I’m giving the world a rude silent treatment. That is a bit of what it feels like. Today is day four of my three to four-week vocal rest. If you want the back story you can read my first post. My mind has been a flurry of ideas I want to write about. I’ll try to give you a few today.

Silent Worship

I truly hope to have more insight into how to worship silently in the days and weeks to come. Right now I can just say, this is difficult for me. I taught a seminar on worship a few times in the past. One of the things I talk about is the role of one’s body in worship. This silence enforces my thoughts on the subject exponentially. In the seminar, I tell a story about how I first learned this lesson.

I’ve been leading worship since I was in high school. One of my great frustrations used to be how difficult it was for me to worship God when I wasn’t leading the music. I wondered if my pride was really so great. I lived with this for many years. About 4 years ago I finally noticed one of the reasons I struggled this way. Whenever I am in the congregation, I tend to be very reserved. If you have ever heard me speak or sing, I am a bit of a loudmouth. I didn’t want to be a distraction to the people around me. One Sunday I was at a rather large church and the music was turned up pretty load so I started to really sing. As my vocal cords tightened and my diaphragm pressed the air through them something clicked in me. It was as if that physical event in my voice bridged the gap between the lyrics I was singing and my soul. Almost instantly I was worshiping fully.

One of the reasons I love to lead worship is the fact that I can sing hard up there and it’s expected. That vocal tension helps me recognize that God is worthy of such praise. I sing hard because it helps me worship and that is largely a mental and physical connection. If you have ever wondered why it’s hard for you to connect with God, you may need to explore new ways of expressing praise with your posture, movement, or with singing.

How does this relate to my silence? Well, I can’t sing hard right now. Actually, my love for singing hard might by one reason I broke myself. Oops. That is genuinely one of the hardest parts of this journey for me. Have I been able to worship over the past few weeks? Yes, I have but my poor guitar is feeling some abuse in the process. Worship IS an expression of value. If we worship anything we find ways to express or value of that person or thing. Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that I am more prone to tap my feet, dance a bit, and play my guitar harder than I should. These physical movements are my vocal release valve of expression. Even smiling helps me worship during our time of singing at the church.

My challenge to you is to consider the importance of expressing praise with your body. This isn’t just my own idea about worship either. There are loads of references in scripture to bodily expressions of worship. Psalm 134 says, “Lift up holy hands in prayer and praise the LORD.” In Deuteronomy 6 we are told, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jesus later says that this idea is the greatest commandment. Notice how the body is included in this great command. I could go on forever pulling out reference to various postures of praise that are referenced in scripture. Jonathan Edwards, one great American theologian said it so well.

Some bodily worship is necessary to give liberty to our own devotion; yea though in secret, so more when with others . . . ‘Tis necessary that there should be something bodily and visible in the worship of a congregation; otherwise, there can be no communion at all. – Jonathan Edwards (From Miscellanies #101)

I can’t sing right now but if you can please do and sing hard on my behalf. I’ll enjoy hearing you and you may just unlock praise in waiting to get out of you.

I have many more ideas buzzing around in my head but they can wait for a future post.

Today marks the my first full day of vocal rest. It is the first of three to four weeks of rest that I’ve been instructed to take. What lessons will I learn through this? Will I recover? Can I (an extrovert) survive the silence? These questions are some of the reasons I wanted to write. Writing in my journal or in my blog has always out of my own need to express and think. Writing gets me to slow down enough to make sense of my jumbled thoughts. Right now, typing might be the only way I can get things out of my mind and into the world where I and others can make some sense of it. As I process through writing I hope it benefits you in some way as well.

I guess it would help to start with some back story.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that I had lost my vocal range and control. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t feel like I had pushed myself too hard and I didn’t have any pain in my throat. At first, I thought it was a fluke but when I tried to sing the next day I was even worse. Considering the fact that I am a worship pastor, this sent my mind in several different directions. First, what am I going to do Sunday? Second, what happens if this is a long term issue? What does this mean for my job, my family? Isn’t it interesting how my first thoughts were the worst case scenario? The following day I took one full day of vocal rest, which means I didn’t speak or whisper for 24 hours. This still didn’t help or at least not noticeably. It was during that day that I discovered another fear about the condition. What if I can’t sing again? I had no idea how often I sing and how deeply I love to sing. That day was maddening.

I’ll speed up the story a bit. I saw my primary care doctor because I suspected that I had some allergies and that maybe that was causing my issues. After a week of treatment and two visits with him, we determined that I did indeed have allergies but that the treatment was not as effective as it should have been. I was given the name of a vocal specialist to see. I decided that I wanted to rule out vocal cord damage. If I had damaged my voice, I couldn’t afford to postpone the treatment.

