dig out

From white out…to dig out…

Saturday morning, still in my blue plaid pajama pants, with my black muck boots on, I ventured off the back porch and plunged an extended tape measure into an area of fresh unmolested snow.

I hit the ground 22 inches down.

You're probably hearing about all the snow in places like Baltimore and DC, but in Pittsburgh, this is, according to the National Weather Service, the fourth highest accumulation of snow since 1876, when they started keeping records.

So, there is no where to put the snow. It's not exactly melting (3 degrees or so this morning) and, more snow is on the way...

Wow!

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? Job 38:22a

did you see the look on God’s face?

As God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face?

That was a question the "Friday Morning Fraternity" discussed this morning. The answers were interesting. The first three were very negative:

"A smirk."

"Go to the back of the line."

"You'd better get it together."

Wow. And I confess, my first thought was "disappointment."

So, what's the problem with that? Well, a lot actually. Consider the commentary we read after we answered this question:

Do you picture God as disappointed? Angry? Indifferent? Does his face say, "Get your act together!" or "If only you could do a little more for me!"

If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset. Because the gospel truth is: In Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you. In fact, based on Jesus' work, God has adopted you as his own son or daughter (Gal.4:7)!

But when we fail to root our identity in what Jesus has done for us, we slip into performance-driven Christianity. We imagine that if we were "better Christians," God would approve of us more fully. Living this way saps the joy and delight out of following Jesus, leaving us to wallow in a joyless, dutiful obedience. Our gospel becomes very small.

So, as God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face?

a man, with a nature like ours…

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

James 5:17

There's a delicious bit of truth tucked into that verse:

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours."

Elijah, was a man…Like us. Elijah isn't what was great about Elijah. God is.

The same is true for me and for you.

Kurt Warner, the celebrated "rags to riches" quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals recently retired.

Known not only for his amazing story, and his prowess on the football field, he is known for his clear Christian testimony.

That was distilled in his retirement press conference where he invoked the truth of James 5:17. He said

Often times when I come up to do my interviews after a game, you guys always see me bring my Bible. And if there's one thing I've learned from reading this thing, is that it's a bunch of stories about average, ordinary people where God came in and did something extraordinary with them. And to me, that's exactly what he did in my life.

It was Ann Lamont who said, "The difference between you and God is that God doesn't think He's you…"

Indeed. May Warner's words help us from too often getting it the other way around…

what happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas

Nothing in the modern mind encourages us to see the invisible link binding together all of life. We have no sense that we live in the presence of a loving Father and are accountable for all we do. The marketing slogan of Las Vegas—"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"—describes how our secular world views life.

You can come to Vegas, have sex anonymously, and return home to your spouse as if nothing happened. There is no link between Vegas and the rest of your life. You have unlimited freedom to pursue feeling good about yourself.

Baloney. This is my Father's world. Everything you do in Vegas is connected to the rest of your life. Everything you do is connected to who you are as a person and, in turn, creates the person you are becoming. Everything you do affects those you love.

All of life is covenant.

- Paul Miller, in one of the best books I have ever read...

 

the last q-tip

Horror.

Today, I used my last q-tip. No matter how frugal, no one I know reuses q-tips. I don't either. And now, unbelievably, I have run out…

Let me back up here, and I'm not sure how deeply I want to dig with this (no pun intended), but, how obsessive are you about clean ears? I'm pretty much OCD about it, clean ears. Not hairy ears (I'm pretty much OCD about that too, but that's for another time)…I'm talking about clean ears.

A part of my morning ritual (increasingly demanding with age by the way) is cleaning my ears. Every morning…

How glorious the q-tip (which is actually the brand name for "cotton-tipped applicators," but, as interesting as it is, I will not digress into that)…

The lowly q-tip comes in bulk. The demands placed upon it are extraordinary. Consider, like a bug that mates and then is eaten by its partner, the q-tip is disposable after only one use. It is multi-functional, designed to clean the ears, but effective for a broad range of other micro-cleaning jobs…

Thus, no one buys a twelve pack. No one stingily distributes them to the family…

Who ever heard, "Hey, please stop using so many q-tips!" Ridiculous.

Q-tips are right up there (down there?) with the bobby-pin and their office cousin the paper clip. Found variously in the dusty corners of the bathroom, in sink drain traps and junk drawers. They are proliferate. Ubiquitous…

There are like 500,000 in a box. So go on, grab a handful. Drop some. Who cares. We'll never run out…

Until today. I used my last q-tip. And I'm not sure when I will buy more because, not unlike…say…toilet paper….I don't buy q-tips until I used the last one. And they are never on my need-to-purchase radar…

So I will go to Walmart, probably for several days, and each time, forget to buy q-tips, because, we never run out of q-tips right?

