‘*Except for Espresso’ →

Speaking of espresso, I’d be remiss not to link to this knockout article by Tony Konecny, cofounder of the late Tonx Coffee (now part of Blue Bottle):

The big premise behind many of our brew guides and videos is that it is helpful to think of coffee making as a just-add-water scenario. All the contraptions and fussiness that comprise the many machines and methods of preparation are essentially just different ways of combining ground coffee with hot water and separating out the resulting brew. Brewing coffee isn’t hard and shouldn’t feel intimidating.

And for the most part, this is true. Coffee-to-water ratios, the relationship between grind size and dwell time, and the considerations of filtering are not hard to wrap your head around once you start looking past the surface differences of the various methods and see what’s really happening to the coffee grounds.

But espresso is a bit of a different beast.

Seth and I both loved Tonx, and wish them all the best in their partnership with Blue Bottle. The Tonx-inspiration filtering into Blue Bottle is already noticeable. This article typifies Tony’s love for coffee and his campaign to bring good coffee into the common kitchen. It’s also exemplary of his good writing and passion for demythologizing all things coffee.

It’s time to pour one out for the Tonx folks (an espresso, of course).

The little details matter in espresso. Very small changes in inputs result in dramatic changes in outcomes. A gram of coffee more or less, a minuscule drop in water temperature, an imperceptible drift in the size and uniformity of the grind – many things can thwart getting a great cup. Even using the most state-of-the-art commercial gear, it can still feel like tightrope walking on dental floss. Maybe there’s a good reason why professional baristas take themselves so seriously!

And it is because of espresso’s notorious stubbornness, complexity, and its requirement for serious and expensive gear that the Tonx message of brewing made simple is often met with skepticism from some self-confessed coffee snobs. Espresso lovers know how rare a truly great cup of this elixir is and will often travel far to be served by the serious practitioners. The cult of the barista has a small but fanatical following. Our propaganda that you can easily have great coffee in your kitchen comes with unstated “except for espresso” fine print.

Paying It Forward with the Elixir of Life (Espresso, of Course) →

Gaia Pianigiani, for the New York Times:

Many bartenders attribute a soul to the coffee-making process and take pride in knowing their customers’ preferences, even before they lay an elbow on the counter and start talking about the sun — or lack thereof — or complaining about the government.

“Coffee consumption predated the unification of Italy by more than 200 years, so the rituals and traditions around it are very ancient,” Andrea Illy, chairman of Illy, said in a phone interview. “In Naples, coffee is a world in itself, both culturally and socially. Coffee is a ritual carried out in solidarity.”

That solidarity is spreading.

Providence and Suffering Followup

Back in the summer of 2013 I was already taking two intensive courses, so I only audited John Mark Hicks’s class. It was phenomenal. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have gotten to learn from him and the others in the class. They were gracious to let me participate.

In lieu of the class’s required readings, writing assignments, and exams, I assigned myself the task of summarizing each day of class. Giving a whole new meaning to the word “procrastination,” 594 days passed between my introduction to the series and the final Day Five post. I would’ve loved to have finished this back in July 2013, but it sure was fun to work back through the material a good while after the fact.

Below are some resources on John Mark Hicks’s website regarding the topic of suffering and God’s place in the midst of it. Of course my entire series on Providence and Suffering leans heavily on Dr. Hicks, since he taught the class. But I’ve sifted through a good bit of this treasure-trove and tried to point you toward what will be most useful.

First of all, here is the Providence and Suffering course syllabus and course audio (recorded on my phone, so not professional quality).

Now, on to John Mark Hicks Ministries.

Providence and Suffering

From part 12 of a 17-part series on “Systematic Biblical Doctrine” in which Hicks limits himself to 2000 words on some significant topics:

Defending God is not my job. Good thing because I would be awful at it. However, my faith does seek understanding; it looks for answers even when I cannot find them. Exploring the mysteries of divine providence and human suffering is a journey into the recesses of the divine mind and most of it is inaccessible to humans. So, the real question of providence and evil is not can we explain it but can God be trusted with the answer even when that answer is inexplicable or incomprehensible to us or when our best efforts ultimately just don’t make sense. I think the answer to that question is “Yes”.

Comforting Sufferers - Various Posts

Dare We Doubt Together:

Can faith doubt and question? The doubts and questions are real, but it is faith nonetheless. Genuine faith perseveres and is sustained through faithful lament. Without lament emotional doubt would eat away faith like a cancer, but through lament faith speaks to the one who alone can heal that emotional pain and close the distance. God, we are confident, will hear us and comfort us through our lament. God will draw near even as we at times feel so distant from him. He will carry us when we cannot walk and he will be present even when we are angry.

Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.

Comforting the Suffering (like the “rules of thumb” from Day Five. This one is my favorite):

Do something. Don’t say, “If there’s anything, anything I can do, call me.” Why not? Because this places on the sufferer the responsibility to do something, to figure out something for the person to do for them and make a call. This is a time when the sufferer doesn’t need more burdens. Have you ever really been called by someone who is suffering after you told them this? Most likely, you’ve been called rarely, if ever. The sufferer may not want to inconvenience someone nor decide who to inconvenience. Statements like, “Call me if there’s anything I can do” only extend the suffering rather than helping. What needs done? In some cases, everything needs to be done. Do something for the sufferer that you perceive they need. Mow their lawn, take them some food, help them clean their house, change the oil in their car. Show up and do.

The whole list of eight posts can be found in the “Pastoral Care” category of the Serial Index.

Job

Hicks has blogged through the entire book of Job. This series works as an excellent reading guide to study your way through the book. I recommend taking three weeks and reading through a post per day, along with the corresponding passage from Job. Start with his intro posts on Authorship, Date, and Composition and the Structural Guide, then jump right into the most famous part of the book, the (surprisingly misunderstood) prologue.

From Hicks’s post on Job’s prologue:

The function of the Prologue is similar to the way narrations (in words or audibly narrated) precede the classic movies Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The narrations are not themselves part of the action/play of the movie, but they provide a hermeneutical lens for viewing the film. In the same way, the Prologue gives the hearer (reader) a particular world in which to understand the coming Acts. We know how to hear the dialogue because the Prologue has given us some hermeneutical keys. Our reading of the poems is guided by the world the narrator has given us. The poems must be read within the narrative frame provided by the final author/editor just as the The Lord of the Rings can only be understood in the framework of the introductory narration.

Pastoral Review of The Shack

This five-part review of William P. Young’s The Shack is also listed under “Pastoral Care” in the Serial Index.

From part one, Meeting God at the Shack I: Introduction

I read the book last January. Moved to tears several times, I was emotionally and intellectually engaged by Young’s storytelling. This modern parable addresses some of the most perplexing topics of Christian theology as well as some of the most gut-wrenching experiences believers can have. Writing about Trinity, atonement, providence, suffering, theodicy, death of children, parental abuse, forgiving murderers, forgiving self, incarnation, etc. is difficult prose to pursue, even more difficult to describe parabolically. Such an ambitious task is either foolhardy or courageous but nevertheless at least interesting and intriguing. I found it rather compelling.

This series would eventually develop into a book, Meeting God at the Shack. As can be inferred by Hicks’s description of this review as “pastoral,” he doesn’t deal with the theological controversy that surrounds the book in this series. He deals with the underlying theology of The Shack elsewhere, under the “Theology” subcategory, starting here.

Articles, Outlines, and Slide Decks

Under his General tab you can access various articles and lectures, of which I recommend:

• Providence – Providence: Contemporary Options
• Theodicy – A Rational Theodicy?
• Job – Powerpoints for Faithful Lament Lectures and Faithful Lament: Job’s Response to Suffering

On his site, those titles link straight to their corresponding downloadable files, which is why I do not link to them here.

Under Classes, I recommend:

• Suffering – Anchors for the Soul-Trusting God in the Storms of Life: Teaching Outlines
• Suffering – Powerpoints for Anchors for the Soul: Helping Suffering Families

Again, I don’t link to these here because he provides direct access to downloads of these files.

If you find something else that I’ve neglected to link to, do let me know.

The Story Behind @CelebrityOxford Comma

If not an apology for the use of the Oxford Comma, a passionate plea for comma consistency.

(Here on Post Modern, we’re proudly pro-Oxford Comma.)

How to Access the Most Valuable Information in the World: Read

M.G. Siegler, in a post that’s part of his excellent 500 Words series over on Medium:

It has taken me a while to realize it, but the single most important thing I do each day isn’t taking meetings, sending emails, or even writing — it’s reading. Whether it’s news, tweets, books, or any other form of written word, reading remains the most efficient way of consuming and capturing information. And information is the most valuable asset in the world.

But setting aside time to read takes discipline.

I couldn’t agree more. In the living room, the easiest thing to do is turn on the TV. In almost any other situation, the easiest thing to do is to pull out your phone and check Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. If you want to read anything that takes more than three minutes, you need to set aside dedicated time to do that. There’s a balance that goes into appreciating longer form pieces and books—old and modern—alongside the steady flow of “the latest.” There’s value in both, but so often what is happening now is the only thing that warrants our attention. And so the scales are out of balance.

For the last six years, my reflex during any down time has been to open up Twitter on my phone. Granted, I take a lot of pride in who I’m following on Twitter and the collective value I get from my timeline. I do a lot of reading, because the people I follow are pointing me to what’s worth reading.

But it was time to try something new. I’m now twenty days into a 40-day break from Twitter, my goal being simply to develop some new, possibly better habits for that down time. I’m trying to get to a place where the reading I do is not dictated by my Twitter feed. I have other options on my phone: the Kindle app, Instapaper, the thirty Safari tabs that I’ve kept open, thinking “I’ll read that sometime.”

Good writing offers ongoing value, beyond the 15 minutes after a piece is published. That’s the type of reading—and writing—I want in on.

Taking The Lead in Developing New Sexual Ethics

Dianna Anderson talks about her new book, Damaged Goods: New Perspectives on Christian Purity, in a guest post on Rachel Held Evans’s blog:

We, as the church, must take the lead in correcting our mistakes. We must teach consent, communication, grace, love, and healthy boundaries in talking about sex. Simply saying “no” until the wedding day isn’t enough to equip people with the tools to live out their sexuality in a healthy, God-honoring way. We need to learn how to be sexually mature adults before we can talk about what it means [to] say yes or no.

