The Unsatisfying Answer

Once again Americans’ collective grief is palpable. James Holmes, 24, opened fire in an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre. When the shooting finally ended, 12 people were dead and 58 were wounded.

Why? Well, worst of all, there appears to be no motive whatsoever. Simply a random act of violence. This makes it so different from other tragedies. Other tragedies are the result of pure accidents, physical failure of some sort, or even carelessness.

But the senselessness of this shooting only compounds the tragedy.

So—what is going on here?

            Depends on who you ask.

A biologist might tell you, “This is an evolutionary one-off. A critically flawed piece of the collective gene pool has been eliminated. James Holmes never had and never will have children.”

A sociologist might tell you, “The isolation and constant exposure to violent images and messages leads to aberrant behavior.”

A political scientist might tell you, “Extremism in political discourse and the ready availability of weapons makes something like this inevitable.”

But as a person of faith, I would suggest to you that there is something terribly broken on planet earth. We live in a fallen world. The fallenness of our world is a huge truth that we typically experience in small, annoying ways which are relatively easy to ignore. But every once in a while, something so grotesque, something so incomprehensible occurs, that we just can’t look away.

So there it is. The unsatisfying short answer. We live in a fallen world.

The Bible tells us that just before the flood, God reached this reluctant conclusion: “God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night” (Gen. 6:5, Msg). And I know what you’re thinking, but things were no better after the flood either (see Gen. 8:21).

So, is this what we’ve come to?

            God have mercy on us.

                        But wait—on second thought—that’s exactly what God did!

You see, God is not surprised by our human horrors. Brokenhearted—yes. But surprised—no. This only serves to make God’s grace all the more shocking. With eyes wide open, God is the one who says to you and me, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rm. 5:8, NIV).

Mercy Abounds

 

Many of you by now have heard the amazing story of our own Mari-Lynn Quisenberry. Last Saturday morning (April 28) she was out jogging with her running group. During her run she collapsed and went into full cardiac arrest. Mari-Lynn is only 41 years old. I hope that we will soon get to hear her story directly from her and her husband Bart. But for now, let me give you the highlights.

Through a series of miraculous and merciful interventions, God has elected to spare her life. A very small portion of her running route took her near a busy road. This was where she collapsed. An off-duty paramedic happened to be driving by and saw her on the ground. He decided to stop and see if she needed help (boy, did she ever!). Meanwhile, two on-duty paramedics were coming out of the near-by grocery just as the first paramedic got on the scene. Her care was excellent and immediate. It has been a dangerous and dramatic several days. She is recovering wonderfully!

Jumping way ahead in the story: As it turns out, Mari-Lynn has a congenital, and unless discovered and corrected, often-fatal heart defect. It has (mercifully!) been discovered and will be corrected through surgery next week.

All of us who know and love this precious lady are humbly thanking God for heaping mercy upon mercy. We say over and over: God is love. We know this is true because the Bible tells us so. We know this is true because we see it displayed in others’ lives. We know this is true because we experience it in our own lives. And we experience God’s love as MERCY.

The writer in Hebrews tells us: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

There is no substitute for the mercy of God and there is no substitute for belonging, being connected to the believing community. When the church works, it is a wonderful thing to behold. Channel 5 News did a report on this incident and on the heroic off-duty paramedic who helped save Mari-Lynn’s life. You can view that report here:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/local_news/Off-Duty-EMT-Helps-Save-Runners-Life?CMP=201205_emailshare

Faith in Action--Wow!

I was so proud of our church on Faith in Action Day! We had some 300 people give their Sunday to serve the Lord by serving our community. We, in addition to several hundred other people from Cumberland Community Church and Vinings Methodist, descended on Campbell High like a horde of (friendly) locusts. We painted and cleaned, planted, threw out, and built until our tail feathers were dragging. Though we were pretty worn out, we had a grand worship celebration that night. It was a remarkable day. Here are a few shots of  the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Master Bathroom Project



Ah, no leaks, no flames!



I like to watch home repair shows. I record a few of them. I like the pioneer of the genre, This Old House. And I like Holmes on Homes. Holmes is the name of a builder who goes to homeowners’ homes who have been victimized by incompetent and/or unscrupulous contractors. He uncovers all the blunders and deficiencies and then corrects them. The fact that he is the hero of all of his stories gets a little tedious, but what he does is instructive. My favorite, though, is Ask This Old House. They usually tackle small projects in various aspects of home-ownership. They may cover landscaping, HVAC, electrical, carpentry or plumbing. Fascinating stuff.

I decided to renovate our master bathroom. Dale: (eyebrows arched, arms crossed) Are you sure you can do this? Me: I’ve seen it on TV many times. How hard can it be?

You’ve heard the axiom, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”? I’m here to tell you—it’s true! When it comes to construction I know a little bit about a lot of things. Just enough to get into trouble.

I did the demo and some new framing to fit around the cast iron shower pan. I was ready to solder the new shower valve. I was psyched. I started early on Friday morning. But I couldn’t get my propane torch to stay lit. I took it to the hardware store to see if I could get any help. The helpful guy at the store smiled, took my torch and loosened the tip. “If you don’t keep the tip loose, it won’t get any oxygen. No oxygen, no fire.” Hey, don’t be smug. You didn’t know that either.

