You are currently browsing the archives for November, 2009.
Irreverence and disrespect are frequently aimed at God and religion, but those are certainly not their only targets. Negative attitudes cut a swath across our entire society.
I remember an old cartoon featuring two men, one older and one younger. The older man was wearing a button that said “don’t trust anyone under 30” while the younger man’s button said “don’t trust anyone over 30.” I think that about sums it up. We don’t trust anyone who is not just like us. And this lack of trust leads to a lack of reverence. We don’t respect anyone. Reverence is dead.
To be fair, we have reason to question authority. Scandals among politicians, corporate executives, priests, and athletes run the gamut of violations from pedophilia to performance enhancements to violent sex crimes. Nowadays, we pause before investing our trust because we’ve been burned before. Is it any wonder if we’re a bit jaded?
Our currency says “In God We Trust,” but in practice, we trust only in ourselves. We don’t trust people and we don’t trust God. I know an easy way to rationalize our behavior: Let’s just blame our lack of trust on bad pastors, politicians, athletes and corporate executives. Then we can do whatever we want. “It’s their fault!” If that sounds a bit too easy or if it sounds like a cop out, you and I may be on the same wavelength.
We would do well to remember the words of Paul as he wrote in his letter to the Romans. “There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (Romans 13:1) This is not to say we must blindly accept poor leadership. There are appropriate responses, such as prayer like this one from Psalms: “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.” (Psalm 109:8)
We are responsible for ourselves. We are responsible for what we say and what we do and how we act. We can try to rationalize our bad behavior, but as we mature, we realize we’re not fooling anyone. God knows and we know. We have a choice.
My choice today is to be respectful. I will show respect for the president and the church and God. I will show this in how I address them when they are near and how I refer to them when they are not. If I am unhappy, I will pray for positive and constructive ways to make changes. I will pray for guidance and a positive attitude.
Sincerely,
Mister Hippo
I have a few invitations for Google Wave. It is sort of a chat/e-mail/collaboration tool, which will likely become your default e-mail program once you get used to it. It is still in beta, so it is not perfect, but it is pretty neat based on what I’ve seen.
You can gain access by invitation only. If you are interested, you need an existing user to invite you. While supplies last, I will send invitations to those who note their interest in the comments section following this post. Just be sure to fill in the e-mail box when you comment. It won’t display on the page, but I’ll have it.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Mister Hippo
This afternoon, a radio DJ queued up Montgomery Gentry’s Back When I knew It All. There are a few lines in this song that strike a chord. The band sang: “Back when God was a name I used in vain to get a point across when I got ticked off. Lord, I’m learning so much more than back when I knew it all.”
I noticed those lyrics because they dovetail somewhat with an idea I’ve been mulling. When is it appropriate to call on the name of the Lord, and when we do, what should we call him? In Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, we are told: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
When we take the Lord’s name in vain, we place ourselves in an irreverent category along with other chronically disrespectful people. Even those who don’t believe in God know that many others do, so when they abuse God’s name, they are still being disrespectful—despite their own lack of faith.
When it comes to God, we have a bunch of ways to abuse his name, and even Christians use many of them. I hear “Oh, my God!” all the time. “Good Lord!” is another popular one. These are exclamations, and using God’s name as an exclamation runs afoul of the commandment we just read. There are other common abuses, but I don’t want to remember them, so I won’t try to list them here.
Let’s go back to our song lyrics for a moment. I like those lyrics for another reason. God is referenced twice with separate names. Historically, some of the most reverential believers used the title “Lord” to refer to God.
According to the notes in the NIV Archaeological Study Bible (Zondervan, 2005, p. 89), “following Israel’s return from Exile, the name [Yahweh] came to be regarded as so holy that its public pronunciation was forbidden.” Instead of pronouncing Yahweh, readers would say “the name” (“shema” in Aramaic) or “my Lord” (“Adonai” in Hebrew). This habit eventually led translators to convert “Yahweh” to “Lord” (“Kurios” in Greek) when rendering the Old Testament into an early Greek text called the Septuagint.
You may have noticed that our songwriter uses “Lord” after he matures. I doubt this choice was intentional, but it makes me smile to think of the historic appropriateness of the selection. In all honesty, the way they use “Lord” in the song is arguably inappropriate, depending on whether they are speaking to God or to us. If it is a prayer it is fine; if it is merely an interjection of sorts, it is not.
The bible refers to God by many names: Yahweh, Adonai, and El Shaddai to name a few. For early believers, God was an important part of life. They had a bunch of names for him just like I have a bunch of names for Hippo Junior and Mrs. Hippo. They are important to me, so I want more names for them. I can’t explain it. That’s just the way it is. Sort of like all the Eskimo words for snow, I guess.
