rain for the mind

"In India, nothing is as it appears to be" Lars explains to us at orientation.

There is a saying among Westerners here that is so well known it is an abbreviation- T-i-I- “This is India.” It is the brief answer to every mystery that defies what you have always taken for granted and for what you have always understood to be the base line of reason and logic.

Everything in India is an allusion to the Western mind.

As an example- we in the West are trained to think on a linear plane. I will prove it to you by having you finish the following sentence:

“The quickest way from A to B is a ___________ _____________. “

If you are thinking “straight line” right now, it is only because you are not from India.

In India you would fill in those blanks, “circle B”.

The first thing you have to get over here is your linear thinking. Circular thinking affects the very way the nationals go about conversation and philosophy and the way people drive. Streets are lined out in circles, driver’s drive in circles, people think in circles. Even art, poetry, literature and religious expressions are laid out in circular equations.

Lars explains a typical conversation with his Indian staff:

Lars: “How are things going?”
Staff member: “It is very bad.”
Lars: “What does ‘very bad’ mean”
Staff: “Well, it is maybe not so good.”
Lars: “What does ‘not so good’ mean?”

Staff: “It’s not so good… but, it is all good.”
Lars: “So you are saying it is good?”
Staff: “No it is very bad”.

It is a circle. The real answer is found somewhere within it. It all makes perfect sense if you get over your linear thinking and understand that even reason is an allusion here.
I am finding that my mind is succumbing to dizzying circles already complicated by my 72 hours without a decent nights sleep. One learns that you cannot trust your natural instincts and biases. You learn that everything is up for change and recalculation.

One is not always sure here that what you think you are seeing is what you are really seeing.

Did that motorcycle that just came within inches of our side mirror really have a family of four with a baby on the handle bar? Did we just pass a cow? Was that a monkey? Was that a bicycle cart carrying a huge wok with the bread frying in the middle of it as he is dodging traffic? Tell me I didn’t just see our driver avoid a traffic jam by merging into the opposite lanes on a major interstate.

It’s not so good. But it’s good.

Our first full day of travel within India provided amazing examples of circular reasoning. We show up at the airport terminal only to find out that the departure gate had been changed and that we now had to drive another 30 minutes to another terminal (There are three- all set out in a kind of semi-circle a few miles away from one another).

This important information was not relayed to passengers until they arrived at the wrong terminal. So we drive to the other terminal, which of course is like driving in a big circle.

We learn after going through the very strenuous Indian security check and waiting on the plane for 40 minutes that the airline has now decided to change planes. We don’t really know why- but the nationals on board seem perfectly fine with this. So they take us off that airplane, make us go back into the terminal and circle back through security check (Did I mention that every ticketed passenger in India receives a ticket that has fine print, “all passengers subject to frisking”?)

Before going into the check-point again, we are told that we have to have another paper stapled to our already checked boarding passes and to follow an agent to get a new one. The agent walks up to a desk- you know the kind that most ticket agents stand BEHIND, - and instead stands IN FRONT of the desk with his back to us forcing everyone to gather around him in front of the desk so that he can hand out tickets not as he is facing us but instead handing our newly stapled tickets behind his back and to his side. Mind you it is not a line forming behind him, it is a CIRCLE- more like a clump of outstretched hands and bodies pushing and shoving toward the newly formed human apex reaching over his shoulder.

Now that we have our newly stapled tickets we are free to move toward the security checkpoint again. But wait- our bags all have stamps saying they have been checked already by security (Which of course is what we had done just about an hour before when we first started this circle)- this will not due, all of our bags need to have tags without stamps (I’m not making this up). So we have to circle back to get tags we have already filled out and have already been stamped so that they can stamp fresh tags on our already checked and examined bags.
From there back to security, onto a bus that takes us back to the very same plane.

You guessed it – we just did a great big circle in the middle of the Delhi International Airport terminal.

