The solution to pride

After James 4:1-10 

The spirit dwells

within us; more grace

is given, grace is

given to the humble.

Submission to God

buries the pride.

Draw near to God,

and he draws near

to you. Cleanse

your hands; purify

your hearts. Mourn

and weep; turn

the laughter of pride

to the mourning 

of faith. It’s

a conundrum:

humble yourselves,

and he will exalt you.

 

Photograph by Timo Wagner via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

David’s God-Entranced Song – John Piper at Desiring God.

 

The Gift of Finitude – A.D. Donahue at Bandersnatch Books.

 

The Terrible Possibility of Adultery – Benjamin Vrbicek at Desiring God.

 

The Lie of Living Your Truth – Rosaria Butterfield at the Institute for Faith and Culture.

Submit. What?

For Rev. Chris Baker

After I Peter 3:1-7

 

It’s that word, the one

that guarantees flashes

of anger and bile:

submission.

Worse still, it’s couched

in terms of what wives

are to do with husbands.

Submission! Bah, humbug!

It’s all humbug!

 

And yet, whatever you

think, or think you know,

submission is a picture

of what we do, what we’re

expected to do, what is

required of us to do, with

one another, with those

we love, with those

who love us.

 

If it works for wives,

it must work for husbands,

too. Giving honor

to each other lifts

our souls to heaven.

 

Photograph by Victoria Roman via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Astonished by Prayer: Poetry to Combat Prayerlessness – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.

 

Remnants – poem by Richard Osler at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The Middle of Somewhere – Andrea Sanborn at A View of the Lake.

 

“The Wise Men” & “A Song of Gifts to God,” poems by G.K. Chesterton – Dovy Ilardo at Power & Glory.

The "A" word

After I Peter 2:13-17

The “A” word,

the word and idea

we chafe against,

the word around

which our world

revolves: authority.

As much as we

resist it and resent

and disparage it,

it is the system

to establish order

and well-being.

And the “S” word:

submit. With

authority comes 

submission, another

word and idea we

resist and resent,

that every fiber

in our being fights

against. But

submission does not

mean obedience;

it means to arrange

your life to respect

the authority placed

over you.

 

Photograph by Artem Balashevsky via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

“Courtesy,” poem by Hillaire Belloc – Malcolm Guite.

 

Lonely in a Crowd – Madelyn Moses at Reformation 21.

 

“Hymn Before Sunrise,” poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Malcolm Guite.

 

Reading the Bible to Meet God – Barnabas Piper.

Submit and love

After Ephesians 5:21-33 

Submit to one another,

he says, the key

to our relationships.

Submit in reverence

mutual, he says, because

that’s how the One did it,

that’s the model, people,

submitting in love.

What the critics miss

is that love, as in love

your wives, is

a stronger command

than submission.

This love, this submission,

is a picture of something

far greater than itself,

fare more important,

something vital,

not matter how disguised

it becomes by rhetoric

and accusations and

anger and malpractice

and missing 

the whole point.

 

Photograph by Adam Winger via Unsplash. Used with permission.

That word

After Ephesians 5:21-33 

There’s that word:

submission. Horrors!

If there’s one word

contrary to the spirit

of the age, it’s that one.

And worse,

and even worse, 

is the idea of wives

submitting to husbands.

Paul was obviously

displaying his bias here,

an idiot, you say,

for his misogyny, shoving

women into second class. 

Therefore, everything

he said is wrong. Or, 

at the other political

extreme, let’s use 

the verse as a club

to remind wives

of the pecking order. And

so left and right scream

and rant and rave

at each other, doing

exactly the opposite

of what Paul commands:

submit to one another.

 

Photograph by Casey Horner via Unsplash. Used with permission.