One All-Important Question, Two Life-Changing Responses

Our lives revolve around questions. Spending thirty minutes with a toddler is enough to remind us of this reality. Questions from the mouths of children are so frequent that rattling off one after another has become stereotypical of our younger counterparts, but, if we’re honest, we have to acknowledge that as we grow older we hardly ease up on the question-formulating.

Maybe we don’t express our questions as frequently as we did when absolutely everything was new and unknown, but certainly we still have questions. How can I get this to work? How long will it take me to do such-and-such? Where is that? Who knew? When was such-and-such invented? Why didn’t so-and-so respond the way I thought they would? What happened? Who should I talk to about this problem? Why did this happen?

But of all the questions that run through our minds on a daily basis, there is one question that is of supreme importance. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s the most important question we could ever ask, because its ramifications for our lives are of the most profound nature.

Literally it is a very simple question—just three or four words, and short ones at that. But conceptually it’s loaded—and massively so. Furthermore, it happens to be one that we can find in Scripture. So let’s take a look . . .

Exodus 5 picks up the history of the Israelites at the point when they are on the cusp of deliverance from four hundred years of bondage to the Egyptians. Moses, a Hebrew who was raised by Egyptian royalty and fled the nation after committing murder, has just met with God in the wilderness and has been given the task of returning to Egypt to go before Pharaoh and demand the Israelites’ release.

Accompanied by his brother Aaron, he does just that, as we see in Exodus 5:1 when he says, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness’” (ESV). Pharaoh’s response to this command is to ask a question—you guessed it—the most important question of all: “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?”

Who is the LORD?

Pharaoh isn’t the only one to ask this question, though. Fast-forward a millennium and a half or so, and we arrive in Luke during Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus, being the human that He was, was taking a snooze in a boat that was transporting Him and His disciples across a lake. Meanwhile, a storm developed with high-speed winds creating fierce waves that began filling the boat. Fearing for their lives, they woke Jesus with exclamations of impending doom. So Jesus, being the God that He was, ordered the wind and waves to settle down, and they did, causing the disciples to say in fear and amazement, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25, ESV).

Who is this?

In both of these instances, the question was the same, but the responses differ, as do the postures from which the question was asked. See, Pharaoh had already decided the answer to this question in his heart before he voiced it out loud. His tone was akin to that of Goliath’s, who scoffed at David, “Am I dog, that you come at me with sticks?”  (1 Samuel 17:43, ESV). As far as Pharaoh was concerned, God was not someone who had any authority over him—or any right to presume authority over him. Pharaoh had decided that this Yahweh was not worthy of obedience or even of respect. He was not important enough to be considered.

The disciples, however, demonstrated more genuine curiosity and awe in their asking. They recognized that Jesus was someone who had authority over creation itself, and as their story continues to unfold in the gospels, we see them arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God (see Matthew 16:15-16).  They decided that this Jesus was deserving of worship and worthy of their very lives. 

Now, another millennium later, we are faced with the same question. Who is God? And who is Jesus? God has graciously spelled out the answer to this question in Scripture, but it is up to us to determine whether or not we believe the answer to be true—and to realize how our answers affect our lives.

Do we believe that “He is the King of glory” (Psalm 24:8)? If we do, then we honor Him.

Do we believe that He is, “the Alpha and the Omega […] who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” Revelation 1:8)? If we do, then we worship Him—and if we do, then we can rest in the knowledge that He is in control of all things, always has been, and always will be.

Do we believe that He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35)? If we do, then our souls can be satisfied in Him.

Do we believe that He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)? If we do, then we can trust in Him for salvation and forgiveness.

C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity includes a paragraph that often has been summarized to say that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. That is to say, He made specific claims about Himself, and either He was dishonest in those claims, He was crazy, or He was right. We are confronted with those claims, and we must decide what we will do with them.

Will we ignore them, living our lives for ourselves and striving in our own strength to make it through each day? Will we discount them, telling ourselves that we answer to no one or that we are here for no other reason than to be happy while we can? Or will we accept them, recognizing that God’s absolute power and holiness means we cannot stand in His presence without some outside intervention, that His perfect justice demands the penalty be paid for our grievances against Him, and that His profound mercy and unending love have provided a way for us to stand in His presence through the perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of the God-man, Jesus Christ?

