Will Worship

In my recent readings (and watching of videos) I've seen so many scriptures taken out of context it's like watching Scriptural Gymnastics. Hopping from one scripture to another, ignoring context, ignoring the story, ignoring the message that is attempting to come through.

One particular verse that I've seen misused is Colossians 2:23. Some like to use the King James Version which reads: "Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." They key on the words "will worship". Other versions say "self made" or "self imposed". But they turn those words into a new designation for anything they think is an addition to the worship. They say we are not to engage in "will worship" and here are the set of things we can and can't do as part of worship. It's a nice clean list. Totally ignoring the fact that in the whole chapter preceding this, Paul has been reminding them they they are free from the chains of ritualistic legalism. They are not bound by the doctrines of men. Much of this passage also deals with moral purity. The physical constraints being put on them had no ability to make them pure in heart. Nothing in these verses gives any indication that making more rules is desirable. In fact, it says it is not helpful and it is contrary to the true message of the cross.

I found this enumeration of 800ish commands in the New Testament. There are only 613 commands in the Old Testament. Someone went to a lot of work to categorize these. It sure looks like a daunting list. But it is totally stripped of context, story, and meaning. Not all commands are for all people at all times. And the statement "Be kind of brotherly love one to another" isn't so much a new command as an explanation of one way to exercise what Jesus said were the greatest commands.

A distinction I have noticed between the OT law and NT law is that most of the OT laws had immediate consequences spelled out. In the NT, rarely is there any immediate consequence (punishment) that accompanies the "commands." The only retribution is at the end of your life when you die and go to heaven or hell. And since Christians are in Christ, the eternal retribution is put aside. So what keeps us from doing whatever we want. Romans 6. We died to sin and put on Christ which makes us want to be like him.

Another distinction, the OT laws are very specific and try to cover a wide variety of situations. Yet even this wasn't enough for the Rabbis and Pharisees who felt the need to be even more specific and build up hedges around the laws. In the NT, most "laws" are very high level and there is no attempt to go into all the situations around which to build a court case. (One counterpoint to this, is 1 Corinthians 7 where Paul is teaching them about being married, staying married, and being single. But even in this case, there are so many other scenarios that are not covered, I don't tend to read this as a rule book but as a set of principles and things that will work out "best.") In the absence of specificity, we often make our own hedges just like the Pharisees. This is fine on a personal level (I abstain from any alcohol). But it is not okay when I try to enforce this on others (You must abstain from all alcohol) else labeling them as "not taking the authority of the Bible seriously", not "rightly dividing the word of truth", "false teacher", or even "erring brother."

Colossians 2:16 says "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath." How often do we let other people pass judgment on us for how we worship? How often do we pass judgment on others for how they worship? How often do we let other people pass judgement on other people for how they worship?

Sean Sightings

Once again Sean takes on the heavy hitting issues with his latest blog post on the Southern Hills church blog: "Divide and Conquer"
The sermon that he referenced can be downloaded (or listened to online) here: "Romans 14: The Weak and the Strong". I've listened to it 3 times now and highly recommend it.

Sean now wants to start his own blog which we will work to get going soon. There may also be some big news coming up soon so stay tuned.

I Learned a New Acronym

Growing up I always heard about the CoC's standard hermeneutic for Biblical interpretation: Direct Command, Approved Example, Necessary Inference. Just recently I was reading and saw this refered to by the acronym CENI. So I learned a new acronym which is always exciting. Sometimes it is refered to as just CEI. Really it should be DCAENI, but that is much harder to say and write and not as catchy.

This whole revelation got me thinking about many things including the following discussion that took place based on a Facebook post of mine. I had been reading that the Lord's Supper was to be taken only on Sunday and every Sunday. Taking the LS on any other day of the week is sinful. We had also recently discussed this in a Sunday morning Bible class. Not liking the way that sat in my stomach, I came up with this "modest proposal" hearkening back to my HS English class days and Jonathan Swift.

I didn't take all the comments here, just a couple from David and my Mom (in honor of Mother's Day). Notice how quickly I went from the "modest proposal" into ranting and didn't stop ranting even after I said I would. Only minor edits here for grammar.

For my CoC brethren (and cisterns) and others interested in needless controversies: Since the Lord Supper is to be taken on a Sunday, each Sunday, and only on Sunday (as the general CoC instruction goes) and the examples we have in scriptures would follow the Jewish time reckoning of sundown to sundown and there was no concept of timezones, should we only be taking the Lord's Supper while the sun is up in the land of Israel? Seems we should make this a new rule and put it into practice immediately based on the CENI principles we hold so dear.

