We had on the dining room table a Christmas puzzle underway. Christmastime puzzle working has become a bit of a tradition for us these last few years. We get these lovely Wysocki puzzles, with festive, holiday scenes and piddle at the puzzle in the evening hours. So I grabbed a cup of the most delicious drink known to man, eggnog, of which I prefer Weigel’s chunky eggnog, where it is so thick you have to wait for it to come out. It is basically pudding, but I like it that way. Anyway, I sat down at the dining room table, to my Christmas puzzle, with my cup of eggnog, and then I took out my phone and selected the playlist “Sentimental Christmas” and proceeded to have my own little Christmas party.

As I “partied the night away,” sipping my eggnog, working the puzzle, listening to Christmas music, I found myself turning over, in my mind, the Christmas holidays. I was thinking about the songs, thinking about the season, thinking about the movies, and thinking about the traditions. As I turned all of this over, I was struck by what Christmas – all of it: the songs, the movies, the traditions, the theology – says.

Of course, Christmas says a great deal about God, and we will talk about that in just a moment, but I was particularly struck in that moment by what Christmas says about us.

What does Christmas say about us?

1. Christmas says something about who we were meant to be.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we are given an account of creation. It is a summary real-telling, not meant to satisfy every scientific question, but we are meant to learn some important things about that first creation. We are meant to understand that God created all things, and we are meant to understand that everything God created was good. We are told again and again that all God made was good. He made trees, and it was good. He made the sun and moon, and it was good. And he made mankind, and it was good. Indeed, we’re told that his creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). There was light and life and love and peace. God walked with mankind, and mankind lived in harmony. This picture of creation, described in Genesis, shows us how things were supposed to be. There was supposed to be life and peace and joy and harmony and fellowship with God. We were supposed to enjoy life here on earth and have families and friendships and walk with God in the Garden of Eden.

And I think at Christmas we hear a whisper of this, a whisper of how it was supposed to be, of how good it might be.

• Our Christmas songs, even the most secular, speak of joy and peace. They speak of friends coming together. They ring with possibility and delight. At Christmas, we get Bruce Springsteen, the New Jersey boss, laughing and singing about being good and Santa Claus coming to town. At Christmas, even Bing Crosby and the gaunt rocker, David Bowie, take a moment to come together and sing a duet about the little drummer boy and peace on earth.
• Our Christmas movies often portray the joy of a romance blossoming or a relationship restored and a family together again, after being home alone for a long time.
• And our Christmas traditions invite the best of who we are to come out. We open our homes. We share a meal. We donate money. We give gifts. We go to the Christmas Eve service at church to make our parents or grandparents happy.

And in all of these Christmas trappings, we bump into a deep nostalgia. And it’s interesting; we don’t just find ourselves nostalgic for our own past. It’s a deeper Nostalgia. It’s a kind of capital “N” nostalgia. We find ourselves longing for things we’ve never even known. I didn’t grow up with a lot of white Christmases, but I find myself longing for that same beauty and peace that a “white Christmas…I used to know” represents. I have never roasted chestnuts on an open fire in my life, but I find myself suddenly tender-hearted about the idea and the hearth and home and peace it pictures.

What’s going on? These are echoes of Eden…

Excursus: Echoes of Eden

These little glimpses of the good life, these pinings for some past that we haven’t even known personally, these feelings are echoes of that Eden life were meant to live. The joys of Christmas are not just the fanfare of escapism and presents; the joys of Christmas are glimpses of real joy, of what you were meant for. As Genesis describes, you were meant for peace on earth. You were meant for fellowship with one another. You were meant for life and love and harmony. You were meant for God and holiness. And I think at Christmas, the deepest nostalgia we feel is actually not for Christmas when we were a kid but for Eden when all was right with God.

