Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

Some of the good reads found this week:

I Know God Is Good . . . but is He also Kind? “Like so many who encounter traumatic loss, I naturally responded with questions. I didn’t doubt the core goodness of God. My struggle related to God’s kindness: ‘Lord, I know you are good, but right now, it just doesn’t seem like you are kind.'”

The Daily Deaths We Die. “Life affords many opportunities to practice dying to self so that the treasure of Jesus  is made known to others. When relationships are tough, ministry seems unfruitful, life is disappointing, bodies are sick, tired, and weakening, people don’t show up, or losses pile up, here’s how you can die and live in Christ.”

Biblical Self-Examination: Questions for Growth, HT to Challies. “Self-examination is a biblical concept, but we can be swept too far into this introspection. We need to always examine ourselves in the light of God’s truth, keeping the Gospel at the center of our examination.”

The Lost Art of a Wandering Mind. “The technology boom didn’t exactly wind up creating the kind of world we had seen on The Jetsons. Instead of forming a fascinating world of automation that freed us up to pursue noble interests, technology built a new way of thinking that, sadly, has caused us to think less.”

Don’t Let Envy Poison Your Soul, HT to Challies. “In today’s modern culture, we have been conditioned to nurture envy at anyone who is perceived to be ahead of us on the career, economic, or social ladder. Envy is at the heart of our politics on all sides. Envy fuels the marketing machines. Just watch the ads. Someone owns a product/gadget/service that is making them happy, and you don’t have it. That’s not right, we are told to tell ourselves, I must have it.”

Cartel Violence Gripped a Colombian City. Then Came a Soccer Ministry, HT to Challies. “For two years, one of Saldarriaga’s friends had invited him to a soccer practice that he said was ‘different.’ Christians ran it. Saldarriaga finally relented. He had no idea that decision would change his life. And he had no idea he would be one of countless young men across Medellín who found God at soccer practice during Colombia’s infamous decades of drug cartel violence.”

The Quiet Theology of All Creatures Great and Small, HT to Lois. “We started talking about All Creatures Great and Small over coffee. Not in a ‘let’s analyze this’ way, but more like: Why does this show make me feel calmer? Why does it linger after the credits roll? My friend said it felt like a warm cup of tea while visiting her grandparents. And I heard myself say, almost without thinking, ‘It’s because the show believes small things matter.’ And that instinct, I think, resonates with something deeply Christian.”

Is It Immoral to Be a Trillionaire? “So one side claims that this incredible wealth is evil, while the other claims he’s done nothing wrong. What does the Bible have to say about wealth? Specifically, is having lots of money and being rich evil? To think rightly about this issue, we’re going to look first at what it means that Musk is a trillionaire, then we’re going to look at what the Bible has to say about wealth, and then we’re going to end with a few concluding thoughts.”

While unbelief sees the difficulties, faith sees God between itself and them.–Hudson Taylor.

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

It’s the first official Friday’s Fave Five of summer–though in my mind, it’s been summer all month. And it’s the last FFF of June. I pause on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share the blessings of the week.

1. Father’s Day. We enjoyed having the family over, one of them via FaceTime.

2. July 4th decorations. I love my country and my flag, but I don’t usually have any special decorations for Independence Day–mainly because I don’t like red, white, and blue as a decorating scheme. But I went to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and found some I liked. They were 40% off, plus I had a gift card to spend.

3. Impromptu date. We went out to Olive Garden, anticipating that they might be busy on a Saturday night. But we were seated right away in a small area with just four or five tables. We really like the smaller seating areas there rather than the restaurant being one big, open, noisy room.

4. Having Tim over while his mom had a doctor’s appointment. After lunch, we just hung out together in the family room. I wondered later whether I should plan something special to do when he’s here. But I think we all enjoy just relaxing together at times, too.

5. Good conversations, one with a friend, one with the folks around our table at our Wednesday evening get-together at church.

How was your week?

Review: All Booked Up

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All Booked Up

All Booked Up by Melody Carlson centers on Riva Owen, a widow in her early sixties. Her husband passed away more than a year before and left her with a lot of medical debts. She’s contemplating selling the Victorian home where she grew up. But one thing holding her back is her book collection in what she calls her library. She still has all her husband’s books there as well. She just can’t bear to get rid of them–they are like friends to her.