Why? There is a simple explanation- T-i-I. Apparently in India, they don’t just want to catch would be terrorists trying to get through security check points, they want to completely spin their heads around and exasperate them.

Sure enough, it was all just an allusion. We just THOUGHT we were in the right terminal, on the right plane and really had our bags checked and through security. We just THOUGHT that the closest way from point A to B was a straight line. What our Western minds could not embrace was the bliss of circular reasoning.

The India way is a kind of parallel universe. You learn that there is no need to go in a straight line when you can go in a circle. Why would we want to take up more space when we can share the same space? Why have only one air terminal on a scheduled flight when you can make people drive thirty minutes to another? Why would we want to form lines when we can form circles? Why only put two cars in two lanes when you can fit cars and cows and trucks and busses and tuk-tuks and ox carts and dogs all going different directions into those two lanes?

The first few times our driver plays chicken with oncoming busses, Michael and I look at each other in dazed shock. But now after three days of this kind of thing happening over and over again with amazing regularity, we have become numb to it- it seems strangely normal. We have decided that the term “near miss” is relative. In the states, “near misses” are measured in feet and yards. In India they are measured in millemeters.

It’s all good. But maybe not so good. T-i-I.

Sergai, who is himself from a third world country struggled for English as he tried to describe India. He held his hands on either side of his brow as if holding his brain in his hands and said,
“It is like rain for the mind”.

Update: I have just come back from an amazing experience in the village. I can only tell you at this late hour that Sergai was right. My mind has been sufficiently blown by an incredible orphanage at the edge of the jungle.

The mayor of this Muslim village just threw a party for us to celebrate the end of Ramadan. They lavished us with food and sweets and Dezee Chai tea; they sang to us and played instruments and served us and stared at us through bright smiles.

In the end, our Christian brothers from India stood and invited everyone there to join us in prayer. We prayed boldly in the name of the Lord for the peace of the village and the prosperity of a new Christian school and orphanage and medical clinic. The prayer was translated into Hindi and English and Russian.

I thought to myself as we were sitting around the arbor made of bamboo and wire, that here we are, gathered together in a circle of Christians from around the globe encircled again by hundreds of Muslim villagers all gathered around us in fascination as we prayed to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I would write more tonight, but my linear Western mind is in a downpour.

the smell of india

After a brutal 24 hour journey from OKC to Delhi, we met up with our international team and got a quick nights rest (I use the word “rest” loosely) in our hotel. We arrived in the middle of the night Delhi time, and yet the city was not asleep. The airport was like a beehive of taxi divers, baggage carriers and peddalers crawling around the conglamaration of flight weary travelers. As we rode through the Delhi streets on our way to the hotel, I couldn’t help but wonder why people were out so late. They are just standing around looking out into the dark night. I am learning that this is just India. People everywhere. So many many people.
The smell of smoke is thick. Sergai, one of our Ukranian brothers wants to know “what is that smell? I smelt it as the plane was landing.”

Lars, the founder and leader of Global Action responds, ‘It’s the smell of India. It smells like home.”

In Delhi there is always smoke. I learn today as we drive through the streets that fires are always burning. Fire from cookouts on the street. Fire from car engines and motorcycles and tuk tuks. I see a guy on the side of the road burning car tires. It is the smell of India.
In the 14th century Tamerlame defeated Delhi and their army of Elephants by tethering thousands of camels together and setting them on fire and charging them toward the Indian lines. The elephants, obviously spooked by the sight of stampeding flaming camels turned toward the Indian front and trampled the hapless Indian line. This was how Temur defeated the impenetrable city and subsequently burned it to the ground. How appropriate that the Muslim hoards brought fire to this city 600 years ago. The fires have not gone out.

Sergai is a Ukranian pastor who came to India last year. He looks like a linebacker. When he speaks his jaw juts out and finishes every sentence with a smile and glowing eyes. You can see his passion- even when you can’t understand what he is saying. Lars told me that when Sergai went to the slum for the first time, he stood off to the side of the group and wept. Lars went to him and asked if he was OK. Sergai responded, “I thought that we in the Ukrain were the poor ones. I wasn’t expecting this.”