C.S. Lewis said when we get these little glimpses of this other world, this Eden, this heavenly Kingdom, we are tempted to think that whatever circumstance or memory brought it to mind was the source of the feeling. But he says no. He says, “…they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited” (Lewis, Weight of Glory). In other words, the joy and meaning you find at Christmas is not the whole thing itself. Rather, it is an artifact of the thing itself. It’s like discovering an ancient gold coin buried in your backyard. The gold coin in your hand is one thing, but its true delight is the other world, other kingdom, it speaks of. Christmas provides us with such a moment. Christmas speaks of another world. Christmas carries with it an echo of Eden, a whisper of how things were supposed to be.

And so if you are unsure about this religious stuff, unsure about faith and God, I invite you to consider these deep feelings we get at Christmas. I would encourage you to contemplate this Christmas the beauty and the longing you may feel. Could this deep truth and beauty you long for be more than biology, more than neurons firing, more than atoms colliding? Could it be at Christmas you are actually encountering an ancient reality, something transcendent and eternal and truly true?

C.S. Lewis is helpful on this point, too. He said if you experience a hunger, that hunger suggests the reality of a corresponding answer. If you’re thirsty for water, it suggests you’re meant to drink. If you’re hungry for food, you’re meant to eat. And if you encounter this longing for goodness and a God-ordered world at Christmas, maybe you were meant for that too. Do you see? Christmas is speaking to who you were meant to be.

And yet Christmas speaks to how we fall short…

2. Christmas says something about who we are not.

I said Christmas speaks to who we are meant to be. The “meant to be” part – that’s the real rub. Christmas says something about “who we were meant to be,” but that’s not who we are. And that’s not what the world is like now. At Christmas we get glimpses and glimmers and whispers of another way, another world. But at Christmas, we also get painful reminders of just how broken our current world is.

The Christmas holiday is also shot through with pain points. At Christmas, we may feel the most estranged, as we feel most sharply the separation of a marriage, the absence of a sibling who doesn’t come around anymore, the child who doesn’t call. At Christmas, we see the greed and envy of the world shine with the tinsel and lights. At Christmas, we may miss our loved ones the most. The empty chair at the table, the trip no longer taken, the voice now gone… it all weighs heaviest over the holidays. We think, “Oh, mom would’ve loved this.” Or, “Grandpa would be fiddling with his camera right now.” At Christmas, depression is often at its worst, feasting on the slowdown and the loneliness and the darkness of the winter solstice.

And we see this message all through the Christmas songs and movies and traditions, too. The song that almost always takes me to these reflections is, ironically, called “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland. It’s so depressing that they’ve changed the words, but originally, she sings:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light,
next year, all our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days, Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who were near to us, Will be dear to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together, If the fates allow
Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Do you see? It’s all future. Next year. Will be. Someday. And until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow. This is our plight. This is the tension of Christmas. We’re tasting merriness, trying to be merry now. And yet, it’s all future. Right now, things are broken.

Why is life like this? The Bible tells us because the human race has forsaken God. We left Eden. And now, we live East of Eden. We have turned from God, and when you turn from the author of light and life and love, you get darkness and death and fear. And the pains of Christmas speak of this, too.

So, Christmas speaks to who we were meant to be, both the goodness of that and the pain of not being that. But thankfully, Christmas says so much more…

3. Christmas says something about God and what he is like. (And it’s good news!)

What is God like? Christmas tells us. He is the God who draws near.

The Gospel of John describes that first Christmas like this: “[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… [14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

The Gospel of Matthew connects Christmas to a prophecy of Isaiah. He says the birth of Jesus fulfills the promise that Isaiah made. Isaiah said, “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus is God with us.

So Christmas speaks to God and what he is like. And it shouts from the roof tops that God cares! He loves you! How do we know? Because he came to earth himself. He took on flesh. And more than that, he took on our sorrows. He took on our sin. And he took them to the cross to put them away forever.

There are these Christmas movies where some angel intervenes. You might think of Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life. He steps into a broken story to bring healing. Clarence is this sweet on man, who’s a new angel, trying to get his wings. And he rescues George Bailey. But the original Christmas story is way better! An angel does not come to help one man. The Lord, God Almighty himself comes to rescues all people!