When a friend mentions that Riva could make good money renting out her upstairs rooms, Riva has to think long and hard about whether to take in boarders. Doing so would allow her to keep her house. But it would disrupt her quiet lifestyle. She finally decides to give it a try and ends up with four women renting out rooms in her home. She only knows one of them, Laurel. Windy is a new acquaintance with a hippie background, Kitty is Laurel’s hairdresser, and Fiona works at a nearby cafe.

Things start off well, but soon the different personalities clash. The rest of the book is taken up with the issues that come up and how they are worked out.

I enjoyed reading a book about “older” women. I think they were all in their sixties except Kitty. I liked the bookish references but felt there could have been more, given the title and description of the story. I also appreciated the discussions about grief.

Melody has written over 200 books, and I have enjoyed the few that I have read, mostly Christmas novels. But this book was a disappointment to me in some ways. I felt the book took a while to get where it was going, but then the ending seemed rushed. The resolution of the biggest “problem” housemate seemed unrealistic to me.

I got frustrated that everyone kept telling Riva she was repressed and inhibited, pulling her into experiences she really didn’t want to get into. I wanted her to stand up for herself and quit giving in and going to these outings where she then tried to sneak out early. She tells the group later that she was stuck after her husband’s death and thanks them for nudging her out of her comfort zone. True, it’s good to try new things some times. But I felt the friends would have been better to encourage and suggest rather than push and insist.

Two of the women like Windy’s brother, Marcus, and seem totally childish in their jealousies.

Though this is Christian fiction, anything of a Christian nature is only mentioned sporadically until near the end.

Some reviewers felt as I did, but others loved the book. So don’t let me discourage you from trying it. You might like it, too, and I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Review: Life Under the Sun

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I’ve read and enjoyed several of Hannah Anderson’s books. So when I saw she had written a Bible study titled Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes, I put it on my wish list. After I received it, I put it on my literal “to be read” stack, thinking I’d use it the next time I read through Ecclesiastes.

I forgot I had the book until recently when I rediscovered it while looking for something else. As it turned out, my pastor had just started a series on Ecclesiastes. So I decided to go through this Bible study as a companion to the preaching, to reinforce what I was learning on both fronts.

Ecclesiastes is unique in that it seems somewhat cynical on first reading. Solomon, who many feel is the author of the book, uses a word nearly forty times that is translated as meaningless, vanity, or useless. He talks about the frustration of things like working all your life only to end up with nothing or leaving your money and possessions to someone who may not manage them well; finding injustice in the very people who are supposed to promote justice; sometimes it seems like good people suffer calamity while wicked people have it easy; life seems like an endless cycle of the same old thing, and so on.

But that word translated meaningless or vanity is the Hebrew word hevel, which means something more like vapor, smoke, or mist. Solomon speaks of chasing after the wind: you can’t catch it, and if you could, you can’t hold on to it. Life seems like that sometimes–endlessly pursuing but never grasping anything of permanence. Life is also as brief as a mist that disappears, language used elsewhere in the Bible as well.

Ecclesiastes is part of what we call both the wisdom literature of the Bible as well as its poetical books. Rather than straightforwardly telling us what it means, like Paul does in his epistles, the wisdom books use figurative language. Hannah says this “forces us to slow down and consider the truth being presented. And thus, it seeks not only to inform, but to transform” (p. 21).

The study is divided into eight weekly sessions of five days worth of reading in each. The first couple of lessons discuss the author and the nature of Ecclesiastes.

But then the rest of the book is laid out topically, covering wisdom, goodness, work, community, justice, and time “under the sun.” I suppose that makes sense in a study like this, because Solomon doesn’t lay these out in a neat and orderly outline. He seems to scatter them throughout the rest of the book. Hannah says that is due to the chaotic nature of life as represented in Ecclesiastes. But I have also read that Eastern literature is not laid out in a linear fashion like Western literature is: it’s more cyclical. Perhaps both ideas come to bear here.

But I felt like the topical nature of the study had us hopping around all over the place and seemed like we were missing some parts of Ecclesiastes. Our pastor is going through the book section by section, which I prefer.

As a whole, I felt this was a little lightweight compared to other Bible studies I have done. I liked her other books much better. That’s not to say this study was without merit: it’s very good as far as it goes. I did glean some good points throughout, and the topics often did intersect with what my pastor was preaching or what the church’s podcast on Ecclesiastes covered, even though they may all have been in different parts of the book.

