Spirituality Column #811

May 31, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Varvel’s Gift

By Bob Walters

“… and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship,” – Exodus 35:31

Yeah, I know … that’s a little over the top and I don’t want Gary’s face to get red, but there are among us those who God has gifted with unique talent for seeing and communicating God’s truth to the world.

And I think syndicated cartoonist Gary Varvel is one of those folks.

If you are a regular reader of this weekly Common Christianity post with any level of faith and cultural agreement, my guess is you probably already know and have like-minded affection for Gary’s work.  In faith it is solidly Christian, in politics solidly Conservative, and in opinion solidly fearless.

Gary is never profane or mean; he relentlessly plies his editorial eye and artist’s virtuosity to point out the truth and pick away at lies.  He can dependably discern and draw the difference of what helps humanity and what hurts it.  If you know what to look for in Gary’s work, you’ll notice God, Jesus, Spirit, and faith inform everything he does.

After leaving the Indianapolis Star a few years ago – Gary never did seem like an easy “fit” with Gannett media’s far-left, non-God journalistic slant – Gary is busier than ever drawing multiple times every week.  And he’s freer now to draw what he truly sees.

Gary’s work appears in many national news sites I follow, as it has for years, and he is busy on the political and Christian speaking circuits with his entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking “takes,” observations, and extemporaneous drawing.

What Gary does that I really can’t do is offer pithy, succinct, one-picture-says-ten-thousand-words, political and cultural commentary.  I’m no artist, and my commentary rarely strays into the political.  As a visual artist and editorialist, Gary’s one of the “big dogs” in American media and a fine Christian brother to boot.

I bring all this up because I’m an enthusiastic, paying annual subscriber to Gary’s weekly online newsletter “Views from the Right,” and he’s currently in “growth mode.”   The newsletter is both the first place to see Gary’s latest drawings, and includes an easily navigable and solidly sane multi-source compendium of news briefs and opinion that tend to resonate with my interests and inform my concerns. 

In addition to his drawing, Gary’s an accomplished writer who picks through the biggest issues of the day and brings them to life in the strong light of Bible commentary.  Gary loves Christ, his family, America, knows the Bible back to front, and his 30-plus years of editorial experience lend salient and entertaining perspective to the crazy world around us.  He’s an author and film producer, and teaches art at a Christian school.

But enough of my pitch; join in!  Gary’s store site is here, then click Subscription.

His is a voice – and a pen – that enriches the American conversation.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that Gary and his many enterprises are easy to find at GaryVarvel.com. Other news and commentary sites to which Walters happily donates or pays subscriptions fees include PatriotPost.US, TheEpochTimes.com, WSJ.com, and for dependable daily chuckles, BabylonBee.com.

Spirituality Column #810

May 24, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Al Jr., Hope Arrives

By Bob Walters

“I have simple goals now.  I want to live a life led by Jesus.” – two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy car champion from his 2021 book, Al Unser Jr., A Checkered Past.

With the 106^th Indianapolis 500 happening this Sunday, it is the right week to write about one of the great American names in auto racing, Al Unser Jr.

Actually, let’s back up a step and note that “Unser” is one of the legendary families of American motor sports.  Folks here in Indianapolis (I now live in the northeast suburb of Fishers) and really anywhere auto racing is followed know the basics: Al Jr.’s dad Al Unser Sr. won the Indianapolis 500 four times. “Uncle Bobby,” Al Sr.’s older brother, won at Indy three times.  With Al Jr.’s two that’s nine times the name Unser appears on the 500’s Borg-Warner trophy, more than any other.

The heyday of Al Jr.’s racing career was as a second-generation wunderkind – along with Michael Andretti – of the 1980s and 1990s.  The book, published last fall and co-written with New York Times best-selling author Jade Gurss, is excellent in tracking not only Jr.’s rise and mastery of the sport, but also the Unser family history.

I was a part of the middle of those two halcyon decades with Al Jr. – 1988-89-90-91 – working closely with him as a sponsor and team media relations representative.  When race wins, his first Indy car series championship (1990), and even “International Driver of the Year” (1990) honors came his way, I was Al Jr.’s “PR guy.”

