I enjoy sitting out in my front yard on summer evenings. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t also enjoy sitting in the back yard, or in certain rooms of the house, or in various and sundry other areas where one may sit. And that’s also not to say that I don’t enjoy sitting in these places on non-summer evenings, like in the winter or spring or fall; and that I don’t like sitting in them in the morning or afternoon or after dark. It’s a simple fact, though, that I first got the idea for this article while I was sitting out in my front yard on a summer evening.
To be more descriptive, I was sitting on the picnic table that’s out in the front yard, not far from the very tall cypress tree and some of the other trees that are spread out. The trees are fairly mature now. When Dad planted them years ago, he said that someday we’d have a lot of nice shade in the yard to enjoy. And he was right, even though at the time it seemed like he was just in a neurotic tree-planting mood.
There used to be a garden in the yard, but now there’s just a nice little patch of plants surrounding the bird bath. Every now and then the yard will be filled with birds and all of their carrying on. On this particular evening, it was fairly quiet, with the summer evening breeze wafting through the branches of the trees and the highway traffic noise humming faintly in the distance.
Directly opposite our yard, across the road, there’s an abandoned lot. My friends and I used to play there well over a decade ago; there was a basketball goal and the broken-down mobile home they left there afforded plenty of scenarios for games of war and cops-and-robbers. But all of that is a distant memory, and to look at it, one wouldn’t guess such games ever took place there. The lot is completely overgrown with grass, weeds, trees, and vines, and you can’t really see the broken-down mobile home, unless – perhaps – you look really hard. Still there’s a certain charm about the place as I look across at it. The wind makes all that greenery sway gently, and you can see the golden rays of the setting sun through the branches.
There are other sounds, too. There’s the pitter-patter of our neighbor’s feet as she goes down the road to her mother’s house next to ours. There’s the traffic noise, and eventually a car will stray into our dead-end neighborhood. Every few minutes there’s a clang as some neighbor on another street is apparently building or fixing something. Other than that, it’s just me and my thoughts – thoughts which it is the point of this article to share.
I was thinking that in this age of computers and televisions, radios and MP3 players, cell phones and appliances, traffic in the air and on the ground, there is probably more noise all around us than there ever was in past generations. Some of it is real noise, like a TV or a radio blaring, and some of it is very subliminal, so under the surface that we really don’t know it’s there most of the time. But I think most of the noise that we’ve created for ourselves can’t be heard at all. It’s a silent but still very palpable noise that we’ve allowed to jar our own inner world.
We’re always going, going, going – rushing onward to the next thing on our schedule or to-do list. We feel uncomfortable if we’re not doing something or getting something important done and out of the way. If that’s not enough, we have a million different sources of information coming at us at once – someone talking at us through a TV screen, or constant music providing a sound track to our daily lives, or a flurry of emails to check. If all of this noise, both real and symbolic, is somehow turned off, we feel not quite ourselves. It’s become part of our routine, but it’s also robbed us of peace in ways we may not realize. It’s deadened our minds and disconnected us from reality. There’s no disputing that many of these technologies are simply part of our world and won’t go away; but do we also feel a sort of attachment to it, a frenetic need to have it in our face at every waking moment?
Have we ever experienced what our forefathers experienced not so very long ago? Theirs was a generation without all of this noise and inward clutter. The sounds around them were natural sounds. The sights they saw were of nature in its raw beauty. Their world had nothing that had to be plugged into an electrical outlet or hooked up to a network or tuned in or out. While it may not be necessary or even wise to do away with all of our technology, perhaps it might not be a bad idea to go and sit somewhere where we can witness the ebb and flow of the universe and sit quietly with our own real thoughts – not somebody else’s. Our forefathers could smell rain in the air, or sense a blizzard on the wind, or hear the wildlife communicating. Today, watching an ant build his colony might be a totally foreign but exotic and exhilarating experience to us.
But what is it that’s often so unsettling about quiet, silence, or solitude? This is not necessarily our generation’s unique phobia (though we struggle with it perhaps more than any other); it’s part of human nature to a degree. Maybe sometimes we’re afraid to sit quietly and face the deeper thoughts of our experience – the unknown, our own frailty, our own mortality, even God Himself. It would do us a lot of good if sometimes we got alone and thought about these things more often, but there is also a natural sense of unease when we do. However, the more we do it, perhaps the more comfortable we will be with it – and maybe our lives will be richer for it.
As I sat I thought also about a related subject, that of our own personal pace of life. We may be able to simplify our daily lives in some areas, and in others we may have no choices. But that isn’t really what I had in mind. I was thinking about the fact that as we get older, life seems to go by faster. We’ve all experienced it; even I, at 25, know a little about it. When we were little, the days dragged by. Now I’m surprised that 2009 is already over half done. What happened? There are the same number of days in a year – 365. There are still seven days in a week, and twenty-four hours in a day, and sixty minutes in an hour, and sixty seconds in a minute. Nothing at all has changed, except perhaps us. Maybe we have chosen to go through life at breakneck speed, rushing to the next thing without even thinking about anything else along the way to where we’re going. We’ve lost, it seems, the wonder of childhood, where everything was new and curious and exciting. Now everything is routine, by-the-book, and familiar.
There’s no easy way to slow down our inner pace of life. Sometimes we have to sit quietly as I mentioned before – not necessarily in the outdoors, but anywhere at all, even if it’s a place as humdrum as the waiting room of a tax office. Maybe we can take more pleasure and more notice in the simplest activities of our lives, like eating a piece of fruit or talking with a family member. Stop every now and then. Pay attention always to the life that is around you. Live every moment to its fullest. Wherever you are, be all there.
And those were some of the things I thought about while I sat out in my front yard on a summer evening.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Who Are We In Christ?
I have been thinking lately about a profound, powerful, and possibly freeing concept. And yet it seems to be a very difficult concept to consistently grasp and practice in our imperfect human condition. The concept I have in mind is that of our position before God in Christ as saved believers.
