Too Comfortable



Finley Peter Dunne was a writer born in the mid to late 1800's. More specifically, he was a journalist, humorist, and editor with numerous Chicago newspapers. If you are a baseball fan in the least, you are no doubt familiar with the term "south paw," which refers to a left-handed pitcher. You likely did not know that Dunne is the man credited with coining the term.

Born to Irish immigrants, the characters in Dunne's writing spoke with a thick verbiage and Irish accent. There is a great line from that style of Dunne's writing, which was reworded a bit, and used in the 1960 film, "Inherit the Wind." The line from the film is, "Mr. Brady, it is the duty of the newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

It wasn't until the mid 1980's that the above phrase began to show up in sermons to describe God's mercy and judgement. Uttered different ways, some versions state the "gospel" "comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable," while others use "God" or "Jesus." One thing is for certain, the phrase originated with Dunne, not scripture. However, we can find a near use in Psalm 18:27: "You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud" (NIV).

As a Christian, I cling tightly to the idea that God comforts those that are afflicted and hurting. In the darkest seasons of my life, it was God's comfort and love that burst through to my heart, to change my attitude and my outlook. However, it's the second part of that line, that I've thought a great deal about over the past few days. "Afflict the comfortable."

It's with a great deal of remorse and humility that I confess just how "comfortable" life had become in recent years. See when our families are healthy, our work is going well, and the economy is strong, it's easy to take credit, and to forget. Forget the true source of our blessings, forget the command to love and serve others, forget Who we are called to worship. We forget.

So, here we are. No longer comfortable, and we are afflicted. Whether or not you have been diagnosed with Covid-19, you have been affected and afflicted by recent events. No sporting events, no school classes, no in restaurant dinning, no traveling, no guarantee to find what you need at the grocery store, no regular work schedules, no gathering in large groups, no corporate worship.

As tragic as this virus is, the greatest travesty will be coming out the other end unchanged as a people. As my grandmother, "Momma Moe" loved to say, "this too shall pass." Things will most certainly return to "normal." The market and the economy will recover. Grocery stores will be restocked. Sporting events will flood our television channels and consume our weekends once again. We will grumble alongside our kids about returning to work and school. We will be free to travel. Free to visit friends, and even meet them on the patio of our favorite restaurants. However, that is then, and this is now. The question we must ourselves in this moment of affliction..."What will my new normal look like, and how will God be a part of it?"

Our Father loves you so very much and so do I.

Much Love, Adam



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I once was lost, but now I’m found

Image
Two old men were lost driving together through Kentucky. When they finally saw a sign on the side of the interstate for the approaching town, the old man driving said, “We're almost to “Lewis-ville.” The old man sitting beside him in the passenger seat said, “It’s “Louie-ville.”" They argued back and forth about the pronunciation for a few minutes before the driver suggested, “let’s take the next exit, go into town and ask a local, then we will listen to them carefully as they tell us the name of the town, and we will have our answer.” The old man in the passenger seat agreed that would be a fair resolution to their dispute. So the driver pulled off the interstate, and into the parking lot of a local store, and the two old men went inside. The driver pleaded with the worker inside, “Sir, help my friend and me, please. Tell us very slowly and very clearly, where are we right this minute?" The worker leans forward over the counter a...
Read more

My Favorite Floaties

Image
"I'm drowning, Amber. I can't do it. I can't keep my head above water." My voice cracked and I tried not to cry on the phone. How humiliating would that be? A grown man breaking down like a child talking to his fiancé. I was nearing the end of my first semester of law school. I was living alone in a small one bedroom apartment, and my closest family member lived four hours, and one state away. I didn't attend the most prestigious law school in the country, not even by a long shot, which made my struggles with the curriculum all the more frustrating. To give myself some credit, it wasn't really the curriculum, as much as the volume of the curriculum. The reading assignments never let up. Never. In undergrad, I could "buckle down," read ahead a little, and be just fine. In law school I felt like "Johnny 5" from the 1986 movie, "Short Circuit," and I still couldn't keep up. See the video below if you've not seen that c...
Read more

The Love of a Teacher

Image
I still remember the nervous excitement as I walked into the kindergarten wing of Woodland Elementary School for the first time. We were the "mustangs" then, apparently they are the "hawks" now. Sadly, I must have missed the vote for the mascot change. At any rate, getting back to kindergarten, my socks were pulled up to my knees, and my empty backpack was strapped loosely around my shoulders. I had a fresh haircut from Ross the Boss and I sported a buck toothed smile. The same goofy smile my 9 year old son now flashes at me from time to time (Sorry about the big teeth, J.B.)  When I learned during the summer before kindergarten that my teacher's name was Ms. Thompson, I remember lying in my water bed (Don't you judge me, you had one too) and wondering what kind of teacher Ms. Thompson would be. Would she be strict? Would she be fun? Would she be kind? Would she like me? It turns out, she was a wonderful lady, who had the keen ability to m...
Read more