Faith Venture

“That’s in the Laws of the Game???”

I’ve taught the FIFA Laws of the Game (football or soccer) for probably 25 years. Inevitably there is a dad in the class. He’s spent a few years in a chair along the touchline (side line to you aficionados of the foot ball that is not played with the foot) shouting at the referee. “I can do better than that,” he thinks.

First off, what he thought were the rules—aren’t. Second, he is taught the spirit of the game and how the game is actually played.

Everything he believed about the game is turned upside down.

Many Americans—especially from the Midwest and South—grew up in homogeneous towns. Everyone was a Christian (or at least pretended to be one). Everyone is the same ethnic group. Maybe in some larger communities there were two ethnic groups that lived together separately.

You assume everyone is the same.

But we’re not.

A recent survey uncovered a fact that should be disconcerting to evangelicals—those who say they go out and try to “win the lost for Jesus.” Well, they haven’t been very successful. The number of Christians defined by those who attend a service at least twice per month is a minority in America.

It’s best not to assume that everyone you meet is Christian. Even if they look like you.

Just like this—how many times have you picked up the Bible, opened it, read a passage, and declared, “I had no idea that this was in there.”

Maybe we should challenge our assumptions about what the Bible says by actually, gasp!, reading it. Reading it with an open heart to see what God is really telling you.

Maybe we should challenge our assumptions about people. Maybe treat every person we meet as a child of God whom he loves and desires a close relationship. That would be every person we meet.

If we all re-wired out assumptions, how would that impact the world?

“We’ll give you answers to questions you’ve never asked.”

Do you know how many sensors are in your smart phone? They can track where you are; whether you’re sitting, walking, or running; what you ask for. Much of that data goes into a depository of information linked to you by various applications (think about how much Google and Facebook know about you—supposedly with only the intent to show you advertising that you’d likely be interested in.

I’m at a technology conference this week in Minneapolis. By the way, this is a nice city to take a vacation to for a few days. Not that I’m even close to vacationing.

The Chief Technology Officer of the company whose user conference I’m attending commented about other companies who tell potential customers that they can suck in all the data from the sensors (thousands) in an industrial plant and “give you answers to questions you’ve never asked”.

He had the same take on the question that I have. 

Who cares about answers to questions that I haven’t asked?

As a spiritual seeker, how many times have preachers, teachers, acquaintances, others given you answers that are pretty much irrelevant to your life?

I’d guess way too many.

I knew a really good technology sales person who would have a meeting with a new prospect and begin the meeting by asking a series of questions in a completely friendly and non-threatening way. The first thing that was amazing about this is that he was an engineer. Engineers are taught to have answers. But he wanted to know that he was going to provide the right answer for the questions that the prospect had.

When is the last time a well-meaning but persistent Christian asked you questions before responding with a spiritual discipline or practice or answer that would help you?

Maybe our spiritual practice to develop is getting to know something about the hopes and dreams and difficulties of another person before telling them the answer. Just knowing that “Jesus is the answer” (as the bumper sticker says) isn’t helpful. How Jesus is the answer to a person’s particular question is helpful. And knowing that answer can lead to a spiritually healthier life where we ask more questions and discover more ways “Jesus is the answer”.

Go forth and discover other people’s questions.

1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. —Psalm 46

We get news from everywhere on the globe thanks to our modern technologies.

Sometimes that is very good; sometimes it can be overwhelming.

Sometimes it is good to return to ancient teaching.

We remember our instructions about helping others.

Sometimes we can reach out and help—we can send aid to areas stricken by hurricane, for example.

Sometimes we can only feel helpless. Physical items cannot help in some tragedies.

Before we lose our own mooring in the midst of all this information about tragedies, we return to the source of our being.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

It’s one of those things you may not notice until someone points it out to you. Maybe sort of like in the classic road runner cartoons the coyote never falls after running off the top of a cliff until he notices that the ground under his feet is 100 feet down.

Did you ever notice that when Jesus healed someone he almost always gave them a responsibility? Go to the priest. Get up. Or else the person took responsibility for their faith. Like the woman who secretly (she thought) touched Jesus garment (prayer shawl?) to obtain healing.

I’ve noticed for years the debate in America about rights. Well, not so much debate as an in-your-face “I’ve got rights” assertion. We have become what our founders feared—wanting rights without taking responsibility.

We have leaders who seem to excuse poor behavior with “it’s their right to speak” or it’s their right to…”

That is why it is so refreshing today to see a leader like the Commandant of the US Air Force Academy. Someone hung posters with racist epithets on the dorm doors of some black cadets. He didn’t hesitate. He called an assembly of everyone and “chewed butt”. We will respect all of our colleagues here. If you can’t hold them in respect, get out.

We don’t have to hit national news or have a viral YouTube clip. We can gently or not so gently remind people about such things as respecting others and taking responsibility for our actions. It’s called leadership. It’s a shame it is so rare that it makes news. 

But it does begin with each of us examining our own actions and words. When we take responsibility for our own actions, we don’t even need laws (see Paul’s advice in places such as Galatians or Romans). 

I’m always curious. How can I improve myself? What is healthy? What makes my brain grow? How can I help? How can I overcome my social awkwardness?

So, I come across lists all the time. I found a list that mostly is what I do, but there were some new ideas I need to try.

The guy who started this train of thought was James Altucher. He made millions. Lost it all. And his wife along with it. Then he made millions again. Lost it all, again. Now, he’s made it all again. He writes daily about his insecurities.

