Theology from Parenting

It's been close to a month since my last post. Life has gotten busy and no real strong music has come across my path for #MusicMondays inspiration.

Well, something did dawn on me the other day - kind of a half-baked theological idea - and I thought I might as well process it out via this post. 

See, I've found myself using the phrase "...because I don't want you to get hurt" as I've been redirecting our two toddler-aged boys. "Don't stand on your chair, don't climb up on the table - because I don't want you to get hurt." Our oldest especially is entering the stage where we can explain a little of the reasoning as to why we are saying certain things. Usually we have to keep it basic - both because of his level of understanding and our energy levels. So often I default to "because I don't want you to get hurt" just because it's an easy-enough generality and I know he can get that.

After saying this at some point last week, I realized there could be a spiritual lesson there. If parenting can teach me about how God is our Father (and it can), is this how our Lord sometimes communicates with us. Take away our tiredness, and I think it might. 

God doesn't always explain everything to us. His Word is comprehensive but it isn't always super-detailed. Sometimes he explains why his will needs to be followed. Other times he leaves it at the level of "I don't want you to get hurt". It is easy to question why God sets the standards he does because so often they go against what we naturally want. 

But God sees the bigger picture. He sees how a short-term fix might lead to long-term damage. 

Again, there are plenty of examples in Scripture where he gives rationale for his "rules". Often though it boils down to his fatherly love for us and wanting to prevent us from harm.

Another corollary to this that is not even half-baked (is quarter-baked a thing?) popped into my mind regarding this too. We just celebrated Easter, is there a connection from this idea to Christ's ultimate sacrifice and his resurrection?

In order to shield us from God's just wrath, our brother took our place out of his infinite love, in essence saying "I don't want you to get hurt". 

Still working these things out in my head at this point. If you agree or disagree I'd be happy to hear it in the comments below or via FB/Twitter.

It is not an entirely new idea to me - God wanting to protect us from harm. But it has taken on a new aspect now that I am a dad myself.

Music Mondays + Sermon Snippets

Yesterday was unique in the sense that Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday. 

Naturally, this pastor chose to prepare a topical sermon on love. I eschewed the theme of romantic love, though I believe Scripture has much to say on that topic. I decided instead to focus on God's love for us. 

The verses of Ephesians 3:17-19 had come to mind early in my preparation process, especially the part where Paul prays that we "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ...".

Have you ever thought about how wide God's love is? How long it stretches? How high it reaches? How deep it goes?

I tried to answer those questions in the message and, in doing so, many great songs kept popping up into my head. 

This one in particular stood out above the rest and I ended up quoting it in my conclusion. 

It is such a great song that pays proper tribute to the amazing love of God towards us. I am always captured by the lyrics of the second verse which state:

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Some songs begin with their most powerful and profound statements. This one waits until the second verse to use incredible imagery to capture the limitless nature of God's love for us.

The love of God - it shall forevermore endure, the saints and angels song!

Music Mondays: When CCM gets serious

I fully realize it is Wednesday and also it's been almost an exact month since I last posted for Music Monday or anything. But here we are.

I was listening to a podcast earlier this summer that takes a look back at various pieces of Christian culture. This particular episode was analyzing the Newsboys album "Step up to the Microphone". For me, it was a trip back through memory lane to my later high school years of the late 90's. 

There were a number of radio hits from that CD, but the song that I most appreciated remembering was one not featured as a single - the last track, "Always".

That song had always resonated with me, probably because of it's chorus highlighting God being our "Father in my fatherless days". This song reflects a story of fatherly abandonment and finding God's healing help in the aftermath of that. My story is about a father who died - so it is different, but the truth still resounds in a powerful way.

So for the next few weeks, I'll be highlighting songs that tackled serious subjects. CCM often retreats into clichés and bland theology, that while usually true, doesn't connect to real life. But every so often, an artist or artists will break the mold and venture into the challenges of reality. And as we'll see, the result is often some of the best work they do, even if it's not the most popular.

Music Mondays - Manufacturing Controversy, it's Reckless.

