A Night at the Races

I work as an EMT in a rural area. As such, I sometimes go out on standby to special events. One of the assignments that our crews go on weekly (in the warm months) is to stand by at the local NASCAR dirt racetrack. To be perfectly honest, I've never been a race fan. Growing up I'd see an occasional Sunday afternoon race on TV, but only paid full attention if there was a crash. Maybe that propensity suited me for this assignment.

To keep myself entertained during my race shifts I started bringing a camera along. This also gave me the chance to learn more and hone in my photography skills, especially working in low light and taking action photos. The best vantage point for shooting cars going up to 120 mph is the roof of the fire truck next to our ambulance. And I get to learn more about each specific driver from the firefighters, who carry an abundance of knowledge about the sport.

The track photographers shoot with DSLRs and high-powered flashes as the cars go by. My hot shoe flash isn't powerful enough to reach out very far so I've had to improvise without it. There is a delicate balance between a shutter speed quick enough to capture the cars in focus and slow enough to let in light, while still keeping ISO noise at bay. At first I was frustrated because I was getting a low percentage of good photos. The solution was a handy feature in my Canon G15: the HQ burst mode. I'd find a single car in the viewfinder and follow it while holding the shutter button down, and get up to 10 shots in the span of about a second. While not every photo turns out, this has improved my success rate enormously.

Since becoming part of the pit personnel I've gained a new appreciation for the sport, but also for the racers and race fans as people, not just a bunch of beer-drinking hillbillies as they are widely painted by more "sophisticated" people. Race fans come to see their driver win, for sure, but they also want to see a fair race and for every driver to get home safely after the dust clears. And that is where my partner and I turn on the lights and get to work.

On Blogging

If you have checked this blog page at regular intervals for updates in the last few months, I have one thing to say: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry because as time goes along I find myself with less and less to say online, and less and less time to say it. And the funny thing about having a blog is the pressure to keep it up. No one likes reading stuff more than a few days old (and with things like Twitter out there, a few days might as well be a few years).

The blogging territory being carved out these days seems to be between those who make money by doing it, those with recipes and DIY ideas, and those simply reposting stuff from the aforementioned. This is neither. This blog is pretty much just musings.

I have kept track of my recent musings on whatever little notepads are at hand; here are some of the best of those, in chronological order. Keep in mind this is a random sampling of mostly unrelated thoughts; some quotes, song lyric ideas, some deep notes, and a few general observations. So without further ado, step into my notebook.

"Not too many people get killed doing this; they just get hurt really bad." — a guy named Nick, in reference to mountain biking

"That's the thing about pressure; it can either refine, or destroy. You choose." — my friend Ben, on fatherhood

"In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In everything, charity." — Philip Melanchthon

"Never be afraid of failure. The same Spirit that's got our backside is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead." — my uncle Gary

"Be ready to wade through a huge pile of crap today." — my friend Jeff, on counseling people

My love language is Holcomb.

Sleepers only dream of being awake.

"The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice." — WWII RAF airman

" The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." — Friedrich Buechner

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." —Gil Bailie

The most meaningful things in my life are the things that I've committed to. And those things aren't things; they're people.

And I'll kiss you like the war's over.

Christianity has a marketing problem. Christianity is marketed; that's the problem.

The question about marriage is really, "Who says?" It is a matter of who ultimately decides what marriage is.

I've got a song for every day.

Everybody's thinking it but no one stops to ask

Is the world moving too slow or are we moving too fast?

A Tale of Two Communities

In 2006, a man named Charles killed five elementary students and then himself in an Amish community in Nickel Mines, PA. Five little lives were taken in their classroom while their teacher and the other children watched in nightmarish horror. A close-knit community was rocked forever by an outsider who unleashed all his fury of reasonless evil upon it, and the grief-stricken parents were left to bury their little ones in the Pennsylvania soil.

Then something happened. They Nickel Mines community forgave.

Charles Roberts wasn't Amish, but Amish families knew him as the milk truck driver who made deliveries. Last month, it was announced that the Amish community had donated money to the killer's widow and her three young children. (emphasis added)

"I think the most powerful demonstration of the depth of Amish forgiveness was when members of the Amish community went to the killer's burial service at the cemetery. Several families, Amish families who had buried their own daughters just the day before were in attendance and they hugged the widow, and hugged other members of the killer's family," said Donald Kraybill, a sociologist at nearby Elizabethtown College and co-author of Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. (emphasis added)

In 2012, a man named George shot and killed a 17 year-old named Trayvon, as the younger man punched him about the head after the two got into a fight in a neighborhood. One young life was taken in an awful confrontation, while the other, after a lengthy legal process, went free.

