Aim

My new blog friend, Laura, asked me HOW to become more effective w/ our Christian witness and WHAT should be our AIM. These are great questions because they focus specifically on the two biggest beefs I have with the current Christian witness in public policy and politics. That is, our methods and our objectives.

It seems clear that the objectives of the last thirty years have been to force elected officials to vote a certain way. The methods have been to demonstrate that their are many passionate consituents and voters who want them to vote a certain way or adopt a certain policy or face the wrath of an angry electorate. There have been some victories and losses.

On the big issues, abortion and homosexuality, we have lost big time. Just look at whether the culture of life or the culture of death has expanded. Has homosexuality and its agenda increased in power and cultural influence or diminished?

Marshalling resources, fighting the good fight, invoking the name of God….and losing, isn’t a problem for me. As Mother Theresa would say “We are not called to win, but to be faithful.” My problem is with the methods we employ and the witness of Christ it demonstrates to the world.

A witness isn’t hard to determine. Just listen. What do people say about Christians and our efforts in the public arena? Is it persuasive, winsome, redemptive, effective or gracious? Or is it harsh, strident, divisive, and failing? If the latter, do Christians not understand that this is not about us, but about our Lord? How, then, can we disregard the negative witness that is created by ineffective methods? We are compelled to address it.

I believe that much of the problem with the lack of effectiveness of Christian’s involvement in the public square comes from poor aim. We are shooting for something that doesn’t exist – the return to a period of traditional values, of a national consensus that fears God and honors righteousness, and of a societal culture that is explicitly Christian. How can we attain something that simply doesn’t exist or is unrealistic?

As another friend of mine named Laura said to me “I don’t know what to do so all I can do is pray.” That is the right place to start.

 

Stem Cell Research Vote and the State of Our Witness

The Senate voted 63-37 in favor of overturning the President’s current policy of prohibiting federal funds from supporting embryonic stem cell research. This vote margin is four votes short of the two-thirds majority required to over-ride a presidential veto, which will probably occur.

The same strategy employed in the House last summer was undoubtedly used in the Senate to ensure that just enough Senators voted ‘No’ and deny the prospect of over-riding the President’s veto. This is a good thing. It affirms, however, the fact that a pro-life majority does not exist in either Congressional body.

Here is the bottom line: The church has done a miserable job in effectively promoting the sanctity of human life as its number one public policy priority. That is why pro-life legislators in Congress must resort to rear-guard efforts.

People of faith must move past simply having a voice in the public square and begin considering the effectiveness of that voice. We have control over whether or not society considered Christ-followers as narrow-minded, dualist thinking, extremists. It is incumbent upon us as Christians to improve the testimony and witness of the Body of Christ on issues that speak to the heart of creation and a redemptive life. Failure to do so means accepting mediocrity in representing our Lord.

 

Please Pray for This House

Today my wife and I put an offer on a house in Carlsbad, California. We are trusting in God to 1) sell our house in Virginia so we can pay for this new house, and 2) grant us favor with the seller so that she would accept our offer.

Here is a couple of pictures of the house. Would you please pray that the will of the Lord be done regarding this matter?

 

Bible Meme

OK, what's a meme? I have no idea. But my buddy Randy said that he "tagged" me with this thing and I guess it is intersting to me and it gets me out of my unblogging funk.

Really, my life has been a whirlwind lately w/ little time to be creative on the old writing thing. So here goes w/ the Bible…meme…whatever…

1. How many Bibles are in your home?

Hmmm…my old home that is for sale in VA or my new home (my parent's home in SD) or the home I am house-sitting in Carlsbad? I'd have to say about twelve to fifteen in Fairfax – it's a very holy home, maybe five in SD – the three in regular use are all the ones I brought, and probably about ten in Carlsbad because the people for who I am house-sitting are Christ-followers and have some good reading. And, of course, I must include the Bible that is loaded on this very comuter!

2. What rooms are they in?

Fairfax – one or two in living room, three or four in bedroom, at least one in year child's room (2) but Chris had a few copies tucked in drawers, two in office and another two or so in the "book section" of our storage room.

San Diego – three in my room and one or two in my dad's study.

Carlsbad – one in kids room, a couple in office, and the rest in the master bedroom.

Computer Bible – everywhere I go!!

3. What Translations Do You Have?

Mostly NIV, a Thompson Chain KJV with the leather cover eaten by mice (kind of appropriate), a NASB from high school, an Open Bible, the Message, an NIV Student "Extreme" Bible, a NIV w/ a camo cover.

4.Do You Have a Preference?

YES. NIV is the most straight forward study Bible and the Message is the best to simply read and consider the greatness of God. I love the Message.

