Aesop & Son

“The beginning of men's rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.” ~ Francis Schaeffer

“do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” ~ Romans 2:4

When I was very young my morning ritual was to wake up early and tromp down to our basement family room and turn on the TV to watch cartoons before everyone else got up. At the risk of giving away my age I will confess that one show I enjoyed were re-runs of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. For the uninitiated; Rocky is a flying squirrel and Bullwinkle is a moose and they were always trying to avoid the evil machinations of Boris Badenov and his cohort Natasha. Some of the episodes of the show live on even now on YouTube and of course on DVD. The appeal of the show is that it also featured short cartoon vignettes that included Fractured Fairy Tales, Peabody’s Improbable History, Dudley Do-Right and Aesop & Son.

What children didn’t realize was that they were being taught history or moral values through the medium of humor and celluloid. I enjoyed them all and remember fondly both the fairy tales and the fables. The Aesop & Son short would start with father (Aesop) chiseling his name on a Greek column in a dignified manner, and to his chagrin his son would run in with a jackhammer and add “and Son”. The typical set up was that Aesop would try to teach his son a life lesson but at the end of the story his son would subvert the fable’s moral with a bad pun.

Many of us have heard or read some of Aesop’s Fables or know stories attributed to him like the Ant and the Grasshopper or the Tortoise and the Hare. Most view these tales as stories for children; however, for the early Greeks these fables were aimed at an adult audience. According to Wikipedia the Greek fable "was a technique of criticism and persuasion, which by its indirectness might avoid giving offense, while at the same time making a powerful impression by its artistry. It was especially valuable to the weak as a weapon against the powerful." Aesop was highly regarded by the Greeks and his work was quoted by none other than Socrates. I decided to try my hand at a Aesop-like fable but in the end it may seem more like a Fractured Fairy Tale. As a good friend always says “You can’t make stuff like this up.”

A young man is brought into this world and he is the apple of his father’s eye. His father is a well known philanthropist and is loved and respected by many. Throughout his youth his father makes repeated attempts, both subtle and grand, to demonstrate his love for his son and strengthen his relationship with the boy. At times the father very openly demonstrates his love, care and affection for his son, yet the boy takes these overtures for granted or even ignores them completely. Other times the father quietly orchestrates behind the scenes wonderful and joyous events in this young man’s life.

The father has many servants but his relationship with them is very unique because he treats them more like sons and daughters. Many of these servants attempt to tell this young man about his father, and share with him how they have been personally changed and blessed by his benevolence. The young man thinks they are fools or, worse yet, ignorant and misinformed. The boy is unmoved and unimpressed by their testimonials on behalf of his father and even ignores a biography written about his father that is a world-wide best seller.

The son has no interest in learning about his father’s history, character or benevolence. The boy is unmoved and disinterested and even though the father’s love is constant, the young man refuses to reciprocate. More often than not the boy blames his father for situations and predicaments he has created for himself, and curses his father for not getting him out of his troubles. The son both consciously and unconsciously knows what his father deems appropriate behavior, yet he ignores this and even at times makes it a point to flaunt his behavior as a means to openly scorn his father.

Occasionally the son shows up at his father’s house on special days like his birthday. Typically this is only to sooth his conscience or to keep up appearances. Other times he shows up because his wife has guilt-tripped him into going. More often it is because he wants to manipulate the father to help with his latest scheme or to help him out of a jam. Eventually the day comes when the boy completely puts the father out of his mind and refuses to darken the door of his house, even on holidays. Through it all the father continues to love his son and wait patiently for him.

One day many years later tragedy strikes the boy and he needs emergency surgery he cannot afford. He calls on his father to pay for the procedure and miraculously the father provides and the boy makes a full recovery. The father hopes this life experience may be an opening for reconciliation and a chance for a deeper and more meaningful relationship. Yet the young man does not offer any thanks, refuses to speak to his father and still will not visit him at his house.

The son often hears stories of how his father has provided for his staff of servants or has done a wonderful philanthropic work somewhere in the world. The father uses all his resources to rescue the poor, outcast and undeserving. But the son rails against his father whenever he reads a story in the paper or hears in the news about sickness, war and natural disaster. He uses this as a justification for ignoring his father and remaining estranged from him. He rationalizes that if his father is as wonderful as everyone says he is, then of course he should have used his vast resources to solve this problem, all the while writing off that all of these instances were the result of bad choices by others and not his father’s doing.

