All Is Not Lost

I for one appreciate modern advances.  Travel to any country is within a few hours of flying time.  Medical advancements keep us living longer and healthier.  In seconds we can communicate to someone in Laos or Botswana via instant messaging.  Industry builds things quickly and inexpensively.  Fruit grown in Ecuador is freshly placed on the breakfast table. 

We take all this for granted, but it was only a few centuries ago these things were not even a thought.  Now through an advancing series of analysis, reason, organization and control, our modern world has developed.   

In all these advancements we need to ask ourselves what has been stolen in the process.  For the modern humanistic mindset does tend to rob us of qualities that are deeper than the particulars we can see.  The natural dismisses the supernatural; individualism dismisses the community; science dismisses the sacred. 

Dr. Dianne Collard alerted us to what has been lost through the centuries when we were studying in the small rural town of Rutherfordton.  It hosted the cultural training center where our paths crossed.  I remember it well because Diana celebrated her fortieth birthday while we there.  One day we slipped out of class, made our way to downtown and had a special lunch together at the Legal Grounds.  Afterwards we found an antique store, and she picked out a gold trimmed tea cup for a gift.

On a fine September morning surrounded by people headed off to China, Bosnia, India and Micronesia, Dr. Collard pointed out the things we had lost to the modern mindset.  “Life was lived under a sacred canopy,” she said, meaning that western countries lived under a set of common assumptions that gave order and meaning to life.  “Life was processed through the Truth of Biblical revelation.”   

A world beyond the natural was at the core of those beliefs - the Trinity, an infinite Spirit, the mystery of Christ, miracles, and deceiving spirits.  All of life was processed through this supernatural reality before the scientific principles of reason and empirical observation usurped what was considered “superstitious” religious beliefs.  A meaningful spirituality was lost. 

It can sound discouraging but it’s not.  All is not lost.  God is still at work in your life and in countless others.  

The Art Date

 After the church meeting, after lunch and definitely after our Sunday afternoon nap, we were finally ready to go.  Our destination was the Tamarack for an art date.  Over the last few years Diana and I have made it habit to attend the openings of local art exhibits.  In order to share the experience we have invited friends and have forced family members to join us.  Along the way we have grown in our appreciation of art, enjoyed some tasty reception treats, engaged the community and met new artists. 

We stepped into the gallery to the welcome sound of an acoustic guitar filling the room.  Patrons studied their favorite pieces, others mingled with artists.  Oils and mixed media, abstract and impressionistic, sculptor and watercolor adorned the walls.  Each had a unique story.  A large charcoal drawing of a miner portrayed the artist’s father and was drawn with coal from his mine.  A stylized wooden chair was made from trees destroyed by the derecho a couple of summers ago. 

The fresh fruit of blackberries and pineapple along with smoked cheese, wheat crackers and sweet dip added a nice touch to the exhibit.  As is customary we selected some of our favorite art pieces.  Diana chose a fisherman wading in a shimmering stream, its qualities enhanced from a distance.  My selection was an oil painting with a colorfully exaggerated blue sky.  

Any art date deserves an artful thought of course.  Here’s one from State of the Arts by Gene Edward Veith Jr. “Properly considered, the arts are inestimable gifts of God.  They can enrich our lives.  The Bible itself sanctions the arts, describing the gifts God has given to artists and recounting in living detail works of art that were ordained by God to manifest His glory and enrich His people.

“If Christians can develop a taste for artistic excellence and spiritual depth, if they can learn to reject the superficialities of both the pop culture and the established art world, and if they will patronize artists of merit, then they will strengthen both the church and the arts and leaven the entire culture.”

After a latte and a chocolate raspberry coffee in the courtyard we walk past the gardens, down the steps and started home.  Soon and very soon we’ll be off our next art date.    

Holding In Trust

Lunch time found a friend and me at a Mexican restaurant having conversation over chips, salsa and tacos.  The dark yellow walls and mariachi music added to the authenticity of the atmosphere almost as much as the clean smell of the Suavitel.  Between mouthfuls of food we talked about the comings and goings of our children.   

While we may have had some disagreement on our perspective of parenting, we both felt very strongly about one thing.  We wanted our children’s hearts to be fully engaged with Christ. 

I am reminded of something Laura said to us when she came to our home for a visit during her college years.  She had been in our youth group previously, so our conversation eventually turned to questions about how we could have prepared her better.  

Basically she said, “It isn’t that what you did and said wasn’t helpful.  In fact it was.  What you need to remember, though, is that some lessons a person only gets with life experience.  You need to have lived life before you can really understand.” 

Somehow that rings true as particularly wise and insightful. Maybe our heart isn’t captured until we face life’s circumstances in a way that reveals our need.  Maybe the pain of changing must be less than the pain of remaining the same. 

Maybe the timing and circumstances of everyone’s personal situation is different.  I know Diana’s and mine are.  I was an angry young man, and she was a discouraged wife and mother.  We were in a different stage in life and in different circumstances but both open to a heart change.   

We hold in trust for one another and our children that God is at work in their circumstances and in his timing.  We hold onto the knowledge of their true identity as the beloved of God until they can hold it for themselves.  We hold it in trust until they can see it and until they can believe it, whether it’s at the age of 22 or 32 or 42.