Why we should love our neighbor

When asked the greatest commandment, Jesus responds with two, saying they are similar. Jesus said to his questioner, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Jesus quotes both of the commandments from the old testament. The first quote is the Shema Yisrael. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." The second is from Leviticus. "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

So as Christians, little Christs, we are called to love our neighbor. Therefore, we love our neighbor because God tells us too. That's a pretty good reason, but as humans, we aren't good at doing what we should just because we are told too.

John gives us an interesting justification for loving others. " We love because he first loved us." We love our neighbor as Christ loves us only because God loved us first and moved us by the Holy Spirit so that we could love as Christ loves.

But even deeper than that, there is an intrinsic reason for loving other humans and valuing them, no matter who they are. They too, were created in the image of God.

Moses records in Genesis 1:26-27, "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

The word image in Hebrew is tselem, meaning image, likeness (of resemblance).

A key in the Genesis 1 passage is that humankind is made in the image of God, not just Christians or Jews, or specific individuals, but all humans. Regardless of who the individual is, they are made in the image, the likeness, of God. They have a resemblance of the creator of the universe.

This gives the individual value. To be made in the image of the creator places value on the creation.

For the Christian, this is the starting point of dealing with any other human being. No matter who they are, you are dealing with someone who was made in the image of God. That makes loving them the default option.

Love your neighbor, they too are made in the image of God.

Is your gospel enough?

Andrew White is the Vicar of Baghdad, the pastor of St. George’s Church in Baghdad. He has multiple sclerosis. He is in Iraq seeking to make peace through love. He is currently working with refugees from the ISIS occupation.

Says he has been "hijacked, kidnapped, locked up in rooms with bits of finger and toe and things." He has "been held at gunpoint, been attacked – the usual thing."

Follow is a little more about him from a bio sheet.

Now he experienced faith under fire but most of all, love. His church has been seriously damaged by bombs and rockets. He has soldiers and 35 security people around him, he wears body armour to church as it is outside the green zone. He has seen many of his congregation killed and kidnapped. The children suffer terrible loss, injury and devastation. He sometimes has to leave because of threats to his life. He has been kidnapped. However he knows that most people in Iraq have no choice but to stay. Rich and powerful have left. The poor have to stay. This life can only be endured with love. He and his congregation love the Lord and each other. He says ‘we knew that Jesus was all we needed when Jesus was all we had left’.

Does your gospel give you the strength to endure that? If not, you need a better gospel.

Have mercy on me, again

In the gospel of Luke, a story told by Jesus is recorded.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I appreciate the tax collector. Some days, that's all I feel I can say to my God. Though I am a new life in him, some days I feel the only thing I can say is have mercy on me, Lord, for I am a sinner.

Jesus said he went home justified. But I doubt he came back day after day to the temple saying "thanks for having mercy on me, unlike that guy." I bet when he came back, he continued to say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" And every time I bet Jesus said to those around him "this man went down to his home justified."

There is hope for even us sinners. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am a sinner.

Christ is Coming

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:2-7 

 

Christian, do you love?

The past few Sundays the pastor at my church has been covering the topic of love through 1 Corinthians 13. It has sparked quite a discussion in my own mind on the importance of love.

First, I think it is important to understand the type of love that Paul is writing about in Corinthians. The Greek word he uses is agape, the same word for love as used to describe the love God has for us, such as in John 3:16.

While this word may not be rooted in Christianity, it has certainly become important in Christianity. The term agape is quite commonplace in Christianity and is understood to be a freely given godly love.

Now it is important that the love we share is the same love that is given to us. As we know from Jesus, the two most important commandment are love. Love your Lord with all your heart soul and mind and another is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. We see the most important commandments from God are to love. To love him and to love our neighbor.

We know we are to love, for it is a commandment. We also see that John tell us in 1 John 4:19 that we love because God first loved us. Because of our sin, we cannot understand or even begin to love others as God loves. But when we turn to God and understand and freely receive his love, we can then share his love with others.

So we know that we are to love with the same love that God gives us, but what does this love look like? Paul tell us.

According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, love is:

• patient
• kind
• does not envy
• does not boast
• is not proud
• does not dishonor others
• not self-seeking
• not easily angered
• keeps no record of wrongs
• does not delight in evil
• rejoices with truth
• always protects
• always trusts
• always hopes
• always perseveres

These are not easy things, but Paul tells us they are most important. As he writes in the same chapter, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Now we know as Christians the importance of faith. Our understanding of salvation is based on it. Yet more important is love. More important than our promised future, our hope in Christ, is love. This love that we received from God and are called to share with others.

Without love, we are nothing. For how can one receive God's love and not love others if he is in Christ?

Stand up!

This situation took place in Sunday school several years ago at a United Methodist church. The normal Sunday school teacher was absent and asked the District Superintendent to substitute. If you are not familiar with the structure of the UMC, the DS is the representative of the Bishop on a district level. If that doesn't help, the DS oversees the pastors of all the UM churches in the local area. So, the DS is an ordained United Methodist pastor.
In the class we were spending a couple of months doing question and answer.  The 3 questions I remember from this Sunday were "is baptism required for salvation;" "how were the Jews in the Old Testament saved;" and "is Jesus the only way."

I would say that his teaching was heretical.  I like the term heretic because it is so charged and we never use it. It is used very commonly in older writings, but I guess it has gone out of vogue for today's Christian.

While answering the first question, the pastor claimed that that baptism was not required for salvation by using the justification that Jesus made no mention of baptism when talking with Nicodemus. When he said that, I interjected saying "Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born of the water and the spirit," which is straight from the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3.) You will recall this because Nicodemus laughs and says "Must a man reenter his mother's womb?" Jesus didn't find Nicodemus funny. Nicodemus, when I meet you in Heaven, I'll shake your hand and give you a wink to acknowledge your joke. But I digress. The DS's response to my quote of scripture was "No he didn't." Not wanting to belabor the point, I did not respond.

For the next question, the DS said that the people of the Old Testament were not saved by Jesus. To this remark, I responded that they were. He once again reinforced that they were not as Jesus had not died yet. Turning to the Bible, I pointed out in both Hebrews and Romans that Jesus' death was indeed for the sins of all people of all time. I used Hebrews to illustrate that they were saved by faith into a promise that was not fulfilled in their time nor did they understand. I further more demonstrated from Hebrews that the animal sacrifices did not erase sin but were an overseer until and a foreshadow of the sacrifice of Christ. He stood fast to his denial of this. Continued discussion led to his third claim about the way to Heaven.

