An Anchor for the Soul

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. on July 24, 2002, miners working in the Quecreek Mine just south of Pittsburgh broke through the mine wall into Saxman Mine which operators abandoned in 1950 and had since filled with water. Though they made it to higher ground, nine miners remain trapped and standing in four feet of 50-degree water. The men huddled together to keep warm. Later, they wrote last words to family members on scraps of paper and placed them in a pail. Then, the men tethered themselves together so all would be found if they drowned.

This account paints a pretty bleak picture and left alone the miners would have had no hope. However, working tirelessly for over three days, rescuers using water pumps, air pumps, and mining equipment retrieved each of the nine miners.

You can bet that the view from the stretcher as rescuers carried each miner to a waiting ambulance differed radically from the view they shared of a flooded mine shaft 240 feet below the surface. From one vantage point they rested in the knowledge of rescue and from the other they were surrounded by dark, dirt, water, and the inevitable.

If you’ve followed this blog, you know that our family recently lost our youngest daughter to an auto accident that tragically took the lives of three people. The place where I now live is just about as cold and dark and potentially as hopeless as the flooded Quecreek Mine.

Left to my own devices, my loss, my emotions, my inability to see beyond my catastrophic grief, I see no way out, no future. There is a pain in my soul that makes the rest of my life seem like the watery liquid at the bottom of a glass of soda after the ice has melted. Everything that gave me pleasure has lost its appeal. On some days, the best I can hope for is getting to evening and a couple of Tylenol PM tabs and closing my eyes. But, even then, my sleep is distorted with uneasy dreams. My grief is impossible to adequately describe and equally impossible for someone who has not experienced it to imagine. None of this is unusual, but shouldn’t my faith in Jesus somehow mitigate the pain?

The short answer is “no.” Nothing in Scripture suggests that my faith will make the experience of my loss any easier. Believers and those outside the faith alike are created as emotional beings and equally lack the ability to make sense of some emotions. The depth of the pain does not differentiate my experience from outsiders, but my knowledge of rescue does – the difference is hope.

In this mortal existence, I will never be the same. My daughter is gone and while I breathe with this body, I’ll never see her. Nothing can fix that injury and I will always bear that scar. Even as time wears away on my grief, things will never be the same.

But I know the rest of the story. Even though my grief at this point does not allow me to feel the love that Jesus has for me, I know that nothing can separate me from His love. I cannot fathom the reason for my loss, but I know that God is sovereign and this train-wreck somehow works towards His glory and my good. Despite the fact that these eyes will never again set their gaze on my daughter’s face, I will see her again. I have hope.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

[Hebrews 6:17-20a]

This is not just any kind of hope, rather it is hope in the Living God – the God who infinite and unfettered by any limitation of His creation, the God who is personal and desires to have a relationship with me, the God who is unchangeable, the God who is eternal, the God who is present everywhere. He is all knowing, wise, truthful, good, loving, merciful, holy, orderly, righteous, just, beautiful, and much more.

While this hope does not alleviate the intensity of my grief and even though I’m still free-falling through the dark, I know my circumstance is not bottomless. How one could face my grief without a firm and secure anchor for their soul, without the hope of my God, eludes me.

Don't Waste Your Pearls

The following is Part 2 of my comments at Leah's Memorial Service at Skyline Wesleyan Church on May 29, 2010.

But, that’s not the end of the story. Speaking to His followers in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that we should not cast our pearls before swine. A curious statement, but with some thought, it makes sense. What would a pig do with pearls? A pig would be happy with some food, but pearls don’t make a good pig meal. Pearls are no help to a pig. Likewise, the person who owns the pearls and uses them on pigs misuses them – they could be sold, or made into jewelry or wonderful gifts, but when thrown to the pigs, they are lost.

I imagine that between here and the presence of Jesus, Leah let go of handfuls of pearls. Take your right hand and close it in a fist. Imagine with me that in your hand, you hold one of Leah’s pearls. Here is my challenge to you – don’t waste Leah’s pearl.

The composition of that pearl is different for each of us, but I suppose we fall into some general groups. For all of us, that pearl is the memory of Leah and how she touched our lives. Our responsibility is to take the memories of Leah and let them point us towards whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—things that are excellent and praiseworthy.

