Much of the joy or tribulation in our lives is self-induced. It’s how we look at things. Is the glass half-full or is it half-empty? Your attitude determines the answer.

We all know people who are terminally negative. Their negative attitude will kill them or we will. We also know people who are effervescent, who see the good in everything, who go through life with a perpetual smile that sometimes (be honest) you want to smack off their face. When it comes down to brass tacks, how we respond to what life throws at us is all a matter of perspective.

I’m learning that lesson today. I’ve been diagnosed with a bad case of shingles.

I’ve known others who had shingles. They’re usually much older than me. I’ve known others who’ve suffered much at its hands, experiencing pain years after the visible effects have passed. Today I know a little more of what they were going through.

My lesions are grotesgue. They’re painful. It hurts to sit. It hurts to stand. It hurts to walk. All in all, I would say that I’d rather not go through this season of my life as it is unfolding.

But, you know what? This is the season that God has sent me. This is the small challenge He has set before me. He has something He wants to teach me. Or, He has something He wants to do through me. So, let’s get a little perspective on this matter.

1 - My lesions/blisters are as ugly as any I’ve ever seen. But, they’re on my leg. No one will ever see them. If I scar from this encounter with aberrant biology (the result of the fall no less), it won’t matter. I’m not the elephant, I’m a human.

2 - My pain is present. I’m aware of it. But, I’ve got a high pain threshhold. I don’t need the pain meds. I don’t want the pain meds. But, I’ve got them if I need them. Not everyone can say that. While it hurts a little to walk, I can still walk. I could run, if had to.

3 - I’m now able to empathize with others who’ve been through this in a way that was impossible before. I will now be a better minister of comfort because I truly have felt their pain and experienced that comfort.

4 - In the end, I still have my health. My family still loves me. And, God is still good. He has blessed me before. He will bless me again. In ways that I cannot yet comprehend, He’s even blessing me now.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

I do ask for your prayers. Pray that I learn the lessons set before me. Pray that I will be grateful for what God has given. Pray that my perspective will grow ever more Christ-like, even if my situation grows worse. Pray that God’s will will be done, be it quick healing or the painful hand of correction. Pray that I will be humble enough to ask for help when my pride tells me to be quiet. Pray that others who observe me in this season will see any strength that I may exude as the grace of God rather than the quality of my character. Pray that others learn from me in the classroom of physical ailment. Pray that God is pleased with my perspective or that He will change it to match His. Pray that God will get the glory, whatever it costs me.

No, I’m not talking about my first car or some long lost pet. And those words can’t be found in an old-school country and western song, though I’m sure it sings. No, these words were uttered this week by a husband in mourning.

The individual in question has recently lost his wife of 29 1/2 years to cancer. Talking with him was both sobering and encouraging. As he reflected on his loss, he uttered those words and revealed the depth of his love for his wife.

He loved his wife. Thus, he misses her. There’s now a hole, if you will, in his life that his wife once occupied. For nearly 30 years she made her home in his heart, directed his passions, and made him a better man than he otherwise was. For that, he loved her. Now, understandably, he misses her.

The second half of his statement, the fact that he doesn’t want her back, might shock some. If he loves her so, why not want her back? In short, the answer is that he doesn’t want her back because he loves her. Because he loves her he would not deprive her of the eternal joy she shares in the presence of her Savior. Because he loves her he wouldn’t want her to suffer again in this earthy body. Because he loves her, he wants her to stay right where she is. Because he loves,  he looks forward to seeing her again where as brother and sister in Christ, they will spend eternity worshiping her new husband, the Bridegroom of Heaven.

Now, that’s love.

It has been said that you are what you eat? That means a lot of us are pizza, hamburgers, potato chips, or mediocre Chinese food. Obviously, we’re not to interpret that maxim literally. But, on another level it is true. If your diet consists of nothing but junk food, your health will suffer. It’s just the way we’re made.

It has also been said that you will become what you worship. If you worship your job, you will come to be identified by your job. “There goes Dave. He’s an accountant.” If you worship the ground your children walk on, same thing: “There goes Jo, she’s Billy’s mom.” This maxim isn’t to be taken literally either. But …

We are becoming what we worship. If we worship God in the way that He is due, we will become gradually more like Him. You will not become godlike but you will be more godly. Our worship effects not only our relationship with God but with everyone else around us. If we are sincere in our worship of God as Creator, Sustainer, Savior, and Master, we will become more like Him because that is what He desires. It’s just the way we’re made … in His image.

