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Blue Skadood. . . . . we can too! An icon of the baptism of Christ sits propped up in a chair in the corner of my office at the seminary. It was a gift to the seminary from the graduating class of 1995 in honor of our friend, then Dean of the Chapel Jerry Mercer. A deep blue river flows out of a seeming rift in a rocky mountain range. John the Baptist is on the left side of the river. Three angels are on the right side of the river. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World, is in the middle of the river. A brightly illuminated, focused beam of light streams out of the sky and down onto Jesus. The form of a dove captures the center of the stream of light.
Every time my family comes to the office for a visit, my 2 year old daughter, Mary Kathryn, climbs into that chair. Resting on her knees, she begins to touch the picture, tracing its lines and imagery with her hands and asking me questions about what she sees. Her favorite question: “What’s he doing Daddy?” Just a couple of weeks ago she pointed to the dove descending from the heavens, inquiring, “What’s that Daddy?” So I made an attempt to explain the Holy Spirit and to tell her what God was saying to Jesus from Heaven. She didn’t seem too interested in my explanation. A few minutes later I noticed her still in the chair and still on her knees. With her small, pudgy index finger she was tracing the streaming flow of the Holy Spirit coming from the Father in Heaven onto the Son in the water in the form of the dove. And she was singing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. . . Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. . . Yes Jesus Loves me. . . Yes Jesus loves me.
And I thought to myself, “She’s got it!” In some mysterious way, grace was working through that icon to draw my little Mary Kathryn, a 2 year old, into the very story the image proclaimed. The love of the Father lavished on the Son in the gift of the Word and Holy Spirit. The love of the Son unleashed on the whole World through the gift of baptism. She skadood into the Trinity. . . . .
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 4/27/2005 11:27:00 PM | 6 comments
continued 1 peter 4:12Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. 13Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner. posted by John David Walt | at 4/27/2005 11:23:00 PM | 0 comments
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
a keeper C.S. Lewis once said we read in order to know that we are not alone.
Today's translation-- we blog in order to know we are not alone. :-)
Here's a quote my friend, Jason Upton, sent to me in response to my latest blog. It connects. It gets at what Eric is saying in his comment to the last post.
"Everything in life is designed to wound me with the realization of
the world's insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be
able to find God alone in everything. Only then can all things bring
me joy." --Thomas Merton
Labels: quotes
posted by John David Walt | at 4/20/2005 02:37:00 PM | 3 comments
Saturday, April 16, 2005
embracing rejection i'll get back to the GMA awards soon-- wanted to interject with this idea on my heart today.
"I will gladly spend myself and all I have for your spiritual good, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me." 2 corinthians 12:15.
this amazes me-- the idea of embracing rejection. it is so easy to reject rejection and those who reject you. I am truly in and have been in a season of rejection-- like nothing I have ever experienced. And the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me what it means to embrace rejection. This is the way of the cross isn't it? But what does it look like?
I have been weaned off of the milk of human affirmation and am being led more and more into the solid food of Abba's Love. Perhaps the rejection of people has been a kind of forced fast to prepare me for the real feast. One thing I learned in the 40 days of Lent this year is that the Word of God can't be a source of food apart from fasting. It was after Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert that he was able to respond to Satan-- Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. In the wilderness Jesus feasted on the Word spoken by his Father over him at baptism: This is my Son, my beloved. With him I am well pleased. His identity streamed from the love of the heart of the Father. What I love about this word is that it was spoken prior to Jesus actually doing anything. This is the word of baptism. This gave him the only necessary preparation for his vocation, which sings in this word: Greater love has no one that this to lay down his life for his friends. . . .said another way. . . . This is my body, broken for you. This is the word of Eucharist.
The Gospel is becoming really simple for me-- its about two things: Intimate Sonship & Extravagant Friendship. It sums up the love of God and the love of neighbor: to belong to the Father and to lay down my life for the other; Baptism and Eucharist. The former is identity and the latter vocation. To live at the intersection of these loves is to be alive in Christ-- to walk in the Way of the Cross.
