Stopping to Think

  Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash When you read the opening chapters of Genesis, one of the things you notice is the incredibly long lives of humanity’s first generations. Adam, 930 years ( Genesis 5:5 ). Seth, 912 years (5:8). Jared, 962 years (5:20). And Methuselah takes the cake at 969 (5:27).  But by the time you get to chapter 11 of Genesis, a change is taking shape. Shem, Noah’s son, lived 600 years ( 11:11 ). Eber lived to 464 (11:17). And by the time you get to Terah, the father of Abram, he lives only 205 years (11:32). That’s still amazing by our reckoning, but it’s also a far cry from Adam’s 930 years. If you move forward in time another 500 years to the days of Moses, we read his words in Psalm 90:10 that, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” This resonates far more closely with our experience.  What do we see in this? The unwinding nature of sin. God created the world, and in the first chapter of Genesis we read o...

  "God wonderfully delivers his church from death by death." John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, pg 22

  It’s 5:30 am. The morning is in transition from the grey of first light into something more approximating daylight. I look out over the porch, through a gap in the pine trees, to the wheat field across the road. I remember them mostly growing bluegrass in that field, but maybe wheat prices are up this year. Or maybe they thought they would be before the COVID mess. My baby girl is laying on the floor to the right of me, intermittently sucking on her bottle and pulling it away to smile. She’s so happy. I wish he could have met her. This is the first morning I’ve slept in this house, my grandparent’s place, since my grandpa died last December. I came out in June when we did a belated memorial service, but the house was packed with family from all over the country, so I just crashed at my brother’s place in town.  We never called them our “grandparents”, always Grammie and Pak. When or how Pak became our equivalent for grandfather I’ll never know for sure, though I’m told it wa...

“If you’re an elder, take a risk and get real with the others.”  Jeramie Rinne, Church Elders, 92 If you're like me, the sad truth is that many things that appear on the front pages of newspapers and scream from the top of news feeds, things that are genuine tragedies, be it police brutality, violent mobs in our major cities, bombings internationally, natural disasters-can all seem like so much white noise. Our brains weren't meant to handle this constant bombardment with information, and once it hits a certain point it all starts to blur. But some headlines jump out. For me, those aren't generally front page. They're obituaries. Certain obituaries in particular. The obituaries of those who have committed suicide grab hold of my attention like no other news I read. Like a lot of kids today, I became aware of suicide pretty early in life. I had an uncle and an aunt commit suicide when I was very young. Later in life I would lose another aunt, friends, and acquaintance...

Note: Below is is the Eulogy I gave at my grandfather's memorial service. I wanted to share it here 1) to pay tribute to a great man, 2) as a way of one more time expressing thanks to God for him, 3) I want you to read the whole thing, because the last 25% or so is vitally important for all of us. Eulogy for Joe Blackburn Before I begin, I want to thank you on behalf of the family for being here. Joe Blackburn had a unique ability to leave an impression on people. One of the things he impressed on me at an early age, both in words and actions, was this: the way you spend your time both shapes and communicates your values. Or as he might put it, if you care about something you make time for it. So the fact that you planned and followed through on being here today speaks volumes.   Some figures in life loom so large that it’s almost impossible to understand who you are apart from their presence. “How did Pak shape my life?” was a hard question for me to grapple with. Perhaps a b...

Here is a link to a LeMars Bible Church blog post I wrote on death: https://www.lemarsbiblechurch.org/shepherds-online/are-you-afraid-to-die?

As most of you know, Justice Antonin Scalia died two days ago . Ross Douthat has a nice piece on him, and the impact of his death, over at the New York Times . While I have not always followed the proceedings of our nation's high court as closely as would probably be wise, I have enjoyed and appreciated nearly everything I have read from the pen of Justice Scalia. His dissent in the Obergefell was of particular brilliance (it begins on page 69 , here ), and I thought I would post a few quotes from it for your mulling, enjoyment, learning, and remembrance of perhaps the greatest Justice of my lifetime. The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me. The law can recognize as marriage whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements it wishes, and can accord them favorable civil consequences, from tax treatment to rights of inheritance. Those civil consequences—and the public approval that conferring the name of marriage evidences—can perha...