To answer the third question he said that belief in Jesus was only required for Christians to be saved. If you were not a Christian and believed in a god, you would be saved. I immediately responded to this claim with a "that is false," while collecting myself to respond to this heretical claim. I sadly, though most appropriately, did not announce him as a heretic in class nor order a fire to be stoked by the blood of the heretic. I further responded to his claims that Jesus was not required for salvation by using the perhaps most famous sayings of Jesus, John 3:16 and John 14:6. The DS stood by his claims and as he did when supporting all of his claims, never used an iota of scripture to support his claims.

After class, two members of the Sunday school class stopped me and thanked me for standing up against the pastor. A compliment never desired in church!

I am all for the free exchange of ideas.  However, when you engage in this free exchange of ideas, I think it is important that you support your ideas. Most appropriately in a Christian church would be to use a Bible. I further believe that if you are a United Methodist pastor, you must support and teach the basic theology of the United Methodist Church, which is common with most Christian churches. Teaching that Jesus is not required for salvation and that Jesus' death was not for all people is clearly against the theology of the United Methodist Church and the Christian Church, as found in the Articles of Religion (including Article I, V, IX) and Confession of Faith (including article I, II, IV, VII, VIII, IX) (UMC Doctrinal Standards.)

To false teachings in the church, I responded by directly confronting the source, the pastor. This should have never happened.  One would expect a pastor in a church to not only know his scripture, but to teach and believe the very doctrine of the church.  But when this does happen, we must be vigilant to stand up for the Truth. The most important part of the gospel is that Christ died and rose from the dead for all of us and sits on the throne in heaven at the right hand of God the Father.  The last place one would hope it would be attacked, but a very important place the Truth must be found, is in our own churches.

Junior Author

My 5 year-old son drew a picture and dictated the story to me.

The aliens were on the planet first.  They found someone to eat with and they were very good friends and they love to play together.

Living it out

I've written a few times about living a simple life:
John Wesley's thoughts on living simple
Giving everything away
The life we have if we do give it away
And Dierks Bentley's song Better Believer.

Throughout those writings, I never come to the conclusion that we should give up everything physically.  Others have had different conclusions.

Here is a guy who is living quite the simple life. Suelo has given up all he owns and is living off of love and generosity.  Quite an interesting experiment.  Here is his introduction from his blog profile:

I've been totally without cents since Autumn of 2000 (except for a couple months in 2001). I don't use or accept money or conscious barter - don't take food stamps or other government dole. My philosophy is to use only what is freely given or discarded & what is already present & already running (whether or not I existed). I don't see money as evil or good: how can illusion be evil or good? But I don't see heroin or meth as evil or good, either. Which is more addictive & debilitating, money or meth? Attachment to illusion makes you illusion, makes you not real. Attachment to illusion is called idolatry, called addiction. I simply got tired of acknowledging as real this most common world-wide belief called money! I simply got tired of being unreal. Money is one of those intriguing things that seems real & functional because 2 or more people believe it is real & functional!

His blog Moneyless World chronologs his life without money.  Quite an interesting read.  Check it out.

Answers

In a post a couple of years ago, I wrote about three questions a pastor asked me.  They were, Where are you in your walk with God; what do you struggle with; what can the church do for you?  Here were my responses from then.


1) Where are you on your walk with God?

This is hard to say. I can say where I have been, but it is hard to say where I am.  I became a Christian when I was 15.  I say became because that is when I feel that I made a decision for myself to follow God, though it was certainly guided by my upbringing.  After becoming a Christian, I continued to be involved in Bible studies and taught a few Bible studies in college.  My knowledge and understanding of God and His teachings continue to change as I spend more time in His word.  In college, a lot of my beliefs were challenged.  Not in a way to say they were wrong, but challenged in that I didn't have Biblical support for them. They were just what I was taught. Through out college, I began to dig deeper into the Bible, learning how to study it and apply it to my life.  I feel that my beliefs today are firmly planted in scripture.  Where I am right now, I guess I feel like I am not sure. I am close to God, spend time daily in the Word and in prayer, do a better job of being a Christian day-by-day, and am constantly striving to be a better Christian.  Not to brag but perhaps to help me see that I am on the right path, I have had numerous people say things that indicated that they knew I was a strong Christian.  I feel I do a much better job now of talking about God outside of the Church.  I will elaborate more on this later.  I think perhaps having my blog has helped as it has given me a place to write my thoughts and be comfortable with them. I think I am much better at writing than talking.  As far as where I go in my path? I have a desire to pursue nursing and use this skill in the mission field, perhaps Africa.  But as for my personal relationship with God, I feel like I lack a mentor or leader or someone who has gone before me who can help me on my path.


2) What do you struggle with?

Obeying God and being content with my life

Obeying God

Not in the black and white issues of not sinning. I sin, daily even, but I do not struggle in that as much as I do in following God's will in my life. Here is an example
When I was in high school I had an album of Ross King called Sullivan's Flaw. I loved the entire album except song number 10, Up To Me. The song talks about how he comes in contact with lost people everyday, people in need of Christ, but doesn't tell them. He instead tells God that He shouldn't leave that up to him because it isn't the best use of his gifts.
I didn't like this song because it seemed to call me out! To me it was saying, "Go tell others about me!" I certainly didn't like the tone of that.
But then I found the answer! The answer was in the words of St. Francis of Assisi. "Always preach the gospel, use words if necessary." That was the answer! I didn't HAVE to tell anyone! After all, I am preaching it without words! Yes! This will save the lost and free the pressure God was putting on me to go and actually tell others about him.

