Abnormal busy guy

So, I’ve got these young friends who are newly weds and yet they’re like old people at the same time. Ever been around people like that? They’re chronologically young and their thinking is young and they are ‘hip’ and ‘with it’ and all that… I don’t know how to describe it… I think it’s their pace of life. The more I think about this I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. We’ll talk about doing something together and they’ll say sarcastically, “Well let us check our schedule” as if we all think they have a ton of stuff going on. I find that pretty endearing and fascinating in our day and age. Now, of course, they haven’t had kids yet and when they do their life will change. But I hope not tremendously. Here’s what most people do in my generation or younger: We get super busy and then have kids and we still try to cram everything in. Generally it doesn’t work. If I could invite you to step into the life of every ‘broken’ person that comes through my office you would see what I do: Busyness is one of the most negative common denominators in our society. So much so that it is the norm. Think about that… The norm is to be super busy. The norm is to be 'broken'. How will our communities… how will our own children ever know anything different if that’s the norm!? I’ve been carving out chunks of time in my life in the last 4 months unlike any other time in my life. As people have been asking me what I’m doing I’ve been replying either, “Spending a lot more time with my family.” (Which is true.) Or I say, “Just trying to get a lot less done.” (Which is also true.) It’s been fun to watch them try to process the second response. Most people don’t really know what to do with that comment. There are two main reasons I have chosen this course right now: 1) Cuz I have to. There are so many options in life. I’ve been trying to chase too many of them down. I was just getting plain tired of the RPM’s. 2) Cuz I feel a responsibility to be ‘abnormal’. I’m a leader and I influence people and I’m very concerned about the number of my friends who talk about their pace of life. If normal is running so fast that it hinders and even destroys quality of life spiritually, emotionally and physically then I don’t want it and I sure don’t want to influence others to want it. (Of course to the writers of scripture it would make no sense to categorize life spiritually, physically, emotionally, etc… I think it would have come across very odd for someone to walk up to Jesus and say, “Hey, how’s your spiritual life?” To him all of life would have been spiritual.) So, to my young friends who say they have ‘no life’ I say keep it up. Keep getting a lot less done. Be abnormal and when the kids come teach them how to be abnormal as well. seeking first His kingdom… j

Boxing and Praying

So my boys have been into boxing lately. It’s their latest interest. You always have the mainstays: basketball and gamecube. But other than that there are new interests that get rotated in… For awhile it was digging for treasure at our little park down the street. (Oh, and they were digging for their own treasure. They would bury stuff and then go back an hour later to dig it up…) Then there was golf for a time. Shay actually broke an “ancient Korean vase” when practicing his golf one day. At least that’s what one of our neighbors labeled it as. Funny, I haven’t been able to get that guy to come to church for some reason… Recently it’s been boxing. They’ve been bugging me to get them into a boxing league. (Like they have boxing leagues for 5 yr olds and 9 yr olds?) I couldn’t do that but finally I did buy them a pair of gloves. So now they beat on each other, on me, on anything that walks by. It makes for a restful home. My girls (both their mom and my 12 yr old daughter) just walk by and shake their heads. They don’t get it. How do you explain it? Sometimes guys just need to punch things. Reminds me of my nephews, Cole and Quin. My brother was talking to them one time and somehow a topic came up of what was one thing they’d like to do or one question they would want answered… something along those lines. Quin, who was 8 at the time says, “I’d love to know what heaven is like.” Cole, who was 10 thought about it for awhile and then said, “I’d like to punch someone in the face.” I love that story. That’s just the way boys are… you can’t quite explain it… but somehow they need to test their strength. Runnin, punchin, wrestlin, jumpin, swingin (all these words are just more fun to pronounce without the ‘g’ part at the end.) it really doesn’t matter… just something physical. The beauty of it means that at the end of the day they are very tired. (Of course, so are us adults!) They have about just enough time to say their prayers before they are off to sleep. I try to teach them about praying… you know all kinds of little things… like it doesn’t have to be long or it doesn’t have to be a memorized thing or what and who to pray for, etc… (Ann Lamott, a fantastic author, says she has a friend who prays “whatever” in the morning and “oh, well” at night. That cracks me up.) Sometimes I try to get my kids to pray for things other than themselves. Which probably isn’t a bad thing to do but usually after a while I realize that they are just praying about the stuff that matters to them and that is ok. In fact I think God is pleased with that. In Matthew Jesus tells us not to babble on when we pray but to be sincere and honest. That’s what my boys do very well. I could learn from that. (In fact I’m going to right now cuz I see they have their boxing gloves on. “Lord, sincerely and honestly protect me.” ) j

