The Shack
I know that men much smarter than I will probably make mincemeat of the theology presented in William P. Young’s The Shack. I found a lot to question as well. That being said, I enjoyed the book and it made a significant impact on me. My lovely bride will confirm to anyone who asks that I am a non-relationalist and probably one from birth. What is a "non-relationalist" (if there is such a term)? It is someone who is so focused on the analytical that he usually misses most of the relational aspects of life. I don’t necessarily like this about myself but do confess it to be true. It is not that I don’t want relationships — I want them very much. Its just that I don’t naturally gravitate to the "feelings side" when I can camp out on the more familiar (and safer) turf of the "thinking side." This proclivity of mine has not been limited to earthly relationships but also applies to heavenly ones. I have to be in a pretty desperate state of mind before I open up and pray for God to really touch my life rather than just fix the problem.

In The Shack Young’s treatment of the gospel as it is worked out in our lives is life-changing, at least for me. Without being a "plot spoiler" The Shack is about Mack whose daughter is kidnaped and murdered by a serial killer. Four years after the murder, he receives a note inviting him to meet with God at the same remote shack where his daughter was abused and murdered. Though he thinks it is a crazy idea, he goes and spends the weekend with God, all Three Persons (all dust jacket or Amazon information). What particularly grabbed me about the book was the way the author treated the relationships among the Trinity and how that relates to us as God lives in us. For one of the few times in my life I felt like I understood what true relationship looks and feels like. I will probably read the book again in a few weeks just to cement some of the encouraging parts in my mind. I would caution that as this book sweeps through the Christian (and non-Christian) community, many are becoming devotees and are uncritical of some of the very incomplete theology in the book. Read it with caution and expect to be challenged at some points. I think this is a great book for a discussion group.

"And do not forget that we are drifting."
Jefferson Davis (J. D.) Tant was born in 1861 in Marietta, Georgia. His father and three uncles were all were CSA soldiers and fought for the Army of Northern Virginia. The family lost their farm during Reconstruction and moved to Texas to make a new start. J. D. felt the call to ministry as a young man. He served for awhile in the Methodist church and then became a circuit preacher for the churches of Christ. His effective ministry brought him much attention. Though he was unrefined and plain spoken, (he was actually banned from publishing articles for almost ten years because he used the word "bull" in a sermon) he was sought after to preach and lead meetings all over the southeast and into Arizona and New Mexico.

He was a contemporary of, and well known by, the men who founded David Lipscomb College. He spent a good deal of time in middle and west Tennessee and preached for several long seasons in Bellevue. I am working on some family history but I’m not sure yet if we are directly related to J. D. We do know that my grandfather’s family had deep roots in the churches of Christ and some of them came from West Tennessee. In fact, I have an uncle who is also J. D. Tant, though the initials stand for Joe Donnie and not the illustrious president of the Confederacy.

The quote used as title for this post was one that J. D. used to close many of the articles he wrote for the Gospel Advocate magazine. It also showed up in some of his sermons. He was very much a traditionalist in the churches of Christ and his theological arguments and debates over a wide variety of issues were numerous. It seems that his use of this quote was to remind people that, in the Christian life, coasting is rarely an option. For most of us there is a current in the world that will quickly move us to a new location if we are not striving against it. He and I would surely be in disagreement as he applied this to the need to live outwardly a holy life in order to be saved. Where I think J. D.’s warning does ring true, however, is in our daily understanding of the gospel. I find that if I don’t "preach the gospel" to myself afresh every day, I begin to loose contact with its reality. I begin to believe that God will not really forgive my sin this time — this hundredth time or this millionth time. His patience has to finally wear thin with me and He will give up. That’s the message my spirit receives when I don’t remind myself of the incredible truth that, because of what Jesus has done, I am loved unconditionally. Otherwise, I am drifting . . . . .

Escape from the Moment
Everywhere we look in our culture we see how much we have adapted to living in the moment. Every Christmas advertisement I have received for electronics is making the pitch for cell phones with email and text messaging capability. I have had several friends who expressed amazement that I don’t use (or even know how to use) IM. In business the "just in time" approach has become the standard for inventory control and long range planning has been compressed to mean planning for the next calendar quarter. More and more families, even families with above average incomes, are living paycheck to paycheck. Savings in America is maybe at an all time low. In short, we are a culture that lives for the moment and gives little concern for the future.