I appreciated Hannah’s discussion of reading biblical poetry. She brought out some aspects I had not heard before. Some of the other quotes that stood out to me:

One benefit of studying Ecclesiastes is that it helps us realize our questions need to be refined. Again, it’s easy to come to the Bible demanding answers. It’s much harder to let the Scripture change our questions before answering them. But part of coming to Scripture honestly means letting it rework and restructure the way we think (p. 26).

If God invites us to enter His kingdom like little children, I have to believe He means for us to come with all the curiosity and audacity of a child trying to make sense of her world. And just as we would never shame a child for trying to understand the life she inhabits, so too, our heavenly Father does not shame us when we ask similar questions (p. 26).

What kept David from despair [in Psalm 27:13] was his confidence that he would experience the goodness of the Lord in this life–here, in the land of the living. Here, under the sun. He believed that despite all the difficulties, life still held the promise of goodness because it still held God. So instead of trusting in goodness itself, we should trust in the God of goodness, believing He who made the world good will continue to fill it with His good presence (p. 72).

While God’s work does not depend on us, our work does depend on Him. He has given us good work to do, and we must pursue it in order to find fulfillment (p. 104).

Applying wisdom to relationships often begins with confusion. While proverbs are neat and contained, the problems of life require us to puzzle through them. Wisdom happens in the process (p. 138).

Though we grieve the state of our world, a crooked world holds its own kind of hope because a crooked world hints to the fact that a straight one exists. The fact that we long for life to be other than it is tells us we know it should be something more. The fact that we instinctively know life is not fair confirms we know it should be fair. In fact, this reasoning is what eventually brought Oxford don and author, C. S. Lewis to faith (p. 152).

While Ecclesiastes might seem cynical or pessimistic at first, the book reaches the conclusion to enjoy God’s good gifts in a fallen world, live for Him, obey Him, and trust that He will work everything out in the long run. Or, as Hannah put it:

Ultimately, for the Teacher, the secret to life under the sun was found in remembering what life can and can’t give us. Rest from “hevel” comes from confessing our limits and remembering God’s limitlessness–including remembering our need of His limitless grace and mercy. So that when we run up against our own injustice, pride, and arrogance, we learn to run to Him. Time and time again, in each new season of life, we can run to Him confessing our need and surrendering ourselves to His loving hand (p. 205).

How to Read More for Less Money

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How to read more books for less money

I strongly believe in paying full price for books. Authors work for months, sometimes years, to get their books finished and published. Most don’t make a living at writing unless they’re mega-best-sellers. The Bible says, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” It’s good and right to reimburse them for the goods and services they provide.

Paying for a book is a good value. A specialty coffee drink only lasts an hour or so. A good book may cost twice as much but lasts ten-twenty hours.

Plus, selfishly, investing in authors we love enables them to write even more books. If I want them to keep books coming, I need to support them.

For many of us, however, our reading appetite outpaces our budget. We can read more books if we can find deals on them.

Here are some ways I’ve found to get more books for my reading dollar.

Free books. The library is a wonderful institution to make books available to the public. They may not always have what we want, or there may be a waiting list for the most popular books. But they are a good first resource. If they don’t have a book you want, many of them have a form you can submit to request it.

Project Gutenberg has the text of many older books online.

Librivox has audio versions of books in the public domain. Some are excellently done, but some are read by volunteers who don’t use inflections or character voices. But it’s easy to take a chance when the book is free.

Net Galley will send readers free books in return for an honest review. I haven’t tried them yet, but I am looking into them. I think there are similar sites that do the same thing. Sometimes authors will send out a few of their newest books for that purpose as well. The reviews don’t have to be all five-star–in fact, it looks a little suspicious if every review is the highest rating. Reviews also don’t have to be long and involved.

Sales. Yard sales, thrift stores, library sales, and used book stores will sometimes yield great books at good prices. They may have some damage or markings. Even Amazon will list some used book options. Most used books I’ve bought have been fine. There have only been one or two that were so damaged or icky that I regretted buying them.

Thriftbooks sells both used and new titles.

Some sites online will curate book sale listings. Gospelebooks.com and Inspiredreads.com list current Christian books sales for the Kindle app, but I mention them with caution. I would not agree with everything they recommend, so some discernment is needed. Tim Challies also curates a list of mostly Christian books but also a few general market ones. I’m much more willing to take a chance on a new author or a book I am not sure about when I can get it for a couple of dollars.

