Mmmm, That's Good Coffee...

InTERdependence Day

First of all, I'm up way way too early. My wife asked me to let the dog out, so I did - and now I'm awake enough to not go back to bed, so here I am blogging in the darkness of the morning of July 4th, sipping good coffee. We're all back from vacation, so there's that on my mind. It's also Independence Day, with all that entails. I've got a ton of new books to chew on, so there's that added to my mental plate. And oh by the way, did I mention that I'm turning forty?

I've discovered that I am intrigued by the stories of people who were good leaders and good followers, those who were mostly second in command. Not the head honchos, but those who submitted themselves to those heads, to those honchos. I'm reading Rise To Rebellion, Jeff Shaara's novel of the beginnings of our Revolution, and I'm drawn to John Adams and his part in the philosophy and politics and legal underpinnings of what was going on. While I was reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, I felt that Longstreet was a much more compelling character than Lee in the Battle of Gettysburg - following and submitting to leadership that is knowingly or unknowingly headed down a treacherous path. I was talking to my wife about this second-in-command focus on one of our drives the other day, even bringing to mind that Topher Grace's character in In Good Company and his self-discovery while self-subordinating to Dennis Quaid was fulfilling for me. Random thought bubbles on how the guys in charge, for me anyway, are rarely as interesting or as inspirational.

There's a realization on some level of my own interdependence with others. The great leaders of history, of literature, of storytelling and film-making, are better or worse for the minions coming along in tow. They are who they are in large part because of the people fighting alongside. The good ones are those who realize that, and the ones who tend towards failure and futility in the end are mostly oblivious to the fact that they did not rise to the top without a little help from their friends.

I think I am a terrible head honcho, but a fairly committed subordinate, and I'm okay with that. With that realization, I think I'm looking for a place and space to live up to that second billing. At church or at work or in whatever else, I hope to follow well and to lead well, for the good of whatever it is that makes up my time and task-list.

Thanks for the Milestone

Some time over the last vacation span, I passed the 50K site hit mark, at least according to Site Meter (Typepad counts differently, higher number around 75K, but I'm erring on the conservative side in case that's 25K of "just me").

So this is a quick post of gratitude for those who stop by from time to time. Some I know in "real life" - Hi, Mom. Some have been friends for over 20 years, some newer in real space or in virtual connections. However it's happened, I think it's cool that there's any interaction at all. One of the best things I still see in my stats is that there's about twice as many comments as posts - makes me feel like I'm not always talking to myself, preaching to hear myself speak.

So here's to you, Mr. or Mrs. Stopping-By-For-Good-Coffee Blog Surfer. If you want, de-lurk for a bit and introduce yourself - and if not, then please continue to enjoy the site and whatever other boring stuff you do through the day.

Universal Parks

Sea World

DQOTW - Judgment? III

Wrapping up a deep week of judgment. I wanted to add that where I think we've gotten "judgment" wrong, I think we've also sold short on repentance, making it more "I'm sorry for being so bad" than what I think God wants: "I really want to change the way I'm living this out". We want to focus more on the punishment - it's like we're hard-coded to find the bad spot, rub it in, and point it out for everyone to gawk and stare at.

We point out our own sin - I don't know why, but we revel in spilling our guts. Maybe it's for pity and simpathy. Maybe it's a contest where the worst sinner wins. Paul writes that he's the chief of sinners, but it doesn't look like he revels in it they way we do sometimes. Or sometimes we point out our own sins not to build ourselves up, but to self-destruct on our own bitterness and defeat. We revel in that somehow, too, self-deprecating as that can be. We turn every negative into a worse negative, and we tear ourselves down to gain attention, to grab penance to our own detriment.

We point out others' sin for much the same thing, to make ourselves look good in them looking bad. But that's too easy, and I don't think most of us make a point of being so blatantly superior that way. Our subtle way might be to talk about politics and put down the other side. Or maybe it's talking about other churches, or other schools, or any opposing views, or the folks who are a bit different from us. We drop our voices an octave, or a few decibels - we whisper about "those people" and we point out very true faults and problems with who they are and what they do. We can't get past an Us vs. Them mentality, and in that we are more judgmental than we'd like to admit.

But that's the rub: in our judgment, it's not about "setting things to right". It's more about "I'm right, and you're wrong". Our idea of repentance is when someone stops their bad thing and starts doing our good thing. Our idea of discipline is to make sure the justice of a situation trumps the grace and mercy, unless it's me/myself/I that needs that mercy, that really hopes there's such a thing as grace. We have trouble extending mercy and grace because we're not really sure what they are, not really sure it's out there to be lived out.

Ultimately, we don't trust God.

