Lessons from Dissonance

Learning from the sound of nails on the chalkboard.

Dissonance: a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements (Google Dictionary). There are many things in life that would be dissonant, if it were left up to me to bring harmony, consonance, the environmental shalom that is dissonance's antonym, to my environment. I enjoy music that goes straight to my heart and makes me feel good, noble or powerful. I enjoy sitting down in a room that has an "Ahh-ness" about it. Likely what I mean is fen shui stripped of its religious overtones. A meal well-balanced, properly-proportioned, and skillfully-served brings a pleasure that transcends nourishment and taste, though those are important elements. All of those are aspects of life that feel right to me but are beyond my grasp. I greatly enjoy the gifts and labor of others who are able to make those environments and experiences a reality. If  I were to attempt any of them--and I have on occasion tried some of them--the result would be cacophony, disarray,.and perhaps gastric distress. A walk along a creek on a spring morning, or a hike up a hill, covered in new-fallen snow, when the moon is full, or a cup of coffee at the top of a cliff with the surf cascading in its endless rhythm are examples of our Creator's ability to create a world that embraces us in its rightness. The pile of rubble that was a house, visiting a friend at the end of a battle with cancer, a family in chaos, or the ravages of government gone bad are examples of sin's power to twist, distort, violate, and hollow-out until the world is filled with a screeching sound that wails, "This isn't right." It is at this point that dissonance does its work. Our God, Who is the supreme of order and rightness, has brought even the diss-ness of this world under His sovereign will. There is an unmistakable wisdom in the answer of the fool who explained why he kept hitting himself with a hammer, "Because it feels so good when I stop. Don't rush out to the hardware store, but the much-bruised fellow makes a point, a point that is made without the idiocy in Romans 8. Read it. Think about it. Repeat. Do it again. Let the truth, especially the reality of two words, "in hope" in verse 24 soak down into your bones. I helped my son move into a "new" house. The list of things to be fixed is, as the saying goes, as long as my arm. He and his family didn't move here to settle down n the chaos. He and his wife did some calculations. They conclude that it is within their means, that they have the skills necessary to make this a house where the kitchen faucet doesn't make the sound of a distressed animal, the air conditioner goes on and off when it is supposed to, and where the cabinet door in the bathroom swings on hinges instead of lying in the floor. In only the few days I have been here I see order emerging. I have hope--I believe it is an entirely realistic hope--that this house, somewhat battered by neglect and even outright abuse, will become a haven from the turmoil of the world--dare I say, "tranquil"? God is doing that in His world. The dissonance that surrounds us should serve to remind us that this is not the way it is supposed to be, it's not the way it is going to be, and by His grace, God has given me the opportunity to be part of the project that makes all things right. I don't expect you to enjoy that clunking sound from the transmission on your car or the bitter taste of that coffee that's been on the heater too long, and I'm certainly not asking you to go around saying that what is very bad is really good. I am encouraging you, however, to join me in a project. When confronted with life's dissonances, let's be reminded that God is going to make this right, and, then, let's ask ourselves, "What can we do about it right now?" It's STTA. (The STTA link above will take you to an archive of many Things to Think About. Enjoy & Think.)

The Racket of a Fallen World

This world is not a peaceful place.

People who come to my little community here in the Alleghany Highlands often comment about how quiet it is.  Others who visit here complain about how quiet it is. A couple of weeks ago, about an hour away, a guy claiming that God told him to do it, and by some reports yelling "Allahu Akbar," stabbed two people.  Just the other day a young man from right here in my town, suited up in body armor, got his guns and went to the Dam that creates one of the prettiest lakes in the world.  He had heard from God as well.  He was calling the faithful to join him in protecting the dam.  "ISIS was going to blow it up." My little place on God's earth might not be as loud as your place, and the racket this fallen world makes might not rise to the level that its groans become audible as frequently, but"the whole creation" is involved. We can't hide from sin and its consequences.  But, we can be victorious over it.  After speaking with great eloquence about just how broken this world is, the Apostle Paul kicks his rhetoric into over-drive.   “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39, NASB95) It's STTA. The question is, "Are you in Christ?"  Find out more at this site.  It's a message we all need.

It Tolls for Me.

Something To Think About, The Tolling of the Bell:

(Please forgive the lateness of this email.  I wrote it yesterday when these events were even fresher than today.  The reality is ongoing.) They weren't really neighbors, but Alison Parker and Adam Ward used to appear on the local news, the same news that sometimes included stories about my little town nestled in the lovely Alleghany Highlands.  A friend of mine--almost a relative--had recently been shopping at the mall where the reporter and the cameraman were gunned down by a former colleague seeking some warped vengeance. A friend from another part of the world but familiar with the area where the crime took place commented, "If you aren't safe there, where are you safe?"  His question was rhetorical, but the answer is, "No where." John Donne observed, No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;  It tolls for thee.  (Emphasis added) I pray for Alison and Adam's families. I pray for the family of shooter.  Their sorrow must be profound. I am aware, though, that what happened this morning in a lovely resort area does not only impact those directly involved.  It has to do with us all. I am reminded that life is short, this world is full of wickedness, and people need the Lord.  Lord, as I hear the bell tolling, announcing that two more children of Adam have been ushered into eternity, help me to hear it not only as a bell ringing the grief of loss, but as an alarm calling me to service.  Lord, You have made your children ambassadors for You.  We get to proclaim that there is reconciliation in Jesus Christ.  There is peace, there is hope, no where else. Oh, faithful and true one, make me faithful to your call. Amen It's STTA.   You can find out about hope in Christ on this page.

