Category Archives: Healing

HUMILITY AFTER HUMILIATION

Pat Nemmers is a pastor of a thriving church in Des Moines, Iowa. That church has planted several other churches that are also doing well. Pat is the father of ten children and thirty-eight grandchildren. No typo there.

Lest you think Pat’s life is one of blessing upon blessing, his wonderfully conceived Retractions: Cultivating Humility after Humiliation will quickly disabuse you of that assumption.

Pat’s book is an honest yet hope-filled book on the life of a pastor, husband, father, and friend. Honest books on the pastoral life are somewhat rare, but I am happy to say that Pat’s book makes a healthy triumvirate alongside Zack Eswine’s The Imperfect Pastor and Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: A Memoir.

Pat knows joy and he knows deep grief. His first wife died in his arms while still in her thirties. He knows what it is like to have wayward children. More importantly, he knows the importance of submitting his own life all over again to the Lordship of Jesus.

This is an honest, searching, life-giving, and Christ-honoring book that you just might want to give to your pastor.

 

AGGRESSIVELY HAPPY

I almost did not read this book. The cover made me think it was going to be another one of those fluffy, feel-good books. You know, the kind in the end that leave you more convinced that Christians just can’t write honestly about the human condition.

Well, I am here to say that Joy’s splendid book is hardly spiritual pablum. Joy just finished her PhD at St. Andrews, she knows suffering firsthand, and yet she maintains a gritty confidence in Jesus Christ.

When you are my age (sixty-four, by the way), have a strong theological education, and constitutionally have a honed radar for drivel, you are ready to be disappointed by “popular” Christian books.

I was not disappointed!

The writing is beautiful, the insights are fresh, and the storytelling, even about the author’s own life is wonderful. Talking or writing about yourself is fraught with all kinds of potential hazards, but Joy avoids them. She is the winsome, fellow-traveler you would like to have as a guide and friend.

I usually read (meaning careful highlighting and note-taking) 50-60 books a year. I peruse hundreds of others. Aggressively Happy will definitely make my favorite book list for 2022, but now I feel another category needs to be added: Books that pleasantly surprised me.

I would love to open a bookstore someday. Well, not quite. Since my own teaching and writing makes that impossible, I would love to be the person who picks what gets stocked. If and when that happens, you can be sure to find this book on the shelves.

WHAT WHITE CHRISTIANS CAN/SHOULD DO

I am sixty-two years old. I am white. I was not responsible for either of these two things, but I am responsible for many other things.

A good friend asked me what we as Christians in the majority culture here in America can do with respect to the racial crisis. There are many things, but here are a few in no particular order, except for the last which is of first importance.

*We Christians need to stop being so consumed and/or afraid with how terrible we believe America is at this point in its history. Instead, we should spend our time making sure we are clear on all of God’s truth, compassionate to every person, and courageous even if it is costly. This will keep us Christians plenty occupied. It is animated by the reality that “judgment starts with the household of God.” (I Peter 4:17)

*It is great to have African American friends, but you will not have much to offer any friend if you are not grounded theologically. I used to give disclaimers whenever trying to promote the study of theology for all Christians. No longer. Knowing what and why you believe the Christian faith to be true is the most practical pursuit of life. This leads to my next thought.

*If you unable to give compelling reasons for why the trinity has much to offer not just with the racial conflict in America, but with many other pressing matters, please study up before you go out representing what Christians believe. The unity and diversity of the trinity has far-reaching implications for all sorts of things. Again, get studying if you can’t articulate in compelling and clear language all that the trinity (and other Christian beliefs) has to offer.

I have asked several Christians why the trinity is compelling including a Dallas Seminary trained pastor. Except for my wife and a handful of others, I typically do not receive a great response. Most Christians sign their church’s doctrinal statement with a thin understanding of what they are agreeing to. I concur with J.I. Packer that the most pressing issue for the church is robust education. Again, no apologies.

*We must make concerted efforts to get out of our echo chambers. Most of us live in some sort of echo chamber. In addition, we should avail ourselves of theological education that is increasingly aware of two thousand years of Christian reflection not just what happened after the Protestant Reformation. All the major Protestant Reformers would agree with me on this!

*There is a good chance many of us have significant homework to do. Homework is another word I used to apologize for when talking with adults! To quote President Bush #41 “Not going to do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

If you have not read it, begin with reading Narrative of a Slave by Frederick Douglass. There are many more things I would add, but that is a good place to start.

*Be aware of false dichotomies. Believing that people need to trust Jesus as Savior is not at odds nor diminished by acknowledging “structures of evil” or “institutional racism.” Or “white privilege.” If we want to be biblical, we will need to juggle many truths at the same time.

We Americans do not tend to be the most thoughtful people. The great observer of American life, Alexis de Tocqueville, appreciated several things about America. However, he saw the problem of superficial thinking in our country almost two hundred years ago. American Christians are not immune from the tendency to emphasize one (many times valid) truth at the expense of other truths.

*Last, but obviously most important, we will need God to convict, direct, and motivate us to do these things, things many of our fellow Christians either denigrate or worse still, do not think about at all.

I am grateful to my friend, Dr Vince Bacote of Wheaton College, for his input on this post. As it is always said at such points, but with good reason, I alone am responsible for the content. I am glad that Vince agreed that what I wrote should be “common sense” among Christians. Sadly, foundational truths should not be assumed in our day and age.

 

 

                                                                                                                                   

THE J CURVE

For the first half of this book, I felt the author was a bit redundant. That criticism probably still stands, but I found the second half of the book terrific. It’s not that the first half is worth skipping over. It still offers much, but I think the examples of dying and rising with Christ could have been reduced.

I greatly appreciated the illumination Miller brought to bear from ancient history. His exegesis of some key passages is also well done.

FAN YOUR BRAIN

Dan Siegel offers three things that greatly help one’s overall mental health.  I rearranged the list (as found in Curt Thompson’s Anatomy of the Soul) so I could make the word FAN.  Here are the three things:

Focused attention exercises.  These are things such as prayer and meditation on the Word of God.

Aerobic activity.  Forty-five minutes a day at least five times a week.  We think better when we our body feels better.

Novel learning experiences.  Pushing yourself to learn something new.  Could be gardening, cooking, a new language, really just about anything that forces the brain to make new connections.

CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTINGS

I spent the summer of 1980 in South Carolina.  Lots of wonderful people there, but I saw examples of blatant racism I’d never experienced.  In fact, I once had to break up a fight between a white business owner (rumored to be part of the KKK) who pulled a knife on a black employee. 

I worked at a gas station and told certain people I would not serve them if they continued to use offensive language directed at black people.  I remember some staring at me like I was from Mars.  Ironically, I felt like I was visiting Mars at times!

Ps. 116:15; Jn. 11:25

For more on the shootings in Charleston:

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2015/06/18/clementa-c-pinckney-1973-2015-pastor-of-mother-emanuel-a-m-e-in-charleston-sc/

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-church-shooting.html?_r=0