A Christian Worldview from Silicon Valley

Yesterday we had a power outage for about 10 hours, from mid-afternoon until after midnight.  This had an impact on our family life in several ways, including what we had for dinner, what we did after dinner, and what time we went to bed.

The absence of electrical power was definitely noticed in my household.  My 12-year-old son in particular missed his computer time and emailing his friends.  My 9-year-old daughter made do with the Nintendo DS.

What do you notice when it’s missing?  And is that good or bad?

I read somewhere (maddeningly, I forget where), what if the Bible and everything it said were suddenly to disappear?  What would life be like?  (Or something like that.)

At the Pepperdine Lectures last April, one of the teachers asked, if the Holy Spirit were missing in the time of the book of Acts, what would have been the difference in what the apostles did?  In contrast, if the Holy Spirit were missing in the life of many churches today, what would be the difference in what the church leaders do?

Shane Claiborne said,

As my teacher Tony Campolo used to ask, “Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you still follow Jesus?  Would you follow him for the life, joy, and fulfillment he gives you right now?” … No wonder the early Christian church was known as the Way.  It was a way of life that stood in glaring contrast to the world.

What difference does His power make in your life?

Matthew 25.31-45 is a powerful and challenging section of scripture. A question asked there is, “When did we see you a stanger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?”And Jesus’ reply is this: “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.”

Here’s how you can do exactly that. (more…)

So, I’m hanging out at a friend’s house while I am in Vegas. I’d tell you who but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Anyway, this friend is moving out and told me I could pick and choose from the pile of books that was on the floor. Thinking, I’ll need something to read on the plane on my way home, I pick up The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell.

As many of the PACC folk know about me, most of my thoughts, (Okay all of them) are things I think, conclusions I have come to after much thinking and not something I picked up in a book, unless it were the Good Book. So, I am often hesitant to say “I read in a book…” But, I’ll give it a try here. In the first chapter I came across some thoughts by Colin Powell that I thought might be worth mulling over given that PACC is in the process of choosing who will be her leaders.

(more…)

I was supposed to leave tomorrow for Miami to enjoy a short visit with my brother and our two cousins, but instead when I got up this morning I sent them all this note:

It started Thursday night, picked up steam on Friday night, kept building through Saturday and, even though I slept 12 hours Friday night and Saturday night and left church right after the sermon on Sunday, hit me like a freight train last night.

After 14 hours (mostly) in bed last night, my chest is still rattling like a toy in a playpen, and my breathing is as shallow as the thinking of a philosophy freshman. Food turns to ashes in my mouth, I can count every pore on my arms and legs as they stand at attention every time I touch something even mildly cool, and I have the energy of a triple-A battery that’s been running the Hoover Dam for a day.

The good news is that I’ve lost about 3 pounds in water weight, although my sheets last night looked like someone had mistakenly watered them instead of the four potted flowers on our patio.

Every time I have a bad cold, or the flu, or whatever combination of things I have, I think about these words: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” That is 1 Corinthians 1.25, and Paul goes on to write, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.”

As humans, we think of ourselves as being quite strong, very wise, and able to accomplish all we can dream through our cleverness, perseverance and strength. And we certainly can do a lot, but we cannot cure a common cold.

I know that Paul’s words have a deeper meaning than that, but I think they apply to my condition — being human. And once again I am humbled by the wisdom and strength of God.

May God give you wisdom and strength this day that are not of this world and not of your own doing, but are straight from the source.

And, if you feel like I do at the moment, may he also give you some chicken-noodle soup.

The old quote from Mark Twain, “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand,” is both humorous and true for many of us. One of the explicit statements in that quote is that there are, in fact, parts of the Bible that we cannot — or at least do not — understand.

Some of that is quite, well, understandable, because even God tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55.8-9, NASB)

But sometimes our failure to understand the Bible is our own failure. We don’t dig, we don’t work, we don’t ponder, we don’t observe, we don’t practice, we don’t ask for help — from people or from God — and we move on too quickly. The result is that we become “dull of hearing” and we fail to progress, or perhaps even go backwards, in our ability to understand what God has to teach us (see Hebrews 5.11-14).

I was reminded of that just this morning when I received (more…)

As an adult, I’ve learned to extract a lot more fun out of life than I ever did as a (boring) child. At almost every minute of the day, there is entertainment to be had, no matter whether a person is working, eating, talking, walking, or whatever. Don’t you agree?

