For the Famous

 For the Famous:

To be famous is to deny human corruption for a moment. Let me be specific, I mean the word "phtheiro" it has the idea of decay, a rotting, in Greek. The word Nmebi has the idea of bringing to an end or breaking something from life itself in Igbo, we use this word for damage as well as corruption. This idea of corruption, to go to ruin, to be seen as spoiled (think bad fruit/degraded linen) is behind the idea of Shacath in Hebrew, this is probably a loan word of Aramaic. When I say human corruption, these are the ideas I mean.

Corruption is denied by a swimming champion, a champion boxer, a marathon runner, a high mountain-climber, just as much as it is denied by a Grammy award winning singer, a tony award winning actress, an academy award winning actor. Corruption of character is so prevalent, those who deny this corruption... freedom fighters, popes/cardinals, monks, non-profit leaders, health workers.

For all my TikTokers and Instagram specialist, comedians, podcasters, newscasters, bloggers of all sorts and kinds, songwriters, and philosophers by every other name (executive producers fit here): corruption makes everyone go blind to facts and insight and to stop paying attention when we can see. There consistent determination to see is a denial of human corruption, it is celebrated.

On some fundamental level we know we are not supposed to die. Nothing about us is supposed to die, including and especially hope, love, and faith. It is the true reason for fame. In some way shape and form... someone denies human corruption and we celebrate it... hard. Whether that person has carried a dishwasher up by their teeth, or told their 1000th well-time, utterly hilarious joke, we roar against the dark certainty that is an un-being of all things good. 

To the famous ones: thank you!

To the only person ever to escape this coming darkness permanently, left proof, (and offers everyone the same way out): thank you! When I cross that river, I would not mind asking you to go back to the beginning and tell the whole story of Yourself, again, nothing left out, just for me.

Ezuru

 Ezuru in Igbo means: sufficient, enough, adequate. Epiousios means a substance that is mechanical/instrumental. Both words describe the bread that is for today. Both don't quite fit in English. They have this nebulous meaning cloud that fits around the English word alone. The English "daily" means concerning each day, occurring each day. The way the word is used, "daily" means that which is sufficient for a person's needs to live/function. The Aramaic word that Jesus actually used spīḳ. I am not sure what it exactly means. Matthew writes the Aramic words in Greek, it is translated into Latin, then it is translated into English, then it is translated into Igbo around 1857, for the first time.

My Dad taught me Lord's prayer by the time I was eight. This word, I glided over, I knew what they were and as a whole they constituted the Lord's prayer. I did not know this specific word until the age of 20, when I asked my Dad to break down each word and what it meant. I needed to know. English, be it ever so humble, claims to be based in the empires and language of the Greek and Romans. Igbo, did not claim anything other than it's own people, one of which was me. 

The longer I study the history of my fathers. The more I learn of a people who were not perfect, people who lived, died, fell in love, made bets and debts, and danced to really good music all the while. My people are not super-human, we are very human, even in our genius. I learned to accept a history with no land-spanning imperial period, with no invention-filled, world-changing classical period. I accepted a history without an identity based on oppressing the identity of another. I accepted fellow speakers who were smelting iron fifteen hundred years before Christ was born. By the time I was halfway through college, I accepted something my father had been trying to give me my whole life God had been trying to give me by giving me to my mother and father. The offer to be one of the families created when Babel fell.

That identity, for me, for all my days, is...

ezuru (enough, sufficient, adequate).

You're Married!

 Little Bro,

One of the big challenges of being married is remembering to just be a good human being. The first thing God did for Adam and the woman, after he brought them together, he blessed them and then he said (Genesis 1:28a), "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it..." 

Be Fruitful: God told them to be fruitful. It's a metaphor that God uses often in comparing, in Scripture, people and trees. An apple tree makes apples, watermelon vine produces vines, a defensive football player makes tackles, a singer sings songs, a carpenter makes wooden walls, floors, joists, a lover does loving things, a fighter produces punches and kicks; you are created and called to create certain things: do that produce what you are made to produce.

Multiply: Make more of you. Mentor other footballers, weightlifters, singers, piano players, igbo speakers, golf players. Have kids. Whether through coaching or mentoring, or being a manager, or a parent, or an entrepreneur, train, model, disciple, make more fruitful people.

Fill the earth: All of humankind is meant to fill the earth. To do the opposite was part of the rebellion at Babel. Each person can only take care of a patch of earth. Find your patch of earth, where you will both nurture and guard what's there. (Everything God gives you, he wants to bring it to fruition.) Your patch is metaphysical in that it's your career, your online presence, your friendships, your experiences. Your patch of earth is also physical, your apartment, your yard, your place of work, your physical body. Treat your patch of earth as if God will come back and ask, "What did you do with the front yard (and everything else) I gave you?" Also, taking possession of your patch of earth assumes you have taken the time to be aware of what's in it. You accept for the oil, gold, fresh water, rare-turtles or whatever is underneath your patch of earth. Whatever physical or metaphysical patch of earth God gives, stay curious about it, there is always more than meets the eye in his gifts.