Despite all the names for God in the Bible, the two most common are Yahweh and Elohim, which are generally translated as Lord and God, respectively. Yahweh is probably the more common, but some writers favor the use of Elohim. For example, the writer of Psalms 42-82 used Elohim 230 times compared to Yahweh, which he used only 43 times. Compared to the rest of the psalms this ratio is inverted. It is one of those “things that make you go, ‘hmmm.’”
I can’t tell you why these quirks exist or what the author’s motivation was for using one name over the other, but I can tell you the name of God and how we use it matters. The humans involved with writing down the words of the bible knew this, and that is why they chose different names for different situations.
We would be wise to consider the value in elevating the name of God to a status above the trivialities of our daily conversation. Let’s reserve God’s name for something more important than exclamations to spice up our language. Surely, we can think of better ways to exclaim than to violate a commandment.
Sincerely,
Mister Hippo
“Climate change” has taken on a narrow meaning. So many bloggers, journalists, and water cooler pundits have ranted on the topic of Global Warming, we’ve all but lost any potential alternate meanings. There are other types of climate, however, and those climates can change just as fast as the weather. Even as the mercury drops here at hippo central, my mind is drawn to a different type of climate: These days, I find myself more concerned with emotional climate than the weather.
And what an odd thing it is! As may be obvious to those who once visited for a daily dose of hippo wisdom, my blogging has trailed off in recent months. I point to my own emotional climate by way of explanation. I wonder about the value of this endeavor and I wonder if I am really enjoying it. People don’t like to read, I reason, so why should I write? If the joy of writing is largely to be found in satisfying readers, how much joy can there be in satisfying so few?
Joy is an odd concept, though. It defies measurement in the gallons or pints of our kitchens. I believe that faith as small as a mustard seed can move a mountain, and I suggest that joy must be a little like that. Doesn’t faith lead to joy? Surely there is a relationship there, and to be sure, a little faith or a little joy can take us a very long way. Like the soap that bears the same name, emotional “joy” is concentrated.
So why do I feel compelled to water down my joy by measuring it? It makes no sense. I am so quick to allow a joyless rain of analysis to cloud my emotional climate—simply because it didn’t rain enough. Can’t I just enjoy the rain that did fall? Can’t I savor the concentrated joy without wanting more?
Alas, I suffer with these concerns that are so meaningless and trivial. I don’t know why. To tell you the truth the lack of posting in recent weeks was contrived in some small way to kill the traffic, so I could go back to posting in obscurity. How does that make any sense? I struggle for readership and then hunker down while it dissipates. I can’t explain it.
A wise man lost in a desert might use an old poncho to capture the morning dew for drinking water. I want to be more like that man. I will capture the smallest portion of joy and use it to wash away the clouds from my emotional climate. I do “have that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” I just need to get it out of there from time to time.
After a good rain, the day is crisp and fresh and clean. I feel that way today as I push aside doubts to revive my humble page with a crisp and clean new look. If you’re reading this, welcome back.
Sincerely,
Mister Hippo
“May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.”
I heard the word “constrained” used today for the first time in a long time. I heard it when a pastor read the following verse on the radio: “But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.” (Luke: 24:29; King James Bible)
I pay attention to word choices, and since I thought “constrained” was an odd word, I was somewhat surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before. “Abide” is strange, too, but not quite as unusual in my experience as “constrained.” As you might have guessed, I researched that verse when I got home, and I realized why I hadn’t noticed it before. This is a translation issue. I’m pretty much an NIV hippo, and the NIV doesn’t use the word constrained. Perhaps it is more modern to say they “strongly urged him, ‘Stay with us.’”
Are the two thoughts the same, though? If you urge someone strongly to stay are you constraining them? I think it depends on what they had planned. If the person has something else to do or somewhere else to go and you strongly urge them to stay with you, then I’d say you’re constraining them.
Given that Jesus had an important purpose which his disciples didn’t understand, he was constrained. Of course they wanted Him to stay with them – because they didn’t understand what He knew all too well. Jesus’ purpose in being here to begin with was never going to allow him to relax and enjoy his friends. He had a purpose and He had to ignore the constraints his friends would place on him. In the quoted passage, Jesus ‘tarried’ a while, but soon, he would leave them via the cross.
But what if we turn this around and apply it to ourselves? We know we are formed in God’s image and we aspire to be like Jesus, so it makes sense to me that we could be constrained, too. Are there people in our lives who constrain us? Are they urging us to stay where we are while we feel compelled to fulfill some greater purpose? What are we delaying? What are we not doing because of expectations placed on us by those who love us?
Jesus knew that loving friends could miss the bigger picture. Maybe we should follow His example in that way, as well. Through prayer and conversation with His Father, Jesus kept his eye on the purpose of his life here on earth. I think that could work for us, too.
I’m not opposed to soliciting advice from those people who love us, but I believe it makes even more sense to pray about these important matters. No one loves us or wants more good things for us than God. What better advice could we solicit?
Sincerely,
Mister Hippo