This Sunday don’t take worship so cavalierly. Don’t just sing the songs. Don’t just listen to the sermon because that’s what’s necessary to get through to the lunch hour. See every worship opportunity as an opportunity to set your Ideal before you, to acknowledge His worth, and to become more like Him.

This week is the week of blogs about school and school related things. I can’t help. School has just started and I’m up to my cap and gown in academic mud. But, it’s a blast. I was made for this. Just ask my students. It’ll be on their exam.

Anyway, I’m teaching three history related courses this semester: church history (0-1500), Christian classics, and introduction to philosophy. How, you ask, are they all history related? Well, church history is obvious. Christian classics is a class that focuses on, you guessed it, classic literature. We’ll be reading a bunch of old dead guys. Finally, in philosophy we’ll be considering the development of philosophical systems and their worldview implications starting with the ancient Greeks.

What’s turning out to be fascinating is that each of those three classes has more in common that simply an historical bent. Every one of them will in one way or another deal with Augustine. What’s even more fascinating is how few of my students are remotely familiar with him. Bear in mind, that many of these folks have grown up in church and many of them are better read than I was at that age. However, the mere mention of the name of Augustine elicits yawns and blank stares. “Saint who?”

What a shame. Augustine is huge. Augustine is inescapable. Augustine is unavoidable. He touches virtually every area and era of Christian life from his day to ours. Consider just a few of these quotes about Augustine:

“He was a great sinner who became a great saint.” — R. S. Coffin-Pine

“After Jesus and Paul, Augustine of Hippo is the most influential figure in the history of Christianity.” — Christian History magazine

“[Augustine] entered both the Church and the world as a revolutionary force, and not merely created an epoch in the history of the Church, but … determined the course of its history in the West up to the present day (1890s).” — B. B. Warfield

Both Catholics and Protestants claim Augustine. His thought was the cause and the answer to the Reformation. While we might not agree with everything he ever said or did, we cannot avoid him and our spiritual debt to him. He was God’s chosen vessel and he ought not be forgotten. As the writers of Hebrews reminded the early church: Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith (Heb 13:7).

You know the type. They’re the people who are the ones who read every detail closely, who hang on every word, and begin plotting their course. They spend more effort plotting than they do doing because they’re hunting for the path of least resistance.

Students do it. They look for the easiest classes. They drop courses that look hard. They ask around to find out which professor requires less homework. Of course, not all do it, but there’s a worn out path between the classroom and the registrar’s office for a reason. It’s the path of least resistance.

Employees do it, too. Some set out to do as little as possible from day one. Others start off strong and apply themselves, only to eventually apply themselves to discovering the most efficient way to do their work. In this case, however, efficiency is not for the benefit of the company. It’s for the benefit of the individual. Either way, the path of least resistance travels through virtually all office and factory doors as well.

Christians know this path all too well. I’ve heard deacons ask if they are required to be at church for all services. They’re not interested in burn out. They’re worried about accountability. I’ve seen would-be converts ask what’s expected of them and I’ve seen some walk away because too much was expected of them. Unfortunatley, far too many of our members go through church on the path of least resistance, too.

We’re not surprised that students are asking for directions to this path. We shouldn’t be shocked when our co-workers map out the route. We can’t be too dumbfounded when we encounter Christians on the way either. Fallen human nature has created a race of beings who are looking for the easy way. (Why else would easy believism be rampant in the church?)

The shocking this is that so many Christians are surprised when they find out that they’re not supposed to be on that path. After all, Jesus told us that there are two paths, one broad and easy and the other narrow and difficult. Moreover, he tells us to choose the narrow path.

Plus, we’ve got Jesus’ own example. Jesus never took the easy way out. Jesus stood up to every challenge, even when the marrow of His bones was crying out for another option. Jesus walked the narrow the path and has led the way through the valley of the shadow of death. He’s crying out, “Follow Me!” not “do it easier than Me.”

