Freeway Miracle or Old-Man Driving Habits?

Driving on California freeways is like a dyslexic playing Russian roulette—where the gun has one empty chamber instead of five. Yep, the odds are stacked against you on the Golden State’s pristine avenues of death and dismemberment. I was reminded of this a week ago when traveling eastbound on a local stretch of freeway. Traffic was thick and moving at a brisk pace, which is to say everyone was breaking the speed limit with reckless abandon. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flicker of red brake lights far ahead of the cars in front of me. Either instinct or an angel’s suggestion prompted me to take my foot off the accelerator. No sooner had I done this when instantly all the brake lights of the cars in front of me came on. I hit the brakes while the three cars directly in front of me plowed into each other in an explosive crash that deployed air bags and sent car parts rocketing in all directions. I screeched to a stop inches behind the last car in the pile up. (Where is my GoPro when I need it?) Car enthusiasts brag about vehicles that can go from 0 to 60 mph in mere seconds. Let me tell you, it is way more important to go from 75 to 0 mph in mere seconds.

Was my near miss on the freeway a miracle? If you are a Pentecostal, you’d probably say yes. If you are a Baptist, no. If you are a Lutheran, maybe. Joking aside, I don’t know for certain if it was a miracle. But when I consider my age and declining reflexes, I think it must have been a miracle. On the other hand, I drive like an old coot that rarely tailgates. Perhaps my curmudgeonly driving habits finally paid off. If it was a miracle, I give God all the credit.

After thinking about the almost crash for a few days, I was reminded of James 1:17 where we are told that every good and perfect gift comes to us from God in heaven. We have a tendency in the West to think of gifts as material things. But maybe heavenly gifts are more often as simple as God intervening to keep us from plowing into an accident on the freeway. For that I am very, very grateful. It also came to me that the miracle might not have been for me, it might have been for the lady in the car in front of me. In any case, it should give us goosebumps to think that the God of the universe cares enough to personally intervene in the course of daily life to keep us safe. He does not always intervene, but not because he does not love us. Though it can make us uncomfortable, his ways are mysterious to mortals. And for an instant on the freeway last week, I stepped into that mystery.

By the way, no one was seriously injured in the accident.

THE Right Answer: It ain’t closing the book

The high priests of atheism would have us believe that we should not fear the end of life because death simply means shutting off the switch. (Ironically their message frightens me.) Modern day philosopher Stephen Cave believes that being afraid of being dead, or of what’s on the other side, is irrational. He points out that we are not good at imagining ceasing to exist. Cave finds it helpful to think of life as a book with a beginning and end where the characters within know no horizons. They only know the moments that make up their story, even when the book is shut. As a result, the characters are not afraid of reaching the last page. Cave believes this is how we should view life: as the moments in between. He says it makes no sense to fear what’s outside the covers of our book. In Cave’s worldview, the only thing that matters is that we make our life a good story.

What is my opinion of Cave’s metaphor for life? Well, if making our life a good story is the only thing that matters, who is going to read our story and love the characters within after we die and our book is closed and placed on the shelf? If no one, other than a handful of surviving friends and family members, is going to remember our story for a brief time after our book is closed, why does it matter if our story is good or not? Also, what if our individual stories are not books in and of themselves? In other words, what if each person’s life story is like a chapter in a much larger story? Our stories, though potentially powerful, are not enough by themselves to justify our existence. If our story is to have any value greater than a vanishing mist, there must be a transcendent purpose for our story plus a reader who is invested in us and our story. Only God can bestow transcendent purpose to our life stories. The universe does not bestow transcendent or poetic purpose to our life story. The universe constrains us primarily to the purpose of survival and at best provides a forum for us to thrive for a brief span of time. The universe did not create us to love us forever. But God did.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has planted eternity in the heart of humanity. People make a grave mistake when they deny the eternity of their soul. Why? Because denying the existence of our eternal soul does not make our soul finite. Our soul is either eternal or not. Either way, its existence does not depend on our belief or disbelief in its existence. Just because we can’t see our soul under a microscope does not mean it is not there. But if our soul exists and is eternal (and I believe it is), we must choose our eternity. One eternity is with God and the other eternity is without God. Denying the eternity of our soul does not eliminate the choice. In fact, denying the eternity of our soul IS a choice; it is the choice to spend eternity without God. On the other hand, don’t think a person who chooses eternity with God has an excuse to live a lame life in the here and now. In Matthew 18:18 Jesus says “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” In other words, the things we do in this life (our story) transcend this life in a mysterious way. Eternal heaven makes itself available to us in the here and now and beyond. Here’s the thing: Christ is the key to each person’s part in the story that transcends death. In order to choose eternity with God, we must believe Christ and that he is the only one who can give us the option of eternity with God. Christ is the right answer.

