True Loyalty

I may live in Australia, but it didn't take long for the news to reach our shores that the San Diego Chargers intend to relocate to Los Angeles.  For someone born and raised in San Diego, it is a low blow first to lose our beloved NFL franchise, but to leave for a rival town who claims not to even want them adds insult to injury.  The purpose of this post is not to lament this loss, for as we all know the National Football League is a business, and in business the aim is to invest money today with the highest level of future return.  Detailed analysis of how or why this has finally happened cannot change the fact it is happening.  The Chargers are moving, and that is what loyal supporters are processing today.

I am sad for the many loyal Chargers fans who feel betrayed by an organisation which did not extend enough loyalty to them to remain.  Many fans are loyal to their local team, supporting the team unconditionally, regardless of personnel changes or performance on the field, holding out hope for a future year which will bring a championship home to their city - though the trophy would be likely kept on private property.  Because this hope of Chargers' supporters has been dashed, it was reported within half an hour of the announcement fans arrived at the Chargers complex to throw their prized jerseys in a pile and and burn Chargers gear to show their disgust.  For the Chargers organisation to obtain their goal of more, newer, and better, they threw aside the loyalty of people who already had invested all they could.  Football is a game of emotion, and it's no surprise when people are emotional when you take what they love away from them - not to mention making their dreams forfeit as well.

This situation fleshes out a characteristic common to humans, that people give their loyalty to what has no loyalty to them.  We can be loyal to a brand of clothes or tools over another, a company, a sports team, even to a preferred beverage!  Brands and beverages have no favourites but are marketed to make money.  The trouble is not that we are loyal, but it is human nature to be loyal and emotionally attached to the wrong things.  Our loyalty is often misguided.  We can demonstrate more loyalty to a company fueled with corporate greed than family members who love and need us.  But the one thing human beings are most loyal to is self.  A man is loyal to the company because it gives him the opportunity for personal wealth, promotion, and power.  I do not believe a company or a sports team is worthy of unconditional love, yet we love just the same.  We can't help ourselves.

The glorious truth is God loves us, and He is worthy of our utmost loyalty.  The sad reality is we can be loyal to countless things in greater degrees rather than unashamed, complete, true loyalty to God.  It is good to recognise we have chosen bondage through ungodly loyalties, and only Jesus Christ can deliver us from these chains.  He is the One who opens our eyes to see, sets us free, and gives us boundless, eternal horizons.  Enjoy sport, the feeling of accomplishment of a job well done, cheer on your team, and thank God for all He has provided.  At the same time guard your heart, enduring God has your complete loyalty, reverence, and love.  Share God's love generously and graciously, for He loves without measure.  He is the One who brings to pass realities which are greater than temporary championships and even your wildest dreams.

The Good Old Way

I've enjoyed reading through G.K. Chesterton's What's Wrong with the World, and because the nature of humanity has not changed he remains insightful and strangely prophetic.  Chesterton was able, with eloquence and humorous poise, to point out inconsistent folly in his day which has continued unabated until now.  I see no reason why these observations will not remain relevant for another hundred years - or until we start actually learning from our mistakes.

One of the paragraphs I have turned back to a couple of times concerns a modern approach to education, one that was on display during the life of Chesterton and I have also observed myself.  There is a push in an effort to "save the children" to inject new and virtually unproved methods and programs to benefit students.  Recent examples of this are "Common Core" curriculum pushed through in the United States and the ridiculous "Safe Schools" program in Australia.  It seems many schools and governments which fund them have a different vision from the educational system which produced their minds.  It seems like philosophies concerning education can overrule practical reading, writing, and arithmetic, even as the Chairman's "Great Leap Forward" was a self-inflicted catastrophe.  What students write about and how they express themselves seems more important these days than actually knowing how to write and communicate effectively.  The ever-elusive lure of using compulsory education to shape the minds of others into one agreeable with our own is as strong as ever.

