Author: japfth

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #464: Ecclesiastes for Today (Part 2)

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Text: 

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man (Eccl 2:1-8, ESV). 

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): Know the condition of the well from which you drink. 

Context, Context, Context: Ecclesiastes is part of the ‘wisdom literature’ in Scripture. Its goal? Wisdom–to lead the wise from fruitless pursuit of wisdom under the sun to true wisdom in the Son. Solomon is a magnificent case study. He went from hero to zero many times. But he, in my view, finally got it right. Wisdom drives the Christian pilgrim to Christ, wisdom personified and incarnated. 

Connection: Who among us has not played the fool? Haven’t we all been like Eliot’s Prufrock at least once? I certainly have-more than once. Who among us has not fallen prey to pursuing stuff, promotion, popularity, power, wealth, status, etc., only to find we felt worse after the shine wore off? 

Encouragement: Solomon is one of my enduring favorites from history. Why? Because he’s an “Everyman.” He ‘gets us’ to use modern parlance. He’s shot through with our sins, our patterns, our fallenness, our proclivities. 

But here’s the good news: Chapter 12 is coming. Why’s that important? Because Solomon finally seemed to get it into his own stubborn head. Anybody else out there have the honesty to admit we’re all a lot more like Solomon than we differ from him? We pursue stuff, promotion, the approval of the sheeple, wealth, etc. There’s really no end to our idols. But what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul (cf. Mt 16:26)? The question answers itself. 

To Whom Does God Look?

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This morning I completed another reading through the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is 66 chapters of absolute sovereignty. In the book, the prophet Isaiah writes in the 700s B.C. of his (God’s) incomparable name. He pronounces, through the life and ministry of Isaiah, his (God’s) absolute sovereignty.

How does God do that? Mainly through pronouncements/oracles of cursing and blessing. It’s God’s way of showing that the earth is his and the fullness thereof. He is not in need of anything or anyone. God, as I tell the saints at church week in and week out, is the hero of the story.

Creation>Fall>Redemption>Restoration.

That’s the overarching pattern in Scripture and in history.

We are creatures; God is the Creator.

We are fallen due to our sin nature.

God the Son became incarnate in order to redeem his bride (the true church) from all ages. Abraham is in the true church; Moses is in the true church; Ruth is in the true church; Peter’s in the true church; and Christians from all ages are in the true church because they are grafted into the seed of promise (Christ).

Then God restores all things in the consummation. The story comes full circle. The first Adam failed; the last Adam (Christ) succeeds. A new Jerusalem comes down; Eden is once again made perfect by the work of the triune God.

When I was wrapping up Isaiah’s book again this time, I was struck by a passage in the last chapter:

All these things my hand has made,
    and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word (Is 66:2, ESV).

To whom does God look? To the one who is humble and contrite in heart. Who is it that does God’s will perfectly? Abraham? No. David? No. John? No. Peter? No. Paul? No. You? No. Me? No.

You see the pattern? All of us have fallen–and continue to fall–short (Rom 3:23). God is the hero. Over and over again, God gets the glory. Our duty and joy as Christians is to herald that truth, to strive to live it out as salt and light, to preserve the good, and to expose the darkness in faith that God does–always and forever–what is right.

Ecclesiastes for Today (Part 1)

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“The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises” (Eccl 1:5). Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises takes its title from this verse. In Hemingway’s novel, the narrative centers on the moral dissipation of post-WWI characters. There’s no paucity of wounded men and women, trying to cope with their existential struggles to kill their wounds.

The problems, however, persist. Why? Because rather than turning to God, they turn away from God. They get angry at the God they reject. Where’s the wisdom in that? It’s folly, of course. You get angry, but rather than returning to the Author of life, you curse and flee. And the end result of course is nihilism and self-destruction. 

The goal of Ecclesiastes is to teach us pilgrims to return to God. Rather than hiding behind contemporary fig leaves and attempting to hide from the holy, the wise pilgrim will admit that his biggest problem is his own sin. And the cure for that is not a pill, or thing, or activity; the cure is Christ and his gospel. 

