Water: Movements That Change the World

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Today is water day…and I want to be part of a water movement that brings clean water to every person on the globe.

Why?

Because it’s a compelling cause:

–The water crisis is at the heart of a daily emergency faced by a billion of the world’s most vulnerable people–a crisis that threatens life and destroys livelihoods on a devastating scale. Unlike war and terrorism, the global water crisis does not make media headlines, despite the fact that it claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. Unlike natural disasters, it does not rally concerted international action, despite the fact that more people die each year from drinking dirty water than from the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes combined. This is a crisis that is holding back human progress, consigning large segments of humanity to lives of poverty, vulnerability, and insecurity. The church of Jesus Christ can see an end to this silent crisis experienced by the poor and tolerated by those with the resources, technology, and the political power to end it. – Chris Seay

Because it’s pursued by visionary communities:

Edmund Burke described visionary communities as “God’s little platoons”–little concerts of benevolence committed to the pursuit of something great. Even if my daughter and daughter-in-law weren’t among the following “companies of friends,” I would want to join these water movements. Both strike at the very heart of the water crisis. Laurie and I are privileged to be part of these heavenly platoons–making significant contributions today to each. We’d love for you to join us. Click on either image below to explore options.

Because it challenges the status quo.

Movements like The Adventure Project and One Billion Thirsty (in partnership with Living Water) refuse to accept reality–they embrace it, they acknowledge it, they even lament it–but they wont “accept” it. All movements kick back at the darkness. One Billion people in need of clean water?? Crazy. Wrong. But solvable.

All movements both “criticize” and “energize.” They never criticize alone; they also bring energy to bear–creating a new reality. Whether it’s investing in well-mechanics repairing broken wells in northern India or in new deep water wells in a repairing Sierra Leone, movements like these are taking action. Ideas are one thing, action is another.

Because nothing is easy.

All true revolutions take place in an evolutionary way. Movements that solve the water crisis require thousands of “tiny strategic” actions persevered over the long haul. Movements take time–a long time. Getting clean water to One Billion people won’t happen overnight. It won’t be easy. It will be hard. But who wants to be part of something easy? Not me. I want to do something that many think can’t be done.

And when it’s done–how fun will that be!

Heaven on Earth

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I recently taught thru Revelation 21-22 (here) and was reminded that salvation in the Scriptures points to a future when all creation is redeemed and restored. In his book, Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright argues that we have got to get it into our heads that which the New Testament is really banging on about–the (bodily) resurrection. This bodily resurrection (to which the The Apostles Creed refers to as “I believe in …. the resurrection of the body and life everlasting”) is NOT a synonym for going to heaven when you die, but is what is going to happen after that.

I’ve often say, heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world. What the New Testament is all about is what I call “life after life after death.” That is, resurrection life after whatever state we go into after death. The New Testament teaches a two-stage post-mortem eschatology. The New Testament goes on and on about the (bodily) resurrection and says very little about the intermediate state.–N.T. Wright

OK, here my translation of Wright’s main point: there are two stages to life after death… the intermediate state when we are with Jesus as disembodied spirits and the final state when we get our bodies back. Eternal life is fully realized at that final state. The New Testament says very little about the intermediate state, but goes on and on about the final state.

Do you get the implications of this? Our hope as Christians is for our bodily resurrection, not for a disembodied home in heaven. In other words, the heart of the gospel is not “going to heaven, but heaven coming to earth.” We will be resurrected persons in a transfigured universe so that our final home is “a presence, a people, and a place.”  By all indications, the New Jerusalem will come down to earth, this earth. The new heavens and the new earth of Isaiah 60-66, 2 Peter 3, Revelation 21 are a “renewed heavens and earth”– not totally different ones.

So what? Well, here’s a few implications:

  • Christian spirituality is about an embodied life on the earth both now and forever. Our bodies matter.
  • There is a continuity between this world and the world to come. What we do in this world with our bodies, even what we do in secular work with our bodies, has value in the world to come. We receive good according to what we do with our bodies.
  • The earth matters; it will be my eternal home. It groans too for redemption. I should love it, steward it, nourish it, protect it.
  • We are ambassadors for a king- in-waiting. His kingdom is both now real and coming soon.
    (Lots of other implications: See another discussion in Nathan Bierma’s book, Bringing Heaven Down To Earth)

Reading Old Books–The Inklings

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The Inklings and Old Books

It’s a good rule after reading a new book never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to three new ones…. Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and especially liable to make certain mistakes. We all therefore need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period…. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books….The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds and this can only be done by reading old books.–C.S. Lewis

The Inklings loved old books. It was in part their love of old books that brought them together. Indeed, they fought against what Owen Barfield called “chronological snobbery– -the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited.”

