“God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists”

I saw a bumper sticker on my morning commute that read, “God doesn’t believe in atheists.”  Chuckling to myself, I immediately thought, “There’s my next blog post!”

Turning well-worn phrases on their heads is often humorous and is a staple of bumper sticker technique.  Occasionally, the result even contains some truth.  How about this one?

The phrase “believe in” has at least two meanings.  When atheists say they don’t “believe in” God, they mean they do not believe He exists.  This is also generally what we mean when we talk about “believing in” Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, extra-terrestrials, and so on.  However, when Christians say they “believe in” Jesus, they do not merely mean that they acknowledge His existence.  James makes this distinction clear:  “You believe that there is one God.  Good!  Even the demons believe that — and shudder.” (James 2:19)  The demons believe in God’s existence, but they have refused to align themselves with Him.  To “believe in” Jesus is to entrust oneself to Him, to believe that what He says is true and that what He requires is good, and therefore to live in obedience to Him.

God is certainly not in denial about or blithely unaware of the existence of atheists.  Nor does God entrust Himself to any man — He has no need to, first of all, and He is well aware of our propensity for selfishness, deceit, and misunderstanding.

But there is a third meaning for the phrase.  When one person says to another (often with a full heart and moist eyes) “I believe in you,” it is a word of encouragement — a shorthand way of acknowledging good intentions, noble character, and a certain amount of skill in whatever is about to be undertaken.  It is an expression of confidence in the better elements of a person’s capacities.  In that sense, God does ”believe in” atheists, just as He believes in all of humanity.  He evidently thought we were worth saving.   He does not (usually) strike down those who speak and act against Him, but He waits patiently, and in His mysterious way, He woos them.

So, is it true that God doesn’t believe in atheists?  Well…no, yes, and no again.  But I hardly think the second sense is really what the bumper sticker meant.  Maybe it’s a twist on the first sense — saying that God, knowing what is truly in a man’s heart, understands that even atheists really believe, deep down, that God exists.  As the saying goes, “there are no atheists in the foxholes.” 

Well, only God knows if that’s true.

The Duchess

This weekend I saw the film, “The Duchess,” and it has me reflecting on what makes relationships work.

In the film, an 18th-century English duke chooses a bride and, as my wife likes to say, “mayhem ensues.”  The “mayhem” in this case is mostly relational:  marital tension, infidelity, and a very small (by 21st-century film standards) amount of violence.  It’s not a happy marriage.

So, being a good 21st-century American, I naturally have found myself trying to decide who is to blame for all this unhappiness.  In so doing, I had to re-examine my own theories of what makes a marriage happy (after all, one has to have an idea what the machine looked like when it worked before one can see what’s wrong with it). 

The film presents a relationship in which the man has virtually all the power.  So, one tends to blame the man.  One also tends to blame the society of that time and place for giving the woman so little power.  But I see that many 21st-century American marriages are also full of tension, infidelity, and violence — and as far as I know, women have never been more empowered.  I think a war metaphor makes this clear:  If Nation A and Nation B are at war, and Nation A has vastly superior military power, then Nation A will get its way and Nation B will not.  Nation B will, of course, continue to have some kind of resistance movement doing damage wherever it can, but it will mostly have to live under Nation A’s rule.  But what if Nation A and Nation B have similar military power?  Well, then their war will be very bloody and will last until they arrive at a compromise in which each gets only some of its desires fulfilled — or until they have destroyed each other.  But even when the shooting stops, the tensions that caused the war will continue and the shooting will begin anew just as soon as one thinks it has the military advantage over the other.

So, it seems that the tension and fighting are not caused by the difference or similarity of power.  Well then, where do they come from?  In a word:  selfishness.  It is as James said:  “What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1).  In the film, the Duke’s desires were portrayed as 1) maintaining his position in society, 2) passing that position to the next generation of his family, and 3) gratifying his own sexual desires.  The Duchess’s desires were portrayed as 1) expressing her creativity, 2) being “loved” (or, perhaps more accurately, being liked), and 3) being with her children.  The reality of a person’s desires is more complex than what can be portrayed in a film, of course, but this is what I saw.  The point is that the Duke and Duchess pursued their own desires without regard for the other’s.  I think the Duke might have treated his wife with more respect and still obtained most of his own desires, but his focus was so much on his own desires that he utterly disregarded his wife’s.  The Duchess, for her part, only helped the Duke because of her own lack of power in the situation.  She wasn’t getting what she wanted out of the relationship, and clearly would have preferred to leave him.

The Christian ideal is not like that.  What is it like?  Let’s look at what Jesus had to say:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducess, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied:  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  (Matthew 22:34-40)

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” He says, and the term “neighbor” certainly applies to one’s spouse. 

Now, while selfishness seeks the well-being of oneself, love seeks the well-being of others.  Imagine for a moment a world in which everyone seeks the well-being of everyone else.  In such a world, I don’t need to look out for my own well-being because everyone else is doing that for me.  Forget the clouds and the harps — this is what heaven is. 