5. Nominate an Interesting Verse

Proverbs 7:22-23 "All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life."

How often we willingly choose sin, like a stupid animal caught in a trap and, like a stupid animal, with no clue that its end is death!

 

Curses

Recently I have been reading the Old Testament in The Message version of the Bible. I really like it because I can understand it a little better than other versions.

I think the Old Testament demonstrates that God continues to love us even though we as people basically reject God’s power, love and mercy at every opportunity. But the Old Testament also demonstrates that you shouldn’t take lightly what you say to God. I mean in Judges 11, Jephthah vows “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’S, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
How would Jephthah have known that his daughter would come out of his door to welcome her victorious father? The Bible says that “Jephthah did as he vowed.” This wasn’t a curse, but it seems that God took the keeping of the vow seriously so I can only imagine how God might treat an outright curse.
Today, people curse God a lot. I am not sure what happens in the spiritual world when people are so bold as to curse God but I assume that something happens. I kinda wonder if there is some kind of energy that is stored up and released at some point.

Here is an example: My dad’s favorit curse id God @#%& it. He says it all the time. When he’s wathing the news, when he reads the mail, when he disagrees with something. I wonder if God takes him at his word. I dunno. Just a thought.

 

A Matter Of When

My parents are doing very poorly. Their health and ability to take care of themselves is declining before my eyes. This leaves me in a very difficult position and makes me feel very sad.

I am experiencing first hand the difficulties of seeing your parents grow older and struggle with the realities of aging. Our parents are often our heros, role models, and champions. Although I feared my dad because of his rage and alcoholism, I still thought of my father as a larger than life superman. Now, we both kind of laugh to cover the sad reality that he needs to wear an adult diaper.

I see my dad as frail and on the brink of disaster. He drinks much of the day and when I return from work in the evening, he is wobbly, exhausted, skattered and short tempered. Tonight, he lost his balance in the hall on the way to his bedroom and I had to help him get back on his feet. He only had on his boxer shorts.

While I am worried and saddened by my dad’s condition, I am equally concerned about my mom. She has been gradually losing her memory and rationality for the last year or so, but a couple of months ago she experienced some kind of cardiac event that exacerbated her shaky mental state. She asks the same questions repeatedly and can be pretty difficult because she can’t quite understand the limits of her health.

The real problem is that my parents are unable to be there for each other and are unable to care of themselves. While my dad tries to help my mom, he is inept because of a complete lack of patience and the selflessness required to endure Mom’s silly thinking. My mom seems oblivious to both of their frailties and the constant presence of alcohol adds fuel to the fire. They refuse to consider assisted living and constantly deny their own needs.

This leads me to conclude that a fatal fall, an unfortunate accident, or a costly lapse in judgement is less a matter of if, and more a matter of when. I think of things like my mom failing to turn off the over. Or my dad falling on the tile floor and breaking his hip. Maybe my mom will decide to drive to the store and forget where she is. Maybe my dad will drive after drinking a kill himself or someone else.

I am unable to rescue them. I can’t watch them every minute. Neither is it my place to intervene during one of their frequent spats. I am an adult child bystander watching the end of the lives of two of the most important people of my life. And I feel lost and heartbroken at that realization.

 

Brothers and Sisters

OK, I just have to write something to get those yucky movie pictures off the top of the page.

The Bible says that those who claim Christ are adopted into a whole new family – a spiritual family with brothers and sisters because we share the same Father.  Tonight I met some wonderful new relatives at a home-group that I tried.  Four new sisters and three new brothers in Christ.

It is wonderful to experience these new family relationships.  They grow quickly because there is a common bond of decency, authenticity, honesty, and caring.  It is also because the Holy Spirit is real and joins us together as a true family through our obedience to Christ and our praying for one another.

 

Pain Of My Past

Last week my past came up and bit me hard.  It seems that those things from which I had quite happily walked away had stowed away like a hitchhiker stuck to the hem of your pants. Resolving this matter will be much more painful than picking each sharp seed off my clothing.

Some fourteen years ago, I was in a very painful place with my family.  I was reeling from the realization that the dysfuntion in which I had grown up was now as big a part of who I am as my lack of eyebrows and right-handedness. And, as trite as it sounds, hurt people hurt people.

I wrote a pair of letters blasting my family for the pain I had experienced while growing up and still struggled with.  As is my nature, it was not too nuanced and came across as a slap to the face of each person who received it.

Since I was living all the way on the other side of the country from my family, I was able to avoid the consequences of my actions.  But now, living and relating with them daily, the time has come to deal with these issues from a place of health, responsibility, and healing.

