Letting my Leaves Fall: Israel Two

Continuing my thoughts on my trip to Israel. Part 2 here. 

This post will be simple, and therefore hopefully profound.

I'm going to tell a story, then put some of Jesus' words after it.  Read the story, then the words, mix them together in your head/heart and see if any relevant or meaningful conclusion comes from it.

First the story.

This is The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Sepulcher is a Latin word for "tomb".  This site is one of the possible places Jesus was killed.  It's so big it also encompasses one of the possible tombs he was laid in.

For a while the church had a huge problem.  There are six major forms of Christianity that all claim some sort of ownership of the church.  They each want the right to hold their own services inside, and they each want their own ownership of a specific part of the building.

Roman Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Eastern Orthodox, all lay claim to some part of the function of this building. Protestant forms of Christianity aren't represented in the church.

Naturally, none of the 6 denominations trust any of the other 5 denominations to effectively manage or run the place.

For many years, talk of back stabbing and ill management rang out between the different denominations.

Finally a solution was discovered.

None of the Christians trusted each other, so the keys to the church were given to, and reside with to this day, a Muslim family who unlocks the building every day at 5:30am.

20 “My prayer is not for these men alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Letting my leaves fall: Israel One

In the next several days I'd love to chronicle my trip to Israel with some thoughts and ideas I hope solidify the experience and the place for people who haven't been yet.  

Maybe one day, in your half awake stupor, you sat clicking through thousands of channels at 4am.  You perchance happened to come across a C-SPAN type viewing of British Parliment.

It's actually kind of hilarious.

They yell their opinions of everything, no matter who's talking.  The Prime Minister could be giving his version of "The State of the Union" address and you'd hear dozens of old politicians mumbling and sometimes yelling at him.  The speaker usually raises his voice to talk over them, but occassionally the sassier ones will respond to the jeers in amazingly sarcastic dry British wit.

My first view of Israel

I put that idea in your head obviously for a reason.

It can be tough preaching a message to people who don't want to hear it.

I traveled to Israel with a number of pre-conceived notions and while I was there they one by one fell to the ground, like leaves from my tree of "Western thinking."

I grew up through the 90's watching "peace in the middle east" develop as sort of a catch phrase.  People would hold up their "peace" hand signals and we'd feel proud watching two enemies shake hands standing next to one of our more famous American politicians.

And then it all would fall to disaster.

Watching the same cycle repeat leads one to wonder, what the heck?  Why isn't anything working?

Here's where my thinking was flawed.  I believed, maybe like many others in the US, that peace is being fought for by something like 99% of the people.  We've got a radical 1% (on both sides) and a vast majority clamoring for all hostilities to cease.
That entire vision is entirely wrong, and that idea is one of the leaves that need to drop from my tree.

There are pro-Palestinians who are convicted to fight, and their are pro-Israelis who are convicted to fight, and neither one is interested in peace, if it means surrendering the core of their goals.

We are staring at a broken marriage saying "I'll do whatever I have to do to make sure you stay together." and both husband and wife are already sold on divorce.

To achieve peace you have to convince at least one side that peace is preferable to the alternative.

Right now, to both sides, peace means giving up something they're not willing to give up.

We've got a nastier version of British Parliment going on here, speaking a message to an audience who isn't interested in said message.

And when you think about it, Jesus had the same struggle.  His message of peace was spoken to Jews who were ready to take up torches and swords and overthrow Roman oppression.  I mean, imagine Jesus saying "blessed are the peacemakers" to a group of people who are hoping he's a military leader who's going to instigate the gorilla campaign that will win them back their land?

You can bet a bunch of them were kind of bummed to hear that phrase.

Jesus even says "My peace I give to you."  to his disciples in John 14.  He says "my peace" to indicate it's not an idea, "hey guys peace would be great" it's an essential part of living like him.  "I do peace, so you do peace"

Praying for peace in the middle east won't work because the people there don't want it.  Just my idea, but any prayers directed for that area, (and you should be praying for that part of the world) should be for transformation.

Transformation of hearts and minds, because "My peace I give to you" is the only peace that will survive, and thrive, in that land.

The Following is a True Story

On Sunday, I flew from LAX to ATL on a very cramped, very delayed, very annoying flight.  I remember vividly, walking up the aisle and realizing that I was in a row next to a blind man. For a moment I thought, "Ok, don't I have extra responsibilities or something, sitting next to a handicapped person on an airplane?  Don't I have to help him with his seat raft or something if we land in water?"  

To be clear, I don't have very good luck with chance encounters.  I probably have ten bad ones for every one good one.  I mean, some are so bad they're actually comedic, and for that I'm grateful, but most are just bad.

"Perfect" I thought, "This actually makes total sense.  The flights been delayed, the weather is bad, of course I get a blind person to sit by."  

You'll notice the obvious set up at this point, as in, this encounter was in the end very positive.  But it was more than positive, it was, a moment.  A place in time, in your life, that you wish you could stick a pin in.  If there's a long line on a piece of paper that represents your life, where would you stick your pins?

I'd stick one on Sunday, December 8th.

As we sit doing nothing, the man strikes up conversation.  I'm seething, that this company would board its passengers with no pilots there to fly the plane, and now, I have to engage with this single serving friend, for how long, five hours, ten hours, seventy years? 

Looking back, it's clear that at this point I'm the center of self-absorption.

His finger flies up and slides back and forth over the little fan thingy, he says he's looking for a call button.  The passenger behind him reaches over, takes his finger, and leads it to the call button for him.  

Well crap.  That was obviously my job I guess.  But I wasn't sure if I should just grab his hand and lead him, or if I should hit my own call button, then explain to the stewardess that this man needs help pushing his call button...  It already seems like a Python sketch.

We take off finally, I find that he is, despite my preconceived notions, a very pleasant conversationalist.  I notice his iPhone, because I can totally stare at his phone and he'll never know it.  He's got headphones plugged in, and his phone is reading to him from the book of Hebrews.  

