You Are Not An Alligator: Thoughts on Evangelism

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

No-More-Alligators-And-Other-Tips-for-Effective-Sales-Development1-e1441371922127

Just outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania, on the east side of Route 15, you can visit an amazing place: Clyde Peelings Reptileland. When we lived on the East Coast, and my kids were younger, we visited there several times and always had a blast.

And learned cool facts.  I learned, for example, that alligators continue to actually grow muscle mass while they “brummate” (think hibernate only less extreme).  In other words, while alligators are in a torpor, eyes glazed over as they scan the latest offerings on Netflix while finishing off a bag of stale Doritos, they are actually getting the benefit of a workout!  Or so I was assured by our knowledgeable docent.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?  If medical research could figure out how to put that in a bottle someone would quickly move to the top of the Forbes’ billionaires list!   But alas, such a drug is not yet available.  Maybe one day…

This odd, if true, ability of the alligator was brought to mind recently when reading a very old book on ministry.  Some time ago while visiting a used bookstore I picked up a copy of The Christian Ministry: Miscellanies for Candidates, written by Rev. James William Kimball and first published in Boston in 1884.  The book reads like a blog from yesteryear – or century as the case may be.  It contains valuable insights into the essentials of Christian ministry – essentials which, by the way, have not changed over the millennia.  And one of those essentials concerns the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ: evangelism.

In talking about the need for Christians, and particularly those in some form of ministry, to do the work of evangelism, Kimball presents the case of those who beg off from this critical aspect of the church’s work by saying, “Oh, I haven’t the gift.  It’s a rare gift and I never possessed it.”  Kimball’s response: “Did you ever acquire any language without grappling with the alphabet, monosyllables, disyllables, and polysyllables?  Have you ever strengthened any of your muscles by total disuse?”

And that is what brought Clyde Peeling’s Reptileland to mind.  We are not alligators.  You are not an alligator.  You and I will never see the least bit of progress in any spiritual discipline or grace if we are not practicing  – exercising – the associated gifts or callings, however slight or discernible they may be.  Those muscles must work to grow.

Today we live in an information age and we have a strong bias towards assuming that the right information will enable us to do and be better at whatever we think we ought or might be doing.  We should remember that there were other such “ages” prior to our own.  And somehow, in at least some respects, previous generations and centuries surpassed our current level of achievement.  To doubt this fact is to fall into the very worst sort of chronological arrogance that trivializes all of history – especially church history!

What can we learn from the past about how to get our alligator selves off of our couches and fulfill the scriptural command to “do the work of evangelism?” (2 Timothy 4:5).

Kimball offers this advice:

“My friend, are you doing what you can?  Do not say, ‘I am not a clergyman; this is the peculiar province of a clergyman.’  If you are a disciple; if you have heard of Jesus and believed on Him, you have been adopted into his family.  You have become His servant; you are made a minister; you are commissioned by our Lord himself to talk of Him.  A disciple is a learner: and our Lord’s school is the great original of the ‘mutual system;’ as a learner you are required to be also a teacher; the unalterable condition and requirement of His school is, teach what you learn as fast as you learn it, and you shall be advanced daily and hourly.”[1]

Simply do what you can!  While new information and good training are wonderful, you do not need either to simply share what you already know as best as you are able.  And you would be surprised how much God can do with folks who know very, very little but are willing to share what they do know.  The Samaritan woman at the well scarcely had a single qualification to her name, but she had met Jesus and through her simple words an entire village heard the truth and many put their faith in Christ (John 4:39).

It is not new information or better training that we need today.  We simply need fresh resolve to each of us do what we can by sharing what we know.  And, by daily and hourly exercise, we will soon be far stronger than mere alligators!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] James William Kimball, The Christian Ministry: Miscellanies for Candidates (Boston, 1884), p. 77.

