Couldn't Help Noticing

Department of Biblical Mythbusting, Part I

Have you ever read those missionary biographies where the venerable subject of the account, male or female, is depicted as rising from their bed at 4 in the morning to spend an hour or three in prayer? Does it give you a fleeting sense of guilt, as you thump that ‘snooze’ button yet again, that you lack the same discipline and commitment?

This CHN department is about biblical mythbusting, and not character assassination, so we are not here going to cast aspersions on the spiritual reality behind the missionary's daily prayer habits. That blow would be too low, even for us. Neither will we raise the faintest whiff of a question about the accuracy of the recollection of his or her adoring son-in-law or daughter–the one who allegedly stumbled upon them in this time of prayer and stored it up for the writing of that fateful, guilt-inducing biography.

But there is a myth about the early morning prayer that deserves to be shot down in flames. The myth is the highly questionable notion that the earlier and more inconvenient the time of prayer, the more godly the person so inconvenienced. It's a myth occasionally bolstered by those who point to the example of the Lord Jesus, who would rise early in the morning (so we are told) to pray to his heavenly Father.

First, let's myth-bust the alleged example of Jesus. There is only one verse in the entire Bible—Mark 1:35—that suggests that Jesus rose early to pray. And there is no hint in this verse that this was anything more than a one-off response to the presence of a high-pressure crowd in need of some quick healings. Luke 5:16 has him withdrawing to desolate places to pray on more than one occasion, but makes no mention of time of day, just the ever-present crowds, who presumably would normally choose a more convenient time than 4 in the morning to herd together to find the Messiah. Matthew 14:23 also makes mention of crowds, but this time Jesus dismisses them and prays on into the evening.

In other words, if there is any precedent in what Jesus is doing, it's that if you have the capacity to heal people miraculously, you should take the occasional break at any time of day or night as you are able. During this time, you may pray. Where Jesus makes any explicit point about when we pray, he emphasizes not the time of day at all, but persistence (Luke 18:1). In other words, follow Jesus' example of praying whenever you get half a chance!

Second, in busting this time-of-day myth, we should at least allow ourselves to speculate as to the reasons why someone might rise early. Speaking personally, I was for years a sleep-in-when-you-get-the-chance kind of guy. Actually, it's quite possible that I still am, but with three small daughters I have no easy way of testing the theory. Then one day it struck me: if I got up early enough, I might be able to have an easy quiet passage into the morning school routine and even achieve some other necessary tasks around the house—one of which might be praying and Bible reading.

Having been beaten nearly senseless with this self-evident truth, I started to wonder about those stories of the early morning risers and pray-ers that I had heard over the years. Were they freaks like Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton who survived and even thrived on 3-4 hours sleep per night? Were they extraordinarily busy people? Were they, for example, rural doctors, with queues of patients waiting to see them as soon as they opened the door of their East African house at sunrise? Were their lives full of child-minding and household duties? Were they, like Jesus in the early days of his ministry, mobbed like rock stars whenever they showed their face in a built-up area? Did they suffer from depression-induced insomnia? Invariably, the answer to these questions came back “Yes, yes, yes, probably or yes?”—although not all explanations were true of all individuals. In other words, these early morning examples of godliness appeared to be doing what best suited their routine and circumstances.

“Not that there's anything wrong with that!” as Jerry Seinfeld would say. Let's not let the pendulum swing too far back the other way by suggesting that there is no discipline at all in the decision to pray early and regularly. Plenty of us wake early and instead, er, write letters to bored and longsuffering newspaper editors. But let's not kid ourselves that ‘earlier is better’ or ‘more spiritual’ just because a handful of unusual people in bizarro circumstances managed to get themselves written up by adoring family members.

Rather, let's look to the grace of God, the basis of all our prayer. It's God in his grace and by his Spirit who teaches us to call on the name of Christ. When we understand his grace, we will be able to do what Jesus actually said we should in Luke 18: we will “always pray”; we will ‘not lose heart’—even when we happen to have slept through that 4 am alarm.

Sermon illustration

I love this news story about the three guys who escape from prison, only to get caught by inadvertently hailing a ride from a passing unmarked police car.

Not only did they ask for a ride from the wrong driver, they tipped him off by still wearing their green prison clothes.

There's got to be a sermon illustration in there somewhere—something about throwing off the old clothes from our old life of captivity, and taking care to avoid being ensnared and taken captive again.

The elephant’s not the problem

Ross Gittins, economics writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, writes an opinion piece, here, in which he talks about how our brains can be compared to a person riding an elephant. The person riding the elephant has some idea what they want to do and where they want their beastie to go, but the elephant is difficult to bring 'round to the rider's point of view. In the same way, evolution has left us with a brain (and a body) that will sometimes override our best plans and intentions.

