Book Review: Embracing Obscurity [guest post]

We're really excited about having other folks jump on board with writing for our blog.  Our first guest author is Lisa Hajda (Amelia's mom).  She wrote the following review for her own blog and is sharing it with Theology in Real Life.  Thanks!

When Joey, Tim and I went to the National Desiring God Conference in September, we naturally picked up a LOT of new reading material. Some of these books we purchased and some we were given. When I got home, I thought that I would delve into some of the books I had intentionally acquired, but the one I ended up finishing first was a freebie: Embracing Obscurity by Anonymous. This book was, indeed, penned anonymously by an author who claims that “we’re intoxicated with a desire to be known, recognized, appreciated, and respected” and that “our intoxication draws us away from our Maker and His mission.”

So, what did I think about this book? Well, there were some things I liked:

1. I think that the topic is exceptionally timely. Everywhere I look, I see people striving to be “better known” or more influential, especially, especially on the internet;

2. The author constructed a very interesting chart comparing Christ’s disposition of humility vs. Satan’s disposition of pride and their subsequent outcomes;

3. There is an emphasis on God’s ultimate, eternal significance (vs. a temporary, fading significance) that we receive when we join our lives to His and that there’s a difference between feeling significant because we are needed or because we can do something for someone and being significant because God delights in us–in us, not what we can do for Him;

4. There is also acknowledgment that in the trenches of “little sufferings” (demotions, hard breaks, layoffs, menial jobs, etc.), we learn to “defer to God our dreams of being well-known, respected, and admired.”

There were also a couple of things that I didn’t like:

1. I am used to the casual language of blog posts. I do not like to hear that “blog voice” coming from the pages of a book. It was very distracting to me and I felt like the message was diluted at times by this informal presentation;

2. I am very wary of the promotion of any one course of action being more spiritual than any other course of action. Perhaps this was not the author’s intention, but I got the feeling that I should be preferring obscurity over (worldly) significance by the time I finished the book. The bottom line for me is that I want to be embracing Jesus Christ, by God’s grace. Then I am able to hear the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life. His voice will let me know what He wants me to do, whether that involves obscurity or notoriety.

So, if you are exhausted because you are striving for significance in some area of your life, this book might offer some practical help. Otherwise, I did not consider this one of the top reads of my year. And, now…on to the next book!

On some Mondays

On some Mondays I wish someone would say:

You can't keep your sink empty and the floors scrubbed and have time to read fifteen books to your toddler.

You can't keep all of the laundry caught up and all of the socks matched perfectly and make meals for everybody.

You can't read five chapters in your John Adams biography and sew matchy-matchy outfits for the kids and upload one billion edited pictures to Facebook.

You can't keep food off of the kids' clothes and off of their faces and out of their hair.

You can't work on making your house all organized and consistently discipline your tantrum-pitching two-year-old and keep on holding your teething nine-month-old.

You simply cannot do it all.  

You have a limited amount of time in a day.

You are only one person.

Wait.  Doesn't Someone already say that?

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Come to Me.  

Not to another to-do list.  Not to another yippy-skippy You Can Be Better/Happier/Prettier/Skinnier/Cleaner blog post.  Not to another craft project or another discipline method or another escape from responsibility.  Come to Me.

This week I'm lowering my expectations and praying that my focus can be on what Jesus wants of me.  Because fulfilling the responsibilities he gives is so much lighter and so much easier than trying to be All Things to All People.

(Especially People Who Exist Only In My Whispering Thoughts.)

We do what we can and then we rest in grace.

Holly Gerth (in)courage 10/19/12

(I know that you've been seeing a lot of me lately on ye old blog, and I promise you that Steve does still exist.  I'm just picking up the extra writing slots lately since he has been working lots of overtime, and doing school-catch up after an unplanned trip to California.  Don't worry...he'll be back.)

Theology for Toddlers: Harriet's Top Five

When Harriet was born, I thought: Oh my goodness!  Steve and I are responsible not only for her physical well-being, but also to share biblical truth with her.  Sometimes that thought is terrifying (and that's when I am reassured by the fact that it's not up to me to bring her to salvation) and sometimes it's really exciting (how much better can it get to share truth about God and his Word with a small person?).  Since Harriet is an excessively busy, insightful, and thinking two-year-old, I am always on the scout for tools that we can use to incorporate the Bible into our day-to-day lives.  I like to find resources that really focus our attention at a particular time of day, such as age-appropriate devotions at breakfast.  And I also get really excited about resources that we can use to keep Scripture and biblical principles in our minds throughout the day - like Scripture memory songs and using verses in home decor.

So, without further ado, here are Harriet's top five picks*:

Number 5: Veggie Tales

This is the latest greatest Harriet obsession  craze.  It has been fun to watch the older episodes of Veggie Tales again and remember how they really did do a decent job of retelling Bible stories and in presenting biblical principles.  (You've got to love the honesty of the Rumor Weed when she says, "I'm just asking because I care."  Ouch.)  We tend to avoid the newer episodes since they are just kind of...not terribly focused.  But it has been neat to talk about Where's God When I'm Scared and to jam out together on The Bellybutton Song.  

