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If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Six Times

May 19, 2017

Yesterday I wrote about second chances. How instead of pointing fingers at others, pay attention to how we have also sinned and been given a chance by God through grace.

Then I went out for my exercise and tuned into a podcast by John Fischer on BlogTalkRadio which was a conversation with Susan Burton.

Susan wrote a book about her experiences, Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.

She tells her story about going from grief to drugs to jail to release (6 times) until someone pointed her to people who would help her break the cycle.

She did, and went on to found an organization that helps other incarcerated women recover and find a better life.

It makes you wonder what we’re doing with our lives right now. Who could we be helping?

Some people believe that we are only put here on Earth to serve ourselves. But God seems to think that we should be serving others. Here is a story of a woman who was helped and is now a helper.

Posted in Disciplines, healing, Mission | Leave a Comment »

A Place of Second Chances

May 18, 2017

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in America newspapers love to dredge up stories of past failures and sins of everyone they write about. If someone gets a new position with local visibility, you’re sure to read about the parking ticket they received 15 years ago. And especially worse misdeeds.

But in conversations, do we like to dwell on what others have done wrong in their past?

Do we forget that we all have done things–great and small–that we shouldn’t have? A stream of images just flashed through my consciousness of things I’m not proud of.

Are we willing to let it rest?

As a church fellowship, are we willing to admit people with a past? After all, that would be all of us.

When do we move on? When do we stop bringing up the past and live in the present moment?

We all need something of the Alcoholics Anonymous foundation–I screwed up, I recognize it, I own it, I’m living a new life one day at a time with the support of others.

We need to be the “others” lending support, not reminding everyone of the past.

It’s all part of our spiritual growth.

Posted in Disciplines, forgiveness | Leave a Comment »

What If Jesus Appeared Among Us Like He Did Before

May 17, 2017

What if we were walking into a market square in a city or a mall or someplace similar and what if we ran into Jesus?

He’d be dressed more or less like us. But he’d stand out in the crowd for some reason. Probably personality.

And what if he touched someone and made them well right there in front of our eyes?

What if he gave us instruction and teaching just like he did as recorded in the gospels?

Would we follow him?

Somewhere aroung 130 years ago, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote a novel called The Brothers Karamazov. Read it, but don’t watch the movie. Within the novel is a story.

Jesus visited Spain during the Inquisition. The Grand Inquisitor (a Roman Catholic Cardinal concerned with purity of the faith as he knew it and probably also concerned with personal power) heard about some guy going around healing and teaching.

He had him arrested and thrown into jail. Then he visited Jesus in jail. He told him he should never have come back. People really didn’t want freedom and spirit. What they really wanted was their daily bread and security. He says, you know I’ll have to kill you all over again. We can’t have someone running around filling the people’s heads with your teaching. We have the Church to think about.

What if we met Jesus today? I mean, in the flesh. Person to person. Would we follow him? Or would we join the crowd killing him?

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When The Power Goes Out

May 15, 2017

Very unusual in this part of the world–I awakened to more darkness than customary. Hmm, the power was out. No electricity.

My small electronic devices were OK. Cellular service was still functioning.

But no coffee.

No lights to read the newspaper by.

I could check some news. Post the day’s message to Facebook about the local coffee shop.

But I started thinking about power.

In physics, power is the rate of doing work. It is the amount of energy consumed per unit time.

It would be trite to start talking about God and power, I suppose.

But power is related to energy.

Our energy must be continually replenished.

How?

Connection with the spirit?

Proper rest?

Proper nutrition?

Enough exercise?

So far today, for me, it’s check, check, check. Time to go out and get moving.

Posted in Disciplines, Living | Leave a Comment »

Living In An Always On Video World

May 12, 2017

You lose your emotional balance. Start yelling and screaming at someone. You do it long enough for at least one person, perhaps more, to point their smart phone and click video / record. One Facebook post later, and 2 million people see what a jerk you are.

You step outside, and someone could be taking your picture. If you have caused anger in your significant other, even in your house you could be the subject of a new “film at 11” on the Web.

You would think that all this surveillance would make us behave better.

I wonder if Biblical writers such as John, who often wrote about light and dark and things we do in each, or James, or Paul even in their nightmares could envision the public exposure extending their thoughts about doing good.

The problem is that we see one video over and over and our brain starts to think this is a common occurrence. It isn’t. I just completed two trips–two continents, 10 different flight segments, five airports. Not one thing worth videoing. Darn, I’m not going to be famous (he said facetiously).

Someone asked me last night, wouldn’t it have been better for the person shooting the video to step up and try to be part of the solution? Sometimes we can’t. But I bet most of the time we can.

What if someone videoed us doing an act of kindness? Of being a calming influence when tempers start to kindle? Of preventing a friend or neighbor from becoming the next Internet Star?

Posted in Compassion, Disciplines, Ethics, Living | Leave a Comment »

Mother’s Day Is Coming

May 11, 2017

Interesting that Jon Swanson wrote about Mother’s Day this morning.

I got into a conversation with an Israeli journalist yesterday in Las Vegas at the computer conference I attended. The subject of Mother’s Day came up. He was staying in the States for a second conference, so he would be here for the holiday. But he was confused about it. His English was not fluent. We could not translate “Hallmark Holiday” into terms he could comprehend.

According to a Wikipedia article, a certain Anna Jarvis began campaigning in 1905 for a day to be set aside as a national holiday in commemoration of her mother–a Civil War peace activist. Some states began recognizing it by 1908. President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1911 setting Mother’s Day as the second Sunday in May.

But it didn’t take long….

Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother’s Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. By the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards and other companies had started selling Mother’s Day cards. Jarvis believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother’s Day, and that the emphasis of the holiday was on sentiment, not profit. As a result, she organized boycotts of Mother’s Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved.