The path of least resistance is well-marked while the Christian way is littered with hidden shoals. The path of least resistance offers plenty of company while the Christian journey is often traveled alone. The path of least resistance is easy while the Christian life can be hard. But, like most other things, that’s what makes the Christian experience worth living.

There’s a great line in the movie “A League of Their Own.” At one point in the film Gina Davis’ character, the star baseball player, wants to give up and go home. When asked by her coach, Tom Hanks, why, she responds that things had gotten too hard. Hanks’ answer is priceless: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” That’s the Christian life in a nutshell. We weren’t promised an easy life. We were promised eternal life. To get there we must walk the hard way with the help of the Spirit in the small company of saints. The hard is what makes it great.

When I worked in advertising it used to drive me nuts when, after hours of labor and countless discussions, someone would, for whatever reason, throw in the towel and declare the project “good enough.”

“Good enough” is a phrase we hear enough. Our kids proclaim it proudly when their homework is done. My students shout it from dorm tops when they’re done with the first and only draft of a paper. ”GOOD ENOUGH!”

Most people who evaluate their efforts, their product, their whatever as good enough know that it’s not. They’re just ready to move on, to do something else. It may be done but done is no quarantee of quality.

Good enough is like close enough, it’s an approximation, a close but no cigar. As we all know, “close” only counts in hand grenades and nuclear weapons. As Chrisitans we need to see “good enough” in the same critical light. Good enough … isn’t.

Christians ought to be striving for excellence. Excellence and its pursuit ought to mark our every effort. Will we always achieve it? Of course not. But if excellence is never our goal, we’ll rarely achieve it. We’ll settle for good enough for so long that it really does become good enough, subpar becomes acceptable, good but not great our standard. But, that’s not what God is looking for from his people.

God expects excellence from his people in morality. ”Be holy,” we’re told, “because the Lord is holy.” He is excellent in righteousness and that is to be our standard. True. We will never in this lifetime achieve that heavenly goal but that doesn’t negate the fact that it is still the goal nonetheless. Remember, God doesn’t grade on a curve.

Should we be approaching any other area of our lives with anything but the highest expectation? Would my wife find it acceptable if I was seeking to be an “okay” husband? Would I keep my job for very long if I were to make inferior work my goal? No. And, truth be told, we don’t expect mediocrity from those around us either.

So what is good enough? We can’t all achieve perfection in every area of life. Some of us really are just B or C students. What’s good enough for those folks? The biblical goal, the gold standard by which we are to measure our efforts, is not the end product but the effort that went into it. As Paul told the Corinthians, “do all things for the glory of God.”

When God’s glory becomes our primary motivation and the grading scale with which we live, “good enough” no longer good enough. Our efforts may fall short of perfection but excellence is our desire. While we may get lower grades or smaller raises than others, if we give it our best effort, God’s praise is our reward.

Talk to any kid long enough and you realize that their world is controlled by the school calendar. They’ll surely know what month and day it is. They can tell you what’s coming up in the near future. But, they’ll do so in light of the academic calendar. It’s fall semester. Or, it’s just 2 weeks until Christmas break. Or, 45 days until summer vacation. They live those 12 or 13 years with their lives punctuated by semesters, exams, and breaks.

Talk to the parent of any school age child and the same thing is true. Family vacation can’t happen until school is out. You don’t schedule a dinner party on a school night. You don’t get to have any fun until they get their homework done. You might be 20 years past graduation but the school calendar sets your dates.

I live in that world as well. Not only am I the parent of two school age children, I work in the academic world. While I enjoyed my summer off, the first day of school always loomed just over the horizon like a dispensational prediction of the second coming. The main difference was that I knew for a fact this day was coming on August 19.

So, here we are. Life as we know it is really just getting back in order. It’s the first day of school.

As I dropped my kids off at their respective schools this morning, I was reminded of the fact that the school calendar does control our lives to a great extent. Its pace and rhythm becomes our heartbeat, our metronome, our taskmaster. Yet, there’s something familiar and therefore comfortable about that fact. We worked hard last year and we’ve played hard this summer. We’ve had our season of rest and now it’s back to work. We need the summer so that the fall and spring semesters can be fruitful.

