"Only one generation..."
So, yesterday in church, John was praying for fathers. While he was praying I got the message, "Only one generation." This is something I think I have heard from other sources. It is the idea that people tend to perpetuate the family environement that they grew up in. People who grew up in abusive situations seem to have abusive families as adults. Because of that, however, it only takes one generation to break that cycle and create a new family tradition. So one generation can re-write our entire society and culture.
On the other hand, just as negative effects are carried forward, so are positive. And that same generation that can eliminate the bad things can also remove the good things.
So, in the wake of this Father's Day Weekend, I will pray for families everywhere. In particular for parents. That they will have wisdom to raise up a generation that can break the cycles of mental and physical abusive.
Would you recommend a movie you had not seen, or a restaurant that you had never been to? And if someone gave you a recommendation without trying it first, how much would that recommendation be worth?
This has been brought to my mind because of 2 things I have heard in the past week, from two different Vineyard pastors. The first was our own Chris Reeves. He commented that if the Vineyard model was working like it should, we would see dozens of people coming forward for prayer every week.
The second was from Columbus Vineyard Paster Rich Nathan. I have been listening to him online for the past few weeks and I really enjoy his sermons. Allow me to paraphrase... "The people out there, the people who don't know Jesus, no longer care about the truth of Christianity or the facts of Jesus' life and death on the cross. They don't want a reasoned, logic debate about the existence of God, or a treatise about sin and redemption. What they want to know is, do you know a power that can free me from enslavement to the filth of this world, that can give me purpose, significance, peace, and if you know that power, I will follow that power."
So, I come back to that original line of questioning... Have we as Christians experienced the freedom, and do we continue to experience the freedom, from the fear, the pain, the degradation, the hatred of this world? Not that we do not experience those things, but that they do not rule over us. That we continue go to the Power that is greater than these powers, and find freedom. And if we have not, if we do not, why would anyone ever listen to us when we tell them about Jesus.
So just about my entire family is reading a series of science fiction books about a character named Honor Harrington. This is a very good series.
Anyway, in this series, 2 large star nations are at war. One of this nations has a number of allies. This same nation also has a significant technological advantage over their enemy. Over the course of the series, one of this nation's allies switches sides. The reasons for this are varied, but the result is that the enemy nation gets access to much of the advanced technology. Many of our hero nations secrets are given away.
It has only recently occurred to me how devestating something like that could be on a personal level. I have private areas of my life that I keep hidden from almost everyone. I say almost because there is one person with whom I share everything. If that person were to betray me, were to want to hurt me or humiliate me, that person would have more than ample ammunition. It comes down to a matter of trust. Thankfully, I trust this person implicitly.
I am reminded of a quote I heard many years ago, and I cannot remember who said it. It went something like this...
"If all the people of the world came together and made one giant heap of all their troubles, from which each would take an equal share, most people would be content to take their own troubles and go home."
When I first read that, it made no sense to me at all. Then I understood it to mean that most people have less than their "equal share" of trouble. However, a new meaning is dawning on me. I think some people have a certain amount of ... pride? in their troubles. An attitude that says "They may be troubles, but their are *my* troubles". It leads to a line from a BNL song.
"Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves Of all these demons haunting us To keep us company?"
I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but there are definitely times when I feel like a real dope.
I have a head for numbers. I can memorize words fairly well. I can pick out faces pretty well, also. What I apperently cannot do, however, is remember a name to save my life. No, I take that back. I'm even pretty good at remebering the names of actors and other celebrities. It's remembering the name of people that I meet that confounds me. I think that is what impresses me most about our head pastor. Once he hears a name, it seems, it is enblazened in his memory and he can greet people by name that he has only met once.
Two cases spring to mind. Yesterday we went on a prayer walk after church. One of the people in our group is someone that I see almost every week. Whenever I pass him, I nod my head and say hi. But I cannot remember his name. I couldn't when I 'introduced' myself yesterday, and I can't today, only slightly more than 24 hours later, even after mentally noting to *remember* his name.
Second, I need to get VPN access from work so I can work from home. I filled out the form and my manager told me to give it to Chris. Now, I think Chris is the PC Tech that I see wondering about, but I don't know. This is a guy that I see a couple times a week. We have had conversations. Entire diagaloues. And yet, I am not sure whaty his name is.
