Category Archives: Obedience

Going to Extremes

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When I was in high school, Chicago’s O’Hare airport had the distinction of being “the busiest airport in the world.” My good friend Lynn and I, for lack of anything better to do, sometimes enjoyed a Friday evening at the airport watching (and analyzing) the steady parade of travelers.

Since there were no security checks in the 1960’s, we’d watch the boards for plane arrivals and then head for the gate as passengers disembarked. One of us would slip into the crowd coming off the plane, then squeal and scream when we saw each other, in a bogus reunion. Watching strangers respond was entertaining, and it didn’t cost a penny.

Fifty years have passed since then, and now no one gets to a gate without a boarding pass. We live in a day of terrorism, and to cooperate with airport safety, we have to undress to pass through security. “Remove your shoes, belts, hats, jackets, watches and jewelry, even pocket change.” Men have to clutch their pants as they walk through metal detectors, nervous they’ll be asked to hold their arms out for a wanding.

But there’s fresh hope for improvement in this overkill process. While waiting in a security line before my last plane trip, I saw something new, a giant poster that said, “Attention Passengers 75 and Older. If you were born on or before today’s date in 1937, you can leave your light jacket and shoes on during screening in this checkpoint.”

Finally! A reasonable idea.

Our country is famous for going to extremes, and we love criticizing and teasing about it. But truth be told, most of us find ourselves lured to excessiveness once in a while, too. If some is good, more must be better. If cutting back is wise, then having none is wiser.

In one sense, even Scripture promotes extremes:

  • It says we should willingly lose our lives to God in order to gain them back.
  • When God purged the Israelite camp of sin, he destroyed men, women, children, and even their animals.
  • Jesus said, “If you want to follow me, forsake everything else first.”

But other Scriptures encourage us to walk a middle line: “Moderation is better than muscle, self-control better than political power.” (Proverbs 16:32)

So what are we to do? What standard should guide us?

The answer is in “the who.” If it’s something that’s between God and us, we have to comply with the extremes he requires; we’re either all-in, or all-out.

But if it’s something strictly human, he encourages moderation: not too much rest but just enough; not too much work but just enough; not too much food but just enough.

I guess that should go for airport security measures, too. Caution is good, but undressing is extreme. And screaming in bogus airport reunions? Downright foolishness.

“Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise… Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool… It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18)

 

 

Poisons that Kill

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Modern medicine is a good thing, and part of that is the use of effective drugs. Misuse, however, can get us into trouble.

When my husband’s cancer was rushing through his system, our drug use became prodigious. (“Medicine 101”) Those of us helping him were in a race to stay ahead of his escalating symptoms, and because pancreatic cancer is 100% fatal, we weren’t under the delusion Nate’s prescriptions would heal him. The pills were simply meant to ease his misery: Vicodin, Oxycontin, Ondansetron, Morphine, and others.

During 5 of Nate’s 6 weeks of cancer, he took the pills himself (though we handed them to him), but during the last week, everything changed. He had trouble holding onto the small pills, and sometimes they’d roll off his fingers on the way to his mouth. When that happened, we’d get on all fours around his chair in an effort to find the stray drug. With two young children in the house, one a crawler, our mission to keep an eye on each pill was critical.

One day we lost an oxicontin, the strength of which could kill a toddler. All of us endeavored to find it, literally inspecting every square inch near where Nate had last held it in his hand. We swept, vacuumed, and inspected the vacuum bag contents but failed to find the pill. And until my grandchildren left several weeks later, we lived with uncertainty and a good deal of fear.

All of our lives include scenarios that can turn out to be harmless or deadly. For example, it isn’t difficult to prevent a child from eating moldy food or a friend from running in front of a truck. But what about the out-of-sight dangers like hanging onto unforgiveness or letting anger dominate? Do we tolerate jealousy or let worry control us? Or how about allowing fear to consume us or nurturing our anger? Maybe we have a critical spirit or are permitting bitterness to take root.

Are we as diligent about locating these things in our lives as we might be in searching for a stray Oxycontin pill? If not, it’s probably because we think of hidden poisons as insipid rather than insidious, despite their ability to destroy us just as effectively as a drug overdose or a deadly cancer.

Scripture warns us to watch for these inner poisons, label them honestly, and route them out. And in the empty places they leave behind, God promises to put something new, something good, because he’s not a God of emptiness but of fullness.

As for the wayward Oxycontin pill? A month after my grandchildren left I was brushing dog hair from a heating grate when there it was, nestled snugly against the white grill. How we missed it I’ll never know, but once found, it was thoroughly destroyed.

“The church… is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.” (Ephesians 1:23)

 

Have we seen that before?

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When Nate died, we had 2 grandchildren, 15 month old Skylar and 10 month old Nicholas. Since then, 4 more little lives have joined our family: Micah, Evelyn, Thomas, and Autumn. Birgitta’s October baby will be a 5th, bringing the total grands to 7.

The oldest of this passel of children is only 3, but a-lotta lively livin’ has been packed into the 2½ years since Nate left us. Because I believe every new life originates with God, I enjoy the thought that somehow our Lord, acting in love, has given Nate knowledge of these 4 little ones.

As I look at their angelic faces, once in a while I get glimpses of my husband. It’s the wonder of ancestry that facial features from a grandpa could reappear in his grandchildren or even in generations not yet born. We see this in something as simple as hair color. Nate and I were surprised when our first child came out with red hair, so we looked for other “carrot-tops” in our family tree. To our surprise they were dotted on both sides, though none in a close generation.

Every physical feature comes from someone else along the genealogy before us, though we may not recognize who or when. Grandpa’s eyes, great-grandma’s smile, auntie’s cheekbones. Yet in God’s unlimited ability to make each individual unlike any other, when he puts the recurring pieces together, each person turns out to be unique.

Far more important than someone’s physical characteristics, however, is the heart, and I don’t mean the lubb-dubb kind. Although most physical hearts look alike, it’s our emotional hearts that God is keenly interested in, and each of those is one-of-a-kind. He’s especially curious about whether or not our hearts beat for him.

If we daily seek after him with a desire to do life his way, the delightful result is that we’ll gradually become more like him. Some of his characteristics will appear in us, similar to the way the physical characteristics of our ancestors pop up one generation to the next.

Folklore tells us there’s one other way to look like someone else: stay married for a long time and you’ll begin to resemble your spouse. Maybe it’s a result of mirroring each other day after day or looking across the table and picking up each other’s mannerisms. Maybe it’s the result of eating the same diet or breathing the same air.

Whatever the reason, in our efforts to become more like Christ, it’s a pretty good idea to “look across the table” each day and see the Lord. If we watch what he does, obey his instructions, and eat a steady diet of his Word, we’re bound to start looking like him.

“We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.” (1 John 3:2)