Refresh. Please.

Refresh my heart in Christ. . . . 

 - From Philemon

Earlier today, it occurred to me, that I do not like the current fad of "boundaries."

I was first recommended a book called "Boundaries," by Henry Cloud and John Townsend, by a pastor. I noticed, during the next several years, that he would refer to this book frequently. 

The premise is this: We all have boundaries and have a right to expect others to observe them. We do this for our own wellness, and we do not need to feel guilty about it. It gives people permission to say "no" to others that ask them for help or other favors. And in saying "no," you can believe yourself to be a virtuous person that, by taking care of yourself first (like airplane passengers providing emergency air to people around them, after they have taken care of themselves) you're actually able to help more people in the long run. 

But I don't think the concept of boundaries is playing out that way, any more. People seem to be claiming boundaries all the time now, for any reason. More and more, it just seems like they're insisting on boundaries, mostly because they don't feel like being nice right now. 

I cannot square the boundaries concept with servant, or selfless love. With a couple of noteworthy exceptions (exceptions that prove the rule) Jesus didn't go around insisting people observe His boundaries. He was selfless, and had a servant's heart. 

In Paul's letter to Philemon, he comes out and asks Philemon to respond to the letter, to welcome Onesimus into his house, basically, to bless Paul, make good things happen, make Paul feel great about Philemon and his household. 

Do this for me. 

Because, if we want to grow in our strength and effectiveness, we are going to have to have people watching our back, even to a sacrificial level. Paul does this. Take care of me. 

And then later on today, a friend actually called on me to bless her when she was feeling down and needed encouragement. 

Boundaries are okay. They need to be respected. But not to the degree we've taken it, in 2022. We still need each other desperately. 

Rubbish

When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day. 

 - From 1 Corinthians 4

We now understand the source of hate against Christians. Over the past fifty years, the institutionalized Church in the Western world has gone from being the source of bedrock virtues in our communities: Freedom of Speech, respect and dignity for all, the advance of equality, equity, and justice in human history. And it was even understood that you could not have righteousness, justice, freedom and peace, without an equal portion of the practice of moral purity, as a lifestyle of discipline and self-denial. 

If you wanted to live in a free society, you'd better have something good to say about such things as abstinence and sobriety. You can't have justice without purity. 

For two hundred years, we enjoyed the fruits of a very favorable social construct: if the Church advanced, life improved for the greatest, and most diverse mix of the overall population. 

It just did. And we all got it. 

But in a world dominated by constant visual stimulation and instant gratification, materialism and unfiltered language, victimization of The Other and glorification of party spirit and bias, it became harder and harder to just expect people to understand why purity and self-denial are good things. 

Absent any restraining factor, humanity - blessed with so many options and the power to make moral choices - began to choose more and more, whatever feels good, whatever turns on the most feel-good hormones in as little time as possible. It became impossible to distinguish feeling good from Goodness, itself. 

Without an overall sense of the value of a healthy and prominent Church, it is degraded in the eyes of the public, as a powerful institution that only exists to get in the way of our fun, and our feelings. 

Was the first generation Church subjected to unspeakable horrors and tortures? 

In 2022, it's getting easier to understand how easily that can happen, even in "progressive," "advanced" generations. 

From The Deadly

He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence. 

 - From Psalm 91

I am a Friday morning regular at a local downtown coffee shop, and have been going there since almost the day it opened, in 1997. My Dad missed very few mornings, during the 7:00am hour, between 1997 and 2017, the year of his death. The group of regulars, of which Dad was a member, still frequents the place, every morning. Some are snowbirds that disappear between October and April. But a few year-round locals keep the tradition alive.

In the late summer, in 2020, the coffee shop began to open back up after being closed since March, except for pick up orders and people that would sit outside. The world was still in the grip of fear - fear brought on by worries of a great viral outbreak to rival history's worst. 

I refused to discuss the details of my health practices regarding the prevention of illness. I kept my own counsel and sustained the habits that had kept me healthy for decades. I had my own disease prevention regimen that had kept me going, through the good and bad, despite the panics attending every horrible "outbreak" that had been occurring, on almost an annual basis, every year of the new century.

I did some trial and error, and in my own experience, discovered that I caught the flu every year that I received the vaccination, but remained untouched by illness, during winters that I did not receive the flu vaccination. At first I tried it on a lark, by declining a shot one year. I spent half the year in fear that I would develop an extreme case of the flu. I didn't.

And so I made it into a multi-year experiment. And the hypothesis held: On years that I took the shot, I got sick. Medical reports and national news agencies may report one thing, in support of public health. But my own personal experience was telling me something different. Perhaps I was lucky, or not prone to illnesses. Or maybe the regimen discussed in the second paragraph prior to this, actually works. 

But here's the main point: I have noticed that even Christians are afraid to boldly declare that they need no artificial help staying healthy, because God will take care of them. And while it is true that He does, it is also true that many people asserting this faith still get sick, some even to the point of death. God's will for our protection still operates in a very dangerous world where the only sure thing for the believer is that, if they lose a mortal battle in this life, they will win eternally by waking up on the other side, forever. 

