An Anatomy of Temptation

Choices. We face hundreds of them every day. Managing the process through learned behavior and subconscious habits, we fail to acknowledge the implications of our choices. When faced with a decision where we pause and earnestly consider each path before making a choice; that is the moment where we are most susceptible to temptation. Temptation implies that deciding on a certain course of action has the potential for disastrous outcomes. Being tempted means that you know the right way but are overpowered by a yearning to do something that strays from that path towards a dangerous place. Then there is the problem of not making a choice at all; deferring choice is still a decision. All decisions have consequences.

The anatomy of temptation and its consequences are perfectly described in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They have been told not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but they chose to disregard the prohibition. What happened next?

The first response is self-consciousness and shame; Adam and Eve suddenly realize they are naked and so they cover their bodies. The second is fear; they hide when they hear God calling out to them in the garden. Then they lie when they tell God that they hid because they were naked. Finally, they begin to blame others for their actions. Adam’s response to God’s question is masterful: “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12). And not to be outdone, Eve blames the serpent for her choice.

Solomon, the son of King David, is credited as being of a man of profound wisdom. But even Solomon knew that without God’s help, he would be as susceptible as any other man to making poor choices. When God tells Solomon to request anything of Him, Solomon answers wisely: “Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong” (1Kings 3:8-9).

As Solomon demonstrates, wisdom is the ability to discern between right and wrong. The outward and inward signs can often be ambiguous. We need discernment to choose the good path, resisting temptation to go the other way. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will have find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16).

So here is a test. Take an inventory of your actions after you have permitted temptation to win. Do you feel like you want to hide? Are you experiencing shame and fear? Do you feel the need to lie to others or blame another for your actions? Maybe you knew the right thing to do from the beginning, but you were tempted to go the other way and you went. We have all experienced feelings of remorse and even despair when we have done what is wrong. The only question that remains is: What are we going to do about it?

Winter Light: Intimations of a Kinder Season to Come

In early February, the light of day begins to change. Without much warning, the steel gray of deep winter gives way to intimations of a kinder season ahead. Daylight lingers longer into the afternoon and the warmth of the light reflecting off the windows of distant skyscrapers battles the forbidding coldness of the moment.

And in the late afternoon, when the sky is clear, the setting sun paints the western horizon in vivid oranges and reds, hinting that the cloistered winter months will soon be a memory. It’s then when I begin to feel the draw of the hills and mountains of the countryside beyond the shores of this water bound city, even though snow and ice still covers much of the land. It’s then when I begin to dream of new adventures along the trails that I have traveled in seasons past. I have a particular love for the Appalachian Trail that crosses twelve states from Georgia to Maine.

I am often asked why I leave the comforts of home for a less predictable environment. I guess there are many reasons, but what I always come back to is the way the trail connects me to the mysteries of God’s universe. I may inhabit a world constructed by the hands of man and I may marvel at all its complexity and brilliance, but the city of man with its activities and diversions never seems to be enough.

The Bible gives us one explanation for this unquenchable desire to reach beyond the circumference of place and time. Solomon in Ecclesiastes says that God “placed eternity in the hearts of all men and women” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Elsewhere it says that Cain became a restless wonderer of the earth, and as such, he became an example of the seeming restlessness of people who, like ghosts, bustle to and fro in dances of endless activity. It is this desire for the eternal that is built into our human makeup, and it is the fact that we live in an impermanent world that we feel the strong, nagging need to seek places that provide the peace that comes upon us when we finally find a place that connects us to the God who brought everything into existence.

An Unexpected Discovery on Ash Wednesday

Today, February 10, 2016, is Ash Wednesday. In New York, as I walk through Grand Central Station toward Forty-Second Street, I see many people bustling about with ashes inscribed on their foreheads – a reminder of the words from God to Adam after he and Eve had defied God’s one prohibition in the Garden of Eden: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19).

This is the moment history began as we know it. Adam and Eve rebelled against their creator and as a result they were expelled from the protected Garden to enter a very different world of sin and death. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the time we reflect on the condition of our soul in relationship to the One who was sent by the Father to give each of us the opportunity to be saved from our inherent sinful nature.