That was probably the first time I've ever seen a blind person digging into scripture.  A strange thought: Do blind people ever get upset, reading about Jesus granting sight to the blind?  Clearly he can, yet they're still blind.

We work our way to talking about the Bible, and the man tells me he's memorized the entire book of Hebrews.  He picked one book to memorize, and decided that would be his book, he loves the message of it, and he knows it all the way through.  

Now, several people, including the man behind that helped him, are turning their ears to listen to him.  By the end of the flight he has a tiny little audience, and the funny thing is, he totally has no idea.

Since I also love Hebrews, we talk easily about it.  He tells me it's very accessible for the new seeking Christian, but also plenty of deep theology for the person interested in study.  

The exact reason I always tell people I love Hebrews.

I'm disarmed, this terrible horrible no good very bad flight has turned on its head.  

I've never had one of these "check out who I met on a plane" stories, so thanks for indulging me.

He says he's a bit worried about his connecting flight to Orlando.  It's due to take off three minutes after we land.  Before he's finished talking the stewardess, one of his recent fans, tells him they're going to hold the plane and she's going to lead him to it herself. 

As we exit, a few people around us introduce themselves to him, for no real apparent reason at all.  He holds out his hand indicating they can shake it, and they do.  

He stops the stewardess from leading him away so he can say goodbye to me.  He says he sings, and also says he'd love to listen to my books if I ever get them on audio format.... Yeah I need to do that.

Here he is, Neville Peter, the man who made my flight a bit better.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1EWML1tNo

The Horrible Hallowed Haunted House

How the "scare houses" put on by many churches are hurting everyone.  

Imagine an empty hospital.

Doctors and nurses wander the halls, looking everywhere for patients.  They shuffle their feet, twiddle their thumbs.  I dunno... Throw playing cards one at a time into an overturned hat?

Then one Doctor has a brilliant idea.

Let's run out into the masses, open fire on them, ya know, with guns.  That way we will literally fill up our hospital in minutes.

That's kind of what happens in many super-fundamentalist Pentecostal and Evangelical churches this time of year.

"Let's go out and create the kinds of issues that will get people to come in our doors."

They bear many different names, Hayride to Hell, Hike into Hell, The Lake of Fire Hay Maze, or "Look What Happens to you, you non-Jesus Loser"

This phenomenon has even become formulaic over the years.

1.  Scene with some teens dying.  You know, Johnny was a smoker, Billy was a gay with AIDS, Jimmy got shot up in a drug deal.  (This is where you utilize your theatre kids, Youth Ministers)

2.  We see the souls of the kiddos whisked away to some form of judgement scene.  Use lots of Gold spray paint, and a really sweet voice modulator for your God character.  After all, he's so angry!  Roar Kids!

3.  The kids are found guilty, and then taken to hell.  Usually dark, screams, plenty of smoke, and more often than not, strobe lights... Hell has strobe lights?

4.  Finally, your hay cart leaves hell, and takes you to a last scene, where a white robed, blue sash Jesus actor literally gets in your face, (occasionally only inches away) and scares you into "accepting Jesus".  Some guy says a prayer over the tour group.

Hey look! The final scene was nicely placed right next to the parking lot.

Excuse the crass spewing from my fingers.  It's hard to disguise my true hatred of these events.

In a few short, concise ideas, I'll try to encapsulate the major forces working directly against Christianity at these events.

SPECULATIVE NATURE:  We have to keep all theology within the realm of what's revealed to us mortals.  When it comes to "end of days" stuff basically 99% of it is hidden from us.  On purpose. What goes on at these events is taking huge leaps and filling in huge blanks that we're supposed to not be thinking, or indeed, worried about right now.  These events literally add to the gospel, (they talk about not doing that in Revelation actually ) and give non-believers the false idea that "this is what we KNOW will go down"

CONVERSION CENTERED DRAMA:  The goal here, with these churches, is conversion of mass groups all at once as they pass through this spectacle.  These poor kids walk away with the church investing nothing in them or in discipleship.  The pastors fist pump at the number of kids "saved" at their event, and then forget about them.  They went through and got their card punched.  Conversion without discipleship is buying the gym membership and never going.  It's worthless, you wasted time and money, and you probably smell a little weirder.

SALVATION SCARE TACTICS:  I'm assuming you know this one is literally insane already.  It may occasionally help with the conversion of someone prone to fear, but once we disciple them, and they get deep into the ideas of grace, they'll soon realize "hey, you kind of cheated to get me here."

I know the counter argument too, "What if one person is saved from all the thousand "Hell Nights" around the country?  I'd wager if one was saved, there's a dozen who will hate, reject, and cry out against churches because of events like these.

These events are built for "first timers" and are a terrible, false, and sinister introduction to the story.

But, I do so love autumn events...

What about a giant bonfire, bigger than you've ever seen, as in, the church had to get permits to build it.  A newcomer walks up, "Wow, is that what hell is supposed to look like?"

"No. that's what his love looks like."

I'm a "Millennial" and here's what I have to say about "Emerging Church"

As someone born in 1983, I exist in this strange realm on the cusp of 2 generations.  I can sort of pick which one I want to identify with.  I can either call myself, a very young "Gen Xer" or a very old "Millennial", depending on who's chart I'm looking at. 

At first I thought about being a Gen X.  I mean, I had a CD Walkman with "BASS BOOST" and "SKIP PROTECTION."  I did listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a fair amount, but I wasn't even ten years old when it was released.  

In the end, I decided to be an "old soul" of the Millennials, and there's something about us that I'm finding off putting.  I read a statistic the other day that hit me pretty hard.  Apparently, I'm a member of 

"the least parented generation ever."  

Now, is this a statistic that's measurable or reliable? Is this a true "metric"?  

Not at all, obviously.  

But still, there's something about it that feels right isn't there?  When you read it you think, "yeah, probably."  

Which begs the question, 

If it's the job of the older generation to parent the younger, and the younger generation clearly hasn't "got it together", who's responsibility is that? ........ But I digress.  