Subdue the earth: This covers the engineering part of the arts and sciences. Make the earth do what you want it to do. Tame it, make it work for you. You are meant to do this. Make the house protect you, make the furnace keep you warm, make the car move, make the sewage pipes do their thing. Make the sutures hold skin and muscle together. Make the keys sound out chords, and make the chords into music. Make the hair create the illusion of waves, make the air into words, the words into a speech, and the speech into rallying point for African American graduates at some university. This is the very mechanism through which you become fruitful: Subdue the earth.

You are doing all of these things already. You already are a good human being. Keep doing these four things, just be a good human being. If you can manage these four things it will make for being a healthy husband for your wife. Never let anyone reduce marriage to just a honey-do list. Never let anyone lie to you and say your wife is the only person who can judge how good you are at this. Marriage is something you do before God and in obedience to him, you'll answer to Him and He will judge. (Thankfully, he is the kindest, helpful, ever patient, loving, self-sacrificing Judge. Don't forget, He is relentless in his calls for us to love one another without condition or record of wrongs.) I hope you do every anniversary, birthday, and tough day as a husband with the idea that you will tell God, on the last day, when asked, "Did you show a faithful picture of my love for the church?" You will be able to say, honestly, 

"I was not perfect, but I did my best.

Jesus helped me and covered the rest."

Stories from After Redemption.

Story 1

 I was so mad. It was Friday night, which meant I was washing my wife's feet, like I always do. She did not tell me about the cut on her foot. So I had to put the water away, find the nu-skin, apply it, wait for it dry and then get back washing her feet, from the top, all. over. again. I was heated. "I need to know these things!" I almost shouted. "I keep telling God to hear my prayers, because I am taking care of you like I promised. All the while, I look like a fool. My wife is cut, and bleeding and I am doing nothing." I took a deep breath and calmed a little that night. I know I was starting to get down into the toes when I said, "I have kids to pray for, friends to cover, parents to lift up. They matter so much to me. If you have a bump, bruise, scratch, sting, tell me. I need to know. I might not always make you happy, but at least let my fulfill my words to Him."

She was so mad.

Story 2

I am driving 60 mph to night. It is just over the speed limit and faster than I normally do. I need to get there soon. I stay just over the speed limit the entire way, 60 in a 55, 37 in a 35, and 28 in a 25, before I slow down to 16 in a 15 to get to his house. He is my discipler and he considers it a sin to another human being to be late. I don't mind that. Whenever I am late, he always forgives me. I don't mind that either. But when I am late, he forgives me, gives me a hug, with his hand cupping my ear. He does not cup it hard, or slap his hand against it, I just hate it when people touch my ear. I love him dearly, he has seen me through my darkest depression, my most addicted months, and the weeks where my faith has been hanging like a thread. 

Still, there will be no ear cupping tonight.

Story 3

My back hurts. My father decided to pray for me one more time, before I was got in the car. College is only 3 hours away. We have visited there so many times for so many other reasons. It was part of the reason I chose to go there, I home away from home. I had just finished packing up the car. My back was fine ten minutes. I knelt down in our small kitchen, and my dad placed his hand on my shoulder. My grand father's hand joined his. He was still tall and proud, late fifties with more white then gray. He was there to see me off, you know, follow in the tradition. My great-grandfather hand joined his. He was in his 70's. He had to reach round his walker to get to me. He had taken a bullet to his leg way back in Obama's Iraq. He was almost always doubling over with laughter at his horrible dad jokes. I admit they weren't always that bad. My back was still good. I was beginning to feel the weight of so many generations. Collectively, their hands felt like I was carrying a couch without using my hands. I was beginning to roll my shoulders forward when my great-great-grandfathers trembling hand finally reached me. It felt like he put all his weight on me. He was an 80's baby, who talked about things nobody knew. He talked to himself often, and often said suprising phrases in mid-conversation. Unless he was talking with God. In those moments, he spoke in pure poetry, metres, foots, stanzas and all. Thankfully, my Dad had already to started to pray, and in terms of word-count, I quietly caught up to him. "Dear Lord may he hurry up!" I said over and over again.

"Lord, my back hurts!"

Jesus, the true Amadioha.

Amadioha means "man of the people." A man of the people is a man who is in and for the people. He is not just a warrior, he is also an epidemiologist whose weapon against the spread of disease and destruction is the collective rightness of his people. The man who is not right, brings upon himself death, disease, loss, confusion, disorder. Such a man, who has wronged the powers that be, not only harms himself, he also harms everyone who is connected to him. So a man of the people must cut off men and women whose ways are not right for the sake of everyone else they are connected to. The judgement of the spirits is rarely considered a suggestion, guideline or at all changeable. Once the one who is wrong is cut away, then everyone who remains is safe. Before Christ came that was the true description of a village, those who remained.
Amadioha and his representative could not cut away sin. They could not fulfill the judgment due, they could make offerings. They could not change the judgements made against a man or a woman. Jesus did. Jesus died on the cross making full payment for all of creation. He cut away sin from himself completely and permanently. He offers his permanent solution to everyone person who would be free from the punishment due sin and sinners. Especially to everyone who wants to escape the consequence due to how people who are connected to them will suffer, Jesus offers freedom, hope, healing, in the sacrifice of his eternal life on the cross for all the sin in creation. In himself, he cut away sin as the beginning of cutting away sin from the entire world. Every moment he cuts away a little more, bringing everyone who is willing from death to life a little more each day. No other god even claims to do that. He truly is the man of the people, be one of his people starting today.

