This originally appeared as a weekly devo on whillschurch.org

One of the hardest issues to deal with concerning the Old Testament and God in general is the idea of His judgement of sin. Take Achan and his family for example. His sin of stealing from God cost him, his wife and his children their lives. (Joshua 7) And God ordered that. There isn’t any way around these facts.

The biggest obstacle in dealing with God is the concept of fair. We tackle issues and immediately seek to find the fair solution. If there is an argument between two kids, we want to settle the argument fairly. If a party sues another party, the courts are responsible to find a fair settlement. We encounter a loss or pain, we look for a fair resolution.

The inherent problem in issues concerning God and sin is that none of it is fair.

Sin is not fair. The rejection of God and his principles have always had far-reaching consequences. It’s the nature of sin to reach beyond the immediate to ruin and destroy as much as possible. One sin attempts to infect hundreds of other decisions. So a decision by a man to steal ends up killing 36 other men, stops the whole movement of God, forces the entire nation to come before the scrutiny of a judge, and kills the man who originally committed the sin and the rest of his family.

I can attempt to explain away the angst. Achan was told plenty of times what the consequence would be. He was given plenty of opportunity to repent – Joshua brought the entire nation to a stop to find the problem. The robe that he stole was for his wife and was a symbol of worldly wealth so that meant she was in on it. The kids were probably older and knew what was going on. Do any of these explanations really solve the problem?

The don’t. At the end of the day we have a lot of dead bodies and a nagging doubt in the back of our mind that the God we worship is really fair at all.

And He’s not fair. God is NOT fair. “Fair” was never going to solve SIN. FAIR will never solve SIN.

GRACE solves SIN. And GRACE isn’t fair either. If the reaches of sin are far, grace reaches further. If the consequences of sin are deep, the benefits of grace are deeper. If sin has victims, grace has benefactors.

Grace says death isn’t the final answer, that God covers it with Himself. Paul writes that the unbelieving get benefit from the believing because of grace. Grace makes life on earth a glimpse of heaven, not just a taste of hell. Grace is why as dark as the human experience can be, it will never be so dark that the light can’t penetrate through it. Grace is the cross where one man chose to sacrifice for ALL, when the one didn’t deserve it. Jesus didn’t come to earth for FAIR. He didn’t die for FAIR. He didn’t rise again for FAIR.

When push comes to shove, I doubt any of us really want FAIR. We shouldn’t want it. FAIR leaves me alone to fend for my sin on my own. FAIR measures out every little mistake I make in my life. I don’t want FAIR because every inclination of my heart at one point in time was to be my own god. It’s less so now but that is because of God’s GRACE changing my heart.

So I’m giving up on fair. And that is a good thing.

This originally appeared as a weekly evo on www.whillschurch.org.

Had this great conversation spring up during our Men’s Fraternity small group time yesterday morning which proves two myths wrong.

Myth 1: 6 am is too early for any kind of deep conversation.
Myth 2: Men can’t really talk about deep spiritual matters longer than 10 minutes.

But that’s not the real point I’m trying to make here. The topic is our motives.

When David faced Goliath, was he doing so because he was genuinely concerned about God’s reputation and the future of Israel or was he really that cocky and self-absorbed to think he could do what an entire army of men for 40 days hadn’t done?

My contention? What if both are true? David is a great example. We like think that David was this innocent young boy just standing up for God and had more faith than anyone else in the nation. What if he was just a little on the cocky side, self-absorbed youngest child trying to make a name for himself because he thought his life had a greater purpose than those around him? Or what if there was a little bit of both in him?

We tend to paint people into “either/or” categories concerning their motives. We treat everybody with broad black and white strokes. “She knew that would hurt me and she did it on purpose.” “He knew I wanted that and that’s why he picked it so that it would upset me.” She meant to. He meant to.

We treat everyone like this except for one person – ourselves. When we mess up or have our actions questions, we immediately run to the grey areas. “Well, I meant no harm, I was trying to do this. i was trying to help.”

And most of the time – we are sincerely telling the truth. It’s just funny how that doesn’t always translate over to the other people that we interact with. Shortsighted, maybe?

David let’s us deal with us problem in a removed manner. I don’t think David faced Goliath solely because he was a man after God’s own heart. That wasn’t all that was in David’s heart. See Bathsheba story.

Yes, David WANTED to please God MOST of the time. I believe that. But notice that before David goes out to fight Goliath, he finds out what the reward is from the King. He takes advantage of the opportunity to have a face to face with the King.

And David wasn’t short on confidence either. “I’ve killed the lion and the bear. I’ve beat them both down with my bare hands.” Then he adds – The Lord has delivered them to me. (Don’t take me word for it – read the story – 1 Samuel 17.)

