In the Words of the President

In case you or your calendar publisher missed it, today is Presidents’ Day.  And in case you were wondering “what’s that all about?” I thought this little snippet from the History Channel’s website was helpful:

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents’ Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

No matter what your party affiliation, every American ought to be able to concede that there isn’t a more stressful job than the presidency of the United States. As comedian Brian Regan has put it, there’s nothing like being awakened every morning to: “Problems. All kinds of problems!” And while they are often ambitious folk, these remarkable individuals give up 4 years (maybe 8, or even 12 if you’re FDR) of their lives (in the case of 4, literally), their privacy, and their public reputations to do their very best in leading our country. A lonely post in the best of times, few leave office without the indicators of the wear and tear the intensity of the presidency leaves.  Each one has left a unique legacy, a mark on American history. And each one deserves the gratitude and respect of the American people.

With that in mind, I’m proud to present to you ABB’s third “In the Words of the President” quiz! Below are ten quotations from our presidents, with three choices as to which president the quote originated from. Take a few minutes to take the quiz (without using Google for a reference!) and submit your answers via the comment section by March 4. The reader who gets the most questions correct will receive an inspiring book from ABB! The Printer will have one more question in store in case of a tie.

And so, without further adieu, I give you the Presidents of the United States of America, in their own words!

1) “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

a) Abraham Lincoln
b) John Quincy Adams
c) George Washington 

2) “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”

a) Franklin Delano Roosevelt
b) Thomas Jefferson
c) Martin Van Buren

3) “The best social program is a good job.”

a) Theodore Roosevelt
b) William Jefferson Clinton
c) Franklin Pierce 

4) “It is much easier in many ways for me—and for other Presidents, I think, who felt the same way—when Congress Is not in town.”

a) John F. Kennedy
b) Grover Cleveland     
c) Donald Trump
      
5) “The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.”

a) Calvin Coolidge 
b) Andrew Jackson
c) Chester Alan Arthur 

6) “A man is not finished when he’s defeated; he’s finished when he quits.”

a) Richard Nixon 
b) John F. Kennedy 
c) Dwight Eisenhower 

7) “We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.”

a) John Tyler
b) James Madison
c) William Taft

8) "The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.”

a) Abraham Lincoln 
b) James Monroe 
c) Franklin Delano Roosevelt 

9) “To hunger for use and to go unused is the worst hunger of all.”

a) Barrack Obama
b) Ronald Reagan 
c) Lyndon Johnson 

10) “The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition.”

a) John Adams
b) George H.W. Bush 
c) Ulysses  Grant

Where Did That Word Come From?

Someone has said that if you think about any name long enough, it starts to sound funny. That can be said, it seems, of most words too. But I think that there are some particular words in common parlance that are rather peculiar right from the get-go.

Quite a while ago, after pondering the aforesaid linguistic oddities, I decided that it’d be fun to dig up the etymology of a few of them and make it into a blog post. What follows will, I hope, demystify the histories of these terms—well, five of them anyway.

Concessions

This is the one that got me started puzzling about weird words. I was at a large event complex, with hundreds of people milling about, and there, in large lettering, was a sign advertising “Concessions” in a particular area of the building. Of course, I know all about concessions--anyone who has spent any time around organized sports (particularly baseball) knows that the concessions stand is the place to go for snow cones or licorice ropes. But as I read the sign, I mused to my friend standing nearby as to why a booth that sells (semi) cheap refreshments at events ever earned such an odd title.  Is a concessions stand a place where you concede that you’re hungry? Or you concede that you are getting a really bad deal by paying $7 for a 4 inch hot dog?

Well, as it turns out, the concession stand is the result of someone conceding something to someone else—but it’s not the customer’s money. According to National Public Radio, a “concession” in this context is the “privilege that a government or commercial organization would grant to a company or individual to operate under certain conditions. In North America, it comes to mean leasing out an area to a business so they can operate.”  So, thinking back to my childhood baseball park memories, the little concession shack selling overpriced candy was operating by permission, by concession, of the city’s Parks and Recreation department.  Now it makes sense!

Upholstery

Every other word that I can think of (“couch” or “chair” or “covering” or “seat” ) having to do with upholstery doesn’t even closely resemble the parts of that very strange word.  So how in the world did we settle on calling putting new seat covers on your dining room chairs upholstery?

Author Paul McFedries gives the explanation in his The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Weird Word Origins. He begins with uphold, which means “ to support physically; to keep from falling.” In the 1300s, an upholder,  was a “maker or repairer of small wares or furniture.” Over the course of 300 years, upholder morphed into upholsterer, which “referred to a tradesman or shopkeeper who made or repaired furniture, particularly the kind that used stuffing covered with fabric.”  In 1647, that particular type of material became known as upholstery. 

Of course, that makes terrific sense since most of us visit upholstery shops to keep our aging sofas or car interiors from falling into total disrepair. You could say that the value of our furniture is in the eye of the upholder...or, well, the upholsterer.

