Comments on Radical Chapter 1 and a little fishing report

For those of you new to my blog there is always fishing, hunting, and paddling updates first. DRY! Fishing slow on the Big Walnut ½ of rain in 8 weeks with 90+ temperatures means no flow. We added a new canoe to the list of gear and early goose season came and went with no outings.
Thoughts on Radical by David Platt Chapter 1
The way to render a man happy, is to engage him with an object that will make him forget his private troubles. - Pascal
Hence what the American Dream does…distract, distract, distract. In this first chapter of Radical my thoughts were driven to our culture and how we have made Christianity American. Look at the pictures of Jesus we grew up with, we refer to Him as “Surfer Jesus” and the flannel grams were Abraham and Isaac really white wearing blue clothing. We were deceived from an early age. Not out of malice, I think it was more out of a feeling of fear and to make it (the gospel) comfortable. If we presented the Bible and even more over the Gospel in its true grittiness, we then have to realize that it will be offensive, dangerous and tough. As a parent I think our parents also realized if they presented the Gospel the way that Christ presented it then their children (us) would leave and go to dangerous places and not live out their dreams or maybe their dreams for us.
The American Dream. I used to understand this concept. I thought; work hard, buy a house, get married, have 2 kids, get a dog and a minivan and I would have arrived. I got there but decided not to stay. Sold the van, got another dog, chickens and rabbits, a big garden, live in a rural town not the suburbs and had three kids.
We choose to rest on Sunday and not go out to eat or play organized sports. My wife and I reach out to those around us, not as much as we should but as we change our focus from ourselves to others we do more and more reaching out. We try to see others through the eyes of Christ, not with the filter of “America”. It might mean we have a couple over that is struggling with something we find distasteful or give an item that we cherish to a couple to help them make it through.
The Gospel and the American Dream don’t match. I am not saying that is wrong to have “stuff”, I am saying that “stuff” complicates things. I look at my great grandparents same couch for forty years and never thought twice about it. Now new furnishings every few years and a big vacation to boot is what we consider normal and modest as long as it is not so extravagant that people will talk. My grandfather told me the story of sharing a quart of ice cream after the war with the family across the road, five kids and everyone got some and they were all happy, now we each want our own quart.
In our Church we are all basically the same 98% white, 70% upper middle class (although I suspect some of those still don’t think they have enough “stuff”), that makes it tough to understand the world Christ lived in, a world of diversity and strife. When was the last time any of us shared a meager meal with a family from a different socio-economic group? I had the opportunity to share a meal with some great folks a while back; it was a good lesson in humility. I was invited by them not the other way around. It was simple fair at a simple place but it was good, the gospel was shared and discussed and seeds were planted. I wish I would have been the instigator and not the guest. Christ was always the instigator, He always put himself in position to be the one who brought up the topic or served the meal.
Did you ever notice the environments Christ put Himself in, it was definitely NOT a church program. In Death by Suburb David Goetz states “Suburban religion, its programming, and the need for warm bodies to “advance the kingdom of God” seem only to contribute to my problem. It seems like more stuff to feel guilty about.” Christ was our example of advancing the Kingdom of God and He had no program. He didn’t even have a big church with a gym and bookstore. Christ wasn’t interested in numbers of bodies but in but in the temperature of the bodies serving.

just time and silence

I wrote this after reflecting about my Dad’s death.
In the darkest of the day my memories flow like a river over the stones of time. And now all of the words have been said and there are no fences to be mended. Soon it will be fall and the colors of a flame will be ever present on the maples. There are no answers and there are not even questions, just time and silence. The quiet is that of a late summer morning before the sun has started to turn the sky pink. There is just the faint hum of an occasional insect in the distance mourning the end of the night. It is as if you are in a skiff that is slipping over the horizon. I could see you smile and wave as you do so. When I see you again I will be smiling and waving at my family as I slip over the horizon and there you will be with the One, the One that I long to see. And so life moves forward. Did life change? No. Did our lives change? Yes, but not of sadness or a sense of loss but a sense of hope that at some time in the future we will meet again at the gate and we will be joined together because of sacrifice. Not your sacrifice or mine, not the hardships we endured but the sacrifice of the One who looked like all the others and walked the dirt roads of a far away land. He suffered for each of us that in the end we would be reunited at a gate like no other, we will not only be with one another but with Him the ONE that sacrificed all for each of us.

Alive

Fishing rough in the Smokies last week. 42 degree water and limited hatches. Things are looking up here though a few warm rains and bright sun, we should be in business soon.
I have come to the realization that I have a great and Blessed life. The Almighty has provided for me the best of what this world has to offer. A beautiful wife and 3 great kids, friends like Christ had (they are fisherman of the finest sort and men that are committed to my family as I am to theirs) fine fly rods and good dogs. I watch a young man about my age speak recently and he is dying of cancer, he said something very profound. All gifts are from God and they are all good including his cancer. The cancer had made him better, a better husband, dad, worker and boss. As I saw it a few years ago when I laid dying of an unknown infection or years ago when I suffered from encopresis for nearly two decades, those things were not a gift but a burden. I can now see that they were gifts, gifts of tools to better me and my life. What I wondered about as I listened to this man was things will change and they are gifts not burdens. As I spoke with a friend last evening we commented on how good life is but it will changes our friends will have to move away, will get a chronic or depilating disease or possible die. The conclusion we can to “Is that we are “ALIVE”” and we must live as though we are.
If we are “Alive” why do we watch the news? Why do we care about the troubles in the government or the latest scandal out of Hollywood? I want to care about, if they are catching fish one #14 gnats or #10 woolly buggers. I want to care about what is fresh from the garden and when can I sit on the porch and hold my wife’s hand. I want to care if my kids are doing the “right” thing and their walk with God is where it should be. If we are “Alive” alive in Christ why then do we live in fear and frustration? Why do we fear the government, policies, taxes and the war that rages around us? In the movie “Life is Beautiful” the Dad protected his son from the world at war, do we do that? Do we allow God to protect us from the world warring against us? No we go to the fence and watch the war raging and sometimes we venture in to get a taste of battle. Why not taste Freedom, God the Almighty has given us freedom from the world. I want to run free in the freedom that God has given us. To do that I must lay down my pride, you know the type, the type that says I can handle this or I have made myself successful. I lay my fear and my pride at the feet of the King and go and run FREE. Free from the hassles of life. To be free doesn’t mean things won’t change and that things won’t be rough, what it does mean is that God sits on the throne and that we are not the dog in the fight but the dog on the porch in the shade.