We Were Warned (Part 2)

Who warned us, and why? When the film “2012″ hits theaters this November, I’m sure we’ll hear a whole slew of opinions about the Mayan calendar, prophecy, and the end of the world. To me, it’s not a two-hour movie but something I’ve considered for years. For more on my views, see my posts Always on the Watch Part 1, and Part 2.

In the Bible there’s that one BIG warning to all mankind, about the return of Jesus and the destruction of earth. If this doesn’t put everything in perspective, I don’t know what will.

But throughout history God has also warned humanity in smaller ways, working in the lives of individuals, groups, and entire nations through both prophets and His Word. Biblically speaking, the first warning comes when someone turned away, and God wants them to turn back.

Consider King Nebuchadnezzar (”N”), who ruled Babylon during it’s most prosperous and powerful years. A bit full of himself, King N regularly looked over the kingdom from his palace, marveling at what he had done. One night he had a very disturbing dream, about a beautiful tree that had been cut off at its trunk. When nobody in his courts could interpret the dream, he sent for God’s prophet, Daniel. (You can find this whole story in Daniel 4.)

Daniel interpreted the dream and said “You, O King, are that tree!” Unless King N promptly acknowledged God’s sovereignty, he would become “like the wild animals” and feed on grass in the fields for seven years, until he repents. This is the WARNING!

Daniel then says that maybe this doesn’t need to happen. Maybe King N can avoid the judgment, so Daniel says “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”

But King N didn’t repent, and in the following year a severe mental illness seized him and he was driven away from the kingdom and ate grass like cattle. One day seven years later he looked up, and humbly acknowledged God’s power. Then God restored his sanity.

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

More to come in Part 3…

True Optimism in a Wounded Workplace

(This is an excerpt from a piece I wrote, published today on Crosswalk.com)

I read an article the other day about how Western optimism is a counterproductive anomaly, leading to debilitating surprise and sorrow when bad things inevitably happen. While not a Christian article, writer Alain de Botton used Christianity as an example of pessimism, “that it’s a sin to suppose that such perfection can ever occur on Earth. Nothing human can ever be free of blemishes. There cannot be an end to boom and bust.”  

We so desperately want the opposite to be true during these uncertain times. We pray for God’s hand of blessing to return, for our jobs to remain secure, for the markets to flow freely once again. And we hang on to this American optimism because the alternative scares us and creates a tight ball of fear in our gut. Read more…

A note about marriage

Nine years ago today Brad and I said our vows, a pair of two 21-year olds in love. As the sun set over the lake and in front of our friends and family (many of them likely crossing their fingers over our young age!) we committed ourselves to each other and set our relationship before God.

Here is what I’ve learned since then:

1) Love is a choice. Many times that lovin’ feeling will come easily, but sometimes it doesn’t. In those times we make the conscious choice to actively love each other.  

2) Marriage is a gift, and only by the grace and mercy of God do we learn how to extend this same grace and mercy to each other.

3) And finally, no one else knows me like he does (besides God of course!) and that’s how it should be. The love that has grown between us since we first met is ours to hold. It is special and rare — almost like a precious secret. We prioritize, guard and nurture it.

I pray that God continues to provide His grace for us, and am so grateful that He’s brought us here together.

We Were Warned (Part 1)

My husband and I went to see a movie the other night (a rare event for us), and while walking toward our theater – giant soda and popcorn in hand – we noticed a stand-up poster for the apocalyptic movie “2012.” It was a picture of a city by the ocean, dramatically split into pieces by an earthquake, with tsunami-sized waves lapping at the homes. At the top of the picture it simply said, “We Were Warned.”

We paused for a minute, then took a sip of soda and crunched on some popcorn as we made our way to our seats, and settled in to watch “Angels and Demons – a film which, by the way, has nothing to do with demons and very little to do with angels. It does, however, make some very interesting points about science and faith.

(I will take this opportunity to point out something. In my last post, I wrote about how we’re a nation of viewers, content to watch movies about faith and adventure. And as you can see here, I do enjoy such movies — enough to make them part of a cherished date night. But for me the adventure doesn’t end with the credits.)

Back to that movie poster for “2012” — I’m not feeling terribly deep today, so I will save many of my thoughts for future posts. But I want to just throw some questions out there about being warned. Is that just Hollywood? Or have we been warned? And if we have indeed been warned – warned about what? Who warned us? And here’s the big one: what’s the purpose of a warning?

More to come later.