How did God’s cascading grace come flowing into your life this week? As is typical around here, it came into my life through words. In particular, through the words of three authors—Curt Thompson, Crystal Stine, and Bruce Shelley.
So, may God’s abundant grace flow into your lives as you ponder these questions, comments, and counterintuitive truths.
First – Questions: In his book The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves, Curt Thompson draws attention to the three questions Jesus asks each of us:
What do you want me to do for you? (Mark 10:51).
Who do you say that I am? (Mark 8:29).
Do you want to be healed? (John 5:6).
Jesus asks about our desires. He calls us to faith. And he probes, discerning whether we really want healing. This latter question reminded me of Trevin Wax’s thought-provoking article, “Who Would I Be If I Was Happy?” (You should read it.)
Second – Comments: This one comes from the book You Got This, which our very own Children’s Ministry Director, Alisha Rivera, gave to my youngest son, Dominick. He likes when I read to him at night before he drifts off to sleep. A few days ago, I was struck by Stine’s article, “Is It Better to Be Right or Kind?” Here’s what got me:
Have you ever been around one of those people who has to be right all the time? They argue, point out errors, look things up online to prove you wrong, and correct you when you aren’t specific enough about what time it is or what the temperature is outside. Frustrating, right? It’s hard to want to be around someone who cares more about being right than being a good friend, a loving son or daughter, or a kind sibling. You start overthinking what you’re going to say, or you avoid conversations altogether because you don’t like being corrected constantly.
Reading this made me want to pray: Lord, make me the kind of person who listens more than he corrects; make me curious rather than argumentative; make me someone who cares more about connecting with others than someone who views conversations as a competition; make me a man worth knowing and a friend worth having.
Lord, free me from a life of self-obsession, self-fascination, and self-importance—and every other self-hyphenated word I can think of!
Third – Counterintuitive Truth: My oldest son, Anthony, starts a class on church history this year. For the class, he’s using a book I had to read in seminary. It’s Church History in Plain Language, by Bruce Shelley. Before I passed it along to him, I decided to peruse it myself once again. The first page immediately arrested me—and reminded me of how counterintuitive the gospel is:
Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God. . . . Crucifixion was a barbarous death, reserved for agitators, pirates and slaves. Jewish law cursed “everyone who hangs on a tree” and the Roman statesman, Cicero, warned: “Let the very name of the cross be far, not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears.” Part of the victim’s punishment was to be whipped, and then to carry the heavy cross-beam to the place of his own death. When the cross was raised, a notice was pinned to it giving the culprit’s name and crime. In Jesus’ case INRI: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
A good reminder for all of us.
It brought to mind this collect from The Book of Common Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.
Until next time . . .
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