Knick-Knacks, Wildfires, Need, and Eternity

Several weeks ago Southern California was all over the national news as wildfires swept through the area, driven by the relentless Santa Ana winds.  More than 1,000,000 people were forced to evacuate and thousands of buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed.

One TMC employee lost his home and everything in it.  Here’s something he said recently.  The first three sentences are wonderful.  The middle sentence is sad.  The last three sentences are frightening.

We have a whole new perspective on life.  The Lord has provided everything we need.  We have a rental home, beds, refrigerator, washer/dryer.  All the rest of the stuff that was in our home ended up being fuel for the fire.  We are humbled and convicted about all the money we spent on knick-knacks and so forth that could have been spent helping other people.  We are going to go about life completely differently this time.  We are changed people.

This was written by a good man.  He is faithful, hard-working, and respected.  I’m grateful for the support he’s received and the lesson’s he’s learned.  It would be easy to assume that anyone in his position would walk away with a similar lesson, but most do not.  So I’m glad to see what he’s learned.

What’s frightening is that the rest of us in America will probably not learn this lesson well enough until our own houses burn down.  And they probably never will.  And even then we probably would forget after a few months.  Which means we may never learn.  Until the day comes when we will wish more than we ever thought we could wish that we had lived differently.

It shouldn’t be hard for the rest of us to be “humbled and convicted about all the money we spend on knick-knacks and so forth that could be spent helping other people.”  We have the Bible, which says things like “Store up treasures in heaven,” “give to the poor,” and “be content with food and covering.”  We have examples of people who have lived this way, radically so, and we admire them (though, like with most heroes, we hope there’s a way to be deified in posthumous biographies while avoiding the sacrifices that all great men and women have made for what they believe).  And we recognize, from time to time, usually at funerals, that our lives are short and that we should use our resources lovingly and wisely.

So why do we have such a hard time giving and such an easy time collecting knick-knacks?  If knick-knacks doesn’t strike a chord with you, try fifteen pairs of shoes, an unnecessary collection of whatevers, the boxes in your closets, garage, attic, basement, or storage unit, and half the things you’re planning to give and hoping to receive for Christmas.

Maybe I’m pessimistic about stuff.  Maybe I struggle with Platonic dualism.  Or maybe wildfires, need, and eternity really have something to teach us about our knick-knacks.

Take a lesson from our humble Christian friend who has chosen to learn good and healthy lessons from God’s painful providence.  God allows some people’s houses to burn down so that they will “go about life completely differently.”  Others only have His Word and His Spirit (I know, it’s rough).  May the burning of our consciences and the hot conviction of the Spirit change us before it’s too late to go about life any differently.

How Sweet the Sound

Tonight I stood as an adopted child of God holding my own adopted twenty-three-month-old East African son in a country where we couldn’t have sat together fifty years ago surrounded by white middle-class Baptists singing an old Christian hymn written by a former slave trader who had repented of enslaving my son’s ancestors.  Amazing grace, indeed.

Judah David Mukisa Gundersen

At 11:36 A.M. Pacific Standard Time on Friday, November 16 at the Children’s Court in Monterrey Park, California, Judge John L. Henning declared that Judah David Mukisa Gundersen is the legal son of David and Cynthia Gundersen, with all the rights and privileges of a natural born child, including inheritance.  We swore under oath that we would treat him as such, and both we and the judge signed the court order to that effect.

Present were Cheryl Pari with her children Allison, Daniel, Jelatu, Armie, and Jay; Cindi’s parents Doug and Susan Heck; and family friends and co-workers Joe Keller and Jeff Lewis.  The judge was very kind and personal, and the proceedings lasted about ten minutes.

Though I picked up the nickname “Gunner” around age 16, “David” is my first name, and we chose it early on for Judah’s middle name because (1) it gives him a name to share with his dad, (2) it goes well with “Judah,” and (3) it has biblical significance (especially in connection with “Judah”).  “Mukisa” was a name recommended to us by Josh Masiko, an international student and personal friend from Uganda who attends our college and our church.  We wanted Judah to have an African middle name that had (1) significant meaning, (2) a good sound, and (3) a connection with Uganda.  “Mukisa” is a name common in Judah’s tribe and it means something like “Grace has been given to me” (“kisa” means grace and “mu” is some sort of personal pronoun).

Judah was his normal self, obviously unaware of the significance of the event.  He wore his little suit but didn’t know why, raised his hand with us as we went under oath even though he didn’t have to, and jabbered quietly during parts of the appearance.  Yet today he became our son, and it doesn’t matter how much he realizes now.  He is now a son with parents who have made a lifelong promise to love him, provide for him, protect him, and train him.