This year he has brought 6 people from his Ukranian church with him. How cool it is to see Ukranian believers reach out to the lost of India. The gobal church is alive and well.

We have just finished our time in the slum. I have no words to describe what we have seen. On this Sunday morning we have worshipped with the children of the Sangamvihar
Slum. There were over a hundred children packed into a small room. Indian children are very beautiful. The smallest girls paint their rosy cheeks for affect. They danced for us and sang the songs they have learned. It is obvious that this program was prepared for us for weeks. They sang about Zacheaus and about the disciples in the boat and about the Good Shepherd. They quoted scripture and sang many praise songs. Parents, most of them hindu, huddled in the back listening to the children sing and the teachers teach their lesson. The conditions here are very harsh. People are literally living in garbage here. They share the dirty street with cows and dogs and other scavengers. But in this little room the children get a taste of the heavenly city.

blessed are you when you are poor

On October 12 Michael Butler and I will will board a plane in Oklahoma City and embark on a 12 day mission trip to India with a terrific ministry called "Global Action".     Our journey will take us to some of the most desperate slums and most horrific poverty on the planet.  It is here that the excellent teams from Global Action do their work.    They are in the business of reaching into the most desperate regions of the world with the touch of Christ.  We will be visiting the orphanage and school in Lucknow India that our church heard about earlier this year when Lars Dunberg and Sheeba Suhban shared their stories with us.  We will get a first hand look at the relief work that has been done through our various missions efforts.  

We will visit the slum projects in Kolkata and Motipur and visit with the Global Action staff in those places and pray with them and discern how our church can be more directly involved in these efforts in the future.  

We will spend three days in Bhubaneswar where I will help lead a conference for young Christian leaders.  The organizers who were originally hoping for 1,000 registrants emailed me today and said the number has swelled to 1800 and they are trying to think through the logistics of that many people crammed into the facility they have rented.  

I am still a week away from boarding that plane and yet already I can feel a growing conflict developing in my soul.  It is the cognizant dissonance I experience whenever I see the world's poverty on the one hand while living in the abundant material blessing we have in our own country on the other.   It is the disconnect I feel from one reality into another.  It is the disconnect I experience when I worship with believers in other countries who are persecuted for their faith and yet they gather for worship with incredible joy and eagerness to learn and soak up His word and yet they never look at their clock or complain about the music or the color of the carpet.  It is the anxiety I feel when I think about believers who worry about how they will find the next morsel of bread for their children while the average person in America consumes SIXTY POUNDS of bread in one year.  

It is what I see in myself when I think about how many millions of people in the world live with the anxiety of humiliating poverty while my biggest concern this week has been how the Sooners are going to get back on track after getting it handed to them on Saturday.  

If I go to deep into that conflict I will enter into an even graver sense of conviction.  It is the undeniable knowledge that Jesus talked about our responsibility to the poor more than he talked about our responsibility for worship or teaching or evangelism or fellowship.  

In fact, He began His earthly ministry with this very striking pronouncement: 

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because He has anointed Me 

to proclaim the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom 

for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.  

This was just the first of many examples of how Jesus continually calls us to identify with those who are on the fringe of culture.  He even went as far as to say that our very judgment will be tied to how we clothe, feed and care for the poor.  He says "if you have not done it to the least of my children you have not done it to me."  (Matthew 25:35-36)

James, the half brother of Jesus and first pastor of the Jerusalem church stated plainly that if you SAY you believe in Him and yet you don't clothe the hungry or take care of the poor then what you have is not belief in Jesus but dead defiled ugly religion.  (James 2)  

As evangelicals, we have tended to push back against what we call "social" ministries because they remind us of the liberal theology of the early 20th century.  But by doing so I believe we have allowed the enemy to blind us to the very heart of God.   Jesus loved the poor, walked with the poor, healed the poor, welcomed the poor and told us we had to be like the poor.   It was America's most famous and noted Evangelical theologian Jonathan Edward's who said that there is "nothing more clear in God's Holy Writ than the call of the Christian to the poor".  

