I was speaking recently with someone who had renewed energy and a more positive outlook on life. Why? Recent months had been mired in a sense of purposeless-ness. And that saps motivation like almost nothing else.

With the immense and unstoppable human drive to find meaning in life, it’s hard not to conclude that we are hard-wired for purpose. This creates a curious conundrum for those with a purely naturalistic and evolutionary worldview, however. Because when you boil that perspective down to its core philosophical inevitables, a seeking of purpose is a vain attempt to assign meaning where there can (ultimately) be none.

Yet we do seek purpose, and those who accomplish much in life are driven by a sense of purpose. What a different historical view we have of World War 2 – which was brimming with noble purpose – and the Vietnam War, which seemed to have little real purpose, meaning, and direction. Companies like Apple and Google set out to change the world, and attracted people loaded with zeal (or created them!). Dying, legacy companies may have traded their purpose for mere survival in a shrinking market. The difference is palpable.

One of the appeals of a religious worldview is the framework of a greater purpose. So much in life seems random, counter-intuitive, or downright evil. A will to press forward can come from a sense of overarching purpose, which is hidden in the mysterious mind and heart of a benevolent God. And when it comes to the evil part, the mysterious element pops out in bold and italic type. Believers can be just as perplexed as unbelievers by the flow of events. They are sustained by the hope that something actually makes sense on the other side of the tapestry being woven – good sense. Sometimes that greater good is actually seen in the shorter-term, sometimes it is not. Faith is most seen when the mists of mystery are still around us.

Of course, that sounds like a total fantasy-land cop-out to others, and I get that. If God has been locked out of one’s worldview prima facie (at first blush), then appeals to sovereignty simply look like escapism. The alternative is self-created temporary purpose or, if you go the full philosophical mile, raw nihilism. Which, actually, is another way of saying honesty within one’s chosen worldview. And I respect honesty even if when I disagree on first principles. I’d far rather talk to an honest believer in god-less-ness than a disingenuous and corner-cutting “believer” in God.

But then, how honest is it to hold to a position that leads to purposeless-ness, when every intuitive element in our souls cries out for and seeks purpose? We all seek, and desperately need, love; yet shall we say that such a need is a mere artifact of superstition, a defect of evolutionary process? Or a mere survival mechanism for passing on genes to another generation? Really? Is that our higher purpose – genetic reproduction? I don’t know about you, but in my mind, that doesn’t carry a whole lot of motivational weight. “I exist to survive and propagate.” How ennobling is that?

I fully realize that there all kinds of mysteries and complexities to supernaturalism. I came to faith with a critical and analytical mind, and I can’t stand here and say that I have some buttoned-up, 100% airtight, fully-explained worldview. Actually, with each passing year, I feel more ignorant than ever. But purpose seems so deeply stamped into our souls, that I cannot believe it is other than the image of God in man; not some temporary app to help us survive, but the operating system that reflects a brilliant programmer who means for us to do much more than, “eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we die.” Perhaps others will dismiss such a perspective as wishful thinking – but then again, where do even get the imagination, the capacity, the soul-ish drive for wishful thinking?

I believe it’s hard-wired. I see it at the operating system level. To try to divorce ourselves from purpose is to try to divorce ourselves from inescapable, existential reality. The seed produces, inevitably, the plant buried in its genes. Pluck off the pedals, chop off the leaves, spray paint the stem – a sunflower remains a sunflower.

And we seek purpose. Even when our purpose is, ironically, to deny our purpose!

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The pay is low. The frustrations are many.

He hasn’t been deployed to a war zone…yet. But he is ready not only to be deployed, but to risk all for his country and his fellow Marines.

For this season in his life, he is a warrior. Waiting to prove himself in battle.

He’s my son. As for his courage, he has nothing to prove to me.

This weekend, we remember the dead who gave their all.

We also remember the living who continue to answer the call of duty.

Semper Fi, David.

This morning, I read in Psalm 37:1-2, “Do not fret because of evildoers, do not be envious of wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.”

In other words, we really do get things way out of perspective.

Click on this picture, and just marvel for a moment.

Evil people and their schemes are here for a moment – a blink of an eye – and then gone. They oppose God, but with all the effectiveness of a gnat taking on a bulldozer. A bulldozer the size of Texas.

But even that analogy is inadequate. When we look at the Andromeda galaxy, we see thousands upon endless thousands of stars, sprinkled in orderly array – no, stunningly beautiful array – across breathtaking light years of space. And this is just one of countless millions of galaxies.

Our amazingly powerful sun is only one of billions of stars scattered across creation; our intricate planet a glorious but tiny speck. And our lifespans? A mere breath.

Yes, it is easy to fret because of evildoers. But every rebel against God will wither away. Whom do we oppose? A mythical figure from the pages of a regressive book? No – we try to stand against the God who designed every astonishing thing that surrounds us, who is perfectly capable of communicating with his feeble creatures, and who is fully intent on dispensing justice in His universe. He is present and all-knowing. What? – He can make a galaxy and a planet and a human and a flower and a cell and an atom and somehow can’t figure out how to reach down to earth and be involved in our everyday lives?