Well it would change based on the seasons as days get shorter and longer but we could probably pick a time that would always be acceptable, I'll have to figure that out and codify it into the rulebook

The earliest sunset in Israel is 4:36PM local time which translates to 8:26AM CST. The latest sunset is at 7:51PM which is 11:51AM CST. So to have a constant time throughout the year, any time between noon Saturday and 8AM Sunday local time would be acceptable. Thinking of bringing this to the elders and suggesting we adjust our service times accordingly.

You're welcome to use my timezone research so that my labors are not in vain. The problem with disputable matters is that we sit around disputing them so much, we get mad and then divide ourselves into small groups call each other false teachers and unfaithful. All this serves to harm the cause of Christ rather than spreading God's love to all. Where there is grace for moral issues, there is no grace for doctrinal issues (in the eyes of many). Jesus worshiped (as was his custom) in the Synagogue which was not authorized for Jewish worship by God but their own institution. David ate the sacred bread which Jesus said was fine. The disciples picked grain on the Sabbath which Jesus said was fine. There is grace from God, just not a lot of grace among those that should be brothers and sisters. Rant off

In addition we must also take Communion on Thursday evenings since that's when Jesus started it. Afterwards we must all go out to the local park, pray, sleep and get arrested. I'll let someone else do the timezone math on when this should all take place.

Regarding CENI (Command, Example, Necessary Inference) it is just a tool. it seems to be best suited toward evaluating what we already do rather than exploring what the Bible said God would have us do or not do. You can pass practices through the filter of CENI and come out with a Yes/No answer, but you can't use it to discover new things. Also, the implied adjectives "Direct" Command, "Approved" Example, "Necessary" Inference are really squishy and can be and have been used to filter in or out lots of ideas using many legalistic machinations that make my heart and head hurt. I've been reading too many religious blogs this week.

http://oneinjesus.info/* is a blog I've started reading this week trying to spider out and find both "liberal" and "conservative" viewpoints on a variety of issues. Some of the ulta-conservative stuff I've encountered has made me sick to my stomach. Little tiny things causing such division in God's body.

David said: "So I really wonder if there are other tools, or mechanisms, or logic paths used by others for interpreting secpriture. CENI is a fairly stright forward method of categorizing ways to glean information from scriptures. Do other people use something else? IFG-YFG-LF (I Feel Good - You Feel Good - Lets Fellowship)."

Mom said: "So are you thinking something more detailed like a NT book similar to Leviticus would solve many of these disputes?"

Yes, mom, we definitely need all the rules clearly defined so that we know where to look for the loopholes. I am starting to think that CENI and the other lists we make are good for teaching simple principles but start to fall apart amid the messiness of life. 5 steps to salvation, 5 acts of worship, 4 types of prayer. All are simplified ideas pulled from a variety of scriptures but do not tell the whole story. That's the problem with living by rules in general, there are always more rules to make. And rather than finding common ground by focusing on the important stuff, we make important that which is God has not and create divisions in his church. David, hopefully this will give you plenty of sermon fodder. Bottom line, I think it is a fallacy to say that CENI or any other hermeneutic applies universally specifically since God did not give them to us.

Another recent FB status update I spewed at the world (or at least my social network):

Speak where the Bible speaks and create binding laws for everyone where the Bible is silent.

As quickly as I came to know and understand CENI, I have come to dislike it. As I said, it can be useful, but it doesn't not tell the whole story nor is it the right tool for every encounter with scripture.

*Note: http://oneinjesus.info/ that I mentioned is not one of the ultra-conservative writings that I said hurt my head. It is a very well thought out set of writings that I appreciate very much. I just wanted to make this clear as reading through the context it might seem that I was putting it down.

The Importance of Doctrinal Purity

How much time did Jesus spend teaching doctrines concerning religious rituals (aka worship)? He spent his time working on the heart of people concerning their morality, not their doctrinal purity. The epistles are the same way. Morality is stressed. Relationships among believers are stressed. Where there is doctrinal teaching it is most often to address problems among the members, stop infighting, get them to accept, love, and show concern for their brothers and sister. Or it is teaching against the doctrines of men that are being imposed.

