As I was reading my Bible in the book of Titus, and researching the man Titus, I came upon this short phrase in 2 Timothy 4:10, “Titus has gone to Dalmatia.” Titus had been left on the island of Crete to appoint elders in the churches and correct wrong teachings when the Apostle Paul moved on to Nicopolis.1 Eventually, Titus traveled further as well, making more Christian disciples and starting other churches. One of those places to which Titus went was Dalmatia. “Dalmatia is a historical region of Croatia on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.”2 It is thought that Titus established the first church in ancient Salona, which was situated near today’s town of Solin.3 Our friends Steve and Amie Gosselin and their two girls recently visited the Dalmatian region. They were impressed by the “mountains, forests, and 1800 km of beautiful coastline with stunning ancient ports and hundreds of Adriatic islands.”4 Dalmatia is also a place that has been highly influenced by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Approximately 90% of Croatians identify with the Christian faith in one form or another.5
Dalmatia today remains a testimony to the lasting influence of a single life. We do not know much about humble Titus. It appears that he did not write anything that tells us more about himself. All we have are 16 verses in the New Testament that tell of his work, mostly done alongside Paul.6 Yet, the fruit of his labour can be seen in Dalmatia today. Of course, if Titus had not taken Christian teachings to Dalmatia it is likely that someone else would have; and Titus was not the only evangelist to travel through this region with the Gospel. Others built upon his work to make the region what it is today; but, the point is, Titus did go to Dalmatia. He started something there. It stirs my imagination to think that you and I can have, and may already be having, a significant influence on generations that follow. It is a humbling and sobering thought.
1 Titus 3:12
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmatia
3 http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=3628
4 http://www.steveamie.com/pages/~longwayhome7_6
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia
6 “Paul writes of journeying to Jerusalem with Barnabas, accompanied by Titus. He was then dispatched to Corinth, Greece, where he successfully reconciled the Christian community there with Paul, its founder. Titus was later left on the island of Crete to help organize the Church, although he soon went to Dalmatia, Croatia.” http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2352
Five-hundred is a nice round, satisfying number. As I write my five-hundredth blog I pause to think of the significance of the words written in this space. Although there are many empty words in our world, words can, and do, make a difference. I pray that some of the words in this blog have made a positive difference and that none, or at least few of them, have been hurtful.
Being born in a country where English is the dominant language, I am blessed to be able to communicate in one of the most prolific languages of the world. People from all over the world seek to learn the language that was modeled for me in my home and taught to me in school. Yet, it is important to note that languages come with a cultural bias; and as a writer, it is good to have a sense of your biases. I recognize some of my own prejudices while other predispositions remain a mystery to me. We can all be helped by those who point out the angle from which we look at our world. I would ask you, my readers, to help me with this as you have opportunity. I also pray that my words might challenge your own understandings of the world and might encourage you to change your thinking on some subjects. I write much about science, faith, God, justice, care for one another, and music. There is plenty of room for disagreement in each of these areas. May we challenge one another to think beyond our parochial perspectives and self-limited understandings.
As in relationships, the most important aspects of writing are honesty and sincerity. Words and relationships are tightly intertwined as illustrated by the words of this familiar Bee Gees song.
You think that I don’t even mean
A single word I say
It’s only words
And words are all I have
To take your heart away1
We will not have influence, nor will we long have friends, if we cannot be honest in our writing and believe the things about which we write. Although you might say to me, “well, that is obvious,” it is important to recognize that we do live in a time where some things that are said and written come from a place of insincerity and obfuscation. If we cannot convince others of the logic of our argument, we can all (and of course all includes me) resort to confusing others or downright lying to people to save ourselves from appearing to be wrong. It was George Orwell that said,
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.
We can readily see what an ugly use of words that could be. Words work best when we use them in honest ways to carefully explain our beliefs. Others can then compare them to their own beliefs and honestly challenge them in places where the words may yet be lacking. In this way the discussion moves forward and we walk away with greater understanding and greater truth. It’s only words, but words are all we have to help each other understand our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs.
My prayer for each of us is that our words may be true and sincere. May our words be precise and precious. May our words be as few as necessary and as grand as possible. May our words be the seasoning of life that flavours the goodness of the world around us. Thank-you, reader, for joining me on this journey of words on the occasion of my five-hundredth blog.
1 “Words,” written by Gibb, Maurice Ernest / Gibb, Robin Hugh / Gibb, Barry Alan.
C.S. Lewis tells a story in one of his novels of a queen who writes two books from two perspectives. The first quote is from book one; the second from book two.
I say, therefore, that there is no creature (toad, scorpion, or serpent) so noxious to man as the gods. Let them answer my charge if they can. It may well be that, instead of answering, they’ll strike me mad or leprous or turn me into beast, bird, or tree. But will not all the world then know (and the gods will know it knows) that this is because they have no answer? . . .
