The Eudaimonia Blog

The last couple of weeks have been really tremendous. We were able to spend time in the mountains of Colorado with our foster son Darius, his fiancé and goddaughter. We met Darius’ family when he was a one-year-old in a diaper. He would come to live with us at age three and we would stay involved in his life through the years, even after he would return to his mother. When we moved to Canada in 2013, our good friends Rob and Carla became Darius’ foster parents, since Darius was still a minor and only sixteen-years-old at the time. D is currently twenty-five-years- he always calls us on high holidays, especially Mother’s and Father’s Day to thank us for our love for him through the years. Also, our three kids grew up with Darius as their big brother and so we all thoroughly enjoyed the time spent together. Here is a picture of the crew (from left to right, Tanya, D’s goddaughter, fiancé, Carla, Rob, Mia, Calvin, Isaac, D and yours truly):

After spending time with Rob, Carla, Darius and Co., Tanya, Mia, Isaac, Calvin and I drove to Denver to celebrate Tanya’s Dad’s 80th Birthday. It was quite the celebration as family from many different places gathered for this large and festive event. We even took a bus from Denver to the famous Broadmoor Hotel an hour and a half away, where we would spend the day together. Here is a picture of Tanya’s extended family standing outside the bus (Tanya’s maiden name is Novak):

Also, here is a picture of our family with Tanya’s dad, my father-in-law Ed, also affectionately known as “Papa” by the kids:

I was able to “toast” Ed at one of the events to thank him for always welcoming me into the family and that, as a child of immigrants from Taiwan, I haven’t always been sure what it means to be “home,” but that having a large, welcoming family like the Novak’s, has been a big part of helping me to find orientation and a sense of home in this world. I say it again, “thank you Ed!”

Well, returning to Vancouver last Wednesday, I started to prepare my heart and mind for a return to Grace Van. While today is BC Day, it is also my official first day back to the church! I plan on being present from today through Oct. 1st when I will go back on my sabbatical again through Dec. 3rd. Yesterday, Tanya and I were able to join The Way Church in worship at their Strathcona location. We thoroughly enjoyed the time and were able to encourage some of their staff. Their church has only been in existence for two years and even before they launched, they used to have offices in our Fairview neighbourhood, so used our church building for weekly prayer gatherings as well as Saturday morning Freedom Sessions. The staff person Nick who led those sessions gave a tremendous sermon out of Psalm 139, and I was able to greet both Nick and another one of their pastors, Daniel, following the service. They were genuinely appreciative of Tanya and I being there, we chatted a bit and hugs ensued. We were also able to find a potential church for a dear family we love comprised of a single mother and her three kids. Our friend lives just a couple of blocks from their location. There have been a number of benefits from my sabbatical, but perhaps one of the greatest ones has been the ability to get out into the community, see what the Lord is doing in other church families and encourage their leaders. Those who lead Christ’s church need a lot of encouragement as the work is very challenging and the Enemy places targets on the backs of those who lead Jesus’ Church. The late Peter Drucker, one of the leading management authors of the twentieth century, once said that he viewed church leadership as the most difficult and taxing role of which he was aware. None of this should be surprising when we consider the strategic roles church leaders have to furthering the work of Jesus’ Kingdom here on earth. So thank you again Grace Van for supporting this sabbatical. Please know that the sacrifice you have made in me not being present these last three months, has been a net gain for Jesus’ Church, “capital C.” I’m grateful.

So I left off my last blogpost a couple of weeks ago sharing that there was a theme that had been pressing in on my heart and that theme was that the human heart is always giving itself to some kind of master. Here I think of Paul’s words in Romans 6:

15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

These verses in Romans 6 are so powerful because not only are they a word for my personal sanctification, to make me reflect on the ways in which I “enslave” or give myself to things lesser than Jesus, but they are also a word for the broader culture that is always seeking “emancipation” of some kind. The idea we often hear is that we want to be “free to be who I am” or that everyone needs to have the freedom to determine the course of their own lives. This of course explains why in a democratic society like ours, we loathe totalitarian governments that restrict, whether it is freedom of speech or freedom of choice or freedom of “individual expressiveness,” to quote from the great Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. This explains why just about every “hot button” contemporary issue today is one that borrows from the Exodus narrative about emancipation, being set free from the oppressive yoke of tyranny or from a people group labelled “oppressors” or from religious authoritarianism. Name one big social issue today, whether around Critical Theory or Gender Identity, abortion rights in the US, that isn’t motivated by the idea of being liberated, rather than yoked, whether from an individual, institution or a government “telling me what to do.” And even when an individual, institution or a government “tells me what to do,” we will accommodate insofar as we see the ultimate aim being to “protect” the right to self-determination. Just about every big social issue today is motivated by some version of borrowing from the Exodus narrative, but rather than having love of God and neighbour as its ultimate aim (as Jesus summed up the law of God and was the point of God giving Israel His law following their deliverance), instead has the love of self, self-expression and right to self-determination,… as its ultimate aim.

So much of life in this world today is about being “free” from some kind of perceived yoke of oppression, coercion or otherwise that keeps me from being fully “me.”

In my Saturday morning book study through Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory book, Watkins writes on p. 263, regarding the Exodus story in the Bible, “God’s liberation of his people has a particular purpose in view; God freed his people not so that they can serve no lord, but so that they can serve the true Lord.” Quoting philosopher Gerald MacCallum Watkin writes that “freedom” should not be thought of as a pure concept (I am free, or I am not free), rather that someone is always free from something and for something or someone. So the idea that “I need to be free to be me” here in the west is driven by the idea of self-determination, rather than love and service to God and neighbour. And while it is good to escape the tyranny of others or an institution, government or even church, the problem is that our self-determination is at the root of society’s woes, not a deliverance from them. As G.K. Chesterton once responded when asked by a journalist, “what is the problem with the world?” “I am dear sir.” Or as the prophet Isaiah in chapter 64, v. 6, states, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” As Paul quoting the Psalms in Romans 3:10-12 writes, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” To make the point clearer, Watkin’s points out that even after the Israelites were released from 430 years of slavery in Egypt and delivered by the mighty hand of God and leadership of Moses out of Egypt, for the next forty years, they would in many ways suffer an even greater bondage, bondage to a dissatisfied heart of grumbling,… that liberation from oppressive circumstances could not liberate the heart from its even greater need of finding rest and true peace. In fact, the longer the Israelites wandered and gathered, it seemed the more they began to re-write the narrative and mis-remember their time in Egypt as somehow being far superior and with better provisions than their current situation of actually being emancipated from their slavery! (see Numbers 11). Again, the person can be liberated from something, but also they will in turn be liberated for something or someone. This is another way of saying, we will always give our hearts to some kind of master. Even the most secular person in the world with no religious affiliation whatsoever will wake up in the morning and serve something. Freedom from all masters and all restraints is a mere illusion. To what do you give your heart? This is a key theme I have been reflecting on while I have been away.

See you at Grace Van this Sunday!