Archive - March, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are

March 25, 2009 in Movies with 1 Comment

I can’t even begin to explain to you how I feel in anticipation for this movie.  Simply watching the trailer makes me really, really happy. Thank you, Spike Jonze.

Ukraine Bound

March 19, 2009 in Travel with 0 Comments

So I’m headed to Ukraine today. Roger and I are going to meet with our friends from Radooga. Many of you know I get to serve on the board of an organization called Servant Life (check us out at servantlife.com). We send groups on short term mission experiences where they primarily host camp type experiences for kids and teenagers. Right now we work with partners in Ecuador, South Africa and Ukraine. Radooga is one of the organizations we work with in Ukraine. So, as I was saying, Roger and I are zipping over there for the weekend to just see some of what they’re doing and dream with them a bit about the future.

I’m on the plane in B’ham right now about to fly to Atlanta then Paris then Kiev. I’m on the plane. Roger is not. Maybe he’ll catch up in the ATL. I’ll let you know.

Until then…

The Man in the Mirror

March 14, 2009 in Conviction, Let's Be Honest, Life with 2 Comments

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change

Lyrics by Glen Ballard, Siedah Garrett & Michael Jackson

photo-7Nobody’s perfect, right?  I mean, we all know that.  Especially about ourselves.  Though, we probably like to admit it about ourselves the least.  It’s much easier to point out the faults of someone, anyone, else other than ourselves.  So often we expend great energy and significant amounts of time trying to hide just how imperfect we are.  But every now and then our defenses break down.  Someone recognizes the cracks in our facade and picks away at it until we are forced to face ourselves and admit that contrary to the lie we’ve been attempting to feed ourselves and everyone else, we don’t have it all together… not in the least.

I had one of those moments this past week.  It wasn’t fun.  i’ve been a person that has struggled with self-hatred ever since my adolescence.  It’s compounded by my faith because I know it flies in the face of how God views me, and that’s one of the things I hate the most.  But I digress… because of this struggle, I hate self-examination.  I mean the real thing.  I think I’m decently self-aware about faults and all.  But if I think I’m putting up a good front for the world at large, then I tend to go along with it as well.

When I am forced into periods of true self-examination, I don’t always like what I see.  In fact, I rarely like what I see if for no other reason then the negative is normally much more evident than the positive.  That’s at least how it is for me.  So, like I said, I had one of those moments this past week, and it sucks.

Especially when I consider that there has been sin that I’ve just been ignoring because it seemed easier to do so than to actually try to do anything about it.  I’m not going to get into specifics here.  It involves my relationships with too many people that probably don’t want me airing all our dirty laundry for the greater cyber-world at large.  So, I won’t.

However, because being cryptic leaves room for your own interpretation let me say that the sin I’m talking about involves… pride, arrogance, vanity, malice, vengeance, lack of reconciliation, apathy, and probably some others I haven’t identified yet.

Now, when faced with yourself and your own shortcomings… you’re left with a choice.  You can either throw up your hands and say, “that’s just the way I am.  It’s the way God wired me.  There’s not really anything I can do about it.  If you don’t want to accept it, that’s you’re problem.  In fact, you shouldn’t be so judgmental in the first place.  How ’bout I take some time and point out everything wrong about you?  Does that sound like fun?”  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Or…

You can face it and try to change.  I’m going to go for this option, though I’ve certainly gone the other way far too many times.  So, if you’re ever sitting around thinking about me (as I’m sure you do all the time) and you’re the praying type, I’d appreciate one or two on my behalf.

Thanks.

Check It Out

March 12, 2009 in Random with 1 Comment

My friend Jeremy sent some of us this.  It’s great.

Microsoft Redesigns iPod Packaging

And Who Is My Enemy?

March 10, 2009 in Christianity, Conviction, God, Let's Be Honest, Ministry, Questions, Travel with 1 Comment

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:25-29

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while. Actually, I’ve been thinking about it for a long while, not this post in particular but definitely about the subject. I really started thinking about it more often once President Obama pretty much locked his party’s nomination last year during which time I heard him called a terrorist, a communist, a racist, a murderer, and the Antichrist (and that was all just in emails I received).  Thinking about this subject began to consume significant amounts of my time the night of the election when I sat in bed watching the results come in from across the country while simultaneously checking tweets and Facebook status updates continually.  As I watched crowds of people from all walks of life in Grant Park swell with pride that manifested itself in both cheers and tears, I read comments from my friends, some of you even, from people I respect, that made me grieve.

