A Christian Worldview from Silicon Valley

Power of One

Why do 97% of the customers reviewing To Save a Life on movietickets.com give the film a four to five out of five-star rating? While not a perfect film, its rich content makes it easy to forgive minor flaws. I found it so compelling that even after a second viewing, my entire body ached from the white-knuckle dramatic tension.

For starters, this low-budget indie film isn’t an embarrassment of sentimental dreck, as many “Christian” films are. In the words of one reviewer, “The production values are the best and least cheesy since The Passion and the music is great.” Moreover, instead of the usual one-dimensional, perfect Christians, we see characters in a range of commitment levels, including agnostic, seeker, holier-than-thou, and in-name-only, although a few but growing number are genuinely transformed by Jesus. Such sophistication was summarized by a reviewer, who said, “Everyone needed to be rescued from something, not just the loners.”

For me at least, and I suspect for many of us, the core issue of the film resonates: (more…)

I’ve enjoyed the Twilight vampire saga by Stephenie Meyer. The content is so rich with yummy angst that there’s plenty to talk about: desire, temptation, friendship, manipulation, suicide…. But the topic that keeps spinning in my head is the movie’s tagline: When you can live forever, what do you live for?

The promise of eternal life is something many Christians long for and sing about. But in looking forward to a new tomorrow, they often overlook the power they possess to deal with a very ugly today.

The Twilight story roots characters in the present world while illustrating the difficulties of living forever. The Cullen vampires are incredibly healthy (immortal), wealthy (years playing the stock market), wise (endless school and travel), and gorgeous. They are billed as heroes because unlike most vampires, they have chosen to eschew human blood. They hunt less tasty animals instead. Clearly, it’s a noble struggle on behalf of humanity, but is restraint enough of a cause? When you can live forever, what do you live for?

Only one of the Cullen family answers to a higher calling. Carlisle is a doctor who derives great satisfaction from treating humans although it took a lot of passion to sustain a career that constantly appeals to his appetite. The rest of the Cullens, however, could rightly be called “bloodsuckers,” since they live in society but don’t give back to it.

With their talents, they could do so much good in the world, or even in their own school. Instead, we find them cloistered together around a small cafeteria table, talking only to each other, wasting their resources on the frivolous pursuits of fast cars and perfect clothes. Utterly bored to death, but unable to die.

Followers of Jesus are called to so much more than living for tomorrow. What do Christians live for today? What did Jesus live for?

While vacationing in Washington DC, I had the pleasure of reading The God Cookie, by Geoffrey Wood. Imagine God speaking to you through a fortune cookie…

But that is exactly the kind of message from God some people desire. Recently, even non-Christian friends of mine seemed a bit wistful for something like God’s proverbial lightning bolt to offer clarity regarding job situations, relationships, etc. (Limited guidance gratefully accepted.)

I find it curious that some people covet God’s omniscience, but totally disregard the message God actually has for us (e.g., John 3:16). Aren’t eternal consequences something to be reckoned with?

Just who do we think God is, anyway?

Most people have heard of those WWJD bracelets, reminding Christians to follow Jesus’ example in their daily lives.

But what are Christians known for doing?

I just read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” which I enjoyed very much, but I was surprised at the Amazon reviewers who felt it was anti-religious, mainly because one Christian woman was portrayed as self-righteous and judgmental.  Unfortunately, despite some Amazon reviewers’ claims that they have never met anyone like that in their church community, I think the stereotype of Christians is often negative.

Our Wed PM kids class just finished discussing “Do Hard Things : a teenage rebellion against low expectations” by Alex and Brett Harris.  One of the sections was titled “Be known for what you do (more than for what you don’t).”

Aren’t Christians often known more for what they don’t do (e.g., dancing, drinking, sex before marriage, etc.), and for frowning on those who do those things?

But as Alex and Brett wrote, “We’re not just supposed to avoid sinning; we’re supposed to pursue righteousness in a way that others will want to imitate.”

“Do Hard Things” is full of examples of young people thinking outside the box of their insulated lives about how to be salt and light to a broken world (e.g., providing for the homeless, digging wells in Africa, fighting modern-day slavery).  They are living out their faith in world-changing ways.

Imagine a world where Christians are known for what they DO, instead of what they don’t do.

What is Jesus calling you to DO for Him?

Nowadays, simplicity is a hot topic of exploration. In the USA, our conspicuous consumption has gotten the better of us, and people are interested in downsizing. My own wake-up call came when I told my children’s playmates they weren’t allowed in the garage: “It’s not safe out there!” Too much stuff stacked floor to ceiling and scattered densely along the narrow aisle-ways made for dangerous navigation.

Christians who wish to simplify often turn to Richard Foster’s excellent book, Freedom of Simplicity. One of his most provocative recommendations is this: If you need something, ask God to supply this “daily bread” without your having to buy it. If it comes during a week’s time, thank him. If not, reevaluate, and if you still need it, buy it. This ends impulse buying and reminds us that God is our provider.

When my daughter needed some fabric to complete a requirement for her Girl Scout Silver Award, I took the opportunity to clean out some of my excessive collections of craft supplies that were cluttering our garage. I consolidated several boxes, and ended up with three piles: trash, materials for my daughter, and cross-stitching supplies. Cross-stitching is a structured kind of embroidery I used to enjoy, but no longer find compelling. However, I knew that my husband’s coworker loves the craft, so I asked Keith to deliver the boxful of charts and other items to her. Terry’s reaction astonished us.

