by Ryan Smith | Jun 6, 2014
In 2003, Singer/Songwriter John Mayer released a song called “Something’s Missing” in which he lamented,
Something’s missing and I don’t know how to fix it.
Something’s missing and I don’t know what it is – no I don’t know what it is at all.
On Wednesday, Mayer wrote this on his Twitter account:
“In all sincerity, I really don’t like the ‘you’re perfect’ mentality in culture. It should be ‘nobody’s perfect.’ Both give comfort, but the first gives false permission not to have to work towards something better.”
I believe Mayer has stumbled upon an important observation and question. The observation is this: culture says “You’re Perfect!” However, we recognize we are not perfect. No matter what we go to bed with in the evening, we always wake up with the same man in the mirror every morning.
The idea we are perfect is comforting indeed. However, that straw man quickly burns in any heat. As he says, it gives “false permission.”
When this becomes apparent (which it quickly does), the pendulum swings the other way.
Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. Therefore if I am caught doing something disagreeable, it’s not me it’s us. You can’t judge me because I am part of us, and we are all imperfect.
This may provide comfort, but “false permission” is in play here as well.
The problem is neither side of the coin seems to describe reality. However, to go any deeper than these permissive worldviews, you have to draw lines. This means some things are in bounds and some are out of bounds. This suggests an objective set of boundaries.
But boundaries create lines, and society says lines are bad. Whether those lines are political, sexual, or societal, lines simply become a way to show the barriers we must break through.
But are there lines we should not have false permission to break through? Is there an objective order? Is there something that provides true comfort, yet is not falsely permissive?
A world with no walls is great because it allows complete freedom to run with eyes closed. However, at some point, one must ask why we keep running into walls. We must ask if opening our eyes is good even if it causes definition; even if it brings light; even if it exposes uncomfortable truths.
The truth is we keep running into boundaries because boundaries exist. The Christian worldview holds that these boundaries belong to God and are expressed in the Bible. The humanistic worldview is that these boundaries belong to us and are moveable at anyone’s whim or direction. It says we are all perfect enough to define our own realities. The reason it doesn’t work, it claims, is that nobody’s perfect. Read that again. Do you feel a tension there?
Boundaries aren’t merely “do’s” and “don’ts,” but the fact that the world – social, physical, spiritual – actually works a certain way. It is not fluid. John 1 tells us all things were created through and for Jesus. It also tells us these boundaries are created for a reason: God’s glory and our good. Ignoring those boundaries is called “sin.”
Of course we aren’t God, so sometimes the lines don’t make sense to us. Sometimes we want a “good” when God has created for us a “best.” His boundaries might cause us to <gasp> restrain in an area. They also may call us to <gasp> work in greater discipline. They might even cause us to <faint> admit that we aren’t the be-all and end-all of creation.
Everybody’s perfect. Nobody’s perfect. Neither are true. One is perfect – Jesus Christ. He came to us. Not only to show us the way, but to BE the way.
When we learn the truth of Jesus Christ, we see the world the way it is. We see the order. We see the boundaries and celebrate the freedom therein. We turn from a world in constant flux.
We can quit waiting for the world to change.
by Ryan Smith | Apr 17, 2014
Easter is approaching. Eggs are being dyed, Peeps are being microwaved, and kids are being fitted for uncomfortable pastel suits. As I’ve been preparing for Easter, I’ve been listening to a lot of songs, messages, and other avenues to point me to the glory of God displayed through the death, burial and resurrection.
As I have been walking this journey, I’ve noticed a rock in my shoe. It keeps poking at me, causing me to address it, and I am curious to throw it out and see where it lands.
Question: Did God the Father turn His face away from God the Son?
Our immediate response is in the affirmative as it has been told to us and sung about in dramatic fashion. The problem is it is not in the Scripture. Before you come burning down my house crying, “Heretic!” let me address a few questions.
Does the Bible say the Father turned His face away from the Son?
