Life Is Not A Problem To Be Solved

I got my March issue of Christianity Today today. It was late because it had been damaged in the mail and the cover was torn off. I was glad because where the front cover had been taped on (it had my address on it so I guess it was necessary) the back cover was missing. And so my attention was drawn to an article by Philip Yancey called "Not What It Seems." The highlighted quote was, "For all its faults and failures, the church offers a place to bring wounds and to seek meaning." That was enough to get me to read the article immediately (or at least as soon as I could after I got the girls down for their naps). I've always enjoyed reading Yancey. His perspective seems fresh and just enough unorthodox at times to be thought-provoking. He makes some interesting observations about the church in America. It's encouraging. But my favorite quote from the article is the last 2 sentences: "From such souls, I learn that life is not a problem to be solved buy a mystery to be lived. Prayer offers no ironclad guarantees, just the certain promise that we need not live that mystery alone." Most of my life I lived as if life were a problem to be solved. I think as modern believers we are more likely to do this because we have the completed canon. We come at life as if all the answers have been given to us in Scripture. God never promised all the answers. Can you imagine how much of a mystery life was to the OT saints, or even the NT saints as the fulfillment of OT prophecies came in the flesh. So even though we have more light shining on life, we still live a mystery. As he implies in his article, how do you solve the death of a child, a tornado that kills so many, 9/11, or even a talented artist and Christian who gets lymphoma?

Talented artist and Christian Wes King has lymphoma and death seems on the horizon. He is getting over chemo at home now, but the chemo was rough and nearly killed him. I just learned about this today. I just don't have the time to keep up with CCM much any more. So although this occurred a year ago, I just heard about it on the radio today. Wes King is an artist I've not only enjoyed as a phenomenal musician, but especially as a theologian. Plus, I took my wife to a King, Keaggy, and Dente concert on our first date. So there's some sentimentalism there too. It was heart-breaking to hear the news. I then learned from his website that the medical bills had really mounted up and that a tribute album had been put together to help Wes and his wife and three kids. The album has some of my favorite artists on it (like The Kry, Phil Keaggy, Derek Webb, and Downhere). So I'm putting it on my short list of things I really want. Without ever hearing it I encourage you to buy it if for no other reason than to help the Kings. But from the reviews, it sounds like it's got some great music on it.