Connecting the Dots

I recently read an article about Steve Jobs in our local newspaper. The article was a reprint of a graduation commencement address he gave at a college. Buried deep within the text of that address was a thought that resonates deep within me. Steve made the point that it requires perspective to ‘connect the dots’ in life. I think his specific statement was that you can’t connect the lines looking forward, into the future. You can only connect the dots of your life when you look back and see how life’s events have fit together into the whole.

I am not aware if Steve was a particularly religious man. But, I think his comments mimic the experience of a believer in living a life of faith.

The older I get the more I have come to appreciate this perspective. Perhaps the only small tweak I would add to this idea is that when you take enough time to look back you start to discover the big picture of your life and can almost discern the shapes and sizes of the remaining pieces. Or at least we think we can.

Thanksgiving is a time for retrospection; for surveying the past and giving thanks. It’s fast coming upon us again. I am particularly looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving week because we are going to spend it with family and friends on vacation. I am already dreaming of all the fun and relaxing times we’ll have together.

That word ‘together’ carries more weight the older I get. I’ve now been together with Julie and her family much longer than I was not-together with her. I’ve now maintained lifetime friendships in which I’ve been together far longer than not-together. I’ve now approached life together with my children for longer than our being not-together (at least with Joel). This aspect of remaining in community for long periods of time carries more weight in my thinking now. When you decide to continue in relationship you have decided to be known by people. It is difficult to maintain a charade for years. Decades. It just isn’t possible. Your failures will become known. Your shortcomings will emerge. Those things you simply wish people didn’t know about you will become known and remembered. You will be exposed for who you are.

And then this glorious truth emerges that can only be found from prolonged togetherness. You realize at some point that you are accepted. This acceptance is a true acceptance; not one born of lack of knowlege or a sense of tolerance. Not one due to deception and hiding of flaws. Instead, this is the acceptance that accompanies being known – flaws and all.

This is a God Thing. Acceptance is a two part deal. There’s the part where acceptance is offered by someone. And, there’s the part where you have to accept it. Acceptance is as much about our ability to receive it as it is about whoever is willing to offer it. Interestingly, it seems much easier to accept when we practice offering it to others. By giving acceptance to someone we recognize has flaws just like us – we practice the thought process that allows us to forgive ourselves our flaws and receive acceptance from others.

Now, my family and friends have far fewer and less severe flaws than I do – so I’ve not gotten as much practice giving as receiving. But, I’ve at least had enough to be extremely thankful to God for opportunities to experience and share togetherness. And, I’ve given and received enough acceptance to know how much God has to offer to me to cover my sins. It truly is an awe inspiring thought.

You see, when you look back – the dots you connect are not all the dirt paths and smooth roads of our own making. Instead, you see the chasms that required God’s incredible bridge between sin and forgiveness to make the dots of our paths connect.

Stations of the Cross

Friday night the Highway Community hosted the stations of the cross at our campus in Mountain View. The creative team at Highway assists the worshiper in focusing in on the Passion of Christ by integrating Scripture with audio/visual displays and activities that parallel the last week of Christ's life.

I greatly appreciate their efforts and to have an opportunity to start Easter weekend by remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for you and me so many years ago. It is challenging, at times, to stay connected to God due to the distractions of life. This was a very meaningful way to reconnect in a deep way with God as we headed into the weekend. I am so thankful for that.

Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Challenging Scripture

The title of this blog entry ‘Challenging Scripture’ is intentionally a double entendre (a figure of speech that can be understood in either of two ways). In a time where it seems like everything we hold sacred, included scripture itself, is being challenged; I recently found myself profoundly challenged by a Scripture passage we discussed in our bible study group.

Mark 7:6-7: 'As Isaiah prophesized, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teaching are but rules taught by men.’

I love words. And I love trying to pick an appropriate word when I am attempting to convey a thought or idea. Often, the search for the perfect word is an effort to encapsulate a big thing (idea, taste, feeling, etc.) in a small package.