Now granted the words of Francis of Assis required that you were actually living a life of righteousness. I was doing that, after all I went to church every Sunday and often times went to Wednesday night bible study. Sometimes I even wore a Christian shirt to school! Surely this was living the gospel with life! You didn't have to do anything, just look the part, right?
The song finally made sense. It wasn't wrong for the guy to tell God to not leave the task of telling others about Jesus up to him. In fact, it was a prayer! God, you see, I am not good at this. Find someone else. I will just "live it." I am not good with "words."
Well that worked well until the next time I heard the song. So I started programming my CD player to play all the songs on the album except song #10. This worked well until song #9 ended. Unfortunately, I had heard the album in its entirety enough times that my mind would automatically go to song #10 after #9.
Well surely there has to be some Biblical support for my stance. Surely God understood when others said "Hey, I will do anything you want, but I won't do that." Oh here it is, Moses! In Exodus 4:10, Moses speaks to God after God calls him to go and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and worship in the desert for 3 days. Moses says "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." Yes! A great example for me to use before God. You see God, I am just not a good talker. Remember when I was a kid, I couldn't even say my R's! How am I suppose to talk about Christ when I use to say "Chwist" as a kid! Well, God responds to Moses' plea in verse 11 and 12. "The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." Well, the only solace I could find was that at least he was talking to Moses and not me. But Moses doesn't give up. Moses begs God again in verse 13, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Surely God will understand Moses and my's plea! Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth." OK, so God got pretty upset with Moses, but at least he got out of having to talk, right? Well, no. As we read Exodus, we see that both Moses and Aaron have to do quite a bit of talking and a lot of work. That isn't important when I was 16 years old. I had the example I needed. I don't have to preach the Gospel, it's not my gift! Find someone else!

Then in Mexico, I talked. I had gone to Tuxpan, Mexico on a trip with my church to work on building a church and to operate a vacation bible school for the neighborhood. One night, after we had finished our work for the day, I was walking the streets around the hotel with a friend. Two Mexicans walked up asking if we were Americans. We said yes and one of them proceeded to tell us that he worked oil rigs out of Galveston and was back home on leave. He wanted to talk to us to practice his English. We visited with them on the street just outside our hotel for a few minutes before one of the adults on the trip came out to let us know it was time for evening devotion. She saw the men and told them we were Christians. They responded that they understood and oddly enough, I invited them to join us for evening devotion in the hotel. Afterwards, we invited the two men to have cokes in the hotel restaurant. I was visiting with one of the Mexicans while my friend visited with the other. I pulled out a bible track I had in my pocket (afterall, just carrying it is preaching the gospel without having to talk, right?) and shared it with the man. After we talked about, he said he wanted to take it with him so he could check a few words in the dictionary. The next day, while walking the streets, the Mexican and I crossed paths. He thanked me for sharing the gospel with him and that he really appreciated it.

So I did it! I spoke! I did it once I can do it again, right?

Well, that was that for the next 7 or 8 years. Silence returned to my mouth. I continued to skip over track #10. I have just recently begun openly speaking the gospel. I am not sure what caused me to finally start talking all the time. Perhaps God's spirit finally urged me enough to follow God. Perhaps I was tired of never hearing the gospel preached in public and in church that the Spirit used the opportunity to get me to begin talking. I am no longer afraid of opening my mouth and letting the gospel come out.

The words God told Moses still ring true. He will be our words. It is He who speaks. It is He that allows His word to go out to the masses like a sword. It is He who will teach us what we should say at that time. All we must do is trust and open our mouths.

Being content

In my own life, I am far from the person that I want to be. I often feel that I am in constant struggle against myself. I relate to Paul when he writes that he does the things he doesn't want to do and doesn't do what he wants to do. I am very happy with my friends. I couldn't ask for anything better with my friends than to wish for more time with them. I have friends that are always there for me and are willing to do anything for me. They care for me and seek for ways to help me be a better person. Materially I lack for nothing. I already feel that I have way to much stuff. I would love to be able to fit everything I owned into two boxes. Having too much stuff does not appeal to me. I am content with my friends, I am content with my possessions, but am not content with my daily living.

Because I am not content with my daily living, I often dream about living in another place or time. A much simpler life appeals greatly to me. I often dream what my life would be like if I lived hundreds of years ago. If perhaps I lived in grandparents generation. Or even if I lived in a remote area. Or is I was married.  To me, these dreams are an acknowledgment that I am not content with my life.

3) What can the Church do for you?

Accept me as I am, provide sound, Biblical based teachings and studies, and social activities.

Accept me as I am

Just about everywhere I go, a commonly asked question is "are you married?" It is certainly understandable but it always seems that I am disappointing them when I say that I am single. It seems the only people happy about me being single is my boss because he can deploy me without it affecting my family.  During a professional evaluation, my appraiser actually asked me is I was dating anyone or if I wanted help meeting some of the single teachers at the school I taught at. When I visit back in places I use to live, I am often asked this. When I talk to my family, they always ask if I am "serious" with any of my friends who are girls.  I visited a church in Midland once and a gentleman who turned out to teach the singles sunday school class came up to me, introduced himself, and said "are you single?" It was refreshing to get to answer yes for once and not feel like something was wrong! Once I was at a science teacher meeting for the high schools in my district. I had prepared a few handouts and a teacher from another school commented "figured you were single since you had all this extra time." I was speechless. One Sunday in Midland I was not at church since I was out of town. My friend who is also in the choir with me missed the first service, but arrived for the second service. Since she was not at first service, someone asked where she was. Someone else then quickly asked where I was, insinuating an obvious connection. Luckily the choir director jumped in and set the record straight. It is as if there is something wrong with being single!

One Sunday at Wesley, I went to Sunday school then church. I sat in my pew by myself as was the norm. A couple from Sunday school sat a few rows in front. The wife saw me, waved, then said "you are all alone back there!" as if I hadn't noticed. They then turned around and that was the end of the conversation. During the meet and greet session, a lady in front of me turned and said "Well if you are going to sit back there all by your self you might as well sit with us." as if it was wrong for me to sit by myself! Then on the way out of church, while in the receiving line to shake hands with the preacher, he greeted and shook hands with the couple in front of me, turned to me, leaned around me, and began talking to the daughter of the couple behind me, ignoring me and not shaking my hand much less greeting me. Now me, I am pretty stubborn sometimes so I continued to come back, but one can easily see how this could have quite a negative affect on anyone who was visiting the church.