Of course, the unbeliever must take a huge leap of faith and just believe that all of it “happened,” and with that dogma in place must fret continually – in a world which began in randomness and ends in meaninglessness, there can be no ultimate justice, no hope beyond this fading life, no rest. Though isn’t it curious that even the God-denier has moral impulses and yearns for justice? Perhaps just as astonishingly wonderful as gazing at the galaxies, is gazing within our our souls to find the fingerprints of a moral and personal God. The God so vigorously denied is the One who made us in His image.

Let’s regain perspective. Read verses 7-11 of the same psalm. Evil is real. God, however, is surpassingly great. Rest in the Lord.

Photo: GALEX, JPL/CalTech, NASA via Astronomy Picture of Day

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To this day, in our home, we have imported one of the famous sayings from my parents’ house: “Get it yourself!”

During my college years, I was going through quite a bit of personal and worldview turbulence. Not uncommon at that age. My Mom was always there, supportive, ready to help, even if some of my thought processes were perplexing. Mom and Dad had let go, but they were still there. Supportiveness on-call.

Now, with three children 18 or older and two others that refuse to stop their slow march into adulthood, I see how difficult this trick is. It is agonizing at times for a Mom and Dad to let go, to give their kids space, especially when you know that some very hard lessons are ahead. My wife, like her mother and her mother-in-law before her, is learning well the lesson of letting go while still being there. I don’t think my kids ever have a shred of doubt in their minds about their mother’s love and support.

Yesterday, at a baseball game, a little girl got her pants all wet and muddy. Her mother, in a fit of pique, said, “I’ll kill you for that!” No, she didn’t mean it literally, but in the malleable psyche of that wounded child, I wonder what seeds of doubt are planted by words like that. Kids need space to be kids. And space to become adults. With a Mom, though exasperated at times (many times!), always there, but slowly giving more and more room.

I love my Mom. She’s the same way with her grandkids, and they love her too. I often exhort my boys to be very, very deliberate about whom they’d consider for a wife.

Because I want their kids to write something like this some Mother’s Day in the future.

Photo by Chris Wightman via Flickr

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Some of you indicated you’d like to find a way to help. Well, here’s your chance!

I’m going back (with our medical team this time) in June. But, even better, a bunch of kids from our church youth group are heading to Haiti to work with the kids in a very poor neighborhood in Cap Haitian. My son Ben is among them! —>

The kids are doing a bunch of fund-raising activities, but as you can imagine, sending folks to another country to minister can be rather expensive. So, we have a website set up where anyone can easily donate toward the expenses of the trip.

All donations are tax-deductible. Just press the big orange DONATE button, select Ben Woodruff’s name from the drop-down box, and you’re good to go. So he’s good to go!

Our desire is to train up a generation of kids that understands the needs of the world, and that aren’t afraid to leave the comforts of home to help those in (sometimes desperate) need. It will be an eye-opening experience for our youth, just as it has been for me and others who have gone to less-developed countries.

As for me, I’m hoping to pay my own way for the medical mission trip (this time, I’ll try to keep my hat secure so I don’t end up with bandana-wear!). We’ll be doing day-long clinics in a handful of villages, where medical care is often somewhere between rare and nearly non-existent.

No pressure, no hard-sell, just an opportunity to partner with us this time as we plan for June. Thanks for reading, and for any encouragement and support you can offer!

- Steve

With open arms and abundant forgiving grace, God invites every one of us – any one of us – to return to Him. That for which you hit the Delete key in repentance (which is part of the turning/returning) is worthless compared to lifelong fellowship with the God who made you.

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Actually, I used to be much more of a “downer” person. My tendency is to be introspective, perfectionistic, even negative – and when looking within my own soul, I could catalog ten thousand reasons why I didn’t measure up. I would stare within and find an awful lot not to like. Ever been there? I lived there.

Fact is, there’s always plenty of defect and stupidity and sin brewing around in our minds and hearts. Our actions, our desires, our thoughts, our words – they never do match up to the perfect standard of God’s righteousness. Not even close.

At Cape May, you can walk the wide beaches, and the sand seems almost infinite. Imagine trying to count, not merely the smooth little stones that wash up, but every grain of sand! But is that why we are there at the shore, to stare down and despair at something so impossible, so beyond our capacity?

No. We are there to look up, at an ocean that seems, if possible, even more infinite. It would be folly to ask if there is enough water there for us to swim! Or to collapse hopelessly on the sand and refuse to wash it off in the endless waves.

The beach, when gazed at with a narrow lens, seems overwhelmingly large. But in light of the ocean, it is a speck. And, in fact, our earth, viewed in the backdrop of its Creator, is smaller than that speck. Sin, at times, seems infinite and omnipotent. It is not, and cannot be. God alone is.