Colonel 

My German maternal  grandmother emigrated to the United States when she was a youngster. She told me that learning English was exasperating at times—and colonel was one of the words that she specifically mentioned as being a chief culprit.

The wordsmiths at Grammarphobia provide a fascinating, but messy history of this military term. Apparently, our English version owes its spelling to the old Italian word colonello , which meant a commander of a regiment. Colonello in turn comes from colonna which means “column”; colonna is the derivative of the Latin columna which means "pillar." Purportedly, the colonello was the military officer leading the colonna of soldiers.

The messy business is that colonello entered the Middle French as coronel. The English got coronel from the French and we Americans inherited that pronunciation from our mother country. Coronel eventually changed to colonel in its spelling, but the pronunciation, for large segments of the English-speaking world, adheres to the original French mistake, forever confusing a military officer with a piece of corn.

 Drat…why didn’t they just say “the guy in charge?"

Laundry 

For a word that designates a task that dominates so much of our time and energy, the etymology of laundry is really quite simple.

The folks over at Oxford University Press report that laundry was originally lavandry, an Old French word with the root  lave¢ (think lavatory on airplanes!), meaning “to wash.” So, it’s appropriate that a place (the laundry room) , action (laundering) and thing (the pile of laundry)  all point back to the act of washing.

Caboose 

Literally last on the tracks (and in this post)  but not least, is the rather silly-sounding caboose. This one seems like someone combined a cab and a moose to form one mechanical creature.  But in fact, caboose has far more to do with cooking than it does with trains.

Evan Morris, of The Word Detective, gives a delightful summary both of what a caboose is and the origin of its unusual name:

A “caboose” is a little house on wheels that hooks onto the back end of a train. It’s got windows, bunk beds, a galley for cooking and an office for the conductor. Some cabooses (I keep wanting to type “cabeese”) even have a little cupola on top so the conductor can keep an eye on things all the way to the front of the train. 

The first “caboose,” however, had no connection to railroads. When the word first appeared in English in the mid-18th century, it meant a small cooking cabin or kitchen on the deck of a merchant sailing vessel. “Caboose” was also used to mean the cast iron cooking stove inside the cabin. The word “caboose” comes from the Dutch “kabuis” (or Low German “kabuse”) meaning “cabin on a ship’s deck.” The use of “caboose” to mean a crew car on a railway train arose in the mid-19th century. That was the beginning of the heyday of long-distance rail transport in the US, so it made sense to have eating and sleeping facilities on freight trains that often didn’t stop for hundreds of miles.

I had no idea that's what a caboose for, and I'll bet you didn't either. 

So there you have it! Now you have a better idea of the origin of these weirder words. Can you think of some others?

Meantime, I have to go do some caboosing at the concessions stand I've got over at Colonel's Laundry Mat and Upholstery.

A Time for Thanksgiving

“Pastor Martin?”

A slightly anxious voice quickly followed an equally anxious knock on my study door. Weary, I lifted my head out of my hands and looked toward the doorway from what was my only real place of refuge from the tumult of cares outside. Somehow, those cares always managed to seep into my study nonetheless.

“Yes, Johannes, come in,” I reluctantly replied to my assistant’s query.

Johannes, a young man of twenty, opened the door and hesitantly entered the room. Though the light from the fire in my hearth was dim, I could still make out the exhaustion in Johannes’ face. It was an expression I knew I wore myself, though it seemed Johannes still bore the remains of youthful exuberance. Any trace of youth had left my features ages ago.

“What is it, Johannes?” I said, mildly annoyed, to my assistant.

“I’m sorry, Pastor Martin,” Johannes stammered. “I know that this is the time of day you particularly ask not to be disturbed, but a courier from the mayor was just here and delivered this.” Johannes extended a missive in my direction. I could see the Eilenberg seal, with the mayor’s initials on the outside.

“I see,” I muttered, somewhat gruffly. “No, don’t be sorry, my son. The mayor’s messages ought to be delivered immediately, despite my preference for peace at this hour.” I smiled at the lad—indeed, it was hard not to think of him as a lad. He had been but an infant when I first became pastor in Eilenberg; but he was a child no longer. “I will read the mayor’s letter, Johannes, but unless the matter is of the utmost urgency, I do not believe I will send a reply until the morning. You may retire to your room for the evening. I’ll rouse you should I need your assistance.”

Johannes showed the slightest look of relief, nodded, and then turned to leave. But before taking a step, he turned once more towards me. “Are you alright, Pastor Martin?” As soon as the question became audible Johannes tried to clarify what he realized, considering the circumstances, might have been a foolish question. “What I meant, sir, is that, well, you seem especially tired this evening. Were the visits particularly difficult today?”

Once again, I couldn’t help smiling at the lad, this time, out of gratitude for his loyal concern. No, it was true, in one sense, I wasn’t alright. Of the twenty years I had spent ministering as pastor in my hometown of Eilenberg, 19 of them had been during wartime. And I was exhausted in every sense of the word.  The conflict between the armies of His Imperial Majesty and the armies of the Lutheran princes who opposed him had turned Germany into a hellish tromping ground for soldiers from all over Europe. And it had turned Eilenberg into a refuge for the countless families whose lives had been turned upside down by the chaos of civil war.