Offering Discipleship

In my experience, discipleship does not begin when you offer to teach. Discipleship begins wen you rescue someone from a situation that they could not save themselves from but needed saving. The person rescued feels relief, excitement, happiness over you. They also have a little bit of awe, you have power, ability, grace that they don’t. So they want to know what you know, get strong like you are, stay rescued like you stay. When you offer to teach someone they might take you up and gain knowledge from you. When you offer to save someone you are offering your power to change their situation.

For repetition’s sake, let us look at the baptism of John. John, the cousin of Jesus came baptizing. In 27 AD, John came offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). For a people who were struggling with sin and used to God cursing and killing them for their failures. John came offering a sort of salvation and Jewish people of the first century came, accepting his offer. They respected him as a prophet. Men and women of Judea believed that God was offering a simple way of getting right with him. They asked “What then shall we do?” (3:10). He answered them (3:14). The salvation the offered was so real people wanted to know if he was the Christ (3:15). John offered to act and then completed actions that caused people to know that their sins were forgiven by God. He taught them to stay right with God (3:11-19). John had disciples two of them are mentioned in John 1:35, another in Acts 18:25 and twelve more in Acts 19:3. These were men and women who had been baptized by John, became right with God, and believed what John taught to stay right with God.

In my experience, I have been discipled by the men and women who acted first. These men and women offered me a salvation and then followed through with their offer when took up them at their word. These men and women offered me salvation, to bring me closer to God, to align my actions with God and they followed through. My life was changed in a way that did not correspond with my faith or actions. Through their ministry I was surprised, overwhelmed, and blown away by the presence and work of God in my life. I, then, was happy to follow their teachings to stay close to the Jesus that I have come to know and love. Dennis Dorran, Carlos Price, Reverend Anthony Williams, Reverend Fay Acker, Elder Grace Owwuwanne, are some of the few.

You, Christian, want to start discipling? Great. Go. Do. Remember what you are offering, you are offering to bring someone closer to God by your actions. Can you do that? Will your bible study, conversation, worship leading, bible study leadinger, praying, change situation of the person, in bringing them closer to God, that you are offering it to? Can you confidently assert that you have the power to do so? I do not mean elixir’s and steps that work only if the person uses their own power to make the steps or elixir work. I mean will your action change the person’s situation whether they truly believe or not? If you can change someone’s situation, you have someone with the motivation to follow what you teach. If you cannot, do not be surprised if a person does not follow you. That’s the just the way it works.

If no body...

If no body listened. I would still speak. I would still speak because of the One who is still speaking. If not body read, I would still write. I would write because the words I read changed me into a writer. If no one sang along, I would still sing, because I heard the song that convinced me that, "Yes, Jesus loves me." That is enough reason to fill my lungs and explode unto good, clean air the perfume of my notes. If no one came forward, I would still preach. The greater Preacher is still preaching. Who knows, I might still come forward again. If no one said, "aha!", I would still teach. The great teacher is still teaching. If no one accepted the rumors I spread about the death and failure of sin and death through the deeply conniving work of my Lord, I would still whisper against and backbite sin itself. After all, I found the rumors to be true and sin is no longer cool. However, it is true that "Yes, Jesus loves me." That is all the reason I need.

Giving: Short theology for a friend.

Hosea 2:8-9
"And did she know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and how lavished on her silver and gold, which they used Baal? Therefore I will take back my grain inits time, and wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness."

Takor,

First, I confess my deep curiosity of what it means to be a Christian when it comes to money. I have almost visceral reactions to friends and family quantifying their actions by money, and I think less of myself when I do it. Also, with recent looks at Christ and work by Amy Sherman and others, I am curious seeing how God has been relating to our concept of money. I confess that I ended up on this subject, because I struggle with tithing, I needed a word on it I guess.

On to it.

In those two verses, God is in the midst of promising to punish Judah for its sins. Here God is especially angry at their physical worship of other gods because those gods require things, that God gave his beloved people, as payment for their services. It as if they story of the gift of the Maji ends the wife using her hair brushes to buy and sleep with a male prostitute on Christmas day while her (watchless) husband watches in sorrow and pain.
Takor every time you hear a pastor quote "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions." Micah 3:8, you are hearing the middle of the love story. This story of God redeeming his sickly and dying creation is the story in the midst of which tithes and offering occur. The story always begins with God approaching us in walking through the garden, in a burning bush, in a cloud of smoke in the temple, in the person of Christ, and in the coming Christ. The story always ends in the presence of God.

As you watch the tithes and offering, know that you will never know the whole of what a person gives to God. God requires in return for His love and gifts is steadfast love & knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6), to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). This is what God requires of us.

Tithes and offering fall under a subset of God's desire for justice. This subset is specifically the justice of taking care of those whose labor is to preach the gospel. In Matthew 10:10, Jesus says "for the laborer deserves his food." In context he speaks of those, in 10:7, who go proclaiming, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." They are to be fed according to their doing that labor. They have a right to that.