I'm finding, as the millions of poorly-parented young adults begin to trek into the world, that all is, in fact, not lost.  

They're still learning the life lessons they need to, just in different ways, and a bit later than normal.  This is why Millennials are often called "Generation Y" as in "Generation Why"  

As someone with fairly amazing parents, I can't help but feel as if I stand as an outlier of my generation.  Though I'm still "plugged in" to how we're doing because we're about to inherit the earth and we need to be ready to take it.  

If nothing else, Millennials are master "customizers."  Everything about our life, world, intake, and relationships can be customized thanks to technology, millions of options, and the fact that our opinions run our lives down to the minute and most marketing firms know this.  So when anyone asks me to explain what the "Emerging Church" is, my best and most simple answer is something like, "Understand Millennials, and you'll understand Emerging Church."  

We are a "learn as you go" generation, because... well... no one really taught us. (Sorry Baby Boomers, this isn't really meant as harshly as it may sound)  

And so the church we're beginning to enter into is becoming a "learn as we go" church.  We grow together, as a community group, rather than a nuclear family, since so many of us lacked that.  We try things and decide to keep them, then try other things and decide to cut them.  We pry and ask and study and argue because we are more "Tabula Rasa" at age 30 then probably any generation before us.  

But here, at the heart of this, emerges the one awesomely powerful advantage of the Millennials.  

To us, the community is bigger, and more important, than the institution.

Millennials hate institutions.  We've seen too many of them become corrupt and crumble and fade.  This includes both secular (Wall Street, Bernie Madoff, American Baseball, Lance Armstrong) and spiritual (Catholic Priests, The 700 Club, Westboro Baptist) examples.  

We crave community because it's how we learn, and it's where we're safe.  We don't take rules spoon fed to us because we've been conditioned (at a frighteningly young age) to not trust all of them.  So we consider any church tradition we might want to use with essentially two rules. 

1.  If there's no one to tell you about it, then try it out and dive into it and see if it works, it's ok if it doesn't.  It's not the end of the world to try a tradition that has previously been thrown out.  It IS the end of the world to simply accept what the previous generations say about it.

2.  Keeping the church body full and healthy is ten times more important than any tradition, and anything in the way of that will be left behind.    

See the inherent trust issues there?  Yeah, millennials aren't awesome at trust, but we're awesome at seeking and probing, and once we give our loyalty to something we probably won't take it back.  

And so, the previous four of five generations before us practiced a more "Inherited Church" than we are, and that's not bad.  

But it's important to remember...  We're not the first "Emerging Church" and we won't be the last.  

This is a cycle, and we're playing our part of it.  

The most "emerging" of all the "Emerging Churches" is in the book of Acts.      

Actually there's several in Acts.  A group of people who literally start with nothing, no Inherited Church to speak of, and end up figuring it out as they go.  

If there's one passage of Jesus that Emerging Church folks love, it's probably John 17: 20-23, often called the Unity Prayer.  

Jesus says "Just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."  

Where does the belief come from?  The fact that all of Jesus' followers are united.  

Too much "Inherited Church" over too many generations leads to what we have now, a thousand different churches all worshiping Jesus and all saying the others aren't doing it right.  

The irony being that Jesus prayed for his followers to do the exact opposite.  

If "Emerging Church" (whatever that means) gets us closer to John 17 it will likely do so with some bumps and bruises and injuries along the way.  

But, bumps and bruises and injuries are part of the journey too.  

Just look in Acts. 

How to Starve Your Pride: It's Possible, Realistic, and Extremely Difficult.

     I've been feeling prideful lately.  Not in a "king on top of a mountain" sort of way, but maybe in a "smug old man sitting in first class with a blanket over his legs and a pair of very expensive headphones on."  Sort of way.  

     Writing sloppy disjointed metaphors, (see above) should be a great way to dismantle any man's pride, but I needed to really beat my pride back sufficiently, so I did what I do to everything I want to defeat, I study it.  

     Several theologians, preachers, and christian writers (including CS Lewis) have used the word "cancer" when talking about pride, and I like that. 

     Have you heard that saying, "If you can smell your own body odor it means you've been smelly for three days?"  Pride is like that, by the time you smell it on yourself it's probably been there for a while, and you're in dire need of a shower.  

     Body odor

     Pride

     Cancer 

     By the time you notice them they're so advanced, so deadly, and so overpowering, you'll need drastic measures to deal with them.

     Pride eats at your contentment, and it does it in such a way that you don't even realize what's happening.

     Now, before we move on, we need to make a distinction in the way of definition. 

     Pride is NOT, "I have much and you have little."  Pride is "I have much, you have little, and that is good, right, and means the world is just."  

     Ouch, you probably wouldn't want to have coffee with that person right?  But here we find the weakness in the armor.  There is a "comparison" element that feeds and grows pride.  

     It happens every day, in tiny little "pride" transactions as you go about your life and notice others.  Maybe they're not as "put together" as you are, maybe their taste in music, culture, fashion, anime, sandals, sports teams, chocolate, TV shows, politicians, isn't as refined as yours.  When you regard another person, or something about them, and feel a rush of satisfaction when you realize you are somehow superior, you've just fed your pride.  And feeding it doesn't just keep it around, feeding pride makes it grow.  Pride is never just existing because that's not it's nature.  Pride is either growing or dying, it does not ever live on a flatline.  

It's always going up, 

or down. 

     It eats at your contentment slowly, methodically, very like cancer, until you've got no contentment left.  Then it attacks more vital systems, namely love, or your capacity to love.  Finally in the later and most acute stages, pride eats away your common sense entirely.  

     When this happens, pride becomes a machine within you, helping you justify other sins.   Pride tells you the anger you had at that barista was totally ok.  Pride tells you writing that patronizing e-mail was perfectly fine.  

     Pride tells you that playing the victim card is always a great idea.  

     Eventually pride becomes the j

     Forcing yourself to stop the constant wheel of all day mini-comparisons is the first and most vital step to starving pride.  It's the chemo your system needs.  

