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On August 11, 2022 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Contentment

 Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs characterized contentment as a “rare jewel.” It is precious and scarce. Unlike commodities, contentment is not precious because of its scarcity; scarcity doesn’t give contentment value. If we were to commodify contentment, we might say that there is plenty of it out there; or, at least, there is great potential “to grow” plenty of it. Contentment is only scarce because we haven’t taken the time and discipline to cultivate it in our hearts. Growing contentment is difficult, and it remains rare because of sloth. However, the discipline of contentment is vital to accomplishing our mission.

Every now and again Solomon exhorts his son in Proverbs not to covet or be envious of the wicked. Rather he is to be content. The specific exhortations pop up here and there, but contentment is the undercurrent for all the commands to walk the path of wisdom and avoid the path of folly.

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On August 4, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Wisdom

Listen

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in uncovering his heart.”

~Proverbs 18.2

You hear or read a few trigger words and phrases. You are on high alert concerning the issue du jour, prepared for war, and ready to meme people into submission. These triggers are all you need, and off you go, splashing your characterizations of a man’s statement and his character on social media. You are a keyboard warrior, living most of the time before a computer screen with limited face-to-face interaction. You have read books, and your opinions have been validated within the digital echo chamber of your social media friends hundreds of times. “Attaboys,” likes, and shares abound. You are moving the needle; you may even go down in history right there with Martin Luther … or Mao.

There is one problem. You didn’t listen to what the man said and have learned nothing of his character. Your opinions were like an aggressive, vicious dog on a weak leash, which at the first sign of any movement went on the attack. You don’t care about sincerely understanding another person and his position. You only care that people know that you are the smartest, edgiest, wittiest guy on the internet. The fact that you are engaged in character assassination is a small price to pay for your five minutes of fame.

This is the activity of a fool.

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On August 3, 2022 By In Books, Culture, Wisdom

5 Books to Understand Today

Here are 5 books I recommend to understand Today.

That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

Read this to understand our times. Read it several times. Lewis lays out all the players on both sides of the war: tech gurus, a liberal pastor, lesbian police, shrewd politicians, mindless mystics, patient leaders, faithful professors, a band of rag tag friends, a friendly bear, and a young married couple.

Lewis reveals the spiritual dimension to the current battle. This is not just a battle of flesh and blood but also of principalities and powers. This deeper reality is something that 1984 and Brave New World completely ignore. Lewis also offers a path to victory in the battle: the faithful work of small, mundane tasks and waiting and praying. 

Lewis lays out clearly the temptations for both men and women: men are afraid of being left out of the inner circle and women are afraid to submit. But the solution to both is Christian marriage. This book is the story of our time. And it rightly recognizes that a wedding is how it will all end.

Christianity and Liberalism, J. Gresham Machen

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On July 28, 2022 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Conquering Anxiety

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

~ Proverbs 12.25

You have lost any control that you thought you had. You can’t get a handle on the situation either emotionally or physically. The doctor’s report hasn’t come back, so you don’t know why your health is declining. Financial markets are unstable. Your business is threatening to downsize, so you might be taking a severe financial hit. Your grown children are at odds with one another, and you can’t get them to reconcile. That person you love is flirting with apostasy, and you feel helpless.

This situation and the threat of loss are all you can think about. You are hyper-focused, and your mind is spiraling quickly through the scenarios, none of which have good endings. In fact, the more you think about it, the greater your fear of loss. And there is nothing you can do about it. Your heart feels as if it is being compressed in a vice. It is heavy. Your countenance is tight. When you are with other people, you are emotionally distant, focused on this situation.

You’re anxious.

Anxiety is an expression of fear. This fear originates in legitimate care that has now run amok. Care for ourselves and others is good. Excessive care that manifests as this great fear of loss as if we will lose everything if we lose this one thing is a good disposition that has turned into a sinful attitude.

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On July 21, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Wisdom

How To Talk To A Fool

It is difficult to watch. You want to say something, to do something, something that will change the situation. You know that if things continue as they are going, the end will be disaster. But he won’t listen. She’s got this. So they think. They are taking the path of a fool. What do you say to them?

Solomon was aware that in a world of sin in which we are called to bring order that one of our greatest challenges would be dealing with fools. A fool is not merely a superficial, immature buffoon. He may be a cultural icon, a respected businessman, or a leader in society. The Proverbial fool is the man whose heart and life are disordered according to the standard of God’s created purpose. He is in rebellion against God. Fools come in all shapes and sizes, falling on a spectrum of foolishness. He may be the child whose foolishness is present but still has the opportunity to be cut off through discipline (Pr 22.15), or he may be the belligerent, hardened fool whose foolishness has matured to the point that he holds God and everything that is wise in contempt. The wise must learn to identify and deal with all types of fools.

