Horses and Chariots

...moral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name ethike is one that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit). From this it is also plain that none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that exists by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature.

For instance the stone which by nature moves downwards cannot be habituated to move upwards, not even if one tries to train it by throwing it up ten thousand times; nor can fire be habituated to move downwards, nor can anything else that by nature behaves in one way be trained to behave in another...

We must, however, not only describe virtue as a state of character, but also say what sort of state it is... the excellence of the eye makes both the eye and its work good; for it is by the excellence of the eye that we see well. Similarly the excellence of the horse makes a horse both good in itself and good at running and at carrying its rider and at awaiting the attack of the enemy.
Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics

All social values - liberty, and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect - are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these values is to everyone's advantage. Injustice, then, is simply inequalities that are not to the benefit of all. Of course, this conception is extremely vague and requires interpretation.
John Rawls - A Theory of Justice


Based on a Sunday night talk at Epic's Converge about the Olympics and Christianity I did some research on the Olympic motto and creed. Motto: "Citius, Altius, Fortius" or "Faster, Higher, Stronger" Creed: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

I got thinking about money, sex and power over against faith, hope and love and what any of that had to do with faster, higher and stronger. I like to mash metaphors: money = independance; sex = intimacy; power = influence.

I went to Scot McKnight's blog and read this about I Peter 1:

1:22b: “Love one another strenuously out of a purified/cleansed heart.” Soul-purification has its goal in loving one another and the means of that purification, the new birth, is the ground out of which this love grows. In this verse we find the center — grammatically and notionally — of the passage: new birth creates a community that loves one another. Peter has a community gospel.

How, then, will they live in the Roman Empire as a sectarian community? It begins by loving one another through thick and thin. And Peter is not messing around here with some romantic, idyllic sense of community: the word he uses is “strenously” (ektenos): the notion is stretching one’s neck as one strains for the finishing line, or straining one’s efforts to get the job done, or working at it because it is hard.

Faith strains forward (swifter) with a supernatural strength from God. In Jeremiah 12:5 God asks the prophet, "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?" Elijah outran a chariot of horses! Psalm 20:7 and Isaiah 31:1 speak of some over-trusting chariots and horses. God busts them up. Nothing matches God's chariots and horses. And what kind of locusts are those?

Hope looks up (higher) for intimacy with God. He came down and out to invite us up and in…I think faith is believing and living within his presence here with us and hope is that longing to be with him in that other time and space, which I think is only ever reached sporadically and momentarily on this side of eternity through contemplative prayer. In the meantime, the Spirit of God anchors this living hope into our souls.

Love looks out (stronger) to influence others for Christ through the purity of heaven-born “ektenos” within the heart, soul and body of the redeemed and restored person. And that love is for the community, the body, the self of Christ. Pure love within the body is the magnetism for all the lonely iron filings out there drawn into the presence of the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit - who is the only warm flame in the cold night calling all to come in where it is warm, where every face has been transformed by the glow of that one on that throne.

Enlightenment and Entitlement

Just before the Torino Olympics got under way I was in Winnipeg speaking at various locations. I spoke to an assembly of students at Cindy Klassen's high school and to the youth of her MB church. At the school, the students watched a big screen prerecorded race of Cindy's. They all cheered at the thought that their alumni may get a medal in Torino, Italy (let alone five).

Every student in the assembly (over 500 kids I think) got a glossy coloured card with Cindy's picture and previous record skating times. They were all quite excited. I told one of Cindy's former teachers that I would be praying for her. I watched every race.

I was never really into speed skating until now. Even our kids got into it. The other day Luke (5) and Bree (4 this week) were speed skating around the kitchen and dining room (in their socks).

And every time Cindy was interviewed you could sense the humility, meekness and tired satisfaction.

Paul instructed Timothy, "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, she does not receive the victor's crown unless she competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops."

After the Canadian Women won gold in hockey Luke, Bree and I sang the national anthem along with CBC. The kids eyes were as big as saucers wondering what it would be like to get a medal, "Dad, are those heavy?"

"Sure, they're made of gold."

I think it's brutal that the Canadian media carved up the men's hockey team. They would have got it even worse if they came home with silver or bronze. When was it we all decided we were entitled to gold? Sure they were tight and a bit banged up. Gives us all something to look forward to in Vancouver 2010. The Russians gave the Canadians everything they had, and then tanked in the semis. It's going to be great watching Sweden and Finland battle it out in the spirit of Thor.

Go Scandinavia Go!

(above pictures from www.cbc.ca/olympics)

In other news:

• U.S. speed skater Joey Cheek gives his $40 000 in bonuses to Right to Play.
  
• the world population clock is supposed to tip over 6.5 billion sometime today.

Doors and Gates III

I've been thinking and praying about "doors and gates" for two weeks now. A couple of days ago I got a prayer bullet email from 24-7 prayer saying something about a "big conversation" in Belgrade coming up in May. Ok, so where is Belgrade?

After reading the 24/7 email and downloading a pdf I did some research on Belgrade and noticed the city is located South-East of Budapest on the Danube River.

That got my attention as I was in Budapest this past September praying over the Danube something about Budapest being a gateway city and it having something to do with the river. At the time I had no idea that the Danube is the major West to East water-artery in Europe from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. Was fascintated to find out that East of Belgrade on the Danube is "The Iron Gate" - a series of gorges given that name going back to the time of Alexander the Great. And to top it off I discovered from Wikipedia:

Belgrade is situated in South-Eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. It lies at the point where the river Sava merges into the Danube, on the slope between two alluvial planes. The river waters surround it from three sides, and that is why since ancient times it has been the guardian of river passages. Because of its position it was properly called "the gate" of the Balkans, and "the door" to Central Europe.