And listen, he comes himself. God knows what it’s like to be you. We’re told in the Bible that Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He knew sickness and pain. He knew hunger and longing. He knew temptation and struggle. He knew what it meant to lose a loved one. And Christmas reminds us of this. Christmas speaks to this great love. Christmas says something about God and what he is like.

But Christmas also says something about God and what he wants. God wants us to come home…

4. Christmas says something about God and what He wants. (He wants us to be rescued and to come home.)

In the Gospel of Luke, we hear Jesus say, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). Jesus has come to call sinners to turn back that they might be saved.

Are you broken? Is your life riddled with regrets? Do you have a checkered past? Have you hated God? Have you lied and cheated and slept around and lost your temper and stolen and blasphemed and committed murder and said things you can never get back? LISTEN: HE CAME FOR YOU.

Jesus has come that you might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

When Jesus was about to be born, angels appeared to a group of shepherds watching their flocks at night. The angels said this:

“[10]…Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Friends, this is the good news of Christmas! Consider these three appellations for Jesus…

Jesus is a Savior. How so? As we will see, he will live a perfect life in tune with God, and he will offer that life in our place that we might have our sins washed away. And anyone who wants to have Jesus as their savior can be saved. Have you ever asked Jesus to save you?

Jesus is the Christ. Christ means Messiah. That means two things… (1) Jesus is a King because the Messiah was a King. (2) Jesus is the long awaited special King, the one destined to set all things right. (Like Arthur who pulls the sword from the stone, he isn’t just any old king; he is the king foretold, from of old, destined to set things right.)

Jesus is the Lord. The Lord is the name of God in the Old Testament. The people of God in the Old Testament would also boast that they alone knew the name of God. Everyone knows there must be a God (at least deep down in their heart), but the people of Israel actually knew his name, knew him personally. His name was the Lord, which was Yahweh in Hebrew. So that means Jesus is the Lord come in human form.

And this is meant to be “good news of great joy…for all the people.” For everyone, for you. The Lord himself came as the Savior and King in Jesus to SAVE YOU!

So this Christmas…

When you bump into the joys, remember this joy is real and what God intended for you.

When you bump into the sorrow, remember these are what God himself came to fix at Christmas.

And when all the gifts are open and the holidays have ended, remember the best is yet to come. That first Christmas was only the beginning. It was a kind of D-Day, when God landed on the beaches of this world and began to turn the tide. But the best is yet to come. One day…

Christmas speaks to all these things. May Christmas speak these joyous and true truths to your heart this year. Amen.

The discussion is ongoing (Link 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ad infinitum).

John Frame, writing years before the current debates (c. 2025), provides us with a helpful reminder that neither nuance nor a third way is the point. Being biblical is the point.

At the beginning of his book on ethics, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (2008), Frame writes:

Before we begin our study, there is another question we need to ask. All of us are biased in favor of certain conclusions, even at the outset of our study. We cannot be neutral. But we ought to be self-conscious, even critical, of our biases.

There are those who enter the field of ethics with a goal of dispelling legalism. Perhaps they were raised in a church that imposed all sorts of rules on the kids and they didn’t like it. So as ethicists they want to emphasize our freedom as individuals to make decisions for ourselves.

Others enter the field disgusted by the moral decline in our society. They may also be impressed by the rigorousness of Scripture and the high cost of discipleship. They are attracted to an ethic that does not compromise with worldliness, a radical ethic of discipline and self-control.

We tend to describe the first type of ethic as liberal, the second as conservative. Down through the years, ethicists have tended to divide into conservative and liberal parties. For example, in ancient Judaism there were the schools of Shammai (conservative) and Hillel (liberal). Catholicism has had Jesuits (liberal) and Jansenists (conservative). The liberal tendency to find loopholes in the moral law, to justify apparent sin, has given casuistry a bad name. The conservative tendency toward harshness and austerity has given moralism a bad name.

