It’s Martin Luther King Day, and I need to continue a tradition I started two years ago, namely, a Martin Luther King Day blog.

• January 18, 2021: Excellence in Work. from Dr. King’s “street sweeper” speech
• January 17, 2022: Brotherly Love

This morning I’ve seen three editorials referring to “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.”

• A Timeless Work that Changed History by Eric Patterson, published by World Magazine
• Dr. Martin Luther King and the Nature of Law by John Stonestreet of Breakpoint, quoting Charles Colson
• Self-purification by Mike Metzger of Clapham Institute

Interestingly, each of these essays refers to a different aspect of the Letter. When I read it, here’s what grabbed me:

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see the tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking in agonizing pathos: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?” when you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” men and “colored” when your first name becomes “nigger” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title of “Mrs.” when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. – Martin Luther King, April 1963

I guess the good news is that some of the conditions Dr. King describes have changed since 1963. The bad news is that what he experienced was happening at all, often at the hands of people who were in church on Sunday. The other part of the bad news is that racism is still ongoing, as I’ve written before.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. (James 2.1, ESV)

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.9 – 10, ESV, emphasis mine)

Yesterday, we saw that God’s confounding the languages at Babel was in response to humanity’s propensity for evil. Forming people groups and scattering them was God intentionally slowing the spread of evil.

But look how Genesis is arranged: 11 chapters encompassing 2,000 years and four major events as articulated by Walk Through the Bible:

• Creation (Genesis 1 – 2)
• Fall (Genesis 3)
• Flood (Genesis 6 – 8)
• Nations (Genesis 11)

Beginning with Genesis 12, the rest of the Bible covers the next 2,000 years! What’s the next step? Once we have nations, God chooses one nation through which he will work to communicate to and save all the other nations! It’s right there in Genesis 12:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And…

• I will make of you a great nation, and
• I will bless you and
• make your name great, so that
• you will be a blessing.
• I will bless those who bless you, and
• him who dishonors you I will curse, and
• in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12.1 – 3, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

“You will be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

A key concept: blessed to be a blessing – something the descendants of Abram (later, his name was changed to Abraham) never got really good at. The Jerusalem Jewish leaders of the early church seemed shocked to find this out:

When they heard these things [that a Roman centurion and his friends and family believed and received the Holy Spirit], they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11.18, ESV)

Sometimes in our families and churches we act like it’s “us four and no more,” but that has never been God’s plan. In one sense, we’re all called to be “cross-cultural missionaries!”

Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews. Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus. God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it—quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master. (Acts 11.19 – 21, MSG)

We’re thinking about the story of The Tower of Babel and the power of communications; WHY did God confuse the languages?

Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s language.” So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (Genesis 11.7, 8, LSB)

Of course, the first reason is that God had commanded Noah and his descendants to “fill the earth.”

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9.1, LSB)

God said “scatter,” and the goal of the tower was that they would NOT be scattered.

And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11.4, LSB)

But the second reason that God confounded the languages was to slow the spread of evil. Before the flood, evil was doing very well:

Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6.5, LSB)

That’s a lot of evil! “every intent…was only evil continually.” We saw yesterday that with good communication anything can be accomplished. Unfortunately, “anything” can be any evil imaginable. Take the Internet, for example. The intent was that scientists could use it to collaborate effectively and efficiently and do great things. That is happening, of course. But among the largest uses of the Internet are pornography and gambling. Better communication and connectivity increase the spread of evil.

So at Babel, God confounds the languages, forcing the people to scatter, thereby slowing the spread of evil. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the next step.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way… (Isaiah 53.6, ESV)

It’s Friday 13th! I’ve written about it before, so I won’t do so today. Hope you’ve had a good day.

Maybe Friday 13th weekend is a good time to talk about the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11.1 – 9.

The first lesson, interestingly enough, is positive: the power of communication:

And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. (Genesis 11.6, LSB)

“Nothing they purpose to do will be impossible for them” if they’re unified, speaking the same language. Often that’s not the case. In churches, for example, words are thrown around: “discipleship,” for example. Everyone is in favor of it, but few know what it means. That’s why when my Navigator friends begin to help a church create a culture of discipleship, one of the first steps is “picture of a disciple.” Do we know what we’re trying to produce?