Richard Beck: ‘The Psalms are Liberation Theology’

Richard Beck:

The thing that strikes you about the psalms when you read them straight through is how oppressed and beleaguered is the psalmist. Enemies, hecklers, back-stabbers, two-faced friends, violent oppressors and economic exploiters abound.

This goes to the source of lament in the psalms. Rarely is the lament about, say, the death of a loved one. The lament is generally about oppression, about the victory of the oppressor.

The lament is about the bad guys winning and the good guys being trampled underfoot.

Only in the last couple of years have I started to value the lament psalms alongside the psalms of praise. What I realized reading Beck’s post, though, is that even within the praise/lament matrix, I can easily read the psalms individualistically.

When you frame the psalter in terms of liberation from the oppressor, as Beck is suggesting, you get one step closer to how the psalms were intended to be read: communally.

I’m not convinced it’s an “either/or” decision, nor is Beck arguing that. Rather, these two frameworks for the psalter complement each other.

(Beck is using The Paraclete Psalter as a guide for working through the Psalms on a 4-week cycle—only $2.99 on Kindle.)

‘Words’

John Mark Hicks on Psalm 19:

Words.

Some are voiceless, some form a narrative, and others offer a response.

Psalm 19 is a meditative response to words that make no sound and words that shape the life of Israel. The Psalmist offers a meditation on how God encounters Israel through creation and Torah and how believers respond to such gracious revelation.

A great take on one of my favorite psalms.

Write for Yourself, Edit for Your Reader

Shawn Blanc:

To pull the curtain back just a little, oftentimes the thing which most keeps me from writing is a fear of putting my own narcissism out on display for all to see. So often my first draft is little more than my own self-centered view of the world — a world where I sit at the center. This is not the world I am trying to build up, but when writing, how can any of us write about anything else but what we know and what we have heard? We write about what we know and what we feel. We write from our own soul and our own heart and we share what we’ve seen through our own eyes and what we’ve heard through our own ears. We write from the inside out.

The turn:

When the first draft is done, then the work of editing begins. It’s time to edit not just for flow and grammar and clarity, but edit for the reader. It is time to take this story that was once built with the author at the center and to instead put the reader at the center.

ISIS, the Crusades, and Obama

Greg Boyd deconstructs the response of some Christians in the wake of comments President Obama made back in February about ISIS.

People say ridiculous things on the internet. I’m no longer surprised by that. In this case, though, I wonder if these comments were sincere or if they were just sensational click-bait and/or retweet candy.

I’m with Boyd on this one. Followers of Jesus should be first “to denounce in the strongest terms possible” the evil that has been carried out in Jesus’s name.

Hemingway: ‘Write One True Sentence’

Great list of Ernest Hemingway fiction writing tips brought to you by the folks over at Open Culture. About Hemingway:

Before he was a big game hunter, before he was a deep-sea fisherman, Ernest Hemingway was a craftsman who would rise very early in the morning and write. His best stories are masterpieces of the modern era, and his prose style is one of the most influential of the 20th century.

Hemingway never wrote a treatise on the art of writing fiction. He did, however, leave behind a great many passages in letters, articles and books with opinions and advice on writing.

Two of my favorites: “To get started, write one true sentence,” and, “be brief.” Good writing is an art. Good art takes a lot of work.

The Value of a Refrigerator

From the BBC Magazine series, A Richer World:

It’s a big day for him and indeed for the village of Rameshwarpur, just outside Calcutta in north-east India.

Santosh has bought a new fridge - not just his first but also the first in the entire community of 200 people.

Owning a refrigerator isn’t just a modern convenience, it can be a freeing lifestyle change.

Now, compare this with John Gruber and Paul Kafasis’s conversation about refrigerators during the first twenty minutes of The Talk Show.

Day Five - What Shall We Say? Comforting the Hurting

Previously, on Post Modern:

• A Graduate-Level Class Called “Providence and Suffering”
• Day One: Evil and Theodicy in Modern Thought
• Day Two: Providence
• Day Three: What’s Your Story?
• Day Four: A Time to Lament

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Is there anything we can say to comfort the hurting? Maybe not. So don’t say anything—not for a long time. Be humble. Just be there. Be radically present. And for God’s sake, be silent. In the midst of suffering silence is not awkward. It’s part of processing, part of experiencing the hurt. Don’t worry about correcting a sufferer. Don’t try to interpret the suffering for them.

On this last day of an intense week of class, we moved from philosophy and biblical interpretation to praxis. What will guide our state of being as we try to comfort someone who is hurting? In this post I share five good rules of thumb and five “anchors for the ship” in the midst of the storm of questioning. Sandwiched between these rules and anchors is a theology of protest, which I present through the lens of Romans 8. This theology of protest informs our way of viewing the world as we ask oursleves, “what shall we say?”

A Few Rules of Thumb

When with someone who has experienced loss, tragedy, or suffering, here are some good rules to observe. These are from Dr. Hicks’s own experience, both as a sufferer and as a comforter.