Becoming the pastor at Eilenberg had been a life-long dream of mine. This was my home. It was my greatest joy to become the shepherd of those who were so dear to me. But my ministry became something I had never anticipated. Instead of serving familiar friends and family, I had spent almost two decades caring for strangers, precious souls who had experienced unspeakable horrors, many now penniless, homeless, and friendless in this world. Eilenberg had been inundated with these refugees, sparking an economic crisis that the city’s leadership was constantly trying to manage.  Things hadn’t been helped by this year’s outbreak of the plague.  And that, no doubt, was the reason for the mayor’s letter I now held in my hands.

“I’m, alright, Johannes. Just tired, as you said,” I tried to say with a tone a reassurance. “Now quickly, off you go, sir. Peace be with you.”

“And with you, Pastor Martin.” Johannes looked at me sadly for a brief moment, and then turned and quietly left the room.

I sighed again as I turned the mayor’s letter over and broke the seal. In a few lines I grasped the gravity of the message. The mayor had been informed that the Swedish army was approaching Eilenberg. Sweden had intervened in our conflict on the side of the Lutheran states, but as so often was the case, sides meant nothing when money was in short order. The mayor had obtained intelligence that the army approaching was seeking tribute, something the city coffers could hardly bear to pay. The mayor was requesting that I be part of a delegation he was formulating to send the day after tomorrow to negotiate with the Swedes.

I set the letter on my desk and sank back into my chair, running my hand over my hoary head. I groaned inwardly with indignation. Who were these foreign mercenaries, to rob and pillage a city in territory they supposedly supported? Was it anything to them the severity of the situation for Eilenberg, or for the thousands of innocents who depended on us for their very survival? Was it anything to them that we were burying the plague’s victims as quickly as the war was sending them to us?

But my indignation quickly passed. What else could we do but try to persuade these soldiers to show mercy? We had no other options. And perhaps the miserable conditions of the town themselves would be enough proof to these Scandinavians that we weren’t bluffing. Yes, perhaps I could convince their general to walk the streets with me, to visit our burial grounds, to attend one of the 40 funerals I would conduct in the next few days, to understand that of any city in the Holy Roman Empire, Eilenberg was bereft of anything in the way of worldly goods.

“Dear God,” I uttered painfully, “help us.”

 It was hard for me to believe my prayer. Would God help us? And not just with this problem of payment to martial marauders. Would He care to help us with the plague? With the interminable war? With the vanishing food?  With my own family’s fight for survival?

I opened my eyes and stared sullenly at my desk.  After a moment or two of gloomy silence, I reached for my Bible from where I had set it down but an hour before upon my return. I had carried it today on my visitations, reading its comfort to the sick. I had preached its eternal truths at the gravesides of the day’s dozen casualties of the plague. Today, up until now, I had been reading these words for others. But now I read them for myself.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”  I stopped, and pondered these words, living words from the forty-sixth Psalm.  A refuge was a place of safety in the midst of peril, I thought. It was not the absence of the peril, but a means for enduring it.  

“The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” There it was again, refuge. I thought of how our walled city was a haven for so many . In the same way, I mused, God was the Haven for the weary, troubled soul, my soul, struggling with doubts, with fears, with grief. In the midst of my perils, He was my help.

“He maketh wars to cease…Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I set my Bible down. “Lord,” I pleaded, “may it be so even today! As for tomorrow, may I be still and know, that whatever it may bring, you still are God and that one day you will be exalted in the earth. For now, I thank you that you are my refuge, and that despite all the ills around me,  your grace will sustain me in the work that you have called me to do, even in this great darkness.”

I sighed once again, this time, with some relief. I glanced at a stack of papers sitting on the corner of my desk. On the top was a single page with the beginnings of a hymn I had begun writing many months before. I had intended it for my children to sing at our supper table, but in the harried busyness of life, I had never quite finished it. “Now thank we all our God,” the first line began.

“Well, I believe the reply to the mayor may wait,” I said as I pulled the parchment from the stack and lay it in front of me. I took a quill from a small box, dipped it in the inkwell, and began editing the stanzas I’d written so many months before, while adding a new one.

“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;

And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!”

Setting the quill down, I smiled. Perhaps the Swedish general would like a copy of my new table prayer. “After all,” I said wryly, “a song is about as good a tribute as we can muster.” 

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) served as the sole surviving pastor in the town of Eilenberg in Saxony, Germany during the Thirty Years War. He ministered to the thousands of refugees who came to Eilenberg, conducted countless funerals after the outbreak of the plague in 1637 (including his own wife’s), and negotiated with the Swedish Army on the city’s behalf in 1637 and 1639. He wrote the now famous Thanksgiving hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God”, around 1636. You can read more about Rinkart’s remarkable life and ministry here.

