Like I mentioned in my last post, January is when I tend to do some reflecting on the past year.
In this post I want to tell you about my favorite book from 2011: Tim Keller’s King’s Cross
It’s hard to really articulate how much I’ve appreciated this book.
The flow of the book is as a very short commentary on the Gospel of Mark.
In short, Keller goes through Mark, and writes a few pages of exposition on each story told.
But more comprehensively, he turns the traditional understanding of almost every story on its head.
He shows how every story is really about us, and our need for the Gospel, and how Jesus consistently pointed our need for something that only He could every provide.
This book is so densely saturated in the Gospel!
Even after reading through the whole book, I can still pick it up, turn to almost any page, and find a challenge to my pride and yet a hope for my soul.
I keep writing and then deleting examples because any one paragraph doesn’t get the point across…
For what it’s worth, here’s an example from today:
He’s in the end of Mark 10, where the disciples – James and John in particular – ask Jesus if they can sit on His left and right hand in glory.
Basically, they are asking to be vice president and CEO of Jesus’ Kingdom.
Jesus responds that they do not understand what they are asking. He asks, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptized with?” Of course, we know that He was talking about going to the cross, but the disciples didn’t, and they responded affirmatively.
Keller goes into some detail dissecting this, but he eventually ties this passage to humility. Referring to how the disciples didn’t understand that Jesus was going to establish His kingdom not through power, but through sacrifice, he says:
Because God’s manner of revelation is characterized by hiddenness, reversal, and surprise, those who follow Jesus find themselves repeatedly failing to understand the will of God… [therefore] there can be no place for smugness or dogmatism…If our sensibilities are formed by this narrative, we will learn not to take ourselves too seriously; we will be very self-critical and receptive to unexpected manifestations of God’s love and power…When you see how James and John respond [to Jesus], and you realize how hard it is for anybody to take in the magnitude of what the cross really means, you will be on your way to attaining the gift of humility.At some level, your normal assumptions, your pride and your egotistical way of thinking, are blinding you to the truth.
The application that Keller comes back to over and over again is simply: stop looking at yourself and your circumstances and the people around you and start focusing on Jesus and His redemptive work.
Surrender to grace.
I know I will read this again and again.
You probably noticed that we didn’t spent as much time posting to “TheRieslands” in 2011.
There are lots of reasons for that -- most notably the ones who run around our house in Disney movie-themed pajamas every night.
We also spent a good amount of time working on Stephanie’s photography business.
But the new year is always a fun time to reflect on what a year has taught me, and share that with you, for whatever it’s worth. So, you might actually see a few posts from me over the next few days. They are likely to be hyper-introspective and even soppy, so… consider yourself warned.
Today, I’m sharing one of my favorite songs of 2011.
It wasn’t new in 2011, and it may or may not be familiar to you.
The song is Dancing In The Minefields by Andrew Peterson.
I’ve actually been enjoying this song, along with most of Andrew Peterson’s, for years now.
But this year, for whatever reason, it seemed especially profound and inspiring to me.
The lyrics are pretty straightforward and probably not too much of a stretch for most folks (hear the song and read the lyrics below): life is full of landmines.
Fundamentally, the landmines are all the effects of the Fall of man: pain, suffering, illness, disappointment, discouragement…
That imagery takes a different shape for each person from day to day. But at the end of the day, we’re ALL living in a minefield, and we never know when the next one is going to blow up in our face.
The song pretty much assumes that we don’t need to be convinced of this.
But what I love about it is the picture he paints of marriage being about DANCING in the minefields.
That picture implies so much to me.
It’s not about trying to avoid the landmines.
It’s not about mourning how hopeless the situation appears.
It’s about holding hands and dancing through the ridiculous situation -- taking every little excuse to celebrate and not getting stuck for too long when there’s an explosion.
I also love how the song pretty much just assumes that we all know that marriage is hard:
It was harder than we dreamed but I believe that’s what the promise is for.
What promise?
And how is this possible?
Where is the motivation to keep going when there are so dang many setbacks every day/week/month/year?
The last verse explains it:
‘Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there’s nothing left to fear
So I’ll walk with you in the shadowlands
Till the shadows disappear‘Cause He promised not to leave us
And His promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos, baby,
I can dance with you
There it is: we can hold hands and dance through the minefields because we have hope in the sovereign, good God who we’re trusting to hold it all together.
And in that way, marriage is celebration of the Gospel.
I’m not sure I can come up with the right words to explain how special that picture is to me.
But hopefully the song speaks for itself.
Enjoy!
(if you are reading this on the blog home page, lyrics are after the jump)
These two are on track to put me in an empty grave.
But man… what a life it will have been!
