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Printer Friendly VersionHave you ever noticed how the world of possibilities grows for
us? Verse 13 of Psalm 139 says, “You formed my inward parts and knit
me together in my mother’s womb” (NRSV). For nine months, we are
confined to the womb. Our options there are fairly limited. That gives way
to the little bed in the hospital, a bassinet and then a crib. When our kids
got to where they were scooting around, we put up a little primary colored
fence in the living room. It has about six sections and went all around in
front of the couch and the TV. If we needed to go and take a shower or something,
we could fence them in and let them play. There was fencing on all sides of
them and no way of escape. They had decisions to make but could only decide
what was confined to the fence. That seemed to last about two days and they
were climbing out of it and knocking it over. The fence went up in the attic
and their domain became the living room. They could decide what furniture
to climb on. Before long they learned to open the interior doors to the house
and the domain became everything under the roof. Now they can both work the
locks on the back door, and we’ve got windows all across the back of
the house, so the backyard inside that fence is okay. We’ve found that
if they have a mind to they can actually decide to turn on the hose and water
the flowers or each other. They can make any decision they want as long as
it is within that fence. The other day I saw them climbing the fence. That
will work for about three more days.
I’m reminded of this around this time every year. A week ago they started, and they will be happening every weekend for about four more weeks. Large crowds gather in high school gymnasiums and municipal auditoriums. The front section is lined with people wearing flat boards with tassels on top, rented robes and the smiles of accomplishment and relief. Speeches are made about the past and about all the places these young people may be going. One of my favorite things to do at those ceremonies is to picture just where those graduates’ journeys will take them in the future.
I’m reminded of this around this time every year. A week
ago they started, and they will be happening every weekend for about four
more weeks. Large crowds gather in high school gymnasiums and municipal auditoriums.
The front section is lined with people wearing flat boards with tassels on
top, rented robes and the smiles of accomplishment and relief. Speeches are
made about the past and about all the places these young people may be going.
One of my favorite things to do at those ceremonies is to picture just where
those graduates’ journeys will take them in the future.
A couple of our high school graduates head for SNU next fall.
For the past two years, someone from this congregation has left high school
and entered military service. Talk about the world expanding; Diane’s
son J.B., is in Iraq. A.J. is on a ship. I’m not sure of the status
right now, but I know for a while none of us knew where he was.
Last year, Lacy walked across a podium, got a diploma and boarded
a plane that flew her to Spain for a year of teaching English over there.
Phyllis graduated a year ago December and was teaching about a two miles from
here by the end of January. Doug tells me that shortly after school is out,
he is going to board a plane to tour Europe for the summer, and then he’s
going to Boston in the fall. Abby did Europe last summer and will stay around
here a little while and prepare herself for graduate school.
I’m guessing that for the parents of our recent graduates,
Spain, Europe, Iraq and the high seas are a lot further than the back yard
fence. They are not the only ones. If there was one thing I remember about
this time from the five years I spent in youth ministry, it’s not just
the parents who can have some apprehension about these times. The triumphant
smiles and the confident eyes nearly always give way to a moment or two of
apprehension about what tomorrow’s path will bring.
It is as though in a moment somewhere between the ages 18 to
24, a diploma or a new job, our lives look like those Hummer commercials where
the shot is as small as the grill of an SUV and then quickly backs away to
take in the whole earth. The parameters change dramatically. The question
is where will they end up?
I’ve been reading a novel by Ted Dekker called Black.
Sure, it is fiction but don’t write it off. I’m told Ted Dekker
has a PhD in Philosophy, and from what he writes I believe him to be a deeply
Christian man. In his story, Black, there are a series of dream sequences
where every time the main character, Thomas, lies down, he dreams and finds
himself in a different place. In once scene, Thomas is running for his life
through back alleys because he’s borrowed some money from the mob and
can’t pay it back. In another scene, Thomas is in an oppressive black
forest running from demon-like black bats. Next, he is in a brightly colored
forest filled with love and light and peace. In another scene, he is in his
sister’s apartment in a major U.S. city, and next he is in Bangkok,
Thailand, dodging bullets and saving the world. Sure, it is all fiction, but
the beauty of fiction is that it takes the normalcy of life, and exaggerates
it enough that we don’t miss the point and can see it for what it is.
