bdsawatsky - Tumblr blog

[bdsawatsky]

One thing you have to admit about resurrection—it looks great on your résumé. It says you have the right to make outrageous statements like, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’

Bartley Sawatsky

[bdsawatsky]

If there’s one thing that has struck me during this pandemic, it’s how it is affecting people so differently. In one part of the world, COVID-19 means piling bodies into military trucks for burial in an unfamiliar place, while for others it means playing games with family and binging on Netflix. Our experiences couldn’t be more diverse. The one thing that we can safely say we share is this moment. In some way or another, we are all in this thing together.

As a pastor, I’m not only a student of God’s Word—but of people. Part of my job is checking in on people and making sure they’re okay. It’s trying to help numerous individuals, all of whom are unique (and processing things very differently), apply the wisdom of God’s Word to their own situation. We pastors do the best we can with this task as we simultaneously plunge into the fog of our own feelings. We do well to maintain a posture of humility as we try to bring something of value to those who walk beside us.

So how are you doing?  As you fumble around in your own fog, have you been able to identify what you are feeling? Are you taking note of the changes? Are you drilling down into that uneasiness you’re sensing and pinpointing the source? What discoveries are you making? Are you unearthing your coping mechanisms? If there’s anything good that this terrible virus could teach us, maybe it’s some healthy introspection.

Some of us are discovering our inability to be still. It may take the duration of this pandemic to bring our adrenaline levels down to normal. We like running hard because it keeps other thoughts and feelings at bay, and stoppages like this are not comfortable, much less welcome.

In a similar vein, some of us are discovering we’re addicted to productivity. We feel the need to keep producing, lest feelings of worthlessness start to creep in. We know that God made us to sustain a certain level of productivity, but we have a hard time just accepting this as a season of stopping, resting and being. Maija Kappler has a provocative article on this topic in HuffPost. (Check it out here.)

Some of us are discovering just how bad we are at relationships. Our curtness and impatience become amplified by the unknown that looms over us. We struggle just to engage and be fully present with our children for half an hour. And couples are bending low under the weight of finance and isolation. (Every expert I’ve consulted expects a wave of new divorce filings at the end of this crisis. I hope they’re wrong.) There’s nothing like locking struggling couples in the same house for a few months to see if their marriage will sink or swim.

Some lovely souls who struggle with codependency could be in over their head too. Lost employment already has them feeling like they’re letting others down. But now they have to learn how to educate and entertain their own kids while providing three gourmet meals a day that no one even asked for. What’s worse, many codependents can’t confine their neuroticism to the home; it spills out on a grander scale as they wrestle with Global Compassion Fatigue, literally taking the weight of the world on their shoulders as if there was something they could do to fix it.

Some of us are seeing how deeply we crave the affirmation of others, which for the time being might be limited to social media.  

Some of us are seeing how badly we need to control our environment.

Some of us are seeing just how much trust we place in our finances.

Some of us are seeing how resistant we are to authority. (Just stay home.)

Some of us are seeing our vices effortlessly re-emerge as our anxious souls look for comfort… alcohol, pornography or shopping.

Some of us have been shaken to realize that the world is so incredibly vulnerable. We may even be starting to see that our belief systems don’t provide the answers and peace that we need.

There are endless discussions that we could pursue in an attempt to bring biblical wisdom to each of these issues. But in the interest of brevity, let me wrap up this blog post by reminding us all, myself included, of a few things that apply to all of these struggles.

First, God is real and he’s in control. If you haven’t come to terms with this yet, I’m not sure how you will ever find the comfort you seek. If the universe is truly random and chaotic at its core, then no one is in control. And even if we find a vaccine that can prevent the next pandemic, we’d better get along with figuring out next how to prevent asteroids from hitting the earth or the sun from wearing out. Christian theology acknowledges that sometimes things will look out of control from our vantage point, but we have assurance that God still has his hands on the wheel and that his purposes will prevail. Relax.

Second, let’s not forget that God sees and knows what’s going on. And more than that, he sees and knows what’s going on in our troubled hearts. He has proven himself as the God who engages humankind and who participates in our suffering. Jesus demonstrated that God’s modus operandum for fixing the universe is relationship before resolution. He has promised to make everything right someday, but for now, he uses times of trouble to get us to trust him more and to draw us close to him. So let’s draw close.