In all the name-calling I heard thrown the President’s way, rarely did I hear “Christian,” and if I did, it was from political pundits analzing his campaign on CNN or MSNBC (but not Fox News) and not from any of his fellow brothers or sisters.  But I don’t want to talk about President Obama, not specifcially anyway.  He’s not what I was spending so much time thinking about (though maybe I should have).  The topic that has been concerning me so much and that is the subject of this post is simply what I wrote above in the title.

And who is my enemy?

In Luke 10 (in the Bible) we’ve got this great scene that plays out.  Some lawyer comes up to Jesus because he’s sat around and figured out what he considers to be an inquiry that at the very least will test if he’s worth his weight in matzah and at the very best could actually reveal him to be the Messiah.  He asks Jesus what he has to do to live forever  Jesus, being the sly teacher that he is, responds with his own question, basically asking the lawyer to sum up the Law he so devotedly serves.

Now, remember, we’re not just talking about the big 10 here.  The Mosaic Law had been expanded to include 613 different statutes with a bunch of extra rabbinical writing added on top to explain and define the 613.  This was no easy task and was basically a theological minefield that consisted of one giant land mine.  However, the guy gets it right.  He actually gives the exact same answer that Jesus himself gives in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 when asked, “what is the greatest commandment?”  So, this is no late-night-commercial ambulance-chaser.  This guy’s got goods, and Jesus acknowledges it.

“That’s right,” he says.  “Do that and you’ll live forever.”

Now, don’t forget, as smart as this guy might be, Jesus is the teacher in this situation.  He’s leading this guy on.  He knows there’s no way possible for this lawyer to actually keep those commandments.  Let’s forget the other 611 for a moment.  Try for one day to, one hour, even, perhaps just a moment, to live fully those two laws and you’ll come up short every time.  The smart lawyer knows this too.  So, he wants to back himself off a little bit, get himself off the hook.

He asks, “and who is my neighbor?”

Jesus answers with the story of the Good Samaritan.  I won’t exegete the whole parable here (there’s much better people than me who have done so elsewhere).  I’ll just say this.  His answer to this question was basically, “everyone’s your neighbor, even the person you detest more than any other, the most wretched, foul, on-the-fringe human being you can conceive of, whether they can reward or return your love or not… that’s your neighbor.” (Those are my words, obviously… I’m paraphrasing, in a way)

I think we… we who seek the Christ, the Son of the living God, to know Him, to know His will and obey it… we who carry the Gospel of the righteousness of God and serve as His ambassadors to a lost and dying world… we who claim to know and love the Word of God, His revelation of Himself to all humankind… I think we don’t often enough ask, “who is my neighbor?”

Most of us seem to be much more interested in wondering, “who is my enemy?”

Of course we’re not so overt in our inquiry.  In fact, the only reason we want so badly to know who our enemies are is so that we know who we’re against.  And as is the case who were against is directly correlated to what we’re against.  So, once we know what we’re against we can then know what we’re for.  At least that’s how it looks to those on the outside.  This convoluted public persona we’ve propagated has us giving the appearance that our principles, values, convictions and beliefs are much more defined by what we don’t stand for as opposed to what we do.  At the very least this is a colossal image problem in dire need of a makeover.  At the worst, it’s an indictment on all of us (Christians, that is).

My favorite performance poet, Taylor Mali, has a piece entitled Silver-Lined Heart (you can download it on iTunes if you’re interested) that’s pretty much addressed to other poets, particularly those on the slam circuit, that too often distinguish themselves and make their points in a similar way to what I’m talking about.  He ends this poem with following stanza.

So don’t waste my time and your curses on verses
about what you are against, despise, and abhor.
Tell me what inspires you, what fulfills and fires you,
put your precious pen to paper and tell me what you’re for!

I don’t know about you, but I’m with Taylor.  I’m sick of us on TV and in our pulpits and in front of our youth groups and in our endlessly forwarded emails railing against all of “those people.”  Those Gays.  Those Democrats.  Those Republicans.  Those Muslims.  Those Rednecks.  Those Pagans.  Those baby-killing doctors.  Those welfare mothers.  Those gun-toting cowboys.  Those Asians.  Those Africans.  Those Mormons.  Those Catholics.  Those Baptists.  Those crazy Pentecostals.  Those stuck-up Anglicans.  Those Arabs.  Those Terrorists.  Those French.  Most of us can barely tolerate each other (any Christian that doesn’t go to our church and at least half of the ones that do) much less the rest of the people we’re supposed to be introducing to Jesus.