I am confident that God has equipped me to deal with this right now.  That is not to say that it will not be difficult.  Putting this right will force me to re-visit a lot of the pain and abuse I experienced as a child.

My goals are to explain my hurt without hurting; to be responsible for the pain I have caused; and to act without any expectation that my family will change.

I would very much appreciate your prayers as I work through this issue.

 

A Chance To Blow My Mind

Part of my new job is building relationships and it is something that I truly enjoy. This week has been full of new friends, work associates and people I need to know. In fact, I have eaten out every night this week: a wonderful deli in Seaport Village, a beautiful ocean view prime rib dinner in Oceanside, a cozy italian place in Vista, a casual bar-b-que in Newport, and an intimate family dinner with new friends in Escondido.

I love food – maybe too much. As the son of a naval officer, I was taught to clean my plate and I do. But all that food makes me feel like a stuffed pig.

I would usually go to the gym or run or something. This time I went for a walk. Yea, I know, really athletic. But my bad back prevents me from running.

My walk allowed me to discover a nearby treasure: Mission Trails Park. In 1976, when we moved, my dad bought a brand new house in a brand new neighborhood amidst the canyons of San Diego.

My friends and I would venture into the canyons from time to time but the community was always warned of things like unexploded military ordinance, snakes, and coyotes.

Since that time, San Diego cleaned up the canyons and created a beautiful dirt trail park for walkers, mountain bikers, and nature lovers. With a mountain bike, you can ride from Tierrasanta to Santee on dirt singletrack through sage, cactus, and other desert life.

I took my ipod and listened to Jars of Clay, Chris Tomlin, U2, and Eisley. Chris Tomlin’s album Arriving was perfect as many of the tracks celebrate the Lord’s creation. You Do All Things Well speaks to God’s might in speaking our world into being. And Arriving reminds us that the wind, the sunrise and the storm announce the presence of God Himself.

But it was Jars of Clay’s 11th Hour that really spoke to me as I treked up hills, down canyons, across hillsides and welcomed the sun as it rose over the hills. The 11th Hour asks God to meet me and change my heart. It is an expectant prayer for God to “blow our minds.”

He did.

 

Habits

Twenty years ago, Robert Bellah wrote the seminal book Habits of the Heart. Bellah attempted to bring clarity into the phenomenon of American religious life by arguing that religion is more an outgrowth of our “habits of the heart” than a set of dogma or theology.

Although I read Habits of the Heart when it was first published, it has taken me a while to truly understand the notion of integration of faith. And I think Bellah was really onto something when he used the word ‘habits’ to describe the daily demonstration of our beliefs.
Currently I am beginning a very strange chapter of my life that includes me living with my parents in the house where I went through adolescence. Now, of course, it has been some time since my teen years and my parents are older and experiencing many of the health issues that occur in retirement.

In particulary, my mother is growing more and more forgettful as her short term memory becomes more and more limited. She asks the same question many times over and is constantly bringing up the same topics, much to the frustration of my father.

While she genuinely cannot remember the last time she asked me and what my response was to her question about whether I like my new job, she has enough self awareness to understand that her mental clarity is deteriorating, though she is not sure how. As a consequence, or maybe at the same time, she is less able to stay in one place and simply take her ease.

Instead, she is constantly rising from the couch to clean a dish, replace a pillow, straighten the papers, or throw away a small piece of trash. She is driven by some type of internal dynamo that reflexively cleans and puts things in order. Truly patterns deeply worn into her identity from her many years of being a mother and the keeper of a clean and orderly home.

My question is: “What habits will drive me when my self determination becomes compromised and I begin to run on the way things have always been?” In other words, what habits have I developed that will stick with me beyond my conscious attempts to make good decisions, be competent, and work hard? What will the patterns that I set today demonstrate who I will be when those patterns are all that I may have left?

Musicians and atheletes train their minds and bodies to do certain things in certain circumstances. To touch the right keys in a sequences that produces a favorite chord or progression of notes, a gait to a stride or the recall of a muscle memory that allows them to run three miles or swing a golf club. Things they do not even think about anymore.

Who knows what I will do when become older and more frail.  Maybe I’ll begin automatically editing papers put before me or twitch my thumbs on an imaginary blackberry typing out a thought or instinctively grab my hip where my cell phone typically rests.

These habits reveal the priorities of our lives and who we are. They show what we have stowed away in our hearts through behaviors and actions. They become the outward sign of disciplines in which we train ourselves daily – whether we are conscience of the fact or not.

I hope that my habits reveal the joy, grace, and peace that I have found in Christ. The joy of music and laughter, the grace of courtesy and service, and the peace found in prayer and meditation. Oh that I would invest in myself today disciplines that will last beyond my ability to be deliberate.