Matt W Cook

What do you say when you can’t think of anything useful or good? What do you say when you’ve promised to speak, but there is nothing worth speaking in your head? Do you make something up? Do you search the web until you can steal someone else’s idea? Do you sit in front of your computer into the wee hours of the night, dreading the next day when people will expect to hear from you and find no update? What do you say?

I think it’s best to say nothing.

If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all. It’s not, “Don’t say anything bad.” It’s “Don’t say anything that’s not good.” If it’s not useful, if it’s not helpful, if it’s not of value, don’t bother saying it.

So guess what this post is about? Nothing. Because, at the end of this exhausting week, I find myself with nothing to say.

Peace upon you all!

Hopefully punctuality is not next to godliness, eh?

So what is? What is that thing that pushed us over the edge to godliness? What characteristic most suggests that we are like God?

Of course, I think very few people would suggest that cleanliness is next to godliness, even though that’s the popular phrase (although I did meet a lady once who thought that was from Proverbs).

Actually, now that I think of it, I have heard people honestly suggest that cleanliness was next to godliness. But only in Pakistan. Half of Islam, I was told, was cleanliness. That says something about the culture, doesn’t it? It says that, right or wrong, cleanliness is one of the highest virtues. And it showed in day to day life. I was often rebuked (gently) for not washing my feet regularly or my hands before eating or my mouth after eating. People may say that Pakistan is a dirty country, but you cannot say that about Pakistanis.

So how, then, would a Canadian complete that saying? Or, better yet, how would my own little sub-culture complete it? How would an evangelical complete it?

I think most would say something like “Faith is next to godliness.”

Fair enough. But what does that mean? I’m not sure, but I’d be willing to bet most people consider faith to be ‘thinking rightly about God.’ Is that fair?

I hope it’s not, really. Because I think it’s very wrong.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.

Substance: something that you can touch/see/experience. Evidence: proof. What is faith? I think faith is more related to fide than it is to assent. Faith is fidelity. Faith is living out what you signed up for. Without faith, of course, it is impossible to please God.

Faith is when I claim to follow Jesus and live like it. Little faith is when I claim to follow Jesus and only do it a little.

It’s been a while since I listened to a lot of Rich Mullins. So now, as I’m trying to put his tracks on more and more, the greatness of his music that grabbed me in the beginning is grabbing me again.

I was watching a biographical DVD for him the other day called Homeless Man. It’s wild, go check it out. Rich Mullins was a hero. Here’s a quote from him:

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.

Yay for heroes like Rich Mullins.

I turned 28 yesterday. Weird.

Birthdays have always made me think of death. Morbid? Maybe. But what can I do? A year older means a year closer to dying.

Another thing that has always made me think of death is that popular phrase: “It’s not the destination, so much as the journey that’s important.” Or some variation on it. I can’t count how many movies and ads make that their theme. And I think it has a lot to do with death.

Since the western world killed religion (mostly) there has been a sort of angst about the human condition. With religion dead (or dying) the default idea is that death is the absolute end of all things. If man is the measure of all things, then when man is gone, there is nothing, right? So if there is nothing for us after death, we have made it our business (as a society) to find ways of avoiding the thought of death. And so this saying was born. Don’t worry about the fact that you’re really going nowhere, it says, just enjoy the trip. Which, to me, doesn’t make much sense. It’s kinda like telling someone on death row to enjoy the last mile. How can he?

I have heard a lot of Christians talk about how they don’t fear death and how they kinda long for death. I think these people must be much better folks than me, because I fear death. I know that perfect love casts out fear and all that, but I’m scared anyway. But the neat thing is, it’s not a debilitating fear. If I thought there was nothing on the other side, I imagine that my already fragile emotional life would crumble and burn. But I think there’s something waiting there for me. And that’s good. I like that.

It’s not just the journey, for me. It’s both.

Happy birthday to me.

I just finished watching No Impact Man. You should, too.

The hero decides to go for a year without leaving any sort of ecological impact on the world. No pollution, no cars, no non-local food, no TV, no buying anything new, no electricity and on the list goes. The neatest thing is that he takes his wife and daughter along with him on this crazy project. He’s passionate. I get that.

His wife didn’t really get it. I mean, she was supportive, but she didn’t own the project. She was just along for the ride. So when she had to say goodbye to coffee and shopping and reality TV, it hit her hard. The first half of the film was very tense.

And then there was, for me, a revelation. She had a passion that her husband was not sharing: she wanted another child.

Now, I don’t know much about marriage. I’m no expert and I have nothing to offer you in way of credentials. But I have some interesting opinions on marriage and, since I have a blog, I get to pour them on you.