     After that, I've found intentional solitude to be the dagger in pride's heart.

     Pride, being comparison fed, hates a solitary person.  Solitude leaves nothing and no one to compare with, and weakens pride.  A prideful person is always "looking out" solitude forces us to "look in."  While we're "looking in" we often notice the less than flattering parts of our personality and take steps to deal with them.  It's simply amazing what some solid alone time will do for someone fighting pride.    



     In Stephen King's "The Stand" one of the main characters, Mother Abigail, believes her self guilty of pride.  Her method of dealing with it is simply to get up and walk away, leave town and wander into the wilderness alone.  She does just that, (she's 108 years old) and the people in town who know and love her begin to scramble.  Upon her return she assures all of them that her sudden walkabout was not only good, it was essential.  I remember reading that and thinking, "wow, Stephen King gets it."  After all, when Jesus was being tempted in the desert, pride was one of the central subjects of that event.  And since "he was tempted in every way", we know he was tempted with pride.  He took it out to the wilderness and dealt with it.

    

Born to a Garden

I was born to a garden.  It was lush, wild, and held everything I needed.
You only gave me one rule, which I broke immediately.  And although I was invited to leave,
you still drove a path for me.

I grew and grew, and made my own rules.  After some time, you told me you were unhappy.
Not just with me, but also unhappy with yourself for ever putting me in the garden to begin with.
You said you were going to start over, but said your new plan still included me.  There was a boat,
and still you drove a path for me.

We started over, I got rich.  I had animals, money, children, once again, everything I needed.
One day I was attacked.  It was all gone in a moment.
My friends told me I had done something wrong, I assured them I hadn't.
I demanded that you show yourself, and you did.  I was humbled instantly, but still you showed me,
there was a path.

You brought me to the most powerful man in the world, and I impressed him.
He gave me a job, and I made him richer than he ever was before.
I too, grew and grew, until it frightened him.  He changed the rules, and put me in chains.
And suddenly the path was gone.
Then one day, in a fire, you showed me it was still there.

We left the oppression together, I saw we were in a dessert and you said you'd protect me
but I was afraid, and begged to go back.
Finally I saw the place you had in mind, for me to live and grow and thrive.
I prepared the place, though not how you wanted.  And began to live.

I followed you, left you, came back, argued with you, swore at you, left again.
I said I'd walk with you, I said I'd take your path, then I walked everywhere else. 
You told me that you would stop telling me how to do things, and instead come and show me.

You came to me in a way I didn't expect, so I thought that maybe it wasn't really you.
Then you healed me, you told me to walk with you again, you pulled me from water when I was drowning.
You game me food, told me stories, and said there were things you had to do, but I never really understood.
I asked you about the path, and you said there was a path, but that it wasn't for me.

I asked what you meant, and you said there was a path I couldn't walk with you.
I got nervous, and said I didn't know you.  I said I'd rather have a criminal than you, and then I ran.
I yelled at you, mocked you, beat you, telling you to over and over to escape, if you really could.

And then you were gone.

I laid low.  There wasn't much to do, just wonder if your grand experiment had failed.
Finally I went to see you, but you were gone.  I told people, who didn't believe me, and went to see.
Then you were walking right next me, and I didn't even know it was you.
You told me your path was now complete, but the story wasn't over.

The path that you walked I should now show others.

And they'll be afraid, just like I was with you.
And they'll swear and leave me, just like I did with you.
And they'll come with me, then leave me, then come back, and leave again, just like I did with you.

And I'll have to show them, not just tell them, just like you did with me. 



 

Creatives and Critics

The OEV blog has been down for some time now because I've been writing a novella for Kindle!  You can find it under the author's name "Nathan Collier" The title is "The Wren"  it should be available Tuesday June 11th or Wednesday June 12th.  99 cents!  Barely 100 pages!  It's a quick read and it doesn't really ask a lot of you.  Check it out if you can. 

Let's talk about creatives first.  

People who "create" writers, artists, film makers, music makers, comedians, speech writers, chefs, marketers, photographers, graphic designers, sure even bartenders and baristas, and many more occupations I'm leaving out, typically have something in common personality wise.  

They're not great when it comes to taking criticism.

This is interesting and difficult, because they often occupy a world where people are constantly giving opinions of their work, and many of those opinions can be negative.  

So they're not wired to handle critics but they live in a world where they are constantly doing exactly that.  

Because of this, surviving in any of these fields requires more than just the creative juices to make something from nothing, it takes perseverance.  You have to wade through the mire of rejection daily. It's often not the most talented creatives that survive in their industry.  You see over and over again that it's the most bull-headed.  The ones who are the best at allowing the negativity to bounce off of them and keep going.  

God is creative.  

He made something from nothing.  And we're not his audience, we were never meant to be.  We are literally part of the painting.  We are his Mona Lisa, his Melting Clocks, even his The Screamer.  That means we can affect and change his creation in negative and positive ways.  We can make the painting better, or worse.

There's something I love about kids movies.



Kids movies are so much more enjoyable when there are actual children to watch the movie with. Half of the fun is watching the kids react as the movie progresses. They laugh, they cry, their eyes get huge. They are the absolute definition of a "captive audience". Their eyes are literally glued to the screen. And slowly it dawns on us what's happening to them.

They're being awed.

Then we get older. And it stops happening. 

We stop being a captive audience, and we become something else. 

Critics.

We lean over to each other and discuss the trailers. We even make sure we arrive at the theatre extra early just so we can review the trailers. Then we go eat, and it happens there too. We're critics. We talk about the menu, the wait staff, the speed of service, the "atmosphere".

We get in the car, and then it happens again, we do it with the music we listen to. 

"You know they only digitize his voice because he can't sing."

The thing about critics is they must remain disengaged from the thing they are reviewing. They can't allow themselves to be engrosed in the event. Be it a movie, restaurant, concert. If they let themselves sink into it they run the risk of being awed. And critics don't do that. 

They have to stay dissconnected. 