Then something happened. The Trayvon community didn't forgive. In fact, members of the Trayvon community organized protest rallies, threatened George with further legal action, and even threatened to kill George, George's parents, other people named George, and other people with similar phone numbers as George.

These stories are both true. But they are vastly different because of one thing: forgiveness.

The Nickel Mines community knew that even if it retaliated against the killer (if he hadn't killed himself), the killer's family or people like him, it wouldn't bring justice to the loss of their children. They knew that true justice in these times comes in eternity and nowhere else. And in the face of unspeakable evil they were convinced of this truth:

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)

They did, and their actions testify to their love.

The Trayvon community says it wants justice, but it doesn't. It wants vengeance and more. It wants retaliation on a larger scale. With its current mindset, this community will not receive justice it says it wants; nor will it overcome evil, because it has already been overcome itself.

The question is, will the leaders of this community realize their mistake? Will they at some point see the fruits of their labor (not equality, but hatred) and actually forgive George? I don't know. True forgiveness is not something people make themselves do; it is a fruit of a heart that has known forgiveness itself. We cannot bring true peace to others without first having peace from God, and that is where we all must start.

- - -

This is by no means either an exhaustive history of either case, or a final word on the current situation within America. Time will only tell what kinds of things will happen in the next few months. It is mainly meant to expose the stark difference in these two situations, and to point to the enormous healing that happens when people love and forgive others. Is this difficult to do? Of course.

I hate racial labels. (That's why I've labeled these two groups of people as "communities" and nothing else. The point remains without delving further.) I hate that people have made and allowed divisions based on skin color. All this needs to stop before anyone can move forward.

Leaders: Do You Love?

This morning as I did a few dishes I thought about the church here in America. I pondered, as I often do, how to eliminate bells and whistles and the endless push to do more during our Sunday mornings. I remembered a recent Sunday when the kids choir from children's church sang/led a couple of songs, and how powerful a testimony that was to me. Their teacher played an acoustic guitar and they sang; nothing flashy. One of their songs was actually an old hymn called "Ancient Words," and to hear such young kids singing it was compelling. The powerful thing in that moment was the love I could see the teacher had for her students, and how that was reflected back to her and to us. I'd reckon they would sing any song for her; because she loved them they would follow her anywhere.

Maybe you've seen the movie White Christmas. Do you remember the scene in which a bunch of the men that General Waverly led in the war gathered from around the region for a surprise banquet in his honor? Remember the look on the general's face when he walked in and saw them again, as they broke into this song:

We'll follow the old man wherever he wants to go
Long as he wants to go opposite to the foe
We'll stay with the old man wherever he wants to stay
Long as he stays away from the battle's fray 

Because we love him, we love him
Especially when he keeps us on the ball
And we'll tell the kiddies we answered duty's call
With the grandest son of a soldier of them all

While this was a tongue-in-cheek song, the movie showed the principle of love at the center of leadership, especially between brothers in arms. While I haven't experienced combat myself, I recently read several interviews of enlisted and commissioned military men in William Bennett's The Book of Man. Several times while talking about the men under their command, the officers talked about how much they loved their guys and how they would have done anything for them. With leaders like that, I'm sure the enlisted men would have gladly done anything for their superiors.

How does this connect to the church? Intimately. I believe if leaders miss this, they've missed it all, and shown they don't understand what they're called to do. And without love, what makes people think they really are leaders? These are questions for you and for me to answer:

Do you honestly care about the people you are leading?

Are you available to help them?

Do you discipline out of love? Do you care enough to do hard things?

Are you willing to do the things you ask of those you are leading?

Will you inconvenience yourself for the sake of others?

Is your love conditional or unconditional?

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. — Jesus (John 15:12-15)

Do you want people to follow your leadership? Love them.

Today's Reading

An excerpt from what I read this morning, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Psalm of Life":

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,—act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

My Most Expensive Cup of Coffee Ever

Several weeks ago I sat at this very table with this very intent in mind: to write a little about life and how some verses in Hebrews 12 were involved in my week. Then, in my second-most klutzy move of the year (the first being an impressive mountain bike crash), I spilled my entire mug of coffee onto our Macbook. The screen went black as the brew soaked down through the keyboard, and that was the end of that blog attempt and our computer. Talk about a pricy cup of coffee.