Finally, we mustn’t forget that God loves us. That one, tiny piece of information is the solution for everything that ails us. Before we reach for our typical God-replacements during this crisis, let’s take a minute to remember that God loves us unconditionally. He loves us whether we’re performing or not, whether we’re producing or not, whether we suck at relationships or not. He loves us even though we’re control freaks, addicts, codependents and worriers. Let’s learn to rest in that love.

As far away as it seems right now, this pandemic will come to an end. The curve will eventually flatten, and life will return to some new form of normalcy. But before this learning curve flattens for all of us, let’s take away everything we can from this experience. Now is a perfect time to take assessment of our coping mechanisms and to learn to shift our dependence onto God.

[bdsawatsky]

This past week, Scott Berinato wrote a timely article in the Harvard Business Review entitled, That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief. He explains how some of the HBR edit staff met online the other day (as so many of us are now doing). Before getting into the day’s business, the faces on the screen took the time to ask how everyone was feeling. As Berinato describes it, “One colleague mentioned that what she felt was grief. Heads nodded in all the panes.” The team decided now was as good a time as ever to take a deeper dive into the topic.

They turned to David Kessler, the world’s leading expert on grief, who co-authored On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. Kessler is also the founder of www.grief.comwhich has over 5 million visits yearly from 167 countries. His experiences have taken him from Auschwitz concentration camp to Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta, and his volunteer work includes serving as a member of the Red Cross Mental Health Disaster Team and as a Specialist Reserve Officer on the trauma team of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kessler’s personal experience with grief is what prompted his professional journey. When he was a child, he witnessed a mass shooting while his mother was dying in hospital. In 2016, his youngest son died suddenly at 21 years old. In light of our common explanations for grief, the HBR staff asked Kessler if it was fair to label what many are feeling right now during this COVID-19 crisis as “grief”. Kessler was unequivocal in his response:

Yes, and we’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.

I appreciate how Kessler highlights the need to honestly grieve the things that we have lost during this time. The pain is real and shouldn’t be ignored. He then goes on to talk about a special kind of grief he calls “anticipatory grief”. The term piqued my curiosity.

Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we’ll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety.

Kessler demonstrates great insight into what is currently happening—what many of us are actually doing during this pandemic: grieving losses that haven’t yet happened. We suspect that they could happen, and so our minds, almost in an attempt to lessen the blow should our worst fears come true, put us on alert. Awareness of the possible dangers ahead is useful and can inform us how to act in face of threats like COVID-19, but I had to ask myself, Isn’t going so far as grieving future losses the same thing that Jesus called worry? I kept reading, and sure enough, Kessler makes that connection…

Unhealthy anticipatory grief is really anxiety, and that’s the feeling you’re talking about. Our mind begins to show us images. My parents getting sick. We see the worst scenarios.

It’s no wonder Jesus taught us to banish worry from our lives. Our minds and bodies were not meant to bear the burdens of days, months and years in the future. I’ve always thought of worry as interest we pay on money that we don’t even owe. It makes no sense! And we’ve all heard that unsubstantiated (but likely true) statistic that something like 95% of the things we worry about never come true anyway.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Jesus, Matthew 6:34)

Jesus knew that worry (a.k.a. anticipatory grief) breaks down our faith. It makes us question our security and doubt God’s promises. As Christians, we often differentiate between the faith that a person exercises to become a follower of Jesus with the faith that we exercise on a day-to-day basis, but faith is faith. Whether we are trusting God for the destiny of our eternal souls or to provide the money we need to buy groceries, it can all be reduced to the same two questions: Do we believe Jesus is who he says he is, and do we believe that he will do what he says?

As we get into the Easter season, we will surely hear the story of doubting Thomas, that disciple of Christ who needed to see the scars in Jesus’ hands and feet before he would believe that he had indeed resurrected from the dead. I can almost hear the seeker-friendly preachers across North America telling their listeners (whether in a physical or virtual services) that God accepts our doubts. It has become a popular mantra in today’s most welcoming churches, and I certainly appreciate the sentiment behind the statement. We need to bring our doubts to Jesus, knowing that he welcomes us no matter what. But we have to be careful about creating an expectation that people should become comfortable just hanging out with the people of God as they wallow in their doubts. Jesus accepts us with our doubts, but we must be clear (as Jesus was clear) that he expects us to dispose of our doubts. Repeatedly in the gospels we see him exhorting his friends in this way.

