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Wednesday, October 20, 2004 posted by R.C. 6:50 AM link |
Obligations of Honor In a few minutes I leave for a funeral for a man I never met. It is not a professional obligation, but it is an obligation nevertheless. Though I never knew the man, I know him to be a man of honor. Those who knew him will, this morning, stand and speak of his character. They will, I’m certain, recount acts of kindness, of heroism, of compassion and integrity. But that’s neither why I am going, nor why I know him to be a great man. Beside his coffin will be a veritable treasure of honor—medals, plaques, citations and clippings. But none of that will withstand the coming conflagration. It is but wood, hay and stubble. While we mourn, he of course, will rejoice. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. He has moved beyond tears, and entered pleasure evermore. But as the departed delights in His Lord, he too will, more than he has ever before, delight in his life. He who now looks upon the very face of Wisdom will know this wisdom, that the father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him (Proverbs 23:24). Mr. Kiser’s legacy is in his son, Don. It is the one marker, the one reminder, the one compelling proof of the worth of the man, that makes me go to honor the man. I honor the father to honor the son. Don is a man of God, a man of honor. And one day he will go to His reward. On that day men who do not know him will come to honor him, because they know of his sons, Noah, Jonathan, and Samuel, or his daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah. And through it all, one more Father and Son will be honored. [comments] |
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Monday, October 18, 2004 posted by R.C. 6:44 AM link |
Moving On Down the Road Those signposts just keep getting bigger. When you marry, you can’t help but notice that you have left one world for another. But because you are still new at it, because you are a “young couple” the “I’m getting old” sign is obscured a touch. The same thing happens with the birth of the first child. Still, in the parenting universe, you’re the young ones. Then you buy a house, but again, you’re for a time a “first time home buyer.” With the first house you look around and wonder how you will accumulate enough stuff to fill it, and still feel on the cusp of life. At the next move you take a great leap forward to growing old—now you get rid of stuff before the move. Now you throw away your old junk from college. Sentiment is suddenly outweighed by dollars per pound rates from the movers. Now, in short, you are maturing. Baggage is no longer something we pack, but something we leave behind. This afternoon, however, I came right up to that three story billboard along the way as I drive a truckload of junk to the dump. Yes, I’m moving, though only down the road a piece. Yes, this will be the third house. But what really screams, “OLD!” is throwing away not your own old junk, but the old junk of your children. That Playschool barn that would instill an agrarian spirit in my son? It’s gone to the great compost heap in the sky. That stuffed elephant that I feared might make my oldest daughter think we were Republicans? It has crawled away to the valley of dry bones. It is the world that cries over lost youth. The Bible in turn praises the hoary head. Maturity is knowing which to believe. I am getting old, and that’s a good thing. My children are getting older, and that’s a good thing. For all of us, you see, are going down the same road, to the same end. And there we will be children forevermore, innocent and safe. If we would believe the Bible, we would stop seeing “OLD!” on those signs, and read them aright—Jesus Up Ahead. The older we get, the clearer it becomes. [comments] |
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Saturday, October 09, 2004 posted by R.C. 7:16 AM link |
On Ectopic Pregnancies When one person thinks I meant x when I meant y it is a toss up. When several people think I meant y, then I probably have a problem with my own communication skills. It seems that people heard me say in my squib on courage that when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, the brave and right thing to do is to do nothing at all. I’m sorry for my fuzzy writing. While what to do in the event of an ectopic pregnancy wasn’t the gist of what I was writing about, here are my thoughts on the matter, keeping in mind that I know precious little about the medical end of things. It seems to me that we ought not kill one innocent person for the sake of preserving the life of another person. I would say such is true, even if it seems that if we don’t, both innocent parties will die. In the case of an ectopic pregnancy both mother and child are in harm’s way. The right thing to do would be to try to remove them both from harm’s way. That there has never been a successful transfer of a baby from a fallopian tube to a womb doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. That thus far, and in our current knowledge such would surely mean the death of the child, our intention remains to remove the child from harm’s way, not to kill it. In making such an attempt, we would likewise be removing the mother from harm’s way. Though it ends up in practically the same place, this seems sounder than an approach that says we go in and kill the baby for the mother’s sake. Hope that helps, and doesn’t lead to a debate on the subject. [comments] |
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posted by R.C. 7:00 AM link |