Paul sums up that particular cry for justice in 1 Corinthians 9. If one should not muzzle an ox as it works on grain, so one should not make a pastor go hungry who has broken open God's word for God's people. Make no mistake, the offering plate is for the pastor's pocket. If he has labored to proclaim the good news, we as Christians are to feed him accordingly, it is his/her right to receive that.

God requires broken and contrite hearts (Psalm 51:17), steadfast love and knowledge of God (Hosea 6), and to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 3). All of those things will never quite make into accountants ledger. A subset of that justice is to care for those who labor to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. We are indebted to his or her needs.

It gives me a little more comfort to know why I might dance to the offering plate on any given Sunday. It gives me great comfort to know what God requires of me. I hope it encourages as you might be called to be a steward over dismal numbers at times. Those numbers were never meant to be a mark of our faith or our faithfulness. They can be proof that we are willing to do justice to the vulnerable in our community.

Amara Chima

Valentine's Day

To love someone is to believe in the goodness of God, even you don't know him. That faith is less a head-knowledge thought and more an act of bodily throwing yourself from a cliff, feeling almost certain that everything will be alright.

Sometimes it is.

On many a Valentine's Day, I find myself unwilling to believe in God. I assent to the truth of him, but the faith that makes a lane to a cliff-lip, I just don't have.

Something I wish for.

Just the same.

Dear Chris

Dear Chris,

When I said, "choose a profession." I meant "choose a mission field." The gospel, you know and know well. Who you tell and how well you tell this gospel is now the issue. Choose well. Your profession is where you will preach. Your profession is how you will teach. It is how you will love this earth. 
Choosing a profession you can do well is your means to teaching and preaching well. This good news is news about our new world, our planet, our reality. If we have this news, if we know nature better, then our relation with this earth should be better than those who don't. Note, I said relationship and not performance. In light of this gospel, we love our profession. We do not depend on our relationship with our work for our identity and worth. Rather, we freely love what we do. Out of the gracious largess of God we live supported by his generosity we freely love our profession. With love, we do good work.  By good work, I mean well-informed, well-meant, and well executed effort. This work, done freely, and given freely without demands for fame or fortune will create a question. For this same work is almost always done with increasing demands for reward, (Rewards, in and of themselves, become less rewarding. 
That, in turn, inspires a search for greater satisfaction either through more of the same  rewards or through novel ones.) Your good work given without regard to lust of the flesh, 
lust of the eyes, and pride of live illustrates this gospel. Each whole-hearted illustration, each day is a powerful-compelling source of goodness. A goodness that causes the needy to seek 
its source. Men and women will agree they need your work. Some will be convinced that 
they need the gospel that guides your work. This persuasion is a work of the Holy Spirit. He will use the profession you choose and the gospel you know.

Sincerely, A

The Bus

 I was in luck. I saw a bus headed my way. I crossed the street and approached the door. When I looked in I saw the bus driver point, not even looking back at me, around the corner. I went around the corner at a slow jog, when I saw all the people waiting in line. I slowed down to a walk. I would be there when she got there.

After waiting for the man in the wheel chair and his helper to enter the bus, we all entered the bus. She refused to let us pay the fare. I didn’t know why though. I stood as far back as I could go and took my first ride in a long time. I was going from Silver Spring to Washington DC for the annual book festival. I can't live without books and I wanted to know is something from Achebe was there. However, I saw far more valuable things on the ride than after it.

A young woman, baby in a carrier in front of her entered the bus. As she entered we all looked for where she would sit. Somewhere upfront, we suspected. We all identified the same young man sitting in a seat close to the door. He was the only one with no grey hair. He only looked down as the woman and baby passed him by. The old man beside him turned and stared at him. Despite the anger in his eyes, he said nothing. We all stared at him.

Before she passed the middle of the bus, a young woman got up. Saying, “You don’t have to stand. You can sit here.” I can still see her 5’4 frame, black skin, and an island’s lilt.

I blinked. I had just seen justice.

We continued to ride. I had a long way to go and was happy when I found a seat. About three stops later. An older woman entered the bus, cane on her arm as she balanced herself and paid the fair and I saw the young man get up. He walked to the front of the bus and said, “Here. You can sit down.” There was another young African-American who had felt the weight of our stares and anger. He got up several times during my ride to tell another, “You can sit here.”

I blinked. I had just seen repentance.

These are beautiful pictures that intend to keep. Forever. On my blog.

2 Corinthians 7:11

Closing the Loop

This loop begins in Genesis 3:15 NIV: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel." So it begins, the search for the one who would crush the head of the serpent, Satan. Who is searching? Everyone, especially the Woman, was looking for that off-spring who would be the deliverer. There were shadows of that deliverer. We saw can see it now in the stories of Isaac, Moses, Samson, Samuel, and so many others. They were men who born to deliver their people from oppression, to crush the head of their oppressors. Yet, none could crush the head of Satan; none could satisfy our need to regain the immortality we lost.

None accept Jesus.