Years pass and the father still longs for a relationship with his son and subtly and quietly provides and protects his son behind the scenes. The son again experiences a tragedy but this time when he calls, the father does not answer and the son suffers a devastating loss. The father knows that his son simply wants his resources but not a relationship, so he hopes going it alone will wake up his son. The son is irate and he is filled with anger and malice toward his father. How dare his father not answer! He blames his father for his troubles and at that point vows to never have anything more to do with him.

This fable sounds implausible and a little extreme yet this is how each and every of us view or treat our Heavenly Father. He seeks to be known and have a personal relationship with us, yet we ignore Him and take Him for granted. He showers us with blessing; both overtly and subtly, yet we fail to acknowledge the Giver of all good things. This phenomenon is evident in all men, no matter their “spiritual” condition. In his Trilogy of books, author and philosopher Francis Schaeffer points to that fact that we all want to rummage through God’s pockets and pull out the gems of His character we like and ignore the rest. We fail to see Him or acknowledge Him in both the amazing and mundane but His love remains constant and never changing. We blame Him for our troubles or use any excuse we can find to question His love and affection for us and the world. We want the benefits of a relationship without the commitment or responsibility that may come with it. He is the genie in the lamp who needs to be at our beck and call in the hour of our need, then forgotten again when the trial passes.

We rarely, if ever talk to Him in prayer, and even when we do it is a laundry list of wants and not a meaningful, loving or heartfelt discussion. We cannot be bothered to visit his house, yet when the chips are down and we face possible tragedy and despair we think that God should pull out all the stops and give it to us NOW! After all God is love and we deserve His favor no matter what. If we are callously ignored and repeatedly taken advantage of in our human relationships we typically jettison that "user". Yet we irrationally and illogically think God should cater to our every whim no matter how we treat Him.

Ask yourself this question; would you give everything to someone who has treated you in the same manner? God gave His only begotten Son, what have you given Him in return? God desired a relationship with you and I so much that He paid dearly for it. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” ~ I John 3:1

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~ Romans 5:8

“If God exists and we are made in his image we can have real meaning, and we can have real knowledge through what he has communicated to us.” ~ Francis Schaeffer

Friendship redefined

“Two ways to define a true friend: someone who says ‘hi’ every time they see you (even on bad days), and someone who agrees to show up on moving day - and shows up.” ~ Barry Parham (author/satirist)

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. ~ Proverbs 18:24

It’s the Christmas season so by now many of you have pulled out those VHS tapes and DVD’s to watch your favorite holiday movies. One Christmas classic is “A Christmas Story” which chronicles the fictional life of Ralphie Parker as he plots and schemes the receipt of a young boy’s ultimate gift; a Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock.

Throughout the movie we see Ralphie and his little brother Randy dealing with the typical challenges of childhood, food that you would rather not eat, waiting in long lines, being trussed up like a turkey in winter clothes and of course dealing with the school yard bullies; Scott Farkas and his toady Grover Dill. Ralphie has two friends named Flick and Schwartz, but I am not sure if I would agree that they are true friends. For example; when Ralphie utters an expletive that he just happened to hear from his father, rather than admit it he chooses to blame his friend Schwartz, who subsequently gets punished by his mother. Another scene is when he and Schwartz triple dog dare Flick to stick his tongue to the frozen flag pole. Then the bell ring and they leave him stuck there and head back to class. Finally, when one of the trio is getting beaten up by the yellow-eyed Scott Farkas, the others bid a hasty retreat to avoid similar treatment. With friends like these you might need that BB gun to survive.

C.S. Lewis laments in “Mere Christianity” how words over time have lost their significance and true meaning. He cited how the word gentleman once referred to someone of land, means and status as well as dignity and culture. He went on to say that the term had lost its original meaning and was applied indiscriminately to any and all manner of men no matter their deportment. Lewis used this example to point out how the word Christian had lost its power and significance. Words do have meaning, and if we choose to use them in a trite and thoughtless manner we eventually relegate them to the scrap heap of meaninglessness. In our current culture it appears the very same thing has happened to the word friend and how we apply it.

