Emphasis on Nearly

Originally, I intended to use this blog as a place to simply write what I've been learning through devotions or post small insights that I gain from every day conversation. The emphasis in the title was meant to be on the word "Nearly". It wasn't meant to be deep or meaningful, just me sharing what I've learned. I started with what I wrote for my grandfather's funeral. It was a good starting block as it led rather intuitively to my second post.

Not that either were amazing literary works, but I've received enough compliments from that original post, and specifically my reading of it at the funeral, that I have begun to fear that I've set the bar too high. Everything that I think to post suddenly seems less meaningful than the one before it. I feel that by posting more I will sully the quality of what I've already written.

More often than not, I will start a project and not follow through on it to completion. Anyone who has known me for any significant period of time will know that this facet is endemic to my personality. It is not something I am pleased with. More often than not, however, it's because the creation of the concept was the interesting part and the actual follow-through feels far more mundane. With this blog, however, I've nearly quit because I know I can't write consistantly good and insightful material.

Too bad.

What I want to get out of this above all else is a place to write consistantly, to generate ideas consistently, to improve through practice and do so in a disciplined manner.

Therefore, not everything I write will be good. Some of it, perhaps most of it, will even be terrible. Deal with it. The only way to improve is through practice and a blog that others see is the best form of accountability.

Expect more to come soon.

An Interesting Chorus

At Chi Alpha tonight, we sang Sonicflood's I Want To Know You. It's an older song, made semi-clichéd from over-exposure and over-use. However, the worship leader wanted us to focus on the lyrics though and not simply recite it from memory. I certainly got something new out of it. The chorus goes:

"I want to know You
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more
I want to touch You
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more"

After we sang that, Matthew 25:34-40 immediately came to mind. Allow me to share:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'"

The passage continues with the King's surprised audience asking when they ever did any of those things for him.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

It occurred to me that, through the context of this verse, I could see Him, when he was in prison. I could bring comfort to the sick and in so-doing, touch Him. I could hear Him when I feed the hungry and clothe the poor.

But do I really want to know Him more?

My Mom the Theologian

After the private viewing before my grandfather's funeral, there was a lot of sitting around talking and sharing. It was during this time that my Mom said something rather profound about my grandfather. She said, "He didn't love us because we were the perfect family - we're far from perfect - we became the perfect family because of his love for us."

I wanted to chip in right then that she'd perfectly echoed G.K. Chesterton and had hit upon a rather foundational spiritual truth, but decided it wasn't really the time to share. In his book, Orthodoxy, Chesterton wrote, "Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her."

Both Mom and Chesterton speak of the fundamental, transforming power of love. I have understood for some time now, that to truly change something, you do not criticize it, you do not judge it, you love it. I Peter 4:8 says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." Love looks past the faults and sees someone for who they truly are, for who they can truly be.

As I sat there, listening to my family talk, however, I realized that loving someone is only the first step to changing them. Love allows you to see a person as they truly are, but that is not enough. I tell people I care about them regularly and they don't necessarily become better people because of it.

We need to encourage one another. Encouragement is communicating with another how you see them through love. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." This verse is awesome. Not only does this verse give the Thessalonians a command, but it encourages them to follow it! Paul is communicating what they need to do and saying, in love, that he knows they'll do it.

I realized that my Mom has done this for years and probably because of the legacy my grandfather has given her. It finally clicked after about the hundredth introduction at the funeral when she would say, "This is Brett. He's my creative son, he's my writer."

The simple truth of the matter is that I'm a writer that doesn't write very much. Regardless, to her, I am her writer. Whenever she said that, it reinforced the idea in my mind that I am a writer, I have worth as a writer and it made me want to write more.

If men simply loved Rome, but never spoke of their vision of what she could be, Rome would have been little more than a footnote in the pages of history. Love without encouragement has no transformative power whatsoever.

If we were to love others and communicate that love through encouragement, how would we change each other for the better? How would we change the campus? How would we change the world?

Far too often, I hear people say, "I only tease the people I care about." But long after the laughter fades, I guarantee the subtle barbs of your humor will be sticking in someone's heart. That sort of humor points out the flaws and sins of others. Love should cover a multitude of sins. Encouragement should communicate your vision of others as flawless.

Take a moment to think about the people you love. How have you encouraged them lately? What have you been reinforcing in their mind, their flaws or their strengths? What can you do today to encourage someone?

Words of Comfort

I wrote the following Sunday morning, March 2, 2008. It was mostly self-cathartic, but I wanted to post it here as it would form the foundation for my actual first post.

My grandfather passed away this morning. He died sitting in his chair at home - rather than at the hospital or nursing home - something that was very important to him; but is nearly too personal a fact for me to share. My grandfather and I were very different. He was a farmer all his life and I still don't know what I am; but I do know that I'm not a farmer. We never had a lot of common ground, in many ways, I think the generation gap was simply too broad. There is one thing we did have in common, though, and that was love.

My grandfather was a man who loved people unconditionally. I know of few men who are so able to embody love as he did to me. The Bible says that there is nothing more important than love. Love God, love each other; and my grandfather was a man who understood that and lived it.

He's gone now though. And I'm never going to see those twinkling blue eyes again or feel his warm embrace. I will never again be able to spend time on the farm with him or have him greet me at the door as I come to visit. I cannot help but hurt with the loss.

I find some comfort though, as countless have before me, in I Corinthians 15:35-56. It is especially fitting though, as it speaks in the metaphor of the farmer. "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

My grandfather sowed richly in this life. I am a living testament to that, as are my brothers and parents and everyone whose lives he touched.

I Corinthians concludes with: When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

So even now, while I hurt, it is only the hurt of a lengthy absence I know I must endure. For I know that even now he in Heaven with God and that one day, I will be reunited with him there.

Though I don't feel it yet, I can and will take comfort in the words of scripture.

"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.