"Not in the Correct State"

Recently my computer slowed to a crawl, it was so slow that had I taken it for a walk a turtle could have out paced it. The culprit? AI. AI was eating up resources. Microsoft had installed AI during a weekly update without my permission – what else is new? 

Once I disabled AI things went back to normal, which for an old computer is not that good, but it gets the job done. I have deep concerns about AI, ethical concerns, and spiritual concerns, but this isn’t the piece in which to explore them. I’ll say this, if you don’t know who you are before you use AI, you certainly won’t find out who you are if you use it. In elements of AI we are abdicating our personhood formed in the image of God, we are exchanging the glory of God for a mess of gruel…a poor exchange I think. 

Lately a message has been frequently appearing after booting up and starting WORD: 

“The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.” 

When a computer is as old as ours you don’t like to see anything out of the norm because it could always be the BIG ONE, the problem that can’t be fixed, the car that breaks down on the side of the road that is destined for the junk yard. 

About 7 years ago our 1994 Ford Ranger pickup stopped running as I was driving it to the small engine shop to get 2-cycle oil. It was a 5-speed, sweet little vehicle. We had purchased it from Vickie’s brother Rod who had a small used-car dealership north of Des Moines. When we lived in Massachusetts, in the winter we’d put studded tires on it, throw firewood in the bed, and we could drive it anywhere in the snow. At the time of its breakdown, we drove it less than 300 miles a year, short trips to Lowes, Home Depot, and the dump were the extent of its use. As a practical matter it didn’t make sense to put any more money into the little truck, so we gave it to the young man who was operating the tow truck – he was quite happy. It was our pleasure to both give it away and to spare the pickup from the ignominy of the junk yard. 

“The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.” 

When I read these words on my computer screen I wonder if they are true about me. Am I in a place today where I can respond to the Holy Spirit? Am I in a state of being where I can be a blessing to others?

I am easily distracted. My own wants and needs and worries often deaden my sensitivity to our Lord Jesus and to others. There are times I go to the store, get what I want, begin the drive home and then realize that I didn’t pay attention to people while in the store. This shames me before our Lord Jesus, this ought not to be. There have been countless times when I’ve met people while shopping and have been able to encourage them, pray with them, and leave them with something to think about in Christ.

The same is true with our neighbors. Sometimes I am in a good state in which to be a blessing, and sometimes I’m too self-centered to respond to others in our Lord Jesus. 

In WWII allied bombers dropped strips of aluminum foil into the sky to confuse Axis radar, they called it chaff. I don’t know about you but I’m always dealing with chaff. Chaff confuses me, it distracts me from Jesus and people, it diverts my attention from things that matter. Talking heads scatter chaff. Advertising is chaff. Chaff is dispersed from Washington all the way down to the local level, from Hollywood, from Wall Street, and from many religious institutions. 

If we are going to avoid getting locked in on chaff we will do well to recall the Great Commandment:

“The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:29 – 31).

Then we have, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 – 13). 

And then, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). 

I think that in order to be in the correct state to respond to the Holy Spirit that we need to be in a state of loving God and others, a state of living for others, a state of laying our lives down for others. The shape of our lives is to be cruciform (Galatians 2:20; 6:14). 

I want to be responsive to the Holy Spirit throughout the day, I want to be drawn deeper into the fellowship of the Trinity with each breath I take. I want to keep learning and growing in Jesus and with my brothers and sisters.

What about you? 

Are we living in the correct state to perform the requested operation? 

Unplugging the Computer

 

We are not machines, we are people, people made in the image of God. For this reason I do my best to avoid illustrations that have to do with machines, for if we think of ourselves as machines or as technological phenomena, we will treat each other as machines. When we use language such as, “Today we are going to download what the Holy Spirit has for us,” I want to jump up and shout, “Flagrant foul! You are out of the game.”

When I was starting out in the business world we had Personnel Departments, then we had Human Resources, and now we have Human Assets or any number of other titles. We are no longer actual people, we are assets and resources and we exist to produce, to be utilized, and to then be thrown away. Maybe the powers that be will soon recycle us as fertilizer – no doubt there will be a debate as to whether agricultural producers will have to disclose this on their packaging. 