For some of us, Leah’s pearl encompasses the whole spectrum of events with her death and is preparation for things you will encounter in your own lives. Our family is buoyed by the prayers of the saints. Many of you know that I’m at the end of a campaign to be elected as a Superior Court Judge in San Diego County. This is a challenge that can only be carried by the power of God. I and the other candidates endorsed by Better Courts Now do not have the resources to prevail over the incumbents. That will happen only if God acts. Many people have been praying through all hours of the day and night for this campaign and the candidates. I tried to describe to Vicky the sense I had of the effect of those prayers but could never put it into words. I know that I have been kept from temptation and evil wished upon me by the enemy, that our cause has been supernaturally advanced, and that I have been preserved by these prayers during times of tremendous pressure. The same is true for Vicky, Hannah, Simon, Cindy, and me and the rest of the family now. This ministry of the Lord to us is a faith building block for you who will soon encounter hard times of your own. You can see that God loves and that God acts and that He will love and act for you, too. Hang onto that pearl.

For others, Leah’s pearl represents your faith in Christ – faith that may have faltered over time, or maybe never got a healthy start. Now is the time to cash in her pearl and turn your heart fully to Jesus. I’m not talking about the lip service on Sunday or even at other gatherings during the week that our faith can degenerate into. I’m talking about the vibrant, “follow Jesus wherever He leads because it will always be better than the place I’ll pick” kind of faith. The kind of faith that no longer needs control of our lives, but is willing to give control to the Lord. This is the kind where supernatural power is free to act, where miracles happen and the boundaries of the kingdom of God among us are pushed outward. I urge those of you in this group, now is the time to use Leah’s pearl.

Finally, for some of you, Leah’s pearl represents the biggest opportunity you will ever have – the opportunity to meet Jesus. The shock of this event has forced you to consider not only your own mortality, but the ultimate questions of life – where did we come from, what’s wrong with the world, how do we fix it, and what is life intended to be? For you, Leah’s pearl may have the greatest value. Don’t waste what she left you.

God as presented in the Bible gives us the only fully rational, fully defensible explanation for who we are and where we came from. We are His creations which bear His image. All that we are: persons capable of relationships, able to understand and communicate truth, moral beings, self-aware and able to choose - are each reflections of who God is. He made us like Him to be in relationship with Him.

But something is wrong – we all know it. That’s why the question “what’s wrong with the world” sounds so reasonable – everyone agrees something is wrong. But what is it? In biblical terms we call it sin – the effects of living out of relationship with God. It’s a life that falls short of what it could be, that strays from the best path, that misses the mark that it is intended to hit. We all start in that place apart from God. What’s the solution? Restoring a relationship with God. Whether you understand the theological implications of this point right now is not as important as understanding it is the fix. A holy God could not enter a relationship with sinful men and women. The sin needed a cure – someone had to pay the price. Each of us could pay our own price but that would cost us eternity separated from God. Instead, God’s own Son, Jesus, with an infinite capacity to bear the punishment for our sin took it on Himself – that’s why He had to die, that’s what the cross is all about. Since the price is paid, if you so choose, you can claim your redemption. By acknowledging your sin, that your life by itself strays from the path, falls short of righteousness, misses the bulls eye, and acknowledging the cure, the price that Jesus paid in your place, and telling God that you indeed rely upon Him to save you from your current condition and having to pay the price yourself, God can remove the barrier of sin and you enter into the relationship with God that He intended from the beginning.

This is how God intends life to be – life with Him from this point forward.

Whatever you circumstances, you have a pearl from Leah in your hand. Don’t let the gift from my precious daughter get misused on pigs, she left it for you.

Leah [To Kansas and Back]

The following is Part 1 of my comments at Leah's Memorial Service at Skyline Wesleyan Church on May 29, 2010.

Leah had a good childhood. She had a mom and a dad, a brother and a sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, and lots of the things that families do together. But, the best story of Leah’s life is more recent. It’s about a trip to Kansas and back.

Volleyball is a Trask family sport. Vicky played in college, I played sand, Simon, Hannah and Leah played in high school, Hannah and Leah played club ball and went on to play in college – Leah played one season at Grossmont College with her sister-in-law. Somehow, Bethany College in Lindsborg Kansas recruited Leah to finish out her college eligibility with their team. So, after a visit to the school, a liking to their art department, and a scholarship offer, Leah was Kansas bound.

If you know my wife Vicky, you know she’s quite expressive. If you know me, you know I’m, well, not. One of us was going to drive out to Kansas with Leah and she expressed the choice this way – “I can go with Mom who won’t stop talking or I can go with dad and ride in silence” – she chose Mom.

