Author Archive: Craig

The Cornerstone of Character

February 7, 2025

You memorized your favourite verses in Proverbs 3 because of the big decisions you were facing. But the good news is: there’s more to them than that! You are on the way to deep character formation!

The Book of Proverbs is a call to ordinary people who want to to live the good life. The Proverbs read quick and quippy. I tried to read them daily for at least three years of my university days, soaking up what I thought was God’s common sense.

Philosophers engage themselves with the question buried within the Proverbs: What is the good life? But typically our modern philosophers have fewer pithy sayings and many many more long sentences!

The writers of the Proverbs envision the good life as the pursuit of wisdom especially as it is expressed in relationships. They hold up the tension and the dangers of decision making for youth with regard to wanting everything quickly: fast wealth, fast pleasure, fast friendship, fast power.

Here wisdom is not neutral but is active in the world. Wisdom calls out to us and seeks to persuade us.

See, there is no agnosticism in the Proverbs. The vision of a good life proceeds from knowing God who has created the world and established a covenant with His people.

Wisdom proceeds from God but it is the character of a person expressed in life that reveals the cracks in their own character.

The Prelude to Your Favourite Verses

I have loved Chapter 3 for years. It holds a favourite set of verses quoted by myself and many of my friends:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on you own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV

But the prelude to these verses interests me deeply:

“My son do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet  of your heart.

Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3:1-4, NIV

For the past year I’ve been watching the construction of Menno Hall at the corner of University Boulevard and Wesbrook with intense interest. When the hole was dug for the foundation I realized, “Here is earth that has not been observed in tens of thousands of years. Bedrock.”

What is going to be constructed above and in view of everyone requires going down, and down and down to what is not normally observable.

Likewise, what the Lord can construct in a person and through their life requires going down down down.

And there —  at the most vulnerable intersections of our lives — He wants love and faithfulness. The neck is in view of others but the heart is only in His view and your view.

Going Deep to The Heart

The “father’s instruction” in the Proverbs says, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” 

The neck moderates the life giving flow of our lives: what comes in and what goes out. Love and faithfulness creates openness to receive what is good and it generates generosity to give what is good. By contrast we could hang anger, anxiety, and angst around our necks; these will only serve to reinforce a character that is becoming more disordered, selfish, and deceptive.

So, the Proverb Giver goes deeper and deeper to the heart. 

The heart is the seat of our affections and will; yet, it is a tablet upon which we may write.

This is an extraordinary vision: at the foundation of our life, at the foundation of our character, we can have a say. We can begin to rewrite the fundamental character of our lives. 

But how? Aren’t those scripts set early in our childhood development? Are we hopelessly set because of the presence of or lack of good attachment? Are we doomed to be fools?

The Proverb Giver doesn’t think you are beyond hope. He seems to think you can do this wise thing:

“Write love and faithfulness on the tablet of your heart.”

But how shall we write on the tablet of our heart?

And here is where our favourite verse leads the answer to this question: ”Trust in the LORD with all your heart, in all your ways acknowledge Him…”

Begin with “trusting the LORD.” Take up the fundamental issue of attachment to God, by getting to know the covenant making God and trusting Him. Get to know God; He is full of love and faithfulness. Get to know Him by submitting your way to Him and then by watching Him lay out a path of life before you.

Continue writing by being humble. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.” Proverbs 3:7

Keep on writing by being generous: “Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops…” Proverbs 3:9

And, don’t stop writing love and faithfulness on your heart when things are difficult: “…Do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves.”

And just in case this pursuit of wisdom seems elusive like Eden’s tree of life, the Proverb Giver reminds us that “By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations…” Proverbs 3:18,19

Whoa! You are not engaged in the transformation of your foundations by yourself! It is God who helps you. It is God who created the foundations of all creation with a wise word, who can set (reset) your foundations too.

Peace, Prosperity, Rest

This “love and faithfulness” approach to life yields “peace and prosperity” Proverbs 3:2. This approach to life generates restful sleep even in a violent world:

“When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down your sleep will be sweet.” Proverbs 3:24

Does love and faithfulness toward God and people generate less worry? Does knowing your life is in the hands of the loving and faithful God generate peace?

Are you in search of the good life? “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the table of your heart.”

We write the story of our heart in our relationships. The Proverbs Giver knows this too. For continuing on in Chapter Three he takes up our relationships with neighbours. A heart of love and faithfulness is grown and proven in the nature of our neighbourliness.