The Bible has many things to say about who we are in Christ. It says we are chosen before the foundation of the world; it says we are complete in Him; it says that Christ’s blood has made us holy and acceptable in God’s sight, giving us free access to His throne; it says that God has given us all we need for life and godliness. It also says that our sins have been entirely erased from our record. Jesus says that He has given eternal life to all who believe in Him, and there is no way His children can ever be taken out of His hand. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us for the rest of our lives, guiding and protecting us until the day we stand in God’s presence.
The spiritual blessings we possess now and will possess in the future are many and unchangeable. They were bought at the price of God’s only Son, and God, who cannot lie, has promised that they are ours. We do and ought to rejoice in this reality as we ponder it gratefully. But there is sometimes a certain discrepancy in our view of our spiritual position.
Anyone who has invited Christ into their life as their Lord and Savior understands the great truth that there is nothing they can ever do to earn their salvation. Good works won’t do it. Church membership can’t get you into heaven. No effort on our part, however well-intentioned or diligently pursued, will gain God’s favor. Our sin has irreparably separated us from God, and we can only be saved by the substitution of Jesus in our place – the transfer of our sin to Him and His righteousness to us. And we rejoice in this principle of “not I, but Christ”!
If such is certainly the case, then why is it so easy for us as believers to lose sight of the principle after we are saved? After knowing we are saved only by grace through faith, we continue in the Christian life, many times, relying on our own effort. It’s as if we believe that the Christian life is some sort of performance. I’ve seen it too many times to recount in my own life and in the life of the church. We make up lists of things to do and things not to do, believing that by following those lists we make ourselves more acceptable to God; and we fear that by not adhering to those lists, we run the risk of losing God’s favor, after which He is waiting and watching to “get” us. It hardly matters what’s on these “lists”. Sometimes it’s actual commands from God’s Word. Other times it’s rules made up by some Christian leader. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two. This can lead to an incredible amount of guilt and pressure in our own lives when we unavoidably feel that we are not measuring up; and this in turn can lead us to cast a judging and critical eye on our fellow believers who do not meet the standards we think they ought to meet.
The simple fact is that such an approach is far from biblical. Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians to a group of Christians who had this mindset, which in their case came in the form of believing that Christians had to follow some aspects of the Jewish law in order to be truly saved and acceptable in God’s sight. In Galatians 3:3, the apostle asks his readers, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you seeking to be made perfect by the flesh?” Paul simply means that the Galatians foolishly thought that the work of salvation that God graciously began in them by His Spirit had to be continued and maintained by their own effort.
Just as there was nothing we could do to earn our salvation, there is nothing we can do now to win God’s acceptance by our effort – and what’s more, there’s nothing we need to do to win it! There is no possibility that anything we do – good or bad – can change the level at which we’re currently accepted by God, which happens to be total and complete acceptance. The fact is that Jesus died for us before we were even born. He knew all the bad things we would do, and still He loved us. God’s love for us is completely unconditional – that is, unconnected to anything we do or don’t do.
God does not operate His kingdom with different “class” levels. The Kingdom is made up entirely of humans who did not and do not measure up to God’s holiness but were made holy anyway because Christ died for them. As Christians, we’re all at different points in the journey. I struggle with sins you don’t struggle with, and your hang-ups are different from mine. Perhaps it seems that one believer has a lot further to go in the journey toward Christlikeness than another. But none of these factors makes you or me more accepted by God at any time than any other believer. Nor is God just itching to “get” us when we mess up. There is no more wrath to be poured out, because God poured it all out onto His own Son!
All of this is not to say that God has no expectations at all of His children. He wants us to do good works and be like Jesus. However, the good news is that He gave us His Word and His Spirit to help us do that – we’re not alone! He is with us all along the way, ready to help us in the right direction when we fall or stumble or mess up. And as His children, it is part of our redeemed nature to want to please our Lord, who bought us with a price so that we are no longer our own. We do it out of love and gratitude – not out of obligation or a need to measure up.
Whenever we get in the trap of thinking that the Christian life is a performance, we need to sit back and relax. This can be hard to do, because our own flesh and the opinions of those around us may put confusing pressure on us to think otherwise. Our acceptance by God was purchased by another, not by us, and it cannot at any time fluctuate or change. We’re completely safe in Jesus!
Earlier I said this concept was possibly freeing. I think it is, because if we ever become sure and secure in our knowledge of who we are in Christ, it will bring a peace to our lives that we can never know if we still labor under the delusion that we are always trying to gain and maintain God’s favor. This realization will help us to accept ourselves in ways we never can otherwise. And if we can accept ourselves, warts and all, it will help us to accept all of the people around us just as God has unconditionally accepted them and us. And what an amazing impact we can have on our world if we think and live in this way! Just remember – Jesus did it all for us, both before and after we came to Him for salvation. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
The Bible has many things to say about who we are in Christ. It says we are chosen before the foundation of the world; it says we are complete in Him; it says that Christ’s blood has made us holy and acceptable in God’s sight, giving us free access to His throne; it says that God has given us all we need for life and godliness. It also says that our sins have been entirely erased from our record. Jesus says that He has given eternal life to all who believe in Him, and there is no way His children can ever be taken out of His hand. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us for the rest of our lives, guiding and protecting us until the day we stand in God’s presence.
The spiritual blessings we possess now and will possess in the future are many and unchangeable. They were bought at the price of God’s only Son, and God, who cannot lie, has promised that they are ours. We do and ought to rejoice in this reality as we ponder it gratefully. But there is sometimes a certain discrepancy in our view of our spiritual position.
Anyone who has invited Christ into their life as their Lord and Savior understands the great truth that there is nothing they can ever do to earn their salvation. Good works won’t do it. Church membership can’t get you into heaven. No effort on our part, however well-intentioned or diligently pursued, will gain God’s favor. Our sin has irreparably separated us from God, and we can only be saved by the substitution of Jesus in our place – the transfer of our sin to Him and His righteousness to us. And we rejoice in this principle of “not I, but Christ”!
