Movies, Martinis, and Musical Moves

“As obedient children, not conforming yourselves

to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;

but as He who called you is holy,

you also be holy in all your conduct.”

1 Peter 1:14-15

The gaunt old man pulled a squeezebox from its case and stepped to the pulpit. He looked into the distance, as if remembering a special day sixty years earlier, and paused. A few snickers sounded toward the back of the auditorium. And then he pulled the bellows apart and began to croon his way through a fifth-rate poem set to sixth-rate music, the hymn he himself had written, a hymn we ourselves had never sung.

The year was 1987, and the speaker was a visitor at Cedarville College. His appearance as a chapel speaker that day was a ‘one-off’, a one-chapel presentation by a guest; and none of the students, myself included, had ever heard of him. We didn’t expect much.

I tried to follow the message, but it seemed irrelevant. He talked about life ‘back then,’ read a few verses, and told the back-story of the hymn he had written. To hear him tell the story, that hymn had been a real bestseller. This seemed a little farfetched, as I had heard better jingoes for breakfast cereals. And I faded out and started to review my Greek vocabulary cards.

Then he said something that caught my attention and hit me like the proverbial two-by-four between the eyes. It proved to be one of the most memorable things I ever heard at Cedarville. Here’s what he said:

“When I was boy, my mother and father refused to give me a dime to go to the movies. They knew about the lifestyles of the people who made those movies, of the writers, the directors, and the actors. They knew what those people believed. And they refused to permit me or my siblings to give one solitary dime to support those folks and their lifestyles. And the other believers refused to let their kids go either.

“Nowadays, you’all are watching movies on VCRs and TV. Some of you even go to movie theaters. But, what I want to say is this: those folks haven’t changed, you have!”

This statement hit me hard, because the watching of movies by Cedarville College students was a widely discussed topic (at least among the student body). The rule of the college, one of the rules students agreed to when enrolling, was that attendance at movie theaters was forbidden. This was a throwback to earlier days, when fundamentalists believed that attending cinemas was immoral, and it had been a longstanding rule. What had precipitated increasing debate was the rise of VCRs. With the introduction of VCRs, it was possible now for a person to rent and watch a movie in the privacy of one’s home. This raised the obvious complications of a rule that forbid watching a movie in one location but not another. Was the movie itself the problem? Or was it attendance in a public venue to view the movie? Or was it a combination of the two?

The students, at least the more vocal students, were lobbying for the abandonment of the rule. Students should be free to attend movies in cinemas, they argued. The only standard that should be demanded is that they exercise personal spiritual discernment and avoid questionable content.

Fast forward to today. Students at Cedarville are now free to attend cinemas. The issue of attendance at movie theaters is history, and new issues have arisen, issues such as social drinking and dancing.

Let’s consider those two issues for a moment. During the last century, most Baptist fundamentalists – more often called evangelicals now – were opposed to social drinking and dancing. We acknowledged the evils that accompanied social drinking and decided to separate ourselves corporately and publicly from the practice. We did the same with dancing. In recent years, however, many of us, including the folks at Cedarville University, have been reconsidering.

That’s a good thing, right? After all, we all know that the evils related to alcohol consumption are less now than they used to be, right? Alcohol-related incidents of domestic abuse and vehicular homicide are fewer, right? And we know that dancing today is more modest and God-pleasing than it was in the days of Elvis, right?

No. That’s ludicrous, of course. (And sorry about the sarcasm.) We all know that alcohol is no less of a problem than it was fifty years ago, and dancing is no more modest today than it was years ago. In fact, if you consider modern day ‘dancing,’ I would suggest that what is considered ‘family-friendly’ and acceptable during prime-time television would have been considered porn fifty years ago. Case in point? Beyonce’s performance at this year’s Super Bowl’s ‘family-friendly’ halftime show.

So what has changed? Have the standards of God’s Word changed? Are we finally unshackling ourselves from our puritanical, legalistic roots? Or are we falling into licentiousness?

I would suggest it is the latter. Those who lobby for less restrictive standards often put their arguments in the context of grace, but, in doing so, fail to recognize and affirm that the call of grace is greater than the call of law. Law asks what the least is one must do. Grace asks what is the most one can do.

The issue here, ultimately, is the standards that should accompany salvation, not the requirements to attain it. The standards to which we hold ourselves as believers should reflect the highest standards of God’s Word. Discussions of those standards should not degenerate into arguments over whether a particular is so worldly that it should be abandoned. The question raised should be: Is this behavior pleasing to Holy God? Not, Is ‘okay’ with us doing this behavior.

Incidentally, have you noticed that things usually deteriorate rather than get better? Perhaps it is the same with colleges, mission agencies, and local churches. Apart from the grace of God and the determination to live separated lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do no better. We will fall into spiritual and moral laxity.

