"What is the soul of a man?"

The special effects of loving rightly

2010-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

There's a parable about an ancient people that had a prophecy. Their prophecy told them that one day, a hero would come to them who would right all the wrongs in their civilization and restore them to their proper place in the world. They were to recognize their hero by his resemblance with a mysterious face carved in stone in the woods outside their city. No one knew how or when the face in stone had appeared. More than anyone else, one young boy yearned for the prophecy to be fulfilled and so he spent all of his spare time (and some of the time others thought he ought not to have spare) studying the face in stone. He wanted to be sure that when the hero appeared, someone would recognize him. As time passed, he became somewhat of an oddity in town. Due to his obsession, he didn't quite fit in, but the people recognized that perhaps his obsession would some day serve the common good, so they let him alone. The priests that left offerings at the stone and polished it once a year largely ignored him. At the stone, he became more of a fixture than an oddity. Over time though, he developed a certain wisdom and when people became especially desperate for some out-of-the-ordinary advice, they sought him out. Those who followed his advice found it peculiarly helpful. When he was 30, a new king came to power who was especially inept and the people began to suffer. The kings advisors and priests became increasingly frustrated until finally one old priest was appointed to bring their distress to the young man. He walked slowly out to the stone to find him. He had personally never paid the young man any attention, but as he was the only one there, he found him easily. As he approached, he was struck by the young man's appearance. He stepped close to him and stared into his face. Then he hurried away, returning quickly with all the priests, the king and his advisors and the elders of their people. He instructed the young man to sit at the foot of the face in stone as everyone stared. Then he snatched the crown from the king's head and placed it upon the young man. It was now obvious. Over all his years of studying the face in stone, he had grown into the exact likeness of the face that had held his attention.

In the world of theology these days there is an renewed buzz about the idea that we become like what we love and worship. As far as I know, St. Augustine first stated this idea clearly and James K.A. Smith's Desiring the Kingdom has put it back on everyone's radar.

Most recently, my father-in-law's battle with cancer (lost yesterday evening) has reminded me of this truth. For a long time, I have been impressed with how Dan Crabtree loved God. My cynical nature occasionally brought to mind the accusations of Satan in Job: "Does Job love you [God] for nothing!? Have you [God] not made a hedge around him and all that he has?" Doesn't he have a loving and stable family, a good paying job and a great house on the beach?

In the past two years, there has been ample opportunity for his love for God to wane. There have been innumerable trips to the hospital for measured and beneficent torture. A healthy and active guy, he has had to cope with stretches of physical uselessness. A kind and attentive physician, with a new and exciting practice, he has had to give up his vocation. An extremely knowledgeable doctor, he has had to deal with a roller-coaster of the unknown and unknowable. He has had to prepare for death long before any of us would have expected it and he continually modelled Job's response to his trials: "The Lord gives and the Lord can take away. Blessed be the Lord." We lost the battle with cancer yesterday. I can imagine him now, with all the perspective he undoubtedly has, laughing loudly about that last sentence. Through his devotion to God, Dan has been winning the war for his whole life.

His sincere love for God and his courageous confrontation with death demonstrated to everyone that as intimidating as death might be, it is a feeble enemy when one has been staring intently at the face of Jesus. With more time to devote to this practice, and perhaps identifying more with the crucified God than ever before, Dan only became more gentle, more gracious, more loving and more courageous. In short, he became more and more like the one he loved and worshipped. Assuming we are loving and worshipping in like manner, may the same be said of us.

MATThematics

2009-12-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

One of the most horrible things I did in elementary school was to throw my math work in the trash in my first grade class out of frustration and when the teacher saw it and got mad, I blamed this really unpopular girl for it. Pretty evil for first grade I think. The teacher scolded her and I think she cried. I haven't seen her in over 25 years and I still pray for her. Math (and insecurity) makes me do horrible things... I've always hated it.

Math has also been a source of great irony in my life:

In high school I was the dunce in my math class.

Somehow, I went into the final with a 65 in the previous quarter and busted a 100% on the final. I still remember the looks of disbelief on my friends' faces.

I had to RE-learn it all for the GRE (graduate school acceptance exam).

The process infuriated me, but I worked my butt off and scored higher on the math than the verbal.

I was also the dunce in my high school accounting class and I never learned to use EXCEL until a couple years ago. Now I have to manage 8 different budgets.

A few weeks ago I had to multiply 20 times 15 to determine a figure for an unusual $ situation.

I came up with 3000. I gave this figure to several people.

15 hours after my original calculation, as I was laying in bed, it came to me that the correct answer was... Well, you probably know.

I can't multiple two 2-digit numbers in my head and come within 2000 of the correct figure!

I and a few other people got a good laugh out of this.

I hope to earn a PhD this year.

I hate math.

The Flip Side of Judgement

2009-12-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

One of the wisest people I know pointed out that my concept of judgement (last post) could be misconstrued into a guilt-driven mania to "do more" or a despairing paralysis because there is always more to do. The point I was trying to make is that maybe it is how we "judge" our own lives that may make the most difference, but the critique is solid.

Bob Pierce, the heroic founder of World Vision declared that he wanted to "burn out for God" and essentially drove himself to ALWAYS try to save that "one more" (that Schindler had missed).

In the process, he essentially abandoned his family, failing even to respond to a daughter's suicide attempt (she later succeeded) and left a broad swathe of other broken relationships and deeply wounded people in his wake. He founded one of the world's largest relief and development organizations while always striving to do more. I think he could have done more. Pierce ran World Vision for 17 years, before he was essentially forced to resign and he died 11 years later at 64. If he had been less desperate to save the world, spent more time with his family and delegated more of his overseas work, he might have achieved the same results and left fewer damaged people behind.

Even Salvadoran martyr Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote:

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

In reality, few of us appear to have messiah complexes. Few of us try to save ONE, let alone "one more." Why DO we make so many selfish decisions instead of trying to save one more? The simple answer is, "because we're all sinners." Sure, but maybe it's also because we fail to take the long view that Romero recommends, and the paralysis of the problems have already set in. Taking the long view is one prescription for selfish paralysis.
There is another prescription that seems counterintuitive. Howard Thurman wrote: "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask, 'What makes me come alive?' and do that, because what the world needs most is people who are fully alive."

It sort of sounds selfish on one level, and Christians are supposed to be more concerned about magnifying God's reputation rather than our own "self-actualization," but Thurman was a contemplative, mystical lover of God. He imagined people taking the time and space to search out the answer to this in their souls with their creator. Is it possible that the things that would make us come alive are also the things that would bring God the most praise? Someone should be shouting now: "Jesus! Jesus makes us fully come alive and is the answer to our selfishness!" Once again, (and not at all flippantly) sure, but many followers of Jesus (including myself many days) don't exactly seem to be living lives of joyous abandon, humble self-evaluation, and diligent endeavor. Why?

I think a part of that problem is that we haven't figured out what makes us come alive and pursued it! Maybe we think God or Jesus would never be that indulgent. Maybe we think they don't care. Maybe we think God is only interested in seeing us come alive in church, or when we read our Bible. The problem is that for all the times we aren't in church or reading our Bible (95% of our week?), we've accepted someone else's answer for what will make us come alive and pursued that! Not only are many of those "golden rings" selfish, but their emptiness in the long-run keeps us grasping after one more thing, instead of getting off the merry-go-round and taking the time to reflect on our lives and what we were created to do. Or, on the contrary, we don't believe that what might make us "come alive" is compatible with security and stability and so we pursue a lesser good (and a lesser God?) for the sake of those things (didn't Jesus say that those who try to preserve their lives and those that give up their lives will find the opposite results?). These are manifestations of our cultural captivity. We worship the God-king of Zion but are oppressed by the forces of Babylon.

I confess that in the hunger for that thing, whatever it is, there may be a bit of my generations sense of entitlement (that seems like a pipe-dream in this economy). I really do believe that with a long-view and a God-centered attitude, we can be full, satisfied and relatively unselfish in the midst of empty and unsatisfactory circumstances. However, I also think that we all ARE uniquely fashioned toward different purposes and if we took the time with God to find it (the thing that we were made for, that makes us truly come alive) and took the chance of pursuing it I really do think, we might find the joy and fulfillment that would make us less apt to make selfish choices in other areas of life. And I think God would revel in seeing our joy at living the way we were designed to live!

