7 things about Sutherland Springs

More than two dozen people died during Sunday worship at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. A man killed them. Hundreds weep. Millions wonder why.

As a follower of Jesus and a pastor, I am feeling a deep mix of emotions and thoughts related to this shooting. What a senseless loss of life. What a tragic theft of liberty. What a disorienting blow to the people of the church, the pastor, and everyone who has found themselves swept up in the aftermath of this horror.

Allow me to process with these seven responses to the Sutherland Springs shooting:

1. This shooting is nothing more or less than murder. Murder is wrong. It is an offense to our laws. It is an offense to laws of the Creator God who makes every human being unique and infinitely valuable.
2. My heart goes out to the grieving family, congregation, and friends of the victims in Sutherland Springs. I can’t stop seeing their pain-twisted faces illuminated by candlelight. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
3. Don’t send thoughts or prayers to the victims. They are ok. They are in the eternal embrace of their Savior. Their deaths are tragic, but they are at rest and in peace. Pray, instead, for those left behind. Pray for the families, friends, and the community. Pray for those who live among us in such darkness and pain that their minds are susceptible to the notion that ending the lives of others can give meaning to theirs.
4. The day of the shooting was also the International Day for the Persecuted Church. Millions Christians around the world suffer violence for no other reason than that they worship and serve Jesus. The kind of violence we see on our screens, newspapers, and news feeds today happens every hour of every day but is unreported and invisible to us. Usually, persecution is distant. Today, it is all too near.
5. God allows believers to go through hardships and persecution so that others can see Christ displayed through them. Every follower of Jesus has been entrusted with the life-giving message that the only hope for our broken world is for individuals to be made new at the heart-level by the power of Jesus. We believers carry this message through life in our fragile bodies. Why? As Paul explains, “This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”
   
   How could this be the way to share the message? As if sensing our doubt, Paul continues: “Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you” (2 Corinthians 4:7,11–12 NLT). Our persistent hope in the face of hopeless situations, violence and injustices underscores the brevity of this life, the brokenness of this world, and the beauty of the eternal life that awaits all who trust in Jesus.
6. Fear and bitterness are not a long-term option for followers of Jesus. My emotions, right now, are a churning mix of anger, worry, and confusion. It’s only human to react this way. But, the work of God in my heart captures those thoughts and calms them.

   In the face of fear, I know that God is in control. In the face of anger, I remember the true nature of this conflict is spiritual. We have an enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. If he can twist and torment the souls of human beings to pull the trigger, he will. However, no matter how murderous, people are not our enemy. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 NLT).

   Our implements of war don’t fire bullets. We do battle for the sake of our families and neighbors with truth, justice, the good news of peace, faith, a mind that knows Jesus is our only rescue, and a heart saturated in the promises of God in his Word.

7. I am praying non-stop for every believer connected to this tragic event at every level of community leadership that their words and actions will represent the God the shooting victims loved and worshiped.

Filed under: church, culture, reflections Tagged: persecution, response, shooting, sutherland springs, texas, violence

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Charlottesville: life, liberty, and happiness up for grabs

According to a 2013 Harvard study using real-time brain imaging, race and gender are the first two things we notice about another person. Taking note of a person’s skin color is hard-wired into humans. The question is not: How to we stop noticing race? The question is: How to we prevent ourselves from allowing racism to run rampant and rip us apart? The answer has everything to do with who we allow to assign value, worth, and dignity to people.

In Charlottesville, we have a shameful snapshot of what happens when people begin to believe that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are up for grabs.

who decides our value and validity?

What we are seeing is what happens when we tamper with the foundations of our law and liberty. As a nation, we have never been completely Christian. That’s revisionist history. Some of our founding fathers were followers of Jesus. Some were deists. Others were rip-roaring moralists. However, our legal system was assembled with a set of basic assumptions that come from the Judeo-Christian tradition. For example, we all believe that it is good and desirable to seek “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We have to look no further than our Declaration of Independence to see that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is something that our government should protect.

We also see that these “unalienable rights” — that means these are rights that cannot be taken from or separated from any human being — these rights are not granted by our government. They are protected by our government. Where do these rights come from? Every person is granted these rights by their Creator. That’s the foundational claim of the grand experiment of United States government — Creator God has given every person the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” simply by the act of creating him or her.

no creator…no holds barred

We have had a fun fifty-year foray into experimenting with this foundation. We’ve attempted to chip away at it and try other arrangements. Partly because this foundation has been misused and abused in blasphemous attempts to justify racism and sexism in the name of God. How utterly harmful those attempts have been. We’ve also wanted to free ourselves from the responsibilities and expectations that rest on our shoulders as individuals created by God. Because, if we are created by God, then we have some kind of relationship with God. That relationship grants us the privilege of life and liberty. That relationship also comes with the notion that we have been created for a purpose and we are obligated to find and fulfill that purpose.

