Laying to Heart
Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Ps. 90:12
During our time in London there were three times we saw people swarm. It’s always fascinating to watch watch makes people swarm, what they’ll go crazy for. It’s telling, isn’t it?
- The crown jewels. Yes, people will wait in line like Disneyland to see the largest diamond in the world and see the queen’s crown. Opulence interests people. We’re fascinated by royalty.
- The Jonas brothers. Yes, walking along the Thames river we saw a swarm of crazed people and later found out it was due to an appearance of one of the Jonas brothers. Of course I had to ask, “Who are the Jonas Brothers?” I’m hopelessly out of the celebrity loop … But as a people we’re fascinated by celebrities.
- The dead. While the rest of the British Museum is a steady and calm stream of meandoring visitors, the Egyptian mummy hall looks more like an amusement park, complete with crowds and cameras. We’re fascinated by death.
It is an interesting place. It was the one part of the museum I remember from my visit eleven years ago (that and the Rosetta stone, that’s cool too.). In the Egyptian hall you can see the mummy of Cleopatra, along with a real unwrapped corpse from thousands of years ago, amazingly preserved because of the unique dry and sandy climate and burial rituals. It is eerie, I’ll say that. Walking through hall after hall of mummies, encased in tightly-wrapped graveclothes and elaborately painted coffins.
They were very concerned with how they would enter the afterlife.
And we’re very concerned with taking pictures of them now.
Later, staying with our missionary friends, we watched the children’s movie The Indian in the Cupboard. After the child has turned his toys into real, tiny people, one of them dies. The child is upset and wants to make him go away, “send him back” to the toy world so that he will no longer be real. He’s scared because this real, tiny person is actually dead in his hand.
The Indian rebukes him: “You want to send him away because he’s dead?! You are afraid of a dead man?”
I’ll admit, very often I’m the little boy who does not want to see anything that brings death too close. Sure, I’ll stare at a mummy kept safely tucked behind glass walls in a museum, but what if the dead were lying in my hand? What if I had to stare the horror right in the face?
And what if the worst part wasn’t even death, but something infinitely worse?
Eternal death.
And maybe we are wise to put this eternal reality in front of our faces daily. Maybe, when we “number our days,” and see that they are short, we will “gain a heart of wisdom.” I’m all for laughter and mirth, but a heart of wisdom is what I need. The wisest man who ever lived said this,
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart … The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Ecc. 7:2,4
Is he saying never laugh? No, a merry heart does good like medicine. Is he saying to always be serious? No, in fact we’d all be wise to take ourselves a little less seriously. But the exhortation is against triviality. We’re wise to consistently ponder, of “lay to heart” things of substance. Things of eternal value.
Things that matter.
Things like eternal life and eternal death.
Because we naturally respond to whatever it is that we ponder, whatever we lay to heart. The Egyptians responded by feverishly ensuring that their physical bodies were well prepared for death.
Little Colton Burpo (from Heaven is For Real) responded by feverishly ensuring that everyone he loved “knew Jesus.”
What is our response?
…for this is the end of mankind, and the living will lay it to heart…
American Idols
The Southbank of the Thames river surprised me.
We’d toured the city of London for several days, walking miles with heads tilted back, constantly looking up up up at the beautiful buildings, cathedrals, palaces. We were in a perpetual state of looking up, always up, taking in the breath-taking sites as we stood like ants at the base.
But by chance we walked across the Westminster bridge and found ourselves on the Southbank. It was a beautiful walk, as the evening sun was setting, and we took our time looking out over the river as we walked.
But then we glanced back and saw the real sight.
From across the river, you can look over and really see. From that distance you can really see what the buildings look like, and how they look in relation to each other. St. Paul’s and Westminster and the Parliament buildings all look amazing when you can actually stand back far enough to see them. When actually in the city, you’re far too close to take them all in. Isn’t that true with anything? You have to stand back far enough to see.
And the larger something is, the farther back you have to stand.
So in order to see a continent, a culture, perhaps sometimes we need to stand back really far, like all the way across an ocean … Perhaps?
Honestly, the best part of our trip was the simple gift of perspective.
In the very first conference at the Single-Minded conference Jeff talked a lot about idols. We asked challenging questions and prayed that God would gently and graciously show us what idols we still are clinging to in our hearts. As we heard right before we left,
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8
I for one do NOT want to forfeit any grace; I need all that I can get!
Jeff talked about how most of our idols can be reduced down to one of four basic idols:
- Approval
- Success
- Control
- Comfort
We all can be prone to these at different times, but I’d never so clearly seen how much we as Americans do bow down to that last one — the idol of comfort.
Far enough away to really see
It’s actually hard to see London when you’re smack dab in the middle of it.
We’d toured the city of London for several days, walking miles with heads tilted back in a perpetual state of looking straight up, taking in the breath-taking sites as we stood like ants on the ground.
But by chance on Thursday we walked across the Westminster bridge and found ourselves on the Southbank of the Thames river. It was a beautiful sight, with the evening sun setting, and we took our time looking out over the river as the crowd carried us along
But then we glanced back and saw the real sight.