I saw the specialist and he said I had a litany of different issues affecting my voice. First, I had severe allergies. All these years I just thought it was normal that I had never really breathed through my nose. Second, I had a deviated septum that limited air flow through the nose. Third, I had acid reflux that was affecting my throat and vocal cords. Fourth, I had a nasal infection. Fifth, I had yeast build up in my throat. Finally, there were some signs of vocal strain. The doctor didn’t think my vocal cords were in too bad of shape at first glance. He said he often sees patients with only one of these ailments. I was given quite a few medications and I left the office quite encouraged that there was nothing major wrong with my voice.

Over the next few days, I spoke normally and began the treatment that I thought would have me singing in a few days. Then I got a call mid-morning two days after my visit from the doctor. He said that he had reviewed the footage of my voice further and thought that I had a hemorrhage on one of my vocal folds. Hemorrhage sounded really bad. It is essentially a bruised vocal cord. He reassured me that I would probably be fine but that I needed to take 3-4 weeks of vocal rest, no more than six sentences an hour. After a few moments of panic, I settled down and went silent. Needless to say, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how to handle this silence business.

I know my situation is not unique. In fact, now that I am suffering from a vocal issue, I have read many stories of singers who have suffered from similar situations. My goal is not to offer some new insight into a diagnosis like this. My goal is simple, I need a place to put down my thoughts so that I don’t forget the lessons I believe God wants to teach me through this. I don’t know how often I’ll write but I hope to continue jotting down the lessons I’m learning so that I don’t forget. And come on, I need to speak somehow and this is my way of doing that.

My Initial Thoughts

I’ll bare the dirty part of my heart first. I hate this situation. Everything in my flesh wants to through a fit and make sure that I get as much special treatment as I can get. I want to complain. In fact, all of last week that is much of what I did before I was placed on compete vocal rest. I see so many tendencies in me to make these next three to four weeks a living hell for my family. I bet I could even milk this far beyond my treatment and complain about it months or years after I go through it. Maybe that’s why I’m blogging too.

In addition to the fears that crept up in me, these feelings all invited my mind almost instantly after I got off the phone with the doctor. Then I remembered my good friend Rob who was diagnosed with cancer not long ago. How differently he demonstrated his foundation on the gospel then I was wanting to. Rob seemed to see cancer as a press designed to squeeze drops of grace, wisdom, and gospel proclamation out of him. So quickly, God’s spirit in me picked me up out of the mud puddle and asked me to walk through this small trial differently then the last paragraph described. So here his my prayer through this: I pray that I would walk through this with grace and the strength that Christ provides. I’ve already stumbled in that desire but I intend to obey God’s leading through this by his strength.

The Lessons I’m learning

First of all, I do think this is God’s way of slowing me down. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been living a healthier pace of life lately. Not long ago I was pushing myself far too hard and not giving myself rest or sufficient soul food in God’s word and In prayer. Those things have been improving lately. In fact, I think that they were improving to the point that I might have been getting too self-confident again. You see, about six months ago, I told myself that I would take a silent retreat to seek God and find rest. I never did that. Instead, I found some ways to gain the balance of myself without that retreat. Guess what, I think God wanted me on that silent retreat and God is pretty good at getting what he wants. I also believe He is my loving father and what he wants is what is best for me. So here I am, not on a three-day silent retreat but a three to four week one. Touché God touché. LESSON: listen the first time? I can’t say this wouldn’t have happened if I had taken the retreat earlier but what I can say is God wanted me to stop speaking for a while.

I believe I struggle with a verbal form of gluttony and pride. Interestingly, over the past 2 years or so, I’ve noticed that I tend to speak too much and too hastily. “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Pro 29:20) “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Pro. 10:19) “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” (Pro 17:28) I could go on an on listing texts of scripture like this. So yeah, the bible doesn’t advise that you speak too quickly or too much. Again, I had heard God nudging me about this and I had not taken any significant steps to obey his lead. I pray that now I will learn a bit about silence.

This is related to the last point. The doctor told me I could only speak six sentences an hour. Imagine that you were given that doctors order. What words are worth speaking if you only get six sentences an hour? It didn’t take long for me to realize that the words worth speaking are those that comfort or care for people. I felt the strongest urges to speak when I was greeted or when I wanted to express gratitude. I didn’t want someone to feel put off when they greeted me or when a “thank you” was justified. The other words that seem important are words of love. The words that I made absolutely sure I spoke today were the words “I love you” to my girls. I made sure they were looking at me in the eye when I said it too. I didn’t want those words to go wasted. What would you say if you could only say a few things in a day?

Just so I don’t sound holier than I am, the other words I spoke today were used to portray my frustration about something. I bet we can all agree that was not as good a use of my limited word quotient.