Now I’m going to violate my own rule by using a couple of electronic illustrations – fair warning. I’ll share one illustration in this post, and follow up with the second in another post. 

Our computer is old, I mean really old; at least ten years old. It is too old to load Windows 11, and since Microsoft is eliminating support, including security updates, for Windows 10 in a few months, we are going to need a new computer. The same thing happened to us when Microsoft terminated support for Windows 7. The rascals! Yes, I realize there are patches from third parties, but there are other reasons it’s time for a new computer. 

Our computer’s processor can’t handle things such as a new camera or external microphone, it slows down, it freezes, and it can be frustrating – but I suppose also sanctifying in terms of cultivating patience. Sometimes when it freezes there is only one solution, disconnect the power, unplug the offending peripheral, and reboot the system. 

Disconnecting the power means more than simply unplugging the cord, since this is a laptop, it also means removing the battery so there is a clean electrical break. 

Do you think it is possible that we all need a clean break from the electronic cocaine we imbibe throughout the day? 

How is it that professing Christians take their cues and set their agendas based on the things of this world? How is it that we are more familiar with news headlines than with God’s Word? How is it that we are more eager to conform ourselves to worldly political and economic and national and academic and entertainment and sports ideologies than we are to conform ourselves to the Word of God?

How is it that we will follow political and economic and sports and entertainment leaders, rather than follow Jesus?

How is it that we fail to recognize the inherent evil in the world system, including its economic and political and nationalistic systems?  

Does not John write, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15 – 16, NASB).

Does not Jesus say concerning us, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16, NASB. See also John 15:18 – 21). 

I recently read that the national news broadcasts by the three major networks used to be only 15 minutes each evening. Can we imagine this? 15 minutes!

Now we are consumed by 24/7 news delivered myriad ways. Note that I did not write that we are consuming news 24/7, but that we are being consumed, for the consumers are now the consumed. We simply cannot allow the messages of the world to enter our souls and hearts and minds in such an overwhelming fashion and not be profoundly affected by them, not be formed into the images of the world system. It is one thing to be informed, it is another thing to be conformed. 

And let’s be clear about one thing, all news media have bias. Let’s also be clear that this is nothing new, it has been happening since Colonial times in our own nation. To think that one media group somehow presents the news in a purer fashion than its competitors is foolish, and it is particularly foolish for the son or daughter of God to think this for fallen man cannot, by his nature, discern the fulness of truth. 

I will also point out that while media group A may come closer to the truth in some things than media group B, in other areas media group B will likely come closer to the truth than group A. But isn’t this generally true of groups of humanity? Only in Jesus do we have consistency, only in Jesus do we have a sure and certain refuge. 

It is also foolish for professing Christians to think that any message, other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the true Truth. 

It is as if we live in a prison with speakers on 24/7 telling us the same things over and over in various ways until our minds and hearts become products of the words and rhythms we subject ourselves to. We are transformed into creatures we were never meant to be, with ill will and anger and hard-heartedness and anxiety and vitriol and lying and spin and selfishness, with hearts grown cold and unfeeling toward others. 

Perhaps we need to unplug the computer, remove the battery, and take a break from the poison, perhaps we need detoxification. Perhaps we need to recenter ourselves in Jesus Christ and His Holy Word. Perhaps it’s time to return to Psalm 1 with its emphasis on meditating and delighting in the Word of God, day and night. 

O dear friends, the people around us do not need us to be advocates for political or economic or nationalistic philosophies and agendas, but they do need us to show them Jesus, to be a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm and streams of water in dry places (Isaiah 32:1 – 2). 

As our society and world engage in mutual assured destruction, let us fulfill our calling in Jesus Christ, showing Him to others and calling them into a deep relationship with Him. 

Who can you and I share Jesus with today?

The Sacraments of Life (3)

 Coffee Mugs (2)

We have three mugs from Alaska, we used to have four but the interior of the one which was my favorite deteriorated – I wish I’d kept it to put pencils and pens in. I’m not always very bright. The one on my desk as I write this is hand painted and on the bottom indicates that it cannot be microwaved and must be hand-washed. The painting is of early Russian settlers harvesting and baking.

