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A multiple choice quiz. Please complete the following sentence.

Phototaxis is...

A - the experience you have coming across multiple pictures of taxi cabs.

B - an electro-soul band based out of Israel.

C - the influence of light upon lower organisms.

If you answered C, you are correct. (By the way, if you answered B, apparently you are correct as well. But for our purposes we're going to expand upon answer C.)

Phototaxis is the influence that light has on a lower organism. Cockroaches, (they would populate anyone's "lower organism" list) are negatively phototactic. When the lights turns on they scurry away.

However, many flying insects are positively phototactic. They are drawn to light which has its benefits. Moths, for example, use moonlight to navigate. This light literally orders their world and gives them meaning. Of course, being guided by light has it's drawbacks as well. (Ask any of the bugs inside your light fixtures.) A moth will perceive an artificial light closer than the moon as stronger in one eye than the other. This causes one wing to beat faster than the other. The result is an ever tightening spiral around the wrong, misguiding light.

But, organisms on the low end aren't the only ones dealing with phototaxis. Humans (those are the high end organisms ) are positively phototactic as well. Yes, we're known for our astonishing attraction to the wrong lights! What kind of lights can we be misled by?

The limelight, preying upon our desires to be at the center of attention.

The nightlight, tempting us to be lazy and fearful.

The neon lights that promise exciting distractions from our problems.

The black light we use in scrutinizing and judging people.

What a sight... our industrious, distracted world navigating by the glow of a thousand artificial lights. Into this troubled picture Jesus says, "I am the light of the world."

PeaceMakers

Blessed are the peacemakers...

Not blessed are the peace keepers...

Making peace has always been harder than keeping the peace.

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If heaven were to do again,
And on the pasture bars,
I leaned to line the figures in
Between the dotted starts,

I should be tempted to forget,
I fear, the Crown of Rule,
The Scales of Trade, the Cross of Faith,
As hardly worth renewal.

For these have governed in our lives,
And see how men have warred.
The Cross, the Crown, the Scales may all
As well have been the Sword.
Robert Frost

Broken Relationships

I had a friend ask me about a relationship that didn't work out. They wanted to know why and if God was punishing them. Here's the essence of my reply. If you know someone that could benefit from this email it on...

a) The most simple explanation is it's possible God is sparing you from a relationship that is not in your best interest. For that you should be thankful.

b) A more complicated explanation is it's possible that this relationship just didn't "work out" because God allows us all to make choices, have personalities and make decisions that influence how our lives are lived. That's a great freedom and a great responsibility. Sometimes because of those decisions relationships just don't materialize like we had hoped.

c) Whatever the reason the relationship failed, your job now is to not live in the past or to be a victim. Learn and move on. Be stronger for it.

d) Finally I would say that I know for sure God is not punishing you. That's not how He operates. Yes, life is painful sometimes but there is a difference between the pain from a surgery and a pain from a mugging. Both have guys with knives and masks asking your for money.

One is meant for your harm.

The other is meant for your good.

Ten Rules for Being Human

Someone's always making a list. Here's one for Being Human.

The Will to Believe

Pilot said, “What is truth?” You can almost hear him scoffing or maybe squirming… Jesus just stood there. He didn’t respond with a book, a website, or a campaign slogan.

He stood there.

Pilot was looking for answers, for resolution, for a response. And Jesus stood there in the way of truth and in the way of truth. Think about the two different ways… Depending on how it’s used “in the way” could mean a barrier, something blocking progress or “in the way” could mean in the flow, the right way to go.

Jesus stood there in the way.

Pilot didn’t get it. Maybe he was pressured for time. Maybe he was someone that just couldn’t see it. Maybe he wasn’t used to looking real hard for something. Maybe most everything was handed to him and this time it wasn’t handed to him. What he needed to do was stop, pray, think, listen and accept responsibility for his choice. But he didn’t.

Maybe you don’t get it either and like Pilot you’re frustrated. Listen, I have watched a lot of people struggle with their belief system. I have listened to many offer excuses. I’ve known people who always needed one more answer or some specific response or one more piece of evidence. Maybe you’re one of those people. Sorry to be so blunt but here’s my reaction…

No one walks away from Jesus because they can’t make the mental ascent. Good grief. Who can? No one can understand it.
Some say they can’t believe in Jesus because they need more evidence. Who doesn’t want more evidence? We all do.
I don’t believe people turn their backs on Jesus because they can’t reconcile science and the Bible. Yeah, even believers struggle with how to interpret the Bible sometimes.
People don’t walk away because of the church. Guess what? All of us at one time or another have wanted to walk away because of the church!
It’s not because of Christians although, again, trust me, I’ve been tempted
It’s not because of education, or politics, or race or pain in the world or anything else. You might think so but I don’t buy it.

People walk away from Jesus because they simply refuse to believe.

It’s a matter of the will. That thing deep inside of you that says either, “Yeah I want to believe in Him. I need to have someone else in control of my life.” Or “I could believe in Him but I will not.” You see, there’s a difference between saying, “I can believe in Jesus.” (which means you may or may not) And “I will believe in Jesus.” (which means you will).

So, I’d say stop, pray, think, listen and accept responsibility for your choice and then decide if you will or will not. Don’t blame it on something else.

It always comes down to the will.

"Everybody Thinks" is a useless phrase

The most common useless phrases all start with something like, "everyone thinks..." or "i know a lot of people who say..." or "a bunch of people are..."

In the church, or in the office, or the school, or within the political party, or or any other place you can imagine both physical and virtual these phrases are completely unhelpful and often toxic.

