“Seeing God’s Face and Fingerprints”
DTEB, “Seeing God’s Face and Fingerprints”
“Today, with God’s constant help, I am seeing God’s face and his fingerprints all over the place, even when I look in the mirror.” (A recent twelve-step affirmation for me.)
The Bible says that we humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), both male and female. This means, among other things, that whenever I look into the face of anyone, I am looking into the face of God. The image of God in them may be defaced, but it is not erased. The same is true for me.
Too often, however, when I look at someone’s face, especially my own face, all I see is a human face. That inability and unwillingness to see God’s face in myself others is the result of my own defacement. I am frequently not simply near-sighted. I’m downright blind. What makes my blindness really tragic is that I am willingly blind.
The affirmation that leads off this post invited me to look at myself, others, and all creation differently. How did I do? It was a mixed bag. However, there were times during the day when I succeeded. When I did, the joy and peace and the gratitude where very nearly unbearable. I can only handle so much time spent with strangers. Joy, peace, and gratitude are not close friends of mine. On the other hand, we are getting better acquainted, and I am beginning to desire a deepening of that relationship.
Too often, whether I’m looking in the mirror, all I see are the weaknesses, the wrong choices, the harms I’ve done to others and to myself. To see my face as a reflection of God’s face is not easy.
Nor is it easy to see face in others. All I see is their weaknesses, their wrong choices, their harmful attitudes and behaviors.
Nevertheless, I do have a choice as to how I look at myself and others. It takes courage and hope to change my way of seeing, and I don’t have a lot of either. But there is a God who offers to give me those gifts. God also promises to nourish courage and hope until they flourish. God is a good gardener. God is a God who gives sight to the blind.
I am always struck by the fact that Genesis chapter 2 follows Genesis chapter 1. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but hang with me.
In Genesis 1, we are told that God made humans in God’s image and told them to rule over creation. And then, in chapter 2, it speaks again of the forming of the humans. It turns out that their rulership is expressed in being gardeners! Doesn’t sound like fun? Think again. God designed and planted the garden. And when God created the man and put the man into the garden and made the woman to be his companion, the command was not simply commanding them not to eat the fruit of one of the trees. That one prohibition wasn’t the first command. Rather, they were commanded to eat the fruit of every tree, except for the one. Unfortunately for them—and for us—they decided that the fruit that was the one exception must be exceptional.
But God still wants us with God in God’s garden. God wanted this so much that God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Then, the Master Gardener went to a cross to take care of all the ways in which we had defaced God’s image. But there is more: the story tells us that the story doesn’t end there. The Gardener was buried in a tomb in a garden, but in a very short while, in three days, the Gardener burst out of the ground, bringing us image-bearers with him. Now, God gives us another wonderful miracle: God calls us into ourselves and out of ourselves to join God in the garden. The garden is all of us, but we are also co-gardeners with God. As we work the soil and pull out the weeds, the image of God in us all becomes clearer and clearer.
“A Good Price”
I was working through a Duolingo Spanish lesson when I came across a Spanish phrase that translated literally into English as “a good price”—as in “She paid a good price for those shoes.” I was supposed to fill in the blank as to whether the pair of shoes was expensive or cheap. I clicked the Spanish word for expensive, “caros”. I was wrong; it should have been “barato”, cheap. I was confused.
We had an expression where I grew up that you may know: “He paid a good price for that.” This meant that he had paid a lot of money for something. It was expensive. You can see how I messed up now, can’t you?
But we also had the expression, “He got it at a good price.” This meant that what he had purchased was cheap, considering its value. So, the words “good price” can be taken in two very different (indeed, opposite) ways. Depending on the context, the very same words can have diametrically opposed meanings.
Being something of a dabbler in languages, I immediately thought of the problem of translation. Being something of a biblical scholar, I thought in particular of the issue of “literal translations” of the Bible. Here is the problem with literal translations: There aren’t any! Someone has said that every translation is an interpretation. For better and worse, this is true. Hebrew and Greek words and phrases can sometimes be translated quite literally into other languages, but very often they can’t. And sometimes, Greek and Hebrew words can be translated in opposite ways. Context may help the translator to decide, but sometimes even context doesn’t help much. When that happens, I suspect that the human author and the Divine Author wanted us to slow down and savor the ambiguity. After all, there is a lot of ambiguity in our real world. Perhaps we should expect it in our Bibles as well.
But then, another thought came to me. I am not only a biblical scholar. I am also a Christ-follower—or, at least—a Christ-stumbler. So I thought about Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. There is a persistent rumor that he died for the sins of the whole world. I believe that this is more than a rumor, but I try not to oversell that as if it were indisputable. It is obviously often disputed.
