Sugar, annotated

War between Pakistan and India.  Trump.  Winter.  Life is not as it ought to be.

But let's forget about this for 5:02.  I bring you, Sugar, from Maroon 5.  Let's go.

0:11:  According to The Week, this isn't one of the ten important things to happen on December 6, 2014. I beg to differ. 
0:13:  When all this came out I was fasincated by the premise of the video...did they really crash at least 7 weddings?  Yes and no...maybe not 7, and maybe it wasn't always a surprise, and maybe they did this over three days, not one.  But who cares...it's still a fun video. 
0:23:  WOOOO! 
0:35:  First 'older guy worried about these young'uns' moment of the night.  Not the last, either. 
0:47:  If you're gonna do this all day Saturday, fine...but are you starting this at a 9am wedding?  'Cuz that's what what it looks like.  Never done a 9am wedding personally, but hey it's L.A.  Maybe this is the wedding where the bride was 3 months pregnant and a 9am slot at the country club was all they could get? 
1:08:  Did they do a sound check before they started playing?  That would have been annoying for the wedding party at 9:15am. 
1:17:  "HEY!  Nickelback!"
1:47:  Still late morning.  Weddings are an all-day thing in L.A. I guess...
2:00:  Is Maroon 5 big in the Asian world?  Were the people at this wedding sad that it wasn't some K-Pop group?  Asking for a friend.
2:12:  And did this chef really know Maroon 5?  Is this his favorite group?  Would he have been more sad if this had been Snoop?
2:21:  "HEY!  Red Hot Chili Peppers!" 
2:50:  And now, the shots at the infamous 'Black Wedding', where everybody is a hologram beamed in from the other side of the planet. 
3:00:  Hotties always be driving on the streets of L.A., rolling up on bands.  L.A., man. 
3:11:  "Geez.  Couldn't we have had the roadies carry the guitars?" 
3:15:  Jessica Pare?
3:43:  Now the drinking starts.  I'm guessing that this is why weddings 3-7 were so condensed, as the band was a wee bit wasted by this point? 
3:56:  "Really, who came up with the idea for this shoot?  I am SO hungry now, and we got 3 more weddings to hit in the next two hours?  Get me Steve on the phone, RIGHT NOW." 
4:05:  Break dancing?  Not what you associate with Maroon 5, but OK, whatever.
4:10:  "Dave.  DAVE!  Sit down, you'll fall and hurt yourself.  DAVE!!!"
4:41:  Was the coolest thing ever the wedding, or the band saying this about themselves? 
4:54:  "I LOVE WEEZER SO MUCH!"

The End of the UMC

I have a number of friends who are either in ministry with the United Methodist Church or teach at one of their affiliated universities.  Over the past few weeks almost each of them have been following closely with the recent conference in St. Louis concerning what it was going to do about the issue of the moment, homosexuality.  Was it going to allow their own churches and clergy to do what they want (and so have differing standards on sexuality across different parts of the UMC)?  Or were they going to proclaim the traditional denominational teachings against homosexuality were still valid (and so alienate many who were hopeful that the final break between sexuality and morality was going to be broken)? 

I have friends on both sides of the issue, those who are strongly against opening marriage and ministry to the LGBTQ community, and those who believe that to do so is the only possible route for being relevant in the future.  For both sides this has been an excruciating fight about the future of their denomination.  Most likely whatever happened division was still going to come, because both sides had dug in. 

Surprisingly, the UMC decided to toughen their prohibitions against LGBTQ ordination and marriage.  I'm surprised because it runs against the trends both in the culture at large and within mainline denominationalism, in which homosexuality is now considered a perfectly valid option for people about their lifestyles.

My heart aches for my friends in the UMC who have struggled for this, but I do celebrate because, while the UMC may be wrong on many things, on this it seems that they at least tried to stay within the bounds of Scriptural teaching, even if not for all the right reasons.  Like much of conservatism today they may have gotten here not because it was right but because they were afraid of the future, which are two very different things.  Scripture, in my interpretation of it, at least 5 times speaks to this as something that is abhorrent to God (twice in Leviticus and three times in Paul's letters).  But nothing I have read about this says that they were fully prepared to make this their rationale. 

We live in a strange time in which those who would disregard what seems to be the clear teachings of Scripture and those who are trying to do the right thing but for the wrong reasons will choose to continue this fight.  More shame will continue to be cast upon the body of Christ in this fight...but to glorify God by doing his will, even against our fears and against our culture, must still be our singular purpose, no matter what others may do. 

At least...

Today is another cold, grey day.  I'm exhausted by how long this winter has seemed to be, though likely it's not really much different than any other.  As I get older I am becoming far more intolerant of winter.  I turn 50 in a few years, and I look at RVs and think about becoming one of those people who parks amongst other RVs in south Texas for three months a year. 

But in the last few days baseball spring training games have begun in Arizona and Florida.  Somewhere there are people sitting out on a bright sunny 70 degree afternoon watching millionaires get into shape and hopeful rookies desperately trying to make their mark.  It's a glorious ritual of the American spring.  Though I can't be there for it, I can imagine it.  And so at least there's that. 