I have many other thoughts brewing in my soul. I’ll let those thoughts grow more in me before I share. I’ll leave this post with this challenge from Colossians, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6)

Right after one of the “rejoice in trials” texts in the bible there is this little reference to hope (Romans 5:5). It says that all the hard stuff eventually turns into hope. He then reassures us that hope doesn’t disappoint. I like the translation, hope won’t let you down. The trouble with hope is that it isn’t the thing we long for, it is some measure of confidence that the thing will someday be. We use the word hope for all sorts of things like; I hope I can get a cup of coffee today, I hope I get a raise soon, or I hope they notice me. These uses of the word hope don’t guarantee anything to us. In some cases our confidence of a future situation is really high, “I hope I get to eat soon.” In other cases our confidence is extremely low, “I hope to beat my wife in a Fitbit step challenge someday.” Paul (the writer of Romans) wants to make sure we don’t think of Christian hope in these ways.

How is Christian Hope Different?

First, many blessings come during the hope season not just in the thing hoped for. I think that is what Paul is saying in this chapter. The thing in this text that we are hoping for is God’s “glory.” The glory of someone is the weight of their attributes. We get to enjoy quite a bit of God’s glory even before the fullness of His glory takes full effect.

Imagine for a moment you work for the best boss ever. Your boss is wise, kind, bold, and basically everything good. He/she makes you feel valued even when they have to challenge you and help you grow. Then you find out that the president (maybe a not so good president) of the organization you both work for is retiring and that your boss is the natural replacement. You are overjoyed at the prospects of your boss leading the entire organization, you are hopeful for that future. The cool part of the situation is that you get to work directly with your boss now, even while you are waiting for them to take their new position as president. You have current blessings and a promise of greater blessing when all your bosses character (glory) begins to influence the entire organization.

This is kind of what Christian hope is like. God’s glory is promised to have it’s full effect in the universe one day. His glory is the fullness of all his attributes. That means all of His goodness, love, wisdom, strength, justice, and more will one day govern the world completely. The hope of that future is great. The cool part is that we enjoy much of God’s glory today. The context of the little phrase I started this blog with is as follows: “and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5).” Paul then goes on to remind us of the power and demonstration of God’s love. We get love today.

God’s love is unconditional, it isn’t based upon our efforts or actions (Romans 5:6-11). It is a love that sees our weaknesses and loves anyway. It is a love that is greater than we have ever known in this world. We get that TODAY! Yes, we long for a day when sickness, sin, and evil are completely gone but we get to enjoy God’s love today. We long for a day when suffering is no more but we get God’s comfort through suffering today.

The second thing that is different about Christina hope is how confident we can be in the future. The biggest flaw in the illustration I gave earlier is that God is already the president of the universe. Unlike the illustration, God is already reigning today. That is what we celebrate on easter. When Jesus died and rose again he confirmed his victory over sin and death. So why do things look so bad in the world? The shortest answer is God is patient, lovingly waiting for the world to acknowledge His reign. “And though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet (song: This is My Fathers World).” If you want to dig further into God’s current reign you can listen to the sermon series we did a few Christmases ago called, “Let Earth Receive Her King.”

The fact of the matter is, our hope (confidence of God’s full glory reviled) is sure. Our hope is not without current benefit either. We get to enjoy massive amounts of God’s glory today as Christians. And that is why hope won’t let us down.

I love this song so much! I’ve been meaning to add it to our “new song blog” for a while. It isn’t quite new to us anymore but I still feel the need to give you some explanation behind it. The New Song Cafe video will give you some background on the song.

The reason I love this song so much is the way it defines our value through the love of God. The chorus defines God as good and it defines us as loved. The beauty in that is that our our deepest value has nothing to do with us. Romans 5 reminds us that God’s love for us is NOT based upon our actions. In fact, God loved us while we were his enemies. That proves that we didn’t earn this love.

Who you are is NOT defined by what you have or haven’t done. It is not defined by where you are from. It is ultimately defined by the sum of the fathers love for you. If you are perfect and have never made any mistakes that might not be as beautiful as it is for me. If you are like me and have messed up, hurt people, struggled with the same old sins over and over again, and all together deserve justice, then this might be a beautiful truth.

A few notes on verse 3:

For a song I love so much, I have wrestled with verse 3 quite a bit. I think I have made peace with the intention of the verse but I need to address it anyway. I don’t like introduce songs to corporate worship that have confusing ideas. I also don’t want to fall into the trap of stifling the beauty and power of poetic expression in our worship. If we must ensure that every line of a song has the precision of a systematic theology book we would likely drain the power of music right out. A great work of art causes you to see something from a different perspective OR it expresses an emotion that demands language that implies things beyond the words. Art makes us slow down and feel something deeply.

The reason I still bring up this verse is that I think it could be too easy to misunderstand. I want to invite you briefly into my journey with this song because I want us all to feel AND think when we sing together.

The verse says, “love so undeniable I can hardly speak. Peace so unexplainable I can hardly think.” The challenge I’ve have with that is that it implies that God’s love somehow makes us mute and His peace makes us mindless. I am confident this isn’t what the writer of the song is saying at all.