Josiah turned 3 this weekend.
Last year, I attempted to write some thoughts to capture how I feel about my son, but I realized it’s just about impossible.
So this year, you get 7 minutes of Josiah telling you all about his favorite songs, shows, toys, sports…. oh, and the biggie: does he plan to get married.
This video is PURE Josiah.
Enjoy!
Photo by Kharis’ “Grandma Tinkerbell”.
Gorgeous good looks courtesy of her momma.
I once heard Mark Driscoll explain something that was somewhat eye-opening to me.
He said something along the lines of, “Growing up, somewhere between the picture books and flannel graphs, I got the impression that Jesus was a feminine hippie with a lot of hair product. One day, I realized: I don’t have respect for this guy because I could beat him up.”
He went on to point out that, even during Jesus’ first visit to Earth, he had many ‘manly’ characteristics. He was a carpenter, so likely strong and rough. He spent most of his time camping with His disciples, and the pharisees made Him so angry that he consistently mocked them to their face.
But, more to the point, when He comes again, there will be nothing soft or ‘hippie-ish’ about Him. He’s coming to start (and finish) a war.
Revelation 19:
Then I saw(W) heaven opened, and behold,(X) a white horse! The one sitting on it is called(Y) Faithful and True, and(Z) in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12(AA) His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are(AB) many diadems, and he has(AC) a name written that no one knows but himself. 13He is clothed in(AD) a robe dipped in[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is(AE) The Word of God. 14And the armies of heaven,(AF) arrayed in fine linen, white and pure,(AG) were following him on white horses. 15(AH) From his mouth comes a sharp sword(AI) with which to strike down the nations, and(AJ) he will rule them with a rod of iron.(AK) He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh(AL) he has a name written,(AM) King of kings and Lord of lords.
So, just a quick recap: A warrior on a horse with a sword coming out of His mouth, with a robe dipped in blood, a name tattooed on His leg, and itching for a fight with everything evil.
Add an announcer and you have a scene from WWF smack-down.
Put that on a flannelboard….
I’m writing this because I’ve been reminded of it lately as Josiah has grown up a little bit.
The other night, at the dinner table, Josiah looked up and said, “Dad, I love good people. But I don’t love bad people. I will KILL them!”
Now, clearly, we have some serious work to do. I need to teach him that there is no such thing as a good person, and that Jesus already died FOR the bad people.
But he explained himself. I asked him, “What kind of bad people?“. And he said, “Like Goliath“.
What my son was saying that day was, “Dad, I want to be brave and I want to stand up against the bad guys! I’m not afraid. I’m a warrior!”
It’s in his DNA as a little boy.
Just like Kharis gets all of her shoes out and tries them on even though nobody taught her to, Josiah beats up imaginary bad guys with invisible swords.
There’s some part of my parenting instinct that winces every time he does. I can see him at the playground getting carried away with “playing swords” with some kid who doesn’t understand the game and then trying to explain it to their parents.
But the last thing I want to do is try and suppress that natural desire that God gave him to be brave, strong, and to fight against “the bad guys”.
Fast-forward a couple of weeks…
Josiah and I were driving to the store and we were rocking my new favorite windows-down-and-radio-up song, The Lord Is A Warrior by Matt Papa.
In it, he simply celebrates how God is the ultimate warrior and the ultimate Savior – both by dying for our sins and then by promising to destroy all evil that rejects His reign. It’s basically the resurrection plus Revelation 19 put to music.
You can listen to it here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(And once you realize that it’s awesome, you should go buy it.)
Anyways, back to the story:
Josiah asked me, “What’s he singing about?”
I said, “He is singing about how the Lord is a Warrior. Do you know what a warrior is?”
“No.”
“A warrior is like a strong fighter.”
“Jesus is a fighter?!!?!?!?”
“Yeah buddy. Jesus is the strongest fighter. He is the best hero ever.”
“YEAH! The best HERO! And whenever the bad guys want to hurt you, He will KILL THEM!”
We came home and Josiah ran in and told his mom, “Mom! Jesus is a fighter and he gets ALL the bad guys and He ALWAYS wins!”
Theologically, my son is learning (and very excited about) God’s sovereignty and justice.
Now we just have to figure out how to communicate about grace, sacrifice, and love….
But I think most of us could use a little more of that perspective.
When is the last time you went up against something scary (illness, difficult relationship, financial hardship, etc) and pictured Jesus the warrior riding in front of you to fight your battle?
Kind of makes me want to break out my action figures….
As of this past weekend, Kharis is officially toddling around every chance she gets.
Apparently taking queues from Jack Sparrow and the T-Rex, she looks a bit drunk, but it’s the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen.
Daddy is quite smitten.