Self-Imposed Isolation

I occasionally recuse myself from the socialness of Facebook, sometimes for months at a time.  Part of it's that I just get tired of the same three posts (be outraged by this!  look at how cute this is!  ME ME ME!), but part of it is that I just don't feel all that connected anymore to some people with whom I am supposed to be 'friends'.  Not actually seeing some of these people in the flesh for over thirty years will do this to you, I guess.

So this weekend not far from where my parents live there is a big Church of Christ event (actually on their website everything is church of Christ, and if you are part of this fellowship you know why, but that's for another post).  We are going to be at my parents' house this weekend because they are getting ready to move and we want to say our goodbyes to the house I grew up in, check out the new house, and basically try to be helpful however we can.  We have legitimate reasons for me to say that I'm too busy to attend the church event this weekend, but the reality is that I'm just not that interested.  It's not that I think the speakers are bad, or the topics are bad (though there does seem to be a bit of the 'the one true church is us' within it), but I just feel numb to much of it these days.  I've never been one to go just for the networking angle of it, and considering how far out of the normal circle I am now, I can count on one hand the number of people I would probably actually know.

And it's not just this.  When I read the Christian Chronicle (our 'Church of Christ newspaper'), I don't feel the connection with other churches like I used to.  I don't really have a desire to go back to some of our college lectureships, and many of the books written by our people or the issues I have thought long and hard about just don't appeal to me anymore.  Now, the local church here?  Absolutely...I am passionate about our little group here.  The Word of God in Scripture?  Daily I want to know more, and Scripture is never-ending in what it does to me.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  I want to know Christ, be filled with the Spirit, and be in covenant fellowship with the Father.  And the church universal, with its variety and even sometimes its mistakes?  More and more I feel drawn to it.  I love its history and its traditions and for all its faults I know that God's kingdom is doing great things both here and around the world.

But there is a part of me that feels like I am going the way of some of my dear friends who grew up in Churches of Christ.  They left for non-denominational churches, Christian churches, and other similarly Bible-centered churches.  They didn't leave Christ, but somewhere along the way they decided that the foolishness and the same three issues were no longer palatable to them anymore.  I don't think I could ever leave at this point...for all our problems, this is my home and my heritage, and I love this little local church and all of God's people here.  But the periphery?  Not so much.

Adulthood and maturity is in part about expanding options and also narrowing down options.  Years ago I gave up college football because I developed an interest in soccer.  I rarely watch pro sports on TV these days, as I'm more interested in what my kids are doing.  Maybe it's the same thing with the church universe around me...I just don't have time for some of these things anymore.  Those things are not bad things, but life changes.  Shouldn't I be more excited about what the future holds than what the past binds me to?  I'm not casting aside everything...but I am being more selective about what I hold onto.  And I think this is a good thing.

Walls

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [Ephesians 2:13-17 ESV]

I know some good, Godly people who believe in Donald Trump's wall.  They believe it will save us from drugs, from bad people, from evil pouring over the southern border.  I disagree.  While I believe that border security is important, it's interesting that most of the criminals that come through and the contraband that slips over comes through ports of entry, not the wide-open desert.  Surely we can take those billions that would be spent on a pointless wall (have they not heard of ladders and tunnels and airplanes?) and figure out ways to stop the problems where they really exist? 

But more than anything, I believe that Christians need to be thinking about this question (and every question) theologically...what does the gospel say about this?  Some point to the walls being built up in the new Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21:9-27) and say that, see, even heaven has walls.  Yet a. I'm not so sure that this is heaven...I have come to believe that this is more likely a description of the kingdom of God within the church and b. The gates of that city are never shut, but the nations will continually enter and bring glory and honor (21:25-26). 

We would do so much better to think about this question from the perspective of seeing the nations come as an opportunity to give glory to God.  Somebody who comes to America illegally will likely not stay forever...are we looking at them as potentially great evangelists for Jesus Christ?  How will they know unless they have heard?  It is great to think we can go there and teach, but if they come here, should we not look at this as an opportunity to teach as well? 

The gospel is about tearing down walls that Satan has built up.  We do ourselves no good when we think that building walls on earth is a good idea. 

Winter

This has been a difficult winter.  It's been one of those winters that hasn't been terribly cold or snowy, but it has been grey.  Once in awhile we will see the blue skies and sunlight, but invariably the grey seems to win out.  

Isn't this how life is?  I just finished reading today the Steven Curtis Chapman memoir about his life and career.  It's a brutally honest story of how their marriage and family have not always been perfect...he tries fixing everything, his wife struggles with depression, and they lost a child to a tragic accident.  Grey, threatening skies have abounded in his life, even as his music has inspired me and millions of others. 

But even if the sky is grey and we want to go and run away to Hawaii, life continues on.  We still find joy and love in the lives of one another.  We know that up above the clouds the sky is as beautifully blue as we can ever imagine it, and the storms and the clouds are beneath us.  Even so, it is our human nature to focus on the grey, the negative, the painful, rather than the hope of springtime that our Lord sets before us. 

I am so excited about spring.  My wife and I celebrate 15 years in just over a month, and are going off on a private trip for just a few days.  I am hoping and praying that the weather will be nice, that we can enjoy some kind of warmth, and spring will be what we hope.  It probably won't be...but in Christ we always find hope. 