The first phrase: If we meditate on the lengths that God went to love us, it may cause us to be speechless in our response to him. In that sense the first line is okay. I wouldn’t feel the need to change this line if I were not addressing the next line already. I believe God’s great love is, in fact, one reason we DO speak. God’s great love may cause us to be speechless in our response to Him but demand that we worship out loud and tell others at the same time. The greatest impetus for evangelism and missions is that love demands we speak of it. In that sense we could be singing, love so undeniable I can’t help but speak. One slightly less significant issue with the line is that we are singing when we say we can’t speak. That is a minor issue to me since we often speak of kneeling, raising hands, and then don’t do those activities. I’ll let you decide weather you should fall to your knees every time we sing that we are.

The second phrase: This line is the most problematic to me and the reason we will probably not sing the radio version’s lyrics from now on. I will grant that the song writers intentions are almost certainly sound. The peace that God gives us is described in scripture as being “beyond understanding (Phil. 4:7).” I believe that is exactly what the song writer is getting at with the line about peace. The challenge they had was that the word understanding doesn’t sing as well the word “think” in the song.

Peace doesn’t cause us to be mindless (to shut down thinking). Instead the presence of peace doesn’t make sense unless you factor in the comfort of God. Just to be sure that I’m not overly splitting hairs, I went back to the Philippine passage to get a bit more clarity.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

The challenge Paul gives is to not be anxious about anything. The way you get away from anxiety is to bring everything to God in prayer. By inviting God into those things we remember his goodness, his faithfulness, his wisdom, and peace about the situation. The peace that God gives us is actually a byproduct of thinking about our situations as they compare to God. in John 16:33 Jesus says that it is in him that we find peace. Even this passage says that our hearts and minds are guarded “in Christ Jesus.” As a side note, the opening line of verse four challenges the church to let their reasonableness be known. Reasonableness seems like a very mentally active idea.

So, is the idea of peace causing us to be unable to “think” accurate? I believe you would have to change the definition of the word “think” a bit to much to call it accurate. Could I sing this song and still worship God in spirit and in truth? Yes, but I would be injecting my study of Philippians 4 into that little word “think.” For all these reasons I have changed the last light of verse 3 to reflect more closely the ideas I see in the passage. Peace swells up inside of me, when I see how you guard me.

What I love about lots of songs that are being written these days is how I can find scripture behind every line. Even in this case it was easy for me to find scripture that connects to each idea in the song. I love that and I am so grateful for songwriters who work so hard to sing things that are so deep and significant.

Lyrics

Oh, I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think you’re like
But I’ve heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night
And you tell me that you’re pleased
And that I’m never alone

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

Oh, and I’ve seen many searching for answers far and wide
But I know we’re all searching
For answers only you provide
Cause you know just what we need
Before we say a word

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

Cause you are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us

You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us

Oh, it’s love so undeniable
I, I can hardly speak (I can’t help but sing)
Peace so unexplainable (Peace swells up inside of me)
I, I can hardly think (when I see how you guard me)

As you call me deeper still [x3]
Into love, love, love

[x3:]
You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

You’re a Good, Good Father
(You are perfect in all of your ways)
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
(You are perfect in all of your ways)
It’s who I am, it’s who I am it’s who I am

This song has two great things going for it. First, it walks through the gospel. I love songs that do this. One of the reasons we sing as a church is to enforce the gospel. This song expresses the life of a person being redeemed with beautiful language like, “my orphan heart was given a name.”

The second thing this song has going for it is a unique idea. I love when a song expresses a facet gospel in a unique way. The idea that death was arrested is that unique thought. If you watch the video that explains where the song came from, you will see that it was an idea sparked by the words on a headstone. Death doesn’t arrest your soul when you die in Christ. The resurrection of Jesus ensures that death has been arrested.

As we sing this song at South, we reflect on this beautiful exchange, death to life, bondage to freedom, and abandoned to adopted.

Lyrics

LyricsV1
Alone in my sorrow dead in my sin
Lost without hope with no place to begin
Your love Made a way to let mercy come in
When death was arrested and my life began
V2
Ash was redeemed only beauty remains
My orphan heart was given a name
My mourning grew quiet my feet rose to dance
When death was arrested and my life began
CH
Oh your grace so free
Washes over me
You have made me new
Now life begins with you
It’s your endless love
Pouring down on us
You have made us new
Now life begins with youV3
Released from my chains I’m a prisoner no more
My shame was a ransom he faithfully bore
He cancelled my debt and he called me his friend
When death was arrested and my life began
V4
Our savior displayed on a criminal’s cross
Darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost
But then Jesus arose with our freedom in hand
That’s when death was arrested and my life began
That’s when death was arrested and my life began

POST CH.
Oh we’re free free
Forever we’re free
Come join the song
Of all the redeemed

Yes we’re free free
Forever amen
When death was arrested
and my life began

I wrestled with cutting this post into two parts because I was afraid you wouldn’t get to this one. In Part 1 of the post I focused on some of the dangers of tradition. If you haven’t read that, it might help start there. The value of tradition (repeated activities to enforce a set of values) is so great I almost want to say this part is more important than Part 1. I ALMOST want to say that but I can’t bring myself to. As with many of the best things in life balance is the key here.