What to Do After Election Day

Two years ago I wrote an article on this blog entitled "After the Ballots Have Been Counted." It was my humble attempt to encourage Christians to thoughtfully prepare for the unknown outcome of a particularly momentous and tumultuous political contest.  

Now we’re on the eve of another especially significant Election Day and it’s difficult not to fret. Indeed, I’m gravely concerned about how our country will react tomorrow, no matter which party ends up controlling the House and the Senate. It’s very hard not to feel the heat of the political pot on the stove and wonder at what point will things boil over?

But part of my job as a Christian is to help turn down the heat, not increase it with anxious (or angry) predictions. The Bible tells me that the “fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them who make peace.” (James 3:18) Now granted, part of the reason for the heat right now is because of the reaction of unrighteous people towards righteousness. And for that, I’m afraid the boiling water can’t be simmered. Even Jesus was demonized by unrighteous leaders for calling out their evil ways.

So no, we can’t stop sowing righteousness. But we can show the world how to sow that righteousness peacefully---just like Jesus did. Jesus didn’t just criticize the problems of the day; He lived the kingdom of God by bringing it to all He encountered (including those religious leaders like Nicodemus who had genuine openness to receive it). He loved his friends, His neighbors and His enemies. He engaged in conversations about the kingdom with those in the street as much as with those in the synagogue. 

Right now, probably the most significant thing we can do after Election Day is to show our communities what it means to be a Christian. What does it mean to be a Christian?  Check out Galatians 5:22-23, commonly known as the “Fruits of the Spirit”, for a good reminder. Then ask the Lord how you can be more loving, more joyful, more kind, etc. in how you interact with those around you. Oh, and by the way, that doesn’t get us out of calling out unrighteousness—after all, goodness is a fruit of the Spirit too. But it will help us engage the people in our lives in a way that shows them the fullness of the Gospel of the Christ we represent.  

With that said, here are a few bullet-point actions for you to consider implementing in the aftermath of this year’s mid-terms to help keep the political pot from boiling over:

• Thank God for the outcome of the election, even if you are unhappy about the results. Then commit to praying positively and regularly for each of your elected officials.

• Refrain from apocalyptic laments or disparaging gloats on social media about the election results. Commit to keeping political dialogue civil (either on social media or otherwise). And by the way, “civility” simply means being kind and polite. (Our first president had some rules about this topic that might be of some help).

• Extend good-will towards someone you know personally who voted differently from you.

• Prayerfully consider what you might do to be a help (no, really, I mean that) to your local government officials. Ask them what needs in your community you (or your church) could be involved in helping meet.

• Look for opportunities during the holidays to participate in activities that will put you in contact with people from your community, regardless of their political affiliation. We need reminders that people are people, and far more than the sum of their party affiliation. You may be surprised how much you might have in common.

Meantime, please make sure you get to the polls tomorrow and VOTE! It’s a privilege that we cannot afford NOT to use. 

The Reason for Remembering

Last week, I had the delightful privilege of touring the United Sates Capitol. It was my third visit, and each time I spend inside its ornate walls I am inspired to learn more about our American heritage. The Capitol is an architectural encyclopedia of our history, a treasure trove of America’s most precious jewels.  Its grandiose paintings depict our greatest epochs. Its dignified statues bring our greatest heroes to life. And its intricate inscriptions memorialize the best of our ideals. In short, the Capitol is a monument, a memorial for all we have been, so that the living who walk its halls won’t forget from where they’ve come.

But that is not all. To not forget something is only half the reason for remembering. If those who daily pass by those grandiose paintings, dignified statutes, and intricate inscriptions simply acknowledge their existence, fondly saying, “Isn’t that magnificent!” then the point of them is lost. For what use is it to see that magnificent painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence unless it inspires the observer with new fervor to advance the ideas written in that document? What good does it do to simply see the faces of George Washington, James Garfield, or Dwight Eisenhower and say “Ah yes, they were great men” unless the observer seeks to follow in those great men’s footsteps? When we see Patrick Henry’s words, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience” above the doorway of room H120, do we agree with him? Do we draw from the experiences of our forefathers in shaping the course our nation now takes?

Today is another kind of memorial. It is a day set aside to pay tribute, as President Lincoln said at Gettysburg, to our “honored dead.” Throughout the land today, in cemeteries and in solemn ceremonies, the fallen men and women of our armed forces will be remembered. And so they should be, indeed they must be.

But I wonder. Just as with our Capitol. Remembering isn’t enough. There must be a reason for the remembering. There is no real honoring of our noble heroes if we do not continue the fight for which they laid down their lives. And what is that fight? I’ll let President Lincoln remind us:

It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The reason for remembering is to inspire us to preserve and advance the freedom we have been given. Otherwise, our Memorial Day tributes are meaningless. Something tells me that those we honor wouldn’t want it that way.