Most churches have very little that is specifically for young singles. Think of the numerous churches with "family" in their name or call themselves a "family church". Most churches have a strong focus on families as part of their mission. That's good, but there are more people outthere than just families. I have never heard a sermon, well, at least none that I can recall, that deal with issues that are specific for people like me unless the topic is dating. Over 90% of singles my age have had sex yet this is not discussed in the church. Reassurance for those who are remaining pure while single should be an important topic in the church. Society certainly paints a picture that it is wrong to be 27 and still a virgin. In college, the church I attended had a very strong college program, but even there, the sermons that dealt with such topics were always about dating. Not very applicable for singles who are not dating.

Society is focused on not being single. Focused on how to find a date, on how to attract women, on who to marry, on how to recover from divorce, on how to love your spouse. The church does a good job on responding to this. That is great for those people. How about we also focus on how to live for God as singles? This should not be about how to honor God in a dating relationship, but how to honor God in day to day living.

Biblical Teaching

Teaching and activities that are biblical based, interesting, and applicable to my life

Social activities

The social activities could be simple like going to dinner and such, just an opportunity to meet others. I would also like to participate in mission activities with others in the church.  I think church should feel like a community.

A normal church service consists of some songs, passing the offering plate, a reading from the scripture, a prayer lead by someone, and a sermon from the pastor. This is how we most often experience church, sitting in the pew, listening to someone else, barely participating. If you were not there one Sunday, would "church" still happen?

To me, most churches seem almost like you are just attending a play or listening to a lecture. Surely we can do better than this.

I feel that Church should be more communal. We often find this in either small groups or Sunday school. At a church I use to attend, I did not find community through these things. I attended Sunday school for a short while, but stopped because the group I was with wasn't communal. Members came irregularly, the teachings wasn't very strong, the group was made up mainly of married couples with children and the social activities reflected that, and I wasn't been spiritually fed. For about 9 months, we had a bible study made up of people in my "social" group, young single adults. We met and had fellowship and bible study. We struggled in finding more fellowship activities, but we never had a staff member to help us and we were disbanded for being "too small." The small group had great potential, even if we were small, but unfortunately we didn't receive the support we needed from the church. The only place I found community in that church was in singing in the church choir. However, with the church as a whole, I felt like if I didn't attend church one Sunday, no one would really know. What I felt was worse was that the community ended as soon as the service was over on Sunday. I didn't feel like anyone was really concerned about me outside of church. I didn't feel like anyone wanted to really know me.

In Sunday worship, I do not find fellowship or community. I find myself sitting with people, but not knowing them. Hearing a message, but not having it delivered by someone who knows me and knows how it would apply to me. I want to be with people who are of a similar mind, growing together. I don't want to be passive! I want to be part of the Church, not just meeting in a church.

I feel that there is strength in the house church model because of the community it builds.

A few years ago I began attending Saturday night services at Grace Bible Church in College Station because I felt that the smaller group and the structure of the service built better community.  The first Saturday night service that I attended had Ross King led worship, a christian musician I knew. I went home to look into his current endeavors. I knew he was a pastor at Community Church in College Station as I had attended the church for a year in college. Back then, the church met at the Hilton, then in a school cafeteria on Sunday mornings. The church now meets in Grace Bible Church, on Sunday nights. In reading about the church, I found that they met on Sunday nights for dinner, worship, fellowship, and to study God's word. During the week they met in small groups for fellowship and worship. This seemed like what a church community should be like!

I was in Austin for about 10 weeks last year and attended a church that I felt has a strong community, much like I was looking for after studying about Community Church. That church is The Well in Buda. I was disappointed that I was only a part of it for a short time. Even though I was only going to be there a few weeks, they have made me a part of their community. I was invited by a person I had only met once before. Going there, I was immediately welcomed and made a part of their community. People wanted to talk and get to know me. They invited me to join their Bible studies and group activities. They made me part of their community, even though I would only be there a few weeks. They were concerned for each other and would seek out to help those in the church.  They wanted to be together.  They have community.

Some people say it is an investment to get to know someone because it takes time and effort. . If it is just an investment, than it does little to invest time and effort in to knowing people who you may never see again. But that isn't what we are called to do. I met a girl once at the Saturday night service at Grace. We spent some time together but since I was only in College Station a few days a month and leaving soon for Rhode Island, it was hard to develop a long term relationship. We did get to spend time together and learned about each other, despite knowing our time would be short. Shortly before I left, she said "Thanks for taking the time to get to know me."  Community isn't dependent on time.

To the head of the line

I flew first class today.  It was an upgrade because of my skymiles, not because I like to fly in style.  The seat was bigger, there was an electrical plug so I could play unlimited Angry Birds, and my coffee came in a mug.  Nice, but do people really pay for this?

How can you do that?

One night I was hanging out with a group of people from church when a girl asked me, "if you are a Christian, how can you justify being in the military?" Fair question. Just a few months prior when I joined the Navy, an officer told our class that we have to be OK with the idea that we may directly or indirectly be responsible for killing someone. Certainly not something that seems too Christian.

Any Christian in the military should be able to answer this question. In talking about it with others I work with, most are of the opinion that is against Christianity but are still OK with it. For me, I feel justified that Christianity and military service are not inherently conflicting.

First, I think it is necessary to look at commands that say that killing is wrong. The most famous of these is the 10 commandments which states "You shall not murder." Another one would be Matthew 5:38-41, "You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles." While these passages would seem to indicate that killing is wrong and that military action, even if in self-defense, would be unChristian. But I think taking these passages in context with the entire Bible will prove that these are commands on an individual level, not a government level.

Service in the military does not entitle one to act upon his own in taking a life, but only while serving as an instrument of the government. As seemingly insulting as it seems, the US military is only a bureaucracy, serving at the whim and pleasure of the President. Any action one takes is an action taken not of their own volition, but on behalf of the United States. Any action taken otherwise is subject to punishment.

Romans 12:16-13:7 tells us "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."

Here, Paul makes it clear what we should do on an individual level, verses what is appropriate on a government level. As instruments of God's will, governments can carry out justice and punishment, even to the point of death. And as Christians, we know justice is a good thing. Micah 6:8 says "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Of course no government will always act in accordance with God's will, but Paul does tell us that they can carry out justice and we should submit to them. As Christians in a democracy, this makes our job as voters even more important. We must insure that our government officials seek God's guidance and act in noble and righteous ways, so that our country acts in accordance with God's will.

