Hatch

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." - C.S. Lewis

Each of us is on a journey. For some of us it is a thirty year journey, for others it will be a seventy or eighty-two year journey. There are some kids, right now, at Children's Hospital, who are only on a ten year journey. I have no idea why the journey is so short or so long. I only know that it is. 

We all know that what we make of the journey is entirely up to us but, well, that's a scary thought. There's accountability in that thought, and responsibility, and a whole host of other "not so fun" concepts to that reality. So we play the victim...or the villain...or the hero.  Stuff has happened to us all and guess what? More stuff will happen to us in the future. Some of it will be good and some of it will be bad but, guess what? That's how it's been your entire life. You're used to it by now.

To find peace, real peace, for any prolonged period of time, we must maintain a steady and genuine state of existence. What's that mean? Just fancy talk for "hold the line" and "stay real". If you think about it, we are either thinking too much about ourselves or thinking too much of ourselves. In the process, we begin to play dress up to the world. At work we assume one identity, at home another. Is it any wonder we wake up one day and discover that we don't know who we are anymore? Or are pained that no one else really does either? Our avoidance of the "not so fun" stuff only leads to one neurosis or another, or a dozen or more. In short, we begin to spoil.

I love the above quote by Clive Staples Lewis. Let's just call him "Clive", shall we? Ya know...Clive's got it down. When you see yourself as an egg, all hard shelled and stamped with an expiration date, you suddenly realize the importance of hatching...of breathing fresh air...of taking flight. After all, God didn't create you to stagnate and go bad in this life. 

He created you to soar.

Numb

When I started out with this blog I wanted to focus solely on uplifting and encouraging aspects of life and spirituality. But then I remembered the advice of one of my creative writing teachers, years ago, who had a favorite little saying that he used to beat us over the head with: Tell the Truth.

So, in that spirit, here’s an uncomfortable little truth: sometimes your faith can go numb.

As you might imagine, this is not a good feeling. It’s not that place of utter sin when you know you’re acting completely contrary to God’s will, nor obviously is it that place when you're in sync and at peace with God's will. It’s somewhere in the middle, like that “little football” in the center of a Venn diagram. Except this is not a philosophical situation, but a spiritual one, and the debate is not temporal for affect but eternal for salvation. Because as any good doctor will tell you, if you ignore a part of you that is numb for too long? It will die.

By definition, faith is a complete trust in someone or something. The key word is "complete". It’s not easy. I don’t believe it’s meant to be. But I also think a lot of us, me included, make it harder than it needs to be. Remember that a numb faith is like a limb that’s fallen asleep; it can be worked out in time. There may be some pins and needles along the way, but we need only trust in God to get the blood flowing again and to relieve the pressure we have placed on that nerve between who we think we are and who He wants us to be.

Then? Blissful feeling will return and we can get back to a living faith.

Author, Author

My other godson, The Atheist, who's twenty-eight, told me the other day, "Figuring out God should be an easy thing. I mean, you only have two books to study (the Old Testament and New Testament), so how hard could it be?" I am rarely struck speechless but I was then. I mean, such a statement is akin to saying "Since there are only three primary colors, it should be easy to paint like Monet."

Be it the OT or the NT, anyone who has read the bible knows that the Word of God is a living thing. It evolves and reveals on so many levels that you can easily lose count. There are so many things to unpack, concepts to analyze and mysteries waiting to be revealed that a person who lived a thousand years could die still not understanding it all. But that's not the only reason you read it anyway.

The number of books is not what matters, as much as it is that you simply take the time to read them. There's not a preacher, pastor or priest in the world who hasn't told his flock to read the bible. Is this because they're so wise? No. It's because they're wise enough to know the limitations of their own wisdom. One can preach a message every Sunday and still not accomplish the amount of work that God alone does in a person's single reading of even one part of the bible. For me it was Philippians 4:4-7. I have a friend who cites Isiah 40:30-31. Another was impacted for the first time by Proverbs 3:6 and yet another Romans 8:28. Lives forever changed by mere sentences.

The Atheist has his textbooks. He has Darwin. He has things to study and learn. But here's the important difference: he has read nothing that studies and learns him. The Word, as authored by God, does exactly that. You may not like what it discovers in you, and I often struggle with what it reveals, but I can imagine no greater book than the one that tells you your very own story.

100 to 1 Godson

 "In the tests of your life remember that God is building and strengthening your character, so that your character can support your destiny." - Robert Morris

I went to see my godson’s first football game yesterday. He’s made the freshman team at the center position but he didn’t get to start and, much to his frustration, he didn’t even get to play. I wanted to tell him a few things after the game but I haven’t been around much for most of his young life and therefore I didn’t really feel qualified to start throwing around advice all of a sudden. 

Still, I wanted to tell him how proud of him I was. How I watched him go up and down that sideline the entire game, cheering on all of his teammates. He was itching to go in and that’s a good thing, but I never once saw him stomp off to the bench and throw a fit or hang his head low even one time. After the game he took it pretty hard, but during the game he stood tall, wearing his father’s jersey number and showing a character beyond his years.

I wanted to tell him that this world often bets against you at 100 to 1 odds. That may sound harsh, but it’s true. And you know what? That’s okay. Remember that there are plenty of people in the crowd rooting for you. I wanted to tell him that whether it’s a coach, or a teacher, or a professor, there will always be someone trying to deny you. That’s okay too. As long as you never let them define you. Don’t let this world take away your spirit or your desire to overcome whatever obstacles get in your way. Your chance will come. When it does, it will only mean more because you were man enough to wait for it.

I wanted to tell him that as I watched him laughing and hanging out with all us grownups last night, the sting of his disappointments firmly abated and his personality on full display as he told us stories about one thing or another, I realized something else: sometimes the odds in life swing the other way and you get that 100 to 1 in your favor. Like they have with me. 

Because the odds of me getting such a great godson? 100 to 1, at best. And yet there you are.