Settling Jabez

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

1 Chronicles 4:9,10

First Chronicles begins with nine chapters of genealogy. It is a refresher course to people returning to Jerusalem after 70 years of Babylonian exile. It reminded them that they were all connected through Jacob and his sons. It is a much-needed encouragement to people trying to reclaim a promise made to their forefathers.

These genealogies are incomplete in places and seem to favor highlighting notable figures. Tucked within this family tree a few stories, mostly about battles. The stories seem to have the same purpose as the genealogy as a whole. They say, "This is who you are. This is how God deals with Israel."

In the last few years the most famous section, the only one paid any attention by most Christians, has been the two verses about Jabez and his prayer. This is thanks mostly to the mega-huge best-seller book by Bruce Wilkinson. Some claimed that it was a book pushing the "Health and Wealth" gospel. I never read it, so I cannot comment.

I am begrudgingly reading a Rick Warren book called "God's Answers to Life's Difficult Questions". I find the book annoying for several reasons, mostly because there is constant eisogesis going on. He tells us about the emotional well-being of Bible characters like he is their personal shrink.

He has a chapter about striving to be above average where Jabez gets set up as the example to follow. He is praised as a man who had 1. Great Ambition 2. Growing Faith and 3. Genuine Prayer.

I don't know if all that is true. What I do know is that he prayed for more land and less pain was granted that prayer. A man whose name meant pain was eventually kept form pain. And I know he was honorable.

He had the faith to ask God, and God gave. I might not go as far as Rick Warren who said "If you combine the three requests that Jabez prayed for, I guarantee that you will live above average." But I will say that is always encouraging to see someone blessed, because they prayed.

Maybe it's selfish. Maybe it is immature. But protection and wealth are still powerful motivators. I'd bet that those returning to Jerusalem would feel the same way.

But we must be careful not confuse faithfulness as some sort of guarantee for what most would call success. Hebrews 11 shows how diverse the results of our faith can be:

1. The Good results:

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

2. The Not-So-Good results:

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Because of Daniel's faith, he was saved from the lions. Because of the early Christians faith, they were killed by lions in the arena. Sometimes God saves people from pain due to their faith. Other times they are tortured and die for their faith.

Jabez prayed for wealth and protection and got it. Others have prayed with equal faith and been denied.

I guess the question is this: Do you have the faith to pray knowing that He might say yes or no, may rescue you or let you be share in suffering, may provide or let you scrape?

New Ideas are Overemphasized

I recently ran across the following quote in one of the books I am reading for school. It definitely made me reevaluate some of my thoughts, especially those concerning the concept of the kingdom of God, something I have been doing lately anyway. This comes from Clifford Geertz's The Intepretation of Cultures.

In her book, Philosophy in a New Key, Susanne Langer remarks that certain ideas burst upon the intellectual landscape with a tremendous force. They resolve so many fundamental problems at once that they seem also to promise that they will resolve all fundamental problems, clarify all obscure issues. Everyone snaps them up as the open sesame of some new positive science, the conceptual center-point around with a comprehensive system of analysis can be built. The sudden vogue of such a grande idee, crowding out almost everything else for a while, is due, she says, "to the fact that all sensitive and active minds turn at once to exploiting it. We try it in every connection, for every purpose, experiment with possible stretches of its strict meaning, with generalizations and derivatives."

After we have become familiar with the new idea, however, after it has become part of our general stock of theoretical concepts, our expectations are brought more into balance with its actual uses, and its excessive popularity is ended. A few zealots persist in the old key-to-the-universe view of it; but less driven thinkers settle down after a while to the problems the idea has really generated. They try to apply it and extend it where it applies and where it is capable of extension; and they desist where it does not apply or cannot be extended. It becomes, if it was, in truth, a seminal idea in the first place, a permanent and enduring part of our intellectual armory. But it no longer has the grandiose, all-promising scope, the infinite versatility of apparent application, it once had. The second law of thermodynamics, or the principle of natural selection, or the notion of unconscious motivation, or the organization of the means of production does not explain everything, not even everything human, but it still explains something; and our attention shifts to isolating just what that something is, to disentangling ourselves from a lot of pseudoscience to which, in the first flush of its celebrity, it has also given rise.