C.S. Lewis, prior to trusting in Christ, was captured by this belief: what was modern was somehow more right or true–just because it was newer. His Oxford friends- –Barfield, Dyson, and Tolkein–challenged his assumption. They gave him an appreciation for the truths inherent in the classics.

As Lewis reflected later on this period, he wrote a friend.

A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere.

Lewis discovered that most of those traps lie in the old books which have so pro- foundly affected our world. When he converted to Christianity, Lewis changed his position. The classics, the great books of the ages, are best able to deal with the issues of our own time. He soon argued, “The more ‘up to date’ a book is, the sooner it will be dated.”

For this reason, Lewis (and the other Inklings would agree) suggested that we spend significant time reading the classics—whose “time-honored” nature will help us not only understand the past, but also awaken a deeper understanding of the present. We need the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.

To do this, Lewis made the following suggestions:

  1. Add to your reading schedule the old books. Lewis suggested that after reading a new book, read an old one before you read another new book. When was the last time you read a book other than the Bible that was over 100 years old? Over 1000 years old?
  2. Read and re-read the very best books. Lewis believed that we lose a great deal by only reading a book once. Re-visit the great books again and again. Other than the Bible, have you ever read a book again and again?
  3. Read these old books with a sense of discovery. Carefully study these books, mark key passages, write notes or questions in the margins, pause to understand the arguments. Do you mark your books?
  4. Discuss what you read with others. Lewis wrote, “when one has read a book, I think there is nothing so nice as discussing it with someone else–even though it sometimes produces rather fierce arguments.” To share a book in common is one of friendship’s greatest joys. Who are your Inklings?
  5. Make friends with the old books. Learn to see through the eyes of others. Garner the insights of the thoughtful people who have gone before you.

Some Old Friends Worth Knowing

Here are some old friends you might want to know. Most are Lewis’s friends, but I’ve thrown in a couple of my own. Begin with at least one of these “old books” and add a conversation with him or her to your reading plan this year.

  • Confessions by Augustine
  • The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
  • Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales
  • Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
  •  The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer
  • The Aeneid by Virgil
  • The Temple (and other poems) by George Herbert
  • The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
  • Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
  • Centuries of Meditations by Thomas Traherne
  • Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life by William Law
  • Divine Comedy by Dante
  • Revelations of Divine Love by Lady Julian
  • Pensées by Pascal
  • Paradise Lost by John Milton
  • The Fairie Queen by Edmund Spenser
  • The Poetry of John Donne
  • The Works of William Shakespeare

Drawing Near to God

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Drawing as a Means of Hearing the Holy Spirit

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed it or not. The Bible is a picture book—it uses imagery to reveal God’s truth. Bible words are often picture words.

Take, for example, the Book of Proverbs. Open it up and put your finger down anywhere on the page. I just did it—here’s what it says: “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.” (Ouch, I got up later this morning than I should have.)

Or consider Jesus who almost always spoke in figurative language. “I am the vine, you are the branches… The Kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field.”

The Scriptures are rooted in an Oriental culture, which tends to be much more right-brained—more visual and non-linear. God chose to reveal himself in the Scriptures in figurative language–language that “draws pictures in our brains”. The Scriptures are predominately narrative or story (extended metaphors) and poetry (purely metaphorical).

Unfortunately, most of us are trained to see things in logical, linear, verbal fashion. Bringing our occidental proclivities into play, we come as lawyers to the Word, not as artists. As a result, we miss some of the depths of its riches.

The human mind is not, as philosophers would have you think, a debating hall, but a picture gallery. Around it land our similes, our concepts … Metaphor is the essence of religion and poetry.
— W. Macneile Dixon

Several years ago, I discovered a rather simple way to tap into the figurative, metaphorical language of the Bible. This method opened up the Scriptures in some powerful ways for me. Give it a try.

The Method (aka Drawing Near to God).

  1. Secure a journal or notebook without lines. In fact, turn it length-wise (landscape).
  2. Read your Bible (let me suggest starting in Proverbs 10).
  3. Simply sketch the image or picture described in the text —maybe three or four snap-sketches per notebook page. (Begin with the more obviously pictorial proverbs—10:5, 9, 11, 13…)

    As you develop your visual sense, try to draw each proverb. Use your imagination to probe the meaning of word pictures.

