The Generation Gap

I have been enjoying some time with my youngest child and grandchild this holiday season. It struck me that my daughter and I have about the same age difference as my father and I had. That got me thinking about my relationship with my dad and how similar it was compared to the situation I find myself in today. The biggest difference is that I thought of my father as old when we were at this stage. By comparison, I don't feel old at all; perhaps he didn't either, but he acted older, I think.

My father’s experience was vastly different from mine, so it stands to reason that he might have felt different. My dad lived through the Great Depression and served in the Army Air Corps during WWII. By contrast I lived through the “Great Extravagance” that blessed/cursed most of us Baby Boomers and missed being drafted into the service during the troubled Vietnam conflict. I am also mindful of the fact that people are just constituted differently. In one of my favorite Christmas movies, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s father remarks that George is different from his brother because, “You were born older, George.”

There are genuine differences between my experience and my daughter’s too. I had Howdy Doody and The Wonderful World of Disney. She had Saved by the Bell and 90210. My married Rob and Laura Petrie slept in separate beds; her teen DJ spent a night in her older boyfriend’s apartment. My experience included Hippies’ free love and the mantra “sex, drugs and rock and roll” as scandalous; hers includes gay pride and feminism as civil rights. I knew of a few “bad girls” who were considered sluts; she is not uncomfortable with the idea of “friends with benefits.”  I had a few friends with whom I shared the occasional Kodak moment; she has hundreds of Facebook friends with whom she shares every waking moment. I had family dinners around a table every night; she eats every meal on the couch in front of the TV. The times they are a changin’.

So I can see that she may rightly feel as different from me as I felt different from my father. Likewise, I may be fretting needlessly over the differences I find between us, yet I am convinced that there are some things that should be passed unalloyed from one generation to the next. The command of the Shema to keep the law always before our children, echoed in Ephesians, is surely one of those things. I know that my own reception and application of the “law” unsettled my parents somewhat; there may be justifiable adaptations of the “law” in every successive generation such that parents will always feel that way.

The struggle to identify and defend the absolutes is what brings me grief. I can see from the lofty height of six decades and a historical perspective (lost on most of our current young generation) that some of the adaptations undertaken by successive generations have been departures from truth. No matter what else may change, one thing remains: the only way to truth and life (eternal) is through Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. As I was so eloquently reminded last Sunday, the path to victorious Christian living, the abundant life as Jesus called it, is the way of devotion to Christ.

Historically this practice has been called “spiritual discipline.” Whatever it is called today, I trust that if my daughter and her generation seek an intimate relationship with Jesus, everything else will fall into place. I know I can trust God to do that; I just need my heart to hear my head say so. The generation gap is not what matters; the gap between our Lord and us does. May every generation strive to keep that gap as small as possible.

Super Mario Power

A recent minor surgery got me thinking about mortality... mine. It seems that as I age certain things don't work as well as they have in the past. I used to scoff at the doctors' recommended rest periods after various procedures. If they said two weeks, I bounced up in two days without dire effect.  This time I was still limping around after a week, thinking that maybe two weeks of reduced activity was going to be about right.

Last summer I did more heavy physical work than I have done in many years. I picked up huge chunks of tree trunk to throw into the truck or onto the splitter. I also fell in an Ax Men type accident and hurt my hand and elbow which still remind me occasionally, many months later, of the incident. When I mentioned these issues to my doctor this fall, he pointed out that just because I am able to lift heavy things and sustain injuries at my age does not mean I should do so. In other words, age has its consequences.

As I watched my grandson play Super Mario Brothers at my house this Thanksgiving, I saw a life-lesson. It seems that Mario can gain power by bouncing into various icons that float into the scene. Grabbing these icons will strengthen and lengthen little Mario’s life. Lesson: there are things that appear in life (sometimes serendipitously) which we do well to grab onto. I am thinking that one of these I should note is acting a little more my age. Then there are the obvious ones like eating healthy and getting appropriate rest and exercise. I am not personally ready for the food supplements and fad diets my Facebook friends are constantly recommending, but they do fall into the same category.

The same power pills exist in the spiritual life of a believer. Too many Christians, I fear, walk around like tiny Mario subject to defeatism at the slightest whiff of trouble. The Super Mario strength is available to every believer who just “bumps” the power. The most obvious analogy here is the Scripture. Even though just about every Christian knows reading God’s Word is a required part of a balanced “diet,” few actually make any real effort to feed regularly on their own. When Jesus told His disciples to “remain in Him,” He surely meant to read the Word on a regular basis, if nothing else.

A quote on my Facebook page from Leonard Ravenhill really struck me this morning; it read, “The only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it.” Likewise, the only reason we go about our daily lives as if we are defeated is because we are satisfied with powerless living. I was reminded by Troy Champ at the Capital Church Christmas eve service that Emmanuel means God is with us no matter what the circumstance. The angel told Mary she could handle what was to come because God would be with her. That is a power pill like no other, and it is always hanging within reach. Just a little jump, Mario…

Well, What Do You Know!

I was with a friend Sunday who is one of those people I always listen to because he never fails to come up with something interesting to think about. In a context I have since forgotten he pointed out the irony that most Democrats associate with concerns that are not unionized, whereas Republicans typically own concerns that are union shops. His point was that Dems can blithely support the union agenda because they will seldom have to deal with the ramifications. I decided to do some research.