Gee, sounds like Christmas all over again. And Easter. And Father’s Day (well, maybe not so commercial, you can’t buy for men, you know). Did you know Sibling’s Day? Grandparent’s Day? Groundhog Day? Ooops, I think that one is different.

It is certainly hard to maintain your focus on meaning in the midst of hype.

My mother passed away quite a few years ago. I still remember the last time I saw her alive. But my wife reminds me that she is the mother of my children, so I should remember and honor her. And I will. For the 17th time in the past 22 years, I’ll be overseeing the referees at a soccer tournament. So, I’m out of her hair and she can do as she pleases.

But, maybe dinner later.

And to my many international readers–perhaps you don’t have a national holiday, but you could still take a day and do something special for your mother.

Posted in Attitude, Disciplines, Love | Leave a Comment »

She Walks in Beauty

May 10, 2017

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Lord Byron

“Discover what makes you beautiful!” shouts a sign outside a store amongst the clamor of the Las Vegas strip.

The picture shows three overly made up young women with lips so bright red and painted to be so large that they appear to take over the entire face.

Obviously, I’m no judge of beauty by any current fads going around. But trust me, that wasn’t. But I know from reading ancient literature that women have been adorning themselves in order to attract attention or feel more beautiful for thousands of years.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. –Proverbs

Maybe that was what Paul was thinking when he wrote that he preferred that women cover their hair in worship out of respect for God.

Regardless, pictures lie, but we all know a beautiful person when we meet one. The woman Byron described was wearing black in mourning, but her beauty transcended clothes and adornment. Beauty truly does come from within.

Posted in Disciplines, emotions | Leave a Comment »

What If There Were No Bible?

May 9, 2017

We can learn much about God and who Jesus is by reading the Bible.

But what about the Christians who live before 325? There was no Bible. Yet, the church grew rapidly.

In fact for almost 300 years, not only was there no Bible, Christians were persecuted. Not persecuted like some Americans who get upset if someone disagrees with their theology. No, persecution as in torture, prison, death. And the church grew.

The growth in the first 50 years or so came from the stories of people not about what they believed but what they saw and experienced.

These experiences were written. They became the source for teaching as the written documents circulated throughout the Mediterranean region.

Sometime we forget that Christianity is an experience-based religion. (Although the first Christians did not consider it a religion.) It wasn’t an argument based on “we read something, agree with it, you agree with us and you’ll be OK”.

It was not a complex set of arguments. A bunch of people experienced Jesus, shared their experiences–especially that he lived after being killed. Other people believed and experienced the risen Jesus.

Then they lived differently. That basic faith changed the way they lived. And others were attracted.

The question for us–is how we live different enough to attract people to Jesus?

I am thinking this while I’m in my room (early for here) in Las Vegas. Need I say more?

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Watch Out For Pointing Fingers

May 8, 2017

First published April 20, 2017

Our pastor somehow worked the evils of sex into every message. Then one day, he ran off with the wife of the chairman of the Board of Deacons. — Told to me by a friend years ago.

A “Mr. Morality” on TV is now looking for a job after years of sexual impropriety become public.

Hamlet:
Madam, how like you this play?

Queen:
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Gertrude says that Player Queen affirms so much as to lose credibility. Her vows are too elaborate, too artful, too insistent.

–Shakespeare

Yes, sometimes we seem to affirm morality so much that others begin to doubt just how moral we are.

Have you ever looked deeply within? Just as Paul describes early in Romans, I have looked and discovered that within me, I am capable of many sins and immorality.

I’d rather spend my energy focusing on me, and my path. It is not for me to point out everyone’s wrongdoing. That is too easy.

As Jesus pointed out, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” [Matthew 7, but also Luke 6]

Or Paul in Romans [2] who is more prosaic and less poetic, “You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

Like yesterday’s thoughts on an angry mom who tweets, it’s too easy to take shots at others. Better is to take care of our own spiritual house.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Don’t Be “The Good Student”

May 5, 2017

We all knew the good student. Sat in the front of the class. Raised his hand all the time. She always asked the obvious question so that the teacher would know they paid attention.

They were great at memorizing. Remembering all the stuff they were supposed to remember got them through school with high grades.

I was not that student.

I preferred the back of the class thinking about just about anything other than the class. I have memories of this as far back as 3rd grade. Even at the university where I learned the “game”, I read the required reading in the first couple of weeks of the quarter so that I could read what I wanted the rest of the time.

So, why do I love to study and teach the Bible and other spiritual writing? Those are my teachers. Outside of a couple of people in business who helped me along, it was books who taught me.

But that isn’t enough. They teach you how to live, but then you have to go do it. It’s not enough to be a scholar.

I just read this powerful illustration in John Fischer’s The Catch. I love his concept of “Grace Turned Outward”, by the way. But on to the picture:

My wife, Marti, has created an image of a dead Christianity that she often refers to as prevalent among all of us. In this image, everyone is on the front side of the cross. Maybe Jesus is up there on it, or maybe He is not, but we are all seated in folding chairs, looking up. On our laps are notebooks. We are there to take notes — someone is teaching — fill in the blanks. Its a study guide that leads us up to the cross, but never through it. In Marti’s illustration, no one ever leaves. It’s all well and good, this focus on the cross, but at some point, we are to get up and walk through the cross to the other side. The key is to get to the other side of the cross because that’s where the power is — resurrection power.

We may have different personalities–outgoing, reserved, friendly, cool–but we can live with power and freedom because we live what we learn.

At some point we must put down the books and hymnals and go outside and live with people. How we act, not what we know, is the key.

Posted in Disciplines, Living, Study | Leave a Comment »

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