Popping My Watermelon Head

Yesterday afternoon, in between bites of lunch, I chatted casually with a new acquaintance sitting across the table. One thing led to another, and our conversation took on a more serious turn. “I believe that all people are inherently good,” the friendly woman commented, smiling widely.

A few minutes later, this pleasant lady revealed that she was unconcerned about what would happen to her after she died. She shrugged, “Some questions can never be answered.” Morality is grey, she explained, not black or white. All religions are equally valid. Then she handed the discussion off to her friend, an animated young man in his twenties, who had been listening to snatches of what we were talking about.

He jumped into the conversation eagerly, and we began to discuss Christianity. It was immediately apparent that I was speaking with a highly intellectual and well-read individual. He had perused the entire Bible, to conclude that the Old Testament God was inconsistent with the God of the New Testament. Paul, he claimed, could have very well been a homosexual. And as for Christ? Well, He was certainly an “enlightened being”, but we cannot possibly know if He actually claimed deity. Perhaps, he suggested, the Lord’s Prayer can be interpreted to mean that we are all God. Ultimately, we must each fashion truth for ourselves.

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." 2 Timothy 4:3-4

This is our world. These are the people you pass by on the produce aisle—the cousin at a family reunion—the neighbor next door. And they need answers—answers that require a thorough knowledge of Scripture. Never before has our culture seen so many competing ideologies vying for attention. And yet, beneath all the clamor and chaos, our world is starved for truth.

My friend's father loves to pose thought-provoking questions. As we’re discussing some attribute of God, he always asks, “Now, tell me: how does this doctrine effect your neighbor?” It’s a pivotal question to consider. If we can talk at length about the omnipotence of God, but cannot draw the connection to real life and real people, there is a serious problem.

Why? Because if theology is simply loved and studied for itself, the knowledge is not only futile; it is dangerous.

Like the Pharisees, our heads will swell up like ripe watermelons, as we grow increasingly enthralled—not with God, but with ourselves. Intoxicated with the staggering grandeur of our own high contemplations, we’ll miss the point altogether.

Incredibly, instead of falling flat on our faces in adoration and worship, Christians are easy prey to pride within the enticing web of lofty knowledge. Rather than being unspeakably humbled and awed, we can even have the audacity to approach our Maker as if He is a grand scientific specimen—dissecting His words, toying with them carelessly, and twisting them whenever it suits our theological purposes.

And then, I'm tempted to be impressed. Not with the Holy One, who I examine detachedly, but with my own meager intellect. Astounding, isn't it? Unless our hearts are postured in humility, a dose of good theology will only inflate our egos. Once infested with pride, even the study of theology becomes detestable in God’s eyes. But when theology is studied truly, the very opposite is true. It is impossible to evade being humbled, as the pages of the Bible trumpet the truth about our Lord, and ourselves.

Studying theology is not enough. It must also be studied for the correct reason: To magnify the name of our God, and show others how to join us in doing so.

A Feminist's Regrets

This is not the type of article one reads for fun. To be honest, it turned my stomach. Yet I think it is a picture of humanity without Christ; and women who bite hook, line and sinker into feminism can only live so long before realizing that they’re missing something.

In the following article from The Atlantic, writer Lori Gottlieb expressed how she and other so-called feminists long for marriage above all else. Even if they must marry a homosexual man to find someone who "gets" them, or settle for a man they don't love, the security and happiness of marriage must be achieved at all costs. She wrote,

“To the outside world, of course, we still call ourselves feminists and insist—vehemently, even—that we’re independent and self-sufficient and don’t believe in any of that damsel-in-distress stuff, but in reality, we aren’t fish who can do without a bicycle, we’re women who want a traditional family. And despite growing up in an era when the centuries-old mantra to get married young was finally (and, it seemed, refreshingly) replaced by encouragement to postpone that milestone in pursuit of high ideals (education! career! but also true love!), every woman I know—no matter how successful and ambitious, how financially and emotionally secure—feels panic, occasionally coupled with desperation, if she hits 30 and finds herself unmarried.

