Recent events have shown again that racism is still a major problem in North American culture. It’s bigger than the headlines and more persistent than the latest government policy decision designed to address it. North America has experienced revivals and awakenings but racism is alive and well. At many times, the church has been more a part of the problem than the solution. What can be done? I certainly don’t have the answers but I find several important lessons in how the early church faced its own crisis of prejudice and discrimination.
On January 24, 1975, the world-renowned pianist Keith Jarrett was scheduled to play at the Cologne Opera House. Jarrett had requested the use of a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano for his performance but there was a mix-up and the opera house staff instead found a smaller Bösendorfer backstage, a smaller baby grand piano used for rehearsals, and set it up on the stage. According to the concert organizer, the substitute piano "was completely out of tune, the black notes in the middle didn't work, the pedals stuck. It was unplayable." Jarrett made the decision to continue with the concert anyway. A recording of that concert entitled, The Köln Concert, was released later that year and went on to become the best-selling solo album in jazz history, and the all-time best-selling piano album. Great talent under the tension of incredible adversity had created musical magic. It made me think of the many times when plans have failed, preparation gets interrupted, or health problems play havoc with my life or the life of someone I care for. Our men’s canoe trip this weekend was plagued by treacherous winds as we canoed, rain and dampness as we camped, and more mosquitoes than I’ve ever experienced before. We prayed for God to take the trials away – and that was good and appropriate. But The Köln Concert and the Scriptures remind me that there are other things to pray for.
It’s easy to get confused about prayer. When I first began to pray as a university student, I started to pray enthusiastically about everything. The idea that God hears my prayers was exciting. I prayed readily but not always discerningly. I didn’t give much thought to God’s will or it’s role in prayer. And so when God didn’t give me what I wanted, I was left confused. Then as I began to study more and learned that God knows what I need before I even ask Him (Matthew 6:8), I started to wonder whether prayer was so important after all. Am I just telling God things He already knows? Then when I learned that God hears prayer that is “according to his will” (1 John 5:14), my prayer life took another hit. How do I know what God’s will is anyway? And if He only answers prayers that are according to His will, is there any point in praying at all? Thankfully, I was never brought to total despair. And chances are you haven’t been either. But without a clear understanding of prayer, it’s easy for our prayer life to lose steam over time. Here are 7 reasons to pray when you find that happening in your life.
This week I read Jonathon Seidl's struggle to admit something. He refers to it as his “secret.” And when you hear his anguish in confessing it, you might think he’s admitting to an unsolved crime or an illicit affair. His big secret is the fact that he’s been diagnosed with anxiety and OCD. Before getting help, he would regularly re-read e-mails upwards of 50 times, convinced that there was an error he was missing or a tone that he needed to correct. He would lie in bed convinced that he had forgotten to lock his truck. And in cleaning the house with his wife, he would get annoyed if things weren’t done in a certain order: “The floor before the dishes!” He would often tell himself, “This isn’t a big deal,” but he couldn’t let go of the fact that it was a big deal to him. Admitting what was going on inside him and getting treatment for it, was a significant turning point in his life. Unfortunately, being a Christian actually made that more difficult for him than the average person.
In 2006, for the first time since national census records were first reported in 1871, unmarried adults in Canada outnumbered the number of married adults. Ironically, this was just one year after Canada passed the law, legalizing same-sex marriage. More people than ever could legally marry, but fewer people than ever did. Obviously, it was a sign of a cultural shift. And over the last decade, the trend has only continued. More people delay marriage for education and careers. Increasing work demands make it more difficult to find time to meet people. The rise in divorce means that more people who were married now no longer are. And more and more people who have been hurt by divorce have a cynicism about the value or relevance of marriage. Given these new dynamics, I’m grateful that thoughtful Christians are doing research and addressing these trends with biblical solutions. This spring, Crossway Publishing released the results of a 7000-person survey on singleness and dating as part of a book release for Marshall Segal’s, “Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating,” and the results are worth considering.
Yesterday we attended Evan’s graduation and celebrated this milestone in his life. Young people from a variety of backgrounds were all full of hope and plans for the future. It’s usually a time preceded by searching as students try to choose a path. The choices they make will shape a large part of their future. But students aren’t the only ones who have to make important decisions. How do you make decisions about where you’ll live, what car you’ll buy, or how you’ll spend your summer? Some decisions are easy; other far more difficult. Over the years, four questions have guided my decision making and helped me to try to discern what to do when I’ve felt stuck. But the questions need to be asked and considered in order because different issues are more important and more clear than others.
Today I had two, very different experiences – I prepared for our church members’ meeting coming up on Sunday and I spoke with a young man who wasn’t convinced that the organized church was relevant anymore. It made me think about church and fellowship and why we do what we do. Does church membership make any difference? Is there a need for Christians to gather in an organized way? As long as I have a Bible and Jesus, can’t I improvise the rest? Those questions led me to a quote of Max Lucado’s that I’ve read before and found insightful and encouraging. In the book Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear he writes, Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries, when we mix, mingle, confess and pray, Christ speaks. Lucado highlights for me 3 critical perspectives on church and fellowship.
I’m up this week in beautiful Huntsville, learning and growing with other leaders in The Fellowship from across Ontario. This morning, Heritage professor, Dr. Stan Fowler led a discussion of the current challenges to biblical faith and morality in our society today. We looked at the Scriptural foundations of various Christian convictions and considered ways that they are being attacked in new legal rulings and cultural movements. There was much discussion as people shared stories of the problems they are facing in their local communities. It was Dr. Fowler’s final words that were, for me, the most important however. “Don’t forget,” he said, “spiritual and moral change isn’t always downward.” I'll try and explain why I found this helpful.
It’s easy to expect too much of Christian athletes. We love to idolize our sports heroes so when Christians find out that one of their favourites is a believer, they can make more out of it than they ought. But with the NBA finals in full swing and the Golden State Warriors still undefeated in the post-season, Steph Curry may be someone we can all learn from. I say that because of the way that both Christians and non-Christians speak of his character and his faith. In case you’ve been living under a basketball rock and haven’t heard of Steph Curry, he’s been called the greatest shooter in NBA history for his amazing 3-point accuracy and speed in ball handling. But his character is equally remarkable. Warriors forward Harrison Barnes says of Curry: “He’s probably one of the most humble superstars I’ve ever met. A lot of that is based on his faith. He’s a guy who not only talks it; he lives it. I think he garners a lot of respect in this locker room because of that.” So people who see him up close recognize a difference in his life, but what can we learn from him? To me, four distinctively Christian aspects of his faith-work integration stand out.
On Saturday morning, Andy Lundy spoke at our Men’s Breakfast on the theme of moral purity. He dealt with the topic from a number of different perspectives but just as he got started someone asked an insightful question, “Could you give us a definition of pornography, because I’m not sure everyone in the room will otherwise understand what you’re talking about?” It was a helpful reminder to me that our culture keeps moving the line when it comes to morality, and no more so than in the area of sexuality. Andy shared that what used to be considered soft core pornography is now mainstream and what used to be considered hard core pornography is now entry-level soft-core pornography, with modern hard core pornography stretching boundaries of violence and degradation that were previously unthinkable. Anything that is sexually stimulating regardless of whether it’s in a novel, music video, store front advertisement, or movie is pornographic and has an impact on a Christian’s morality.