Question: Why was Michelle frustrated for about half of the No Impact project?
Matt’s Answer: Because it was not possible for her to own her husband’s passion while he refused to own hers.

It wasn’t the coffee. It wasn’t the TV. It was the ownership of passions. How do I know? Because after the husband smartened up and owned her passion, she turned into a different person.

Ruth has some passions that are her passions. Without her, they would not be a part of my life, I think. But since they are hers I choose to own them. They aren’t mine, really, and Ruth does not expect them to be mine. But I own them. That is, I completely support, push and work toward making her passions realities. And she does the same for me.

You’ll never be able to will yourself into being passionate about what your spouse is passionate about. And You should never expect that from your spouse, I think. But if you own what is hers, she will own what is yours. And that makes things good.

It’s made my marriage good.

And how good it is!

What are you going to do this week?

I intend to do something glorious. I intend to take steps toward changing the world for the better. I intend to enjoy as much of this coming week as I can. I intend to pull on the ear of the Almighty and ask him to do things for me. I intend to bask in said Almighty’s glory. I intend to enrich the lives of those around me. I intend to have my own life enriched. I intend to fight against the corruptions in my soul. I intend to see everything around me as beautiful. I intend to wage war on the status quo. I intend to exit the week a better person than when I started. I intend to dance. I intend to sing. I intend to create.

What are you doing this week?

You know what’s neat? How many of our most sacred words are actually common words. Wanna see?

• Angel (Gr. angelos [32]) – Just the Greek word for messenger. Made holy because a lot of the messengers in the New Testament were supernatural.
• Apostle (Gr. apostolos [652]) – The Greek word for an ambassador. Made holy because it was attached to holy people.
• Evangelist (Gr. euggelistes [2099]) – Someone who gives out good news.
• Evangelize (Gr. euaggelizo [2097]) – To give good news.
• Gospel (Gr. euaggelion [2098]) – From the Old English: god + spel (good story/news).
• Christ (Gr. khristos [5547]) – The Greek word for someone anointed. A related word appears in John 9:6 – Jesus ‘christized’ the blind man’s eyes with clay.
• Hypocrite (Gr. hupokrites [5273]) – The normal Greek word for an actor in a play.
• Deacon (Gr. diakoneo [1247]) – A waiter.
• Church (Gr. ekklesia [1577]) – Strangely, our English word for this is based on the Greek word ‘kurikon’, Lord’s House. Neat idea, eh? But not what ekklesia means. It means a group of people gathered in one place. It appears in Act 19:32 to describe the angry mob.

Is that neat? It’s neat to me. Makes me wish that we had translated more than transliterated, then we would have less religious lingo.

1st, here’s a neat video from Carl Medearis.

Favorite quote: “It’s okay to make sense.  It’s okay to make the good news sound like good news.”

2nd, I was preaching this weekend and I had one of those great moments when I was really shaken by what I was talking about.  I want to share a little of it with you.

In Isaiah 58 God is talking about how people fast in useless ways.  After pointing out how stupid a purely ‘religious’ fast is, he goes on to outline what a real fast looks like and what the result of real fasting is.  I chopped the passage up and tossed it into a table for you.  Check it out:

I love how the right hand side is so much bigger than the left!

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

For more than a year, I think, I have had a commitment to post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  For more than a year, I did that faithfully.  For more than a year I gave on every day I intended to give.

And, in the last two weeks, I failed twice.  Bad.

As Ruth was leaving both of us tried to think of the amazing productivity that would come from the trip.  Ruth would be totally free to engage and help the people in Pakistan.  I would be totally free to write and work and visit.  But it hasn’t turned out that way, has it?

It’s almost as if there is a shaking of motivation.  As I sit down to write, the environment is perfect.  There is silence in my house.  Or, if I’m going to the library, there is no need for me to be home anytime.  There is nothing to pull my attention away from my work.  And, yet, I seem slightly less productive than I am with a house full of wife and children, each deserving their due amount of attention from me.  Why?  Why am I not winning amazingly?

It almost seems like a problem with motivation.  Time to work!  Why?  Why should I work when there is no Ruth, Joe or Asha in my life?  Why produce?  Why benefit others?  Why?

Funny, eh?

But we’ve recognized the issue.  And now we’re moving forward.  Each part of life is a test, yes?  So I’ll pass it, eventually.  And, I think, by the time I’m really doing well, my family will drop from the sky into my lap again, the reward of my labours.

Peace, and sorry for the lack of Friday posts these weeks!

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com