Judgement and Empathy

2009-12-09T08:49:00.001-08:00

This is SO NOT "Christmasy."
Christians think quite a bit about the afterlife. I'm teaching "Intro to Judaism" right now and we've had a lot of conversations about the Jewish perspective. Most of my students can't comprehend the idea that Jews are frequently agnostic or not that concerned about the afterlife. In addition, Christians mostly think about the afterlife exclusively in terms of heaven and hell. The Bible actually talks a lot more about judgement. It's not clear. God is portrayed as the supreme judge, but Paul also implies that humans may act as subsidiary judges. Also, while the criteria for "salvation" is faith, the judgement is generally described in terms of what one has done, or hasn't done (see Matthew 25, Romans 2). Now, I know Christians have lots of different ways of reconciling all this but I'm less interested in that. C.S. Lewis wrote a little novelette about heaven and hell called The Great Divorce. Lewis was clear that he didn't want it to be taken "literally" but it should also be clear that it wasn't intended to be frivolous or meaningless.
I write the following imagination of judgement with the same intent.

I imagine the experience of judgement to be something like the experience of 20/20 hindsight portrayed at the end of Schindler's List. If you watch that scene, you see Oscar Schindler, a man who rescued many Jews from the fate of the concentration camps come to some tangible realizations about his life. The simple idea is: "I could have done more." Oscar Schindler was a hero, but he didn't do everything he could've done, even knowing that lives were on the line. He stares at a host of people he saved and is broken by the realization that he could very easily have saved more.
What if judgement is like 20/20 and 360 degree hindsight and empathy? I suddenly arrive at a sweeping and accurate assessment of my whole life. It life flashes before my eyes. I see, not only the things that I did and didn't do, but their actual effects on other people, the created world, society... For instance, I don't just see the time I was rude or said something inconsiderate to someone in 7th grade (let's call him Joe), but I see the ripple effect of that on Joe's interaction with his little brother, friends and parents. What if judgement involves receiving the curse of retroactive empathy for everyone I could have had a positive effect on and didn't. What if I could feel what that student felt when he was anxious, lonely and needed someone to give a crap and I didn't. What if I could feel what the panhandler felt when I was the 1000th person to ignore him that morning in Center City.
Will anyone escape judgement? I'm not talking about hell now. I'm talking about judgement.
I don't know. I imagine if I could feel what I describe above for even a brief moment right now, after 35 years of life, it would feel like an eternity of anguish. Maybe on some level this would be a gift, preparing me to experience the deepest mercy and grace and to freely live the life that God has in store for us. Maybe there is a deeper mercy too.

"God humbles the proud, but gives grace to the humble"

Maybe the judgement I recieve will correspond to the manner in which I present my life to God.
Perhaps if I have learned the lessons of empathy and humility now, I will present my life (as I understand it) to God as a paltry thing and God will show me the opposite.
Or maybe God presents it all to us, like a performance appraisal.

Suppose we are given a box and the truth of our life can be seen glowing inside it.
The proud one is thrilled, imagining the rewarding experience it will be to open the box and see all that they have accomplished. They firmly and confidently lift the lid and breathe deeply before wilting, curling up into fetal position, gasping and weeping as they are emotionally and psychologically dismantled by the magnitude of their deficiencies.
The humble ones shake and stutters.
"No. I know what's in there. Please just take it away. I can't bear it."
Perhaps to these, God still responds, "You must open it."
They brace themselves and tear it open with gritted teeth, like ripping off a band-aid, but in their humility, their contribution to life is what shines forth. They experience empathy with those who were blessed by their kindness, however small.

I know some people will try to fit all this in to their theological boxes, and others will dismiss it as pious drivel. That's fine I suppose and yes, following Jesus is at the heart of this for me. But my point is that if the heroic Oscar Schindler could take a "do over" he might... I'd like to try it myself. Maybe I'll start now...

Benefitting from the Doubt

2009-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

"Doubt" is a a popular movie and play right now. It is also popular for contemporary theologians to praise doubt as a necessary component of faith. What IS the "benefit of the doubt"?
Have you ever been wrong about someone? Has anyone ever been wrong about YOU?
Both my wife and one of my best friends have often been plagued with others prejudices. It's not a racial thing. They really ARE just misunderstood. The crux of the problem is that they are both good-looking people who happen to be introverts. Therefore, they are judged as aloof and arrogant. People rarely give them the benefit of the doubt. They are certainly not the only ones victimized by prejudices, nor are they the most severely victimized. Being human, they "no doubt" (?) often prejudge others as well. I do.

I vaguely remember a conversation I had with a Russian Orthodox Priest. He had two sage pieces of advice. First, and less relevantly spouses should not try to be accountability partners. Second, and more relevantly, he quoted an Orthodox Saint who had suggested that to truly forgive someone, the forgiver should try to come up with a humane excuse for why the offender behaved as they did. This is one way of giving the benefit of the doubt. It is assuming that there is some perfectly humane reason why someone behaves badly. At my church, we sometimes say, "Hurting people hurt people." A humorous essay on the male perspective offers this "rule" to women: "If we say something, and there are two ways you could take it, and one of them makes you mad, we meant the other way." That's a step in the right direction.

Taking self-doubt (and faith?) a bit further, we might become agnostic about the thing that leads to our judgement. This is to say, "I doubt that I know why this person is the way they are, but I take on faith that they are a person of immeasurable value and complexity. Certainly, there is a humane reason for their actions (however deplorable) and they are not innately worse than I." The benefit of the doubt does not suggest that we entrust ourselves to those that have hurt us, or even reduce guilt in many circumstances. It only asks that we don't assume the worst about them.
Dealing (as I do) in service, I sometimes have the opportunity to hear people trying to make sense of their service experiences. Since we often serve outside our own communities, we often find ourselves in contexts that we don't quite understand. Given our own experiences, Christian servants can get pulled into the American tendency of meritocracy that suggests that whatever needs are present in the life of any person or community, personal irresponsibility probably lies behind those needs. In this situation, the benefit of the doubt is to say, "I am not from here. I do not know the history of this community, or what it has been through. I do not know that they are any less responsible than I. I have a lot to learn." The old adage has it: "Do not judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes." Doubt should also be a call to learning. Even recognizing the permanent frailty of our knowledge does not mean that we should maintain cold ignorance! If you don't know about a person, get to know them better!

What about our relationships with God. Can they benefit from doubt? Indeed. C.S. Lewis and Fyodor Doestoyevsky have both written about scenarios in which God goes on trial. No doubt Job had the idea first. But doesn't faith demand that we give God the benefit of the doubt? I would suggest that if the God you claim doesn't deserve this benefit, then you should leave aside the worship of that "God" until you can imagine a God that does deserve it. That one is God.

Sufjan Stevens, writing "Vito's Ordination Song" in the voice of God offers these lyrics:
"To what I did and said, rest in my arms, sleep in my bed. There's a design.
To what I did and said..." As incomprehensible as many apparent "acts of God" (or God's non- intervention in acts of incomprehensible tragedy) might be, if God is God, might the benefit of the doubt include these things?

For those of us who offer God the benefit of the doubt without reservation, and desire it for ourselves, it is time to offer it to those around us who are created in God's image.

Is this a Pollyanna ploy for naivete? I hope it is intentional wisdom for healthy living.
When can we move beyond doubt? When we know fully, even as we are fully known.

The Mercy of Divine Pranks

2009-10-08T02:59:00.000-07:00

There is a prank we used to play. You press a penny onto someone's forehead for thirty seconds, then you tell them that the game is to see how many whacks to the back of the head it will take to get the penny to fall off. The prank is in the sleight-of-hand. You remove the penny when you pull your hand away from their forehead. So... they go on whacking the back of their head until either humiliation or uncontrollable laughter ends the prank. Yes, it's cruel. If you do this to a real friend, you eventually really want them to "get it."
(Mind that in college my best friends & I shot each other with homemade blowdarts. Guy stuff.)
Wicked transition - let's ask a question: Where is God?

The Christian response is that God is everywhere. We call this "omnipresence."
However, most Christians also believe that God is more fully manifest in some other realm than the one that is apparent to us every day.

So, where is the realm of God's more complete manifestation?
At this point I think most Christians would say, "I have no idea."
That sounds like the best answer to me.

Other answers might include something about a "spiritual realm."
Fair enough. I think I generally imagine a multi-dimensional universe, most of which eludes us, and some dimension/s of which is the "place" (if we can call it that) that allows fuller communion between God and the world. I believe someday that dimension will break in on this one in a unprecedented "revelation." I'm not sure I would call it the "spiritual realm," because that seems to imply that the world we live in is not spiritual while I think of it as more integrated.

