Of Celibacy & the Church

I just read an interesting article by Marcy Hintz on Christianity Today's website calling for the respect of celibate singles in the Protestant church. Here it is:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=58801

There is nothing wrong with being single, no matter what age you are. Singleness is not a sin. In fact, it is a blessing. And "celibacy" means more than just being single -- it is an intentional decision to not pursue marriage in order to serve the Lord and serve His Church. Celibacy is intentional single-minded spirituality.

I wish more unmarried believers would choose the path of celibacy and intentionally dedicate their lives, for however long God calls them to this state, to pursuing the Lord and serving His Church. I'm not a big promoter of lifelong vows of celibacy but favor short-term, determined periods of celibacy.

I thought reading Marcy's article was a breath of fresh air. So I thought I'd share.

-- Brother John

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What Makes You Happy?

My dad just read me parts of an article he gleaned from The Atlantic about a little-known 73-year-old survey of Harvard graduates called the Grant Survey. It had many purposes but what of its major tasks was to answer this question: What makes men happy? The survey followed a group of men from the late 1930s, through the war, and on to old age. The survey brought that question to the forefront of my mind: What makes you happy? What makes me happy? And...

Does what makes you HAPPY also make you HOLY?

Every human I know loves stuff. Some people love a lot of stuff, others a little, but we all cherish our possessions. I know that seeing my familiar possessions -- in my house, my car, my office, etc. sets my heart at ease. I like my stuff. I have way too much of it, maybe, but I like it. I tend to think I'd weep like a baby if I ever lost everything I had. All it takes is one little match, you know.

My stuff may make me comfortable but does it make me happy? In some ways, sure. Am I better off, spiritually, for having stuff or is my stuff neutral or negative to my spiritual life?

I know that I'm usually happy when I feel like I'm making a difference, either in someone's life or in the life of an organization. I'm most frustrated and unhappy when I feel useless to someone or something.

I'm happy when I'm not stressed for time. When I can take off on a Sunday drive and not care about getting back before dark or getting to bed early. When I can feel relaxed and not under deadline pressure. I'm most unhappy when I miss a sunset because I was frantically working indoors so I could go home.

I'm happy when I explore new places and meet new people. I love to travel. And I love to move. No, not the physical exertion of moving but the excitement of going someplace new and learning the streets and stores. I'm most unhappy when I feel stuck in one place for too long. How long is too long depends on the place and circumstance.

I'm happy when I can laugh freely and often. When I can learn something new. When I can play my guitar late at night by the fireside and enjoy creating new sounds (new to me) and remember old melodies. When I see an awesome movie. When I give gifts at Christmas.

Enough about me. What makes you happy?

I'm not asking, I'm just asking. :-)

Be God's!

They Are Second

I just saw this video and wanted to share it with you. It's from a great campaign called "I Am Second" that gives some celebrities and athletes an opportunity to explain how they have placed God first in their lives. This video features the quarterbacks of tomorrow's big UT-OU game. It really blessed my heart tonight.



Wasn't that great?!

Life After Death

I've been seeing and reading a lot of things lately about the afterlife -- from ghosts haunting a town to near-death experiences. Just this evening I sat down to check the world's news and ran across this CNN story about a Massachusetts woman who was "dead" for 57 minutes last April after suffering a heart attack and was resuscitated. She describes her experiences at the moment of death and what she saw and felt for the 57 minutes afterward. The hair of the back of my neck stood up when I read it. I suggest you read it, too, and we'll discuss after.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/16/cheating.near.death/index.html

Wasn't that interesting? (did you read it? really? all right. if you say so.)

There is certainly life after death. No doubt about it. The fact that our conscious selves don't cease to exist after death is clear from those who have been to death, experienced the afterlife just a little, and come back. They all tell similar stories about what happened. There are some variations, of course, as in any eyewitness account but the basics are the same.