David has both self-less and selfish motives driving him to face Goliath. He is neither an altruistic saint sent to deliver his people nor is he a total self-absorb jerk. It’s there in his words. Yes, I’ve got the skill set to kill this giant. And yes, God has been with me and will be with me in the future. Yes, I can kill this Philistine. Yes, God will deliver this giant into my hands.

Yes, I love my country and my God and want to fight for them both. Yes, I want to know what the payoff is when I win.

It’s both/and, not either/or.

And most of us function the same way. Think of all the different thoughts and angles that go on in our heads when we make a decision? Why do we parent the way we parent? Why do we speak the way we speak? Why are we involved in the things we are involved in? It’s seldom one reason we do anything.

And I think God’s grace covers that. I think he recognizes our heart, sees the general direction we are trying to go and goes there with us. His grace covering our motives, his hands disciplining us back when needed.

Does this make me a cynic on the human race that I don’t think anyone’s motives are 100% altruistic all the time? Does it make David any less of a man of God that he asked how he would be rewarded? Does it detract from God’s glory at all that David had great skill with the slingshot?

I don’t think so. If anything, this is just more evidence of God’s unending grace covers us all – to some extent or another.

And it’s just another reason why I love Him and why I pray daily that He gets the last voice.

But if He doesn’t…I’m praying that God’s grace covers that.

There is pretty good evidence that He does.

This originally was written for Western Hills as a weekly devo.

Allow me to introduce you to some English family slang – pear-shaped. When something goes pear-shaped – it means that something or some experience had the promise of being very, very good but it didn’t. It went…pear-shaped instead.

The term works on a couple of levels. First, pears look incredible beautiful and their taste isn’t. Second, the appearance of a pear is basically an out of shape green apple. A green apple gone bad. Hence the term – Pear-Shaped.

Maybe the metaphor isn’t doing anything for you but you get my meaning, right? Something goes bad, an expectation isn’t met, a reality that isn’t good sets in.

Could be as trivial as the water intake valve on your washer is messed up and you need to replace it. Or it could be a bit more serious than that. A job that is sucking the life out of you. A marriage that is dieing. A relationship that has soured. Poor health. Dealing with mean people.

Pear-shaped.

…Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or think about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the sky…aren’t you worth more than they? Jesus

It’s hard to keep this perspective when things go south. Who are we kidding? At times it almost seems impossible to believe those words.

Yet…they are true. And those who HAVE preserved through the pear-shaped experiences will attest to this. They also have a couple of disciplines and practices that help them through their pear-shaped experience.

1. The real battle is spiritual. Whatever is going on in the physical, remember the real battle is spiritual over more than just temporal things. I can put on the armor of God when things go bad and it always helps. (Ephesians 6:10-18)

2. Eat something. Not physically, spiritually. Get back in the Word, get back in prayer. Read a biography or other good back that is going to put fuel back inside your soul. My staple – My Utmost for His Highest.

3. Stay In The Car Don’t quit. God uses all of these experiences for our good. Doesn’t mean he caused it or is responsible for it – although he MAY be. It does mean that God is using this experience to shape something in or out of you. He can shape you if you leave or quit. Stay in there.

4. Get some teammates. Ask for help and prayer. A life group is HUGE in this area. You will see the different when a group of people start praying and encouraging you.

5. Lift your eyes up.

I lift my eyes towards the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Psalm 121:1-2

Perspective is everything. Being able to look up and be reminded – God is still God. He still loves people and is pursuing them. He’s still working through me and on me.

Big breath…yes, He is.

Then maybe those pear-shape experiences won’t be so…well…pear-shaped.

I’m in a mode of retreat and focus right now. Been doing a lot of studying, praying, reading, and writing about the 2012 teaching calendar so the blog has been a bit dormant.

It’ll be quiet again this week as I wrap up some teaching and get ready for 2012.

I know that I need to be in the NOW when I teach but looking ahead to 2012…I’m really, really excited about the journey I think God is taking me on in the Scriptures. It’s leaping off the pages right now.

But I wanted to come out of the cave a bit and just say — Hi…and I’ll be back soon.

This post originally appeared on www.whillschurch.org as the weekly devo.

I’ve lost 27 pounds since May.  I’ve got about 20 more to go but my favorite part of this whole journey is answering the question ‘how have you dropped all that weight?  Are you doing the South Beach diet?  The hormone plan?  The starve yourself skinny program?’

It’s actually called the ‘get off your rear-end and walk 3.5 miles a day’ program.

I know…it’s an original and I’m waiting on the copyright and trademark to go through. 