Leaving a Legacy

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Over the last few days, I’ve been privileged to witness the passing of leadership from one great leader to another. It’s interesting when you really pay attention to people. You can get a glimpse of their true nature—who they really are. When we honored COL Stone, he didn’t make the day or event about himself. He referred to God, to his own mentors, and to his brothers in arms, to his family, to his friends, and to all the Soldiers with whom he has served for nearly three decades. How can one not be moved by such words? He has now left his own legacy, just as many did before him, and many will do after him.

Question:  What does it mean to leave a noble legacy? Many things, of course. Overcoming adversity; resilience; improvements; victories; accomplishments, etc. But I think one of the things we should emulate is selfless service. It’s a spirit where the team and the mission require that each Service Member be mindful that his/her actions reflect upon the whole team. It’s that culture where the small decisions each of us makes ripple out and across the surface and under the surface. It’s leaving things better than we found them. It’s leaving it all on the field for the sake of honor at having done our best. We all have bad days; let us concede that. But the overcomer is the one who does not lose sight of the legacy he/she aims to leave.

I’ve been privileged to serve under and alongside many, many fine leaders. COL Stone was one of those. May his tribe increase. May we continue to learn from such men and, as Scripture says, honor those to whom honor is due (Rom 13:7).   

Asking Myself Questions about Books

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Currently I’m reading several books simultaneously. One is a long novel of nearly 1,000 pages. I have heard from fellow readers that it’s one of their favorites. After sitting on one of my shelves for years, I finally decided now was the time to read it. I’m halfway through it, but it is a behemoth book. I’m a pretty fast reader but this one is taking me quite a bit of time.

But it got me to thinking. I asked myself, “If you had to pick ten books (regardless of genre) that have impacted you most profoundly, what would they be?”

Spoiler Alert: I could not limit it to ten, so . . .

Here’s what I came up with (not necessarily in order of importance):

  • Hamlet (Shakespeare)
  • Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
  • Macbeth (Shakespeare)
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce)
  • Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner)
  • The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)
  • The Complete Short Stories (O’Connor)
  • All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy)
  • The Road (McCarthy)
  • Suttree (McCarthy)
  • The Crossing (McCarthy)
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Great Expectations (Dickens)
  • Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
  • Stoner (Williams)
  • The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
  • Madame Bovary (Flaubert)

Your thoughts? Do you have books that you really have never been able to shake, books that you can’t now imagine not being part of you?

Encouragement from KY & the ‘One Anothers’

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Today after one of the breakout sessions, a sweet spirit seemed to have been sent among several of us through the morning. It seemed to come from both outside of us and from within us. Walls began to come down. We spoke not of our educational or professional pedigrees. Rather we began with questions like, “So, what’s next for you, Craig?” or “So, what’s God calling you to, Gary?” or “How do you guys define ‘calling'”?The questions came regularly, and so did the ruminations. It was iron sharpening iron. That’s what Solomon called it: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Pr 27:17).

We had lunch together. We ate our chili dogs and salads and drank our coffee and water. We spoke of our ministries. Some were in hospital chaplaincy. Others were military chaplains. Others were prison chaplains. Some others of us were pastors/elders and/or professors or teachers. The group was chock-full with years of experience in ministry and its myriad locations. We were all sponges–both absorbing what we were hearing and also being squeezed so that we poured into one another. My intellectual, emotional, and spiritual cups were being filled by these brothers.

Later as I drove back to billeting, I came across a creek, pulled my vehicle over, got out, and went and took in the sight and sounds of the creek I’ve crossed multiple times this week. Why? To give thanks, in short. To thank God for his common grace. To quote one of the great catechisms, “God’s providence is His completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.” In other words, no accidents. This is not a random cosmos. We are creatures (hence, there is a Creator) who are gifted with intellectual capacities in order to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And one of the ways God’s providence plays out in history is via simple yet profound things like deep and kind conversations among fellow pilgrims on the way.

I stood on the bank of the creek and snapped another picture and spoke my heart silently over the sounds of the waters. Just to say, Thank you for today, Lord.

Thank you that I have new contacts in my phone, men I can call and who can call me, fellow ministers/chaplains/pastors who can hug me and say, “I get it. I truly do. Let’s walk together.”