No it does not. This seems inferred based on the crucifixion accounts in Matthew and Mark in which Jesus calls out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Luke and John do not record the phrase, but do record other phrases (as well as do Matthew and Mark) showing Jesus’ control and intentionality over the painful proceedings (Luke 23:28, 34, 43, 46; John 19:26-27, 28-30). In fact, virtually every word and act coming from Jesus on the cross is not from a place of helplessness or loss, but in demonstrating control, fulfilling Scripture, and considering those around.
What could Jesus have meant?
John, writing to a mixed Jewish and Gentile audience does an excellent work throughout his book pointing out Christ’s fulfillment of Scripture and explaining events. In John 19:24, John notes the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ clothes in order to fulfill Scripture. The Scripture he points to is Psalm 22.
There is something important to consider here. The Jewish people of that time were vastly more knowledgeable of their Scriptures than we are today. For many of them, the Law, Prophets, and Writings were committed to memory. In referencing a passage, they would simply say the first line – calling into mind the purpose, occasion, and emphasis of the passage as a whole.
This would be similar to if I were to say, “The Lord is my shepherd…” You would apply the presence of God through the valley of the shadow of death, beside cool waters, and recall his comforting rod and staff. Or if I said, “We the people…” the words would call into mind a much greater body of work than the introduction itself.
This is why it is important to consider Jesus’ words, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” and John’s mention of fulfilled Scripture in Psalm 22.
Jesus in a loud voice shouted to a largely Jewish hearing these scorching words. Interestingly enough, they are the first words of Psalm 22 found in verse 1. Here are some other phrases found in the Psalm:
- “All who see me mock me…they wag their heads.” – v. 7 (reference Matt. 27:39, Mark 15:29)
- “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.” – v. 15 (reference John 19:28)
- “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.” – v. 16 (reference Luke 24:40, Isaiah 53:5)
- “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” – v. 18 (reference John 19:24)
It is easy to see why Jesus is calling the people’s attention to Psalm 22. But also note what else Jesus calls to mind in the Psalm. Verses 1-2, and 11-18 describe a horrific situation of agony, mocking, and impending death.
However verses 3-10 and 19-24 recall God’s faithfulness, deliverance, and power to save. Verses 25-31 are a worshipful doxology of God’s great deliverance for a people to come. It describes a turning to the Lord on a global scale and the proclamation of righteousness among a people yet unborn. And it shall be told to them that (God) has done it (vs. 31).
In the midst of all this come the comforting words of verse 24, “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him.”
Is Jesus (as well as Matthew and Mark) claiming the words of Psalm 22 to describe God’s overwhelming deliverance, presence, faithfulness and victory in the most dire of situations? I believe so. To necessitate the broken fellowship of the Trinity and the abandonment of the Son by the Father is at best an implication of the text, not an expression of it.
So what does this mean and why should we care this Easter?
- He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. The full penalty of sin is paid – every ounce – in Christ Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross. He has done it (Ps. 22:31), it is finished (John 19:30).
- God the Son sovereignly both laid His life down and took it back up in obedience to God the Father (John 10:18, 17:1).
- The cross was not Divine Child Abuse or a break in the unbreakable. The cross was a beautiful act of Trinitarian fellowship, not a broken disunity (John 17:19, 26).
God’s sovereignty over the cross is equal to his sovereignty over the resurrection. Both in life and death, sin and righteousness, God is sovereign, present, and will be glorified. The Son loves the will of the Father, and the Father loves the obedience of the Son.
Let me be clear. I am not implying this was a joyful and happy experience for God the Father, Son or Spirit. I also want to be clear that the Bible teaches there is a literal hell in which God will remove His merciful presence. I’m just not sure he removed it in forsaking Christ on the cross.
As we celebrate the resurrection this Easter, let us remember the power of the cross as well. As Abraham did not look away from Isaac, yet sternly rested in the will of God, Jesus the true sacrificial son rested in the will of God and beheld his great Father who would not leave nor forsake him.
Glory to God.
by Ryan Smith | Mar 3, 2014
I get it. I’ve been there. You are 45 minutes in to what seems to be an eternity-long course, hearing some chalk-dust-covered professor drone on about theorems, tangents, rock strata, ions, graphs and a world of other information you think you will never use beyond the midterm exam.