Simpler question: Does anyone think that the realm of God (or "heaven") is "up"?
If we could just travel vertically far enough, trangressing solar system, galaxy, etc. would we get there? I hope most Christians would say "no." Again, I think that's the best answer.

That being the case, here's a harder question:
Why did Jesus "ascend" into the heavens at the end of his physical time on earth?
A friend's answer was: "What do you want him to do, go left?"
Funny, but its not a matter of what I would "want him to do."

Let me suggest another answer.
If Jesus had sort of disappeared (In the manner of Star Trek "beaming") to "break on through to the other side" that would have communicated impermanence to his disciples, when he had just told them, "I am with you always."
Based on limited research, I think most pre-moderns did imagine that "up" was the direction to go to get to the realm of God/s, from Babel, to Mt. Sinai, to Mt. Olympus, to sun, moon and star worship, "up" seemed like the logical direction to direct worship, or to locate the presence of the divine, though obviously, this was far from exclusive.

So, when Jesus ascended, God was doing something that humans could understand. I'm suggesting that it was a concession to the particular human finitude of that time, as well as being a slightly theatrical way of communicating majesty. It wasn't a cruel "prank." It was a sort of "divine sleight-of-hand."

I wonder: What else did God do, that scripture records, to communicate, via a concession, with the people of that time and place? Are there senses in which scripture itself becomes a sort of "divine sleight-of-hand" that communicates WELL but necessarily "inaccurately," because accuracy would take the conversation way beyond us?

Would it honor God if we insisted that traveling vertically from Israel at a particular point in the earth's rotation and orbit (and who knows what else?) would ultimately get us to the throne of God?

I don't know anyone who thinks that, but are there other things that we are still clinging to, when it would now please God if we let go?

Maybe God really wants us to "get it" and stopped whacking ourselves in the back of the head.

The Gospel According to Gran Torino

2009-10-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Walt is doomed. When Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino opens, his character is recently widowed, bitter, foul-mouthed, violent, borderline alcoholic and very sick. His kids don't really care about him and he thinks they are self-absorbed and ridiculous. But, maybe the worst part of it is that he hates his neighbors. Like Dirty Harry, Walt is isn't a "racist," he hates everybody, but as a Korean War vet, he especially hates southeast Asians who remind him of the things he did there. He is destined to die, coughing up blood on the floor of his garage, feeling guilty and alone. And no one will care. Let me try to lay this out without giving too much away.

His fresh young priest tries to get him to come to confession, but Walt constantly and vehemently rejects him. The priest character is great. Initially, one is inclined to feel about him exactly as Walt does, but as the movie develops, we see that he is also 3 dimensional and has something to offer.

Walt's life begins to change when the son of his Hmong neighbors gets in gang trouble. In a classic "Dirty Harry as Grumpy Old-Man" scene, Walt inadvertently saves this young man by wielding his M-1 and growling "Get off my lawn!" The Hmong community responds by showering him with gifts. Eventually, the older sister Su befriends Walt, seeing past his tough-guy bluster and sort of integrates this racial-slur-spewing crust of a person into her family.

The major text of the film becomes a commentary on manhood. Walt ends up mentoring Tao, the teenage boy next door and trying to "man him up" in blue-collar Detroit "Greatest Generation" style. Though his version of manhood is basically comic-relief at this point, Tao eventually does become more confident and assertive and Walt becomes more warm and human. Still, he turns to violence to try to stop the gang-intimidation and learns a lesson he should have learned in Korea. Violent begets violence.

Ultimately, Walt has to stop the cycle of violence and he lands on a creative solution. He goes to confession to fulfill his wife's last wishes. Then he confesses the things that have TRULY haunted him to Tao.

He drives over to the gang-house and calls them out. They emerge, brandishing their pistols.

He talks tough for a minute or two until all the eyes of the neighborhood are on the scene. They wait, and so do we, for Walt to rain down lead-vengeance on these neighborhood terrorists. Through lips clenched on a cigarette, Walt snarls, "Got a light? (pause) I've got a light!" Then he enacts his plan.

What does he do? Oddly enough, Walt sort of pulls a WWJD.

Throughout this film, Walt is the hero saving the Hmong family, but at the end, it seems clear that they have saved him from dying alone, bitter, uncared-for and uncaring.

Walt has changed, though his language still leaves a great deal to be desired.

He loves his neighbors as himself. He is honest about his pain. He is reconciled.

In the last moments of the film, he is literally an icon of Christ.

He is very nearly a new creation.

How many of us can say the same?

In Ephesians 2-3, Paul says that the mystery of Christ is when Christ on the cross broke down the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and made them one. It is a work of reconciliation.

When someone goes from hating his neighbors, to loving them, God is at work. It may not be the whole picture, but it is a picture of salvation and redemption.

Connecting to God - II

2009-10-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Another way of trying to connect to God is by trying to set the tone for the day with some sort of meditation or conscious commitment of one's day to God.

In college a friend of mine and I decided we would spend (I think it was 20 minutes) meditating each day. This posed 3 problems. First was finding a quiet place of solitude. My apartment was completely out of the question. The library was a pretty social place sometimes. BUT, in the basement of the college building next door there was a rarely used classroom and an almost never used restroom. I had my spots! This leads to the second problem, which was my narcolepsy. I am not clinically diagnosed, but I have fallen asleep in the car at red-lights (never on the motorcycle, which is why I may be the only person for whom a motorcycle is actually a safer mode of travel).

I tried the classroom first. Walked in, closed the door, sat down at a desk and discovered problem 3: I had no idea what I was doing. I just sort of tried to quiet myself, figuring that meditation could not be just praying (talking to God), nor could it be reading something thoughtful and thinking about it. Of course it could have been, but I didn't think so at that point.
I woke up in the dark, embarrassed but alone. I waved my arms around to get the motion detector to turn the lights back on and left.

For my second attempt, the next day, I entered the restroom, entered the single stall in the restroom, put the seat-cover down and settled into what I thought might be a good meditating position.

This time, when I woke up, it was pitch black and I didn't know where I was. I waved my arms around but since I was in the stall, nothing happened. Then I stood up and ran into each wall of the stall before I came to my senses, managed to feel my way to freedom and gave up on "meditating."
I think the reason that I don't make it a priority to connect to God some days is not a lack of time. Time is there (see below). I think it is because I don't always believe that it will matter, or make a difference for me. This means that I am seeing the connection to God as a self-serving device for my gratification or assistance, rather than the possible benefit that might be passed on to those around me. Sometimes, it is because I am experiencing what Buddhists have called "monkey-mind." I try to settle into a mental and physical posture of connection, but my brain won't stop grabbing at things (that I "need" to do, want to do, or am worried about).

Interestingly, the bathroom is still the primary place I go to make a brief connection with God every day. It is really the only place where my children MIGHT respect my privacy and need for quiet. It also has a fan, which creates great white noise. I no longer have the narcolepsy issue in the same way, though occasionally it still strikes.
The following "advice" could make me sound like a "real spiritual person" but I assure you...
Well, lets put it this way... I didn't really do any of the following this morning and when Beth got up, she looked at me and asked: "Are you mad about something?" The nice thing about being alive is that there is always another day to get some small thing right - like in Groundhog Day.

My daily connection with God usually amounts to 4 things.
In the morning:
1. Try to be aware of God's presence. This often involves willing myself to belief that God is truly everywhere, no less in my bathroom than in my favorite church or on my favorite hiking trail. It involves rejecting an impulse to look upward for God or to direct my thoughts in some direction.

2. Submit my day. I say something like: "God, take my life today to use as you will. Free me from bondage to self so that my life will show others your love, your power, and your way of life.
Give me wisdom and insight to know you, sense your presence and do your will."

3. Read something thoughtful and think about it. For me this means scripture or something related to scripture.

At night:
4. Thank God for the day and recite either the 23rd Psalm, the Lord's Prayer or something else I have committed to memory, until I fall asleep.

You could also build other connection points into your day:
1. Make it a habit of connecting to God as you go in or out your door. Religious Jews often keep a text of scripture in a small box or mezuzah, that they touch upon entering or leaving. You could buy one or create your own practice. Think to yourself "Let's go!" as a way of reminding yourself that you aren't leaving God at home. Your family members or mates might also appreciate it if you reminded yourself upon arriving at home, that God is still with you all.
Put meaningful statements on your dashboard, refrigerator or bathroom mirror.

