Wednesday Words

 

Peterson, Andrew. All You'll Ever Need. Resurrection Letters Vol. II. Ben Shive, 2008. CD. Centricity Music

Adoption

Over at MOHL, the ladies there have been discussing the different names that Scripture gives the Church.  Since I'm in love with the theology of adoption, I'm sharing about how we have been adopted as "sons of the living God" (Romans 9:25-26).

Three Perspectives on Singleness (what keeps me sane)

Part Two in the Letters from Singleness Series

I met John Gunter via his blog, when I come across his own extensive series on singleness.  I was thrilled to see this subject tackled so honestly & candidly by a single man, which is a rare thing!  He was gracious to allow me to repost the first writing in his series here, & I encourage you to travel over & read the rest of it.  His posts A Theology of Singleness & Softening a Single Dude were two of my favorites.  He is a sincere brother in Christ, & his blog & Twitter are worth the follow!

I cherish my role as Uncle to my 8 nieces and nephews and an "uncle" to the kids here in Asia...

Let me clear the air about where I am in life.  I am a single male.  I recently passed the dreaded precipice of 40.  I live in Asia and have lived here for most of the past 12 years.  My work does take me back to America a few times a year, but my adult life has largely been invested in a country far from my own, in cities and neighborhoods far different from my native Atlanta.

 

In spite of this, I am a normal, red-blooded American man.  I’ve come fairly close to marriage a few times, but nothing has reached fruition.  In college, I NEVER would have imagined that I would be single at age 40.  The very mention of the possibility would have made me laugh in a loud, animated fashion.

 

However, here I am.  I’m single and in an environment with very few relational options.  Very few.

 

And do you know what?  I am okay with this.  I really am.

 

In this article, I am going to talk about three perspectives regarding singleness which I have embraced over the years.  They have made my life rich and free from always longing to be where I am not: married.

 

Yes, I do get extremely lonely.  Yes, I do still hope to be in a happy, Christ-centered marriage one day.  However, these three principles have been very helpful for me in keeping perspective amidst singleness.

 

First, singleness is NOT a disease to be cured, but rather a stewardship to be lived. . . just like marriage.  Many single adults treat their relational status as something to change at all costs.  This has been the cause of many ill-advised relationships.  It absolutely breaks my heart when I see friends “settle” for bad fits rather than being called into a union of equally yoked partners.

 

I have been there.  I have moved forward in relationships with women who, though they were great people, were just not heading in the same direction which I was confident the Lord has called me toward.  Had we pushed forward, I would have been married to a beautiful and Godly woman, yet

our hearts would have been in very different places.  In these cases, I am certain the Lord protected both the women and me from settling for the good over His best.

 

Second, singleness is an OPPORTUNITY; it’s not simply something to be avoided, nor a condition from which one must escape.  I talked about this in a previous post. . . it is GOOD both to be married AND to be single.  Neither status is prefered or superior in God’s eyes, just different.

 

I know, I know, we just roll our eyes when we hear this referenced.  However, having been freed from the responsibilities of marriage and children (wonderful responsibilities though they may be), we single men and women are wide open to serve and enjoy the world around us with reckless abandon.  This is a wonderful thing!

 

I dream of a day when single American men and women will see their singleness as a way to give sacrificially to those in need of the Gospel.  Imagine what a city like Atlanta or Nashville  would look like if the thousands of single Christians truly viewed their singleness as an opportunity to  care for the widows, orphans, and fatherless of the city.  Imagine.  It would be astounding.

 

Instead of lives filled with social gatherings, awkward blind dates, and self-centered time wasters (college football, video games, etc.), we could look for ways to serve the world around us.

 

If we singles would systematically organize to advance the love and message of Christ Jesus to our spheres of influence, places like Atlanta would be clearly changed for the good.  Mission fields in places like Asia and the Middle East would be much better resourced.  AND along the way of sacrificially serving, singles would meet like-minded people who would make sensational life partners in marriage!

 

Third, for those of us followers of Christ, the very term “singleness” is a myth.  We are NOT alone.  We are not destined to walk this world as hopeless vagabonds who will die miserable and alone.  As believers in Christ, we are already His bride.  While it has taken me a while as a man to embrace this imagery, it is true for all of us.

 

We are also part of a world-wide family of brothers and sisters.  I can serve and love the children of those around me as my own, because Biblically, they are directly members of my family.

 

I am blessed to have eight wonderful nieces and nephews (see pic above).  I have invested much in their upbringing, knowing that they are also my joy and privilege in helping to disciple and build into.  Same goes with the children of my friends here in Asia.  I can serve my married friends in need of breaks from the rigors of their home-life, give them “date nights” with each other, AND build into their children (two of my favorite are with me above. . . Noah and Maddox) in the love of Christ and be a part of their development.  What a joy!

 

Do I hope to be married one day?  Absolutely I do.  I pray for this regularly and encourage my friends and family to do the same for me.

 

Even more so, though, I want to be a faithful steward of this life with which God has blessed me.  I want to view wherever I am in life as an opportunity granted to me by my Heavenly Father, not as a burden to be disparaged, disdained, and fought against.  Finally, I want to embrace the reality that I AM NOT ALONE as a child of God.

 

I am both infinitely valued as an heir of the Kingdom of God and as the redeemed bride of Christ.  I have been adopted into and given leadership within this wonderful family of our Heavenly Father.

Music Review

 

Today is my first post as a new contributor for Meditations of His Love where I've joined a group of sweet women in scribbling about the God who loves us and gave us life.