Over the past several months, the worship song Reckless Love has climbed to the top of the charts and become a staple in the sets of many contemporary worship services.

The questions, criticisms, and controversy wasn't "manufactured" unnecessarily. People questioned whether the idea of God being reckless was a biblical idea. That's a legitimate question to ask on it's face. Analyzing the lyrics of the songs we sing is not a bad thing or a waste of time. 

The reason I'm featuring it in this ongoing series of "manufactured controversies" is that the answers were there the whole time. Relevant Magazine did a good job of running through the various issues of controversy and theology. The song itself defines it's meaning. Cory Asbury, the musician who penned this song, also gave a thoughtful and biblically-based explanation of the idea behind the song. I mean, why not go to the source if you have a problem with it? 

For some personal context here, I was triggered a bit by a blog that was shared on my Facebook timeline regarding this song. I can no longer find it, but it was authored by someone taking their task way too seriously (probably a lot like myself). It ended up using 800-1,000 words dissecting the song and the related biblical issues...all to conclude that the song was ok and it's good to take into consideration how an author/musician defines words and concepts. 

And in my mind I was like, "why?". Let's let art be art and give some creative license to faithful artists. I know that opens up for the possibility of heresy popping up. But the thing about our modern world is, we got plenty of heresy hunters that will sound the alarm plenty early before it's endangering the Church. Let's give more freedom to our creatives and let them (biblically) expand our imaginations about who God is and what He's done and doing for us.

Tate's First 4 Minutes

I'm not doing my traditional Music Monday feature today. 

Instead, I'm going to share a post I've been writing in my head since the birth of my son. 

It's a bit of a lengthy story, but it's our family's story and I hope it will encourage you and turn your gaze upon our trustworthy Savior.

-------------------------------------------------------

Let me start in 2016. That was a tough year for my wife and me. We had an ectopic pregnancy in the spring and then a 'normal' miscarriage in the fall. We struggled through the pain, tried to look at the positives, and sought to trust the Lord with this process of starting a family. We both did not want to start having kids right away when we got married in 2007 and by the time other life circumstances opened it up, we discovered in a painful way that God wanted us to make this "normal part of life" a matter of faith. 

When we discovered we were pregnant again in the spring of '17, our excitement was tempered by caution. Going through what we did the previous year will do that. We were grateful as each doctor's appointment gave us indications that this baby was healthy and the pregnancy was looking good. 

Nine months seemed to drag along as we went about our lives and prepared here and there for our new arrival. Finally, as we hit December the excitement really began building. We had a due date of January 4 and had conversations with seemingly everyone we knew about the positives and negatives of having a baby around Christmas and/or New Year's. 

Tate was not especially anxious to come early, which was fine (tax benefits notwithstanding). Our primary doctor assessed Stephanie's situation and decided to induce around the due date. So, we were admitted into KCH Tuesday night, January 2nd, so we would be ready to begin the process. 

The steps they take to induce didn't really work on Wednesday and by Thursday - the actual due date - they added Pertussin or something like that, which really kicks in the birth process. Stephanie wanted to do it natural and avoid the epidural, but after long, painful contractions and little progress, we went with the shot.

The epidural sped things up Thursday night and by about 10:30 pm, it was game time. The doctor and nurses were great all week and they were especially comforting and encouraging at this point. We got to the point after midnight where the baby was right there, but pushing was not getting this little guy out. I was feeling a little anxious and frustrated when the baby wasn't coming and I can just imagine how drained my wife must have felt.  

The doctor then went with the little vacuum/suction cup apparatus to pull him out, sensing Stephanie's fatigue. First try didn't work, the cup popped off - ugh. After a few minutes and in line with the next contraction, the doctor was able to pull our little boy out. 

The next moments are both very clear, but also a complete blur. To finally see my son born and them laying him on my wife's stomach was something I'll never forget. He had a little weird color but I'd never seen this before so I had no clue what to expect. His eyes were open and head happened to be turned right towards me. The doctor, who had an hour before confirmed with me that I'd cut the umbilical cord, asked me to do so - "Boy," I thought, "that seems really immediate". Oh well, I'd never been here before. And one snip later, the cord was cut. 