We shouldn’t be surprised that we find the school calendar so comforting. We’re wired that way, so to speak. What the school calendar does for us, giving us a time to work and a time to rest, is exactly what God did for us with his calendar. He’s given us 6 days to work and then a day of rest. We have a sabbath to focus on God, to recuperate from our labors, and to prepare for the next week’s efforts.

The day of rest is not only a highly anticipated day off, it is a day that is much needed. God knew what we were going to require physically to operate at maximum capacity. Therefore, he created the sabbath for us. We work and then we rest. Then we work again. When we try to skip that day of rest our workmanship ultimately suffers. Those 24 hours or that weekend or that week away from work are necessary respites intended to refuel and reenergize us. God made us that way.

Thus, it’s only natural that we long and wish for summer vacation like a ten year old sitting in social studies. On the flip side, however, it’s also natural for us to long to get back to work, to exercise our gifts, to do all things for the glory of God. In addition to “thank God it’s Friday,” we ought to be saying “thank God it’s Monday.” After all, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it.

Thank God it’s the first day of school!

There are certain Bible verses most evangelical Christians know. There’s John 3:16. Who doesn’t know about how God so loved the world? The mere mention of John 3:16 brings “amens,” fells giants, and ends all theological debate. Genesis 1:1 has that power to. In the beginning God created and we’ve been quoting ever since.

The closing words of Matthew’s gospel have that kind of power as well. Even if we can’t quote it, even if we’re not sure of the exact chapter and verse, those of us of the “born again” persuasion know of the Great Commission. We even spell it with capital letters to make sure we recognize it’s importance. Ask us what it means and we quickly tell you that Christians are to share their faith.

It seems, however, that many of us haven’t really read that verse. I mean really read it, actually let the verse speak to us and tell us what it means. Instead, we read it with a casual familiarity that lets us approach the text with a closed mind and certain evangelical presuppositions that have been informed by weak exegesis.

While I am convinced that too many Christians read the word “go” incorrectly in Matthew 28:19, I have a greater concern about the way in which many of us misread the text. We assume that the Great Commision only applies to Christians in that they are to be sharing their faith. The text says more.

Yes, Christians are to share their faith with unblelievers as they are going about their everyday lives. I wish I and others would do a better job of that. That said, most of us seem to believe that’s where the Great Commission ends, with us telling others about Jesus in hopes of seeing them come to faith. The Great Commission does not end there.

The successful fulfillment of the Great Commission does not end when the individual walks the aisle, prays the prayer, and joins the church. The text says that the Great Commission is more. It says that we are to make disciples. We are to baptize converts and teach them. The making of disciples remains incomplete until we have completed the tasks described by all three verbs in the passage (make, baptize, and teach).

Too many of our churches are failing the Great Commission because we aren’t fulfilling it. We’re adding numbers to our rolls and notches on our evangelistic gun belts but we’re not making disciples. We shake their hand, we hand them a towel, and, if they’re lucky, we drop them off in front of a Sunday School room as we rush off to find another victim, er prospect, uh unbeliever. Discipleship has become an accidental perk in the lives of most new converts. They fail to receive it because we fail to give it. In doing so, we fail fulfill the Great Commission.

That leads me to my last concern about how many well-meaning Christians misread the Great Commission. We assume that the Gospel is for non-believers. We are to tell them about the Gospel and hope and pray that they believe it. When they, do we rejoice. When they don’t, we feel disappointed. As far as that goes, we’re handling the Matthew 28 correctly. But, that doesn’t go far enough.

The text assumes that you are speaking to unbelievers … at first. Going into the nations and making disciples assumes that we’re sharing our faith and seeing the fruit of our efforts. However, from that point on, the rest of the passage is dealing with our relationship with Christians, albeit new ones. We are to baptize Christians. And, we are to teach Christians all that Christ has commanded us.

In other words, most of the Great Commission is aimed at Christians. It’s for us. It tells us to share our faith. It tells us to bring new believers into the fold via baptism. And, it tells us to disciple them — Christians.

A correct reading of the Great Commission has marvelous implications. If we’d rightly emphasize every word of the passage, not just the first few, we would make a concerted effort to reach people and teach people. We’d emphasize the importance of church membership with greater passion. If we’d let the text tell us what it means, we’d spend more time telling Christians what it means to be Christians.