Of course, many booksellers have regular sales as well. Following them online or signing up for their catalogs or emails will keep you informed.

Also, if you follow your favorite authors on social media, they’ll often list when one of their books is on sale.

Pre-orders. There are a few authors (Amanda Cox and Amanda Dykes, to name a couple of my favorites) whose every book I buy. Since I have read all their books so far and loved them, there’s a good chance I’ll like their new books as well. I got both of their soon-to-be published paperbacks at 25% off plus free shipping for pre-orders. Publishers like pre-orders because it gives them some idea of how much interest there will be in the book, so they’ll often offer incentives like a discount price and/or free shipping or some little gifts if you order early.

Rewards. We have an Amazon credit card which gives me “points” every time I buy something with it–especially something from Amazon. Sometimes it will let me use my Amazon points for book purchases.

I’ve only ordered a few books at Thriftbooks, but apparently they have some kind of reward system, too.

Audiobooks. My Audible subscription is $14.95 a month, which nets me one credit, good for one book. However, they often have 2-book-for-one-credit sales on selected titles. They also rotate some titles for free in what they used to call their “Plus” catalog. Now, at the top of the Audible site, those books are listed under a tab titled “Included.” (I would suggest listening to the free audiobooks you choose right away, because when they are rotated back into the general circulation, they’ll no longer be available in your Audible app.) Plus, they’ll have many of their regular titles marked down if you want to buy them for cash rather than a credit. I save my credit for the more expensive books but occasionally buy audiobooks for a few dollars. I’ve found many classics there for just a dollar or two.

Audible also just started a rewards program. But even before that, they’d sometimes offer a $5 coupon for listening to three audiobooks within a certain time period.

I mentioned at the beginning the desire to support authors. Does it lessen their support to get books on sale or for free? As I said, I like to pay full price for books often. But I think many authors would rather their books be read on sale or from the library than not at all. Many offer sales on their own books at times. I’ve often started reading the rest of an author’s books after trying one that I found for free or on sale.

Plus, we can also support authors in other ways. Requesting and checking out their books at the library helps keep their books available there.

One of the best ways to support an author is to leave reviews of their books, especially on Amazon but also on sites like GoodReads or on our blogs. Even a mention on social media helps. Many book sales are generated by word of mouth these days. Not only do our reviews help promote books among other readers, but publishers look at them closely as well. I’ve read that Amazon doesn’t put a book in its promotional algorithm until that book has at least fifty reviews.

Have you found ways to read more books than you can afford? Please share with us in the comments.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Brave Fathers of the Bible

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Brave Fathers of the Bible

Since I wrote about Brave Mothers of the Bible on Mother’s Day, I thought it only fair to write about fathers of the Bible for Father’s Day. I think my audience is mostly female. I have women in mind as I write, but I don’t mind if men read, too. But even as women we can learn from and be inspired by fathers.

Noah experienced a lot of firsts. He was the first person to build a boat the size of the ark, as far as we know. His family was the first to experience a worldwide flood–the only ones, in fact. He and his family had to start civilization all over again, not in the garden of Eden like Adam and Eve, but on an earth recovering from devastation. I can’t imagine what all they faced. Noah displayed some faults later on. But Hebrews 11:7 commends him: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” By faith he believed and obeyed and was saved.

Abraham was also not without fault. Actually, no earthly father is–or mother or anyone else. That’s encouraging to us, though, because if God could work in and through these people, He can work in and through us. Abraham obeyed God by leaving his home and all that was familiar, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). I don’t pretend to understand everything that was involved in God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac. But “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Hebrews 11:19). Though God does not call anyone else to give up their children in that way, there is a real sense in which we need to yield them to Him. We’re reminded over and over that they belong to Him; they’re just ours temporarily. We’re not to hold them to our dreams and plans for them, but yield them to His.