I don’t think those other programs would have worked for me.  First of all, it wasn’t just about dropping a few pounds.  I want to drop close to 50.  And I didn’t just want to look like I lost weight, I wanted to be in shape.  I didn’t want to be winded after walking up the stairs.  I was tired of being tired.  I wanted to be able to walk uphill both ways again. 

You get what I’m saying?  It wasn’t just about looking lighter or skinnier.  It was about being healthier.  I wanted to BE better.  And that is an altogether different prospect than just losing weight. 

There’s only way to get in shape.  It’s the ‘get off your rear-end and walk the 3.5 miles everyday even when you don’t feel like’ program.  You have to sweat, move, work, and then lather, rinse, and repeat over and over again.  And I wasn’t going to be successful at that without some one doing it with me. 

This situation applies spiritually as well, you know.  If I just want to drop a few pounds to look better spiritually speaking – memorize a few verses of scripture, show up a few more times at church…maybe give a little bit of money or pray out loud at bedtime. 

But if you want to BE in spiritually fit, that’s a whole other endeavor.  It will require some exercise, some sweat, some discipline.  It’s taking that extra step of actually understanding what the verse that you memorized and try to apply it in your life.  It’s choosing to serve others.  Or maybe risking some of your comfort by getting involved in a life group. 

Looking healthy and being healthy are two very different things. 

That’s one of the reasons I really love this Art of Marriage series.  The night sessions and the workbook are about putting on the running shoes, not just a crash diet to drop a few pounds.  And it’s work but it’s worth it.

This week in our night session we are going to look at conflict resolution.  Learning how to fight fair and constructively is REALLY putting on the running shoes.   

There is still space to join us! Come check it out. 

I grew up with Drew Litton. Not literally, mind you but he was a sports cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News (may they rest in piece…loved that paper) and he was as much of the Denver sports landscape as the Broncos.

He now does freelance stuff and some drawing for ESPN as well. Every week he has a weekly caption contest. He’ll draw a picture then allow all the fans the opportunity to write the caption…hence…the Caption contest…you get the point.

I finally made the LIST!!! No…I didn’t win but I was a finalist. It’s a honor and I’d like to thank the Academy and all the little people that made this possible.

Here is the link…

Great entries Everyone! Congrats to all of the finalists:

Derek Bartlett:
WOW! That Von Miller can hit!

Ed Walsh:
Josh Mcdaniel’s Draft class of 2010.

Louis: (2 awesome ones!)
I guess C.U. got a good look at their Pac-12 schedule
and
That reminds me. I’m having dinner with the in-laws tonight.

Dale Stout:
It’s opening time at IKEA.

John August McEvoy:
Isn’t that the place where they buried all that recalled sauerkraut last month?

Grant English:
Well, looks like McDaniels is settling in nicely over in St. Louis.

7.30 – breakfast was fast and light. Pancake, honey, coffee, and cereal. No bananas. Bummer.

Ride with Thomas and DoDo into town to visit Catholic school. First time for WOL to get access in the school.

Students are doing great, jumped right in and are acting like veterans. Shelby & Caroline attract a lot of attention. Everybody just thinks they are so beautiful. We are pushing Shelby as she is very quiet and an introvert. But she is getting in there and talking with students.

Caroline lights up the room wih her personality. Students love talking with her.

Ben played soccer with kids and did well. He is also the one that is picking on Shelby. The goal is to see which of the two of us makes Shelby angry first.

John is the diplomat of the group, very articulate. Very comfortable in front of group.

Common questions are music, college, parties, and is the movie American Pie an accurate description of USA.

I’m astonished at how ridiculously stupid and irresponsible these movies make us look like. It’s equally astonishing that the rest of the world believes it. It’s why the East thinks of as a bunch of Devils. It’s embarrassing.

Lunch-
We had pasteis. Ooh so good. Imagine a flaky fried bread crust stuffed with meat or cheeses or both.
The next school is the other extreme of the Catholic school. Very poor. School located on side of major highway. No air or heat. No insulated walls. Tin roof and open air windows.

Funny exchange between John and male student trying to be cool:

‘Do you like Justin Bieber?’

John: ‘Not so much. But he’s real popular with 10-12 year old girls.’

Back to the party questions again. It’s easier to see the hedonistic agenda of Hollywood from afar. How accurate is it? Debatable. Most hedonism gets fleshed out in culturally accepted ways. We buy larger than we need cars, larger than we need houses, newer than we need clothes, faster than we need technology. We spend more than we make on stuff we want. So in the strictest sense we are very hedonistic.
So while the typical teen looks nothing like American Pie, he (she) is every bit as self-centered. And we (parents) led them here.

What is the solution? A life given away to something larger than itself. That’s what I hope our students catch while we are here.