sugar drops

I just realized why we use the terms “syrupy,” “sappy.” “sugary” or “saccharine” to describe negative experiences unrelated to food.

I found myself cringing the other day, while listening to a superb male vocalist sing a meaningful Christian song on the radio.  Pretty extreme reaction to a non-event.  But it felt phoney.  Even though he was singing a truthful message I’m sure he believed, it sounded artificial and insipid.  At the time, I thought perhaps the lovely orchestral background was too flowing, too smooth.  Or perhaps it was his clearly high level of technical vocal training that I resisted..

But now, as I listen to another male vocalist sing a different Christian song (also with orchestral backup), I note I am not having the same knee-jerk reaction.  Now, I realize what is at issue.  When everything is flawless – the vocals, the full orchestration, the message of hopeful truth – when there is no tang, no saltiness, no piquant, no acidity or sand paper anywhere –  all conspires together to produce an alkaline experience.

Sugar and corn syrup have little flavor or benefit in themselves, yet they can overwhelm the system.  I don’t know of anyone who eats either of them alone.  In fact, eating them without a balance of fats and proteins will eventually make you grossly ill.  Embellishments such as passion fruit, lime, strawberry, peach, banana and Marion berry, or vanilla, maple, butter, cream, pecan, chocolate, coconut, hazelnut and coffee make them much more palatable, not to mention downright enjoyable.  They need balance, interest. They need added flavor and body. 

And that’s what that initial song needed – some flavor, body, balance and interest.  There was nothing in the experience to offer a counterbalance to the good of it – to add an edge against which the good could contrast.

For those who are looking for an artificial reality, such music would be acceptable, comfortable.  For the rest of us… maybe that’s why I like John Hiatt, now.

Thank you I am slowly retreating from that “artificial reality” category.  For once, it was all about projecting what was supposed to be, rather than what was – about pretending this is already Heaven.  Thank you for freeing me from my denial.  Thank you for revealing to me the value in contrasting your good against the backdrop of our evil, imperfect world – it provides a more efficacious display of your glory…

foolishness

I have been reading Daniel Tammet’s blog critique of an interview of Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.  Actually, I’ve been reading the comments to his blog.

Tammet is a functioning autistic savant in the UK who claims to be a Christian.  The people who have written in response to his review appear very intelligent and throw around words like “logic,” “science,” “chain of reasoning” and “rationality.”  They stir everyone who claims faith in anything into one deep, amalgamous cauldron of foolishness, making us out as followers of charismatic silliness – uncritical minds, incapable of systematic reason and study, and indifferent to research and analysis.  One respondent spouted on with simple questions that would have all been answered by anyone who had actually read through the Bible a single time – even if they didn’t believe it’s message.

But you know, the reason the world can’t understand the gospel – the reason it seems foolishness[i], is because its core is relationship, not manageable information.  God has used several relational similes in his attempts to give us an understanding of what the “him and us” thing is all about:  Father and child, Mother and child, Husband and wife, Bridegroom and bride, Friend to friend, Master and servant.

And relationships are sticky things when it comes to explaining them to others.  We got a random telephone call a number of years ago announcing that my cousin had recently married my second cousin.  They still struggle with peoples’ opinions about that.

Who can explain the absolutely irrational emotional commitment a co-dependent has to an addict?  Even when they have learned the “truth” of their situation and the fact that their pulling in closer – enmeshment – is part of the problem, they can’t let go without people around them coaching them to pull off the emotional suction cups. 

Someone who’s been the victim in an abusive marriage can tell you they struggled with thinking they were the problem.  Any onlooker could tell them they were confused.  But for them, it doesn’t feel that way in the moment.

The forces at play in relationships are other-worldly.  They are confusing.  They are frequently irrational.  They are passionate rather than academic.  Or if they are academic, the relationship appears pretty turgid and boring.

If you tried to argue the gospel or faith on the basis of relationship, people would discount you as unwilling to debate.  They DEMAND that people of faith discuss according to scientific principles.  Do they discuss their relationships in that way?

We do in college psychology classes, and even, somewhat on Dr. Phil or Oprah.  But its not an exclusively scientific discussion.  And it never will be.  There are emotions involved.  We become protective against other people’s scrutiny.  We believe our situation unique – an exception to the general principles of psychology. 

If you look back at the stories of Adam and Job and Noah and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel and Hosea, the essence of the good news – the original, before-the-canon-was-complete gospel of knowing God –was all about relationship and not doctrinal data.  And each of those relationships had very different appearances.  How can you explain that to someone who’s a stranger to you, both?

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[i] I Corinthians 2:14

filling the gap

I still haven’t read Henry Blackaby’s Knowing God, but my son, Tim, led a youth Bible study with the book a few years back, before college.  One key concept that lingered from the study was, “Find where God is working and join him.”

You can see how believers have begun to live out that idea, globally.  Christians have taken up the gauntlet for Aids victims and their orphans, tsunami and hurricane survivors, third-world coffee farmers, imprisoned pastors in China, oppressed women in the Islamic world, child soldiers in Uganda and Darfur and sexual trafficking in Asia.  In America, we have caught the vision of freeing addicts, encouraging the grieving – and even housing the homeless.

This morning I was reminded of the open door God has placed among some of our neediest and most vulnerable, here at home.  A radio news flash reported Texas is considering several foster care bills during this legislative session.  After listing a few of the issues to be addressed, the commentator concluded by measuring the severity of the crisis (too few foster parents) by the fact that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services was even housing foster children in hotels.

In 2006, while living in Oregon, I took the six-week training to become a foster parent.  I considered it a necessary part of my self-imposed training regimen to work with at-risk youth.  Oregon was also experiencing the crunch of lack of qualified providers of care – particularly due to severe methamphetamine use by parents in that state.