 

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A Commitment to the Unseen: Lessons from Blindness and Old Spanish Coins

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

old coins

As some of you who read this blog know, I am legally blind.  I have fairly extreme tunnel vision – my ophthalmologist tells me I have about “six degrees” of vision; that is not good.  As a result, I have learned that I must operate as if things that I cannot see are there and that others can see things that I can’t.  For example, I have learned that every public restroom in America has its own rubric for the proper placement of hand dryers and/or paper towel dispensers.  Although I might spend five minutes with dripping wet hands looking for their amenity of choice, I know it’s there somewhere– and I will find it eventually!  Similarly, when my wife is driving me to and fro and suddenly a truck appears “out of nowhere,” I need to remember that Kerrie saw it coming long before I did.

Too often we think about ourselves, other people, everything really, in terms that are exclusively rationalistic – by which I mean that our thoughts and opinions, hopes and fears, are all demonstrably valid in light of what we can see.  It is certainly not always incorrect to trust what you see.  However, God’s word, again and again, calls us to trust in more than we can see.  And in so doing, it calls us to remember that there are many things that we cannot see that are essential to our correct response to the people and situations that present themselves to us every day.

Consider the grounds of Paul’s joyful prayers whenever he thinks about quarrelsome people like Euodia and Syntyche (see Philippians 1:3-6 and 4:2). Again, Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  And Paul, in agreement with the writer of Hebrews, gives us the prescribed perspective of the Christian: “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Paul rejoiced over quarrelsome and inconvenient relationships because he was confident that God was at work and that work would be carried on to completion (Philippians 1:3-6).  His eyes were fixed on the unseen things that God was doing and would accomplish in the future.  Hebrews 11 recites numerous examples of Old Testament saints making radical relationship and life decisions based upon a faith that there was something going on that they could not yet see.

What about you?  Do you find that you look at your spouse, your family, your coworkers, neighbors with tunnel vision?  Are you limited by what you see?  It takes humility to be committed to the fact that you only see a sliver of what God is doing in that person or family’s life at any given time.  Yet wise and faithful conduct absolutely requires that you fix your eyes beyond the horizon of your visual field.  That you remind yourself continually that there is more going on than you can see.

In 1519, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) changed the motto on the coins his royal mint produced.[1]  Prior to that year, they said, “Non Plus Ultra” – meaning, “nothing beyond this.”  This Latin inscription was not only on coins, but according to legend was on the pillars of Gibraltar warning sailors that beyond this land “was nothing!”  The phrase also featured regularly on maps – west of Europe was… nothing.   But in 1519, some twenty-five years after Columbus irrefutably demonstrated to his fellow Europeans that the ocean was not endless, the motto was changed.  The “Ne” was dropped.  There was indeed “something beyond.”  And every commercial transaction involving coins reminded the empire’s subjects that there was a whole New World that was increasingly significant to life in the Old World.

How limited is your vision?  Do you acknowledge the fact that you cannot, sometimes maybe even ‘will’ not see everything necessary to respond as assuredly as you often do?  We are like that – we all, irrespective of ideology or maturity have a tendency to assume that we apprehend the necessary data to pontificate on every person and subject that arises!  What is the coinage of your relationships?  Is the motto inscribed on your thoughts, emotional responses, and words, “plus ultra?”  Are you constantly aware of and demonstrably committed to the fact that there is a whole unseen world of what God is and will be doing that both begs and requires your humble acknowledgement in every circumstance of life in this world?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] James Carson Brevoort, Early Spanish and Portuguese Coinage in America (Boston: Privately Printed, 1885), p.16.

 

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Worshipping on Vacation?

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

weekend-clipart-Vacation_Car_Beach_Trip_Clipart-3transOver the next three months, many of us will be away from our home churches for at least one Sunday.  The reason?  School is out!  It is time for summer vacations!  Even if we don’t have kids or they are all grown up and moved out, we still go away for a weekend here or there.

For some of us, this poses a problem: where should we worship on Sunday morning?  As summer begins, I would like to offer three pieces of pastoral advice to encourage us to worship – especially when we are on vacation.

1.  Make Plans!  If you do not deliberately make plans to worship on Sunday mornings when you are away, you probably won’t worship.  In all likelihood you will know in advance where you will be on the Sundays you will be away.  In planning your vacation, find a church where you can worship and put it on your itinerary.  The internet is a great way to discover what churches are in the area you will be visiting and most churches will have a website that will help you determine whether or not the church is an evangelical, Bible believing church.