1. The consciousness/soul separates from the body. It usually is described as a "floating" sensation and near-death people usually say they can look down upon their own bodies. "I floated right out of my body. My body was here, and I just floated away. I looked back at it once, and it was there," the victim, Laura Geraghty, said. There is no denying the existence of the soul. The body is perishable. The soul is eternal — it never dies. The Bible speaks of this clearly. "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands (2 Cor. 5:1)." In other words, we have two parts of us: earthly (body) and eternal (soul and spirit). The earthly will decay just as the earth decays. But the spiritual is given to us by God and will not decay.
   
2. There is a great sense of peace. People describe not pain or torment but peace. A calmness. As if striving is over and pain is no more. So it is with death. Here's how Laura described what she felt, "It was very peaceful and light and beautiful." I tend to think the peace they experienced comes from the knowledge that they don't have anything to fight anymore. Their life decisions have been made. Their future is not in their hands anymore. So there is a sense of peace.
3. There is a sense of majesty and energy though no one has reported seeing God (as if they could recognize Him). Laura said she was overwhelmed by "massive energy, powerful, very powerful energy." This really fascinates me because I wonder if she was starting to sense the presence of God Almighty. Or maybe it was the cardiac paddles the doctor was using to revive her. Don't know. But every character in the Bible who encountered the presence of God fell powerless to their knees. Remember Daniel? When he saw the angel of the LORD in Daniel 10 he was paralyzed and could not move. Same for John in Revelation 1.
   

I tried to watch a new show of Discovery Channel the other day called "Ghost Lab." The basic premise is this: a team of paranormal hunters go from haunted place to haunted place with scientific equipment and document the paranormal activity they find. The show spooked the stuffing out of me. I couldn't even finish the episode. You see, I DO believe that ghosts exist and, no, I don't think they are all demons at play. I have a theory that is just that -- a theory about ghosts. I can't prove it from Scripture or logic. If you're curious, ask me sometime.

There is life after death. And I'm placing my hope in God's word that when I die and my soul starts floating away, that massive energy will be God welcoming me to heaven, where I will see the saints and the angels. I'll see loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ. I'll see different faces from different places and times. And I'll see God Himself in all three Persons. Whatever He looks like in whatever setting.

That is, unless someone shocks me back to earth.

I'm glad that Laura Geraghty has another chance in life and a new perspective. I hope she uses it to choose to follow God closer than ever before and cling to His promises for life after death.

Be God's!

I'm Not in Carrollton Anymore

Just tonight I was reminded of how much things have changed in the last five years of my life. I was out for a late night shopping trip to Wal-Mart when I noticed the I-HOP restaurant on the corner of the mega store lot. Like Wal-Mart it is a 24-hour-a-day establishment, serving both the weary-eyed and the wide awake. It's the type of place I used to frequent late at night... five years ago.

I used to love late night trips to I-HOP when I lived in North Dallas/Carrollton. A full-time student at Dallas Seminary and part-time pastor at Gainesville Bible Church, I used to enjoy bringing my bible and notes to an empty I-HOP booth and studying the Word over omelets, pancakes and hot tea. I would stay up to two hours, chatting with the server, reading, thinking, relaxing... time was no enemy to me, then. I worked as a consultant for my dad's business, in addition to a few side jobs on weekends, so I didn't have daily 8am wake-up calls. Oh, I had classes at 8 or 9 some days, but not every day. Which meant I could afford to spend a couple hours at I-HOP every week.

Ministry was always on my mind when I went to I-HOP. The bible was a conversation starter, not an ender. I would pray before I went inside that God would allow an opportunity to come my way to minister to my server (and give me the right words to say) and He obliged several times. I'll never forget one gal I met working the graveyard shift named Keisha. She got curious when she saw me reading my bible and started a conversation with me about spiritual stuff. Our brief time ended with me praying with her for a tough family situation and her spiritual search. I doubt that I will ever forget that late night trip to I-HOP.