In this book, I urge readers not to side with either tendency. The point of Christian ethics is not to be as liberal as we can be, or as conservative. It is, rather, to be as biblical as we can be. So this book will seem to be more liberal than the majority on some issues (e.g., worship, cloning, just war, gambling, deceiving) and more conservative on others (e.g., the Sabbath, the roles of women, stem cell research). God’s Word has a way of surprising us, of not fitting into our prearranged categories. Jesus rebuked both the conservative Pharisees and the liberal Sadducees; Paul rebuked both legalists and libertines. Understanding God’s will rarely means falling into lockstep with some popular ideology. We need to think as part of a community, listening to our brothers and sisters, but we also need the courage to step aside from the crowd when God’s Word directs us in that way.

So in this book I will be drawing some fine distinctions, as theologians are wont to do. I do this not to gain a reputation for subtlety and nuance, but simply to follow Scripture. My goal is to go as far as Scripture goes, and no farther, to follow its path without deviating to the left or the right. I trust God’s Spirit to help us thread these needles, to help us find the biblical path, even when it is narrow and relatively untraveled. May he be with writer and reader as we seek to walk by the lamp of God’s Word. (Frame, J. M. (2008). The Doctrine of the Christian Life. P&R Publishing, pp. 6-7. Emphasis mine.)

I like that: Be as biblical as we can be; go as far as Scripture goes and not farther.

Let’s not focus on being nuanced or blunt; let’s focus on being biblical. Let’s not worry about picking sides (or the middle) but seek to go where Scripture goes and no further.

As usual, at some point in the process, I consulted a few commentaries.

I was surprised to find two significant disagreements on two mundane details of the text.

Disagreement One

“And he had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4, ESV).

• Commentary One: “In Jesus’ day the Jews, because of their hatred for the Samaritans, normally took the eastern route in order to avoid Samaria” (p. 284).
• Commentary Two: “The route normally followed by Jewish travellers heading north from Judea to Galilee passed through Samaria. Geography therefore dictated that Jesus had to go through Samaria when he embarked on the three-day walk to Galilee. The only alternative was to cross the Jordan near Jericho, travel north up the east bank (the Transjordan) through largely Gentile territory, and cross back to the west bank near the Lake of Galilee. Popular commentators have sometimes insisted that the longer route through the Transjordan was the customary route for Jewish travellers, so great was their aversion to Samaritans… Josephus, however, provides ample assurance not only that the antipathy between Jews and Samaritans was strong, but also that Jews passing from Judea to Galilee or back nevertheless preferred the shorter route through Samaria (Ant. xx. 118; Bel. ii. 232; Vita 269)” (pp. 215-216).

Disagreement Two

“Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour” (John 4:6, ESV).

• Commentary One: “It was about the sixth hour, which according to Roman time reckoning would have been 6 P.M.” (p. 285).
• Commentary Two: “Jesus arrived at Jacob’s well about the sixth hour, almost certainly about noon (beginning the count about sunrise…)” (p. 217).

Beware

Commentators often differ in their interpretations of a text. That is unsurprising. But you must understand that commentators also often disagree on the cultural-historical facts around the text.

This point cuts in two directions…

When you hear a skeptic critique the Bible, remember their critique may be standing on a series of shaky facts and assumptions about those facts.

When you hear your favorite podcaster, vlogger, or Bible guru say some historical tidbit you have never heard of is the key to unlocking the text, they might just be quoting the one weird commentary.

Is there any solution to this problem? I would suggest this: Stay close to the text. You will typically find all the details you need right there. Remember, the Bible was written for public consumption. (Even the letters had that in mind.) And so, the author often tells you exactly what you need to know. This is how writers write. They say what they want you to know. So that little extrabiblical fact might shade the meaning a hue, but it won’t change the color altogether.

It was the fall of 2003. Twenty-three-year-old me was sitting in the balcony, a first year, first semester student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

The message he delivered and the exhortation he gave moved me then, and it moves me now.

The chapel series was “If I Could Tell You One Thing,” and so Haddon concluded his sermon like this:

My word to you is this: Know the gospel. Get it clearly in mind. Revel in the gospel. Delight in it.