Just try to claim God's protection in today's modern woke culture. They can ruin you. 

One of the coffee regulars tried to get me to answer a few questions that are really nobody's business but that were way too common between 2020 and early 2022. I will leave it to the reader's imagination to discern those questions. But my answer was always true, and sincere: "I haven't been sick since before March 13, 2020. Whatever I'm doing, it must be right." One of the regulars heard me say that once, tapped on the wooden bench and said "Knock on wood." It has been two more years and I can still say that. 

Someday I will get sick. I actually kind of hope I do because sickness is a part of life. It's a part of human growth. 

But when the Bible says God will protect you from the deadly pestilence, go ahead and believe it. And let the cynical words of others just roll off your back. 

Cause

 . . . so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

 - From Isaiah 61

Three important words from this excerpt:

• Cause
• Righteousness
• Nations

Cause: Because apparently humanity is unable to do it on its own. Humanity, as a class, may not even want to do it. We don't even know what righteousness is (see below). It is the permanent answer to the question "Why would a loving God allow such evil?"

He won't. Eventually His desire for peace and righteousness will outweigh His desire to let us make our own decisions and set our own courses . . . and He will act. He will cause us to be righteous. 

Righteousness: People think they know what "righteousness" is. They don't. The person that clamors for "justice" is horrible to her own grandmother. The guy that pontificates about racism is skilled in acting in racist ways against people with different political views, or values, or with fewer college degrees. Respected people in the arts, the sciences, academia, and the law, are lifelong bullies, getting away with horrible acts towards others, even winning the praise of the masses, for their "toughness." School-aged kids are encouraged to stand alone, in courage, when the time comes - - - but are treated like dirt by the same people that encouraged them, once they step out for truth. Righteousness isn't even close to any one of us. 

Nations: All peoples, all tribes, all families, all nations. Everybody in the world will finally know righteousness. It will finally be okay. And everybody's going to know it. No person, no nation can escape the eternal reign of righteousness. 

Righeousness is goodness. It is the lack of badness. It is happiness, fairness, and plenty, for all. Everybody gets listened to. Everybody treats others as their betters. Everybody serves everybody else. Nobody fights. We forbear with one another. We build one another up. Everybody. That's righteousness. 

It's not what the world in 2022 calls "good." It's not what the world in 2022 calls "fair." It's not what the world in 2022 calls "love." 

But it is . . . actually . . . GOOD. FAIR. And LOVE. Real Good. Real Fair. And Real Love. Not the kind that's actually, sugar-coated selfishness ("if it feels good"). 

But real, true, eternal, righteousness. 

And it should be clear by now: we're not having it, unless God causes it. 

Treasure

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also . . . 

 - From Luke 12

My life does not have a lot to show for it, in terms of material possessions. 

I remember my days working on my MBA, at Texas Christian University between 1982 and 1985. I took all of those classes, and completed all of the requirements. But almost every day, every step, I would think to myself "You have to be motivated to make a lot of money to do this. That doesn't motivate me."

That's not a good profile for a business major.

My years in the corporate world were predictable. It was always easy for me to get hired. I have an honest, approachable demeanor. I am a highly creative type of person - - - but follow-through was always my Achilles heal, my Big Disappointment. And I never saw anything as urgent. I kept thinking about the eternal view. And there has never been a priority in the for-profit world, that had importance in Eternity. 

I wanted to teach. To make music. To produce educational and entertaining programs. 

With all of these limitations, however, I believe that I did manage to have some stellar highpoints between 1988 and 2002: the years that I was focused on a career in business. But that's a story for my other blog, "The Boulder."

Passages like this, words from the Lord, in Luke, always grounded me and made me thinking I was actually okay. Everything will be alright. My Treasure is NOT on things of this world. It just isn't. Sometimes I feel the Eternal realm within reach of me. It's sights and sounds (sometimes, or so I imagine) are almost totally real to me. I am aware of the higher dimension; and of the place where Christ and glorified people made immortal, reside. 

If you just don't see the urgency, the importance, the pressure, the stress, the hyper-focus on things of this world, then look up! You are in good company!

Shining

You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place . . . 

 - From 2 Peter

When you're in a dark place, a light is like food to the hungry. If you ever wake up in the middle of the night, with a troubled heart, you yearn to put a light on. You might even turn on every light on the house. Maybe put the TV on, get something to eat. You might act as though it's mid-day, to give yourself the sense that things are normal in the world. It takes light to do that. 

This is what makes campfires so mesmerizing. They stand out in the middle of a darkened wooded area. You gather around it with your friends, and it lights up everyone's faces with a yellowy glow. It evokes something like the sense of Moses' shiny face, when he came down the mountain, from talking to God. 

It is easy to be drawn to a light in the dark. It's very clear to our spirits: when darkness is all around you, you're drawn to a light. Your face emits light. Without us even knowing it, this feature of our bodies gives us some help if we get separated from each other, in the dark. Listen, focus, be still - - - and you might find yourself drawn to others, visually, based only on the mostly imperceptible glow from their faces. (Now, if you don't be afraid. If you find cheerfulness, if you can smile . . . it might make the glow even more brilliant, enough so that it does visually help others trying to find you).