Ash Wednesday has a very personal meaning for me. In 1991, I was with my family on Vieques, a small island seven miles off the eastern shores of Puerto Rico. In those days, most vacationers stayed away from the pristine beaches of Vieques because the U.S. Navy used sections of the island for bombing practice. Even so, about one third of the land was populated among two towns, Isabella Segondo on the Atlantic side and Esperanza on the Caribbean.

Wild horses roamed freely and the beaches were empty. Up in the hills, vacation homes shared the land with grazing cattle and tropical wildlife. Modern times in the form of glass covered hotels and teeming populations had not yet invaded this tiny slice of paradise; I hoped that it never would.

In 1991, Ash Wednesday fell on February 13^th. It was my oldest son’s 11^th birthday so I had two reasons to commemorate the day. I decided it would be good if as a family we had a short church service at home before the adventures of the day took over.

Looking through the Book of Common Prayer, I stumbled upon a section called “Daily Office Year One”. I had not seen these pages before because this section is located at the very end of the book. Within it I noticed the words “Ash Wednesday”. Little did I know, I had discovered the buried treasure I had been seeking for almost four years.

Rewind to 1987, as my company appeared to be doomed, I ducked in a church on Park Avenue in New York and said a short prayer seeking a way out of the financial trap I found myself in. I didn’t expect a reply, but a few weeks later I received a “command” to buy a Bible. This seemed to be the last thing I needed, but I was obedient to the vision and within an hour I had a beautiful new Bible. The only problem was I had no idea where to start, a problem I struggled with for a long time.

Now, in this most unlikely Caribbean setting, surrounded by my wife, my three sons and my daughter, I discovered the path to my future. Here was a definitive starting place, Ash Wednesday, for a daily encounter with the entire Bible over a two-year period. I started following the path laid out by the Daily Service: morning and evening Psalms, an Old Testament Passage, part of a Letter, and finally a selection from one of the Gospels. Following this biblical road map allowed me to read through most of the Bible in two years. What’s more, I would get to read all the Psalms seven times a year.

This fortunate discovery took place twenty-five years ago. Since then, no matter where I was, I would read the passages for that day every day of the year. And that joyful persistence led to the writing of Getting To Know Jesus, published on January 26, 2016.

Do Not Be Afraid: The Challenges of Following Jesus Christ in a Resistant Culture

Fear can be a legitimate response to an actual danger, but often fear grows out of an overactive imagination. If you stand at the edge of a ledge with a severe drop, you should feel trepidation. As a boy, I feared the dark and some of that fear carried into my adult years. Fear, though, can bring on the incapacity to act. Action suggests commitment. Commitment may demonstrate belief, but belief may reveal something about one’s identity that you might prefer to keep under wraps.

In the early days of my spiritual awakening, when I began to read Scripture on a daily basis, I would often take a Bible to read while on the commuter train into New York City. In those days, I was acutely aware of being in a public setting. I would discreetly keep my Bible from the view of others. It was a foolish fear, but my desire to keep my Bible hidden bespoke what was taking place then in our culture, particularly in the east where I lived. And it wasn’t just me.

Jesus Walks on Water by Ivan Aivazovsky (1888)

Whether the message came from the universities, the media, business or the political culture, Christianity in the 1980s had become less respectable among the ruling classes in America. Many important leaders within mainstream denominations had found fortune and notoriety by ridiculing important tenants of the faith. One had to keep one’s faith in Christ Jesus private. Jesus was acceptable if you said nothing about Him, but otherwise He was not very welcome in polite society. The culture was listening more to the words of Jesus’ enemies.

On the other hand, much has happened in the culture since then. Social media, music, certain evangelical leaders and even movies like the Passion of the Christ have stood up against the high tide of secularism and agnosticism.