In the weeks before I got the bug to clean my garage, Terry had felt God was trying to teach her two things: “to come to Him first for every thing, not just the big things but every single thing as a matter of habit, every time” as well as “to see material possessions the way He does.” One evening while surfing the Internet, Terry  found a cross-stitch chart she really, really liked. But this time she just stopped and prayed, “Lord, I have enough. You have given me everything I need.  I do not need or want any thing more. You are all I need and all I want.  If You want me to have that chart, then I will eventually have it, but I am not going to buy it.”  She was serious about that decision, mentally placing the chart at His feet and going on about her business.

It was several weeks later when Terry received my box and took it home to look through. She says, “My husband and my son must have thought I had completely lost it over in my chair that night, when I turned a chart over and recognized it was the one. I could not stop the tears of joy. How real He is, and how loved can one person be? No one on the planet knew I wanted that chart.”

Some of us are looking forward to the Pepperdine Lectures coming up May 5-8, 2009 (Susan says to register for housing by next Tuesday).  I had a blast last year, although I ran into schedule conflicts and missed my college buddy Andy Wall’s talk on “My Faith Journey with U2.”  When our church received the lectureship CDs we ordered, I made sure to borrow Andy’s talk so I could hear it… later… like right before I wrote his Christmas card!

Among other things, Andy talked about U2’s song, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” as an expression of our yearning, our sense of emptiness/futility/longing for something more in life.  U2 helped Andy realize that unsettledness is a normal part of the journey of faith, but it doesn’t mean we’re on the wrong path.  After all, we know we can never fully meet/experience God here.

All this reminds me of Philip Yancey’s book, “Rumors of Another World : What on Earth are We Missing?” —

“To me, the great divide separating belief and unbelief reduces down to one simple question:  Is the visible world around us all there is?  Those unsure of the answer to that question—whether they approach it from the regions of belief or unbelief—live in the borderlands.  They wonder whether faith in an unseen world is wishful thinking.  Does faith delude us into seeing a world that doesn’t exist, or does it reveal the existence of a world we cannot see without it?

“I ‘think out loud’ by putting words on paper, and out of that process this book emerged.  I begin with the visible world around us, the world all of us inhabit.  What rumors of another world might it convey?  From there, I look at the apparent contradictions.  If this is God’s world, why doesn’t it look more like it?  Why is this planet so messed up?  Finally, I consider how two worlds — visible and invisible, natural and supernatural — might interact and affect our daily lives.  Does the Christian way represent the best life on this earth or a kind of holding pattern for eternity?”

I recommend both Andy’s talk and Yancey’s book, and hope and pray that the impact of absence may bring some to Christ.

Where in life do you see a God-sized hole?

(To read more about the impact of absence, see my prior post.)

Although I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, it’s that time of year when folks think of getting back in shape after the excesses of the holidays.  However, what kind of shape should we as Christians be focused on?

Our ladies’ Bible class recently studied James chapter 5:

13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

We all know from experience that prayer does not always result in physical healing.  But perhaps we as the church put too much focus on physical health.

How might our lives be transformed if we put more focus on our spiritual health, and confessed and prayed for each other as James exhorts us to do?

“Celebration of Discipline” lists several ways to get a spiritual workout.  Our minister Lewis is encouraging us to address our spiritual fitness by resolving to read through the Bible in a year, which is sort of like core strength training.  I’m thinking of looking more into this confession and prayer stuff.

How are you thinking of getting spiritually fit this year?

In his review of a book titled On The Side of The Angels, Paul Starr wrote this opening paragraph:

Partisanship is resurgent in America, and hardly anyone likes it. To say that American politics has become polarized along party lines is tantamount, for most people, to acknowledging that something has gone wrong with the country. And, indeed, the differences between Republicans and Democrats are less easily bridged than in the past: the two parties now stand for different worldviews, not just different policy positions.

Is there really a Republican worldview and a Democratic worldview? If so, I wonder what they look like. The book Professor Starr (Princeton University) was reviewing is about partisan politics, and it is the contention of the book that America has become more partisan in the last few decades, to the detriment of the country.

Whether or not that is true, I find it interesting that we can — or at least someone can — identify a worldview for Republicans and one for Democrats. And the reason it interests me is that it causes me to ask this question: Could they do the same for Christians?

Often times the answer is no, because while differences between the two major political parties may be “less easily bridged than in the past,” many Christians seem to be working hard to see that differences between Christianity and the world are more easily bridged than in the past. It is Christians, I contend, and not those “of the world,” who are trying to blur the differences. And that neither honors the commitment of Christianity nor helps the world.

Partisanship may be a bad thing for the political system in America — in fact if members of any political party care more about their agenda than they do about the country, they will be poor servants of the country. But the error on the side of Christianity, I contend, is that its members have not been partisan enough.

The five last bastions of thinking are the car, the john, the shower, the church or synagogue, and the gym.

So says Joey Reiman, a “top” innovation consultant and CEO of BrightHouse (Inc. Magazine, June 2008, 102-03). On a page devoted to the topic, “how the creative stay creative,” the ideas included recommendations for organizations to:

• provide reflection-conducive space and time to think
• seek out diverse constituents
• reach across disciplines by inviting “luminaries” to speak and hang out
• publish inspiring thoughts, pictures, and articles for consumption by the group and beyond
• encourage flexibility by mixing up who does what on temporary teams to accomplish projects
• reward good ideas

and suggestions for individuals to:

• do something new, never before attempted
• be open to critique, ready for constructive interchange rather than defensive monologue

The notion that the church is a place to THINK is not commonly understood in our culture, but it’s spot-on. Far from being the “opiate of the masses,” the church community challenges participants to grapple with ideas of life-changing and world-impacting scope, to interpret scripture and bring it to bear on the given scenario of our complicated lives.

But how does the church score on displaying and encouraging creativity? This seems to vary a whole lot more from congregation to congregation, but in general we could do much better in this area.

In the beginning, God created…

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…)