I found it odd when he addresses his mother as "woman" in John 2. Now, I think he speaks for every "son" whose parents have looked to him to be their savior from shame, futility, and the grave. She calls him to save a marrying man and his family from shame in saying, "They have no more wine." Luke 2:3 NIV. He responds "Woman why do you involve me?" "My hour is not yet come." (Luke 2:4). Yet he responds, he saves the bridegroom and his family from shame in the ensuing verses, 5 - 11.

He speaks for every son and daughter who could not save their parents from death, futility, and shame. Perhaps, they could not save because it was not time for THE Savior. Perhaps they could not save because they were not THE Savior. Perhaps both were true.

In addressing her as "woman." I think he is identifying her with the first person to referred as "woman" because it was her first name: Eve. I think he is beginning to close the loop.

On the cross, he does close the loop. The search for the "offspring" of Genesis 2:15 is over. Parents no longer have to look at their children, searching for and sometimes seeing a deliverer. The only deliver a man or woman needs was on that cross delivering them. He delivered them as he closed the loop. He says to his mother, ""Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother."" (John 19: 26-27).

Now each son and daughter is just that, a son or a daughter, none them have to be a deliverer. Each mother and father are just that, a mother and a father not victims and slaves needing to be rescued. They already have been rescued, by and through their union with Christ.

The search is over. The loop is closed.

John 20:15, the risen Jesus says, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" He then makes the same shift Adam did in the garden. (He went from calling his wife "woman," to naming her, Eve (Genesis 3:20).) He calls her "Mary." She turns to him, recognizing him, and cries out "Rabboni!" She has found him: her teacher, her lord, her friend, and now her Savior.

Our search is over. We have a Savior and no longer need to search for another. His name is Jesus and that is wonderful.

About Ferguson Missouri

Wrote this September 1 2014...

“I love you. I promise I always will.”

I have not thought it all the way through and I struggle with the social implications of the gospel. The gospel always has and always will have social implications. It will always have an impact wherever questions of ethics and justice are central. It will because, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” ~ C. West. The gospel at its heart declares what God, in his love, has already done for us.  He promises us freedom. “Your seed will crush his head.” (Genesis 3:15) We heard when Jesus proclaims that God’s kingdom has broken in to the one of this world (Mark 1:15). We look forward to experiencing it when God’s hour of judgment of separating good from evil, of setting things right, has come (Revelation 14:6).

The last one is especially poignant in the face of Darren Wilson’s impending trial. If the love of Jesus has saved us from sin and if God promises to one day judge all and perfectly, knowing that God’s love has made these things certain, what should we then do? What should we then pursue? Do we pursue justice in our courts as part of the way we live out being dearly beloved children? Do we pursue a shift in policing as a way of showing the love of Christ to the African-American community in Ferguson and throughout the US of A?

Of course.

I cannot believe that that is all we are to do. As believers in this gospel, I believe that we more than pursue justice according to the law. I believe that we are called to shape the law and its enforcement to prefigure God’s own effective, loving, merciful, and terrible justice. On that day, God will judge all the people. Will we do any less? Can we as Christians listen to only the stories we want to hear and judge from there? Or will we listen to officers who are called to work longer hours, with less pay and benefits, with less support as well as the many men and women who are abused by their anger, brutality, disrespect of law and policy? This process of discernment in the context of law enforcement is deeply needed and will not be quickly done. I believe the church should settle in for the long haul of overhauling the police force. I believe the church should be the place where society is called to hold to the full-story truth.

Judgment done with discernment and love is hard to deny. Discernment made Stephen’s defense undeniable in Acts 7. His love made his death unforgettable in Acts 8. While, the contrasting lack of the same two things condemns that council for as long as the chapters of Acts are read. Let us bear the strain of learning to discern good from evil in America’s police force. All the while remembering, justice on earth is not our end goal.

God himself is our end goal. We were created by, through, and for him alone. Our end goal in pursuing justice in Ferguson is to obey his word, to dwell in his love, to be like him in our love, to point others to him in all that we do. We don’t cry out for justice so that this world might be just, it will always have some injustice somewhere. We cry out for justice in the hopes that another might glimpse his justice. We listen to both sides and the heart of every story so that others might see the character of Jesus. We march with protesters and converse with aldermen so that others might see the hands and feet of Jesus. We write blogs, video blogs, twitter, facebook, google+, vimeo, link-in, and stumble upon that others might read the words, see with the eyes, and hear the voice of Jesus. He is the only life we have to give. In him is the only life we want to live. He is the only sure hope for perfect justice and comfort that we can offer. 

Post Script:

This post starts with the beautifully sung words of Steffany Gretzinger. I was listening to track eight of her album, “The Undoing” on Relevant Magazine’s “The Drop” as I wrote this. The track is about God’s covenant love and is titled “Promise I Always Will.”

Who Do You Want?

“Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 

Pilate shouts to the gathered crowd in Matthew 27:17.

For a moment the crowd looks up and sees three men.

They are offered to make a decision as to who lives and who dies. They can pick by calling a name. Whichever name they choose, walks off the stage and into their midst. Their sentence revoked, their crimes forgiven, presumably their fellowship is restored to their people. The other must receive their sentence, pay for their crimes, and be forever cut-off from their people. For this moment, all three men stand there waiting.