Most mugs today can be microwaved and placed in a dishwasher. Isn’t that like most relationships? Our interactions are rapid, they get to the point, and then we move on to the next person. 

Vickie has a beautiful mug, given to her by a friend, which also cannot be microwaved and must be hand-washed. If she uses this mug and wants the coffee in it heated in the microwave, we pour the coffee into another mug, heat it up, and then pour it back into the beautiful mug.

Vickie’s beautiful mug used to have a golden ring around its lip, but a visitor once used the mug without reading the instructions on the bottom and the microwave destroyed the ring. Since then we’ve kept the mug in a china cabinet and only take it out when she’s going to use it so as to protect it from further damage. 

I met a pastor a few months ago who was wearing a shirt with the “iron sharpens iron” passage from Proverbs printed on it. We were both in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. I asked him if he found the verse to be true.

He said to me, “I am a pastor.”

I replied, “That doesn’t mean anything. Do you find the verse to be true in your life?”

He did a dance which was a combination of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, meaning that he didn’t give me a direct answer. 

Then I asked, “Do people in your church have opportunities to really get to know one another?”

Then he went into a breakdance. 

An old acquaintance of mine used to muse, “It is difficult to have fellowship with the back of someone’s head.” 

How do we miss that obvious point?

I invited the pastor to coffee or lunch one day. A few weeks later I met him for lunch and after 45 minutes he said, “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time,” and left.

Now I know what it is to be microwaved.

You shouldn’t put iron in the microwave.

Theo of Golden - Reflections (4)

 

Yesterday evening Vickie and I were reading about Clarise, and while we meet her well into the book, I want to write about her while a memory associated with her is fresh.

The coffee shop which displays the portraits that Theo purchases and presents is The Chalice. It is located at the corner of Broadway and Light streets and is owned by Shep and Addie Carlile. There is much in the previous two sentences.

We all have our Chalices, we all have people in our lives whom our Father has placed for us to “see” by His grace. Why, we may very well see folks who have never been noticed by anyone, never really been spoken to by anyone, never prayed for by anyone, never cared for any anyone. Our neighborhoods, workplaces, families, schools, civic associations – they are all chalices. They are cups which our dear Lord Jesus has given to us to drink, He is the barista, and He chooses the drink of the day. Will we sacramentally accept and honor those whom He presents to us?

What else do you see in the Chalice? 

Now to Clarise…and Cleave. 

When I was a young man, I was employed by a national homebuilder in a project office in Waldorf, MD. We were building 5 or 6 subdivisions in the area and I worked with a great group of people. My boss Dave was one of the best ever, he was considerate, hardworking, kind, loyal, and knew what he was doing. He was a great teacher. My job was a bit of everything, purchasing, estimating, troubleshooting, budgeting, cost accounting, and playing practical jokes. It was a wonderful work environment. 

A time came when we needed to recruit a project bookkeeper so that I could focus on other areas. After a few interviews we hired Brenda. 

While Brenda had once been in the workplace, at the time we met her she was a stay-at-home wife and Mom and had not worked for about ten years; she was about 35 years old. Like Clarise, she was attractive; also like Clarise, there was pain in her eyes. 

When Brenda began working with us she was tentative about everything she did and she seldom spoke except to ask and answer questions. However, as time went on she opened up, enjoying her new surroundings and coworkers. She freely engaged in conversations, she laughed, she learned, and she was quite good at her job. She smiled a lot, she relaxed; she worked hard, and she loved her job. Brenda had a bright future with our company.

However, one morning about five months into her time with us, Brenda came into the office crying. Her husband demanded that she quit her job and stay home. It seems that Brenda’s newfound joy and confidence was a threat to her husband’s control of her, and a threat to his own sense of security.

The crushed flower that had opened, had been crushed again.

That was 45 years ago and I can still picture those five months, I can still picture Brenda’s evolving joy, and I can still see her sorrow and fear as she resigned. 

