Scott Stilson

Note to self: Discretize everything. It will maximize concentration, keep you from hurrying, and keep you from losing sight of God. 🧘‍♂️

🎧 🎵 I’m glad I kept my CD copy of Superchic[k]’s Karaoke Superstars. Cute, catchy, honest, lightly theistic punk-pop whose lead vocalist was clearly in her early twenties when she wrote it but was nevertheless equipped with the kind of wisdom that twenty-somethings need.

The CEB reads: “You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven” for Colossians. So the vision of heaven enables us to be faithful and loving! Fear of death be gone! You see this in stories of the original Christians.

I caught my son meditating this morning. God, Your ball!

The word of the year for 2024 is “commitment,” as in an actor committing to a role, having no hesitation or second thought.

The word of the year for 2024 might be “whim.”

Go back to journaling to God.

If you want good church, no need to stress! Just prompt everyone to bring something that would engender peace, or truth, or justice, or love, or generosity. Instead of fretting over who is going to do what, prompt everyone like how Daniel prompted us all at Thanksgiving (for something for which we’re grateful), and let it all be grace. That gets at making something happen but also having everyone contribute.

Journaling is a way to relate to God. Not to inform him, of course, but to be like a little kid reporting on the doings of the day to a parent who already knows. The point is the relationship, the mutual enjoyment.

This is a little like how microblogging and blogging are to other people. Why publish at all? Not to inform, but to relate!

Do not heed the word of the prophets who prophesy to you. They deal emptiness to you. Their own heart’s vision they speak, not from the mouth of the Lord. They repeatedly say to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It will go well with you,” and to each who goes in the stubbornness of his heart, “Evil will not come upon you” (Jeremiah 23:16-17).

This reminds me of why I’m suspicious of so much of what passes for prophecy these days.

I am acquisitive. I am sorry, Lord.

It’s making more sense to me today, which is convenient as Thanksgiving approaches: We give thanks for spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, as well as miracles, yes, when we have identified them. Beyond that, are thanksgiving is general, as sure, we cannot thank God directly for putting food on our table, it being seed suppliers, farmers, distributors, and markets, along with our own trade with our employers of our labor for money, that have put the food on our table. But all of that is part of a system, a system we call Creation, in which such things are possible and indeed, such things bring pleasure. Since we are addressing the Creator of this Creation, it is right and good to give thanks! It is the kind of thanksgiving that results in the delight of the Giver because He is able to observe the joy and peace that His creation has engendered in other creatures.

Finally!

Don’t complain. There is no such thing as suffering. Only refusal to accept things the way they are. By the way, Buddhists have defeated the problem of evil. I just need to find a way to cogently combine it with Christianity.

Reading Jeremiah 7 helps me make sense of Jesus’ saying that He speaks in parables expressly to obfuscate the truth for some of His hearers. If my children have been acting up for so long that I’m about to punish them, I will stop giving them instructions meant for their nourishment for the time leading up to their punishment lest they get the idea that they can just always push me to the edge but I’ll always relent immediately upon their tidying up their act. If I never delivered a punishment, we have impunity, and impunity is bad.

I just read in Jeremiah that God accused Judah of chasing after hevel (“mere breath”) and thus becoming hevel—just like Ecclesiastes! Anything you chase after, you become.

Give and receive. Don’t take.

“Love is never any better than the lover.”

— Toni Morrison

It’s just like humanity to take the spoils of victory and turn them into an idol (Judges 8:22-28).

Even in his biggest triumph, Gideon is deflecting the glory (Judges 8:1-3).

“As for you, you shall not seal a covenant with the inhabitants of this land—their altars you shall smash” (Judges 2:2, RA).

Do what you’re doing. Don’t worry about the rest.

The first chapter of Judges is all about how most of the tribes of Israel failed to drive out the Canaanites and other non-Israelite peoples from their inherited land. It’s just like yesterday and Civilization VI.

Jesus’ lordship is His salvation.

a post-hoc contribution via WhatsApp to a house church discussion I missed:

Since the prompt last Saturday (“How do we do our part in cultivating the fruit God seeks?”) was mine but I wasn’t around to help discover answers, would you permit me nine sentences in reply?

Having been thoroughly convinced of God’s lovingkindness—well, as convinced as one can be about the thoughts of a typically invisible, inaudible spirit—I find myself frequently emphasizing the value of direct effort toward the exercise of emotional and relational virtues. In other words, I tend to see God’s good fruit as habits to practice rather than virtues to receive. Just as nothing succeeds at mastering a musical instrument more than practicing the musical instrument—not reading books about music, not talking to composers—nothing will succeed at developing love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest of them more than trying to think, speak, and act in love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest at every possible juncture.

I daresay God agrees. :)

Direct effort is better and more powerful than any other spiritual discipline toward the goal of bearing good fruit. And I mean this very situational, down-to-earth, “if this, then that,” habit-building sort of way.

At the same time, I know I’ll fail at this. The trick here is to keep trying—“a righteous person falls seven times and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16)—and not grow discouraged. Even just trying to think and act better is good, and as Bruce highlighted a couple of weeks ago, “Don’t become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary“ (Galatians 6:9).

When I am tempted to beat myself up for such failure, I call upon this quotation from Brother Lawrence (without going so far as to completely absolve myself of responsibility):

“When an occasion arose which required some virtue, he said to God, ‘Lord, I cannot do this unless You allow me.’ […] When he had failed in his duty, he simply confessed his fault, saying to God, ‘I could not possibly do otherwise, if You leave me to myself. It is You who must correct my failing, and mend what is amiss.‘ And after this, he gave himself no further uneasiness about his mistake.”

Energetic trying.

Hope the above is good for someone.

Remember: Jon Levenson says that the controlling metaphor in the Hebrew Bible for the relationship between Israel and YHWH is that of a suzerain and vassal or a king and subject and that love from the Israel side is therefore primarily expressed as glad, grateful obedience. When we say we’re going to love the Lord our God with our all hearts, minds, souls, and strengths, what we’re saying is we’re going to gladly obey Him with all of ourselves.