Those two decades of Al Jr.’s growth, successes, and dominance in the sport are detailed in the book and were fun to read.  I know, knew, or “knew of” almost everyone mentioned in the book, and was around for many of Al’s successes.  Great memories.

There was so much I remembered, so much I’d forgotten … and so much I didn’t know.

And that’s where the book was not such a joy to read.  To anyone interested in learning the story, I’d caution that the book discusses, often in the coarsest of profane language, the real down-and-dirty of the demons Al was battling.  I only knew the amiable friend and professional at the race track with keen focus and genius skill.

But the point of Al Unser Jr., A Checkered Past is not that.  After Roger Penske’s gracious foreword, the book begins with Al Jr. sitting alone in his small condo on his 50^th birthday, April 19, 2012, holding the muzzle of a loaded and cocked Colt M1911 .45 caliber pistol against his head, intent on pulling the trigger.  He didn’t.

That episode is part of the past two decades – the 2000s and 2010s – when seemingly every part of Al’s life fell apart: career, marriage, family, finances, losing the trust of many who supported him, battling addiction, and domestic violence / DUI arrests.  Much of the book made me sad, but the story leads to a good place today.

The book’s final two chapters are titled “Faith” and “Redemption.”  Good stuff.  Al, now 60, is remarried, lives on Indy’s west side, and is building a life centered in Christ.

Al’s testimony for Jesus, a video conversation with his pastor that was a sermon at his church one Sunday, can be viewed online at this LINK.  In that video I was struck by Al’s sincerity and life verse, John 14:6. “I Am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Obviously, Al believes it and lives it.

Al’s famous father stood by him.  The love of God our Father never quits, either.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) celebrates Al’s continued growth in faith and life.

PS: And this bit of Indy 500 Trivia … A popular souvenir shirt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year reads, “You just don’t know what Indy means.” That quote was Al Unser Jr., in tears and surrounded by his family, speaking in IMS Victory Lane, May 24, 1992, after winning his first Indianapolis 500 … exactly 30 years ago today. By the way: Uncle Bobby won his third and final 500 on May 24, 1981, and Al Sr. won his fourth and final 500 on May 24, 1987.  The first three times in history the 500 was run on May 24 (prior to 1972 it was run on Memorial Day, May 30), the race was won by three different Unsers.  May 24 is the earliest date the race is scheduled, Sunday the day before Monday Memorial Day. RIP - Big Al (Dec.) and Bobby (May) died in 2021

PSS: Walters didn’t grow up around any kind of motorsports but wound up covering auto racing for the Indianapolis Star in the mid-1980s, followed by working another dozen years as a media relations executive in Indy Car and NASCAR.

PSSS: This coming Sunday, Lord willing (James 4:15), Walters will be attending his 43^rd* Indianapolis 500 with his wife, both sons and their wives, his brother, and sister.  It has become a family affair. (*Including Covid 2020, watched on TV, still have the seat tickets. IMS President Doug Boles decreed an attendance dispensation for all who could not attend due to the pandemic. So, it counts.)

PSSSS: Aside from that, the last Indy 500 Walters did not attend was 1982. – END –

Spirituality Column #809

May 17, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Enduring Crown

By Bob Walters

“Blessed is the man who endures…” – James 1:12

Most of us think of “endurance” as the practice of “not giving up.”

We say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”  That may be how we “endure” adversities that make life unpleasant, or weather the trials, difficulties, dangers, and misfortune that sap our hope, ruin our energy, or even challenge our will to live.

I looked up “Bible verses on endurance” and read various commentaries on them.  The verses are many, but the common “commentary” on them seems to be “endurance” in the earthly sense of “don’t quit.”  Did the Bible mean, “work harder”?

For example, Galatians 6:9 says we will “reap the harvest” if we don’t give up.

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."

Hebrews 12:1 offers, "let us run with endurance the race marked out for us."