2.  Go to Worship!  As people, we have a nasty tendency to be critical of things that are different from what we are used to.  We can sometimes be distracted by different orders of worship, different music, different preaching, different furniture…  And thought by thought, moment by moment we can end up attending a worship service and doing relatively little worshipping.   We are instead preoccupied with our critique of the church in light of our own theological perspective and (more often) personal preferences.  Embrace the attitude of Cotton Mather (a third generation new England Puritan): “Wherever we can see anything of Christ, let it be dear to us.”  And attend the service in order to worship God despite the ways in which their service differs from yours.

3.  Hear the Preaching!  I sometimes wonder whether or not we as Christians today spend more time evaluating and judging sermons than we do allowing sermons to evaluate and judge us.  The Minister of the Gospel who preaches at the church you visit will use more or less illustrations that are longer or shorter than what you are used to.  He will cover more or fewer Bible verses.  He will preach for more or less time.  He will be easier or more difficult to follow.  He may preach more topically than verse-by-verse.  He may be wooden or animated; speak too fast or slow, too loud or too quietly.  But despite the novelty of his voice or style, you just might hear a godly voice urging you to a closer walk with Christ if you are humbly prepared and diligent to hear it!

This summer, I am looking forward to visiting a church I have never attended before somewhere near Corolla, NC where my family will spend our vacation.  In a lot of ways, the worship and the preaching will almost certainly be different from what we do at my church out here in California.  But there will be something of Christ there, and I will hold it dear as I worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”  May our habit be one of humble and joyful participation in the Lord’s worship wherever we spend our Lord’s Days during our summer vacations.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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$394,258.28 Advice for Everyone: Prioritize and Finish

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

Checklist With Green Checkmark IconIn leadership and management literature there is a frequently cited anecdote involving two giants of the early twentieth century.  In 1918, Charles Schwab, then the CEO of Bethlehem Steel, had a fifteen minute long meeting with Ivy Lee, a productivity expert.  Lee gave Schwab some advice and then suggested to him that at the end of thirty days or three months (reports differ as to the amount of time involved), Schwab should send Lee a check for whatever he thought Lee’s advice had been worth.  At the end of that trial period, Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000; or, in today’s inflation adjusted dollars, $394,258.28.[1]

What could Lee have spent fifteen minutes telling Schwab that was worth that staggering hourly rate?

Lee told Schwab to do something very simple yet very profound:

  1. At the end of the day, write down the six most important things you need to do tomorrow, numbered one through six in order of priority. And then go home.
  2. When you get to work the next day, start with task number one and work on that task until it is completed. Work down your list in this manner.
  3. At the end of the day, make a schedule for the next day, including any tasks not completed from this day. Go home.
  4. Repeat 2 and 3 indefinitely!

I believe that there are two reasons Lee’s advice is so excellent.  As the title of this post suggests, Lee understood the necessity of setting priorities and finishing tasks, two things that humans tend to struggle with. I am not sure what influenced Lee to develop his method for productivity, but I know where I first encountered this advice – it is in my Old Testament!  There is an ancient Hebrew Proverb that says, “Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” (Proverbs 24:27).  And there you have it: set priorities and finish tasks.

Note that the outdoor work is more important than building the house – it should be done first.  And only after it is finished should the house be built.  In both Jewish and Christian tradition, there is a tendency to overly spiritualize what is meant by the terms outdoor work and house.  I suspect that there is some validity to many of those pious suggestions.  But what is explicitly, undeniably clear is the fact that priorities should be completed in order of importance.

There are at least two necessary corollaries to this biblical method for productivity that must be mentioned.  First, some lesser priorities may not get accomplished.  We cannot do everything – there are many things in our life, even important things, that we may not have either the time or the resources to do.  Second, the idea of doing two or three things at the same time should be guarded against.  Few of us are as good at multi-tasking as we think we are.  It may be the case that some tasks, like writing a sermon or doing the laundry, involve distinct parts and either should or must be broken up into a series of smaller tasks – sometimes with other tasks interspersed.  Account for that in your planning.