The internet and social networking has played a part in dumbing down the word friend. An individual can have 500 or more virtual “friends” but when the chips are down, how many of those individuals will be there for us in a real and tangible way? What are these “friends” doing for you to grow you spiritually? The author of Proverbs, inspired by the Holy Spirit penned “a man of many companions will come to ruin” and that is even truer today than in ages past. If someone is your virtual friend doesn’t that in turn obligate them to a meaningful and at times costly investment in your real world? Being called or considered a friend should require someone a little more that a superficial or trite interaction with one another. Maybe I am alone in this comment, but being my friend should mean that we see each other in public that I extend the courteously of more than just a mono-syllabic grunt of acknowledgment when I see you. When we ask each other how are you doing, we really want to know the answer to that question and that we are in fact listening and logging the response.

Do we view friendship as a right or a privilege? Maybe part of the problem stems from the fact we treat our “friends” in the same manner as we treat our relationship with God. We talk to them when we feel like it, view it way too casually or only when it is convenient. We don’t show much gratitude or display a certain fickleness toward them if they don’t meet our perceived needs or expectations. Or maybe it is a one-dimensional or one-sided relationship where we are just looking for a sympathetic ear to vent all of our complaints and frustrations, but don’t want to listen to what they have to say. Our friendship with God and being called His friend is neither earned nor deserved, and we need to count it a distinct privilege. If man is created in the image of God and every human has infinite value in His eyes, then this needs to translate into a radical redefinition of how we treat friends and friendship.

If you are a follower of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you believe that the Gospel changes everything (II Corinthians 5:17) then doesn’t that include how you define and view friendship? How do we define friendship and if the Bible tells us that we have a friend in Jesus and that we are friends of God, how does that translate in how we treat and view our friends? Recently I was logging onto Twitter and a tweet by an individual that goes by the moniker “Freddy Amazing” caught my eye. He posted this acrostic for friend; (F)ights for you (R)espects you, (I)nvolve you, (E)ncourage you, (N)eed you and (S)ave you. From a human perspective that is not a bad definition, but apply that to how Jesus Christ is our friend. He fought for us by paying the penalty for our sins. He involves us by giving us the privilege to bring Him honor and glory and tell others about Him. He encourages us by His example and through His love, mercy and grace. He needs us to live out our faith so the world will see our good works and glorify the Father. And He provides a way to save us through His perfect sacrifice and solve our greatest problem.

We have a certain level of community as a body of believers, but that does not necessarily translate into true friendship. We have the Gospel in common which should lead to a deeper and more meaningful kinship, but we can all attest to the fact that this is not necessarily the case. My intent is not to write an exhaustive treatise on the subject of friends and friendship. But I am trying to challenge myself and anyone who stumbles upon this post to reclaim the biblical example of friendship.

In the book “101 Hymn Stories” Kenneth W. Osbeck tells the story of hymn writer Joseph Scriven who wrote one of the most beloved but simple hymns titled “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Scriven was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1819 to a prosperous family. Scriven’s faith in Jesus Christ estranged him from his family and the night before he was to wed his fiancé drowned. He immigrated to Canada and from that point on his goal in life was to live out the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5). He gave freely of his possessions and never refused anyone who needed his help. He spent a great deal of time sawing wood for the poor and widowed in the community. He penned the lyrics to the hymn as a means of encouragement to his mother who had fallen gravely ill back in Dublin. Scriven never meant for the poem to be published, but it is so personal and relevant to the needs of many that it is typically one of the first hymns missionaries teach to new converts. This hymn was borne out of personal tragedy, estrangement and living out the Gospel in real life.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and grief’s to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Take the time to examine your relationships and ponder how the Gospel has redefined friendship and how you view your friends. And while we are at it, we also should ask ourselves how we view and treat the best friend we have in this life; Jesus Christ.

"Fake friends are like shadows, always near you at your brightest moments, but no where to be seen at your darkest hours." ~ Anon

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” ~ Proverbs 17:17

Hole hearted or Whole Hearted?

“No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs. This cosmic disappointment and disillusionment is there all of life, but we especially feel it in the things upon which we most set our hopes.” ~ Timothy Keller

If you turn on the news, watch the daily talk shows, read the newspaper or check out the NY Times best sellers list there is no lack of opinion on what is wrong with society and how it can be corrected. But while there seems to be a consensus that all is not right with the world, and things are not the way they should be or could be, there does not seem to be much agreement on how to correct this dilemma. There is a universal agreement that things are a mess, but everyone wants to point fingers about who is to blame or how the situation must be rectified.