Today in Sunday School we looked at the life of Abraham. God promised to bless his descendants for a thousand generations. He believed this promise and looked to a future he would never live to see. Also in class today I mentioned a book I purchased this week. It is an outline of the Book of Church Order prepared by a PCA elder in North Carolina. The reason I mentioned it was that he dedicated to book to one of his ancestors who was a pastor and one of the founders of Concord, MA in the 1500's. The reason for the dedication was that there is some documentation (either journal or sermons) that this future-conscience pastor was faithful to pray that his descendants would respond to the Gospel and accept Christ.


Yesterday, I visited the cemetery in Clarksville where my mother’s family is buried. While I was there it struck me how unlike our generation was my great, great grandfather, Patrick Joseph Savage. He immigrated with his family from Ireland in the mid-1800's. They settled, along with a number of other Irish families, in Montgomery County. I don’t know much about him but I do know he had a view to the future. Not too long after Greenwood Cemetery opened in 1872, he bought a relatively large number of burial plots all in the same area. I have no way to know what was on his mind at the time but there are now representatives of three generations buried there and still room for more. Whether it’s a good idea to purchase burial like my ancestor I don’t know. What I do know as a believer is that I should be so future oriented I regularly pray that my family for all generations to come (until Christ returns) will remain faithful to the covenant.

Special Days

The Andy Blog: On this rainy, foggy winter day we mark the 11th anniversary of Andy’s death. The weather is a vivid picture of my heart today: chilly and heavy. I have been feeling the gravity of this day all week and I guess I wasn’t expecting it, at least not to this degree. People ask if the pain ever gets better. I know that it does for most of the year but on those special days — birthday, Christmas (which Andy loved so much) and today — it seems I get sucked back in time to that most horrible of all days. I can walk through that Sunday moment by moment remembering with great clarity almost every thought, every encounter and still feel the same emotions with the same intensity as I did that day. Dianne has a plaque hanging in the kitchen which says "We don’t remember days, we remember moments." I my particular case this is true but I am remembering almost enough of these moments to make a day.

Of all the pictures we have of Andy (and I have looked at a lot today) this one probably says as much as any about his love for life. Andy had been decorating Christmas cookies to take to kids at church and school. If the cookies look so good with icing, why not decorate himself? And of course he did. And he loved every minute of it. This was probably the week before he began celebrating eternity with his heavenly Father. Andy, we laugh with you and we still miss you very much!

Fishing in the Low Country
I’m not sure there is such a thing as a bad fishing trip but I just returned from a great fishing trip to Edisto Island, South Carolina. Edisto Island is located about an hour southwest of Charleston and is part of what is known as the "low country." The trip was suggested by my son Mickey several months ago as a time for the three MET’s to spend some time together. So last Thursday afternoon Mickey, Michael, and I drove 600 miles to the home of John and Mandy Snow. The Snow’s have a wonderful house on the island adjacent to a saltwater creek. I have never felt more welcome anywhere I have stayed. John and Mandy love having company and have an extraordinary gift for hospitality.

I had never done any saltwater fishing so everything was new to me. First on the agenda each day was catching your bait. John has minnow traps which stay in the water almost all of the time. We also went out each morning and used a cast net to catch shrimp. John is very proficient and could fill an minnow bucket in less than an hour. Mickey had learned to use the cast net during their summer vacation and he added to the shrimp count. I realized quickly that I would certainly embarrass myself and probably fall out of the boat trying to throw the net. After the bait was on board, we went up the creek to some of John’s favorite spots. It was windy on Friday but we were sheltered fairly well on the creek. Just after low tide, we began to catch some fish. We caught about eight speckled trout which were keeping size along with one redfish. For my other grandson Sean, I caught a stingray (nasty creatures!). Saturday morning a front moved through and the fishing was not as good but it was still great day. Saturday night we feasted on fish, crab, and shrimp.

Some thoughts about the trip — Yes, it was a long way to travel for two days of fishing but it was worth the effort and then some. Our time in the car allowed some good catching up with each other and the two adults learned much from the 9 year old philosopher. What about unwinding in such a short period of time? I have had week long vacations that did not relieve the pressures of life like this trip. I attribute part of this to the nature of fishing but a good portion of this result came from the low country attitude we experienced. Everything about life was down a notch or two from the rest of the world. The relaxed attitude was so pervasive that it affected everything. I’ve been back to the normal busy schedule for three days but I still feel relaxed. Not only did I come back refreshed and renewed, I came back encouraged. I knew before the trip that I would enjoy getting re-acquainted with the Snow’s and I was not disappointed. The encouragement came from experiencing the blessings of a committed and loving Christian family and observing how they live out their faith moment by moment. So to John, Mandy, Preston, J. R., Cooper, Carlton, and Mollye, (and of course that wonderful dog, Chester) thank you for reviving an old soul.