But here I am again, and after much ado I'll start again from Hebrews 12:1-2.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Last month I completed my first-ever triathlon – a sprint triathlon, which means it was a fairly short one. Nevertheless, it was a big deal for me, so I trained hard for it over the course of several months. The week of the triathlon our community group studied Hebrews chapter 12, and the verses above were absolutely appropriate.

. . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely . . .

Man, I don't know about you but I am not a spandex person. Not to reference sin which clings so closely, but it was a different feeling being tied into a pair of triathlon shorts; not wildly inappropriate, but still not something I'd walk around in on an average day. But you know, they were great for all three events of the race, and I can't imagine what it would be like to race in something really heavy, like a flannel shirt or winter boots. No one would ever race in clothing like that, silly! You think to yourself. Well of course not, but we Christians try to run with our baggage all the time. It might be sin, it might be the dead weight of the past. But we cannot follow Jesus well if we keep ourselves attached to it. This is a hearty reminder to me as it is to you.

. . . let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith . . .

My triathlon ended with a 2.5 mile run. By the time I got my shoes switched and started into it, my calves told me they'd had enough already. They cramped up as badly as I've ever experienced. Not only that, but physically and mentally I was beginning to fatigue a bit. From my limited training I've learned when that happens, to pick out a spot up ahead and tell myself, Run there. Whether outside or inside a gym I'll look ahead to the next landmark, run to it, then pick another landmark and run to that. It's a neat way to trick my mind into going further than it would otherwise. So that's what I did during the triathlon. Run to that building, run to the next road, run to the turnaround, run back to the building. Miserable as I felt, I just ran to one goal at a time, and eventually my next goal was the finish line.

I envy those people who have their lives planned out years in advance, and can simply walk ahead and presto! Things fall right into place. My personal experience has been more of a step-at-a-time process, like God is there saying, Run there, and when I do He says, Now run there. And the picture in this Bible passage is to keep our heads up and our gaze fixed on Jesus and ignore whatever else would pull us away from the goal.

There! I finally got these thoughts together, and if I can just hit that "Publish" button before I spill some more coffee...

Making Jesus Cool

Here's a question: Is Jesus so unhip that Christians need to convince people that he is actually a cool guy, by ripping off creating merchandise ideas as a persuasion method?

(Original photo found here)

After much deliberation, I decided to skip this year's local Christian music festival. Our budget literally could not afford the tune of $40 for one day of music (I was only looking forward to one of the bands anyway), but I was still a little bummed to miss it. The festival itself is usually pretty good, and I've made a lot of memories there. 

One part of the festival I don't miss, which is a sad reflection of our culture at large, is the MASS MARKETING of the thing. The largest building on the grounds is dedicated to vendors. Bands sell stuff (which I understand, because they have to eat), organizations sell stuff and try to raise support, music stores sell stuff, and there is always at least two booth spaces' worth of Christian t-shirts that, if you buy one and wear it, will make Jesus look at least 35 percent cooler to your non-Christian friends. And these t-shirts accomplish it all by ripping off giving a spiritual twist to whatever the outside culture says is popular right now. How can anyone say no to having "Myspace in Heaven" or "Abreadcrumb & Fish"?

The interesting thing that we forget in this mindset is that what is popular in the general culture is actually not on the cutting-edge of creativity. And when Christians try to capitalize on a trend that looks cool right now, they don't realize the rest of culture has moved on to something else already. Call it a clean miss.

Jesus is not a fad; he is not cool, and following Him throughout history has proven uncool to untold numbers of martyrs, at least this side of Heaven. Jesus walked on this Earth, changed lives, healed, raised the dead, challenged, and divided. He was killed, and He rose from the dead. And now the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead is living inside His followers. With that in mind, why in the world would a mere t-shirt do anything at all? Why not wear a plain shirt and let God do what He does through you?

SCOTUS vs. Freedom

It is difficult to know exactly how to celebrate Independence Day when the days leading up to it have been particularly hard on Americans' personal freedom. I realize that the SCOTUS decision specifically has been heavily scrutinized this week, so many things I write here are in danger of lacking originality. However, after reading through the decision (available for you to read here) and dissenting opinions therein, I couldn't help but be gravely concerned about what happened. 