So, Endurance.  And other words we frequently encounter:  Perseverance.  Steadfastness.  Patience.  Long-Suffering.  These traits are the fruits of the spirit birthed in our trials as we overcome worldly and even faith adversity. Hang in there!  Whew!

But is that our true victory in Christ? Simply surviving the predictable awfulness of a fallen world?  Well, it’s certainly a start, but I think there is a more important goal.

I think endurance means, “keep the faith.”  Win, lose, or draw in life, keep the faith in your heart.  Hebrews, you’ll notice, doesn’t say “win the race,” it says, “run with endurance.”  That “race” isn’t about winning on earth; it’s about staying close to Christ. 

Winning a race is nice but enduring in our faith is a must; it keeps us joyful even when persevering in our worldly works or predicaments is not an option.  When we face “trials of many kinds” – as James wrote in his letter – it is the endurance of our faith, not the health of our bodies or earthly successes, that provide our daily victories in Christ.

In our trials and perseverance we may be more worried about what we might lose in the world than what the New Testament promises we gain in eternity.  We need to open our eyes to the love of Jesus, to the eyes of our own hearts and souls that God gave us, and consider the constant victory we can claim. 

And that constant victory is keeping our faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t ask, in a trial, “Will I win the race?” Ask instead, “Am I keeping faith in Jesus?”  If you are, you’re winning all the time, and most likely growing in Christ all the time.  That is the race marked out for us.  That is the endurance that brings blessing.

Enduring faith in Jesus saves us, every day.  It is our faith in which we must persevere.  We triumph in our trials when we go through them and maintain our faith in Jesus.  Our victory, our Crown, is our steadfast and persevering faith in Christ.

And it is a crown we can wear every day with joy and hope.  Others will notice.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: you win some, you lose some, but you dress for all of them.  Some are rained out; some are forfeited … just stay with Jesus.

Spirituality Column #808

May 10, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Come Together

By Bob Walters

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” – Paul to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 1:10

Several places in the Bible beseech the Disciples, the early Christians, and all Christians going forward – including up to today and beyond – to be united in mind.

Paul’s note here in 1 Corinthians addresses what he saw as the first and most egregious error of the discombobulated church at Corinth: they were worshiping different “people.”  They were worshiping the various teachings and personages of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and, it seems likely, others as well. 

Everybody has their favorite preacher.  Paul is reminding them to worship Christ.

Jesus asserted forcefully and truthfully in His earthly life that He was the deliverer of God’s gift of salvation, i.e., eternal life to all mankind.  Israel’s leaders were reluctant and regularly hostile to Christ’s unexpected message that their existing Law, traditions, and standing were now not abolished but subsumed by the truth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew His message of salvation, faith, grace, forgiveness, and sovereignty would be rejected not just by many Jews but many in the world and nations beyond. 

Jesus also knew that His believers suffering rejection would need to encourage and nurture each other in order to spread His truth.  Jesus prays for it in John 17:20-23, Paul mentions it often, and James, in a different but important spin, warns against “double-mindedness” which happens when we worship more than one thing.

We tend to think first of “unity” in the political sense, whether it is the politics of a church, denomination, family, nation, government, or any imaginable social construct.  This renders one of the easiest concepts in the Bible – the importance of sticking together – nearly impossible to understand, e.g., “Unity? With that bunch of lunatics?”

Our default disagreement position is generally about how things should be done; behaviors, worship, governance, etc.  I submit that the 800-pound gorilla of the Bible’s insistence on unity resides not in how we get along with each other or, in good Christian parlance, “love” each other, but in who we believe Jesus Christ to be.  The correct answer is, “the Son and Word of God, and the life, creativity, light, and truth of God.

Boiling it down, I cite John 1, verses 1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” That’s Jesus; God incarnate (v14). It doesn’t tell us how to behave; it tells us who to worship.

Notice the power God has given each of us in our minds and creativity, our various talents and aspirations, and our mysterious individual identities that reflect not just the image of the one true God but also the God-intended glory of each human’s uniqueness.  The assembled power we have on Earth in the name of Christ relies on our identifying – correctly – that which is to be worshiped and trusted.  And that’s Jesus.