One potentially amusing activity people naturally do with folks they like is called “mirroring.” As a way of establishing rapport, we imitate each other or respond in kind to a given statement or action. When I say, “Well, hello, Mr. B!” Bill, if he feels like playing along, will respond, “Well, hi, Mrs. M!” (We don’t imitate each other too exactly because that looks and feels like mockery, an expression of disdain.)

Sometimes people don’t want to engage in this verbal and behavioral play. Maybe they don’t like us, don’t get it, or can’t be bothered. When I visited Paris, France, several years ago, I would get radically different responses from waiters and shop clerks depending on whether I first engaged in light pleasantries (”Ca va?” “Ca va bien.” “Bien.”), or cut to the chase in my efficient American way (”Two baguettes, please.”) In the former scenario, whoever I dealt with would be warm and friendly for the rest of the interaction. In the latter, they would turn cold and taciturn, even brusque and rude.

God engages in this kind of play with us, where the initial kickoff occurred “in the beginning” when he created us “in his image.” He placed us in the best arena ever conceived, and explained the one rule of the game: “don’t eat from that tree.” It wasn’t long, though, before the beautiful symmetry was broken. By chapter 3 of the story, we had eaten from it, felt fear, sewn clothes, and hidden. Most of the rest of Scripture is devoted to showing how God tries over and over again to reestablish that early relationship of naked trust and delight. His all-hands-in appeal is made when he joins us in the physical form of Jesus, a form we recognize and relate to.

It’s a long, slow dance from where he started in making us like him to the incarnation when he made himself like us. But it’s all mirroring and all for the purpose of drawing us to him for life, for play, for fun and joy.

The question is do we have the will, wit, stamina, and spiritual discipline to respond in kind? How can we deliberately mirror God?

When Keith and I were first married, I read several books on what it would take to make our marriage strong and resilient. One of the comments that struck me was along the lines of “Love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5), the idea to not hold grudges, to let bygones be bygones. Our code phrase for this kind of negative memory was “file cabinets.” For the most part, Keith and I have done pretty well at not dredging up old history in order to shore up today’s arguments.

Recently I was reading a book that took this concept to new heights, under the heading, “Don’t Let Yesterday Hijack Your Attention.”

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness. Successful people forget. They know the past is irrevocable. They’re running a race. They can’t afford to look behind. Their eye is on the finish line. Magnanimous people forget. They’re too big to let little things disturb them. They forget easily. If anyone does them wrong, they consider the source and keep cool. It’s only the small people who cherish revenge. Be a good forgetter. Business dictates it, and success demands it. (Elbert Hubbard, as quoted in John Maxwell’s Talent is Never Enough workbook, p. 46.)

It takes energy to nurture memories of the past, especially painful memories. Besides distracting from what you would prefer to focus on, those kinds of thoughts can also cause a reluctance to try certain actions again. “Once bitten, twice shy” refers to a learned distrust of people, but will it benefit you more in the long run to “forgive and forget”?

History is a powerful teacher, sometimes too powerful. When is it best to remember, and when is it best to forget?

I think a lot about thinking. Or at least I think I do, although in thinking about that I know that my perspective may be just a little bit skewed. Part of the reason I think about thinking is that God has blessed me with a good mind, and on the journey of life I have discovered that having a good mind can overcome many other weaknesses — with which I have also been blessed.

I suppose that most any strength can do the same, so I don’t mean to elevate one gift over another, but I do want to share some things about thinking that may surprise you.

Many of us have heard stories of people with cancer, or some other potentially terminal illness, who “thought themselves well.” While such instances are rare, they have been documented. The “thinking healing” that always amazed me, though, was not life threatening at all — it was a cavity. The professional volleyball player who had the cavity was so shocked that she told her dentist he must be wrong. He responded by showing her the X-ray. She came back a week later to have the cavity repaired, but it was already gone. A new X-ray showed no signs of decay.

Athletes, actors, extraordinary business leaders, great wives (great husbands, too), and the very best Christians I know all practice the principles of positive thinking.

Conversely, the very reason many people don’t succeed in Christianity, in marriage, in sports, in business, and in life in general is that they think primarily in negative terms — what could go wrong?, who could be hurt?, how could I fail?, I’ll never be that good.

This is not some psycho-babble or pop-psychology, it is how we are made. The Bible says (Proverbs 23.7, KJV) “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” That is true for individuals, and it is also true for a church.

I’m positive.

P.S. The Bible also says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12.2). Imagine all of us doing that together!