The question, “Who is Jesus/God?” is so significant because it has both immediate implications for our daily lives and eternal implications for our souls. Our answers determine who and what we live for, what we value most, how we make each decision in our lives, and what our fate will be when we die.

Today, Jesus is essentially asking each one of us, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). What will your response be?

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا.

Be Slow as Molasses…to Anger

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “slow as molasses.” Usually, the expression is used to articulate frustration that something or someone is not moving as quickly as we would like them to. If you’ve never looked into the ironic origin of the phrase, look up the Great Molasses Flood of 1919—fascinating story. But I digress. 

In our fast-paced American culture, being slow moving is not the most admired trait. Even in the Christian life, there are many things we are to be quick to do—to listen, to love, to be kind, to pray—but there are some cases when slowness is desirable, and the one I’d like to focus on today is being angry.

Our culture is so obsessed with “being true to ourselves,” which usually involves expressing our “authentic” feelings, that we often accept anger as a good, healthy response simply because it is our most natural response. But we must be wary of looking to our current cultural context as the standard of health over and against the standard of Scripture. Take a look at Proverbs 19:11.

“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense” (ESV).

Did you catch that? This verse tells us that being slow to become angry is an indication of having good sense and that it is actually praiseworthy not to react in anger. But wait—there’s more . . .

“Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly” (Prov. 14:29, ESV).

“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention” (Prov. 15:18, ESV).

“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Prov. 16:32, ESV).

Yeah, but those are just descriptive verses making observations about the way things are, you might be thinking; they’re not telling me to be slow to anger. True, but James is.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” (James 1:19, ESV).

Likewise, God tells us numerous times through Paul to put away anger (see Ephesians 4:31, Colossians 3:8, 1 Timothy 2:8, etc.). Okay, but if someone hurts me, I have a right to be angry. What’s the big deal about being angry when someone does me wrong?  I am so glad you asked.

There are plenty of reasons we should be wary of this vice (not to mention the mere fact that God tells us to put it away from ourselves). For starters, anger is a trap. It might feel good for a moment, and we might feel justified in embracing it, but it has a relentless grip once it takes hold of a soul, and it spawns something perhaps even more devastating: bitterness. These two feed off of each other—and off of us—souring our attitude, tainting our perspective, paralyzing our prayer life, suffocating our spirits, stifling our growth, and destroying our witness. Anger is not to be taken lightly.

The next verse in James gives another reason why we should be slow to anger: “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20, ESV). Why do we care about producing the righteousness of God? Because as Christians, we are called to exhibit God’s righteousness in greater and greater degrees as He molds, shapes, and transforms us into the likeness of Christ (aka God). And guess what—God is slow to anger.

The verse that immediately comes to mind referencing this attribute of God is Exodus 34:17, where God is revealing and describing Himself to Moses: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” (ESV).

Upon further investigation, though, there are so many more references to God’s being slow to anger. Rather than spell out all of them here, I’ll just list them and let you dig into your own copy of God’s Word. Check out Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, and Nahum 1:3.

So it’s pretty clear that being slow to anger is a good thing. But what does that look like? 
Well, I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you from experience that it’s not pretty . . .

Several years ago, the Lord led me through a period of deep emotional pain where anger and bitterness were constantly clambering at the door of my mind and heart. Some days, I gave in, but other days, by the grace of God, the greatest desire of my spirit was to resist. I kept hearing the words of my former pastor Dr. Adrian Rogers that storms and struggles in life will either make you bitter or make you better, and I was determined not to become a bitter young woman. But let me tell you, it. was. hard.

Never before had I experienced such an intense internal struggle or such a strong, almost palpable, awareness of the existence of both my flesh and the Spirit. They were warring against each other, and the battle was fierce. To many observers and companions through this particular storm, I had every reason to be angry. My hurt was incredibly real and the cause of it seemingly unjust.