. . . I ended my first book with the words no answer. I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?1
1 (Lewis 1980, 250, 308)
Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces: A Novel of Cupid and Psyche. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1980.
The May 17 issue of Science News features a series of articles about Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter. Europa is perhaps the most interesting moon in our solar system. At roughly two thirds the size of our own moon (with a mass of just 0.0080 times the mass of earth) it is still a small world; but what makes it interesting is its potential for life. Whereas Io is covered in volcanoes (over 400 active on the surface) and Callisto and Ganymede are covered in equal parts of silicate rock and water-ice, Europa is completely covered in frozen water. Recent observations suggest that beneath this thick crust of ice lies a vast ocean; and, there is also much conjecture that it could be possible for life to exist in this ocean.
Arthur C. Clarke, the British science fiction writer, imagined an ocean with intelligent life on Europa in his Space Odyssey books (particularly 2010: Odyssey Two and 3001: The Final Odyssey). Clarke is no light-weight when it comes to scientific predictions, having written scientific papers in 1945 that proposed geostationary satellites before the first one was put in place in 1963. Could Clarke have been prophetic about life on Europa? If pressed about his stories of Europa he would surely say that writing of intelligent life was purely imagination; but that simple microbial and bacterial life would be much more of a scientific possibility.
Arthur C. Clarke once said, “I’m always paraphrasing J. B. S. Haldane: ‘The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine.'”
Today, there are scientists working to test hypotheses about microbial life living in thermal vents in the ocean floor of Europa. If such life could be detected it would be a dramatic discovery that would revolutionize our concepts of life in our solar system and in the universe. Would such life be carbon based? Would they replicate by sexual reproduction? Would they contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)? If they did have DNA would they use the genetic code of the majority of life on earth, the mitochondrial DNA code, or a novel genetic code? Such questions would immediately spring to the minds of scientists and would soon be on the lips of people at Tim Hortons and Starbucks shops around the world. No, this is not some sort of nerdy exaggeration, people would find such things fascinating if such a revolution occurred. Of course the theological ramifications would be significant. The Copernican revolution taught us that the earth is not the astronomical centre of the universe and that the earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around. This had to be considered as humans thought about their place in the universe. Could humans still be a special part of God’s creation if they were not located at the geometric centre? The exobiological revolution of finding life on another planet would lead to an exotheological revolution in which we would again need to consider our place in God’s economy. We would have to ask, “Is life on earth really all that special?” If life could develop on two separate worlds within one solar system, how many more life forms might there be in the entire universe? Might some of them have developed communication with one another? Could they communicate with us? Might they pray to our same God? Might they pray to another god? All of these questions and more would become much more significant the moment life was detected elsewhere.
The articles in Science News suggest that the ability to fully test the hypotheses is still ten to fifteen years away. I hope to live to see the day when there are ice-drills on Europa as we seek the answers to these interesting questions.
I have come to appreciate that life is not easy. I know that God has created a world that is hard work, challenging, full of temptation, and sometimes painful. I understand that this is how He prepares us for living in heaven. I know that He is concerned with “soul-building.” I do not want an easy life. I see how easy it is to be reckless and inattentive when things are going well. Just yesterday, I’d had a wonderful week at a conference and church meetings and preached a challenging sermon at our church about avoiding anger, arrogance, and dishonesty (Titus 1:5-9); then, I confess, to the Body of Christ on the internet, I promptly got into an argument with my wife in which I was angry, arrogant, and loud. What an awakening from complacency! I need difficulty and challenge in my life to keep me alert to the actions of the Enemy.
Much of life, for many of us in Canada, is relatively easy. If we have a decent job, with decent pay, good relationships with people, and a home to keep us warm, life really goes along pretty well; almost automatic. Therein lies the problem. Life can get too easy because
when everything is handed to you
It’s only worth as much as the time put in
Those are some of the words to a song, written by Miranda Lambert, Nicolle Galyon & Natalie Hemby, in which they lament the days when things took a little more work. The song suggests that life really was better before so many things became automatic. The song-writers are correct. God wants life to be less than automatic and wants us to put time into our achievements. Here are the rest of the words to the song.
Automatic by Miranda Lambert, Nicolle Galyon & Natalie Hemby
Quarter in a payphone
Drying laundry on the line
Watching sun tea in the window
Pocket watch, tellin’ time
Seems like only yesterday, I’d get a blank cassette
Record the country countdown, ’cause I couldn’t buy it yet
If we drove all the way to Dallas
Just to buy an Easter dress
We’d take along a Rand McNally, stand in line to pay for gas
God knows that shifting gears ain’t what it used to be
I learned to drive that 55, just like a queen three on a tree
Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It’s only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
If you had something to say
You’d write it on a piece of paper
Then you put a stamp on it
And they’d get it three days later
Boys would call the girls
And girls would turn them down
Staying married was the only way to work your problems out
Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It’s only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Automatic
Let’s put the windows down
Windows with the crank
Come on let’s take a picture
The kind you gotta shake
Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, cause when everything is handed to you
It’s only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
So today, I confess my sins before God and before others and commit myself to once again seeking to live a life faithful to the Lord whom I serve. I embrace the difficulties and the hard-work; I am alert to the temptations and easy paths of life; and I rejoice in the life that God has given me. I will seek to put effort into this life and in this way appreciate the good life I have been given.
