by the sweat of my thorn scratched brow

Creation: God is good, humanity is good, and work is good (ruling over a good creation). Then came the fall. That is what I am noticing today, not just because it is Tuesday in my 5 day devotional reflections scheme. It really is fallen Tuesday.

Genesis 3: 17-19

He told the Man:

"Because you listened to your wife

and ate from the tree

That I commanded you not to eat from,

'Don't eat from this tree,'

The very ground is cursed because of you;

getting food from the ground

Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;

you'll be working in pain all your life long.

The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,

you'll get your food the hard way,

Planting and tilling and harvesting,

sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,

Until you return to that ground yourself,

dead and buried;

you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

Hmm. Guess that explains a good bit about what is not good in this life. I keep feeling like work should be invigorating and fun and fulfilling, and at times it is. BUT. Man, there are some long stretches of stress and chaos, and if not thorns, at least paper cuts (or carpal tunnel syndrome).

What do we do with the Biblical teaching on a fallen world? We realize that 'positive mental attitude' is not enough. Work is hard because things don't work the way they should. People are unstable, systems are unstable, things are unstable.

Though we must work, and work hard, and work hard at being cheerful at working hard... it isn't going to work. Effort is necessary to have a productive life, but we need more than that. We need a systemic overhaul. The whole cosmos needs a deep and thorough correction. Wrong must be removed and right must be reestablished thoroughly and reliably. Creator, image bearers, creation (in that order).

Today, when I feel overwhelmed by things not going right, I am to remember the big picture reason: creation vs. Creator, the only wise choice is Creator. Our ancestors chose poorly, and too often I do as well.

More faith and obedience in my Creator is my wisest choice this fine and terrible Tuesday.

The FUN of Folly:short term pleasures and the mystery of misery

Proverbs 9:13-18 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,

"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"
And to him who lacks sense she says,
"Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Short term pleasure works when the boundaries of reality are artificially set. By putting bookends to an event one can try and focus on the pleasure of indulgence independently of the consequences. What happens with the negative results of short term pleasure?
A common strategy of those of us who are too often 'simple' is to be confounded at the unfairness of life and the mysteries of misery.
But the truly simple don't waste time pondering the puzzles of anti-pleasure. They just push ahead for the next rush. "yeahhhhhhhhh.... sweet".

photo 1: http://neilbeynon.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/amy-winehouse.jpg
photo 2: http://mockery.deviantart.com/art/Mary-Mary-Quiet-Contrary-71387854

SO SAD... mT 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 6:16-18 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.(17)But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,(18)that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Why mourn? It is good to mourn because life is sad. That's why. 

The weekly story (again) is creation is good but the creation separated from God is not good (it's fallen; rotten). So life is this crazy queasiness of going from exhilaration to nausea and staggering through numb phases in between (for most everyone). I hear there are people who maintain their health, their finances, their relationships, their accomplishments, their spirituality etc. such that they are always soaring like eagles; always. I've also heard of Yetis.

The Bible records life in good ways, but it includes sad, sad, sad stuff. Genesis: God made everything oh so good, including man, but then it is sad. Man is alone (which makes him lonely (which is sad) (which is not good)). Then there is the fall of humanity to the deceit of the spiritually already fallen serpent. We don't have the details of the serpent's story, but apparently it had already gone sad (he is bent on warring with the only self-existent omni-everything being; how sad). Humanity falls, turns against one another, work gets hard, relationships messy, kids fighting with one another, and so on. That's just the genesis of sadness. It cranks up to ultra sad in Jeremiah's lament for besieged Jerusalem:

Lamentations 2:11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.

Lamentations 4:10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

That's sad.

And, no disrespect to Jabez (hard to be disrespectful in that there is practically nothing known about him except he was ambitious) but how about THE PRAYER OF JOB:

Job 30:19-31 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. (20) I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. (21) You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. (22) You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. (23) For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. (24) "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help? (25) Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? (26) But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. (27) My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. (28) I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. (29) I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches.(30) My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. (31) My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

That's pretty sad, huh?

What about Jesus and sadness?

Isaiah 53:3-4 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (4) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

John 11:35 Jesus wept.

 (he was sad)

So where's the blessing? It is in hope. Evil is real and IF…. Again… IF we deal with the pain and sorrow in our hearts and in this world by going to God we can find real comfort (instead of delusion or just being medicated).

Grieve, not for show, but because the desire for unhindered goodness in me and around me isn't there like it should be. Oh God, I'm so sad. Bless me with your comfort I pray.