What!? The "gate" of the Balkans! The "door" to Central Europe! And here I've been captivated by doors and gates all over scripture for two weeks before I get this email about Belgrade. I know it's not a coincidence, but I have no idea what it means.

That's the funny thing about hearing from God. He intentionally gives me just enough for me to stay completely dependent on Him. There is nothing I can do to force God's hand. I have to trust him. I have to listen more intently now. I have to pray into these metaphors more now. I have to concentrate my attention on God's will for Belgrade and the importance of godly people in these meetings in that geography in these coming days.

Maybe I'm meant to be there for those meetings. At this point I don't know. Discernment is corporate and the head has a way of letting the body know.

I sure am curious about doors and gates and Belgrade. I will invoke and provoke God about it.

The Holy Spirit is given the believer to be and do in him all that God wants him to be or do. He is given him especially as the Spirit of prayer and supplication. Is it not clear that everything in prayer depends upon trusting the Holy Spirit to do His work in us; yielding ourselves to His leading, depending only and wholly on Him?
Andrew Murray - The Ministry of Intercession

What is the thing that not only disturbs you but makes you a disturbance? It is always something you cannot deal with yourself. "They rebuked [the blind man] that he should hold his peace.... but he cried so much the more." Persist in the disturbance until you get face to face with the Lord Himself; do not deify common sense. When Jesus asks us what we want Him to do for us in regard to the incredible thing with which we are faced remember that He does not work in common sense ways, but in supernatural ways.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost for His Highest (today's reading)

Doors and Gates

In Genesis 19 two angels visit Sodom and stay at Lot's house. In the early evening all the men of the town surround Lot's place and demand that Lot hand over the angels. The text says, "Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him." The men of the city start pushing past Lot, "Get out of our way!" attempting to break down the door. The angels inside "reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door."

It's fascinating that the angels took control away from Lot. Who did Lot think he was standing guard "outside" his own house against such insurmountable odds with mighty angels from God standing "inside" his house? Not only did the angels drag Lot back into his house, "they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door."

Think of Jesus on both sides of the door. There's a time when Jesus stands at the door and knocks for us to let him in. Then there's the time when we are hiding behind a bolted door afraid of everyone outside and Jesus appears in the room with us. I got reading all over the Bible about doors and gates. A cherubim with a flaming sword stood at the gate of Eden (Gen 3:24). God warned Cain that sin was crouching at his door (Gen 4:7). Throughout the prophets, how many times did God burn down the gates of his own city? Jesus warned his disciples that the Roman General Titus was coming to take Jerusalem, and specifically the temple, off its hinges (Matt 24). Jesus now holds the keys of death and hades (Rev 1:18). I suppose he went down into hell and took the keys and opened the rusty gates himself and came out and told us to go back in there and snatch others from that very fire (Jude 23). And then there's his own city with 12 gates and 12 angels standing guard (Rev 21:12).

This week I've been gripped by two other stories: Paul's visit to Jerusalem in Acts 21-23 and Jesus' visit to the temple in Jerusalem during Hanukkah in John 10.

In Acts 21, "the whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut (21:30)." How can one guy be that much danger to the temple (especially after what Jesus did to the place the moment after he died on the cross)? They start tearing Paul to shreds and it takes 470 elite Roman soldiers to deliver Paul safely to Caesarea.

In John 10, they said Jesus was demon-possessed and raving mad, they picked up stones to stone him, and they tried to sieze him but he escaped... and the key teaching of Jesus in this whole fiasco was "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (10:27)." and the crux of his confession: "I am the gate for the sheep (10:7)." At night a shepherd lays down and sleeps between his sheep and their blood-thirsty enemies.

Only one voice needs to be heard above the smoking war of bolting and unhinging and smashing and burning and rebuilding of all doors and gates:

This is what the Lord says to his annointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut;

I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.
Isaiah 45:1-2

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Psalm 24:7-8

Faith and Fight

And so the soul is brought first into emptiness and poverty of spirit. She is purged of every natural support, consolation, and perception, from above or below. Only then, radically empty, stripped naked of the old self, is she truly poor of spirit. Only then can she live that new and blessed life. This is the dark night. This is what yields union with God....

The soul does not always feel the fire of ugent yearning. When spiritual purification first starts, all the energy of divine fire is directed toward drying out and preparing the wood (the soul) rather than toward generating heat. But as time passes, the fire begins to radiate warmth and the soul starts to feel the burnings of love.
John of the Cross - Dark Night of the Soul


More than once I have been on the verge of giving up on God altogether. God has seemed to me at times like a coach who pushed me so hard during practice that I almost quit the sport entirely.

Even here, though... if faith and endurance are virtues, perhaps God has reasons to test us. Perhaps a tested faith is more valuable than an untested one. Perhaps exercising endurance makes faith stronger, just as it does with muscles or concentration or commitments to friends and family. Perhaps the only growing, strengthening muscles are stretched and tired ones.
Brian McLaren - Finding Faith


If there's magic in boxing, it's the magic of fighting battles beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retinas. It's the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you....

To make a fighter you gotta strip them down to bare wood: you can't just tell 'em to forget everything you know if you gotta make 'em forget even their bones... make 'em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else... show 'em how to keep their balance and take it away from the other guy... how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab... how to fly back and up so that the other guy doesn't want to come after you. Then you gotta show 'em all over again. Over and over and over... till they think they're born that way.
Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris - Million Dollar Baby