Summer Reading Part Duece

It’s late Sept but still feels like Summer in Phoenix… Books I’ve been through lately… The Secret Message of Jesus, Brian McLaren, W Publishing Group McLaren unpacks the phrase, “kingdom of heaven” noting that the preoccupation with heaven, hell and the afterlife has resulted in an unfortunate de-emphasis of pursuing God's righteousness here on earth. There were a few chapters that I think are really important. There are a few that I don’t kind of get or maybe don’t agree with not the least of which is that early on, the church ‘twisted’ what Jesus taught into a gospel of “justification by grace through faith, the free gift of salvation, Christ ” (p. 91). That is not the full story according to McLaren, who describes the gospel being “the kingdom of God is at hand” (p. 92). It doesn’t make sense to me to try and make it an either/or argument. It’s both/and. There should be a balance. Oh, and I still think the title sends the wrong message. There were things about Jesus that were certainly multi-layered and subliminal but it would be misleading to characterize him as being secretive. Having said all that, I’m really glad I read the book. It is thought-provoking. Shoo Fly Pie, Tim Downs, Howard Publishing An apparent suicide turns out to be something more when Nick Polchak, a forensic entomologist, (bug-man) investigates. Yeah, it’s not scripture or anything but it’s pretty interesting and for this genre of writing it comes in relatively clean which I’m sure won’t make some people happy. I mean how can you write a murder/mystery without overt cursing and sexual content? Out of the Question and in the Mystery, Leonard Sweet, Water Brook Out of the Question… is a re-read for me. It’s good and I wanted to remind myself of it. Sweet’s take is that faith isn’t just a decision or a commitment but a life that we practice in the context of relationships. The Last Word and the Word after That, Brian McLaren, Jossey Bass Publishing This book is a fictional work detailing a pastor who is going through a personal and church-wide theological crisis regarding, among other things, heaven and hell. Yeah, sounds like great reading doesn’t it? Actually it is interesting and I think appropriate subject matter for our day and age. It has some very similar themes as The Secret Message of Jesus with respect to ‘kingdom of heaven’ being more about what’s going on here on earth rather than what happens in eternity. I appreciate McLaren’s willingness to be inclusive rather than exclusive but this is probably the least favorite of his books that I’ve read. It reads long and the ending is just a bit happy or sappy for me. The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis If you are open-minded and can use your imagination this short book will fascinate you. (If you already have it all figured out, don't bother) Lewis, probably the most important Christian writer of the 20th century, writes fictionally of a journey through hell and then heaven. You can't read this book without taking inventory of how you are living your life. The Bible It’s good. Difficult to read at times. But it’s very good.

Read On,

J

New Views on Old Concepts

Earlier this week I read about a man who was caught on the roof of a prison... trying to break in! (www.worldmag.com) He concluded that since he had been treated better in prison than he was currently being treated in the 'real world' that he would sneak back in. The former prisoner, Detlef Federshohn said, “Life is so much easier on the inside. They feed you, do your washing and let you watch TV, which I can tell you is a lot more than my mother does.” (Wow. Tough family life!) I’ve been walking through the book of Matthew lately in order to get to a 'fresh' perspective on what Jesus had to say. The truth is all of us need a 'fresh' perspective from time to time. If we don't get one we become very accustomed to our own little viewpoint... one that is safe and treats us like we want to be treated... To break out of that is difficult. In fact, it's often harder to live in the 'real world' with a more 'fresh' reading of Jesus than it is to be locked away, secluded from everyone with our own small-minded interpretation of scripture. So, here's what we do... we get some truth shining into our lives and we say, "Ahh, it was easier without the truth... without the light shining! I want to go back!" I’m not just talking about going back to an old way of living before we met Jesus although that is obviously a problem as well. I’m talking more here about how we get locked into a particular viewpoint. Like for example the phrase, “Kingdom of Heaven”… How many Christians when they read that phrase assume Jesus was referring to the afterlife? How many of us make the connection that He was talking equally about our current life? (Check out The Value of Theological Words entry) If we do make that connection it should speak volumes about how we actually live. And that’s the point. Often it doesn’t. Often we’d rather go back into the ‘old’ way of looking at things like the guy trying to break back into jail than to take our new fresh perspective and apply it to our life. 1John 1:7, The Message - But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

