Faith Venture

Stories, I said.

Stories? He replied.

I was explaining about beginning the study of the Book of Acts of the Apostles. I told the man who was somewhat new to study that it is a book of cool stories.

Like the married couple who decided to lie to their friends in the church, to the leaders, and to God. They wanted to look good to the people, but they were greedy and wanted to keep some of the money back for themselves.

They lied to God. He struck them dead on the spot.

There is drama for you.

Or three quick stories about Philip–an important guy we otherwise never hear about. In one, he has a conversation with a Samaritan town. In another he discusses Scripture and Jesus with a black man who is sexually incomplete. Not your typical Jewish stories. Many were healed, converted, baptized.

Lots of stories about Paul. Intrigue, danger, escape. Friends, hope, lives changed.

How does our story fit?

My friend from India upon hearing about my growing up in an all-white community within an almost all-white area asked about when I first met an African-American person in college, “How did you react? Was it curiosity? Was it with a feeling of repulsion? Or fear?”

I replied, “No, pretty much just like any human. I notice things about people, but I didn’t notice anything in particular about black people.”

But, I had to admit, that when I meet a very tattooed and pierced person today that I need to quickly step back in my mind and have an attitude adjustment. Then, when I talk with them, I almost always find a very nice person within.

I was listening to John Ortberg recently. He was talking about judging. He challenged us to find one place in the New Testament were Jesus judged people. As Ortberg put it, “Jesus connected with people, not corrected them.”

The challenge for us is–can we change our judging attitude into an attitude of acceptance?

Accept people; don’t judge people. Perhaps my new motto.

I’ve noticed a shift in terminology using the word evangelical in news accounts of groups of Christian believers. Then I heard a speaker from Sunday talk about what it means to be an evangelical. Except he didn’t explain. He just mentioned he had studied it.

I thought it was a term rooted in the New Testament referring to spreading the “good news”, euangelium or evangelium.

I thought, how about doing a little research before writing this post.

Well, some time later after a deep dive into Wikipedia and other sources…I have no clue. The term sort of started in the 16th century. Then was adapted in 1731. Then again in the 1800s.

In the 1970s, I joined a loosely organized group, Evangelicals for Social Action–a group that said “What if Jesus really meant what he said?”

I still like that attitude.

Evangelical seems to be a rebranding of the older term “fundamentalist” these days, most often referring to those with a conservative political bias. That leaves me out.

The Good News is that Jesus lived, died, and resurrected. It is also that we follow Jesus as a disciple follows a master. We try to do what he said and live like he lived.

I think I will just give up on whatever the meaning du jour is and just be a follower of Jesus. Sounds simpler. Maybe he really did mean what he said and meant for us to live that life!

We had this little spring-time rhyme when we were young, “March winds bring April showers; April showers bring May flowers.”

This year, the winds came in February. As did the showers. The flowers? Looks like many will be March.

I bought a nice larger size snow blower. We have a driveway and live on a corner lot with lots of sidewalk. We had been visited by a few heavier snows that did my littler snow blower in. Last year I never started it. This year–once. At least so far.

Weather patterns change. Now the snow visits about 100 miles to the south that used to visit us.

Many of us grew up in small towns. Then there was a great migration to the cities. People in rural areas and people in cities have different views of the world. And now in many countries of the world, the views have shifted toward the city view from the rural view.

This is all neither good nor bad. It just is.

The question is, how do we deal with it?

Anger? Despair? Resentment? Many choose this path.

Anticipation? Embrace the change? Excitement? Others choose this path.

People who study people scientifically have concluded that adaptability increases a person’s chances for success in life.

Good leaders adapt to changing circumstances and adjust accordingly.

People adapt to changing circumstances and learn how to live and thrive in them. For thousands of years farmers have learned to adapt to changing technologies and changing weather patterns–or they have gone hungry.

There was great spiritual yearning a couple of thousand years ago among the people in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Then came a rough looking guy named John followed immediately by a different kind of guy named Jesus. People who adapted to the new spiritual direction thrived–maybe not always physically but definitely spiritually.

How are we adapting today?

“The teapot whistled merrily on the stove.”

I have no idea where I read this sentence. It was during my childhood. I think of it every morning when I’m home.

Typically, I rise at about 5:30, proceed to the kitchen, and (since our Keurig died) filled the teapot with enough water for the morning’s coffee in the French Press.

I begin my morning reading only to be interrupted by that annoying whistling noise emanating from the direction of said teapot.

I am distracted…and annoyed.

There are times I love to work at a coffee shop. The people and conversations and espresso machine provide a welcome sense of society. That is, until one voice stands out–maybe talking too loudly into the mobile phone or one of “those” laughs.

Then, I’m distracted…and annoyed.

This morning, one peaceful morning between flights, trying to find my “normal” routine. I have three devices open on the breakfast bar–laptop, iPad, iPhone. The MacBook Pro did not make the trip to Amsterdam. I want to do my daily writing discipline. But, my latest updates to OmniOutliner from the iPad are not reflected in the file on the MacBook.

Switch into trouble-shooting mode.

Recall my original purpose.

Back to focusing on the One thing. Writing. Thinking.

I had just tried to show my grandson the relationship of thinking and writing. About using a mind map to organize thoughts.

Writing and thinking require focus.

Which requires dissociation from distraction.

Intentionally. Close all devices, but one. Concentrate.

I’ve heard it said that the story of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary where Martha complains about Mary not helping with the cooking is really a story about distraction. In fact, Jesus said, “Martha, you are distracted by many things.”

Eliminate distraction, intentionally focus on what matters at the moment, do better work. Or thinking.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. –George Santayana

The history of Ohio where I am from does not extend much before 1750 or so. A few roaming bands of Native Americans (actually people who immigrated earlier than Europeans) and a few French beaver trappers populated the forests.

I’ve talked about the Amsterdam Museum that we visited a couple of days ago. Although there was history before, much of the tour started at around 1200.

Beginning seriously in the early 1500s with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and continuing with John Calvin, John Knox, and several other thinkers, a movement began that divided Europe, led to the very nasty Thirty Years’ War, and echoes even unto today.

The ideas were one thing. But the result was firing up people under the guise of belief. Lines were drawn. Families split. People who found themselves in the minority in a region emigrated to other, safer regions.

Catholics prided themselves with ornate art. Statues of saints and Jesus and Mary adorned buildings. The Protestants were plain people. They regarded such things as idolatry. Dostoyevsky pondered such a division in conversations between Ivan and Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov.

The result as revealed by paintings from the time on display at the museum showed mobs of people attacking a Catholic Church and tearing down those statues and other religious trappings. One painting I recall showed the “renovated” church at a Sunday Protestant service where the focus was on the pulpit where the pastor preached rather than on statues of Christ on the cross.

The faces on the mob shown in the paintings are what struck me. It may have been ideas to Luther, Calvin, et.al., but they inspired action definitely not in keeping with Jesus’ commands.

In America, we have become much more idea-centric trying to stir up masses to political action. Does this really reflect the growth of the church as revealed in Acts 2? Have we forgotten that political wins can readily turn into political losses? Those who live by the sword….

As for me, I’d love to see the term evangelical return to its root meaning describing one who spreads the “Good News.” I am hopeful.