Thursday

I struggle to write on Thursdays.  Since I started to write again this year, it seems like Thursdays are always the ones where either I skip or I just throw up something that I don't really think about, thus violating the premise of this blog.  Like this tonight.  After driving the bus and working at the church office for at least 12 hours total, I really don't have much on my mind, except for the desire to finish off watching Russian Doll before I fall asleep. 

The premise of this show is that two people keep dying again and again, returning to the same instant.  Since I haven't gotten to the big reveal yet, I don't know what happens...but the worldview of this show, much like Groundhog Day, is that we keep returning to square one.  Perhaps we have a bit more knowledge, but nothing really changes unless we are the change. 

Maybe Thursday is the end of my cycle...or the start of a new one, in which I am refreshed and ready to go.  For some that's the weekend, but I'm a Thursday night/Friday morning change.  Tomorrow I finish my sermons for Sunday, and have times of rest and refreshment.  Thus tonight I have to die, to end the week, to complete the cycle.  Tomorrow life begins anew. 

Indefensible Driving

It snowed a few inches last night, not enough to close school (shockingly) but enough to make the streets slick enough to warrant a lot of caution.  Of course, there are still terrible choices being made out there by people who should have their licenses revoked instantly.  While on my way to lunch a woman pulled out in front of me making me slam on my brakes (fortunately I did not slide much) and as she passed in front of me I noticed that sitting in her lap was a toddler with a binky in her mouth.

I'm not going to be surprised, though, because I see people drive stupidly everyday.  We're told all the time about the dangers of using cell phones or texting while driving, but I see people (usually women) driving with small (and sometimes large) dogs in their laps with their heads out the window.  I see others with 3-4 dogs who have the run of the inside of the vehicle.  I mean, it's hard enough to drive with a few kids strapped in, but letting over-excited dogs who are looking to bark at anything just run free while you are driving?  Are you insane? 

When I drop the kids on my bus route off at the schools I see parents who have no thought as to anything around them, weaving in and out of traffic like it's a video game.  Others run school zone stop lights, ignore the stop arms when we drop kids off in the afternoons, and pull out in front of buses as if they can't see a giant yellow box hurtling their way. 

All this talk in recent years about self-driving cars makes people nervous: 'But what if they have an accident?  What if they kill somebody?'  But I've been watching human drivers long enough...most of them really, really suck at what they do.  Bring on the computers...surely they won't be nearly as bad as the humans. 

I need a nap

We just finished a four-day weekend in which the schools were out, and while I worked at the church it was nice to be down to one job besides my family obligations. 

But today I'm very, very tired.  Forecasters are calling for 3-5 inches of snow later this afternoon into tonight, which means that we are most likely going to have our third weather day of the year.  As a parent, I wish my kids were in school as they need to learn, be around friends, and not have an excuse to be lazy.  But I'm also happy because wintertime is a time of rest, getting us ready for the summer.

Ah, summer.  The time when I don't feel cold all the time...I wish it were here, even now.  As I get older I hate winter more and more.  Being cold is never enjoyable, but I'm more cranky as I get older.  Summer can't get here soon enough. 

Summer may still be months away, but the promise of rest is drawing close.  Thank you, Lord .

Tonight's Dinner and Other Foody Thoughts

Tonight I made a blackened chicken pasta.  It had diced mushrooms and roma tomatoes and bacon in a white cream sauce with about 8 different spices, served over linguine.  It was one of the best things that I have made in awhile.  It required a sink full of dishes to create, but it was well worth it. 

Sunday I spoke about how Jesus liked a good meal.  He ate with Pharisees, sinners, tax collectors, and disciples, and would it times it seems invite himself over to somebody's house.  See: Zacchaeus, the wee bad little man.  I'm sure that it was in part about being with people, but I also wonder what it is that he liked to eat. 

There's something very, very important about food in God's creation.  Almost every culture has their own customs about eating and dishes that they eat...but because eating is so fundamental to life every culture seems to take it seriously.  I remember seeing the old futurist shows in which people would get their nutrition through little pills, and it's more ridiculous as I see how important food is.  It's not that I want to be Anthony Bourdain and eat the strangest of things in the strangest of places (strangest, of course, being a fully relative thing), but I enjoy food in its many forms. 

I wonder if Jesus enjoyed more than loaves and fishes and olive oil and wine.  Did he ever eat any precursor to pasta?  Or tortillas?  Or chocolate brownies?  I wonder how much he would have enjoyed my blackened chicken pasta tonight.  I think he would have, but he probably would have split it up into 5000 other portions while he was enjoying it. 

Civility at the Krispy Kreme

Yesterday was a cold, grey day, much like the many other cold, grey days we have endured recently.  So last night my wife and I fed the kids and ventured out for a dinner for just the two of us.  Afterwards we walked over to the nearby Krispy Kreme to get donuts for this morning. 