Most of what we call the "pattern of worship" is taken from a few examples here and there, not direct commands. And just because a church did something that way once or twice does not mean that it must be done that way for all time.

James says that true religion is taking care of those in need and keeping ourselves pure from the corruption of the world. He is not talking about doctrinal purity. He is talking about morality and action and treating people right. How do I know? Because that's what he talked about in the rest of his letter.

Jesus mentioned 2 ways that the world will know we belong to him: 1) love each other, 2) obey his commandments. How many doctrinal commands did Jesus give? How many moral and relational commands did he give?

By Whose Authority

When the religious leaders asked Jesus "by whose authority do you do these things" he didn't give them an answer but redirected their question. In the church today we often ask "by whose authority do you do these things" when it comes to how we worship, musical instruments, elders, the Lord's Supper, etc.

If I want to change how some ritual is performed in our worship, I can see this question being asked of me. I thought of a really good response in the shower one morning but couldn't remember what it was in time to write it down.

But I do have a few questions of my own.

• By whose authority do you condemn?
• By whose authority do you bind?
• By whose authority do you say something is sin?

Growing up in churches of Christ, I had always heard that the silence of scripture was prohibitive. This is also called the Regulative Principle. If scripture is silent on an issue then you can't do that, it is sinful. This never really sat well with me. I kinda understood it, but there was always a cognitive dissonance with how it was applied. There were so many exceptions. There was a distinction between what was an "aid" versus what was an "addition". Pitch pipes, song books, pews, church buildings, driving cars to worship, air conditioning, etc. are all "aids", but for some reason "musical instruments" are an "addition" and that made them taboo. Wow! That's a lot of definition and classification that is nowhere to be found in scripture. And yet we have no trouble spouting it out. What happened to the principle of silence. Speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where the Bible is silent. Rather this seems like speaking where the Bible speaks and creating binding laws where the Bible is silent. (My apologies for using a slogan that is itself not found in scripture)

The Bible is silent on the classification of aids and additions and expedients and hermenutics. And yet we have no trouble speaking about them and making up rules about them and binding those rules on all Christians and refusing fellowship with anyone who practices or believes differently. I lump myself in with this group because while I may not agree, I have been looking on silently for all my life. Over the past month, I've done a lot of reading. I've tried to read on all sides of the issues. In doing so, I've not come up with any new revelations but I have really solidified what I have long felt to be true. The principle that silence is always  prohibitive is (to use a word that our modern translations politely translate) rubbish.

[Start random streams of thought]

I'd like to stand up and say "No MORE!" but in reality I'd rather live at peace with those Christians around me than try to convince anyone otherwise. So maybe I'll take the quiet approach, like the gentle rain that waters the earth and eventually stuff grows. Maybe that's just the fear in me talking. Maybe my local world needs a little shake up. Maybe I need to get thrown to the curb and have to work my way back in. Maybe someone else will step up and join me in my fight. Or maybe we shouldn't fight. The false teacher in scripture is one who is divisive. Division within God's body is counter to Jesus' last wishes in his prayer that we would all be one just as he is one with the Father. I realize that I can't change anyone but myself and I am not responsible for anyone's beliefs and actions by my own, but I have great influence on my own family and how my children are shaped to understand God's word. And I have some influence on others around me. I need to use that influence to point to Jesus. Not to a set of rules and doctrines especially when those are man-made. But just Jesus. Let's walk along that path together, hand in hand.

A Bit of Pride

Today my oldest son Sean (12) entered into the world of blogging with his contribution to our church blog. Does God Really Know EVERYTHING? He's been listening to a lot of lessons from Patrick Mead on his iPod and especially likes the series "God at War" which talks about the spiritual warfare going on around us and what is the future--what does God know and when did he know it--and lots of other stuff. He loves to talk about it and about philosophy, theology, etc in general. It's amazing how much he's growing up. He did a great job filling a leadership roll in the LTC chorus recently and has done several Bible readings in classes and worship.

I should take a minute to brag about the other two as well. Josh (9) is playing soccer and loves playing goalie. Not only is he good at it, but he likes it because he doesn't have to run much. He has stopped a lot of balls, and the ones he doesn't stop he is diving for.

Nathan (5 mos) is working on crawling and is so close. You can tell he is learning how to move and it even seems he is listening to me as I'm coaching him to "get on your knees". It won't be long.

The grow up so fast and are such a blessing.