Yes, our own moral darkness and guilt feels overwhelming. But when we think of Jesus, the Son of God who takes away our sin, we are to look up and away from ourselves, and stare into infinite grace. We are to think about sufficiency. Surplus. Generosity. Free-ness. Unlimited-ness. Power that has no end; love that knows no bounds. A merciful ocean of grace that washes up unceasingly on the sands of our brokenness.

Take a walk along the beach with Jesus, even in your own mind. But, primarily, look up at the ocean, not down at your feet. Jesus came to make “downers” dance. Even on the sand!

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Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

(The book of Acts, chapter 3, verses 1-10)

Some people doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. That God extended (and extends) His hand of supernatural power into our little world of brokenness and need.

This man didn’t. He was broken and disabled from birth. Everyone knew him as the pitiful figure begging at the gate – now he was not merely walking, but leaping. And praising God.

Peter and John had no magic incantations to offer. They were servants of a risen Lord, and it was in the name of Jesus that this man rose and began to walk.

Until you look in the mirror and see a broken and disabled soul, made powerless by sin (a far greater crippler than any birth defect), the message of Jesus, His compassion, His power, and His resurrection will not make any sense. It will seem a fantasy.

Not to this guy. Easter would not be some arbitrary day on the calendar. It was, and is, life indeed.

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Like a clock, the hands will move inexorably, predictably. As with the old vinyl record players, the turntable will move at a predictable speed, the needle will move along the groove, the next verse of the song will follow just like it always does.

Except when it doesn’t.

The well-documented life of Jesus was one continuous string of disruptions – overturning the natural order (healing the sick, raising the dead); upsetting the religious apple cart (love for God is from the depth of the heart, not a mere external show of conformity). Lovers of the religious, social, and political status quo did not appreciate this disruptive rabbi – He made claims that they considered blasphemous and seditious. Caesar alone is King. God alone is God. Who is this usurper claiming to be a divine king, dressed in the robe of an ordinary man?

Except He kept doing inconvenient and disruptive things. God-things. He taught with authority, forgave sins, healed lepers, opened blind eyes. How dare He defy our religious laws and scientific assumptions. None of the contemporary eyewitnesses could deny the reality of His disruptive actions or ignore the audacity of His breathtaking claims. All they could do is plot to get rid of Him. A little regicide and we can get rid of this inconvenience source of interruption.

Then He had the audacity to rise from the grave. That really got some people torqued off! Haven’t you heard of natural laws, Jesus??

You see, we want our status quo straight up, please. Which doesn’t include God coming in the flesh to reveal His brightness and expose our darkness.

And that’s the real point, isn’t it? I can put on the blinders and go my predictable, self-directed way if I pretend that there is no disruptive King who is above all creation, including me. I can ignore the reliable testimony of eyewitnesses of old, I can deny the evidence of God that surrounds me – but ultimately, that changes nothing. We may as well put a Lego piece in front of a bulldozer, for all the good our denial will do us.

Jesus is still in the disruption business. And – thankfully – His divine disruptions are a sign of His mercy and favor. God utterly shook up the world by sending Jesus 2,000 years ago. Pray that He will shake up your world right now.

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A chance visual encounter, never to be repeated; a passing glimpse that doesn’t even qualify as a passing acquaintance.

Yet – God, the Creator of us all, knows every one of those people down to the deepest atom of their bodies and souls. Every word, every thought – every moment of their lives. And millions of others in cities large and small throughout the world – towns and villages, too. And every one of our ancestors, generation after generation backwards through time – God knows and has known every person, every event, with undimmed clarity.

He even knows the unborn before we do. And the generations yet to come.

And that’s just our tiny little world. Now multiply by billions of galaxies, with countless trillions of stars – each of which God can recall by name.

I marvel at our current electronic devices, at their accelerating speed and capacity and memory. I well remember the floppy disk era of computers with 8088 processors – and yet, reading this week a new book called Turing’s Cathedral (about the development of the earliest computers in the 1940s and 50s), even those DOS-powered clunkers of the 1980′s were utter powerhouses compared to the truly primitive efforts of our earliest, room-sized machines with tiny memory and capacity.

What those earliest machines could store and compute, as marvelous as they were back then, is ant-sized compared to the most compact smartphone of today. Let alone any modern-day WOPRs (old movie trivia reference!).

Either the true God is an infinite Creator, or he is not. The Bible is refreshingly clear on this point, even if some of those who claim to believe it are rather fuzzy about who is really in charge around here. Give a fresh read to Psalm 139, which contains such provocative phrases as, “…even before there is a word on my tongue, You, O Lord, know it all…” and, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret…Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Your book was written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

I will only learn a millionth of a miniscule percentage of what there is to know, and my memory, full of Swiss cheese as it is, will soon fade and fail altogether. Yes, as the psalm above beautifully affirms, I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” – yet God, the Maker, is far more fearfully and wonderfully not-made. Our minds and machines are mere molecules in the face of an infinite Creator and Sustainer of a massive (but finite) universe, whose fingerprints are all over everything created inside and outside of us.

Sometimes, people very casually employ the phrase, “God knows!” Perhaps we should never hear that phrase casually again.

It’s no wonder that we are called, first and foremost, to worship.

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