But, praise God, we need not fall! God has given us His Spirit in full, to convict us of our sins, to call us to repentance, and to conform us to the image of His Son. In His strength, we can realize higher standards, cognitively and practically. We can glorify Him with holiness, if we will listen to and heed His Spirit. Will we?

-Christian Pilet

A Slice of Pie

“There’s a land that is fairer than day,

And by faith we can see it afar,

For the Father waits over the way

To prepare us a dwelling place there.

In the sweet by and by

We shall meet on that beautiful shore;

In the sweet by and by,

We shall meet on that beautiful shore.”

The hymn “The Sweet By-and-By” was published in 1868 and quickly became a Gospel favorite. Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn have all recorded versions of it; Charles Ives used it in sections of several orchestral works; and several movies have featured it, including, most recently, Django Unchained. But why has it become so popular? Is it the words, the tune, or the combination of the two?

It’s probably the latter, but I suspect its popularity arises primarily from the Christian optimism it expresses, that a future home exists to which believers shall one day retire, a place in which the voices of the redeemed will mingle in praise of the One Who has secured and prepared that eternal rest, a place where “We shall sing on that beautiful shore the melodious songs of the blest, And our spirits shall sorrow no more Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.”

The hymn has not always been well received. Any song played over and over grows odious, and this one was no exception. As its strains filled the parlors and churches of America, Mark Twain paid it a dubious homage by including this spurious account of its origin in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court:

In a gallery a band with cymbals, horns, harps, and other horrors, opened the proceedings with what seemed to be the crude first-draft or original agony of the wail known to later centuries as "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." It was new, and ought to have been rehearsed a little more. For some reason or other the queen had the composer hanged, after dinner.

On the basis of that narrative, we can guess that Twain’s objection was to the melody, as only the composer was hanged, not the lyricist. Other critics have not been so charitable.

One of those critics was Joe Hill, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, the anarchist-syndicalist labor organization (a group known as the “Wobblies”). In 1911, he wrote a parody the hymn in which he lambasted the Salvation Army for offering salvation to the homeless, but not enough food. It went like this:

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

This parody gave rise to the expression “pie in the sky in the great bye and bye.”

The first time I heard that expression. I was sitting in a U.S. history class. The class took place after lunch in an overheated room without windows, the teacher was a bit of a droner, and his lecture series was entitled something like “Pre-Civil War Circumstances in the Southern States,” so I was having trouble staying awake. But I did catch an offhand comment he made about the slaves. He said they found, in Christianity, a panacea that enabled them to endure the hopelessness of their bondage. He said Christianity gave them “pie in the sky in the great bye and bye,” and I think he added “opiate of the people” under his breath. It was not a flattering description.

So, wow, two very different understandings of Christianity. But which is it? Panacea or promise?

The answer to that question is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ really occurred, then His claims were substantiated and He really was the Savior of the world. If He is risen, then Christianity proclaims the Promise, the Hope, of humanity. But if the resurrection did not really occur, then Christianity is a man-made religion and offers no hope beyond the grave. If Jesus died as all other men die, then Christianity is nothing more than a lie and a panacea.

Thus, to determine if Christianity is panacea or promise, one must answer this question: Is Jesus risen from the dead?

Fortunately, that question can be answered beyond a reasonable doubt. The answer is, “Yes, He is Risen.” The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact demonstrable through the accounts of eyewitnesses, written records (both Christian and non-Christian), external evidences, and its historical impact. Don’t believe me? Study the evidences for yourself. Need to know where to find them? Just give me a call or jot me a note, and I’ll point you in the right directions.

I am not a Christian because it serves me well; I am a Christian because Christianity is true. Yes, it serves me well, but it serves me well because it is true.

Why are you a Christian?

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ,

we are of all men the most pitiable.

But now Christ is risen from the dead,

and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

1 Corinthians 15:19-20

A Religion of Peace?

Breadcrumbs taste better than nothing;

Nothing tastes better than a big, juicy steak;

Therefore, breadcrumbs taste better than a big, juicy steak.

Ah, equivocation…

My informal introduction to this informal fallacy took place in geometry class as the teacher was droning on about lines and rays. I had doodled my way forward several chapters into the textbook, and then I stumbled upon the syllogism above. As I read it, my heart soared. Words, words! How mighty are words, I thought. Used adroitly, they can trap the truth, encapsulate it, and then twist, contort, and invert it. They can make falsehood truth, and truth falsehood. They have the power to prove the improvable. And I realized then that, if I learned to use this simple rhetorical sleight of hand, this verbal trick called equivocation, I too could wield that power. – Oh, equivocation, mighty equivocation. You sure seemed like a key to power back then. – If I remember correctly, equivocation’s unexpected appearance at that moment hit me like a swat from a storm trooper’s boot, and I popped out an evil prepubescent chuckle. Or was it the school lunch’s fault? Anyhow…

In reality, of course, the syllogism above does not prove the improvable. The carnivores among us will not be convinced by it that breadcrumbs are tastier than a slab of prime rib, and they will quickly point out the obvious, that a new meaning has been substituted in the second line for the word ‘nothing’, and that the conclusion is created by assuming the equality of the ‘nothing’ on the first line with the ‘nothing’ on the second line.

