Props: Table/desk and chair, pen and paper. Telephone would be good but could be mimed in.

Character: Smitten man (S.M.)

Plot and Setting: S.M. is in a room with a table and chair, trying to compose a love poem to his (girlfriend, fiancee, wife – adjust as desired). When he starts the poem is quite sappy. As he works things keep interrupting him and cause him to change his mind about his poem. By the time he is through what he has is a serious poem about God’s love.

*enter, scribbling on a clipboard while mumbling*: To my dearest love. My love for you is like… is like… is like…

*walks to side, looking out real or imagined window*: Look at the view out that window. What a wonderful day. A day that makes the heart grow light. *deep breath* Ahh, fresh air with roses and love is in the air. Love! Roses! That’s it! *scribbles* To my dearest love. My love for you is like a bed of roses. *looks up* Whew! Finally a start to my poem. My sugar plum will turn to mush when she reads this expression of my adoration!

*cocks his head, listening to something*: What is that noise? *goes to window* No! Cats! Get out of the flowers! *takes off shoe and throws it* Get out of the rose bed! Oh no. The roses are ruined! My love for you is like a pile of vegetation destroyed by cats in battle? *makes expressive motion of scratching out the poem*

*sits at table, head in hands, frustrated*: My love for you is like… My love for you is like… My love for you is like the giant California redwoods / Lasting the ages with strength displayed / Mixing grace with beauty, faithfulness with strength. / My love is…

*phone rings, S.M. exasperated*: The phone! No! Just when I’m on a role!

*answers phone*: Hello? Mom? Mother, slow down. What? Mother, wait! What did you just see on the news? Massive wildfires in northern California? The redwoods have all been destroyed? Government declares it a disaster area? Oh no! *hangs up*

S.M.: My love for you is like a pile of charred ash blowing in the wind. *vigorous scratching motion* My love for you is like the rays of the sun / Shining strong and vibrant / Casting beautiful shimmers across the sky.

*phone rings*: Who is calling now? Hello? Oh, hi sis. No, what about the sun? A strong flare coming that could damage satellites? *sigh* Okay, thanks sis. Bye. *hangs up*

S.M.: To my dearest love. My love for you is like the rays of the sun / scattering pieces of broken satellites across the universe. *vigorous scratching*

*stands and paces about*: Maybe this is why love gets such a bad reputation. *looks lost in thought then reacts to something he hears* Well there’s the sound of the church bells. Five o’clock. Just one hour until I have to meet my love and still nothing to give her!

*sits at desk*: My love is like… My love is like… Man, I love that song the church bells are playing. Amazing grace. Good song. Now God’s love, there’s something that cats or fire or stars can’t destroy.

*looks thoughtful, starts scribbling, jumps up*

My dearest love,

My love is like the love of Christ,
Who spread his arms upon the tree.

His love unmixed with fear of fail,
But sure and fast and free.

His body pierced, his blood shed out,
And all for love of thee, of me.

Nothing can take us from his hand,
Nothing his love remove.

And by his grace, his grace alone,
Such is my love for thee.

Before you go any farther I want you to hop over to Amazon and buy the book Young, Restless, Reformed by Collin Hansen. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

Done? Good.

I won’t be reviewing this book but I do wholeheartedly recommend it. Even non-Calvinists should find the book exciting as it presents a growing movement of young people energized with a desire to spread the gospel and grow deeper in the word of God. I kept having great moments of excitement while reading the book and it gave a little lift to my step as I consider my own pastoral work. Want to see some of the good things God is doing in the church in America? Get this book.

Warning: Totally non-theological, non-biblical post ahead. Politics and economics.

I’m no economist, I’m a pastor. But I’ve read a lot about the markets and here’s my perspective on things. This post was prompted by the following.

From the New York Times:

Administration officials committed to flood the financial system with as much as $2.5 trillion — $350 billion of that coming from the bailout fund and the rest from private investors and the Federal Reserve, making use of its ability to print money.

…
Another centerpiece of the plan would stretch the last $350 billion that the Treasury has for the bailout by relying on the Federal Reserve’s ability to create money, in effect, out of thin air.

Inflation is worse when money floods the market that isn’t based on a standard. The more money thrown out there without something behind it, the less that money is worth. Supply and demand applies to currency as well as goods. For an extreme example, see Zimbabwe.