For instance, the word ‘Succulent’ evokes a myriad of texture, taste and experience. You can almost feel the juices dripping down your chin!

However, sometimes, this attempt to convey a big idea with small words has the side affect of obscuring the total picture. So, I tend to like to ‘re-lengthen’ scripture verses at times to see if I can discover some additional meaning by replacing a word or words with their definitions.

As an example – here’s the Isaiah prophesy above – substituting a couple of Webster definitions for the words ‘worship’ and ‘vain’:

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They participate in ceremonies, prayers and other religious forms of expressing love for me that lack substance or worth and do not yield the desired outcome. Their teaching are but rules taught by men.’

Ouch. My initial reaction to this expansion of the verse was ‘is that even possible?’ Wouldn’t any attempt to express love for Jesus be worthwhile? Doesn’t it all … ‘count’ .. for lack of a better term?

However, here’s a bible study tip that I try to remember. When Jesus quotes a scripture or says something, Himself, you can take it to the bank.

Which leads me to admit that I find this scripture very challenging. Intimidating almost. It says that there are forms of religious expression that lack worth. It says that there are fruitless ceremonies that are man-made and do not contribute to the worship of God.

And Jesus goes on to summarize the problem as follows in Mark 7:8: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men”

It appears, then, that there is genuine worship - which is doing the commands of God and there is vain worship - which is holding to the traditions of men.


So what prompts me to bring this up? Why now?
For some reason, only known to God, I seem to be bumping into a lot of Catholics lately - in many contexts including kids, colleagues, strangers, bloggers, etc. They range from 'practicing' to 'barely practicing' to 'Catholics in name only' (Catinos).

And they all seem to be revving up for Lent. I was even browsing a random online blog and ran into a blogger that is a ‘Catholic’.. but views the way she practices 'her religion' (her term) as ‘her own’ and ‘discarding the rules that I don’t agree with’. She has manufactured her own man made religion and thus has a unique way of approaching Lent.

At the same time I am continuing on a personal journey to understand social justice. As a Californian I am challenged almost daily to defend my beliefs and to agree with, or at a minimum accept, a different world view that has it’s own definition for social ‘justice’. Within that context I am genuinely trying to figure out how Jesus would approach some of these complex issues and ideas. My mind remains open and searching for God’s own heart on many of these issues.

But this set of verses seems to present a warning against taking re-engineering the gospel too far. It appears that when we (individually or institutionally) try to reshape obedience to God (doing the commands of God) into something more palpable to man in order to reach people with the Gospel… it is entirely possible that the worship we reach them with will have been rendered vain – ‘lacking substance or worth; not yielding the desired outcome’.

What’s the point of that?

Are you participating in some form of worship (at church, for Lent, in the privacy of your own life) just to satisfy some rule that you or your Church came up with? Instead of focusing on doing what God commands us in the Bible? If so – I want to encourage you – as I remind myself – to look skeptically at the traditions of men (inside and outside the Church). Challenge them with Scripture (Rom 12:2).

What Would You Do?

Update: Thank you to everyone who posted a comment or sent an email with your ideas. I appreciate it.

I posted this entry in an attempt to get people thinking and dialoging and sharing more about how to approach resolving dilemmas like making a choice between two worthwhile, good activities. I'd say there was a pretty even split between people that thought a) go to bible study, b) go to the game and c) think outside the box and figure a means of combining the two together in some way.

That was pretty interesting to me and shows how honest, good, trained, loving people can approach issues differently. I especially loved the responses that were in category c) because that is kind of what I was thinking.

To whit, here's how I decided to resolve this little, intsy conflict:

I decided to post a biblically based question on my blog and invite my OAG to dialog with me on it. So, by my way of thinking.. I participated in an OAG meeting this week: in the blog-o-space. So, that being done.. and having had a good chance to meditate and dialog on God's word... I'm off in a little bit to the game. Oh, and Diane the complete wonderful person that she is dropped of some cookies last night that I get to take to the game and share. Sweeet!!