But God in His abundant patience poured out His grace in my life as He took the chisel to my heart, showing me the magnitude of my own grievances against Him and the utter lack of any right whatsoever that I had to hold a grudge against others, no matter how deep and painful the wounds they inflicted.

My flesh was not a fan of that notion, wanting to cling to a sense of entitlement, curl up in a ball, and lick my wounds, but the Spirit was doing His work, fulfilling God’s promise to guide me into truth, help me in my weakness, and continue the work of shaping me into someone presentable before Himself.

You see, He had called me years earlier, when I became His child, “to put off [my] old self, which belongs to [my] former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires [e.g. those that say that being angry will make me feel better, that justifying my cause will take away the pain, that holding grudges and putting up walls around my heart will keep me safe and make me stronger], and to be renewed in the spirit of [my mind], and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24, ESV). And now He was bringing that calling to bear in my life—a calling that included being slow to anger.

Full disclosure: Was I angry at periods during that season? Yes. Did I have a right to be, by the world’s standards? Yes. Was my self-focused anger pleasing to God? No. But, praise His name, He gave me the strength to repent and resist the forces that sought to harden my heart. It was messy and exhausting, both spiritually and physically. 

In short, it was far from pretty—but it was beautiful.

Why do I share all of this? Because I’m convinced that anger and bitterness are some of the enemy’s greatest weapons, and I am just as convinced that He who is in us is greater than our enemy and his traps (1 Jn. 4:4). The same Spirit that is in me is the same Spirit that is in every child of God, and if He could help me prevail in the struggle all those years ago, He can help all of His children.

I am living proof that He is strong and faithful, for I know without a shadow of a doubt that His grace is the only way I was able to fight and prevail. Sharing this piece of my story is in no way to say, “Look at me,” but rather to say, “Look to Him!” His grace is sufficient, beloved!

Does all of this mean we should never acknowledge our anger? By no means! Does this mean we should always feel guilty when anger is our response? Not necessarily. But it does mean that anger is something we should not blindly embrace in the name of “being true to ourselves.” It does mean that we should examine our hearts, bare our souls before our Savior, and let Him point out to us when our anger is unrighteous, i.e. when it is self-serving, self-justifying, and self-focused (and no, anger over wrongs done to those we love is not always selfless).

We should fight against its chains with every ounce of our weakness and His abundant strength, because this is the fight we were purchased for. Make no mistake, it will be painful. It will involve relinquishing perceived rights. It will require letting go. But, oh friend, the prize to be gained is worth so much more than whatever you are holding onto. The joy and peace to be found in Jesus is indescribably good. The freedom to be found in handing over those burdens and chains to our resurrected Savior is matchless.

Do not be lulled into the trap of anger.  Do not be afraid of acknowledging your weakness to the One who already knows its depths. Do not hesitate to wrestle in the strength of the Spirit against the forces of evil that seek to disarm you. Trust in the Lord and His strength. Kneel in submission and prayer, and stand up to fight. Be slow to anger and quick to run to Him. Trust me, it is worth it. He is worth it.

He is worth it all.

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا.

  

Lessons from Literature: Sending or Savoring? (An Old-Fashioned Girl)

Previously in the “Lessons from Literature” series, we’ve looked at a lesson to be gleaned from the characters and one provided by an author’s editorialization. This time, as we turn to Louisa May Alcott’s 1870 novel An Old-Fashioned Girl, we see a lesson that can be learned from the author’s decision-making process (into which she so conveniently happens to give her readers a glimpse).

Once again, making the point requires a spoiler, so consider yourself forewarned. Nevertheless, I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, so I’ll simply share that Polly, the female protagonist, and Tom, the male one, have spent a year apart after becoming acquainted over the course of years and secretly falling for each other. Thus, they have been tortured over the past year, thinking that their feelings were not reciprocated or, worse, were directed toward others.