And before you get all over my case and accuse me of being all high and mighty and exhort me to get down off my pedestal, let me be clear that, as the apostle Paul said so eloquently, I am chief amongst sinners.  And so are you.

And sure there are and are going to be things worth fighting for and that require confrontation.  We shouldn’t be a doormat for anyone.  Meek doesn’t mean weak.  Just ask Jesus.  If you believe that as a Christian President Obama is blowing some things, then as a fellow believer you have an inherent duty to call him on it.  But there is a difference between disciplining and damning.  There is a difference between confrontation and combat.  There is a difference being holy and being holier-than-thou.  There is a difference between being righteous and just being right.  There is certainly a difference between love and hate.  And just in case you missed it there are differences between us and it looks to me like that’s how God intended it.  Turns out our Creator is pretty creative.

I’m embarrassed at the picket signs and accompanying shouts touting what some people errently believe God to hate.  I’m embarrassed that the best press a religious youth event can get is when it involves a screaming match outside on the steps between two rival groups of “sinners” and “saints.”  I’m embarrassed when moralism replaces Godly living.  I’m embarrassed about how I’m represented on television by spokesmen for my faith foaming at the mouth in righteous indignation over what they believe they’ve suffered at the hands of the liberal media elite.  I’m embarrassed at the political environments that rule so many of our churches and ministries.  I’m embarrassed… for me… for them… for you.  And the closer I get to the heart of God, however small those incriments might be, the more weary, burdened and sad I get… because that’s how I think He feels about it.

We Christians seem to be incapable (or at least ill-prepared) of combating the evil around us because we cannot separate that evil from people to whom we attach it.  For that reason, we are in constant sin.  Sure there are going to be those who persecute us, who seek our destruction, who want to alienate us and shut us up, who even kill us and who hate us.  Of course there are.  Remember from John 15, they hated Jesus first.  But I want to be hated because I’m like Him, not because I represent Him poorly.  And even when I am hated, I am never justified to respond to anyone who feels that way in the same manner.  Never.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

You see, the question of “who is my enemy” is a moot point.  It doesn’t matter the least little bit.  Why?  Because anyone who’s my enemy is also my neighbor, and even if they weren’t, I’m to respond to them in kind. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…”  LOVE!!! Come on!

That verse is from Luke 6, by the way.  Verse 27 to be exact.  Now go read the rest of the chapter and think on these things.

That’s all for me right now.  I’ve got to go repent of the hatred I felt for some of my fellow Christ-followers I felt in writing this post.  Hopefully, this was part of the cleansing process for me.  Maybe it will be for you too.

May the grace of God be with you… and with me.

Question(s)

March 8, 2009 in Questions with 3 Comments

What’s the purpose in blogging?
OR
What should be the purpose in blogging?
OR
What’s better: to blog for the sake of blogging or to blog when you actually have something to say?
OR
Is this post a waste of your time?
OR
Isn’t there or shouldn’t there be intrinsic value in your blog since it’s basically putting your thoughts out there for others to read because otherwise it seems to be a colossal display of a malnourished ego?

By the way, I’m writing this post from the WordPress app for my iPhone. I think it’s really groovy.

Late Night Thoughts

March 6, 2009 in Random with 2 Comments

I’m up.  I feel like blogging.  Lucky you.

Here are some current thoughts in no particular order…

1.  I’d like to put a twitter feed on my blog.  There are plenty of plugins that can do this.  The problem is that with my particular site they don’t look right because the first line will have the red title bar that you’ll see in all my sidebars while any subsequent lines will just appear on the khaki background.  I don’t find that look pleasing.  I’m wondering if there’s a widget that will display a twitter feed in a pre-designed template.  I’m sure there is.  I just haven’t found it yet.  I’ll accept suggestions.

2.  I feel there is a distinct possibility that I am losing my mind.

3.  When you are a single person your married friends will talk about their marriage and sometimes remark to you about how you couldn’t understand what they’re talking about because you’re not married.  There might be some truth in that.  However, I think what is really going on are some pretty universal relationship issues and dynamics.  It’s just that in a marriage, they’re compounded.  When you don’t have kids your friends that are parents will talk about their families and sometimes remark to you about how you couldn’t understand because you’re not a parent.  I’ve only been a parent for a week now, but one of the new things I’ve learned that stands out most to me is this… they’re right.