• Don’t use “you” statements; only use “I” statements. E.g. “I am really sorry.” “I think that sucks.” “I feel very sad about this.” “I love you.” “I’m here to be with you.” With “you” statements you start to tell the sufferer how they should feel.
• Stay away from all interpretive statements, as well as statements that make promises about how they’re going to feel. Expectations disturb (eventual) peace. There may come a time when they open the door to interpretation. If it’s too early for that, affirm the question but deflect it. Allow lament. Over time and with a relationship, you can start to walk through that door.
• Do an act of love. Presence is itself an act of love, but there are occasions and opportunities when something more is a good thing. So change the oil on their car, or something. Actions of kindness will be remembered.
• Don’t say: “If you need anything, call me.” Dr. Hicks: “I can tell you as a sufferer, I never called anyone.”
• By all means, don’t say “it’ll work out for good,” (mis)quoting “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). That’s an interpretive statement. And it’s not what the sufferer wants to hear right now. See more on Romans 8 below.

Theology of Lament and Protest

Don’t take God off the hook for bad things that happen by blaming it on Satan. The lament psalms, Job, and Ecclesiastes model addressing our lament toward God. Our theology of the providence of God allows both for God’s sovereignty and for God’s willingness to hear our lament. It’s a theology of protest. Things have gone terribly wrong. I can’t fix it. It doesn’t look like God is fixing it. But God will. Eventually God will make things right. In the meantime, I will lament evil and pain. I will make a resolute protest against the way things are now, trusting that God will make things right.

Romans 8

This is one of the great chapters of the Bible. Go ahead and read it, paying special attention to 8:15 and what follows.

The creation groans in pain, with a longing and expectation of liberation (8:19-22). We too groan, waiting for the redemption of our bodies (8:23). And finally, the Spirit groans, interceding for us since we can’t even express our lament (8:26). That’s a lot of groaning. That’s a lot of lament. And it happens as we wait. As we hope.

What follows is one of the most misused verses in the Bible, especially in the context of bad things happening. The NIV translates it this way:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

Something bad happens, and we quote that verse, saying that even though we don’t understand it now, God meant it for good. Or God will use your pain for something good. This statement is often used to interpret a sufferer’s pain (again, see our “rules of thumb” above). Don’t fall into that trap. Let’s be humble about our inability to understand why bad things happen.

A better translation would be something like:

We know that God is working with all things toward good.

Or

God is at work in all things toward the good.

In the midst of the present human condition, the eager expectation for something new, the groaning that it will come about, God’s people know that God is working and will ultimately bring about the good.

How do we know? Jesus. He died and was raised to life (8:34).

This isn’t a petty “God is working behind the scenes to make this suffering a good thing, I just don’t realize it yet.” This is a plea to remember that Jesus came, died, was raised to life, and is now in charge, interceding for us.

So when Paul asks:

What will separate us from Christ’s love? Will it be trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Danger? Sword?

Paul is assuming that these things will happen. It’s part of the state of reality. These things occasion doubt. Which is why Paul aptly quotes Psalm 44:

For your sake we face death. All. Day. Long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered (44:22).

In quoting one verse of the psalm, Paul evokes all of it. Just as when Jesus shouts the first verse of Psalm 22 from the cross, “My God, why have your forsaken me?” he also evokes the conclusion of it: “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” On the cross, God does not abandon Jesus. God is all the more present in that moment, suffering with Jesus. As Jesus is abandoned to death, God does not abandon Jesus in death. As Jesus is abandoned to the grave, God does not abandon Jesus in the grave. God vindicates Jesus. God defeats death.

Psalm 44, which Paul quotes, ends with a plea:

Redeem us because of your unfailing love.

Paul, together with the psalmist, claims that God’s love is still there. Through all of the suffering, God’s steadfast love in Jesus is right there. Nothing will separate us from that love.

Anchoring the Ship

As a comforter, whether as a minister, counselor, or as someone in relationship with a sufferer, there will come a moment where you are called to speak. Dr. Hicks gave us five anchors for the ship in the storm. These are ways of reminding people of the narrative in which we live. Ideally, they will have heard this before they experience suffering, so that when you speak you’re not “preaching” or “teaching,” but reminding them of what they already know.

The Unrelenting Love of God: God Loves!

In midst of suffering it’s hard to hear, “God loves!” But through Christ, God is weeping. We try to find our footing in the love of God in Jesus. That’s part of the narrative. And with that footing we’re able to affirm other parts of the narrative too.

The Inviting Presence of God: God Listens!

This is where lament and prayer come in. God listens! God will hear your lament. And God will respond, not in anger or judgment, but in presence. God is willing to let me sit in his lap and feel his embrace even while I am spitting out anger, frustration, and desperation. We are lamenting within God’s presence. God is willing to struggle with us and be present in midst of our worst feelings. God invites us to speak how we feel.

The Empathy of God: God understands!

God empathizes with us through Jesus. God cares and understands. The experience is shared. Jesus suffered because he entered into the reality of the human condition. He participated in the travails of creation. God suffers with us, because God enters into the human condition. And in our suffering, we join the suffering of Jesus. Having a Jesus-shaped lens through which to interpret our suffering opens the door to viewing it as meaningful.

The Sovereignty of God: God reigns!