In the Words of the President

In case you or your calendar publisher missed it, today is Presidents’ Day.  And in case you were wondering “what’s that all about?” I thought this little snippet from the History Channel’s website was helpful:

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents’ Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

No matter what your party affiliation, every American ought to be able to concede that there isn’t a more stressful job than the presidency of the United States. As comedian Brian Regan has put it, there’s nothing like being awakened every morning to: “Problems. All kinds of problems!” And while they are often ambitious folk, these remarkable individuals give up 4 years (maybe 8, or even 12 if you’re FDR) of their lives (in the case of 4, literally), their privacy, and their public reputations to do their very best in leading our country. A lonely post in the best of times, few leave office without the indicators of the wear and tear the intensity of the presidency leaves.  Each one has left a unique legacy, a mark on American history. And each one deserves the gratitude and respect of the American people.

With that in mind, I’m proud to present to you ABB’s second “In the Words of the President” quiz! Below are ten quotations from our presidents, with three choices as to which president the quote originated from. Take a few minutes to take the quiz (without using Google for a reference!) and submit your answers via the comment section by March 5. The reader who gets the most questions correct will receive an inspiring book from ABB! The Printer will have one more question in store in case of a tie.

And so, without further adieu, I give you the Presidents of the United States of America, in their own words!

1)“No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

 Abraham Lincoln

 John Quincy Adams

 George Washington

2)“[A] wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Thomas Jefferson

Martin Van Buren

3) “I pity the creature who doesn’t work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being. The law of worthy work well done is the law of successful American life.”

Theodore Roosevelt

William Jefferson Clinton

Franklin Pierce

4) “Our government was made by patriotic, unselfish, sominded men for the control or protection of a patriotic, unselfish and sober-minded people. It is suited to such a people; but for those who are selfish, corrupt and unpatriotic it is the worst government on earth.”

John F. Kennedy

Grover Cleveland     

Donald Trump

     

5) “American citizenship is a high estate. He who holds it is the peer of kings. It has been secured by untold toil and effort. It will be maintained by no other method. It demands the best that men and women have to give. But it likewise awards to its partakers the best that there is on earth.”

Calvin Coolidge

Andrew Jackson

Chester Alan Arthur

6) “[T]he same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

Richard Nixon

John F. Kennedy 

Dwight Eisenhower

7) “It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of these sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent resources of our highly favored and happy country.”

John Tyler

James Madison

William Taft

 8) “[I]t is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed who God is the Lord.”

Abraham Lincoln

James Monroe

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

9) “[Fatherhood is] giving one’s all, from the break of day to its end, on the job, in the house, but most of all in the heart.”

Barrack Obama

Ronald Reagan

Lyndon Johnson

10) “There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord.”

John Adams

George H.W. Bush

Ulysses  Grant

Speaking the Mind of Christ

“What’s the big deal?”

“Can’t you just let this go?”

“Why can’t you  leave well enough alone?”

Rachael Denhollander probably heard all of those questions—a lot. Denhollander has lately become a genuine hero for having the courage and stamina to speak the truth about the sexual abuse she and a host of other young women suffered at the hands of Olympic physician Larry Nassar. A previous Olympic gymnast, and now a mother of three, as well as an attorney, Denhollander is properly receiving kudos for having the hutzpah to shine light on the corruption in the USA Gymnastics organization and at Michigan State University.

Dehollander joins a great company of Christians through the ages who have taken flak for “making a stink” over what their societies deemed acceptable reality. “Why can’t you just sacrifice to the Emperor and pray to Jesus?” the Romans asked first century believers. “Why do you have to be so vocal about your criticisms of the Church?” reformers like John Wycliffe and Martin Luther were asked. “Why can’t you forget about the slave trade, and support the greater good of your country?” heard abolitionists like William Wilberforce. “Can’t you just let slavery die a natural death?” said the moderates to the voices of American abolition. “What are the Jews to us?” said most of the German Church to Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Certainly Christians aren’t the only ones to take on the social injustices of the day, but that we do is because of who we are. In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Denhollander explained how her faith motivated her actions: “In terms of how my faith played a part in making that decision [to go public with her own experience], God is the God of justice, these things are evil, and it is biblical, right, and godly to pursue justice. I had to make a decision to do what was right no matter what the cost was.”

And a cost there was. In addition to the opposition she faced from USA Gymnastics and MSU, she also had to grapple with criticism from an unlikely source: her own church. Denhollander explained that before she went public with the Nassar story, she had already experienced opposition from other Christians because of her advocacy for sexual abuse victims within a particular sector of the evangelical church. “When I did come forward as an abuse victim, this part of my past was wielded like a weapon by some of the elders to further discredit my concern, essentially saying that I was imposing my own perspective or that my judgment was too clouded. One of them accused me of sitting around reading angry blog posts all day, which is not the way I do research. That’s never been the way I do research. But my status as a victim was used against my advocacy.”

That Denhollander experienced that type of hostility from fellow believers is a grave reminder that reluctance to admit the truth, and even flat-out resistance to it, is the norm. Let’s not forget that Jesus Himself faced the stoutest opposition from the leaders of His faith community.

