July 31, 2024

Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful!

The True

Grace at the Door

It could only be grace.

Our family was confronted with what can only be described as the all-surpassing grace of Jesus Christ in human flesh this week, and it should serve as a vivid reminder that you and I are vessels through which the very essence of Jesus flows on its way toward impacting the tangible world around us.

You can very likely relate, but it has been a challenging stretch for our family. Not every detail is suited for this space, but one particularly challenging dynamic is a loved one facing the universal reality of human frailty, and walking that path geographically distant from us. The physical separation during this season has added exponentially to the challenge, and this week the road ahead felt insurmountable. It was into that space my wife prayed, “God, please show up. We ask you to make a way.”

Thirty minutes later, God showed up at our front door. He showed up in the form of grace and within the bodily vessels of dear friends who simply said something along the lines of, “God led us to come offer His grace to you.” They proceeded to inform us they would be helping cover the costs of travel so that proximity with our loved one could be achieved during this difficult time.

It was an amazingly generous gesture, and our family is immensely grateful. But friends, the more pressing lesson for us and for you today is this:

“God hears you. He will respond to you. And He will respond to others through you!”

That is how God most often shows up…through His people! Our God, because He so desires relationship with us, has chosen to entangle His very being and reputation with us. He has chosen to make our beings His place of abiding, and as a result, when He decides to move and act in our world in tangible ways, it is very often through an instruction that you and I take action!

My favorite depiction of this in scripture—I’m so inspired by it I wrote a book about it—is Habakkuk. In short, Habakkuk was angry with God for letting injustice prevail, and demanded God do something about it. My paraphrase of God’s response is, “I did do something about it…I created you…now you do something about it.” More specifically, in Hab. 2:2, God tells Habakkuk, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” In other words, “I’ve put it in you, now take action!”

Friends, there is nothing like coming face to face with God’s tangible response to your pleas and your prayers. That happened to our family this week. To be very honest with you, we are deeply grateful for the tangible gift, but it doesn’t even begin to approach the value of having been confronted by the very grace of God at our front door!

God and his abounding grace showed up at our front door this week. He longs to show up at someone else’s front door this week, and He wants to do it in the form of you.

How does God want to infill you this week? Who is He sending you to as the physical representation of His grace? Will you ask Him? When He answers and tells you how to make His revelation and grace plain to someone in your world today, will you trust Him enough to respond?

Our friends surely felt a bit presumptuous showing up unannounced. They admitted as much! Had they yielded to that feeling, it would have denied an opportunity for God’s grace to quite literally knock at our door.

Whose door are you to knock on as an embodiment of God’s grace this week? Ask Him, and then take action.

World

The Torch is Lit

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are in full swing in Paris, France. Athletes from around the world are gathered to compete and, in an Olympic first, made their entrance to the opening ceremony via boat. The competitions will span more than two weeks and you can check up on the latest winners and overall medal count here.

The first few days of the Games have included several moments of controversy and disruption, as well, including an arson attack on the local train system, an explicit depiction of The Last Supper during the opening ceremony, and delays of the triathlon competition due to unsanitary conditions in the Seine River.

Analysis and eternal perspective: There are many beautiful aspects of the Olympic Games. I have long loved following the competition, as years of hard work and dedication culminate in a payoff (sometimes victory, other times defeat) on the world stage. There is true beauty in the process, and many of the athletes provide a physical example of the spiritual encouragement in Heb. 12:1 to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

As for the controversy—especially the graphic depiction of The Last Supper—it is worth taking a step back to consider scriptural instruction and the reason controversy draws so much attention.

Let’s start with the latter, and it is very simple: The stories of controversy get breathless coverage because they attract eyeballs and outrage. Controversial and negative stories simply generate attention effectively, and so even the most optimistic of events produce a disproportionate amount of attention to the controversy and disruption that occur in and around them.

Next, as it pertains to the vulgar depiction of The Last Supper, Matt. 10:22 is clear, “You will be hated by everyone because of me.” While organizers have said the scene was not meant to offend, everything about the depiction and the cultural context into which it was offered clearly communicates a mocking and condescending tone toward people of faith. Quite frankly, it was intentionally offensive and designed to make you outraged.