Have a great dinner and discussion!

See you next week!

Proverbs 11:14: Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Proverbs 15:22: "Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established."

You might be curious.. asking what do these verses have to do with me? Well, I was hoping I could solicit your counsel as I wrestle with a difficult decision. You game?

Here's the issue. There are two events tomorrow evening that I would love to participate in. However, they are overlapping in time and miles apart.. so a decision needs to be made. Where will I be spending my time?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Your wise counsel. What you would do?

Opportunity #1: One Another Group at the Smiths
This is a meeting of our group bible study that occurs every Wednesday evening.
Considerations:

• Mrs. Smith (Diane) cooks dinner for everyone.. and that woman can COOK!
• Need to stop eating like a pig and lose a few pounds!
• The distinct possibility is always present that Diane will make some of her world famous cookies!
• Opportunity to dig into God's word
• Opportunity to share what God is doing in other people's lives
• Many more Wednesdays in life
• The spiritual benefits of spending time in the Word!
• Screaming at people during the evening is strongly discouraged

Opportunity #2: Mitty vs. Bellarmine Basketball Game
This is a meeting of our favorite high school basketball team as they take on a difficult West Catholic league foe. Considerations:

• Consession stand food only (or none at all... probably better!)
• Brandon always scores 30 points when I am NOT there ;)
• Opportunity to show love and support for a dear set of friends
• Since Brandon's graduating this year.. there are precious few opportunities like this left in my lifetime
• Screaming at people is encouraged/expected
• Opportunity to apply what I have learned in bible study in real life
  

Friends and Family

During Joel and Carissa’s wedding reception I had the distinct honor of toasting the bride and groom.

I didn’t have a prepared speech, or toast, in the sense that I planned or wrote out and memorized what I was going to say. However, I had been praying and asking God to provide me some insights from my life that perhaps I could pass along to the newlyweds and their guests. During that process of praying, listening and reflecting the two words that kept coming to mind were ‘friends’ and ‘family’.

Julie will be the first person to tell you that I simply can not remember conversations – or for that matter what I say - verbatim (word by word). So, no attempt will be made to reproduce, exactly, my words. But, I would like to attempt to capture the essence of my comments that night because they reflect my heart’s truest feelings for all of you that read this blog – my friends and family – as much as they do for Joel and Carissa as they start their new life together.

It went something (I think) like this:

As I look around this evening I see a mystery of God at work – forming this community of friends and family to bless and celebrate Joel and Carissa’s marriage. I refer to it as a mystery – not only because of the mystery that God can take two parts people and one part Holy Spirit and make a new family. But, because in my life the distinction between family and friends is a mysterious blur. I have been exceedingly blessed with friends in my lifetime. Blessed to the point that many of you I once thought of as my close friends I now reckon, in the privacy of my own thoughts, my closest family. And many of you that started out or have over the years joined my family, I now have the distinct pleasure of counting among my closest friends. Tonight, as a result of this wedding – we are adding new family members whom I wholeheartedly look forward to becoming close friends. And to you, Joel and Carissa, I am so pleased, as I look at you, to see two people that started as friends. I am so very happy for both of you that your relationship blossomed and grew into a great friendship and now into a brand new family. I think the path through friendship to family is a most precious gift. Treasure it! Here’s to God from whom all blessings flow – especially the blessings of great friends and family. And here's to the bride and groom!


















P.S. Hey, I never noticed this until I posted this blog entry and the pictures.. but how cool is the Henderson family crest that is behind Joel and Carissa! I was so mesmerized by the bride and groom I didn't even notice it at the wedding! Sweeet!

P.S.S. Thanks to Joanne whose eagle eyes noticed the note next to the cake. It reads: "Cake Topper used by Wes and Lily Hartley January 12, 1947, Salem, Oregon" Wes and Lily are Carissa's maternal grandparents.

Liberty vs. Charity

The word ‘entitled’ means to ‘have proper grounds for seeking or claiming something’.