2. While you're waiting for anything. Why not just offer up your anxiety or impatience? Some people like the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

3. With friends (and maybe enemies). C.S. Lewis, keeping in mind the idea of being created in the image of God, said, "You will never meet a mere mortal." I certainly experience God through other people, whether they know it or not. When you are with other people, briefly invite God to be present also. God IS present. Inviting God is just a way of reminding us and setting our mind to the "welcoming" position.

4. Taking a breather. Is it possible that the frenetic pace we keep is less productive than a pace that allows us to step back, breathe and say a b'racha before we continue?

5. Twitter God. Just whatever you might feel like saying. God can handle it. Your friends might not "get it" but who cares? It might be the most interesting twitter all day. If you don't Twitter (I don't) just write whatever you might want to say to God in reply to the most annoying spam email of the day. The point isn't to publicize, and certainly God knows what's going on with us. The point is to be mindful of God by actively directing our thoughts to God at various points in the day.
6. On the drive home. What else are you doing? Minimally, you could say a b'racha for the music you are enjoying or ask for God's mercy and grace to enter whatever situation you are hearing about on the news.

I hope some of this inspires you to set the bar LOW. You don't need to "meditate" for 20 minutes a day. Maybe someday you'll want to (and so will I), but it is said that God says:
"When a child of mine comes to me walking, I am already running."

and:
"The Lord knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."

Give yourself, your loved ones and the world a gift today by trying to make some sort of connection to God.

Connecting with God - Part I

2009-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Ari Goldman writes about the Jewish practice of saying a b'racha (blessing).
"Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who... (brings forth bread from the ground, creates the fruit of the vine (wine) ...etc.)" There is a b'racha to be recited before virtually everything.

A.J. Jacobs is/was a secular journalist who wrote the Year of Living Biblically, in which he decides to try to follow every command in the Bible as literally as possible for a year. One small piece of this is gratitude. In a fascinating video/talk, Jacobs describes the way the consistent practice of giving thanks has transformed his life and turned him into a "reverent agnostic" as well as a more grateful person. The question has been posed: when an atheist feels just generally grateful, to whom does the atheist give thanks?

I believe that connecting to God on a daily basis is part of the whole health of a human being.
We are selfish creatures in my experience... Okay, fine. I'm a selfish creature. I need to connect to something outside myself to awaken me to the fact that I am not the center of the universe.
Notice how limp Adam's hand is in comparison to God's in Michelangelo's famous painting of the creation of Adam? In the Christian scriptures there is a sense that God is the constant animator of life. Paul, quoting a Greek philosopher, states that in God "we live and move and have our being." But in this, we are relatively passive.

My desire is to try to be a more equal partner with God in God's animation of my life.
By partner, I mean that I would not be working against (passively OR actively) God's purposes, but for them. By "more equal" I mean that maybe instead of a 1,000,000/1 ratio of God's work to my partnership, maybe we could reach a 1,000,000/2 ratio (which would double my personal investment). But achieving this takes "mindfulness;" a conscious attention to God's presence and a discerning of what role I might play in God's will for a situation.

One way of being mindful is the ongoing practice of looking for things for which I can be grateful.

Today I had each member of my class say a b'racha in introduction: "Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who... (gives me great friends, has given me a great family, gives us coffee...)
As I look out my window right now it is my favorite time of day. The sun is low and shining which gives all the green things a glowing emerald appearance. I will go outside to say this b'racha.

What are you grateful for? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were only a tiny bit more grateful?

Evolution of a lifter - III

2009-09-26T11:38:00.001-07:00

So, in the last "Lifter" post I was transitioning from bodyweight exercises to using weights.

My new inspiration was The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove:

The authors don't claim any of this is really new, but that a lot of popular training articles and programs have deluded people. In a nutshell, here are the "new rules" without giving you the actual "new rules" since there are at least 19.

1. Focus on large muscle groups - (ie. chest/shoulders, back, quads, glute/hamstrings) these programs have VERY few curls or tricep exercises. The theory is that when you do any sort of upper-body press, your triceps HAVE TO work hard. When you do any pull/chin up or row, your biceps HAVE TO work hard.

2. Focus on exercises that imitate (relatively) "natural" movements: push - pull - squat - bend - lunge etc.

3. Weights are tools to help achieve fitness goals and machines are relatively ineffective tools.

Use dumbells and barbells and occasionally a cable station or exercise ball.

4. Strength is the foundation of all movement.

5. You should set a personal record every workout.

6. A workout is as good as the adaptation it forces upon your body. Incidentally, this is why resistance training is better than "cardio" for fat-loss. You body adapts to it more slowly and it increases your metabolism WAY more than "cardio."

7. Warm-up, but don't stretch, before your workout.

I love these principles and I enjoyed these workouts and made progress, but the workouts were still just a bit too long for a grad student with a wife and a baby whose demands seemed so disproportionate to his size.

The missing piece I needed at the time was a workout system called Escalating Density Training (EDT). The program is described in basic form in several places online and was published in the book Muscle Logic by this guy, Charles Staley, and boasted, "Cut your workout time in half, with better results." This may be an exaggeration, but it did cut my workout time down. I did get better results and I loved the way this system makes you compete with yourself successfully and have continual progress.

Here's EDT in short. When I do EDT, I also have the "new rules" in mind. This seems complex at first because it is counter-intuitive, but when you get into it, it is amazingly simple.

1. Pick the exercises you want to do for your large muscle groups.

2. Put them in "antagonistic pairings" or roughly opposite exercises. Example are bench/row, lower-body push/upper-body pull. You will do these exercises back-to-back in what is called a "superset" moving back and forth between them.

3. Each pair, or superset also indicates a 15 minute "personal record" or PR zone.

4. Use your 10 rep max for each exercise (this can vary depending on your goals).

5. Structure your workouts based on these pairs but, you will NOT perform any exercise to failure. You should always feel like you could perform at least one more rep on all but maybe the last set of a PR Zone.

6. Start each set doing HALF of your rep max, moving the weight as fast as possible for each rep and moving back and forth between exercises with as little rest as possible between sets. Decrease reps-per-set and/or increase rest periods as you fatigue. Aim for around 45 reps per exercise, but the program is self-correcting BECAUSE....

7. If you beat your previous record by 20%, you increase the weight by 5% or 5lbs., whichever is less, and keep going!

NOTE: Even though the weights and reps are not maximal, moving them as fast as possible means you exert maximal FORCE for each rep. (Ex. You may exert 140lbs of pressure to move a 100lb weight as fast as you can).

Here's what your workouts might look like then:

Monday:

PR Zone 1-

Squat/Pullup

PR Zone 2-

Bench/Row

Wednesday:

PR Zone 1-

Deadlift - doesn't really need a pair

PR Zone 2-

Lunge/Military Press

Friday - repeat Monday and then repeat Wednesday the next Monday etc.

I've never done this exact workout, but its not bad. If you did a 3-5 minute warm-up and rested 3-5 minutes between PR Zones, you'd be in and out of the weight-room, or your basement, in around 40 minutes or less. If you need shorter workouts, do slightly shorter PR Zones. I think people could make progress with as little as 10 minute zones though you might want to start out doing 6-7 instead of 5 reps.

I'm doing some other things now that mix up a bunch of these principles with some other things I've learned, but these are the basic building blocks. My pastor recently preached on taking care of ourselves, so maybe this will help someone do that...

My advice to everyone is to do the exercise you enjoy. Play, run, lift, jump, march, whatever. But if you DON'T like what you are currently doing, try something else!

I haven't even talked about nutrition, but I have gained 25-30 pounds since I got back into lifting and I don't think my body-fat percentage has increase much at all. People might ask, "what about cardio-vascular health?" and even though I only run about once a year, I went out and ran 5 miles with a running friend a few weeks ago and felt pretty good!

So, if you're into working out, let me know what you've learned or found helpful! I'm always trying to learn new things. If you have any questions, feel free to ask...

Evolution of a Lifter - II

2009-09-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Bob Gorinski ("So Whattya Think Robert?"- see my links) posted a great blog on weight-training not too long ago. Bob blogs on life, faith, family and sometimes lifting. He is a SICK athlete,a thoughtful Christian and a great dad. He's also a great PT and he blogged about the toll that lifting takes even as he hit an incredible personal best in the squat. Anyone considering PX90 or whatever it is, should see his review of that program.