I’ve always found it natural to analogize between what I see around me and the spiritual realities described in Scripture, but it’s especially easy with adoption because the picture of our spiritual sonship is painted so clearly in the Bible.  It has been called the crown jewel of redemption, because even justification and reconciliation do not have to include adoption.  God could have rescued us from sin and death without becoming our Father.  It is possible to have reconciliation without sonship, to have justification without adoption.  It happens all the time.  But those of us who are in Christ are more than former debtors or forgiven criminals.  We are God’s children.  And if today is precious to the Gundersens because it marks the formal beginning of a family relationship, the day of our adoption as children in the family of God should be all the more precious to those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is no small thing to be a child, and no small thing to have a Father.

Gunner Signs the Adoption Document

  

Cindi Signs the Adoption Document

  

A Rare Sight:  Jeff Lewis, Friend and Photographer, in a SUIT

  

The Gundersens with Judge Henning

  

Gunner and Cindi Under Oath

  

The Whole Crew with Judge Henning

  

The Gundersens Outside the Children’s Court

  

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  Because your are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.   - The Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:4-7

Life in November

The past several weeks have been quite full, which is an echo of the past few months.  I asked Cindi if she thought it was worth the time to give a personal update since I wasn’t planning on writing on a particular topic.  She said it was, so here I am.

On Friday I finished a 45-page paper entitled “The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:16″ for my Seminar in Pneumatology class.  In Romans 8:16 Paul says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”  I present the paper in class tomorrow followed by anything from a casual discussion to a grilling, depending on what my classmates think of my research and conclusions and what they want to ask me.  Here’s the last paragraph of the paper (which will make more sense if you carefully compare Galatians 4:6-7 and Romans 8:15-16):

The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is the simultaneous testimony of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the human spirit heard in the adopted child’s instinctive cry of “Abba! Father!”  It is a recurring expression that issues from deep within the redeemed soul, providing constant subjective assurance that the believer is indeed a child of God.

In other academic news, The Master’s Seminary just knocked two elective classes off the Th.M. requirements, which means that I have two less classes to take between now and the summer when I’m hoping to finish the degree.  This will make the spring semester and summer less busy (or equally busy with other things), which I’m excited about.  It also may give me the opportunity to sit in on a class or two (either at TMC or TMS) without doing all the homework, which I’ve wanted to do but have never had time for.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting a two-week blitz researching and writing a paper on Jonathan Edwards’ conception of the Trinity, focusing especially on his view of the essence of the Holy Spirit.  I’m glad my professor doesn’t read this blog (watch him show up in the comments).

The past few days have been a good time of catching up with old friends.  Todd Bolen spent the night Saturday night, Kent Dresdow preached at church Sunday night and in chapel Monday morning and we spent some time together this afternoon, and Eric Zeller will stop by tomorrow before heading down to the ETS gathering in San Diego.  It’s strange to be 26 but already old enough to have friends and partners in ministry.  I assume the bonds only grow sweeter, though I know from experience that a few of them break tragically.

This semester has been unique in several ways.  I won’t mention them all, but at least one is the piercing and above-average sense of frustration (euphemism) I feel with more than a few insipid characteristics of the conservative evangelical community.  This has almost eaten me alive at some points this semester and has spun me in a variety of directions especially as I think about our future.  Often my thoughts have reflected the heart of the arrogant, hypocritical, stone-throwing critic, but I’m holding out hope that the Lord will use the conviction that’s weighing heavy on my heart to stir up the pure passion of the righteous, zealous, Spirit-filled prophet.  It wouldn’t be right or safe to say much more at this point.   I think I could articulate my thoughts with clarity, but the grace, gentleness, and balance might be a bit elusive.  So I need to wait.  Suffice it to say that the conviction currently being assembled in my heart will probably end up serving as the foundation for upcoming life decisions that may be different than what I previously expected.  Or maybe the same decisions saturated with different values.  Either way, the Spirit is painting a clear picture in my mind of the person I don’t want to be.  I think I will be thankful for this once the paint dries, and hopefully even before then.

On a simpler and happier note, I was going to post a video of Judah at least for our good friend Cheryl Robinson who apparently checks in semi-religiously to see if I’ve added any new videos of Judah recently.  But it’s taking a long time to upload and Tuesday mornings don’t start late for me, so it’ll have to wait.  Frankly, Judah does so many ridiculously funny and cute things that we can barely video them all much less upload and post them.  Plus, posting them all would mean turning this blog into a Judah-video outlet, which, while fun, wasn’t the original purpose.  Anyway, there’s at least one pretty great video on the way, Lord-willing.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that he’s the happiest and funniest child I’ve ever seen.

Perhaps I should end with something I read last night in Malachi (which, by the way, reminded me once again of the massive difference between wanting to read something and having to read something).  Here’s what God says, for those of you who don’t skip Bible verses in blogposts:  “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?  And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil?  Why not offer it to your governor?  Would he be pleased with you?  Or would he receive you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1:8).  That’s a horrifying picture – some Israelite perusing his flock and hand-picking his one blind, crippled sheep to offer as a sacrifice because it’s no good for anything else.  The only thing more horrifying is the fact that we do the same thing today, don’t even know it, and don’t even care to know it.  I’ve offered a whole lot of blind sheep to God in the past, and I’m hoping to change that.  God doesn’t want your leftovers.