Steve: (hands me a printout with the headline, Tubs of ice cream help women make babies)

Me: Hey! All these years you told me it was that other thing!

Brunette middle daughter: (doubles over with laughter)

Blonde oldest daughter: Huh?

(Mom explains joke—delayed laughter, then we all laugh with her, not at her, of course)

FYI, like the Puritans, we believe certain topics are to be appropriately discussed, not ignored. Now, I’m off to look for some ice cream. Oh, one more thing…when I asked the blonde girl which flavor she thought worked best, she had the answer without a moment’s hesitation:

Chocolate!

Why is it that fads capture the imaginations of various and sundry people, roping them into lemming-like behavior? Many eons ago, we had a computer game which was just a step above Pac-Man, called Lemmings, and I don’t recall the rules, but I do recall something about trying to save the poor creatures from making the suicidal leap off the cliff.

I must confess that I am not immune to acting like a lemming, though I am not sure how I get infected with the desire to run with the crowd. I don’t watch television, and advertisements usually have the effect of triggering my stubborn streak, making me want to do the opposite of what the ad encourages me to do. This spring I will have been blogging for six years, so I got in early on that wave, thus convincing myself that I am a trend-setter rather than a fad-follower. I don’t even play computer games any more.

So whence my affinity for polka dots?

All of a sudden, polka dots are everywhere. And I like them. I want to wear them. I’m growing dissatisfied with my reserved florals and earth tones. Give me bright colors and dotty patterns, though brown and pink together look particularly fetching. Have I fallen prey to subliminal suggestion from Madison Avenue? Or is it just a mid-life crisis?

Maybe it’s time for a new Prairie Muffin stereotype. They already think we’re dotty .

I’m not too worried about my penchant for polka dots, as long as I don’t head for the cliff wearing my fashion statement. I trust you will all keep me away from cliffs, particularly ones which are far more perilous than just my outward adornment. I am gettng ready to read Orthodoxy by Chesterton, and this quote from it about fads is a good reminder that the thrill-seeker who heads for those cliffs is looking for excitement in all the wrong places:

People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad . . . The orthodox Church never took the tame course or accepted the conventions; the orthodox Church was never respectable . . . It is easy to be a madman: it is easy to be a heretic. It is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one’s own. It is always easy to be a modernist; as it is easy to be a snob . . . It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to avoid them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect.

Last night I went to see Amazing Grace, the story of the British abolitionist, William Wilberforce. Though he was a “shrimp of a man,” the Christian parliamentarian fought for decades to put an end to the brutal English slave trade. His strong Christian faith was the impetus for his long fight for the freedom of those who were made in the image of God, but who suffered cruel injustices because of the greed and the blindness of those who benefited by their slavery.

I’m not much for counting on movies to change people’s lives; but this movie made me note a couple of encouraging cultural trends. Maybe it’s just grasping at straws, yet I think that we oftentimes become so distracted by the disturbing things in our midst, we ignore some of the good things we ought to thank God for as He sovereignly works His purposes in our culture. As we drove to the movie last night, I thought of how many films are being released which portray Christianity in a positive way. Some of these films may downplay what we would like to shout from the rooftops, but we need to remember that the movie industry has had the reputation of representing religion as a refuge for scoundrels and hypocrites. The standard script calls evil good, and good evil. Yet the liberal stranglehold on all kinds of media has been loosening as more outlets for disseminating information are available with cheaper technology. Thus, more movies with messages that glorify God rather than blaspheming Him. In this movie, John Newton says, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” There were many audible “amens” to that in the theater.

Watching Amazing Grace, which was set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, also set my wheels to spinning about the changes in the world since that time. Because a great deal of perversity is promoted as “normal” today, Christians wring their hands and think it’s the end of the world. That attitude has led to a retreat in the church from cultural issues, though some have been inconsistent in their eschatology and become culturally engaged (though, true to their eschatology, some of these well-meaning folks look for quick answers and accept pragmatic and unbiblical compromises in their haste to bring about change, rather than doing the long-haul work and waiting for God’s blessing on it). William Wilberforce was serving His God in his great work as a politician, during a very dark time, yet he placed all his trust in divine providence to accomplish his impossible goals:

If we would . . . rejoice in [Christ] as triumphantly as the first Christians did; we must learn, like them to repose our entire trust in him and to adopt the language of the apostle, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ’ [Galatians 6:14], “who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” [1 Corinthians 1:30].

