Let’s see your best captions…

Which is worse: The fear of being misunderstood or the fear of being understood?

For Mark Twain it was the latter. I’m working my way through the first volume of Mark Twain’s autobiography. Clemens had the worst time getting his autobiography on paper. He struggled with the issue of how to organize his life’s stories. But he had a more difficult challenge. He struggled to tell the truth about himself. It wasn’t that Clemens couldn’t remember details about his life. He definitely wasn’t a liar. Clemens wanted to tell the truth about himself but knew that it would lead to him being judged by others. In early drafts he caught himself framing every story of his life in a way that cast himself in a best light. Clemens knew that he was sanitizing his pride or cowardice from every episode and he wasn’t pleased. Clemens held opinions about politics and religion that certainly would have led to others disapproving of him. Nonetheless, he committed himself to writing unprotected and to reveal his true self.

The problem was that he could not overcome this fear of being judged. Every draft he produced evaded what he knew to be the complete truth about Samuel Clemens. After years of struggle and nearly scrapping the project he landed on a solution. His completed autobiography would be sealed from the public eye for 100 years. He and the audience he feared would be a distant memory before anyone would be exposed to the uncensored author.

I identity with Clemens. On occasion I will disclose a weakness on this blog and be met with a Bible verse, presumably given to let me know that I’m not okay. When I was writing A Nativity of Misfits I had the thought that maybe I should fictionalize the story, add a quart of whiskey to a scene, and get my characters to open up. I grudgingly rewrote the chapters and risked more of my true self than I wanted. Continue Reading…

My friend Greg Baird recently asked several pastors, professors, and writers to look at current trends and project what ministry to children will look like in ten years. This might have been the most difficult 700 words assignment I’ve had in a long time. People are people. Basic developmental needs don’t change. But the cultures we are in seem to be adapting at an unprecedented rated. I made four educated guesses over at Greg’s website.

It’s my understanding that once all the contributors say their piece that this collection is going to be turned into an e-book.  I’d love to hear your reactions.

John Sowers, President of the Mentoring Project, recently offer us his first book Fatherless Generation: Redeeming the Story. The book is reads like a two movement opus. Part One is a lament. John gives a voice to generation who grew up without a father. He uses is own story, multiple references from popular culture, and countless stories from the fatherless who responded to his blog. I grew up with a father and have him in my life now. I knew the statistics and have worked with children in mental health settings and in the church my entire adult life. I never felt their story until I worked through the first portion of John’s book.

The tone changes in the second half of the book. The time for grief has past. John calls his readers to action. He makes the case that God is deeply interested in plight of the fatherless child. John shows us a solution– the church can rise up and provide mentors for these children. Chapter 11 was particularly valuable in that it provides a blue print for effective mentors. This chapter is worth the price of the book alone.  John, however, continues and explains how churches can provide this ministry over the long haul to make a life time difference in these children.

I’m having my first meeting today with a friend from church to plan how we’re going to bring The Mentoring Project to Erie, PA. I’m kicking myself for not having a copy of The Fatherless Generation to put in his hands. I’m not handing off my e-reader. But I won’t make that mistake twice. I’ll be ordering a case of this book to help me in my recruiting efforts. It’s that good.

FCC Disclaimer: I bought the book. There are no strings attached to this review.

Here’s a voting day question for you all: Can voting be a form of slacktivism?

Much has been made of slacktivism in recent months. There’s some awkward self-awareness that all the wristband and t-shirt wearing, the signing of the Internet petitions, and the hours-long boycotts of products that are made with social irresponsibility accomplishes little more than making ourselves feel good. Nothing had really changed except that we’ve taken a moment out of our day to re-brand ourselves as caring people.

I took a minute out of my day and voted. It didn’t cost me much time. But I got to “vote my values” and receive an “I voted” sticker. I’m not going to say that my act of voting did nothing to change the problem (as I see it).  But it really didn’t cost me much, did it?

