The Sacred Within

While I often enjoy the Slice of Infinity morning devotionals from RZIM, Ravi is seldom the author. This morning, much to my delight, he is. Wow! What a wise and articulate man! God bless him!

I love the line, "the cry within of the sacred cannot be suppressed." Oh, how true this is.

Rearranging the Furniture
~Ravi Zacharias

History has a way of provoking life's most basic questions, sometimes with deadly force. Standing beside ruins and devastation, newscasters daily relay horrors. As harsh realities take hold, the irrepressible "why?" often surfaces in the mind of the beholder. Occasionally, even international conscience is so aroused as to ask "why?"

Yet in reality, the question of "why?" in a violent act, as painful as such a mindless atrocity can be, is nevertheless meaningless to raise unless we also ask the question of life itself—why are we here? But alas! that question is dismissed as no longer relevant in an academically sophisticated culture. Is this not, then, a self-destructive contradiction for one who debunks the notion of objective morality? Those who reduce the world to merely the physical cheat when they stray into the metaphysical.

In stark distinction, it is here once again that God's Word beckons with his pleas to a morally deaf world. Granted, the questions raised come from two groups. The deep and private pain of those for whom the loss is personal and devastating cannot be simplistically addressed. For them there is one who speaks from a cross. But there is another side to this query, and that is in understanding how and why hatred and murder can be conceived and nurtured in the human heart in the first place.

Interestingly enough, the very first murder in the Bible did not occur because of two irreconcilable political theories. The murder of a man by his own brother was an act unmistakably borne out of their differing responses to God. Trapped by the temporal, Cain was deluded by the belief that he could vanquish spiritual reality with brute force. God saw the inevitable result of the jealousy and hatred deep within Cain's heart, and in a challenge that would determine his destiny, warned him to deal with it. "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:7).

There are only two options: either come to God on his terms and find our perfect peace in his acceptance of us, or "play God" with self-defining morality and kill—becoming as a result restless wanderers, ever running from the voice of our brothers' blood that cries out from the ground. At its core life is sacred and of inestimable value, whether it is the life of a darling child in the fresh blossom of childhood, or the life of an elderly, weak, and frail recluse. Both have one thing in common: they are made in the image of God. That is why murder is described in Scripture for what it is, an attack upon God's image—a denial of our spiritual essence. It is that essence which gives us our dignity and our worth. It is that essence which is our glory and true home.

We may try by intellectual duplicity to rearrange the furniture of life and define it only in material terms, but each time we sit back and read of the human experience in Darfur or Virginia, Bosnia or Rwanda, we shift and turn with revulsion, realizing that there is no harmony in the secular "decor," for the cry within of the sacred cannot be suppressed. That is the reason we scream forth "why?" at the headlines: we cannot silence the still, small voice inside that speaks of the intrinsic sanctity of life, and that it ought not to be violated.

Try as we will, the logical outworking of a denied absolute cannot be escaped. God said it to Cain then and God says it to us now. "If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door, and desires to have you." Cain became a murderer because he willfully refused to worship the living God and chose, by violence, to enthrone himself. This is an aspect of modern society we have grossly underestimated, and in the process we have robbed ourselves of even common sense. God is not only the Creator who defines us philosophically, but God is also the Provider who meets us existentially in our greatest need and gives us the confidence and comfort that we are beloved and not orphaned in this world.

If we are to ever find an answer to the haunting problem of violence, there will need to be a radical shift in our understanding. We must recognize not only the seen, but also the reality of the unseen, for the latter precedes the former. We would do well to take note that long before headlines hit like explosives in our minds, an even greater implosion takes place in the minds and hearts of those who set the news in motion. Human rule cannot deal with that internal devastation, but God can. That "unseen" war is a spiritual struggle—the choice between turning to God or playing God. For that triumph only God is big enough, and the sooner we realize and acknowledge our need for Him the closer we will be to moving from the symptomatic rearranging of furniture to the cure of coming home.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

Transforming the Mundane

A few ideas for making meals special:

1. My favorite from A WOMAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART:
Serve the meal backwards--dessert first! ; )

2. Number the parts of a meal, and have each family member draw a number. Serve the meal in the order the numbers were drawn.