4.  I wonder if a person born and bred in the good ol’ U.S.A. can ever fully overcome materialism.

5.  Rick called me “abba” at the office yesterday.  My initial reaction was to feel really uncomfortable about this.  Joachim Jeremias once remarked that one of the greatest revelations of God Jesus brought to this earth was Him being “Abba” or Father or Daddy, if you will.  This is how I most often refer to God and it is a term I have always reserved solely for Him.  Upon further reflection, my reaction is now one of crippling humility, weighty responsibility and deep honor.

6.  I don’t believe I’ve had a real heart-felt conversation of any dept with a true friend in over a month.  I miss you guys.  Remember when we used to hang out and talk and stuff?  That was awesome.  Let’s do it again.

7.  I’m considering going back to school in the Fall.  That’s right.  Gonna add the distinguished title of “Doctor” before my name.  Reasons for doing this are as follows:  a) I believe it will be beneficial to me personally and to the work to which God has called me.  b) I like the idea of the challenge it presents.  c) I wanna see if I can hang with the big boys.  d) I enjoy learning immensely, and learning in community is even better.  e) I want people who don’t listen to me to feel guilty becaue they’re ignoring the ideas and advice of an expert.  (That last reason is terrible, I know)

That’s all for now.  Story’s over her hiccups.

Until next time…

The One and Only

March 3, 2009 in God, Ideas, Questions with 1 Comment

“There are no original ideas.  There are only original people.” – Barbara Grizzuti Harrsion

“No idea’s original/there’s nothin’ new under the sun/it’s never what you do/but how it’s done.” – Nas

Originality isn’t easy to come by.  For a creative*, that’s a tough pill to swallow.  Originality is what makes you stand out, what sets you apart from the rest of the crowd, hence it being “original.”  Of course, it normally helps if it’s also good and desirable.

You can be as original as you want, but if you’re no good, does it really matter?  And if you’re terribly original but not at something anyone cares about, then who’s going to notice?  Obviously you can be both good and desirable but not original at all, but that probably means whatever you’re doing will never last.  It’s the originality that’s key.

And it’s the quest for originality that often keeps me up at night.  I’m one of those people that just isn’t okay with being like someone else, or copying someone else’s idea (whether I improve on it or not).  And when I find myself doing just that, which I too often do, I hate it.  I wonder what worth there could possibly be in what I’m doing.

Of course the worst is when I acutally have an original idea only to come to find out that it isn’t original whatsoever.  Someone else is doing it or has already done it or is about to do it.  If it’s someone really incredible at what they do, then at least it’s a bit flattering or encouraging ’cause it tells me I actually know what I’m doing.  But it’s always followed by the sickening revulsion that someone beat me to the punch.

As a creative who believes in God, things get even more complicated.  I serve the Creator, the source of all creation and creativity, the one who is so original there is literally no one and nothing like Him.  All things good, true, and worthy come from Him.  I seek Him and the things of Him above all, forsaking anything else.  So, when I get an idea I believe to be from Him, that He wishes me to specifically develop for whatever reason, only to discover it’s unoriginality, I struggle… to say the least.

I’m not really talking about anything specific.  I’m not even sure why I felt the desire to write this post.  It’s late, and this just happened to be something I was thinking about.

So, there you go.  What do you think?

*By “creative” I mean anyone who is involved in thinking up and developing new ideas.  This obviously covers a wide range of people and vocations.  So, when I consider myself a “creative,” I’m not really inducting myself into some terribly exclusive group of people.

On another topic, footnotes are a new thing for this blog.  I’m not sure how I feel about them.  “Academic” comes to mind, and I’ve never particularly cared for that word.

A Baby Story

March 2, 2009 in Family with 2 Comments

So, here’s how the whole deal went down.

Liza woke up sometime around 5 a.m. and called Brookwood to make sure they hadn’t gotten slammed with births the night before and that they could still take us at our scheduled time of 6:30.  They could.  So, we show up and pretty much immediately get escorted to Labor and Delivery room 14.  Liza changes into a gown and then, after asking some questions about various things, they hook her up to an IV and start giving her this drug that induces labor.  Meanwhile I go move our car from the “emergency” entrance to the parking garage and begin settling up our bill with admitting (by the way, paying a large amount of money up front is not exactly the way you want to start the whole birthing experience, but that’s how it happens, I guess).