When I was reading to Vickie about Clarise and Cleave, images of Brenda came flooding into my heart and mind, and while I have told the story to Vickie before, I referenced it again.

This was not the last time I met Brenda, in the sense of meeting people in similar situations. There are women and men and children all around us who have been crushed by others, controlled by others, and who know what it is to have the millstone of circumstance grind hope and joy and peace from seemingly every pore of their soul. 

But consider the passage that Jesus reads in His home synagogue:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18 – 19). 

This passage so infuriated Jesus’ audience that they tired to murder Him. 

It seems to me that there are those who desire to control others, and those who want to see others set free. The former often cloak their motives and actions in noble sentiments, such as, “I want what is best for you. I don’t want you to be hurt. I just want you to learn.” However, it is really about control, about controlling people and situations and about being the center of the universe. 

I have seen this in marriages (much of my marriage counseling has dealt with this), in extended families, in congregations and church leadership (in which emotional blackmail and tyrannical control is not unusual), in businesses, and in civic and political groups (I know, you are thinking, “You can’t be serious”).

In short, an element of fallen humanity is our insistence on controlling others.

Yet, we have the choice to stand with Jesus and, by His grace, seek to set others free. We have opportunities to play the role of Theo of Golden in the lives of others, affirming them, acknowledging their pain, sharing the love of their heavenly Father with them, and calling them home to Him, which is where they belong, which is where they have always belonged. 

“I will proclaim Your Name to My brethren” (Hebrews 2:12).

May I gently suggest that if we are honest, that most of us have likely played both roles in the lives of others, we know what it is to attempt to control others, and we also (hopefully) know the joy of seeing others set free. We can learn and grow from both experiences, let us not waste either of them. Jesus can redeem our foolish attempts at control, He can teach us from our errors, and we can learn to serve and care and love…perhaps as we’ve never thought possible. 

 In closing this reflection, has it occurred to you that every portrait by Asher Glissen is also a portrait by Allen Levi?

You may purchase Theo of Golden from Amazon or from www.allenlevi.com

Who can we share freedom with today? (Galatians 5:1).

The Sacraments of Life (2)

 

Coffee Mugs (1)

One of my weighty decisions every morning is to choose a coffee mug to drink from. Over the years our collection of mugs grew, purchasing some and receiving others as gifts. Some mugs are Vickie’s, other mugs are mine. When we moved from Virginia to South Carolina we downsized, and that included our mug collection. It was not as painful as downsizing books, but I would have kept some more had we room. 

I still have a few penguin mugs. I have loved penguins since I was a child. When I was a boy the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. had a wonderful penguin exhibit which fascinated me during my family’s frequent visits. The zoo was about 30 minutes from our home and in those days was never crowded, and parking was not a problem. In elementary school one of my teachers read Mr. Popper’s Penguins to us; it captured my imagination. Alas, I was never able to find a penguin in the neighborhood to bring home for our bathtub. 

I purchased my last penguin mug around 1998 in Baltimore, MD when Vickie and I were in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on a trip from Boston. It was a work-related trip for Vickie and I was along for the ride. While the mention of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor brings up a host of memories from over the years, I’m going to pass on them and stay with the penguin mugs. 

I associate my penguin mugs with our first home in Chesterfield County, VA. While most of our coffee mugs were in a kitchen cupboard, my penguin mugs were hanging from a rack with pegs on a short wall between the kitchen and a hallway that led to the front foyer. 

Our move from Maryland to Virginia was a time of new beginnings, it was like Abram moving from Ur to Canaan (we didn’t have an intermediate stop in Haran as did Abram). When we decided to make the move, we didn’t have jobs and we didn’t know anyone in the area. Within a matter of days we had friends, we had jobs, we had a second dog, we had good neighbors, and we were on quite the adventure. It was a miracle, it was amazing, and when I see those mugs in the morning God’s grace of those early years floods my soul. 

We have friends today that have been with us since those early years in Chesterfield, and of course our friendships in life are our greatest treasures in Jesus. 

Our home was in an area that was, at the time, semi-rural. There was a country store about a quarter mile from our home, and we took our trash to a transfer station a few miles away. The house was on just a little over an acre, and when we moved in there were no gardens and, as I recall, only one tree in the front, a white birch. 

