Simple Fractions

My kids are getting pretty good at reducing fractions. They can, for example, figure out that multiples of two could divide evenly into both the numerator and denominator of 6/16. (And, for that matter, most of them could explain that 3 is a multiple that only works with the numerator, because the sum of the digits in the denominator, seven, is not divisible by three.) For third graders, they’ve been doing quite well.

I, on the other hand, am still having trouble with 1/2. I keep forgetting that “a half-truth is still a lie until it finds its other half.” And so, forging into half-lies, I fumble with what really is “whole.”

It’s all too easy to start with ideas that never ‘meet their other half.’ For example, a favorite line of attack is often that, because I can see my own unworthiness, I am therefore unlovable. What I stop at is my own character. What I fail to perceive is that God’s character contains the other half.

We are “unlovable,” and yet not “unloved.” We are unworthy of God’s attention and favor, and yet, those are still bestowed, because of His nature. As one pastor has put it, “We are not loved because we are worthy; rather, our lives have worth because we are loved by Almighty God.”

For many, the human condition is the only ‘half’ that’s considered (and, sadly, taken as the ‘whole’ truth). But if we fail to recognize the ‘half’ that completes it, if all we are stirred to believe is that we have precluded ourselves from love by who we have been, then we are not rightly seeing the nature of the One who has made us.

And His nature is displayed in this:

“‘For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore…’” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

The reality with which we must grapple (the ‘half-truth’ which He will faithfully complete in the quiet recesses of our unsuspecting heart) is that “we” are not the deciding factor; that, in fact, we have no hand in whether God lavishes upon us His ‘great love’ (1 John 3:1). For the other ‘half,’ the part which makes our lives complete and yields our ‘wholeness,’ is that we – who are, by our very condition, unable to incite, entreat, or secure the love of a Holy God – remain the recipients of that unmerited blessing, and not because of our efforts, but simply because Christ has elected Himself to be the Giver.

“So then,” as Romans 9:16 states clearly, “it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

To Miss the Raindrops

Stood in a gusty rain storm yesterday, listening to a veteran begin with the prayer, “Almighty Commander, we have lost a comrade…” Perhaps I was so taken with the volley and taps, or the stately folding of the flag, but, for a good ten minutes or so, I didn’t even notice the raindrops.

And then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught view of a blue, nylon fabric and metal spoke. Waited until the end of the graveside before even looking behind me, and there stood a man, quietly holding a huge umbrella: the reason I had been kept dry for the remainder of the service. I had been so unaware.

How many times God has positioned Himself alongside me in such a way.

And how often I fail to even acknowledge the Source of my protection; to behold that He is the One shielding me. How I fail to understand the goodness which He arches over me.

Sometimes the greatest unnerved wonder comes from the modesty and gentleness of His tender care, and the simple prayer which issues forth is only, “‘I am unworthy of all the kindness… You have shown…’” (Genesis 32:10).

Compassionate Rebuke

First Samuel 3:13 reads, “‘For… I am about to judge [Eli’s] house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them.’”

The level of responsibility seems somewhat astounding. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were – especially in their position of leadership as priests – highly accountable for their evil. Sentenced for both their defrauding of sacrifices (1 Sam. 2:12-17) and their promiscuity (v. 22), the two were slain in one day of battle (see 1 Sam. 2:34, 4:11).

And yet, Eli, their father, wasn’t immune either. For, though he had challenged his sons (“Why do you do such… evil things...?” 2:23), still the thirteenth verse in chapter three shows that his correction availed nothing, and was not even effective in dismissing him from responsibility. His house was to be judged “for the iniquity which he knew,” but “did not rebuke.”

Perhaps his choice to appease his sons in their transgression was from not wanting to create friction. Or maybe Eli was more interested in letting the two maintain their position and power. Yet whatever the reason, Eli’s inaction in dealing with his sons’ transgressions proves his attitude toward sin. For, had he been serious about their holiness, had his utmost desire been for their sanctification, he would have ‘delivered those who were being taken away to death’ (Pro. 24:11). Instead, he stood by and watched his sons bring upon themselves their own destruction.

And yet God does not deal with us that way. For, while God, who “is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7), will let us experience the consequences we have wrought, He does not stand idly by to let us destroy ourselves. Were He any less concerned with the gravity of sin, He would, like Eli, refrain from disciplining us. Yet Hebrews 12:10 explains the benevolence of His correction: “He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” The heart of His rebuke is not to blind-side us, or to torment, but rather, to purge us of what would ultimately yield our fatal undoing. His intention toward us is not to condemn, but rather, to convert us. Not to render us powerless, but purified.

Even the command in James 5:19-20 exposes the Lord’s desire for us: “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” Christ’s purpose is to employ those around us for our confession and consecration.

And so, what seems a high cost for not rebuking another’s sin, is actually a grace: that God, who exhorts us to live righteously before Him - ‘to do justice, to love righteousness, and to walk humbly with our God’ (see Micah 6:8) - would even extend to us the mercy of supplying those who would challenge us when we bring a curse upon ourselves.

Praise be to the One who so desires our deliverance, who so wills our being ‘held back from the slaughter’ (Pro. 24:11), that He would, through accountability, bind others to the well-being of our souls!