Because, I think He judges differently than we do. We judge on Karma - you get what you deserve; you reap what you sow. But He judges based on some other standard that's more about ultimate good and ultimate right than retribution. On our best days, we get a glimpse of that, and we treat others the right way. But mostly, I fall short and judge wrongly again.

DQOTW - Judgment? II

Continuing on in my deep thread on the judgment of God - and please, watch your step, if you know what I mean...

It's just that there has to be more to it than just end-time separation of the sheep and the goats. For unbelievers, condemnation. For believers, reward based on merit. That's the loose way things have been laid out for us doctrinally, and I am convinced that we're missing something, that we are selling short the real justice and mercy and grace of God in making only these aspects pertinent to our lives.

What "more" am I looking for?

When I "stand in judgment" over my kids, it's usually a discipline matter. As Chuck emailed me, "I am dealing with a behavior that needs to change". Or if we tell them we're proud, rewarding them for work well done, we're bringing something to the table to encourage behavior again, generally speaking. It's the outcome we're looking for, not the act of judgment itself. "Judging others" is a means to other ends, not the end in itself.

And it's not a one-time deal, standing before my kids at some future date on the calendar to tell them Yea or Nay and pointing them towards their destination. It's a right now thing, a just happened thing, a tomorrow morning thing. I'm hopefully diligent in helping them always become better, always push towards some ideal. Doesn't God do that, too?

In that light, I'm seeing Judgment be so much more about "setting things to right", a favorite phrase of NT Wright in Simply Christian. It's not about the punishment or the reward, but about making the proper adjustments going forward. In that light, God is always judging, always walking alongside, always encouraging and re-directing.

DQOTW - Judgment? I

So here was my deep question o' the week from Monday:

What do we think is the purpose of God's Judgment?

The thought was prompted by a chapter in the middle of The Shack, where Judgment is described as something other than Punishment. I would venture to say that the way most of us think of Judgment, especially the Judgment of God - it's about being punished, about retribution, about the Wrath of God being applied to deserving humanity.

Caryn commented: "I'm thinking it's our last real visit with the old screwed up fallen self before we're taken over the threshhold for good. A moment to experience God saying - directly, for once - "Here's all your crap and what you deserve, and here's my Son stepping in to say he's covered it - now come on in!" Forget justice, cause love just won out! Let's party!"

Colbert, NT Wright, and Resurrection

Mission Then vs. Missional Now

There's no telling what you'll find on Twitter these days:

“mission” Then:
get out there to talk
get out there to teach
get out there to judge
get out there to save
get out there with a closed posture of protecting myself
get out there to bring back into the church

“missional” Now:
get out there to listen
get out there to learn
get out there to accept
get out there to be saved
get out there with an open posture of Christ
get out there to be the church

[ht: Makeesha]

Monday DQOTW

In this edition of the Monday Deep Question Of The Week... I thought it might be cool to toss something out on Monday and revisit it throughout the coming week. Today, there's a question that stuck in my psyche over the last bit of time:

What do we think is the purpose of God's Judgment?

I'll just leave it like that, see if anyone comments or not, and I'll post more as the week progresses. How's that? Feel free to leave insights/whatever in the comments, or link back to your site.

Passing the Faith Along

"The definition of faith is believing in something with no proof or evidence." - overheard from the adult leader in my son's middle school small group, a few Sundays ago

Um. No. Not quite.

But I know it feels like that sometimes. I know that it feels like all we have is a "blind faith" that, frankly, let's us down as much as anything. One of my heaviest weights is thinking about how I'm "passing my faith along" to our kids. I'll pass along my angst and mistrust, and I'm hoping I'll be real about my hope and trust as well. It's a total package.

For me right now, faith is itself the evidence, not "belief without proof". That's what Hebrews 11:1 says, that faith is that proof of what you're hoping for, of what's unseen now but is always just around the bend. There's the relationship aspect - God has proven Himself faithful, and I can hold onto His faithfulness, I can trust Him, and that becomes foundational for everything else in some way.

Raising A Princess

"When you have a boy, you have to worry about one boy on the planet. When you have a girl, you have to worry about every boy on the planet." [ht: Heather, quoting Pat]

The Great Outdoors

Photo Friday: The Great Outdoors
East Cemetary Hill, Gettysburg, PA

Part of Me Wants to Smack This Guy

... but part wants to pay attention and see if he's actually saying anything worth, you know, hearing?

[ht: Shlog blog]

Cover Tune Grab Bag

Just another piece of evidence that wasting time is contagious exponentially.