Don't get me wrong. It is not that I don't care about these people. I do. I just cannot seem to write the name down in my little mental notebook. I can remember where I've seen them. I can recall what they do. I can even remeeber if they are a Lost fan or prefer Grey's Anatomy. But the name continues to elude me.
I'm sorry, what was you're name again?
Just a quick update...
If I were a string, and someone were to pluck me, I would resonsant at a frequency that only dogs can hear.
That is all.
Actually, that is not all. It has occurred to me that a taut string is not a good analogy for my life right now. You see, a string is only pulled in *two* directions.
THAT is all.
A word about profanity...
I am not, contray to what some may think, entirely opposed to cursing/swear words/ profanity/etc. This may be suprising to some because several people that I know quite well have probably never heard me swear. To me, these words are the last resort. They are words to be used only when no other word can express the urgency or volitility of a situation. They are the atomic weapons of verbal discourse. Therefore, if you ever hear me use a curse word, please know that something of significant import has happened, is happening, or will happen very soon.
This is also why I abide cursing in movie that I watch. Movie usually involve extreme circumstances; circumstances in which swaering is altogether appropriate. Movies also often include people punching, kicking, or shooting each other. Like swearing, these activities may be appropriate in the situation portrayed in a movie, but not in real life.
So the other day I'm standing in line with my 9-year-old at a family restaurant and the person ahead of us has a shirt on that contains a profane word. What's worse is that this man was holding a baby! Oh, pity the child. Sure enough, my son notices the shirt and whispers in my ear "That man is wearing a shirt that says the f-word." I didn't know what to say. I just said that "Some people are stupid." Perhaps not the best choice, but it was true enough. I came oh so close to tapping the man on the shoulder and saying very politely, "Excuse me, but my 9 year old son was wondering why your shirt has those words on it and I don't have an answer for him. Could you explain it to him?" I would have, too, if I were sure that this person had A) at least half of a functioning brain and B) a shred of human decency. But based on his choice of shirt, I could not be even reasonable certain of either of those things.
It's gonna be a hard night's day.
So I have come to the considered opinion that this world, in general, sucks. Sure, some of the people in this world are tolerable. Some are even pleasant to be around. But the world itself is lousy.
So, God, what ever it is you have planned, I'm ready for it. And, please not another flood. That wasn't a permenant solution last time anyway. I'm talking about smashing this place apart peice by piece and starting over. New Heaven, New Earth, and all that jazz.
Now I am not one to blindly repost others' work. However, this is so homurous that I cannot resist.
A note on the author... You may notice that for for quite a while I have had a link to James Lileks' web site on my links. This past week, there was a significant shakeup at the Star Tribune and Mr. Lileks, who for years has written an excellent column for that paper, found himself re-assigned. Now, in the past when I see a copy of the Star Tribune, I look for exactly 4 things, in this order; James Lileks' column (recent called the Quirk, but I prefer the former and longer Backfence format), Dilbert, Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz, and anything in the Sports section about the Vikings. Now I will only have 3 things to look for in the Strib.
While the Quirk has been fun, Mr. Lileks' blog, the Bleat, is better. There are very few blogs that I would consider paying money to read. So, check it out. I understand that it may not be everybody's cup of java, but I really enjoy him. Besides, his picture reminds me of Jeff Berletic. See now everyone will run off to Lileks' site just to see what I'm talking about :)
OK, so maybe that was more than a "note". I was going to copy the best part of the blog entry that inspired this, but, rather than waste precious electrons, I will just post a permalink to said blog. Please read the description of the Immigration Bill.
I aspire to write half as well as Lileks. It's odd. On one hand, I think people who write this well should be richly rewarded for their skill. On the other hand, content this good should be availabel to everyone.
So, our own Giving Tree has moved beyond given us leaves and twigs to giving us whole branches.
You see, when we moved into our house in Apple Valley, we found, whaddya know, an apple tree in the backyard. Rumor had it that all the houses in this development has an apple tree planted in the backyard. Could be true; All the street names are apple vareties. However, all was not well with Mr. Apple Tree. The tree was splitting down the middle into 4 parts, and there were large areas of dead branches in the tree.