But things are different now. Five years later I have a job that requires my attendance at 9am nearly every morning. I can't afford to be out late at night like I want to be. I can't afford trips to I-HOP. And I kind of feel a little part of me missing. I-HOP wasn't just a ministry. It was rest. And time in the Word. Away from the distractions of my house and, sometimes, a break from the clutter of my brain. We all need a break from the clutter, don't we?

So I looked at I-HOP tonight and declined. There were only three cars out front, which I considered ideal but I'm sure the restaurant considered poor. I like space. And peace. Noisy restaurants usually drive me crazy.

It's amazing how my life has changed in five years. I've traded I-HOP for a paycheck, and think I need both. Maybe there's a compromise out there somewhere.

Be God's.

The Forgotten Letter

I love a good investigation. I don't know if this love comes from my journalistic training or my passion for history, but a good mystery just can't be beat. I love to uncover new details about someone or something, especially if that person or thing has long passed away.

Just tonight my dad, himself a fan of the mystery, showed me a most remarkable artifact he uncovered while going through a pile of his dad's belongings. It was an old Civil War-copyrighted pamplet containing a soldier's prayer poem. The pamphlet's age is unknown but it certainly predated the both of us.

But discovery of the poem was not the true prize of his discovery. For inside the pamphlet was a folded piece of paper. Two pieces, to be exact. They looked old but were of good preservation — as if they had been inside the pamphlet for decades, protected from the light and undefiled by the oils of human fingers. The pages dated from 1918 or 1919, an age when the Great War was raging in Europe and America's boys were being drafted to go fight in the trenches against both bullet and mustard gas.

They were a letter from my great grandfather, Eugene Newton, to his mother, and from the wording, quite possibly written on the eve of his leaving the United States to head to the battlefield. My great grandfather was a character of all characters, my dad says. He lived his life — all 85 years — with a chip on his shoulder. He had wounds from a cruel and demanding father. He suffered from the wandering ambition of a wayward heart that did not want to stay near his family. He ruled his son with an iron fist and heaped upon him expectations few men could meet. But that was after he experienced the horrors of war and its physical and psychological effects.

What fascinates me is that this letter predated Europe. It was amazing to read Eugene's own words as he left for war. A 26-year-old young adult from rural Alabama, he was concerned about his family's finances. He was hoping his sister would get a job. He was hoping his big brother could avoid the war altogether. Things any soldier would write in a goodbye as he prepared to board a ship destined for a much different world across the Atlantic.

My dad has been on a mission in recent years to find out more about his family. I have enjoyed being on the ride with him because I desperately want to know about my heritage — good and bad. I love to hear about my grandfather, especially so since he passed away, and even about my dad's life. I want to know where they lived and who they knew. What they felt and why they made the choices they made.

Like I said, I love a good investigation. And the story of my great grandfather's life keeps getting fuller and fuller. As does the story of my grandfather. My dad has found out so much about his dad in the course of going through boxes of stuff. It's an investigation after a death that is making the past come alive.

How cool.

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Things That Make Me Scratch My Head, Part 1

Sometimes I just don't get it. Why...

• are people so excited about celebrating death at Halloween? Since when are skulls, tombstones, ghosts, witches and the sort things to be celebrated? I even see some neighbors take their Halloween festivities to their yards, setting up blow-up skulls, tombstones in the front yard, and plugging in orange lights in the windows and shrubs. I just don't get it.
• do people enjoy being scared? Haunted houses make big bucks this time of year, as do slasher films (year-round, really). A sensible person would want to be secure and at peace. Or so sense seems to say. But people for some reason enjoy being frightened, even in a world of terrorism and stalkers. I just don't get it.
• do we have dozens of choices of shampoo and salsa? It seems that everybody has a brand of shampoo and everybody else has a brand of salsa. Three quarters of a shelf row in my local Kroger store has nothing but shampoo displayed. If they were all different flavors I'd understand, but are they? And salsa... there must be 30 brands to choose from. I've tried a few of the "off brands" and they taste the same. I just don't get it.
• am I perplexed at 10pm on a Saturday night? Hmmm....