To one church leader, a disciple is someone who comes to church regularly and behaves “nicely.” To another, a disciple is deep into Bible study. I just saw a church website in which “disciple” wasn’t used, but they wanted to make a difference in “structural racism” and “systemic poverty.” 

All good causes, but if we’re not unified around what we’re trying to do, it’s highly unlikely we will succeed – whatever “success” is. The people of Genesis 11 knew what they were trying to do and why:

And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11.4, LSB)

And, according to God himself, they would have succeeded, unless God intervened. 

Tomorrow, we’ll remind ourselves why God intervened.

For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? (1 Corinthians 14.8, LSB)

Yesterday we talked about Noah’s obedience in building the ark. But it just occurred to me…Noah didn’t build the ark by himself! He had three sons.

I’ve written before about one of my heroes, medical missionary Frank Dennis, now 92 years old. He’s not ministering in Taiwan anymore, but he’s still active, traveling, preaching twice a month when he’s in town, sending out emails, and sharing the gospel with anyone he comes in contact with. He recently sent an email about his lifelong friend Jack Kraft who passed away on December 29. My friend Frank was a medical missionary. His friend Jack was a behind-the-scenes supporter. Here are some excerpts from Frank’s email which you can read in its entirety here:

Our dear oldest friend, Jack Kraft, died quietly in his sleep. 12/29/2022, while in home hospice. He was a friend of Sally in Grade School in Minneapolis! Jack’s life and mine intertwined in many ways since Sally and I married in 1953. I want to share some of the fun things and God things we did together. Over the many years he was always helpful, cheerful and a close “brother” to me and I rejoice that he finished well with no blemishes on his Christian character. He let his light shine in many places for Jesus and many of those were linked to me.

…On our first furlough in 1966 Jack became my supply agent for medical equipment and furniture for the proposed hospital God had led me to build for the tribal people in Taitung county. He had a red truck and we went to many hospitals in the Twin Cities asking for used items. I was embarrassed but Jack went boldly to the top and we got 30 crates full of very usable items from beds and operating lights to operating tables, anesthesia machines, ventilators, IV stands and even hospital beds. Because electric beds and tables were now in style in America the old was out, but with frequent power failures in Taiwan at that time I was happy with stuff that worked manually!

…We were doing a lot of orthopedics and many of the supplies were not available in Taiwan. Jack was my main supply guy. He would find it, buy it and ship it to the hospital. One outstanding case led to a 5-year-old Taiwanese boy…who was run over by a truck, crushing his right leg. A local doctor wanted to amputate but a neighbor told them to go the foreign hospital in Taitung. An external fixator enabled us to heal the bones but a large skin graft was finally needed to save the leg. But our dermatome blades were too dull so I had asked Jack to send new ones. Our hospital at that time had the only electric dermatome in the county. We prayed the blades would come in time and just when the wound was just ready to graft, they arrived! Praise God (and Jack).

That story was written in a book, (all in Chinese) ”一粒麥子落在後山“ “A Grain of Wheat Falls on the Back Mountains” a book about the founding and history of the Taitung Christian Hospital. Someone gave Mr Leo Yan, a businessman from Taiwan in Texas, a copy of that book. He read it and said, ”I am that boy!” Leo called the Taitung hospital, got my phone number and called me. He drove from Texas with his wife and 4 children to visit me, stayed several days and we had a wonderful time learning how God had led him to become a Christian, leave business, go to seminary and become a pastor!! His family are now all devout followers of Jesus, a nurse, a medical student, a son in pre-med and one in college considering medicine.

It is a lesson: each member of the body of Christ doing their part; buying and shipping blades, the surgeon operating with his assistants, the nurses that gave care, the author of the book and the one who gave it to Leo and the Holy Spirit who put it all together to the glory of God! Isn’t it great to be on the team!

Jack was a real team player for Jesus! Thank you, Jesus, we were both on that same team!