A good point raised in the opinions of Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito was in reference to the commerce clause argument. They observed that if the legislation was upheld using the commerce clause of the Constitution, the new law would classify not only action, but inaction, as "commerce," and make anything that exists subject to regulation and taxation, greatly expanding the scope of the federal government. If you breathed a sigh of relief that the commerce clause did protect you from being compelled to purchase health insurance, you may have lost your lunch when Justice Roberts unveiled the grander scheme he had cooked up to gently make you buy it anyway.

Because of the penalty being re-written by Justice Roberts as a tax, this monstrosity of a law magically became classifiable as "Constitutional." (Never mind that the law's advocates denied to the point of tears that it was a tax back when they were steamrolling it through the legislative branch.) And now, not only our actions are taxable, now our inactions can be subjected to penalty... tax, I mean, by the federal government. All this was accomplished by semantically slipping around the commerce clause.

This is, to the simple man and the scholar, lunacy.

One would think that the Supreme Court Justices would only read the law, judge it to be valid or not under the authority of the Constitution, give their judgment and move along. In this case, four justices stamped their automatic approval upon it, and the Chief Justice thought about it for a while and did the same. He also took time to reinterpret the main thrust of the argument, write up a dashing little opinion, and probably rehearse it in the mirror so that he could read it all the way through without chuckling.

Not to make light of what happened, because it is more dangerous than we can imagine, especially since much of the population actually believes that the government is a sincere and benevolent entity. But many of these people have been bought and paid for by one social program or another. As a result, stunts like what happened last week, when the Supreme Court rewrote legislation and stripped us all of another freedom in plain sight, can happen without much consequence. The majority of the Justices smile, the President smiles (and tells everyone to move along), the media smiles; and the average citizen wrinkles his nose for a minute, keeps watching the news until he sees his favorite team has won, and smiles as well.

God help a country willing to give away its freedom.

More on Pain

One of the last times I sat down and wrote, I wrote about Pain. It has been months since I did that, but in the meantime I started a job at an urgent care clinic. In the last two years at the hospital, and now at the urgent care I encounter pain all the time; pain in all different parts of the body, pain that is burning, crushing, or throbbing; pain expressed in all manners by people of all ages.

Recently there was a little boy who came into the clinic with a lacerated chin. He was not in much pain; in fact he had a lot of energy and seemed pretty happy, until it was time for the doctor to stitch his chin up.

The boy’s happiness disappeared as the staff “papoosed” him in a sheet to keep his body still on the bed. As the doctor began to clean the wound, the boy screamed and thrashed about, trying to free himself. He could not, since he was held firmly in place by several of the nursing staff. The procedure continued along, the doctor numbing the wound with lidocaine, then carefully working through each stitch to sufficiently close the wound. All the while the boy thrashed and screamed with as much energy as he could muster. When he discovered there was nothing he could do to escape, he screamed forth all the angry words his young vocabulary come up with. Eventually the wound was closed up, the area tidied, and the medical staff went on their way (to their great relief).

When I told my friend Tim this story, he thought about it for a moment, then said, “That’s pretty much the way we are with God.” How true! God knows better than we do what we really need, and usually it involves undergoing things we are convinced we don’t need. These processes involves pain in some form. But like a doctor, God knows in order for us grow and be healthy we need to go through this pain. Even our control must sometimes be restrained so we don’t spoil his work, and we must simply endure it.

Of being an ungrateful patient I am the guiltiest. I thrash, I scream and shout; I disagree with the diagnosis and fight against the pain with all that I have. And somewhere in this process the Holy Spirit reminds me that unless he does this thing, I will not get better. I have no choice but to submit to the faithful hands doing their work.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-3

God, help me to trust you.

Get the Biggest Aluminum Tree You Can Find

"Long before December 25th everyone is worn out, physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making... They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house." C.S. Lewis

Lewis wrote this over 50 years ago, but I can't help but think about these words this year. I just got back from a family Thanksgiving trip, in which there actually was a long illness that affected nearly everyone in the family. I'm thankful to look back on it and the time we spent with loved ones; there was very little time spent in overcrowded shops and the like. But I did hear on the news that this year's Black Friday was one of the blackest yet.

Here's a question: why do we allow Walmart, Target, Kohl's and others to justify opening their doors on Thanksgiving night itself? Do we not realize that the poor people who work in these stores largely miss Thanksgiving with their families, just so we can try to satisfy our insatiable appetite for more bargains and more things?