There was a family at the counter when we arrived, and not long after we arrived at least another half dozen people walked in.  The family at the counter was a bit slow in deciding what they wanted, and at this point an older man (who might have been slightly drunk) came up to the counter and said something along the lines of, "Come on ladies, figure it out."  The man of the family (likely in his 50s and not a pleasant looking man) turned to the older man and immediately screamed, "Shut the f___ up!" and just glared at him.  A few more comments passed and I was standing almost between then and wondering if I needed to get involved, but I just kept looking at the donuts.  Finally the family with the angry man paid for their donuts and left and the angry man walked up to the older man who was still standing at the counter and got up in his face before finally walking away. 

As I tell this story I realize it's not all that impressive of a story; we didn't come back and tell the kids how we suffered a pitched battle for their donuts, nor can I come up with a good joke that begins "A drunk man, an angry man, and a Mormon missionary" (the person in the back of the line we noticed as we walked out) "walk into a Krispy Kreme".  But it does highlight the world we live in 2019.  Civility has been dying for a long time, I suppose, but whether it's those who accept the unacceptable from our president or those who think themselves so woke that all they can do is scream and rage at others, our nation and culture seems to be in an especially bad place at this time. 

I am currently reading a book about the fight over 'Bloody Kansas' between pro-slavery forces and abolitionists in the 1850s and 1860s and I suppose that things may even be better now, as at least today people don't go killing their neighbors because of political views...no, they just do this now because of a dispute over a video game or a barking dog.  Civility has never been an especially American quality, I guess...we think ourselves so free that we cannot fathom that others are also trying to live within that freedom. 

I don't know all the answers except for a life in Jesus Christ, a life in which people genuinely seek to live out his words to 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.' (Luke 6:27-28)  And, I might add, "Stop screaming at people at the Krispy Kreme." 

Pokemon Card Reality

My 11-year old son has been working hard to save money so that he can buy a Nintendo Switch.  Over the past few weeks he came up with the idea of selling his Pokemon cards, which he never uses anymore, in order to fund this new venture.  At first his idea was to take all his cards to a gaming store up in the city and see how much he could get...but I told him that this probably would not work.  So today we came up with a plan, to find 8-10 cards that were likely of value, some of which showed potential of selling for at least $10 apiece online, and then try some of the shops to see what we could get. 

It's always a fun lesson to watch children learn some of the realities of life.  My son was convinced that we would walk into these stories and they would start throwing big cash wads at him and the Switch would be as good as bought.  I was trying to tell him that it's not quite so easy...at worst people will try to cheat him, or at best the very nature of business means that the people who would buy his cards then have to turn and sell those cards in order to earn a profit.  To do a good deal is not only about you being happy, I told him, but about making sure that both sides are happy. 

We went to a few places but they didn't buy individual cards, so we finally went to a chain place in the mall.  We presented two of his nicer cards (one which we had seen had gone for $150 online, the other probably $50) and asked what they would give.  The manager, who didn't seem too interested, turned around and typed a bit on his computer and came back and offered my son 5 cents for the more valuable one, and 15 cents for the second. 

Now, because of our conversations my son wasn't too heartbroken, but he was almost offended at this.  The guy didn't want to make a deal, of course...but to insult somebody was just bad business.  While walking through the mall we went through a Sears that is going out of business because of bankruptcy proceedings, and my son was asking why businesses fail.  So I now had a perfect example of what happens when a business tries to screw over their customers or provides poor service.  Companies take a long time to succeed, but they can throw away their goodwill almost overnight when they act in bad faith.  We talked a lot about how car mechanics, or home repair businesses, or even card resellers can either do well by treating people right, or fail because they treat people badly. 

Hopefully my son learned a few things about life and business today.  If it took being disappointed in how people treat  him to understand this, then maybe it's not a bad thing.  And we'll always have the joke of knowing that bad businesses will try to offer you 5 cents because they are not ready to do the right thing.

When a brain is dead

The idea behind this blog is 'thoughts of varying quality that need to leave my head.'  But what if there are no thoughts?

Today I worked on stuff at the church building, and then since school was out I came home with the kids and played video games and watched TV and stayed out of the cold.  My brain effectively shut off about noon today.  Thus, there are no thoughts. 

Maybe tomorrow we'll double up on the thinking thing...but then again, it's gonna be cold tomorrow, and I don't have a lot planned. 

The Four Great Candy Holidays, Ranked

There are four great candy holidays: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter.  But which is the best?  A ranking, from worst to best.  

4. Christmas candy.  Basically candy canes and taking regular candy and making it all green or red.  Gets some positive points for the fudge and the mint flavorings here and there...but still, it's a distant fourth. 

3. Valentine's Day candy.  Either it's really sweet and overly sugary candy, like Skittles, or it's chalky stuff like those message hearts, or it's substandard chocolates with all sorts of filling, not all of it good (hello, coconut). 

2. Halloween candy.  Here there is a great kind of variety...but the problem with Halloween candy is that, with the exception of candy corn (which really kinda sucks), it's mostly candy that you get other times of the year.  It's just specially packaged in spooky looking wrapping.  Plus there's the problem that you're never really sure what you get when you trick or treat.  Do you get stuck with people who want to hand out Almond Joys?  Gross.  Halloween gets positive points for the absolute quantity, but the quality just ain't there. 