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”  (Matthew 14:28-31)

These doubts continued even after Jesus rose from the dead…

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:17)

In Matthew 14 and 28, Matthew uses the word distazo for doubt, a word that literally means “double standing” and invokes the image of someone not sure of which foot to stand on. When I learned French, I discovered that indecisiveness is often called être assis entre deux chaises—sitting between two chairs. It’s the same idea. Jesus wants us to make up our minds as to where we are placing the weight of our faith.

In another post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, Luke records…

He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? (Luke 24:38)

Luke used the term dialogismoi for doubt. The word gives the idea of an internal dialogue that happens inside of us when we question Jesus’ claims. But I want to draw attention to the word John uses in his gospel when he records his account of Thomas.

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27)

John, often called the Evangelist, wrote his entire gospel “that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” As the disciple closest to Jesus, he understood Jesus’ resolve to see his followers leave doubt in the dust, and so he chose the most powerful word for doubt we see anywhere in the gospels. His word for doubt is apistos, and it actually refers to the character of the individual, not the action of doubting. His final statement to Thomas is literally translated kai me ginou apistos alla pistos: “Stop being an unbeliever, but a believer!”

Jesus said that the person who doubted was essentially an unbeliever. He didn’t differentiate between absolute belief and in-this-moment belief; to him it was all the same. Either we trust him all of the time, or we don’t.

Now, those of us who have committed to following Christ understand that this is a constant struggle, and we don’t live in fear of Christ’s rejection. But we relate to the brokenness of the father of the demon-possessed child in Mark chapter 9 who cried, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” The bottom line is that Jesus expects us to try. It doesn’t matter if we call it a resistance to the gospel, worry, or anticipatory grief—it is all contrary to exercising faith. Faith is not a feeling; it is a determination to walk in a chosen path.

So, whether you’re stressed right now about your finances or health, or just bending under the weight of the unknowable, act in faith. Pray. Change your outlook. Declare what you believe out loud so that the devils of hell can hear it. Do something that demonstrates your confidence in Jesus even when you’re not feeling it. Tell someone what you’re thankful for. Sing.

We can get through this by faith.

[bdsawatsky]

The History of Religion By Bartley Sawatsky

Agnes is born, enters the light— Beneath the sun she takes her place, Lionized by all her tribe And heir to every gift and grace.

Her features perfect, every one, Such that no angel can recall Expectancy so grandiose Contained within a frame so small.

But ere she joins her foremost words Or understands her pow’r of choice She silences the angel choirs And fails to heed her father’s voice.

The shock is plain upon his face; She touched the china-laden shelf! For eyes she hadn’t yet to see The zeal behind her father’s plea: To spare young Agnes from herself.

The floor, though free of broken glass, Is strewn with shattered innocence. So hugs and kisses graduate  To rules and consequence.

The father draws upon his past; He crafts each rule with love and care And cloaks his grief whene’er he must Take issue with her acts unjust— A self-restraint no child can grasp.

And Agnes grows more self-assured As girls to women often do, And sets aside her father’s rules, But in the act—a point of fact— Denies his ardour too.

“The price of freedom,” he concedes. And so the narrative proceeds.

She meets a man. 

The attraction is immediate And ne’er the pair felt so alive. A single trip around the sun Affirms his spellbound heart is won And he is ready to commit.

But self’s the jewel in Aggie’s crown; She doesn’t want to settle down To fit inside another’s plan Or tie herself to just one man And so she plays the field a bit.

He loves the pilgrim soul in her; Naught but the prodigal he finds. His faithful heart so oft betrayed It withers till his mind is made To leave his love behind.

But ere the man can make his break A fire in Aggie’s soul awakes, As if ignited from on high. She sees the height of his noblesse  And depth of her unrighteousness.

His jealousy was justified. And Agnes, rightly terrified To lose this fervent, faithful friend And loving witness to her life Says yes to one exclusively And makes herself his wedded wife.

Their love bears fruit. A child is born And takes her place under the sun; The majesty of human form, The mystery of two in one.

No sooner laid upon her breast A second fire in Agnes wakes— A flame so fierce and effortless So hot and pure and limitless It sense of Father’s fervour makes— His overbearance and mistakes. And Agnes weeps to know she’s blessed.