Preach it, preach it, preach it!
 And take it to the ends of the earth!

Tell women and men everywhere that it’s to those who do not work for it, 
but simply put their trust in the God who justifies the ungodly, that person’s trust and faith is counted for righteousness.

And that is the good news that we tell to the world.

Let’s tell it and make it clear.

That good news saved a wretch like me.

And that call to preach it, preach it, preach it I still feel.

Why do churches do that?

A few thoughts…

To protect the church from wolves. The church is commanded to evaluate the beliefs of those who claim to be Christians. For those who do not hold to the true faith, the church is to keep them from their fellowship. (2 John 10–11 “[10] If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, [11] for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”)

To protect the individual from zeal without knowledge and from bewitchment. It is possible to be zealous for God and yet not truly know him (Romans 10:2). It is also possible to know the Gospel (i.e, the words) and yet not truly know it (i.e., have understanding) (Galatians 3:1). In both cases, church leaders are called to keep a close watch on the truth for the sake of their own salvation and the salvation of church members (1 Timothy 4:16).

Because there is no verbatim formula to profess one’s faith. One’s verbal expression of belief may take numerous forms (e.g., Luke 18:13; Acts 2:38; Mark 1:15; Romans 10:13). For this reason, it takes some investigation just to hear and properly understand someone’s story of conversion.

Because words mean different things to different people. For example, “I trust in Christ” can stand as a valid profession of faith but only if we know what they mean by “trust” and “Christ.” Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Apparently, it is possible to profess the right words but have the wrong meaning. So, churches evaluate a person’s profession to get a sense of the meaning behind their words.

What do you think? Does this sound reasonable or onerous? Would you add any reasons to the list? Comment below.

What is righteousness, why would we want it, and how do we get it?

What Righteous Is

In the Bible, “righteousness” simply means “doing what is right” (as God defines “right”).

In fact, the Greek word in Matthew 5:6, δικαιοσύνη, is sometimes just translated “right.”

For example, in Acts 10:35, when Peter is talking about Gentiles coming to faith, Peter says he now understands that God welcomes anyone who “fears him and does what is right.” That phrase “does what is right” is literally “does righteousness.” Righteousness is doing what is right.

Or, consider what Paul says in Ephesians five. In Ephesians five, Paul says, “[8]…Walk as children of light [9] (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), [10] and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-9). To walk as a child of God is to do what is right and pleasing to the Lord, and yes, you guessed it, the word “right” is the same word in Matthew 5:6, “righteousness.” Righteousness is doing what is right.

One more example. In Book of Revelation, the angel tells John, “Let…the righteous still do right” (Revelation 22:11). And there again the verse literally reads, “Let the righteous do righteousness.” Righteousness is doing what is right, and a righteous person is someone who does or has done what is right. That’s righteousness in a nutshell.

Now, from there, as many commentators note (Stott; cf. Carson, Llyod-Jones), righteousness in the Bible is talked about in three different ways: Righteousness as Right Living, Righteousness as Right World, and Righteousness as Right standing before God. Consider each…

Right living. This is righteousness as me, personally, doing what is right in my life. Some of the scripture examples above get at this idea. So longing for this type of righteousness is me saying I want to be righteous in the sense that I want to actually be better and do good in my life. I want to be a husband that never spews a harsh word to my wife. I want to be an understanding father who never sets his children’s teeth on edge. I want to be free from the passions and lusts of my flesh. That’s one dimension of righteousness.

Right world. This is righteousness with a social dimension. This is righteousness as the right thing being done in all the world. So this is like what Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, where he says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” So here, seeking righteousness is tied to this larger mission of seeing God’s kingdom come on the whole earth. Longing for this dimension of righteousness is us saying we want righteousness in the sense that we want the world set right. We want the sick made well. We want the poor fed. We want the orphan and widow and immigrant cared for. We want no partiality. We want the world set right. That is also righteousness.