Put on a happy face: Let your light shine. Have faith. Smile . . . even when you don't want to. And soon, the smile itself will be sincere and authentic. 

Focus on the words of the Lord. Focus like you do, when you're in a dark place, and someone flicks on a light. Because . . . that's exactly what's going on. 

Called

. . . they called upon the Lord, and he answered them. 

 - From Psalm 99

It is a truism of my life. The closer I am to God, the less troubled I feel. Paradoxically, though, the closer I am to God, the more troubles come my way. But this too is a paradox.

You draw near to the Lord, and you feel more peace. But at the same time, you come under greater attack from the evil one and his minions in the world. 

When I draw away from the Lord, my own spirit troubles me. Over time, it affects me physically. The most common symptom of separation from the Lord, is a sense of deep anxiety. My heart races. I get troubled. I awake in the middle of the night, sometimes fearing a panic attack. I go from one thing to the next. I do busy work. I crank up the music. I jog. I watch TV. I sit and watch the computer screen, too much. I feel troubled and nervous. 

And then I'll realize that I had not been praying. I had not been reading His word. I have not done anything reflective for so long. 

I may go for long periods in doubt about the reality of God and of Christ. I may be questioning my faith. I may even be intellectually satisfying my human impulse to just believe it's all not true and that I may walk away. 

But eventually, the anxiety returns. And I am not well again, until I pray, study His word. 

And stop. Just stop. 

This is what it means to call upon the Lord. And when He answers (and he does), it restores your faith, and begins to fill you with peace and confidence. 

Shiny

Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God . . . 

 - From Exodus 34

I've always wondered if the face of Moses continued to shine, every time he had spoken with God. Did people just get used to Moses' shiny face? Or did he speak to God, face to face, fewer times as he got older, and did his face shine less?

Did other Biblical figures, that had been in God's presence, also have shining faces? Did Adam's face shine? Did Jesus have a shiny face?

I think that Jesus' face probably did not shine. He had to be totally approachable to all people. When you look(ed) upon Jesus, you would see someone that looks a lot like yourself, in your fallen, quite human state. 

But there was something about Jesus, though. There was something about Him, that drew people to him. His face may not have shone, physically, but it always shone inwardly, spiritually. He had a magnetism. His face was beautiful. 

There's a story about Abraham Lincoln, during his Presidency. He would see visitors every day, at an appointed time. People would line up for the chance to shake the hands of the President, and chat with him for a while (this is a practice that never should have been so limited). There was a little girl that waited for her turn. Her parents had prepared her ahead of time: "Now do not be shocked. The President is ugly. Be polite when you see him." But as soon as she greeted him and heard him speak a few words to her, she turned to her parents and said "Oh he's not ugly at all! He's beautiful!"

Jesus affects us something like that. 

I remember a conversation I had with my cousin, Larry Johnson, about forty years ago. We were talking about Christian women. That even those that were not "pretty," as the world defines it, were still quite attractive in this way. I began to explain it to Larry. I said "There's just . . . " and he finished my sentence ". . . something about them." And I replied "Yes!"

And I could go on and on. The glow on Jesus' face was illustrated throughout history, especially in medieval and Renaissance times, by way of the circular arc drawn around His head. But all holy people might also have such, if they were deemed holy enough. There was an aura about Him. 

Moses came down with his face shining, for "he had been with God." He had a twinkle in his eye. A spring in his step. Our faces are the part of our bodies that emit the most light. And Moses simply had more of it. 

I wonder about this recent phenomenon among a certain class of politicians, to do something to their facial skin, that makes it "shine." Except it's the kind of shininess of Moses, or Christ. It's a plastic, waxen look, like the Jim Carrey character in The Mask. It looks fake. And I have wondered why they would do this? I also noted that the waxy-face look came into vogue about the same time politicians were telling everyone to wear masks. And it also seemed like the ones most likely to push the mask mandate, were also the ones most likely to have the wax faces. I've wondered if they were trying to affect the look of Moses . . . but without actually having been in God's presence.

But that's another topic . . . 

Chosen

This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him! 

 - From Luke 9

At the Transfiguration, Jesus is seen speaking with two men, whom the three Apostles recognized as Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets. They may have been discussing the tie-in of Christ to those two Old Testament figures and all that they represent. Perhaps Elijah was whisked away to another time when he was carried away on the chariot. Perhaps Moses, when on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and the Law, was translated to that moment with Christ . . . or maybe Moses appeared in connection with the time spoken of in Jude, where Michael and Satan disputed over the body of Moses? He would have had to be resurrected in order to appear with Christ, in real time. 

The Three Apostles were moved, and in their exuberance wanted to erect three tents, or tabernacles, or edifices - one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. But they are corrected by the voice of God, to focus on Christ only.

And yet, down to the present time, we still build our edifices, named after a human; idols made with hands, glorifying someone other than Christ (St. James Episcopal Church," "St. Paul Lutheran," etc. 

I wonder if our distractions away from Christ, as well intended as they may be, are the root cause of so much discord on earth? The lost and watching world looks to Christ, but sees dispute rather than unity. 

And that's on us.