Do you see what I mean?  I am still 8 days away from my trip and already I can see that there is a growing discontent welling up in me.  I haven't even left yet and already I am devastated by what I see.  

out of sight, out of mind

I have noticed lately that I drive across bridges differently. I look under bridges more than I used to. I find myself wondering about the infrastructure of these massive spans of roadway upon which I have grown accustomed and until now have never questioned. After the August 1st collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, my sense of awareness has changed.

It may be months or even years before the full story of why the actual mechanics of the bridge failed on that terrible day, but one thing is clear- there was not enough attention paid to infrastructure. Of course, it sounds like an understatement- but a bridge is only as good as it's underlying structure.

Yesterday the Memphis airport was shut down because of outdated communications equipment, stranding air travellers all over the country. The news report I heard blamed the federal aviation infrastructure as being way behind the curve, and went on to say that these kinds of events will only get worse until the problem is dealt with.

Popular Mechanics magazine recently made this observation:

The fact is that Americans have been squandering the infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. Our electricity comes to us via a decades-old system of power generators, transformers and transmission lines—a system that has utility executives holding their collective breath on every hot day in July and August. We once had a transportation system that was the envy of the world. Now we are better known for our congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a primitive air traffic control system. Many of the great public works projects of the 20th century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or beyond their designed life span. ...

...According to a report card released in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 160,570 bridges, or just over one-quarter of the nation’s 590,750-bridge inventory, were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The nation’s bridges are being called upon to serve a population that has grown from 200 million to over 300 million since the time the first vehicles rolled across the I-35W bridge. Predictably that has translated into lots more cars. American commuters now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to the economy of $63.2 billion a year.

By now you have likely anticipated my obvious spiritual parallels to all of this. Jesus once asked, "What good does it do for you to gain the entire world and lose your own soul?" (Mark 8:36).

I often find in my own life that I have become like the whited sepulchre about which Jesus impugned the pharisee. My life can become like dry bone, if I am not intent on looking into it. My life, like a bridge, is only as good as it's underlying structure.

Truly, the spiritual life is a call to discipline. We honor God by how we take care of it. My spiritual life has an infrastructure that is rarely seen but needs careful attention nonetheless. If I am not engaged in it with determined regularity, the bolts and joints and hinges begin to creak and the bridge begins to sway.

Most of the issues we deal with internally can be summed up in one word- neglect. Out of sight and out of mind is a dangerous attitude not just for physical infrastructure.

All of this to say that I would love for you to go with me through the spiritual exercise and discipline of a 42 day discipleship program we are introducing to our church on Wednesday night, October 17 called "Join the Journey". You can register here.

preaching to myself

One of my pet peeves about myself is that I tend to get preachy. It is, as you would guess, a hazard of my trade- since I am in fact a preacher. This is the part of my self that I really don't like to admit to or look at seriously, but I can really launch into sermons about the most trivial issues. I know you are shocked by this (tongue is firmly in cheek right now), but sometimes I launch into sermons involuntarily even when no one is around. It is really sick, I know. I can't help it.

Which raises the philosophical question "if a preacher preaches a sermon in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, is it a real sermon?"

But I digress. What I mean to tell you is that I preached a sermon to myself while driving down the Broadway Extension this week.

I was listening to talk radio when a woman who claimed to be a lifetime evangelical Christian called in to defend Christianity to an antagonistic talk show host. He challenged her faith by asking her to answer one simple question about the creation account in Genesis. He wanted to know how is it that eeevanJELical (that word spoken with particular scorn) Christians could claim their little corner of the truth when ALL these other religions have their own creation account.