We were soon planting trees, creating an herb garden, an extensive border garden, a large vegetable garden, and hanging baskets of flowers from our front porch which ran along the full front of our home. It was a time of new beginnings, you might say it was our Second Genesis, a restored Creation after Noah’s flood. 

Every place we’ve lived we planted trees and shrubs and flowers, every time we’ve moved we’ve left beauty behind; sadly not everyone who has come after us has cared for that beauty, but we continue to plant, God continues to water, and hopefully others continue to enjoy. 

I think of the trees we’ve planted as representing friendships God has blessed us with, relationships that have endured. Yes, some relationships are like annual flowers, and they do have their place in life, we treasure them for seasons…some short, some long; we try to be good stewards of the relationships that our Father brings into our lives. 

We had so little when we moved to Chesterfield that I recall borrowing a wheelbarrow from a neighbor. I don’t know why, but I think of not having a wheelbarrow. 

I can’t begin to tell you how many people came into our home over our early years in Virginia, we had times we were filled to overflowing on Thanksgiving, during Christmas season, and at other times throughout the years. This has been true for every place we’ve lived, people come and they tend to stay. Even today, though we are now old and can’t entertain as we once did, we have chairs in our front yard. When we sit outside people come and sit and stay and talk, and we never know how God will direct the conversations. 

When I choose a penguin mug for coffee in the morning, I am sacramentally seeing the love and grace of Jesus during our early years in Virginia, I am giving thanks to my Father for His goodness to us over the years, I am thanking God for our enduring friendships, and I am marveling at His mercy and faithfulness. 

What do you see as you look back over your seasons of life? How do you see God working in your life? 

Who are you thankful for? What are you thankful for? 

How has your heavenly Father revealed Himself to you over the years?

How is He revealing Himself today? 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (3a)

 Good morning,

I received a note from a reader in response to my recent post on Theo, in which he said that he needed to "fix" some things in his life; he was particularly referring to relationships. 

After pondering his note for a day or so this is what I wrote back:

If you and I were to take a walk of a thousand miles, and rehearse our lives in conversation along the way, at the end of our journey would we have found anything in either life that we had truly "fixed"?

Much love,

Bob

Theo of Golden - Reflections (3)

 Theo of Golden – Reflections (3)

Why did Theo wait so long to come to Golden? What was he thinking with each advancing year as the pages of the calendar turned from December to January?

We have three wall calendars in our home. One is in our office, this could be any theme, this year it is one mailed to all residents by our local chamber of commerce. Another, in our eat-in kitchen area, has songbirds on it this year. I always give Vickie a calendar for Christmas, last year had beach scenes, the year before that folk art, this year songbirds. The third is a perpetual calendar, made of wood. Every month you rotate the numbered blocks and so it goes from year to year. There are special blocks with painted images for holidays – Labor Day shows a pregnant woman. 

Every January I wonder if my date of death is written with invisible ink on the calendars. Like many of us, I have lost friends and loved ones before their time – or before what I think should have been their time. Vickie writes dates of passing on the calendar, May is a crowded month.  I don’t wonder about my date of death morbidly, I look forward to being in the greater Presence of Jesus and to being with friends, family, and our puppies. After all, we are seeking that City whose Builder and Maker is God.

I tell people that I am in stoppage time. That is a term for the time a soccer (football to the rest of the world) match is extended to account for time during regulation in which play was stopped for one reason or another. I sure would like to score a goal or two during stoppage time or perhaps make a nice defensive play. 

Theo waited a long time before coming to Golden; we also know from the story that Theo was looking forward to heaven, something Tony grappled with, for Tony had been to hell and couldn’t imagine anything but hell. 

What did it take for Theo to finally travel to Golden? What was happening within Theo?

I don’t know and I won’t conjecture right now because I don’t want to give elements of the story away. However, I will ask if there are relationships and questions and matters in our own lives that are unresolved. If so, how long will we wait to seek resolution? Theo was pushing the limit at 86 years old, that is serious stoppage time. 