3. Create a treasure hunt with clues leading to each item on the menu.

4. Eat on the patio, the porch, in the yard, find a clearing in the woods (if you live surrounded by trees like we do) and enjoy a picnic in "fairyland."

5. Paint a plate red with lettering that says, "You Are Special Today." Have this "red plate special" every so often. When you sense one of your children or your husband is having a rough day, set their place at the table with the special red plate.

5. Put fresh flowers on the table, change the tablecloth, placemats, use special dishes--bought at a thrift shop; they don't have to be expensive.

6. Eat in a different room, cross-legged on the floor.

7. Have a one-color meal: green pasta, green beans, a green salad and green Jell-O with fruit for dessert.

8. Bake special "I love you" notes in muffins.

9. Make toasties for breakfast--everybody can create their own masterpiece!

Have fun!

On The Beauty of Human Frailty

Oh the Humanity!

On May 6, 1937, radio commentator Herbert Morrison sat at the naval airbase in Lakehurst, New Jersey waiting for the arrival of the Zeppelin Hindenburg, the largest airship that had ever flown. It was twelve hours behind schedule and, doubtless, Morrison was glad to begin recording: “Toward us, like a great feather... is the Hindenburg. The members of the crew are looking down on the field ahead of them getting their glimpses of the mooring mast...”(1) But three hundred feet over its intended landing spot, the Hindenburg shockingly burst into flames. It was destroyed in precisely thirty-two seconds, all before the unbelieving eyes of a thousand spectators. Morrison’s breathless account of the tragedy remains a famous piece of American journalism, particularly his cry “Oh the humanity!” which resonated with the impact of the disaster.

This phrase is now synonymous with any expression of surprise or strong emotion, but it was originally uttered by Morrison as a lament for the human vulnerability so brazenly materializing before him. As burning wreckage came crashing onto the ground and the crowd underneath did not seem to have time to escape, humanity appeared small and susceptible. Here, the symbol of German grandeur, the aircraft deemed the largest and the safest, was suddenly an image of the fragility of human life.

Often reclaimed in times of despair or calamity, the image of human life as vulnerable comes as a shock, even though we know it to be an accurate picture. We are not the towering pillars of strength we sometimes believe, but clay at best, which breaks and falls into pieces before our eyes. It is an image we receive with disbelief, if not indignation. Consequently, because we are so often reminded of human weakness in the midst of tragedy, it is easy—and often valid—to associate our vulnerability with lament. Sitting beside a cancer patient who has fought the disease with everything she has and is still losing the battle, fragility is something to bemoan. Standing within a refugee camp where disease is rampant and the death rate is more than a thousand lives a week, human frailty is not only lamentable, it is infuriating. We might even ask: Is it justifiable to see the inherent weakness of humanity as anything other than something to bemoan?

Not unlike the tragedies that jar us awake, the gospel and the cross within it remind us that human life is not invincible. Jesus spoke readily of his own death and wept at the grave of a friend. He crumbled in Gethsemane under the weight of the coming cross, sweating blood and praying in anguish. Indeed, at the very heart of Christianity is one who reminds us that humanity, like grass and flowers, withers and falls. The apostle Paul, too, racked with persecution, shipwrecks, and beatings, wrote of our bodies as clay jars, hastening back the image of David who lamented that he had become like “broken pottery.”

Scripture clearly puts forth the story of a fleeting and afflicted humanity. And yet importantly, this image is not always put forth as a lament. Far from this, Christ calls to us within our weakness and within his own weakness, demonstrating that suffering is not unfamiliar to him, beckoning us to live as he lived, bidding us to see in weakness a powerful gift. In the cruciform image of Jesus on the cross, we find that there is depth in tragedy, strength in weakness, healing in brokenness, beauty in ashes—even the possibility of meaning in affliction. Where the human Christ is our exemplar, there is, in fact, great hope within human fragility. As Paul writes:
"[W]e have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).