And the truth is the possibilities for where people will end up are limited
only by our ability to dream and reality’s ability to change.1
Does that kind of thing make you nervous? When I was a young
person and deciding where to go for free time and fun, some well meaning and
very conservative adults would tell me, “You don’t want to go
to a bowling alley or movie theater. If Jesus comes back He won’t go
in there to get you in that place.” I don’t remember that argument
having a great amount of power over me. But sadly, I think it may have had
a great amount of power over them. I think their stress level was a little
over the top.
Listen to what the psalmist says in verse 7, “Where can
I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to
the heavens you are there. If I make my bed in sheol, the place of the dead.
You are there” (NRSV). Are your loved ones flying away to the far parts
of the earth? Listen to this, “If I take the wings of the morning and
settle in the furthest parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me
and your right hand shall hold me fast” (vv. 9-10, NRSV). When the possibilities
seem endless it is very comforting to know that there is nowhere anyone of
us can go that is outside the reach of the grace of God.
I’ve noticed something. When our world expands, something
else expands as well. It reminds me of the first few times I drove through
St. Louis to go from where we lived in Memphis to Earla’s house in a
place called Sullivan, Missouri. Just as you enter the city, there is an interstate
interchange where you have to make about three or four decisions in a row.
It is a terrible moment for a daydreamer like me--all those choices of on-ramp
after on-ramp.
In just a short time, those people with tassels and robes, will
begin careers. Some will choose a mate. Those of us who’ve been down
that road look back at the things you are deciding now and are bewildered
at what we had to discern when we were between 18 and 30. It is as if through
school we all traveled a one-lane road with a few choices as to what sports
to play or what instrument to pick up, and what friends to hang out with.
But that road has now brought them to one of the intersections you see in
huge cities like Los Angeles, where in the course of the next mile there are
as many decisions to make as they’ve made in their whole journey from
birth to now. Each significant choice will place their feet on a path that
will lead them someplace.
Of all the thousands who graduate this year where will they
go? Some who walk graduation lines will find themselves riding a path through
enemy fire on foreign soil. Someone’s path may lead them through surgery
after surgery where they’ll save people’s lives or into a surgery
where their own life will be saved or lost. Some may walk down an aisle in
a white dress, and then travel through life in marital bliss. For a myriad
of different reasons, others may find themselves walking down an aisle that
approaches not an altar, but the bench in divorce court. Some may find their
way to the governor’s mansion, or the pulpit of a church and some may
find their way to prison. It really depends on the paths they take.
In one scene in his novel, Ted Dekker’s main character,
Thomas, is standing on the bridge between the realm of Elyon (God) and Teela
the tempter. On one side a bright colorful forest filled with love and good
will, and in the other the dark forest filled with evil and death. Will he
choose to enter the dark forest, thinking he will find the answers that he
needs there, or will he turn and run to the realm of Elyon, who represents
God in the story? The problem is, he doesn’t understand his environment
very well. Because of the temptations he has, he is seriously considering
taking the wicked way into the dark forest. The question is which way will
he turn?2
Every one of us finds ourselves in similar places. When the
options broaden from the womb, the crib, the living room and the back yard,
to the endless possibility of a great big world, and the virtual possibilities
of the World Wide Web, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are almost
haunting. He says:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and
the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through
it.
“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads
to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13 NASB).
If you are raising a child or just trying to find the right
path yourself, I have to admit that’s not the most encouraging verse
in the whole Bible. It’s no secret the world is full of options that
will lead to destruction. It is much easier to find a path in that direction,
than it is to find a narrow way leading to life.