Our constitution ensures that the citizens of America are ‘entitled’ to certain unalienable rights - among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Liberty is defined as ‘freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice’.

So, it appears that we, as Americans, were intended to claim freedom from the government establishing obligations on our part that are not in accordance with our way or thinking or choosing. That’s the form of ‘federal’ government that was established in America. That’s why the federal powers where limited to those enumerated (listed) in the constitution. They were intentionally very few.

Juxtaposed with that definition of a federal government is our personal, individual beliefs and practices. In my case, as a Christian, these are influenced by my religious beliefs whereby I am entitled (have grounds to claim) many blessings and mercies. At the same time I am called to develop a character that expresses many fruits (hospitality, loving, giving, mercy, etc.).

I would have no problem being queried about what grounds I have for seeking God’s ultimate forgiveness. My answer would be ‘I am only entitled to God's eternal blessings based on Christ’s payment of my penalty on the Cross and my acceptance of that act through faith’.

I would have no problem being queried about what grounds I have for claiming the right to retain my pay for the work I perform. My answer would be ‘we agreed that if I worked an hour you would pay me a certain amount – and I have worked that hour. Please pay me’.

At the same time – having been paid for my work – I find that my God seeks claim to what I have earned as well. He reminds me that He made me and gifted me and that I am able to earn as a result of His love. And He compels me to be virtuous about how I use what He has provided. In many cases He encourages me to be hospitable (showing kindness to strangers) and charitable (giving to supply the needs of others).

Interestingly, God also thought liberty a good idea. He viewed liberty as an essential element to his Kingdom. That is why He offers us free will to decide how we will abide His encouragement. That is why we are free in Christ to make many decisions about our personal behavior free from the judgment of man – yet accountable to Him.

As such, we find, in the Christian model, these two ideas simultaneously at work: the free exercise of liberty and charity. A call to work and good works. God trusts us to be able to properly constrain our sense of liberty through charity. And, he provides us the Holy Spirit to discern how to put this model in balance.

I love God and I believe that what He designs and what He provides is the ultimate expression of what should be. And I am thankful for the Holy Spirit which guides us.

So, I find myself trying to understand how we can apply this model to our government. I believe the founders of this great country understood this and did establish a balance. I believe they intentionally retained the difference between the concepts of Liberty and Charity in how they set America up.

Right now, what I observe is an effort (to some degrees on BOTH sides of the aisle) to subvert liberty and force charity.

On what grounds?

What are the proper grounds for claiming my hard earned money? Especially for purposes which I do not choose?

And what are the proper grounds for asking me to be charitable to people and organizations that I find an abomination?

I would love to hear those answers.

No, my suggestion is as follows: stop inventing new entitlements and stealing my liberty. Instead, move to minimize your sense of entitlement and return to teaching me and everyone a morality that encourages charity. Then trust the people to do the right thing by their neighbors.. or have to deal with Almighty God.

Designing God

Lots of people design rooms, homes, lives; all sorts of things. I design software. Maybe you design gardens. Theoretically, someone even designed the University of Oregon's grotesque football uniforms!

Imagine if you could design god. Imagine you could make god be just the way you want.

Let's say you can. If so, here's an interesting question. How would you design god in the area of providing Love and Acceptance?

Would you design god in a manner that required you to jump through a lot of hoops before you could gain love and acceptance? Or would you design god to give you love and acceptance without the need to jump through hoops?

I thought I'd share an interesting nugget from last Sunday's sermon. It was a minor point made in a much bigger talk.. but one that made an impression on me.

"Christianity is the only religion in which
you gain acceptance from god before you demonstrate obedience.
In Christianity - we are not obedient to acquire acceptance or love.
We are obedient to get closer to God."

God's design for the world is encapsulated in 1 John 4:19 which states "We love (Him) because He first loved us" God chose plan B.. He gives first - without thinking about our response.