I think there is a lot of wisdom in that quote to ponder on when we start running with a new idea. It is fresh and exciting because it provides answers to problems that we have been contemplating, but it will definitely not be the answer to every problem we have been facing. I still love all of the changes that "kingdom of God" thinking has done for my Christian walk, but it does not answer everything. I propose that no theological, ecclesiological, or christological concept ever will.

Mixed Bag

I've dabbled with the idea writing a book quite often. Here are a few of the factors which motivate that desire:

* It would feed my warped sense of significance.
* I could make some extra money, maybe even a lot of it.
* I think God has gifted me as a writer.
* I think accomplishing a goal that big could empower me to achieve other goals.

Here are some of the reasons I have not:

* It requires a great amount of discipline and focus, of which I ahve little.
* There may be too much writing and non-biblical reading already, I suspect.
* I am aware of my warped desire for significance.
* I like confidence in my ability to accomplish a task that big.

This is just one example of how I am a mixed bag. My fleshly insecurites coexist with my Spirit-driven qualities. Maybe 'coexist' is not the right word, since they are at odds with each other. But they are still in my heart and mind. You can still find both of them behind so many decisions that I make.

Writing a book, preaching a good sermon, visiting the sick, reading to my children can all be motivated by either fleshly concerns or by the Spirit's call to 'Come, and die'. Sometimes simultaneously, it seems.

It's part of the process, I suppose. He takes more and more of my heart as tome goes on.

By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Hebrews 10:14

Be the One!

"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well" (Luke 17:11-19 NIV).

When I encountered this passage the other day, I was challenged to be the one. Whatever it takes, I need to make sure that I notice the blessings bestowed upon me and come back to God to give thanks. Too often, I am part of the nine. I am blessed beyond comprehension with a great family, a house to live in, a nice job, food at every meal, tremendous friends, and so many more blessings that I have a blessed life day in and day out. It would almost be a fair assumption to say that anyone who has the ability to get online and read this could say the same.

Only one out of the nine came back and gave Jesus thanks for the healing. Too often we are part of the nine. Let us strive to be the one!

The Lottery Is Evil

We have all been in a convenience store and seen someone spend their food money (and perhaps rent money) on an one in a billion chance at becoming absurdly wealthy. It makes you angry. It makes you sad.

Talk about inequality. Someone becomes far too wealthy at the expense millions of people, most of whom cannot afford their habit.

I just read that last year state-run lotteries took in $56 billion dollars. There are only about 250 million people in the US. That is an average of $212 per person, or $1,060 for a family of five (like mine). Now subtract the number of citizens who are not playing, those with moral objections, those wealthy enough not to be lured by insane odds, those in the eight states where it is not legal, and those too young to play. And you begin to see that people are burying themselves for an impossible dream.

Of course, the dream itself is a lie. Many stories are coming out about how miserable lottery winners are, how many of them wish they had never won. So, many Americans are destroying themselves for an impossible chance at becoming miserable in a whole new way.

Part of the problem the media, and the undo attention we all pay to it. The "News" glorifies it, gushing at the ludicrous numbers the Lottery, and holding up the winners as some sort of heroes. They are wrong on both of these accounts.

It was recently that four people won $330 million in the Mega Millions jack pot. In fact, that is not really true. Really four people split $194 million dollars (pre-tax), while hundreds of thousands (my guess) of people lost hundreds of dollars.

Why $194 million rather than $330 million? The $330 million is based on a 26-year annuity. But the present value is only $194 million (I know, I know "only?") Greg Easterbrook explains it this way:

If your employer gave you a choice of a $500,000 salary this year or promised you $39,000 a year for 26 years, there is not one chance on Earth you would take the latter deal, or fall for the fiction that your salary should be called "$1 million," though that is $39,000 times 26.

Yet the "News" never mentions this. They are happy to use the numbers the lottery presents without any critical thinking. By the time they split it, took the present sum and paid taxes, they would be left with about $25 million. That's a lot, but it is not as sexy as "Four people win $330 million", is it?

The net result is terrible. In that Mega Millions drawing, an estimated 80 million $5 tickets lost. How many people is that who are left poorer so that 4 people can become wealthier than they can handle.

Or as Easterbrook says, "The $56 billion spent overall by Americans on legal gambling lotteries in 2006 mainly caused large numbers of citizens to become less well off so that very small numbers could become much too wealthy."