We could lay out the syllogism in simpler terms, like this: A is better than B; B is better than C; therefore, A is better than C. And when we lay it out that way, it becomes clear that the syllogism remains valid as long as “B” is really “B”. If, however, we insert something else for the second “B”, then it is no longer a valid argument. That pseudo-argument would then look like this: A is better than B; X is better than C; therefore, A is better than C. And any nitwit can see that this latter argument is a failure. The second statement says nothing in relationship to the first.

In the years that have passed since geometry class, I have learned a lot more about deception. (I wish I could say I learned a lot more about geometry, but that wouldn’t be true.) And I have learned that the one of the best ways to pass off a flawed argument (like the one above) is to add “spikes.” These “spikes” are needless details included in an argument for the purpose of diverting attention from the overall logical structure of the argument. Inserted skillfully, they can lull hearers into a stupor in which they fail to catch the logical error included in a premise. The use of spikes (and other rhetorical devices) can make simple arguments complex and cause perceptive people to play the part of patsies.

Now, let’s change topics. For just a moment, consider with me these two concepts: “Islam” and “peace.”

I suspect you have heard these two concepts used in relationship to each other. If you heard President Bush’s speeches following 9-11, or President Obama’s speeches during the past several years, you have. And they are often used in the context of proclaiming Islam to be a religion of peace. Here are a couple of examples:

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace.”

President George W. Bush – September 17, 2001

"Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism; it is an important part of promoting peace."
President Barack Obama – November 7, 2010

Yep, in the past decade, Islam has been routinely referred to as a ‘religion of peace’ by our public officials, usually in the aftermath of some horrific attack perpetrated by Islamic ‘extremists.” As we hear our governments make such statements, most of us say, “Huh?” We have witnessed the destruction of the twin towers, the beheadings of American citizens, the bombings at the Boston Marathon, and the murder yesterday in the streets of England; and we wonder how anyone could claim that the religion these people claim to follow is a “religion of peace.” And, yet, we are assured, Muslim authorities maintain that the Quran teaches the way of peace and Islam is a religion of peace.

So, what’s up? Is Islam a religion of peace or isn’t it? Are these terrorists just the lunatic fringe or aren’t they?

Today, I want to suggest to you that we are witnessing a reappearance of our old friend equivocation.

The word being equivocated upon is “peace.” The peace of Islam is not the ‘peace’ that most Westerners consider peace. The peace of Islam is universal submission to the will of Allah. It is a ‘peace’ that will occur once all people have submitted to him (that is, when all people have become Muslims); and, toward that end, toward that “peace,” violent means are acceptable. In other words, violent means utilized in the pursuit of ‘peace’ are justified in the proselytizing of nonbelievers (infidels).

There is not time or space here to address the violence encouraged by the Quran. I will simply observe that there are at least 109 identifiable war verses in it, one out of every 55 verses. As author Don Richardson notes, “These verses are scattered throughout Mohammed’s chapters like blood splatter at a crime scene.” These verses, he adds, “leave readers in no doubt – he [Mohammed] obviously intended his war verses to arouse Muslims to compel the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam, even by violence if necessary.”

I was horrified by the violence in England, as I am sure you were too, but I was not surprised. Such events should serve as a wake-up call for us, as Westerners and, more importantly, as Christians. Islam is a religion of violence that demands submission to a despotic god and ushers its followers into the depths of hell. We must proclaim loudly and courageously that the way to true peace is found in Jesus Christ, not in Islam, and we must refuse to allow ourselves to be dulled into complacency by rhetorical sleights-of-hand.

Bottom line? The time has come for another crusade, a crusade of evangelization. Yes, the time has come for believers to rise up in mass and fight Islam with purposeful, focused evangelism. Believers must join together in strategic ways to enter and evangelize the Islamic world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must overcome evil with good. And we can, because we know that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to Jesus Christ.

Could you be a missionary to the Islamic world today? In the future? I’ll bet you could. Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who persecute you is the very best way to spread genuine peace.

“I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.”

Matthew 5:44

-Christian Pilet

Is Justice a Political Issue?

[Please note: The following is my opinion on a delicate topic -- detainees in Guantanamo Bay. I believe Christians should be thinking and speaking about this topic, and I offer my opinion here in hopes of fostering and continuing the conversation.]

‘I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”

Luke 6:27

Have you ever had you head held under water? I have. It’s terrifying.