Yes, there is a masochist element to most of us who like exercising whether we are runners or lifters or whatever... But, I think there are ways to at least maximize our pain to payoff ratio, and one major way to do that is to maximize time.

Once upon a time, I would work out for an hour or more and I know lots of runners and others who exercise for long stretches even though they don't enjoy it because they think they have to in order to reach their goals. Here's how it went for me...

When I worked out with my dad in the basement we did a few sets of a few exercises (mostly upper-body) with repititions like this - 12, 10, 7, 5. Not a bad way to go. When these sets got easier, we added weight.

Somewhere along the way I got Bill Pearl's Getting Stronger which is a great book in its own right with workouts for beginners and up, bodybuilders and every imaginable sport.

The problem with the book is mostly that Pearl is a bodybuilder. He thinks in terms of individual muscles and individual exercises to target those muscles. In the end then, the training is less functional and you end up doing a LOT of different exercises in a workout.

I used to follow programs like this and I would do exercises aimed at "isolating" the muscles I wanted to work. When you think this way, you have to do a LOT of exercises. That takes a LOT of time. You also end up treating all muscles equally. You spend just as much time on your biceps, which are a very small proportion of your body, as you do on your hamstrings, which are much larger.

I enjoyed these workouts and made some progress, but they just took too long!

Then I entered grad school and had a 2-3 year hiatus from working out. When I decided I needed to get back into it, I had no equipment and I had no intention of joining a gym.

SO, I go into bodyweight exercises, push-ups, pull-ups, bodyweight squats and crazy variations of all three. It was really fun and, coming back from a "keyboard-only" workout regimen, I made a lot of progress. I still like the simplicity of bodyweight workouts. A person can get incredibly fit without ever picking up a "weight." One great resource for this kind of thing is this primitively published manual by Ross Enamait.

My only real criticism of this book is that Enamait uses a LOT of equipment in some of his workouts, even if the equipment isn't weights. But its still a great book, with a ton of great information as well as exercise ideas to get your creative juices flowing. You really could be "Never Gymless" although I don't know how anybody could go without a good pull-up bar or branch or fire escape or something.

Still, there is something about lifting heavy stuff. It is hard to chart your progress on raw strength doing bodyweight exercises. I mean, its awesome when someone can do 100 pushups, but it takes a lot of determination to decide you're going to do 1 arm push-ups and I never got there. Maybe someday. Anyway, I cruised craigslist, found a weight set I wanted and made a low-ball offer. $90 got me 2 Olympic bars, a bench/squat rack set-up and about 380lbs of plates. I also reclaimed some weights I bought in high school that my dad wasn't using (he's still using a LOT) and he threw in a couple dumbells. It was time to hit the iron again...

Motorcycle Diary

2009-09-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend I decided to ride the motorcycle down to Norfolk, where Beth and the kids are visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Crabtree. The "bike" gets 50 miles to the gallon, leaves when I want to leave, and (ideally) gets there in 6 hours, so it beat out the bus and train options by around $40-70 and 3-4 hours each way.
I got rained on a bit on the way down but the first 5 hours were cool. Hour six? My butt was killing me. This bike is a single cylinder 650, which means it vibrates quite a bit, and not a big comfy cruising bike in any case.
On the way back I decided to take a slightly different route. It was more "direct" but off the interstate. And it was raining again but about 15 degrees colder.
An hour and a half into my trip the bike started to "stutter" and backfire. Uh-oh.
"Please just let me get to a gas station."
Nope. It got bad enough that I pulled over and turned it off and tried to look the bike over.
Two small pieces of info:
1. I'm not mechanical. I tried reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" one time and I thought the writer was jerk.
2. Beth and I are sharing a cell-phone right now and it was her turn.

So, I'm broken down on the side of the road, in intermittent rain, in approximately the middle of nowhere, without a phone. So I pray, "Okay God, let's see how you're going to work this one out."

You know what? People don't stop anymore. I'm sure part of it is the whole "biker" thing, but there's something else. Since "everyone" has a cell phone, a person on the side of the road is probably just waiting for their.... whatever they called for.

I decided that the best case scenario was someone in a truck or pulling an empty trailer who would be willing to take me and my bike to the nearest bike shop, where I would sit all day (and hopefully not into the next day) until they got me fixed up and going.
I wanted to maintain my dignity though so my strategy became sitting sideways on my bike facing the road (12 inches from my boots) and waving casually whenever a likely truck drove by.
After about 30-40 minutes of this, a truck turned around and pulled in behind me and a young guy about 21 years old leaned out and asked if he could give me a ride somewhere.

I told him my situation and he offered to drive me up to the nearest gas station, which was better than the side of the road so...
It turned out he had a friend who worked at a cycle shop and he got his friend on the phone. The shop was closed but his friend said he'd drive out and take a look at the bike saying "We can't just leave you stranded."

After running a a quick errand with my new friend we met back at the bike. His friend was there, fiddled around with it, tightened one screw and it was fixed. I offered to buy them lunch but they turned me down casually, smiled at my gratitude and drove away.

Thanks Luke and Paul!

"For I was a stranger" and you cared for me.

The Nature of Our Beliefs

2009-08-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Beth and I watched 2 movies this weekend. On Friday night we watched Religulous, with comedian Bill Maher. Maher is an atheist, raised Catholic but has a Jewish mother. The goal of the movie is to show how religion (or religious beliefs) are ridiculous and dangerous. I think most religious people would find it (and Maher) very offensive for his language and sexual references but anyone might be offended by Maher's total lack of respect for many people he interviewed.

On Saturday night we watched EXPELLED, with comedian Ben Stein, who is a Jewish theist (I don't know if he is "practicing" or not). The goal of this movie is to show how atheistic Darwinism has squelched free inquiry and operates today from a premise about the origin of life that is unprovable. I think most theists will want to cheer.

Neither movie attempts to be unbiased, but here is one fascinating aspect. Both men relate passionately to the suffering of the Holocaust and each places the primary blame on the other's side. So, Maher says it was a religious atrocity, or at least religious believers were the ones committing the majority of atrocious acts. Stein says that Darwinism was the underlying and driving theoretical basis of the Holocaust.

Both men seem right about the Holocaust which in part confirmed for me, a belief I've had for several years.

Here it is: I believe that most people believe what they WANT to believe.

This statement is circular. I can't even begin to prove it, and it applies equally to the belief I just stated and to me as much as anyone else. We all could cite examples that appear to contradict this, but I believe that the exceptions prove the rule.

SO… let me explain.

1. Most people do not have the time to really pursue the answers to most questions to great depth. This is true even for intellectual people who like to read and even for experts in one field who don’t have time to really become experts in another field.

2. Most people rely for their answers on human authorities who DO have the time to research their questions; "experts" that we come to trust. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but reading a book by an expert makes us feel like experts, even if the book was only written by someone who read other experts’ books instead of doing their own research.

3. Most of these experts started the same way we do and ultimately came to their conclusions because they already had a position that they had arrived at through the influence of someone who was an expert first; a “professor” so-to-speak.

4. In choosing reliable human authorities, we usually gravitate towards those who confirm what we already believe, unless we are somehow dis-satisfied with our current beliefs, then we gravitate towards those who (like us) might be critical of our current beliefs. That doesn’t mean that the arguments aren’t rational but that we probably start with some sort of commitment (we could say “faith”) before we have our good arguments. Religious dogma or scientific method, it doesn’t matter.

“You cannot criticize any claim to truth except on the basis of a truth that you claim, and with respect to which you suspend criticism.” Lesslie Newbigin

5. There are BRILLIANT people on both sides of most issues: A/theism. Creation/Evolution. Biblical Truth/Historical Criticism. Republican/Democrat. War/Peace. Homosexual Marriage/NO Homosexual Marriage. GrantCitizenship/Deport-&-Build-a-Wall. Jet Li/Bruce Lee. Half-full/Half-empty. Haveyourcake/Eatittoo.

6. Since we can’t really research both sides to the necessary depth, we have to settle down with belief of some expert; probably the one we agreed with at the start. Maybe we forge a half-way-between belief or agnosticism about the issue, but it doesn't really matter.

7. The belief we settle on is the one that is most APPEALING to us, at that point in time and the appeal of the belief is NOT the result of our own cogent reasoning or research.

