A Radical Example

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Whenever I’m around young children, I’m fascinated by their learning style as miniature mimickers. Whatever we do, they try to do. Our flawed examples are, unfortunately, passed along to our kids, which is exactly why I’m thankful we have Jesus as a better standard. We know he never sinned, so we can guess what his first 30 years were like, which is what we are to imitate.  

He obeyed his parents 100%, although surely there were times when he felt like disobeying. He put his siblings ahead of himself and observed what others needed. He never took anything that didn’t belong to him, and never swore. He participated wholeheartedly in every Sabbath day worship, and nothing in his life mattered more than his relationship with God.

He never longed to own something that belonged to another person and never said nasty things about someone else to make himself look better. He never told a lie or withheld the complete truth, and because he wasn’t married, he never slept with a woman.

We ought to be stretching ourselves toward leading this kind of a life.

Once Jesus began his formal ministry as a teacher, he continued to be a spectacular model. He didn’t hide out in solitude but spent time in public, healing, helping and educating people. He was a radical, a strong person who shook up the status quo. He revolutionized the Jewish religiosity of the day and trimmed down hundreds of laws to two: loving God and loving others.

I’m glad Jesus’ angry outburst at the temple was included in Scriture. The story describes him responding negatively to merchants who were selling animals there. The Bible says he made his own whip to rout them out, probably by striking directly at them. I find it fascinating that in his anger, Jesus took time to find the materials he needed and weave together an effective whip.

He then showed strength and determination as he chased out men and animals alike, following that by scattering their coins all over the floor. He finished by flipping over the massive wooden tables used to transact business, proving he was not the weakling many pictures show him to be. Finally he shouted, “Get these [animals] out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

We already knew we were to model our lives after the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” But did we know we were to imitate this other Jesus, too? None of us will ever need to do exactly what he did with a whip in a temple. But we’re all called to live radically with a personal passion to pursue righteousness.

I’m wondering if I’ve even begun.

”All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you. They will speak of the glory of your kingdom; they will give examples of your power.” (Psalm 145:10-11)

Doing the Right Thing

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I’m proud of my daughter Linnea. She’s good at doing life and doesn’t shy away from challenges. But what impresses me most is her strong sense of compassion for others.

Today I was given an unexpected treat. Linnea began helping at a local pregnancy center a couple of years ago, and last summer she joined the staff part-time, one evening and one morning each week. Because she’s been on vacation with us at Sanibel Island but is now home, she needed to catch up on her work at the center, and I tagged along.

Linnea is responsible for a 12 week teaching course encouraging first-time parents through their pregnancies and into the early days of parenting. They’re coached to think about their babies long-term and are also given practical tools about finances and budgeting, marketability and careers.

The teaching task is immense, but the women working at this pregnancy center have a vision to save babies and assist the young mothers into their new roles. The center offers an incentive for coming to meetings: Baby Bucks to be spent at the baby boutique there.

Girls who come to meetings and do the homework can accumulate enough Bucks to purchase a brand new baby bed for their little one. Smaller amounts buy baby clothes, blankets, diapers and toys. Maternity clothes are also available and can be checked out like library books, no charge if they’re brought back after use.

Linnea showed me shelves full of baby gift bags for mommies who return after giving birth to show off their newborns. Each bag is assembled by a couple that donates the contents and wraps them festively.

I also got to see and hold soft, plastic baby-models, weighted correctly to represent in utero babies in different months of pregnancy. The girls can cradle these babies while visualizing their own, beginning to understand what’s going on inside of them.

I saw counseling rooms, a large group meeting room, the room in which results of pregnancy tests are made known, the various offices and the door leading to an ultrasound room. It’s a rare mother-to-be who sees her baby on an ultrasound screen and still opts for abortion.

The center was quiet today, so while Linnea went about her work, I found a chair in the reception area to spend time praying. Soon the director of the center arrived to do some work of her own. I introduced myself as Linnea’s mom, and she said, “I can’t tell you what an asset Linnea is to our team. She’s done wonders for our entire teaching program.” If a heart can be warmed, mine was.

Linnea works hard to free herself from the at-home mothering she loves in order to be at the center two days each week, but she does it because she feels compassion for the girls, and because there are eternal consequences to the work. Her desire is to help as she can and to prepare each mother-to-be for the challenge ahead.

God is pleased. And so am I.

May God “make you worthy of his calling, that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.” (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

The Black Club on Vacation

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The Black Club recently convened in Florida. Jack and his cousin-dog, Sydney, have enjoyed a week of daily fun together on Sanibel Island, working hard to keep cool in their black fur. The first day, when both dogs were panting hard, Skylar suggested they might feel cooler if they took off their fur coats. When I asked her how to do that, she demonstrated the movements of removing her own invisible coat, first the zipper, then each arm. I said, “Ok, let’s take the dogs’ coats off,” she looked diligently for their zippers but never did find them.

The Black club members couldn’t believe how salty the ocean tasted compared to Lake Michigan but kept sampling it, shaking their heads in disgust after each gulp. Regardless, their happy dances continued uninterrupted, and both of them were pleased to be included on the family trip.

Dogs are well-liked on Sanibel with quite a few of them out on leashes strolling the beaches every morning and evening. Jack and Sydney wagged their way up to enthusiastic strangers but lived for off-leash romps in the Florida greenbelt (a tropical substitute for sand dunes) when other dogs weren’t around. Both Jack and Sydney adapted to vacation life quickly, and as long as we were nearby, they were completely content.

I wish it was that easy for the rest of us to find contentment. God offers to provide it for us if we’ll take him up on it, but most of us quest after it through our own methods, ignoring the Lord’s ideas. One perfect example is a family vacation. Looking forward to it usually includes an expectation of contentment that’s very rarely realized. Instead we work hard (while on vacation) to adjust (to our vacation), and struggle to resume the routine (after our vacation) when we get home.

It’s curious that the words contentment and contention resemble each other closely but have opposite meanings. The first is to be emotionally satisfied, the second to struggle in opposition. Much of our effort to find contentment is really contention with God’s scriptural principles.

What are his ideas on how to experience contentment? Here are just a few, taken from biblical passages:

  • Appreciate what’s in our closets.
  • Express gratitude for our homes.
  • Tell our complaints to God not others.
  • Take care not to love money.
  • View crises as tests we want to pass.
  • Share what we have.

Each of those may, at first, seem to oppose contentment, but they work. The age-old theory “more is always better” is a fantasy, a trick of the devil leading to permanent discontent instead.

But if this list is too hard to pursue all at once, we can always do what Jack and Sydney did to be content: dig a hole and crawl in.

“Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.” (1 Timothy 6:6-7)