 

For my first post today, I share a review of the music of Andrew Peterson and how the message of Jesus making all things new has changed the way I live in a fallen world.

T'was the Night After Christmas

One year ago, Christmas night, my husband and littles were next door sleeping.  I was sitting at the foot of my parents' bed, massaging my mom's feet with essential oils.  Her head had hurt so badly, and for so long, it was difficult for her to tell us if anything helped.  She barely smiled and nodded when I asked if massaging was helping, so I kept on softly rubbing her feet.  I reminisced about the last time I rubbed her feet, when she was expecting my siblings and her feet were swollen from late pregnancy.  I had always enjoyed doing that for her, and she would lavish me with thanks when I did.

My brother Josh quietly entered the room, and walked to Mom's bedside.  She weakly reached out and took his hand, whispering, "I like your pants".  She had picked out the Hollister sweatpants for him, and he unwrapped them that morning when we all exchanged our gifts.  It was a wonderful Christmas morning with her, as she sweetly bore the headache, the light, the noise, so that she could be with us for our presents.

She held Josh's hand there for awhile, while I rubbed her feet.  He leaned down for a soft hug and told her he loved her, before he headed to bed.  And I wept.  Rubbing her feet there in her room, I wept fearful tears.  I didn't know why for sure at the time, but there was a peculiar dread, one I had never known, filling my chest.  Peculiar, because while the dread brought the weeping, there was a stillness--God was good and I could trust him.

I finished my massaging, said a short prayer for her, told her I loved her and went next door to my sleeping family.  Just a few hours later, the morning of December 26th, my Mama would breathe her final earthly breath.

I had always feared this.  Just a month before, I had been struggling and praying for such fear.  The Lord had been preparing and challenging my heart to trust him even in my worst fears.  I had always pictured such a tragedy being experienced with frantic anxiety, loud weeping, unbelief, fear, and pain so intense that you can't breathe.  But from the moment I got the phone call from the ER, my Dad's broken voice telling me that she was gone, there was a stillness.

When I had to hold my siblings as they wept soft tears, and I with them...a stillness.

When I had to do what I never thought I would do...
pick out my mother's burial clothes, her casket, her flowers...a stillness. 
When I saw her earthen body, which barely resembled the lovely lady I knew in her life...a stillness.

 

He, my gracious Father, was with me.  And the deeper understanding I had of the good news of his Son, the deeper was my comfort.  I urge you, friends, to know the Gospel of this Savior.  To know Him and be found in Him (Phil. 3:8). Know the love our Maker demonstrated for us in him (Rom. 5:8).  Nothing else matters, and it won't merely be nice reminders in hard times--it, and most importantly HE, will be your fortress (Ps. 18:1-2).

I know Christmas can be the most difficult season for those who are grieving lost loved ones.  And while it's been really hard as it's come closer to the milestone of her passing, I've been thankful that she passed the day after Christmas.  The same time of year that we are reminded of how death struck us with painful loss, is the same time of year that we celebrate that death will not have the last laugh.  We celebrate the advent of the incarnate Word of God.
We celebrate the Cross of Calvary.
We celebrate his Resurrection.
And we celebrate his Second Advent.
When despair tempts us in our grief, we don't have to look very far;  in lights, Christmas trees, nativities, carols and hymns, traditions, and advent sermons, and we are bombarded with reminders of Christ and the hope he gave us with His life.

 

Wednesday Words

 

Donne, John, and Joseph "Skip" Ryan. "Tabernacled Among Us." Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.

Comp. Nancy Guthrie. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. 20. Print.

Wednesday Words

 

Whitefield, George. "Contemplating Christmas." Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. By Nancy Guthrie. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. 11. Print.

Utmost Thankfulness

I’ve never known real physical poverty, like so many humans have experienced and are experiencing in all parts of the world.  Sometimes my gratitude seems so meager in light of that.  Even though I’ve never been wealthy either, I’ve always had plenty.  Especially plenty enough to look forward to Thanksgiving with presumption that there will be turkey, dressing, trimmings and pumpkin pie on our family’s table.

When I think about the stories on which we pin our Thanksgiving origins—the pilgrims and natives who gathered for a meal—it humbles me in my meager gratitude.  These weary people weren’t instituting a national holiday.  After a difficult year and a bitter winter, the beauty of their thankfulness was their giving it in the land of their poverty.

This made me think of a story that Jesus told in the house of Simon the Pharisee, when a disgraceful woman entered and began lavishing Jesus in humble and sincere worship:

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”

And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 7:41-50

The beauty in her worship was her knowing her utmost destitution being covered in Jesus’ utmost mercy.  Oh, how I want her immense gratitude.  I want the gratitude of pilgrims and natives who celebrate provision in light of their suffering and loss.

 

I may have never tasted worldly poverty, but I have, most importantly, known spiritual poverty.  I have been a slave, and accursed.  But God took on the form of my slavery and became my provision—my Lamb—and saved me.  Remembering my complete destitution (as near as the sins committed just this week), and Jesus' complete reconciliation, makes me completely and utterly thankful.

Wednesday Words

 

Wednesday Words

 

"True hope changes sorrow, but does not obliterate it.  Death is not to be taken as a 'normal, beautiful release' but as an enemy which separates body from spirit and human beings from each other.  It spoils the beautiful creation of God.  It is so basically an enemy that God says that He will pay a great price, a ransom, to deliver us from death's power..."

~Edith Schaeffer, Affliction