For me, it has been a long journey from fear of ridicule to a passion and commitment to the Word of God. Most recently that outward expression of my faith has come in the form of my new book, Getting To Know Jesus and the new web site GettingToKnowJesus.com

The book grew out of daily podcasts recorded with Pastor Chuck Davis that we at first called In the Footsteps of Jesus. The intention was to introduce the Jesus of the Gospels in a way that would invite people into a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and why it matters. Our conversations were unrehearsed but focused. We presented the life of Jesus in the context of the entire biblical narrative and we happily depended on the truth and beauty of the story as told by the witnesses to the events that unfolded in Galilee and Judea over two thousand years ago. These conversations continue today as the daily Getting to Know Jesus podcasts.

Jesus Walks on Water by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

The world was hostile to Jesus in His own time. His own family, His closest followers and the leaders of the ruling religious class all either abandoned or attacked Him. Even so, Jesus was not afraid because He knew the Father as the Father knew Him. While He was not afraid, Jesus was alert and vigilant and He constantly prayed to the Father. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter, who, out of fear, had denied the Lord three times, told Jesus’ followers that dangers lurked everywhere and to be on guard: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering.”

Sometimes it is appropriate to experience fear. But Christians are not called to hide. Rather, as Peter counsels, be alert, be strong and be courageous because Jesus promised He would never leave us, even to the very end of time.

Sharing the Good News: Today is the Official Publication Date of Getting to Know Jesus

I’d like to share some exciting news: today is the official publication date of my new book, Getting to Know Jesus, a 365-day journey through the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that focuses on their accounts of Jesus’ life from birth to His death, resurrection and ascension.

Getting to Know Jesus began as a podcast I did with Pastor Chuck Davis – originally called In the Footsteps of Jesus – but with the work we have been doing since May a wide-ranging ministry is now blossoming and includes a revised and improved daily podcast, daily video webcasts, blog posts, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets, and Instagram photos.

Of course, I’m speaking from the perspective of the pew, not the pulpit — not as one who has spent his entire adult life seeking Jesus — but rather as someone who ran away from the Lord until, like the Prodigal Son, circumstances brought him to his knees.

The initial reception to the book has been gratifying. Dr. Alveda King, commentator for Fox News Channel and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr recently sent me this testimonial: “We should all enjoy ‘getting to know Jesus’ more every day. Eric Kampmann’s book will help us to do just that.” Other reviews have been equally enthusiastic.

Links on this site will enable you to sample the resources. I’d appreciate it if you would share the good news, subscribe to the podcast, and join the mission. And do let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.

Sharing the Good News: Today is the Official Publication Date of Getting to Know Jesus

When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough: Jesus and The Rich Young Man

A young, rich “ruler” approached Jesus and asked a difficult question: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

As he often did, Jesus answered the young man with a question of his own: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

This young man, who had it all, wanted even more but without sacrifice. He had wealth, position and youth. Here he asked to be rewarded with life eternal by doing a good thing, like being a good neighbor. Jesus reminded him of the commandments that relate to how people should treat one another; He does not mention the four commandments that refer to God. To the young man, being a good person simply meant good behavior.

If this sounds familiar, it is. Our contemporary culture has seemingly adopted the idea that being a “good guy” is enough. Behind this belief is the reality that wealth, health and position is the true god for our lives.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that God “has set eternity in the human heart.” The longing of the rich young ruler was for something beyond the temporal, but Jesus then challenged him: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

The young man now had a dilemma. He had to choose between giving up all the good things he had for something better that he had not yet obtained. He may have been able to hide the pain in his afflicted heart, but unlike our contemporary soothsayers, Jesus does not let him (or us) off the hook.

Time and again, I have heard people ask, “but do I really have to give up everything I have in this life to follow Jesus?” Jesus did not force the young man to do anything. He merely said, if you want to have the promise of eternal life, if you prize God more than all the things you might have here and now, put everything aside and “Then come, follow me.”

Nobody would say such a choice is easy; it is not, particularly when our circumstances are filled with so many good things.

This biblical account of the young man’s encounter with Jesus did not have the happy ending we might expect because the young man would not give up the things he had for the thing he longed for, and so “he went away sad.” Jesus puts it this way in the Parable of the Sower: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

(The September 14 Getting to Know Jesus podcast is about the story of Jesus and The Rich Young Man.)