Courageous

I've been a big fan of the Sherwood brothers movies ever since I stumbled across the movie "Facing the Giants" on DVD several years ago. I think I may have even blogged about it back then. And I recommend it to everyone  I have a chance to. Since then I have seen their other movies "Flywheel" and "Fireproof" and own the DVDs for FtG and FP (but not FW). I was very excited a couple years ago when I learned about their next movie framed in a police story and focusing on fatherhood. Well this weekend the day finally came and the movie "Courageous" was on my radar to see with the whole family. I ended up just taking the boys since Kathryne had other things to do today, but I plan on taking her to see it soon.

The movie centers around a group of men several of whom are police officers and face danger daily. Another who comes into their group struggles with the more mundane issue of just trying to feed his family. All of them face issues of how to be a good father. So many of the themes and situations hit home. As a father I struggle with all kinds of thoughts about what I'm doing right and wrong. How badly am I going to screw up my kids through my actions or inaction? Am I disconnected from my kids? What I am passing on to them?

The movie itself has some big changes from their previous films. It has the same gospel messages and may still feel a bit "preachy" to non-Christians. But the production values, acting, and story are all greatly improved. There was nothing in the production of this movie that you could look at an think it's not a standard Hollywood production (at least to my untrained, consumerish eye). But the drastic departure comes in the general tone of the movie. There is some serious tragedy going on here. It's an emotional roller coaster. I cried just about every other scene. There was the standard humorous banter between characters that we've seen in their previous films. But from the very start, there are no punches pulled. And there is no miraculous happy ending here. Just a lot of real life that is messy for all involved. I hate to say it, but I was really ready for this movie to be over. Not because it was bad or too long, but because I was emotionally exhausted. It is over 2 hours long and was emotionally draining.

It was also very challenging. Challenging to not be mediocre or "good enough". As a father. As a man. As a Christian. If you are a father you need to see this movie. If you have a father, you need to see this movie. If your father let you down and negatively impacted your life you really need to see this movie. Take your family. Take your friends. Support this high-quality Christian entertainment by going to the theater in the first week (or two). That is the critical time for the industry to judge the popularity of a movie. Let's help this one stick around for a while.

A couple caveats. I took Sean and Joshua. Sean was fine, but Joshua was a bit scared/bored/overwhelmed in many scenes. You be the judge of your children's readiness for this film. Also, it is PG-13 for some of these reasons and there is some violence and drug related content that the police deal with. The worst part about the PG-13 rating is the trailers and other promotions before the movie. The are a bit harsher than a G or PG rating would have warranted. But there wasn't anything that was so out of line that I wanted to leave or hide from little eyes and ears.

The movie website has the opening scene available for you to watch, but please head out to the theater soon.

Movie Website: http://www.courageousthemovie.com/
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1630036/
Plugged-in Review: http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/courageous.aspx
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/courageous/

Motown Woes

You hear about the bad economy in places like Detroit on the news, but it's so weird being here and seeing it firsthand.

We are right downtown, and there is NO traffic and no signs of anything close to a bustling city. If it weren't for this conference I don't think you'd see much on the streets besides the little traffic for the Tigers game. I'll be part of that traffic tomorrow night as they play the Yankees. There are so many office buildings that are completely empty and getting run down. The casinos around seem a desperate attempt to revive the dead. Just across the river in Canada, things look a little more lively. There are some signs of high-tech thriving business but they are like oases in the desert. I heard that in the 60's the population was 1.7 million, now it's below 800,000

If you want some cheap office space and no traffic commutes, Detroit might just be the place for you. Our CEO has already declined our suggestion that he look into it.

Thoughts on Harding University's Policy on Homosexuality

My alma mater Harding University came into the national news recently in part thanks to a NY Times article entitled "Even on Religious Campuses, Students Fight for Gay Identity". Read the article if you wish though you might have to circumnavigate the NY Times pay wall. Basically it talks about school policies at Harding, Abilene Christian University, and Baylor University regarding homosexual students.

This plus some recent comments on FaceBook by classmates and friends got me thinking and writing. In some of the comments and much of the national dialog, one of the phrases I've heard used is that we need to "affirm the dignity" of all people (in this case gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, etc.).

Affirming the dignity of a person is a very nebulous concept. I'm not sure what it means or how it would be practiced in the context in which it is being used. In my mind, letting someone know that God loves them (each and every person) so much that He wants a relationship with them and sent His Son to die for them to enable that relationship is the heart of the Gospel.