I’m back now, and headed to PT in the gym. Got to sweat of the child dog from lunch. But I take us back to wise words penned by another who likewise understood the need for encouragement: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). To my fellow brothers, thank you for making this theology visible.

Calendaring the Stewardship of Your Life

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Day two of training is now completed for me in this iteration here in KY. Good training today. Beautiful weather here on a beautiful seminary campus. 

I had the privilege of being in a briefing with a buddy of mine with whom I did CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) and we got to spend some time together in the afternoon and walk and talk. He’s a retired Army 1SG and chaplain, and now serves with our endorsing agency as a conduit for chaplains. 

When Michael was teaching today, he said something that really resonated with me: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” I found that a very wise statement. Why? I think it’s because if you don’t schedule your life wisely, you will waste your life on things of lesser significance. (Piper’s phrase and book about not wasting one’s life come to mind.)

Michael ribbed me because he knew I was a calendar guy. I carry a literal spiral notebook-calendar. I love it. Why? Well, it keeps me structured: 0630 for this; 0900 for that; 1100 for this; 1300 for that, etc. I note my readings, my appointments, my Scriptures for that day, etc. It works for me.

But here’s where Michael got me to see something. He asked, “You’re being the chaplain to everyone else, but where do you go? Why does everyone else get a resource but you don’t think you need one? How is that not vanity?”

Mic drop; that’s what that was for me. Then he said this: “Calendar the stewardship of your life.” Again, I was floored inside. Yep, I’m the calendar guy. I write it all down. I’d be a terrible criminal, because I have written down nearly everything that matters to me–what I’m reading, what I’m dealing with, what engagements I have, etc. in order to manage it all. But it exacts a toll. We can find ourselves exhausted on behalf of others, and depleted on the inside.

We can work oursevles to a frazzle. And for what? For whom? We’re replaced, and life goes on. That may sound harsh, but it’s nonetheless true. Michael, you taught me today, brother. I need to learn to calendar the stewardship of my life. Thank you.

Grace, Anyone?

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As part of my job, I’m currently in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. For many reasons, I have a deep affection for this Commonwealth of Kentucky. I love its hills, many of its writers, where I spent some years in seminary for one of my graduate degrees, and for many of the people I’ve known and continue to know here. There are more reasons, but those are some of them.

Today en route to the Lexington region, I stopped for a quick lunch of fried chicken (it’s KY, after all), and as I waited for my order to be processed, I gazed around at the words and images on the restaurant’s interior. I was shaken by the one pictured above.

Why? For me, it’s theological. That word grace is weighty. In Greek, it’s χάρις. That’s karis in English transliteration. In the original, it means “divine favor.” Let that sink in–to be favored by God. To be shown favor by the Divine. Unmerited favor. Undeserved mercy. It’s God’s love in spite of our sinfulness. It’s 2 Corinthians 5:21, in other words: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What struck me was the battle I was in while at the fried chicken place. The boy who worked the front cash register was impish, rude, and seemingly uninterested in my spending my money there, or in any way offering me customer-friendly service. He was curt, petulant, and cocky.

And yet there was that plaque on the wall. How ironic. Why this test, Lord? I thought. But I was friendly and respectful towards the young man in spite of his treatment of me. I paid, got my meal, ate, cleaned up afterwards, and exited. I walked back to my car and drove on towards the Lexington area.

Grace. Grace. Grace.

It’s easy to pass the language courses for some. To learn the case endings and nuances and tenses, etc. That’s just part of learning any language. But to live out grace in daily life–that’s much harder. That tests one’s mettle. That’s where we make our theology visible. That’s where we see that what’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.

Grace, grace, grace.

Scenes from the Family Beach Trip

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Sometimes I don’t know how deeply I needed to get away. This week has been a reminder. CJ and I took our daughter, son, and granddaughter to the Florida panhandle for some sand, surf, sun, and seafood. We missed our son-in-law, but he had to work his job. But that gives us a new goal for next time.

The weather was spectacular. Sunny, a slight breeze, and occasionally a brief thunderstorm. But the sands were white, the temperatures were hot, and the water was fine.

I read several pieces while here–more of McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, all of Levi’s Theo of Golden, and a Sinclair Ferguson volume a friend from church gave me, Union with Christ.