This puts verses like 1 Sam 15:22 into better perspective: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice". Sacrificing is giving up something that is prized by us. Obedience is responding to God in love. Sacrificing is 'doing something'. Obedience is 'being someone' - someone aligned with God. God may be interested in what you do. But, it seems clear He is more interested in who you are - and in being in relationship with you. He demonstrates that by 'showing up' in the relationship without regard to how we behave.

Have a great day knowing that God chooses to love and accept you just as you are.

The Bible and Politics

I was recently reading something and the author made the argument.. "All I'm saying is that having a political view because the bible speaks "X" about it doesn't make logical sense to me."

It’s something I’ve heard over and over again.

If you think about it - most of the world would agree on how to make decisions – if you talk in the abstract. Let’s see if I can convince you of that.

I’m simplifying. but basically, you start with what you consider to be truth.

Then, on top of truth you place principles. Principles are fundamental, primary, or general truths from which others are derived. Principles can be thought of as ‘general truth’ that is applicable to all people in all situations at all times.

On top of principles you place ethics (morals). Ethics are simply the rules you employ to make distinctions between right and wrong. Ethics take specific principles and map them to situations where decisions about what is right and wrong are required.

Finally, the cherry on the top are values. We call them values because they tend to express how to make decisions when ethics/morals conflict. At times we have to assign ‘higher or lower value’ to our morals in order to make a final decision. If we think about this as our ‘decision making machine’ it looks like this:

[Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

where the […]s are trying to indicate this is a complete, end-to-end process.

So, decision making looks like taking an ‘issue’ and running through our decision machine (brain) in order to form a decision or behavior:

issue -> [Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values] -> decision/behavior

Inevitably, over the course of a lifetime, the ‘mechanics’ of decision making become so second nature to us that they happen, for the most part, without even ‘thinking about it’. That’s why I refer to it as a ‘machine’ in some sense.

The trouble, for some, comes, I think, when you get specific. For instance, there are two very distinct world views on the subject of truth. One, is that truth is objective. It does not change. The other is that truth is subjective – subject to change. That’s a pretty big difference right there. Now, you have to deal with Principles. Hmmm.. not sure you can build lasting principles on changing/subjective truth - so some periodic rethinking might be necessary here. And, if your principles are shifting – ethics will need to be constantly re-thought through. So, this might be an ever changing machine. But, most people would agree that this is the basic machinery of decision making.

Now, let me switch from a general view to a specific one – since I am a Christian. As a Christian – I insert one more link in the decision making machine. That link is God’s Unchanging Nature. Now, it looks like this:

[God’s Nature -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

Most Christians (I hope) would agree that God exists. Next, they would agree that the Bible reveals to people God and His nature. From this, we derive what we believe are fundamental truths, principles, ethics and values. So, this is what most people are saying, I think, when they say they have 'views' (political or otherwise) that are based on the Bible:

[God’s Nature (revealed by Bible) -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

Okay – almost done. Just one more point to make to address the author’s point. And that simply is that political views are hopefully internally consistent with one’s values. If so, the final picture looks like:

issues -> [God’s Nature -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values] -> policies/politics

Logic concerns itself with making correct inferences (connecting things). Starting with small amounts of information and building to a greater truth. In my little pictures – think of logic as the arrows. As such, I think it is completely logical that a Christian would attempt to form political views based on what they learn in the Bible. It flows naturally from God’s own nature to our Politics.

The tricky part for Christians is to

• really know the Bible (or God’s true nature),
  
• understand the Principles and Ethics that are revealed in the Bible within proper context,
  
• to understand the difference between what God expects of Christians versus what He expects of non-Christians, and
  
• to stay connected to God so as we make errors in judgment (in our ethics, values, etc) that we can get feedback from God that allows us to correct our errors.
  

In all things – remember that God very early on in the chain tells us that one of His fundamental Principles is to Love One Another. You can spend a lifetime trying to integrate that idea into proper decision making. So, no-one said this is easy :-)

Your thoughts?