In Dr. Burks's recent chapel address on the issue  (video embedded below) I believe he stated something very similar. (As with all Youtube videos, please don't read the comments).

However, in the way Harding interprets scripture, homosexual activity is sinful just as other forms of sexual immorality are sinful. Therefore according to the university rules it is behavior that if discovered will be subject to disciplinary action, just as any other breaking of the rules.

You may debate whether the interpretation of scripture is correct, but it is fully consistent with their beliefs. Affirming behavior that you understand to be sinful would be inconsistent.

Jesus loved everyone, but when he encountered people engaged in sinful behavior, he didn't say "That's okay, just keep on being that way and I'll still love you." He said, "Go and sin no more." Then he died showing how much he loved them whatever choice they made.

I work with all kinds of people each day that engage in behaviors I don't myself engage in or often approve of and I treat them respectfully and kindly. I don't make it a point to tell them all their flaws or how sinful they are being. Such things rarely come up. But were I to have influence in their lives to inject my own opinion, it would be wrong of me to just say everything is ok.

I've rambled on too long and I know this is not a popular opinion, but I felt it on my heart to write something. I hope that Harding will continue to look for ways to minister to every single person attending or on whom they have influence. It is also my prayer that they never stop seeking to uphold the standards to which God has called us to be holy and pure in His sight.

Year of Jubilee

Recently I’ve started thinking about the concept of the Year of Jubilee. This came up recently in our Bible study as we read through the Law as part of our Daily Bible Reading schedule. Also, one of my favorite songs to lead in worship is “Days of Elijah” which references the celebration. At each of these occasions, I made mention of the fact that we don’t have any indication of the Israelites ever adhering to the celebration of the Year of Jubilee. A wise old (older than me) man came up to me to ask why I was pointing the lack of celebration out. It started me thinking about whether what I was saying was accurate. As we discussed it, I thought back to some time in my youth sitting in a Bible class somewhere and the teacher saying that the Israelites never celebrated Jubilee in full because it was too difficult.

So I went home and started doing some research. I struggled greatly with not using my phone to do research during the sermon immediately after our conversation.

The following are links to some of the pages I read with a little commentary but not much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_(biblical)
Jubilee years appear to have been used for counting even if not actually celebrated

In my brief searching I couldn’t find any direct evidence of Jubilee being celebrated in full by the entire nation of Israel.

Info on the Sabbath years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmita

Sabbath years do appear to have been celebrated at times
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Sabbatical_Years

2 Kings 19:29-30

The conversation between Isaiah and Hezekiah seems to be an indication of a Sabbath year followed by a Jubilee year with regards to the agricultural aspects but there is no mention of the slave, land and debt aspects.

This article has a really good tie in of Jubilee from Moses to Jesus
http://www.yearofjubilee.org/2008/07/a-time-for-jubilee/

I especially liked that it tied in Jesus’ reading in the synagogue to the year of jubilee:Luke 20 4:14-21 “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

I’ll have to read through that some more as I think it has important implications to our lives today.

Of course people try to base everything including predictions on the coming of Christ on Jubilee year counting

http://www.growthingod.org.uk/jubilee.htm

Not too much useful info there unless you like reading rationalizations for millennial theology

So that’s about all the research I did and intend to do for now. No resolution to my initial inquiry but I certainly got some background information that I think will be useful.

A Wii Little Error

Today Kathryne and I both woke up to a great surprise. We had each lost about 7 pounds in 1 day. At least according the the Nintendo Wii Fit where we track our weight. Kathryne was so excited. We were both quite shocked and wondering how such a thing could be. She verified her result and then I stepped on and had a similar result. After the initial excitement died down, we started trying to think of what might be the cause or if there was an error with the device. I decided to replace the batteries (4 AA) and try it again. Unfortunately, we had not found some miracle overnight weight loss scheme and the losses were much more reasonable with the new juice feeding the platform. Fortunately, there were still losses.

Nothing like a bit of reality to burst your bubble. But I'd rather know the truth than be deceived into thinking things are better than they are (at least most of the time).