Adding to this issue is the fact that our culture finds it very uncool to be genuinely in awe of anything.

So we go through our days with our critics mentality and then one day it happens somewhere else. 

Church.

In God's world, we're the creation, but when we worship him we need to realize that we're the performers, not the audience.

"Could that guys prayer have been any longer?"

"Somone needs to tell that song leader he always starts that song too high."

"Did she really wear that to church?"

Since we're wired to be this way everywhere else, we do it at church too. 

Worship however, if anything is an offering.

Something we're offering would then makes us the performers, not the audience. 

The audience is of course God.

An interesting opposite occurs here. 

Instead of the audience being awed by the performers, the performers are awed by the audience.  Well, in an ideal world anyway.

If the audience loves the offering, isn't that what matters most?  

Why Divorce?

As far as I can tell, divorce is the only thing in scriptures that God hates, then turns around and allows us to do it.  

Think about this,

God hates divorce, all divorces, all the time.  (Malachi 2)

Yet we have several passages where Jesus, Paul, or someone else allows divorce as a very real option for certain problems.  

So here we have God, laying out the groundwork and letting us do this thing that he hates so much.  

Why?  

For all the other things God hates (see Proverbs 6) he doesn't give us some loophole to perform those actions.  It's just simply, "don't do that."  

For the longest time I thought to myself, "why not just make divorce wrong all the time?" 

We don't have any red letters that tell us "divorce is wrong, always, just go ahead and never ever divorce."  

The problem I was dealing with lied in the fact that I found this rather inconsistent of God.  

But the problem wasn't God, it was me.  Or rather, the problem is "us."  

Matthew 19 is an incredible chapter.  The kind of "sweet spot" of the ministry of Jesus.  The Transfiguration had just happened and now he's really into the heart of his ministry, which is now in its prime.  He's got huge crowds, huge miracles, huge followers, and he gets hit with huge questions.  

The Pharisees, who are trying to trick Jesus, ask him, "Is it lawful for a man to send his wife away for any and every reason?"  

He tells them the part in Genesis that says "What God has joined let no man separate."  

"Ah yes," they reply, "well then why did Moses allow men to deliver certificates of divorce to their wives?'  

Jesus reply is a stabbing reply, not just for them at that time, but for all of us.  He said, to paraphrase, "Moses allowed you divorce because your hearts are hard, it wasn't supposed to be like that in the beginning."  

Basically saying, "divorce exists because you are all bad people."  

The laws of marriage exist, but they don't automatically make us good at marriage.  And thousands of years ago when Moses was given laws for his people God understood something.

Some people are still going to hurt each other, they'll still lie, cheat, slander, and mislead.  

I know a therapist who has a phrase framed in his office, it says "The God who Wastes Nothing."  

He can use everything to his will, even when someone breaks apart something he joined together.   

King David Teaches Hemingway a Lesson

I remember being semi-shocked to learn than Ernest Hemingway died via committing suicide.  I was in high school and as I studied Hemingway's life it read like an absolute adventure novel.  He survived two world wars, he survived being attacked by virtually every kind of creature Africa has to offer, he survived 2 plane crashes, he survived relationships with many varied Parisian vixens, he seemed invincible.  It didn't make any sort of sense to my young mind that after all that he would end it himself.

One anecdote in particular showed the kind of mettle he had.

In the summer of 1944 Hemingway was in London covering WWII as a war corespondent. (There he is on the right, with another journalist on the left, their army driver in the center)  One night the air sirens went off while Hemingway was being driven through the streets in a limo.  As was custom at the sound of the sirens the entire city went dark, including the street lights.  Hemingway's driver (not the one in the pic) ended up crashing the limo and the resulting head injury netted Ernest 57 stitches to the head.  A British doctor told him he needed to cancel his plans to ride along in a landing craft on D-Day (Ernest asked for special permission to be in one of the landing crafts).  He rode in the craft anyway, stitches and all.  Once his boat hit the sand the men in the boat proceeded to hold down the 45 year old writer with head stitches, who was straining to run out on the beach.  The men were told before hand to treat him as precious cargo.

If you've ever been in any 5th grade English class you've probably learned every story has conflict, but there are essentially only three kinds of conflict.

1. Person vs Person

2. Person vs Nature

3. Person vs Self

Hemingway's depression certainly contributed to his suicide, still there's a sort of objective irony to his life.  A man who was so powerful and lionized regarding conflicts 1 and 2, only to be felled by conflict 3, perhaps the most dangerous and perplexing of them all.

A person versus themselves.

I've found, from my varied and short existence, that conflict 3 is the most oft ignored, yet also the most critical to our lives, it is also the one that most requires a relationship with God.

Now the best Biblical comparison for Ernest Hemingway, as far as I can tell, is easily King David.

Another warrior poet, bold in battle and a weakness for women, who also had some pretty intense mental issues.

Unlike Ernest Hemingway, David was not an atheist.  His moments of mental anguish seemed to result in some of the most heartfelt Psalms you'll ever read.  In Psalms 6 he says things like "my bones are in agony" and "I'm exhausted from all my groaning."  In Psalms 77 he says "you have kept my eyes from closing" and "I am too troubled to speak."  David's moments of depression didn't stop him from talking to God.  He actually told God all about it, at times even blaming God.

"you have kept my eyes from closing"

David knows a profound truth, namely that God wants to hear all that stuff.

If it's on your heart, God wants to know, even if it's messy, angry, sad, and even the moments when your anger seems to be turned toward him.  We tend to turn toward God in the rough moments don't we?  However, it's usually to ask for salvation, to ask for relief, to ask for help.

When really what we need to be doing is expressing how we're feeling, less "help me" and more "I'm hurting."

"Help me" stinks of a one-sided relationship, one where you're interested in what you can get out of it.

"I'm hurting" is different.  It shows you're feeding your emotions into the relationship.

Tell God when your exhausted from your groaning.  Tell him when he's kept your eyes from closing, and then plead for salvation.

Hemingway used to joke that he was the one exception to the old adage "there are no atheists in foxholes."

