David McCullough on George Washington

From the book 1776 (which is quite good, by the way):

“He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.”

Clearly, there’s a lot to be said for never giving up.

Using Our Blessings To Bless Others

As Americans, how blessed are we?

Here’s a staggering statistic: each year, Americans spend roughly $20 billion on ice cream. That sounds like a lot of money (because it is), but it’s such a big number that it’s hard to understand or quantify. So what could you do with $20 billion, the amount that Americans spend each year on ice cream?

That amount of money would be enough to provide everyone in the world with food and clean water for a year.¹

Wow. That blows me away (and makes me feel a little sick to my stomach).

Recently, I read Crazy Love by Francis Chan—you may have heard of it because it’s a super trendy Christian book at the moment. Honestly, I wasn’t all that impressed (which is my general reaction to super trendy Christian books), but Chan did have some good things to say, and this quotation alone may have been worth the price of the whole book:

“Remember the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with one boy’s lunch? In that story, according to Mathew, Jesus gave the loaves to His disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them. That would’ve been stupid when there was enough food to feed the thousands who were gathered and hungry.

But that is exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully. We are loaded down with too many good things, more than we could ever need, while others are desperate for a small loaf. The good things we cling to are more than money; we hoard our resources, our gifts, our time, our families, our friends. As we begin to practice regular giving, we see how ludicrous it is to hold on to the abundance God has given us and merely repeat the words thank you.”²

As Christians, we’re pretty good about being thankful for what we have, but probably not as good as we should be at sharing what we have with others—and it should be pretty obvious that just saying “thank you” falls short of the standard that Jesus sets for His followers when there are others around us in desperate need (see James 2.14-17).

As Rob Bell puts it:

“The best question isn’t, ‘What can I get?’ To take the way of Jesus seriously, is to realize that the best question is, ‘What can I give?’ Because all of us can give something—here, now, today, and then tomorrow and then the next day. What can you do to be more generous? What is the next step for you? You have been blessed. What can you give? Who are you going to bless?”³

It is imperative that we as Christians learn to move beyond saying “thank you” to getting to the point where we consciously and intentionally think about how we can use what we have to bless others.

• • •

¹Rob Bell, “Rich,” NOOMA 13 (2006).
²Francis Chan, Crazy Love (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2008), 120-21.

³Bell, “Rich.”

The Death of the Wicked

I had intended to write a different post today, but when I woke up this morning, the news regarding the death of Osama bin Laden dominated my Facebook feed. Many of the statuses I read from my Facebook friends and acquaintances were characterized by joyous celebration, which got me to thinking.

Specifically, the question on my mind was, “How should a Christian respond to the death of someone like Osama bin Laden?”

The words of Ezekiel 18.23 seem relevant:

“Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?”

On a day like today, I think it is entirely appropriate to be thankful for the hard work of those in the armed forces who risk their lives for the safety of those of us back at home. I also think it is appropriate to be thankful that a man who spent his life planning and carrying out acts of terror will no longer be able to do such things.

But as a Christian, I don’t think it is appropriate to celebrate bin Laden’s death—a wicked man who lived a violent life opposed to Jesus and His teachings has reached a violent end and will one day face judgment. That’s a tragedy, and I don’t think it should be celebrated.

In short, if the Lord GOD takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, probably His followers shouldn’t either.

“Are You Almost Finished With Grad School?”

I haven’t posted in a while, mainly because I have been entirely consumed with papers, research, reading assignments and tests for school, in addition to my regular list of work-related duties and responsibilities.

During the times when I’m slammed with school work (and other people tend to become aware of it), I’m invariably asked a question like, “Are you almost finished with school?” or “When do you finish? Next year? Two years?”

Sadly, the short answer to that question is, “No.” From Wikipedia:

“The M.Div. is a significantly more extensive program than most master’s degrees. In the United States the degree usually consists on average of 90 semester hours, as opposed to the usual 36 or 48.”

At my particular school, the M.Div. program is “only” 84 hours, which means that full-time students traditionally finish the program in 4 years. It’s going to take me somewhat longer than that since I am a part-time student who lives over 300 miles from campus and am trying to balance graduate school with full-time ministry. Considering that and the fact that I just started the program last spring, I have a long way to go.

All of that might sound somewhat discouraging (and at times it can be), but for the most part it’s not too bad: it might be cliché, but I’m learning a lot from the journey of balancing grad school and ministry, and am currently focusing more on that than the destination of receiving a diploma.

But, in case you were wondering, no, I’m not almost finished with grad school. :)