Obsessed with Death?

This past week, our Pastor preached on Romans 13:11-12 and the theme of the message was to redeem the time.  This spurred a thought to go back to the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards.  In researching it, I ran across a frequent criticism of many Puritans and puritanical writers was that they were darkly obsessed with death.

About 10 years ago, I was speaking with someone who had just gone through learning about the Puritans in their high school history class.  Predictably, they were not presented in a positive fashion.  They tended to be shown as full of hatred and dour in attitude.  It is a topic within itself to come to a proper understanding of the Puritans.  Certainly, there were those who came to unfortunate and wrong conclusions with how they applied doctrine, but it is helpful to review some of these accusations.

A classic critique of the Puritans was that they were obsessed with death, to a depressing degree.  Amusingly, the ‘Y’ in the New England Primer featured this line: “While Youth do cheer, death may be near.”  Happy thoughts!  This was how they taught the ABCs!

When reviewing Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions, many of them have the thought of death woven in.  He wanted to live with a perpetual thought of when he would ‘come into the future world’. Here is an example:  “Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”

The time that Edwards lived in was a time where death was a constant reality.  Life was hard and often short for the average colonial citizen.  They lacked medical advancements and technology we depend on and take for granted.  Ironically, it was an epidemic that brought Edwards’ own life to an end, as he died after complications from a small pox vaccination.  Sickness, pain, and death were a constant presence.  Today, we shuffle our sick and dying to hospitals and hospices.  Many of the aged and afflicted are relegated to nursing homes, often isolating us from the surety of death.

If there was ever a time where we could sympathize about thinking so much of death, it is today!  Each night we are updated with new death totals due to the Covid-19 virus.  We see hospitals who are bringing in freezer trucks just to store the dead bodies that are piling up.  It takes either someone we know, can relate to, or a celebrity we are familiar with to take the possibility of death seriously.  We are not able to avoid it like we typically do.

I think we would be better off to always have the hint of death in our minds.  We should be aware that we are but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.  Our society has attempted to build itself a culture insulated from death.  We need to bring it back in.  None of us know our days, but God does.  It is that reality that men and women like Jonathan Edwards lived with, and we must to.

Life on the Wire

In what feels like ages ago (a lot has happened since then!) my father went through a bit of a medical scare.  As he was recovering from hip replacement surgery, he woke up early one Saturday morning and realized that he was going into shock.  Having served as an EMT for decades, he was able to recognize the signs and relay his vitals to the 911 operator my mother was on the phone with.  He quickly faded and passed out.  It took the paramedics quite awhile for them to stabilize him on an external pacer before transporting him to the hospital.

Once he was at the hospital, he coded for 20 minutes before they were able to get his heart going again.  My mom and I were brought in to say goodbye to him before he headed into surgery, and all the doctors could do was apologize for what seemed like the inevitable outcome of my father’s death.

A couple of hours later, we go word that he was in ICU and stable.  He was not out of the woods yet, but they were able to feed a wire in through a vein in his shoulder and into the natural pacemaker in his heart.  He was stable until he could have a pacemaker put in on Tuesday (don’t need major heart surgery on MLK day, they don’t do it!).  Until then, he had a wire loosely dangling in a vein, sending signals to keep his heart beating.  For some unknown reason, his natural pace maker went kaput.

What followed was a stressful couple of days waiting for the pacemaker to go in.  Once, he sat up too far and the wire came loose and he coded again.  For a couple of days, his life was literally held by a loose wire dangling in there.  It was an unsettling thought.

For the better part of three days, my dad had the full conscious that his life was tied to a wire.  It gives you a much greater picture of the fragility of life.  We live every day with the assumption that life will continue as we know it, that tomorrow is a given, that our future plans are written in stone.

It is when we live in unsettled times like we presently do, we are reminded that tomorrow isn’t a given.  We find ourselves in the middle of an epidemic, where an invisible germ is everywhere, and spreading quickly.  It seems like we could have the virus and not even know it.  It is a surreal time, and it is these surreal times that remind us of our fragility.

I am reminded of my dad laying in a bed, with his life tied to a wire.  The reality is that all of our lives are tied and known.  While we would never choose times like this, it doesn’t mean we don’t learn through them.  We see that we are so incapable of sustaining our own lives and completely at the mercy of a good God.  Put your trust in Him, for He is good!

“Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food and the body more than clothing… Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?… Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.  For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and you Father knows that you need them.  Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”  Luke 12:22, 25-26, 30-31

Podcast Review: ESV M’Cheyne Reading Plan

This is the second in a series of reviews of Podcasts that I listen to or have listened to.  My job is to clean homes and offices, so I spend a lot of time listening to lots of podcasts.  Some are better than others, and there are some that I consider ‘must listens’.  What I would like to do is share some of these podcasts with a summary of what they are about, how often they are released, and if they are worth listening to.

I have an iPhone, so there is a podcast player on it.  You can subscribe to any of these podcasts and have them automatically load when they are released.

Title: ESV: M’Cheyne Reading Plan

Frequency: Daily podcast- posted the night before for the following day

Length: 15-25 minutes

Topic: A daily reading through the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible reading program.  For example, today’s reading was Exodus 36, John 15, Proverbs 12, and Ephesians 5.

Review: A couple of years ago, my wife and I decided to read through this plan together.  The plan we followed was a five day a week plan, which worked well as my schedule often didn’t allow us to sit together every day.  This plan is a 7-day plan, and it takes you through four different passages, a chapter at a time.  The narrator does a great job at reading with emphasis and subtly changing voices with dialogue.