Many of us don’t want to face that obligation. We don’t want the responsibility of a relationship with God. So we have fought and questioned the validity of it. We’ve looked for other answers to our origins. And we have attempted philosophical and biological contortions to deny the facts about us that we cannot choose — things like our gender, race, and family of origin. We’ve picked up an ideological bottle of Windex to erase God’s fingerprints from our identity. We don’t want a Creator. He asks too much of us.

We can attempt to free ourselves from our Creator. And, for a while, freedom from the obligation of a Creator feels like the liberty we crave. We can choose our backstory. We can choose our identity. We can choose our own purpose. Fulfill our own destiny.

We want freedom. And now, we’re getting it. All of it. See, while we free ourselves from the “archaic” obligations to our Creator in order to choose our own identity, we also erase the only real claim we’ve had for freedom in the first place. So, we’ve opened the door for the mob to decide who gets to pursue happiness, who gets to enjoy liberty, and — frankly — who gets to live.

This is not new. As a people, we’ve already been choosing who gets to live based on their value to us. Slavery was allowed to endure at the founding of this nation. And in 1973, we decided that unborn children are expendable in some cases. While we’ve all been flag-waving defenders of democracy in our front yards, in our backyards we’ve been running a small orwellian Animal Farm where: All men are equal, but some are more equal than others.

And now, those animals are coming home to roost and laying rotten eggs of hatred, violence, and racism in the house. We’ve tolerated ranking people based on their desirability and value for so long now that we are no longer able to see the division in anything other than political terms. We’ve sanitized the discussion into “democrats vs. republicans” rather than tackle the matter in terms of honesty, hypocrisy, love, and truth.

why can’t we all just get along?

But, we don’t need God in order to behave civilly toward each other, right? On paper, that’s true. Just like on paper Marxism is a workable system. But theory met facts on the streets of Charlottesville. And theory couldn’t stand to protect us. The fact is, we shouldn’t need the Creator to stand between us and mob rule. The fact is, people should just be nice and accommodate every other point of view. You’re right. They should. But they don’t and they won’t. Because people are self-serving and self-preserving to the core. Every honest student of history knows this. Greed, fear, and pride win the day….the year…the millennia.

Without the authority of the Creator God as our foundation for our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, our only law is the law of the jungle: survival of the fittest. The weak, the voiceless, the minority, the underfunded and unconnected will be consumed to insure the life, liberty, and happiness of the strong. This is our Creator-less reality. The cliched question, “Can’t we all just get along?” has an answer that’s 10,000 years and one word long: No. We can’t all just get along. Why? Because we all want what gives us our own happiness, liberty, and sustains our own life. Without the authority of our Creator, we’re all in a deadly struggle for our own turf. We are either image-bearers of God or destroyers of mankind.

And don’t make the mistake of assuming that what stands in the way of life and liberty is to remove a few bad apples from among us. There are always more bad apples. If the appalling transgressions of World War 2 — and the violent reaction of the world to them — didn’t put a permanent end to this madness, then no human effort can.

Without the Creator to give us our “unalienable rights” our government has no mandate to protect those rights. Our republic has no standard for the maintaining of those rights….and the mob with the loudest voice, the best funding, and the strongest weapons is allowed to define those rights. And that’s all fun and games until the most influential mob no longer has your back.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are up for grabs when we take them out of the Creator’s hands.

the path forward to life, liberty, and happiness

If you’re interested in being part of the solution to the racism, anger, and violence, here’s where to start:

• It’s time for us to accept that there are some things about us that we cannot choose or change. It’s time for us to accept that aspects of our identity like gender, race, and family of origin are the fingerprint of the Creator. Because, when we put ourselves as our own Creator, we have only ourselves to defend our rights. The only way to for us to maintain love and protection for those who are not like us is to place ourselves under the love and protection of the one who created us all in love and with purpose.
• As a culture, we need to decide where we draw the line at human value. We need to make a clear statement of which human lives are worth defending. To avoid hypocrisy, we need to embrace and defend the value of all human lives regardless of age, race, or gender.
• There is no defensible, biblical position for any form of racism or ranking of value of human lives. According to the Bible, every person is carefully formed by God from the moment of conception with a path and purpose for living. According to the Bible, every person bears the image of God. Every human life is sacred. For the alt-right racists among us, that means skin color is not a basis for ranking worth or deciding value. For the pro-life among us, that means you aren’t truly pro-life unless you go to bat for every human life, not just the unborn. If you claim to love unborn children, but have a problem with races other than your own, check yourself.
• The first amendment guarantees the right to free speech. It does not guarantee the right to free speech without opposition. It’s time to pull out our collective cultural keyboard and hit…. control ALT-right delete.

Filed under: commentary, culture, reflections Tagged: Charlottesville, culture, faith, history, politics, racism

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my bold prediction about tonight’s election

Do you know what time it is? Do you know what to do about it?