There’s more, including pictures, in Frank’s email. I found it very inspiring. God uses ordinary people…and orthopedic surgeons!

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. (1 Corinthians 3.5 – 8, ESV)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. (1 Corinthians 12.4 – 6, ESV)

Yesterday we observed that Enoch walked with God in the midst of real life. So did Noah. And Noah was “blameless” in the midst of sin all around (sort of like Pat Boone!).

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 6.5 – 10, ESV, emphasis mine)

But unlike Enoch who walked with God and left the earth to be with God relatively early (see Genesis 5.21 – 24), Noah had work to do:

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood…and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. (Genesis 6.14, 18, 19, ESV)

And one theme of Genesis 6 and 7 is that when God asked Noah to do something, Noah did it! Fancy that. I think it’s called “obedience.”

Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. (Genesis 6.22, ESV) And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. (Genesis 7.5, ESV)

By the way, how did Noah pull that off? Gathering two of every creature? Answer:

• Noah’s task was to build the ark and put the animals in.
• God’s job was to provide the animals:

Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. (Genesis 6.20, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Noah: blameless and obedient, and God enabled the hard parts!

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11.7, ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11.28 – 30, ESV)

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5.3, ESV)

Wow, here we are into the second week of January already! Time flies, but it’s not too late to start your readings in Genesis. I already shared our daughter Melody’s pastor’s treatment of Genesis 3, the first promise of Jesus’ first coming. A shorter version of Genesis 3, offered by a famous comedian, is:

And God said, “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit!” And they said, “Where is it?”

There aren’t many bright spots after the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2, but here’s one I saw in a new way this year:

When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he had Methuselah. Enoch walked steadily with God. After he had Methuselah, he lived another 300 years, having more sons and daughters. Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him. (Genesis 5.21 – 24, MSG)

Did you notice? Enoch “walked steadily with God” in the midst of real life, still fathering sons and daughters. We are sometimes tempted to think that to be wholly devoted to God we have to withdraw from the world. Enoch didn’t do that, and neither did Jesus.

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Luke 7.34, ESV)

It looks as if it’s taking us all week to really get going into the New Year, so before launching into observations from Genesis and other life lessons, let’s have one more challenge: this one from Heather Holleman, December 31:

If I could pick two:

Since most everyone considers New Year’s resolutions today—as they prepare for 2023—I thought about the two essential practices that I would start if I were telling a younger me what to do: I’d commit to daily reading the Bible (and journaling what I learned, prayer requests, and gratitude), and I’d take a daily walk. That’s it. Bible and walking.

I couldn’t live my life without Jesus and growing in my faith through reading the Bible. And the daily walk keeps a body healthy to live a life of service and love to others.

That’s a good word. Daily walking and daily Bible reading. Again, I’ll be using the 5 chapters per week plan in the Pentateuch that June and I designed. Join me!

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.25, NIV, emphasis mine)

Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4.7, 8, NIV)

The whole nation has been tracking the progress of Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills pro football team recovering from a heart-stopping injury on Monday Night Football, January 2. Andrea Adelson wrote a beautiful article on ESPN: Damar Hamlin injury isn’t the most important part of the Bills safety’s story. Here’s how it starts:

Damar Hamlin had every football program in the country recruiting him during his senior year at Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic, his talent and upside enough to make him an undisputed four-star prospect and ESPN’s No. 2 defensive player in Pennsylvania.

Late in that 2015 season, Hamlin took a hit to the side of his knee against Penn-Trafford in the WPIAL Class 4A district championship, and coaches decided to hold him out the following week in a state quarterfinal against State College as a precaution. But that was not going to keep him off the field.

Hamlin begged his coaches to let him do something to help. His defensive coordinator at the time, Dave Fleming, put it more bluntly.

“After being a pain in the butt about it, we let him carry the water bottles,” Fleming recalled in a phone interview.

So there Hamlin stood, captain of the football team, elite prospect with offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and many others, literally carrying water for his teammates. Because he had to be there for them. Because there was no other way.

The article goes on:

“He’s the pride of his family,” said Terry Totten, Hamlin’s high school coach. “He’s the pride of McKees Rocks. He’s the pride of Central Catholic and the University of Pittsburgh all because he does everything in such a humble, giving way.”