Of course, that also meant in the most horrible of moments he had no one to talk to.

In many of the Psalms you can see David, being expressively happy about the fact that he worships a God who hears.  Psalms 5,10,17,38,61, and 65 all have direct lines about God listening. 

The act of telling God your troubles is more for you than it is for God.  And the fact is hearing your own problems expressed through your own words does more for you than you probably notice.  So the next time you find yourself asking for help with a problem, try spending some time first telling God about the problem its self.  Because there is quite simply nothing like a God who listens.

That One Starfish

Remember the Christian anecdote about the footprints in the sand?  It's easily the most popular "Christian fable" (if such a term may be employed) that I can think of. 

If "Footprints" is the most popular Christian fable, then the Starfish fable is probably the silver medal. 

Basically, a man is seen walking down the beach, periodically he stops and throws a starfish from the sand into the surf, essentially saving the starfish's life.  An observer who sees that the beach is full of starfish comes up to the man and says "There are so many starfish to save, even if you worked all day and night you wouldn't make a difference."  The man flings another starfish and replies "I made a difference to that one."

The story works so well because we so often take the role of the "observer".  We're big picture people, we like to step back, frame our world, and then make judgements.  When you step back, you see nothing but a beach full of dying starfish, the one man becomes such a small part of the picture he's barely noticeable.  So the observer walks away with a sad story, there's a beach full of dying starfish. 

In the real world this unfortunate "framing" happens on a much bigger and more significant level.

How many times have you heard someone claim that Christianity has only caused problems?  It's a popular argument among skeptics and agnostics.  When you look through their frame though, you can see where they're coming from.  The "frame" their looking through is called "recorded history" and when you lay it out end to end it tells a sad tale of Christianity.  

The persecution of the Caesars

The scattering of the believers

The Crusades

The Spanish Inquisition

Catholics killing Protestants

Protestants killing Catholics

Being arrested, tortured, and mocked at the hands of various governments.

It's not pretty, and much of the violence listed above was caused by people claiming to act in God's name.  So, using "recorded history" as your frame, you'd see the same thing a skeptic would see.

The problem is, essentially, the frame its self.

Remember how the observer on the beach lost sight of the man helping the starfish?  All he could see was the sad painting that his point of view provided.  The same is true of history.

But there's a whole other picture that history seems to lose sight of. 

During all those horrible times cited above, there were Christians, by the thousands, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the naked, giving time, giving energy, giving money.  And doing it because Jesus told them to.  

And even when there wasn't "bad times" there were still Christians doing the same.  All over the world.

And they're still doing it today.

The lives saved by Christianity would so far outnumber the lives lost because of Christianity that the comparison its self would become asinine.

However, history records the grand moments, the large scale events, and more often than not, forgets the good in favor of remembering the bad.

How many history books have a sentence like "Jimmy traveled around his village handing out bread and coins, and he did this every week until he died."

History forgets Jimmy.

So looking through our frame, gazing down the beach, we see only stranded starfish, the "helping man" becomes a speck on the horizon.

A walk down the beach however, will reveal something the frame didn't show.

The helping man is not alone.

There are millions just like him, and they won't stop.  

     

 

You are Not The Hulk (and that's a good thing)

When "The Incredible Hulk" premiered in May 1962 it lasted only 6 issues before being cancelled.  It would have been easy then for Stan Lee to write off the character and cut his losses, but we all know that didn't happen.

Yes, his original title series had been cancelled, but all of a sudden we see Bruce Banner and his big green rage monster appear as a guest in "The Fantastic Four" (March 1963).  Lee wrote in the character first as the enemy of the Fantastic Four, then 3 issues later, making them his ally.

Then, The Hulk shows up in "The Incredible Spider Man" in '64.  Once again, Stan was ignoring the fact that the market had rejected the character.  In the fall of '64 Hulk makes an appearance in a comic series called "Tales to Astonish" an episodic comic series Stan Lee would use to introduce characters and test the markets approval of newly invented superheros.

Now, as you probably know, The Hulk's blessing (and curse, Stan Lee won't give you a superpower unless it comes with a catch) is super strength that is triggered as a direct relation to his anger.  His power exists on a sliding scale that literally makes him stronger the angrier he gets.  This means he spends his days hyper managing his emotions, until it's "hulk smash" time, then he must force himself to somehow trigger his own anger in order to transform and save the day.

I've often wondered about The Hulk, specifically if he has one memory in particular he can use to trigger his anger, the same way an actor has a memory he/she can trigger in order to cry.  It turns out that this is often times exactly the case.

Stan Lee revealed to us in some origin work the fact that Bruce Banner's father was abusive to his mother.  In fact, when Bruce was young his mother used to hide and protect him during his father's fits of rage.  This in turn, meant young Bruce was afraid of anger and the specific physical reactions it could cause.  On a very deep level in Bruce's mind being angry is directly tied to acting angry.  In fact, Stan Lee says, in many instances where Bruce needs to fight, he is often times triggering the memory of his father being abusive, that's his "go to" Hulk memory.  It's ironic then that the one memory Bruce needs to erase from his memory is in fact the memory he needs to keep closest.  You can see now how deep and touching the character is, and why Stan Lee wasn't ready to give up on his story, which leads us to one of Bruce's signature catch phrases.

"You're making me angry"

An interesting phrase considering the fact that no one "makes" another person angry, well, not for "normals" like you and I.

People that aren't The Hulk have this barrier between "being angry" and "acting angry" we all have to make the active decision, even when angry, to act on our emotion.

The problem is, too many people act as if they don't have control, they imagine themselves with the curse of The Hulk, unable to fight against their actions once they become angry.

We all know "being angry" and "acting angry" aren't automatically sinful.  The theology behind this can be discussed at depth in another blog.  The point of this short little ditty is the simple fact that you and I have a power that The Hulk does not.

Once we "feel angry" we can decide to not enter the doorway into the "acting angry" realm.

From OEV, hope your holidays were special and we'll be back with more soon!

