thoughts on idols

For a long time the idea of idolatry confused me. I would read about idolatry in the Bible but I didn't know anyone who made a little idol and bowed down to it to worship it. How did the idea still have relevance to us today?

Slowly over time I've begun to see that the warnings against idolatry have huge implications for us today. We may not fashion a little figurine from stone or wood but essentially an idol is anything that we put our trust in instead of God. And I and almost everyone I've ever met puts our trust in a lot of things instead of God. Of course the big an obvious one is money. I need to constantly remember that a job that pays, or money in the bank, or retirement savings, or whatever is not what provides for me. It is the Lord. Many of us have been reminded that money and jobs are not as reliable as we thought during this recession.

But there are lots of other things we're tempted to put our trust in (idols) out there. We put our trust in family and friends for happiness, we trust in health insurance and doctors for health, we trust in clothes, cars, houses, and vacations for status. The problem with idols is that they cannot deliver. They are dead to provide us with what we really want and need. I ran across these verses in Psalm 115 this morning:

vv.3-8 (italics mine)
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor cant they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

These verses make sense of Jesus' confusing words in Mark 4:9-12. Jesus basically quotes Isaiah 6:9,10 and says that many who hear his words will be like those who see but don't perceive, who hear but don't understand. If they did they would turn to the Lord and be forgiven.

Psalm 115 is saying that we become like the things we put our trust in (idols). And Jesus is saying that when we trust in other things we become like those dead things we trust in. We have eyes but can't really see and ears but can't really hear.

I heard recently that one of the primary tasks of anyone who preaches the Gospel is to point out and speak against the idols of the culture they're preaching in. I wonder what some of our other idols are?

Granddaddy's passing

Last week I traveled with my family to the Eastern Shore of Virginia for my grandfather's funeral. His passing was completely unexpected and has forced me to think about the inevitability of death for us all. I've thought before and wondered about the effects of a society that hides death in many ways. Though we are spared the uncomfortableness of death we slowly forget that our time really is short and tomorrow is never promised to us. Especially those of us who are relatively young.

It was really good to gather with family and celebrate the life of Granddaddy. He was an amazing man in so many ways. A father of eleven children, a husband for almost sixty years, a veteran, a farmer. He gave back to his community and traveled around the world sharing his expertise in farming to developing countries. He was committed and active in the church to the very end. And yet he always seemed to have time to play a game of Gin Rummy when I asked. He used to give me a quarter if I could cut the deck to exactly the 21 cards needed to deal a hand of Gin. We shared the same name. He was Thomas Berry Long, Jr. and I am Thomas Berry Long, IV.

Everyone who knew Granddaddy will certainly miss him but there are good things that come when someone we know and love passes away. I was comforted the morning I heard the news by the verse in Psalm 116 that says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of those faithful to him." Granddaddy was certainly faithful to the Lord and he is now present with him. It is precious indeed. He is now in the presence of the one who truly gives life. He has a new body, a body not touched by corruption, disease, or weakness in any way. What a wonderful thing! I can't wait for that reality to be extended to all of creation and to everyone in right standing with God.

But there is another thing that is good that comes from an encounter with the reality of our mortality. It gives focus and direction to our life. When I pause to reflect on the truth that I have but a short time in this life it makes me want to live more intentionally. To make my life count for something whenever my time is finished. To be more present to my family and friends, to enjoy the good things in life, and to work with purpose for things that will last. In days past it was much more common to wake up in a house where someone had passed away. The reality of death was much closer to home then it is today where most people (in our country) die in a hospital. We've lost something as a society in that. But in light of eternity, I want to live out my days in a way that will count. I'm so thankful to the Lord who offered me eternal life and forgiveness for the sins that separated me from him. In light of that, and with the reminder that my time on earth will pass, how could I not gladly offer my life back to the Lord. To run the race of life with endurance, fixing my eyes on Jesus, being cheered on by the faithful, like Granddaddy, and not losing heart.

How many times do I have to learn?

This morning I read in Psalms 103: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him"

It reminded me of something that happened to me in Haiti on this trip:

We had been working for a couple of days, digging ditches and laying pipes to bring water to people's houses from the community well. I was swinging a pick axe to break up the ground so that someone could come behind me and shovel out the dirt for the ditch. Once, as I brought the pick axe up over my head before bringing it down I felt the all too familiar pain in my lower back that has come to precede a major bout of back pain. Typically, after something like what I felt by the next day I will be immobilized in pain and unable to even walk correctly for at least a week.