David was a man after God’s own heart. He failed miserably at times, and some of his children suffered for it. But he repented (Psalm 51). Much of the counsel David’s son, Solomon’s, shared in the book of Proverbs came from David. In the last stretch of David’s life, he did everything he could possibly do to enable Solomon to build the temple that David was not allowed to. I think I wrote David’s words to Solomon on each of my son’s yearbooks or graduation cards, or at least the first part of it: “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible. When his bride-to-be was found pregnant, he knew he was not the father. So he arranged to break their engagement quietly. But God sent an angel to tell him the baby Mary carried was the Son of God and it was okay for them to marry. Later, when God instructed Joseph to take Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to flee from Herod, and then a few years later to bring them back to Israel, Joseph obeyed unquestioningly. We’re not told what he thought or felt. His life was not turning out as he had thought it would. But he accepted the responsibility God placed on him and fulfilled it faithfully.

Jairus came to Jesus, “and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live'” (Mark 5:22-23). This was a desperate father, urgently seeking the best help for his child. Jesus agreed to go with Jairus. But on their way, Jesus was stopped by a woman who’d had an issue of blood for twelve years. The Bible doesn’t say what Jairus was doing while Jesus talked with the woman. But I probably would have been pacing and growing more frustrated by the moment.

And then a messenger cameto tell Jairus his daughter had died. What agony he must have been in. But Jesus told Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe” (verse 36). When they got to Jairus’ house, Jesus raised his daughter from the dead.

Talk about a roller coaster of emotions that day. When we’re desperate, when the answer is delayed, when hope is gone–we still don’t need to fear. God doesn’t always deliver–sometimes He gives grace to endure instead.

Jesus said of another person He healed, a man who was born blind, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). Sometimes we’re caught up in our own or our family’s daily needs and forget there are larger issues at stake. God might allow something to happen in our family so that others might see Him.

What can we learn from these fathers?

  • God uses flawed people. We’ll make mistakes, but God can forgive and use us for His glory.
  • God uses ordinary people. Most of these giants of the faith came from humble means: David was a shepherd; Joseph was a carpenter.
  • God requires and honors faith. In some ways, it has taken more faith to trust God for my children than for many other things.
  • God requires obedience, but He gives grace to obey.
  • God is faithful when life spirals out of control.
  • God’s goal is not just for us to have a sweet, happy family, but to live for His honor and glory. Sometimes that happens through hardship and pain. The end of Hebrews 11’s “hall of faith” says that both those who experienced great deliverance and those who suffered were commended for their faith, even when they didn’t receive what they were promised in their lifetimes. But this lifetime is not the end. Earlier in Hebrews 11, God said His people searched for “better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” verse 6).
  • We can trust God with our parenting and with our children.

These are just a few faithful fathers in the Bible. Do any of them or any biblical fathers I haven’t mentioned inspire you?

Hebrews 11:6

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

Here are some good reads found this week:

What to Do When You Really Mess Up. “Have you ever really blown it–made a sinful choice with the potential to destroy your life and possibly the lives of those around you? The story of David in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 offers insight into what we should—and should not—do when faced with our own moral failures.”

When Faith Seems to Fail. This is the summary, outline, and transcript of a message by Adrian Rogers that I heard parts of this week on the radio (the overview and audio are here). The part that especially grabbed my attention was how in Hebrews 11, the first part of the chapter tells of the faith shown by Abraham, Moses, Noah, and others. But then verse 36 says “Others suffered . . . ” mocking, flogging, imprisonment, stoning, death, wandering. Verse 9 says all of them were commended through faith. As Rogers put it, “Some escaped by faith. Some endured by faith.”

We Don’t Hate and Then Harm–We Harm and Then Hate, HT to Challies. “We live in a world of ceaseless conflict. And when we look for the source of that conflict, we often assume it’s hatred. We hate people and then treat them poorly. It’s because we feel contempt toward others that we sin against them. But that’s only half the story. Often it’s the other way around. First, we hurt someone, and only then do we begin to hate them.”

6 Expressions of God’s Kindness in the Prodigal Son Parable. “The father’s response in this parable overflows with compassion, forgiveness, and generosity and mirrors our heavenly Father’s heart toward all of us. No matter the depth of our wandering, God rejoices when we come home. The father’s kindness isn’t expressed in a single moment but unfolds again and again in deliberate and tender ways throughout the story. Jesus gives us a picture of what God’s kindness looks like in motion, revealed through the father’s actions.”

The Gift of Finitude, HT to the Story Warren. “You might accomplish a few more of your goals with a sensible routine in place. But you still can’t do it all. And that’s ok. Finitude is not fallenness. Adam and Eve were created with finitude, and they were declared good. Finitude isn’t a bug of being human; it’s a feature.”