8.It most likely has to do with perceived self-interest of some kind. In other words, its about what I want deep down. This want might be subconscious, it might be a matter of connection or distance (ie. I want to feel that I am a part of my: family, nation, party, church, social group OR I want to distance myself from these), it might be sexual (I want the belief that allows me the most freedom), or it might be financially motivated. That doesn't mean that the position is irrational. Wanting our view of the world to remain intact, is rational. So is wanting to change our life if it's unpleasant. However, in all of these cases the prime motivator for belief is not a commitment to reason, facts or certainty (which may be over-rated anyway).

9. We may believe that we believe something because of a real experience that we have had, but why did we interpret our experience in such a way that it confirmed or refuted a particular belief? For instance, I believe that the spirit of God can reveal things to people. I have had experiences to confirm my belief in God, but my belief in God preceded the experience and shaped my interpretation. Again, that’s not bad. That’s just the way it is, 99+% of the time; even for experts and scholars and comedians. People may claim to have undeniable experiences, but I wager that undeniability has as much to do with desire as reason. Even in the Bible, people who have direct encounters with God, doubt.

10. Nonetheless, some things are true and others are not. Conversions and paradigm changes do happen, for good or for ill. Some experts and comedians are right. Others are wrong. Therefore, so are we. That’s why we have to be careful! I believe in believing, and reading and even arguing and advocating. But if I’m right, then the crucial question isn’t: “How do I know my belief is right?” but, “How do I know if my wants are right?”

What do you believe? More importantly: What do you want to believe? And most importantly: why?

MEN (MANLY MEN)

2009-07-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

I am honored to have a couple essays about experiences of manhood published at the online magazine catapult. If you're interested in reading them, you can follow the link. Having someone else think that my writing and/or what I have to say is good enough to be online somewhere other than my own blog is a very validating experience.

Responsible Citizenship

2009-07-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

So after ranting and raving for several posts, you may be wondering why I don't "love it or leave it." This passage from Jeremiah seems to me to contain the most Godly wisdom for any people of faith, wherever we find ourselves.

Jeremiah 29

⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Seek the peace - the word is "shalom" meaning health and wholeness more than the absence of conflict. One of our conflicts nationally involves different visions of what health and wholeness look like. Be that as it may, seek the vision of a better world as you see it. There is no mandate to rule Babylon, but be responsible in it and take some responsibility for it all the same.

Proud to be an American?

2009-07-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

"Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." Philippians 3:17

What is this example and pattern and what does it have to do with our national pride?

The Example

Philippians 2

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
⁶Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
⁷but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!

Christ is here put forward as the prime example. If there is a pattern, we should see this example repeated in Paul's own attitude.

The Pattern

Philippians 3

"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. ⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, 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, ⁹and 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."

So the pattern is one of rejecting status that could reasonably result in pride, disregarding that status. In Paul's case it is national, tribal, religious and legal status.

The Philippians would have had status as citizens of a prosperous Roman colony, Rome being the greatest empire to date. They are being asked to follow the example of Christ in the pattern established by Paul.

If we were to follow this example and pattern, what would it look like? What marks of pride and status would Christians in the U.S. today be asked to regard as rubbish in order to move more fully into our identity in Christ?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

2009-06-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ("...by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment." - U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Johnson Field 1883)

Life:

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 10:39 and 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24 and 17:33

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

Liberty:

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29 (Note: “yoke” in the Bible is always a euphemism for slavery and servitude)

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13

Happiness:

“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:2b-4

³`Happy the poor in spirit -- because theirs is the reign of the heavens.

⁴`Happy the mourning -- because they shall be comforted.

⁵`Happy the meek -- because they shall inherit the land.

⁶`Happy those hungering and thirsting for righteousness -- because they shall be filled.

⁷`Happy the kind -- because they shall find kindness.

⁸`Happy the clean in heart -- because they shall see God.

⁹`Happy the peacemakers -- because they shall be called Sons of God.

¹⁰`Happy those persecuted for righteousness' sake -- because theirs is the reign of the heavens.

¹¹`Happy are ye whenever they may reproach you, and may persecute, and may say any evil thing against you falsely for my sake --

¹²rejoice ye and be glad, because your reward [is] great in the heavens, for thus did they persecute the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:3-12 (Young’s “Literal” Translation)

Thoughts on Nationhood: Fire In My Bones

2009-06-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

I realize that my previous posts on nationhood may have been a bit abrasive and snide. I’m sorry. My intent isn’t really just to make people mad or rattle cages. Someone recently asked me “where is the political stuff coming from?” The only answer that came to me is that “This is fire in my bones!” (Jeremiah 20:9 – “But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.) I feel the need to preach.

This time of year, as I see so many churches celebrating our country, anxiety grows in me about two things: First, that we are moving away from our first love and our allegiance to God. As a religion scholar I have visited Hindu temples and while there, I’ve had to risk offending people by declining invitations to participate more in their worship. At times I have felt the same need to decline participation in services at Christian churches because to ME, it was not clear whether God or our country was being worshiped. For those who are familiar with Paul’s admonitions about eating meat sacrificed to idols, you may consider me “the weaker brother” for feeling like what would be idolatry to me is not to you. The second reason for my ranting is my involvement with missions. Maintaining contact with the global body of Christ has led me to feel uncomfortable when churches celebrate something (American identity) that sets them apart from other members of that body. More and more, I want to be in constant remembrance of who the church is globally and celebrate our unity (such as it is) and when churches host national celebrations, I feel that we move away from that.

All that being said, I thought over the next few days I would try to simply offer some texts (nothing I’ve written) about America, Christianity and the Bible. I hope they lend themselves to your consideration as we approach the Fourth. Christians often say that the nation was founded on “Christian principles.” Mind you, principles don't need to be explicitly "Christian" to be good, and if they are not Christian, that doesn't mean I don't like them (whether or not I should is another question). It just means that there may not be a clear connection. We also have to ask whether the Christian scriptures mean the same thing we do when they use certain words. On Sunday, I will consider Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, the foundational principles of the national “creed.”

FYI: The art at top is by Daveion Lashley a conservative Christian artist from Barbados. His website is: www.godartist.com

Evolution of a Lifter – for Father’s Day

2009-06-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

I remember 5th or 6th grade gym class. I guess everybody does. Unless you’ve managed to block it out. What I remember is standing at the front of a line of other kids in my class as they witnessed my inability to perform a pull-up for the Presidential fitness test. The gym teacher was relatively cool. I think I remember him saying, “Don’t worry about it Matt.” Sure.
I vowed that was not going to happen again. Somehow or other I talked to my dad about it and he took me out to the barn, showed me a bar that I could use to work on my pull-ups. It was not a pull-up bar, it was some sort of support bar in the barn. Very ROCKY.
A few times a week I went out there. How do you work on an exercise you can’t even do ONE of? You just pull as hard as you can. I decided to pull as hard as I could ten times, rest, and do this again.
The next year I think I did 7 or 8 pull-ups (a few months ago I did 20 to impress my nephew). It felt great.
Around the same time (6th grade I think, not a few months ago), my dad initiated me into the male ritual of weightlifting and I am so glad he did. We used to workout in the basement before dinner and talk. I don’t know what we talked about, but it was a good thing.
My dad used to say that he worked out 11 months a year for the one month we had to put hay in the barn. This annual event involved a few weekends of transporting several thousand 75-80lb. hay bales from a field a couple miles away and stacking them 50 feet high in our second floor + hay loft. We don’t live on the farm anymore but now in his mid-late 60s, he still works out. He can probably still benchpress more than me. So here are a few things that I have picked up from lifting.