I don’t think the kid doing it meant any real harm. He was just roughhousing, but it scared the snot out of me. I panicked, flailing and thrashing as I desperately tried to get to the surface and suck in a breath of air. And from that experience, I learned this: it’s not fun to feel like you’re drowning.

Around that time, I memorized this verse (and, yes, it was an assignment for the Christian school I attended): “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.” (Matthew 7:12). Now, I wasn’t a rocket scientist then, and I’m not one now, but I did get the basic idea behind this verse: be nice. And, applied to the experience above, I’d add, don’t hold people underwater. It’s not nice to terrify people.

Another terrifying experience occurred to me when I was older, at the age of twenty-one.

I had become a Christian as I was being treated for depression in a mental hospital. At that time, I gave my life to Christ and then asked permission to depart the unit, having become convinced of the truthfulness of another verse I had memorized as a child: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” (Ps. 1:1) Bottom line: I was convinced that I needed to seek Christian counsel, not secular counsel.

Anyhow, after I made my request, two doctors interviewed me and determined that I was ‘psychotic,’ basing their opinions on the fact that I had ‘created’ a religious conversion to deal with my emotional difficulties. They declared that “when I realized that what I believed wasn’t true, I would attempt to kill myself.” And, in all fairness to these doctors, I must admit that believing one can converse with a person who died and was resurrected about 2,000 years ago does seem psychotic, unless it were true. But, regardless, they decided I was psychotic and a danger to myself.

Thus, labeling me psychotic and a ‘danger to myself’, these doctors were within their legal rights to order me to be involuntarily committed to the hospital – for six weeks, and then two months, and then six months, and then a year, and then two years, and every two years after that, This commitment would be reviewed at each of those points, but the only requirement for its continuation was the agreement by any two doctors that I presented – in their opinion – a danger to myself or others.

This was not the terrifying part. Yes, it was scary, but not terrifying. The terrifying part occurred when I received a visit from my lawyer.

He listened to everything I had to say, and then he answered: “Well, Chris, I’m glad to hear you’ve found something that makes you feel better.” (He wasn’t a believer either.) “But, I have to tell you the reality of how things work here. When you appeal this decision, it will be taken before a judge, and the judge is an elected official. If he lets you out and you kill yourself or someone else, then he will lose the next election. If you stay in here until you die, it will cost him nothing.” He paused, and then added, “You’re not getting out of here.”

Then I was terrified. I was terrified by the realization that I could be held against my will, without genuine legal recourse, without justice, subject only to the whims of a couple of other people.

This was another moment when I remembered Matthew 7:12 “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them,” and I extrapolated this: don’t imprison people and give them no legal recourse. Don’t take away justice. It’s not nice. Give them genuine legal recourse. Give them justice.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the “detainees” at Guantanamo Bay, and I want to raise my voice in protest.

I happened to catch a radio interview with Lt. Col. Stuart Couch. Couch was assigned to serve as a prosecutor for one of the detainees, but in 2003, he withdrew, because he believed he was asked to use evidence obtained through means of coercive interrogation that violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During the radio interview, he described some of these methods, and, I think it’s fair to say, they weren’t ‘nice.’

Couch is a Christian. He argues that his faith in Christ necessitated that he declare his opposition to the way Guantanamo detainees have been held.

Laying aside the use of waterboarding, sensory deprivation, and other forms of ‘enhanced interrogation,’ the indefinite detainment of these people is unconscionable. As human beings, they should treated with dignity and justice, and indefinite detainments provide neither.

There are many mitigating circumstances, I know. And I know I don’t know all the ‘top secret’ info about how bad these guys are, and I know some Christians see these detainments as justified in the light of the greater evils they might prevent. But, my question is, do we, as Christians, really want to be in the business of justifying evils? Are these guys really bad enough that we, Americans, want to be bad guys too? Wouldn’t it be better if we Christians were in the business of crying out for justice?

Something needs to change at Guantanamo, and it is time for Christians to unite their voices in the pursuit of justice.

“I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.”

Matthew 5:44

- Christian Pilet

The Goal

‘While I thought that I was learning how to live,

I have been learning how to die.”

Leonardo Da Vinci

What is your number one goal in life? Could you say it in a single sentence?

For myself, I have boiled it down into one purpose statement and one great desire. My purpose statement is: to love God passionately and serve Him wholeheartedly; and my one great desire is: to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And as I type that, I immediately realize again how lofty that goal is. It would be utterly impossible, in conception or completion, were it not for the Holy Spirit that indwells and empowers me.

And I trust your goal is similar.

That said, I sometimes fear I will fail in the great moment of crisis. Will I have the courage to look my death in the face, expected or unexpected, and accept it as God’s good and perfect will for me? I hope so. For me, this will be the final challenge, the final call to faithfulness. My prayer is simply that, at that moment, God will grant me grace through the fullness of His Spirit to praise Him and give Him thanks.