Attempts to explain away our life on earth as a mere story with a beginning and end can have tragic consequences, not only after death but also here on earth. I shudder to think how humanity (which is capable of unspeakable selfish evil) would eventually choose to live if everyone adopted the belief that there is no accountability after this life and the only thing that matters is making your life a good story, however you define it. How depressing to think of our lives as nothing more than tired old volumes of books collecting dust on the shelf of some cosmic library.

Government is Not Reason: Huh?

Samuel Adams bobblehead / by Justin Fincher

The quotes below demonstrate an essential worldview for Americans who have come to the conclusion that politics as usual have become dysfunctional. They can guide you beyond the obtuseness of pop-culture politics.

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” George Washington

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion.” George Washington

“When people are universally ignorant, and debauched in their manners, they will sink under their own weight without the aid of foreign invaders.” Samuel Adams (Not the beer company)

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams

“Thus, while the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.” Alexis de Tocqueville.

I was blessed to get an early education that emphasized the beliefs, stated above, of many of America’s founding fathers. (Yes, I know Tocqueville was not a founding father.) As a result, I see misplaced faith today on the part of many conservative political zealots (think talk radio where they are legion) and liberal political zealots (think Bill Maher, most news media, and Hollywood). Many conservative zealots publicly place an inordinate faith in liberty, small government, and capitalism (noble dictums indeed). Yes, I know that liberty, a properly proportioned government, and capitalism provide, to date, the best possibilities to achieve improved lifestyles for the most people. But their long-term outcome, without the participation of a predominantly moral and religious citizenry, will be no better than the abhorrent systems of monarchy, socialism, and communism. Tis arrogant to believe that liberty and capitalism are immune from the sinful nature of humanity. Too many conservative zealots talk a big game about freedom and capitalism, but the necessity of religion and a moral people . . . not so much. The success of a nation depends more on its citizens embracing, at the very least, the reality of a constant moral standard that comes from a higher source than humanity.

On the other side of the political spectrum, we find the same fatal flaw where dwell liberal zealots such as Bill Maher and his acolytes (oh the irony of that term used in conjunction with Maher). Maher decries religion and God, and therefore does not understand the indispensable connection between religion and a government of free people. Many liberals like Maher believe that substitutes—such as the evolution of human morality and the law—for religion and God work better in the governance of the people. In other words, marginalize or eliminate religion, pass enough laws, and release government as a force for good to fight injustice, and the human condition will improve. Bull excrement! (Which is what the likes of George Washington and Samuel Adams would say.)

Our founding fathers were genius. Certainly they had human flaws, but so did Steve Jobs. Don’t get me wrong, our founding fathers did not advocate for a theocracy. They understood that religion can’t be shoved down the throats of the people by their government. They understood that citizens must be free to exercise their conscience in the engagement of religion, or not. If citizens refuse, the country is more apt to crumble. And based on history, national crumbling can be abrupt or, more likely, a gradual decay.

So, is the church dropping the ball in American religious society, or is the average citizen dropping the ball by abandoning religion in pursuit of something shiny in pop-culture? Granted, the institution of the church, along with many other institutions, has earned the disillusion and mistrust of many. But fighting the battle for America in the political arena alone will not succeed. My fellow citizens will need to swallow their pride and return to religion, aka God and the church. We are fortunate in that the church in America has many styles and venues to choose from. There is something for just about everyone.

Our brilliant founding fathers understood these things. I wonder how brilliant we are. Are you listening, millennials? Now would be a good time to scale back your daily devotions with Twitter, start reading the Bible now and then, and explore religion and the church. Politics and economies will be a little easier to fix if you do because you’ll be more likely to have God’s support.

Does racism rear its ugly head in the church?

If you have the stomach to watch the news lately, you know that Michael Brown, a young black man, was recently shot and killed during an altercation with a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. This tragic event (whether it has anything to do with racism or not) inspired me to ponder if ethnocentrism still rears its ugly head in the modern church. Thinking back on my years in the pew, the answer is sometimes yes.

I once knew a worship pastor on the leadership team of a church plant. The church plant was located in a multi-ethnic community. After a couple of years, the worship pastor unexpectedly resigned and moved back home to an almost entirely white region of North America. A mutual friend later told me that the worship pastor had moved because he felt uncomfortable in a multi-ethnic community.