As a Christian, I cannot think of one legitimate excuse for having anything to do with this mess.

Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?

I just found a post on why Jesus had to die on the cross.

Is there danger in personalizing it that much? Is it wrong to deal with the Old Testament sacrificial system in that way?

He made sense out of something I do not know if I have been able to make sense out of. It was always a topic I gave the "I don't know" answer to.

Influencing our Community for Christ

In our prayers on Sunday at church, we often pray, "Help us to be a positive influence in our community for Christ." I think it is probably a good thing to pray. But praying is not where it should stop; that is where it should begin.

We need to go out into the community, find where the people are, and love them where they are at. We do not need miraculous intervention to influence the community. We need a hunger to love, to be involved in the community, and to live selflessly. It's not a miracle we need. It is a life modeled after the sacrificial life of Christ.

Prayer Friday

Mem

Oh, how I love your law!

I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,

for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,

for I obey your precepts.
I have kept my feet from every evil path

so that I might obey your word.
I have not departed from your laws,

for you yourself have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I gain understanding from your precepts;

therefore I hate every wrong path.

Today, I'm praying for that craving.

By the way, my family is feeling much better. Thanks for the prayer.

Football and Faith

It's often a scary mix.

I can remember hanging my head in embarrassment when Reggie Lewis said from a pulpit that Orientals can turn a TV into a watch and Hispanics are good at pro-creating.

I can remember sighing when Deion Sanders said that Jesus told him not to pay his mechanic.

I can remember feeling a bit wheezy when I heard that Tony Dungy commanded his whole team to take a knee and recite the Lord's prayer right after they won the Super Bowl.

So I was a little worried when I found how outspoken QB Jon Kitna is about his faith. Writing that I see how silly it is. I know I have certainly done things that would make my fellow believers blush. But there is a stereo-type about zealous Christian football players. They are loud. They say silly things about how God favors their team. And they splinter their team, since the teams are a mixed bag of those who believe and those who don't.

But Kitna seems to be different. An article in ESPN the mag said this: Kitna is a fanatic for Christ, there's no question. He often prays on his way to the line of scrimmage, to calm himself. But it's clear to teammates that he sees God as more than a lucky rabbit's foot, which is why, while the vast majority of Lions prefer to keep their beliefs private, Kitna's public pronouncements don't grate on them. Posers and prima donnas splinter far more locker rooms than religion. And Kitna walks his talk without sanctimony.

He is consistent. "It's about production on the field and consistency off it," Kitna says. "What guys really have a problem with is inconsistency -- people who say one thing and do another. Hypocrites. Chameleons. My teammates learn pretty quick that this is who I am, every day and in every situation."

People respond to that. In fact, since becoming a Lion in March 2006, 20 Lions have come to Christ. I get that figure from the article. Think about that number. It's insane! There are only like 56 guys on an active roster and some of them were likely Christians already. Those numbers are more gaudy than his passing numbers.

The only thing that bums me out about Jon Kitna is that he won't be the Lions' QB in like 10 years when my son is searching for a hero in the sports world. He seems like a good one.

Mother Teresa' Struggle

TIME magazine did a story recently about a book called “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light”. The book contains several private letters Mother Teresa sent to her confessor. The letters expose her most intimate struggles with doubt. This “dark night” of her soul was something she dealt with for virtually all of her adult life. And the letters contain a pretty raw depiction of her struggle.

"Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love--and now become as the most hated one--the one--You have thrown away as unwanted--unloved. I call, I cling, I want--and there is no One to answer--no One on Whom I can cling--no, No One.--Alone ... Where is my Faith--even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness--My God--how painful is this unknown pain--I have no Faith--I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart--& make me suffer untold agony.

So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them--because of the blasphemy--If there be God --please forgive me--When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven--there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul.--I am told God loves me--and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?"

--ADDRESSED TO JESUS, AT THE SUGGESTION OF A CONFESSOR, UNDATED

It should be noted that “Kolodiejchuk, a senior Missionaries of Charity member, is her postulator, responsible for petitioning for her sainthood and collecting the supporting materials. (Thus far she has been beatified; the next step is canonization.) The letters in the book were gathered as part of that process.”