Right standing before God. This question of right standing with God is the major question of the Book of Romans. If being righteous means doing and having done what is right and if we must be righteous to have fellowship with God, how can we ever be considered truly, completely righteous before God? That’s a problem. It’s a problem because no matter how many right things we do, we still have a long and growing list of wrong things we’ve done or still do. So this kind of longing for righteousness is me saying, “I want God to look at me and say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

With this definition and these different dimensions, I think you can start to see why you might long for righteousness. Why you should hunger and thirst for righteousness…

Why We Want Righteousness

Righteousness represents every true and highest good we could desire.

We long for personal righteousness because we know the dreadful state of being stuck in sin. We have deep regrets and shame. And we don’t want to go back. We have seen what our sin does to us. And we’ve seen what it does to the people we love. We have hurt people. We have brought tears and pain to people we care about, and we don’t want to do that again. We have been weighed down by guilt and burdened in shame, and we do not want to go there again. We long for righteousness, to be the kind of person who does was is right and good and pleasing. We long for an us, for a me, that does right. “Wrong” is painful; we want what is right. We want personal righteousness.

We long for righteousness in the world because we long for a world made right. We want children and grandchildren restored to their parents. We want husbands and wives to stay together. We want cancer to be eradicated. We want suffering to stop. We want tears wiped away. We want wars to cease. We want murders to stop. We want fairness and justice. We want peace and safety. We want guns melted into garden spades. We long for a world made right. We want righteousness in the world.

And we long for righteousness before God because we want a right relationship with our Maker. We’re not sure how, but we really wish we could stand before the Lord as someone who has mattered, as someone who has done well and done good. Deep down, I think most everyone, Christian or otherwise, if laboring so hard for this, for someone to say they are good enough. We long for a sense of right standing before the one Authority whose opinion is everything. We want righteousness before God.

Righteousness may sound like a very churchy word, but it is actually the very thing you should want. You may not have even realized it, but this is the very thing you’ve longed for. For you to be right, to do right, for the world to be right… that’s everything!

What does a broken vending machine say? “Out of order.” What we want is a world that is back in order, a world made right. That’s righteousness, a world, a life, a soul, in order, made right.

How We Get Righteousness

In what way will our hungering and thirsting for righteousness be satisfied? In every way. How? Through Jesus.

Right standing. Our need for righteousness before God, our need for right standing before God, will be fully fulfilled apart from our own good works and through Jesus substitutionary death, which is great news because if right standing before the Lord depended on our own works of righteousness we’d be in big trouble. Paul explains in Romans that we can now be declared righteous before God because of Christ’s death in our place. And all who entrust themselves to Jesus receive this salvation. Romans 4:5 says, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…” So, Christ is our voluntary scapegoat, who takes away our sins. When we look to him to do this (which is what faith in him is), he does it. So, by claiming Christ for yourself, your longing for personal rightness before God can be fully and completely filled, right now, even today.

Right living. When Jesus defeats sin and satan and death, one of the prizes we receive in our cleansing and freedom is the Holy Spirit (see Romans 6:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2). In 2 Corinthians 5:5, Paul says we have been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation. When you are saved, you receive God’s Spirit. And His Spirit works in you to change you from the inside out. Paul says in Ephesians 2:22, “In him [Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” You are being made into a holy, righteous place by the Spirit. So, how does right living relate to being filled the Spirit? The Holy Spirit is empowering you and teaching you how to be righteous. It may be slow going, but you will, little by little, grow to be increasingly free from sin and increasingly motivated and energized towards right acts like love and patience and kindness and generosity and forgiveness. That longing to live rightly, to be free of sin and its harms, is increasingly fulfilled by the Holy Spirit which Christ has given.

Right world. What of our broken world and our longing to see it all set right? Jesus has defeated all the enemies of this place: sin, satan, and death. Now, when we say defeated, we mean each has received its mortal blow. In their death throes, they still can render us some harm now, but their demise is certain. And that means the Kingdom of God is winning! It is advancing. And indeed, with joy and now certainty, we look forward to the day when everything will be made right. We are certain because Jesus rose from the grave, meaning satan didn’t have the last word, meaning sin had been forgiven, and meaning that no disease or death could not be overcome. So we look at the resurrected Jesus and know for certain that our desire for a right world will be satisfied. In Acts 3:21, Peter says that God will restore all things. And we get a glimpse of that in the vision of Revelation where we see a world where all things are made new (Revelation 21:5).

