Let Us Run

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Israel. He is the God who declared His Name on Mount Sinai. He is the same God that announced the New Covenant in the Sermon on the Mount. 

He has given us a holy charge in the Gospel of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us run the race set before us. Let us not crawl. Let us not walk. Let us not dawdle - but let us run. Let us run with passion. Let us run with His Message. Let us run to be well-pleasing and faithful to Him. 

When it is bright and sunny let us run. When it is dark and cloudy let us run. 

When there are others with us, let us run.

When there is no one else with us, let us run.

And as we run let us carry the Torch of the Gospel, knowing that others are running with that same Torch. They have run through the centuries; through fire and flood and prison and rejection. They are running now, though we may not see them with our natural eyes, we can see them with the Eye of the Holy Spirit.

Let us run, and as we  run let us shout, let us shout the shout of the King for He is in the camp. 

Let us carry the Ark on our shoulders...let the glory of the LORD be upon His, for as our Lord said, "The glory which you have given me, I have given to them."

Let us not deny that glory in the midst of the darkness around us, but let us allow that glory, His glory, to shine upon us, and within us, and through us. For darkness shall cover the land and gross darkness the people, but our Father's promise is that His glory will arise upon us and that nations shall come to the brightness of rising.

In Jesus' Name...Amen.

Language and the Soul

If we could see our soul perhaps we would be circumspect in our language, for language forms the soul and the soul forms our language.

Those who say that a word is just a word fail to recognize that language is a gift, a creative gift, and that our words create and destroy, belittle and build up. Those “name it and claim it” folks, and positive mental attitude tribes, cheapen language in that they make it a currency, just as an American dollar or an English pound. They fail to recognize that language is formative and that to appreciate language is to recognize that it can either work deep character in our souls or it can tear them down, shredding them into sound bites and hashtags.

Twitter and texting with their brevity and shortcuts reduce us to frogs and toads who jump when touched – we need not think, we need only react…and react we do, responding in kind.

When language is reduced to the pragmatic are we any different than animals who are taught to respond to commands?

As we destroy thoughtful and formative language, we distance ourselves from the Word, the Word that brought creation into existence, the Word that desires to redeem us, the Word who desires to reform us into His Image.

I happened to observe some people watching a television show in which it seemed every other word was “beeped” out. Is not this the equivalent of an animal grunting and snorting? This is not formative, this is destructive. These grunts and snorts not only reduce the soul of the one who grunts and snorts, it reduces the souls of those who receive the grunts and snorts. We have exchanged swimming pools for cesspools and we revel in our sewage.

Of course I cannot conclude this without apologizing to animals, I mean no offense to them, for the sounds they emit they emit naturally, according to their nature. The grunts and snorts we emit are not natural, at least not natural according to our original nature; we who were made in the image of God are descending much lower than the animals.

Fractured language promotes fractured thinking; fractured language fractures the soul; fractured souls are at the mercy of their surroundings. We do not think complete thoughts. We seldom see complete images. We glory in our shame, and we think this is normal.

I wonder what the first word that Adam spoke sounded like.

I am afraid that the last sound we emit will be a grunt.

Chesterton Perspectives

"Do not look at the faces in the illustrated papers. Look at the faces in the street." G.K.C.

Perhaps today Chesterton would say, "Don't look at the faces on television or social media." Video, video, everywhere - and yet we walk by one another everyday and do not see one another. Why, I see this on Sunday mornings too; I've been in places called churches in which I am a stranger to everyone and everyone is a stranger to me. How can this be?

I have seen corporate executives visit branch offices and ignore everyone but the person they've come to "see". I've seen customers in stores not see the workers, and workers in stores not see the customers. I've seen receptionists in doctors' offices not see the patients, and patients not see the receptionists. I've seen government workers not see citizens and citizens not see government workers.

Tragically, I've witnessed husbands not see wives and wives not see husbands and I've witnessed parents not see children and children not see parents.

But we still manage to see video, video, everywhere - and our minds and souls are filled with video, sound, noise, images - most of them false, misleading, and blinding. Our souls are desensitized to the faces we pass everyday. 

Alas, video, video in churches too - perhaps it has its place, but perhaps not. Can we not have a respite from the pixels? From the sound? From the images assaulting us? 

Might we not speak a word to the face next to us? Might we not ask how the face is doing? Maybe there is a person behind the face? But again, perhaps we'd better not risk it - it might demand something of us...and it may make us late for lunch.

And yet, if God formed me (Psalm 139), then perhaps he formed the person I do not "see" - it might be interesting to actually meet another person who God created in His image. Perhaps I should show some respect and interest in God's work, in His image, in those for whom Christ died.

Perhaps, just perhaps, living faces are more important and vital than pixels on a screen.