Buried

Girl 27 is a documentary about Patricia Douglas who as a 17 year old movie extra found herself buried in a horrendous shroud of deceit and sexual violation that not only robbed her of her innocence but shattered her life into shards of ill fate. Thinking she was an extra on a new film the young Douglas discovered she was part of 100 girls hired to entertain at a wild salesmen party sponsored by MGM studios. This was the studio’s way of saying thanks to these salesmen who had made MGM the only successful studio in 1937. After being held down and forced fed from the abundant source of MGM supplied liquor, Douglas stumbled outside to purge her stomach of the unwanted intruder only to find she was followed by a salesman who ultimately violently defiled the youth. After a grand jury trial being dismissed and a federal court appeal buried by an attorney who was in MGM’s pocket, the young Douglas found she couldn’t fight the studio giant. MGM even paid her mother off with hush money. Her case was buried but more tragically her life was buried until a journalist and film director inadvertently stumbled across it while researching a book on Jean Harlow.

We would like to think that life is more like David and Goliath where the little guy fells the giant but all too often the malevolent magnates of life crush the innocent under their mammoth resources. “You can’t fight city hall,” we regale as we acquiesce to our self imposed retreat. O, we believe that the bigger they are the harder they fall but we’re convinced that they hardly fall. Patricia Douglas is both victim and reminder of the triumph of injustice and the reign of corruption. She’s not an exception but a tragic reminder of how dark is the degradation of mankind. So, do we curl up in a ball and wait for the Second Coming? Doesn’t Paul say something about being more than conquerors? Now, let’s put the fight back in the dog!

The cross is a reminder that one can take that which is devised for destruction and turn it into an emblem of victory! What makes the difference is how one views the world. If our fate is circumstantial or scripted by the master of the moment then truly we will be victims and not conquerors. However, if our destiny has been shaped by the divine then as Paul simply puts it, “If God is for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?” In God’s hands we find death leads to life, last puts us first and when buried we are raised! Does this mean we are invincible or that Giants won’t crush us beneath their weight? Hardly… but it does mean, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known (Luke 12:2).” Why? Because God is in charge… even on a cross! -DAN

The Big Finish

More often than not when I’m on the telephone with Leah I can hear Payden in the background singing. Recently, Leah asked me if I heard him and if I could understand what he was singing. He was singing one of his favorite church songs but unfortunately he doesn’t quite know the lyrics. No problem however, for our adolescent troubadour, he simply makes up his own lyrics. Apparently, the lyric of the day was that God had gone to the store where He was rock-a-bying a baby. Leah is entertained but sometimes it’s a bit much. She informed me that His very favorite church song is Dennis Jernigan’s song, “Thank You, Lord!” (781 in our song books). Now, to understand why this particular song might lend itself to a you-got-to-love-the-kid moment you have to understand two things. First, that the song as you recall has a dramatic sustained note in the chorus where the men sing, “And I thank You, thank You, Lord (with “Lord” being a high sustained note).” And second, that Payden is the aficionado of the big finish… that is, he likes to belt those sustained notes with unabashed pubescent punch! He often has a giggling audience in church when the Spirit moves him to offer up one of his big finishes. Mom loves it and bears it at the same time… and Pappy chuckles at imagining the scene.

Now, there’s something I want to say about big finishes but first I want to commend us all to make up our own lyrics. You see, God singing “Rock-a-bye Baby” in the grocery store is exactly what leads the soul to big finishes. When one sees God’s presence wherever they find themselves and know that He’s involved in rocking babies as much as He’s involved in state affairs… then, we have a God as big as the one the Bible reveals! If singing is heart melodies that speak to one another then let us never forget to affirm His presence in all that we say and do. Now, if we keep this lyric alive I believe we ought to give it a Payden finish. We need to belt it out with child-like exuberance! We need to… sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song (Psalm 95:1,2)!

And Here’s the big finish… and a little child will lead them (Isaiah 11:6)! Jesus suffered the little children to come to Him to remind the disciples and you and I that the nature of the kingdom of God is more about imaginative play than it is about rules and regulations. It’s about those unafraid to belt out the big finish because they know the one who is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end… the Big Finish! Their lyrics are full of His presence and His place in their lives. So, what’s your favorite song to belt out? -DAN

Fish Who Answer the Telephone

“Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body (Ecclesiastes 12:12).” So quips the ancient wisdom of Solomon who I have no doubt would yet be impressed with the hundreds of thousands of books published each year. From textbooks updated, to vampire teenage romance, stories, data, commentary and imaginings have found their way on to the printed page. Few if any destined to be classics but all with a message someone is passionate about. So where would you place my new favorite title published in 1937 and authored by Pavlov’s student, Yuril P. Frolov, entitled, “Fish Who Answer the Telephone and Other Studies in Experimental Biology?” At first glance one might think this is book not from a Russian professor but rather a doctor… Dr. Seuss that is! Frolov like Pavlov studied animal conditioned responses. Pavlov got dogs to salivate and Frolov conditioned a certain species of carp to gather for feeding when an electric bell was sounded. Hence, fish who answer the phone.