There is a revealing portrait of the current Congress at Constitution Daily. Only 209 of our congressmen or women list their background as business; one can assume some are Democrat: guess that about 50% are Dems and the number is about 105. 408 congressmen list either lawyer or public servant; a reasonable estimate (66%) of those who might be Dems is 270. Adding 118 who list professions which are stereotypically peopled by Democrats and the total comes to 493. In other words, the vast majority of lawmakers have no idea what it takes to make things, pay people and deal with unions in the process. I think it proves my friend right.

Congress is not the only place you can see ignorant people with the power to mess things up. The people who are currently making all the noise about police violence against blacks are equally in the dark. The facts of the two most well-known incidents (Ferguson and Staten Island) simply do not support the opinion that the police behaved in a prejudiced way. But the protesters don’t let the facts get in the way of their opinions. Ignorance does that.

We cross paths with ignorant people all the time. I recently heard a young woman who is otherwise an intelligent, responsible nursing student paying her own way through school say that she would rather die than be married – that her life would be over if she said yes to the young man who wants to propose something monogamous. She said that it would mean the end to her freedom. I was saddened to think what she meant by freedom. I can only imagine that she has seen too many marriages that were not of a winsome character, to say the least, and she believes that all marriages are bad. She has no witness to the beauty and true freedom that marriage provides. Ignorance strikes again.

Then there are the people who won’t go near a church because of all the hypocrites there or because they only want your money or because religion is the opiate of the masses or whatever ignorant excuse they offer. These are not unlike other people who claim that they believe in God, but there is no evidence in their lives to support the assertion; they are ignorant of the fact that true “belief” always entails a change in behavior.

This is not to say that ignorance itself is wrong or bad – not in and of itself. Ignorance on purpose is though (see Ignorance Is Not Bliss for an example). To be ignorant simply means to not know something. The older I get the more I realize I don’t know – the more my own ignorance becomes apparent. The danger is in being ignorant of ignorance, especially when the ignorance is behind significant behavior. There is a cliché that says ignorance is no excuse. That’s correct.

 Another cliché says knowledge is power. That is also true. The key to wisdom is knowing what is critical to know. If ignorance blindsides you, you have to know what to do about it. When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” that is what He was talking about. The power to make the right decisions comes from knowing what to know. Since only God knows everything, knowing God is the key to the key. As Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” There is nothing else you need to know.

More Than a Feeling

I am quite sure when Boston sang More Than a Feeling, they had nothing in mind like I am thinking, but I can't get it out of my mind since it dropped there. I have been reading a book by Michael Harper called The Love Affair which is challenging my beliefs about what love really means, or perhaps I should say how love really works. Ever since I first studied Greek in Bible college, I have believed that the love the Bible teaches, that Jesus demonstrates, is something unique. It is represented by the Greek word (αγαπη) transliterated "agape."

I have long taught that agape is a love of the will; that it cannot be anything else because it is commanded. God could not command the emotion usually associated with "love" in our generation, or in any generation for that matter. Harper suggests that the fullest sense of agape must be informed by our understanding of God's eternal, infinite character. He rightly points out that in the Old Testament especially, God is pictured as an emotional being. He longs for His people, pines for his people even. He mourns when they disappoint Him, as they regularly do. He is jealous when they have adulterous relationships with other gods, as they often do. He shows His wrath when dealing with people who deserve it.

That picture is not the sterile, compassion-less agape of will alone. Nor can one dismiss the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world...." The incarnation of that love, Jesus, was Love in person, the very demonstration of what it means to love as God loves, for He was God in the flesh. One cannot read the Gospels without seeing a Man consumed by love. The amazing thing is that He directed his love toward the un-loveliest people one can imagine: lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, His executioners.

Perhaps it is this last category that most merits investigation. A cardinal principle of Bible interpretation demands that we first look at how the people directly involved would see the action or hear the dicta. The scene at Calvary is interesting, to say the least. The condemned Man had previously shown his compassion for the ones He knew would call for his death, by his wish to bring them to Himself, "as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." Standing at the foot of the most torturous execution instrument the Romans could devise, the bystander would have heard the alleged Messiah forgive those who carried out his execution. Whereas the Jews who had asked for the sentence willed the blame upon themselves, Jesus absolved the Roman soldiers of blame. This irony would not have been lost on a perceptive observer.

This brings me back to the idea Harper planted that agape includes compassion toward the object loved. It is hard to classify compassion as anything but an emotion. A careful study of the love commanded by God in the New Testament proves it to be directed horizontally much more frequently than vertically, reciprocally. It is true that when asked, Jesus listed the great commandment as “Love God,” but he followed immediately with, “and love your neighbor.” The rest of Scripture seems to imply that Christians must demonstrate their love for God BY loving their neighbor. And if this is done as Jesus did, it is not without compassion.

I have said frequently over the years that we are not commanded to like anybody, but we have to love (agape) everybody. Now I think that biblical love may not be fully mature if it lacks compassion. I struggle to picture this until I imagine what Jesus would be feeling (WWJF). For example, I don’t like the way my neighbor/brother/spouse is behaving; it is decidedly un-Christian… unlovely. So I love (agape) them anyway, but what am I to feel? Compassion – pain that they have strayed from or never gotten close to God’s will. I feel their lost-ness, their need to be right with God. Love is more than a feeling, but it is, rightly expressed, also not without feeling. Not if it is God’s love, shed abroad in our hearts to be shared abroad in an unlovely world.