Some skeptics will see these letters as proof that Mother Teresa was hypocrite, preaching faith while having none. Kolodiejchuk sees it differently. He sees it as “proof of the faith-filled perseverance… her most spiritually heroic act.”

So, it's propaganda, but I tend to agree with Kolodiejchuk. It could be difficult to carry out the kind of ministry she did in Calcutta even with a constant felt closeness to Jesus. To fully surrender in obedience to Jesus even while feeling abandoned by him… well, that’s faith.

Had the TIME article not spelled out that argument well, I would have felt the need to do so here. However, it does. Therefore I’d like to move to a second observation about the article.

I think her suffering may not have been necessary, and it may have been the result of bad theology taught her by her church. I found this section enlightening:

[Her] letters are full of inner conflict about her accomplishments. Rather than simply giving all credit to God, Gottlieb observes, she agonizes incessantly that "any taking credit for her accomplishments--if only internally--is sinful" and hence, perhaps, requires a price to be paid… For Teresa, "an occasion for a modicum of joy initiated a significant quantity of misery," and her subsequent successes led her to perpetuate it.

I see here two stumbling blocks.

1. She saw any recognition of success as sinful pride.

This misconception did not belong to Mother Teresa alone. Nor is it monopolized by the Catholic Church. I have seen very talented people deny how obviously talented they are for fear of pride. I think this is a silliness that borders on false humility. If you have done something well, denying it would be more dishonest that humble. You do not need to be embarrassed about the blessings God gives. We have more than enough true reasons to be humble before God. We do not need fake ones.

Paul recognized his successes (2 Timothy 4:7-8 is one example that comes to mind).

I can see how such recognition could lead to pride, but I do not think the two are the same. We can recognize the good work we do, and be humbly grateful to God for gifting us and blessing our efforts.

God seems to have gifted Mother Teresa with some great talents and successes and then put her on stage for the world to see. And it seems that the more successes and attention she received, the guiltier she felt for recognizing them.

This would have been somewhat harmless silliness if it were not coupled with her second stumbling block.

2. Her sins required some further price to be paid.

When she felt she had sinful pride, she also felt the need to beat herself up for it. Instead of her success being an occasion for joy, it brought significant misery.

Even if she were guilty of pride, there was not price left for her to pay. Christ paid the price fully (Hebrews 10:10, 1 Peter 3:18) Having faith in him means trusting that his work is enough, that we do not need to add to make it enough.

I don’t know that these two stumbling blocks were the reason she felt so distant from Jesus. But these sort of untruths can lead a person down dangerous emotional paths. Feelings of guilt can quickly become feelings of loneliness.


That being said, I still think that she is a good example for those who go through periods of spiritual drought. And that includes all of us.

I just wish someone had been there to relieve her from what may have been needless suffering.

Obama's Faith

In response to Shannon's thoughts on my post the other day, I did some more research. I found this speech that Obama gave on June 28, 2006. I think it explains his faith more than any other comments that I could make. Here is an lengthy excerpt but the whole speech is great.

For some time now, there has been plenty of talk among pundits and pollsters that the political divide in this country has fallen sharply along religious lines. Indeed, the single biggest "gap" in party affiliation among white Americans today is not between men and women, or those who reside in so-called Red States and those who reside in Blue, but between those who attend church regularly and those who don't.

Conservative leaders have been all too happy to exploit this gap, consistently reminding evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their Church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage; school prayer and intelligent design.

Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, there are some liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.

Now, such strategies of avoidance may work for progressives when our opponent is Alan Keyes. But over the long haul, I think we make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in people's lives -- in the lives of the American people -- and I think it's time that we join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy.

And if we're going to do that then we first need to understand that Americans are a religious people. 90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution.

This religious tendency is not simply the result of successful marketing by skilled preachers or the draw of popular mega-churches. In fact, it speaks to a hunger that's deeper than that - a hunger that goes beyond any particular issue or cause.

Each day, it seems, thousands of Americans are going about their daily rounds - dropping off the kids at school, driving to the office, flying to a business meeting, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets - and they're coming to the realization that something is missing. They are deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer busyness, is not enough.