Enlightened mother cradles child And angel voices sing once more Until the dreadful day arrives  When baby’s eyes are opened wide And insolence is found in her,  Like in her parents, years before.

And mom and dad, recalling rules, Repeat that futile game reviled By hoping lessons time must teach Be cherished by a nescient child.

And sleepless nights they now must ‘bide, Their priceless wisdom cast aside, Distraught that bad decisions might Obscure the effervescent light That longs to shine on ev’ryone— On ev’ry child beneath the sun. On each and ev’ry child beneath the sun.

************* No sacred writ may satisfy To frame the facts we can’t deny:

Innocence is evanescent. Rebellion in the heart does grow Like weeds among the lilies white— As sure as there is day and night.

And every soul feels incomplete Until its counterpart it meets. The union costs us everything  And more again. But heaven knows It is the death from which life grows.

So fruit is borne when selfdome dies— The toughest tie to solemnize But truth that parents still affirm When gazing in their children’s eyes.

The ancient stories still make sense Of our quest to reclaim innocence. The timeless struggle to impart Constraints upon the human heart Is birthed in wisdom from above And founded in a father’s love.

[bdsawatsky]

The Killers have been my favourite band for over a decade now. I was a little late getting on the bandwagon, and some may say that their best days are over, but I keep loving every album they put out. They’re popular with old and young listeners alike, with an 80′s sound that makes you want to sing! (I predict that if they keep producing they will become one of the biggest bands in America.)

They just released the first single from their newest album, Imploding the Mirage. The song is called Caution, and comes at an odd time—right in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. Not really the time we want to be “throwing caution” as the song suggests, and yet I find the words deeply inspirational...

Cause it's some kind of sin To live your whole life On a might've been

If you’ve never listened to the Killers, try this one first by playing it at max volume in your car. (The guitar outro is one you can get lost in.) Then go listen to their playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/track/2l8Gq9hNquNgzgv00DftKX?si=o8c4iVG0Q2SL0MEaNr4dkg

[bdsawatsky]

Of all the objections skeptics raise in relation to faith and God, the problem of suffering has to be the most popular. The line of reasoning skeptics employ is pretty straightforward:

a) If God is all-powerful, then he has the ability to destroy evil and prevent suffering.

b) If God is good, then he should want to destroy evil and prevent suffering.

c) Evil and suffering exist, therefore a good and all-powerful God does not exist.

This sound bite of philosophy has been used repeatedly by those who would discredit belief in God and any religious faith. Atheism’s foremost voice of this generation, Richard Dawkins, has been using this logic for decades now. Long before his most popular work, The God Delusion came out in 2006 he expressed the same frustration in his 1995 book, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life:

In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.

Dawkins is pretty honest about how gloomy a godless universe should look. But many philosophers have pushed back against the perspective that Dawkins espouses. Decades ago, men like C.S. Lewis, who himself began as an atheist, were forced to change their perspective when they analyzed the reality of the world around them.

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust…? (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

As I pointed out in my book Unapologetix, prominent atheists have been known make reference to the worms and parasites that sometimes wreak havoc on the human body, asking how a God so intent on beauty and pleasure could possibly allow something so ugly and unpleasant.  But it doesn’t take a great philosophical mind to understand that we can only label the worms and parasites as awful in juxtaposition to all of the beauty and pleasure that we enjoy on a regular basis. Neither can we complain about injustice we see in the world, if—as Dawkins says—we have no reason to expect to find rhyme, reason or justice here. No, the average person knows in their heart that the world is fundamentally a good place and that a sense of justice is somehow anchored in each one of us.

So then, back to our first question: If the world is good, and fashioned by a loving, all-powerful God, how do we account for all of the evil and suffering? It is here that I will point out that the atheists’ reasoning (that I outlined above) is flawed. It is not airtight, as it makes logical assumptions. It overlooks the possibility that evil and suffering serve some sort of purpose in the universe, and that God might allow them to exist—at least for a time—in order to accomplish something of even greater value.

The biblical device (although I believe it to be more than a device) for making sense of the problem of suffering is the curse that was placed on humankind after our fall into sin. Genesis 3 contains the story that serves as the foundation for understanding life’s most perturbing question—the question of suffering. The ancient narrative explains how the first human beings, Adam and Eve, acted on humanity’s behalf and chose to rebel against God, dragging all of humankind into sin. After confronting the man and woman over their sin, God imposed an all-encompassing curse upon them and upon the physical creation, a curse that would include everything from pain, to disease to death. A bit of reflection would lead the reader to conclude that God was making a very powerful statement: The purpose of the curse was to permanently and constantly remind humankind that the world was not right.

