Faith Venture

John, the evangelist, quoted Jesus, “Those who speak on their own, seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.”

I read this over the weekend and asked myself how that applies to me. In my professional life, I am pretty well-known in my industry. Whenever I write something or whenever I’m thinking about our magazine or company, I often stop to ponder if I’m just reporting and analyzing fairly, or if I’m doing something to seek more reputation.

While I was pondering this thought from Jesus and before I had time to write, a cool thing happened. The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat for the championship of the National Basketball Association.

I don’t follow the NBA anymore. Too many selfish prima donnas there. And the top self-promoter as the world’s greatest basketball player is LeBron James. To orchestrate an hour-long TV special about his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers (where he failed to bring a championship, often faltering in the fourth quarter in clutch situations), he proclaimed he would bring a championship to Miami. Well he faltered again in the clutch.

Someday Miami may win a championship. Maybe not. I don’t care. But to see the triumph of a team that plays like a team over a self-proclaimed great player was rewarding.

Jesus said that if you seek glory for the one who sent you, there is nothing false in you.

No matter what you are doing, stop occasionally and ask, “For whom do I work?” Certainly in America we’ve generated a mindset of getting ahead on our own merits. “What’s in it for me” is the mantra. Jesus implies that there is something false there. But if your mantra is “What’s in it for God and others” then you are approaching truth.

I spent my 24th straight Memorial Day weekend in Dayton, Ohio at a huge youth soccer tournament. This year for the most part I was mentoring and assessing the performance of many younger referees. There are so many people stories when you gather thousands together in a competitive atmosphere.

But, I live in Ohio. In the middle of Ohio State University Buckeye fanatic territory. I’m not a fan–of OSU or college football in general–but you can’t escape it. And you can’t escape the big news of the weekend. Ultra successful football coach Jim Tressell has resigned in the face of potential harsh sanctions from the athletic “governing body” the NCAA. Why? What we know right now (more probably coming) is that he knew that his star quarterback and several other stars were violating NCAA rules. He knew and he kept quiet. With them, he had almost a national championship year, a Big Ten conference championship, and the potential for further fame, glory and money.

It’s tough being a person. It’s tough being ethical. All of us face issues every day. It’s often around sex, money or power. I appreciate the irony of the politician or religious leader who has been preaching “values” only to be undone by personal weakness. No one is immune.

We’ve lived through many years of blaming it on the environment. That’s when I parted ways with “liberals”–when they embraced the idea of blaming things on something or someone else. Yes, parents can screw up a kid. But many people grow up to be productive, ethical people despite a rough childhood.

Seth Godin is a marketing guru. But he hits on some pithy observations. Here’s a quote from a recent blog post:

Dallas Willard was the first to plainly state what I suspected about the first Christians–that they actually did live differently from their neighbors. The power of the Spirit so infused and ordered their lives that other people noticed and many were attracted to this new religious movement.

In America, we too often live our lives with bumper-sticker phrases when we should be actually living in the Spirit minute-by-minute. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s 25 years of refereeing soccer at some pretty high levels, but I’ve become quite observant of people. And I puzzle out motivations and actions.

So when recently stuck in a long line of traffic headed for an event at a venue where access is congested by design (or lack thereof) I notice an expensive, white Mercedes with the license plate “BORN 2X” I presume the driver/owner is a self-proclaimed Christian. After all, I had just read the story in John about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus and the born of water and born of Spirit discussion.

So I watch to see if the driver exhibits Christian tendencies. You decide (if you know how to drive in traffic, it will help you understand).

Traffic is backed up for two miles on the freeway because of congestion at the intersection at the end of the exit ramp. One reason for the congestion is that people are in a hurry to get through, so they block the intersection by going through a yellow-changing-to-red traffic light but can’t make it and so block traffic.

This white Mercedes driver decides that waiting in the line is too long and switches to the left lane. That’s OK. Except when we reach the intersection, he makes an illegal right turn on red. But traffic is backed up, so he now block four lanes of traffic.

Ten minutes and 400 meters later, I notice that car on my left as I pass it. He gained nothing trying to press an advantage. And that advantage pushed other people back.

So, I ask myself, what life is he proclaiming? What life do you proclaim? Do you so order your life that it is attractive to others who would like what you have?

I’m sorry. I went to California this week (Sacramento and Auburn, not LA and San Diego–it was cold and rainy) and my usual combination of late dinners and early meetings wrecked my schedule. Chicago next week shouldn’t be so bad. But Hanover, Germany the first week of April will be another grueling week at one of the world’s largest manufacturing trade shows. But, I’ll be six hours ahead of EDT, so maybe I’ll still blog on time.

The world is gripped by the crises in Japan. First the earthquake and tsunami that apparently killed over 16,000 people (this follows the devastating earthquakes in New Zealand–and no, I don’t think this is a sign of the end of times–but my heart is always ready). As if that wasn’t bad enough, the natural disasters have caused big problems for a nuclear reactor in Japan, that, if it is damaged enough, could send large amounts of radiation into the air possibly killing many more people.

People in North America and Western Europe, and probably much of the rest of the world, are personally quite generous in the face of crises. Perhaps because Japan is a prosperous country, I have not seen the number of fund-raising efforts that I’ve seen for some other disasters, for example Haiti.

I recently read something that reminded me about giving in these times. Know ahead of time the general relief agencies that you trust and give them the money–but do not earmark it. I have read where much money donated for Haiti is sitting unused because the agencies must spend it there, but the infrastructure is so poor that it is actually hard to get the money to the right people in the right manner.

An unfortunate situation among humans is the character flaw of greed. This is universal, by the way. You probably automatically thought of poor, small, undeveloped countries where the wealthy minority siphon off money thought to be going for development.

Ah, no, greed is a universal human flaw. Just look at the small number of Americans who latched on to great wealth on Wall Street a couple of years ago before almost destroying a banking system that caused the rest of us great financial strain. Of course, many of these people use their wealth to become politicians and blame the rest of us for the financial predicament the world faces.

Pray for the people affected by these disasters. Pray for those valiant heroes who are trying to keep the nuclear reactors under control. Give money to relief agencies that work directly with people (rather than government to government). Thank God that you’ve been spared–this time.