Bob & Betty Rotta

This week two dear friends of my family, Bob and Betty Rotta, were killed in a car accident in Seattle, I have always considered them heroes of the faith. As an unsaved boy, and later as a saved adult, I saw that they were great believers, people with complete trust in God. This week’s events became the capstone to a mighty testimony for Christ as they made the final transition from death to life.

I want to share an article from Seattle’s newspaper concerning this event. Follow the link to read the article.

Family Is Reeling from Loss of Parents – by Erik Lacitis 

The extraordinary grace of this family in the midst of crisis was not an accident. Betty died the way she had lived since she was a little girl – trusting Jesus. Beyond that, she and Bob had passed their faith on to their children, and their children responded in the way I would have expected them to – trusting Jesus. In other words, Bob, Betty, and their children had prepared themselves for this moment of crisis, by trusting Jesus and relying on the Holy Spirit. And, now, with the final challenge met and conquered, Bob and Betty entered glory. I have no doubt they heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

For me, Bob and Betty are now part of that great cloud of witnesses who give testimony to the value and blessing of living by faith. Their godly examples have inspired me today, again, to live this life with my eyes fixed on Jesus, trusting Him to grant me the grace to excel, even to the end. I hope their testimony can encourage you in a similar way today.

“Therefore we also,

since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,

Hebrews 12:1-2a

Christian Pilet -- pastor

Tics, Thoughts, and Testimonies

“…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”

2 Corinthians 10:5

A man with Tourette syndrome was recently prevented [Love God!] from boarding a JetBlue plane because he said the word “bomb.”

The Associated Press reported that Michael Doyle and a friend were scheduled to fly from Washington D.C. to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to participate in a Revolutionary War reenactment when the incident occurred. Doyle told Fox [Love Jesus!] TV that he and his traveling companion had alerted JetBlue and the Transportation Security Administration beforehand about what he might say.

He told Fox, “With all the stuff in the news about the Boston bombings and stuff… I started ticking ‘bomb.’ [Serve Him!] Because when I get nervous, anything on my mind will come out. And things you’re not supposed to say.” He added, “It didn’t cause any issues at passenger screening. We went through TSA saying ‘bomb’ the whole time and no one stopped us. No one said anything because they were aware.”

This was not the case at the gate, however. Shortly before boarding, he was told that he would not be allowed on the plane. In a statement to the New York Daily News, the airline said the man was “deemed a safety concern by the pilot in command after using the word ‘bomb.’”

Doyle and his friend missed the reenactment, but the [Follow Jesus!] airline did attempt “to coordinate alternative travel arrangements,” and Doyle told Fox he was offered a free round-trip ticket on another JetBlue flight.

Doyle’s experience focused national attention briefly on Tourette Syndrome, a condition that can bewilder and frighten those unfamiliar with it, and it seems worth a moment of our time to learn more about it.

According to the National Tourette Syndrome Association, Tourette Syndrome (TS) is “a neurological disorder characterized by tics -- involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way.” These tics usually occur in bouts. Most people with TS have some control over their symptoms, but the exercise of that control may merely postpone more severe outbursts of symptoms. These tics are experienced as irresistible in much the way a sneeze is. People with TS often [Be filled with the Spirit!] seek a secluded spot to release their symptoms after delaying them in school or at work. Typically, tics increase as a result of tension or stress, and decrease with relaxation or when focusing on an absorbing task.

Sufferers of Tourette Syndrome are often portrayed as blurting obscene language, or, as in the case described above, socially unacceptable thoughts. But these symptoms are uncommon. Only 15% of the people diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome struggle with cursing, uttering obscenities, or the making of ethnic slurs. But, of course, for those 15%, the syndrome is debilitating.

Tourette Syndrome, as manifested in the 15%, is frightening, and when I read the story above, I paused and asked myself why that is the case.

Well, it’s not hard to guess. The first, and maybe the most obvious reason, is that it causes us to wonder whether we, too, could suffer such a condition; and, if we did, we recognize that it would – reason two – lead to embarrassing and socially awkward situations. [Worship God!] The third reason is related to the second but is a bit more subtle: we realize that, if we suffered with such a condition, our innermost private thoughts could, at any moment, be publicly unveiled. This would be the equivalent of walking through crowded streets knowing that, at any moment, our clothes might suddenly fall away.

I think the third of these is the scariest to me. I can deal with [Share Jesus!] social embarrassment. I haven’t lived this long without coping with my share of social embarrassment. But to have my thoughts paraded before others… that would terrify me.

But should it?