Whoever you are and whatever you do, you have two great commands that must inform all of your priorities: (1) Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength, and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-40).  Start your day with a pencil and a sheet of paper, number it one through six, and write down in order of importance, the six things you will do today to obey these commands at work, and at home.  Perhaps you will finish them all.  Perhaps you will only get part way through number one.  But over time, in practicing the principles found in Proverbs 24:27 you will be more productive.  And you will find that, as Psalm 19 puts it, “the ordinances of the Lord are more precious than gold, than much fine gold!”

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] http://www.in2013dollars.com/1918-dollars-in-2016?amount=25000, accessed on May 12, 2016.

 

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Playtime for Children – A Biblical View

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

MAIN-children-playing-outside

The school year is winding down and parents are finalizing their summer plans!  I am sure those of us with school aged kids at home are eagerly anticipating the end of the school year and the opportunity for our children to get a break from homework and…  And do what exactly?  There are a number of different ideas about what is best for kids.  Some advocate yearlong schooling.  Others put their kids into a dizzying schedule of sports, camps, private lessons, etc…  I recall having a greatly enhanced chore list every summer – when school got out we had lawn work, a garden plot outside town, regular reading assignments and more time to be generally helpful around the house.  But what I personally loved the most about summer was the opportunity to spend a whole lot more time playing.

As our kids begin their summer break I would like to make two observations from the Bible’s  one clear reference to kids playing.  The verse is Zechariah 8:4-5:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age.  The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

The first thing I notice in this text is the word for ‘play’ that is used by Zechariah.  The word in the Hebrew is sahaq and it has the basic meaning of ‘laughter.’  Whatever the ‘playing’ of the children envisioned in this text consisted of, it was fun!

The second thing I notice is that the children playing in the streets is a significant part of the first detail given for what the effect of the Lord’s return to Zion will be.  Zechariah 8:3 explicitly states that this is what life will be like when the Babylonian exiles return to Jerusalem and when the Lord once again dwells among his people.  This is a picture of how life should be – how it will be – when God’s redemptive purposes for his people are being fulfilled according to his plan.

Knowing how easy it is for us as Christians to abuse texts and to pull them out of context, let me note that this scripture does not teach us that  children should play in the streets! But on a more serious note, I would like to challenge us to embrace a biblical theology of childhood.  God’s plan for childhood includes a time for simply having fun with other kids.  This is a part of God’s good and blessed will for children.  And we need to do two things this summer to reflect this fact.  First, we need to be sure to make time for our kids to play.  Chores, extra-curricular studies, sports clubs, and garden plots are all very important – but so is play.  Second, we need to teach our kids that God is the inventor of all things good – including play.

For any kids who are reading this, there will still be no playing in the parking lot after church!

For you parents, please accept this challenge to try to schedule play into your children’s lives this summer – it is important.  Give them some unprogrammed time to “laugh in the streets.”  And then when you pray with them at bedtime teach them to give thanks to their heavenly Father for the time to play and for the fun that they had – He is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

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Married?  Read Your Own Mail First!

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

It was twenty-five years ago that I met with a family of three – a mom, her daughter, and the step-dad.  The conversation was depressing: recriminations, broken promises, failed responsibilities, vindictive and hurtful words…  What was most troubling was that all of it was couched in the most sophisticated biblical language.  Each of the parties of that conversation was able to cite chapter and verse with respect to the failings of every person in that room – except themselves.

In a quiet moment, the mom turned to me (at the time I was the youth ministry director) and said, “What should we do?”  My response then was much what it would be now: “You need to stop reading each other’s mail.”  At this, all parties insisted that they had never read each other’s’ mail.  Yet that is precisely what they were doing.

God’s word, often explicitly in the form of a letter (Paul’s letters for example) directs itself to parents, children, employers, employees, husbands, wives, etc…  Each of the people in that room on that day knew what God had said to the other two people.  Each of the people in that room appeared to be unconcerned with what God’s word said to them.  This problem has since played itself out in my pastor’s office in Maryland, Vermont, and California, literally hundreds of times.

