Are There Mushrooms in the Kingdom of Heaven?

Honestly, I couldn't tell you. But I do think that the kingdom of heaven is a lot like a mushroom. Jesus got me started on this track. You know the parable - "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds come and perch in its branches."

Bible nerd time out - according to the experts, we don't know exactly what plant Jesus is referring to - and plug for an amazing book on Bible plants: Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh by Lytton John Musselman.

Even if we could identify the genus and species, there are probably smaller seeds around, so his categorization of the mustard seed shouldn't be taken literally. Hey, he was a carpenter, not a farmer. Regardless of the actual plant type, his point still comes across, namely that the important things in life start small and humble.

And did you know that few things start off smaller than a mushroom spore? A spore is the "seed" of a mushroom, so small that it can't be seen with the naked eye. Spores sit in gills that line the underside of a mushroom's cap, and sooner or later they drop out, blow out, or get a free ride on an insect. Once it lands in a spot with enough suitable organic material, the spore germinates and grows tiny, white, thread-like roots called mycelia. Eventually these threads form the body of the fungus (underground, usually), spreading for miles and in some cases covering the area of a entire county. When you see a mushroom in your yard, think of it as the "fruit" of the fungus under the soil. (Just as you won't harm an apple tree by picking it's apples, you won't harm a mushroom by picking it.) And fungi are environmental powerhouses! Read all about their benefits here: Can Mushrooms Help Your Garden Grow?

But back to the kingdom of heaven. I understand why most people wouldn't automatically connect mushrooms with God's work on earth...but why not? They start small, become huge, form dense networks of organic relationships, benefit the organisms around them, "redeem" matter, and produce fruit. Mushrooms can't save the world, perhaps to the disappointment of Paul Stamets (you should still watch his TED Talk, below). Only Jesus does that. But I'm grateful that He gave us mushrooms to help understand how He's doing it.

Paul Stamets: 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World 

Holy Snares

The Bible speaks often about snares. The teacher in Proverbs warns his charge about the snares of the wicked, such as violence and greed. Different Psalmists mourn or rejoice about the snares that they have fallen into and escaped from. And somewhere the Bible even tells us that words of a person's mouth can be a snare.

Certainly, Christians today relate to all of these truths. And we can appreciate how purposefully and perfectly the Lord rescues us from the snares of sin that we have fallen into - and still fall into. But something happened this weekend that made me think that God lays snares too...holy snares.

Here's my story...I had just settled into my seat to enjoy a concert with my wife and brothers-in-law, and when I took out my phone to do the obligatory "silence-your-cell-phone" drill, I saw two missed calls from a strange North Carolina number. Then, just a few minutes later, a text from the same number - and not a text that anyone wants to get:..

"This is Detective M. with the Raleigh Police Department. There has been an incident with your car at North Hills Mall."

Turns out that some poor soul busted in my passenger door window and robbed my glove box. All they got was an ancient GPS that I never used anymore. So, at least my car wasn't in a ditch, and nothing valuable had been taken. But there was glass EVERYWHERE - covering the seat, on the floor, across the dashboard, sprinkled on the steering wheel - there was even a shard on the hood! How did it get on the hood?? When I first saw the shattered window I was taken aback by the thought of the sheer force the person must have used to break in. It truly was an act of violence.

But in spite of the character of the act, and the hassle that it caused me, all I could really think was that this was God's way of getting one of his people to pray for the thief. Maybe this guy (girl?) has never had someone praying for them before. Maybe it's a teenager who's just starting to mix with the wrong crowd. Maybe it was an addict who longs to be free of their chains. I don't know. But Jesus told us to bless those who persecute us, and give to those who ask of us. And what's more, I know that Jesus himself had mercy on me when I did worse things, and he didn't destroy me - no, he snared me in His love, and I'll never be the same.

So I can't be mad at this guy. I just pray he gets a good price for my GPS, and that one day he can look back and trace something mysterious, something miraculous beginning to happen in his heart the day he decided to smash the window of a white Mazda 3.

Thank God for His holy snares.

Ps. Shout-out to my awesome sister and nephews who taped up the window for me on a cold and rainy night!

The Purpose-Given Life

"What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him fully forever." (Westminster Catechism)

How many times have you heard a celebrity, a politician, a schoolkid, or even just your neighbor say they wanted to help change the world? I've heard that a lot. It's a vague altruism that passes for purpose in our society, one defined more and more by the pursuit of pleasure, existential experience, and having more stuff than we know what to do with. "Made in China" anyone? In this context, when a person says they want to change the world, it's a good thing - it shows a healthy rebellion against hedonism. But I think that often the person is just latching onto the lowest common denominator of life-definition, one that is "cool" enough for even teenagers to espouse and "deep" enough for adults to do the same. And at some level, it may betray a guilty conscience, unassauged by the redemption offered freely through Jesus Christ, striving to bring about a personally salvific karma through good works alone.

The Copier Moment.

 I don't begrudge anyone for wanting their lives to have meaning. I think we all need purpose, and I've never met a pure hedonist who would settle for pleasure alone. (Ok, maybe one, but his charitable actions belie his stated beliefs.) I met this question in my own life on stark terms in what I call "The Copier Moment." I was making copies at the law firm where I worked two years out of college - mindlessly watching the duplicate papers slide into the output tray - and I thought, "I went to school for four years, read thousands of pages, wrote dozens of papers, crammed for long exams, for this? Really?" That was a long time ago. Now, I supervise the folks making the copies, and every once in a while I see that same light bulb go off over their head. And then they leave and go to graduate school to "change the world." 

If I had known then what I know now...and that is simply that my purpose in life is to glorify God. I exist to know God because He is good enough to let me know Him. Praising and thanking Him is part of knowing and relation to Him. And the more I know of Him, the more I want to praise Him! The Westminster Catechism, a series of questions and answers about basic Christian doctrine written in the 1600s, succinctly expresses this truth. I know I am doing what I was always meant to do when I glorify God. Praise is one means of doing so, as the Pslamist says: "To praise God is to glorify God."

I don't have to accomplish anything for my life to have meaning. I don't need to change the world to have purpose. My purpose-given life is to worship the Lord God Almighty - Creator, Redeemer, Friend.

P.S. If you are interested in learning more about how praising God can both change and define your life, I encourage you to listen to this teaching by Andrew Wommack: The Primary Purpose of Prayer. It literally changed my life, ushering in profound joy as I learned how and why to praise God. The teaching is available free at: http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1042 

A Thought-Full Christian

April 2, 2014. Inaugural post. "A man should start writing as soon as he can, for if he waits too long, he may find that he can do justice neither to his observation nor his expression." (Samuel Johnson) I have thought, dreamed, and dabbled with the idea of a blog for a long time. Now is the time - and not soon enough - to put away the fantasy of a perfect production, and do the hard work of imperfectly writing what should be written.

"A man must have some means of standing up under all the weight of his learning, or it will topple him." (Cardinal Newman) Writing is, for me, the means of making sense of all that I have learned or read. Reading is an exercise in another man's thought; writing is working out one's own thoughts. I've read enough books - now I need to start thinking about what I've read, and that means writing.

Thought-Full Christian.  A Christian who thinks and is therefore full of thoughts. I hope that some of them, and even many of them, will be food for my readers' thought. In this way I want to give something back to the body of Christ, the members of which have given so much to me.

"Unless the Lord builds the house, the worker labors in vain." (Proverbs) My prayer is that the Lord will establish and use this blog for His holy means and ends. We serve an awesome, incredible, thoughtful God.