Here's a message recently received from a friend of the Study Center My wife and I first heard of you through tapes from Vision Forum, and I have enjoyed reading your web log since then. Your most recent installment dealt with conviction. I had an interesting encounter with conviction last weekend. It was in all places a Target Store. Places like this are difficult for our family of seven to visit, but sometimes are necessary. I always walk in feeling like we are entering a pagan bazaar. Our children spend most of the time staring at the floor, or looking up and saying Mommy, that lady was very immodest . After leaving the store we have to spend 5 minutes explaining the difference that Jesus would make in the hearts and lives of people if they would only turn to him. Of course it takes my wife and I a little longer to let it go sometimes. This weekend was one of those times. We had made it through the gauntlet of worldly delights and had just come up to the checkout isle when we passed a family of three. Mom and Dad pushing a shopping cart with daughter in the back holding a balloon. After we passed I thought that perhaps my eyes had deceived me. When I turned around and looked, I realized I was right. Apparently this family had just finished eating out and had then decided to do some shopping. The little girl was still holding the balloon she had received at the restaurant and its message was proclaiming to the throng at Target I Love Hooters. Unlike my wife I was not raised as a Christian, just the opposite, and so usually my shock level is somewhat higher than hers. This time, however, I found I was walking along open-jawed and nudging her with my elbow. She turned around and was equally taken aback. I realized that this wasnt very funny but actually was very sad and somewhat disturbing. How terrible for that little girl. How terrible for the Mother. How embarrassing for the Father, the intended protector and patriarch of this family. The message on the balloon was a double-entendre that the daughter would have been completely unaware of, thus her parents were indirectly making a fool of her. Dad was gleefully pushing the cart along, but why not, he had undoubtedly been the one to choose that night's dinner fare. It was at that moment that the little girl began to squeal and then burst into tears. Everyone in earshot turned around to see the balloon rising into the air above the cart. It stopped when it hit a rafter and just kind of sat under the lights like a glowing advertisement. Below it the family was staring up at it, undeniably the owners of the balloon. It was then that Mom noticed they had become the center of attention. She looked around and then calmly walked away. Dad, with his daughter still wailing, tried in vain to retrieve it. There were a few snickers all around and then the crowd dispersed. As we were walking out the door, I turned around and saw Mom, crouching, pretending to be occupied with the lower level of a candy display. She was watching and waiting for Dad and daughter to complete their check-out. Ravi Zacharias talks about the conviction of God that is ingrained in all of us from birth. We instinctively understand the difference between good and evil due to the fact that we are made in the image of God. I thought about that while watching the scene at the store, especially the reaction of the Mother, like Eve suddenly realizing that she was naked. My wife and I were moved by that experience, we just hope that the wife and perhaps that whole family were moved somehow as well. Kevin P. Box Springs, Georgia |
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Tuesday, October 05, 2004 posted by R.C. 5:44 PM link |
When the Going Gets Tough There is a middle place between the abstract and the concrete. We have convictions in the abstract, and we act in the concrete. But in between is where we wonder abstractly what we would do were we in the concrete. We abstractly believe, for instance, in the notion that human life is sacred. This is common even among the heathen, but don’t expect any policy changes soon. Some evil abortion broad, Kate Michelman or some such holocaust apologist was asked if she were at all concerned, what with all the inroads being made by the pro-life movement (remember all those inroads?), that Roe v. Wade might be overturned. “No,” she replied, “because virtually everyone believes in three exceptions on the abortion issue—rape, incest, and my situation.” When the rubber hits the road, the majority, including too many Reformed daddy’s, daughters and boyfriends, are really pro-death. This middle place is where we imagine ourselves in a potentially real situation. What would I do, for instance, if my wife had an ectopic pregnancy? Some of us apply our principles, and affirm that we would not terminate such a pregnancy, that we do not kill babies. Others try to bend and fold their principles to fit such a situation. Yes, they reason, I am pro-life, but in this instance my pro-life convictions require the termination of the baby, for the sake of the mother. Still others take the emotional response—“You can’t say what you would do, because you don’t know what you would do unless you were really in that situation.” This is the one that troubles me the most. The Bible says that an honorable man keeps a vow to his own hurt. We happily slide right past that by refusing to take vows. But this is precisely what convictions are, or at least what they are supposed to be. Character is doing what you know to be right, even when it doesn’t work out well for you, as far as you can tell. It is easy, after all, to be pro-baby as long as your wife is healthy, as long as the children are healthy, as long as the bank book is healthy. And it is easy to change your convictions about babies when your wife is not healthy, when the children are not healthy, and when the gas bill is due. We call this “thoughtfulness” when we ought to call it was it is: cowardice. When Saint Peter Presbyterian Church was for a time shopping for a denomination, some happily suggested that we consider the Reformed Episcopal Church. I had friends in the denomination. They, like we, have a high view of worship, a high view of the sacraments, and they would have been happy to have us. Why not join such a collegial bunch? My argument was quite simple—I like the church part. I like the Reformed part. The trouble is the Episcopal part. I’m a Presbyterian. And that means not only that I don’t become Episcopal because such would be convenient, but that I don’t become Congregational for the same reason. I don’t ditch my Presbyterian convictions, because it’s easier to get a job without them. I tell my students with great regularity, that we must ditch this Enlightenment notion that what we need is to know more, that what we need is more education. Another set of commentaries and a new systematics book won’t cure us. Our problem isn’t with our minds, but with our hearts. We aren’t stupid, we are craven. What we need isn’t insight, but the courage of our convictions. May God shower His church with the gift of the Holy En-Courager, that we would stand firm. [comments] |