He knew that no effort of his would accomplish anything apart from the blessing of God, and that all was only possible because of his salvation in Christ. Think about the time in which he lived and compare it to today. Most obviously, men, women, and children were being cruelly abused because of the color of their skin. Such trafficking in human beings still occurs in other parts of the world today, but not in America or England any longer. I noted in the film that the members of Parliament were shown to be mostly a debauched crew, with powdered wigs and powdered faces and the manners of alley cats. Perhaps some things never change, but I don’t think we can compare the society of 19th century England with today and truly say it was the best of times then and we live in the worst of times now. Those who think our culture is in a worse state than ever before need to consult a few history books and re-evaluate their pessimism.

History is replete with discouraging and dark times in which God providentially proves Himself strong when weak men are fainting and without much hope. I have said it before, but we need to be reminded, that times of darkness are when the light shines most brightly. We need to remember men like Wilberforce and be encouraged to trust in God as they did, not passively waiting for our harps to be passed out, but actively obeying our Lord, till we have poured out all that we can as a drink offering to His glory.

John Piper’s Reflections on the Life and Labor of William Wilberforce

Stephen McDowell on The Bible, Slavery, and America’s Founders

John Wesley’s last letter was written to William Wilberforce:

Balam, February 24, 1791

Dear Sir:

Unless the divine power has raised you us to be as Athanasius contra mundum, [against the world] I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a “law” in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?

That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant,
John Wesley

During the panel discussion at the Resolved conference, Rick Holland asked the speakers (MacArthur, Lawson, and Mahaney) whether they thought the gospel doctrines of justification, sanctification, or glorification were most under attack today. They discussed different ways all three doctrines are subverted or even ignored, but someone (too tired to remember who, maybe MacArthur) mentioned that glorification is virtually ignored, that people do not think about eternity today.

In the van on the way to the conference, I handed out a quiz I made about Jonathan Edwards. I told the gang that I would give a free Starbucks drink to the person who got the most right answers. One of the questions was about the manner of Edwards’s death. When I gave the answer to it (from a smallpox inoculation at 54), I talked about the reality of death for people of his time. It was very unusual that all but one of the Edwards’s children survived childhood as the mortality rate for children at that time was around 50 per cent. Even the inoculation for smallpox was a new invention, and people were very familiar with sudden death from various illnesses. Sarah Edwards followed her husband to heaven only a few weeks after he died, succumbing to dysentery.

One of Edwards’s resolutions reads:

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

I just finished the biography about his marriage to Sarah, and the appendix had a very moving account he wrote about his conversion and subsequent spiritual growth. In it, he repeatedly expresses his strong desire to see His Savior, to be finally shed of all his sin and be united forever with Christ in heaven. He did not value his family or his church any less for this strong desire to know his Savior better. He modeled that divine paradox that so many godly persons comprehend and live, the now and the not yet, echoing with their lives what Paul expressed in Philippians 1:

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

Today, we do not think about death. It intrudes into our lives in a shocking way, and often we are not prepared to meet it. We do not live as if eternity is ahead of us. We depend on our vitamins, our diets, our exercise regimens, and our hospitals, but we forget that our sovereign God controls every moment and determines our end according to His good will. We cannot add one cubit to our stature by worry. That doesn’t mean we should become gnostics and despise our bodies to spend more time gazing at our navels, but we need to be
aware that without the will of our Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from our heads, and He will preserve us until He is ready to take us home to heaven. When we know this, we can serve Him here on earth without reservation, realizing that our every effort in His service, to His glory, is of eternal value. Then, when God calls us out of this “vale of tears,” we can joyfully go to glory, exulting that we will see Him as He is.

A young girl named Carly went to Jesus this week, and she now has the privilege of gazing upon His face. Just 15 years old, our family never met her, but she was the friend of several people we know, a student at a fine Christian school where many of our friends attend. She was ill for a week with a flu-like illness, then suddenly she died. An autopsy will determine the official cause of her death, but God determined that is was time for her to come to Him. Her family mourns the loss of a beloved daughter and sister, but they are also comforted by the knowledge that Carly is in the best place of all.

Jonathan Edwards and Carly may meet one another and rejoice together over the bliss of being in the presence of Jesus. As we face our daily crosses and heavy burdens, remember that Jesus took the punishment we deserved on the cross that we could not survive, and His burdens are light, especially in light of the joys of eternity. In a particularly lonely time in his life, Edwards comforted himself with these thoughts—may they be a comfort to us as we bow down under various trials each day:

It was my comfort to think of that state, where there is fullness of joy; where reigns heavenly, sweet, calm and delightful love, without alloy; where there are continually the dearest expressions of this love; where is the enjoyment of the persons loved, without ever parting; where these persons that appear so lovely in this world, will really be inexpressably more lovely, and full of love to us. And how sweetly will the mutual lovers join together to sing the praises of God and the Lamb! How full will it fill us with joy, to think, that this enjoyment, these sweet exercises will never cease or come to an end; but will last to all eternity!