I stared at the radio waiting for this woman to come back with SOMETHING half way thoughtful or informative in retort. I knew the odds were not in evangelicalism's favor, as one recent study found that a majority of teenage evangelicals believe that MOSES was one of the 12 disciples (If you are wondering why that is disturbing, you are hereby banned from my blog site). Anyway, the woman was speechless. She had nothing to say.

Nothing.

She just said she didn't know how to respond.

That is when I started preaching my sermon. The sermon was about our responsibility as Christians to know our faith. And in fact to know how to answer people when they ask us for the REASON for the hope we have, but to be able to do it with such knowledge and forethought, that our answer is gentle and respectful (1 Peter 3:15).

It was about our responsibility not just to know our religious belief, but in a multicultural multi-religious context within which ALL OF US now live, it is important that we even know what other religions believe and teach.

It was about how in order to truly love someone with you whole heart, you have to KNOW them. I waxed eloquent to myself about how true Christianity is not just experiential knowledge, it is also informational knowledge and to truly know the Lord you have to know doctrine. You have to love doctrine and love His Word.

And how if this woman really was who she said she was (a lifetime evangelical Christian) and was being asked in front of the entire national talk radio audience to give a reason for the hope she had, and if she truly had through her love for the Lord and for her love for others and her love for the gospel had taken the initiative to learn about these things, she would have been able to very simply, very powerfully answer his question.

In my sermon, I went on to explain that the talk show host had framed the question in the wrong way. She should have just asked him what he knows about what other world religions teach about creation? If she had done that she would have changed the focus of his scorn and a very good point about truth could have been made. Because in fact while most of the world religions do not agree about the most important truth issues, it just so happens that creation is NOT one of them. All the major monotheistic religions in the world agree in essence on the creation account. In fact the major religions all read and claim belief in the same text- the Genesis account is agreed upon by Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Mormonism and only disagree in their interpretation of it. Eastern religions believe that the material world is an allusion so their ideas of creation are not even in the same context- they wouldn't agree to the question in the way he framed it, it seems to me.

I went on in my sermon to myself to talk about how all of us are given the responsibility to engage our culture, to love our culture, to understand our culture and to not be intimidated by the questions of culture. I talked about how all truth, by it's very nature, is narrow and that even the talk show host would have to agree to that.

I pointed out that if one says that there is no such thing as absolute truth then he is making an absolute statement and therefore we can't even believe that assertion, making it irrelevant and empty. As C.S. Lewis correctly pointed out, "you can't go on seeing through things forever, if you can see through everything, then what you see is nothing".

Man, that was a good sermon.

Too bad I was the only one who heard it. The only thing worse than me preaching to myself is when I amen myself.

(And by the way- this is a good time to remind you that the next "Explore the Journey" Course on the doctrines of our faith begins Wednesday night October 17 in room 200)

if you run with the dogs, you will catch fleas

Let me begin this entry into my blog by stating the painfully obvious- there is something wrong with the American psyche and it goes much deeper than a professional athlete who has his own dog fight gambling ring. The summation of the depth of the problem is not encompassed by the tragic story of Michael Dwayne Vick.

But it is the latest most obvious illustration of it.

Sports, cable and major news outlets are obsessing over this modern version of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. We shake our heads in awe that an athlete with the potential and future of Vick could kiss it all good-bye for the "thrill" of gambling on which dog can tear the other dog's throat out. I have never really understood the gambling addiction, but I suppose it is the result of the adrenalin one feels as he sits on the razor edge between ruin and fortune. The edge ran out last week for this one time sports hero, who was once revered as a role model for struggling urban youth.

Last week he went from hero to zero. but it didn't happen overnight. Michael Vick, like the rest of us, is the product of his choices.

This story has already been hashed and rehashed from every possible angle and I don't intend to go very far down that road, but do want to reflect on the issue from a spiritual perspective by asking what are deeper macro issues involved here?