When people get trampled to death in Walmart, it isn't Walmart's fault. When 20 people get maced, it isn't security's fault for letting the culprit into the store. We and our appetites are the problem. You may be fine with Black Friday (and Thursday), and we can go around for days about whether it's worth all the effort to keep this tradition going. But I say it is not.

"I know how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that." - Lucy, in A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Hammering Process

Lately I read a book by C.S. Lewis called The Problem of Pain. If you haven't read this, I would highly recommend that you do; if for no other reason than that it can help to repair our broken understanding of pain and its purpose in our lives. I've included some excerpts here.

Generally when we endure hard times, we balk, we plead, we bargain, and we grieve. It is so hard to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds (James 1). And pain: awful, painful pain; when it comes without respite, tries our faithfulness, even shakes our beliefs.

One of the first beliefs to go is that there is a God who loves us. But this is the fundamental error in our understanding of what that love means. We think that if God loves us, he must want us to be comfortable and happy, and that our every circumstance ought to support and foster that. This is simply wrong.

The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love’, and look on things as if man were the centre of them ... 

We may wish, indeed, that we were of so little account to God that He left us alone to follow our natural impulses - that He would give over trying to train us into something so unlike our natural selves: but once again, we are asking not for more love, but for less.

So this God who loves us, loves us enough to want what is best for us, and that is to be purified. If he didn't allow any purifying circumstances into our lives (aka pain), then he would actually be loving us less. Who really wants that?

When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some ‘disinterested’, because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are objects of His love. 

You asked for a loving God: you have one.

This message turns modern American Christianity on its head, but it is the truth. How have we forgotten the struggles of almost every saint in the Bible? How have we forgotten that God welcomes men into his kingdom though much tribulation (Acts 14), and that in this world we are promised trouble (John 16)? Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to ... suffer. Did God not love Job, David, Paul, Peter, and even his own son Jesus, who suffered more than any man? Indeed,

He [God] has paid us the intolerant compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.

God loves us truly; he doesn't love us in some half-caring, dissociated way. He wants us to be conformed into the likeness of Christ, and the conforming hurts. It may be only in eternity, when we see the completion of this hammering process, that we finally understand the purpose for every struggle we endure here below. In the meantime, we must not forget what God's love means. We must not forget the One who endured the cross for our sake, and that following him at all, means to follow him there.

A Fourth to Remember

Joanna and I spent last weekend out on the Western Slope, venturing over a bunch of mountain passes we had never crossed before. Thankfully the weather has warmed up some, allowing us to travel higher without being turned around by large snow fields. As an added bonus, the 4Runner accomplished 22 mpg during the trip! We stayed those few nights near Crawford with the overly-gracious Lance and Laura, and the overly-cute baby Seth.

For our 4th of July, we had the opportunity to travel to Ouray for their festivities and fireworks. The small town, nestled in the midst of a slew of mountains, boasts an impressive fireworks show every year. It was accordingly packed with people when we drove in, with most congregated in a two-block section of main street. I asked Lance what they were doing, and he told me that the fire department was having water fights. Of course I had to get closer in and watch the fun.

The crowd was assembled around the intersection of 6th and Main, as the next two teams prepared to contend with their fire hoses. These friendly combatants consisted of two men apiece, each man armored with heavy clothing and a motorcycle helmet, sharing a fire hose hooked directly to a hydrant. I stood as close as possible with my camera, waiting for the games to begin. I was only able to clearly see the red team, so they became my team to cheer for. Then, without much introduction, the spraying began.

Each team dug into position and sprayed as much water as they could on the other team, aiming mainly for the head and neck.

The water fight became one of endurance, with every man almost immediately soaked in freezing water and standing rigidly in position. The minutes ticked away; each team had its share of close calls, the crowd responding in cheers and tense escalation whenever one faltered.

My red team held on well, as the fifteen or so minutes passed by. But the end came quickly, as my red team decided to advance on their opponents.

The crowd roared in excitement, but it was not to be. The second man of the team got knocked out by a blast of water, leaving only the first to contend.

He couldn't last long alone, and he didn't. But in a water fight that is staged for fun, even the losers walk away with smiles. And really wet clothes.

After watching the firefighters play, we drove up to the west side of town and found a spot to park for the evening. Some friends of Lance and Laura were there already, and let us share in their cookout. All that was left was to enjoy the beauty and wait for the fireworks to start.