I can almost guarantee you that the person(s) using these phrases is wrong. They haven't taken the time to get a lot of feedback or specific input. They haven't asked important questions. They often don't even care about logic. They're being driven by emotion, responding to their small circle of friends and trying to sound knowledgeable by making absolute statements.

Don't fall for it. Don't lead or manage that way. Help your people move past the fear of what "everyone thinks" and get to the heart of the issue.

Crowds

I struggle with the reality that though men and women have the capacity for great acts of kindness, beauty, intelligence and sacrifice our actions often fall dramatically short of our potential. How does one explain the holocaust? The crusades? The flying of civilian planes into buildings full of innocent people? Are men and women inherently intelligent or not?

On a lesser scale how does one explain a host of decisions by political parties, educational and judicial systems or even denominations? Obviously something sinister is involved here. Scriptures call it sin. But how does sin and stupidity get such a stronghold?

I’ve read a little bit of James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds. It’s a fascinating read. While at first I thought it might be contradicting to my opinions I think especially after reading some of the Q&A with the Surowiecki that in the end it’s congruent with the only conclusion I’ve been able to make:

In crowds the opportunity for stupidity is heightened.

The more we identify with a group the more we tend to forfeit our right to think critically. We become lazy. We worry about what others in the crowd think. We elect people to make decisions for us and we don’t bother to check out the facts. We all know this and yet, we fall for it time and again. So it’s worth repeating: Just because a crowd is for a particular answer doesn’t make that answer intelligent, right or honest.

On the contrary, maybe it’s more accurate to say wherever you find the crowd, intelligence and integrity decrease. (Eugene Peterson applies this little observation: Which promise is most likely to be kept? The one between the politician and thousands of people or the one exchanged between two friends?)

Kierkegaard said, “The crowd is untruth.”

Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? When are crowds appropriate or positive or honest?

Relational Conflict

this post can also be found at www.wreckedfortheordinary.com
I was having a conversation today with some good, old friends. Because when you’re about to turn 40 that’s what you have… good, old friends. Much of the dialogue revolved around the difficulty of relationships between believers, even within the same church. Why are relationships hard? This is not even close to being exhaustive but here are the first four thoughts that come to my mind:

1. Because our identity is wrapped up in what others think. That’s a problem. Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fearing people is a dangerous trap.”

2. Because we assume that our spiritual experience(s) is the normal and even preferred path to truth, freedom, growth, etc… What I’ve found is that there is incredible diversity among believers regarding how they came to know what it is that they know. It’s one of the reasons I would guess that Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12 – “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Each person must work out their salvation. God works in unique ways with each of us. (It’s worth noting that this scripture gets taken out of context a lot. I can’t amplify here though. Do some research on it and see what you think)

3. Because relationships are so worthwhile and you can’t have the ‘worthwhileness’ without the ‘difficutlness’. (Yes, I like to make up my own words.) It’s like trying to raise children without experiencing any pain. It’s not possible. If you love your children you will experience pain on some level.

4. Because we each have our own set of filters, perspectives, opinions, baggage, dysfunction, sin, learned helplessness, blaming tendencies, bad habits, unrealistic expectations, etc… that make it almost impossible for good relationships to ever happen in the first place!

Regardless of reasons why, one thing I am sure of is that God uses relational conflict to build character in our lives or as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, “God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.” Sometimes there are no resolutions. Sometimes the pain never really goes away. But it’s in these ‘ruins’ that Gods help is most powerful and re-creative.

Judgments

Author, Ann LaMott says, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

In the church one of the more difficult things to do is to pass judgment on something or someone without coming across judgmental. Much of the reason why it’s difficult is because you cannot control how the other person will react. You can have all the pure motivation in the world but it may not stop them from receiving it wrongly. Tension from this kind of interaction can be so strong that it causes many people to shy away from any kind of perceived judgment call. Which at times is understandable but as a whole is unfortunate. Reading Dallas Willard recently reminded me that we cannot give up the important discipline of discerning motives, choices and ramifications of those choices in others to simply avoid being perceived as judgmental. So, how do we talk about the issues without attacking someone’s self-worth? Here’s one thought to keep in mind… Recently Pastor Mike Breaux of Willow Creek Community Church reminded me of what I’ll call the ‘flow of authority’ that is,

Authority
Accountability
Acceptance
Affirmation

When you’re subordinated to someone else you will often be subjected to his/her authority and because of that you will be accountable to provide something. If you provide something then you may be accepted and if you do it long enough you might receive affirmation. (But really, the bottom two are optional in the way it normally works in our society. Even in the church!) Now think about how Jesus viewed subordinates… radically different! In fact for Him, in almost every situation, it worked just the opposite. Initially he affirmed, then accepted, then held people accountable and finally called on their obedience in light of His authority.

So, which way does it flow for you? Do you demand respect because of your authority? Or do you approach it as Jesus did?

What I’ve learned, painfully sometimes, is that in those relationships where I approach people the way Jesus did… in a reverse ‘flow of authority’… I’m much more likely to be able to speak into their lives without hurting them or ostracizing them. It is not easy. It takes practice. It’s tense sometimes. But you will be healthier when you attempt to live in truthful, grace-filled tension because of sound judgments rather than forgoing them altogether. Now, even if you do that well it still wont stop some people from labeling you as judgmental. At that point, all you can do is to commit them to God, love them and not to relegate them to some kind of sub-class of humans that surely God hates. If you’ve already done that then read the Ann LaMott quote again… and start over.

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