The Keener Way

  You know, the Bible is oddly full of "what ifs". Verses that pose the idea of "what if the Lord fails me?" Think of Daniel's three friends who were thrown into a furnace. "Even if our God does not save us from your fire, we will still serve him." Think of Job. He was convinced that God was doing unjust evils to him. He was questioning how God could be so cruel as to torture a righteous man. And he still said, "even if he kills me, I will serve him." Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, " Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the vines have no grapes, even if the olive tree fails to produce and the fields yield no food, even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls have no cattle-- even then, I will be happy with the Lord . I will truly find joy in God, who saves me." 1 Peter 3:14, " Even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened." Psalm 23, known and loved by so ma...

    Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. From KJV. I had someone give me the thought this morning that this may not mean what most of us think it means. On the surface, it looks like "There is a specific way to raise your kids that guarantees they will stick to those ways all their lives". Except then parents all over the world bemoan their misfortunes as they watch their kids stray from their upbringings. "We trained them as trained as we knew how to. How was it not enough?" Here's the thing. I don't think that's what Solomon meant. The individual who spoke to me this morning suggested that Proverbs 22:6 is saying "Train a child according to his inclinations/personality/interests and when he is old he will still be doing these things with excellent success." Which is entirely valid. Maybe you want your child to be good at math and become a rocket scientist. But maybe they have no inclination...

  There's a lot of things involved in being a man. More things than I know, certainly. I'm far from the apex of manhood. But there's one thing about being a man that doesn't get talked about a lot. I don't even really think about it much, except I came across this song earlier today and...wow it hit hard, knowing what some men in my life have gone through... So to all the men out there, this is for you, my brother-at-arms. Know that we see you. Know that we love you. I was fortunate to grow up with a loving father. A strong father. One who raised nine kids and shepherded a church community, and seldom let anyone see him reach the breaking point. Meanwhile, too many families out there struggle with an unloving father or no father at all. Men who didn't have what it takes to be a man. The first sign of stress, they bailed. Or they turned toxic. Or whatever else. And that's a topic for another manhood discussion. But most men aren't like that. Beyond my fat...