Already my filthy ears are in crisis mode…

A serious question for you: What are you about to run out of? In your life…In your marriage…In your family…At your work…In your church…

What needs replenished, restocked, refreshed, restored, recharged?

There are some very important things that we can and should renew sooner, instead of running out later…

Things a lot more important than q-tips.

As I worriedly swiped my ears today I couldn't help but think about that…What needs to be renewed today...

"Don't run out of q-tips'" if you know what I mean. Pay attention to the depleted supply of the little things in your life that are the important things in your life…

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

a little while…

We will go in a little while…

We will stay for a little while…

Think of how often you use that time continuum:

"a little while…"

Here, in 1 Peter, we read,
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

And here, again in 1 Peter And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

A little while fits into a long while. Everlasting calibrates existing. Life span fits into eternity's spanlessness. Now is for a little while compared to forever…

Now. Life. Suffering. All of it:

For a little while.

We follow Christ and yet this is hard to embrace. Life and suffering and heartache seem like a long while…

Will this ever heal? Can it be made right? How will we recover?

The sundry stains of sin settle in.

And outside of time, eternal, immense God speaks into it through a man in his Word, looking through life's small window of a little whileness into the great expanses of eternity and promises:

"this is for a little while…."

Kurt Glancy June 25, 1968—January 18, 2010

On Monday, at 10:24 am, my friend and fellow pastor Kurt Glancy died unexpectedly from a heart attack. I invested in 6 great years of ministry with Kurt. He was only forty-one.

He was a strong, soft-spoken follower of Jesus Christ. He was one of the best husbands and dads I know. Not that he had to tell you that. You just knew it was true. He is survived by his wife Lis and two sons Will and Andrew.

Kurt was a kindred spirit in this sense: We were fellow western Pennsylvanians living in the flatlands of west central Indiana. I knew his hometown Meadville, PA, and he knew mine Hermitage PA, and we met in Crawfordsville Indiana…

Kurt was my friend in community. In honoring him, I feel like it is important that you understand what I mean by that.

He was in my life as one friend in a rich tapestry of friends, who together, were part of something very special.

In the summer of 2001, Jolynn and I moved to Crawfordsville Indiana, with little experience, less maturity, and lots of passion, we stepped into a dying church, joining some people who were already asking God to blow on the cold coals.

God did, and from there, we just tried to keep up with the flames.

We…

Brothers and sisters who are as close to me as any family. Who helped me grow up, held me accountable. Who helped me raise my kids, love my wife, hang drywall, do plumbing, fix cars. Who hunted with me, prayed, cried and laughed a lot with me. Broke bread with me. Celebrated holidays, birthdays, cheered the Colts, went to Pacer games and concerts with me, vacations and fishing trips…

People who in a very significant way, made me the man I am today.

And Kurt was one of those brothers.

Slowly, some of us trickled away from that place. Jolynn and me back here to Pennsylvania. Another friend moved to Michigan…Yet returning has always been a sweet and easy slide back into the lives of people who know us as well as anyone on this planet.

But now that will be ever less sweet for Kurt is gone. And I'm sure I will cry a lot at his funeral, and part of me will cry a little every time I drive into Crawfordsville. Without Kurt, it is not quite right, and will never be quite the same…

In that community of friends, I will miss a friend.

Upon the death of his friend Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis wrote of its impact upon him in other relationships:

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald's reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him "to myself" now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald…

Lewis has given me voice here. For this is how I most remember and will thus miss Kurt. To take Lewis' words:

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. And this was true in Kurt. By myself I could never be large enough to call Kurt Glancy, the whole man into activity; I wanted other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Kurt is gone, I shall never again see Lis' or Jolynn's or Rori's or Heather's or Grant's or Susan's or Terry's or Kelly's or James' or Amy's (or any of our other friends') reaction to a specifically Kurt joke. Far from having more of any of those other brothers and sisters, now that Kurt has passed away, I have less of each of them. And without Kurt, each of them has less of me…

And this is very painful…

Yet even in this there is hopeful sorrow, for Lewis is again right:

In this, friendship exhibits a glorious "nearness by resemblance" to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in his or her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying "Holy, Holy, Holy" to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.

Yes, and Kurt is now making his celestial contribution. I will cry hard but happy tears with the others who love him. I will pray faithfully for Lis and his two sweet little boys…

And someday soon, I will join him on heaven's shore, and with countless others in the presence of King Jesus we will share the Heavenly Bread between us, and the more we shall have…