It’s a few minutes before 6 am on Tuesday morning as I write this. I’m prepared to make a bold prediction on the results of today’s election. I’m setting the timer on this post so that it will launch at 6 pm CST. Let’s see if I get it right. No edits. No retakes. No back-peddling.

(Spoiler alert: No election result can change a single thing I’m about to say. That’s the beautiful thing about rock-solid truth. It stands unmoved in the low-visibility dust storm of human events and opinions.)

So, back to my original questions: Do you know what time it is? And, do you know what to do about it?

do you know what time it is?

When I ask if you know the time, I’m not talking about the hour and the minute. I’m talking about the season. The era of US and world events in which we find ourselves.

I have witnessed a lot of worrisome behavior on the part of Christians during this contentious election process. The caustic rhetoric has done it’s intended job — to strip away our varnish of faith and civility and expose our frightened and angry core.

The candidates’ campaign teams have wanted to motivate us. Because frightened, angry people are motivated people.They have done their work with devastating skill: A candidate you hardly knew a few months ago has grown to become one of your primary ways of sizing up the intelligence and motives of your friends and family. This candidate may have even become a part of your identity in a way that makes God himself jealous. (I believe there is a commandment about this, but I digress.)

Believe it or not, I see an upside to the fear and anger this election has revealed. Really? Really. I think for perhaps the first time in my lifetime, we Christians know what time it is. We understand the season. We agree with the Bible’s assessment of our times: times are dark and nearer the end than ever.

We want to do something about it. When I encounter deep darkness around me, I often turn to a rousing passage in Romans to get me fired up. It’s my go-to pre-game speech:

“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.” (Romans 13:11–14 NLT) [emphasis added]

It’s like the Apostle Paul is in the locker room pushing me around, chest-bumping, and helmet-slapping me. “It’s now or never! How bad do you want it? Strap the armor on! Let’s go to war! Let’s win this one for Jesus!” I’m ready to run onto the field, into the darkness, against overwhelming odds, and deliver a blow for God or die trying.

That’s how many of us have felt in the ramp-up to today’s election. Times are dark. This culture is running sideways and upside down. They are coming for us. The numbers and momentum are in the enemy’s favor. We must go to war for Jesus. It’s now or never. We must go to war.

To that assessment, I say, “Finally.” Welcome to reality. Welcome to a view of the world that’s a little less whimsical and a little more biblical. Some of us have seen the storm clouds gathering for decades. Glad you finally know what time it is.

Which leads me to my second question: Do you know what to do about it?

do you know what to do about it?

So, here’s my bold prediction on the results of today’s election: You will feel sick about it.

Late tonight, you will turn off the TV, finish purging your Facebook friends, and put down your phone. And you will feel like a little bit of innocence has been taken from you. You will feel like you need a shower.

Even if your person wins, you will come away realizing once again that this world is dark and we nearer than ever to the end. Your fear and anger will either drive you to burrow deep into the distractions of everyday life, or to lash out against “them” — whoever “they” are.

In the aftermath of this election — this national catharsis of fear and anger — the question is: What’s our course of action in light of the fact this world is dark and closer to the end than ever? What’s our battle plan? What’s our strategy for defeating this sickening darkness?

Believe it or not, this is one of those rare times when there is a clear-cut, universal, rock-solid, dirt-simple solution. And, it’s even in the Bible, so you know it’s good.

The strategy has been staring me in the face for years, but I missed in until just a few weeks ago. The answer is hidden right in that passage from Romans that has been my go-to pep talk to go to war against the darkness of our times. Look at it again. Look closely. It’s right here:

an urgent strategy

“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11 NLT) [emphasis added]

The answer is in the “this.” I feel the urgency. I hope you feel that urgency, too. We GOT TO DO SOMETHING. TIME IS RUNNING OUT. WAKE UP. But, what? What, in heaven’s name, is the thing that is “all the more urgent”? What is “this”?!?

The secret lies just a couple of verses above. This is going to be a bit shocking, so hang on. Are you ready to strap on your armor? Ready to go to war for Jesus with urgency and desperation against the deadly forces arrayed against our faith and our nation? Ok, then here’s the urgent plan that we must execute:

“Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:8–11 NLT)

Are you sick and tired or watching our nation crumble around us? Are you keyed up for a fight? Are you ready to storm the gates of hell, sword drawn to fight for all that is good, right, holy, and just? Good.

Love. Your. Neighbor. Bottom line. Love your neighbor.

the small answer to big problems

The answer to the big problems we face is surprisingly small. From God’s perspective, the way you choose to carry yourself among the people you encounter everyday could not be more important. This is everything. And, “this is all the more urgent” considering the time. We are deep into the night. It’s late. It’s time to wake up, to strap on the armor of light, and carry the presence of Jesus into our immediate circle.

