Friday, March 25, 2016

Asking Myself: "My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?"

This is the 12th post in my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here. The first nine posts focused on theological musings, while post 10 to now prayerfully consider the specific questions Jesus posed in the New Testament.

Q: "My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark  15:34)

This question comes just in time for Easter. I'm still trying to figure out how to celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection with my kids... but I'm certain I don't want their prevailing impression to always be eggs and bunnies. When they are ready, I want them to wrestle with tough questions, like this one.

The tone and theme of the question suggests the asker's deepest trust has been shaken and his deepest love has been severed. A premature twilight has passed over the fiery passion of Jesus' soul. 

It's difficult to "Ask Myself" this question because I've not felt anything remotely like the agony Jesus must have at the moment he no longer beheld the cloudless face of God the Father guiding him, smiling upon him. No longer feeling the intimacy of being One. I'm not saying the Triune God ceased to be One, but, in that moment in time, in a very real sense, Father and Son were separated. I think it's safe to say there's some mystery here. 

Make that an awful, blinding mystery that stung like the drops of blood drawn from a thorn-pierced brow and nail-pierced hands. A disorienting, nauseating, numbing swirl of mystery as consciousness was fading in and out. Jesus knew it would happen. But did he fully know—do any of us humans, ever fully know before we experience?

My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Children's devotional "I AM" develops trust in God, delves into His many names


The Parrino house has quite a collection of children's Bibles. The title of Diane Stortz's sparkling (literally) new children's devotional, "I AM: 40 Reasons to Trust God," told me I had to get my hands on this one. The name is drawn from Psalm 9:10- "Those who know your name put their trust in you." I really like that thought-- the more of God's names we know, the more we meet Him in the fullness of His personality, the more reason we have to trust Him. Moreover, I love that this story bible takes as its central theme the many names of God because I feel it's important for kids get a taste of the complexity and wonder bound up in God's many attributes. 

The book covers 40 stories, evenly selected from both Old and New Testaments, with about four to six pages per story. The Old Testament stories include both the Hebrew name and an interpretation-- and I found myself learning some new names: El Emeth (God of Truth). El Kanna (Jealous God), and El Nehkumah (God of All Comfort) among them. The New Testament stories focus on both the names people called Jesus, such as Rabbi and Son of God, as well as names Jesus gave Himself, such as The Bread of Life and the Good Shepherd. 

I liked that the collection included some less common in the children's bible genre, such as the story of Ruth in the Old Testament and Jesus with Mary and Martha in the New. 

Each chapter contains a verse containing one of God's names, a retelling of  a Bible story that illustrates the featured facet, and a page of devotional content, including a couple of paragraphs subheaded "What Does It Mean?", a two-sentence prayer and a "Learn More" box with additional verses and a few sentences answer to the question "What Happened Next?"

With my own littles, (aged 7, 5 and 2) I stuck mainly to reading the name, verse reference and story. They tended to stop paying attention to the devotional portions. If you're someone who feels most secure when the devotional package is completely spelled out, I AM's format will appeal to you. Personally, I don't like everything to be scripted out for me. I like there to be some wiggle room to pause and let the boys raise their own questions, so after the first couple of chapters I stopped reading  the boys the devotional content. 

One other (minor) qualm I had was with the illustrations, which are vibrant and eye-catching and full of action-- but also, I found them a little bit too big-eyed, red-lipped, gown and hair-flowing, Disney-perfect. Kids really are drawn to this style, so my mention of it is more a matter of personal taste than criticism. 

Overall, I found this a worthy addition to our growing collection of illustrated Bible resources. 

I received my copy of I AM from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Jesus Asks: "What do you want Me to do for you?"

This is the 11th post in my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here. Last week marked a shift from theological musings to reflection on the specific questions Jesus posed in the New Testament.


Q: "What is it you want me to do for you?" --Mark 10:36

Unlike last week, where I dove into the verses first, I pondered this question without checking the specific context, knowing only that Jesus asked it.  I guessed that it might have been addressed to someone in need of healing. 

My answer? The "one thing" I would want Jesus to do for me were He to ask me point blank? I think at this moment in time it would be for direction. Fact is, I'm still stuck on my thoughts from last week. If you read my previous post, I talked about how I felt God had given me the impression that I might choose a new pursuit without fear, that He's for me, that He's confident even that I can make a wise (enough) decision about my future. 

All very wonderful things I should be extremely happy to hear. And I was. But actually, the thought terrifies me! I prefer the old paradigm-- Where I don't act until I receive the midnight revelation, the clear epiphany, the specific calling, the confirmation of God's Perfect Will, even if it's uttered in the still small voice. The little voice that might whisper:
This is the one you'll marry. 

Go spend a year studying the Bible.

Apply for that job.

I've heard all of those whispers before, and have even followed them in peace. The resulting experience was not uniformly easy, but I could cling to my own faith in God's leading in those situations. Though I still trust God was leading and my following was the best I could do at being faithful, I'm not entirely sure I believe in the idea of "perfect will" anymore. I suspect God's giving us free will extends to much more than just our initial salvation decision. 

Friday, March 11, 2016

Asking Myself: Why are you afraid?


This is the tenth post in my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here. This week marks a shift from theological musings to reflection on the specific questions Jesus posed in the New Testament.


Q: Why are you afraid? (Matthew 8:26)

To give some context to this red letter question, this is Jesus' waking response to his waterlogged disciples after they roused him from his nap with a frantic weather update. A storm is brewing! We don't want to sink! Help us dump all this water out! How can you sleep through this deluge? Can't you see, all is nearly lost?!
"Why are you afraid?"

I don't know the tone in which Jesus replied. I almost imagine a groggy Savior. After all, in the verses before, he'd just told a wanna-be disciple that to follow Him meant having no place even to lay one's head. And with that adieu, Jesus boarded a dinghy and collapsed into sleep, head on the damp splintery bottom, overtaken by his unending, crowd-pressed exhaustion. 

His next statement seems to be his answer to his question:
"You have so little faith."

As I ponder Jesus' question, I cannot ask it of myself, without what seems to be Jesus' "hint" to us about the root of being afraid. Therefore, before I can ponder my deepest fears, I must address the matter of faith. As usual in these posts, from one question springs forth dozens more!

Friday, March 4, 2016

Asking Myself: What is the role of evil in a world created by God?


This is the ninth installment of my series "Asking Myself," in which I weekly ponder one question posed in Teresa Blythe's rich book, 50 Ways to Pray. You can find the start of the series here and last week's post here.

Q: What is the role of evil in a world created by God?

This is a question that I find painful to ponder. It puts me on the edge, faith-wise. If I dwell too long on it, I'm prone to doubt either God's power or His goodness. But here it is, the last of nine theological questions presented in Blythe's exercise I've yet to blog about.

First, I think I need to define "evil" in order to build my thoughts on evil's role.

God is good, 100 percent. Could He have created evil? I hate to think so. And could He have created things to be innately prone to evil, fully knowing they would succumb to it or at least fall victims to it? That's a tougher question to answer. So instead I'm going to answer my first question about the definition of evil: Evil is the absence of God. Evil is anti-Christ. No God, no good. No good, evil.