Roughing It

3/9/2011 · 0 comments

in meditations

A slightly different version was posted at a2ObservesLent.com, a Lenten devotional site I’m editing for my church.

Lent originated as a time for believers to follow Christ in His wilderness experience—hence the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. For many modern Christians, Lent as “wilderness experience” becomes what one of my kids described as “roughing it” when I asked what Lent was about. In the “roughing it” approach to Lent, we give up things we like in order to make ourselves suffer for a while. Jesus suffered; I should suffer. He gave up His life, so I should give up my iPad. Roughing it turns Lent into a really long, really unpleasant camping trip at a wilderness resort with no running water or bathrooms. You bear it because you have to, but you can’t wait to get back to all the comforts of real life.

I don’t think that’s what the early church had in mind when they set aside time to prepare for Easter. More importantly, I don’t think that Jesus went into the wilderness with the thought that He was “roughing it.” Yes, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that Jesus was led into the wilderness and that there He was tempted or tested. But was He gritting His teeth and wishing the angels would come and whisk Him back to Nazareth? I don’t think so.

Christians of the fourth century used Lent as a preparation for baptismal celebrations that were often associated with Easter; Lent was a spiritual journey. Similarly, Jesus was led (yes, led by the Spirit!) into the wilderness to be tested and to prepare for His ministry. He didn’t suffer for the sake of suffering; He had a purpose. We get a clue into Jesus’ perspective when we hear His response to Satan’s temptation to turn stones into bread so that He could eat:

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

No doubt Jesus was seriously hungry, but in an important sense, He wasn’t starving. He had been feasting on something better than regular food—time with the Father. I can’t help but think Jesus had in mind David’s words:

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)

I’m excited by the prospect of Lent, by the opportunity to go on a journey of preparation, to answer the invitation to taste and see for myself that God is indeed good. Yes, I will be giving up some things along the way, but not so I can rough it. No, I choose to give up one thing in order to receive something—Someone—much better.

Do you celebrate Lent? How would you describe Lent to someone else? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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My name is Dan! What’s yours?

1/3/2011 · 0 comments

in meditations

Haley Ann ButcherLongtime readers, if you still exist, will no doubt expect that this post is my reintroduction after a long absence—and perhaps it should be, but I’ll save that for another day.

No, I’ve been thinking about names. My dog has many names: she’s Haley, Pookie, Pookienem, Bronto-schnauzer, Sweetheart, Good Girl, and occasionally, when in trouble, Haley Butcher (parents, you know the drill—say the full name to get your kid’s attention; same thing here). One thing she is never, ever called: Bad Dog. As I told Isaac and Anna the other day when they were chastising Haley, “She is not a bad dog; what she did is bad, but we will never call her bad, just like I would never call you bad.”

This thought process started a few weeks ago with a visit to the loldogs site:

I wonder how many of us are secretly, in our heart of hearts, dammitdog? Of course, we wouldn’t actually say it, at least not out loud. But if you’re like me, you say similar things in your head all the time: Stupid, Fat, Loser, Worthless, SOB…the list goes on, and many of the names are much worse, unspeakable in polite society. Some of these names come from family; it’s unfortunate that few of us grow up thinking deep down that we are Whozmysweetboymommylovesyou. (Which makes me very mindful of what I call my children!) Other names come from a spouse, teacher, “friend,” someone we dated, a bully—and often, ourselves. Regardless of the source, we internalize and repeat these names ad infinitum.

In the movie Evan Almighty, Evan Baxter repeats affirmations to himself: “I’m happy, powerful, successful, handsome.” Though it’s played as a joke, his behavior is actually on target; we could all use some daily affirmations—new names—to help us see ourselves differently.

With that in mind, here are a few names you can and should call yourself over and over. Try saying My name is

  • child of God (Jn 1:12)
  • beloved (Eph 5:1)
  • Christ’s friend (Jn 15:15)
  • chosen (Jn 15:16)
  • son of God (Gal 3:26)
  • joint heir with Christ (Rom 8:17)
  • temple of God (1 Cor 3:16)
  • new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
  • saint (Eph 1:1)
  • strong in the Lord (Eph 6:10)
  • righteous and holy (Eph 4:24)
  • citizen of heaven (Phil 3:20)
  • delivered (Col 1:13)
  • rooted in Christ (Col 2:7)
  • holy and dearly loved (Col 3:12)
  • child of light (1 Thess 5:5)
  • holy brother (Heb 3:1)
  • justified (Rom 5:1)
  • free forever from condemnation (Rom 8:1)
  • more than a conqueror (Rom 8:37)
  • sanctified (1 Cor 6:11)
  • God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10)

I’m going to say these aloud to myself for the next week and report back on my findings; I encourage you to do the same. Are there names or passages in Scripture that you use as affirmations? Share them in the comments below.

    Tagged as: affirmations, names, scripture

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    “Seven Stanzas at Easter”

    April 2, 2010

    I found this beautiful poem several months ago on Rob Marsh’s blog and have been eagerly waiting for Easter to post it. As I have been reading Adrian Warnock’s Raised With Christ and seen more and more tweets from various believers about the importance of the resurrection, these lines have taken on even more resonance. […]

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    “Dude, what’s your problem?”

    January 26, 2010

    a2’s men’s group met this morning for the start of the spring semester. As we shared our dreams and goals for 2010, a recurring theme was calling: “I want to know what my purpose is”; “I don’t want to wonder what I’m supposed to do; I want to be certain”; “It’s time for me to […]

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    Review: The True Saint Nicholas

    December 24, 2009

    The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas is an easy and informative read. Bennett is a masterful storyteller, transforming what could be a dry encyclopedia entry into an engaging tale. The book is divided into three sections of three chapters each: Life of Nicholas, Legends of Nicholas, and Legacy of Nicholas.

    In Part One, Bennett takes the sparse historical materials as well as the legends and hagiographies and combines them into an interesting story of Nicholas’ life, filling in cultural and historical details and making clear what’s certain and what’s supposition. I appreciated Bennett’s occasional use of Scripture and focus on Nicholas’ faith and service to God. This is not about a historical figure who happens to matter to Christians; this is about a Christian who happens to matter to history.

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    two tools for developing a love filter

    October 4, 2008

    I concluded my last post with the idea that Jesus’ wisdom in dealing with difficult people was the result of filtering their actions and His responses through love–what I termed a “love filter.”

    I should note here that a love filter isn’t rose-colored glasses; choosing to filter people and the world through love is not choosing to ignore problems or act as if none exist. We saw last time that Jesus didn’t ignore problems; rather, He had the wisdom to know when to confront and when to overlook.

    So the question becomes, “How do we love as Jesus loved? How do we develop that wisdom?” This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are two things that are helping me.

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    return of the annoying people; or, I need a love filter

    October 1, 2008

    Getting an eternal perspective on annoying people helped some, but it didn’t solve the problem. For the last few days, I’ve been having fantasies of telling this person–let’s call him Alan–of telling Alan off: kindly and gently, but still telling him off.

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