Steve's Letter: He's not finished with us yet!
This morning I answered a listener's email who asked to be removed from our mailing list. That happens a lot. This particular man was upset about my friendship with a fairly well-known Christian leader and wanted nothing to do with anybody who had anything to do with that Christian leader.
We, of course, took his name off our mailing list. I then wrote to him...
You must live a lonely life if you remove yourself from all the places, people and ministries with which you disagree.
I haven't found anybody except Jesus (and I have trouble with him sometimes :)) with whom I agree all the time...and certainly ___________ is someone with whom I disagree about a bunch of stuff. My pastor drives me nuts sometimes and my wife too. Then I have children with whom I disagree. And I certainly have serious problems with the nation's politicians.
But where am I going to go? It's hard to be an outsider of the human race.
Do you know what "secondary separation" is?
Primary separation is not having anything to do with the bad folks. Secondary separation is not having anything to do with the folks who have anything to do with the bad folks. One could, I suppose, even refuse to have anything to do with the folks who have anything to do with the folks who have anything to do with the folks who have anything to do with the bad folks.
Pretty soon it's just you and Jesus...
...and when Jesus leaves the building, the building can be a lonely place...
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Steve's Letter: It really is going to be okay!
It was early yesterday morning and I went out on the log cabin's porch to smoke my pipe. And there in front of me were these two deer. They didn't run.They just stood there looking at me. Maybe it was because I look sort of like Santa Claus and, as everybody knows, Santa smokes a pipe. Maybe they were confused. It was too early for Christmas, but here I was.
We just stood there quietly looking at one another for a good five to ten minutes.
Then, perhaps because they got bored or didn't like the smell of my pipe tobacco, they just turned and walked off into the forest. As they left, I think I heard one say, "That's not Santa, you dolt! Leave him alone."
(Later, I told a friend about my experience at The Cove with the deer. My friend was surprised and said, "I thought you were going to say that you shot them." I've got to do something about my reputation! In fact, that will be my first New Year's resolution, to wit, getting people to see the warm, fuzzy, loving and nice person I really am.)
All kidding aside, it was one of those rare and profound moments when it's quiet enough "to hear the soft sound of sandaled feet." Time stands still and in that stillness, God comes. In the crispness of the early morning, I had a "God takes care of the lilies and the birds" kind of feeling. It was the quiet recognition that he is in charge, that he loves me and that everything will be okay.
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Steve's Letter: Where Is Jesus In This?
I read Charles Sheldon's book, In His Steps, years ago. It was written in 1896 and is the book where the whole WWJD thing started. If you've read it, you know that it's a story about a bunch of Christians whose lives were changed as a result of a tramp who visits their Midwestern church, challenging them to live out what they say they believe. The tramp dies, but his message changes the world of those people. The book is the story of what happens when Christians start asking the question, "What would Jesus do?"
...and then doing it!
I remember how deeply that book affected me. In fact, I decided I would live my life by asking that question and then, when I came up with the answer, doing it. God was pleased because he knew that my heart was a heart for him...but I suspect he may have also winced...
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Steve's Letter: Everything Else is Small Stuff!
There is probably no place where the advice from other Christians is more often used and more difficult to follow than in the words, "Just trust God."
How does one do that? What does it mean to trust God? It sounds like good and biblical advice and I certainly don't have anything against trusting God. But sometimes telling someone to trust God is like telling a drowning man or woman, "Just swim." He or she already knows that...
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Steve's Letter: Now Go and Tell Someone!
Last month I told you about my lousy job-thinking God commissioned me to keep people from sinning. It was a lousy job because I wasn't very successful at it and people, no matter what I said or did, kept on sinning. Then I realized that the teacher wasn't doing that great either.
Now let me tell you something else. I not only had a lousy job, I had (and still have) a job I really ought not to be doing. If I were God choosing someone to do what I do, I wouldn't even be on the list of prospects.
I've just returned from a week of teaching at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. In Presbyterian and Reformed circles, Westminster is a very old and quite prestigious graduate school of theology.
Why did they invite you?
Very funny.
But in answer to your question, I don't have the foggiest idea. Maybe it's my good looks, my thoughtful scholarship or my incredible teaching gifts. Then, again, it was probably because they couldn't find anybody else...
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