Now imagine a world in which everyone seeks his own well-being without any regard for anyone else’s.  In such a world, can anyone really be happy?

And so, the Duke and the Duchess are both to blame (the Duke probably more so, but it can be tough to get a fix on proportional blame).  And so we are all to blame, to some degree, for all the unhappiness in the world today — because who has eliminated selfishness from his own heart?  I certainly haven’t.

Going, going, gone!

I am happy to announce that over Labor Day weekend we successfully negotiated an agreement with a buyer on Shelby’s house.  Of course, the house will have to be inspected and all the paperwork will have to be satisfactorily completed, and so on, so I’m not uncorking the champagne just yet.  But I have no reason to expect anything to go wrong.  The closing will be in about 45 days.  I thank you all for your prayers!

Whom Would Jesus Bomb?

I recently saw a bumper sticker that read “Who would Jesus bomb?”  A rhetorical question, obviously, and the rhetoric has some power.  The writer has invoked Jesus, whom we in 21st-century America do not typically think of as a political or military leader like Dwight Eisenhower, but as a gentle and compassionate leader like Ghandi or Mother Theresa.  Therefore, our unreflective response to the question “Who would Jesus bomb?” is “no one.” 

But is this impression of Jesus accurate?  Is there no circumstance Jesus would use force to address?

In Joshua 5:13-15, a man appears to Joshua “with a drawn sword in his hand” calling himself “commander of the army of the LORD.”  He accepts Joshua’s worship, and says that the ground where they are standing is holy.  He is not named, but it seems likely that this is Jesus.

All four of the Gospels give an account of Jesus arriving at the temple and driving out those who were selling animals for sacrifice there, overturning their tables.  The account in John 2:13-17 adds that he “made a whip out of cords.”  This doesn’t sound like Ghandi.

And then there is this passage from Revelation 19:11-16: 

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True.  With justice he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.  He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.  He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.  “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”  He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:  “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” 

This can be no one but Jesus, and he doesn’t seem to have come for afternoon tea.

So, the questions is not whether Jesus would approve of forceful methods, but under what circumstances would he do so.  Jesus obviously didn’t get his “meek and mild” reputation by behaving like Ghengis Khan.  One of his final commands before going to the cross was “Love each other as I have loved you,”(John 15:14) and love does not usually express itself in the dropping of bombs.  So, one would expect violence to be used rarely and circumspectly — if at all — by Jesus’ followers.

So, what does it mean to “love each other”?  It means acting for the benefit of others.  If I see person A acting with the obvious intent to harm person B and I have the power to stop person A from doing so, would it be loving for me to refuse to stop him?  What if the only way to stop him was to harm him, or even kill him?  What if, instead of persons A and B we were talking about nations A and B?  (I do not claim to have all wisdom regarding these questions, but I do think they deserve consideration.)  Revelation says, “With justice he judges and makes war.”  And for the sake of justice, I believe we too must use our judgment and that may mean making war.

[Just to be clear, this post is not meant to be a defense of any particular war or use of force.]

What’s going on in my world, August 13

After all the excitement of finishing up Shelby’s house and getting it on the market, all of the effort apparently caught up with me.  I was just exhausted!  So, I’ve been doing a lot of resting and restful things.  Like (lately) watching the Olympics.  I’m finally starting to recover.

I’ve been practicing my clarinet semi-regularly, and that has been rewarding in itself.  I am up to the section in the Klose book where he gives 50 progressive (that is, progressively more difficult) duets.  I have been recording myself playing one of the parts, and then playing the other part along with the recording.  It lacks the social aspect of a chamber ensemble, but it has been a lot of fun so far.  The first 24 have been pretty easy.  I peeked ahead at #50 — I have my work cut out for me.

I have been working on one of those heavyweight posts that seem to drive my blog stats, but so far I haven’t been able to make my thoughts coherent enough to publish. 

I’ve been doing a little thinking about how I want to organize a few things around the house — just thinking at this point, no action.

As for the house, we’ve had four showings scheduled so far this week.  We’re praying that it will sell quickly, and ask you to pray with us!

The celebrated method

Last night I got my clarinet out again and practiced.  I’m not in a group right now, and I’m not taking lessons, so I don’t have anything in particular to prepare.  I decided to break out H. Klose’s Celebrated Method for the Clarinet, which my first teacher called “the clarinet Bible” and insisted that I buy a copy.  I decided that I would work through it from front to back.  I’m not sure if that’s the way it was intended to be used, but I am the methodical sort and I need a plan.  So far, it’s working for me:  I was able to play for almost an hour last night, and my tone is coming back. 

I have been in two chamber ensembles, and each was a great joy to me.  Oddly enough, they were both trios, and both were formed essentially the same way:  one of my friends was wanting to start a group, and they asked me if I wanted to be part of it.  Then the two of us went looking for a third person to make it complete.  In a nice bit of continuity, the “third person” in the first trio became the “friend” in the second trio. 