At least he recognizes in the article that we are not necessarily rational beings, but in so doing he still ignores that other elephant in the room—sin. St Paul blamed his own fallen nature for the fact that “I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Rom 7:25).

The SMH letters editor committed my response to the metaphorical flames, but through the miracle of CHN, it rises from the ashes for your perusal:

Dear editor,

Ross Gittins provides all sorts of reasons why our elephantine body might trample on the resolutions feebly dictated by our mind, riding precariously up top of this primitive beast. It might be unfashionable to suggest this, but what about ‘sin’?

Yours sincerely,

The Rev Gordon Cheng

When you ‘just know’

When it comes to finding a husband or a wife, I have to admit to inwardly rolling my eyes any time someone says, “Oh, I just knew he/she was the right one for me”. Whether it be in a movie, on the television, out of the mouth of a friend, or from someone who has been married for 50 years, this kind of comment always provokes the same reaction in me: “Yeah, right”.

I'm sorry, but you just can't know. You can take the time to work out whether person x is someone you think you could live with and be married to, and you can choose them over someone you might be less suited to. But in the end, as someone older and wiser than me has said many times, you don't know they are the one for you until after you have married them. Then, of course, they are the one for you because you have committed yourselves to each other. That's what marriage is. This mystical feeling of ‘knowing’ he or she is the one for you is just that: a feeling. And to act on this kind of feeling without also using your brain to think through some of the more pragmatic issues is just stupid.

Take Corinne Hoffmann's story. Corinne is a Swiss lady who, while travelling to Kenya with her boyfriend in 1987, became transfixed by a Masai warrior travelling on the same ferry. When the same Masai turned up a bit later to guide her through Mombasa, she decided it meant something. “I had the deepest feeling I had to follow that man”, she says. So she did. She got rid of her responsibilities at home (including, presumably, the boyfriend) and went off to search for this Masai in Kenya.

So far, this sounds like a classic love story, right? Which is exactly how it is presented in the Sydney Morning Herald article which bears the title, ‘Lovestruck, she was determined to get her Masai’. Corinne has written a bestselling book, The White Masai, telling the story of what happened next. And like all good love stories, the book has been turned into a film which has just opened in Australia.

But this love story ends the same way that so many real life ‘love stories’ end these days: after marrying the Masai, having a daughter with him, and staying for four years, Corinne left. She now lives in Switzerland with her daughter, and has written two sequels which have also become bestsellers.

So just what exactly was that “feeling I had to follow that man”? Obviously it wasn't some magical foreknowledge of a love story that was going to end happily ever after.

The Marty Sweeney story

As I said in my last CHN, from 1 September we will be opening the doors of Matthias Media (USA), under the direction of Marty Sweeney. I thought you might like to hear how all this came about from Marty's perspective. Here's his story...

Some years ago, when visiting the UK, I picked up a Bible study on the book of Titus from a church bookstall (The Path to Godliness, published by Matthias Media). I worked through the studies, and found them very helpful. At around the same time, I was given some recordings of sermons given by Phillip Jensen. The quality of the Bible study book, and the insights into Scripture that I gained from Phillip's preaching, encouraged me to look further into Matthias Media resources. I ordered more Bible studies, and experienced their value in opening up the Bible to me. In fact, it would not be overstating it to say that they transformed not only my biblical insight, but also my life.

Over the ensuing years, I continued to use more resources, and couldn't help but feel that they were of greater value than many of the resources I had used from America. I am convinced that the resources are biblically faithful—and as a result are more aligned and consistent with each other.

By the time I entered seminary, Matthias Media resources had helped persuade me to the strong conviction that the Bible really does change lives. Through those years in seminary, and for a number of years now in pastoral ministry, Matthias Media has continued to provide me with resources to equip me in my own Bible reading and study, as well as resources to help equip others.

Working as a church pastor, I remained thoroughly convinced of the quality of Matthias Media resources, but had a growing conviction of our need for them in North America. I was conscious that because of my experience with the resources, my theological training, business background, and family situation, I was well-placed to be able to offer to help Matthias Media make this happen.

Now, after 15 months of discussion, prayer, planning, and long plane trips, it's all set to happen. I'm starting up “Matthias Media (USA)” and taking on the role of full-time Ministry Director.

I've used Matthias Media's training resources, Bible studies, and evangelism tools for the last five years in various ministry contexts. I hope that this ministry experience will enable me to help other pastors and ministry leaders be better resourced for the task of exalting our Lord and Savior, because it is “him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28).

Marty Sweeney