Consider the musings of Chesterton on the subject:

"Now most modern freedom is at root fear.  It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.  And Mr. Shaw and such people are especially shrinking from that awful and ancestral responsibility to which our fathers committed us when they took the wild step of becoming men.  I mean the responsibility of affirming the truth of our human tradition and handing it on with a voice of authority, an unshaken voice.  That is the one eternal education; to be sure enough that something is truth that you dare to tell it to a child.  From this high audacious duty the moderns are fleeing on every side; and the only excuse for them is, (of course,) that their modern philosophies are so half-baked and hypothetical that they cannot convince themselves enough to convince even a newborn babe.  This, of course, is connected with the decay of democracy; and is somewhat  of a separate subject...The trouble in too many of our modern schools is that the State, being controlled so specially by the few, allows cranks and experiments to go straight to the schoolroom when they have never passed through the Parliament, the public house, the private house, the church, or the marketplace.  Obviously, it ought to be the oldest things that are taught to the youngest people; the assured and experienced truths that are put first to the baby.  But in a school today the baby has to submit to a system that is younger than himself.  The flopping infant of four actually has more experience, and has weathered the world longer, than the dogma to which he is made to submit...Today we all use Popular Education as meaning education of the people.  I wish I could use it as meaning education by the people."  (Chesterton, G. K. What's Wrong With The World. 1st ed. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1910. Print.)

Nothing in this world is truly new unless God makes it so.  It is not a new way that is needed, but the true way - a hotly debated topic in a subjective society when anyone is bold enough to step near to it.  I have observed this in churches as well as in the education sector, that a fresh approach is needed to reach a new generation.  I am all for freshness as far as fruit and vegetables go, but let us call them what they are.  New wine should be placed in new wineskins, and it should be called new wine.  The modern approach to freshness is to avoid talk of man's sin, judgment, hell, man's need for repentance for salvation, and the blood of Jesus which cleanses us through faith.  This is not fresh; this is folly.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  If we do not believe in the truth of the Bible ourselves, it does no good for us to offer it as one option among many.  There is the saving Gospel, and there is everything else. Jeremiah 6:16 says, "Thus says the LORD: "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'"  It is the ancient way which is the good, right way.  You will see many different gaits and a variety of people joyfully travelling this road, and there are few who find it.

Our Secret Spring

This morning I read of the interaction between Abram and Lot after their herdsmen had quarreled together.  So plentiful were their flocks and herds that the land was unable to support them both.  Though Abram was his elder, he graciously declared to Lot in an effort to make and keep peace in Genesis 13:9, "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."  He gave Lot the opportunity to go wherever he wanted, and promised to go in the opposite direction.

Abram was good as his word for Genesis 13:10-11 tells us, "And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other."  For a man walking by sight, choosing the well-watered plain was a no-brainer.  Lot went to the well-watered plain which looked like an oasis, and Abram went the opposite way likely across arid, rocky, and hilly land.  Abram (who would later be called Abraham) walked by faith in God, knowing the God who promised would be faithful to establish and preserve him regardless.

It's likely you noticed the foreboding little parenthetical comment in verse 10.  The land which was truly lush and well-watered ended up being destroyed by God when Sodom and Gomorrah were judged.  It became a land of sulfur where nothing grew.  And what became of Abraham?  He wisely chose a source of Living Water when he chose to walk by faith in God alone.  Genesis 13:14-17 says, "And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are--northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. ¹⁷ Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you."  Abraham trusted God, and God gave him great promises which extended to his many descendants.

Abraham built altars unto the LORD, and he also dug wells.  Though many of these after the death of Abraham were filled with earth by the Philistines, Abraham's son Isaac went back and dug them again (Genesis 26:15).  Isn't it thought provoking, that Lot chose the attractive, well-watered plain which was later uninhabitable, yet Abraham had an enduring legacy because God keeps His promises?  Abraham found a source of Living Water which was unseen by men, even as the refreshing water which his men discovered as they dug wells to water Abraham's flocks.  Beersheba was a place where Abraham claimed a well and there the LORD met with Abraham's son Isaac in Genesis 26:24-25:  "And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham's sake." ²⁵ So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well."