While Pat Boone at age 88 lives out his Christian faith in Hollywood, Damar Hamlin, at age 24, sets the example as an athlete.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20.25 – 28, ESV)

If you’re a regular reader of The Ewellogy, you know that I have been known to watch sports from time to time. Some big games (like when Clemson plays for the National Championship) and not-so-big games. Sport is entertainment. Sport is a source of life lessons like this one on self-control. But above all, 

Sport is just a game.

If you don’t think so, all you need is Monday Night Football, January 2, 2023: Buffalo Bills playing at Cincinnati Bengals, next-to-last week of the season, with playoff seeding on the line. It was one of the most hyped games this season. The week prior, you couldn’t watch a college bowl game without being reminded at least 10 times that it was the Bills versus the Bengals Monday night. The game was only about halfway through the first quarter when Bengals pass receiver Tee Higgins was tackled by Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Most reports described it as a routine play that didn’t appear unusually violent. However,…

On the play…Higgins led with his right shoulder, which hit [Hamilin] in the chest. Hamlin then wrapped his arms around Higgins’ shoulders and helmet to drag him down. Hamlin quickly got to his feet, appeared to adjust his face mask with his right hand and then fell backward about three seconds later and lay motionless. – Mitch Stacy, Associated Press

A former NFL physician later said that if you’re going to collapse, there’s no better place to do it than an NFL field. There is a plethora of highly trained medical trauma people and all the equipment you need. Hamlin was administered CPR on the field for what was later reported as a cardiac arrest before being loaded into an ambulance on the field (one writer said he had NEVER seen an ambulance on the field). The Bills players circled up in prayer (on live television!). The picture shows both:

And then this week’s game of the century resumed…except it didn’t. Players were in tears. Coaches led them to their respective locker rooms, and about an hour after the collapse, the game was officially postponed. Later, it was canceled completely.

One report included this paragraph:

Fans were reliant on the game’s broadcaster, ESPN, for news about a terrifying injury rather than scores and highlights. “It was a nightmare,” said Joe Buck, the game’s play-by-play announcer. “It certainly was nothing that anyone is ever prepared for. You have all that hype and buildup, and everyone can’t wait to watch this matchup, and in the snap of a finger it’s completely different. Football just goes out the window.”

“Football just goes out the window.” Really? I’ve written before about the importance of perspective and priorities when it comes to watching football. “That game will go on whether I watch it or not.” But this story reminds us that the game itself might not go on if real life barges in. The game is of supreme importance…until it’s not. NFL players across the league are suddenly thinking about perspective. Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson articulated it this way:

We know that injuries are going to happen and this game is a physical game, but, you know, people always say they’d die for this game and everything else, but when it’s really life on the line like we saw the other night and somebody’s heart stops, it changes your perspective even that much more. It’s just, life is so much bigger than this game. This game is important, it’s significant, it’s something that we all care about. It brings us joy. But it’s also not the everlasting thing. – reported by Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, January 4, 2023

The other takeaway is how quickly nearly everyone went to prayer. As I said, all or most of the Bills circled up for prayer. There were calls for prayer inside and outside the stadium. As Erik Reed of World Magazine wrote:

“Pray for Damar Hamlin” became a national exhortation. It was everywhere.

By the way, Damar Hamlin is better. CNN reported on Thursday morning, January 5:

Damar Hamlin’s agent Ron Butler told CNN the injured Buffalo Bills player is awake and has been holding hands with family in the hospital. The Buffalo Bills reported that Hamlin has “shown remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours” and “has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact.” 

Good news and a better lesson: Perspective and Prayer – let’s remember both as we sail into 2023.

Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Colossians 3.2, MSG)

Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. (Colossians 4.2, MSG)

P.S. We learned Thursday that Damar woke up for the first time Wednesday night. Using a pad and paper, he asked, “Did we win the game?” Someone wisely responded, “Yes, Damar. You won the game of life.”

P.P.S. I just learned something about Damar Hamlin that’s worth another blog. Stay tuned.