If such is certainly the case, then why is it so easy for us as believers to lose sight of the principle after we are saved? After knowing we are saved only by grace through faith, we continue in the Christian life, many times, relying on our own effort. It’s as if we believe that the Christian life is some sort of performance. I’ve seen it too many times to recount in my own life and in the life of the church. We make up lists of things to do and things not to do, believing that by following those lists we make ourselves more acceptable to God; and we fear that by not adhering to those lists, we run the risk of losing God’s favor, after which He is waiting and watching to “get” us. It hardly matters what’s on these “lists”. Sometimes it’s actual commands from God’s Word. Other times it’s rules made up by some Christian leader. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two. This can lead to an incredible amount of guilt and pressure in our own lives when we unavoidably feel that we are not measuring up; and this in turn can lead us to cast a judging and critical eye on our fellow believers who do not meet the standards we think they ought to meet.
The simple fact is that such an approach is far from biblical. Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians to a group of Christians who had this mindset, which in their case came in the form of believing that Christians had to follow some aspects of the Jewish law in order to be truly saved and acceptable in God’s sight. In Galatians 3:3, the apostle asks his readers, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you seeking to be made perfect by the flesh?” Paul simply means that the Galatians foolishly thought that the work of salvation that God graciously began in them by His Spirit had to be continued and maintained by their own effort.
Just as there was nothing we could do to earn our salvation, there is nothing we can do now to win God’s acceptance by our effort – and what’s more, there’s nothing we need to do to win it! There is no possibility that anything we do – good or bad – can change the level at which we’re currently accepted by God, which happens to be total and complete acceptance. The fact is that Jesus died for us before we were even born. He knew all the bad things we would do, and still He loved us. God’s love for us is completely unconditional – that is, unconnected to anything we do or don’t do.
God does not operate His kingdom with different “class” levels. The Kingdom is made up entirely of humans who did not and do not measure up to God’s holiness but were made holy anyway because Christ died for them. As Christians, we’re all at different points in the journey. I struggle with sins you don’t struggle with, and your hang-ups are different from mine. Perhaps it seems that one believer has a lot further to go in the journey toward Christlikeness than another. But none of these factors makes you or me more accepted by God at any time than any other believer. Nor is God just itching to “get” us when we mess up. There is no more wrath to be poured out, because God poured it all out onto His own Son!
All of this is not to say that God has no expectations at all of His children. He wants us to do good works and be like Jesus. However, the good news is that He gave us His Word and His Spirit to help us do that – we’re not alone! He is with us all along the way, ready to help us in the right direction when we fall or stumble or mess up. And as His children, it is part of our redeemed nature to want to please our Lord, who bought us with a price so that we are no longer our own. We do it out of love and gratitude – not out of obligation or a need to measure up.
Whenever we get in the trap of thinking that the Christian life is a performance, we need to sit back and relax. This can be hard to do, because our own flesh and the opinions of those around us may put confusing pressure on us to think otherwise. Our acceptance by God was purchased by another, not by us, and it cannot at any time fluctuate or change. We’re completely safe in Jesus!
Earlier I said this concept was possibly freeing. I think it is, because if we ever become sure and secure in our knowledge of who we are in Christ, it will bring a peace to our lives that we can never know if we still labor under the delusion that we are always trying to gain and maintain God’s favor. This realization will help us to accept ourselves in ways we never can otherwise. And if we can accept ourselves, warts and all, it will help us to accept all of the people around us just as God has unconditionally accepted them and us. And what an amazing impact we can have on our world if we think and live in this way! Just remember – Jesus did it all for us, both before and after we came to Him for salvation. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Midsummer Classic
Today, Major League Baseball will hold its annual All-Star Game at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The All-Star game comes smack-dab in the middle of the baseball season, and allows most players a nice three-day break. For the lucky and popular minority, it offers a chance to shine for a nationwide audience, as the American League battles the National League for bragging rights.
Fans are allowed to vote for the eight starting position players (this excludes pitchers); players and managers vote for the bench players and some pitchers; and the rest of the All-Star team members are picked by the two All-Star managers (who, incidentally, are usually the managers from the two World Series teams from the previous season). Nowadays fans can vote on the internet for their favorite players; they can even vote up to 25 times! In recent years there has been a special “Final Vote”, which allows fans to vote for one of about five players per league to fill the final All-Star roster spot.
Selection to an All-Star team is thus a popularity contest, and every year fans and sports media figures criticize and complain and argue about the fact that so-and-so didn’t make the team even though he was winning the batting title so far, or that the pitcher with the fastest fastball and the lowest earned-run average was left off for the second year in a row. In fact, the powers that be in Major League Baseball once stripped the loyal fans of their voting rights, in 1957. That’s when Cincinnati Reds fans voted early and very, very often for their hometown players and elected a Red to every position but one. But that was an anomaly, and democracy was soon restored to baseball. But it’s true – the fans may not make the most informed choices based on the cold, hard facts and statistics, but their word is law. Whoever they like is who will play – or at least start the game. Anyone who’s watched an All-Star Game knows that the players who begin the game rarely ever play until the end – after all, there are other stars on the bench waiting to get a chance to hit or pitch or field.
Ballot-stuffing and voting irregularities haven’t been the only All-Star Game controversy. I have mentioned that the starters of the game usually don’t finish it. In fact, they usually start pulling them out in favor of the backups by the third or fourth inning. This makes it so that as many All-Stars as possible can enter the action for at least an inning or two. It’s also dangerous, as proven by what happened in 2002. Neither the American nor the National Leagues managed to win the game by the time the ninth inning was over, and in the eleventh inning they made a horrifying discovery – there was no one left on the bench or in the bullpen. That meant that whoever was pitching and playing had to keep pitching and playing until the game was decided. However, the All-Star Game is only a glorified exhibition game, and it doesn’t count. What manager would want his pitcher to risk injury just because he had to pitch perhaps twelve extra innings in a big practice game because there were no pitchers left? No manager would. So the commissioner decided to call the game over in a tie. Needless to say, this was not a popular decision. The next season (and every season since), the powers that be tried to appease the disgruntled fans by declaring that the winning league in the All-Star Game would get home-field advantage once the World Series rolled around in October – thus attempting to make the All-Star Game more interesting by making it somewhat more meaningful.
