Author: Paul Nordman

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Up, up, and away!

A couple of years ago, Peggy and I invited some international students to the Marysville Balloon Festival, a fun day of absorbing the sights, listening to tunes, and, of course, consuming junk food. At some point in the afternoon, about a dozen pick-up trucks with trailers pulled up alongside the airstrip. We watched, mesmerized, as the aviators and crew unpacked their hot air balloons—each one spectacular: huge, colorful, not one like another—and spread them out on the ground. Thinking back on it later, they were a picture of humankind separated from Christ1—majestic in design and unique in conception, though empty and spiritually lifeless.2

As the crews began to fill the listless behemoths with hot air, we initially saw no outward change at all, but after a while, the skyward side of the balloons began to billow, and over time their topsides started to rise. Finally, filled with hot air, every balloon stood upright, anchored to the ground, yet reaching for the sky. They were magnificent, yet stationary; beautiful, but going nowhere and doing nothing. This, too, was illustrative, depicting a point along our spiritual journey: “born of the Spirit,”3 yet not moving, birthed but not launched.

Then, at the right time, one by one, these silent aircraft lifted into the atmosphere, and we saw their glory—hot air balloons transformed into what hot air balloons are supposed to be and doing what they were created to do. Carried on currents, they were visible now for miles around, spreading out and bringing joy even to those who did not come to see them. Likewise, it is God’s purpose that all who are in Christ by faith be filled with His Spirit and transformed to the image of His Son, realizing our identity and pursuing His purposes.

The apostle Paul tells us, “We all who … contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”4 Please stop and re-read this verse; He is working in you today. Over the coming months, this will be our focus: God steadily transforming us into the likeness of His Son. May it be so.

Father, thank you for saving us through Christ and for transforming us to His likeness today. Your will be done. In His name, we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:12
2 Ephesians 2:1
3 John 3:8
4 2 Corinthians 3:18

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The Pinnacle of Maturity

It seemed disgusting, but I sang it with all the conviction of a five-year-old at Christmastime: “Slee-eep in heavenly peas.” Celestial slumber on green vegetables, the worst of which were peas—it made no sense, but, well, if this was part of heaven, so be it, I guess. I’ll bet we all could entertain each other for hours with precious recollections of childhood misperceptions. Fortunately, we learn as we go, building broader and deeper frames of reference, gaining clarity and understanding that serve us well as we grow into adulthood.

It was from this more mature vantage point that Paul reminisced to the Corinthian church, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”1It would be fun to hear some of his own early memories, but the apostle was making a larger point to believers young in their faith, essentially this: There comes a time when partial knowledge and understanding will disappear, and what will remain are these—faith, hope and love, “the greatest of [which] is love.”2 So what does real love look like? Paul mentors us through this now-familiar contrast:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.3

Who can disagree? Who is not humbled before true love? Isn’t this life as life should be? Then does love become another law that we try to keep in our own power? Fortunately, no. Writes John, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,”4 adding, “We love because he first loved us.”5 There is something in receiving God’s love for us that exposes the futility of a self-centered life, and it is in the joy of His unfettered love for us that we are free to live in love—the pinnacle of maturity.

Father, thank you for so loving the world that You gave us your one and only Son, that, believing in Him we would not perish but have eternal life. Fill, guide and nurture us, that we would live this forever-life in love—real love, your love. Amen.

1 1 Corinthians 13:11
2 1 Corinthians 13:13
3 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
4 1 John 4:10
5 1 John 4:19

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Striving for the Prize

Volunteering with International Friendships (IFI), Peggy and I enjoy rich, enduring relationships with students from around the world who attend area universities during this important season of preparation and transition. Some apply themselves toward undergraduate diplomas while others strive for Masters or PhD-level degrees, all of them growing in knowledge and understanding as they equip themselves for what lies ahead, uncertain as that is. We celebrate their accomplishments with them, smiling at how they’ve matured since we first met.

It has been 40 years since I graduated from something—college is a distant memory, and much of that for which it prepared me is likewise in my rear-view mirror. Yet no matter our age, the eternity that lies ahead is no less vast, nor any more measurable than when we began our journey on this earth; it is as certain and promising as it ever has been, even though “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”1 Such confidence is ours; such peace!

In this assurance, Paul applied himself with the focus and intensity of a graduate-level student pursuing an imperishable diploma: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.”2 What did he discard in his striving for heavenly gain? His worldly credentials. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Then is our earthly learning of no value? Of course not. How greatly God is glorified when in Him we apply our skills in the trades, our insights in the professions, our knowledge in the lab or our savvy in the marketplace. Yet we yearn for the day—and may we strive for it—when we win the ultimate prize for which He has called us: being found in Christ and welcomed into the presence of God.

Father, thank you for such a certain hope in such an imperishable prize. This moment, I pause to set my sights heavenward, and I ask that you would guide me all my days here. Amen.

1 1 Corinthians 2:9
2 Philippians 3:13-15
3 Philippians 3:8, 9