President Trump announced yesterday a ninety-day pause on higher tariffs for dozens of countries while hiking levies on China to 125 percent. The Dow Jones surged nearly three thousand points on the news for its largest rally in five years. The Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 12 percent as well, its second-best day ever. The S&P 500 had its biggest one-day gain in seventeen years.

About thirty billion shares traded hands, comprising the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history. World markets soared this morning as well, with Japan’s benchmark jumping more than 9 percent.

If the world made your life an island

The recent volatility of an economy most of us have no way to influence highlights the degree to which you and I are “catching and not pitching” in the modern world. Think about it: How much of your life is under your direct control? Do you personally determine your income? Do you grow your own food and chop your own firewood for heat? Can you fix your car if it breaks down? Can you treat yourself if you get really sick?

If the world made your life an island, how long and how well would you live on it?

We all want to believe we are in charge of our lives, a “will to power” impulse that goes back to the garden of Eden and the temptation to be our own god (Genesis 3:5). Advertisers know this, which is why they pitch us products and services that claim to help us control our finances, circumstances, health, and happiness. But the next downturn, disaster, illness, or disappointment will pull back the curtain on our illusion.

The roof collapse at a Dominican Republic nightclub that killed at least 184 people, including two former major league baseball players, is a tragic metaphor for our times. None of us knows when we will be next.

This is where you’d expect me to recommend faith as an antidote to our fears. A sign I recently saw comes to mind: “Accept what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be.”

But in a broken and chaotic world, having faith is not enough.

It can make things worse rather than better, in fact.

What Einstein got wrong about the universe

You and I have a binary choice today: We can define our identity with reference to ourselves and/or other people, or we can do so with reference to God. If we decide that our secularist society is right in rejecting God from consideration, we are left with some version of humanity defining humanity and the cosmos.

Even Albert Einstein fell prey to this “category mistake” fallacy by claiming that physical laws are the universe’s own form of self-expression. If we refuse to interpret creation through the lens of the Creator and his revealed truth, we are forced to interpret it through itself. This is what we do with our own quest for identity as well when we eliminate God from the equation.

How did this work for Einstein? The great scientist was known for being unfaithful to both his wives and for his failures as a father. How is it working for our broken society today?

By contrast, David could testify: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust” (Psalm 18:2 NKJV). Why should we do the same?

It is a fact that “the Lᴏʀᴅ reigns” and “is exalted over all the peoples” (Psalm 99:1, 2), whether “all the peoples” acknowledge this fact or not. Charles III is king of the United Kingdom whether every person in his kingdom recognizes his rule or not. Those who reject his authority only exempt themselves from what he could do in and for their lives.

In the same way, sacrificial obedience to the King of the universe positions us to experience his transforming and sanctifying power (cf. Romans 12:1–2). Being our own king limits us to our finite, fallen capacities.

Bonhoeffer on “the wisest course for the disciple”

So, having faith helps us respond to our challenges only if the object of that faith is able to respond to our challenges. Otherwise, misplaced faith does more harm than good. We can take the wrong medicine in sincere faith, but it can still poison and kill us.

Having faith in ourselves, others, or our world builds our house on sand. When the inevitable storms strike, our house will inevitably fall (Matthew 7:26–27). Building the same house on the rock of Jesus’ word, by contrast, enables it to stand firm (vv. 24–25). Our Lord was adamant: “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

Yesterday was the anniversary of the 1945 martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In a website paper I wrote for the occasion, I quoted the great theologian’s statement in The Cost of Discipleship: “It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple” is “to abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity.”

Bonhoeffer staked his life and his eternity on this fact. When he was led away to his death just a week before the Allies liberated his prison camp, he told another prisoner, “This is the end—but for me, the beginning—of life.”

How can we make his empowering faith in God our own?

How to be “powerful in his power”

The English poet Ralph Hodgson noted, “Some things have to be believed to be seen.” St. Augustine similarly observed, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”

So, name the reason you need faith in God today. Decide that you want to trust in his power and wisdom over your own. Now ask him to help you “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:17), and he will (Mark 9:24).

The British essayist Joseph Addison (1672–1719) assured us:

“The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness.”

How firm is your trust in your Father today?

Quote for the day:

“Yet, in the maddening maze of things / And tossed by storm and flood / To one fixed trust my spirit clings / I know that God is good!” —John Greenleaf Whittier

Our latest website resources:

• The anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The cost of discipleship and the path to liberating joy
• American tourist arrested for trying to contact lost tribe: Why our motivations matter

• An Israeli’s perspective on the Houthis: Who are the Houthis and why are they the world’s problem?
• What does the Bible say about identity?—Part 2
• Trump’s tariffs, financial anxieties, a Masters preview & hot take, plus more trending news / Ep. 14

Denison Forum

Alex Ovechkin’s record goal and Scottie Scheffler’s third green jacket

I am not much of a hockey fan, but even I was impressed by Alex Ovechkin’s record goal, passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record in NHL history last Sunday. Earlier in the day, I watched the Texas Rangers defeat Tampa Bay on a ninth-inning walk-off hit.