Cover Tune Grab Bag

So to get you started, Rick Astley, "Never Gonna Give You Up", sort of:

[ht: Arms Wide Open]

HBD, Garfield

Today is Garfield's birthday - 30 years, "born" in 1978. It's been a bastion of most of my life, and is right there in my list of favorites. In no particular order, and not necessarily published now:

• Garfield
• The Far Side
• Bloom County
• Zits
• For Better or For Worse
• Opus
• Peanuts
• Calvin & Hobbes
• Dilbert (updated - how did I leave this one off??)

Any other favorite comic strips/panels?

... and let it work over you?

I snapped this photo of President Lincoln with the troops: a Union small group?

This morning I posted a quick little ditty, just a question about "euthanizing small groups" that link to a post with that flavor by Brian Jones. I didn't write anything else - just implying that wow, this was a good question. A good question to be asked, good question to be chewed on, good question to wash over me back and forth. But I didn't post anything else, none of my own sparked thoughts, none of my knee-jerk reactions. Anyone who knows me, especially lately, would know that this tack resonates with me - so my first thought would be that he is spot on, that he has put to text some of the things I've already been thinking and pondering. Also, if you clicked through and read the comments generated, you'd see some like me who are right there with - but you'd also see quite a few arguing the opposite thought, arguing to not throw that particular baby out with that particular tub of bath water.

So I've waited and pondered, pondered and waited. On some level, I want both "sides" to be right. Most likely. Maybe. As much as I've got problems with the small group paradigm, I don't want to impose my angst on anyone who might be having a wonderful time in small group, in Sunday School each week, however this is playing out for you. I really don't want to mess that up. But for me, it's just too real - small groups have their place, but it's not the only place for spiritual growth, for finding community. It might not even be the best way for any of that to happen. Maybe it's the best we can do on a large scale, but I have a feeling that we run out of creativity too fast, settle on something that works a percentage of time, while unfortunately turning off other ideas and possibilities.

Ever just get a good question...?

Time to euthanize small groups?

Scatterbrained

Micheal Hyatt posted "What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains" the other day, and I was intrigued. This morning he adds a twit link to this article on students multitasking in class. The basic premise is that students in a class were doing just about everything except listening to the professor - what was being taught was deep, needed thought, was really good stuff, but for students caught in IMing, shopping on eBay, rearranging Facebook, etc etc etc, it was being lost in the shuffle of way too much stuff going on.

I wanted to argue with that second article, because I'm one that considers myself a multitasker as well. But I couldn't argue. I know I lose out on the particular by getting way too involved in the multitasking general. It's to the point in me that I have to make myself put down the laptop, put down the cellphone, put down the remote and really actuall read a real book. Or put down the remote so I'll watch just one TV show at a time. Or turn off the TV to focus in on a podcast, or conversation with my wife.

I've always been the one in the middle of four or five books at once, probably missing out on more than I've been thinking. Right now, I want to finish The Killer Angels before picking up anything else, then focusing again on one book to the finish if it's worth reading well, you know? Same with work, making sure that I'm focusing on one task at a time, giving it my full attention, working things through my to-do list by priority.

Dads' Day

Our Dad has been probably the most even-keeled influence in our lives. Growing up, I think that's the thing that has worked into me the most. My brother and I grew up without too many extremes in that regard - never way too angry, never way too sappy. It's something I hope to pass on to our kids as well, with my own twists and feelings of course, but still tempered with a steadiness that, like I said, I think we get from Dad.

On this weekend when the news of Tim Russert's way-too-early passing is taking up an honorable amount of bandwidth and screen time, I am struck by how many folks are genuinely and positively reflecting on his life. His life as a son and as a dad, and then as a mentor and friend to colleagues and pundits, is inspiring, too. There's a steadiness in his manner that made him one of my own Sunday morning favorites on Meet The Press.

But Sunday afternoons are still for Dad, at least in my mind today. We all get together for lunch at Mom's after church, with her in the kitchen fixing fixin's for an army and Dad on the grill out back, working some newly discovered recipe or experimental technique with the meat and sauces and whatever catches his fancy. It's his playtime, his "hey, let's try this". Open to honesty, I can tell my dad when the merinade just didn't work this time - and I hope he knows that when I say it's really good that it's really really good. Most of the time, it's on the really really good end of the taste spectrum, and we take it in stride, still even-keeled even when it comes to cooking and such.

For our birthdays, anyone in the family can pick a favorite meal for Sunday lunch. Mine lately has been "whatever you've seen that you want to try next" - and so far, that's been my favorite, whatever it is. I want to pass along that even-keel, that sense of adventure tempered with reality, and that enjoyment for good food and trying new things.

Happy fathers' day to you and yours - I think we'll be enjoying lunch at Mom's. If you don't have plans, let us know - call ahead if you're coming.