Creating money out of thin air is not, however, altogether new. This is essentially what the stock market does. (Credit cards can do something similar, but that’s for another time.) Real money does go into the market when people buy stock, but when the value of stock rises there is no actual currency rising with it. If 10 people buy 100 shares each of a stock at $5 a share, they have invested $5,000 into that particular company. If 10 more people buy another 100 shares but at $10 a share, they have invested $10,000 into that company. At this point there are 2,000 shares in the hands of shareholders and the value of each share is $10. Total market value of that company, then, is $20,000 even though only $15,000 was invested. In a ledger somewhere $5,000 has been created out of thin air. There is no currency to back most of the money in the market (in truth, there is no currency to back any of it – you only make money on your stock if someone out there is willing to buy it. This is what drives prices down when everyone is trying to dump their stock. No one is buying, so sellers keep lowering their price until someone finally buys some.).

This is why determining someone’s value based on their market assets is somewhat odd. The money is imaginary. It doesn’t exist. When the stock market crashed no one actually lost anything. Nothing changed except numbers on a ledger and in a computer. But those numbers are considered all-important by economists and investors.

This says something about what America really trusts in. Fundamentally, nothing has changed in America. To that end McCain was right during the election in his often maligned statement that the fundamentals of the economy are sound. We still have companies, we still have businesses, we still have citizens. We still have all the elements that should make for a thriving economy. What we don’t have is confidence. Those numbers on a paper have all dropped drastically so companies have cut jobs and services in an attempt to build their cash reserve in order to weather inflation. This creates a problem, though, since firing people means less people are able to spend money and creates a nasty catch-22.

Matt loses his job at company X so Matt is not able to buy the things he might normally buy from store Y. Store Y makes less money so they have to cut back on the kinds of things they put on their shelves. Namely, they decide they need less products from company X so they buy less from company X. Company X responds by firing Sally to protect themselves. On and on it goes. Declining sales means the loss of jobs which means an overall reduction in spending which means declining sales which means the loss of jobs which means…

The problem with bailouts and stimulus packages is they won’t do much when people are nervous. They might create a few extra projects here or there but at the end of the day companies are trying to protect themselves by building or preserving a cash reserve. If something the government does provides them extra cash, they are more likely to store it somewhere safe than use it to create more jobs.

What’s the solution? I have no idea. Where will this lead? I have no idea. But most of the solutions I’ve seen thrown out so far look more like desperate measures to try _something_ rather than well reasoned responses to a true economic crisis. The end result may well be greater and greater suffering and increased turmoil. Moving back to the sort of thing you usually see here, turmoil should not surprise Christians. We should expect it and be ready for it. The church thrives in hard times. God is most glorified in suffering Christians who continue to proclaim the wonder of the savior. I pray we will be those people if true suffering comes to America.

I spent part of last night watching one of God’s children slip closer to eternity. At this point the lady is still with us but her body is slowly failing. A clinical diagnosis would point to several ailments she has had lately along with her old age. The real cause of her death, however, is sin.

Death, that great enemy, that old intruder on life, that fruit of the fall creates a reality that will be experienced by every living thing. But for Christians death gives us tragic hope. The point when we can shed ourselves of sinful flesh. It says something about how pervasive sin is in our lives that it takes death to completely rip it from us. Sin is conquered but we still haul its corpse around and only death will remove the corpse from us.

This is why for the saints it is not death to die. That old enemy gives us hope of a life free from sin. Death is the curse of the fall but death is also promise for believers.

Sovereign Grace Music has a wonderful song called It Is Not Death to Die on their CD Come Weary Saints. The words of the song describe Christian death very well.

It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God

It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears

O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just

It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die

Al Mohler, quoted in Young, Restless, Reformed, had this to say:

As Southern Baptists, we are in danger of becoming God’s most unembarrassed pragmatists – much more enamored with statistics than invested with theological substance.

I’m tempted to write this on the next Annual Church Profile we get from the convention. Our obsession with numbers is downright distressing.

Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor on irreverent preaching that seeks to entertain:

Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies) I hate that preaching which tends to make the hearers laugh, or to move their minds with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-plays used to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.

Pages 119-120.

One of my very favorite songs, unfortunately I have trouble finding anyone singing it. But that doesn’t stop me from singing it to myself! And now, dear reader, I sing it to you.

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me.
It was not I that found O Savior true;
No, I was found of Thee.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee!
For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul
Always Thou lovest me.

Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold;
I walked and sank not on the storm vexed sea
‘Twas not so much that I on Thee took hold,
As Thou, dear Lord, on me.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee!
For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul
Always Thou lovest me.

You can find the music and a demo track here.

Anthony Esolen at Touchstone offers some thoughts about Super Bowl commercials.

So I am watching the Super Bowl. I am not sure why I am doing this. That is, I am not sure why Christians continue to put up with the abuse. We aren’t married to the mass media, are we? It is not time for us to walk out on an exhausted fascination with self-loathing and animality; not time for us to turn our backs upon the anticulture. It was time years ago.