Number 4: The Donut Man

I grew up listening to and watching the Donut Man, so when Harriet started loving the Donut Man movies it was a total blast from the past.  Yes, I'll readily admit that watching a guy dance around in colored overalls and major 90s glasses is kind of silly, but the songs are fun, catchy, and, best of all, have really good content.  We particularly enjoy the Resurrection Celebration DVD and we also love listening to the King of Kings album.  In addition to delightful praise choruses and teaching songs, the Donut Man also includes lots of action songs to recount biblical stories.  And toddlers like Harriet need action songs.  Now you can get two Donut Man episodes on one DVD.  Yay!

Number 3: Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing 

by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago

When I saw that the author and illustrator of The Jesus Storybook Bible (see Number 1) were collaborating yet again on this devotional book, I was thrilled.  Each page spread contains a brief, yet meaty, devotional thought, and vibrant pictures that keep a busy toddler engaged, and a relevant verse or two. In the author's note, Sally Lloyd-Jones writes:

These thoughts are to remind you of things that are true.  They aren't meant to be read all at once - just one a day.  They come from the Bible - the place where God has told you all these magnificent things about how he loves you and how you can love him.  Sometimes I wrote for people who already know what it is to come home to God.  Other times I wrote for people who are just finding out.  You listen to whatever God wants to say to you.

When we read one devotional each morning at breakfast, I'm convinced that I'm getting just as much out of it as Harriet.  Simple and clear without being "dumbed down," this book is really quite fantastic.

Number 2: Hide 'Em In Your Heart Volumes 1-2, Hide 'Em In Your Heart Worship 

sung by Steve Green

 Harriet loves these albums and I can't say enough good things about them.  Thanks to the catchy tunes and listening to them many many times a day, Harriet and I have an arsenal of verses committed to memory.  (I love love love that these albums are pleasant for grown-ups.  Thank you, intelligent composers and Steve Green!)  Both Steve and I grew up listening to the Hide 'Em In Your Heart tapes and watching the corresponding movies, so it is super-cool to for us to sing the verses with Harriet - plus her grandparents and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family also know the tunes.  How fun is that?

Number 1: The Jesus Storybook Bible 

by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago

How do I begin to extol the virtues of this children's Bible? We have read The Jesus Storybook Bible all the way through to Harriet about three times now, and every time we finish we start again the next day.  Combining lyrical language and stunning illustrations, this Bible communicates the truth that the whole of Scripture points to Jesus - from the beginning to the end.   Repeated phrases such as God's "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love," and consistent reference to Jesus as "The Rescuer" make concepts easy for young children to grasp and also touch the heart of the adult readers in new ways.  I find myself being so excited about The Jesus Storybook Bible because it is teaching Harriet theological concepts that I didn't comprehend until I was in my twenties - and she can have them impressed upon her heart now.  Goosebumps!

I'm sure that we'll discover more gems along the way as our children grow and we seek to supply them with resources that will further their understanding of and relationship with God.

So, what resources do you particularly enjoy using with young children?

*We've been listing to waaaay too many Dice Tower podcasts lately...ahem, Steve....

How family can picture the gospel to each other

Last night Steve told me that what I do...or what I don't do...in the course of a day doesn't make a difference to him.  In other words, our relationship and the harmony we experience as husband and wife and bestest friends does not depend on if the dishes are done, or if the laundry baskets are empty, or if I've made homemade Cheez-its with whole wheat flour, or if the kids have clean faces.  Those things are all fine and good, but when it comes to his acceptance of me and love for me, they don't even remotely factor into the equation.  At the end of a four-day work rotation, those were the words I needed to hear.  In fact, I need to hear them every day, multiple times a day, over and over, so that my stubborn works-based flesh will fully grasp what it means to be loved and accepted regardless of my actions.  (God knew exactly what he was doing when he put Steve and me together.)

God gives us familial relationships like husband/wife and parent/child to give us an everyday revelation into who he is.  Scripture is full of this imagery.  It's like a picture, a "snapshot from his camera,"* to help us understand our relationship with him.

When Steve, as my husband, is expressing his unconditional love for me, he is reminding me that our relationship is a symbol of the permanent, secure, unconditional relationship that I have with God through Christ...a relationship that is based on a covenant and not on my actions: "But when the goodness of and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy...." (Titus 3:4-5)

When I, as a parent, tell Harriet that I love her when she is sad or silly or happy or serious or mad or even naughty, I am laying a foundation for her to (I hope) understand the unconditional love that God has for her: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are." (1 John 3:1)

When we offer the "blessing of belonging,"** to family members who have landed into a sticky situation or are struggling with the consequences of sin, we are emphasizing that "...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39)

When we relate to our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, our grandparents, our families in a grace-filled, loving, serving, faithful way we are pointing back to the God who is grace and love and faithfulness and who manifested his magnificent servanthood in the person of Jesus Christ.  We are living out the results of the gospel in our lives and, in turn, are picturing the gospel - the good news - to those in our families.

*Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing devotional by Sally Lloyd-Jones
** Oh, How Good It Is song by Keith and Kristyn Getty

O Sleeper... Go ahead and keep sleeping.

O Sleeper... Go ahead and keep sleeping.

Their God fights for them

And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before! Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?” 1 Samuel 4:6-8

You shall not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you. Deuteronomy 3:22

In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us. Nehemiah 4:20

In Small Gods, Sir Terry Pratchett discusses the case of the novice minister of Om, Brutha, who hears the voice of the Great God Om calling to him. Finding himself incarnated in the form of a tortoise, Om bosses Brutha throughout the regions surrounding Omnia, trying to figure out why he had not come in a more impressive form- why he was suddenly such a small god.

Sorry if that spoils the plot for you, I think you would learn that much of it from the back of the book (or the dust sleeve, if you have a hardcover copy). I should offer a bit of a spoiler alert for the final paragraphs of this post, though. I am looking at a scene from the end of the story, which relates to the verses I quoted above.

Om at the height of his power enters the hall of the gods on the mountain of Cori Celesti. He finds the gods of the Ephebians and Tsorteans, whose worshippers are establishing a beachhead in a retaliatory invasion of Omnia, gathered around the great board game of the gods, playing with men instead of pieces (but still using dice- it’s not a Eurogame, I guess). A lone fisherman of a tiny tribe, who have been completely isolated from the rest of the world, has been caught up in the conflict, and Om meets his people’s god, a large newt named P’tang-P’tang.

Om looked at the figure of the little fisherman.
“When he dies, you’ll have fifty worshippers,” he said.
“That more or less than fifty-one?”
“A lot less.” …

He said, to the occult world in general, “There’s a people going to die down there.”A Tsortean God of the Sun did not even bother to look round.“That’s what they’re for,” he said. In his hand he was holding a dice box that looked very much like a human skull with rubies in the eye-sockets.

“Ah, yes,” said Om. “I forgot that, for a moment.” He looked at the skull, and then turned to the little Goddess of Plenty.
“What’s this, love? A cornucopia? Can I have a look? Thanks.”
Om emptied some of the fruit out, then he nudged the Newt God.
“I was you, friend, I’d find something long and hefty,” he said.
“Is one less than fifty-one?” said P’tang-P’tang.
“It’s the same,” said Om firmly. He eyed the back of the Tsortean God’s head.
“But you have thousands,” said the Newt God. “You fight for thousands.”
Om rubbed his forehead. I spent too long down there, he thought. I can’t stop thinking at ground level.
“I think,” he said, “I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one.” He tapped the Solar God on the shoulder. “Hey, sunshine?”
When the God looked around, Om broke the cornucopia over his head.

It was at this point that I was reminded of the passages I quoted above. I think that in Small Gods, Pratchett reminded me of the importance of this truth, that God did not simply have his people go fight battles for him. He fought for them. The God of the Bible showed his glory and proved his supremacy by redeeming a people for his name and establishing them as a kingdom of priests by his might. I think that this is what human beings really wished their gods would do. Instead, we find what is illustrated throughout Small Gods, that worshippers are called on to conquer infidels in order to prove their god’s supremacy with their own blood.

How wonderful it is that this truth extends even more powerfully to the redemption we see after the Cross.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on prayer

I was having a remarkable hour-without-anybody-talking-to-me the other evening, so I opened up a book of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons on 1 John and started reading.  And I read this:

...In a situation of difficulty and of crisis, the first thing we must do is make sure that we have grasped the New Testament teaching.  I do not want to be controversial, and I am particularly anxious not to be misunderstood, but if I may put it in a phrase, in order to call attention to what I have in mind, I would say that in a situation of crisis the New Testament does not immediately say, 'Let us pray.'  It always says first, 'Let us think, let us understand the truth, let us take a firm hold of doctrine.'  ...Prayer is sometimes an excuse for not thinking, an excuse for avoiding a problem or situation.

Have we not all known something of this in our personal experience?  We have often been in difficulty and we have prayed to God to deliver us, but in the meantime we have not put something right in our lives as we should have done.   Instead of facing the trouble, and doing what we knew we should be doing, we have prayed.  I suggest that at a point like that, our duty is not to pray but to face the truth, to face the doctrine and to apply it....

I mean something like this: if the whole attitude of the Christian in any situation of crisis or difficulty were just to be immediately one of prayer, then these New Testament epistles with all of their involved teaching would never have been necessary.

Then I sat there, and pondered these paragraphs because they seemed both contradictory to the typical teaching on Christian prayer and yet completely true.

Am I ever tempted to use prayer as a "cop out" for actually addressing an issue in my own life?  Is it easier to say, "I'll just pray about it," instead of actually bringing God's truth to someone in difficulty?  Am I afraid that God isn't going to hold up his end of the deal?

Are my prayers "educated," as it were, by the doctrinal truths of the New Testament, so that they are congruent to what God desires?

Do I place more spiritual weight on my ability to pray than on what God has already revealed in his Word?

Something to ponder on this Columbus day.