The very first All-Star Game was held in 1933 in Chicago. It was only meant to be a one-time event as part of the World’s Fair, but it caught on so well that it became an annual event. And they’ve only skipped it twice – once in 1945 due to the ongoing war, and once in 1994 due to the fact that nobody was playing because they were on strike. From 1959 to 1962, they had the bright idea of playing not one but two All-Star Games a year. That’s why this year’s game is the 80th All-Star Game, not the 77th, as pure math might dictate.
The All-Star Game is always held on a Tuesday in July, and since 1985 the day before has been the day for the Home Run Derby. This is the event where a handful of the sport’s strongest sluggers compete in an attempt to hit as many balls out of the park as possible. There are also other side events like a game for rookies and minor leaguers and a game for old-timers. The game is never held in the same stadium twice in a row, and alternates between American League and National League ballparks. Cleveland and New York, with four All-Star Games each, hold the current record for most games hosted.
The American League is currently enjoying a stretch of dominance that has lasted over a decade. Excluding the tie game in 2002, the AL has won eleven straight All-Star Games. And that’s the way it’s usually been, with one league or the other dominating for a decade or more. However, it might be interesting to note that the National League leads 40-37 in decided games – and the American League leads in overall runs by just two!
Even though the All-Star Game is just a big exhibition game, and even though some fans think it’s boring, it’s had its exciting and historic moments. In 1934, pitcher Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants used his famous screwball to strike out, all in a row, five of the greatest hitters in the history of the game – Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees; Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons (who were at one time teammates of my great-grandfather) of the Philadelphia Athletics; and Joe Cronin of the Washington Senators. In 1999, Hall of Famer Ted Williams, the last hitter to have a .400 batting average in a full season, was welcomed back to Fenway Park in Boston (where he used to play in the 1940s and 1950s) in an emotional pre-game ceremony. In 2007, the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki hit the only inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history. And last year was the longest All-Star Game – almost five hours long!
Who knows whether tonight’s game will hold anything historic or memorable. The President of the United States is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch – that doesn’t happen every year. But as any baseball fan knows, once the real first pitch is thrown and the game itself is under way, anything can happen.
Fans are allowed to vote for the eight starting position players (this excludes pitchers); players and managers vote for the bench players and some pitchers; and the rest of the All-Star team members are picked by the two All-Star managers (who, incidentally, are usually the managers from the two World Series teams from the previous season). Nowadays fans can vote on the internet for their favorite players; they can even vote up to 25 times! In recent years there has been a special “Final Vote”, which allows fans to vote for one of about five players per league to fill the final All-Star roster spot.
Selection to an All-Star team is thus a popularity contest, and every year fans and sports media figures criticize and complain and argue about the fact that so-and-so didn’t make the team even though he was winning the batting title so far, or that the pitcher with the fastest fastball and the lowest earned-run average was left off for the second year in a row. In fact, the powers that be in Major League Baseball once stripped the loyal fans of their voting rights, in 1957. That’s when Cincinnati Reds fans voted early and very, very often for their hometown players and elected a Red to every position but one. But that was an anomaly, and democracy was soon restored to baseball. But it’s true – the fans may not make the most informed choices based on the cold, hard facts and statistics, but their word is law. Whoever they like is who will play – or at least start the game. Anyone who’s watched an All-Star Game knows that the players who begin the game rarely ever play until the end – after all, there are other stars on the bench waiting to get a chance to hit or pitch or field.
Ballot-stuffing and voting irregularities haven’t been the only All-Star Game controversy. I have mentioned that the starters of the game usually don’t finish it. In fact, they usually start pulling them out in favor of the backups by the third or fourth inning. This makes it so that as many All-Stars as possible can enter the action for at least an inning or two. It’s also dangerous, as proven by what happened in 2002. Neither the American nor the National Leagues managed to win the game by the time the ninth inning was over, and in the eleventh inning they made a horrifying discovery – there was no one left on the bench or in the bullpen. That meant that whoever was pitching and playing had to keep pitching and playing until the game was decided. However, the All-Star Game is only a glorified exhibition game, and it doesn’t count. What manager would want his pitcher to risk injury just because he had to pitch perhaps twelve extra innings in a big practice game because there were no pitchers left? No manager would. So the commissioner decided to call the game over in a tie. Needless to say, this was not a popular decision. The next season (and every season since), the powers that be tried to appease the disgruntled fans by declaring that the winning league in the All-Star Game would get home-field advantage once the World Series rolled around in October – thus attempting to make the All-Star Game more interesting by making it somewhat more meaningful.
The very first All-Star Game was held in 1933 in Chicago. It was only meant to be a one-time event as part of the World’s Fair, but it caught on so well that it became an annual event. And they’ve only skipped it twice – once in 1945 due to the ongoing war, and once in 1994 due to the fact that nobody was playing because they were on strike. From 1959 to 1962, they had the bright idea of playing not one but two All-Star Games a year. That’s why this year’s game is the 80th All-Star Game, not the 77th, as pure math might dictate.
The All-Star Game is always held on a Tuesday in July, and since 1985 the day before has been the day for the Home Run Derby. This is the event where a handful of the sport’s strongest sluggers compete in an attempt to hit as many balls out of the park as possible. There are also other side events like a game for rookies and minor leaguers and a game for old-timers. The game is never held in the same stadium twice in a row, and alternates between American League and National League ballparks. Cleveland and New York, with four All-Star Games each, hold the current record for most games hosted.
The American League is currently enjoying a stretch of dominance that has lasted over a decade. Excluding the tie game in 2002, the AL has won eleven straight All-Star Games. And that’s the way it’s usually been, with one league or the other dominating for a decade or more. However, it might be interesting to note that the National League leads 40-37 in decided games – and the American League leads in overall runs by just two!
