Woodpeckers at the Gutter

A few days ago we were awakened early (for us – about 6:00am) by an unexpected noise. A woodpecker was trying to find bugs to eat by trying to poke a hole in our gutter. It took the bird too long to figure out that it was making no progress, much to my annoyance. But finally, it gave up and moved to more woody targets. 

Later in the morning (after I had fallen asleep again and then woke up to my planned alarm) it struck me that the woodpecker at our gutter provided a metaphor for one of the challenges in the Christian life. It is a real possibility that we may spend time trying to derive life-giving sustenance from a false source.

The world around us offers many sources of “false life.” We can pursue comfort or ease from the hardship and trouble of life through entertainment, or possessions, or things that numb us like alcohol or drugs. We can try to fill our loneliness through sex, or pursing popularity, or developing a co-dependent relationship on someone else. We can protect ourselves from insecurity by acquiring wealth, hiding our emotions, or isolating ourselves completely. We can think that we might best fulfill our purpose by becoming well-known, well-loved, powerful or successful. The truth is each of us can do an honest soul inventory and probably discern what our particular “siren song” is.

We can even allow this thinking to creep into our life with God. We can replace deep union with Christ with great activity for the church, great service to the needy, great knowledge of the Bible, great generosity to missions, and more. As valuable as these acts are, (And they are!) they are not the source of life that we need. It might sound strange to hear an evangelical pastor say that knowledge of the Bible is not the source of life, given our high view of the nature of the Scriptures and our correct emphasis on its authority. I affirm many things about the Scriptures, but not that they are the source of our life. Jesus Himself said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,  yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40).

The sage said, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). The point is that our hearts (inner world, convictions, affections, etc.) can go astray if we don’t guard them and turn them back to the truth that by the grace of God we have been united with Christ. Christ is our life (see Colossians 3:4). Pursuing anything else is as fruitless for us as trying to get carpenter ants out of our metal gutters was for the poor woodpecker that woke me up this past week. The point: Don’t get drawn away from Christ by the promise of something else, nothing will ultimately sustain us or satisfy us like Christ.

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff

"Inspired by..." the Original

When our children were young some of our bedtime readings were the delightful “My Father’s Dragon” trilogy. Netflix recently aired a movie version of the story, so we thought we’d watch it. My wife made it through the first twenty minutes. After about forty minutes, my son and I opted to switch to “listen mode” for the remainder while doing other activities. On the whole, it was disappointing.

The plot didn’t actually follow the story. At the end of the film, the credits said, “Story by…” “Inspired by ‘My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett. The film used the name and key elements of the original story (like…the dragon), but completely rewrote the plot. In other words, it was NOT “My Father’s Dragon.” The feedback on the Internet is generally positive and given much of the material (even cartoons) being produced today, it was a welcome breath of fresh air. But…it was not the same story as the books. I don’t know how the showrunners made their adaptive choices, and it may be that the original just wouldn’t have worked as a movie. After all, I’m not a media expert. I’ve seen this happen before (I’m looking at you Disney and your terrible adaptation of John Carter).

I’m not sure about our arguments for “adapting” something. Sometimes, it feels like we choose to “update” or “adapt” something just because we want a change. Perhaps it is some misguided thought that old ideas aren’t interesting, or maybe we’ve assumed that complicated or “edgy” or intense is better than simple, charming, or whimsical. Whatever it may be, sometimes the adaptation isn’t faithful to the original. It may “capture its spirit” or it may just be plain off-the-mark. But in either case, it’s not the original.

In the life of faith, its okay to be inspired by Jesus as long as we also recognize that we are to be “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). Before anyone objects, I know we can’t be perfect imitators of God and that is not what Paul is calling us to. But our aim is to reflect Him as accurately as we can in attitude and action (and words!). In another famous passage, Paul calls us to be transformed so that we may delight in God’s will. For Christians, there is no update or adapt, there is only imitate – the original is perfect.

Sometimes originals should simply not be tampered with.

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff