really relates to that one scene in Braveheart..." Ooh, this must be a culturally relevant Christian. No wonder he's blogging.

Actually, I have no basis for assuming that people's blogs start that way. Those are just the first three ideas that popped into my head for my first post. Here's my train of thought:

"OK, I should start this one off saying that I'm blogging now because Todd said I should... No, that sounds kind of lame... OK, I'll just put a short blurb on here about how I'm kind of embarassed to be doing this, and try to write something substantive later. No, that's boring... I'll just jump right into something I put in my journal earlier... WAIT! I'll just throw around some jokes that are primarily -- but secretly -- about me."

And so, here we are.