This flips the script. Instead of framing the people around us — the other party, the other group, the other side — as the enemy we must see that in God’s battle plan we’re actually fighting for those people against an insidious spiritual enemy.

This is also a deep source of hope. Just when we begin to think that “little ol’ me” can’t possibly matter in the struggle, we learn that God’s plan for addressing the darkness of our world has involved the little people all along. That’s the strategy. That’s the urgent plan: We see and address the joys, sorrows, pains, and pleasures of the people in the place where we stand right now.

This is our protest. This our sugar in the gas tank of a corrupt system. This is our stick in the spokes of a wheel rolling downhill to destruction. This is our resistance. This is our bold act of defiance.

This is our deeply drawn furrow in the sand. This is where we stubbornly resist until the sunrise.

Love. Your. Neighbor.

the one remaining question

We know what time it is. We know what to do about it. There’s only one remaining question: Do we have the faith and courage to execute the plan?

Let’s direct the fear and anger exposed in this election to it’s proper, spiritual targets. Let’s abandon the nagging sins that have us running a low-grade spiritual fever. Let’s get focused and go to war.

Love. Your. Neighbor.

Filed under: commentary, culture, hope, news, reflections Tagged: clinton, democrat, election, faith, featured, hope, politics, predictions, religion, republican, trump, values

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to the doers

It’s my birthday. Every year near my birthday, I try to create something. Write a song, take a photo, build a thing. Not because I like attention. Because I’m a complex character. When I make something, it’s my way of letting my soul take over my brain and hands. It’s how I know what I’m thinking and how I’m doing.

So, here’s this year’s “thing.”

What does it all mean? Growing older means adopting better heroes.  Seems everyone wants to give two cents they can’t afford to the outrage du jour. I used to admire most those who could craft an artful turn of phrase. Now, I look up to those who speak and provide their own illustrations. Those who wear their convictions on their hands like work gloves and not on their sleeves like jewelry. 

Call me old. I’m weary of disembodied words.

to the doers

Here’s to the doers.

The movers and shakers

the troublemakers

the no mistakers

who sift

and find the place

where truth meets grace

where knowing

is forged out

by going

through mists of doubt.

A blind blow made

the blade

rings true.

When words untested

first suggested it

indifference arrested it

’til unseen hands protested,

pulled them to their feet.

Wrists unbound

blindfold removed

toes twitched

fingers itched.

A gift too profound

to stand still.

The Wind rises

the Fire falls

to move and singe the mist

as free

they race the sun

to the line

and cross it.

While others post

and analyze

they metabolize

for it costs too much

to pay with words

alone.

Come with me,

you who hear.

Hand in mine

let’s cross that line

from seat

to feet

from knowing

to undergoing.

We’ll prove what’s true

when we

do.

Filed under: reflections Tagged: culture, featured, poem, reflections

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Listen Up! Elevator podcast is here.

Putting this podcast out there feels a lot like standing on a high dive platform looking down past my toes at an ice cold pool. I'm taking the plunge.



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We grow, God prunes

When you spend your life working hard to make things happen, you’re tempted to think you’ve earned every good thing you enjoy and deserve every bad thing you suffer. We achievers miss the real story. Our job is simply to grow. God’s job is to prune that growth — shaping, directing and trimming us into […]



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Hello, Charles

We’re happy to announce the arrival of Charles Owen at 4:13am! He’s a very talkative little guy who weighs in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces and is 20 inches long. We think he’s a keeper. Even Brown Dog. Mom and baby are doing well after a 24 hour, medication-free delivery with tireless assistance from grandma […]



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what it’s like to stand in the middle of a massive corn field

So, here’s my take on what it’s like to stand in the middle of a massive corn field. I’ve had a couple of “wilderness experiences” this month — times of protracted solitude away from phones, emails, computers, and the demands of daily details. Thank goodness. One of those experiences was on a farm in Nebraska […]



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gratitude: my worst shower

The sleazy midwest motel. The African safe house. Or the Idaho “cabin.” Replacing my bathroom shower head this weekend got me thinking about which venue could claim the title of MY WORST SHOWER EVER… Here in our comfy house in a safe, normal neighborhood it’s tempting to over emphasize the need to improve our surroundings [...]



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Exterior Illumination

At least we have lights. I’ll be honest. I have a very lukewarm attitude about Christmas. Celebrating Christmas is like going to a carnival at the library. Except for Christmas lights. I like Christmas lights. Photos after the break… Every year I am hushed with awe and wonder at the meaning of the season. And [...]



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The Man Below Me and to My Right

Deliberately, each of his withered fingers wrapped around the arms of his wheelchair one by one until the old warrior’s claws trembled.

When Pastor Chuck began to pray, every head bowed and every eye closed. Except mine.

I was watching the man below me and to my right. The way he was fidgeting in his seat had me curious.