Okay, okay, I know there are issues of timing. Sometimes it is not appropriate to say certain things, even when those thoughts are pure. And it would be embarrassing to blurt out words, even nice words, at inopportune moments. But those are not the thoughts that I am really scared to have exposed. The thoughts I am scared to have exposed are the ones that are judgmental, unkind, and impure. These are the thoughts I don’t want people to know I think. We’ve all thought about bombs, and it is understandable for someone [Look to Christ!] to fixate on the word “bomb.” (Especially in light of recent events.) But those thoughts about other people’s failings? Those thoughts about their appearances? Not okay.

Tourette Syndrome reveals a reality we all face, that we all have thoughts running through our minds and, sometimes, those thoughts aren’t pleasant.

My question for us today is this: if our innermost thoughts were suddenly and publicly unveiled, what would others see?

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,

whatever things are noble,

whatever things are just,

whatever things are pure,

whatever things are lovely,

whatever things are of good report,

if there is any virtue and

if there is anything praiseworthy

-- meditate on these things.

Philippians 4:8

Shock and Fatigue

“…and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed

by the filthy conduct of the wicked…”

1 Peter 2:7

Culture shock. Nicole and I had been warned many times that we would encounter it when we moved to Mongolia. Predictions varied, but they generally ran like this: “After six months or so, the novelty of living there will rub off, and you’ll suddenly find yourself irritated by the people and events around you. You’ll get over it, but it will take time. So just be ready for it.”

The predictions proved true, and I remember the first time I realized that. I was at the bank.

Transactions at the bank were conducted on the second floor, and that meant an elevator ride. You never knew how long you’d be there until the elevator doors opened and you stepped into the hall and saw the people. On that day, I thought it would be a quick visit, as I was alone in the elevator. But when the doors opened, I saw that I’d be there a while. The lines were at least ten people deep at each teller’s window. I sighed and took my place.

Now, usually, I brought something to do – a book to read or a recording to listen to. But this day I had forgotten. So I stood there, and stood there, and waited.

Finally, it was almost my turn. I was next in line and just waiting for the guy in front of me to finish counting his money and move on. And, then, just then, a young woman exited from the elevator, walked past me, and pushed aside the guy counting his money. She pulled some papers and money from her purse and thrust them through the window to the teller.

The lady behind the window looked past the woman at the line and said something to the woman and pointed. The woman glanced behind her and then turned back to the teller, pointing at the papers she was carrying and pushing the money across the counter. The lady looked once more at the line and then shrugged, took the woman’s papers and starting processing her transaction.

It took me a moment to realize that the woman had just budged past me and the rest of the line, and then it hit me. And it hit me hard! Anger bubbled up within me, and suddenly I was furious. I couldn’t believe that this had just happened. And I looked behind me at the other people in the line and saw them standing there like sheep, mutely resigned. And that made me angry too! Was everyone crazy? Didn’t anyone see how stupid and unfair this was?

I managed to control myself and I didn’t go ballistic on anyone. But on the inside, I felt like I had exploded. I concluded at that moment that everything about Mongolia was stupid; the way people drove, the way they talked, the way they walked. Everything.

I left the bank and started walking home. The sub-zero temperatures cooled my head, and I realized that culture shock had finally hit. Yeah, sure, the woman shouldn’t have budged, but that wasn’t really why I was angry. I was just finally feeling all the pent-up frustration over the cultural differences between me and my new home. And it was bubbling up as anger.

In the following months, that anger dissipated. I gradually came to accept those differences, and though I sometimes felt annoyed, I was able to recognize that the problem was mostly mine, that my cultural background was prompting in me stronger reactions than the situations warranted.

After three years in Mongolia, I thought I had culture shock licked. What I didn’t know was that something equally difficult and sinister was lurking in the shadows – culture fatigue, and I was not prepared for it.

Culture fatigue is to culture shock what congestive heart failure is to a heart attack. It involves the psychical accumulation of innumerable annoyances prompted by cultural differences, and it results in chronic feelings of resentment and emotional exhaustion. Culture shock hits suddenly, but culture fatigue builds slowly. Culture shock can prove fatal to a missionary’s career, as he or she may feel forced to abandon the new culture to escape it. Culture fatigue, on the hand, rarely proves fatal, though the nationals may wish it had, since it leaves its victims cynical and depressed.

I can’t identify the starting point of my cultural fatigue, and I think that’s the sinister side of it. It’s subtle in its approach. I just know that I was really struggling with it by the time we concluded our first term in Mongolia.

Fatigue

Over the years, I’ve talked to missionaries from other fields, many of whom shared similar experiences. So I guess it’s fairly common. But, beyond that, since returning to the States, I have realized that this shock and fatigue can be experienced within one’s country as well. It is not necessary to travel to the other side of the globe to encounter a different culture. The culture of my childhood in Seattle is as different in some ways from Geneva’s as my American culture was from Mongolia’s. Anyone can experience shock and fatigue when leaving one culture and entering another.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and I started to wonder whether there was a spiritual application to these observations. Do people ever experience culture shock and fatigue in their spiritual lives?