Vicky and Leah had a playful relationship. It was filled with all the tender and explosive moments characteristic of mother-daughter relationships, but it had a unique quality. When Leah would visit home, she and Vicky would engage in taunting that you’d expect from a couple of 10 year old boys and it would invariably escalate to full scale chases through the house with locked bathroom doors and in one case, a broken door. I’ll spare you the details, but the stories from the drive to Kansas are on the same “maturity” level as the antics at the house.

Leah started her art studies with an artistic sense, but like any budding artist had coarse skills. In time her skills began to develop, but her art had a dark or heavy feel to it. Through her body of work, you can see a struggle to find her way of viewing the world and then expressing it. Through a series of events, she was to find that narrow path that would uniquely define her art.

Leah had friends everywhere she went. Lindsborg is a very small college town with a very small college and there is a natural divide between the Bethany kids and the “townies,” the kids who lived in the town of Lindsborg. Leah was one of those unique people who could cross that divide and started strong friendships with members of her student body and folks from her town alike. When we were cleaning out Leah’s apartment, four different girls stopped by, each to tell us that Leah was her best friend.

Last fall, Leah’s connection with Kansas began to deepen. One of her good friends set her up on a blind date with his roommate, John Blasenhauer. Vicky was visiting Leah at the time and Leah wouldn’t let her meet John because she was afraid Vicky would do something nutty to embarrass her. Apparently that date went pretty well because they went out again the next night (Vicky still was not allowed to meet him).

The relationship between Leah and John blossomed into a full-fledged romance. Blossom is a good word for what happened. John’s parents Virginia and Tom describe the 180 degree change in John’s perspective on life and general attitude – from pretty subdued to the happiest they’d ever seen him. Vicky and I saw the same change in Leah – she was truly the happiest we’d ever known.

Just as important, Leah’s art blossomed. Her connection to the community and the region through John and his family had a profound effect on how she viewed the world around her and how she expressed it. Gone were the darker images of her earlier work. They were replaced with more thoughtful and expressive images that reflected the look and feel of Kansas landscape. We’ve brought back a small collection of Leah’s work including prints of rose flowers that are a far cry from her early pieces. Not only in her art, but in her life, Leah had found her place. She was a Kansas girl born in San Diego and planned to stay in Kansas.

Leah and John had planned a trip to San Diego this July and Vicky and I would meet John for the first time. We’d heard from friends and later from John’s parents that there were marriage suspicions, but neither Leah nor John would give any indication. Vicky and I spoke with John’s roommate Garrett and he put those suspicions to rest – John had asked him several times if Garrett thought it was foolish for him to go all the way to San Diego to ask Leah’s dad if he could marry her. That’s the way it’s done in Kansas, but he wondered if it would be OK in California. Let me be very clear: I would be proud to have my daughter marry a man who had enough respect for her to ask before he took.

Leah’s death was sudden, tragic, and heart-wrenching, but our God is merciful. Vicky and I talked with proprietors of the “The Seasons of the Fox” bed and breakfast where Leah worked, the last people we know to see Leah and John before the accident. John picked her up at work and they were headed out to a farm in John’s family where he and Leah kept dogs. They loved to go out to the farm to see their dogs and the animals and were excited when they left. On the way, Leah called Vicky and they talked for some time about how well life was going. Leah had just sent off Vicky’s mother’s day present and was so excited about it she just had to tell her what it was – a “Forever Rose,” a real rose treated in some way to always to appear fresh and alive. Twenty minutes after that conversation ended Leah was standing in front of Jesus, probably wondering how she got there. The next morning a handwritten letter and a Forever Rose arrived on our doorstep.

You might know that Pastor Jim is from the part of Kansas where Leah lived. You also might know of the tragic death of his college age nephew last August. While in Kansas, Pastor Jim’s sister-in-law spent some time with us. Laurie Garlow gave Vicky a necklace that she had worn since her son died and said that it had helped her through the past ten months – a beautiful rose cast in silver. Laurie proclaimed through our collective grief that “our kids made it home.”

The last memory I have of Leah is when I dropped her at the San Diego airport in January. I hugged her, kissed her, prayed over her, and told her that I loved her.

And now, Leah our blossoming rose dances with Jesus.