One of the most saintly women I have known, Elizabth Furlong, when she was in her 80s said to me, “When I look back, I could have done better. I could have treated people better. I could have done more for others.” The important thing about Elizabeth at this time was that she was most certainly being a blessing to others, including as a ministry companion to me, her younger pastor, as I made home visits and engaged in office counseling. 

I can say what Elizabeth said, I could have done better, many times in many ways. It is not a comfortable realization. Having acknowledged it, what shall I do? Hopefully I can respond to the grace of Jesus every day when I meet others, whether it is for a brief moment or in an extended conversation, affirming God’s love for them and His desire for an intimate relationship with them. 

Are there things within me that need to be put to death through the Cross of Christ? Are there things in me that ought to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ? Old age is not the time to coast, but to keep the finish line in sight and run the race God has given to us. 

The grace and affirmation that Theo was pouring into others flowed from a dual awareness within Theo; one was a sense of God’s blessing and mercy over the course of a long life; the other was a sense of missed opportunity, a sense of what might have been, a sense of misplaced values. (I’ll not be more specific than this right now.)

What can we do with these conflicting thoughts and emotions but give them to Jesus and trust Him to redeem our ups and downs, to cover and forgive our sins, and to give us grace to be a blessing to others? Nothing we have done has ever surprised Him. 

Theo blessed others out of his joy, his pain, and his bittersweetness. We see that his joy in music and art allowed him to connect with others, encouraging them, sharing the joy of artistic creativity. He drew from his joy in creation, in birds, rivers, sunsets, trees, in blessing others. From his pain and sorrow he connected with Kendrick, Tony, and Ellen. And from his bittersweetness a bond was formed with Asher. 

Are we allowing our kind heavenly Father to take our life experience and use it as a source for blessing others? In 2 Corinthians Chapter One Paul writes about a terrible time of suffering he and his friends experienced, he says that it was like a death sentence. But then he also says that the comfort they received from God during that time enabled them in turn to comfort others. I express it this way, “Our pain, for others gain, to Christ’s glory.”

We see this in Theo.

We are never too young or too old to live this way. We who are older, however, have a special opportunity to do so, our stoppage time can be our golden time. 

Let me please say a word about “resolution.” Not all difficulties can be resolved, not all loose ends can be tied up, not all wrongs can be made right. Theo learned this in a certain letter he once received, if he didn’t already know it. However, later in life Theo did what he could, and much more, much more by God’s grace. What Theo may have thought was his one mission, turned into something so much more. A grain of wheat, dying the ground, can bring forth quite the harvest. 

What can we do with those things that cannot be resolved? I think we must give them to our dear Lord Jesus and trust Him to work redemptively in our lives and in the lives of others – including those whom we have hurt, and who may have hurt us. What else can we do? 

Beyond that, we can be good stewards of our experiences, the good and the bad, the joyful and the terrible, asking our Father to use them in us and through us for the blessing of others. Why waste such experiences? They could not have come into our lives had they not passed through the hand of our Father; let us trust Him to use them to bless others, so that others may see His Face in us and through us. 

Let me please close with an example. I have a friend my age whose father was an alcoholic. When his Dad was sober he was outgoing and personable, but when he was drunk he was vindictive and mean, often beating my friend’s mother. My friend’s childhood was filled with uncertainty, sometimes terror, and fear. As my friend grew to adulthood his relationship with his father was complicated, and within my friend was an element of loathing and disgust for his Dad. 

Then one day God spoke to my friend’s heart and asked my friend if he was willing to allow God to use the pain within him to touch others, to be gracious to others, to bless others. At the same time my friend wondered what it was like for his father to live the way he had, it could not be a good experience, it must be miserable. In Christ, my friend learned to use his pain, for others gain, to Christ’s glory. 

This was not to excuse the father’s behavior, but it was to cast it in a different perspective, it was to introduce the element of redemption into a story of total despair. In this particular instance, a time came when my friend and his father had a sweet relationship, and toward the end of the father’s life he came to know Jesus…so we never know…we never really know how the story will end. 

Why…our stories may be like Theo’s…they may just keep going. 