It continues to remind us today that the world is not right. According to the biblical narrative, every time you see spots on your apple, experience sickness, encounter a disease or disability, attend a funeral, catch a cold or hear a chid cry—God’s intention is to remind you that this world is messed up and not what he intended. So, when bad things happen, things like COVID-19, we must not fail to see the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world.

Now, it is important to understand that God is not the author of sin; he is perfectly holy and incapable of doing wrong. But in God’s understanding of what is good, freedom is high on the list. Even the Garden of Eden was fashioned in such a way as to give humans a choice of accepting God’s authority or not. Sin is not God’s creation, but true freedom seems to require the possibility of sin.

In the New Testament, Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates the same truth. In it we see a son who chooses to rebel against his father, take his inheritance, leave home, and squander his father’s wealth on riotous living. While it broke the father’s heart to let him go, he knew that this was necessary for his son to come to understand the bigger picture. Eventually, the son comes to his senses, returns home, and enjoys a relationship with his father that he never had enjoyed prior.

As a pastor, nothing brings me greater joy than to see people wrestle with the question of suffering and to arrive at a deeper understanding. As students of the Bible come to understand God’s plan for history (often summed up in the words “creation, fall, redemption and restoration”), the sharper students grasp the question that begs to be asked: “Why is God allowing all of this suffering if the end goal is simply to get humankind back to the state of bliss we already enjoyed in the Garden of Eden?” It always brings a smile to my face.

I have come to believe it’s for the experience.  Innocence is beautiful, but it’s not the best that can be. The Bible reveals that God’s ultimate desire is to have a perfect relationship with his creation, and the simple fact is, without this experience we call human history, we would never be able to truly appreciate God. Had we lived on in innocence, we could have respected God in the way a child looks up to their father, but we could never have come to appreciate God’s holiness, his value of freedom, his mercy and grace, his patience, and most of all—his love. The prodigal son understood his father in a very different way at the end of the story, and I believe God wants us to come to understand him in a very different way as well.

So why does God allow things like COVID-19? It’s just one more way that he is reminding us that this world is not right, that it’s not what he intended. Viruses are just one more part of the curse that he instituted out of love for us, something that would drive us back to him. When you understand things in this way, COVID-19 serves a very important purpose. It is quite literally intended to make you discover the love of God. Out of context, that may seem backward and cruel. The prodigal son had to sit in the mud with the pigs for a while before he could see it clearly. But he finally got up, shook off the mud, and returned to his father where a celebration like nothing he had ever experienced was waiting for him.

My prayer is that many who are sitting at home with a little extra time to think will ponder these ideas. I hope that you will look around and see how God made our entire human experience reflect these truths. Everything God has made grows and matures. Innocence is beautiful, and there is a time for it, but it doesn’t last forever. Nor should it.

They say that no child appreciates their father or mother until they themselves become one. But with that maturity comes the precious ability to relate to our parents in ways that we never could have as children. Someday God’s children will sit down with him and appreciate him in ways that Adam and Eve never could have. And things like Coronavirus will make sense. In fact, the apostles firmly believed that increased suffering in this life would only make our time with God even more glorious in eternity. That seems like a pretty good thought to hang onto over the upcoming months.

[bdsawatsky]

Remember God While You’re Young

Remember God while you are young, before you lose your ability to enjoy life.

Before everything becomes gloomy...

Before your legs shake and your back hunches over.

Before your teeth fall out and your eyes go blurry.

Before you need to wear hearing aids.

Before you wake up at the slightest sound (even though your hearing’s shot).

Before you become scared to do even the most routine things.

Before your hair turns white.

Before your libido disappears.

Before you die and people attend your funeral.

Remember God before things suddenly break down and everything falls apart.

Before your body returns to the ground and your spirit goes back to him.

Life is like a breath.