So what does any of this have to do with “speaking the mind of Christ?” I Corinthians 2:14-16 tells us that those who are not believers do not have the capacity to discern things from a spiritual vantage point. In contrast, believers have been given that ability because of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the Word of God.  As redeemed people, we have been given “the mind of Christ” and we evaluate everything from Christ’s viewpoint. That means seeing the difference between good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong. And it also means seeing things in their totality and extending God’s grace and forgiveness, even while declaring the truth, as Denhollander did to Larry Nasser.

But we’re also warned in that passage that those of us who are “spiritual,” (i.e. seeing things from Christ’s perspective) will never be “rightly judged” by those who are seeing things from a “natural” perspective. We’ll be misunderstood, mocked, even martyred for speaking the mind of Christ to our culture. Even family and friends may question our judgement or misunderstand our motives. But it’s because we’ve been given this special privilege that we speak anyway—because if we don’t, who will?

“Obedience [to Jesus Christ],” says Denhollander, “means that you pursue justice and you stand up for the oppressed and you stand up for the victimized…It means that you will have to speak out against your own community. It will cost to stand up for the oppressed, and it should. If we’re not speaking out when it costs, then it doesn’t matter to us enough.”

The Last Post of 2017

For this year's last edition of A Believer's Broadside, the printing staff is presenting its Christmas edition of The Fish Wrapper, an annual publication about the family behind this blog. We're looking forward to publishing more editions of ABB in the New Year. 

We wish you a blessed Christmas and a very happy 2018!

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Live in the Moment

I struggled with what to call this post. By “live in the moment,” I don’t mean to abandon planning or to ignore the consequences of today’s decisions, or pay no attention to what has happened in the past. What I mean by it is something along the lines of what Moses meant in his psalm. Yes, I did mean Moses.

Smack dab in the middle of songs written by David is this ancient, powerful text by Moses. Psalm 90 contrasts the infinite nature of God with the finite fragility of man. It is peppered with passages like these: “from everlasting to everlasting you are God,” “a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past,” “You carry [our years] away like a flood,” and  “we finish our years like a sigh.” Then, in the middle of all this figurative wistfulness, comes this tangible observation and very practical request:

The days of our lives are seventy years: and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Incredibly, millennia later, the average life expectancy remains 78.8 years. Our brief existence, compared to God’s infinite timeline, doesn’t even measure a micrometer. What’s more, the brevity of our life is a reminder that we live, as Moses did, in a world under God’s judgement. Man was not created to die—we were created to live forever. But sin altered that design, and we live with its consequence each moment, including a fixed lifetime.  Moses’ reaction to those hard facts is a humble plea that God teach us to “number” our days. The Hebrew word for  “number”  literally means “to count” or “ to reckon.” It provides the picture of a bookkeeper taking inventory of precious resources for a business. Life is the most important business there is, and time is the most precious of resources.

Now, I don’t mean to get all dour, especially on an occasion as joyful as Thanksgiving. So, let me try to turn the corner…by turning to the book of Ecclesiastes. “Sure, Joel,” you are thinking, “that will liven things right up!” As the Narnian marshwiggle Puddleglum would put it, Ecclesiastes will teach you to have a sober view of life more than any book will. But even it has this bright commentary to share:

I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-13)

King Solomon, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, arrives at the happy conclusion that even though life is short, life, and all that it encompasses, is a good gift from God. And even though our lives on this earth may be fixed, the essence of who we are as image bearers of an infinite God, keeps us mindful that we are in fact made for eternity. Earthly lives aren’t all that there is.

So how does this all come back to “live in the moment?” Ever since childhood, my tendency has been to fixate on what I deem to be the exciting times of life: weekends, vacations, birthdays and holidays. As an adult, I find that my childish fixation hasn’t changed much: I try to hurry the workday along to quitting time; I try to hurry the workweek along to Friday afternoon; I’ll even try to hurry these next 3 pesky filler days along to Thanksgiving Thursday! I tend to do the same thing with the seasons of life of my family, hurrying my toddler onto when he can be independent enough to put on his own clothes and ditch the diapers for the potty. I hurry my infant onto when she will sleep through the night and be able to communicate with us through more than just cries.

But in each scenario, I’m missing Moses’ humble request and Solomon’s happy conclusion. Each moment of my day, be it Monday or Saturday; each day of the year, be it Thanksgiving, an overcast day in February, or a dog day of summer; each season of my children’s lives, whether infancy, adolescence, or adulthood; all of them are a part of the beautiful, but limited, gift called life. I don’t want to blow past these God-ordained moments. I don’t want to hurry through the mundane in order to get to something merrier. I don’t want to be too overwhelmed  by all that I haven’t done and want to do, that I lose focus on what I’m presently doing. And I don’t want to miss out on precious moments with my children in each stage of their lives for what I imagine to be an easier stage in the future.

I want to learn to number my days, and then, with a heart of wisdom, enjoy each moment of every one, as God’s gift. That’s what I mean by living in the moment, and I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, I’ll have learned how to do it by next Thanksgiving. 

Photo credit by Marco Verch in creative commons.