So, what do we do about it? Perhaps what we do is eliminate
the options. As much as we can help it we never associate with anyone who
might corrupt us, and we censor all our kid’s friends, making sure that
they never come among anyone who would influence them away from God. Well
it’s true bad company corrupts good character, but will that really
solve it? To be sure we want to know a lot about who and what influences our
kids, but do we really go so far as to eliminate all bad influence?
The psalmist seems to think we go pretty far. In verses 19 and
20 he says, “that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty
would depart from me— those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves
up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, OLORD? And do I
not loathe those who rise up against you?” (NRSV). In his book The Life
You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg, a staff pastor of one of America’s
mega churches, confesses for all of us that there are times when he has anger
fantasies.3 I know he’s got daughters; my guess is that he’s thought
about men who wanted to lure them onto some wicked way.
Is the psalmist suggesting that praying for the death of people
who choose the wrong path in life is the right way for us to stay on the path?
I’m not sure that’s the right interpretation of Jesus’ words
that tell us to pray for our enemies. God isn’t willing that any should
perish. Should we be? Could it be that verse 19 begins a confessional moment?
I think if you read it that way, this is a moment where the psalmist makes
an intentional choice and takes another path. He visits another place, a very
important one.
In the novel, while standing on the bridge, Thomas makes the
right choice. He heard a warning from a flying messenger and turned and ran
the right way into the forest of delight. He followed the messenger to a beautiful
lake where the messenger bent down to drink. Thomas approached the lake once
and then moved back. In fear and doubt he started to walk away. The moment
he crested the bank, his fear was replaced with nothing but insatiable desire.
He turned again, and took a running start, and jumped over the messenger and
dove headfirst into the lake.
Even with the world of options that are laid out before us,
the greatest danger isn’t the wicked or hurtful ways of this world that
we might choose: the seedy places we might go or the dangerous site we might
visit on the internet. With good up-bringing and good training and some wise
choices, we might avoid those things all together. Our only pathways might
be to a good job, or school, a stable home and right here to the church. To
this point we may not have chosen any wicked ways. But we may sit and harbor
hatred and anger for people who’ve chosen ways we don’t agree
with. The greatest danger isn’t the wicked way we might choose. The
greatest danger is the wicked way in us. You see it is the wicked way in us
that has us choosing the wicked ways in the world, or maybe just sitting in
the church and hating others who choose other ways.
At the beginning of Psalm 139 the psalmist says, “You
have searched me and you know when I sit up and when I lie down. You are acquainted
with my ways” (NRSV). You know where I’ve been. But at the end
of the Psalm he says it again, “Search me O God and know my heart test
me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me” (vv.
23-24, NRSV).
After journeying into his own soul, Thomas wanted to die, and
then he began to hear a loud scream. He looked around to where it came from
and he saw nothing but water that had become red blood and realized it was
Elyon, God, the one that had made him that was screaming and a voice whispered,
The Maker is screaming in Pain!
Then he was through. Immediately his pain was gone. He floated
in the water and the lake was filled with a song of Elyon, “I love you,”
“I choose you,” “I rescue you,” “I cherish you.4
Whether you graduated last week, last month, last year, or like me last century . . . you’ve already made a lot of decisions and taken several paths in life. Even if some of them have put you on some wicked ways, not one of them has taken you outside the reach of God’s grace. He has been pursuing you all your life. He’s gone to every place you’ve been. But there is one ultimate journey He wants to take with you. It is the most important trek you will ever take and it will transform every path you take for the rest of your life. Like most journeys there is some pain involved in it, but on the cross He bore the brunt of the pain. It’s the journey into your own soul. It’s the path you can explore with Him where He can change what you find in there. That path begins where this psalm ends, with a simple prayer. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23-24, NRSV).
1. Ted Dekker Black (Nashville: Westbow Thomas Nelson
2004).
2. ibid.
3. John Ortberg The Life You’ve Always Wanted
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. Multiple references.
4. Ted Dekker Black (Nashville: Westbow Thomas Nelson 2004).