Even though the All-Star Game is just a big exhibition game, and even though some fans think it’s boring, it’s had its exciting and historic moments. In 1934, pitcher Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants used his famous screwball to strike out, all in a row, five of the greatest hitters in the history of the game – Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees; Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons (who were at one time teammates of my great-grandfather) of the Philadelphia Athletics; and Joe Cronin of the Washington Senators. In 1999, Hall of Famer Ted Williams, the last hitter to have a .400 batting average in a full season, was welcomed back to Fenway Park in Boston (where he used to play in the 1940s and 1950s) in an emotional pre-game ceremony. In 2007, the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki hit the only inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history. And last year was the longest All-Star Game – almost five hours long!
Who knows whether tonight’s game will hold anything historic or memorable. The President of the United States is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch – that doesn’t happen every year. But as any baseball fan knows, once the real first pitch is thrown and the game itself is under way, anything can happen.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Old-Time Radio
A dozen years ago, when I was about 13, I made a discovery. And, no, it was not the discovery that I was suddenly able to grow hair on my face – for, you see, I am still waiting to make that discovery. Be that as it may, the discovery I made was a discovery of a whole new world, at least to me. That world is the world of old-time radio. The local news station was playing old-time radio shows on weekend evenings, and I decided to tune in one night. The shows grabbed my interest almost from the start, and I was a regular listener until the station stopped airing the feature some years ago. But I still had some collections of shows on audio tapes and CDs, and for the past couple years I have been able to download many shows off the internet for free. I listen to them now on my MP3 player every weekend. Let me take a moment to describe for you this world of old-time radio.
The “golden age” of old-time radio began in the 1930s, hardly a decade after the radio came to prominence as a communication medium, and it lasted well into the 1950s before it slowly died off due to the rise of the television. It may be hard for us in 2009 to believe it, but there used to be a day when there were no TV sets or computers. There was only radio, and it was from radio that people got their news, their sports, their music, and their entertainment. There was no picture, only sound – which meant that you could listen and create the scene, whatever it was, in your own mind. Herein, to a great extent, lies the magic of old-time radio.
Radio shows back then were roughly the equivalent of a TV show in our day – they were acted out by a cast, had commercials in some cases (though much, much shorter in length), were broadcast weekly (some were daily affairs), and generally lasted a half-hour (a few were as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour). There were news shows, music shows, and quiz shows, but the vast majority of the great old-time radio shows were fictional stories of some kind. And the amazing part of it is they were usually always broadcast live – which meant that there could be no slip-ups and that the best shows had to have talented actors in order to be pulled off smoothly. Some radio actors were the same ones Americans saw in the movie theaters – James Stewart starred in his own Western show in the 1950s – but many of them are not as familiar to our modern ears, having made their careers sometimes exclusively on the radio and sometimes on both radio and silver screen.
Old-time radio shows came in a great variety. There were detective shows, mystery shows, adventure shows, dramas, westerns, comedy, and science fiction. Old-time radio helped perpetuate the legend of the “hard-boiled detective” with such fictional creations as Richard Diamond, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Dick Tracy, Boston Blackie, and Philo Vance. Many of these gumshoes followed the clues as the famous old-time radio pipe organ played ominously in the background. Still other detective shows were based on real life. “Gangbusters” and “This is Your FBI” took their plots from the files of the FBI, and “Tales of the Texas Rangers” told true stories of that famous Texas law enforcement body.
Mystery shows came in different flavors. There were the shows that dwelt on creepy things like ghosts and goblins and monsters. The most famous of these shows was “Lights Out”. Even its customary opening could send shivers down a listener’s spine – a deep voice intoned, “Lights out…everybody!”, after which, in between the deep “dong’s” of a grandfather clock, the same voice would say “It…is…later…than…you…think!” Then the host would warn listeners who frightened easily to turn off their radios now. Other shows like “Quiet Please”, “Dark Fantasy”, “The Weird Circle”, and “The Hermit’s Cave” were similar in their depictions of weird and strange stories.
But other mystery shows had a more earthly, though no less chilling, feel. “The Black Museum”, narrated by the great Orson Welles, picked an object each week that was supposedly involved in a murder case, and told its story. “Escape” offered listeners who wanted to “get away from it all” strange and interesting stories from settings all over the world. “Suspense” was “well-calculated” to give you just that, as it drew out a mysterious story, withholding the resolution to the very end. “The Whistler”, with its famous whistled opening tune, often told of someone who committed a crime or some other misdeed and thought he got away with it, only to be unexpectedly caught in the end. Another famous mystery, “The Shadow”, was a mixture of a detective show and the macabre. Its hero fought crime by somehow making it so that the bad guys only heard his chuckling voice. His lines at the beginning and end of the show were some of the most famous in radio – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” and “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit – crime does not pay! The Shadow knows!”
Adventure shows also came in varied forms. There were the superheroes like Superman and the Green Hornet, who had one persona by day and a crime-fighting alter-ego by night. “Box 13” was the story of a man who accepted, by mail, any offer of adventure that came his way. “I Was a Communist for the FBI” was broadcast in the early days of the Cold War and told of the adventures of an FBI agent who infiltrated Communist groups who in turn tried to infiltrate American society.
Dramas sought to bring to life great stories from literature and the big screen. “Lux Radio Theater” and “Screen Directors Playhouse” were just two of the shows that brought great film actors into the radio studio to re-create their movie roles. Other shows like “Mercury Theater”, “CBS Radio Workshop”, and “The Hallmark Playhouse” dramatized great literature from past and modern eras. Other dramas like “You Are There” and “Mister President” acted out famous stories from history and the lives of American presidents, respectively. There was even something for the children, as evidenced by the show “Let’s Pretend”, whose cast of “pretenders” brought young listeners radio versions of children’s stories and fairy tales.