The first summer we lived here, the tree gave us apples. Hundreds of little, gnarled apples, rotting all over the yard. The second summer, there were no apples. Only twigs all over the yard. Compared to the apples, the twigs were a blessing. However, this summer, our third in this house, it seems the tree is upping the ante. My dear wife noticed that one of the four sections seemed to have shifted. I walk over, grab a branch out near the end and pull it gently toward the house (away from the nice fence that it was suspended over). Not 3 steps into my stroll did we hear a loud crack and one of the four sections (the smallest of the four) snapped off.
Which meant that my son and I got to spend the next hour and a half breaking down the large branch into small, ready-for-the-fire-ring bits. Is it wrong to burn wood from a tree that is still standing, in sight of the tree? Perhaps it will be motivation to heal up; "See? This is what happens to trees that fall down in these parts."
As for the rest of the tree, it'll come down eventually. We may even get a chainsaw and go all Friday-the-13th on it, but that requires work. And a chainsaw. And possibly a tourniquet.
I do, however, what to take a chunk out of each remaining trunk when they do come down and whittle a little canoe for each of my three boys. Just a little reminder of their own little Giving Tree.
OK, time for Salvation Theology 201.
First a refresher from Salvation Theology 101: God calls us to Holiness. His covenent requires that we abide by His laws. Failure to abide by His laws results in death and eternal seperation from His presence. However, "all have sinned and fallen away from God". Therefore, we are all subject to the consequences of sin; Eternal seperation from the God (i.e. Hell). God is holy, and God is good, and God is just. Therefore, He cannot just waive the requirements on us in this convenant, but He can, and has, provided a substitute. Jesus came to us, lived a sinless life (and in doing so, did not incur the blood debt that each of us owe from our sin), and yet, still paid the price that the convenant demands of us. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe for me, who had a debt that I could not pay.
But here are my questions... How is it possible for one man to pay the debt of billions? It's relativily easy to see how Jesus paid for *my* sins, but how could one life pay for all sins for all people? Wouldn't the sacrificial calculus be one sinless life in exchange for one life marred by sin?
Secondly, how does the resurrection figure into this? I have heard others say that the resurrection is proof that Jesus has broken the power of sin over us. But that doesn't fit into the sacrificial nature of the exchange. If a death and resurrection is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the convenant, would not *my* death, followed by a resurrection, be sufficient for my sinful life?
Now, I know, based on my faith, that Jesus' death has enough for all, and that my death apart from Jesus, even with a resurrection is not sufficient. But these are the "I wonder how that works" questions that occur to me. I am perfectly willing to accept that these questions are unknowable to us, but known to God. But if there are answers to these questions that God has given to us, or that the Spirit will enable us to work out, I for one would like to explore them.
Any ideas out there?
Gotta post about this while it's fresh. Simple, commonplace event that reflects a larger truth.
OK, 11:30 PM, Friday night. I'm at the grocery store getting Ben and Jerry's for me and the wife. (I wish I could say it was all Seren's fault, but she only mentioned B&J, I then pushed her into it.) (Also, I should note that when I was 15, my sweet tooth was knocked out in a bicycle accident... Unfortunately, it was replaced with a bionic sweet tooth.)
Anyway, I walk in. It's late and there is only one checkout person. Fair enough. I note that the person currently being rung up only has a few items, but the woman next in line has a *full* cart. UGH. Now, I'm not shy about asking if I can jump ahead of a person with a very large number of items if I only have 2 or 3. However, I knew that I would not be able to run back to the frozen section, make my selection, and be back before that woman's items started to be rung up. C'est la vie. So, I proceed to collect my 2 cartons of "the good stuff" and return to the check-out aisle. Sure enough, that LCW (large-cart-woman) is in the early stages of ringing up. Meanwhile, a woman with 3-4 items is standing behind her. Let us refer to her as 3IG (3 item girl, although to be fair, she was probably as old as I am). So, I'm behind LCW and 3IG in line. While LCW is being rung up, 2 more people with no more than 6 items get in line behind me. Then LCW2 arrives. This woman is the subject of our post today. She also had a *full* cart of food. Well, with the vertible calvacade of customers, the checkout woman does what any sensible person would do; She called for help. A scant few minutes later, Ed arrives and opens the checkout lane 3 lanes down. As soon as I hone in on which aisle he is opening, I suggest to 3IG that she move over to it. It would probably have been reasonable to take the pole positon myself, but that wouldn't be fair. Anyway, I knew the checkout woman in the aisle that I was in. She is about as professional a checkout person as you are like to find working late shift in a suburban grocery store, and I was confident that she would wrap up the order quickly.
