Free to Be Bad

The Soviet Writers Union held its First Congress in 1934. Stalin’s Great Purge was just two years away. Did they sense the beginning murmurs of terror? Hardly. The members were elated. They would help build this new great society. Leonid Sobolev declared:

The Party and Government have given the writer everything, and taken away from him only one thing – the right to write badly.

But I’m inclined to say with Isaak Babel that the right to write badly is “a very important right.” Can we be creative, take risks and express ourselves if we’re not allowed to fail? Is there any freedom when the approved course is the only way?

What a gift God gave us in Eden when He let us choose between good and evil. We vilify God for allowing evil. But could we have freedom without that choice?

I thank God today for the freedom to be bad and the power He gives me to be good.

Crossing the Generational Divide

“Build Your Attendance: Children love church…when there’s something for them!” A bright yellow box highlighted this statement on an advertisement for Children’s Worship Bulletins. The bulletins look great. I’d consider purchasing them if our church were larger. But I doubt this is the secret to increasing attendance.

My friends and I tried a quick fix in church once. Our young-professionals Sunday School class had recently combined with the college-age singles. Well, combined might not be the right word. We were like oil and water.

So we smart professionals decided to show up early and stager ourselves throughout the room – checkerboard seating. We’d force the college kids to sit by us. Did it work? No, the college students moved chairs to sit by their friends.

Then one of my friends suggested a different approach, a radical approach. Every Sunday we’d try to talk with someone with whom we usually did not talk. We didn’t need a change in church structure to do this. We didn’t need to change the classroom setup. We needed to quit blaming the college kids for being clickish and change our own behavior.

Just as we wanted to integrate our Sunday School class, Family Driven Faith promotes a family-integrated church model. It’s a great idea, but many of us can’t change our church’s entire structure. We can let God change our hearts. What can we do today to cross the generational barriers in worship? It starts with us.

Coffee, Anyone?

I rush here and there. Gotta practice violin another hour. I’m behind on my business bookwork. My bedroom hasn’t been cleaned since…well, I won’t admit how long it has been.

My sisters suggest coffee together. Not one more thing for my schedule! Can I afford the time?

In Family Driven Faith, Voddie Baucham challenges families to cut back on their commitments, including sports and ministry events. He insists on scheduling family time.

If we don’t plan that family vacation, the summer will come and go and we will wonder what happened. If we don’t put that piano recital on the calendar, something else will fill the space. And if we don’t carve out time to disciple our children, it simply will not get done.

Dr. Baucham scored extra points with me for mentioning piano recitals, but he also steps on my toes. It’s time to schedule that coffee date.

Do I Fit in Here?

“She has white hair,” Mom said, describing a lady at church.

My sisters and I rolled our eyes. “Everyone at church has white hair.”

Since then, we have been blessed with two babies at church. Now we have the cane brigade, the bottle brigade and a few of us oddballs in between. Where are the young people? Why have we lost most of the twenty- and thirty-somethings?

Church leaders voice various opinions. We need a contemporary service. Drums and guitar will bring in young people. The sermon must be short and practical – none of this deep theological stuff. Have more social events. Start a singles group.

Others are more academic. Teach teens how to defend their faith. Give them proof for a literal six-day creation as taught in Genesis. Show them evidence for the existence of God and the truth of the Bible.

I love discussing those topics, but that’s not the answer.

I just finished reading a book that came closer to the truth than anything else I have read. The book is Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr. The answer is at home. The church cannot impart faith in one hour a week. God gave us families for a reason.

In my up-coming posts, I’ll discuss some of Voddie Baucham’s excellent ideas. I’ll share some of the things I question in his book. I invite feedback from you. If you’ve ever felt disillusioned with church (haven’t we all?), tell me why. Honesty is the first step in our search for truth.

Existential Hugs

It’s always special when one of my favorite authors quotes one of my other favorite authors, and I can count on Ravi Zacharias to quote C.S. Lewis regularly.

In a recent message, Ravi Zacharias told how C.S. Lewis was torn between pantheism and Christianity. He did not want Christianity to be true. If Christianity is true, there is a God whom we must obey, and that’s not convenient. But our desires do not determine truth.

Then Ravi inserted a seemingly unrelated story about wounded veterans getting prosthetic limbs. Two of them were interviewed for television. They said, “The best part about getting this now is that I can get a hug again.”

“You see,” Ravi explained “God has designed you and me for existential hugs. A temple will never embrace you. A ceremony will never give you a hug. But when you come to know Jesus Christ…” (and here’s that famous C.S. Lewis quote) ”…you don’t come to a place, you come to a Person.”

Have you had your hug today?

Mahler, Resurrection and Easter

My mind wandered in church this morning. Is that a sin on Easter? I pondered the music for our next orchestra concert – Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.


Music draws us into the emotions of life – joy, sorrow, questions, confusion. Mahler described the first movement of his symphony:

"We stand by the coffin of a person well loved. His whole life, his struggles, his passions, his sufferings and his accomplishments on earth once more for the last time pass before us… 'What next? What is life and what is death? Why did you live? Why did you suffer?… Do our life and death have a meaning?'"

I admire Mahler for facing these deep questions of life, but I also question his answers. At the end of the symphony, the earth cracks open. The dead rise. They tremble "as the Eternal Judge approaches…

"What happens now is far from expected: …All is quiet and blissful. Lo and behold: there is no judgment, no sinners, no just men, no great and small; there is no punishment and no reward. A feeling of overwhelming love fills us with blissful knowledge and illuminates our existence."

Is this possible? Can there be love without judgment? Before my mind's eye appear victims of the Holocaust, people killed in Stalin’s purge, those annihilated through genocide. I see people hurt by the church, murdered in the Inquisition, violated by priests. They gaze on the face of God. They plead for justice. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Yes, He will do right. God will not brush evil aside. There can be no love without judgment. But then I see the Cross. God poured out His wrath on wickedness, and He Himself paid the price "...that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26 NKJV).

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Emmanuel

Ever get that irresistible urge to argue with the person on the television or the author of a book? If only they could hear the good points we make!

That’s how I felt while reading the Bible yesterday. Don’t worry. I’m not arguing with God. I was reading the very un-Christmassy story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.

Nebuchadnezzar ordered his magicians and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed the night before. I bet they wanted to argue with him, and argue they did.

They declared, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:10-11 NKJV).

Oh, really? That’s where I want to shout, “There is a God who dwells with men!” His name is Emmanuel, God with us.

Are you hurting this Christmas season? Are you lonely? Is life not turning out the way you dreamed? Take comfort in the true meaning of Christmas – God is with us. We are never alone.