I look at this picture for what it says to us as men. Pilate, Barrabbas, and Jesus were once mortal men, but I believe that they represent three options in our desire to live as men in this world.

Lets start with Pilate. There is little known about Pontius Pilate. Within this story, he was a soldier who became the Roman governor over Judea. 

He had the wishes of every man. Pilate was successful. He became a soldier. He worked hard, got lucky, and rose through the ranks. At this moment Pilate had power and security. He was backed the most powerful army in the known world. He could pretty much do as he liked as long as it did not annoy, shame, or threaten Tiberius Caesar. To his left stood man clearly on the other side of fortune, Barrabas.

He was a prisoner accused of rebellion and murder. He was a zealot who believed in the coming Messiah and tried to bring about the freedom of Judea from Roman oppression. He joined the rebellion, worked hard, and was caught. He became imprisoned, poor, regularly disrespected and maltreated. He was sentenced to be crucified. If Pilate is every man's dream, Barrabas is every man's nightmare. Standing all the way to his right...

Jesus was accused by the priests and scribes. He has no resources, no comforts, no freedom, and is danger of being crucified. He was a carpenter who gave up the business to because he was called to be an itinerant rabbi. He refused to escape or deny those who would arrest him, because he was called to be arrested. Here he could have free himself in a few words regained all of his comforts, his resources, and secured his life by speaking a few words to Pilate or to God. He did not because he was called. 

If Pilate's life is a dream that every man wants to live and Barrabbas', a nightmare that every man wants to avoid, then the life of Jesus is a mystery. He willingly rushes towards the joblessness, insecurity, ignominy, and death that every man in every age would want to avoid. 

Why? 

What on earth could be more important than fruitful work and a good life?

Which man do we want? Which one do we want to be like? The crowd chose Barabbas and Pilate. They chose Barabbas to be in their company and Pilate to be their ruler. They cried out for Jesus to die.

We know why Pilate chose to do as he did. We know what drove Barabbas to become the man he became. It is not until we understand why Jesus did what he did, that we can choose him. Jesus valued his relationship with God over all else. It is hard to remember to do that everyday. Each day there are new and pressing needs to believe that hard work, power, prestige, resources, and comforts are worthy aims. 

Yet, the Holy Spirit and Scripture continually points us to the Man and invite us to become like the mystery.

Musing on Christian art and Christian story

I love to experience Christian art. Perelandra by CS Lewis, Rehab by Lecrae Moore, or the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt are all beautiful pieces of art that render the invisible things of God and His world true. I enjoy and am encouraged by these pieces of art. Not just as its audience, also as a fellow work of art. These pieces of art remind me that my very life and being point to an invisible truth. Yet, there is some Christian art I struggle to resonate with.

These pieces of art seek to portray spiritual realities directly. Every song that seeks to bind the devil, every sermon that skips the story of Scripture to declare its truths as a slogan, I still hear and celebrate the truths of a living God. I enjoy the medium a little less.

Sometimes, I straightforward approach is necessary.

I am in awe of God through His choice of medium. He has revealed himself in the words, stories, songs, poetry, laws, and structure of Scripture. I experience Him clearest when His people reunite His mediums and His truths. God uses stories that have the knowledge of Him as their moral and are filled with very human people, all their glory and ruins included. Whether it is terrible and fearful Edmund from, “The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe” or a young, honest, wild and self-centered Lecrae in of APB, the truth of the depth of God’s redemption portrayed through Aslan’s relationship with Edmund and the transforming power of the gospel seen through Lecrae’s lyrical, before-and after snapshots of himself remind me anew of the stories of the Old and New Testaments. They remind me that I am living a story. That story is a continuation of the great story: story of how God saves the world.

I need the encouragement and reminders for as long as life gets me down. That happens more often than I care to remember. I look forward to more Ted Dekkers, Courtney Peebles, Janett..iks, and mosaic makers (see the cover of Befriending the Stranger by Jean Vanier). Most of all, I look forward to day when I will experience God in utter clarity, also known as, the beginning of forever.

Waiting for a Phone call

I fell asleep last night waiting for the phone to ring. I woke up this morning, early in the same state. I lay in bed wondering. I got up, washed, starched and iron my clothes, just in case for the call to come. I knew where their office was. It was 30 minutes away and I was prepared to drive there. I did not want to do anything else. I wanted this job.

I walked around with my phone and my being fully charged, waiting.

Finally, I left. I went to the library. I lost myself in books and webinars on Motivational Interviewing. I wrote two other blog posts. All the while, I watched my phone, waiting for that company to call.

I expected them to call by ten. They did not call.

I called and left a message making sure that they had the correct phone numbers at which to reach me. I waited and waited as I prepared. I studied their company. I got to know what they did. By twelve, I was in full swing writing, listening, reading…waiting. The last time they had called me was yesterday around three. Maybe there had been a gap in their schedule. Maybe there would be another gap today.

By four o’clock, I was crushed.

I went home. By five, I had lost hope and was bitterly angry with the world. Nothing was going right. No one was on my side. Earth was a cold dead place.