Mercy, Grace, Sorrow, and Grief

Then Job replied to the LORD : "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
After the horrific sorrow and grief visited upon Job, after Job's questionion of God's wisdom and plan, after getting "schooled" by the Master, Job comes to this conclusion.  Our God can do all things and no plan of His can be thwarted.  Job realized his knowledge is limited and in relying upon his own knowledge, he obscured the counsel of God.  Job confessed that in reality (life from God's point of view) he did not understand God's plan which is so wonderful, he cannot even comprehend it.  Before the tragedies that befell Job, his ears had heard of God, but now, after walkin in sorrow and grief, Job declares my eyes have seen God.

Do not miss this truth.  Until we are in a position to need God's mercy and grace in supernatrual proportions, our knowledge of God is less than what it will be, akin to hearing rather than seeing.  It could be like listening to a person speak from another room.  We hear the words, but how different that a conversation face-to-face, looking straight into another's eyes.  As the recipients of of the kind of mercy and grace that occurs only at the end of our rope grasped in sweatty hands can we say that God is no longer someone we've heard, but is now someone we see.

In the past 48 hours I have dangled helplessly at the end of my rope.  At times, it seemed as though the rope had slipped from my grasp and I was falling without hope into the abyss of my grief.  These were the times when I could only cry out the word "no!" or the phrase "Jesus help me!"  My ears had heard of God and I knew He was there.  I knew He would eventually comformt me.  But, when the Mercy and Grace of God began to flow and rescue me from each successive cycle of abysmal grief, I saw God.  My eyes looked directly into those of my Savior.

Pray for my family - continue to pray.  The road ahead has many, many valleys, ruts, detours, and crossroads.  But at the same time, it has turnabouts where we gaze out over the vista of grace and mercy and see God.  It has hilltops from which we can see far ahead.

Grieve with us at the present loss of our daughter, Leah, but rejoice with us because we see God.

Competing Worldviews: Biblical Theism , Part 1

Theism in the broadest sense refers to the idea that at least one god exists. Biblical theism refers to idea of one God who created all that exists, is personal in nature, and who involves Himself in His creation - in short, the God of the Bible. Of course, biblical theism contains much more than this, but we have a limited purpose here. We want to introduce various worldviews with enough detail to distinguish them from each other. We’ll expand the idea of biblical theism when we discuss the components of the Christian faith.

We’re starting with biblical theism because, well, it’s proven itself true. All other worldviews unsuccessfully compete with biblical theism. We’ll see later how competing worldviews in the west grew from a response to biblical theism and how they reach back to it for support, for ideas that make life livable, because on their own, carried out to their logical conclusions, these competing worldviews make life an impossible task.

 

We commonly define different worldviews by answering a standard set of questions. Various thinkers have used similar questions, some with shorter, some with longer lists. Chuck Colson in his watershed book How Now Shall We Live, posed three questions which form the classical reference points of a Christian worldview. The title to his book and the applications he works through each chapter form and important fourth question.  

• Where did we come from and who are we?
• What has gone wrong with the world?
• What can we do to fix it?
• How should we live?

I’ve found it helpful to break these apart in to six questions, limiting the first to “where did we come from” and adding two more just after it: 

•  Why are we here? (which will also answer “who are we?”); and
• Where are we going?

These questions from a grid to analyze each worldviews approach. Generally all of the big or ultimate issues of life can found in or between these questions.

 

The first question, “Where did we come from?” starts at the beginning and by answering it we determine the scope of possible answers for the remaining questions. The answer to the first question requires a look at the first verse of the first chapter of the first book in the Bible. We can all quote at least a few words, “in the beginning God . . .” But, who is God? “God is infinite and personal (triune), transcendent and immanent, omniscient, sovereign, and good.” Each of these broad descriptors captures an array of characteristics of God.

 

The infinite God is boundless, governed only by His own character. Neither man nor creation restricts Him. No other being in all creation equals Him or can challenge Him. Yet, this God who is so “other” than us is also personal. He possesses the attributes of personhood. He is a self-conscious, thinking, and acting being. He interacts personally with us. We can pray to Him, worship Him, obey Him, He answers our prayers, reveals Himself in to us in Scripture and nature, He loves us and we love Him back. An infinite but personal God is unique to biblical theism.

