Finishing Well

From a conference presentation by Paul Leavenworth, listing the end-of-life characteristics of persons who finish well:

1. Have a more vibrant relationship with God at the end than when young (Caleb)
2. Maintain an active learning posture throughout life
3. Model Christ-like character through the fruit of the Spirit, especially in the hard times
4. Live life with a growing sense of conviction that the promises of God are real for their lives
5. Leave behind one or more ultimate contributions or a lasting legacy
6. Live life with a sense of destiny, making necessary sacrifices to realize this to a significant degree

Barriers to finishing well:

1. Sexual immorality (Samson)
2. Misuse of finances (Judas Iscariot)
3. Abuse of power (King Saul)
4. Self-centered pride (King Solomon)
5. Problems with marriage & family (King David)
6. Allowing ministry to plateau (Gideon)
7. Emotional wounding & bitterness (Jonah)

Sin always takes us farther than we are willing to go, keeps us there longer than we are willing to stay, costs us more than we are willing to pay. ---- J. Oswald Sanders

"We nibble ourselves lost."  Per Paul Leavenworth, a sheep doesn't set out to get lost and go hang out with the wolves.  Instead, it gets focused on the next clump of grass and the next and the next so that it doesn't lift its head to see where it is versus the flock and the shepherd.  It nibbles itself into a position of separation from the shepherd and the rest of flock.  So it is with us.  We lose intimacy with God and with other believers by focusing on mundane, temporal matters.

Enhancements to finishing well:

1. Long-term perspective on life & ministry - every decision has long-term consequences
2. Position yourself to expect periodic times of renewal - over time the power of God will manifest
3. Practice spiritual disciplines (Foster: disciplines of grace, not of duty)
4. Have a learning posture - be open to be taught
5. Develop accountable relationships
6. Invest in the next generation with mentoring relationships
7. Order life & ministry in a focused way to honor God's call

Characteristics of focused life:

A focused life is a life dedicated to exclusively carrying out God's unique purposes by identifying the focal issues of life purpose, major role, effective methodologies and ultimate contributions, which allows an increasing prioritization of life's activities around the focal issues, and results in a satisfying life of being and doing.

1. We can know our life purpose (who we are by God's gifting and how God intends to use us)
2. We can become comfortable with our gifting and understand our best areas of contribution
3. We can understand what methods are most effective for us to employ in our role
4. We can have a legacy to pass God's grace to others, particularly via relationship impact

At The Highground

On the occasion of laying a memorial stone at The Highground Veterans Memorial Park on the moraine west of Neillsville, WI.  Here are some highlights from the ceremony:

What follows is what I placed in the Registry at the Highground as background on the stone:

They say that in comedy, timing is everything.  In life generally, that statement is also pretty true. When and to whom you were born influences a lot; my family’s military service was no exception.

My father, Melvin Edward Mech, was born in August 1920 in Clintonville, WI to Theodore (Ted) and Amanda Mech.  By the time December of 1941 rolled around, bringing with it the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dad was a freshly minted 21-year-old, eminently draftable, with a new wife (Alma Beyer) and a new baby, their firstborn.  Dad, like so many others, enlisted in the US Navy, who was okay taking him even with not the best eyesight.  His physical exam determined that he would wind up serving stateside rather than in combat, which was fortunate for Mom and that new baby!  His time at the Central States Teachers College in Stevens Point gave him some skills in Math and Teaching, which guided him to a particular billet as an instructor in the relatively new technology called Radar.  He was stationed both in Pensacola, Florida and later in Corpus Christi, Texas.  I still have his slide rule with his name and rank (ART 1^st Class) on the box.  In the late 1960s, before pocket calculators, I learned math on his slide rule. I recall Dad telling me that using magnetrons to generate microwave radiation had some safety hazards that came along with it.  He had to teach sailors that if you got in the way of that microwave radiation, you would get cooked like meat.  When we got our first microwave oven in the mid-1980s, I often remembered that story.