The Sunday before Memorial Day, Pastor Chuck invited former and active military to stand. Here and there across the room men and women stood. Younger men and women from recent desert campaigns were quick to their feet. Silver-haired, square-shouldered men from Vietnam stood more slowly. Bald-headed men clutched the seat backs in front of them and arose..... READ MORE

the monday after sunday

Bunnies, brunches, candy and crosses. Easter is a nice spring holiday we celebrate. It’s also the memorial date attached to an historical event.

Question is, what do we do with that event?

There are some things you can just shrug about and move on without forming an opinion. The resurrection of Jesus isn’t one of those things. It happened or it didn’t. It’s either a crazy myth or it’s a paradigm-shifting historical event.

The idea that Jesus is God and literally came back to life is a lot to swallow. I have my reasons for why I believe this to be true, but I’m not coming down on those who doubt.

It’s the believers I’m worried about.

See, people who don’t believe do a really good job of reflecting their view of the resurrection in the way they live. They go all out, stay in the moment, and live like there’s no tomorrow. Because, let’s be honest. If Jesus didn’t come out of that tomb under his own power there really isn’t any tomorrow. I get it.

On the other hand, those of us who do believe in Jesus’ resurrection seem to have a hard time reflecting that belief in our moment by moment conduct.

For the religious crowd, it’s easy to project the meaning of Easter to the far-off future. We know the resurrection means that we’ll see our loved ones again and that we’ll live forever in the sweet by and by. However, we forget that the message of Easter is firmly attached to the here and now.

When Paul crafts his remarks about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he wraps up his discussion with a concluding statement. He’s talked about the historic event, he’s theorized about the what ifs and he’s expounded its eternal benefits of the resurrection.

Then comes the short conclusion. It’s short, but it packs a punch.

Paul doesn’t say, “Since Jesus is alive, hole up somewhere until he returns to take you out of this crummy world.” He doesn’t give us believers a free pass to day dream about heaven all day or to cluck our tongues at sinners who will get their just reward when an angry Jesus returns to kick butt. Far from it!

What Paul does say is “so what” of Easter. It’s the very practical bottom line:

“So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord”
(1 Corinthians 15:58).

One way or the other, Easter isn’t just something we celebrate — it’s something we do. How we live the Monday after reflects how we really view the Sunday.

The hope we have isn’t just a distant insurance against death — it’s a very present assurance that what we do in this life matters now and in eternity.

Easter is the kind of hope that makes you roll up your sleeves on Monday “knowing that your labor is not in vain.”

This Monday, let’s be outstanding…what do you say?

Just the facts, ma'am. The art-i-facts.

Do you ever sit back and wonder what the bits and pieces of our modern lives say about what it means to be human? What we as people hope for, desire, despise, and value? The basic, nuts & bolts needs and assumptions we're using to build our lives as individuals and as a culture?

Archeologists use the artifacts left behind by a civilization to guess what that civilization considered important, what they believed, and what they desired to achieve. An unearthed scrap of pottery can reveal a lot information. Everything from technological advancements, to economic conditions, to the ideals of a culture can be reflected in the things they made, used, and left behind.

Such artifacts are valuable because they have both a function and a meaning. They do something for the person that used them and they say something about the people that made them. Sometimes the function and meaning of these objects are closely related. Sometimes they were quite distinct.

Artifacts don't have to be buried in the soil to be telling indicators of a culture.  You don't have to dig in your backyard for artifacts -- just dig in your closet. Clothes from the 1970's aren't really that old in the grand scheme of history. But to our modern eyes the tie-dye, polyester shorts, and Chuck Taylors of that decade are distant from us today. They are a reminder of the spirit of the times that inspired these fashion artifacts. A spirit that's somehow similar but very different from the spirit of our contemporary times.

Artifacts don't even have to be old. In fact, the clothes I'm wearing right now are artifacts that say something about me personally and my culture. We all know this. We know that what a person wears on their bodies is an expression of what's in their minds and on their hearts -- a small symbol of who they are. We check out each other's artifacts all the time. That's one reason why brand names are important to us.

So, looking at our clothes is an easy way to sit back and wonder what the bits and pieces of our modern lives say about what it means to be human. What about the other things? Maybe sit back, have some fun, spot a random object and try to think about what that thing says.

That's a conversation I could learn a lot from.

Connecting God's dots can give you crazy pictures

Today has been a little discouraging. In the grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about. But right now I'm frustrated because I got two papers back and got a little roughed up on both of them. And the experience has me thinking about how we as people -- and as Christians -- interpret the things that happen in our lives.

Take my two bum papers, for example. Are they a sign? If so, what do they signal? Is God telling me to buckle down and do a better job next time? Or is he telling me to quit school because it's not His will for my life? Those are two very different possibilities that use the same evidence.  But I know people who base major decisions on the events in their lives because they connect the dots and think they see God will.

place place a in for everything its everything

As people, we are born with a strong desire to make sense the world around us. We seek to arrange everything we encounter inside a framework that organizes them, gives them context, and assigns them meaning. That's why you puzzled over the bold line of words above this paragraph for a few minutes before moving on. Your instincts told you that those words were there for a reason, that they somehow related to each other and that together they expressed meaning. In other words, you assumed there was...