Suddenly, Tom returns, and he and Polly spend the evening in the company of Tom’s family. As the evening draws to a close, Polly is standing in the dining room preparing to depart, when Tom enters and soon declares his love for her:

“Do you want to know the name of the girl I’ve loved for more than a year? Well, it’s Polly!” As he spoke Tom stretched out his arms to her with the sort of mute eloquence that cannot be resisted, and Polly went straight into them without a word. (338)

And, here, Alcott makes her decision. Instead of continuing to describe the scene in detail, she writes:

Never mind what happened for a little bit. Love scenes, if genuine, are indescribable, for to those who have enacted them, the most elaborate description seems tame, and to those who have not, the simplest picture seems overdone. So romancers had better let imagination paint for them that which is above all art and leave their lovers to themselves during the happiest minutes of their lives. (338-339)

Even during the height of the Victorian era, Alcott’s readers no doubt would have appreciated a more detailed accounting, but she decides to step back and give her characters some privacy instead. In other words, she recognized that not everything in life had to be published.

Now the most immediately apparent and directly corresponding lesson might be something along the lines of respecting the privacy of couples and not expecting them to share all the minute details about their dates, their engagement, their honeymoon, their everyday life, etc.

But the lesson that first came to mind, prompting this post, is the recognition that some things are meant to be savored, not sent.

This reality was first brought to my attention by a chapel speaker during my time in college who pointed out the effect social media has had on our ability to enjoy the moment. For example, instead of soaking in the sunset, we’re too busy trying to fit just the right portion of it in our frame for a post-worthy photo. Instead of absorbing all the sights and sounds of a celebrity encounter, we’re too busy trying to capture the person’s image to prove and/or boast that the encounter did, in fact, happen.

Ever since that day in chapel, the speaker’s message has stuck with me, because it’s so true. How often do we think in terms of social media posts, or, put another way, how often do we do things that we wouldn’t normally do just because we could post about it on social media?

Even that extreme aside, how often do we focus more on documenting moments than we do on living them? Or worse, how often do we miss the still, small whisper of God because we are consumed with snapping a photo before the moment flies by? These are penetrating questions, but ones worth wrestling with.

Don’t get me wrong, as a historian and archivist the impulse to document moments is a strong and often useful one, but I have come to realize that sometimes there is more value in absorbing the full measure of a moment than there is in rushing to document it. As Alcott so elegantly wrote, some things are “above all art,” so trying to capture them and force them into written words or a conglomeration of pixels not only is futile but also detracts from the moment’s poignancy.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should never record videos, post pictures, or write entries in our journals. There are certainly appropriate times to do each of these things. But sometimes we should consider what we are missing when we choose to publish instead of pause. What moments we squander when we neglect to savor them and instead send them across the web!

So let's learn a lesson from Louisa May Alcott and leave some things undescribed. Who knows what raptures await?

Citation: Alcott, Louisa May. An Old-Fashioned Girl. New York: Puffin, 2004.

Beautiful Blessings: A Closer Look at the Beatitudes

Opening Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes (found in Matthew 5:2-12) comprise probably one of the more well-known passages of Scripture in the culture at large today. The refrains, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” “Blessed are the merciful,” and “Blessed are the peacemakers” are phrases that I would guess many people would recognize, even if they didn’t know where the phrases came from.

For Christians who have grown up in church, the Beatitudes are one of those passages that it’s easy to breeze right by, having heard them scores and scores of times. For me, they’ve always been verses that were comforting—after all, who wouldn’t want to read about blessings?—but ones that were also a little confusing.

The way I had read them (and often had heard them spoken about), made it seem like the blessings to be had were general, unspecified bits of goodness that were bestowed upon people who fit the description in the rest of the phrase—mourners who were comforted, meek who would inherit the earth, pure in heart who would see God, etc. The second Beatitude in particular, left me with questions: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (v. 4). Why would being comforted in mourning be something God would bless you for? I thought.

Ah, but then one day I had a lightbulb moment reading the verses I had read countless times before, and I realized that I had been misreading them all along. More specifically, I had been misreading one word all along, and that word made all the difference. . . .

“For” is a tricky little word in the English language. It can be both a preposition (as in, “I made this for you!”), or it can be a conjunction (as in, “She was tired, for she had not slept well the night before.”)  The latter is how we see it in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (v. 3). But even in its role as a conjunction, “for” can have various implications.