Theo of Golden - Reflections (2)

 

I am encouraged that Theo is 86 years old. It isn’t often that the center of a story is an old man or old woman, especially one who still has his or her faculties and who is engaged in a meaningful endeavor. As someone who is not that far behind Theo, Theo says to me, “It is never too late to make a difference in the lives of others.”

When I was pastoring, one of the decisions I made early on was to treat older people with respect by not letting them off the discipleship hook. In other words, I challenged them with following Jesus, sitting on the bench and growing moral and spiritual fungi was not an option. It disgusts me when churches have “programming” for seniors that solely consists of playing games, going to buffets, and attending estate planning seminars. (If they really want to have relevant programming, why not have someone come and clip our toenails?)

Theo does not wait for life to come to him, Theo pursues life. Furthermore, it is not so much about what Theo does, it is really about who Theo is. What Theo does is a result of who Theo is. 

Theo pays attention to people. He looks deeply into the portraits at the Chalice coffee shop; the eyes, always the eyes, then the fuller face, but always coming back to the eyes. Asher’s gift of capturing the eyes, and Theo’s gift of connecting with those eyes…a fruit of Allen Levi’s masterful brush. Asher sketches and paints with pencil and brush, Allen Levi paints with words.

Theo does more than pay attention to others, he acknowledges others, but he more than acknowledges others, he affirms others – he sees things in others that they do not see in themselves, and he helps them consider the possibility that they have treasures within themselves to give to others. In other words, as Theo affirms others they are given the opportunity to share their treasures with others, to be more open to others, to pass on to others what Theo is passing on to them. 

Theo presents the idea of sainthood to people of all walks of life and backgrounds, to men and women who have known suffering, hurt, disappointment, and despair; but who also have dreams and visions and desires, as latent and forlorn as they might be. 

Theo says, “Do you see what I see? Do you see who you really are?”

I think this is the Gospel. We’re told that Jesus came to declare the Name of the Father to us, His brothers and sisters. Our Father’s Name speaks to us of His Nature, His desire to draw us to Himself in love through our Lord Jesus (Hebrews 2:9 – 18).  For some reason we fight this. I know that when I pastored that many folks would much rather I treat them as miserable wretches than as the sons and daughters of God. Even though the New Testament uses the term “saints” more than any other word to refer to followers of Jesus, people fight that image – even when we make it clear that this is about us being in Jesus Christ and not in ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21). 

Theo says, “Let me tell you what I see in your portrait. Now you look at it. Do you see what I see?”

The story goes that many sculptors rejected the block of marble that would become Michelangelo’s David, it had too many flaws. Aren’t we thankful that Michelangelo saw David within David? Aren’t we thankful that Jesus sees the image of God deep within us? Weren’t those folks who sat for a few minutes on a bench with Theo thankful for a new way of seeing themselves, of seeing who they really were? 

It is of course a process, but the process must begin somewhere, and in Theo of Golden it begins for many on a bench with an old man with a foreign accent and with a portrait which the old man had paid a price to give to them. 

Since the name Theo is from the Greek word for God, can we see the incarnational nature of this old Portuguese man? Can we see the treasure in the earthen vessel? Can we see Theo living in and through Theo? 

Perhaps more importantly, how is God living in us and through us to touch and affirm the lives of others? For no matter how old we are, no matter where we live, we can always look into the eyes of others and ask, “Do you see what I see?”

The Sacraments of Life (1)

 

I’ve been thinking about the sacraments of life.  I’ll be going to see Jesus soon, now whether that is today or ten or twenty years from now, I have no idea, but for sure I am closer to being in His Presence today than I was yesterday.

This is an exciting thought to me, because you see He is truly my Friend and I trust Him with my life…and with my death. What a fool I would be not to trust Him. 

When I pastored the First Congregational Church of Becket, MA, I used to walk through the cemetery on the church grounds and ponder the tombstones. I would read the names and look at the dash between the dates and wonder what the dash represented. If I could see into the “-” what would I see? If the dash were a movie, how would it unfold? 