For Sandy Hook

Words so often fall short, it's important to notice the moments when they don't. 

Provided below is the poem "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  It was, as you'll notice, written about the American Civil War, a conflict that was fascinating to the poet.  The poem its self, especially the last half, is heartbreakingly fitting following the events at Sandy Hook Elementary.  Our nation has so many difficult discussions ahead of us, and there will come a time to talk about the political ramifications.  For now though, it's more appropriate to "be in the ditch" with those who mourn, as using their loss to further any agenda at all undermines the event its self. 

The last 3 stanzas are when your mind will, despite your best efforts, turn to Sandy Hook.

So read these words, and picture those you hold close as you do.

Christmas Bells

I heard the bells of Christmas Day
their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet,
the words repeat 
Of peace on earth good will towards men!

And thought how, as the day had come, 
the belfries of all Christendom, 
had rolled along
the unbroken song
Of peace on earth good will towards men!

Till ringing, singing, on its way, 
the world revolved from night to day
a voice, a chime, 
a chant sublime 
Of peace on earth good will towards men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth, 
The cannon thundered in the South!
and with the sound,
the carols drowned, 
Of peace on earth good will toward men!

It was as if an earthquake rent, 
The hearth-stones of a continent 
and made forlorn, 
The households born
Of peace on earth good will towards men!

And in despair I bowed my head, 
"There is no peace on earth!" I said, 
for hate is strong, 
and mocks the song,
Of peace on earth good will towards men, 

Then pealed the bells, more loud and deep!
"God is not dead; nor does he sleep" 
The wrong shall fail
The right prevail, 
With peace on earth, good will towards men!

Tank Preaching

This is the M1A1 Abrams Tank.  It's been around since 1978 but recent upgrades and add ons have made it easily the most dangerous and successful tank in existence. Ever.

Machines like the one above carried out Operation Desert Storm.

Many of the engagements in and around Desert Storm were fiercely lopsided, and this tank was the reason.

Like the time M1A2 tanks destroyed seven T-72 Lion of Babylon tanks at point blank range (less than 50 yards) with no losses to the USA.  In fact, no M1A1 has ever been destroyed by fire from an enemy tank.  

Any M1A1 that's been disabled or broken down, has been destroyed by the United States, for obvious reasons, and many Army engineers have gone on record about how difficult it was to sufficiently destroy one of these fellas.

Can you imagine what it would look like, if sitting atop that tank, was a person preaching about Jesus?  The tanks main gun barrel transformed into a giant megaphone, and it drives around the countryside preaching the good news.

Stay with me, just for a few paragraphs.

In 1st Kings 10:29, we're told that Solomon was in the business of buying and selling chariots, ie, the "tanks" of his day.

http://bible.cc/1_kings/10-29.htm

Chariots were war machines, and were absolutely devastating to men on foot.  You know, like a tank.  Solomon used Israel as a sort of "middle man" and imported chariots then exported them for huge profit for his people.

I'm sure the people of the royal court were happy, impressed even.  Thanks to their king Israel was building wealth and securing a fine future.  I think, if I were around then, I'd probably shower Solomon with compliments, congratulate him, maybe a slap on the back or two.  This was an impressive business decision and it meant profit.  That's good, right?

I'd imagine, though I'm not sure, that David (Solomon's father) would have taught him well in the law.  If that's the case, then Solomon no doubt knew about Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+17%3A14-20&version=NIV

Don't multiply power, and don't build wealth, and most importantly, don't use Egypt (your former life) to do it.

Thanks to Solomon, chariots were now in the hands of several kingdoms, and these kingdoms can use their "tanks" however they want, and Solomon can't do anything about it.

Once you add in Proverbs 21:31, the irony gets thick enough to run over with a chariot.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+21%3A31&version=NIV

Solomon wrote that.

He intrinsically knows where his salvation and strength come from, and it's not your money or the size of the army you can put on the field.  So then, why persist with the wealth building, why keep on turning chariots for big profits to nations who will almost certainly use them for a violent purpose?

1st Kings 10 also says that the gold Solomon received weighed 666 talents.  Wow.  That's a very "Hebrew" way to say something very wrong is going on here. 

But, as we all know, that's not the end of the story.

One of the things I love about Jesus is how his story transforms whatever it interacts with.  There's several cases of someone meeting Jesus, even for only a moment or so, and they leave changed.  The story of Jesus changes people, and the Biblical narrative shows us in no subtle way.  His is a story so powerful it can take something previously used for war and violence and suddenly use it to carry his "good news."

Like a chariot

In Acts 8 a man named Phillip sees another man on a chariot reading about Jesus.  The man on the chariot was an Ethiopian official in charge of the treasury of his nation.  After their incredible interaction, the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing about Jesus.  It's easy to read that story and glaze over the intentional irony woven into the tale.

The chariot, hundreds of years previous, was misused by Solomon, and thanks to him they were now all over the known world.  Then, the story of Jesus transforms this war machine into a vessel that will carry his story out of Israel and into other parts of the world.  A tank collides with the story of Jesus, and it leaves the meeting carrying a preacher.

"Swords to ploughshares" Just like Isiah said. 

What's in a family

A quick thought from a very good friend of mine who spends his time helping addicts.

Any addict, no matter the person or the addiction, has a difficult road to recovery.  You'll see them be strong for a few weeks, or even 6 months or a year.  Then, without warning, they stumble.  The very next time they come into my office they are absolutely beside themselves.  They seem to hyper focus on the one time they stumbled.  I'll try to get them to see that in fact they have achieved a monumental success.  Being strong for so long.  Many of them believe that their battle with their addiction must now begin anew, from square one.  It's really fascinating, and heartbreaking, that their minds gravitate toward their one failure rather than their weeks or months of success. 

There's a couple different reasons for this unfortunate phenomenon. 

1.  We're hardwired to see our world in black and white.  We're either good, or bad, happy or sad, up or down.  If we stumble, even once, we'll flip the switch and go from "I'm ok" to "I failed." 