To say, “She was tired, for she had not slept well the night before,” is to say that the reason she was tired is that she hadn’t slept well. But to say, “The film was acclaimed, for it won an academy award,” is to say that the way in which the film was praised was through its being awarded an Oscar.

Prior to my lightbulb moment, I had been reading the Beatitudes according to the first implication. That is, I took “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” to mean that the reason the merciful will be blessed is that they will receive mercy. No wonder I was confused!

As I came to realize my error, I saw that the second part of each sentence is not telling the reason why a person will be blessed; it is explaining the manner in which the person is blessed!

So the poor in spirit are blessed in that the kingdom of heaven is theirs (v. 3).

Those who mourn are blessed with comfort (v.4).

Those who are meek are blessed with the earth as their inheritance (v.5).

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed with satisfaction (v.6).

The merciful are blessed through being shown mercy (v.7).

The pure in heart are blessed by seeing God (v.8).

The peacemakers are blessed in that they are adopted by God (v.9).

Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed with the kingdom of heaven (v.10).

See how a proper understanding of that one little word completely changes the meaning and significance of the passage?

Furthermore, with this understanding nailed down, we can begin to discover other truths about these blessings. First of all, they are passive. In other words, they are gifts, not something that the person receiving the gift does for himself. (Incidentally, this is another huge clue that the “for” refers to the “manner in which” instead of the “reason why.”) Comfort, satisfaction, and mercy are things that do not come from within us ourselves. Likewise, adoption and the corresponding inheritance of the earth, the kingdom of heaven and face-time with God are things that are bestowed upon us. They are gifts of grace.

Secondly, the blessings are distinctly spiritual. None of them include tangible things. So if you’re looking for something to support the prosperity gospel mindset that if you love God and do what’s right, He’ll make you—to borrow a phrase from Benjamin Franklin—“healthy, wealthy, and wise,” there’s nothing to help you here. And really, this should be no surprise, given what God tells us elsewhere in His Word. For instance, through the apostle Paul, He has told us that He “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3, ESV, emphasis added).

Yes, every good thing we have is from God (see James 1:17), including physical comforts, but the blessings that are far more consequential and enduring are those of a spiritual nature such as conviction, forgiveness, love, mercy, peace, satisfaction, joy, and comfort, not to mention the ability to enter into the presence of God and to do so without shame.

There’s so much more that could be written about the Beatitudes—my dad once spent about ten weeks teaching through them on Sunday mornings!—like how they are structured intentionally, beginning and ending with the kingdom of heaven; how they are related to persecution; how they illustrate the progression of sanctification (i.e. growth in holiness) in the life of a Christian, and so much more.

But for now, I’ll just leave you to ponder these blessings that are yours in Christ Jesus, for they are beautiful blessings, indeed.   

Connecting the Dots

Have you ever had one of those earth-shattering moments when you realize two people you’ve known in different capacities, perhaps at college or at church, are actually related to each other? I can’t count the number of times that has happened to me, with my reaction being something along the lines of, “Wait--what? . . . What?? No way! How did I not know that?!”

If you’ve ever been there, then you understand how your world suddenly is realigned as you begin to see connections to which you were heretofore completely oblivious. You start to recognize that, yeah, they do have similar mannerisms/expressions, or actually they do kind of look alike now that you stop to think about it.

Not only that, but also the framework in which you view said acquaintances is totally shifted. You realize that each has a history with the other person that is deeper than what you have with either of them. The lens through which you view them is adjusted to include this new information that they have a sibling or a cousin who is living and interacting in the same environment that you all share. In other words, you see each person in a new, fuller context.

A similar effect occurs when you have an interaction with someone as a stranger or an acquaintance, only to become good friends with him or her years later. It’s mind-blowing when you realize that the encounter you had all those years ago was with the very same person that you know so well now. Suddenly, you have to adjust your understanding of that person to include all your interactions with him, or perhaps more accurately, to recalibrate your understanding of that past encounter against the depth of knowledge you have about that person now.

I’m guessing that many of you have experienced at least one of these connect-the-dots moments, but I wonder if you’ve ever had such a moment when it comes to God? Today, I’d like to invite you to consider with me the joy of a dot-connecting quest with the Divine.