Anyway, 3IG makes her way over to the newly opened aisle, but LCW2 is quicker. She lurches afore mentioned large cart, cuts off 3IG, and is waiting in front of "Ed" the instance he flips on the light for Checkout Lane 7. The person directly behind me mutters, "Unbeleivable". Whcih suprised me. Only because all three people behind me in line were asian, and I was under the impression that they were all somehow related. This did not turn out to be the case.
Luckily for 3IG, LCW2 seems to be married to a man who is accustomed to living in a civilized society and points out that 3IG, and her 3-4 items should probably go first. This invitation did not extend, however, to the 3 other people who stood there, small number of items in hand. As I said before, C'est la vie.
So, that bigger truth I mentioned before. This did not spring, I think, from a Me First mentality. I think this was simply Me Only. Perhaps it's the optimist in me, but I don't think LCW2 wanted to exclude or jump ahead of anyone. She just wanted to get her things done as quickly as possible. But the source of this attitude is the same; "The world isn't go to look out for me, so it's up to me to do it". The world... actually, it's more appropriate to say the people in the world... teaches each and every one of us that we need to take care of outselves, and concern for others is far too rarely rewarded. This isn't right, but I don't have an answer. Well, other than God. But He's such an easy answer that it feels like cheating to always say "Well... God." But for this, that's all I have.
So it's been a while. As I was telling Seren the other day, I feel shallow, but I think it has more to do with the water level being low than any change to the ocean floor.
However, I saw something today that I needed to comment on. It was a poster at the middle school. It's a case of accidental profundity. The poster said in big bold letters "Everyday is a gift".
Now I assume that the writer meant to communicate that every day is a gift. But I realized, as I thought about it, that the missing space does change the meaning, but the unintended meaning is still true. Everyday is a gift. The commonplace, the expected, the simple, the relied-upon-but-rarely-appreciated is a gift. Every day brings hope, a chance for a new beginning, an oppurtunity to do it right, whatever 'it' might be. Everyday, on the other hand, is the food on the table, the roof overhead, the love and support of family and friends. And it's the everyday that allows every day to have so many possibilities.
Dying to self vs dying to others
This past week has been... interesting. Interesting in the ancient Chinese curse sense of the world. (Although, according to the great and mighty Wikipedia, that particular Chinese curse could well be western in origin and far from ancient.)
The text for today's post comes from the 22nd chapter of Matthew, begining in verse 37. "Jesus replied. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. 'Love your neighbor as yourself'. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
All of the Law is based on those two commandments. The first one, while difficult in implementation, is very simple in concept. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." The second one, however...
Who is your "neighbor"? I assume that includes everyone. All people. But it doesn't say love some more than others. In fact, Jesus points out that those who love their friends and hate their enemies are no better than the tax collectors. It is only a matter of degree, then, to say that it is wrong to love their friends and love their enemies less. Perhaps 'wrong' is not exact... God's will is that we love everyone equally. As we love ourselves, to be exact. But that brings up another point of contention; What if we don't particularly like ourselves? And Jesus said that anyone who followed him would have to "deny himself". If 'Love of Self' should equal 'Love of Others', and 'Love of Self' must die for the Cross, then should not 'Love of Others' do the same? But then, that just points to the supremacy of 'Love the Lord your God' and the subordination of 'Love your neighbor'.
My point is this. Is it required that a Christian sacrifice himself for another? We are called to subordinate ourselves to God, to the Cross, and to the pull of the Holy Spirit. We are not required to subordinate ourselves to each other. Let me clarify: If God calls me to sacrifice all that I have, then I am obligated to comply. However, if another person calls me to give him all that I have, I do not have to comply. We are called to love them as we love ourselves. Which can be interpreted many ways. I would say that we provide for our own needs, from what God has provided for us, and then provide for others whose needs have not been met. This means that there will come certain times when God provides only what we need, usually to focus our attention on our reliance upon him.