The doctor and nurses had also stated several times during our stay that they promoted "skin-to-skin" care right after birth. It's where they place the baby on mom's chest right away so that mother and child can bond. Tate was laying on her as I cut the cord but pretty quickly after that, they took him off and placed him into what appeared to be a computerized changing station that had been in our room since our arrival. 

"Huh, that was quick. I thought the 'skin-to-skin' thing would be more prolonged." But my mind was overwhelmed by everything I was just taking it all in, not realizing my wife was also wondering the same thing.

As I was taking it all in, I began to sense some tension in the room. The doctor, flanked by two nurses, were speaking in quiet and terse sentences as they powered up the computerized station and cleaned off our son. But they were really doing more than cleaning. The doctor was rubbing his hands over Tate's body. It was then that I realized that Tate had been kind of limp since he came out. That, plus the color I'd noticed earlier began setting off minor alarms in my mind. I tried to ignore them and play cool, realizing my wife couldn't see much from her position and was certainly in a lot of discomfort. 

Moments later, one nurse began putting a CPR-type breathing mask over Tate's mouth and it started to hit me. By now the changing station was powered on and the heart monitor was beeping and showing about the same numbers that the monitors' had while he was still in the birth canal.

Ok, his heart was beating - good sign.
But not breathing - that's a problem.

Now worry was beginning to build. Soon, our medical team decided they needed another hand and the quickest way to do that was to hit the blue button by my wife's bed - a 'code blue' I guess (?). This called all available hospital workers to our room (!). 

We did get that extra hand pretty quickly, but chaos ensued as more and more people poked their heads in our room and offered their services. 

That certainly didn't help soothe the mounting anxiety inside of me. "C'mon little guy, pull through" and "No God, don't let this happen!" are some of the panicked thoughts I still recall as I shot up some prayers the rest of which I'm pretty sure needed the Holy Spirit's interpretation. 

There wasn't a lot of sound coming from our little guy. Just the piano-key-like beeping of the station that was monitoring him.  These minutes felt like hours and every little baby noise made my heart flutter with hope. At one point I buried my face beside my wife's ear and prayed for the both of us on behalf of our son. I could tell her concern level was matching mine. 

Later on, one of those nurses, Cory, who providentially was a neo-natal resuscitation specialist, would tell us the ordeal went about four minutes.  But Cory, Megan, and Dr. Cook did get our little guy breathing again. It was a relief like I'd never known when their tone changed and they shared that he was doing ok and breathing on his own. Sometimes this happens they would explain, when the baby comes out of the womb and is shell-shocked at this new world they are entering and they don't realize they need to actually breathe. 

Relief and joy and gratitude washed over us. They took him to the nursery to monitor him for a little bit and despite all the machine beeps and alarms, our little guy stayed wide-eyed and pretty chill - just taking in everything, and of course breathing on his own. That's where this picture was taken, probably about 3 am.

It's a scary thing to imagine how close we came to being utterly devastated. We know couples who have lost children late in term. We have heard stories of babies who died at birth. I can't offer a perfect theological explanation for those situations, but in our case I can confidently say that God was so gracious to us. He was looking out for us. We had the perfect set of medical professionals for this kind of problem and the Great Physician watching over us.

Someday, we will tell our son about his first four minutes. I hope to do so in such a way and at such an age where he will truly understand God's protective and providential hand on his life. I hope he will recognize how even with his birth, we can see God's grace and love for us tangibly at work. 

Someday we will tell our son about his first four minutes and how they were a reaffirming experience for us of God's infinite goodness and infinite mercy.

All it took was four minutes.

Music Mondays

My wife had borrowed one of my old CD's and it was playing when I borrowed her vehicle over the weekend. It was a little known CCM band called Shaded Red. Their first album was a classic - in fact, outside of dc Talk, it is the perfect example of my musical tastes during the late 90's.
Anyway, that original album prompted me to buy their next (and only) label-produced album, Red Revolution.

I hadn't listened to it in years til my wife had, but it's most noteworthy song struck a chord with me listening to it again.