Seek Righteousness

So we should actively hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should desire it and pray for it and strive for it and try to walk by the Spirit every day so as to grow in righteousness. But the ultimate fulfilling of this desire comes to us by the hand of our Savior, Jesus. Our way to righteousness will not arrive through our own personal improvement plans. No self help book or protocol or rule or philosophy can get us over the line. We need God to do something. We need a radical renovation of our heart. We need God to get a hold of us. The change we need is so radical that Jesus calls it rebirth. We need to be reborn by the Spirit of God. We must start here, looking to the Lord. He is our hope for the righteousness we want. And we should want it.

Blessed will we be if we hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ for we shall be filled!

Thomas Jefferson knew the downsides of solitude first hand.

After an extended season of retreat at Monticello, Jefferson wrote:

“I am convinced our own happiness requires that we should continue to mix with the world, and to keep pace with it…. I can speak from experience on the subject. From 1793 to 1797, I remained closely at home, saw none but those who came there, and at length became very sensible of the ill effect it had upon my own mind, and of its direct and irresistible tendency to render me unfit for society, and uneasy when necessarily engaged in it. I felt enough of the effect of withdrawing from the world then to see that it led to an antisocial and misanthropic state of mind, which severely punishes him who gives in to it; and it will be a lesson I never shall forget as to myself.” (Jefferson letter cited in John Adams, McCullough, p. 451)

Jefferson describes well the danger of extensive solitude. It can spiral into an antisocial downward loop. Solitude can beget more solitude, becoming almost addictive (Long & Averill, 2003).

Like other remedies, the dose is the difference between medicine and poison.

Dose your solitude wisely.

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Sources

Long, C. R., & Averill, J. R. (2003). Solitude: An Exploration of Benefits of Being Alone. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33(1), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00204

McCullough, D. (2002). John Adams. Simon & Schuster.

But in the rush and grumbles of life we may not notice these layers.

Tyler Staton provides one possible antidote to our oblivion. Staton relays a helpful prayer practice to reveal these layers of grace and to produce gratitude.

The practice is called dayenu (die-EE-new) prayer. Dayenu is a Hebrew word that means something like “It would have been enough” (Staton, 2022).

This type of prayer proceeds by considering first what would have been enough in a situation and then thinking about all the ways God has exceeded that minimum and praying back all of these reflections to God in thanksgiving.

What does this prayer look like? Staton provides this example of dayenu prayer:

‘God, lunch today would’ve been enough, but you provided me with the resources to choose the type of food I wanted to eat and options to pick from.’

‘God, lunch of my choice would’ve been enough, but you created a world of flavor and spice and culture to make food more than fuel – to offer it as artistic and delicious.’

‘God, a delicious lunch of my choice would’ve been enough, but you gave me a coworker to share a conversation with over that food.’

‘Thank you, God, for overdoing it.’

Staton, 2022, p. 207

What a marvelous way to see life!

Rather than starting with some perceived lack, consider the minimum and all the ways God has surpassed it. Sprinkle in some reflections on your sin and how little you deserved in the first place, and you are on your way to heart-lifting, God-glorifying gratitude.

May this prayer practice be a help to you.

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Bibliography

Staton, T. (2022). Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer. Zondervan.

The man was huge. The English Standard Version says his height was “six cubits and a span,” which means he was over nine feet tall. His armor weighed five thousand shekels, which is 125 pounds, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels, which is 15 pounds. The weight of his gear suggests Goliath was not only big but also very strong. He was a big, scary dude.

Each day Goliath would stand before the armies of Israel and taunt them. He was proposing individual combat. Rather than have both armies fight and have needless bloodshed, the proposal was to have two champions fight and decide the outcome on behalf of everyone else. If Goliath won, the Israelites would become slaves to the Philistines, but if the Israelite champion won, then the Philistines would become slaves to the Israelites.