As a Christ-stumbler, I asked myself a question: In what sense was Jesus’ death for us “a good price”? Does that mean that Jesus’ death was cheap, considering its value? Or does it mean that it was expensive, considering that our freedom cost him carrying all your wrongdoings to the cross and dying for them?
According to at least parts of the Old Testament, we can come to God with nothing at all and find that he will give us what we need. Isaiah makes this explicit.
“Is. 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.” (English Standard Version)
The New Testament agrees.
“Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV)
So, in a very real sense, salvation is really cheap. Perhaps it would be better to say that it is radically affordable.
And yet, in another sense salvation is really expensive. It cost God everything. And this radical “cheapness” plus the costly sacrifice of God in God’s Son means that our salvation is absolutely priceless.
“The Voice Behind You”
“Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” (English Standard Version)
Ancient Judah was in trouble when these words were written. Politically, Assyria was pushing toward the Mediterranean Sea. The Assyrian army was like a raging ocean itself, sweeping away everything in front of it.
And there were religious problems. Some of the Judahites had concluded that, if the Assyrians were so powerful, so were the Assyrian gods. Correspondingly, their God, Yahweh, seemed incredibly small and ineffective. What difference did it make if your God couldn’t protect you against these cosmic Assyrian bullies? Why bother?
The prophet Isaiah does not minimize how bad things are. Alliances and military hardware will not avoid disaster. The people say that they will flee on horses. “Yes, you will,” says Isaiah, “but your pursuers will be even faster than you.” (Isaiah 30:16)
Yet, the prophet also holds out hope for those who wait on the LORD. He will have mercy on them (verse 18) and will answer their prayers (verse 19). He will give them teachers to teach them, teachers that they can actually see. (verse 20). No remote learning here!
But then, the prophet seems to acknowledge that such teachers are not always received well. That seems to me to be the implication of Isaiah’s next statement in verse 21: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”
Wait! I thought that they would be able to see their teachers! Now, they are hearing a voice behind them. What is going on here?!?
I don’t know, but I will tell you what I suspect. I suspect that this is Isaiah’s way of acknowledging a simple and disturbing truth. And what is this truth? It is this: we humans tend to be unable to handle a lot of straightforward, face-to-face encounters with truth or with those who tell us the truth. As someone has said, “Despite the paucity of truth in the world, the supply is still much larger than the demand.”
So, we turn away from Truth and those who teach us. I’ve never met an honest person who didn’t admit to doing precisely that at times.
But there is still good news. God—directly or through our teachers or through our circumstances—still speaks to us. Yes, even when we turn away from him and from Truth, we hear a voice behind is. We still have to choose whether or not to listen, but the Voice is there, speaking to us. Some people call it conscience. I call it God. But no matter what you call it, listen carefully and direct your steps in the direction it indicates.
“Rule 62”
“Don’t take yourself too seriously.” (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 149)
“Rom. 12:3 ¶ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (English Standard Version)
No, this is not a post about Gibbs’ (NCIS)rule 62: “Always give people space when they get off an elevator.” It is about the Alcoholics Anonymous rule 62, which cautions against taking yourself too seriously.
People in general (and addicts in particular) tend to take ourselves way too seriously. This is a human problem, but for us addicts, the problem is on steroids. Here is the story of rule 62.
“When A.A. was still young, lots of eager groups were forming. In a town we’ll call Middleton, a real crackerjack had started up. The townspeople were as hot as firecrackers about it. Stargazing, the elders dreamed of innovations. They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant A.A. groups could duplicate everywhere. Beginning on the ground floor there would be a club; in the second story they would sober up drunks and hand them currency for their back debts; the third deck would house an educational project—quite noncontroversial, of course. In imagination the gleaming center was to go up several stories more, but three would do for a start. This would all take a lot of money—other people’s money. Believe it or not, wealthy townsfolk bought the idea.
There were, though, a few conservative dissenters among the alcoholics. They wrote the Foundation , A.A.’s headquarters in New York, wanting to know about this sort of streamlining. They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for a charter. These few were disturbed and skeptical.
Of course, there was a promoter in the deal—a super-promoter. By his eloquence he allayed all fears, despite ad-vice from the Foundation that it could issue no charter, and that ventures which mixed an A.A. group with medication and education had come to sticky ends elsewhere. To make things safer, the promoter organized three corporations and became president of them all. Freshly painted, the new center shone. The warmth of it all spread through the town. Soon things began to hum. To insure foolproof, continuous operation, sixty-one rules and regulations were adopted.