 

Theologians will say that God transcends His creation, but is also imminent. God transcends because He is something other and above His creation. Just as time cannot constrain Him, neither can space. Yet, while, transcendent, He remains in that place we call “here,” wherever that place may exist for us at any given time, and not only for me, but for all mankind. For each person in every place and every age, whether separated by time or at the same moment, “God is here.”

 

In His omniscience, God possesses all knowledge and nothing escapes Him. He governs all that exists according to His ultimate desires in His sovereignty. And, God is good. From His goodness flow all of His other characteristics. Good exists because God is good.

 

Back to the question of from whence we and the world come. This God created all that exists from nothing. Without any prior pattern or form, He imagined all that is. He imagined lizards and spiders and tropical fish and birds. He imagined earth and sky. He imagined sub-atomic forces and particles, the basic elements, gravity, acceleration. And then, He spoke it into existence. He didn’t go to the stockpile of pre-existing creation building materials. He just spoke and out of nothing, His ideas became real. Because an orderly God created, the universe itself is orderly. It is also open. In other words, God constantly involves Himself in the unfolding of events within His creation.

 

Why are we here? God made man as the pinnacle of His creative activity, the only creation made in God’s own image. All the rest of creation bears the stamp of God’s character, but only man bears His image. To be sure, God’s image is not God nor is it equal to God, but it is like God. We are not infinite, but we are personal, capable of creating and sustaining relationships with one another and with God. We are not omniscient, but we know and can understand from the propositional revelation of God in Scripture and the demonstrative revelation of creation who God is and what the world is like. We are not sovereign, but we do have a kingdom of sorts where we exercise our will. We are not perfectly good, but we can express goodness in acts of love, mercy, patience, and grace. We cannot create out of nothing, but we possess impressive creative abilities and continue to work with God’s creation to further His initial work.

 

That’s a glimpse at who we are, but does not fully answer why we’re here. The Westminster Shorter Catechism provides a succinct answer in its first question: “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” It follows with an explanation of what will guide us in our quest to glorify and enjoy God: the Scriptures. If we unpack that just a little more, we’ll find that we were created for relationship with God, to walk side by side with Him in the garden of Eden, to continue His creative works. In this we would bring rightful glory to God and enjoy Him. We were created to love God and be loved by Him and carry out His purposes.

 

In Part 2, we'll tackle the remaining worldview questions.

A Matter of the Heart

I've previously posted comments on the Sermon on the Mount which shows us with an inside-out look at life and worldview thinking mirrors that perspective. Diagram 1 below depicts what Jesus taught and how it relates to the idea of worldview. Paraphrasing from Matthew 6, “you have heard it said, don’t murder. But I say don’t be angry with your brother because in the heart, murder and anger come from the same place. I say experience my transformational power in your inner man and you will become the kind of person who will treat his brother in the way I would.” This doesn’t happen by accident. A series of cause and effect relationships move what is on the inside of a person into outward action.

Look at the center circle of diagram 1. In blue I’ve labeled it “what is real.” The group of assumptions that I hold about what is real fits into this circle, for example that the Creator God of the Bible is the source of all that exists. My concept of reality will determine what I know to be true (the next layer), like people have inherent dignity because they are created in God’s image. What I know to be true will determine my idea of what is good (the next layer), such as helping others in need. And, my idea of what is good will ultimately determine what I do (the last layer), including working in my community to alleviate homelessness. Now, look at the green labels for the same circles. My assumptions about what is real make up my worldview. My worldview will determine my beliefs. My beliefs will determine my values and my values will determine my actions.

These relationships tell us two things. First, if my behavior does not match up to what I say my assumptions about reality are – how I characterize my worldview – then my worldview is really something different. Second, worldview matters. If we intend to live our lives differently, in conformity with God’s expectations, then we must make sure our worldviews agree with His revelation. If my worldview contains the wrong story about how things really are, may attempts to live differently will have short term or spotty results because they will lack the necessary foundation of supporting values and beliefs. I’ll be constantly swimming against the tide of my worldview much like the man Paul describes in Romans chapter 7 who wants to do what God expects, but finds himself doing the very thing he doesn’t want to do. If he remains in that state, the Romans 7 man has nothing to say but “what a wretched man I am!”

