Tag: Christianity and culture

Waiting Is the Hardest Part

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God has an answer to all of the injustice and unrighteousness around us. It’s a pretty good answer too. The trouble is that the timing of His answer isn’t what we want it to be. This is what Habakkuk experienced in his conversation with the Lord about the brokenness of his culture. It’s what we often experience in our similar conversations and complaints. As we continue in our new teaching series, Asking God Hard Questions, we are going to see some encouragement God gave to Habakkuk and talk about why it is still important encouragement for us to receive today.

Waiting Is the Hardest Part

I grew up in the age of Nintendo. The Atari, of course, changed the world by ushering us into the era of the universally accessible video game, but the Nintendo took things a giant leap forward. And the most famous and most enduring icon of the age of Nintendo (that can still earn over a billion dollars at the box office, almost 40 years after its release), is Mario. Do you remember playing the original Super Mario Brothers game on the original Nintendo? Man, I do. I played every level of that game more times than I can even begin to count. I mastered the infinite lives hack in world 3 level 1. I made speed runs where I saw just how fast I could get through the whole game. I think the fastest I ever did it was 15-20 minutes. That’s not completely terrible, but it’s also not very good when compared with the world record. And, yes, there’s actually an official Guinness World Records category for fastest original Super Mario Brothers completion time. The current world record is 4:54:63. Well, the Guinness Record is a fraction of a second slower than that, but the guy who set it later unofficially beat his own record. For comparison, the fastest time possible to finish the game period (and which has heretofore only been achieved by a computer) is 4:54:26. In other words, a human is on the cusp of achieving what we previously only know to be computer-enabled perfection. 

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 11:25-30

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“At that time, Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him. Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke up on you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Well, we made it. This past Tuesday was election day in the U.S., and from all reports, it came off without a hitch. That doesn’t mean everyone was happy with the results, but it nonetheless came and went, and the sun still rose on Wednesday morning. As far as I have heard, there weren’t any violent protests of the results. In fact, perhaps the biggest surprise (beyond the results themselves) was that we fairly well knew the outcome by Wednesday morning. I was fully mentally prepared for chaos of some sort and a season of national uncertainty that lasted through at least Friday. But that didn’t happen. After all the turmoil of the last two presidential elections, this one felt normal. Everyone voted, we had results by morning, and now the country is preparing to move forward. Today, in light of the election, I want to talk about something else entirely. Well, that’s not totally true. We’ll still have the election in mind, but let’s take a moment today to remember there are things bigger than politics.

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 29:18

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“Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It’s been a little while since I’ve gotten to do something like this. Part of the blame for that lies with my own schedule of late. The other part of the blame doesn’t fall on me, though. There just hasn’t been a whole lot from the other side that has furnished me the opportunity. The opportunity for what? Another media review! It’s fun Friday, and Marvel has finally released more content onto Disney+ for us to talk about. This time, appropriately enough given the season, it was all about witches. There were broomsticks and cauldrons and cats and spooky locations and more than a little of the occult. Let’s talk about Agatha All Along, Marvel’s first attempt to take a page out of Sony’s playbook and make a series in which the hero is a villain. And, fair warning, if you haven’t seen the series yet and plan to, don’t read on. I’m going to spoil all the big reveals as we go.

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Digging in Deeper: 2 Peter 1:16

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“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Religion is an interesting thing. It’s a powerful thing. Some try to argue that it’s a bad thing. But the truth is that religion is just a thing. How it’s used, who’s doing the using, and for what purpose determines exactly what kind of a thing it is. It’s not all bad, and it’s ignorant to argue otherwise. Neither, however, is it all good. Only a fool would think that. It has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, and some religions are better than others. But try as we might, we can’t escape it. We’re drawn to it. That’s part of what gives it such power. What has me thinking about all of this is my recently finishing both watching and reading Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, Dune, in which religion plays a profound role. Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: Proverbs 17:22

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“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” (CSB – Read the chapter)‬‬

When Jerry Seinfeld is complaining about the modern state of comedy, you know there’s a problem. His recent complaint was linked to the fact that because of the scourge of wokeness and microaggressions and fears of offending someone, somewhere, resulting in being cancelled, many comedians are afraid to let loose and be funny. As the Joker once asked Batman, “Why so serious?” I was reminded recently just how good it is to be able to laugh. Even in the midst of a divided and partisan culture, when we can learn to not take ourselves so seriously and laugh together, then even when we disagree, we can still be friends and neighbors.

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