Here’s the truth about that information: You’re right. The vast majority of what you learn after the elementary basics applies to arenas of life where you will never set foot. At some point, you get to choose your classes and enroll in ones that seem to ring louder and peak your interest. But somewhere in the educational universe, a gauntlet has been handed down with hoops you must jump through, marks you must make, and levels of tasks you must complete.
So what good is a prescribed education if you are likely going to forget most of the information you learn anyway? A lot.
This is what they don’t tell you about school. Personally, I didn’t discover it until well into graduate work. School is about more than education. It is highly more valuable than we thought.
There are four key purposes for school. To assume or insinuate that one of these is the sole focus would be to err and create an unhealthy unbalance. To assume or insinuate one of these is not a focus at all would be to create just as unhealthy an unbalance.
Unfortunately, you are only graded in one of these areas. But school is much more. For the purposes of this blog, allow me to use the acronym, “SEAM” to join the four purposes of school they don’t tell you about.
S – SOCIAL – Yes you need to learn facts and engage problems. But you also need to do it in community. There is health in being under authority (teachers, administrators), working with others (group projects) and interacting with peers. We are social creatures. Boys need to know how to interact with girls. What the Bible teaches us about young men and women largely takes place among others – both in our peer groups and in authority structures. Sometimes it hurts, but school is an excellent training ground and arena in which we develop into socially adept beings. It’s where we meet friends, encounter enemies, and learn the difference. We need to go through the ugliness of junior high, the exposure of high school, and the freedoms of college with varying degrees of shelter and influence in order to understand how to wield those tools for good.
E – EDUCATIONAL – Before you go throwing your homework in the trash, an education is a tremendous focus of school. You need to know about things and how they work. You need to learn math to function in society. You need to be equipped with a wonder at the scientific processes, the intricate details, and the theories of how and why things tick. Expand your mind. Train and equip yourself. You never know what you will need down the road so pack well.
A – ATTRITION – Attrition is the idea of wearing away on a surface or weakening by continual attack. It is the way a potter tears and molds clay; the way water slowly erodes a hard surface; the way a blade is sharpened by continual exertion against a rock. Attrition. Friction creates formation. This applies to us as well. There is a reason we call math work, “math problems.” It is not necessarily a bad thing for you to be overwhelmed with assignments. You should take classes that don’t necessarily interest or entertain you, because in them you have the opportunity to grow. Far too many students give up on a class because of “irrelevant” subject matter. But basically all they are doing is backing down from a challenge. The people that make it farthest in this world are those who learn to do what they have to do in order to do what they want to do. Not everything is fun. Work is often work. But the knife that cuts only butter is least useful in battle. As Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
M – MISSION – For the Christian, we understand our places, circles of influence, and times are not random happenstance, nor even the plan of some detached board of people who don’t “get you.” They are given from the hands of a sovereign and good God. This God has given you a mission. This mission is to share the gospel and make disciples. Increasingly, schools are becoming places limited to gospel influence. Youth pastors, college ministers, organizations and pastors are feeling the collar of freedom tighten around their neck. They can only go so far. But you know one thing they can never take out of schools? Students. And students can carry Christ among their peers, respectfully to teachers and those in authority, and create discussion in class where worldviews contrary to Scripture are being spouted as truth. Speak up. Stay alert. Every class, every seat, every semester is dripping with meaning and purpose in God’s mission.
So be careful before you dismiss a class or yearn for graduation too early. Just because a class may seem irrelevant on the educational level, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. The classes least promising in educational value are often the ones highest in attritional value. Those with limited attrition (easy classes) are often ripe with social opportunity. Every class has mission implications, and you never know how you might grow by offering views, discussing with peers, and learning to relate with those who agree and disagree with you.
As a classy Garfield poster hanging in a classroom once taught me, “Don’t fail to learn or you will learn to fail.”
by Ryan Smith | Jan 23, 2014
While perusing my Facebook feed during a recent bout of insomnia, I came across an article several people had posted. The article is called, “The Issue of Age in Modern Worship” and with it the post begged, “How would your grandmother fit in during a typical worship service of your church?”