This time I am the first person rather than the second, and it’s more of a challenge for me.  I hope I have a friend who will be willing to join me on this journey.

Turning Point

At last, the day has come!  We have an appointment with the realtor in just a few hours, and the house will soon have a “for sale” sign in front of it!  I’m sure that my work there will not be entirely done until we sign the papers at closing, but this represents a significant turning point and we are certainly going to celebrate it.

I already know what will occupy me next:  while I’ve been spending so much time on Shelby’s house, my own house has been neglected.  We’ve moved lots of “stuff” from his house to ours, and it’s all sitting wherever we could make it fit at the time.  Some of it needs to be sold or given away, but most of it will need to have a “place” appointed for it.  Order must be imposed on the chaos!

What’s going on in my world, July 22

This weekend I went to my niece’s wedding — yes, the same niece whose high school graduation reception I went to a couple of months ago.  Ah, young love!  It was an outdoor wedding, at the lake.  Storms were in the forecast, but the Lord smiled on the event and kept the dark clouds miles away.  The bride cried through the whole ceremony, tears of joy like I’ve never seen at any wedding that wasn’t scripted in Hollywood.  The reception was outdoors, too, and despite the heat we stayed there much later than we had intended, talking with relatives until the sun had nearly set.

We continue to slog away on the house.  Since my last report I have touched up the paint on the front porch, pulled weeds in the flower garden, and replaced some broken mini-blinds.  Tonight I plan to remove the last of the stuff from the garage.  Tomorrow we’ll be renting a power washer to blast the brick facade clean.  If all goes well, we’ll call the realtor Thursday or Friday and start the process of getting the place listed for sale.  Hallelujah!

What Job Said

Sorrow has visited our house frequently in the past two years.  Around Thanksgiving of 2006, Jeremiah, our oldest cat, became seriously ill and died.  He had been part of our family for more than 10 years, since shortly after our wedding.  Shelby’s condition took a turn for the worse around the same time, and he passed away in February of 2007.  We “inherited” his 17-year-old cat, Gertrude.  That summer, Abigail, our middle “child,” also became terminally ill.  And as winter rolled around again, Gertrude followed suit, leaving us with only our “baby,” Rosie.

Rosie is a very outgoing cat, and craves attention and playtime.  We thought maybe it was finally time to get her a new playmate.  When Jen received an e-mail about a 6-week old long-haired tortie kitten who’d had her shots and was already litterbox trained, we thought it sounded like a golden opportunity.  But Ava had been in our home less than three hours when she fell limp and had to be rushed to the emergency veterinary hospital.  Her blood sugar was extremely low, and she had had a seizure.  After two and a half days of care and prayer, her condition proved to be insurmountable.

Ava’s death was hard for us, not because we were particularly attached to her, but because of what she represented to us:  a new start, an affirmation that life goes on, an expression of hope for a happier tomorrow.

In circumstances like this, one is naturally inclined to look for a reason — something bigger than “kidney failure,” “heart disease,” “cancer,” or the like.  But reasons like those are all science can offer, all that merely human knowledge can supply.  And those answers simply do not satisfy, no matter how accurate or otherwise useful they may be.  No, under such circumstances one seeks deep answers, meaningful answers.  And for this, one must go to the only One Who knows:  to God Himself.

And that is just what Job did when sorrow visited him.  I notice that despite the fervency of his prayers and the righteousness of his life to that point, Job received the same answer that I have:  no answer at all.  Job did get more than silence, though:  in response to all his questions, Job received… more questions.  But they were the right questions. 

Sometimes coming up with the right answer is simply a matter of asking the right question.  And the answer to God’s question was, essentially, that God is in charge and I am not.  So, the words Job said at first were the right ones:  “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 

God still loved Job, and in the course of time He restored to him double what he had lost.  And God still loves Jen and me, too.  But when sorrow comes there is nothing for us to do but cry and allow God to be God, to remember that He has loved us and trust that He will bring us joy again.

Mid-July Miscellaneous

Bullet points from my world:

1.  Last week we adopted a cute little 6-week-old kitten named Ava.  To make a long story short (I’ve been working on the longer version, and I may share it here later), it turned out she had some serious health challenges and she passed away just after midnight on Friday.  Also see Jen’s post about it (and a picture) here. 

2.  We went to a wedding Saturday night (the daughter of our former house church pastor).  The ceremony was beautiful and went off without a hitch.  The reception was festive, and it was really nice to see old friends.  And it took our minds off everything else for a while, which was marvelous.

3.  At the house, I’ve given away most of the pile of cardboard boxes and installed some drain pipe extensions.  A crew is coming to deep-clean the house tonight, and I’m hoping to touch up the paint on the front porch railings and steps.

4.  Last night I rescued my neglected clarinet from the closet and played for about 20 minutes, which was all my poor out-of-shape chops could manage.  My new year’s resolution is to start another chamber ensemble.  At the time, I had hoped to be done with the house a lot sooner than this.  But I figure for now I can at least start practicing again and get myself in shape.

That’s all for now.