I know of one church that partnered with a smaller ethnic church in the same denomination. They shared the same building. The minority church, for many years, had to schedule their worship and their events around the needs and schedule of the dominant church, which was mostly white. The children from the minority congregation were criticized for being more unruly and messy than the children of the dominant church. Some leaders of the dominant church talked down to the pastor of the minority church. The dominant church didn’t think twice about expecting the minority church to make last minute changes to better accommodate the operation of the dominant church. Don’t get me wrong, the minority pastor had his flaws. All humans do. But most of the congregation in the dominant church remained oblivious to these discrepancies. They would be appalled if you accused them of racism. They take pride in being a multi-ethnic friendly congregation.

While visiting a church in another region of the country, I was told of some in the congregation who were enthusiastic that a smattering of black families had started attending services in their church, a church that had been white since its inception. Unfortunately some in the church looked askance at this change in the makeup of the congregation.

Granted, some of these suspect behaviors might have nothing to do with racism. For instance, it could be that the dominant church leaders who were critical of the ethnic church were merely jerks or self-centered and didn’t have a racist bone in their body. Either way it had the appearance of bigotry, albeit subtle.

I think these scenarios are more prevalent across churches in America than most Christians would like to admit. It makes us uncomfortable because we prefer to think the children of the Lord have moved beyond the ugly sin of racism. We don’t like to gaze deep into our hearts and think about how we view and treat people who do not share our skin color. Do we feel like we are better than them, like our race somehow has it more together? Yes, that’s a disconcerting question . . . especially if you were raised in a family that held these insidious views when you were growing up. How much of it rubbed off?

Tension naturally exists between what we know Christ would have us feel towards others and the way we have formulated an all-too-human (and flawed) opinion and stereotype about other races. Laws, protests, movements, and policies can help restrain racism, but ultimately they can’t fix the human heart. Only Christ can do that, and it must be modeled by the church. As an aside, America is not the problem; the human heart is the problem. I do not deceive myself into thinking America is perfect. She is not. But America has the best system in the world to live out “all men are created equal” . . . if her citizens join Christ in confronting sin in their hearts.

Lions in the Garden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCzSfv4hX8 When I was a child, the church taught me the great Bible stories. The Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah in the belly of a fish; these are classics we grew up on. It was easier as a child to accept without hesitation the miraculous and supernatural elements of these stories. But soon after entering my fifties some doubts began to creep in. Having spent a fair amount of time in the Bible I began to wonder if some of those stories were allegories or didactics meant to teach a moral lesson. After all, Jesus himself used parables to convey spiritual truths. By the way, allegory is defined as:

“A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another; a symbolical narrative.”

As the years passed, it became easier to entertain the possibility that extraordinary Bible stories such as the Garden of Eden or lions lying down with lambs might be allegory instead of literal. It just seemed like the path of least resistance given the constant assault by the scientific community to discredit such stories. But then I occasionally come across things like this video (click link above) of Kevin Richardson, a park ranger in Africa. I don’t know if Richardson is a believer, but the image of the male lion embracing him like a friend reminds me that God does indeed pull off supernatural events and those events are not as far from our “real world” as we might think. This video is a glimpse into what it might be like when God is finished making all things new and the lion indeed lays down with lambs. And it ain’t no allegory.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: The long fight

Philip Seymour Hoffman / Justin Hoch

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an excellent actor, in my book, partly because he was unencumbered with dashing good looks like Tom Cruise, George Clooney, and Pierce Brosnan. While Hoffman surely used his physical appearance in his craft, he had to develop strong acting skills to connect with audiences. In a culture enamored with beautiful people, it was good to see a guy who didn’t fit the mold make it in the entertainment industry. I don’t know if he was a good person or if he had a faith in God. I don’t know if he struggled with mental or physical ailments, though it would seem so. Certainly his death was tragic. It was self-destructive and will affect his family for the rest of their lives.

In Christendom, we tend to react to the type of death suffered by Hoffman as sad but also confirmation of our opposition to the evils of alcohol and substance abuse. Read Proverbs 23:31-32 and Proverbs 31:6 for a Bible perspective on substance abuse. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the abuse of alcohol and drugs can indeed have tragic consequences for many people. Addiction is a lethal enemy that comes dressed in many disguises. For instance, I knew a wonderful Christian man who ate so much food and put on so much weight that it resulted in his early death.

Stories like Hoffman’s beg some uncomfortable questions, such as: What is a person supposed to do if they are in constant mental or physical distress for which modern medicine has no cure? What is a person afflicted by chronic pain supposed to do when God does not heal in response to prayer? Sure, there are trite answers that we Christians offer in an attempt to comfort the suffering and guard our faith. Answers like: “Because Jesus was also human he can relate to your suffering.” If I am in chronic pain, hearing clichés like that does not help. Chronic pain (whether physical or mental) walks over reason, morality, and the ability to choose wisely. Pain is an adversary that is often beyond our ability to cope with. Even so, we must continue petitioning God for relief. God does not react to us the same way we react to a child who keeps pestering us for a new toy. We are told in the Bible to keep asking God for what we need.