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.”

“Do not say to your neighbour, ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you’ — when you already have it with you.”

“Do not plot harm against your neighbour, who lives trustfully near you.”

“Do accuse anyone for no reason — when they have done you no harm.”

“Do not envy the violent or choose any of their ways.”

Wisdom from Heaven

The Apostle Paul would later write that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2). James would urge the followers of Jesus to demonstrate wisdom from heaven (James 3). But first he knew that the disordered heart need God’s grace.

Jesus creates love and faithfulness. Jesus establishes His love and His faithfulness in our hearts by grace. This grace provides a regeneration of life, a resetting of our character’s foundation. Both love and faithfulness are a fruit of His Spirit in the life of His people (Galatians 5:21-22).

And, we participate with Jesus in this work. Our commitments with Him give the Spirit access to dig deep and re-form character.

Recently I’ve been thinking about the next 25 years of life with Jesus and in relationships. I surely want love and faithfulness to be set in the bedrock of my character more and more each day I live.

So, I am praying, asking God to keep on forming His own steady loving character in me too. Through prayer, through commitments, through relationships I’m writing on the tablet of my heart with Him.

What do you think? Are love and faithfulness meant to be the cornerstones of human character?

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases.” Lamentations 3:22

“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness know through all generations…. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, LORD.” Psalm 89:1,14-15

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5

“My goal… is that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2,3

Change

New Year’s Resolutions or Not?

December 28, 2024

Want to find some emotion at your next party? Ask this:

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions are you a “Resounding Yes” or an “Emphatic No?”

I’m a “It depends.”  It depends on how you do it.

Over the years some commitments I have made in the first month of the year have brought wonderful improvement in my relationships and in my general sense of well-being. Other resolutions were forgotten by the second week.

I’ve tried New Year’s resolutions a lot of ways. Here’s the kind that don’t seem to last for me.

1. The List. A list of four habits, one for each significant are of my life that I hope to add in.
2. The Great Ambition. A goal for the year.
3. The Word for the Year. A word that I study and reflect on all year.

These have had varying degrees of impact on my life. Mostly limited.

But here’s what has worked the best. This is how I have arrived at resolutions that stick.

The Adjustment

About 20 years ago I had recurring back pain. I was in agony and wobbling around. Nothing I tried was making that sciatica better. 

A friend introduced me to a Registered Message Therapist. I was sceptical but hopeful. 

Wow! Patricia worked the geometry of the body. Sometimes I wondered, “Why is she working over there?” And when I asked, she said simply, “It’s connected.” Afterwards she would explain how that spot was connected to the pain I was having. 

At some point when I was doing much better Patricia said, “You are probably going to have to do these exercises for the rest of your life.” She taught them to me. And she tried to get me to pay attention to the signs in my body that demanded that I give it attention and do those stretches.

That’s the adjustment: Pay attention, anticipate the moves, then adjust.

I learned to pay attention to the signs AND anticipate making an adjustment.

One of the signs that a resolution may be in order is an internal sense of pain or dissatisfaction about an area of my life.  

Develop a Resolution Process

What I’m describing is a New Year’s resolution process.

I usually ask this question in the last and first weeks of the year. For me, I pray about this question and wait and listen. Some years there’s nothing new. In other years what I want becomes very clear because it’s connected to grander vision of my life and relationships.

Taking note of the “pain” I ask, 

“What do I hope is true about my life and relationships in the future and how is this pain connected to it?

Then I ask a series of questions:

What can I adjust in my behaviours to get there?
Who can help me get there?
What do I need to learn that will help me get there and keep me there?
What skill(s) do I need to acquire?
What kind of growth in my character or devotion may be required?
What routines or new behaviour could be added to my life to move this along?
What ques will I establish to prompt me daily?

At some point once I have identified the set of helpful behaviours, I will say to myself something like, “I’m the kind of person that ________________________.” By then I’m on the way to becoming that kind of person.

I’ve used variations of this process now many times. With the help of God, my wife, family, friends, the “new years resolutions” have become creations for a way of life. 

This process has been implemented for:

Connecting more deeply with God.
Flossing my teeth twice a day.
Becoming a vegan.
Dealing with debt.
Adapting my leadership with a team.
Making a significant change in my job.
Dealing with piles of laundry and dishes.
Establishing home workout routines.
Building a self-funded retirement account.
Learning to listen.
Adjusting my parenting as the children grow.