This has profound implications in my own vocational context as well. When I as a Christian professor teach Christian students how to act Christianly, I’m not just teaching. I’m fulfilling the Great Commission. I’m making disciples.

The Great Commission is for Christians from beginning to end. We do it, the church, and fellow believers a great disservice when we forget that.

With school starting again soon, my house is abuzz with the topic. We have a closet full of school supplies. My desk is covered with textbooks, notebooks, and gradebooks. So, much of our conversations at this time of the year relates to students and school.

Today I want to reflect on the teachers. Specifically, I want to consider the Christian teacher and what he or she must do to do this task to the glory of God.

Paul warned Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16).

Too often teachers (and I include public, private, home, college and Sunday School teachers in this category) focus only on the second half of Paul’s admonition — “your teaching.” We are right to be concerned about this area of our calling. We must insure that our content and our proficiency measure up. We will one day be held accountable for what we do or don’t do in the classroom.

The admonition to pay close attention to one’s teaching, however, is second in Paul’s mind. First, he urged Timothy, the teacher must pay close attention to him- or herself. Who we are as Christians makes a difference in what we do as teachers.

We’re to examine our hearts and our minds. We are to look at our sanctification and our preparation. The best lecture plans in the world are pointless, if the saving and preserving grace of Christ are not evident in the teacher. As hard as it is to put together quality lectures and lesson plans, it’s far easier than examining and training one’s own soul. It’s also less painful. But, the latter must inform the former. The depth of our faith drives the quality of our teaching. 

The consequences, Paul writes, are great. The eternal destiny of the teacher is at stake. If our hearts are not right, we may lose our souls. Moreover, as Christian teachers, we need to step back and consider our careers in light of eternity as well. What we do bears heavenly weight. The strength or weakness of our faith will fertilize the ground of our students’ souls and may produce wheat or weeds accordingly. As a teacher, we bear great responsibility, even on the spiritual level. To protect their souls, we must look after our own.

As Christians we are all called to make disciples (Mt 28:19-20). As teachers we are making disciples also. We must be careful that the disciples what we create are the type of disciples that God has called us to make. Thus, Paul warns, “pay close attention to yourselves” first and “your teaching” second. Be sure that you have been schooled by the Master before you try to school the learners.

Years ago the comedy team of Rowen and Martin hosted a comedy show called “Laugh In.” One of the regular features of the show was to highlight the unlikely and untimely turn of events in some poor, hapless soul’s life. You know the type of thing I’m talking about. The guy who’s been struck by lightning six times would be a likely candidate for this segment. Well, they referred to these types of incidents as the outworkings of the “fickled finger of fate” (hereafter, the FFoF). How else could you explain the crazy things that happen to people in the course of their lives?

Well, you can blame the FFoF for your lot in life. Plenty of folks do that. Some reason that things happen by dumb luck. Others see things as a result of dharma (one’s duty) and the resulting karma for those who fail to do their duty. Some just chalk the unexplainable up to coincidence. It just happened.

I don’t buy it. The fickled finger of fate (FFoF) is too fatalistic. I find no comfort there (and very little humor, Misters Rowen and Martin). Dumb luck isn’t real encouraging. Dharma was the name of a bad television show and karma was the name of a Beetles’ song but they’re just as fatalistic as the FFofF. Coincidence doesn’t offer any hope either. On the other hand, the doctrine of providence makes all the difference.

The doctrine of providences posits that God controls and ordains (by decree or permission) all that happens. In so doing, God provides the necessities of our lives and he guides through circumstance and occasionally divine intervention the path of our lives.

Some would argue that providence is little more than a sanctified FFoF. In providence, they would say, we just have a name for the individual to whom the finger belongs. That’s the point! It is a personal, loving God who sends rain on the just and the unjust. It is a merciful Creator who orders our steps. It is a holy and wholly good God who is at work in our lives and through our lives. If God is doing it, it can’t be wrong.

The doctrine of providence ought to give us hope rather than a sense of hopelessness. Things aren’t just happening. They’re happening for a purpose. And, because it’s God’s purpose, whether we understand it or like it, it is a good purpose.

The next time you’re trying to figure out why something happened, ask yourself another question: what is God trying to accomplish through this? You might not be able to find all the answers to the questions in life, but at least you’ll be searching in the right place.