As I look back on the first post I wish I had spent more time focusing on the Romans passage that set me on top of my little soup box. That is often how scripture works though, and I don’t want to diminish how beneficial it is to let a bible text quickly bleed into the everyday practical. If we only pick at the text in it’s fine points and never let it’s implications invade our minds and set us to wrestling, then we have not used the text as God intended. Conveniently for me, the natural questions that my first post leaves us with are asked all through out the book of Romans. If there are so many risks to tradition, what value do they have? Should we throw them out? If our brains are hard-wired to shut out overly repetitive activities, should we avoid tradition all together?

For Paul’s readers the questions came in a slightly different way. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? (Romans 3:1) What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? (Romans 3:3)

There are quite a few questions that Paul tries to address. Remember, for the Jews, tradition is what made them unique, it’s where they found their identity. Paul’s arguments that righteousness comes by faith and that faith was open to both Jews and non-Jews was threatening to derail everything that made them proud. He makes a very strong case that salvation and righteousness comes by faith NOT by rule following or tradition. He goes as far as to prove that their forefather, their hero, wasn’t even righteous because of his rule following. One might think that Paul is trying to get rid of all the dusty traditions and laws that the Israelites held so dear but that isn’t his goal at all. Instead Paul is simply trying to establish proper perspective about tradition. As I said, balance is the key here.

How to Find Balance?

The key to understanding the value of tradition is to remember that tradition is not the end but a means to an end. If you set a tradition in its proper context it can serve you very well in arriving at a destination. If you think that tradition is the destination it quickly leads you off the beaten path into all the pitfalls I wrote about in Part 1. To clarify this, I want to jump into another scripture story that explains this so well.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28 ESV)

Here you have a similar issue that we have been talking about. The Pharisees are trying to protect that tradition (laws) of the Sabbath. They can’t understand why Jesus, who is supposed to be this great spiritual leader, would let his followers disregard such important traditions. Jesus’ answer to them is that, “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” I love this line! Jesus never ceases to amaze me with his perfect answers. With this little comment he reorient the value of the tradition as a means to an end. The Sabbath was established by God as a tool to serve his people. They were to rest, they were to reorient their minds onto God, they were to stop working and remember that God was their provider NOT their effort. When Jesus puts this tradition in its proper place it’s value becomes clear. The irony of the Sabbath out of context is that it probably did the exact opposite of what was intended. What should have been a day of rest and rejuvenation was probably a day of high stress for many Israelites who were afraid of making some mistake and braking the rules of the sabbath.

Training in Righteousness

In Part 1, I explained how the repetition of a tradition can reduce one’s mindfulness. The same principle can be applied to positive behaviors. Spiritual behaviors, when viewed as a means to enjoying the gospel they have the ability to train your mind to naturally live righteously. When you recognize that obedience is a means to full life, then you can use various disciplines to train your body in obedience.

I remember a season in life when obeying God’s Word was so easy that I didn’t feel like I even had to try. Right out of high school I went through a season of tremendous discipline (I was almost a modern-day monk). I went to bible college on a campus that had no internet or TV and I arrived with a new passion for my relationship with God. I was also so poor that I couldn’t really afford to leave campus. This campus situation was a huge shift but I was excited so I embraced it and settle into a highly structured life of prayer and study. Early on in this season I understood the grace of God for the first time. I spent that first year studying every facet of this sweet grace that I had discovered.

My experience seemed very different from some of my peers at the school. Most of us started with a similar zeal but for some the zeal dwindled over time and for others it only increased. What was the difference between these two responses to the same environment? I can’t say for sure but I can tell you why my zeal didn’t dwindle. My early discovery of grace and my longing to understand it more is what drove me into deeper levels of discipline. I prayed, I studied, I fasted, and I served so that I could further enjoy grace NOT so that I could earn it. Dallas Willard says “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.”

I exerted lots of effort during that season. I even tried forms of discipline I had never tried before, like fasting. But I did it as a means to enjoy grace NOT as a means earn it. Grace is like the fuel of the Christian life, in order to do anything righteous you burn grace. Earning grace is as observed as having to start your car without fuel to prove that you need fuel.

Exactly why some of my peers were not experiencing the same joy and freedom is an unknown but I have a theory. When traditions (disciplines or rules) are followed in order to earn something they have the potential to drain the life out of you. It burns effort rather than burning grace. That situation will kill your joy faster than if you had never tried to be righteous at all. At least there is some temporary joy in sin. This righteousness stuff is ONLY draining when it’s done to earn.