I’m a firm believer in small steps. I regularly remind myself: Never underestimate the accumulative affect of small steps in the right direction!

So what’s your approach to New Year’s Resolutions?

Change

Confident Hope

November 14, 2024

Last night Origin Church prayed for the church as we do on each Wednesday evening. We asked God to give the church confident hope. The Apostle Paul modelled the prayer:

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13, NLT

We began our evening together by rejoicing in the assignment of Jesus as the LORD’s Servant in Isaiah 49:1-7. The breadth of the LORD’s commission is astonishing. The Messiah says,

“And now the LORD speaks — the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The LORD has honoured me, and my God has given me strength. He says, ‘You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.'” Isaiah 49:5-6, NLT

He goes continues:

“The LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations, to the one who is the servant of rulers: ‘Kings will stand at attention when you pass by. Princes will also blow low because of the LORD, th faithful one, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” Isaiah 49:7

Confident hope.

This quality characterized the life of Christ Jesus. Though facing rejection from family and His hometown, though serving under Roman rulers in Israel, He drew Israel to Himself, and became a light to the Gentiles. He will bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.

Confident hope.

Paul writes to the Gentile and Jewish followers of Jesus gathering in the house churches of Rome. He commends the servant life of Christ to them. He writes:

“We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.” Romans 15:1-2

Confident hope.

“For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, ‘The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.’ Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.” Romans 15:3-4

Confident hope.

“May God, who gives this patience and encouragement help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:5-6

Confident hope.

“Therefore accept each other just as Christ accepted you so that God will be given glory. Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for her mercies to them.” Romans 15:7-9

Confident hope.

Oh how we need confident hope today. Come Holy Spirit come. Come from our Heavenly Father and from the Lord Jesus who gave Himself in service to us. We trust you O God! Fill us with joy and peace. Fill your church with the harmony formed by your acceptance. The miracle of repentance is something we share no matter where we came from. And now by your power cause us to overflow with confident hope as we serve before those in our city and workplaces who might be like kings and queens and rulers of another kingdom. We need not worry about what to say. We need not worry about how to act. We have confident hope that you will grant us what is needed in every situation because we trust in you. And may your salvation come to the ends of the earth even as you raise up servants for yourself everywhere.

Church, Jesus, Society

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Outposts of His Kingdom

November 13, 2024 0 Comments

I’ve been reading The Scandal of the Kingdom, by Dallas Willard. The book has been published posthumously. I can hear his voice in every sentence. It is a refreshing reminder of the simple but profound ways Dallas could speak and write. Here’s an encouraging word about the church:

“The church consists basically of those who have been called out by God to join together to become outposts of his kingdom. It is first and foremost the calling of human beings to God that constitutes the church, and the Lord adds daily to the church, as we’re told in the book of Acts. The people of God are to be a touchpoint between heaven and earth, where the healing of the cross and the resurrection can save the lost and grow them into the fullness of human beings in Christ.”

p. 100, The Scandal of the Kingdom

Church

Cross Ways

May 31, 2024

On Wednesday May 29th protestors at UBC blocked the intersection of University Boulevard and Wesbrook Avenue. Their cries for Rafah filled the air. When I came by there were not many people present to listen. 

The UBC bound buses were lined up far off campus and folks were finding alternate routes to work and to class. More officers were present than anyone else to witness these cries resisting complicity in the suffering of the people of Gaza.

Upon being threatened with arrest if they didn’t exit the intersection, the protestors moved into campus. They settled under the Canadian Flag just south of the Rose Garden to seek the attention of recent UBC graduates and their families. The brilliant blue sky and a warming sun rested upon us all as the air was filled with the singsong chants of protest.

Most people seemed unfazed.

Last week I was in the Chan Centre for convocation. Two students unfurled banners reminding the audience that there are no universities left in Gaza. In this war with Hamas, Israel has destroyed them all. When these students stood banners spread wide with the UBC President for their graduation picture, the congregation clapped.

What were we applauding?

I’m not sure. There was only one worthy response in my mind: tears. But how can a people unversed in lament shed tears on a day of celebration? We are so impoverished. We reflexively congratulated everyone. The violence of enmity heard no clear voice of judgement and peace found no champions.

“My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.”
Lamentations 2:11

At some agreed upon moment the chorus under the flag decided to move on with bicycles and banners beside them. Slowly they marched up Main Mall, crying out “not in my name,” until they turned at the Martha Piper Plaza, past the fountain, down the hill, and past the Musqueam Post, where I suppose some returned to the encampment. 