There are countless opportunities for us to connect dots in Scripture, whether it be along lines of theme or chronology or biography, but the dots I’m thinking of today are those that deal with God Himself. I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to read the Bible as a history book (which, in a sense, it is), detached from modern day. Not that there aren’t manifold applications to our modern lives, because Scripture is timeless and is the living Word of God, but it can become very easy to miss the fact that the God who spoke to Moses and Daniel is the same Being we speak to today.

Of course, we all know this intellectually, but do we really stop to consider the practical significance of it? Just as we use past conversations with friends to inform current ones, do we look to past conversations God has had with our predecessors to inform our current understanding of and conversations with Him?

First of all, just take a moment to ruminate on the fact that the God who spoke with Noah, wrestled with Jacob, communicated with Solomon, and answered Nehemiah’s prayers is the same God (see Genesis 6-9, 32:22-32; 1 Kings 3; Nehemiah 1). The main character of the thousands of years covered in the Bible is one Being. We know He is eternal and unchanging, but do we realize the implications of that truth?

It means that the God who spoke with Abraham about Sodom is the same One who said, “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Genesis 18:22-33; Job 40:7-9, ESV).     

It means the Deity who delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace is the same One who said, “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You  are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off’; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Daniel 3; Isaiah 41:8-10, ESV).

It means the Lord, who is our Shepherd, is the same One who said, “Let there be light” (Psalm 23; Genesis 1:3).

It means the Person who led the Israelites by pillars of cloud and fire is the same One who said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Exodus 13:21; Matthew 3:17, ESV).

It means the One who said and did all of these things is the One we speak with even now.

When we pray, we are communing with the exact same person our ancestors in the faith did. And by His grace, He has given us a Book full of context to draw upon. We will never be able to comprehend the complete fullness of the mysteries of God or plumb the depths of His character, but He has given us thousands of dots in the pages of His Word and has designed our minds to have the capacity to connect them.

In Scripture, He has given us both explicitly and implicitly revelations of His thoughts, His nature, His actions, and His words over the course of time. And on top of that, to those who have repented and believed in Christ, He has given His own Spirit to indwell us, so that now, having a personal knowledge of God, we can look back at the accounts we had previously read in Scripture and say, “Look! There He is! That’s Him! He’s the One I know!”

And as we discover more and more about Him in Scripture, we can use our newfound knowledge to inform our understanding of Him today. We can have a fuller context from which to speak to Him, to marvel at Him, and to worship Him. What greater joy than to seek after a deeper, fuller knowledge of God? What more exciting than to have mind-blowing experiences when we connect the dots of who God is? 

I pray that today and in the days to come, you will take time to go hunting for dots and that God will reveal the connections to you by His Spirit through His Word.

Of Pranksters, Pets, and Peaceful Transitions: Presidential Tidbits of Trivia

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved history, particularly presidential history. Visiting Washington’s Mount Vernon and Jefferson’s Monticello at a young age arrested my senses and filled me with an enduring fascination. To this day, rattling off the Presidents in order as I learned to sing them to the tune of “Ten Little Indians” is an enjoyment.

So in the spirit of celebrating our rich tradition of peaceful transitions and the dignity, elegance, and ceremony of an inaugural weekend, here are a few tidbits of trivia about Presidents and First Families past and present. As a contextual aid, the numbers in parentheses indicate the place each President holds in the order, from 1^st to 45^th.

-          Melania Trump (45) is the second First Lady of foreign birth. The first was English-born Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams (6).

-          Richard Nixon’s (37) daughter Julie married Dwight Eisenhower’s (34) grandson.1

-          Donald Trump is the 45^th President, but only the 44^th man to be President. How does that work? We can thank Grover Cleveland for the confusion. He served as the 21^st and 23^rd Presidents, with his first term from 1885-1889 and his second from 1893-1897.

-          Sandwiched in between Cleveland’s two terms was Benjamin Harrison (22), who was the only President to be a grandson of another President, namely William Henry Harrison (9).