What the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation Means for Christian Families

Tomorrow, October 31, people throughout the world will mark the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Although the seeds of the Reformation were planted long before, 1517 was when its green shoot popped up from the darkness of the medieval sod. Martin Luther’s nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the chapel at the University of Wittenberg ignited the figurative underbrush of Europe, a spiritual forest parched of Living Water for centuries.

Dr. Luther’s Theses blasted away at abuses arising from the practice of selling indulgences, documents for purchase which certified forgiveness of particular sins. “Any true Christian…participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgences letters,” proffered Luther. “Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.” Thesis No. 62 summarized best what Luther had personally discovered: “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.” These truths were sweet rain to a spiritually thirsty culture.

Still, 500 years later, it may seem a little strange that so much fuss is made about a German monk’s heady mumbo-jumbo discussing teachings that have long since been tossed alongside the theological wagon trail. What does anything Luther did five centuries ago have to do with anything we experience as Christian families today? Well, nothing…unless these kinds of questions ever come up in your day-to-day conversations with your children:

Does God love me? How can I know?

What do I have to do to please God? Does He still love me when I sin?

How do I go to heaven? Will I go to hell if I’m not good enough?

How can I know God? Does God know me? Does He even care?

Christian parents in 2017 can answer these questions clearly, confidently and definitively. But most Christian parents in 1517 couldn’t. Put yourselves in their shoes for a moment. In answer to your children’s spiritual questions, you point them to God the Judge, a Deity that demands their perfection to earn His approval. To give your children some solace in light of this bleak outlook, you teach them to ask help from Mary or the saints, since they can identify with the plight of humanity, more than the ascended Christ.

There is no “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” or “God is so Good” to sing with your young ones. There is no Bible to read, let alone to teach, to your children. Spiritual life consists of the mysteries of the Mass, a worship service conducted in a language neither you nor your children understand. There is no such thing as “Bible Study” or “Sunday School.” Your personal and familial devotional life is reduced to static rosaries, icons and shrines. And worst of all, the genuine spiritual concerns you have for yourself and for your children are cleverly exploited, not compassionately addressed, by a corrupt religious infrastructure. Indulgences are peddled like Girl Scout cookies, and relics are displayed with all the novelty of a “Ripely’s Believe It or Not!”

The Reformation changed that reality into our reality, the Christian home of the 21st century. The Bible is easily accessible (literally at our fingertips!) for family and personal devotions, as well as in corporate worship (where it is expounded for practical application). The Gospel can be clearly articulated, understood and believed. Our children can know that God loves them, and they can know God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They can know that God’s love is unmerited and lavishly given. They can know that their Intercessor isn’t Mary or some other fallible saint,” but the God-Man Christ Jesus, who can “sympathize with [their] weakness,” and who makes it possible for them to “come boldly to the throne of grace...” (Hebrews 4:15-16). Their devotional life is limitless, guided by the Holy Spirit through the “living and powerful” word of God (Hebrews 4:12). And even though  corrupt religious charlatans may still peddle their wares, your children need never be deceived—they can give each teaching the Berean Test, searching the Scriptures to see “whether these things [are] so” (Acts 17:10-11).

So yes, Luther’s 16th century Halloween Facebook post, and the viral world-wide fallout that followed, is incredibly relevant to today’s Christian family. Without it, most of the tools of discipleship that we take for granted today, including translations of the Bible in the layman’s vernacular, would simply not exist.

The question for us is whether or not we in the Western church will continue what Luther started. The world we live in is not so much different from the world of 16th century Europe. Natural disasters, the threat of radical Islam, political intrigue, societal unrest, and Biblical illiteracy are as real now as they were in Luther’s time. But the difference is that we have the equipment to engage the culture in ways that the Reformers never did. What we lack is their fortitude and their zeal. Despite the abundance of tools at our disposal, far too few Christian families are seriously discipling their children. The rediscovery of the truths of the Gospel created energetic conviction in the Reformers. Unfortunately, our overfamiliarity with them has bred a type of careless contempt, demonstrated by just how easily we back down from those truths in our culture today.

The kind of conviction Luther and the other Reformers possessed isn’t easily blown away by the winds of adversity, but it also isn’t formulated in a bed of roses. As recent Luther biographer, Eric Metaxas, has observed, it was Luther’s own relentless pursuit of the Gospel that made him so indomitable. Pressed by his own despair at the inadequacy of himself to satisfy the just demands of a holy God, he finally found the peace he craved in the promises of God. And with those promises he was ready to withstand the onslaught of the world, the flesh, and the devil. “My conscience is captive to the Word of God,” declared Luther at the Diet of Worms. “Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound.”

And so, the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation is both a celebration for the Christian family, but it is also a charge. Our homes are where the legacy of the Reformation must daily continue. It’s time to experience with our children the same joy as Luther did at the treasure of the Gospel. Luther observed that parents “can do no better work and do nothing more valuable either for God, for Christendom, for all the world, for themselves, and for their children than to bring up their children well.” No doubt, for Luther, bringing up children “well” is to disciple them in the Gospel, and to teach them to make their own consciences “captive to the Word of God.”