You might be thinking, “I don’t have concentric circles painted on my chest, so, where does a worldview reside in a person?” The concept of a worldview originated outside of biblical theism or Christianity, but as Saint Augustine points out, that does not make it off limits to us. “Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said what is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it.” He surmised that this practice mirrors how the Israelites plundered the gold of the Egyptians during the Exodus, taking what had previously been put to ungodly use to a godly purpose. So, as David Naugle points out, we ought to drop the secular baggage that comes with this immigrant idea and replace it with a biblical perspective. Worldview is a valuable piece of Egyptian gold that we ought to bring captive to Christ. Doing so will help us track down the biblical location of one’s worldview.

The “heart,” used over 1,000 times in the Old and New testaments reflects the totality of personhood. It operates as the seat of our intellect, emotions, will, and spiritual pursuits. Jesus’ comments on “treasure” in the Sermon on the Mount underline the central place of the heart. In the heart we hold our treasure, from it we produce fruit, and out if it flow our deeds and thoughts. If we hope to have an accurate view of the worldview concept, we must strive to understand it terms of the biblical doctrine of the heart. “In other words, the heart of the matter of worldview is that worldview is a matter of the heart.”

“Believing, thinking, feeling, and doing and transpire within it. It is concerned with a particular treasure as an ultimate good. It is the source of how one speaks and lives. It is a reflection of the entire man or woman. It constitutes the springs of life . . . on the basis of a vision of the heart, for according to its specific disposition, it grinds its own lenses through which it see the world. According to the Bible, therefore . . . the heart and its content as the center of human consciousness creates and constitutes what we commonly refer to as [worldview]." (David K. Naugle, Worldview, The History of a Concept (Grand Rapids, 2002) 270.)

The experiences of life and our thoughts about those experiences flow into a person’s heart and in the process begin to develop the assumptions we use to make up our worldview. In turn, those assumptions influence our beliefs and values and determine how we live.

They are the work of the heart which establishes the foundation for all human expression and experience. Though mostly hidden, and often ignored, these most basic intuitions [assumptions] guide and direct most, if not all, of life. They are compass-like in effect, a Polaris in the night sky. They are gyroscopic amid many imbalances, a thread in the labyrinth of life. These baseline beliefs are so humanly significant; they are like a nest to a bird or a web to a spider.

Given this central and controlling position of the heart, we must carefully follow the father’s instruction in Proverbs 4: 23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life.” But how? Two passages from Paul’s epistles provide guidance. First, Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." This passage points out three reference points in the workings of a worldview. The mind forms the gateway to our heart. Through our mind assumptions enter our hearts and life-determining thoughts emerge. Renewing our minds will unlock the transformation of our hearts. No longer will we conform to this world. Instead, we will live out abundant lives, demonstrating God’s good and acceptable and perfect will in every inch of our existence.

Ephesians 4:23-24 amplifies this thought. “And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the transformed new self. The next eight verses detail what kind of living this will produce – just what one expects from a new self created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Renew your minds so that your hearts will be transformed so that you live righteous and holy lives.
Worldviews matter; worldviews are a matter of the heart; Christianity is a worldview.

Who Cares What I Think?

What determines how I live my life? Do I have a master plan that I’ve created to govern how I’ll think and feel and act? Could I even construct such plan? If not, is my life just an unplanned series of events without direction or purpose?

When you stop to think about it, these are really big questions. Unfortunately, many of us miss the opportunity to stop and think or when we do, we can’t figure out how to get to the answers. The next few minutes could begin a thoughtful journey, one that over time develops clarity regarding what you regard as really real and its affect on how you live.

Each of us has tucked away the building blocks that make up our understanding of how the world works. Some of these blocks form a foundation and others the walls and various rooms of our house of reality. The ideas that we use in the process of thinking itself form the foundation. Characteristics like self, things that are not a part of self, relationship between things and between ideas, the ability to place things and ideas into groups or categories, the relationship of cause and effect, the dimensions of space, time, and the like. We use these thoughts as tools to explore and determine what we hold to be real.

On that foundation of thinking tools, we have assembled a series of other ideas that we may have consciously examined or which we simply take for granted. Either way, we cannot imagine the world without these characteristics or ideas. They comprise the things we hold to be really real, the answers to the big questions in life that help us make sense of it all. These ideas form our worldview and consist of the principles by which we understand what our experience in life really means. Maybe this sounds a little too theoretical to have any practical use. Some have described a worldview as:

• A basic model of reality

• A Set of presuppositions which we hold about the makeup of the world

• A set of assumptions that explain reality

• The interpretive framework we use to make sense of the totality of our reality

One thing lies at the core of each of these definitions. A worldview consists of assumptions or presuppositions that we apply to the world to make sense of it all, to figure out what is real. Over time, people have assembled sets of questions to identify what assumptions or presuppositions form the walls of a particular worldview structure. These are the big or ultimate questions of life I referred to earlier. Questions like where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? What’s wrong with the world? How do we fix it? How should we live our lives?