When I think of the spiritual universe, I think of its inhabitants as belonging to one of two sides, either of good or evil. (I’m not suggesting these are equal in size or power, or anything like that, just that there are only two possibilities.) Humans are either “sons of God” or “sons of the devil”; they are either regenerate or unregenerate.

We are all born within the realm of evil as “children of the devil.” The Bible refers to this as being born “dead” in our sins and trespasses. (Eph. 2:1) That is the culture of which we are a part and in which we begin our pilgrimage through this earthly life. It comes with certain traditions and inclinations that are common to those who share that culture.

Then, for some, a moment comes when, by God’s grace, they are granted new spiritual life. These are the ones who become known as Christians. They are the ones whose spiritual eyes have been opened to see the truths of God’s Word, whose spiritual ears have been enabled to hear the proclamation of the Gospel. With hearing comes faith, and they receive Jesus as Lord, becoming children of God. Paul refers to this process in his letter to the Colossians, saying, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (Col. 1:13)

We, who are Christians, have been delivered by God from the culture of darkness and placed into the culture of light. What a wonderful truth! But what has happened spiritually has not yet happened physically. Our cultural relocation has occurred in the spiritual realm, but it awaits its full realization – our glorification. And in the meantime, we are left in a foreign culture, members of a heavenly culture.

It seems to me this is the point where culture shock and fatigue can occur in the spiritual realm. A new Christian may go through a ‘honeymoon period’ during which he is able to resist the other culture’s temptations easily. There may be little inner struggle as he experiences the first bloom of love for God. But then, inevitably, he experiences spiritual dissonance. His flesh rises up and begins to respond to the siren call of the other culture. He experiences temptation, and, as he does, he realizes that he is in the midst of a spiritual battle. He becomes suddenly and brutally aware that he is living as a foreigner in an evil culture. And this moment seems analogous culture shock.

In time, the Christian becomes more fully aware of his spiritual state, and he, to a greater or lesser degree, puts on the armor of God and engages in spiritual battle. The shock of the culture clash dissipates.

I think we all sense this conflict, and what I have said so far concerning a spiritual culture shock does not seem unexpected. But what struck me yesterday, and what does seem unexpected to me, is the danger of spiritual cultural fatigue. Is it possible that those Christians who have been in the battle a long time could grow weary, that they could grow fatigued by the ongoing clash of cultures?

The obvious answer is, yes, they can. I suspect it is possible for Christians to fall into a grudging, plodding devotional life, one that despondently (and cynically) awaits release to the heavenly realms as an escape from the emotional hardships of a long stay in foreign territory. Perhaps an example of this can be found in Lot, who endured the hardships of Sodom and Gomorrah only to suffer an unenviable end in a cave above Zoar. And perhaps this is why the apostles exhorted the believers to press on, encouraging them not to grow weary in doing good (i.e. Gal. 6:9).

But what is the solution to all this? What are the options? Can Christians abandon their foreign culture to return to their home one? – Well, yes, I guess they can, but it’s not right to do so, and it’s surely nothing we would call victory in Christ. So, how can one experience true victory in Christ and freedom from culture shock and fatigue? And why should we?

Well, first, I suggest we can live within this foreign spiritual culture and cope effectively with the differences. It may be hard, but we can do it. Beyond that, we should do it. Jesus prayed specifically for this. He prayed, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:14-15) His prayer is that we would remain in the world but transcend its culture.

Second, I suggest the necessity of our stay is seen in the missional nature of our pilgrimage. We are not here for a vacation; we are here for on a divine mission. Jesus has sent us into this culture. In the same prayer mentioned above, Jesus prayed, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (Jn. 17:18) Indeed, we have been called out from among those languishing in the culture of darkness in order to be lights, pointing the way to the Truth, and serving as ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:18) In other words, we’ve been sent into this world to proclaim Jesus Christ and make disciples.

Third, I suggest we can conquer cultural fatigue by finding our joy and hope in Jesus Christ. Yes, we are in a foreign culture, but we have not been abandoned to it. Jesus is with us, even here, even now, (Matt. 28:19-20) and we can refresh ourselves daily in Him.

Bottom line, if you’re struggling with spiritual cultural fatigue, let me encourage you to focus your attentions once again on Jesus Christ. (Heb. 12:2) Spend some special time with Him in prayer and meditate on His Word. Ponder all you have in Him and pray for those who have not yet trusted Him. Rejoice in Him, and you will be refreshed. As the hymn says…

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Breaking Teeth

Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!

Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!

Psalm 58:6

Imprecatory psalms (those that pray for curses) aren’t the sort of psalms we turn into praise choruses. That is probably just as well, as a visitor to a church service might wonder about a congregation that harmonizes, “Wash Your feet in the blood of the wicked.” Still…

Psalm 58 is one of those psalms. In it David ask the Lord deal with the wicked by “breaking their teeth in their mouth,” and he adds an enigmatic parallel thought, “Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!” Hmm, as Christians, what are we to make of such statements?