I was excited and encouraged to see God raise up the Christian community to step in the gap of providing foster care in Salem.  Along with others, a Christian businessman and community leader spearheaded a directed call to churches to ask their parishioners to consider this ministry.  He saw where God was working, and chose to join him.

How many times have we complained that our government is closing its doors on faith?  Any yet, here is a huge, open door.  It’s open so wide, churches are starting support ministries for providers of foster care.  There is a felt need, and the government is unable to meet it.  They are desperate.  And how much more is someone appreciated when they meet a felt need without expectations or demands?

Who is more qualified to meet this need than people who understand God’s unconditional love, grace and mercy?  But we can’t afford to approach this opportunity wearing rose-colored glasses.  It will not only be an opportunity to graciously permeate our communities with the love of God, but an opportunity for him to deepen us – to build within us a more complete understanding of that unconditional love he extends to all.

God, I ask you to raise up people who love you to embrace these children in your name – freely and without an agenda – that you might free them from the oppression and bondage of their fears and pain and give them Jesus.

the paradoxes of technology

I’ve encountered a news article in Le Monde that highlights a new partnership between the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Earth (http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/) called the Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative.  It is an attempt to expose the horrors of genocide in real time in order to shame and hold accountable perpetrators and prevent death.  A very innovative and compelling idea – it is easier to construct evil when no one is looking.

I wonder how this new partnership, even this new idea will be expanded?  Over what other shoulders will we be allowed to peek?  I don’t wish to resist the ability to hold criminals accountable, but I am reminded of the “big brother” mentality showcased in futuristic novels and movies.  And I think of biblical prophecy and imagine the two witnesses in Jerusalem being watched by the world in this manner, and wonder how the pouring out of the seven bowls of wrath might be tracked…

What a conundrum.  So many “advances” on this world stage bring both benefit and harm.  And we don’t have the wisdom and foresight to plan for them, apart from your intervention on our behalf.  And so I ask for that intervention…

embracing giftedness

“The more full of promise a life is, the more apt it is to evoke uncomfortable response in others.”[i]   The author of this statement is discussing the damage jealousy and envy bring to community.  I can attest to that.  When I encounter giftedness, I immediately begin looking for flaws so I can more easily dismiss the giftedness as ordinariness, thus elevating my view of myself and leveling the playing field. But then, I can’t allow myself to be gifted, either.  I belittle or hide any talents I have, too.  If I don’t do it myself, someone else might do it for me, and I want to beat them to the punch.

I want to be able to not only let others be gifted, but support and encourage their gifts – and my own, in the process.  The question is, how?  What does that process look like?  I can imagine external behaviors that support and encourage.  But how does soul change take place?  How do I convince my heart to be more supportive and encouraging at first take?  How do I come to a place where my auto-response is immediately positive – without the preliminary struggle with jealousy?  Is it all about not seeing others as a threat?  About being secure in and content with the purpose for which God has designed me?  So much so, that I can enjoy others living out their design? 

Although the context has a different slant, I am reminded of Paul’s words, “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”[ii]  Paul also talks about Pharaoh having purpose: “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”[iii]  And of course, he also states, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works….”[iv]

I feel sorry for people who think we are all accidents of nature.  It means none of us have any intentional design, and consequently neither do we have any purpose other than that for which we mold ourselves.  And it would seem the result of “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” would be that jealousy and envy would be a necessary part of our survival.  Isn’t it interesting that God’s methods are exactly opposite the approaches to which we naturally default?

Maybe if I got a better vision of you, and the fact that I am here for you, and others are here for you – rather than the other way around – it would free me to allow us all to fully be all you have designed us to be – without envy or jealousy.

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power:  for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”[v]

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[i] Eighth Day of Creation, Elizabeth O’Connor, Potters House Book Service, 1971, p.34

[ii] Romans 9:20-21

[iii] Romans 9:17

[iv] Ephesians 2:10

[v] Revelation 4:11

the big picture

I became exasperated recently while reading reviews on Amazon.com of the book Hidden in Plain Sight:  The Secret of More by Mark Buchanan.  A reviewer reported the author erred in stating Peter cut off the ear of a soldier in the Garden of Gethsemane “when everybody knows” it was not a soldier, but a servant of the high priest.  He concluded he could never trust the author’s work because of such a blatant error.  This, as opposed to seeing the incident within the entire body of the author’s work.

But this is me.  If I were reviewing an untried author – one new to me – I might be concerned or a little more cautious in my reading of his work until he proved himself a qualified teacher.  Yet I am also fearful I will inadvertently author something erroneous.  And how can I not?  I’m only human.  Only partially trained in truth.  Only capable of finite understanding of an infinite God and his ways.

Studying in context used to be my mantra, and that of the religious groups in which I participated.  I still demand the big picture when someone is explaining something to me.  Yet I take isolated incidents and actions/non-actions and formulate harsh observations and construct rigid principles rather than placing each within the context of all I know of God’s character and purpose.  Sometimes I fail to make determinations and decisions based on that bigger picture.

For example, I was recently listening to a friend play the pop ballad, I Can’t Make You Love Me, on the piano.  One phrase in the song rang false to me:  “You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.”  I felt it misrepresented possibility in a God-ordered world.  I started recalling all the testimonies of estranged couples who had successfully asked God to restore their marriages and their shattered love for each other. Of course, the purpose of the song’s lyrics was not to speak the truth of possibility, but the truth of honest feelings – regardless of possibilities.

How do I extend and receive grace in this area of communicating thoughts, while not compromising truth?  And can you please help me be consistent, across the board with seeing life holistically rather than drowning in minutiae?