 –Ecclesiastes 12:1-8, BS Translation

[bdsawatsky]

“As much as we like to think of ourselves as careful and calculating in our assessments, much of our decision-making is instantaneous and intuitive.  We size up people, situations and ideas effortlessly and in an instant, and often our instincts are right. According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestseller, Blink, they are right more often than not! But in a world where we’ve been taught to evaluate everything scientifically, we’ve been conditioned to suppress these perceptions in favor of cold, hard data. Is it possible that we place too much emphasis on rational argument and not enough on simple intuitive perception? Are we overthinking things?”

–Bartley Sawatsky, Unapologetix, P. xii

[bdsawatsky]

Could zombies, jazz artists, and scientists all point to God?

By Rick Stedman • Published July 09, 2017 • Fox News

Here’s an interesting article my bro-in-law just showed me. Check it our here.

[bdsawatsky]

After much time and effort, my book is finally finished!

“Bartley Sawatsky looks at the evidence for biblical Christianity through a lens that has too often been neglected. Truth is truth. It’s not relative. It’s absolute. But empirical data is not the only way that it’s discerned or discovered. That’s where Unapologetix comes in. It’s an interesting and helpful read for anyone who wants to see or share the evidence for biblical Christianity with greater clarity and breadth of understanding.” (Larry Osborne, Pastor & Author, North Coast Church)

Get your copy today at Amazon. If you live in Canada, click here. For the USA and elsewhere, click here.

[bdsawatsky]

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What Forms Your Identity?

One of the most basic and profound questions you will ever ask is, “Who am I?”

Last Sunday in church I invited 3 people onstage to demonstrate this truth. I gave each volunteer 30 seconds to answer that same question – Who are you?  The only rule was that they weren’t allowed to use their name.

In each case, there were a lot of pauses. But slowly, cautiously, each person was able to offer up some words that helped identify themselves. It was fascinating. One woman chose to name the things she loved most to identify herself... “I love God... I love cheesecake... I love my husband...”  Everyone cracked up, especially her husband (who ranked just below cheesecake).

People use many concepts to narrow down their identity... gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, religion, family relationships, achievements, interests, and so on. I hoped the exercise would get people thinking. What identifiers should I be using? Which ones do I want to use? Are the ones I use even accurate?!

In today’s modern world, we are encouraged every day to reach deep inside of ourselves to find the answer to the identity question. “You do you,” people say. “Just be yourself.” But that’s not always as easy as it sounds. As much as we like to think of ourselves as independent and self-directed in the formation of our identity, numerous outside forces play upon us at every moment. American sociologist Robert Bellah says,

“The irony is that here, too, just where we think we are most free, we are most coerced by the dominant beliefs of our own culture.”

 Have you ever taken the time to think about what forces have influenced the formation of your identity? As Tim Keller astutely points out in his latest book, Making Sense of God, as each of us look inside ourselves to find our identity, we all affirm some of our inner desires and repress others. And usually what influences those choices most are external rather than internal forces – our community, the people we know and love, and society at large.

One great recent example of this is Tom Brady. The hall-of-fame destined quarterback (who will appear in his 7th Superbowl on February 5) has been a friend of newly elected president Donald Trump for over 15 years. The pair have been seen golfing together on occasion and Brady was spotted with a Make America Great Again cap in his locker during the 2015 season as Trump made his bid for the White House. As Trump advanced closer and closer to achieving the impossible, reporters began to pester Brady at press conferences. But fearing the fallout of saying anything that might make him look sympathetic to the polarizing Trump, Brady refused to answer questions, even saying at one point that his wife (supermodel Gisele Bündchen) had forbidden him from talking about him.

If the manliest quarterback in NFL history is so influenced by the opinion of those around him, there is no question that every one of us picks and chooses our own identity.  And there are many identifiers to consider... vocation, interests, sports teams, musical tastes and artists, colleges and universities, favourite TV shows, fashion trends, brands, hangouts, political parties and social groupings. The list is long. Robert Bellah says that modern people have a hard time seeing just how much their identities are formed by others.

So I’ll ask it again – What forms your identity?

There is an inherent danger in choosing temporal things to build your identity upon. You may build your identity on your career, but what happens if you should lose your job? You could build it on your image, but what happens when you become old and unfashionable? Even attachments that may seem more noble like intellect or relationships could be snatched away from us in an instant. Then what happens to our identity? What becomes of our sense of self and self-worth?

I recently got together with a man who was in a mess. He asked to meet with me for a drink and I listened as he shared his story of failed aspirations and relationships. My heart broke for him as he courageously admitted that he no longer knew who he was or what he was here on Earth for.

