Did you ever notice that things we call "natural" are those to which we have grown accustomed? Meanwhile, we reserve the term "supernatural" for events which are unusual, extraordinary, infrequent or which we cannot explain. Following such reasoning, many Westerners since the Enlightenment watched the "supernatural" shrink in direct relation to the increase of calculated human observation and organized descriptive thought concerning the world around us -- in other words, with the rise of modern science. I want to go the other direction. Everything God does is "supernatural," for, although … [Read more...]
OUR FINITE YEARS
When we stop and reflect on it, for most of us life on earth in this mortal body is incredibly good. How can we begin to measure the beauty of God's creation, the joys of loving relationships, the satisfaction of accomplished dreams -- all this in worshipful fellowship with the Creator himself every waking moment? For the Old Testament people of God, this was essentially enough. Until Jesus personally entered the realm of gravedom and came back with the keys in his hand, it was the best anyone knew for sure. We always knew that the number of our earthly years were finite, but this knowledge … [Read more...]
COUNTING BLESSINGS
It is 10:00 a.m. and we are at our church's meeting place. Looking around at the brothers and sisters present for worship, and remembering some others not there, I reflect on so many blessings which I must not ever take for granted. Gayle smiles sweetly from her wheelchair. Cerebral palsy left her unable to shake hands but it can't stop her from touching hearts. "Thank you, God, for a body that works." My dear friend Eddie is not here today. Not yet middle-aged, his brain seizures since an apparently minor automobile collision have grown more frequent. A licensed CPA and father of three, he … [Read more...]
REVERIE ON A WALK
I am using vacation days from work this year-end and part of my loose agenda includes taking some walks around the neighborhood. My life is largely sedentary, though I do manage frequent lunchtime strolls at a mall throughout the year. The weather this evening is perfect for a T-shirt hike in Houston -- 70 degrees temperature with 81% humidity and 16 mph winds from the Gulf of Mexico to our southeast. The 35-year-old subdivision where we have lived since 1982 was carefully engineered with major intersections marking quarter and half-miles. My trek today encompasses a mile-and-a-half. Red … [Read more...]
ORDINARY PEOPLE – 2
With all their obvious diversity, what did these 22 people in last Saturday's Houston Chronicle have in common? In essence, it was their humanity. They were all human beings, descendants of Adam. The word "adam" comes from adamah, the Hebrew word for "dirt." In the Bible, this same word refers both to the species (humankind, earthlings, mud-people) and, with reference to the Creation story, to the first individual of that sort whom God made. As humans, these 22 men and women in my Saturday newspaper all were made from physical elements of the earth. So, of course, are we -- and all animal … [Read more...]
ORDINARY PEOPLE – 1
For Saturday breakfast, I sometimes pick up two chicken-biscuits at the drive-through, which Sara Faye and I both enjoy with a cup of hot tea while reading the morning's Houston Chronicle. This weekend the paper featured an interesting group of 22 very ordinary people who were brought together by a common experience. The group included three Hispanics, three African-Americans and 16 Anglos but their experience had nothing to do with their race. There were 13 men and nine women, clearly not united by gender. Nor were they bound together by age. Although their average age was 69, slightly past … [Read more...]
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
Jesus came to give abundant life, a gift that is not measured by physical health or material prosperity (John 10:10). It is life in fellowship with the Creator, life that continually bubbles up like an artesian well from a hidden, inner source (John 7:38-39). This life produces peace and joy that are undefeatable and that can thrive despite any circumstance. I am not speaking of shallow emotions, but of a spiritual awareness and assurance which are far deeper, and which can thrive even in the midst of tears. To tell the truth, I have found that the only person in the world who can steal my … [Read more...]
REALITY REALIZED
As a senior in college, I lived alone and off-campus without radio or television in my room. In the resulting silence my mind played some peculiar games. As I lay in bed at night, for several weeks the question kept coming into my head, "How do I know that I am me and that my life is real? What if my entire perceived life is really only the dream of a Chinese peasant living on a sampan in the Yangtze River?" These recurring thoughts troubled me considerably. I was glad when they stopped and I felt comfortably real again. It seems to me that my moments of psychological disorientation back in … [Read more...]
OUR MORTAL MINUTES
We know in our heads that we cannot take life for granted because the Bible says so, but we learn it in our hearts through experience on the ground. During the past three days, I have received three reminders that our earthly life at its best is both fragile and brief. Two reminders took the form of emails, bringing word of friends who have received devastating diagnoses. The other was a phone call reporting the death of a relative. It is evidence of godly wisdom for us to pause at such news and to reflect with sober mind on the lessons it has to teach. The first word came as a prayer … [Read more...]
THANKSGIVING FOR FAMILY
It is Saturday afternoon, July 14, 2007. Sara Faye and I are at a Fudge family reunion hosted by my brother Benjamin and his wife Susan at their home in beautiful Upland, California. Nestled at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County, this little section of Planet Earth must make "San Gabriel" the archangel smile with pleasure. I can just imagine him rejoicing in its magnificence, even now after thousands of years of spoilage by human sin, trembling with delight in anticipation of its fulfillment in the new heavens and new earth. To my mind, Paradise connotes a … [Read more...]