On the other hand, there is a blessing in given out of our need, in sacrificing ourselves in someway. Jesus gave an example of being a servant, and John tells us that laying down our lives for a friend is the greatest love one can have for another. There are also times when God calls some specifically to sacrifice something for others.
There are applications of this that I will hopefully get into at another time.
So a friend of mine was put into a horrible, horrible situation today. A nightmare scenario. No one should be puit in that place. She was faced with 2 bad choices. But she, amazingly, went God's way, option 3. It was a wholely earthly problem. But she choose to face it as a chance to further God's Knigdom. She still was hurt, badly. Perhaps not physically, but mentally and emotionally. Although I can only assume these things; God's healing has no earthly bounds.
But my point is, her faithfulness astounds me. I am totally impressed, and a little jealous. Because I know that grace didn't come from within her. That was a gift of the Holy Spirit in her time of need. Wow, God is good. I find it amazing that after a day like today, God can still bring my soul to praise Him. Amazing Grace.
Word picture for the day: Yesterday during the service, I imagined a metaphor for the love of God vs the love of people. I pictured a person blowing against a sail vs the wind. First of all, the person blow cannot generate anything close to enough volume to make a differnce. Secondly, the breath of that person may be smelly and probably contains germs, because it's coming from a place inside that is none-too-clean. On the other hand, the fresh breeze can move the largest ships, and is free of bad breath or (most) germs.
Just an idle thought.
And for another thought... I saw a bus ad for the Sierra Club's Day of Action, which is a rally at the Capital for the environment. The thought that occurred to me is how much fossil feul is going to be burned to bring those people together. Wouldn't a Day of Inaction be better; a day to promote telecommuting. However, there probably won't be that big an impact, because I would be suprised if they get 1000 people together for that rally.
Ah, Friday night. How can I have waited so long to comment on Friday night?
Friday night we had an evening of worship at the church that included a time set aside for receiving prophetic word. It was a really awesome time. The Christlife group took part in the prophetic and I know several people were very encouraged by the word received and shared. I don't know how it was received from the majority of those in attendance, but from where I was, it was really cool.
Afterward I had a specific word for an individual who was there. I didn't think it was appropriate to be shared in a public forum, because it could be considered corrective. So as we were dispersing, I approached this individual. At the same time, someone else stopped this person with a word to share and the messages that we had shared were very similiar; they ammounted to "stop running" and "rest". That was pretty powerful.
So for the last week I'm had this "feeling". It defies specific description. It feels to me like things are going bad. No one thing in particular, just things. Maybe all things. It's not quite dread, and it's not quite resignation. I've been thinking about it for several minutes now.
At first I thought it was like driving on slick ice, out of control and headed for a crash. But that's not quite it. First, there is no sense of panic, and while I do feel that it is unavoidable, I still believe I have some control, some part to play in it. Just that nothing I do can prevent it.
Kind of like a master chess game. When grandmasters play, there typically comes a point when the game is decided, but a casual observer can't see that one player is even in trouble. Both players know what will happen. Usually, the losing player will concede at that time. The way I feel now is kinda like I'm past that point when it's decided, but I haven't conceded (or can't).
I can actually trace it back to when it started. Trace it back to a single comment. Not a harsh or mean comment. Not said in ill will at all. But it shocked me and made me re-examine myself and most of what I do. I was hurt. Not by the comment itself, but by what the comment assumed. (For the record, the comment was not made by anyone reading this).
On the other hand, it's not all doom and gloom. It's more like a feeling like I haven't done my taxes, or my homework isn't done. Not life or death. It still important.
So I'm listening to a Rich Nathan Sermon and he mentions that safe sex isn't necessarily safe. He said that covering yourself in latex isn't a failsafe method of preventing the transmission of disease. What occurred to me is that there isn't yet a latex that can cover the heart and mind. The dangers of spiritual and emotional damage in extra-marital affairs are much greater than the fears of disease or unwanted pregnancy.
OK, segue into something completely different. I read other people's blogs, and they relate what's going on in there lives or observations about the weather or hopes and dreams for the future. I, on the other hand, (Why do I *always* wind up on the other hand?), delve into matters philosophic and spiritual, with a variable degree of insight. Is this alright? Do I bear to much of myself to the public?