Can a Christian be in the military? Absolutely.

Sharpening the Saw

In Stephen Covey's Book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he recommends that we continually sharpen our saw. He defines it as taking care of our physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual needs.

The other day on the radio I heard about a new puzzle by Google called A Google A Day. Now this is my sharpening the saw! It may not take care of my physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual needs, but it is certainly taking care of my practicing my googling skills. If only it wasn't banned at work!

http://agoogleaday.com

Always anew

A year ago I was headed overseas.  Now, I'm a married man with two kids. 

Less than a year ago I met a wonderful girl, now she is my wife.

A year ago I was thinking about what it would be like to single for my entire life.  Now I'm a family man.

Who can know the future, not me!  I can't see a year in the future.  But I'm glad I am here.

Speaking the same language

I was recently flying from Germany to the US.  As we neared America, the flight attendant came over the speaker to talk about customs forms.  She began with "Just some.information about your plane crash in America." I think something was lost in the translation.

Life is tough and then you die

In high school, I had a teacher who always told us that "life is tough and then you die" to express her of concern when we questioned the fairness of something. Her point was that bad things will happen to you so get over it.

Her philosophy is similar to that of those who say "it is what it is." And also those who express it in a more colorful manner that "crap" happens.

Sometimes it is not a bad philosophy. It is a great starting point for accepting the situation you currently find yourself in. But do not let that mean you have to accept that had to be in the position in the first place. To do so makes you a passive actor in your own life.

Do not accept that you have to be placed in a bad position because of others. Hold them accountable for their actions.

Do not accept that certain things will happen no matter what, stand up against it. Push for what the right thing is.

In order for the right thing to happen, someone must do it. That might just be you.

It is what it is, so find out what it should be and make what it is what it is suppose to be.

To tell the truth

I was posed an interesting question today, if you should always be confident, how do you know when to make something up on the fly and saying it in a believable manner verses saying I don't know.

I saw this question played out soon after, a guy was asked a question which he didn't know the answer to. He made up an answer and said it confidently.  Someone retorted, "yeah? How do you know?"  He didn't have an answer and was found out. 

I've had times in my own life when I didn't know and made something believable up.  Sometimes I got away with it, but it seems that I usually got caught.  Maybe those are just the ones I remember.  Usually some research could result in an answer, but I chose another way.

Maybe the answer is to just know all you can, then it isn't an issue, right?  If only that easy!

I can't possible know everything, but I can anticipate what I might need to know and focus on those topics.

Perhaps that is the answer, learn all you can, guess on what you need to know.

Follow the Leader

I'm reading a book by Steven Covey called Principle-centered Leadership. A most excellent book with lot of great ideas and thoughts on how to be a leader and how to get people to follow you. But how does one follow? Few people are leaders in business without a leader themselves. How do you follow that leader? What if the leader does not follow proper leadership techniques? Are you allowed to not perform to your best if the leader doesn't perform in a way that encourages and draws others to work at a higher level? Does knowing that you are capable of performing at a higher level mean that you are required to perform at that higher level, even if hampered by your leader? How do you follow? That would make an interesting book.

Responsibility

What am I responsible for? I have a job description that says I am suppose to do my job. Sometimes I notice that others who do not work for me but work with me may not be doing their job correctly. Do I have a responsibility to correct it? If I notice it after they started doing it wrong, am I responsible to tell them? Am I responsible for not telling them earlier? If I notice something, it is right for me to tell them, but it might not be my responsibility. If it is right to do something, am I responsible to do it? This is why I can't sleep at night.

Mind your thoughts

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

Our mind is very powerful. It controls our body. The thoughts that we have control our actions. If we let our mind focus or allow certain thoughts to stay in our mind, that is who we will become. When we allow ourselves to focus on things that are not of God, we will soon find that our actions, our being, will reflect that. If we allow ourselves to focus on things that are of God, we will soon find that our actions, our being, will reflect that. Focus on the world and we will remain of the world. Focus on God and we will become one of His children.

Listen to the radio

Drew Kennedy has a song called AM Radio. Anyone who has been driving late at night, spinning on the radio for some music, only to find that the one good station you find faded to static 5 minutes later will appreciate it. In the chorus he says “say a prayer to save me from static, thank God for AM radio.”

In college, I would often drive from College Station back home to Corpus Christi. Just south of the halfway point along the drive was Victoria. In Victoria was arguably the greatest radio station, certainly that I've ever heard, 98.7 KTXN, Steve Coffman's Texas Mix. He called it the 100,000 Watt blow torch broadcasting Texas music up and down the coast. In high school this station came on the air wave and I was lucky enough to have spun across it on the dial. I found that late at night or early in the morning I could tune in this station in Corpus. I also found oddly enough that as I went south on Padre Island that the station came in clearer. Around Big Shell the station came in as if I was in Victoria. One day my Senior year of high school I over heard my English teacher talking to another teacher about a radio station he found that would only come in late at night or early in the morning, but was really good. He was speaking about Texas Mix. Old and young alike would shift their sleep schedule to listen.

On the drive between Corpus Christi and College Station I would look forward to listening to the Texas Mix. I would begin trying to tune in as soon as I crossed the Harbor Bridge out of Corpus and usually could get the station by Refugio. I would spend the next several hours listening until I reached the dot on a roadmap of Swiss Alps, just north of Schulenburg. It was at this point I would lose the station. Jut as I crested a hill by some antennas I would lose the station. My joy of listening to great music would turn to fists shaken in anger a I would spin the dial, trying to find a descent radio station to listen to, only to be met with static.

Run away!

Dr. Tim Walker, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church, once said in his sermon that he found that when he talked to people at previous congregations that they never remembered what the subjects of his sermon's were, but they always remembered his stories.

In one of his sermons, the subject escapes me, he told a story a football coach and how to make decisions. The coach said that when faced with a 3rd or 4th and short situation that he found the best way to call the play was to turn around and get a drink of water and not look at his quarterback. This way the quarterback would be forced to decide the play on his own and the coach escaped having to make the call.

I find that when a tricky decision is needed to be made immediately or a task is about to be handed out that I don't want to undertake that it is a great time to take a coffee break.