This is by far the hardest and most difficult. It’s a terrifying thought without the first three anchors. And it might need to wait a long time before it is affirmed.

The point is that in God is the ability to invest meaning in everything. Even when we ask “Why?” “What was the point?” God has a purpose, an end. God is active, doing something. When we say “God reigns!” we are making a statement of faith because we can’t demonstrate the meaning. But we know there is meaning, because the Christ event gives it meaning.

The Ultimate Victory of God: God wins!

The resurrection of Jesus is the sign of the coming resurrection. Death is defeated. God will put all things right, and has begun to do so in Jesus.

The End

We started this series acknowledging that there comes a time when we will ask questions in the face of evil. Doing this is called theodicy:

Theodicy in the broad sense is any way of giving meaning to evil that helps us face despair.

I question God in light of evil. I’ve lamented the death of a friend.

I know you have too.

I don’t know where you are in this journey of theodicy, whether it’s in the middle of despair or closer to identifying meaning in life. It may be in a place of passive numbness, surviving somewhere between the two extremes. Wherever you are, my hope is that you’ll find a way to face despair—and really live.

As for me, I choose to protest the state of things as they are. I choose to believe I’m part of a bigger story, one in which God suffers alongside us, listens to our shouting in the midst of it, and—in the end—redeems.

Thanks for reading.

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Up next: Providence and Suffering Followup

Day Four - A Time to Lament

The fourth day of class was my favorite. We walked through several of the psalms of lament, all of the book of Job, and all of Ecclesiastes. It was pure gold. As I shrink eight action-packed hours into a post that takes about 13 minutes to read I acknowledge I won’t do it justice. I do hope this morsel will be helpful. At the very least, it bridges the gap between recounting the bigger story and speaking into suffering. That bridge is lament.

Previously, on Post Modern:

• A Graduate-Level Class Called “Providence and Suffering”
• Day One: Evil and Theodicy in Modern Thought
• Day Two: Providence
• Day Three: What’s Your Story?

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Knowing the bigger narrative you’re a part of doesn’t mean you won’t be angry with God for allowing evil. In the long run, it gives context in which suffering can be interpreted. In the short-term, the pain and suffering are impossible to swallow.

The God of this narrative doesn’t say “get over it.” Yahweh invites lament, expects the shouting and crying. God welcomes the questions, because God is present—both in joy and in pain. God accepts praise and lament. The scriptures testify to that over and over.

In this post I:

1. share one lament psalm,
2. give a lens through which to read Job,
3. and summarize Ecclesiastes in tweet-length.

But First, Allow Me to Confess my Serial Optimism

Our own sacred book creates the space we need to lament, to shout at God, to question God’s goodness. The canon itself testifies that it’s not as easy as saying “God is good all the time. All the time God is good.” Life is more complicated than that. There’s a time to lament. If you don’t see it, it’s time to put down Proverbs and pick up Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms.

To my dismay, as we worked through these passages I realized that I read the Bible as a serial optimist. I love highlighting and underlining, but in these psalms of lament and stories of questioning God, the only phrases I had underlined were places where the writer is expressing praise or joy. In fact, in an entire psalm of lament, with just one verse dedicated to praise at the end, I underlined only that one verse. Take Psalm 13 for example. I underlined verses 5 and 6.

See the problem? Serial optimism is dangerous, especially as part of a community. When we compel people always to “sing and be happy” even if the “skies above you are gray and you are feeling so blue,” we can cause a lot of damage. We’re hurting people. We (in the West) are really bad at grieving. Our culture doesn’t provide a space for it. Our churches need to provide that space. Without being “depressing,” our churches need to practice lament. We need to create space for holy questioning. Our holy book shows the way forward. Jesus himself bluntly questioned God’s presence in the midst of suffering (leaning on a psalm, I might add). Can’t we question pain and suffering and purpose in life? Doing so will make hope all the more real.

Psalm 77: Yearning in the Midst of Chaos

Take a deep breath, turn the music off, clear your mind, and read Psalm 77. It’ll take you less than two minutes.

Now let’s walk through it together. It’s like the director’s cut (except that I didn’t write or direct it).

1-3: Expressing Hurt

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me…and my soul refused to be comforted. (77:1-2)

The psalm starts off in deep distress. Refusal of comfort is apt when it comes to the experience of suffering. To be comforted too quickly may be to deny that anything happened. It may be a denial of the reality of life.

I remembered you God, and I groaned. (77:3)

Do you feel guilty when you feel this way? Some people point to the place where James says to consider it joy when you face different kinds of trials (1:2). That’s appropriate when thinking in terms of world’s end, but it doesn’t rule out lament. Part of learning to lament is learning that it’s ok to remember God and groan. The psalm is here for our learning; here for hope (Romans 15:4). Telling someone in the midst of suffering that they should “be joyful” will cause lots of guilt.

4-9: The Questioning Gets Real

Remembering his past, and remembering his favorite songs, the psalmist brings scathing questions from the bottom of his heart (77:4-6):

Will the Lord reject forever? …Has his unfailing love vanished forever? …Has God forgotten to be merciful? (77:7-9)

In other words: Why, God?