1. Just because a man has fortune it doesn't mean he has wealth. There is much more to wealth than just money or fame. The word "wealth" in scripture is related to the word "weight" or "worth". A man of weight is a man of substance. A man's weightiness is related to the value he carries not in his bling but in the substance of his character. The lesson to kids who look up to athletes like Vick is that there are many things money can't buy, and character is not something you can buy back with multi million dollar contracts.

Character is earned. But it is never too late to start earning it.

One only has to contrast the inspiring speech of another football hero named Michael on the same week the Vick story broke. Michael Irvin, the one time bad boy of the Dallas Cowboys who in the early 90's battled drug abuse and arrest, delivered an inspiring speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony, giving thanks to God, his pastor and even leading the crowd in a brief prayer. My favorite part was when he turned to his wife:

For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It's easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it. But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love you for the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can't mention, I can't even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.

It is said that Henry Ford once sat at a table with his boyhood hero, Thomas Edison. He asked him, "what is the secret to success?"

Edison's simple answer was "good choices."

Ford thought about those words for a moment and then asked, "How does one learn to make good choices?"

"Bad choices" Edison answered.

The substance of a man's character is seen in his ability to learn from life. The Bible says

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Wisdom is making the most of every opportunity, it is asking yourself what is the VERY BEST thing for me to do in this decision, at this moment. Not "what is the easiest" or "what is the most thrilling" or "what can I get away with" but "What is the VERY BEST thing for me to do".

That is what a real man asks. That is how a real man lives. It is a man that makes those kinds of choices that becomes a man of substance, a man of wealth.

2. A second and very important lesson here from a macro perspective is that our lives will often take the shape of what we project them to be. My dad used to say "If you hang with the dogs, you will catch the fleas". That statement seems particularly poignant in light of the Michael Vick story.

There is a scene in the movie "Rocky Balboa" which particularly intrigues me. Rocky has taken a street kid under his wing and for whatever reason, wants him to go with him to pick out a dog. In what now on reflection seems like a very symbolic statement about the disenfranchised and disconnected urban teen, he asked him what dog he would pick out. The boy immediately picked out a pit bull.

Rocky, being the great student of human behavior and social philosophy that he is, points the boy to a down and out mangy old used up mutt. Together they take the dog home and give it a second chance, even as they both find their own way through the challenges of despair and fear and change. At the time it seemed random, but I now see that trip to the dog pound as central to the theme of the movie.

Rocky, as a kind of father figure and a symbol of new hope for the boy who was struggling in his relationship with his single mom, was pointing the teen away from an image he had picked up on the street. He was turning his eyes and his heart away from the powerful lure of gang culture that so many young urban teens who grow up with single moms gravitate toward, and toward the image of real manhood. It seems like such a simple, even insignificant scene in the movie- but how striking it was now that I have had time to think about it. It was as if this fomer heavy weight champion boxer who the boy revered was saying to him, "you don't have to have a pit bull to prove yourself! Your character is measured in other ways- a real man can take care of an old dog that nobody wants. A real man will take responsibility for things that no one else will take responsibility for!"

If you can see yourself as one who doesn't NEED the pit bull image, but as one who can bring an old dog to life, as one who can be just as self assured and even more so by rejecting the projected image of the negative culture around you, then maybe, just maybe, other more substantive changes can take shape. It all starts with a choice. And then other choices.

We should never forget that every man at any given time has a choice between two Adams. The first Adam was passive and irresponsible and would not lead his family and expected his own reward, not God's reward.

The second Adam by contrast, Jesus Christ, took responsibility for those things that were not his fault and rejected passivity and lead courageously and expected eternal rewards, not material, physical ones.

That is the difference. To truly "man up" is to follow the example of the second Adam, not the first.