My eyes are not usually bigger than my stomach, but my intentions are almost always bigger than my follow-through. Did I really think I would leave my cozy home filled with nine children and get more rest in a hotel room filled with excited and giggly girls? Did I really think I would get any time to read those books I took with me, or make any progress on my knitting (a pair of socks, for those who asked)? Did I really think I would come home from this whirlwind trip (6 am Friday morning to 11 pm last night) rested and ready for action?

Ha!

Again, I say, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, (slap!)

What was I thinking?

What I didn’t think was that I would enjoy singing along to a loud band at the top of my lungs among 3000 college-age kids. You have probably discerned that that is not my style (nor would I enjoy doing it in church), but it was fun for this event. The drummer, especially, was a blast to watch. He looked like an Irish leprechaun, wearing a newsboy cap, and he grinned from ear to ear the entire time he was playing. I could have done without the colored lights that flashed all over the walls and ceiling—I was surprised there were no fog machines—and the volume could have been turned down a few notches (something a couple of the speakers made oblique reference to), but I sang just as heartily as anyone. It helped that there were several hymns, and the rich lyrics to all the songs were a joy to sing unto the Lord.

The songs I enjoyed most (beside the traditional hymns) were:

In Christ Alone

The Glory of the Cross

Let Your Kingdom Come

There were more, but Gracie’s konked out so I can’t ask her to remind me what they are right now. The music with the band was fun, but I told my friend that it seemed like the preaching was more Edwards while the music was more Finney.

The best part was getting to watch C.J. Mahaney enjoying the conference. When we were sitting close enough to the front, if I didn’t have some particularly tall linebacker blocking my view, then I could see him, um, rocking out to the band. Of course, he rocked out to the other speakers, too, moving back and forth and side to side in excitement over what they said. I don’t think that man is capable of standing, sitting, or even lying still. I’ll bet when he’s asleep, he’s still constantly in motion. Pastor Mahaney was full of humor and self-deprecation, as well as energy. When there was a panel discussion the second evening, he co-opted the first 10 minutes to explain why he didn’t belong in the company of such great men (”They have letters after their names…all I have are letters before my name”), and everyone was roaring with laughter. His humility about his accomplishments was especially evident when he held up a copy of Steve Lawson’s new book, Foundations of Grace: A Long Line of Godly Men, next to his book Humility: True Greatness, turning each to the side so we could see how thick (or, in the case of Pastor Mahaney’s book, not thick) each book was. And the kids there loved him for his humor and his humility, as well as his obvious devotion to bringing glory to His Savior. I came home with both books.

I’m not going to describe the talks we heard, since Tim Challies live-blogged the entire conference and went into great detail about each sermon. I will agree with Tim, however, that it was amazing to see 3000 young people so excited about hearing all that expository preaching. It was wonderful to watch them treat these older, godly men—Rick Holland and John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, C.J. Mahaney, and John Piper—as their heroes. It is encouraging to think that all those young people went home with messages about the importance of magnifying God and minimizing self ringing in their ears. And all because a faithful pastor who lived over 250 years ago left a legacy of godliness that is experiencing a resurgence. Rick Holland mentioned that reformed conferences seem to be filling up so quickly that people have to be turned away. There is a hunger for solid biblical teaching that is a blessing to see, and a reminder that when things are looking dark, God is still in control and has mighty plans about which we do not know, but we need to be patient for their fruition.

The conference talks are supposed to be available online soon, but John Piper’s talks are already available here.

Here’s the gang—my friend Shelly and I are the old ladies in the middle (between us we have 18 children!), 2 of the kids are hers, 2 are mine, and the rest are hitchhikers we picked up .

Since I’m trying to be as humble as C.J. Mahaney, I’m letting you see this tired picture of me with my eyes closed, standing with the famous Tim Challies. He probably got a good night’s sleep, which explains why his eyes are open. Actually, this is the only picture I got with him, so we take what we get and don’t complain, right?

P.S. I will answer emails soon…our internet was down all day today. And if anyone tells you anything about me jumping on the bed in the hotel, don’t believe them.