We live in a community (to use the world loosely) of mostly retired people, and I am puzzled that they haven’t yet figured out that they are going to die soon and that many of the things they have thought so important all of their lives are not only not really important, but that in many cases are inimical to their welfare. If you were at an airport preparing to board a plane, wouldn’t you want to know the plane’s destination? 

Jesus has given me, has given Vickie and me, many sacraments over the years. Certainly our gravitational sacrament is marriage. Peter writes that husbands and wives are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). This concept of being “heirs together” or “joint heirs” is a legal concept we have to this day in English common law. We find the same language in Romans 8:17 where we see that we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” This idea of being “coheirs” or “fellow heirs” or “joint heirs” (all the same Greek word) means that we share fully and jointly, that what we receive cannot be divided. 

If you are married and have ever purchased real estate, depending on the state you are in you likely took title either as “tenants by the entirety” or as “joint tenants with the right of survivorship,” these are legal terms which in essence mean that you are joint heirs. Interestingly, the term “tenants by the entirety,” which can only be used of a husband and wife, carries with it the doctrine that a husband and wife are one person…certainly a Biblical understanding.

The recognition that we are joint heirs has been integral to our marriage, for we’ve realized that we cannot let “stuff” pollute our relationship. Yes, of course we’ve had our stupid and not-so-stupid disagreements; yes, we’ve gotten angry; but when these things have happened we haven’t excused them and we’ve realized the danger. In the days before cell phones, if we had a tiff before leaving for work, we couldn’t wait to get to our respective jobs so we could call and say, “I’m sorry.” 

Peter tells us that if husbands and wives have a messed-up relationship that their “prayers will be hindered.” That is, if I can’t talk to my wife then I can’t talk to Jesus – pretty serious, don’t you think? If we wouldn’t put rat poison into our water and then drink it, why do we poison our marriages and then wonder what happened? 

When Vickie and I talk about our lives, our marriage, a sacrament we always talk about is friendship. We have been blessed to have wonderful friends, some have gone before us, some we’ve lost touch with, some are still with us. Some of our friends are family, an especially sacred sacrament, which is to say that some of our family are friends. 

Our jobs have been sacramental. Our Lord Jesus has placed us both in jobs in which we’ve had wonderful relationships and have been able to serve others, and we’ve had the blessing of working together. An especially wonderful time is when she was CFO and I was COO of a firm; we worked for a wonderful man and had a wonderful team around us. 

Our vacations have been sacramental. Over the decades we have spent many weeks in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and often that has included friends and family whom we’ve invited to spend time with us. We’ve had folks from Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, and Maryland vacation with us over the years, from Corolla to Waves, from the north to the south in the Outer Banks. One year we had three groups in one week; one from Iowa, another from North Carolina, and another from Virginia. It was perhaps the worst weather we’d ever had, but it was one of our best weeks.

Our Thanksgivings have been sacramental. O my, where to begin? We’ve had men and women from Australia, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Germany, Greece, Spain, England, and other parts of the world come together around turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and so much more. One year we had people in and out of our home from Thursday through Sunday, some were sleeping on the floor. When the last one left Sunday afternoon I turned the kitchen faucet on and found that the well had finally run temporarily dry – but it didn’t happen until our last guest had left! 

One Thanksgiving in Virginia, a West Pont cadet from Belize played his bagpipes in our front yard (he was in the West Point pipe corps). On another Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, north of Boston, after the last guest had left Vickie and I discovered that we’d given all the leftover turkey away without knowing it – no turkey sandwiches that year!

That was also the year that when cleaning the oven, it got so smokey that Darby, our Lab-Shepherd mix, ran out of the house and refused to come back in until the air inside was clear. 

And speaking of Darby, our dogs have been sacramental to us, they’ve shared our ups and downs, our joys and some tragedies. Chris Ann (Cocker Spaniel), Mitzi (likely a Border Collie mix, but since a rescue from the streets of Richmond we don’t really know), Darby (another rescue, “Mommy’s dog”), Lina (a Basset mix), and dear Lily, our Boder Collie, dear sweet Lily. 

Well, these are some of the sacraments in my life…what about you?

What are you thankful for? Who are you thankful for?