Our Kind Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Lawrence Millman wrote a book called Our Like Will Not Be There Again. The book is about rural Ireland, but I have always liked the title and associated myself with it, especially in the outdoor setting, though I usually get the title wrong and call it Our Kind Shall Not Pass This Way Again.

I worked two summers at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I was a Ranger, preparing scouts for their trek, teaching them wilderness survival skills, camping techniques, and going with them on the trail for the first few days. Philmont had been a scout ranch since 1938 and I enjoyed looking at the old photos of scouts, hiking in their uniform, though they were usually posed.

Perhaps easily impressed by their sharp appearance, I acquired a 1960's scout uniform and began wearing it on the trail. I would only hike with an external frame, usually opting to not use the waist strap, trying to mimic the ruck sacks the scouts use to use. I would often read about life at Philmont in the early days and would often times go hiking to explore some of the earlier camps.

Wearing 1960's Scout uniform and an external backpack while working on orienteering with a crew. Note bedroll instead of a sleeping bag and lack of use of chest strap.


Posing with black bear in 1960's Scout uniform

On one of these expeditions, I went to a place called Stony Point. Stony Point had been a day camp, a hiking destination for the scouts, back when Philmont was called Philturn. The only thing remaining of Stony Point is some old firepits and tin cans. While exploring the area, a Rocky Mountain Big Horn walked out. These were known to be in the area as the state of New Mexico had released some in the Wheeler Peak area just west of the ranch,. According to the Camp Director however, this was only the second sighting of one on the ranch he knew of. The big horn ewe came out, saw me, walked a half circle around me, and settled on a spot about 10 yards away, drinking water from the rocks. I sat there with the big horn for 15 to 20 minutes before I spoke to it, half expecting it to speak back to me with some message from these scouts of old. The ewe just looked at me, so I got up, walked a half circle around her, then departed from Stony Point, following the path of an old Jeep trail, back to the modern era.

The area was also home to several towns that were centered on mining or lumber. One of these towns, Ponil Park, exists today only as a ghost town. There are a few foundations left, the bed of the old railroad, and the graveyard. I often times visited the graveyard, studying the stones, taking pictures, and thinking about the people who lived there. Another graveyard existed in a canyon appropriately named Graveyard Canyon. I visited this graveyard, photographing it and mapping it. I once took a group of scouts to another other graveyard in the Valle Vidal near Seally Canyon that existed, though I know not what the place was called. After doing so I felt as if I had disgraced the site and verbally apologized to those who remains laid there, as if they needed it or could hear it.


Railroad bed in the North Ponil Canyon


Gravestones in Ponil Park

The land was also home to the Anasazi. There was a cave that was well rumored to exist in a box canyon that contained several artifacts from the Anasazi. I set out on an expidition to find the cave, taking information with me from those who claimed to have been there before. The expedition failed, I never found the cave, but did feel as if I was closer to these people who once called the land home.


Anasazi Petroglyphs

Wearing these clothes, choosing to not utilize the gear that modern technology offered us, and hiking in their footprints, I felt connected to a group of scouts I had never met or even seen. Perhaps connected to the people who lived on the land before the UU Bar ranch was created. Perhaps to the people who lived here before the Europeans arrived. Knowing few would tred in these footsteps again, I felt like I was the last of a people passing, as if our kind would never pass this way again. I felt I was a member of a group of people, as if only time separated me from them, as if I was born too late.


Grassy Creek in the Valle Vidal


Little Costilla


View from Mountain Lion Canyon Meadow

Our kind will not pass this way again, or perhaps our dreams will not create this reality again.

What is sin?

What is a sin? The question came up with the classic question, if you were harboring Jews and the Nazis came to your door, would you lie? We both agreed that lying in this case would be justified, but for different reasons. His justification was that while the person was sinning as the Ten Commandments say thou shall not lie, they would be able to repent in the future. So by sinning, lives would be saved and the person could repent for their sin. I argued that the person did not sin in lying. My justification for this is that while the Ten Commandments do say to not sin, Jesus reminds us of what the goal of the Law was, to love God and to love your neighbor. Jesus broke several commandments, for which he was called out on. He justified himself, in one instance saying "is it better to do good or evil?" Perhaps by not lying I could feel that I had not sinned, but I did evil by allowing innocent lives to be taken. But if I lied, I would be doing good by protecting the innocent lives.

So what if a person was on trial, and I knew that this person was evil, that if they were not in jail that they would harm people, and that they were on trial for something that they were innocent of. Would I be justified in bearing false witness to make sure this evil person did not do harm? I would be saving innocent lives, but I would not be justified.

Micah 6:8 tells us that we are to love justice, give mercy, and walk humbly with God. To lie in this situation would not be loving justice. This does make an assumption that our justice system is just, we will operate under that assumption. To intentionally lie in this case would be against justice. While this person would get what was coming to them, we would not be justified because we went against justice. We should instead stand up for this person who was falsely accused, for then we would be supporting justice. But in doing so, we would have to find a way to protect the innocent lives we know are at risk.

To lie in the first case is justified because the government was unjust. To lie in the second case is not justified because the government is just. I think. We must ensure that we love justice, give mercy, and walk humbly with God for this is what he desires.

So given this, how was Rebekkah justified in telling Jacob to lie to Isaac that he was Esau?

Who do we follow?

My freshman year of college I had a professor who recommended that we read biographies. I'm sure he even had us read one, though I don't recall what it was. He said we should read biographies because people before made mistakes and we might as well learn from them instead of repeating them.

Based on his recommendation, I read the biography of Ben Franklin and Nelson Mandela. Learning from the mistakes of others made sense, and I saw the principle applied in my work. In teaching, I would seek out the research of others, those who had tried things in the classroom, in order to see what techniques worked and what did not. In the military, I often read the reports of others to gain ideas about what to put in future reports or recommendations to make about operations. Little work is of my own, perhaps the processing part, but the ideas come from others.

In life, when faced with a new problem, it is easy to find someone else who has gone through the same thing and seek their advice. But what happens when you go through something and can't find that person? What if you were doing something you knew many others had done before you, but you didn't know any of them and no one else you knew knew them. What if you had to do something and had no idea what was about to happen?