A place for everything and everything in its place.

That's ok. It's totally natural.

As Christians, we have an extra layer we like to apply to help assign meaning to the events, sights, sounds, and people in our lives -- God. We believe that God is in control and he is organizing the scattered bits of our experience into a coherent sequence for a directed purpose. God, we think, is sovereign and he is scripting history -- including our history -- into a meaningful story.

Even if we can't comprehend it now, God is placing everything in its place. Normal people don't buy that, but we believe it. And we should, because that's how the Bible presents it.

Our faith is the problem

But in this regard, our faith can be a problem for us as believers. We so much want to assign meaning to what is happing in the world right now, that we jump the gun. We try to tell ourselves and others what God is up to in a specific situation, even though we don't always know for sure. In fact, a lot of times we get it wrong. Like Pat Robertson claiming the earthquake in Haiti is God's judgment for their sins. He's wanting to make sense of the situation, so gives it a meaning based on what he thinks God is up to.

Robertson is an extreme example, I admit. But, all of us Christians do the same thing - interpreting life in a way that fits our ideas about God and about how we want the story He's writing to turn out. I do it. We believe in God's sovereignty so strongly that we jump to conclusions too quickly.

This quote from N.T Wright sums it up:

One of the key words [in interpreting history] is Paul's little word perhaps, which he uses in Philemon...'Perhaps this is why Onesimus was parted from me for a while, so that you could have him back not just as a slave but as a brother' (Philemon 15). When Christians try to read off what God is doing even in their own situations, such claims always have to carry the word perhaps about with them as a mark of humility and of the necessary reticence of faith. That doesn't mean that such claims can't be made, but that they need to be made with a "perhaps' which is always inviting God to come in and say, 'Well, actually, no" (Christianity Today, April, 2001 p. 47).

So, I'm not going to make any bold claims or drastic conclusions because I got two bad grades in a row. Perhaps God is telling me to quit school, grab a camera and move to Africa. But I'm going to have to see a lot more of my story play out before I connect the dots that way.

And I guess the lesson is, be careful when you think God's telling you something based on a few circumstances. You and God might wind up having very different ideas about the meaning. It's best to let him put everything in its place...in His own time.

Posted via email from wild pansophia

A book about a book about me?

If I were to write a book someday -- I mean a work of fiction -- I know what I would write. It would be a book about me writing a book about me.

A first person account of me constructing a third person account about myself for national consumption.

The me I would write about writing about wouldn't be a Me that friends would recognize. Neither "Me" (the one writing and the one writing about the process of writing) would be me exactly. They would be the Me's I would be if I let me be myself without being concerned with convention or with being comprehended.

Me (both of them) would be the character I wish I could be or that I'm relieved I'm not -- depending on my mood.

The first person third person autobiography would most likely poke fun at how most people construct what they think is reality based on their desire to be accepted by others based on their perception of what other accept.

And it would be a chance for me (this Me) to write like I think and not translate my thoughts into conventionally composed, single themed streams so others can follow. I could write in rivers, not streams.

"The Convention" would be a good title. That's where Me would get inspired to leave and write about himself. He would write a journal about writing a book about himself while dabbling in writing the book. The journal would be first person and the book would be third person.

And that's how I would write about me writing about Me.
  

What's your Life Clock say? Check the time on the Life Clock Calculator

Do you know what time it is? I'm not talking about checking your watch for how many hours and minutes that have passed in this current day. I'm talking about what time it is in your life...what's the reading on your Life Clock?

On your Life Clock, your 80-year lifespan is represented as a single, 24-hour day. Each day you live moves the hands of your Life Clock forward, starting at 12:00AM when you are born and ending when you finish your 80th year and the clock strikes midnight. Where the hands of the clock are right now is your Life Time.

There's something about looking at a clock that gives you a great visual reference for where you are in your day. 7am? Time to leave for work. 12:55pm? Lunch is over, time to get back to work. 9:13pm? Last chance to call your Mom to wish her happy birthday. Thanks to the clock, you know where you are in relation to the activities of the day and you can budget your time accordingly.

So, what if you could do something similar for your entire lifespan? What if we could look at a clock and see how much of our life we've spent and how much remains?

Follow steps below to find out what time your Life Clock reads right now. You'll need about 3 minutes and a calculator.