Just as in the movies, there were westerns on the radio, especially in the 1950s. “Gunsmoke” (which also became a TV show), about Marshall Matt Dillon, was probably the most popular, followed closely by “The Lone Ranger”. There was also “Have Gun, Will Travel” and “The Six-Shooter”; the latter starred James Stewart (of “George Bailey” fame) as a kind-hearted but adventurous drifter.
The 1950s also saw the heyday of most of the successful science fiction shows on radio, of which there were only a few. The best of them were “X Minus One” and “Dimension X”, which showcased the famous science fiction stories of such writers as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. These stories could at times be a little chilling and at other times somewhat laughable, with their fantastic images of what life might be like in the 1980s or the 1990s or beyond.
But not all the old-time radio shows were intended to be serious in nature. Many of them were meant only to make the listener laugh, and there was plenty of laughter to go around. My own favorite is the long-running “Jack Benny Program”, about which I have already written an article. His rival Fred Allen had his own show, featuring “Allen’s Alley”, which was populated by several humorous characters who would answer the “question of the week” posed by Allen himself. There were other famous comedians who had their own shows – George Burns and his wife Gracie, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (with his wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy) were among the best. Then there were the situation comedies. Ozzie and Harriet were on the radio before they were on television. “Fibber McGee and Molly” had their own ridiculous adventures. “The Great Gildersleeve” was known for his merry (and sometimes not-so-merry) chuckle. “Our Miss Brooks” was about a teacher in a school; “My Friend Irma” was about a clueless blonde; “My Favorite Husband” starred Lucille Ball and was a forerunner of sorts of television’s “I Love Lucy”; “The Aldrich Family” featured Henry Aldrich, a squeaky-voiced teenager; and “The Life of Riley” followed the misadventures of a rather hapless Brooklynite.
There were scores of other shows besides the ones I mentioned here. Some of them were wildly successful and ran for decades, while others only had a season, if that, on the air. Some were more exciting than others. All of them, in their own unique way, shine some light on what it was like to live in the decades before, during, and after World War II, and as such their historical value is fairly high. But if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy them simply for their entertainment value. Most of them are complex enough to hold your interest while still being clean and simple enough for the entire family to enjoy – something that may not be able to be said for everything the media puts out today. So sometime when you’re bored, take a listen to a couple of these great shows. They’ve brightened my life considerably, and who knows? You might discover a whole new world yourself.
The “golden age” of old-time radio began in the 1930s, hardly a decade after the radio came to prominence as a communication medium, and it lasted well into the 1950s before it slowly died off due to the rise of the television. It may be hard for us in 2009 to believe it, but there used to be a day when there were no TV sets or computers. There was only radio, and it was from radio that people got their news, their sports, their music, and their entertainment. There was no picture, only sound – which meant that you could listen and create the scene, whatever it was, in your own mind. Herein, to a great extent, lies the magic of old-time radio.
Radio shows back then were roughly the equivalent of a TV show in our day – they were acted out by a cast, had commercials in some cases (though much, much shorter in length), were broadcast weekly (some were daily affairs), and generally lasted a half-hour (a few were as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour). There were news shows, music shows, and quiz shows, but the vast majority of the great old-time radio shows were fictional stories of some kind. And the amazing part of it is they were usually always broadcast live – which meant that there could be no slip-ups and that the best shows had to have talented actors in order to be pulled off smoothly. Some radio actors were the same ones Americans saw in the movie theaters – James Stewart starred in his own Western show in the 1950s – but many of them are not as familiar to our modern ears, having made their careers sometimes exclusively on the radio and sometimes on both radio and silver screen.
Old-time radio shows came in a great variety. There were detective shows, mystery shows, adventure shows, dramas, westerns, comedy, and science fiction. Old-time radio helped perpetuate the legend of the “hard-boiled detective” with such fictional creations as Richard Diamond, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Dick Tracy, Boston Blackie, and Philo Vance. Many of these gumshoes followed the clues as the famous old-time radio pipe organ played ominously in the background. Still other detective shows were based on real life. “Gangbusters” and “This is Your FBI” took their plots from the files of the FBI, and “Tales of the Texas Rangers” told true stories of that famous Texas law enforcement body.
Mystery shows came in different flavors. There were the shows that dwelt on creepy things like ghosts and goblins and monsters. The most famous of these shows was “Lights Out”. Even its customary opening could send shivers down a listener’s spine – a deep voice intoned, “Lights out…everybody!”, after which, in between the deep “dong’s” of a grandfather clock, the same voice would say “It…is…later…than…you…think!” Then the host would warn listeners who frightened easily to turn off their radios now. Other shows like “Quiet Please”, “Dark Fantasy”, “The Weird Circle”, and “The Hermit’s Cave” were similar in their depictions of weird and strange stories.
But other mystery shows had a more earthly, though no less chilling, feel. “The Black Museum”, narrated by the great Orson Welles, picked an object each week that was supposedly involved in a murder case, and told its story. “Escape” offered listeners who wanted to “get away from it all” strange and interesting stories from settings all over the world. “Suspense” was “well-calculated” to give you just that, as it drew out a mysterious story, withholding the resolution to the very end. “The Whistler”, with its famous whistled opening tune, often told of someone who committed a crime or some other misdeed and thought he got away with it, only to be unexpectedly caught in the end. Another famous mystery, “The Shadow”, was a mixture of a detective show and the macabre. Its hero fought crime by somehow making it so that the bad guys only heard his chuckling voice. His lines at the beginning and end of the show were some of the most famous in radio – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” and “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit – crime does not pay! The Shadow knows!”
Adventure shows also came in varied forms. There were the superheroes like Superman and the Green Hornet, who had one persona by day and a crime-fighting alter-ego by night. “Box 13” was the story of a man who accepted, by mail, any offer of adventure that came his way. “I Was a Communist for the FBI” was broadcast in the early days of the Cold War and told of the adventures of an FBI agent who infiltrated Communist groups who in turn tried to infiltrate American society.
