Monthly Archives: May 2016

“I have some questions about the Bible and I was wondering if you would meet with me for breakfast and give me your thoughts about it?” The man who asked that question was Eli Keeran and it seemed utterly ridiculous to me he would ask such a thing. Eli was a board member of the church I had grown up in and had recently started re-attending. He had been a missionary in South America for a time many years ago and had led Bible clubs at the local High School. For him to want me to help him with HIS questions about the Bible didn’t compute, and yet I wanted to know more about the Bible, and he WAS offering to pay for breakfast; yes seemed the obvious answer. Little did I realize that would be the beginning of a relationship that would become more important to me than any other relationship I had outside of my wife and family. Eli influenced my understanding of what it meant to be a Christian in such a dramatic way that he will forever be part of the fabric of my life.

Eli Keeran was much older than me, in fact nearly 40 years older. He and his wife Billie had been missionaries for a short time in Brazil early in their marriage until they decided to settle down and have a family in our little town. He settled into the position of Math teacher at Cottage Grove High School for many years, and in fact was a teacher when I attended the High School ten years earlier, but had recently retired. He had led the school Bible club in a generation when that was permitted, had been on the board of our church for many years and attended several non-denominational Bible studies around town. Eli was representative of a rare breed of Christian man whose life was based on living out his faith in every way he knew how. He would visit elderly shut-ins and do menial chores for them on weekends. There was one elderly woman who lived in a house behind our church that he would regularly help. He would do anything she needed done but she never once thanked him for his help but that didn’t matter, Eli still visited her at least once a week for many years. He would be the guy behind the scenes providing groceries for poor families, leaving the bag on their front porch early in the morning before anyone had risen for the day so they would not know who had been the angel of mercy. This was the man from whom I would learn over the next 15 years.

It seemed to be an awkward fit for him to take on the task of discipling me, and yet it was HIS idea.  We started to meet together for breakfast every week at a local diner and at first just talked about his “questions”. As I said I really didn’t understand at first why he would want to know what I thought about the Bible, he obviously knew a lot more about it than I did. Eventually I came to realize that it was his way of discipling me. But instead of me knowing he was teaching me, Eli made it seem like I was the expert! He didn’t need his ego to be padded with my deference, he simply wanted me to grow in my faith. One day he asked me to “help” him with his scripture memory, giving me some cards with the verse he was memorizing that I was to read while he recited the scripture to me. Eventually I realized he didn’t me to help him, he had memorized the scripture years before, it was just his way of getting me interested in memorizing scripture. Over the weeks we started talking about the basics of the Christian faith and the charade of his needing my opinion on the scriptures fell away, but he never assumed a superior attitude.. He always treated me as an equal, something I have always appreciated.

As the years passed our relationship became very close, becoming much more than simply a discipleship meeting. He was a friend, a confidant (although there were some topics we never ventured), eventually becoming like another father to me. He paid for breakfast every time, even when I tried to pay I would later find my money in my car, or in my mailbox or some such place until I gave up. He would always have the same thing; oatmeal and toast with a cup of plain hot water (he didn’t want to become “addicted” to anything, even caffeine) to drink. He was one of the most disciplined men I’ve ever met, but he would never trumpet that discipline, he just was.

Eli’s quiet mentorship slowly transformed my understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. When we would meet he would ask questions, rarely making declarative statements. Without question he was leading me in a certain direction but it was such that I would find the answers myself and so take direct ownership. But he also helped in many other ways. As I grew in my faith I was given opportunities to lead a Bible study. Eli volunteered to attend the study as a way to support my attempt at leadership. He never questioned my leadership but simply encouraged me every step of the way. When we would meet for our weekly breakfast he would ask me what I thought about how things were going and would respond to my questions but was never critical.

Eli later became close to my family, becoming another grandfather to our children, especially after my father died from cancer. He built a chicken coop for my wife, helped my son Andrew with his Math homework, and taught my other children building skills when he would work on projects for us. Often he would show up at the house after hearing my wife voice a desire or a frustration over a particular issue with our house ready to help in any way he could. His desire to serve in any way possible became an example for me that I’ve attempted to emulate all of my life. For me he was the example of what Jesus’s command to love one another meant.