So, I’m back home with my torch now and heating up the copper fittings on the shower valve. A propane torch gets very hot. But guess what? Temperatures hot enough to solder copper fittings are also hot enough to burn wood. My bathroom wall kept catching on fire! So I would hold the flame on the fittings with my right hand and beat out the flames on the studs with my gloved left hand. It was very exciting.

Did you know that for $15 you can get what they call a “heat shield”? You drape it behind the copper you’re heating—so you don’t burn down your house. How am I supposed to know that? I’ve never seen that on Ask This Old House.

I’m learning a lot. Don’t call me, though. You don’t have enough insurance for me to work on your house.

I’ve come to this conclusion. You can only learn so much by watching a program. At some point, if you want to become better at it, you have to do it.

That’s true about our faith, too. You can only learn so much from attending classes, services and conferences. At some point, if your faith is going to grow, you have to do. Not sing about it, read about it, or agree with someone else who’s talking about it. You have to DO IT. You have to serve, pray, give, witness—do. Will you stumble along the way? More than likely. Will you grow spiritually in the process? Without a doubt.

The one benediction we all covet for ourselves is the Lord pronouncing over us, not: “Well attended good and faithful servant,” but, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Our Daughter's Wedding



Beautiful Bride-Proud Father

What a whirlwind weekend! Dale and I celebrated our daughter's wedding. Pictured to the right is the proud father dancing with the beautiful bride. And I didn't even step on her toes! I had the privilege of performing the ceremony. It was emotionally challenging, but also exhilarating. It produced a kind of ambivalence. It's what every parent wants and works toward: independence and maturity. And yet, I couldn't help but feel I was losing something...

Ah, well. What's the alternative? Perpetual adolescence? No thank you! Besides, she picked a wonderful young man who will love her and cherish her. Congratulations to you both!

Here's where my mind is today. You know how much you love your family. Well, that's how much I love my family, too. But the fact is, families don't last. Kids grow up and get married. Spouses die. Things change. Not even your family is permanent. In fact, if all you have in this life is your family, one day you will be a very lonely person. It takes more than family to make it in this life. It takes connection to God.  And the incarnation of Christmas reminds us that God has done everything necessary for us to make a meaningful, permanent connection with him. He has given us the gift of a Savior.

Investment Advice

There are many things I could point to with a profound sense of gratitude. But right now I’m thankful for memories. As Dan Quayle famously and clumsily said, “It’s a terrible thing to lose one’s mind.” Yes, it is. And the worst thing about it would be to lose the capacity to recall.

When I was growing up, the day after Thanksgiving wasn’t much of a shopping day. It was a fishing day. My dad, my older brother, and I would go fishing in the saltwater marshes of south Louisiana, in the heart of Plaquemines Parish, the Parish that was so devastated by hurricane Katrina. It was an all-day affair. We’d leave before light and get home after dark. And we were good, too. The fish celebrated our departure! Those are some of the best memories I have from my childhood.

Since I’m a preacher I feel I can relay a preacherly word. If you want to really be rich, invest in memories, not things. As the years go by, the value of things decreases, but the value of memories increases. In this uncertain and unstable economic world, you can’t claim that about very many investments.

For Sweet Music

This post is copied from my column in the Nov/ Dec issue of The Message.

When Dale and I have dinner together we always have candles and music. The candles are still very, very old school. A candle is a candle. But the delivery of music has changed a lot. We use to do the music the old fashioned way. We played the radio. And you take what you get—including the commercials. Then we upgraded; we got a CD player. We get the music, minus the commercials, but we’re limited to what we have on hand.

We’ve upgraded again. To something called Pandora. This is internet radio. It’s a step up even from satellite radio. It has no commercials, and, it’s free. And the sound quality is flawless. It works like this. You pick an artist, a style of music, or even just one song, and Pandora uses an algorithm to parse the music you’ve selected into something called a “Station,” and it will then go and find more music for you that is like it. I can enter, “Macy Gray,” or “Bach,” or “Chris Tomlin,” and Pandora will play their music, plus others who are like them. Each song that is played comes with a little “thumbs-up,” or “thumbs down,” for you to click. In this way, you can further and further refine your new Station.

I realize the analogy can’t be pressed very hard, but there is something of sanctification going on here. You sign up for a Station. This is the principle you agree with. It is, if you will, the Truth. When you finally humble yourself and submit to the truth, you find God bringing it to you from many different places. You will find the truth in Scripture, in worship, in music. You’ll find it in the countless ways and places you have to make decisions through the course of a week. And each time you respond to God’s truth with obedience it’s like you click “thumbs up.” Each little act of obedience causes God’s truth in you to become a little more refined, a little more focused. It’s like God has a great algorithm working in your life, slowly, day by day, making you a little more like Jesus. Jesus said, “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17, Amp.).

The more you respond in obedience to God, the sweeter the music of your life will sound.