My hope is that this series of discussions leaves you with at least on foundational idea: Christianity is a worldview. Yet, even within Christianity, we have our family differences about the details of how the world works. For example, has God chosen me out of the population of rebellious humans, dead in their sin and unable to respond to Him without His choice? Or, did the death of Christ bestow on all mankind the ability to decide to allow Him to save us from our sin? Worldviews which compete with Christianity experience these same internal tensions. To characterize a person as a naturalist does not put that person in perfect lock-step with every other person identified as a naturalist. Because we're people, this business can be a little messy.

So, to some degree, our worldviews are personal (shared in the fine detail only by ourselves) as well as public (shared in general form by our group, for example evangelical Christians). This spectrum of worldview variations sometimes provides the wiggle room to talk one way and live another. What we state as our assumptions about life and how we actually live out our lives doesn't always match up. Now we’ve gotten to the place where personal examination will yield sometimes difficult, but very fruitful results. In great DVD series The Truth Project, instructor Del Tackett often says that in the church today, Christians don’t always believe that what they believe is really real. This observation deserves some unpacking. As we’ll see in the next chapter, a Christian worldview gathers it’s assumptions about what is real from God’s revelation of Himself, both in creation and in Scripture. Tackett says, in other words, that even though we profess to believe God’s revelation as our assumptions about life, we may not - and if not, it shows up in how we live our lives. The proof really is in the pudding.

A Question for the New Year

(NOTE: Three weeks of illness and the Christmas holiday left the blog dark during December, but it now returns to its weekly schedule.)

J.P. Moreland in his book Kingdom Triangle recommends the following: "Each year, I ask myself this question: How much of my life and ministry last year required the existence of the Christian God to explain it? How much would have happened if God did not exist? Here's the point: Life in the Kingdom - corporately in our churches and individually - is a supernatural colaboring with God in which we both matter." That's a tough question and one that simultaneously caused me to reflect on my participation in expanding the boundaries of the Kingdom by God's power and repent over living a naturally unsupernatural life.

Moreland's book (as the title suggests) presents a three-part strategy for advancing the Kingdom. First, developing the life of the mind, learning what and why we believe and acquiring a thoughtful Christian worldview. Worldview as an important concept for the church is gaining momentum. Chuck Colson says that Christianity itself is a worldview - a set of beliefs by which we make sense of the world, define reality, answer life's ultimate questions. Moreland's challenge here is to make sure our beliefs are biblically accurate, to make sure that we actually believe they are true, and to put these beliefs on center stage in what we hold to be real - our worldviews.

Second, cultivating our inner lives by developing emotional intimacy with God through spiritual disciplines and literature of the formation of the church. Jonathan Edwards would call this the development of religious affections where our desires and our wills are aligned with the desires of God. No small task and disciplines like silence, solitude, meditation, contemplative prayer, memorization, and fasting when understood and applied can provide the nutrients necessary for flourishing spiritual growth.

Third, Moreland urges us to learn to live in and use the Spirit's power and authority of the Kingdom of God, developing a supernatural lifestyle, receiving answers to prayers, learning to effectively pray for healing and demonic deliverance, and sharpening our ability to hear God's voice. This, of course, is the point of the quoted question. Have we lived lives of self-powered moral uprightness where the shining best is really just mediocre, or have we hurried on the path to walk shoulder to shoulder with Jesus encountering whatever comes our way in the power of the Spirit and the authority of Jesus?

These three ideas, recovering the Christian mind, renovating the soul, and restoring the power of the Spirit form what intelligent design theorists call an irreducible complexity. Michael Behe describes an irreducibly complex system as "composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning." If we fail to develop any one of the three legs of the Kingdom Triangle, Kingdom life will break down. If our Christian beliefs are not what we hold to be really real, if our desires are not joined at the hip with God's desires, if we fail to rely on the power of the Spirit or exercise the authority of Jesus, our lives and the lives of those we touch will remain locked in the realm of what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and touch. Our deepest longings will remain unsatisfied, and God's redemptive work will continue on without us and without the joy and fulfillment of participating.