Some will tell you that the solution to societies' problems is through education; better schools or through charter schools. Others will tell you that you need to simplify your life and give up the trappings of our technological and materialistic society. Still others say it is by embracing hedonism, relativism or an anti-establishment lifestyle. Then another more enlightened group will tell us that we need to break free from our attachment to the past and our outdated reliance on social mores and the bondage to religious beliefs. Strip away anything and everything they tell you that holds you back because man is able through the power of positive thinking and visualization to evolve into some god-like perfection. Just buy our book or DVD series and we will show you how.

Growing up in the country and without cable television I spent most of my time outdoors engaged in various activities. But growing up in the northeast there are some days that it is just too cold to stay outside from sunrise to sunset. Those days with inclement weather were spent indoors either reading or listening to Top 40 or rock music. It seems that most teenagers day dream about either being a professional athlete, rock star or both, and I was no exception. The attraction seems to be the idea of being loved and adored by millions as well as the money and lifestyle portrayed by the media. Yet the road is littered with the casualties of stardom,that doesn’t seem to deter the masses from pining for this life to fill the void.

If you look at the lyrics and titles of many pop or rock songs they are filled with allusions to trying to fill the void. Just from the 80’s alone you can probably come up with more examples than the Eagles “The Thrill is Gone” or U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found what I’m Looking for.” Kansas penned the song “Dust in the Wind” that points to the brevity of life and the hands down winner has to be “I can’t get no Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. All of these songs point to a concept that is known as having a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts. This is the concept that states that every person has a void in their spirit, soul and life that can only be filled by God and God alone. GotQuestions.org states; “The God-shaped hole is the innate longing of the human heart for something outside itself, something transcendent, something ‘other’.”

Admittedly I have not followed pop or rock music since the early 90’s, and as I have grown spiritually I wanted to fill my mind with music and lyrics that seek to honor and praise God. But the other day while out bowling with my family a song came on over the PA system that caught my attention. The song is titled “Hole Hearted” and it was released in 1990 by a group called Extreme. The lead singer’s name is Gary Cherone, and he co-wrote the song with Nuno Bettencourt. In 1991 it rose all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts. What I did not know is that at the time he wrote this song and the others on the album he had started listening to pastor and radio speaker Chuck Swindoll and was reading his book “The Grace Awakening.” The album follows the life of “Jack” who looks to fill the void or hole in his life through money, sex and a total hedonistic life experience. The final cut on the album is Hole Hearted.

“Life's ambition occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me (quoting Ecclesiastes 1:7)
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

Hole hearted
Hole hearted

This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
Should have known from the start
I'd fall short with the things I do”

Truth, real truth can be found sometimes in the most unlikely places and long before Cherone and Bettencourt penned these lyrics the wisest man wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon knew well before our modern music artists that this world is filled with empty and vain pursuits and he states in chapter 3 verse 11 that God has placed eternity in our hearts and every man, woman and child consciously or unconsciously is hole hearted until they allow God to fill that void and emptiness that we all feel.

GotQuestions.org sums it up this way; “Just as a square peg cannot fill a round hole, neither can the God-shaped hole inside each of us be filled by anyone or anything other than God. Only through a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ can the God-shaped hole be filled and the desire for eternity fulfilled.” We can try to fill that void with fleeting things like money, success, esteem, power, hedonism or with man’s wisdom. All those will disappoint and disappear. Find your true identity in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.

Note: If you are interested in an excellent book on our futile attempts to fill that hole, pick up a copy of Timothy Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods.”

The least of these

“If you wish to share your faith with needy people and do nothing about their painful conditions, you fail to show them Christ’s beauty.” ~ Timothy Keller

I was recently reading a prayer letter from a missionary who ministers in the lower east side of Manhattan. He works with a virtual melting pot of humanity, with people from all different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. He holds six services per week and in three different languages; English, Spanish and Chinese. I have personally spent a week in NYC with this man and his family, and his boldness and enthusiasm for sharing his faith with any and all cannot help but infuse you with a desire to do likewise.