Here is where I have a problem with some people in chronic physical pain or mental distress—when there is a cure or treatment that can reduce or eliminate their suffering, but they reject it. Hoffman at least tried to defeat his addiction using the tools available to him. Many people don’t even try, or they try by using the wrong tools. Anyhow, knowing Christ doesn’t guarantee we will overcome our addictions, pain, and all problems in this life. If that were the case, the entire human race would flock to Christ for the wrong reasons. Our biggest problem is our sin and separation from God. And Christ, if we let him, always forgives our sin and leads us back to God. Forgiveness of our sins and friendship with God are what improves our odds of overcoming addiction, pain, and life’s problems.

The Blessed Realm of Suffering and Satisfaction

Tom (not his real name) and I were having tea yesterday (don’t judge us for doing a girly thing). Both in our fifties, we feel the onset of age-related aches and pains. And yet we were both laughing at the insidious assault of time against our bodies and minds. Tom said with a chuckle, “I can see the inevitability ahead.” Nevertheless, even with a serious medical condition that has impacted his lifestyle, Tom seems to age with dignity.

Growing old gracefully doesn’t necessarily happen naturally. It’s like any endeavor for improvement; it requires thoughtfulness, effort, and suffering. Jim Collins, author of Great by Choice, said: “. . . all writers seem to agree on one point: writing well is desperately difficult, and it never gets easier. It’s like running: if you push your limits, you can become a faster runner, but you will always suffer.” Suffering is a necessary ingredient for anything worthwhile.

Aging can make us cranky, bitter, angry, sharp-tongued, and a host of other unpleasant things. It doesn’t have to be that way. If we ask for God’s help, I believe we can push through to that place of satisfaction that comes through suffering. We can become gentle, funny, and wise even as our body aches and our hair turns gray. Without God’s help, we will become whatever the world makes us.

An Unusual Valentine

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. I need to get some flowers for the sunshine lady of my life. (Is it odd to get flowers for an Australian Shepherd?) I should probably get something nice for my wife, as well. When Valentine’s Day rolls around, mushy stories of romance abound. In the weeks before Valentine’s Day, we also get treated to nonstop jewelry commercials on television. Thinking back to my childhood, I recall how our school teacher organized the exchange of little Valentine cards that students placed in each others’ storage cubicles. On Valentine’s Day we would pull out our Valentine cards and count them up to determine our place in the classroom social hierarchy. (With the help of a good psychiatrist, I’m no longer bitter about that.)

Don’t get me wrong, I am indeed a romantic at heart. But I’d like to share with you an unconventional romance. It is the Bible story of Hosea. Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute. Yep, it does seem like a strange thing for God to do. Anyhow, Hosea obeyed God and married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. And surprise! Things didn’t go well. Gomer conceived and gave birth to children in the midst of plying her craft of prostitution. The implication is that some of the children she conceived were not Hosea’s. (Duh!) God then instructs Hosea to take Gomer back and love her again, even though she was sleeping with another man. Here’s the astonishing thing: Hosea takes Gomer back and loves her and tenderly takes care of her. Not only that, he accepts the children who were not his own. Wow!

I do not believe this story is a fictional representation. It is my humble opinion that the marriage of Hosea and Gomer was a real marriage. God uses their uncomfortable story to demonstrate how his people cheated on him by worshipping other gods. But, just like Hosea took back his cheating wife, God took back his cheating people. This story applies to Christians today. We casually cheat on God by falling in love with modern idols such as money, careers, status, sexuality, food and drink, sports, technology, entertainment or whatever. Sometimes we try to worship our favorite idols and God at the same time, which is even worse.

Here is what Hosea taught me: I used to think of sins and idols with a sense of detachment. That is, I thought most of the sins and idols we dabble with in Christendom are not viewed by God as very egregious in the grand scheme of things. But Hosea’s story showed me how much it personally hurts God when we drift away and pursue other lovers. Still, God loves us so much that he takes us back even after we cheat on him. He does not always remove the consequences of our betrayals, but he bends down to loves us and cares for us, thought we don’t deserve it. That’s a great romance!