Consistency

I ran across a story today that makes me sad for the cause of Christ. There's more background that you can  read here but my focus is a picture of a man with Leviticus 18:22 tattooed on his arm. This is one of the verses in the Bible that prohibits homosexuality. What interested me about this is that just a page flip away (variable depending on the layout of your Bible) is Leviticus 19:28. This verse prohibits tattoos. O.o

As Christians, one of the worst testimonies we can provide is when our lives our inconsistent with what we profess to believe and inconsistent with scripture. How often do we pick and choose those verses that we wish to live by and those we wish to ignore? We condemn those around us for one thing while ignoring our own issues. I think there's some verse in Matthew that speaks to this. Read the whole thing. It's good for you. Rather we should all work together in love to walk the path with God and when we stumble, pick each other up.

A Cold Wind Blows...and yet I Run

Last year on Wednesday January 13th, I performed my usual ritual of driving through Chick-fil-A on my way to work to pick up a yummy chicken biscuit.  It would be the last I ever had. If this were the opening to a SyFy movie it would be because I was carted off by aliens for some unpleasant probing. In reality it's because of something that happened on the way to Huntsville.

This morning I crawled out of bed at 5:40 am after a single snooze cycle for the purpose of going to the 'Y' for a run around the track and some weights. Did I mention that it's freezing outside? If it's going to be this cold I really need it to snow. And yet I woke up and got myself all bundled up for a run. First I took Lily for a run around the block. Then I went on to the gym for some faster sprints and weights. My wardrobe include 3 layers: long johns, shorts and shirt, sweat pants and jacket, along with gloves and a sock top. I really should get some cold weather running gear for the 3 times this winter when bundling up will be required.

The point of all this is not to complain about the weather or brag about my running prowess, but rather to note the change in my mindset over the last 52 weeks. But then I look at yesterday morning when I slept in and realize I still have a long way to go.

1 year ago tomorrow also marks the anniversary of the last soda I had. At work I would have anywhere from 4-6 per day usually Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Pepper. The fridge here is still fully stocked with such things but I resisted and now have no urge to pop one open.

So what happened on the way to Huntsville that day? On my flight, I watched the documentary "Food Matters" (currently available on Netflix instant streaming and DVD). That was the tipping point. I realized that I could take control of my health and the way to do it was to take control of what I put in my body and what I put my body through.

And so I run. And try really hard to not put anything in my mouth that will be harmful and to put in lots of helpful stuff. Last week I started a health journal where I write down everything that goes in (I'll stay away from what comes back out), what exercise I do, and how I'm feeling. It has really helped me stay on track as can be noted by the weight loss column. I had been stuck on a plateau for a couple months and have really started to see better results in just the last 10 days.

If I had to label the focus for my family for last year it would be "Healthy Living". I'm not big on new year's resolutions. The only one I ever make is to not make any resolutions which I break on the first day and keep the rest of the year. What's my focus for this year? I don't know yet. There is still a lot of work to be done on the health front, but looking back at the end of the year I hope I can say that I focused on spiritual and family relations.

In other news, I quit World of Warcraft for good and am loving my rediscovered freedom.

Happy New Year!

3 down, 6 to go

Annual employee performance review forms that is. It's always hard to evaluate someone's performance especially when you're considering the entire year. Essentially I have to boil all that down to a number between 1 and 5 that will then be used determine their raise for the following year.And their performance throughout the year determines my raise so I want to keep them happy and productive.  It's a symbiotic relationship between management and people who actually do the real work. I'm growing into my new role as manager more and more. I'm not sure whether I really enjoy it as much as slinging code, but I'm getting better at it. I try to continually remind myself that my job is to enable others to do their jobs better. I don't get to do some of the fun stuff, but I do get the reward that comes with orchestrating a successful project completion. I try to stay out of their way and be a buffer from the agonizing administrative details of contracting, proposal writing, and other necessary but painful overhead. And I get some satisfaction from doing that effectively.

So at the end of this year, looking back on the work that everyone is done I can relax and do my best to see that everyone remains happy and productive in the coming year.

Now back to those review forms.

Facebook, the Portal to the Internet

Maybe it's just that the game Portal is on my mind but Facebook seems to have some resemblance to GLaDOS (the psychotic/sociopathic AI guiding you through the game): using us as lab rats in their social experiments, making money off the research, promising cake but we all know about the cake (pssst. The cake is a Lie). The main difference is that Facebook doesn't make you a neat gun.

Research:
The current top suggestion in Google search for "how do I" is "how do i delete my facebook account".
Portal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)

Random news (aka what Twitter and FaceBook do to my will to blog)

Sean is about to turn 11.
Just celebrated 14 years married to a wonderful woman.
Ironman II was almost as good as the original.  All the haters are just annoying.
The Lich King just won't die.
My iPhone has a small crack in the plastic on the back.
Preacher at church is resigning.
Brother graduated from college and is looking for gainful employment.
First outdoor pool trip of the year resulted in 4 sunburned peeps.
No travel in the month of May?!? That's unpossible!
Lost about 40lbs since January.
Something I'm eating/doing is making me nauseated most mornings.  Or maybe I'm pregnant.

Parenting win

I had an interesting parenting experience yesterday.  The kind where you actually feel like you may get some pearl of wisdom imparted to your kids.
Sean and Joshua each wanted to play the computer.  We had told them "No" for a while but finally decided to let them have their 30 minutes of play time.  So I asked them "Who wants to play computer first?"  They were standing near each other and Sean rushed forward not quite pushing his brother saying "I do!"  I replied "Sean can play first for 30 minutes, then Joshua can play for 40 minutes."  Sean looked shocked.  Needless to say, he wasn't happy about it. He threw a fit so I then let Joshua go first with his 40 minutes.  Now Sean was really not happy.  He then tried to apply it to all future times where he could get more time by going last.  I told him it didn't work like that.

Then the lesson started.  I explained to him Jesus' words "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."  When we rush to be first we don't often end up with the best.  You could see the wheels turning in his head as he didn't want to believe it or accept the application. Only time will tell if it sinks in, but it was one of those times where I actually felt like a wise parent.

Cultural Transformers

I listen to a lot of podcasts covering a wide variety of subjects.  Some are pure fun and some are informational for personal or professional development.   One of my favorites that I’ve listened to for several years is Dave Ramsey’s radio show.  Recently while listening I started thinking “This guy is really crazy.  He wants these folks to go totally against the cultural financial norms.”  Dave is certainly more dogmatic in his teachings than someone like Clark Howard.  Clark (or Mr. Howard if you want to irritate him) tells people how to work the credit system to keep a good credit rating and credit score, useful advice for living in a culture that values and relies on credit for its daily sustenance. If you’ve listened to Dave for 10 seconds you know he couldn’t care less what your credit score is. Dave refers to Bank of America as BoA (as in constrictor) and often says “If you play with snakes, you’re going to get bit.” While Clark teaches you how to play with the snakes safely so as not to get bit, Dave teaches you to stay away from the snakes.  Clark teaches how to play the game.  Dave refuses to play the game and goes off to have his own fun playing a new game (based on old principles) and tries to get everyone to come and play with him.  I learn useful things from both of these men and am not trying to pit them against each other.  But the difference in philosophy is one to consider in many areas of our lives including religion, health, morals, and work.

This goes right along with my previous post on change.  When something in our lives is not going as it should how should we work to change it? The world is full of quick remedies and partial solutions. Get rich quick schemes, the lottery, fad diets, 30minuteworship.com, and protein power drinks are thrown at us from every form of media. The verse comes to mind:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” Romans 12:2

How did Jesus live? Did he ask the Pharisees what they thought, study the culture and try to find the best way to live in it.  Did he go off and live atop a mountain, take a few people with him, and wait for his purpose to be fulfilled?  Or did he live his life counter to the culture, working with individuals to change their lives.  He didn’t try to change the government policies.  He wasn’t bullied by threats or name calling.  He stood up for his convictions, and everyone knew where he stood.  He worked to heal people’s hearts and spirits, not just their physical maladies.  And when they left him, they were changed and inspired to spread the change to all around.

We have options for living our lives:

1.  Embrace the culture and it’s values
2. Fit in to the culture and maintain your values
3. Separate from the culture to protect your values
4.  Work to change the culture and infect it with your values

You can thrive in various aspects by 1, 2, or 3.  But only through 4 can we be fulfilled and truly Christ-like.  The wisdom of the world won’t get us where we need to be.  Fortunately God gave us a healthy dose of common sense as well as a bunch of proverbial wisdom to go along with it.

Too many times (especially in the church) we focus on #3, separating ourselves from the culture for fear of letting it infect us.  We teach our kids “do not taste, do not touch” (Col 2). We stay within the confines of our church buildings without venturing out into the communities that we are supposed to minister to.  We must separate ourselves from the ACTIONS and WISDOM of the world, but not from the people.  We don’t live the way they live, but we must LOVE the way that HE loved.  Jesus never once shunned attending a gathering for fear of what he might hear or see.  But when he was there, he would infect those around him with his compassion and love.

