Even though winter is not quite over in the northern hemisphere, there is much going on in preparation for spring in many parts of the country. I remember so well how my father would spend the winter months pouring over catalogs that seemed to arrive in our mailboxes every day. Some would advertise the very best seeds. Others were filled with beautiful photographs of flowering trees and bushes or plants covered with berries.

Winter on the farm was a time for preparing for the planting of next summer’s garden and our late summer and fall harvests. I loved the pictures, but it was my dad who had the discerning eyes to read about what accompanied the pictures. Beyond the beauty, he knew he needed to learn which things grew best in our Midwestern soil and climate as well as which ones were disease resistant. His wisdom and knowledge made him aware that what was most important was what none of us would be able to see for many weeks after the new things had been planted. What happened underground would be where so much of the growth would first take place and risk of disease or pests would start as well.

Those same principles apply to my spiritual life as well. How I prepare (or let God prepare) the soil of my heart, mind, and spirit is crucial to whether whatever is planted will produce a good harvest. What and how I plant and nourish the seed will also be key, but I may not really see what is growing for some time. That can be true of good things as well as things that are not good.

If I am going to be prepared to live for the Lord in the midst of a hostile, threatening world, I need to recognize more quickly what hinders me from doing so effectively. Unfortunately, that is not as easy as it sounds because many of these things are growing under the surface of my daily life. I may not even see the hints of them that others may catch sight of. Worse yet, if they mention what they see, I can be quick to deny it since I have not seen it myself.

One of those things is pride.

In Nothing to Fear: Principles and Prayers by Barry C. Black, he points out something that is key to our potential failure to thrive in a hostile, threatening world:

“We despise the sin of pride in others, but we often can’t see it in ourselves. Pride is responsible for much of the world’s chaos because it seduces us into thinking too highly of ourselves. Pride creates contention, hardens the heart against compassion, and encourages disdain of others. Failure to avoid pride is a key reason why many fail to thrive in a threatening world.”

Pride can be one of those things that start under the surface, growing quietly in the dark so that we don’t see it. Since knowledge plays a big role in its development, we get duped again because we can be tempted to believe that we know about a topic, subject, issues, person, etc. It is likely true that we know about such things and maybe even a great deal, but we can believe we know more than we actually might. As a result we can be tempted to believe we should enlighten others with our knowledge since we are “in the know” and have assured ourselves we are right. That may be an honest desire to share truth, but it is often riddled through with evidences of pride. Since none of us is immune to pride, it can happen easily no matter who we are or our station in life.

One of the challenges with knowledge is we may not recognize we are only seeing a part rather than the whole. Pride grows a little more and becomes more evident when someone confronts us with additional information and we dismiss it because of course we know. That brings to mind Paul’s warning in I Corinthians 13:12 KJV:

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

As I think about this topic it is easy to smile and think about my excitement to share with my parents all the things I was learning when I was in college. They were new to me and I was sure my parents didn’t know anything about them. Truth be told, it’s a great example of my own pride as I spouted off the knowledge I was acquiring. It also spoke loudly of my immaturity on so many levels. It would be a few years down the road that I began to recognize how much they knew and how much I still had to learn. I was also guilty of comparing myself to them, looking at what I thought I knew to what I thought and believed they knew.

Any time we compare ourselves to anyone we show how foolish we are. The standard for my life (your life) comes from the Lord, not another person.

To deal with this thing (pride) that starts growing beneath the surface of my daily life, I need to pursue humility from the source of it—Jesus!

“Humility leads us away from pride. Humility is not groveling, but it involves an honest assessment of our God-given talents. It manifests itself in a teachable spirit. Humility helps us find the road to the life that matters.” Barry C. Black

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Conflict seems to be ballooning in every aspect of our lives and it can be easy to list things we believe cause it and the list may well be right. But where does it get us and what is the root of this spreading issue that keeps us in a perpetual state of division about even the smallest of things?

Make no mistake. We are all infected to one degree or another. It may not be evident all the time but the temptation to yield to its wiles still exists tucked away from the front burner because we do know that it is not a good thing when we are gut-level honest.

This topic struck me as I listened to a message by Lou Giglio where he addressed how we use presuppositions as a framework for how we live. And just to review how that word is defined, here is a dictionary definition: “a thing tacitly assumed beforehand at the beginning of a line of argument or course of action.”

We make assumptions about more things than we could likely list about most any area you can name. We assume our paycheck will be there on the day we expect it. We assume the drive we routinely make will take a certain length of time. We assume when we make a date or appointment to meet with someone that they will be there. That gives you just a few examples that point to how our assuming leads to expectations that may or may not be met or even realistic.

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Why? What in us fuels that? If we have lived any length of time, we know that path often takes us to disappointment, frustration, anger, and other things that create a divide in us that can lead to broken trust, broken relationships, and flawed decisions.

Lou Giglio suggests five things that fuel these and are often the unseen or unrecognized presuppositions that create the pesky problem. They are: 1) we believe we have rights; 2) we believe we should decide; 3) we believe we know best; 4) we believe we deserve more; and 5) we believe we deserve to be happy.

You may disagree but if there is any hint of any of these operating, how does that work in a world where we are not in control? How does that work with our spouse, boss, neighbor, or friend? How does that translate into our relationship to God within our faith?

These little foxes can truly spoil much in our lives and lead us to strife, envy, and overlook the issue of pride or that we are not the center of the universe. Paul Tripp speaks directly to those things in his writing.  He reminds his readers of how we wish to be or to have this or that sneaks envy into our daily life often unseen. It leads to a tendency to be judgmental of others based on our presuppositions that we know and we are right.

“Envy has its roots in the selfishness of sin (see 2 Cor. 5:14-15). Envy is self-focused; because it’s self-focused, it’s entitled; because it’s entitled, it’s demanding; because it’s demanding, it tends to judge the goodness of God by whether he has delivered what we are entitled to, and because it judges God on that basis, it leads you to question his goodness. Because you question God’s goodness, you won’t run to him for help. Envy is a spiritual disaster.”

Paul Tripp

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It is far easier to talk about love as the antidote than to live it out given this old DNA in humankind that sets us up for presuppositions of one sort or another. After all, the fruit of the forbidden tree was taken by Adam and Eve because it was knowledge and wisdom that would make them like God. 

Knowledge and wisdom are vitally important. That is true, but so is the need for discernment and humility that recognizes that on our best days we do not see everything going on in the seen world (let alone the unseen world). 

What would happen if we admitted there is much we don’t know and cannot know and asked God to show us what He wants us to know? After all, He knows everything and that includes each one of us. He also loves us most!

“Grace reminds you that you deserve nothing, but it does not stop there – it confronts you with the truth that God is gloriously loving, gracious, and kind, that he lavishes on us things we could never have earned. Grace also reminds us that God is wise and never gets the wrong address – he gives each of us exactly what he knows we need.” 

Paul Tripp

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Photo by Pam Ecrement

Many of us grew up with our mothers admonishing us to chew slowly. Not many of us knew why and what benefit we would gain if we did. I sometimes wonder if we ever really grasped the benefit as we race through our meals, often eating “on the go.”

Chewing slowly not only allows for better digestion, but it has the added bonus of better hydration, easier weight loss or management, and of course we can actually taste and savor the food we are eating.

It does mean we must shift down into first gear to do so.

As I consider the sweet times of fellowship with the Lord during solitude and silence, I am keenly aware it only occurs when I deliberately slow myself down to rest in His presence. Those times with Him are immeasurably richer when my time in the Word and dialoguing with Him around it are a foundation for the level of intimacy solitude and silence bring.

I wonder how often we fail to chew slowly as we read in His Word. Quiet times must sometimes be compressed into shortened periods and we sometimes listen to the Word over iPods on our way to work or school. These and other times around the Word all help us focus on the Lord and nourish our spirits. They are good, but there is quite a difference between the enjoyments of dining at a table versus grabbing something at a drive through window.

I love what Judith Kunst reminds us about the Talmud in The Burning Word:

“Turn it and turn it again,” the Talmud says of the scriptures, “for everything is contained therein.”