It was effective in this regard. My instinct was and is to be offended, and to be outraged, and there is a good chance that is your instinct, as well.

But as we seek to model the life and character of Jesus, it is worth considering His response in the moment of ultimate offense and humiliation. As your Savior hung naked on a Roman cross, having been beaten, tortured, spat upon, and ridiculed for the truth of Who He was, there was every opportunity to respond in outrage.

It would have been justified.

It would have been understandable and even expected, given the ultimate offense endured.

Jesus’ response is transcendent and powerful precisely because it extended undeserved and unmerited grace. Jesus responded, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34).

Friends, if you are a follower of Jesus, the depiction of The Last Supper was very likely meant to insult you. It was. But as we seek to equip ourselves for the time in which we live, it is critical those offenses cease to surprise us. They will not be slowing down any time soon, and in fact will escalate (“You will be hated by everyone because of me”).

And yet, your call is to be like Jesus, and Jesus, in His moment of ultimate humiliation, asked His Father to forgive His offender. His heart, in the moment of offense, was desperate for the chance to reconcile His offender with His father.

Your offender is loved by the Father. Will you be the one who, in the face of personal offense, approaches the throne of grace on behalf of your offender?

That, my friend, is the less-traveled path of Jesus. Let’s endeavor to search it out today.

World

Hamas is Coming

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress last week as the war between Israel and Hamas wages on. The Prime Minister’s visit and speech was met with mixed reactions, as a number of high-profile Democrats—including the new presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris—skipped the speech, and widespread protests erupted on the streets of Washington, D.C. Prime Minister Netanyahu met separately with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former President Trump.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Much of the news coverage depicted the unrest in Washington, D.C. as “protests” over “Israel’s war in Gaza.” As we seek to stand on truth and justice in love, it is worth a gentle but firm reminder that the ongoing war was sparked by a violent attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and that Hamas continues to hold dozens of hostages who were kidnapped that day.

It is also important to accurately define the nature of the “protests” in Washington, D.C. They were, in many cases, violent and pro-Hamas. At Union Station in D.C., the U.S. flag was removed and burned, and “Hamas is Coming” was scrawled in red graffiti on a monument. While we are intentionally endeavoring to be agents of forgiveness in the face of hatred, it is unhelpful to whitewash the evil being openly embraced.

The antisemitic motives and violent tactics of Hamas should be universally condemned by Jesus followers as we rally to the defense of the oppressed (Is. 1:17). From the beginning of this conflict, we have been working to hold in tension a number of challenging truths, including the reality that the war is taking the lives of those made in God’s image on both sides of the Israel/Gaza border (Gen. 1:26). As we stand firm on that Truth, however, we are best equipped to advocate for the oppressed if we decline the cultural pressure to call evil good. As Hamas perpetrates evil on the Jewish people, the world may call it good, but we must not.

World

Election Protests in Venezuela

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is claiming victory in his reelection effort, but supporters of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez are protesting and claiming Maduro stole the election. World observers have long been critical of the lack of transparency in Venezuela’s elections, and Maduro—who came to power after the death of President Hugo Chavez—has made little effort to address those criticisms.

Analysis and eternal perspective: The fix is in. That is the claim of Maduro’s opponents, and it is a hard one to dispute given the “election” track record in the country. The Venezuelan people are clearly suffering because of the oppressive control most accurately described as a socialist dictatorship, and “elections” have become nothing more than a fig leaf covering for violations of democratic principles.

As Jesus followers, our aim should be to search out ways to aid those living under conditions so hostile to flourishing. As our Venezuelan brothers and sisters lift their eyes from the earthly circumstances around them and set them on the eternal, they will find that their weeping lasts only for the night, and their shouts of joy come in the morning (Ps. 30:5)!

The Beautiful

Sweet on the Inside

God is doing something beautiful within you! The world around you is challenging and averse to His ways, but He is holding you secure and preparing in you a richness and a sweetness worthy of His glory and praise!

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phillip. 1:9-11).

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