1. Find out how many days you've lived by filling out this Days Calculator. The "start date" is your birthday. The "end date" is today.
2. Multiply the days you've lived by 3. This is the number of seconds you've lived on your Life Clock.
3. Divide the answer from step 2 by 60. This is the number of Life Clock hours.
4. Round the answer from step 3 to the nearest whole number. Use this Quotient / Remainder calculator divide your whole number by 60. The quotient = the hour on your Life Clock. The remainder = the minutes on your Life Clock. For example: If your quotient = 8 and remainder = 24, then your Life Clock reading is 8:24AM. This is your Life Time.
5. REMEMBER: The Life Clock calculator gives your Life Time in a 24-hour (military) format. If you are over 40 years of age, you can subtract 12 from the quotient to give your hours in a 12-hour format. If you to this, don't forget that your Life Clock reading with be PM not AM.

We're found out our Life Time...so now what?

The years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. The days of our lives add up to seventy years, or eighty, if one is especially strong... Yes, they pass quickly and we fly away...So teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely. (Psalms 90:9b-10,12)

    

the other side of the fence

the other side of the fence, originally uploaded by thewildpeople.

The worst thing about growing up is that as you get bigger, the world gets smaller. The world, and everything in it.

A few days after Christmas, I revisited the old neighborhood. My fuzzy blond head peeked up behind this white fence for the first twelve years of my life.

My chin once strained to rest on the top of the slats as my blue eyes elevated in search of the ice cream truck. It never occurred to me that all the other chins and eyes on the fence were brown. Or that most of of the treats on the truck were Mexican candy.

Now, the fence ends at my waist. Now I have no difficulty seeing over it.

The yard offered plenty of room to shoot water guns, practice soccer kicks, and shove paper balls of gunpowder down ant hills, light them and run behind a tree to wait for the victorious snap. Now, the truck I'm in rumbles past the entire ramshackle estate in less than a second.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. Unless you want to miss it. Then, go ahead and blink. I couldn't decide which I wanted, so I closed one eye, squinted through the other and took this picture.

In my memories, the fence, the yard, the house -- the world -- all seemed so much larger. I think I liked Big World. More space for possibilities. More room to run. And back then, I didn't know why the rich kids from church on the north side of town never wanted to come over.

The world's smaller now. And everything in it.

"Lord, Save Us From Your Followers" review on front page of Crosswalk.com

I'm not trying to brag or anything, it's just always cool to see something you've written put out there for others to read.

We all have so much to think about everyday. There's the mundane stuff like what socks to pick out of the drawer. There's the routine stuff like what lane to pick in a freeway traffic jam. Then there's the important stuff like what we believe and how we treat others.

There are a lot of voices out there offering input on all those decisions. I used to think that we need less voices. Less clutter. Less debate. Now, I think we need more. More diverse opinions. More voices. More opportunities to measure our thoughts against other viewpoints. Because none of us have it all figured out. And few of us have most of it figured out.

There was a time when I was afraid of being wrong. Now, I think I'm more afraid of being right about everything. Part of me hopes how I see things isn't exactly how things really are. Part of me hopes there are still surprises around the corner, still perspective-altering conversations, still a future larger than the role I'm playing.

I guess that's why I'm excited about my latest article for crosswalk.com. It's not much. Really. I'm just happy to be part of the conversation.

I love those moments when I come across a little nugget of information or a little story from another's point of view and it makes me think. It knocks me off of mental autopilot and makes me feel human again. Refreshes my belief in the power of ideas, and the consequences of my choices.

Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to kick up a bit of turbulence in someone's air space. Make them grab the wheel again for themselves make a mid-course adjustment. Make them feel alive again.

That would be awesome.

"Beam me up, Jesus!"

I love history. To me, it is fascinating how things like technology, country borders, and fashion change, but the basics of who we are as people, and the questions we face about life have changed so little. I was just reminded of that fact as I finished throwing up another post on my other blog called BibleDig about how the Jews in the years leading up to the time of Christ struggled to understand how to respond to the world around them and still keep their faith in tact. One of group of Jews, called the Essenes, decided the best plan of action was to remove themselves from all things pagan and basically wait for God to wipe out all the unrighteous people around them in monastery-like communities. (It's a little nerdy, but if you want to check out was I'm talking about so this post makes sense, here it is.)

Even though they lived over 2,000 years ago, there are a number of striking parallels in the challenges the Jews in the time before Christ faced as they grappled with how to live inside a culture generally opposed to their beliefs and our own challenges as Christians living inside an unfriendly culture. We can learn from how they responded.

Like these Jews, remaining distinctive inside a go-with-the-flow society is critical to our identity and our mission as believers. Like these Jews, we must respond to the pressures of our culture in a way that is informed by our faith and our understanding of the Scripture. And, like these Jews, we are presented with the option of withdrawing from the mix of ideas and beliefs and building our own sub-culture as a coping mechanism.

While our places of worship may stand in close proximity to the culture at-large, in practice we create communities of our own far from the evil influences of pagan life where we can read, interact, speak, dine, watch, listen, and attend events - yes, even wear clothing - that indicate our disinterest in mingling with the world. Like the prophet Jonah, we seek a high and mighty vantage point from which we wait for the fire of God to fall.