Technology Is Fast, Sanctification Is Slow, and Claude Can’t Do It for You. “What if the inefficiency of creativity is a benefit rather than a drawback, a feature rather than a bug? What if the purpose of creativity is greater than merely generating the output? What if creativity fosters a kind of inner formation that is every bit as important as the work that eventually results from it? What if we turn over to AI a process that is an important part of what it means to be human, and one that is genuinely good for us?”

In It Together. “Almost everything that men and women experience together, we experience differently, but through patience and understanding, listening and talking, through expressing care in all the ways we can think of when we just don’t know how to help each other, we continually send the message, over and over again, through all kinds of trials and troubles: I’m here. We’re in this together.”

Making Family Devotions Work. “While my parents often prayed with us before bed, for the most part anything beyond that wasn’t a part of our normal rhythm of life. I never really understood why not, until I had a family. Then I realized how challenging it is to maintain family devotions.”

10 Phrases to Eliminate from Your Bible Teaching. These are good reminders not only for teaching Bible, but for any kind of speaking or writing and even everyday conversation. Of course, we need to be gracious listeners. Some of these phrases sneak in unaware when the speaker is trying to gather his thoughts. But when we can eliminate them, we make ourselves much easier and more interesting to listen to.

A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there,
but a guiding light whose love shows us the way. Author unknown.

Friday’s Fave Five

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Here we are more than halfway through June. I pause on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to intentionally look at at the blessings of the week. Those blessings often pass us by almost unnoticed unless we make a habit to intentionally look for them and express gratitude for them.

1. A thoughtful gesture. We discovered a little bird’s nest in the planter on our porch.

Bird's nest

Jim put photos on our family text thread, commenting that he’d have to be careful about watering that planter. Then the next time we saw Jason, he gave us a little device he 3D-printed to help water the planter without disturbing the bird’s nest.

2. Productive days. Every day this week has not been as productive as I had hoped, but I did get a few good days in. I enjoyed getting a number of little odd jobs done.

3. VBS video. I forgot to mention this last week, but the Sunday after VBS, the director gives a report and shows a video from VBS week. It’s so neat to see and hear a bit about how God worked in and through people.

4. Sleep. I don’t seem to be able to sleep more than about four hours at a time. Whenever I wake up, I almost always have to get up to use the bathroom. Sometimes I can get back to sleep, sometimes not until a nap later in the day. But sometimes I conk out arounf 9 p.m. on the couch. And even though I wake up in a couple of hours and have to get ready for bed, I can usually get back to sleep easily and feel so much more rested in the morning.

5. Intersections. Lately, what I’ve heard from the sermon and podcast from Ecclesiastes has intersected with the book on God’s attributes that I am going through with a friend. Mainly things like the limitations of being human, our lack of control over much of what happen in our lives, the need to trust God and rest in Him. I love when that happens.

That’s our week! How was yours? I hope you have a good time honoring your fathers on Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to any dads reading here.

Review: Playlist Theology

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Several years ago, in a post I’ve lost track of, a worship leader told of being approached by an older woman at church who felt the musicians should not use drums on the older, traditional hymns. He told her she didn’t have a right to impose her preferences on others.

He didn’t seem to realize that he was imposing his preferences on her.

In similar articles I’ve read since then, that seems to be the running theme–the person with more conservative music standards who voices a concern, is written off as old, out of touch, domineering, or, worst of all, a legalist.

It’s true, a lot of people want to keep things the same way they have always been “just because” that’s what they know and feel comfortable with. But a lot of people are not operating from that point of view. They’ve been taught that certain kinds of music are right and wrong. And whether they’re correct or not, their consciences have been trained in a certain way.

I’ve read that the Bible contains over 500 references to music. But it doesn’t say much about styles. It tells how music can help people emotionally, physically, and spiritually, as it did when young David played for King Saul. But when Joshua and Moses came down from the mountain with the ten commandments in Exodus 32, Joshua thought he heard noise like war in the camp. Moses said, no, it’s not war: it’s singing. Considering the people were involved in idol worship with the golden calf, and the chapter says earlier “the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play,” the sound was likely that of the wrong kind of revelry. So there is an indication of certain kinds of music going with certain kinds of behaviors.