Life marches ever onward
Thousands of years come and go
Constant motion of the tides
Beings that ebb and flow
Yet, there’s a change this Earth Day
Parents and all grandparents
Children arrive one-by-one
This blue-green fragile planet
The jewel of many suns
Light begins a new Earth Day
Made from nothing but stardust
She shares the genes of many
One among all on this earth
Her grace is more than any
She’s our little Earth Baby
Small and trivial from space
She stands out among all others
I will give her this earth
We will care for her Mother,
For this precious Earth Girl
Welcome Jordyn Katherine Haeckel (born April 22, 2014)!
Luka
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes, I think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
I think it’s ’cause I’m clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it’s because I’m crazy
I try not to act too proud
They only hit until you cry
After that you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
Yes, I think I’m okay
I walked into the door again
If you ask that’s what I’ll say
And it’s not your business anyway
I guess I’d like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes, I think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
They only hit until you cry
After that you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
Words and lyrics by Suzanne Vega; Published by © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.; 1986
This blog post will be of particular interest to those who are pastors and those who aspire to be pastors. There is much confusion about the role of a pastor and indeed the role of the church in this present time. These words by Donald Bloesch1 are encouraging, humbling, inspiring, and terrifying. These words are worthy of being read at pastoral ordination services.
Our position is that the pastor is an authority figure and a servant figure at the same time. He has been placed in his role by Christ himself through the inward calling of the Holy Spirit, though the congregation must recognize and ratify what Christ has done. The pastor must not lord it over the congregation but be an example of patience and humility. He must give guidance and direction when necessary. He is a resource person to be sure, but even more he is a spiritual director and confessor. He must not be detached from his people but must identify himself with their trials and sufferings. He must intercede for them daily in prayer . . . . He must seek to please God above all and not his congregation, but he must place no unnecessary stumbling blocks before his people that might prevent them from accepting and following the Gospel. He will be willing to share authority with gifted laypersons of the congregation, who are also priests, but he will not abdicate authority by simply parroting the prejudices of his people. His aim is not to help people adjust to their social and cultural environment but to direct them to God so that they will then be inspired to change their environment. He will see his role as a shepherd rather than fellow seeker, since he has been entrusted with a commission to make known the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:17,18). At the same time he will also see himself as a servant who will subordinate himself to his people in their requests and desires, who will make himself continually available to his people as an ambassador of Christ and an agent of reconciliation. Such a pastor will inspire those in his care also to be priests, to be intercessors and witnesses to the truth at home and at work. He will welcome reproof from his fellow Christians so long as it is done in charity and is based on Scripture. A church directed by such a pastor will indeed be a holy priesthood where all share in some way in the priestly and kingly and prophetic ministry of Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit will be in evidence not only in the pulpit but in Sunday school classes, youth groups, and prayer and Bible study groups. The laity will be the missionary arm of the church, for it is through their outreach in the community that the spiritually lost will hear the good news and will be brought into the worship and life of the church.
Donald Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology, p. 122, 123.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_G._Bloesch
The true work of a contemplative nun is praying. I had never appreciated the power and intensity of prayer until I prayed with nuns.
On the surface, praying seems easy. Knit your eyebrows in concentrations, mutter a few words, and then get on with your day. It’s not like that in a convent. Think of the hardest job you could do—mining comes to my mind—and then imagine doing that in silence and in a dress.
Every day the sisters descended into the Pit of the Soul, picked at the seam of despair, sadness, tragedy, death, sickness, grief, destruction, and poverty, loaded it all onto a cart marked “For God,” and hauled it up from the depths of concern to the surface of mercy, where they cleaned it and polished it. It was heavy, laborious work.
– Jane Christmas, And Then There Were Nuns (Greystone, 2013).1
1 Quoted at the blog of John G. Stackhouse Jr.; http://www.johnstackhouse.com/2014/04/07/the-hard-work-of-prayer/
Spiritual exercise for today. Read 1 Corinthians 9:11, 2 Corinthians 11:21-30, and Philippians 2:5-11 (they are quoted here in the New Living Translation) and then consider these questions. “To what am I entitled?” “In what can I boast?” “What privileges am I willing to give up?”
1 Corinthians 9:11
Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink?
2 Corinthians 11:21-30
But whatever they dare to boast about—I’m talking like a fool again—I dare to boast about it, too. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.
Philippians 2:5-11
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
“To what am I entitled?” “In what can I boast?” “What privileges am I willing to give up?”