It was during that first year especially that obeying God seemed easy. Purity, kindness, joy, service, became byproducts of my life rather than the pursuit of my life. That ONLY happens when your pursuit is Jesus and his grace. I wish I could say that I have continued that same level of discipline and kept my focus on Jesus and His grace. I haven’t always. I have shifted back and forth between beautiful seasons of soaking in grace to agonizing seasons of trying to earn it.

Traditions and rituals like prayer, scripture reading, community, and service are consistently powerful aids in getting all this right. If you exert effort in these types of traditions the Holy Spirit is very faithful in leveraging them into righteousness. If I go back to the fuel analogy, spiritual disciplines are like pouring fuel into the tank of your soul. It’s the spirits job to turn the key. Just don’t forget, reading your bible is NOT the goal, Jesus is. Praying is NOT the goal, who you are praying to is. Community is NOT the goal, camaraderie in your pursuit of God is. Serving is NOT the goal, following Jesus where he serves is. If you get that perspective right the doors to leverage tradition are open to you.

Connecting Part 1 and Part 2 Further

Here is where things get extra messy. Leveraging tradition (disciplines/rule following) is more art then it is science. The nature of rules and traditions suggest that they are very rigid. After all, you can make lists of rules with check boxes next to them. You can make liturgies with very systematic steps that are easy to duplicate week after week. How is that like art and not like science?

You can be very systematic in your spiritual activities as long as they continue to serve your soul in seeing and enjoying Jesus. As soon as an activity stops helping you see and enjoy Jesus, you might want to adjust that practice. Does that mean the rules in scripture are not concrete? Answering that question is a bit tricky, many of the commands in scripture are absolutely concrete. It will NEVER serve your soul to murder someone. There is no situation where that helps you see and enjoy Jesus. That’s pretty concrete. It will NEVER serve your soul to covet other people things.

There are, on the other hand, some ideas in scripture that don’t make sense to follow. For example; 1 Timothy 5:23 says, “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” If you are an alcoholic, you should not follow this command. Yes in fact this is a command in this text. Paul is writing to Timothy who has some stomach problems and suggests that wine might help. In our time, Paul might have said, “You should take care of yourself Timothy! Take some Tums or something!”

So, which commands are black and white and which ones are gray? I don’t have time in this blog to go through the entire bible and give you a list and I don’t have the wisdom anyway. When in doubt choose the Law of Love. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).” Ryan preached a great sermon about this, The Point is a Person.  That might help too.

The point is that traditions, laws, and disciplines are meant to serve us. God didn’t make us to serve His rules. I hope that helps.

In just 4 days, there will be people all around the world who gather to celebrate a belief that Jesus rose from the dead. While there is next to no debate that Jesus of Nazareth existed, lived in the Galilean region, and died on a  Roman cross, there is much debate about his resurrection.

I believe in the validity of science. I consider myself to be a rational thinker. And yet, I’m convinced that Jesus rose from the dead! I’d like to believe my faith is not based simply on stories and fables that were handed down to me by my parents and other adults that helped shape my worldview. Rather, this conviction is grounded in the historicity of the events that surrounded the life and legend of Jesus. In addition, my belief that Jesus rose from the dead is not as simplistic as stating, “I believe that Jesus rose from the dead because the Bible says so.” Now, the Bible does record the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but that isn’t the only reason I believe that Jesus of Nazareth conquered death and walked out of a perfectly good tomb 2000+ years ago.

All throughout this week, National Geographic will be running specials where so-called experts will attempt to explain away the resurrection. I get it. It’s quite the story, and the story has innumerable implications attached to it. If I allow myself to believe that Jesus walked out of the grave conquering sin and death, I’m left with the only option of following him by basing my life on his teaching. That’s what I’ve chosen to do, here’s why I’m convinced Jesus rose from the dead.

First, 10 out of 11 disciples died for the claim that Jesus was Lord, a claim that was grounded in the historicity of the resurrection. You might respond by rightly reminding me that people die for a lie all the time. This week we saw an example of that with the suicide bombers in Brussels. The difference here is that the followers of Jesus would have known that what they were dying for was a lie. Not only that, but they all died for this supposed lie while separated from each other and spread out around the Mediterranean region. To assume that they all could have independently held onto this lie in the face of persecution and martyrdom is quite the assumption and confidence in their bullheadedness and master planning.

Second, the fact that Christianity survived the first century is remarkable and arguably miraculous. There were a number of others who claimed to be the ‘messiah’ during Jesus’ day, but when these men died, their movement died with them. With Jesus, you see the exact opposite happen. He died, and the Jesus-movement exploded! There is next to no other explanation for the rise of Christianity and it’s survival in the First Century than the resurrection. Writing about this phenomenon, Kenneth Scott Latourette, a professor at Yale states, “The more one examines the various factors which seem to account for the extraordinary victory of Christianity, the more one is driven to search for a cause underlying them all. It is clear that at the very beginning of Christianity there must have occurred a vast release of energy virtually unequalled in history… Nothing else could explain the surge of the early Christian movement. What caused this release of energy…lies outside the realm in which modern historians are supposed to move.” But then he goes on to say, “But before I am a historian, I am human… How can I close my eyes to the obvious explanation that something supernatural happened?” The only reasonable conclusion is that Jesus walked out of the tomb after dying on a Roman cross.