So, Liza’s in labor.  And she’s doing great.  Our nurse Tami is kinda hanging out with us and keeping an eye on things.  We’re watching t.v. and just waiting for things to happen.  Dr. McKenzie comes in to check how she’s progressing.  She was only dilated at 1 cm., which is what she’d been for over a week (I won’t take the time here to explain what being dilated means; ask your mother).  Things are progressing slowly, and Liza’s contractions are getting worse.  I’m able to see a monitor that shows Story’s heartbeat and the intensity of the contractions.  Tami offers Liza some drugs.  She refuses.  5 minutes later, she changes her mind and accepts.  Tami says it will just take the edge off.  Evidently it does, and Liza goes to sleep.

Things kinda progress like this for awhile.  Tami monitors. Dr. McKenzie checks on the progress.  Liza’s pain worsens.  We all wait.  Etc.  Both of our families eventually arrive and the waiting continues.

So, what are we waiting for, exactly?  Well, sometime around 4 0r 5 cm. Liza can get an epidural, which is the really good anesthetic so that she doesn’t feel much pain at all.  Also, around 5 cm. things really begin to progress a lot more quickly.  Around 3 cm. Liza’s first dose of drugs have worn off and she’s really hurting.  So, they give her another dose, but Tami explains that this time it won’t help as much.  Liza quickly asks for the drugs anyway.  They don’t help at all.

Tami eventually goes to get Dr. McKenzie to come check Liza to see if she’s progressed far enough to get the epidural.  She has.  We all rejoice.  We all have to leave the room while the anesthesiologist does his thing.  So, I decide to go get some lunch while I have the chance.  I get a corn dog and onion rings for some reason. Those aren’t two selections I normally eat, but I did.

Once, Liza gets the epidural, things are a lot better.  She’s a little loopy, but it’s okay.  She’s not feeling the pain.  I, however, can still see the little monitor.  Remember?  The one showing Story’s heartbeat and the intensity of Liza’s contractions.  Well, I’m watching these really intense numbers that Liza’s both experiencing and not experiencing.  As soon as it peaks and begins to decline, I’m seeing Story’s heartbeat nosedive.  Now, I’m not a Dr.  I don’t really know what that means, but I’m pretty sure it’s not “good.”  However, I d0n’t want to say anything and upset Liza, plus, Tami the supernurse is sitting right there watching the same thing.  After awhile, I realize she’s really watching it closely, and that she’s not happy with what she’s seeing.  She keeps getting Liza t adjust her position to try to relieve some of the pressure off of Story, but it’s not really working.  After about nine hours of labor, Tami excuses herself to go talk to Dr. McKenzie.  Meanwhile, we wait.

Dr. McKenzie comes in and asks our families to leave while he checks things out.  He examines Liza and looks over the print-outs of all those numbers I’ve been watching.  He calls our families back in and then sits down on the edge of Liza’s hospital bed and gives us the low down.

Liza’s body is progressing but progressing slowly.  Meanwhile, Story’s getting really tired of the whole thing. So, he thinks it’s best that we go ahead and do a C-section.  This was something we had been prepared for, so we weren’t too worried about it.  Once we made this decision, there was a whirlwind of activity.

The families say ‘bye and are hurried out of the room.  The anesthesiologist comes back in to up Liza’s medication.  A bunch of other nurses come in to help Tami do whatever it is they were doing.  I’m given some stuff to put on: a cap, some booties, a big surgical smock and a mask.  They roll Liza out of the room, tell me to get dressed and that they’ll come get me.  So, I put all the stuff on and wait… for about 25 minutes.

Then Tami comes in and take sme to a room where Liza’s laying on a bed and there are about 15 other people in there doing doctor stuff.  I sit down beside Liza’s head and ask her how she’s doing.  She says she’s doing good and that she really can’t feel much of anything, just what feels like some pushing and pulling.  I’m sitting there for just a couple of minutes before they tell me to stand up and look over the little curtain at the sterile area.  And then… they pull Story out.  She cries.  Liza cries.  I cry. I’m trying to hold the video camera steady and capture everything.

They take her over to a little table to examine her.  So, I go film that.  They weigh her and I film that.  They take her over to Liza and I film that.  We cry, and I tell Liza how proud I am of her.  Then a nurse takes Story and tells me to follow her.

We walk out into the hallway.  She tells me to take off my surgical stuff.  My hands are shaking, and I’m having trouble untying the straps. Finally, I give up and just rip it all off.  Then she hands Story to me and says, “okay.  Let’s go show her off.”

And that’s how it went down…