The previous day, the Houston Cougars (my hometown team) came from behind to defeat the favored Duke Blue Devils and reach the NCAA men’s final. This weekend, I am looking forward to watching the Masters, where I hope Scottie Scheffler wins his third green jacket.

All told, I have spent numerous hours in recent days watching sports and plan to spend numerous hours this week doing the same.

Why?

I’m not betting on any of this (an activity fraught with danger to finances and health). Nor have I ever participated in a fantasy sports league of any kind. I’ve also never played hockey (of any kind) or baseball, basketball, or golf beyond church leagues and with friends.

Watching sports in person or on television is not a universally human phenomenon. It holds little allure for my wife, for example, who typically joins me to watch a baseball game only if it’s the seventh game of the World Series (and usually only the end of the game at that). She will watch football, but that’s because it’s fast-paced enough to be interesting to her. She is baffled when I watch golf on TV, comparing it to observing someone fishing or watching the grass grow.

She’s such a gracious person that she is happy for me to do what makes me happy. But that’s only so long as my happiness does not require her boredom.

“We won” but “they lost”

One obvious answer to my question is that watching our teams and favorite athletes compete affords us a vicarious opportunity to do the same. I’ll never have the chance to play the Masters, but I can watch Scottie Scheffler and others while imagining myself competing with them.

There is something to this. Psychologists say “team affiliation” can advance social connectedness, leading to lower levels of alienation and loneliness while promoting collective self-esteem and positive emotion. This helps explain why fans like to wear apparel that supports their team—it also connects them with others who do the same.

But the experts tell us this only works if we value belonging over winning.

If we support our teams only when they win, we forfeit social connections with them and other fans when they lose. Here’s a telltale sign: When the Rangers win, I often say, “We won;” if they lose, I sometimes say, “They lost.”

In other words, I enjoy watching them play, but I identify with them far more easily when they are successful than when they are not.

And therein lies my point.

What God’s nature requires him to do

Even the deepest relationships we foster with each other can be broken if we sin against them on a tragic enough level. Our families can hurt us in such horrific ways that they break our bond with them beyond repair. And we can do the same to them.

But there is literally nothing we can do to cause God to respond to us in the same way.

This is not because God is God and therefore more capable of forgiveness than we are, though that is true. It is not because he is so gracious and merciful that he forces his grace and mercy upon us, because this is not true. Grace and mercy must be received to become operative. If we refuse such gifts, he honors the free will he gives us and allows us the consequences of our rejection.

But even this does not change how he feels about us. The reason has nothing to do with us and everything to do with him.

The simple fact is, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The Greek word for “love” means “unconditional commitment to seek the best for another.” This is not just what God does—it is who he is.

As a result, to put it bluntly, God loves us because his nature requires him to do so. There is by logic nothing we can do to make him love us any more or less than he already does.

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God”

Now, I assume you already know this and are wondering why I’m belaboring the point. Here’s the reason: if you’re like me, you often don’t really believe that it’s true, even if you say you do.

If we really believed God loves us without condition or qualification:

• We wouldn’t try to earn his forgiveness by punishing ourselves through guilt. We would believe that our Father forgives all we confess (1 John 1:9), forgets all he forgives (Isaiah 43:25), and then separates our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) and buries them in the depths of the sea forever (Micah 7:19). As it is, we often punish ourselves for sins God will not punish through the self-inflicted penance of guilt, discouragement, and even self-harm.
• We wouldn’t try to excuse our failures so as to minimize our need for forgiveness. As CS Lewis notes, the better our excuses, the less necessary they are. By contrast, the worse they are, the more they contribute to the problem by adding deceit to our other failures.
• We wouldn’t be tempted by transactional religion that seeks to earn God’s favor through religious activities and good deeds. Rather, we would serve because we are loved, not so we will be loved. We would give because we have received, not so we will.
• We would love and serve others whether they love and serve us or not since we are secure in the fact that we are loved by the omnipotent God of the universe and served unconditionally by his grace.

The result would be solidarity with God and humanity that makes all team affiliations pale by comparison. Rather than living vicariously through the successes of others, we would join them on the field of kingdom endeavor. And what we do in this temporal world would echo in eternity for God’s glory and our inestimable good.

Brennan Manning was right:

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he would bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”

Are you astonished at God’s goodness today?

Denison Forum