I’ll leave you with the thought that I shared with him. As much as secularists today will tell you that you can find your own identity inside yourself, the simple truth is that we all look to others for affirmation and identity. We cannot bless ourselves. We all long to matter to people who we think matter. We all long to be seen as significant to someone who is truly significant. In a very real and ultimate sense, only an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God can give us the secure identity we long for.

I am a child of God. When I embraced Jesus by faith, God received me into his family, made me his child, and gave me his Spirit. The Bible says he knew me and had a purpose in mind for me even before he created the world, and that nothing in the universe can separate me from his love – not even my own screw-ups and shortcomings. I find meaning and fulfillment day by day in carrying out his purpose for my life.

One of the most basic and profound questions you will ever ask is, “Who am I?” I hope you will come to discover your true identity.

[bdsawatsky]

After spending 10 years as a federal proscecutor, Jonathan Shapiro has spent the last 16+ years writing for TV legal dramas, including hits like The Firm, The Practice and Boston Legal.

In this entertaining read, Shapiro spends considerable time discussing Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle and the need for effective storytellers to engage their listeners on 3 different levels...

Logos – the ability to use logic and reason.

Pathos – the ability to relate emotionally with the listener.

Ethos – credibility that a speaker gains through various means.

The Christian message is powerful on all 3 levels. The Apostle John actually referrred to Jesus as the Logos – the unifying principle of the entire universe. According to John, Jesus’ closest disciple, the person and message of Jesus made sense of life. The person and message of Jesus also connect emotionally with people. Unlike religious leaders of his day, Jesus associated with social misfits and sinners, and he won the hearts of people. Jesus is also the most credible religious leader of history, making claims of divinity and then backing them up with miracles and by resurrecting from the dead.

When you choose your faith, I encourage you to consider the storyline of the faith you are considering. The right path should resonate on all 3 of these levels, and I have found none that resonate like Christian faith.

[bdsawatsky]

As a moody guy, I’m always looking for stuff to pick me up. I like the energy of EDM music, and while it’s a genre that tends toward the sensual, I’ve found that many of today’s artists are also writing their deeper, more meaningful thoughts. When I hear a good one I like to pass it along.

Guetta writes about the universal struggles and hopes we all relate to. We’re taught that the universe happened by accident, which technically makes a sense of destiny irrational. Yet we all have it. 

I'm just like you, I got troubles all my own Just like you, I am trying to make it home I dream at night of a better day You and I, in a better place Don't know how, but I know that I’ll reach it Don't know when, but I know that we need it

[bdsawatsky]

“[David] Sessions goes on to urge Christians to show greater humility too, to forego their triumphalism, and to stop thinking they can win the field strictly through rational proofs and arguments.” (Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, PP. 52-53)

I couldn’t agree more. Rational analysis is only one means to understanding God. I’ll be referencing this book a lot in our new series, Antiskeptic. Get your copy here:

http://www.timothykeller.com/books/making-sense-of-god

[bdsawatsky]

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...”

As you begin your new journey in 2017, remember that you were not created for isolation, but community. The image of God, in which we are created, is not singular, but plural – a very practical implication of trinitarian doctrine. Resist the Western spirit of independence and invest in community this year. 

[bdsawatsky]

Psychobiologists can now show that loneliness sends misleading hormonal signals, rejiggers the molecules on genes that govern behavior, and wrenches a slew of other systems out of whack. They have proved that long-lasting loneliness not only makes you sick; it can kill you. Emotional isolation is ranked as high a risk factor for mortality as smoking. A partial list of the physical diseases thought to be caused or exacerbated by loneliness would include Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and even cancer—tumors can metastasize faster in lonely people.   –Judith Shulevitz, The Lethality of Loneliness, May 13, 2013

https://newrepublic.com/article/113176/science-loneliness-how-isolation-can-kill-you

[bdsawatsky]

You lost faith in the human spirit You walk around like a ghost Your star-spangled heart Took a train for the coast

When you shine you're a hilltop mansion So how'd you lose the light? Was it blown by the wind, In the still of the night?

We're up against the wall...

To all my American friends, this Killers song pretty much says it all. Check out the rest of the lyrics. I pray that Americans will come together and that all of you will remember what made America great in the first place.