This passage teaches us when we choose God's way - the way of trust and faith in God - He will supply our needs according to His promise.  God is more trustworthy than man's perceptions of the direction which is best for our lives to head.  Walking by sight caused Lot to go to a place which would be severely judged for sin and he would lose much of his precious herds he sought to provide for.  We do not read of him building altars but a sordid tale of his daughters plying him with alcohol to rape him.  Abraham went God's way into the arid land of Canaan and not one word of God's promise failed, a promise which has been kept to this day and will continue forever!  How true are the words of our Saviour Jesus Christ who said the man who tries to save his life will lose it, but the man who loses his life for God's sake will find it.  Jesus provides a spring of Living Water through the Holy Spirit for all who trust in Him!

No Coincidence

During the holidays it is easy to stay up a little later at night and rise a little later in the morning.  I set an alarm on my phone to ensure I do rise at an hour before the house is awake and bustling.  Eliminating these potential distractions is a big help to a sustained and focused time of prayer with God.  The scripture says a man's heart devises his way, but the LORD directs his steps (Prov. 16:9).  One way this works out daily is I set the alarm, but God wakes me up when He wants. :)

Today He woke me minutes before my alarm was to sound, and this is always lovely.  Whenever this happens I am convinced this is no coincidence, for my times are in God's hands.  After I knelt in my customary place it was a sweet time of thinking about God and affirming my appreciation for Him.  Time during prayer can rush by or feel like time stands still as a soul draws near to his Creator.  At one point I opened my eyes and noticed a flash of silver near my knee.  It was a sewing pin!  I was so grateful God caused me to notice the potential hazard and pushed it back into the classic tomato pincushion.

If I did not believe in the existence or providence of God, I could have taken credit for finding the pin myself, even as I could have been proud of my well-tuned body clock.  Yet as a follower of Jesus, it was profoundly satisfying to give all credit to where credit is due:  to the God who Created me, sustains my life in His hands, and protects me from hidden dangers.  Even if the pin pierced my knee, I could maintain confidence in my great God who allows pain.  When all is well it is quite easy to "trust" God, but it is the painful circumstances which provide a clearer indication of our genuine faith and loyalty.  Job refused to curse God and die despite the pains God sovereignty allowed, and God remains praiseworthy in times of plenty and loss, in peace and pain.

Haters of God accuse Him of great evils, but as one who knows God through divine revelation it is clear wickedness has its origin and rabid continuation in man.  Many see the spectre of God as severe, brutal, arbitrary, and delighting in the pain of others, but this reveals they are not able to see clearly.  They do not know God.  Martyrs have intentionally embraced the flames of the stake, knelt without resistance before claws and teeth of wild beasts, willingly faced imprisonment, torture, and the loss of all things rather than deny their good and glorious God.  People were offered life if they would only recant, but they wisely realised their lives were forfeit forever if they did recant.  We follow the God-Man who said on the cross, "Into your hands I commit My Spirit," Jesus Christ who rose from the dead glorified forever.  He is the Resurrection and the Life, and the reality of His life and comforts is more real than burning flame, the crushing of bones, being nailed to a cross, or being sawn in two.

We do not need to suffer as martyrs to prove our resolve, but are called to daily deny ourselves, take up our cross in obedience to Jesus, and follow Him wherever He leads.  Christianity is a continual laying down of a life which urges us to take matters into our own hands again.  God's providence, protection, and even pain He allows are not coincidences but opportunities to thank and trust God more than ever.  God uses wealth and lack to test us, and we can rejoice in our God in every season.  It is written in 1 Peter 1:6-9:  "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls."