Monthly Archives: January 2008
Plant Blogging: Repotted
Several days ago, I mentioned that I would be moving my new office palms to a new pot. Well, I gave it a go on Saturday. Unfortunately, things went somewhat awry, as they are wont to do. I had bought a 75¢ clay pot at Wal-Mart in the hopes that it would provide a comfortable new home for my plant. So I yanked the palms out of their old plastic pot and tried to stuff them into their new pot.
It didn’t work.
Sadly, the base of the clay pot was too small for yours truly to squeeze all the soil and roots of the palms into it. As an aside, I would like to add that I am often not very good at estimating sizes and distances. Here we have a prime example of that fact.
At this point, there was really only one thing to do. I hurried back to Wal-Mart and bought a new pot. However, I had to spend more money this time to find a pot that was a good fit. This shiny black beauty set me back $6, but quite frankly, it looks really nice. And it holds Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego quite comfortably in its spacious bowl. Finally, I figure that if the plant dies, I’ve still got the pot for future vegetative ventures.
So the moral of the story is this: if you want something done right, be willing to spend a little extra money. Me, I ended up spending $11 on this plant, but I suppose that’s a lot cheaper than a dog, a cat, or a baby. Another possible moral is that you should get someone who knows what she’s doing to take care of your office decor.
The Book of Happiness – Meditation 7: Possible
Find yourself!
But where to begin?
Why not start here with meditation #7 from The Book of Happiness: Possible.
Potted plant blogging
The problem with working in an office with no windows—or any decor to speak of—is that it’s boring and drab and dreary. I love my job at the church, but I’ve longed for some color—some pizazz, as it were. So I brought in a lava lamp that was collecting dust in my bedroom. It helped! And I decided to take the next step and buy a potted plant.
The plant I picked out at Wal-Mart is apparently a palm. Actually, according to the label, it is a “palms” because there are three of them in one pot. Adam named them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It’s nice to have some flora in my office (Adam already serves as an admirable specimen of fauna). I picked the palms over the other nice Wal-Mart plants because they had more leaves and only required a moderate amount of water. I didn’t ask the palms, but according to the label, they also prefer indirect light. What could be more indirect than no sunlight whatsoever? Hopefully, the fluorescent lights of my office will do the trick.
I’m a little nervous about this experiment. This may come as a surprise to you, but it’s the first time in my life that the responsibility of caring for another living creature has been placed solely on my shoulders. Sure, I’ve taken care of my family’s cats and whatever other animals we happened to adopt, but that responsibility was shared. I guess it’s good that I’m starting with a $3 trio of palms rather than, say, a trio of kids. It’s a step in the right direction toward responsibility. I give the palms a 50/50 chance of survival.
Anyway, I’ll keep you all updated on the status of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. On Friday, I plan to transfer them to their brand new home—a 75¢ clay pot. I know, I know—I can’t wait, either.
Bonus aside: this picture is a little too small for you to see in much detail (since it was taken with my pathetic camera phone), but apparently I am now a fan of Casting Crowns. I showed up at work this morning and found a poster for their upcoming Bloomington concert taped to my whiteboard. I was not aware of my fandom until today, but I embrace it with open arms.
A selfish hatred of sin
While reading John Owen’s excellent book, The Mortification of Sin in Believers, I was broadsided by these powerful words:
Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification. Now, it is certain that that which I speak of proceeds from self-love. You set yourself with all diligence and earnestness to mortify such a lust or sin; what is the reason of it? It disquiets you, it has taken away your peace, it fills your heart with sorrow and trouble and fear; you have no rest because of it.…If you hate sin as sin, every evil way, you would be no less watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which grieves and disquiets your own soul. It is evident that you contend against sin merely because of your own trouble by it.
Owen, of course, has the unique ability to write the biography of every Christian in the space of a paragraph.
My whole life is characterized by this failure. Last Wednesday, while speaking at prayer service, I was a bit too cavalier with a certain passage of scripture. I narrowly insisted on one interpretation when the passage was unclear. However, rather than being broken over mishandling God’s Word, I was more concerned that other people would see me mishandling God’s Word (which I did) and think worse of me for it.
On Thursday, our seminary instructor spoke about the importance of being diligent as a pastor. He pointed out how necessary it was to lead by example—to avoid a lazy approach to ministry. Because laziness is a sinful habit of mine, I was convicted by his words…but mainly because of the threat that other people would see me as lazy (which I am) and think worse of me for it. Seeing sin as sin had little to do with it.
And that was just in the space of two days.
In my case, the fear of man is much more powerful than the fear of the Lord. My goal is selfish: to preserve my reputation in the sight of others. Often, I hate sin for this reason only.
How we need to grow a proper fear of God—to understand how offensive sin is in His sight! How we need to cultivate “a sense of the love of Christ in the cross”! Without these, we will remain slaves to our own sinful nature, and we will not be conformed to the image of Christ. To become like Him, we must know Him and cherish Him as He is.
Love or marriage: which is the basis for which?
I just ran across a news article with the unfortunate headline Love doesn’t necessarily mean marriage: survey:
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Four out of 10 Americans say they don’t need a marriage certificate to prove love or commitment, according to a new online survey.
Overall, 44 percent of the 7,113 Americans aged 20 to 69 who took part in the poll by Zogby International and AOL Personals said they didn’t need marriage to validate their relationships.
“Across all age groups, you just don’t need a marriage certificate to mean love,” AOL Personals Director Keith Brengle told Reuters.
“People are coming online to find that special someone but that special someone doesn’t necessarily translate into a marriage, and more so with the folks in their 60s.”
Half the respondents between the ages 20 and 29 said marriage wasn’t necessary.
A majority of respondents also said they would prefer to live together first before marriage and most said marriage should truly be until “death do us part,” especially those in their 30s (73 percent).
All in all, it’s an interesting survey. Most importantly, it reflects a false understanding of love and marriage that is present not only in the American culture but also in the American church. So here’s where I’m going to get very opinionated.
Is marriage merely a “stamp of approval” for a couple who already love each other? Or is it the foundation of the couple’s love for one another? The former is cultural; the latter is biblical.
The Bible’s teaching on the subject indicates that a husband should love his wife for the simple reason that she is his wife. We see this clearly in Ephesians 5:22-33, among other passages. Love is not to be founded on chemistry or compatibility or shared interests or physical beauty or money or sex. Ultimately, it is to be founded on marriage. While a husband may love his wife for all these things, he must be able to say to her, “Above all, I love you because you are my wife, and that love will never die as long as you are my wife.” This is the attitude of Christ toward the church.
If we look at love and marriage with an upside-down worldview, we will simply be following the failures of the culture around us. If we look at these issues through a biblical lens, it will change our attitudes. In particular:
- Dating. We view dating as a means to building a romantic relationship with another person. This relationship is then given the stamp of approval with a marriage license. Logically, then, marriage is often seen as subsequent and unnecessary to the relationship. This perspective is backwards; marriage should be seen as the basis for the relationship. The goal of dating or courtship or whatever should not be to build a relationship; its goal should be to determine whether the couple are fit to be husband and wife. (Hopefully, a close friendship is being built in the process!) If the highest goal of dating is to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, that’s a pretty childish attitude—one that will likely bring about sin, hurt, and confusion.
- Divorce. If a husband and wife are to love one another simply because they are husband and wife, then this eliminates most grounds for divorce found in our culture. A man’s wife may not be “the woman I married,” but she is his wife. He is to love her regardless. I know a friend who did this; he refused to stop loving his wife even though she was mistreating him. His unconditional love brought them through a rocky period in their marriage in which almost anyone else would have given up.
Our worldview has a tremendous impact on the way we live. This is an area where the church has gone along with foolish thinking, unaware of the dangers. How we need the truth of God’s Word to change our attitudes and transform our minds!