After some tinkering with the G12, I was able to catch some interesting shots of the fireworks exploding out in front of us. But the most unique part of the show was the loud, long echoes of the show all around us. Ouray on the 4th is worth the drive for that reason alone. Thanks to Lance and Laura, and to everyone else who spent time with us last weekend. Thanks to Ouray for keeping fun traditions alive every year. And thanks to God for the resonant mountains!

Drunk, Broke and Out of Shape

Reuters: IMF cuts U.S. growth forecast, warns of crisis.

"Yet that relatively benign global outlook could quickly fall apart if politicians in the United States and Europe do not start showing more leadership in addressing their countries' debt problems, the fund warned."

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

America is acting these days like a foolish drunk who, despite the party winding down, refuses to slow down herself, sober up and go home. We are a nation marked by hedonism. We have bought this high at the expense of our prudence and wisdom; we have sold the foundation of the house to purchase a new home theater.

We need not political leaders who tell us that the good times are still rolling, but leaders who ask that we sober up and consider our present situation. And our present situation is that we are drunk, broke and out of shape. We need someone who will say, "Put down that game of Angry Birds, we need to talk."

Reuters article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/us-imf-idUSTRE75G2VD20110617?type=GCA-Economy2010

The End of the World

The world was supposed to end the other day, according to one Harold Camping. It did not. And the attitude toward his failed prediction was largely cynical, which in the age of blogging and instant opinions, is not surprising. The sorry part of all of it is that along with Camping's false prophecy, we wanted to throw out the idea of finality and judgment altogether. "If a 'Christian prophet' is wrong about the end of the world, it must not be coming after all!" We snickered to ourselves and continued on with our lives, with renewed confidence in our invincibility.

One day later, a tornado ripped its way through Joplin, Missouri. Along with leveling most of the town, the tornado killed at least 124 people (the death toll is still rising). Now isn't that a little unfair? Those who may have just relaxed because May 21 wasn't the end of the world, were blindsided by a whirling mass of death just a day later. And the rest of us, still chuckling about silly old brother Harold, were forced to stop for a moment and consider that death still comes to us all. There is still a time of finality to our lives. As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes:

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. (Ecc. 7:2)

We fool ourselves to think that just because we avoid the end in one way, that we will avoid it altogether. And it nearly always comes unexpectedly to us.

(photo credit: Reuters)

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12)

Who Owns Miley's Heart? Part Two

This is the second of a two-part blog about the relationship between American Christianity and celebrities. In this case, the subject is Miley Cyrus. The content here may soon appear on the Axis Worldview blog.

---

Let’s talk about compartmentalism.

Do you remember learning about how the Titanic had all of those compartments built into its hull that were supposed to keep water from traveling throughout the vessel and sinking it? Well, we can sometimes set ourselves up in a similar way. Like the sea water in the ship, we want our faith to only go into certain compartments of our lives. But the danger to us is the opposite of the Titanic. If we only keep our faith in secluded areas of our lives, we have a greater chance of them becoming a shipwreck.

Sure, you go to church on Sundays and maybe Wednesdays if you feel really spiritual. But that is all neatly contained in your Faith compartment. And you’re sure not to let those contents spill into your School compartment or Social compartment, etc. What happens when a teacher asks you about macro-evolution? You mention that your Faith compartment believes the Bible, but the more professional School compartment believes Darwin, more or less. How about partying? Your Faith compartment objects, but your Social compartment tells you to go ahead with the beer pong (or Salvia bong, in Miley’s case). Point number two of this Miley Cyrus series is this: a life of separation leaves you ever-divided. Either Jesus is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.

It seems like we’ve heard something about this before. In fact it was Jesus who told us that, “if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” (Mark 3:25) In other words, the compartmentalized life is unsteady, ready to fall at any time.

---

In Miley’s case, she once proclaimed that, “Faith is a big part of my life.”

That was a good enough testimony to give her a great reputation with Christians. She and her daddy, Billy Ray were featured in numerous Christian magazine articles and put on a pedestal of sorts in the Christian community. Her TV shows, movies and songs weren’t really Christian in nature, but not terrible either. After all, many Christian artists don’t necessarily mention Jesus in their songs. No big deal.

“Life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock!”

“Nobody's Perfect! I gotta work it!”