But alas, this bright scene was not long in darkening. Confusion replaced serenity. It was found that some drunks yearned for education, but doubted if they were alcoholics. The personality defects of others could be cured maybe with a loan. Some were club-minded, but it was just a question of taking care of the lonely heart. Sometimes the swarming applicants would go for all three floors. Some would start at the top and come through to the bottom, be-coming club members; others started in the club, pitched a binge, were hospitalized, then graduated to education on the third floor. It was a beehive of activity, all right, but unlike a beehive, it was confusion compounded. An A.A. group, as such, simply couldn’t handle this sort of project. All too late that was discovered. Then came the inevitable explosion—something like that day the boiler burst in Wombley’s Clapboard Factory. A chill chokedamp of fear and frustration fell over the group.
When that lifted, a wonderful thing had happened. The head promoter wrote the Foundation office. He said he wished he’d paid some attention to A.A. experience. Then he did something else that was to become an A.A. classic. It all went on a little card about golf-score size.
The cover read:
“Middleton Group #1. Rule #62.”
Once the card was unfolded, a single pungent sentence leaped to the eye:
“Don’t take yourself too *&!# seriously.” (One word has been changed to avoid disturbing the serenity of some folks.)
(Copyright © 1952, 1953, 1981 by The A.A. Grapevine and Alcoholics Anonymous World Service)
Taking myself too seriously is not helpful. It gives me headaches, and I then tend to give headaches to others. The folks who are seriously good at anything almost always have a kind of childlike playfulness about them. I suspect that the best way to be good at anything is to take ourselves with a grain of salt. Some of us need to empty the saltshaker.
“How to Have a Good, Godly Day: Guidance, Focus, and Energy”
“Is. 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is vthe way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” (ESV)
“Prov. 4:25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.” (ESV)
“Is. 40:29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.” (ESV)
In my daily report to my sponsor, today’s affirmation is as follows: “Today, I am depending on God for guidance, focus, and energy for the entire day.” These are three huge issues in my life every day. I am too self-willed to ask for God’s guidance, too impulsive to seek focus, and too lazy to even want to be all that energetic. This is not putting myself down; this is the sober (and unfortunate) truth. I affirm things, not because I practice them, but because I think that they are true and important and worthy of practice.
So far, God seems to be honoring my desire for guidance, focus, and energy today. Guidance, focus, and energy are helpful in all sorts of ways. Here is one simple illustration.
I came upstairs to work at my desk. Among other things, I wanted to work on a post for my website. However, almost immediately, I wanted to play a game of 10-minute chess. Of course, each player has 10 minutes, so a game can take up to 20 minutes. Furthermore, playing one game of chess is like eating one potato chip or one chocolate chip cookie.
I thought about my affirmation and passed the desire to play “just one game” of chess through these three filters of God’s guidance, focus, and energy. Was God guiding me to play chess? Somehow, that didn’t seem to be the case. Was chess something that was worthy of my focus? The question answered itself. Would playing chess be a good use of my energy and/or energize me more? I knew the answer before I had finished asking the question.
So, no chess right now.
Daily affirmations really do help me to live in a more sane and healthy manner. I am so thankful to one of my sponsors who proposed this to me. I recommend it to you as well. However, you have to actually refer to your affirmation during the day and use it wisely. If you’re at all like me, that may not be an easy thing to do.
Of course, one day’s guidance, focus, and energy is not enough. But it is enough for today. Tomorrow I’ll work with the same filters. Who knows? I may just become a very God-guided, properly focused, energetic person after all!
“Reflections on Being Married Fifty Years”
Today my wife and I have been married for fifty years. What on earth has kept us together?!?
Nothing. At least, nothing on earth has kept us together. But there is Heaven and Heaven’s God. Here’s the deal. My wife has been able to be patient with and forgiving of my very real and very serious character defects. I am trying hard to refrain from giving her any further reasons to forgive, but trying hard doesn’t mean that I always get it right. She has been able to be patient and forgiving because she knows a heavenly Father who is patient and forgiving. Easy, no. Possible, yes.
Also, she has had this intuition since we were dating that there is more goodness in me than I sometimes manifest. I’ve begun to suspect that she might be right. There is a verse in the Bible that says that God calls things that don’t exist as if they did—and actually brings those things into existence (Romans 4:17). While the verse originally had Abraham in mind, it seems to me to be capable of broader application. Just as in creation God called order out of chaos and something out of nothing, so God calls things that don’t exist into existence. And often, God uses human beings to do this miraculous thing. For me, Sharon was a miracle and a miracle worker.