1. I like feeling physically capable even if all my life requires of me is sitting, walking and minute finger movements on a keyboard. I think that’s what my dad meant. “Putting hay in the barn” means being capable to do whatever life might require, even if it doesn’t require it very often. Actually, raising 2 boys requires a lot more. My dad knows this as well. My brother and I used to ask him to launch us through the air, in the pool, onto the bed, etc. A friend of mine watching me do a particular exercise said, “Why do you DO that? Are your kids always saying, ‘Throw me higher dad!’?” Actually yes, just this weekend Zephan asked me to throw him “up in the sky” and “ADIN! (again)” and “ADIN!” and “ADIN!” but the irony is that my friend is a marathoner! Are his kids always saying, ‘Run farther dad’? We all do what feels good.
2. Vanity. This is probably a bigger reason to lift that either my dad or I would normally admit. Pretty self-explanatory, but my wife appreciates the way I look too. It’s probably also the best short answer, but when I needed a short answer recently I just said, “I started lifting weights with my dad in the basement when I was 12 or 13 and I just haven’t stopped.” I think my dad would also admit that there’s more to this exercise thing than just “putting hay in the barn.”
3. Lifting teaches some life lessons. A. We have limitations. When you have a weight, you find your limitations quickly, even on my best day. Much more quickly than running unless you’re a sprinter. It’s a good reminder. B. Progress is possible. It might even be inevitable. If you lift heavy weights, eat decently and sleep decently, you will get stronger. As with the rest of life, making certain decisions DOES yield certain results. I may not ever be the strongest, or the best at anything else but it is always possible to improve. Which brings me to C. You have to commit. Sometimes, when I miss a lift, I know it’s not because I couldn’t do it. It’s because I didn’t put everything into it. Likewise, if lifting (or anything else) is not a priority of any kind I will NOT make progress or improve. The problem is applying this truth to other areas where improvement is less measurable. Which brings me to…
4. It’s satisfying. I’m not much into math or measurements or goal setting (that’s my dad’s area) but when it comes to lifting there is just something so satisfying about lifting a weight a couple more times than you did last time you worked out, or lifting a few more pounds than last time. It’s like crossing things off your to-do list. Even when many other things are NOT going right, it’s nice to be able to write down some little improvement in my workout chart.

I have to end by saying that weight-lifting is not what my dad most desired to instill in me. As Paul would say, “Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value in all things.” It’s probably more important that we read Romans together before I could really understand it. I also fired a .357 Magnum before I could handle it. Both of these things, (as well as lifting) communicated, “You CAN handle these things.” It’s definitely more important that we regularly went on long walks early in the morning through woods that I had never seen before and learned to tell the directions from the sun. It’s more important that my dad took us to churches besides “our church” to see what they were like and demonstrate respect for other Christians. It’s more important that my dad taught me the (important but limited) value of money. It’s more important that he instilled in my brother and I the value of serving our friends and neighbors. My parents are traveling this weekend and they left Lexington after my dad got done serving at the local soup kitchen. He has probably served more people since he re-retired than many people do their whole lives. Most important, my dad has never stopped telling me that he was proud of me. Recently, it has made a lot of sense to return that favor. I’m proud of him too.

Biblical Thoughts on Nationhood - II

2009-06-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Let’s spend one more day in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).

Isaiah 19

Not the most famous passage, but one of the most scandalous messages of God’s heart for the world. Do you remember the story of the Exodus? Remember how in Egypt, the people of Israel (descendents of the sons of Jacob-renamed “Israel” – the God wrestler) were brutally enslaved? Remember how the Egyptians tried to throw all the Israelites baby boys in the Nile? Remember how the Israelites cried out to God and then God smited (smote?) the hell out of the Egyptians so Israel could go free? Remember all that stuff about Israel being God’s uniquely chosen people? Well, most of Isaiah 19, written hundreds of years later, is about how God wants to save and redeem Egypt, basically doing the same thing for Egypt that was done for Israel. The section closes with this crazy passage in v.23-25:

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."

Assyria had the reputation as the most brutal empire on earth (which is why Jonah wanted them destroyed) and Egypt was at this time Israel's unreliable“ally.” But God envisions and proclaims through Isaiah a joint worship service and blessings upon these pagan nations while calling Israel “the third, along with...” them. That would have made some people really mad.

“I thought we were special!!!” * Isaiah isn’t the only prophet that messes with this "choseness" idea.

Amos 9:7

⁷ "Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites?"
declares the LORD .
"Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor
and the Arameans from Kir?”

Huh? What was God doing with the Cushites, Philistines and the Arameans? We don’t know, but he apparently was involved with “bringing them up” just like he brought Israel “up” from Egypt. One of the things I love about the confusing and mysterious God revealed in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures we call the Bible is that God seems partial, but then is revealed as radically impartial. I wonder what kind of prophetic word God would give to Americans... To try to find out, let's do an experiment.

Try this:

1) Muster up your most patriotic sentiments.

2) Next, think of the groups of people (and/or their countries) that your kind of Americans most despise or look down upon, or feel threatened by. Then, fill in the blanks below with the name of those people and/or their countries. Go ahead.

“In that day there will be a highway from ____________ to ____________. The ____________s will go to ________ and the ______________s to ___________. The _______________s and _____________s will worship together. In that day America will be the third, along with _____________ and _____________, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, Blessed be _____________ my people, _____________ my handiwork, and America my inheritance.

and

"Are not you Americans
the same to me as the _____________s?"
declares the LORD .
"Did I not bring Americans up from (WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM),**
the _____________s from _____________
and the _____________s from _____________?”

4) Now imagine God saying this to us as Americans (or whatever group of Americans you identify with).

I really believe that this is the kind of God who launches us into lives of service, truth-telling and good-news-sharing. I believe that God’s eternal vision is the reconciliation of all people in worship to their creator and redeemer. And like Israel, we might just find that the people we despise end up blessed, while we learn FROM THEM what it is to repent and worship (once again, see Jonah). More to come...

* Note: I’m afraid that some people will accuse me here of being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. I won’t try to credential myself as a non-bigot. Let me just say that my reflections on this have led me to believe that 1)Israel was special as the vessel for so much of God’s wisdom, God's story, God's self-revelation and God's us-revelation. I continue to learn a lot from Jews and Judaism. By the way "Semitic" refers to descendents of Noah's son Shem, and so also includes Arabs and others. 2)biblical Israel was the vessel of nurture for God-incarnate when Jesus of Nazareth brought salve to all that ails us, the damaged images of God that we are and, 3)beyond that, I think Israel, Israelis and Jews (religious or not) are as deeply beloved of God and as deeply deserving of our honor as the rest of God’s children.

** Note 2: This one is problematic because although I believe in God’s overall sovereignty, I don’t think God was the orchestrator of the Mid-Atlantic slave trade. I hope you don't think so either. Maybe African-American readers could insert “slavery” instead of a location for (WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM) unless you have another preference. In different fashion, Native American readers may still be waiting to be brought “up” after being dispossessed by Euro-Americans, or may want to refer to Asia (as many historians believe) or they may want to tell me where to go. This last option is actually available to all readers... Stunning Painting of the African American Experience of America

Biblical Thoughts on Nationhood - I

2009-06-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

Americans have frequently thought of themselves as a sort of “new Israel,” chosen and blessed by God. So this month, between Memorial Day and July Fourth, I hope to share some biblical reflections on nationhood.

It’s hard to find a “golden age” for the nation of Israel in the Bible. The story from Exodus to Judges reads like a dark tragic-comedy of personal and communal failures. Judges is a cyclical tale of heroic freedom-fighters (with their own failures) and communal forgetfulness. Almost every chapter opens with, “and the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Finally the Israelites ask for a king “like all the other nations.”

God had anticipated this for the last few hundred years (Deuteronomy 17:14) but he recognizes it as rejection. Still, God condescends to Israel’s request and gives them a real winner. Saul was apparently the Fabio of his day (“There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.”), but terribly insecure (maybe Fabio is too, I don’t know). God has Saul anointed king in I Samuel 10, and rejects him in I Samuel 15, ultimately in favor of David. You have to feel bad for the guy ‘cause he doesn’t screw up that bad (in the relative scheme of biblical screw-ups) but he’s also demented, so he kind of loses sympathy along the way.

King David, the shepherd-boy-wonder giant-slayer is installed in all of our heads as “a man after God’s own heart.” He wrote all those great Psalms too! BUT, the adulturer-murderer’s reign is mostly a story of civil and family violence, strife and discord. It reads like the saga of an organized crime family. God won’t let David build the Temple because the man-after-God’s-own-heart has too much blood on his hands.

Then Solomon arrives! The reign of Solomon is the ONLY extended period of national unity. Solomon is also the wisest man who ever lived, ‘cause when God gives him one wish, he doesn’t ask for money or fame or more wishes or anything. He asks for wisdom. Because of his wise wish, God also grants him wealth and he has the honor of building God’s house, the Temple in Jerusalem. He also builds his own crib. Note: God’s house is 60 x 20 x 30 and it takes 7 years to build. Solomon’s house is 100 x 50 x 30 and it takes 13 years to build. Interesting…. Why does Solomon get a better house than GOD? Maybe that’s ‘cause God isn’t a pimp. Read on.