This month, I would like to tackle two such “letters” and invite you to think about your marriage biblically.  Please take a moment to read Ephesians 5:21-33.  The key verses are:

Verse 21: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ…

Verse 22: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord…

Verse 25:  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”

Verse 21 is the basic theme of this passage – we are to submit to one another.  What follows is about how we all submit to one another in the context of our different roles and relationships.  Verse 22 (which is the conclusion of the sentence begun in verse 21!) and 25 specifically address how the wife and how the husband submit to one another. Now, take another moment to reread the section addressed to wives if you are a wife and the section on husbands if you are a husband.

Now comes the hard part.  Take out a pencil and paper.  If you are a husband, list ten ways in which you lay down your life in order to bless your wife.  If you are a wife, write down a list of ten ways in which you submit to your husband.

Now comes the harder part.  Sit down with your spouse and read your lists to each other and ask each other if there are areas in which the other feels either ignored or taken for granted.

Now comes the hardest part.  Ask one another for forgiveness for your failure to lay down your life or to submit.  Resolve to model your relationship more on Christ’s relationship to the church than on the world’s patterns.  Begin a new chapter of married life together.  Read your own mail.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

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Solomon’s Uncertainty Principle

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

b7fca3a42a4f6a66a153f9ac6415b291In quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle describes one small sense in which we as humans cannot know everything.  We cannot, with equal precision, know both the position and the speed of an object in motion.  There are, however, other principles of far more practical value that should help us keep a proper perspective on both ourselves and others.

In Ecclesiastes 9:11, we find what I call Solomon’s Uncertainty Principle:

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

At first glance, it may seem that Heisenberg and Solomon have offered unrelated principles; but they do have at least one thing in common.  Both principles warn us against taking simplistic views of the things we observe. Heisenberg’s rule is no doubt useful in scientific pursuits.  Solomon’s rule should give us encouragement to strive beyond our expectations and to resist simplistic assumptions regarding our own and other peoples’ situations.

Consider the slow runner or the weak fighter.  How do they know they will lose to the fast or strong man?  They don’t!  Because “time and chance” happen to all. Sometimes the fast runner trips. Sometimes the strong fighter gets distracted.  Consequently, in whatever ways we assess our strengths and weaknesses, we should always commit to doing our very best – and leaving the results with God, who himself determines the roll of every die! (Proverbs 16:33).

But also consider the man who is hungry, poor, and unpopular.  All too often we as Christians embrace a backwards kind of health and wealth gospel when it comes to folks like this.  Although we would reject preaching that claims that following Jesus will make you healthy and wealthy, we all too often think that if a man is hungry, poor, and shunned, he probably lacks wisdom, intelligence, or education.  This is just the photo negative of the prosperity gospel – and in some ways it is more destructive than its developed version.

Sometimes the wise, brilliant, and educated man suffers one setback after another – despite their virtues, and ends up in dire straits through no fault of their own.  And sometimes the slow and weak win their matches, through no great stratagem they have devised.  The fact is that on this side of heaven, “stuff happens.”  Time and chance dictate outcomes neither expected nor deserved, and we as Christians must learn to trust that a sovereign God is active in and through such developments.  And we must personally strive despite the odds against us and unconditionally refuse to assume that the state of other peoples’ affairs must be related to their foolishness or stupidity.

Humility and trust are marks of Christian maturity.  They are not the only marks, but they are necessary.  One cannot be more mature than they are either humble or trusting.  Will you trust God enough to simply use whatever gifts he has given you to do your best in service to him?  Will you be humble enough to recognize that it is often the case that your virtues are not the reason for either the success or failure of your efforts?

The increasing ability to do these two things will open the door to two other marks of Christian maturity: gratitude towards God for his free blessing of your imperfect performances and gracious compassion for those who have been less fortunate.

