Notes About Notes
A friend drops off two dozen eggs on our front porch every week - fragile orbs of brown, blue, and olive green. Beauty that nestles in my hands and burst into golden sunshine to meet the most basic of needs.
The sun has shown his face more this week than it feels he has in the last two months and this morning I sat with my face raised on the front stoop, Bible in hand with my eyes closed.
There is something incredibly beautiful about the quiet and the mundane - and it’s not something we sit with often enough.
What does this have to do with Notes About Notes?
The four of you live in a time where information is all around you - quiet is rare and noise is a constant hum. You are unsure of something? Just pull out your phone.
There is a subtle twist to that if you come even closer in a Christian community: Life takes a certain and unexpected turn and your days seem unfamiliar and you long for an answer. How often is it asked if a certain book has been read, or a specific sermon listened to when the hard questions are placed on the table? There is so much information that anyone can quickly point to their favorite resource or site because they are eager to help, eager to share.
Most of the time, it comes from a good and kind place, but. how often is Scripture offered to the one sitting dazed and confused, or the Word of Life offered to one who is sitting in pain and brokenness?
I am not discouraging you from reading or listening to Christ-centered and Bible-centered words. Please. Fill your minds and hearts with godly teaching. But what I am discouraging is the impulse to plant yourself at a man-made well and only draw from there.
We wonder how celebrity culture can take over a group of people, because really, it’s no longer just the world around us - it’s everywhere within the Church as well. And it’s terrifying.
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
“If you show partiality” is summed up in one Greek word, prosōpolēmpteō, which is to favor an individual, and this is sin.
I think of all the times as your mama, how often I would be asked when you were little who I loved the most, or if I had a favorite…the fear that you might not be the one I was partial to was written plainly all over your faces.
I would almost always answer, “You! You are my favorite Lyla, or Olivia, or Elias, or Zee”, but you were always reminded that you were favored equally between your brother and sisters.
Yes. There are words that have been written and preached that carry much weight within the body of Christ. I am not denying that. But, those words are fallible. It’s why I mostly read the writings of men and women who have been dead for hundreds of years - their words have been tried and found faithful. So many men and women today who have appeared firm in Christian orthodoxy have fallen away or wandered into heresy, leading many along with them. When I look back over my own corner of social media I can see that path I have followed and ended up pulling away from. Men can lead, but they can never replace the true Shepherd…follow Him.
Your dad has said for years, “You read your book, but I’m going to read the Book your book is trying to explain.” It’s simple, really. the glory of God is His alone and He will not share it with another. The notes of another person are from the pen of one who has seen only dimly, keep that in mind. All the words and sermons and beautiful pictures and articles are offered from men and women who only see in part but will one day see in whole. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ joyfully and with hope. Take their notes and their words as gifts given, but keep them in the proper perspective and place. Keep the Word of God always before you, and you will learn to hold everything else rightly.
With love, from the one who loves you all equally, always…