As a worship leader, it peaked my interest so I read the article. In an effort to faithfully represent the author’s position and stance, I will try to summarize his points below, but encourage you to read the full article here, as well as the follow-up article, “Age in Modern Worship: Further Reflections” here for greater context to my response.
Summary: There is a growing trend in some churches to retire older, more seasoned worship leaders in favor of younger counterparts. While there could be many reasons for this, it is misrepresentative of the Church at large. If you are brand-focused and event-oriented, it makes sense to use a demographically homogenous worship team to further the brand. (Example given is “young hipsters or modern rockers”). Ergo, if your band is a group of “young hipsters or modern rockers” you are brand-focused, event-oriented and don’t care about learning from older members. This makes it appear we model “cool” people leading worship and isolate “uncool” people and styles for the sake of the brand.
The author’s summary point is then made, “What are we really gaining when a church stops looking like the Church?” He then goes on to describe his worship team, one where older and younger musicians of different stylistic leanings are, “gathering together to make great music for our Great God…great diversity of the Bride of Christ worshiping the Author of Diversity.”
He makes great points and I am thankful for his leadership among his team to glorify God and edify the church. I in no sense intend to attack this brother in Christ or his views. If for branding purposes, a church removes a capable leader with a strong heart and capacity for leading worship, it is terrible.
However, let me offer a different angle of lighting on this stage.
I get it. I see the hipster worship bands with their oversized glasses and undersized jeans making the music of every Macbook user’s Pandora station. I’ve sat under their leadership. I have also sat under the leadership of the 60-something arm-waving choir/orchestra director guiding us through key modulations and classical interludes before we skip stanza 3 and hit the crescendo of stanza 4. I’ve been there and everywhere in between.
The truth is, I have no problem with any of these because the Bible has no problem with any of these. The Bible focuses on the heart of those leading worship, not the style of sleeve they wear it on. Perhaps on my grandmother’s Facebook page there are articles with the question, “How would your grandson fit in during a typical worship service of your church?” I don’t know. My greater concern is not who is fitting in, who makes up the team, or what style is accompanying, but what truths they are feeding their flock.
While this was not the author’s key point, this is the conversation that usually flows out of such discussions, and in many ways is an underlying sore. As a worship leader at a church that employs modern worship regularly in our specific context to communicate the timeless truths of the Gospel, my greatest concern is not average age on the stage, decade/century of song written, genre of song, or stylistic variations in homage to the Author of Diversity. I’m more concerned with the Author of Salvation.
Bottom line, God gave us His Word and His Spirit to point us and push us towards Christ. Any worship leader worth his salt is seeking to incorporate Scripture into every avenue of the service (yes, in song) as well as praying to the Spirit to use the truths sung and displayed to actively communicate the Gospel as the gathered church remembers, responds, and reminds. Songs should be thick with Gospel truth, saturated with Scripture and representative of the Bible God gave us.
This has little to nothing to do with music style.
Truthfully, when the Spirit by His grace began to illuminate the Bible-infused words poetically put to verse to communicate the timeless truths of the Gospel to me, it was from a hymn book with organ blaring. But I didn’t care if it was out of a hymn book on Sunday morning or a transparency screen on Wednesday night (I’m a child of the 90’s. All you millenials, google it). I began to see the disparity and merits of both as they utilized the truth of the Gospel to shed a giant spotlight on Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Would my grandma fit in during a typical worship service at our church? Yes. Not because she has the Civil Wars on vinyl (it’s a band) but because she loves Jesus. She loves the Word of God. She may not like the music. But she would fit right in next to the tatted-up university student and the Men’s Warehouse father of four who love Jesus and the Word of God. As a grandson and a worship leader, the best and most honest thing my grandma could say to me after being in one of our worship gatherings would not be, “I loved the music and the cross-generational makeup of your band,” but, “I didn’t care for the music, but I love the God we sang about and the Scriptural truths we celebrated.”
By God’s grace, this is what I pray earnestly to do as a worship leader – not lead music, but lead worship. Music is a biblically-ordained, prescribed conduit for worship (Psalm 33). But part of my job as a worship leader is to remind the church that it’s not about the music or even the worship, but the One being worshiped. Our room is dark and stage lights off not because we’re moody or hipster, but because I want to save the church from the temptation to make issue over the average age of the worshipers on stage or what they’re wearing. I’d rather have anonymity and a few bruised shins than give the enemy a foothold of dissention that has nothing to do with the Gospel.
Diversity is great and can be a great model to show the surpassing riches of the Gospel. But diversity is not the end-game. God is. Whatever music style we employ, let it continually be overshadowed, understated and in due time, forgotten in light of the glory of God and the truths of His Word. As the old song says, may the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. (By the way, they railed against that one when it first came out too).
Worship is not about the people on the stage. Worship is not about tempo, instruments or genres. Worship is not about how comfortable your grandma or grandson would be in your service. Worship is about God. God gave us His Word and His Spirit to lead us in worship. Spirit and truth. Lets talk about that.
by Ryan Smith | Jan 3, 2014
It’s over. The boxes are put away, the toys put together, the egg nogged and the halls undecked. We’re done with Christmas. For those Kringle-lovers, there is always next year, and the way our retail stores plan ahead, the decorations and sales will be back around April.
In the Smith household, this was the first year spent watching numerous Christmas cartoons and specials for the kiddos. I am relatively sure at this point that every animated character in history has in some way “saved Christmas.” This is the formula:
1) Characters anticipate Christmas.
2) Santa falls into some sort of distress/broken sleigh.
3) Characters are called upon to get Santa up and running or deliver presents themselves.
4) Characters come through.
5) Christmas is saved from ruin. The villagers rejoice.
So what does this tell us about saving Christmas and what it would look like for it to be ruined?
As I sat back in my reindeer sweater sipping cider this year, I tried to observe a few central components of what it means to “Save Christmas” from ruin. For many of us, including myself, Christmas is about anticipation. What are we going to get? What do people want us to give? I can’t wait to be with family. I can’t wait to get away from family. Will it snow? What will happen this year? Will Christmas come through?
The world waits in anticipation for what Christmas will bring.
There is nothing wrong with anticipation. I always love the holidays and all the seasonal goodness they bring (“Jewelry is the gift to give ‘cause it’s the gift that’ll live and live!”). But anticipation is like setting up a snowman. We decorate and plan in our minds a picture of what will be, knowing it will eventually melt away and will never really come to life the way it does on TV.
We look forward and forward, but is that what Christmas is for?
As our church family celebrated the Advent season, each week we looked at Peace, Joy, Love, Hope and ultimately Christ. Peace, Joy and Love are positioned to give us our hope, which is in Christ. Hope is forward-looking.
But that seems backward at Christmas. If Christmas is about celebrating an event – God with us in the flesh, Emmanuel – the Light shining in the darkness, then shouldn’t Christmas be about reflecting instead of anticipating? Can Christmas be saved or ruined if it’s already happened in full?
Granted, as Christians, we always anticipate the coming of Christ. But as we finish another Christmas, let us remember, Christmas is always finished. Christ has already come. He has lived, died, and been raised (start unpacking the Easter eggs). It is finished. Our salvation is complete. We look forward to no other Savior. He has come.
So what’s my point? Christmas is often a holiday of what will come. If one of those things doesn’t materialize, Christmas didn’t succeed. We are disappointed. But Christmas is a holiday of celebration for what has already come. It can never be ruined or fall short because it is complete. We celebrate what is done. In that way, Christmas always comes through.
As we begin a new year and pack Christmas away, let us not look at what was finished a few weeks ago, nor anticipate what will come about next year. For Christians, Christmas should never contain disappointment.
Let us always look back at what was accomplished 2000 years ago and celebrate not the anticipation of Love, Peace, Joy, and Hope, but that we fully have all these things in Christ. No broken sleigh can ruin or save that.