The best description of God in the Old Testament is one God provides. The psalmist’s protest is an echo of God’s self-description. He is questioning the very heart of God’s character. And though he says he’s “too troubled to speak” (77:4), a couple verses later he’s rolling.

10-15: The Turn

Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal…I will remember Yahweh’s deeds.’ (77:10-11)

In the first half of the psalm, remembering causes groaning and questioning. Now, memory seems to give way to hope or awe. What changed?

It’s helpful to think about the little paragraph break between verse 9 and verse 10 as a time gap. We are not to imagine that this happened overnight. Who knows how long this person lived in the chaos and questioning. The second half of the psalm is the end result of a months- or years-long process. It doesn’t come to us as neatly resolved, but as a decision to live and trust the story in which the psalmist finds himself.

What god is as great as our God? (77:13)

Get this. The psalmist affirms God’s greatness in the context of great hurt. #GodIsGood, right?

The problem I have with the #GodIsGood hashtag is that so often it comes right after something good happens. Something good happened to me, #GodIsGood. So, something bad happens to me…#GodIsBad? We remember that God is good because the narrative tells us God is good, not because of what happened yesterday. And in the midst of the bad, we remember God is good because of what God has done and will do.

16-20: Affirming the Story

The waters saw you, God, and writhed. The very depths were convulsed. (77:16).

The waters, so often a symbol of chaos in the ancient Hebrew worldview, writhe in God’s presence. In the context of that remembering, the psalmist affirms that the story he’s living in is one in which God rebukes the waters. God conquers chaos.

Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters. (77:19)

The promise of God that the psalmist remembers is not one of redemption from suffering. It’s redemption through suffering. The path of healing is not that trouble has vanished. The psalmist doesn’t thank God for removing the pain. The waters are not gone. Chaos is still there. But there’s hope because God’s way leads through it.

Conclusion

The lament psalms assume a strong involvement of God in the lives of people. Even as the psalmist is questioning God having abandoned him, it presupposes that God is present and (supposedly) hearing the lament. The psalmist prays with an assumption that God has allowed chaos to be present and yet is still engaged. Sometimes it’s a plea for God to reengage, to wake up. Dr. Hicks summarizes it this way:

I pray and lament because I believe God is engaged in the cosmic order. Not intervening, but always concurrently engaged.

Job: A Dramatic Lament

The book of Job is a dramatic lament through which Job is faithful. He never curses God, though he struggles mightily (cursing just about everything else).

This literary work is big and thick and full of poetry. Through the poetry we’re able to see a writer in Israel weave lament in poetic dialogue with traditional wisdom. Many misread Job by reducing it to its narrative prologue (Chapters 1-2) and epilogue (42:7-17), skipping the poetry—which is the very heart of the book—altogether. Please don’t do that. The book is beautiful in its complexity, so my attempt to simplify it will only be so helpful.

What I want to do here is to present a lens for understanding what the book is trying to accomplish. Then it’ll be up to you to read through it and see what you think. If you decide to, Dr. Hicks has blogged through the entire book, which serves as an excellent reading guide.

The Central Question

Does anyone fear God just for God’s sake?

Job is representative of all of humanity. The book’s central question is presented in 1:9 by the accuser: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Stated differently, does anyone fear God for God’s sake? Or, are all human beings driven by a profit motive? The test, of course, will be severe, if it’s to demonstrate that human beings can stick to God even with everything else stripped away.

The Answer

The answer is yes. Job fears God for God’s sake alone, and not because of any profit or blessing. Job says: My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. So I humble myself, and am comforted over dust and ashes. God showing up was enough. (42:5-6).

Through the worst of suffering due to natural and moral evil, Job stays faithful. He struggles mightily. Job curses the day of his birth, curses life itself. He laments in bitterness and anger. He presents his case indignantly. He despairs. And he refuses to let God off the hook for this.

Refusing to let God off the hook is key:

Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. (31:35)

Yahweh vindicates Job at the end of the story, having Job pray for the wrongness of his three friends: “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:8)

Yahweh accepts Job’s lament: I will accept tough questions. There is evil. There is chaos. You were right to question this. But see, I am here. Will you trust me?

How We Get There: Job

Two confessions of Job early on in the book are pillars of his understanding of God. At first they seem to oppose each other, but aren’t actually mutually exclusive.

1. Praise: God gives and God takes away. May God be praised. (1:20-21; see also 12:7-10)
2. Curse: Job curses the day of his birth. (3:1-26; see also 7:7-21, the most dramatic lament in the text)

Lament is not inconsistent with the confession in 1:20-21. It is because Job believes God is responsible that Job laments.

Job never stops believing that God is in control, and so never lets God off the hook for the evil that has caused so much suffering in his life. He confesses again at the end of the book: “I know that you can do all things” and, paraphrasing, I’m mortal and so there’s no way I can understand it all.

But.

I have seen you, and so I humble myself and am comforted. I let go of my lament. I change my mind about humanity. Your presence is enough. (42:6)

I should note that this is a minority position on Job. Many believe that Job did sin in questioning God throughout the book, and here at the end of the book, Job repents. In his next-to-last post on Job, he explains why we’re probably right.