 

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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Choosing the Thornbush

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

cropped-rose-bush-3Have you found life to be a bit on the prickly side lately?  Have you found yourself in deep and uncomfortable regret about a decision that you have made – or failed to make?  Or perhaps you need to make a decision and don’t know which of several options to choose?  A little known passage from Judges 9 might help.

Judges 9 gives us a glimpse of the uneasy existence of a Canaanite community (Shechem) within the Israelite tribes.  The time is that of the Judges – there is no Israelite monarchy yet.  The Judge of Israel, Gideon (also called Jerub-Baal), has died and his seventy sons (by several wives) are sharing the role of leadership within the tribal structure.  This was a vastly different style of leadership from that of the local Canaanites – like the residents of Shechem.  In the Canaanite traditions, it was common for kings to rule communities.  The Israelite community was governed by judges and patriarchal family heads.

Abimelech was one of Gideon’s seventy sons whose mother was a Canaanite from Shechem.  So Abimelech, seeing an opportunity, goes to the men of Shechem and asks them, “Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?  Remember, I am your flesh and blood.”  Abimelech is appealing to their cultural sense of how things should be and reminding them of their kinship through his mother’s Shechemite identity.

The men of Shechem agree, they give him tribute, he hires a band of mercenaries, and proceeds to attack his father’s home where his brothers continue to reside – killing  all of his brothers but one on a single stone.  That one survivor, Jotham, manages to flee.  And while standing on the slopes of Mt. Gerizim he delivers the parable that we find so cryptic.

All of the trees invite an olive tree, a fig tree, and a vine to become king.  All three refuse, because to do so would require them to forfeit the role God had entrusted to them.  Finally, the trees ask a thorn bush, who agrees and becomes their king – absurdly inviting them to take shelter in the limited and very prickly shade such a low lying plant can provide and warning them that if they will not do so, a fire will erupt from him and consume them all.

Abimelech is the thornbush.  He is made king by the men of Shechem who wanted one ruler.  For three years they “sheltered” under this thornbush’s shade, and then they rebelled (Judges 9:22f).  Abimelech, predictably, turns on them.  Just as the brambles become tinder that can fuel horrific forest fires during the dry season, Abimelech became a source of fire that consumed and destroyed all around him.  After sacking the city of Shechem, Abimelech destroys the stronghold of that city by burning it to the ground – immolating about a thousand of his kinfolk in the process.

As we read this account over three thousand years later, it should serve as a warning against being so desperate for the things we think we want that we settle for thornbushes.  The stories of each of our lives include times when we have experienced a need and accepted a solution that, if we had been thinking ahead, we would never have chosen.  Often this involves thorns we could never have foreseen, but many times the thorns are there to see and we simply choose not to notice them.

What choices are you in the process of making?  Are you so desperate for shade that you would willingly crawl under a thornbush?  Ask God for wisdom to avoid such short term, near-sighted decisions.  Pray for the patience necessary to consider what courses of action would most glorify God and best bless your neighbor.  These choices often have fewer thorns than others we might choose!  And if you are under a thornbush right now, turn to Christ and follow him in a new direction – he knows how to lead his people out of the worst situations.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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Are You Smarter Than Your Average Bear?

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

In his bestselling novel Sphere, author Michael Crichton puts an interesting observation in the climactic dialogue between his protagonist, psychologist Norman Johnson, and the alien power that he and his colleagues encounter.  In that conversation, the alien being or consciousness remarks upon what is distinctive about human beings.

Yogi20Bear20Cropped2012_11_05_answer_2_xlargeOn your planet you have an animal called a bear.  It is a large animal, sometimes larger than you, and it is clever and has ingenuity, and it has a brain as large as yours.  But the bear differs from you in one important way.  It cannot perform the activity you call imagining.  It cannot make mental pictures of how reality might be.  It cannot envision what you call the past and what you call the future.  The special ability of imagination is what has made your species as great as it is… Your greatness lies in imagination…  This is the gift of your species and this is the danger, because you do not choose to control your imaginings.  You imagine wonderful things and you imagine terrible things, and you take no responsibility for the choice…[1]

There is a grain of truth in this fictional, alien assessment of what distinguishes us from mere beasts; as humans we do seem to be uniquely capable of imagining alternative realities.  And, to borrow from our literary alien, it may be the fact that at best we take a token responsibility for the things that we imagine.