Dramas sought to bring to life great stories from literature and the big screen. “Lux Radio Theater” and “Screen Directors Playhouse” were just two of the shows that brought great film actors into the radio studio to re-create their movie roles. Other shows like “Mercury Theater”, “CBS Radio Workshop”, and “The Hallmark Playhouse” dramatized great literature from past and modern eras. Other dramas like “You Are There” and “Mister President” acted out famous stories from history and the lives of American presidents, respectively. There was even something for the children, as evidenced by the show “Let’s Pretend”, whose cast of “pretenders” brought young listeners radio versions of children’s stories and fairy tales.
Just as in the movies, there were westerns on the radio, especially in the 1950s. “Gunsmoke” (which also became a TV show), about Marshall Matt Dillon, was probably the most popular, followed closely by “The Lone Ranger”. There was also “Have Gun, Will Travel” and “The Six-Shooter”; the latter starred James Stewart (of “George Bailey” fame) as a kind-hearted but adventurous drifter.
The 1950s also saw the heyday of most of the successful science fiction shows on radio, of which there were only a few. The best of them were “X Minus One” and “Dimension X”, which showcased the famous science fiction stories of such writers as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. These stories could at times be a little chilling and at other times somewhat laughable, with their fantastic images of what life might be like in the 1980s or the 1990s or beyond.
But not all the old-time radio shows were intended to be serious in nature. Many of them were meant only to make the listener laugh, and there was plenty of laughter to go around. My own favorite is the long-running “Jack Benny Program”, about which I have already written an article. His rival Fred Allen had his own show, featuring “Allen’s Alley”, which was populated by several humorous characters who would answer the “question of the week” posed by Allen himself. There were other famous comedians who had their own shows – George Burns and his wife Gracie, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (with his wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy) were among the best. Then there were the situation comedies. Ozzie and Harriet were on the radio before they were on television. “Fibber McGee and Molly” had their own ridiculous adventures. “The Great Gildersleeve” was known for his merry (and sometimes not-so-merry) chuckle. “Our Miss Brooks” was about a teacher in a school; “My Friend Irma” was about a clueless blonde; “My Favorite Husband” starred Lucille Ball and was a forerunner of sorts of television’s “I Love Lucy”; “The Aldrich Family” featured Henry Aldrich, a squeaky-voiced teenager; and “The Life of Riley” followed the misadventures of a rather hapless Brooklynite.
There were scores of other shows besides the ones I mentioned here. Some of them were wildly successful and ran for decades, while others only had a season, if that, on the air. Some were more exciting than others. All of them, in their own unique way, shine some light on what it was like to live in the decades before, during, and after World War II, and as such their historical value is fairly high. But if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy them simply for their entertainment value. Most of them are complex enough to hold your interest while still being clean and simple enough for the entire family to enjoy – something that may not be able to be said for everything the media puts out today. So sometime when you’re bored, take a listen to a couple of these great shows. They’ve brightened my life considerably, and who knows? You might discover a whole new world yourself.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Freedom
Ever since I was a small child, I have heard about what a blessing it is to live in a free country, where you can do and be almost anything you want to do and be. But for a long time those were just words – I had always lived in America, and I didn’t appreciate how amazing being an American really is. I took my awesome birthright for granted.
Then came the day that shook our nation. What was once thought to be unthinkable and impossible actually unfolded suddenly before our unprepared eyes. Foreign enemies attacked us on our own soil and killed thousands of our fellow countrymen. One day we were at peace and the next we were at war. In the years since September 11, 2001, events have unfolded that people of my generation had yet to see up close – namely, war and sacrifice. Peace and safety was no longer a foregone conclusion in our biggest and greatest cities; the ability to go here and there without fear of sudden and violent attack was no longer the same. Young men of my very own age and generation – some of whom I knew personally – were going off to war to fight for America, something I myself might have done had I been physically able. These tumultuous times have made all of us think about and appreciate what America stands for, and have, like nothing else before now, stirred deep feelings of patriotism.
But freedom is not only an American quality. It is a universal ideal. We saw that when the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, whom we helped to liberate, voted for the first time in free and fair elections without fear that a tyrant would force them to cast a particular vote or face the consequences. We all saw it only recently when the people of Iran rose up against their dictators to demand the simple freedom of a fair and democratic election, even at the risk of their own lives. It is not only we Americans who have known and fought for freedom; it is a global struggle, and every true American identifies and stands with anyone in the world who seeks freedom – whether it be in the Middle East, or Asia, or former Soviet Bloc nations, or Nazi-threatened Europe.
It is hard to appreciate something when you have never experienced its opposite. We have always enjoyed the right to choose our own religion, to speak out and even criticize our authorities, to live and work wherever we please, to select our leaders, to travel without fear of restriction, to be at ease from persecution on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or belief. But recent events have brought this into focus better than it has been in some time. We have seen how so many in our world do not get to taste even the smallest of these liberties – and much less in the midst of as much prosperity as we in America, despite the current economic downturn, experience all of them every single day.
But on the birthday of our nation, we need to be reminded of an even greater truth – that our freedoms, though safeguarded through the years by noble leaders and even nobler if far less famous soldiers, are not bestowed on us by ourselves or any other human being. Freedom is not self-perpetuating; it is not a guarantee. Freedom comes from God, and the fact that America has been a beacon of liberty to all the world for now 233 years is a testimony to that God and to the fact that for many of those years Americans have walked in God’s ways. America was founded on the truth that true freedom – spiritual freedom – comes only by faith in Jesus Christ, who by His own blood made a way for us to be free from sin and its consequences forever. America’s founders and many of her greatest men have known this and realized that only those who walk in spiritual freedom – which is not the right to do as we please but the empowerment to do as we ought – are able to govern themselves in political freedom.
Today we have left that foundation, and we do so at our own peril. We as a nation no longer walk in God’s ways. We have gotten lazy, ignorant, and immoral. We put our trust in man to fulfill our desires and needs, and power-hungry leaders have taken advantage of this in order to make government more and more of an all-consuming idol which threatens more freedoms each day. We have drifted, and we have for the most part been oblivious and uncaring in the midst of our drift away from what once made us great and truly free.