I texted two friends one simple word, “Nothing.” It was customary to my spare style of communicating when I am passionate. One of them texted back, “Galatians 6:9;” he was just as brief. I looked it up and found all that I needed.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the on who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household o f the faith.” (Galatians 6:8-10 NASB)

My friend was encouraging to not give up hope and to keep working towards working. His encouragement, however, reached further than that. The verse calls me to invest in my life with the Spirit, even if it seems like I am not gaining all that much. Even if it seems like praying for what I need and for His will to be done doesn’t seem to yield what I need or much of His will being worked out in my own soul. Both he and Paul encouraged me to not lose heart and to keep hoping. Paul encourages the brethren of Galatia that hoping in life with the Spirit does not lead to utter selfishness and navel gazing. Rather that hoping will lead me to doing good to others as a way of investing in my life with the Spirit. (That’s good to know and hard to swallow.)

Most of all, that text was short. It took a little of his time, attention, thought, and effort. I was reminded that I am not alone. Therefore, for me, at the very least

Earth is not a cold dead place. 

Stewarding My Cultures

Stewarding My Culture across Cultural Boundaries.

I love my songs. It is the biggest part of Nigerian culture that I have. I love to sing them. When I am happy, there are songs for that. When I am sad, there are songs for that too. When I’m in love, I have got to write a few. I know enough about high-life rhythms to create one.

As I matriculated through Covenant Seminary there was always a temptation to show off. There are days when I wanted to make myself feel better than others by simply being different. Thankfully, I was often too shy about things I get very emotional about, like music, psychology, social ethics, and theology to do so casually.

There were times when I did do something Igbo/Nigerian. I wore some of the clothes to church. I made or brought back to the dorm a certain food (Mom’s meat-pie is presently calling me). I sang one of our songs or danced one of our dances inchurch. I made sure I had a good reason why.

Sometimes, I wore the clothes because it was hot and humid. These clothes were designed for that weather. Sometimes I wore the clothes because it was Independence Day. I knew that many Nigerian people were doing the same. Once, I sang an old song in Igbo to honor a young man from the Congo who was about to get married. When I ate Nigerian food, it was because… it was food…that tasted good (duh).

It is not until today, a full week after graduating that I get it. Culture serves its people. Certain songs, certain ways of gathering, certain clothes are part of traditions that guide us through grieving the dead, the end of relationships, the birth of a child, the commitment of marriage, the coming of age of boys to men and girls to women, and a myriad of other situations. The culture of my folks and the culture of this land, interestingly enough, have different traditions surrounding the same events. These traditions touch our need to be human better than others in certain places.  Some traditions are better geared towards including the community in individual grief. Other social traditions are more clear in nurturing individual achievement and self control. I love the variety.

However, I do hate whenever tradition becomes entertainment. When a sad song is sung just to demonstrate it, when a dance of grief becomes something to show-off at a party, I do not think that is right.

The children of Israel faced a question that was very much like the ones we, bi- and tri-cultural people face today. After they were taken captive by Babylon, they, in their torment and grief, were asked to sing songs of joy (Psalm 137:3). They wondered, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (137:4 NIV) It seems that they concluded that to sing their songs inappropriately is to forget where they came from (Psalm 137:5-6). Then they went on to sing a song appropriate to their situation. They sang grief, anger, and cries for vengeance (137:7-9). They stewarded their culture well.

I have not always stewarded my cultures well. I still got a ways to go. However, I am thankful that the Lord has already provided help, through the Scriptures, for that.

The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce by Judith Wallerstein

The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce by Judith Wallerstein, Julia Lewis, and Sandra Blakeslee

I have two close friends. I love them deeply and they are children of divorce. I knew some of what they went through. I just assumed that that was life and they were taking the curveballs of life just like everyone else. I was determined to be there for their sake. Just as often, they were determined to be there for mine. Wallerstien has shown me much of what they went through, how their hearts were shaped, the battles that they are fighting, things that I see but just don’t get. I am thankful to have read this book. I hope, now that I know better, that I will be better able to love them. Their battle to trust in others and to believe that their lives and marriages will be better than that of their parents astounds me. I stand in awe of their strength.

If you are or know someone who has been through a divorce, and chances are you do, this book is for you.

Wallerstien and her colleagues started to study the children of divorce in 1971. They interviewed and assessed the children that were a part of their study for a number of years afterward. “But as time progressed, I [Wallerstien] became increasingly worried that divorce is a long-term crisis that was affecting the psychological profile of an entire generation.” (xxvii) As she continued to interview children she found,“Whether the final outcome is good or bad, the whole trajectory of individual’s life is profoundly altered by the divorce experience.” (xxvii)

She wrote stories about children, who they were, what they looked like. These stories followed each child into their teenage years, early adulthood, and adulthood (30s). These stories are conglomerations of many other stories. The events are real but the names, dates and places were changed to protect privacy. The pain, loss, fear, rage, brokenness, sorrow, and triumph in each story was palpable. To her, it becomes “…clear that thousands of parents and children in divorced families, it’s clear that we’ve created a new kind of society never before seen in human culture. Silently and unconsciously, we have created a culture of divorce.” (295) It became clear that “The effects of divorce are cumulative on children. It affects the more they grow up, not less. “In adulthood it affects personality, the ability to trust, expectations about relationships, and ability to cope with change.” (298)

Some of my aforementioned friends are married. Some are not. I never knew what they were fighting to even trust another person. I am grateful for this book. The implications of her study are limited in scope, by the demographics of her participants and in power, (since most of her data is anecdotal); Dr. Wallerstein and her colleagues spoke up for children. They suggested practical ways to protect children from the ravages of divorce and help them to flourish as human beings. I think their aims and mode executing it glorifies God.