From across the river, you can look back over and really see the city, see what what the buildings look like, and how they look in relation to each other. St. Paul’s and Westminster and the Parliament buildings (above) all look amazing when you can actually stand back far enough to see them. When walking in the city, you’re far too close to take them all in. Isn’t that true with anything? You have to stand back far enough to see.
And the larger something is, the farther back you have to stand.
So in order to see a continent, a culture, perhaps sometimes we need to stand back really far, like all the way across an ocean. Perhaps?
As many of you know, before we went on this trip I struggled a bit with why we were going. We’re not international speakers, and surely there are Bible teachers aplenty in the UK to teach a conference. I was excited to visit the missionaries, but why should we get to go?
In every way, the trip was, quite simply, a gift to us.
And the greatest gift was the gift of a fresh perspective.
I’ve traveled abroad before. From 2000-2005 I visited a different foreign country every year. But we haven’t crossed the border since 2005 and that makes six years of slowly forgetting how uncommon life in America really is.
I actually started to think that we were normal. Silly me.
Many of you know this: The way we live is not normal.
It’s so easy to think that a 2300 sf. house with a two or three car garage and a bedroom for each child and a master suite with a bathroom and two cars is normal. And perhaps in America it is. But globally, that is not normal. That is extravagant. And we can quote statistics that tell us we are the richest 1% in the world, but it’s really hard to feel it until we travel abroad. We stand back far enough to see and realize – we live in a dreamland.
And as we walked our way around the UK, catching trains, subways, buses, and planes, swimming in a sea of 60 million people, I feel so small and maybe, just maybe, begin to have the teensiest tiniest taste of God’s overflowing heart for His world.
For His people.
As I type this I’m on an airplane 38,000 feet above Greenland. I’m looking at a little TV screen that maps our flight, and I can see the entire western hemisphere “below” me on the screen, while the little white airplane slowly moves across the above. Because it’s a spectacularly cloudless day, I can actually look right out my window and see the very continents that appear on my screen. See cities turn to mountains turn to coastland turn to glaciers. See vastness that blows my mind, and I can’t help but lean my head against this window and just let the tears spill quietly over because this is the world Christ died for. And my smallness is beautiful but it makes it so hard to see. And I get lost in my small world and begin to think that the pettiness and triviality of so much of my daily concerns actually matter.
While people are dying without the gospel. Millions of them. Swarming through subways and flooding into airports and brushing my shoulders on the street.
That’s reality.
But so often I’m drowning in my own sea of triviality.
And I wonder if that is really the whole point of the sacred mundane. To elevate us from triviality into reality.
And maybe even though we can’t always travel abroad maybe living the sacred mundane would teach us to transform every moment into an opportunity to bow low and breathe deep and pray long and see clear. Maybe it would elevate our perspective so our cares would be small and His world would be big.
At least that’s my prayer.
~
[Thanks for letting me process … I’m a work in progress, as always. Thanks for reading.]
Celebrate our Nation by Blessing the Nations
11 days, 9 cities, 6 airports, 5 beds, 4 countries, 2 continents, and 2 very happy and tired travelers who are thrilled to be flying home.
We’re flying home today.
Yes, on the 4th of July. The joke has been, of course, that we’re fleeing the tyranny of Britain and declaring independence by returning to the United States. It is purely coincidence, but it does make me reflect on our country, what it means to be an American, and yes, why I am still proud to be one.
I am “proud” to be an American because that is who God made me. He chose to birth me into this wonderful family in this wonderful country where we enjoy amazing freedom and privilege because of His amazing grace and the sacrifice of countless men and women who have fought on our behalf.
I am thankful beyond words.
But you want to know the real reason why I’m proud to be an American?
We have the tremendous privilege of sharing our extraordinary wealth to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and share the hope of trusting in Him.
I love my country more than ever and am praying that we don’t miss the amazing privilege we have:
The privilege we have to share:
- Of the 6.7 billion people in the world, 2.7 billion live among the unreached people groups of the world and 1.6 billion are completely unevangelized.
- 70,000+ people die everyday in the unreached world without Jesus.
- Of foreign mission funding: 87% goes for work among those already Christian. 12% for work among already evangelized, but Non-Christian. 1% for work among the unevangelized and unreached people.
- Christians make up 33% of the world’s population, but receive 53% of the world’s annual income and spend 98% of it on themselves.
- Americans own approximately 40% of the world’s wealth but comprise only 2.5% of the population.
- North American and European Christians spend $12.5 trillion on themselves and their families each year.
- Only .1% of all Christian giving is directed toward mission efforts in the 38 most unevangelized countries in the world.
I’m not sharing this to rain on your 4th of July parade! I just think that it is exciting to realize that we have SO much potential we have to bless the nations because we’ve been so blessed.
And the cool part? You don’t even have to get on an airplane! The most unreached nations are those that are closed to North American travelers, so you can make a much greater impact by simply giving to those organizations that raise up, train, support, and send out native missionaries to reach their own countries. Looking for a way to celebrate our wonderful country today? Celebrate by being a blessing to the nations.
Oh sing to the LORD a new son; sing to the LORD all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! (Ps. 96:1-3)
Happy 4th of July … check out the fun links below.
{And enjoy that watermelon!}