Bamboozled: The Value of Trust

If you have a few decades under your belt (or in my case sagging over the belt), you’ve likely had the unpleasant experience of being conned by an unscrupulous person or business. Recently, it happened to some folks who are very dear to me. (We’ll call them Ben and Liz). Ben and Liz managed a large event where they sold refreshments. The company that provided the debit and credit card machines for the event withdrew, under a dubious pretense, several thousand dollars from the business account of Ben and Liz. Ben and Liz had to battle through the legal process with the credit card company, but eventually their money was returned. This experience opened their eyes to the unfortunate reality that there are people and businesses out there that make a lot of money by pushing the boundaries of ethics. Some even have no problem with outright stealing. In other words, you can’t trust everyone, it seems.

A lot of businesses people could take a clue from my mechanic. I have one of those rare mechanics who doesn’t try to upsell me. I have brought my truck to our mechanic a few times for problems that turned out to be nothing serious. He didn’t charge me a dime. That builds trust. When something major goes wrong with my truck you can be sure I take it to my favorite mechanic because I trust that he will not take advantage of me. Of course, trustworthiness is something you either have or you don’t.

The gradual destruction of trust in our society has consequences. Many people don’t know God because they have had their trust abused by life. As a result, they don’t know if individual Christians can be trusted. They don’t know if the church can be trusted. They don’t know if clergy can be trusted. They don’t know if the Bible can be trusted. And they don’t know if God can be trusted. But Psalm 118:8 says:

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in people.”

The reality is that sometimes horrible things happen to the most loyal and loving followers who put their trust in God. That’s why I very much appreciate the inclusion of verses 14 and 15 in Psalm 91:

“The Lord says, ‘I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.'”

That last line is very important: “I will be with them in trouble.” It is a dose of reality. It tells us to expect trouble. You may have heard the term “wait for it.” Well, God promises to be there with us in hardship and to rescue us if we wait for it . . . or rather, wait for him. I won’t jerk your chain. The truth is that sometimes we have to wait a long time for deliverance. Perhaps that is because building trust can take a long time after it has been abused.

The Dominion of Doubt

There is news circulating in the world of Christianity that a significant number of young people leave the church because of doubts about their faith. Some experts point the finger of blame at the church for failing to tackle tough philosophical questions about our faith. Their argument goes that the church offers too many trite answers and a simplistic Christianity. Others blame secular culture and academics for tearing down religion by claiming that faith is incompatible with reasoned thought and science.
One common question that incites some people to abandon or reject faith is this: How can a loving God permit such terrible events and suffering in the world? This question is used by many as evidence that God does not exist. For some people this question is an escape mechanism to avoid God because a relationship with God will change who they are and, often, the way they live. Others have sincere doubts.
Christians and would-be Christians can get a better understanding of why terrible things happen in this world of green grass and sunshine by reading Genesis 3:1 through 6:5. In these chapters it is clear something has gone awry with the way God originally designed the world. Even today, just look around and you can see imperfections in everything. Even our DNA has flaws.
The older I get, the more often uncomfortable questions materialize in my noggin. Fortunately, these nagging conundrums seem, somehow, to strengthen my faith. (Yes, I know, it’s a paradox.) Here’s the point: Mystery lends excitement, adventure, and contentment to life. Do you need an example? Here it is—fish. As an amateur ichthyologist (which really means my knowledge of fish is limited to bait and seasoning), I love fishing. All kidding aside, I have acquired some impressive knowledge of certain species of fish. I absolutely love the mystery of fishing. It’s the wonderful anticipation of catching what lurks beneath the surface of the mysterious world of water. An angler could spend a lifetime learning everything that science, lore, and Stan’s Bait Shop staff can teach about fish . . . and it still wouldn’t be everything there is to know about fish. Really, who can know the mind of a fish? The unknown doesn’t diminish my love of fishing. If I figured out how to make a fish bite with every cast, fishing would soon lose its allure.
That’s sort of how it is with God. In this life we will never know the entire mind and purposes of God. Yet it feels right to continue pursuing God. After this life we may know more about God, but even then I doubt we will know everything. I’m okay with that. Much about God is a mystery. A literary mystery is described in the dictionary as: “A novel, short story, play, or film whose plot involves a crime or other event that remains puzzlingly unsettled until the very end.” Well said!
You see, doubt has been with us since the beginning. Eve was enticed to doubt God. Eve wanted more knowledge, to be like God. She wanted answers. She wasn’t content with some mystery about God and her place in God’s designs.
Doubt can be healthy. Doubt can keep us out of cults. It can help us avoid scams. But doubt, to be used effectively, requires a little faith and a good measure of wisdom. I have to be cautious with doubt because it can doom me to the mundane. I might do great things in this world of the mundane, but I would lose something eternal.