The darkened hearts of hollow men and kingdoms

Job 24:13-17  "There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.  (14)  The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.  (15)  The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me'; and he veils his face.  (16)  In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light.  (17)  For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

The goodness of light is a reminder of hope.  We need it as a reminder.  Hope is not always so insistent.  A good creation has defied its creator and worshipped itself.  But the glory of the creation is not from the creation, it is from the creator.  The heart of man and the world he inhabits must be changed. Separated from the creator, our glory is hollow and our visions of hope spastic.  All is not well.

Is it like this

In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

Between the idea

And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

an excerpt from

t.s. elliot

The Hollow Men

One Ring to rule them all

A cheerful heart sees good where others can't. Energy, more than metabolism, just rises up out of nowhere. The power of a good mood is such a rush. It is fun seeing people on FaceBook swing the world toward sunshine when something goes right. The status of a cheerful person is strength to the weak.

But what happens when pressure mounts and the sun is eclipsed by the moon? There is a ring of power to rival the one discarded by nine fingered Frodo:

 THE INFAMOUS MOOD RING

The voice of Solomon does it throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. Swinging wildly from joy to despair he observes life under the sun. Yes, God has placed eternity in our hearts, but we can't fathom how it all works. When our mood is good, God is enough. When our mood turns, the problem of evil, the invisibility of God, the goofiness of the brethren are almost too much to bear. Life under the sun is hard; hard on our mood which in turn is hard on our faith.

Ecclesiastes 2:15-23 Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. (16) For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! (17) So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. (18) I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, (19) and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. (20) So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, (21) because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. (22) What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? (23) For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

Lord, be gracious to us; in dark days be our light!

Or else what?

Psalms 10:1-18 Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (2) In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. (3) For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD. (4) In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God."
(5) His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. (6) He says in his heart, "I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity." (7) His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under 

his tongue are mischief and iniquity. (8) He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; (9) he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. (10) The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might. (11) He says in his heart, "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it."

 The invisibility of God, both literally and in times of evil, is the most constant source of angst for those asking about God.  It seems terribly inappropriate of God to exist in such a mysterious way.  But we assume much.  Shakespeare simplifies it this way: "To err is human".  What scriptue tells us is that our inability to see God is very closely related to our inability to see and renounce our own sin.  We take our failures to be part of the mix, no big deal.  Hoever, the human rejection of divine wisdom is the most compelling answer for a cruel and lonely world.  We regularly dismiss God, claiming our right to live our own lives, and then lament his absence when our ways our found wanting.

Does that mean that those who suffer do so directly because of their failures?  Yes and no.  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Yet, God's view of reality is interconnected.  We do not live in careful columns.  My acts affect yours and yours mine.  I suffer from my own contributions to pollution, but I also suffer from everyone else's contribution to pollution.  A sin stained world is dangerous and unhealthy place.  It is not the garden in which only good dwelt.  We wanted to know more, and now we do.

 

T.S. Elliot: FOUR QUARTETS and chasing the wind

excerpts from http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2009/janfeb/15.41.html

What Eliot is saying, according to Howard, "has something to do with the odd business of being mortal … existing here and in time, when all the while we are profoundly dissatisfied with this dismal sequence of past, present, and future … that … drains things away." This situation is all the more maddening when we are blessed—or cursed—with glimpses of something beyond time, something more than the "Years of living among the breakage." Eliot calls these glimpses "timeless moments,

" and he experienced such moments of sight and insight at the four places celebrated in Four Quartets.

Eliot presents a ride in the London subway as an emblem of the modern condition:

strained, time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration

Men and bits of paper, whirled in the cold wind

Ecclesiastes 2:23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.  (24)  There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,  (25)  for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?  (26)  For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

God? Whatever…

Job 21:7-15 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? (8) Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. (9) Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. (10) Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. (11) They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance. (12) They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. (13) They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. (14) They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. (15) What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?'

I recently heard the story of a woman who was raised to follow God. She married a man and they began to raise their family around God, his word, his ways. Then her husband called her mother to say, "She's gone". Leaving her husband, her children, her whole life… she just left. Something more enticing came along and she could not answer the question: "What profit do we get if we pray to him?"

I also observed a very recent answer to prayer, but would that be enough to turn someone toward God? The problem is not that we can't marshal evidence for God, or against God, and back and forth. The problem is that life without God is conceivable and illustrated daily. Yes, there are those who are obviously tragic for their distance from God, but what of those who prosper? They are cheerful, living life with family, parties, success, and yet they emphatically refuse God. This world seems to work for them, and they do not blink when challenged to believe in the unseen God.