“You know they say, when there’s a will there’s a way. Lives are free, talk is

cheap.”

These songs were pretty neutral to the average consumer, so they passed the basic morality tests pretty easily. Now in 2010, Miley’s songs have a bit more bite to them.

“For those who don't know me, I can get a bit crazy. Have to get my way, yeah,

24 hours a day, 'cause I'm hot like that. Every guy everywhere just gives me

mad attention, like I'm under inspection. I always get the 10s, ‘cause I'm built

like that.”

When Miley first moved to Hollywood, she seemed like a good girl on a mission: “That's kind of why I'm like here in Hollywood — to be like a light, a testimony to say God can take someone from Nashville and make me this, but it's his will that made this happen.” Instead, it appears that Hollywood has had more of an impact on Miley. “I'm a completely different person [than when I released 2008's Breakout]. I'm much more confident. You know, I've always been a confident person, but I was going through a lot then," she told MTV news in June. "There's so many people in your life telling you who you should and shouldn't be," Cyrus said. "And that's what Tamed [is] about. It's about being who you are to the fullest. And now I know who that is."

Who that person is, is not what we all used to think she was. But it’s easy to redefine yourself when your faith only occupies a neat little space in your life. It’s true that nobody’s perfect, but on the other side of the coin, talk is indeed cheap. What should we expect from Miley in the future? We can’t be sure exactly, but we ought not raise our expectations.

The question is: Now that Miley’s faith has started sneezing, will you catch the cold yourself?

---

How do we respond to this danger of a fragmented life? Here’s a solid answer from the Word: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” All your heart, soul, mind and strength means everything. It’s not a matter of filling a time quota in church, feeding enough homeless or visiting enough elderly people in your spare time; it’s about knowing God and loving Him. Your life will reflect that. That is how the world gets changed.

Who Owns Miley's Heart? Part One

This is a two-part blog about the relationship between American Christianity and celebrities. In this case, the subject is Miley Cyrus. The content here may soon appear on the Axis Worldview blog, but I thought I'd put it up here to show you that I haven't been totally lazy in my absence from this blog.

---

Oh, to have the good old days back again. It seems like only yesterday when young superstar Miley Cyrus made the cover story of Christianity Today. How thrilling it was to hear someone so famous talk about her relationship with Jesus. “I sing, dance and act for Jesus!… I do everything for Jesus.”[1] Christians across the country were beside themselves that someone so cool recommended Jesus! Golly, with Miley Cyrus on board, now Jesus is sure to catch on with the kids!

Now in a new decade, times they are a-changin’. Since Miley has been wearing black leather and grinding with dudes in clubs, a lot of bewildered Christians have begun to pull back their Miley endorsements. How embarrassing! Just when we had such a lovely and famous role model, she turned 17 and decided to do what most pop stars do at that age. She has begun to market herself as a sex object with a microphone.

Along with Miley’s apparent fall from grace, this question arises: What about Miley’s faith in Jesus? What about all of the kids who thought Jesus was cool because of Miley’s testimony?

That brings us to point number one.

Jesus is not cool or uncool based on human endorsement, no matter how famous that particular human is. As author Os Guinness has quipped, “A Christian celebrity sneezes and the Church catches the cold.”[2] Trying to convert your friends because Mel Gibson or Michael Vick or Miley Cyrus “loves Jesus” is very dangerous. Why? Because people, especially celebrities, fail us. Mel Gibson made a great movie in The Passion of the Christ, but in the years since has been publically exposed for his drunken fits in which he hurls out racial slurs. What do you do with that? Well, you certainly don’t base your faith on Mel Gibson or any other Christian celebrity.

We must tell others about Jesus. It is our duty as Christians to tell this dying world about the glorious salvation and hope that He is. However, let’s not base it on celebrity endorsements. We must base the gospel upon Scripture and upon what Jesus has done. He Himself is our firm foundation.

“Titans from the worlds of politics, sport, music, television and religion stride the Christian stage and screen with an authority born only of their mass appeal. ‘Following the star’ has become the exact opposite of what it was for the three wise men. Today it leads away from Christ, not to him.”[3] -Os Guinness

Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll explore a deeper reason for this whole problem: compartmentalism.