1. Easter.  Now you're talking...cadbury cream eggs, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans (as long as there's no licorice) and all those tiny little chocolate eggs that sometimes have crunchy rice (does that make it healthy?).  This is hands down the best holiday candy of all.  And the great thing about it is that the other seasons all build up to Easter candy season, so we are saving the best for last. 

I guess all the seasons are great...but for me, Easter candy is the best. 

Didn't see that one coming...

I will turn 50 in 19 months, comfortably middle-aged.  You'd think that I would have acquired a least an ounce of wisdom or foresight to this point, but no.  Several times this year I have been stunned.  There was the day that I found out my parents are moving away from my childhood home (5 miles away, but still).  And then yesterday an old friend told me that he was doing something I never thought he'd do.

It's not that either of these occurrences are bad things, mind you.  For both my parents these changes in their lives are a blessing.  It's just that they hit me out of nowhere; when my friend called me last night to tell his news, I was driving and thought for a moment that I would run into a lightpole.

Maybe it's a good thing that we often are surprised, because in this era in which almost anything is available in seconds online, real life isn't quite as predictable.  We need a few shocks along the way, I guess.  We get to see that we aren't nearly as wise, brilliant, or knowledgeable as we think we are.

And so life is meant to be surprising.  If someone as bizarre as a pudgy unknown Korean singer can appear out of nowhere and make in 2012 the most watched video ever, then what the heck do any of us really know?

The problem of bullying

As an employee of a school district one of the biggest concerns the administrators deal with (and teach us about) is the trouble of bullying.  Bullying causes kids to commit suicide, have bad lives, and hurts academic performance.  It's not just that bullying messes up those who are bullied, but it's also something that messes up those who bully.  Essentially it makes them little psychopaths in training...thus bullying is something that we are told to always be vigilant about. 

But I'm not so sure that we always handle it correctly.  Usually the general process is that adults are supposed to step in and stop these things.  We can't trust that kids will do this, we are told, and so the solution (and the responsibility) results on the shoulders of adults. 

I wonder, though, whether we are doing this right.  While adults need to stop bullying where it starts, I wonder if we also need to teach the kids who are bullied how to deal with this better.  Rather than just running to adults, are we teaching them to be proactive?  At some point they will not have adults around to fix their problems...so what are they doing to do about this now? 

Maybe the problem is that we don't know how to really teach kids.  Because there are bad kid-centered solutions: "Stop being a wimp so people won't bully you."  "Fight back if they hurt you."  "If they make fun of you, make fun of them 7 times worse."  "Just be an all-around jerk so nobody will want to mess with you."  Yeah, these are bad ideas. 

But we could make good ideas: A. Encourage them to not be thin-skinned.  Sometimes I wonder if we call everything bullying; at times on my bus I see a kid who gets upset because somebody doesn't want to talk with them; they're not being bullied, but we talk about it so much that THEY think they are.  B. Help them to see that the opinion of bullies is not really worth their time.  Why do bullies get all the attention?  If we showed them for what they were, maybe kids wouldn't think anything of them, but instead see them as sad people trying to get attention.  C. Genuinely promote the good things in life, and teach people to stop navel-gazing.  We so often focus on all the bad that happens that we do not take time to enjoy the good. 

I don't know...maybe the adults should step in and fix all this, since likely the adults of today were the bullied and bullies of their youth.  We should see it as it is.  But letting the kids fix this problem, giving them ownership, is a really important thing as well. 

Preaching with a cold

I came down with a very minor head cold a few days ago courtesy of my wife.  It's a 1.2 (out of 10) on the sickness scale, no big deal at all.  I feel fine except for my nose running and an occasional sneeze.  No problem. 

Except that today was Sunday, and so time to preach two sermons and lead a Bible class.  There have been times when I genuinely thought my voice would not make it through the day, but the Lord has always gotten me through things.  And today was no big deal at all, though by tonight I found I could no longer sing in anything more than a croak and I am glad that I did not have to hear me speak for a half hour. 

Sometimes I wonder whether God sends head colds, just as he might send other bigger forms of trouble into our lives.  Let's say that my sermon is not really faithful to the gospel...perhaps it misuses Scripture, or brings in legalism, or even leads people into sin.  If I was to preach this, it might be wrong.  Would God ever strike my voice to keep me from preaching in this way?

I sometimes wonder how active God is in the littlest things of life.  I am sure that he is more than capable of rebuking my voice, just as Jesus rebuked wind and waves and disease and demons.  But I don't know if he would do it regularly...maybe sometimes he would let us fall into sin our own.  If we are looking for a sign to always determine if we are right or wrong, how would we ever learn anything? 

Fortunately my cold is about gone, and tomorrow starts another day.  I am thankful for how healthy I am most of the time. 

When a Church is Dying

When I was working on a degree in congregational ministry a few years ago I did a paper about the life and death of churches and compared the process of a church dying to a patient in palliative care.  It was an incredibly moving process for me; for something so beautiful as a church to finally die does not have to be something that happens with fear and loathing, but as something where death can be treated as a necessary part of existence. 