They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives. They're looking to relieve a chronic loneliness, a feeling supported by a recent study that shows Americans have fewer close friends and confidants than ever before. And so they need an assurance that somebody out there cares about them, is listening to them - that they are not just destined to travel down that long highway towards nothingness.

And I speak with some experience on this matter. I was not raised in a particularly religious household, as undoubtedly many in the audience were. My father, who returned to Kenya when I was just two, was born Muslim but as an adult became an atheist. My mother, whose parents were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists, was probably one of the most spiritual and kindest people I've ever known, but grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion herself. As a consequence, so did I.

It wasn't until after college, when I went to Chicago to work as a community organizer for a group of Christian churches, that I confronted my own spiritual dilemma.

I was working with churches, and the Christians who I worked with recognized themselves in me. They saw that I knew their Book and that I shared their values and sang their songs. But they sensed that a part of me that remained removed, detached, that I was an observer in their midst.

And in time, I came to realize that something was missing as well -- that without a vessel for my beliefs, without a commitment to a particular community of faith, at some level I would always remain apart, and alone.

And if it weren't for the particular attributes of the historically black church, I may have accepted this fate. But as the months passed in Chicago, I found myself drawn - not just to work with the church, but to be in the church.

For one thing, I believed and still believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change, a power made real by some of the leaders here today. Because of its past, the black church understands in an intimate way the Biblical call to feed the hungry and cloth the naked and challenge powers and principalities. And in its historical struggles for freedom and the rights of man, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world. As a source of hope.

And perhaps it was out of this intimate knowledge of hardship -- the grounding of faith in struggle -- that the church offered me a second insight, one that I think is important to emphasize today.

Faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts.

You need to come to church in the first place precisely because you are first of this world, not apart from it. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away - because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey.

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn't fall out in church. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.

That's a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans - evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives. It is not something they set apart from the rest of their beliefs and values. In fact, it is often what drives their beliefs and their values.

And that is why that, if we truly hope to speak to people where they're at - to communicate our hopes and values in a way that's relevant to their own - then as progressives, we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse.

Because when we ignore the debate about what it means to be a good Christian or Muslim or Jew; when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another; when we shy away from religious venues and religious broadcasts because we assume that we will be unwelcome - others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith, or those who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends.

In other words, if we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and Alan Keyeses will continue to hold sway.

Quote Tuesday - On the morality of Video Games

All quotes from this NY Times article entitled, “Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church”

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo.

Tim Foster, 12, explained the game’s allure: “It’s just fun blowing people up.”

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

Austin Brown, 16, said, “We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson,” explaining that the pastor tried to draw parallels “between God and the devil.”

"I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."

For the article my thoughts are referring to, go check out CNN's article Obama: GOP doesn't own faith and values.

My initial thoughts upon hearing that we can create a kingdom here on earth were ones of excitement and anticipation. I love hearing those thoughts expressed. Finally, more are starting to realize that Christianity is not just about getting our ticket punched so that we can get into heaven. It is more than that. The message of the kingdom of God is the gospel, and it is starting to gain more popularity.

But then it disturbed me. Is the kingdom going to be brought about through political means? Will the kingdom of God be brought about by a politician? My impulsive reaction to those questions is a negative; however, I do not see why a politician cannot be used by God to bring more fully his kingdom here on earth. He was expressing those thoughts in a church and not in the White House. Forcing the kingdom and changing people's hearts into being citizens of the kingdom is a very dangerous line that should not be crossed, but it seems that God often resides in that which is dangerous.

"Obama noted that he was pleased leaders in the evangelical community like T.D. Jakes and Rick Warren were beginning to discuss social justice issues like AIDS and poverty in ways evangelicals were not doing before."

I am also pleased that pastors are beginning to discuss that social justice issues matter. The problem I have is that one political party focuses on issues of social justice while the other party focuses on issues of social morality. I would like a party that did not separate the two. It should not be an either/or but a both/and. We should not have to go into the ballot box and vote for one or the other.

The thing I find most perplexing is that I have to decide when I vote what is more important: social justice or social morality. I hate making that decision. It is not a decision that should have to be made. And I really do not know how to make it.

Prayer Friday

As I mentioned, my family is sick. Just as Ramiah is finding a workable sleeping patern, Hannah and Eli have been up all night for the last three nights. Each has a fever. Cindie does too. Please, pray for wellness.