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On July 14, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Wisdom

Lip Restraint

All of his spirit goes out of a fool, but the wise stills it.

~Proverbs 29.11

No one likes a fake. When people come across as disingenuous, it is off-putting. Consequently, in our broader society and church, high value is placed on authenticity that is expressed in transparency. There is, of course, a need for authenticity. The Scriptures speak of this as faithfulness. But, as one of my seminary professors used to quip, “The devil’s favorite trick is to take a good thing too far.”

Authenticity and transparency have come to mean self-expression in any way you deem fit. If you are truly authentic, you will say all that you are thinking or feeling to the guy standing in front of you or to thousands, potentially millions, of people on social media. You should be able to speak with words, clothing (or lack thereof), hairstyles, piercings, or in any other way to tell everyone of your psychological brokenness, your rebellion against the oppressive powers that be, the goings on of what used to be called a private life, or any number of improprieties. Restraint is inauthentic. It is a lie of the highest order because psychological nudity is the highest good. Restraint from self-exposure is the great sin. “I’m just being real.”

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On July 7, 2022 By In Art, Discipleship, Wisdom

Occasional Speech

A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word in its time, how good!

~Proverbs 15.23

Communication is an art. We all begin as three-year-old finger painters with little control over our minds and bodies so the art we produce, though appropriate for a young age, reveals that we have a long way to go to become da Vinci. As we grow we move to the paint-by-numbers pictures where everything is laid out neat and tidy. The predetermined outline is sketched out and only needs to be filled in with the colors in the spaces matching each number. If you follow the detailed directions, your finished project will look a great deal like the picture on the box in which your canvas was purchased.

Developing skills to paint freehand takes a great deal of time, effort, and training from masters (mixed, of course, with natural talent). To look at an image and reproduce it on canvas or imagine an image and bring it to life through various colors and shades is not the skill of a toddler. It is the mature fruit of perseverance in learning the craft.

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On June 30, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Gaslighting

Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 stage play Gas Light, which was adapted into British and American films in the 1940s, is the origin of the term “gaslighting” that is used so much today. The story concerns a manipulative, evil man who kills a woman to steal rubies. He couldn’t find the rubies at the time of the murder, so he left and concocted a plan to come back and find them. Assuming an alias, he marries a lady who has the money to purchase this house years later. He attempts to drive his wife mad by orchestrating events and then telling his wife that she imagined things. Each night he would sneak into the attic to hunt for the rubies and light the gas lamps. This would cause the gas lamps in his wife’s room to dim. She told him about the dimming of the lamps, and he would tell her that she was imagining it. She was going crazy because he was manipulating her by re-writing history and making her think she was delusional.

As the story progresses, you feel the tension and spite for this man growing inside you. He is evil. He has, what Solomon describes in Proverbs, a perverse tongue.

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On June 16, 2022 By In Culture, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Integrity

Covenants and contracts have been a part of human history since its beginning. From God’s covenant with the creation and man in particular to two men agreeing with a handshake on the sale of property, words have created bonds between God and man and men with men. Those words are only as good as the character of those speaking them. If one or both parties lack integrity, then the relationship is vapor. Integrity in character revealed through speech is the mortar that binds us together.

As Solomon instructs his king-in-waiting son, one concern is the character of his speech. Because a king’s words are powerful, holding in them the power of death and life (Pr 18.21), the son must be careful in speech. At the root of all of his speech must be integrity. “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool” (Pr 19.1) “Walking in integrity” is contrasted here with being “perverse in speech.” Just as God reveals who he is through his Word (Jn 1.1-2, 14, 18), so we also reveal our character through the way we speak. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Mt 12.34), and the heart is command central for our total being; the heart is where our deepest affections and allegiances lie, where we reason, and where we decide what to do. Our heart is revealed in our speech along with our actions. Our hearts must be integrous. When they are, the integrity will be evident in our speech.

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On June 9, 2022 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Wise Winsomeness

The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

~Proverbs 16.23

Everyone is trying to sell you something, promising you a taste of the good life or, at the least, the avoidance of the worst life. Advertisers spare no expense to peddle their wares. In 2020 advertisers spent $225.8 billion, and that number is expected to rise to $322.11 billion by 2024. From soap to app subscriptions, people are trying to persuade you that what they’re selling will give you a taste of glory.

Merchandise is not the only thing being hawked. Politicians, constantly in campaign mode with a 24/7/365 news cycle, are trying to sell you on their vision for the future. Political ads use ominous music and black-and-white visuals to frame their opponents and their positions, and then switch to lighter music and color visuals to frame themselves. They lay out their plans for the economy, justice, climate change, the sexual issues du jour, and a plethora of emotional topics to have you buy into their agenda.

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