2.  We feel like we have to be perfect.  This feeling is amplified in our personal struggles.  We can't mess up.  Ever.

How many ways is this not about addicts, but about all of us?  We all intensely focus on our flaws and failures.  How do we make sense of a world in which we're wired to strive for perfection, yet know we'll never get there?  

The short answer is hagioi. 

hag-eee-OI

A little word with some profound meanings. 

Hagioi is the greek word in the New Testament translated as "saints", "the lords people", "holy" or even just "set apart." The word is used in both Corinthians, Philippians, Ephesians, Galatians, Colossians.  For Paul, the "hagioi" seem to be all the Christians, everywhere. 

It's Paul's favorite word to use when he's describing a group of believers.  In fact, several ancient historians call the Christian movement in the first century the "hagioi."

It's interesting that Paul uses this word.  He could, if he wanted, use words like "sinners" or "those who fall short" allow the language to really make the theme about God's grace. 

But for Paul, something happens when you become a Christian, you're now "hagioi" and it makes you part of the body.  

In Ephesians 4 Paul talks about this body, and in some translations it says "he (God) makes the parts of the body work perfectly."

There's a reason we're wired to want perfection, not because it's impossible, but because it's found in the body, the "hagioi" and God wants us to be part of it. 

My friend would say something like this. 

Perfection for my addicted friends is possible, but it can't be found alone.  It's in the body.  We're perfect in the body, and that's the best and only real way for them to battle their addiction.

Imagine you had to build a car, and you take all the worst parts from every car ever.  Old parts, rusty and failing, and when you put them all together suddenly it's the most amazing car in the world.  

Many imperfect things making one perfectly perfect thing. 

A bunch of imperfect addicted people coming together and becoming the perfect bride for Christ. 

It stops being "The addict vs. the addiction" and it becomes "The Church, (hagioi) vs. the person's addiction."

It stops being "me vs my selfishness" and becomes "the hagioi vs my selfishness"

My friend says,

Now that's an addiction that can be matched, beaten, and defeated on every level.  Defeated once and for all, perfectly defeated. 

  

From Ross: Suffering and Growth

I have a friend who pursues God with everything that he has, but can’t seem to escape the grips of his recurring depression.

He and I started talking about what it really means to be freed—to find abundant life—because he’s doing everything that he knows how, and he can’t seem to find it.

I don’t know if many of us ever do find it.

But this week, I think I found an answer in Hebrews 12. And I think it tells us that the path to becoming a new, free man may look a lot like incredible suffering.

It says that it is the suffering that makes us righteous and free. God uses tough discipline to make us into righteous people, like good fathers do!

It says to look at Jesus, who suffered to the point of shedding blood. And I think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, who appears to have struggled so much that he was sweating blood. If that is the path that he had to forge resulting in death and finding new life, then I shouldn’t be scared when I go through hard times. Because maybe it is then, when he is disciplining me, that he's getting me closer to a death of myself and the resurrection of the new man inside of me.

“For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

I don’t mean to say we must suffer as much as Jesus did to find new life, or that God inflicts hard suffering on us, but that we shouldn’t be afraid of suffering, because He just might be using it to do a new work inside of us.

Nation Healing

The second half of the Civil War pitted Generals Sherman and Johnston against each other.

These two men each fought the other from Chattanooga to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Savannah, then Savannah to Columbia, then Columbia to North Carolina.

They both, for obvious and less than obvious reasons, had every right to dislike, even hate, the other.

Sherman said of Johnston, "He's the most wily and dangerous opponent I've ever faced."  The two had in fact learned much of each other before they ever met face to face.

In fact, the first time they ever met face to face was at Johnston's surrender.  When the two met for the first time ever, the first thing Sherman did was hand Johnston a telegram from Washing D.C. that said Lincoln had been assassinated (notice the black band of mourning on Sherman's left arm).

The assassination of Lincoln, Johnston's use of land mines, (which Sherman despised), Sherman's march to the sea, the endless days of fighting, the burning of Columbia.

There was gallons of fuel on the fire that burned between these two.

When they met face to face however, something happened.

Johnston handed over 89,270 confederate soldiers to Sherman's army.

Sherman issued each of them ten days rations (many of the confederates were starving), gave them horses and mules so they could plant crops, issued a huge distribution of corn, meal, and flour to be sent to the citizens of Georgia and the Carolinas.  In the terms of surrender Sherman gave protection to the politicians of the confederacy, something he'd be reprimanded for by Washington DC.

Johnston said to his former enemy, "Your attitude reconciles me to what I have previously regarded as the misfortune of my life, that of having to encounter you in the field."

After the war, Johnston was an incredibly popular speaker around the south at confederate veterans events.  Each time he received an invitation to such an event, he'd inquire if Sherman was to be denounced and his name harassed by the confederate veterans.  If the event planners said yes, Johnston would decline the event.  The two men stayed in touch, wrote often, and shared stories whenever they were in the same town.

Johnston was even one of Sherman's pallbearers.

The lesson from these two is perhaps just as relevant as it was then.

When the conflict is over, it's not enough to simply claim to be at peace, it takes action.

There's a saying, "the effort to heal the wound must be 10 times greater than the effort it took to inflict it."  Think of how much effort, time, and money have been poured into the current wound in our nation.

The realization that it will take ten times that effort to make effective healing is a daunting one.

There is however, hope in the story above.

Those men were a huge part of "reconstruction", the healing process that America went through after the war.  If they can make such effective healing after an actual war, isn't that encouraging to us, people who have been involved in a war of words?  Notice that before national healing could occur, these two men made healing on a personal level a priority.

As a Christian, you may not be able to devote the resources to the healing effort that would match the resources it took it cause the wound.  What you can do though, is start the personal healing. 
   
It's wrong to look to the administration to give the example for healing.  They should be the example, but it very well may turn out that they aren't.

So then what if we are?

There's been enough scandal, deceitfulness, and crooked dealings to prove to us that expecting executive members of government to be example setters is simply expecting too much of them.

The example will come from the people.