Job reminds us that God sees the phenomena, but does not accept the conclusion that it somehow undermines the wisdom of prayerfully serving God. In this world which is in rebellion to God, those furthest from God are at times the ones who are most at home.

* photo: http://carbtastic.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-spy-baller-edition.html

Work is hard

Genesis 3:17-19 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; (18) thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. (19) By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

 

To say "Work=Good" on Monday morning seems out of touch. Today, perhaps a bit late, references why people don't like Mondays. Work is not easy; it is hard.

It is hard to have a vision for a project knowing full well it will be tangled and frustrated with inefficiency, error, meaninglessness and disappointments. What is the hope? Delusion is one option. Just ignore reality and only see the good. Of course that just weirds-out people around you who are aware of the troubledness of the world. Is there a better response? Despair is an option. Give up and mock. As long as most people keep trying there will always be opportunities to mooch off of their productivity and keep mocking the diligent. But is there a third way? Realistic optimism: The fact is that we were designed to be loving, productive, creative and the rest, and that we have fouled our world by straying from our Creator. We can still live out our purposes, it's just that the fallen world is much harder than it was meant to be. So what to do? Groan a bit, but have hope. All the virtuous things have a future. Invest in them.

Health is good; illness isn't

Rainy and chilled London can give one more than just sniffles. I have had a hard time sleeping for the last week. I'm not well. But I can't resist going out with the lads for Monday night football training, even if it is in a wind driven nearly freezing rain. Then I get home and rethink, was that wise? I just want to be healthy.

Healthy... as in "the way things should be". I want my body to function as intended, including energy and creativity and productivity. I want the same in my relationships. Ultimately, it is what I want for the core of me, of my spirit, my will.

As I tried to pursue the goodness that I knew was better than illness, I learned that cough syrups are really not such a good idea (except maybe to be less annoying to those around you). They do not move toward health, they just suspend some of the consequences.

Cough syrups. In winter, nonprescription cough syrups practically fly off the drugstore shelves. But the American College of Chest Physicians strongly discourages the use of these medications because they're not effective at treating the underlying cause of cough due to colds. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/common-cold/DS00056/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

I then thought of other shortfalls in regard to real health; physical, relational, spiritual health. I have to admit I am much more dependent on 'cough syrup' type coping than I should be. Health is not about managing the symptoms of a floundering life, it is about pursuing a fulfilling and integrated life, even if it means having to cope with the lingering symptoms while pursuing that health.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

God makes a world that defines health. Alienation from God introduces a fall from health. Temporary tactics make life ok, but only full and complete reconciliation to God will ultimately deal with the hope of wellness and the abolition of illness, for the body, and the soul.

AND evil…

God created and blessed man. Man left God and his goodness (so he could know good AND evil).

Well, here we are. We know both good and evil. Great.

Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

One of my favorite songs on the matter was blogged a while back: "people just ain't no good" . It's a lovely ballad about lost love and lost hope. I thought about the reaction some might have to Monday's Julie Andrews song. Sickening. Why? Too sweet. Doesn't seem real. We live with disappointment and consider ourselves savvy when we notice the bad. Movies like SAW (never saw it, the poster was more than enough) is more enticing to many. Why? We sense something is wrong and it helps us, in a twisted way, to have that wrong played out for us where we can watch others struggle with it (instead of us).

Monday: God is good and creates good (praise and celebrate)

Tuesday: Man is deceived and foolish and leaves goodness to explore evil. (grieve and decide: is this really what we want?)

Death by Cocoa

Death by chocolate. There are worse ways to go, but it doesn't seem like it when you have taken something you once loved and foolishly misused it until it makes you sick to even see it. That is the nature of sin. Everything God created is good, but the world I live in is awash with evil. Where did all the bad come from?

Good creation is from the Creator. But creation separated from the Creator and his purpose is no longer good.

 Romans 1:18-25 (ESV)

 18For^(A) the wrath of God^(B) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be^(C) known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature,^(D) have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they^(E) became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22^(F) Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and^(G) exchanged the glory of^(H) the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

 24Therefore^(I) God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to^(J) the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for^(K) a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,^(L) who is blessed forever! Amen.

Today I choose to admit that the good of God is absent because of the abandonment of God by creation (like me). I have chosen to use my will, my spirit, my mind and body for my own purposes. I have chased desires of enjoying God's goodness without reference to God, and it did not work. I am using Tuesday's as a time of confession and repentance, a time of fasting and grieving over a world that has gone wrong. Wednesday is the day when God's goodness clashes with creation's corruption. Will it be good news?