Criticism:  Initially, I was frustrated because when it switched between books, it wouldn’t announce what book it was reading from.  That changed a few weeks into the year and now before each chapter, he announces book and chapter.  Very helpful!  Besides that, being a 7-day reading is a bit hard when I listen at work (even harder now that I’m quarantining).  I often end up doubling it up on Monday and Tuesday.  Lastly, it is easy to space out and not pay attention to what is being read.  It does take some discipline to pay attention.  I have found that it is best to listen to when I drive to my first job, not when I am working.

Episode Recommendations: Being what it is, you can’t recommend one over another.  There are multiple options available, many different reading plans.  You can go directly through the Bible, do a chronological read, or through the Bible in a year with a couple chapters in the NT, a few in the OT, and a Psalm.  Find one that is good for you!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/esv-mcheyne-reading-plan/id349167755

Podcast Review: “The Briefing with Albert Mohler”

This is the first in a series of reviews of Podcasts that I listen to or have listened to.  My job is to clean homes and offices, so I spend a lot of time listening to lots of podcasts.  Some are better than others, and there are some that I consider ‘must listens’.  What I would like to do is share some of these podcasts with a summary of what they are about, how often they are released, and if they are worth listening to.

I have an iPhone, so there is a podcast player on it.  You can subscribe to any of these podcasts and have them automatically load when they are released.

Title: The Briefing with Albert Mohler

Frequency: Daily podcast- Monday-Friday, posted first thing in the morning

Length: 20-30 minutes

Topic: A daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview (bonus points if you read that in an Albert Mohler voice)

Review: I consider Al Mohler to be one of the most wise and knowledgeable Christian voices today.  He has a gift for looking at current events and not only viewing them in light of Scripture, but also in light of history.  I consider this podcast to be a must listen for anyone wanting to inform their worldview with a Biblical perspective.  He is an engaging speaker and a notably voracious reader.  He brings those skills and boils them down in a helpful manner to educate you on what is going on around us.

Criticism:  It is hard for me to be critical of much of anything!  There have been a few things here and there that I have disagreed with, but nothing egregious.  Sometimes it seems like everything is on the sexual revolution in our culture, but that is more to blame on our culture and government than on him.  He talks about what is happening.

Episode Recommendations: Since it is a daily podcast, it is hard to isolate one episode over another.  Tuesday’s episode on the Corona Virus epidemic was a good listen.  I also can point you to an episode on February 26th, in which he spoke of the importance of elections (elections have consequences, as he frequently says).

https://albertmohler.com/the-briefing

Redeeming the Quarantine

Tell me if you can relate to this.  You are packing for a vacation and you get the necessities, toiletries, clothes, etc. packed and now you go to pack some forms of entertainment and relaxation.  With my family, there are a few games that we are always sure to bring on a getaway, and I will inevitably turn to my stack of books and have grand plans for what I am going to read over the course of the next few days.  With great aspirations, I pack a couple away.  After all, what happens if I finish the book I am reading now?

Inevitably, as I return from my vacation, I unpack my bags and find that I did not come close to fulfilling those plans.  I’m sure we can all relate to one degree or another.  Maybe it is a more simple weekend plan that doesn’t go the way you planned, or it may be a bigger plan, such as New Year resolutions.  We’ve all experienced these times where our best laid plans were not seen through.

But now we find ourselves in a very interesting time.  For the first time in my adult life I am not working or looking for work.  I still am able to teach online first thing in the morning, but then I come downstairs, eat breakfast, and then have to ask myself…. now what?!

A common theme in Evanglical circles (mainly John Piper) is the ‘Don’t waste your ________’.  It began with his book ‘Don’t Waste Your Life’, as a plea to not waste the precious years of our lives investing in something with no eternal consequence.  Then Pastor Piper discovered he had cancer and encouraged the theme of ‘Don’t Waste Your Cancer’.  The plea was to look at the difficulty and trial as an opportunity to grow and learn.  It was an opportunity to wean his affections from this world and onto Christ.

Now we could say ‘Don’t Waste Your Quarantine’.  It is easy to start by telling ourselves we will catch up on a favorite TV show, or watch that movie everyone has been talking about.  Maybe we will even finish that book we have started 3 times.  We have piles of clothes that need to be gone through.  We have stacks of papers and pictures that need sorting.  We have house projects that are waiting to be done.  It can all start getting very overwhelming!

Let me make this suggestion:  Make some lists.  In our family, we have sat down and come up with some lists (always my wife’s idea!).  We have a ‘fun things to do’ list.  We want to make sure we have fun doing some art projects, playing games, learning a new game, creating a foosball tournament, or doing a puzzle.  Then we have a ‘profitable things to do’.  This includes writing a new sponsored child in Guatemala, reaching out to people in our church, taking time to prepare messages or writing more, reading through a book or biographies together, and coming up with a prayer list as a family.  On the ‘dad’ side, we have the ‘projects list’ that is our typical ‘honey do’ list of things that can be taken care of in this time.  Clean out the basement, fix the towel holder, clean out the closet, etc.  Finally, we have a fun list of shows and movies we would like to slowly watch through the next few weeks of isolation.  The kids like adding to this one!

I say all this to encourage you to be purposeful about the next few weeks or months.  We have no idea how long this will take, but it is certainly a unique time in our lives (Lord willing!).  God has given us this time to make the most of it.  So each day, concentrate on doing something profitable, doing something that is a project, and doing something fun together.  I’d love to hear some of your ideas!