Pick your priorities … it might be money, work, family, your church, the Bible, politics, any hobby you may have, any preacher you may adore … everything suborns to Jesus Christ.  When people understand that and insist on Christ, unity is achieved.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recently ran across a good line about modern culture and religion: “People worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship.”

Spirituality Column #807

May 3, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Game Changer

By Bob Walters

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings …” – James 1:1

James, 20^th book of the New Testament’s 27, for my money is on par with Proverbs of the Old Testament comprising two of the easiest books in the Bible to read.

By “easy,” I mean just about anybody can pick up advice from them, have a familiar, relatable modicum of understanding what they are saying.  Their meanings and language are pretty straight forward.  You don’t have to be particularly “religious” or a theologian to get the gist of wisdom and guidance they provide.  Leave Leviticus and Revelation to the pros; read Proverbs and James.  Don’t worry if Romans eludes you on the first go.

Having tried at various times in my life to read the Bible before I was truly a believer was frustrating.  I cannot track whether my faith or my belief came first, but when, suddenly, reading any part of the Bible made sense, that was my clue the Holy Spirit was actually flying the plane.  Baptized in November 2001, I then read Genesis-to-Revelation before the end of 2002.

Even when I didn’t understand, I knew what I was reading was true. Since then (age 47) it’s been my life’s journey to read and re-read – to pray, think, and absorb; contemplate, discern, and discover; study, investigate, and listen – the Bible’s many-hued depths of divine discovery.

Here’s what I know: Jesus doesn’t lie, the Bible’s always true, and God can do anything He wants.  One’s mind reels and soul bursts at the enormity of God’s being, creativity, and love.

But … James.  I was assigned to read a scripture passage – James 1:16-18 – in our E91 traditional service last month and it sparked an idea to present a post-Easter through June study on James in our weekly E91 Mustard Seed Bible Study.  It took me the first two full class sessions to get through the book’s first sentence quoted above, James 1:1.  Here’s why.

Despite the plainness of the intro, nobody knows who actually wrote James.  Yes, you’ll hear famous preachers insist it was James the Just, brother of Jesus, first bishop of Jerusalem: not James the Disciple, nor James the son of Alphaeus, nor James the father of Judas (not Iscariot).  The clue is in Acts 15:13-29 where James the Just writes to the Jewish dispersion (or diaspora, “scattered among the nations”).  But … who is James and when did he write “James”?

One school of thought insists James the Just wrote it in 44-49 A.D., making it the earliest New Testament book, that was “lost” for 50 years.  The other school – modern scholarship – insists someone else wrote “James” around 100 A.D. using not just James’ name, a common practice at the time, but also James’ thoughts, advice, wisdom, perspective, and will, penning it after James died to make it perhaps the latest New Testament book.  Doesn’t matter.

Fact is, James the book barely made it into the New Testament at all.  The earliest Church Fathers resisted it because it says little about Jesus … but volumes to the Jews.  The Book of James made the canon’s final cut in 367 A.D.  Centuries later Martin Luther, a “faith alone” guy, said it was a “letter of straw” for embracing the importance of faithful works. 

Again, no matter.  What took me two weeks to teach the first verse was explaining (1) who James was (I mean, “brother of Jesus”?), and (2) “The twelve tribes.”  There is a lot there.

It hit me as I prepared that we modern Christians think James was written to us about our modern sin. No, it was specifically addressed to Israel’s scattered tribes and Jesus believers who now had to deal with both their long tradition of the Law and their new saving faith in Christ.

Israel wasn’t dealing with a new God; it was dealing with a new Savior.  The game had changed.  James, who knew Jesus and saw Him resurrected, had much to say to Israel about their old faith that, shockingly, was now newly complete in Jesus Christ.  It was a lot to take in.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) promised Mustard Seed he’d get to verse 2 this week… Walters adds that any and all are welcome to attend the Mustard Seed Bible Study, Thursdays at 10:30 a.m., in the upstairs “Sun Room” at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis.