Triple-braided Cord



Ecclesiastes 4:12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is
not easily broken.

I made a conscious decision when I began this blog to work hard to ensure it was not incomprehensible to those outside my own world-view of Christianity. I eschewed Christian insider language and the temptation to assume the beliefs and behaviors I hold dear are universally held. I have other venues and platforms to speak in the insider's language of Christianity and have places where those of my own world-view congregate to read or hear what I believe and how I behave because of my deeply held convictions stemming from my world-view.

But in writing in that other place I sent out an idea that I feel belongs here as well despite the danger it may be incomprehensible to those outside Christianity. So if this sounds like gibberish to you, please excuse the lapse, but I hope I can transcend the sub-cultural linguistic and intellectual barriers between world-views and communicate a concept that I believe exists in many places under many guises.

I spend my life devoted to helping late adolescents become inter dependant adults. Many feel the largest challenge is helping them see that their spiritual identity in this journey to adulthood is as essential as the physical or emotional aspects of their growth. But in many ways I believe the greater challenge is the belief that their goal in becoming adults is to become independent not inter dependant.  Among those who believe my world-view there is a growing sense of individualism that is reaching pandemic proportions.

Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books in the Christian Bible and in the text I quoted it speaks of the benefits of community, of accepting the burden and the advantages of being inter dependent on others. It brings safety in numbers but also the constraining aspects of being responsible for others.

I confess it isn’t only the younger generation who reach for independence in our new age of self-orientation. I see in myself and my peers a growing trend to be self-reliant; to be wearied of waiting for others to catch up or to find myself unhealthily straining beyond my capacity rather than admit weakness or vulnerability by calling out for help from those beside me. I’m 41 and in that time I’ve too often accepted the need to look after me and mine rather than binding myself to community that may limit my own dreams or desires. Then I bemoan the fact that the young men and women I walk with are reluctant to tie themselves to communities of inter dependent adults!

 The sacred texts that I follow in my Christian world-view demand an approach of inter dependence and self-denial for the common good. Yet I find myself to be far too independent and far from willing to accept the limitations and vulnerabilities of being tied to other adults in a constraining community of diverse ideas and goals.

 I’m certain other world-views extoll the virtues of selfless giving to the communal good of humanity and the other inhabitants of this planet. But despite the many exhortations from a multitude of divergent world-views I’m shocked by the reluctance we in the western world have to give ourselves to others in inter dependent commitment.

 My old mentor and leader back in Northern Ireland repeatedly reminded me that a person can only lead and teach others to the limit of their own reach and place. Before I can extoll the virtues of inter dependence to young men and women perhaps I should revisit my own willingness to be tied by a triple braided cord!

don't just do something, stand there!

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
  little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
  their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
  and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's
  day may be long in the land. Rudyard Kipling

 This is an excerpt from Kipling's poem Sons of Martha. It normally reflects my personal philosophy of life. If something important needs done, then doing it is usually the best response, while sitting around staring at your navel means some other poor soul will need to actively pull your sorry self out of whatever hot water your inaction got you into.


But this morning I had my "son of Martha" mentality challenged by an unusual source. Normally credited to the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland, the stupefying line, "don't just do something, stand there!" has been challenging me since I heard it quoted this morning on NPR.

I'm feeling a sense of white rabbit syndrome coming on.... "Late! Late!" Time and Task orientated solutions espoused by Mr. Rabbit and myself may not be the best response to some of the things that are in my life's inbox. But perhaps his confounding and confusing drivel of standing still is the most productive thing I can do to produce the desired outcomes for the issues at hand.....


Used by everyone who ever wanted to suggest that inaction can be as productive as action and that sometimes it is the only solution to vexing problems, it is also utterly frustrating advice for someone when they have several things in life that need done yesterday that normally should be solved by simply doing something about them, but seem to defy active solutions.

So I've decided that in response to NPR's subliminal messaging; Lewis' White Rabbit's "no steps to success" model of life management, and my own confounding inner voices I'm taking a whole day to practice inactivity.

I'll let you know how it went....
feel free to tell me what you thin of this weird experiment....



Tempus fugit

"But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail." Virgil

Another year of time has flown beyond reach and again I'm confounded by its swift and silent passage. 2011 joins 40 other years that have flown beyond my reach. I'm neither fully nostalgic nor profoundly untouched by the passing of 2011. Old Year's End seems to become more of a way to mark the length of the journey than anything else.

Here is my question this morning: "I've journeyed past 40 annual markers on my way to what destination?" Is it Life; Death, Self-realization, or perhaps just Self-indulgence? Perhaps the journey leads to where time flees?

By now you may have realized I'm a philosophical type of person. Not for me the traditional celebration of New Year's Eve. Joining the throng who are delighted to clean the slate and try again to be the human being we'd prefer others to imagine we are, if we could only muster the will to actually pay the price for being that person.

I genuinely believe the passing of a year is both sad and joyful. One less year left to live and yet perhaps something unimaginably wonderful is awaiting our arrival in the next year that is being offered us.

Whatever else is true the fact is, that this year has flown beyond my reach, and as 2011 sinks below the horizon into the unreachable past, slowly morphing into history, I'm compelled to ask myself if it was worth the effort of living through.

I'm glad to say I feel it was. I'm aware that the life I drape around my shoulders this morning is a little more worn, but perhaps also a little wiser and more profound, than the life I draped in 2010.

My game plan for seeing this year's end come to pass is to give the old year its due and reflect on both the problems and promises it delivered to my doorstep. Then later today my wonderful wife and I will drive to Kansas City and celebrate the imminent arrival of a virgin year as yet untouched and untainted by my insatiable appetite for the love of detail.

2011 has generously supplied me with priceless gift of time. I’ve used and abused it, yet in hindsight I’m unsure if I’d make many alterations to my choices. To quote one of my favorite authors: “It was both the best of times and the worst of times.” I do hope 2012 offers less of a roller coaster like ride, but whatever it brings it too will eventually flee to that place beyond my reach.

I’ll leave you with an Irish benediction.

'Go mbeire muid beo ar an am seo arís.'

Translation

May we be alive at this time next year.

Yellow Brick Road

There is this awesome set of scenes in the Wizard of Oz where Judy Garland meets a group of unlikely heroes who join her quest to find a way home.

The best teams are built from a eclectic group of individuals with different gifts and needs but with one goal. The picture above is of some of YLC St. Louis' Committee. Each of them have astounding gifts; skills and talents. I think about what they can do naturally and brilliantly and realize that without them I'd be one of those eccentric guys trying to be a one-man band. Over-burdened with instruments, unfocused and just plain odd!

So I'm in awe of my fellow travelers as we walk down a very unusual road looking to create a safe place where people can seek out an answer to life's complexity. The only difference between me and Judy Garland is that if the flying monkeys turn up I'm going to try and recruit them! How cool would it be to have flying monkeys on our team? I have to confess the wicked with had some cool team mates. Ahh well........ sigh....... back to reality..... actually now that I think on it there are quite a few differences between me and Judy Garland..... sigh......

The people in this picture have all met and recognized a mutual need. So we joined together and walked together.

What do you think it takes to be on the Yellow Brick Road? A tornado or just a deep desire for the place we call home?

The Counting Game

Last week I was in Kansas at a Young Life staff conference for our old people in their mid 30's and above. We spent some time looking at John 4 and the story of the "woman at the well."

What hit me was that the story begins with some religious people getting their panties in a twist about the number of people who are going to Jesus. All these "good" people were turning up to be baptized and it was putting the religious establishment's nose seriously out of joint. So Jesus packs up the revival meeting and moves on. He heads to a community of people that doesn't count and then talks to the person who counts least in that community. The narrative sweeps from a traditional culturally religious scene to a counter cultural experience with those outside tradition.

When I was a kid back in Ireland when we played games there was a constant cry in almost any game we ever played. "That doesn't count!" It meant that whatever just happened couldn't be counted as a point towards winning the game. A heated debate would then ensue to determine whether it did indeed "count."

I think so many of us wonder who and what counts. And if we ever reach a point of confidence in the fact that we do indeed count, then we join the counters, those who determine who else counts.
Last week I was delighted to have some serious "counters" tell me that I count and even should be considered a counter in my own right.

But since then I've been wrestling with the uncomfortable realization that the only people who counted things in the Bible were the bad guys. Big black hats, curly moustaches and some handy rope near a railroad track.
I wonder what life would be like if I just stopped evaluating everyone else and quit the counting game.

What do you think? Are you someone who counts? Do you think there is a counting game in life? If there is should we quit playing?

Mystery into Magic

I'm in one of my reflective moods and so this blog will be reflecting that reflectiveness.... sort of like mirrors reflecting mirrors that are reflecting mirrors....

I just finished a 4 week study on evangelism for my local church. It was a dress rehearsal in many ways for the next performance this Thursday evening. We'll be launching YLC STL's 5 week volunteer training at our apartment this week and I'll be spending much of this week before then tweaking that training program. The awesome thing about dress rehearsals is that you see the flaws in the show before everyone takes their seats. So it is with this training program.... little tweaks; unexpected side-effects, awesome repercussions to using one illustration over another... all add up to a better constructed training unit in the future.
I was asked yesterday if I had a "take-away" handout that would cover the material of the 4 weeks so people could reflect privately on what we'd covered. The Cliff notes version as it were.
I'm sitting here wondering how to condense it into cliff notes and then realizing that I didn't really say anything new during the whole time I talked. I'm just rehashing a very well known set of ideas and propositional truths into something palatable for a 21st century palate. So that makes the cliff notes easier than I thought.... 5 steps to awesome self realization.