I got to thinking about that today.  I had to drive a wrestling trip to a community not far from somewhere that I used to live.  I knew a number of people at the Church of Christ in that community, but they have all moved away now or died, so I decided to walk a few blocks over to the church building.  What I found was quite depressing...the paint on the front is all peeling off; where there is siding it is becoming all moldy, the porch looks like it could collapse at any moment, and it looks like an abandoned building.  There was a flyar hanging from the door that looked there for weeks, and I wondered if that church has stopped meeting altogether. 

It makes me sad to think about a church that is in its final death stages like this one.  Maybe I'm completely wrong...maybe it is vibrant and full of life and they are so busy doing good works that the members don't have time for a building.  But likely it's a goner, and the next time I go and visit that community the building will have been raised and Starbucks will be sitting there. 

Once upon a time somebody had built that building for a group of people with the great expectation that God would do something great there.  And perhaps he did; yet now it's a place that only brings about sadness when we look at it.  In so many places the same thing has happened and will continue to happen until the Lord returns.  But yet new life is also springing...new churches are being established...new Christians are outnumbering the old that die or fall away.  A building may fall down, but God's creativity to bring about something new will never fail. 

The National Anthem

Today I got up at 4:30am so I could drive our high school JV wrestlers to a tournament in the middle of nowhere.  These are tough days...it's nice to make the extra driving money but being away from the family and basically being stuck with Netflix and books is not all that enjoyable for me.  I don't care for wrestling. 

But as the meet starts today I notice something that seems to be everywhere now...the National Anthem.  Before we can do any sporting event in our nation we have to all stand attention and hear the national anthem sung, often off key. 

I love our country, and for all the problems we have I still think that there's nowhere else I'd rather live.  But I am conflicted, in all honesty, about the excess of patriotism that seems to be everywhere in our country today.  It's not that patriotism is a bad thing, of course...but I do think that the way it is practiced today is mind-numbing in its unthinking fealty towards our nation.  More than faith in God, more than goodness wherever it may be found, more than genuine friendship and family, the love of nation seems to be our national religion today.  Not just the nation, of course, but the nation as people want it to be in their minds: conservative, unchanging, homogenous. 

The national anthem, in particular, is testament to this. It is a song ultimately about perseverance to fight a war (the War of 1812) that should never have been fought.  It is a song about a flag and what it means to people rather than objective principles of righteousness. 

Maybe that's why we sing it so robustly.  Were it about something complicated, maybe we wouldn't think we have to indoctrinate our children and fellow citizens so strongly. 

The Power of Proper Questions

So yesterday I came across this interesting bit of information about how the methodology of surveys in the creation vs. evolution debate is often part of the problem.  If the surveyors ask only whether one believes in evolution (all chance) versus creation (all design), then they get one answer.  But if they ask about whether it's all natural selection, or evolution that is in part guided by God, or whether humans have always existed in their current form, they get different answers. 

It's not that I really think it is important as to what the answer is...whatever process you believe brought humanity into its present form takes a kind of faith, either in the always-changing views of science or a particular interpretation of the first book of the Bible.  Over the years I have come to believe that people have changed, though God may well be a part of this process of change. 

Isn't change the way that God works, even as God himself is unchanging?  Consider dogs.  There are many breeds of canines, but they are all technically dogs.  It would be hard to think that a cocker spaniel is the same thing as a St. Bernard which is the same thing as a golden retriever...but they are.  Because dogs have been bred in such particular ways we have these kinds of breeds developing in such a short time.  Why do we then assume that any other kind of life can't change gradually given a much longer period of time? 

Even humanity has changed...think of how there are different skin colors, facial features, or sizes based upon what kind of ancestry one has.  Would a scientist from another planet assume that a pygmy from Africa is necessarily the same kind of human as a white person from northern Europe? 

Yet all this being said, I still believe in creation.  Whether or not it is the specific form of Genesis-1-six-days-of-creation is for me a question I don't really care about.  I am more interested in the Biblical witness that humanity and its history has been guided and directed by God, even today.  Genesis 1 may be a factual account of history, or it may be more likely a poetic account of how things came to be over millions or even billions of years.  In truth, I really think that Christians have sometimes got far too caught up in particulars rather than seeing the big picture. 

You could make the same kind of argument about the nature of how a question is asked when it comes to hell.  If you only ask, 'Is there a hell?' some may want to say no.  Their perception of what hell is may well make them want to think it can't exist; and while some have come to belittle hell as simply the context for a Far Side cartoon, others may in fact still be haunted by visions from hellfire and brimstone preaching.  But what if we ask, 'Is there a point where one may well be fully separated from God?'  then it changes the question. 

Over the years I have 'evolved' my Biblical understanding of hell.  For a long time I simply thought that it was the place where God was was not.  The worst part of hell would be the eternal knowledge that you could have been with God, but chose not to.  Now, though, my understanding has changed to a view that I believe takes the Scripture more seriously.  When we think of 'eternal destruction', I think we do better to put the emphasis on the second word, destruction.  To be destroyed means the end of something, and that it is eternal (the adjective helping to shape the noun) means that it cannot be reversed.  God would often destroy things (especially in the OT) but that doesn't mean that it ended forever...consider Jerusalem, for example.  It was destroyed, but God restored it and will continue to restore it in eternity.  But if something is eternally destroyed, it ceases to exist totally.  Will one who has rebelled against God or rejected his Lordship mean that there will someday be an end to their existence?  I believe so.  Just as many people have as their greatest fear death, so the sense that there will be a time of no more existence is a great horror for many.  Some would almost rather spend eternity in hellfire sulfuric torture than to not exist (so egotistical they are!), but perhaps the greater curse is God finally saying, "You...no more."  And then it is so. 