This is to literally carry "death" in our bodies, as Paul speaks of. Perhaps it is to embrace rejection in such a way that life springs forth.
"I will gladly spend myself and all I have for your spiritual good, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me." 2 corinthians 12:15.
what do you think about these thoughts? make any sense?
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 4/16/2005 11:40:00 AM | 5 comments
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Big Win Tiffani and I were in Nashville, TN last night for the Gospel Music Association Awards Show (a.k.a. The Dove Awards) Several of our friends were up for awards. Matt Redman won song of the year with "Blessed be Your Name." It's a big deal when a worship song wins this category. Chris Tomlin won Worship Record of the Year with Arriving. We have worked with Chris now for almost ten years. It was an amazing moment to see them unfold the card and read, "And the winner of worship album of the year is . . . . . Arriving--Chris Tomiln." A blog could never do it justice. I hope to reflect some more on the experience in the days to come. Some interesting observations about the whole affair to come. . . . posted by John David Walt | at 4/14/2005 09:18:00 PM | 2 comments
Friday, April 08, 2005
papal pilgrimage Now that my 5 bloggers from around the world have rung in on the golden fountain post-- i can move on. it's great having you 5 on board by the way. :-)
I am stunned by the events unfolding in Rome. Almost 5 million people have journeyed to the city to mourn John Paul's death-- they continue to call it the largest gathering in human history. Amazing Grace! I continue to be put off a bit by the way the media-- particularly Bryan Williams with NBC-- who is adamant about describing the whole thing as a "human" event. From my perspective as a believer in Jesus-- the truly human one-- I appreciate that. But that's not what Bryan seems to mean by it. It seems he is going out of his way to not reference this as a Divine event or a Holy event. it is a human phenomena in his reporting. What's that about?
It will be interesting to see how this funeral is interpreted by the media-- what they choose to sound-byte. posted by John David Walt | at 4/08/2005 12:40:00 AM | 5 comments
Monday, April 04, 2005
to keep it balanced So Sunday afternoon as we were all playing in the front yard, David shouted, "Dad! Look!" I looked over his direction. Neighborhood kids were everywhere. Mom's were out planting flowers in the next yard. And there was David, pants pulled down to his ankles, tee-tee spewing everywhere. He was rather proud of this. I immediately ran to him, shouting that he just couldn't do this in the front yard. (back yard maybe. . . . front yard never!) Anyhow, I didn't want to shame him so I sat him down and talked calmly. "David," I said, "You just can't tee-tee in the front yard. You've got to go inside to the bathroom. David, do you know why you can't pee in the front yard? " Then I motioned to Douglas, our 8 year old neighbor friend who was over playing. I said, "Douglas, tell David that he just can't do this." Douglas replied, "Yeah David, you can't pee in the front yard. It will kill the grass!"
How about that? :-) posted by John David Walt | at 4/04/2005 09:32:00 PM | 5 comments
Friday, April 01, 2005
tournament of stories So last night as I am putting David and Mary Kathryn to bed David says to me, "Daddy, when I grow up I want to make a LOT of money. I want to be rich!" I said, in a shocked tone, "David! Where did you get that?" There was no answer. We continued reading Bible stories. We were reading the Kingdom parables-- mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, pearl of great price and so forth. A few minutes later, out of the clear blue, he freely offered this: "When we keep our eyes on Jesus we can walk on water. If we look away we will fall in." We hadn't read that story on this night, but he remembered it.
It reaffirmed to me the daily battle we all face-- the battle only a child will be bold enough to be honest about: the battle of stories. The story of "making a lot of money" vs. "When we keep our eyes on Jesus we can walk on water." They vie for priority in our life. Which will carry the day in David's life? Which carries the day in my own?
The one we constantly remember.
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 4/01/2005 09:14:00 PM | 5 comments
Today...