The gospel does not merely inform us of the life to come, of resurrection and restoration, certainty and comfort. Christ is not an escape raft for the hard realities of this world. On the contrary, the gospel must figure into what we think about our humanity in the midst of it all—and it is indeed good news even here. Jesus extends an example of what it means to be human here and now, through suffering, in tragedy, when vulnerability and helplessness lay us low, and when weakness somehow makes us strong. Here, lamentation is befitting, but so is its hopeful counterpart. For quite thankfully, Jesus is not only familiar with the tragic sense of human frailty, he also embraced weakness with passion, that he could carry us through our own.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) "Oh, the Humanity!" Time Magazine, Monday, May 17, 1937.

What We Give

"Don't give away to others what you have not first given away at home," Elizabeth George admonishes.

She continues, "We talk to people on the phone, for instance, but we don't talk to our children. We listen to other people, but we don't listen to our children. We spend time with other people, but we don't with our children. We give smiles and joy to others, but we don't always share these with our children... It's so easy to give our best to comparative strangers and toss our families the leftovers."

One Thousand Gifts of Gratitude

I'm reading, and they're at their desks, books piled high, pencils gliding. I read about being a mom after Father's heart... the list is long, and I see where I fall short.

I need to be more fun. I need to plan parties, volleyball games, tea time.

How does fun fall off my calendar so easily?

I walk to the sunporch-schoolroom where they're studying and request a list.

"Can you think of some fun things you'd like me to do with you? I want to be more fun."

"Mom, YOU ARE FUN!"

A few tears dribble down my cheek, and I smile. Such trusting hearts--that blind Mommy love.

I know the truth. But I'm not one to wallow... I make plans.

Then it hits me; what would I do without the revelation that Father is patient, kind, and forgiving toward me when I fall short?

As I hug those sweet blessings working diligently at their desks, I revel in the beauty of His :

001. Patience,

002. Kindness, and

003. Forgiveness.

Thanks to Ann at Holy Experience for this wonderful idea of counting our gratitude gifts!

Awesome Quote!

What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are."
~Thomas Sowell

Joy In The Waiting

A day of waiting...

Quiet labor...

Worry cast aside...

Contemplate blessings and find joy!

Consideration for Others

Curt, Abby--ambassador, and LaRae
Curt and I were refreshed, on our recent visit to Hillsdale College, to observe numerous young people who expressed respect and consideration for others. They spoke well, in this matter, for their parents and their upbringing. How often, while touring a typical university campus or high school facility, do you find that most of the students look you in the eye and respectfully greet you, even open doors for you if the opportunity arises? It's rare these days.

The Bible addresses this... Philippians 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Titus 3:2 ...showing every consideration for all men. Of course, the golden rule is all about an others-oriented mindset. This is the very essence of the life of Jesus Christ.

But is this a reality in my life? Do others see this in me? In a very real sense, if they do, it is His Spirit emanating. My daily prayer is that I will not be consumed with only the affairs of my life, but when I have opportunity, that I will reach out and show others I am interested in their lives as well.

It doesn't happen magically or without thought. We have to challenge ourselves and our children to ask others questions about their lives. The most natural thing in the world is to talk about ourselves... it's what we know the most about.

Do you have people in your life who seem to care about you? They are probably the ones who, when talking to you, will find out more about you than you find out about them--unless you make the effort to reach out to them and turn the tables!

Helps us all, Dear Savior, to be considerate of others, to continually teach and model to our children the beauty and reality of Your loving example. How desperately our world needs this.

LaRae and ambassadors: Mary on our left, Abby on our right

Rachelle, me, and LaRae waiting to meet Abby the first evening
"It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness." --James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791