To me this seems a more God-honoring view of hell than eternal torture.  To me the thought that every existing, eternal moment is sheer brutality does not match up with God's nature.  But it is in God's nature to destroy a soul and purge its existence from his holy and glorious creation. 

And so, do I believe in hell?  Yes, I do...but not in the way many think of it, just as I don't think of evolution or creation in the way that many think of it.  God is much more creative in his creation and destruction of life than we can ever imagine; don't box him in so much that it removes his essential nature because you interpret one or another Scripture in a certain way. 

It's so often how you look at things that make the difference. 

Cancelling Church

Our little church almost never cancels church.  But tonight while walking in for our Wednesday evening Bible classes I noticed that the weather that was predicted at 9:15 was coming in at 6:15.  A slow, steady freezing mist that covered everything like stink on a politician.  A few times I almost slipped, and by the time I arrived at our church building, having all along thought we were having church, I noticed that every car I walked by was covered with a glaze.  Talking to a few of our teachers, I quickly deduced that yeah, this might be a good time to stay home. 

Maybe we were a lot tougher in years gone by.  Maybe we were a lot more faithful to the Lord.  Truth is, we will get up and still drive to work tomorrow and earn that paycheck.  If the Chiefs had a game tomorrow night, I can think of many people who would brave brutal highway conditions (not to mention 4+ hours out in the hypothermic conditions) to go to the game. 

But while I sometimes wonder if maybe we have priorities messed up, as I get older and have experienced the misery of falling on the ice more than a few times, I think it's better to stay home.  Were it daylight, of course, that would be another story.  But nighttime?  I'm home. 

(And let me say, there is absolutely no chance that our local school district will be in session tomorrow.  We've only had one weather day so far this year, and they are just itching to have another.  I told my kids that they get $20 if we are in school, I'm so confident of this.  I certainly have no desire to drive my overglazed bus tomorrow.) 

Out of Position

My daughter has until a year or two ago been a head taller than almost every other kid in her class.  As a basketball player, whether it was me coaching her or somebody else, the natural inclination has always been to put her down low in the post both on offense or defense.  After all, we think, if she is so tall, isn't that where the tall girls go? 

Unfortunately, she's never really fit that role.  While through the years she has been a nightmare on defense when the ball comes into the paint, and even now it seems rare that anybody scores on her, there's been many other ways in which she has not lived up to what we wanted her to be.  She doesn't have the mindset to really crash the boards (which is very necessary at this level since most kids can't shoot), and she never really developed an inside offensive game, where she can take take a quick dribble and drive in for a shot.  We've worked on it, but it's not easy for her. 

And so at times watching her play has been frustrating as both a parent and a coach.  Why won't she get that rebound?  Why won't she turn and score over somebody?  And why on earth can she never, ever win the opening jump ball of the game?  Grrrrrr. 

I've always believed that the best coaches figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each player and finds what is best for them.  And so the problem has not been with my daughter, but how I and others have coached her.  We have tried making her into a 5, when she's probably something else entirely.  I just didn't know what it was.

It finally hit me a few games ago, when the offense on our team really started to click.  We were whipping the ball around the perimeter, and she started jumping out and becoming part of the offense 18 feet from the basket.  Her passing, which has always been good, really started to be excellent.  Rather than be a spectator while the other four ran an offense with the (unlikely) hope that she would be there for a rebound, she started finding a new role.  Some of the other girls started crashing the boards and she simply sought out space to receive the ball and make 10-foot shots.  And when other players came out to guard her, she continually made good passes over and under that have led to easy scores for her teammates.

A similar thing happened on defense.  Rather than being shoved around underneath by some girls who I fear already have diabetes, she started covering more mobile players out on the wings.  At least a few times this season she has picked off passes across the middle like a free safety and before anybody else noticed she is on the other end for a layup (sometimes missed, but that's another story).  Her long stride and wingspan make it where lazy passes have no chance. 

There's a life lesson here.  Sometimes we try to box people in and say that they are something when in fact they are not that at all.  Jesus continually spoke that by our fruits we will be known...but sometimes we have to take time to stop expecting that an apple will be an orange.  I have wondered in recent weeks how her basketball life would have been different if I hadn't so quick to assess her height; would she be a tall point guard now?  Probably not; her lateral movement is not that great and dribbling has never been a strength.  But would she be a dominant shooting guard or a wing who could cut inside?  Who knows. 

I don't have any delusions that my daughter is now re-inventing herself into being a college prospect at basketball...but I am happy that she finally found a coach who has started to use her correctly, something that I and others never seemed to do.  Now, if only he would stop letting her do the jump balls...

DMX, A Tribute

I'm not into rap music, but the rapper DMX has always intrigued me.  Maybe it's his voice, so raw and powerful.

A few years ago, though, I heard somewhere that DMX decided that his calling in life is to a pastor.  Sure, consider his lyrics to simply be art, the poetic rhymes of a prophet, and maybe you can see it.