The Bible tells us, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) and “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16). There is a kind of music that appeals to the flesh–not just lyrics, but music. But exactly where are the lines between what’s worldly and what’s not? That takes some discernment. And some of it falls within the Romans 14 areas of differing convictions.

How much of our convictions about music are due to the culture we grew up with, to our consciences, or to the Holy Spirit’s leading? That’s what many of us wrestle with.

I recently came across Ben Everson’s book, Playlist Theology. He’s a “musical evangelist” from a conservative background who has given much thought to these issues. His book explores many of these questions in a careful, thoughtful, gracious way. He has the musical knowledge, experience, and vocabulary to discuss aspects of music in detail. He explores what Scripture says about music and how we can apply it.

I read one review of this book that brushed it off as saying music is amoral. That is not what Ben is saying. But he says certain aspects of music are not good or bad in themselves. The context and amount of their use can determine whether they are being used for good or bad purposes.

For instance, some people have a problem with syncopation. Ben explains what it is and names both classical music and some traditional old hymns that employ it.

Theologically, the mere presence of syncopation can’t be equated with sinfulness any more than dissonance in harmony can. Both are forms of tension that demand resolution. When tension resolves toward meaning, toward beauty, truth or praise, it becomes part of the art’s redemptive arc.

Where the moral question enters is what the tension serves. In worship, syncopation can mirror spiritual joy, spontaneity, or the exuberance of grace. . . In sensual contexts, the same rhythmic techniques can amplify bodily pleasure as an end in itself when all the other elements are bent toward lust (p. 118).

Some have trouble with the “beat” of rock music. All music has a “beat” It’s stronger in some kinds of music than others (like march music or children’s rhythmic songs). But a heavy rhythm can stir sensual feelings. (The main thing that made me throw out my rock albums as a teenager and new Christian was reading quotes from rock musicians themselves saying that their music–not just the words, but the music–was about sex and rebellion.) Ben suggests asking questions like whether the rhythm supports the melody or drives it, “What is this stirring in me? Is it leading my spirit or just exciting my body? Is it enhancing the message or overwhelming it?” (p. 142).

I have multiple quotes marked, but here are a few that stood out to me:

What’s taught in song is often remembered longer than what’s preached in a sermon (p. 34).

While the Bible doesn’t give us a list of forbidden styles, it does give us clear principles: music must glorify God, teach truth, be distinct from the world, stir the Spirit not the flesh, and flow from the heart (p. 36).

The same Bible that gives us freedom also gives us boundaries. The same God who created beauty also hates what distorts it. Discernment doesn’t mean endless openness; it means knowing where the lines actually are so we can hold them with integrity (p. 155).

I’ve realized over time that some of what I was taught about music, especially Christian music, as a young adult may have gone beyond what the Bible actually says. But I also didn’t think that meant “anything goes” now. Ben’s book was a great help to me in learning discernment about where problem areas in music are beyond “I know it when I hear it.”

I realize that for some of you, this whole conversation is totally foreign. You may have grown up with rock music and contemporary Christian music and never had a problem with it. Part of what I wrote at the beginning of this post was to try to help explain why that’s not true for everyone and hopefully encourage a little tenderness and understanding and less judgment on both sides.

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(To those who receive these posts via email: the last couple of times I’ve used the “quote” block in my blog posts, the quotes haven’t shown up in the email version. It was suggested to me that it might work better to use shorter quotes. I’ve done that here, so hopefully everything will come through. If it looks like something is missing, I invite you to click through to read the whole post.)

Apologies for Incomplete Posts

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I'm sorry

I apologize that those of you who subscribe to my blog via email have been receiving incomplete posts. I noticed the email yesterday’s post, A Mother’s Nightly Ritual, did not contain the poem that was the bulk of the post. I looked back at some other recent posts and noticed that the same thing happened with “He Knows, Yes, He Knows.”

I’ve sent a note in to the WordPress support forums to try to find out why this happened and what to do to fix it.

I don’t think I’ll be able to resend those posts–that happens automatically via WordPress. I don’t think there is a way to send something to subscribers directly myself.

I’ve also noticed that sometimes when I post videos, which isn’t often, those don’t always show up in the emails, either.

If anything in the post emails seems incomplete or doesn’t make sense, I invite you to click through to read the whole posts.

And I sincerely apologize, once again, that this happened.