'Tis the season. The season of what? Well, of Christmas time, you might say. If you are in the mood for elaboration, you may be inclined to continue in such a way: the season for giving, the season for love, happiness, joy and cheer. Family, friends, good food, good drink, presents, a big fat elf, and maybe a little snow. Aaaaannnnddd, probably shouldn't forget that baby in a manger business. That's good too. If you like basketball, you might add the Christmas day games, but who watches the NBA on Christmas? Or ever? Anyhow. The sense you get from talking to most folks is that this is a season of joy. And of course for many, it is. Amidst all of the stress and the crunch and the rush, there is an undercurrent of I love spending this time with my family  or, I love presents-giving and receiving them! or, Christmas Eve is my favorite church service all year  or,  what makes the Christmas spirit brighter than Fireball and a Backwoods cigar? There are a lot of things to be ...

Today (I'm sure it will be yesterday by the time I hit Publish) I turn twenty-five. That may not seem like much to many of you, for you passed it up long ago. Or you haven't yet, but to do so is a forgone conclusion. But it feels significant to me. Maybe it's because I'm the morbid type. Perhaps it's because I've known so many who didn't make it. It could be that I've never been able to imagine myself as being older than twenty-four. Or maybe it's just my megalomania at work blowing every aspect of my life out of proportion. But I wanted to pause here, and reflect on twenty-five things I've learned in these years. The order is completely stream-of-consciousness, which at this time of night can be...scattered.  Life is short. Like a mist. Here today and gone...well, today.  Because life is short, every second counts. Which doesn't mean every second must be filled with frenetic activity, but it does mean that one should pause and evalu...

The day of death is better than the day of birth Death is someplace we all arrive - are you ready? The only way to find your life is to lose it I take that to mean serving others and abandoning my pursuit of fulfillment is the only way to be fulfilled. To live is Christ, to die is gain Jesus has a purpose for me here, a design that I may find life in. But it will never compare to eternity with Him. Love the brotherhood . Fear God. Honor the king. They will know we are disciples by our love. We are disciples by virtue of fearing and following God. One way we display that fear of God by honoring those authorities He has ordained. The Lord is my Shepherd Nothing can pluck me out of the hand, or the sheepfold, of my loving Shepherd. I can have rock solid trust in my God. What then shall we say to these things ? If God is for us, who can be against us? God is the transcendent Lord of all creation. He predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies His children. He ordains not only...

What I am about to say applies in large part to women as well, but I want to address men. Most men have a vision for their life that is far too small. Perhaps you are among them. Many of you may have no vision for your life at all. I want to get at what lies behind that. There obviously can be many reasons for not having a driving vision for your life, but what I want to propose is that many of you simply need to wake up to the reality that you think far too little of God, and consequently, you expect far too little of what He can do in you and through you. Perhaps you hope to be a nice person. Perhaps you hope to raise a nice family. Perhaps you hope to be a good worker. Perhaps you hope to go to heaven when you die. These are all nice things. But it that is all you expect out of life, something is missing. In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter seven, Solomon says this: "A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better ...

The title describes exactly what I want to do.  Two years ago today a young man who has left an undeniable mark on many lives, was taken home by his Heavenly Father.  Why God decided Alex needed to go so soon, I honestly have no idea.  But the impact he made and the lives he touched in his short time here, is undeniable. Now I realize, as I hope you do, that Facebook is a poor measure of reality.  But I could not help but noticed as I pulled up my home page today, the number of statuses reading something to the affect of  "Alex, we love and miss you, RIP."  Obviously everyone put their own twist and touch on it, but that was the sentiment.  How does one person touch so many? Part of it was simply a function of his personality.  The dude was a show-off.  And he was good at it.  He loved attention, he loved the spotlight, and more than that, he loved to make people laugh and have fun.   Making people smile was something Alex absol...

Death. The mere fact that the title of the post along with it's first word consisted simply of that one word will have a good many of you considering the writer to be a person or rather morbid character. It's not a popular topic. On the one hand, we glory and revel in it, just so long as it is confined to our video games, TV shows, and movies. But do we want to have real conversations about it? Do we want to delve into the reason it exists, how it affects us, what happens afterword, and so on? No. We embrace the idea in our entertainment because it is “real”, yet this same reality is something we are constantly running from. There is no end to the number of ways in which we are trying to extend our lives, make our later years more painless, and eliminate from ourselves the appearance of being old. Most of us want nothing to do with the idea that one day our life here on earth will be over. Furthermore, even those willing to entertain that notion and consider will very rarel...