But then look at his arrest record, his addiction to drugs, and that he has at least 15 children by any number of women.  At that point the protests get a little bit louder...should we be putting people in positions of caretakers and guides in life when they are either going to get the women in the church pregnant, the kids in the church hooked on crack cocaine, or the men's Bible study tossed in jail overnight?  Probably not a good idea.

Of course, we elect leaders all the time that have no business being leaders.  We select as role models those whom we would she never see as Godly examples.  We make into heroes people who have never done anything truly heroic in their lives.

So why not have DMX be our pastor?

I guess my reaction would have to be in the immortal words of DMX,

Driving Mister Daddy

I mentioned yesterday that my 13-year daughter likes it when we go driving.  Even when she was 11 or 12 I would take her over to the empty school parking lot on weekends and let her get behind the wheel and go around in circles.  She's tall and has no problem seeing over the wheel and has a sense that this is something important and even dangerous, and that she should be safe. 

A few months ago we started to venture out from the parking lot; I'd let her drive on the back streets of our town, always keeping her away from other traffic or places where she would get in trouble.  As time went on, though, she kept getting better as a driver, and so we started driving out into the country or on the road to the next town.  She is wanting to learn how to do well in parking, how to drive at night, how to drive in bad weather.  Today she started to look online at the drivers' permit tests she will take in another year or so, but all the while she's very cautious, never going over the speed limit, and very courteous towards other drivers. 

I have no fears when she is driving.  She is still almost a year away from being able to get her driving permit, but I'd trust her more than many of the other people I see driving.  It used to be that parents would have their kids do a lot of the farm or house chores before we rediscovered childhood.  Had my daughter been alive in those days, I'm sure she would have been the one driving the farm tractor to town in order to pick up parts.  I'm wondering whether or not I can start letting her be my regular driver, whether I can just sit in the back seat and read my book and enjoy the passing scenery.  She'd love this. 

For years I have been awaiting the days in which it would be a regular thing for cars to be self-driving.  Maybe I was waiting for the wrong thing...my daughter has been ready to drive me all along. 

Saturday, Today

I am a dad.  I got up this Saturday morning today at 6am because I had to be clocked in at the bus barn by 7am so I could pick up my daughter's 7th grade basketball team to take them to a nearby community.  There they played two games: one loss (terrible refs) and one win.  I spent a lot of time with my wife and in-laws in the stands as well as visiting with one of the other basketball dads.  Then we turned around and came back and I put in over seven and a half hours on the clock.  I ate too much at the hospitality room of the school to the point that I didn't eat any supper but a cup of yogurt tonight.  Later I took my daughter driving (she's 13 and really, really wanting to learn to drive) and then played Rocket League with my son for an hour and laughed at him as he played Fortnite.  In between I watched a little bit of soccer on TV, finished reading a book, talked a lady from church on the phone, and now am sitting in my darkened living room while everybody but my amped-up daughter is already in bed. 

Did I really get anything done today?  From a purely objective perspective, no.  But I got to spend lots of time with the three people in the world whom I love the most.  So yeah, it was a good day. 

The Bible in School

So there's a story that's gone under the radar a bit this week, that Trump is trying to shore up his base by encouraging schools to study the Bible, though it's never something he himself did.  Years ago I might have thought this was a good thing...but the older I get the more I could see that this might be a disaster for what remains of the Christian faith in this country.  It's not just that the closer Christians get to worldly power that they become less effective. 

But my first reaction this week in hearing this is "Who's going to be teaching?  And how will they approach the Bible?  Through the eyes of faith?  Or simply as just another book to be studied?"  Those who are older can appreciate the Bible as a literary masterpiece, I believe...but what about children?  Do those of us who are trying to instill a sense of faith through Biblical teaching really want to open the doors of others misusing it for a right-wing political agenda?  Think about it...

-In Joshua 10 there's the story of the sun standing still while Joshua holds up his hands and Israel fights a battle.  How's that going to be handled by somebody who does not look at Scripture through the eyes of faith? 
-When 1 Samuel 18:3 speaks about the covenant relationship David and Jonathan had because of their love, how's that going to be presented in this world in which same-sex relationships are affirmed?  Will it really be taught in its context or will it be used by teachers with certain agendas that conservative Christians would strongly object to? 
-Will the story of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus be taught as fact, or as a myth explaining Christian origins?  The same could be asked about creation. 
-When it comes to reading Revelation, how will that be interpreted?  What if it is taught by a literalist who sees it as a timeline for the end times through a dispensational premillennial lens? 
-And heck, what will economic conservatives do when it comes to reading about the church in Acts selling all they have and pooling resources together?  Or reading prophetic denunciations of the wealthy buying second homes while the poor don't have anything?  Can you really see little Johnny come home and telling his MAGA parents that the Bible teaches communism? 

In a perfect world I want my children to learn Scripture as much as possible.  But I know about Scripture enough to know how badly it can be handled, sometimes even within the church.  So then do I really want my children to be confused at this point in their lives?  Someday they will have to make some hard decisions on how to read Scripture...but I want them guided by people of faith, not by public school teachers whose faith I know nothing about.