To put it another way- a real man isn't measured by the weight of his bling or the fight in his bulldog... but by the weight of his character and the substance of his choices.

intruder in the house

We were all shocked and sickened to hear the story this week of the Connecticut doctor and his family who were brutally attacked inside their own home. Dr. William Petit Jr. and his wife Jennifer and their two daughters Hayley (17) and Michaela (11) were enjoying a night together in the peace and calm of their own home, when two men broke into the house, knocked out Dr. Petit with a baseball bat, tied him up and threw him in the basement, and then for several hours terrified and brutally tortured his wife and daughters before finally setting the house on fire, killing everyone except for Dr. Petit, who managed to break out of the basement just as the police and fire department arrived.

This is the kind of story that strikes horror into the heart of every man. It is absolutely the worst nightmare any of us could imagine. I am praying for Dr. Petit and asking for God's continued grace and strength- my heart goes out to this man. I cannot even begin to imagine how a man can survive such sorrow. It will be only by the grace of God.

A home is sacred- a place of refuge and peace and protection. A home is a families "shalom" where children should always feel the love and peace and joy of the Lord. It is a place where spiritual maturity should be nourished and encouraged and the family should thrive in an environment of growth and learning.

As a husband and father and the head of my home, I feel a heightened sense of responsibility for the welfare of my family. I see that God has given me stewardship over them and that I am to stand in the gap for them in prayer and to hold the vanguard against the work of the enemy.

When I first read this terrible account of the attack on this Connecticut family, I immediately thought of this teaching of Jesus found in Matthew 12:29:

"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house."

In context Jesus is addressing the issue of spiritual battle- by implication He reveals here a very specific tactic of the enemy in destroying a home. He is saying that the way the enemy comes into a home and destroys everything of value in that home is by first tying up the strong man. The "strong man" is the head of the house- the man who is given responsibility to stand in the gap for his wife and kids. If the enemy can take the man out, he can have his way in the home.

The details of the abhorrent crime in this quiet community in Connecticut have sent shock waves across the world, but this teaching of Jesus highlights a more subtle and yet incredibly destructive spiritual parallel that I see happening in homes today at an alarming rate.

I see the remains of shattered lives and homes under attack almost weekly. I see men who have been bound up by pornography or workaholism or drug or alcohol abuse. I see men lured away from their wives and children and the responsibility that God has given them as the "strong man" in the home. I see good men, Christian men often, who know better and who have understood clearly the consequences of their behavior, throw it all to the wind and leave their families for greener grass or better promise or the attraction and thrill of an adulterous relationship.

The affect of this is no less dramatic than an intruder taking a baseball bat and smashing him in the face and tying him up and rendering him completely defenseless while the evil one goes into his home and robs everything precious to him. I have seen wives and children's lives forever altered because of the work of the intruder. I have spent hours begging men not to do it, not to buy into the lie of the enemy. I have watched as men who at one time in their lives had said that it could never happen to them essentially welcome the enemy in to destroy all that they have ever cared about. My wife and I have spent many hours with broken hearted wives who try to find some sense out of behavior they never dreamed they would encounter in their husbands.

I tell you very honestly- today more than ever I fear for every young man I sit with in premarital counseling. My counseling has changed dramatically since I was a young minister. I spend a lot more time today addressing the need for godly men in the home who understand the principles of manhood of rejecting passivity, accepting responsibility, leading courageously and expecting God's reward.

I spend more time talking about the work of the enemy in attacking the strong man first. I look young men in the eye and tell them, "you will be under attack- the enemy WILL come after you. It is not a matter of if it is a matter of when." It is a tactic that Jesus has taught us about and it is in play in very powerful and effective ways. You must know it, understand it and guard against it. When you think you are invulnerable to it, you are as good as dead. Just as every man locked his house a little tighter after hearing about the Petit family, every man should guard his heart and muster all his strength and discipline once he understands the work of the intruder!

I am praying today for William Petit Jr. And as I think of his horrible pain and sorrow, I think also of the horror that awaits every home in which the strong man has been bound up.

I would say to every husband and father who is reading this- there is nothing the enemy would like more than to steal everything you have, but how can the robber come into your home and take everything you have unless he first comes in and ties you up?

I would remind all of us of the words of Jesus to Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32:

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."