Third, Jesus’ own brother claims that he is God and that he was raised from the dead. Jesus’ brother James becomes one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem. He goes from being a bystander to the movement of Jesus, to being one of it’s foremost leaders. In 62AD, James was stoned to death for this conviction that his brother was Lord and Savior. How far would you have to go to convince your own family of your deity?

Fourth, Sunday became the day of Christian worship. Most of the disciples were from a Jewish background and they were used to the Sabbath being on Saturday, but because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday, they started gathering for worship on a Sunday. For 300 years followers of Jesus gathered before daybreak on Sunday mornings to join other believers for prayer, worship, and communion. Up until that point it had been a work day; it wasn’t a part of the weekend. It wasn’t until 321 that Constantine made Sunday a “day of rest.” Think about how big of a shift that would have been. The entire rhythm of our week is shaped around the historic event of Jesus walking out of the grave!

Finally, many think you have to go to the Bible to read about the resurrection. While it’s true that the best accounts of the resurrection from from the Scriptures, the Scriptures are not the only place you can read about Jesus’ death and subsequently resurrection! Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Falvius Josephus all write about the events surrounding Jesus’ death from a non-believing perspective. Josephus writes most extensively and convincing, stating “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man who drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” Mind you, this is from an unbelieving, first century source!

The list could go on and on… and on.

I can understand that it’s hard to believe the resurrection, but based on the evidence, I think it’s harder believe the resurrection didn’t take place. There are too many things that only make sense if the resurrection did in fact happen. As you celebrate Easter this year, remember that you can do so with great confidence in the historicity of the resurrection. If you don’t have a church to worship with, we’d love for you to join us at South Fellowship Church at 9:00am, 10:45am, or 4:00pm.

We introduced this song a few weeks ago and I’ve wanted to write about it for a while. You can hear from the artist briefly in the video to the left.

Songs like this don’t take a whole lot of explanation to justify why we sing them. These lyrics speak for themselves but I want to ground the ideas of this song in scripture. For me, knowing that the songs I sing are rooted in the ideas of scripture helps me to sing them with deeper joy and conviction.

I count 25 occurrences of the phrase, “unfailing love” in the psalms. Texts like Psalm 13:5 say, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” In Titus 1 Paul opens his letter with this statement that God promised salvation and that He (God) cannot lie. God’s love for us is secured upon the foundation of His nature. When we step into relationship with God through Jesus, God stakes his reputation on loving us well. Yeah, his love for us is pretty strong! This song says, “sure as the sun, the moon, the stars remain Your love for me will never change.” The reality is God’s love is more sure then the sun, moon, and stars.

I also love the line, “when seasons change and stories end.” If God’s love is so sure and steadfast then IT and ONLY IT will never change. Everything else in life is in flux but there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can change the “steady love” of God. If the texts I already shared don’t convince you, check this one out:

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(Romans 8:37–39 ESV)

Yeah, it’s pretty steady love!

I’m not going to focus on every line of this song but I do want to highlight one more. In the final verse it says, “there is a strength that rises up in me to know that You’ve been here before me.” This idea is one of the great benefits we have as christians. There are at least two ideas I see here.

First, we know that God sees all our circumstances and their ultimate purpose in our lives. He has been there before us. This truth mingled with the depth of his love means we can face all situations safe in God’s plan. Second, we actually have a God who knows what it is like to be human. The incarnation (thats the theological term for when God became human in Jesus) is beautiful because we have a God who understands our frailty. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).” God doesn’t put us through hard things without understanding the difficulty of them.

Let’s sing this song and remind ourselves of these truths.

So let my heart tell You again
When seasons change and stories end
Your steady love
It will sustain me through it all
Je – sus, Your love

So let my heart tell You again
When seasons change and stories end
Your steady love
It will sustain me through it all
Je – sus, Your love

There is a strength that rises up in me
To know that You’ve been here be – fore me
A strength beyond what I can see
Jesus, Your lo – o – ove
Je – sus, Your love

So let my heart tell You again
When seasons change and stories end
Your steady love
It will sustain me through it all
Je – sus, Your love

When I think of the word tradition I frequently picture a scene in the movie Fiddler on the Roof. It’s actually an entire song sequence in the movie but I picture Tevye (the main character) walking in front of his mule cart dancing and singing “tradition.” He erupts into his melodic lesson on tradition because his children are approaching life differently than “tradition” suggests is correct. I mean, his kids want to marry out of love rather then letting the matchmaker choose a mate? That goes against “tradition!”