My brother, Dennis Arlen Mech, was born in August 1941.  He was that brand new baby and the firstborn child noted earlier.  By the time the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs incidents rolled around, he was also eminently draftable.  At the time, however, he was enrolled in college at Stevens Point State University, with a deferment.  However, through a variety of circumstances, Denny was disenrolled from college and, like Dad, enlisted in the US Navy to help guide his role in the newly emerging conflict in Southeast Asia which came to be referred to as the Vietnam War.  14 years my senior, he and my sister Helen (12 years older than me) were strong influences in my growing up years, and I particularly wanted to emulate Denny.  He was an Aviation Electronics Technician and served on board aircraft carriers during Vietnam.  I always looked forward to his letters to me which came in that unique blue air mail envelope with the red & white trim.  While he could never reveal his location, he would sometimes enclose a patch for my jacket.  My favorite was one for his unit labeled “Phantom Phixer”, for those who worked on the F-4 Phantom jet.

As for me, I was born William Theodore Mech in October of 1955.  By the time I turned 18, the Vietnam War was winding down, and my draft number was high enough that I would not be taken.  That was favorable timing for me since I met my future wife, Diane Christenson, when I was 18 and in Wausau, WI attending North Central Technical Institute (then NCTI, now NTC).  I graduated from there with an Associate’s Degree in Insurance in 1974.  Diane and I married a little over a year later and it didn’t look like I was destined to follow in my father and brother’s footsteps when it came to military service.  After several years of “normal married life”, I decided to go back to school and get my Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics from Mt. Scenario College in Ladysmith, WI, graduating from there in 1984 and making a career change to actuarial science.  We adopted our first child, Julie, in 1983, followed by our second, Jimmy, 4 years later.  During the mid-1980s the US Navy had a program in place offering “direct commissions” to college grads in certain degree programs.  I qualified, and just got under the wire for the age requirements, so I applied and was commissioned as an Ensign in the Supply Corps of the US Navy’s Ready Reserve, assigned to the USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), operating out of Norfolk and serving as the Flagship and Command Ship for the Sixth Fleet.  I trained out of the Naval Reserve base in Milwaukee, WI, where I was also working as an actuarial trainee for Milliman & Robertson in their New Berlin office.  Eventually, I took another actuarial job with Wausau Insurance, so we moved back to Wausau, WI again.  This made the training regimen difficult, and so I requested and received my Honorable Discharge from the US Navy.  As I said earlier, timing is everything, and whether by twists of fate or the hand of God, my military service turned out to be in peacetime.

My father and brother both passed from this life in 2006, within a few months of each other, and I am honored to share the same memorial stone with these two men who instilled in me a desire to serve my country in the US Navy, however different from theirs that service turned out to be.

Bill Mech, September 2021, Clive, Iowa.

Winemaking 201: from Grapes, not Juice

This year for the first time, I have made wine from real fruit, not just from juice.  And it's a red wine, which means that the fermentation to at least some degree takes place on the skins to better extract colors, flavors, tannins, etc.  So there are some additional steps than need to happen to get the finished product in the bottle.  The photos below are from various stages of the process, from "veraison" (grapes beginning to turn color), through harvest, crushing, fermenting, pressing and including the latest stage in which the fermented wine is racked to a glass carboy (in this case 3 gal.) and allowed to age for about a year, until next year's grapes are processed.  I'll let you know how this batch turns out, but early indications are that it's a winner!

 

Lectio Divina - 2 Samuel 22:31-33

As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless; 

He is a shield to all who trust in Him. 

For who is God except the LORD? and who is a rock, except our God? 

God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect.

This passage has a parallel in Psalm 18:30-32, one of a couple of King David's songs that are recorded in the historical books, too.  This one had historical significance because it commemorated David's deliverance from the hand of King Saul and his armies.  

A few word choices come to mind here.  Of course "the LORD" here is actually YHWH, the covenant name of God, and can be read that way.  

The Hebrew word for perfect carries a connotation of completeness, full of wholeness and without fault, much like the word shalom has versus our English word peace.  In our Western culture "perfect" often has a scientific or manufacturing aspect to it, with more of a quality control or precision orientation, as in made exactly to the specifications of a template.  In the context of the Scriptures, though, I think you could read the word more like what a friend might say when you have described your lifestyle (as in "Hey, nothing wrong with that!") or shown the friend your home/yard. ("Yeah, this is perfect for you").  It doesn't mean everyone needs to have an exact clone of something that is good and complete to also be considered good and complete.