I continued prayerfully down Main Mall to the Reconciliation Pole. I have made this walk many times. It’s part of what I call the Way of the Cross at UBC. 

One of the curious landscape features of the “university squeezed into the forest” is that it has been built up around a cross. Along the ridge of the hill traversed by the Musqueam people for generations is a double sidewalk cross, a remnant of the original Beaux Arts vision for the campus. The arms of the cross reach out west to Wreck Beach and east to the City of Vancouver. The centre pole extends from the Forestry field up to the Rose Garden overlooking the magnificent Straight of Georgia.

On this walk here are some of the turns in my reflections and prayers.

“And they placed a crown of thorns on his head.”

In the years since 1915, UBC has been building alongside and around the cross. In recent years the cross has been animated with markers of spiritual significance to me. The Rose Garden at the “top” reminds me of the crown of the thorns marring the head of Jesus, who was present in the beginning as Creator. He came to His own but His own would not have Him.

… Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord… suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried… 

The power of government, the state, of empire was on display in the Cross of Christ as they carried out the crucifixion of a carpenter turned rabbi. Today the power of government is represented by the Flag waving brilliantly in the wind and clambering for supremacy in our affections. But here thankfully, the Maple Leaf, is also a marker of some human rights we cherish and that were on full display today. In the face of such power Jesus said, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 

The fountain at the heart of campus reminds me of Jesus’ promise that all who believe in Him will have life flowing like a stream rising up from within them. To my left the small stream flowing down the hill at UBC reminds me of the heavenly vision in Revelation and our yearning for the healing of the nations. The protestors turned here but gave no pause to refresh themselves by contemplating these waters.

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8

I do not turn with the protestors but continue prayerfully down Main Mall for it is the foot of the cross that beckons me. When I arrive at the Reconciliation Pole all is quiet. The growing sections of recently planted fireweed move gently in the breeze as a group of students listen attentively to learn the stories the Pole tells.

I recall the day the Pole was raised. The public had been invited to assist with the raising. I had watched the team of artists under the direction of Haida master carver, James Hart, continue to prepare the Pole after it was delivered from Haida Gwaii. I found it enlightening to see that an artistic process of several years was continuing “up to the last minute.” And so I recognized that the Pole we raised was not raised as a completed work of art, but as an ongoing participatory process much like reconciliation. 

My family had listened to speeches from elders and survivors of residential schools. These dear people now carried the trauma of degrading and dehumanizing abuse. The hands and tongues of men and women from several church societies had scarred the bodies and crushed the souls of so many children on behalf of the Canadian government. The 57,000 copper nails in the pole had been driven in as cathartic acts of remembrance. 

And then before I realized it, the Pole was standing tall and secure. It rises now like a nail on the horizon, in the feet of Jesus, anchoring the Cross to the ground at UBC. Around this Pole our interconnected lives tell the tales of complicity in much injustice against people in this world. In today’s global economies it is hard to escape being the beneficiary of injustices whether historic or ongoing.

I have taken shelter for my soul in the Kingdom of Jesus — which is not of this world — but that does not mean I am sheltered from the relationships and the realities of my neighbours. Reconciliation elevates and reconciliation humbles for there is only level ground at the foot of the Cross. I am reminded that we are all tempted to neglect the Creator’s ways for living well in relationship with Him, with self, with people, and with the wonderful stuff of earth.

Jesus’ death on the Cross shows me that reconciliation requires something: laying down my life. Jesus said His life was not taken from Him, but that He had authority to lay it down and to take it up again. This is how enemies are turned into friends. The Cross of Jesus is continuing to do it’s work in me, I die to self — that is — I am abandoning the pursuit of self-righteousness and am seeking to enter into the freedom of being loved by our Father in heaven. And once at ease in the freedom of being loved, one can love. 

Both the Cross of Christ and the Reconciliation Pole have hope built into my consideration of them. Jesus the Christ rose from the dead and the eagle on top of the Pole is poised to take flight above the two canoes making their way forward. Good futures are available to us.

But my true and lasting hope is in Jesus.

As I walk back up Main Mall I breath out this simple prayer for Gaza, for Israel, for us:

Κύριε, ἐλέησον.
Χριστέ, ἐλέησον.
Κύριε, ἐλέησον.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy 

On us all.

Prayer, Relationships

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