It is often the case that our tendency to imagine the worst of situations, of other people, and even of ourselves, does quite a lot of harm.  Consider the spouse who fears their partner is unfaithful whenever he or she is late.  Or the little boy who believes that so-and-so no longer wants to be his friend since he didn’t come to his birthday party.  In these cases, we are making mental pictures of what might be the case – and all too often, our hearts are responding as if our imagination is infallible.  And in twenty-five years of various types of ministry (not to mention living) I have found that when someone says, “You’re just imagining things,” they are not helping!

I believe that the Bible, in several places, offers a wonderful alternative to runaway imaginations.  In 1 Corinthians 13: 7 we are told that “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  If you will commit to protecting your relationships, trusting others, hoping the best, and continually doing those first three things, you will find that this kind of love directs your imagination into better places than self-defense, skepticism, and fear will take ever you.  In Philippians 4:8 we are told, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”  This too would be a blessed antidote to the troubles caused by a runaway imagination!

Sometimes it is the case that spouses are unfaithful and it is true that both childhood and adult friends often fade into casual acquaintances.  The Bible nowhere urges Christians to be naïve in the matter of living.  But it does, in its own way, call us to take responsibility for the things we choose to think about and dwell on.  Let’s be “smarter than the average bear” by choosing to exercise sanctified imaginations that are grounded in God’s power and his love.  Try thinking the best of others and treating them as if they are.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

 

[1] Michael Crichton, Sphere (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), p. 303.

 

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Bold Thrift

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Bob Bjerkaas

 

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In John chapter six we read about Jesus’ ministry in Galilee – in particular we read about his “feeding of the five thousand.”  He is preaching to a great crowd when Jesus asks his disciples where they should buy food for all of the people.  Jesus’ disciple Philip says, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”  Isn’t that an interesting response?  Philip appears to have a good head for numbers.

In both John’s and Mark’s description of the feeding of the five thousand, there is an emphasis on how much it would cost to feed the crowds.  This is a response that probably rings true for us not only in our ministries but in our daily life at home and at work as well.  We have a great idea – and then we immediately determine whether or not we can afford it.  This is a wise and wonderful method for determining what vacation we can or cannot take, but it might be counterproductive in some aspects of ministry.

At the very beginning of John’s account, after Jesus asks Philip the question about where they can buy food, we read in verse six: “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”  It was a test!  In determining whether Philip passed or failed that test, consider first that he didn’t really answer Jesus’ question at all.  Jesus asked “Where…?”  Philip’s answer suggests that Jesus’ question is impractical and therefore irrelevant: we don’t have the resources, so why look for the bakery?

One of the other disciples, Andrew, speaks up and says, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  This is a better response, but again not a proper answer to Jesus’ question!

Jesus proceeds to perform one of his best known miracles – he has his disciples instruct the people to sit down, takes the loaves and fish, gives thanks, and distributed the food to the thousands present.  Not only did they have enough for everyone to eat their fill, but he had the disciples collect the leftover bread – twelve baskets!

Boldness in attempting great things God calls us to despite our limited resources is certainly a ministry value being taught here in John 6, but so is thrift.  John alone records the complete instructions Jesus gives after the people have eaten.  Jesus says to his disciples, “Gather up the pieces that are left over.  Let nothing be wasted.”  There is the thrift: let nothing be wasted.

Often in ministry we can assume that we do not have what we need for ministry – and we can lose hope and simply not attempt certain ministries that God may be calling us to.  In so doing we are leaving God completely out of the equation and operating no differently than a Fortune 500 company – at best. But on the other hand, sometimes we can squander resources because we always assume that God can simply do a miracle and provide what we need.  And so we are not careful to appreciate what he does give. I suspect that we all tend to err in one of those two directions!  How much better to trust the Lord to provide and to be bold in pursuing ministry while demonstrating faithful stewardship of his gifts by wasting nothing!

 

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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