The Force Awakens, first experiences, wonder and time

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”
—The Great Gatsby

I am with Nick Carraway in this memorable exchange with Jay Gatsby – you cannot repeat the past. Yet the hype around upcoming sporting events, TV shows, books and especially movies suggests that not only can you repeat the past, you can plunder it again and again for even better experiences.

The new Star Wars entry, The Force Awakens, is a case in point. Ticket sales have broken all records so there is no arguing with its enormous success. Nor is it a bad movie. It is very well made and filled with exciting scenes from beginning to end. The franchise is so lucrative I am sure we will see more where it came from. But does it surpass the experience in 1977 of seeing the original Star Wars (later confusingly subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope)?

I remember very clearly watching a segment on NBC’s Today Show around the time of this first movie’s release. Battles in space screeched across the television screen and I was amazed by what I was seeing. The clarity of the images, the beauty and reality of the scenes were so totally new. I knew I had to see this.

I was not disappointed. The story was simple: good battling evil much like an old-fashioned Western like High Noon. The villain Darth Vader dressed in black and the good guys were beleaguered underdogs fighting a hopeless battle for truth and goodness. Go Rebel Alliance!

When I watched The Force Awakens I did not have that extraordinary feeling of wonder I had watching the first Star Wars. And I wondered why. Yes, that was thirty-nine years ago, but that is the point. All of us are moving through time. As we grow older, the wonder fades because we all have seen “that show” before. Who doesn’t want to recapture that sense of wonder that comes with the freshness of youth and first experiences? Is the Disney Company making the implied promise that this new film surpasses the one from 1977? Technically, they may have an argument. But I stand unpersuaded. Like Nick Carraway, I believe you cannot repeat the past. 1977 is gone; the memories live on, even though they may have begun to blur. We must live by the truth: time is relentless and even the strongest must fall before its powerful grip, as described more than three thousand years ago:

Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is,
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
The span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.
—Psalm 39: 4-5

Even Nick Carraway could not have said it better.

The Force Awakens, first experiences, wonder and time

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”
—The Great Gatsby

Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is,
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
The span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.
—Psalm 39: 4-5

Even Nick Carraway could not have said it better.

New Year, New You?

As Prospero says in Act IV of The Tempest, “Our revels now are ended.” Now that the commercial world has wrapped up Christmas, we are encouraged by voices in the media to embrace change. They say in thousands of clever ways: “Never mind the past. It’s no longer relevant. You can push ahead with new promises, new hopes, and new goals. Become the better person you want to be.” But is this claim true to experience? Can we shed the past like a snake sheds old skin? Or does the past disregard our artificial time posts and insidiously sweep us as we are into the New Year?

It is as if the commercial culture has expropriated the central Christian message — “You must change your life” — without all the baggage about sin and godlessness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer labeled this secular faith in personal transformation as “cheap grace.”

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It is cheap because it does not cost us much and does not deal with the implacable truth of our sinful nature. When the word “sin” is excised from our vocabulary, we are left with evidence of a problem, but no tools that can help except in a most superficial and unsatisfactory way. Within a few weeks, we revert to old, familiar patterns of behavior and the promise of a “New You” becomes a sad, repetitive self-deception.

Paul defines the affliction of intractable darker impulses this way: “So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7: 21-25)

Paul did not underestimate this powerful war within our hearts that can subvert and destroy the good we desire, nor should we underestimate it. When we finally realize that we are in the midst of a life and death struggle, then the door opens to the possibility of God’s grace flooding into our hearts and driving out the impulses that undermine the goodness we deeply desire.

So let the calendar turn another tattered page. Prepared or not, let’s peer together over the precipice toward a new year. The view ahead is more than intimidating. Didn’t we just complete the climb to the top of 2015? But perhaps the summit is not a summit at all, but a mere resting place for the next phase of our uncharted journey together.

Christ Expelling the Money Changers from the Temple by Cecco del Caravaggio (c. 1610)

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