The Fourth of July is a day to mark how many years America has been a nation and to give thanks for freedom. But it is not a day to smugly reassure ourselves in the false belief that freedom and liberty will always be there, and that America will always be prosperous, and that America will always and forever come out on top. These things are not eternal – they are only guaranteed by our own vigilance and utmost trust in Almighty God. Independence Day should be a wake-up call to us, for we have much to do in order to restore and maintain our republic.
The very first thing we must do is return to the God of our fathers. Second Chronicles 7:14 assures that “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways – then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.” We who name the name of Christ must get on our knees and do business with God, and then rise to seek from His hand the revival that our nation so desperately needs. As we do so, we must also strive to make a godly difference in every area of society – not just in politics, but also in our workplace, in education, in the arts, in the marketplace of ideas, and any other place in which our hand finds something to do. We must do it with our might and to the glory of God. Only then, by God’s grace and strength, will we be living as our Christian forefathers did, and then we will be on our way to re-making America into the great nation it once was.
But if we neglect to do these things, we can be sure that our cherished freedom will continue to be eroded. We can expect that God will withdraw His hand from our society and even judge us for our sin – we would have reason to fear more unrest, upheaval, calamity, and uncertainty. A nation cannot long prosper that has left its God.
We thank God for another free July 4th – but how many more free birthdays does America have? They will not keep coming on their own. As one of our founding fathers once said, the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. May we never be guilty of inaction in freedom’s cause.
Then came the day that shook our nation. What was once thought to be unthinkable and impossible actually unfolded suddenly before our unprepared eyes. Foreign enemies attacked us on our own soil and killed thousands of our fellow countrymen. One day we were at peace and the next we were at war. In the years since September 11, 2001, events have unfolded that people of my generation had yet to see up close – namely, war and sacrifice. Peace and safety was no longer a foregone conclusion in our biggest and greatest cities; the ability to go here and there without fear of sudden and violent attack was no longer the same. Young men of my very own age and generation – some of whom I knew personally – were going off to war to fight for America, something I myself might have done had I been physically able. These tumultuous times have made all of us think about and appreciate what America stands for, and have, like nothing else before now, stirred deep feelings of patriotism.
But freedom is not only an American quality. It is a universal ideal. We saw that when the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, whom we helped to liberate, voted for the first time in free and fair elections without fear that a tyrant would force them to cast a particular vote or face the consequences. We all saw it only recently when the people of Iran rose up against their dictators to demand the simple freedom of a fair and democratic election, even at the risk of their own lives. It is not only we Americans who have known and fought for freedom; it is a global struggle, and every true American identifies and stands with anyone in the world who seeks freedom – whether it be in the Middle East, or Asia, or former Soviet Bloc nations, or Nazi-threatened Europe.
It is hard to appreciate something when you have never experienced its opposite. We have always enjoyed the right to choose our own religion, to speak out and even criticize our authorities, to live and work wherever we please, to select our leaders, to travel without fear of restriction, to be at ease from persecution on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or belief. But recent events have brought this into focus better than it has been in some time. We have seen how so many in our world do not get to taste even the smallest of these liberties – and much less in the midst of as much prosperity as we in America, despite the current economic downturn, experience all of them every single day.
But on the birthday of our nation, we need to be reminded of an even greater truth – that our freedoms, though safeguarded through the years by noble leaders and even nobler if far less famous soldiers, are not bestowed on us by ourselves or any other human being. Freedom is not self-perpetuating; it is not a guarantee. Freedom comes from God, and the fact that America has been a beacon of liberty to all the world for now 233 years is a testimony to that God and to the fact that for many of those years Americans have walked in God’s ways. America was founded on the truth that true freedom – spiritual freedom – comes only by faith in Jesus Christ, who by His own blood made a way for us to be free from sin and its consequences forever. America’s founders and many of her greatest men have known this and realized that only those who walk in spiritual freedom – which is not the right to do as we please but the empowerment to do as we ought – are able to govern themselves in political freedom.
Today we have left that foundation, and we do so at our own peril. We as a nation no longer walk in God’s ways. We have gotten lazy, ignorant, and immoral. We put our trust in man to fulfill our desires and needs, and power-hungry leaders have taken advantage of this in order to make government more and more of an all-consuming idol which threatens more freedoms each day. We have drifted, and we have for the most part been oblivious and uncaring in the midst of our drift away from what once made us great and truly free.
The Fourth of July is a day to mark how many years America has been a nation and to give thanks for freedom. But it is not a day to smugly reassure ourselves in the false belief that freedom and liberty will always be there, and that America will always be prosperous, and that America will always and forever come out on top. These things are not eternal – they are only guaranteed by our own vigilance and utmost trust in Almighty God. Independence Day should be a wake-up call to us, for we have much to do in order to restore and maintain our republic.
The very first thing we must do is return to the God of our fathers. Second Chronicles 7:14 assures that “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways – then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.” We who name the name of Christ must get on our knees and do business with God, and then rise to seek from His hand the revival that our nation so desperately needs. As we do so, we must also strive to make a godly difference in every area of society – not just in politics, but also in our workplace, in education, in the arts, in the marketplace of ideas, and any other place in which our hand finds something to do. We must do it with our might and to the glory of God. Only then, by God’s grace and strength, will we be living as our Christian forefathers did, and then we will be on our way to re-making America into the great nation it once was.
But if we neglect to do these things, we can be sure that our cherished freedom will continue to be eroded. We can expect that God will withdraw His hand from our society and even judge us for our sin – we would have reason to fear more unrest, upheaval, calamity, and uncertainty. A nation cannot long prosper that has left its God.
We thank God for another free July 4th – but how many more free birthdays does America have? They will not keep coming on their own. As one of our founding fathers once said, the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. May we never be guilty of inaction in freedom’s cause.
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