The Absolute Rule of WHATEVER:

Something To Think About, WHATEVER:

Roger Olson uses a word near the end of his excellent commentary on today's American culture--"anomie,"  A simple definition I found for the word is: "lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group."  I tend to agree with Olson.  Some of our culture is already there; much of the rest appears to be following.  We are rejecting any norms that go beyond personal interests and desires, which leaves only personal interests and desires, and leads to the one standard that appears to be rising to absolute dominance in our public behavior and discourse--whatever.   Whatever your decisions and desires, whatever lifestyle choices you make, I should respect those.  Not only should I tolerate them, I need to embrace them.  It is the absolute standard of Whatever.   There is one caveat to the rule of Whatever.  No one should do anything that hurts anyone else.  But even this amendment has been severely narrowed for those who find Whatever to be a rule of life that is lacking.  In broad terms, personal freedom, and opportunity for individual expression trumps all broader societal concerns.  In the world of Whatever when one side of an argument is "This is what I want."  and the other side is, "This is where these personal decisions will lead."  the now and personal will always win.  It's like the old playground basketball standard, "No blood, no foul."  Unless it can be clearly demonstrated that one person choosing Whatever, will bring clear and immediate harm to another--and violated religious standards don't count--then the Whatever choice should stand. Olson raises the question of whether such a social order can stand. But since that question cannot point to any blood on the pavement, SCOW (the Supreme Court of Whatever) declares that the objection has no standing.  The Main Street Journal, in a recent one-word op-ed piece summed it up well: WHATEVER! Again, I refer you to Roger Olson's excellent article. It's STTA.

Futility

Preparing my Easter Sunday message, I have been very impressed with the futility of much of the Bible.  I don't mean to say that God's Word has no value, purpose, or effect.  No, working on this message, which is made up entirely of Scripture, has powerfully impressed me with the power of the Bible.  The futility I refer to, is the record of man's failed attempts to regain what was lost when sin entered the world.

• Adam and Eve vainly attempted to regain the feeling of innocence they had until they ate the forbidden fruit by making clothing from fig leaves.
• After sin separated us from God, people began, "thinking up foolish ideas about what God was like."  They created a distorted picture, that, of course, led to dead-end religions.
• There were troubling substitutions:  They "exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols."  They "traded the truth about God for a lie." And, "worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself."  Though, in our alienated-from-God condition, we might claim "to be wise, instead [we become] utter fools."

Some of these attempts at redemption are incredibly sincere.  The people of Israel, following the pattern of the people around them, "even sacrificed their sons and their daughters."  Sincerity does not, by itself, produce results.

• A big reason people create distorted, and sometimes gruesome, routes to a warped image of God, is because God has declared that the one true way to the one true God passes through some uncomfortable territory, "Each of you must repent of his sins," and make no mistake,  "everyone has sinned."  "We all fall short of God's glorious standard," and, "the wages of sin is death."  Or as I have put it in other places, "The good news begins with bad news."  Rather than accept that, throughout history people have tried to make up their own way.  It is futile.

There is a link below that takes you to a page that has a great deal of information--both on the page itself, and by way of links--about God's way, The Way, The Only Way.
Don't spend your life in futility.

It's Something to Think About.

Herod's ilk lives on:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT There is a noble attempt to focus all the Christmas  energy that has erupted around us in lights and greenery, back on the real story of Christmas--the incarnation of Christ.  I am heartily in favor of the effort.  Our just completed Live Nativity at CBC is one such effort. Thirty-two years after His birth Jesus said that He had come to seek and save the Lost.  (Luke 19:10)  This morning I was reminded that both then and now  "the lost" are in abundance.  The ugly stain on the Christmas story is Herod's murder of all the little boys in Bethlehem.  Scholars argue about the numbers.  Suffice to say that Bethlehem was just a small town, but I hasten to add the death of any innocent children is a tragedy.  (Matthew 2:16-23)  Herod's murder of the innocents was totally in character.  Brother-in-laws, sons, and wives, were all victims of Herod's murderous, suspicious, jealous rage. It has been reported that Uncle Jang Song Thaek was executed for "corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and leading a 'dissolute and depraved life.'"  Not likely.  Somehow he found himself in the way of his beloved nephew's ambitions.      His ilk lives on. Dennis Rodman's buddy, Kim Jung Un, just had his Uncle killed.  The North Korean dictator saw some threat in Uncle Jang Song Thaek.  The Herod's, Stalins, Hitlers, Saddam Husseins,  and Uns of the world know how to deal with competition--real or imagined--eliminate it.   Because there are more of us, and because news travels farther and faster in our day than in Herod's, we hear about more evil.   Murderous leaders still plot and kill. Innocent babies are still killed for no good reason. Populations still cower in fear under the sandal, boot, or elevator shoe of cruel tyrants.   More than ever this world needs Jesus! With a wish for the best of Christmases, it's Something To Think About, from the Covington Bible Church.