We moved to The Dalles, Oregon in the fall of 1997 so our weekly meetings stopped but Eli and I stayed in close contact until his death in 2003. I still think of him often, many times regretting that I no longer have his wisdom to continue to guide me when things get difficult. But I thank the Lord often that I had the privilege to know and be mentored by such a wonderful servant of the Lord.

Recently while watching an episode of “Call the midwife” I became aware of something a particular segment of the show had produced in me; the recognition of a beautiful moment. In the episode a baby had been born extremely malformed and would certainly die soon after birth. Some of the hospital staff placed the baby uncovered by an open window as a way to hasten the baby’s death through exposure rather than actually euthanizing the baby intentionally. A Nun who had participated in the delivery of the baby but had not been charged with it’s after-care discovered the baby by the open window, shivering and gently crying, and alone. Quickly assessing the situation the Nun wrapped the baby in a blanket and started to quietly quote scripture describing God’s care for the infant.

Watching the event unfold in the story produced in me several different emotions; anger at the staff for perceived callousness, sadness at the pain the infant must be feeling without having any understanding, but more than anything else something I recognized as beauty flooded my soul. The Nun’s love and concern for the baby could only be described as beautiful in that moment.

When we think of something as beautiful we might normally describe it as something that is aesthetically pleasing. A physical object like a flower, or scenery, or even a person that has the right combination of physical attributes that seems right to us, but more than right, in fact just right. This is true of other physical productions such as music, which isn’t really visible but still produces the right combination of sound senses that strike us in just the right way.

This is also true of other things as well. Scientists often use elegance or beauty as kind of signposts to lead to new discoveries or formulas. Beauty or elegance seems to be just the right combination of things to lead them to recognize how things are best described or work together. Brian Greene in his book, “The Elegant Universe”, talks about how this quality helps scientists to recognize new solutions to problems.

Beauty or Elegance seems to be something that is inherent in the created order. I believe it may be something that God has built into our creation so that we may better appreciate and understand it. But as the episode of “Call to midwife” illustrates, beauty goes beyond just the material, physical world. There is something about kindness and care, in other words Love, that can only adequately be described as beautiful. We identify that in God when we sing, Oh Lord you’re beautiful”. Since God can’t be seen as he truly is, there is no physical attributes to which we can ascribe “beauty”, yet we describe him as beautiful. These attributes aren’t physical, at least in the way we understand them. Instead they are perfect blend of moral and personality characteristics that are just right, in other words, beautiful. When these characteristics are displayed in people their beautiful qualities resonate with us spiritually just as surely as physical beauty does.

This is why the Gospel can be described as beautiful. The perfect alignment of love, care, sacrifice, grace and other right moral qualities produce a resonance with our spirit that can be identified. This identification leads us to understand that it is the “right” formula just as scientist can recognize the rightness in a beautiful equation.

Beauty isn’t the only way to identify the rightness of the Gospel but it is a good marker. It’s also a marker that God has placed in everyone so that we use it to help others to identify the rightness of the Gospel. I’ve come to see beauty as one of the fingers of God in his creation and very much to embrace it. If you are looking for God’s activity in this world, that’s a good place to start.

If you’re around my generation you probably remember that Neil Sedaka popularized a song years ago called “Breaking up is hard to do”.  Well as true as that statement might be, and personally I wouldn’t know since I married the only girlfriend I ever had, its not nearly as hard as growing up. Last Sunday I preached a sermon on growing spiritually and as often happens there was a lot that I wasn’t able to say, but with the restart of the blog I can here.

Paul writes to the Jewish Christians in the book of Hebrews that there is much that he would like to say to them that he can’t because they are “dull of hearing” ( ESV). What does he mean by that? They can’t receive what he would like to say because they’ve never gotten past a juvenile approach to their faith. They don’t have a good grasp even of the basics, let alone to be able to follow a more developed understanding of the scripture. They’ve never understood deeper concepts of discipleship because they never bothered to grow in a better understanding of scripture.