"When God Ran" is a worshipful retelling of the story of the Prodigal Son. It's actually a cover of an older hit by Benny Hester. Phillips, Craig, and Dean have also covered it, reintroducing it to a much larger fan base.

But here's the version I've come to love with a video behind it portraying the story itself:

Music Mondays

In Ephesians 2, Paul shares the essence of the Gospel by describing who we were before Christ and who we are after.

"Before"

"After"

In my sermon yesterday, I offered this illustration - a picture of me in my younger basketball playing days vs. me currently. It's kind of the opposite characterization as Ephesians - I mean, I'd love to be what I was physically 13 years ago. 
But I am married now and pastoring, having survived seminary. We own an nice house and have had some really fun experiences. So I guess I really would want to be where I'm at today if I had to choose, anyway, I digress.

The point is, that we are completely transformed spiritually when we give our lives to Christ. We were dead, then God makes us alive. We are not able to save ourselves by our good deeds, but God saves us by His grace and then empowers us to do good works.




God's grace is truly amazing and powerful and wonderful. While we didn't sing it during the service, I find this song to be a fitting one to extol God's wonderful and matchless grace. 

This is a great rendition that really takes advantage of the various parts that can be sung. It also doesn't take away from the focus - which is Jesus and his gracious rescue of us 'defiled' sinners. This style is not as appreciated anymore, but it certainly has value as we ponder God's work and sing His praises for all He's done.

Music Mondays

With two parents who were passionate and skilled musically, my childhood was filled with songs and the radio being constantly played. 

A lot of those songs have stuck with me. One came to mind with our passage in 1 John. It is shorter than I remember, but this is the exact version that plays in my head when I think of these verses. I guess I have Maranatha Kids! to thank for it. 

It is short but sweet - and definitely to the point of an important command for all Christians.

Music Mondays

1 John features three main themes about God. 

• He is Light - 1:1-3:10
• He is Love - 3:11-5:5
• He is Life - 5:6-21

Our sermon series started into the second of those themes this past Sunday.

One of the key points the apostle John makes is that godly love must be demonstrated:

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

  As dc Talk put it so succinctly, 'luv is a verb'.  

Music Mondays

Yesterday's sermon was on the book of Zephaniah. 

Zephaniah checks all the boxes of what OT prophets did, in three succinct chapters.

• He criticizes God's people and pagans for their wickedness. Along with that criticism comes vivid descriptions of promised judgment.
  
• He energizes the faithful to persevere through adversity by describing the future hope and restoration God will bring.
  
• He calls the people to repent and seek the Lord's presence before it's too late.

Read works by Dr. Walter Bruggemann and/or my former professor, Dr. Brent Sandy and you'll discover Zephaniah fits the prophetic mold to a 'T'. 

Given that summary of the minor prophet, crafting a worship service around the book didn't seem particularly natural. Our worship planners didn't even know the specifics but knew the broad strokes. Honestly though this seemed like one of those weeks we didn't tie the worship to the sermon in real specific ways.

Yet the way the Lord brought things together did just that. Zephaniah's a book describing how God is the one whose powerful wrath we need saved from, but he's also the only one who can protect and deliver us.

The song we used to close the service captured that idea well in my view. It's a newer 'classic' by Michael W. Smith. Simple yet deep in it's biblical descriptions of who our Lord is. 

Music Mondays

Our current sermon series is a study on the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. Yesterday we looked at Hosea. 

Hosea was a prophet of God called to marry a woman who God promised would break their marriage vows and cheat on Hosea. God asked Hosea to do this because it signified Israel's spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness towards their Lord. 

And as the story unfolds, once his wife has left him, Hosea goes and takes her back. Why would he do such a thing? Because it is a picture of how God loves Israel so much that He will redeem them. 

The entire book is an astounding object lesson about the love of God and our awful sinfulness. 

I became enthralled by the book and its story in high school when I heard the song "Gomer's Theme" by Third Day (Gomer being Hosea's wife). It is off of Third Day's second album and powerfully summarizes the book of Hosea while speaking to our own condition and predilection to go astray.