Plus we were able to enjoy some seafood. (A dozen raw oysters with hot sauce were just what the doctor ordered.)

We were able to put our granddaughter in the pool and be part of her first beach trip. She was amazing. (Of course I am completely unbiased.)

Below are some of photos I snapped during our time. Until next time, FL; thanks for the spiritual recharge.

(The above picture was taken while I sat under our canopy and watched some fellow vacationers.)

(This palm was just off our condo’s outside deck.)

(This was just before an evening thunderstorm rolled in.)

(Some of our granddaughter’s beach toys.)

(I had a lot of folks prod me to read this book. It was beautiful. I read it in one day; it was that moving. Bottom line up front: goodness and beauty matter.)

(My view on another day.)

CJ, my favorite sun bunny.

(Walking onto the beach from our condo.)

(My CJ after rinsing off our granddaughter’s toys.)

Views upon a Trip to a Florida Barnes & Noble

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Lonesome Dove is the main book I’m currently reading. But it is about 900 pages in length. 858 to be precise. And the font is, I’m speculating, about 10-point Times New Roman. I felt the need to get up and peruse some other books. Augustus and Deets and Call and the other fellas would be here when I got back.

“I’m going to go to one of the bookstores,” I said to CJ.

“Oh, you need another one?” she quipped.

“No, I just need to see what’s out there. There’s a Barnes & Noble and a Books-A-Million just down the way. I’ll be back in a few,” I said.

I grabbed my wallet, laced up my On Cloud running shoes, borrowed our daughter’s car keys, kissed CJ on the cheek, walked out the door, boarded the elevator, and walked towards her vehicle downstairs in the parking lot.

A summer rain had been on and off again throughout the day. The sky was that muggy FL haze common in summer. The traffic was light but constant on US HWY 98 between Destin and Panama City. I read the tags on the vehicles: TN, TX, KY, GA, and lots of local FL ones.

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the Barnes & Noble. I walked in, eager to see how this one would be arranged book-wise. Again I was disapppointed to see there was no Classics section. Instead there were sections of Manga, Mystery/Thriller/True Crime, Romance and Fantasy, Bibles, New Age, Philosophy, a small Poetry section, and sections for what Barnes & Noble called Young Readers. And there was all manner of gifts–journals, coffee cups, bookmarks, stationery, pens, toys, etc.

Once I discovered that the classics would be hard to find, I went to the Fiction section and looked for what I took as the basics they’d surely have. I did at last find some Dickens, Faulkner, Hemingway, McCarthy, McMurtry, Powers, and Wharton, and Whitman. Hope, at last.

I pulled Powers’ Bewilderment off the shelf and read the first few paragraphs. Like his other books, I found them marvelous and instructive. Powers is focused on what’s being done to the natural world in the name of progress, and he has my ear.

A young man in his twenties appproached near where I stood reading. He kept getting closer and closer, such that I looked up to see if I was perhaps in his way, perhaps blocking his view. He never made eye contact. But he kept standing right next to me. It gave me what my deceased grandfather called the “heeby-jeebies,” so I reshelved the Powers novel and moved on to the Poetry section and perused some Whitman and other poets.

After the creeper moved on, I returned to the Fiction section and thumbed through some familiar literary friends’ books–Larry McMurtry, Edith Wharton, William Gaddis. I lost track of time. I knew CJ and the family would be making jokes of my being in a bookstore and likely would have wagered I’d return with a bag of purchases. But I didn’t give in. I simply made note of volumes I’ve yet to read, but that had caught my interest. There was one called Mailman by Grant that looked like a fun read. Plus I love the region that served as its primary setting.

Nothing really stood out to me–other than the fact that reading seems to be marketed to what sells, not necessarily what is actually lasting and good. Maybe that’s just the old codger coming out in me. That lament has probably been part of bibliophiles’ sentiment since Gutenberg blessed the world during the Reformation.

Back at the beach house now. The sun has popped out. And I’m back with McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and saddled in with Call and Gus and the boys en route to Montana, to see what happens.

We’re going out for seafood this evening. CJ will want some (no, many!) crab legs, and I’ll be on the hunt for grouper and shrimp.