I put down the axe and moved to side of the road and began to think about how I was going to navigate the rest of the trip once my back stiffened up. Graciously some members of the team surrounded me, laying hands on my back, and began to pray for God to heal it. At first I was grateful for their compassion but as they prayed I began to feel more and more uncomfortable. I began to protest their praying because I was becoming aware of all of the pain, hunger, and brokenness of the people in the village we had come to serve. It felt wrong to pray for my needs when there were so much greater needs around us 24 hours a day.

I believe a spiritual battle was being waged at that moment. Nick, an InterVarsity staff colleague said some words in response to my protest that I believe were directly from the Lord. He said, "Even in the midst of the poverty and pain of these people the Lord cares for you as well." That my needs, no matter how small, are not insignificant in the eyes of the Lord. I realized in that moment how much I struggle with God's love, especially when I'm in touch with how unworthy I am. But that is part of receiving God's grace and it is truly hard for the proud. And sadly, I am still a very proud man.

(Amazingly, in spite of me, the Lord took away my pain that day and though it didn't go away 100% it never hindered me from working or moving around for the rest of the trip. In the moment of the injury it felt exactly the same as previous times when I've been immobilized for a week. Call it what you want, but I believe it was the healing grace of our Lord.)

Haiti

I returned yesterday from 9 day trip to Haiti. What InterVarsity calls a Global Plunge. Fifteen InterVarsity students and three staff traveled to the village of Neply in Haiti on the Leogane plain. We were about an hour due west of Port-au-Prince.

The people and land of Haiti both captured and broke my heart. It is a beautiful land, with sugarcane fields spanning the plains and rising into mountains, but much of the land, like it's people has been stripped and left impoverished. On our trip, we got to come alongside a group of men who have banded together to seek the betterment of each other and the people of Neply. There are a fraternity of sorts and if you're interested you can check out their site here.

We walked twenty minutes each day from Neply to another small village called LaSalle where we brought running water to the front yards of ten homes in the village. Previously there was one well in the center of the village that every household had to travel to multiple times each day, filling up buckets or containers with water and traveling back to their homes in order to cook, do laundry, and for all their water needs. The look of pure joy on the people's faces as they turned on a water spigot in their front yard made all the work and effort worth it. God is good and the faith of many in Neply challenged ours greatly. The question of what is needed in a place like Neply has left me with more questions than answers.

I hope to post some more reflections here in the days to come. For now, I'm enjoying being home with my family and wrestling with some of those questions the trip left me with.

having kids can help your social life

Today my wife and I went to go watch a kids soccer game. We loaded up our four kids in the mini-van and traveled the twenty minutes across Gainesville to where the game was being played. I held my ten month old son for awhile but put him in his stroller after my arms started getting tired.

A couple of minutes later my wife looks over at me and asks, "What's that?" I look down and sure enough, there's a poop stain two inches in diameter right on the front of my shirt.

How glad I was to be twenty minutes away from my house.

irresponsible environmentalism

This morning around 10:30am I started to get hungry while I was at work. My office is in a local Presbyterian church here in Gainesville and the space they let us use is at the end of a long hallway where, honestly, not many people ever come. Anyway, I was getting hungry and luckily I had a banana in the office. A little more ripe than ideal, but hey, when you're hungry, a few brown spots aren't that big of a deal. So I ate it.

Afterward I was presented with a dilemma. I didn't want to throw the banana peel in my garbage can because it takes me a long time to fill up a can and it would be sitting there for weeks in all likelihood. I'm imagining bad smells, fruit flies, etc... and I didn't want any part of that.

So casually, I roll up the window next to my desk and slip the banana peel out the window and behind the shrubs. I go back to work thinking, that's fine, the banana is bio-degradable right? It will become nutrients for the shrubs. It's a good thing.

How quickly my tune changed when ten minutes later I see the pastor of the church walking behind my office coming straight for my window. He's walking with another guy (nobody ever comes back here) and they seem to be talking to themselves. Then to my horror, he stops across from my office and goes straight to the water spigot under my window. There's nothing I can do now, I'm sitting at my desk, pretending to work and not notice him but he had to reach within 12 inches of the fresh banana peel that only I could have left there. He couldn't have missed it. And I have to decide whether I will look him in the eye or pretend I don't notice him...

a labor of love/hate

here are a few pictures of my home improvement project, a new patio in the backyard. who knew that an offer of free concrete pavers back in August would turn into such a long drawn out saga. I have been traveling a lot recently but every day I've been home I've spent all the daylight hours after work on this. finally, I'm nearing completion. here's a few of the steps along the way: