No Contest

In a trial there is a plea between guilty and not guilty called "No Contest".  As I understand it, a person who pleads "No Contest" is not saying that they did the dead, but they are willing to accept the penalty anyways.

At first this seems odd to me.  Why would someone be willing to serve a sentence for a crime that they did not commit?  One reason could be that the person did actually commit the crime, however if they testify to it, there are other liabilities.  For instance, they could be sued by a victim.

  

A second reason could have to do with the strain of being accused of a crime.  The wheels of justice turn slowly.  You have been accused.  Your reputation has been damaged, you are paying legal bills and what you most want is for it all to be over with so that you can start putting your life back together.  So there it is.  The light at the end of the tunnel.  There is a chance to put this behind you and move on.  

Once I heard a pastor describe a third reason that an innocent person would accept a punishment for a crime that they didn't commit is that they know who did commit the crime and they are willing to take the place of the guilty.  If you are going to be honest, you can't say that you are guilty when you aren't.  But you can accept the penalty.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Jesus could have gotten himself out of the bind.  In a word he could have saved himself.  But he would have lost us all in the process.  He did not defend himself, he took the blame and said that he would serve the penalty in our stead.

Let's Roll

On September 11, 2001 a scene played out in the skies over Pennsylvania.  Having heard of the plane crashes in New York and Washington, a group of passengers on flight 93 decide to take back control of their plane.  One passenger, Todd Beamer, who was talking on the phone with a customer service representative, was over heard saying to his fellow passengers "Let's Roll".  Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.  Who knows where it would have crashed and how many would have otherwise died.

I wonder if the passengers of Flight 93 knew that they would likely die, or if they believed that they could save the plane.  It really doesn't matter because the risk was obvious and yet they stood up and did what needed to be done.  

There are countless stories of soldiers stepping up and putting themselves on the line.  The soldier that draws the enemy fire, goes back for an injured comrade, throw them self on a grenade.  They say, "Let's Roll"and get at it.

In the book, "The Knight", author Gene Wolfe tells the story of a man who awakes to find himself in a medieval world.  He is learning from a Knight who tells him that a knight must do as honor demands and never count his foes.  I have thought of that phrase over the years.  Never counting your foes means that just because the consequences are dire, does not mean that a wrong decision becomes a right one.  

Sometimes a job needs doing.  Such was the case with Jesus' return to Jerusalem.  It was ill advised and wrought with peril.  His closest friends were telling Him it was a bad idea,  But there was a job that needed to be done.  Humanity needed to be reconciled and Jesus was the one to do it.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

There was a task that needed doing.  Humanity had a case of spiritual leprosy that was causing a separation with God.  There was only one person who could do the job.  It required the ultimate sacrifice and Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "Let's Roll."

Keep Your Distance

One time there was a flu outbreak at school.  One student was sick and several friends went over to her house for a movie, then they gave it to their friends and so on.  No one really knew that it was happening until Monday morning and a third of the students were missing.  As the day went on, more and more students went home sick.  When a student with glassy eyes and runny nose would show up to the door, the message was go home, keep your distance and don't breathe on anyone.  The bug was spreading so fast and hit so hard, I for one wanted no part of it.

Eventually the flu ran its course, though school was closed for three days.  I was thinking about this experience last year when the Ebola outbreak was in the news.  When I was facing the flu, I really didn't want to catch it.  But I also knew that I would most certainly get over it, I would suffer through it, but I would make it.  This is not the same with Ebola.  Most people who get it die from it and it is a very unpleasant death.  It really makes me think about those who go to treat them.

Which brings us to leprosy.  In Biblical times, that was the disease to be feared.  In our modern times, it is called Hanson's Disease and is treatable, but not back in the day.  It was contagious, deadly and meant a life of separation from others.  In Biblical times leprosy was seen as something different than a disease.  It was thought to be the result of sin.  It was something from which to be cleansed, not healed.  

Those without a relationship with God are like lepers in a spiritual sense.  They are separate from God, out on their own.  But the condition is treatable.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Imagine living in Biblical times and discovering that you had leprosy.  It would be heart wrenching knowing that in front of you is not only physical suffering, but also a life of isolation.  

In matters of the heart, God has the ultimate antidote.  It is not necessary to live separate from Him.  Healing is only a prayer away.

In Too Deep

The school year is quickly coming to a close.  Students are getting a bit stir crazy and they have summer dreams in their heads.  And as the students are looking at their grades there are the inevitable visits to the teacher.  "I need to get my grade up, what can I do?"

Unfortunately, sometimes there just isn't much to be offered.  Several months of poor performance can't be corrected overnight.  Sometimes they just need to face the music and learn a lesson from it.

At the end of the baseball season, everyone is talking about the magic number.  The number of wins (or opposing team loses) needed to clinch first place.  The other side of the magic number is mathematical elimination.  Once you are mathematically eliminated, it doesn't matter if you win the rest and they lose the rest, there is just no catching them.  It is over.  The ship sailed and you weren't on board.  Some teams are eliminated quite early in the season and others run it out to the end, but the result is the same.  When you're out, you're out.

Many things in life are like that.  The debt is too deep; We've gone too far in the wrong direction; the damage is done; there is no going back.  Thankfully God doesn't work that way.  In Corinthians, Paul writes that love does not keep score.  No matter how far we sink.  No matter how low we go, we never get mathematically eliminated from returning to the grace of God.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Our sins are never beyond the ability of God to cleans our soul and bring us back. Amen.

A Closer Look

I once went on a tour of a professional research lab.  As part of the tour they showed us an ant that they had placed under an electron microscope.  The detail was amazing.  The exoskeleton was smooth with small hairs sticking out at places.  The exoskeleton was dimpled around the hairs.  The eyes and the antennae were particularly interesting.  It is amazing how things look if we just look close enough.

The first microscopes were invented in the 17th century and they have been getting better ever since.  It seems the difference between a good microscope and a cheap one is its ability to collect light.  Cheap microscopes have poor lenses that don't let much light in.  They also have a mirror on the base so that the user has to reflect the available room light in.  The better ones have their own light and high quality lenses.  When the light is good, the details emerge.

And that's true for more than microscopes.  Telescopes and cameras, in fact all optical devices, live and die with their ability to collect and manipulate light.  

The same is true in our Christian walk.  How much of our character is revealed is directly related to the degree to which we let the light of God shines through us.  We can walk in the darkness, but so much more is evident when we walk in the light.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Light reveals.  It shines through us and allows us to see the dirt in out hearts that needs to be cleaned.  And we could all use a bit of that.

Out of the Darkness

Years ago on a camping trip I was on a late night walk and had a flashlight problem.  I was by myself and my flashlight was out of commission.  It was dark.  Really Really Dark.  This camping trip was in the mountains of northern New Mexico, and it was dark.  So I started walking in the general direction of my camp.  It took a long time, but eventually I found my way back.  I remember seeing the lit up tents peeking through the trees.  There was a sense of relief and safety.  When you are in nothing but darkness, there is a lot of relief in the light.

Our politicians spend a lot of time shining light on the flaws of their opponents.  They point out the other's flaws and mistakes and hypocrisies but not much about their own.  I remember seeing a debater once between two politicians.  The moderator asked them to identify one weakness.  The first said that he struggled with organization and clutter.  He described how he had to stay on top of this constantly.  The second politician said that his problem was that he cared too deeply and gave too much.  He chose to highlight a strength but phrase it as a weakness.  We all have weaknesses and problems that even if we don't show the world, we should at least view ourselves.

The story goes that they brought a woman to Jesus.  She had been accused of adultery and she was to be stoned.  Jesus said that the one with out sin should go ahead and get started.  Everything changed that day.  It changed from condemning each other to reflecting in out own heart.  Too often we are worried about shining a bright light on our neighbors, when what is called for is a small light so that we can see our own flaws.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

When he got done writing in the dirt no one was left to condemn her and neither did Jesus.  We need to remember this when we are tempted to judge our neighbor.  We are told to worry about ourselves and let others take care of themselves.

The WOW Factor

Some days are incredibly ordinary.  We get up at the normal time and have an ordinary drive to work.  Our day progresses as you'd expect.  For lunch we have the usual and it's fine.  Not great, but fine.  We get home and we do the normal things until bed time.  Then more of the same tomorrow.

This is not a great story.  No, we need a wow factor to catch our attention.

We like to be impressed and amazed.  It doesn't really matter what it involves.  We are looking for the extremes.  There is actually a world record for the most toilet seats broken with your head in one minute.  Really.  The record is 46.  In one minute.  How did this ever become a thing?  Who was the first cranial toilet seat destroyer and is there much competition?

Or how about the record for holding the most live rattlesnakes in your mouth at one time.  It's not enough to be into reptiles or to be an expert on rattlesnakes. No they need to be held in the mouth and you need to hold a lot of them.  The record is 13.

Our faith is often like this.  We are looking for the spiritual WOW factor.  We want to be amazed and swept away in everything we do.  But most of us will never hear from God through a burning bush or see the Red Sea parted.  For most of us, it is a bit more subtle.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

We need to see past the wow factor and appreciate the every day.  Sometimes an ordinary day can feel like a miracle in itself.

Seeing the Big Picture

A few years back there was an experiment called the "Hubble Deep Field".  Astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope far out into space and collected data from the other side of the universe.  The result were different than expected.  The whole thing is complicated and if you want to know about it, here is a link.  But the main idea is that astronomers discovered that at a fundamental level we don't really get how gravity works.  In some ways we have known about gravity for hundreds of years, since the days of Newton.  But it seems that our true understanding is a bit muddy.

I am a nuts and bolts kind of guy.  I like to know how things work.  This means that sometime faith is hard for me.  I am really uncomfortable with a big question mark hanging over it all.  I like to know how all of the pieces fit together.

I once heard it said that Christianity is like a big ship.  Some people are up on the deck embracing the Sun on their faces and feeling the wind in their hair.  Others are below deck.  Way below deck.  They are poking around in the engine room, tinkering here and there, looking at the schematics, trying to see what makes this thing run.  It sound's familiar.

The universe is vast and beyond our comprehension.  It is not realistic to expect that we would understand all what God is.  In fact, I would say that if God were comprehensible, he would not in fact be worth of worship.    

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell,

I'm the kind of guy who likes to know how things work, but God doesn't owe me an explanation. Often when I am studying a subject I find that as I learn more I also see how much more there is to know.  Every answer springs up new questions.  So if God did reveal it all, I'm sure that I wouldn't grasp everything anyway.

For me it is enough to see that the pieces can fit together, even if I don't see exactly all of the ways that it happens.  Believeing in the connections that are fuzzy is where faith comes in.

 Like the rest of the human race, I don't completely understand gravity, yet I am sure that it is there.   It's like that with God.

Three Hots and a Cot

In the world of personal finance there are two kinds of broke.  The first kind of broke is where you've go nothing.  Zero. Zilch. Notta.  When you have no money at all, your life becomes very focused.  It is all about getting through the day.  Food and shelter become the top priority and everything else is secondary.  But when most people describe themselves as broke, they don't mean that they have nothing.  Just that the money that they have is committed elsewhere and they would like to spend some more.

Of course there is more to life than just getting by.  Inmates in prison get three hots and a cot so they say, but most of us wouldn't describe that as living the dream.  Maybe we should be content with only our basic needs being met, but most of us want more.  We want it all.  We want to live the good life and set up residence on easy street.  So there needs to be some balance in all of it.  We need some balance between being content with what we have and striving to do better.

The balance between these is extremes really describes the nature of God's provision.  On the one hand God provision is enough for today.  The Israelites wandering in the desert would get enough manna for the day.  Elijah sitting by the stream would get daily food from the crows and daily bread from the widow.  The people may have preferred to get great stores so that they could see it all.  Daily provision teaches us to rely on God daily.  When left to our own devices, we can wander off and lose our focus.

Then sometimes God goes all out with the extravagant provision.  The overwhelming miracle that blows us away and makes us say, "Wow.  That was God,"

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

We should be content with daily provision, but for most of us the routine is not enough.  So from time to time, God is there with his extravagant blessings to see us through.

The Roundabout Way

We used to have this mini van.  It had power doors that worked well at one time, but as the van aged they got progressively finicky on how they worked.  It seems that each had it's own special set of rules.  One the locks worked with the key better than any other way.  Another the power lock would only work manually.  One door we just left shut.  Still another would only open if we pushed the unlock and the power slider button at the same time.  I'm not sure how we discovered that we had to do that, but we did it because that's what worked.  We all have our things that seem a bit illogical, but we do them anyway.

We all have our ways.  There is  certain way that we travel from point A to point B.  It may not be the most direct or the fastest or even the most scenic, but it is the way we go.  Our ways don't need to make sense to anyone but ourselves.

There was a time that I worked at a Sears doing security.  Sometimes we would have to watch employees who were suspected of stealing to see if they are doing anything out of the ordinary.  But anyone will behave in unexpected ways if we just watch them long enough.  It's what people do.

If it's hard to understand the methods of people, how much more is it hard to understand the logic behind God's methods.  From time to time we all say, "Why God?" and if you are like me, a person who likes to know the why and the how and the plans, not knowing the plans of God can be very frustrating.  

But I know I'm not entitled to know the plans of God.  He's God.  I'm not.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Elijah sits by a creek and waits for animals to bring him food.  Then when he is really desperate, he needs to find a widow with a little.  Why?  Why not just give the man some food?  The Israelites in the desert were given manna, why not that? Why?

Well.  I suppose that getting a little bit of food daily forced him to rely on God, daily.  It kept him out of the way so that the king could calm down.  It blessed the woman and her son by witnessing the miracle.  Or there was another reason that I just don't know about.  After all God is god and I am not.

The Other 10%.

There is a famous quote, "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."  I tried to find the source of the quote and it is credited to several people such as Charles Swindol or John Maxwell (I thought it was Thomas Edison, but what do I know.)  Any how, a lot of people agree with it no matter who said it first.  

Every day things happen.  Some are good and some not so much, but how we respond, how we perceive it, how we prepare.  That is how life works.

Sometimes I think that life is like a ship.  The captain sets a course and off they go.  Sometimes the wind is in the right direction and the weather is fair.  Sometimes the wind is in the wrong direction and you have to tack.  Slowly and methodically cutting back and forth across the wind but always moving towards the goal.  In this analogy, our attitude and out faith is the keel.  It runs deep and keeps us from blowing which ever way the wind wants to take us.

But what about the other 10%?  The quote is about having a good attitude even when things don't work out, but It sure is nice when they do.  It's nice when the test comes back negative or a little extra money comes in.  These are the day to day blessings.  They work out best when we do our part.  Some days the sail boat goes with the wind.  Some days are like slow going tacks in the rain.  But none of it happens until the sails are raised.  

We want blessing.  We want miracles.  It is only possible to steer a moving ship.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

We need to do our part and count on God for the rest.  We climb up to the top of a mountain and say ok God, the rest is up to you.

Where are we going Dad?

A man went on vacation and left his pet cat with his brother.  He calls a few days into the trip and asks after the cat.  His brother says, "Well the cat's dead." The owner is upset telling his brother, "You can't deliver bad news like that.  First tell me the cat is stuck up on the roof.  Then later tell me that you are trying but he won't come down.  Then in a few days that he is looking bad.  Then when you tell me he's dead, I'm mentally prepared." The brother apologizes and it gets quiet.  The cat's owner says, "so how's Grandpa?" (Pause) "Grandpa went up on the roof and won't come down."

Sometimes we need to be the barer of bad news but it is never fun.

Some conversations are difficult to have.  I was talking to a coworker today about how we never get feedback from our peers.  I said that we would all improve if we felt free to go to one another and say, "Here is an area that I think you could do better."  She looked really uncomfortable at the thought of having that conversation.  Truth be told, I wouldn't like being on either side of that conversation either.  Some conversations are just difficult and we would like to avoid them.

Which brings us to the story of Abraham and Isaac.  God says to Abraham that he has to sacrifice his son.  So off they go.  What did Abraham say to Isaac on the way?  How did he explain it to him?  Did he simply lie, or did he tell Isaac what they were off to do?  How would you even start such a conversation.

The story of Abraham and Isaac is a hard story to hear.  Today, if someone said that they heard from God that they had to kill their son, we would not think that they were blessed, we would think them crazy.  And not a little crazy or fun crazy, lock him up crazy.   How did Abraham not sound crazy when he spoke to his servants and his son?  Maybe he never had to explain what they were doing or why.  Maybe Isaac accepted that the Lord would provide an offering with out knowing the alternative.  Maybe Isaac knew what was being asked and went anyway.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Abraham's message to Isaac was that God would provide.  God would take care of it.  I suppose that is a good basis for any awkward conversation, "God will provide," Money is tight, but God will provide.  There is a conflict at work, but God will provide.  We need an opportunity, but God will provide.

God is our provider and with that in mind, nothing is that awkward.

As Expected

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  We are creatures of habit.  We have this overriding tendency to stick to the routine.  It is familiar and we like that.  There is great comfort in the expected.  We can speak poetically of the road less traveled, but really the road more traveled is pretty nice too.  It is more comfortable and there are nice places to stop.  Our favorite foods, our favorite places, our favorite people all come through for us in a predictable way.  And we like it that way.

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  The thing is that sometimes it's not even that it is what we like the best.  It can be that it is the part that we are the most familiar with.  We stop at a fast food restaurant, not because it is awesome, but because we know what to expect.  We go out of habit and the security off knowing what we are going to get.

Reliability is a sense that things are going to go a certain way.    We count on certain things happening.  The Sun rises in the east.  Winter turns into spring.  The Detroit Lions will figure out a way to mess things up.  Just like clock work it happens.  People are less reliable then day and night.  People sometime let us down.  A reliable person is a real gem.

Several years ago I was at a Red Wings game with my dad.  We were talking with one of his coworkers and the two of them were joking about something that had happened at the office, some sales goal that they had recently made.  The fellow says, "We were way behind, but I knew Henry would have something up his sleeve to pull this out, then the last day these sales come in...."  Reliability is a sense that things are going to go a certain way,

While it's hard to find reliable people, it is a fundamental characteristic of God.  God is the great I AM.  He is what He is.  The video clip below is about the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham has been told to sacrifice his son to God.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  Abraham had a habit of obeying God.  He had experience with God was reliable and God would provide.  Christians should know this message too.  Life has its ups and downs and struggles.  We can rely on God to carry us through the hard times.  He does it time and time again.  He is reliable.  

Endurance

Nothing lasts forever.  In New Hampshire there was a landmark called "The Old Man on the Mountain." On the side of the mountain it looked like a face.  Tourists and residents would make the travel to see the sight.  The Old Man was the symbol of New Hampshire and its residents embraced it as a symbol of their ruggedness.  But now it's gone.

Eventually gravity won out and the side of the mountain came down, but that's how it is.  Nothing lasts forever, but then neither do we.  When most of us say "Forever" what we mean is "Till Death do us part." We don't have the power to commit to forever, only our time here on Earth.  Even so, a lot of people have a hard time keeping a lifetime commitment.  About half of all marriages end in divorce and it seems like there is an awful lot of people who leave the raising of their children up to the grandparents.  There should be more endurance to the commitments that are made.

Love is different.  Love endures.  Love is not measured by the good times.  Love is demonstrated by the way it endures through the hardships.  Love says, "I'm not going anywhere.  No matter what comes." Love is forever.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Faith, Hope and Love.  And the greatest of these is love.  Love is the greatest because Love, more than anything else, endures.

So What

Albert Einstein was a genius, there is no doubt about that.  In 1905 while working as a clerk in the Swiss Patent office he wrote three landmark scientific papers that changed the world.  In one he explained how the motion of gases is related to the motion of atoms.  In a second he explained how light energy can generate electricity which eventually led to the development of photocells.  Then the third was called the theory of special relativity which came to the conclusion E=mc².   So, yeah, he was pretty smart.

It seems that Albert Einstein was a great guy if you weren't actually related to him.  He had a wife who he left to take care of their sons while he went off to do his things.  They divorced and he eventually remarried.  He had almost no relationship with his sons.  The sons once commented that going through life with the name Einstein does set up fairly high expectations.  

I wonder if Albert Einstein ever regretted his decisions.  He made great discoveries, there is no doubt about it.  I wonder if he ever questioned whether he would have preferred a life as husband to his first love and father to his children.  I don't know the answer to that question.  But there is this saying that says no one on their death bed ever wishes that they had spent more time at work.  There are things that we do to sustain life and there are those things that we live for.

There are countless stories of the person who rises to the top of their profession but at the cost of their relationships.  The look from the summit and they are all alone.  The story is so familiar, it is almost cliche. 

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

If I don't have love, I have nothing, I am nothing, I achieve nothing.  We can do the right things for the wrong reasons and in the end, without love in our lives, our great accomplishments amount to a big so what.

Because It Is Hard

Nobody minds an easy assignment now and then.  Every thing doesn't have to be difficult.  We don't need to set a world record every time.  Sometimes it's nice to take the road more traveled.  What's wrong with easy anyway?

The answer is that there is nothing wrong with easy.  It's just that easy limits what we can gain.  When we approach a task or challenge that anyone can easily do, two things occur to us.

1. Why am I doing this at all?  Does  it need to be done?  Why is it my job?  It's not that a task is beneath us, but if anyone can do it, there is nothing special about being the one who does it.

2. How embarrassing will it be if I mess this up.  If you want some examples of this, try googling "you had one job" and see the collection of mess ups on mundane tasks.

We see the same thing in the world of sports.  Sometimes a big athletic powerhouse plays the little school from nowhere.  The big school  really can't win.  If they win by a little, everyone will say that they should have won by more.  If they win by a lot, then they are jerks for running up the score.  And if they actually lose the game?

In athletics we know to set goals and face the tough competition.  We want the experience to bring out the best in us, not the minimal to get by.

When John Kennedy laid out a vision for going to the Moon, he said, "Not because it is easy, but because it is hard."  He laid out a challenge for a country that would rise to its best to fulfill.  He new that it wasn't a question of easy, he was calling on a great country to do great things.  And the goal wasn't reached by accident.  It required deliberate extraordinary efforts to pull it off.

The same is true with God's call to us to love one another.  It is easy to love those who love us back, but that's not what God calls us to do.  He calls us to love those that are hard to love, because it is hard.  Because that way, God's love can be seen through us.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Everyone loves those who love them back.  The challenge is demonstrating love to people who are disagreeable or even hostile.  That is the challenge and it is by no means easy.  Like the Moon landing it takes sustained, deliberate extraordinary effort, but it is our calling and it is worth it.

Return on Investment

What so I get out of it?  In the world of business it is common to talk about the "Return on Investment"or a "Cost Benefit Analysis".  Basically it examines how much we will get out of a situation compared to how much we have to put into it.  If the company pursues a certain marketing strategy then they anticipate some amount of sales.  The analysis compares these two to decide if it is worth it.

I think of this when I go to a conference.  I have been to many over the years.  Some are good and some not so much.  Maybe I have a pretty high expectation for what a conference should deliver.  I have heard people say over the years, "If I get one good idea from a conference, then I'm happy."  I always think, "One?  that's it?  This cost hundreds of dollars.  And right now I'm not at work, so there is the opportunity cost associated with that.  If all this time and effort only generate one idea, it had better be one heck of an idea." If I bought a book and sat someplace quietly reading for a day, could I generate a single idea?  I expect a bigger return on the investment, and I'm not even footing the bill.

Extravagance is the opposite of a cost-benefit analysis.  Extravagance says, "We are doing this no matter the cost." Extravagance is about going forward in spite of the fact that the return on investment will be little or even negative.  There is no justification for extravagance, we do extravagance because we do.  Some people embrace an extravagant life style.  They live a life of excess because they can.  It is all part of the image.  There are TV shows to take the rest of us into the world where people engage in the extreme without considering the cost.

So where are we going with this?  In our walk with God we are called to be a good steward of hte resources given to us.  We hear about the Parable of the Talents and we need to make the most of our resources.  But we are also called to love one another.  Jesus tells us that the greatest commandments are to first love God and then each other.  And Love, by its very nature is incredibly extravagant.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Love never asks for a return on investment.  We are called to be patient, kind, forgiving, humble with EVERYONE.  We are called to show love, not feel love.  We are called to demonstrate these qualities so that God's love can be seen through us.  In some situations, showing love is easy. There is the immediate return on the investment of the person loving you back.  But I think that we are called to show love extravagantly.  We need to show it, even when we will get nothing in return.

To Sum It All Up

I once heard an interview with a Nobel Prize winning scientist.  The interviewer asked him to sum up his work in a single sentence.  His response was, that if it could be summed up in single sentence, it would not be worthy of a Nobel Prize.

OK, fair enough.  But those of us who are not Nobel Laureates want to understand, we just need it in a condensed form that we can wrap our heads around.

Many students when faced with the daunting task of reading a classic novel will look for a book summary.  When I was in school "Cliffs Notes" were the go to source.  I did a google search and discovered that they are still around as a web site.  Of course many students think that even the Cliffs notes version are too long and just wait for the movie.

It is said that George W Bush told his advisers to write whatever they wanted to tell them on a single page, and I am sure he is not alone.  In sales they talk about the art of the pitch, getting the customer's attention now.  And of course our elections are mostly a series of 15 second sound bites.  The question is, is this a product of our modern culture or just part of human nature.  Maybe people have always had a problem with the vast and needed a little condensing.

This brings us to the Bible and the teaching of Jesus.  The Bible is a vast work of timeless truth.  One can spend their life in its study and only begin to scratch the surface.  So can you sum it up in a sentence or two?

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

First love God, then love everyone else.  I'm not sure if that really sums it all up.  I will leave that question to the scholars.  But I'm confident that it's a good start.  If we love God and love others we will be well on our way to fulfilling God's purposes in our lives.

So There Are You Happy Now?

Some people need a motivation check.  And by "some people", I mean all of us some times and a few people all of the time.  There may be people who always have their hearts in the right place, but I don't think that I know any, and I am sure that I am not one.  Sometimes we do what we do begrudgingly, without joy or love; only going through the motions.  Now I suppose that doing the right thing begrudgingly is better than doing the wrong thing with joy, but it sure isn't the same as approaching a righteous task with a happy heart.

 

It makes me think about what it's like when we make little kids apologize.  Often, they are not sorry about anything, but need to say the apology to avoid a greater punishment.  So they say it, with a forced tone and a bitter heart.

"Sorry.  So there are you happy now?" 

 

But who among us haven't approached an upcoming task with the heart of a stubborn child.  I sure have.  "OK, I'll do it, but you can't make me be happy about it." And we finish up with, "So there, are you happy now?"  

Of course we should be different.  As Christians we are called to do more than help those in need.  We are called to love them too.  There are many avenues for help for those in need.  I think the difference between a church and a secular organization is some organizations help the needy; a church should want to help the needy.   Because no matter what we do, if we don't do it in love, we are not really doing the work of Christ.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

1 Corinthians 13 is the famous chapter on love that you have heard at 90% of weddings that you have ever been to.   In context it tells us that we can be blessed by great spiritual gifts, tremendous abilities, staggering wealth, but in the midst of it all if we have a bad attitude it means nothing.  

From time to time we all need a motivation check.  We need to ask ourselves why we are doing what we are doing and bring love back into the center.

Playing the Part

In the race for president, we often hear about someone who looks "presidential".  The idea is that voters have some preconceived notion of what a president should be like and until a candidate seems plausible, they don't have a chance.  When Al Gore ran for president, he got negative press for listening to an image consultant on how to seem presidential.  I guess that it's not very presidential to ask how to be presidential.  I think that all of the candidates have image consultants these days.  They just stay out of sight.

To one degree or another, we all play the expectation game.  We have rolls to fulfill.  It is easier if the rolls that we assume are close to our own personality, then meeting those expectations is really not much of a chore.  At that point, meeting expectations is just being yourself.  

Of course, some people try to lower expectations.  If the bar is low enough, it is easy to get over it.  And over it in an impressive way.

Which brings us to Christian expectations.  We expect a certain level of behavior among our fellow Christians.  We think that some actions are tied closely to the faith and every Christian aught to be doing so.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

So demonstrating godliness is not about shouting amen or thumping a Bible.  It is about showing love.  Now there is an expectation that we should all aspire to meet.

The True Meaning of the Holiday

Note - Parts of this post are taken from the book, How the Irish Saved Civilization.

How often have we heard it or said it ourselves?  As children climb on Santa’s lap or look for colored eggs we often reflect, “Aren't they forgetting the true meaning of the day?”

This is the story of a boy who was kidnapped from his homeland at sixteen.  He was taken to a foreign land and forced into slavery as a shepherd.  While his days and nights were spent cold and hungry, he filled himself with prayer.  And after six years of captivity he received a vision from God who told him to leave, escape that is, head for the coast and find a ship. 

And so he left.  He slipped away in the night and traveled 200 miles as an escaped slave to the coast.  Here he found a ship, but was refused passage because he was an escaped slave.  So he turned to the Lord in prayer.  When the ship tried to leave the shore, their cargo of dogs went crazy and could not be controlled.  Only when they allowed the young man aboard did the dogs settle.   

After crossing the water, the ship came ashore in an area that had been sacked by raiders.  There was no food to be found.  The ship’s crew began to mock him, saying, “Did you’re God bring you from slavery to let you starve?”  Once again, he turned to the Lord in prayer and soon a group of pigs were seen walking down the road towards them.  Once again, the Lord had provided.

He eventually was able to return home, finish his studies and join the ministry.  After many years as a monk he received another vision.  This one told him to return to the land of his captors to preach the Gospel.  He answered the call to return to a land where escaped slaves were roasted alive as sacrifices to pagan gods.  And so it was that a man named Patrick returned to the land of his captivity, Ireland, on a mission to set his captors free. 

And he got them all.  Over the next 40 years Patrick established over 300 churches and converted the entirety of the Irish people.  It is the only known time in history when a full scale conversion of a population took place in a single generation without bloodshed.

So how did he do it?  

He did it by showing them Love and preaching the Gospel in a relevant way that was free of the baggage of Roman culture.  He incorporated the symbols and events of their culture into his teaching.  So instead of building massive bonfires to pay tribute to the Druidic gods; they celebrated the rebirth of Christ by building massive bonfires.  He superimposed an image of the Sun, a powerful symbol of their culture, onto the cross to produce what we call today the Celtic cross.  And he famously used the three leaved shamrocks as a reminder of the trinity, three in one.   

Patrick died on March 17^th.  

So when they dye the river green in Chicago, or march in parades in Boston, when people gather across America to drink green beer and sing “O Danny Boy”, do they remember the meaning of the day?

The following is a prayer written by St. Patrick.

LORICA OF SAINT PATRICK

Note: “Lorica” litterally means breastplate.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength,

The invocation of the Trinity,

Through a belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,

Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,

Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,

Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In service of archangels,

In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In the prayers of patriarchs,

In preachings of the apostles,

In faiths of confessors,

In innocence of virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven;

Light of the sun,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of the wind,

Depth of the sea,

Stability of the earth,

Firmness of the rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me;

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's hosts to save me

From snares of the devil,

From temptations of vices,

From every one who desires me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,

Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom,

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through a belief in the Threeness,

Through a confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation

Salvation is of the Lord
Salvation is of the Lord
Salvation is of Christ
May thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

St. Patrick (ca. 377)