I have found this to be a major problem in our day as well. Most Christians gain a basic understanding of scripture that is usually limited to the teaching of a few well known radio or TV Bible teachers, and even that rarely progresses beyond a very simple understanding. Most people stay in areas that entertain or highly interest them, such as Prophecy or Spiritual gifts. What’s ironic is that in the passage stated above the greek word translated “dull” can mean “not shiny” or new. It may be that part of the idea that Paul is addressing is a lack of interest in things that aren’t spectacular or especially titillating to them. Part of growing up in any area is recognizing the need to develop in areas that not only aren’t entertaining, but to push on into areas that are hard or very uncomfortable. In training in any area there is the need to do repetitive actions in areas that aren’t fun. When I was learning golf from a professional years ago I was very excited to learn how to hit the golf ball a long ways and straight. I was very eager to get started with that particular lesson. But he often wouldn’t even let me hit a ball with all my strength, instead focusing my attention on the mechanics of my swing, repeating actions over and over, often taking our entire instruction time with that lesson. He would also tell me to practice that on my own time so it would train my body to react in the right way without thinking about it, developing muscle memory so my swing would be unconscious. Most Christians think of their development as Christians only in ways that are like the “big swing”. They want to see instant changes and results instead of doing the hard work that actually develops change.

Most people only develop enough faith to deepen their comfort level. They serve just enough to make them feel better about themselves and even in their “service” they really just volunteer to assist in an area. This limits their responsibility so that they present evidence of doing something without actually serving. True service means to put yourself at the disposal of someone else, so they direct your efforts, and not you. Most people attach strings to service, either physically (limiting what I will do) or emotionally (expecting some sort of reward or thank you in return). This means that it isn’t really serving, its really just an exchange of action for payment which isn’t really mature at all. 

But there is another area of spiritual development that is perhaps even more concerning to me; the lack of emotional maturity in many Christians. There are many people who take offense at some of the most superficial slights, hold grudges over the most trivial kinds of things, and generally act like children when confronted with difficult events. Instead of considering things from other people’s vantage points everything revolves around their feelings and their life. I am convinced that proper spiritual maturity will also produce proper emotional maturity in people. If I grow in my faith in Jesus I also grow in my understanding of other people which helps my own emotional maturity. Maturity is obtaining the right perspective on how to react and relate to things around me. Having a mature spiritual understanding will help me understand how to react emotionally to events and circumstances in my life.

So what is a proper course of action to develop my spiritual growth?

1. Commit to a deeper understanding of scripture and how it should impact my life. There are many great programs and courses that will help increase my understanding in many areas of scripture. But may I suggest talking to your Pastor. Everyone is in a different place of understanding and level of comprehension. Pastors have dedicated their lives in helping the people of their church become better disciples but also usually know the people of their congregation better than anyone else. The reality is these are the kinds of things most Pastors dream of being able to do for their people, it’s just few people are willing to ask. Pastors are busy, but no Pastor is too busy to help their folks. Don’t expect your Pastor to meet with you personally every week, most are responsible for too many people to do so, but they can put together materials or suggest books and other media that will help you gain a better understanding.

2. Ask your spouse or close friend to give a frank assessment of your spiritual and emotional maturity and suggest areas of growth. Be advised, this will be very painful and many people will be hesitant to be as frank as they should, most probably would like to stay your friend. But the scriptures declare that “faithful are the wounds of a friend.” You must be prepared to hear not only painful things but to receive them not defensively but as welcome. This truly is one of the biggest tests there are for our maturity, both spiritual and emotional. As we wrote above, one of the indicators of maturity is the desire to do hard things because of the recognition of their value.

3. Pray that God will reveal areas of growth that are needed. God knows our heart better than even ourselves. If we are sincere in our prayer (and even if we aren’t) God will reveal things to us that are the most important since he is our Father and wants the best for us.

4. Seek a spiritual mentor. Find someone you admire spiritually and let them pour into your life. Some people balk at this, thinking that we should only admire Jesus since all other men are sinful. While that is true, finding someone who has learned to apply scriptural teaching well in our current culture is also very helpful. Finding someone who can help you to make proper application in your life is one of the best ways to grow.

5. Lastly, practice dying. The best way to grow spiritually is to die to myself on a daily basis, there is no substitute for this most basic of Christian disciplines.