Her words suggest to me the value of savoring the words that I read in the Word. She, in fact, points out that the Jewish tradition of reading the scripture called Midrash encourages that slow chewing on the Word.

Listen to Judith’s description:

“The Holy Scriptures abound with gaps, abrupt shifts, and odd syntax that puzzles, even confounds, any reader of scripture. Jewish Midrash views these troubling irregularities not as accidents or errors, or cultural disparities to be passed over, but rather as deliberate invitations to grapple with God’s revealed word – and by extension – to grapple with God himself…

Midrash views the Bible as one side of a conversation, started by God, containing an implicit invitation, even command, to keep the conversation – argument, story, poem, prayer – going.”

This interaction with the Word makes sense to me as a living document, a letter written from God to His children. As I read passages now that I know well and have read many times before, it is not unusual when I chew slowly to discover something new or fresh I somehow did not see at other times.

Chewing slowly allows me to notice the texture and subtle flavors of any food. The same is true with the Word.

It also reminds me of a few years ago on a trip to California. We visited some of the vineyards for which California is famous. If the vintner was present in the tasting room, we were taught to approach a glass of wine more slowly to discover all its nuances. It meant holding the glass up to allow the light to filter through the wine and notice the subtle or bold colors produced by the winemaker’s skills. It meant holding the glass of wine to the nose to discover its fragrance.

The vintner would slow us down even then to notice not just one fragrance, but a variety of complex notes. Swirling the wine in the glass before sipping it added another dimension by the addition of oxygen to the wine that had been bottled (closed off from air) just moments before. Then, and only then, were we advised to sip and taste the wine and enjoy all it contained.

In the first portion of Psalm 34:8 (ESV), the psalmist invites us:

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”

I think the vintner’s lesson about wine serves me well in reading scripture or considering the Midrash manner of reading the Word.

Only then can I discover the richness of the dialogue meant to guide my relationship with the Lord. It is also from that rich interaction I sense His nudge to come aside to be alone with Him and allow His whispers to draw me into intimacy with Him.

I am not a runner and never have been, but I respect anyone who does. Our daughter had not been a runner either, but made it a goal to start running as she was helping her kids to learn to run a mile as a homeschool mom. What a great goal! She surprised herself with her accomplishment and went on to run a number of races after that including running the Army 10-miler and a half marathon. We couldn’t have been prouder of her disciplined training. She encouraged me often to try it and if we had lived nearer to one another, she might have succeeded.

Even so, as a part of fulfilling God’s purposes, we are all in a relay race. We pass the baton from one generation to another. For a long time the goal has been to leave the world in a better place, one generation after another. For better or worse, we pass on a legacy to all those who follow after us.

You hear that message when you hear an older generation make a comment about wanting their children or grandchildren to have a better education or better job than they had. You see it in the sacrifices of the older generation to provide it for another. I watched it unfold in my life as well.

My grandparents, aunts and uncles, on my dad’s side of the family moved from eastern Pennsylvania to Ohio for the opportunity to purchase large adjoining acres of rich farmland to provide an expanded future for my dad’s generation. My dad’s generation discovered my generation did not have a great interest in farming so their goal was to provide good education to launch my generation into adulthood. And so it continued as my generation sought to provide an even better education and more opportunities.

Many of us were born out of families and generations that considered sacrifice to be an honor and a responsibility. The sacrifices they often made were less about “getting ahead” themselves or getting “more stuff” and more about what future they could give as they passed the baton to the next generation.

One generation that has often been heralded for sacrifice has been called “The Greatest Generation”, those who were of the WW II era who volunteered in unprecedented numbers whether for battle or to work in factories to make the world a safer, better place for their children.

Now that I am older with children and grandchildren of my own, I pause to wonder. In some ways we have already passed the baton to our adult children and have been blessed to see some of the legacy that is showing up in our grandchildren. We get to see glimpses, but the full view of the legacy will be beyond our lifetime.