Later, she wrote:

A female friend who broke up with a guy because he “didn’t like to read” and who is now, too, a single mom (with, ironically, no time to read herself) similarly felt no regrets—at first. At the time, she couldn’t imagine settling, but here’s the Catch-22: “If I’d settled at 39,” she said, “I always would have had the fantasy that something better exists out there. Now I know better.’….

A number of my single women friends admit (in hushed voices and after I swear I won’t use their real names here) that they’d readily settle now but wouldn’t have 10 years ago….we grew up thinking that marriage meant feeling some kind of divine spark, and so we walked away from uninspiring relationships that might have made us happy in the context of a family.”

In a twist, the same women who gave up femininity for independence are disillusioned with it all. Independence isn’t so swanky when it means growing old with no family. As a bitter irony, some feminists have evolved into the same women most mocked by feminism: the “Single and Looking” lonely-heart types.

At first I could only feel sorry for the authoress. The tragedy is not that these women need men. It’s a fact—we all do. It's true that not every woman is meant to marry, but women and men were still created to complement each other. We need men, and men need us. Trying to live without them is fighting a losing battle.

The story of disgruntled feminists only worsens when the women switch extremes, finally believing that a man—any man—will fulfill their hearts’ needs. They search and find a susceptible male, to find he falls short; men are unable to supply what they need most. But after considering the woman’s story further, I realized that this is still not the real tragedy.

The tragedy is when God, the only Person able to satisfy these women, is overlooked. These feminists have jumped from looking to themselves to looking to others, but they still haven't cast a glance towards God for the satisfaction their hearts long for. The One who designed their DNA was never asked, “Why were we made this way?” These women never found the joy of glorifying Him; and as a result, God is not glorified to the max. He is shunned. That's the ultimate tragedy.

Happy S.A.D.?

February 14th is known to most as Valentine’s Day. To a few traditionalists, it’s even St. Valentine’s Day. However, to a notable segment of society, it is recognized as S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day.)

Standing starkly against other holidays, S.A.D. is supposedly the lowest point of the year for singles. Where married and dating couples exchange flowers and chocolate, S.A.D. participants are content to mope on the sidelines. No chocolate candies or surprise engagement rings for them. O woe!

Much of S.A.D. sadness, I suspect, does not stem from relationship problems but from hope problems. I have never met a human being without a future hope. Whether it is a long-term career aspiration or just an anticipation for dinner, to be without hope is to be dead. In fact, all of creation is spoken of as having hope, or unsatisfied longings. (Romans 8:19) Proverbs 13:12 says that these feelings are a force to be reckoned with: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Unlike the rest of the world, which may pin its hopes solely on marriage or some politically correct “mutually beneficial relationship,” Christians have a different aspiration. Augustine wrote, “Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all.” The hope of one day being able to value Christ above all, uninhibited by human frailty, fills me with excitement. The longing to cherish His Presence up close and to always exist in His company is, well, heavenly. Nothing compares with it; and with hope placed securely in that promised future, S.A.D. worries hold no sway.

Valentine’s Day--a celebration of marriage and love in a time where marriage is rarely respected--is a holiday for all. Singles, enjoy this day, even if you must buy the chocolate yourself.

Missing Heaven?

I'm plugging away at the book while Lindsey is preparing to come visit, so the second part of her theology series (which I am very much looking forward to reading) will be a little while in coming.

Until then, I leave this John Piper quote (paired with a bit of C.S. Lewis) to chew on. The authors are speaking of humanity's longing for God, and our fallen search for satisfaction in other things:

"The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original Shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in love with it. But it does not satisfy.

'The books or music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us.... For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of the flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.'"

-C.S. Lewis and John Piper, from The Dangerous Duty of Delight

UPDATE: There has been a change in plans, because Lindsey has broken her back. The accident was not life threatening and did not cause paralysis, praise God, but she obviously can't fly on a plane. Please be in prayer for a speedy recovery!