Now, have I contributed to the longevity of our marriage as well? I certainly hope so. I can think of at least one thing that I’ve done and continue to do for her. I appreciate her, deeply, genuinely, continually. Hopefully I’ve done more than that. However, even if it were just that, such appreciation would be valuable, I hope. And I think that God is the one who helps me to be thankful for many things and people, but especially the miracle that is Sharon.
So, there it is, my brief principles for a good, long-lasting marriage—patience, forgiveness, seeing goodness in the other person, even when it is difficult, gratitude. It is not a magic formula. It’s way better than magic. It’s a prescription for a miracle.
I love you, sweetheart.
“Let Go and Let God”
“Let go and let God.” (A twelve-step slogan.)
Ex. 4:1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” 2 The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:1-5, English Standard Version)
Letting go of things is not easy for me. You would know this immediately if you looked at my bookshelves or my garage. Then, there is the matter of letting go of the past and all the regrets associated with it. No, letting go of things is not easy for me.
Of course, holding onto things isn’t easy either. My arthritic hands have a difficult time holding onto glasses when I’m doing the dishes, much less holding onto heavier objects. Then too, my hands are only so big and so strong anyway. I really can’t hold much at all. Neither, probably, can anyone.
Moses was holding on to his staff. He was a shepherd. He needed his staff. Yet, in his encounter with the LORD in the desert, Moses wasn’t sure that God had chosen the right man for the job. So God asks him a question, “What’s that in your hand?”
Now the truth is this: When God asks a question, God already knows the answer. God doesn’t ask questions for God’s benefit but for ours. What did Moses have in his hands? The same gnarly rod that he had used on his sheep for some time now. Nothing dramatic, nothing special.
God gives Moses a strange command. “Throw it down.” And what happened when Moses threw down his staff? It became a snake. And then, on a rather humorous sidenote, we are told that Moses ran away from the snake. The Bible is much funnier than we sometimes are willing to admit.
Sometimes, we have to let go of things, to throw them down. When we do, we don’t like the initial results at all. In fact, those results can be pretty scary.
And then, God gives Moses another even stranger command: “Pick it up by the tail.” I’ve never been much of a snake handler, but even I know that if you pick up a snake by its tail, you’re likely to get bitten.
But Moses obeys, despite his fear, and the snake becomes his staff again. We can debate until the cows come home and have been milked whether this is some kind of magic or a miracle or whether it is factual. My personal belief is that, if there is a God at all, changing one thing into another would be no more difficult for God than me changing my shirt. But I think that if we get enmeshed in these kinds of science-versus-religion debates, we may be missing a major truth. We may be missing the idea that, if we are willing to let go of our regular stuff and our everyday lives at God’s commands, strange and wonderful things may happen.
What if I let go of my money, books, relationships, and time today? What if threw to the ground my right to be right about everything from love to politics?
When Moses was returning to Egypt to confront the most powerful ruler of the ancient world, the Bible says that Moses took his wife and sons to Egypt with him. It also says that Moses took the rod of God (Exodus 4:20). When did the rod of Moses become the rod of God? Apparently, when Moses let it go.
What do you and I need to let go of today?
“Lessons Not Yet Learned from Mom and Dad”
Eph. 6:1 ¶ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Eph. 6:2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),
Eph. 6:3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” (English Standard Version)
Our pastor preached on Ephesians 6:1-3 this morning. He was especially speaking to young people under the age of 18. I am seventy-two. In fact, my parents have been gone for way over 18 years, so it was tempting for me to think, “Well, this sermon isn’t for me!”
However, three things gave me pause for thought about dismissing the pastor’s sermon. First, I never really grew up. Second (and related to the first observation), I am still struggling with lessons I should have learned when I was nine years old. Third, I have a Heavenly Father, and I need to learn how to obey and honor God more than I do. Maybe some of the things my parents tried to teach me would also be a good way of obeying and honoring God.
While I need to think more about this, it is sometimes helpful to list initial impressions in response to a good sermon, a book, or other stimulating stuff. So, I made a quick list of things my parents tried to teach me.
- Work hard,
- Care for others.
- Take care of yourself.
- Don’t eat too much.
- Be careful.
- Don’t expect too much.
- Always say, “Thank you!”
- Don’t take bad about others or to others.
- Be careful with your money.
- Don’t be so full of yourself.
- Don’t complain.
- Don’t wear your heart on your sleeve.
Some of these I do better with than others. When my parents were trying to teach me these lessons, I often thought my folks were out of touch with reality. I have since concluded that their son was the one who wasn’t living in reality.
What lessons did your parents try to teach you? Admittedly, not all of the lessons were good, I’m sure. But were there some that were helpful? I’d love to hear from you as to what your parents taught you. Shoot me an email, if you get a chance.
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