How We Get There: Job’s Friends

In the book’s poetic dialogue Job laments and curses as he’s trying to deal with all that has happened, and Job’s friends respond. In three cycles, each successive round shorter than the last, Job’s friends tell him to:

1. Repent! (Chapters 4-14)
2. Shut up! (Chapters 15-21)
3. Give up! (Chapters 22-27)

The cycles are painful to listen to while at the same time beautifully composed. Ironically, the friends are at their very best back in 2:13, when “no one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.”

After these three cycles and Job’s final monologue (29-31), a young(er) buck, named Elihu, speaks up (chapters 32-37). What Elihu says about Yahweh is mostly right. But what he says about Job is dead wrong. He misquotes Job and misapplies Job’s lament and so condemns Job.

How We Get There: Yahweh

Then Yahweh spoke to Job out of the storm. (38:1)

Finally. After 37 chapters. Yahweh shows up.

In two speeches Yahweh recreates the diverse universe for Job with words. It’s a good creation with the possibility of evil and chaos. Yahweh reminds Job that he won’t be able to figure it all out, but invites him to embrace his human vocation once again.

Some have interpreted Yahweh’s tone with Job in these two speeches to be, “You idiot, Job, how dare you question me!” Job himself may hear God that way, when he responds in 40:4 with, “I am unworthy. I’ll just shut up.” Yahweh isn’t pleased with Job’s self-abasing answer so there’s a round two. Instead of giving God an indignant, shouting tone, think of Yahweh as a sage, graciously reminding Job of things Job already knows (A dramatic audio version would’ve been helpful).

In short, Yahweh says:

• I am in control
• I care
• I know what I’m doing

Yahweh asks: Will you trust me?

Or, to reword it in terms of the central question: Will you fear me for my own sake, even if this doesn’t make sense? Am I worth it?

The answer, of course, is yes. Not because Job is eventually prosperous again. Job will trust God because God showed up. Job saw God. He experienced Yahweh. And in the midst of despair, God’s presence was enough.

Conclusion: Job in the Biblical Canon

The place of the book of Job in the Bible is important. It counters the “traditional wisdom school” that Proverbs represents, which says, “You reap what you sow.” In other words, traditional wisdom argued that if you do right, you’ll prosper, and if you do wrong, you’ll be punished.

Job acknowledges that this isn’t the case 100% of the time. Sometimes life sucks. But in the midst of that, God is there and wants to be acknowledged, even if it’s with lament.

Ecclesiastes in a Tweet

We ended the day by walking through Ecclesiastes. There is no book more controversial in the Bible, for its acceptance of the reality of evil (some call it cynicism, others call it realism) and willingness to entertain the thought that we don’t really know anything. The book works in the 21st century. The author is so blunt, so real.

Sit down and read Ecclesiastes if you haven’t in a while. Here’s a summary in less than 140 characters:

Accept death; don’t despair. Enjoy life. Meaning is found in the pursuit of Yahweh.

Acceptance

We closed class with what’s known as the serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

This is what lament can do. It’s an essential part of the process to trust God (eventually) and once again to live with meaning.

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Up next: Day Five - What Shall We Say? Comforting the Hurting

‘We Find Ourselves at an Impasse’

Adam Hill, a minister at the Rochester Church of Christ in Michigan, writing at Wineskins:

We find ourselves arguing over how to most healthily read the Bible altogether. Many in our fellowship (myself among them) no longer assume that a hermeneutic built on commands, examples, and necessary inferences is consistently correct or even healthy. So we find ourselves at an impasse, because neither side is playing the game with the same set of rules. We no longer all agree that the scales are fair—and some of us believe the scales are not even the best tool for the job at all.

He argues that the question of hermeneutics must come before the question of interpretation. Not, “what does the Bible say” but “how does the Bible speak?”

One starting point to move forward: better preaching. For example, less preaching on morals and virtues and more about God’s mission:

So, the point of—let’s say—Esther is not to tell people to be more courageous (yes, I have preached that sermon before). You might as well tell them to be prettier too. The larger point of Esther is that God is still at work to redeem everything, and God uses every opportunity—even our “diaspora” moments where we feel so weak and powerless and caught up in things beyond our control—to move forward on the mission of redemption. We are not forgotten. That is gospel in light of the biblical narrative as a whole.

Over time and leading by example, the church’s way of reading the Bible can change.

When we as preachers and teachers relentlessly communicate everything in light of the grand story of the gospel (instead of stopping at the pop-psychology and expected personal piety boost that moralism offers), we begin to change the culture of Bible reading in our community. We begin to tap into the collective imagination that our church shares regarding scripture and how to use it.

This calls for great patience. It will take years to retrain our eyes to see something else, to get us to read something in a new light. And it will take much longer if we don’t learn to read together. We must cultivate space in our assemblies for us to read scripture together and imagine the world in light of that gospel truth together.

Don’t miss Greg McKinzie’s response.

‘The Mission is God’s’

Yours truly back in September, in my first article for the Team Arequipa newsletter. I walk through the story of God’s mission using the Bible as a lens. As if summarizing millennia of story weren't enough, I also tried to connect it to why my wife Katie and I just moved to Peru.

Also, check out the feature I built for Team Arequipa’s site. I compiled hundreds of thousands of words in hundreds of newsletter articles from an 8-year period and featured the highlights. It’s called “Our Story.”