The War about Illegal Aliens
America has this interesting habit of declaring war on social issues (I can’t remember a single one that declared war on us first). In the 1960's we declared War on Poverty. This was part of President Johnson’s Great Society initiative. There were many well intentioned folks that took a look at the richness of America (dare we say blessedness!) and decided that we could make a meaningful difference in the lives of many that lived below the poverty level. We did make a difference — we made them feel like second class citizens. In the process of waging this war on poverty, we took substantial funds from the more affluent citizens and funded programs that demeaned the recipients of assistance and undermined many non-governmental charity programs. Result: we still have poverty in America and many programs that assisted the poor with compassion and Christian charity were forced out of business.

In the 1970's we began the War on Drugs. A quick survey of modern America will confirm that we did not win this war. What did happen was that, in support of this worthy effort, we surrendered many of our rights. The Constitution promises that we will be secure in our homes and our possessions. The "no-knock" provisions gives the police the right to kick in your door if they think you may flush drugs down the toilet. RICO allows the government to take your property and keep it until you can prove that you are not a drug dealer. Granted, these are simplistic descriptions but they are accurate with respect to the rights we have surrendered in support of this war.

We all are familiar with the War on Terror. While I am a big supporter of President Bush, I think history may judge his administration as the one that presided over the greatest deterioration of constitutional rights since the adoption of the constitution. I believe the Patriot Act would be considered grounds for a new revolution to many of our founding fathers. Yet, we embraced its provisions in order to feel more "safe" in our homes. Shame on us.

We are now engaged in a War about Illegal Aliens (not a war on illegal aliens). For at least 20 years the Federal Government has failed to enforce the existing laws on immigration. As a result we have 20+ million illegal aliens living in the county, most from Mexico. These people have been a blessing to business and a curse to the average citizen who sees his tax money being spent to support services for people who should not be in the country. Some conservative politicians have seen this as an issue to champion to improve their standing with the electorate. One of the worst consequences of this is the "Anti-Sanctuary" legislation presently pending before Congress. This legislation would penalize any city or state that does not modify the operation of the law enforcement agencies to make cooperation with the immigration service a top priority. Under this legislation Federal funds can be withheld from cities if they continue to instruct the local police to enforce local laws and protect the citizens. The Mayor of Detroit was quoted in USA Today (10/26/07) as follows: "I want Detroit police officers out there catching people who are stealing cars and mugging old ladies, not asking people for their passports." Cities who take this approach have been branded "sanctuary cites" by certain members of congress and conservative talk show hosts. In my opinion, this is just one more case where we are being asked to allow the Federal government to intrude in local affairs, contrary to the intent of the Founding Fathers, and surrender more of our rights. We don’t have many left — when will we take our stand?

Jonathan Who?

It been a while since I posted. My excuse: I have been both busy and lazy. I was shook out of my inattention during a trip to Borders last Friday night. I was in the literature section immediately adjacent to the religion section. There was a high school girl and her mother standing at the divider between the two sections. The mother asked "Now who is this man we’re looking for?" The girl responds, "Jonathan Edwards." The mother is unfamiliar with the name and asks, "Who is he and what’s so special about him?" The girl responds, "In the colonial days he was a preacher who used guilt manipulation and terror to try to force people to convert to Christianity. He would tell stories that were like horror movies about what will happen to you if you didn’t join his church." She said a good bit more along the same lines but those words are lost in the fog of my memory.

I was a bit shocked and, although I was tempted to step around the divider and engage them in conversation, I remained frozen in place trying to figure out where this young girl got those ideas. It was clear from listening how quick and sure her answer was that she had heard this from someone. A few days later I shared this incident with a friend. He explained that many schools today have so "dumbed-down" the study of literature that almost all they read are excerpts. He further explained that there are curriculum in use in some public schools that contain a portion of Edward’s sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (the most graphic portions). The curriculum gives little context for the sermon as a whole or the portions read. It is very likely that a teacher who is no friend to Christianity could color his introduction to convey to the class what the girl repeated.

What a tragedy that so many young people can come away from high school with such a false opinion of one of our Nation’s greatest minds. But maybe the bigger tragedy is the way literature is being taught. It seems the curriculum writers have taken as gospel the notion that all teenagers have short attention spans and cannot listen (or read) for periods longer than a few minutes at a time. Computer games, music videos, text messages all train the recipient to "get it and go." A couple of movies I have watched (Example: Bourne Ultimatum ) change scenes so rapidly that it gives me a headache. This is what the kids get on video games. I’m sure somewhere the argument is used that if we try to teach literature the "old" way we will lose the kids and they won’t read at all. I just can’t believe that a good story has lost all its magic.