In, not of. Transformative, not conforming. Loving and living in a culture that doesn’t like us or understand us and yet that is our mission. I have several mentors from afar that I thank God for their transformative message:

• Dr. James Dobson for his tireless work to protect and strengthen our families.
• Dave Ramsey for his encouragement to “Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else”.
• And most recently Dr. Josh Axe for his simple yet healing message of eating the foods our bodies were meant to eat and living all around healthy lives.

These men and their organizations refuse to conform to the conventional wisdom and values of the masses. They live according to a different set of rules and refuse to play the game the world wants them to play.  Instead they demonstrate great love, great compassion, and great wisdom open to anyone who will listen.  Sound familiar.

Personal Challenge:

I was just reading the book Re-Create by Ron Luce and he challenged me to challenge my children to become transformers of culture rather than conformers to it.  Now I need to figure out how to impart that mission to them. Shouldn’t be too hard; I bet they’ll like the idea of being transformers.

How to Have a Healthy Marriage

I started thinking as Kathryne commented that we’ve been really happy recently in our marriage as to why that was.  I’m sure there are lots of reasons but I think one of the causes of this is the fact that we’re working together towards a common goal.  Not a general goal like “raising children” or “having a good marriage” but a very specific goal of transforming the way our family eats.  It’s the same kind of feeling I remember having right after we started working on our plan to get out of debt.

Something about having a specific, near-term goal and working together to achieve it seems to bring us together.  There’s nothing really deep or surprising about this.  Mainly I just want to record this for posterity so that next time we seem to hit a bump in the road we won’t have to rediscover this highly effective tool.

Change

Kathryne and I were talking a bit today about the changes in our lives in the last few years.  We used to live as pretty normal American Christians.  Plodding along in live doing the things we do, going with the flow, following the wisdom of the masses.  The main problem with that is the wisdom of the masses is not very wise.  This is summed up quite well when the Apostle Paul writes:

 ¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written:
   "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 1 Corinthians 1:18-19

Three (3) years ago we started attending a class at church entitled "Discovering God's Ways of Handling Money" put together by a ministry called Crown Financial Ministries. What we discovered was that the way we were living was, to put it bluntly, STOOPID!  Or in the terms of Proverbs: foolish.  And yet to all those around us we looked perfectly normal.  The problem is that normal in America is broke, overweight, deeply in debt, chronically diseased, and generally not happy with life. The class forced us to examine our financial situation, and gather more information on how to do things the right way.  The results were quite dramatic as I described in detail earlier.

We were greatly focused on our finances which added an intensity that accelerated the whole process. The problem with focus is often that other things suffer.  So while our relationship with regards to money was improving we also saw the need to work on other areas of our relationship with each other as well as our relationship with our kids.  So we've read many books over the past few years on these subjects and attended several seminars to help in these areas.  The signs are not as outwardly visible as with our finances but we see them in small things in our lives.  In a couple weeks we'll be attending the Focus on Marriage simulcast seminar put on by Focus on the Family.  In addition to books, we often listen to the Focus on the Family free podcast which brings us their daily radio program right to our computers to listen to at our leisure. The interviews and speakers they bring in are amazing.

There's one more major change we're currently undertaking that I'm not quite ready to write about in detail.  But I do want to consider what are the circumstances under which change occurs. Not just temporary change, but lasting change.

• First, you have to recognize the need for change.  When we recognized our mountain of debt and it's impact on our lives, it served as a great impetus for us to make look for more information on how to get better.
• Second, you have to gather information.  Often it is information that is the impetus in #1.  But you can't just gather any information, you have to gather the right kind of information from knowledgeable, non-biased sources.  Examining the motives of your sources of information is key in this. Gathering information on getting out of debt from your credit card company is going to be suspect.
• Third, and this is the hardest one, you have to make a COMMITMENT TO CHANGE your actions. James 1:22-25 says:

 ²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Many people I've talked to recently know the information needed to effect positive change in their lives, but they're not willing to add or remove the necessary actions from their lives.  Whether it's how you spend, how you serve, how you parent, how you love, how you eat, or anything you do you will have to change your actions and make sacrifices in order to change your life for the better.  And when you make those sacrifices, you may just realize that the sacrifice is not that great and where you are is so much better than where you were that you kick yourself for not making the change earlier.  I know my legs are tired from doing just this.

One final verse, Romans 12:2 

²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.