Good night!

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Tearing Down Our Idols

I'll be the first to confess that I don't know a whole lot about pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I've never met him, never listened to a full sermon of his, or even read one of his books. But this I do know: much like pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, he is becoming a major voice in the evangelical church of America. But the demographic he represents is not the same as Warren. Warren is a middle-aged man who largely attracts the boomer generation. Driscoll's biggest impact is on the younger generations like mine.

I just watched a Nightline report on the topic of idolatry and Driscoll was interviewed exclusively. We all have idols whether you believe in God or not, he said on the news report, because we all have an innate desire to worship something. And if not God, we will fill that desire with other things. Some idols our culture promotes are celebrities, sports and sex. Driscoll's right on.

This is the third Nightline report I've seen in recent years on something Driscoll and Mars Hill are doing to make an impact on American popular culture. He last tackled the issue of the sanctity of sex. Now he is urging that a new mindset is needed to survive as godly people in a culture that seeks to replace God with stuff.

Terry Moran, the ABC reporter behind the story, asked Driscoll about the impact of celebrity. Driscoll said that any idol we set up in place of God will always disappoint us and we will suffer as a result. He pointed to the death of Michael Jackson last June. Some people went into a deep depression after Jackson's death, others played his music for hours on end, and some wept over their memorabilia collections. Those who were affected the deepest by his death had set up Jackson as an idol in their hearts, Driscoll said. And any idol will disappoint.

The celebrities are destroyed by the attention, too, he said, because they can never live up to the hope, the hype, or the expectations. They are set up to fail.

I have been extremely impressed by Mars Hill Church and pastor Mark every time I see what they're doing. I don't know about their theology or what their worship is like, I just know that they are actively trying to be salt and light in this world and among my generation. And that impresses me. The fact that Nightline has come calling three times in the past few years says a lot, too. The media is paying attention. And the message is reaching a bigger audience, surprisingly without distortion.

I'll confess that I've had various idols in my life at various points of my life. And each time I set one up it failed to satisfy and I felt empty inside. For only God can satisfy the longings of our hearts. He will not fail. Only He is worthy of our worship.

If I find the ABC Nightline video from tonight, I'll be sure to post it. Here's a link to Mark Driscoll's thoughts on his interview: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/10/05/pastor-mark-driscoll-on-abcs-nightline-tonight/.

Be God's!

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October Showers

Scattershooting on a cool, spitting October afternoon. It's one of those afternoons when there is water falling from the sky but it's not thick enough to be rain or thin enough to be fog. You know... it's just... spitting.

What are your favorite October memories? What has made this month stand out in years past? What do you love about October?

When I think of October, I think of days like today: cool to mild, semi-dreary, yet refreshing. I think of the changing of the seasons, of cool fronts and warm spells. Of thunderstorms and falling leaves. Of confused wardrobes because one day it's 65 and the next 90.

I think of pumpkins and colorful leaves. Halloween decorations in the stores and the whisper of Christmas spirit in the air. Oh yeah. I can hear it. Can you?

When I think of October I think of the State Fair, the Red River Shootout at the Cotton Bowl, and high school football. For several years I spent Friday nights in October in high school football stadiums and getting lost and found in small towns. Some nights were really muggy. Others were downright crisp. It was a great way to make 30-45 bucks for one night of work in October.

October is one of those transition months (though I guess you could say every month is a transition month!) in which I feel like this world is on its way to somewhere but isn't there just yet. We're between summer and the holidays, kind of like driving between Dallas and San Antonio. I guess you could say that October is Austin.

I like October but November is my goal. I can justify breaking out the Christmas festivities in November. Right now? My coworkers give me funny looks. I told them I was just celebrating Jesus but they didn't buy it. Seems that Christmas music doesn't belong in September or October. So I'm on my way to November...

October is here now. Time for pumpkins and hay bales, falling leaves and warm teas.

It's a good month.