God’s original commands for the monarchy (back when God saw it coming) were simple. Don’t get a lot of horses (and don’t go back to Egypt for horses), don’t have a lot of wives, don’t get a lot of gold and silver (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). These are basically the ancient marks of military, political and economic power and security. Oh, and get to know God’s law REAL well.

What does Solomon do? He gets 40,000 stalls of horses (I Kings 4:26). He brings in 666 talents of gold (about $480 million by somebody’s measure, but that’s dated) per year (“besides that from the traders and merchants and governors” – I Kings 10:14) and he made silver “as common as stones.” I know God said he would have riches but… Then he accumulates 700 wives and 300 concubines (including the daughter of the Pharoah of Egypt) and ends up worshipping idols. God gets mad, but tells Solomon that “for the sake of your father David” he won’t take the kingdom away until after his death.

Solomon’s real legacy is revealed in the candid eulogy/advice that the people offer to Solomon’s son Rehoboam : “Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Solomon was remembered as an oppressive monarch. (Incidentally, Rehoboam rejects this advice and the Israelite kingship goes mostly downhill from there; which is amazing)

Okay, so what? At least some Americans want to be a nation in favor with God. It seems pretty unrealistic at this point to model ourselves on biblical Israel. I have no interest in advocating a national theocracy of the biblical Israel type (or any other type). Mostly because I don’t think Jesus was into that. Truth be told, I don’t think we ever got the “deal” (covenant) that Israel got, and I’m glad. I expect we’d do just as poorly. What if we just looked at the basic stuff? Not accumulating horses (military power), gold and silver (economic power) and wives (political power). We are further down these roads than Solomon ever dreamed of. Is it any wonder that we have “In God We Trust” inscribed on our MONEY? What should be a reminder is probably a statement of what our God really is.

But when we start thinking about having a prophetic voice to national leadership in biblical terms, it makes sense to me to start at Deuteronomy 17 with these three simple commands; which will resound as total nonsense in the ears of the leaders of ANY nation-state, and clearly sounded like nonsense to Israel’s kings. Maybe a more moderate proposal would be to say that people who respect the Bible won’t celebrate the fact that our nation has all of the stuff that God told the kings of Israel not to get. If we can just do that, maybe we won’t have to think about God’s plan for the “redistribution of wealth” in Leviticus, or whether we should throw away our blended fabrics.

Some People Say A Man Is Made Out Of Mud

2009-06-05T14:19:00.001-07:00

Did you listen to the song? Youtube wouldn't let me upload it for several days and then apparently honored my request, when it was randomly convenient.
I remember hearing this song on my grandfather’s record player when I was a kid. From time to time it comes back to me. I played the song through the classroom computer for a class of freshmen last year when we were discussing a Christian perspective on work. It seemed so funny to be looking at this picture of a guy who looks like a cross between Fred Rogers and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.

To top it off, smiley (also known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, one of the biggest recording artists of the 50’s and 60’s) is singing this fatalistic, mournful, tough-as-nails coal miner’s lament written by Merle Travis. I still LOVE the song.

“If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will”

Sure Ernie.
But seriously, what is it about this song that became a hit in 1955? What does it say to (and about) the soul?

In point of fact, when God creates the human in Genesis one and it is declared "adam," what is being said is essentially “earthling.” Creature made from earth. But this creature is also declared to be “in the image of God.”

AND, in Genesis 2:15, before anything goes awry, the earthling is given work to do. In the next chapter, God says that because of human rebellion, making a living will now be hard work. So here is the challenge to the soul. We are created for work, yet we often experience work as soul-owning, anger-inducing subordination. Let’s face it, Marx was onto something.

So what’s the solution? Paul admonishes early Christ-followers to work “as if for the Lord, rather than men.” Let’s face something else. I doubt too many of the readers here are coal-miners and none get paid in credit slips to “the company store.” Maybe part of what is so difficult about our work is NOT that it’s so repressive (though an increasingly large number of Americans struggle to make ends meet – see Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich) but that we work mainly to fulfill our own facile fantasies of the latest luxury. The “men” we are working for, instead of the Lord, is ourselves.

Another problem is our theology of "giftedness." Personally, I also know that I sometimes fall victim to the privileged/entitlement mindset that my work should be a fulfilling matrix of my unique abilities with tasks assigned accordingly and then met with praise when accomplished. I have a wonderful work-situation, but… like most people reading this, I don’t live in fantasy land.

I am finding release from this self-centeredness when I daily remind myself that in fact NOTHING really belongs to me, including my time. A better theology of giftedness is to recognize that everything I “have” is a gift from God. So, I’ve taken to reminding myself every day that my 9-5 (as with the other hours, but 9-5 needs the most reminding) belongs to God and whatever it contains must be on God’s “to-do” list for me. This doesn’t mean that everyone (including me) needs to just accept “their station in life.” But accepting each day, at the beginning of the day, one day at a time, has been producing a great deal of contentment.

Another day older and deeper in debt for the gift of life.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, cause there’s lots to do down here.

My "Stay-At-Home" Moms

2009-05-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

No, my dad was not a bigamist. But the soul of this man is privileged to have been nurtured by two "stay-at-home" moms.

To the "stay-at-home" mother of my boys.

You sacrificed so much in the past 5 years. I remember my heartache of dropping Asher off at child-care because we needed you to work and I wasn’t done with grad school. I can’t imagine what your own heart felt.

And now you have sacrificed the financial security of that job to be available to the boys. I can tell you I have so much more peace now, knowing that you are there for them and with them.

The boys we created together are delightful and wonderful and awesome. But they have not been easy. From Asher’s first year of reflux to Zephan’s fire-alarm loud calls for beverage cart service in middle of the night, you have endured admirably. I know your honesty about the difficulties has also encouraged other moms and made them feel less lonely in their own struggles. I think vulnerability about this very fundamental mom-identity (where the illusion of ever elusive perfectionism is to be maintained at all cost) may be the most courageous vulnerability of all.

Thank you for being there for our boys, and for their father. It seems appropriate to end with the words of our eldest: “You’re the best one ever.” We adore you.

For MY Mom

By the time I got to high school, my parents had the reputation of being “strict” because of curfews and some social restrictions and things. People that had the so-called “cool” parents were more permissive. But I can tell you that growing up, I definitely had the “cool mom.” I remember “cooking soup” in the kitchen with my mom. This basically involved me standing on a stool and being allowed to put any spices I wanted into a simmering pot and stirring. I have no memory of tasting this “soup” which must mean either my mom talked me out of it, or I have buried that memory DEEP in my subconscious. Along similar lines I remember the day my mom allowed me to attempt to make “mint juice” by grinding mint plants that grew on our property in a meat grinder and catching the “juice” in a cup. Anyway, I attribute my current joy as a mad-scientist-style culinary "artist" to my mom. Once she even let my brother and I grind balloons in the meat grinder just because we wanted to see what would happen. I’m sure in each of these scenarios, my MOM already knew what would happen (gross tasting hot water, undrinkably-bitter green “juice” and shredded balloons). But she let us explore and find out for ourselves! What a gift!

I also remember a LOT of reading with my mom. Lots of stories of adventure and heroism. I’m sure the reading we did is what has made me a reader today. Along with that, my mom would take dictation and write stories that I told to go along with pictures I drew. She treated (and still does treat) each of them as a work of art; the great American novel of a 7 year old. My mom has held on to my creations and cherished my talents for three and a half decades.

Lastly, I remember (after reading) having fairly long conversations with my mom before bed. She sat on the edge of the bed listening and talking and asking questions and listening some more. I have no idea what we talked about, but I'm sure her esteem of what I had to say gave me confidence that I DID have something to say; that maybe I was worth listening to.

As I have gotten older, her care and interest in me has not waned even slightly. She is still my fan and will now eat my creations and read my blog and still listens to what I have to say.

As I observe relationships, I see a lot of Genesis 2:24 being lived out. It's stereotypical, but it seems to me that boys tend to become men who marry and leave their families, while women tend to stick closer; emotionally if not geographically. (I confess I have forgotten my mom’s birthday before. And Mothers Day. She has never been anything but gracious.)

I expect this is a loss to mothers of boys. To my mom. Be that as it is, I want my mom to know today that I know and understand her love for me (now that I have children) in a way that I never did before. I feel the blessing of being shaped by you and given by God into your arms. I am SO thankful.