With all that happening, I stayed home Wednesday and Thursday from work. This means that I am way behind. I also have a wedding to do Saturday. Please, pray that I get it all done in a fashion that honors Him.

Anything I can pray about for you?

Celebrity Faith

(sorry for the delay, the family is sick...)

I've read two interesting articles about faith recently. One was in TIME magazine, and the other was in ESPN The Magazine. These are not my normal sources for spiritual thought, but they delivered the goods.

The two articles were about two very different believers who both had the tricky role of living as celebrity Christians.

More to come...

Quote Tuesday - the nature of existence

“Existence is a strange thing. It falls under the surface, under all the things I throw on top of it until one day it’s forgotten with everything else that used to be important, if only I could remember. It becomes an assumed separate reality if it’s identified at all, not as important as tomorrow or what I will do with today. But it continues nonetheless beneath the life I think I am creating.

Then one day it comes to the surface and becomes the one thing I can’t hide myself from anymore (but still no one else can see). All the other layers have been pulled away or broken, and all that’s left is the unbearable presence of existence with nothing to lessen it. It feels heavier than all the distractions put together.

It is better to choose despair than expedients (Kierkegaard). But I wonder if we ever really choose for ourselves until one of the two is offered to us (you don’t refuse a gift). Then even life itself can seem like a poor alternative to coping, it seems so small and so much of me.

I wonder if this is all my life is: a default survival and some days not even that. It seems different from what it was supposed to be and from what I asked for.

Maybe I don’t want it anymore.”

A Delicate Fade, Ben Devries, p. 25-26

Who is our Watchman?

My thoughts after reading Ezekiel 33:1-9.

Who is our watchman now? It seems like a question that is trying to move responsibility from ourselves onto another. A response similar in nature to the question that was asked of Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” His reply to that was that anyone we encounter is our neighbor. I think the same approach could be taken to the question of “Who is our watchman?” Everyone is each other's watchman (or watchwoman). If someone sees some incoming danger approaching, it is their responsibility to give warning. You are my watchman. I am your watchman. We, as followers of Christ, are the world's watchmen. It is not a responsibility that we can shirk off and give to someone else.

We see in this passage in Ezekiel that sharing the gospel is our responsibility. If we do not share, then the responsibility for the lack of others being disciples is on our hands. We will receive the punishment that the person that did not become a disciple will receive if we do not warn them.

Consider this story told by Bernard L. Brown, Jr., former president of the Kennestone Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia.

Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over a cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside the patient's bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed, so he asked a nurse's aide to mop it up. The patient didn't know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse's aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital's housekeeping group.

The nurse's aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. An argument followed.

"It's not my responsibility," said the nurse's aide, "because it's a large puddle." The housekeeper did not agree. "Well, it's not mine," she said, "the puddle is too small."

The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took a pitcher of water from his night table and poured the whole thing on the floor. "Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?" he asked. It was, and that was the end of the argument.

We oftentimes do not like to take responsibility for our own actions let alone the actions of others. But the Bible is clear that we are responsible for the failure of others when it comes to whether they follow Christ or not if we have not done our duty as a watchman.

“What a sharp contrast with a scene that occurred on a New York street nearly two decades before. Kitty Genovese was slowly and brutally stabbed to death. At least thirty-eight of her neighbors witnessed the attack and heard her screams. In the course of the 90-minute episode, her attacker was actually frightened away, then he returned to finish her off. Yet not once during that period did any neighbor assist her, or even telephone the police. The implications of this tragic event shocked America, and it stimulated two young psychologists, Darly and Latane, to study the conditions under which people are or are not willing to help others in an emergency. In essence, they concluded that responsibility is diffused. The more people present in an emergency situation, the less likely it is that any one of them will offer help. This is popularly called the "bystander effect." (In the actual experiment, when one bystander was present, 85 percent offered help. When two were present, 62 percent offered help. When five were present, then it decreased to 31 percent.)”

From the book Social Psychology in the Seventies

We, as watchmen, suffer from the bystander effect. We think it is the person sitting in the pew behind us, beside us, across the aisle, or standing in the pulpit that is responsible. We constantly struggle to place the responsibility on someone else, but each one of us is responsible. Let us take seriously the call to be each other's watchman.