It's true that we are not to be "of the world." However, we are expected to be "in the world." Jesus' prayers for his disciples and for those who would follow after them (Jesus prayed for me!) specifically requested that we not resort to isolation as a method of responding to the challenges of our times:

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. (John 17:15-18)

How did God send his son into the world? As a person. A real, live, flesh and blood person with emotions and with a body that was not immune to fatigue. Jesus "humbled himself" and "made himself low" without thought for himself. And he hung out with a rough crowd in a backwater, far-flung speck on the Roman map. And he stuck it out until the time came to lay his life down. And he laid it down. He "emptied himself." That is how God sent Jesus. That is how Jesus sends us.

Jesus does not pray that we will construct elaborate alternatives to the evils of culture so that we can prevent all contact with the unwashed masses. Jesus does not pray for us to be safe from the world, but that we'll be safe in it. Jesus does not pray that we will be isolated from the world, but that we will be insulated from the eroding influence of sin by the truth. The truth from God about our purpose for being alive and about the unhappy ruin caused by living our lives for the passing pleasures of sin with no thought of the eternity that awaits us just beyond our final breath.

On one hand, it would have been nice if Jesus would have prayed that God would do a little, "Beam me up, Scotty," the moment I trusted Christ so I wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of living in this body in this world. On the other hand, that kind of living -- living with something more than satisfying our own thirst for entertainment, ease, and recognition in view -- will, as Jesus prayed, "set us apart." That's so different, it's other worldly.

How many people do you know that really live that kind of life, yet still manage to be friendly, interesting, compassionate, and engaged in the real world around them? Now that's different! So different, dare I say, it might even be something like a city on a hill? That sounds a lot like Jesus.

Would you like to talk more? Follow me on twitter and join the conversation.

How's This for a Diet?

I’m on a diet. Sarah isn’t making me. I’m doing it because even though I had my last growth spurt as a freshman in high school I’m still a “growing boy” if you know what I mean. I’m going the no carbs / no sugar route.

 

The problem is, I really like food. But, a sermon has me doing some new thinking about this whole dieting thing. Like, maybe I’m missing the point of this whole breakfast, lunch and dinner thing. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever eat the same way again. There will be the same hunting down my next meal, chewing and swallowing...but there will be a new addition to the routine.

 

Today’s sermon at church by Chuck Swindol was about the cross and Christ’s humble submission to a cross-like death. The cross, we learned, was such a horrific, ghastly method of execution that even the word itself was a curse word in polite society. Christ didn’t only submit to limiting his omnipotent powers and shoe-horning himself into the confines of a frail human body. He didn’t merely agree to willingly lay down his life for the sins of the world. God the Son consented to a cross kind of death.

 

We took communion today. The bread and juice were distributed among the crowd. Chuck reminded us of Jesus’ admonition to observe the Lord’s Supper, “in remembrance of Me.” And we ate and drank.

 

Some churches take communion monthly or quarterly. Other traditions encourage a daily observance of this symbolic act. But, as I tasted the wafer of bread on my tongue I wondered, how often did the disciples eat bread and drink wine? When Jesus, in that intimate moment before the storm of suffering and sacrifice, asked his small band of friends to remember him, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,” exactly how often was that? Perhaps more often than we think.

 

Bread and wine were the staples of first century diets. Bread was inexpensive and filling. Wine sanitized squalid water and made it more palatable. When Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life” he was saying, “I am the staple of survival. Without me, your souls go hungry.” The taste of bread was a sensation the common person experienced every time they were lucky enough to eat.

 

The Passover meal Jesus shared with his friends was a special experience - but eating and drinking weren’t. So, when Jesus said, “As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of Me,” maybe he was not saying, “As often as you have this yearly, special meal” or “as often as you have your monthly communion service.” When our Savior, who had shoe-horned himself into a human body and was willingly consenting to a death so horrible that polite Romans -- who relished the cruelties of the Colosseum as entertainment -- would not dare to even mention the word “cross”, asked his disciples to remember him “as often as you do this” maybe he was asking them to reflect on his sacrifice and servant-heartedness every time they raised bread or wine to their lips.

 

Imagine how differently we would live if we reflected for a moment on the example of Christ every time we lifted food to our mouths. How would it dull the taste of sin to us if we pictured our Savior’s humility and sacrifice for an instant whenever liquid touched our tongues? Gratefulness would lead to compassion. Sorrow for sin would motivate holiness. The picture of humility would prompt imitation.

 

As we thank God for life-sustaining food, let’s thank him for the cross and embrace it as our own. As we eat, may we be reminded that it is Christ - the Bread - who gives us life. As we drink, may we remember it is Christ who satisfies our thirsty souls.

 

How’s that for putting our me-first selves on a restriction? Now that’s a diet.