The View from the Tower

September 12

2005-08-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

"The Weather" is considered one of those safe, unimportant, and easy topics of conversation.
But weather deserves more respect, I think. While talking about this week’s weather may be less controversial than discussing the War in Iraq, or the evil of abortion, it really is not trivial.
For instance, when Lewis and Clarke traveled through the Dakotas, the weather was dry. Excessively so. Even worse than the last four years.
As they reported to President Jefferson about the value of these upper Great Plains, they wrote that this land is a vast desert. Uninhabitable and worthless.
And so settlers never seriously considered stopping here. They were pushed farther south, or farther west, or even farther north. Anywhere but here.
The result? Because of a poor weather cycle, the Dakota Territories were among the last parts of the North American continent to be settled and developed. (Other than the far north of Canada, which of course is REALLY uninhabitable and useless… unless you live there.) For most of us, we are glad that our rivers aren’t surrounded by cities, and our hills aren’t strip mined…
But remember… weather isn’t trivial.
Even today, while we may talk about "the weather" casually, it remains important. The weather effects when you plant, how much you harvest, when you harvest or combine, how much the harvest is worth, and even what time football practice starts.
It is really hard to determine what is trivial and what is not. We know of kingdoms falling for want of a horseshoe, baseball games being lost from one small error, husbands getting lost from one wrong turn, and meals being ruined from one wrong ingredient.
Small things make large things. Large things are nothing more than groups of small things.
Our job before God is not to try to focus on the "Big Important Things." Our job is to serve Him. To live according to His principles. To do what’s right, not what’s important.
And when we fail, He picks us up. No matter how big or small our fall.

Work Day

2005-08-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Work Day

Labor Day isn’t on most people’s list of top ten holidays. It doesn’t have the childish thrill of Christmas. It doesn’t have the nostalgic wonder of a birthday. It doesn’t have the sweet sentimentality of Thanksgiving. It doesn’t have the prideful excitement of Independence Day.
In fact, many of us have negative memories associated with Labor Day. It was the holiday coincided with the beginning of a new school year. It was the holiday on which we put away summer toys and got out autumn lawn care tools.
And for me, it got worse when I got older. I learned what Labor Day was celebrating. Dwelling as I do, on the conservative side of most political, social and intellectual issues, it frustrated me to see our nation celebrating (according to the World Book Encyclopedia) the "accomplishments of organized Labor Unions."
But lately, I have reconsidered my attitude towards Labor Day. I am trying to celebrate it as a day to be thankful for work.
Which perhaps might seem strange. Why celebrate "work?" Why celebrate the sweat, toil, and tears that we ceaselessly endure in order to provide bread, shelter, and a bit of pleasure?
We should celebrate "work" because work wasn’t intended by God to be sweat, toil, and tears. God invented work when He created Adam. Adam worked in Eden because it was part what it meant to be created in the ‘image of God.’ (God works… and so Adam worked.) Adam worked in Eden because doing is a necessary part of living. Adam worked in Eden because he found self-fulfillment in his work. Adam worked in Eden because there was work that needed to be done.
And back then, work was pleasant.
It was only after Adam’s rebellion against God that work changed into something unpleasant. After Adam chose to follow his own advice, instead of God’s, God said that work would now be different. It would be hard. It would hurt. It would be monotonous at times. It would be dangerous at times. It would be something to despise, instead of something to find meaning through.
And so work has become hard, painful, monotonous, dangerous and despicable.
But Jesus changes that. The salvation that Christ brings is more than just an invisible, internal, incomprehensible change in our souls. It has results that are visible, external, and comprehensible. He came to return mankind to the way we were in Eden. Except wiser, maybe.
The change is not complete, obviously. We still see the effects of Adam’s choice every day. Cancer, weeds, decay, tornadoes and droughts are all effects of Adam’s profound original Sin. BUT… Christ came to fix things.
Our work is simply one sphere of our lives that we need to bring under the authority of the Lord. He is transforming and restoring it in the same way that He is transforming our conscience, our attitudes, our understanding of Him, our relationships, and our tongues.
We can aid that process by altering our view of work. Don’t see it as suffering. See it as a wonderful chance to serve someone. Don’t see it as something to endure. See it as a way to demonstrate who we are. Don’t see it as something horrible. See it as something self-fulfilling, God-honoring, and world-changing.
Happy Work Day!

The View from the Tower

2005-08-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

"…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:5.)
What is a theologian? Technically, a theologian is someone who studies God. The mental picture that often accompanies the word "theologian" is of a stuffy, overly wordy far-too-educated bookworm. We might picture a long-bearded wrinkly-eyed old man who sits in an Ivory Tower on the summit of some secluded mountain. He certainly has no contact with reality. He just thinks a lot.
But theology should and can be more than that. It is, indeed someone who studies God. But more specifically, a theologian is someone who studies God and His dealings with mankind.
Theology, properly used, is not boring. It is not stuffy. It is not far removed from reality. But instead, Theology is the foundation of all thought.
If God is real, then when you study ANYTHING, you are really studying theology.
But theology does fail when it remains locked away in its Ivory Tower. Theology fails when it neglects our daily lives. Theology is useless if it doesn’t connect with the practical, visible, painful and joyful aspects of life in Lemmon.
Theology needs to do more than define the Hypostatic Union (or any other big word.) Theology needs to teach us what difference God makes in our lives. Theology needs to teach us how to change the world. Theology needs to teach us how to deal with the weeping of a late night argument and the giggles of an embarrassing accident. It needs to show us how to make sense of life. It needs to force us to know ourselves, our community, our families and the cosmos.
We Theologians need to look out from our Towers once in a while and notice the storm clouds. We need to leave our Towers and get our hands dirty. We need to think more about application as well as think about definitions.
But if we think carefully… if we study life as well as books… if we learn to examine every bit of life’s mysteries, wonders, worries, joys and hiccups… if we ask ourselves what does God want us to know about EVERYTHING (instead of just about "Sunday stuff…") then we can be true Theologians.
That is what Paul meant when he directed us to "take every thought captive." He is reminding us to stop separating life into "God stuff" and "not God stuff." True theology is not limited to discussions of the Trinity and Eschatology. True theology deals with things outside of the Ivory Tower. It deals with crying babies, trouble in school, elections, terrorists, speed limits, the weather, blisters, laundry, fires, computers, cows and catsup.
The view from the Tower should see everything. So let’s stretch our Theology. It will make a difference.