I recently read a critique of the pro-life movement that caught me off guard. The writers was adamantly pro-life but current strategy was hopelessly flawed. He noted that the civil rights movement and the environmental movement were successes while the pro-life movement made precious little gains in since it’s inception. The writer noted that being pro-life didn’t cost it’s followers anything more than being judgmental of the opposition and voting. There’s nothing in the strategy that requires people within the movement to serve the single mom or her children or to fight the economic conditions that cause a woman to lose hope.

It’s enough to vote.

The same criticism can be leveled against political progressives whose anti-poverty efforts are expressed every November 2 but not the other 364 days a year.

Be pro-life. On November 2 vote for a political solution. Then use the the other 364 days to affirm the lives of the unborn and already born.

Be anti-poverty, but find a way to extend this commitment throughout the year.

Otherwise the act of voting is no better than clicking “like” on Facebook.

I’ve got a guest post on doubt at Jason Boyett’s website today. Jason recently released O Me of Little Faith. It’s an unvarnished look at the doubt and skepticism that keep attaching themselves to his faith and how he came to terms with these unwelcome guests.

I thought I’d post my contribution to Besides the Bible, a book by the editors at the Burnside Writers Collective with guest contributions from folk like myself, Steve Taylor, Donald Miller, David Dark, Phylis Tickle, and Susan Isaacs and many others. This essay develops the ideas I tossed out at Jason’s website in more depth. Continue Reading…

A.J. Jacobs wanted to understand Biblical literalists better so he spent a year attempting to obey every commandment in the Bible. Rachel Held Evans wants to get to the bottom of what “Biblical womanhood” means so she’s spending a year trying to obey every commandment leveled at women in the Bible. Chad Gibbs suspects that his obsession with college football has approached idolatrous proportions… so he decided to attend a lot of football games.

It sounds counter-intuitive, right? Like how you are supposed to steer into the direction your cars is swerving when you are spinning out of control. But Chad convinced his wife and publisher that the best way to understand his football fanaticism would be to take a step back and to look at the Christian football fanatics on other teams. Kind of like how Alcoholics Anonymous sends drunks on a tour of unfamiliar bars to show them how silly they look on a bender. Continue Reading…

I’m dealing with a seven-year-old with no regard for social convention or authority. Twice this week he’s woken me up at 3 AM to tell me he loves me and that he wants to play. After a conversation with the principle and some digging I discovered that he threw out parent conference request form. It seems he lost a book and didn’t want the teacher and I to discuss the matter. Meals are often war-time, because Cole can.

Here’s the definition of chaos– Cole Has Another Operating System.

God’s grace is like my son. I have ideas for how grace should behave, but it’s got it’s own mind. Continue Reading…

Today is the final day of the save Blue Like Jazz campaign. Less that one month ago author Donald Miller called the efforts to make the movie failed. It was over. I lamented the death of the movie while more nobler minds found a way to resurrect the film. Don asked folks to take a second and post why we got on board this campaign. Here’s my story.

I was a middle schooler with a bicycle and an allowance and a Christian book store on the periphery of where I was allowed to roam. I returned home one day with Steve Taylor’s I Want to Be Clone EP under my arm. I hadn’t mean to upset my mom. I just liked the album art. But she read the lyric sheet and must have known that giving Steve’s sarcastic lyrics to a mouthy adolescent was like spiking the drinks at an AA meeting. She was right. I became an instant fan and followed his music career through Chagall Guevera. And then I lost track of him. Years later I spent a chance evening with Mike Yaconelli who said that Steve was dabbling in film and that he was a creative genius. Continue Reading…

I had taken a long break from CCM (Christian Contemporary Music). I grew up within the Evangelical biosphere and at some point I couldn’t take listening to one more ham-handed sermon masked as a lyric. I dove head long into the world of jazz and fell in love with Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and John Coltrane. I completely lost track of CMM for years.

After several years I wondered if perhaps it was time to give CCM a second chance. Listening to good jazz is at times a very spiritual experience. I’ve been reduced to worship getting caught up in the mathematical precision and joy of Corea’s keyboard work. But I missed lyrics about faith. Perhaps it was time to forgive CCM. Continue Reading…