-          William Henry Harrison (9) not only was the oldest President to be elected at the time, but also was the last President born as a British subject (i.e. before American independence) and the first to die while President. He was also President for the shortest amount of time, having died one month into his term.2

-          “Thomas Jefferson [3] had a pet mockingbird named Dick, who would hop up the stairs beside him when the president retired for the evening.”3

-          George H. W. and Barbara Bush (41) have become the longest married Presidential couple just this month, celebrating 72 years of marriage.

-          John Quincy Adams (6) served in the House of Representatives after his Presidency.

-          More Presidents (eight) have been born in Virginia than in any other state. They are George Washington (1), Thomas Jefferson (3), James Madison (4), James Monroe (5), William Henry Harrison (9), John Tyler (10), Zachary Taylor (12), and Woodrow Wilson (28). The runner-up is Ohio, with seven, and with Donald Trump’s inauguration, New York has emerged out of a tie with Massachusetts for third place. President Trump joins Martin Van Buren (8), Millard Fillmore (13), Theodore Roosevelt (26), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (32), to be the fifth President born in New York. Massachusetts is the birthplace of four Presidents, John Adams (2), John Quincy Adams (6), John F. Kennedy (35), and George H. W. Bush (41).4

-          Barron Trump (45) is the first male First Child to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. (35) in the 1960s.

-          Gerald Ford (38) was the only President to serve, not having been elected as President or Vice President. He was nominated as Vice President by Richard Nixon (37) to replace Spiro Agnew, and became President upon Nixon’s resignation. He lost his subsequent election run to Jimmy Carter (39).

-          James Buchanan (15) was the only bachelor President. His niece, Harriet Lane, served as First Lady.5

-          The terms of Bill Clinton (42), George W. Bush (43), and Barack Obama (44) [1993-2017] marked the first time we saw three consecutive 2-term Presidents since Thomas Jefferson (3), James Madison (4), and James Monroe (5) [1801-1825].

-          “Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. [26] had a pet macaw named Eli Yale. Other Roosevelt pets included raccoons, snakes, and badgers—and some plain old dogs.”6

-          President Coolidge (30) was known for being a prankster. One trick he pulled off as President was to push every button on his desk in the Oval Office, only to run and hide behind the door as every aide, assistant, and Secret Service member rushed in to answer his call.7

-          Andrew Jackson (7) and Chester Arthur (21) were both widowers by the time they were President.8

-          William Howard Taft (27) is the only former President to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

-          “Grace Coolidge [30] had a pet raccoon named Rebecca.”9

-          George Washington (1) not only set the precedent for serving only two terms (which precedent was broken by FDR and then made the law of the land by the 22nd Constitutional amendment in 1947), he also sent a profound nonverbal message on the day of John Adams’s (2) inauguration. The swearing in ceremony took place indoors in Philadelphia, after which the former President (Washington), the new President (Adams), and the Vice President (Jefferson) would exit to a waiting crowd of the populace. Instead of exiting first, Washington consciously stepped back and made way for Adams, so that Adams would be the first one the people saw. Had he exited first, he would have been sending the message that he was still really in charge, but he deferred to Adams, silently proclaiming that the first peaceful transition of power in American history was real and effective.

      Photo credit: Alandra Blume Hinkle. Used with permission.

[1] Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, “The Nixon Family,” https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/thelife/thenixonfamily.php (accessed January 21, 2017).

[2] Biography.com Editors, “William Henry Harrison Biography,” Biography.com http://www.biography.com/people/william-henry-harrison-9329968#synopsis (accessed January 23, 2017.

[3] Catherine O’Neill Grace, The White House: An Illustrated History (New York: Scholastic, 2003), 122.

[4] Chris Cillizza, “Where every president was born, in 1 map,” Washington Post, January 14, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/01/14/where-every-president-was-born-in-1-map/?utm_term=.b80fadfa43c4 (accessed January 21, 2017).

[5] C. Brian Kelly, Best Little Stories from the White House, (Nashville: Cumberland House, 1999), 377.

[6] Grace, The White House, 122.

[7] Kelly, Best Little Stories from the White House, 54.

[8] Ibid., 377-378.

[9] Grace, The White House, 122.