  4. Don’t show anybody your sketches. Most of us who are not artistic–or think we’re not artistic–refuse to draw or sketch because we’re embarrassed at our silly stick figures.

    We worry about the product. Drawing near to God is about process, not product. So think process.

  5. What truths does God reveal to you as you see the biblical passages through different eyes?

To make you happy about your own sketches, I’ll break the fourth rule and show you some of mine:

Letting the Text Read Me: Revisiting Gospel Meditation

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There is a difference between reading a text and letting the text read you. I’ve so often treated the Scriptures as an object, unpacking its truths, mining its riches. Certainly, we are to read and study the Scriptures to show ourselves approved (2 Tim 2:15). But dissecting the Scriptures as an object is different than allowing the Scriptures to pierce the soul and spirit and to discern the heart’s thots and intentions (Hebrews 4:12). When we allow the Scriptures to become–not an object to study–but a living word, we become in a sense subjects of the word. Instead of us studying it, it studies us.

A friend recently suggested that I practice the following discipline.

Take a “story” from the Gospels. Read it and, as you’re walking or jogging, enter the story. Become the characters, imagine what they are feeling. What is going on in their lives and hearts? See the setting. Grasp the tension. Play out the plot in your imagination. Most of all, don’t let the text become an object. Let it study you as you become subject to it.

(Devotional masters over years have called this exercise: Gospel Meditation. I didn’t tell my friend that I’d once written up the attached description here. My friend tends to perceive in me something I don’t–there’s a difference in ‘knowing’ about something and ‘practicing’ it.)

Now, here’s the difference between my previous experience with the exercise and how I’m beginning to practice it.

For some reason, I’ve always tended to be Jesus in the passage. I was looking to imitate Jesus, to follow him and his ways. After all, I told myself, the disciple will become like the teacher.

But lately, my friend argued, see yourself as the person with whom Jesus is interacting.

For example, as Jesus is pressed by the crowd in Mark 5, a sick woman touches the hem of his garment. Jesus turns and asks, “Who touched my garment?” In the past, I would have processed this passage with the application.

In the midst of the rush of life, be sensitive to the touch from people in need. Don’t just keep pressing on in the crowd. See the individual.

Not a bad application. Certainly true. Something I could resolve to do better at.

But today, I imagined myself as this poor woman reaching out to just touch Jesus’ garment. I could see Jesus turning toward me, asking “Who touched me?” I experienced somewhat the fear the woman felt as she trembled and fell down before him.

I have a brokenness no doctor can solve; every effort I’ve spent to get better fails. I was only growing worse. But today, I fought thru the crowd and touched your hem, Lord. I felt your power flow into me.

This morning, as I “became” this woman, I entered the rest of the day–not with an application, not with something for me to do. I entered the day, having encountered Jesus. I felt the fear. I heard his voice. I left in peace.

I had moved from the head to the heart. The story had studied me.

A Well Developed Imagination

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Monte Swan’s Romancing Your Child’s Heart portrays God as the original Romancer and Hero of the Larger Story who “woos” us to himself.  Swan argues that we should woo and romance our kids by an appeal to their heart–mostly thru their imagination. He gives a number of parenting tips which I’ve adopted here as ways to develop our imagination.

Here they are:

Constantly Remember that You are Living in the Larger Story. The Larger Story, the kingdom story, the story of Jesus is older than time itself. As the Scriptures teach, “in Him we live and move and have our being.” Everyone of us is living a story, and that story is part of the Larger Story that God has been telling forever. Remind yourself of this.

Woo Yourself With Story. Be a myth-lover like Lewis was. Swan writes: “The best stories show us God’s reality, they develop within us a thirst to experience it. Stories enable us both to feel and to understand, and this empowers us to live well. Stories do not storm our hearts, they sneak past the screens and filters of our rational mind. They infect the spirit and move the heart.”

Protect Your Sense of Wonder. Don’t lose your ability to wonder–to savor and be drawn to–God’s creation. It is his handiwork. As adults, we need to rediscover the childlike awareness of the sky, the rock, the water, the trees, the animals–which all proclaim his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature.

Unleash Your Creative Side. To be creative is to have the ability to bring into existence, to cause, to make. When we create, we are most like God–it is evidence of his blueprint on us. So find ways to design, invent, shape, and organize.

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