Barry C. Black put it this way:

“God expects us to be world changers, to live lives that matter, to make someone or something different, ensuring that the world is a better place because we lived here.

We become world changers because God first changes us.”

How true are his words! God must change us first. Only when we are reconciled to Him who made peace on the cross, can we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts in all of our relationships. It is really the gospel that transforms us from the inside out. The gospel doesn’t compel us to love against our will, but instead changes our will.

Only the power of the gospel can cause us to become more like Him in words, attitudes, and actions. Then we can truly be salt and light in this world and leave a legacy of His love, grace, mercy, and truth as we pass the baton in this relay.

I can still recall the first Christmas tree my husband and I ever picked out after we were married. There were so many to choose from on the lot. My husband was looking at how straight the trunk was as a good criterion for our selection. He was so smart about that kind of thing!

I, on the other hand, was looking at the kind of needles, their shape, softness, and color. I was looking at the fullness of the tree and imagining it standing in our little one bedroom duplex back at our military base housing.

In the end, my sweet husband yielded to my romantic idea of a tree versus practical realities. The tree appeared lovely, but he pointed out that the one side was not well shaped and the trunk curved in two places, in the middle and at the base that would need to fit in the tree stand.

Clearly, it was not the best tree to choose, but by then I had determined that with all those problems no one would likely choose the tree and I didn’t want it to be left alone on the lot. Certainly we could make it work! Of course, I was counting on him to figure all that out.

The tree was difficult to get into the tree stand and sit in such a way that the curve of the trunk was not so evident. My sweetheart worked with it and we proudly set it up. But we have laughed about that first tree for all the years after that. While we were still using a real tree, I walked across many lots and fields of trees when we cut our own to select the perfect tree. My dear husband and our children would follow me in the cold and snow looking for just the right tree. (Think the Griswold Family Christmas tree from “Christmas Vacation”!)

It’s funny that all those carefully chosen more perfect trees are not what we remember.

Choices come in all shapes and sizes.

Choices are about all kinds of things and people.

I think it can be easy for me to look at someone’s choice of me or his or her lack of choosing me. It gets very personal and pulls me into comparing myself with others and letting their choice somehow determine my value. It is powerful and too often I can be tempted to give someone power that should only be reserved for the Lord.

What about my choices?

My choices say something about me even as yours do about you.

You see, if I turn the mirror around and determine to be brutally honest, I need to consider the criteria I use when making the choices that are mine to make.

My daughter and I love to shop together because we can make short work of a store. We either like things we see or we don’t and if we don’t, there is no need to spend an hour pouring over the racks of clothing the store buyer has selected for choosing. Some choices come easily.

I like some designs more than others and prefer certain colors. I turn away from shoddy workmanship whether it is in furniture or clothing. Clearly, I like excellence (at a good price).

But what about my choice of people?

We each choose people we enjoy and want to spend time with. What criteria do we choose then? How deeply do we look at our choices?

Do we see beyond the outward design and our preferences?

Do I choose the popular, most gifted, and fun person? Or do I look a bit deeper to see the workmanship hidden within the person’s character and the quality of his or her heart and spirit?

The choice of who I spend time with reveals my preferences and my character as well.

Too often my choices and yours reveal how unlike Christ we really are.

The Lord doesn’t choose me, you, or anyone else because of skills, standing in the community or church, or even our gifts.

The Lord doesn’t choose me (or you) because I AM special, but when He chooses me I BECOME special.

Sometimes we can be tempted to try to become somebody (whatever that means) in the hope we will be chosen by some person, some board, or some organization.

Such faulty thinking can cause us to believe that we will then be more useful or worthy or valuable. We can be tempted to think because we have this degree, this position, this title, this reputation, and a long list of other things that we will be able to be used by the Lord.

We get it backwards!

God chooses us not because we are somebody, but because we are a nobody.

That is when He can use us. That is when His power can be perfected and His glory shine more brightly. He did not come as a King. He did not wear royal robes. He came to reveal God, His Father, that everyone was missing.

The Lord chooses us and we become a walking presentation of the gospel in the lives of everyone we touch.

What will our choices say in that presentation?