Tevye says something interesting about the importance of his beloved tradition. He says it is tradition that helped his people stay balanced. It’s actually this scene that gives the movie it’s name. Late in the sequence Tevye says, “without tradition we would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”

The pride he shows in “tradition” is the subject that Romans 3-5 deals with. Paul was called to bring the gospel (good news) to the gentiles. Gentiles were simply non-Jewish people and were viewed by most Jewish people as being unclean, unholy, and outside of God’s plans. The animosity that the Jews felt toward Gentiles was birthed out of a zeal for holiness. Holiness = good; animosity towards others = not so good. So, how did a pursuit of holiness create that negative effect? You have to trace Jewish history through the old testament up to when Jesus shows up on the scene to understand.

A bit of history

When God established the nation of Israel he told them that they were to be a holy (set apart) nation (Ex 19:6). They were supposed to be a nation that stood out among the rest of the nations of the world as different. That differentness was meant to be a beacon of God’s glory to the rest of the world. In essence, Israel was God’s national lighthouse to guide the world to safe (life filled) waters.
Israel embraced this calling with proclamations that they would stay true to God’s plan. But their good intentions fell flat. If you read the story of Israel you find seasons of faithfulness followed by generations of failure. The pattern went like this: commitment, failure, exile, repentance, and then they would start the process over again. This pattern continues through the old Testament. During the 400 or so years between the last book of the Old Testament and Jesus’ arrival on the scene, there was another revival and commitment to God. If you are looking for an amazing story you can read the story of the Maccabean Revolt. During this season, God-fearing rule following became extremely important to the Israelites. They didn’t want to fall into religious error again. They set up rules to prevent you from breaking rules that prevented you from breaking the rules. It was that world that Jesus arrived on the scene.

Don’t get me wrong, the purpose of all the rules (traditions) was to ensure holiness. They desperately wanted to stay true to their commitments to God. They didn’t want to keep falling into the traps their forefathers had fallen into. Jesus began his ministry in the thick of this religious culture. What eventually got Jesus killed was the fact that he wouldn’t follow tradition all the time. If you read through the gospels, you see how Jesus seems to mess with the religious leaders by intentionally braking with tradition. Not only did he brake the rules he claimed to be above them. Imagine what the zealous leaders were thinking as Jesus did these things. Their aim to keep religious clarity and purity was being threatened by this crazy Jesus character. The irony is their rules prevented them from seeing the God (Jesus) they were trying to stay true to.

Breaking down the problems

Here’s the thing: traditions exist because a group of people or family have an important value that they want to enforce and pass down. Usually those values are good and the traditions chosen to enforce them are deeply meaningful and helpful to align lives and thoughts with the value. But there are a few huge risk when it comes to tradition.

First, traditions are often chosen because they are meaningful for one generation and serve to enforce the value to them. The problem is the next generation may miss the meaning of the tradition and fail to associate it with the value, or end up making the tradition the value it was supposed to represent. There is an illustrative line in the middle of the Fiddler on the Roof sequence I mentioned earlier. Tevye turns to the camera and says, “you may ask, how this tradition got started? I’ll tell you. I don’t know.” He didn’t even remember what the tradition was designed to point him to. When this disconnect happens tradition becomes the value rather then the value itself.

Second, if a tradition is misunderstood, confused, or outdated the following generations will associate negative thoughts with the value those traditions are connected to. Rather then cementing a value, a tradition can actually cause following generations to abandon values. This sort of thing happens all the time with religious behavior. A repetitive prewritten prayer may cause a child to abandon prayer (the value) rather then abandon the the prewritten prayer (the tradition).

Finally, traditions can lull us to sleep. The brain is obsessed with efficiency. The brain is constantly looking for patterns of living or behavior that it can learn and automate for us. Have you ever driven to work and suddenly realized that you don’t remember the last few turns you made (please say yes, I don’t want to be the only crazy one)? When was the last time you had to focus deeply on tying your shoes? The brain begins to record those behaviors in order to free itself up for more complicated tasks. As a musician I am grateful for this mental capacity. As my mind begins to automate one guitar playing skill it then becomes free to focus on a new layer of skill. I no longer have to consciously think about playing a C chord, now my mind is free to think about fingerpicking specific strings in a specific order of the C chord.

One of the reasons you often feel like you need to take a vacation right when you get back from vacation is related to this. Simple tasks like where your toothbrush is location become consciously more difficult when you are away from your own home. Whenever you are on a vacation away, your brain must concisely perform tasks that it usually has automated. That mental activity burns calories and dwindles energy. The other reason you may need a vacation after vacation is if you have little kids with you.

This is the risk of the innately repetitive nature of tradition. A behavior which once instilled mindfulness about values, over time begins to eliminate mindfulness. Well intentioned patterns begin to shut our brains down from truly thinking about their significance. It’s why our minds can go on autopilot during a familiar song or prayer.

This issue is exactly what Jesus is dealing with when he said things like, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Matthew 15:8).”

So tradition is bad? Well, that is not what I said. I think tradition can actually be very good and in my next post I’ll explain why.