Now, let me ask you…

In this story, what is the real problem? Where is the battle line drawn?

At first glance, it sure seems like the real problem is the big guy. He is a giant problem. And the battle line clearly runs down the Valley of Elah.

But, the narrative gives hints that in God’s economy Goliath is not the real problem, and the battle line is not primarily in the Valley of Elah.

The real battle and the giant problem actually appears in 1 Samuel 17:11: “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”

The real problem is fear, and so the battle line is actually drawn in the hearts of the people.

Why is that the real battle? Because the Lord had told his people over and over that He is with them and will care for them, so they should not fear but trust Him.

One example of this encouragement comes from the Book of Joshua. As Israel enters the Promised Land and a new era of leadership, the Lord tells Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9, ESV). The people of God are told to do the exact opposite of what they are doing in 1 Samuel 17:11.

This battle against fear was the same battle the Israelites had waged in their hearts the first time they tried to enter the Promised Land in Numbers 13-14, but they had lost that battle. They saw giants in the land and were afraid, and, in response to their fear, the Lord said, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11, ESV).

It’s not about the giants.

In each case, the problem was not the circumstances. God could handle the circumstances. So the battle was not “out there” but in the heart, and it was a battle of belief. Would they believe God? Would they trust him? Would they rely on him? Or would they fear?

And we might ask ourselves the same questions.

There will always be giants and challenges in life, but these situations are no problem for the living God. The real problem is whether we will trust God and his promises. Will we trust God in the face of such difficulties? Or will we be afraid? That’s the real battle.

And that is the first battle David wins.

Of course, our minds tend to first go to the physical battle David has with Goliath. But the first battle David wins is against fear.

David first goes to Saul and says, “Let no man’s heart fail because of [Goliath]” (1 Samuel 17:32). David is fighting fear. He then moves immediately to focusing his trust on the Lord. Unlike the Israelites in Numbers 14:11, David remembers the mighty works God had done in the past and concludes he can trust the Lord with this problem: “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).

And with the heart battle won, “David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:48).

May we mimic David here. In the face of a giant problem, may we focus be on the Lord and trust him. Then, let us run out to meet the problem! Not because we are strong but because we are sure the Lord is.

How could this request both displease Samuel and be described as rejecting God, BUT be granted and even blessed by God?

Or, to put it another way, how could having a king be good but wanting a king be sad?

How could God grant this request, even anticipate it (in Deuteronomy 17:14-20), use it for good in the story of redemption, and yet, their desire for a king be kind of be sad?

Some thoughts…

The earthly kingship is good because the Lord would graciously work through these figures, and the kings would provide some stability, and ultimately, the King of the universe, the Lord himself, would arrive through this kingly dynasty.

But the desire for an earthly king is sad because the Lord already was Israel’s King, so it is kind of sad they needed this device (of an earthly king) to keep them in line.

We might compare the ambivalence to a legal contract. Legal contracts can be good in that they provide protection, but, on the other hand, it is kinda sad we have to have legal contracts in the first place. Why can’t people just love their neighbor and keep their word?

We might compare the ambivalence to a knee brace. A knee brace is good, providing support and stability, but of course, a knee that needs no brace is even better. Why? Because although knee braces can be good, they also chafe and restrict movement. And that is what the earthly kingship did as well.

The earthly kingship provided some support and stability, but it also chafed and restricted movement. An earthly king came with some real downsides, which Samuel warns them about in 1 Samuel 8:10-18. In contrast, the Lord’s rule was sovereign yet spacious. Absolute and yet freeing. But the earthly kingship would be simultaneously weak and yet restrictive…kind of the worst combo.

So having an earthly king was not necessarily bad, but the fact they needed and asked for an earthly king was kinda sad because they had the Lord God as their heavenly King already.

The Lord does grant their request, although their wishes are wayward, and in his grace, he will bless them through the kings.