---

[1] http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20186041,00.html

[2] Os Guinness, The Gravedigger File, p.104

[3] Os Guinness, The Gravedigger File, p.154

Until We Meet Again

My grandpa is no longer in the flesh, but is now caught away in glory. I revered him deeply, and will miss him. Last night he passed into eternity. I got the news after our worship service at church, during which we sang Tomlin's rendition of Amazing Grace. I thought these words very fitting for Grandpa:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

Until we meet again, I love you Grandpa.

Take Nothing for Granted, Part II

Today finds me sitting here enjoying the cool morning. It seems like Colorado has decided to give us some respite from the summer heat and chill down for a bit. I don't have a problem with that at all.

Let me tell you about Dustin, a friend of mine from back in Minnesota. I met Dustin through church, as he was in a Sunday school class for high schoolers that I taught for a few years. Never one to say a lot, he would sit and listen attentively to the lesson and only say something back if I asked him to. But like a lot of quiet people, there was a lot more to Dustin when you got to know him. He was smart and thoughtful, and empathized with others in a deep way. We struck up a friendship and I started calling him by a nickname "Dusty Britches," for no reason I can remember.

As Dusty got older, he came around church a little less frequently, as his work schedule didn't accommodate Sunday mornings that well. But his demeanor didn't change; still hopeful and bright, and making plans for his future after high school. He started attending college in a nearby town for a law enforcement degree.

I moved to Colorado July of last year, and lost touch with a lot of peripheral friends and acquaintances back home. A little while after I moved here I heard that Dustin had been diagnosed with lymphoma, and that he would be receiving treatment. And every now and again I would get an update on how he was doing, but that was about all I heard.

I decided it would be a neat idea to write Dustin a letter of some sort, since he was dealing with his illness. But I didn't know where to start. I didn't want to give him some sort of empty words, like I have heard people give their sick loved ones. There's not always a reason, it's just God's plan... Let go and let God. No, that doesn't cut it. But instead, a letter talking about the reality of suffering and evil, and the intervention of a real God into our fallen world. I just wanted him to know that I cared about him and that I hoped and prayed for his healing. So I put it on the "to do when I have the time" list. Soon I heard that Dustin's treatments were going very well and that it looked like he was on the upswing. It was good news, but the urgency of writing that letter diminished a bit, pushed to the "to do sometime, maybe" list.

It was a beautiful day in May when I got the call that Dustin passed away. After the shock wore down, my thoughts immediately went to that letter I had intended to write. Still unwritten, still unheard.

Time is a precious thing. They say to never leave anything unsaid. They say to take nothing for granted. They are right. Eventually we all run out of time, out of opportunities to show others that we care.

Here's to you, Dusty Britches (July 16, 1990 - May 12, 2010). I will not forget you.

The Star Spangled Banner, Verse Four

Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Take Nothing for Granted, Part I

With a title like that, you might be expecting something serious. Well in a roundabout sort of way, it is. But first, a story.

Thursday my roommate came home with a sweet batch of Arbucks-stay* banana bread. Apparently he scored it from some employees who were about to toss it because it was a day old or something. Like any generous roommate, he offered some to me also.

My plan was to take a piece of banana bread to work on Friday morning and devour it during my coffee break. Friday morning rolled around and in my rush to get out the door, I left the banana bread behind. I realized my mistake on the way to work and yelled "Stupid! Stupid!" at myself inside my head. Then I spent the rest of the day anticipating the delight I would have by remembering to bring the banana bread to work today.

This morning I woke up, showered, put lunch together, and packed my banana bread snugly next to my sandwich in my lunch bag. I drove to work, put it all in the refrigerator, and then something happened. One of the nurses came in to work and brought with her a specially-made batch of... you guessed it, banana bread. What could I do? Of course I couldn't turn down more free food, so I ate the banana bread she brought in (which was delicious, by the way). Meanwhile, mine stayed in my lunch bag all day and came home with me tonight.

I was thinking about the whole thing tonight, and I was reminded of a verse in the Bible that says:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. - James 4:13-14

How true this is. The verse is talking about taking big things for granted, but I think we need to be careful of taking the little things for granted also. I was caught in the act taking my morning banana bread for granted, and what a small thing. Yet we sometimes find that we have far less control over situations than we'd like. So if it's a steady job, a warm place to sleep, or even a morsel of food, be thankful and diligent; it could be taken away at any time. Next time I'll talk about a friend of mine named Dusty.

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. - Psalm 90:12


*This is a fictitious name of a real coffee shop that might not want the world knowing that it sometimes gives away food that would end up in the dumpster anyway.