Perhaps in the future someone else will follow this same path and I can lend them my map, the path that I took to arrive at where I am now. It won't be perfect, I made mistakes. So did those before me. I tried to avoid their same mistakes. If you are coming behind me, heed my stumbles, find another way around. Perhaps we are meant to go alone sometimes.

At least we're all OK

One morning at Sunday school at a United Methodist church, a lady talked about how a local Methodist school was having to reduce its services because their donations had decreased with the recession. The class all agreed that it was a shame this was happening. One member commented that it was a shame that people wanted us to send our money overseas when we had such a great need at home. Most agreed. The church was about to start an $8 million construction project to build a new sanctuary, a local Methodist school reduced its services due to lack of funding.

Love and sorrow in Pensacola

I was in Pensacola, Florida for the night last night. The highlight of my visit was getting to go to Whataburger for breakfast. Living in a state that doesn't have Whataburger, it is a big deal to get to go to one when the opportunity arises. That opportunity was this morning.

I had a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit for breakfast. I cried tears of joys.

I read the ketchup package that said "MFG for Whataburger San Antonio, Texas." I cried tears of sorrow.

My love of Whataburger was slightly tarnished when they left Corpus Christi and moved the headquarters to San Antonio. But the shine returned as I bit into the HBCB, with honey butter dripping off my chin and oozing off my fingers. Oh the goodness of Whataburger.

Momentous Moments

I missed two momentous moments in my life the other day. One, my truck turned 90,000 miles. Two, I turned 10,000 days. How could I have missed such important milestones?

Time Machine

The Internet Archive has a program called the Wayback Machine. Using the Wayback Machine, you can view how websites looked in the past when the machine cataloged the pages. I find the news websites to be the most interesting, to see what the headlines were on a specific day, especially since I know how the story turns out.

Today I was looking for a file on my computer when I came across an old profile that was setup on my computer when I first got it. When I first got my computer, it had Windows XP home addition. I had bought Windows XP Professional for the computer I had prior to this one so I thought I would just upgrade it. It seemed like an easy process until I executed it. I put the CD in the computer and said "upgrade." The computer said that since the version already installed was newer than the "upgrade" it would have to erase the OS and reinstall the new one. I said, sure! What's the worst that can happen?

Well, the worst that could happen was the OS was deleted and all my drivers were gone for my computer. The computer didn't come with restore CD's, instead it recommended using Windows Restore. Well, that doesn't work well when you erased the OS! Dell offered to fix the problem for a subscription fee of around $100 and Microsoft left me on hold for over an hour. I almost gave up hope until a friend recommended the Help Desk at school.

They did it! Not only did they diagnosis the problem in minutes, they even offered to download all the needed drivers from the internet and burn them onto a CD for me, all for free!

I thought I had lost everything, that my files were lost forever. Little did I know that lurking on my computer was that profile from the first few months of my laptop.

One of the files I found was a drawing a friend of mine made of his girlfriend. He had met a girl and started dating her and since I was out of the state for the summer I asked him to send a picture. Not having any pictures, he made a drawing. Spitting image!

Let us not forsake one great commandment for another

When the lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”he responded with two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. He then says that upon these two commandments hang all the laws and prophets. Clearly these are fundamental in determining how we should behave as Christians.

Before Christ ascended into the heavens, he told the Disciples go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all things that he commanded them.

I have several friends who are currently in the mission field. Now, granted all Christians are “in the mission field,” but when I say they are in the mission field, I mean that they are out acting with the sole intention of spreading the word of God. Now this should be a goal of all Christians, but many of us do this in conjunction with our daily jobs or lives. We wouldn’t call our jobs mission work, it is just something we do in life where we have the opportunity to spread the Word. For many this is in subtle ways, such as lifestyles or actions, though the occasional opportunity arises where one can have a talk with someone else about the Gospel. But for missionaries, they are “doing God’s work” so to speak.

When many people think of or talk about missionaries in the mission field it seems that there are two types. One group is made up of people who are like preachers whose job is only to convert people to Jesus. The other group is made up of people who do medical work or construction work, who do good things for people but never actually speak the word.

My friends who are missionaries have shown me through their lives that while the avenues of spreading the Gospel may be different, both commandments can be fulfilled. One may use the love of neighbor as a way of expressing the love of God to someone or to create the opportunity to spread the Gospel. The other uses the Gospel as a way of getting close to someone to love them as themselves.

In our daily lives one should not forsake one commandment for the other. Love of God and love of neighbor are both commandments that we are to live by. They are not exclusive of each other, but must both be done. We love others because God first loved us. If we love God but not our neighbor, we accomplish nothing. If we love others but do not share the love of God, we are doing it for our own glory.

Shaver in the Court

In a news story that is only fitting for a country song, Billy Joe Shaver was acquitted in a Waco court today after testifying that he shot a man in the face outside a bar while acting in self defense. Willie Nelson and Robert Duvall went to support their friend. His attorney was the same attorney that represented David Koresh.

Steven Krytak tweeted from the courtroom and provides a very interesting take. You can read his tweets on his twitter. It includes great tidbits like "He may be a honky tonk hero and he may have written a lot of wonderful songs... but on that day, he was a honky tonk bully," Toben said or Toben asked if Shaver was jealous Wanda was talking to Coker. "I get more women than a passenger train can haul, I’m not jealous," Shaver said and Prosecutor Beth Toben is questioning Shaver. Asked him if he had broken his neck in a barroom brawl. Shaver said it was a friendly thing.

Here is Billy Joe Shaver and his son Eddy.

Breaking Free

The church I currently attend is named after the founder of the religion, John Wesley. However, my church has seemed to decided that we will no longer follow the methodical practices that Wesley taught in the Methodist Societies, though we will keep the name Wesley.

What Wonderous Love is This

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

How to impress people

A few years ago, I was put in charge of a committee to determine the new mission statement for the school I was a teacher at. The first thing I did was read a text book from college that had a chapter dedicated to writing school mission statements. In the chapter it recommended using the phrase "prepare students to be ethical global citizens." The main justification for using the phrase was that administrators would be impressed with it. I included the statement with my proposal to the group and was able to preserve it until the draft was presented to the principal. The principal wrote back to the group that she liked the proposal, but really really liked the line "become ethical global citizens." When the proposal was sent out to the entire school faculty, the biggest response was to remove the line about global citizens as it didn't make much sense. The book was correct, the administrators were impressed, however it failed to mention that the statement was worthless.

There are lots of ways to impress people without actually having to be productive. I'll share a few of these.

First, when you give a presentation, use a pie chart. Your presentation doesn't need to require the pie chart, but including it will impress people. A friend of mine was giving a presentation and gave me a rough draft. I recommended that he add a pie chart. He said he didn't need it, which I agreed with. However, he conceded when I told him that people would like it. He added a pie chart that was quite meaningless and added nothing to the presentation. When he gave the presentation the feedback included the statement "great pie chart."

Second, make spreadsheets. People are impressed with Excel. Spreadsheets can be intimidating and therefore demand respect, so when you are able to use Excel, you are clearly one who must be listened to. It is highly recommended that when you prepare the spreadsheet that you do not organize the working portion of the spreadsheet. Leave that part messy and confusing. It adds to the intimidating aspect of spreadsheets. But make a highly organized, really neat box at the bottom with the results. They will also be impressed if you can insert inputs into the spreadsheet and have all the numbers change at once. It makes for a great show. If you find that the spreadsheet is not very necessary, add color to it. Everyone loves color. I created a pretty simple spreadsheet once that calculated how many teachers were needed to teach a subject based on the number of students taking the course. I could have just used a piece of paper to divide the number of students taking the class by the number of students allowed per teacher by the state, but instead I made a complex looking spreadsheet with an input and output box with some colored arrows decorating the blank spaces. The department head was so impressed with the Excel sheet that he recommended that I take over his position.

Finally, add Macros to your Excel and Word documents. The Macros needn't be necessary, they will be highly impressive for the very fact that they are Macros. If you don't know how to write Macros, find a document that already contains the desired Macro and cut and paste it. That is already more than most people can do, so you will be able to impress people despite your inability to create Macros. I once made a cover sheet that included a Macro that would determine the length of the underscored line in the "From:" line based on the length of the originator's name. This could have been done by using ctrl+u, but I used a Macro that I copied and pasted from another document I found. My boss was so impressed with the Macro on the cover sheet that she mandated that everyone had to use my cover sheet.

Utilizing these three easy methods will insure that you impress people without having to do anything productive.

Questions to Ponder

This past week I met with a pastor. He asked me questions that no pastor had ever asked me before, yet are questions that my pastor should ask me.

Where are you in your walk with God?

What do you struggle with?

What can the church do for you?

Perhaps another question might be, why hasn't your pastor asked you these before?

Listening to Classic Literature

A few years ago I first heard this song Odysseus by Brian Keane.



Now I have never read read Homer's Odyssey, but thanks to Brian I am familiar with the story. Listening to this song might be as good as reading the Cliff notes on the book. The moral of the story is the same whether you read the book or listen to the song, Homer's Odyssey is jacked up.

Letters in the Mail

Bill Carlisle and Bobby Gregory wrote a famous song called No Letter in the Mail. Here it is performed by some Canucks, the Spinney Brothers.



I got a letter in the mail today. It was a very nice letter, a length correspondence from a friend of mine. This is the first personal correspondence I have received in the mail in a month. Now, I probably have received personal correspondences in the mail at a greater frequency in the past, but certainly never more than once every two weeks. Two summers I worked in a place that did not have regular internet access and I didn't have regular access to mail. There, I received hand delivered personal correspondence on almost a daily basis.

What is it about a physical letter that is so special? I receive personal correspondences in emails on almost a daily basis. I enjoy them and get excited when I see I have an email waiting for me from certain people, but not like when I get a letter in the mail. Emails may stay in my email inbox for a few days, possibly even months, but will soon be deleted. Currently in my inbox, the oldest personal correspondence is only 6 months old and will probably be deleted soon. But of letters that have been mailed to me, I have some dating back to 2003 and have no desire to ever throw them away. Why are they different?

The internet is great, it connects me to people, information, and allows me to do things that in the past would have required more time. Some of the people I am connected to are friends who are separated by distance, one of which is 6600 miles away and that is going over the pole. Even though we might talk about the exact same thing in an email, I value the physical letter that I get in my mailbox. The email will be read, probably several times, but soon deleted. The letter will be read multiple times, then placed in a box where I will every so often retrieve it and reread. Why the difference? Could it be that though the internet keeps me connected to those who I can not be physically with, I still value physical proximity? Could it be the physical letter brings me closer to the person than a virtual email could do? Could I just be old fashioned?

When all else fails, think!

I just finished reading a book called Aircraft Down! Evading Capture in WWII Europe by General Philip Caine. The book is a collection of 6 true stories of Allied pilots and aircrew that went down in occupied Europe or Italy and evaded capture and made it back to friendly forces. It does a great job depicting the loneliness they felt, their heart-felt thankfulness to the Europeans who risked everything to aid them, and describing their journey from the beginning of their final flight to their ultimate return home.

In the final chapter of the book, General Caine writes about what made the evaders successful. The success comes down to a few common traits, to will to survive, trust, patience, ability to adjust, confidence, perseverance, positive attitude, good judgment, and thinking. His assessment is very similar to the assessment in the National Geographic Adventure article, Terrorists at the Tea Party. The ability to think and control one's mind and body is vital in emergency situations.

I like to think that I have many of these characteristics, but it is hard to know until one is tested by fire. If anything, I at least acknowledge the need to have these skills and characteristics. Now I just have to wait until all else fails and see if I can think.

Thinking without knowledge

I found these statistics from England interesting.

33% of school children think their teacher is an alien
75% of school children think aliens exist
72% of school children think aliens are friendly
< 10% of school children can name all 8 planets in the solar system

They are thinking, but do they have knowledge?

Looking in the mirror

When I was younger, I use to think that people in their mid to upper 20's looked uglier than they did in their teens and 30's. Looking in the mirror at myself, I still agree with my assessment.

A Song to get Dressed to: This Week's Song of the Week

It is once again Friday and time for our somewhat weekly Song of the Week. How could this week's not be General Larry Platt's original song, Pants on the Ground?




USA Today has a great article on the General, General Larry Platt: A Closer Look. The General is a civil rights worker with quite a storied past. September 4, 2001 was even Larry Platt Day in Atlanta to honor his work.

A great song and certainly an even greater man.