He wrote about what he’s done after the last time he lost everything. I’ve modified his list a little to suit my point of view (I’m not likely to make millions).

Altucher says, “Most important – I don’t think about past or future. I just think: did I do these habits today?” 

Excellent advice: I try to improve 1% each day on:

Physical Health 

Sleeping, eating well, exercise (which might just mean…enough movement per day. It doesn’t mean gym time).

Emotional Health 

Improve friendships 

Get rid of the people who put me down or make me feel bad about myself

Improve my own ability to hold onto my self-esteem rather than outsourcing it to others. It’s hard enough for other people to deal with their own self-esteem, let alone mine.

Love strangers

Love my family

Don’t judge myself too harshly

Prune my news sources, ignore people who only want to stoke my emotions so they can sell things

Mental Health 

Write down 10 ideas a day to exercise my idea muscle. The benefits of this are enormous. By the way, I use this technique when I’m helping people come up with strategic positioning for their companies or for a strategic marketing message. It’s also good for planning and for writing articles and books. 

Write, draw, create, in some way
.

Spiritual Health 

Simply be grateful every day. Find something difficult to be grateful for. 

Spend 15 minutes in the Bible every day.

Pray and meditate every day.

One Question a Day

At the end of every day ask, “Who did I help today?”

Books 

Read a mix of non-fiction and fiction each day. It doesn’t matter what you learn. Don’t stress it. You’ll absorb.

Books are the way to get a lifetime worth of experiences in just a few days.

Imagine that you live in a world where all relationships are governed by power—that is, who has power over whom. Most of us do not have to stretch our imaginations too far to bring this to mind.

Even family relationships were governed by who has the power (father) and who must obey (women and children).

The most God-fearing of the Jews were also power people. The power of the rule—and those who interpret the rules and those who follow the rules to the letter. These were the Pharisees. (Oh, yes, we have Pharisees among Christian circles even today.)

An ancient principle of writing and speaking holds that when your point is important you repeat it. So, let’s look at the Gospels.

What’s the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God, oh yes, and a second one of equal importance, Love your neighbor.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (John repeats this within two chapters).

Check out how many times Jesus repeats this. Then check out Paul, and Peter, and James, and John’s other writings.

What does it mean to love my neighbor? Jesus tells us stories as examples.

There is how to treat the lost son (an example of treating all lost people).

How to treat someone who is injured (helped by a despised outcast, namely a Samaritan).

Read James for more examples of how to love people.

This love turned the Roman world upside down.

Two thousand years later, we still have societies governed by power relationships. 

We still need to practice this love to turn the world upside down.

We draw power from the spiritual disciplines—study, prayer, meditation, worship, simplicity—so that we can pass the love of Jesus on to others (metaphor of vine to branches to fruit).

Imagine, if you will, a world governed by the principle of love.

We are one in the Spirit;

We are one in the Lord;

We are one in the Spirit;

We are one in the Lord.

And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

As I’ve been meditating over these thoughts from John about the new commandment this old folk song popped into my head. 

Here’s an image. A positive image from today’s American political scene is as rare as finding an albino ‘possum. But one showed up yesterday.

One US Senator was tasked by his leaders for crafting a piece of legislation with high political visibility. He was supposed to achieve certain policy ends while getting enough stuff thrown in the bill to get support from just enough colleagues to pass it. His old friend had the courage of his convictions to oppose the bill sending it down to sure defeat.

Senator McClain absorbed much vitriolic response from some members of his party who called into question his ethics and character for being that opponent. 

The image? His old friend Lindsey Graham, the Senator stuck with the impossible task of crafting that legislation came to the defense of his friend with whom he disagreed on policy. The report said he was moved to the brink of tears defending McClain.

This meditation has nothing to do with the merits of the legislation. Or with the politics of the two Senators.

Would you, in a very public setting, come to the defense of a friend who was facing such rhetoric?

Would you, in a private setting, when someone “disrespects” a friend come to their defense? To the point of tears?

I seldom agree with the policies of these two men. But I respect them. And I’m moved by their courage and character.

We need more of that in Washington. We need more of that in Sidney, Ohio—or wherever you are.

We start with ourselves. We need the world to see we are Christians by our love.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John tells us this new commandment twice.

One time followed Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet.

The second time was after he gave the metaphor of the vine and branches and fruit when he told them that no greater love can you have than to give up your life for someone else.

What else could Jesus have done to drive this teaching home?

He served. He died.

By what does everyone around us know us?

Would they say, “this truly is a servant and a disciple”?

Would they say, “this is truly just another hypocritical Christian who says one thing while the life they are leading betrays their true values”?

Let me change the title of this meditation to “How would we like everyone to know us”.

Where are we compared to the gold standard?

What can we do today to live up to it?

I interrupted my vacation with a quick business trip. Drove back from the Savannah airport to Hilton Head in the morning.

Saw that billboard again.

“Real Christians…Love their enemies.”

Former magazine guy that I am, I thought here’s a series.

Real Christians …

How would you fill in the blanks?

From the fruit of the spirit? From the Sermon on the Mount? Real Christians…are peacemakers. Real Christians…live with compassion.

Or maybe Real Christians…are filled with awe and wonder?

I was interrupted in my meditation this morning by the people I’m staying with in Hilton Head to go to the beach and watch the sun rise. A beautiful dawn, don’t you think? Made me reflect on many Psalms.