I pondered this yesterday as I waited for my first root canal to get started. And since the dentist was running late, I waited a while, prepped in the dental chair with a bib dangling from my neck. This permitted his assistant the opportunity to explain in excruciating detail the procedure. “These are the drills we use,” she said, holding up a tray of needle-like steel bits. “They have spirals on them so they can bring the nerve up and out.” She held them close so I could see. “There are several of them because they come in differing sizes.” Some of those needles looked an inch long, and I started to wonder how far into my tooth they would go.

Just then the dentist walked into the room, clutching the x-ray of my tooth. “It’s a long one, isn’t he?” he said to his assistant, pointing at the picture. “Really goes up there.” (“There” was a reference to the bone above the tooth.) “So,” he said, turning to me, “you have these three roots on this tooth, and I will drill into them and excavate the pulp and nerve from each of them. Then, once I’ve removed all that, I’ll pack it with filling, starting down at the bottom and working my way up.”

Ouch.

All joking aside, though, it wasn’t that bad. The dentist numbed the side of my face, and apart from the uncomfortable feeling of having his entire fist in my mouth, I was fine. And as I sat and listened to the drill, I thought how blessed I was to live in this century and not in previous ones.

Until recently, the ‘cure’ for most dental ailments was extraction, even though an effective treatment for cavities was known as early as the tenth century. And this had a lot to do with the methods for clearing out decay. The drilling out of a cavity from the tenth century until the eighteenth century required a superhuman fortitude in the patient and a high degree of dexterity in the dentist. The major drawback of those drills was the slow rotation of the bit. The dentist, holding the metal spike between his thumb and index finger, manually worked it back and forth, all the while forcefully bearing downward.

Not until the eighteenth century was there a mechanical drill, about the size of a hand-held clock and with a clock’s inner rotary mechanism. And not until George Washington’s personal dentist, John Greenwood, adapted his mother’s spinning wheel to rotate a bit was there an even moderately rapid, foot-pedaled dental drill. Unfortunately, the intense heat generated by its quick rotation was itself a drawback; although this was compensated for by a shorter period of discomfort.

As I sat in the chair listening to my dentist’s modern high-tech drill, I was thankful that his water-cooled model spins in excess of a half-million turns a minute. Quicker, and I suspect, less painful.

But let’s go back to Psalm 58. What is it, exactly, David is asking? Well, I think my current state provides some helpful insight.

As I left the doctor’s office, still numb, I received these instructions: “Be careful, your tooth (or what’s left of it) is fragile, and you’ll want to avoid chewing anything hard until your other dentist puts the crown on. So, eat soft foods, and, until the anesthetic wears off, be careful not to chew the side of your cheek.” And, then, “You’ll want to start taking Ibuprofen, as you’ll probably start to feel some pain when the numbness goes away.”

This prediction proved true. By evening, the side of my face had settled into a dull ache that has persisted through to this morning. So, pain and difficultly with eating. Pretty humbling.

This points at one of David’s desires. He desires God’s enemies, the wicked, to be humbled. He wants them to come face-to-face with their mortality and their inability to perpetuate their health. Broken teeth are humbling. They limit your regular activities and cause you to act and react like an invalid.

The parallelism included in the verse points at another one of David’s desires. He asks that the fangs of the young lions be broken. In this, he likens the wicked to young lions, those who are able to hunt with the full vitality of youth. And what do these lions use to triumph in the hunt? Their fangs, of course. So, by asking God to break the ‘fangs’ of the wicked, David is asking God to take away their ability to exact pain and death.

One other interesting thing to consider here is that David, that great man of war, turns to the Lord with his request. He recognizes his dependency on God, and he does not seek, on his own, to ‘break the teeth’ of the wicked. Rather, he asks the Sovereign Lord to do so, using whatever means He considers appropriate. In doing so, I believe, David recognizes and affirms that vengeance and judgment, ultimately, are the Lord’s.

There is more that could be said, but I think we can deduce this, that, at least, David is asking the Sovereign Lord to humble and disempower the wicked.

While the dentist was working on my tooth, I watched the television on the wall behind him. It was set to a news channel, and I could see continuing coverage of the Boston bombings. This seemed appropriate, in light of the things I had been considering. The wicked had acted and we were witnessing the pain and grief they had caused. And now the questions were being raised: To whom can we turn? Who will bring justice?

The answer today is the same as it was in David’s day -- the Lord. We should turn to the Lord. We should ask Him to bring justice.

As we seek to cope with these horrific events, let’s remember the admonition of scripture: “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19) And let’s go to Him in prayer and ask Him to “break the teeth” of the wicked.