1. Be a decent human being - Respectful and Authentic
2. Know where the source of your empowerment is located.
3. Know where you stand and who/what is central in your life. What's the Divine in your life?
4. Know where and to whom/what your passion is directed towards.
5. Know what makes you uniquely you, what potential you have in that uniqueness and why that matters.

Yet again someone has managed to condense mystery into magic! 5 magic ways to be sure you are the best you!

"Hoc est corpus" the Latin phrase used by priests in Church became Hocus-pocus the favorite magic incantation of the 17th century english peasant.

That is my main concern with Christian Cliff Notes and informational distribution of ideas. They too easily become incantations. The recipients aren't fully aware of their meaning but understand that the words have power. So they take the words without the full meaning and incant them at others or themselves to magically change circumstances or people.

The word "Jesus Saves" is just such an incantation.... If said forcefully and loudly and with enough repetition it will magically change my reality to one that may seem more comfortable. It is considered so powerful even the written form of the incantation is seemingly all-powerful. I've lost count of "Jesus" bumper stickers in St. Louis. The suburban 21st century magician who is doing 85 in a 55 while crossing four lanes all in under 3 seconds while magically dispelling, or, converting "evil" in all its forms. Magical! Or, perhaps just a mystery?

So I'm sitting here this morning trying to figure out how to create a useful "take-away" that is at least somewhat proof against becoming the next magical incantation to destroy evil in St. Louis.

The irony is that the word Hocus-pocus is often used today to refer to something that is fake or unreal. When we take mysteries like the Transubstantiation and make them magic we too often merely create anoher word for fake.

So am I creating the next magical incantation for people to banter around or is it possible to enter a conversation where you leave with questions to chew on, rather than power words to spit out at the world?

Have an awesome week......

Team work

This is Ed Bowen, he is our new Volunteer Team Leader. At 39 he is ensuring that I'm not the only old person on the team. Along with the impressive fact that he has managed to live for 39 years he also brings some remarkable skills and experience to the team. Ed has a Masters in Apologetics. Below is the definition Google supplies.

apologeticsplural of a·pol·o·get·ics

Noun:

Reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine. 

Having someone trained in reasoned arguments or writings in justification of Christianity is obviously a handy person to have around. Add to his academic inventory a passion that may exceed my own, a long history of leadership from his time served in the US Army as a staff Sergent, to his leadership in the local church and you have as well rounded a team player as anyone could wish for. We've been working together now for a few weeks and while it is awesome having a guy like me in leadership with me I know having two guys as passionate as us may mean we need some leavening of solid, sensible team-mates, but right now I'm just enjoying having a guy who is delighted to be as excited about life as I am.

 

Next Thursday Ed and I will launch "Core" the weekly YLC event that is for Christian students and those interested in being volunteers with YLC STL. It is the first of five "C's" that make up YLC STL's ministry. We have Core; Crust, Club, Camp and Church. Core is as I just said a Christian focused discussion group/Bible study. Crust is the time we devote to building authentic relationships with students. Club will be our weekly Spiritual discussion group that is for those students outside the Christian world-view or those who would say they have issues with that belief system.  Camp will be when we and our student friends go out for a week on a service project to help create something for those less blessed with material wealth. I'm hoping to go into rural Missouri and build playgrounds for economically depressed communities. It is something we did in Europe with great success. Taking western European students to eastern European countries to build playgrounds for kids who have almost nothing. Church is the last and also the first in many ways. The unending circle of YLC STL. Our members come out of the Church with a hope of being part of the larger world and creating safe places to have conversations about life, spirituality and humanity. As we actually believe in our chosen world-view we hope our friends would reach a point in their life where they too see it as the most compelling of the world-views on offer. If that happens we get to introduce them to the Church. That group of eclectic people who have usually only one thing in common. Jesus Christ!

 

So we're starting the cycle by taking Christians out of their safe, small world of "Church" and helping them join the rest of humanity in a discussion about how we should live together with respect, open-mindedness and tolerance.

I had a couple of awesome young men at my place for breakfast yesterday and the conversation turned to how we can believe we have found the "Truth" yet be authentically open minded about other world-views. I threw my usual mental hand grenade into the conversation by stating that I am completely open to one day hearing someone present a different world-view that is more compelling and logical than Christianity. Until then I'll hold fast to the belief that I actually have a compelling belief system that is both personally compelling and well thought out while remaining open to the fact that I might be completely wrong. Anything less than that would mean I would be asking everyone else in my life to be open to change their mind and embrace my world-view without having the courage to have the same open mindedness. I think that may well be one of the best parts of my job. I get to be exposed to a multitude of world-views and because of my proximity to university students I also get to hear some of the most erudite and compelling advocates of other view-points state their case. If there is a better way out there I'm in the perfect place to discover it. And if there isn't then I'm in the perfect place to reinforce the belief system I hold to now. I love my job!

 

Hope life is bringing interesting people into your sphere and changing how you see the world.