You Need to Stop Reading So Much

“You Need to Stop Reading So Much!”  This admonition was given to me by one of my customers and friends.  He cautioned me against being too informed about the things that are being done in the government and the world.  He said that I cannot do anything about them, as people are not paying attention.  When I responded that this is the problem, he told me that I cannot change this and that I only cause myself trouble by reading so much.

As a Christian I do find his words to be accurate.  I am deeply troubled on account of my concern for what ought to be, things that I cannot cause to be.  After all, I cannot even make these things to be in my own daily life.  Why should I imagine that I can make these things to be in the activities of the world.

As a Christian I continually face the paradoxical existence of both Saint and Sinner within my being.  Thus, as a saint I desire the Lord’s righteousness.  But as a sinner, I resist Him and His will and His ways and turn from trusting Him to seeking to do for Him what only He can do.

Yet as a saint, I do also have an inborn caring and concern for the welfare of all.  Tyranny and terrorism and war and murder and abortion and child abuse and divorce and spouse abuse and GMOs and processed glutamates and processed aspartic acid and a host of other toxins added to foods and water as well as limitless evils in the world, these all concern me.  I often want to speak out concerning these.

Yet how far can such efforts reach?  Moreover, to what degree do such concerns fall to me?

The Lord does give directives in this regard.  He directs each of us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and to trust that all other things He will see to as well.

Then He also directs each of us to fulfill the duties or responsibilities of our own vocations.  Sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, pastors and teachers, farmers and ranchers, employers and employees, citizens and officials, we each have vocations that bind us to specific responsibilities that are easily perceived.  Of these vocations, some are to be counted as foremost, with others being subordinated to these.

For example, fatherhood is above citizen or even pastor or government official.  Mother is above teacher or employee or employer.  Daughter is above student or student body president.

It seems that Christians frequently forget the proper order and turn things around.  I certainly do.  Sadly, I believe that my blog posts often are a reflection of this.  My daily management of my time reflects this.  How I serve my wife as her husband surely reflects this.

God has blessed me to be a husband.  This is my primary vocation.  I also am a son and a brother.  I also am a son-in-law and brother-in-law.  I also am a friend.  I also am a pastor.  I also am a businessman/arborist.  Husband and head of house both bodily and spiritually is the highest earthly honor and responsibility that God has given me.

It is a great blessing and I will do well to remember this and treat it with the appropriate honor.  Then the blessings attached to all things in my life will be received as the Lord has graciously ordained and godly contentment will rule my life.  God grant this.  Amen.

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Not OK, for You, Man

Yesterday produced various reports of a domestic incident in Darien, CT.  According to police, a family fight ensued between CBS news personalities Robert and Ashley Morrison.  Ashley’s mother called the police to report the incident.  The police found red marks on Ashley’s neck and arrested her husband for felony strangulation.

Here is Robert’s mug shot:



While the various reports all mention that upon arrival the police found Robert’s face bloodied, not a single word is mentioned in any of the news reports concerning how this occurred.

How did Robert receive these injuries?

In the elevated family fracas, who first acted with violence against the other?

How can it be that with two people suffering injuries that only one is charged with violence?

In the film, Joe Somebody, Joe and his girlfriend, Meg, have an argument where she gives him an ultimatum regarding his plan to do something very stupid and wrong.  He has planned and prepared for a fight with a bully who previously assaulted him and humiliated him.  She presents the ultimatum of a choice between keeping the appointment for the fight or keeping her.  He sadly says that he cannot make that choice and walks away.

After facing the bully and declining to fight him, Joe comes to Meg to share the news of his choice.  She does not listen, but reacts angrily and violently.  She first gives a two-fisted and forceful thrust to Joe’s chest.  Then she punches toward his face, which he blocks.  He explains how important she is to him and she calms down and all is wonderful.



How many times is this sort of scene portrayed in the movies?  How many times is this encountered in real life?

How many people will be inclined to call the police upon seeing a woman striking a man?  If a man calls the police saying that his wife is pushing him around and hitting him, will they even respond to the call?  If they do, will they arrest the woman or will they bring a straightjacket for the man and take him for a psych evaluation?

How many wives hit their husbands and when confronted act as though they did nothing wrong?

Admittedly, in many cases it is like a flea attacking a dog.  Yet even the tiniest flea can drive a dog crazy.

I have witnessed women acting violently toward men on many occasions, even as they walked down the street or in a shopping mall or parking lot.  I have never seen the police called unless the man responded in similar manner.  In fact, I’ve never seen people intervene in any way unless the man became forceful.  This is especially true in less affluent areas.

How is it that a woman can be abusive to a man without a strong likelihood of being held accountable, but if a person acts abusively to a horse the person is very likely to be charged with a crime?

