Blessed Assurance

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:6-7

In past blogs I've discussed the varying degrees of either angst or peace which we bring to our faith. That's an important distinction, by the way. Far too often we don't think of faith as something we bring, it's more like something we either have or don't have. But it's not enough, in any context, to just have faith. We must bring it: to our daily lives, to those around us and in the midst of all our circumstances.

To do so it helps to have the blessed assurance that the old hymn speaks about, which is a simple kind of knowing. I wouldn't even call it a confidence of any kind, for such an assertion might lead one to believe the assurance begins in oneself. It doesn't. It is an assurance that ebbs into us, from beyond us. The knowing is less rooted in a believing as it is in a being. This is not in any way to discount the believing, which is core to our faith and essential to the entire process. But every now and then in life we get to experience small moments of transcendence. In this form, our beliefs are no longer narrated, but elevated. The mind aligns with the soul and the heart beats to a universal rhythm. The adrenaline to this entire process, I believe, is God alone.

This past week I have felt the presence of God in such a simply peaceful way. I've had this feeling before, here and there, once for weeks on end. Words can barely describe it. Feelings conveyed in the midst of letters and sentences fall victim to a structure of thought that the Holy Spirit simply cannot be constrained by nor conveyed by. The best I can do is pray that you know what I'm talking about because you've had moments like this as well and, if you haven't, that you will someday soon. The best I can do is bring these thoughts to you to maybe help you find your own sense of peace or, at the very least, if you are in the midst of hard times right now, hope that such a peace does indeed exist.

For any assurance that is blessed must have hope.

Tiny Bubbles

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" - 1 Corinthians 2:9


Tonight as I helped give my six year old daughter a bath I realized that such days, such moments, are dwindling. As she peered out at me between two mountains of soap suds, smiling and laughing amidst all those tiny bubbles, I had one of those moments of vivid clarity, as if I were a camera and God was taking a picture of this precious little angel, His creation, through my eyes. So I sat with her and we chatted about her day and mine and I watched with sweet joy as she spoke with her tiny mouth, her top teeth missing now, my own little Dracula.

Time waits for no one, they say. I cannot argue. It seems like only a few days ago that it was my son in that tub, playing with his Teen Titans figurines. He's twelve now. As he sits on the cusp of those formative years between playing the tough guy and becoming a man I cannot help but wonder at how far he has come in his young life. He loves to debate his ideas with me now; his eyes filled with the thoughts he's formulating, his hands moving expressively to draw them out and present them to the world. In his belief's he's a stubborn boy and I love him all the more for it.

I've been reading lately of time and memory, faith and profound appreciation for the lives we have been given. They are fleeting things, all of them. We all know this and yet, still, we live our lives by the hour hand, not the seconds. But there's not a bath bubble in the world that last for hours and baby teeth are only lost once. We do not get them back when they are gone and, rest assured, we will miss them all the more if we don't appreciate them while they are happening.

So take a deep breath. Notice the moments that God gives you. Then focus.

Defending the Faith

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." 1 Peter 3:15

Odd thing, this life. I sometimes wonder how much we are products of our environments versus how much, in truth, we are actually beings who produce our environments. Lately, be it in conversations in church or in one of my small groups, the question of why Christians must constantly defend their faith has come up, over and over again. As it has, sure enough, I’ve had everyone from my godson to one of my employee’s either confront me or simply ask me to explain my faith, which has been either rudely described as “blind” or sweetly defined as “innocent”, as if I'm either ignorant or naïve to believe in Jesus, God or an afterlife.

What’s fascinating is how some Christians struggle with defending their faith, myself included. I've more often than not walked away from such encounters feeling somewhat defeated, as if my faith was so weak that I could not properly pound some intellectual sense into the other party. But last night I came to the conclusion that most of my internal debates come from, well, my debate training from school, back in the day, and even worse, from that old friend of “mind” that I used to hang out with alllll the time who goes by the name of Pride.

But Paul has instructed us, very clearly, to take a different path, to be prepared to answer those who attack our faith, yes, but to do so absent the presence of pride or any preconceived notions of victory or defeat, because anyone who asks us about Jesus or our faith has already “won” something, in a sense: that small kernel of curiosity that can lead to the manifestation of salvation. Our job is to answer what we can, when we can, with “gentleness and respect”.

One cannot “pound” Jesus into anyone, nor can one “reason”, or “cajole”, or “persuade”, or “convince” him into anyone. Jesus comes in his own time to those who need him, when that individual is ready to receive him and often before that individual even knows they are ready to receive him.