Appendix: Research sample 317

 This section gives a look at the study’s demographics, design, methodology, and data analysis. 

Madness: A Bipolar Life by Mary Hornbacher

I want to own this book. I feel at home with this woman through it. Her pain shocks me and her sweet sense of survival brings me to tears. Hornbacher does an amazing feat of writing from a first person stream of consciousness at the age of ten. She then writes from her childhood up to her womanhood days.

She communicates her life to us by episodes. Each episode is colored by sadness, depression, anger, euphoria, boredom, quiet joy, fear, anxiety, romance, and mania. Some chapters are short, some are long. It makes the book feel more like a journal than it does a novel. Her powers of phrasing and sentence structure amplify her content as she effectively communicates her states of mind to the reader. She does not mediate her experiences with her opinion, rather the reader is left to encounter for her- or his- self. Her honesty about her self and the world she sees is raw. Whether she is communicating her self focused reasons for falling in love with her second husband or strong fears of being left alone when depressed, the reader is left feeling that Hornbacher held nothing back in her telling.

Hornbacher’s ability to communicate without pulling punches satisfies the purpose of her book. She humanizes herself to her reader. She presents herself in all her beauty, strength, weakness, madness, and complexity and not as another case study. Her strong use of emotion and empathy in her episodes not only humanizes her but humanizes those who suffer along with her. The fear, pain, and compassion of her parents, her friends, her husbands, and her mental health counselors are evident in their care and communication with her. Her bipolar sickness is also demystified. It becomes less a capricious malady and more a disease with quirks and rhythms all its own. In short, Hornbacher, becomes less a woman who suffers and more a woman with a full, rich, deep life that is well worth living.

Madness: A Bipolar Life is 280 pages. It has appendices at the end that counter balance the narrative heavy story with Bipolar Facts, Useful Websites¸ and a Bibliography. She ends the book with a series of acknowledgements to those who supported her in this endeavor. This book is a wonderful resource to those seeking to understand and love those who suffer from Bipolar 1 disorder.

Book Review of There Was A Country by Chinua Achebe

Where the Rain Began to Beat Us

“A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body” (Achebe, 1). The next generation wants to bring Nigeria forward, we want to progress in healing the wounds of this nation and making it healthier, peaceful place. We need to know where the rain first began to beat our people, before we can begin to dry our people. According to Achebe, the rain first began to beat Africa when Europe “discovered” the continent (Achebe, 1). The problems faced by this present generation, some of them have their beginning during Chinua Achebe’s early. Achebe tells his story as a way of informing the next generation where to begin to heal our hurts.

His book seeks to act as a Genesis story to the joys and problems of Nigeria. He tells personal stories of his experiences of Nigeria as a freshly-minted country. He creates complex characters with comedic anecdotes and tragic endings and is careful to place them as well as himself with the historical framework of Nigeria’s short political history. He is careful to give both sides of each story a hearing and to include the world’s response to Nigerian events. His book is full of references, he is careful to point out to his audience that his memories are not misremembered or conjured up; rather his memories are based carefully researched historical fact. These facts include the many layered relationships and ruptures that led up to the Biafran war and the textured response to the subjugated Igbo people that included both mercies and continued injustices.

“There Was a Country” does not seek to answer specific questions of Nigeria’s often bemoaned political state. It does provide a place for those with questions to begin searching for answers. He seeks to place Nigeria’s pains and impediments in relation to the socio-political history of itself and of the world. He is careful to include inter tribal and intra tribal political considerations that went into the sometimes atrocious actions of communities. As a diplomat Biafra Achebe considers the response of Western nations. However, his writing is never academic. He always uses personal stories that portray the very human people that he worked with.

Chinua Achebe has many features that deepened my understanding and respect for his material. He started each chapter with one of his poems in order to further communicate the “particular tension of war” (Achebe, 2). He also includes two appendices. One praises the servant-leadership of Nelson Mandela. The other provides a full transcript of the Brigadier Banjo’s, the leading ground officer Nigeria’s invading force, first inaugural radio transmission to the conquered Midwest. He provides a full bibliography of his references to historical events and an index of terms.   

There Was a Country seeks to give a personal history of an event that changed the course of a nation. It bemoans the loss of the innocence of a nation and the bitter coming of age of a people. This book is also hopeful. The author believes that the problems that plague Africa in general and Nigeria especially can be healed. He believes healing can begin with treating the root causes of African discomfort and then working towards the symptoms. Truest of all, There Was a Country communicates his deep love for Nigeria.