When the passage talks about the word of the LORD, the word for flawless is also used to describe a process of refining metal by fire so that it is pure.  Better here, I think, to describe the word of the LORD as tested and proven.

Trust, in this passage, could better be translated as "take refuge".  Certainly trust is implied, but taking refuge also contains an action within it - you go in to a place you trust, go to a Person you trust.

The word translated here as strength is really a place of safety, a refuge; "power" in this translation is a strength of resources or protection (as in Psalm 20:7 - "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the LORD our God.")  In other words, we have a feeling of strength and power, but it is not ours, not based on our resources - it is God's power and strength, available to us because we trust in Him and His resources for refuge and protection.  Or as Ps. 46:1 puts it: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

It's like this old scripture song from back in the 1970s:

You are my rock my shield and my deliverer my refuge and my strength 

You are my rock my shield and my deliverer you'll rescue me in time. 

Na na na na

Na na na na

I cried for help and He delivered me

Na na na na

Na na na na

I cried for help and He delivered me

(based loosely on Psalm 18:1-2)

So for me, I would translate the passage more like this:

As for God, His way is complete, full of wholeness, without fault.  

The word of YHWH is tested and proven.  

He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.  

For who is God except YHWH? And who is a rock, except our God? 

God is my refuge and strength, and He makes my way complete, full of wholeness, without fault.

Lectio Divina - Joshua 1:8

 Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, but meditate on it day and night, so that you are careful to do according to all that is written in it; then you will make your way prosperous, and you will act prudently.

Meditate on it day and night - I don't do that part very much, or very well.  Maybe the "day" part, especially now with using the Lectio Divina approach.  But "night"?  Well, not so much.

And yet, God does bring Scripture to mind throughout the day.  Not continuously, mind you, but often enough that I have come to rely on Him to do so, and expect it from Him.  Not verbatim with chapter & verse, either, but close enough that I can do a quick search and sure enough, there it is!  

It really is wonderful and uplifting to have that happen, to have the Word come into my thoughts at an appropriate time on an appropriate topic depending on what I'm dealing with or thinking about.  Just now, in fact, one of those little verse promptings came to mind: "like apples of gold in a setting of silver is a word fitly spoken".  I have to look up the verse to recall where it's from (turns out it's Proverbs 25:11), but the principle came to mind when contemplating the influence of Scripture on me in any given moment.  I know that it comes from actually reading the whole Bible and then rereading many parts of it over time, but I do wish that I did more of the "meditating on it day and night" part, just the same.

Hm.  Maybe a quick look at a passage just before I turn in for the night... sleep on it!

Lectio Divina - Numbers 6:24-26

May the LORD bless you and keep you;

may the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

may the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

Bless.  Keep.

Face Shines.  Be Gracious.

Lift up.  Give Peace.

These are the words that power this passage, and that give it impact.  When I read this passage, it helps me to internalize it by thinking of God as my Heavenly Father, and I as His dearly loved child, as you will see below.

Bless (barak/baruch)

This word is used in the Scripture as from God to us, from one of us to another, and from us to God.  In the Passover service, the prayers of thanks always begin with "Baruch attah Adonai, Melech haOlam [...]" which means "Blessed are You, O Lord, King of the Universe [...]"  

So how is the same word used for us to bless God and for God to bless us?  We bless God in thanksgiving, praise and worship.  God blesses us with His favor and kindness, giving us good things according to His will for us.  We bless others by speaking God's blessing on them, and doing what is in our power to ensure that they see and understand it.  When our children were growing up, we gave them small tangible "blessings" when it occurred to us to do so.  How much more does our Heavenly Father desire to show us His kindness?

In verses 22-23, God actually tells Moses to instruct Aaron, the High Priest, to bless Israel using these very words.  God wants to bless His people, and told Moses and Aaron how to do that on His behalf.  As my Heavenly Father, God wants to give me His blessing - to care for me in all respects.  In return I trust, thank and praise Him, which is a blessing to Him.