What actually transpired in the Morrison household is not known publicly.  Yet the reporting certainly reflects this inequitable perception in society.  Moreover, the reported assumptions of the police also seem to reflect this injustice.  The police responded to a reported incident.  Upon their arrival at the home they find two people with injuries.  The man is arrested and charged with multiple crimes.  The woman is presumed to be an innocent victim.

Maybe the police were correct.

Certainly Robert’s love for his wife should have restrained him from acting as he did, whether or not he was provoked by his wife or even if she bloodied his face.  Certainly he should have found a non-violent way to address whatever issues existed between them, even if this meant leaving the issue alone until they both could confront one another calmly and rationally.

And from a Christian perspective, the responsibility does fall upon the husband to act as the head of his family. This means that he will be the one to bear the injustice and unfairness of the situation.  He will be the one to step back and wait patiently for his wife and family to become calm again.  The Lord has placed this upon the man.  He is to be the stronger one who bears all things in love, dealing with the issues from the strength that the Lord gives.

It is amazing how often extremely heated arguments if viewed in retrospect are perceived as arising from very insignificant issues.  Pride and an unwillingness to bear what is perceived to be unfair are usually the main problems.

     And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
(1 Peter 4:8)

Agape kalupsei plethos hamartion. (1 Peter 4:8)

Agape
veils
fullness
of lacking of share in/missed marks

Husband and wife, sharing together in Agape, see not the missed marks of the other, perceive not the short comings of the other, count not any lacking of sharing in the union with the other, for all that they perceive is the Agape.  It is as though the bridal veil is again covering the bride’s face so that she sees her husband through the veil and he sees her through the veil.  Both are viewed with the perfection of the love that binds them together.

When this veil is removed and cast aside or stored away someplace, then they see each other very differently.  Then every fault, every failure, ever shortcoming is viewed and accounted.

In Joe Somebody, when Joe stops Meg from hitting him and pressed beyond her anger to express his love for her, he tells her: “You're what I want.  I don't think there's anything about you that I don't like.”  She responds: “My ears aren't perfectly even.”  Joe responds: “I like that.”

Joe seems not even to have noticed that she tried to hurt him.  He counts no insult from her ridiculous minimization of her faults with the vain remark about her ears.  He sees only the beautiful perfection of his love for her.

This is the way with Agape.  It is a one-sided love.  Agape is of God.  Thus it covers all to whom He gives it so that they begin to see through God’s love for us, which covers all imperfection with God’s perfect love.  This is more than an emotional attachment or infatuation. For those to whom God’s love is poured out in their baptism, God’s love covers them and fills them completely so that their view of the world is changed.  This is because they themselves are changed.

The beginnings of this are experienced even now for those who are baptized into Christ.  In the resurrection they shall experience this in its fullness everlastingly.

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12/12/12

     In our household this unique alignment of repeating numbers was especially significant. While the rarity of this occurrence is obvious to all, being the last calendar date with such repeating digits for this millennium, for us it also is our twentieth anniversary of our wedding. Thus it is not only significant as it draws special attention to the twelves of 12/12/12, but it also embodies the twenty for the fulfillment of our twentieth year together as one in the Lord, 12/12/2012.

      We both included this in our little cards to each other, but my wife designed a graphic that captures the essence of the symbolism beautifully.

     In our discussions throughout that evening, in addition to giving thanks to God for His gift of bringing us together to live as husband and wife, and especially His merciful and continual intervention to keep us from destroying this union so that we are brought together again and again in His love through His never-ending forgiveness, we also noted how this special choice of dates is one that we chose according to what He worked for us as we attempted to find a date when all of our family and friends could be with us on the day of our wedding. In this we acknowledged that we had no idea that He was giving to us also this special date on which our twentieth year of marriage would be marked perfectly by the numerical notation of 12-12-2012.

      This stands as a reminder of how the Lord always works on our behalf even without our awareness, acknowledgment, or even asking. It is a wonderful blessing that the Lord Jesus has given us a common prayer among us where by His command we do acknowledge all things and receive them with thanks, as we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

      Luther gives a wonderful explanation to this petition:

Give us this day our daily bread.   What does this mean?—Answer.      God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread?—Answer.      Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

+ + +        If we are willing to see it, the Lord makes His goodness and mercy manifest in everything in our lives, even in something as seemingly tiny as a grouping of repeating numbers. Certainly He does so in our marriages that demonstrate to us His holy union to His bride the Church, and in the manifold blessings poured out to us, the children of that union, through the means of grace administered to us within His everlasting household and especially at His Table. Through this we observe in the clearest way possible how truly good our Father and God is.

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