I have incredible respect for Greg and Megan McKinzie and Kyle and Larissa Smith—for many reasons. But one of those is their dedicated work in writing four articles a month for eight years. These weren't just casual updates on their life and work. Month after month they wrote really good stuff, about culture, development, contextualization, mission, and more. All this to say, it was an honor to write my frist article for the newsletter and will continue to be an honor to follow their legacy.

Newsworthy with Norsworthy

Luke Norsworthy has been killing it on his podcast lately. Here’s a list of a few of his guests so far in 2015:

• N.T. Wright
• Donald Miller
• Peter Rollins
• Jamie Wright, aka The Very Worst Missionary
• Richard Beck of Experimental Theology
• Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind

If you’ve never listened to the show, I recommend it. I’m actually working through some of the 2014 episodes now [iTunes link].

Missio Dei - Short-Term Missions

With mission trip season gearing up, I thought it would be helpful to point to Missio Dei’s issue on short-term missions (STM), from February of 2012. It’s jam-packed with good discussion on this massive industry.

Here's Greg McKinzie, in the editorial preface to the issue:

These characteristics tend to govern implicitly the discussion of STM’s pros and cons. Thus, some might construe the debate in this way: although cultural difference is a challenge, it is not a major problem (romantic view); although a short-term project might not have a long-term effect on the receiver, it will forever change the life of the goer (self-orientation); although it is not possible to engage in truly relational ministry in the short term across cultural and linguistic barriers, it is possible to “make an impact” that results in believers, buildings or bandages (results-orientation); although a participant may be unequipped in many ways, he or she is still obliged to fulfill the Great Commission (populism). These perspectives tend to intersect and self-perpetuate in a variety of ways. For example, if cultural distance were such a major issue (romantic view), God would not have commissioned average “real people”2 to preach to the nations (populism). Or, this experience (self-orientation) is about forming long-term missionaries who can make the most of short-term results (results-orientation).

The point of these examples is to demonstrate the way in which the cultural shape of STM can affect the logic of the discussion surrounding it. Critical assessment happens within a context that assumes what STM is or should be and a set of values by which to judge its outcomes. Churches that recognize their cultural biases can engage in a healthier evaluation of their STM.

Even if you only get as far as Greg's preface, you will have been challenged to think critically about short-term missions. And if you’re thinking critically about short-term missions, you’re at least halfway there.

Procrastination, a Thief

Shawn Blanc, on procrastination and creative work (I can’t help but point out that I put off reading this article for well over a week):

Procrastination robs us of this. It keeps us from showing up every day. It tells us that instead of showing up every day, we can just cram at the last minute. It tells us that there is always tomorrow. It lies to us, saying that just because we’re ignoring this task again and again doesn’t mean we’ve quit.

The only difference between a quitter and an habitual procrastinator is that the latter is lying to herself.

If what I’m saying is true, then procrastination is perhaps the greatest enemy to producing meaningful work. Because not only does procrastination keep us from doing the work, but in so doing, it also robs us from the process of sitting down every day to be creative. It’s in the day-to-day mundane and difficult work of showing up that our ideas take shape and take flight. It’s in that place that our skills are forged bit by bit.

And a bit later in his post:

The answer for beating procrastination won’t ultimately be found by changing your external circumstances. Now, there are things you can change to help you stay focused (such as quitting the Twitter app when you’re trying to write). And there are certain distractions you can remove altogether (such as giving up television). However, these changes in and of themselves are not the ultimate answer. They can be powerful and helpful, but at the end of the day, overcoming procrastination is about building up a strong work ethic towards the tasks and projects you’re prone to put off.

He nails it. Procrastination isn’t a reaction to one’s circumstances. It’s a lifestyle. And accordingly, the cure will have to be a lifestyle change.

The Influence of Jony Ive

Ian Parker, in a profile piece for the New Yorker on Apple’s Senior VP of Design, Jony Ive:

Ive’s dominance wasn’t immediate. Michael Ive recalled a conversation he had with his son in 2001: “ ‘It’ll have a thousand songs, Dad.’ I said, ‘Who wants a thousand songs?’ He said, ‘You’ll see.’ ” Tony Fadell, a former Apple engineer who can take much of the credit for the iPod’s functionality, was recently quoted by Fast Company as saying, “We gave it to Jony to skin it.” That is, Ive’s contribution was to combine, as elegantly as possible, elements decided largely by engineers and others: a battery, a disk drive, an L.C.D. screen, a track wheel. Fadell went on to found Nest, which was later bought by Google; he recently took charge of Google Glass. His phrase may have been strategically irreverent—“We’ve never skinned anything,” Tim Cook told me in response—but it contained at least a partial truth. Ive gave the music player an irresistible white-and-silver form, causing a generation of designers to endure clients asking for the “iPod version” of this or that. (Richard Seymour, in London, recalled a meeting about the iPod of moisturizers.) But the industrial-design studio was not yet the company’s central workshop.

What strikes me is that the decisions of one man impact hundreds of millions of people every day. But he’s just one man. That is incredible influence.

This is an incredibly well-written piece. It’s long, but it’s worth reading the entire thing.