In his prayer letter he shared that he had recently completed a study in the book of James and how he himself had been challenged in his faith to “do the beneficial deeds which testify to the goodness of our heavenly Father.” He paraphrased James 2:14-20 talking about how we can say we have faith, but if that faith is not translated into the action of loving and caring for the needs of others who are hungry, cold or hurting then our faith is truly worthless. He went on to say that when “individuals observe our beneficial deeds they will glorify our Father in heaven.” The key thing here is the motivation; not for people to pat us on the back or for our personal recognition, but to demonstrate that our faith in God spurs us on to do things that bring Him honor and Him glory.

Many of us have a favorite book of the Bible, and most Americans tend to gravitate to the Pauline epistles. The Apostle Paul is a personal hero of mine, and I take great comfort and hope from his example of the transforming power of the Gospel. It is an overwhelming encouragement to me to see how an encounter with Jesus Christ completely changed an angry and violent man vehemently opposed to the Gospel, and how that experience radically redirected his energy, thoughts, motives, goals and desires. It gives me hope that if it can do that for Paul, it has the power to do that for me too. What is very prevalent in the letters of Paul is how he willingly gave his all and endured much to demonstrate that he understood the depth of mercy, grace and forgiveness he personally received and that translated into a love and compassion that radiated his Savior.

While we Westerners embrace the writings of Paul, the Eastern Christians in Asia and Africa as well as those in Latin America gravitate to the short epistle of James. Philip Jenkins writes about the impact of James in his book “The New Face of Christianity”. Jenkins states; “Arguably, James may be the single biblical book that best encapsulates the issues facing global South churches today.” Jenkins remarks that even though James is a New Testament book it has a distinct imprint of the Old Testament. Moreover, the tiny book of James “quotes the words of Jesus more extensively than any other epistle.” Jenkins believes the book of James hearkens back to the gospel of Matthew, and particular the Sermon on the Mount. The book is very practical and not personal like the letters of Paul and focuses on defining what is true religion, class or social distinctions in church, and the need for faith to be exercised in the care of the poor and needy.

We as Americans tend not to put our faith in action in the way that James, Paul or even Jesus Christ Himself demonstrated. We segregate ourselves from society, interact with those of similar economic or social standing, and soothe our collective conscience by writing a check to a ministry or charity, rather than meeting the needs of people. We have convinced ourselves over the years that this is a “social gospel” where some so-called faith-based organizations or non-fundamental churches only feed, clothe or shelter the poor and needy and don’t call them to repentance or preach the “true” Gospel. Oh, maybe we give food to the rescue mission or donate our unwanted clothes to Goodwill, (ALL excellent things), but is our motive guilt or because we desire to demonstrate our faith in action? Some of these ministries and their residents even remark how people come in and preach or give a devotional challenge and immediately flee the premises, having done their “duty”. Do we really give what is more precious to us; our time, our attention, our compassion, our fellowship?

If you want to get a fresh perspective on how the Gospel changes everything, spend some time with people at your local rescue mission, halfway house, or ladies who are in a shelter due to domestic violence or abandonment. Yes, these people can benefit from our money and our donations, but they are also in dire need of Christian friendship, compassion and accountability.

Throughout the Gospels the religious leaders and Jesus Christ were at odds over what “religion” was or how it was to be defined. Many people like to think of Jesus as purely a social reformer rather than focus on what His true mission was and is. He did in fact castigate the religious and self righteous for neglecting the widows and fatherless, and embraced the social outcasts, but that was not his primary objective. Jesus came to minister first and foremost to humanity’s most pressing needs; alienation and separation from God, and to be the perfect sacrifice. But the four gospels recount how Jesus also fed and healed the poor while He was addressing their need of repentance and salvation. His personal compassion and love for the outcasts and most destitute of society demonstrated something radically different from what people had come to expect of the church. And because of the love He demonstrated for both the physical and spiritual needs of humanity it changed the world forever.

Jesus Christ did not spend His days thinking about Himself, wallowing in His troubles and focused on His own little world. He gave His all completely for you and me. Can we dare give Him excuses for not doing likewise? Spend time with those in need and gain some fresh perspective on how great our God is. Put your faith in action and be amazed at how God will use it for His honor and His glory.

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” ~ Matthew 25:35-40