My interest here is not in answering some trivia question about bizarre book titles but that often we make quick judgment about things by reacting just to the surface of things. I have no doubt that Frolov was trying to provoke interest in his book by implying fish were answering telephones. I also believe that the inspired Word of God often wants to grab our attention by making statements that take a deeper understanding. The first will be last and the last first (Mark 10:31) is a statement that begs for more explanation. Prohibition of shaving off the edges of your beard (Leviticus 19:27) has got to be more than a fashion statement. God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is unsettling and turning the other cheek to an attacker just seems cowardly. But each of these have a deeper meaning and a richer story that makes phone answering fish child’s play.

So what are we to do with God’s Word that refuses to let us be casual or superficial with our reading of the text? Exactly… study to show ourselves approved! Meditate and delight over these words of life! Listen intently to not only the words but the silence, the history, the drama, the context of meaning then and now. Such requires our imagination as well as our scholarship. It depends on our common sense and employs us to see both tree and forest. And I believe it beckons us to join heart and mind in an adventure that seeks to not only understand God’s will but delight in the journey. Like little kids discovering fish that make phone calls we are adventurers discovering we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us! -DAN

Golconda

Can you name a famous poet? I can hear you –Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, E. E. Cummings, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, John Donne and maybe somebody might throw in Shel Silverstein or Maya Angelou and the word lovers toss on Shakespeare and Rumi. But who’s missing? Think greeting cards… yes, Emily Dickinson! What a fascinating woman who wrote over 1,500 poems but only published reluctantly a handful during her life time. She was by her own admission eccentric, recluse and detached. However, her insights though often shrouded in an obsession with death and eternity have made many stop and ponder life and love. In her poem entitled, “Your Riches Taught Me Poverty” she writes, “I ’m sure it is Golconda, Beyond my power to deem,— To have a smile for mine each day, How better than a gem!” That is, true riches of love is not in physical gifts like gems but gifts of the heart like a smile. But if we are sure it is Golconda… then what in the world is Golconda?

Golconda is a word that means “a source of great wealth.” It’s based on an ancient city in Southern India that was known for its wealth from nearby diamond mines. Dickinson a very humble spirit knew that the wealth of love was discovered in the poverty of spirit. Having attended a seminary for women Dickinson’s poems are full of theology and religious references. Though single all her life she knew that loves’ riches were best taught in poverty. Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with, “Blessed, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).” The nature of God’s sovereignty and covenant relationship with His creation ensues from an awareness of our own poverty and a hunger and thirst for His righteousness. Thus we acknowledge God is the true source of great wealth! This is one of those facets of the radiant glory of God that reveals itself in paradox… the first will be last, the least the greatest, in dying we live and in weakness is our strength. None of it makes sense unless we recognize that His great riches have taught us poverty! He is Golconda… our source of great wealth!

Another great line from a Dickinson poem about books is, “our kinsmen of the shelf.” It reminds me of the C. S. Lewis line, “we read to know that we are not alone.” The Bible is a wonderful library that reveals sometimes in narrative, sometimes in poetry but mostly in confession of men and women of faith about the struggle to lay up treasures in heaven not on earth! And because our kinsmen are on that shelf the struggle continues in you and me. May God bless us with clarity of soul to know that our God is the only true Golconda! -DAN

Jesus Lives Forever

I love why the writer of Hebrews says, “Jesus lives forever.” The simple idea is that like Melchizedek He is a priest forever (in contrast to a come and go priesthood made up of those who live and die). Such never changing permanence introduced a better hope and promised intimacy with God through a covenant relationship with the divine secured in Jesus forever nature. The writer of Hebrews wraps this up in the most magnificent phrase, “He always lives to intercede for them (Hebrews 7:25).” Wow, Jesus omnipresence, that is, His I am that I am, alpha and omega, sameness today, yesterday and forever nature is eternally designed to assure us of His advocacy and efficacy in salvation. In a world that seems to be beaten, battered and baffled it’s nice to know that Jesus “always lives to intercede” for those who “come to God through Him.” Now, as great as that eternal truth sounds… what does it mean for my every day walk of life?

It reminds us that we are in a partnership with the divine. If we are seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly realms and have been made partakers of the divine nature because God has called us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord… then, we are conscious of living holy lives not because we think we’re all that and a bag of potato chips BUT because we refuse to take grace for granted or redemption as anything less than ultimate sacrifice! We are the redeemed who love because He first loved us. We are soldiers of Christ because we are freedom fighters who war not with flesh and blood but “against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).” We are more than conquerors! Jesus lives forever is a spiritual adrenaline rush that rallies believers to shout His name from the mountain top!

Okay, so we live out our faith and we are challenged to live bold and brave because Jesus is our mentor and our inspiration! But why do I let my passion for His presence go cold? On the nosey! That is exactly why He lives to intercede for us. Jesus knew that our flesh was weak even though our spirits were willing (Mark 14:38). He knew we would need a constant reminder of His presence… “Do this in remembrance of me.” He knew that sin could only be conquered by grace! So, He lives forever so He may always intercede in our behalf! Now that is good news… that’s the gospel that finds us ever returning on bended knees to worship and to repent as we reach out to be lifted up in His protective care. So we sing with ardent hearts, “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today …He lives within my heart.” (P.S. A Jewish student asked Alfred H. Ackley who wrote the hymn “He Lives,” “Why should I worship a dead Jew?” Ackley quickly affirmed, “He lives!”) -DAN