Keep (shamar)

The connotation here is to protect, preserve, guard, to nurture and care for.  Any parent understands this desire to do well by their children, to keep them in safety and in health and under their watchful eye, to provide for them and ensure that they have every opportunity to grow and blossom.  My Heavenly Father wants to watch over me, to hold me and help me feel safe and cared for.  I acknowledge that and delight in His love for me.

Face (panah) Shine (shamar) Upon (eleka)

These words together have a sense of one's face brightening, with that brightness being directed toward something or someone.  I have a photo of Diane that I took while she was working at a booth at some event.  I came by and noticed her, wanting to take a picture of her working there.  Instead, just as I was taking the photo, she noticed me coming to see her, and the photo captured the look on her face: she smiled at me and her face brightened with a look of delightful surprise.  That look warmed my heart; it's one of my favorite pictures of her.

I think of this when I read this passage and I can picture God's face brightening as He sees me coming to Him, with that same joy and delight on His face as He sees His dearly loved child coming to see Him. And when God's face brightens toward me, I can feel the light of it warming me, and brightening all my surroundings as well.

Be Gracious (chanan)

Grace is usually defined as unmerited favor, and that is certainly true, but I think that to get a fuller sense of it we need to add that grace is a favorable inclination toward someone as well. The phrase "benefit of the doubt" comes to mind, as does to "think favorably of" someone - in other words, a predisposition for someone to overlook a fault or shortcoming because of love for that person.  The Scripture says that "love covers a multitude of sins", and grace has that attitude bundled with it.  My Heavenly Father loves me, and so He is favorably inclined toward me and is willing to show me favor that goes well beyond what I deserve, because I am His dearly loved child.

Lift Up (nasal) Countenance (panah)

Lift here also includes the meaning of carry, and countenance is the same word as for face - His face that brightens and turns toward us.  "Panah" can also mean turn, as in "turn to face someone", to turn towards.  You could think of "lifting up the countenance" as standing up to greet someone, or turning your body in their direction to interact with them.  I can picture my Heavenly Father seeing me coming toward Him, His face brightening toward me, and saying as it were "Come here, child, and let me see you!" then turning toward me, picking me up in His arms and looking at me lovingly and intently as if I were His only focus.  I have a picture of my Dad holding me in his arms when I was little, and I think of this image when I think of God my Heavenly Father regarding me and engaging with me with kindness and love.

Give (sim/sum) Peace (shalom)

The word translated here as give is often translated as put or place or set, as in God will place you or plant you or set you securely in a place.  I tend to think of that place as in His lap, on His knee, on His shoulders or in His arms, or as Psalm 23 might put it "make me lie down in green pastures, lead me beside still waters, restore my soul".  

And what better place to feel at peace, to feel the wholeness and soundness that comes with Shalom than safely being held by my Heavenly Father, being "kept" by Him in a place of tenderness and companionship and intimacy, with He who loves me with an everlasting love? 

Not only does this passage assure me that God wants to bless me, but it also helps me picture how He longs to do that, to engage me with grace and favor and lovingkindness, assuring me of His love and bringing to my heart peace and wholeness.

With all this in mind, here is how I understand this passage to communicate to me:

The LORD blesses me with loving-kindness and keeps me in His care;

the LORD's face brightens when I come to Him, and I feel His delight; He is favorably inclined toward me and graciously shows it; 

the LORD lifts me up to Him to look lovingly at me, holding me close; in His arms I am at peace.

Lectio Divina

 New this month in retirement is an ancient (but new to me) practice in my devotional life called Lectio Divina (which is Latin for Sacred Reading).  It's a method of reading the Bible that was put into practice in Benedictine monasteries in roughly the 5th century.  It consists of four movements: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratorio and Contemplatio, which are, in turn, Read, Meditate, Pray and Contemplate.  

I've been benefiting from an outline of this practice contained in Kenneth Boa's book "Sacred Readings: a Journal" and have just begin to implement it.  The notion behind it is to not simply read for information, but also read for transformation.  These four movements allow for deep reading (incl. word study), for ruminating on what you've read ("chewing" the text), for a response from the heart to God out of an informed mind, and finally for time to sit before God and allow the text to sink in - allow it to move upon your will.  

In upcoming posts, I will try to record some thoughts coming out of this practice.