Value of Theological Words

I’ve been writing about words lately… how ubiquitous they are… their value… their meaning… Theological words need to be reexamined from time to time as well. Some are in danger of losing authenticity because of our westernized, individualistic thinking. Following are some theological words with a more typical meaning and then with what I think are translations that reflect a more holistic/Biblical and also more post-modern view italicized. These ‘updated’ definitions are not, of course, the complete and final say. But it gets us going in the right direction I think. (I adapt this idea from Dallas Willard so there’s nothing really original on my part. You can learn more about him at dwillard.org.) Discipleship – One who is serious about church involvement. Whole-heartedly pursuing Jesus. Salvation – Going to heaven, not hell, after death. Being immersed in the individual and corporate work of God here on earth and for eternity. Grace – God's forgiveness for our sins. Accomplishing what we cannot do on our own. Love – A feeling. Ordering our lives around God’s design and wanting the best for others. Kingdom of Heaven (Of the four Gospel writers three use the phrase, ‘kingdom of God’, and one, Matthew, uses this phrase, ‘kingdom of Heaven’.) – The perfect realm that will exist at the end of history. The present availability of God working in our lives. The ‘here and now’. Oh yeah, good stuff, J

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Slow Down the Words

I’ll never forget learning my multiplication tables in 3rd or 4th grade and being able to rattle them off faster than anyone in class. Apparently I thought there was some value in being able to say them quickly. I was a fast test-taker also. I was always the first one done on quiz day. I remember in college thinking…”I may not have all the answers but at least I’ll be the first one to lunch.” (By the way I’m pursuing a master’s degree now and I’ve noticed that I’m still often the first one done with the test.) And then there’s reading. I have always been a fast reader partly because I enjoy reading. (My father obviously recognized this in me. He started feeding me C.S. Lewis stuff at a pretty early age. I remember reading “Screwtape Letters” at around the age of 11 or 12. See why I have issues? I’m not even out of grade school yet and I’m reading “Screwtape Letters”.) But truthfully another reason why I’m a fast reader is because I too often read to conquer… or read like I’m running a race. I read as though when I get to the end I will win! I forget that sometimes along the way things make more sense than they do at the end. In other words… (Cue up the Cliché of the week music)… it’s the journey not the destination. By the way, have you ever tried reading the Bible like it was a race? I’ve missed a lot of ‘stuff’ over the years because I simply go too fast. The Bible should not be read like a ‘how to’ manual. It shouldn’t be read like you read the newspaper. It shouldn’t be read to conquer something. It really should be read like you read poetry. Have you tried reading poetry lately? Some people don’t like poetry. My guess is partly because they have the same problem I do… they just read to get to the end and they don’t really enjoy the journey. You can’t read poetry that way. It really won’t make sense. The only way it has a chance of working is if you can slow down and digest each word and each line seeing how it all fits together. I came across this poem a while back. I don’t know who Hester H Cholmondelay is but this is good. Still as of old Men by themselves are priced – For thirty pieces Judas sold Himself, not Christ Hester H Cholmondelay One my favorite poets is William Blake, a believer from England in the 1800’s. (by the way the 1800’s seemed to have a lot of creative people… Van Gogh, Monet, Brahms, Joseph Haydn. C.S. Lewis, Picasso and J.R.R. Tolkien were all born in the 1800’s as well although they didn’t make an impact until the 1900’s, of course.) The hand of vengeance found the bed To which the purple tyrant fled The hand of stone crushed the head And became a tyrant in his stead William Blake Bottom line. Slow down. Chew on the scriptures. Absorb life. There’s really little value in being able to run through it quickly. Peace, J