Armed with those spiritual weapons, our children may just turn the world upside down for Jesus—just like Martin Luther.

Photo by chop1n in creative commons 

Good Work, Pre-planned, Just for Me

Each year, Americans celebrate the importance of work by taking a day off from it. Labor Day, as holidays go, is a bit of an odd-ball, and this post really wont’ help you understand why we have it. Check out this article if you want that backstory.

Whatever you know or may not know about Labor Day, the day itself is a reminder that  most Americans spend the majority of their lives laboring to survive. Paid work is a necessity for most of us, and work of any and all kinds is the reality for every American, whether we get a paycheck for it or not. Strange as it is, as much as we appreciate a day off from work now and then, we realize that its absence is harmful to every aspect of our humanity. We need to work because were made to work.

And speaking of work, I recently changed jobs, and in so doing, career fields. After several years in the legal profession, God has now placed me in the realm of education, as an administrator for a private Christian home school academy. I don’t blame you if you think that’s a little strange—I wouldn’t have believed it myself if you had told me 10 years ago what I’d be doing now. Ironically, it was about a decade ago that a mentor, after hearing me lay out my life-plans for the next several years, wryly advised me to be on my toes because God just might throw me a “curve ball.” Turns out, he was right. God has a beautiful way of pitching us curve balls by taking us directions we hadn’t anticipated. But He also masterfully prepares us for those unexpected curve balls, so that if we’re paying attention, we’ll still connect for a base hit.

The wonderful thing I’m learning as a Christian, now in my third decade of life, is that I don’t have to plot out my life’s vocational journey. I’ve often fretted over whether I’m on the proper rung of the professional ladder, given how old I am and the training I’ve received. But God is showing me more and more that I’ve really had it backwards. He’s the Planner for my professional life. In fact, He’s got a complete file on all the stuff He wants me to do for His Kingdom. How do I know that? He told me:

For [I am] His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that [I] should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10

Long before I came into existence, God already knew that I would be. He knew I would be born a sinner, but that I would also be adopted into His family. And, as my adopted heavenly Father, He personally and perfectly prepared good works, His Work, for me to do.  This means that all of my work, professional or otherwise, has been specially chosen for me by a loving Overseer. It also means that it isn’t up to me to figure out how I’m going to make my mark on the world through my career, or scheme my way up the ladder of earthly success. My responsibility is to be faithful to do the work God has for me, right now, in this season of my life, until He brings me a new assignment.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re interested in a job, Dad says He’s always looking for new hires--He's got plenty of work for you to keep you busy.

Photo by Peter Miller in creative commons. 

The Peace of the City

This Tuesday marks the 241^st anniversary of the signing of America’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence. The Fourth of July has always been a favorite holiday for me, in part because of its proximity to my birthday. But my love for America’s heritage, and my passion for the ideas that led to its founding, has always made Independence Day especially important.

The 4^th also creates a certain discord in my spirit, as I imagine it must for other patriotic, God-fearing Americans. The United States is in crisis, and much of the mess is a direct result of the bad choices we’ve made corporately, and individually, as Americans, over the last 70 years. The principles of divine accountability, limited government, and moral absolutes have been replaced by unrestrained autonomy, expansive government, and moral relativism. What our forefathers took for granted, we refuse to take seriously. And God, the Person the signers of the Declaration acknowledged as the Endower of the inalienable rights of men, and the Supreme Judge of the world, have deemed, at best, irrelevant to public discussion.

Why then, with such sober realities in mind, do we devote a day to celebrating America? A day on which we show our national pride? A day on which we inevitably utter the words, “God Bless America”?

God tells us to.

That’s right. While God’s Word doesn’t directly discuss Independence Day celebrations, the ever-relevant Holy Scripture does gives the guidance we need to properly celebrate this Tuesday.

Take for instance, Jeremiah 29, a letter written by a prophet of God to God’s people, now captives in a pagan culture, hostile to their faith:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive...Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the Lord for it: for in its peace you will have peace.”

Jeremiah’s words must have rattled his readers. Seek the peace of Babylon? Pray to the Lord for His blessing upon the Chaldean hordes? Yes, because their future was inseparable from the Jewish captives.

Lest you think times have changed since God’s people were in Babylon, similar directives have been given to believers in the New Testament. I Timothy 2:1-4 admonishes intercession and giving of thanks for all men, including government officials, and I Peter 2:13-17 directs Christians to use our freedoms to serve God and to “honor the king.”

My responsibility then, as a Christian, is to live boldly for Christ in my country, to be involved in its culture, to pray for it, and to do all I can to bring about its peace. In other words, God wants me to be a blessing to this nation. I cannot think of any better way to be a blessing to my country then by asking God to bless it: with wisdom to know what is right and wrong; with protection from those who would seek to destroy it; and with freedom for the consciences of every American living inside its borders.

Such blessings of liberty are what the 56 signers entrusted to us on July 4^th, 1776. May God bless us, the patriots of today, with the fortitude and grace to keep that trust. The peace of our nation depends upon it.