God of the Body, King of the Highway, Lord of All

Unwittingly or not, we in the Church have fostered the perception that there exists a hierarchy of prayer requests. Ask for salvation of someone’s soul or boldness in sharing the Gospel, and the request is treated as of utmost worthiness. Ask for physical healing for yourself or a loved one, and the request is noted but often with an aside about spiritual encouragement or, if need be, spiritual healing being added to the request. Ask for safety in traveling, and the request is acknowledged almost in passing.

Granted, in some ways these assigned values make sense, for Scripture does teach that eternal things are of the most importance (see Matthew 6:19-21; Matthew 16:26). We can have perfect health on this earth, yet our eternal health is based not on that but on the status of our soul: dead or reborn. Conversely, a person’s physical death, say for instance in a car accident, is not what determines the eternal destination of his or her soul. It’s what we do with Jesus that determines that.

However, the concerning effect of perpetuating such a value hierarchy is manifold. First, the mindset, taken to the extreme, implies that our physical bodies and circumstances don’t matter. But we know, again from Scripture, that this is not true. Multiple times God speaks of caring for the poor and needy (e.g. Deut. 15:11; Acts 2:45). Furthermore, God designed and created our physical bodies, so it stands to reason that He cares about them. 

Sometimes, though, it seems we fail to acknowledge our need. Sure, when it’s cancer or another serious disease, we recognize our inability to bring about healing ourselves. But when it’s a cold or a headache, or some other “minor” thing, we muscle through in our own strength, not thinking to ask our Maker for assistance and healing. Similarly, when we’re pulled over on the side of the hail-assaulted interstate because a tornado is heading straight for us (yes, that has really happened to my family and me), we plead for God’s protection. But when we’re embarking on our routine drive to work, we don’t sense a need for protection.

Another, related, unfortunate effect of devaluing certain prayer requests is the implication that God’s power only extends to the spiritual realm. We know that it is His power that awakens our souls and gives us new hearts in repenting and believing in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, but we reject the doctrine of Deism, which posits that God merely created the world then lifted His hand as He stepped back from any level of involvement in it. The truth is, God is Jehovah Rapha, i.e. the Lord our Healer (Exodus 15:26), and He has the power to heal physical ailments and diseases from big to small.

His power is not limited to the inner workings of the body, though. He is sovereign over external forces as well. The Psalmists speak of God’s protection on numerous occasions (Ps. 5:11, Ps. 68:5, Ps. 91:14, etc.), and there are many accounts of God’s delivering His people from physical danger, even specifically when it comes to travel. In Ezra, we see one example.

Ezra, a priest and prophet living in Persia during the exile (see the previous post for more context on the captor empires), had been called to lead a large contingent of exiles back to Jerusalem. The western journey was a long, treacherous one, and Ezra and his people had no military escort to defend them (see Ezra 8:22). But they had God. “And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him” (Ezra 7:8-9, ESV, emphasis added).

Not only did God protect the returnees, but they knew that He was able to even before He did, and they asked Him to shield them as they traveled. Ezra recorded, “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods” (Ezra 8:21, ESV, emphasis added). To them, asking for safe travel wasn’t a minor, insignificant thing. They knew that they could face very real danger from enemies and the elements, and they were convinced that God could protect them from both. In fact, they took the potential threats so seriously that they didn’t just pray, they fasted. They obviously thought the request was worth asking.

Let us be the same. Let’s not think God is too small or too unconcerned with healing our physical bodies or protecting us while we are on the road or in the air. Let’s also not think ourselves invincible to illness or accidents. Instead, let us cast all our cares on Him, knowing that He does care for us and that He will answer “according to the counsel of His will” (1 Peter 5:7; Ephesians 1:11, ESV). That means, of course, that His answer might be “No.”

Sometimes, no matter how fervently or frequently we pray for healing or protection, God still allows physical death to come or traumatic accidents to occur. Even then, we see that He is sovereign, that life and death are held in his hands, and we can trust that His purpose will still prevail. As the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, how He answers is His prerogative, but far be it from us to neglect to ask.

Photo credit: Casey Cruver. Used with permission.